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150419_vt_taoist-look.mp3

Welcome to the april 19th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is night by uuc worship associate victoria taylor. The title of her sermon is. A doll house look at the interdependent web of life. Shown on the web page. Is an image to wish you refers during her talk. Clicking on the image magnifies. I have two readings this morning. The first reading. Is called the earth day anthem. And it's actually set to the words of. Joyful joyful we adore thee. So you can imagine that i'm not going to sing but you can imagine that in your head. And this is written by william wallace. Joyful joyful we adore thee. Are earth and all its wonderment. Simple gifts of nature that all join into a paradise. Now we must resolve to protect her. Show her our love throughout all time. With our gentle hands and touch. We make our home a newborn world. Now we must resolve to protect her. Show her our love throughout all time. With our gentle hand and touch. We make our home. A newborn world. The earth day anthem by william wallace. And i'm going to read something from the neijing. Which is one of the oldest medical text. On the planet it's about 4000 years. Those who rebelled against the basic rules of the universe. Feather their roots and ruin their true selves. Yin and yang. The two principles in nature. And the four seasons are the beginning and the end of everything. And they're also the cause of life and death. Those who disobey the laws of the universe will give rise to calamities and visitation. Well those who follow the laws of the universe. Will remain free from dangerous illness. For they are the ones who have obtained dow. The right way. I'm going to talk a little bit about this down today. The right way. And my interest in the ancient ways comes. First because i have a degree in anthropology. But i also have a degree in chinese medicine. And it is that cosmology that i choose to share with you. I want to give you a little disclaimer. That there are many many earth-based cosmology. The one i'm going to talk about today primarily yin and yang. And the wu-hsing. Five phases or five transformation. Is merely just one of them and it's the one that i'm schooled in. So much respect to all the other earth-based cosmology. Not going to talk about them today. So respect for the interdependent web of all existence for which we are apart. That is our seventh principle. Now it's easy to understand interdependence if you just think about your day-to-day life and what the social level. We have committees. We know that when we turn on the tap the water comes because somebody else took care of that when we go to the grocery store we send an email we drive on a road. We can kind of understand our interdependence that way. Right we can. Understand our interdependence about the quality of our food or the quality of our water. The soil the livestock. Right. Are we dependent on the wild animals. Maybe some of us think we would be better if we had no wild animals with. Many of us don't but you know i mean they're considered pests in furman. What about the health of the trees in the floor floor in the funnest sure you want your lawn to be nice. What about those things you know out in the george washington forest are we responsible for them. What about weather. Is whether our responsibility is italy in the interdependent web of weather. Climate. What about the sun okay yeah we're worse is the silver the prom with the sun there be a problem with us but what about venus or mars mercury. You know the planets how big is this independent web. Well. The ancient sages knew that. It was. A complete system. A complete and. Web. And in the chinese tradition we use this symbol. 2. Demonstrate. That web. And i know you're probably familiar with this symbol because it's familiar on skateboards and surfboards and backpacks. But this is actually. Sore skin deep mathematics. And. Which is beyond the scope of this. But what this. What this. Symbol indicates. Is everything. Everything in our interdependent web. Of life. And the way that it. Representative. Is by having yin and yang nature. I want to talk a little bit about this idea of yin and yang. As a. Help us understand the whole. So yeah and y'all aren't things. They don't even really exist the first line of the the daodejing says the dow that can be spoken about is not the dow. Because if you have holness and you start to create distinction then it's not whole anymore. However distinctions also give us power. And so this is the primary this is a representation of a symbol of the primary relationship. That exist. All right so what are you getting ian. Yen as represented by this black portion. Is it is it describe the quality of quality of contracting of den. Adore. Of moist. Alright as compared to this rising young energy. Rights movement it's light. It's some. Expansive. All right so there isn't anything and then there's little bits of each. In each. And they only exist as a relation. So there isn't any absolutely in or absolute young. They're actually is it's called death but. In chinese medicine. But it's describe the relationship so when it said an example so you know everyone knows his will worship closet over there it's going to all of our candles and extra hymnals ends thing. The word for pleasant is very yen. Right it's very dark it's closed. Correct. And then the sanctuary would be more young because it's opening lied and freewrite so we have something more in and something more young. But compared to the great out-of-doors. The sanctuaries kind of puny it's kind of yin right it's more yin than the out-of-doors. So that's an example of. Something something sanctuary isn't she in and it isn't john it's just more year. Young. Then the closet and. Morgan then the out-of-doors. So we can use this comparison to describe many many sing. So like the front of the body. Is more yin than the back of the body. Which is more young but the outside of the body is more young than the internal organs. You with me. Yuanyang their relation to describe relationship. Alright. So this wholeness is just the beginning of a vocabulary to describe that interconnected web. But it gets even more. The ancients and i feel like you have wondered for a long time whether this. What is knowing comes from an innate knowing kind of like i like to call like dog medicine how's your dog not to eat grass when his stomach hurts knowing. And i really do believe that the ancient. Came with that innate knowing. But they also had a lot of time for deep observation. And. Categorization using that cerebral cortex. So i believe that this yin-yang loosening is heard about interplay between the deep knowing and the. Critical thinking that this revoked. Provide. So if we look outdoors and we can here which is very lovely in the sanctuary when we look outdoors and we think about the universe. Let me think about what are the fundamental forces. That. Combine and make all that we know. So. Think about it and you could shut them out they're pretty obvious right like. Like. Right. Like. Water. Right. Light right that's kind of fire right. Those sorts of things right so. In this system it again there are other systems that use other vocabulary i'm just talkin about mine. There are five. Alright. And those five. My terrible artwork. Ar. Would the green growing things. Fire-lite. Soil the source that the foundation. The center. The rocks. I'm water. Alright. So let's look at what do we mean by these. Let me know these things are is it. But i want to talk about them as energy. Alright. So the energy of wood this is a great time of year to talk about this just look outside. What is happening things are growing there's birth. There's color there's possibility renewal flexibility change right. All of that is described. By the concept. Are the energy of wood energy. With me. Fire is light. Rapid growth. Red. It's. Transformative transmutative. Right. So that's the energies of fire that are contained in the energy of fire. Earth is more. Toilet. More center it's a hearth & home it's our food. It's our security. Yellow damn heavy. Rick is very heavy. Alright to get that kind of energy there will be no quiz. Metal is rigid rocks are you know that they do transmute buttons. Right rocks are our solid state they remind us of perfection we based our currency systems on metal. On gold on silver. A crystal gem. These things that have. Definition and rigid and this is very very important. 2. To have that energy we want to have them. That sort of rigidity and perfection i mean you could never build a bridge. If it's important. And then the water. And water is that which is fluid it is very life-giving it's also very deep. Never liked looked. I had i had the opportunity to go to norway and look in a few word. You like look at that. you're really get. Water. It's really deep. It's like you're really don't know what's going on. It could be anything. And because it could be anything it's very scary. Water is its. Very destructive. But also is like the source of all possibility. Just a little drop of water could get a seed going i'm sure some of you have small children or are getting little beans right this time of year you put in the water on a paper towel and. Gross. It's like the source of all miracles. The water is also sweet. All right so that's her to complete this. And it is indeed. These energies can describe all that we experience. The planet. So fire earth metal water wood. Or like wood is springtime cyrus summer. Earth is harvest time. Metal is when things are. Autumn. And water. The cold of winter. Are you could describe any activity. Would could describe the initiation the possibility that the beginning of the growth. And fire is rapid growth all kinds of things are happening. An earth is when things are really mature. Well you know your committee is like. And then metal is when it says. Live dispatch. We're kind of done with this and we have to. Ou's. And things are contract. Which is all part of the. Natural cycle and then it sort of gets. Run over boy. But then it's opportunity for something new. You see in our human life we could explain what is the infancy. And fire ss. Childhood and adolescence is rapping really fast. And i gave her like a kid it looks different than. Day you put him to bed it'll come to hear the next day.. Fire rapid growth lots of change transmission right well, i put just bought that guitar and now you want to do rock climbing you know. Like things change. Earth is our parenting time. Our time when we are feeling. Creating hearts and home. And dumb. You can see if you can see this yellow it's like circles in circles it's like the womb in the mother and. Mentalism. A really wonderful time of wisdom and. Deciding the value of thing. Getting rid of that which does not serve you any more. I know many of us that are over 50 have had that experience was like wow. Great. I don't have to whatever make lunches or whatever it is that you didn't want to do that was mine. Okay and then water is when you really get to the essence. And i'm of course these are your senior years. And on. And completion but completion again leads to all paws. So this together is called the wu-hsing aluminum 5. Sing meaning. Transformations energy some people call it element. But elements is a very kind of. I'm in helena. And i really want you to get this is an energy. So i prefer to call it the five. Information. Instead of the five elements. Although you hear five elements out. Now. That's pretty great but it gets even a little bit more complicated. Because there is linwood and youngwood. Soyeon woodford's a would be like spongy moss. Wrightsville. Softened. And giving right and youngwood would be like the sequoia. Right. Orion fire would be this lovely candle compared to a raging brush fire. Right. Kind of get that idea. Genesis. Damn swampy. Also home. Child and then younger. Strong like mountain. Younger. Yin metal. I think that are fine. Easily. Bendable soft. Young middle of course would be a diamond that's the youngest of metals. Knights number 10 on the mohs scale. Attwater in water as things that are small less effective gentle the babbling brook. And tsunamis that be on water. You can get that right. It gets a little bit more in-depth. And more. But these are the fundamental. Is forces that shape life on this. Can you get that lucy and then. So firewater rocks green growing things. Oh yeah. Another really fun part about this vocabulary. Is that they don't because what's the interconnected web of life they don't exist in. They affect each other. So would have course grows to make fire burns to make fire it is the substrate. Something about fire acquired the subs. Would provide set substrate. Right and then when the fire burns we have asked and they asked makes the soil yes. And then the earth from under the earth comes the metals. From beneath the meadow springs.. Water. And then the water grows. To make wood. Right so this is a continual cycle. It's the shang cycle or creation cycle. Gets even better. Let's say we had some metal and we wanted to. Transmute it what would you use to change metal. He would use the fire right. Now the metal is so so powerful it's chops wood right. Then the would you use to. Hold back the earth like roots that. Like a rosian you want to have roots to hold back the earth. Or your lovely planters that you put aside your driveway. Raised beds. Then the earth if the water's out-of-control will you no get those sandbags right controls. The water. And then of course water. Puts out fire. So we have this lovely cycle. And this pentagram of control. Orco cycle. So this is a test of a caterpillar for describing the natural forces it doesn't invents the natural force. It just describes. The natural. So together the yin and the yang and the five transformative energy. Of wood fire. Earth metal in water. Provide like a roadmap. Of the natural phenomenon. And then you can use this roadmap to describe. Everything. And i really mean everything you can describe whether you can describe human relationships you can describe human health. You can describe. Social phenomenon. Is actually a school in. In maryland called the school of philosophy and healing and action. That uses the five woosang. 2. People in positions of leadership how to read. The people and the activities of under there. Directions using these principles. Because you can you know her like in teaching and all we have a problem with a child who's too fiery. Right. So do we give him. Wood energy. More flexibility maybe. More creativity maybe. Or do we squash him with our water and you know there's no right answer it's this tomorrow. Right. Or maybe he needs an opportunity. To support somebody whose earth-like give him care of a younger child. So that's a way of using this. Vocabulary which describes everything on the planet to use it for our own. Utility. In our social relationship. We can look at our. Gardens. With this you know wokali. It's so damp. Well it's so damp in your garden maybe you need. 2. You know how do you want to control it there. Infinite possibilities of course but three. A ways you can use the control cycle or the use the mother or the child. So it gives us access to looking at all kinds of conditions. And having some. Extinction. Which are swivel cortex really enjoyed. We already are a part of this because of our innate knowing. But our swivel cortex now has a vocabulary. So. Yeah so that model gives access to understanding the powers of nature their repeatable cycles that's okay just keep going over and over again right spring happens after every winter i was surprised this year. That was a tough winter but it's change it always comes disciples are. Consist. And repeatable. They're like sia. They happen over and over again. All right and it's a whole closed system that seeks balance. That's the other thing that's really. Valuable is that for every like newton said for every. Action there's an equal and opposite reaction. And this gives us away. To look at 8 each. I don't want to action but each condition. And see where it might be. Opposite side of it. Opposition of it. Might be so we can anticipate. Change. The first. Line of the. That was not the first one but in the very beginning of the naging which is this. Ancient medical texts i was talking about. It says this. It's was written for thousand years ago and this is like the third line it says. In ancient times people understood the dow. K. They patterned themselves on yin and yang. And lived in harmony. So i asserts you that we now ken lit understand the dow but just have to have some vocabulary and some access. And pattern ourselves upon the yin and yang. And live. In harmony. And for me that gives me wisdom and peace. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

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141005_re-mh_civil-rights.mp3

Welcome to the october 5th service at the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by rev rose eddington and mel hoover. And your servant is titled. Dissenting for justice. You use and civil rights. The podcast begins with introduction by worship associate tommy iafrate e. We are lucky today to have not just one but two guests ministers with us reverend rose eddington and reverend mel hoover. Roosevelt have been very active dealing with civil rights issues throughout their careers they served as the co ministers of the uu church in charleston west virginia from 2002 until they retired this year. This year they also founded bellerose positive transformative change ministries. Good morning everyone. I have here. A book called walking with the wind. It's a memoir of the civil rights movement. And the person is. He was a young man then you probably can't see anybody know who this might be. John lewis congressman lewis. Because. He is a living. History. Of the movement. The significant. Player as a young man. In terms of. Fighting for justice. And creating. A better country. I just want to read. A little story. But actually has nothing to do with the national stage or historic figures or monumental events. It's a simple story but a true story. About a group of young children. A wood frame house. At a windstorm. This is louis. The children were my cousin's royally and jinnyboy naomi and leslie and willie mural. About a dozen of them all told. Along with my oldest sister aura and my brother is edward and adolf. And me. John roberts. I was about four years old at the time. Too young to understand there's a war going on over in europe and out in the pacific as well. The grown-ups called it a world war. I had no idea what they meant. The only world i knew was the one i stepped into each morning. A place of thick pine forest and white cotton fields and red clay road winding around my family's house in our little corner of pike county alabama. We just moved that's preying on to some land my father had brought. The first one. Anyone in his family had ever owned. 110 acres of. Cotton and corn and. Peanut fields. Along with an old but very sturdy 3-bedroom house. Alexia large house for that part of the county in fact there was a biggest place for miles around. Had a well in the front yard and pecan trees out back and muscadine grape vines growing wild in the woods. Who is all around them and they were. Arwood's. My father bought the property from a local white businessman who lived in the nearby town of troy. The payment was $300. That was every penny my father had to his name. Money he had earned the way almost everyone he knew babe that what money they could in those days by tenant farming. My father was a sharecropper. Planning raising and picking the same crops that it been growing in that stall for hundreds of years. B rise like the choctaw and the chickasaw house and the creeps. Native american. Who are working this land long before the place was called alabama. Before black or white men were anywhere to be seen in those parts. Almost every neighbor we had in those woods was a sharecropper. And most of them were our relatives. Really every thought i knew. Was an ant or knuckle. Every child was the first to second cousin. That included my uncle rabbit. Anniston iva and their children who lived about a half-mile or so up the road from us. This particular afternoon. Weather saturday. I'm almost certain it was. About fifteen of us children were outside my ass in eva's house. Playing her dirt yard. And the sky. Begin clouding over. The wind started picking up. Lightning flash for off the disadvantaged suddenly i wasn't thinking about playing anymore. I was. Terrified. Terrify. I had already seen what lightning could do i seen field catch on fire if i can't do a stack. I'd watch trees actually explode with a bolt of lightning struck them the fact inside rising in an instant boil the truck swelling until it bursts its bark. The sight of those strips of bark. Sneaking through the air like ribbons was both fascinating. And horrifying. Lightning. Terrified. And so did thunder. My mother used to gather us around her whenever we heard thunder she tell us. We still now because god was doing his work. That was what thunder was. My mother said. It was the sound of god doing god's work. But my mother wasn't with us on this particular afternoon. Anson eva was the only adult around and at the sky blackton in the wind grew stronger. She heard us rapidly inside. The her house was not the biggest place around and seemed even smaller with so many children squeezed inside. Small. And surprisingly quiet. All the shouting al after they've been going on earlier outside. Ceased. Now the wind was howling. And our house. Began to shake. We were scared. Even answer neither was scared. And then it got worse. Now the house wasn't just shaking it was. And the wood plank flooring beneath us began to bend and then a quarter the roof started lifting up. I couldn't believe what i was seeing what was happening none of us could. This store was actually pulling the house toward the sky. With all of us inside. That was when asked the neighbor said. The clasp hands. Hole plans children. Line up and hold hands she said. We did as we were told. Then she had a walk as a group towards the corner of the house. Of the room that was rising. From the kitchen to the front of the house we walked. The windspree being outside and sheets of rain beating on the tin roof loudly. And then we walked back in the other direction. As another end of the house began to lift. So it whip. And 415 children walking with the wind holding that trilling house down with the weight of our small bodies. More than a half-century has passed since that day. It is struck me more than once over these many years that our society is not unlike. The children in that house. Rock beginning again by the winds of one storm or another. The walls surrounding us seeming at times that they might fly fly apart. It seemed to me that way in the 1960s. The height of the civil rights movement. When america itself felt as if it might burst at the sea. So much tension. So many cultural storms. The people of conscious never left. The house. Never. Left. The house. They never ran away. They stay put. They came together and did the best they could. Clasping hands and moving toward the center of the house that was the weakest. And then another quarter with lyft. And we would go there. Eventually inevitably the storm with settle. In the house. Wood. Still. But we knew. Another storm would come. We would have to do it all over again. And we did. And we still do all of us you and i. Children holding hands walking with the wind that america that is america to me. Not just the movement of civil rights with the endless struggle to respond with decency. Dignity and a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood to all the challenges that face us. Collectively. As a nation. As a whole people. That is the story in essence of my life. The pastor which i've been committed since i learned from a boy to a man i turned from a boy to a man do what i remain committed today. It's a path that extends beyond issue bracelet. Abby on class as well and gender and age and sexual orientation every other distinction that tends to separate us human beings. Rather than bringing us. Together. And being one people. Bad path. Involves nothing less than the pursuit of the most precious and pure concepts i've ever known. Idea i discovered as a young man and has guided me like a beacon every sense. A concept called. The beloved. Community. Hi there rose. Well good morning mel so we have a conversation. Ian our congregation we have a time together sometimes and reassess. Folks out there can we talk. Can we talk with one another. Good. I want to ask a question how many of you. We're live. In 1964. Good good. We're not alone. Well how many of you were not born until after 1964. But you have an idea of why it is important in us history. Why why. We want to hear tell us why. Park. Write the civil rights act. What is 50 years old this year. It was passed in 1964. Unintentional. Structured legal act. To create more equality. And we hope. And we're still hoping. To help bring about the beloved community. Does anyone know what day. Of the year of 1964. It was signed. By president lbj. You did know was lbj. One of the most important. Moments of change and. Setting directional a country. Didn't you all learn it in school. Or didn't you teach learning from your grandchildren. What we celebrate july 4th. This is very close to it was. July 2nd. 1964. What was some of the goals mel. Of the civil rights act. Well let's ask them because it's something that supposedly shaped our whole country. And are being citizen so what were the goals. Other civil rights. Equal access to public accommodation right. Voting rights. Technically. Equal employment opportunity. I heard something over here. Actually inside voting rights actually weren't in 64. They came a year later it's important a rabbit just to be. Accurate historically. Right. And you're not supposed to at least in federal contract you weren't supposed to discriminate in employment on the basis of race color. Religion national origin or sex. It wasn't just about black people. It was a time to say that we know what we are going to deal with the worth and dignity of people. And their right to full citizenship so it actually was empowering not just blacks but. All citizens. In the country. 2/2 oz equal. Inequality. To deal with an imbalance of inequality. I took a few hundred rebels to do that but there was one. Notable rebel that we lift up. I think i think most closely associated with civil rights. Now why should you mention that in the month. Does anybody know why we would talk about somebody and why october 14th 1964 is an important day. Pardon. Not quite. New. That is when the nobel peace prizes given out. And who was awarded the nobel peace prize in 1960 for october 14th. Right martin luther king king a few years before was listed on the fbi list is the most dangerous man in america. True. He went to jail he was a criminal. He broke the law. He didn't behave. And yeah he was there with the president. Signing the document and getting one of those pins. And later was recognized by the world. As doing something distinctive and unique. For having been a rebel. In the united states. Mariah. Where were you rose. In 1964. I was attending. An integrated high school. In saint albans west virginia. Tripping integrated for probably about 10 years then. So that. African-american students were no longer bust the. 12 miles or so from st albans to garner high school in charleston. I was also vaguely aware i had just finished junior high school and high school. That my junior high school had been the case through 8th grade school for the african-american children in the saint albans area. But what i didn't really. I remember. Some of the chairs in the gym had c g woodson school. Stenciled on them. But the school i went to was not the woodson school. I went to mckinley junior high school. And his name got changed. In 1954 when schools were integrated. We integrated pretty peacefully in west virginia. But we lost a lot. With integration. We lost a sense of black history. Carter g woodson was the founder of black history month. He was the dean he was the dean at west virginia state university in institute. We never even heard of him and we went to his school. We had a predominantly black faculty at the school which they had kept. But they changed the name. So one of the interesting things that i have learned in the whole civil rights issue and pushing for integration. Was there had a lot of positive. But they were also quite a few lost. In the black community when integration happen. I think mel your experience at felton. Is one of those things. Wacky 1964 i was actually a software ohio state university. The ohio state university. Larosa's sprite is interesting because i was one of those with a call. Educated blacks that are people couldn't understand why i didn't want to go to howard or harvard or yale. All those places i had an opportunity to go. I wanted to go ohio state university. And. I traced it back in some ways to the fact that. When i was growing up. In my community in columbus ohio. I lived. On the wrong side. Mccoy street. And so let susan street in columbus. And when it was time for me to go to school the principal of that school who was also the choir director for our church our pistol church then. Told my mom and dad not to send me the kindergarten. Because if they sent me the kindergarten i would have had to go to garfield. Which is another elementary school. Which often had many. Young. Why. Problematic. Etc. The faculty was known that way of being honest. So our neighborhood was split down the middle. Will felton. Was. The right school to go to so to speak in mr. wright basically said i'm going to work to get the line change. The fountain was with an all-black faculty. Which believe we could learn. Expected otis. And people couldn't understand why we scored. Prior attire higher than the university lab school kids. Because we had a faculty. Cicadas. Equipped us. I look at that community so when i'm at ohio state a lot of those folks i grew up with didn't make it to ohio state which would have been a logical place to go. Because they got lost along the way. And when equipped. And we're given the vision of their ability and confidence. And. Many of them by then we're even on the path to short-lived. And death. So. I was a privileged one in ohio stay at that time. Because at that time i went there because they had one of the best rlt units in the country. Archrock cc who's me and i wanted to be in the air force. Because at that time one of the few places a person of color skills and abilities could be recognized within the military. That's why i decided i would become a pallet. Angela chaplin. So i was going to be a flying chaplain. But something happened during that era. As i receive my commission. We're in vietnam. And i was raised to put a religious person. And i couldn't understand. Why i should be killing other people. But i didn't understand why we're even fighting. And what i scored among the highest scores in the country on the bombardier. Section. And my commander. Payment congratulated me on that. It made it clear. But somehow my vision of ministry and helping folks. Wasn't got me lifted upright bility to kill people. Was what was going to be rewarded. I said a nutone. How much shifter little. Instead of going continuing with rotc. You went to seminary. I did in rochester new york and i also went to seminary in rochester new york. Never believing that i was going to meet you in fall in love with you and be part of an intercultural interracial marriage. Kind of blew my family's mind. And mine too even though i come from a well-integrated racial family of many cultures. Cuz we were made up of native american whites blacks. International that was my thanksgiving table. It was the world. But i was part of the civil rights movement. They also didn't want to betray quote-unquote black women. And that area that often and educated blacks would also include mary white. Piccata. Cuz black women were good at that was never never ever. My understanding our belief. That's what i thought. My heart. Even though i dreamed about a woman years before over many years. I saw her dressed ice or actions. And literally. Sitting in the cemetery. One morning. Ms walk not knowing that i was. The fulfillment of his dreams. I will say the male became the man of my dreams but i never dreamed he would be. So we let life. Act upon us as well to grow. And open our hearts. And we followed their hearts obviously and it's been a great. Almost 45 your run. But we also are indebted to a couple in virginia. Who helped make it possible. For us. To have a happy marriage. And that's the loving family are you familiar with the lovings. Richard and mildred loving who took. Went to washington dc to get married. They came back to virginia they got arrested like. Put their case to the supreme court. And then it became legal. For people to cross the color line in marriage. So we are thankful. 4. People who didn't had no intention of being rebels in their time they just wanted to follow their hearts just like we did. I love you mary i love richard i mean actual bianes richard was kind of a. Stereotypical kind of redneck out of appearing person i mean by saying anything that you didn't say. Are the culture and stuff. But you know. The thing i love most. Cuz he didn't want to go through all the court prices the other things but when he wanted his voice spoken he wouldn't want to speak himself when the case was going on i never forget he says i just have one thing to say. I love my wife. And i want to stay married to her. No guns. The war machines. No violence no violence. But what. A powerful weapon. His truth was. And it's the same truth that's happening now as we work for marriage equality. Estate after. And when we counsel people. Who wants some sexy will he want to be married. We hear echoes of the same reasons people told us. So we could not be merry. The parallels are very interesting. And working out equality. Has many applications across many lines. With lots of parallel. So it's 50 years later now. Think anything's are better or do you think they're worse. We'll assess the folks. It's night it's now no longer 19. 64. Is 2014. In terms of race and. Sexism. And. All those other things that the. Civil rights act was supposed to be about our things better. Or worse. Then i realized. Everybody here. But. Basically i heard some things pacquiao education. Better and worse. Stripped and ariel sometimes, things were so different parts of the country. Cultural pieces. Voices in. Ic attitudes changing. If you look at the. The generations you know between. My generation my father's generation my children's generation. Dark difference. I like two people with my father's generation say things that i would just. Appalled. I am appalled that here. And then my children's generation. Are even more comfortable with. New integration that i am. I think i'm pretty comfy. I'm so icy. Even though there are still. Issues to be tackled. And things out there i see a great future i see generous generational changes. I think we're on the right road. Pick another, tortue in. So we go a little longer realize that we've been we do these talks with him get your permission if it was just a little bit longer. We don't impose on your traditions. I understand that. That's why i said a little bit long. I'm concerned about the prevalence of voter identification laws. That are being instituted to exclude. Certain populations of voters. I think that's a huge step backwards. Holistic one more comment and then we'll move on. I presume things were probably worth in terms of interaction with law enforcement. 50 years ago but they're still pretty bad. I have a son a black son who lives in maine. And he has more than once. Context several to. Just walking down the. That's a great segway by the way. So maybe this is a little bit of a setup. What was the question we asked. Maybe that's not the right question. Maybe a more important question. To help us. Understand where we are and where we were. It's ask the question how are things the same. And how are they different. Because in fact racism has not gone away. Sexism has not gone away we talked about post-racial post what. My dad used to say to me as a kid growing up don't you ever run at night in columbus ohio. Why did he tell me that. Because my life was at risk. Columbus police used to shoot first. And ask questions later. I could go on and on about the times i've been stalked. Dr. hoover whatever didn't matter. I can talk about i don't even want to get into what the last couple months and the black males have seen. In the michael brown situation. And tell our human being. The bleed out. And not let a mother and a father claim their child. 20. 14. Too many dynamics. Still the same. But we also have to think about this. What is the groundwork we are doing now. So in 20. Before. People will say. Maybe we'll have beloved community then. I hope we won't have to ask. How are things different. And how are they the same. I wanted to just leave you with a thought. One of the things that's been the same but different through all the 50 years. Has been an organization called the n-double-acp. Very active in helping the civil rights bill get passed. I think we tend to think of it as something that ended during civil rights. Leon double acp has done a study of our country. I've analyzed also. Tri-state. We're taking on. Are there still continuing. To deal with things that have to be dealt with in the past. Like motor right to that kind of thing. But they're also saying. Environmental justice. Is the new civil rights. They have analyzed all 50 states to see what you what can be done. That combine. Kind of all the isms. To help build this beloved community. Because the air we breathe the water we drink. That affects everyone. Poor communities and communities of color have been victims. Of environmental injustice. A lot of the worst. Environmental. Impacts are in those communities. In charleston. Dependable act national office recently visited us. And we talked about. Bmw ac report for west virginia. And the recommendations they have. And. Brought some really new hope for looking at sustainable job. Because. We have to change our energy. Efficiency our energy use our energy sources in this country we can't keep extracting forever. And the n-double-acp knows that. So my are thought. One of the things that you all might want to do is preparation for the next. Is to find out what the n-double-acp in virginia is doing. Look at how you might be involved in just having conversations with them. I'm looking at the issues of environmental justice as the new civil right. Ooo rose. How many of you are. Have memberships in n-double-acp. Oh good. Because you realize that unitarians were among the founders of the n-double-acp. And so we want to stay connected through our faith. They were that was part of the reason i came into being cuz it took whites. And black. Together in that era. To create. Bill double acp. So maybe we can come back together. Environment. And try and create a world. That serves all the people. Might even. Manifest. Principles. Seven principles we all lift up. At the core of our. It might even be living. Our faith. And not just celebrating it and sharing it. Narwhals. And we always take. One more. Witches are closing hymn. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. Uuc and rv. org.

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141109_cb_knit.mp3

Welcome to the november 9th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by our minister america. Reverend christine brownlee. Her sermon is titled who taught you how to knit. I chose a reading this morning. From rabbi abraham heschel. And rabbi heschel says prayer invites god. To be present in our spirits. And our lives. Prayer cannot bring water to a parched land. Nori build a ruined city. But prayer can water in arid soul. Mend a broken heart. And rebuild. A weekend will. Amin. I have been a knitter. For some sixty years. I came to that realization rather shocking i have to say. Rather shocking. When my spouse russell said to me how long have you been knitting. Because i've been knitting. Oh i hate to say it a sweater for him for seven years. It's coming other things have come into the picture that i have felt more urgent to bell. When he asked me that question how who taught you how to knit and how long have you been knitting. I had to stop and think for a minute. How did i learn to knit because my mother could not in it. And suddenly. Becky that is for lock to our memory. Turn. And a face. Anna voice. Surrounded me. Who taught me how to knit. Bubby. Puppy taught me how to knit. Now i grew up in a neighborhood as i said that was had all kinds of people i mean everything from greek orthodox to all the protestants you could imagine lots of variations of judaism. And our next door neighbors. World jewish. And boobie. The grandmother. Taught me how to knit. She was a. Tall woman what she seemed very tall to me as a small child. And she was strong. She was not particularly notable for her looks. But she had a no-nonsense there about her. She didn't tolerate. Whining or telling tales. And to tell you the truth my sisters and i were. Just a little afraid of her which was probably. A very good thing. Now we lived in a development. And. Good side door of our neighbor's house kind of dumped everybody into our backyard not necessarily we had fences. But. I got to know bobby. Because i saw her quite frequently coming out of our neighbor's house. And she would always say to me and what are you doing today little girl. And all too often the answer was. Nothing or. Not very much. And she's excited. That. I needed something to do. Stop feeling sorry for yourself will i do feel sorry for myself i said all my friends are learning how to knit. And i don't know how and my mother doesn't know how and i don't have anyone to teach me. I want to learn to but. I don't have any yarn. I don't have any knitting needles and my mother was not a person to hand out money. Do a kid. Bubba said. So. How do you think you getting knitting needles. Will you go to the ben franklin store and buy them. But i don't have any money booby. No money such a shame. How do you get money. Well you have to earn it. But i don't know how to do anything. I don't know. How i'm going to solve this problem. Hey hey she said. You will have to find a way let's see what dorothy dorothy was her daughter might have for you to do. Dorothy had two children. She had a. Toddler and a boy named michael. I like. The baby her name is maureen. But michael was rough and he could be naughty he could create a lot of trouble. Dorothy bobby call dorothy chrissy is here to take care of michael so we can run to the grocery store hurry up dorothy and dorothy appeared in there was little michael. I didn't know what to do with him but we decided that we would play in the sandbox. And i asked him not to dig up in the sand because that made the worms come up. And i didn't like the worms and especially after it said rain but there we were. We pushed his cars along the edge of the sandbox. And pretty soon dorothy was back with. Barbie and and maureen and. She gave me three. Dime. 3 dimes. That was a lot of money i thought. And bobby said now. You go put that money someplace where you can find it. And if you need more money i am sure you can find ways to earn it. Just open your eyes. Well the next day was saturday. And that was the day. Iraq our neighbor on the other side cut her grass. And with my mother's permission. I went over. To talk with ed and i said ed. I need some help. I need some help. Earning some money. Do you have anything i can do. And she said why i certainly do you are just the person i've been looking for. And she took me out to the backyard and there was a big patch of grass. And lots and lots and lots of weed then she said i will give you $0.25. Twenty-five cents for every bucket of weeds that you bring to me now. Mind you. I don't want to see a bunch of fluffy weeds in there. I want to see weeds that have been packed down good. And i went at it. I ran into the house i put on my gardening shorts in my t-shirt and i got busy. And i had to show every single bucket of leads to eating and sometimes she was pleased and sometimes she said you can get more weeds in their little girl. Get to it. But finally. She said. Nice job chrissy. You really did well. And she put some money into my hand. And i had to figure out when i'm not very good at math. How much i had earned. I was closer to my goal. I knew that. Needles. And yarn. Would be about $2.75 and i had just $0.65 to go. I could hardly wait. But i had to wait. The next couple of days were. Slow. No one had a toddler that needed watching. No one had weeds that needed to be pulled. No one had. A porch that needed to be. Cleaned up. There was nothing to do. And i moved around the house until my mother could stand me no longer. She said christine. You go find something to do or you can scrub the floor with a toothbrush for free. That was her favorite friend. And i knew better than to wait and see if she really meant it. So out the door and down the street i went and i noticed that one of our neighbors and this is andron. And her daughter were in their front yard and i flowed my steps and i said hello mrs. andrew how are you today. She said well hello chrissy you might be just the person i need. I wonder if you could help me. I have to get something out of the attic. But i don't want to take jana. Jana was her four-year-old daughter with me. Could you keep an eye on her. And. Make sure that she stays in the backyard for a couple of minutes. Oh sure i said. Now i didn't dare ask her if she would pay me. For something like this that would have been considered very rude. And when i grew up. Neighbors. We're expected to help neighbors. Just out of the goodness of your heart. Well. And the last time i had watch this child. I had done such a good job. We both got soaking wet playing in the sprinkler. And when mrs. andron came out to get janna. For soaking wet child. She was furious with me. I'm sorry mrs. andron. Well she said no harm done i guess in jana must have like you cuz she keeps asking me. When you will come and play with her again. So i'll tell you what. I'll forgive you. And you can play with santa. Right now. There was no discussion of money. But i knew. That if i told her no she would let my mother know and then i would be in trouble. Okay i said i'll be happy to do that. There was no sprinkler this time. The hoses were all up against the house. But there was a doll tea set. And. Someday we play together. We had a good time. And i just chalked it up to having something to do on a rather boring day. Chrissy mrs. andron called. Chrissy. Your mother called. Come in the house now please. I want to pay you for watching jana. I didn't ask to be paid. But she said i talked to your mother and she said that was all right. And when she gave me the money i was so excited i almost forgot to thank her. I went home and counted my money. And i had $0.05 more than i need it. O'boyle. So i called up my friend margaret we called her mugsy. And she and i went to the ben franklin dime store. About a half-mile from our house. And i was. So thrilled and excited. I felt as though i had been initiated. Into a new. Promising. Level. Of. Big kid. My friend margaret came with me as i said. And. I told her. I can't believe this is happening so fast. I thought to myself oh i'm going to be a person with projects to show up. Even trials two faces i out the pitches i did wrong as i seen boo bee doo. We got to the ben franklin and the clerk at the front register of the store greeted us and said. Can i help. You ladies find anything. Ladies. Thank you i said in my best grown-up voice. I want to buy knitting needles and some yarn. Well right this way she said and pointed off. And direction. Further down the aisle. Margaret and i went down there and we looked and we looked at the wide selection of colors. Blue. Red. Yellow. Blue. Red. Yellow. Just smaller skins. And i picked out. Blue nails. And red wool yarn. Just like i showed the children aren't these the biggest knitting needles you've ever seen the biggest fan of you and that's how big it looked to me. When i bought these things. She put them in a bag and off we went back home. Walking like ladies. Almost grown-up. Something important for me to do especially in st paul minnesota where the winters were very very cold. And a nice knit scarf would be just the thing. But my mother. Didn't know how to knit. And neither did margaret. So the next time. Mommy and baby. Knock on the side door. To tell me they were there. To visit with me. I was a little surprised. Will be sat down and she said. Show me what you bought. I hear you went to the store. She knew how to make an occasion of something as simple as pulling out of. Skein of yarn. Needles and she said this will make a nice warm neck liner for you. We sat together on the sofa. And i watched her wrap the red yarn around the blue needle again and again and again. And somehow. What looks so very easy when she did it. Turned off the out to be off leash. Turkey. When i got started. Over and over i went around and around only to have the yarn snare or fall off the needle and she said it's alright. You're learning. Don't worry. You get it. And she gently reposition my finger pull out a little more yarn. Do it one more time she said. You've almost got it. Suddenly. Suddenly. Like magic. I did. I did i knew how to do it and i could do it again and i could do it again and if the stitches fell off the needle i could put them back on and i could do it again. I was really. Truly learning how to knit. Boobie was so proud. The loops were lined up tight and in tidy fashion on the needle-like rings on a bracelet. And now i had to learn how to form the stitches. And i worked and i worked. And i was so excited so proud. I was really becoming. A knitter. Wow. And sadie was superb boobie was so proud that a girl she said over and over again. Add a girl. I made two or three stars. And a couple of blankets for my youngest sister's doll. And then i kind of lost interest in knitting. For a while. Barbie and her husband moved to the home for jews. And i seldom saw them anymore. Within a few years my family moved to a new community. And we seldom had any contact with our old neighbors. One day my mom got a phone call that. But we had died and i cried i missed her. And then life went on its life does. Even my memories had faded. Until just the other day when russell asked me christine. Who taught you how to knit. And then it all came back. Precious memories. How they linger. How they ever flood my soul. In the stillness of the midnight. Precious. Sacred seed. Handful. Precious memories. It seems to me that in the world that we live in now. Two of us have time. To create. Those precious memories. With a child. So many children are in some kind of highly supervised. Care. That. They don't know their neighbors. Or the people who live behind them. Or the lady that they always see walking the dog. But we taught her children. And for good reason. Not to speak to strangers. To be careful. I know when i'm in houston with my. Grandson and granddaughter. I'm very watchful about who comes in. Stop to talk to them. Bad things can happen so easily. But one of the very bad things that i think has happened is. We lost our connection with our neighbors. With the people we see on the bus day after day. With. The clerk in the grocery store. Who always waits on us with a happy smile. Whether they're actually feeling happy or not. And how do we recreate. Relationship. In a society that has a so focused on. Frankly computers and. Other ways of communicating when is the last time i say to myself that i heard a human voice. Other than my own a russell. How do we reconnect to our neighbors. How do we reconnect. Two people. Kumite surprises. With their talents. With their interests. With their joys. People who might add. So much. To our lives. This place. For me and i'm sure for many of you. Use that opportunity. And i am so grateful. So very grateful. That. This congregation. Is here. I still can hear boogie saying you're getting it. That a girl. Push the needle in a little farther. In the pride. The joint astonishment i felt. Is under my clumsy little hands. Knitting. What's appearing. As i said. I made a couple of scarves. As a child. Put it all away and much later came back to him. And over the years i've had the great joy of teaching people how to knit. Gently guiding their fingers. Sliding the needle along catching the loop of color before it loses its shape as it drops off the needle. When i lived in new york city. The subway became my knitting school is i watch women from different ethnic backgrounds. Nit. While they were sitting on the subway. It was amazing to me. How many different ways. You can knit. Go to youtube. A primary teacher for crafts these days. And you will see amazing things. Challenge yourself. This is an ancient craft. And yet it seems to breathe. Driving itself. These days. It's a way for us to connect not only to people in our community. But two people through time and all over the world. There is an old song that goes precious memories. How they linger. How to soothe my soul. In the stillness. Precious. Secrets season 4. Precious come on sing with me memories. Emissions. Sacred seasons go. In the time of thanksgiving. Can we bring up the memories of people. Who are important to us. Who let us into. New ways of thinking. New ways of being. New ways of challenging ourselves. Can they help us reach out to one another. Offering ourselves and what we have. And accepting the gifts of other people. As they say to us. You know. I watched you doing that and i think i have an easier way. That you might get this done. Or. Don't be so hard on yourself. Everyone drops of stitch now and then. It's not a catastrophe. And that stitch might be. A little piece of yarn on a needle. Or something much more important. We all make mistakes. We all learn. And if we're lucky we all grow. I am so grateful. To have had boobie and sit in my life. They are treasures. That i hold. Dear. And i hope you are life. Offers you opportunities. To be a treasure in someone else's. Maybe song. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

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140112_do_jazz-justice-imrpovise.mp3

Welcome to the january 12th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by are settled minister reverend arrowland. The title of her sermon has two parts. Jazz and justice. And the ability to improvise. Are reading this morning is a compilation. Of sorts. A compilation called jazz riffs. Assembled by sheila brown. Who's al a member of the unitarian universalist. Fellowship in lafayette colorado. She assembled these words. Jazz is found on creativity. Integrity. And energy. In the face of social. Limits. Benny green in tribute to the art of billie holiday claimed that. Jazz. Operates. At the knife-edge. Of failure. Bill evans claim that in jazz a mistake can be attacked and must be in fact. Justified by that which comes after it. Art blakely key describes the pleasure of taking risks. Jazz is not clinical. It's born from somebody goofin. What is jazz. Dizzy gillespie said jazz is the search. 4. Truth. On april 29th. 2013. The year. That is now behind us. 17 people. 7 clergy and 10 citizens walked into the general assembly. In raleigh north carolina. Where the house. And the senate chambers were located. They knew that if they were asked to leave that day on. April 29th. If they were asked to leave. And i stayed. They knew that they would be arrested. And they stayed. And they were arrested. They said it was an act of moral and civil disobedience. What were they protesting. It turns out that these folks were protesting a few things. Some of those things are a vast reduction in the social safety net. For the poor. Another one is a massive cuts and sons for public higher education. Another is a recent repeal of the state's racial justice act. But perhaps the most striking of all in the one that i'll tell you caught my interest. Was a series of changes to some voting laws. That will disproportionately impact college students. The elderly low income residence and african american communities in particular. For many years north carolina reported very low turnout. In terms of voters. But in 2000 they initiated a new approach they tried something different. They extended an early registration.. And if they did a few other things to increase voter accessibility and intentional way. And last time and there was a week a multi-week. when folks could register to vote. And afterwards the effect of all of this was that. The state size 5 full participation in college students. Elderly voters in african-american voters. Many of whom actually voted by absentee ballot. The last july mckeel's of a lot of different sorts of policy changes impacting young people and african-americans along with poor and low-income folks. North carolina. State legislator. Legislature dropped key pieces of his voter laws. And the impact was immediately felt. They're now seeking. Institute of voter id law. There haven't been too many cases in north carolina of actual voter fraud. And there's no demonstrated correlation that a voter id card would necessarily make a difference in the cases where there had been just a handful of voter fraud instant incidents. And many analysts are now looking at these proposed changes to the voter laws. And they're saying that indeed it will disproportionately impact communities of color low-income folks in college students. According to the aco aclu close to half of the states in the us are also looking at. Similar sorts of voting laws. Now north carolina as no is the historical birthplace of the voting rights movement. Which that inspired the civil rights movement. So in april that april 29th date that i shared with you before. The group that i mentioned was led by an n-double-acp state chapter president named reverend william barber the second. And she's decided that they've had enough. He's. Challenging what he's calling an avalanche of policies that are threatening healthcare. Threatening education and threatening the poor. What happened was that jewish and muslim and christian. Faith leaders all god i'm bored. And so did teachers and doctors and students. And academics. Such that an ever-growing number started to come. To the state legislative office. And make their voices heard. There's now a coalition very broad and its range and scope. Articulating 414 clearly defined action steps. That they're calling for. And he's action steps touch on voting rights they touch on healthcare and they touch on sunday for higher education. And so this whole. Action that happened on april 29th and that she has something called moral mondays. Have people been hearing about this. Moral mondays. Yeah. And tomorrow mondays was born by people coming together to witness and stand together on a monday. And each week more and more people have been coming. And over 1,000 people have actually. Participated in act of civil disobedience. And gotten arrested. I'll tell you i was very moved. When i started hearing about this moral mondays movement. And the stories told by reverend william barber of the n-double-acp. I was also moved by his friend who's a doctor charles vanderhorst. Who studies infectious diseases at the university of north carolina. And the stalker has joined the movement and has become a very visible person. He watched as the state failed to extend medicaid. And the funding for healthcare for his own aids patients. He got concerned that the lack of insurance would mean that those who need it most cannot get the drugs but they need. And he started to get worried that his patients would be subject to life. Threatening insects. Diseases. So not too long ago. 9 unitarian universalist ministers. We're willingly arrested in north carolina. As an act of civil disobedience. These ministers were arrested as part of this massive collection that is building. And they've actually issued. An urgent call. To go to raleigh. On february 8th. Which is coming up. They issue this call because they're hoping and the n-double-acp of the state is hoping that this will be the largest. Mount morrow gathering. In the south since selma in 1965. Next sunday after i worship celebrating martin luther king day i will be screening too short film. The chair with you a little bit more about this call this urgent call to action. And providing you with a bit more information and an opportunity to discuss this together. We'll meet right after service and there will be plenty of time if you're later going to go at 3:30. The martin luther king celebration. In christiansburg. I want to make sure that i congregation members and friends have an opportunity to really learn about what's happening in raleigh. Commode over for you all to make a decision about how you feel about it what you think about it and indeed whether you want to go. This morning i fully intended to speak with you about jazz and justice. But i was interrupted. I was interrupted by this urgent call. And i needed. Felt i needed to share that call with you. I will still be talking about jazz and justice. The part of jazz and justice is the ability to improvise. And to respond. To move in the moment and so that's what i've done this morning. I'm going to tell you why i am committed to going to raleigh and i hope why some of you may feel moved. To come with me. I'm going to raleigh because my face. Unitarian universalism. Champions democratic process. The dignity of all people. And inspires me to connect my life with those of my brothers and my sisters and my cousins. Unitarian universalism offers that we are all connected in a web of life. And this is not an abstract principle. But rather an ethical imperative. Unitarian universalism is it challenging safe. We honor the dignity of each person. And also hold. That we are all. Connected. Historically are ethical lamp is very bright. Our tradition actually sent. More clergy from an organized religious tradition than any other religious tradition. Send more clergy down to the south to march with dr. king when he called. During the civil rights movement. I'm very proud. About tradition. I'm proud that we are people who do not turn away from life. But turn towards life and turned towards complexity. I'm proud that we are not a people who shrink and times of struggle. And we are not alone of course. There are so many people. It's so many different faith traditions with long histories. Of spirituality and social justice. I recently spoke with an evangelical christian friend who said to me. Working with others across face lines. Bats in your dna. As unitarian universalist. And i nodded. Well-put. Indeed it is one of our long-standing practices. To listen and respond to our faith neighbors in a common cause for justice. Moral mondays reminds me of what it is to be together in a movement for democracy that honors all people. In a society that uplift all people instead of denigrates all people. I'm not a justice-seeking activist first. But a unitarian universalist whose justice speaking is guided by my face. The inherent worth and dignity of all people the understanding that radical love meaning love from the roots. Is a transforming force. That all people matter regardless of how much money one has or one does not have no matter how one expresses their love no matter how formally educated or uneducated someone. When coalition's. Of jews and christians and muslims form as they have now in raleigh north carolina i take note. Something is going on here. Moral mondays now movement that is spread. To george as well. When i read the news from raleigh i was very moved by heidi how diverse the coalition the n-double-acp is brought together is. Karen blacksburg deer community as you know we have a long-standing connection with the n-double-acp here in the new river valley. And those are the ties that also compel me. To say yes to going to raleigh. We've all been invited along with unitarian-universalist across the country to go. On friday february 7th were invited to stay with congregants. And to attend a worship service at one of the local unitarian universalist congregation. That was spiritually prepare folks for saturday's mathworld event. We're also welcome to drive down on saturday morning. And if you have interest in this and knows that you're already someone who would like to go there's a sign-up sheet. It's not very visible but there's a little sign up sheet on a table the same table out in the entryway that we have for guests at your table. We will see if folks want to carpool. If there's enough stokes to go. And to be very clear i want to make i want to make this very clear. If you are interested in going to raleigh all are welcome families are welcome. And there is no need to commit to an act of civil disobedience. I believe there will be an option for folks who want to willingly demonstrate and that way. But the large majority of folks will be working together moving together in a peaceful manner and not necessarily making a commitment to be arrested in anyway. If that was on your mind. Which it might have been for some people. Families are very welcome as well. The local unitarian universalist congregation zar organizing homestay is for those would like. 2. Go and stay overnight. Now i know that not everyone here might be an agreement. On these issues. We are very diverse and how we see and view and understand the world. If you do not wish to attend. That is fine. I also know that there will be folks here who would like to it. But who for some different reasons may not be able to. And if you are one of those people i invite you to make a note on that sign-up sheet at the table. And will be in touch with other ways that you can be in solidarity. With the events going on in raleigh north carolina. That weekend in february. Edward everett hale is a unitarian minister from the 1800s. And his words in particular came to my mind he says. I'm only one. But i am one. I cannot do everything. But i can do something. And because i cannot do everything. I will not refuse to do the something that i can do. And what i can do. I should do. And what i should do. By the grace of god. I will do. I wonder what it is that moon. I mean really moves us. That is called out from a sense of despair. To action. What moves us to say yes. Yes i will stand. With you. What movie about this action is that all these folks. In north carolina are helping to make. Visible the invisible. They're moving together speaking out showing up with bodies and words what is happening. And showing that north carolina's a test site for the kinds of voting restrictions. That might spread to other states. But more than that. This movement is also showing. The people who come together. Can be participating actively in beloved community. That means the beloved community as possible. When people come together with purpose and vision. Committed to a common good. Inspired by that which is larger than any single one of us. But indeed involved. Every single one of us. The ministers in raleigh. Are saying that we are all co-authors. Of the american dream. And our joining with the interfaith neighbors in the n-double-acp to play a part in this unfolding. Of our american story. To be honest with you the spirit of love. Will just not let me rest. And i hope that some of you will feel. Your own face called. And if you feel that call i hope that you will heat it. And join us. In raleigh. In february. As i said i was planning to speak on jazz and justice. And i got interrupted. This morning i want to share with you. Some insights. From the logic of jazz. The logic of jazz might sound counterintuitive. But the logic of jazz says sharon welch who's an ethicist. Nau you scholar. She says i can tell us something about how to act together in a broken world. For beauty and for justice together. Typically when we think about jazz we think of some big names. We think of. Dizzy gillespie. Louis armstrong john coltrane. Duke ellington wynton marsalis anyone else have a jazz icon that comes to. Miles davis. Alright. Anyone else weather. All right we've got a lot of jazz fans in here. Alright. Ella fitzgerald billie holiday the list goes on and on. And jazz icons like any icon recalls ^ a personality. A power of a genius and of someone with a special and unique gift. It jazz itself about improvising as we did earlier with our young ones improvising within clear limits. Playing a part with a special flare while collaborating with others to make something that cooks that hung that's inspiring. And that is truthful about life and its full complexity. That's jazz. That's also community and that's also justice-seeking. It would be very easy for me to wax poetic with you this morning about jazz. But jazz and justice are more than just metaphorically length of course. Rather jazz itself is rooted in distinctly african-american musical experiences in new orleans. In response to changing conditions. Including slavery. Racial coexistence. Complex cultural mixing abolition reconstruction segregation economic turmoil and the list goes on and on. And its musical influences of course include the music from those slaves were singing gospel music and south. Who brought that music to the coast. Music from the black church baptist musical experiences. It also includes complex influences from minstrel music as painful as that history is. Caribbean and french creole music ragtime blues and swing all of this. Goes into the complex dna that is that is jazz. And these are the roots that underlie this music. These days my guess is that she hasn't seen lessons justice music. Now it's enjoyed in so many different ways. Perhaps it no longer expresses the mood of a distinct generation. Perhaps been eclipsed by newer forms their scene. Carry the stories of social justice issues in our time. But perhaps because it is so. Integrally. Connected to justice. It's also metaphorically. Important for us to explore. And related to our modern justice struggles today. As i said sharon welch has said that jazz has a particular logic. They can actually help us think about justice making in our times. She said just a few things. She suggests that jazz logic is a remedy for broken hearted idealist. Trying to change the world. Here are some things she says about jazz logic. Which relates to our struggles for justice. Number one jazz has its limits. As i said it's based on limits and within the foundation of those limits wild creativity innovation and virtuosity is possible. Without those basic limits a jazz group couldn't have cohesion. And couldn't have common direction. Second jazz about bringing forward who you really are. In an ensemble each has a unique perspective a voice that comes out. The sims 4. It is original. And not originality. Part of the magic. Some musicians say that to be original they also have to be strong enough to be flexible. Fluid enough confident enough to listen and respond to other players in the moment. Another aspect of jazz logic. Playing well with others. If every player went off to do their own thing. There would be stifling competition. Or worse utter chaos. But rather the most successful jazz ensembles for him because people enjoy playing together. Fanjoy. Treating each other with respect. And listening for what comes up next. Perhaps jazz musicians when they get together inspired. Because their own genius can't be realized necessarily as a solo artist. Maybe their vision. To collaborate with others in to be something so much more bold. 1/4 skills of improvisation. Each person needs to know their own instrument. So that they can play better with others. Very last. As dizzy gillespie said jazz is truth revealing itself. The idea that truth is being revealed at every turn. And attention must be given to precision and the possibilities of every moment. When sharon welch was thinking about jazz logic. And social change. She said back in the sixties and seventies some of the movements were inspired by an idealized sense of beloved community. The idea was to get. To the promised land. Gets to beloved can you. The hardest thing is that the road is long. And heart. It's sometimes a logical outcomes of strategies that are based on an idealized notion of a world. World that should be. Is that we people we folks can be stuck. In a way of thinking that pit the idea. Versus the real. And that kind of framework can be a setup for our own disappointment. Especially because changes flow. And hard and the road is long. So she asked what would it be like to picture working for change that is based on the real. Versus the real. What would it mean for example not to reach for creating beloved community out there as an ideal. But instead tempe and to play as beloved community right now. In this place and in our time. Reflecting on the united states sas gerald early wrote when they study our civilization. 2000 years from now. There will be three things that americans will be known for. The constitution. Baseball. And jazz. What i wonder is ken our justice making. Be as beautiful. As memorable. As jazz. Jazz itself was influenced by all. The diverse considerations i shared with you and more. Among them blues. Giving a dignified expression 2. Broken heartedness. And facing down adversity. So what's jazz got to do with justice. Everything. I think. It has to do with how we play together. Is beloved community. Here at our congregation. We have a congregation that is practicing being a community of action. Rounded and compassion. Grounded in values of justice and hope. We are looking to live our values within and beyond these walls and after spending about six months here i know that you already know how to improvise around core limits. And you know how to do it with artistry. And here's one example of how i know that. It's what happens during our potluck. Which we are just about to happen. Date. Time basic sense of purpose everyone's got a dish to bring and then a fantastic swirl of creativity and a delicious feast is born. And here we are fed not just a meal. But community. And hope. And friendship. As unitarian universalist at we think about the metaphor of jazz as a metaphor for playing together well and congregational e-life congregational life and outside our walls i think we've got a good. Blueprint. Of sorts. I want to share with you. That. I love jazz but it might not be your favorite musical. But i invite you to consider jazz logic. And think for yourself about how jazz logic. Spirituality and social justice relate. In chas we who believe in justice must keep awake. Bring our instruments platt practice together and show up. Jazz reminds us of the truth that is revealing itself at every turn. I hope that you might listen deeply. Listen deeply to the deepest places in others. And listen. What is the part that you will play right here and right now in the work of jeff. I hope you'll find ever-increasing people and places to play her instrument. In a jazz band of justice. May we see before us the beloved community. Right here. And right now. It is possible that we have arrived just in time for our lives. We are needed. We need one another. And there is no time. Like the present. Play your instrument. And have fun. Blessed be. And amma. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

130811_pm_dances.mp3

Welcome to the august 11th service at the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. Today's. Service. Is titled dances of universal peace. And is presented by paula markham. An evening of the 4th saturday. September through june. Portal leads a 2 hours dances at the uuc. Today she leads us. In a 45-minute version. Sharon day is a facilitator for the service. Welcome to the unitarian universalist. New river valley congregation. We are very happy that you could come here. Today. And. We hope that you if you are new this time. Will. Enjoy coming back. If you have been previously. We are more than happy to see you again. Today we will be. Doing a little movement. And we invite you to join with us. Either in body or in spirit. So. You might watch and decide to join for a while. You might. Be. Dancing and then decide to sit down. Whatever. Whatever is comfortable for you. We asked you to look after yourself. You may notice that on the table here there are number of candles lit. This is from the tradition of universal sufism which is also the tradition that the dances come out of. The spirit of the principles of sharing misreading. We honor. All the wisdom traditions. Of the earth. We honor the truth and the beauty in the mall. And so i one of the sushi traditions. The universal city to distances to set up a table and alter. With candles lit for all the specifics of several specific traditions. Hinduism buddhism judaism. Christianity. Islam. Native american spirituality earth-based spirituality. But. We would run out of candles. If we tried to honor them all and say there are 144000 prophets who have come to us over the years. So this. This last candle. Is always dedicated. All. Does the masters. Saints. Prophets. Teachers and guides. Known or unknown to the world. Who held aloft the light of truth. I miss the darkness. So we're going to add. The young unitarian. Flame. The chalice. And now. Paula markham leader of dances for universal peace. Grandmother of two. Will speak with us about dances for universal peace. And then i hope you will join us enjoy. Grandmother's to i like that credential to. So the. Topic today is the dances of universal peace. And i know some of you have seen it in the bulletin and. And. Some have not. It's been happening here for. Almost 20 years. And it surprises me a little that most of the people who come to the dances are not part of the uu congregation. And most of the people in the yukon gauge. Don't know about the den. Begin it surprises me because we. Share so many values. The dances of universal. These are very welcoming. Tradition. We draw from many sources of wisdom as represented by the candles. And as you'll see by the dances. The dances of universal peace are also known informally as sufi dancing. So want to say a little something about sufism because. You're make wonder what what does it have to do with sufism. Sufism is an ancient path that is closely associated with islam. And if you look it up on wikipedia it will say it's the mystical. Branch. Of islam. Since if he's would say it's the mystical branch of every trudeau. Level of mysticism at the level of. Experiencing. Did cubs come to go to the same place all the paths lead to the same place. And in the early 1900's a man named inayat khan. Who was a classical. Sufi master from india. Came to. To the westy came to europe and then to the united states. To share this broader perspective. This isn't just for muslims it's for everybody. Who is seeking to have. .. Of the divine. Of the bigger. The love and peace. And. Is sufism has always been a path. Not just talking about but experiencing. Not just following the outer form of us. Tradition doing the right thing but. But actually. Experiencing the quality. That we associate with the divine. The qualities that are in our. Yeah formation we read earlier. Love. Peace. Acceptance. Freedom. Compassion. So the question becomes. How do we experience. We can talk about them. But how do we actually. Experience. Orlov. Every mystical path has practices that helped change conch. This meditation. Prayer. Fasting. Many paths use sacred chant. Or music or movement. Not only to celebrate seasons in life passages but also. 2. Attained or cultivate. A different state of. And the dances of universal peace aurora modern expression of dissension. This form started fairly recently. In the late 1960s a man named samuel lewis. Who was a sufi master and also is zen teacher. And it's steady deeply in the mysticism of hinduism and judaism. Had a vision for the end of his life he had this vision. Peace through the arts. What he saw was that. Dances would be the. The religion of the future. Today would be a way to. Help people experience love and harmony and beauty. Without arguing about dogma. And sandwich in sanford. Just go and hang out with the hippies. And they danced and. Saint louis was a funny looking little guy couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. So all of the dances he led headlights three notes in them. I think i'm wrong. But he had such. Baraka. Such a blessing in his heart that pee. Just float hundreds of p. And feel feel his. Is atmosphere. Of love and acceptance. So he died not long after that and they're not very many dances actually came through him. But he. Aspired a movement that is now worldwide. Their dance circles all over the. Oliver north america south america europe. Russia. You go to a dance circle. Anywhere in the world and recognize the dance. They're hundreds of dances but there's some that are old standbys in. I went to hawaii and. Learn to maori dance but i also learn dances i. When people go to. So there's a whole network. Of sharing of dances. So when i say just a little bit some something about what it is before i ask you to do it. And as you will see it it could be described as. Spiritual folk dancing. We take phrases from. World. Traditions. Sometimes translated into english. Sometimes in the original language. Sanskrit or arabic. Or any other sacred language. And often. The phrases that we take our mantras that have been repeated. Hundreds of millions of. By millions of people. Over hundreds of years. And when we do things like. . layzon. And the christian tradition. Omani padme home. And the british tradition. Shri ram jai ram jai jai ram. And when we when we do that song in the original language were tuning into that. Resonant field if you will that's been created by all the people who've said it with all the in. Turn over all the years. So it's easier. Begin to feel something. We said the phrases to music. Sometimes traditional music sometimes created for the dance. And we had some really simple folk dance type movements. 2. Help us. Beaner bodies. So you can think of it as a moving meditation. It's not a performance. Although if you you're welcome to watch if. Demeter god dancing. But it really is an experience. To be had. Any chance has its own mood summer. Play full summer solemn. Somerville. Joyous agree deeply meditate. But whatever the flavor is we're going for that. Feeling whatever the tradition. Still going for. Worthy. Experience the vibration. Of love harmon. In my own experience i found that the dances had the added benefit of a cross-cultural education. It's one thing to think yes we welcome all traditions. But when you learn how to say peace be with you in seven different languages. You know when you learn about a tradition. About a month ago that what's been done or said response. And you have it in your own body then you begin to feel. Attention. This more than. Cognitive. Heart level kinship with other tradition. So now i would like to move into the dancing. And you notice we've cleared out a space. And what i would like to invite you to do is to come into the space. And have a little bit of an experience. Everything will be explained as we go. I would like you to do is take a moment to feel what it feels like to be with a bunch of of your fellow humans. In this lovely space. Going to feel. Feel the energy. Look around. And now. I like you too. Come into your own body might want to close your eyes for this or kind of defocus then. And take a deep breath. Begin to feel your body. Ridiculous yoyosi. Feel where your feet. Do the shoes. Lafleur. Are connecting with. The oldest spiritual traditions. This with. Now open your. I noticed how. Yeah we may need to have two circles actually an inner and outer. Imma be the outer. That looks good. Hey now. Now. Notice. It feels a little different. When we're in. Now i'm going to show you little. Happy dance. Hold your hands out in front of you like this. And everybody tip your thumbs to the left. So that'll put your left hand up and your right hand facing down. And now taking. This way everybody is receiving and sending. And relax your hands relax your hands just be sure that you have an up-and-down. You keep holding hands but you don't have to hold them up like a robot. And relax the hands down by your side still holding hands. See how this feel. I was feeling a little more. Connected or coherent. Like our energies are kind of like light rays everybody's got light. But we're all going in different directions. Quite beautiful. And chaotic. And when we begin to all move our energy. The same direction. Sounds like a laser beam. Not only beautiful but. So what we'll be doing is. Learning to harmonize. Now we can warm up her voice is a little bit. The voice is an important part of the. Somebody having trouble with the hand thing. Just. Upfront i want to say there are no dance police however you do it will be beautiful in the sight of the divine. So there's a saying among the monks gregorian to do gregorian chant that he who sings prays twice. Because you use the words. Letter invoking. Divine energy use. Sound. Vibration. And when you cause your body to vibrate. Harmony with other. Bodies. It creates another level of. I like to say that when we dance we pray 3. Cuz we have the words. Vibration. We'll start with. The vibration so what did like everybody to do. Your moment is take a deep breath. And we're going to say all like we're getting into a hot tub at the end of a long hard day. The deep breath. Good. And now it's do that same thing on this time we're going to use that. Sustain atone. Remy start when they all have the. Ringtones but we'll find something that sounds good together. Is everybody. Deep breath and do a. If you how it feels. Cuz right after. You can feel it then. Do another sustained.. Imagine. Extending into a ball of snow. Two hands over your heart center and feel the vibration in here will do. Everybody take one step in word for the center of your circle. So we're closer together. I would like to do is put your left hand over your own heart. And your right hand on the back. Person next. About heart level. So you can feel the vibration and them as well. And let's do one more altogether. Feeling a little more. So the first dance. Is that a familiar tune it's in the. Uu songbook. From you i receive. To you i give. Together we share. From this we live. I'm going to sing it through two or three times so that those of you who don't know it. Pick up the two. Wait for the group to the group. So how we going to do this is we're going to. Pick a partner. I would like you to do is just count off in your circle like 12 and face that person. 12 basic person. Right it's what we'll find so. You guys partner up in the inside you to youtube. Face your partner. You get you won't get to doing it to stay with this person. I think you're going to have to. Doesn't matter doesn't matter just make a partner now and your leftover okay let's see if there's anybody left over in the outside. You come with me. Okay so everybody face your partner. And remember this direction. Because this is the way you'll be moving when it's time to move you don't get to. His partner for very long. Sfu look past your partner to the next person who's facing you that's going to be your next partner in life. Okay so here's how we're going to do it as you're facing your partner. This is a little bit of improvisation we're going to make a receive receiving gesture. So something like. From piracy and then giving gesture to the same person. We share a group hug just put your hand on the waist of the person next to you. So that we make. No no no. Big circle. You don't get to just have the one person. Together we shall know fisher partner again. You going to walk past them. Passing right shoulder so you don't bump into each other. And you should be facing a new partner. Ready okay. Miss ennis we live. So let's walk through it one more time with his yes. Okay it's. From this we live. From this we live. So let's walk through it slowly again with his new partner. From you everybody faces the middle. Partner. Keep going. Remember to look at the purse. Really receive really gif. From this beautiful fellow human. Okay so take a breath and center. Do a few more. Last partner. Broadview. Okay we are awesome. Yeah we're going to do a. Doing the cross-cultural thing. We're going to do some dance that draws on another culture. Using a buddhist chant. And it's six syllables long. In sanskrit. And words are ohm. Money. Padme. Cool. Home. Mommy. Hotmail. Bellamy said once. Word by word ohm. Money. I'd me. Now the literal translation of this is something like. A jewel the jewel in the lotus. What does that mean. It's a. They say that in sanskrit each syllable has a resonance in the body. It actually awakens the centers that a tuna steak. And buddha of compassion hablo kitakata. The buddha of compassion. So when we doing this we're asking. We're tuning to that energy. And. But. People interpret a different ways one of my favorite dance l when he does his he says think of it as omama take. Because we're appealing to the. The goddess of compassion. To hear our cries. And help us. He feels so he'll then so cared for that we can hear the cries of others. And care for them. So let's say it together a few times. Omani padme. Now here's the. Then the fourth one is a little different. Goes like this just listen the first. The sing it together a couple. What's more. So stand close enough that your arms can you're holding hands but you're a fairly relaxed that. Going to be. Sinking into this as best we can. The first movement is too slow side steps to the right. Sogos. Oh i need to sidestep to the left. Oh. Not to the right again. Oh. I just turned gently. Turn you turn all the way around. Set agenda facing the center again i sorry i wasn't clear about that. And if if turning in a circle makes you dizzy then you can just. Swaying place. Take care of yourself. As you can see there's not much to this dance. It's not meant to be. Anything fancy it's meant to be it just a way of. Embodying. Two to the right. To the left. To the right. Siletz bay. Alright. And to the left to the right. Little louder. Just the women singing singing everybody singing. May be able to feel her.. That moment right after the dance is. Finish a pagani do. Another greeting dance. And. It sounded like you to mix it up a little look around find somebody you haven't been a partner with and just grab their hand and stand with them in the circle. If your leftover come to the middle. When she found your partner get back into circle. And hold your partner's hand. Okay everybody face your partner. Again. Look at this person. Remember this direction. See who your next partner will be. Effaced. Estate kansas that we round up the circle so that we've gotten. The ovoids. So the words. It's only one 14 in word. And it's namaste. Namaste which means i greet. The divine within you. I see the divine light in. So the words are. Namaste. Namaste. I see god in. And god. Shorthand for love. There wasn't room for all of those words in the song. B-17 goes. Good now official partner. And on the first namaste and it would do any hands in. Preposition in front of the. Heart. Detroit moodrights you know when you place your palms together it creates a certain energy. Can you put them in front of your heart it races hurt. Where is that just randomly referee doing some. So what about it. In front of us. Maintaining icon. Just a little. Acknowledgement. And then we're going to battle twice so. Nah. Again. Now you going to take hands with your partner. And you's going to do a little half circle. Clockwise will you trade places with. Okay now here's the tricky part. We're going to dial this time again. Everybody should be facing your same partner. You still facing the same partner. You're done with them yet. Okay so you're going to actually do a goodbye bow to them on the fur. To work with. Now turn around and get a new partner. And you get to move on. Turn around. Great places. Any questions everybody got a partner. If it if you remember then having left palm up and right palm down is an awesome way to hold hands. And if you don't remember. You'll still get there. Alright so. We're going to go i'm going to go kind of slow because you want to take a little time to actually look at this person. And see the divine nbc. Take it in that you're being sick. So divided. Know your partner. Last partner. Everybody. Imagine what our lives would be like if we actually did see. The divine in everybody. You know even though. Via. Tech support person from india. The store clerk was having a hard time. The person were having a disagreement with. Namaste. Amen. Okay that's it. Couple of things. This is a little different in many of you have not. Necessarily of experiences tradition previously. Are there any questions or reflection. How did it feel would you like to do it again. I just want to thank you this was wonderful and dancer i used to do more of it and it's there's nothing like actually making a physical connection with somebody and trying to. Create something beautiful together with him so thank you very. I also want to thank paula and i aprilia appreciate your explanation about the traditions and how they fit in with. Are you you tradition i thought it was really very meaningful. I felt a sense of the universality. A ball is life. Thank you all. It was very meaningful. Paula call me next time i want to come. I can't keep up with. The calendar but. I think this is what we need. Here. Especially. Feels to me. Really desperately needed for healing. In terms of. Staying in touch. I do a little email announcement. Before every dance. There are cards out in the lobby that have my contact information as well as the dates of the dances. If you'd like to be on the contact list. Email be enough. Unlist. And you'll get an f. It is in the uu things but. The dance list. I just wanted to thank you for. Getting me past the awkward stage and i'm sure other people felt it. Because it really did help to see the. I came into this skepticism. But it was great. rudy had a good time and it's and it's something to look in somebody's eyes and say. You are my friend. And i see. And you. I've been dancing here for 14 years. Newbies. What books at home did i will use it for the benefit of others. I've been dancing like victoria many many years here. I really appreciate. Pallas. Gentle spirit and the way that she can get us all together and i really love looking into somebody's eyes of somebody i don't know and appreciate their spirits as well. But i think one of the most beautiful things that i've experienced. Ensure not made a practice of this everlast i think six years for us and i don't know how many it has been going on. But there's nothing like. Bringing in a new year. Dancing with each other about three hours before midnight. Just dancing. What a wonderful way to greet the new year. I'm eating lots of good food. That's been a tradition for number of years is that we have a new year's dance. On the 31st. With a potluck feast. It is a beautiful way to start the year. And i always like to thank my teachers. Racing for many years. And when i started dancing which was. Many years ago. I had difficulty singing and now. I'm over all these years. Certainly you know sprung the over-the-top of what. It's an incredible. Thing and i encourage anyone and everyone. Get into singing. I'm virtually regardless of what you said. Because if you come to a group like this. You end up sounding great. And also wanted to mention that we do dances in roanoke. And those are the third. Friday. Of every month. I'm so if you live in that area or. Want to travel down there that's an. As well. And you can't get too much dancing. You can't get too much of gazing into people's eyes and chanting than. I also would especially like to thank the musician sharon and i don't know if you noticed the jeff was doing percussion off to the side and that adds so much. Is sufi circles we sing more than we talk. And it's a tradition to sing our greetings in our. Enter partings. So just let yourself if you notice when singalong if not just let it come to you that it. Appreciate it. Oh. Go. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

130721_bg_universalist.mp3

Welcome to the july 21st service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. Today's service is led by rev bill gupton. And the title of his sermon is. Why i am a universalist. Reverend gupton is introduced by our karen hager his former congregant. The podcast includes to readings the sermon and some closing words. Reverend gupton was in our pulpit previously. July 16th 2006. A link to the text of his 2006 sermon is included on our sermon archive page. This morning i have the particular press pleasure of introducing a special guest who will be doing or sermon today reverend bill gupton. Bill is not only our guest minister he is my farming minister. So particular joy to have him here today and we obviously the first time i've ever done a service. Bill is known to probably some of you because he is a former president of susie and attempts to see every year and he is from the heritage universalist unitarian congregation cincinnati and if you think i got that wrong i did not see universalist comes first. You're going to hear more about that. And we'd like to welcome bill and also bill sister laura. There are two readings i offer today is preparation for the message the first is from the lake forest church. In his final book. The cathedral of the world. A universalist theology. He writes universalism speaks with particular eloquence. To the challenge of our times. Today our neighbors live not only across the street but. Across the world. In an age when we share a global economy. A global communication system and global environmental threats universalism addresses are ira's most dangerous dysfunction. Theological. Parochialism. Every denomination. Including eat at ariant universalism. Can fall prey to the nearsighted newest a theological parochialism. The phillies promise modern universalism must witness. Against fundamentalists. On both the left. And the right. By definition there for universalism. It's not the property of any discrete. Religious body. Including the one that has it. And its name. The second reading. Is taken from an article that appeared in the uu world. 20 years ago now. Written by helen knox. Universalism ringing affirmations of optimism and equality. Are accompanied by prophetic cry to liberate all. But people may be saved on earth. As they already are in heaven. Savor those last few words for a moment so people may be saved on earth as they already are. In heaven. But universalism makes other daunting demands she continues. You must not lose hope. You must not give in to despair or emotional paralysis. Clinical depression can be redeemed not just by therapy but by faith. An affirmation. That life is good and that it is worth living. You will not go to everlasting hell. But you must keep the spirit of life burning in your heart. No matter what hell on earth. You walkthrough. Or become aware of. You must have love and compassion not only for yourself. Which strangely sometimes seems hardest of all. But also for everyone else. For the whole planet. For the universe ultimately. We still have a long way to go before we will be truly practicing what are named preaches. To be a universalist you must counter rather than contribute to the racism sexism ageism homophobia and other pathologies of our society. You must not use any category whatsoever to injure other people. Try it. Can you live without conscious or unconscious prejudice. Do you even believe in trying. If not how can you be a universalist. And if you can't. We have to resign from your uu church. If so where will you go. Will you continue to call yourself a universalist but not practice universalism. Or will you just say is far too many of us do. I'm a unitarian. That's not good enough. We can do so much more. That seems the reading. But not. The preaching i'm going to do later. Let me begin my sermon this morning by giving you a bit of background. The main thing that you should know about me what i tell every congregation i visit weather in the south or the midwest when i go on the road to preach. The good news. What is relevant in the context of today's worship service is that i consider myself a universalist minister. That distinguishes me from most of my colleagues who whether by design or simply linguistic laziness often refer to themselves as unitarian minister. In contrast then. I call myself a universalist minister one whose theology just happens to be unitarian. That's a unitarian universalist. Is an important distinction. I readily admit to you that i subscribe to the school of thought articulated by helene knox whom i quoted a few moments ago which holds that the word unitarian. Is best understood as an adjectives. A modifier for the word universalism. I can see that. We may never thought of it that way. That for me unitarian describes what kind of universalist i am. And in particular what kind of universalist minister i am. I have come to this a theology and no small part because 11 years ago i was called to serve historically universalist congregation in cincinnati ohio. A congregation in fact that voted against that merger of which i just spoke. Yet which is now a proud and equal member of the ua. In the name of my congregation is karen pointed out is the heritage universalist unitarian church. Where the universe list as we like to say comes first. And it now meets in a new suburban meetinghouse much like this. About the congregation was formed back in 1827. As the first universalist society of cincinnati. And so is it any wonder that universalism has become. Important to me. Over the years i have grown fascinated with its history. Yes it's heritage. But even more so i am inspired and made hopeful by the promise it offers for our future. Not only as you use but as. Citizens of this tiny globe we call the earth. For i believe that it is. Universalism. Universalism with a small u. As far as church likes to. Refer to it. Universalism with a small you that stands for. Radical hospitality. For the acceptance of diversity and differences. For the full and open inclusion and embrace of all. Of humanity. Is because i believe that is. The only kind of faith that can ultimately save us. That i am drawn to it that i am challenged by it and that i try. My best. To adhere to. My sister can attest it on the way over here this morning i may not have been a hundred percent. Adhering to it. I went on a rant. Like i might be about to get right now. But i'm not going. The funny thing is although i've become something of a born-again universalist over the past decade or so and now rarely go out on the road to preach. As i said the good news the good news of inclusion. The good news of love for everyone. I think i actually became a universalist way back when i was 5 years old. Now i have to say that i've never preached this particular sermon with my sister present. So there's never been anyone who's been here who actually was there when the things i'm talking about happened. So we'll see how that goes. But i'm going to ask you to turn the clock back half a century now. You may have noticed that i was born and raised not very far from here. Ice write down interstate 81 in bristol on the tennessee side. And there was a little methodist church there. And a little methodist sunday school that i was raised in. And there i met a woman who would have profound influence on both my life and my spirituality. Miss maude. As she was known. What is an imposing. Spinster whose impatience with the never ending questions of this particular little boy. Was nearly as legendary in that church as was my own childish insubordination. I've also never. Preach the sermon with one of my favorite vr he's in attendance. So yes i was a bit of a. Handful in sunday school. Karen. Whatever miss mod taught us i questioned it. Remember this is a small methodist. Sunday school in a small southern town in the 1960s. Whatever miss mod asked us to do. I generally refused. Eventually the day of our final showdown arrived. The sunday morning when miss maude at last played her trump card. Hell. If i continued to stubbornly insist on not believing what she was telling me about this or that miracle. About this or that supernatural event. If i remain obstinate in my refusal to accept the things i was being taught about this strange god man known as jesus. Then i and everyone like me. What go to hell. End of story. Or so miss maud thought. However upon hearing this declaration i responded the same way any other self-respecting five-year-old boy might. When he realized that his words were no match for a more powerful debate opponent. I looked her straight in the eye. And then spit on the floor. I can usually do that better when my sister's not listen let me tell you though i soon came to know what is meant by the phrase sinners in the hands of an angry god because the sunday. I share this story with you today because it marks a critical. Turning point in my life. The kind of turning point that i think many of us have had on our religious journey. The point of no return. When are spiritual questioning and spiritual quest. Leads us to leave behind. Doctrines and dogmas it no longer ring true. For me the final straw was the idea of hell. The claim that god. Whoever or whatever god was would actually send people. Anyone. Me. To hell. This idea made no sense to me. 50 years later it still makes no sense to me. Beside it was enough to turn me away from belief in god all together. And set me on a religious path that over the course. Are the next several decades lead initially to atheism. Been to agnosticism. Later to something of a tenuous truce with the idea of god and ultimately to a. Humble. Reverend barry universalist kind of. Unitarian universalism in which god plays. A very important. But not. The starring role. Then somewhere along the way i felt the calling to become a minister. I think. Miss maude god bless her would be proud of at least my vocational choice if not my theology. And there's no doubt in my mind that i have her to thank for the fact that today. I call myself a universalist because it was in her sunday school class that i learned what i did not believe in. It was there that i first encountered and almost instinctively rejected the idea of hell. The idea that god took 10 damn anyone to eternal. Separation. It has been said that our images of god. Are sometimes subconscious and often very divergent concepts of that ultimate power in the universe. Can be traced back to the earliest days of our lives. 2 time when. Totally dependent on the care given to us by seemingly omnipotent beings. We learned one of two things. Either that our parents and other caretakers were dependable nurturing and loving. Or that they were unpredictable threatening and angry. Depending on what kind of early imprinting we receive so the theory goes we develop not only our concept of god but. Understanding. Of the world. As either an essentially safeplace or as an untrustworthy environment. In which we must always be on guard. As for me i know i'm one of the lucky ones. Scooby hard. Spider childhood that included not only miss mod. The schoolyard bullying in a broken home. I live with the assurance that i was loved. I was by my parents and by my family. The knowledge which i believe also had a great deal to do with the fact that i am today or universalist. At that. Pivotal moment when i came face-to-face with harsh judgement. When first i encounter the prospect of ultimate rejection i already knew. Deep in my heart. That i was unconditionally love. The information the theological claim that god might reject me. For eternity no less simply did not compute. All this at the age of 5. As i grew older my understanding of unconditional love beeping. Again largely. Through my family. When i was playing and accidentally broke a window. I was loved and forgiven. When childhood negligence caused an expensive jacket. That my parents had bought me to catch fire. Nearly burning down the house or at least i so believe i was loved and forgiven. When i got suspended from high school for stealing hall passes out of my biology teacher's desk. Perhaps not coincidentally the same biology teacher who it infuriated me by teaching us creationism. And making fun of the theory of evolution. Anyway when i got suspended from high school for stealing something from his desk i was loved and forgiven. When i wind up in the hospital in college. After experimenting with drugs. I was loved and forgiven. You get the picture. I'm not saying that my family and my parents weren't disappointed in me over and over again. That they weren't upset and sometimes even outright furious at me for such things but. I am saying that i always knew. In spite of all my faults and failings that i was loved and forgiven. That's the universalist experience. I've got. And i asked you if human beings. Are capable of giving such love and forgiveness. Why not. Got. So first and foremost i'm a universalist because i believe. In love and forgiveness. Now let me tell you another story. I'll never forget the time about 15 years ago. When my mother was dying. She's in a coma in the hospital. She received an unexpected visit. From. My nephew. A young man who had been in and out of trouble throughout his adult life. Mama had not been responsive to any of us for days. She had not. Seen or spoken to my nephew in sometime. But when he walked into that hospital room. Something. Change. And when he bent down beside her bed. Almost as if in prayer. And took my mother's hand and stroked her hair and said grandma it's me. I'm here. The closest thing i've ever seen to a miracle happen. A tear. Pain. How's the corner. Our mother died. And down her cheek. And i say that if a human being. Can offer. Love and forgiveness. Why not.. At this point i know that. Some of you are probably thinking well why god at all. Who needs god. Be touched by stories of love and forgiveness. And it is true that unlike the classic universalism of the 19th century modern universalism does not have to have god in order to be universalism. Belief in god belief in jesus as the son of god or even as a specially anointed messenger of god. Belief in the bible as a unique revelation containing stories of literal truth these are no longer necessary. To be a universalist in the 21st century. If they were. I would not be here. Right now. Unitarian universalist church. Certainly such beliefs have little to do with why i am a universalist. Now we modern you use have principles rather than dogma to guide us. We prefer logic and reason to what we sometimes think of is blind faith. And so like most adult converse to unitarian universalism to you plant principles play a significant role in my religious self-understanding. Therefore they offer insight into why i am a universalist. It is not uncommon for folks to cite our first uu principle. Our affirmation of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. As are most explicitly universalist principles. In fact the language contained in that first principle grew directly out of our universalist tradition. This principle and not just because it is the first. Carries great moral weight. If one really believes in the inherent worth it dignity of each and every person. One looks at the world in which we live through such a lens it will create a profound shift. In our perceptions. For one thing it means that we are not. Contrary to orthodox religious teachings. Somehow fallen or flawed. The baby dedication with which we celebrate. Becoming a new life into our community speak to how differently we unitarian universalist view human nature. Furthermore if we seek to truly live as if each and every person we come into contact with has inherent worth and dignity. And is deserving of our respect then as helene knox reminds us we are called. To live a very different kind of life throughout our life. Yes our first principle is universalism made manifest. But i bet you never actually thought about how our second you principal. Might relate. To universalism. I actually let's be honest here i bet you never thought much about the second principle at all. Can anyone tell me the second principle. Without looking. Justice equity and compassion in human relations. Those words sound familiar right. Justice equity and compassion. If ever you want a. Short 16th soundbite to explain universalism i suggest those three words. But let's look at them one at a time justice. I am a universalist because i believe in justice. Not the kind of retributive justice that calls for punishment or banishment. That demands an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But rather the kind of justice that is. Egalitarian. The kind of justice that makes level the rough places. The kind of justice that guides us on the road from greed. To giving. The kind of justice immortalized in the hebrew scriptures in the concept of the jubilee year. When. The slaves are freed debts are forgiven and the slate is wiped clean. As an aside my dictionary tells me that egalitarianism is the opposite of elitism. Something we unitarian universalists are frequently. And often rightly accused of. Suffice it to say then believing as i do in egalitarianism how could i be anything but a universalist. That's justice. How about equity. I'm a universe with because i believe in equity. I believe that all are created equal. That no one person has anymore or any less right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness than does another. I believe with all my heart that win. Everything is said and done. When you. Strip away all the superficial and ultimately meaningless differences between and among us. Differences like. Age and ability gender and sexuality wealth and status. Education and opportunity when you look beyond all those divisions we are all equal. Believing that how could i be anything but. The universalist. Justice equity. And finally compassion. I'm universalist because i believe in compassion. I believe that there is no greater power than love. And that there's nothing more transformative for a human being than the experience of being loved. And i said knowing that i was unconditionally loved as a child. Shaped who i am and how i see the world. Had a very deep and fundamental level. Further it is our human. Capacity for empathy. Not sympathy mind you but empathy our ability to put ourselves in the shoes of another. And then act on that deep connection. That. Kind of connection is what can truly transform us and our world. As the ham says when. You give from deep within you. You can change the world with your love. Believing this how could i be anything but a universalist. Yet there is. More to the good news of universalism or to the faith i. Come here this morning to profess. I'm also our universe list because i believe in diversity. And inclusion. Karen will tell you we talked a lot about inclusion at heritage. When i look around. At our world i see a planet. It is both diverse and. Inclusive. Did you know that there are nearly 500 species of frogs. More than eight billion possible combinations of. In the process of human cell meiosis. Have you ever noticed that a weed. I wish there no doubt many varieties but i didn't look that one up. Doesn't really care where your neighbor's property line is in yours begins. You see the natural world is one giant living laboratory. Diversity. And inclusion. And we are part of that world. So living as we do living as i do on. Planet. A diversity and inclusion. How could i be anything but. A universalist. It's how i was born as how we were born. How we are made. But when all is said and done in the end i mean universalist macaws and here i. Come round again full-circle to that little sunday school classroom down in bristol all those years ago. I'm universalist because i believe that the ultimate destiny and destination of everyone of us. Is the same. Let me say that again the ultimate destiny and destination of everyone of us. It's the same. Whatever it is. It's the same. I believe that with all my heart. And this is the original. Definition of universalism. I don't have to remind you that such. A theology is just as radical in controversial today. As it was in the glory days of universalism. If i'm to be true to my own heart. This is exactly where i. Take my feel article stand. All throughout history though they certainly wouldn't think of it this way human beings have constructed. Various cosmology and creed based on the supposition that ultimately in the end when everything is done any quality. Will reign supreme. Some will have permanent joy while others will have permanent sorrow. It just makes no sense. And though some would claim that hell is all about justice. To me there is nothing more unjust than such a scenario. Believing dan as i do in justice equity and compassion how can i imagine a creation in which there would be such a place as hell in which. Separation and exclusion whitaker. Eternal exclusion. Is an idea simply cannot abide. Just as everything comes from the same source. So too i believe everything will eventually return. All will be made one because all. Is 1. Nothing can ultimately be separated from the whole. On this point science and spirituality head and heart agree. Believing all this how could i be anything but a universalist. Admittedly mine has been a spiritual journey that began. In the arms of loving family. And i was shaped early on by a defining encounter. With. The. Inflexible style. Christian fundamentalism. What followed were years of religious questioning and doubt. But with some luck. Faith if you prefer. Eventually i found a new face. Unitarian universalism. More recently i believe it was grace that led me to a decidedly universalist congregation in ohio who. People in traditions. Have also helped shape who i am and what i believe. Is ben. An honor to be. Here with you this morning. You serve as a representative if you will. Of the universalist side of art uu family tree. Far too often as helene knox notes we tend to think of ourselves as unitarians. When in fact we are unitarian universalist. For more than half a century now we have all been children. Have a marriage of two proud progressive and often heretical religious traditions. It's my hope that. My presence here today will. Help. Expand your understanding. Have unitarian universalism. And maybe even if what you believe. Maisie. Universalist heritage. Which we all now share. A tradition rooted in the unconditional loving embrace of all creation. A tradition of hospitality for friend and stranger like a tradition of. Inclusion rather than execution. May the universalist tradition. Also helped to light our way forward. Now and in the days to come. As unitarian universalist. As people who share this beautiful planet. May it be so. And i'm in. I have some closing words that. Have been attributed to john murray. Do in recent years. Another john john buren's at former president the usa has. Done some research and pointed out that john murray never actually said this. But it's still a good story. Still good words still universalism so john murray was the first preacher universalism in america that is true. He said go out into the highways and byways and give the people something of your nuvision. May you may possess but a small light but uncovered it. Let it shine use it to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of all people. And please. Give him not hill. But hope. May it be so. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

150823_do_purpose.mp3

Welcome to the august 23rd service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by are settled minister. Reverend arrowland. And her servant is titled. A place for poise. Purpose. Our first reading this morning is by poet mary oliver. The summer day. Who. Made the world. Who made the swan. And the black bear. Who made the grasshopper. This grasshopper i mean. The one who has flung herself out of the grass. The one who is eating sugar. In my hand. Who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down. Who is gazing around with her enormous. Complicated. Now she lives her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open and float away. I don't know exactly. What a prayer. I do know how to pay attention. How to fall down into the grass how to kneel. Down in the grass. How to be idle. And black. Had a stroll through the fields. Which is what i have been doing all day. Tell me. What else should have i done. Doesn't everything die at last and too soon. Tell me. What is it you plan to do. With your one wild. And precious. Life. Our second reading today. Comes from the writer henry david thoreau one of our. It's forbearers from letters to various person. It is not enough. To be industrious. So are the ants. What are you. Industrious. About. I chose the readings this morning. Inspired by the topic of our worship today which is called. Please for poison purpose. I also selected those readings though because i know so many of you. Value. Intimately your relationship. With the natural world. I'm really moved as i remember. Susan baker sharing and acknowledging those who rosanna harassments to tend our ground here. I think as a congregation we are oriented towards appreciating our earth home. And one of the ways i know that. Aside from my interactions with each one of you is that we make a place. To really be with one another in the present of the sky. And the hills. And the tree is. How good that is. This morning i want to talk with you a bit about how clarifying. Purpose. How clarifying are. Purpose can help us to make ever more wise and ever more powerful swords of choices. Any particular i want to explore with you this morning how are material alive. Affect our spiritual lives and vice-versa how are spiritual i'm intact our material live. And i know i need to talk a little bit about vocabulary. When i to spiritualize this morning what i mean now is that intersection. In you that inward intersection. Inuit what is larger. Then you alone. And when i say materialize what i mean this morning is actually material stuff. Our stuff. You know the stuff you have. In your house in your car. The stuff you have. On you and your bags. Stuff you keep at your workplace. Stuff you send your children off school. I mean our stuff. That's what i mean. Carol stuff. And i wonder how we can start to make meaningful choices aligned with purpose. In a world overwhelming choices. Overwhelming amount of object in the united states and also a pace of life. That seems for most of us to give us very little. Time. To truly consider what it is that we are living for. And why. So this morning i want to talk with you a bit about how we design. How we live. And how we keep all that stuff. In our dwelling. I'll call you this is particularly on my mind because as many of you know i just completed a move with my family. From one side of blacksburg to another. And i know this is a time of great moving. Students moving into their dorm rooms or they're shared swelling with other student teachers. Moving into offices family is downsizing moving into retirement. All sorts of moving. Anthony. I want you to i want invite you to think right now about your stuff. See if you can wander with your mind's eye. Through the entryway. Have your home. Wherever your home is. I know some of you wanted to not think about your home. I asked you right now think about what's in your entryway. If you have an entryway need your door opens right into. Your living room. Maybe you live in a small space. Maybe you live in a large space. What's occupying. Oh that stays. What kind of stuff. I'd like to suggest that what we have in our homes. What we keep with us the object that we fill our lives with. Impact us in ways that we might not fully appreciate. Nothing more about that but first i want to tell you a little story. And it's about someone who's. Pretty well-known some of you might recognize the story. Once upon a time there was a prince. Many many years ago. Castle of grandeur and he went into a world. Filled with suffering and struggle. But also with love and coke and tenderness and kindness. Before leaving his castle all he knew was a world of luxury and eve but the thing was he'd gotten really curious about what was outside of that. Some people laugh. He left the ease of his pencil. Do you want to be awake to the world and not asleep. If you went on an odyssey. Can i see what forwarding is odyssey getting to know the lands outside of his tweet castle comfort. He met lots of different people that shared with him different portion of reality. Towards the end of his journey ended up finding a tree and he shot under that tree. And he meditated. Answer that meditation experience insight about how to live. And threw the tea comes to know a deeper sense a truer sense about a spiritual state of existence. It was an awakening. For him. Once he took his life for granted. But when you stop using comfort as his only yardstick he discovers the story goes the inner keys out of. Enlightenment. People know the story that i'm talking about. Whose story is this. The story of siddhartha gautama. Person who becomes. Buddha. Or the buddha. Known as enlightened one. And i'll tell you i was thinking a lot about story. Siddhartha gautama who becomes buddha what i was traveling recently in california with my family. We were in northern california and as some of you know in comparison with the new river valley northern california. Very wealthy generally speaking although that wealth is not of course equally distributed among the inhabitants but that's been going on there for many many years. Thinking about story of the buddha as i was starting to watch and noticed people there. I've started to live simply in a land of excess. Different reasons. Repeat and micah and i like my son micah and my husband pete where we were staying we're staying in petaluma. About 45 miles outside of san francisco wear some of my family lives. And i didn't know this but it's the home one of the hubs and one of the homes. The tiny house movement. About the tiny house movement. Anyone here live in a tiny house and identifies with the tiny house movement. Wonderful. Well it turns out the tiny house movement was something i just learned that out there but it turns out our region here the new river valley is also a home in a hub for the tiny house movement it's becoming popular not just in california or the new river valley but i'm all over the place the eastern seaboard has some tiny houses at the southern part of our united states has. For those of you that aren't familiar with what the tiny house movement is it is a social movement. To live intentionally. In small spaces. And to give you a sense of this the typical home in the u.s. is about 2600 square feet. And a tiny house is between 100 and. 400. Square feet. Much. And it's not just individuals that live in a tiny houses families. Are doing it to i600 you incredible. Yeah. I'm a tiny house movement is striking to me. Because of the way in which people are starting to describe what is it is doing for their lives. Why they're choosing it. Item in that tiny house is there for a reason. Simply no room. For access. Another way to think about this is that people are embracing the creativity formed by. Accepting limitations. Is a limited amount of space. And within those limits the question as i understand it becomes. Here is our house what will we put into it. But rather. Here's what we. What can we do with it. Until you'll find when you look at images or take tours or visit with people you know who have intentionally designed tiny houses there's multiple uses. So for example in small space there might be a mini fridge and on top of the mini fridge is a board that also doubles as a dining room table. It also triples of the place to fold laundry. So you see there's multiple uses and intentionally designed sort of way. I want to share with you just a little bit more about this tiny house movement. This is just a few words from ryan mitchell who writes about the tiny life. Charlotte north carolina. He says people are joining this movement for many reasons. But the most popular reasons are because of environmental concerns. Finance. And seeking more time and more freedom. For most americans 1/3 one-half of their income. Is dedicated to the roof over their heads. And that translates to roughly 15 years of working over your lifetime just to pay for it. And also 76% of americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. So what's the alternative. One might be to live smaller. And he continues to write while we don't think tiny houses are for everyone. There are lessons to be learned and applied to skip the cycle of debt we're almost 70% of americans are trapped. I'm going to invite us to do something that i didn't actually planned for today but i hope some of you will respond to this invitation. Invite you now to go ahead and. Put your head down. And. Consider whether you are someone who is wrestling with for what you feels like an exorbitant amount of day. Invite us to put our heads down so that you feel your privacy is protected. Okay i will be looking out. I am curious to know. How many folks are really struggling with debt. And not everyone will want to. Invite you now. If you will go ahead and. Put your head down if you are someone. Who is feeling the impact of a tremendous amount of debt in your life. Thank you. And go ahead and raise your heads up when. Well i can tell you that there were several hands. So we know that that is something that those within our walls and those beyond our walls are really wrestling with with right now. And i think it's important. To look at that and i've been intrigued by how it's the ways in which some folks that are choosing the tiny house movement are choosing that. In order to get free friends at. Know what i want to say today even though i'm talking about the tiny house movement is i'm not saying that we should all go out and live in tiny houses. Okay that's not what i'm saying but what i find intriguing it's both the way in which folks that are working let's say in the tiny house movement are getting really clear about what their purpose. Animal clear they're getting about their parked at the more they are making. Bold risky but meaningful choices in line with that. Purpose. The other thing that i'm interested in that i want to share with you today is the process. The process by which people are getting more and more clear about. What is. The puppet. Of their alliance. And paring down xs. To get ever more clear about. So everyone heard me i'm not trying to say that everyone needs it to live in a tiny house. But it's that one example of people designing lives. I want to say that without. Really consciously deliberating it can be very easy for us as individuals and communities to follow the north star. As defined by our dominant. And by northstar i need a guiding sort of light a beacon that we think is telling us follow. I'm at northstar seems to be bigger faster brighter more. But as so many of us here in the sanctuary now. This is not getting so very many people. And our earth home. Where we want to be for the present. For the future. Funny because living in a tiny house is tiny house movement. As someone who's involved with the tiny house movement says it's not new. People have been living in tiny houses for a long time. And not always by choice. You are someone. Limited physical means you might live in a small space and not have too much choice about it. You might get creative out of necessity. It's not new tiny houses in fact so many of the people that are inspired to live in tiny homes actually point to walden pond. Forbearer henry david thoreau. As an example of someone who wrote about and pusha t. Course we do know that henry david thoreau was writing from his exquisite cabin on a pond but also that ralph waldo emerson's life with food. And sometimes he would go to town. And have a cup of tea with people. And for me with that reminds me of this is not about purity. A sense of doing things perfect. It's about purposefully. Doing things. Purposefully. Knowing how and why and what. Is your north star. I was learning about what it takes to pare down with some people choose to move into a tiny house and i was. Really interested in what happened for families. So there was a family of four that was living in a four-bedroom house. And it had all the usual items that accrue in a middle-class a household in the us they had clothes and toys. And they had old clothes. And old toys. And they had collections. And furniture. That was new. And that was inherited. And had piles. And they had books. Is anyone's home like this. Mine too. Took them three years to figure out how to do it. They got really clear. The family got really clear about what they were going to do they were going to move into a tiny house. And the father said here's why what would happen was his kind of grown up growing teenage children would come home everyone would go to their individual rooms and get on their computers and wouldn't really see each other. And i think the family is also experiencing the precious of death. And he said. I'd like for us as a family. To know each other still. And to spend time together. And i want us to be free from debt that makes so much. The prettiest and many more reasons they decided to move into a tiny house i said it took them three years here's how they did it. The first moved into one floor of their house. Needs the rest of their house to sort thing. Anime move into two rooms. Hawaiian room. By the time they moved into their tiny house which they had designed. They had. Learned. How to live. Simple. They got clear on what mattered most and what they would bring with them. It's interesting to hear their stories. And. I spoke earlier about quatama. Siddhartha gautama. Buddha who sits under the bodhi tree. And meditate. When you meditate. He spent with the zigzagging of thought. Show that overtime. The practice of meditation. One detaches from those thoughts. And sometimes. Emerges sometimes. With an increased sense of specious. Wasn't that station since maybe even increased sense of. Clarity. Or even. Now material possessions are not. But our material possessions are bound up with all sorts of meaning. And i do think the material possessions we have in our lives. Show us something that our identity something about our stories. Sometimes we have no attachments but oftentimes we have lots of it. When i think about what that family did. Downsizing and not manner that pairing down that whittling down i think it was a moving meditation. That process. I think. Great possibility for. When we are clear about our purpose. For what towards what. We're able to make choices. Even when they're challenging. Sorting through. What we need. And what we can let go of. Material. Can renew our spirits. Renuance spiritually. I know someone who lives with. Tile. Many piles of books in there. And the person she adores. Also know someone who lives with piles of books from a previous marriage. And the book stack up and they take over his home making it near impossible for him to spread out. And do the painting. That he actually long. Anel eventually. I know this person will make a new space for the life before him. Discernment does not lend itself. To russian. But by-and-by i imagine that he will let go of those books he'll go and reclaim his own life a different one. One formed by the marriage but no longer allowing it to dominate. Future. Talking about what it means when were oriented towards a larger purpose a larger good. Not. Should i keep this ladle you know when i'm putting things my kitchen should i keep this label that my cousin gave me. But rather what would it mean to have a kitchen. With ample space for conversation. And company. Not should i keep someone's old copy of taming of the shrew. Encyclopedia from 1985. And not even i could let them go so i could paint the river at sunset. Thinking of this gentleman. But i mean the purposeful question. What will i do when i know that my. Purpose is to make. Those big kinds of purpose. I plan to speak with your little bit about permaculture this morning. But i'm going to speak only briefly about it it's yet another example would i notice people are really getting purposeful about their choices. And permacultura spell many of you probably do know. and if you know something about permaculture. That's why i don't need to sleep. About it i know that many of you are experts in this. But permaculture is that term that was coined in 1978 by david holmgren and bill mollison. The basically is a philosophy of working with rather than against me. Instead of thoughtless labor getting the clear about how to labor. In ways that are efficient. And. Kindred with the natural way of things grow. The tiny house movement permaculture are just fine example. Of the ways that people are organizing. Lifestyles by choice aligned with purpose. I want to ask you now to consider. What is your purpose. What's your. I invite you to think on this. See where it takes. As unitarian universalist onerous. Deterrent worth and dignity of every person interconnect. Web of life in the individual search for truth and meaning. The whole purpose. Purposefulness question. Huge and it's why i think that rick warren isn't evangelical baptist for years for whole decade the purpose driven life. Was on the best-seller list. Rick warren and i probably share a little. In terms of our. Theological stance. Rick warren purpose driven life will tell you your life is to fulfill god's purpose for you and god is the master and has it all planned out. What you need to do is follow. A series of steps. As a unitarian universalist i might not share his conception. That god is mastermind and it's figured it all out and you just follow the steps that rick warren. Download it. For you. But many people are gravitating towards the someone what i want to say with a lot of respect of what i do agree with rick for not on. Is purpose. In guiding our choices. The popularity of that book tells me that people are longing for purpose. As unitarian universalist. The process who design. The purpose is really important. You. To look at poop. Later this year you're going to care a lot more about this but is a congregation. We're going to be re articulating our purpose together. The process of participating in mission and visiting and. Covenant and conversation you're going to get here. What you hope are articulated purpose and that we might guide us forward and the decisions we make as a collective. For years to come. It's going to be fun. You're going to be hearing a lot more. For today. I want to leave you with a thought that when we get clear that are. We can be powerful more. And we can also feel an abiding sense of peace. And gratefulness when we're online and living. Guided by that sounds. May you live. For purpose. May this be so. Blessed be. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

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130428_tales-one.mp3

Welcome to the april 28th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. Today sermon. Delivered by rev alex. Is titled. Tails to curl your hair. Part 1. Lisa was kind enough our administrator was kind enough to either call me or text me or email me i forgot which it was. At some point this week to warn me on this particular sunday. But there was only going to be 30 seconds to review the sermon. Between when we got through with one thing and started another so that being said. Let me tell you that what i want to do on this. Sunday as i begin the work of closing with you. 1rm from together. I want if i can too. Articulate what it is that i'm going to be telling unitarian universalist for and why. About some of your greatest gift. Okay. Cuz you are a tremendous gift and i think in. Significant. Amounts of time. You're not fully aware of just how wonderful and get that you are so i'm going to do something this morning to give you some macro perspective on your gift. And next sunday i'm going to speak to some of the micro perspective of your gift. But what i want to do is to begin this tale of your great gifts. Macro view. But telling you reminding you. That before you called rezadeira to be your settled minister. Your search committee. Took on information. From god knows how many other candidates. And we don't want to know. But there were a boatload of them i took many telephone calls from people who would call me and go. I'm interested in being your successor in blacksburg. Tell me about the congregation. And as a colleague to all of these people other than rev darrell who was interested in becoming more settled minister. I was very much aware through the whole search process. Of how canada door interested person after interested person. Would fall off the screen. Your search committee very appropriately and in perfect synergy with our process for calling a minister. Had to set boundaries. Don't you like it that i use that word so often. Around who might work really well and who wouldn't. And so this winnowing process played out over. A long. of time. Until you lived in the wonder of your new settled repterra. But. Trailing along behind rezadeira unbeknownst to you and appropriately so. We're all of these other people. Who would want to be part of what you are. And didn't get to be part of what you are. As someone who's been through that process seven different time. For various positions that i've held including the central position that i hold with you you realize you had an infant search committee that ran me through the rigors. Before i got to work with you. I often times gather. With colleagues to talk about how the whole process is going. And while rivera was here with you. I went down to. Simple north carolina to be with my colleague who serves our largest congregation in smithfield north carolina. And we were talking not only about colleagues who had not been able to make the cut for various congregations that were in search. We were also talking about colleagues who have fallen by the wayside. Some of you may have already heard me say that. Roughly 90% of all people who aspire to unitarian universalist ministry never get to do it. 30 fall by the wayside 50% before they ever get through with ordination. And then 80% of the people who actually make it into the field fall away in a matter of years. Only a limited number of people who actually have the privilege of doing work. And while i was with this colleague in north carolina thank you so much jay. That's good. And we were talking about how difficult this is for people. Deb my colleague him i was talking with deb karhus ursino river unitarian universal. Fellowship in durham. Deb says to me without uttering a word. Barilla restaurant in she just started doing this not said why are you doing that. And she says well we all need to remember this do it with me. And dad said. I never forget. I'm somewhere on this trajectory. And i'm either trending towards something that is poignant. And sweet and easy. Or i'm trending towards something that is difficult and hard. And not necessarily feeling good to me. And she says. In all of my time and reading sufi literature. I don't know why she's been reading all the sufi literature. But she said i have learned evermore. Bed and everything that comes in my life i need to remember. That it is on this trajectory that i travel. Symbol for infinity. And it always is full of polarity. Sweet. Ambetter. And she said i know now because of all of the both that i have experienced in my life. That i want no matter what i'm feeling. Down at the core of my being. To be centered. And we use that language loosely in this place all of the time. But this morning when i'm celebrating some of your gift. I want to talk for a moment about how important it is to have a congregational understanding. Of what it is to hold center. Because deb was right in saying that all of us individually and collectively. Travel along a path. Represented well by this infinity symbol. That is full of the bitter. Are the easy and the better. And all we can do in our best moments is to stay centered in the experience of it all. Deb and i kept talking about all of this. And i was reminded of study of rudolph auto how many of you know anything about rudolph auto. Oh only one or two of you who have been to seminary know about rudolph auto. Rudolph auto is this theologian. German of the early 20th century. And he wrote of how it is that all of us have to go through and he used latin. The experience of the mysterious. Tara tara tara dumbass fasteners. And pardon my brutalizing the latin. But it was. In english the fearful and fascinating mystery. And rudolph auto said that any life lived fully. Move people into the experience of what he called the numinous have any of you heard that word i've used it in one other sermon with you here. And he said in the experience of the numinous. What you at first is thinking is going to be very sweet and easy and lovely. All the sudden will fill you with. Terror. Step2 and then on the other side of the terror you will move into the place. A feeling. Fearful fascination with that with which you. Encountered. So auto a three-step process. Attracted to something. Been full of fear as a result of the attraction to what you've gotten into. And then all the other side of the fear a fearful fascination. An auto postulated. The people. Choose whether or not they're going to be open to that. When john said to our teenagers just a moment ago that they could choose to live on autopilot. He was talkin. Contemporary terms. About what it is that rudolph auto was speculating many people would choose to do. Rather than to fall in love with something only to be terrified of it. Only to have to live in fear full appreciation of it. Yesterday. In charlotte where i was. We had the meeting. Of the southeast district of the unitarian universal. Association. Congregation. No at this meeting we had present to give our keynote. Gene puppy my colleague who serves our big congregation in richmond several of you had her as a senior minister. Before coming here tiffany did. And we also had. Our wonderful my wonderful colleague who serves our congregation over in oak ridge tennessee. And their charge to those assembled and there were only a hundred of us there. Where to speak to us. About harriet is that the association of congregations is right now. And if you have not heard. The association of unitarian universalist congregation in this land. Is it a very frightening and difficult place. We are on the verge of selling all of our property up on beacon hill in boston we're moving into leased space and another part of boston. We are retracting our services that are available to congregations across the land. Moving from district service to regional service. We are pairing pairing pairing. As we face economic realities that are more challenging than anything that we've known. In the last 50 plus years. One of the points that was put before everyone in yesterday's presentation was that we are smaller. An adult membership than we were ten years ago. And we are significantly smaller in adult and children. Population now than we were 50 years ago. It is one terrifying. Fact it's been put before us woman after moment. And the reason that these things were put before us yesterday. Was to remind us all that it is in the place of terror. In the place of not being sure what it is that we can do next. That we may well find the answer to the challenge. Before us. But always if we avoid going into the terror we do nothing but hasten our own demise. How does that make any sense because if it did not need to repeat it. Rudolph auto and the guys who were in the pulpit yesterday. We're saying to all of us. But if you want to go to place of greater strength you must first go through the vail valley the belly of the beast. I'm mixing metaphors yea though i walk through the valley of shadow of death i will fear no evil. We have to go down into that which frightens us most. And the team that did the preaching yesterday. Said both of them sitting on our national board. Said that the three things in the way of most significant challenge that are before us right now. Are the challenges that have to do. With what it is to be part of an institution that has always prized the individual. While it has wrestled with what it is to be the collective. And i'm hearing all of this and i'm thinking to myself my god does this echo the challenge. Before. The congregation in blacksburg. Story was told yesterday of how it was that a past president of our association. Upon hearing that we were going to sell the property on beacon street said a certified letter into the current board to announce that they would be chaining themselves. To the front post. And would set their in protest to prevent the sale of the property. You know what the board did to respond to that letter. They said will bring you water but watch yourself.. Are you getting the hard you were that. The message yesterday in this gathering of folk from around the southeast region. I understood it reflective of the great strength that's with you here in blacksburg. Is that you guys get. That you're not just about the individual energy that's part of the congregation. You are much more focused on the collective energy. And to the extent that you would power the collective to the extent that you come to some understanding. Of what it is that you're about not only in your relationship with each other but also in your relationship with the entire community that's around 2. Only to that extent will you continue to fulfill. This powerful being that you so much are at this point in time. And to get into this larger state of empowerment to be ever more capable in spreading the good news of what we are to ever more people. You're going to have to do things like our nashville board did and telling that former president of the association. Will bring you a cup of water but watch yourselves the building. These are hard and frightening words for many folk. Many folk don't want to contemplate the possibility of what it is to be in conflict around any particular issue. Within a congregation. But every major boyce in philosophy and theology and unitarian universalist history that has written on the matter of growth and deepening of spirit. Has said that in order to go deeper to know ever more of what it is to be numinous. One has to get ever more comfortable. With climbing once collective voice in the face of conflict. In the face of discord and in the face of uncertainty. Now you may not realize that you're doing well in this regard. What is i someone from outside look at you in comparison to other unitarian universalist. Congregations across the land. I understand you to be extraordinary gifted in this regard already. And i'm proud to say that i understand that in the centrum that we've had together you have grown in your capacity to understand and to act on the need. To be a congregational collective voice. That doesn't always drive with every individual that's a part of what you are. Teenagers. Whom you've just celebrated for having completed their coming-of-age work. Are destined. To live in a world that is going to be full of polarized entrance. They're going to be traveling along this path that the infinite. And my hope. Those their interim minister. Who's that what you've done for them and the coming-of-age class in which they just participated. Is that you've grounded them in a theological understanding that will always bring them back to a sinner. That allows them to be good. With what the collective. On the collective behalf. It may not drive perfectly with what they are as individuals. This is what every congregation. Needs to be wrestling with within our movement. The language that was used yesterday by these two members of our national board. Is that the 80% of our congregations that are in decline that are failing. The words that were used from the pulpit and charlotte yesterday was that rome is burning. The 80% of our congregations that are failing. Are yielding and i'm quoting the language that was used yesterday from the pulpit in charlotte. They are yielding to the heckler's veto. And the heckler's veto. It always needs to be given its due. Needs to never stop the congregation in the pursuit of its mission. To be ever more powerful and ever more capable. Thank god some heckler didn't stop the construction of this building. And you know there were people who wanted this building to be stopped. Dial jane was one of them thank god you didn't listen to jane. Thank god. You didn't listen to people who didn't want to do. The our whole lives sexuality class here. Thank god that you didn't listen to one thing after another but as a collective payment to some larger wisdom some larger understanding of what needed to be done. And you did it as a whole. Despite the fact that a few people disagreed with you. You're doing this work well now folks your part of a very small slice. Unitarian universal. It's throbbing now. And you need to keep getting better at it. There are people all over this new river valley there are people in dublin where i'm living now who would love to be part of this unitarian universalist faith of ours. If only the good news were brought to them. And you have it to bring to them. It is your great charge. Portola rudolph auto. And even looks don't even talk rudolph auto let's talk wizard of oz since we had. The wizard of oz music in here this morning. The wizard of oz just a plain old goofy human being behind a curtain. Where was the courage needed to do what needed doing it was in dorothy all along. The stuff of being ever more capable in dealing with any polarities that come your way either individually. Orissa congregation. They're to be found. At your center. Nu. That's what i pointed out 150 some years ago. It is in your individual beings. When you go down into the scariest places. But you become ever more capable of doing the work of the numinous. And again i share this with you this morning. Not to try to preach you into becoming this way but to celebrate the fact that you're already there. You are a learning. Passionate considerate reflective people. And to the extent that you become ever more capable of talking about how it is that you are those ways. You can work your way through any challenge that comes down the password to. This is. Your greatest gift. It's going to serve you extraordinary well and your settlement with red dara and i look forward and all of the decades that lie had in my life. The hearing the great news of what comes out of this congregation. Towards ensuring that every soul who steps through this door here is further empowered in their pursuit of knowing the numinous in their online. Be a picture of celebration for all that you are you are a good and wonderful people. Ahmed. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting. Located in blah. Virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. At you your cnrv.

