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FP-20151220-Sermon.mp3?_=5

Who is the mother of a teenage son. I've learned to expect certain phrases on a regular often daily basis. Mom. I'm hungry. Mom there's no food in the house. Sound familiar to some of you. Of course he and i sometimes disagree on the assessment of whether or not there is indeed nothing to eat in the house. Perhaps the food in the house is not the most desirable or would require a bit of effort to prepare and cook. But there is generally some kind of food. If there is not. We just head to the store where there is an abundance of fresh canned or even hot prepared food. Of course we need to pay for this food and we are blessed to be able to. To do so. Although there have been times when he was very young. That i relied gratefully on the federally funded wic program to help with food assistance. Too many in our society do struggle to pay for food. The food itself is readily available year-round in great abundance. What if you didn't have a store nearby. What if you didn't have a refrigerator freezer or modern techniques of food preservation such as cans are sealed jars. Where would you go for food. What is all of your food and calories depended upon what was growing or living in the land and forests around you. What would you eat. What would you eat if that land became snow-covered and frozen. The green plants gone. Birds flown away and wild animals in hibernation. Imagine yourself in such a world. Where the food that you depend upon for life. It's just gone. Instead of in abundance sense of life teaming all around you. There is stillness. There is darkness. There is cold. In such a world the arrival is shorter colder darker days. Signifies a season of risk. In which food is less available. In the possibility of hunger. Weakness. And sickness increases. The retreat of the sun with its life-giving warmth and light. Brings a season of fear. Fear of not having enough to eat. Fear of being cold. Becoming sick. Someone we love succumbing to sickness or even to death. Winter can be a tough. Season. A season of anxiety. Sphere. Of darkness. And cold. I don't know about you. The last winter's heavy and repeated storms. Give me a renewed sense of what it means to have a hard winter. When the snow was at times wondrously beautiful with its sparkling smooth stillness. I found it also became an impressive presence. From shoveling and snow-blowing to ice stands. And bitter cold you're having flashbacks now aren't you. It was a hard winter to manage. And yet through it all. I had running water central heating a well-stocked pantry and a four-wheel drive to journey to any number of wells. stores. I did not fear going hungry. I did not fear starving to death. I did not fear the close-quarters. Of inside living that might spread diseases that i could dangerously or even fatally weakened those i love. And so i can only imagine what it would have been like. To live through. A long winter and a cold northern climate in a prebiotic world. What we do now is that in many of these northern climate. There were joyous celebrations to mark the day when the days began. To become longer. In the light began to increase. This. Is the winter solstice. The pagan celebration of yule. As a celebration of the return of the sun. You'll recognize is an honors the sun as the source of all life that sustains us. As source of light and warmth the sun calls forth new life from the ground. The sun promises to melt the snow to soften the frozen ground to beckon the animals to return in the birds. As well. But on this cold dark. December 9th. Love you all. All of this warrants a new life. Is but a promise. For the winter solstice. Actually marks the official start. Of winter i'm afraid to say. And many many more weeks of cold. Will come. And yet day by day. The light will increase. Each added moment of increased light an affirmation of the promise to come. Desperately dependent we are upon the sun. And although for us this connection between the sun and life may feel more distant. We2. Completely depend upon the sun for our lives. The package store preserved our food also emerges from the warmth and light of summer warm days. Or indirectly. 2 energy derived from the sun in the form of oil coal even wind that sustains greenhouses and agricultural industries. In the same various indirect sources of energy from the sun are what keep us warm. Empower our ability to drive over to that well-stocked grocery store or health-giving doctor's office. We meet live in a very modern world. But we remain a civilization. Wholly dependent upon the power of the sun. Don't let us also celebrate the return of the sun. Of course as we celebrate we do so with a modern scientific awareness of the importance of photosynthesis. And plants and trees as well as the importance of vitamin d in regulating our moods and health. Did i question whether or not our technology and scientific knowledge. Might actually be dampening our wonder. Of the sun. Other ball of light and warmth the daily appears and disappears. The cast rainbows. As well as sunsets and sunrises. Growing up is i did as an evangelical christian. I did not know about the winter solstice is a religious