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150315_do_reason-humanism.mp3

Welcome to the march 15th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by are settled minister. Reverend arrowland. I heard sermon is titled. Reason and humanism. Her first reading this morning comes from carl sagan. Our religion old or new. But stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science. Might be able to draw forth. Reserves of reverence and awe. Hardly tapped by conventional fades. Sooner or later. Such a religion. Will emerge. Our second reading this morning comes from a unitarian universalist. Poet and thinker whose name is patrick merson from a book called we build temples. In the heart. And i want to remind folks we have a magnificent library here. Filled with meditation manuals lots of rich resources especially featuring unitarian universalist for my living tradition so. This is a library book from our own library. No read to you from this morning the second reading. We build temples. In hearts. We have seen the great cathedrals. Stone laid upon stone. Carbs in carrots for by centuries of certain hands. Seeing the slender at minarets or from dusty streets. To raise the cry of faith. To the one and only god. Seen the placid pagodas where gilded buddhas squad amid the temple bells and incense. We have seen the tumbled temples half-buried in the sands. Choked with verdant tangles sunk in. Coral seas. Old truth. Toppled. And forgotten. We have seen the waddled hut's the sweat-lodge hogan's the wheeled yurts. Any ice age caverns where unwritten worship raised it snowing voices. But here. We build temples. In our hearts. Side by side. We gather. We mixed the mortar of the scattered dust of the holiest of holies with the sacred water of the ganges. Late moorish alabaster. On the blocks of the angkor wat. And ralph's. Hewn stonehenge slabs. Plum doric columns for strength of reason square them with stern protestant planks. And illuminate all. The sharter. Jeweled windows and the beautiful. Brilliant lamps. Of science. Yes here. We build temples in the heart. Side-by-side become scavenging the ages for wisdom calling together the best we may the stones of 1,000 alters leveling all with. Doubt. Framing with. Skepticism measuring by logic sinking firm foundations into the earth as we reach. For the heavens. Here. We build temples in hearts. A temple for each heart. A village of temples. None that shading another. Connected by well-worn pants. Delts. Together alike. Unsafe. Ground. Therein lies the reading. This morning our topic and worship as i mentioned when our young ones are here. Is. Humanism. And if you looked at the top of your service order our website will see that the the service itself is called reason. And humanism. We've been together on a journey all month long exploring this theme in our worship of knowing. How do we know what we know where do we go when we don't know. Andover at the arc of the month i've been trying to have us dig a little bit into the wells that are found in our religious and spiritual tradition unitarian universalism. Looking at the sources that we have named as unitarian universalist that we'd go to. And as someone mentioned up last week following the service is all you reference all the sources and i forgot that they're inside our order of worship. So if you open up your order of worse if you can see really clearly the sources listed and of course all the sources are in our hymnal. So this morning i want us to dwell just a little bit with two more of our sources. Those two sources that we're going to be exploring together this morning are humanist teaching. Which council asked vicky the guidance of reason and the results of science and warned us against idolatries of the mind and spirit. And in the second source is words and deeds of prophetic men and women witch. Challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil. With justice compassion. And the transforming power of love. So this morning is about those two sources. Exploring them a little bit more deeper. This morning i'd like us to consider what is humanism. Any particular what is religious humanism. What does an offer us in the journey of our living what is it offered us historically as a unitarian universalist movement. Earlier we heard words by carl sagan astronomer. Any points to the notion that science itself. Baguette with another sense of awe and reverence. And it's speak more about that in just a few moments i'm aware that there are several folks it here this morning with backgrounds in the sciences. If you teach science. Maybe you're a science enthusiastic some sort. The source itself and its origin story of how the source came into unitarian. Universalism. Really houses looking at the magnificence of what science can reveal. About life itself. We might think about the assassination some folks find when they look at what is known about the human brain all the neurological connections and what we still don't know. About the human by. We might think about. Astrophysics as i know some of you have background and astrophysics. I'm we might think about what is known about magnificence of our cosmos and what remains unexplored. And so it is along with carl sagan any unitarian universalist overtime have faced. Science as a source that both affirms the journey of our lives and also invite us to question what we don't know. And so the source is about celebrating. Science itself. Right now i want to ask you what you think perhaps. John lennon. Mark twain. Kurt vonnegut. Zora neale hurston. Margaret mead. Warren buffett. Einstein and darwin. All shared. Quite a smattering of different folks. What brings them all together amato. They work at people they would have put their dollars for the humane society in the cat side. Are you going to take a shot. Will this morning i lift up all those folks because they were a humanist. There's no one way of being a humanist and that's important for us to remember this morning. But today's sermon owes a lot to them. And it also has a lot to our writer and thinker in our unitarian universalist tradition and william murray. Who is a unitarian universalist religious humanist. There's a quote from him at the top of your order of worship. And he wrote two books that i find particularly moving articulations of religious humanism. One of his books is called. Reason and reverence. And the other is called becoming more fully. In that last book he shares a very succinct and moving i think articulation. Of kim and ism he says. The purpose of humanism is to become more fully. Livwell. And to flourish as human beings. Now william murray. Who also goes by bill although i'm aware if i say bill murray you all might think very quickly of the actor. William murray. Is a longtime humanists has been active in uu and he's a contributor to what's called the religious humanist journal. Several copies of which i keep in my office and refer to from time to time. Humanism itself has played a very important role in. In our history as unitarian universalist. And unitarian-universalist have played a very strong role in humanism secular humanism that's beyond our religious and spiritual tradition. In many ways humanism itself as some of you might know who enjoy looking into this sort of thing. Humanism dates back millennia. It's actually found inside of our world religious traditions itself. It's perspective broadly speaking focuses on humanity. Human capacity the duty of human beings to livwell. And to promote the well-being of others. As i said there's no 2 no two people have the same version of humanism. Star fox that has a theistic sense of humanism. And they're also folks that have a non-theist expense of humanism. The folks that would identify themselves as a secular humanist. And there are folks who would identify themselves as religious. Going to spend a little bit more time this morning on religious humanism because it comes out at and infuses are religious and spiritual tradition of unitarian universalist. Most broadly speaking today's modern humanism encompasses both the secular and religious version. And call this a life stamps humanism is a life stamps. And these are words from the american humanist association. Humanism is a progressive life. Champs. That without supernaturalism affirms our ability and responsibility. To live meaningful africa live. Capable of adding to the greater good. Of humanity. That's from the american humanist association. They're not officially connected to unitarian universalism. But in our tradition many of the one of the first president early presidents of that organization. Was a unitarian. And in that articulation from the american humanist association you can see that their articulation. Define humanism. As a life dance without supernatural. Lipstick into this just a little bit further. And this morning i want to recognize that there are many ways. Journeying as a spiritual and religious person. I'm aware that we are a theologically diverse people he. So this morning i just want to explore with you humanism as a source in our tradition. And i welcome you to consider how does the source move you or not move you. To let us talk just a little bit more about this heritage of non-theistic. Is heritage of none theistic humanism. Rejects as i said a supernatural power. Replacing positive emphasis on human life. An indwelling human capacity. It promotes a sense of civic and social responsibility. Towards the common good. And it is in particular an outgrowth of nineteenth-century enlightenment philosophy. With its emphasis on reason. And it welcomes science as a key source for information. And for learning. Now in this non-theistic humanism. It's stamps is very much as the humanist chaplain at harvard university some of you might know there was a humanist chaplain at harvard university and others might become surprised. To know. I think it's pretty neat. And that person's name is greg epstein. And now the stamps of non-theistic humanism. Is is as he says. To be good without god. To be good without god. End. As i sat with his information and read his book called good without god i want to stay it's not a snarky. As it might sound. Because when he's actually doing is talking about a non-theistic humanism. At allowing a space for recognising that human beings can be good. Without god. That there's a possibility that human beings are capable of being good even if we don't understand or take that it is because of a supernatural power that is trying to help us be good. We have a capacity just to be good. If we so choose if we so decide if we so orient ourselves to that way of being. Heading back the number of non-cystic secular humanist in our country is actually fairly large. And in western europe it's very very large. But there's not a lot of attention paid to the fact that non-theistic humanism actually has a tradition. I want to share with you very briefly that i was approached not too long ago by a group called the freethinkers on the campus of virginia tech. And the group of the freethinkers approached me and said we know that you're the unitarian universalist minister here in town. And we want to talk to you about our journey to have a seat at the table the interface cable at virginia tech. And i actually spent on that sit on occasion with the interfaith council at virginia tech. And i've been moved by the articulation of pluralism and the values of respectful pluralism the create sheets of welcome from fred diversity of religious and spiritual perspective there. I enjoy this meeting. But the freethinkers wanted to have a kind of an official seat at the table. And i started to meet with them and some of their leaders. I said i will help you articulate why it is that you feel like it is important to have a seat at this table. And so i met with him several times and i'll tell you that it wasn't terribly easy. To help some of the other religious leaders that sit on the interfaith council at virginia tech. To see that while it might be different. From another religious or spiritual perspective. It is still none the less theologically valid. To not be a believer. In a traditional way. But it's still a valid viewpoint to be a humanist. For example. And that cumin ism whether to find secularly or religiously has a very long history meaningful history in this country. And also that people that are traditional non-believers let's say also have spiritual and religious meaning-making sorts of needs desires to come together for communal reflection and celebration. I'm so there was some really interesting often challenging conversation. Trying to help different people who sit around that table understand that perhaps freethinkers. Have a seat at the table have something to offer. And went to connect more broadly with the students at virginia. I'm very pleased to say that as of this year the freethinkers i have a seat at that table their application has gone through and now they're part of the interphase. Some of you want to apply. Okay to do that. Our tradition unitarian-universalism over the years has actually been influenced a different junctures by folks who identify as freethinkers also folks who have been part of a society's called ethical culture. And that history is deep and rich and more than i can share with you this morning. But this morning at like us to hear just a little bit more from those in our movement who do identify as a religious humanist. When i'm packed. just a little bit more about religious humanism because some of you might be scratching your head and say what is religious. Humanism. Especially if it's non-theistic. So we're going to that in just a minute. Here are two voices of today's religious humanist that are part of uu congregation. This is from beverly earl's who writes. Humanism is a celebration. And a promise. It celebrates the integrity of human reason responsibility and compassion. It promotes a satisfying lifestyle that can be counted on. No more depreciation of the human condition rather an opportunity to remain true to ourselves by having both feet in this world. Responding to the challenges of existence with excitement. And with pragmatic service to others. Humanism is a religion come of age. At long last we humans can live dignified lives. Finite creatures that we may be. At long last men and women and children can find ultimate fulfillment by bringing out the best in humanity. For the sake of. That was one person's articulation who self describes as a religious humanist inside of unitarian universalist. Here's another person's articulation. Yes humanism can be religious. Indeed it is the most meaningful and livable kind of humanism. Isn't itself a religious way of understanding and living life. It offers a view of people and their place in the universe that is a religious philosophy. Overarching and undergirding it all there can be a hunting sense of wonder which never ends. And never leaves someone. For whom life itself is both mystery and miracle. Where did we come from why are we here. Where are we going with all this effort frustration grief and joy. To be caught up in the sons of wider relatedness. Since our being connected in our lives with all who dwell in the world. Is the heart dimension of my religion. Whatever be its name. And that's from peter samsung who writes can humanism be real. So i thought i'd say just a few more words about religious humanism. And what i want to say about that is. These days it's not hard to find a work by it folks they're generally called the new atheists. Some of you might know who those new atheist r&b inspired perhaps by their vision. Of what it means to be a human being without a sense of theism. Those particular new atheists are also pretty controversial because a lot of their writing tends to be about dismantling concepts of god they're deeply concerned with the harm the concept of god have brought over the course of human history. Bill murray william murray. Says that his deepest concern as a religious humanist. Is actually it particularly that non-theistic humanists. Not only dwell in the space of. And saying what they don't. But actually spent quite a bit more time talking about what they do affirm. And for william murray he says this is an exciting time. This is an exciting time in our world and in our us history. For religious humanism. Because essentially he says religious humanism. Has to do with understanding human humanism. As a space that allows. Come together for celebrations and hope. Question with one another to grow with. And he also says that whether you're a theist non-theist or you're not sure about the language or doesn't really matter to you. There's a sense of natural order and the magnificence and promise. Natural order that can inspire one's spiritual life. And if that undergirds our religious humanism today in unitarian universalist. That is that religious humanism brings together people who are inspired by nature. And by natural law and who place their emphasis on human life in the here and human life in the now. And who affirm the scientific method. But not but not in such a way that idolizes scientific inquiry and methodology alone. If you look into the history of humanism there were three important documents the humanist manifesto 1. The humanist manifesto 2 and the humanist manifesto three witches called humanism and it's. Aspirations. The very first document humanist manifesto 1 was written in 1933. And in that articulation there a lot of unitarian universalist ministers. There were 33 signatories. And basically in 1933 those people got together and their perspective was. We are not pleased with the way religion is being wielded as a weapon. We are reacting against that reality and we are prioritizing human life. We are saying that scientific methods need to help shape the way we problem-solve in the world. The language of the 1933 document. Is very much kind of onward and upward forever. With science and reason we can do so much let's go humanity that's kind of the spirit of the 1933. Its signatories were all. White. Men. Then in nine at 1973. 40 years for the second humanist manifesto. And there's a lot of folks that signs that one and its language had changed. In that document first of all the language was embracing a both men and women. And there was a recognition following the horrors of of the holocaust. Spy 1973. The earlier signers of the humanist manifesto said let us try again. We will say that we need to be. We need to have a check. On our human hubris we need to deal with cassius for harm and for good that are part of our human living in the world. And it was a little more nuanced. Grappling with what does it mean that perhaps human beings aren't just capable of good. But rather capable of harming each other two. And then the lesson 1973 that second document called out a positive vision. Positive vision about religion a positive vision about ethics a positive vision for world community and coming together for the common good. The, camby. The humanist manifesto 3. Came out in 2003. And it was a six-point articulation much more slim. Any other. And it basically said. That. The emphasis still was on human beings and doing good in the world together. But there was also on an awareness and an embrace of human emotion. And the fullness of life. Some of the earlier critiques lodged at those first two humanist manifestors have been it sounds really cold. It sounds like human beings are just being thrown back on themselves. And it doesn't really sound like there's room for human hearts and emotion. So they can minutes manifesto to did a little bit better job than by 2003 if you decide to read it which i encourage you to do so appreciate. You'll read that it embraces compassion. And science. But also says that reason and scientific inquiry also needs to be tempered with a sense of humility. For all that we don't yet know. As i said twice already there's no one way no one flavor of humanism there are many flavors of humanism. But the stance of humanism. Is that we can. Choose good. And. That it matters. How can humanists change the world. The answer that humanism provides is with our head and our hearts and our hands. And so it is that we go back to source that second source that i said this morning we would just touch on. Which is the prophetic deeds of men and women who have come before. Who acted in a way compelling us forward. The transforming power of love. Earlier this morning i asked you to consider along with their young ones a human being that's made a difference in your life. Again i want to return you to that. If you will. Just think for a moment about someone who inspires you. Why do they inspire you. What qualities. Do they share and bring to the world. Let us celebrate. As we wind to conclusion this morning i want to share with you. I rather humanist. Poem. By nancy schaefer another one of our uu thinkers. And maybe you can listen for why it is i would include this in a service about humanism before. A blessing for bodies. May we creatures of bone and tissue. No our bodies well. The 4th rib and how it rises. Higher than third not so high as fifth. How it feels to the thumb slowly traced and under it how the heart wrapped. May we know that space where no ribs lie unshielded. We bend. May we know the bottom of each toe. And that tender arch where no skin touches ground. Also skin smooth by soft clothing. May we know the quick curve of the head before it sits on the spine. And the tiny hollow just behind the ear. The length of the forearm lifting food to lips and how lips become a circle. Waiting. And knowing this. Cease our study. For all that is possible when we lift forward the greatest of who we can be. Poor recognition of our abilities to do great harm to each other but also our abilities to reconcile. To forgive. Grow. Yelp. And transform the world with axe large and small. For all of these i give great thanks this morning. May each one of you wrestle with. And consider the power of humanism. And what that might mean or give you in your lives. For the treasure of the legacies of humanism in our living religious tradition. I give thanks and celebration. Amen and blessed. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. Uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

141207_do_simplicity.mp3

Welcome to the december 7th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by are settled minister. Reverend aaron. Enter sermon is titled. Simple things are holy. Unwrapping the gift of the present. We have two readings this morning and the first reading. It's from a poem by mary oliver. Called when i am among the trees. When i am among the trees. Especially the willows and the honey locust. Equally the beach. The oaks and the pines. They give off such a hint. Of gladness. I would almost say that they save me. Daily. I am so distant from the hope of myself and which i have goodness and discernment and never hurry through the world. But walk slowly. And how often. Around me the trees sister and their leaves and call out. Stay awhile. The light flows from their branches. And they call again. It's simple. They say. And you two have come into the world to do this. To go easy. To be filled with light. And to shine. Our second reading today is from henry david thoreau who like poet mary oliver spends a great deal of time. Outdoors. This is an excerpt. He writes i do believe in simplicity. So. Simplify the problem of life. Distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth. See where you are mean. Roots. Run. That's in the readings for this morning. The title of our services morning is. Simple things. Simple things are holy. Unwrapping. The gift. Of the present. So i'll tell you that in preparation for the service. I've been listening myself i've been listening trying to listen. Very deeply. For the holy. In simple things. What is that mean the holy in. Simple things i've. Asked us to talk about this i said it out to talk about with you this morning but it's a question i wrestle with myself. What does it mean. The holy and simple things. Cricket means getting right down to the heart of the matter. The heart of the present moment and figuring out what is most important there in. And then. Lingering long enough right there. To be changed by it. Let me know life delivers are really mixed bag. We got choices we've got sorrows some of which we voice right here in the sanctuary on sunday mornings. I'm wondering if we just might listen all month long. To wear the holy and the sacred by which i mean that which is most meaningful. Connects us to that which is larger. Where does the holy show itself reveal itself. A little simple things. I'm the first one to tell you i don't think this is easy. You think we can remember to look around and name these things as blessings were secretive or perhaps holy if that's your language. And then we really forget about it. It's okay i think that's very common. It's funny because the poet mary oliver reminds us of the sweet relief that can come when we do fine. The chuyen simple things the sacred and simple things. And we heard this morning or poem i think. The wisdom that she offers in that poem can be boiled down simply. To this. Walk. Slowly. Bow. Often. I love these words lock. Slowly. Val. Often. And you know. Just like talking about simplicity those words sound pretty simple. But i also think they're fairly hard to do in our lives. So this morning i want to walk slowly into talking about simplicity and i want to bow wow often. The complex relationship that we might have with simplicity itself in our lives. It's a really funny thing about talking about simplicity cuz it gets complicated really fast. I know that some people when they hear simplicity they think all that sounds really good and then the mind starts working and it goes something like this i really. Ought to find the simple things in life. I really must find the sacred and special things about simple things and there's endless loop right of trying so hard. And there we are trapped. And some other cycle. That is not a cycle that is not experience i really being present. The gift of simplicity and how they can renew us for the journey of living. So. If you identify with that in any way. I want to liberate you this morning from that idea. Good. I'd like to free us up from trying so very hard to find a simple in the hole in life. And truth be told it roll it requires us to do a little unpacking a little unwrapping a little bit of unraveling our typical thoughts and are attempting to grab onto and get it right in order to access. What is truly simple and a sacred in the simple in our lives. So. How do we figure out. What really matters. How do we access. The sacred in the simple thing. Earlier together when we sang the children out we sang a hymn it's a shaker hymn. And it's. Tis a gift to be simple. It's a pretty simple song to sing which is good. And it can make us think okay it's pretty simple but of course we know it's not. Always simple. Time to locate the gift. The thing that's interesting to me about the song is it that in shaker communities it's actually a dancing song. We sing it today it's kind of meditative sweet song and that's good. And it was and it was a sweet song when shaker communities think they would dance. They would turn around and there's a line in there by turning turning we come around right. I think there's wisdom for us this morning in that song and knowing that it was a dance tune. For sometimes we have to turn things around. Turn them around in our hearts and mind to get right down to the simplicity. On the other side. Wonder if any of you have heard that phrase before that added simplicity. On the other side. Anyone heard that before. Okay just just a few folks. So i was in seminary studying with the reverend. Rev dr. rebecca parker was president of starr king school for the ministry. And i had the exquisite blessing to work with her closely as a teaching assistant for 2 years when i was studying to become a minister. And she said one day what were searching for. Dara is the simplicity on the other side of complexity. And it stopped me in my tracks. What is that. What is that. And that line that added can actually be traced to a quote. And that poops actually printed on your order of service. If you flip open to it. It's by oliver wendell holmes senior i'm and it says for the simplicity. On this side of complexity. I wouldn't give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity complexity. For that i would give you anything. That i have. So what does that mean. Let them practice a little bit. The easiest way i know to describe it as to give a pretty simple example. Let's look at a really big thorny instrumental streaming problem. Like. World hunger. Problem. There are starving people all across. The world's the globe. That's the problem. So. A simple answer is. Feed everyone. Right. But what's the problem with that answer. Too simplistic. Because what doesn't it take into account. All of the complexities right. Geopolitics political will. Economic injustice right all those thorny monkey nessy considerations that's the complexity. At the end of that equation on the other side of complexity. The answer is still. Cheap people. But it becomes more nuanced. More meaningful more deep authentic and true. Having walked through all the messy consideration. Are you with me a little bit on this. Simplicity on the far side of complexity. First when i was working with rev dr parker and she was talking about. We're looking for the simplicity on the other side of complexity. I got okay i'm i'm trying to get my mind around this and the task at hand that i was working with her on which develops foundational question for a course that was required of all the folks entering the seminary who would become ministers. We had to ask for really important question. Reverend doctor parker and i would take a really long time. Developing these questions. And i remember thinking you know i have papers to write and emails to send and if i'm really lucky i have an app to take if i can squeeze it in and these are really smart people coming in the doors so let's just ask them what did you think of the material. Adam and see what happens. But we were searching for some elegant. Questions. That would inspire people to have the kind of dialogue that they've never had before in their lives. It's a very rarely it was the first couple questions that came to mind. Rather we had to talk about the complexity of who was in the room what was the purpose of the class and actually move through some intense conversations to get to some really elegant questions that we would ask the incoming students. Process the reason i share it with you this morning is that i learned from her and in that. The distilling thing. Is a spiritual pride. It takes some time. It take some careful listening to get down to the heart of the matter. We can dance on one side. In a simplistic. We can find simple joys. But there's a richness when we journey through the land of complexity. And arrive. On the other side. So this morning and all month long and asking you to look in your lives for simple things. Appreciate the simple joys but if we're going to do this lies stop there. Let us try to be bold and courageous and journey through the complexity of our lives. To arrive at the simplicity. That might be waiting for us when we face the complexity. In the daodejing which is a classic chinese text from the 6th century. There's some wisdom in it says. Simplicity patience. Compassion. These are your three greatest treasures. Simple and actions and thoughts. You returned to the store. Of all being. Sounds very nice. Again. Thank you daddy chang. For this. But the question is also. How do we get there. How to take. Does chinese classical text and wisdom seriously to take mary oliver seriously to take the quicker song that we sang together seriously. We're going to have to dig a little bit. We have to go inside and listen as i've said. Until this morning i want to share with you a spiritual practice. Pretty simple one that i hope might help you. As you move through the complexity of your life listening. For the sacred for the most. And it goes like this all it requires is our voices. So. It goes like this i'm going to sing it for you once and then we'll do it together. It's a chance. Panicos. Dear friends dear friends. Take your time go slowly. Bluefin deep inside yourself. Simple things are holy. Dear friend dear friend take your time go slow. Simple things. I'll let us do this again. Who invite you to say it. To yourself. With your name. Don't fear because everyone else will be doing this to. So instead of dear friends i would say. Dear dara. Ella would say. Fiorella. Chris would say dear chris and so on so let's do this now. Sing it twerk song. And let me tell you one more thing we can skip the deer. Dear and we can have a deer and endearing quality as we say to ourselves a gentle caring careful quality for self okay let us do this together. Take your time. One more time to yourself. Let us make a practice of listening deep inside ourselves. For that which we. No to be holy. Hear the crying of a babe downstairs. As i mentioned to you. When i began. I myself as i come before you and talk to you about since listing finding the sacred in the hoellein and simple things. I've been trying to listen i've been trying to bow and to bend myself to turn into turn things around. To listen. For the holy and simple things. Who is sherry with you my journey from the simplicity on one side for the complexity to the simplicity on the pharcyde. A few nights ago last week it was i found myself walking slowly and ballon deeply into a particular experience. And that experience was that i happen to have the opportunity to lay at the bottom. Of the student center on campus at virginia tech. With about 70 people. We lay down quietly for 4.5 minutes. I'd shown up for the peaceful demonstration that was organized by the virginia tech n-double-acp. And as you know. The recent grand jury indictment of darren wilson for the shooting of the unarmed black american michael brown has garnered a lot of media attention. But the peaceful movement for racial justice now a foot in this country today. Is i think not just about michael brown. Rather it's about the ways in which systemic racism. Play out in pretty princess ways. Waze at target from people for the color of their skin. The ways that racism operates our country. And our institutions is bad for everyone's health. Bad for black and brown americans is bad for everybody. Because racial profiling proved deadly not just for those who died unarmed but it can also prove. Dangerous for police officers to. We have a climate of fear that gets created which is incredibly toxic. And with this culture of violence all life is at risk. This is why i. Thought i went. To go to this demonstration called by the virginia tech and a lacy p. Took some moment of silence was i said four and a half minutes to be exact. That time represented the time it took. The four and a half hours at took. For the police to remove michael brown's body from the pavement. I'm in his neighborhood. And i'll tell you that silence that 4.5 minutes of silence even though i'ma meditator. It's out really long. And i started to think a lot. And i started to think about why i was really. On the ground. I thought about all of us limebear. Black and white brown and asian-americans. Being really vulnerable. Next to each other. Not a person speaking. Another person was looking at their phone. What really caused so many people they verse and ethnicity and race and age. To bear this kind of silence together. To be physically lying down. On the ground. It must be really important. And i thought i knew what i was doing there. That night since i had time to do it. I really tried to listen closely for something i hadn't heard before. And to learn. What is holy here. Here's some more of the complexity that entered my mind. I was trying to probe the earth for the route. Which throw asks us to do. And i noticed cuz i open my eyes i'll be honest i open my eyes i noticed that there were lights twinkling and some christmas trees that had been set up and there were garland woven throughout the banisters. I thought yeah it's christmas season isn't it. And then i was reminded of prophets like jesus and dr. king. And the spiritual mentor to rev dr king who is rev dr. howard thurman. He wrote a book called the search for common ground. Ground. I'm on the ground. And then i started thinking about our principles in our purposes as unitarian universalist. We talked about the worth and dignity of all people. We talked about the interconnected web of all life. And i knew that had. Something to do with what called me to lie down on the ground. I was getting some there somewhere i was getting closer to the route. I was thinking some more what does my face what does my unitarian universalist values. What are these require at me. What does life require of me what is love. Call me out to do right now. Is it really cold and rainy night. And i'm it was pretty inconvenient for me to be out there. Why was i here. And then cuz there was still some more time i asked it again. Why am i here. With a capital w. An existential for the question. Now we're still in the complexity here. There's a digital clock. Some of you might know that hangs right in the hallway to tell the students what time it is. And i open my eyes and i looked at the clock. But because of the glass covered of the clock what i actually saw when i opened my eyes was the image of all the bodies lying on the ground. So i close my eyes again and i went deeper. African-american brothers and sisters and cousins have poured out into the streets peacefully sang. Our lives are on the line. Our children are at risk. Peacefully they have said lay down on this floor. Do this in silence. Do this in remembrance. Be quiet. Listen. Learn. In that silence. Tell you that i thought i heard morning. And that silence i thought i heard yearning and frustration that we are the countries feel very far. And the dream that martin luther king chatsworth. Thought i felt the stoking of some collective courage. I thought i felt and i thought i heard the persistence of hope. That's what i think i heard. But those are mere words so let me try once more. To distill it. For you. To get to the simplicity on the other side of complexity i'm going to tell you what i actually heard. Not what i thought i heard. But i actually heard was this. It was the sound of heartbeat. It was a sound of my heartbeat. Next to someone else's heartbeat. And then silence. And then some more heartbeats. Why was i there. Here's a simplicity on the far side of complexity. Why was i there. Because the human heart beat. Is holy. It's really simple. Black lives matter. All lives matter. My fav called me out for a love of this world. In which there is equal opportunity and protection for all people. So that life may flourish. But the simplicity is. Human heartbeat. I could go on and on into the complexity. I call you talking about racism in the united states is really tall work. Because it challenges us so deeply. Friends i don't know how to address the systemic racism completely in this country. But here's what i do now. Even when we do not know the way. We must begin. We must take heart and courage to struggle together even when there is disagreement. Even when there is fear of conflicting ideas. We must be courageous and loving. And grow our faith enough to stay in these conversations together. When differences arise. This is the work of faith. We must go slowly. We must walk slowly. And bow. Often. Now. You might be sitting there some of you. You know reverend era. This is a real drag. I mean. Why do you need to talk about this on the sunday morning. My simple answer the simplicity on the far side of complexity. Is who would i be as you are settled minister. If i did not. If i did not talk with you about racism right now in our country. Let me share with you in conclusion winding our way to conclusion. Just a brief story that helps illuminate. What i mean when i said that. This is a very widely told story and our movement and i say that because it's found in lots of printed material. Found in a lot of ruu way on forces on the website that's the unitarian universalist association of congregations of which we are a part. It's found in a book called a chosen faith. Which is a teaching text we use sometimes here when we offer unitarian universalism and intro to unitarian universalism. Some of you might already know the story. It's a real story. Back in 1948. Most churches as you can imagine where segregated. Somewhere segregated by law and somewhere segregated just in the way people were together the social customs. And there was a congregation called the first unitarian society of chicago. And it was one of these. It was actually the neighborhood that in which a lot of african-americans lived but it was extremely white congregation in fact it was an exclusively white congregation cuz the bylaws said that you had to be a caucasian to be a member there. And some of the members got thinking they really wanted to live their values more powerfully and their principles. And their minister was really ready for this day to. They wanted to do something. And what they decided what they wanted to propose a bylaws change. They wanted to expand and make more inclusive the criteria for becoming a member i-80 have it not be related to the pigment of your skin. It was i said their minister was really on board with this and so was one member named james luther adams. Who is rather famous liberal theologian and a cyst and he taught at meadville lombard school which is one of our to unitarian universalist seminaries right across the street from the particular congregation. So like most of most ways and congregational governance. They decided the proposed bylaw change and it had to be approved. By the board. Monster board. With on-board. But there was one person that was particularly troubled. And he said you know we are a creed list religion. And your new program making desegregation. Here is a creed. You're asking everyone in our church to say they believe in desegregating or inviting or even recruiting people of color to attend church here. Isn't that something that you're forcing on us aren't you making us then have a creed. What are some numbers just don't believe this. You do remember this time everything about you segregation was itself controversial even talkin about december edition was really controversial. So what happened was this rather respectful debate. Ensued a respectful but intense debate. And like the debates we often have today everyone was convinced in their heart that their side was right and their side was true. And if the story goes they were so busy talking at each other. Trying to be heard that they did forget how to listen. Didn't walk slowly. They didn't bow often. Until went on and on and something compelled them to stay together which is important in this conversation but everyone's getting really tired. And evening was wearing on and turn into the early hours of the morning. Finally james luther adams remember that they really should be listening twice as much as they were talking. And he said something to that effect. And then he asked a question. The kind of question that is born of spiritual discernment. Return to the person with the most objections and he said. What do you suppose. Is the purpose. Agnes church. And everyone stopped. Because they have been talkin bout that. And everyone wanted to know the answer to that question. And it was likely that this person had was listening really deeply at that moment to his own heart. I've been listening to the voice of the round the table which was breaking some new awareness for him and that's a really long pause he said. Okay jim. The purpose of the church. Is to get a hold of people like me. And change them. How does this relate to our topic of simplicity on the other side of complexity. James luther adams came up with a good question. A really good question. People sat with it. After sitting a lot of complexity a member of that congregation. Came up with a pretty simple. Pretty powerful. Understanding that price everyone around that table. It brought forth some new understanding. The purpose of the church. Is to transform people. The transform lives. To transform the world. You know the word beloved community when we say it sounds really simple. But i think the story of nessie. Conversation. Patience and learning wrestling together with respect. That is the faithful and courageous journey of being. The beloved community. That we speak about. To unwrap the gifts of the present. I think we must walk slowly. I think we must bow often. I think we must listen to our own heart. And open ourselves to the possibility of change. As we enter into dialogue. With others. The season i will invite you to probe deeply into the earth in your lives. For the root of things. And not to be afraid to move through the complexity. For each step is a process. I'm growing. Blessed be. And anna. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. Uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

140713_vt_poetry.mp3

Welcome to the july 13th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today. Is our annual poetry sher. And is led by worship associate victoria taylor. The podcast begins with the readings by victoria. Which are followed by several members and friends sharing selected poems. The podcast ends with victorious closing words. Now is john f kennedy. Lamar. When power leads man towards aragon. Poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power power narrows the areas of man's concern. Poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of exist. When power corrupts. Poetry cleanses. Let the cleansing begin. Please read with me. A loaf of poetry. Find ioc kuriyama. You mix the dough of experience with the yeast of inspiration. And need it well with love. And pound it with all your might. And then leaving. Until it puffs out big with its own inner force. And then need it again. And shape it into a round form. And bacon in the oven of your heart. Now some people don't think they like poetry or don't know poetry. So i'm going to read you the words of eve merryman i've actually how to eat a poem. Don't be polite. Fight in. Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that runs down your chin. It is ready in right now. Whenever you are. You don't need a knife or fork or spoon. Or a plate or a napkin. Are you going to tablecloth. There is no core. Or stem. Or rind or pet. Or seed. Or skin to throw away. So it's those words of advice where we now going to begin our poetry sher. Do we have the list of them. People that signed out. And what i'm going to ask. To do. I will announce the first one and then when you complete your reading. If you would introduce. Person who's next. So i'd like to introduce to you our friend in congregant in pickering. Huli reading a poem by hafiz in a poem by realty. First problem is by rainer maria rilke. Poet of the early 20th century german poet of the early twenties. Called you see i want a lot. You see i want a lot. Perhaps i want everything. The darkness that comes with every infinite fall. And the shivering blazer every step up. So many live on and want nothing. Men are raised to the rank of prince. Buy the slippery he's up there light judgment. But what you love to see our faces that do work. And feel thirsty. You love most of all those who need you. Cuz they need a crowbar. Borehole. You have not growing old. And if it's not too late. To dive into your increasing depth. For the life, gives out. The second is from hafiz. What's up. He was a. Sufi mystic. Lived in the city of shiraz. In persia. In the early fourteenth century poet i just recently become acquainted with. But that very interesting one this is called great need. Out of a great need. We are holding hands. And climbing. Not loving is a letting go. Listen. The terrain around here. It's far too dangerous. The next reader will be. Please her two poems which i wrote. The first one. I think. Minneapolis. Have had dogs. Over the years some of us have had many talks. Over the years. This is about a dog. Old dog dreaming. The old dog is dreaming. His feet twitch. His side's he with effort. Small oreo martha chase. In his dream he is quicker than his quiet. Starting side-to-side he closes the gap. Until the final. And then. A mouthful of air. Disturbed. He stretches. Quivering beside the fire. I stroked his fine gray head. His open eyes see only trail. Second floor. Reminiscences of my. Trails near the banks of the river. In charleston. First virginia. It's cold season. I remember day is beside the brown river. Sleepy. Torpid days of humming heat. Of water. Floor alarm at banks. The evenings lighted with sultry star. And the brief glow of fireflies. Children chased on the sweet grass lawn. Mothering mountains darkly shaped against the night. Revive magic mountain. Making soft shutter. Holding. Secret. Sacred to the heart. In the innocence the day isn't full as an elephant's eye. I got the ring of joys. Running fast with dusty feet across the fields. Calling friend-to-friend. Testing the ties of love. I would capture that time and draught deep within. To drink from a packet sprint. And wash away the rhyme of heaters. Text patrick. The visitation. By mark doty. When i heard he'd entered the harbor and circled the war 4 days i expected the worst. Shallowater. Confusion some accident to bring the young humpback. To grieve. Don't they depend on a compass lodged in the flooded folds of the brain. Some delicate musical mechanism to navigate their true course. How many ways in our centuries late iron hours. Might we have led him to disaster. That in those days was how i'd come to see the world. Dark upon.. Any sense of spirit and embattled flames sparked against wind-driven rain. T-pain snuffed it out. I thought. This is what experience gives us. I moved carefully through my life while i waited. Enough. It wasn't that way at all. The whale exuberant proud maybe playful like the early music of beethoven. Cruised the footings for smelts clustered near the pylons in mercury flux. He. Do i have the gender right. Would negotiate the rusty halls of the portuguese fishing boats holy infant. Little marie. With what could only be read as pleasure. Kumon close then diving. Trailing on the surface big spreading circles until he preach. Thrilling us with the release of pressured breath and the bulk of his sleek young head a wet black sofa. Already barnacled with ghostly lice. And is elegant an unlikely mouth. And the marvelous afterthought of the flukes. On the way his broad flippers resembled a pair of clownfish gloves we're puppet hands. Lumen greenish white beneath the base clouded sheen. When he had consumed his pleasure of the shimmering swarm. Displeasure perhaps in his own admired performance. He swam out of the harbor into the atlantic. And the grief has seemed to me itself a dim salt suspension in which i've moved. Blind singer. Day by day. Through the wreckage barely aware of what i stumbled toward. Even though i couldn't help but look at the way this immense figure grace's the dark medium and shines so. Heaviness which is no burden to itself. What did you think that joy was some slight thing. Stephanie gilmore. Pat thank you for that mark doty. As i've just spent. Couple of weeks. Driving around in states like illinois and indiana. An iowa. Quite a bit of my driving around. Cornfield some of it looking. For the farmhouse my mother was. Born and raised in. But anyway this this is. One of my. Poets. Kooser. And it's called in the corners of fields. Something is calling to me from the corners of fields where the leftover since wire sons it's loose coils. And stones thrown out of the furrow sleep. In warm litters. Where the gray faces of old no hunting signs mutter. Into the wind. And dry horse tank spout. Fountains. Where i'm off. In. The past year. Harry by sparrows. And the lights on a post. So sure of its life. But it peaceful. And i have. This one wild turkeys. Tri-taylor. This to. Takes me back. Couple of years ago. Sonoma. Family home. Where there were wild 2. With a litter. 12 little. Anyway this is wild. Rushed to reach the dentist and scratch one more item off my list of things to do. I hurry down the porch steps. Stopping. Car door half open. As i glanced beyond the porch steps. To see not one. Or two. But 70. Forage. On the hillside. Lean. Each cup and its feather eachine like ancient scales or bark. Each going its own unruffled way. Wild bill's pickin. Who knows who. Seeds. Or insects. Except one. Preening in the sunlight. Wings flex. Open. Canary language. Clear ground. Between it and. Harm. They gabble. They dip. Each mincing. As the warming. Slowly. And some long association. Deep in the wing. In a tongue for. Which there are no words. The answer to life. Working their way upward toward the tree line. Passed the furry shadow. Pavalone cedar. Whichever way they. George lally. Robert. Fraud. Said. Poem sometimes. Begin simply with. Intuitive sprays. And that was the case with this. Probably palomar rumination. Great little miss. I woke up. Praise on my mind and. Within an hour. It's. I guess a peripatetic. Rumination or. Rumination. Come observation. If you're a facebook friend of mine. And you. Have not had the good judgment to turn off my post you probably heard it before. I seen it. It's called. Peacock meadow. Jay leno's gone. From television that is. And david letterman will call it quits next year. Each year on oscar night all the distinguish stars. A little tribute. To all the extinguisher stars. This year sid caesar made the list. That hurt. Sid took a piece of my childhood with him. By the way does anyone remember imogene coca. Still living. Jimmy carter. Mick jagger. In a playboy bunny. Turn sexy feminist. Current aging sage. Secret transit gloria. No one wants to die. We do what we can to take our minds off it. Some people get old and get religion. Some drink. Some get tattoos. I'll get an obsession. Call it a ministry if you like to build something. The meditation path passes along the top of the steel. We call it the peacock meadow. Dr. gross who told us the land used to raise peacocks here. He made lots of improvements fencing raised beds. A little fish pond. The fencing is gone. Some of it we tore down. You can still see when the fish pond was. The path turns left here and down and around. We cleared a lot of brush in this stretch. Now we're walking west along the bottom of the meadow. I spent several thousand hours in the 90s landscaping a 6000 square foot lot. And warwick rhode island. Pat's patio deck. Fencing. Flower beds. The neighbors love that yard. When i left the new owner toradol up. I've heard that after dr. gross sold the land he was in assisted living. No one seems to know if he's still living. Assisted or otherwise. Did he have children. Who knows. He was a poultry scientist who raised exotic funneh is a hobby. It must have hurt to see it all go. One is real 21 children and grandchildren. But just a photo image to great-grandchildren. The next-generation probably won't know your name unless you're. A lincoln.ri gandhi. Most young people had never heard of sid who was accorded a few seconds of tv time. Walking uphill. Nns southerly direction. The past brings us to the council circle on our right. It is 25 ft in diameter where they trust adventures. I read around a fire pit. Curiously 80% or so of our uu congregation has never set foot on what is probably 80% of our six acres. For some odd reason i'm determined to change that. Hence this path circumnavigating the property. April 17th. 2014 is the 163rd birthday. Anna garland spencer. Born in attleboro mass and 1851. If unitarian-universalist had saints. She would be mine harmony. First woman ordained as a minister in rhode island. She was the founding minister of bell street chapel in providence. She was a devoted social activist. Opponent of child labor laws. Social work educator. And prominent in the women's suffrage movement. She was the first woman associate leader of the new york ethical culture society. And was one of the founders of the n-double-acp. At her death in 1931. She was a national figure and one of the five or ten most famous women of her time. Today nobody almost. What's your name. As we passed the council circle. On your right is a small. 12 x 20 ft. Green picnic shelter. It was originally originally doctor grosses large tool shed. In an earlier effort to entice people to use these opera grounds its walls were cut down to half walls opening it up. Passing the picnic shelter we walk through a little grove of pines. To a very short would it stretch and emerge behind the rustic labyrinth. Lovingly built of field stones and milky quartz by some of our members. Continuing lawn we passed through another small wooded area and emerge on a hill. Looking out over our uuc meeting house in the mountains. Beyond. Immediately and fun of us and below. Is on memorial garden. Simple circular space. Beautifully landscaped and containing the ashes of some of our members who have died. I am bothered that people don't say die anymore. I guess that was too uncomfortable. So they started saying oh mrs. walker passed away. Then i guess away had too much bite to it. So they started saying passed on. Now they ditched the on and they simply say mr. smith passed. I find that a bit annoying i want to say. I didn't see him pass was he driving a walking did he wave. I'm working on accepting my mortality. But it's easy to get grumpy about it. Nexus did kate. Thank you george. I know that. We do this every year and i knew it was going to be a sparse group and then i thought of george. And i said i'm not convinced that this year. And. I like that i like george's poems. And i have been a member since 2007 and i don't recall. All the things that i have read since that you know from the pulpit up here. But i know that there's the wire uu coffeehouse and we do that sometime. Every year. And there's usually poetry reading at that. This poem or is a is a lyric. And it sucked called us since you've asked it was by judy it was written by judy collins. And it was a song that i pulled off of an album. By dan fogelberg. And it was played at my wedding. And it is always inspired me and i want to share it with you. This is cold since you've asked. What i'll give you since you've asked is all my time together. Take the rugged sunny days the warm and rocky weather. Take the roads that i have walked along looking for tomorrow's time. Peace of mind. As your life spills into mine. Changing with the seasons. Pulling up the world with time. Changing time to reasons. I can show you all the songs that i have never seen. To someone before. We have seen a million stars. Lying by the water. You have climbed the hills with me. To the mountain shelter. Taking off the days one by one. Setting them to breathe. In the sun. Take the lilies and the lace. From the days of childhood. All the willow winding paths. Leading up and outward. This is what i give. This is what i asked you for. Nothing more. Thank you. And roi. Final speaker well at least on the list is trisha ridgeway. Thank you. My name is tricia richway. And i'm here as a guest. With tim pickering. I'm a quaker it hard. But my sweet liver has sort of been. Sliding over towards for you use. Nn show. The great similarity between these two. Ways of being in the world. You use and quakers. It's very similar. The teachings are about being present. And. And also. Being enjoy. I'm going to read a couple of poems from office. He was born in 1320 and died in 1389. So we would have been in the thick of things back then. A sufi. Sufism being. The mystic alarm. Of islam. For many years i have used this. This. These wonderful teachings. From the sufi. Tradition. And it's so deep and my own spiritual path. This poem is called. The sun never says. Even after all this time. The sun never says to the earth. You owe me. Look. What happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky. The second poem again from hartford. It's called your mother and my mother. Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like. To see you living in better conditions. For your mother. And my mother were friends. I know the innkeeper. In this part of the universe. Get some rest tonight. Come to my verse again tomorrow. Will go speak to the friend. Together. I should not make any promises right now. But i know. If you pray. Somewhere in the world something good will happen. God wants to see more love and playfulness. In your eyes. And for that. For that is your greatest witness to him. Your soul and my soul. One set together. In the beloved room. Playing footsie. Your heart and my heart. Are very very old friends. Thank you. Has anyone else been moved to share. How is made promise that. If i read today i wouldn't read the poem about the exploding dog from last year. So. You know you won't get to hear that again. This is. Potempa curling. Haha it's always been an inspiration to me. Look at his poems and in his book i found a couple things that related to. My experience teaching english in. Granada nicaragua. And i'd like to share those. First setting. And nicaragua and grenada there's always an interior courtyard in a traditional home. So you have a piece of the wild. Right in the center. Things. It's quite beautiful. Who's called the peace of wild things. By wendell berry. When does spare for the world grows in me and i wake in the light. At the least sound. In fear of what might. Life in my children's life maybe. I go and lie down where the wood drake. Brass and his beauty on the water. And the great heron feeds. I come into the peas. A wild things. Who do not text their lives with forethought. A grave. I come into the presence of still water. And i feel above me. The day blind stars waiting for their light. Prayer time. I rest in the grace of the world. And i'm free. And then a short poem by wb yeats. Hot 57 sublime is my 50th year of experience this more than once in grenada. My 50th year. My 50th year. Had come and gone i sat. A solitary man. In a crowded london shop. An open book. An empty cup. On the marble table top. While on the shop and street i gazed. My body of a sudden blaze. And 20 minutes more less it seemed so great my happiness. But i was blessed. And could bless. Thank you. This poem speaks to my summer. To a mouse a poem by robert burns. Wee sleekit cowering tim'rous beastie what a panic's in thy breastie. Don't need no start away say hasty. We bickering brattle. I want be laid to rain in chase be with marie with murdering. Paddle. I'm truly sorry man's dominion has broken nature's social union. And justifies that ill opinion which makes he's startled. At me die poor earth-born companion and fellow mortal. I doubt now wild. Padam a fever. What then poor beastie dom on live. Adamia nicker in a thrave. Small request. I'll get a blessing with with a lame. And they're never missed. Dye weave that house e2 in rouen. It's silly. Why the winds are screwing. And navem now to a big new. Too big a new airline. Oh fudge green and bleak december's wind and suing. Babe snellen keen. Valve saw the fields laid bare and wasp. And weary winter coming fast. I'm cozy here beneath the blast. That valve sought to dwell till crash. The cruel colter pass. Out through the ice cell. That wee bit he believes and stibal has cost me money a weary nibble. Now those turned out for all that trouble but house or have. To solve the weeks with the winters sleety dribble. And cranbrook. Called. But mousy dial are no dialing improving foresight may be vain. The best laid schemes o mice and men gang aft agley. And leah's not but grief and pain for promised joy. Still. Thou art blessed compared with me. The present only touches the. Buttock i backward cast my eye. On prospect greer. And forward. Though i cannot see i guess. And fear. I think in our own hymn books we have quite a number of really nice. Poems. And this is one that speaks to me. It's called to be a viewsonic by marge purse. I want to be with people who submerged in the task. Who go into fields to harvest. And work in a row and pass the bags along. Who stand in the line and holland their places. Who are not parlor generals and field deserters. But move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out. The work of the world is common as mud. Watched it smears the hands crumbles to dust. But the thing worth doing well down has a shape that satisfies clean and evidence. Grieve. Greek. Em4us for winer oil. Hope you vases that held corn are put in museums. But you know they were made to be used. The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real. Thank you as well and thank you everyone if you shared a poem with us could you please rise so we can appropriately acknowledge your contribution. What is a palm british whisper a shower. Your sucks turned inside out. I laugh. Acai. An echo passing by. A rhythm a rhyme a moment caught in time. A star. A moon eclipse of who you are. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

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150301_do_awe.mp3

Welcome to the march 1st service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by her settled minister reverend arrowland. And her servant is titled. Mysticism. And knowledge of the heart. Because of ice and snow this is our first service since february 8th. If i were to offer. A sermon to you. About. Mysticism. About. About the path of. The heart. And the hearts knowledge. I would say very little. Rather i would invite us to. Be with those moments in which we have felt. Most exalted. Most broken open. To a larger chance of love. And of learning. I would have us sing and dance. I would have us go outside together. I would have us simply look. As i know many of you. Do. On sunday morning here. And experienced a sense of healing and connect. So i welcome in all of those things. And i'll tell you that i've still prepared a sermon for you. Here is the reading. Today. From forest read following darkness. It was as if i had never realized how lovely the world was. I lay down on my back in the warm dry moss and listen to the skylark singing. Has it mounted up from the field near the seat into the dark. Clear sky. No other music gave me the same pleasure as that passionate joyous singing. It was a kind of leaping exultant ecstasy. A bright. Flame like soundbridge icing. And itself. And then a curious experience bethell me. It was as if everything had seemed that had seemed to be eternal and around me was suddenly within me. The whole world seemed to be within me. It was within me that the trees waved their green branches. It was within me that the skylark was singing. It was within me that the hot sun shone and the shade was cool. The cloud rose in the sky and it passed in a light shower the pattern on the leaves and i felt its freshness dropping into my soul. And i felt in all my being the delicious fragrance of the earth and the grass. And the plants and the rich brown soil. I could have stopped. So this morning and worship. Top of march. We enter into a month-long theme of exploring. Knowing. Our worship theme all month long as. Knowing. How do we know what we know. How do we know what we don't know. Especially with respect to our spiritual and religious pants where is knowledge and insight found. And of course in unitarian-universalism are shared tradition we celebrate many ways of knowing. Of exploring. A filtering knowledge and information that help us to deepen and strengthen ourselves for life journey. No overall in our unit area universalist tradition we honor six sources. And you can look them up we have our principles and we have our sources. Often times i hear that the principles really draw people into unitarian-universalism. But our sources. Are also very important. And today we honor our first source. That is a very broad and deep source. Small are people familiar with the sources they say sources. Alright that's alright. Encourage you to look into it. And know that we will be spending each sunday of this month we looking into each store so that should help you a little bit. So the first source is direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder. Affirmed in all cultures which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces would create and sustain and uphold all. Life. A lot of words. But it's transcending mystery and wonder. Affirmed in all traditions. That give us a sense of openness to the forces that create and uphold all life. Now before i speak a little bit more with you this morning about this floors and how it relates to mysticism and like to share with you a little bit about a very special. Place for me. As some of you know i grew up as a teenager out in marin county california. And i grip when i was younger in new haven connecticut. So at one point we need to move my family made the move from. New haven connecticut out to the san francisco bay area. I'll tell you when i was a teenager this was an exciting and also very. Bewildering move. It was hard. To move i remember that. Not only was i in the throes of a typical teenage search for identity and community. But i was also. Grappling with this big geographic change. Connecticut and san francisco area seems like opposing poles. Of the universe. And as i started to grow into a new life and develop some new skin. I found in marin county a place that was a place i ended up loving to go and it was a place called three wells. It was a place where natural water pooled into these grooves in the earth. It was a place that children played. And it was a place where elders would walk. And young families would take their children. And yes it was even a place for a brooding self-conscious teenager. To go off. And reconnect a little bit more with herself in the world and i would think my feet into this really chilly water. After while. I would forget myself. I mean i would really forget myself. I would forget being new. To an area that was unfamiliar. I would forget all those fears and concerns whatever they were. And i would look around at this beautiful landscape. Connected to something much larger. Then my small eye. You know what the small i. The eye that turns inward. That's only focused on one's narrow. And i never failed to leave those pools those three miles without a sense of renew. When i think about the sources of our tradition are six sources i think about these deep. Pools that can refresh and renew us for the journey of our life. The coolest out to deepening awareness of our best. Selves. So this morning i want to dip our toes together a little bit in the proverbial pool. Of this first source. The source that is affirming of that direct experience of transcending mystery and wonder. Breaks us open that calls us to a sense of renewal. As unitarian universalist we are a plural people as i said we have diverse ways of honoring the sacred and the holy. The first swords called us at first to honor our own direct experiences of transcending mystery and wonder and so this morning i wonder. About your experiences. Where you have stout. Broken open to something larger than yourself. No i know for some of you. This is going to conjure up experience really quickly. Some of you will say oh yeah i felt that way when i heard a piece of music. Or i went to a particular place or was in a prayerful experience. Or meditative experience and four others are scratching your head thing. I don't know. It's okay. It's all fine. Because it is also true that this source allows us as unitarian universalist to honor and treasure and gain guidance. From the mystics. The mystics in the world religious traditions and the mysticism that's actually part of our unitarian universalist tradition so this morning i want us to think about and welcome in the gift of. The mystic. Now again for some of you the mystic or mysticism might easily conjure to mine a monk in a far-flung at cave deeply in prayer speaking to no one. Or another sort of monastic by candlelight. Scribing a direct experience from the sacred or holy. Those are some images that people frequently bring to mind when we think about mystic or mysticism. But indeed there are many varieties of mysticism and mystical experience. And if i were to put it most succinctly. I would say. That the gift of the mystic. The real gift that the mystic bring. Is honoring those experiences that open our heart. 2 l of a deep love. Of this world. And that which is larger than ourselves. From christian mystics like thomas martin and saint francis of assisi. St. teresa of avila and meister eckhart. To hindu mystics like mirabai. Kabir. Vivekananda. Muslim sufi mystics like rumi. And rabia of bassora. To the jewish mystical tradition and rabbit rabbi isaac luria. To the transcendentalist mystics who are part of our own unitarian universalist tradition. Like ralph waldo emerson and henry david thoreau. Mystics throughout all of the ages and in many distinct religious traditions. Are those that give. Voice and recognition. To the journeys of connection. That's begin with one's heart and mind. Open the 12in experience oneness. With that which is larger than oneself. They open the heart. To our hearts knowledge. But there is more. Then just the self. Alone. Whether it is by contemplatively practices like prayer or meditation or through nature. The recitation of chance or the study of sacred text. Whether it's through music and the arts. The mystic prize direct experience of an apprehension of the sacred and the holy and the universal. Now i mentioned that if i was to really speak with you about mysticism i would say. Very little. And here i am. Saying very much. I'd like to share with you these words by the poet david wyatt. Two also expresses some of the depth. Of the mystic. He writes self portrait. It doesn't interest me. If there is one god. Or if there are many gods. I want to know if you feel. A belonging. Or if you feel abandoned. If you know despair or you can see it in others. I want to know if you are prepared to live in the world. With its harsh need to change you. If you can look back and say with firm eyes this is where i stand. I want to know if you know how to melt into that fierce heat of living. Falling forward into the center of your longing i want to know. If you are willing to live day-by-day with a consequence of love. And the bitter unwanted passion. Of you were sure. I have heard. That even in that fears embrace. Even the gods speak. I've got. David wyatt reminds us that. Mysticism and mystical experiences understood as that which open our hearts towards that which is larger than ourselves. Did not. King john. Theism or non theism. There are many different flavors of mystical experiences and mystics. Reminder way to conclusion this morning i want to share with you just a little bit more about how my own. Mystic art let's say. Was opened. So i share with you a little bit earlier that when i was a teenager i would spend some time in his wells and mill valley. Losing my small narrow self by immersing my feet. Into this chilly water. And looking around. Dazzle. At the world around me. I didn't have the language for it at the time but that was a sense i think. Of what is called a natural spirituality finding and connecting to a sense of the sacred in nature. I'd like you to bear with me when i tell you just a little bit more of the story. Much later. When i was in my twenties. I found myself beside another body of water. In northern california. And it was up to the border of oregon. In a place called the lost. People know some people know the lost coast. I see some nausea recognition. The lost coast is a portion of costa is lost because highway one moves inland. And there's a piece of land on the coast that is inaccessible. By car you can only hike there. So i was out there in a course called nature and philosophy and religion. With a group of about 10 other people. And i took some time alone because i've been traveling with all these other people for quite a while. And i settled down beside another body of water. And i open my book. To a reading by rumi. And all of a sudden your congregation i will be very honest and forthcoming with you. I had a wellspring of tears. Just flat open. And so there i was in the bright sunlight reading these words by rumi and just. Crying. I thought maybe i'd spent too much time with all these people. Then i went back when it was time to have our evening meal together. And i. Didn't know if i was going to share with everyone. But then i decided to i said you know this curious thing happened to me. And i shared with them i didn't have words for what happened. Someone said well. There why don't you just share with us what you read. And so i read the poem to them in the shade of the willow grass. I read these lines. Paladin rumi. Inside water. A water wheel turns. The stars circulate with the moon. We live in the night ocean wondering what are these lights. You have said what you are. I am what i am. Your actions in my head my head here in my hands with something circling inside. I have no name. For what circles. So. I am so small. I can barely be seen. How can this great love be inside of me. Look at your eyes. They're small but they see enormous thing. Today i could give you a great many example. All of the different flavors of mystical experience theistic and non-theistic. But i won't. I will invite you again to think through. Your own experiences. And how they might have opened you. To a fleeting taste of the infinite. I invite you to delve yourself into this source. I encourage you to reflect on. See what is true for you. What knowledge of the heart you might find through this. First source. Your congregation. May you find ways to engage the teachings of the mystics. And open up the mysticism of your own abundant heart. Whatever that may mean. Let us all reach out together for a love that embraces you. That embraces me. That embraces all of us that calls us all out. To our very best self. May you find. Through this pathway knowledge that freeze you bit by bit from fear. And more and more. Moves you and our world. Took reader free. May this be so. Blessed be and. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. Uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

150719_mb_songs-stories.mp3

Welcome to the july 19th service at the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service a day is led by rev meg barnhouse. And the title of her sermon is. You are made of stars. And other songs in. The podcast begins with an introduction of reverend bag. I worship associate earl irwin. And it closes. With reverend meg's benediction. Welcome to. Unitarian universalist congregation. The new river valley. We. Send a special welcome this morning. To our death. Minister. Brevard meg barnhouse. And her wife. Tire heartwood. Reverend meg is a senior minister senior minister at first. Hearing universalist. In texas. And both of these women are multi-talented. Radford meg is also a fellow in the american association. Counselor. An author. A motivational. A columnist and a singer-songwriter. Pia is an award-winning international. Turing test. And songwriter and poet. Bear in the new river valley to. Two paid in the south. During summer unitarian universal. Summer infant. Which gathers. Virginia tech beginning this afternoon. I'd like to invite you to join me in a. Buddhist loving-kindness. Prayer or meta meditation. I'll say a line and you say it after me if you choose to. The real way to do this as a spiritual practice. Is 2. I do it the way we'll do it the first time through for six months where we say this prayer for ourselves. Then after 6 months when you have a strong foundation of compassion for yourself. Start saying it for someone you love. Then you start saying it for someone about whom you are neutral. And finally after. A year or so of this practice. You say it for someone against whom you have a resentment. Today we're going to just. Combine all of those so you can. Have you. May i be free from danger. May i be mentally happy. May i be physically happy. May i have ease. Of well-being. And now we say it for somebody we love. May you be mentally happy. May you be physically happy. Maybe free from danger. May you have ease of well-being. And now about. Someone. We are pretty neutral. You can look around and pick somebody you don't know. See how you feel differently. After saying this for the. May you be free from danger. May you be mentally happy. But you be physically happy. May you have ease of well-being. And now it's a spiritual stretch we're going to try this for someone against him we have a resentment. Important not to look around at. May you be free from danger. Maybe mentally happy. Maybe physically happy. May you have ease of well-being. I reading this morning is from the first book of i had published. Call the rock of ages at the taj mahal. It's the title story from this book. In july of 1985 i was on a bus. In the middle of india with 40 muslims hindus jews christians buddhist the moonies. We were touring the world for two months to study each other's religion. We were on our way to the taj mahal 4 hours from our hotel in new delhi. The bus was painted turquoise to ward off evil spirits and hung all over with garlands of marigolds. The day was hot the road was dusty and full of holes. I was sitting next to gary from alabama who have been raised southern baptist but was now a mooney. And we talked as the bus bumped and jolted us down the road. I love talking to people who are on the fringes of my religious experience. Hearing about exotic beliefs in strange practices is one of my favorite hobbies. The muni certainly seemed out there on the fringe to me so i had been pestering them to tell me what they believe. We had a good time questioning each other sometimes debating often laughing. Gary and i've gotten to be friends. One of the things we all did to pass the time on long bus rides was to look through each other's wallets. Perusing pictures of loved ones mocking driver's license photos. Flipping through insurance cards love notes and bank receipts. Another thing we did to pass the time on long bus and plane ride was to tell what we'd be doing this day and this hour if we were home. It was a saturday and i was telling gary that my then husband and i would be getting ready to go over to our friends house for supper. We would grill chicken eat vegetables with spinach dip. And sit in the dining room under the black velvet painting of elvis. The painting had been an anniversary gift from us. And they would hang it up on saturday nights when we came over. After supper we would move to the living room and sing hymns around the piano starting with the navy hymn about those in peril on the sea. Working up to what we called blood hymns. Blood hymn for the old-timey ones about the blood of jesus. The ones with the questionable theology. And stirring tunes that so many of us secretly love. Gary said i know about blood hymns i grew up southern baptist. We started singing. We harmonized on there's power in the blood. And there is a fountain filled with blood. And are you washed in the blood. We to find time and we got applause from the sikhs who were sitting behind us. With their long beards white turbans and curved daggers on their belts. They singing some speaks songs and we applied it. Then the buddhist monks from nepal sitting across the aisle removed. To chat. And the sound of their voices resonated through the turquoise bus making our breastbones vibrate. That hot afternoon for hours we heard russian orthodox hymns. Songs from finland. Rasta gospel from jamaica. And a spell for making yourself impervious to fire. From a witch doctor named andre who lives in suriname. With his 10 beautiful wives and 47 shield. These days when i hear about the peaceable kingdom where the lion will lie down with the lamb. When i read about the clamor of nations struggling toward peace. I think about that day. We sang are spirituals for each other. The day when christ and sheba clap for each other. And singing harmony on a dusty road. In a turquoise bus. Home with marigold. Going to talk to you this morning about. My experience of becoming unitarian universalist. I. I had a vision of how i would like the world to be i wrote that story when i was a presbyterian minister. And then i got asked to. Preach at the unitarian universalist. Church and. I heard the joys and sorrows and i have never heard anything like it in a congregation this lady got up and talked about seeing a pileated woodpecker in our backyard and i was like. This is church. And then i started reading the back of the hymnal. And i saw the the readings that were in there and i just thought i think i might have found my people. And this i think for those of us who were not. Brought up and you turn your versus congregations i think this is a common experience of. This is uu 101 i found my tribe. And i sit here and i'm accepted here and i can work on accepting other people here. So wanted to sing you a song that i wrote about that experiences. It comes from a lunch i was having with the. With a liberal ministers in spartanburg south carolina. And the four of us were sitting around the table. And randy said how you been doing meg and i said you know randy i've been thinking mango thoughts in a meatloaf town. And then i thought that's a song. Well i am so glad i found you. I was out here all alone. Couldn't find a single church. Where i could feel at home. I was just amazed to see you've been here for so long i'm grateful that you persevered. The wrote you all this song. I've been thinking mango. In a meatloaf town. The food for thought was all the same it really brought me down. Nothing on the heavenly buffet. Satisfying my appetite. Vitruvian lights. I'd sit in church just sighing. Everybody else seemed fine. With blue jell-o. In green peas. Banana pudding nothing spicy no blintzes no vietnamese. I was craving jalapenos. Just to soothe my soul. And saying unsurprising things was taking all my self-control. I am glad the talk is straight here. A lot of people or not. We've got patriots and protesters and that ain't all we got. Atheists redneck hindus. We got pagan buddhist juice. Some of us love the christian songs and. Some jazz believe the blues. Yeah i was thinking mango. In a meal of town. But now my soul is on a roll i've got you use all around. We got us a feast. For the spirit feast for the mind. Cuz we speak the truth. We walk in love we remember to be kind. And that's how the song would end. If i were a sweet and earnest minister. God knows i try. But here's the real ending. We got us a feast for the spirit beasts for the money. But in case of rapture packets natchez will be left behind. Until then. After you you 101 after you feel acceptance. What happens next what do you 201 what's the real one. Some people just get we get stuck in 101 and we like our accepted. Then what do we do y think then we start building our dream you know we start building the community that we. That we envision. Together. And. This is just a brief glimpse of a community that i envision yeah sometimes you. You're in church you hear something or you're part of something and you think. Yes we had certs. You ever feel like that and i maybe. Yes good i heard it yes thank you. You are asleep. This is from my my latest book i said my last book the other day and then i felt like i had cursed myself so my latest book called broken buddha. The story is about church i used to serve in spartanburg south carolina. I wish you were here. The church was having its monthly music jam. And the regulars were there. Doug place fiddle in his teenage son owen brought his electric guitar. Owen was in his marilyn manson t-shirt. It's usually bad or a shirt with a vintage picture of david bowie. Eddie was my age late forties plays mandolin. Other folks brought guitars and drums. Some came to sing harmony. We went around the circle taking turns starting a song and then the others would join in. Most of the folks my age were playing folk music. Since it was at my church. Cheesy songs about froggies were outlawed. And it was a kumbaya free zone. I tried to ban john denver but you have to pick your battles. We played john hiatt emmylou harris some rolling stones indigo girls appalachian sex and death song. And a couple of old gospel things. We just finished angel band and it was owens turn. Head down he fingered the strings while we waited to see what he would play. I don't know if you was feeling shy or whether his energy had just been sapped by an overdose of folk music. His dad said come on i went play that pink floyd then you were working on. I went fingers found the opening riff to wish you were here. Bumper. Sunnyside and all the wind seemed to go out of his sails and he muttered know i'll pass i guess. Don't do that ad said and started to pick out the notes on his mandolin. Owen's dad picked up the notes on the fiddle. I want head came up and he started the chords we try to figure out whether we're to jump in with. So so you think you can tell. But we came in at the wrong place. So. Owen gave an exaggerated nod to show us the beat and then he said now. Heaven from hell blue skies from pain. By the time we were finished we were gone grinning like fools. Yeah. Pink floyd on the fiddle mandolin and electric guitar. A sixteen-year-old and a 46 year-old playing a song about a feeling everybody has sometime. That's what i'm talkin about. We had church. Wish you'd been there. I think that. Really using our. Principal. As a. Spiritual practice. It's also. In like you you. 201. We tried to actually live out our principles and a lot of people maybe not a lot but some people say this to me or principles are so bland they're just a lowest-common-denominator we don't like her. Principal doesn't blah blah blah. Anyway not that i don't respect and honor what they said. And i think they're hard. And. Clarity story about how hard they are. And this is though how we build our house of love which is the next song i'm going to send you. We live we try to live our principles. And though. This is called in the bathtub between the sheets. I got a lot of church services in my time. Wearing mary jane shoes and white stockings when i was eight. In a blue coat with a velveteen color my mother had made. Sitting next to my little sister and her coat identical to mine. Try not to wiggle in the few. Making check marks as the sections of the order of service finished. And number one check pastoral prayer check. Scripture reading sermon al of checking off the sermon. My cousin add occasionally slip the transistor radio in his pocket randy earphones up through his shirt so you could barely see the wire carry music for the ballgame to azir. Big plane windows eggshell walls red carpet. I think the most exciting thing that ever happened in church. Was when the man in front of me help so still that during the service of small spider was able to spin a web. In the angle of his neck. Stretching the silk from his ear to the shoulder of his gray suit making a perfect design that was only disturbed when he shuffled his feet thing the last him. We colored in our bulletins and we look through the hymnals and we made ourselves giggle by adding between the sheets to all the hymn titles. A baptist friend says she and her friends added in the bathtub. Turn back o man between the sheets. We three kings of orient are in the bathtub. Years ago i came in to get a terry universalism a community of a free or faith. I'm home. I listen to people talk sometime about liberal religion that is this. Thin gruel waterdown please everyone are seven principles they complain or either too much like a creed or so general as to be meaningless. My experience of the principles is that they are deeply demanding. The first one asked me to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person which means that i can no longer subscribe to the cheerful calvinist doctrine of the total depravity of human nature. At first that doctrine sounds really grim but really if you were in fact starting with a totally depraved nature opportunities for self-congratulation abound. Hey i didn't october set 11 this afternoon even though money's pretty tight i'm doing well. Now it's a struggle with the worth and dignity of people who do unspeakably awful things. Where is the doctrine of total depravity made that one a no-brainer. I'm supposed to value the democratic process hearing the voice of everyone equally allowing everyone to have a say. The union principles are demanding enough to make me whine. For those who feel that they are thin gruel i have a suggestion. Let's pick something onto the end of every principle that will stop people from smiling and nodding comfortably as are red. Instead of adding in in the bathtub or between the sheets how about attaching beginning in our homes and congregation. Then we'd be faced with affirming things like the goal of peace liberty and justice for all beginning in our homes and congregation. Everyone who has raised children knows. That piece. Is often at odds with liberty. And the justice demands a disturbance of the peace. To put those three together in one principle is outrageously hopeful. To paint a picture of a whole world of peace and justice is easier than to think about it in the context of cheerios and pajamas. Car keys and cleaning up when's bedroom. Justice equity and compassion in human relations beginning in our homes and congregation. That's a sobering ideal. I don't know about you but i have sat in meetings about right relations and seen well-meaning people get testy with one another. Some of the nastiest behavior i've ever seen was at a community workshop for peace activist. Lao sze quote it in the back of our him though. Tells me that piece in the world begins with peace in the home which begins with peace in the heart. Buy start with my own heart. The demands of our principles get even heavier. Peace and compassion in my heart just us to freedom as well. Affirming the word that every person all the time not only with my words and behavior but in my secret heart. If we had it in the heart to the principles they might as well just read be jesus. Be done with it. I'm sorry even brought that heart thing up. For me the pulse point of the face is being connected to something greater than myself. Wallowing in the spirit of life love and truth. Having fair trade coffee and important congregation conversations. Standing for love standing against quibbling complaining flouncing off and being easily offended. Moving toward being in right relationship with ourselves one another in the planet. For me this faith is not a thin gruel it's not even the rich and hardy grewal. It's walnuts and bananas. Pancakes mangos arugula ginger and avocado. The feast is prepared with effort. Enjoyment. Persistence and commitment. Care to join me. And here's a gospel song i wrote for you you. About it. I would love you to think along thing like kaya's singing. Don't you don't you love you lay your burdens down and they welcome you when you come over around nobody judging you giving you disgraceful say the sweetest things right to your face never fear never fear never fear angels never fear. Thank you. So i'm always leaning on this pulpit in it. Not lina bo. Eileen like this. Alright. I feel like i said cigarette now. I don't smoke bud. Anyway. Sorry it's just that posture. Sunnyvale take you back to being 12 years old. So. The bennett meditation. That we said together. I think for me is a foundation of building a house of love. Peace. In the nation starts with. And a heart. For you to have compassion. For yourself and grow into being a compassionate person. Is the wait. Go. First. They say you're attracted to a love and compassion and then you try to follow if follow get close to love and compassion and then. As you grow you are able to be love and compassion. See what i'm saying. So thank you. Thank you for talking back to me i've. I'm going to sing the. The song i said i would sing in the sermon title now. And then we'll close with him. That that. You don't know because i wrote that one too. Is it the song called you are made. You are made of stars. You made of. I can see them in your hair. You are made of way. You are made of way it's a salty. When you're feeling tired you are made of earth. You are made of her. When you're feeling tell me who you are. Tell me who you are you made of love hope and memory are you made of scars. When you're feeling tired. Tell me who you are. Tell me who you are. So this left him you're you're welcome to stay seated. But the. The chorus is. The words of julian of norwich. Who was the christian mister. Long ago during the time of the black. And what she said was all will be well and all will be well and all manner of things will. And that has become my mantra even though at first i really argue. This song is the argument base. But here's your part should you choose to accept it. The reason i say that is that you know universalist or diagnosable as oppositional defiant. Venom. That's in the dsm-5. For those of you who know. And so. In the congregation i served in spartanburg i had an amen corner and then i hadn't or not. So i would say somebody something and pat would say amen somebody would go or not. Just made me feel good. And the way the pat my dear friend for many years gets me to read a book as he says meg you must never touch. You must never even look at it. And i know what he's doing and it still works. So you probably don't want to sing along but if you do here. Will be well. All will be well. Will be well. I said julian you are holy you are holding my hand and julian you are holy you are holding my hand and she said. Riverview. And i said julian do you not know do you not know about sorrow and and julian do you not know do you not know about pain and i said julian do you know do you not know about hunger and julian do you not know do you not know about shane she said. And message julian do you not know do you not know about loneliness and julian do you not know you're not know about disease and i said julian do you not know do you not know about cruelty i said julian it's too much. Bring me to my knee she said. She said no one does not know does not know about sorrow maggie knowing. Not know does not know about pain. And she said no one does not know does not know about hunger and i know one does not know does not she said. And she said no one does not know does not know about loneliness and no one does not know. She said no one does not know does not know about cruelty she said i know. Too much. It brought me to my knees. Where i heard all will be well i will be well. She said baby girl do you not know do you not know about tenderness and baby girl. Do you not know the end not know about friends. And she said baby girl do you not know do you not know about the spirit and she said baby girl. Do you not know. It's only love. Will be well. Remember the way of the wind. And breathe and blow. Remember the way of the fire. And sparkling glitter & glow. Remember the way of the water. And then flow. Remember the way i'll be here. And grow. Go in peace. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. At uuc an rv. org.

uucnrv_org

131117_do_fear-no-more.mp3

Welcome to the november 17th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by i settled minister. Reverend roland. Preserving is titled. Ways the heart on fear no more. The podcast begins with two readings by rev dora. Followed by a presentation by a guest speaker. Error slusher. China closes with rev doris sermon. This morning's reading. Is called a morning offering. And it's by john o'donohue. Morning offering. I blessed the night. That nourished my heart. To set the ghost of longing free. Into the flow and seizure of dream. That went to harvest from the dark. Bread for the hunger. No one sees. All that is eternal in me. Welcome the wonder. Of this day. The field of brightness it creates. Offering time for each sting. To arise and illuminate. I placed on the altar of dawn. The quiet loyalty of breath. The 10th of thought where i shelter. The wave of desire i am shore to. And all the beauty drawn to the eye. May my mind, live today. Tv invisible geography. That invites me to new frontiers. To break the dead shell of yesterday's. To risk being disturbed. And change. May i have the courage today to live the life that i would love. To postpone my dream no longer. But to do at last what i came here for. And to waste my heart. On fear. No more. The second reading is by rita nakashima brock. Interstitial integrity. Is how i improvised a self. Recognizing the diverse cultures and experiences that have made me who i am. It is how i mix a life together. Some myriads of ingredients. Interstitial refers to the places that are in between. Which are real places. Like the strong connective tissue between organs in the body that link parts. This interstitial t. Is a form of integrity. Integrity has to do with entire nest. Or having no part. Taken away. Or wanting. When i arrived here. In blacksburg as settled minister. Getting to know the area. I was initially greeted by folks. Many of whom are here today who wanted me to get to know and recognize some of the distinction challenges facing the new river valley and our town here in blacksburg. The process. Is ongoing for me. However it became clear to me early on. That given our congregations choice to become a welcoming. Congregation years ago. There was a distinct need. For me to be available. To listen to the concerns and the challenges. Facing the lgbtq community. Here in the blacksburg area. So early on i decided to explore this by deepening of the welcome. For folks who identify as lesbian gay bisexual transgender and queer in our congregation and in our community. So this today is the third and the last in a series called deepening the welcome we're we're looking together as a congregation at these issues. Undoubtedly though this is the last in a series of three the work itself the ministry to become ever more opening affirming an inclusive will continue to go on. This morning i'm going to welcome up into our pulpit aaron schlesser. A community advocate from radford university and a native of the new river valley aaron's i get your last name correct. Can you tell me how to pronounce it. Slasher. Aaron fletcher. Who's here today and it is important that we know how to pronounce each others names correctly so thank you. I met aaron recently at a pflag meeting and as some of you know blacksburg pflag group needs here in our congregation. Aaron has generously taken some of his time to share his story with us this morning. And some of the particularly exciting work that he is doing. To help transgender people. Help not to fear for lack of medical services here in blacksburg. After the service aaron will be staying with us for coffee and conversation and he'll be joining us as we screen the film i mentioned earlier the faces and facets of transgender experience. It is a film i'm particularly enthusiastic to share with his congregation as it does feature the stories of people i am delighted to have known personally. And who have moved my own heart. In my journey through ministry over the years. This morning we will light a candle for transgender day of remembrance. November 20th. We will honor those whose lives were cut short. Do to hate and fear. Violence. Yeah we will also lift up those who live vibrant authentic lives. Grounded in a deep. Hard-won sense of selfhood. A sense of selfhood mixed together for them.. Of ingredients. I offer this prayer before the lighting of the candle. Spirit of embracing love. Enter our hearts that we may learn. And we may grow. Respecting difference in diversity of human life. Let each one know. But each is valued for who we are. May each be granted the strength. Forbearance and courage to become more and more. One's true self. Let us be present together in the places of our discomfort. And annoyingness. Let us patiently persist in loving. Learning. Forgiving. Embracing. Accepting our foibles on a path to greater understanding. May we be changed by are listening to one another's deep truths. May all spirits find liberation and affirmation. Whoever you are however you come here. Bright spirits. Let us join with one another for a life without fear. And a commitment for a world where it is safe for all to behold. In the name of this great love i will like. A candle of remembrance and hope for the occasion of transgender day of remembrance. Good morning everyone. Thank you so much for having me i'm sitting down in the audience i have within. Very much impressed by the lovely view that you were brought for me this morning. Now i see that the true beauty is looking from this direction. So thank you for having me here. I usually practice mitox by saying this is my story. It's only my story. And not anyone else's. I'm so. There are other transgender individuals in the community. They don't have the same stories i do in fact none of them will. So take that with you. I was born in floyd county in 1970. As a bouncing baby girl. My parents have lived in floyd county their entire lives as had their parents and their parents and so on for six generations back. I was probably not the child they had expected. But i was a child if they were given the child that they've been trying to have for 3 years. By the time i was 4 i knew i was a boy. I knew that despite what everyone else tried to tell me. I wanted to be a boy. And yet every single day i was reminded. You are my daughter. And i love you. I knew that there were things that i wanted to do in this world like run around with my shirt off play with trucks and cars flying trees and each and every time i was told these are not things that little girls do. By the time i was in kindergarten i learned that no matter how much i wanted to play superman with my friends at recess. That little girls don't play superman. I grew up and started high school in shortly thereafter found the sadness that would eventually encompass my life. I had no understanding of what i wanted to be when i grew up. Because i had no understanding of who i could be when i grew up. All the things that i wanted to do i was told you can't do that. Because you are a girl. And girls don't do that was thanks. I like it here in my head was i'm not a girl. I'm not a girl but that is all you can see of me and that is all you can expect. That is all you want for me. But that is not all that i am. By the time i was sixteen i wanted to die. Not because i wanted to be dead. Because i wanted the pain of living to stop. There was an empty void in my heart that told me that i was nothing. I was nothing because no one could actually see me for who i was. I tried to make the best of it and just exist and i was okay. Wearing the dresses and playing the part of the dutiful daughter. I could walk the walk and talk the talk so to speak and it was like being in a play. All the time. Always acting. And it hurts. It was living a performance and trying to guess what people wanted me to be. And then being just. And nothing more. It was not. Being authentic. When i graduated college i married a man. It didn't work out. When when that ended my life was just beginning. I have relationships with women. 4:30 happy. But everytime i denied being the boy that i knew that i was i found myself slipping back into the depression. But always threatened to be the end of me. And once again. Every time. I was playing the game of living other people's ideas. Of me. But denying who i was. Two-and-a-half years ago i realized that my life as i had lived it was never going to work. The relationships were never going to work. And i would never really be happy. Unless i actively chose to accept and love the boy that i had always been. And allowed the world to meet him too. It was so amazing. The first day i gave myself a testosterone injection. I knew that within hours of that shot. I was six inches taller by voice was two octaves deeper i had body hair and facial hair on my hips were slimmer and no one noticed it. That didn't happen for a few more months the facial hair is new. But i finally had found my voice. And i found my purpose and i had an identity. And it was consistent for the first time in 40 years. With who i knew myself to be. And then i had to figure out what i was going to do with it. I looked at my life and realize that i didn't remember who it was that i wanted to be. I didn't know what i wanted to be when i grew up. I had no clue. And it took a lot of searching to go back. To all those years. Before i tried to be what everyone else has one. Everyone else wanted for me and i realized. And remember that what i wanted was to make the world a better place for other people. And to help people live healthy. Happy authentic life. That's what i always wanted. So i decided to become a social worker. The most important thing that i've learned since starting that journey is that transgender people need a voice. I'm going to be that voice. There is no reason in this world that anyone who feels that their gender is inconsistent with the sex they were born as. Should be forced to live a lie. There is no reason that we should be so stigmatized that we go through life. Hating ourselves. There is no reason. That the suicide rate for transgender individuals should be almost 50%. There is no reason. Why we should be discriminated against in our work communities. I'm medical communities. Or even our faith communities. There is just no reason. Perennial. In an attempt to be true to that person that i feel that i was created to be. I'm working on creating a medical legal resource center in southwestern virginia for lgbtq individuals. Currently i admit i'm working the hardest i'm getting resources for the transit gender portion. Not because i think the lgb portion isn't lacking to but because i think they can navigate the system as it is a little bit easier. Imagine if you will a trans man walking into a woman's clinic for a mammogram and a pap smear. Hoping to be treated with dignity and respect. A lesbian can do that. I cannot. When in reality both she and i would want the same thing. Which is to walk out with a clean bill of health. Knowing that we can continue living another year. We also need legal help. Even for just the simple things in life. Like trying to fill out forms that help us navigate. How we can travel safely. Getting our passports change so that the gender and name match. What we present to the world. Or even a driver's license so that if we get pulled over by the cops were not immediately altitude. For being something different. It's a scary world. There are no there's no actual count of how many transgender people there are in the world. The current estimate is somewhere between a quarter and 10% of the population. But it's really difficult to know. As many people try to discard the label of trans as soon as they are able to pass. They cease to be a voice for the community. I'm not sure how i feel about that. For me it isn't an option. I believe that it is my responsibility to help change the world for the transgender individuals that come after me. And that is why i'm here today. Sharing my story with you. Hoping that you can carry some portion of this story out into the world. I have been truly blessed to have a supportive and accepting people. In my life. I was blessed to have a pastor in my home church. Who is accepting although she stated her jury was still out on how she thinks about these things. But she asked me when i came out to her. What do you think god. Thanks about this. Thinking back i probably should have said well. How am i to know the mind of god. Instead my answer went something like this. I think god it's happy. That i have finally figured out. Who i am. And if chosen to embrace the life. And the gifts that were given to me. I don't believe that god makes mistakes. She does things for reasons that don't always make sense to everyone down here. He created me to be a boy. In the body of a girl. For some reason. He made my life a little more difficult than he does for most people. And he wouldn't have done that without a reason are without giving me the strength to manage the path ahead of me. So i think god is saying. It's about time. I created you to be stronger than you ever thought possible. So welcome home aaron. Welcome home. I've shared some parts of my story today and i haven't shared before. And i share them because i thought they were relevant and that the space year was safe enough to do so. There is always fear. That when sharing parts with me. Someone will decide to tell me that my story is unimportant. Are irrelevant. That i amarillo. I spent 40 years being irrelevant. Living a lie to make the lives of other people easier. Well making my life impossible. I face those people now. With integrity. And with life. Authentically lived. I do that so the people that come after me can do the same. I am aaron. And i am proud. For the first time in my life. There is no one on this earth that can take that away from me. It is my hope that by sharing my voice with you this morning. I have affected you in some positive way. And i created the opportunity for you. To help change the lives of transgender individual. Thank you very much for having me. When i was in seminary. A few pivotal things happened for me. When was that i met my husband peter. As some of you know. And another was that i encountered many new ideas. Ideas for the very first time. And one of these new ideas which was particularly new really to me. Was this idea of transitioning. Gender transitioning. In ruu movement we had several ministers who identify as transgender. Who preached openly frequently about this feature of their identity. Thereby like aaron opening doors for folks to have a deeper understanding. Of trans experience trans realities the realities that folks too. Are transgender face each and every day. I'll tell you that before seminary i need something about transgender reality. But not much. When i was a creative arts teacher and when i was a journalist before i was a minister before i found my way to seminary. I have met a few people who had let me know privately. That prior to my knowing them. They had lived for many years. As a different gender. This did not trouble me at the time. But let me admit i think i also failed likely to recognize. What does really meant. I likely failed to recognize. Power. And what was being shared with me. In seminary i developed a closer relationship a friend relationship with a colleague who was actively becoming. Courageously outspoken and actively in the process of transitioning. Gender. And that experience impressed upon me the importance of highlighting transgender welcoming spaces. Meeting spaces where communities are not fearful. Of trans people where there is a relative degree of safety so that trans folks can just like everyone else flourish with freedom of self-expression. And authenticity. It is unfortunate that as a society we have a long way to go. As we heard an errand speaking transpo case challenges in obtaining medical services. Often face a myriad of what's called microaggression. Meaning small. But not so small incidents. In which people face discrimination. Are contador disgusted face painful conversations where are denied access to community simply because of being transgender. It's easy. To get scared by what we do not understand. For those were not transgender for those who do not have someone you know or who you love is. You may have a lot of questions. The learning curve around trans issues. Maybe a steep one. For some here. In fact this was the case for the president of our unitarian universalist association bill sinkford a while back is the former president. And he wrote in a precursor and his thought to emmanuel about welcoming transgender folks in our congregation he said honestly it took him to. Significant training before he could honestly begin to understand his own inner responses. Detransition. He said that to demonstrate the example that it takes from unpacking. If this is new territory for you. When i was first getting my own consciousness raised about transgender issues i heard these words. Interstitial integrity. By rita nakashima brock we heard those words earlier this morning she's a japanese-american. Christian liberal feminist theologian. She got all that. Descriptors are important though. Because rita's work on interstitial integrity. Reminds us that being in between. We're having multiple identities shape us is not to be nowhere. It is in fact to be somewhere. This helps me and my own journey understand my own complex background is a jewish. Unitarian universalist. In today's world we have folks with very complex identities. We have folks who are multiracial multicultural identify in a multiplicity of different ways. This idea of interstitial space and in between space with integrity. Formed of many elements helped me to understand and more deeply value my own multifaceted identity. And to then understand that and embrace that and welcome not in others. Now i'm going to leave the territory of talking about transgender for a moment. To tell you very different story. Before i entered seminary before i became a minister. As many of you know i worked as a journalist and was also creative arts teacher. About 13 years ago. The time when i was a journalist. I experience what is traditionally known. As a dark knight. I'm the troll. That means a time when life presents hardship that calls one for reckon. With alternate meaning. In a way that is soul searching and life. Transforming. In the year 2000 my father in his early 50s. With no known medical factors experienced a debilitating stroke. He was in a coma for many days. And when he awoke. It was as a very changed man. He lost his abilities to read and write. And speak. Now some of you have met my father. And he has since regained many skills. We call him in my family the mayor. Because everyone knows my father. Is he has his way with people. He really does light up a room with his humor. With his genuine interest in other people. And folks tell me that no matter where we go. Often he has made a difference in their lives. Justin conversations. Justin 121 chance meetings. My call to ministry arose out of the dark and unsure days over 30 about 13 years ago. After my father's stroke at a time when i questioned. Life meaning. And its purpose. It took me several years to get to seminary but the journey did indeed in some ways begin in that hospital room. And as i'm sure days when i did not know if my father would survive. At that time i've been raised at you you. To identify generally speaking as agnostic. With atheistic. Tendencies. But i'll tell you in the dark night of the soul high suddenly had startling questions. Questions such as where is god. Where is this god. That i don't believe in. Dark night of the soul. Is a labyrinth of questions. Silence waiting. And a reckoning with fear. It was the unitarian universalist congregation in devon pennsylvania that responded to my family with karen hope. Communicating to us that we were not alone. And from that experience slowly over time my faith returned. First in the capacity for human kindness and for healing and then over the years i began myself to reconnect. With a source of mystery. And creativity. The begin to give myself. Inspiration and courage. I became a minister. To give back to the communities and to the unitarian universalist movement. And hope that i found in the congregation. Which supported my family the time of our greatest suffering are most acute need. Earlier. We heard the words. Waste your heart. On fear no more. My father stroke and my own dark night of the soul helped me realize that there is only one life. We humans are sure we are given. That our time is limited in ways we may never be. Aware of. And so there is very little time to waste and being someone other than the person who you are. So i started to listen to the deep still small voice would called me upwards and into seminarian to ministry. And now here with you. And it wasn't seminaries i mentioned that i met a colleague in the process of transitioning from life is a woman. Life is a transgender queer. Person. At the beginning i did not know as i said a lot about the issues facing trans people. But the more i listen the more i learned. And while my friend was unfolding a very distinct lifepath different from my own with different hurts and different challenges and different hope. The reason we were studying for the ministry. With clear. Waste your heart. I'm here no more. I would say that each one of us has a unique light which is true to who we are. And each one of us has a purpose one that we are journeying yet to unfold. Today we are talking about trans issues but for all of us no matter where we are on the spectrum of gender expression. I want to ask you this morning. Where in your life. Is fear. Wasting your heart. It's a real question. Not just rhetorical. May we be blessed in the name of all that is holy to waste a heart. On fear no more. Fear like hope is given in our human life. No matter of backgrounds no matter our experiences are human beings if you are human being you likely know. The dragons of fear. Fears would be down our doors the dragons that say you're not enough. He can't do it. Whatever it is. You know those dragons. They are the voice of the forest. Doreen staplers. And sometimes they breathe heavy. And our next. In buddhism judaism hinduism and many of the world religious traditions their wisdom teachings about these. Dragons and how to deal with the dragons of fear. We can invite the dragons in 40. We can learn from those dragons what they have to say. We can tell those dragons that they can come on in but they cannot run the show. They cannot run our lives. Or we could be dragon slayers. Slaying our fears with courageous action. In our culture we seem to love films and myths about slaying dragons. We all perhaps know what it's like to meet someone who seemed fearless. Or at least has not been undone by fear. We encounter such folks we remember who it is we really are. But our human light within can be bold. That we might. As translations attributed to the buddha remind us humans can be lamps unto the world. It's easy to follow a hall of mirrors. Wandering around in our lands of projection adapting. To what others or what a culture expects the best. We could name all the ways that we humans do this. People struggle with anorexia and bulimia workaholism. Perfectionism in a thousand variations thereon. All of these are attempts to live up to false cultural expectations. That can lead folks from exile. From the true inner divine light within. It can sound you know pretty fancy and heroic to be a dragon slayer. Perhaps it is. But i don't think you have to be a superhero with magical powers to slay dragons. Often that courageous action comes from listening deep within. You know. It's that still small voice. It's the voice that in the bible called jonah back out from isolation its feedback to purpose on the shore. It's the voice in the bhagavad-gita that calls argentina. Deposit speak with krishna on the battlefield when his poor poise between hard-boiled moral choices. It's the voice emerson and thoreau went to the woods to hear. At walden pond. It's the still small voice. The voice that shines that glimmers beyond fears and projections. That still small voice whispering. I wonder what it says when you listen to it. That voice. It's the dragon whisperer. Countering with a quiet gentleman owing them. It says this is true. This is you. They were talking about transgender awareness and lifting up positive trans experiences. Unless you're someone is journey through this transition or know someone who has. As i said trans issues may be fairly new. If you're sitting there with questions. Please come and view the film with us and get into some conversation. Today i want to share that we know there are many ministers our movement identify as trans people. And in our congregations are folks who are out about being trans. Or who live authentic life is trans people that choose not to be out. Their children and families grappling with how to support. Trans kids. That means children at a very early age know that they're real felt live gender identity and their physiological sex might not fit. Who they feel that they are. Within and outside of our walls we have folks facing discrimination for trying their best to live full heartedly live and yearning for spaces of acceptance and understanding without fear. Want to share with you. Another idea that's relatively new to me. This idea unlock the wisdom of our bodies to help us live more courageous lives. There is the notion of a crestfallen person. Crestfallen person. Might look like this. You might be able to make an image with your body of what it looks like and feels like. Folded within with the weight on your back. Folded in. The opposite of a crestfallen scans is the loving revolutionary stamps. Imagine what that might look. Heart open up in forward. If you practice yourself you might figure out what it takes. To the courageous loving stance of the revolutionary. It might not be fast. It might take a few steps. But the crust fall into the loving revolutionary stamps is something that we're practicing. When we live morally courageous lives. In these days it is easy to be crestfallen. But let us remember to stand up in that revolutionary stamps. For those who are claiming cowardly the freedom to be. Halala denebola narumi rights dance when you have broken open. Dance when you have torn the bandages off. Dance when you are perfectly free. May we be helpers to world where it is ever more safe for people to choose my centek. Live gender expression. Transgender day of remembrance invite us all to recall those who died for being themselves. And recommit to a world. Where we can all live full-hearted without fear. Decision. It is worthy. Of our lives. And it is good. Amman. Akshay. Blessed be. Shalom shalom. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

130224_cb_emerita.mp3

Welcome to the february 24th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. Today sermon. It's delivered by the uuc minister emeritus. Christine brownlee. And his title. What in the world is a minister america. One of my favorite readings. Is from wendell berry. I think he has so much to say to us. About our connection to. But we think of is the natural world. Failing so often to realize that we are stuck right in the middle of it we are after all creatures. And he says to us. That love. And the work of friends and lovers. Belong to the task. And health. Rest and rejoicing belong to the task. And arts great. Let tomorrow come tomorrow. Not by our will. Is the house carriage through the night. One of the things i think that. All ministers face. Is the idea that we are carrying the house. That's so much depends upon us. We. Think that ourselves and sometimes our congregants. Share that view with us. And because they share that be with us. They give us. Or some of us i should say. The great honor of telling us. As we prepare to leave. To move on to other things. That we have done. A very good job. Not perfect. Not the maybe what everyone would have liked to have seen from us at all times. But on the whole. A pretty good job. And so. As. We prepare to move into the next phase of our lives. They give us the wonderful title of minister america. Our minister emeritus. Although it's interesting to note online that is researching this term. A great debate over whether women. Should be addressed as minister and meredith because the latin. Does not really allow for that. Oh well. Get over it. I was surprised. To be given this honor. I didn't feel that my service with the congregation was long enough but apparently the 10-year mark. Now is the. I always thought 15 or 20 years you know when you were really. Hobbling along. They were telling you it's okay you're done now. Bingo hall you can relax you can rest our problems are no longer. Supposed to keep you up at night chewing your nails and wondering what on earth am i going to say on sunday. And of course the. Idea of a title have the dean emeritus or the editor-in-chief emeritus of the newspaper or magazine. Comes to us. As a way of. Bidding farewell and there are no expectations. Of how the minister amerita. Or meritus will relate to the congregation. As i. Kind of contact is some of my fellow colleagues who were. In this position. I realize that there are a variety of ways. That life goes on. Some people. Just pick up and move to the other side of the country. That is what my father-in-law the reverend robert brownlee a blessed memory. Did. He is in the minister in edmonton canada. For some fifteen years. It's very cold in edmonton. It's an oil community he had lots of things to face. And when he was named minister emeritus by his. Congregation. He moved to kelowna in british columbia where the temperatures are not so extreme and where he. Could enjoy life more. Others they close by. They may relate to the congregation. They come to services occasionally they might do a funeral or a wedding for someone who they've known for a very long time. But there is a danger. If the minister amerita. Becomes too involved with the congregation. And. The unitarian universalist ministers association in the association and the e-way have also. Giving us some guidelines. That. I think our wise. And. We should talk about a little bit. The charge of a minister amerita. Encourages congregants recognition of. He's a her change position. We are encouraged to referral request for minutes stereo services to our successor. First and foremost. We may have a part in a memorial service. We may share a few wise words about marriage no. Wedding. But on the whole. We are no longer. The main feature. And we need to know that. And we need to let our congregations know that. It is not out of a lack of caring. That we step back and step aside it is in fact. A measure of our love for the congregation. Our determination that this congregation will grow and continue and not rest on the shoulders of one particular person. And i think it's also really healthy for congregations to have a series of ministers. Because. Each of us brings our talents. Are ways of being. Incommunity with the congregation. And with the larger world. Daddy enriches the life of the congregation. That helps is to understand. What ministry is about. And how. Each of you. Ads. To the energy. The richness. Power. That is here in this room every sunday. It's important. Then. As ministers come and go. To have this continuance. Of the laity. The folks who sit in the chairs. And listen. And cogitate. And think. Maybe it's time. For something new to happen. How can we make that happen. And one way to bring newness. To any organization. Is to have a change of leadership. So. The ward. Have a status of emeritus is not only honorific. It gives the minister of place in the congregation. But it says. You're not the main show anymore. And that's a good thing. Together. Ministers and lay leaders. Need to work together to ensure that a healthy ministerial succession. Keeps the congregation. Vital. Alive. Challenged. And growing. One perk that ministers in america. Do receive. Is that we are allowed to vote. A general assembly. And that is a very important. Gift. But we have been given. I am. So pleased that alex and i have a warm and collegial. Relationship. I also know that his time with you. Coming to an end. I have no idea where you are in the search process until i. Saw the big sign on the back wall there. And i don't need to know. I haven't kept up with the newsletter. Nor will i. Until the new minister is called and has been here for several months. That doesn't mean i won't be pleased to be invited to. Speak to you again or to some special event i will. But i want to keep. A space between us. And i want to do this because it is so important for this congregation and for the new minister. That he or she be seen. By the congregation and by the larger community. As the minister for the unitarian universalist congregation of the new river valley. Now. That doesn't mean that when i leave today it'll be. Year-and-a-half before you see me again. It might. It's not a given. And. I contacted two or three of my colleagues. Who i'm fairly close to inside you know. You're the minister emeritus through america. What do you do. When the time comes that you feel you can go back into the congregation and offered something of value. Reconnecting someway with it the people. Always making sure that they know. There's a limit. And we won't cross that line. And they said well. I've got some adult education programs. After three or four years of the new ministry they might show up at the men's and women's coffee. The avoid doing so. During times of conflict because it can be so easy in these small groups to get pulled into a discussion it is really not appropriate. For the minister. Meritus to get involved in. There are times when the whole congregation is standing on thin ice and the minister emeritus opinion only adds to the way i was thinking of that last night watching that commercial. For some insurance company and there's a guy in a lying on the roof of the garage and getting heavier and heavier. I don't want to do that. I don't want to be that unseen. But. Potential. Wait. That could make everything a lot more difficult than it needs to be. My closest friend. Is the singing in the choir. But this was after an absence of eight years from the congregation she felt she could finally go back. And. The congregation had already had two ministers. One thinking a minister american do is be a sounding board. For the incoming minister but only a sounding board. And if i ever felt that. You know i just might blurt out something that will not be helpful. I hope i would have the intelligence. And the self-awareness to step back and say is i have to someone. I can't discuss this with. I don't want to get triangulated. I don't want to get sucked in. It's a terrible. Model. For relationship. So what my relationship with his congregation will be in the future was largely going to depend on the call minister. And my own sense. What is good for. Me. First. Something i don't do very well having been. The oldest child in a fairly dysfunctional family. I still struggle with my need. To take care of everybody and when harry mccoy. My dear doctor. Said to me. A couple of years ago chris i see too much stress. I thought okay harry i get the message. I don't want to go down that path again. But i also. What wood is good. For the congregation the health of the congregation the growth of the congregation. And so you have not seen me all those of you who shop at michael's every now and then. Will yes. Because i am working at michaels. I thought it's time for me to do something new. And i wanted to do something that i've had never done before. And that i was frankly scared to death of doing. I don't like dealing with money. So i became a cashier. Total immersion right into the hot pot. I have been. Teaching crochet and knitting to people who have a lot of patience. I am slogging through stephen hawking's books. Gosh i sure wish i had half his mind. Right now i'm reading about. Particles charmed particles in. Purple particles and bhai don't know anyway it just leaves me. In all. Of the people who have these remarkable minds. I am going to be interviewing tomorrow at radford university with the head of the department of philosophy and religion. And hope to teach world religions starting next fall. I am happy to be a grandmother. Something i never expected to happen i think my granddaughter was born shortly is right around the time i was leaving. They are now expecting a second child and this is a little more complicated pregnancy because they really were not. Wanting to have a second child for lots of reasons and my daughter-in-law was carrying twins and that did not work out now. And the baby that she is still carrying. Something's going on we're not quite sure so i'm waiting to hear. Then i will be going to texas at the end of march and i asked you to keep my. Son and my daughter-in-law and their precious little girl madeleine in your thoughts. It's a little hard to be in this. We don't know and i just keep thinking it'll be okay but i don't exactly know what okay is going to look like. My. Partner russell's daughter has also had a baby a little boy and we're going to go see him in april. So our lives are going down that good old path of grandparenthood. I don't think i'm going to travel to any exotic places. I'm not taking on a lot of the issues in our community right now i'm sort of in the stage of. Waiting. And. Trying to figure out. What i really want to do next. That doesn't mean that i have lost my passion for issues like marriage equality i'm very keen to see how this. Is going to come out in the next few months is as that i guess the supreme court is going to be hearing about a particular section of doma. I'm very concerned as i know everyone in this room is about the availability of firearms to people who definitely should not have them and how we. Live with that tension. In our community. For the right to bear arms. And i think frank dupont said yeah that means that i must get. That one little behind the time and it didn't go all that far. I am so glad to hear that this congregation is involved in micah's backpack i know that this is. It's hard to imagine the kids go home to a weekend of no food or no healthy food. And. Those kinds of things i think way on all of us in and we tend to be. Unaware. Of the issues that some people face. But at this moment i'm i'm reluctant to jump into too much. I need to reclaim myself after so many years of putting energy. Into the life that i lived it was so driven as i said earlier by the needs of the demands of others. And i feel that i'm very fortunate. 2. Have this time because not everybody gets this time to kind of setback. Letgo. See what rises to the top. See what surprises are yet in store for me. And now i have to tell you that. As i was preparing to leave. And the possibility of it this wonderful title was discussed with me i was reluctant. 2. Accepted. Maybe that's just part of my. You know i put everybody else first my mother used to say to me christine how can you think of yourself. But it also seemed to me that. There are so many people in this congregation. Who have given. So selflessly. So continuously. So powerfully. And yet they are never given a title. They are not they're never recognized we try i know in this congregation to do a good job of recognizing those people but. There are so many of you. Who should have. I don't know maybe a teacher at a t-shirt that says. I give my best. To the unitarian universalist congregation of the new river valley. Every chance i can. There are so many wonderful. Committed. Devoted beyond all reason people. In this congregation. That it felt to me. A little presumptuous. Because really what i was trying to do was just to follow you good example. And you were. And still are. Such an inspiration to me. The devotion. The constancy. The determination. Allah. That you have for our free faith. For this congregation for the larger community. Just shine. It has been such an honor. Simply to be apart. Of this beloved community. To go through good times and bad times. Love and anger. But always pointed at something larger. And ourselves. Because we know. We know that the world is a hurting place. For so many people. And we have the opportunity. And the privilege. To reach out. And say. We care. And we're going to do all we can. To make it better. You are also special. You all have such power. Beyond the power that any individual minister could bring to this community. You amaze me. And i love you. Thank you so much. For being who you are as individuals and together. I love you all. Thank you. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. At uuc an rv. org.

uucnrv_org

140330_do_awakening.mp3

Welcome to the march 30th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by are settled minister reverend arrowland. The title of resettlement is awakening. The podcast begins with a reflection by worship associate tomorrowland. When i learned that the liturgical theme for this month was awakening. I thought that i had the experience that might be relevant. So i am really glad and very grateful to have the chance to share another bit of myself with you today. Some of you may remember the story that i told last time i was up here. About my lightbulb aha epiphany moment that i experienced in august of 2011. While at a week-long singing retreat that i go to. My story today isn't so much a recap of that tale of awakening although i'll say enough about it to provide some contacts. Know what i have. For you today is more about the question of. Now what. So i had this experience but i thought was profound and changed everything. Whatever that means. So what did that mean. What if anything is changed. In the months and years since then. And what does that have to do with our theme of awakening. And. I want to try to assure you that as i tell my story today i intend to do it without any of the sudden startling noises. But those of you who may remember the last time i spoke up here i. B. Fathered an unfortunate improvisational impulse. I will see whether i am indeed changed. Lamb. I want to emphasize as i start though that i don't think that i am anything special. At 2 i've had an experience that i think it's worth sharing with you. And it's not just me actually that i'm referring to when i talk about this. Quality of non specialness. We hear stories about himalayan princes. Born over 2,500 years ago or jewish carpenters from 2,000 years ago. Are transcendentalist writers and their cabins in the woods. And 18. And we tend to think that these noteworthy. Historical figures have some sort of x factor. That made them the special recipients of these deep thoughts in these amazing lives. And i'm not putting myself up on their level. Alright well i might be lying a little bit. But. Only to make the following point. That what i've come to believe is that everybody. Is in fact. That awesome. That was the very nature of the epiphany that i had. Almost three years ago now that every. Person. Amite. Carries a lifetime of experience and their own personal universe. A perceptions and thoughts. And that just by being human. That gives us the chance to access these same kinds of deeply transformational. Personal experiences. As somebody like allowed to or at the. Davinci or even little old me whomever you like. My point at the core. Is. That sudden transformational awakening can happen for you. And for everyone. Depression my story. One of the questions we've asked this month is whether awakenings happen gradually. Or there's a sudden aha moment. I don't know if characterized my experience as being one of epiphany. My actual answer is yes. Both. Here's what happened and maybe you'll see what i mean. In the weeks and months. Even hears. Prior to the singing retreat that i went on three years ago. I was wrestling with my stuff. You know stuff. You've got it i've got it everyone's got those complicated aspects of your lives that are uncomfortable to try to deal with. My stuff at the time was. I thought it was a pretty good person but various things that happened over the years that made me question whether there might be something fundamentally wrong with the way i was dealing with people. Plus i was of the belief that my logic and reason alone was enough for me to understand my life experiences. And that also that also turned out to be a belief that. I couldn't use the re-examination. So in the wake of some catalyzing events. I was in the process of re-examining the roles of in the interactions between emotion and logic and my day-to-day experiences. And also reinterpreting my behavior towards others and there's towards me. So this was what was in my head this is what i was chewing on this is my frame of mind when i. 1. Went away to a retreat center what that was all about conscious awareness. Two medic couple of hundred singers whose hearts most of them were for the most part full and open. When 3 was taught by improvising singers who emphasized personal authenticity. And getting in touch with what's really going on both inside of ourselves and between ourselves and others. In hindsight is it really so surprising. The person who's busy seeking answers. Might find some an environment like that. Probably not ashore but that too but i don't lay two-to-one odds on a. So i got lucky. I had my sudden dawning of new awareness. But the weakening didn't happen in a vacuum. It was for me one of the many ways that what i was trying to process at the time. Could have worked itself out. Consider myself very lucky that it happened that way it was a beautiful mama. If you get the chance i do recommend. In the weeks and months that followed i tried to hang on to this feeling of everything is changed. But my sudden dawning of new awareness meant that there was a quantum shift in the nature of my reality. And that everything was different now. As you might expect. My friends and family. Thought that was going to fade away quickly once i came down from the high of being on a really good vacation. But in fact. There was a quantum shift that has stayed with me to this day i do feel a difference in how i view things. How have you life how have you other people. View my stuff. But i gradually started to realize that while this remains true. It doesn't mean i'm done. Lifetime ways to prevent 2. Present me with difficulties. And conversely i found new ways to have difficulties dealing with the stuff that was in my life. So you might say i just traded up my dysfunction. But then again i might just have cleared the way to notice another layer of my personal stuff. They were surprising in first those difficulties that revealed to me that my work wasn't done. The following year back at that same singing retreat. I wasn't expecting the kind of life changing epiphany that i had had the previous year. Going away for singing vacation is quite nice enough thank you very much. But my peers and teachers help me uncover. Bouncing surprises. And. They happened to be very uncomfortable on septic tank alert i'm dealing with. Security. Need for validation stuff. Or indica. And to their credit they helped me through those different. During that week they saw me through. So when i went back again this last august. I just had this attitude of. Well i don't know what this week is going to uncover. But i'm just going to keep my ears wide open for. And darned if it didn't happen. Ghin. At least it was less. But it's not all about my singing retreats. Let's i give you that impression that.. What has to go to the mountaintop to have these. Transformational experiences. Now that i'm used to it i'm more in the habit of watching. I'm listening trying to observe what the next thing that i might need to become aware of. Is. And things happen all the time now that are these little mini awakenings. It's really become my ongoing work. What do you do after you've achieved. Well let's call it a someone better. Degree of awakeness. I try to stay awake. The others. 2 mi in reality to what i'm dealing with well to what i'm not dealing with sowell. And i don't succeed at it. Not a hundred percent not any but not by any means. Popeye recommitting to the process. Or maybe just by understanding how productive and rewarding a state of being. I found this to be for myself. I find that i keep waking up to new. Awarenesses. I'd like to close by telling you the reason but i'm so passionate. About sharing this kind of message with you. And it's not because i'm a lofty and special.. Like when i said earlier. I'm not trust me. In so many ways on the same flawed person that i've been my whole life. It's because i'm convinced. These kinds. Sudden. New insights that fundamentally shift. Our lives. Or available to us all. But the kind of thing that happened. For me. Cam. Happen for you also. May. This morning i'd like to share with you a reading. The reading is a poem. It's by lisa lopes. It's called now i become myself. You keep waiting for something to happen. That thing that lifts you out of yourself. Catapult you into doing all the things you put off. The great things you're meant to do in your life. But somehow never get to. You keep waiting for the planets to shift. The new moon to bring news. The universe. To align something to give. Meanwhile the piles of papers. The laundry. The dishes. The job. It all stacks up while you keep hoping for some miracle to blast. Down upon you scattering the pile to the winds. Sometimes you lie in bed terrified of your life. Sometimes you laugh at the privilege of waking. But all the while life goes on and it's messy. Why. And then you turn 40. Or 50 or 60 and some part of you realizes you are not alone. And you find signs of this in the animal kingdom. When a snake. Sheds its skin its eyes glaze over its links under a rock. Not wanting to be touched. And when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Is the tupac is brushed it will die. And when the bird taps it's becoming really against the egg. It's because the thing is too small. Too small. And it needs to break out. This morning you heard amato share about his own wrestling with this idea of awakening and this idea that we can come into new insights by the journey of waking up. Just needs to keep on happening. And if i was going to very succinctly tell you what i would like to share with you this morning and communicate it. I would actually show you a cartoon that someone sent me last night. And that cartoon showed someone getting on a bicycle. It's starting up a hill. That just was very smooth and went like this. And at the top was the goal. And the person was getting on their bicycle and going right up to their goal. And it said. At the bottom your plan. Your plan. Straight up towards your goals. And then the next part of the cartoon showed. The word said reality. And it showed a person. Swiveling on their bike. And instead of a apply like this. It went. Reality. We know this to be true. We know this to be true when we look at our own lives. This morning we heard the story of the buddha a very succinct. Version of the buddha's story and in fact there are many stories told about buddha's life so what we heard this morning was just one. Not telling you that and i will call you to the story that there was the boy named siddhartha gautama and he left his house of comfort. He left his palace the three palaces. And he had several significant conversations each one opening up a new dimension of the world. But you hadn't been familiar with. And then of course he devotes himself to a life of spiritual seeking. Just curious if there are pathways that lead us beyond human suffering he's wondering if it's possible. To move beyond human suffering. And he comes into some realizations. For some of you the pathways of buddhism might feel particularly meaningful and resident and four others might just have some curiosity about the buddha and his teachings. So his name means enlightened one. Awake one. He's one of the very few that gets to have insight and stay. Awake. Presents now. The most of us. We don't take a journey like siddhartha gautama. We don't start from being royalty. We don't give everything up and become monks and ascetic. We don't. Practice meditation for years and years in the foothills of mountains and then go on to global sane and world-renowned for our insights in our understanding. But there are pieces of the buddha story that i that i think might be resident in relevant to us. That whole idea of moving along and unsecured personal. Journey and responding to the cues in your environment the information that you're getting. Matching out with your own yearning and your own curiosity. And then. Setting forth. On your own haphazard journey. These are all things that did. Popping and buddha story and it also happen in our own stories. Superhot. The buddhist story isn't completely unlike our own. This morning. We're talking about awakening. Which is an interesting word i think because it connotes also as sense of being asleep. Anime buddhism the idea is not just. Asleep. But a whole world of illusion. A world of distortion. The impact the ways we might be engaging with ourselves and others. And the world. I want to say that as adults. We tend to really value and steak a very important piece of our identity on our ability to know. I know what's happening. To have knowledge. So often i adult identities depend on knowing what's happening. So we can assume i think sometimes that we are already awake. Yet our shared tradition. Is unitarian universalism. Points to some interesting ideas one that knowledge is gross and gross. Is knowledge. And the idea that. Revelation. Meaning knowledge of the world and reality. Revelation is not sealed. But it's not static. That it's not done already. But rather that new information and insights. Can be ever forthcoming. That new insights and information can be waiting to break through. And affect us. And affect our lives. So i'm going to guess that given this. If we adults get really honest. About our own lives. We might be willing to stay but actually there are some things we don't know. Important things about our lives that we can actually forget. We adults sometimes can get lost. We can find ourselves numb we can find ourselves out of touch. And yet. Wake up calls. Do arrive. Wake-up calls do you arrive and they. Startled us awake. And they might arrive. In the hard things. They might arrive. In the messenger of deep and painful hardship. Like the loss of a job. Or maybe a very bad bender from drinking. In which it becomes clear that something must change something must be difference. Maybe you can think of. What time you had a wake-up call and a messenger came in the form of a very. Painful experience. That woke you up. To what really matters. And changed you. Put a wake-up call can also, course through something positive. An insight or a dream or a vision. That reminds us of our own purpose. Or communicate to us something more clear and true about life itself. And of course wake-up calls can also be less traumatic and some way less profound but no less influential for example i was talking to someone who said to me i became a vegetarian after i read a book and it changed everything for me and i realized i could live my values just by the way i was eating and that made a huge difference. For me and my family. I also talked to someone who said i grew up in a very privileged environment i didn't really know about poverty and i went to college town where someone had a big table full of fire. And on the flyers i read about sweatshop conditions. And it made me realize that in my high school we were all wearing sweatshirts and baseball hats made by child laborers and i had no idea. And that person said their perspective opened. When i went back they talked with her friend. That what they had learned these. Kinds of experiences are influential and they do change our life. And it can happen so much suddenly. Of course we know that wake-up calls like alarm bells ringing. Are but one way. They're also the slowly slowly dawning realization that come to us. But we wake up to that we forget and then our life circles back around. And we revisit. Does insights more deeply maybe getting it again and again and again throughout practice really trying to get it again. So our wake-up calls can be gentle or they can be. Rude but. Innocence each one of them is waking us up from a sense of illusion that we might have about our lives. And waking us up to widening our perspective. I think it's actually very important to honor and recognize these waking up sorts of experiences. Even if we might shy away from the trump awakening because it sounds too bold too big to you know grant. I think it's pretty important that we talked about. And honor their importance in our lives. You might have heard the story about. It's a joke really. About a man who is in a flood. And he's in a flood and. He's looking for a way out. And someone brings a boat by. And the person the boat says get in get in there's plenty of room for. For you and he says no i'm waiting for god god is going to send a miracle. You know someone you know that's and then the water gets higher and higher and the waters then up to his chest. Anything cos i hope my miracle arrives really soon and then comes another big boat and a woman yells get in we've got plenty of room get in. And he says. Well thank you very much but that's okay i'm still waiting i'm waiting for my miracle from god and moment now. When the people go on. And then a helicopter comes overhead and someone sends down a ladder and says. Get in get in we got a way out of here come join us. And a person says no that's alright. I'm waiting any moment now here comes my miracle from god. And then of course the flood happen. Anna's but yolk or the story the anecdote goes this person goes up to heaven and see if st. peter and st. peter says how are you. And the person says low my heart is broken i've been waiting for my miracles from you all up here. St-pierre says you know we sent boat. What's that another boat. We saw the helicopter what more. Are you looking for. So wake up calls happen in our life in so many ways if we but greet them. As messengers are signals. Helping us shape our journey as we go. If any of you were having challenges thinking about in your own experience any sort of awakenings big ones or small ones that come to mind. I will refer you back to the poem that i shared with you as our opening reading. That. Poem tells the story of a woman in midlife. Talking about how she's been waiting for awakening waiting for big ones waiting for the planets to shift. Waiting for the new moon to bring news the universe to to align something to give. And meanwhile the piles of paper is in the laundry in the dishes that job at all stacks up. Those are words we heard. Per se. To the poem. But in the end she talks about the mundane but no less transforming way. That one wakes up. To the true purpose and their life and. Amore deep and acceptance of their own human journey. Life goes on it's messy way. But slowly we find ways to break open. New spaces. To live the fullness of our lives that we were meant to live. Play wonder for you about your own story of awakening. I want to say that. Just a few more words. About the sweet experiences that bring us awakening and the painful ones that bring us awakening. You might have had experiences of sweetness where you found yourself out in the natural world and you feel. Some reason that day that sunset whatever it is wherever you are you feel yourself broken open. To the largest. Of the world or the universe. You feel an intimacy. With aliveness. And that's what western buddhist jack kornfield says is actually enlightenment intimacy. Intimacy with the universe. So you might have felt it that way some of you. And for some of you perhaps not. But these experiences are to be honored. And remembered for what they were call us to. Not online. And finally i want to say one last word about the messengers that come in hardship. And in painful experiences i'm going to share with you just one more story from the buddhist tradition this morning. About a person who wakes up. But the way they wake up is through personal hardship. There was once upon a time a woman named keisha go tommy. And she had an only son. And that only son died. And her incredible grief. And pain. She went to her neighbors and said what shall i do. What can i do how do i fix this. Is there anyway that i can. Change this can i bring back. My. Fun. And all of the people of her town they wanted to help her but they said there's nothing that we can do. Until there was one person who said oh wait i know. Go to this position. It's not like a typical physician but he might be able to help you. And so she goes to the buddha. And the buddha listens to her story end. She said please help me please help me. And the buddha says. This is what you must do. Bring to me. A handful of mustard seed. I should wear will i get these mustard seeds and he said go into the town go to a house and knock on the door of every single house. And if there is someone there who has not lost. Someone they love. Ask them to give you a mustard seed. So she thinks with some hope but i'll so sincere and trembling that maybe this. Will be sent halfway out of her grief will make things different she goes into the town and one by one she knocks on all of the doors. And one by one the people come out and she says you have a mustard seed can i have a mustard seed and they say here and then she says wait. Each time. Tell me is there anyone that you have lost. Have you lost a. Son or daughter have you lost a mother. Or. A father have you lost. A best friend have you lost someone. Anna each house they said yes. Yes we have. And so she went away without. Mustard seeds. And so is she started back to where she had met the boot up on the hill she paused and she looked at the town and she saw the lights glimmer and flicker. And she looked empty hands and then she realized. In the darkness of the coming evening. She realize that. Pain and sadness were not cruise alone even though her journey was indeed a singular one. She realize that death does happen. And that suffering is real. And that her whole town was filled with people. Not so very unlike herself. Even while she felt. Like an island. Like she was isolated. And in that experience for pain was not taken away her grief wasn't taken away but her perspective. On that widened and she went back to the buddha and she said i have brought you no mustard seeds. But i would like to stay with you. And learn. About suffering. And the fullness of life and i will go on to serve others and teach others sharing what i have experienced. Both the buddha. And kisa gotami are. Exemplars of an idea. Not that suffering is not possible but rather that suffering is simply is. Yet out of that the buddha and both kisa gotami became teachers of radical gratitude. For they were connected with the notion that life itself is precious. And they became awake. To the reality. That we must not take what we have for granted. And devoted their lives to teaching. About knowledge in all the gifts in life. Wake up calls. Come. They come suddenly. They come slowly. Either we can go down the rabbit hole indefinitely when we face our suffering or we can come to. A radical and very hard one appreciation of what we have left. Without taking it for granted. An awakening to our own nature. And responding to that with gratitude. 4life. Even in the face of suffering is a very hard thing. Indeed. But it's what we are. Given the opportunity to wake up to. Again and again and again. Enclosing this this morning i want to share with you these words by pema chodron who's also a buddhist teacher here in the west. And she says we already have. Everything that we need. There is no need for self improvement. All these trips that we lay upon ourselves the heavy-duty hearing that were bad and hoping that we're good. The identities that we so dearly clean to. The raid. Jealousy the addictions of all kinds. These never touched. Our basic well. They are like clouds that temporarily block the sun. But all the time i warm sand our brilliance are right there. This is who we. Really are. We are one blink of an eye. Away from being fully. Awake. But we know is that the buddha could remain consistently awake. And that we must practice waking up again and again and again. The spring as the earth begins to wake up from its long winter. I hope that you will remember and honor your own wake up. Throughout your life. And that you might just notice where a wake-up call might be ringing for you right now. I invite you to open yourself the spring to some new experiences. That might open up new ways of understanding for you wherever you are on your journey. And because of this. I invite you to truly consider something that you have been wanting to do. And i invite you to do it. And do it now. Blessed be. And amin. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

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131103_do_solidarity.mp3

Welcome to the november 3rd service at the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by are settled minister. Reverend roland. Her sermon is titled solidarity is a spiritual practice. Ar reading for this morning comes from rebecca parker. It is in the same spirit of. Opening our hearts to love. And the prophetic profound power. I'm speaking about love in the public square. Here is the reading. In the midst of a worldmark by tragedy and beauty. There must be those who bear witness against unnecessary destruction. And who would faith stand and lead in freedom. With grace and power. There must be those who speak honestly. I do not avoid seeing what must be seen of sorrow and outrage or tenderness or wonder. There must be those his grief troubles the water while their voices sing and speak refreshed worlds. There must be those whose exuberance rises with lovely energy. That articulates earthjoy. There must be those who are restless. For respectful and loving companionship. Among human beings. Who's presents invite people to be themselves without fear. There must be those who gather with the congregation of remembrance and compassion. Draw water from old wells. And walk the simple path of love for neighbor. And. There must be communities of people. Who seek to do justice love kindness and walk humbly with god and each other. Who call on the strength of soul force. The heel transform and blessed life. There must be. Religious witness. Therein lies the reading for this morning. Here we have gathered. Here we explore and wrestle with all of life's challenges and rd. Hopes for the world. The economy. Healthcare. The warming of the globe. Water. These are all watchwords of our time. We could probably think of many more. Today. This morning we come together and a government post government shutdown kind of world. Washington is no longer closed at the moment. But some wonder if it will be open to the changes that we need. Some will vote very soon an important election coming up this tuesday. For those were voters i hope that you will exercise your right to vote. Some here despair of electoral politics altogether. And some will still go to the polls. Even with the sense of despair. We recognize here that there is no one monolithic political identity. We come together as religious liberals here. But we do know that the world. Is facing many many challenges. And that our hearts often seek. To meet the brokenness with otherworld with healing. And remedying action. No matter how we might politically affiliated this room i do know that we come together with hearts moved. By the social and economic justice issues of our day that we crave a world more just more compassionate. Which reflects our values are shared values of respect and equality. Decency for all individuals families and communities. When i listen to folks wrestle with the brokenness in our world i'm reminded that it is overwhelming. Many folks feel overwhelmed. By how many different things there are to do how many issues tug and wrestle for center stage. I am aware that many folks spaced compassion fatigue. Do you know what i mean by compassion fatigue. Haha disability feel compassion fatigue. When you look at what's happening in the world. Do people ask what are we to do what are we to do as an individual what are we to do as a face community. These are important questions. This morning i want to talk together with you about solidarity as a spiritual practice. I'm going to share with you a story that's close to home. Well it's close to the home that was most recently home for me in the san francisco bay area. Back near the san francisco bay area not so very long ago i had an opportunity to stand and perhaps a very unlikely place. It was the entryway to a casino. The casino in san pablo california. I was part of an interfaith group working with low-wage workers who had been locked out of their workplace for attempting to unionize. And while i was there i met a remarkable soft-spoken man his name is normani. He's a father of. Three small children. And i also spoke with his wife. The short story. Normani and store it goes like this. He had worked at the casino. And he and his co-workers got fed up with not having a contract. Which afforded them the rights to raises and decent affordable healthcare. Normani and the worker is it was safer to stay quiet. And say nothing. I'm at normani when he had chosen. To speak out. It's not an easy thing to speak out. To be a silent breaker. Speakingout means leaving a silence that can feel safe. And known and protected. Yet. There is a caribbean american poet audre lorde with some of you may know of in this room. And lord has observed that when people are experiencing daily impatso depression. Are silent. Does not protect us. A woman a black woman a woman who loved other women and a poet. Lord road about being difference. And the courageous effort that it takes to name differences. And how they matter. Breaking silences is dissolving a barrier. It's risky there are unknown cost. Breaking a silence is a casting of a line. So to speak into the wide deep sea of possibility. And not knowing who's going to be on the other end of that line. How will someone respond. Yet sometimes breaking such silence in the face of this kind of unknown. Is actually what it means to be a leader. Normani was such a leader as this. He allowed his story. To be known. And i listened as he shared with me a little bit more. So his father fell ill. And died very suddenly. And normani who is from nepal return there to nepal to pray and participate in the hindu funeral rites which lasted several days. While he was gone his wife who was back in the united states received a very surprising letter. It was from the casino. San pablo wearing armani worked. She opened up the letter. And it said that normani had lost his job. Each day. People receive letters with startling news. News of unexpected kinds of losses. And in times of such a cute los when response a human responses to turn inward. Inside. And that is very necessary. It would have been very understandable if normani had been devastated. Antron in word. But instead he chose something else. He chose to come even more deeply into relationship. It turns out that normani was not the only one set up with the way things have been going. Organizing had been going really well down at the casino. It has been going almost too well. I meant normani shortly after he and his union representative were told that they were locked out. And that meant that he and the other workers were not allowed to go back. To work. Along with several other faith leaders i was called on to accompany normani. And locked out workers. The day normani attempted to go back to work. I remember that it was particularly windy that day. And i remember thinking that even perhaps the wind was conspiring to keep your money and his co-workers from regaining their job. History shows us that there is indeed something quite threatening. About a group of people. Leaving the shiloh's of silence and individualism. To go into the public square. And shoes togetherness. Threatens the status quo. And yet this is one of the only ways that the rumbles of change. Translate into social shift. I'm going to share with you that solidarity is risky. For some it at the risk of retaliation. For others it is the risk and fact of acknowledging our true relatedness. In either case solidarity means coming into relationship. And risking. Being transformed. In a process. When i met the priest from normani's hindu temple. He told me that normani had been out of the country. And as the eldest is family he needed to perform the sacred rituals. The rituals were sacred very important. How could namani be punished. For taking leave to attend these sacred rituals. So ale catholic woman. And i stood with normani. At the gates of the san pablo casino. We've requested already and meeting with the manager but there had been no response. The word solidarity comes from the french meaning. Solid. Wholesome. Solidarity is the practice of becoming whole. And becoming solid. Yes solidarity i think is. Spiritual. Practice. Because it moves us from the silo of our isolated self into communion with the whole. From fragmentation and maybe even the solitary sense of grief. Into real relationships of healing and of hope. It's an alchemy. Action participation. Our hearts become relieved by not having to carry the burden alone. And somehow our large ourselves. Become realized. When we work in solidarity we start to realize we are part of something. We are not alone. Pr powerful. Together. Solidarity is not about saying where all the very same. It's not about saying well undifferentiated it's about staying will stand and we'll move together our causes, because i live they're connected are wholeness and well-being is related when i teach about solidarity as a spiritual practice with their young ones sometimes i have with me a bundle of sticks and a single stick. And we can watch how a single stick breaks so easily. But when you've got a whole bunch of sticks together as a bundle. Any kind of break them. What happens. It's much harder. That's solidarity. So back at the casino that day there was very loud music playing. The music played loud as it does and casinos if you've been to them startling. Very stimulation overload kind of environment. Security guards at the casino were gruff. And one guard did look just as security guards do in the films. He was big and posing and inscrutable. His name tag said joe. Joe looked at normani lift him up and down. And demanded that normani relinquish his workers badge. And normani quietly unhooked the badge from a shirt. Anyhow the badge in his hand. And he gave it over to the guard. And the guard took it briskly. And smart. And then normani paused. Wait he said with quietpower. That's mine. And he pointed not to the work badge. But to the small round union sticker. On it's very front. The guard was startled. He looked at normani and then at the small sticker on the card which entitles armani to work and gain access to the premises. And joe sampled and killed off the sticker. And the guard handed it back to nirmani. And normani stuck it to a shirt. And normani smiles. I hope you see where i'm going here. I mean to suggest it wasn't just a sticker. It was something a great deal more. When armani asked the guard to give him the sticker the security guard. Was startled. The guard was disarmed. The dynamics the power dynamics shifted. There was a letting down of the guard. The security officer had been playing one part the part of the guard at the gates who says no you may not pass. But he was not welcomed that he could no longer go to work. But when their money claimed back is bad power of joe to be the sole author of the story shifted. And joe was surprised by it. When i looked at show i saw his startled recognition that there before him was a man. And his wife. And three children. Also a band of co-workers and two religious leaders before him. And joe looked confused. Infra moment i thought i saw his own face shift with some new understanding. I want to say that it was a holy moment. I say holy because it felt similar to being present at a birth. Present to the miracle of new life unfolding. Solidarity is a spiritual. Practice. Spirituality is a free indwelling gif. The connect each of us to the larger whole. And we know that spiritual practices take many forms they take the form of meditation they take the form of walking of prayer they take the form of silence. It is an each of these ways that we touch that indwelling sense of connection. And we experience from moment that sense of oneness with the greater. The police arrived there at the casino and spoke with the union lawyer. In our interfaith contingent that day along with normani and his wife. And the children in his co-workers we all assembled back in a restaurant. Normani told us he was really worried about his job. He would not be getting it back anytime soon that much was clear. Normani told me. That it mattered. It mattered all of us being there. I ask your mommy if he was scared. No he said. I'm not. Because he knew that so many of his co-workers and so many members of communities were with him standing with him when he faced the guards and tried to go back to work. And then they're at that restaurant we got to talking with a few other folks and another young woman shared with me her story about being fired shortly from the casino because she'd been pregnant. My company thinks i'm replaceable is what she told me. But you know this gives me hope. Normani motion to our whole group gathered around a cake to celebrate. And we talked about what hope means. What it really means. Solidarity is a spiritual practice. Nevermind he reminded me of this at the smiles and put on his badge of honor at the baffled the guard. He reminded me that when the self stands before the mountain of change alone. It can feel daunting. And a concealed insurmountable. But here's the thing. One does not climb alone. Not successfully. And not for the long haul. Why the casino san pablo. Why not. The answer is that is people of faith we are called upon all the time. To live our values in the public square. A small ways and big wave. This was one small action. In one small block. In one small city. The pop the question is not why. But who are we when we do not show up for one another. To stand with to learn from. To grow with to take risks with one another. I was asked that day to be one small part of an interfaith contingent. To let the casino know that faith communities do support dignity on the job for workers. These communities are not sitting back from engagement with the world but instead of part of coalitions of larger organization would believe in decent job and our communities. Making sure that our communities have wages so that people can take care of one another. Growing their families. So they had self-determination. A few weeks later after that event at the. Casino that i'm sharing with you about this morning. There was a saint pablo city council meeting and i joined with several workers and other religious leaders to say just that. That we are faithful communities we are here in the community standing with members of the community. The trope of individualism is almost a cultural mantra. In the united states. And i don't mean to suggest that it's a mantra that weakens us up to deeper connections with the whole. Instead it becomes a mantra which drowns out our ability to see our mutuality. 2cr interconnections. Liberalism even theological liberalism. Which types of shape are you you tradition is sometimes critiqued for how deeply we preserve and prive. The authority of the individual. And sometimes this is seen to be in conflict in working together for common cause. Our emphasis on the individual journeys sometimes does i think run counter. To putting down the self-preserving mantle. Of individualism. For a deeper self-preserving tactic. That tactic is working in step with others. The move is part of a larger whole. For the world that we all. Drina.. We are not all the same. Our differences do matter. And yet our lives are bound together. And so must be then our liberation. The process of becoming a community of action. And resilience and strength. Is for filling. Dare i say. It is the stuff of holiness. There's a difference between social service and social solidarity. Service means. Meeting a clear and present material need. When we serve food. When we closed the people that don't have. Enough clothing to survive the winter. This is good and this is important we are good at this kind of direct service. But today and speaking about something a little bit different. I'm talking about solidarity. Which means a different sort of power relationship. It means willing to look at and work with others. Looking at dimensions of privilege and power. How we can work together to not replicate systems of oppression even as we're trying to transport. The world together. When we decide to move in this kind of way. There are tough questions we must ask. We might ask what do i want. We must ask what do others wants. We must begin to ask what do we want. We must ask about where power and privilege lies. It's easy. It's very easy to go numb and just a my-way-or-the-highway. What a fragment out into small pockets where some work gets done. But the impact is diluted. And the spirit wings in the spirit seals burnout. Solidarity is a hopeful practice because it means networking and participating in larger coalition. For systemic social change. If you remember nothing else from the sermon this morning. I'd like you to remember this. At the end of the day solidarity as a spiritual practice means not only just organizing bodies and hearts and minds. But also organizing how we think about. Our bodies hearts and our minds together. It's about showing up. And knowing why we're showing up. To the table of justin. It's about knowing our faith identity or our spiritual identity. And knowing that that's part of it. And allowing that part to feed.. Going to share with your postscript. Which is that. Just as i was preparing myself. To come here to virginia i got a phone call from my catholic friend would stood with me at the gates of the casino san pablo. And she said to me you'll never guess tara. But the workers they got their contract. They want. It will not be easy in that work. But they won more than a contract. They won because. They recognize their own dignity working with each other and the community one because we remembered together. That we could do more. With one another than we could ever do a part. We did transform. Despair into hope. And it was not abstract. I wonder now. Who are we in solidarity with in the new river valley. Who as a congregation might we wish to be in solidarity within this community. Are we listening to the call. And if we listen deeply what will we hear. I'm not necessarily speaking about nonprofit groups here though i might be. I'm talking about who is breaking a silent in our community. And how might we choose solidarity. I believe that. Part of the reason that you called me here was to explore social justice and some new ways. I come to you with willingness to explore that together. And so i hope that many of you will come to the social justice clements where we'll talk about ways to organize and ways to grow and ways to deepen as a morally courageous community. If you want something very simple to do after the service i do want to highlight. That we do have some standing on the side of love t-shirts. Standing on the side of love is a unitarian universalist inspired but not unitarian universalist alone. Desire to get together and make more visible to stand in solidarity to be known in the world together. I'm so some folks here i know already have these t-shirts but if you'd like to just pick one up. Or learn more about standing on the side of love you can connect with barbara taylor. Who is here i feel. When we wear those t-shirts we say we are here we are here together. There must be religious witness. There must be action grounded and faithful collaboration. Faithful to the world that we can create. If we but do the nasty and hard and exuberant work. Of justice making. With one another. May we be very thoughtful. May we be very gentle with ourselves as we begin to deeply listen. To one another. Let us start to attune ourselves to the silence breakers in our community. And when the call comes. Let us listen deeply enough. To hear it. And let us grow bold enough. To act on it. May this be so. Blessed beyond shea and almond. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. At uuc an rv. org.

uucnrv_org

150628_ct_mid-life.mp3

Welcome to the june 28th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by dr. carter turner. At a sermon is titled. Midlife and what to do about facebook. The podcast begins with an introduction by worship associate stephanie gilmore. And ends with a talkback. Following the sermon. Welcome to the unitarian universalist congregation here in the new river valley. I hope hear you find a place that soothes your soul and excites your mind. And. Helps you feel part of a larger community. I'm stephanie gilmore and i'm the worship associate today. And we have a guest speaker who's been here before in fact used to be a member. He and his family used to be a member of the congregation. Dr. carter turner. And he's an associate professor of religious studies. And he's the chair of the religious studies department and the sociology department at radford university. He is. Teaching and writing about religion. Civil war. Politics. And he's very active in local and state politics also. We're just delighted to have him back. I'm happy to present to you our speaker today. Dr. carter turner. He's going to do a reading and then he will. He will talk about death. Midlife. And what to do about facebook. And you will help us understand how those things are all related. The. The usual practice here. Years ago was they have talked. After. After the sermon. Give people. In the congregation a chance. Respond with. Thoughts that he come up with. We're going to. We're going to do that. Today we're going to try that and see how that works after. After carter. I'm so. We will have microphones. Runaround by are. Are greeters. With no further. The ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle. Totally fascinated by the realm of the senses. It's swings from one desire to the next. One conflict to the next. One self-centered idea to the next. If you threaten it actually fears for its life. Let this monkey go. Let the simpsons go let desires go let conflicts go let ideas go. But the fiction of life-and-death go. Just remain in the center watching. And then forget that you're there. What preciate so much you all inviting me back you know it's. Places still family to me it's great to look out and see so many friends. It's a beautiful day outside the rains are gone the skies are clear it's been a great week as you all have pointed out so i'm really delighted to be here when i come here i. It gets me thinking about you you ism and. Each time i come i'm just reminded of how valuable i think what you all do is. The thing about uuism in my view and it's just my view is that the emphasis is on the verbs and not the nouns you know if you look at your unison reading. It's rich with verbs it's the process that you all. Go through here that really makes this such a special place. There's a level of humility and honesty i think. That you just don't find in a lot of faith traditions there used to be a. Garage on north main street on mechanics garage. It was just a typical garage during the week and then one day on the weekends either saturday or sunday it would open up and people would come and bring their cars and work on their cars with other. People alone without the ownership of the garage there and i always thought that was a nap metaphor for what you all do here you would bring your car and you know you would have a. 10 or 12 people standing around diagnose and what you need to do and coming up with some ideas and using community tools and collectively build each other's cars and i think that's kind of what happens here so i don't know you don't come here to be told what to believe you're here. To invite the process of. Forming your beliefs. And i think that there's a real place for that and i think that. You is as we see people leaving mainline traditions evengelical tradition i think a lot of going to pass through this way on their way. So you know when i talk i usually. Sometimes i talk about academic topics and then sometimes i talk about things that are happening in my life. I'm never sure which is the best way to go but i'm going to go with the ladder today. When i was asked to do this i've been thinking about a number of things that aren't that are happening in my life and so i put together this this talk and it may be just terrible and i want to tell you off the bat it may not be anywhere close to explaining those three things. So if it's if it's disorganized and desperately i apologize and i'm happy to go back to my safe academic talk next time around. In the last few months i've lost two very good friends of mine. One was the chair of my department in fostering religious studies and the other was a political mentor a man who ran my campaign last time when i ran for office. Both were really tough for me particularly much are both men were in their mid-60s both died unexpectedly. But it really set me back i guess i'm fortunate to have not had to deal with a lot of death in my life. But but this one this will knock me down the bed and and i've been kind of working through what i think it means and just kind of the process of it all. The one thing that i was. I was really struck by with these death particularly again my friend joe and in my department. Was just how wrong it fell. Right i mean just how. Unnatural it seemed to be that somebody would die. Which is completely strange to me because of course death couldn't be more naturally everybody's going to die we all are going to die with no it people die all the time they dive different ages. Unexpectedly sometime after long illnesses. It couldn't be anything really more natural and yet it felt so wrong as though something is broken. Something malfunction had occurred. It said this was the piece that i kept kind of coming back to was this this sense of something being wrong. Somewhere i think i ended up at the end of. Many hours of thinking about this was. But in a way the afro. The separation was a form of affirmation of a connection. In other words it confirm to me. That i am not a singular individual just sort of mandarins to my world. The very strict notion of myself distinct from everything around me is just. Fix. It is not true everything about my inner life. What i find to be joyful. Funny interesting. Beautiful. Anything is my interaction with the world outside of me. It just seems to me in a way that there is no distinction between me and that world. It's so disconnection that i had with my friend who died. Well it was a connection if there was a spare was a thing there between us. I think the grateful ocean paul tillich said that love is the desire of two things that share the same essence. Trying to reunite. And i think that's right i think that. It away if i had the name my phylogica place i would have to call myself a pantheist. There is just one thing out here that we're all part of. We're not separate entities there is a unit they sang if we want to use the god language we could say it's the body of god with the called the divine or the holy whatever you want to call it but it seems to me that that. The more i'm aware of. Of my place in this bigger hole. The easier my life becomes i don't believe in a personal god that is hearing my prayers or god that's judging me. But my pantheism defines my ethics because it tells me that i do have an obligation to that which is outside. And that when i cause harm or suffering. I'm in essence causing harm to the whole. Causing harm to myself. And so again going back to to the death the pain of the separation was a reminder to me. Did i am part of this bigger thing and i've been trying to just. Settle in that a little bit to stop swinging from tree to tree like a monkey. Onn allow myself the enjoyment of being absorbed into this hole. You know what went with my friend died and i don't. I don't believe that i'm going to be reunited with him in an afterlife. But there is an afterlife i'm and i have absorbed him i'm different in the way that i interact with people because of my interactions with him and then those people will be different with the people that they interact with and it's as if he became absorbed back into the hole. And there's real joy in that for me i find myself thinking of ways. Being aware of ways in which his influence my behavior and that's very comforting so. That's my take on death it's. It's not easy all of us know that but. But there is a way it seems to me that we can see a confirmation. Of our links to one another. The more we can expand our lives the richer our lives our breathe it in do more read more laugh more love more. Take that risk and it's a risk because it's the risk is that you're separated from its something happens. And that's hard. But the alternative is to style yourself off and so. I don't know i'm a role that now into the midlife piece of it i'm 45 years old maybe that's part of. Why the deaths affected me like they did. I recently read a story. That there been a number of surveys done that show that people get happier in the latter years of their life. That your unhappiness level peak in your mid-forties. 46 to be exact i've got until october and my life's going to start getting better. It's. Their number series about why this is the case some some just say well you know when you reach this point you realize that time is short and you just not going to fool around with worrying about things that don't matter. Another theory though that i kind of. Like and resonate with is the idea that sometime around midpoint in our lives we come to realize. That we we can we come to reconcile our hopes and dreams and goals and aspirations with real. You know. And we find our peace with that so you get to be in your mid-forties so you know what i'm probably not going to be the president nights. Well i'm not going to be a ceo of a company or not to be a millionaire or maybe i'm not going to have children. Or i'm not going to get married it's not that you don't continue to pursue those things it's just that your value isn't determined by you being successful at. Reaching those goals. And so it away i think the older we get that we become more buddhist. Like almost naturally i really think the the buddha had it right about the ego. But that's what causes us to silo ourselves. We have this idea of ourselves and when life doesn't. Affirm that frost then it just causes pain and suffer. And the more you can see yourself as part of something bigger as opposed to something that isolated the more joy that we can have anna and so if it's true that as we get older we come to say you know what i'm not going to be defined by those goals that i set for myself. I'm doing my best out there i'm going to continue to. To do my best and love myself and love the people around me that's a healthier thing. So you know i'm working on that part of it i think. You know it's. There's a safety in in holding up a little bit in other words there's a safety and not putting yourself out in the world to embrace new things. But again it's the richness of life that were losing if we take that approach. Because we are all connected. And everything outside of us is ultimately what feeds us internally. I guess that brings us to. Well you know it's it's good and bad i mean. The good is that. It seems to me that i've had different periods in my life and different pockets of friends i've lived in different places. And if it weren't for facebook i would never connect with those people ever 90% of them would disappear off my radar they would. I would know if they were alive or dead what happened to mabel begone. And so facebook is a really great way of finding people that have had meaning in your life. And so it's kind of nice i wake up and i turn on my computer and my whole world is writing. All those. Autonomics people i have a $400 something like. They're right in front of me and it's a really really nice thing and i find myself really enjoying knowing what's happening in there. The good and the bad it does connect me now of course the downside is that i'm forced to have to interact with people who see the world very very differently than i do. And that's a tough thing and that's been tough this week i'll be honest with you. On facebook draws out a lot of strong beliefs and. And inside the question in and i guess i do my best to kind of tied back into my earlier point is. And what's our obligation to to the other out there mean. I think 50 years ago we interacted with people who saw the world differently than we do. A lot more than we do today. I think people were more involved in civic associations. Neighbors were closer they did more things together. And so you just got better at learning to hear each other and perhaps respect each other. Live with each other. And we're losing that today you know we get our news from very separate feeds now we get a very specific worldview it's it's very easy to surround yourself with people who see the world just like you and no one else. And i think that's really a problem problem i think that that really is a part of the problem that we have in government today. We always hear about how you do in the past. I like the specials from different parties would spend the weekend together and play bridge and golf and have dinner and they just learn to be people. And now everybody has to rush home to their districts to raise money on the weekends and so there's not that. That human interaction anymore. And i think that's part of the promises that we suffer. I think we don't know how to express ourselves in ways that are respectful and honest. We we get too defensive. We just simply don't get each other. And so facebook is a way that that can happen and. I don't know i mean i i i don't have an answer here because i struggle with it all the time. I. I have unfriended a few people in the last month. I just felt like my life was too short to have a headache before i have my first cup of coffee. But i'm not sure that that's the right move i really don't i think we might have to stay committed to each other even if it's maddening. Because otherwise. Maybe we just disintegrate as a whole. So i don't know you know it's tough. I don't i don't like the the silo life i don't like the discomfort of being offended. But somewhere in that metal is where i think i want to be and. I don't know so that's my struggle here. Life and death in facebook in. That's it sorry. Please please please no i love that part. Hi i like your thought processes and all of those one of things i wanted to add. Do your thing on the facebook. And the separation that. It is it's worse than that in the sense they were even moving. To communities of like people. Separating ourselves physically. Physically. And facebook is actually making i mean anyway i keep saying it's helping the situation but now apparently. You know they've got some algorithm that figures out who would like your post. So in other words if i post something about. Spring court decision facebook's going to decide who it's going to send it to all my friends don't get it equally so. We're becoming siloed even within the. This world of expansion. Okay i'm i'm sick. Before and i was wondering when your. Before. Good question. I think i will. I think i will but i don't know that i will be so wedded to it that i'll feel any sense. Failure disappointment at the end. But i tend to attend a check them off after i've done like i've become aware of them on my list after i. I've always wanted. I don't know i don't know. Barbara taylor i would just like to put in a plug for. Interacting. People who are very. One way to do that for sure. Breakpoint. Hi seth leonard. I stumbled into doing. My most powerful work when i was 32 but i've heard that. You do your best work. I counted that way. What you excited about. I hold the door open. You know never stop. Yeah i think. The more you're less. The less you're aware of yourself. These are days to be absorbed in the work that you do. Maybe if you've ever been in the zone and sports or music. We're just completely absorbed in the activity without any awareness. There's real real joy. I mean that's where it's all i'm in that back to me is it and. And i think we do our best work the more we get into that place we're not as aware. We're not as critical not as. Judging. We can be very very harsh on her. Yeah i'm hoping i do better work. But if i don't know. I see that you're. Historian religious and also about the. Civil war. And i was curious about your. The confederate flag. That racing and feed myself and northern see the confederate flag and everything and what. Response to iamjustairi. Yeah no great question you know. It's funny i have been thinking about. The fact that. We we we frame this so often is this was a. You know very short-lived nation that was hardly recognized by anybody and you know bunch of people that are holding on to this. Idyllic. Country of the confederacy and they need to get over. But in a way i think the nation is still there. Write me what happened in the civil war was in the south wanted to have its own country and then when that failed they said well if we can't have our own nation than what we can have is our own separate culture. It made very start distinctions between whites and blacks among other things. And so they went forward and perpetuating a separate world and i think that world is separate today i think that. Did the confederate flag really does symbolize start distinctions that existed. It's not just about 150 years ago. And i also think a big chunk of the the difference between the confederate crowd and the union crowd if we want to go that way is really about god and the role of gods. Play the role of god in the world you know i mean. I-5. When i look at a lot of political issues like climate change francis i find it fascinating how so many of the lines are drawn on theological grounds were people say. Well i gives up the guy who's on the roanoke county board of supervisors who said look i don't care if climate change is real i don't care if we know for a fact that the earth is heating up if it's happening god is making it happen god wants it to happen. Therefore it's good you know. It's like there's no argument there was no evidence there's nothing that could convince him that humans are to act because it's in god's hands. I think there's a lot of that in the confederate crowd that god is controlling what's going on in the world i think there are a lot of people that are scared out of their minds today that god is going to punish this nation because of the supreme court decision on friday. The we're going to get slapped by god and that that scares them. And then there's a lot of us who don't have that conception of god at all but that's a major. Distinction in the worldview of human being and i think the confederate flag is symbolizes that that. There's two groups. I mean i think you know. My great-great in google my name this is true my great-great-great-grandfather was robert ealy's legal guardian. My great-great-grandfather my namesake was married to his first cousin was in his wedding. You know what you'd say. Baby i was raised in the whole confederate lore you know my. Grandparents my grandmother's house in northern virginia. Lee and jackson had dinner there we used to run around and look at find relics in the fields and stuff. So i guess i was raised in that but it's. It seems to me if you can't. See how that symbol will be hurtful. Two african americans in this country than you are disconnected. You simply are just you don't have the capacity to empathize with. That's a strong position but that's what i feel. I think it needs to go. I have to disagree with you with respect to the confederate flag. Not not so much conceptually but if you look historically and you are a historian. The fact that it did not appear until the mid-1960s. Timmy gets a lie. To the fact. That it is a. Symbol of. This particular culture it is absolutely a symbol. Of their resistance to the civil rights movement. And everything that is associated with it. It has everything to do with rice. I don't disagree but that could still be part of a culture writing. But i think that the timing of it. And the fact that it didn't with not. Around four hundred years to me. Speak. 2. Specific. Political motive. Behind that. Well yeah. You know when the civil war ended. Southerners were horrified at the north was going to write the history and so they. During the lost cause years were very proactive about trying to. Tell the story in that that's when you got confederate monuments put up on every. Corner off to. The south so there wasn't dormant there was still an effort to try to revitalize. This idyllic south but you're right about the flag it didn't come back until this. And it was clearly.. Good morning casey taylor. I love this whole concept and what you're speaking to about the difference in parties down theological line when it comes to politics. So my question to you is in this time. And praying 30. In july. And all right. 16 years before you get happy. In an effort to get to that point. Are you finding your conversation. Zenni. Keywords. Phrases. 2 opening. Volatile topic. On how to. Conversation by race or about religion or all the bolivar. In court. I guess if there's a way to to be empathetic. Towards the different views ii email. I think you know somebody who says i'm scared. That something terrible is going to happen to my family because of the weathernation behave. I don't agree with that clearly but i can understand the fear. And i can be empathetic to why that would matter a worldview is very different from mine and their worldview it makes perfect sense god judges nation. You know. This is why schools put the ten commandments up on the walls. Because it thinks they can make the football team win. I worried they're going to kids are going to be killed less than car accidents driving home from school minnesota. It's an active religion it's a it's a. It's a gesture of. Faith to god. It's not just going to walk past it somehow be influence. I might be part of it i think they see it as a way to appease god. So i think for me at least to be reminded that it's real with a balloon. But it's real them. It's profound and it's. And to try to show some respect for it. I don't know we don't have a lot of conversations about these. And we turned on the television and adjuster shouting. The network's really want a pit everyone against each other that's how they make their money it's like a 24/7. Pregame for the super bowl you know. Why the giant fans hate the packers and i just going to. And it's just exhaustion feel somehow we've got to try to break through and i think by being a part of a group like this. Is that his ass good stop you know your. You're learning love each other and you're committing to a community and your sharing and your hearing and. We just have to take it beyond you know. The confines of our. Comfort zone. That's a great question. You spoke of the family the background that you came from. And you are obviously in a very different place today. I am about to meet. In a few weeks. For the first time in a few years. The only relative other than my. Sister that i've really been. Stay in touch. But i have very few. And. It really kind of went right past me why she and her husband were going to. 2r richmond. But somewhere in the conversation i mentioned something about. This article about. Change. And she kind of groans and so. Negative. And i'm going ohmigod. Where is it that she's going in a couple of weeks. Sons of the confederate veterans convention. So. I'm going to be with her and her husband. Or sometime. And i can't talk about that car. And i'm wondering for your background. How are you dealing with family who has other. I'm asking other people my life to sense moments of safety for. Is a kind of intuition you certainly wouldn't want to bring it up the second or their butt. Maybe after a glass of wine or a nice dinner you shared some other things in your life and you know how you feel a little connection i don't know. And if it doesn't happen it doesn't have to happen you're not going to convince him otherwise probably. But my guess is they're going to want to share it. And they're going to they're going to tell you what they think it may be the last keanu. I had some trouble with that with. Mom my dad act. You know. I hate to say this now i'm kind of bear. I love me some wonderful man i really don't think he believes us now but. When i was in graduate school and if you've ever been a gradual that's the most obnoxious you ever are in. If you're just taking in ideas and you're just your ears on fire all the time. So and i was in denver and it was liberal inn. And he came out and we were talking about race or something and he said something to the effect of. You know you thought that that slavery been good for after. Broughton turmerican it krishna. Now i'm not sure he sounds like a real jerk and i'm telling you that's not where he is. But it blew my mind i mean i had a hard time with that and it was weird because it was sort of like i. I was saying it's kind of get-together identity and being beyond yourself if my dad thinks that way then somehow that's a reflection on me. And it did i took a while to kind of get that sorted out but. Yeah you know that there's so much talk about weather. Obama is help race relations in this country or not. And that's a really complicated question. But i think at the very least it is lifted out of the ground. We're having to deal with it. Bandits. Do you know if it's real and people feel the way they feel and we're just going to. right now we're we. We're going to a cathartic exercise. Looking at herself. And the flag is part of it and gay marriages part of it and. The black presidents part of it. And it's just a painful time but i think at the end of the day we're going to be healthier for. I hope. There will be more. Charleston shooting star. It's going to happen. People feel really an embattled right now and. They're desperate. And they feel they feel desperate in. So i think it's going to be a hard few years. I think. I mean t norton. I don't want to say carter that i love knowing you're out there with your. Facebook post but i've really missed having you. As a bigger part of my life. Hot you make me. Think. In a way i don't think. I'm glad to have you here and i hope you'll come back. And i want to say that. As i. Grow older significantly i could be your mother. I'll be proud to be your mother as i grow old or what what i find fighting. In terms of what you were talking about saddling yourself off. Disconnecting. Is. I'm letting go more. Of the absolute need to be right. In. Exchange for. More connection. I still hope things strongly but sometimes that. Office that serves as a barrier to connecting more broadly and more deeply with people. And i'm going to put in a little plug since i thought it would be in the bulletin but it's not. If you want to connect with some different people. And here. Empowering fabulous christian minister. Join the youth group from this church that is going to the greensboro. Morel mass action march. On july 13th. This man is incredible. Sign up and we'll get together and figure out how to carpool. But thank you for being thank you. Hi i just wanted to make a comment on your last topic and and this woman here who is going to meet a relative and doesn't know how to talk about it. Love-hate relationship with facebook there's often very interesting articles that come up that i get to read that i wouldn't other and there's one about being the good white person. And so is his comment about how. We're sort of trained to be nice and not rude and to make peace with our families and with the opinions and the the the beliefs that they have. Until i almost feel like we can't just. Say in the conversation may not happen. So i'm gay and i'm married. And it took. Over 10 years for my family to begin to come around and many of them still haven't i'm not invited to christmas or thanksgiving or any of those sorts of things. So. My parents my most immediate family would never come around if i. Didn't push it if i just said. We're going to have different beliefs and so obviously have a vested interest in that but i feel the same way now that i need to step up on race because i have many friends of different ethnicities and i sympathize and i can't emphasize what them cuz i don't have the same experience by sympathize with them. But i don't undo anything until it's idea that like you are in their life may be the only voice that's different than theirs and so i don't know how to i don't know how to have those conversations this early without conflict but i think it's just saying like i. I can't i can't sit there and hear this and not. Say that i don't agree with that that i feel that it's wrong or that this is how it affects me and those that i love. Yeah i know it's that's the tension that that is the tension. Ikea. What i was trying to say is that if the conversation is going to have any meaning. You have to have connected at some human level 4. And to work on that piece. I get that trust piece down then you here. I got a colleague who. Is colorado going. Gray cavities. Just be hit the students in the forehead with. Pissed off you know it's jesse beats about and i don't know that they hear it at all. I think e. I don't know. It's just a kind of human piece to it that i think makes. Makes the conversation more productive but you're right i'm not suggesting we just sit back and. Let the world spin out of control we we we we. That's the tension but it's. Heart. I've had the experience of having the person that i'm closest to in the world who i have known the longest since the day i was born. When my back was turned. Ended up being on the really the other not the other end of the spectrum but. Pretty far from my phone to the spectrum i didn't even know what's happening. And. So you know you don't give up on. That relationship you know you just don't. And so she and i have had now years of practice. Loving each other very very much and disagreeing about so many things. And. We tried many different ways. Of handling that i mean we had the advantage of already really being enough. A loving relationship so that was good. But you know. So. What we've been trying in the last few years which seems to work pretty well. Is approaching each other's beliefs with curiosity. And and we talked about. What about. If we approach each other's beliefs with curiosity. Knowing. Full well that probably i won't change my beliefs when i hear your beliefs and you won't change your beliefs. And apparently because you know mpr said so this is actually pretty true. You know talking to people about their strong beliefs and telling them how much you disagree with him and why is not. Very likely to change what they think. So. It's been kind of more of a listening project than arguing project. Or what we were trying for a while which is avoiding many many topics project. So when you can't get to that point of curiosity until you have the respect. Zactly that's right and i think i think. With people. I i so agree with what you had said before it just said kind of again which is. I think. It's very difficult. If you don't have some kind of. Caring relationship or trusting relationship. Of any kind. Thoroughly. Bother. You know i mean i think you're just wasting your breath and your time if you if you try that but i think. It's a lot about listening in and realizing. This is not going to hurt me to hear what this person believes and they have good reasons for why they believe. Okay and it has troubled me. Since president obama has been president. The heat. Continues to refer to himself as ben black. And he really isn't. He has a white mother. Therefore he is biracial. Am i don't know why he doesn't stress.. I think because historically the one-drop rule has defined the day right i mean historically if you have one drop of black blood your black and we will cook people were considered black and treated his black. It was not the other way around the nobody said if you're half-white that you're white. It's always been the other way so i think what he says. I'm now the president night states let me tell you my story the context is he's lived in the world that is treated him black but you're right he's. Mets race. But in the context of us history is black. I think we have great difficulty. In hearing what is truly. Being sad. Most of us are what we want to. Listening is vital. And i'm working on. What's the saying you got two ears one mouth. Do twice as much listening is to. Thank you all. What a treat. Thank you thank you for your questions and comments to. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

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130113_beans.mp3

Welcome to the january 13th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. Today sermon. Titled you can get anything you want and alex's restaurant. It's delivered by reverend alex. I have two readings to sherry with you this morning the 1st. A single verse from the gospel of mark. You will be reminded of a story i think you all know well. This from the king james edition. And when are you taking the five loaves and the two fishes he looked up to heaven. And blessed and break the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before them. And the two fishes divided he among them all. Second reading from someone that i'm imagining only a few of you have any familiarity with. Mfk fisher. She was a cook. Who grows into an understanding that food needs to be treated as something more than just. To eat. She was a student i need to mention another guy that to you in case you don't know him. Umbrella samurai show me what you eat and i'll tell you what you are. Okay. So this woman and the 20th century early to mid twentieth-century mfk fisher. Develops the art of being an essayist around what it is to eat and here is a tiny piece that she wrote entitled pity the blind and palette. Frederick the great used to make his own coffee with much to do and fuss. 4 water heater champagne then to make the flavor stronger is stirred in powdered mustard. Now to me it seems improbable that frederick truly like this brew i suspect him of bravado are perhaps he was toast line. Almost all people are born unconscious of the nuances of flavor. Many daiso. Some of these unfortunate or physically deformed and remain all their lives is truly taste line. As their brother suffers are blind to color. Others never taste because they are stupid. Or more often. Because they have never been taught to search for different oceans of flavor. They like hot coffee or fried steak with plenty of salt and pepper and meat sauce up on it. A piece of apple pie and a chunk of cheese. They like the feeling of the feeling of a full stomach. They resemble those myriad souls who say i don't know anything about music but i love a good rousing military band. Let the listener to susa hear much music let him talk to other music listeners. Let him read about music makers. He will discover the strange note of the oboe. Recognize the french horns convolutions. Schubert will sing sweetly in his head. And beethoven suite through his heart. Then one day he will cry. Back by god i can hear him i can hear. That happens to the taste line in just same such way. He eats apple pie good or bad because he was always eating it. Then one day he sees a man turn his back upon the cardboard crust. And sodden have cooked fruit. And eat instead some chris crackers with his cheese. A crisp apple peeled and sliced remedy flea after the crackers and the yellow cheese. The man looks as if he knew something pleasant. A secret from the taste wine. I believe i'll try that. It is yes it is good. I wonder. And the man who was taste blind against to think about eating. Perhaps he'll talks a little or reads. All he really need do is experiment. He discovers that cream is good in coffee in the morning. But that after-dinner black coffee is better. He looks for the first time at soup and pushes it away if it is too pale to thick or thin. Potatoes become more to him than the inevitable companion of meat. And he finds unsuspected taste in the vegetables has been gulping. He is pleased he was awakened. That last you can taste. Discovering in his own good time with lots of around tabulated. So methodically as the three sensations. 1. Direct and on the tongue. 2. Complete. When the food passes over the tongue and is swallowed. And most enjoyable of all. And of all. 3. Reflection. That is judgement passed by the soul. On the impressions which have been transmitted to it by the time. Yes he can taste it last. And life itself has for him more flavor. More zest. Listen to this morning's reading. Think you've learned by now that i approached this art of sermon making. Intuitively. And i i'm always thinking about the general topic that i want or need to preach. But i'm also never locking down what i'm going to use for the sermon itself. Until i've lived the experience of being the minister right up until the time i come into the pulpit. So i had a totally different opening for today's sermon. When i came into a board meeting this past thursday night. A board meeting that was held and eli's here in which your bored 8 or 9 and number and 10 to 15 of you is congregational leaders gathered. And you did some of the most courageous and profoundly meaningful work that i've ever seen take place in the life of a congregation. And during all of that which i'm not going to talk about any detail here from the pulpit you'll learn about all that meaningful working sucks. Communication to you. But during all of that you had one tiny little item of business. The colored my whole experience if there's a night's meeting. Lisa a bottle or incredibly gifted administrator put before the board. But it had a communication from the unitarian universalist association of congregations. Asking for two things. One that you was a congregation. Communicate to boston. Your total membership number as of the end of december. And it was noted that you are now at 198 members which is an all-time high for you guys which is great. But added to that. End up some. Dissonance for your bored. Was lisa and sluices insistence that the ua also wanted to know whether or not use the congregation. Wanted our general assembly and louisville kentucky this coming june. To consider making immigration as an ethical issue. An item to be considered to become a study action issue. Within unitarian universalism. And i think if i'm recalling correctly that i was the only one who spoke i try not to speak quickly. I'll let there be some pregnant pauses that was put before the board. In the board set there and then i said this would be a good thing with my deepest most ministerial voice. Voted unanimously to recommend to the uuid that we consider it. Okay. What does stood for me though and i wasn't thinking about it as i came into spite the fact that i had some professional awareness that this was before is this a movement. What this did for me was it cost me to put on mi casa. Misericordia hermeneutical glasses. I don't think in the time that i've been with you that i've mentioned the casa misericordia. But it's on the same force. Third world living experience in mexico 18 years ago. Did i get dumped in a kitchen at the casa misericordia. In nogales mexico which of the top of my installation is a sous chef. In a kitchen that only cook. Beans and tortillas. That's all they had they were dirt poor they were situated on the. Sod of a dump in nogales. Their target audience was the starving orphans and children of people without employment. Who lived around the dump. Scavenging from the dump things that they could in turn sell to try to make a living for themselves. So i'm dumped in this kitchen. Haven't bathed for several days but can wash hands. I'm put it in and possibly low table a table that was about this tall to work from 6 in the morning until sometime before noon. Pulling up little balls of dough and then pushing them out with my hands to make handmade tortillas. It was hard work and i know it sounds stupid but it was hard work. My back didn't like it my upper body didn't like it it hurt. And the 13 other. Ministers who were with me in this experience. The vast majority of them were also adversely affected by other similar chores. Respond to them. But then came the moment of the serving of the food. And there was one particular that i want to tell you about this morning. This is what god offered. All of those children down their living off the dump day after day and this would have been. A large serving. This was as we were told by the director of this orphanage. The only hot meal and probably the only mildred each of these children got each day. And i got the same thing day after day. On one particular day. Two old women very proud of themselves. Bring in a dead chicken. At 8 in the morning the chicken they're holding by the neck. They've just slaughtered it and they're little shack of a yard. And they give it to the women. Kitchen of the casa misericordia. And say blessings upon you do something with our chicken. And this wonderful mexican women all of them are dirt poor. Get all excited about this chicken. And they clean it and i cut off its neck and i'm just fascinated by the whole procedure cuz i've never done it. Like this. Down on my knees pressing out the tortillas watching it all happen. And i throw it in a stew pot and i stood up and it is nothing but dead chicken and water. There's nothing there salt pepper and that's it okay. And it becomes this frothy stew a single pod and then 250 kids or so we're going to eat lunch line up out front of the building. And they come by the little window and i'll get lusa to send you a website where you can actually see a picture of the little window where they come to eat it's like a little. Slit with some glass suno and the cook stand there and they pushed the plate through and they. And each one of these kids. This only in smaller quantity. On that particular day the old women said to each child who came forward. Would you like some of the stew chicken. And i'm standing there watching this you know what the first kid said. The first kid said. No not for me but for my brother. Jaime. Second kid. No not for me but for my. Stir behind me. And so it went. All 150 children or so. Having the offer of the stewed chicken a rarity in their diet at that time. And they all turned it down for their sister or brother. The women were so full of enthusiasm. An appreciation for these children who denied the chicken. And i went out with pod after everyone has been served. And i put one tiny little spoonful on. It was. The most profound. Communion. And which i've ever participated and i will remember it to the day i die. Anytime i'm feeling ungrateful. Put before me. I need to remember those. And the generosity with which they refused. Something that could have been theirs. So that the person behind them could benefit. Highway. Thinking about all of this through thursday night's board meeting. And i remembered the old mfk fisher essay. And her reference to brilliant. Savon. Sovereign. The coin that language of show me what you eat and i'll tell you who you are. And i realize that the more important message that needs to be put before unitarian. What's community. Show me how you approach. You're eating all your food. And i'll tell you i will tell you about. This business of feeding. In the religious community is ever with us. I have not had ever. A year ago by in the 20 years that i've been preaching in a user setting. I have not ever had the experience of preaching. We're someone doesn't come up to me and on a good day they'll go. You fed me spiritually. And that of course makes minister feel good. But you also get the experience. If someone coming up to you every time who says. I got nothing out of them. Are you did nothing to feed me. It comes part and parcel. With the religious experience. And we need to talk about it in any unitarian universalist setting. I've wondered many a day what would. Have been the experience. For jesus some aberration of what would jesus do. What would have happened to juices if it had been a you you 5,000 who needed to eat. That day that he got out on the grass seashores and offered up. Five loaves and two fishes. Are you can anticipate that a good part of the crowd would have arisen in horror that there were only five loaves and two fishes correct if it had all been just you use. There would have been some consternation that that was also have been fed. And then there would have been even if the 5,000 had stayed for the five loaves and two fishes. There would have been the insistence that some special sauce be brought out or i can't deal with the fish. Are you have to serve it to me in a certain way and all of the particularity of what we are i think would have led to a parable vastly different than the one that we've inherited. This business of approaching the spiritual food that is put before eyes. Is of paramount concern. To any community. In which there is celebration of milton. Reminder. That the search for truth. Paramount importance. Milton brought out in that reading written more than 400 years ago that we just shared this morning. That too. Pursue truth and all of her beauty and all of her power. Leads inevitably to much discourse. Much writing. Much arguing. And the important things for the person who is in a community that is searching for truth. And all of her beauty and importance. Is multifaceted. One you have to remember what milton told us. And secondly if you're going to do well by yourself within the community committed to truth. You have to remember the stuff. That the frenchman a 400 years ago put to us about food. You cannot take the experience only and what you see or in what you first taste. You have to. Consider also what it feels like after it has passed the tongue and you have swallowed it. And then thirdly. I see so beautifully points out or mfk fisher points out in the reading i just shared. You have to also set back later. And consider what the experience. Consuming other food. Did for you and your soul. It is never in the search for truth. An immediate response. That fulfills the potential. It is only in the considered faithful practice. The multiple facets of review. The spiritual food food can be truly and faithfully considered. If any of you were watching downton abbey last sunday night how many of you were. Fess up it's the best omark benson i saw your hand go up. It is the most delightful soap opera recent time right. And a good so proper is not to be denied especially one that's about the english. If you were watching last sunday night you saw this incredible account of how this grand manor house. Is preparing this grand dinner. First time very important guest and the flu above the stove is. Stopped up with something. Which causes the fire in the stove to go out. A big dining room full of very important guests coming to eat and the cook tells the lord of the house. I have nothing to feed them. And the lord and his lady are thinking they may have to cancel the dinner to send everyone home. There will be nothing to feed them. And the brash american woman. Shirley maclaine is the actress portraying the character. Steps into that vacuum steps into that emptiness. And with delight says no no no. Let's just go scavenging and we'll have a picnic on the floor of the living room. And so they go downstairs they send the servants downstairs together cheese and bread and whatever else can be found. And they throw this. Unexpected food in front of this very important snooty english guess. And it's a wild success. The approach to the eating. B the physical food are the spiritual food. Is always a paramount importance and how the food is received. Mfk fisher. Who becomes the gastronome the authority the epicurean authority on food consumption in the 20th century. Says you must experiment and she writes elsewhere in this volume from which i shared this morning. But invariably the experimentation will lead to unhappy and counters with food. But that's not to deny you the practice. The practice is what counts the considerations of food on the tongue. The consideration once it's been swallowed the consideration. It's been in your stomach. You will come to church. To be spiritually fed. And all ministers carry the charge of spiritually feeding you. And we will put before you. You go into the christian setting the communion table in front of the pulpit quite often. We will put before you the. Sermons of spiritual food. And some of you will. Pullback and horror just for the title of them. And some of you will come and what is shared. Will be like the lord's coffee frederick the great coffee that had the powdered mustard. It will be difficult in the initial taste. But a community doing well by itself. Disability. Become an epicure around spiritual food. Will keep reminding each other. That it's not just in that first experience of what's put before me that always. Discovered. It's in. Sitter. Engagement with it time after. You're getting ready now as a congregation. To move into a place. Of having. All sorts of different foods but before you. You're going to have what i bring to the table between now and the time i leave and i'm going to be very intentional and making it as diverse and experience. It's possible. And then you're going to have a settled who arrives and they're going to bring a. Cooks. Perspective. On what's to be put before you. You here in this congregation in blacksburg. Your extraordinary gifted in your approach to the work of spirit. You already have large shared understanding of how important it is to. Hear it once. Remind yourself of what you heard. And then to be in conversation with one another a third time. About the value of what. Put before you. You need to keep fine holding this practice. You need to do it not only for the settled who's arriving but you also need to do it for this larger community of ours. Because issue bring more and more and more of this larger community. Into this place. There will be more and war challenge around the experience. Spiritual food is. For all. Down in nogales. Those 18 years ago. The 14 clergyperson tours on that trip. Got into a terrible fight with one another. We were being told. But like the citizens around the dump. We needed to eat the same foods that they were having. And we were faced with day after day. Of this. Or worse there was one day when we got the bread out of the dumping at the bread out of the top. Cuz that was all it was to be had. And we got into a fight about whether or not this was okay. Whether or not an agent old man like myself. Should be expected. To eat something like that. And it ultimately boiled down amongst the 14 clergyperson tours on the strip. It boiled down. To a division between those of us who thought you could take whatever was put before you and fine spiritual meaning in it. And physical sustenance in it. Or not. And i want to suggest to you that unitarian universal. Stan our embrace of diversity. Have a call. This isn't just a choice it's a call. Define the meaning. No matter how elusive. In the most humble. The most. Pride thing. But before us. We are the people. Who purport to find goodness and all of life. We are the people who purport. Capable of encouraging everyone. To know god and whatever life brings. And if those folk down by the dump or living off this. And finding meaning in it. We damn well better be able to do. Keep this thought before you. Play with the possibility that each of us can grow further in our ability. To celebrate all that comes our way. Even the most humble of spiritual foods. Be encouraging. Of your friends and acquaintances in this congregation. To dig deeper. Towards discerning truth and all of the. Arguing writing and sharing a voice. And any effort for diverse congregation to be full in. Expression. This is our challenge. This is what unitarian universalist here in blacksburg do well. And my prayer. My hope for you. Is that in the decades to follow. But this community-at-large will say of you here in this congregation. By god those unitarian universalist. Finefolk. I have seen how they approach. Spiritual. Challenges that are before them. And i do it well. This is. Are call. This is our great gift when we do well by ourselves into. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. At uuc and rv. org.

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130414_do_vision-hearts.mp3

Welcome to the april 14th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. Today's sermon it delivered by rev. raul at. And is titled with bright vision and fold hearts. The podcast begins with a reading by monitors are from the settled minister search committee. A podcast of the complete service - joyce and concerns and the hymns. Can be late too from the members area homepage. I will be doing the reading what song by victoria safford. What if there were a universe. Cosmos. That began and shining blackness. Out of nothing. Out of fire. Out of a single silence breath. An intuit. Can billions and billions of stars. Stars beyond imagining. And you're one of them a world. A blue green world so beautiful. That learning clergyman could not even speak about it cogently. And brilliant scientist. In trying to describe it. Began to sound like poets. With their physics. With their mathematics. With their empirical impressionistic musing. What if there were a universe in which a world was born out of a smallish star. And into that world at some point. Red-winged blackbird. And intuit swam sperm whales. An intuit can crocuses. And wind to lift the tiniest hairs on naked arms in spring. When you run out to the mailbox. An intuit at some point can onions. Arab soil. Mk mount everest. Into that world can animals and elements and plants. And imagination. The mind and the mind's eye. It's such a universe existed and you noticed it. What would you do. What song would come out of your mouth. What prayer. What praises. What sacred offering. What whirling dance. What religion. And what reverential gesture would you make to greet that world. Every single day. That you were in it. What a true delight. It is to be with you this morning. As i said i am so pleased to be your candidate. Fort settled. Minister. What an exciting time. In the life. In the dear life. Of this. Congregation. Earlier we shared these words. Ministry. Is all. That we do. Together. You know there's an island. Off the coast of new hampshire. In the atlantic ocean. It's a windswept. Kind of island. It's rather isolated. Anchored as it is i'm it's a cluster of souls in the middle of the rolling sea. It's name is. Star island. And i wonder if this is an island known to some of you here. Raise your hand if he knows.. Quite a few people. So then you can picture this. It's evening. It's dusk on that island. And their diverse people gather one by one they helped one another by kindling single flames. And lanterns. And then they proceeded singing through the darkness up to an empty chapel it's one of those old chapel historic. With white molding. And wouldn't use. And inside. People start to place their lamps and lanterns on small hooks. Lodging them on his hook. Fitting them into window trails. Until the place is suddenly. Aglow. With human warm. Lit by the light of many flames. Perhaps you see what i'm getting at this morning ministry is all that we do. Together. Before you see the chapel had just. Bennett building. If i delight of many candles. The place had become warm. A hospitable place. A place of. Contemplation. A place of wrestling with an resting with life other mysteries. And meanings. A place to store the mind and move the heart that kind of place because. Ministry. Is all that we do together. And that. Loan chapel is not the only place filled with light. From within such places such congregations are life-giving from within and from without. The gathered light attracts others. Because it is that. That ministry. Is all that we do together. We unitarian-universalist come from many places. We speak diverse languages. We are different ages. We come out of different cultures. We experience different states of health. We have different relationships to technology. Third great deal of differences among us. Theological differences. Atheist agnostic humanist mystic. Pagan with backgrounds perhaps in one of the world major religious traditions or perhaps we don't particularly identify with one spiritual or religious identity. We turned together and unitarian universalist community. For the congregational life skills and reveals. Which holds us which inspires us and reminds us of what it is that we most deeply value. Which mccall does ikea in the end again and ever again to our own indwelling sense of aliveness. We come to speech deep as we have this morning and as you do so often in a place that celebrates joy. Acknowledges our sorrows. Listens. Praises. Makes quiet. Holds. Support. And enriches us. We come together i think that we might recall that in the midst of a beautiful. And a heartbreaking world. We are still a people of whirling dance. Are people capable of songs of praise of simple gestures of reverence. Earlier this morning me and gage together in a little bit of call-and-response singing. Right we saying there is a crack in everything. And that sometimes is how the light gets in. We did that together. In call and response singing a call is issued and after listening and hearing a response is offered. It is through this back-and-forth process this rhythm unfolds. And so it is that call and response singing is about relationship. Listening. Hearing. Deciphering and then singing together. Many months ago i met your wonderful search committee. Those courageous. Thoughtful devoted and indeed well-organized so. And they helped me and my husband peter to become more familiar with this area. And with some of this congregation hopes and dreams. I was drawn as i learned about you. I was drawn by your bright vision. To deepen and grow in spirit while sharing the gift of liberal religion here in the new river valley. I was looking for a program size congregation. Better to serve a congregation already with a vibrancy about it. A vibrancy of program. Led by imaginative and creative. Lay leaders. I'm from the information that was provided to me about this congregation. I was moved. To learn about the thoughtful journey. That you all have been on many of you for many years. Growing is congregation tending to the building. That house has your light. I learned that you are people moved by the blessings and the brokenness in the ones same world. That you are people ever more committed to making a social justice impact. I feeling and pat. In this community and beyond its walls. These things moved me they called me they. Call me to respond to your call. And now we are together. And it is spring. The birds are singing the flowers are moving as i understand here from bud to blossom. As i've seen. An industry zandov rich unfolding life abounding we gather this bright morning perhaps to open a chapter together. In the life of this dear congregation. In your order of service you'll see numerous opportunities that we might have together over the course of the week to have more conversation. I truly welcome and invite you to take advantage of some of those opportunities that we might. Better get to know one another in particular i'd like to hear your hopes and your dreams. For the next write chapter of this beloved community. Why. Why do i so want to hear from you. About what brings you alive. About your hopes and your dreams. Why. Because ministry is all that we do together. Next week. After next sunday's worship you will have an opportunity to participate. In a vote to call your next minister. This is a vote that affirm the desire to journey forward with one another. A partnership on a shared journey of continuous growth. And continuous discovery. This morning very briefly. And we might run over our service by just a few moments. But i really do want to share this information with you. This morning i'd like to share with you just a little piece. About my own call to ministry. Since we're talking about call-and-response. You know before i was a minister i was a radio journalist. And i worked in public radio in wnyc in new york. And that incredible city of new york. And it works fine arts and cultural radio magazine it had a pretty good name it was called the next big thing. Sounds good right. And i was thrilled doing that work i learned how to write. Material for radio do interviews edit and mixtape weave together story and song. I was applying to walk the streets of that urban metropolis. Define stories. And most mostly do the work happened in the studio. Winfred circular cloudy. Wendy's september day. I was sent on a mission of sorts. To go to the queens public library. Which featured one of the largest holdings of multilingual books in the country. Actually. And the goal was to take snippets of people reading from these books in diverse languages. Highlight the diversity of voices present in that neighborhood and present in that library. Sounded like a good idea. As it turned out when i got there to the library and opened its doors i saw that there were really just only a few. Folks meandering. Through the stacks. There were two students at reading in. Cantonese. And another woman reading a romance novel in english. And you see if you might imagine the problem with recording a radio story in a library. Is that. Jokes for reading. Silently. And so it turns out while this was a nice idea in reality it didn't quite work out to be the next big thing. It was proving more to be like the next big snooze. And i was pretty worried about this and suddenly a woman came up to me. She was a flight woman covered in a very large jacket. She was in her 80s. I just spotted my microphone. She tapped me on the shoulder and she said i'd like to speak with you. On record please. And so it was that she began to tell me her story of arrival. From poland into the united states. She shared with me her story about her husband. Negotiating cancer. And her children who had become very swept up in their own lives. She wept. I listened. And we sat. And sometime cast. She asked me if i was still recording her story. She would ask me a question here and there just to tell i was listening and i was. And then she spoke until no more tape was left in my recording device. Thank you she said pressing my hand. Thank you for listening. And then she was gone. I had no real good tape. Turimex for the story i thought i should be telling. The stories he could not be cut down to a shorter chagnon. That day i was supposed to be doing something very different. Researching for pre-established story organizing my encounter so that i could edit the material for a really good piece on the next big thing. But instead i was stopped in my seat. There was a holy counting quality to our encounter and when i say holy i mean that which tends towards human wholeness. That day is i walked back to those studios in lower manhattan i began to hear. A deeper calling and it was not to cover an edit material for radio not even national public radio it was instead to serve. The calling of life. Beneath the words of that unexpected encounter. Does nudging call i'll tell you to serve the fullness of life. And a tent or encounters. And unique. Puli opportunities as human being. This column has lived inside of me my whole life. But i took very many years for me to listen. And respond yes. So i moved from journalism to social work. But as i started to place what if. What if. Perhaps. Instead of should. Should. Should. I found myself in 2005. Following a very clear and distinct call to ministry. Because you see ministry is what we all do together. This morning. We're talking about the light that lives within and exercising our own deepest calling as individuals and as a gathered community i'd like to lift up for our common reflection one luminary. And his name is william ellery channing. Some of you know him he was a nineteenth-century unitarian thinker preacher writer ultimately and abolitionist activist that we can slowly. To it. But had to learn and uncover. I'm his own ideas. I say he was a luminary because indeed his light touched others and impacted others. Unfortunately the flavor of his theology. Was called imago dei. Which month the image of god. And everyone. For some of us we wrestle with that language of god but what channing meant was that a special sacred divine light lives within all of us and what he said is that the central task of religious life. Unfold. Powers of our soul. That we might extend our light. Into the world. This is a good concept i think. Some ideas are always timely. That we each hold a spark of the divine. He said that inside of us. Are the principles from which the universe is from. This idea that we have creativity and light within. He said that the task is to learn about ourselves and unfold the power of love. These things are hard to do. Fun to think about. And the reason that we come together in congregational life i think. It's so that we might remember. Our lights. The light of others. That we might tend to our spirits and unfold our own rich and treasured and valuable gift. The in the beauty and the brokenness of the world we might remember that which bring that size ever more deeply into life. What kind of rhythm do we create with one another when we allow love. To lead the way. When we allow love to be our guide. Love. Light. Sharing. Growing. Journeying together. Love on this fierce and fragile planet. Dear ones this morning i hope that we will make our road by walking together. Sharing our light pointing out and recalling the light in others. Come let us be alive let us create continuously a house of worms and a house of welcome. That we all might unfold the power. Ivar. Shared. Spirits. May this be so. May this be. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. At uuc an rv. org.

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130421_do_blessed-community.mp3

Welcome to the april 21st service at the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. Today's sermon is delivered by rev. roland. And it's titled awakening the promise of blessed community. The podcast begins with a reading by members of the settled minister search committee. A podcast of the complete surface. Minus joys and concerns in the hymns. Can be linked to from the members area homepage. Invite the members of the ministerial fellowship committee to come forward and share with us words of a shared reading. Your gifts whatever you discover them to be can be used to bless or curse the world. The mind's power the strength of the hands. The reaches of the heart. The gift of speaking listening imagining. Seeing waiting. Any of these can serve to feed the hungry. Bind up wounds. Welcome the stranger. Praise what is sacred. Do the work of justice. Or offer love. Any of these can draw down the prison door. Cornbread. Abandon the poor. Obscure what is holi. Comply with injustice. Or withhold love. You must answer this question. What will you do with your gifts. Choose to bless the world. The twisted list the world is more than an active will. I'm moving forward into the world. With the intention to do good. It's an octave recognition. The confession of surprise. A grateful acknowledgment. That in the midst of a broken world. Unspeakable beauty. Grace and mystery abide. There is an embrace of kindness that encompasses all life. Even yours. And while there is injustice. And that's this is zacian or evil. Their moves a holy disturbance. A benevolent rage. A revolutionary love. Protesting. Urging. Insisting that which is sacred will not be defiled. Those who bless the world live their life as a gesture of thanks. For this beauty and this rage. The choice to bless the world can take you into solitude. To search for the sorcerer. Power and grace. Native wisdom. Healing. And liberation. More. The choice will draw you into community. The endeavor shared. The heritage passed on. The companionship of struggle. The importance of keeping faith. The life of ritual and praise. The comfort of human friendship. The company of earth. The course of life welcoming you. None of us alone can save the world. Gather. Pat is another possibility waiting. You know that line. It was the best of time. X. What a week. What a splendid joyful exuberant week. What are challenging baffling dunning. Heartbreaking kind of week. And so it is. It is been a rich week for me listening to the joys and challenges hopes and dreams of this dear beloved community and i will say to you that. I am my husband pete have truly enjoyed being here. In blacksburg with you. For sunny days and for cloudy ones. When our spirits are high and when our spirits are in mourning. What a week indeed. This morning i want to talk together with you. Exploring this question. How might we live full-hearted. As beloved. Community. Within and beyond. These congregational walls. In ancient times there was such a thing called a touchstone. Touchstone was an actual physical thing. A dark slab of rock. Upon which minerals were scratched. And if residue remains on this rock. The metal was considered precious. Have you heard of this. Psy.d of touchstone. Yeah. Course. This morning i want to suggest to you that beloved community may not be a new notion. But it is gaining renewed interest in today's world it is perhaps a touchstone. For our times. Meaning that i can help you perhaps guide our engagement. With the world and with one another. But what really is this beloved community concept which no doubt many of you have heard of here before what does that really mean and what might ask. A name deeply associated the largely unsung connected with this notion of beloved community. Is a gentleman by the name of josiah royce. Royce is not really a household. Name. In the 1800's he was writing in thinking he hailed from grass valley california which is actually not too far from where i currently reside. And josiah race ended up following an interesting path. It led him out of the rolling quiet countryside of grass valley and it let him into the hallowed halls of places like berkeley and cambridge and harvard. He was a writer and philosopher. He was a theologian. By which we mean someone who studies deeply the nature and idea of what is called by some god. In 1919. Right after the advent of world war 1. He was part of an interesting group that formed this group formed from folks and thinkers from diverse countries they wanted to get together to explore the path of peace. And apprentices of non-violence they got together and this group of folks was called the fellowship of reconciliation. Many years later. Decades later really. There was a man who discovered. Josiah royce is writing. Answer indeed decided to join as well the fellowship. A reconciliation and that man is a household name here. That man's name is rev dr martin luther king. No doubt this is a name known to so many of us here in this room. What drew rev dr martin luther king to josiah royce has writing about beloved community. Well as i said bruce was the very first person to coin the term beloved community and he was royce was an idealist. By which i mean literally he was a philosophical idealist. He was interested in the notion of a larger hole in which all aspects of reality fit into this larger hole. For boise understood this to be a unity. Even thought it was a conscious kind of unity. With a tribute such as peace. And love. And respect. We talked about ideals were talking about our. Highest aspiration. Our most esteemed kind of thought. Here in this room we might not all agree. That there is in fact a larger conscious. Unity. That might be an idea that we wrestle with. Some of us may indeed think rice is really onto something there. And others might think not so much. But really stood believe in this kind of unity. He also was deeply interested in human beings and how we get together in community. So many different. Apple aquifers were focusing on individuals. Ray said yes indeed we are individuals but it's really hard to think about being an individual without considering the already being this. Every human in society. Shaped as we are by cultures of meaning. Communities of shared stories. He was particularly interested rice was and what he terms and had a lot of different categories for thinking about communities he was really interested in a community. Community study called communities of hope and memory. Memory in terms of a shared story and help meeting a shared vision of what could be. Possible. Together. Who it was that ruiz died before he was able to fully map out his ideas. But ideas. As we heard our story for all ages ideas and practices have a way of cheating and growing and transforming and becoming and so it was that rev dr martin luther king encountered royce's work as a student. And it had him deeply thinking. And he expanded on voices idea of beloved community. But his context was different. The context was the black struggle for justice and civil rights here in the united states and so it was that when king or his vision of beloved community. He-man. A community in which all people are valued. But not in an ideal way. Any actual way. To our practices. When king talks about the beloved community it's not just a concept he envisioned the beloved community as the whole country itself. Woven together in one common story. For him it was the united states constitution. And bound together by a common dream. That dream as so many of us here know with articulated in the i have a dream. That was his hope. So it was he thought about everyone in one beloved community down by common story. I'm compelled forward in common hope towards a shared sort of vision you can see in his life's work and those of you who lived through the civil rights movement we can hear as we were flat on weir canyon was inspired. By josiah royce. King alludes to beloved community event not as am. Destination. Location. Not as a utopic fantasyland. But rather a wide-open radically inclusive and expensive kind of community. And respect means interrupting patterns of systemic oppression. That is where one group of people is set apart. And treated in such a way as that group has all of the privileges. And those construed as other are set forth to starve. Or just suffer for lack of access to clean water education healthcare funds we know. How this. Works in our world when we look around. In beloved community though. Needs are known. Stories are shared and relationships are forged. Shower. And the complexities of power and privilege. Are considered. And people work together towards one another's well-being. Structural inequity is dismantled. Because such iniquity hinders the very possibility. Existent for beloved community itself. Today in the 21st century. Beloved community is indeed more practice we engage and a way of becoming. Such that we are transformed when we engaged together. Through beloved community. Ultimately. The word beloved community is not too hard to unpack. Community that comes from the latin meaning commonest meaning everybody. From the older english meaning fellowship. And beloved. Coming of course from love. Beloved is also a trim by which many people from different religious and spiritual traditions refer to that which is most sacred. And most holy. Love. And if beloved community is about love. And it's also about belonging. In our human longing to belong. We human being long to belong to feel at home in our lives. In the planet and in our relations. We long to feel that each one of us matters. And the each one of us is held in a larger. Fabric of existence. Josiah royce lived in an arab marked by war. And industrial revolution. Rev dr martin luther king lived in aramark's by war and cultural revolution. We in the 21st century here together. We live in a time of war and rapid technological. Revolution. One that is impacting the way we human being spend time. And play and work the ways we communicate with one another the way we socialize the way we meet one another in the marketplace of goods and ideas. It's funny in the 21st century there's a paradox here which is we are ever more deeply connected through technology and that even more people experience isolation and fragmentation. And disconnection. It's a curious thing. Isn't it. This kind of paradox. Until we know that even as our technology is bringing us to bright new places even with these incredible isn't innovations. We human beings are not somehow delivered from our sense to engage deeply with one another in beloved community we're not delivered somehow from the sense that we must connect with one another opening our hearts. And getting to know one another stories. You're still a justice speaking people. We are still a people longing for deep connection that brings us closer to the heart of life. I talked earlier about a touchstone. And again i would have suggested it perhaps it is that beloved. Community. Is a touchstone. For our times. This week. As i've said already this day we experienced a wave of challenges which tried our hearts which tested our spirits. And. We saw a wave i think of radically realized. Love. Love in the midst of pain. We saw that most of us the vast majority. Are people who care deeply for one another. Who when when life is at risk. Step forward in care and an action. I have a colleague whose name is reverend lynn unguard she was reflecting this week and i was really moved by her words as i was thinking about what to talk with you about about beloved community. And she said. We don't know why. And we can't imagine. And that is who we are. For the most part we are people who don't know why. And we can't imagine. But i would say that we are people who can't imagine caring for one another. We can imagine. A world where we use our gifts to bless the world in a spirit of love. I want to share with you just a little bit about where i encountered and was moved by beloved. Community while i've been here with you in blacksburg. I was touched by a sense of beloved community as i heard about people. 7000 people strong running on. April right around april 16th. Running for hope and remembrance. People cheered up as they shared with me about the power of this. And i thought. Beloved community. Here at uuc i experienced a sense of beloved community when you all shared move me your questions about what it might take to make this community ever more welcoming. I heard beloved community when some of you reflected with me. Unclamp issues. Here in the new river valley. I heard an experience. Beloved community and was moved by it. When i heard different people talking about individualism and what it means to be individuals part of a larger whole. I saw beloved community when the youth group members. Listen to one another into speech. When the pagan group circled from meals. When the siege is gathered for discussion. When the parents got together for laughter. And reflection. I saw the seeds of community extending beyond these congregational walls when folks ask me reverend era what justice issues are close to your heart. When they asked me about congregational ebased community organizing. Which is something that i'm trained how congregations do who are interested in it. I saw the speeds of beloved community extending beyond these walls when people talk to me about having a larger impact together. As unitarian universalist in the public square. This morning i want to suggest to you that. A growing thriving congregational life is i think always indeed about this sense of. Becoming. The sense of becoming and living into. Beloved. Community. Such a community is dynamic because it listens and learns and grows together. Even when it's messy. Even when it's confusing even when the way is not always clear because this is how beloved community move together. Beloved community. Is what it says it is. Love. Community. Love. Community. Love. And community. So it's true. That beloved community is not a ride at disneyland. It's not a destination location or utopic fantasy. Beloved community is in fact what we practice when we come together. Training our hearts to open ever wider. In training our minds to explore justice using our hands along the way. I want to stay with this morning that i don't think beloved community is all about hard work. It's not a waste.. It's a lot about laughing together it's a lot about playing together it's a lot about lifting up creative ideas big and small. Singing resting. Dancing. Together. Sometimes i tell people that i am. A recovering. person. Because we all need a little more levity and a little bit more laughter and anne lamott who's a wonderful poet probably known by many here she says that rest and laughter are actually the most subversive. Of all. Beloved community helps us remember to celebrate and laugh together. We might not have blackstone tablets. Help us discern what is most precious. But each day we are called to discern what is most valuable and precious in our lives. What i wonder is your touchstone. Could it be practicing. Beloved community. We become. By what we choose to do with our agency. That is to say our power to act. What is it that we will choose to do with our gifts. May we choose to bless the world. By our words by our deeds by the boldness of our imagination by the daring of our care for one another let us join together. To enact beloved community. Inside this congregation and beyond its walls. That beloved community be made manifest. As a place of belonging for all people. Waking up tour interconnections let us choose to bless bless. And let us go forward together shining. Laughing. Singing dancing growing in the messy mystery of life. Nativepath rise up before us. I hope the stance on this journey. The journey of our days. Mavis ever be so. Blessed be shalom. Alarm ashay and amane. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

140525_yruu_bridging.mp3

Welcome to the may 25th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. Today's service is led by the congregations high school youth group. The why are you you. The title of their presentation is bridging. And several youth and other members of the congregation share thoughts about bridging from high school to adulthood. Earlier this week we asked three people from three different generations to come up and speak about their experiences transitioning from high-school to college and hopefully offer some advice to use making. Transition today. First we have erica read the youngest of the three. Who just made that transition a few years ago followed by our very own rest area and one of my favorite members of our congregation stephanie gilmore. The first we have. As many of you know i grew up in this church my mom and i started attending when i was 3. I went through re-listen the middle school youth group as well as why are you using group. And. Looking back in. At my youth group pictures from when the bridging ceremony when i was a senior i noticed that it was the same day was may 20th. I'm now very active in the nursery as the as a sitter in a quart. Coordinator. And this year it was an honor to be able to be asked to be a why are you advised. So. When sage asked me last week if i would say a few words of the service. Reflecting back to when i graduated from high school. And things i wish i'd known or if i side. Have given myself. Store. Wish i could have known. I was hesitant not sure i'd be able to come up with much. Once i started thinking about it i actually was able to make. A really long list of each. Due to. Time and. Not did not having enough time i wasn't able to put it all together into so much of a speech but i. I definitely. Like i put it into a kind of a. So bear with me this is. And i came to realize that these are a lot of a lot of these things are. Remind good reminders. For just life in general as well as. Not describe. Travel. Go out and explore. Us and the world. I wish i had done a little more traveling and i still plan to. But. Definitely do make memory. Go out. Put yourself in different. Cultures in situations. Meet new people. And get out of your comfort zone push yourself. And don't be afraid to. Put yourself in difficult decisions. Situation sometimes that's the best. The best thing. And you all. Surprise yourself movie don't be afraid to speak up and be heard. Take care of yourself. And trust your gut. If something doesn't feel right reconsider. The bottom line have fun. And don't forget to make time for yourself and to do what you love and. So when i was asked by the why are you you. Trifecta my own transit. My own transition. From high-school to young adulthood. I was also asked even take a look at. What my older self. Would have told my younger self. At that time. And i thought to myself. What a wonderful question. Put a really wonderful question. Should have been asked. By the way are you. Which reflect back my older self. To my younger self. On what wisdom. And what advice. So when i think about that portion. Of my own life. That portion about moving from. High school. Into the net. Chapter. I think a lot about how mixed it actually. The knick city. Of all the feelings. There was this excitement about being done with high school. And i'll tell you for myself there was a feeling about being really done. Really ready. To get going. Whatever was next. And i wasn't yet sure what those new adventures might be. But i'll tell you it was also bittersweet. It was bittersweet because i was actually to be honest with you i was already starting to miss. My family. My friend. And the similarity of my routine. What was normal. I didn't know what the next part would be revealed i didn't know what was coming up. And in the 1990s i lived out in san. Just across the bridge. And i'm. I moved a lot in my life so actually by the time that i was in high school. And actually moved many many many times. By the time i was a senior i was actually feeling really good that i actually. Been at a home base. For a little while. And it was a home-based light actually grown to love. So one of the things we would do is when is sunset. What happened. And we had time in our schedules we would go up to a hill that actually overlooked. The golden gate bridge. And we see the cars that were driving across that big bridge. And right there in the distance we could glimpse the city lights. And from this hell i'll tell you the view was such that the bridge looks big but the city looks very small. Because we were way up high. So i came down from that hill. And i had to graduate. And i ended up crossing that bridge. That bridge literally i ended up going. To university. A few miles south of san. And a town called santa cruz. What i remember is that leave taking it can be exciting but i also found that it could be challenging. The bridge between my old home and my new home. It took a while. Holy cross. Took me a long time to feel at home in santa cruz. I recall feeling homesick sometimes. But also thrilled sometimes with a new home that i was creating for myself. I had a lot of friends new friends old friends. Lot of new experiences. But it really did take me time to grow into this new chapter. Of my own life. And i'll tell you that that chapter ended up being very different than the one that i had imagined. The day that i graduated. I ended up studying american studies and politics. And i moved into my own house. Friends. And then i moved into another house with some friends and then another house with some friends. As i found my own way. I got jobs to pay my bills i travelled to spain and to mix. To study. And then i later moved to new york city. To become a journalist. And then many years later i became a minister. When i think about crossing that bridge. From. From high school into young adulthood. I think about how it was for me alot like preparing. For backpacking. There's something that i can bring with me. And there were some things that i couldn't. Basically when you go on a backpacking trip you take what is essential. You take the most important things with you. As you enter into the unknown. And i can feel like i'm amazed at the beginning. You might not know a new lamp landscape. So some of you who are moving on from high school. You might be going to a very new landscape literally a place that looks very different from this valley. And some of you might also be sticking around or find yourself sticking around this valley but it'll feel like a new landscape because your identity will be different you'll no longer. Being high school. It's not always easy to create a newfound identity in the world. There's a show called man versus wild. Anyone know the show called man versus wild. Yeah it's a survivalist show. And in the show the survivalist gets dropped into tricky and extreme landscape. We have to figure out how to make his way back home. He goes into the deserts of the sahara and the swamps of the everglades and his remote islands and. And he has to figure out how to find his way back home. You know it's a bit outlandish i think that we must only imagine that survivalist must be dropped in. Extreme environment. When i think about the big wide world. It can sometimes feel. A bit like. The unknown a bit like. A deep wilderness. I can feel confusing. Challenging and exciting. So to the why are you you. And especially to the bridgers. Store moving into young adulthood. What i want to say to you this morning is that. My words to my younger self. Which i was asked to reflect on for you all today. My words to my younger self are the same as my hopes for you. That is the in your life you know what is in your back. That you remember what you have inside of you. If you make your choices. And find the way that will be yours. And i know that sometimes it's hard when you hear a lot of words. So i thought i'd bring you something to show you help you remember what i'm really talking about. Who knows what this is. Yeah it's a compass. When we're out. Backpacking in the wilderness at compass can help us find our due north. When i'm really talking to you today is about. My hope for you is that you can really. Find your due north by looking within. Sometimes it's very hard to figure out as you encounter new experiences what is you. What is really. You. What is authentic. Not someone else's pass. But what is truly at your auntie. You might find yourself at a fork in the road. And you're really not sure which choice to make. Which path to follow. How to balance your free time versus your commitments to your academic life. Or multiple opportunities that come before you and you just don't know which choice to make there will be many crossroads. Each of us i think has a compass inside of ours. So don't forget to use yours. Consider what is due north for. That means what is in your heart. And to do that you'll use all the things about yourself that you already know. All the strength. And all the weaknesses. And as you go forward into your next chapter you will learn more about yourself. Your strengths. And your weaknesses. My hope is that you can honor what you already know about yourself. And that you can pick up all of the positive pieces that have been given to you. By those who love and care for you. And who will continue to love and care. My hope is also that some of the wisdom. And the practices. And the network of care that you may have experienced at this congregation also move with you. So that when you look inside. Infant try to find due north. He's got some access to that place. May you go forward. With courage into the unknown. Azeron survivalist. But knowing that you're not alone. Megaforce and continue to find your due north. Maybe so. Blessed be and almond. Well i wrote a speech. Because if i didn't write a speech i would. Forgive me for 4. If i look back and it. Wayback. De 1959. When i was 17. And a graduating senior. With my train ticket to minneapolis. My new olympia portable typewriter. And my letter of admission. To the university of minnesota. I can remember how excited i was. I don't remember being frightened. Although i must have. Perhaps i was less apprehensive than i might have. Because even then i was. In addition to those things. I had ready to smooth my way. My new life. I had a life. I would study english lit. Get a teaching credential. Anteater. School english. Somewhere along the way of course i would get married. Babies. And i would live happily ever after. That's how the story wednesday. In the waning days of the 1950s. Before the social upheavals of the 60. + 70. It really did not occur to me. That my life scenario. Would differ greatly. From what i had. Sketched. Well. Y'all know. What i didn't then and that that is such a scenario which. In general. I think we today are less naive than people were back then. Or at least less naive than i was. Not question my path. For some years. I love. The u of a. I tolerated uc berkeley. I got married and had one more than the requisite. And i stayed home with them. Goodyear. That i would not. And then i found myself up against the wall. If i turn 30. That is when i started to give voice to my need. To be more than a house. I really didn't go on. You've read the books. You've seen the movies. You you know what happened in. Crucial decade. Or you've heard your parents. What happened for me though. Is that i was up again. Having to change. And the idea of having to. It almost paralyzed. Somehow though. Slowly i found it in me. To move forward into alive. That was quite. From what i had envisioned. I became a single working mother. As so many did in those years. And. Are doing now. I admitted that i did not want to be. School english. Probably a. A favor to all those generations. And and i found a career almost by accident in public health. A field i stayed in until i retired ten years ago. I look back on those years of doing work that i love. Work that expressed my values. It made a difference in some lives now and then. Here and there. And it gave me.. Marvel. And how close i. To not making. To not have. So. If there's any lesson. I wish to share with you. From this not at all unique story. It is this. No now and going forward. That you probably will have to. The majorette. Expect change. Be ready for it. The impulse. The impulse for change might come from within you a little voice that says is this really is. Isn't there more. Or you might find yourself swimming in a veritable soup of social. For me. Learning to move away from the nose. And embracing. The. The unknown. Embracing. The real. Hard hard life. I wish you an easier time recognizing. When you need to. And knowing. You can. And you can survive. So go forward. Knowing that not all ahead is certain. Being open to. I wish you. I'm come back to. And share your advice. I'm you know that i love. Alright so everyone should have gotten a piece of white paper so don't have a piece of white paper and a pencil. Alright so. On this white piece of paper i just want everyone to take a moment and. Similar to stephanie and. Dara and erica speeches just kind of write something like. A memory you have some kind of advice you have. Something that could possibly help the youth and we're just going to kind of. Reflect on our lives edge. Think deeply for a minute and then write something down. And then we'll collect them all. And we're going to come collect them if everyone will pass it down to the last person in their row. This way. See what we got. Thank you. I'll try to read slam poem style. Most remaining true to who you are seek to find the blessed place. It allows you to be. Right and happy. Relationships are more important than things spiritual life is more. Then material wealth. The material wealth. Hugs esten be flexible. When i graduated just four years ago i decided to run as far away from familiarity as possible and packed up to go to the west coast. I went to my dream school but ended moving back. Closer to family i was devastated but it was the best decision don't be afraid. To transfer if you need to. Play catch with your friend when it's nice outside some of the best conversations i've had with while playing catch. Send this little pictures youtube people playing catch. In case you didn't know what they were talking about. Oh god. Find meaning and everything in your life 7 billion people on this earth and i've never met anyone who. Isn't important. Take risks knowing us. Friends and family that can be your net. Some friends you will have for a lifetime nourisher relationships. Stop to notice the beauty around you. System going here. Have fun. Be prepared for change. And to change the passage of time seems to be a journey through changes some good some not-so-good. How you adjust a change will be. Will determine your success. Optimus feel like. Don't give anyone other than yourself the power to define you and be brave. Follow your heart dowhatyoulove find your center and be true to it be prepared to fall and ready to rise again open yourself to the risk of love. Be open travel whenever possible and always keep learning and listening. It is at this time in the service where we take a moment to reflect on our bridging you stand all that they've brought to the youth group throughout the years so i'm just going to stay a little bit about. Each member that is. Hannah. The joint body positivity you bring to a room always brightened our days and leaves everyone feeling better and when they got there. We can honestly not thank you enough for all you've done for us these past 4 years. Thanks for putting up with our crazy ideas and for always being there to give us hugs. It's really amazing and we love you and appreciate you more than you'll ever know. Holly. You're such an amazing listener and somehow everytime you talk to anyone of us we leave in a better mood than when you started. You always know how to make us laugh and we know we can always count on you to be there for us when we need you. Thanks for being such an amazing friend. And leader to all of us in and outside of the youth group. We're so excited to see the places you'll go in the future. Thanks for everything we love you tons and will miss you so much. It's really an amazing friend to have. Thanks for listening to us when we need you for providing sarcastic comments in our blond moments. And for always knowing how to make us laugh. I'm so happy to have gotten to know you so well this year. And we can't wait to see what your future holds thanks for everything will miss you tons. Sam. Just being around you makes people happy. Your sarcasm practice up and you're so easy to talk to about anyting. Thanks for your incredible listening skills positivity and for overall just showing us the thing ourselves okay. We owe you so much and can't wait to see the great things are going to accomplish. Thanks for everything. So moving on from high school. Into this place called adulthood. Is indeed a rite of passage. And it's one that together here at our congregation we mark with the bridging service. An emerging service is actually fairly customary throughout ruu movements. Every congregation doesn't just a little bit differently but as unitarian universalist. We take time to really value this rite of passage especially that the seniors are undertaking right now. So what we're going to do now together is i'm going to invite forward the why are you you and the advisors to start forming a human bridge. They're going to show us how to form a human bridge facing each other. Meeting each other palm to palm. And what we're going to need is a few additional folks who feel so inspired to come forward and help complete this human bridge. You feel inspired please come on down meet someone else palmtop home and for my human bridge. Going one. Going twice. So we recognize thank you bridgers thank you thank you pictures and thank you those who are forming the human bridge. We recognize. We recognized as a congregation. And as a movement. As a movement of unitarian universalist we recognize that each individual life is precious and a value. With this ritual we also recognize that each individual life supported by a network of family and friends. And make knowledge right now the right of passage. But each one of you are undertaking. Going to invite sajal ali to read a few lines and then each one of the. Senior bridge. Metaphorically and physically. Through the human bridge we also recognize that it's not that when you're in high school and you're graduating that you bridge into nowhere. You don't bridge into nowhere you bridge into somewhere. And still at the very end of our bread. I thought some representatives from the young adult group. You are ready to receive you. And they prepared some words that they like to share with you. So now we will. Embrace the bridging ritual ready. I have this one. Yeah i'll just be quiet for a second. Alright. I've a very cheesy quote to read. You guys can start going through. Great places today is your day. Your mountain is waiting so get on your way. So welcome to the congratulations you get to pay taxes. As you enter this new stage of your life when there's a few things that we want you to know and the first is patience. In the uncertainty. We would also like you to know curiosity. And open-mindedness as you continue to learn and grow. And compassion for yourselves and for others. And forgiveness for those who have wronged you. And we also went to offer the support and care of this new community of peers. So welcome. Sing wagon wheel for whoever wants to come up with group. You guys want to come sing it. Wagon wheel everybody. We also get all the past why are you you people to come up and sing it with us. And just anyone who wants to. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

150503_do_mental-health.mp3

Welcome to the may 3rd service at the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by yourself minister. Reverend darryl.. Assistant i worship associate earl irwin. Also participating in the service. Are margo and chris walter. And christine reed. The seam of the service is mental health. 2 got a story for all ages and i'm aware that it's easiest to pay attention to stories sometimes when we get playful. With each other and told me to ask you to all play along a little bit with me first in order to tell her story this morning i'm going to need a little bit of help. One of you be willing to share with me a favorite food of yours. What's your favorite food. Peanut butter and nutella sandwich that sounds good anyone else like those peanut butter and nutella sandwiches great. Alright i'm just anyone up here have a favorite game that you like to play. Favorite game. Monopoly all right my favorite game monopoly anyone else like to play monopoly. Getting what about. Anybody out here have a favorite song. No favorite song. Yeah what's your favorite song. Lean on me what a good one alright favorite song lean on me okay. Alright so here we go and you know what if it's hard to listen sometimes i want to pass this around. Don't hear how this soccer ball shows up in the stories if you hold onto the second look at it pass it around. Alright this is a story about three people. And one of those people's names was max. Matt was a ten-year-old boy who had a favorite food and his favorite food with the same as dylan's it was a nutella and peanut butter sandwich they're aware that right that's what he like to eat. Here's some other things about max he loved to play outside he loved to swim and he loved to play. Soccer. Yeah you could balance that soccer ball on the tops of his toes for a really long time. It was a really cool trick. And their story involves two other people. Lena and sarah who went to school with max. Will sarah notice that anytime it got really noisy around the schoolyard or at kids yelled at each other you know his sometimes kids would do max would get a little bit quiet. And then sometimes he would do something a little different. He would start to move his hands like this. Like around like this and you start to come home to himself a little. Mr. had known max since they were really little kids and she never really thought anything about this at all after all max was just max. He had his favorite food he always love to eat those nutella and peanut butter sandwiches and play it with a soccer ball. And he's also really strong swimmer. Max with max and she loved how they would die for penney's in the swimming pool every sunny i ever every summer and sarah thought mac was just the fastest swimmer she had ever seen. And of course she loved his really need soccer tricks the way you would bounce it on his toes. Sing with max sometimes felt this kind of nervous feeling. Especially when new things were happening things that were new and different or there were sort of changes that he wasn't expecting or really loud noises. Or when he felt kind of angry or kind of sad and when does happen like i said he would do this mostly where he would move his hands and come quietly to himself. Tell sarah she didn't know exactly why max did this and you know what max didn't really know why he did this either. It was just something that he did. Along with playing soccer and swimming. And diving for pennies. But now that they were all bigger they were just about 10 years old. It seems like it's cool max was doing his hand motion and humming. More than. Ever before. The one time it was time to play everyone's favorite game and that favorite game was monopoly. And so all the kids wanted to play in the all got together and they got off the board and they got all the pieces. And a lot of yelling and a lot of commotion. And that's got a little bit nervous. I got a little bit worried so he did that thing that he does sometimes when he got worried and nervous he rolled his hands a little bit he may this little humming sound. Informatics that made him feel better. Often but not always. No i said there was one more kid in the story and that kid's name is lena. Lena with sarah's friend and a really popular kid. With many friends. And lena. Looked at max. And she saw him do this and she said something that wasn't really nice. She said. You're crazy what are you doing. Stop that. Now i wonder if you'd ever felt like max being called and i mean sort of name. And i wonder if maybe it's some of you've ever felt like lena where you were confused and you didn't understand why someone was acting in a way that seemed to different then they be the way that you act. I also wonder if you've ever felt like sarah max's friend. I don't understand about what to do. I'll tell you what happened maxcut pretty upset the way anyone would when someone says something mean. Anthony serrano that max got upset was that mac started doing that motion again. Is there a didn't know what to do when she's pretty mad at her friend lena for making max feel so bad. She could tell that max was kind of sticking out and sarah didn't really want to say anything. Cuz you know what sarah was worried about sticking out to. I wonder if any of you have ever been worried about sticking out. If she was worried that if she stuck out she might be made fun of and she didn't want to stick out. Incident the bell ring for class and all the kids went inside but you know what that night. Pirouette and she talked to your dad. Seriously dad might my tummy kind of hurts. And dad sabrina what you were eating all that potato it's at dinner is that why your stomach hurts. Or something else and you know what sarah said you know this thing happened on the playground and i didn't know what. Do i'm friends with lena and max and i don't want to stick out but i was not okay with max being called this name. And. Dad said will you think your stomach is hurting because you're upset. And lena said yeah i'm sorry that yeah and sarah said yeah. I wonder sincerus max does that hand and hunting thing when he's upset, the way my stomach is upset because something doesn't quite feel right. Max at the father said you know what sarah that could be. Thank you very much. I passed along to you to hold doing. An answer that you know. i don't know why max does this do you know why and you don't. Dad scratches heading to sarah i have to tell you i don't really know either. But here's what i do now. I do know that max is talking to his parents and parents were talking to him about how he can feel comfortable at school with other kids. Sometimes i think he has big feelings and he doesn't quite know how to deal with his big feeling. And i think that happens to all of us. I don't really know what's happening for max but i know his parents are trying to help him have a good time. And be happy in school the same when i try to help you be happy at school too. My dad said wait max is that kid with the soccer ball right. He does that cool soccer trick. I'm seriously yeah you're right about that. And dad said he knows there are no one likes to be made fun of right. Yeah. you are right about that. And you know she thought about it all night long. But she figured you know. She's not just upset that math could be made fun of she was upset that anybody could be made a fun of just for being different. Kucera for example she has really bright red hair. And as she was really proud of her bright red hair. What if someone didn't like her bright red hair what is someone called her carrot top. But not in a very nice voice. Kind of a mean sort of voice. Sarah knew that wasn't okay. So. The next day she was back on the playground. And i'm people got to play my favorite game again they got to play monopoly. Alina said a pretty mean thing again. She said. Cammack she said hey crazy. Stop doing that. And then she did something else she reached out. It's try to grab max hand. What all the sudden sarah wasn't confused anymore sarah who is max's friend. She knew just what she was going to do. She said stop to her friend lena. And now she knows she might stick out for raising up her boys but suddenly she didn't mind too much either. Everyone has something they might stick out for. Any one of us could be different for in anyway. Maybe these differences make us interesting sarah thought. And at any rate no one should be called crazy. The only name we should use when talking to other people is there actual name. The sarah trenton acts quietly and she said. Baymax. I know. Go. Grab your ball. Any did. Sarah and max they went out into the field and they started playing with her ball. Max looks a bit sarah and he smiled he always thought that he and sarah have been friends but now he really knew it. And he knew he was going to be okay. And lena over back by the monopolies okay wait where you all going. Did you watch the sarah and max drifted off into the field. Azamax. Balance that's soccer ball. On his tips of his toes. Lina actually she had never seen anyone do that kind of. She had to admit. That night sarah went home and dada he's there at how was the date today. Is your stomach hurting and sarah said nope that it's not. My stomach doesn't hurt not one bit. And she felt so happy that she enacted been able to play. She felt so happy she didn't like singing in a really really long time but she decided that that night she was just going to sing sing sing her most favorite song and do you know where most favorite song was. It was lean on me. And so she's staying lean on me. When you're not strong and i'll be your friend i'll help you carry on lean on me. She sing it all night long. Thank you so much for sharing our story for for all ages this morning. This morning beloved community. We are talking about mental health. It's a big sort of umbrella. We're talking about mental health is a neutral. Sort of terms. I'm working talking and exploring a little bit about all of the different ways. I'm the challenges to mental health. Affect our lives. Want to know invite forward christine at redan. Chris walter you were going to share with us a few minutes. And if you fat. For without. Good morning i'm chris walter can you tell the difference between a mental health. Myth and a fact. Today we share the truth about the most common mental health miss. This information comes from mental. Health.gov and the national alliance on mental illness were nami. We'll use the term mental health today as a neutral term. Referring to a person's overall emotional and psychological condition. Mental health problems do not affect me. Wait. What are you saying cuz he forgotten about the inter. Connected a web of life here. Fact. Mental health problems affect everyone. Mental health problems are actually very common and affect people regardless of race. Class gender sexual orientation and level of education. In 2011 about one and five american adults experience to mental health issue. 1 and 10 young people. Experienced a. of major depression. 1. 1 and 20 americans. Lived with a serious mental illness. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the united. It accounts for the loss of more than more than 38,000. American lives each year more than double the number of lives. Boston homicide. I have one for you. Children don't experience mental health problems. Christine christine. This is way it really is. Even very young children make sure early signs of mental health. Concern. These mental health concerns are often clinically diagnosable. A product of the interaction of biological psychological and social factors. Half of all mental disorders first show themselves. In a person before they turn 14. And three-quarters of mental health concerns begin before disorders route begin before age 24. Fortunate less than 20% you listening. What's the 20% of children and adolescents. With diagnosable mental health. Problems receive the treatment that they need. Listen 20%. Hurley mental health support can help with child before problems interfere with other developmental tasks. Us surgeon general reports that 10%. Call children and adolescents. In the united states suffer. I'm serious emotional and mental disorders that cause significant functional impairment. Goodnight inundated eli's at home. With peers and in. Okay. I do think though. That even though most of us would agree the children. Don't experience our do experience mental health problems. That's sort of a general idea. But when it comes in into our own lives. In her own children or children of people we know. Sometimes we do have that mess at eldest child. Could not have mental illness even when they're showing sign. We're just having a bad day. People with mental health problems. Violence and unpredictable. Okay congregation. Is that a myth. The vast majority of people with mental health problems are no more likely to be violent. Than anyone else. Most people with mental illness or not violent. And only 303 to 5% of violent acts. Can be attributed to individuals living with a serious mental illness. In fact people with serious mental illnesses are over 10 times. More likely. To be victims. Of a violent crime than the general populace. It's really a switch. You probably know someone with a mental health problem and don't even realize it. Because many people with mental health problems. Are highly active. And productive members. Community. Thanks for setting me straight. Mental illnesses are all the same. You really believe that. With all our differences methadone is 12 zloty continue i must have already. Mental illness or medical conditions that disrupt. A person's thinking feeling mood. Ability to relate to others. And daily functioning. Justice diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas mental illnesses are medical conditions. That often results in a diminished capacity. For coping with the order. Ordinary demands of life. Serious mental illnesses include major depression. Schizophrenia bipolar disorder. Obsessive-compulsive disorder ocd. Panic disorder post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder. The good news about mental illness. Is that recovery is. Even though mental illness is widespread the main burden of illness is concentrated and a much smaller proportion. About 6%. 4117. Americans who live with a serious mental illness. Most people diagnosed with serious mental illness can experience relief from their symptoms. By actively participating in an individual treatment plan. The best treatments for. Serious mental illnesses today are highly effective. It's 70 and 90% of individuals. Has significant reduction of symptoms. An improved quality of life with a combination of pharmacological. And psychosocial treatments. She keeps setting me straight. People with mental health needs even those were managing their mental illness. Cannot tolerate distress. Upholding damage. Well i know that. I miss. Because of my personal. Experience my brother. Had a serious mental illness and he held. Job down but they do have to have. Jobs that that will. Support them in certain. People with mental illness. Mental health problems. Are just as productive. As other employees employers. Go hire people with mental health problems report good attendance. And punctuality as well as motivation. Good work and job tenure on par or greater with other employees. Sounds like we should hire. Okay here's one for you personality weaknesses or character flaws. Cause mental health problems. People with mental health problems can snap out it out of it if they try harder. Mental health problems have nothing to do with being lazy or weak. And many people need help to get better. Many factors contribute to mental health problems including. Biological factors. Such as genes physical illness. Injury or brain chemistry. Life experiences such as trauma or a history of abuse. Family history of mental problems. Mental health problems scuse me. People with mental health problems can't get better. And some maybe cover. Lately. Now this one i know is for sure. There is no hope for people with mental health problems. What's a friend or family. Never develop mental health problems. He or she. Will never recover. I don't believe you even believe that. Recovery refers to the process in which people are able to live. Work learn and participate fully in their communities. There are more treatment services and community support systems than ever before and they work. Now you might think this is strange coming from me. But. I can't. I can't do anything to help a person with a mental health. You cannot deny that because it is a personalized statement. That's not in the script. Fact is friends and loved ones can make a big difference. Only 38% of people with diagnosable mental health problems. And less than 20% of children adolescents. Cvd care. Friends and family can be important influences. To help someone get the treatment. And the services that they need. Reaching out and letting them know you are available for help. Helping them access mental health services. Learning and sharing the facts. About mental health especially if you hear something. Supposed to hear something. That isn't true. Yeah i work on doing that here already. Feeling of respect just as you would anyone else. And refusing to define them by their diagnosis. Are using labels like crazy. Now this one i know is. It's impossible to prevent. Well. I think the prevention of mental emotional and behavioral disorders focuses on addressing known risk factors. Such as exposure to trauma that can affect the chances that children youth and young adults. Will develop mental health problems. Promoting the social emotional well-being of children and youth. Leads to higher overall productivity. Better educational outcomes. Lower crime rates. Stronger economies lower healthcare costs. Improve quality of life increased life span. And approve family. Folks i want to share with you the after the service today there will be a panel of perspectives more personal perspective. And also resources. Kind of this morning you've heard some myths and facts and there are so many running around at myths about mental health and mental wellness with those words mean and also the ways in which mental disorders and illnesses shape our lives. This morning i want to share with you and i think already we're getting there as a congregation this morning and recognizing. This is not a topic that is other than us. I'm aware as minister sure that mental. Health challenges challenges for mental health and wellness. Affect almost every single person and every single family in some sort of way. Why would we have a service about mental health. I want to share with you that this curtis can about as particular. Quest by marker walter who actually. We auction off a sermon topic and she she and chris got this topic they said let's do a service about mental health and may is mental health month which is why. We're doing this. But there's other reasons talk about mental health other than the request came out of the congregation to me as your minister. And that's because ministry itself. It's about the fullness of our lives. That how we treat one another. Can we foster and sustain our lives of meaning and hope and. That how we mark our life passages. That how we connect to the sense of sacred or holy or that which is larger than ourselves. That reconnecting with our sources of indwelling power. And negotiating a world in which we often feel. Powerlessness. We're talking about challenges to mental health. Mental wellness when we're talking about mental illness and then. Orders and help moves and shapes our lives and those we love that can sometimes be a sense of helpless. But this morning went to lift up the message of hope. As you heard mentioned in some of the facts. Myths and facts the correct them. There is help. And there is hope. We start to break down and dissolve the stigma. That is even just talking. About mental health. And challenges tornado. The truth is that many of us know that. Stigma. Around talking about mental health. It challenges us. And it hurts us it's hurting our schools and our families it's hurting our congregations narcotic. And there's good news there because we can all participate in being stigma dissolvers. And stigma stoppers. The more we break open those sorts of spaces to talk and name about how wrestling with mental illness and mental disorders shows up in our lives. The more we create spaces for people to be more fully who they are. And noun. I know that one of the most. Comment human desires is to be known for the fullness of who we. Before it talking more about stigma briefly this morning i just like to talk about differ. They actually think that a service like this is really a service and which we talked about. Differences. It's not a service we talked about differences serviceberry talk about differences. That in a way in and of itself may make. Think that talking about mental challenges to our mental health. It's hard for many reasons. And that's because often. People are afraid. Of being misunderstood. We often celebrate differences and some idea. But i think often times were challenged when we encounter differences and we don't really understand and often human beings rollback into a sense of fruitfulness. Fall back on the sense of stereotypes. There's a lot of reasons why talking about difference itself. It's challenging for us. And yet for all of our differences. Most humans need. Shelter food. Community. Fresh air. Water places to unfold the fullness of our real gifts. They said earlier this morning and talking with the children. No one likes to be. Known by a label. Labels for jars. The only label that we ought to use this the label of somebody's name i want to share with you a few names. Abraham lincoln. There's a name. Beethoven there's another name virginia woolf. Vincent van gogh. Isaac newton. John nash sylvia plath. Lionel aldredge eugene o'neill. Winston churchill. Patty duke. Charles dickens thelonious monk. Anyone like jazz and. Thelonious monk there's a name for you linda. Hamilton. Shawn colvin judy collins and zac catherine zeta-jones. These are names. These are also people. To live. With mental illness. Not all of them the same mental illness some with depression and others with bipolar disorder. Still others with schizophrenia and others. But why are these names known to us. Because each has made an incredible contribution. Into government or the sciences. Music the arts and yes. Catherine zeta-jones into entertainment. This is why we know these names. This morning i don't want to suggest that all mental illnesses are like because they're not. But rather just like the diverse folks i've mentioned mental illnesses are distinct and more importantly how people live with mental illness and mental health challenges is also different. And so is people's relationship to diagnosis. I want a backpack for a minute and. And say that. It's not easy to talk about mental health and mental illness and mental disorders cuz all those words have different meanings in different spheres. So i think what's really important this morning today is to highlight the way someone speaks about and names their relationship to their diagnosis is what's most important. Is a clergy person i'm often talking with people who share with me the challenges in their lives including challenges of wrestling with diagnosis or what's not yet diagnosed or journey to figure out whether diagnosis would be helpful or unhelpful. I am not a diagnostician. On a minister. But what i do is listen to. Company people. And the journey of figuring out how spirituality can be a resource source of strength. And often times i connect people then. Two other resources so that they can get the mental health care that they need. So this morning i want to take the opportunity to tell you that i actually keep a list. Of support send out referrals to mental health professionals. Often if you are outside of this congregation even though we've got so many mental health workers in this congregation. But when people come to me. sometimes i'm aware that people want to be seen by someone. Who's not in this country. Lighthouses resource. As your minister today i just want to say that. I support. Families and individuals. In recognizing. And trying to make distinctions and trying to move through the baffling and. They can be working with mental health challenges. Mental health illnesses just are. People don't wrestle with mental health. Illnesses or disorders. Because there's something wrong or bad. Because you didn't work hard. Really important anemia. I was raised in a family where both my mother and my father were clinical social workers and when i was growing up we had. Cute bookshelves all devoted to. Fictional and non-fictional on stories about mental illnesses on a lot of those books were written in the 1960s and the 1970s when it was still a lot of mystery and misinformation. About mental illness and mental disorders and. Thank goodness in 2015 were a little bit further along but there is still a lot of misinformation and mythology walking around that paints portraits of people who wrestle with mental illnesses and disorders. Island. It's unworthy. Less than human. We are unitarian universalist. We honor the inherent worth and dignity of every person. And dorothea dix was one of our face forbearers. She was an early reformer. For those who. Reckon with mental illness challenges in this. Care for an appreciation of the fullness of human life is part of our unitarian universalist air. Please. Join me in clapping forward. Margo walter. If i wasn't nervous i am now. I'm margo walter and i'm here this morning to tell you a story my story. I'm going to try to speak from my heart not my head. And i did make some note so i don't get lost in my own life. Please be patient i've never done this before. Somebody share with you what it was like. What happens. And what it is like now and how i'm different today. I grew up in an alcoholic home is very dysfunctional there was no father. My mother was gone most of the time and i was kind of left on my own to do what i thought i needed to do. And in my teens i was a couple of different persons i really couldn't fit or didn't feel like i fit in anywhere. It was important i make straight a's and do well in school so i could get approval and all that appreciation. But weekends became party time. And a very young age i found alcohol. A little later some drugs. And. Hyalu groups that we hung around on weekends and just partied. And then i was also known as the risk taker. I would usually dare my friends to do things that were very dangerous looking back. But everyone did survive. In my twenties i got married in a young age i have three beautiful children. I started a career very productive career. And things were looking pretty good. Except i was miserable. I was depressed a lot i was very very anxious i was restless. And i just didn't sit still. I turned more to alcohol and drugs and looking back i was trying to self-medicate. I was trying to. Somehow wrestle with the idea that i could i could make it i'd be okay if i just relax. And that's how i relax. Things got worse. And in my thirties. I was separated from my husband. I lost custody of my children. Financially we lost the house the boat the cars. Was fired from my job. Edit 32 i was taking to my first psychiatric hospital. It was not the last visit to a psychiatric hospital. When i got there i was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Bipolar 1 which some people refer to as manic depression. It's where you have extreme mood swings both way up here and way down here. And a couple of other things happened during that time at the medications that are normally prescribed. For bipolar did not work for me. For whatever reason. So is a very very difficult time. I felt very suicidal. I tried on several accounts to in my life. And i started isolating more and more for my friends and for my family. Physically. I was a wreck. I weighed 92 lb. And have a difficult time finding anything that i could eat. I was very as i said very restless and very anxious. Emotionally i was bankrupt. Mentally confused. And not doing well this time was very difficult it was a very dark time in my life. As i said i lost custody of my kids i was divorced. Fired bankruptcy. Almost every relationship in my life was severed. I was totally on my own. Not good company either. I had hit my bottom as we say. So what happened. Well. My story's not that different from others. I got the help. I finally got the help i needed. I joined a 12-step program alcoholics anonymous. I joined another support group for people like me that had bipolar disorder. I met a chinese psychiatrist who really listens. And i had a fantastic counselor. Also along this time. I met my best friend chris. All of these things had just ate. A grand effect on the way i was and what i wanted to be. I wanted to live. I wanted to be the best person that i can be. At this time i also they found a medication regime that were. For me. And that was extremely helpful. I am. I started also a spiritual journey. Which is another whole discussion. But it was very rich and its ongoing and it's helped me tremendously. I'm one of the lucky ones. No i have a happy ending to my story. I went back to grad school. I started a second career as a licensed professional counselor. Totally enjoyed my work. And enjoyed my retirement two years ago also. You know when i was working as a counselor i think the thing to that that career did for me is i felt wanted. I felt needed and i felt appreciated. That's pretty good when you can find a career that does that for you. So what is it like living with a mental illness. Like any illness i have to manage my treatment there's no cure. I'm always going to be bipolar. I will stay in recovery for the rest of my life. And that's okay. Some of the things i have to be very careful out medication as i take it throughout the day if i miss a dose i become physically sick. So i have to be very very vigilant about. Taking my medication. Also sleep. Is extremely important. If i don't get enough sleep. I kick into what color hypomanic state. And it just spirals. So it's very very important. And now i haven't had any trouble of that lately thanks. thankfully. God willing i'm in recovery and i will celebrate 30 years of sobriety this november. Pretty amazing. So what is it like today. You know how have i changed. From when i specialize in my 30s. Today i'm a meemaw. A grandma of three beautiful grandsons. I have a great relationship with my children. You know i do so much i'll first of all i married my best friend so we. Chris and i've been together now 28 years. The other is the activities that i enjoy now. Far golf, david golfer. I've been challenged out to some of you in the audience right now. I love to kayak and a canoe. And i'm currently president of our congregation. That has been. Wonderful experience. And i'm learning a lot as we go along. From all of you. Life is good. It really is it's very full and i couldn't have imagined. How blessed i would be. So why tell my story. Garrett touchstone this. I want to own my illness. You know i don't want to feel like i'm always hiding behind a mask. Or afraid that somebody might find out that imma have a bipolar disorder. They also might find out i snore but there's no. There's are those feelings. In the past. I've been judged by others. I've been fired from a job. Two jobs. And had a lot of difficulty in making friends. That's been changing for the better. As i look out here i have so many friends i'm so blessed. And some of you i just haven't had a chance to be friends with you yet. I'm feeling much more confident. In my life it's an ongoing crisis anymore. And i'm making this close friends and i'm i'm doing something this special for me. I letting them get to know me for who i am and accept all of me. What i want from each of you. Say there's a catch. My big hope is that all of us can come out of the closet. Break the silence. And help others to stop stigmatizing mental illness. Over the years i have heard or witnessed. And this is recent. People with mental illness being treated like second-class citizens. Being told that they should never talk about their illness. And. Just not able to participate in life fully. I do have a mission. And it is to educate others. Show others recovery is possible. I've learned that sharing a personal story. Does more for mental health than anything else we can do. Together. Let's create a compassionate. Caring community. By learning more about mental illness. And participating in a conversation. That conversation will start immediately following this service at 11:32 getty close. So you all need to get a cup of coffee or whatever. Christine still going to talk to us. But. You know please be patient with us. And try to come to the panel discussion where would be questions answers and over on the far wall lots of information that you can pick up or take home. Thank you for listening to my story. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

131229_nb_journey-faith.mp3

Welcome to the december 29th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by dr. norman falcon. And the title of his sermon is a journey of faith. Stephanie gilmore assisted as the worship associate. Our guest speaker. Is dr. norm bakken. Dr. bakken is a former lutheran pastor and he's taught in the united states as well as brazil. The west indies africa india and indonesia. Which is pretty impressive. He's a retired professor of biblical literature and languages. And we welcome you norm. Like to have you. And now the first of our readings. These are walt walt whitman's words. This is what you should do. Love the earth and sun and the animals. Despise riches. Give alms to everyone that asks. Stand up for the stupid and crazy. Devote your income and labor to others. Hate tyrants. Argue not concerning god. Have patience and indulgence towards people. Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men. Go freely with powerful uneducated persons. And with the young. And with the mothers of families. Read these leaves in the open-air every season of every year of your life. Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book. Dismiss whatever insults your own soul. And your very flesh shall be a great poem. And have the richest fluency. Not only in its words. But in the silent lines of its lips and face. And between the lashes of your eyes. And in every motion and joint. Of your body. The reading i have comes from a book. Which. Innocence. Could take place. Of at least part of our new testament. In scripture terms. Lloyd gearing. Had an earlier book. From the big bang to god. In which each race is not very. Clear fashion. The wii. Human beings came to be. Part of the evolutionary process. Someone university friend. I told me that. This should be required reading. By every university students. Decreasing. The second book. It's called coming back to earth. Some gods. Do god. Do gaia. And. Are we just one selection from that. The traditional worship of god. Has widened into the complaint into the celebration of life. Beef. Is a matter of saying yes to life. In all its planetary complexity. The pursuit of truth. The practice of justice. And the nurturer of compassion. Freedom and peace. The secular world is learning to live by faith. Hope. And love. Faith requires us to be free of all excess baggage. Hope requires us. To open to be open to an ever-evolving future. Love requires us. To be inclusive. Of all people. At all cultural. Jo-ann's. The reading. Topic. That. We selected for today was a journey of faith. And done. In some ways. I think it. Could have been. I wouldn't lie to. Myself. Forty years in the wilderness. Forty years in the wilderness or. 40 days. In the wilderness. The motif picked up. The new testament. Where jesus. Tempted for 40 days. And then comes and gives his sermon on the mount. In the old testament course. It's the wandering in the wilderness. You have mount sinai. And the giving of the ten commandments. And that's sort of the way our religions have begun. Matthew which has that story of the sermon on the mount. And. 40 days. Up temptation. Is writing for jewish people. Because jesus was a jew. End. He wanted them to know that he was. Play jewish. In every. Respect. Went down into egypt. Spend time in the wilderness. Came forth cross the jordan. And into the promised land. A journey of faith. When i came here. Today my come here today. whatever really wishes. Then i could hear something about. Your journey. Everyone of you. It was my privilege to be. A pastor in the lutheran parishes for. 6 years. Prior to going on. While going on to graduate study. And i love the parish. But one thing i found was that i couldn't really be a good pastor without knowing everyone. It belonged to the church. So my first task was to. Visit every home. I neglected my family somewhat during those days. Because they were many to visit. But in every home i learned something about. Their tastes. Their experience. Their background. Their likes. And they're just like. And that way. We established a fellowship. Their companions on the way. And that meant a lot to me and that's. Part of the ministry. The guys out. Very much. Solution. Naughty heussy. I wasn't liberated in that sense. But. Along the way i met. Many many interesting people. End. In the lutheran church in my hometown. Mom and dad came from norway and. Spoke. Usually norwegian at home so that was my first language. I didn't know english really well. Until first grade. When the teacher had to teach me to say. The. It said. How is hard for europe. But done. In that little car rogation. Just called the lutheran free church. Because it was a free and independent. Congregational type of lutheran. And they had a minimum. Form for the creed's luther's small catechism. the large. And they didn't go with all of the other. Paraphernalia of some of the bigger. Send it. So in that sense i was. Somewhat introduced. To a way of thinking. It created some independence. Knoxville college revengeful attended. I had as one of its slogan. The truth. Shall set you free. So we live by that. But among the people that i met. With one who. Really hadn't conform to what we think of is pious. Christianity. She was a woman who. Sunday school. And i didn't know this about her until much later but. She. In my. 6th grade sunday school. What is the one person in that congregation who really i thought. Love the children. That she taught. End. She was a person who carried out that love. In many interesting ways. But you were sort of. Like the story of. Mary magdalene. She had a child out of wedlock. Will back in the early thirties. Anyone who had a child out of wedlock was really. To society. She raised that girl. Who turned out to be kind of wild because. Who accepts. A child born out of wedlock. In. I know i'm a. Community. But there were two granddaughter. Boing to the fair daughter. Today is always. Granddaughters. Both of them have phds. When did education. The one in social work. Very outstanding. Voicemail about. Amy freeman. Was. The love. Did she express. And very tender ways. Toward the children. And that's the thing i think which. In the traditional gospel. Prevails. And this is singing that comes out. In the most modern studies. Of. Psychiatry. Psychology. Scientific stock. What. Ferguson of university of. Carolina. North carolina north carolina. Says. In a book. Positivity. Let the expression of positive emotions. When. Reciprocal. When. Communicated between people. It's what causes us to grow. And to expand. Into what a human being i have to be about. The mind. Is quicken. The heart and the lungs. I spanked it. The whole body. Is made. So that's a gratifying thing. And it tells us. What was basic. Did the proclamation. Positivity gospel. The gospel. Represents jesus i think. Is the commandment of love. Love your neighbor. As yourself. And then of course. Jesus adds to that. Love your enemies. Love your enemy. That's the command. It's got to carry us forward. To become. Truly. Human being. Have you looked in the bible. I remember their other people who. When i went on to study at union. Cemetery new york. Made a tremendous impression on me. And. Bing. Disciplined in new testament and old test. Studies. Hebrew and greek. Became important. Remember james milan berg are professor of old. He would lecture and he was always stimulating lecture. And what he would tell us. Is it the category of newness. Is the only constant. A biblical face. The category of newness. Is the only constant to biblical face. In other words. Is changing its opening up its dynamic. Evolutionary. All the time. I think of that. Every time and i think of another saying jameson bielenberg. Yahoo. You know the name that. They never pronounced. But which israelites considered. Name for god. Instead of elohim which means really gods or god. He said yahooey. Doesn't sit. Yahoo ewoks. In other words. Cease. Is life on the move. Life. Taking new steps. Going forward. And i think of that. Whenever i think of. Holy holy places like. Jerusalem. What bethlehem. Or. Rome. With roman casino. Or constantinople. Or. Are churches. No place. Bahamian said. Is god's place. Simply college. Simply because every place. Is the place. Look.. Richmond. Someone today would say. Meet men and women. And that's the way it should be. But your other little things that come along the way. A studies. I mentioned. Gehrig. And he says we shouldn't. Put down the tradition of which you come. There's not much to learn. I know she sees it in my studies. What does running about. What is it what is faith. What is faith in its essential. Dimension. And there's a little bruce in the new testament which says. Is translated usually. God is faithful. Well if you look at the words in greek. You find out. It could also be translated god is a believer. God is a believer. 24 from then on as i use the name god. I used it in these chats. God believes. In. You. God believes in us. And therefore we should believe in one another. I think. That is. That is at peace. Of any religious tradition. We are one. And this is something we've learned from physics. And all of us are part and parcel. Hope everything. And everybody else. There's no one. To whom we should consider ourselves separate. No one. Who makes you consider so different. That we ought not to have anything to do with them. No one. That we ought to shy away from. Because of something. If they've done or not done. That we thought they should. Those are those things. It comes to beer. In all of the stories it scripture to. Christmas. Eastover. Hammer tools. The angel came and pronounced it here with the christ child. The child of god. And. You should remember. Did you really study scripture you explain that. Everyone. Should know himself. As a child of god. Everyone. Belongings. Did that family. God has made all things. Enterprise you use the word god. But how can you use. The word god. When god is not someone we could describe. Or name. It's something. Did the past. We used to take care of. So it couldn't explain otherwise. So we could say. That. There is a spark. A creator in life a spark of life. And you are part of that. Spark. A universal spark. You apart. Of the creative. Force of life. Continuing as a part. Of the evolutionary process. So it's kind of wonderful to me. Juicy books coming out of harvard university of chicago and other places. Wichita chabad. See evolution. Spirituality. Was he evolution. Are they human. And that's another part. Of my life. Wish i could share with you i think. I always had trouble with the creed. Commentary time on. But when it became a professor and in the new testament. Department. Ava lutheran seminary. It became vital. To the other professors today. Conform. To the cradle. Formula. And one of the creed's one of the parts of the new testament. Which is used. By those who. Pay-per-view that jesus was divine. Part of the godhead. Triune god. Is philippians 2. Remember how it goes. Have this mind in you. Which was in christ. Who though he was in the form of god. Did not count equality. I think be grasped. But humbled himself. And became obedient. Unto death. I wish he remind you of. It reminds me the story of adam. Remember that. Adam was told he could eat of every tree of the garden you can participate in all nature. Buddy. Eat that fruit. Did you send the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because then. He would be like god. Then you would be like. In other words. What paul was saying. Jesus did not pretend to be god. He. Assertive. He was. Human that's what he was called to be. And for those of us who are christian come out of a christian background we should remember that. The here is. Humanity in his ultimate form. Inniswood during calls. The hominization. The hominization. In other words. Godlike features. I'd be found. In human beings. When they are aware. The uniqueness. Which is there. That's another thing. We we think of the uniqueness of jesus of course. But every one of you is unique. We know. You don't have to be a scientist no. That there are no two people. Exactly alike. Fingerprints. Blood types. So forth. You can trace. And. If we're all one. And everyone is unique. Vintage so important. That we didn't touch. With those others. Because he has so much. We don't have. Everyone. I say this in a very personal way because. In any contribution. And sometimes at uuc. I see people that i'd really like to know. But. You don't seem to be too willing to be known. And. I want them to know how much they're robbing me of. You know i want it i want them to know. That that's part of what life is about i forgot to find out what is there gripe. Why they don't like me for example. It's important. If we can come together. Most of what we. Do. That really mean something. It's something we do together. Not something we do. Individually. And privately. Hoi polloi. I've learned a lot. I'm a lot of people. When i went to germany on my first sabbatical as a professor. I learned it in germany you don't mess around with. The details you learn. And you learn specifically. And thrill. In any field in which you're studying. So that was a challenge. And we went to east africa. I went there because. People like new. We're telling me. That you know. The words of the bible the new testament the words of jesus. Is there from the oral tradition and the oral tradition was very exact. Word for word. You could find. What jesus said. And i had some question about that. So i went. Most of the early christians were preliterate. There were few who knew greek or. What's an army. Those who first knew jesus. And so they would be a translation to begin with. But i went to east africa. To study. How the tradition has had the dawn. I'm in a preliterate people. Kaiser and i think more in that year. Did i had. In tanzania. And kenya. And uganda. Hydrant. Throughout my graduate residence. End. One of the things i've learned from one of the bishops. On kilimanjaro. He was telling me about there. Understanding of god. The corsair local god. And it was clear that it was a different god than tribe next door. So. How does your god. Relate to that bar. The wisest. Statement i ever heard. With what he answered. I don't know. How many of us have been willing to say. I don't know. The best scientist. Bose. We can talk about it. Photons. Adams show horse. We never seen it we really can't describe it. We can say something about how it moves. We can see about something about what it is. And we can measure it to some extent. But we can't measure matter. And energy. The same time. He put them together. Immeasurable. It's called. Hey. Serpentine. Entanglement. There's an entanglement in all life. We're all tied together. Different material maybe. But. Same energy. You touch one. Edifecs every other. Unique. And marvelous. How where do we come out in arizona. End. I don't pretend to be able to tell you. Where we going to come out. God would you do is gone. Well in india. Where i taught. Two different semesters. One at the united theological college in. Bangalore. When we were out walking in the morning. My wife and i. We found at the first one on there. Streets. All the campus. What's the speed sweeper. Of course when i saw that he was a street sweeper i knew that he was. Of no cat. I meant louis aloe. And. At nothing to brag about really. So i said to him one day. You're hindu i do. Yes. You have many gods and india don't you. And here's the wisest. Statement i ever heard in the world. About. God. Yes. We have many names for the unnameable. We have many names. For the unnamable. Beautiful. 3. I think we should keep that in mind. When we think of the. Universe. Which report. How to factor. The earth's at one time or another wasn't here. It's probably a spark. Absurd planet. It landed. And we were formed. We came about in a very mysterious an awesome way. Nature. Is awesome. And everyone of you. It's awesome. So i stand in tall. And i really mean that. You as a person. And the best thing that could ever happen to me. Would be that you would review something of yourself. So that together. We can do ourselves. Has one. Because that's what we all are. 1. Whether we like it or not. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

100110_heartUU.mp3

Welcome to the january 10th service at the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. Today's sermon is titled the heart of unitarian universalism. And was offered to the congregation. By the reverend christine brownlee. Minister of the congregation. I want to start my sermon with a really truly story. He comes to us from unitarian universalist universalist minister the reverend david e rumba. Who was the minister of the unitarian universalist congregation in summit new jersey for a while. And david says that a fairly new attendee of his congregation. Found herself one sunday after the service having lunch. In a little cafe that was nearby. And it was one of those places where you're also crammed in together you know that you hear what everybody's talking about i mean there is no privacy in this place at all. And even if you wish not to be eardrop eavesdropping you are. Your ears are just too close to everybody else. And there were two people who were disgusting. The church that they attended and some dissatisfaction. And kind of going back and forth and one of them said you know. I think i might try that unitarian church. And the other one said unitarian. What are they believe. And the other one said. Recycling. Well we do believe in recycling right. But i thought to myself. Oh dear. We got a problem. We got a problem and it really isn't a bad answer we do have concern for the environment. We care about a whole host of needs. We have our principles and purposes you know and the 7th. Principal is recognition of the interdependent web of life. But i would never consider those. Concerns. Hazard. Dare i say the word beliefs. Their responses. To our theology. They're what we do out in the world to make our presence known and to live out. Our commitment to justice and. Creating a better planet theme. Helping children hunger fair wages decent housing. But these are not our beliefs. Their expressions. About shared values. I want like chocolate the story. I have to say i was just made by it. Let's face it. In this day and age of yuno soundbites and. Relentless advertising have you noticed when you watch tv how many times you see the same add over and over and over again. Are you watching the same program you know why they do that because they know you're not really paying attention. And so in this world where it's so hard to communicate. It seems to me that. For somebody who's longing for a spiritual home. A church they can't describe what it is it doesn't have a strong identity is not going to appeal. To attend and soul. Who is cautious about what they might be getting themselves into. By walking through the doors. The unitarian universalist congregation. And the truth is. Dear ones that we are in trouble. Put on a national scale. Our membership is declining. And i think part of it is because. It is so hard. To give a succinct. Cogent. Powerful expression. To what unitarian universalism. Is all about. And this is not a new thing it's it's almost like. From the beginning of unitarianism in particular. As it evolved from traditional christianity became ever more liberal ever more open to ideas of other religions it's like a novastar just bursting out. Losing its center. And again and again. Unitarian universalist ministers. Are talking about. What is the center. Of our faith what is the heart. Abby unitarian-universalism. And what is so interesting. Is that we don't agree among us. And i have the feeling. That even after we talked about it this morning in this congregation. The heart of unitarian universalism. The reason why you are here your car value. I'm going to be different from each other. But i want to give you this morning. Some ways. First not to talk about unitarian universalist. Just to. And some things that might help you. As you described our way of the spirit. To your friends your neighbors your family. The person sitting next to you on the bus. Whatever. I do still here sometimes that unitarian-universalism is the church where you can believe anything you want to. Despite our claim that. Reason must always be a tool. For discovering and constructing. Are personal theology. Somehow we have this idea. That we can be described as a church where you can believe anything you want to and i have said more than once. There's so many things i want to believe. But i can't. And i can't because reason and experience inform me otherwise. My colleague ronald map says. We believe what we are required to relieve. By our active minds. Are critical thought process. What we are required to believe. Is personal. But it's based in reason. And experience. I've also heard people say that unitarian-universalism is like a great big roof. That is so brought anybody can come in. I'm not so sure about that. There are people i think it would not be necessarily easy for us to welcome. And we're not the church of anything goes. Who would not be welcome here well i think someone who wanted to stand up and rant about. Race. Sexual orientation and gender expression. Our own bylaws say that in order to be a member of this congregation. You need to be in sympathy. With our principles and our purposes. And not everybody agrees with our principles and purposes not everybody would say that. They want to affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person right we know that. We'd have a hard time with somebody came into our congregation who did not believe that did not share that optimistic view of human nature with us. So before i go any deeper into our unitarian universalist history and theology. I want to offer you some affirmations. That i think might give you some tools. Define the words to tell somebody why they might want to attend a service sometime. The first one you know well. Love is the doctrine of this church. Or a bar face. The quest of truth is a sacrament and services prayer. This is our great. Covenant. Together in peace and acceptance. To seek knowledge in the light of freedom and reason. To serve the needs of others in community. That we may grow in wisdom and spirit. We say that. At the beginning of every service. I found these words for a doxology that i like very much. From all who dwell beneath the skies let's face and hope with love arrive. Let beauty truth and good be song. In every land. By every tongue. Many congregations in our unitarian universalist family. Use an affirmation. Much like ours. Some of the most important claims and commitments. That we affirm. Are expressed in these very few words. Love. Our commitment to love. Our commitment to the quest for truth. Service to others. The concept of covenant. Walking together accepting one another being in right relation. Seeking knowledge and freedom and reason. That we may grow in wisdom and spirit. Nothing about a divine being. Nothing about miraculous events. Nothing about eternal salvation. This world. It's like. The same thing can be said of the doxology words. It doesn't refer to a deity. Either singular or trying. Analytics tools 3. Values. Beauty. Beauty. Truth. And the good. And it suggests that these values are held dear by all of humankind. For there to be some everywhere. In every time. And i see these words as a universalist small you universalist approach to religion which. Urges us. To seek out the treasures of truth and wisdom. That are available to us in all of the world's great faith. I also found these words from the website of the first unitarian church of god in baltimore. Very helpful. I'm there. Front page they have a little box that says you have come to the right church for you. The right church for you. If you want a religion that respect differences. Among people. Cherishes freedom. And encourages open dialogue on questions of faith. Recognizes ambiguity and change. I like that very much. A firm spiritual exploration and reason. It has ways of finding the truth. But does not ask you to subscribe to a creed. And i would add or statements of doctrine. And which seeks to act. Is a moral force in the world. Believing that ethical living. Is the supreme witness. Of religion. These are powerful words. I think they give a good description. Of our way of the spirit our approach. To what we might call doing religion. What they say to me again is that our faith is centered on important values not. kind of statements. Values of love freedom of thought and spirit. Respect. Acceptance. A willingness to grow and change our beliefs as we discover new ideas new truth. What i don't find it these statements though. Including our own information is something that i think is very important. And that is a declaration of our commitment to the environment. And so i'm considering adding these words to our affirmation. At the very end. Ever striving to live in harmony with the great web of life. So i think next sunday if lisa can squeeze in a few more words with no bulletin. We will add that. Because again it reminds us of our seventh principle would cause it to live with respect. For the interdependent web of all life of which we are. A part. A part. We don't have dominion. We're not at the top of the food chain. It isn't ours to use anyway we want to. We are apart. Have an interconnected web of life. There's other things that are not hearing these statements that i do not plan to add. Is nothing about the existence of a divine being or transcendent source of creation even though i know many of us including myself. Have a sense. But there is something more. It doesn't talk about a savior of humanity you forgive her ass in. It doesn't. Include other theological ideas. My karma. The afterlife. Reincarnation. As a religious. Organization have no established set of rules that prohibit certain actions. Or encourage yourself in certain directions. 2 a.m. thinking about some of the buddhist. Teachings you know the. Eightfold path and. All of that where you're you will not kill you. You will not. Cheat on your wife or husband you will not. Add to the misery of the world the concept of suffering. These are given to. Hudson something. In our face we discovered them. We discovered them for ourselves. You're not forced upon us. And while many of us are drawn to the ethical teachings of the jewish and christian tradition. Buddhism taoism and hinduism. And also the earth-based religions. We can sit in harmony. With one another. Despite our differences. We can offer wisdom. Experience. Arlington sex to one another. Knowing that we will be except. That doesn't mean agreed with. But we will be accepted. It's hard to be a unitarian universalist heretic. There was one though. There was one long ago. Jasmine sutherland who. What's wrong with the bible across the room. And call it trash. He was so offensive. They kicked him out. He wasn't helping you know. And our view of the bible is unique to most americans who identify as religious. Our view of human beings this as well. Many religions focus on our sinful nature. Some faith hold that we are so defiled by sin that nothing good can come out of our own will. It only comes to us because god is working through us. We are incapable of producing. Anyting. A real value. Unless we submit to the will of god. As unitarian universalist. We have always recognized. What william ellery channing called the divine seed and every person. Enchanting encouraged his congregation zweiback in the 1800's. The growth at sea to nurture that sea to engage in serious. And deep personal reflection. To discover one's talents. To develop them and then offer them. To the community. He wasn't so worried about. Predestination. The next life. Display. Jesus is important. In our history. As an example of the highest life that we human beings can attain. Through his example of love to god. And if you don't like the word god think of what is of ultimate and most important value to you. Love to other people. And our commitment to the practice of love between people of various backgrounds and beliefs. Isn't some new. 20th century thing. One of our most descriptive impressive proverbs comes from a guy we call. Francis david. Who lived in poland in transylvania. In the mid-1500s. He began his career as a catholic priest talk about somebody who's open to change listen to his history. He was a catholic priest who taught in the boys school but pretty soon you know that. The protestant reformation was bubbling along and. He became a lutheran he really like their ideas. If he was noted for his formidable debating skills this guy could you know hannah holman argument he was just incredible. And so he was asked by the lutheran hierarchy to defend the lutheran doctrines against those calvinists who were trying to steal the lutheran sheep and bring him over into their fold. And he did. He just wowed everybody who lutheran's won the debate hands down. Except for. Francis. That convinced by the other side. He became a calvinist. He did. And then. He started hanging out with the. Some of those unitarians and by golly. He was just certain that they were right. And he became a powerful force. Of affirmation then confrontation and expanding people's ideas about religion. He was still hoping however to bring some reconciliation between all these quarreling face. And he is remembered for a very simple saying. One that we. Used today. And it says we do not have to think alike. The love of ike. We do not have to think alike. To love of life. Nfl congregations became increasingly more diverse. In the 20th century. First with the merger of two very unlikely partners i must say the universalists in the unitarian. But how could see used in humanism wiggins and atheist buddhist and juice and agnostics gather every sunday. And engage in a service. That would speak to our common human condition. Unless. They agreed. Get the final authority. Regarding personal religious beliefs. Lies not in some. Doctrinal statement. Not in some ecclesiastical authority who's going to come down here and set us all straight by dolly. Not even the president of the usa has that right my friends. It lives in us. And that is a serious responsibility. It is not to be taken lightly. If your life is guided by anything you want to believe. You might want to think about that again. Oh yes we have certain documents. We have our covenant between the congregations of the unitarian universalist association which you'll find in one of the front pages of your hymnal if you're not familiar with it if you'd like to look at it. It's roman numeral 10. Although it is a covenant between congregations individual unitarian universalist will look at it as guides. For how we interact with each other the purposes of our congregations. And as i said our own bylaws. Ask us. As we contemplate the possibility of membership. To be sure that we are in sympathy with the statements in this document. But there is no. final test that a prospective member has to. Passed before signing the book and i think we'd be pretty distressed as such a thing were required. The reverend david park says our concern begins and ends. Indirect personal experience. What we value the insights of others. We give highest priority to what we ourselves. But we ourselves. Have seen. Heard. Touch. Tasted and smelled. Cherishing excuse me the testimony of others. We demand an original engagement. With the world. Emerson. We demand. An original engagement with the world. And we are impatient with lifeless truth. And borrowed authority. Now i agree with that to a point. But i'm not totally i'm not persuaded that that's all there is. And i found a passage. In the nfl by robert snapper i quoted earlier. Then i think. We also need to pay attention to. He says the present-day unitarian-universalist it seems to me. Are far too inclined to get locked into the contemporary. Locked into the idea that the only important things are our time our world. Or our thoughts. We need to remember consistently. That we are a part. Of a historic movement. Extending from far back in the distant past. And far forward we hope. Into the distant future. I sometimes think that. We forget. Our history. We forget the story the narrative. Of those who. Work so hard in some cases as in the case of francis david. Gave their lives. Broadway of the spirit. And we need to pay more attention. To the story of our faith. And the courageous people. Struggle. So that we might take. So much. As i said to the children this morning. So much for granted. The fact is we are all heretics. Because we all choose. To be here. And that is the. True meaning of the word heretic. Not only are we heretics we are restless heretics is one anonymous unitarian universalist said in a response to a question about our faith. The battles i would wage would be my own under my own authority. Rejecting all answers that did not come from my own skin and bones. And my always. Ambivalent. Continually doubting. Heretics heart. In a book-length report that was titled. Engaging our theological diversity. In written by the members of the commission on appraisal of the unitarian universalist association and i think this was issued in. 2005. They said that many people who share their perspectives with the commission. Find the religious lives. In the creative space. Between theological positions. Taking a both and approach. To religious beliefs. But we certainly have. People in our own time vacation. Who are very definite. In their personal and theological stance. I think many of us here are not so possessed by certainty. And this may be one reason why we have a hard time trying to explain our church. To someone who is looking for something that is solid. In systematic. Where do we begin. To develop our own. Brief. The cogent and powerful description. Our way of the spirit. So that we can share. What we have here. With people who are looking for a spiritual home. More than once i've said some of the saddest words i've ever heard. People who come here. For the first or second and third time and say. Where have you been. All my life. I have been looking for you since i was 15 years old. Why was it so hard. Find you. The 8th. The loneliness. The sense of isolation that you hear in those words. If nothing stirs us. Toward what i will. Boldly call an evangelical. Sense that there are people who want to find us and just don't know how to do it. I don't know what would move it. I hope that you will take some time to read a bit about our history. We have some wonderful books in our library. That offer insights and approaches to our way of the spirit. Can i find for myself that. Creating. A sustaining. Challenging living faith. Is an ongoing. Usually fulfilling. What's sometimes frustrating process. I hope that you will make your. Personal faith journey. With courage. With clear eyes. With a sense of adventure. For surely this is the most important endeavor than any of us will ever undertake. And we. We are so blessed. Because we have. Good. Trustworthy. And loving companions. Chihuahua. In covenant. With us. Through our days. Do i search. To our hopes. For a living faith. We cherish. So dearly. May it be so. We have some time for discussion reflection. If anyone would like to share a thought i'm working like the. Asking a lot of r. Usher's i'm sorry. Martin adler is got his hand up over here. Thank you for. More than elevator presentation. Of our. Principles of faith and why we are here. That was one word missing. What do we love. What are we engaged in. And that is justice. The struggle for justice in this sad world is for me. The most important. Thank you martin. A couple things. Suggest that we really look at. The name of our organization and see if it really applies. Unitarian. And universalism. I don't get the sense that in the least in the historical. Vine. But these two terms apply much anymore. And. Maybe the organization needs to. Change its name. I'll be glad to. Talk about this morgan buddy wants to hear my ideas. Well this this leaves me just one final comment. And that is. How can i be an authority. When i'm always changing my mind. I really appreciated you saying something that we are all think been thinking for a long time. We know within ourselves what we believe the problem is coming up with the right words. And i like the. What was done at the church in baltimore i believe you said. And i think if we could have a succinct way of pulling together our core beliefs. And putting it maybe on like a business card. And that would. Fix-it in our own mind if we're out in public and someone ask you something we could hand them the card call it our own timid effort at proselytizing. Cathy's got some samples. Yes yes. A long time ago we got these. Is little red fallout things that had oliver principles on. So. So whenever have a conversation with sonia my dorm. So i always shown my favorite principal does the inherent worth and dignity and every person that's the one that really strikes the car to me. I think. Something little more simplified would be cool because i don't know yeah when explain the religion that really want to go through all the principles and everything like that but no. Thanks i just pulled this i carry this in my wallet this is the we the member congregations covenant to affirm and promote it's it's it's very good except. 802 many words. But i don't know how you boil it down without losing. I guess i'm sort of the same answer i mean so. I know growing up tuition. There's a lot of principles anyway at 613 commandments. But there was one. There is one overall vision which i ultimately decided wasn't. A good one for me which is you were constantly striving to perfect the world to the point where god let us go to a new nicer dimension. I think was christianity from what i know of the ideas the earth is doomed and the idea is to repair the human spirit to move to the other dimension when the earth gets destroyed. Well that's what it evolved into i think that when jesus was talking about the kingdom of god. He was talking about in the jewish people's a jewel after all that shocks people you know. And when you tell them that his mother was jewish that's even worse. Even though they have all these rules they still have one guiding vision that everyone supposed to be striving for anemic horses. It's not attainable and at least people ultimately who try to strive for that perfection to be. Feel disenfranchised and depressed and everything else and i guess we're supposed to have we have principles of things but we need to replace. That vision with assistant vision. Let me know. If we're going to accept. The findings of science that the earth is doom someday.. Distant future but. That we're not striving to escape it necessarily so like what what exactly is our religion going to replace that vision if we could sum it up. Within or maybe it has to do with existing in the world as it is now. But of course we're not content with letting people suffer intermediately. We think the things that we like to improve but. Guys i think you know our commitment to justice is and i guess i when i thought about justice i thought about service but i think justice is a more powerful word more and i think you're right about that. David brumbaugh thinks that actually what are would i really defining. Statement is is this idea that. You know we are part of an interconnected web of life and that we need to live within the confines of that web ever conscious that when you touch one little part of the web the whole thing vibrates. And i don't know how we could. Yeah put that into a a cogent. Statement that would stick in the mind and inspire people but i think with the growing concern for. The planet for ecology clinton global warming all of that going green. That might be. A possibility but do i see it happening. Having satu number of g a plenary sessions were we discussing where, should go. I don't know but it's a big task and and one of the disturbing things for many of us regarding the commission on appraisal report on how to deal with r. Theological diversity was it they really never came to a conclusion that seem particularly useful. In terms of strengthening our congregations and helping people get that sense of being connected to one another. Despite different theological beliefs and i think for a lot of us are our principles and purposes do articulated values. And we find unity and some of our values. But it is difficult. It's difficult but i appreciate your thoughts very much. Anyone else. Just one of those people that's just very grateful. To be here i'm glad that this congregation exist. I hate to use this word because i know relatively speaking i know nothing about it but in my everyday life as far as spiritually. Speaking i feel oppressed i would. Think of. Like i feel like i'm silence i can't really speak my. Mine because we do live. The bible belt. People do have a very strict. Idea of what they. I'm just you know not so interested in the. Debating the particulars but just. Grateful that i can sit here and. Even though you said we don't only just believe what we. I know what you meant but seems most correct and helpful to you at this particular point in your life yes yes. Maybe. We don't really need to get so hung up on describing. What we believe is just living what we believe. Because. That's pretty straightforward and we can show. By example. Perhaps end up that's how we raise our children. And that's how we try to establish what we are in our communities. And on. The words don't mean as much as the actions. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

160309_lenten_ct_almsgiving.mp3

Welcome one and all welcome welcome to the unitarian universalist congregation here in blacksburg. Is my jeeps white. Welcome mats all in together this evening for this very special at lenten supper and service time. This of course is a joint offering. Hosted by so many houses of worship right here in blacksburg. I can say on behalf of this congregation how very delighted we are. To welcome all those who might not have been to our congregation before or those of you who have maybe only been here a handful of time. Let us all enter. With joy and in the spirit of hospitality. Into his experience of the lenten journey. Together this evening. I want to offer special special note of thanks and appreciation to rev linda dickerson from northside. Tyrion and rosemary call northside unite with our folks here led by stephanie gilmore and many other volunteers. To create the meal that we shared together. So thank you those of you helped make that happen for us. Tonight that we might be nourished for our worshipping. I also want to offer great thanks appreciation to welcome to night our special gas into this public will be offering a message tonight reverend dr. katherine taylor from blacksburg presbyterian. It's a little bit more. I waited to dakshin. How far i got to be. Just a little bit. As we enter ever more deeply into the experience of the worshiping with one another this evening. I share with you these words from our hymnal it's a reading by unitarian universalist. Judith meyer. It's number 7 at 672. Anne sexton the poet wrote. Look to your heart. That flutters in and out like a moth. God is not indifferent to your need. You have 1,000 prayers but god has one. Dear god we give thanks for those moments when we can feel that we live in a world. That is not indifferent. To our need. We all have so many needs. I found and prayers 1000 needs. It only really need one answer. Let the world know. Be indifferent. And may we live and be with each other in the way that shows this truth. Whatever the day brings. That neither are we in different. 2 each. Invite you now to join with one another in myself. Inexperience of prayerful. Reflection. Spirit of abiding hope. Spirit of love. We come together this evening. People are faced with joys and sorrows. Hopes and fears. Spirit of love be with us. Tenderest gentle ourselves to one another. Allow access opportunity to quiet. Ourselves that we might hear love. Wisdom. Help us. To approach ourselves and our neighbor with tenderness. For we know not the nature of hurt or july. In our neighbors hearts. Awaken announce this evening courage for the journey of our living. Help us to be bearers of a great. Kindness. The kindness which transcends division. Help us draw more deeply to the source of. Life itself. Spirit of life. This evening we extend our greatest karen concern to our neighbors. Those sitting right next to us and those beyond these walls for struggling with. The impact of hunger. Or lack of access to those very basic. This evening let us remember those who are yet seeking sanctuary fleeing across borders of. Nation and state. Let us remember those where i. Need solace and support. But a great spirit of generosity. Between us. Amala. Will you respond. Questions in our heart. Let us each one offer in our own way of resound in yet. The opportunities presented into our hands to make. Difference. And to offer a sense of care. To one another. For the gift of living itself and the opportunity. Enter into this great mystery. What i say. Blessed be. And. It is my true delights morning to welcome into the pulpit rev dr. katherine taylor the blacksburg presbyterian church to offer us this evening. The reverend dr. katherine taylor begin serving as pastor of the blacksburg presbyterian church in may. 2010 after serving congregations in atlanta georgia and ithaca new york. And as she grew up in washington dc and the missouri bootheel. She all right. She went to duke university later earning a master of divinity degree and a doctor of ministry degree from columbia theological seminary in atlanta. Between college and seminary she spent 10 years as a writer and editor of journals and magazines including a 10 in alabama is a freelancer. Or newsweek. Her preaching has been featured in many different places. Auntie has wide-ranging. Passions and interests along with a church she says she loves movies and theater and opera. Going out and being in the garden. And we're glad also to welcome this. Her husband robert dean who's with us thank you. They have two children. Once again i am delighted to welcome the message this evening that will be delivered by. Are two readings tonight one comes from. The apocrypha from the book of tobit. Listen for what the spirit of god is saying to you. To all those who practice righteousness give alms from your possession. And do not let your i begrudge the gift when you make it. Do not turn your face away from anyone who is poor and the face of god will not be turned away from you. If you have many possessions make your gift from them in proportion. If you do not be afraid to give according to the little you have. So you will be laying up treasure for yourself against the day of necessity. For almsgiving delivers from death. And keeps you. From going into the darkness. Indeed almsgiving for all who practice it is an excellent offering in the presence of the most high. And these familiar words. From the sermon on the mount from the gospel of matthew. Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them for then you have no reward. From your father in heaven. So whenever you give alms do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. So that they may be praised by others. Truly i tell you they have received their reward. But when you give alms. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. So that your alms may be done in secret. And your father who sees in secret. Will reward you. All this is the word of the lord. Thanks be to god. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight. Lord our rock. And our redeemer. Amman. How good it is. To be here tonight and for. The unitarians to have become part of us during this season of land experiencing each other's celebrations is so important. And. That's especially true for folks like me who have never been to a unitarian service before. Not if you've been coming to these lenten services and you've heard other speakers talk about. The process of dividing up. The topics for this year and their own particular preferences were their dread as the time for them to talk neared. In our worship in land at the presbyterian church we have been focusing on core beliefs of christianity. So i was really excited when we as a ministerial association chose the five practices of lent for our time together as sister congregation. Now i was not at the meeting where the actual divvying up of the tongue twister. But strange creature that i am i really wanted almsgiving because as both of our reading suggests. Giving is central to life before god. The first seventeen years of my ministry were spent in atlanta. Where was very common if you were downtown for panhandlers to approach you on the street. Or hop out in an intersection and wash your windshield whether you wanted that or not hoping for a tip. My husband and i were in w in new york. A couple of weeks ago and we came out of a museum. To hail a cab and as we were walking to the cab stand and really stately. Tall man in ragged clothes walked up to the taxi at the head of the line and he opened the door. And then announced that the fee for this service was $2. And i really had to wonder you know did he change his rates based on the appearance of the people getting the cab and where might we have fallen in his particular hierarchy. During our years in atlanta i regularly encounter people who were. In red. By panhandlers. Never gave them anything. You don't know what they're going to do with it. With their rationale they might say it's they're just going to drink it up. Or shoot it up or snort it up if you give them money you're enabling addiction they would lecture me. And this week to my surprise. I saw that point-of-view of not giving charity to unrighteous people. In the very beginning of the text i read from talbot. To all those who practice righteousness it says give alms. From your possession. Now i have never ever studied tobit before. It's not in the protestant canon it is in the canon of our roman catholic and orthodox brothers and sisters. The bible that i have used every day since seminary has the apocrypha in the middle between the old and new. Testaments including tobit and other books and tonight for the very first time ever. I am using one of them. And we're hearing from tobit because when i did a word study on the word alms to prepare for this sermon. It popped up. Along with many other things of course including this from proverbs. Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner. But blessed is he who is generous. To the pool. Now take just a minute. To realize how strong a statement that is. To not give to the poor. Is not just. A caution to ensure that you have enough for yourself to not give to the poor. According to proverbs is inactive distain it's an active despising. And we see this even more clearly in tobin. Tobit is centered on a complex story about tobit who's a pious jew sli is a really bizarre story so if you have an apocrypha. It's got sex it's got all kinds of great stuff in it anyway. He's a pious jew. And he becomes blinded. And then he sent his son to go and recover some property which happens to be in a distance city the part that we read is probably the part of toe but that's most often read it comes from the fourth chapter. Just before tobit sends his son to buy us off and so he gives him fatherly advice because travel being what it is he might never see his son again so he wants to give him. Advice about life and included any advice. Are the words we heard about giving. Tobit elvis on tobias give generously. To all. The upright so it's very broad the upright the righteous who are in need. He also says not to give. With a grudging i really love that phrase. Or use not having much as an excuse not to give don't use not having much. As an excuse not to give give proportionately no matter what says tobin. And do so without being afraid of the future. Why. Because god will not turn his face away from those who do not turn their face away. From anyone. Who is poor. The right there you have a conflict there's a real conflict between only give to the upright and. Don't turn your face away from anyone who is for. In fact. Give to anyone who is four is even more urgent than it might seem there is death and darkness waiting for those. Who don't give in these open-hearted open-handed way. Now the giving of alms of offering to the poor. Was a religious duty of jews and early christians. This religious aspect set them apart from all the surrounding cultures for whom given giving was most often and act of the powerful or the wealthy. Done out of compassion for the poor certainly but also done to demonstrate. How wealthy the wealthy were. For jews however i'm giving recognized. Set god. Is the source of all material.. Not our own efforts. It also help to maintain healthy communities by ensuring that the poor had some relief. We probably recall many of us the practice of leaving crops in the corners is field for the poor to glean the best example. Is the story of ruth. Such a practice by farmers was not an option it was jewish law. And so is this this is from deuteronomy every third year you shall bring out. The full tide of your produce for that year and store it within your town. The levites as well as resident aliens the orphans and the widows in your town may come and eat their fill so that the lord your god may bless you. In all the work. That you wandered today. Now the levites remember are the clergy. There's a priest who are too busy conducting temple rituals and studying the word and teaching to go out into the field and work the land so part of the tithe of 10% of your produce goes to support them and their. Last year rob and i were in england and our tour guide took us to. This beautiful 13th century town in the country. And in the center of town there was a. Angel. Barn. Wagons would drive in a really high high door on one side. And they would go out. A much lower door on the other side. And at least one explanation for this architecture was at the load or would scrape off the top portion of any crops that were piled up in the wagon and they would then fall into the barn and they be left there all that was scraped off in this way would be kept for the poor in town. Which is why the barn is called the tithe barn. Now in israel such rules saw to it that relief of the poor with never dependent. On just that portion of the community who happened to be deeply. Faithful deeply religious or kind-hearted. It also avoids the general principle that still holds true today. That 20% of the people. Give 80% of the money. If you've ever raised money you know that. 20% of the people give 80% of the money and in case you don't know that 20/80 rule. Colds absolutely true. For churches to. Now nothing else is said in tobit about. The death and darkness that await those who don't give or who give grudgingly but we'd seen it. And we felt it working in our own lives. We know. There is a great lie in the world. That goods are scarce and you'd better get yours and hold on tight because if you don't you're going to get cheated out of some. The myth of scarcity infuses our culture and whispers in our ears to give less and less and less away and it's working. You may know that the more you have the less inclined you are to give here in america. North americans now give an average of 3%. Of their income to charity. The very wealthiest americans give just over 4%. The poor. Giveaway between 8% and 10. It's also been shown again and again. That having. Positive outward circumstances having plenty of money. Having a good job having a family a home and even having good health. Having positive outward circumstances has only a 10%. Impact. On one's overall level of happiness. Giving on the other hand especially giving that has some kind of social interaction or connection. Giving has a lasting impact on one's. Happiness. And sense of wholeness and well-being. Decades after ab was written when jesus gave his advice about charity. He knew that people gave earnestly out of sincere faith some of them dead while others only gave in the manner of the larger culture. So that they could be seen wearing a tithers badge at the civic club. And he doesn't call it death or darkness but he does say that there is a dead ended ness. To the lives of those who only give in order to be seen giving and he makes a joke about trumpets blowing which is what happens when kings come into the room trumpets blowing when such people give so that everyone will turn and look. And that's an ending for them there is nothing else for them beyond that momentary recognition. Don't give that way. Says jesus. Don't do that given secret. And god who sees in secret will reward you. Literally it says god will pay you back. Now it's not that god owes you some kind of debt far from it writes the illusion tom long the idea is much more radical and much more helpful. The queen is that human life our life the life of others depends entirely. On the constant care and mercy of god. We float in an ocean of god's generosity. All that we have all that we are comes by the mercy of god so when we. Our generous toward others we're not writing checks on a limited account we are drawing from an inexhaustible. Slow. Divine care and love. Some biblical commentators say. That jesus words about not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing that these words have to do with secrecy. But i think. That there's a much more. Exciting possibility. Tobit told his son to give generously and without fear. But at the very beginning is this lying about but only to the righteous. 4 to the upright. Well there's textual evidence that somebody. With the text because they're copies of tobit. Where that line about the righteous. Is not followed by the story about giving. In other words somebody who thought you should only give to the righteous. Fooled around with some of our copies of this ancient text. And i think jesus words about not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing i think. It's an invitation along that same line to let go. Of an exhausting. Exhausting. And ultimately impossible attitude. How do we know who is upright. How do we know who isn't how do we know that the two bucks we give to the guy who opens the taxi door. Won't be spent on the first food he's had in a week. And what business is it of ours anyway. There are people who won't give money to anyting. Unless it checks out. As being a good organization according to their often very demanding light. And okay yes. Exercising some wisdom with regard to giving. Is okay but my friends. Here is jesus saying. Get over managing. Your generosity. Get over managing your generosity giving. May really be less about those who receive it so may it do them much good praise god but it is about the giver. And the avenues to life that cam. From giving. Openly. Christians are encouraged to give more inland more than usual. Because the whole season of lent is an exercise in deepening the practices of faith. And experiencing the impact that deep practice has on our day-to-day. There is a connection between generosity and abundant life and just as sure there is a connection. Between tedious caution about giving. And a certain kind of living death. Give without your left hand knowing what your right hand is doing says jesus and the god who's giving is limitless will be evident to you in ongoing ways. Or don't. Don't give more than the smallest amount. You can get away with or don't give anything at all. Because you know the 20% really do give 80% of the money away why not just ride on their coattails. And ricci. Await. The benefits all go to those who get. Years ago when i was raising my children. Friends in atlanta. The kind who never gave to panhandler switch hide me. If they saw me do this and sometimes they would. Say you know why are you so foolish why on earth do you do that. And had i known it then. I might have quoted the original argument from tobit. I might have said. I give to church and to charity and to panhandlers on the street. Because i have children. And my children are watching. And i want my children. To live lives before god that are rich. And happy. Info. I'm in. Beloved community here gathered let us offer the greatest thanks for the opportunity to enter into ever more deeply the lenten journey together this evening. Let us go forth. Connecting. Love. Joy. Generosity. May we make these things central. Two are living. Go in peace. Blessed be and.