celebration. Of course i'd heard about yule logs and greatly enjoyed eating the cake version. And i have to admit that my first exposure exposure to the solstice celebration was not what you might call lugus in nature. Rather it was a party of eating borscht soup and drinking rather a lot of vodka. Both activities that my friends felt that those in northern climates might do. Until do maybe not a religious right. It certainly was a celebration of letting go and enjoying life. Celebrating the son's return. Certainly made a lot of sense to me. I'm not a fan of long dark days. Is simply wear me down in spirit. It's demoralizing to wait to dim lights as i get ready for the day. I've been returned at the days inn from work to a dark house. I start to google flights to warmer sunny or places where i might lie on the beach and do a little bit of modern sun worship. Ever have that feeling. Summerview going are flying away the next week right. So. Maybe you've had that feeling lately. Especially on days of cold wet rain or fierce cold winds that can chill one to the bone. The absence of warmth and light can move deep within our bodies. And it can reach into our souls. Winter can be a tougher time. To feel good. To feel happy. I think this is why civilizations across the globe in millenia. Have celebrated the winter solstice. In the midst. Of the greatest darkness. People have found a reason to celebrate. The come together in community. Into experience. Joy. Such an effort to celebrate admits the darkness is a profound expression of resistance resilience and hope. The darkness will not overcome the light. Dear will not be the last word. Winter will be endured light and warmth will return spring will come. When the darkness. Is deepest. The solstice marks a turning point away from the darkness into the light. Turning points are critical moments not only for the seasons of our planet. But also for the seasons of our lives. Moments of darkness are part of our lives. We may feel sadness for the loss of a friendship. Or an aspect of our health. We may feel despair at grave injustice has. Or confusion about what steps to take next in life. At times. We may even feel lost in the darkness. And for some the darkness of depression. Or of great sorrow. Me feel as if it will forever ingolf any light or any sense of hope. And unfortunately sometimes people are forever lost to this darkness. However many will find their way back. To place of greater light. And in such moments. The return of light. Of hope. Happiness. Is indeed a reason to celebrate. There are many moments of darkness in our lives. Where we carry with us losses and sorrows that can weigh heavily upon us. And there are moments. When we can wonder if hope or happiness will ever return again. And because such moments are as real to our experience of life as the changing of seasons. From fall to winter to spring. I believe that it is good to mark the moments. When we turn from the darkness. Torchlight. And towards a sense of hope. Even when it's just the beginning. Of attorney and just the. Painted bit of light. At home. That it will not forever be darkness but the light will. Come again. It's good to celebrate our faith. It's such moments of turning do happen. But we can grieve and be unhappy. And that we can resiliently find our way again to moments of happiness. Both the light. And the darkness are part of our life experiences. And as we honor every week in our service and did again today. Our lives contain both joys. And sorrows. To me today. Be a day. When we celebrate. The return of the sun which is shining so gloriously today. Be we honor the many turns in our lives. Integrate capacities to journey again and again. To the varied seasons of our lives. Today today we celebrate yule. And we celebrate hope. We celebrate the journey of the seasons. And the promise of longer days. Returning warp. In the ongoing gift of life upon our beloved. Abet abundant. Planet. Blessed be. Amen. Invite you now into a time. Of meditation. I encourage you to sit comfortably if you want but your feet both on the floor feel the ground holding you up. Close your eyes or soften your gaze as you wish. To take a deep breath in. And out. In. And i'll. If you find a place of stillness. Within. As we sit here on this late december day. The darkest part of the year. Allow yourself to feel this darkness. To acknowledge the grief. And the sorrow. But you carry within yourself. Breathe in and out deep. Into your belly. As you acknowledge that these feelings. These experiences of loss. And confusion. Badness. And darkness. Are apart of you. Apart of all of us. As we journey through life. Now imagine a ray of sunlight falling upon your face. Feel its warmth. Brightness. Imagine that this ray of light. Is powered by the love you have experienced. The love of others for you. Your love for other people. Or an animal. Or a special place. Or for simply being alive. Feel the joy that is within you. Joy that arise with this light of love. Bathing you in its way. Feel the hope. But the light carries to you. But not all will be darkness. That not all will be sorrow. Bl the turning. The darkness. To this life. Making of final deep breath. Open your eyes if you're ready. The light.

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FP-20200126-Sermon.mp3

Lydia mariah child. Never had. The right to vote. And yet. She influence the direction of an entire nation. What she did have. With a pen. Hard-won education. And a brilliant. Creative mind. She also had an adolescent experience of living in maine. Near the abenaki and penobscot indians. An experience that inform her first book hobomock in 1824. As well as her 1868 appeal for the indians. During the 44 years between those books. Mariah's life. And that is a nation. Keith. Twisted. Interred. As a young woman. Child enjoyed early success with hobomock. The juvenile miss lani. And the frugal housewife. And then she met abolitionists william lloyd garrison. When she a published an appeal in favor of that class of americans called africans. An 1833. She followed her conscience off a metaphorical cliff. Her 1833 appeal was simply too radical for most americans. Not only did she denounced slavery increasingly acceptable opinion in the north. She also advocated for an immediate end to slavery. And. Criticized northern racism. She writes. Well we bestow our earnest disapprobation on the system of slavery. Let us not flatter ourselves that we are in reality any better than our brethren in the south. Our prejudice is even more inveterate than it is at the south. Those who are kind and liberal and all other subjects. Unite with the selfish and the proud and their unrelenting efforts to keep the colored population in the lowest state of degradation. And the influence they unconsciously exert over children. Early and fuses into their innocent minds. The same strong feelings. Of content. In other words. Condemning slavery. Does not excuse racist attitudes of inequality. Prejudice or hate. You're teaching the same attitudes to your kids. For child the goal was not only to end slavery. But you also end the prejudices and the racist ideas that undergirded the whole system of harsh inequality and injustice. And despite facing resistance. She wrote her conscience. Child dental. To see the end of the civil war. And president lincoln's emancipation proclamation. When author lori contract describes this time in her biography of child she writes. Northerners rallied around the goal of emancipation even if just a few years earlier they had been opposed or indifferent to it. For 35 years child had lobbied for abolition. And many people now praise her for cited this. Newspapers by for her writing. And she was considered one of the most influential schaefer's of northern public opinion. Don't you wish she had a twitter account. Over the decades child writings had helped to shape the minds of thousands and the direction of a nation. Up to a point. Assumptions of racial inequality and white supremacy remained rampant in society and government policy. When lincoln was assassinated president andrew johnson enacted a policy of post-war reconstruction. That was lenient to the defeated south. Rather than plantations being broken up into small farms for formerly enslaved persons as child advocated. Most property returned to their white owners. In short order the reconstruct constituted southern state governments reinstituted an agricultural system. It strongly resembles slavery. In all but name. In congress the republican majority fought back against johnson. Hoping to build more opportunities for the formerly enslaved. But when congress passed a civil rights bill. Defining african-americans is us citizens in 1866. President johnson. Vetoed it. Congress overrode the veto. But the tension between johnson and the 39th congress erupted. Contract rights. Congress would pass laws over johnson's veto but johnson would refuse to enforce them. His overt sabotage of congressional legislation led to the first impeachment of an american president. Meaning of the impeachment discharges around johnson's dismissal of. Surrounded johnson's dismissal of secretary of war edwin stanton. A leading republican radical in the prior lincoln administration. Because the 1867 tenure of office act required the senate to approve the removal of executive officials. Johnson's dismissal of stanton. Signal. Blatant disregard for the congressional law. And yet in the senate. Johnson avoid removal by just one. Although not engaged in a political fight in d.c. to reshape the south or the plantation society to a re-imagined multi-racial society. Kyle. Has lodged her own best resource into the fight. An edited volume. The freedmen's book. 1865. She wanted to not only promote literacy among the formerly enslaved persons. But to also prepare them for participation as full citizens in the nation. Unlike johnson and others who would return the south to a system of racial hierarchy and white supremacy. Child imagined living a world of equality. All this while. Living in a little rural town. Of wayland. It's complicated isn't it. Is so many ways child writing and editing shaped the nation towards a more just and equitable world. And in other ways. Advocacy and ideas failed to reach full fruition. 100 years after the 1865 freedmen's book. A second civil rights movement needed to form. And another president johnson signed the voting rights act of 1965. To remove the accretions of racist law and practices. Even with a passage of another 50 plus years activist today are still calling us to change all matters of racial injustice has and aspects of white supremacy culture. Time passes. And still so much work remains. The dead cannot speak. And we cannot ask let him ride child what issues. Mike barrett her pain in her mind today. Butter legacy speaks to us. A legacy of resistance that lasted. Decades. In a recent book scholar activist mary frances berry argues history teaches us to resist. In each of dr. berries chapters to traces the complicated ins-and-outs of multiple movements for social change. The book prices each example with extraordinary detail of people organizations dates and actions. Each sentence links with the flow of actions from earlier pages. This interlinking complexity is itself illustrative. No changes happen in a flash nor is there a straight path. Forward. Social change does not happen without persistence. Organized groups of people. Pressuring for change. This is the core argument