uucnrv_org

151108_ei_mental-health.mp3

Welcome to the november 8th service at the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is lead by worship associate irwin. Which members of the university social justice steering committee. Reflections are shared by christine reid. Margo walter and earl. One for herself and one for rivera who is unable to attend. The sea was a service is. Sing the journey of the spirit. Mental health in hope. The podcast closes with a benediction delivered by earl. I hesitate to talk about my own journey as a mental health provider. The last impression i want to convey. Is it i have the answers. I do not. What one time i thought i did. You've likely heard the common wisdom. That we mental health providers are attracted to our field because. We need to figure out and or fix ourselves. You've also likely heard healer heal by self. I'm no exception to either cliche. Has the first degree relative of a parent with bipolar disorder. I'm at a higher risk of experience experiencing some form of depression. Well i may have escaped the full bipolar spectrum i did not escape the depression. Armed with what i believed was exceptional insight that depression gave me. And first-hand experience. I chose a profession that would allow me to save the world from the mental conditions that afflicted. My family and me. I plan to lead others to normal fc. Whatever the heck that was. Is it not a good deal with sticks stubborn twenty-one-year-old fresh out of nursing school. I thought i knew. My first job in a private psychiatric hospital allowed me to work alongside other mental health professionals. To reshape patients into the people we thought they should be. And then we sent them home. Did they succeed there. We seldom saw evidence that confirmed any effectiveness of our efforts. Instead. We frequently witness the failure of our intentions. In the form of recidivism. The return of the same patients struggling with the same issues. My entry into the mental health field coincided with the deinstitutionalization movement. Soon i found myself returning to school for the credentials to provide outpatient psychiatric care. My higher level of book learning gave me a broader knowledge base. But my expectations remained rather rigid. I continue to believe that i knew best what. My clients needed. But when i became an outpatient therapist working one-on-one. I watched many people walk away. Not ready for my intrusion into their lives. What was i doing wrong. How was i saying folks who came seeking mike hair. My commitment to confidentiality prevents me from sharing the specific details of my experiences. This is a small town in a small valley after all. The abridged version of my awakening is that 3-way interactions. I realized that i needed to meet people. Where they live. I'm not talking about literal housecalls here. My epiphany has been that i need to listen deeply to others perceptions of what isn't working in their lives. Even when i'm not fully in agreement with what the problem is. What i've discovered in the deep listening. Is the roadmap for the journey. We will begin together. For we are all on a journey. You awoke this morning with the intention to come to this church today. But what if you want to find you had two flat tires on your vehicle and no money for gas and while you were getting ready to leave the house your loved ones barash do with reasons you should not need to come here today. Coming is a sign of weakness and don't go telling other she's got it from us. And what if when you walk out your front door your neighbors heckled you. And your employer called to say that perhaps you aren't fit to do your job. And you just learned that you've been disqualified from some programs you've tried to enroll in. That is the journey that many who seek mental health resources encounter. Their way it's not made easy. And so it takes tremendous courage to take the first step. Instead of extending a map with the route marked and a large x over the destination. I've learned to walk beside the clients who invite me on their journey. I watch for the bumps in the road. I'd learn to pause at the intersections. And bite my tongue when the travel chooses to turn in a different direction than the one i expect. Sometimes the journey meander's. And often it's a long-ass less traveled roads that the week discovered the breathtaking scenery. Eventually we reached the point. Where our paths diverge. And if i watch the form of a client. Received toward his or her own private sunset. I find that i've been left with some travel tips that enhance my own journey. And road signs i will share with other traveling companions. Not everyone has the courage for the journey. Not everyone has the option. There are not enough resources to finance the travel. And although the availability of funds is improving. The services are not expanding fast enough to meet the need. Seemingly insurmountable obstacles roadblocks. Continue to obstruct away. Not everyone who begins the journey completes it. And yet travelers to overcome overwhelming odds. To reach their destinations. In that reality lies the hope. I celebrate the choice our social justice steering committee has made to lead our congregation in providing. Travelers aid to this mental health journey. And now i'd like to welcome christine read to share her reflection with us. Mental illness has had a significant effect on my family's life. My older brother gary was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was in high school. Before that. He was a happy and bright boy who lived in normal childhood. Because of his mental illness. And his subsequent hospitalizations he was not able to graduate with his high school. But he earned his ged later. After becoming stabilized on medication he married a wonderful woman. And had two delightful children. However. At some point. He and his wife decided he did not have a mental illness. And therefore no longer needed to take any of. His medications. Things started spiraling out of control and he became sick once again. They divorced and although he got treatment again. And again and again. Gary lived with mental illness for the remainder of his life. He passed away in 2012. And i will read for you excerpts from what i shared with family and friends. At his memorial service in new holland pennsylvania. About 3 years ago. I once heard that creativity is the ability to see what isn't there. My brother possessed that gift. He was an artist and inventor wrote music and poetry. And how to create a sense of humor. I love to joke with him and i also be on the receiving end of his life. Carthage humor. He found humor in common things. And regularly created it him himself out of the ordinary. When going through my old letters i found one from him. From 1993. That started quote deer chris. I'm writing you a backhand a backwards left handed. Letter. To show you that i can. To brag and to exercise the ability. My brother was definitely not someone to brag so that was part of the joke. I kept the letter because it amazes me. It still makes me smile. He really had written two full pages. Backwards and left-handed. Very neatly i might add. The letter was signed love geary. And then in parentheses. Drill schmelson. Which is just one of the many silly signature names he came. Came up with for himself. Back in those days when we were still sending handwritten letters. To each other. In recent years i talked with my brother by phone every sunday evening. She would bring me up-to-date on what he was thinking and our conversations often turn to philosophical discussions on any number of subjects. There we didn't get out socially he stayed up. Very up-to-date on current events. You could tell me what was going on halfway around the globe. And had thoughtful and intelligent perspective to share. I loved our conversation. Especially enjoyed the history and science channels on tv. He loved learning new things and he was intimately.. I'm sorry that my brother had to live the majority of his life with a disabling mental illness. Really realizing that it could have been me. Instead of him whose brain began malfunctioning as a teenager. Made it possible for me to have more compassion. Patience and acceptance. Gary wrote a poem about his mental illness. That i'd like to read for you. Illness illness go away. Don't you think you've had your stay. I understand. I really do. You have to make a living too. But could we make a compromise that we be just and fair and wise. And you give me back so you give up some of your wealth. And give me back my precious health. This house is mine. It will not fall. Perhaps you have another call. While gary's illness may have affected almost every aspect of his life. I made it impossible for him to be who he really was at times. Gary was not his illness. He was a person with an illness. And you found many ways to live productively. And with meaning in spite of it. I told my brother on more than one occasion that he was a hero to me. So many ways. It wouldn't be easy to live your life with a mental illness. Their many victims. Not only the person who has the illness. But the entire family is affected. And many family members suffer. To live through it and still arrive at a point of compassion in love. Creates many heroes in my mind. It wasn't because my brothers triumph. Over his illness. No. It was because of the way he endured. And was still able to show generosity. Kindness. In love. In his own ways. I give my heartfelt thanks to the family's friends in this community in pennsylvania. Who have shown kindness to gary through the years. Since my parents passed on my sisters and i felt fortunate. The gary was able to continue living. In our family home. As a part of the jackson street neighborhood where there were wonderful neighbors we knew. Even though gary did not socialize. The benefits of knowing that his neighbors were friends and who cared about him. What's significant. I loved my brother. I'm grateful for who he was. All he gave me. And what he taught me. I'm a better person for it. Thank you gary. Did you know that we have three current unitarian universalist hymnal. Are gray hymnal printed in 1993 is called singing the living tradition. In 2005 singing the journey came out. As a supplement to the gray one. It's the teal hymnal. Commission to include a larger repertoire including jazz chance and music reflecting earth-centered spiritualities. Another supplement came out in 2009. It's cover is red and it's called voices but both has del camino. Voices of the road. It offers spanish language translations of some of our existing him and also fresh selections of music. From spanish-speaking sources. This one we don't have here at the uuc yet. Many of the songs in each of our three hymnals are about building a more just world. Remember that i'm here now to read the words that robert de niro would speak if she could be with us. What she wants to share with us is that. Music matters. Charles living tradition of unitarian universalism. And also to our justice journeys. Su used. And as human beings. She wonders. For you personally. What sorts of music. Nourish your spirit. And your senses hope. Sometimes she talks to folks who say. I'm not sure i'm spiritual. But when i sing. I don't even think about it. I just know it. I can feel it. In the journey toward justice. We sing to remember what we know at our core. That our lives are worth living. And that there is something inside of us that connects us to something larger. Even if we use diverse language to describe. What. That larger something is. When people take on a justice issue. Folks can easily approach it from a purely philosophical standpoint. Yet history shows that the people who have been most successful. Have approached justice work. From a place of spiritual grounding. One that is been able to nourish them. For the long. Meaningful. Arduous. And joyful journey. A social change. We might recall for example. How important music and spiritual foundation was to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Which was birth. And sustained by black churches. So today rough dara encourages us to sing out the roots of ruu investment in mental health and justice. Cheap like us to get spiritually grounded for our participation in the long hall of justice making in this area. 1 unitarian who made inroads in the area of mental health injustice. Was deeply sustained by her unitarian faith. Dorothea dix. In the 1800. Dorothea dix was a reformer. Who worked tirelessly to improve the conditions. For people experiencing mental illness in the united states. In her lifetime. She was able to convince legislators in several states to publicly fund the creation of over 30 hospitals. 4 people. Who were mentally l. Dick's wrote smoothing spiritual poetry in her journals. And she was inspired by william ellery channing. A famous unitarian preacher in her day. Back then unitarians didn't use the terms. Inherent worth and dignity or. Interconnected web of life. Channing tatum's version of imago dei theology. The idea that every single person is imprinted. With the image of god. Bat godliness inside of each person means that humans should recognize. Not only one another's common humanity. But also. Each person special. And unique potential. Each person and their potential. Are holy. Whether you presently identify as fierce. Or not. You can see that the theological neat seeds here. Include the seeds. For religious sort of humanism. The idea of that time was that the fairy reverence one would have for god. Is the reference one ought to have. For one's fellow human. Dick's of course was not the only reformer early reformer in mental health in the united states nor was she day only unitarian one. But she was among the most instrumental in paving new compassionate ways. To approach mental illness. And to push for structural change. Today barbara meyer is one uu minister who has led the way in mental health ministry. She makes this distressing observation. It seems that in some ways we have come full circle from the time that dorothea dix began her crusade. It is widely acknowledged including by the surgeon general. That currently there is a crisis. In mental health care. In the united states. Fixing our broken mental health care system is a long path. Do. Of course if it were easy to do. It would have been done already. Like you rev daryl wants to see changes come fast. And in many areas. Our desire to see change is a good strong. Fire in the belly. That reminds us of what we most deeply care about. We must keep the flame burning steadily and constructively. Without. Burning us out. This is why successful social movements. Are rooted in purpose and meaning. Values and vision. Inspirit. And soul. We can itarian universalist sometimes say we are. Loving the hell out of the world. So that all are free and whole. Thereby we create heaven on earth. When the path to hope or justice feels obscured or slow. It is easy to become tempted by despair. Or to give up. But here's the thing. The ark. Historical justice journeys. Tulsa. That this precisely. Is when it's time to. Sing. Singing the journey. Means approaching justice-seeking as a journey of growth. Where we grow the courage we didn't know we had. Garner the patience to work together and learn from each other. And we sing songs. But you take rudy pin us. Because they are rooted in what is actually inside us. Fierce dedication to living. Deep core knowledge that human life is dignified. Is worthy. That our lives. Are connected. Without a taproot. Without a taproot. Activists get tapped out. But when we are singing the journey. We recall that we journey in a great chorus. A chorus of people whose eyes are trained on a better world. The justice journey is not always easy or clear. But it is about being the most beautifully human we can be. On our way to making the world the most humane place. It can be. It's time to keep on. And sing the journey. In singing. We remember how good it is to be alive with others. And how close. We may yet. Be. Living the world. We dream about. Now i'd like to welcome margo walter to tell us more about the justice journey. The margo walter and i get to spread good joy. And news. Certainly the most important words spoken here today with the reflections from earl and from christine. Do i get to talk about the social justice. Steering committee. And what are what is the journey that we're going and mental illness. Mental wellness is not just a destination is this a travel through time for each of us learn to be emotionally. Intellectually. And physically healthy. Uuc began to focus on mental health many years ago. Family go back 5 years ago. With the help of terry grimes who contributed to the re-program by providing education to our children. Some of you might remember iris the dragon. Learning about diseases of the brain and how to not label people with the onset of the journey. Jerry was an incredible advocate. For mental illness. And was off to richmond. Regular leg to bring issues to the virginia legislature. Unfortunately. Terry died young. But her legacy. Continuous. Fast forward to the social justice steering committee. They began a in 2014 what we called a listening campaign. The committee invited. Everyone in the congregation. To think about pressing social justice concerns in their hearts and minds and share that. Over 70 121 conversations occurred. And the social justice steering committee poured over the thoughtful record records of these conversations in order to listen to you. The congregation. This took much time and dedication. Barbara taylor. And susan walmsley led the effort on this part of the journey with the steering committee. The resounding theme. In conversation after conversation was the impact of mental health issues. In people's lives. And challenges related to a broken mental health system. In this country. Last year the steering committee teamed up with other organizations. To bring to social justice organizing trainings to use c. So that we could learn more about what it takes to work. On justice. Justice efforts for structural change and for the long haul. Around the same time. The steering committee was completing its synthesis of the listening campaign. We had another important of. That was mental health sunday may 3rd 2015. Many of you heard my personal journey. By dedicating that sunday service to mental health the focus from mental illness became even more paramount. We learn from each other that one out of four person suffer from mental illness. And no one is exempt from either having a mental illness. Or having a friend or family with a mental. Disease. After that sunday service there was a panel. Where people involved in mental health service and people who are experiencing challenges related to mental health issues. Shared thoughts and some questions. And gave out information. We had approximately 60 individuals come to that. And we hope to do another panel. So what's the steering committee doing now. And how can you help this is exciting. The social justice steering committee that is a mouthful by the way. I might just use the initials. Has been in research mode. An relationship build. Getting a sense of the lay of the land in the new river valley. What resources are available what gaps and what opportunities for making inroads. Close those gaps in mental health resources. And support in people's lives. Right here in our. Recently the committee teamed up with virginia interface center for public policy and arctic continuing. To forge a relationship with virginia organizing. Who do work with people on the margins. Advocating their rights. Just like a family vacation we have begun a great journey. To a very healthy destination. So here here they are. What are some concrete events. Did you can look. Or two in this area. 1. News today. A great sunday service where we share. Personal reflections. And look at it on the area of our justice system that needs revamping. 2. Secondly we will be supporting the launch of not one but two support groups. One for those experiencing mental illness. And one for families and friends of someone experiencing mental illness. We have a list of those who said they are interested. And we hope doing. Add to that. In attending such groups. The whole congregation will certainly know in these groups launched right here. That you used to. Thirdly we will host the mental health first aid kit. This is i'm really sorry. It's scheduled for february 6th which is a saturday so if you work. You still can come. It's a full day workshop facilitated by community services. And they're bringing the program here for us. So that's six. Horse janet sawyers i don't think janet made. This morning arceus janet sawyers is on the social justice steering committee. And she is spirit spearheading the effort to create a board of resources and update. On the mental health justice journey. If you are creative. You. Or just have some willingness to be a pair of helping hands. Please see janet. Sawyer's jenna would just stand for. There she is. Grabber at the potluck. Also if you want to come too. The steering. The steering justice steering committee meetings. We have increased the meetings to 24-month. Theron. The first and third wednesday. And you can confirm that and get some more information from barbara taylor. We also are doing what we call mapping. And basically we know it's hard for most people to figure out what is available in our area. When i was working as a mental health professional that was. An extreme crisis for many they just could not find. Resources are could not find help. When they needed it. Hopefully that is changing for the better. They need we also are eternally the mapping to to find out how are existent we're network of services were. And where the gaps are again. We are convening several mapping meetings. With key stakeholders and voices in our area who will are helping fill in the picture regarding what are working mental health services in our area. Spence that a couple times. And where there are gaps. Through these meetings occurring november through january. Coming up. Her people about what is a excuse me we hope to developer advocate for some clear accessible resources for people. About what is available. And also work with partners to identify. And hone in on one or two key issues. Related to mental health justice where we can push. Force trucks. Change. Mapping can also be used to identify all the resources available in the new river valley. And how they interrelate. If you want to attend a mapping meeting please get in touch with social justice steering committee members who you meet shortly. To learn more. We are just now scheduling these groups. Some of these will be small and informal and we may have a larger one. Which will be sure to make a big splash. So don't miss that one. Finally. There's a lot on the radar. One is that we need to join local organizations to fight stigma. We all know this. Especially the myth that mental illness equates to violence. Continue to assist with current mental health issues such as trauma. And substance abuse. And track what we are learning about the needs of incarcerated people who experience mental illness. To be treated with dignity and respect. Ronnie journey. Consider a family vacation where you see many sites along the way. And you have a destination to go see grandma. A map is a good idea gps might help you on the road. The most fun is playing video games pit stops. And looking forward to grandma's homemade cherry pie. There is no gps on our journey. With mental illness. But. There are many age dusty rose the right direction. Personal reflections. Like we heard today. Panel discussions. Visits to mental health organizations. Interviews with local professionals. Opportunities to donate your time. Talent and money. Participation in national forms. And partnerships with community services. And others await this congregation. The social justice steering committee is leading us to grandma's house. There's no cherry pie. But mental health and working for structural changes that address our broken system. Will be the ongoing benefit. We are blessed with several mental health professionals in our congregation and we are traveling together to give us many opportunities to serve. And be served and play a part in structural. Change. This poster here i don't know if you can see it in the back. But it says those who fear the darkness have no idea what the light. Can do. And i can tell you that's been very true in my life and i'm sure many of yours. Are benediction this morning. The world is too beautiful to be praised by only one voice. May you have the courage to sing your part. The world is too broken to be healed by only one set of hands. May you have the courage to use your gifts. May you go in peace. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

150531_mt_breathing.mp3

Welcome to the may 31st service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is lead by a guest minister. Reverend michael tino. The podcast begins with some introductory comments by worship associate tommy i afraid. This is followed by a story for all ages by rev michael. Next is a reading by tommy. Which is a leading to reverend michael sermon. Title breathing into delight. Good morning everyone. Welcome to the unitarian universalist congregation. My name is tommy i afraid and i'm serving as the worship associate for today's guest minister reverend michael tino. Reverend michael is the settled minister at the unitarian universalist fellowship of northern westchester in new york. Where he lives with his husband derek and they're almost two-year-old daughter noah norris use me. Reverend michael is in our area because he also serves as the director of cc the southeast unitarian universalist summer institute. Currently being held at virginia tech. He has served nationally on the uga board of trustees as well as the director of young adult and campus ministry. He co-wrote the owl our whole lives age-appropriate sexuality education curriculum that we use in with our younger members and his congregation. And to quote his church's website. Michael is dedicated to creating justice in our world. To him this includes examining and fighting oppression in all its forms. Racism sexism heterosexism classism ableism etc. Play means working to dismantle systems of inequalities. As well as raising a public morale voice for inclusion tolerance opportunity and respect. Our story this morning is a fable that comes to us. From china. A long time ago in china there was a monk. Little boy. First and this little boy was. Pretty calm and well-mannered. Little boy and everyone in his village. Said. You should become a monk. You have what it takes. You have a calmness. And the stillness to become a monk. And they didn't realize that this little boy was calm on the outside. But inside he was just. Teaming with energy. But he listened and he went to the monastery and he studied. 4 years. To become a monk. And most of his study. Most of the practice. That he had to do. Was learning to be still. To steal himself. To calm himself to. Focus on his breathing. And to meditate. Still inside. His brain was going. And the time came near for his examination. By the elder monks. To see if he had. Truly learned what it what it took to become a monk. And so he had to sit for many hours and preparation. For this meditation all by himself in a monastery high on the hill and everyday you would go up the hill to this monastery if you would sit. And he would call himself. He would do his best to steal his mind and he would sit and stillness focusing on his breathing. 4 hours. Hours. Then one day he was sitting there and a fly. Landed on his nose. Imagine. You're trying to steal yourself. Focus on your breathing. Crawling under nose. And so like anyone he. Went to brush the fly off is now. The fly zoomed around. Landed on his cheek. Anyway. Nebraska fly off his cheek and pretty soon. He and the fly. We're dancing. Why was flying in circles around them and he was up. And about and dancing. With this fly. And it was such a centering beautiful calming dance. With such a wonderful expression of all of. The things that we're going on inside him that when he went up to. The monastery. To study. Supposedly the sit-in stillness. Each day he just look forward to dancing. With his friend the f***. Reply would come in and he would spend the entire day instead of sitting still like you was supposed to. Dancing. With the fly. And pretty soon he forgot the the day of his examination. Was coming up until he was up there on the monk in the monastery on the hill. Dancing with this fly. When in walk the elder monk. For his examination. And he didn't even notice. Happy elder month. Was there. Until he was done with this damn. And the elder monks artist. Clear throat. Nn he was. Appalled. Because he was supposed to be sitting there. Still. And calm and focusing on his breath and he knew he knew he had failed his exam and would not be a monk. He would bring shame to his family into his village. For having failed his exam that he studied. Delong ford. The elder monks said. Young man. You must teach me this movement. I watched you for hours. Dancing. Imperfect harmony. All the elements of the earth. With the sun and the wind and the water and the wood and the metal and the fire of the earthen and your movements. In such perfect harmony with all of creation. You must teach me. This dance. From that. Was born the art of tai chi. Of moving in concert with the energy. In our world. As a method of meditation and focus. That complements. The stillness and the sitting. That's so many do. The following reading is 180 years old. It is from ralph waldo emerson's address to the harvard divinity school. In 1838. In this for fulgent summer. It has been a luxury to draw the breath of life. The grass grows. The buds burst. The meadow is spotted with fire and gold in the tint of flowers. The air is full of birds. And sweet. With the breath of the pine. The balm of gilead. In the new hey. Night brings no gloom to the heart. Wicked welcome shade. Through the transparent darkness the stars pour their almost spiritual rays. Man under them seems a young child. His huge globe a toy. The cool night babes the world as with a river. And prepares his eyes again for the crimson dawn. The mystery of nature was never displayed more happily. But when the mind opens. And review of the laws which traverse the universe and make things what they are. Then shrinks the great world at once into a mere illustration in fable of this mind. What am i. And what is. Ask the human spirit. With a curiosity in you kindled. But never to be quenched. Behold he's out running laws. Which our imperfect apprehension conceit end this way and that but not come full circle. Behold these infinite relations so like. So unlike. Many. F1. I would study i would know i would admire forever. These works of thought have any entertainments of the human spirit. In all ages. Is now my brother's you will ask. What it means desponding days can be done by us. We have contrasted the church. With the stole. In the soul then. Let the redemption besought. Yourself a newborn bard of the holy ghost. Cast behind you all conformity. In a quaint men at first-hand with deity. Look to it first and only. That fashion. Custom. Authority. Pleasure and money are nothing to you. Are not bandages over your eyes that you cannot see. But live with the privilege of the immeasurably immeasurable mind. And now. Let us do what we can to rekindle the smouldering nye quenched fire on the altar. The question returns. What shall we do. Faith makes us. And not be yet. And faith makes its own forms. All the temps to contrive the system are as cold as the new worship introduced by the french to the goddess of reason. Today. Pasteboard and filigree. An ending tomorrow in madness and murder. Rather let the breath of new life be breathed by you through the forms already existing. For if once you are alive. You shall find they shall become plastic and new. The remedy to their deformity is first. Soul. And second. Soul. And evermore. Soul. In this refulgent spring. It is as much a delight to draw the breath of life. As it was for ralph waldo emerson that bryce is summer. You're 1838. The brass. Of life. In hebrew ruach elohim. The breath of god. The medium through which the divine energy is imparted to us. In the jewish tradition also the way in which each of us comes to have some of the divine. With a loss. We breathe it in. Inspiration. Respiration. Spirit. You would not be making things up if you saw a commonality. Between those words. Among those words. The latin word. Spiritualists and the greek word pneuma. Like the hebrew rule. Mean both spirit. In the religious sense. And also breath. In the physical. The transcendentalist of the 19th century ralph waldo emerson among them many of them including he. We're also unitarians. Thought i said we each have the capacity to directly experience spirituality. We each have the capacity to directly experience. Spirituality through our senses. Through our being. And through our bodies. The first source from which we claim to draw our unitarian universalist religious tradition instructs us that we get our religion from the. Direct experience. Of that transcending mystery and wonder. Affirmed in all cultures. Which moves off to a renewal of the spirit. An openness to the forces. The create. And uphold life. I daresay an openness to the forces that create and uphold life. Is to me an excellent definition of what spirituality is. And it's mediated at least in park in our religious tradition. Through our direct experience of it. And that direct experience. Comes at least in part through our body. At least in part through our breath. Truths. Action that we take. Again. And again and again everyday. Of our lives. Over the past year i've been engaged in study and reflection about how various aspects of theology can be seen as embodied parts of our being. It was natural for me and doing this. To connect the theology of spirit. With. The breath. With the breath that we feel. Move in and out of us. With the breath that we focus on in meditation practices. With the breath that carries life-sustaining oxygen into our body. And expel the carbon dioxide that would otherwise be toxic. Ourselves. With the breath that connect me to you. You to the person next to you. And then to the people beyond them. And so on and so on until all of the beings of the world find themselves. In an interconnected web of breath. Spirit. Of being. It's not lost on me that when i first sat down months ago to write a sermon about breath. I came down with the worst cold. But i have had in years. My breathing labored i found it hard to be inspired. Physically yes. And religiously to. I was hoping to be honest that breath would be a metaphor. But it wasn't a metaphor to those ancient hebrew people. Who spoke of ruoff elohim. Nor to those who wrote in latin of spiritual sore in greek of pneuma. It was. In fact. A physical manifestation of the divine. Circulated through our bodies. On a regular and continuous basis and without which. Life as we know it would not be. But how do we as unitarian universalist come to understand spirit. Metaphor. Or reality. Maybe it's a little bit of both. Belongings are fascinating. Organs. Tommy skip the part in my bio where i got a phd in cell biology. Baptist university studying one physiology so i'll spare you the physiology lecture. But they're fascinating organs. The delicate one cell thick membranes of the lung. Have the surface area of a tennis court. Inside of our chest. Some 600 miles. Of blood vessels are necessary. In those lungs. To soak up the oxygen. The passes through that much tissue 6. Hundred miles of blood vessels. In each of our tests. And of course they are constantly being stretched and squeezed. Again and again and again every moment from our birth. To our death. Not have to me. Is pretty awe-inspiring. I have no need for magic. When i know that such a thing exists in my chest. And then your chest and then in the chest if every. Human being who is. And ever was. Nef. There is also something more. Senegalese poet virago. wrote of breast and spirit this. Listen more often to things than to beings. Hear the voice of fire. Hear the voice of water. Listen in the wind to the bush. That is sobbing. This. Is the ancestors breathing. Each day he wrote they renew ancient bombs. Ancient bonds that hold fast. Finding are locked to their law. To the will of the spirits. Stronger than we. To the spell of our dead. Who are not really dead. Who's covenant. Binds us to life. Whose authority binds us to their will the will of the spirits that stir in the bed of the river. On the banks of the river. The breathing of spirits. Hormone in the rocks. In the grasses. The wheels that blow. The air that we inspire. Again. And again. This is the spirit of all that is. And all that was. And all that ever will be. This. Is the physical manifestation of a covenant. A religious. Promise. That binds us. To all of life. On this planet we call home. It is a dress on nature. Ralph waldo emerson road. We learn that the highest is presents to the soul of man. At the dread that universal essence. Which is not wisdom or love or beauty or power but all-in-one and each entirely. Is that for which all things exist. And that by which they are. That's the spirit. Create. Step behind nature. Throughout. Nature. Spirit. This present. 1. And not compound it does not act upon us from without. That is in space and time but spiritually. Or through. Ourselves. Therefore that spirit that is. The supreme being does not build up in nature around us. But puts it forth. Through us. As the tree. The life of the tree. Puts forth new branches and leaves. Through the pores. Of the old. Very simply that's.. He wrote off. Was also. Breath. So what do you believe connect. All of life. What do you believe in views us. With a very quality. Of living. Do you feel connected to something greater than yourself. And what is the actual substance. Of that thing. Greater. Perhaps. Perhaps it is spirit. Perhaps it is breath. Unitarian theology has long proclaimed. But god is one. Rejecting the doctrine of the trinity by claiming humanity rather than divinity for jesus. Unitarians pretty much skipped over that third thing. That many people believe is part of god. The holy spirit. A colleague of mine once have jokingly said that maybe we should call ourselves. B arians instead. Having not really dispensed with our need for spirit in our theology. Carolyn mcdade spirit of life after all is among the most beloved songs in our hymnal invoking the spirit to flow through us. As it does the wind and the sea. The more i think about this. The more i think. That maybe. Spirit. Is the one essence of god we held onto. The nature of the divine. The theist and atheist alike. Embrace. Physical and metaphorical. Concrete and abstract. As natural as the wind. And as mystical as the breath of our ancestors. Provable and understandable as surely as we breathe in and breathe out. And yet mysterious. All at the same time. And so. We breathe in. We breathe out. With our breaths we focus our minds. With our breaths we renew our intentions toward all of creation. With our breaths we give ice. To our bodies. With our breath we spark our thoughts. We make possible. Song. We share substance with those around us. We connect with all beings. Remove. With the wind. With our breath. We inspire. And are inspired. Serious moves. Intuos. Spirit moves out of us. Spirit moves. Through us. May we continue to be odd. By this movement. Physical. Metaphorical. Habitable. The apartheid era of south africa. The cultural expression. Of the african people. Of that country well mostly bound. By the white government including. The cultural expressions and dances and music of the zulu. People. And the artists musicians and dancers. Who. Express those cultural expressions were jailed and and hurt. And many of them fled their country to avoid being jailed. And hurt. One of the people who fled south africa in that era was joseph shabalala. Who came to lead a group called ladysmith black mambazo. And one day he walking down the streets of new york city. Breathing in and breathing out. I'm feeling his connection. To all of being as it was. Realize that wherever he was. He could be at home. Far away from the land that was his home. He understood his home to be wherever he was connected. To all beings on our planet. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

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150201_do_question-box.mp3

Welcome to the february 1st service at the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by are settled minister reverend arrowland. And her sermon is titled the question box sermon. The podcast begins with rev dara explaining the nature of the questions to be addressed. The podcast leaves out the 10 minutes or so during which. Cards are filled out. Collected an assist. It closes with your benediction. Ref darragh refers to a paul gogone painting. Where do we come from what are we. Where are we going. Follow the link on this page to an image of that painting. This morning we are offering a playful and creative service with many voices of course and contributions. As i mentioned earlier this morning we celebrate entering into a month-long theme of. Inquiry. And so this morning i'm going to invite you into a collaborative participatory opportunity. To inquire. We're just about as long as human beings have been present on earth they've been asking. Questions. Questions like. Where is god. What is god. Why is this happening whatever this is. Many religious and spiritual traditions on or the asking of questions in jewish tradition around passover in the stator at the youngest child asked why is this night different from all the other night. There's a long tradition of cowand mysterious puzzles and buddhism that invite you to consider the debts of inquiry the asking in wrestling of deep questions. What is the sound of one hand clapping. That sort of. So all month long i am inviting our congregation each one of you to think about the role of questioning. In your own. Life earlier we heard from the coffee committee who made a choice to embark on a new pathway around coffee asking good questions what is the best way that we can live our uu values in the world and where does that pathway. Meet us. This morning our service was inspired by a painting by a painter named paul gauguin. Probably a painter that might be familiar to some of you. He's caught a very large painting and the total of that painting is where do we come from. What are we. Where are we going. Are there people that have seen this painting before. Unfortunately we don't have the ability to project it up on our wall today but i invite you to go home and and google or look at the library for an image of a very large three-part painting. What do we come from. Where where do we come from what are we where are we going. And the reason our monthlong steam and this worship service is inspired by that painting is because it's actually the name of the hymn. Anarchical hymnal. And we'll be singing that song a little bit. Later in our service. So by way of offering to you this opportunity to acquire i want to share with you just a little bit more about that painter paul gauguin. He was raised catholic. And between the ages of 11 and 16 he was studying. And he was a student of a bishop. And the bishop. Taught his students by catechism centered on. A version of those three core questions where do we come from. What are we. Where are we. Boeing. And like many speakers. He left his early religious roots he found himself in his life journey moving away from the catholicism i visit you. But those core questions remained with him. So he spent his life kind of. Trying to wrestle with those questions explore those questions and he would state that at the end of his life at the end of his. Is professional vocational path the production of that painting that i mention. At where do we come from what are we where are we going that's also the name of the him wilson later that was kind of the combination. Of his response. Wrestling with those quest. Paul gauguin is in our hymnal but didn't self-identify as a unitarian universalist he's none the less as speaker evidencing a journey of seeking asking probing. Unitarian universalist we celebrate a principal one of our prince we have several principles. And one of them is the free and responsible search. The free and responsible search. For truth and meaning so right from the get-go we have this honoring of a free search for meaning. We also honor that we take responsibility for our questions. In our ideas because those often compel how we act in the world. So we think about the free freedom of our religious and spiritual enquiries and the responsibility of our actions which stem from the questions we ask. And the discoveries that we find. We talked about being responsible to be interdependence. Web. Of all life. If you're not already familiar with some of our principles and our sources. I invite you at your leisure that open up your gray hymnal up sometime flip through the early pages that list are. Sources in our principles. Those who were here last week heard from my colleague who spoke a little bit more at length about the pretzel. Surface sources. Today we lift up of course that one the free and responsible search. For truth and meaning. No i said there was going to be a participatory part of the service and here it is. Essentially we're going to do something that i hope will be playful fun a little bit challenging maybe for both you and i this morning. And i promise you it's not just because i wanted to get out of writing a sermon for you. We're going to collaborate in a content of what is the sermon this morning and essentially this is called the question box sermon. And the way i get the questions is that you. Generate them. So in a few moments could invite jared's who play a few jazz selections. For your contemplation. Give you some time to really call for thin yourself. What are some core questions that you are wrestling with or you have wrestled with what kinds of spiritual and religious question would you like me to take a stab at responding to this morning. I'll tell you also the way it works is that i will reserve the right to table some questions that i might actually more fully develop them as sermons and worship ideas in the future. But i will try to go through as many questions as i can. At the time of the storm in later in our service you can ask me questions like. Reverend are what's your favorite color. You can ask me that. But i do invite you to consider really what are your core question. Go down with wrestling with where do we come from what are we where are we going. What are your question. I will also say i'll give you all of it could have rules of engagement right off the bat i brought with me my eight ball. So if we really get into it. We might be able to. We'll give it our best shot. So for now please take a few moments. Deepening introspection contemplation please consider what questions are alive for you. Ann. jared will play some music for your reflection and we'll gather these a bit later. And the service. Let me also say that you can identify yourself by your name if you wished you and i will have further conversation with you after the service if you wish. Or you don't have to put your name on it. If you do put your name on i will not announce your name. As the bearer of that question in the warships. So let it proceed. Alright dear congregation. Gathered up all your questions. And i'll tell you is very moving for me to be starting to sort through and. I'm create some sense of order in the questions i was receiving as you all were singing and sharing your voices articulating some of the biggest questions there are and naming. The mystery in the puzzle of life. So. Let us begin together we're not going to get through all of them i can tell you that. But there are many threads in these questions. In no particular order. What is your concept of god. Ultimately my concept. Of god. It shaped both by my own life and wrestling with elements of my own story and the study of how that word god has come into human usage. I'm very move personally by the teachings in the ancient. Protect. That name that word god. Hebrew letters. And those he hebrew letters are you at hey vive. And. What that actually those hebrew letters that tetragram as it's called. They point to that word god. As a term for that which is beyond our human comprehend. That in in the ancient teachings that arise out of working with that. Woodhaven hey. There's such reverence for the sense of the mysterious that one doesn't even say god. One recognizes that those words those letters fail to encapsulate in human terms all that we might imagine god is. Paul tillich is a liberal theologian who essentially says the same thing. He says you know the word god. We can attach ourselves to that word god but really those letters just point us towards that which is in affable beyond our human language. I'll also share with you that i'm very deeply moved by a traditions that talk about god that word as being a verb. Something we participate in. Something that is not outside of us but rather includes all of us with. That's another. Conception of god. I'll also share with you just a little bit about how sometimes we talk in our unitarian universalist curriculums with god. Artwork children. To come inside. We talked about how that word got. Can mean a lot of different things. And i'm one of them. One of our great religious educator and our movement her name is katie covey. We went to the same we grew out of the same unitarian universalist congregation in pennsylvania. And she developed a way of talking with children about god that is really stuck with me. She gathers the children together and she says okay let's talk about this confusing word god. Which we we adults really wrestle with two. And she brings out. Potted plants. She says sometimes we talked about god is that which grows. And then she gets out of mirror. And she shows it to the kids. Like i would show a mirror to you and. Sometimes we talk about god as being in. One of us. And in you. Who do you see in this mirror. And sometimes she gets out a measuring tape. And she says. People explore the world in all different ways. Science has a asking questions about natural laws in the universe. It's a symbol of inquiry and knowledge. We can also think about that. As part of god. So there's all these different symbols that she uses an often i used to expand our conception of god language. I'm aware that many adults come to our unitarian universalist congregation. With a conception of god that is inherited from early religious education. And so. Other minister i'm opening available to talk about many forms of god. But i've known for you just a little bit about how i speak god. And i would also share that one of the things i. Want to communicate with you this morning. So i talked about god i often talk about a sense of co-creation. Believing that we human being. Have free will. There are many things that we can choose in our lives. How to act. We can make choices. But there are also many things that lie outside of our human comprar. And so i talked about how we are co-creators with a mystery larger than ourselves and how sometimes people talk about that mystery. As god. Show lot more that we can talk about with relation. The god been aware there are other questions. Selena get to some of those. This is a similar question must want acknowledge the existence of god or a higher power as a starting point. For one's spirit. Good question. And i would say no. You start where you are. Must you have. I asked conception of god or higher power. To start. As your starting point. I think most of us as adults we don't live our lives in the vacuum. At this point wherever you are in your journey you're probably wrestling with whatever inherited circumstances. I'm having present throughout your life things that you were born with raised with challenges you faced joy's you have. And there's a conversation some of you've heard me say this before that all theology. All of our god talk that's the. Fancy word theology is. Theo's meaning god and ology meeting meaning study all of the ways that we study and talk about god. They're actually. Autobiographical. All theology at 7 liberal religion is autobiography. Because ultimately where theology meets the rubber of the road in our life is the starting. So. If you are on a spiritual path. You have question. For you arising from. And maybe your wrestling with god. But maybe you're wrestling with a relationship in your life like your marriage. Like your relationship with your children. Boyfriend. All of that is part and parcel of one spiritual journey. Firepower can certainly be part of that journey. But if you don't yet identify or we'll never identify with a sense of a higher power or god language in any form it does not mean that you are not on an important spiritual. Journey on. There could be whole sermons on each one of these class. Okay when i move a little bit more. When you try to do at least. 45 more. If the patriots win today does that mean their sins have been forgiven i knew i knew someone was going to ask a question. All right so will the patriots win today with their sins be forgiven that's a little question. 8 ball says most likely. And the patriots fans celebrate this morning. Okay. Is there evil as many religions believe. Is there evil. I'm going to start to answer this through the lens of liberal religious tradition which is the tradition that i. Servant come out of. Liberal liberal religious tradition has historically wrestled with dispensary. This language around eva. Because i'm our tradition holds and liberal religion often and optimism. Books about human nature and about the future. There's inherent worth and dignity of every person and if you look back into our earlier 20th and 18th century forebears they would talk with this grand sleeping sense of optimism onward and upwards forever and ever we are not depraved we are people of light within and we are on this journey of hope. Sounds really good. It is hopeful there is a presiding on message of hope and optimism in our tradition. At the same time what what happened was there was a crisis in theology and i'm in the mid-twentieth century when. The holocaust happened and the bomb was developed. And people got. Modern folk scott. I would take me smacked in the face. And. I'm broken in their hearts about all that was possible. There was this radical recognition we recognition that we humans are capable. I've really tremendous harm. Until people started to ask. What do we do with that we're not all good. And what is the nature of evil. So that's a little bit of background. And i would say that the conceptions of evil we reserve that turn evil often. 10 name that witches most morally reprehensible. What we mean when we say evil most morally reprehensible. And as you know different folks in different religious traditions have different ways of talking about what is most morally reprehensible. And sometimes traditions talk about some people if they don't believe a certain way. You know they're evil. Liberal religious tradition traditional unitarian universalism doesn't really hold that nor do we hold the evil somehow get into you. Like. You become possessed by evil. That's not something that. That liberal religion our religious tradition holds a say. But we rather we reserve that turn evil. A name which that which is most morally egregious. And we often. Start talking about how we have capacity for good and for ill. Right inside of ourselves. And we can be inspired by onwards and upwards forever and hopeful but we need to also reckon with the fact that we can harm one another very deep. Also we need to reckon with the fact that we create a participating systems. The perpetuate harm and suffering. Some folks might say that's that evil. Sinful. But again using that term very deliberately to name what is morally. Leprechaun. That's just the beginning of the good conversation about. And send. Is there an afterlife. And unitarian universalist philosophy. 8 ball. 8 ball question. There is room in unitarian universalism. To imagine and understand. Lots of things. That half. After. How we die. There is no-one prevailing. All the times when i sit with folks and people explore and ask questions we uncover the questions beneath. Often times when people are questioning about what happens after we die. It's actually not just an abstract question. There is a question underneath the. About how do i connect. A loved one who has passed. How do i reckon with the fact that i don't know how to. Connect anymore with a loved one has passed. We have atheists agnostics humanists mystics. All of this all these different terms and. Theological position. That allow us to talk about and ruminate on. What happens after we. One of the most a succinct answers it's not the only answer i'd give. Is that those we love. Live very much on. Through the lies of those they have. And often are memorial services and unitarian universalist. Really highlight. That. The carrying forward of the inspiration of that. And how it lives on and those who have been touched most. Replay by that. We could have a whole service. On that quest. Okay. These are all of these are actually got afterlife. Okay this will be the last one we we end on. Given our time together this morning. Why am i so blessed. And others not. A lot of us can. Focus on the question why. And it's a meaning-making sort of question. We want cause and response we wanted no cause. Actually want to know. If we do something then this occurs and so. Why am i supposed what did i do to become so blessed and what if someone else do to not be so blessed. And it also proves our sense of justice where is. Justice. In the world. What is theranos. These are not easy questions to answer. I don't want to be slipping and just use the 8-ball either. Rather i want to suggest that. The naming of one's blessings can be very powerful. Especially if it is done not just you know perfunctory. But if you just noticed an honor. What you have. And then from there out of your deep sense of appreciation for. The best in life. Work to heal the world with the acknowledgement that there are others who don't necessarily have those same resources. Another way to respond to this why question is actually not so much about theology as it is about. Sociology. Why did some of us have so much and others have so little is really about a history of humans working and not sharing the world that is inequitable. And due to racism. Due to consolidations of privilege and power. That. Give some folks tons of privileges and leave others with less. So ultimately these questions i have a lot of human dimensions. And i'll end my time talking. At the top of my head on this question. By talking about human power. Why. Is a complex question but what i can say is that each one of us has human power. And agency. So we can choose how we will use that human power. Will we use our human power to create a more equitable world. Such that all feel that they have a piece of the pie. Will we participate in the creation of a more just environment where everyone can name. Their blessing. And let us also not imagine that just because one person's life doesn't look exactly like ours. That they are not blessed. With things in their life that they must deeply value. So. I'm through a lot of different threads. I look forward to journeying with you onward. Exploring these questions together. You might find that i. Bring out some of these note cards and the days and months ahead. Thank you so much for exploring and sharing your questions this morning. Please remain standing and make a connection with your neighbor. Browse pam's touch elbows someone method suggested having a fist bump with the person next to you just make a connection. Dear ones let us celebrate and honor the richness of inquiry. Well we might urine for immediate answers. Let us experience and honor the pathways of inquiring themselves. May you continue to breathe new questions and share them on your journey. Let us go forth seeking knowledge growing and spirit building community. Go in peace until we are with one another again. Blessed be and amin. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

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150809_mb_children.mp3

Welcome to the august 9th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is led by uuc member mark benson. And his servant is title. Singing the children out. Mentoring the next generation. The podcast begins with some introductory comments. I worship associate stephanie gilmore. Let us build memories in our children. Less they dragged out joyless live lest they allow treasures to be lost. Because they have not been given the keys. We live not by things. But by the meanings of things. It is needful to transmit the passwords. From generation. Degeneration. Welcome. To the unitarian universalist congregation here in the new river valley. I'm stephanie gilmore i'm going to be your worship associate today. And. Are settled minister the reverend era. Hola. Is on vacation and study leave until next song. When she comes back. This morning. We're happy to have with us as our guest speaker dr. mark benson. Mark has been a member of our congregation since 2002. And he's been active on committees here committee on ministries sabbatical committee's membership. And connections. He's an associate professor of human development at virginia tech. His research and publications focus on adolescent development in family. And he's going to be talking with us today about singing the children out. Mentoring the next generation. I was intimidated about doing a sermon. But then i thought. Of donald trump. He ignores his critics disregards advice yet stumbles ahead. Soft trump has the temerity to run for president i should have some confidence to speak at the pulpit. Donald trump my hair out hubway. Isn't it surprised me to learn who it is that inspires today shoes. Not donald trump. Who. Well child study finds that over 80% of teens think highly of their parents. Parents. Even their fathers. Over half indicated that they wanted to be like their parents. Teachers inspire 2 for example a recent study. Found that a good 4th grade teacher having a good fourth grade teachers linked to a 25% increase in the likelihood of going to college. 8 years later. But failure is part of trying. I'm reminded of a time. I want a group of graduate students. In child development came to my house for the last. Class of the semester. And things were going well until eight year old grace arrived in school. And assess the situation and announce. Dad. You don't know anything about child at all. All i could say was so i guess that means classes over today. Looking back i have this lifelong passion and fascination with child development with adolescent development. Probably related to my own challenges during those times. I'm fascinated by the context of their young lives. Particularly their family setting. And when i wrote the new slayer description i posed the question what are the keys. To good parenting or mentoring and. Then i had to. So the answer i did come up with the answer three things if i say them all right now we can get out of here early. Warped compassion exploration. So i see some people starting to guy. For those of you holding off on the coffee. Save a little more about these three elements. Lawrence compassion expiration so the first warmth and families. This involves attending without. Particular expectation. It's attending asking affirming. Being present being there for them. Maya angelou said they may not remember much about what you say. But they'll remember. How you made them feel. So it turns out that these feelings. Acceptance. Has a profound and extensive effect. Children's development. Adolescent. Justin my own work alone i found it associated warmth associated with. Identity positive peer relationships school achievement. Optimism avoidance of risk behaviors. And my daughter anna cutout bunch more than i have any comparison to other background variables things like socioeconomic status ethnicity that we like to talk about a lot and hopefully think that there might be. Stepparent adopt a parent biological straight. Gay lesbian. Have very little influence compared to warm. It's this process. Not the structure. So one caveat that i should mention is. That there's not up cuz you direct association. Many variables affect children's outcome and troubled youth often have awesome parents substance of. Cognitive difficulties mental health problems. And it's a good thing awesome parents are they are because. Sensitive kids need. Awesome parody. And sometimes awesome youth prevail over very troubled upbringing. So. Woodside in mind continue just talk a little bit about the nature of. Of these three. One of the warm memories i have. Of. Our children's childhood that might. Child rebirth. Is the. Suits of. The precious thing so the precious thing can be anything. It can be a cherished doll piece of ribbon or even a person. And i am the the. Pursuer think cookie monster. I want the precious thing. And they would wrestle to get it back from me keep it away from me and sometimes catherine was suppressed precious thing and would wrestle. Over her and looking back i remember my attorneys remember the cooperation. I remember, monitoring that we don't get hurt. But mostly i remember the joys and the smiles on the reminiscing afterwards. Of these warm bonds that happened in those moments. It seems to me that the warmth ideas very related to the first uu principle the inherent worth and dignity of each person. Whip into communities. And this this is one. Were you feel the sense of natural. Acceptance. A place. Support. Kindness. Safety. Peace. Think about that for a second. Some people call that heaven. So a parent or a mentor friends. You can be. Part of creating heaven here on earth. Ralph waldo emerson said. To know that even one life has live breathe easier. Breathe easier because you have lived. That is to have succeeded. Love the second element 21 plus the first the second element concerns this unfolding or changing person. And this one's a little more nuanced. And i'm relying on robert sardello and his book the power of soul. We discuss number of virtues compassion. Just one of those. And i've used compact compassion as this act of perception of the true goodness. In the developing person. Changing person. Passion involves helping a person. Not be who we want them to be precise but who they were meant to be. And that kind of compassion is. Like a deep understanding gestalt theory. Call it listening with the 30 or the rhythms. Of the third. Of an additional perspective in the sequences. Taking a child perspective walking in the shoes understanding your mint tea as a person. Their past. The now but. Importantly their future. The future self. And that search for the inner person. I'm reminded growing up in my own adolescence of aunt eleanor was not actually a recall durant. By virtue. Closest to the family. And she had a capacity to listen. To a young adolescents my brother and i. Ask us about ourselves it was a time when adults didn't do that very much. And i remember feeling this sense of wholeness. And confidence. That. Came from talking with in illinois. So. She was listening but listening with a real deep sense. Of compassion. And compassion is being the soulful witness. As sardello says to the pain of the other person. Without actually attempting to relieve the pain. So imagine seventh-grader who suddenly realizes a tinge of guilt. A professor. I think i hurt my friend's feelings. No apparent could relieve the guilt by saying all it probably doesn't matter i'm sure she forgot don't worry about it. And those words might relieve the pain but they preamp for learning as a child. So sardella would call that. Sympathy sympathetic response. But not compassionate. The compassionate instead would be. Connecting to the child's pain. And during it ourselves. And sharing our own story. Of pain or for friendship or missed opportunities with friends and what we might have done. What we did in ozark. This a spirit of compassion is captured in a poem children's poem by shel silverstein. The author of the giving tree with my faves. And he says. Listen to the muscles trial. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn't steal impossibles the womb. Listen to the never have. Then listen close to me. Anything can happen. Anything's can be. The captures that sense. A both. Their future. And confidence in their future. And yet the sense of. The reality of socialization as well. Sometimes those. Feelings are have to be cultivated after come out. Unpleasant feelings awesome have a way. Out anyway so unimportant serve goal with this is. Exploring feelings understanding. And when children bear their feelings they can access their inner struggle. In in the let it be a dance that third versus a little factoid. Ric masten had written it. To bear the pain bare share the pain. And when he saw that it came out and let him know his uu minister. He was disappointed. As he preached was a next time he preached to the service he said okay everybody take out your books. And change the bear to shoulder the pain bear. To bare b a r e express. If you actually read the whole thing it doesn't make sense bear the pain it's all about. Bending with the rhythms. And that's compassion. Bending trying a new approach. It's the sense of intimacy losing it. The view of intimacy is very. Pleasant and easy. But true intimacy is also very intense. Unpredictable and sometimes risky. It's no cakewalk for a child either. Anna wants said i don't want to talk about my feelings. Why don't you just punish this like regular parents. I probably should say a brief word about punishment humans want to cooperate. And learning all the cultural rules of mastering them as a lifelong process. I'm still here now defenders of punishment usually argue the value and controlling or shaping behavior but even if it works temporarily people becoming newark. So the horses of the punishment has to steadily increase. Endured. In fact it doesn't really teach it only suppresses behavior in the presence of external threats. And worst of all reactive punishment which is often the way it occurs. Undermine swarm some the relationship and preamps this creative. Compassionate response. That requires. Take your time. And having this whole list. Compassion is holding the child's hand or the mentees hand. Walking lamb with the struggle. Diving redirecting. And educating. Rather than using any kind of aversive us cut circumstance. Help guide that process. So we have the two warmth and compassion the third is exploration. And this this was interesting because it has to do with. A real mershon in the outside world. And there are so many things. We can help. Armenti's. Children. Immersed in the world with so many pieces of guidance in areas and topics. But one thing that we can do overall is to think about opportunities that we might provide. And those are fun out there is out there in the real world so. Katherine when she was about five years old i had to stick shift in the car. And she was sitting next to me. Cuz we're driving to school. And she wanted to and learn how to do the stick shift. If i push the clutch course. And she looks back on that with a lot of. Pride and assent. Of confidence i think that she had. With that exploration who was conquering the expiration. And we never crashed. Which is a good thing. I love for the story of jesus having growing up catholic i had a lot of stories that i. Resonated with i'm going to take a little bit of liberty with this but. It's a story about jesus in the temple. And has some relevance for this exploration idea. So she says parents are going to the festival of the passover. And people are moving around together and. Traveling together and you can imagine they're probably talking chatting and. Playing flutes and awesomest and tambourines. That sounds like floydfest. Well somehow jesus get separated which also cycloid. When the caravan starts back and joseph and mary finally meet up together. And i say hey where's jesus and buffums i thought he was with you. Joseph is kind of mad and he says back kids jesus christ. And that's how we religious swearing again. So they look around for me proudly don't find them in the head back to jerusalem to get back. And jesus is a total religion nerd. Is there a temple talking to the temple talking to the teachers listening and asking questions. And looks awfully says everyone who heard him. What's a maze that is understanding. A mother said. Why have dreadlocks. Like this your father and i have been asked. Restart you. So the key about this is that jesus parents. We're all froth supportive of his exploration. Jesus messed up and they told him so. What's they also understood this exploration they probably took their says heads you just said. He's such a religion nerd what can we do. It would turn out that his weird fascination with religion. Would lead to a fantastic career. Influencing billions of people for thousands of years. Do joseph and mary. Good job. Compassion exploration these three key elements. And in the remaining moments like to just talk on a. A few implications. For one thing i'm entering or parenting or spiritual practice. It's a discipline. Intentionally working to be a better parent for mentor. Beginning with myself. If there is to be peace in the world ultimately there must be peace in the heart. One of the additions i have and i have very embarrassing to a few spiritual practices but. What is. As the children are leaving i. Look over. As we sing them out. And there's a certain poignancy that comes to me for that as. As i'm looking. So this idea of. Intentional parenting or broader broader kinds of mentoring goals. They have brought social applications. And in their book how nations fail a smog lou and robinson. They outline this contrasts between inclusive and. Extractive societies. An inclusive societies have these broad political. Broad political engagement and economic freedom. And they tend to have prosperity and they tend to have long-lasting prosperity. Young people and inclusive societies can pursue opportunities without. Political incumbent has without economic barriers. An extract of society. Whether it's by colonialism or whether it's an extraction within the society itself. The rich get richer political engagement decline. The elite. Or wealthy assume greater control. The income gap widened. While we can contribute we can contribute to maintaining and extending exclusive features. By involving young people. And giving them the keys. 2 kingdom. Spreading the information. And providing opportunities. Encouraging their ambition. Those are all attempts to. Promote inclusive. We can also fight against the extractive teachers operating on you making it harder for them to vote. Making college more expensive. Raising the debt on future generations. Maintaining social security for the current but not future recipients. Those extractive policies. Eventually undermine. Prosperity and shape the decline of society. So if you love your country which i do. That's good to open up the opportunities for the next generation we need. And my hope is that through providing warmth developing compassion. And encouraging exploration the seas have ultimate effects. For relationships and for a broader society. It helps us toward that goal of world community with peace. Liberty and justice. Parents friends teachers. We are the ones to cause the moral arc. Tibet. The infant influential unitarian. Thinker theodore parker in 1853. First you see our metaphor he said i do not pretend to understand. The moral universe the ark is a long one. My eye. Reaches but a little way. And the eagles on. From what i see. I am sure it bends towards justice. Century later martin luther king power face that's simply. The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. Think about the mentors parents. Parent like figures. From your days remembered. We needed them. Today. Our institutions are schools or churches. Need to be free. From fear. We need you. If you are a teacher your students need you. More than you know. If you are a grandparent. Your grandchild needs. Your support. If you're a volunteer kids need you they need your help reading. Tutoring. If you're young person we need you we need to learn from you. We need your teaching and mentorship. If your friend your friend needs you. You may say that i'm dreaming but i'm not the only one. Margaret mead inspires never doubt that a small group. A fossil committed citizens can change the world. May the fire of our dreams. And our commitment. Set our minds and so lovelace. I'm a pizza. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. At uuc and rv. org.

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130512_pr_power-of-hope.mp3

Welcome to the may 12th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. Today sermon. Delivered by the reverend doctor paul razor. Is titled the power of hope. The podcast begins with introductions of reverend razor and closes with an extended informal question-and-answer. that was held after the service. I'm very excited. That we have the reverend doctor paul razor here with. Good morning. And job i'm excited not only that he's with us i'm excited that you and your wisdom and your strength. Made it possible. Have to be with us. Two years ago when we started this the illogical reflective work with one another when we began to talk about matters of theology in the centrum. When we began to do weekly conversations on our faith. When we began to read what those before us have had to say about what it is to the unitarian and universalist. When we began to read what those with us. Paul reiser. How to say about matters of theology. I just got more and more and more pump. And when this idea of getting paul razor to drive 67 hours how long it take you to get here. 6 hours this man drove yesterday to get over here and he's going to drive 6 hours to get back. To virginia beach this evening. But just it's a special thing. And for that i'm very very excited not only on my own behalf but also on the behalf of all of you here this more. Two of the folk who have been in the conversations on faith class. Cynthia luke end. Ellen if you would plumber please come forward. These two have all of the particulars of paul's rich history to share with you now. And i think they're also going to say a word or two about their own enthusiasm for this. Challenge of digging. Theology. The first book we read the paul has written is faith without certainty. And i think i should know they're so summary of this that rick ashley made for us. For people who. Came last night new people who came last night to our conversation with paul. To talk about. Evoland to talk about religious language and to talk about. Many things that he raised in this phone. His second book which was written last year is reclaiming prophetic witness liberal religion in the public square. And this is about. Making our prophetic voice heard and social justice. And it's excited some of us 2. Really get to work on this. Good morning. It's my pleasure to help introduce paul this morning. We had a lovely dinner and discussion group discussion last night thanks again for joining us. And there's several important things to know about paul first. He plays the trombone. When he's not playing the trombone. He's a teacher. He writes. He thinks. He's a dad. He's a member of. Academic communities both domestically. And internationally. Paul is a gift. To us to our faith tradition. To folks. Those of us who are seeking to challenge ourselves and each other. About the architecture. Our theology. So it was a real pleasure. To spend time with paul last night. And because alex was in a hurry. And left paul. Stranded. I have. I had. The distinct. Pleasure. He did not feel stranded because i. Took him back to the end now i'm going to make an appointment with betty after this session about my own issues about rescuing and boundaries and all of that. But i just wanted you to know. That this man is very real. And like a true academic. Like any good academic. He asked. More questions. Penny answers. Thank you for being with us. Call razor through a place. What further thought from me before paul begins to share pull out a pen and paper if you have one with you. Paul is going to be sharing of much of what he study. And is going to afford us this incredible opportunity to engage him in q&a following are postlude here this morning if you feel so inclined. Hellraiser delight have you with us. Well wow thanks. It's really it's really nice to be here and i appreciate the warm welcome and the kind words and i'm afraid that. It's so like know how i'm going to let them down there such great energy in this room i just hope i don't end up popping the bubble you know by mistake. But we'll see. Actually didn't know that a reading was part of the service although it's a it's a normal part in most services around but. I'm so i came in and do a reading oxydol course you know so. Normally i don't steal from myself very much but. This is the book one of the books that they were reading from last night and i thought since it's already kind of in the conversational are around you that it would be fair at least to read. Portion of it from the concluding pages it kind of. I don't really conclude but they offered some thoughts on what it means to be in the kind of community we are in. So. This is from faith without certainty. Liberal theology is not for the faint of heart. It points us in a general direction without telling us the specific destination. It refuses to make our commitments for us. But holds us accountable for the commitments we make. The liberal religious tradition is an invitation not a mandate. It invites us to live with ambiguity without giving into facile compromise. To engage in dialogue without trying to control the conversation. To be open to change without accepting change to casually. To take commitment seriously but not blindly. And to be engaged in the culture without succumbing to the culture's values. Liberal religion calls us to strength without rigidity. Conviction without ideology. Openness without laziness. It asks us to pay attention. It is an eyes wide open face. The faith without certainty. Well again i just want to say thank you to all of you for inviting me to be with you this morning and i especially want to thank. Dashiki luke's in alex for suggesting that i come to blacksburg and 4. Taking care of a lot of the arrangements that had to be made about this. And i want to thank the members of the group the conversations in faith group. Who were brave enough. To plunge into these books and who offered this delightful conversation we had last night. And date they really stinks thoughtfully and carefully and asked interesting and challenging questions. And it made for a wonderful evening and a very interesting and stimulating conversation so i'm very grateful for that. I think one of the great things about conversations like the one we had last night. Is that they tend to take on lives of their own and extend outside the time and specific place. Where they started. And so even if we start with a common reading or maybe a specific topic we often and of course last night. Find ourselves moving austin to issues and directions that no one would have predicted or anticipated when we started. And i suspect. All of us have had experiences like that in conversation. I think that in healthy and open conversations especially in healthy and open communities. We each contribute to them out of our own experiences. So the raw material of the conversation we might say is never exactly new. What the outcome is often entirely new. It's a kind of creative process at work. When this happens and these kinds of. Conversations can opener. The new possibilities. In our own lives. And i think that when they're carried on his part. Of a community like this congregation they can enrich the entire community not just the people who were sitting in the room last night. Because these kinds of conversational threads. Run on their never-really-over they get woven into the tapestry. Of the multiple and overlapping and extended conversations that are always going on. In a community like this. So i believe that will continue and i believe that those of you who weren't in the room. Doesn't matter you're going to hear stuff and you'll be invited into conversations and. It's a good thing i really have no idea how or where this sermon will fit into this picture but that's been it for you all to figure out. And i hope that what i share with you this morning contribute. Something. To the process. So you can tell from the title. That's in the order of service that the theme i want to address this morning is hope. Specifically the power of hope. And i want to get at this by exploring the relationship between hope. And justice. These values these these ideas of hope and justice have long been apart. Of our liberal faith tradition. So i suspect we don't often think of them is being related. Nefar all in common usage hope. Comes to be understood is kind of an inward or personal feeling even though it might be directed. Towards something outside of us. Injustice on the other hand is a social or political concept something that goes on. Side of us. But i think they have an important relationship with each other and so i want to explore that a bit this morning. Nobody seems hoping justice. Can be connected in any number of ways we might connect them in a casual way we might say something like. G i hope we can create justice. Or at a more personal level i hope i get justice. There's nothing necessarily wrong with doing it this way but if you put it like this. It's not really very helpful in the larger scheme of things that reduces hope. To wish. Injustice 2 wish-fulfillment. It's a passive type of hope that lets us off the hook. And what i have his mind is something different. If i see it. Truehope. The kind of hope that can change lives and move communities. Toward real justice is much more active. And much more difficult. To sustain. I want to get out the deeper dimensions of hope injustice by means of a metaphor that i suspect his familiar to you. Consider this. Famous quotation. The arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice. You heard this. You know who said it you know where it comes from. I heard somebody say commonly attributed to martin luther king jr.. And can use it a lot. In his speeches. He's very fond of this quote but in fact. King got it from theodore parker. Who is a justly famous nineteenth-century unitarian minister and social reformer somebody you should know about if you don't already. Parker's original statement was a bit warrior than kings paraphrase. Peter parker's words. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The ark is a long one my i reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience. And from what i see. I am sure it bends toward justice. That's wonderful rich image but you can see why king shortened. Beautiful sense of timing and phrasing and parker's original is a little clumsy for public oratory at least four 20th century audiences and probably 21st century as well. So cute paraphrase may have lost some of these statements original poetic. Richness but it nicely captured his essence and made it memorable. And of course portable. Mouth king use the metaphor of the ark of the universe in order to point specifically toward justice which of course was one of his recurring themes. Our struggles he seemed to say our worth it. They will lead us eventually to a better place to a world that is more just than the one we now live in. And this was an important message for those engaged with king in the long struggle for civil rights struggle that continues today. What welcomes emphasis was on justice. I think. That he was also talking about hope. But this is a different kind of hope. Then we typically. Pierre expressed in our. Not the passive hope of wishing. Or the rose-colored hope of optimism. It's a radical hope. The hope that refuses to give up despite decades. Centuries really. A rejection and defeat. It's a hope for the longview. We might call it a transcendent hope. And it's grounded in a deep spirituality. That help keeps those who have it. From falling into despair. And allows them to keep going. To keep on keeping on as we used to say. Cornel west. Pause this. A tragic-comic commitment to hope. Cornelis pond of language like. This kind of hope he says involves the ability to laugh. And retain a sense of life's joy to preserve hope even while staring in the face of hate and tupac receive. That's against falling into the neil ism. Paralyzing despair. This is a radical hope to hope. Spectrum sustained a long-term struggle for justice even when it seems hopeless. This kind of hope. Cannot be sustained by any process of rational reflection or utilitarian. Population use the bad news for liberals. The stuff we do really well won't get us here. This kind of radical hope is sustained through struggle. But not through intellectual struggle to evaluate our future prospects or even an emotional struggle to keep ourselves motivated those might also be going on. This involves struggle underground. Struggle through social action and advocacy that seeks to create the conditions for justice in the world. It involves another word. Just the kind of social justice work members of this congregation have done over the years. And continue to do. Like other values we cherish such as love and compassion and justice. Hope becomes real when it is embodied through action in the world. You don't first calculate the odds. And then find the hope to engage in the struggle. You engage in the struggle for justice sometimes against all odds. And you often find that hope emerges. I first. I first encountered i'm about to go to difficult place for me. But it's important in the context of the. Message i want to try to convey this morning i first encountered. This kind of radical hope in el salvador. During the violent and bloody warriors of the 1980s i was down there a lot during those years. And among the groups i occasionally worked with was the mothers of the disappeared. I'm sure many of you are familiar with their work. Perhaps especially fitting to recall them on mother's day. One of the things they had to deal with everyday. Was the constant threat. You've been killed. Or disappeared. By the government sponsor death-squad. On one of my visits the mothers office in san salvador had been blown up. By the national security forces the day before i arrived. One of their members was killed and many of their irreplaceable records were destroyed. Part of the point of the bonding. Yep they went on with their daily work. In the face of this constant violence. Seeking to learn the fates of the thousands who had disappeared. Knowing that they might be next. Occasionally a visitor. Usually someone from the united states. Would ask them whether they were up to mystic. And they would often say something like. We are not optimistic. But we are hopeful. Now this statement conveys a richer meaning in spanish than it does in english. In spanish. The verb to hope that's been our. Terry's wizard a sense of expectancy the same word can be translated as to wait for or to expect. And in some contexts that can even mean to trust or to have faith in. And this kind of hope in their contacts is a radical hope. Cornel west says that this kind of hope is dangerous. And potentially subversive because it can never be extinguished. Like laughter and dance and music it's a form of elemental freedom that cannot be eliminated or snuffed out by any elite power. This was the kind of hope. Still is. That's the same the mothers of the disappeared in el salvador. Now hope has always played a central role in unitarian universalism. In the early 19th century. Universalist. Offer to doctrinal basis for human hope. They had a belief in universal salvation at grain of their time and this belief was in stark contrast. Did the calvinist doctrine of election. That condemned most of humanity to the hopelessness. Of eternal damnation. And of course religious liberals have always had deep faith in the possibilities of human fulfillment and social progress in the unitarian. Doctrine universalist doctrine kind of captured a piece of that. No religious liberals today. Are less likely to find hope through belief in supernatural concepts as our early nineteenth-century forebears did. Some historians say that universalism lost much of its appeal around the end of the nineteenth century when large numbers of people simply stopped believing in hell. But radical hope does not depend on getting to heaven or not getting sent to hell. Suu historian dan mckinnon says radical hope transcends the institutions of present-day society. But it does not transcend the laws of physical or human nature. It looks to the future. Not to heaven. Well i think that the core universalist message of that time was not really about heaven and hell anyway. Instead. It was about radical inclusiveness. These are the universal has said that all of humanity in fact all of creation really. Is ultimately united in a common destiny. No one. Is left out. Distill logical doctrine of universal salvation became the basis. For a vision of a truly just and egalitarian society. And that's the kind of hope. Envision that can move us forward. Liberal moral philosophers susan neiman. Someone else whose work i encourage you to discover if you haven't. Even argues that hope is what permits us to act morally. To choose a course of action that can make things better in the future than they are in the present think of child-raising she says. Our children give us a stake in the future. Whether or not we want to believe that progress is possible. We cannot possibly raise them if we believe it is not. She continues if we cannot offer our children the prospect that their good efforts can make the world slightly better than they find it. Then we can offer them nothing that matters. And for this we need hope. Hope allows us to move from what we are to what we could be. But now we need more than this. We also need an ideal. Or a vision. Toward which our hope based struggles. Art director. This is quite a statement such as the arc of the universe bends toward justice. Is so powerful. Me think about it this is not an empirical observation. It's not a prediction. It's a moral claim. It says that the universe is governed by a moral ideal. And then our moral ideals our vision of the future as it could be. Connect. Our. Future to our actions in the present. And ideals. Or about. Idealism. Idealism. Taking a hit lately hasn't it. Super nieman defines idealism has to be least that the world can be improved. Play means with ideals expressing space of reality that are better than the ones we currently experience. Another words it's the belief that the world can be better than it is. And that our ideals or our vision of that better world have a role to play in helping us created. Liberals have always done this. Always affirm the possibility of a better future and we measure what counts as better. And we evaluate our efforts to achieve it. To our ideals. Idealism is often attacked by. So-called realist to see idealist as weak and impractical sure justice and world peace would be nice they say but we have to take the world as it is not as we might like it to be. I think the realist critique of idealism is wrong. I do list. Do not ignore the world as it is they start their just like the realest. Idealist picking additional step they don't just look at the world as it is and then circle the wagons and hang on. They envision the world as it could be and then set out to create that world. By giving us a vision of the future. Alright deals guide our work in the present. And this means that our moral ideals have practical. Consequences. It means that what we can become. Is determined determined by what we can envision and what we can hope. And unitarian-universalism has always envisioned world. Governed by moral ideals such as love. Compassion justice. And this vision when nurtured by radical hope. Can guide our lives. And give us the strength. To continue bending the arc. Toward. May we be up. So thank you everyone let me invite you into some q&a with paul. It's okay because you just left to think about and either either i was brilliant or so confusing you can't formulate a question. This is an easy one but i wasn't there last evening or do you or your minister in virginia beach or. I forgot the introduction this morning didn't say what i do did it. That's alright that's fine what you did was nice. She made up some stuff to see. No i mean i'm a minister but i'm an ordained minister and done that but i am director of the program. Call the center for the study of religious freedom at virginia wesleyan college and i also am a professor there. Cool. Okay last night before you. Well. Fixing to come in doubles. And there's no explaining it but some but it's but it's strange. And the before you mentioned hope when we were talking about evil i think last night. The right during it that this image came to my mind of pandora's box. And as thinking today after your talk that i should do i should mention this to you cuz you cuz you could use it next time you're talking about hope. Cuz it's an image that out of i think joseph campbell talks about how how the greek myths were in a really there's something very very fundamental about. And. And all the evils of the world came out. I've of pandora's box. And she thought that all was lost. And then she looked inside the box. And there was one thing left. And that was hope. It was the darnedest thing that came to me for no good reason while you were talking about that and then and then i happened to be looking at some random article on. On cnn late last night. And there it was was a reference to pandora's box in. So there you go. Thanks.. That doesn't need any, i appreciate that glad you're watching cnn and not fox you know i mean what was in pandora's box there might have been different but. Oh i mean i think a couple of things about that one is. To just think about the difference between optimism and hope. In the way it was expressed by the mothers that i knew you can use the word hope to mean optimistic. But optimistic has to do with what you actually think might happen. And hope it's deeper hope has to do with. Things that could happen or that you. Want to happen based on a vision you have and. In a context as. Extreme. As el salvador in the middle of a war. Define any hope. Is is a powerful powerful thing. And it was one of the the places i've learned a lesson about hope. You don't. Liberals like to start with. Being a good intentions and good visions and and hope or. We think we can do this and by god we have all the right idea so we're going to do it. But sometimes you got to work. For stuff first even though it looks hopeless. And it's in the middle of community working together. And that kind of has struggled that you can generate this kind of hope. And it's not usually optimism although at moments you might not have little successes. That make you feel or what is this can happen yay. Weather report. But then you don't give up. I mean the cynicism is is poison. I mean i have a tendency toward it in my life and i understand this. But i. I wrote this in a book. Somewhere. Cynicism is a luxury. Privilege. Poor people don't get cynical. Nobody in el salvador with sin. Location of european and north american visitors were. But. Cynicism is just not. In the bible is just not there. Is no basis. I don't know i've never been to haiti but i would know any. No no been all over central america but i probably i mean i'm guessing. When you can give up. But the giving up. Can come from loss of hoping from being beaten down forever. But cynicism in the way we understand the world. Is just not that it's not the same thing. Wipe you out. Judgment about the state of things. That there's no point. And. That's just never been the liberal way i even though we all. Tempted by it from time to time like what in the world are we doing. So i would you know when you're at when you start to feel it. What's going on here now. Am i going to go cuz i have the luxury to not be involved in the struggle. And the jungles in in the cities in el salvador. You couldn't not be involved there was not a choice. Your beer presents. Brookside i mean when i was there i was followed my passport within blood. Go down to work with groups. You can't. Being observant. But anyways i respect if it addresses. I'm your question buddy. It's a it's a it's a community and now and my guess is that. If you as you continue to be engaged in social justice work in and sort of think about it from this way you might find. That you don't have to swear to find the hole first and then go to go to the meeting on tuesday evening and then get involved in whatever the project is just go right to the project get involved even if you don't think. You have the hope for it and you just might find that it. These kinds of matter. I was going to ask you do you have any evidence that. Hopefulness is enhanced by biological evolution. But it wouldn't surprise me. I mean i'm actually keep up with some of this stuff on grain research going on and how it affects things religious in the structural things and so on. Do you. If you come across it. I haven't but i i'm going to look into it surprised me that their brain is wired in some way. For the possibility. Generating kind of hope so. What are some of the social justice issues that are important to you right now. Social justice issues important to me personally it right now. Just because of the work i'm doing at virginia wesleyan a lot of them. Have to do with the car. Constant efforts. Of what i'm just going to boldly call the religious right. And united states to. Control political processes into sort of. Christianized. Even that. I don't know what the right word their version of christianity as kind of the criteria for what's public policy in. Who should be running for office in. And that sort of thing i think that's a deeply important justices you not. A large-scale kind of philosophical issue. Because it threatens basic freedoms in ways that are. They were just beginning i mean. We were talking about north carolina this morning. Timothy ware. Wacko stuff been going on in the north carolina legislature. Right now about this. They decided that. Dad that the first amendment of the us constitution doesn't apply to them. And so therefore they can create a state. Church. This exactly what. I can't do. And can be. You know the people want to do it when i can be there church of course right. So that's. Cuz they might have the power. Actually in that political context to do that so that's an issue. Economic issues relating to. How shall i say this without pissing too many people off. Rent relating to. Well you're going to gross economic inequality in our time which is. The worst has been in more than a century in the united states of course that's an issue but. The structural underpinnings of that with respect to the accumulation of vast. Corporate welfare power and its relationship to government and government regulation. And how's that tends to be kind of the structure were a lot of this stuff is played out. That's a huge issue for me. Supreme court says right on. That's perfectly proper and you know. Spending in this money on your own. Self-interest is. Free speech for corporations. I mean it's you try to fix it's not something i can just sort of write a letter to the editor and say now we've got it under control. But. There's that stuff. Racism is yah mean it's always an issue. Yeah. She mentioned that because there's a chapter in the book on racism and how. Liberals are sometimes tempted into. Perpetuating structures. Not just racism but other kinds of deep. Ism's. Despite our best intentions sometimes. So yeah course. Racism homophobia. Immigration laws right now. Actually playoff those things. Don't know what to think of the current immigration proposal some of them are actually not bad. We'll see what comes out of. Out of the committee's. I had a couple questions first. You mentioned there's no hope without action i think something like that and i couldn't help but hear some some echoes of james no faith without works. Is that what we're talking about william james last night. Is that a connection you say or. It's not one that i played with but i can see why you would make it. I mean the idea is not that there can't be hope without action but that this kind of deep radical long-term sustaining hope. Triggered and stimulated and. Enriched i guess. Bye. That that you don't have to have the whole first. And means the james biblical thing. Worksource what count not faith you know i mean that's all. Played off against each other that you know you can be saved. In the old sense. Whatever that meant to you. Just believe the right stuff you do on your fine. And james's thing was well know you kind of got to do stuff. And you got to do the right stuff. In a sense i suppose. I usually don't think of those kinds of things within the. I'm kind of. Ancient worldview theological framework. They were thinking you. About what. Salvation mean. Back together. But on the other hand. If we think of if we can use the concept like salvation at all. It has kind of been do with. With saving and what will save the world will save. But we'll make the world. Justin. It is real. What we fail to do. My second question was. Since you're talking about hope are you at all familiar with. Ivan illich is sa rebirth of epimetheus and man where he distinguishes between. Hope and expectation. Through the city the myth of pandora. Now that sounds good. But why not you. He tells retells the story of pandora and says that. That everyone remembers her for all the ills that she let into the. End of the world but she was the keeper of hope. And the two brothers prometheus and epimetheus. Epimetheus married hope. And prometheus. Told him not to. And we live in a promethean world where we're constantly trying to corral the ills and build institutions and processes by which we can. Solve problems. But we need. We need to think instead about building an fm18 world where we're married to hope. And. And see life is a gift. I think you got on the list here yeah that's great. Thanks for that contribution that's really really nice. I'm enjoying this very much. Me pan i'm just sitting here pondering all these words and i'm thinking. Just like gardening isn't it. Always hope for next year. Yeah and you got to keep at it. You know that's that's great metaphor. Paul i have a question for you last night you shared with us that you worked internationally and that you are participating in in conversation both domestic and internationally. My question has to do run around my question for you is what. Reflections do you have about the state of. Our faith tradition currently in the us it's not lost on me that you are not at one of our seminaries. So and i alex has talked to us a couple of more than one occasion about everything from demographics to. Are people coming to church where in fact defying the norm which is lovely. But what thoughts what reflections do you have from where. From where you sit in terms of the state of our or unrelaxed of state of our union as it were. Not bad. That's how i would say it you know. Hopeful. Right i mean there are community liberal religious communities worldwide are struggling. Because in almost every country there a small minority. Or. Not as small as we sometimes fear they are but you use are a small piece of a minority. And in some countries of course they're the dominant culture is politicized and they're officially recognized face and non-official phasing. You know that we talked about the users of uu community in indonesia. Just like ninety-nine and a half percent muslim. With myself it's not a bad thing and they do fine in the muslim setting there but on the other hand the state control of religion is something they have to worry about. They're much better in the philippines. It's much more diverse. But. Everybody's struggling. But they're all doing okay and one of them. Some of them are not doing. But some of the ones that are not doing y'all are carrying like northern europe in places where. Everybody's leaving every religion. So there are three you use left. Community. Right. But. They're struggling an interesting ways that are very similar to the ways we struggle i struggle with identity you know who are we in the world. Especially around all this liberal. Ambiguity that's always there right. And. It's been a really healthy thing. For the international. You you with her uu congregations and organizations in. More than 40 45 countries. On every continent. And loves don't know that and. It was when they get together. It's really nice because they learned that each other having the same struggles and we deal with some of the same identity issues and we share kind of energy that comes. From coming together like that. And the people in the isolated communities in bolivia. And and we do nisha and new zealand and. Other places. Don't feel so alone. Central africa has some of the most rapidly growing communities are in central africa. That's really interesting. So don't that response to your question or not but. Yeah we're doing it's okay i mean it depends on what you get hung up with the numbers. All mainline predictions are losing numbers. But i don't know that that's anything that's the fault of anybody in the sense like we're doing something wrong therefore our people are leaving. You use kind of depends on who you're asking what year your account whether we're not growing growing a little shrinking a little holding our own you know whether we're keeping our kids i mean that's a big factor but we're not the only ones that have that. I have a theory that everybody rejects whatever tradition they were raised with and sometimes they come back. Exaggeration but it's not visible. But you know i'm more interested in the health of the congregations we have. And i think it's very easy for a congregation to get hung up on numbers and growth. In a wrong sense. And even hung up on diversity in a wrong sense. Mean if you are in an all-white middle-class community and you're worried about the fact that there aren't any black faces in the congregation. It's. You know any think you failed. Well. Maybe you have but it's only know but it might be just the demographics of your community and sort of used to live with who you are and then reach out and make connections with other. People right. And the same with numbers. Churches that are hung up on we got to go we got to go you got to go 10 to put pressure on themselves in ways that send out this message. That make. Newcomers can feel icky. Like there's pressure you know sign the book. Edward numbers. And if you just a really healthy welcoming loving community. Visitors. Welcome back. And it doesn't matter whether the numbers actually increase or increase very much i don't think. I mean if you're doing something wrong and a will decrease. Probably. So. I think it's okay you know. Better. You're critical of our prophetic voice as an association that we often don't use our religious language. Say something about really using our religious language. It's kind of the core message of the second book that you already it has to do with that critical. Well sort of critical but it's it's more. I'm trying to find ways. To increase. Not just the amount but the effectiveness. Of social justice work and of also the internal. Kind of driving. Capacities are forces that move us. In social justice directions. And there's a tendency. In liberal religious. Groups this is not just that you using. But it's. Can you use. You use a very active and committed and involved in all kinds of things but they tend to be things that are not religiously-based. Interactive and politics are active in environmental warcraft bigger than some other kind of thing. And you use our and other liberals often don't see that as religious work. Nothing wrong with that. But i'm trying to encourage. Religious people who do work like that. Just think about it as religious work. And to think about. What. Can come out of thinking about that way that can help the work. And by the way can help our communities. Because. Just some simple examples if. If you take a public stand for or against some legislative proposal and you show up at the town council or your get testifying before the legislative committee or whatever the context is. Where you going. Show up and state your position and sit down and hundreds of other people are doing exactly the same thing in your be aligned with some and not aligned with others. If you come in as a religious liberal. And you say things like as a u u. Who believes in the inherent worth and dignity of persons and justice and equality or whatever the value is relevant to the issue here i mean i believe this bill is unjust because. That adds of dimension. To your position. That isn't there without it. And it tells the authorities that you're testifying to or message you. That there are religious perspectives on these issues that are different than the ones they usually here. Right. And. Liberals and there's 100 examples and talk about those but. My fear is in my observation is that religious liberals have been afraid of that. And for reasons which i understand but i think we can get pass. I hope we can get pass. And it's of course. In the united states at least today the dominant religious voices are the are the. Extreme conservative voices. I'm so we speak out publicly and are identified as religious were afraid people are going to think we're conservative. We're one of them. Right. Plus then we have this fear of evangelizing we don't we want to know why. We want them to discover to tell them who we are. That's a little ryan oso proselytizing and. So we're afraid of that. And. You know we just want to back off. And if you think about the history all of the powerful social justice movement in the united states the big movements abolition. Women's suffrage the civil rights movement the labor movement original anna labor. But. We're religiously grounded movements and it was religious liberals. Who are at the frontages. If you were publicly religious in the 1950s in the 19. Season united states you were liberal. It was the conservatives were in the closet. I think about who walked with changed a lot. And it's. You know. Today it's been turned around. 30 years or so. Now you're publicly religious. Conservative. And it's made liberals afraid to be publicly religious and i think that's really sad because we have a lot to say. And the other thing the process of thinking about why it is that we as religious community might take a stand on some issue. What's religious about it. It helps us think through what it means to be us. Identity. Helping. Shaping. Not just sit around in a circle and talk about theology and figure out who we are. Like who are we in relation to this public issue. And that helps us define who we are. I've seen it work like. Nice one that have. More than you wanted to hear. Yep stop me sometimes i can get warmed up. Yeah. I read about that in the new book to i mean there's a fear of church-state separation in are we messing around with that if we do this and my answers were not it's not an issue. It only feels like an issue. Because church-state separation is about power. Government being in who i mean if you are legislator. And you say well based on my religious beliefs i'm going to take x action that's a problem. But if you're a citizen or a concerned person in the community. It's always been not only accepted mean the supreme court is. But it's been a long part of our tradition. That you should be speaking out of wherever you come from. That doesn't mess with trim pack. It's what makes the prophetic voice prophetic. Because you were articulating a basis for critique of something you see that's unjust. And you're doing it out of a out of a grounding in. Something that's different. Right. And it's not just that everybody else does it therefore we should do it and they're doing the right way. Clint complain about abortion or whatever the issue is under religious basis they're doing what they should be doing based on their. Restatement. The problem comes when they get power and wanted an act. For religious reason. Laws that advance religious objective. I mean walls can be supported by a number of objective summer ledges something philosophical some. Who knows what height and that's okay i mean that's part of the normal mix of. Of life in the united states always has been. But it's not a problem. To at least not in any kind of constitutional law or theory ready to do it i mean no problem. But you know i mean the balance does it. If i do it in some places. Tzu-yu ministering is probably known in the community. And if he shows up. That one of these. Settings. He doesn't even have to say as it you who i believe i mean it's like. Priest. Ministers eveneum nominate the religious thing is already there. And then if you takes an additional step in articulates. That can help. One of the best recent examples. I put it in the book so i don't have to talk about it much cuz you guys everything. But. Past uua president bill sandford was testifying in washington not not formally before committee but he was at a group of legislative staffers. When this anti-marriage marriage laws and we're being doma and all the things were first being considered. And. They were getting all of this religious stuff from the from the religious conservatives about why it was a good thing to ban same-sex marriage and all this and bill comes in. Very simply put about. We know from our own religious experience that our communities are enriched by having diverse people with diverse sexual orientations and. Any any talks about for us. The sin is a homophobia not the homosexuality. And aren't you know where our theology is based on love and it's welcoming and inclusive in for those religious reasons we think this bill is a disaster. Freezing but not much. And he reports that he was told afterward. Buy some of the legislators and legislative staffers that they were very glad to hear that because no one else had ever pointed that out before that they were even though they had. But they could name any will now they had it identified and put out there and it even change some people's mind. When in the sense of that bill got an active not that bill but another version of it. But you know what. What is it 10:00. 16 years later. We're starting to win again. You know i'm interesting. Waze. Don't have much hope for virginia. No that's not true i do have hope. But its long-term. But you should do you should do whatever you're comfortable doing. But there's there's. Ways to do it that that. Don't run into the problems identified i think the problem is you're thinking about a really important. And should be thought about. On that hopeful note. Food thank you paul thank you so much. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

140406_stewardship.mp3

Welcome to the april 6th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. Today's intergenerational service. Is our annual uuc stewardship brunch in worship service. After the brunch. Several people gave short presentation. Which are in this podcast. The order is polly stimpson. Dick luke. Becca smethurst. John sangster. Reverend darrell roland. And jim flowers. What is the doctrine of this church the quest for truth is it sacrament in-service is it sprayer. We say these words every week and i'm going to speak for a few minutes about how that last phrase services at sprayer plays out in the everyday life in our congregation. As a member of the community service team i've had the privilege of speaking to you about this for the third year in a row so as far as i'm concerned that means it's a tradition. So. And and so what i've been hesitant to do in the previous two years i'm going to inflict upon you this year which is to read the entire list. As far as we could come up with that although i know it's not inclusive of all of the ways that. People of our congregation serve within our congregation within a church itself and also within the wider community so. As you hear each. Sing be read please. I reflect on the significance of it and see how it relates to your concept of the meaning of services it's prayer. And as i said before this list was created. With the knowledge that we it is not completely inclusive of everything that people do so if i bless something major out please forgive me. Anyway here goes. This is a list of the service activities in the inlet just in the last year. Okay the school supply collection for an elementary school in bradford. The crop walk last october. Christmas store volunteers in collection of children's winter coats and underwear for the christmas store last december. Participation into our house in january. The adopt-a-highway pickups road pickups that we have three or four times a year. Play pastoral program volunteers. Caring network providing numerous meals and rides for individuals in need. Brown's volunteers. The make hats mittens and scarf day along with re in december. Project linus day making blankets for children in hospitals with re in february. It's scary to be hungry sunday also with re in october. Food and supply collection for the humane society in march and april along with ari. The interfaith food pantry volunteer. The religious education volunteers. Coffee makers many many committee members to numerous for me to list all the committees. Members of the board. The job squad. The tab top collection for ronald mcdonald house. The battery collection. Sound system volunteers. Annual guest at your table collection. The annual collection on christmas eve for the ministers community assistance fund. The annual thanksgiving dinner coordinator. Choir and music volunteers. Volunteers for monthly potlucks. Donating money for monthly meals to the drop-in resource center in christiansburg. Are we. Toy collection for the children's ward in roanoke hospital. Also the annual auction volunteers and to all those who donated contribute to it. And last but not least in the last 12 months we have collected. 7100 $10.75 for our 4th sunday collection. Which is a lot. So. If any if any of these volunteer service activities. If you have been involved with them have done and if that would you please stand up. Give yourselves a big huge hand. Okay i'm going to close with a couple of. Quotes that i feel are appropriate appropriate. This was a quote from mother teresa. We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. And last but not least if you think you were too small to be effective you've never been in bed with a mosquito. Thank you all very much. Has polly mentioned we have for sunday collection. One of the collections as we have done from the beginning. Is for the women's resource center. Which is iah. Program shelter for battered women and children. That's in radford. And. We think it's one of the most important. Things that we can support.. We're fortunate this morning at becca. Chatsworth who is he. Children's counselor at the emergency shelters here with us. To share a little bit about. What they do. And also i think to thank you for your support becca. Thank you. Thank you like i said my name is becca and on the shelter children's counselor. I've been there for. Almost 2 years now at the women's resource center and i just want to thank you all for having me here today i feel really blessed. To be able to share in this beautiful space and it's beautiful brunch with you. Just everyone is so warm and welcoming and. That's that's really need to see it's need to see faces. Behind. The people who support us and make us able to do. What we do. I thought. I would share just a few statistics from last year so you can. See kind of the scope of what the women's resource center does and where. Your support goes. Last year the women's resource center served over 5,000 people in the new river valley. We answered nearly 3,000 hotline calls. And we provided over 12,000 nights of shelter between our emergency seltzer and our transitional housing unit. And you all make that possible. Over 25% of our funding comes from local supporters. Like yourself. So. You all are invaluable to us and i really really appreciate. And i think it's 70 what. You said before i got up here about. How. Just one drop in the ocean really makes a difference. And so timmy reading those numbers sounds really amazing but. I have the privilege to be able to see those faces. And. Even if. It was just helping one person. It's still. Really really an amazing thing to do so i wanted to share just a brief story about. One of the children. Who has been with us this past year. Anna. When she came in she had been so. Severely traumatized and abused. Throughout her lifetime that she. Wouldn't even see. She can say any words. Sorry she couldn't speak but she wouldn't. Six other people she couldn't make icon. Factor anything. And. Usually i try to make children feel comfortable by. Using some of the donations that are provided for us. Arts and crafts. Things like that just to help him feel comfortable but. She wasn't even open to that. But. We actually were able to give her a blanket with. Heard you all do the line. Project and i'm. I'm not sure if it was a line is project blanket or not but i was able to tangibly give her. Saying it was a blanket and toiletry kit and all of that. And she was so thankful that she said. Thank you. And those were the first words she had said after a month of being there. And after that she just started talk. Anna. It was so so need to see that when you give. Something tangible to someone. Can really touch. And i'm. So that's just a small example. Of what your all support does. So. Thank you so much. Has asked to come today and chair testimonial. Stewardship. Jason. A busy day for me. Butter stuff going on. If you'll forgive me for that. I'm going to be forced. But it's not the busiest. 4 years ago. At 8:30 in the morning on april 6th. I got an email from my now advisor with. Funding offer. And i was very relieved to have this cuz. I've received an email middle-of-the-night from national science foundation saying they were not going to be paying my bills. And it felt like a lot to take in the daylight to process. Might not seem so but. Other things happened that day that contributed to this. Between the seven hours were those two emails were received. Carrie went into labor and. And emily was born. Are rocket girls was generous to give us a little bit of time prepare for arrival we had an entire 25 minutes between arriving at the hospital and holding her in our arms. When the doctor arrived at the room the nurse yelled out. You might want to put your gloves on i'm holding the head. So for those you trying to do the math yes i'm the fool who accept an offer for graduate school just hours after my second child was born. And yes i'm incredibly lucky fool who managed to remain married through that decision. Next month i'll have been happily wearing this ring for 11 years. So being supportive of my early midlife crisis to go and octavia. Terry agreed to move our whole our young children far away from extended family where we had support and help but only on the condition that the town we move to have a thriving uu congregation. Doing a research we spend as much time in the ud websites of charlottesville raleigh and an rv as we spend on the websites of uva and to state and virginia tech. We made all our visit in the fall. Before k was too pregnant to travel. And we coordinated with the churches on our way. The truth today's world trip that brought us to blacksburg south lodged in the shadow lake common room. Was johnny mccord driving. All over town giving us a tour of life in the new. Valley. In the four years since that very busy april 6th. You've been there for us exactly as we knew you would be. You've opened your doors in your hearts.. Welcome. sandford has. He's moved us not once but twice i think within the same month. When our third child isaac was born. We nearly lost him to respiratory infection a week after he came home from the hospital. Isurf recovered. And the outpouring of support from the community. Turned what could have been a very traumatic week into a memory filled with gratitude. When i tell the story of it. I love the reaction i get when i talk about the day that are dirty laundry got picked up in the morning. And 7 loads of clean folded laundry got returned in the evening that day. We counted on you for your support even before we met you. Because we knew we could. The power of being you. This community has a special thing. And it's incredibly important to us. I've been talking terms of the store that we perceived. But you're so much more than our lifeline. Your friends. And your family. Striving for success in academia while living on a shoestring budget. And raising young children is not a recipe for a stress-free life. Brick and i both were always grasping for more time to get to work done. What time does famous two kids. More time to spend with each other. And what time for lots of other. Like sleeping. When i told a friend that i taken on the role of stewardship chair. She responded very strong lewis. Are you crazy. Be unsure myself if this might indeed be the case. I waited the real answer instead said it's really not easy saying no to isabel. I would have been more honest if i if i did instead said how could i say no. This community was here to catch us when we landed. Because of the generous hard-working people who made it sustain it and cause it to continue thriving. I will do whatever i can to support this congregation. So that others will the same luxury that my family had. Taking for granted that we will be there to support them. Part of my rules spiritual chairs to understand the finances of our congregation. Both where we've been and where we're going. Looking over the books i've been astounded at the pattern of intense generosity this congregation shows. Our beautiful building. Amazing music. And. Wonderful ministry. Comfort no small cost. You've given financially from a place of plenitude over and over again and i'm very grateful. I'm at a time my life where i'm unable to provide financial support. The congregation that matches my commitment to it. But i will continue to give myself as much as i can. Sometimes more. We come together today to gather the spirit. And harvest the power. I humbly ask for you to examine your own connections with the congregation. And share your generosity and your gratitude. In the ways that you are able. Together we can support the good work. Then you see an rv. Make sure that it will be here. Whenever and for whomever. It is needed. I'll tell you that right now my own heart heals overflowing with a sense of abundance. And appreciation for each one of you. And for the powerful testimony but we've heard already. I've said app here on fire sunday is that this is a place where we can talk about god talk. This is a place where we can talk about relationships. This is a place where we can talk about faith. And doubt. And a whole slew of other really important kinds of topics. It's a place where we can talk about big things. Big question. The things that really matter about our lives. So this morning i want to say a few words. About stewardship. As well. And that means money but it's more than just money. For stewardship is in fact about what matters. It's about a larger conversation about what matters in our lives. And how we tend and our lives. To the things which matter to us. I'll tell you that when kate and i were inserts. That's the name for when ministers go off and search for congregation and congregations was searching for a minister. When we keep niver in that process. We were indeed blessed to visit with several congregation. From around the country. And to be in conversation with several different. And when i arrived here blacksburg. I was struck by a growing congregation. A congregation of all different. Ages. A congregation that was thriving really surviving and talking about moving and some bright new directions. Hungry for. Meaningful conversation. Hungry for deepening. Conversation. Imagining new ways to reach toward ministries that would move a congregation beyond a country club. Sort of mentality. And a desire to live more boldly into a mission and vision that extends beyond the congregational walls. I learned about this vibrant re-program. And about the volunteers so dedicated to making this place grow and thrive. And i was moved by the story that i read about you on paper. And ever so more move. When i got to meet. The search committee and different members of this congregation and then slowly had the opportunity to see even more members and even more members and friends of the congregate. Ensure. I was very moved. Buy a place that felt alive. And since i've arrived i've often talked about. Ministry being that which brings us alive. I learned as i was getting to know more about this congregation the story about how his congregation wants just a few years ago a very successful capital campaign. And expanded this building. And was presently and still in his. Beautifying the ground. And not just with an eye towards. Aesthetics or beauty alone but really towards an eye vision. Of what these lands mean to us as a congregation. And how the lands are actually connected and extension of this spiritual home. Subpoena i came to uuc because we were drawn by what is and also what a possible for the future here. We came for you. And we came for those who urine. To walk through these doors were not yet with us. I moved by you. I still am moved by you. And when you called me to serve you. Keep my decided that not only would i serve as your minister here. But also that we would tithe as a family. That we would tie 5% of my earnings here. To uuc. Why would we do this. Because we believe in you. I believe in this place. I believe that you matter and i believe that we matter and i believe that what we are doing here every single day of the week. Mornings and evenings and what we do on sunday mornings. That it matters. A while back i was in seminary out in california and berkeley. And several years ago eyes facing what i was talking about challenging financial time in my own story. And at the time i was also preparing to serve as a minister and i was reading and learning and being emotional sorts of conversations that stewardship. What's the word stupid means in the theology of stewardship and philosophies of stewardship. And i remember. Being a little bit worried myself i was a member of a congregation. And i was worried because i felt like maybe i didn't have enough. Contribute. And i went and i heard a preacher. Who talks about how giving and receiving is just. What we do in congregational life. And that nobody gets to be left out. Sometimes when stewardship comes up folks will think yeah i can participate in that and others will think that is not for me i don't have enough i don't make enough there's a sense of kind of fear and scarcity. And then there's all sorts of different kinds of thoughts and feelings that arise for people in between those two reactions. So when i heard this particular sermon several years ago as i mentioned i was in graduate school. And if i said i was running my own money story that i didn't have enough that i couldn't participate. But then i heard the preacher. Say that actually everyone can. Dissipate. Everyone can participate. And i heard the preacher note that it was actually a little patronizing. To be told that you can't participate cuz you don't make enough. And something in me. Personally. Clicked. I began to see that charitable giving is actually a spiritual. Practice. And the each one of us has the right. And the honor to the privilege of participating. No one has to be left out. Everyone has an ability to participate in charitable giving. And now here's why that's important. Because it's a spiritual practice that helps us grow beyond ourselves. Stewardship is actually not about fundraising. It's about living into the sense of generous spirit that makes us happy. And feel pleased to be part of something. Much larger. That ourselves alone. How much. Should we give that's awesome. How much. Should i give and there are guides to help you discern that if that's a question that's up for you. But i want to say that what's important is not necessarily the level. At which we give. But it's with the level at which we give mean something to you. That it matter. Jim rohn who writes about philosophies of giving rights that the amount that you give is not important what matters is the amount that this represents in your life. Summer guardless of your level of giving. Invite you to make it matter. Let it be meaningful. The level that you give out to mean something. To you. Recently i was chatting with a member who just signed the book. And that never said to me something that will always stick in my mind i said you know. When i come here the first thing i might know about someone is not what they do. For their work. What they've accomplished and their work-life. I think that person is very right when you come into congregational life. The first thing you know about someone you might unite meet it might not be what they do or what they've accomplished to occasionally but you might know that they sing in the choir. You might know that they love to paint. He might know that they're starting a meditation practice. You might know that their children love to race around on the playground. They're a great deal many things to our lives that make us up. And express who we are in the world. And there's some release. In coming to a place where it's really about humanity. And our spirits. Now that is not to say that there aren't any sizable number of accomplished vocational accomplished people. In his congregation. And there are. And our accomplishments are part of who we are. But not the total story. Course. Here's a place where we celebrate the fullness of our lives all that we are. I want to share with you just something else that i heard from the number none of this congregation but also stuck with me i might be resident to you all. Right around the time of the housing crisis in 2008 when a lot of people across-the-board whited who had identified as relatively speaking middle-class we're losing their homes. Mortgages going underwater. I heard a member of one of our uu congregation today i lost my home this year. But then they said appreciatively of their congregation. I could never lose my spiritual. And that's why i give. Why would a person say this. They might say it because a congregation is a shared. Home at shared spiritual and religious home. It's more. Then us as individuals. It's about the collective hearts. And the collective vision of a people. Aspired to be more than the sum of our parts. And to live a boulder. Caring ministry in the world. Giving and receiving. Sharing our time sharing our talents it feels. Good. Growing a spirit of generosity chest feels good. And i think it liberates us from a sense of scarcity. And reminds us of the truth that abundance. If possible. When we share. And when people reach up. And out words to what is possible. Together. There is enough. There is enough and that's one of the truths that we explore in congregational life. Together we remember that there is enough. Love. There is enough. Hope. And we comes remember the enoughness. That we each are. And that we can be together. I'll be very honest with you this morning. I don't think that our spiritual lives are religious lives are luxury. And its stewardship i'm always recalled to that truth. There is ever more ministry to be done together. Morning i want invite you to consider what would it be like what would it be like. If we were to give half of our plate away. Every single sunday. One half of the plate away to community organizations like the organization that we heard about this morning making a difference beyond our walls. What is every sunday we gave half the plate away to those in need there is a growing trend i will tell you in our congregations are you congregation. To do this. And what congregations are finding is that the spirit of generosity. Grows ever more abundant. And ashley eat sunday there's more that comes home to the congregation and more that goes out the door. And this is also broadening our spirit outreach so that we can be known as a pillar. As a player in our content outside of our congregational walls and in our community. So i wonder. What would that be like. I think we want to give. I think we want to be generous and our fourth sunday collection show us. Just that. Panic into giving. Have to play every sunday. What would it be like. If we thought of ourselves as an every member ministry. And every single member and friend here felt that what they had to contribute really did matter and that we were actually doing on sunday morning a practice as of everybody putting something in the basket. A penny a nickel a dime a quarter dollars. Half of it here in half of it going away. And what would that tell our children. To watch us do that. And if the children ask why do you do that why does everyone have put something in and we talked about generosity and abundance and how each person get to matter. Each person can play a role in every member ministry. I wonder what that would be like. And since we all know that money is tricky. And that. Not everyone has the same financial story or the same financial situation right here at home in our congregation. What would it be like i wonder if we had more robust. Adult religious education then invited us to talk about our money stories. And unpack a little bit the spiritual and values dimensions of the ways that we wrestle with money. What would it be like if we offered free credit counseling and financial support for people making hard financial decisions. We offered that here in our congregation. What would it be like if we offered a free community meal once a month. And invited people in. Just to have a free meal. There is so much more for us to do together. And the reason i think that there is so much more for us to explore together is because there's already such a strong foundation. A generosity. Right here in our congregation. There are so many of you that have been giving already. Generously in so many ways who know about stewardship. You know how good it feels to be part of something larger than yourself. Including i want to share with you that not long ago pete and i we got to talking about how we spend money on netflix. We got to talk about how we spend money at our independent coffee shop. I mean games one another in a little bit of what i call wallet theology. We opened up our wallets. And our financial plans when we talked about where is spirit here. Some ways that people talk about quality ology is where is god. Where is god. Right here. Recognize that god language doesn't work. But you might translate this to think about where is spirit. Where is spirit in my wallet. What's my wallet theology. So invite you to consider. Joining me and joining those many many folks here in this room and those who couldn't be with us this morning. In thinking about what. You usually means to you. And give. In a way that matters. For each one of you. Start where you are. And think about what matters to you. For the every member ministry that calls us to share and give and reach. For our spirit and for our lives. And for goodness essity of ministry in the world. May we be called to celebrate. Call to value one another. Call to value both the present and the future. Of this beloved community. May we gather the spirit. And maybe harvest the power. With one another. Blessed be. And amin. Most of you know that that i work in the business community. And in the business community the hardest thing for anybody to do. Is ask for the order. I'm here to ask for the order. And help you fill out your order blank. On your table if you haven't found them are pledge cards. Well pledge flaps or what do we call these things. And. And if you haven't examined them yet please do now and you'll see that they are two-sided they're not the same on both sides. One side is a financial side. And another side. Is a personal service commitment side. Also on your table. Although table tent things with lots of information. About. The congregation the activities of the congregation opportunities for service. And so i invite you to take some time right now to think about what belongs on this. Order blank. Before we put them all in this big white basket up here. In the world i work in we talk about people who gets things done. And the people who tend to get things done interesting lee enough. Usually start. From some set of noble principles. I know it seems odd to say that about the business community but the ones that win. Do that. It's observable if you actually check it out that's the way it works. The second thing they do is once they've established this set of noble principles and by the way. I meet lots and lots of people. And they don't share 100% of their noble principles or their ways to live their lives but boy i'll tell you what they said they share 98% of them. I mean it's the little stuff that the people disagree about not big stuff. So the noble principles is a big underlying factor. The second thing that the ones who get something done have is it clear vision for the future and we just listen to people talking about visions that are unbelievably clear. Very straightforward what would success look like. Nobody said a number. People who say i really hope we do 5 million dollars worth of business next year. That means nothing to anybody the number is utterly meaningless because there's no metaphor associated with it no employee understands what it means to sell 5 million dollars worth of something. They just don't. But if you say hey when we come to work in the morning it's going to be like this. They can believe that they can get a get a grip on that they can share that vision. And we've been sharing visions here this morning so. But noble principles. A clear shared vision. And the third thing they all do. Then the ones that win the ones that get something done. Is make a firm commitment to relevant action. We can't control the outcomes the world is a crazy place. But we can control what we do. With the expectation that the world will advance in the direction we would like it to advance. And so that's what we're doing here today we're making personal commitments to relevant action whether their financial. We're spiritual. Or service-oriented whatever they may be. And then we only have one thing left to do after that. Impeccable execution. If you're going to bother to do it. Do it right. We've seen a lot of people do a lot of stuff right around here. And so we get to applaud that but we all know we can do it a little better but let's applaud how many things are done right around here. So. I'm going to give you about 2 minutes here to finish filling these little puppies out. And then we're going to ask the board. To assemble in the back of the room there. And lead us and what you will see here is called the parade of pledges. There'll be a big umbrella any of you been to mardi gras or been down in new orleans and when they have big celebrations down there including funerals by the way. The parade is always led by somebody with an umbrella. And i think the umbrella just went up. A rainbow umbrella isn't that interesting. So about two minutes and then we're going to have the parade of pledges follow the board around the room they'll snake between the tables pick you up on the way everybody come by and drop your pledges in here. Thank you very much. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. Uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

130929_bp_reflections.mp3

Welcome to the september 29th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today includes reflections. Unwelcoming and hospitality. By three members of the congregation. Marquita hill. Carrie sangster and bill patterson. Also included in the podcast. Are the opening words and benediction. Read bible. Are opening words this morning are adapted from. Andre jme new one in ministry and spirituality. And it's on hospitality. Hospitality is the virtue. Which allows us to break through the narrowness of our own fears. And to open our houses to the stranger. With the intuition. That salvation comes to us in the form of a tired traveler. Hospitality. Makes anxious. disciples into powerful witnesses. Make suspicious owners into generous givers. And makes of the closed-minded interested recipients of new ideas. I'd inside. Come let us worship together. As you can see from from your program there are. They'll be free. Reflections. First one. Bye. Marquita hill. In the cycling by carrie sangster and then i will. Give a short reflection. So marquita. In order to tell you about stanley answer. i need to tell you something about myself. At age 18 i was the first quarter freshman at michigan state university. I supported myself by washing glassware in a lab and shoving books in the chemistry library. Girls at that time were required to live in approved housing something i deeply resented. I doubly resented their that i had been largely self-supporting for years. And believe that left to myself i could live more cheaply outside the dorm. One evening a woman stopped me from entering the dorm dennerlein because i was behind on my payments. To the university. I had to do something so the next day i walked over to the administration building. I endured it. And after walking past a confusing number of vice presidents offices. I picked one and entered. That vice-president listened politely that seemed perplexed until he asked me what gpa expected to make that fall i firmly told him it makes the 3.5. Hearing that he sent me off to see stanley is there to the director of msu new honors college. After stanley exerted died last month at age 92 the honors college place to breathe video of him on their website and its fans said. The whole thing was the students. If they would survive make it through. But nothing would get in there way you've got to help them. From these words you know that stand helped me. He had no money so he decided to find me a third job. First i tried to help his secretary but being totally without office skills that didn't work. Then stan asked me to do some. Library work for him but he was an eighteenth-century french historian. Hi nuno french. But he persevered and not only find me a third job but several short-term jobs for indie twin quarters plus i started babysitting for him and his injury his wife. The first quarter i got a 3.65 and average high thereafter maintain. And at the end of the academic year i received an award for my work in an honors chemistry course. Then came the wonderful news i was awarded alumni distinguished scholarship. I'm sure stan was involved in the decision for that scholarship. The money was enough i could live on except for that infuriating approved housing regulation. I had just figured out the devious way to avoid that regulation ponstan and jerry invited me to live with them the coming academic year in return for doing some babysitting. Ben & jerry also and this is really amazing. They moved out of their own bedroom and gave it to me. So that i'd have a comfortable place to study. Living with such lovely people is embarrassing to admit even now that i was not an easy person to live with. And it was a difficult year for jerry but stand. Oblivious to my shortcomings in a book that i dedicated to him many years later i wrote. I owe him everlasting thanks for his contributions to my life he was unfailingly helpful. Seem to never notice my faults and always accentuated my positive attributes. At the end of that college year i moved out of their home and that would seem to be a natural into this wonderful generosity but it wasn't. Several years ago when i visited stan one of his daughters jerry name for her mother. Which also visiting. She was one of the children that i had babysat so many years ago. As we talked very learned of my efforts to assist a group the villages in the country of malawi. Without hesitation she said she was going to help me. Jerry teaches on a marine base in okinawa every year she teachers for second graders how to quilt. The children raffle off the quilts been research and discuss where to donate the money. Jerry reminds them that marquita doesn't charge overhead so any money they give to me goes directly to the malawian children give me a good percentage of their earnings. However that wasn't enough for jerry she also asked the priest at the catholic chapel on base. If she could do fund-raising for me there he said no. So jerry. So jerry has a lifelong catholic. Started to attend the two protestant chapel sundays. We're both chaplain said yes so between jerry and the chaplains i receive about $2,000 a year. From okinawa from by malawi work. So. It's too little to call the syrtis hospital bowl orange. And generous. Their presence in my life has been asked of human grace thank you. And now. Kerry sangster. I grew up in a dutch reformed church in northeastern new york. It was a white church with a tall steeple big stained glass windows. Hard shiny wooden pews. It was a place of sunday school before the service. So that the kids could learn to sit and be still and quiet in church. It was a place where i got to know our hymnal intimately since it was what i paged through during the seemingly endless thurmond. When i wasn't busy begging the universe to make my little brother act up so badly that i could take him out. And escaped to wander the cemetery. There are few though song that engrave themselves on my heart. That i'd request whenever we'd get our once-a-year reprieve. The hymn sing instead of the thurman. One of my favorites was when that went like this. You may know it from your own past experience if you happen to have a religious background similar to my own. And if i can sing slightly close to auntie. We will walk with each other we will walk hand-in-hand we will walk with each other we will walk hand-in-hand. And together we'll spread the news that god is in our land. And they'll know we are christians by our love by on love and no no no we are christians by our love. It was the magic within that song that captured me. I love the idea of love being away to wear my religion like a badge. Eyewitness to the outside world. This past hurts year i had the privilege of being one of the teachers of the middle school re class. As we studied our curriculum of neighboring faiths. During that program we studied 15 different dates and visited nine different houses of worship. And our local community. The communities we visited were vastly different but there was one common thread in each place that we visited. They were so welcoming. Whether i was present at the services we were visiting or i was checking in with our students the following week when they return from inexperience i hadn't been apart of. Over and over i heard. They were so welcoming. Their religion was a conduit of expression of their love. Don't know that we are hindus by our love. The hindu priest at the shanti niketan temple in roanoke. How to service jasper i. And with carlos and his efforts to teach us about his gods. About the salient stories of their actions. And what wisdom they gave to our lives. And expressed over and over how welcome we'd be if we wanted to attend any of the festivals at the temple. They'll know we are christians by our love. The students came back with wide eyes from the church of the brethren. They were just you know really happy we were there. As unitarians i feel like we've got this that were very good at expressing our faith through acts of service welcome and love. Back in 2010 my husband john and i took a close look at our lives and took the leap. As we decided to sell our home in new hampshire and have john go back to school. Once we figure it out which programs he was applying to we contacted the uu churches in each area. Asking if they could help us at all with accommodation or information. Let it be known that our uuc. Of all the congregations totally hit it out of the park. What a welcome. We were sponsored to stay at shadow lake village. Johnny mccord you at the strategic map of the area with everything a young family moving to bloxburg could possibly want to know. And took us on a tour of blacksburg in christiansburg showing us the grocery stores the playgrounds the aquatic center etcetera etcetera. I look back on my early days in blacksburg and i was feeling like i was marooned on another planet. And it was such a comfort to have those maps and that to her in my mind. Rev chris brownlee the minister at the time medicine talked with john about his struggle as a father and a breadwinner. With this decision to uproot his toddler and pregnant wife and move them for a very large pacot 13 hours away from any family. She provided safespace listening ear and dental council. At every turn you showed us your laws and you made us feel welcome. Of all the faiths we visited in the neighbouring face curriculum. The welcome that we experienced that was the most amazing. Was when we visit at our local muslim community at the miss jed i'll have fun. That experience. Just blew us away. They worked to create a whole program for a visit which ended up being 3 hours long. The people there gave us a tour of the facilities where members answered all of our questions. We had not won. But to spread the food. Danish and pastries and then sandwiches veggies and fruits. We were welcomed and join them in their midday prayers. They were so happy to have the clumsy unitarians besides them. As we bowed and we tried our very best to follow the rocca. The repetitive motions of the prayer. Then they're middle school or a teacher put on a special powerpoint presentation and lesson on islam. Complete with a candy-filled game at the end as we were closed for what we learned. It was nothing short of incredible. Time to tell you the truth. As i was their experiencing all the fish. I was struck in a kind of vacillation of emotion. I was at the same time both deeply text. And incredibly uncomfortable. My brain was going 500 mph as i thought there is no way we are ever going to reciprocate this. There's no way we are ever going to be able to do something this cool. I don't know if it's my culture or my upbringing but i really wanted to do something. I really wanted to be able to jump in. To reciprocate and sake. You're here you will know we are unitarians by our love by our love. But doing something. Was not required. In fact doing something would have been the exact opposite of what was needed or appropriate in this experience. You see hospitality is an incredibly important tenets of islam it's mandated by law. And it's one of the most basic expressions of the followers relationship with him. The welcome that you give the stranger is an act of worship. And what they did for us. Was a beautiful expression of love for their god. It was our job to not think about reciprocation but instead to be gracious except her. Not feel uncomfortable. As we are bathed in that light. But instead to breathe done. To just experience. Enjoy. And say thank you. As our hosts showed that they were muslims by their love. And we showed them that we were unitarians fire open minds and seeking heart. This is a story. Many years ago when the world was in a different place. I was fortunate. To go to spain. This is my first trip over the waters. My first experience. As a tourist in a foreign land. And although the landscape. And the artifices of civilization were quite different. Even exotic. Do my naive and curious census. Although the people spoke a language almost totally incomprehensible to my mind. I felt a profound welcome. From all i encountered. Even from the. Interrupt. Pickpockets in open market in madrid. Who evidently had mistakenly. For a rich american type. Right for the picking. Even so. I saw in their eyes. Respected me. Moron respect in a moment. Welcome. According to the oxford unabridged dictionary this word was used a millennium ago and what we now call. Old english. Surely it's meeting was express. An uncounted languages from the dawn of language. Welcome. An encounter between two individuals who have mutual respect. To recognize realize. A1. Despite. Surface. Peculiarities. In spain. I welcomed. I experienced welcome. From my house. People who took me into their. Homes. Fit me. Entertain me. One gentleman offered me everything in his home. Except he was careful to say his wife. And his daughter. Another couple younger even than i. That's what i would like to see. And then be to grenada. Sayreville our tripping. 80 + mph. They're i visited the alhambra where the musselman the moors islamic rulers. Rain for 800 years until the catholic monarchs. Isabel and. Ferdinand of aragon. Forcing back to northern africa in 1492. Pocatello more sights and sounds in spain as i remember them but. Why call memories these are absolutely personal. That is their peculiar. To my person. And even if you have had similar experiences. They are not the same. Cannot be the same. A memory starts doesn't desire. The desire prompts. The census to begin searching. This feeds perception and discrimination. And this results in construction. Thereby a memory. Is created. Every time we try to recall. 22re. Member. The process is repeated. But although the process. Is the same the seps. Steps traverse. A different path. A different timeline. Stumbling over intervening events. And the result is a reconstruction. Memory. Everything in this world is impermanent. Even. Motion notions. Memories. How to change. Since i started. Started putting pencil to paper. So what is real. Prep the emotion when i see a welcome. Probably look into another's eyes and see respect. But more. Love. The recognition. That. We2. Are really. 1. Hey we in the words of rev joe cherry. Be bold enough to step into our discomfort. Brave enough to be even clumsy there. And loving enough to forgive ourselves. And others. Leo spirit of love connect us in the web of life. We share. Go in peace. Onnit. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. Uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

160911_dr_evil.mp3

Welcome cuz it's september 11th service of the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The service today is met by a reverend on rollins. And his message is titled. In liberal religion sheology of evil. Reverend on refers extensively to the 2006 uua berry street lecture. Delivery by reverend bill schultz. Anna likes to that lecture. Is on the sermon archive page. This week's service has been fluid partly because. Yeah it's not always easy to decide what to do each scientist this anniversary comes around. So. What i have for you is some light instrumental instrumental music. And. As i talk with you about where i was for 911. We cannot assume everyone has the same experience for some of us this was highly traumatic for others that was. Not so much. And all the places in between so i invite you to get back even if you were not. Impacted so much that day what about sense. And what raps internally not just society and. Are you go to middle east policy and all kinds of things but. The point being that. When we lose that many sisters and brothers. That matters. And it continues for a very long time for a degrees process. So this would be a little time for us to set aside. And remember those. Children women and men who died that day. First plane hit the north tower at 8:45 a.m. september 11th 2001. I'm standing in front of 28 7th graders. Just stays into my second year as a social studies teacher. We just finished our daily cnn current events quiz. Florida. School's media specialist. Rusty to the room. Turn on the television. Something was going on. In new york. And then she was gone. I turned on the tv. What i saw seemed to me like a video game. Horsham 1970. Catastrophe. But it wasn't. I heard the kids gas. Meanwhile the voice-over gave unconfirmed reports that a commercial plane was involved. The news crews singing about a shot. Mentor to later i realized no good could come of letting those kids watch a spirit tower. Temove turn on. Turn off television but was too slow. No passenger jet disappeared from view only to plow into the south tower. Can my kids with. The first attack at least they have been spared. Syrian image in real time. Not so the second. Had waited a little bit. We made it to the class. I went into pass-through mode. Paris the caregivers know what it's like to curb your anxiety and try to be the grown-up in the room. What to say. That we have just seen the opening volley of world war 3. The thousands are dying as we speak. And not even i'm a scared as you are. The recall hoping no. No one they knew it was in those build and those buildings. I gave my best impression of connor. Tell him that whatever has happened in new york urc. That will know more soon. There are many firefighters. Police office. Some regular people in new york dealing with this the best i can. No we're not going to watch a morpher. Just be quiet for a few. Maybe think about everyone there. And then we can talk a little bit more if you like. And if not we'll go ahead and do a review for thursday's test. I'll check back in tomorrow. Spend much time around public schools you know that those schools rise and fall and direct proportion to the talents and the hearts. Other administrators. Fortunate for all concerned i had vajina. Or even voice came over the intercom telling us that all students and staff were together. The auditorium at the end of the.. Not to worry. Everybody safe. We just need to be together for a while. I'm talk about what's going on. And then we'll try to be as normal as we can. By the time everyone was assembled. Amazon fire. 40 passengers and crew had crashed into a field outside shanksville pennsylvania. We later learned that regina thought hard about. Mentioning the two more horrific events. But in the end decided to hold back. Would ask the next week staff meeting why she didn't include the. Last two assaults. She said the peace had suffered enough. For one day. What i do is to help clear the way. For a good relationship between you and your next settled minister. So i want to let you know what you probably already know but being with the congregation especially of the settled minister is an intimate relationship. And it matters how we treat each other and how it is that we create safe space for both the congregation and the minister to be vulnerable. Because i don't know how to worship without phone mobility. I don't know how to go to deep places. Without saying at some point i'm safe here. I want to talk to you about. Liberal theology and here i don't mean the study of god so much as i think it has to do with spiritual matters or whatever those things are those deep things because spiritual matters. When talk to you about that i'm going to get vulnerable because. While there is a growing. Course of folks. Who want to talk about the principles and maybe it's time to revisit you may not have seen what in the actual puppet yet. So we're going to go there believe it or not today and talked about their goal theology and the topic of evil which will take us right to the first principle. Sorry for you because this comes from a condition that was stalking 2006 to review the principles and purposes reason haven't heard much about that is pretty much good to go. The board of trustees of the association. The proposed amendment. Significant changes in the structure and scope of the article which is contained. Written by written by appraisal after a two-year review we were both issued by the commission. Since 1961. The commission proposes naming exactly,. Governmental language is most explicit in final paragraph. Squidward's this capable of both good and evil. Ok google. Forgiveness and reconciliation. Who repair our relationships we will reconnect to the promises we have made. In two places the new texas tribune uas association of free interdependent congregation. Paratha current actually sonia pre-congregation. Another is that last line. The new text retains its freedom of police supplies any prenatal test. Where is this going you're wondering. Suet. What happens when i say again please. Thank you. Cruelty. Killing. Beer. Apathy. Torture torture. Using people. Favoritism. Hey forgot to turn. I still got that my donald trump responds to this morning. Turning your back. Violation of good jamaican. Nothing wrong. It's more personal stuff again so you can understand. Cool background. I came to unitarian universalism in 1985 the same year the seven principles and purposes. The official statement of commonly held values among you use. Gained its final bylaw status. For my part i was a flat broke mostly methodist seminary student. Positively related to find a decent paying gig as the interim religious education specialist at first uu columbus. Even if i had barely a clue about the congregation i was joining. As to the seven principles they were as green as i. For at least a decade prior. Associations leadership had been hard at work. Talking taking the theological and relational temperatures of a movement clearly more confederation and denomination. They had for decades. Sense of craving among congregations for common language to describe common values. And there was general rejoicing when they were adopted. That craving was best described in 1971. By then you you a president eugene pickett. As he connected the lack of denominational clarity with our shrinking numbers i'm not sure about that but that was a rationale. And it continues. The melee lies in our confusion as to what word we have to spread. The old watchwords of liberalism. Freedom reason tolerance. Worthy though they still may be. They are simply not catching the imagination of the contemporary world. They describe a process for approaching a religious deaths. But they testify to know intimate acquaintances. With the depths themselves. So he writes if we are ever to speak of induced to a new age. We must supplement are seeking wisdom profound religious truths. Now in the 14 years between tickets observation and the final adoption of the principles. There were many fits and starts. Some having to do a course with language. But also the more serious matter of how central a role the principal should play. In a free church tradition. It's worth noting that dissension over the principal's with minimal but none the last existence. A 2000 article from from the usual world you don't know what that is that is a publications main publication or denomination. A 2000 article in the uu world. On the adoption process. Continuing editor warren ross made passing reference to the dissenters. All this agreement he right is hardly. It's all the disagreement it hardly needs adding does costume unhappiness among those who while acknowledging the principles are not a creed and the dictionary sense. Still see a common standard i believe. Becomes uncomfortably close. The creedalism. But in the end. Has ross observe. The desire for some for herbal formula about which all or at least most of us can say yes that's what i more or less believe. Betteridge far and away trump and it concerns about creedalism. And so it was the principles and i came to unitarian-universalism amir two months apart. When i went in my way around my new faith tradition not that many of us use the word faith back in those days i was surprised to find myself increasingly is secretly a line with the principles naysayers. But i was auu newbie. And a minister and trading by what authority. Could i have checked what seemed to me a very slippery path. In hindsight what i shared with the crotchety crowd and they were was their nagging doubt about so broad statement of belief. And even though the preamble clearly states in this important folks. The preamble clearly states this coven is between congregation. Not individual. Important. The people being people how could a movement so hungry for theological clarity resist the spirit spiritual temptation of idolatry and other words. With the seven principles one day become an unintentional theological litmus test. I'll talk to you little bit about my the cross at my methodist seminary in ohio and how practical they were and i mentioned to you before i think he'll they were more concerned with board meetings and how many angels could get on that pain. This was their lie babies were there that they were about doing. To the faculty of the methodist theological school of creative name of the mid-1980s was rife with religious liberals. None of whom for unitarian universalist. All of whom had something to teach me from the open-minded carmelites none to the recovering episcopalian to the dominican priest. They spend his sunday mornings doing street ministry and cleaning up sidewalk vomit. Left there by addicts and alcoholics. To looking back i had the best of both worlds. But there were also tensions between the two. Especially when it came to human nature. And the problem of evil. My new community coach me to look at things for a pretty sunny lens. And looking back i think maybe too much so. And i'm telling you all this because while i was getting my head around the principles in general. The real disconnect had to do with the first. The inherent worth and dignity of every person. I could not. Could not square that most fundamental of all yu-gi-oh assertions with the world that i knew. It was a theology of goodness. Reminiscent of what writer and pagan activist starhawk warned us about when she said beware of working-age organizations they proclaim their devotion to the light without bowing to the dark. For when they idolize half the world they must have value the rest. Meanwhile back at the seminary. My teachers were at ease talking about a word that we jettison a long time ago we're talkin about evil what would that word be you think. It would be sin. Not the kind rooted in that monstrous smith. Of accursed and falling down race. Prostrate before a fickle emotionally unstable parents. Not that kind of sin. Rather soon was code for our ever-present universal capacity to hurt each other and the planet that nurtures us. Are universal capacity to inflict suffering. Am i my version was simply that. Simply. I think that. Evil is the usurpation. Illegitimate power. Somebody mentioned like i think stephanie mentioned the taking away of somebody else's power. To seeing through the collective eyes of my process. Evil occurs the moment we rock we wrongly to the judgment value we wrongly use our power to strip somebody else's. And hear evil is located in person. Not childish projections of some dark fallen angel. Worth and dignity. Embossed my cemetery cemetery. Aggregate worldviews. It's like a crock-pot i did last week if you remember that that was interesting. Worth and dignity in most of my profs aggregate world deal. Does not automatically come with being human. It comes with being. And here the value judgment again. It comes with being. A worthy of imperfect steward of humanity that we were given. To put it another way. Worth and dignity, as a result of our contribution to the common good. Evil is us putting ourselves ahead of the hole. This is gription a vivofit the world that i observe the one which i grew up. World of violence. World of cheating and lie. Description of evil fit that world the one in which human cruelty is forever one word one fist. When road bomb away. And keep this real. As singer-songwriter nick lowe put it. It addressed the beast in me. Back at the uu church. Circa 1985. Send was not in our lexicon. Truth be told the very word evoke starcasm criticism. Knee-jerk. My new denomination was quickly embracing an automatic worth and dignity as its central tenet. And i did my best to join ranks. And began working on another liberal theology of evil. My response to the growing first principle culture of usm was to take a stealth approach and hope nobody noticed my lack of references for the principals. But over time i came to realize i was not alone. More and more you use some of them my colleagues and ministry were voicing their own disconnect with the first principle they weren't begrudging others the truth. They weren't positing some reverse doctrine claiming human beings are innately evil. Rather they were asking questions not widely opposed. Since the principles came online and 85. Questions like what is the real world baseline. Forsining automatic human worth and dignity. By what authority was our denomination staking out one of the boldest theological fill a cop philosophical claims. Ever. The center's answer was that there exists in the human heart and across history. The capacity to inflict suffering so heinous. The value judgment claims. For worth and dignity. Bless her heart. Betray the scope. Of that suffering. At what point do we diminish the suffering of another. We hold another person completely. Utterly accountable. And say that it is not our job to find the good. It is our is our job to create the justice iety. This conviction was not well received in some places and probably not out there this morning. And that's okay of course. Those who painfully considered the truth. Ran counter to the first principle we were sometimes labeled on you you. What did the signers were nonetheless in pretty good company than mainstream sisters and brothers understood. Examples. An article that appeared in the november december 2002 issue of the world. Paris minister and editor rosemary brave mcnatt poses the question. What is martin luther king jr had cast his lot. What do unitarian universalist. In an interview with coretta. Mcnatt learned that both she and her husband attended services at unitarian churches is pre-emergent by-the-way unitarian churches when in boston. Mcnatt said she was heartbroken when coretta told her the couple had at one time considered joining our tradition. But decided they could not build a bad abastecer i could not build a mass movement. A black people. If we were unitarian. But that points out the race wasn't the only barrier between the kings in our movement. It was also a lack of theology of evil. From that same article. She writes. Even if race had disappeared and as an issue king might have found the barrier of theology insurmountable. Though from the very start of his theological training he showed a bent for liberal religion. By the time his faith have been tried by the civil rights movement king had said no to the sunny optimism of liberal faith. An optimism frankly untested in the heat. A battle for liberty. Indignity. Famous famous essay pilgrimage to non-violence publishing the christian century. In 1960. Cheap made us reservations clear. There's one phase of liberalism that i hope to cherish always. It's his devotion to the search for truth. Its refusal to abandon the best. And like the best light of reason. It was the liberal doctrine i'm going to use the original language here it is sexist. The liberal liberal doctrine of man that i began to question. The more i observe the tragedies of history. Batman shameful inclination to choose the low road. The more i came to see the depths. And the strength of sin. I came to steal that liberalism has been all too sentimental concerning human nature and that it leans toward a false idealism. I also came to see that liberalism superficial optimism not my words by the way. Liberalism superficial optimism concerning human nature. Cuz it's overlooked the fact that reason is darkened by sin. And liberalism failed to see that reason by itself is little more than an instrument to justify man's defensive ways. Of thinking. Corporate ouch. Superking this theology of evil and which no deed renders the door beyond ultimate worth and dignity. Leave the theology open to charges of superficial optimism. And the switcher framework does not bear the weight of history's most despicable figures. And group. Andy's. That's holding out for their inherent worth and dignity. Is a luxury reserved for the privileged. For folks one step removed. From evil full brunt. A quick illustration of kings pragmatic theology apply to evil systems. Benjamin hooks one of my favorite of kings lieutenants. Remember the time someone asked dr. king if he thought of changing laws. Would create a change in hearts. King nearly spit. Implied i'm not particularly concerned about changing people's hearts. I want the right to drink from a water fountain. To use the restroom. Unless you've been up and down these highways like i have. And shalt in your own body the sting of discrimination. It don't really know what it's like. So i don't care what a man thinks of me as long as i can use that restroom and drink from that fountain. Clearly. King understood send. What's a crime against the whole. So this was the king of later years tested by a decade of violence. Focus on institutional transformation increasingly uninterested in touching his oppressors goodness of heart. They did not wish them dead. Illinois's wishing well. So this is the king who faced human sinfulness everyday and i doubt he spent months spent much time reminding himself a bull connors worth and dignity. Two kings could not cast your fate with us. So let's turn to one who did and still does. That would be bill schultz. Former president of our association former director of amnesty international. Current president ceo of the unitarian universalist service committee. The same bill hasn't done something with this life by the way. I was in the room when at the 2006 general assembly shows delivered the berry street lecture and annual address given to you you religious professionals. Shelter sermon. What torture has taught me was oddly uplifting for those of us in the first principle minority. A marquee figure of our tribe had dared put before his colleagues. His own break with the principal. On the grounds that it overestimates human nature. To the detriment of the whole. He wrote in this thing's too by the way. When we speak of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. I suspect that we base our belief in the inherent worth of human beings on some far vigor notion than aliveness is good. It's some outdated hierarchical assumption that because human beings. Are the pinnacle of aliveness. We must possess inherently some kind of merit. Then he writes i don't buy it anymore. I have fought tirelessly against the death penalty in this country i visited death-row spoken frequently with condemned prisoners. Some of them have acknowledged their crimes altered their hearts. Others of them are truly innocent. And many of them are mentally ill. And some of them are just vicious. Dangerous killers. So it continues i oppose the death penalty not because i believe that every one of those lives carrie carries inherent worth. In some cases their deaths would be no loss to anyone at all. I oppose the death penalty because i can't be sure which of them falls into which category. And which sand because the use of executions. By the state. Diminishes my own dignity and that of every other citizen and whose name it is enforced. I need hear ice and other words to assign the occupants of death row. Worth and dignity in order to preserve my own. But i find no such characteristics inherent in them. Or me. Chelsea's calling for an alternate huuu theological universe. Where dignity is based on one another's behavior allowing for mental faculties. Not the mere reality we share a species and a moment in time. Gk chesterton in chesterton called that. We are just. We are benchwarmers. Walking around. What is that where the oligarchy of the moment just what walking around thinking where the the kings and queens of the universe. I want you to be clear. Schultz is not asking us to suspend the rigorous work of living lies of love. Forgiveness and redemption and reconciliation nor does he overlooked the fact that he's replace one set of value judgments. For another. What he saying is that we should consider human doing. Not being. As a baseline for signing worth and dignity. Although inherent worth and dignity has have deep roots and universalism going back to the 1800s early 1800s. There have always been religious liberals that have built their beliefs and what they called salvation by character. Or deeds not creed's. This is that voice to the movement saying that we want to talk about doing not being. So indeed the vast majority of our history was spent without a centralized statement on human nature. Does some people a lot more. And plug-in to the examination and i. Suggested easily two-thirds of today's unitarian universalist have grown up. Or come to us with the principles as a definitive source. 4shared identity. For many that can be no separation between their personal statements and those and the seven. And the seven principles. I do not begrudge that at all. But it does explain. Why when i suggest it's time to revisit the principal starting with the first i might as well die on orange fluorescent jail suit that says i hate small puppies. But now that i've added myself as a first principle doubter. And you have yet to throw a handbook my way. Let me tell you why this is so important to me and again i own this as my own. First of all as with any statement of values the first principle took shape in a particular context. In a particular era. It was crafted and has been kept in place by an overall privileged people. I did nomination that regularly ranks high in per capita income and advanced degrees. This is not america animation. This is an honest recognition that evil looks very differently in the barrios and the projects. And not so far from here the mountainside shacks. The no safe place at the majority of us call home. Evil looks very different from this place. Secondly and related. Who coached whole cultures and subgroups were underrepresented when the first principle was drafted and adopted. And here i think of how few women were involved. People of color gay folks. The elderly all victimized by systemic discrimination and ways we were yet to discover in 1995. Which raises the question. With our belief inherent worth and dignity square with the survivors of all manner of violations and dignities. Some of homestead in rps. I speak for her puppets. And then thoroughly at me observation here. Questioning the first principle is not questioning hope. Cortrust. Are the holy connections we make here on sunday mornings and beyond it is not an exercise in the ilysm. Returning back to what shows had to say. Torture has taught me one more thing. If he's 12 years have caused me to rethink the nature of the holy in the inherency of human worth. And the credibility of individual authority they have more that confirmed two other bedrock unitarian universalist principles. The amazing lasting power of the human spirit. In the mysterious workings. Unfettered race. What torture has stopped me he writes. With all those brave souls and yes even a few other torturers have taught me. Is never to give up. I'm glamorous of grace. For all is not what it seems. So schultz gets to the heart of the difference. First principle dissenters. Like first principle of firmers. Look for what is good. It's just that the dissenters don't believe will always find it. So i celebrate that i'm part of a tradition so secure and it's true and you it's people so secure in your beliefs that i can stand here. And talk about what i'm talking about. Did i like you really do get a free. Responsible search for truth. To tell you the truth truth. I have changed my primary theology three times that since i entered this fold and i have never had to leave and let that sink in. My worldview has changed three times and ain't nobody throw me out yet. I love is tradition. It has comfort me and sorrow. It has aroused me for my various complacencies and idolatry. It has made me slower to judge and afforded me joy beyond measure. This is not about kicking anybody to the curb. So. Like most of the first. Principal dissenters i've met mine is a lovers quarrel. They were probably going to lose. And we can live with that. We don't expect a new commission to be struck anytime soon nor is it likely those fancy bookmarks listing the 7 principles will be altered to say leave the member congregations of the unitarian universalist association covenant to affirm and promote the conditional worth of dignity and every person. Blowing in on a somber note. If the seven principles have not become canon law. How come we get in so much trouble those of us who talk about an alternative. And in on even more somber note. It's telling that the back of our gray hymn book that you. You will find no heading between evening and evolution. If you get my drift. And the third stanza that old quaker him were about to sing originally read like this. When tyrants tremble sick with fear and fear their death nails ringing. He will see a different version here. And that's okay too cuz i'm just saying. We have. 10 minutes left. Things to do. Again folks keeping hold the time or really close. This is big stuff. And some of you i noticed a knot on a wholesale basis not a problem. As some of you have probably been waiting for somebody to say some of the stuff the commission said back in 2000. That's who we are and it's okay. Very quickly let me get my microphone up here. No responses to evil. I am so in trouble. Who sells your name. I think. That the combination of. Truth. And worth and dignity of every person. But i would. Yields. A. Catapultas into a direction that is. Very very potent and very very good. But i would also like to add. That there is a substrate of love. That is also necessary to that. That just raw truth. And the intellectual observation of the worth and dignity of every person is not enough. But that the emotion of love. In addition to that creates a substrate that is profound and and eliza cushion that is. Eases.. Well-put substring is great. Hay bales. My name is paula markham. I studied with a stupid teacher who sit who study with him i studied his works he died by the time i found him. He came to this country in the 1920s and he was the indian man darkskins which was not a cool thing back then. And he was preaching about the unity of religious ideas. Notifications but if ideals. And he was challenged and people said the are you saying that all the religious. Figures you know that are equal to each other. This is no i didn't say they're equal but i am not equal to judging them. And what about not being able to tell which are the ones that are savable. Needs to hold on to that. That. Provisional. Generosity. Greatpeople. Conditional provisional worth and dignity while we sorted out. I also have a friend who's a. Police officer and he's a buddhist meditator. And he's really caught in a bind because he says in his work. Some people just need killing. You know they're about to do great harm or they've done great harm and they're about to do more and they need killing and he doesn't. And yaki. Hold life sacred so. It is an unsolvable. Play for one more. Flowers. Nnr rush to a hide from. The old religions. We have systematically. Abandoned very useful language. Like sin and guilt. I would i would bet that every person in this room has felt guilty. And guilt is the result of. Send it. And the sin is violating your own. Whatever. And so if we don't have these words. You said we can't have these kind. And if we can use. Systematic theology. Then we can talk about it in a much more. Post recall the aim here is not the convert more dissenters. The aim is for us to go deeper. Beauty brands. And we may indeed you may and find that at first principle exactly where you are and do so proudly. Let's go there to more deeply that's my grief that we have not gone there for a while. And i thinking of time. I think of that has been a longtime 31 years since the last time we went deep with this quest. And we tried in 2006 but we weren't ready. So what if he went deeper and if every word was still the same i'd still be where i am i still love you and hope it came back to me. But we do speak or truth. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

160410_isabel.mp3

Morning. Services titles being mortal. And the guests. Pounce. And i'd like to welcome forward isabel bernie who will. Share with us some words about our own memorial garden. Which is right back in our grounds here sharing with us some of the meaning and the unique history of this very special place. Thank you isabel. Last week we heard from abdara the idea that when someone touches a person or place. It changes that thing. She is the illustration of the difference between a grass cutter and a gardener. And how we leave a legacy for those who come after us. We all benefit from the differences those who came before us. And what they made. And so the memorial garden is a place to honor and remember those people. The ideas for a garden starts with a meeting of four of us in back in 2000. Last week dara asked us how many of us remembered herschel heeler. And i want to ask now how many of us remember jerry anderson. Jerry got four of us together to explore the idea of a place to honor those who have gone before us. Arthur snoke goldie terrell. Jerry anderson and i formed a committee to work on that. We queried other uu congregations about their memorial gardens. And we visited several walls and gardens in christian churches in our area. And we gathered information from the web. Now you probably know the committee work is often done at a glacial pace. And so three years later and 2003 gave a sermon to the congregation explaining but a memorial garden was. And why we should establish one. We got a sample of a columbarium module about that big and. Weighed 50 lb. And the congregation then express general interest in the concept. And then the next year the board approved a designated fun for the memorial garden. Several people had inquired about making contributions. And one member offered to match any contribution up to $2,500. And that was jerry anderson. He wanted to remain anonymous but. It is a example of the legacy he left to us. About that time we began negotiating with the grossest to buy the property that 6 acres. Expanded our land. And so the memorial committee suspended its work for a time. Because with a purchase of that gross edition the congregation began in earnest to look. For expanding our bent look for expanding our building. So with a building expansion design and the capital campaign underway we were asked to suspend our memorial garden work. It was important not to have any competing fundraising projects all the capital campaign was underway. And we didn't know how the final design would use the land. However we did get the building task force and the architect. To include. I'm a memorial garden above the parking lots in the official site plan that was submitted to the town and that was approved. So. In 2008 the memorial garden committee was reconstituted. With the original members and some additional folks. Lori tolliver jones who's a friend of the congregation and a landscape architect. Agreed to design garden. And we agreed to use the berm area above the original building and that is out of the footprint of any proposed future expansion. Has the committee was working with ori we realized there were a lot of plantings and other gifts that have been given to the congregation over the years. Bonnie marino designed book of treasures. Here's the book of treasures. That. Spearheaded the work to collect the records and and record our gifts. And she look at this book. It has all kinds of things inside like the offering baskets were passed today. There's pictures of who made them in the history of how it came to be about and there are lots of here's our singing bowl and there are lots of memorial plantings and other thing. Here's a picture that jerry anderson. Daughter made for us hangover on that wall so it's a really interesting book. There are three copies and they're in our library hope that you'll check those out and you have a chance. So our committee if expanded. To include not only the memorial garden. Any memorial that was given. To the church in. For someone's memory. So. In april of 2010. The committee was given board approval to raise $10,000 for the construction of the memorial garden. And it began that august. Scott myers over saw the construction. Richard reid dedicated love labor to the site. Meanwhile we sold niches and pavers. To raise money. And a few out right donations roster received. And in 2013 the garden was dedicated. Last year two more columbaria where i added because the original 16 module for all sold out except for one. And we knew we needed more space. This time the construction was mostly volunteer labor and that was overseen by dick luke. But several people help. Including dean mug. Michael bryant tim pickering george lally bob simpson dale norton and susan baker. Now there's always a danger in naming people because i probably have left someone out because we had really a lot of. Volunteer help. So i apologize if i. Have not named your name but many many folks helped. Especially dick baumann and bobby littlefield and tim pickering who've been active members of the committee through the years. So we have more niches to sell. And people can always purchase a paver. Theater honor folks. Who have. I died or just to honor someone who's living wait there a couple papers there with names of people who. Are alive and well. I hope you'll take a stroll up to the garden and look at the paper pavers. Admire the view and rest your soul.

uucnrv_org

160717_hr_ramadan.mp3

Welcome to the july 17th service at the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. The sermon today is titled. Exploring ramadan. And it is delivered by hashem rocca. Who is introduced by worship associate jane aronson. The podcast closes with a talkback between the speaker and members of the congregation. I'm happy to introduce our guest speaker today. His name is hashem rocka he is also involved in the blacksburg refugee partnership. But today he will be speaking. On exploring ramadan. And he is a member of the islamic society of the new river valley which some of us have been able to go and visit. During. Other years. For part of our today. Okay so i'm going to be talking about. Fasting in ramadan. We just finished the month of ramadan. On the 6th of july. Convenient time to talk about this. Dandruff remedy. Which we had on the 6th of july. This truck actually gave it. To the medical school. Edward via medical school. So it's more medical i can forget about the health benefits of fasting but i'll touch on different aspects of fact. You free to interrupt me anytime if you have any questions. Audio open transmission question. Outline of the presentation. I'm just going to be giving a brief overview of the slam in order to put the fasting with in context. Pakistani face. Then i'm going to give a brief overview of ramadan the month of ramadan which is the one that we actually fast. And then i'm going to be talking about the health benefits of fasting and then. And with some conclusions. Okay so what is this land mean. Islam means i really like this quote by tariq ramadan who's a professor of islamic studies. At oxford university. And he mentioned. But i'm listening. Is a human being who throughout history. And even before the last revelation which we believe is islam. Was rich. Has rich to attain god's peace. Through the whole hockey gift of him or herself to be. So we have two definitions of its land has its name with a small eye. And its name with a capital i in its name with a small eye. Is. Started from we believe from prophet. Adam. The first prophet we believe. Show all the profits. That drill. Lockbox. Where richland. And then we could even the last. Islam which is the capital i which is this and that we know. Now in the world. Okay so. What are the sources of its lamb. There are two sources slamming one of them is the quran. Which in arabic means the reading. Is benefits recited and red. All the time. In fact. It is not uncommon that a child age 10 and wisdom country will have the entire court on memorized. About 600 pages. Long. We've got people here in blacksburg that have the whole quran memorize. One of them is a undergrad students at virginia tech who actually grew up here in north. This is a very common practice to people memorize of quran. Unfortunately i'm not one of those. So. My number is not the best at there a lot of people that had it nana. We believe that the quran. Is the liquor word of god. Revealed. To prophet muhammad peace be upon him. Truly angel. Jeopardy. I'm in english. Headed means the reading show. From our perspective. Everything in the quran is the literal word of god. It was sent from the high heaven to the lower heaven. In one whole book. But it was revealed to the prophet over 23 years who's like a puzzle. Each piece of the puzzle. Was revealed for a certain incident in his life. And then the last year of his life. The prodigy handkerchief you went with went over the quran with the prophet and told him to put this piece. After this piece in this piece. And that way we had the book. As it is today there's only 1/4. And the time was the world. Wherever whatever country you go to it'll be the same book. Adobe translation. We don't believe the translations other four and they're just translations of the quran because any translation. Is an interpretation of the meaning of the book. We have it in its original language. Which is the arabic text. I should mention that i'm originally from egypt. So i do speak arabic and i do read. I should also mention that i noticed color. Personal knowledge in the quran. The second choice. And this in the slam is. What do you call the sooner. And that is the way of the prophet so basically anything that the prophet said. Approve dog. What did. In his lifetime. Will be considered the soon enough or the way of the prophet peace be upon him. All the sayings of the prophet compiled compile. The number books. These compilations. To be strong can be weak. So basically there's an entire science. And identifying power scented that changes or if i were to claim. The prophet muhammad said xynz. They're going to check. My credibility. They're going to check. I have to say that i heard it from. Person y person y heard it from person. X. Until you get back to the original. Which is prophet muhammad peace be upon him. If you cannot go back in that chain of the races back to the prophet. It is projector. You don't accept that. And we didn't got chain they make sure that this person that this person that that person. If this person in the chain is trustworthy they have good memory. And so forth so there is a whole science behind just. The people in the race. And a contact so basically it says something that they sit is completely contradictory to the teachings of islam. Can you say that there's something wrong with that teddy. Regardless of what. Mclane. So there's a whole and this the famous stories that. Is a person called party whose from pokhara which is in iran. He went. Probably from egypt all the way to the rock. To get one single deposit. When you went to that person. That person. I just was cheating his camel pretended that he had food and what it come come. From that incident he would not take. Go to the doctor. Untrustworthy. The camel show. There's a whole science behind this. Whole thing and then. Within. Then there was that many people. 100 people claiming the same thing that they heard the prophet say. Did not because it goes higher up in the rankings and becomes will record with the weather. It was narrated by many people. There's only one person that. Says that the prophets head goes down. I need to come to the weaker. And so basically the produce colors. When they want to get to the sonic opinion about something. They look at all the texts. And their ranks or theramore. Text the highly-ranked. Then that rule can you be better than the ones that are lowering. Koran. Woody mikolajczyk because everyone agrees that that is the word of god. So anything by the court on will. Abrogate anything that the prophet that said regardless of what the people. Okay and then what are the beliefs of most of their a6 beliefs that we believe in. The first one we believe in one god. The second one is we believe in angels of god. One of them. Angel. When is the angel of death that will take our souls when we die there different angels. We believe in. We believe in the books. Many books. Summerfield in the grand saint bernard. But there once mentioned in the koran of the ones here like the tower or does it work. The gospel of jesus. And the reading. So did even all those textbooks and anyone who does not believe in those textbooks. Then we'll not. Requirements for the belief. We believe in many prophets. 25 of those profits i mentioned explicitly by their names in in the quran. But also the quran mentions that their other prophets that will not make. Jabooda could be one of those profits. We don't know. All the profit show. Only 25 were mentioned in the quran. We believe that there is a day of reckoning or judgment. Where after you die. We'll all be resurrected. And we will be accounted for our deeds. And you're going to wear your teacher goodies against your baggage. Play some naturally to go to hell. That's the last thing. That we believe that there's a divine measurements of human affairs. The supremacy of god. Android is all just. We roll. You are resurrected. What are the pillars of islam we believe there are five pillars of islam. The first one is what we called the shahada. And basically you're. You state the following the state that there is no dyzee worthy of worship. Except god. Muhammad. This is messenger. That's the first. Tenant office lamp. And then the second one. Is the prayers we have five present today. The first one is the drawing prayer. And that one. Is right now is around 4:40 in the morning. You need to wake up. I pray. prayer than you have one. Route 130 which is the door prayer. Around 1:30 in the afternoon. The lost prayers around 5:30 in the afternoon. Then the maghrib is at sunset. Which is right now be around 8:40 tonight. And then about an hour and a half after that you have dasha prayer. Which is. Around 10. Each one each one of those prayers has a set of movements. You recite sitting. I shouldn't opening chapter of the koran then you can recite whatever you want. It is better that you pray. In congregation in the mosque so it's not uncommon the people will pray the five pairs. In the mosque. But if you can't that's fine you can play at home. So i typically with my kids sometimes at home i kind of mosque. Sometimes. Everything is fine. We pray directions to repay 2. It's towards the kaaba. Witches in saudi arabia. The. Broken to the house of god. Which is where the people the pilgrims go. Statue that pilgrimage. And which is the last for the pilgrimage. This is the third pillar. Is the car. And the cat basically you pay. Two and a half percent. Of any. Money that you have the. Last for one year. To the poor. How you pay 10%. Of any if you have agriculture. You pay 10% of any agriculture that you get from the land you paid to the poor. Can you play 20%. Of any minerals that you get from the lanzo petroleum would be an example where it is. Oil-rich countries. Hey 20% of any. I needed to get to the petroleum. To the poor. I said if it's the most important pay of medicare if you know for people in this world. Fortunate their emotions that don't pay the zakat. But that is one of the five pillars of islam. In islam pain. Secrecy. Is much better than paying. Publix. Show independence drew the famous saying of the prophet is. Basic you your lap times should not should not know what your right handed. And that's all you fine muslims. Typically will never. Will always pay the money in secrecy. They won't get publicly. And they will not be telling other people what they did. So the more you do it in secrecy the more awards are going to get because basically. If you do it publicly there is hypocrisy in it. You have your own self where you will be complimented by people and so forth. The more you can remove that. Hypocrisy in your deeds the better those deeds are the same thing with prayers. The prophet peace be upon him used to wake up every night. They don't last third of every night. And secrecy headed home. Just alone. Until basically the more you do privately. The better those deeds. The fourth pillar which is what i'm going to be talking about. Is the fastest. The song the month of ramadan. Basically. That is practically the ninth month of the islamic calendar and i'll get into that. And then throw that the fasting starts from the dawn prayer. Until. The sunset prayer. It's not from sunrises like you from doing which is about. An hour and a half before. Sunrise. Wake up. Around 4 in the morning you eat something. You pay your. Prayers on prayers. And then i typically go back to bed for a bit wake up around 8. And i go to work. And then so it's not just. Abstaining from food. Abstaining from food. Drinks and sexual relations with your wife or your husband. So basically that is it and he's actually extending from. Are the things that i'm going to be talking about it. Saying bad things lying and so forth. The fastest not just sitting. Food. Drink but it's also saying. Is the pilgrimage. Unrequited with once-in-a-lifetime if you can. Being able to do it is both. Financially being able to do it. And healthwise be able to do. It's a tough journey i've done it twice. Where you travel to mecca. You do the whole. Rituals and i. I mean you you have to be physically strong and. But you do find people in the 1980s. Wheelchairs and people push it there. Taking them around and show forth your people go. All ages. To do that pilgrimage. All these actions these five pillars. Have one objective. And that is what we call to attend tukwila. And i don't know exact translation of taqwa. I would say is god fear. God country. So you should be feeding god. In every action you do. And basically.. The objective of all these. So this is the bad word we hear in the media. Chevy tahoe. And if we were to take. Gingrich newton's. Request. I guess i would be sent out of the us for believing in cherian. But every muslim believe in sharia. And sharia basically is the road or the way. And basically everything we do and it's lamb. Is related to sharia. Show sharia basically scholar something up as. It is the attainment of benefit. And the prevention. Journey adventure doing. Should be providing benefits. Did the whole society as a whole. Do you resent individual. And so that's why for example islamic law. Preserve pythons. First one. Is religion had the freedom. Practice any religion you one. So anyone even if you're living in muslim country you have to have the freedom to practice whatever religion. You want. The second one is preserving of life. Angelina slam for example. We're not allowed to eat pork. Were you not allowed to eat. Human flesh. But if you are a. Stuck in the desert. That was the only way means for you to survive. It is. You're juicy that you have to eat. The flesh of the human or whatever. In order to survive is that you have to protect life. Over the auditing. Can you protect your life. By going against the rules. Under certain conditions. Then you protect the mind the progeny. And property those are the five things. The bishop tries to protect. Any person regardless of what their creed is. Are they related. In fact in sharia. The christian have their own christian law under the sharia law. Hrdi says that whatever religion you follow. You're allowed to follow your creed or you'll lose right at the time of the prophet. In these time of the. The atlantic empire basics the christians had their own lords are they allowed to sell and buy alcohol which is forbidden. Fight for muslims. They allowed to sell. And by orc which is forbidden for muslim so. Religion will have their own set of laws within this area that is allowed for those. Those beliefs. Okay. So now let's get into the fourth pillar of his sandwiches the fasting. Is your mother going to be talking about. I'm basically the quran mentions the following in in the verse. Then we have. Bronze divided in will be.. Translated this chapter. Different from jackson. Do the japanese eat everything is. This is one thing but it can be different teams within asura. So says the following. Ramadan is the month during which the quran with was revealed so we believe that the coronavirus was sent from the higher heavens to the lower heaven. In the month of ramadan but also the first revelation to the prophet. Was in the month of ramadan. I'm providing guidance for the people. Clear teaching. And the statute book. Those of you who witness this month. So fast there in. Those who are ill or traveling may substitute the same number of other day. That relates back. Remember when you said sharia to text wife. And protects the health. Basic if you're sick. Your and it is harmful for you too fast. You will be singing if you actually fast. The basic idea is. The rules of santa cruz. God wishes for you convenience not hardship. That you may fulfill your obligations and to glorify god for guiding you into special appreciation. So in the past basically are abstaining from food drink. Sexual relations. From dawn to sunset. In addition it means that you abstain from any the. Bad things that you should be doing. You should you should not be doing any time you like. Which is the lying backbiting. Slandering whatever that may be. Agenda is. Part of the fasting. I mentioned that the reason for fasting is to attain taqwa. Another interpretation is as was mentioned. You can feel the feeling. Sapore. Fortunate you are hungry until 4. Okay so what are the objectives of fasting. Famous color in sonic history is from. Run. He's famous. So i guess you mention. Rumi. Emerson poet. Azalea was also. From the same place where ruby was. Efficiently. He was the one who combined. Resume slam. Domaine spirit slam. I just credited for that. Azalea has a famous book which is called reviving this lennox.. Music scholar. He felt. That you was hypocrite. So you left. Professor at the university. He left everything in live for about. 10 years. The nomads in the desert. And the king documentary. These books. Basically. Bible the spiritual aspect with the. Physical aspect. He writes the following the way by which the devil inferences hard to people through their desires. In arabic. Our desires namely our food drinking into the sea. It is by overcoming one's desires that one finds refuge from the devil and tranquility. Pointcentral to realizing. The objective. Okay so there are three types of fasting the majority almost everyone. But there are three categories. The first category is just merely the out with. Rooting for you just extending from food in. I just a line on you. Bad things. And show. That fast. Famous. Pricing by the prophet peace be upon him that there's some people that go there get from their fasting. It just hunger and thirst. In islam what should mention that. The deeds are also. Rewarded by the intention behind. So if you have add. For example i give money to the poor. Because i want people to compliment. So forth. You're going to get the compliments of the people. But that's basically that you're not going to get any good deed. If you do the good deeds. With the objective of. Pleasing god. And you're not looking for. Meeting of the people you're going to get that the freezing of godchaux. The deeds the same thing that you could be doing. You could get the difference. Outcome depending on your intentions when you do those. For the second level of fasting. Electric fasting. I basically it involves fasting. Not only from the food. Drink. Asexual. Directions but also. It's the fasting of the limbs or the tongue ties and sofa. That is the second level of fat. Then the third level of fasting. Is the. Elect of the elect and involves the physically spirituality intellectually occupied. With one's lord without breaking consciousness. From the state even a moment during the entire fast. I'm people. There's a lot of people that will do this. They will spend the last 10 days of ramadan they'll just live. Inside the magic. Delete that home. Don't spend their entire day. Praying. I need a whole day in the. For the last 10 days. I'm a little lot of people do. So what is the alexa stinky talks about this letter that he mentions. Document siteone sang 1 years. Show for the one of the one of the points that he mentioned. Is not to overeat. And to be honest with you. The breaking of the fast. Is more difficult than the faxing itself. Anyone who tries to fast. Once you could eat. Basically you. You find it hard to stop eating. And so. The key is also when you break your fast you control yourself. Are you breaking. And that's. But i'm going. Discussing. When do muslims fast the 10th month. The muslim calendar. Joanna knight. Wasn't calendar is a lunar calendar. So it is shorter than the solar calendar by 10:50 days. Each year. So the month of ramadan ship. My 10:50 days. I remember when the first years that i fasted. Ramadan was in. September october. I've gone to the fool 33 years. 33 years to go through a full cycle. But i know my second cycle. Hop movie. Potential 11 days. The month the lunar month is somewhere between 29 and 30 days. There will be differences in opinion whether it so it starts with the crescent. The sighting of the crescent. The siding of the next crescent. So basically you that will be the end of the month. And told this color. Difference between what it has to be a physical sighting. Or you can calculate the birth of the crescent scientifically. There's activate depending on. Difference quality. Adobe differences. Opinion. It would have guards to that. When do we have to fast you're basically sick people. What temporarily sick for example you have a cold you have the flu. You basically don't fast for those days. And then you make up those days after the month of ramadan. Examples. 6:15. After their month of ramadan you make up those. Permanently sick people's with someone. Physical conditions to not fast.. Then what you have to do is feed a poor person. Everyday that you do not fast. So basic without 30 days. And i. They say it's around $10 per day. If i $300. For the full month and uk towards the poor. I might late wife passed away. Cancer. Pequannock fast. That's what we would do. You paid the money. The four. That's a good question. So we define is. You go within the circle so you're relatively poor relatives of the iceberg. Then the next one are your neighbors. Can you commute to blacksburg will be our second. Set of people you can find pool people dead. Then you go to the us if you can fireproof. 4 people dead in hugo globally show making the circle starts off. Locally. And then goes. Why didn't. But you have two people have to meet certain criteria. In order for them to be qualified for that. Reddit. Pricing is also not obligatory upon those who travel. And the elderly. Kabul. Start your traveling. I plan to show for it. I typically do it. I don't have to do it but i just don't know it just. I feel bad if i don't do it. Bluetooth. California back. I did thursday's while i was. Traveling oxyfast. It was difficult to be honest with you cuz you get dehydrated on the plane. But i. I chose to do it this your choice. Sausage actually forbidden for the sick if it is then it is also forbidden for women. We have their menstrual. .. It is forbidden for women who are pregnant. Antwerp. Post. Childbirth while breastfeeding that kill. And what it's for the health. It is forbidden for them and they actually. Go pay the poor for that with those months. For the months that they miss. Is it goes. So what are the typical ramadan activity show. In addition to the fact that we actually have extra prayers so. The last paradise your favorites around. I guess this was around 10:30. After that you would have. Another set of prayers which were not required.. About an hour an hour and a half. So you would be ending ending the prayers around midnight. Then you go home. You sleep for about. I i could not do all those i would pay for. Ashwatha.. 45 minutes. And go home sleep for about 3 hours. Wake up have my stroller which is my w-4. Stop my fasting pray the drone. i would go to the muskegon prayers. Comeback sleep until 8 besides have a full-time job. So then i'll be at work by 8 until 4:30. If you're not working you can take. I was a kid but i was growing up in egypt. She spent the whole night awake. Play soccer to go fishing. Do all sorts of things the night and then. I sleep more. 3 p.m.. You can do. It's not the right here where you should be actually. Poppi drink. Reschedules to do that. I got a hundred prayers is basically the praise that the one last 1/3 of the night. That's what some people will do that will pray that's extra prayers. In addition i mentioned at the calf which is basically people would like to just live in the mosque. In spanish. Certain number of days just. Isolated they actually built like a tent. In the mosque. And i just. Body worship the whole time. Remembering god and so forth. Didn't i.. It is very. Common the people invite people because basically if you invite a person to break their fast. You get the rewards of their fasting in addition to them getting their order their cards. So that's why you fine. We're jumping in the western countries the ritual make. He's big. Open places where any poor people can come and eat. Eventually they'll just pay money. And you'll have open in the box. Anyone can come and break their fast. And you get the rewards of all these people breaking their fast. In addition to them getting their own reward so. It will not. Deteriorate from their rewards. It's very common.. People be inviting people out until 4. How does the month of ramadan end ends with robbie quality. No i didn't put the story which is breaking the fashion that was on july 6th. Basin is characterized by visiting family and friends. Joseph in the morning. Where will the community gathers. You're in. Better that you. You all the mosques gather in one huge congregation to visit people typically. Go to an open space. And all the mosque. Creating a big open space. And one congregation we do that in blacksburg so we rent a place and we. That you must. We'll meet together we pray. At one big community. Are you got a new clothing it's difficult people get new clothing for. The kids until you have to pay. Okay call the casual fit. Which is the $10 for every person who fast in order for your passion to be accepted. That goes to the poor people. Anticipated and before that. So that they can buy clothes new clothes and so forth. Today can celebrate just like the rich. Hyundai. And they can buy. There. Clothes not close until 4. If it's a requirement. So you don't pay your vacation fit. Your fashion will not be accepted. Not every person has two page. My kids have to pay for my kids. I myself in order for our pricing. Not specially prepared food you have gifts for kids. This is an example of the picture from egypt. Will you feed in the month of ramadan and the egypt have lights all over the streets and. Diners and so forth. Control4. I think i've actually. Run out of time cuz i can. 11. I was going to go over the health benefits of fasting that i think i was. Stop here. And open the floor to questions. I was thinking when you were describing sharia. Did that is not quite the same thing as what we. We know today is your realized practicing. Saudi arabia that that's something different. Also. Sharia is. The lure. Completely. Now when you're talking about your age are you talkin about. Other women cannot drive is that what you're talkin about or what. What exactly took about sharia law. That you are. Saudi arabia. And other other muslim communities some other medicine. Practice a very severe form of law. But they call sharia law. That is not quite the same thing as what yours. Well so i can't give you the details of it i haven't told her i shouldn't things that are not like for example. Until you're ready or did you not allow women to drive. That is not. But they but they described. No they don't do that. you don't they don't mention is that they claim. That is protecting the women because if they were to drive. Then. They could be molested until 4.. They don't claim that it's trivia. What they claim is sharia is the stoning of an adulterer. I'm in the west they always claim that is. Adulteress. It is not the dopest it is the adulterer. So is he the man or woman if you have. A relationship outside of marriage. Islamic ruling. Is the deck. If you want to be clean. Now that it only that required. Mason michigan require full weaknesses. To see that act. Which means the bases you have to have done it in the public. The correct order for for witness. That is. That is part of the sharia law. So. I just when you were saying there are some laws. Yes there are some laws that within this area that you're talking about that are pocket edition. And i talked to some laws that are not playing today. I'm curious with all the terrorism in terrorism that's going around in the world. And it seems. Tumi. That there's a lack of a islamic community. Talkin about it. And. Seeing that the beauty of your religion. And. To help. Other religions try to understand or condemned. What's happening or knocking. I disagree with that come in because i think the media does not. Does not advertise. The what then we can say. I think they advertise. The negative so for example let's look at muhammad ali. And look at all the things he did. I mean three. Stockton didn't go to vietnam war to me i consider that a big plus in his because i think. The vietnam war was not a just war. My opinion. But. The median ever. Advertise of muhammad ali was emotion. It's really a side issue. Listen to the terrorist act. The first thing you see in the title. What's the terrorist they always linked it to a muslim. If a christian does interact. Vici many turok. They won't say christian terrorists. So i think. The media plays a big role. In getting this negative impression. Understand. You can just go back to the text. You can see basically all these all these activities people are doing. Are dentist on now. Does that mean these people have legitimate. Issues that they didn't. For example like the people in syria. Charlotte said what he's doing in syria is a political in victory used chemical weapons on his people and so forth. So people could be using. Legitimate. Cruises to do illegitimate action. Like for example the african-american person. To be honest with you. African americans in the us. I'm not treated equally like white people in the us and we have to admit that. These incidents that we see with the police and so forth. Black lives do matter. And this is an issue that we all have to collectively agree to an admit. Now. Someone can react to that. In a way that they lose it and they going shoot. Police officer. Does that mean that is correct no. But they are reacting to an injustice. Within a society and the way they react on it. Is the wrong way they reacted so. That's my answer to that question so there are muslim. But if you look at it there are 1.8 billion muslims in the world. What percentage of those muslims during these terrorist acts. Minimum. If you look at these people that are doing it so supposedly in the name of this land. Let's look at the person they're orlando person went to the mall. That this person in spanish with me. This person. Didn't go to mauston didn't pay and didn't do anything so. They. There's something mentally wrong with these people. Two friends. Antagonist. The north african people and the sub-saharan african people are treated badly and friends that's a reality. We cannot deny that. In france you with your go to the ghettos you look. And you look at these people how they live my daughter was the headscarf when we were in friends. People with always give us bad looks this is reality so these people are living. What's social injustice. They neither north lanier african girlfriend. The second third generation. Going up there. They have no identity. I basically they express their frustration. And ask the basically are wrong. That's my. The social injustice in our societies. And people react to them and try to. Great courses that will make their actions. Just. Entirely another subject. I was just wondering about the children like what age the children are expected to fast and is there a. A ceremony or a coming-of-age or something that happens at those children's study and then get tuna. Then they take part in the file. That's the fashion show in islam. Your deeds. I'm not accounted for until you reach the age of puberty. Age of puberty we believe that any person who dies. Goes to heaven right away. None of that. Need a package r. So once you reach the age of puberty then you're required to fax. Now and getting ready for fasting. Typically to my wife used to. Start off with the kids they would not have the lunch snack during the day. They're just go to the lunch. I've been out the next year she would. Do not have lunch. There go to. Dinner and then you just build the body. I'm actually i didn't mention this but my mum. What's christian i my mom is english my dad egyptians i'm actually i grew up in a family that was. Mom christian guided muslim. And. My mom said she'd be converted to islam actually after my father passed away. In order to deal with her grief. Discussing. And so when she started blasting. It was very difficult on earth station. Chuchuwa. Half an hour before she was for schedulefly. With you just your body gets used to it. And actually. I go over the health benefits you you'll see how the body go to the stages with a buddy goes through. In the past but. Answer your question is at the age of puberty you're responsible for fast. You spoke about the. The rollover. Desiring. Citation. In our actions. And i'm not saying this to believe this is possible. Just theoretically. If a person has no expectation. In performing a certain. Deed. What about that. What. What would be. What would be the answer. You you said that. If a person has an. If a person does. For god. As opposed to something for his own benefit. That's you know that. What if. If nobody what if you have no expectation at all. Not even. And what you're doing. For god you and you don't you don't you don't expect to get anything out of it. Out of this deed. What about that i realize this is. You don't want to reward from god. You don't want anything. You just doing. If you look at my definition of. Islam. When i talked about the muslim is being.. Wholehearted. Like you have to love. I think it's time we believe that you have to love god. I mean that. that's the whole cuz you're not doing it so we believe. Is that we believe it's like a bird. Got two wings. One of them is what we call fear. And the second wing is. Love the basically. You fear the punishment of god. But you love god and his reward so basically you have to have the balance if you just fear alone that is wrong. And if you are the extreme that you don't feel good that you just you just have that the one side we consider that also wrong you have to have the balance between. Fear and hope. Thank you. I had two questions and both have kind of been. Touchdown already but maybe i'm coming at it from. I'm first of all you talked about levels of authority house. Quran. The ultimate authority the words of the prophet or not. This goes back to sharia law. Where does that fall in the spectrum because. It almost seems to me that there's a cultural. Again you see different applications i imagine. Sharia law may mean something different even for you if you're here in. Beautiful blacksburg as opposed to back in your home in egypt. For example you mentioned that. Family covers. Can you talk about where that falls in terms of authority. The old religion is not protected this muslim so. That the westin. Conservatory lord like i mentioned. If you looking. Spain. The christians had their own words with industrial. That is a jew as a christian or whatever believe you have. You have your they had their own judge. That would judge by their own laws. It is not that the muslim judge can judge on a christian. Or a jew or anyone else. That is. Now with your guards to i do agree with you there are a lot of cultural issues like i. I was very fortunate that i grew up in different countries. To my dad's work for the united nations and actually. Just to give you a pack of scotland. I know she tries to years old. And then we left egypt when i was 4th was a 10. Went back to egypt. I've been at age 16 went to pakistan in pakistan. Then went back to egypt. And then less than 24 hours 2324. I mean i go back to visit. Joe. But i join pakistan which is a shameless and country like egypt. Was totally different like this and that i was seeing there with a lot of differences like. Example you're not allowed to talk to a woman. There are certain things a lot of culture. Involved like for example these honor killings. Nothing to do with islam. But these people going kill a woman. Cleaning the dishes part of the slam. And has nothing to do with essential you going to have culture. And people because they don't know their religion very well. They think their culture is a saint. I don't think that those are the same. Charles. The ku klux klan or westboro baptist. What they did was. Yeah i mean the bottom line is you have to go to the sources. And the scholars will tell you what are the. Thursday. Fortunately. We're going up to boston. What you take is atlantic what your parents tell you. And so basically. I guess the majority of pizza average pressure will not going to read. You'll just listen to what their parents tell them. And they say that is. Slammin this is what i. Control for charles. You can. Unless you go back to the store so you can. You can go on a cultural line and you think that is a sin. Hold several times when you talked about sharia you said how something. Forbidden. Setbacks the quest. The. Where does that. Frommer. That's a good question show. And it slammed the public punishment. O'neil cruz. When the act. Is done that will it destroy the public. Plumbing. It has to be committed. With four witnesses. Penetration. That's the requirement. Four witnesses seen that if they don't see that. If you go and say. If i going to use my wife. Adulteress. She can swim. i have to flip 4 times but she's an adulteress. She can counter it. 4 *. She's off the hook. This is business plan. Joe. You and actually. If you. Claim that someone adult. Committed adultery and you do not have the coup. You get punishment the punishment of islamic law you get punished for doing that. So. Did the famous stories to holly.. He went sinner in the garden they were people drinking alcohol. How to clean headlights. President. Pakistani can python used to go around the streets looking for poor people and helping them. Destroy these people he jumped over the fence. And said i caught you drinking alcohol. They said number one you've trespassed. Number to you're not allowed to. They gave him three reasons three reasons. And he could not. Do anything for them so. As long as you do it privately. You're fine. That's that's a santa claus if you're doing it publicly where you're ruining. The. The harmony of the society's annual. And the same thing like for example stealing. The west has. Thing that you busy just didn't you you got your hand cut off that's not true. Depends on how much you see if a poor person steals a loaf of bread. Do not get punished. Depends are certain criteria. The positional before it should be above a certain amount. And even the holly palmer. When there was poverty in tucson estates you removed at law. Your move. law punishment of speed test. There are a lot of issues.. I don't understand all the details with their lottery. Okay so now my final and i was just. Turn on the flip side. Talk about rewards and that's from my study of islam that. Ben 10 most difficult things for me to grasp. Is the idea of reward. In the afterlife or in heaven. I think i don't want to speak for everyone here but i think in general we feel that our rewards come here on earth. And i'll take it even further to the buddhist ideal wear. I do something for you. There is no i. There is no you there is only the act of love. That's the only thing that. So. If i know by the people are wondering this too but. The talk about i hear about you know every word being multi. Multiplied 1040 b a certain circumstance so it's just really hard for me to understand the. Quantification of reward. Can you explain that a little better. I don't want to be holding. All the people. The reward we believe can be multiplied any. Photos of. God can. Increase the rewards any foe. So. When we believe is. I guess if you take your logic when i see a poor person. Bangladesh. Who's suffering the entire life. Where's the justice for that person. That basically. Livingston highlights. And humiliation in poverty and so forth. We believe. That there is. An eternal. I guess heaven. If you're patient. You're willing to withstand the hardships that you experienced in your life. Underwood's like idaho. Question are you going to go to heaven we don't know that. I don't know what i'm going to go to heaven or hell. Because i don't know whether my actions are going to be accepted. I have a lot of hypocrisy in me is that correct. I never know whether my actions are going to be accepted or not. And so that's why i always have this. To win. I have the hope of god's mercy and have the fear that i will not my actions will not be accepted and you have to have this balance. Until you die you never know. Whether you are going to. Be at the people of heaven or the people of hell. Estancia rehab. Just an observation and i am hoping. That it. Won't seem like i'm. Challenging. Simply a question. In addition to the quran is there organizationally. Any central authority. Or islam. That's a very good question. So dependent oanda slender 2. Maine. Streams that the shia muslims. And the sunni muslims. Sunday which i'm assuming we have no central authority. Sonia sonia slam is basically. We did have a central authority at the time of the prophets. Or when you had that he left. What do you. Elephant. But now we do not have a central authority if you archie iceland. Who are there central authority. Do the catholics where they had the pope. The coward have. An equivalent of the pope. Do not have a central authority and that's why unfortunately it's a good and bad. It's good in the sense that everyone has the freedom to show for it. But the bad thing is anyone can claim that they're doing this in the name of aslan is that correct. I can say i'm doing this and this is sam tells me to do that unless you know what is that says. You you take my word for it and. Anna portugal people. I did it will be doing things and claiming that it is in the name of this song. Thank you hashem. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website at uuc and rv. org.

uucnrv_org

130210_snake-handling.mp3

Welcome to the february 10th service at the unitarian universalist congregation in blacksburg virginia. Today sermon. Title snake handling and other tests of faith. It's delivered by reverend alex. The sermon had three parts separated by hymns. The hymns are not included in the podcast. This morning's reading is from judeo christian islamic tradition it's out of what we loosely referred to as the old testament. The book of genesis it is an account of how jacob. And for those of you who don't remember all of this stuff of patriarchy old lineage in the judeo christian islamic tradition. Jacob is one of the sons of one of israel's most important leaders. And jacob sheets his brother his twin brother esau out of a birthright which is to be the leader of the tribe. But before all of that happens. He also goes on a trip and this is an account of something that happens to him on the trip. The same night he got up and took his two wives his two maids. And his 11 children and cross the ford of the jay bach. He took them and sent them across the stream and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against jacob he struck him on the hip socket. And jacob's hip was put out of joint is he wrestled with him. Then he said let me go. Today's breaking but jacob set. I will not let you go unless you bless me. So he said to him what is your name and he said jacob. Then the man said you shall no longer be called jacob but israel. For you have striven with god and with humans and have prevailed. Then jacob asked him please tell me your name. But he said why is it that you asked my name and there he blessed him. So jacob called the place peniel saying. For i have seen god face to face and yet my life is preserved. The sun rose upon him as he passed pennywell limping because of his hip. Lesson 23 english. Snake-handling peace comes last this morning. Before i get to the piece about steak howling i want to tell you what i'm going to preach to you. It's a three-part er. It's going to have a reading that begins each of the three parts the readings will be brief. But i'm going to provide some commentary and then i'm going to ask you to sing a song with me before i move on to the second part. But i'll tell you i am up as i told bob stimpson this morning my stomach is turning a little bit as i stand here. Before you this morning because as many of you know you're a congregation that's wrestling. With your own angel. Okay other story of jacob that i read to you from the book of genesis this morning most of you know that story because of the commentary that's been written about it in the three to four thousand years since it was first told. You know the story as being a story of jacob wrestling with an angel. Baltimore current translations of the original language from which we get the story are they at jacob was wrestling with a man. Or a monster. Okay rather than an angel. But all of that being said the reason that the story is so much with me this morning. It's because of this experience that i had down in st petersburg florida the week before last. Leaving here sunday afternoon two weeks ago to fly down to. Florida and to go to this hotel on the gulf and to commit myself to 30 hours of intense personal interaction me one of 30 with james forbes. Again james forbes is this beacon of liberal preaching out of the united church of christ tradition. Witches leftist mainline protestantism. Raised in a pentecostal household down in north carolina. He has earned a reputation. And this is too if you go online you'll see this set about him all over the place. He is said to be america's greatest preacher. And he was there at the invitation of the unitarian universalist ministers association. And he was there to speak with us and to engage the thirty of us who were in his class over the five days. He was there to engage us about his perspective. That we unitarian-universalist musk. Wake up. And that was the language he did. He came at the 30 others in that room on the very first day in which we gather. And he said you guys and he starts with a soft voice. You guys think you've been chosen to be in here with me. And then i'm going to sonesta. How to say a word finder. Or how to wear a better pic. The clothing. But he said boys and girls i'm in here to tell you you got to wake up. And then he went on to lay out to the 30 others who were in the room that we had fallen asleep on the job. And then what we all needed like jacob was for some man some monster some angel. To come to us to cause us to wake up. And to injure us in such a way that we would understand out of the length that came out of the encounter. For all of what lay ahead. But there was something really important that needed to be done in this heart of preaching. What forbes said to us. In simple form. Who set this unitarian universalist faith of ours. Is an outpost for recruitment. Of hope. At a time of encroaching doom and that is a quote. Catch that. That this unitarian universalism. Of which we are apart. Is an outpost of hope. In a time of encroaching doom. He said to us that the very things that martin luther king preached to his 50 years ago of how it is that materialism militarism and racism were killing the soul of this nation of ours. He said from his perspective they have only gotten worse. And to the extent that we have allowed unitarian-universalist pulpits. And united church of christ pulpits and presbyterian pulpits and pulpits of any stripe or color. To be distracted from that poor work of addressing injustice. That we had. Miss the mark. And he charged us in that first day. And in each day that followed monday through friday and it was sometimes brutal. Because the practice was to point at me and say richardson. Behind the pulpit. Preach. No opportunity for advanced. Prep. Just preach. And then he would critique has lovingly but harshly. About whether or not what was being spoken was worth hearing. And in his mind it was only worth hearing. If it addressed injustice. And what the community needed to do. To be proactive and response to injustice. Ford's crafting the common good. And that again was forbes language. If we are not about the common good. Then we are not about justice and we're just fooling our. So. This first part reading. From notes that i took at the institute and i'm going to preface this. With the description i hope you'll find this amusing. Here was the description for the big unitarian-universalist led seminar that happened at this thing down there in florida i'm not going to tell you who wrote it but here is a unitarian universalist leader riding about their workshop. How might we reimagine a practice in theology of ordained ministry for this new millennium. The puritan inheritance of an apocalyptic in a scatological imagination is informed our current understanding so prophetic pastoral encounter oppressive ministry but these understandings might before the revolt in light of contemporary context. Similarly the historical relationship between uu identities in the roles of ordained ministers have shaped our theologies of sacramento and rich will practice. And yet how might this theology shift now especially in the context. A multi religious engagement how might a post-modern relational understanding human interchange. Informant evolving ecclesiology in an age of social networking and internet technologies. Come to thank a fresh about the nature expression in context of our calling. Now that again good people you're laughing as did i when i read it that was the description written by one of the foremost voices in unitarian universalism. About their workshop here is forbes description of his workshop. What will be the next great awakening and how will preaching help it come to be. Come to learn about the power possibility and practice of prophetic preaching. Notes from his workshop in the first day and i just want you to hear this again and african-american voice on what we are. Why unitarian universalist need to look for another great awakening. Usually happens in time of great social unrest. We need to wake up. Kings last sermon at the national cathedral. Remaining awake during the revolution. This is a recruitment station i have a dream but for god's sake let's wake up. And then finally he said that shirt should be about human activism. For the common good. Condor all that if you would while we sing a song hymn number 389 gather here. We're going to run through this twice i want you to pay attention to the words. Number 389. First part about how we might need to wrestle with an angel towards waking up. Second part about the challenge of being a minister in this tradition. And i speak this to you. Out of the context of having been with 424 other colleagues down in florida we got the final count this past week. And also out of my keen awareness of what i'm doing to decide where i go next. And also of what a candidate is doing right now. In making a decision to come to your minister. The reading from a book entitled leaving church by barbara brown taylor. A gift to me by one of you here in this room for christmas. It is a personal account by one of america's foremost writers about what it is to do ministry. Of how she made a decision to leave the profession. She writes in the book. Towards the end of the book. Two pieces i want to share with you this morning. If i had to name my disability i would call it an unwillingness to fall. On the one hand this is perfectly normal i do not know anyone who likes to fall. But on the other hand this reluctant signals mistrust. Of a central truth. Life springs from death. Not only at the last but also in the many little deaths along the way. When everything you count on for protect. Spell. The divine presence. Does not fail. The hands are still there. Not promising to rescue not promise. To intervene. Promising only to hold you no matter how far you fall. Ironically those who try hardest not to fall. Learn this later than those who topple more easily. The ones who find their lives are the losers. All the winners. Right at the very centre of what happened in that gathering of these 425 colleagues of mine down in florida week before last. What's that a key piece of the conversation. Was focused on the approximately third of us there. Who are deciding to leave the profession because they no longer have the guts or the call. Are the energy to stay in it. And they came to florida weary. For what it was to have been call to the profession of unitarian universalism. And to be worn out from the experience. You heard if you were down there story after story told over breakfast lunch dinner and in the mass. Processing gatherings that we have throughout the week. Apologize that we continue as a face tradition this unitarian-universalism of ours. Hold no more than roughly one of the ten who enter the profession. How did you know this. 10 good people will go to seminary to become a unitarian universalist minister. Roughly one of ten will survive in the profession. The yonder fifth-year in parrish. When you get to 20 years like me your way out on the leading edge of an extremely small group of people. Who have been able to. Sustain themselves in the ministry. Not every single one of us at the tables talking about this dynamic of what we are is the faith tradition. Understood also that we were talking not only about the professional ministry. Losing 90% of the people who are called to do it. But we were also talking about the lay ministers. We were talking about you. And you've seen this play out and what you are here is a congregation over the years. Person after person will be called to lay ministry here in the unitarian universalist congregation in the new river valley. And many will lose their ability. Staying themselves. In the faith practice. Out of hell challenging it is to be a leader in this liberal tradition of ours. I want you. Before i move into the spinal part of today's sermon. To have both of those pieces in your mind and in your heart. There is a need for us to wake up to wrestle with the angels that are coming to us in our dreams. And there's also a need for us to never lose sight of how difficult we can be. For leaders who take on the mantle of leadership. Within the tradition that we. Feel so strongly about. This is part and parcel. Of all that is before us in the challenge of what we are both here. And across the way. And as sports put it to us in the room because he was. Keenly aware of this dynamic. Himself it plays out also within. Unity within the united. Surprise. Were they too loose vast numbers of their men. Both. Professional inlay. The only way that we can get around it is if we. To some agreement. And practice around what it is. Stainless. And forbes. Help putting that to a. The focus must be on waking up to address injustice. But also. On what it is. Joy now if you wouldn't singing another him number 391 voice still and small. And terry thank you for. Impromptu playing number 391. Voice still and small. Thank you all for your willingness to do that singing in between spoken parts this morning i needed it. One of the books. And we always will unitarian universalist we want to go to the bookstore to the resource that will solve all of our problems and make everything right. One of the great resources that's been brought forward in the life of this congregation the last several months as a book entitled promise and peril. Understanding and managing changing conflict in congregations that's authored by david brubeck her. I would not expect the vast majority of the i would expect only a tiny. Minority of you to be familiar with this book. But i want to read with you just a tiny piece. The brubaker puts in the book. He writes perhaps no funding from our study is more common sense circle. And more disturbing. Then the discovery that congregations that change. Are also congregations where there is conflict. People who care about their congregation will inevitably disagree. About how to move forward. So adaptive congregations have found ways of embracing conflict. And let me repeat that. So adaptive congregations. I found ways of embracing conflict. Discovering that it is possible to disagree but still move forward is one of the critical differences. Between peaceful but stagnant congregations. And those that are willing. Disturb the status quo. Discovering that it is possible to disagree but still move forward. Is one of the critical differences. Congregations that succeed at change develop a culture that tolerates it. That tolerates if not encouraged his disagreement. Since l shape culture successful congregations are led by individuals. Who learn how to disagree respectfully with each other. And with others in the congregation. And invite others to agree or. Degree andres. Change resistant congregation. Tennessee cheerleaders who broke no disagreement. Industrial main peaceful but stagnant. So now the state handling part. I walked in here. The last time i was in the pulpit two weeks ago. And you're big enough now and i'm dumb enough now. That i never have in my mind all of what's going on in the congregation i read the newsletter i read most of the email. But i still don't know all of what's going on in the congregation. And i was absolutely perflex delighted and fascinated. The two or three sundays ago who remembers how many it was. You had enough sunday circle at 9:30 a.m. in here on snake-handling. Did all of you catch this. It was amazing and it was fortuitous for me and it was coincidentally and time with the stuff of the year of the snake. And what it is for me to even talk about a snake giving my discomfort with snakes. I am the world's biggest wuss. With a snake. You can bring a tiny little snake out here right now and i will scream and jump. It is what i always do because i don't know what to do with them. I am at a total. Complete loss about. Now when you listen to me way back went over a year-and-a-half ago when i first came here. When i first put these colored. Pieces of paper on the wall and it's so funny of you suck some of you know now that i refer to this as a model for practice. Many of you just refer to it as my construction paper blocks on the wall. But remember this thing up here folks. When i told you that congregations 10 towards status quo. They want to be just in their heads and they want to just be locked down. And peaceful and nice with each other. You heard it but i'm not sure you had lived it yet. But i told you that when congregations begin to act when they begin to take. Measures to address injustice. That all hell would break loose. And the stuff of fighting and disagreements and discord represented by the redwood breakout. Do you remember me telling you this i've preached this model continuously. And i said and here's the hard part. The congregations that do this work they come back after the experience of the fighting or even in the midst of the fighting. And i have to begin to move out of gray confusion. And i have to go into a decision about what is more just represented by the flight. And what is less just. Represented by the black. And i knew just as sure as i preach this to you and that first month or two of the entrance that we have together. I knew given that you had told me. In interview after interview i interviewed 180 some of you coming into this work here. And you describe your cells repeatedly as conflict avoidance. You told me that you would do anything possible not to get into a fight with each other. I knew that moving from here to here in the centrum. Wall probable. Would also be very difficult work for you. And like all ministers i did not know what event would present itself to cause us to have to address this work as a congregation. And many of you heard me say as we began this current church here with one another that i was for flushed. That we hadn't really gotten into a serious congregational conflict i've been with you for 14 months and still think. Just all nice and sweet. I was saying how lovely you are surely they'll never have a fight. And then in september things changed. In september this congregation for the first time in a long time. Took a policy that it had on the books. A policy that said there is to be no violence one person force another on this property. And this congregation out of the reports of multiple persons. Saying that they had a. Experience violence. And this was child towards child. Physical violence one-child towards another. Parents reporting that they did not want their children hit on. This congregation for the first time during my work with you. Said. We have a policy. And part of what we have to do with that policy as we have to act to enforce it. And this congregation began to engage. With the parents. Children who were exhibiting violence one towards another. Just say it is no longer okay on this property for someone to hit somebody else. Child poor child or adult towards adult. And from that. Great upset and sued. And we still four months later are wrestling with how to discern. What is more just. Responding to it. And what is less justin respond. And you are doing the hard work. Are you as a congregation in your largest part and i want to show hands how many of you had no awareness of this going on in the life of the congregation. Chicken heads up. And that is the way it goes. And one of the great challenges in fighting and a congregation is that leadership never wants to put it out on the table. Because they don't want to be embarrassed by this piece right here. They don't want to do anything to embarrass the congregation the leadership pool the minister they don't want to embarrass or do anything unjust to a congregate. But when it reaches a point that it is infusing the workings of all of the congregation and many of you were aware of it and understood that it was beginning to weigh you down in spirit. It's time to talk about it good people it is as james forbes put it down in florida time for you to wake up. Do i want another show of hands. How many of you have any problem. With a policy of. Or how many of you approve of a policy that says there will be no violence. One person force another on this property. Then i'll look around the room. This is your common good. Good people. All of us understand out of what it is to be human that we do not want violence on this property. And we want the people who are working for us bday and leadership or be they staff people. To act towards making sure that it doesn't happen. Do you understand that when you do that. There will be discord. How many of you understand that when you enforce the policy there will be discord. Slightly fewer hands the one at the moment ago. None of us want to own this and this is the difficult piece of which forbes in these other voices which i reference this morning. Speak. You've got to get comfortable as a unitarian universalist congregation you've got to embrace conflict. If you're going to be able. To own the possibility of this pulpit. If you want the settled minister to come in here and to be able to do things that are powerful not only for you but in the larger community. You've got to understand that when they go out and they say there is an injustice here it is not okay for one person to hit another on this property or out in the community. That discord will arise from it. And what you do if you are a people who are good in your faith practice. You come to understand that out of the upset comes the larger spiritual work. This wrestling with what it is to say that something is more right. And something is more wrong. We unitarian-universalist for centuries have been described as the people of the gray. We are the people who do not want to say that something is more right than something else. And yet. If ever there was a time for us to take this work on it is now. Forbes reminded me of this on your behalf and everything that went on down there in florida. We have got to address the injustice is the realest of militarism. And racism still. We've got to address the injustice is of violence. Sexism. And if we're going to do it in the larger culture we have to first do it. Here. And we have to get really good about it here and we have to get especially comfortable. With the discord that's going to come our way for addressing it. Understanding that the break promise of the discord. Is an ever greater awareness of what truly is more ride and what truly is more wrong. No i was heartbroken. And i was it really hurt me. To hear about this young girl hadiya. Pendleton. In chicago who got shot in the back. Just a couple of days ago. A month after having attended the president's second inauguration. And if you've been following how many of you are aware of hydeia pendleton her funeral was yesterday. 15 years old. And she shot in the back of a mile from the president's home which means she was no more than a mile from our seminary site in chicago. No further than a mile from the university of chicago. And she gets murdered. And this on top of all of the kids killed in newtown. And we feel. We still are upset about that all the way down here in blacksburg. Andweknow. That there is something more right. And more wrong and what happened. And her death. And here's what forbes. If we do not act out of that understanding that there is more rightness here and we're wrong. Then we have abandoned we have lost the promise of this unitarian universalist pulpit. Do the work. Figuring out what is the common good. The work of not just jumping up on the desk and screaming when something slithers across the floor that frightens us. The work of actually having the fight about it who let the snake in the building and what are we going to do about the snake. What is more right and what is wrong. The working a congregation of this size. This task not to the full community. It is passed to a board into a staff and largest part. And what this congregation needs to do and it needs to do it sooner instead of later. It needs to affirm its board and boundary setting around inappropriate behaviors on the property. We should have no violence on this property. And you need to be walking around and you need to be patting your life leadership on the back and say go for it and make sure that policy is held up. And in good and faithful practice here in newton everyday. And you should also. Be doing the same purchase staff and in particular torture settled when you're settled arrive. Any of you who have been here for any length of time understand fully. But the practice of dissent the practice of providing opportunity for opposing viewpoint is woven into everything that we do here. And that's well and good. The practice of affirming the setting of the boundaries. Of affirming the decisions that need to be made about what is more right. And what is not so right. That is what needs the affirmation at this point. And again it needs to happen more quickly than not otherwise you're going to repeat the same cycle that's playing out across unitarian-universalism. All over the land. You're going to have 90% of your leadership's fadeaway. Because they can't stand the heat.. Leading a group of people. Who always want to stay on the gray. And perhaps more importantly. From a world perspective is you're not going to realize the promise of this pulpit. The promise of this pulpit is to speak to injustice. Towards. Claiming the common good. And you have got to figure out what the common good is here. And we know for sure at least i know for sure the common good does not include. Somebody hitting somebody else. The property. Can i have an amen to that. Now listen good people. You're bored again and your lifespan face development committee which had to wrestle with this. Stop of one child hitting another. They are deep in the particular of all of this. Now you have opportunity to talk with them individually about this you may want to learn more about the particular. But between now and when we have a congregational conversation in here two weeks from now 3 weeks from now. March 3rd it is 3 weeks from now. I want you to be pondering what you understand to be the common good. We have time left in the centrum. For you to go to a place of congregational commitment about what is the common good. And i would suggest you that right up with the top is there will be no violence one person. What's another. This property. And you. Inure. Membership our friendship with the congregation will do well to let each of your leaders know that you agree with that policy and that you wanted enforced here. Each and every day whenever we're together as a community. Forbes said that we were missing the mark that we had fallen asleep. I sat down there wrestling with what he said to me knowing you well enough to think that you are not asleep yet. That you do get what it is to do the common good that that is why you are in this congregational discord the truth. Experiencing right now. King told us to act. But any peaceful means to address injustice. Brubaker tells us that we have to embrace conflict in to disagree respectfully. And this wonderful barbara brown taylor who left the profession because she was wearied. Too much biotin. Said that we have to act upon deadliness. And while deadliness may be difficult to define an all this particular we know it when we see it. And there is deadliness here right now there is a death of spirit here right now amongst some of you. Because you've been caught up in this wrestling with the angel of what it is for one kid to hit another. We're going on 5 months and you're ready to be finished with. That it is time to be finished with it. The bible story of jacob suggest. And i hope to god on each and every day that there is truth in this suggestion. It suggests that out of the wrestling. Out of the wound that comes with fighting to discern what is more right. And more wrong. That you'll carry some wound that will remind you of the wisdom hard-earned. And all that lies ahead for you. I hope. That each of you in your prayerful consideration of one another and in your spoken support of one another. Will keep reminding ourselves that in this fight this conflict that we've embraced. To better discern how there shall be no violence here on this property. That the wounds that have come our way out of the fight. Will serve as well into a more proactive. More we shall do the common good future. That is your break promise. And i hope that you will be ever mindful of it. And also full of heart about it is. You are a good people. You will get through this. All will be well. You've been listening to a sermon from the unitarian universalist meeting house located in blacksburg virginia. For more information about our congregation please visit our website. At you your cnrv. org.

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FP-20151004-Sermon-red.mp3?_=6

This is a sermon about home. The rhetoric of home is both prevalent. And powerful. Make yourself at home. I can't wait to get home. Sweet home. Over again the language of home. Suggest a sense of home as a place of belonging. And safety. Inviting someone to make yourself.. Courage is a person to relax. To feel safe. To feel at home with someone or something indicates.. As well as the scent of relative safety. The experience of home. Violence. Four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. Every year more than 3 million children witness domestic violence in their home. Tranquility of home sweet home. We're too many home is a stage of violence. And fear. For some. Home is not. What it's cracked up to be. I am grateful that as a girl my own home in the midwest. Most every night for dinner i sat across the table from my brothers. My parents sat at the two inns bookend. And not infrequently the extra leaves. When i was a young woman of 24. Eagerly look forward to setting the table for my own family circle. Within the first year of marriage. We bought a house. I became pregnant. I've been gave birth to my son. Just sent my parents and my grandparents came to our family table. Anticipated. Was how difficult my marriage would become. Or how unemotional over me. Home is not always what it's cracked up to be. The phrase home-sweet-home was first penned in the 19th century by an american. John howard payne. Who is living away from home in england. His lyrics saying i won't worry. Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam. Ever so humble there's no place like home. A charm from the sky seems to hollow us vert. Which seek to the world is near met with elsewhere. Home sweet sweet home. There's no place like home oh there's no place like home. To be overturned overburdened with care. Heart's dearest solace will smile on me there. No more from that cottage again will i roam. Ever so humble there's no place like home. Sweet sweet home there's no place like home there's no place like home. His lyrics romanticize home is a place associated with family and comfort. Sheltered from the cares of political palaces and economics lenders. Sentiment continued in the 20th century when a homesick dorsey lost in the land of oz. Chanted pains words. There's no place like home there's no place like home. Is there no place like home. The be-all-and-end-all of places. The meaning of you. Question home border on a sacrilegious. Is a powerful idea that helps us to communicate our experiences of belonging. Indeed i suspect many of us have stories of finding a sense of home after a period of isolation. I to know this feeling. Like all of you my life has been full of the ed and flow of a sense of connection and disconnection. I'm feeling like a stranger. Feeling at home. Use the word home to communicate that sense of connection. I also have deep concerns about the idea of home. And how it has been used to signal. Exclusion. Sampling are reading from pratt. We are able to literally see. Hometown can be a place that teaches is residence. And where. Brett described the landscape of her hometown not simply out of nostalgia. Because she's trying to understand where she comes from. She's trying to question her own sense of normal. About how the world works. By describing her childhood view of her hometown. Relates how hurston of normal. Received both by the physical layout of the town. And how the people in and out of those building. Women didn't play in the pool hall. Message men in women. There were two doors at the doctor's office. Message it's okay to segregate blacks and whites. In this way for hometown. Taught her both a sense of belonging. And messages about exclusion. After reading press essay a number of years ago now. I began asking a lot of questions about. What the home teaches us about who belongs and where. And when i say a lot of questions i mean a lot of questions. Home became the topic of my dissertation 280 pages. When i told minister friend i was preaching about home today she laughed and said so it's going to be a long sermon. I will keep you here all day but i can't give you the pdf you want to read the whole thing. When people learned that i was writing about home. Often people would begin to share a affirming story about what home means to them. I would then have to tell them that i was writing a critical dissertation about home. And that i was arguing that home. Concept of home. Criticizes home. Because home is not always what it's cracked up to be. Can be a place of violence for intimate partners and for children. The idea of homes can be used to tell people where they belong as in a woman with her children. Any ideas home can be used. Court deemed that they don't belong. Like when a young black man walking home protecting his home. Or consider the many acts of war violence and exclusion unjustified since 9/11 in the name of homeland security. Powerful words to convey a sense of belonging and connection. But it also has a dangerous and violent potential to exclude those who are not seen as belonging. When i began my dissertation research on home. I did so because my experience as a divorced single mom. Feeling like i was falling short family and home. As i struggled to fit into the standard models of housing. School start and end times. As well as employer expectations of availability. I realize how often is social system presumes a two-parent model. As i asked more questions about home. I just do not fit into the romanticise home-sweet-home image of domestic bliss. In different ways single parents same-sex couples low income household in racial minorities. Struggle. To meet the cultural idea. Home is a white married heterosexual family with children living in a detached single-family home in a safe neighborhood. In fact there have always been groups to fit the ideal. And others who fell short. Excluded. From slavery and racial segregation. The immigration quotas and affordable housing laws. Society has long wrestled withdrawing spatial boundaries of the lawns and where. As a nation we have fought wars. Over this question of who. Driving native americans off of their lands. Dividing north and south in the civil war. To the streets at selma. Stonewall ferguson. About who belongs and where. The rhetoric of home and homeland is used to justify practices of violence and exclusion. To build the homes of european settlers native americans were forced from their. The clean and care for the family and homes of the wealthy. Low-income women leave behind their own children. Sometimes across the ocean. To protect our us homeland. Our military actions have directly or indirectly destroyed the homes of millions. Different scale. The right to defend his home. Foster a culture of private gun ownership. So i don't believe. Is all it's cracked up to be. It's not simply a banal word signifying safety and belonging. Is also an ideal used in explosion. Researching this violent exclusionary stop. I can't. First i believe that there actually multiple models of home. Variations of what home looks like. Different familial arrangements. Options. And all manners of interpersonal dynamics. This multiplicity leads to my second conclusion. I don't believe that home is something we find. Either have. Our fights to have. Or keep. I believe the home is something that we make. We make home. How we choose to dwell together. As many bruce. Holmes hometowns and homeland. Can be made to reinforce patterns of belonging. Emphasize hierarchies in exclusions. The remains a compelling idea to convey a sense of safety and belonging. How can we be a part of making homes that seek to be places of love and safety. Places where people can dwell together in ways that foster dignity respect and even love. Answering such questions is not a one-time event. Ongoing process of exploring together. How we will be in relationship with each other. The efforts of house cleaning and house repair. We must continuously engage in practices of care for the communities we inhabit. In other words we are responsible for the communities in which we dwell. What kind of homes do you want to help make. To ask a related question. Hierarchical violent exclusionary models of home. Do you want to help disrupt. I think we can answer these questions in a number of ways. Already deeply involved in the wayland. Sudbury wayland burlington domestic violence roundtable. The roundtables mission statement describes their dedication to quote promoting safe and healthy relationships. Raising public awareness about abusive and controlling behaviors. Weather exhibited through bullying teen dating violence domestic violence or elder abuse. And ending relationship violence. In all its forms. Is not. It is critical to disrupt domestic violence. And to promote practices of dignity and safety for all persons. Northstar national home. This week the mass shooting in roseburg oregon. Painfully reminded us of this once again. Columbine. Sandy hook. Charleston. And more. Blood of innocent. Slaughtered by hatred. And by ineffectual gun laws the professed promote freedom. But only enslave us two more and more violence. Something has to be done to curb the city of guns and assault weapons in this country. Like many i struggle to know what will in fact. Change country both appalled by such mass shootings. And attached to a tradition of private gun ownership. What i do know is that i will continue to be a part of the political process pressuring lawmakers for change. I will continue to disrupt national home built upon legacies of violence. And our shared global home. Is also trembling with violence. And already deeply fractured stereo became even more chaotic this week is russia began bombing. At the un global assembly new york world leaders scramble to make sense of russia's actions in an intractable war. Across the globe violence is displacing millions of people as soldiers and politicians argue about. If the lines of lonnie are violent. Searching for a new place to call home. Voices. Exclusion hatred. What kind of world do we want to dwell in. What kind of homes should we make. What kind of homes should we disrupt. Is something we make. I'm going choices about how we want to dwell together. Making home is not something we choose to do or not to do. What kind of homes do we want to dwell within. Choose to make homes that promote safety. Indignity. Emilio home. To our shared home of our congregation. No one of us has hatred or exclusion. Let us be a part of disrupting such practices as we are able. Instead of helping life. We affirm the unfeeling renewal of life. Steady growth of human companionship. Continuing hope tragedy. The spirits of individuals shall rise. Build a better world. Amen.

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FP-20150531-Sermon-red.mp3?_=6

The editor around for many years. To the editor of the magazine newell turner. Announced a new partnership with the home shopping network. To announce the new. Partnership between house beautiful and home shopping network. Turner tells a story about the founding of a magazine in chicago in 1896. He says quote. Also in 1896 american architect frank lloyd wright. Began collaborating on a book called the house beautiful. Which designs for an essay written by unitarian minister named william see gannett. Appraised values of labor. Handicraft beauty and simplicity. More to the point gannett road very passionately about the value and importance of beautiful furnishings in everyday life for all people. And that is what we still believe in today and at house beautiful magazine 116 years later and quote. Fred janice sa house beautiful many times and i'm pretty confident he'd disagree with turner. Turner of course is trying to sell his magazine. Or more specifically he's trying to sell the stuff that the advertisers have placed in the magazine and now online under the house beautiful dinner. Selling more stuff is a far cry from how gannett saw houses in the stuff we put in them. In fact janice sa intentionally challenges the idea that having the house with the most. For the nicest stuff is what matters. A challenge that still resounds today in our own times of mass advertising and just so many. In a time of ecological change. I believe janet framework for thinking about houses. Can help us reconsider how this faces we live in our link to our values. And our planet. What surprises me most about turner's take on gannets text. Is how completely he misread gannets deep religious and moral viewpoint. The most obvious religious element is that the book begins with the line from the christian bible. A building of god house not made by hands. Much more than a throwaway line. Damn it uses this as a major theme. Explains how birds do not make the materials they used to construct a nest. Simply arranged the materials they find. Likewise the handiwork of human civilization is quote. First of foraging for material. Then a rearranging. Recombining of the plunder in quotes. Janet claims no builder. No material is ever independently manufactured or produced. Weather built by bird for human. Our plundered material. From sources beyond oneself. It's important to note that is a transcendentalist. Janet talks about god. Is the source of earthly building material. He's not simply referring to the idea of god out there created the world and left. Rather he's trying to get the reader to see a great power that is within all of it. Touch. Used. Or remake in this world. Key-rite. Call that great power god or by what name we will. Bats howard wells with in us. So literal of fashion that every stone and rafter. Every tablespoon and paper scrap. Bear stamped and signature two eyes that read a right. The house in which we live is a building of god a house not made with hands. It's not the name of god. It's the ability to see that what we rely upon to build and fill our houses is always already there. The resources we use are given to us by a power that is in fall we touch. We don't make these things. We simply reuse. Refashion. And recycle them. Answer me if figured out over the last year i'm not a very scientific person. This is not to say that i distrust or disparage science. It's just that i'm more of a humanities. Person inclined to philosophy and literature rather than biology or physics. But it is increasingly clear. That we all need to be aware and awake the emerging scientific consensus. We're not simply. Approaching for risking ecological change. But we're living in it. Is a minister and scholar religion. My own entry into questions of changing ecological context. Focus on questions of value. What matters most to us. How did his values and commitments impact our behavior. Our interactions with other people. With the planet. Here is where i believe gannett. In his essay. Can help us. I think it's an important reflection i'm valued beauty and space. Let's start by talking about space. And values. I believe it is people were deeply spatial. To approach spaces and value-neutral backdrop to the real action. Phases are seen simply as a stage. Waiting inert. Rather i believe we interact with spaces. We both have an impact on shaping spaces and are shaped by them. Have you ever walked into a familiar space. Something's different. Hors d'oeuvre find yourself restless to rearrange your desk. Clean your car. Forehead outdoors for change of scenery. In multiple ways small and large. We interact with the spaces in which we dwell. To shape their impact on us and others. Some of these interactions are very banal like deciding to move the couch from one side of the room to the other. What's some special interactions have deep. And painful consequences. Example in the practice known as redlining. In 1934 the federal housing association or fha created math that designated certain spaces as more or less desirable for mortgage loans. Primary criteria for less desirable was simply a large population. African american. Household. Rather than investigating credit worthiness of mortgage applicants. Without access to mortgage loans. Find neighborhoods in african-american populations that live within them. Suffered a loss of economic investment instability. The rachel eyes patterns of neighborhood has lingering effects. Upon today. Even here in wayland with its majority white population and high rate of homeownership. Choices people make hen have lasting impacts. Spaces look. Get these policies are not always destructive like redlining. For example more than 50 years ago president lyndon johnson sign the wilderness preservation act in 1964. 9.1 million acres were immediately protected as wilderness areas. Today more than 110 million acres are conserved. Places of wild beauty were logging roads and permanent structures are prohibited. Choices and how we interact with and shape spaces. I believe that we are now at a time when we will have to reimagine how we interact with spaces. Already solar panels on rooftops in open spaces are transforming the landscape around about you i drive around and every time there's another panel. Did i wonder. How much change i will see in my lifetime and in my son. There is so much uncertainty at the ecosystem changes around us. We will need the resources of science and technology to help us address the challenges ahead. And i think we will also need tools of the spirit. Which brings us back to gannett. One of the biggest mistakes turner made in summarizing ganas essay. Is eddie didn't see houses or home furnishings as a moral or spiritual matter. Janet disagrees. And so do i. Faces are not value-neutral. Rather how we interact with spaces reflects our values. We can create spaces that reinforce patterns of inequality. So we can create spaces. The conserve beauty. Can even do both. As we move into an uncertain the ecological future. I think we need to reflect deeply on our practices of how we choose to dwell together on the shared space of our planet. I think such reflection begin by remembering that all we touch is not made by human hands. Not as elemental core. Of course and scan it wrote his essay. Science has progressed and we can split atoms and do more than you have ever imagined. Janet to recognize the emergence of new more precise technologies. In response he wrote quotes. What we are doing what are we doing the coaxing a little more of the world's serial from mother nature. Then the four gathers had learnt the art of coaxing from her when they were furnishing airplane log huts. Forging on nature like the birds and rearranging the plunder. That is all there is of it. Any such a way of thinking matters because it reminds us that our lives are very civilisation is dependent upon something we cannot make. The world with its resources of air water soil plants animals minerals. We need to survive and thrive. Given to us. We are simply birds plundering the resources for ever more elaborate nests. Would have known. We now understand the impact of our plundering. Upon the planet. House beautiful cautioned against fun restrain consumption or plundering. Written at the tail end of the ornate victorian era. Announces the practice of investing significant resources room for company. Picturesque and pleasing to the east of the house. Matter more than impressing the visitors or your in-laws. In other words. Beauty. Matters more. Then the cost. Or the amount of stuff. But you have. Chilling together in beauty matters because beauty helps to renew our spirits. Limiting our consumption of consumer goods. I'm living a simple life. Need not be experienced it's only deprivation and loss. From emerson throw-in auto transcendentalist inspired. We can find great beauty and meaning in the simplest of things. Going for a walk outside. Bringing flowers inside. Or warm smile from a person across the table. There is great wealth and simply being glad that we are alive together. In so many ways we do live in a world of so much beauty. And we live in a world where there is a lot with people. As we face the challenges of a new ecological context. I believe religious communities like ours have important work to do. We need to be able to. Of life from major storms. Drought. Flooding in shift in weather patterns. And we need to gather together to celebrate the joys of our worlds. Including the first local strawberries of the season. And the sound of much-needed rain falling outside. As we dwell together. Choices of how we dwell together. Be a part of creating spaces of more justice. And amour beauty. So may it be.

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FP-20151101-Sermon.mp3?_=5

What is the weird realities. Of being a unitarian universalist. Seminary without a lot of unitarian universalist. Is. Answering question trying to explain unitarian-universalism to my colleagues. Who wore. My christian classmates are who go to the rabbinical school then. We are here a campus with. Most of the people. Do i hang out with. I've only ever heard of unitarian-universalism on the simpsons. Or if i'm really lucky garrison keillor. Do i get asked a lot of questions so so are you guys christian or not. What are you guys god believe it or not. Are you guys like. Is this are you religious or not and i say yeah. No that's right we are christians or not. We're god believers or not we're religious or not. Spencer doesn't satisfy anybody but you know it's also the truth. But then some of my my friends the really clever ones. They look at me in. They ask me tougher questions. Other. At church on sunday mornings to worship god. Right everything else that happens is is is kind of incidental or we consider it away. Of worshiping god but if you that's not what you guys are doing at least not all of you. Then what are you doing. What what are you trying to accomplish with. With all this. And why do you call it church. I need those questions that just get harder and more complicated the more you. The more you think about them. Loosest. Minister sale off of every minister has three sermons. And all you ever do is preach a variation on one of those three sermons. And one of the. Picture laertes. Of unitarian universalist ministers it's at one of our three sermons is always that question. Okay but really what are we doing here. Question. Genesis church really. I try to remind myself that it takes every religion a long time to figure these things out. I'm in a class at the moment on early christian history. End. It's actually kind of comforting to see how much arguing and name-calling. Happened when the christian religion was trying to. Figure itself out. My class is concluding with a live-action role-playing game. In which we are all dressing up like. Early christian leaders and re-enacting the council of nicaea which is one of the big meetings were christian doctrine was decided. And the character that i'm playing a guy named arius. Is known as one of the first people to believe in something that was later branded heresy. And then branded unitarianism. And so at the council of nicaea this is true i promise you this is true arius was standing out there telling everybody what he believed. And one of the other bishops was so offended. That he got out of his seat and punched areas in the face. Not making this up is known as saint nicholas is in fact the chief inspiration for our modern figure of santa claus so that's true the first unitarian was punched out by santa claus landing landing all of us solidly on the naughty list for all-time. All of this is to say. Most religions don't have an easy time with these questions. So they asked me is uu church really church and i say okay so what makes something church. How do we define church and then they all start arguing with each other and i slip out the back. But as i walk away i keep thinking about this question. What makes this church is this church. And why are we going to church what are we doing here. A sermon of which i am very fond. I think those are pretty good job of answering this question. The sermons by a guy named fred craddock. Who died just this past year who is considered to be one of the greatest preachers of all time. Do the huge. Another huge part of being you you let a christian school is just listening to a lot of christian sermons and just. Shamelessly stealing the good parts. The fred craddock tells the story about a timer lee and his career when he was serving a vertical church in appalachia. And every year the church would greet its its newly baptized members with a giant barbecue over a campfire followed by a square dance. Before the meal started. The new members would be instructed to form a ring around the campfire and hold hands. And then the rest of the church. Which form a ring around them. And the people. In the outer circle would go around the circle one-by-one and complete the following sentence my name is blank. And if you need blank. Call me. My name is and if you need someone to fix your car and call me. My name is and if you need someone to watch your kids you can call me. My name is if you need someone. Do housework you can call me. Then they'd have their square dance. At some point glenn hickey always glenn hickey would stand up and say okay everybody it's time to leave and then everybody would leave. But that first-year fred craddock stayed behind with glen to watch the fire burn down and it kicks and over it. England looked over ottomans head. You know. People don't get any closer than this. Craddock says in that part of the world. May i have a word. For that kind of closeness. You might have heard of it. They call it church. I can't define. Church for you any better than that. I think about the closeness that i see in our congregation. I think about the people that i see coming together and giving their time and their love and their devotion to each other and their church communities. That is how countercultural that is. Freely give of yourself of your time and your effort and your money to your community and expect nothing in return. I think yeah we can call that church. I'm comfortable calling this church. So the next question then is is why. Right once once we figured out the water at least a what. We go to the why why are we doing this. The best answer that i've been able to come up with is obviously a quote from lord of the rings movies. Report from one of the hobbit movies but. Same difference. To the book the hobbit. If you're not familiar. Tell us the story of bilbo baggins. Who is a hobby tiny little person. Who is whisked away from his. Comfortable life. Me drags on a crazy adventure by a wizard. Name jennifer grey. What's striking to me about the story is bilbo was a regular guy. He's not a dashing hero and he never becomes a dashing hero. He's always this. Scared. Bumbling little person who just really wants to go home so we can hang around the house and eat. Which. Is all i really want to do either so. There you go but there's one scene in the movie. When. All of these. Powerful wizards all of the most important wizard. Standing around. Discussing what they are going to do. About. The evil wizard sauron who is returning to power. The character is sauron is big and scary and vague enough to serve as a stand-in for all manner of. Big scary things. For a long time a lot of people said he represented nuclear war. A lot of people told me that. To them he represented aids. These days you could be institutional racism. He could be climate change. It could be any of these big looming existential threats. So the wizards. Sitting around discussing big important political matters big scary dark things. Galadriel the elf queen the most powerful wizard looks at candace and ray and says something to the effect of food. Why did you bring this weird little guy with you. Like what. What's up with that. And candice has the most amazing thing. He says. I don't know. My colleague here believes it is only great power. They can hold evil in check. But that is not what i have found. I found it is the small things. Everyday deeds of ordinary folk. But keep the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love. Why bilbo baggins. Perhaps. It is because i'm afraid. She gives me courage. Can't. Explain. What we do here. Any better than that. Gandalf says bilbo give him courage i might say bilbo baggins and people like the members of fred crowdus church. You hope. And isn't that what we're doing here. Surrounding ourselves. With people who give us courage. With people who give us hope. Rereading the gospels lately. Prepare to charge for thin debate in the name of unitarianism at the council of nicea. I notice something that i think is worth bringing up. This is the part of the sermon. Where. Went where i'm going to talk about jesus a little bit. And everyone's going to look at me inside dude. Says you you church. I'm going to say i'm. I know it's going to be alright i promise. Ivany you you my whole life. But i think it's important that we do talk about. The stories that we remember that the bible doesn't belong to the people who have misused it. That it is not theirs anymore. Then it's ours. Whenever i. Preach about the bible in a year you context i say i promise this is not going to get weird. Then i say okay this is totally going to get weird. But it's not going to get that kind of weird. To the thing i've noticed lately in the gospels. Is it none of jesus's friends are politicians. None of jesus's friends have any kind of important social capital at all. Jesus interacts with in debates with people like politician people like. Senators. But the people he calls his friends. The people he intentionally surround himself with his community are all fishermen. Have you ever met fisherman. Most of the fishermen like professional fisherman that i have known in my life. Have been. About as gruff and unrefined as they could be in fairy very proud of that. And that is what jesus wants to be around. Right he famously looks at his siple and his disciples. His. Unrefined crusty friends. And says you are the salt of the earth. Meaning you are the people who give earth its flavour you are the people who make life real. Make life interesting and good. And i read that and i thought that's just like that violent femmes song. Where are they say you are the salt of the earth if you're not salty what are you worth. That's what happens when you. Go to seminary and read the gospels for the first time. We live in a culture that encourages us to put our faith in big flashy powerful heroes. We are told in no uncertain terms that powerful people influential people are going to lead us into the into a better tomorrow. They are going to as gandalf puts it keep the darkness at bay. Please get our country at this moment in history is to wear indoor. An endless parade. People in suits telling us that they are the solution to all of our problems. And we engage with those people in those processes. My iphone is set up so that any time hillary clinton or bernie sanders does pretty much anything at all i get a text letting me know. But as much as we need good leaders good politicians we will never need them half as much as we need each other. Everything going on in the world around us looking at these dozens of huge spectral fears that are looming on the horizon it is hard. To have courage. It is hard to have hope. Talk to stephanie. Preparation for the sermon and she said last week she preached about. The zombie apocalypse. About climate change. A real path to the end of the world. I said switch just been a laugh riot in weymouth it's just you. But she's not wrong. These things are real. These things are terrifyingly real and they are knocking at our door and somehow. Here we all are trying to have hope in the face of these things. The poet. Emily dickinson. Bright hope is the thing with feathers. That perches on the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all. In the sweetest. And sweetest in the game. Is heard and sore must be the storm that could have asked this little bird that kept so many warm. Heard it in the chillest land. The strangest sea. It never. In extremity it asked. Crumb of me. I love emily dickinson and i love. The first two stanzas of that poem. But i struggle with the end. M to say that a hoe. Does not ask anything of us strikes me as wildly wrong. Hope. Everything of us. Gathering here gathering here together building hope. Like we do at uu church requires more from austin we will ever be able to truly give. Building hope here together happens over the course of many lifetimes it's not even something that anyone of us can really do. That's what we do here right. Gather and give each other hope. We gather because some deep. Human part of us knows that the only thing that will ever truly keep darkness at bay the only thing that will ever truly save human beings from ourselves. Is this thing that gandalf the wizard describe. Everyday deeds of ordinary folk. Simple acts of kindness and love. Acts of love not done by powerful people but done by us. Regular folks even if some of us are those powerful people when we're outside of here. When we walk in this door. But doesn't matter. We are here we are just a salty and is crude and as frightened as everybody else. The poet ed wilkinson. Who is. Himself a unitarian universalist and. Happens to be a dear friend of mine. Responded to emily dickinson. Braden hope. Is a thing with teeth. Sometimes it lifts you by the scruff of your neck and moves you gently. Other time. A clean through you. I think that hope. The edison scribing is the hope that we are fostering here. Kind of hope that we everyday people can make while working together and taking care of each other. Mcgruff unrefined people. Be confused. And broken and unreliable people. We. The salt of the earth. We people who aren't always even sure what we're doing here. We gather. We put all the way have into building something. We can all love and calvin around and we call that thing. We call that thing church.

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FP-20150118-Sermon-Red.mp3?_=6

Tomorrow is martin luther king. Years ago in 1965 celebrating his birthday. By then already. And won the 1964 nobel peace prize. Makes you feel like a bit of an underachiever doesn't it. Stop there. In 1965. He went to selma. Anselmo and activists in an effort. And practices that prevented most african-americans from voting. Surrounding his campaign in selma are the focus of the movie thelma now playing in theaters. If you've not yet seen the film i strongly encourage you to do and if you have. Sixth seventh eighth ninth. The first person to die. Jimmie lee jackson. A young african-american man. After participating in protests mart. Attack the protesters under the cover of darkness. Because it turned off all of the street lights. After trying to defend his mother and grandfather from the police. Unarm jackson with shop. World. Heard the idea of a march from selma to the state capital of montgomery. Stand up for the right of african-americans to vote. Sunday march 7th. March from selma to montgomery. Across the edmund. Neverland of violence. Violence. Across the nation. Recalling the events of that day. Minister mark morrison read right. Abc head interrupted the broadcast of judgment at nuremberg. A drama about the war crime trials and nazi germany. 600 black citizens of selma alabama. The connection couldn't. Violence. Dr. king. One of those to respond to call with reverend james reid. Alone. Article report. 500. Including nearly one-fifth of all. Went to selma in montgomery. There were no illusions. They came by the hundred. Reverend reed and viola. Lorenzo. Would be deadly. If you heard. Quote every witness and work together. Searching for answers. About reverend reeves death. And what. Murdered by a few. Demented and misguided men. Who has the screen ocean. Murder. Trial for murder. And when the fbi reopen the cold-case in 2006. It led nowhere. What. Responded. When we move from the to the what. The blame and responsibility road. Read was murdered by the indifference as every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind security of stained glass windows. Murdered by the church. A visit a light. Rather than a headlight. An echo. Voice. Murdered by the irresponsibility of. Stale bread of hatred. Spoiled meat of racism. He was murdered by the brutality of every sarah's and law enforcement. Who practices lawlessness. In the name of law. He was murdered by the timidity of a federal government that can spend millions of dollars a day. Cannot protect the lives of its own citizens constitutional right. He was even murdered by the cowardice of every negro. Tacitly accept evil system. Stands on the sidelines in the midst of a mighty struggle for justice. In other words. Read was killed not only by three men who beat him. Of racial inequality. Our system read found on just. And simply untrue. Kyle he was sickly and cross eyed. Developing in him a sense of what it feels like to be marginalized. When you move the teenager to casper wyoming. He fell in love with the wide-open prairie. And his ass would be scattered there at the end of his life. Attendance. Become a presbyterian minister. Here is where reba nicer bit of biographical detail. It's also where i attended seminary. I forgot. Ended up rack honoring him aside the entrance of the student center by hundreds of time. Question. A tradition with the electrical freedom and a strong tradition of social justice. Story of becoming a eunuch. Is one that i recognized into which i can relate. Questions. We are to search for truth. In freedom. For many religious organizations. Shared belief is d cornerstone. Abstruse in a variety of ways. It must be preserved in uphill. Against. Or circumstances in the world. More moderately. How that truth is understood in applied. Within different historical eras in cultural context. Whipping a liberal. The very idea of an eternal unchanging truth questions. Prescribed or be wrong. No. Ongoing search for truth within our time and place. Notably dispersed for truth most certainly is not an abandonment of the idea. Rather. If i understand it. Humble recognition. Simple. You know what is true. True. Beyond our experiences. Beyond what we thought was true. Need to ask herself. What do i not. No. What do i not understand. Experience. Ourselves. 14. Another person's experience and knowledge. Differently than my own. What do i not know. The truth. Quizlet people of different races and classes might live and work together as brothers and sisters. Reverend. Riding in dorchester. For what you believe to be true. Of course so many people in selma and across the nation did not agree with king or ridge. What's that races and classes should not mix. The bus boycott the marches. Indignity. Proof of a full humanity of african-americans. For too long. Erasable in equality have been propagated by the white men and women. In the wealth. With between very different understandings of what was true. In history. In the nineteenth century abolitionists of slave. Target. The workplace. And in the household. And from the 1969 stonewall uprising. Ongoing fight for marriage equality. Call for the protection and rice a transgender person. Are gender and sexual. I believe that is unitarian universalist. We are called to engage in the questions of our time. About what in fact is true. Rather than to be wedded to one auntie way of understanding the world. We are called to be an ongoing search for truth. Even when it leaves us to places where we may feel uncertain. For unclear. Including those beloved. Or those with whom we charity pierce. Conflict. It's hard to avoid when faced with changing beliefs. In 15 sentences of what is true. Discord. William ellery channing. About slavery. Congregation. Peter parker with isolated. Might contain religious proof. And olympia brown heads. Before finally becoming the first woman ordained as a universalist minister. Hard. Shepherd. And confusion. Partake. Considerate. And even death. Is misunderstood as a black and lazy religion. It's seen as a slough religion where. Whatever you want. Unitarian universalist movement. Charter talent. We are responsible for what it is that we believe. We are in freedom. Even when it resets the places of confusion or conflict. Confrontation. Or sacrifice. There is plenty in the world today. In conflict. Charlie had to killing ignited. Natural identity in immigration. Shut down a boston. About public safety. An activist. Tactics to get out their message. Of course. Or how to help a child or teen grow into the fullness of their life. Or questions about money. We consider adopting. Or returning school. Large and small facing us each and every day. When you walk to the doors at this meeting house. Not leave any of these questions behind. Bring with you. Together in a search for truth and freedom. Lead. Unitarian paris. Dorchester in selma. Reverend stroup. But all racists and classes and work together as brothers and sisters. And this is the truth for which he died. Dr. king said quote. The greatest. Is to continue to work. With cut off at an early age. Reverend raven. Now he was calling for a response. Searching for answers. To understand the truth. Differently. Martin luther king. Encourage you to ask yourself. What do you not know. About selma. What it is to live as an african american in this country today. Encouraged. Internet. Or investigate the hashtag black lives matter. Maybe your heart is asking a completely different question. About a different social issue. Or very personal parents. Whatever it is that you don't know. I encourage to live the question. Truth and freedom. Do you have the courage to act.

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FP-20151213-Homily-with-Prayer.mp3?_=5

So in moments we will hear the choir and orchestral ensemble play. Marc-antoine charpentier. My best friend that's all i took friends. And learning a bit about the composition what i was struck by was that is a synthesis. The catholic mass. Lyrics the text of the catholic mass. With. Popular french. Carol's christmas carols. I imagine that this kind of synthesis might be something like setting the words of our covenant to a popular tune like. It's beginning to look alot like christmas. Or jingle bells something like. As we light the chalice symbol of our face saying all is well and the search for truth and freedom and in love. So all is a concoction like that may sound. I admit that i'm a fan of blending the old. And the new. Sitting in a room like this is itself a synthesis of the old and the new. We've a 200-year old meeting house. That also has modern technologies of insulation. Central heating and a sound system. Simply gathering here on a sunday morning is itself an old old tradition extending back to the earliest days of r370 five-year-old congregation. Get it one of those ancient ancestors were here today. He might be deeply puzzled by the absence of certain talk about god or jesus or the bible. And certainly by the fact that there is a woman upfront as the minister. Such a blending of the old and the new. Does not only happen here at first parish however. Over these holiday weeks many of us will gather with family and friends to celebrate these ancient holidays. Often with trent traditions that have been handed down from. Parents. To child to grandchild. Perhaps a favorite recipe or certain kind of food that you eat. But maybe today you're pulling up your recipe off of your ipad. Or texting your cousin to see if he can remember that secret ingredients that grandma used her stuffing. The old. And the new. Blending together. Charpentier is blending however was not simply a blend of the old and the new. His composition is a synthesis of the secular. And the sacred. Music from the popular vernacular is used as a musical motif beneath the sacred words of the catholic mass. A private man. We know very little of sharpeners. Own inner life or mindset behind his creations. But we do know that is a young man he traveled to italy to study music. And long after italian music with out of fashion in his native france. He would also blend italian influence into his french compositions. From popular music. Two italian patterns. Charpentier. Wolves his varied experience together to create his own unique. Compositions. Each of us also has our own varied history. We've lived in different places. Had different jobs or bobby's or responsibilities. We've read or traveled. We've enjoyed friends and loved ones. Each of us has a master own particular blending of life experiences through the seasons of our lives. All of our lives can be seen as unique compositions that reflect our. Killer life story. Comprised of whom we have loved. The places we have called home. Are heartbreaks and challenges. As well as the opportunities and moments of great happiness. Our life stories emerged. As the blending of many elements. Lakeshore pediatrics composition. Sometimes the particular synthesis of our lives may break the rules of expectation or composition. The catholic mass is set to popular french carols. An unwed mother gives birth in a stable. Rather than signify failure. Such structures of expectations may announce the arrival of new possibilities. New company. Combinations and synthesis of life's plentiful gifts. To me the joy of the christmas story. Is the synthesis of the sacred. And the mundane. It is the celebration of a baby born in the humblest of circumstances. And whom all the wondrous mysteries of life. And love. Our presence. It is believing that everyday lives need not be divorced from our spiritual longings. It is believing that what we hear on the radio or read on facebook or otherwise encounter in our everyday lives may indeed have a connection. To what we do here on sunday morning. Like the musical piece we will hear in moments. Our lives can be creative compositions. Synthesizing the elements of our lives. Into our own. Unique. So may it be. Invite you now to take a couple deep breaths in. And out. And to find a place of stillness. As we enter into a moment of. Spirit of life. And love. We celebrate today the gifts of song and of music. The reach within us. Touching our hearts and spirits. May we be grateful for this gift of music. As well as for being present here amidst friends and strangers with whom we share these moments of song and stillness. On this december day as holidays around us. May we find moments of stillness. Reflect upon the gifts of our own varied history. Maybe find ways to blend the elements of our lives that celebrate the unique wonder of each of us. In a world of billions of people. Maybe not lose sight of a wonder of each life. Me.we holes with reverence the plenitude of life-forms from the mighty whale. Two birds graceful in the sky. To the smallest of plankton in the sea. We rejoice today and the historic effort of world leaders in paris. To move towards actions that will better sustain planetary life. May this be one of many more steps in the fight for climate justice. That we may live in more balanced. Both with the ecosystem that sustains us. And with all people upon the earth. Especially those whose lives and livelihood. Are most threatened by climate change. Me.we also be part of a song that celebrates the gift of life in all its varied forms. Including our religious diversity. Jewish and christian. Muslim in bhai. Mormon buddhist and unitarian universalist. In these dark days is hate too often fills our ears. We reaffirm today our love and respect. For a muslim neighbors. May we be voices that welcome the stranger. Who is seeking shelter and safety. Even as we denounce all forms of violence that threaten harm upon the innocent. Be our hearts remain open and compassion. And generosity. To all those in need of a haven. Arrested from war from violence. From fear. Miravia haven here today. We're on hearts can be softened. And renewed. Buy the gifts of song. Show me a v.

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FP-20141214-Homily.mp3?_=6

I spend some time learning a little bit about the cantata that the choir and musicians will perform this morning. And in doing so it it led me to start thinking about joy. Which happened to be the candle today which was that really nicely. So i want to tell you a story that when i was 8 years old. My family spent the holidays in florida with my grandparents harold and betty. After only knowing christmas in the cold and snowing north of michigan. It felt very odd to be there amidst the tropical plants and warm humid breezes. Given the climate the holiday tree was a tall house plants. Rather than an evergreen tree. And beneath this plant were laid gifts. And from its branches hung three envelopes. One with my name. And the other two with the names of my brothers. To the surprise of us kids. We were allowed to open those envelopes on christmas eve. Rather than have to wait for christmas morning. That was a big mistake. Inside these envelopes were tickets for disney world for the next day. So wow. We three kids were so excited. So excited that falling asleep that night seemed impossible. Crammed into a porch on are inflatable mattresses. Are loud whispers of anticipation lingered long past the times my parents had anticipated that we would be asleep. And yet we wanted to sleep. Because when we woke. It would be time to go to disney world. Do you know that kind of anticipation. The longing for particular moment. Or event to arrive. And then. The time is now. It's here. You're standing at the gates of disney world. You're waiting at the front of the sanctuary as your beloved walks towards you to wed. You're walking out the door of high school with diploma in hand. Or into the new job for which you have trained years. To be able to do. Finally. The time is now. No more waiting. No more anticipation. It's simply time to embrace that for which you were long waiting. Taken from the christian bible the text of today's cantata expresses just such a moment. After waiting longing and dreaming the moment has arrived. Now now is the time wake sleepers wake. Now is the time for joy the moment is here. Wake. Don't miss it. Week sleepers wake. I don't know about you. But i am full of anticipation for today's cantata. But i do have to confess that as a feminist i'm not such a fan of all the lyrics. Come claim though. i bribed. Seems a bit like women as property to me. You may have heard the joke about why unitarian universalist are such bad singers. Because they're always reading ahead to see if they agree with the lyrics. While there may be some lyrics today that jar. I encourage us to look beyond this word or that. And to listen instead to the journey of the music. To listen for that expression of joy that erupts as longing finally connects with a focus of its desire. And in the listening. I hope that we may all be able to recall such an experience of joy in our own lives. Of course as they cantatas english title sleepers awake. Reminds us. Even the most ardent person can still fall asleep while waiting with greatest excitement. Just as my brothers and i finally did fall asleep on christmas eve. But in the cantata sleep is interrupted. As a call to awake. Rings out. Now. Now is the time. Don't sleep wake. Notice. See the moment. Steal the joy. The joy is now. As we wait there are many ways that we can fall asleep. Not only in mind. But also in perceptions. The rhythms of our lives can lawless into a kind of mindless days as we move from one task until the next. We can become so focused on the next task. The longlist of seduce. The presence not yet bought or the gifts not yet wrapped. That we can fall asleep to the wonder of the world all around us. Sometimes we need to call. A gentle nudge or a big shake. To wake us up. Remind us to look. To notice. To see and feel the joy as of now. And so is we enter into this time of music and sound. Of bobbing bows and joyful singers. Let us wake up. And let us be here and now in the moment of song. Let us be in the moment of music. To remember alan watts words but the plane itself is the point. As we lean into the music. Let us hear and feel in the music. The joy of now.

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FP-20190908-Homily.mp3

This is one of the books my son and i read together when he was little. It's a little beat up. Do you have any of these kinds of books in your house. Recently i read an article about the importance of reading to children. Over the years various studies of course have suggested that parents reading to kids helps them in school. However this article went a step further. To discuss her reading with a parent. Also build an interactive relationship with parent and child. I would also say grandparents are and toradol vinny guide. So it's an interactive experience. When a parent sounds out an animal and a book. Or encourages a child to point and ask questions. More is happening than literacy. Both parents and child are also building a bond. Learning about relationships. And developing certain life skills. When a literacy organization sought to. Ideas to promote reading for spanish-speaking parents. One of the suggestions was has una maestra de amor. Alex tried to coach me on how to say that in spanish it's my fault that i butchered it not his. But if you need somebody to speak in spanish we now have alex. What does una estrella de amor mean. In english it means. It's a sign of love. This struck me as a great model for so many actions that we take in our lives as we care for others. For ourselves and even for animals in the natural world with whom we share our lives. Sometimes the tasks in our lives which seemed about skills or checking something off the to-do list. Can in fact be refrained as signs of love. If not just. About teaching a kid to read. It's about teaching a kid that they and their questions matter. It's about reminding us adults about taking the time to experience doses of curiosity and wonder. What are the tasks in your life. There are about more than simply getting it done. What signs of love are you sending throughout your day. When you prepare a meal walk the dog. Or any number of action. Finding such signs of love in the mundane. Is one way that our lives can be infused with meaning. Or to put it differently. Such reframing can infuse our lives with love. For example those little backpack tags that we handed out. Aarmau infused with love. If only we choose to see it that way. Waste this week. I heard a teacher refer to our awareness or mindfulness as a superpower. How we see things are what we choose to pay attention to. Can radically change our experience of our lives a superpower. Michael. Is it as we go through our day-to-day lives at work. At school playing sports or chilling out. Doing nothing. May we all have the superpower of awareness. And use it to see the signs of love all around us. So may it be.

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FP-20191117-Sermon.mp3

One of my first memories of church. Is legs. Legs and skirts legs and pants. After all if you are half the size of many of those in the congregation what do you see moving through the building. Legs. I love church. I belong there. And the tradition in which i was raised all ages stayed in the service for the hour. And those hours is a child. I've learned songs that still rising me as worthless humming on happy days. And i learn to improve my doodling on the corners of the order of service as i have listened to the sermon. What and whenever the preacher talked about the meaning of words in the original greek. My ears perked up. Years later when i took greek in college i was. Thrilled. Despite my own childhood love of church. I did not consistently bring my own son to church. Between divorce and grad school there was a lot of instability in my life when my son was young. But there was one year. When. We attended regularly. We were living in michigan and my son was in kindergarten. Having just returned to the area. I felt lonely and wanted community. Very soon after we began attending the local liberal church. A warm kind woman with a sun slightly older than my own. Invited us back to their house. For brunch. Apparently we were not the first to be invited. But i was one of the few to accept. Again. And again. And again. 4 weeks. And then months we would sit together in church. Then head back to my new friends house for brunch. The boys who played legos is the feast was prepared. Sundays. Became a day of deep connection. Spiritually and socially. So much so that 18 years later we remain good friends. And it's my joy that she's here today. What about you. What experiences of belonging and connection have you felt in religious communities. In our community. According to religious scholars allen and roth. Belongingness. Is an important human needs. Such belonging is not easy to come by. To be supported in tough times. Hill's through our vulnerabilities and failings. As well as embraced for our authentic selves. It's a lot. It's a lot of goodness. And freedom. For people who are wobbly broken and sometimes just. Plain weird. At their best religious communities like ours can be places of connection. Healing. And being our full selves. And yet too often. People have not felt a sense of connection or belonging. Maybe they look around the room and do not see anyone like me. Or do not see anyone like me up front leading. Maybe 25 is off. Too formal or too casual. Maybe the language. Or the music they hear doesn't connect. Or put them off. It just doesn't feel like a place for them. And while we may not be able to be all things to all people. Is unitarian universalist we do hold strong commitments to respecting the differences between us. Author bell hooks rights. Beloved community is formed not by the eradication of difference. But by its affirmation. Buy each of us claiming the identities and cultural legacies that shape who we are and how we live in the world. Living as a community that embraces differences is not. Easy. But it is also central to cultivating a deep sense of belonging. A being seen for who we are and feeling welcomed in. Of course there are many different kinds of identities in differences that we could explore. Today i want to focus on the difference of age. As a congregation we are community of people. From one. To 100 years old. Over. As well as every decade and generation of life in between. Really there are very few places like us left. Where we gather with a full range of ages. This is an extraordinary gift for us all. We get to connect with and belong together with all the ages experiences and questions of life's journey. It was my joy today that i got to spend about 10 minutes with luca little lucca you may know about 5-10 minutes this morning it was just great he's like okay i'll hang out with a minister. We get to be teacher and learner as we encounter people younger or older and different. Then-us. And yet this precious gift. Also comes with an important challenge. Are we in fact. Creating a culture in an institution that welcomes and supports. People of all ages. Are we appropriately balanced and who is supported by our ministries. From pastoral care to education to social action. Are we balanced and who is leading us. And who is benefiting. From decisions about our worship our building use our staffing in our other shared resources. Recently i heard a description of culture as the way things work. How to fix work around here. Are they working. For whom are they not working well. Are there parts of our culture that sends messages to folks of a particular age or stage of life that they they don't really belong here. What does first paris look like. From a kid's point of view. So. If you want to think about how we create this more inclusive multi-generational community. Can we do it. How do we create a place of belonging for all ages. How do we avoid being an adult centric or just my parents church. Kind of place. How do we engage the needs of families who are already juggling sports and other weekend commitments. And how do we balance the need of all ages not just kids in adults. But also adults of different generations and preferences. Because by their nature these are questions for. All of us. I want to hear. Your thoughts. You will find sticky notes in the order of service. I want you to take a minute to jot down your ideas. Is in turn to a neighbor and start talking with other people sharing ideas. After a few minutes of rachel and alex are going to have microphones on either side of the sanctuary and if you want share your idea or the idea you heard that you think is a great one. So let's just take some few minutes to do that. The question is. What are your ideas for how we can live into our vision to be a more vibrant multi-generational community. So this might be ideas for how do we include our kids more and might be an idea for you 40 something that says hey where the middle we keep getting forgotten. You do so. What is a more vibrant multi-generational community look like to you. And what are your ideas. For how we might live into that more fully than we already are. For centuries first parish has gathered as multi-generational community. For centuries first parish has responded to wider cultural shifts to meet the needs. The whole. Community. Today we continue to live out what it means to be a vibrant multi-generational religious community and the 21st century. We may not know all the answers. But we can listen to and learn from each other as we explore together. And if your apparent ask your kids. Or your youth. What would you like to see an add sticky notes to the board downstairs. Thank you. 4 year engagement. You're caring. And your love. For this community. Amen.

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FP-20191006-Sermon.mp3

As some of you know i ran off to maine for a couple days this week. Yes it was fun but i also sat in a cafe. Forged check by time. To write my sermon. I got to sit somewhere to be someplace different. And on friday as i began writing the sermon. I'm sitting this cafe and i noticed that the man at the neighboring table. Had a bible open. I gently inquired. Are you by chance writing a sermon. Yes. It's over the next 15 minutes or so we swapped stories about our sermon ideas and the challenges of and love for ministry. We even talked about calvinism which was great fun for both of us. A great conversation. Even though. From the beginning it was clear that we came from. Different theological places. What does it take to be civil. Two people who are different than we are. What is tolerance of difference really mean. What does it look like to truly treat each person with inherent worth and dignity. Or if my cafe neighbor might say. As people made in the image of god. There's no secret that our nation is deeply divided. Issues of immigration. Gun violence women's health. And the role of government intervention are all hotly-contested. But you know all this. Many of us are struggling how to navigate the deeply rutted landscape of our nation. The impact is not just political. It wears on our spirits. Today i want to suggest it reclaiming liberal values. Maybe a helpful resource. Rihanna's i make this case for liberalism with some trepidation. And the new book a thousand small sanities the moral adventure of liberalism. Adam gopnik makes clear that there are substitute criticisms of liberalism from the right. As well as from the left. The right seems liberalism at to permissive. And the left seems liberalism as two week. Too slow. And just. Too little. Although gopnik acknowledges the critiques of liberalism from both sides. He still wishes to defend a distinct idea of a liberal tradition. Did you find this liberal tradition he right. It's really very much in line with the way we use the term in our ordinary speech. To reference people and parties with an equal commitment to reform and to liberty. Who want both greater equality among men and women in an ever greater tolerance for difference among them to. Defining liberalism is no easy task. When i asked my 22 year-old son what he thought of the word liberal he paused. Long enough for me to wonder that he was just ignoring his mom. Is nsaid. Well. It depends on who is saying it. And in what context. Agreed. Liberal can simply mean not conservative. Or it can refer to a long tradition gopnik references. And many more. When i think of liberal with the capital l. I think of the philosophical tradition of liberalism. As you may recall from a high school or college history. The liberal tradition emerged in the 17th century and is widely associated with the writings of thomas hobbes and john locke. This was an era in which the world turned upside down. To quote the title of a famous 17th century english ballad. In the preceding century the protestant reformation had created a rupture. Not only with rome and the catholic church. But also with many of the kings and queens whose absolute and divinely ordained power came under question. Across europe the divisions of religion and politics turned violent. Even bloody. I think this context matters. As the world turns upside down new questions about how to organize society emerged. Can we live together in peace if we hold different religious views. Who or what determines what is true and good. Who is in charge. And why. What can i expect for the safety and livelihood of my family. What duties do i owe to others. Liberalism offered radical new answers to these questions. Rather than sorting people into groups to find a protestant or catholic nobles are serfs. Liberalism began with the individual who was believed to be good. Incapable of moral progress. What individuals needed and deserved. Was freedom. To pursue their life. Beginning with this commitment to individual liberty. Liberalism then had to wrestle with. How do you relate all these individuals to each other. What if my freedom of belief. Conflicts with your freedom of action. What duties do i have to protect your freedoms. What responsibilities do you have to me if we've made a contract. The history of liberalism is a long one a varying answers to these questions and others. And i promise i won't try to lay it all out today. I simply want to emphasize that liberalism emerges from a time of conflict and division. When i think about the roots of liberalism. I think a populations of people who have lived through generations of violence and uncertainty. After efforts to force uniformity of thought and action failed again and again. Liberalism proposed individual freedoms right and responsibilities supported by the laws of government. In other words. Liberals promoted a vision of society in which people could think and act differently from one another. Without erupting into violence. At its best. Liberalism promotes a vision of a tolerant society interacting civilly with one another. Even with those with whom you disagree. The tenants of liberalism impacted religious outlooks as well. 1819. The reverend william ellery channing delivered a sermon unitarian christianity. In which he counseled the congregation do not brother and shrink from the duty of searching god's words. For yourself. True fear of human sensor and denunciation. The individual is charged with searching for religious truth. Channing also makes clear his conviction that humanity is endowed with an innate goodness. Referring to humans as free and moral beings. Rather than submit to the tyranny of religious hierarchy. Channing extols his listeners. To take personal responsibility for their religious life and their moral character. Can you hear the liberalism. If descendants. Of a liberal religious tradition. Unitarian universalist today affirmed the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We strive to uphold the worth and dignity of every person. React to preserve the rights of people. Fighting for marriage equality. The preservation of a woman's right to choose that black lives matter. An equitable access for and treatment of transgender people. But we are living. In a nation. With strong illiberal currents. Bigoted. Rhetoric of exclusion geared towards immigrants muslim women transgender folks disabled persons and more. Has ricocheted across mass media. More than words policies on immigration have become more restrictive. Including bans for predominantly muslim nations. This is not just a wash. Problem. This is a national. Problem. Astrolabe lepore makes clear and her newest book. This america the case for the nation. These illiberal currents are nothing new. Our founding documents proclaimed liberty. And protected slavery. Generations of your white european immigrants freely arrived in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But immigration restrictions in the 19th and 20th century curtailed immigration for others. Beef and ideas of superior and inferior races. So who are we. As a nation. Are we the persistent and recurring patterns of inequality and injustice. Or we the declaration of freedom and equality. On this pension lepore rights. A nation founded on universal ideas will never stop fighting over the meaning of its past and the direction of the future. That doesn't mean the past or future is meaningless. Or directionless. Or that anyone could afford to sit out the fight. The nation as ever. Is. The fight. Another words the nation is both. The nation is the fight for how we make sense of our history and our hopes. Venetian is the fight for how we live out the universal values of freedom and equality while doing so within the boundaries of a particular nation state. Venetian is the fight for how we will live together for whose lives will matter and whose will not. For who will have a voice and a vote. For how we open and how we protect our borders. Where do we stand as liberal religious person. In this fight. Admittedly fighting for the nation is not something which we liberals often feel very comfortable with. And are divided context flying flags and wearing flag lapel button. Can often be seen as a shorthand symbol for being conservative. Patriotism is conflated with conservatism which is further conflated with nationalism. But must patriotism and nationalism be. Completed. In this america lepore argues for the need to write the story of the nation in ways that does not reproduce nationalism. She cautions. When serious historians abandoned the study of nation. When skyler stop trying to write a common history up for a people. Nationalism doesn't die. Instead eat liberalism. Much of her book recounts the ways that nation nationalism and liberalism intertwine in us history. In writing this history she is arguing for the ongoing fight of how we understand who we are as a nation. It's a fight she believes them. She writes. Liberalism is still in there. The trick is getting it out. There's only one way to do that. It requires grabbing and holding on to a very good idea. That all people are equal and endowed from birth with inalienable rights and entitled to equal treatment guaranteed by a nation of laws. This requires making the case. For the nation. Making the case for the nation. Or even expressing love. For a country. Does not need devolve into the exclusive illiberalism. Of nationalism. And yes there may be better ways of organizing ourselves other than as nations. But as you heard in the reading. Lepore argues that the era of a nation-state. Does not appear to be going away anytime soon. Furthermore she states. In american history. Liberals have failed time and again to defeat it liberalism. Except by making appeals to national ames. So perhaps it's time that we unapologetically claimed our liberal roots and liberal commitment. Sq liberal streams in our nation create havoc. And harm for so many people. It's critical to fight back with our own values of equality and dignity of inalienable right and inherent worth. This is not simply a political fight although sometimes it maybe. This is a struggle for how we want to live with others. This is a struggle for how people would be allowed to live. To love. To choose or to not have a choice. And this is a struggle for civility. The roots of civility lie in the liberal tradition as an alternative to the violence of war. Or the tyranny of power resting in the hands. View. The roots of civility lie in a commitment to disagree without disrespecting another's dignity. In a time of such deep divisions. Our capacity for civility threatens to be eclipsed by dehumanizing rhetoric and act. Both those of individuals and at times of the state. Part of our struggle today is how to firmly disagree. Take a clear stand. And. Not devolve into disdain. In other words civility is holding fast both to our free and responsible search for truth and meaning. And the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Even those with whom we disagree. Our nation is. Bar. From perfect. We have legacies of injustice to american indians. Enslaved africans. Women. Immigrants and more. And despite the progress that has been made in civil rights over the centuries there is much that remains to do. In his understanding of liberalism. Adam gopnik says. Liberalism's task is not to imagine the perfect society and drive us toward it. But to point out what. Cool in the society we have now. And fix it if we possibly can. To let us do what we can. To make a better world. Including a better nation. Our fight is not just a political one. It is a moral one for the dignity of persons and for a community shaped by justice. Let us hold fast to our shared liberal values. And relish being part. Of your ongoing struggle. Forearm or just. And free. World. So man be.

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FP-20200517-Sermon.mp3

We are starting out this morning like i think stephanie was talking about. With with the other a biblical story that is. That's one of the. The more difficult stories in in the bible really and if you're used to me by now and what would i. You know put people through when i when i preached about these things you know this is sort of where where i. Get really excited it is when we can find these bible stories that are. Difficult and nc. What else we can do with somewhere else we can take some. And i'm grateful to you all for being a. Willing to. Take a look at this with me stephanie can you give me a thumbs up at so far i can be heard. Excellent. So this story that we're starting out with this is the story of a man named lot and his family fleeing the cities of sodom and gomorrah. As god is destroying these cities by raining fire and brimstone down a pump. Hold his family to to run away and not look back at their old home even for a second as they hear it being utterly destroyed behind some. But lots of wife. Who is. One of the she's on the very long list of women in the hebrew bible who don't get a first name. Who are only identified by their relationship to a male character who is much less interesting. Lot's wife. Turns around and if she looks. Back at the city that's being obliterated from on high. Her body is transformed into a pillar of salt. So. There's as my wife sandra would say there's a lot to unpack there. In the story the cities of sodom and gomorrah are destroyed because they failed to demonstrate hospitality. It's been assumed for many years by a by many of my colleagues most of my colleagues here in memphis. For example and particularly my colleagues on the christian right that. But the book says sodom and gomorrah were destroyed because they were skilled with lgbtq people. But the bible doesn't say that. This is sumption. Is an example of the problems that you run into when you you try to speak about a book at that you have not carefully read. Sodom and gomorrah as far as i can tell are described as being cities. Pretty much like any other cities. Their cities filled with people who are capable of. Doing good and capable of doing harm. Those people have stories and lives and loved ones and they do not deserve. The horrible fate that they eventually get. It's why imagine in the store we have lost wise knowing all of this and running away with her family away from her home away from everything that she has ever known. Away from the violence that she know this befallen. Her friends and neighbors and the home that she loved even if it was not as welcoming as it should have been because of course. No place is perfect. So she looks back. I think of this is such a. Such a beautiful image. What trauma can feel like i see this as being a story about trauma. Right because when something deeply traumatic happened to us. It can feel like the home that we knew. Bikes like the life. That we knew. Has been. Disrupted. Or even destroyed. Even if the actual place. They remain what made it what it was true us. If you like it's just gone. And so she looks bad. She becomes a pillar of salt. Now this is the part where. We could get to talk about. What on earth the pillar of salt means and if i had a live congregation in front of me i would be shouting out what do people think about when they think about salt. Which we could maybe do over soon but i feel like we're just not going to yes that's me shaking your head at me like don't you dare. So but people. You know what when we think about salt we might think about the ocean or someone might shout pepper and there's always that person who shouts out something like pretzels. And we keep that going and like a good minister i would just wait until somebody gave the answer that i want it. Which is tears. I think in. In this case. Assault. Can represent tears. It can represent lamp wife feeling a grief that is so. Deep and abiding. That her weeping takes over her entire body. Her grief takes up. So much space in her life. In that moment her tears feel like all that she is. And so i'm telling you all of this not to depress you. But to point out a couple of things mostly that. When a disaster befalls a society or community. Those disasters for not just numbers in headlines right bulwark all learning in this pandemic is that they have a profound impact on the individual people who experience them. We're living through. This moment in our country and our world. Uber experiencing an almost incomprehensible amount of loss. The covid-19 pandemic has taken the lives and livelihoods of so many people. Especially older adults. People. With pre-existing medical conditions and people and marginalized communities. And so despite the misguided assurances of. Leaders such as our president and my tennessee governor bill lee who has given churches total immunity from all of the restriction so i could be having church in a full sanctuary. This morning and it would be legal. Which is. Horrifying. Despite the assurances of these leaders who don't. We don't appear to be getting to the end of this thing yet and so many of us are feeling. Afraid and anxious and many of us are grieving and feeling as though the world that we knew the world that we love imperfect though it was. Has been taken from us. Even though some of the losses related to this crisis are not permanently grief related to those losses to still real. In the past month. I talked with five different couples who had to postpone their weddings on pill who knows. I've postponed memorial services. Baby showers. At my church we had to postpone our annual flying kites along the river sunday which is a very big deal. And our capital campaign and our coming-of-age sunday and all of these things will happen eventually. But that doesn't make the grease that we feel about them now any less real. And so all of us are here in this moment stealing this grief together many of us feeling isolated in our homes and wondering how we can possibly respond. And so. For an answer. At least. For example of what not to do. I'll direct you back to the text and see what i think is. Of all of the sort of tragedies. In this story one of the most underrated knowledge tragedies is lots response. What happens to to his spouse this is. One of the things that like sometimes you don't even notice if then once you do it's really hard to unsee. Analyst at winlock wife turns around and becomes a pillar of salt. What precedes to do. The book doesn't even say that he walks away it doesn't give him any time to deliberate it just moves on. As a lot abandoning his grieving partner was the only obvious choice. This often you know my kid interpreted as well do dog told them not to look back lot of following orders it isn't his fault. If she didn't listen. I see it differently. I see god telling lot and his family not to look back not as being an order exactly but it's being advice. Write as in maybe. Misses last lion guard command you not look back or i will destroy you and more like. You really shouldn't look back because if you do. The grief you feel will be too much and i don't want that. Which is interesting. Right because if we're looking at the bible as literature if we are you know from our unitarian universalist perspective we are looking at this as one of the many. Influences on our faith on a story that we can. Analyze that has affected people for many many years if we look at it in that context and think about god as a literary character. We see this moment. Giving advice as one of god's most. Human moments. Listen to that lens how very human it is to want to protect. The people who you love and care for from something that you cannot really protect them from. How deeply hypocritical at cuz cuz it's pretty rich to say don't look behind you. At this because the thing that i myself am about to do. It's too horrible to watch. Right of red hard not to look at god in this story and say there are so many different. And better ways that literally all of this could have been handled. The same. Think i could have handled this moment with with his spouse in so many different ways. And so. This leads to the question what else could we have done. What what do we do when the people we love are grieving and. Especially what we do when people are grieving and we are grieving with some. We're leaving in a time when so many people around us. Are grieving when so many people including us. Are watching horrible things on full. Befall the people and homes and institutions that we love and when big. Powerful authority figures are telling us that we are better off just looking away than taking an honest look at problems that are ultimately their responsibility. And so. It is now our task as people. Space living in community with each other our task is to figure out how we can be present. With each other even as we are grieving. Even if we are physically apart. So what do you say to a grieving person. How do you respond. When somebody you love has just. Turned toward a painful situation and seems to have become a frozen pillar of their own despair. Because i feel like a lot of us. I've been in this situation. We have come to accompany a person who is feeling like this and if we haven't been in that situation before we're in it now. And it's hard to figure out. How to do it well. Also hard to figure out how we're supposed to read together as a society. When we struggle to know how to grieve together as individuals. And i do not by any means claim to be an expert on how to do this. But. In my time in my ministry i feel like i. You know come up with a couple of things that might be. Useful to all of us right now. The first is to bear in mind. That everybody grieves differently. So everybody is going to need different things that huge part of accompanying a grieving person is not assuming. Did you know what they need no matter how much you know about greece. Yours or other people's and no matter how much you know about that person. So it's. Vitally important to ask. What someone needs and to believe them when they tell you what they need and if they don't know what they need to not try and answer that question for them. But to simply be present. And tell them that you love them. Right saying hey i noticed that you appear to have transformed into a giant pillar of salt. I'm going to stay right here if you'd like. Is there anything that i can do. So we should park. Where are works together right now is to reach out and ask each other what we need and to trust. What. What we hear. You know a huge part of what is going on this this sunday you know part of this was. My beloved friend stephanie may. Calling me. You know a couple of days into the lockdown and saying just wanted to tell you that i love you and you're not alone in memphis and. If there's anything you need i hope you'll call me. Call i just. Loved it because that was. The moment when i felt seen and accompanied. Another important. Thing to think about when you're talking to a grieving person is to try to not fix. The problem that they are having especially if that's not what they asked you for. I feel like we we americans especially we have this really really intense can do attitude. Right like we we american can conceal our our worth as. People as being measured. Based on our ability to overcome obstacles and to work hard and stall problem. But when we're dealing with something like. Grief it's very easy for that attitude to become. Coccyx. Because it is so much more important. Except where a person is. How to try not to get them into a different place before they are ready sometimes a person just needs to be a pillar of salt for a while. You don't have to show up. A chisel them back into a shape that is more familiar and comfortable for you. And sometimes that can also be hard because grieving people are not always their most pleasant cell. Dare i say grieving people can be a bit salty. And that's certainly true in regards this pandemic ice-t. So many people. Hanging out on social media and trying to fix other people's struggles and pointing out all the ways in which other people are not doing their pandemic. Correctly. In the saltiest place that i can imagine and i'm not talking about. People who gather in crowd you know what the signs and the machine guns and don't wear masks in cop on each other with those people are doing is wrong. Because it's never okay to put other people safety at risk. I'm talking more about the people who are getting shamed for. Not suddenly learning how to be a baker or an oil painter. Well they're stuck at home. Or a people who listens to the wrong bad information or a. Bed. The person who unthinkingly out of habit. Their face under their face masks at the grocery store. Are obligations to these people. Door greeting in the back way that they can. It's love and accompany and listen. And that's really all. For the people who are protesting and being destructive it is still necessary for us. You been with compassion and recognize that even if their behavior is unacceptable they're still human beings who have inherent worth and dignity there still people were feeling hurt and lost on our worthy of our love and accompaniment. Interesting to think about. This pandemic is the first global crisis of its kind to happen in the age of social media. And social media is this remarkably unforgiving space. Right social media demands that we be perfect. And it also gives us all permission to be totally uninhibited in our criticisms of each other when someone has dared to be imperfect. Dare to be grieving. Dare2b schumann. Forecast now. Is to do better than that or cast. Look within ourselves and find. Something full of love and grace are chaste. Respond to this crisis in a way that takes everyone's grieving. Seriously. This does not have to be one of the many moments throughout human history where we were confronted with a serious problem and turned on each other when so many of us are finding ourselves feeling frozen and angry. Like a solid pillar constructed of our own tears this can be a moment. When we learn to listen to each other. Our task is not to walk away. What to say. To ask questions. What's love. I can't stop thinking about what would have happened if not and his family had stayed. Would happen if you stood beside his partner if they all stood beside this person that they loved and said i see that you are hurting right now what do you need. What can we do. My friends. I believe that when the history of this time is written. This can be remembered. As a moment. Was. Difficult but also beautiful. Not necessarily because the problem was fixed efficiently not necessarily because we were all. Our very best but because. Even as our bodies were kept apart we learn to love each other. We learn to support and listen to each other we learn ask each other questions. We learn to grieve together. Acknowledge and trippers. That reef together. Move forward. In the spirit of community. Compassion and love.

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FP-20200209-Sermon.mp3

Are sermon today the title. An unabridged right. Comes directly from the fifteenth amendment. Which in its entirety reads section 1. The right of citizens of the united states to vote shall not be denied. Or abridged. By the united states or by any state on account of race. Color. Or previous condition of servitude. Section 2. The congress shall have power to enforce this article. By appropriate legislation. These words seem so strip simple and straightforward. Like the joyful story of voting as told by the cat in the hat in our today's time for all ages. But as we heard in the litany of the history of voter suppression. Black. Voter suppression. As well as in the story of vivian applewhite. Black voting history is anything. It's simple. I could give you more statistics about the rise and voter suppression. Like how more than 30 states introduced voter suppression legislation. Following the record-breaking turnout in 2008. A turnout that i'd reflected the shifting demographics and united states towards more african-american hispanic and asian voters. I could also point out that the 150th anniversary of the 15th amendment was just six days ago. On monday february 3rd. Good rather than talk. Yet about more numbers. I went to focus instead on words. Words like unabridged. And suppression. And frites. I want to talk about the ethics. And yes the theology of voting. In the words. The cat in the hat. Voting gives each of us our own very voice. In our religious tradition we uphold the worth and dignity of every person. Which is another way of saying. That we affirm that every person has their very own voice. This is not simply a political idea. This is about foundational ethical values. Do we ascribe. Worse. Indignity. To every life. Every voice. Or don't we. In 1776 the founding document of our nation declared. 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. That to secure these rights. Governments are instituted among men. Deriving their just powers from the consent. Of the governed. These familiar words with their talk of equality rights and consent echo through our history. Inspiration. In condemnation. From the beginning there was no equality. Rights were not justly recognized. No one bothered with the consent of women. Of enslaved persons. Or if the poor. Not even a hundred years past. Before the union of the states fractured over the meaning of these words. Who is equal. Who has rights. Who is free to consent. Standing among the graves of gettysburg. President lincoln commended the action of those who had died fighting. And challenged his audience to consider their own possible actions. Saying. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. Did this nation under god. She'll have a new birth of freedom. And that the government of the people. By the people. For the people. Shall not perish. From the earth. But which people. Would cover. In the wake of lincoln's words any actions of thousands who fought and died. Formerly enslaved persons won the right to be free. A new and important ways their voices mattered as full person. Not if voiceless fractions. Then. With the action of congress and the ratifying states. The 15th amendment became law. Granting an unabridged right. Devote. Unabridged. A word meaning not cut or shortened. Complete. Not partial voting privileges not sometimes maybe you can vote. Complete. Voting privileges. Accepted in practice the vote was very much abridged. Year-by-year state-by-state new laws and intimidation suppress the black vote. Especially in states where slavery had been legal. And here is another critical word. Suppress. Spelled with two p's. And two s's. The word itself expands as if to forcibly hold your tongue and your voice and it's control. Suppress. 1 dictionary define suppressants. To prevent the development. Action or expression. The feeling impulse idea etc. Restraint. Such language suggests the relatively polite endeavor. A gently quieting a wiggling kidnap you. Or even subduing our own urges to slip out of a boring meeting. Don't we all know this kind of balance between our own inner desires and external actions. Such a notion of suppressed seems like a common sense part of life. Smiled really. Be expected. Good-looking again a different dictionary says. Suppress. Forcibly put. An into. Example. The uprising was savagely suppress. This depression is the taunt the blows the officers in uniform on the edmund pettus bridge in selma. This depression is the burning of crosses in the insidious jim crow laws dividing people on the basis of race. Such suppression 62 silence voices such suppression means to abridge the rights of a person. To put an end to the ideas of equality. When we speak of voter suppression today. What do we mean by suppressed. If we only think of voter suppression as overt acts of violence. We missed a quiet bureaucratic acts of voter id laws. Redrawing voter districts. Cleaning up. Borderless. Do we only notice the images of the past. Or can we see the suppression happening today. Do we see voter id laws as a common-sense request. Or is the equivalent of a twenty-first-century poll tax that must be paid. To vote. It is black history month. But the past refuses to stay behind us. The questions remain. Which people govern. Whose rights are respected. Whose voice is consent. Whose voice is resist. Protest. Condemn. Plutax. To ensure the government of the people by the people for the people. Shall not perish. From the earth. Such questions are not the past but the present. Innocence toric week of words and action. The senate voted on articles of impeachment against president trump. The votes of those senators determined the course of our nation. The votes of the people who put those senators in office shaped the direction of our country. It was a vote that will have consequences for what happens next at our borders in our court and to our planet. We may not be senators with the right to vote on the articles of impeachment. But many of us are citizens with the right to vote on who will govern. Voting still has power. If it did not. There would not be such efforts to undermine who votes. Politics are a system shaped again and again by votes. The power of the people lies in. The vote. In case you doubt this. Or lost touch with a vital importance of voting. Then i encourage you to go in search of more statistics in stories. Learn about the organizing post-2008 to discourage non-white voters to multiple means. Watch the short film suppressed. On youtube or a local viewing. Stream the new documentary rigged. From various online sources. Or read the newly released book uncounted the crisis of voter suppression in america by gilda daniels. What is at issue is not simply winning elections or replacing one elected official with another. What is at issue is safeguarding the unabridged right to vote. The consent to be covered. And the vision of equality that gives each person a voice. Without regard. Of race. Color sex or gender. Fighting voter suppression is about the ethics of whose voice matters. And the theological values of the worth and dignity of every person. It is about loving our neighbors. A complete person with voices that have a right. To be counted. But we cannot. Simply stopped. A declarations of pretty platitudes of love. Author activist austin channing brown decries love that is aloof and inconsequential. Rather brown calls for a love that is a moral obligation. Brown rice that she needs quote. A love that is troubled by injustice. I love that is provoked to anger. When black folks including our children. Lie dead in the streets. I love that is no longer concerned with tone because it is concerned with life. I need a love that is fierce and its resilience and sacrifice. I need a love that chooses justice. Like lincoln standing at gettysburg calling for action in the wake of great violence. Brown points to the streets today and asked for us to act. With justice. Will react. Ours is not a tradition in which i as your minister can proclaim what you must do to be good and ethical persons. Our tradition counsels each of us to be ethically responsible for the way in which we live. Whether we at. Why we act and for whom we take action. Are ethical choices we each face. If you wish to act on the issue of voter suppression. Starting today we will be hosting and sponsoring multiple events between now and the next election to vote. Fight voter suppression. Today's voting suppression techniques continue to largely impact african-americans. As well as other people of color. As such. Voting. Fighting voter suppression. Not only affirmed the dignity of each person's voice. But also seeks the justice and equality promised in a 15th amendment 150 years ago. Mavis not be mere platitudes. Me we act in ways that have. Consequences. May we love others in ways that are fierce and ready to sacrifice. Perhaps starting with giving 20 minutes or an hour today writing postcards. Whose voice will we protect. Who's equality. Is abridged. Whose rights are being suppressed. Maybe keep asking these questions. As we answer. In action. So maddie.

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FP-20200419-Sermon.mp3

On april 22nd. 1970. From that day has sprouted 50 years of celebration. And more importantly. A movement to protect and sustain z years. In jets. When we are talking about the earth. 50 years is but a speck of time. Recently i have been reading the 2019 pulitzer prize-winning novel the overstory by robert powers. The opening chapters eats tell the story of one family. Then the stories merge into a narrative about a group of activists fighting to save ancient trees and forest. In the first chapter yorgan whole a young man in love. Proposes beneath the blossoms of chestnut street. Free in nineteenth-century new york city. Touching a handful of nuts into his pocket. Golden lampstand in his iowa homestead a few years later. One of these trees grows into its full maturity. Spawning a multi-generational project of taking a picture of the tree. On the 21st day. Of every month. The decades have hundreds of photos pile up into a flipbook. As the great-great-grandson of georgia pool holds the photos in his hands. Powers right. It's his birthright. The whole emblem. No other family in a company had a tree like the whole tree. No other family in iowa could match the multi-generational photo project for pure. And jack's. You don't seem swore never to say where the project was going. Neither his grandparents nor his father could explain to him the point of the sick. Lookbook. His grandfather said. I promised my father and he promised to. But another time from the same man. Makes you think different about things doesn't it. It did. Life from the point of view of an old tree can make you think different about things. Living as we are the moments coronavirus we too are thinking differently about many things. In fact we are able to stop and think. We are still so deep in the moment of crisis is the curve in massachusetts continues to rise the date of the projected predicted crest shifting from one day to the next. Lately the little disclaimer subject to change. No longer feels like a just-in-case possibility. But rather like a repeating baseline venise everyday. Shifting circumstances reminds me of the infamous adage. Nothing is certain except for death and taxes. And yet. We also live within rhythms of nature that do bring a kind of certainty. The sun rises and sets on another day. The moon waxes and wanes. Gravity holds. Seasons flow from one to the next. We wait for the springtime return songbirds we revel in somers bourbon throat. The haunts of northern geese alert us the rising still in the air. Ice and snow will soon follow. Cr2 is change. We cannot be certain about weather patterns. Will this winter be mild. Or than normal. What's crested patterns weekend as so-called 100 year old storms appear one after the other. Yes the weather has always had variation in cheney. New uncertainties were predicted. The decades-long work of noticing. New counters. What's the human impact. The rising carbon. The prediction of a changing environment with present on that first earth day 50 years ago. It is similar way. The expert paying attention. Predicted the arrival of a global pandemic. But who was really listening. Beyonce experts. Who among us expected this. As new englanders we'd like to think we're good at preparing for crazies nor'easters and power outages it lasted for days. We know the drill. Stock up on food and water bikes puzzles. It seems this would be just like that right. And now we know. It is so much more than that. Bouncy defend the boston marathon. But the date was changed to september. In 124 years only once before was the race impacted. In 1918. At the end of world war 1 in the rise of the spanish flu. The marathon shifted to a relay race. Tomorrow. The beloved race once again falls prey to a virus. Big changes can begin for the smallest resources. In the early 20th century another small horse was bringing big change. Century millions of american chestnuts still covered the eastern seaboard. 25% of the tree cover in the appalachian mountains were said to be. These massive trees with their straight trunks and abundant nuts rough fundamental part of the us economy. Fungal spores very deadly disease had already begun to spread. Soon all the hansels trees would be gone. Even the forest in the mountains. Our subject. 2 chainz. Nonetheless. Is all change bat. Organizers of the first earth day conceived with an annual event dedicated to the earth. 18 not only how we mark april 22nd. How society began to conceive of its relationship to the earth. In recognizing the very youtube ility of ecosystems. Environment environmentalist movement called for us to pay attention to the kinds of changes we were affected. Even now in an effort to promote a more sustainable flourishing of life on earth. We are called to make changes in our system. And in our choices. The change is not simply bad or good. Change simply is. Earlier you heard an adaptation of the words of james baldwin. For nothing sticks. Forever and forever and forever. It is not fixed. The earth is always shifting the life is always changing. Christie does not cease to grind down route. Generations do not cease to be born. And we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. We are witnesses today. When experience that will change generations. We do not yet know the impact upon her children youth and young adults learning from home. Nor do we know the impact on the economy. All the unemployed adults. All retirees with diminished savings. But we do know. Is it like sea grinding down rock. These days of quarantine. And social distancing are leaving their mark. Some days the impact feels entirely. Manageable. Extended brake as if it were from a snowstorm. Another day. I find myself laughing at some clever coronavirus charity. Omega start crying. Poignancy of some newly realized law merging in my. Even if we change our routines and expectations to sit this new reality. We are still within. The crisis. This way of being. Is not normal. This you will. Change. For nothing. Specs. It is hard to not predict it is hard to not be able to predict. When it will change for how. It is hard to not be able to plan for summer or even false. No number of staff paper. I will roll or. Completed puzzles. We'll make up for how hard it is to wait. Did not know that. Directions. Which is why i like spending time with trees. Trees help me. Something different. As you may know today april 19th is the day teacher has battled english and concord and lexington. You might have her drink a we had fights and trouble show up unexpectedly outside celebrated. And a group of local re-enactors would have gathered at 3 a.m.. After pulling a muster of troops of musketeer and at the herd house before heading north to join the battle of lexington and concord. Actually they stop for donuts between railings and talk. Understandable what's on the morning. At the time of that battle. Mini of the weirdest places around us would have been clear-cut for farmland. There are exceptions of course like the 250 year-old oak standing across the street from where i am. Distri. Likely witness general not bringing his cannons before ticonderoga to fight the british in boston. Humble. As living reminder that i'm asking. Like this fictional holtry. These old trees are witnesses to the human generations that come and go. Beneath their canopy. Just as we are witnesses the remnant of stonewalled one smart. Feels. Ingress quietly now in regal grown forest. We are part of the relay race of human generations leaving their mark. Birthday tasks to consider. What kind of mark. Will weaver leave upon disburse. Perhaps like no earth day before we are keenly aware of the interconnected web of life. End of disease. We are biological creatures whose lives intersect with our environment. And we are social creatures to so few economic system have unjustly left. Poor and people of color disproportionately vulnerable to economic hardship. Severe illness. And even down. Indeed some have argued that practices of environmental racism have contributed to the underlying conditions in communities of color. That are now manifesting in higher death rates. Even in the midst house prices. We see how our environmental choices in packs. Flourishing of life. For many of us living as we do and leaky stuber. You live among the trees which are beginning to reawaken to spring. I recently read a funny memes at suggested if we're missing hugs in this era of social distancing perhaps we could become a tree-hugger instead. Perhaps hugging a tree. Or at least sitting beneath it and gazing upon it. A source has. Deeply rooted. And flexible enough to sway in the changing winds. Trees provide a model of how to live season after season in times of recurring change. Perhaps paying attention to trees. Or another aspect of nature. Might just help us think differently. As we approach the 50th birthday celebration this thursday. This wednesday. My hope is that we continue to think different. About the patterns of our life in our society. And as we do so. Maybe try to eat a pound of boundless love in our lives as we imagine ways to work together. The help life. Just linked flourish. So maybe.

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FP-20190915-Sermon.mp3

After a childhood of weekly church attendance at least. As a young adult. Began to waver. A sociologist of religion would call would have called me a some. Sometimes i went to church specially run holidays or when visiting my parents. I said once read i treated religion a bit like it was. The goode family china to be used only on special occasions. Then place behind glass doors. Honestly this was even the state of things when i enrolled in seminary in the fall of 1996. Well i had a deep love of religious questions. Not in fact have a denominational affiliation. Beyond the occasional weekday chapel service at the seminary. I did not actually attend church services. Then came my wedding. Between the first semester and the second. Then came the news that i was pregnant. And a leave of absence. And then came the abusive marriage with its verbal blows. Andeavor tightening circle of control. Still. I did not attend church. The church i had grown up and taught me to stay married. But marriage was for life. They had taught me to value family preserve family values. I made a bargain with myself. I would stay. In my marriage. Unless i felt my spirit. Is about to die. What did that mean. Tumi. My spirit. I actually believe that some invisible living essence inhabited my flesh and body. Not really. Although this is one definition of the term spirit. We do speak of spirits in a religious sense of unseen powers and presences. Relatedly liquor is sometimes referred to as spirits. And anyone who's involved a bit too much can testify to their unseen power to inhabit one's mind body. And we also speak of school spirit. Or comment that a happy humming child is in good spirits today. It's a slippery term spirit. And with its religious connotations. It can carry a lot of baggage. For me spirits. In the corresponding terms spirituality. Points to the inner world of a person's sense of self. Of motivation and meaning. When i worried about my spirit dying. I feared becoming an entirely passive being. Reacting to the expectations and demands of my day. I feared losing that inner sense of me. With your feelings dreams and longings to have my life matter. Perhaps you've also found yourself feeling like that at some point in your life. Or may even be feeling something like that now. In the end i did leave my marriage in fact over 20 years next month. As it turned out being able to leave required not only my will for a better life. It also required multiple. Communities of support. My family. Some friends from work. And. A church. Boss still in my marriage but clearly unhappy my parents encouraged me to attend the notoriously liberal church in town. Even though they were still conservative christians. Think about that. He cared more about the welfare of their daughter. Then they did their feel logical purity. And they were right. I walked into that sanctuary of that liberal church one sunday. And my breath.. Short. And that sweeping architecture and the friendly faces i remember deep in my bones that another way of living was possible. Kindness. Generosity. These were all part of the dna of a church like this. Fortunately is a liberal church i also found a community that actively engage the mind. Welcome lgbtq folks in fact because i went as a single woman and usually sat with another single woman. In the section where a lot of lesbians sat there were assumptions made. And that was fine with me. They also openly questioned the christian tradition there was no judgment for my impending divorce rather than silence my questions i was invited into book discussions workshops and worship services that wrestled with a contradictions in scripture and how religion might be relevant today. What if that church had not been there. I share my story not because it's extraordinary. Because it one of many like it. Except that too many do not find their way back to religion. For years the pew research center has been tracking the rise of those who do not identify. With any religious affiliation or nuns as they are commonly called. In 2007 16% of adult americans identified as nuns. 7 years later in 2014 23% were nuns. That's a 7% increase in seven years of the adults. American population. When broken down by age groups the rise of nuns is even more stark. For example in the 2014 survey. But only 17% of baby boomers identified as nuns. A full 34 to 36% of millennials. Identified as nuns. When asked why they do not choose to identify with a religion. The number one reason for nuns was. I questioned a lot of religious teachings. The second top reason was. I didn't like the positions churches take on social and political issues. Other reasons include. I don't like religious organizations. I don't believe in god. Religion is irrelevant to me. And. I don't like religious leaders that one. When you think about those who you know who do not belong to religious organization do these reasons sound familiar. But here we are i'm preaching not just to the choir but to everyone in the fuse. Why do we who are sitting in the relative religious building on a sunday morning need to hear about this. Firstly. I think it's simply important to understand what is happening in the us religious landscape. There are simply more and more people of all ages but especially younger adults who reject which religious affiliation. As you may already know many u.s. religious denominations are seen a sizable drop off and numbers and shuttering of buildings. What are unitarian universalist association is doing okay nationally. We too have seen a small decline from the height in 2002 until today. Significantly the drop-in the religious education numbers has been far more steep. Denis adult numbers. But more than rod numbers. I'm interested in the reasons why we are seeing this trend. Better understand i read the book tusing our religion the spiritual lives of americas. By elizabeth drescher. Has multiple examples of a mini ways that nuns do chart their own spiritual path. Just not necessarily affiliated with organized religion. Some of these people identify as spiritual-but-not-religious sbnr. Others drescher describes and sums those who stayed somewhat connected to religious institution. But staying on the sidelines. In the book grace without god the search for meaning purpose and belonging in a secular age. Journalist catherine ozment prisa's the story of her life as a nun. Raised lutheran. Austin struggles with how to raise her kids to be ethical. And i have a sense of belonging. Without religion. Enter searching she talks with multiple scholars including sociologist robert putnam. Putnam tells her that research suggests that the rise and disaffiliation. Is a reaction to the rise of the religious right. She quotes putnam who told her. Just as the religious right was reacting to the sixties. Your generation was reacting against jerry falwell. It's as if this generation said. If religion is just about homophobia and abortion and if to be religious means to be republican i'm out of here that's not me. Cheeriness. I wonder what people think when they drive by our classic white stifel to church. Of course we have a rainbow flag flying upfront and last fall we had two huge signs and support of transgender rights. But i suspect that for many people. These expressions just puzzle them. An object's position for what they think happens in old white steeple churches. Even if a person has heard that unitarian-universalism is really liberal. Or different. You can still be really hard to walk through that door. Whatever a person's religious background or lack of religious background it can be daunting to walk into an unknown space even. For only an hour. Although invisible. I imagine we actually all walk through the door carrying all kinds of religious baggage as well as some kind of longing that lettuce here for the first time or the thousand. Time. Do you know why you are here today. Can you name what you need. From a congregation like this. From a liberal religious tradition. Like ours. As you heard in the reading. Aspen and her friends named what they valued about religion. Blogging community. History ritual. And pre-packaged believes that gave meaning and purpose. To life. She then quickly becomes a litany of criticisms. Too awfully this. Staunchly religious promulgated outmoded ideas of gender sexual orientation encouraged us and them tribalism. And help congregants to stringent. Rights and dogma. Reading this i want to shake the book and say no no not all religions are like that we're not like that. Is it that simple. On the one hand we are an open and exclusive community and ways that many more conservative traditions are not. And while we may inevitably fall short again and again and living into the fullness of our values. We hold fast to the vision and try to keep learning what it means to live or just lie and equitably. Nor do we hold people to a. Cradle tester believes we are a mix of atheists agnostics and believers in the god of our understanding. We show up for each other with rides and potluck dishes. Cards and expressions of concern. And we show up for others with meals to the homeless shelter rallies against injustice and so much more. Who we are and that we are. Matters in many ways to individuals families and to the wider community. And yet. We are still sitting in an old steepled building. With routes that link us in structure and culture to a white protestant christianity. But still shapes how we worship. When we gather. And how we cover. So how do we navigate a path that honors. What is the best of our history. Also responding to the changing religious landscape. How do we respect varied longings which bring each of us here. Some of which may and fat conflict. I believe that unitarian-universalism in general and first parish in particular are well-positioned to respond to the changing religious landscape. Although rising numbers of people may be leaving their religious affiliation and their belief in god. I believe that is human beans. We are by nature spiritual creatures. Which is to say i believe that we have longings for community. For purpose. For sense of connection to something larger than ourselves. Something we may or may not name god. 1640. We have existed. To meet these religious spiritual and sometimes material needs a people. On our little spot on the planet. This mission remains in 2019. The needs remain. In 2019. But the language. The forms. And means of meeting these needs. Continue to evolve. Fortunately we're okay with evolution here. Is unitarian universalist. We don't often talk about religious ideas like salvation. Ben closing i want to suggest that walking through the doors of a liberal church. Saved. At a time in my life when i was suffering and alone. I found hope and community in a church. It's why i am still part of a religious community. It is why i think this is a wonderful day and my spirit is alive in. Full of feeling. To be with all of you. And i am so glad that each of you. Are here. Following your reasons to walk through the door. And i am so glad that we. Are here. Evolving twenty-first-century religious community. Trying to find its way. As we search together for meaning. Purpose. And belonging. In a secular. So mandy.

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FP-20150222-Sermon-Loud-red.mp3?_=6

Michigan. As an evangelical christian. I grew up sunday morning. My life. And bedtime. Language of christian terminated my life. Again and again in prayer year after year. However after.. Jackie. Andhra language of god. In christianity. My 13 finally let me. Can i surprise the question of god language re-emerged in my first week. A ministerial intern. I learned on sunday. I stared at my supervisor. The what. A prayer. I have to pray. Realize that where is i have been. I in fact had not been called upon to pray and many many years. My problem. I didn't know how to begin. No longer work. Understanding. Ipod in wondered. Can i become an atm without even noticing. My decades of questioning and searching for relevant frameworks of religious understanding were not haphazard wandering. Contrary. Along the way i learned about new in god. Grounded inversions of god-given. It's not compassionate and socially just relationships with. Then to the radicals of liberation theology. I learned god if it's working. Project is one that has very material. What i did. About the nature of god. Consider seeing god bless less as a divine person. At what refers to as the ground of being. I hear similar expression of this idea in the words of fourth church who wrote. What's a god or person to be named. Dimension of the universe that we encounter. Auto. With cod. Do an exploration of the idea. National nonsense you experience of comprehensible mystery of the holy. And fascination. I heard. When i started to work. Describe the origins of religion. Name. In nature. And in wilderness. Work. I scored the interaction of religious beliefs. Contact. Religion. I asked how ideas of gender and religious beliefs interact with each other. Men and women. For example. The male is god. In other words. What we believe about god and religion. Can have profound impact on how we organize our social system. Critical analysis of religion gender and culture. I learn how patterns of social inequality. Intersect. Interact with each other. Which religion. If you notice by just point in the story the language of god has dropped out. Indeed. In god or one personal thing. Rap about religion. About what. Either or object. Addressing your own. I studied and wrote about religion. Again. Church affiliated with. I knew all the hymn. Optional. I could enjoy the religious culture of my youth. Without having to extend to any of those tests your logical claims about god or christianity that i couldn't agree with. So now we're back at week 1. Pray. Pray. What do i address my prayer. If i wasn't praying for person named god. We all knew that. But i downloaded a lot of ideas. I did so for two reasons. 1. I don't think that i'm alone. A range of ideas of god. I suspect many of you have asked more questions. Is god a person. From us. About in this world. Are the most vulnerable. How can i believe in the idea of a divine person with uber. Especially when. And so much ron in the world. Maybe it's just part of humans and other cook and time. We're trying to make the best of where we found ourselves. Maybe there is no such person named god. Universe. Settings to draw for the particular scent of a good. Compassion. Harmony. Or justice. Maybe there is a mystery greater than all. Question. I know that they're likely even more varieties of such questions in this room and certainly in public discourse. Question. Over the last few years of becoming a unitarian universalist minister. Struggle with answering that question. I tried to show. I do not think that reducing the complexity of how to understand and neymar experience of the universe. Just pick one. What it would look like. Wherever we may. I want to consider. Or an atheist. Context of god except. Or don't. Believer. For rather long time. Especially in moments prayer or instruments. I suspected mini. And that many of you have. Identity. Here. Around language of god i knew that at some point i would have to pick up and weigh-in. Here we are. Waters of god. I reached for the word church as a lifeline. Name. Is one who grew up. Not hard. Years of study and alternate concepts of god. Still referred person. Evangelical christian understanding. In order to. That's all-powerful all-knowing personal god who i needed to please an okapi. That. I don't believe in. Back on patterns and hierarchy. I didn't say. Seeking to avoid. Overlooking the pacific ocean. Sandy shores of lake michigan. Spiritual places for me. Crashing waves in dancing moonlight. My spirit. Spiritual muscle flex. I felt forest church described as the highest power we can imagine. That which is greater than all and that present can eat. I'm feeling myself connected. More. Permeate life in existence. And over the years. Four different language what i have felt in such moments. I have referred to the holy spirit. The wonder of life. Or simply. Weighted into a debate. Arguing for the need to move beyond the gender binary of male and female. Express in any one way. Accordingly. Best weight. Expression. Understand. And atheism binary of language for god. Rather we need to explore new and better way. Breasts are biggest question about god. The nature of the universe. And our relationship. Challenges. The understanding of god. World. Bi-rite. In creating a life of meaning and purpose. Understanding of god as well. A prayer and meditation nearly every week. I was forced to wrestle with. I addressed my words. Connect. In dynamic. Within and beyond the congregation. When i pray. I am addressing greater than all and that present can eat. And when i pray. In ways that i find terrifying. And fascinating. My hope for all of us. What we do not know. About. Call wife.

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FP-20141130-Sermon-red.mp3?_=6

Is one of my most favorite. Value being acceptable and organized. I also struggled to my email my calendar. Ocean of distraction that. Anyone else. Restaurant. And the value of rec. I saved them in a folder and pencils and a sermon about start of a holiday season. Calendar events in gathering shopping and celebrating. Now seemed like a good moment to remind ourselves of the need to take a break. Indeed. Daydreaming in other mental break. More productive. In a copper demands a lot from us and our brain. Reset button in your brain. Neuroscientist david levithan write quotes. According to a 2011 study. 174 nuke-proof worth of information. Times as much as we did in 1986. Is the world's 20 1274 television produced from 85,000 hours of programming every. A day. 999 hours of new video just posted. We simply cannot process all this information. Must make choices about which information we will listen to watch read or tentative our attention. Information. Cars with 42 miles of possibilities to assemble our own collection of ideas and information. Amounts of information. Overwhelmed and no little bit of exhaustion. In response. Information. Play fox news only npr. Are we together. How do we live. That is so infatuated with information. Always something we might be missing. Weather some breaking news story. So everyone is talking about. Or new study that finally has figured out what we should or should not be eating. Research children information saturated society. Would it be mean to know to be able to live with in such a world. And if you are a kid or a teen growing up in such a world. How do you know what information really matter. How do you know what to try. Different points of view with each other. And now you're looking at me for answers right. What i can tell you. Is that i believed answering these questions requires more than time management techniques. Or other technical fixes. Orient oneself or your children floods of information and possibility. Requires a sense of direction. Perfect. Commitment. When i worked at robitaille quest bring the catholic catherine sister nancy program. Short quotes. It said. Overextended. To be under committed. To be overextended. City under committed. Extended. It's challenged me to consider that i cannot do it all. It reminded me to make choices. Commitment. What matters most in my life. Or put it another way. Knowing what i was committed to a neighbor me a better writer. An editor of my choices. Express the same idea. Buddhist monk. I really picked all the. Language issues that i can't pronounce today. Look at your wife in the same way. Attic. What you're going to throw away. You're moving from a house with a large attic. Small trailer to make the move. In the trailer to you. In other words. You've got to give up. In order to have time for the things that really make a difference. What days and what guard is not. Easy to do. Can help bring clarity about what really matter. We have to learn how to make choices. Have to learn how to resist resist the narrative within our culture. Extended. Normal. Bright. And let's call it what it is at. Seriously destructive to our health and our well-being. Family. From forming the kind of community that we all like rain. Being busy. Overextended. A problem. Spiritual problem. So much to do. Laverne. Be aware of in our world. And we will not ever know or experience at all. Advance. Okay. Trying to do in exhausted. An overwhelmed. I know i've tried. Another way. It starts with a commitment to yourself. To you. To remember that you are a human. Not a human doing. Our sense of worth and simply tools. Are person of interest karen. Important. Important. The busiest person with the longest to-do list remote on a female. The most valuable person. Weather in rather obvious. What we do. Is what makes us valuable. People are more important. Contacts. It can be very hard to say no. Are kids activities. Why do that. Here's the problem in doing too much. In the dark. What it means to be human. Reflection using. Moments are crucial for remind you know. Remember that we are capable of great love. Construction. Creative inspiration. Moments of being a komondor and imagine a different world. A better world. When were caught in the endless cycles of email. Project. An errand. We can easily forget. Supreme. And when we forget. It is. Open the possibility of pain. F1. For many in our nation. Michael brown. Pw meaning of it and tired. Patterns of racial injustice in our country. More. I think it's a predominantly white. We have a lot to do in learning about racial injustice. And how it continues to different powers so many. Imagine we will. Or how we will. If we're so busy. My own life i had meetings on tuesday evening that conflicted with the rally in boston that i'd hoped to attend. View. What can i do to respond in a meaningful way to ferguson and the ongoing legacies of racial injustice. Equality or chronic pain. Do something. I don't want to get. Nancy's words echo in my head. The overextended is to be under committed. I don't want to be so overextended. Don't have the time. To make the world a better place. Today. Not answering emails on weekends and taking nap. Which are all good things. Respond to the gift. Start by asking each other. How is the state of your heart today. My heart hurts. It hurts to the mothers and fathers who have to tell their black son. Debate. It hurts the police who have to do their job. It hurts to the legal justice system. It hurts for our society where the status quo includes repeated acts of gun violence. Racial imbalance in incarceration rate. And rising economic inequality. My heart is full of joy. Because i'm human. Alive. In and out. Simply connect a new with the gift of life. Driving to work memes going to farmland and pass the shimmering waters of walden pond. I love being part of multiple families here in boston and farther away in michigan. And i love being a part of multiple community. Ministers of unitarian universalist church parents in wayland. I am extremely. Thankful. Taking time to remember these gifts in troy. I remember the life is important not because of doing. Ecards of being. And so my heart hurt. When i think about desire to simply alive. R4030. Violence. Candy of mobile weather. 4life. Respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Our commitment. How to orient one's life. Commitment. Slow of unending information to live in information saturated / 0. What are you committed. Matter. What really matters in your life. I remember. And asking the congregation to audit value. Iphone. If you were to audit your email. Your webster to social media and your calendar. What would it say about your value. What review. Matter to you. What are we doing. When we find ourselves. In our self or in another. Let us try to remember ahmad sausage words and christian response. I know of. We all are. I want to know how your heart is doing. We all find ways to resist the dizziness. Everything to listen to our own heart. And father. Making the time to simply be. Epic dream about. To a better world.

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FP-20150524-Sermon-red.mp3?_=6

So reading today is about the five sacred mountains in china. Specifically tyshawn. It's a poem by unist hutchins. Susan earliest 20th century american poet and editor who traveled extensively. Titled the most sacred mountain. Space in the 12 clean winds of heaven. In the shark exultation like a cry. After the 6000 steps of climbing. This is tai shan. The most beautiful. The most holy. Foothills nestle. Brown with flecks of green. And lower down the flat brown plane. The floor of the earth. Stretches away to blue infinity. Beside me in this area space. Across the sky. And 1 blackbirds circles above the void. And the 12 clean winds are here. And wisdom broods eternity. A swift white piece. Presence manifest. The rhythm faeces here. Time has no place. This is the end that has no end. When confucius came. A half a thousand years both of the nazarene. He stepped with me thus into timelessness. Bastogne fascitis waxes old. Carving stone that says on this spot once confusus stood. Expelled the smallness of the world below. The stones grow old. Eternity is not for stones. But i shall go down from this area place. This with white piece. This stinging exultation. In time will close about me. And my soul stir to the rhythm of the daily round. It having known. Life will not press so close. And always i shall seal time-travel thin about me. Once i stood in the white windy presents. Eternity. Very important sermon to me. It is the sermon slightly revised that i gave to the ministerial fellowship committee. For my final interview to become a unitarian universalist minister. The requirement is that it only be 10 minutes which is why today on a holiday weekend we get a shorter service. And i chose to use it both because i thought it was timely for. The theme of remembrance and time. And also because it gave me a little extra time on the holiday weekend. What does extra time to good use and when i spent yesterday hiking up a mountain mount monadnock in new hampshire. It's been a long time since i went hiking and i found the experience both physically challenging. And spiritually renewing. Growing up in michigan. I had not seen many mountains until my family and i went on a trip to canadian rockies. Most of my family vacation to the kid involved a pop-up camper and state campgrounds. So this year was a big deal my dad had received a bonus from work and so we had a little extra money took a big trip from michigan to seattle. We took a bus across the canadian border where we boarded the train. In vancouver. I'd love to. The train. At sixteen i was allowed to venture alone to the dome observatory car. Passing mountains the towered above and all around. Born and raised in michigan. This was my first encounter with wild craggy snow-topped mountains. Nor had i ever seen such a vast wilderness and expansive terrain of steep pine covered slopes. Difference in b-flat hardwood forests and cleared farmland of michigan. Alberta. We visited a small museum of the canadian rockies. In the exhibits i found in early 20th century photograph mountaineers. With a wide expanse of glacier rising up behind them. They seem so small. So fragile within that scene. I brought. Today for you to look at. Beside. The image. It was a little plaque. With a poem by eunice tetons. Stone grows old. Eternity is not for stones. I shall go down from this white's this ares space the swift white piece this stinging exultation. In time will close about me. And my soul sister to the rhythm of the daily round. Unravel send about me. For once i stood in the white windy presence of eternity. The image in vancouver. In view of those rugged in men's mountains. The invincibility of my adolescent self had been tempered. I felt myself to be small. I felt the world to be full of wonder of beauty of a shivering sense of sacred presence. In the longer poem by tetons she described her visit to the sacred mountain of thai in china. She talks about climbing 6000 stairs to reach the temple at the mountain peak. She described the timeless sacredness of this place. Noting that confucius had been there half a thousand years before the nazarene. Jesus. We are. 100 years instead tunes column first appeared in print. Or she might say 1/10 of a thousand years. Choosing how to mark. A name time. Is something we humans do a lot in our lives. Is memorial day weekend is one example of marking time. As we pause an irregular routines to remember those. Crip died in service to this country. And in about a month. . time again on the 4th of july. To mark the declaration of independence of this nation. Wheel of marking time. Not so much on the birthday fit into 0. Whether or not. We want it. Two or not. Time can pass so quickly. Starchild is toddling on unsteady legs. And the next day that that child is driving and moving away. Are are face in the mirror is smooth. And the next year deep clean lines grace our face time can pass so quickly and so we set aside times when we pause. When we try to stop time if only for a moment. And stay here now. Is the time. When my child was born. Play radar love to each other. When we lost a loved one on to death. We stopped time for a moment. We are still. And we remember. We also marked i'm through holidays. We set aside time to remember here now this is the time. When we remember the thousands of lives lost two wars fought. Now is the time. When a group of political leaders took a step to fulfill their dream of a self-directed nation. Get it can be too easy to forget why he's as special. A secret. In some way. We find ourselves instead racing to get ready for the holiday. With chips and watermelon to buy. Grills to clean. Cars 2 demo. Don't you just sometimes want to say. Stop. Quiet. For a moment of stillness. 4 time to just be. Presents. Like here and now. As we're gathered together in this sacred space. In the stillness of the systolic sanctuary. We're here together because we are called to be here. To engage in the sacred work of naming. What matters. To seek truth and freedom. And in the spirit of love. To experience a sense of connection to the holy. And one another. By uniting and worship. Community. And service. We are here to nurture this rich unitarian universalist tradition in which so many. Only on temple mountaintops. But also in the here and now. Even in this here and now. Quiet sunday morning. On the corner of cochituate and boston post road. When i first read tetons poem as a young woman of 16. Journey of finding my way to name his presence of eternity. Or as i might say today as a unitarian universalist. This presents a holy the sacred ground of our being. At 16 though i was still an evangelical christian. In my language for the holy was rooted in that tradition. If i was being changed by the experience of being in the mountains. Feeling so small. In a world that was bigger and more wondrous than i had ever imagined. I believe texans visit to mount as well. Moreover. Red anjou. As well. Experiences. A feeling small in a wondrous world. For stealing time itself with its daily demands ravel away. I believe that when we experience this kind of secret presents. However we might choose to name it. We are often brought to a place of stillness. And in this stillness we are reminded a new. Did the rhythm of the everyday round of weight eat email sleep repeat. Is not all there is tonight life. When we mark time by celebrating birthdays or holidays. By participating in weddings for memorial services. Dallas to begin worship. Or sitting together in a moment of silence. Sacred presence to remind us all that there is more to life than the daily. Ground round. Remind is all. Goodlife is a sacred. In wondrous gifts. To help me remember my journey on that train. I copied the poem into a small turtle. And bought the poster of the image with mountaineers. Since i was 16. This framed poster has been with me. I have lived. When i look at it. I remember the poem as well as the mountains. I have not forgotten the feeling of myself infinitely small admits the swirling grandeur. Holy presence greater than all. I've hung on to that picture to remind me of this holy presence. From an evangelical christian dorm room. Do a living room that witnessed a difficult marriage. To a cambridge apartment as i read theories of religion. To my home now beside a forest. Ray find a connection to the holy. My hope is that we each. Find hold on to our own ways of reminding ourselves of our experiences of the sacred. End of time raveling sin. As we connect to something more. Send the daily round-up to deuce.

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FP-20150913-Homily.mp3?_=6

So in the spirit of new beginnings i have to tell you that we're trying an experiment here going to try and preach off the ipad this year so. If i suddenly get very confused is because something disappeared but we're going to try and save some trees and that print things out so. Precise thinking about water sunday. Today. I was thinking about thirst. And this idea for what do you thirst came to mind. What is the thirstiest. That you have ever felt. You know the feeling a sense of urgency. Even desperation. As you reach for the glass and begin to golf as soon as your lips connect. Satisfaction. At least. Until the next time you're thirsty. Thirst is an ongoing part of our lives. Because water is essential. To our health. We need water to survive. And our thirst. Is a simple reminder of that fact. Get water is not all that we thirst for. Metaphorically we thirst for many things which we desire. Love. Or need. For what do you thirst. And her poem thirst mary oliver rights. Another morning. And i wake with thirst for the goodness i do not have. Another morning. And i wake with thirst. The goodness i do not have. Her poem then goes on to describe her unquenched thirst. For the study of the goodness of the world. She's thirsty to learn and experience more of the earth and the god who she says deeply loves. What do you thirst. What do you love that compels you into a long meandering journey of delight and exploration. Discovery and deepening. As we begin this year of gathering together as a congregation. I'd like for us to explore this question of thirst over the coming weeks and months. In suggesting this metaphor of thirst. I want us to tap into our thirst is a way to connect with our hopes and our dreams for our own life as well as for our families. Our congregation. And our shared world. What is arthur's telling us about what we need. Are we parked for more stillness in our lives. Or we belonging to be more engaged. In actions that make the world a better place. Or maybe you're only aware. But you are thirsty for something. But you're not quite sure what. Mala literal thirst reflects a bodily need for water. I believe that a metaphorical first can be examined as a clue to our spiritual needs. Madina group of diverse people with a range of religious backgrounds and beliefs i suspect some of you wiggle a little bit when i use the word spiritual. To let me assure you that when i use the term spiritual i am not in visiting envisioning spirits in the sense of ghosts or supernatural beings. Rather when i think of the word spiritual. I'm thinking about our inner lives. Our consciousness of ourselves in the world around us. Are mindfulness of life. Our awareness of living. Is spiritual beans. I believe we are persons who long for meaningful life grounded in purpose. And connection. As a spiritual organization. I believe we are a community whose mission it is to intentionally seek to deepen our sense of what it means to live. A meaningful. An ethical life. Indeed our mission statement which is on the back of the order of service. It begins by saying that we are quote. A religious community that promotes values we hold to be important to the fulfillment of a meaningful life. We are here to meet. The thirst for meaningful life. We meet this thirst by wrestling together with big questions of life. And death. Love. And justice. We meet this thirst by sharing our search in our values with all generations. Teaching our kids in our youth. 2bc curse. And we meet this thursday by creating opportunities. To connect with others in ways that show care. And receive care when we need it. And we also meet this thirst. By acting. For the good of the larger world. If you read the september unitarian newsletter. Then you know that we have a lot going on here at first parish man yankee our editor said it was the. Tickets september newsletter she could remember doing. And this activity is wonderful and exciting. Amidst all this activity in events. Committee meetings and emails. My hope is that we can hold onto a core of our mission. To be a community. Where we meet the thirst for meaningful life. As a community i believe we have a lot to offer. Both those already in our pews. As well as our neighbors who have yet to discover that this is a place. Were their thirst can be met. This year. I look forward to exploring together. How we can better live into our mission. To meet this thirst for meaningful life. Show me it be. Amen.

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FP-20200308-Sermon.mp3

When i chose the title momentum. Reflect the sears stewardship theme. First parish in action. I did not anticipate that the momentum most on our minds. Might be the rious of a virus. Nor that i'd be home sick with a cold. Instead of being there with you preaching in person. Thanks to alex for delivering the sermon. I know big shoes to fill. Momentum has always has also been widely present in the news lately. As election news competes with the coronavirus. 4 column inches and minutes on tv. As for democratic primary narrows. To just two major candidates. We hear analyses of who does and doesn't have momentum. And why. In all kinds of ways. Momentum helps repel movements. And action. Having momentum on your side. Boost motion. It was this boost that i had in mind. When naming the sermon. There is so much motion happening at first parish. There was even a ukulele band and coffee our last week. Week after week. People gather on site. Off-site. Or virtually. To connect with each other. For all kinds of reasons. Become together socially as well as to show or receive care from one another. We come together to learn and book groups. Movies or winter session. We come together to sing. Jeanette. Enter stuff canvas envelopes. We come here on sundays for services that remind us of our anchors. Values the relationships. Any ideas that help directs our lives. And give our lives meaning. Together all this activity. Creates momentum. Can you feel it. The momentum started 380 years ago at our beginning. At our birth. Speaking of the birth of a church. Sean neil barron rights. No matter how it happened. Your church was born. A gathering of people humble caring anxious and quirky. All at the same time. Covenanted. To be with one another on the journey of life. Death. And everything. In between. At the beginning. There was just a group of people. What's an idea. Their idea was to gather for worship. Show love to one another. And to work toward being better people. Well the actual first covenant might be a bit longer and use at a different language. But i think it captures the jest of the birth of our church. Now i know church is not a term that we always used today in our congregation. But it was their term. And it was the term broadly used by the christian tradition. From which unitarian-universalism emerged. I was trying to explain this to my unitarian-universalist students. In the class i'm teaching at harvard. The class alex is in. In the face of skepticism from some students. I started using language of the entity instead of church. In 1640. A group of people gather to create an entity. A stated purpose. Their purpose or mission. Was summed up in the covenant they wrote. This covenant created a kind of gravitational pull. Epicenter of the entity. Which polled people toward it. Other questions also arose. What would be the boundaries of this new entity. What would determine membership. And losing membership. Who would be the leaders. How would these leaders. Beach house. Such questions about the nature and purpose of creating. And maintaining an entity. Arabic christian theologians call ecclesiology. With the study of the church. The word church in ancient greek. Is ecclesia. If my class was any indication. Discussions of ecclesiology have fallen out of fashion in unitarian-universalist circles. I'm okay with using terms other than church to be more inclusive of the diversity of people in our religious communities. Those with jewish-muslim or no religious background. However i do think the underlying questions of ecclesiology. Still resonate today. Especially on a sunday like today. As we focus on sustaining our entity. Through our stewardship. Our first question is. What generates the gravitational pull that creates first parish. One way to answer that is our covenant and our mission state. Another answer is found in the ministerial search packet. From 6 or so years ago. In response to a question about the glowing coal at the center of congregational life. The packet stated. If there is a glowing coal. Epicenter of congregational life. It is the recognition that we are all seeking truth. Driving in our own ways to be our best selves. Interact on our convictions. Feeling occasionally. Carrying burdens often unseen. I don't need of understanding and companionship. Through it all. Isn't that beautiful. Epicenter of congregational life. A glowing coal keeps us going. Sms. We come together with a sense of mission. But some of this mission is articulated in our covenant. Mission statement and search packet quote. The mission always first lives in us. As the members and friends with first parish. Are living engagement with the burning coal at our center. Brings the congregation. To life. Together our presents around the mission. Creates the congregation. We are here. Matters. In an era of declining engagement and religious organizations. It's important to not take the simple fact. For granted. Nor should we take for granted the actions of prior generations. To build this meeting house. The creepy endowments that continue to sustain us. Those who came before us gave of time and money. To ensure that cared sheds were still standing. By hosting work parties to put on a new roof. Those who came before i started traditions like the rummage sale. Or lighting the chalice with switch still shapes our actions today. We are here today. Because of the stewardship of those. Before us. Today we have the opportunity to continue the momentum of the 380 year-old entity. And keep it going for the next generation. Scientifically speaking. Momentum is a quantity of motion of a moving body. Measured as the product of its mass. And velocity. Measuring the momentum of an entity like first parish. May not be so easy. What defines our mass. We can point to the boundaries of our lot lines. Are the measurements of our building. But we're so much more than our physical place. We are also network of people who engage in or impacted by first parish. This includes not only members and friends. Also those who show up for events. What's the upcoming climate solutions. Special services like music sunday in christmas eve. As long as those who follow our facebook page. Or sermon podcast. The edges of our masks are indistinct. And unknown. Likewise. How do you measure velocity. Foremast like ours. Perhaps by the length of the unitarian or the weekly e-blast. Behind those many blurbs is a significant force of action. Taken by so many of you. Planning organizing and showing up. Truly it's nigh impossible to scientifically measure out. Our momentum. And yet. Anamor colloquial usage. We can feel the momentum. Not easily measured. Are mass shows up the impact we have on people's lives. And on the larger world. And the velocity is the energy of engagement. Brought by so many people. Together increase impact and engagement creates more momentum. Momentum is slowed. But it faces friction or resistance. To the motion. Of the mass. The master of our entity has certainly faced friction at times. For example. During the time of an hail. Which alex preached about on in january. The mask of the congregation shrunk as people stayed away. More recently. The friction of ministerial transition cause a dip. An engagement. In the past six years we picked up new momentum as the congregation with a strong sense of purpose. A new connection. In the near future. The coronavirus may bring friction and shift some of the ways of our being together. Like me saying home instead of powering through the morning with my head cold. But i don't see any signs of us stopping. Just shifting the momentum to manifest in new ways of engagement. That will have impact in different ways. Of course. Each of our own personal lives. Also reflects x of momentum. End times. Walker high in pekel rights. When momentum's on your side you feel invincible. You feel unstoppable. But he also acknowledges how friction and resistance. Can slowest way down. Russians. Be watchful of the friction causing element. In your life. Are you tired. Are you eating right. Are you exercising. Are you organized. You have an application that will help you to manage your actions. Projects. Sometimes the friction we face in life. Will not be fixed by an app. Or an app. Sometimes the friction we face are significant roadblocks of major illness. Separation. Job loss or the death of a loved one. In such times. Realizing that of course life momentum. Has just shifted. Might help us to recalibrate what is that is not possible. We are all persons in motion on a complex life landscape of hills. Valleys and ruts on our path. In a congregation as large of ours. Inevitably there are some who are feeling the rush of momentum. And others were struggling to make it over. The rats. Is a congregation our mission aims to meet people right where they are. In their lives. Sometimes we maybe a person in need of care or help. And sometimes we may be a person leading the way on a new program. And oftentimes. Many of us are both. I need a support in some ways. And able to give. In other ways. To us all that matters is that we are. It matters that there is a place we can come to. And not feel so alone. And it matters but there is a place where we can work together to engage in social action. We may be here for different reasons. But we share a sense that this congregation matters in our lives. And in the lives of others. Beyond. And so. On this stewardship sunday. We celebrate. Perhaps we might even think of it as a kind of birthday celebration. The day of the year that we pause to reflect. A simple gift. Of life. We were born. And we're still here. Or even thriving with action. And momentum. So thank you. For being part of the mass and the velocity of this congregation. Thank you for being stewards of our life and work. And thank you. Or simply. Maybe so.

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FP-20160214-Sermon.mp3?_=6

You may have noticed. That the new hampshire presidential primaries this past week. Living as we do in the new hampshire radio and television market it's sort of hard to not notice. And if you've been paying attention to any degree you have like the pulley noticed also. But there is a lot. Of anger. In politics. This season. Angry politicians denouncing other candidates. Angry voters declaring their support for candidates they believe get it. And we'll do something to change the situation. Even the political pundits are angry. Ridiculing candidates. Or even each other for their opinions. Anger. Is everywhere. I once had a professor who would help students come up with a paper topic. By asking them. What pisses you off. Personally i found this to be a very helpful way to identify a topic that had some energy behind it. Anger can happen to a well of emotions that can drive us to action. Into commitment. Just staying power. Indeed anger can run deep within us and be a powerful emotion. Is my professor new. Anger can also be clarifying. Naming and exploring our anger. Can teach us what we care about. What we value. In what we hope will change. What is npr journalist michelle martin who you heard. Noted. What about the dark side of our anger. How do we reconcile this public anger with what we know about the destructive force of that emotion left unchecked in our own lives. Howard obscurus logic. Hare's race relationships apart. And makes reconciliation. Difficult. If not impossible. Given this dark side of anger. One wonders if anger really is the best path forward to the change we seek. And yet in the same peace martin also notes. Anger does have a place. She says it's a warning sign to self and others. It's a call to arms. Throughout history we have been told at times when if you're aren't angry. You are paying attention. And there is plenty to be angry about in our world today. Rising economic inequality. Repeated examples of systemic racism. Islamophobic rants and violence. Persistent sexism and homophobia. Intractable conflicts and wars across the globe. And a changing climate that has initiated the 6 mass. Extinction. In our planet's history. And this is just the national and global picture. Undoubtedly there are also situations closer. In our own community and in our own lives. Where you're struggling with anger. Also. What makes you angry. Asking this question listening to your anger can lead you to a better understanding of what you hold as right and wrong. You can feel your conviction. The inequality among people because the race. Or gender. Sexual preference or religion. Is wrong. You can steal your restlessness. To make it better. To reflect a change. To make it right. Such anger. Can indeed be a righteous anger. Is martin wrote even the scriptures denounce those who refuse to be angry when the situation warrants. Calling out to those who cry peace peace. When there is no peace. Sometimes there are indeed situations where we do need to get angry. To notice what's happening in to be moved by it. Famous buffalo spring. Bill song charges. I won't say i don't think i can sing this one today we better stop hey what's that sound everybody look what's going down. Working together. To build a better world. It's not only a part of our new vision mission a covenant statements. It's a part of our religious tradition. In the nineteenth century the rallying cry was often. Deeds not creed's. We are part of a long stream of religious folk who have expressed their faith. In their actions. A great example of faith and action. Has been the way unitarian universalist rallied around the issue of same-sex marriage. In 2004 if you use massachusetts fought for same-sex marriage. A new rallypoint emerged. The call to stand on the side of love. In the same year you you composer jason shelton wrote a song at the same title standing on the side of love and i think you're going to hear a little bit of that later. Well the idea of standing on the side of love. Was born out of the fight for same-sex marriage. In subsequent years the idea has ballooned into an interfaith campaign. To harness the power of love. Define. Oppression. In all kinds. Today the standing on the side of love campaign is a widely recognized public advocacy campaign have you ever seen their banners are their t-shirts. When i say widely recognized. Bright yellow. When you see this bright yellow at the t-shirts in the banners our presents at many gatherings and protests. And it's a campaign sponsored by the unitarian universalist association in mini. But not all affiliated are unitarian universalist. So when you're at a protest and you scan a crowd. You'll see this bright yellow pop. And you'll know you're not alone. But there's another you you there's somebody who shares my values. Most recently the standing on the side of love campaign has been promoting. 30 days of love. Between the martin luther king holiday in january. In valentine's day in february. And then at the end there's the share the love sunday. This year the focus of the campaign is 30 days of love. Towards racial justice. Indeed if you go to the homepage of standing on the side of love. The banner reads. Bass. Race. And justice. A call to action. The call today. Is the harness the power of love. To fight racial injustice. To stand with those who face hate exclusion in unequal access to the rights and privileges of citizenship. Because of the color of their. They're nine waitzkin. According to activists. Cornel west. Justice is what love looks like. In public. This connection between love. And justice is powerful and transformative this connection between standing on the side of love and fighting oppression. Has the potential to change our world for the better. So what is this connection between love and justice what does cornel west mean when he charges us to never forget that justice is what love looks like in public. Both justice and love are compelling ideas. And both can be very difficult to define and they have large. Discourses of debate and discussion around them. Get patted simplest i believe justice conveys a notion of fairness. Of a relationship. It has a sense of right balance and good order. Justice in other words is a term of right relations. Love at its simplest conveys a sense of care and concern for another. Love is a term of compassionate regard. The recognition of the dignity and even the delight. Found another. Mini mini religious traditions call us to love one another. To recognize the presence of others into treat others with care and concern. Love takes many forms. Love manifests in different ways. Love can be pender & suites. Love can be fierce and protective. Mom can be passionate and sensual. Love can be silly and even a bit goofy. Love responds to the needs of the beloved with a hug or a kiss. Or just a listening ear. Committed to the well-being of another. Lovesick to know it's beloved. Intimate their knees is fully as love is able. Often when we invoke the name of love we think of intimate relationships like a parent and a child or between spouses or partners. We may also think of love between friends or even between a person and their pet. Love can be so intimate. A deep knowing of another. It feels care and concern for their well-being and today on valentine's day we are celebrating that kind of intimate knowing and love. Religions call us to not only love those who are near to us. But to also love the stranger. Some notions of love pull us even further out of our self concern. To the consider the well-being of those whose names we may not even know. Whose minds and bodies look so very different than our own. How do we love a stranger. How do we love. Someone we do not even know. I think this called love stranger is related to this cornel west idea of love is what justice is what love looks like in public. Showing love to a stranger is seeking justice and right relations among persons. Even though you may not know their name or their story. Seeking justice is showing care and concern for the well-being of strangers. Justice is a public forum of love's desire to promote. The well-being of others. So what would it mean. To stand on the side of love. For racial injustice. What would it. How would we show our love in public. For black lives. For the lives of brown-skinned immigrants. For the lies of all those who faced discrimination exclusion. Or hatred for the color of their skin or the contours of their culture. I think we're living in a time when we as a predominantly white community are being called to wake up. Did hear that sound. Everybody look what's going down. We are living in a moment of great anger. And there is good reason for this anger. Black men and boys are being shot and killed with little accountability from those who are sworn. To protect them. Mass incarceration rates are disproportionately skewed by race. Hazard poverty rates. We simply do not live in a racially just society. We live in a society that often tolerates ongoing patterns and legacies of racial injustice. We live in a society that declares all lives matter. But then systemically undervalues and punishes the lives of black men and women. As well as other persons of color. In response to this season of injustice a new rallying cry has emerged. Black lives matter. The focus on black lives is not to say that other lives do not matter. Rather the focus on black live is an indictment that all lives matter is simply not. True. When you look at the streets or the schools. Or the prisons or the statistics. Over the last year you may have noticed that black lives matter banners have begun appearing on unitarian universalist congregation surround us there's one in bedford and concord and cambridge and a number of other congregations. Last summer at the gathering of the general assembly of uu congregation. The delegates from congregations all across the nation voted to support the black lives matter movement. Beats the statement cited. Our principles to affirm justice equity and compassion in human relations. As well as to have a goal of goal of world community with peace liberty and justice for all. Also citing a number of the situations around us mass incarceration the killing of black boys and men. They said that if you hold these principles next to the situations that were seen on the streets and in our country. Our principles are violated and we need to be involved as unitarian universalist to get engaged and local discussion. An organization. Pursuing racial justice. So what about us at first parish in wayland. Would we consider hanging a black lives matter. Banner. It's a genuine question. But it's also a question to invite us into a deeper conversation as a congregation. Not only about black lives matter. And racial justice. But also about the role of this congregation in the larger community. I know that there are different viewpoints. Here in the congregation about the role of social justice. We have a range of views about how to address various issues from racial injustice 2 economic inequality to climate justice. And we also have a range of views about whether or not we as a congregation as a whole should take a stand on any particular issue. I wonder what it would look like to talk to each other not only about the issues. But also about what it would mean to live into our congregational vision. Mission and covenant. To make a better world. What would it mean for each of us as persons and for first parish as a congregation. To show love in public. What would it mean to stand on the side of love. For racial justice. We leave in a moment of anger. An anger can help us to wake up to the world in need. It's so kind of commitment to love. To show care and concern for others. To seek the well-being of another. We may even find that we are angry. Because of how undervalued hated or excluded some people are. From the resources that they need to live with dignity. Using this anger to fuel action for positive change. Is what i understand to be harnessing loves power. The fight oppression. Let us continue to live out the old credo deeds not freeze. Even as we live into our new covenant. To care for one another. Into work together. To build a better world. So may it be. Amen.

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FP-20191222-Homily.mp3

There's something special about light at this time of year. Growing up in california. I remember many times in december. Getting up in the early hours of the morning with my family. When it's quiet still and dark out. Watch for christmas train come through the canyon. The christmas train is legendary in fremont. It's a train of several old train cars. Covered from roof to wheels. Invite and flashing displays. Each year we bring thermoses of hot chocolate with us. And park somewhere overlooking the train tracks. Waiting in eager anticipation. For the burst of light and color just around the corner. Vibrant threads greens and blues tears through the twilight. Every year the train seems to get more and more beautiful. My younger brother ryan and i would be struck with aw or mouths wide open. In wonder. This was an annual rhythm and tradition we begin to expect and anticipate each year. It became a sort of season. A season of light. For me and my family each december. Now it's no kidding that so many of us find comfort in life. During the long gloomy nights of the season. In addition to train cars. We see lights everywhere this time of year. Ornamented houses in hedges and lawns with beads. Safelite. Hear it in new england. Many folks light candles in their windows. Like the ones in our own church windows. Evoking an old symbol from the colonies of war. Home family. Is welcome. Every year we find ourselves and so many seasons. A flight. With the sun setting around 4:15 p.m. every night. The white serves as a stark contrast. The tenebrosity. The season. Yet even with these glowing reminders of warmth and celebration. Joy. Embrilliance. There still seems to be a hollowness there. And all of the busyness of the seasons. The hustle and bustle. There still seems room to fill the loneliness. Hey. And lost. That the season brings. Now you may have noticed from our displays. In this time of year there are many religious traditions that witness to the sacred dance between day and night. Be there practice of various rituals. In celebration. For hindus and james. Late october and november mark the festival of lights. Where's wally. You may remember when stephanie and the kids came up to like the oil lamps in the service. Ended up with almost a little bonfire. The names of ali comes from the sanskrit vale. Which means row of lights. People diapers and we're oil lamps. And place them in rows around temples and homes. Welcome the presence of the goddess goddess lakshmi. The goddess of wealth. Lakshmi is especially known to visit homes. Better well-lit. The lamps are also sometimes floated on ponds and rivers and streams. The flickering flames dancing off the reflections of the water surface. For james the festival marks the passing of mahavira. It's a nirvana. Jainism's most recent. Enlightened teacher. Reduce this evening marks the start of hanukkah. Which is also called the festival of lights. In hebrew the word hanukkah mean. Dedication. It's an eight-day celebration to commemorating the rededication of the second temple of jerusalem. Accurate to philemon. By invaders. From the talmud. The practice of lighting oil lamps. Comes from a miracle of the oil. In the temple. According to tradition. There was only enough consecrated oil. How did only a small jar. The burn in the lamps for one night. Mysteriously the oil continue to burn. 4/8 days. Bringing light into the temple. Until new oil. Could be found. To commemorate this people light a menorah. A candelabra with eight branches. With a separate ranch for the servant candle that helps to light the others. For christians. We're nearing the end of advent. Today. Christians in churches and homes. Buy all four candles on the advent wreath. Sports camp campbell represents peace. And as advocate dresses lighting a new candle each week. All four of them are lit to symbolize hope. Faith. Joy. And peace. In latin. Adventurous means. Coming. Sm2 coming birth of jesus at christmas. I've been is a. of spiritual preparation. Involves making oneself spiritually ready. To celebrate the birth of the christ. Enter renew commitments. The faith. And of course for pagans. December 25th historically marks the winter solstice. In the season of length of nights. Also known as you are. Now some of you may have enjoyed the service we help yesterday. Which we celebrated on december 21st. The longest night and the shortest day. Of the year. You isn't just another fancy word for christmas. As much as we like to burn our yule logs and huddle up by the fireplace. The name you'll comes from an old norse word meaning wheel. As in the wheel of the solar cycle. The winter solstice is the day with the shortest amount of daylight. And the longest night. Before it became associated with christmas. And the birth of jesus. It was a ritual holiday celebrating light. And the rebirth. Of the sun. Many of our christmas traditions have roots. And pagan winter solstice celebrations. Like harvesting and decorating an evergreen tree which we also decorated from the soul sister should go see it downstairs. Replacing boughs of holly all around the home. So as you gathered by now. There are so many seasons of light in this time of year when the nights grow to their longest. And the days shrink. There are so many seasons that i haven't mentioned. Like a muslim celebration of my lead to mark the birthday of the prophet muhammad. Kwanzaa which focuses on family history at community for african americans. Voting day for buddhist to celebrate the anniversary of the buddha's enlightenment. Cacique celebration of the birth of their founder guru nanak. Even our own celebration of talica. Which celebrates are seven principles. To save this from becoming a survey course on world faiths and their numerous holidays. There's a greater sense of why so many traditions hold celebrations of life. And this time of year. Restart first seasons of light. Come each year to remind us. Behold the complicated. And the difficult. That comes with each seat. The reference rob mccall discusses this in our reading this more. He writes. It's curious now. But just when our northern skies and lands are becoming darkest. Nearly every religion is entering a season of light. The shortest days and longest nights loom in on us. Everywhere people are gathering and freezing. Hawaii. Is this some sort of denial or insanity. Overdose of the opiate of the masses. Don't they notice the ever-growing night. Don't they see the dark wars raging while they celebrate the birthday of the peaceful buddha. Or chatter on about the prince of peace. Or light the menorah. Imma call. It seems almost like the nile. To witness so many of these festivals and celebrations of light. When there's so much bloom. And despair all around us. There is so much pain and sorrow. Found in the spaces between glowing christmas lights. Loud parties. In roaring fires. There are empty places. At our tables. Empty chairs. In our homes. For some the holidays bring about loneliness. Instead of community. I'm connection. Perhaps our loved ones aren't able to visit. Cheer. Cumbersome jobs or long distances make the journey. Impossible. Or even for young adults and elderly folks alike. Who find themselves on their own for the holidays. Especially people who can't always come home. Because of their gender or sexuality. Because of being and living. Prosthetics elves. Sometimes this annual season of dampened spirits. Is a season that we fail all too often to acknowledge or talk about. Omits the loud festivities. Some have even given it a name. Baby blue christmas. It's a name that recognizes that at this time of the year. Not all things are merry and bright. Sometimes. They're blue. Nau you let me by the reverend deborah falk. Attempts to name the emotional complexity holidays and sometimes carry. Titled litany of comfort for blue christmas. Is a phrase that's repeated over and over again. All around us are bright lights and mary messages. Yet in our heart not all is joyful. Provide comfort and naming these feelings. Find some peace. And being. Together. Perhaps we are frustratingly raw and vulnerable. It acknowledging that not all is joyful in our hearts and minds. No matter how hard we name and sit with our feelings. This can't fill the empty place. At the table. Does cat make the lost feel any less. Severe. And this cat fill the empty places in our hearts. Beyond what are words. Can describe. So why is it that even in moments where all seems hopeless. We are continually bound search for light. Why do so many of our world traditions celebrate light in the midst of shadows. What is it about gathering in community. It helps us to hold these complex feelings. Animotion. The call reflects on this as well. He writes the madness of memory. Is that it is not bound by what the eyes can see. It remembers the recurring rhythm of darkness and light. And noticed that the light always follows. The darkness. Memory and hope hold the soul above the flood of fear. Richard f and say no. It shall not be so. Forever. But only. For now. The darkness is just for a time. A white will. Revisiting the annual rhythms of these celebrations. Seasons of light remind us that the long night. Are temporary. The days will lengthen. There is hope to be found in gathering together. Nintendo. Quiet. It's why my family and i look forward to the christmas train coming through the canyon. Each year. Even through our groggy eyes and he peons. Between scalding gulps of hot chocolate. Even with no other light is visible that morning. We anticipate the r and wonder of the season. Just around the bend. The darkness is just for a time. The light will. Sometimes and talking about light and dark. We might have the impression that only the light is good. And that the darkness is somehow inherently bad. We might do darkness as a negative thing. Something to be avoided or shoot away by candles and lamps. I want to challenge this whole dichotomy between light and dark. Instead. We might not do light as good. And dark as bad. We might view them as seasons and cycles. Each with their own complexities. And part of the human condition. And story. Sister joan chittister. American benedictine nun theologian and author. Reflects on this and her book uncommon gratitude. She writes. Darkness deserves gratitude. Is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand. Betaal growth does not take place. And sunlight. In this way. Darkness isn't bad. At all. If anything it's evidence of something greater. Some greater grow. Some deeper alleluia for life and its trials. Now there's one final season of light. But i haven't discussed. And it's the season of light sound and lighting our chalice together each sunday morning. Lighting the chalice. We bring its light into our midst to honor the inherent worth and dignity. Of one another. I do affirm the hope founded being. Community. Together. It's also an affirmation of that special something. That happens in worship together. It marks the transition of our time into something deeper. Celebrating life and all the joys and sorrows that come with it. We make a space to hold all that is our lives. The inexplicable of what it means to be human. And the whole these complex. Emotion. Are flamin talis reminds us. Like many of these festivals and celebrations do. But there is so much help found in being. Together. Now over these next couple weeks. I invite you to think about these questions. What seasons of light or rhythms do you find yourself in this year. What do you find yourself yearning. And longing for. What or who. Is missing. Where do you find our meeting you. You calling you into hope. In this complex seasonal both highs and lows. I leave you with this blessing. The rzr community in which we can bring our fullest selves. The pangs of loss and loneliness. Shouts of joy and celebration. The cause of curiosity. And wonder. In this time of night screwing to their longest. May you continue to search for that spark. That flickering flame. A flight. Be this light hold you and keep you when all else around you and in you. Feels uneasy. May this place be the refuge. And a continuous source of light and love. In your life. Do all that the season brings. Anita's community fill you and remind you. Of the shifting cycles and seasons. The darkness is just for time. The light will return. Maybe so.

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FP-20191208-Sermon.mp3

The last month when kate and i started to play on christmas cuz yes that's what we do when your work on a. Congregational staff you plan weeks in advance for christmas. And we started realizing we might not have an actual blind baby. To be baby jesus this year. So we thought we would do with many congregations doing get a baby doll. If you need to buy something what do you do these days you go online and you google. Baby jesus doll. And what came up. We're all these images. A very light skinned. Baby jesus's. Some dark hair. Light hair blue eyes. Ipot. Unlikely that a baby born in israel even two thousand years ago. Was light-skinned. I hate that i was tempted to name this sermon. Baby jesus was not white. I thought putting that on the street sign outside could cause an interesting reactions. So often we want to imagine that our ancestors biological cultural or religious. Looked like us. Why does skin color and more broadly the idea of race matters so much. Scientifically speaking. Is race even a useful category to understand who we are. There is certainly a long history of scientists using race to understand human difference. It may surprise you that race history is not simply in the past. Currently. There is a pill to manage hypertension that is licensed by the fda to be marketed. Stoli. To african-americans. Before we get to the present. Let's go back to the past. As you likely know race science and in equality have a sordid history in the united states. Certainly many justified slavery on the scientific grounds that africans were an inferior race a subspecies of human. Indeed in the 19th century. Scientific racism was all the rage. When charles darwin published his theories of evolution. His ideas with quickly drawn into scientific discussions. About more or less evolved humans. Some even put forth the idea that africans were in fact the missing link between the early humanoid species like the neanderthals. And the modern man. Which of course meant white europeans. Search science of human origins conveniently justified the social political and economic inequalities of racial difference. When slavery ended. The science of race continued. At the start of the 20th century the science of eugenics continued discussions that sought to not only demonstrate the differences among races of people. But to use the science of race. To make policy decisions. For example the 1924 immigration act restricted immigration. Those determined to be of inferior races. To protect the strength of the nation. Congress with the support of many. Pass this legislation to limit who. Would be allowed into united states. In germany. Adolf hitler applauded the work. American author madison grant. Whose book the passing of the great. Race. Hitler named as his bible. Drawing on the race science of us authors like grant. Hitler and the nazis pursued their own program of protecting their nation's racial strength. After the war. The horrific news. Just how the nazis had used the ideas of race science. Led to its swiftly falling out of public. Popularity. But what happened to those race science those scientists. Who had built their career. Andres science. Many still held academic appointments after the war. And the new book superior the return of race science. Journalist angela saini explores this question. She writes. Hot murmur van verser. Who had violated the bodies of young auswitch victims for his twin studies during the holocaust. After being banned from teaching temporarily. In 1951 he became the professor of human genetics at the university of munster. Mini scientist simply change tack. Gently maneuvering themselves out of eugenics into allied field that studied human different and less controversial and more rigorous ways. Such as genetics. Von verschuer joined with other researchers in 1960 to begin a journal called mankind quarterly. Zenit describes their aim to be quote. To challenge what they saw as a politically correct. Left-wing conspiracy around race and bring back some scientific objectivity. With effort they were able to attract leading scientist like henry garrett. A former president of the american psychological association. And the head of columbia university psychology department. An avid desegregation is garrett's articles and mankind quarterly. Pointed to the disasters of certain mixed populations around the globe. As evidence in support of segregation. Although mankind cordially did receive plenty of criticism from leading journals such as science. They continued with support from the deep pockets of wickliffe draper. Hussaini describes as a die-hard segregationist. Earlier in 1937. Draper head establish the pioneer fund. To fund research on human variation and eugenics in support of segregation. And mankind quarterly. Draper and his pioneer fund. Found the veneer of intellectualism. They were seeking to support their ideologies. The fund would send thousands of copies of mankind quarterly. Two american political conservatives. Reinforcing links between the ongoing science of race. And politics of segregation. This was. In the past before the successes of the civil rights era right. Actually. Mankind quarterly. Persist to this day. And while the pioneer fund seems to be currently stalled. Between 1998 and 2016. The fun dispersed nearly 7.8 million dollars. In other words. The intellectual life of race science. Never really disappeared. The tactics language. And people may have shifted over the decades. But the underlying ideologies that race is a meaningful category to determine biological and human difference. Remains. But such thinking flies in the face of much modern scientific thinking does not stop those who are aligned with his ideologies. Rather within the world of mankind cordially and the more recently founded american renaissance. They do not identify as racist. But his race realist. From their perspectives they are the ones willing to follow the science without bias. It's alt-right blogger milo yellow opolis. Told a bloomberg reporter in 2016. Behind every racist joke. Is a scientific. Fat. In fact. The science is far from clear that race exist. Skin color. Eye color or other markers often assigned to race. Do not. Neatly fall into clean edge groupings that distinguish one population of people. From another. The variations in human dna is far more complex. The dna variations within a particular geographic population can exceed those between populations. For example say any whose parents emigrated from india to london. Notes that walking down the street and new delhi. Reflects an enormous variety of skin tone. Resist a simple reduction to brown. Scientists that go looking for clear boundaries between races. Only fine gradations in mixing. And the mixing goes way way. Way back. In recent years you may have read one of the articles that reported that neanderthals and modern. And modern humans in europe may have been mixing. As in having sex. Far more than fire science suggested. And her account of this research sandy knows how the stronger presence of neanderthal dna in early european ancestors. Rehabilitated the neanderthals image. She cites several examples including a january 2017 article in the new york times entitled. Neanderthals were people too. And asked why did science get them so wrong. Sometimes science does get it wrong. But sometimes it is not science that is the problem. But the biases prejudices and ideologies of the scientist. Yes we are biological beings with dna that reaches far back into evolutionary history. And yet. We are also social creatures deeply influenced by our relationships and our cultural inheritance as well. This brings us back to that pill to manage hypertension license by the fda to be marketed solely to african-americans. Sandy entitles the final chapter of her book. Black pills. She explores examples of how race continues to be used in contemporary medical research. For example she acknowledges that there are real racial differences in contemporary levels of hypertension in the us. But she questions the assumption that the reason for the difference is biological. In the 1980s one biological theory of this hypertension suggested that the suffering of the ocean crossings of the middle passage in slavery. Selected for africans with higher salt retention. Which then led to higher rates of hypertension today. Even oprah and her resident medical expert dr. oz. We're fans of this theory. However subsequent studies began to point instead to environmental factors like diet. Poverty. Education. And more. Referencing the analysis of loyola university medical school researcher richard cooper. Santee rates. This is a case of science being retrofitted to accommodate race. The data the theories the facts themselves are rotated and warped until they fit into a racial framework we can relate to. This. Is the power. Of race. For centuries race has been a powerful way to determine who belongs where. Who belongs in what status and who belongs together or not. Nonetheless in a world of shared evolutionary origins and enormous dna variety. Gradations and mixing. Using the category of race to explain human difference. Increasingly fails to be pervez persuasive. Rather than continue to look for scientific facts of racial difference. Turning art into. Our attention to the cultural impact of racism. An inequality on physical health and longevity. Main do. Far more good. As i was waiting through the research and sandy's book. I also came across that post on facebook. They had been making the rounds the last year or so. The picture with the text shows a little white girl about three holding a black skin doll. This was the picture we used in the weekly blast. In the post imam recounts the reaction of a cashier to her daughter's decision to purchase this doll. We have lots more dolls that look more like you. Coaxes the woman. To this the girl responds. Yes she does. She's a doctor like i'm a doctor. I'm a pretty girl and she's a pretty girl see her pretty hair and see her stethoscope. What links us to one another as humans. Is it our skin color. Our race. Our culture. Our shared origins. What are we to make of our unity as humans if we now know. That is one long story of migration and mixed dna. What are we to do with those like madison-grant. Who would stretch science to tell a story of a master race that just happens to include. Those like us as well as historic greats like michelangelo davinci. And of course jesus. From alt right bloggers to the pages of mankind quarterly. To those who would still denigrate. Whole populations of countries as inferior. In justification of immigration bands. There are still those who would use science to prove. Not only human variation. But biologically rooted. Quality. Far from being an issue of the past. How we tell the story of human origins and human difference. Continues to shape. How people. At the checkout. In government. And in some scientific research. Cpp. And there are simply too many even today who would discredit. Good science. Or twist it to meet their ideologies of hate. And injustice. In the facebook post on her daughter's doll. The mom ends with a hashtags. It's what's on the inside that counts. All skin is beautiful. Teach love. Teach. Diversity. As a tradition that embraces reason and science. As well as equality and love. May we follow these hashtags as well. As we boldly go forward sorting fiction. In fact. And our work towards a more just. And loving world. So may it be. Amen.

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FP-20191201-Sermon.mp3

Well. Here we go again. December. Who's excited anyone out there. Who's feeling a little trepidation. Or grief. Whatever mood we may bring to december. I feel as if december brings its own attitude to us. If every month had a cartoon personality. I would say that december is like the high-powered pop. Scrappy-doo. Anyone else remember him. He was a bit obnoxious known for his energetic shouts of lemmy adam levy adam i'll split them a rock'em sock'em. And most notably too. at all today puppy power. Doesn't december sometimes feel like the in-your-face kinetic energy of scrappy. I mean even before the turkey was cooked. The christmas music was playing. In the hanukkah decorations were in stores. As well as the signs for the black friday sales. And yet. December is also a month of increasing dark. And quiet. The bird song is gone. A blanket of snow is due to fall. In the sun received long before dinner. Perhaps you feel pull between the frenetic energies of celebrations. And the coziness of a plush blanket and a good book. This pull of energies is not the only conflict woven into the fabric of december. Is scientifically minded folks. We may also feel tension as we encounter the ancient stories. Celebrated this month. So many of the holiday celebrations are religious in origin. Christmas is the story of the birth of a baby. Traditionally understood to be the incarnate son of god born to a virgin mary. Hanukkah is a story of an oil lamp that burn days beyond its expected time frame. Thanks to divine help. And you will is rooted in various versions of deities in conflict over light and darkness. Such as the holly king and the oak king in celtic folklore. And so perhaps it is this month more than any other that we are confronted a new with the questions of relating science. And religion. The perceived conflict between science and religion have had a tremendous impact on our society. For example nearly 100 years ago the 1925 scopes trial. Riveted the nation as teaching evolution was put on trial. Part of the account related by the aclu who defended the accused science teacher. Reeds. The judge a conservative christian. Began each day's court proceedings with prayer. And did not allow the defense to call any expert scientific witnesses. The defense attorney darrow responded with an unusual trial maneuver that paid off. He called opposing counsel brian. As an expert witness on the bible. It proceeded to publicly humiliate him over the course of days. By questioning him and his literal interpretation of the bible. Brian fell into every trap and further undermined his credibility by stating. I do not think about things i do not think about. He died a week after the trial. Exhausted. And publicly humiliated. In the years following the trial. Anti-evolution laws were less popular and not enforced. The aclu account states americans for the most part. View the religious fundamentalist cause as the loser in the trial. And became more cognizant of the need to legally separate the teachings of theology. From scientific education. And yet. In my high school biology class. My teacher included lessons about creationism. Is an alternative theory to evolution. Looking back i'm not sure if this was his way of communicating his own beliefs. Or placating the religiously conservative community in which he taught. Indeed the 2014 pew religious landscape study. Reported that 34% of americans believe that humans always existed in present form. In other words. 34% reject evolution. Notably. One-quarter of those that did believe in evolution. Thought evolution is guided by a supreme being. And according to the same report. Believe in god or universal spirit remains high at 89%. With 63% absolutely certain. In this belief. Even today. The landscape of science and religion. It's complicated. With a mix of beliefs rather than a neat division. What about you. Do you believe in evolution. In god. Well this congregation historically has christian roots. You probably noticed that i rarely use language of god. But what if i did say god once in awhile. I know that there are plenty of folks here that do believe in a god. And there are plenty of folks who do not. Whatever you may believe. A good question is. Or what is the god that you believe in. Or who or what is the guy that you do not believe in. Because whatever your belief. What one person means by god. Me not in fact be what another person. Means by god. This is why i have come to love a phrase taught to me by my spiritual director kimberly. In our sessions kimberly will refer to the god of my understanding. Or the god of your understanding. With this simple phrase she allows god to be multiple. Fluid. Larger than any one person's understanding. We heard a sense of a god too large to understand in the poem yet do i marvel by countee cullen. In his poem calling boot begins with a kind of creed. I doubt not god is good. Well-meaning. Time. But then colin moves to list a number of difficult even confounding experiences of human life. Although god might be able to tell us why such things are. Cohen describes god as immune to catechism by human minds. God cannot be contained by a catechism. Buy a book of creed's or prescribed beliefs. Rather the mind of god resists such limits. We cannot understand god. In the end. All we can do is marvel. At this curious thing. The god of collins understanding. Appears is a bean with motivation and moral character. God appears all-knowing. Able to grant answers to what we do not understand. In god is described as one who makes poet who he is. God. As creator. The poetry not prose. We cannot be certain what liberties colin might be taking with metaphor. Henry collin as one who struggles to live in the tension. Between a good god. A difficult life. And a world full of marvels and wonders. For many of these tensions have led to a rejection of god. Or at least of a god who is an all-knowing all-powerful person in the universe. And four others the moral tension is the breaking point of belief. How can a good god have the power to do good. But not intervene to stop bad things. How can a good god allow evil and its destructive power to wreak havoc in so many lives. That's a card some will reject. And others still. It is the idea of a creator god. That is a problem. That in the way of belief. With all that we now know about the universe from evolution to the big bang to quantum physics. How can we speak of a distinct. Divine being. If a cosmos is one of dynamic relations and shifting energies. How could we speak of an immortal. Unchanging being outside the system. Creating the system. It is scientific world believe in god. Is an unchanging on all-powerful unknowing distinct being. Becomes harder to sustain. A science uses natural processes to explain more and more of our world. And even who we are as humans. Is there still a place for a super. Natural being. If we want to embrace science. Is our only option. To reject. God. Could there be an understanding of god. Which fits with our science. What would such a god. Look like. In the new book a god that could be real. Author nancy ellen abrams tackles this question. Married to an internationally renowned scientist. Abrams has had a front-row seat to science for many years. Rather than categorically rejecting the idea of god as unscientific. Abraham's asks. Anything actually exist in the world. As science understands it. That is worthy of being called god. Let me say that again. Could anything actually exist in the world. As science understands it. That is worthy of being called. God. What would a god of a scientific understanding look like. For abraham's reframing the question of god opened up the possibility. Oh my god that is real. A dog that could fit with a cutting-edge scientific outlook. Of course abrams is not the first to reimagine and understanding of god to fit with the most development recent developments of science. As our understanding of the world shifts and changes. Our understanding of god can also shift. And change. Well we meet sometimes need to jettison old ideas of god. With abrams and others we might also ask if there are not new ideas of god. That might fit with our new understanding. In my own spiritual journey i have certainly changed my beliefs in god. After being raised as a tradition with a traditional christian understanding of god as that all-powerful all-knowing good being who created the universe. I struggled at first to accept evolution. There were many dining room conversations in college where i had to be convinced of evolution. When i did accept the truth of evolution. The proverbial domino's began to fall. By the end of that decade. I was reading the bible metaphorically. And i wasn't sure if i believed in a literal god. And yet. Feelings of awe. And wonder. Remains. Physicist and lightman explores the interaction of awe and science in his book searching for stars on an island in maine. He begins by describing and experience of being alone and a boat on a clear starry night. He writes. Overwhelming sense of connection to the stars as if i were part of them. And the vast expensive time expanding from the far distant past long before i was born and then into the far distant future long after i die. Seems compressed to a.. I felt connected that only to the stars but to all of nature. And to the entire cosmos. I felt a merging with something far larger than myself. A grand in eternal unity. A hint. Of something absolute. Marvel. Wonder and a sense of connection. Are often what people linked with a sense of god. Although lightman could explain the science of stars better than most of us. Key none the less experienced a moment of awe. The remaining pages of his book. Explore how he weaves together his scientific understanding. With his sense of connection to something far larger than myself. If you haven't guessed by now. I am not going to simply give you an answer about god. Or no guy. Instead i am trying to share with you the possibility. That there may be ways to rethink the whole question. I am pointing to possible paths. To a scientific understanding of god. Admittedly i am no scientist. But i am a student of religion. Who is keenly aware that there are multiple understandings of god. Between religions. As well as within religions. And so i asked. Could there also be. A scientific. Understanding of god. I learned from abrams that the phrase a god of your understanding. Is also used in 12-step programs. At first abrams thought of this simply as an inclusive framing. However she then began to hear it as a challenge. She needed to clarify her own understanding of god. And so i also asked you. Or what is the guy that you do. Or do not. Believing. Who or what is the god of your understanding. In our tradition. We do not attempt to answer this question for you. We do not provide a catechism. Don't believe the mind of god or the truth of life in the cosmos could be so easily contained. Rather like science. We encourage questions. Exploration. An ultimately real-life testing. In this way our understandings of god differ shift. And change. My hope is not that we all come to one shared agreement about the nature or existence of god. But that we be a community where we can seek together to clarify the god of our own understanding. And as research. May we do so with mines open. The newest insights of science. As well as to the experiences of marvel. The connect us with something greater. Then ourselves. So may it be. Amen.

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FP-20141019-Sermon-red.mp3?_=6

Hard. Life is never going to get better. It's hopeless. People only care about themselves. No one cares. No one cares. Progesterone. But that is how some people feel isn't it. How you feel. Are you self. Sometimes life can get really. Really hard. We can find ourselves bowled over by a sudden loss. Other job. Our health. Or person whom we love. We find ourselves slogging through piles of concerns that accumulated. Without notice. It can all just seem. Sorrow. Challenges. Back. And marcus. Friday i was reminded of this. Small way. Perhaps like some of you. I struggle with finding time to exercise. I would rather. Then head out on a bike. But i decided several weeks ago that it would be good for me and for my ministry with you if i would focus on being healthier. So i signed up for some personal training. To get me back into shape. And it's been going well. Until friday morning. When are the last roll foot and left me on the floor. With a sprained ankle. Lying there on the floor. The cure song my eyes. Exercise. Repair. Higher tried to do the right thing. Now i would lying on the floor in pain. I could hear the voice bubble up to forget it. Why bother just going to get hurt. How does my way home to prop up my ankle and to look for sympathy. I texted my closest friends. I called my mom. And then of course i posted a picture of mike rowland and go on facebook. And it works. Princess holly and summer few words of concern care and advice on my facebook page. And evernote yes i do friend congregants if you friend me. Already down. And more importantly. I was no longer feeling alone. Being alive. Means that we're going to encounter challenges and losses. And pain. It's easy to think that normal is supposed to mean that all is well all is fine and that there are no problem. The reality is that life is always a mess. What is going around and bringing you joy. And what is breaking your heart. And causing you concern. In other words. Normal. 4life. It's at we're going to be facing on nick. And sorrows. Throughout all of our games. Of course sometimes. Or the other. If i can jump to another metaphor. I imagined it to be a bit like a solar eclipse. With the moon covering different amounts of the sun. And how much of the moon is covering the sun. The proportion of joys and sorrows. Router life. Significantly. In a solar eclipse. When the moon covers all of the sun. A rim of light. It's still visible. A reminder. As one of my favorite verses from the christian bible says. The light shines in the darkness. The darkness. Has not overcome it. This image of a light. Powerful one. Right. As the candle burning in our talent. Has mom been a religious symbol pacifying the presence of something breaking through. The darkness. During my work at the hospital chaplain. Eyewitness how powerful the symbol of light to be. Did someone with great sorrow. At the part of my training to become a minister i spent a summer at the beth israel deaconess medical center. Learning about hospital chaplaincy with six other ministers or rabbis. I was assigned to a vascular floor. We're many of the patients struggling with a complication from advanced diabetes. One of the first patients i met with mary. When i first met mary. Barely conscious. Etsy wrestles with intent. In her foot. Ever. And woke up in the blood trying to get back into your leg and hear that intense pain. That's my understanding of what happens when you have the vascular system starts to break down in your leg cuz it's 10:15. Overwhelmed by the pain. Didn't have surgery on her foot in the pain was improved and she's able to be more lucid. Giving us a chance to talk more. About her family in about her face. I learned about her struggle. Interfere. And then we'd learn together that the doctors felt the surgery on her foot was not enough. And that she would need to have an amputation on her leg. Mary was so. Scared. He was scared of not being able to be independent. Scared of not being able to be on the floor to play with her grandkids. Are dove dying in her surgery. With her fears. That's the night before hardest. I felt so alone. Hospital candles are forbidding of course. Katherine's office catchy store little plastic handles entrepreneur jack-o'-lantern. And. Abbott candle for orthodox jewish patients. So i took one of these candles to mary. Telling her to leave it on at night. And then it was to remind her that she was not alone. Better family. Church. Cetme. We're all there with her. Christian mary believe in god and we all could talk about psalm 23. Promises that god walk with her in the valley of darkness. Little plastic light. Gymnast. Connections for mary. But she was not. Alone. Like mary we all find ourselves in times of great darkness. We find ourselves in time when sorrow and fear loss. And sadness threatened to a clit. Our sense of joy. And the goodness of life. For me one of those crimes was in my mid-twenties. I had married shirley young at the age 24. And shortly after i became pregnant with my son. My marriage is very difficult. Get in my family people didn't divorce. I didn't want to divorce. Point. I still felt strongly religious lessons of my youth. Don't divorce that marriage is for life. In my life. Became darker. And darker. Finally i made a bargain with myself. Telling myself that i would say. Unless i felt that my spirit. Was about to die. And when i did feel that spiritual death. I turned the one place i thought might be of some help. A local liberal christian church. The first sunday that i walk to the store. Meant to be. Incurred in a religious community. Steel. A feeling of hope. Goodness. Of not being alone. I remembered what it felt like to be a part of the community. Care for one another. And help those in need. He's in making things better. That believe life itself with a holy wondrous gift. In this way the light that overcame my darkness. Came in the form of a religious community. A community caring for each other. It's a holding staff to the space in the inherent dignity of human life. Connecting to a religious community i was able to renew my spirit. Begin to forge a new life for myself and my son. I tell you the story today because it's 16. To my deep commitment value and the importance of religious community. Can be really. Really hard. We are all. Vulnerable the lawsuit and the suffering of life. We do not need to be alone and our clara. In today's reading nicholas walter store here's a bit of what he learned from being in the darkness of suffering. Wise words are not necessary. Critical. Rather he called her. Embrace. Another as they suffer. Do not drink from our minimize the reality of suffering. In our own or someone else's life. Such a deep loss in greece is. Real. Many of you know and his congregation too well. Or hiding from such sorrow. Leave the one who suffered all alone. Rather it is by drawing near. Love is giving. That connection is made. My sense of this congregation so far and as we saw today. It's at in many many ways. You know just what i'm saying. And how to show such love. With one another in greece. And lost. Today. I want to retract that strength of his congregation back. The ways that you take care of each other. In the service we have a firm for lay minister. Kryptek fourth to do this work of care on behalf of the congregation in a special way. Are all engaged in any way. Today i also want to call that the important. Are tearing of joys and sorrows in the service. I love these moments when we can hold up. Enssaro light. And darkness. That make up our lives. In designing the order of service this year. I have been intentional time of joys and sorrows within a framework of prayer and meditation. It doesn't matter whether or not you believe in prayer to god. Or simply to all that is cool me with community. Sincero. With each other is a kind of prayer. Everything out beyond our cell. Natchez what is in each other's heart in mind. Attitude. The sharing of joys and sorrows is akin to sitting with each other on the morning been. Showing one another love. Sharon joyce and sorrows in the middle. Other sunday service. Is simply not the same as making an announcement. Rather start sharing is about connections with other. As the reverend spondylotic optimist church. Right. Even though the candle you like is something. Candle you light is for something that is personal to you. That moment and charm of a congregation is transaxle. My aunt is having surgery this week and your thoughts and prayers. Would be greatly appreciated. Wish me and celebrating my 21st 5th anniversary. Better today. When we share with each other and there's public way. It's not just about the individual. It's about creating a connection between us. As a community. Committed to caring for each other. Really hard sometime. Sometimes the darkness and the difficulty. Can threaten to acquit. In the life. In the joy. My hope for our physics munity. Is that we continue to speak to be a place where we can sell rocks and care other. Even when we don't have wise words. Even when we don't have any words at all. We all live within the neck. Joy and sorrow. Light. And darkness. May we eat with other. Whether we are in darkness right now and needed a break. Or whether we are called. Decide someone else in their grief.

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FP-20141116-Sermon-red.mp3?_=6

The week. And weak. Today. I knew that it would be on my mind because i'm headed off on friday to san diego. American academy of religion. National conference of scholars of religion. I will participate in a number of meetings in religion. I said i need a toria board. Intersections of religion and feminism are my primary scholarly community. I'm also a part of a panel of the union. To honor the work of reverend dr. rebecca parker. Recently retired president of stocking seminary east seminary. He is a colleague also in feminist scholarship. Is on my mind in a big way this week. There are some who would have the very word feminism from our vocabulary. If you missed it. Controversy this last week over at prime magazine pole. Which word should be banned in 2015. Among the contenders with the word feminism. In explaining why. When did the word applies to them. Like some politician declaring a party. De'anthony parade. What time is right about one thing. There have been a number of young women leaders in popular culture. Last year. Beyonce. Who performed at the mtv video music awards letter. Of the word of nigerian poet and feminine and i cannot. Werewolves in into the storm. Out front. Suggested. That word one more time on quote. Accused. Controversy online. On the one hand anti-feminist site drove users to the pool. On your hand. The time issues an apology last night. Anti-semitism alive and well in our culture. Course. These are not new ideas. In our culture. Intitle today is not in the spelling. Countryman what we might do they call anti-feminist sentiments. When anne hutchinson went on trial in boston for her role in creating discord within the fledgling massachusetts colony. Many others oppose her in a controversy split the colony. Church. Excommunicated for heresy. Tile. According to critique of her. You have a wife. Then i cure. And a magistrate than a subject. In other words. Frank is to be subservient to your husband. Listen and learn about religion. Not to speak up about your own ideas. Simply follow the laws. Don't try to change them. Refusal of mr. hughes peter point of view. Know a woman's place is not simply to follow her husband. Religion and life purpose. No mr. peter. A woman does not step out of her place when she speaks about her own point of view. Her own experience at her own idea. No. A woman's place. And her family. Or her government. No. A woman's place. Education of children. And what makes life meaningful and holy. A woman who play government. How to live together in a society. Gender. A woman. Or cannot do with your life. Feminist. Are you. Figure out what to do. One day i walked. You might imagine. And socially conservative. I had to look up what that men. I don't recall much about the panel itself. Turn my head. Archaeology professor dr. yarbrough. We ran into each other. Standing there with the tray with a plate. Naruto. What i remember most. Inclusive language. Slippery. Arguments about god. Wasn't typical. Brighton. Mario. About the same time by an older wiser sophomore. And warned me. But my involvement with the panel and christian. Calling me. And so it turns out i had. During and after college i began reading women's literature as well as books on tennessee allergy. And seminary i began asking questions about marital status and christianity. I learn how to find family in a narrow way to reinforce class and sexuality. I then began my doctoral work and religion gender and culture at harvard divinity school. Addition to using an antenna. Framework to write my dissertation. I also work. Women gender and sexuality department. Graduation. Challenging. I am a feminist. An increase. Let me some more and more liberal understanding for christianity. Isn't here. Unitarian universalism. Unitarian universalist unitarian universalist. Women's rights in society and religion. In 1863 first woman to be nominated for award. Shortly after in 1871. Popular women's rights. Women's convention. A number of prominent leaders in the movement. Original letter from susan b anthony. And the latter was simply a note to her minister. Spirit first cherokee wayland we have our own connection to a prominent abolitionist and advocate of women's rights. Mariah child. Reformer. The women and write her mind. And by working at one meal. Referred to as an early commuter marriage. 19th century women i do not use the term feminist. The term feminist actually has an early-twentieth-century origin. Crossing the atlantic. French word feminism. A woman question. In the 19th century woman question. I know this because i important to remember the questions about the role of women in society have been around for a very. Very long time. Of course variety and 5th and what questions problems and issues are. Historical era. Places in socio-economic contact. Concerned for women to differ. Moreover. Serious issue. He's in responses with an all-girl working to address.. Eternal feminine black senator. Vinology different approaches when i caught it boston college since the classes introduction to shamanism. To you. Feminism still matter. Example. Injustice. Violin. Against women. For example for months and months. Them. Even the white house reception. And it's on us campaign. Call for action and accountability by persons of all gender. When i plan. I didn't set out to talk about any particular issue facing women today. Rather i simply knew that would be. Something in the news. Because you're almost always. Send it remains a controversial word. Ongoing practices of violence in quality and innocent women and men different ways places in contacts. Unitarian universalist we stand in a long line of women and men. Advocating for society of religion and a system of laws. Everyone. Regardless of their gender. Sexuality sexual orientation for class. I believe that we need to learn. Name. About the ongoing issues and problems facing women today. Growing income inequality. Healthcare. I also believe. Not adequately speak or understand the issue of color. So much for my own. And so i remain committed. Converting. Ways to speak out not only for my own welfare. And dignity as a woman. Violin. Syndicating. I invite you today. The ongoing struggles against injustice and inequality. Rachel. Economic. Fender bass. Make a difference. The ongoing struggle for more love. More white. And more. In our shared world.

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FP-20171126-Sermon-1.mp3?_=5

No matter what. We must eat. To live. These words from the poem perhaps the world ends here by joy harjo. Underscore the importance of food in our lives. Of all the things we may or may not be as human persons. We are bodies. We are organisms in need of fuel. We are people who must eat. To live. In what food is a necessity for life. Food is so much more. As well. Boudin food rules play a large role in many religions. From the christian ritual of communion. The hindu offerings to of food to deities. The dietary rules of eating kosher or halal. Food often plays an important role in religion. It is unitarian universalist we have no food rules that we require our members to follow. Nor do we have a ritual around food that we regularly practice in worship. Although like many religious groups we do have a weekly time to share food and drink during coffee hour. Some have even suggested that for you use coffee our is our sacrament. Why does food. Play such a central role in so many religious systems. I think the answer lies and hard rose words. No matter what. We must eat. To live. We talk about food. We're talking about the essentials of life. We're talking about how to stay alive. How to help life. Flourish. And at its core. I think religions are systems of beliefs and practices. That seek to help us live full and meaningful life. Livwell. To live rightly. Necessity for food helps to explain why food and eating become central to religion. As well as to culture. Example how we use food in our social relations with others can convey our intentions towards the other. Giving food to another is in effect a wish for the recipient's life to flourish it's saying hey i'm glad you're alive and i hope you stay that way. So also the refusal to feed another. Or even indifference to the hunger of another. Communicates disdain for the value of their life. I don't really care. Weather your life. Thrives or parishes. Whether you live or die. And yet this indifference is condemned by religious traditions. As the director of the world food programme after thorin cousin. Told a multi-religious multinational gathering last year. Quote. Hunger has no religion. Hunger has no culture. Hunger has no nationality. Every religion. Every faith requires that we feed the hungry. Hunger has no religion. Is basic human need. Feeding the hungry. Is basic human compassion. Is common need for food creates a common ground with bridges many differences that divide us. And yet what we eat. For food. Reflects parmenides diversity and difference. Cuisine is often linked to culture. We eat italian or french or chinese food. More than mere sustenance. Food can become a cultural marker. To help define identity. Indeed i learned this week that pumpkin pie helped to spark a nineteenth-century culture war in the us. According to an essay by ariel noble. In the 19th century pumpkin pie was firmly identified with the northern yankee culture. Edwin sarah josepha hale lobby for thanksgiving to be made a national holiday during the 1850s. Some in the south received her effort to expand the holiday as a political act. These southern critics perceived her attempts to exploit the export the holiday and its pumpkin pie. As an effort to also export nothing northern culture. Including the rising anti-slavery sentiment of the north. Southern leaders denounced the spread of thanksgiving as an imposition of northern values on the south. Noble rights. According to his story and melanie kirkpatrick. Governor wise of virginia answers letters from hale by telling her he wanted nothing to do with quote. This theatrical national claptrap of thanksgiving. Which is aided other causes in settings thousands of popits to preaching christian politics and quote. Why is it statement directly referred to anti-slavery politics. Governor wise and the southern leaders. Hill's thanksgiving was not simply about. Hi. But about whose culture and whose values would define national identity. He'll finally achieved her goal would president lincoln made thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. In the middle of the civil war. When will pumpkin pie certainly was not the cause of the civil war. It is notable. Was embroiled in divisive politics. Of cultural identity. And as you may know the politics of thanksgiving and national identity remain alive today. I suspected as children many of us were taught that thanksgiving. Giving began with a pilgrim sat down for a friendly harvest dinner with the local indians. It today native americans challenge this akron image of unity and peace. Bc the arrival of white european settlers on these shores as anything but benign. And instead mark the day as one of morning. In 2016 our own unitarian universalist general assembly adopted a business resolution that called for us to explore our historical roots to these european. Puritans in the celebration of thanksgiving. Congregation like ours. Begun by puritans in the 1600s. This challenge land clearly at our doorstep. When we gather around the table for a thanksgiving meal in a pumpkin pie. In what ways do we reinforce a national identity that celebrates the successful colonization of these land by white european settlers. In what ways does this joyful celebration of thanksgiving erase the violence and loss wrought upon the wampanoags. And other native americans of these lands. As we reach for pumpkin pie. Do we also pause to consider how our bounty. Emerges from a legacy of colonial theft. And violence. Is a celebratory meal rooted in a particular place in culture. Questions like these provoked serious reflection. About how food can teach cultural symbols. Of who we are. Food. Is a basic human need that connects us. And food often acts as a powerful carrier of culture. What we eat. With whom. And with what people help. To define our identity. This might sound like a big complex thing. But i'm sure it's one with which we are all intimately familiar. In other words how did your thanksgiving go. Was there. What did you eat. And who got to decide what was on the menu. In our house we hosted my partner bills siblings and their families. In a group of just 14 we ranged from less actually 15. Forgot the baby. We reached from less than eight months to over 80. Five different national identities were presents. French moroccan english russian and american. Our meal was a joint effort of multiple contributions. And while we shared a common table. It was also apparent that abel of traditional food for 1. Wasn't unusual foreign food for another. And yet for the most part we all ate the same food. And as it turns out. The same food matters. In a recent study social scientist caitlin woolly and violet fischbach. Research the role of eating the same food. In building trust. Their experiment pair together two strangers in a trust building exercise. Specifically they were assigned roles as management or labor in a wage dispute. During the rounds of negotiation some pairs were given no food. Some pairs were each given different foods. And still others were given the same food. Well those eating different foods reach agreement after a average of 7.3 rounds. Those with the same food. Reached agreement within an average of only 3.6 rounds. About half the time. In their conclusion wooly and fishback notes that eating the same food is not actually an indicator of whether or not we will like people or they are trustworthy. And yet the research shows that people respond to eating the same food as if it is a valid indicator. Feeling closer to in. More trusting of those who consume as they do. Julian fishback conclude quote. In this way. Food serves as a social lubricant and especially beneficial for new relationships. We're people have limited information about the other person and are forming first impressions. In consuming similarly. People can immediately begin to feel camaraderie and develop a bond. Leaving to smoother transactions from the start. In other words. If you're meeting someone for the first time. And want to make a good impression. The old line i'll have what they're having. Is a good start. Simply eating the same foods can q a sense of trust. In an npr interview about their study fischbach explained. Food is about bringing something into the body. And to eat the same food suggest that we are both willing to bring the same thing into our bodies. Putting food into our bodies is. Both necessary. And dangerous. As anyone who has suffered from an allergic. Reaction or food poisoning nose. Eating the wrong thing can have very bad effects. Members of vulnerability to eating. We seek sustenance. But also risk harm. And so to me it makes sense that to both reach for the same food build a bond. It's an unconscious affirmation of taking a risk together. Food is about survival. No matter what we must eat to live. Must. Means that eating makes us vulnerable. Without food are hunger risks discomfort. Physical decline. An ultimately death. Hunger knows no religion no culture. We all need. To eat. It's so eating brings us together in a shared project of sustaining survival in the flourishing of life. The kitchen table as joy harjo poems suggest. Becomes the site of learning about living. We come to the table because we must eat to sustain our bodies. I'm at the table we learn the culture and manners of our family and our people. At the table we learn we gossip. We dream. And we listen. Chef michael symon has said. Sitting down for dinner not only helps you learn. It also teaches you how to listen. Which i feel is the most important skill to have. I remember as a kid going around the table listening to everyone's day. It was hard to have the manners not to interrupt back then. We listen. And we learn at the table. We learn how to be men and how to be women. We learn about our neighbors. Wheeler history. We learn attitudes and expressions of feelings. Other joy. Sorrow or struggle of life. Listening at the table. We learn the whole world. And sometimes we learn by who is not at the table. Is sharing food at a common table builds trust. Do we also reinforce a sense of distrust. Towards those who are absent from our table. With whom do we not. And why. It is of no small importance that the dream dr. martin luther king extolled and his famous speech included quote a dream that one day on the red hills of georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together. At the table of brotherhood. Sunday. Slave owners in the slaves would not be divided but sit at a common table. Someday the violence and the end of it and the injustice would be overcome and people would. Share the same food. Building trust. This dream of a common table is at the root of the thanksgiving story. Knowing that no matter what we must eat to live. We gather at a common table to give thanks that we are alive we are together and we are at peace. And while we may find this to be true in some of our thanksgiving gathering. It was not true. Of the alleged first thanksgiving as the wampanoags. In what european settlers warily shared a contested shore. Nor was it true in the 19th century. As north and south slaveholders and slaves sat at different tables. / oppression and mistrust. Nor was a true for dr. king. Who spoke powerfully against the racial divide that remained 100 years after the civil war. Nor is it true today. Our nation still shows fractures along racial lines that disproportionately incarcerate people of color. But hide the legacy of colonization upon native americans. And that send clear messages of exclusion to immigrants muslims and mexicans. Did they are not really welcome at the common table of us national identity. Don't we all. Need to eat to survive. At its best thanksgiving story of a common table. Reflects the ethic of a welcoming hospitality that builds trust. Across differences. At its best the thanksgiving story paul's us to live out the common religious mandate to feed the hungry. The world begins at the kitchen table. The tables of our homes in our congregation. Be a place where the world is welcome. With its joys and sorrows. And death. Powerful. And weak. We all must eat to live. Let us seek to build a truly. Common table. So may it be.

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FP-20200913-Homily.mp3

It's been a strange summer hasn't it. This was a summer. When we all learned to remember masks. When we headed out the door. Or side when we realize we had forgotten again and went back for it. It was the summer when we became experts at calculating rough distances. 68 ft 12 ft. In the store or at the beach removed with an eye towards distance. It was the summer when we may not have crossed state lines. Boarded a plane or otherwise traveled. Instead it was a summer many of us spent far more time at home. Whatever we did or did not do this summer. I suspect that we will all remember the summer of 2020. The covid summer. I wonder what we will or will not remember as the years go by. In the last few days i've been thinking about what i remember about september 11th 2001. For me the details that are clearest are small. I remember the bright blue of the sky. The same sky in new york city just 45. Minutes away from where i been lived. I remember that i was eating a bowl of cheerios and watching cnn on my tv. When they interrupted the coverage to show video of the first tower. And then the second. After watching the second plane hit. I began reaching out to neighbors and friends. Shortly i was in an apartment of a friend as a group of us gathered. Watching together. I don't remember a word of what was said. I just remember. We were together. Together. This is what we do so often when crisis hits. We gather together leaning on one another for support and strength. Isn't this part of why this current crisis is so cruel. But keeping us physically apart. I'm keenly feeling this distance today on this water sunday. When we traditionally celebrate coming together. Like water is coming from many directions and blending in a common bowl. The ritual of this day seeks to reconstitute the community after being apart. But this is water sunday after covid summer. This is an online water sunday. And it's pretty empty here. In the sanctuary. And yet. We are still together. I know it seems that we are also separate in our different places. But we are linked. And we are linked physically. I assure you that i remain a three-dimensional flesh-and-blood human being who emanates the warmth of my blood and the scent of my body. And i believe you also remain. Real people. Not just images on the screen before me. I know it doesn't feel the same to be online. But i do not want us to forget that we are more than usual virtual beings. Typically when we meet in person for water sunday people are invited to bring water to add to a common bowl. But since not everyone brings water to contribute we also provide a picture of water for people to add their virtual water as they share where they have been. Emma's covid year i went to flip this. This year. As the people are appearing virtually. I want to place a container of water. Beside the chalice. That will be the physical in-person. Bits of all of you. Is the combination of our contributions this very real water will be the symbol of our being together. In other words a bit of you your homes your special places will be here in the sanctuary. And if you're still want to contribute your water there's plenty of space in the dark. Just bring it by and drop it off at the box outside of the parish house or let us know if you want us to pick it up or if your father wait just mail it in. As we gather this year in our homes are from whatever place we find to be our home that day. My hope is that we noticed the ways we remain together. Sometimes we may think of home is a place set apart a safe haven from the rest of the world. And in times of danger this idea can bring comfort. Slicing rplate homes as places of relative safety. I don't want this to think that we are no longer connected. Connections are more than just physical presence. How many times have you been in a room full of people and felt alone. Perhaps we can learn how to feel the presence of others. Even when we are not in a room together. I don't think any of us would choose. For a rule to be this way. We are in a crisis. It is still too soon for us to know what we will remember of these days this covid summer. In 919 or 49 years from now. But i suspect that like my memories of 911. We will remember the odd little details. And most importantly. The ways we found two still. Be together. So let us survive this year with our computers and our cell phones. But if arrived with our stable or shaky internet. But it's arrived as we forget to mute or unmute. Together. We arrived. Together we remain a community shaped by our promises. To ride with an open mind and a loving heart to search for meaning to care for one another and to work together. For a better world. May it be so. Amen.

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FP-20150315-Sermon-red.mp3?_=6

Paris we have a monthly newsletter called unitarian. As the name suggests the newsletter predates 1961 merger of the unitarian universalist into the unitarian universalist association. Indeed for the research of one of our members of the archives committee. List of barren. The first volume of unitarian. Was published february 1st 1951. Couple weeks ago i stopped by the sunroom to visit with the archive committee and was telling one of the early volumes of the unitarian. Article on the page caught my eye. The blur bread. 1640 club will meet again one week from tonight friday march 26th at 6:30 p.m.. A covered-dish will be served. The accent of a meeting for beyond getting acquainted. There were so many new faces at the last meeting that it was decided a social meeting designed to get better acquainted with the new members was definitely needed. Therefore. An evening of dancing has been planned. Dancing popular brown square reel in all other if there are others. So plan to attend and bring your friends you feel would be good members. There's so much that i love about this short blurb. Club. It is meeting again. Again. History of meetings. This is not a one-off gathering. I'm going group that signifies continuity and commitment. Gathering in a continuing series. Apparently. Rather this meeting has a particular accent intended to help people get acquainted. Having recognized to help people become acquainted. You can almost imagine the planning. You notice all the new people at the meeting last time. If i did. A half a dozen new faces i didn't know. I need a way for everyone to get acquainted. Well i always like to potluck. Always have potlucks. Aubergine. No and not everybody likes bridge as much as you. What kind of dance. Everybody likes to dance. Betsy i think you're onto something. Yes let's host a dance. Still should bring a covered dish. Okay a dance with food. Is born. I wonder how many people came to that dance. I imagine that that dance happened right below us in the vestry. Will again hold the dance this friday. Indeed the dance is not the only event in his historic unitarian that resembles our life today. There is also a call for singers to join the choir for the special easter music which i understand was the original music sunday with easter. And there is a link verb about alliance rummage sale. To be held on april 5th. Some things have changed. There is also a short blurb thanking to women mrs. pierpont blair. And emily flower. For addressing the unitarian. As well as request for other volunteers to address future weekly unit editions of the unitarian. Mail out a dozen or so unitarians monthly. We now have the convenience of computer-generated labels. Another difference from 1951 is the weekly attendance that was recorded. On march 9. There were 43. Adults at the church service. 24in the church school. For a total of 75 people in attendance. Our attendance for youth service last sunday was 85 adults and 29 children and youth for a total of 114. And today kate holland. Handed me a slip of paper that says we have. 112 adults. In 27 years for total of 139. Almost double where they were in 1950. This volume of the unitarian. Areawide unitarian for conference featuring for panels. Whose name is soundclick quaintly dated. But whose content remains very relevant. See if you would have tendencies. The number one. Making the standing committee run. Is it blog i read last week with title. How to spend your boards time. Number two. Raising the wherewithal. There's no surprise raising funds is a perennial topic. Number three winning newcomers. Or as we often hear today outreach to attract new people and families. And finally. Church school vitamins. I'm going to suggest this is a very clever way of indicating conversation of how to create and sustain a healthy re-program. Atopic still very important to us today. As the hebrew scriptures say. What has been. Is what will be. And what has been. Is what will be done. There is nothing new under the sun. There is indeed much about her life together that does reflect ongoing programs and needs. Challenges and chairs practices. If there are also ways that are community shifts and changes. We're no longer sending out unitarians with handwritten mailing labels. Even in these historic unitarians. We can see the shifts and changes a congregational life. The headline article of the very first issue. What's entitled. Teenagers organized. The article recounts has 16 teenagers gather to create a new group a youth group. They chose to affiliate with a national organization american unitarian. Any elected a slate of officers. They also had a party of quote. Delicious hamburgers. Salad potato chips soda pop cupcakes and brownies. Apparently they like eating together because they also made a plan to bring food to future meetings in to charge dues of a whopping $0.15 per week. Beverages. The article concludes with this sentence. Rev major games square dancing. And george butler played the piano for the group singing. There we go again. So why is there so much dancing at 1st terrace. Can you say that is an evangelical christian growing up there was no dancing in hurst. I'm glad dancing together is a part of history and ongoing life of first parish for a couple of reasons. First of all dancing is a bodily action. Admittedly than others when we dance. Even if your speed is simply sitting on the edge of the dance floor tapping your foot to the music. Dancing inspires bodily movement. We're pretty heady bunch in this room. I'd include myself in that. And while the life of the mind hold mini merits that bring both intellectual pleasure. As well as social benefits. There is more to life than what goes on within our heads. We are bodily creatures who moved to our lives with muscle and bone. Blood and sweat. Is your heartbreak beat quickens in your lungs gulp for more air. Dancing reminds us of the gifts of embodied movement. As blood and oxygen flow through every capillary to every finger tip and toe. We are reminded of life itself pulsing through us. Is dancer pearl cream instead. Is life. Is life. It is a bodily expression of life. And it is a cultural expression of our life together. It's hard to imagine a human culture without dance. Dance is a worldwide phenomenon spanning millennium. Dance is referenced in ancient religious texts from hinduism to judaism. Greek myths. Buddhism. And dance continues to permeate our own culture. Including formal performances. Celebration such as weddings. Social gatherings from high-school to churches. Or even in your living room in your underwear like the famous scene with tom cruise in the movie risky business. Once you start to look. You realize that dancing is everywhere and culture and history. The dance has functioned not only to retain cultural traditions for familiar songs and movements. Dance has also functions to challenge cultures. Early 20th century african-american scholar choreographer and dancer pearl prima's. Exemplified both in her life. Is an anthropologist of african dance she researched learned performed and taught african dances both here in the us and in africa. But she also used ants is protest. To the contemporary lived experiences of african-americans within the us. Dance set 1937 poem strange fruit. Buy a bell near pool. Words made famous by billie holiday song of the same title. In the dance premises haunting choreography. Raise a woman lamenting of lynching. Strange fruits. Southern trees. I will bring to the dance in the online version of my sermon. These ways dance can be a bodily expression of our best traditions. And of our longing for something more. For something better. Sometimes words are not enough. To express an idea a memory or an aspiration. Sometimes we need for expression. Ariel form. I think her life as a community is a lot like a dance. As a community we are the embodied form of our traditions. As well as the expressions of our aspirations. Explain what i mean. As a community we embody a number of traditions that have been passed down from us from prior generations. Aspen historic volumes at the unitarian suggest. There are certain traditions that have been a part of the congregational life for decades. Such as the women's alliance rummage sale and i think happy told me last night 71 years. 72 years this year. Millstone traditions or sunday evening youth group. Older traditions that are 375 years. Pictures of fact that we gather for worship on sunday morning. Continuing traditions we embody a set of movement community dance. By following familiar pattern such as water sunday in september and april at flowers sunday in june. Wiara choreographed dance. In which people know their familiar places in movement. If someone new to this community this establish choreography. It danced not only embodies inherited traditions of movement. It can also serve as a vehicle to express new and creative ways of moving through the world. Liquor near temporary martha graham. How to reimagine dance. Short and stocky and dark skin. Pearl didn't even look. What a dancer was supposed to look like. Virgin ideas of modern dance. Research on traditional african dances. And the lived experiences of african-americans of her time. Creatively expressed herself to dances. Unlike any other. Music creation of new dances. Expressed her aspirations not only for new ways of moving. For new ways of being in the world. So also. I believe that is a community we too need to explore how to blend tradition. The lived experiences of our contemporary world. Is blending is not itself new. For example in the third week. We learn the shocking facts. Church now owns a mimeograph machine. Communicate. New technologies is part of the ongoing dance of community life. So also the emergence of new hymnals every few decades reflects the blending of a tradition of congregational singing. Which is 15 cultural sensitivities of language and saw. Yes we gather for community and we value this community. Community does not just happen. Unintentional relationship-building are congregational community takes. Work. And a lot. Of meetings right. It takes some rather intricate choreography. And many of these patterns of movement are beloved and well-known. The familiarity gives us many of our cherished experiences of connection in community. It's sometimes we also need to make room for new kind of dances. For each generation to be able to express their own song. And their own moves as they find their place in our shared community dance. But we may not know what the first parish community will look like in another 60 years. Or six years. Or six months. What we do know is that one reason we gather together. Is for community. We are intentional about dean in relationship with one another. Even in our differences. Even when it's not simple or easy. We gather in community in order to affirm our sense. Together. Is better than a life lived alone. Girl premus road. I danced not to entertain. But to help people better understand each other. Because through dance i've experienced the worthless belie of freedom. I seek it more fully now for my people and for all people everywhere. At its best. I believe the dance of community can help us to better understand each other. Heritage predictions. Embedded in our choreography to the creative innovations of new generations. Dancing together in community. Help us to learn more. About one another. Around the time of the new year. Keep sims shared a youtube video on ruu wayland listserv. Included this link and last in this past week's e-blast. And you can watch the video on my laptop if you wish. This video of a man matt. Dancing with people all over the world. Inspired sisterman. Watching the diversity of people and of dances. Reminds us of how very vast our community is with all of its particular eighties. As well as have very similar we are in our love of dance. Dance and bodies are traditions. And also allows us to express our innovations. Aspirations. Are uniting for community. We enter into a dance together with both a well-known choreography. As well as creative innovations. Dance. Together and dancing together a community. Express our joy. Care for one another. And learn more. About each other.

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FP-20150920-Sermon-red.mp3?_=6

I'm excited to be back preaching again. Preaching. Today's sermon title learning to speak. The new pilot program on friday. Proposed by the outreach committee and approved by the parish committee earlier this month. Program is at end intended to attract potential new members. Raise awareness and weiland of our congregation. And developed messages for outreach to our neighbors. Component of this program is the rebranding of our religious education program. Program. An acronym that stands for spiritual and ethical education for kids. A shout-out to jones share for coming up with that one. Accordingly are kids in youth. Will be known as seekers. To be clear we will still have a lifespan program with with offerings for all ages with kate holland. Hazard shepherd. Are the kids in the youth. Make it's a special acronym speak. Today i want to tell you why i think this outreach program in rebranding to seek. Are such important endeavors. And why this kind of experiment is in our dna. As unitarian universalist. Let me start by talking about the dna. This year we are celebrating our 375th anniversary as a congregation. And of course our buildings that were sitting in is not sold. And last january our minister emeritus cancel year anniversary of a house. In that sermon ken reminded us of some of our history not only as a building. Community. January 25th 1850. The congregation not only celebrated the new meeting house. It also new minister. 1815 was not a calm time to be a congregational minister on the east coast. Trouble was a foot. Serving here in the outskirts of austin their young reverend white. A controversy and divisiveness that were in golfing new england. If ken priest last january quote. Ecclesiastical cloth. He'll together for 200 years was sorely strain. And here and there rips and tears were apparent. In the 1820s. The ribs turned into a long tear down the whole length of massachusetts congregationalism. With liberal churches joining into an american unitarian association formed in 1825. Under white's leadership. This church took that step. 1828. So what's this brouhaha of the early 19th century. Just another matter of arcane theological dispute that bears no relevance to our day and age. Admittedly there were certainly a lot of narrow philosophical. For whether the nature of god was trinitarian three persons in one or unitarian nature. Unitarian was not initially the rallying cry or branding chosen by the liberals for their emerging beliefs. It was a term of slander used by the traditionalist. Sinners the unitarians. In 1819. The liberal boston minister william ellery channing preached a sermon entitled unitarian christianity. Explains the term on his own terms. I imagine him deciding something like. Okay fine if unitarian is what you insist on calling us then i'm going to tell the world. We hold this unitarian position. And i believe in this why. Is the fertile seat of who we are today. Channing in the other early-nineteenth-century liberally christian ministers did not set out with the unitarian. Rather in his sermon tanning called for using reason and conscience. Determine what did ring true in a christianity he had inherited. Heritage religious framework. Channing was departing from a widely held religious point of view. Listen to summer channing's words. If nineteenth-century remember. Jack the systems of religion which prevail among us. The day or adverse in a greater or lesser degree. Did they take from us our father in heaven and substitute for him a being whom we cannot love if we would. We ought not to love. If we could. We object particularly on this ground to that system with which irrigates to itself the name of orthodoxy. In which is now. Industrious lee propagated throughout our country. In other words. Channing's announces what he knows to be a widely held religious way of thinking. He's willing to reject the popular inherited ways of thinking about god and religion. In order to seek out a religious understanding that feels more reasonable. And ethical. Y'all just channing start to have a modern feel. The nineteenth-century unitarians and the universalist which is another day. I see people who demanded that their spiritual and ethical needs be met with a religious system that made sense to them. Help them to be better people. In the world a better place. To me the dna link from channing to us today. Is not any particular beliefs about god or christianity. But the willingness to buck tradition. If it meant seeing the world in a way that was reasonable. And helped us to live better. 4 channing and reverend white. Reasonable electrical system in a variant of christianity. Unitarian christians held onto this variant. What's the model of searching for a reasonable and ethical understanding of life. Even if it's challenged the prevalent system of it's their day. This kind of questioning. And seeking fresh understandings and expressions. Is in our dna. I know that many of us found our way here to first parish unitarian universalism. From another religious tradition or experience. This is my gas so i wanted. How many of you are from another religious tradition. That's the majority b r. How many.. Attractive. And how many do came here from no other tradition. You're the demographic. First parish and many others. Have been able to attract people who are familiar with. But who like channing and white sought a religious view that felt more reasonable and ethical. But not always the search for a new religious community. When parents are looking for a place for their children. To receive some ethical and religious training. Such as the author of our reading andrew park. Today something different is happening. Among the younger generations of people in the us. There is the rise of the nuns and no not. My partner bill every time. And the younger and younger generations of people increasingly higher percentage of each generation. In fact a good number have never been a part of a religious community not even as a child. When they begin their families the same impulses to go looking for religious community. Not naturally arise. As i have said before. I have sympathy with those who would walk away from religion. You look around and religion is used to justify hate war and violence across the globe. I look at my son alec. Who is a high school senior. When they dropped him off at school a couple weeks ago. Remarks at the flag was at half mast. He glanced over and matter-of-factly reminded me that it was 9/11. Has he climbed out of the car. It was a poignant connection because on that sunny september day 14 years ago. I dropped him off at preschool. And then came home. To turn the tv on to watch a little news is i want is a eat my breakfast. And i watched the first plane. Is in the second slaying. Twin towers. 14 years later. I'm dropping off my now high school senior. And he can immediately identify why the flag is at half mast. And he does so with a sense of normalcy. Born from the reality that for his generation. There has always been a war. War that has unmistakable religious overtones. And at the same time. War of religious rhetoric against same-sex marriage and transgender lives. If that's kind of religiously tone violence and hatred. With a backdrop of your life. Tony's fine with juve to walk into the corner of religious institution. If you had no other point of reference for how religion could be. I believe that unitarian-universalism. Is a different way of being religious in the modern world. We're all sisters that are looking for reasonable and ethical understanding of how to live out our lives. Our mission is not to uphold truth we've inherited at any cost. Nordic close ourselves off from new ideas scientific insights or social changes. Rather is unitarian universalist. We come together to support one another and wrestling with how to understand and respond to the world in which we live. Today. Kyrat first parish. The congregation spent its first two centuries is a congregational christian church before becoming unitarian christians in the 19th century. Unitarian universalist 20th. More recently the congregation developed a strong humanist characteristics. Under the four decades of leadership of 10 sawyer. A deeply humanist minister. Get religious belief is not all that is changed. If you stood at the corner of boston post road and could do it 100 years ago. You would have seen a very different landscape. In just the what the last 30-40 years we've scanned at this meeting house built the paris house and added the comments to connect the two buildings. In other words over the last 375 years. We have undergone a lot of changes. I understand our new outreach program. It's a continuation of our efforts to remain responsive to the context in which we live is a congregation. For too many religion. Only have a negative connotation if indoctrination. Violence and hatred. I don't believe that's who we are. Rather's unitarian universalist we are seekers to promote and a firm of free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Our fourth principle. For this reason i think it is fitting that we call our programme for children and youth. The speak program. But the idea of seeking is not just for kids. We are all lifelong learners who are called to continue wrestling with what beliefs action policies and choices are reasonable and ethical for our understanding of the world. Lifelong learning is also spiritual work the es in the sikh. Because it's a process by which we deepen our sense of self our connection to others and to our world. I'm excited. I'm excited that while we finish here that our children and use are gathered together for a new monthly program on social justice. I'm excited that the small group sign up start today we're adults will have a chance to connect with each other and with feeder questions. I'm excited that yesterday at the wayland community arts festival. Are boost brought in both a lot of new faces. As well as many of you. We're doing good things here. Excited to bring in more people. With whom to share we are. And i'm excited to learn from those who walk through these doors with their own questions experiences and new ideas. I want to learn from people like andrew park. I want to better understand why organized religion is so unappealing to him. I want to learn if there is a way that i as a minister and riri as a conversation. Can better communicate who we are. In ways that feel inviting. In ways that make it clear we are not here to indoctrinate you or your children. Neither i nor the outreach committee. Feels that we have all the answers on how to do this. We're looking to experiment. Language ideas and images. That might explain er. Connect to andrews park. And others. Such work is not just for a small and very dedicated outreach committee. This is a call for all of us. To continue engaging in the work of what it means to be religious in the 21st century. A century drenched in war and violence. Mass displacement of political and economic refugees. Economic inequality climate change. And more. We have work to do. Baby do it together. And maybe invite and welcome even more people. Into the work of seeking to learn. What it means to live a meaningful. An ethical life. Tell me it be.

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FP-20190414-Homily.mp3

Easter week. Is a journey that takes us through the whole. Of life. And deaf. The journey begins in a place of exuberant joy on palm sunday as jesus enters jerusalem. Throughout his years of public ministry. Jesus had avoided jerusalem. The seat of religious and political power. Instead. He brought his message of love. And hope any different more just world. To those in the back corners of the nation. He may have been greeted with an enthusiastic crowd upon his arrival in jerusalem. Bejesus ungodly new. But there were also many powerful leaders watching with weariness. Insurance. He knew there could be trouble. Indeed the story of easter week describes how jesus is joyful arrival into jerusalem. Devolved into a heartbreaking night of betrayal. Followed by a dramatic political trial. And finally his public execution. As you may know on the night jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples. He prayed fervently alone in a garden. The christian scripture describes jesus as deeply grieved and crying out that he be spared from the violent death he anticipated. Rather than find support. And the disciples who remained. He fall asleep. He suffers alone. Annette's fearful night. For many. Facing death brings fear. All we know of death is what we the living experience. This powerful and shocking absence of life. Beast with the unknown. We often feel afraid. What happens after we die. Is one of the great questions of religious and philosophical inquiry. Possible answers include reincarnation resurrection. Nirvana silence. And more. Within catholic christianity the tradition teaches that souls will face judgment for their sins which determine their acceptance into heaven. Or how. However even those destined for heaven may need time in purgatory to be purified of the lingering impact. Of certain sins. Sp weight. Those living on earth. Can implore god to open the gates of heaven for their beloved deceased family member or friend. The mask. For the dead. Is a liturgy of prayers beseeching god to bestow favor and bring peace. To the deceased. Put to music. The mass for the dead becomes known as a requiem. Which is entitled for the latin word rest that begins the math. You might assume that a musical rendition addressing death. Would be intense dark music. Immune musical manifestation of the fear of death. Keep in mind that a requiem. Is a prayer for what happens after the rupture of death. Is a pleading for rest. For access to the beauty of heaven. For hope in an eternal goodness. In a few moments we are going to hear faure's requiem. Which has been described as a lullaby for the dead. Rather than stern music suggesting fear and doom. The beauty of faure's requiem evokes a sense of gentleness. Of light. Peace. In a 1921 letter to a friend. For explains why. Everything i managed to entertain and the way of religious delusion. I put into my requiem. Which moreover is dominated from beginning to end. Very human feeling. Efface. An eternal rest. Bruce lee you might notice his reference to religious illusion. Apparently for a was a bit of a religious skeptic despite all his years of employ and churches makes him a good fit for our unitarian. Nonetheless. For a describes his requiem at reflective of his beliefs. Most notably he depicts the pieces being underwritten throughout by this very human feeling of faith. In eternal rest. Will fear in the face of death may be a very human feeling. Suggest so also is faith. In eternal rest. Not knowing what lies beyond the horizon of death. We trust. But what awaits us is rest. Consider how so often we wish for the dead that they rest. And peace. Far from a trait trope. For a suggest that this wish. Signals a very. Human. Feeling. On this palm sunday. Every remember the hope inspired by a prophet speaking of a better world. May we also embrace the hope. But death. Whenever it may come. Baby mat with hope in his eternal rest. Play the lullaby of the songs be a bomb. To our fears. And stoke. Our faith. Full rest.

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FP-20141109-Sermon-red.mp3?_=5

With all of the route. Underworld of the math of roof. Nutrients. Alive. Walking through forest admiring the height of trees in the beauty of foliage. Forget that is unseen world of ruth. The name of the tree. Reminder of the role of ruth. Can be found in my favorites.. The tree of life. Which by the way. Abundance of life. Significantly most images of the tree of life also include a substantial root system. Mirror image of the branches and leaves. Are balanced inside. Suggesting that those are necessary to the flourishing of life. Indeed i do believe. Go deep into the soil of life. Green 4in homestar to what we need to florissant human. We need route to help with christina. In the storms of life. Sources of renewal. It's pranks. When the rain hasn't fallen in weeks. Are threatening to topple us over. There are many different kinds of roots. In wife. Some of them are simple and a good night's sleep to help restore us. Connections with family. Or with an old friend. Can also be important route53 grounder. At their best. Nourish our spirit. In the reading the way of thinking about our religious group. Explain to the latin word of religion is linked to literature. Coordinate finder. Ligament. Movement. Religious roots cancer. Not need to be inflating barn. They can also be ligaments that help us to move. Grandmother. North does not hold back her critical words. He describes the face of one grandmother as the answers of fundamentalism. And the other at the feet. The face of her other grandmother as over intellectualize banality. Connection. Her grandmother's pink. She claims that our own face. What it is because of her connection to these route. Route to our grandparents are important they are released they are for me. Lake norris i feel that i have learned much from their grandparents. Learning how much i've grown to differ from them. What i mean about learning. I'd like to share a story with you about my grandfather harold. Harold is the one i mentioned to give me would give me eminem's make them into my suitcase. When i would visit him. 1942. My grandfather harold hedges listed in the army. Portland. The minister was called to the house. A prayer and a blessing upon harold. In the middle of the living room at the minister laid hands upon him. And if his family gathered around him. I can only imagine how many times i've been called to offer for the prayer. Offer would hope not only the young man about to go to war. But also to the mothers and fathers. And at least my grandmother's grandfather's case. A new bride wedding. Searching for the right words. Psalm 91. Calling harold and his family promises of psalm 91. For harold safety. Promises let me read. Excerpt from the somme. Shelter of the most high. Rest in the shadow of the almighty. The lord is my refuge and my fortress. My god in whom i trust. Excellent. With his feathers. And under his wings you will find refuge. And rampart. You will not fear the terror of the night. Nor the arrow that flies by today. You're the pestilence that stalks in the darkness. Asteroids at midday. Thousand may fall at your side. At your right hand. But it will not come near you. Because you loved me since the lord. I will rescue him. I will protect him. For he acknowledges my name. And i will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life i will satisfy him and show him my salvation. Assurance of god's protection. And his parents to hold onto faith in god in the midst of war. Would actually come true. A soldier in wwii. It's part of the first special service forces. The forerunner to today's green berets and other special forces. Change the force and santa caller. To do work are there cookout do. For example in december of nineteen forty-three mountainside of mount mod dispenser in italy in the middle of the north tonight. Mountain. A battle that would eventually open the way to rome. The battle of law dispenser was re-enacted in the 1968 movie the devil's brigade. Quentin tarantino also cited the 4th as an inspiration for his movie inglorious bastards. Which will probably be one of the few times i say that insurance quoting. When quentin tarantino pick something as an inspiration for one of his violence soap film. It's not a good sign. Indeed the four suffered a more than 50% mortality rate. My grandfather harold. Return whole in body. If not always in spirit. Mini. Veteran. Nightmares sometimes raccoon sleep. Come home. And for the rest of his life he would continue to claim psalm 91. A promise in as a ground for his face. 1008 fall at your side. At your right hand. Are you. Amanda mini mini x to my grandfather should have died in wwii. How to take my religious imagination as a girl. Easy to believe in a personal god who keeps care of those who have faith in him. But i knew that story. I also watched him if he lived out his face and service. I walked at the author to central united methodist church with a white carnation touching his lapel. On a ladder repainting department. Are the same him so sweetly and his rich baritone voice. Describe him in church as he saying is one of my favorite childhood memory. And i also seen him together at my grandmother's bedside as she died from cancer. Memorial service. Iraq. Summer after he died. I have the opportunity to travel to italy. I decided to make a pilgrimage to see mount laurel to center. I found place. Small town at the foot of the mountain. When i arrived i drove slowly to the town and look up. Is that why the sensor. Because i am not fluent in anything but. Visiting her grandmother and they didn't know the area well. But they happily brought with her grandmother. And the woman. Angelo it turned out. What's a retired italian paratrooper. How do i get to walk to mountain collecting remnants of the war. The amateur museum dedicated to the store. Probably. Reverently. Angela's showed me around the relics of canteen. Shrapnel. Battle. The reality of grandpa stories lay there and a basement in italy. Angela then explained that looks fly defensive had a sister peak mount camino with the british over truck at the forester potenza. A group of people. Did i want to come. We made our way around from rather terrifying rustic backroads of the mountains of italy. Evan parked at the side. Mountain. Trail. There were sixteen of us from school-age kids good older gray-haired grandmother. Darrell waltrip by no means flat trail. Italian french in english road. There was a small stone chapel. I'm really not making a. Kids were allowed to pull the bell if you time. The older woman that to speaking the interior. And outside backpack for late open upon large rocks and out came a sheet of breads cheese's figs and wine unlabeled and local. Point sun was setting over the mountains to the west. Gorgeous sunset. And then after descending in the twilight. And took my reef. For many of us. It might be easier to disparage the notion that a personal god will protect one man in the midst of the war. Congrats when it doesn't make sense to me. Amount camino. Connection across the decades. That place. Whatever causes and circumstances had kept my grandfather alive. And we could given him to me. Year. And so sitting in that little stone chapel on the mountain peak. I said a prayer of gratitude for my grandfather's safety. Behan. And it is his grandchild sheridan. But i understood something about him there. I think most of the rest of his life. Whether or not we agree because of psalm 91. For personal god. Gratitude for life and how he lived. A gratitude for life. He never spoke about his face. Never preach to me about dogma. Rather he showed me just a second he live. With gratitude. In service to others. If the kind of face that i hold onto. Gratitude and service is still making sure. We all have spiritual and religious roots. We are making two people present. A. How we understand and experience our religious beliefs. Our own sense of what's worth holding on to. We have all received lessons about religion and values. From others. Family members. Administered teachers. Children. I don't believe that our faith arises in an isolated vacuum. Rather our values and our religious beliefs. Emerge within a particular context of family. Specific religious traditions such as lighting candles and calluses. Theme song. Marking some holidays and not others. Methodist. Muslim 80s or unitarian universalist. Roots. What are the roots that help the hold you. Christine you. Nurture you. I feel depleted boston roots of our own personal religious and spiritual path can be an important source of spiritual sustenance. Once again doesn't mean that we can't be critical of our route. We do not need to be bound to our religious views of our parents. Our friends are former church temple minister teacher. To recognize how we have been seduced by those experiences in belize. Are religious experiences can be ligament. Connecting our car. Even if we find our way forward. Bouncing sexual. Holiday season. Many of us will be sitting down to meals. With extended family. With our route. And when you find your blood pressure rising. Connections that you can calibrate. The values in the lesson that you received from those roof. Ask yourself how does roots are connected to the person who you are today. A number of years ago i realized that i had a habit of humming. The christian hymns of my you. Whenever i was feeling particularly happy. Geology and language. But i have in my subconscious by the feelings of hope. And happiness love and gratitude. Which my childhood religious experiences infused in tudor. At first when i recognize what i was doing. I would stop coming. Now. And i keep coming. The memories with my grandfather.

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FP-20190421-Sermon.mp3

In her book the magic of tidying up marie kondo counsels us to pay attention. To the emotional links we have to our stuff. Her core question is. Does this spark joy. It's a good question. We are all surrounded by so much stuff. Do we need it all what do we keep. What do we give away. What do we recycle. Or even me to just toss in the trash. And what criteria do we use to discern the answers to these questions. Condos criteria of sparking joy certainly assumes a particular level of economic resources. Sometimes people simply need to hold on to whatever precious few positions possessions they have. Simply to survive. For some. The joy is being able to meet your basic needs. But for many of us. We do have much more stuff. Did we need. Which brings us back to the question. Choosing what to keep. Or not. Given the rummage sale that is about to happen it first parish a sermon on stuff. Seems appropriate. Chances are high that we will again be inundated with donations of us staying ring volume. I know that many of us have already been busy sifting through our possession. And if you swing by the office you'll see by the piles of bags that are administrator karen is ready for her first rummage. Well on the face of it. The rummage sale is a fundraiser. I suspect that many of us know that rummage the season the week. The annual anticipated event. Is about a lot more than raising money. In fact i think rummage can actually teach us a lot about life. Firstly just think about all that stuff. Books closed housewares jewelry sporting goods in the catch-all wonder. That is the bric-a-brac dollar store. Rarely do we get to hear the stories behind the items donated. Although once we did receive these pair of jeans with a handwritten note of commentary about their history. Comfort. And fitz. Some of you have read this which is why they're truckling. And i will not going to read the note it is not entirely sermon suitable but i'll leave them up here if you want to read it after the service. So what if we took a cue for marie kondo. And see all this stuff. Not simply as material items. But its manifestations of emotional connections and personal choices. She writes. The things we own are real. They exist here and now as a result of choices made in the past by no one other than ourselves. It is dangerous to ignore them or to discard them in discriminately. As if the nine the choices we made. This is why i am against both letting things pile up. And dumping things in discriminately. It is only when we face the things we own one by one. And experience the emotions they evoke. That we can truly appreciate our relationship with them. What if we approached the whole massive piles of rummage donations or our own piles of possessions at home. Artifacts of people's lives. What if we could see in the china set the holiday meals with family and friends. What if we could see the grief behind the collection of artificial flowers donated by women sorting through her late mother's belongings. We're what impulse to organize lead someone to buy a binder in desk organizer. Were they frustrated in feeling out of control because of a failing marriage. Or were they full of joy about a new job opportunity and setting up a new home office. What are the stories of the choices people made in purchasing. And then in letting go of each item. Do we see the choices in values. Embedded in the material items around us. Kind of suggested this process of choosing what we keep can teach us a pattern in our ownership of things she needs three patterns attachment to the past. Desire for stability in the future or a combination of both. I know my pattern. I love items that have connections to the past. I would rather own the dresser that belong to my grandparents than a modern dresser with drawers that actually opened easily. But there are other family members in my household who are not here to defend themselves so i will not name them. That hold the rainy-day pattern. It was fitting or outdated clothes might fit again someday or come back into style. Beyond shaped object we can't place. Maybe even very. Peace we need to fix something. Once we figure out what it is. Okay maybe i do some of that too. I do have a large collection of canning jars that i hold onto in case of major disruptions to our food systems due to politics or climate change. Condo. Is not saying there is a problem with any of these patterns. She is simply naming them and encouraging us to notice our own. To notice that our choices to keep or give away an item. Reflect who we are the values we hold in the fears that shape us. The issue is that we could do a better job noticing our patterns and reflecting on our emotional reason for owning our things. The things we own. Are real. What is their presence in our lives saying about who we are. And so when i see the piles of stuff crammed into every corner of our building during rummage. I am wild. By all the relics of human life. By all the choices. To acquire and to let go. By all the unknown stories and emotions embedded in these objects. In this way the rummage sale is a motley assortment not only of objects. But also of motivations and values. The piles may just seem like stuff. But they are also a reflection of the whole moshpit of humanity. In some ways. The very chaos and unpredictability of rummage. Reflects the real world much more than are typically tidy rooms. Life is in fact messy and unpredictable we don't know what we'll walk through the door. We don't know if we will like it or maybe even be a bit disgusted by it. We don't know if it will fit. Or where it will go. We may be uncertain about its value to us in the present or in the future. And of course what has no meaning to us is someone else's treasure. In so many ways. Rummage is a microcosm of the whole. Of life. Rummage invites the whole of humanity and its material artifacts to our door. And when that bell planes at 9 a.m. saturday morning. What feels like the whole of humanity will rush through our doors. I look forward to that moment every year. For me. It is an easter moment. A moment of unbounded. Extravagant. Joy. Whatever we may think about the historicity or plausibility of jesus's bodily resurrection from the dead. The celebration of easter intends to evoke a feeling of joy. With trumpet blasts and bountiful of rays of flowers and exuberant hens of alleluia. Easter arrived with a full-throated expression of joy. For traditional christians the joy emerges from faith in the forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life. That's a pretty big deal. It's behind holiday of christianity. The remembrance of a core promise that god's love is greater than our sin and even stronger than death. Because of easter. Humanity has the possibility of reconciling with god and entering heaven for eternity. One more liberal christian. Question the traditional theology of vanessa sassa t of a blood sacrifice to cleanse us from our sins. As well as the literally. Bodily resurrection of jesus. Still they celebrate. Why. Because in the life and teachings of jesus define an example of how to live a full life. A life a tuned to god's goodness love. Injustice. In jesus's death they find not only exists an example of a person living with moral integrity. At any cost. But also a caution that the powers of empire will threaten those seeking a more just world. Insofar as jesus's story and teachings stay alive in his followers. Key. Is resurrected. And of course for many easter holds no association with the christian story. It is a secular holiday of eggs and bunnies and chocolates. Indeed easter is rooted in the earth base spirituality of austria and the inches are austrian festival or of noruz which both celebrate the renewal of life in spring. Unsurprisingly the early christian community associated the resurrection of jesus with a spring celebration. At their core. Both hold fast to faith in the value of life itself. A life that returns again. Even after an experience. Easter then. Is a celebration of joy. And the gift of life. As a week-long journey that travels through the experiences of joy betrayal. Death. And hope and continuing life. The story of easter week reminds us of the whole of life. Yes. That is a part of life. As is sorrow and conflict. But easter beckons us past the heartbreak of betrayal and death. To celebrate the gift of life. Itself. And at its best. Rummage also beckons us to celebrate this gift of life. If you look at our facebook feed over the last few weeks you can see multiple images of people smiling and well. Even being a bit silly. At its best. Rummage gives us all and are many different ages a chance to have some fun. The light in a common endeavor. To laugh. The play. And perhaps to feel a sense of joy. But like life rubbage is not all laughter and joy. And quiet corners or across the lunch table. We share our tender stories and struggles we carry. We remember years past. And those who are no longer with us. And sometimes we have conflict. In a sermon about rummage by former first parish minister aaron splain she writes. I don't want to paint an overly rosy picture of life during rummage week. Because like why. The rummage can be a mixed bag. There are times when tempers gets short. Feelings get hurt and actions are misunderstood. For the most part these moments get worked out. Or at the very least figured out how to move beyond. It is a reminder that any human endeavor. Is as fraught with peril. As it is full of joy. And yet through it all year-in and year-out we endeavor together. And it is a sight to behold. Life. Is like a rummage sale. With its moments of joy and conflict. Pender sadness. An unexpected delight. Life. Is like a rummage sale. With its piles of stuff. Waited with all kinds of emotions. Memories. And choices. Life is like a rummage sale because it welcomes a whole complex mess. Items emotions and experiences. And perhaps most of all. Life is like a rummage sale. Because it is something we cannot do alone. And rummage. Are common endeavors shared with a diverse mix of humanity. And so on this easter sunday. As rummage setup begins. My hope is that we go forth with a renewed appreciation for the gift of life. As well as a greater awareness of our relationship to the stuff in our lives. Everyday we are still taking a breath. It's a wonder. Let us find the joy and that gift and choose with intention. How we will live out. These precious days. Alleluia. Amen.

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FP-20200112-Sermon.mp3

If you are interested in learning a little bit about what different religions think happens after we die i recommend this book life after death. Play farnaz mistaman. However i decided that i reading today should instead share a bit of script from the tv show the good place. This comes from the very first episode. The scene is a well-appointed office with michael behind the desk. And eleanor sitting as his guest in a chair across from him. She has just learned that she has died. And she has some questions. So. Who was right i mean about all of this. Well let's see. Hindus are a little bit right muslims a little bit. Jews christians buddhists. Every religion guest about 5%. Except for doug forcett. Who is doug forcett. Well. Douglas a stoner kid who lived in calgary during the 1970s. One night he got really high on mushrooms and his best friend randy said. Hey what do you think happens after we die. And doug just launched into this long monologue where you got like 92% correct. I mean. We wouldn't we couldn't believe what we were here it is. Maybe my biggest question. Is mi i mean is this. Well it's not the heaven or hell idea that you were raised on. But generally speaking in the afterlife there's a good place. And there's a bad place. You're on the good place. You're okay eleanor. You're in the good place. That's good. It sure is. Imagine waking up to the friendly face of ted danson. Smiling telling you that you have died. But you're okay. You're in the good place. Fans of the television show the good place know that the truth behind that smile. Turns out to be far more complicated than danson's character michael is letting on. This simple warm exchange. Begins an ongoing comic saga. I'm figuring out just how the good place. And the bad place really work. And just how fear their system is. Or isn't. What would a fair system for the afterlife look like. According to michael all the major religions were about 5% right and their descriptions of the afterlife. Indeed what happens after we die is one of the biggest mysteries humankind and religious life have wrestled with for millennia. In the book life after death farnaz moosomin. Gave. Short story summary of how major world religions understand the afterlife. She describes hinduism and buddhism as ancient religious systems with many strands. Get many followers of both religions believe in an idea of transmigration. Some part of us survives to live again. How we live again. And what form and her circumstances. Is determined by our karma. The ethical some of one's good and bad actions in life. Well this of course is vastly oversimplified it gives you a sense of one possible system for the afterlife. In the ancient zoroastrian religion. The idea of heaven and hell as distinct places emerged. It's a rastoria nism individuals face a judgment at their death. Determine the balance if they're good and bad deeds. For the righteous souls they cross the cross the bridge of the judge. Into a paradise of the best existence. However as the evil souls attempt to cross the bridge. Their conscience torments them. Until they leave from the bridge to dwell and the worst existence of the hell below. Although ancient jewish scriptures speak of a heaven and a hell. They are not places of eternal judgement. Heaven is the place where yahweh or god dwells. How old was literally the name of a valley outside jerusalem. We're pre israelite canaanite sacrifice their children to the god moloch. It didn't became the valley where garbage was tossed and criminals were buried. Creating a negative connotation for gehenna. This valley. Or hell. Rather than heaven or hell all souls went to sheol. Some later text would devise she'll into levels for good and bad souls. And there is also in a tradition in some judea text that speaks to a general resurrection and re-establishment of the kingdom. Sometimes the afterlife hope for. Is not simply for individuals. But for whole communities of people. Within christianity the general belief. Has been of reward and punishment of heaven and hell. As well as faith in the resurrection of souls. You might know that for many centuries christians would not cremate bodies. Because of the belief that the body would be needed for the resurrection. Traditionally souls were understood to be sorted into the wheat and the shaft. The righteous and the evil. The good and the bad. The terms of the sorting very within christian denominations. Is it our ethical actions. An accounting of good and bad. That makes us good enough for heaven. Or is it solely our faith in jesus's sacrifice of himself. That saves us. Wrestling with such questions split the christian church into multiple denominations. Including one of our namesakes. The universalist. The universalist argued that just as a loving parent would not harm a child. A loving god would not condemn people to hell. God is love they preached. All are saved. Well many embrace this loving god. Others condemn such an idea. What would motivate people to be good in this life. If they were not afraid of the possibility of eternal punishment. Do our beliefs. About the afterlife make a difference and how ethically we live our lives. In the here and now. As many of you know i was raised in a conservative christian family. All of all of my grandparents my grandma's sibley. Betty. What's the most fervent and vocal in her face. This gave her confidence that when she died she would go to be with her lord. And with others she had known and loved. Before she died she chose a poem to be included in her funeral program. It read in part. When i come to the end of the road. And the sun has set for me. I want no rights in a gloom filled room. Why cry. For a soul set free. For betty. She was headed home. And this gave her a sense of joy and comfort. And yet her strong in certain face. Also caused her great. 4 in her certainty of being on the right path. She grieved over those who were not saved. Who did not believe as she did. For those of us resisting her evangelism. She could feel critical and judgmental. Even if she prepared to die from advanced cancer. She prepared a final letter making a case for faith and salvation. Then handed one to all of her family members. I could not open it. I'm not sure i ever did. I loved my grandmother deeply. With great affection and respect. And i know that. Her letter with a genuine expression of love. She did not want to imagine an afterlife without any of us. What we believe. About the afterlife can have a very real impact. And how we live. And love. In this life. Do you know. What you believe. Some years ago in my early twenties i was in the process of transformation as my conservative christianity. Gave way to an ill-defined mix of liberal christianity and secular thinking. The first to go was the idea that whole communities of people would be sent to hell for being born in places without christianity. Or the right kind of christianity. Or for being born to non-christian families and being raised in a different faith tradition. Years later i would come to understand this is my own emerging universalism. Certainly god with not so callously condemn people for being born in a muslim or hindu or buddhist country or family. Slowly i began to realize. That i was no longer thinking much about heaven. Or what would get me there or keep me out of that other place. And well scientific understandings of the physical universe has certainly undermine the idea of physical places above the heavens or below the earth. Quietly. I sense that this life is all we have. Had begun to take route. Well i sometimes grieve the comfort of imagining a heavily reunions with my beloved betty and others. It also felt freeman to realign my focus from the next world. And the next life. To this world and this life. Life is a gift. There is a wonder. In multiple multiple cap capacities to move to sync to feel and to be in this world. There is joy and sorrow. Fear and love. There is the possibility of connection. And loss. A memory. And legacy. There is deep value in meaning in all of this. We do not need the threat of eternal punishment or the impact of bad karma on our next incarnation. To motivate ethical living in this life. Simply being alive and learning to love the people and the planet. Can inspire us to help life. Flourish. Or to put it in universalist terms. Believing that god. The ultimate nature of the universe is love. Inspires us to live in love. With others. On most days. And in most ways. This focus on the gifts of life and love are enough for me. And yet my understanding shifts as i listen to so many who have lost a loved one. Or themselves facing. Death. As i listen. I feel uncertainty grow. Death. And what comes after life. Does not seem to be one thing. But many. I have listened to people describe connections to those who have died. I've heard stories of people people feeling connected to places and people of other times and places. As if they have lived. Before. I have experienced a sense that some souls do feel old. And others young. I have read accounts of near-death experiences. I've walked through cemeteries and not felt alone. There is so much i do not know. About life after death. There is so much we. Do not know. And so we return to where we began. What happens after we die is one of the biggest mysteries humankind and religious life. Have wrestled with for millenia. Is a congregation in a tradition committed to searching for meaning. And supporting one another spiritual growth. It is not my job to tell you the truth. About the afterlife. Unless the truth is. That we do not in fact no. Beyond a doubt. What happened. But i do believe. Is that what we think happens. Can shape how we live here and now. Talking with my mom about her mother. Betty's funeral. She reminded me. That's when the microphone was passed for remembrances. That it went on. And on or as my mother said i thought they would never end. Person. After person shared stories of how betty impacted. Their lives. Even when she was focused on the next life. She left a legacy and how. To live. In the here and now. So i don't know. About the good place or the bad place. Or whether there was no place. If there is something. My guess is likely no better than 5% right either. What we do know. Is it life and love. Are wondrous gifts. How we live. And love. In this world. Can make all the difference. For many others. Lettuce livwell. Kiran now. Loving. And inspired by love. To seek justice. And the flourishing of life. On our shared planet. So may it be.

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FP-20200202-Sermon.mp3

During college in late 1991. I volunteered as a friendly visitor at the aids ward and chicago's cook county hospital. As a young evangelical christian i believed in the moral necessity. A visiting those who are suffering. A small consolation to the haight and stigma of hiv. That isolated so many from family. Friends. And yes the church. Insulated is i was as a young straight girl from the suburbs. I knew nothing of the network's the lgbtq + community had formed. Care for one another. Nor did i know of the activist caring coffins. In the streets of dc. Demanding the government also care about the dying. What i knew. For the emancipated bodies of men. And that ward they were all men mostly men of color. What i knew. Was a sickly green color of cinder block walls. And that austere public hospital. And the feeble attempts of volunteers like us. Decorate for christmas with streamers. What i remember most. Is one man. Massaro i admit that i've forgotten his name maybe tommy. But i can see him in my mind's eye. As you entered the ward his room was one of the first on the right. I'd enter the room and turn right again his hospital bed set tight against the wall shared with the hall. Painfully thin he'd laid. I decide as i sat in a chair beside the bed and we talked. When i asked him about some of his happier memories. His pain features lightened. Has he spoken of going to the carnival. And winning stuffed animals. And the following week. I arrived with a small colorful stuffed animal in my hand for him. I turned right into the room. And right again. To the bed. And it was empty. Death had found him first. In 1985 when the movie star rock hudson died of aids. I was 13 years old. Until all of my adolescence. An emerging sexuality. Played out against a headlines about aids. And fear. A contaminated blood and sexual fluids. In my twenties as i shook off my evangelical christianity and became sexually active. Periodic aids testing was just what one did. It's what we were all doing. I never imagined that someday i would be standing in a pulpit as a minister sharing that. And yet i do so because i have never heard aids mentioned in a pulpit. Unless it was to condemn the sinners who had it. Today. I just want to name the reality so many experienced. And continue to experience. And so many ways it is better today. There are antivirals to treat the disease and prep. A preventative profit. I can't say that word pro flex 6. To help prevent prevent getting hiv. But neither hiv-aids. Know the impact of the deadly crisis in the 1980s and 90s has banished. Not here in the us. Globally and places like uganda. Were some of our members grew up. For too many. Risks and consequences. Renee. Going back into my old journals and search of the name of the man who had died. I was struck to learn that my trip to the age board. What we're doing during the same time frame that i met eric. Eric was a blossom major like me. We talked for hours about big questions and arcane questions and most of all. About life. In a matter of weeks we were deep in love. When we finally broke out nearly three years later. Neither of us would be the same. With him. I learned to hike. Backpack. Kayak. And rollerblade. It was the 90s. And i learned to deeply love. Another. The grief of that loss still ranks among the highest in my life. In the end he married a woman who could keep up with him cycling. And i. I will marry the wrong man. It was love at first sight in the spring of 1996 when i first saw steve. At least that's what i believed then. He was lively and charming and so mentally quick. I was leaving for seminary that falso. Find addison summer fling. When fall came i missed him. In late october we travelled to see each other and decided to marry. So he could return with me to school. After marrying over christmas break. Like a good newlywed i became pregnant soon after. As some of you have heard me say before it was not a good marriage. I learned new levels of heartbreak and fear. I learned that sometimes risks do not pay off. As we imagined they would. Arse with no happy ending. And we divorced after nearly three years. As a single mom with a toddler i return to school the second time back and seminary i found a loving caring circle of friends who walked beside me as i healed. I dated a soulful beautiful man for over a year but our paths diverged after graduation. Again my heart 8. Not only for the loss of this man. The also for the intimacy of that group of friends. And so i arrived in cambridge massachusetts at the age of 30 a son now 5. And ready to start a doctorate. Lonely. I began to do some online dating. Over that fall i learned a lot about the small and sometimes not so small deceptions that people can use in their search for connections in love. By early january i had had some good dates and some weird date. I decided to take a chance and post an ad that was completely truthful and blunt. What would happen if i just put out there this is who i am and what i want you interested. The headline of my posting read. Academic. Feminist seeks distraction. The body of the post indicated that i was a single mom working on a second graduate degree. Did not want to be called girl. And more. I hope this my tweet up some men but i still receive dozens of responses who knew that academic feminists were so appealing. Among those responses was one from a man whose post was well-written. Build correctly. And a bit self-deprecating. I was intrigued and we began to email. He was a bit older. Have lived the life quite different than mine. And well look hot in his photo. I give it a chance and set up a date. Walking into the coffee shop. There said a man at ease with himself. Reading a paper sipping a cup of tea. By the time the hour was over. And bill just me gently on the cheek. I was swooning. 16 years later. We're still together. No i know you probably don't really care about the history of your ministers love life. And it's not the particularities of my story that matter. Rather what matters is the reality that all of our efforts to find and keep love are full of risks. Romantic love as well as love between friends siblings children and even strangers. Takes risk. Loving is wonderful. I believe that as humans we are made for connections love is a bond that links as deeply to others. And yet bonds with humans will never be static. We are complicated we shift and we change. We get sick. We lose jobs. We discovered new logins for different endeavors. Maintaining loving connections for the shifts and changes of human lives. Can be challenging. And yet love is wonderful. Sitting with a friend who is known you for decades or seems to just get you. Satisfy something deep in us. Together we do not feel so alone. But all of this wonderful love is built on a moving shifting frail scaffold. Of human nature. And human life. Which means that loving. Cherries risk. If bob carried a warning label what might it read. Maybe something like beware. Loving mate lead to disappointment. Heartbreak. And even loss. Grief. Is so often the side effect of loving. As well build the connection the loss of that connection generates grief. We are certainly aware of this when it comes to death. But grief is also a very real presence and breakups. Divorces. And moving away. When a connection ends that we had once thought would be ongoing. A person experiences the loss of an imagined future. Suddenly the future is uncertain. It's disorienting. And often painful. When we take a chance on love. We are risking boss. And yet when we take a chance on love. We are also calculating that the gifts of love will outweigh the conflicts. The hertz. And yes even the losses. It's worth the risk or better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. Suppose she's holding them the complex wisdom of human experience but navigating love involves risk. And by definition rest risk involves the possibility of harm danger or loss. Without some possible drawback. There would be no risk. Without risk. The outcome would be guaranteed. But human nature plus emotions plus time. Never equal certainty. It means risk. For some the risks of building human connection or higher. Sometimes we are emotionally reticent from past rejection. Sometimes we carry internal open wounds from abuse. And sometimes. Our very blood. Carries the reminder of an intimacy turned deadly. And there poem it began right here poet danez smith writes about becoming hiv-positive. They say it's not a death sentences. Like it used to be. But it's still life. I will die in this blood cell. I'm learning to become all the space i need. I laughed today. For a second i was unhaunted. I was the sun. Not light from some dead star. I was before. I was negative. But i'm not. Whether we are negative or not. Whether we are black or brown or white. Whether we are able-bodied or moving with assistance. Whether we are queer straight man woman or gender-nonconforming. We are human. We live in lies of risk. We lived in need of love. What we make calculate risks. Act to limit our exposure to risk. And otherwise manage risk. We cannot eliminate risk in living. Or loving. Nor do i believe we can limit our need for love. Some would say that walking into that aids ward. It's too risky. It was a time of such fear and such hate. But the risk was not that i would be exposed to aids. The real risk turned out to be my exposure to black men. Who are suffering alone. Underfunded public hospital. Because in risking care and connection. I've learned to see their humanity. And the cruelty of those who would isolate them. The risks of loving are not simply about how. We might be hurt. But also about how we might be changed. Loving others. Making connections. Spans. When's world. Risking love creates a world where we are not alone. Risky love builds bridges across difference as we see each other's humanity. And so. We we love boldly. Even though it is inevitably. A bit risky. Show me it be.

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FP-20190428-Sermon.mp3

To stand here. In this. Places a woman speaking publicly. About lydia mariah child. It's humbling. When child is born in 1802. There were no women ministers. Nor would such a thing have been tolerated. Only a few women were authors. Bringing their voice into the public only on page not in person. In 1824 at age 22. Lydia maria child joined their ranks with a publication of her first novel. Hobomock. A tale of early times. The publication itself would be a remarkable feat. The content of this new england novel was also startling. Having spent a number of her teen years living with her sister in maine. Childhood visited a nearby papa scott settlement. Beginning a lifelong interest in native americans. In her novel the white heroin initially rebelled against the religious and racial bigotry of her father and marries a native american man. Bearing his child. Notably with the blessing of her native husband. Child heroin leaves this interracial marriage. To marry a white episcopalian. After pushing her audience to a sympathetic rendition of native american life as well as an interracial. Marriage in a biracial child. Child ends on safer territory. Encouraged by the reception of hobomock. Child continue to write. Her next novel the rebels or boston before the revolution. Was less critically received. However during those early years is an author child also penned her most popular volume the frugal housewife. Add multiple versions in the us and in countries around the globe. Additionally she became the first woman to be the editor of a national publication. Juvenile miscellany. In all of these waves child appeared poised to be a successful author with an appreciative following. A rather extraordinary place for women to be in the early 19th century. Bennett 1833. She made a choice. She might say she had no choice. Later in life she would write that an introduction had altered the whole pattern of her life web and got hold of the strings of her conscience and pulled her into reforms. The introduction. That revolutionized her life. Which william lloyd garrison. The reforms were abolishing slavery and promoting racial equality. Her choice. What's the published. An appeal in favor of that class of americans called africans. The first book-length treatment of the history and institution of slavery in the united states. Decades later her friend in x in executor wendell phillips. Express express in his eulogy. Hardly ever was there a costlier sacrifice. Few of us can appreciate it today. Niro memes just change the he's. After a weary struggle. Theme and social position in her grasp. Every door opening before her the sweetness of having her genius recognized. No one had his supposed that independence of opinion on a moral question wood rack all this. It was a thunderbolt from a summer sky. But confronted suddenly with the alternative. Gage life. Or total wreck. She never hesitated. And she knew what she was doing. In the preface to an appeal child rights. I am fully aware of the unpopularity of the task i have undertaken. But though i expect ridicule and sensor it is not in my nature to fear them. A few years hence the opinion of the world will be a matter and which i have not even the most transient interest. But this book will be abroad on its mission of humanity long after the hand that wrote it is mingling with the dust. Should it be the means of advancing even one single hour the inevitable progress of truth and justice. I would not exchange the consciousness. For all rothschild wealth. Or sir walter's fame. Within a year. She lost the income of editing juvenile miscellany. When the magazine folded. Subscribers had fled the popular subscription because of her choice. Also having been given the very rare privilege as a woman to access the books of the boston athenaeum. Years before. They now rescinded her access. North and south they were repulsed by her embrace the abolitionist principles. Child continues to publish anti-slavery text and anti-slavery fiends appear in her volume the history of the condition of women in various ages and nations. However the popular audience and its accompanying income. Eluded her. She now belonged to a group of outcast. Despite the social ostracism and financial troubles child embraced her choice years later in an 1867 letter to anti-slavery leader and unitarian minister samuel j may and no relation. Child roads. With regard to society i was a gainer decidedly. For though the respectables who had condescended to patronize me forthwith sent me to coventry. Anti-slavery introduce me to the noblest and the best of the land intellectually and morally and knit us together and that firm friendship which grows out of sympathy and a good but unpopular cause. Besides it is impossible to estimate how much one's own character games by warfare that keeps the intellect wide awake. And compels one to reflect upon moral principles. Child wrote that letter to reverend met in 1867 while living up the road at 91 old sudbury road. It's 65 she had learned lived long enough to see lincoln's emancipation proclamation the civil war and the 13th amendments. Abolishment of slavery. The government of her nation had enacted the vision of freedom for which she had sacrificed so much. But 33 years earlier. When she published an appeal. Her cause was wildly unpopular. Even in boston. Even here in wayland. She was indeed a woman ahead of her time. As an author. An anti-slavery activists. A proponent of native american rights. And is a woman demanding and living. Buy principles of freedom. 33 years ago for us. It was 1986. There was no ice. No homeland security. No war on terror. We did not know the names of monica lewinsky nor anita hill. The berlin wall still stood. In 1986 president reagan had yet to make a public speech about aids. And neither the aids memorial quilt nor the activist group act up had begun. Ya robbi mu70 was sworn in as president of uganda. A position he still holds. The challenger fell from the sky. And the nuclear reactor. At chernobyl. Exploding. 33 years is enough time for so many changes. In so short a time that many of us remember 1986. 33 years from now it will be 2052. What will the world look like. What will weiland. Look like. What unpopular causes today will have become the issues that change everything. Of course 33 years of snow magic number the markers of time days hours years. Are but one way to organize experiences and to tell a story. When child wrote an appeal. She had no way of knowing its impact. Know how long the passport abolishing slavery would be. And when she wrote the history of the condition of women. Or separated her finances from her debt prone husband. Or live for a time alone in new york city. She did not know that women would only be given the right to vote in the us in 1920 of full 40 years after her death. I wondered then what lydia mariah child would say or do today. I suspect should be out front in the black lives matter movement. And challenging dynamics of white supremacy that continue to undermine racial equality. And i think she'd be actively engaged in efforts to combat modern slavery. 4-wall slavery is no longer legal in the united states it does remain. The council on foreign relations explained. Slavery exists any time a person has been recruited transported or compelled to work by force fraud or coercion. According to the us state department. Victims do not have the means to leave of their own will. Slavery today most often occurs in industries that are labor-intensive low-skilled in under-regulated. United nations estimates that more than 40 million people are enslaved across the world today. Often the story of enslavement begins with the store with a person simply looking for a job. Promised one thing. People find themselves forced into other work. And deeply indebted to their captors for relocation housing or food. And or. They may be threatened with violence to themselves or loved ones if they attempt. To leave. In a blog professor benjamin lawrence wright. Because people are not being owned anymore it doesn't mean it's not flavoring. People who are exploited in extreme conditions for little or no pay without being able to leave. That's slavery. And united states the global slavery index estimates more than 400,000 persons work and conditions of slavery on a given day. This includes sex workers and domestic workers as well as persons working in agriculture restaurants traveling field crews the health and beauty industry. And more. I got too many of us the issue remains hidden. Even on thinkable. In our modern world. Earlier this year one woman long young ma. Was arrested on human trafficking charges during the broads sting of massage parlors in florida. She previously been connect convicted in 2012 of using a massage spa as a cover for prostitution. In nearby oxford massachusetts. According to a report on illicit massage businesses by polaris the leading anti-slavery organization. There is a strong link between human trafficking. And illicit massage parlors. After the news from florida. A group of women and wayland began wondering about massage parlors here in town. Their story is on. It's on the front page of the boston globe today. You probably know some of these women. They began asking questions of businesses on boston post road. Places located within a quarter-mile of where we now sit. Within days of asking questions of the businesses the police and the landlords. To massage parlors were closed and gone. The article details how the wayland please had also been watching. During an inspection the police hit even found evidence of a person living on site at one of these businesses. Without a full investigation we cannot be certain about the activities in the business nor of the conditions and the status of the women who worked there. But we can keep asking questions. We can educate ourselves about the issues of human trafficking and modern slavery. Read the globe article visit the website of the group of women onesquared. org. And read their recommended links. And perhaps most importantly. We can report suspected situations of human trafficking to the national human trafficking hotline. In 1980. On the 100th anniversary of lydia mariah child's death. Then minister for paris ken sawyer. Delivered a graveside service up the road at old north cemetery where child is buried. Can concluded his remarks with a quote from a letter tiled sent the parents of robert gould shaw. Shahid died in july 1863 while leading the first black company of soldiers. A group commemorated on the plaque across from the state house in boston. At the time of shaw's death reverend edmund sears was minister kyrat first parish. Move by sears memorial of shaw. Child sent his quote of sears to his parents. Fame. In the vulgar sense of that word. Is a worthless shadow. But to live through the long future and the affections of men. The have the hearts of coming generation for one's burial place. To raise them to unselfish aims inspire their genius and kindle their enthusiasm. This is more than compensation for all the sacrifices of this mortal state. Why can i also find these. Words a fitting tribute not only to shaw. But also to child. As we remember her story. Her choices. And her sacrifices. May we be inspired to not simply relegate child to an interesting local historical figure ahead of her time. Instead may we consider how she might hold a place in our hearts. Inspire our thinking and kendall our enthusiasm to act for justice on behalf. Of others. I am inspired by the women. Who are profiled in the globe today. And imagine that have lydia mariah child were alive today they might be meeting at her kitchen table. An old sudbury road. Injustice is not only a nineteenth-century problem. May we choose to be part. Of the 21st century actions. Amen.

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FP-20160124-Sermon.mp3?_=6

If you remember a year ago. Sunday january 25th. We were here to celebrate the 200th anniversary of this meetinghouse the ins. The dedication of the meeting house. And the kickoff of our 375th. Year is a congregation. Which means that today is the 201st. Anniversary of the meeting house in our 376. Here. Admittedly not very sexy numbers. And yet. We are in such an important moment in the life of his congregation. Over this past week everyone on the mailing list should have received copies of the proposed vision mission and covenant statements that were so beautifully read earlier. And next sunday we will have a special congregational meeting immediately following the service on whether to adopt these. The covenant is actually. The second section of our bylaws. So if i have asked if i remember correctly the first is our name. The second is the covenant. Which is why we need to vote on this because this is something that defines who we all are we as of all the members of the congregation decide this. Any other wonder some of you are wondering what's the big deal about these statements. So we'll print something different on the back of the order of service or. Say something different as we like the chalice. So what. Today i want to try and answer this question. By telling some stories about our past. Our presence in our possible futures. First the past. In 1638 a group of european settlers left watertown and came here. And out of the forest rocky soil and fertile meadow of the river. Gathering of small farm screw. With their farms in order. The small band of men and women turn to organizing themselves into a religious community. Self-governing congregation. Why do this for what purpose. To what aim. These questions and more were answered in the 1640 covenant. Signed by a number of men who whose names include noise and bent. And i have to say that if you don't know this that the bent. Is actually one of my ancestral lines that goes back through my grandma mae. So. It's really special to be able to include her and so i. I was think about those male ancestors that would be like well. Proud of their descendant was the minister of the church but a woman. Nonetheless here i am. To give you a sense of this covenant here are a few lines. We whose names are subscribed. Do here bring by providence and consent. Koa ejected together. Into a body in all humility and faith unfeigned. Covenant and obliged to give up ourselves. A body to walk honestly as in the day. In all the ways the lord jesus. Either now use or shall be revealed out of his secret cannon rule. After you the rest of the arcane language. Except for one line that i love. When the covenant describes the roles of members in the community. It charges them to engage in their work quotes. For the edification and help of the whole. Every part and member that now are. Or hereafter shall be added unto. I love how they were thinking. Not only a very here and now. But anticipating growth in their membership. As future members in the hereafter. We today. Arthas here. In addition to changing membership the ancient covenant also suggest that quote the ways of jesus. Christ. Shelby revealed. In other words. The authors expect that new understandings of what it means to live out a life committed to jesus. Will continue to emerge. And wow have they ever. In the early 19th century this congregation left in a new direction when most followed reverend john white into the unitarian faith. If you remember he was installed as the minister. I'm 200 years ago also on the same day that the building with.. Is this is his 200. First anniversary. Of his installation. And so he led the congregation into the unitarian faith. Understood jesus not as the son of god. But it's a child of god. Lakeview and me. Even in the twentieth century first parish along with the wider unitarian universalist association move behind his liberal christian roots. To embrace a wide range of religious framework. Including buddhist. And pagans. Humanist. And atheist. Forgiven all of this change over the centuries. Covenant has been rewritten multiple times. To reflect differences in physiology as well as shifts in this everyday vocabulary. I mean who of us really know what the verb kota ejected even me. So i looked it up. All i could find was that a jet is to annex. So i think co adjectives would be to annex one to another. I imagine one of those old colonial homes where they just add addition after edition so that everybody could live under one roof i think of that as the co injector. Community. So today we are at a point where we are considering. The adoption of yet another revision of the ancient covenant that has catherine. This community into a religious congregation. In wayland. 5370. And thankfully the proposed language. For the covenant is much shorter and with language that we can hope that even the kids among us can read and remember. And the purpose of the new covenant is not simply to solve quandary of whether that first line of the existing covenant needs a, or not. Rather. The hope is that this new covenant along with the new vision in mission statements. Will be living tools. The ground us and who we are today. And who we want to become. In this way we are in a season of reflection and renewal. Recent years even before i showed up you already talkin with each other asking who are we. What do we value what do we care most deeply about. How many of you participated in either a cottage meeting or a survey during the search process. That's a good chunk of you. A cottage meetings for those of you who weren't here were small groups were they would talk with each other about some of these questions as they prepare to tell a story about who first parish was in order to have a conversation about attracting a new minister. And i've heard that some of these cottage meetings were quite lively. I imagine that there were stories of services that can or aaron lead that stuck with you. Perhaps you shared stories of memorable music sundays with a heartbreakingly beautiful solo. Or rousing song that brought you to your feet and applause. Or maybe you told stories about your seemingly shy adolescent. Twisted up here at this pulpit and coming-of-age and share their credo. Describing the values that you had hoped would someday sink and and become their own. And i am certain that in those cottage meetings there were also stories about community and being with each other. Time such as fall workdays mulching and raking. For meals shared he's here at an auction. Or in someone's home for donnie $4 event. Maybe the stories were simply about the weekly gathering of coffee hour. Or serving coffee and becoming part of the club who overfilled the coffee pot and wash the countless lee watches the coffee poured out onto the floor. And made a huge mess. Of course i'm guessing that there were also stories about rummage. Maybe someone talked at their shirt and said this is a rummage find. From these cottage meetings as well as from the surveys. Ministerial search committee built a story an image of who first parish is today here and now. Is it last spring our stewardship drive asked us to reflect upon. We're still here for a reason. What's your reason. And those compiled reasons became a beautiful poster. And from all of these combined or might we say coed ejected. Responses. The vision mission and covenant team drafted the first round of statements that were circulated in november and december. Many thanks to all of you who weighed in on those drafts. And those contributions added even more to the brew of images and words and ideas. And from this wealth of input going back years. Current proposed statements are intended to capture who we are. Could we seek to be with one another and who we want to become. They are intended to help tell the stories of us. In a nutshell. Short lively statements that convey who we are and what we're about here at first parish. If anyone who's ever crammed for an exam nose. Having a list of short key points helps you to organize. The complexity of a lot of information. This is the role of these statements. Help us keep on track of what score to who we are. There might be a lot of details a lot going on. But it all comes back to this. To open minds. Loving hearts. Searching for meaning. Caring for one another. And working together. For a better world. Five things. This is the covenant. This is us. In a nutshell. But like are 1640 ancestors. We too are charged to consider not only the wii of who is here in the room today. Also. To those who will hereafter be added to us. Are the stories we need to tell are those of the imagined future. Having just celebrated our 375th. I wonder what will first parish look like when we celebrate. On sunday january 22nd 2040. R400. Anniversary. Will there be a packed house. Will we still be here also celebrating the 225th anniversary of the meeting house. Assuming so what color will the walls fee. Will the pew still be here. The piano key in the choir loft or down front. Will. The pulpit in the choir loft be accessible. We still have a preschool tenant or another tenant. We have a bigger parking lot. Maybe full of charging stations for all those self-driving electric cars. Will the roof be covered in solar panels. What will be different. What will be the same. What's your vision for the future. First parish. How could we get. From where we are today. Making that vision come into being. Bullet covenant statement can capture who we are today on the promises we made to each other. The vision statement seeks to push us forward. For example the proposed vision statement speaks of a vibrant multi-generational community. In many ways we are already this. But we have i think we'd agree we have room for growth. And this. And when it's. First parish celebrates 408 408 versuri in 24 years. I imagine this roomful of all ages. I imagine some of you will be here as the beloved elders. Telling stories to the younger members. About when the parish house. Or the connector was built. The new organ installs. Or the festive picnic we had on the lawn for a 375th anniversary. I imagine some of your telling the story about how we as a congregation in 2016. Decided to take steps to becoming a more vibrant multi-generational community. Which led to all kinds of endeavors and changes. Some successful. Some controversial. Infant failure. Even turning aside from those elders net24 tearoom. I also imagined a roomful of later. Middle-aged adults in their 50s and 60s. Older adults would be today's 30 and 40 year olds adults. Today a smaller group. But i imagine it's 2040 dozens of such older adults who joined first paris with their young kids in 2016 and 2017 and beyond. They sit here with their own memories of raising their kids as part of this community. Perhaps their favorite memories will be something that's already familiar to us like the christmas pact. Or the coming-of-age service. Or perhaps these adults will have started a new program a new way of doing spiritual and ethical education that gives them memories that we can't even imagine today. What will first parish of 2040. Look like. What will first parish 2020 and just four years. Book wipes. Will we be. A more vibrant multi-generational community. Will we be. A community who is joyful a giving of hearts and hands to foster a more just. Passionate. It's sustainable world. If this is indeed our vision of who we want to be. How do we get there what we need to do. Eloquent eloquent statements are not going to get us there on our own. I believe they can provide a kind of a map. And the mission statement is intended to be this map it's kind of a communal to-do list. A broad categories of action. Calling us to build community to search for meaning 2d that our spirituality to make a better world. How would you imagine putting these four areas of mission into action. What would you imagine doing to help build community with today's parents of young kids. What opportunities might you redevelop to learn more about the water unitarian universalist movement. And our share principles. What music or readings would how to deepen the spirituality of our kids and youth. How can we remain engaged and compassionate service. Like food for turning point. And a promoting social justice such a speaking out. The black lives matter. When i was a child my grandma's sibley my other grandma. Used to tell me that joy. With an acronym. For jesus. Others yourself. In that order. This was her nutshell understanding of what would bring joy in her life. Part of the proposed. Vision statement is that we be joyful givers. And indeed the word joy showed up a lot in the cottage meeting. And i try to think of a clever acronym alternative acronym for joy but i failed at that. But i do think the grandma was something onto something in her definition of troy. Because i believe that joy emerges when we align our deepest values and passions. With. Our actions. The realignment. Offer. Deepest values and passions with her actions. When we feel that we are doing. That what we are doing connects with what matters most to us. And so part of becoming. Being part of a joyful plays a joyful community. Is to know what matters. It's a focus our energy stare. The covenant vision and mission statement. Are more than eloquent statements that sit on a page. They are our communal. Touchstone. Reminding us who we are. Pointing us to who we want to become. In outlining a course of action to help us get there. These are not my statements i did not write them i'm not your minister top-down handing them to you. These are your statements the emerge from this conversations you've been having with each other for years. Channeled into what's on the page. So i encourage you come back next sunday. Votes. Not only for what's on the page. But also to commit yourself to be part of making what's on the page come alive. In transforming who we are to be a more vibrant multi-generational community. Committed to open minds and loving heart. Just searching for meaning to caring for each other into helping make. Ourworld. More just. Compassionate. Sustainable place.

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FP-20190512-Sermon.mp3

Last sunday i attended church with my parents in michigan. After raising my brothers and i as evangelical christians. He followed in the footsteps of their children and moved in a more liberal path. Because yes we do learn from our kids don't we. Dnow a 10-day progressive methodist church that is out front in fighting for lgbtq. Inclusion in a denomination. It's a really great church and i always feel welcomed. But it was also communion sunday. The altar table was set with plates of bread and goblets of wine. The worship leaders earnestly welcomed all to the table. And yet it's a minister followed the liturgy printed in the hymn book. I've listened to the words and knew it was not for me. I didn't believe what he was saying. Sitting in my pew is the congregation around me took their turns receiving bread and wine. Ikili felt my own religious identity as unitarian universalist. As you may know unitarian-universalism is rooted into christian denominations. Did anyone win against their names. They merged in 1961. Our own congregation began in 1640 as a puritan christian church. However 200 years ago the religious scene in boston became divisive. Liberals and conservatives were split on all matter of theological points. As is typical in mini contentious debates. The name-calling commenced. With condemning disdain the traditionals began calling the liberals. Unitarian. Quite the slander huh. But by the spring of 1819 william ellery channing a thought leader among the liberals had had enough. He traveled from boston to baltimore to deliver a sermon for the ordination of jared sparks on may 5th 1819. Channing decided to make the sermon a kind of manifesto for unitarian christianity. Defining it on his own terms. He delivered what amounts to his credo. Although his was more than 25 typed pages we don't make our youth do that. Channing's baltimore sermon as it has become known. Is a foundational text in our religious tradition. Too many and marks the start of unitarian christianity. During the same timeframe the universalist church had also been making its own inroads into american christianity for 50 years. Both the unitarians and the universalist rejected the rigid alvinist christianity of their puritan ancestors. Both sought to reframe religious understanding in ways that resonated with the lives of modern christians. And i suspect both early-nineteenth-century traditions. Might be somewhat startled by the 21st century unitarian universalist world as it exists today. What is unitarian universalism today. For some you used even today the christian roots of our tradition are important. And some even celebrate communion. Will unitarian-universalist do not have a theological creed that binds us all together. The key historical claims of both denominational route continue to define us and significant ways. From the unitarians. We still wildly hold that jesus was a teacher rather than the divine son of god. From the universalists we still widely promote the idea of a divine love. Big enough to embrace everyone. Ensure. You're unlikely to ever hear reference to belief in jesus's death and resurrection as the sole way to god. North threats that your happiness in the afterlife is in jeopardy based on what you're up to here on earth. But we. I'm not talking about shared beliefs. Aren't we the religious tradition that says you can believe in anything. There's some truth in this statement insofar. As the value of religious freedom is deeply embedded in our tradition. For many of us that grew up being told what was the truth. Even when it didn't make sense to us. This freedom to reason to wrestle and come to our own conclusions. Is priceless. Rather than feeling stuck. In a box of predefined dimensions. Unitarian universalism gestures to the whole wide open experience of life and ass. What do you think. For almost. What we do not require folks to sign on to a certain creed of beliefs and jump inside a particular box of understanding. It's not as simple as every person for themselves. As an example perlier. The wonderful coming-of-age statements we heard. Consider that. We didn't just give. Lex gabriel and sydney a date and tell them to show up and have something to say. No they spent the year meeting with one another their teachers and their mentors to explore questions of religion unitarian-universalism and more. Moreover all of these youth have spent years sitting in these pews and attending religious education classes. Hear it first parish in my right. Parents and kids are always. Is unitarian universalist we may support a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. But the idea is not to leave each of us out there on our own. Rather. We explore in community. This is the significance of being a community and covenant with one another. We may not share the same beliefs about god the afterlife or any number of religious questions. But we do make promises to each other and how we will be together. And if we really made it our intention to live by the first parish covenant. Well it's not always that simple. Or easy. Do we always show up with an open mind to a person with whom we are in conflict. A loving does our heart feel towards the person we've known for decades who is just so. Annoying. And yet each week. We start our covenant. With open minds. And loving hearts. And saying this i'm not trying to stir up feelings of guilt or self-condemnation no. I'm trying to argue that our religious tradition isn't all open-ended anything goes. It's just that instead of being put in a box of limited beliefs. We are committed to tools in a search. And the first tool in that search is the importance of covenant. Which is to say the first tool is the recognition that we are not alone but in relationship. When we gather in a group we start with the assumption that it's important to respect one another and value our mutual participation. What are the ground rules for how we will be together. This is what gets worked out in a creation of a covenant. We use the tool of a covenant. To acknowledge the importance of being in a supportive relationship of mutual respect. And nurture. Yes we are all. Individuals freely and search of truth and meaning. And yet our religious tradition also calls us to pursue that search in relationship in community and covenant with others. And this doesn't stop at 225 boston post road. As a congregation we are in covenant with other unitarian universalist congregation if you pick up your hymnal. In the front in the preface. You will find. Are seven principles and six sources that we covenant with other congregations to promote in a firm. These are also tools that we have to. Guide us in our search and in our life together. They remind us to see the gift of each life. To support one another search to pursue a just and equitable world. And to be aware of our place in the web of life. The council that spiritual insight comes from many places are jewish and christian roots. As well as other religious personal experience prophetic leaders science and nature. This is a wide-open vision of religious understanding. It's easy to see where the sense that unitarian-universalist can believe in anything comes from. This freedom of belief is critical to our tradition. It is what keeps us from being a box that can finds our intellects and our intuitions. But for me. It is not what defines us. I believe that unitarian-universalism is a religion defined by its commitment. To a deeply human need for meaning. We provide tools for finding that meeting. By being in a community. By naming principles and sources as guys. By respecting the need for each person to freely find their own beliefs. There are many who will say that religion is in decline. But it has no place in the modern world. And i agree that religions who hold leaf dissonant with modern systems of knowledge will struggle. So also will religious framework that have no capacity to accept the plurality of religious viewpoints and are widely diverse world. But this is not unitarian-universalism. We are part of a living tradition. Committed to respecting the capacity of people to wrestle with finding meaning into a posture of inclusive love. It seeks to provide a community in which to search. We are not a rigid box. We are community sharing tools for the journey. Unitarian universalism today. May not look like it did for unitarians 200 years ago. Or for universalist 250 years ago. But we are here today because of the tools they left for us. With face in the human spirit search. And power of inclusive love. We continue to gather and community. As we learn. And grow. Together. So may it be. Amen.

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FP-20190929-Sermon.mp3

Every morning. I get up an early anticipation for my cup of coffee. Ever since i was little. Coffee with something sacred in my family. When i was 4 years old. I have my first heavily cream and sugar to cup of coffee. I sipped it proudly imitating my dads uncles and grandpa who all drink their coffee black. I throw my shoulders back. Stand up tall and raise the cup to my lips. And i would pretend that it was the best thing i've ever had. Even though. I'd went with each step. Because it was still too bitter. My dad laughed at the decorum my place. Around a cup of coffee. And honestly not much has changed today with how much emphasis i give a cup of coffee. One of my favorite ways to start the day it was is with that sacred morning cup of joe. Can anyone else relate. Who else is barely functional without their morning cup of coffee. Alright any tea drinkers out there. For me there's still a lot of decorum involved in my morning cup of coffee. And after all i do call it my spiritual coffee. Some of you may even remember me sharing this with you at the spiritual practices symposium last sunday. First i set the silver kettle on my gas stove. The little blue flames work to warm the water to a boil. Next i wash out my french press doing my best to get every grain of coffee grounds. Out of the filter. Then i ritually place. Not one. But two spoonfuls of coffee in the bottom of the press. Covering them shortly after with boiling water. The smell of the warm coffee steam fills the air as i partake. And the next important practice. Before i take a sip. I say five things that i am grateful for. Over this cup. Spiritual practices have never been my strong suit. Growing up non-religious. I seem to have an embedded skepticism toward spirituality. I tend to question whether a practice. Could really add that much to my already full life. I have many friends at the divinity school who have robust prayer lives. Seemingly perfect yoga practices. And curated social media feeds. Are there daily journal reflections. I was lucky in developing this morning coffee practice organically at my time in college. It just seemed like something fun to explore. Sense. I practically drink coffee religiously. If i'm being honest though. Part of my hang-up with spiritual practices. Is the reality that. I always seem to fail at keeping up with them. Alright. I'll own up to it. I haven't been keeping this regular coffee practice in the wake of the new semester. But i'm trying really hard. As of this past week. I managed to keep the momentum going. Starting each moment morning with that glorious cup of coffee. Instance. This renewal of my spiritual copy practice. Is establishing a new covenant with myself. I have renewed a commitment to keep up this ritual. That brings so much to my early morning. Our theme today is centered around new beginnings. Please take many forms in our lives. Steve jobs. Future cheers. New teachers. New intern ministers. New spiritual practices. A new commitment. We find ourselves in a season. A renewal. After gathering are scattered water is a couple of sundays ago. We're now together again in full swing. Many of us have headed back to school or work. We returned from our summer vacations from camps long treks overseas. Some of us are simply returning. To this place. After a couple of several miss sundays. And others of us are here for the first time. Exploring what happens here at first parish. Now at the start of autumn. We can focus our minds and hearts. On who he wants to be. This church here. How many of you have heard of the cambridge platform. Alright then we got one. I suspected maybe only a couple. I'd only just read about this weeks ago in mayuyu history class. What we do here at first parish is founded in a sacred tradition of congregationalism. And covenant. From this very important document. Do you use it is often regarded as the gold standard of congregational polity. Or local church governance. This was a foundational document for eye movement in several ways. The puritan reformers in dedham. Wanted desperately to organize. The church. With only 30 families many of whom didn't know each other. They weren't quite certain what sort of church to start. Landing from england. Many of these newcomers had only time to set up the basics that they needed to survive. Building homes and shelters. Carving out farms. And establishing a basic sense of government. Megacities folks weren't satisfied. I'm still desired at church. In an almost unitarian-universalist fashion. Families begin to host cottage meetings. Each with a guiding particular question or theme. An interesting lee. In england. These beatings would have been illegal. Bishop's of english churches work to squash the new waves of scholars. Ministers in layperson's. That i'd begun to read the bible. In light of society. And politics. As you can imagine. This only spurred the dead and reformers wish. To create a different sort of church. Discuss the guiding principles of the church and how it should also reflect the principles of their society. They explored ideas for new structures that would approach our ideas of. A free church that we have today. Now keep in mind that this really only applied to white men at the time. There were others. Women. Slaves. Indigenous people. Whose voices weren't value. Nevertheless. The reformers wanted a new governing structure and bases. For their congregation. In an excerpt from the platform 10 by richard mather in 1648. It reads. This voluntary agreement consent or covenant. Puts us in mind of our mutual duty. It we can see if the substance of it. Is capped weather is real agreement and consent. Have a company of faithful person. To meet constantly together in one congregation. Republic worship. Their mutual edification. A part of this document. Is the covenant between consenting members. At the church. This can be summed up nicely in another phrase. The platform. There is no greater church than a congregation which may ordinarily mean. In one place. Now in plain terms. There is no greater church. And those who are gathered. So what does this old puritan document have to do with unitarian-universalism today. We inherit this emphasis on covenant in much of how we operate. The basis of church in our tradition. Is covenant. What is a covenant. In a basic sense. A covenant is an agreement of how we want to be together in community. Unitarian universalism. Covenant takes on the sense of a verb. More than it does. A noun. Covenanting is an active process. This isn't a stagnant agreement set in stone somewhere. These are living agreements. That can we can add to or revisit. You better meet the needs. Of the community. A covenant is a promise we make to one another. The honor and care for each other. And are gathered community. Can you use circles. Committees are small groups sometimes start with the process of covenanting. In youth groups. Youth are often encouraged to come up with a covenant with which they can hold each other accountable. Now as you might have noticed from our bulletin this morning. Chris parrish also has. Further evidence of the importance of covenant. In our tradition. Part of faithfully living out the space. It's not just creating and holding covenants with one another. Also examining the ways. Which we fall short of these commitments. It's renewing our sense of duty to one another. It's re-evaluating the commitments we've made. And beginning again. When we haven't fully lived up to them. At first parish and in our unitarian universalist tradition. We are constantly partaking in the shared practice of new beginnings. Recommitment. Today especially. Is an appropriate day to talk about new beginnings. With this evening being the start of rosh hashanah. In hebrew. Rosh hashanah means the head of the year. And marks the start of the jewish new year. In the hebrew scriptures. Rosh hashanah is known as the day that god created adam and eve. People often late evening candles. Hold festive meals with suites. And host morning prayer services. Ushered in by the sound of the shofar. A trumpet made from a ram's horn. Some believe that the actions that we take on the head of the year. Set the tone for the rest of the year. Our actions today. Have tremendous impact on the days to come. This is all the more reason that we find ourselves in a season of new beginning. We have new opportunities today. The covenant with one another who will be. In the future. Our story this morning might remind you of new covenants and beginnings as well. Like the puritans of the cambridge platform. The transylvanian people of the small village. Wanted to church on the hillside. To call their own. The community labor together and built a fine church. With beautiful windows. Gorgeous tapestries and glittering lampstands. Something was missing from the church. There were no lamps in the lamp stands to bring light. Gathering the lights of the whole community. Each family let their way to the church. The church ablaze with light in every corner. And yet. The story tells us. It doesn't come from the church itself. It comes from its people. And in the words of zoras mother. Even when we are not in church. Even when the lamp is not lit. We carry the light of truth. Carmine's. And the flame of love. In our hearts. That light. The light from truth and love. Whenever. That light emanates from the covenant that they formed with one another. People choosing to be together. And renewing commitments toward who they are. And ought to be. Friends i want to challenge you today. The sea covenants as ongoing living spiritual practices. Some of us really only encounter covenant. Reading it passively on the bulletins on sunday. What if we do covenant in light of spiritual practices. How is what we do here together. Spiritual discipline. And what would it be. To recommit ourselves to the living covenant. Out loud and out in the world. The good news of our faith. Is that we expect that will fall short of our mutual agreements at times. Covenants aren't designed to be moralistic judgmental documents. That we can never perfectly live into. Instead. These are our living aspirations with one another. We set the expectations for how to be a community. And a church. Together. When we've broken our vows. Our promises to one another. We lovingly called back in. The good news is that we. To begin. Again. As we go forth today. In the spirit of rosh hashanah and our ongoing practice of covenanting with one another. May we strive to live out our parishes covenants. The search for meaning. The care for one another. Until work. Together. For a better world. May just become no passive charge or just words that we read on sundays. Do we have the courage to examine our lives for the ways in which we fallen short. Of these hefty charges. When we haven't let our own inner lights shine. When we haven't been our better selves. May we as john o'donohue invites us. Unfurl ourselves into the grace of beginning. And though our destination isn't clear. We can trust the promise that we bring. By choosing to be. Together. Let's bring our dinner lamps to this place. And bring our collective lights out into the world. Maybe your firm the spire of commitment. Binding us together. And toward building beloved community. Mattyb song.

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FP-20191229-Sermon.mp3

Like the daughter. And robert hayden's poem. We also gather today on a winter sunday. Although i doubt that many of us needed bank kohl's flamed into fire to heat our home this morning. Still i wonder if there are not other cycles of love. And devotion. It helps to welcome us into this day. Keep bills paid quietly one evening each month. Stopping by the store for coffee beans to be ready to make the morning cup of coffee. Arising each weekday for difficult commute to work. In order to support the family. Our lives are full of many different cycles of action that comprise the fabric of our life. Some cycle seems so mundane that we can give them little thought. Even failing to thank those who quietly act with love on our behalf. With little thought we brush our teeth each day. Load and empty the dishwasher. Fill up the car with gas. And do the laundry. Again and again we return to the tasks. And rituals of life. On a daily weekly or seasonal basis. We more often notice the big cycles of life. The start of the new year on january 1st. Or the start of a school year in september. And each year birthdays and anniversaries returned us again to moments significance that launches. Into a new year. Unlike the quiet cycles of life that slip by unnoticed. The big cycles made ross into a time of review and reflection. We might consider time gone by. In question where we want to be when the cycle returns. In this vein. Perhaps some of you are considering a resolution for new year. For many it is a time to look ahead and start anew. I certainly have made my share of new year's resolutions have you. Solutions can be complicated camping. Well for many they become effective tools for change. For others the good intentions fade within days or weeks. We long for transformation. But then encounter the difficulty of maintaining the course. When considering these ongoing struggles with the cycles of life. I find some comfort in the story of buddha in mara. The god of illusion in evil. Admittedly i do not identify as a buddhist nor is my knowledge and experience of buddhist practice extensive. And so i humbly invite corrections to any errors in the service. In buddhist teachers jack kornfield account of the buddha and mara. He describes how the buddha remained calm under the bodhi tree. Asmara tempted him with greed and pleasure. Responding with a heart of compassion. He overcame the anger and aggression unleashed by mara. And maura left. Defeated. This may be the story we all know somewhat the buddha sitting under the bodhi tree. Resisting temptations rising only after finding in. Again after finding enlightenment. And of course the christian story of jesus being tempted by the devil bears an uncanny resemblance to this story. Perhaps that is because there is real truth. But the spiritual path towards enlightenment or awakening. Must always pass through struggle. What happened after the experience of enlightenment in awakening. What happens when we rise and walk away from the bodhi tree. The desert. The retreat center or other place of awakening. What happens when we return to the cycles of our daily lives with their demands for food shopping dishes and the laundry. Are we still the same. Will we be difference. Is the defeat of mara in the temptations of evil power and greed forever gone. As some of you know i grew up as a conservative christian in michigan. Beginning at the age of 11 my mom drove my brothers and i every summer to a week-long methodist camp meeting. My grandma had been attending and volunteering since my mom was a teenager. And when my brothers and i entered our twenties and had children. My mom took the grandkids. Because of these family connections i do hold some fond memories of these summers. Sitting in an open-air tabernacle. On hard wooden benches singing from musty song books that had been pulled out of their storage boxes from the prior summer. Of course is a methodist gathering the goal of the camp meeting since its inception in 1865. Was to bring souls to face. And forgiveness. In jesus. With services twice a day. For more than a week. Twice a day for more than a week when i was 12 and 13. It. Everywhere throughout all of these services we were pummeled. With calls for spiritual reflection repentance and renewal. Inevitably each year i would find myself moving out of the pew to join with others to kneel at the altar or the long bench. At the front of sanctuary. From my teenage heart i poured out all kinds of resolutions to be a better christian and person. Frankly i was already a really good student and love church. So if i'm being honest a lot of my prayers for the confusions of a healthy teen girl who had been told that sex must wait for marriage and to be pure and thought and deed until then. I am so grateful that we teach owl to ruu kids. Rising from the altar. I felt released from my past feelings. And resolved to be good. From now on. Returning to my home and school. My resolutions didn't make it past homecoming in october. This cycle of annual experience of repentant. Repentance resolution and failure. Left me feeling rather demoralized. Again and again i thought this is the time i will lead a truly holy life. What about you. Maybe it was not a methodist camp meeting. But have you also felt is cyclical struggle. Of reflection. Resolution. And failure. Or maybe it was not just a cycle of resolution and failure. Pictures of singular powerful event that you thought would change everything. And then it didn't. What are we to make of our fickle nature. Are we all doomed to weak wills and failures. Real change even possible. Or could it be. That it is our hope. Of a one-and-done. Moment of transformation. That is failing us. If we stopped at the story of the buddha's enlightenment at his defeat of mara under the bodhi tree. Then we might think of a goal of a spiritual life as a singular transformative moments. Oliver's cornfield right. Mara does not go away there is no state of enlightened retirement. Maura comes again. And again with temptations. Recognizing mara's attempts the buddha does not succumb. Cornfield adds that in some account the buddha and mara actually become friendly. Quote. In one version the blessed one is seated in a cave when mara reappears. The disciples outside become frightened and try to get rid of mara. Calling him an enemy of the teacher. Did buddha say he had enemies counters mara. Genie untruth of their words. They reluctantly summon the buddha. Hoover. Respond immediately with interest. Oh my old friend has come since the buddha. As he warmly greets buddha. Maura inviting him in 40. And then over a cup of tea. The old friends exchange stories of how difficult it is to be evil all the time. Or. To be a buddha. It is hard to be good all the time or to be evil all the time. As humans we live out our days in the mix of a good and the bad wisdom and temptation. The story of the buddha and mara comforts me. And the depiction of the awakened one. Still living in relationship to the destructive temptations. After the awakening. There is no spiritual retirement. Rather than expect smooth sailing after moments of great insight and transformation. This story teaches us to expect that the challenges will continue to come. Growing in our spiritual insight and understanding. Does not mate. The problems go away. Rather it teaches us different ways to respond. We learn to recognize the temptations for what they are aymara. Cornfield even suggest that we intentionally look at the problems in our lives. Like needing to notice the dirty laundry before doing something about it. Making an honest appraisal of our problems. Helps us to discern a wise. Response. However such a praises must be joined with compassion. To compassionate assessment. We can look. Honestly at the complexity of the situation. Including the causes and intention. Without being overwhelmed. With. Condemning judgement. Cornfield right. There is a modesty and kindness in discriminating wisdom. It does not expect perfection. But is willing to see two sides. To learn from every situation. To acknowledge the difficulties. And understand their causes. Rather than expect perfection. To flow from singular moment of transformation. Perhaps we need to be honest about the ongoing presence of dirty laundry in our lives. It just. It. Recognizing the ongoing presence of problems and temptations. Does not signal spiritual failure. It simply is the way it is. Seen this with compassion. We might be able to respond anymore skillful way. It acknowledges the complexity of a situation. For example. Perhaps the resolution. To lose weight stop smoking or drink less. Is more about deep causes of personal pain or trauma. In simply choosing a behavioral change. Recognizing that the complex problem maybe a mix of physical addiction. Behavioral habits. And deep emotion. A compassionate response might be. The pursuit counseling. Alongside that diet. Or meditation. In conjunction with a nicotine patch. The spiritual path. Is not about. Singular moment. Transformation. Nora linear path of progress. Rather like all of life. Are spiritual journeys are full of cycles. The challenges and the problems remain. Because that is the nature of. Even the most grounded spiritual person can be up ended by life events. As one woman laughingly said for hindu teacher husband. Quotes. My husband came home. From his last visit in india in an amazing state. It was enlightened for 6 months. Until he spent time with his mother. Whether it is your mother. Your children. Or your piles of dirty laundry. Your own calm and resolve will be tested. Perhaps rather than expecting perfection. We can learn to live in the cycles of life. And laundry. With wisdom and compassion. Rather than suggest. Endless failure at repentance or resolution. Such an approach point instead. To a truth about life. It freezes from our expectations of a perfect world. Or is cornfield right. Everything breathe. Interns. And its cycles. The moon. The stock market. Our hearts. The wheeling galaxies all expand and contract. With the rhythm of life. All spiritual life exist. An alteration. Alternation of gain and loss. Pleasure and pain. For each of us. Even the buddha. It is only by letting go into this truth. That we awaken to that which is timeless. The reality of freedom. We may not ever be perfect. Change baby back and forth. Round and round. But grounded in awareness and compassion. Perhaps we might find that we are none the less free. Living in cycles of laundry. Winter sundays. And love. Show me it.

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FP-20190922-Sermon.mp3

If i had lit a candle. Enjoys and sorrows. It would have been for the millions of youth and supporting adult gathered around the planet on friday. For the climate strike. Will such a show of devotion and passion is inspiring. The underlying need. For social action on the climate. Reflects a terrifying reality of a destructive path and pattern of climate change. It's bad right now. As the climate is demanding our attention through furious storms and shifting patterns of unexpected cold and heat. Rain and drought. Are national and global political system is largely broken. At the same time we are witnessing the global movement of people. Because of environmental challenges. Political instability. And violence of many kinds and yet many governments including ours. Are increasingly saying no. We don't want you here. Even if these asylum-seekers and immigrants make it into the u.s.. He would likely encounter economic inequality. Unaffordable housing. And a healthcare system whose promises often fell short. In their care and or their cost. And for those whose skin color is not perceived as white. The injustice has of racial bias mass incarceration and plain-old hate. Create layers of anxiety and injustice. Many of us will simply never understand. It's bad out there. Maybe not. For all of us here. Although i look around. And i know many of your stories. And i know that there's plenty. A pain. And struggle. Right here. Even if we are among the economically secure. The well-educated and or the white-skinned. Life can knock us off our feet. Someone we love struggles with addiction. Illness or death takes someone too young. We lose the job that made life as we know it possible. Or maybe we simply find ourselves struggling to hold it all together. With multiple demands stretching us thin. This is life. The unknown. Beyond predictable. Be ever certain. If often sublimated. Knowledge. Of death. And so how do we live. In the face of all of this. How do we take our next breath. How do we keep moving through a world so marred with injustice and struggle. Wouldn't it be nice if i could just give you a simp. Answer. If in fact i did hold a hidden truths or special knowledge that could share and just make it all better now today. I wish i could for your sake and for mine. But i suspect that many of us are here in a unitarian universalist congregation. Because we don't believe in answers handed to us as a four-point plan or some other simple formula. We come here knowing that's figuring it all out. Is a bit of a struggle. We come back. Because we find that it's a bit easier to share the struggle with others who are also trying to figure it all out. And yet even if charting a course through life and a complex world is not simple. It does not mean there is nothing we can do. There are tools to help us stay centered and grounded in life. There are ways to help strengthen our capacity for navigating life. What keeping us connected to our values. Insurance. I think there is wisdom. Behind the ancient idea of spiritual practices. When i think of the phrase spiritual practice i think of my dad. When i was a kid you would daily find my dad at his desk. Studying his bible and praying. The problem was that the desk was at the bottom of the stairs to the finished basement. And unfortunately if you needed to grab something from the laundry room before school. You would have to walk by the desk. And still you would quietly open the door to the basement and peak. Was he at his desk reading. Or with his head fully by wood and prayer. Was it okay to interrupt or did you have to wait. This was the story. Of every morning in my childhood. Day after day you would find my dad there. And only after these morning devotions woody finish getting ready to leave for work. 4 time in high school i tried to emulate him by reading my bible and praying everyday. And while i did read a fair amount of the bible. Ultimately the practice didn't stick. If my relationship with god and christianity shifted. Traditionally spiritual practices have been understood as actions taken to strengthen one's relationship with the divine. Or otherwise move a person along a path towards a religious goal such as salvation enlightenment or liberation. In other words. Spiritual practices are rooted in religious frameworks that shape one's understanding of how the world works. Who we are. And how to live. Spiritual practices have long been intended to guide a person and living more aligned. To their highest values. And deepest commitments. More recently as we have seen more of a cultural split between being religious and being spiritual. You may have noticed the rise of secular spirituality. Recast as inner work or mindfulness or self-care. The care of the spirit and one's inner resources need that have any connection to god the gods for any religious tradition just as we all need to eat sleep and brush our teeth. We all have a spiritual nature in need of care. This may sound pretty good to those of us who struggle with belief in god or our history and more rigid religious traditions. And yet in the book selling spirituality the silent takeover of religion. Authors jeremy curette and richard king. Argue that the split between religion and spirituality. Has allowed the latter to be co-opted in service of capitalism. The right. Instead of a more traditional emphasis upon self-sacrifice the disciplining of desire and a recognition of community. We find productivity. Work efficiency and the accumulation of profit. Put forward as the new goals. The spiritual becomes instrumental to the market. Rather than oriented towards a wider social and ethical framework. And its primary function becomes a perpetration. Other consumerist status quo. Rather than a critical reflection. Opponent. The meaning of this complex quote became clear to me when watching an episode of the showtime drama billions anyone watch billions. Okay what am i. Seroquel talk. In the show chuck rhoades the us attorney for the southern district of new york. Attempts to investigate and charge billionaire bobby axelrod. For financial crimes. Notably the show includes scenes of both attorney roads and the billionaire axelrod. Spending time in meditation. Given the fictional context it seems pretty clear. But neither has inner spiritual growth to feel more ethically connected to the shared world as their top goal. Rather meditation appears as a tool for an individual to be more efficacious in their high-powered world of capital and power. So what am i saying. Is it okay for spirituality to be split off from traditional religious understandings. Can an atheist or humanist or do you be spiritual. Or is all spirituality divorced from traditional religion. Isam in service of the consumerist values of modern capitalism. I did you warn you that this would not be a simple answer. To untangle some of this complexity let's go back to the alleged distinction between religion and spirituality. What religion is widely seen as dealing with questions of god and god's. I understand religion more broadly as dealing with questions of meaning purpose and values. For some of us. We will answer these questions of meaning purpose in values through faith in a god or gods. For others of us we will answer these questions of meaning purpose and values primarily through commitments to a purely humanistic plane without reference to any kind of the divine. However we answer these questions. We're all trying to make sense of what it means to be human. How best to live. And how to relate to the people. And the planet. Upon which we find ourselves. And if you're wondering if this doesn't make us all religious and some cents. Then yes. That's how i see thinks. We may not all choose to attend or belong to religious community or tradition. But i think we all wrestle with questions that are broadly religious. So from this point of view spirituality is not as easily divorced from religion. Like the spiritual practices of traditional religion. Spirituality in this sense is pursuing the past that best expresses your religious values. For example perhaps that meditating billionaire. Is in fact expressing his religious viewpoint. That an individual amassing. Capital. Is what matters most. What's been. Is your religion. How do you live this out. How do you remind yourself. Of what really matters to you. How do you stay centered and grounded in these values when there is an ongoing stream of competing values in viewpoint flooding your awareness. This is the work of spiritual practices. Reminding you of what really matters. When my dad read his bible and prayed everyday. He did so because of his face at following the life and teachings of jesus was what mattered most. And his beliefs. That he would be able to access that knowledge by reading the bible and prayer. Spiritual practices can help to connect us with our values. We can help to cut through the noise of a complex world to remind us the ultimate commitments. He can help to quiet our minds. So that we are able to again notice. What matters in this life. But what exactly is a spiritual practice what does one. Do. Answering this question at unitarian universalist means there is no one right answer. How we remind ourselves of our values or perhaps even discover and articulate what really matters to us. Will vary. For me journaling is a key spiritual practice. Remember those high school days when i tried to read my bible everyday. Well during that same time. i also began writing down my reflections questions and challenges in a journal. After 30 some years i have a pile of more than 130 journals. I have not always been consistent in daily writing i have gone weeks even months without writing. But when i need it. Writing in my journal always brings me back to who i am. What i value and to what end. I am faithful in my life. In a few moments we will be hosting a spiritual practices symposium. You will have the opportunity to explore multiple possible ways to feed your spirit. The quiet the noise and to reconnect with a steady sense of who you are what you value. And what really matters. I suspect many of us already have practices that feed our spirit although maybe we don't call these spiritual practices one of you referred to it as i talk with you a spiritual therapy. I wonder what changes if we add this frame of spiritual practice. And perhaps at a bit of intentionality to these actions. What happens if we did approach our spiritual health with as much diligence as we did our physical mental or dental health. What might happen. If we did devote ourselves to a daily spiritual practice of some kind. Or if you already have one. Are you being called to deepen it in some way. Whatever our methods for feeding our spirit maybe. Committing ourselves to our spiritual health. Can help counter the ugliness. And hate. Of this world. As we heard in our reading from eric walker wickstrom. The spiritual transition from not life. To life. If not easy. And takes reinforcement. Regular. And intentionally reminding ourselves of what is good. And just. And we're worth living and fighting for. Is the work of spiritual practices. If we commit ourselves to this path. Perhaps we might be able to someday join peter mayer. And swimming in a sea of the holy. Walking through the world with a rev air. And seen miracles. Everywhere. May it be so.

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FP-20200426-Sermon.mp3

This is where we are. Where do we go from here. When the reverend dr. martin luther king jr. address. The southern christian leadership conference in 1967. Depicted a bath system of racial and economic oppression. He explained. The rate of infant infant mortality among negroes is double that of whites. And there are twice as many negroes dying in vietnam as white. In proportion to their size in a population. This is where we are. Where do we go. From here. Today's in statistics we hear not a vietnam. Deaths by covid. For example yesterday the guardian reported that in st. louis where 45% of the population of the city is african american. 64% of covid cases are african-american. This is where we are. Where do we go. From here. 14 the next step was to demand the recognition of the worth and dignity of african-americans. He insisted we must stand up amidst a system that still oppresses us and develop an unassailable and majestic. Sense of values. Compassionate the experience of personal suffering. King also pointed again and again to systems of oppression. Basement systems that would degrade in a presspersons. Can call for the development of an unassailable and majestic sense. Of values. Let's break that down. Unassailable means. To be unable. Attack. Questioned or defeated. Rihanna saleable it's to be beyond doubt. Inviolable untouchable. Kingpin a this term of certainty with a more subjective. Aesthetic adjectives. Majestic. A term to being a sense of compelling wonder. What did mike dean to develop an unassailable and majestic. Sense of value. King is teaching us here. Faced with the ugliness and share momentum of systems of oppression. Need ultra-wave. That will withstand all of the hate. Denial. And the relentless push for normalcy. To perpetuate in festus. 60 + years later. We are not working was when he gave the speech in 1967. In many ways we are in a singular time in human history. No other generation has endured this particular configuration of crisis. Industry has certainly seen widespread destruction through global war as well as viral pandemic before. We have not seen this kind of global destruction and pandemic. In a digital age. Nor in the age of trump. With anti-science anti-government currents. And yet. We can identify a line of consistency between these crises. What w.e.b. du bois called the color line more than 100 years ago. Disparities of race emerge in a crisis of a virus. Signs of long-standing in qualities in healthcare access. If we are paying attention to how deadly this inequity is. How can we simply return hope. For return to normal. Maybe normal. What's that actually working out so well. For many folks. So folks are referring to this is the time of the great cause. Here in this uninterrupted excuse me in this unanticipated interruption to life as normal. We have a chance to pause. And to reflect on the ways we have been living. On the world we have created. In a medium article entitled prepare for the ultimate gaslighting. New york city writer-director julio vincent gambuzza. Carstens against the all the money. And the media. That will seek to make you feel comfortable again. Gambuto does not deny the need for comfort following our crisis. Will be strong. But he wants us to take advantage of this great cause to notice. How are you feeling. To consider. A different world. He writes. But the crisis has given us is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. See ourselves and our country in the plainest of use. If we want to create a better country and a better world for our kids. And if we want to make sure. We are even sustainable as a nation and as a democracy. We have to pay attention. To how we feel right now. What is this crisis was not simply an experience to be endured until we return to our normal conference. What if we talked from this great cause a chance to reflect on the world. We really want to live in. In the world we could. Work to bills. What if we took the time to notice and name an unassailable and majestic sense of values. For me. The list would be gone begin with reason. Or you might also say science three been critical thinking. In a time of a viral pandemic. Medically trained professional. As well as the. Mechanical and medicinal tools of the healthcare workers. Are all rooted in scientific processes. Processes that call for rigorous careful thinking. Rational processes. We only need to look at all the false information circulating including this week's fiasco about the apparent suggestion to ingest cleaning products. To see the importance of the value. Irrational. But reason alone is not enough. Too often our thinking becomes distorted by prejudices. And fierce. We need there for a majestic and unassailable value that binds us to each other. Easton across difference. We need to value love. We need a loved recognizes the worth and dignity of every person. I love that sings the humanity and others. Set alarm generates an ethic of service. Caring about others. Beyond oneself and one's own. Like the story we heard earlier about mrs. tricoli in her tree. And yet in his speech. Concussions love without power. Is sentimental and anemic. Power is the ability to effect change. Make things happen. When power and love work together. The result can be justice. Or is king says. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. And justice at his best. Is power wrecking everything. It stands against love. And so i would add justice as a third unassailable and majestic value. Justice is a vision of the world in which people live in love. What can cause the beloved community. Reason. Love. Justice. These are the three unassailable and majestic values that i hold out for you to consider today. There are many more values to consider. And perhaps your list might be different. Perhaps like me you have even been experiencing increased conflict or uncertainty about your values. For example as a student and a professor. I value personal responsibility. And i expect students to turn their work in on time. Given the enormous disruptions to students lives. I am left wondering. What does it look like here to stand for love and seek justice in this situation. Such questions of value reminds us. That we are living through a remaking of the world. Already our climate was in crisis. Our political systems were deeply divided. And white supremacy with publicly resurging. And thin. The virus shattered all pretense of normal. This disruption give us the chance to reconsider whether or not we really want to return to normal. Or if we want something different for ourselves and for our shared world. When they still not know what tomorrow next month for the fall will bring. But knowing what unassailable values we do not doubt. May help us to choose how to spend our time attention and resources. In all that we may choose to do and is coming weeks and months. Maybe act with intention. Picking out more than just comfort more than just normal. But it's all used as great pause. Cenotes what really matters. Direct our power. Decide with love. So maddie. Amen.

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FP-20200119-Sermon.mp3

On a june night in 1954. Things for not business as usual. For the wayland school committee. The committee had convened a solemn public hearing. To determine the fate of a hail. And was the second grade teacher in weiland who is beloved by many. Who's had come to light that and had previously been a member of a communist chapter out of cambridge. For about 12 years. In the crowded high school gymnasium that night. Set 700 concerned residents. There wasn't an empty seat. With many people standing. Looking over our shoulders for review. Stone-faced. And sat there in silence. Refusing to answer questions asked by the committee. It was an audible silence. With tensions rising with each passing second. After a series of these hearings. The three-person committee would reach a decision. Building 221. The committee dismissed and from her position. As a teacher. In the context of the red scare of the 40s and 50s. Controversy with sweep weiland up into a frenzy. After the initial hearing on june 8th in 1954. The school committee would convene 800 hearings. Who is on the committee had hoped to do things down. The curb public interest in ann's case. Trying to keep things from blowing out of proportion. Of course. As these things often work when you try to curb public interest. The town became deeply in golfed in the case. They held numerous suspicions. Suspicion of an and her prior communist membership. Suspicion of one another. As many in wayland suspected there could be other communists in their ranks. Suspicion of the first parish. Is a harbor for communists. We're only years earlier. And had become a member in 1951. When i picked up a case for my unitarian-universalist history class last semester. I have no idea of the multitude of layers involving first parish. And the wider town of wayland. First parish has a strictly held a prominent position in wayland. With many town officials leaders and decision-makers. Holding membership. If you would have visit coffee hour in the 40s and 50s. Remember is a business and upcoming decisions. Between small bites. And sips of coffee. Some of those involved in a case. We're also prominent figures here at first parish. Not only was a member. So has rodger stokoe the town council. As well as william waldron. The wayland school committee's chair. Stokoe would serve as a sort of prosecutor. Making the case against and on behalf of the town. Waldron and effect acted as the chief judge of the case. Ultimately the membership at first parish would become divided with anne's case. And would find support from the parish minister. Reverend raymond manker. Who offered to give an a character reference. Stokke and other members felt that ants case was being swept up in the red scare frenzy. Which came to light for the end of senator joseph mccarthy's accusations. Waldron the committee chair. How do you even voted against ends dismissal. Finding it impossible to judge or determine what an really believed. And was also met with some hostility at first parish. Well her membership was never revoked. And had members at the church who are afraid. To associate with her. Parishioners were scared. Hearing that they might lose their jobs being close to a subversive. At one point. Sunday attendance reached an ultimate low. With only three parishioners showing up for the service. Inspirit of martin luther king sunday. I think it's fitting that we should revisit and story. What it might mean for our parish today. Being born in the 90s. I want to speak about ann's case with a lot of humility. I wasn't alive during the red scare. And i never knew and personally. Some of you who lives through the 40s and 50s. No more than i do about just how scary this time was for people. Much of the information in the sermon. Comes from the hard work of scholars. In our own congregation. I also hold a deep gratitude for the wonderful archives we've maintained on adams case. Nevertheless. In my research of her story. I find that i might have other information about n. It might not have been previously known. It is my hope that we might learn about and story together. That we might approach our unitarian universalist yearning for justice. What's the new angles from her case. Interesting lee. The layers with first parrish don't stop with sookie and waldron. You're researching a case. I'm covered the names of two others at first parish. Who are identified alongside and. In a report from the special commission on communism. Before i tell you their names. I got to keep you listening somehow. I think it's important to discuss more background on communism. In the political climate. International unitarianism at the time. Before the red scare of the 40s and 50s. It was the first red scare from 1917. 2-19-20. This first red scare came out of the social milieu. Of world war 1. What's the bolshevik revolution in russia. That overthrew the russian monarchy. In this.. The united states passed a couple of laws challenging forms of speech. The first red scare involved with fear that immigrants might be coming to united states. The communist. Socialist or anarchist ideologies. Some feared this threatens the stability of democracy. Firstcare would send some of the first waves of fear. How many new england towns like wayland. National unitarianism was also impacted by these first waves. What the american unitarian association. Midi unitarians at the time we're divided with their support of the soviet union. A minority of unitarians valued anti-war stances. Like other religious liberals. To the contrary. Many unitarians run the pro-war side. Of entering world war 1. They believed it was their religious duty. Stop fascism. And support ideals of democracy. And freedom. Tensions became strained between the aua. And other pacifist organizations. The shadow from the first red scare. Would persist in national unitarianism. With the rise of the second red scare. And steven freshman. Richmond was the editor of the christian register. From 1941. 219 47. The register as it was known. What's the official publication of the american unitarian association. Richmond have gathered suspicion for communist sympathies. During his tenure as editor. Is that a toriel style. Seem to show a political bias. The favored communism. In pro-communist causes. Because of the suspicion. Richmond was suspended by the aua executive committee. In 1947. While it isn't known if richmond really was a communist. Is controversy as editor. Frametown new england's unitarianism. Became galvanized against communism. In case would arise in this time. Were unitarians in towns like wayland. Retained a more conservative stance. On communism. The reverend raymond kerr. Reflects on the atmosphere of the 50s. And his support of an. In a 2002 sermon. He writes. I'm going to whelan's in 1950. I was only 25 years old. Soon at the high point of the red scare of senator joseph mccarthy. I was in trouble for openly speaking my mind. Several in the congregation were incensed over my sermons. And demanded that the standing committee fire me. Fortunately the congregational vote retains me. I supported and hail. A popular well-loved school teacher. With being hounded. And finally fired. By the school board. For having once been a communist. I hit the front page of boston newspapers. And we received hate mail and terrible phone calls. View in theology of unitarianism. With those in new england congregation. Bancorpsouth at unitarianism was expansive enough. To include liberally religious radicals. This was in direct contrast to a published statement by the parish committee. Only years earlier. Which stated that due to the communist infiltration. The unitarian church. Communists and their sympathizers. Have nucleus. At first parish. Despite this. Reverend manker maintains that all worshippers were welcomed at first parish. Regardless of belief. So who were the other two at first parish named alongside an. After much digging i found the names of edwin goodall. And elizabeth raymond. Both mad and liz were members here at first parish. Four names in the special commission report. Because all three wayland residents named in the report. We're also first parish members. People grew even more suspicious of the church. Reverend anchor speaks about this as well. Recalling that the favorite game at local cocktail parties. What's the comparison of the list of local commies. And the little red church. First parish was on everyone's. Well i know little on liz raymond and her story. Goodall was a well-known architect. The mit school of architecture. And was known for his modernist style. It's suspicious that we don't talk about ned or liz. Nearly as much as we do. About an. He also mentioned as publicly in the wayland town crier. I wonder if part of the answer lies and ends role as a teacher. The news headlines read. Wayland teacher x red. And i was stood teacher to seek hearing. Perhaps news that an architect and another member of the parish had been former communist. Didn't get as much traction. Following inspiring. She had a difficult life. She eventually became unemployed. Landing a job cleaning animal cages and caring for animals. Once she was discovered to have been a subversive. She was promptly fired. Her brother matthew a lawyer also lost his job. Despite this. And never lost her love of teaching and her deep care for others. Months before her death due to a brain tumor. She became a wellesley public school teacher of children with dyslexia. One of her friends noted it. Azhar vindication. Indicted on october 2nd. In 1968. She was 60 years old. And today she is buried in our family plot. Elizabethtown new york. So what is ann's legacy that we hold at first parish today. What does an story mean to us as unitarian universalist. And seekers of justice. If we can take one thing away from her story. It's that we have a collective responsibility. Is unitarian universalist. To defend justice. Our second principal cause us to promote justice. Compassion. Equity. In our relationships to one another. According to the reverend emily gage. The minister at unity temple in chicago. Justice equity and compassion in human relations. Pointfest with something beyond inherent worth and dignity. It points us to the larger community. It reminds us. Treating people as human beings. It's not simply something we do one-on-one. We are not short of opportunities today. To promote and defend justice. In these troubling times. It seems like justice equity and compassion are under constant threat. We witnessing justice's everyday carried out against people of color. Queer and trans people. And others. The good news is that ancestry. Doesn't end with her.. When our congregation stands for justice. We honor and. When we care for and protect one another. We choose to do so in her carrying spirit. We offer a warm welcome to those in society. What are seen as lesser than. We work to lift up justice equity. And compassion. In doing so. We might make up for the challenges and struggles. She faced. I leave you all with this blessing. Wherever you witness injustice. Wherever you find yourself called the counter oppression. May you be strengthened. By this place. This special community. Do you always remember that you never work alone. Justice is our collective responsibility. We don't get there. On our own. In the spirit of an. And in the spirit of mlk's sunday. May you remember the sacred commitment. Our living tradition. To work for justice. To create a more equal world. And to love one another. Play the spark. This fire for justice. Ever be in our minds. And hearts. Betty so.

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FP-20140914-Sermon-red.mp3?_=6

When i write a sermon. Is always the hardest. Today about beginning. Family garden. New classroom. I can remember how. Doorway. New classmates at in a circle in the floor on the floor. Are hard. 17 year old son. I find this terrifying. In lincoln. Our side street is sandwiched between two zeros. Into a. How to pull out into traffic. Tight grip. On the wheel head-turning side to side. I had forgotten long ago. Hard drive. Idiot drivers. A new driver. A terrified new driver and perhaps they're terrified parents sitting beside them. Beginning. Are hard. Right now is a time of beginning. Or become life on your own after years of marriage. In some of you have living in a new home. And of course together we are beginning in the life of this congregation. Great for you to gather together. Whether you had been away just for the summer. Work for you. Or whether it was your first time here. Are necessary expression of joy. It's important to notice and names of good stuff in life. Time to renew and strengthen our spirit. Renew our soul. At the start of our church year and a new minister. Celebration enjoy. And a new minister. I think it's also important to say. Beginning picard. Target card. Answer this i want to explore the concept of the liminal. Captures a bit of beginnings are so hard. Anyone know. If anyone can. Bill and he let my partner he looked at me like their what. Criminal is simply a latin word threshold. The minimalism moment is standing in the threshold when one place is the left behind. And yet the next place has not yet been entered. Subliminal interstate in between. It's the moment i stood in the kindergarten classroom doorway between what was and what was unknown. It's a moment of hesitation at the intersection between team safely on the side road. Traffic. Place of great uncertainty. It's a time in a place where boundary for. Just behind you. And the new system lies right before you. It's not yet known ways of being. Interacting. I also think of a liminal city. Driving on the mind a lot. Most of us who have lived anywhere. We know our favorite route to the grocery store to work. Expect traffic. Like avoiding eastbound 28:9 in the morning. Or 126 by the library about 5:30 in the afternoon. We know our way around. Then we move to a new city. Where we are. Where the backup will be in rush hour. Grocery store. Or the closest place to grab hot coffee. Before while. Orientation. It's not that you forgotten to drive or read or listen to a navigation system on your iphone. Avenue place. And when. Expresstoll. Inculcate the yet-to-be. Looking ahead. Not yet. What is ruby like. How to get around. Beginnings are also end. Standard threshold. Closing time. Every new beginning. Every new. Other beginnings in. Are hard. It's moving toward from unknown teacher. Joy and celebration mingle. Angry. Anticipation. Cancel our. A congregation. The intern. true. With a liminal time. After 38 years you celebrated the ministry of kenya sawyer. Thank you. Termite look like. Now we stand together. It's trying to open the door. A walkthrough. I've been opening doors around the church. If you have been. I hope you've noticed that i left open the door from the common. Sharecare. Open doors are my way of trying to communicate an open-door policy. You're welcome to come to my office. Or otherwise find ways of connecting with me. I want to know your story. I want to know why you are here as a part of the community. I want to hear your voice. Noticed i've also open another set of door. Open. Very good purpose. And as you see i like to wander. Desire for movement it's next to what i feel is important about ministry. Ministries not something that i stand up here and deliver to you. It's also important for me to sometimes be on the floor with you. What it means to be a minister. Like you. What it means to live a meaningful life. Relationships with friends and family and a partner. Trying to make sense of what i believe. In my life. And in this world. I carry with me. Still brings me to tears. A person who hard. Ability. And disappointed by the very people with whom we share this world. A. About asking the question. Cuz i want to walk together with you as we live in a world. Violence. Rabbits lives in ways both big and small. World. And in our human heart. Goodness. Our actions. Help make the world a bit more loving and do. When i stand at the threshold of this new beginning. As the minister of the first paris in wayland. I look back. Community. And been loved by their minister. Ministers who are still love. And loving. And i see your congregation who knew how to celebrate and honor. And when i stand at the threshold of a new beginning. Ahead. Andycine uncertain. Fighting path forward. You have to do it by yourself. Paris. Alone. Everyday. Or an order to share their time and talents and service of this congregation. Because i believe. It means that we are able. To help with rice and work of this communities norris. And i do mean that we simply dream what we are able. I don't only one way. Congregation. Number of beard. Rather. Bring ourselves and what we are april. And what we receive. And the resources. In my parents. My heart. Are open. Little roy. The future may be uncertain as they crossed the threshold into this new chapter. The beginning will not be so hard. New year. I hope it is. We will also explore new ways open the door. I think that there are a lot of people in wayland and in nearby. Who's really enjoy being a part of this place. Don't you. I wonder what we can do to make it easier for people to begin. Communication. How we talk about what we do. On our calendar our website in our communication. What time. One-step opening the doors of our church is making our communications clear to those who are already here as well as exploring becoming a part of the. What are other. Coordinator kate holland. Conversation about how we make it a bit easier for people to begin here at 4th terrace. I know they're also mini cooper hope we will begin again. We are all getting a new cancer.

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FP-20200322-Sermon.mp3

Right now. We are collectively carrying the weight. Of enormous loss. In a matter of days the world as we have known it. Is gone. Most of us have been here at some point in our lives. The oldest among us there are memories of world war ii. Global war demanding sacrifices of multiple times from so many. Brothers. You live through the wide-ranging changes wrought by the 1960s. Civil rights. To women's rights to new sexual freedoms and the impact of the vietnam war. Our culture was never quite the same. More recently. There was 9/11. And that day. We knew only some of the facts. We knew that the towers had fallen. The pentagon was struck. The plane had crashed in the pennsylvania field. We did not yet know. The full measure of loss. Are all the names of those who had died. The reasons why. We did not know what would become of air travel. A border security. Of new wars that would rage on. Phil. The monsters not always have to be global to be disruptive. As individuals are rules changed again and again by loss. A friend moves away. Our company closes. Someone we love dies. We are no strangers. Jollof. Do you remember when you were first heartbroken by lost. For me i was about age 8. The cat i loved a cat whose fur i knew by scent sight and touch. Tight. As the neighbor told my mom the news i melted to the ground. Immediately becoming acquainted. With an emotion. The by now feels so familiar. It was the first time i learned what it was like. To wake in the morning. And then. Remember. This thing had happened. The world was not how i expected it to be. Something was gone. Something i missed. And what is back. In a matter of days. We have collectively been buried by an avalanche of loss. We are just oriented and uncertain about the impact of what has happened. We know that it is more than a temporary inconvenience. It's something bigger. We've lost the world we have known. Rather we live in a new world. When we do not get no. One that hasn't back not even taken shape. All is uncertain. Ambiguous. Uncertainty and ambiguity are similar. Like the same. Uncertainty is a failure of reliability. It is a loss of confidence. It is stepping on the wood of an old.. Not being sure if it will hold your weight. We are swamped by such uncertainty. Where is it safe. Touch. Who does or does not have a virus. If i take a trip to the store will there be onions bread. Or toilet paper. Uncertainty has always been an inevitable part of life to some degree. What's suddenly it has shifted from the quiet hum of the refrigerator in the background. To the roar of a jet engine passing close overhead. Drowning up voices vibrating are very bones. Ambiguity. Is a bit different than uncertainty. Ambiguity refuses to concede clarity. Ambiguity. Cheese tots with multiple possibilities. It could be fine. We could be fine. Spring came early. The first flowers are emerging. No one we know is sick. But the ubiquitous charts on the news tell us it is not okay. People are dying. A man and then a woman have died here in massachusetts. More will follow. Maybe. Yes probably. Someone we know. The deep breaths we now draw. Collide with the fear of lungs filling. Craving breath. Meaning of ventilator which may or may not be there. In his poem respiration. Jamaal may. Links together breath. Beer. Ingratitude. Bi-rite. A lot of it lives in the trachea you know. But not so much that you won't need more muscle. A diaphragm. Clenching at the bottom. Breath we forget is not simply a passive floating of respiration in and out. Breath rises and falls with muscle. With a drive so deep that our efforts to hold our breath are often so futile. Indeed breath. Can remake worlds. Tossing soil into the air scattering insects. Spreading microscopic viruses across continents. With such power. Does breath make us gods then. Having recognized the power of breath. May describe how he moves differently through the world. I walk more softly now. Into gardens or up the steps of old houses with impatience stuffed in their window boxes. And we to move differently in the world. Some move more quickly. Searching searching for the elusive certainty of what. There is to know. Of what we can confidently know is right. We search for certainty by following the news by washing our hands by calling our family our friends. These we know we can do. Of these. We are certain. The uncertainty. The ambiguity. Remains. Because it is not clear. We cannot move confidently through the worlds. We cannot settle on a direction in which to move our hopes. Our dreams our expectations. The future is opaque. A future with holds its shape and substance. Insisting that only the passage of time. Will bring us into the future. For now. We live here. In this moment. We hold our collective breath. Wondering what news will arrive. In our lifetimes we have all known. The arrival of devastating news. We have all known loss. This does not make such moments of loss and upheaval in the easier. But it may make them more familiar. We feel again the ache. The sudden remembering when we wake up. Or the unpredictability of our thinking our mood. We recognize it. For what it is. But perhaps we might also remember. Holidays after a loss pass. Until slowly. Slowly it was a bit better. The morning with a bit easier. We felt a bit more confident capable to make it through the day. And the new world. A different world. Began to take shape. We began to know our way around again. Today. The road ahead is foggy. And ambiguous. There is a lot of uncertainty about our collective physical. And financial safety. I say this not as an alarmist. Affirm what we know. Such honesty calls us to be gentle with ourselves. And with others. It is not a normal time. And it's hard. I cried twice yesterday. Okay i cried nearly the whole way through while writing this sermon. I am so sad. And afraid. Those living in fear for their life. For the life of one they love. For those afraid of eviction. Or being able to eat. For those incarcerated in prisons with very minimal access to healthcare. For those imprisoned in their home with an abusive partner. Sibling. Parents. I am sad for the young children who cannot understand. I am sad for the high school and college seniors for all the lost experiences of reaching a hard-won destination. I am sad. Those who will not be able to gather together in person. To grieve those who died. And so many other losses. Hollow upon our minds and hearts. And. Spring arrives this week. The sky is blue in china. Read momentarily from intense pollution. Across the globe. Neighbors are building networks of support for those unable to leave home. We can feel the invisible connective tissue of human carrying knitting us together in new ways. All is not lost. Friends call friends. We wonder the wouldn't pass of our neighborhood. We think the people who stock the stores make the deliveries and courageously 10/2 sick. We are buoyed by our love. For each other. Our capacities to take another breath. And for our ability to move through this world noticing what remains. And the children's book saturday bayou gomorrah. A mother and daughter look forward to that special saturday. Then like falling dominoes. Your plans fall apart for different reasons. As a mother crumples in despair at the ruined day. The daughter usher's her mother. Today was special. Today was splendid. Saturdays are wonderful. Because i spent them with you. Amidst the losses we now experience. I wonder if we might also reframe our current experience from total ruin. To also see the unambitious wonder. It remains around us. All is not lost. We are here today. Breathing deeply. Connected to one another in this digital web. Seen the wonder that remains. May not be enough to quiet the 8th of loss. But it might just be enough to help make us. Help make a. Help us make it through. This week a colleague reminded me of the reverend ken sawyers words after the death of beloved congregate eighteen-year-old lauren done ashley. But sometimes we need others. The whole the whole. Forest. Perhaps right now we are all. Holding. A piece of our collective hope. Together we hold the hope for what will remain. What will emerge after this global speak. Has been defeated. Together we hope. For the love of the communities and the care for the earth. B will. Remain. I meant today's grief in ambiguity. We we hold together. Hope for the world. That will one day be. So may it be.

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FP-20200329-Sermon.mp3

On the first wednesday of march. I was out to dinner at a local restaurant with a friend. Slurping oysters and sipping a drink. On the 2nd. Wednesday of march. Parish committee are bored. Fat widely-spaced roundtable. As we decided to close the building. And move services online. And the third wednesday of march. Ministers and i hosted the first. Of what may become many online midweek champions. I've been on the 4th. Wednesday of march. I began making arrangements. For an online memorial service. An event i hope will be rare. Fear me not. This is not the timeline i anticipated for march 2020. I suspect we all have similar stories of alter timelines for our lives. For some of us the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic. Amplified i responsibilities. Teachers are learning how to conduct class online. Working parents are navigating between homeschooling kids. And perhaps continuing their own work-life online. For others of us the sudden cancellations have left the days at home feeling bong. And even someone empty. Awesome choose to slow down in the newfound space. Others tackle dormant projects. Or dive into new ones like sewing face masks. What is true for all of us. Is it the pandemic has ruptured are expected timelines for our days weeks and months to come. This is more than simple cancellations of singular events or meetings. Rather it feels like time itself has folded in on itself. Like the melting clock of a salvador dali painting. Days blend one into another. Weeks feel like months months feel like a massive amount of time. A year. Is incomprehensible. And such a moment how can we speak. Heinlein. In reflecting about time and a pandemic. I found insight in a facebook post from katsu don bales. A former colleague and a zen buddhist priest. Bill sprites. We are now grieving the loss of loved ones and the rituals of once everyday lives. We are grieving are very understanding of past. Present and future. Not only is the future not going to be what we thought. The present and past have not been as we thought. Yes i passed occurred. Yes a present is occurring. Yes a future will occur. We thought that. Within a certain range of possibilities things would be as we planned. No we cannot even hold onto that illusion. Where to return. Wounds are very understanding of time. Our past is not seamlessly move into our imagined future. Instead we are here. Holding the fragments of our shattered timelines like the b of a burst balloon. Impermanence reveals itself as the primal stuff of life. What do we do now. With the loss of so much in our daily lives and our anticipated futures we are grieving. Such loss and grief are indeed. Reminders of all that isn't permanent. We lose our can lose our hugs from our grandchildren or our grandparents. We can lose our freedoms to move beyond our homes. We can lose our jobs. Are businesses. Our confidence in pain our bills. The pain of this grief sharpens our awareness of what matters to us. The registry laws. Reefer deals that we are grateful. The things of which we are grateful to have in our lives. Well it may be rare to experience such global turmoil. It is very common to have our lives turned upside down. In her book on living. Hospice chaplain carry eagan. Suggest every life encounters radical change at some point. Eagan riots. Every single person. Have some bizarre life shattering pull the rug out from under you story and their past. Or will experience one in their future. Every shopper in the grocery store every telemarketer on the phone. Every mother at school pick-up every banker striding down the sidewalk. Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass. Implementing out from under. What is your story. When have you had that pull the rug out from under you moment. In your life. Perhaps most importantly. How did you find your footing. End direction. What meaning did you draw from the experience of ruptured. Patience. Ethan is careful to explain that her book of essays is not a book about dying. Despite its content about her life as a hospice chaplain. Rather she insist it is a book about what the dying have taught her. About living. At the end of life right siegen what most people want to talk about. Is there family. In families. Explain vegan. We learn about love. Both of gifts of love as well as the pain and hurt of not receiving the love we craved and need it. And this way talking about families. Is really a way to talk about love. About meaning. And in some way about god. And the questions of ultimate value. We talked about families. Not because they are perfect. Because we are where we learn about love. And families we've learned about our need for love. As well as the pain of desor disappointment. Or even rejection. By those we love. Hopefully. We also learned something about reconciliation. And forgiveness. Vegan rights. Spiritual work of being human is learning how to love. And how to forgive. That work is the gift we give. To each other. Were there is little in this world people long for more. Interview love. And to be forgiven. By their mothers. And fathers. Daughters and sons. Could this also be our spiritual work now. In this moment of crisis. Might this be a time when we engage in the spiritual world. Loving. And. Forgiving. Living as we are in tight quarters with families. Or at a distance for loved ones. What do we do to saying about our relationships in our lives. Are we more expressive with our love. Perhaps reaching out more to those we call family. Are we missing those we have lost. Or those from whom we are estranged. How are we managing the conflicts with those whose paths daily cross are. Whose voices ring out in the next room on their own zoom calls. Choices may impact not only there. Their house. Also our own. Responding to children aching to play with their friends. Are we navigating our own login for connection. Human touch. Amidst all the technical questions whether or not to wash produce. How to log on to zoom etc. I suspect that our lives are also vibrating with the spiritual questions of what it means to love in a time of the coronavirus. Yes it's a weak allusion to the love in a time of cholera which i've not read. Could it be. One of the most important long-term impacts of this crisis. Will be the lessons of love. Living closely with. Or apart from. Our families. I want to acknowledge the family can mean different things to different people. For many family is not limited to those to whom we are genetically related and or with whom we grew up. Family can mean those we choose to rely upon and those. We care for. Family can be simple. Family can be complicated. Whatever your understanding of family. You can suggest it for many. Talking about family is central to making meaning in our lives. These lines i want to pause and say that it matters more than i can say. My parents have been joining us online these last few weeks. At least until it's time for them to log into their church in michigan. In a similar vein i was moved. When one of you shared in the midweek chacun. Did you wish your parents were here. It made so much sense. Map of a family can be a source of meaning. And a time. Evil. I know others are struggling painfully and their family life right now. Long-simmering tensions between couples maybe boiling over a miss added stresses. Even the most patient parent maybe finding their capacity stretched thin. By the unrelenting togetherness. Added to these interpersonal conflicts is it. Current of existential fear. For one's own house. And the health of those you love. Perhaps even those who are causing you stress. What we are living through. Is about more than technology. Work patterns in how we shop for groceries. What we are living through. Is making demands on us as spiritual creatures seeking to make meaning out of great uncertainty. Are impermanent is made clear. Are biological vulnerability. Is made clear. And our connections to each other. Is made abundantly. We do not live in isolation. We live in relationships with strangers her produce transport maintain and sell all that we need to live. And removing relationships with our families. Given or chosen. Faced with the disruptions of our systems in our connection. We grieve our losses. Indisposed bales continues. Allowing ourselves to grieve and to share this free with one another. What place is clearly in this present. A place right now it seems none of us wants to be in. The present. Though. Is the only place from which what we call the future can emerge. We cannot change the past let us hear. Nor do we know the path forward. Future. So we may not wish to be here. This present is our present. And the future will only emerge from what we feel. Experience and do in this moment. In her poem the past the present the future. Poet nikki giovanni also beckons us to notice where we can and cannot initiate change. In the opening stanza of the poem. Giovanni recruits the suffering in the past of african american history. Then she writes. We cannot undo the past. We can build the future. Where we roll. Where when we go to mars we send a black woman because she will make friends and sing a song with them. When we go to pluto which will be again a planet. Recent black children to learn to ski. When we decide it is time to thank the deity. For our food. Our shelter. Arhaus. We will all. No matter which ideologies. Wrap our arms around each other. And be glad we live. At this time. On this earth. Whatever the timeline of these coming weeks and months may turn out to be. Maybe today if you present. To our grief. Our gratitude. And our love. We we pay attention at this time. So that we may build a future grounded. And what we are learning. About our impermanence. Our vulnerability. And our need for love. Forgiveness. And compassion. May we imagine a future not of isolation. Arms wrap. Around each other. In love. And life-giving justice. So may it be.

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FP-20151224-Homily-etc.mp3?_=5

This is a poem by e.e. cummings little tree. Little tree little silent christmas tree you are so little. You are more like a flower. Who found you in the green forest. And were you very sorry to come away. See. I will comfort you. Because you smell so sweetly. I will kiss your cool bark. And hug you safe and tight. Just as your mother would. Only don't be afraid. Spangles that sleep in the dark. And they are all year long in the dark box dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine. The balls. Change. Red and gold. The fluffy threads. What up your little arms and i'll give them all to you to hold. Every finger shall have its ring and there won't be a single place. Dark. Or unhappy. Then when you're quite dressed. He'll stand in the window for everyone to see and how. Zales. Oh. You'll be so very proud. And my little sister and i will take hands. And look up at our beautiful tree. Well dance and sing. Noel. So as you may know. This christmas. Marks the 50th anniversary of the charlie brown christmas special. So who has. I should ask who's never seen the charlie brown christmas. You've heard of it. Who's the television show familiar to most of us. And it begins with a very depressed. Charlie brown. Good morning that he just doesn't seem to understand christmas. Why is he not happy or joyful. What's all the fuss about. After sharing his woes with the ever so helpful lucy. She asked charlie brown to direct the christmas pageant. This opportunity temporarily lift his spirits. Until he discovers that no one's listening to his direction. Still charlie brown does not give up. Keep the sides at the pageant needs a proper christmas mood. We need a christmas tree. Charlie brown declares. The hughleys rehearsal. With winans and his blanket. And heads off in search of a tree. Ask me know 50 years later. The tree charlie brown picks out will become a cultural trope. The small thin scraggly tree. Also known as. A charlie brown tree. In fact i learned that you can actually buy your own charlie brown tree. On amazon ebay or even at home depot. So when i came across ee cummings poem little tree. I thought of the charlie brown tree. In the poem a child speaks kindly to a little tree. Consoling the tree as if it were a small child who had suddenly found itself. In a strange and unfamiliar situation. Feeling sad and out of place. Don't be afraid the child coos. I will comfort you i will kiss and hug you. You will become you little tree have an important purpose. You will become transformed by red and gold by shiny spangles that will dazzle and delight all who see you. You will become so proud. I love how the child and cummings poem has compassion. For the imagined fear of a little tree. Finding oneself suddenly in a different world. Can indeed be frightening. What's happening. Why am i here. What do i do. Sensing fear the child comforts the tree. But then does something more. Is child describe a wondrous purpose. For the tree. Isn't this a bit. Like what the christmas story describes is happening to the shepherds outside bethlehem. Like every other cold december night. They were on hillsides keeping an eye on their flocks. Until suddenly they found themselves in a new and unfamiliar situation. There were angels in the sky talking to them. Like the child in the poem. The angel comforts the shepherds. Do not be afraid. Event-day to explain the larger purpose of this perplexing life shifting moments. It's not a time for fear. This. Is a time for joy for celebration. And in response. The shepherd's go to the baby. Opening themselves to be transformed by this new. An unusual. World. When charlie brown went in search of a tree. He was hoping to transform the pageant. Instead his friends laugh and laugh at him. And his scrawny little tree. Feeling dejected and still confused about how to get christmas right. An exasperated charlie brown asks linus. Is there anyone who understands what christmas is all about. In response linus asher's charlie brown that he knows. He then recites the text from luke that elizabeth read. With angels appearing to the shepherds. Concluding his recitation line is gently matter-of-factly says. That's what christmas is all about charlie brown. What is the meaning of christmas. Is to be like the shepherds. Do not be afraid when we find ourselves in new and strange situations. To open ourselves to be transformed in such moments. When confronted with what is difference. Or foreign. To our own experience. You can be very easy to respond with display disbelief. Doubt. Or even scorn. What if instead we responded with curiosity. An openness to the unexpected. Even when it arrives and odd and unusual ways. What if instead of scoffing laughter. We opened ourselves to the possibility. That what might at first seem scraggly and insufficient. Might be transformed into a focal point of delight. Both cummings poem and charlie brown. The special end with children gathering in song around a festively trimmed tree. To be both scenes are kind of nativity. In which wonder and delight emerge. Because the children. Like the shepherds. Have been transformed. By seeing the ordinary. Become extraordinary. By believing that the sacred divine is present here and now. Even in an infant newly awake to the world. Even in a little silent christmas tree. On this christmas eve. May we to find our spirits transformed. As fear gives way to hope. To wonder. And to joy. So may it be. Amen. No invites you into a moment of meditation on this light. As you hold your candle low. In your lap. Let us flames stand for all that you care most about in this life. The people you love. The people who love you. Your deepest dreams. In the gift of life itself. Give yourself a moment to reflect. And who you are still becoming. Now. In the season when the empty place. At the table. Seems even more empty. Allow yourself some time to think about the people. Or the things you might be missing. Weather this year. Or long ago. Let them come into your mind's eye. And now. Looking ahead to the new year waiting to be born. Let the flame of your candle stand for what you and only you have to give to the world. Your specialness. Your talents your friendship. And your love. And ask yourself. Is there something you know you want to try. For the first time in the coming year. Now together let us raise our candles high. And look around at the beauty that we have created together. Here to you glenn. What we are capable of. And after you glimpse this potential. The very next step. Is to release it. The when you were ready. Blow your candle out. And may their lights. Hor into the coming year.

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FP-20191103-Sermon.mp3

Let's be honest with ourselves. We are. Wobbly. Unbalanced. As infants. We often title. Moving with short uncertain steps. And with each step we test the complex movement of foot leg and hip. With one foot moving forward and then the other. Until plot. Gravity wins background. His children. We may sit on a bike. Training wheels recently removed. A slight push forward from a helpful hand and we are off. With a front-wheel swerving right left right in the frame dipping slightly side to side. And maybe balance is found for a minute and then. Wham. A bit of skin scrape sophos pavement and leg. Collide. Is young adults. We may struggle to figure out our newfound freedom. Maybe we head out for fun night of partying. Stumbling home unsteadily in early hours. In the deck next day's lights. Maybe we waiver on the choices we made the night before. Maybe we wonder. What are next unsteady step into the future. Should be. And then there we are as adults expert jugglers. Works family house hobbies bills. Four-time the balls fly through the air one after another. Until one drops. And another. And another. Or we drop. Head in our hands. The tears flowing. Is it possible. Being balanced. Remaining balance. We are so wobbly. In the later decades of the 20th century more women demanded a place in the. He'd world of work. Over forced there they changing economic dynamics. With all those working moms the goal of work-life balance. Begin dangling out there on magazine covers talk shows and self-help books. And yet it just wasn't the women or the parents who wondered if we could find the right formula to make all the pieces fit. Was it. Is there. A good formula. Maybe we find ourselves looking at our kids and our family life with unease. We stare at the color coded family calendar in the kitchen in psy. Item-by-item every activity seeming beitel. Together. Is it too much. What are we looking for. Is it balanced. The inbox fills up. Bold font angry headlines full of fear and florist action to give another dollar another signature. Maybe asking if we will show up to this march to dad events. How much do we give. When the need is so great. How much do we give when we still have groceries to pick up. Doctors appointments. We just need to take a nap. What's the right balance between all of our responsibilities. And our desires to do good. To be in relationship with people we care about. To take care of our own house. Mental physical and spiritual. Unfortunately. I do not think there is a formula. No prescription of x hours for this and why hours for that and only the hours for the rest. But you knew that already didn't you. What vin is balance. Is it possible. Is it even desirable. Think again. Of the baby. The toddler trying to learn to move to the world. Or child learning to balance a bike. Finding one's balance is something one has to feel one's way to. To trial and error. And while there are commonalities and how we move through the world. Ultimately each person must figure out what balance feels like. For oneself. What does balance feel like. For you. A multiple ways i can struggle with balance. Sometimes i find myself in a yoga class with a foot or arm flying out as i lose my poems and try to keep my balance. Or i find myself rushing to meet a deadline skipping some sleep grabbing an easier less healthy meal. I can still hear it. I can feel like my life has become a too-small box. Constraining my options in my enjoyment of life. When i feel balanced. I feel like i'm gliding. Life feels like a well-choreographed song-and-dance number in a musical. The movements of my life feel that like they fit. Not too crowded not to empty. And perhaps most importantly. I feel a sense of peace. Of well-being. Neither overwhelmed. Norbord. Life feels not only doable. But good. Although balance may be more of a feeling than a formula. There is often a strong interplay between what's out there. And what's in here. A schedule or set of responsibilities that overwhelms our day. Can also or can erode our inner sense of balance. Having rushed through a busy day we might collapse and numb. Angry exhaustion. It can also be impossible to feel balanced when crisis hits. And with our heart is broken. Or we're feeling depressed. Managing the most mundane of tasks. Can seem herculean. Sometimes our life just is. Out of balance. And all we can do is move through it the best we can. Not only are we wobbly people. Our lives in our shared world are very wobbly. Unpredictable and uncertain. That's why sometimes we need others to help us get back up when we fall in. Are we need others to help us navigate. The rockies. Pittston park. Of our lives. Not only is wobbliness and imbalance part of the human experience. I wonder if sometimes. Imbalance might actually be helpful. Perhaps sometimes. Our sense of imbalance is trying to teach us. For example when we touch a flame the pain teaches us to step back from the fire. Could our sense of imbalance sometimes be jolting us to reconsider how we are moving through the world. Maybe it is time to shift our pastor. To go a different direction or to change our pace. Balance after all is not simply a static state of equilibrium. It is both a noun and a verb. Balance is an ongoing active process of shifting and realigning we are after all wobbly people. I am quite literally wobbly. In the last five or six years i have sprained my ankle and or my foot multiple times. Is anyone who has ever been to physical therapy nose. It's amazing how a dressing one injured muscle. Often means strengthening or stretching and entirely different part of your body, right. I've learned that physical balance is an interplay of multiple muscles. Foot ankle. Leg hip core head. For all of us. Being able to move to sit to hold up our own head. Requires a dance. Push and pull. A balance of resistance and strength. I suspect our internal loveliness has similar dynamic tension. The pieces of our lives are often linked to one another our energy our emotions that are skills. Perhaps making our home life better. Means shifting something at work. Or maybe finding more focus for our tasks. Means attending to a heartache. Bishop's. We realign. We feel our way to balance. Perhaps if we could be more aware of what good balance feels like to us then we might be able to develop better ways to respond to the wobbles. Feeling when we need to push ourselves and when to pull back. Winter show resistance to external demands and went to find the strength to meet them. Feeling our way for the wobbles in the falls. Learning to balance. And rebalance ourselves. And sometimes we might need to rebalance by adding a counterweight. Perhaps we need to add in time with friends or time alone. A trip to the woods or to the sea. Or therapist. Are medication. As wobbly people developing awareness of what helps us to rebalance. Can be a critical skill. Such a weirdest might enable us to live in balance tension throughout our life as both we and our world. Inevitably. Stumble. And wobble. There is no one right formula. For balance. For all of us. Nor is there one right formula for any one of us that would fit all the parts. And times of our life. Rather than develop a singular formula. I am suggesting that we instead develop a stronger awareness of what balance feels like. What are imbalances might be teaching us. And finally. What choices might help us rebalance. 4 time. Before closing i want to revisit the term balance. It's a big word and we can use it to refer to all matter of dynamic tensions in our lives. However and trying to find quotes this month. I noticed that it was nearly impossible to find quotes on balance. Written by people of color. Every month and when i look for quotes i try to balance gender. I'm raised up necessity and religion. It's best i can. So i've been wondering was balance a word and a concept that didn't resonate with people of color. This question was on my mind when i flew to saint paul this past week for the black lives unitarian universalist symposium. Having just returned last night. I am still processing all of my thoughts and experiences. But one thing i noticed as i listened to both the speakers and the songs and there was great music. It was repeatedly the theme of freedom. And of dean fully oneself. As in. Fully black. Fully gay. And fully you you. Listening as i jotted in my notes. I jotted in my notes. At its best balance. Feels like freedom. A freedom to be fully oneself attuned to life and connected to what matters most. Balance is not. The goal. Seeking balance is just one framework for naming the struggle of being free. Free from the tyranny of calendars that crowd out meaningful connections. Free to be who we are in our fullest expression without excluding or covering up our passions or our person. Free to be open to love. And safe from harm. Freda wobble. Fall. And be healed as you heal. There is no perfect formula for a balanced life. There are only wobbly humans learning how to get navigate life in a wobbly world. So let us wobble. Let us learn from our imbalance. Let us be wise and learning how to rebalance. Let us enjoy this song and dance of well-balanced moments in our lives. Moments where we feel free and fully ourselves. And let us seek the fullness and the freedom of all those who wobble. And yearn. 2b whole. So may it be. Amen.

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FP-20191110-Sermon.mp3

Presents. Of death. Is simply. Part of life. For some of us. The presence of death makes itself known when we are young. Perhaps through the death of a grandparent or even a parent. Authors of us may have encountered death in midlife. Some experiencing the tragedy. Of losing a child weigh. Too young. And still others may not have known death in a close way until they and their age cohort begin to age. Losing parents. Ben friends. And spouses. In my life i've had the extraordinary privilege of having all four of my grandparents as part of. But of my life for much of my adult years. My first grandparents betty. Died fourteen years ago. And my last grandparents zane died just last march. I was there when betty died. A vibrant woman with a deep love of jesus. Betty died in hospice in my parents home. Harold her beloved charming husband of 63 years. Sat beside her. Holding her hand. My parents and i saying some of grandma's favorite hymns. Watching her labored breathing. Waiting. For the stillness. It signaled her death. She was 83. I. What's 33. Since that first. Experience of death. My role is a minister has brought death closer in many ways. Sitting with a grieving family as we plan a service. Is one of the most intimate. And meaningful parts. My ministry. Walking into a hospital. To be part of a raw and difficult moments of crisis. Is humbling. Pretentious and superficial concerns dissolve in such moments. All that remain are the bedrock emotions. It connections that link us to life. And to one another. And yet being in such intense and intimate moments can be difficult. Even just as a witness to the pain of those closest to the dying and deceased. The process of becoming a minister attempts to prepare you for the tasks of pastoral care. Hospital visitations in officiating memorial services. There are of course something's only experience teaches. As a middle-aged woman and as a minister. The reality of death. Seems less. Far. Away. And as i have officiated services for people of all ages. The reality that death can appear at any time in any. Decade of life. Has shifted my calculations about the possible timing of death. With all this deepening experience of death. As i left on sabbatical last fall i felt heavy. With the weight of my own grief. And my growing fear of death. Which my psyche no longer suppress as well. Because my sabbatical involved family history research i found myself walking through cemetery after cemetery. After weeks and then months of walking through graveyards. I realize that my wandering was also a search for making my peace with death. How after all could i be a minister if i couldn't make my peace with death. Walking through these graveyards in search of ancestors. I could feel. The inevitability of death. Row. After row of stones made it clear. In the end. Death. When. I felt the shift. Deep within. No longer was i attempting to resist the reality of death. Or imagine escaping it. I gave up that particular existential fights. Instead. I began asking how to live. Knowing that my life was in escape ubly finite. How does one live. Knowing that death. Isn't it inevitable. Impart we live. Just. Because we do. Our brain keeps telling our lungs to breathe our hearts to beat our eyes to blink. Are stomach grumbles and hunger. Arm muscles ache for rest or four movements. As physical creatures we are complex organisms with processes wired and many ways to sympathy. Live. And in some way our emotional and spiritual will to live our inter-row even with a physical experience of being a material being. And so. At times grief and loss made disrupt our appetite for food for sleep. For life itself. And at other times are bodily need for light. For movement. For food. For rest. May bring us away from the flood of emotion and into the basics of living. Our. By hour. Neo. By neil. Day. By day. Some of this process of going through the motions of life amidst grief. Is present in the poem the ant. By mari evans. She writes. When your mother dies your aunt comes in to make sure your ribbons are straight. Your hair is combed right and your legs are not ashy. Sometimes we keep on living in the presence of death. Because someone carries us through our grief. Sometimes we can live after a death. Because we are loved. Back. To life. And yet sometimes. It is not our grief. It interferes with our living. But our fear. The fear of death. Can threaten to shrink our engagement with life. How tightly do we hold our children in a world of risks. How do we let them drive away and a car alone. Or leave for college. How near do we hold our spouse or partner or friends. When do we ask another to pull back on risky behavior. And when do we sit quietly with our fear. When do we push a loved one to make a doctor's appointment or seek treatment. And when do we respect their choice to forego it. When does our own fear keep us from making an appointment. Prefer taking a step we judge as risky. How do we balance living. With the reality of death. When i wander through those many cemeteries. I realized a second thing. Death may be inevitable. But life moves on. And on. In my travels i followed the westward migration of my ancestors from massachusetts. Upstate new york. The indiana and ohio and finally to michigan. As i moved from cemetery to cemetery. The dates became more recent the transcriptions easier to read. On one clear december day. I stood at the grave of betsy call wok. In salem center indiana. 2 days later. I kneel beside the grave of her daughter. Jerusha lock. Roots. In coopersville michigan. Standing in this cemetery i could look cross the field. The house were jerusha is granddaughter virginia osborne. I grew up. Curing virginia. My grandmother. Tell stories of her childhood on this farm. The cemeteries were places of death. But they were also places marking the baton of life moving from generation. Degeneration. The date. March forward. Reminding me that the thread of life. Parents grandparents aunts nieces and more. Continue through the decades. Today. I am the one standing here. Feeling the cold winter air and squinting in the bright sun. Today. I am alive. Today. I am not yet in my grave. Today. My story is still open. As the poet mary oliver asks. What will i do with this one wild and precious life. I will live. I will embrace this life that is finite i will live knowing my end will come but until then. I will do my best to save her this gift of a day. And another day. Last week. Kate used a two-sided scale to demonstrate the idea of balance in her time for all ages. She showed how the two sides will tilt above and below one another unless evenly weighted. If we were to put the full weight of death on one side of the scale. What might possibly even out. The scale. What could balance out the grief. Fear and terror that's so often accompanies death. I imagine death is a singular weight of great size and density on one side of the scale. But i suspect that what best balances the scale. Is not a single item of great value. But rather a huge volume of a mini. Mini. Gifts. Of life. What helps to balance your scale. Skiing down a mountainside a tableau drench sky. Sitting beside a loved one holding hands in a concert. The site of an infant column in their sleep. The news of remission. The taste of a fine red wine. Or the snap. Cold lemonade on a hot. Summer day. Unbalanced. I believe that life. With its many gifts. Outweighs.. This is not to say that there are not sometimes tragic and seemingly pointless. I know this congregation has felt the deep pain of life. Cut too short. In the face of such soul wrenching loss. I imagine that the only way out from the full shadow of death. By following the beckoning call of love. Back into life. Like maybe forever altered for how could it be the same. And your life. With its breath in and out. It's sunrise and sunset. It's meals and its rest. Remains. Life with the laughter of children the love of friends and the song of birds. Remains. Life. And all of its gifts remains. Life. Is a gift. A fragile. Finite gift. Realizing this need not paralyzed us and fear. It can also set us free. Disfavor life. Noticing its gifts. Caring for all that is precious in our lives. In the ancient texts of song of songs. The poet sings love is strong as death. Perhaps and balancing the scale with death. There is no better wait. Been love. Love for those who make our lives full. Love for the simple gifts that surround us if only we are able to notice. Love for those who may now be gone. But whose life showered us with gifts when they lived. Instill davis with memories. Love. For the hard warm one lesson that made us who we are. Are open pass. We may never have taken. Love. It shows up in so many ways. Today. We are here. Today. We are alive. Today we can love. And beloved. Death will come. And some unknown day. Until then. How. Shall we this. Amen.

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FP-20200223-Sermon.mp3

In his book conquering fear. Rabbi harold kushner states. Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the overcoming of fear. Perhaps you've heard this idea expressed in similar words. My grandfather harold sibley exemplified this overcoming a fear during world war ii. As part of the first special service forces the forerunners to the today's green berets. Of course he had many stories of war. Some stories he shared with family some just with. Those who'd been there in the same kinds of experiences. And some he held quietly within. One story he shared with us involved an injured scout in a minefield. The scout had gone ahead. Of the main platoon and he. Was injured on the minefield. Emmylou tendon. Called for someone to go out into the minefield. To help the injured soldier. My grandfather raised his hand. Can you imagine the fear. Of walking. Across that field. What do you safely arrived at the scout side. He needed. More help. So we beckoned. For help from another soldier. The second soldier gingerly crossed the field quite literally seeking to follow and my grandfather's footsteps. Anticipating a safe path. But something went wrong. And he. Didn't make it. When harold told the story. He called his safe passage one of his war miracles. He was brave. But like all of us harold was just a man. A man very afraid of snakes. My mom tells me that when she was 5 playing outside a snake startled her and she screamed. Harold rushed outside to help his frightened daughter. I totally saw the problem in aboard admission returning back inside. My grandmother then arrive to handle the situation. Five years later the family walked into the local movie theater to watch the 1960 movie swiss family robinson. Nestled in their seats watching the frolicking adventures of a family marooned on an island. All seemed well. Did came and seen with a 22 ft 250 lb anaconda. Without a fuss harold simply rose from his seat and left. What makes a space some fears and run away from others. For harold his commitment to helping others propelled him onto that minefield. As for snakes. When harold was just too someone had tossed a dead snake over his shoulder. Instilling that lifelong phobia of snakes. Fear can grip us. In the face of fear we can become fixated on the danger or this seeming impossibility of avoiding harm. Well sometimes there is real danger. Sometimes our fears are distortions of the facts. A snake on the movie screen cannot in fact cause any harm to someone in a movie seat. In the book the science of fear journalist daniel gardner reviews. Expensive journalist daniel gardner explores why we fear the things we shouldn't and put ourselves in greater danger. In the book's prologue gardner brings us back the moments of september 11th 2001. When the images of planes crashing into buildings. Into a pennsylvania field. Played over. And over again. I imagine we all remember the fear and anguish we felt on that day. With those images in mind significant numbers of people stopped flying. Gardner rights. It was an unreal frightening time. And it was predictable that people would flee the airports. Perhaps surprisingly though. He didn't start building backyard bomb shelters. Instead most went to work and carried on living. They just didn't fly. They drove instead. The problem with this scenario explains gardner. Is it driving is more dangerous than flying. Over the next year as people drove more. Traffic fatality is rose. According to the research of gerd gergen's there. A psychologist at the max planck institute in berlin. The increase was 1595 death. A number gardener notes. That is six times higher than the total number of people on board the doomed flights on september 11th. Here is not necessarily the best guide for keeping us safe. But neither can it or should it always be ignored. In the gift of fear. Security expert gavin de becker argues that our fear can give us wise counsel. Shake through millennia by exposure to threats and violence we do in fact have a gut instinct. That gives people a sense of something wrong. I should get out of here. Sometimes the fear is real. Sometimes the person we thought loved us. Raise their hand against us. Sometimes the man in the hall does have a gun. Sometimes the bad news we hoped would never come. Arrived on a sunny pleasant day. How then do we live. In a world unpredictable with fear. Are seen this month has been risk. Risk can bring rewards risk and expand our world connecting us to new people places and parts of ourselves. Spheres commingled with risk. Threaded with a calculations what actions to pursue or not. So how do we face fear. In my grandfather's case on the minefield. A higher value enabled action in the face of fear. Sometimes we move through fear by holding fast to something of greater value. We imagine the reward of saving a life. I've getting free of this place. I'm enjoying a new adventure in life. Sometimes we need to look past the fear to be able to move. Fear doesn't disappear. But we are able to harness a stronger value or desires to keep us going. Sometimes fear even saves our life. When our instincts kid in kick in to tell us to get away. What happens when our instincts communicating danger are sending us bad messages. Making us and our our world less safe. Perhaps sometimes we may need to examine the data. Like i'm flying versus driving. An override or fear based on reason and knowledge. Or we may need to reassess our fearful reactions to a particular idea activity or relationships. Perhaps that may mean seeking professional support as we face. Phobias or fears as wide-ranging as snakes. A longtime abusive family member. Or coil if shame we've tucked deep inside. Facing such deep-seated fears can be excruciatingly painful. But can also lead to a transformed life. Endeavoring to travel through such treacherous territories often requires not only courage and grit. But also self-compassion. And lots of love. And support from others. Some of our greatest fears. As well as some of our biggest risks. Can be emotional and psychological. Links to our deep even irrational feelings fear can also be a teacher. Currently i am facing some criticism from an unexpected source no not here first parish. 4 days i tossed the issues around my head. Practicing possible conversations and resolutions. As i often do in times of uncertainty. I've arranged to speak with a trusted friend to talk it all through. As we talked i realized. I'm afraid of this confrontation. Fear. Tracing this emotion to fear i began to name why this situation raises anxiety and me. Finally we're of my fear and my reasons for my fear. I could chart a path forward. Sometimes. We need to listen to ourselves and trust our instincts. But. And this isn't a big exception. Sometimes we cannot trust her instincts. Because they were shaped not by actual threats. But by prejudice. Hatred. An ignorance. In seminary my intern supervisor sent me from the safe leafy streets of princeton. To downtown trenton new jersey for project. And he required i use the bus not drive. Unfamiliar with the buses or the city. The trip was disorienting. By the time i found my destination i was shaken and frustrated. When i was ready for the return trip. Rather than rate. For a bus i chose to walk the mile to the main bus station back to princeton. It was the middle of the day i had no reason to really be afraid. But it was an inner-city. One of those places that a white suburban girl from michigan raised in reagan's america. Had been told to fear. Accept that as i safely walk block. After block. Passing people and their own business. It felt like i literally removed one set of glasses. And began to see with another. This was just a neighborhood. People living people working people just being people. The fear i felt was based primarily in my own ignorance of being in a city. As well as my racial bias that had taught me to see dark skin. As a danger. The impact of such biosphere is evident in the book breathe. A letter to my son's. Buy african american scholar and mom. Imani perry. In the first chapter entitled beer. Perry responds to those who pity her. Mother to black sons in america. She writes. I am indignant. At their pitying eyes. I do not want to be there emotional spectacle. I want them to admit that you are people black boys people. This fax simple as it is shouldn't litter linger on the surface it should penetrate. It often doesn't. Not in this country anyway. Perry lives with fear for her son's because of the bias the racism that shapes the minds of so many in this country. She tells the story of a knight their house alarm tripped. Twice in one night. When she heard the police knocking on the door below. She called her teenage son in his room on his cellphone to tell him to lock his door and to not come out. She writes. I said lock your door because the possibility flash before my face. You might be tipping out of your room looking to come upstairs to me. Or in your breathtaking and youthful courage looking to protect the home. And one of the police officers saw you mahogany in the shadows tall and lean and dreadlocks. And decided you. Where the intruder. The one who didn't belong in this big house with lilac bushes and manicure japanese trees in front. And what if they took you out. Perris fears with fear of any parents. Better child be safe. And perisphere is based on an experience of living in a society were too many unarmed black boys are shot. Shot by the fear of a dominant white culture who teaches us who is and is not safe. Sometimes fear. Like driving instead of flying. Creates danger. Rather than keeping us safe. And sophia is not just one thing. It can be wise counsel. And it can lead us into danger. With bravery we can face our fears. And walk onto a literal or figurative minefield to risk a higher goal. Or we can learn how to live with our fear. Maybe we just live knowing the snakes will inevitably appear on our path. But that we can walk away from the snakes still love. And living fully and many other ways. But. Again that exception. Maybe we also. See the fierce. For the ignorance hatred and bias that they are. Fighting to unmask them. Even is fearing the very real harm their lies still cost. Yes this life will include fear. But fear does not need to paralyze us or shrink us. Beckoning us to run and hide. We can choose to face our fears. As painful and difficult as it may be. In the hopes of living a real life. Your life. Facing such fear takes courage yes. But i believe it also takes love. Love for life. Love for humanity love for the planet for justice for child a spouse of friend. Define the courage to face fear is to connect with what we love. Yes loving risk the greatest loss of all. The loss of what we love. Good loving also gives us the courage to face the fears life inevitably brings. Rabbi kushner closes his book conquering fear with a quote. From philosopher psychologist william james. Did i now leave with you. These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help. Create the fact. So may it be. Amen.

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FP-20200301-Sermon.mp3

But you might not know is that a 1976 the year ava released the song money money money. The gender pay gap was 60.2%. Which is to say that on average a woman earns $0.60 for every dollar a man earns. Today that same pay gap has narrowed. But not close. According to a report by payscale a compensation firm. Women still make only 79 cents for every dollar men make in 2019. This number reflects quote women are less likely to hold high-level high paying jobs than men. This is a gap in opportunity. Payscale also crunches the data to compare pay between men and women with similar job titles. Years of experience location excetera. This controlled pay gap is much smaller. Just a gap of $0.02. But it is there. Even with all the other factors controlled for. Gender still matters. The wage gap. Is one way to talk about gender and money. Mystics make the inequality of pay and opportunity seemed neat and tidy. Even if they tell a story of improving. Persistent in a quality. The wage captain is part of a larger story of how we live together in a shared world. As a diverse mix of genders ages racial identities wealth and more. We daily face questions about how to live together. How to manage our households. Often assumes social categories shape not only our social structures. But also our own ways of seeing ourselves and others. Face shape what it means to be identified as a male or female. They shape our dreams. And they shape our opportunities. Even as we move towards greater equity and justice. Still. Inequalities shows up. Like in the wage gap. But it's not just about the wage gap. In equality and wages is simply a pointer. To a long story of how we rearrange our life. As you heard in the reading the term economy. Concert two greek words meaning icar's mean meaning house. Animo meaning to manage. Managing the household. Is at the root of our economic lives. Historians and anthropologists will tell you that cultures across space and time have ordered the tasks of how we live together how we survive together. In many different ways. Hooper court hears food. Who cooks. Who cares for children. For the sick the elderly. How was shelter provided in maintain. Such basic questions undergird our everyday life even today. Of course our economic systems of household management look a bit different than a society based on agriculture. Or and or barter of goods and services. Ars. For better or for worse. Is largely an economic system based on wages and i'm capital. But it was not always so. The nineteenth century saw an enormous transformation that still impacts our society today. I'll start with the big picture and then focus on. Stories of two women. Ida b wells in elba belmont their images are. The front of the order service. In the big picture. The early us economy was mixed. The exchange of money for goods certainly played a part. Lots of folks engaged in work on a subsistence level. Raising the food they would eat making their own cloth and clothing. Pending they're sick with homemade remedies. Even our early ministers at first parish we're paid largely and land and firewood. I'm all good on the firewood. With the 19th century rise of new industries working for wages also rose. Many women worked in this new economy such as the famous mill girls in lowell. And elsewhere. But a new idea for women also rose. The lady. Who did not work. For wages. The ladies domain was the domestic home that was safely distinct from that world of work. Thus was born the idea of two spheres. Work. And home. And with this division. A lot of the economy and that broad sense of managing the household. Became unbk misgendered. Unpaid. And designated as unproductive. This brings us to the stories of two nineteenth-century women elva belmont. And ida b wells. Alva belmont was born in mobile alabama in 1853. As the daughter of a successful merchant with highly-regarded family ties. She grew up submarine in newport rhode island. Attended boarding school in france. And after the civil war lived in new york city. At the age of 22. She married william k vanderbilt. Grandson of the railroad magnate cornelius vanderbilt. She was undoubtedly a queen among the ladies. Like the tech fortunes of today the 19th century technology of rail transformed the fabric of the nation and generated enormous fortunes for those who owns them. Especially the vanderbilt family. Thanks have you anyone been to the breakers in newport. Or the biltmore in asheville. Those are both vanderbilt family homes. Railroads not only created fortunes they also changed us society in contrast to the class cars of the british trains. The early us railroad cars celebrated a system of open cars is symbolic of us democracy eating plan also enabled a mixing of race gender and social status. This was seen as a problem for these ladies. These women with money. Lady cars were domestic were created with domestically style furnishings and incorporated into train sometimes are also known as pullman cars. These ladies cars created a kind of home on wheels so that the ladies could travel they never left home even when they were traveling. Horseman with money began to also access fees finally outfitted cars. First as companions to the ladies and then possibly paying for a first-class ticket. So much for open equitable democracy. Indeed ida b wells painfully discovered. That money to buy a ticket with not all you needed. To be granted access to the constable car are to be granted the status of a lady. Ida b wells. Was born almost a decade after belmont on july 16th 1862. Born enslaved. Wells was freed six months later by the emancipation proclamation. After growing up in mississippi during reconstruction wells briefly attended college. When her parents died in a yellow fever outbreak she dropped out and began working. First as a teacher and then as a journalist. When she was nearly 22. Wells attempted to board a train in memphis to nashville. She had purchased a first-class train tickets. And taking a seat. When asked by the conductor to leave. She refused. She struggled even biting the conductor as three white men physically removed her from the train. In her biography. Wells recalled how the men quote were encouraged to do this by the attitude of the white ladies and gentlemen in the car. Some of them stood on their seats so they could get a good view and continued applauding the conductor for his brave. Stance. Outraged wells sued the railroad and one. Only to have the decision overturned later by the tennessee supreme court. Rather than acquiesced injustice wells became an activist. She became. D. Leading anti-lynching activists in the nation. Writing skating denunciations of heinous violence and subsequent miscarriages of justice. She would also co-founded the national association of colored women in 1896 and was a founding member of the n-double-acp. And as an activist for all women. She called on president woodrow wilson to put an end to discriminatory hiring practices for government jobs. Ida b wells is an amazing woman. Who's work as a journalist and is an activist we should all know. But so also should you hear the rest of ella belmonte story. Elva came to resent the role of being a mere and dormant to her rich husband. Stone 1895. 1895. She divorced vanderbilt for land during. Still enormously wealthy. She married oliver belmont another rich man. But then she began to leverage her fortune. To support the cause of women's suffrage and women's equality. She paid for the bale of picketers. She funded the national press bureau of the national american woman's suffrage association she bailed out all kinds of suffrage associations that were facing financial trouble. She also works towards a racial integration of suffrage organizations even as she contributed to the southern women's suffrage conference. Which openly opposed the vote for black women. After the 19th amendment was passed successfully 1920. Belmont joined. Activist alice paul in the work of the national women's party. Which included the 1923 proposal of an equal rights amendment to guarantee full for women. And yes that was the first draft of the equal rights amendment that was finally passed in the seventies and just ratified by the last state in the last week or so. What month. We'll see what happens next. Maybe by 2023 rule actually 1:30. To support this work that paul was doing with a congress with the equal rights amendment. Belmont purchased a brick house behind a capital in 90 in dc in 1929. Today that building still stands and is the belmont paul women's equality national monument. Born in 1853 and 1962 respectively. Belmont and wells died two years apart in 1931 and 1933. In their 70-odd years. Both worked to make the world more equitable and just. For women. Although very differently positioned in society. They both understood the impact of a world structured as a rich white man's world. Their work also shows us. The issues of gender and money intersect with race as well. Today's statistics still reflect the same patterns of inequality. When it comes to race. In equality. org states quote. The medium white family has 41 times more wealth than the median blackface. And 20 * 2 times more wealth in the median latinofare. As for gender. In equality. org states. Women make up 63% of workers. Earning the federal minimum wage. 63% of workers earning the federal minimum wage a wage. At 7:25 since 2009. By contrast women represent only 5% of ceos. At 4. Fortune 500. And globally. The top 10 billionaires are all men. Although alice walton of walmart fame comes in at number 11. So what if we were to redesign the economy. To renegotiate not only how the labor of the individual household works. But also the larger social expectations. And structures. What if your gender didn't come. With pre-assigned rolls. For whether or not you were supposed to be the one making all the money. Or you were supposed to be the one caring for the. What if every person. Irrespective of gender or race. Could expect the same pay. For the same work. What if every person. Had the same opportunity. To be a teacher. A scientist. A ceo. President. Maybe we hear such questions and we vacillate. Feeling both the sense of conviction to support equality as a value. In defense of cynicism. It's such dreams take time. And yes deep social change does take time. And. Change often comes because of people like wells and belmont who did not accept the change was impossible. So what changes if we understand the economy and the broad sense of managing the household. What changes if our concern is about how to balance the full range of labor paid and unpaid. It goes into a household. What changes if we do not use gender as a shortcut. To answer those questions. Waterworld look like. With true gender equality. We are dreaming against the grain of old persistent pattern. And yet ida b wells. Alva belmont and so many others. Have used their work. Paid and unpaid. As well as their wealth. And treasure. Template for chain. History tells us two things. Change is possible. And change takes. Work. Quality. True equity among persons. Is a sacred value. That reflects a deep conviction of valuing human dignity and worth. Again and again as a society we wrestle with what equality. Let us dream together. A more equitable world. And lettuce work. Make it a. So may it be. Amen.

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FP-20171119-Sermon-Matt-Meyer.mp3?_=5

Once upon a time. I was invited to a costume party. Hosted by scott choir. The coolest kid in my 5th grade class. Now i don't know about you but i remember 5th grade is the year that i started to really notice the social hierarchy of the world. To recognize that there was a pyramid of popularity with some people at the top and more of us closer to the bottom. And as someone closer to the bottom of this hierarchy. I was curious how the whole thing worked i wanted to figure out the rules to this game. Cuz i have to buy them because i was still wearing sweatpants everyday when other kids and moved onto jeans. Or because word had gotten out that i wanted to grow up to be a singer like mariah carey. Dream i still hold on to dearly. As far as i could tell at the time. The coolest kids. The most revered kids. We're the ones who were the best and the most skillful. At making fun of other people. Which made the whole system theologically speaking. A certain kind of hell. Looking back now the pyramid seems to have been mostly correlated with gender roles and who was best at performing their part. Boy or girl. Girls with fashionable outfits for hire on the pyramid. Asthma boys who are good at boy things likes playing sports or hiding their feelings. Bape. So back to the high-stakes costume party. I had spent weeks deciding whether to go as a clown or an army guy. I went back and forth back and forth until the very last second i changed my mind for the last time we work headed out the door. Iso told my mom wait wait i threw off the clown costume. To the side i put on my army guy outfit and out the door we went to this party. And you can only imagine my relief. And my terror. When i realized this was not in fact a costume party at all. Yeah it was an army themed party. So at the end of the night. I won the award for best dressed. It is to this day the only time anyone has even considered giving me that kind of an award. You would think that this miracle of good fortune would have left me feeling on top of the world. But. I was just as freaked out as ever. Just the image of showing up to this army themed party in a clown costume. Is an image so terrifying that it haunts me to this day so much so that i'm preaching to you about it this morning. I knew that. The rules of this game we're still not in my favor. Even if i had been dealt a good hand. Fast forward a couple years and i attended a summer camp where these rules seems to be turned upside down. They were certainly still folks who were more popular than others. But they seem to be the ones were the warmest the most welcoming. Love and respect went to the people that invited newcomers into the circle. The ones who fostered connection instead of competition. More love less hate. If you have a place like this. And your own life would you sell out right now more love. I remember wondering how does a place like this even happen. How did these camp counselors find all of the kindest and most thoughtful people in the country and bring them to the woods of illinois for 1 week every year. When conversation that explains it i think has stuck with me. I was on a long walk with a new friend. And i don't remember exactly what i said to him. But i basically brag to him that someone who we were both close with. And given me a friendship bracelet instead of him. Yeah harsh. We all know that the social currency of hippie love camp friendship bracelets are like the gold standard. So here i was enjoying this person's company. And then saying this awful thing to him about who was closer friends with who. But i thought i knew about community with this boxing ring mentality. Thinking that whoever throws the best punch wins. But my new friend responded to my unkindness with love. In a way that i literally did not know if possible. Made eye contact with me and he smiled. And he said how happy he was that i was finding a home. More connection. Less competition. If you have people like that in your life would you sound loud right now more connection. Whatever nonsense i'd learned about social hierarchy. Whatever awful lessons i'd internalize about how men are supposed to speak to each other. I saw for that moment at least for the ridiculousness that it was. I didn't feel ashamed but i felt silly for having been stuck in this old way of thinking. Thinking that competition and put-downs. Would get me somewhere. He had literally loved the hell out of me. Best friends is love that dismantles the status quo. If we have any hope for building the kind of world we want to living together we need to seek out those mentors who loved us enough to meet us where we're at. And love us also so much enough to not let us stay there. And then we need to be that person for others because nobody can make it out here alone. In the midst of a political and economic climate that is increasingly designed to set us apart. Set us apart one from another to divide us by religion. Bike race. Bigender by documented and undocumented. It's a bold thing to gather together in this unitarian universalist tradition. A tradition of love and justice would you say love and justice. It's a powerful thing to seek out the kinds of communities that will teach us the skills and give us the courage for dismantling all of those false binaries wherever we find them. Places where we not only dream but live the reality of our beauty. And our strength. Years ago in college i was at a training for street medics street medics are volunteer activists who provide first aid to protesters at demonstrations. I showed up excited to learn some new skills for healing in different ways. But if all of the things we learned what is stuck with me most was a particular tool of beloved community that they shared. At the beginning of the training we were asked to introduce ourselves by sharing our name where we were from and the gender pronouns that we use. Whether we wanted it to be called by hishe they or something else. Do all of my life people had read my gender in complicated ways. And this was the first time that anyone had ever explicitly offer the option of identifying my gender as i wanted as felt right for me. No one had ever asked me before. Going on to learn the stories of transgendered people in my life and in my reading my heart opened. And even though i continue to identify as male i began to recognize how the multitude of behaviors and feelings and thoughts and preferences that make me who i was. Have been carved up and placed into these narrow boxes of gender. Boy or girl male or female. The invitation to share my pronoun was an offering. You don't have to call yourself. By what the rest of the world has always called you. You can show up as yourself just as you are. No costume require. These narrow boxes of gender limit us in different ways. I recently heard a story about basketball star wilt chamberlain who despite being one of the greatest players of all time with terrible at shooting free throws. The only time of the game where you just get to stand right in front of the basket and shoot the ball in without anyone guarding you and he made an atrocious 40% of the shots. Except for one game though. March 2nd 1962 where he made 90% of his free-throw shots. The difference the magical difference in this one game was that he shot underhand from between his legs. I learned growing up this was called granny style. Not appropriate. It turns out though that this is a much better way to shoot free throws. But despite having immediately stalls his greatest weakness as a player. In the last part of the game chamberlain went back to throwing overhand the only thing he ever said about why. Was in his autobiography. He said throwing underhand. Made him feel like a sissy. Did the greatest basketball player of all time. The only thing more important than basketball. Was not looking like a sissy. Chamberlain. The narrow gender box of his masculinity was more important to him than basketball and more important than his career. I wish perhaps chamberlain had had a camp friends like mine. Or progressive faith community like yours that could have helped him to be more himself. I don't know if we could say that a community like this could have loved the hell out of him but at least they might have loved the bad free throwing out of them. Religion ought to be the place where we dismantle the boxes that have been placed over us and locked down around us. Where we confront oppression wherever we find it. So that we can shine a little brighter each one of us. Religious community should be at the place of love that comes in rainbow colors. Your ones there are those of us who are raised as boys and educated into masculinity. Here we who call ourselves men. We've been taught sometimes tutus misguided understandings of status over our relationship. We men have been sometimes taught to choose image over authenticity. Speaking more than listening. Or objectification instead of connection. If that describe some piece of your own story as a certainly does mine will you commit with me to rebuilding the skills for beloved community. And set our relationships which are holy ahead of the false idols of status or power if so men would you say out loud right now beloved community. Similarly. For those of us educated into the mists of whiteness. We have too often been taught to value comfort over justice. Individualism over community. And intellectualize empathy in place of gut-level transformation. We see this now reflected back to us in a country where black and brown people are scapegoated for the devastating effects of wealth inequality and are executed by our government in the streets without reprisal. Turn this moment of what i hope is national reflection. White folks will you join with me and recommitting to moving through the discomfort of deep re-education. And loving justice not just as an idea but as a way of life if so do you say i lied right now beloved community. Nobody can make it out here alone. In canada last year. A particularly concerning online video went viral. The middle-aged white women rapping. A conservative religious woman rapping about how confused transgender people must be and how they shouldn't be allowed to use the bathrooms for which they identify. That's right i said wrapping this was an offensive video and several accounts. An eleven-year-old. Unitarian universalist friend of mine anthony james wanted to respond to this video it was all over the news and he was confused that anyone would think religion could be used for discrimination haven't grown up as unitarian universalist. For him who identifies as a gender creative person. His experience of religion had been the first place where he was totally accepted without reservation. So he organized his mom and then dozens of other uu congregations across canada to make a new video. A video sending messages of love and support to the trans community. And proclaiming the role of religion in celebrating our full humanity. Regardless of gender expression. When anthony's concerned mother. Express this to him. That posting a video of himself as a gender creative person online at a time when the political climate was so divisive with something he might want to be careful of. She said it's something people might hold against you. 11 year old anthony responded. Right. That's not. That's not a reason to be quiet mom. It's a reason to speak. The world is sick can't no one be well. We are beautiful. And we are strong. In our world today not only our individual prejudice and hate still with us but there are systems of expanding violence and isolation that continue to divide us by gender and race and class. Bigotry and our world isn't just about hate speech or religious test for refugees. It's in the school-to-prison pipeline gender policing and our systems of healthcare and housing. And i recognize that i have a role in those systems whether i like it or not. I'm still trying to figure out how my own identity intersects with the world around me in these complicated ways. And so i'm looking for communities and mentors to teach me the skills for dismantling those binaries wherever we find them. Has a white middle as a white guy with a middle-class background. I sometimes feel like i showed up to the. Just happened to wear the right costume for the party. So that by some accident of fate things around me look more equitable than they are or my community looks safer than it is. I need people like anthony people like my summer camp friend to model for me the tools of beloved community. I'm still learning what it looks like to find those moments where we can change the rules of the game. So dear ones i invite you to join me in seeking out those mentors that can show us the better way that we didn't know was possible if you agree with this out loud right now mentors. When we find ourselves divided into false binaries let's respond by honoring the full spectrum of humanity that is genuine love would you say genuine love. Where there is oppression let us find the tools to celebrate the diversity and dismantle the barriers to equality would you say dismantle the barriers. Where many among us are marginalize let's redistribute the power of resources and wealth and relationship would you say redistribute power. And in our prayers and our words and in our faithful action. Let us build the beloved community that we know is possible. Peace out loud beloved community. You are beautiful and you are strong. Maybe so.

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FP-20200405-Sermon.mp3

About 2 weeks ago. People walking the streets of boston. We're in for a special musical treat. Inspired by videos from italy gone viral all across social media. People flocked to their open windows and balconies. Socialdistance music-making. Musicians broke out their instruments. As residents belted and staying out from their windows. Across boston. People joined in unison. Special moments. Singing neil diamond's famous. Sweet caroline. One of boston's unofficial anthems. Even in the videos you can hear the compulsory answer. Wawa. What's an alternate lyrics describing our current times. Washing hands. Not reaching home. Don't touch me. I won't touch you. Needless to say it was a beautiful scene of unity. And this time of distance. And uncertainty. It feels like just yesterday when we to sing sweet caroline and coffee hour. Before the outbreak. We were joined by the whalens ukulele club. As the best refilled up with vibrations of voices and ukulele strings. Many of us wade and dance. Others laugh. Some of us even cried from the special moments. Best musical flash mob. Filled our hearts. Mines and ears. What's something special that day. Something more than familiar tunes and vibrations. River fields. With wholeness. What's spirit. With community. Responsibly moments. We are brought to a sacred place beyond the walls of our building. We are present to one another in a holy moments of music-making. Today on virtual music sunday. I think about how music in of itself. Is a rich location for seeking wholeness. And sacredness. This is the first time we've ever done this biannual service. Completely online. The space of resume. Can't replace the acoustics. Our sanctuary. We're missing the swell and slight echoes of voices. Bouncing off the walls. When missing the in-person fullness of polly's organ music. Especially the way the oregon somehow seems to hit that part deep inside us. The pipes humming. Singing and sign along with our breaths. We're missing not choir loft. Looking down over the railing at a full and packed. Over at school and packed pews. And plain and simple we're missing some good old-fashioned congregational singing. Something we haven't managed to do over zoom without bringing about total unmuted technological chaos. And yet somehow. Even in the services. Music remains one of our most important elements. One of the key recipe ingredients. What makes worship. Worship. Even in times like these. Music continues to call out to us. Meeting us right where we are. And some of our times of greatest need. My own testimony testimony to music's power. Starts with a concert at the san francisco symphony. A five-year-old who just started taking violin lessons. My heart burst with excitement to see that there were other violinists right there on stage. Jim's a single note from the concertmaster cheers to the dark silence. Some of you might be familiar. Concert a at 440 hertz. Venezuela musical sound and color the instruments joined in to tune. I felt music rush over me like a tidal wave. Completely taking my breath away. The music hall itself becoming. Some seemingly far-off magical place. I was a five-year-old on the edge of his seat. Savoring each and every moment. Until. The music. Stopped. Even beyond that performance. Music would continue to be a place i could go to. Through some difficult moments in my life. Music would be my refuge. You're my parents divorced. You're going off to college and moving away from home for the first time. Long and just walks around cambridge in my first semester's of seminary. Even now you should remain sanctuary. And a place of rest for me. When sears fill my pillow up. White beads. Music is a bomb. Kills my soul. It speaks when life just doesn't seem to have. The words. These words from the lamenting prophet jeremiah. In the familiar hymn there is a balm in gilead. Speaks the times like these. When we are left. Without words. A deep-seated human need of ours. Pursuing and wholeness. In some ways they could have been written yesterday. Almost as if it's responding to our current fears around the covid-19 pandemic. It looks about jeremiah's central sorrowful question. Is there no balm. In gilead. In other words. What is there that can make us whole. What can heal our souls and bring us out of the spain. Ar reading from jazz composer albert baylor's song music is the healing power of the universe. Says that there is a bomb. She writes. Music is played. Listen to dance to. Sometimes not understood. Sometimes our very soul needs. Spiritual. Medication. Music remains a space of its own. Beyond balconies and open windows. Beyond even our parish laws. In some ways it almost redefines. Sacred space. What's music. Sacred space becomes radically open. Available anywhere in soy in sorrow and enjoy. In the mysteries of life itself. I'm sure soya also has its own mysteries. Individually. Community with one another. Those who played or sang in our service today show us that music still has that special power of healing. Despite being so far from one another. Music continues to bring us into sacred space together. Even without ukuleles. So my hope for you all this morning is this. May you be held in the greater sanctuary of this community. May your spirit fight calm and wholeness. Especially in those difficult times. Maybe remember that music is a bomb that connects and unites each one of us. Unbroken sacred line of human tradition. Maybe a sight for each one of us finds healing. Resilience. And hope. Maybe so.

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FP-20180114-Sermon.mp3?_=5

As you undoubtedly know. Tomorrow is martin luther king day. This year it falls on his actual birthday january 15th. Had he lived he would have been 89 tomorrow. Of course dr. king did not live. But was assassinated on april 4th 1968 50 years ago later this spring in some ways 50 years is a substance of lee long amount of time some of us here were not alive 50 years ago and yet another weighs 50 years is not that far away. Many of us here do remember as news of king's assassination spread and protests erupted. And even if we do not have personal memories i suspect that we all know people who do remember. And perhaps even participated in the fight for civil rights in which dr. king was so critically important. Now consider another span of fifty years in another martin luther. Last fall we recognized the 500th anniversary of the protestant reformer martin luther posting his 95 theses on a door in wittenberg germany. The catalyst for the reformation or multi-fold. For many luther's bold and public action marks the start of this era of change. His actions joined with those of many others as the religious political and civil fabric of europe fractured into divisive conflicts. Perhaps like me when you've learned about the reformation you have thought of western europe. A germany with its lutheran princes warring with each other. Spain starting the power of the catholic church. In england with king henry's convenient religious changed of heart to support his desire for a different place. But if you look again at the map of 16th century europe. You may also notice estates of hungry and transylvania there to the south and east of germany. Today we would not easily spot transylvania on a map. After centuries of political dynamics it exists primarily as a region within romania. However. In the 16th century. Fifty years after luther's posting on the door in wittenberg. Transylvania with a kingdom led by john sigmund. Like so much of europe. Transylvania and its neighboring hungary were embroiled in conflicts over religious differences. Unlike many places in europe. The religious mix of catholics lutherans and calvinists. Also included a group of unitarians. In fact the king himself identified as a unitarian. And is court preacher as you heard earlier. Francis david. Was it unitarian. Before becoming a unitarian and the royal preacher. David had a remarkable religious journey. As a boy in transylvania his intellectual capacities were evident. Impatient supported his studies in wittenberg for 4 years. Yes. That wouldn't burg. Although david was born in about 1620. Did not die until 1646. And so david was a young contemporary to an older luther. 50 years. Between luther's door at wittenberg and the edict of tortoises start to feel closer. But david did not leave wittenberg a protestant reformer ono. Raised a catholic. He studied catholic theology at wittenberg and became a catholic priest. Back in transylvania. David became a lutheran pastor. And then a calvinist bishop. And then the unitarian royal preacher. Rather than dismiss david as a rest is restlessly uncertain. I think it's more accurate to understand david as relentlessly attentive. Through study and discussion. David did not shy away from questions. But followed his shifting understanding from religious framework to religious framework. What was shifting spiritual journey may just seem like 2018 that's what we do. In the sixteenth century religious conversions were political acts. Religion was not yet seen primarily as a private matter of internal bleeding. What we today understand is religious with not so cleanly separated from civil social and political identities. Put differently. The concept of religion. Is a modern developments. And i want to try and unpack this development of the concept of religion. Because i think it gives us clues both to the significance of the edict of torta. And the ongoing importance of religious freedom today. If you can. Imagine a world where religion was not an option. It's simply a way of life. There is only one church. And that church is deeply entwined with political power. Which has in turn into line with the economics. Trade and taxes. In your daily life there is no sense of a secular and sacred divide. If it storms. Or child faulstick. Then god must have a reason. Everything was imbued with a christian framework of how the world works. It's not that something's were religious and other things were not. It was simply life. Which is why the emergence of significant debate about the nature of god the teachings of christ and the source of authority for answering altimate questions. So transformed life in europe. What began as an effort to restore the church. To correct practice in interpretation of christianity. Led to a fractured landscape of differing opinions. About who was right about how to live. In many places the differences led at best to debate. And at worst erupted into violent war. To suppress the other. Wrong understanding. But this was not a debate simply about religious ideas. This was a conflict about what was true. How we know what is true. And who has the power to decide what is true. The concept of religion. Are birds only if people began to make an effort to categorize and objectively analyze these differences of these points of view. Scholars today will point to the eighteenth-century enlightenment with its efforts to rashly understand and categorize. As the impetus for the concept of religion to emerge. In other words. Religion is a concept to help us understand in organized different systems of belief and practice. About the ultimate nature of the universe. But in 1648 transylvania. This understanding was far in the future. In 1648 king john sick of men with keenly aware of divisiveness in his realm. In many states the government decided what people would believe. Unity would be enforced violently. Dissidence left or went underground. Aware of the threats that circulated between different groups. King sigismund issued an edict. Preacher still preach and explain the gospel each according to his own understanding of it. And if the congregation like it well. If not no one should compel them but they should be permitted to keep a preacher who's teaching they approved. Therefore none of the superintendent's or others so abused the preacher. No one shall be revealed for his religion by anyone. And it is not permitted that anyone should threaten anyone else by imprisonment or by removal. From his post for his teaching. With these words king sigismund allowed night insisted. The congregations be able to choose their own preachers and that preachers be able to teach without fear of imprisonment. Violence or expulsion. As a preacher today i appreciate that. However it's also important to note with not in this edict. The word freedom is not used. And yet the eat it does do something new. By allowing differences even strongly hill differences. To coexist. It creates an alternative to the insistence of unity. By force. As much as i love studying the reformation. I appreciate your patience as we go through this year of big anniversaries for me to preach on it. I am glad that i did not live through it. With all of that tumult and violence. Living as we do today. It can be easy to take for granted that we are not legally obligated. To attend a particular religious organization. Nor do we face the threat of imprisonment if we fail to affirm a certain belief in god. Worried that belonging to her rytikal community. Hidden. Instead we live in a nation that affirms religious freedom in two ways. Restricting the government from establishing a required religion. And protecting the right of individuals to practice the religion of their choice. It would feel good. To simply stop there. Just simply stopped there with a celebratory and proud note. However it's not that simple. Religious freedom has not been as equitable and practice as it is proclaimed. In an ideal. This is the core argument in a new book by yale historian and unitarian universalist. Tisa wenger. In the book religious freedom the contested history of an american ideal. Winger lays out multiple examples in us history when language of religious freedom. Combined with dynamics of racial identity and imperialism. Reinforced inequalities. For example. In the twentieth century when the us took control of the philippines from spain. Part of the supporting rhetoric in the press was the importance of bringing religious freedom. The predominantly protestant christian us perceived catholicism with its institutional hierarchy as a slavish religion. And so. U.s. imperial ambitions. Was justified impart. By an appeal to the promotion of religious freedom. Which was understood as freeing the catholics from. Free in the philippines from spanish. And popish control. Upon winning control of the philippines the us sent fretted protestant christian missionaries to help civilize the malay population. A conflation of whiteness. And protestant christianity. Well i cannot do justice to winger's text. I will say that her argument disrupted my intentions to develop. To deliver a simple celebratory sermon today. She made me wonder. Who gets to define what is. And is not religion. And what does this have to do with race. Whiteness. And political control. Another example she explores the early 20th century native american ghost dance. By convene native cultural traditions as religious in nature. They sought to appeal to this ideal of religious freedom as a protection for their dances. Similarly. Winger's shows how jews sought to convey their perceived difference as a religious difference. Rather than as a racial difference. This framing both protected their religious difference. And frames their identity as white. Rather than as a disparaged racial other. The dynamics of religion race and politics of course we're also ever evident to dr. king. These before dr. king died fifty years ago he commented. We must face the sad fat. That at 11 on sunday morning when we stand to sing in christ there is no east or west. We stand in the most segregated hour. Of america. How is it. That religious freedom to worship as one pleases. So often leads to racial segregation. What to ask the converse. How is it that non-white non-christian persons are so often treated as inferior in the us. Or the us leadership depicts non-white non-christian places as unequal partners in global relations. If nations whose people are undesirable as immigrants. We're citizens of our nation. Could it be that the full promise of religious freedom in the us. Is reserved only. For white christians. And yet in our courts today. Conservative white christians are cleaning religious persecution. Get to define religious freedom in the us in 2018. For decades now conservative christian voices have dominated the public voice of religion. Trying to find to define what is and is not religious. For example sexual morality becomes defined as religious. Poverty does not. I wonder what role we as liberal religious persons might play in this ongoing fight to define religion and religious freedom in the us. In a 1967 speech dr. king said. The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state. But rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide in the critic of the state and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal. It will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. Dr. king's words. Make me wonder what we are doing with our religious freedom. When we see wrong. Are we speaking out as religious persons against the state. I do not want us to be an irrelevant social club. There's too much at stake in our own divisive world. 450 years may seem like a very long time. And yet for the edict of torta until today. We are engaged in an ongoing struggle for how we will live together. And are religious. Social. Racial. And national differences. Is unitarian universalist we have an opportunity today. To bring our own moral commitments of dignity for all persons. Equity in human relations. Interdependence with a natural world. Did the public debates about the world we want to live in. Thankfully. We are free to do so. So may it be. Amen.

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FP-20141207-Sermon-32000.mp3?_=6

Already heard. We are in the midst. The christian season of advent. Is a season of waiting. Of anticipation. And no not just for presents at christmas. Christmas matter not simply because of a brown-skinned who is baby named jesus. Who is boring. Matter. God become human. Was born to save the world. Saving the world makes a powerful story. A good action movie appears imminent danger and save the world from cataclysmic destruction. Even in the story where the world has already been virtually destroyed like the tv show walking dead or the hunger games.. Compassion. And love. Our own fears and struggles in life. Overcoming stress. Possible. In this way i see great power in christian story that promises at this small. Evil to save the world. The birth of such a one would be anticipated in hope for. End of suffering. Brokenness. Despair and darkness. Longing for the transformation of the world christmas carol emmanuel. Hope for child behavior of this world. Xavier in salvation. Backflips at best. Or spiritually violent at work. Strongly. The meaning for religion. Address for basic realities that something is wrong. In our world. There is so much beauty in the world. Glittering in the sunlight. Lovely music of our choir. Arms wrapped around you in love. Love and goodness. Compassion and generosity in the world. Is there is greed. In cruelty. Violence. There is something wrong in our world. Mini something. Wrong. Religion as i understand it. Is the vehicle by which we wrestle with this complex experience of life. It's profound beauty and goodness. Muddled with unspeakable 3. Acts of violence. Born. Minnie and israel were living in poverty and powerlessness. And jewish religious ruler frequently colluded with their roman occupiers to keep all of their power and their wealth. Rather than society. Stratified society with hierarchies of power and influence. Violin. Given this contact. Looking for a change. For a leader that would make their lives better. Transformed their world. They were looking for a savior. Ongoing war. Growing economic inequality. Racism. In climate change the threatens the entire planet. What are we waiting for. That i could be today. Question surrounding the pattern of unarmed black men in boys dying at the hands of police. Have been prominently on our minds this week. When i found the poem who but the lord langston hughes. Possible to not be struck by how the fear of police brutality crosses decade. In the common man wait for someone to save him. Lord if you can save me from that man. But the lord was not quick enough. The man is badly beaten. The band wondered. God cannot. Thursday evening i joined into demonstration enough is enough on boston common. Be there i wanted to witness to my hope for change. And for a different future. I'm not a lawyer. Nor have i sat on a grand jury. But i am. I am watching video of a twelve-year-old unarmed black boy to miramonte rice. Start with an s. A white police officer. I am watching videos and curing the stories of unarmed black man dying at the hands of the men they called the law. Voice of black men and women who are fantasies and county police are not new news. The way of life for which they must prepare their children. Their black son. And as i listened. I'm learning more about how my own white skin. Taste my experience of life in such different way. I had wanted to bring my seventeen-year-old son with me to the demonstration on thursday evening. The last he was home sick all day from school so he stayed home. Instead i found myself thinking about him as eyemart. And watch the young black men and boys in the crowd with me at boston common. What would i do. What would i say. If my son was black. What are we waiting for. In the season of advent. What are we waiting for. What do we hope for. For god or lord to come into harm's way. In a later version of planks. Italicized phrase. We'll see. Is this a real sea. Wondering if there is anyone who will. Protect him. Supernatural savior. An airline. Alarm. Supernatural intervention. Miracle birth of god becomes human. Divine savior 26 our world or to take us to another. Epsilon jose. Are we the one. We have been waiting for. We are the ones with the name of the group who organized. On their facebook page of young leader from boston's urban center or dorchester roxbury in mattapan create in their community. Alpha right. We can wait on our martin we are the one. Reading this i wonder the new. Highway 4. Am i waiting for a hero. Minister killed in selma in 1965 that finally woke up a lot of the white community. I also. Sarah. I learned and others out of danger. Prophetic men and women. The world to bring more love and justice into our scared world. As i was in 1972. Story. Moments of history where others did great thing. Now it's 2014. And i watch the news i see videos of brokenness and rage of anger and hope. There is work to be done here and now. Who are we waiting for. Answering a question is not simple nor easy. What is a vision for what we hope comes next. What is there expectation for how this vision will come to be. Going to the world. In the 19th century european christianity was radical because it departed from the traditional christian story that jesus was god incarnate. Most consider foundational for unitarian christianity in the united states. The reverend william cannon is 1. And it is from god not equal to or the same as god. How to divinity. Marcus borg john dominic crossan and other. From these scholars i've learned about the context of empire a social unrest of property violent and injustice. Oracle figure a cubic reform. And yes i believe that there wasn't oracle man behind the story that became christianity. Is a burned about this contact i began to imagine another way of understanding how jesus transformed the world. Not if an incarnated god. The man whose own spirit was full of love and compassion winsome and capacity for king ranch tire for justice. The world into which he was born by daring to speak out. In ways to challenge the status quo and he called her a new kind of community. One grounded in a spirit of love that brought together people to feed the poor to heal the sick. Imprisoned. Transform this world. Living a radical human life. I love. And service. In the season of advent. We wait for christmas that marks the birth of jesus. It's all to consider what it means to wait. Divine beings become incarnate. Human live to be transformed by a commitment to a better world. There is something wrong in our world when there is an ongoing pattern of death of unarmed men a disproportionate incarceration of black men and brown men. I'm driving in. Economic inequality. I don't understand all the reasons why there is such a pattern. I know that it is a complex picture and if there are differing points of view. But what i do understand is that this has to change. Increasingly i'm convicted that i have to be part of this pain. I'll be honest with you right. Here at this moment trying to turn towards the end of the sermon. Some answer or response. Frankly i don't know how to finish the sermon in annie's hideaway. Walking out of your feeling okay and comfortable. Because i think right now. Because i think right now. I wrote it the predominant way that we can just say a harley white community. Congregation. We need to feel uncomfortable. We need to hear what is going on for others whose experience of life is different than our own. Learn what we don't know about what it is like to be black. Or brown. On the streets of our nation. Start. Analysis and responses written by african-american. People who have experienced what it is like to live in a society by racist legacy. Read a newspaper or watch a video. Opportunity. Opportunity to share them with each other. Other into this work. Finally i'd like to invite the report interested to join me in january in reading michelle alexander's book the new jim crow carceration age of colorblindness. Lisa marie and i will let you know about the detail. Is the season of advent. Waiting in anticipation for christmas. Reason of death. Approach. Pertain. Story of christmas is a story of hope. How to season the story of jesus a man who inspired and lead a renewed sense of community grounded in a spirit of love. Kirkland inspired by a dream of a better world. Can indeed up act out and help. The world. What are we waiting for. Let us not wait for a hero. Design or human. Let us live in ass in the moments that are here and now. We are the one. Let us not keep weight.

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FP-20151025-Sermon-red.mp3?_=5

3 weeks ago. And importance. Annual event occurred in our household. The return of the walking dead. Television show that the trials and tribulations. Of a group living in a zombie apocalypse. His son will know the zombie apocalypse is the end of civilization brought about roaming the earth. The walking dead. A virus has transformed any person who dies into a zombie. Zombies are not friendly. For sunday morning i'll just leave it at that. Perhaps like some of you. Fascination with post-apocalyptic survival stories. For me this fascination began as a child when i read john christopher's the white mountains. Greater grace series in the 70s. In this series people are living in a pre-industrial style of life large mechanical tripods roam roaming the countryside controlling society. Of course there is resistance to the tripods control in which a young protagonist will. It's a storyline that echoes of today's popular divergent series by veronica roth. The hunger games by suzanne collins. And other books movies and television shows. Behind these various stories. Is the question of how do people respond. When civilization as they've known as as they've known it devolves into chaos. Of the previous world. Empty houses stranded cars crumbling bridges. With the most primitive efforts to survive by finding water and food shelter in relative safety. The post-apocalyptic genre may seem dark and dismal. Genre. Is what remains. When civilizations fall. Electrical power may be out. But the energy to survive even to thrive. Endorse. And i'm going to survival. Apocalyptic stories help us to consider. What values in purposes might sustain us. In the midst of chaos and civilizational change. An era of climate change. I think it's just such a johnra that can help us imagine the future that awaits us. Climate changes are enormous. Complicated global problem. And it's easy to feel discouraged even hopeless. That we can make a difference. I think the drama is plays out in a lot of little and large waves. Maybe you found yourself standing in the kitchen with a plastic container spoiled food. And you ask yourself isn't worth the effort. This container. Or maybe when you shop for a new car. You ran the numbers of cost size and gas mileage and decided against a hybrid. Perhaps you call the number for switching to green electricity. What were discouraged by the price difference. That wouldn't fit easily into your budget. Do any of these consumer choices even make a difference. Today climate change away from his individual consumer choices. And toward a big civilization size framework. I think we are living in the midst of a civilizational rupture. As one epic gives way to another. Scientists and activists including christopher when stevenson. Morning that we are at a point. Or we can no longer talk about preventing climate change. Rather we must discuss how. To live within it. To get a perspective on this shift of epics. Let me describe three different snapshots. Shot one. Are opening hindi lyrics. Earth was given as a garden. Cradle for humanity. Tree of life and tree of knowledge place for our discovery. For all your creatures. Board of land and sky and sea. All created in your image. In harmony. These lyrics reflect the judeo-christian image the life began in a garden. Plants animals and humans living in harmony. Ancient texts were written characterized by an agricultural economy. Directly dependent upon the land for food and sustenance. Imagery of a lush garden would have conveyed and ensuring sense of abundance and sustained life. Trey did exist in the ancient world. Remnants of roman boats found in english lakes. The vast majority of people however live directly off the land. Involve the ruins of some ancient structures remain in turkey and ireland and egypt. Shelter the masses have long been erased. Culture of fields in farmers survive most notably. In the billions of human lives. Snapshot number two. Anarchy river passes below a block of nearly identical brick buildings. A deafening rhythm. Bill's out of the windows. Human cells are barely noticeable over the mechanical noise of a loom. Snapchat we have entered an age known today as the industrial revolution. Artisanal products made in homes have given way to the rise of the factory system. Machines in humans works side-by-side in a race to greater efficiency higher production. And for the owners at least. Increased income. Great migrations of people are in processed as people move from countryside to cities. From countries with little food. Two places that hold the promise of jobs that can feed a family. Others migrate in search of better farmland or new opportunities. Is the great tracks of steel cross the grassy plain. The shining sea. Progress the newspapers probably explains and skyscrapers rise steel bridges cross wide rivers. And planes take flight. Snapshot number three. Rumbling from deep within the glacier increases. Massive chunks of ice begin to shutter and break apart. No streams upon the face of enormous chunks of ice in the arctic ocean. For 75 minutes the glacier cazza portion of itself the size of lower manhattan. In search of such evidence of melting ice. Filmmakers record the entire event. Snapshot is our moment. It is the era of climate change. It's a surreal place to be. Because at this moment. Four-try. The lights are on. Our parking lot is full of cars that we filled with relatively inexpensive fuel. The trees are turning color and the air is feasibly chilling. It was a bit drive is summer. Watering restrictions. Course we've noticed the increase in big storms. A record-breaking hurricane in mexico just this week. But the grocery stores are still full of food. The water comes cold and clear out of the tap. If you factor out computers and cellphones. Our daily lives are barely different than 25 years ago. Difference. It's not easy to hear and accept that we have crossed a threshold where we cannot stop catastrophic. Climate change. Get from melting arctic ice to more extreme weather. We can see that the changes are real. Simply put. The scientific consensus describes these changes is the result of burning fossil fuels which prep carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. If we wish to prevent even more catastrophic. Morning. We must work aggressively now. To keep fossil fuels in the ground. Rallying cry has been having merged. Keep it in the ground. Such a turn away from fossil fuels. Is a radical shift for our civilization as we know it today. Already there have been increasing efforts to turn away from fossil fuels including divestment strategies. Investment in renewable energy such as wind and solar. They're also sound like such as jeremy rifkin. Who speak of a third industrial revolution. Create a green economy economic and digital innovation. Christopher. Are saying that's not enough. Listen again to the words. Of the interview with when stevenson when krista christopher explains. Our job is a movement is no longer just about reducing emissions. We still have to do that. So we also have this new challenge of maintaining our humanity. As we navigate this period of intense and rapid change. And with that challenge with that job. We can't avoid the spiritual aspect of what we're doing. We can't avoid talking about our most fundamental principles. And our most fundamental values. And the things we want to hold on to the most. We can avoid talking about our larger worldview and our vision for the world. What we want to create. What we want to build. From the ashes. Of this world. Climate change is changing the picture of how we dwell together on this planet. As we continue to experience this change there will be lost. Of life as we've known it. Of life itself. Despair is not on meriden. It is even understandable. And maybe even desirable. Or just fear can be a sign that we have awakened to the reality of the world we do live in. What is sense of despair and grief need not the end of the story. What comes next in the story is up to us. Characters in post-apocalyptic stories. You're also waking up. And too often too dangerous. Are cells within an altered landscape. Show like the walking dead. Arises. From characters wrestling with complex ethical choices in a familiar. For example a number of characters struggle with the ethics of killing zombies. Infected and the person that they love is still there. These people killing a zombie is akin to killing a person. The only danger in zombies in kill without hesitation. Other time. Killing of zombie is even seen as an act of compassion. Ending a horrific afterlife of wandering with violet hunger. Pics of killing. The characters also faced choices about whether to live in community. When additional people means more mouths to feed. And lives to defend. When trouble comes. We two-faced choices. Can we listen to dechristopher and others who tell us it's too late. The catastrophic impact of climate change is here. And will increase. Lr cell. Feel despair. Find a path out of despair. Well together now. These are big questions these are spiritual questions. And they are not questions that we will answer quickly today. Will answer alone. We need an era of climate change for places where we can be honest. We can grieve. We can ask these questions and where we can envision. What a meaningful life looks like. With what remains. Dechristopher left prison. And entered harvard divinity school. To become a unitarian universalist minister. Continuing to fight for practical concrete actions to keep fossil fuels in the ground. He's also taking practical concrete steps to become a minister. Interview with stevenson christopher says. You asked me what an honest would look like. I think it would sound spiritual. I think it would sound a bit life church. I want to be a part of that church. I want to be part of that spiritual community. It is asking big questions of what matters most in the world. I want to be part of a community of people who. To build anew into thrive. I want to do this because i love to gift of life. Animals. Especially. Alive here upon this gorgeous planet with sunsets and sunrises. I love the loud clap of before a storm. I love the smell of wet earth in spring. So many things about this world and is life. I've been to gift of life in the immense privilege of being in love. And loving others. I find purpose in building communities. And relationships that foster love and connection compassion and care. Purpose and feeling connected to something larger than myself. Fitness one spiritual community. Snapshot of history. I am here today because we need spiritual communities. We need spiritual communities that will help walk with us through our moments of despair. Spiritual communities to help us figure out what matters most in the world. Fast. Future may bring for us and for our civilization. Structures that connect. To respect each other. Honor the earth that sustains us all. Structures. A spiritual communities. And i hope that you. And many many more people beyond these walls. Will join in this holy work.

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FP-20190602-Sermon.mp3

I am a fan of doing nothing. Are you. Okay but are you back with that. A recent new york times article by olga making extolled the virtues of doing nothing. Or is the dutch khalid nixon. For example the research of psychologist sandy man suggests that simply kicking back to draw daydream. Literally makes us more creative. Better at problem-solving better at coming up with creative ideas. And researcher chris bailey suggest noticing when were most productive and when our energy starts to drag. Then during those downturns. Intentionally. Take a break. Go for a walk. Do nothing. And that recharges you. Making you more productive. Doing nothing. Can be an intentional resistance to a culture of busyness. Mckean suggest finding opportunities to be idol. Like when waiting in line at the store or for our kids. Emphasizing the conscious intention of doing nothing she writes. If you're doing nothing. Own it. When someone asks you what you're doing. Darina nothing break. Simply respond. Nothing. Beyond apologetic about taking breaks or holidays. And if you start to feel guilty about being seen as lazy. Think of nixon. Not it's a sign of laziness. But it's an important life skill. Choose the initial discomfort of nixon. Over the familiarity. Dizziness. Doing nothing. Nixon. Meet take practice. Too many of us it is i suspect an unfamiliar state. And yet the call to a simpler less cluttered state of being is not a new idea. I was reminded of this on friday when i led a tour of walden pond for the youth group of reverend sam title. Our former outreach in youth coordinator. Throw famously called for us to simplify simplify. Wasn't this why he went to live in the woods of walden. If you heard henry read earlier. Genre that parted is john ritter earlier explained. I went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately. To front only the essential facts of life. And see if i could not learn what it had to teach. And not when i came to die discover that i had not lived. For me they seen d. Only the essential facts of life. Is why i love to go camping. In the back of my car i tossed only what it is central to life. A shelter. A bed of sorts a chair some clothes. A means to cook and some food and water basically would throw had in his little house. Well okay i also include some bug spray a flashlight and toiletries books i journal. In my phone. You want to be able to reach me right. But compared to the many comforts of my house it is life pare down to the basics. The to do list of housework maintenance or various projects that surround me at home or work our absence. Camping. Is simpler. And yet. There is that smartphone tempting me to set aside the books to ignore the campfire and to just slide into the digital world. Do i have any emails text. Is something important happening in the news. Did someone post on facebook and instagram. Or maybe i should find that book that someone recommended to me. In an hour is gone. And then. Another. I know i am not alone right i'm not alone in this struggle with this device or any number of other screens that pull us into the digital world. It is our era. But must it be. Are our smartphones in digital devices part of the essential facts of life. Andre reading the passage from walden pond with a familiar quote about living deliberately. I was struck by the preceding paragraph. Thoreau council's. We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake. Not by mechanical aids. But by an infinite expectation of the dawn which does not forsake us in our soundasleep. Notably the first clock with an adjustable alarm time. Was patented in france in 1847 the year thoreau left walden. So rather the mechanical aid he would have known is a clock that time to the hour. Are there factory bell marking time. Of course. He is really talking about a lot more than how we wake up in the morning. Throw lived in an industrial age. As it transforms his world. During his lifetime the sleepy town of concord where he was born and where he died. Transform from an agricultural village to a larger town and trading center. If he lived at walls and he watched the train to concord the bills. The same path that carries the commuter rail today. And challenging his reader to wake to the dawn instead of a mechanical aid. He was calling us to live by the rhythms of nature. Rather than the signals of technology. Throw doesn't want us to be passive cogs in the machines of a dustrial society. But to be persons capable of living awake. Unintentionally. Responsive to the world. Throw wants us to not only moved the markers of mechanical time. But to also be spiritually awake to who we are as natural beings and moral creatures. Able to live with purpose. An intention. 3%. Persons capable of shaping our world. Rather than simply responding. Did the mechanical cues. Telling us what. To do. If we substitute digital. For mechanical. I think this has a lot to say to us today. In the book digital minimalism. Computer scientist cal newport. Drawers on the wisdom of walden to help chart a course in the digital age. Newport points to throws. Careful attention to measuring his cost of living at walden pond. Against the amount of time 40 needs to work to pay those cost. Newport emphasizes that thoreau's concern is not with the volume of money he must expend. But rather with the amount of time he must give. To meet those expenses. Newport right. Throw asked us to treat the minutes of our life. Is a concrete in valuable substance. Arguably the most valuable substance we possess. Into always reckon with how much of this life we trade. For the various activities we allowed to claim our time. When we confront our habits through this perspective. We will reach the same conclusion now. Thoreau did in his era. More often than not. The cumulative cost of the non crucial things. Recorder our lives with. Can far outweigh the small benefits each individual piece. A quarter promises. What is the. Upper digital usage on our life. Have we calculated. The benefit. And cost. Balance. Newport 162b. Deliberate in our digital use. Rather than suggesting we abandon digital devices. He advocates a philosophy of digital minimalism. Which he defines as. A philosophy of technology use and which you focus your online time. And a small number of carefully selected and optimize activities. It strongly support things you value. And then happily missed out on everything else. Newport does not want us to fall backwards into our technology use. He wants us to consider what do we want. From technology. How might be craft. Tensional. Deliberate relationships to our devices and our screens. How might we resist living only by the mechanical age. And digital. This is where i think doing nothing. Can help. When we do nothing. We are stepping out of the frameworks of mechanical and digital life. We confront our basic humanity of simply being a person. Are human animal. Breathing in. And breathing out. We are not only unplugged. We are reconnecting with a sense of who we are as someone who just. And lest we forget to be aware. The gift of breathing. Of being. Oblivion. Is rather watch. In this way. Deliberately doing nothing is in fact doing something rather. Courtney. Like the restorative impacts of sleep on our mind and our bodies. Doing nothing. Can be a practice of renewing our sense of self. Connection to the world. Doing nothing reminds us that we exist as a person. Blueprint about how we interact with our world. Our time and our attention. Are valuable. Are we being. International about how we use them. Or is there clutter in the field of our awareness distract. From what we value most. To give you a concrete example for my life. I have been intentionally unsubscribing from all manner of email list. But not the first parish and wayland weekly blast. Checking my email had become an exercise and deleting unwanted emails from stores political candidates and nonprofit groups. Unsubscribing from these emails does not mean i will not shop vote or support social causes. But it does mean that i control when and how i shop. Get political information or engage in social issues. This is digital minimalism. I am not issuing email. I am choosing to use it as a vital way to connect with people. Like you. Rather than corporations or organizations seeking my dollars. In this way i have controlled a bit of what crosses the field of my awareness. And retrieved some precious moments. Minutes i may choose. Doing nothing. Before closing. I want to acknowledge. It's some folks had enormous demands on their time. Persona 3 jobs are what it takes to pay the basic bills of food and shelter. And for others caretaking or crises absorbed so much of one's time. But i wonder. If there are not even then. Moments when one can practice doing nothing. Moments. But one can be reminded that they exist as a person. Not just as a worker. Or a caregiver. Moments to simply take a breath. Noticed something of beauty. And perhaps even daydream a bit. And i also want to acknowledge. It's some folks do have lots of time in their lives doing nothing. Admittedly this is farther from my own experience. But i wonder. What happens when one frames doing nothing as an intentional activity. I'm simply being human. Does it change the quality of one's time if it is released from the need of having a. Detective activity. Or does anything change if one thinks of oneself is following in the footsteps of thoreau sitting beside walden pond noticing a bug. A bit of light. The changes. Pappasito's. If you have thoughts. I would love to learn. However busy our days may or may not be. Each of our days are indeed a precious gift. There are so many potential demands on our time and our attention. As we consider how and where to focus our attention. My hope is that we will also spend time. Unfocused. And doing. Nothing. Perhaps in those moments. We might just remember the simple gifts. That. Ar. Soulmate. Amen.

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FP-20191020-Sermon-MMEarl.mp3

Good morning it is good to be with you today after those of you don't know i'm mary-margaret rolanda executive director and senior minister at the unitarian universalist urban ministry in roxbury and. Weiland is one of our member congregations and i think this might be the fifth year that i've visited you and it is always nice to. To be here and to see a congregation that increasingly is full of familiar faces so thank you for welcoming me and my colleague and your congregation and he stubs here at today we will be in a social hour afterwards should you have any questions about. Today's message there are lots of ways that waylon is interwoven into the work. Of roxbury reverend stephanie a started the same year i think that i started the urban ministry and we often get together or we try to get together one to fall for a walk around walton pond your new intern alex was our intern in this past year. And importantly your minister emeritus is a long time now. Former but much-beloved board member reverend ken's where a board member of the urban ministry for many years. I'm there are. So many ways that whalen has supported the work of the urban ministry. Through your weiland work day which has left visible reminders on our campus of the efforts you have put into our. Our location. There are champions like susan crowley bechtel who's supported us in so many ways. I just want to acknowledge some of the ways that you've helped us including wayland gardeners who gave us good advice as we've been trying to develop a garden to serve domestic violence survivors there are supporters and volunteers like dan lewis john and molly beard john and natalie thompson the late david lang and kathleen lang. Barbara buell who's also provided pro bono legal help to us ross and lynn trimby. Radke's done wonderful photography. Had newberry and jack peters leah and charlie anderson linda and steve collins so many people who are here who have really contributed. I'm to us including giving grants for things like creation of murals on our campus and supported our youth programming and we are very very grateful to this congregation so thank you. Thank you very much. Do it. 3. On sunday august. 25th this summer. The bell and 1st church roxbury rang for 4 minutes. Arbel. Forged in the foundry named 4freedom runner paul revere. Reading and harmony with bells across the nation. Harmony marking a horror. The day 400 years ago that enslaved africans were first brought. To these shores. The africans 22-30 of them landed in port comfort virginia. They were purchased by the jamestown colonists. From british pirates. This was 13 years before first church in roxbury one of the earliest puritan gathering sites. Was founded in what we now call john eliot square the site where the uu urban ministry now inhabits. The national bell-ringing was organized by the national park service as a day of remembrance and healing. We wanted to remember to. We planned no special events just this. The sound of the bell tolling above roxbury. The historic heart of boston's african-american community. Above the site were native americans once dwelled. The place puritans gathered in 1631 and worship. And where the reverend john elliott came to convert the natives to christianity and translated the bible into their native language of algonquin. The bell rang above the town called america's first suburb where affluent bostonians repaired for the season. And where the revolution began. This was where the patriot troops watched the british during the siege of boston. When men promised their lives in exchange for nation in which all were created equal. This was the place where william dawes began arrived parallel. Paul revere's to warn that the british were coming. The bell on this otherwise quiet sunday. Running about the land where the jewish immigrants came and then the irish and then the african americans. The bell marked 400 years since our nation began its deal with the devil. Slavery in exchange for prosperity. The writer nikole hannah-jones in an article in this past summer's new york times special section the 1619 project. Describe slavery simply and starkly. She wrote. Enslaved people could not legally marry they were barred from learning to read and restricted from meeting privately and groups they had no claim to their own children who could be bought sold and traded away from them on auction block alongside furniture and cattle or behind storefronts that advertise negroes for sale. Enslavers and the courts did not honor kinship ties to mother's siblings cousins and most courts they had no legal standing and slavers could rape or murder their property without legal consequence enslave people could own nothing will nothing and inherit nothing. They were legally tortured including by those working for thomas jefferson himself. They could be worked to death. And often were in order to produce the highest profits. For the white people who owned them she wrote. Are bell rang on august 25th there were no words because what words could there be. A small group gathered on the grounds to listen black. White. Silent. One of our staff members who was african-american came to listen with them. And one man white. Approached. I'm sorry. He said. I'm sorry. Thank you. She said. I know it's not your fault yours. Personally. We are all. Part of this story she told him and we have to figure it out. Together. The tolling bell. Was a reminder a place. To begin. Much of the work of the unitarian universalist urban ministry happens on this historic spot in roxbury. How many people here have you been there. Have you visited. It's a lots of lots of arms and for those who. Are not raising your hands i hope you'll come. The urban ministry has operated in boston for 190 years and for the past several decades focused our work in roxbury. We are grounded and uu values and sustained through the support of 50 member congregations like wayland around greater boston. Our renewal house domestic violence shelter operates nearby. There we provide material and spiritual support for survivors fleeing abuse. On our john eliot square campus we offer a workforce development program for survivors workforce programs abound in boston 2 hours is unique in addition to providing professional skills we offer meditation yoga art and reflection and other ways to heal. We provide high school students of color a wider path to their dreams through our after-school program offering tutoring college visits and help with college applications. And we live into the place we inhabit. The historic heart of roxbury atop a hill offering a stunning view of the shimmering office buildings in downtown boston. The urban ministry inherited this campus in 1976 from the first church in roxbury congregation which had worship there since 1631 16:32. Once robust and wealthy membership had dwindled. White flight from the city to suburbs hollowed-out the congregation leaving a handful who lived outside what had become the heart of the african american community. Roxbury's was a story that was repeated in cities across the country. As urban neighborhoods became home to immigrants and migrating african americans. And as racist business practices like. Redlining and mortgage discrimination drag on those minority neighborhoods. As white families feared losing their property values and feared to who was moving in. White families moved out to the suburbs. And home ownership and therefore wealth creation with kept out of the hands of black families. Finally. The congregation that had worshiped on this spot in roxbury for more than 300 years full.. And gave its property to the urban ministry. The property included an abundance of green space and two historic buildings. The fifth meeting house on the site built in 1804 and now the city's oldest surviving wood frame church. And a parish hall called putnam chapel. This is our location centered in roxbury made up of 50 member congregations and affluent mostly white suburbs. We are in a neighborhood where the average lifespan is 59. 30 years left. Then it isn't back bay just one mile away. Granite city. Where the average household median net worth. For white families i don't mean income. What you have after you subtracted your debt. Where the median net worth for white families is $247,000 and for black families it is $8. And we are within a school district in which even the valedictorians for a black and brown skinned. Struggle to then just graduate from college. When i arrived at the urban ministry after 10 years of serving in the homeless community in rhode island. I had not expected to be here talking about race. In the homeless community we serve. A disproportionate number of people of color but we spoke of poverty and housing rights. Not about race. I expected the work of the urban ministry to be likewise. Providing programs for those in need. And that was partly so. But the heartbeat underneath that. Was harder. And boulder. It wasn't a program. It was a question. What does it mean. For us to be a white led organization encircled by white suburban congregations and located in the center of a neighborhood shaped. By racism and segregation. How do we. Men's. And repair what has been grievously. Broken. What. Is ass. Of us. A place to begin is listening. And i began there. I began listening to the stories of people of color in boston denied jobs because of their race. I began with sitting with a black educator who told how black people are hired by whites to watch their babies a practice rooted in slavery but still don't trust them to educate their school-age children. I began with listening to state representative byron rushing speak of the contractors of the 1970s who dumped. Their construction debris in a vacant roxbury lots and how the city ignored it. Until the piles of trash were set afire. I began as i walk with the roxbury born artist who spoke of the abundance of bronze statues of white men throughout the city. And wouldn't it be nice she said quietly looking over her shoulder at me to see. Statues of african-americans to. And then i became noticing everywhere yes. It began with a reading on the neighborhood listserv. A neighborhood a neighbor tell how homeownership had been stolen from his grandfather and with it his. Families opportunity for wealth creation when urban renewal steamrolled the family home in roxbury and hearing local folks describe urban renewal as the negro removal plan. These stories. Have been steering gift and weighty blessings. Guiding me daily to learn more. In his essay case for reparations the author tana hughes he coach. Tells of an african american man who story illustrates the grip of racism from slavery into today. Clyde ross was born in mississippi and migrated to chicago. After slavery his family built a farm which was taken through unscrupulous business practices that. Cheated black families. And that were enabled by a legal system that did not protect african-americans. Heights family was reduced to share cropping and they were then cheated of goods by the landowner. Clyde was bright but unable to attend a more challenging school because the bus that took white children there did not transport him. You move north in the 1940s and tried to buy a home in the 1960s. White through measures such as restrictive covenant and violence kept a black families out of their neighborhoods and fha rules made it nearly impossible for black families to secure legitimate loans. Coats right. The american real estate industry believe segregation to be a moral principle. As late as 1950 the national association of real estate board. Code of ethics. Warned that. A realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood any race or nationality or any individual. Whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values and quote. The story of clyde ross is the story of race in america white supremacy did not abate with abolition it took new and innovative forms fueled biracial fear and hate. Hannah jones in that new york times 1619 project wrote this. Despite the guarantees of equality in the 14th amendment the supreme court's landmark plessy versus ferguson decision in 1896. The clear that the racial segregation of black americans was constitutional. With the blessing of the nation's highest court and no federal will to vindicate black right starting in the late 1800s. Southern states passed a series of laws meant to make slavery's racial caste system permanent. By denying black people political power social equality and basic dignity. They pass literacy tests to keep black people from voting and created all white primaries for election. Black people were prohibited from serving on juries or testifying in court against a white person. South carolina prohibited white and black textile workers from using the same doors oklahoma force phone companies to segregate phone booth. Georgia made it illegal for black and white people to be buried next to one another in the same cemetery. In the north. White politicians implemented policies that segregated black people into slum neighborhoods and then into inferior all black schools. The racism that slavery birthed has been a shape-shifter through the centuries. From slavery to voter suppression from lynchings to segregation from the plantation. Today is modern mass incarceration. From north to south from city to suburbs redlining urban renewal from savannah to chicago to boston and roxbury. This summer i visited the rhode island school of design in providence to see an exhibit on mending. And repair. In the climate control gallery glass cases displayed fabrics like a child's japanese kimono. Found in the years after the atomic bomb had dropped on hiroshima. Repaired so carefully i had to bend over the glass and crane my neck to see the stitches. And there were fabrics with. Colorful patches embroidered. Over the rip. There was an english abolitionist textile with scenes of the slave trade. I thought about the damage to these fabrics and the hope. That arises from witnessing that if you can see the tear if you can look. If you can examine the dimensions of the damage. Then there is something. That can be. Done. Repair one quotation on the gallery wall red. Is the creative destruction of brokenness. At the same time that i was visiting this exhibit. Congress was holding long after do hearings on reparations and tanahashi coates was among those. Making a case. In his essay. Some of which we heard in the readings today. He wrote this. Now we have half stepped away from our long centuries of despoilment promising never again. But still we are haunted. It is as though we have run up a credit card bill and having pledged to charge no more remain befuddled that the balance does not disappear the effects of that balance interest accruing daily are all around us. He wrote we must imagine a new country. Reparations. By which i mean the full acceptance of our collected biography and its consequences is the price we must pay to see ourselves squarely. The recovering alcoholic may well have to live with his illness for the rest of his life but at least he is not living a drunken lie. Reparations back an ostrich act the intoxication of hubris and to see america as it is the work of fallible humans. He wrote. What i'm talking about is more than a recompense for past injustice. More than a handout i pay off a hush money or reluctant bride what i'm talking about. Is a national reckoning. That would lead to spiritual renewal. Reparations would mean the end of scarfing hot dogs in the fourth of july while denying the facts of our heritage reparations would mean the end of yelling patriotism while waving a confederate flag reparations when made a revolution of the american consciousness a reconciling of our self-image as the great democratize er with a facts of our history. He wrote. This national conversation and acknowledgement like the bells tolling from north to south and east to west. Is a powerful remembrance and a call. But this need to mend and repair cannot only happen out there on the national stage. It must also happen. Here right here. Where we are. And what does repair mean right. Here. Any seamstress or position knows the first step is carefully. Examining the gash. The fact. Of our urban ministry location in roxbury. On a prominent. Historic campus given over to us by a white congregation that died by white flight. In a community mired. In our cities racist past. Is both a question. And the beginning of an answer. Over the past five years we have been working to restore the historic meeting house that we inherited which is iconic. And beloved in roxbury. Look up roxbury and wikipedia and you will see a picture of our meetinghouse illustrating it. During the arson fires of the 1970s with so many buildings in roxbury burn to the ground for insurance money sung by firefighters later charged. The african-american community protected forest church. One story tells of an african-american grandmother who sat in her car in the front yard all night long a rifle in her lap. To guard and protect. The roxbury meeting house. 3 years ago we restore the outside of this elegant structure. To its former beauty. We knew that roxbury deserved a well-kept meeting house at its center as much as lexington or hingham or weiland do. We began opening our doors wider as a gathering space for roxbury groups who are. Working to reduce wealth disparity or fern by iron metal justice for community for communities of color and fighting displacement caused by gentrification. We encourage you use to invest in roxbury business and cultural institutions. Holiday shopping at the afrocentric market in dudley square. We've gathered you use to attend a performance of black nativity. Or chat or and join as members the national center for afro-american artists. Last year we began focusing our after-school program for high school students and cultivating an appreciation for history especially roxbury is rich history. The same story. Of roxbury that we learn in the suburbs that it's dangerous and broken have been inhaled by the children growing up there too. We tell another story. Of roxbury historic and cultural. Richness its resilience and beauty. Young people trained as neighbourhood tour guides telling about marcus garvey after whom the marcus garvey elder housing across the street is named. Or about civil rights activist melnea cass. After who melnea cass boulevard is named. Every story. Is one more stitch. And we continue transforming our meeting house reclaiming it as a center for this community. Will begin restoring the meeting house interior over the next few years creating a place of beauty that offers arts and humanities to our neighborhood and raises up the artistry of roxbury artist. And we will be speaking truths about our own history in this space as we go. We've told the story of puritan minister john elliott. Call the apostle to the indians. We need to to hear the story of the native people impacted by his arrival. We need to hear we're in this historic building did enslaved people sit. Did the minister's own sleeves where did the congregation stand on abolition. What happened when roxbury became a community of color. Were people of color welcomed or excluded by the white congregation that gave us this space. We need to see and hear a fuller. Truth. At 3 p.m. on sunday. August 25th. The church bell. The first church roxbury. Rang for 4 minutes. Arbel forged in the foundry name for freedom runner paul revere. Rang and harmony. With bells across the nation a harmony. Marking a horror. The day. 400 years ago. That enslaved africans were first brought. To these shores. May we keep ringing the bell. May we keep remembering. Maybe keep listening. May we keep mending. I'm in.

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FP-20200216-Sermon.mp3

4 years ago in 2015. I had one of the most pivotal moments. In my life. Unitarian universalist general assembly in portland oregon. I made what was then a scary and nerve-wracking decision. I decided to come out of the closet. At ga that year we heard the news of the supreme court decision abers arthel bajadas. In this landmark decision. Supreme court ruled that marriage was a fundamental right. For same-sex couples. Guaranteed by the 14th amendment. And you can imagine the excitement when the ruling was announced. The air felt almost electric. And it seems like rainbow lays and streamers came out of both nowhere and everywhere. It was a major victory for some of us in the lgbtq + community. And just as i was already feeling emotional. After this incredible victory. The reverend's marlin lava. Preach the moving sermon at the service of the living tradition. That same day. The sermon touched me deeply. If i wrestled with the idea of coming out. My nervous heart pounding loudly in my chest. Marlon preached about the importance of being authentic. With one another. He preached about the power in telling our stories. Emptying are vulnerable and authentic selves in ways that allow others to know us. His sermon was centered around the story of queen esther from the hebrew scriptures. Esther was married to the king of persia. And kept her jewish identity a secret. Out of fear of religious persecution. I decree have been issued by the king to kill all of the jewish people. In the empire. In order to save her people. Queen esther. Decides to tell the king of her secret identity. A statue. She fears that this will be just the thing that the king needs to do away with her. Forever. However. Something radical happens. Aster's coming out as a jew challenges the king to rethink. This decree out of his deep love for her. By taking this risk and sharing her truth. Buster managed to save the lives of thousands. A people. In the end marlin freak. The jews were saved because of esther's courage. And her religion was saved. Because of her willingness to reveal her truth. And that's what you and i can and need to be doing. More of. On the car ride home after the service. My mom drove if i typed out the post. That would become my coming out on facebook. I know i'm such a millennial. After topping the little blue post button. I threw my phone to the other side of the car feeling raw and empowered. Scared and excited. Nervous and overjoyed. It was quite the mixed bag of emotions. And you bet my mom picked up on my silence. The whole car ride home. Knowing me all too well. She asked me if something was wrong. And i told her that i'd come out. I might luck she turns lovingly to me. And continue to tell me over and over again. How much. Our stories are powerful. Stories allow us a truly human way to relate to one another. And to share in a greater understanding. Of life. By taking risks and sharing our stories. We open ourselves up to reap. Incredible rewards. In this instance. By coming out i took a huge risk and naming a secret. I have been been squashing within myself for years. It felt like i was making something so immensely private. Public knowledge. It felt uncomfortable like i had ripped my nervous heart out of my chest. And put it out on the table for display. And yet. The reward was unlike anything. I could imagine. What would follow would be years of unparalleled joy. Feelings of living authentically. I've no longer keeping this personal story. A secret. Transformative moments of going into my identity and faith. And learning to love myself. As much as my unitarian universalist faith. Told me i was deeply worthy of. When i think about another moment of how taking a risk. Through telling my story affected my life. I think about my formation as well as a minister. And a scholar. My undergraduate university cal state monterey bay. Is a small public university that not many know about. As a student at monterey bay. I never would have anticipated one day walking through harvard yard as a student. Sure harvard has one of the leading programs in divinity in the country as well as the world. Who am i to make it in. What would harvard see in me. I pretty much relegated my thoughts of ever attending as this far-off wish. Something i really couldn't pull off. After developing your call to ministry in high school. I knew i wanted to be a minister. Can i still act my identity. Run being a scholar. At monterey bay i took a risk in applying for a competitive research program. At the undergraduate research opportunity center. Also called you rock. Nervous i remember interviewing with the committee on a whim. Up until this point. Uark have been centered around science math technology and engineering. I walked into my interview that day. And told them my story. I explained truthfully and honestly. But i wanted to be a minister. I told them that i was interested in seeing what research might offer me. In preparation for grad school. And also that i had little to no idea what i'd even research in the humanities. Unexpectedly i received an email from them a week after. Offering me an acceptance into their student cohort as a uroc scholar. I would start my research that very summer on moral injury. A concept that i don't have much time to get into in this sermon. But if you're interested in hearing more about moral injury. Representing it for the winter session here at first parish after the service on march 29th. Just a shameless plug for what. In the end you rocks like a big risk on me. Aspiring minister into a largely stem program to wander around without much of an idea for research. And yet the reward that came from it was unbelievable. At one of my first research conferences. I spoke with the yurok professor. Between small snacks and sips of coffee. I talked about wanting to pursue a master of divinity. Also that i didn't quite know where yet. Interested. The professor asked me why i would want to go to grad school if i could pick anywhere i wanted. Laughing i said. Well harvard would be nice. There's no way i'd get in there. Stone-faced the professor stared back at me with piercing eyes. He said. You know. Why not harvard. Why don't you write to a professor there and ask them if you could do research. At this point the internal monologue in my head started wearing. You got to be joking. A harvard professor. Working with me. Student from an unheard-of university in california. Something about this opportunity to continue to nag at me. I wouldn't really know. Unless i try it. And took the risk. So after weeks of meticulously crafting an email. I wrote to dr. dan mckinnon at harvard. Ask him if he'd like to work with me on a research project for the summer of my junior year. Like at my coming-out on the car ride home. I clench my eyes and gritted my teeth as i hit that send button. Never expecting to hear back from him. Well. As you probably gathered by now. With me standing up in front of you talking about it. Then did get back to me. And in fact he's currently my advisor in the master of divinity program at hds. He and i worked on a project with moral injury and you use in the summer in history in the summer. And as the emerson senior lecturer. Dennis one of the leading scholars of this unitarian universalist history. In fact. It would be this research that i would present at a unitarian universalist history conference. Where i first met the reverend doctor stephanie may. In this research would also be used in the sermon i submitted to the intern committee. Kyrat first parish. Before it was selected as your ministerial intern. Do to me. My formation in my identity as both a minister and a scholar. Comes down to these two things. Risk. Andre ward. The risk was graded. I was writing to a harvard professor i had never met for posting a research project. But neither of us knew would really have any results. I'm telling dad my story. I found an even greater reward. I'd learned that dan is genuinely. One of the smartest and kindest professor. I ever need. In many ways i don't feel deserving of this opportunity. Veggies in my thing. the risk. What is a transformative lessons i gained from you rock came from the concepts between having what is called a growth mindset. Versus a fixed mindset. Stanford psychologist carol dweck explains. If you you adopt for yourself. Profoundly affects the way you lead your life. We can determine whether you become the person you want to be. What are you accomplish the things that you value. You see the stories that we tell ourselves. Are also the stories that we tell others. About ourselves. For me i had to work through a fixed mindset around my life as a scholar. Being not very good at research and writing. Instead i had to foster a growth mindset that even though i hadn't done ministry or research before. I could grow if i practiced into these identities as both the scholar. And a minister. Are reading this morning spells out. Another important fact of having a growth mindset. It's hallmark is the conviction that human qualities like intelligence and creativity. And even relational capacities like love and friendship. Can be cultivated through efforts and deliberate practice. Not only are people with this mindset not discouraged by failure. But they don't actually see themselves as feeling. They see themselves. As learning. What made it means for us as unitarian universalist. To approach vulnerability and speaking our truths as opportunities for growth. And learning. What would this mean to foster growth mindset for our own theologies. For how we approach new ideas. Face. Religious traditions different from our own. How we approach loving and being in community. With one another. How much might we learn about each other if we leaned into these holy opportunities for growth. And learning. To return to my coming-out story. I was lucky to have the support of uu community. Unitarian universalism held me as i was. It helped me in my self-perceived brokenness. And brought me into wholeness. It reminded me that i was saved just as i was. And loves. Without condition. This faith moved me to live my truth. By showing me. But i was dearly beloved. And i. Blond. And the space invites all of us to be real and authentic with one another. No matter our identity. Invites us to preach from the sacred text of our lives. To love one another. It's an honor what feels raw or shattered. In our spaces to. Our time for all ages story this morning the empty pot. Also speaks to this truth and being authentic. By holding. To his truth and being courageous enough to own it. Context of risk in bringing an empty pot before the emperor. Ping feels like a failure. He's unable to get his seed to grow. Into the beautiful flowers like so many of. Bringing an empty pot. By sticking to his truth. Kingwood leave with the keys. To the kingdom. So as you leave this place. I invite you to live courageously out. Into your own story. May you have the strength to be real and bring all of who you are to this loving community. May you also have the humility to truly listen. And hear the beauty in the stories. Of one another. May we have the wisdom to replace are harmful fixed mindset. With renewing and rejuvenating mindsets. A growth. As we take these risks sharing the deep and personal parts of ourselves. Each other. May we always remember. But sometimes. With great risks. Comes great. Maybe so.

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FP-20150322-Sermon-red.mp3?_=6

So as friday night we had an exceptional evening of community here at first parish. Dozens of people from 872 / 70. Showed up be together for over two and a half hours of dancing. Learning who were the most energetic the answers might surprise you. Let's just say they were not only from the under-20 crowd. The night was an extraordinary expression of community. And the joy of being together. After the music stops in the lights went up i was chatting with. One of our high school youth emma last scene. It was like a weird dream. I was at church. But it was dark. Friday. And there were all these people dancing. And there was old music. And uptown funk. In my kindergarten teacher was there. Indeed i also found the evening to be an almost unbelievable event. Because there are few places where we can interact with people of different ages and generations. Significantly while there was some ab and flow of different ages according to which song was playing. Route to evening there was always a mix of ages on that dance floor. Well some of us may have families with regular multi-generational gatherings. Far away from family for such gatherings. Or do not have families together in that way. Rather. We often live in age segregated. Waze. Different ages and stages of life do have unique needs that should be met. But i for one believe it would be a loss of interacting across the generations. To me this multi-generational way of seeing the world reflects a deep theological commitment. To recognize that we live within an interconnected web of life. Generations. As well as races and nations. Feces. And life-forms. Within the united unitarian universalist community. Our seventh principle causes to a respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are apart. The kids version of the seven principles simply says we care for the earth. And did you use have long been engaged in issues of caring for the earth's environmental justice. Including rachel carson. A unitarian universalist whose 1962 book silent spring. Give a powerful warning against pesticides that fostered the modern environmentalist movement. As a religious tradition that embraces the use of reason in the value of education. Our ranks have been filled with professional scientists. As well as many others who embrace the importance of science and helping us to understand world. And what the scientific community has been telling us for some time now. Is that human activity has changed the planet we share. The world that we depend upon for our life. I remember when this idea was first presented to me. It was january 2001. And i had just enrolled in a class at a local seminary entitle justice-peace in the integrity of creation. The professor assigned a small book by evan unfamiliar author to me. Written in 1990 for the book entitled the comforting whirlwind. God. Jove in the scale of creation. The story of jobe as a metaphor for our own crisis as a global community. It's a story of cataclysmic loss of all of his family and his possessions. The story of job is often framed as an effort to make sense of unjust suffering. Somewhat understandably. Joby. Ford f. God responds to job as a voice out of the whirlwind. In one of the most powerful passages in the hebrew scriptures. God speaks out with a series of questions such as. Has cut a channel for the torrents of rain in a way for the thunderbolt. To bring rain on a land where no one lives. On the desert which is empty of human life. To make the ground put forth grass. Traded with images of the natural world. Mckibben characterizes god speech as quote. Describing a world without people. A world that existed long before people. And it seems to have its own independent meaning. In this way god is telling joke to remember. He is not the center of things. Rather is mckibben rights. God speaks to job. Is that we are part of the whole order of creation. Simply. Apart. Simply apart. Not the center. Part of the interdependent web of all existence. Like the copernican turn that dissenter the earth in the cosmos. Realizing that planetary life is not a percent. Is simply mind-boggling says the kitten. Many religions as well as our consumer consumption. Society. Function with each human with the underlying assumption that human activity is the center by which value and usefulness is measured. According to mckibben. God speaks to job refutes this perspective. And relocates job within a shared world. A rivers and mountains. Deserts and grasses. Animals and fish. And all of humanity. Don't even appear. Speech. The description of the wonders of the world. Humans don't even rank. Nearly 20 years later. Bill mckibben returned to the theme of joven the 22 radio interview with krista tippett. Entitled the moral map of climate change. This time mckibben has a different take on the story. This time mckibben has a response when god had asked challenging questions about the capacity of jove and by extension all of humanity. To impact the world. Mckibben says. We spit back at god. Can you tell how probz waves are. Do you know where the storms are kept. Human impact is changing the world. Activity is recreating the planet. The idea of a so-called natural world wild and untouched. Human activity is. Or indeed already has. The air we breathe. Patterns of weather we experience. In the water we do. For do not have. The world in which we live has changed. Simply naming the presence of change is only part of the relevant question. Equation. Today we are talking about climate. Justice. Because the impact of climate change has been disproportionate. Unjust. In his interview with tippett mckibben does what he calls the moral math. Talking about the megacity dhaka bangladesh which is bravely threatened by cyclones. He says quote. There's an inverse linear relationship. Between how much of a problem you cost. Quickly you're feeling the effects. I can remember going to the hospital in dhaka and looking at a couple of hundred. And people in every one of them just away. And i remember thinking. These people have done literally nothing to cause this. When the un tries to measure how much carbon each nation emits. You can't even really get a number for the hundred and forty million people in bangladesh. It's just like a rounding error in the whole calculation. You know the 4% of us in this country produced 25% of the world's co2. It's not perfect idiom etymology. But the moral math works for me. There's a hundred beds in that hospital. 25 of them are on us. Calculating argues carbon relative to the impact it has upon the planet. Is an equation of moral mass. Search math raises the question of how our carbon footprint impacts planetary life for all number of beans. Human. Planet. Plants and animal. Such moral math raises questions about justice. Beans web of life. Les paul i heard bill mckibben speak for the first time at the american academy of religion and its society conference. You surprise me. As a public figure and founder of the environmental organization 350. org i expected this charismatic figure calling us alarms. Instead. As i listened. I heard a man who i felt with nearly broken. With grief. Impart his invitation to speak with predicated on the 20th anniversary of the publication of his book that comforting whirlwind. Listening if you spoke of the facts and figures of climate change. I imagined. Returning his caterpillar music losses. Is lost mckibben seem to be staying. Part of me wanted to run from that loss. That deep grief. And simply walk. Straight out the back of that massive haul as he spoke. But i stayed. And i'm glad i did. Because well he does seem to feel that it is too late to entirely stop climate change and its destructive effects. He also told the story of the start of 350. org. A story also available in the tippet interview. In-store mckibben was at middlebury college in vermont and gathered with a group of six interested students to work on issues of climate change. Since there were seven of us explained. And whoever took antarctica also had to take the internet. Well that was 2008. If krista tippett narrates on october 24th 2009. 303 50. org called a planetary day of environmental action. Chartered / 5200 events in 181 countries. That's impressive. But they didn't stop there. Continue to organize massive global actions and supportive policies and practices that will help create a healthier planet. 7 people. In less than two years. Mobilized thousands of people across the planet. From a college in vermont. I find this deeply inspiring. And there are more such stories. For example given describes a story of moral imagination. In which two sisters organized more than 15,000 people. To march in the streets of addis ababa. In ethiopia. I'd like this phrase imagination. Because it recognizes that sometimes actions take not only a sense of moral conviction about what is right or wrong. Imagination to consider how to move beyond the status quo. Into a different world. Moral imagination reflects reflects the conviction. Another world is possible. There's plenty wrong with the world today. Justice. Call to attend to the issues on a planetary scale. The magnitude is intimidating. And it's very tempting to slip out of the back of that lecture hall. If you walk away. You may miss the chance to be inspired inspired by the moral imagination of another. Or to be surprised by the moral imagination ready to emerge from within yourself. Rather than walk away. I believe that we are called to engage in immoral math of life on a shared planet. Our place within the interdependent web of life means that we cannot simply walk away. We are already a part. We have already. And having an impact on the life of others. Whether we join. A climate march. Sign a petition for divestment from fossil fuels. Or donate funds to the uusc bucket campaign. There are multiple ways that we can engage in works of moral imagination. That are seeking to recalculate the unjust impact of climate change. We are part of the web of life that into many ways is suffering. But it is also a wondrous web of life. Is a web of lovely trees and sunsets. Birdsong and waterfalls. It is a web of plants animals in human animals. It is a web of multi multiple generations of people. Living together. Learning from one another. And as we saw friday night dancing together. Because no one of us. Nor the entire human species of us. Is the center of it all. We must carefully consider. How we do fit into the hole. Gratefully aware of the ways of our own lives depend upon the web of life. I believe that we must ask our own lies individually and collectively. Can best serve this web of life. Indeed our covenant calls us to unite for worship. Community. And service. Service can look very different for each of us and that's okay. For some of us service me primarily mean taking good care of the web of life. Children siblings parents who depend upon your care for the well-being of life. Other service made primarily mean helping to nurture and sustain this.. By singing in the choir. Teaching in re class. Or sitting on a committee. Still others may focus their service on a compassionate care of those in this community. Such as a school project that needs a volunteer. Eeyore sick neighbor. Visit or meal. And for some of us. Service will taken on an activist or political role. An effort to change some of the policies. Attitudes and practices that shape our world. How we serve may vary. The commitment to serve unites us. Recognizing that we are part of the shared world. We we all engage in immoral mass. It compels us into imaginative actions of many kinds.

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FP-20160110-Sermon.mp3?_=6

In the beginning. With these three words the judeo-christian story of the universe unfolds. In this story the universe begins with an act of creation of god. The story continues to describe the separation of light from darkness. Sky from earth. Dryland from water. And son from stars. Fish and bird plants and animals and finally humans. Are created. And all of it god proclaimed as. Good. But in 7 days. And how many thousands of years ago. What about the fossils the dinosaurs. And with these. And many many other questions. The biblical story of creation collided with modern science. Arguments and even court cases have ensued ever since. If the congregation rooted in the liberal religious tradition. We embrace the use of reason as well as modern science. In such a framework we do not rely on ancient texts for our knowledge of the origins of the universe. We look to science to physics and biology chemistry and astronomy. We looked at series of the big bang and evolution. We laud laud charles darwin galileo and newton. Rather than abraham adam or moses. And yet. I think we still find ourselves asking questions. About what the origins of the universe tell us about who we are. What we are here for. And where we might be headed. Origin stories are prevalent throughout cultures and religions. Ever heard today in our time for all ages when kate holland told us a west african story of. The beginning of the creation of the universe. Indeed one of the great questions of religion. Is. The answer the question of where do we come from. Religion is not the only genres fascinated by origin story. Origin stories permeate our culture. For example. We all know that superman came from where. Krypton. Spider-man's powers came from what. A bite of a spider right. The mystic story of a superhero includes an extraordinary origin to explain the source of his or her powers. Isn't the same thing true of jesus. An extraordinary leader whose origin story describes an extraordinary birth. Eminence kestrel lineage tying him not only to great kings but to god himself. Again and again origin stories are used as foundations to explain predict or even justify later actions capabilities or character traits. Why is superman so strong. Because it came from another planet. Or why does spider-man climb walls in defygravity because of that bite from a special spider. In such stories. Origins can function as a deterministic seed. From which the story unfolds. Origin stories are incredibly powerful. Often people look to origin stories if a key to explain the present or to guide the future. I was reminded of this dynamic this week is i followed the story of the occupation of the malheur wildlife refuge in oregon. So i have to explain that in addition to liberal religious sources which you might expect the unitarian universalist minister to read. I intentionally go out of my way to read more conservative news sources in or does it try to maintain a sense of perspective. Of how people see the world. And so it was this practice that led me to the blog the conservative treehouse. And in an extended article the blogger sundance lays out his understanding of the full story behind the protests. But i find it so interesting and sunday and says account is where he begins the full story. If somebody know the militia and organ are protesting the federal sentencing of two ranchers to hammonds. For arson on federal lands. Will the stories sundance tell been floozies recent court cases he actually begins in the 1870s when the land was settled by multiple ranchers. According to sundance these ranchers then created a quote state-of-the-art irrigation system on quote. This irrigation system changed the meadows for the grazing but then also attracted. Birds. To the birds came because of what the cattle. Ranchers had created. And these were the birds that in an era of you remember you seen the pictures the ladies with the hats and the giant feathers. And so the birds that would come would be hunted almost to extinction by the beginning of the 20th century. And. So in 1908 theodore roosevelt set aside the land surrounding the mail here leg as a reservation for the birds in for wildlife. And hence begins a long story to the 20th century. When more land and water rights are transferred to the wildlife refuge. Well ranchers lost grazing and water rights. And many of the ranchers in the area was sold out to the refuge. Except for the hammonds. Who stayed. And they want to stay. For them the land belongs to the ranchers. Not to the birds. And not to the federal government. Can you hear how the origin story makes a difference. It's sunday and since i count the birds or originated from the actions of the ranchers. The ranchers are the original settlers which of course belies the native americans who would have already been living there but they leave that out of the story. But the ranchers come before the birds. And it's a red birds do arrived after even because of the ranchers. Does this get the ranchers and their use of the land. Primary ownership and control. Origins the authority. Is it as we often learned as children a matter of. First dibs. Let me give another example. Some years ago i had the opportunity to travel to israel. So i have to admit that i'm a big fan of national parks i live next to a national park and it makes me very happy whenever i drive by the browns sign it says i'm international park. So when i went to jerusalem and i saw that there was the city of david. National park i signed up for a tour. And it actually felt a lot like her to river national park here where you had a group of eager tourists with their cameras ready to listen and learn from a calm confident young guide. She pointed to the ruins of walls and painted a vet a verbal picture of the palace of king david the excavations were unearthing. Every watch by a thin wall separating the excavations in a residential area. She explained with a sigh. But this was a palestinian era and although the pet palace certainly went under their houses they were not allowed to do excavations. And then as the tour neared its end. She gathered us in a small circle to hear her final words. To my surprise she pulled out a small book. And began to read from the hebrew scriptures. With eyes full of pride. She explained to us how the land of israel had been given to the jews millennia before. And what joy it was to be standing here today and the ancient royal palace. National park. Origin stories matter. Who came first. The birds. Or the ranchers. The palestinians. Or the jews. Again and again store easley back to origins to build a case for primacy in order to shape current politics. Very often origins hold a kind of authority. The original is the authentic version. The correct and pure articulation. The idea of a pure origin. Is certainly present and the judeo-christian origin story of the garden of eden. According to this story all was good. Until the young humans began to choose for themselves what was right or wrong rather than listen to god's commands. Human choice becomes the origin. A broken relationship with god. Expelled from eden. The music garden lives on in a judeo-christians story as. The original paradise. From which people are always falling short. To which people are always seeking to return. Such origin stories have power. These cheaper understanding of what matters most by linking together what came first and time. With what comes first in value. In this sense the beginning matters most. It sets the standard for all that comes after. But doesn't have to be so. Must the origin of something forever determine its nature. Working origins be transcendence. Can we evolve. Adapt. Change. Indeed ob also love stories where person defies expectations of their original destiny. Such as the little orphan annie. Who seems destined to poverty and loneliness. But then finds herself adopted into a family of great wealth. Sometimes we need to escape the tyranny of origins in order to hope for something better something different. What does moving away from our origins. Also mean that we must sever our connections to the past. If we decide to go into a different direction. Then how we were raised. Do we have to disavow where we came from. Indeed. Can we ever cut ourselves. From our roots or our beginnings. All of these are questions that lead us to the central question of origins. How does knowing where we come from. Who we are today. About 10 years ago a group of scholars and scientists sat down to discuss writing a new origin story for the universe. Working together a scientist. An evolutionary philosopher and a religious studies scholar. Developed a book and a documentary describing the journey of the universe. Their aim was quotes. To use the art of storytelling to capture the grandeur in drama of this epic story of the universe. From the big bang to where we are today in a moment of great transition. The story they tell is mind-boggling. In its vastness. Within such cosmic dimensions size and time as we experience them as humans in our lifetimes. Emerge is passionately small. I had this idea of trying to get a string. That i can put all the way around the edge of the sanctuary and then you know the very tan land in a different color is us right in the history of the universe. Indeed if you have ever stood in a remote area beneath a sky full of stars. Perhaps you have felt a sense of how truly small we are in this universe. Or perhaps you simply been in a large crowd of people. Or taking a long flight over thousands of miles and found yourself recalibrating your sense of just how big the earth is and how many. People live here with us. Faced with such daunting numbers of size and time. We may wonder where do we fit. In such a universe. What difference might r1 life may within such an infinite. Expanse. In the story told in the journey of the universe. There has always been interactive change. Cosmos cosmos is not now nor has it ever been nor will it ever be. Done. Ever since what the authors describe as the flaring force of energy at the beginning of a cosmos. There have been ongoing processes of interacting streams of energy. And then organisms. As humans we are so very very new. It is seen. Yet in placing human life within the context of the larger story. Describe a unique role to our lives by suggesting. That we are the universe becoming conscious. Of itself. As humans we can reflect on the wonder of life. We can be amazed. And heartbroken. In simply awestruck. By the universe by the sheer improbability of life. By our place within the vastness. And yet aware as we are of our relative insignificance and such an old and vast universe. Swim and tucker suggest that we are even so beans and which the universe shivers. In wonder at itself. Every flective beans we are able to wonder at the story of the universe. As children of the stars we are the universe. We are part of the still unfolding processes of life moving through. Processes of attraction and repulsion creation. And dad. What i find the most compelling. About journey of the universe as a story for spiritual insight. Is that our origins. Why in an ongoing process of change. As the authors write. When we today remember that the energy of our lives comes from the original flaring fourth of the universe. And that the atoms of our bodies come from the explosion of ancient stars. And that the patterns of our lives come from many ancestors over billions of years. We begin to appreciate the intricate manner in which life remembers the past. And brings it into fresh form today. Life adapts. Life remembers. Wife learns. In this telling. We are both forever linked to our beginnings. And we are always adapting and learning. Who we are today is tied to our origins. But the story of our origins is one of expanding and growing and learning and adapting and a changing universe. If we looked at this origin story for who we are. Then i think we learn at least two things. We learned that we are very much a part of the interconnected web of all existence extending back so incomprehensible time. Do the initial flaring fourth of the universe. And we learn that the only model of life at the beginning. Is one of learning. In adapting. In this story of the universe. Our origins do not give us a definitive model for how we are to live our lives today. And yet like the processes of creation described in so many ancient origin stories. The goal is the arrival and flourishing of life. According to modern scientific theory. Our origins do lie in this impulse to life. The creativity to remembering and adapting and learning. So that life in multiple forms. Might continue. To flourish. May we embrace this story the story of our universe. The story of each of us. With wonder. Peewee remember. Where we have come from. What we have learned. And way we trust our ability to continue to adapt and to learn. The health life flourish in our own lives. In the lives of our children. Anime impact we have upon the world. Around us. Show me a v. Amen.

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FP-20160207-Sermon.mp3?_=6

Does jane said we just have gone through a beautiful. Horrible storm. And so after this storm. I want us to begin by imagine ourselves instead. China beach. On a summer day. Perhaps walden pond or lake in maine. Or the shore of cape cod. Whatever beach comes into your mind. Now imagine a crowd of people. Families with small children. Teenagers playing music or talking just a bit too loud. A solitary figure with a book. An older couple sitting in low-slung chairs with darkened skin testifying to the hours spent upon the sand. And there along the water's edge. A clump of kids trenching and piling sand. In a joint effort. To construct this day's sandcastle. Now if you look closer and listen to these kids. You might hear. Hey you what's your name. Perry. Can you get another bucket of water. Here in this moment is one of the great wonders of childhood. Ability to make friends. Some children are certainly shy and struggle. I am repeatedly amazed by the capacity of many children. To quickly form new social bonds just who are the kids at the beach that day let's work together and make a castle. I've also seen this when i've gone camping with my family with my son and his cousins and they. Runoff is a pact the playground and soon their back and there's all these other strange and unfamiliar children mixed in. Or there's also the dreaded experience of summer camp. D1 is the ritual of saying goodbye to parents. I'm your bunkmates. And following along its cheerful counselors coax their charges in to get to know you games. Beer mingles with resentment. Why did my parents leave me here. These kids are so weird. No one is going to like me. I don't like them i don't like it here i want to go home. And then there is a meal and a conversation. Or shared project. Or game in the lake. Suddenlink you've made friends. And it's. Fun. But now it's the last day. And amidst the gathering together of dirty clothes and art projects can a hug and declare the their intentions to write. To text. To stay the best of friends. Who was your childhood friend. Are they your neighbors. Classmates. Bunk beds at summer camp. My childhood best friend was also named stephanie. She was a year older and was his blond and fair as i was olive-skinned and burnet. Together we played with dolls. We pretended to be customer service representatives for the jcpenney catalog admittedly an odd game. And we also taught ourselves. Basic coding with a commodore 64 computer. Yes i've dated myself out there lyrics. I nearly lost her friendship when i went through a season of telling her i would rather watch scooby-doo on tv after school then come to her house. But we made it through that. And it was stephanie who was there to tell about my first kiss at summer camp. And it was stephanie with whom i had my first elicit. Drink of alcohol. If small kids we stapled our fingers together. To draw blood. Even touch them to become blood sisters. Budging we would grow old together. Your friends like that the kid. Friends of all kinds pepper our lives. We may have friends we met at school. Friends we met at work or at a sports team. Or even here at first parish. We may have best friends close friends. One-time friends. Long ago friends. So many different kinds of friends and so many different kinds of friendships. So what do we mean by the word friend. At the most basic level friendships are relationships of connection in care. What connects us mayberry. Their friendships built around shared actions. Like a daily run or swim together. A decades-old car game. Or the friends we make on-the-spot to build a sandcastle or play a game of tag. Or maybe we became connected by living next door to each other. Raising our kids together. We're sitting on a committee or in the choir together. As we go through life we amass all kinds of connections to people. Some of whom we call friends. What's the difference between an acquaintance someone we know. It's someone we call friend. If you're on facebook you'll know that anybody you connect to is considered a friend. But does this inclusiveness really capture what we mean by friend. For me being a friend involves a reciprocal sense of care. Respect in connection. Friends are people for whom we care and care about us. We may not know everything about their life. But we have a connection. We do share that leads us to care about the well-being of the other. The more we know of another. And the deeper that connection goes. The deeper that. Sense of care and even love also goes. Better friend is not only someone for whom we care. If you're in the service profession or if your doctor nurse administer. Psychologist. Or management you know that you can care about other people. But this doesn't necessarily make you friends. Friendship i believe requires a reciprocity of care. A friend is someone with whom you share mutual care and concern. It's listening to a friend complain about a bad day. And trusting that they're going to be there to listen when you're going through a tough time. Maybe you don't even need to talk about all that's going on. Maybe you just show up for the game. Or the run and the other can tell you're not in a great spot that day. But you still hang out. Spend time together. And simply be there for each other. Some friends however may indeed be the person to whom you open your heart and mind. With whom you share your fears. Hopes. Longings in uncertainties. Such a friend can be as reverend kim crawford harvey suggest. The one who sees the beauty. Even in the brokenness. And reflects that to us. Like a mirror. Such a friend allows us to be loved for the fullness of who we are. Even with our foibles. And our heartaches. Our imperfections and our bad habits. Such was the friendship chronicled by gayle caldwell in her book let's take the long way home. Describing the story of her friendship with. Caroline. Caldwell rights. In the beginning there was something intangible and even spooky. The could make strangers mistake us as sisters or lovers. And that sometimes had friends refer to us by each other's name. Both writers caroline and gail connected over their shared experience of becoming dog owners. Their friendship. Developed over long walks with their dogs. Rowing on the charles river swimming laps in the pool. As well as a long ongoing conversation. On this dual nature of action and conversation caldwell rights. According to this old rule book men have sports and women had talking but caroline and i cultivated both. Finding that logging are miles on river or land enhance. Internal ground we covered. And yet i find now that writing about a friendship that flourish within the realm of connection in routine. Has all the components. Trying to capture air. But dealing us of our alliance. With both muted. And essential. We were the lattice. That made room for the rose. I love her caldwell describes how the everyday routine nature of their friendship. Is the structure. It enables the beauty. Friendship like love or beauty. If not a tangible thing that we can point to pick up a remote really reproduce. Rather friendship is a quality of connection a relational experience. And yet friendship often does benefit from the structures of regular nurture and engagement. Like regular walks. Frequent phone calls or even infrequent the consistent emails or letters. Friendships may be grounded in a natural sense of connection. Or poignancy of a shared past. But friendships remain most vital. When value. And nurtured. With ongoing practices of care. Over the next week it's a calendar heads towards february 14th and valentine's day we're going to be hearing and seeing a lot of messages about romantic love. I don't want to denigrate romantic love is you know we do weddings here were very supportive romantic love and first parish. Romantic love with his feelings of falling in love being in love or falling in love anu. Our delightful emotions. Over i do worry that our culture celebrates the gifts of romantic love. Under emphasizing the role and importance. Friends in our lives. I believe we all need love in our lives. We all need to be. Feel that we've been heard and seen. Appreciated and cared about. But i don't believe that romantic love is the only way we must or perhaps even can get these needs for love met. Weather single or romantically partnered. I believe that we can all benefit from the gift of friends. In caldwell's book on her friendship with caroline. She presents a richness of many different kinds of friendships. Relationships. Both kyle and caroline have fierce meaningful relationships with their dogs and if you've had a. A particular sometimes or just pets and sometimes know that that relationship with their daughter your cat or something. It's as profound as any other kind of relationship i've heard of it is referred to as interspecies relationships. Books about it actually. They have meaningful relationships with their dog. Caroline has a boyfriend morelli. As well as a twin sister a therapist. The shows up quite a bit. And many many other friends. At the end of this book the many many connections caroline had are amply demonstrated. When the chapel of mount auburn cemetery packs. For her funeral. From her too early death. Well some of these people were certainly family as well as her beloved morelli. So many of those gathered were friends. Connected to caroline and various ways. And in different levels of intimacy. Including her dear to your friend gayle. Romantic love. Is one of the many ways that we can connect to others can find joy. Can find support and care. Friendships. Or another. In fact friends may even be the ones. Pull you aside. Sit you down. And tell you that is a romantic relationship that you're in. It's not the right one for you. Last fall i attended the presentation of the powerful film exclamation that malcolm mentioned. It was this showing last fall was sponsored by the lord on ashley memorial fund. It produced by the one love foundation. The film presents the story of a college couple. From the start of their dating relationship. Through increasingly controlling dynamics. Timothy lent. Witnessing this process of escalation with chilling. The film is designed to be a catalyst for conversation about healthy relationship dynamics. And the one love foundation hopes workshops that feature the film and facilitated discussion. Teach young adults to recognize controlling behavior. And to empower them to make a difference in their friends lives. By speaking up be about behavior that is not love. Friends can help to deescalate violence in relationships. After watching the film in his message about the powerful role that friends can play. I decided to make friendship the theme for the month of february. Replacing the theme of friendship in february. I wanted to highlight not only that friends can be a compliment to romantic relationships. But the friendships might also be able to disrupt. Romantic relationships that are controlling or even violent. He can even more broadly. Friends can be voices of care that challenges to reconsider any number of damaging elements in our lives. Heavy drinking or smoking. Mental. Our physical health. As well as a toxic work environment or other situations that appear to be undermining our health and well-being. Now i know i'm from the midwest where people do kind of get up in each other's business. And i know in new england that there is a stereotype of letting people be. And minding one's own business. And it's not always easy to speak up with our concerns. I don't want to meddle. But i think that there is a difference between trying to step in and fix another person's life. And speaking of to express a concern. Speaking up maybe as simple as gently asking. Option enjoy sharing some wine. Never worry about your drinking. Or. More directly. I've noticed that when we spend to get time together. But your spouse seems very concerned about where you are. To feel free to have friends and interests outside of him or her. Or even. Do you feel safe. In your relationship. These are not easy questions or conversations to have. Hopefully we all have friends who are concerned about our well-being. Love us enough to gently ask these hard questions. Even while respecting that we cannot make. Someone else at the way we would want them to. Friendships can be a valuable part of the constellation of relationships that lewis in good times and bad. Sometimes we're lucky to have extraordinary friendships. Like the one that we saw that gail. And caroline had. In this book. Their friendship was grounded and shared interests and experiences. But also fostered by deliberate choices to call each other to spend time together. To open their hearts to one another. But we may not all have such a profound friendship like gail and caroline. I do believe that friendships of many kinds. And bring gifts. Care. And connection. And even love into our lives. Acting legend marlene dietrich once said. It's the friends that you can call at 4 a.m.. That matter. Well i think that's trusted friends may be very valuable indeed. I think that friends. In friendships of many kinds of matter. The my hope. Is that we value the diverse friendships that we have in our lives. Whether it's a childhood friend. A decade-old friends. A new friend or even a friend you make today and coffee hour or next down the road when we go to the islamic center. I hope that we will all take the time. To value friendships. Sometimes we're letting romantic relationships that we have are also friendships. Always different but i did i just hope that what we recognize. Is that. It's not only romantic relationships that matter it's also our friendships. And to take the time. Put your energy and your care and your heart. Interfriendship. So may it be.

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FP-20161204-Sermon.mp3

On thursday. The islamic center here in wayland received a hate letter threatening genocide. Of all muslims in the united states. It was part of a chain letter sent to multiple mosques across the nation and postmarked in california. If it is reason president mullet confuse lummox enter his said that he did not feel that the letter represented an immediate material threat. However the arrival of such a letter within a context threatening muslim registries and deportations. Is gravely concerning. And while there are certainly political reasons for rejecting such surveillance surveillance and exclusions. You're also religious grounds. For our standing in support of our muslim jewish buddhist. Hindu bhai christian and other religious neighbors. I want to make it clear why we. At the unitarian universalist congregation. Reject such hate. And embrace neighborly love. Fuller story will end with the events of this week. Began centuries ago. Some might even say it begins at the start of the human community. In the face of the mysteries of life and death. A beauty and love. Humans have long sought to express a worldview that gives some shape. The experience of life. How should we live. Is the core religious question. Define answers. We look toward many sources. The sacred sources to sacred texts to divine revelations. To reason and science. Personal experience. The systems of our natural world. Not all religious people look the same sources. And the resulting array of all religious perspectives. Creates this religious diversity. It is a fact. Of our shared world. A fact. That provokes arranged of responses. Are us constitution protects the freedom of religion. And prohibits the government from establishing an official religion. Despite the legal framework of freedom in multiplicity. Cultural dominance of christianity in the u.s. is abundantly clear. If you don't know our own first parish wayland. Actually. The minister was paid by the town into i believe the 1820s. And yet from this beginning. We have always been a multi-faith nation. The native americans who dwelled on these plans long before any of us. Possess their own complex distance of belief about the world and their role within it. As europeans arrived they brought an array of beliefs as well protestant and catholic a jewish. So also african slaves forced to emigrate brought their religious beliefs. Including islam. On the west coast immigrants from china japan and other asian countries arrive with confucian buddhist taoist in more religious practices. But somehow. America has always been known as a christian nation. Perhaps this is because those in power. The legislators and business owners the prominent families in the military. We're led primarily by white christians. Is unitarian universalist we often celebrate some of these white christian leaders as one of us. Thomas jefferson john adams clara barton susan b anthony and many more. Next week we're going to explore the significance of the whiteness of those leaders. Today i focused on the question of religion. The us has always. Ben multiface. But christianity has been dominant. In our own religious story began as a christian one. Unitarianism and universalism we're christian denominations. But then we changed. We changed because some of our ancestors fought. For more pluralistic understanding of religion. Once again i would argue the transcendentalist are part of the story. By embracing the personal experience of the divine mystery. The transcendentalist began reading various religions to learn what they might reveal. About how other people in different places with different contexts and cultures. Experience life's mysteries. Such encounters provoked new insights broader perspective. Even critical questions against christianity. In this way the transcendentalist and some unitarian minister has began honoring various religious traditions as sources for broadening when spiritual understanding. They began to claim what are third source today affirms. Wisdom from world religions which inspires our ethical and spiritual life. And yet such claims of respect for her other religious contributed to a decades-long unitarian debate in the 19th century. A debate about pluralism. It continues to have resonance today. Some champion freedom of religious belief. Only within the bounds of theistic christianity. Sure you can believe what you want. About christianity. If someone wanted the freedom of religious belief to expand beyond the bounds of the christian tradition. Some wanted to explore other religions to dive deeply into personal experience. To track after reason wherever it may lead. In the end the more liberal group 1. Rather than be defined by any religious doctrine. Unitarian association would have an ethical basis. Shared values and principles about how to be in relationship with one another and with other congregation. This history matters. Because it reminds us what is at stake today. For us. And for our nation. For our religious tradition has fought to create space. The recognition of multiple religious traditions. This fight is both old. And i'm going. In his book on pluralism and prejudice in the us interfaith organizer eboo patel. Describe the need for resistance to intolerant forces. He writes. The great african-american writer ellison spoke on how quote the irrepressible movement of american culture towards integration of its most diverse element continues. Confounding the circum locations of its staunchest opponents. The statement is true only because people have made it true. There are many times in american history when the staunch opponents of american pluralism have won the battle. They didn't win the war. Because irrepressible people refused to forfeit their nation to these forces. Simply put it is people who have protected the pluralism from the poison. Of prejudice. The forces opposing american pluralism remain with us. Newly emboldened it seems in his political era. The letter the islamic center received this week may have been postmarked from california. The hatred and islamophobia is. Here. Here and wayland one of our own prisoners charlie. Experienced an incident of religious prejudice. Is samira call a couple weeks ago the islamic center hosted the annual wayland interfaith clergy interfaith thanksgiving service. And because parking was limited at the mosque he parked nearby and walked along the main road. Clearly headed for the boss. As a peaceably w. A man driving slowly in the busy traffic rolled down his car window. To shout an obscenity. At charlie. Relating this incident on his facebook page charlie states. I want my muslim neighbors to know that i'm glad i'm here they are here. I'm proud they are here. I don't know how to make the hate go away. I want to learn how. I don't know how to protect them from hate. I want to learn how. I too don't have all the answers. About how to make the hate go away. Or how to protect our neighbors. From this height. But i do know that we have to stand together. I know that we need to speak out as charlie did. Speak up. When we see incidences present prejudice in hi. And i know that it's unitarian-universalist we stand within a tradition of those who have refused. To forfeit this nation. To the forces of prejudice. By honoring religious freedom and recognizing that religious experience in expression emerges in many ways. Are religious values. Encourage our support for pluralism. More than toleration for diversity. Pluralism calls for an active embrace of diversity. As a pluralism project led by diana explains. For those who welcome the new diversity. Creating a workable pluralism will mean engaging people of different faiths and cultures in the creation. Ava, society. Pluralism is not a given. It is an achievement. So how then do we actively engage religious diversity. Sometimes we do so by including readings and practices of various religious traditions in our life together here. We like the chalice and the advent wreath the menorah and the yule log. This is not. Thoughtless inclusion. Effort to actively engage the multiple religious traditions that bring meaning to some of us. And expand the understanding of others of us. And sometimes we actively engage religious diversity by showing up when our neighbors have been threatened. With only a few hours notice on friday. You're over 20 of you i think for ages 17 to 98. Showed up to hold signs in front of islamic center. In the cold. Standing there as the evening traffic slowed to read our signs. We receive many happy haunts of support as well as thumbs up. And looking for the windshields. You could see the happiness in the hope dawn on faces of those driving by. But there were also many eyes. But stayed on the road. Either from apparent indifference. From deliberate avoidance. And there were a handful who gave us some very deliberate finger gestures. In one who rolled down his window to shout and obscenity. The same man. Another. The forces of hate and prejudice are real. We are not fake news or far away. We are here in our neighborhood. If we wish to promote a pluralism. That refuses to forfeit to these forces. We too must engage our neighbors. We live so near one another do we know who our neighbors are. Their names their kids their cats and dogs. I wonder what difference it would make if we simply knew more of our neighbors. What difference might it take if we knew the names make if we knew the names of the cashiers where we often shop. What if we found new ways to bring people together socially. Like the christmas tree lighting last night. Or even perhaps in social justice project. Service pro. What if we started. To learn new ways to really see. Those around us. In all of their fullness is human being. With their struggles and hopes. Their disappointments. And perhaps their prejudice. For me the practice of choosing to engage in to see the fullness of our neighbors is what i mean by neighborly love. Love i believe is the recognition of other nests the capacity. To see another is few fully human apart from ourselves. I resent the reduction of love tourist akron sentiment of affection or attraction. Love is not shallow north fighting. Love is an active engagement with another. Love is the most powerful statement of solidarity and shared humanity. I see you. I see your inherent worth and dignity as a person. The power of love is what we can bring to the fight against intolerance. Resisting the forces of prejudice we can stand on the side of love as the hymn proclaims. So what more can i say. I started to laugh last night because here i'm trying to finish my sermon but i kept getting interrupted by emails from people asking me that very question what can we do. There is some irony in that. The list of who i have been in touch with includes all of the clergy of wayland. Clergy for neighboring towns and even out of state. Members of the group standing up for racial justice. Both the chapter in boston and the newly-formed metrowest group. I've also been in touch with wayland town leaders both political. Leaders and those who organized for promoting diversity in town. Most importantly i have been in conversation with president mullet con of islamic center. And other muslim leaders. I tell you this so that you will be ready to participate in an event in the future. To be a part of the resistance. And i tell you this we know that we are not alone in our disgust. For this hate speech. There is a powerful force of love. Present in our community. And there are also forces of hate and intolerance. With our spiritual ancestors and our neighbors. Let us stand on the side. Of love. So may it be. Amen.

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FP-20171210-Sermon.mp3?_=5

What a powerful way to walk into the sermon. Because. We're thinking about what it does mean when we listen to the silence when we break the silence. And earlier this year. The hashtag me too. Exploded on social media as women and some men. Shared their own experience of sexual harassment. Businessweek time magazine released their 2017 person of the year cover. And story naming the silence breakers. The article recounts. This reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight. But his actually been simmering. 4 years. Decades centuries. Women have had it with bosses and co-workers who not only cross boundaries. But don't even seem to know that boundaries exist. Why has a centuries-old problem simmered for so long. Why have so many women stayed silent. Why have so many perpetrators been able to act without consequence. Or changed behavior. As a scholar of women and gender studies as well as his woman. I have not been surprised by the flow of stories by women. Sexual harassment assault and violence have permeated a culture saturated and patriarchal culture. Assumptions. I have been surprised. But this time people seem to be listening. My idea for the sermon actually predated the time article. As i considered our monthly theme of listening the recent events of women's and some men's stories of sexual harassment seem to present a striking example of the power of listening. And it turns out time magazine agreed. It has not been the experience of harassment or assault that is changed. In these past months. Rather the cultural willingness to listen to these stories and believe these women. Truly listening made the difference. Of course to listen someone has to be speaking. And the courage of the silence breakers is to be commended. Speakingout is not using. Mini silence has been preferable to the possibility of retaliation. Time quotes forty-two-year-old isabel pasquale which is not her real name she was too afraid to use it. A strawberry picker in california. Who says. I was afraid. When the man was harassing me. He threatened to harm my children and me. That's why i kept quiet. I felt desperate i cried and cried. But thank god. My friends in the field support me. So i said enough. I lost the fear. It doesn't matter if they criticize me. I can support other people who are going through the same thing. Beer silence pasquale. And so many other women. Too often the offenders have held power over those. They have a rat harassed or assaulted. Getting pasquale story this shift in the dynamics of power came when she no longer felt alone. Her friends supported her. She lost her fear. Is simple affirmation that one is not alone. Any experience of sexual harassment or assault. Can make all the difference. The me to hashtag was born for this keen awareness of not feeling alone. Although not on the cover of the time issue. The creator of this hashtag tarana burke. Is a part of the story. In the magazine. And more importantly. And the emergence of a movement. In 2006 more than 10 years ago. She created the me-too movement in order to develop a sense of solidarity among the survivors of sexual violence with whom she worked. When actor alyssa milano use the hashtag. It went viral. I know that some of you posted your own story on facebook. Or at least the simple phrase to indicate that you two had been impacted. So this is not an outside story. This is a right here story. And so it's important that we talked about it right here. That we are not silent on what's been happening in our culture. But i am not silent from this pulpit about this momentous reckoning. And it is a reckoning. It is an accounting of the events of the past. In an effort to hold people to account. None of which can happen if people don't speak out. Or if people don't listen. Listening is more than hearing the words uttered by a person. Listing is an effort to understand a person. Their experience their emotions their perspective. This does not mean you have to agree with a person. But to truly listen. You need to be open to the possibility of leaving them. And being changed by them. Frankly many people women have not been believed or have not believed that anyone with power to hold their harasser accountable would listen to them. The story of anita hill has been held up as an example of what happens when a woman speaks out about harassment against the powerful man. After a very public. Very personal and very painful interview about her experience. Clarence thomas went on to be confirmed as a supreme court justice. Watching that who would want to speak out. And well. Was that the point. A very public. If not entirely conscious. Message that women shouldn't bother to speak up. A warning. No one. Would listen. Listening is more than words being heard. Listening is more than simply waiting until another stop speaking so that you can start. Listening is more than crafting your own response point-by-point as another is speaking. Listing is creating a space in yourself to a tune to another. Their words their communication their experience. Clear example of the failure to attune and listen emerge this week in the improv class that i'm taking. Four of us were in a scene with instructions to play a character with a strong point of view. The only two suggestion were given was that the location was the dmv. Have fun. The four of us were in this scene. And when the instructor played rang a bell. We were supposed to change characters to take over the storylines and the physical characteristics of the character created by one of the other team partners. However we failed miserably. Everybody was so busy loudly improvising their own point of view and character in the scene. That we didn't listen to what. The others were doing. And so when the bell rang and it came time to switch characters. We struggled to recreate the other characters because we had not paid enough attention to them. With a patient's familiar to most teachers. Our instructor calmly explained that we had to share the focus. And listen to each other. Talking all at once spelled disaster. But we do not usually need to recreate another person's character and storyline at a bealls notice. This exercise does point to the need to listen to someone to understand their point of view. If we are only listening to ourselves and our own conversations. We simply cannot hear what is happening in another's experience of or story. Not unless we stop and listen. Do we stop talking long enough to listen. Some have pointed out that the letters and listen also spell silent. And others have noted that we have two ears and one mouth perhaps a suggestion of the proportion in which they should be used. To listen we have to be willing to shift our attention to what another is saying in away from our own speech. When we listen to another seeking to understand what the other is saying. The impact can be powerful. Henry david thoreau said. It takes two to speak the truth. One to speak. And another to hear. The silence breakers spoke their truth of their experience. And people have been listening. From social media to boardrooms people are listing to women speak out about their experiences of harassment and assault. The particulars of different situations fairy. Some far more egregious and damaging than others. And the consequences have berries. Some men have lost their jobs and the confidence of their employers or fans. Some have chosen to resign. Some have been forced to resign. Sweeping reckoning seeks to send a powerful message that this demeaning. Behavior. Is not okay. And will not be tolerated. Yet others notably remain defiant in their office. Or may yet be elected to public office as we'll see on tuesday when voters go to the polls in alabama. Some who have been accused deny the stories. And we who are watching must decide to whom we listen. Some have raised concerns about false accusations in a puritanical witch hunt. It is important to also notice how denial has been an effective strategy for centuries. Denial works. Because of who had the power to speak and be heard. And who did not. In the timer turkle i was struck by an interview with musician taylor swift. And while i did not expect to ever quote taylor swift in a sermon. After radio dj reached under her skirt to grab her rear end. Swift spoke out. The dj was fired and sued swift for damages. She countersued for a symbolic $1. In order to testify in open court. Swift whole time. I figured that if he had been brazen enough to assault me under these risky circumstances. Imagine what he might do to a vulnerable young artist if given the chance. Her, illustrates how sexual harassment and assault is about power. Why did this man think he could simply grab a woman. Such behavior is rooted in the centuries-old assumptions of a patriarchal mindset that women are objects for men's pleasure. Such actions emerge from the belief that women do not share equal worth and dignity with men. Such actions are rooted in assumptions that men. But women do not. Miss wrote that such actions are rooted in deception. That women do not need to have their bodies respected. Women are not the arbiters of who can and cannot touch them. Of who can and cannot presume sexual familiarity. Or access. Sexual harassment and assault. Are rooted in the idea that power. The being powerful. Means power. Over others. And idea that hurts. Both women and men. When we teach our children and youth about sexuality and our whole lives in the yard whole life creek elem. We teach them consent. We teach them that their body belongs to them alone. And they have the right to be heard. When they say no to a touch. Even a hug or a kiss from a relative. And certainly from a stranger. We teach them to listen to what others say. And expect others to listen to them when they say no. Such lessons are rooted in our unitarian universalist principle that we affirm and promote. The inherent worth and dignity of every person. And this value is why listening is so important. When we listen to someone we affirm their worth by attending to their point of view. Again listening does not mean we have to agree with them. But to hear them out. Is to acknowledge their experience. The time article closes the authors quote journalist megyn kelly. What if we did complain. What if we didn't wind but we spoke r-truth and our strongest voices and insisted that those around us did better. What is that word to change reality right. Now. Silence breakers in all those who posted me to or otherwise share their story. Did so with the hope that someone would be listening. For too long women's experiences of sexual harassment and assault have not been listened to by those in power. What would it look like to change reality right now. I think it would include a strong affirmation that neither women nor men deserve to have their bye. Boundaries of their bodies violated by another. That when women speak up about their experience of being demeaned or disrespected because they are a woman. That we listen and take it as a serious violation of their dignity. I might seem angry. And i am. This is personal to me as it is to many women. I too have lived aware to the possibilities of assault. And sensitive to the ways my dignity as a person has been undermined because of my gender. But my anger is broader than my personal experience. I am angry that is a culture we have allowed for so long that for so many have been silenced. I am angry at a patriarchal mindset that both men and women have absorbed. The teaches us to tolerate such behavior as normal. An unchangeable. And i am so grateful. But for a moment. The world is listening. As the time article ends. Listening can change our understanding. Which can then change our behavior. Listening is far more than simply hearing words. It is a recognition of whole worlds beyond ourselves and our understanding. Search listening. Can change the world. So may it be. Men.

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FP-20180107-Sermon.mp3?_=5

So who likes a good road trip. Divided that's what i expected. I know this is not a universal love what can seem like adventure to some. Can seem like torture to others. In my house were divided on this issue my partner bill will gladly fly to meet me at the destination. But he'll leave the long run miles on the road to me. I was in the midst of planning my next road trip when i needed to provide the sermon description for today. And that is how our monthly fee maging the journey of life. Became a sermon on the road trip of life. At least someone who loves road trips. The metaphor felt like an apt district description of an experience moving through the world. With curiosity. Wonder. And a bit of uncertainty about what's coming next. From the moment of our birth. We begin to age. We often joyfully embrace the process of aging in children. We celebrate a first smile of first step of first word. We mark the first day of school as well as other milestones in school work sports or favorite hobby. In the beginning. Aging feels like an important activity in and of itself. How old are you we ask a child. With pride a child may announce. I am 4 and 3/4. Every month matters when you are young. I am getting older. Is both a claim of success and of hope. For child. Aging is an unqualified good. Indeed the beginning of a road trip is typically one of the best parts. Starting off on the road but not yet arrived anywhere. The simple experience of going feels fun. There's a sense of anticipation for all the possibilities. Maybe we'll discover greatview or a delicious sandwich. Maybe we'll stop at a ridiculous tourist trap that doubles us over in laughter. Or maybe we'll be struck quiet by a sunset igniting the mountains in color. We're not certain. The possibilities can feel like freedom. The hope for an adventure invites us to dream. At its best. Itching during childhood offers such sweet experiences of imagining what the future could be. Aging from childhood in two years of youthful living. We may feel the pressure of a culture that valorizes used as the ideal. We may embrace this ideal revelling in a message that tells us these are the best years of our life. Are we may struggle as we fall far short. Of what we are supposed to do. Orbi. But these most valuable years. Advertisements in movies remind us of this ideal of youth with their portrayal of actors with youthful bodies smooth faces and no gray's. As we age we may sometimes reach back for this youth. For the physical prowess of our teens or 20s. For the ability to work longer hours sleep less and achieve more. For the freedom from responsibilities of mortgages. For children. Bosses. Or payroll. Or maybe we reach back for the innocence of not knowing what we have learned. Heartbreak and disappointment. Of limits and losses. Chronic illness. And death. In my mid-20s i graduated from college and enjoyed several years of low commitment jobs than enabled my love of road trips. I traveled cross-country once with a friend. Once on a bus. And the third time alone in my red ford escort. I felt fearless and open. When the sun began to set as i entered the mountains. I laughed out loud as i realized. I've never driven a stick in the mountains. I could figure it out what could go wrong. At its best this is youth. Arising confidence to take risks to find your own place in the world. To apply to college or to the job you want. To travel. The fall in love. To get in your own car. And see what life has to offer. Ben is older adults. Our cars can start to feel fuller and less free. There may be more passengers spouses children and our pets. And there is definitely more baggage. We likely carry with us the proverbial briefcase from work. As well as the weight of disappointments and failures. Rather than a wide-ranging road trip. Are driving mayfield curtail to a familiar route. Home. School soccer violin and play dates. On our best days. These familiar paths with their crowded car become an adventure. In conversation you discover the vastness of your child's imagination. Or delight at the beautiful view of your spouse smiling back at you. Of course there are other days also. Days when the tire is flat. In the rain. Or when the wind chill is 27 degrees below zero. There are days when nothing seems to be going right. When the kids are bickering. Are you just yelled at your spouse because you're still upset about something that happened earlier at work. There are days when adulting feels too full to hopeless. Or simply too tiring. Are moments in the road trip of life. You may wonder if there's another car. Another road. Another way to live. Then where you found yourself. It's a beginning of a road trip is full with excited anticipation. Been a road trip somewhere in the middle of can start to feel complicated and uncertain. We've been living long enough to know that some miles are neither fun nor desirable. Even with a lot of planning. The unexpected will likely happen at some point. A storm will blow in. A passenger willful stick. Something breaks. So now what. You driven too far to go back. Andrea lee. You don't want to travel over those smiles again anyway. Here in the middle. You have to choose again to keep driving. To choose life even though you now know you will never play for the red sox. Orbi again the youthful person you once were. To choose life even though you now know. Does sometimes children do fall very sick. As to parents. The passionate love can unravel into painful discord. And that hard work may not earn you. The reward. To choose life even when there is injustice everywhere. And that while we can make a positive perhaps even a major difference. Chances are high that we're not going to see world peace or the elimination of poverty in our lifetime. Maybe we never use these exact words i choose life. We do keep driving. We drive scanning the horizon for a storm or traffic jam. Paying attention to the gas stations and restaurants for resources that we may need. And noticing the beauty as it emerges. A car with a young driver and passengers rackets passed you and you smile. Wishing them safe journeys. Over the miles. Our journeys begin to change. In some ways our cars may become lighter again. As children move on their own cars. Or some of that baggage of work and striving is set down. Or manage to a lighter load of chosen activities. We learn more of what feels comfortable to us. Our favorite paste to take. Our most beloved companions. And whether we prefer familiar roads. Are the discovery of new pass. And yet we may also notice we're starting to make more trips to the doctor. For the physical therapist. Well we may not wish for the brashness of youth again. We wouldn't mind the joints of youth. Or the endurance of a younger body. Not quite old yet. We made another nonetheless feel we are getting older. But the trip will not go on and on. So what's left to be done. To be noticed and learned. Appreciated in uncovered. Well time and health allows becomes part of our focus. None of us know how long our road trip will last. If for some of us we have been driving for quite some time now. And it shows. Perhaps we don't move as swiftly and confidently as we once did. And yet we also noticed more of what we do have. In a recent article on her work with older new yorkers arthur. John leland rights. Nearly three years ago i started following the lives of six new yorkers over the age of 85 one of the fastest-growing age groups in america. The series of articles began the way most stories about older people do. With the fears and hardships of aging. A fall in the kitchen. An aching leg that did not get better. Days segueing into nights without human contact. They had lived through. And somewhere still challenged by. Money problems medical problems. The narrowing of life's movements. But as the series went along i different story emerged. When the elders describe their lives they focus not on their declining abilities. Put on things that they still could do. And that they found rewarding. As miss wong said. I try not to think about bad things it's not good for old people to complain. After many miles those who have journeyed far have wisdom to share. Leland notes as john red. Older people report higher levels of contentment. And well-being. Then teenagers and young adults. Calling oneself old. Concealed derogatory. What word might we use for these final miles of our road trip. Elders. Senior citizens retirees sages. An article exploring this question of language psychology professor laura carstensen. Embraces the term. Perennials. She explains. Perennials makes it clear that we are still here. Blossoming again and again. It also suggests a new model of life in which people engage and take breaks. Making new starts repeatedly. Pringles aren't guaranteed to blossom year after year. But given proper conditions good soil and nutrients. They can go on for decades. It's aspirational. As the years keep coming. Do we still blossom. Staging leave space for the grief of losses and changes. Without being overwhelmed by them. Could a perennial framework help us to age with an eye to what remains possible. Every metaphor has its limits and the road trip is of life is no exception. Too easily it could fall into tropes of twists and turns and blunts and detours. In ways that the lie the depths. A pain. In gratitude we feel. And yet sometimes we reach for metaphors because there are no words that will ever in compass the fullness of an experience directly the best we can do is use a metaphor and an effort to point to a deeper truth to mysteries and experiences that refused to be pinned down for examination. And life in all of its particularities and possibilities certainly resist such efforts for neat summaries. As some of you know these last few months have had an unusually high number of memorial services for members of our congregation. As well as people from the wider community. E-services have been for people who were young. In their twenties. Uber in their middle years. Hoover older if not yet old. Who were elders. Each service was different. If service told a story of a life journey and of a person's character and impact. In some ways this is the hardest part of my role is a minister. Just it's so near to the pain of grief and death. And yet such moments are also a kind of narrowing. It reveals what matters most in a life when the road trip ends. They are a reminder to pay attention now. To the gift of waking up on another day to being alert the possibilities of what the day may bring. Notice the beauty and blossoms all around. We are all aging from the moment of our birth. Until the time of our death. Aging is the movement of life. It is a signal of being alive. With its gifts and its losses. Asian insist that we wrestle with what it is to be alive with both its possibilities and its limits. Such wrestling might lead us to see aging as a threat that pulls us ever nearer to death. For me. I hope to hold fast to the idea of aging as a road trip. On which i would likely have some bad meals and long days. But i'm rich i also hope to discover some magnificant magnificent places. To meet some fascinating people and perhaps to leave the world a bit more loving and just. So may it be.