of the book. Dr. berry rights. It's crucial to recognize that resistance works even if it does not achieve all of the movement's goals. And that movements are always necessary because major change will engender resistance which must be address. I can imagine litter my child reading that sentence and nodding her head. In agreement. By the time child died in 1880. The 13th amendment made slavery illegal. The fourteenth amendment established the right to due process. Equal protection under the law. And the 15th amendment. Prohibited denying the right to vote. Because of race. Aunt. Women would not receive the right to vote. For another 40 years. Native americans with continue to face violence as well as the loss of lands and rights well into the future. And anti-racism work. Requires a persistent. Organized movement. To change minds and laws. And so here we are. In 2020. As a president once again faces impeachment. In congress is again deeply divided over core values and visions for our shared society. Here we are. While the film just mercy plays in theaters. Telling its story of mass incarceration and racial injustice. Slavery. In another form. And here we are. After more than 16 million acres burned in australia. Another sign of global devastation wrought by climate change. A problem child would never have. When i imagined writing a sermon about litter my child and doctor barry's idea that history teaches us to resist. I thought i'd be up here. Railing with prophetic anger. Instead writing the sermon made me really makes me weep. I weep for all the injustice has and challenges that remain. But i also read to imagine. With mariah child would think about a woman unitarian minister. With a harvard doctorate. Up here quoting mary frances berry. A black woman. With a phd and a law degree. Who served in multiple presidents and administration's. We live everyday within freedoms of which child only. And so how do we live. Knowing our freedoms emerge from the dreams and legacies of our ancestors. How do we live knowing. But social change is neither guaranteed nor straightforward. Perhaps what we need to take from litter my child if not simply a celebration of her successes. But also her legacy of persistence. The closing passage from contrast biography of child reads. Child was not however superhuman. She was subject to depression. And despair. And at times she could be out right frankie. Some years she felt as if she had accomplished nothing with her life. Her marriage was often troubled. And she always regretted that she had no children. Two things however distinguished her for the many people of her time who are now forgotten. First. She had an inexhaustible face. That liberty and justice are worth fighting for. And that they will ultimately prevail. Seconds. She continuously acted on that face. In large ways and small. Even when she did not know whether her actions would succeed. She did not. Like her husband. Embrace every enthusiasm that came along. But she did her best with an each situation. And repeatedly wrist. Failure. After each setback. Each disappoint. She nursed her wounds. Evan tried again. History. Teaches us to resist. In every generation we have the choice to risk. To fight for liberty. And justice. And to join with others to become a movement for change. And we are in a moment. The calls out for us to join the movement. For democracy that respects the rights of all persons to vote. First society free of white supremacy culture. At 4 planet. Capable of sustaining the life. Of its planets. Animals oceans and skies. In contrast photography. My favorite line states. Even though child remained in wayland. And rarely ventured even into boston. She helped form public opinion. Throughout the north. Even though we. Remain. And waylon. Maybe we received a humbling legacy of lithium ryan childs. To join the movements of our time. Fighting as we can. 4life. Liberty. Injustice. So may it be.

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FP-20190519-Sermon.mp3

Did you know that it's alright to wonder. There are all kinds of wonderful things. Did you know that it's all right to marvel. There are all kinds of marvelous things. Our reading today was just one of the many wise sermons mr. rogers shared on if it's his infamous program for children. Thank goodness for mister rogers who reminds us of what is good and right in the world. And his kindness and in his curiosity. He taught us to wonder and to marvel about the world around us. Curiosity is so much more. Then a path to learning. It is this. Curiosity can entice us into all manners of pursuits and endeavors. What begins is it offhand conversational comment. Might end up becoming a months-long. Pursuits of a new hobby or mastery of a new topic. Curiosity can coax us beyond the boundaries of what we know and where we feel comfortable. Curiosity might even transform our understanding or our experience. I kind of metaphorical death of the old. Not unlike the lives lost by the proverbial curiouscat. Curiosity. Can also be an entire posture towards living. Being a curious person. Can mean living an open-ended life. Rather than building a static structure of knowing. A curious person might collect a toolbox of learning exploring marveling and wondering. There is a difference between these two approaches of life. One seeks to master the world to be able to declare the boundaries known. In the systems stable. The other seeks to explore the world to remain open to the unknown to the changeable. To the unpredictable. I have sympathy for both. There are times i wish the world would just make sense. There are times when i wish progress towards justice and equity. Would just be successful and stable. Instead we have seen our first black president be followed by a rise in white supremacist voices. Extolling racist and religious bigotry and violence. Instead we are witnessing significant challenges to the nearly half-century old legal framework. Protecting a woman's right to choose her future and her health. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just put the world into order the way we think is right and have it. Stay that way. But of course it's not like that is it. Our world is fractured. Divisive and rice with differences that erupt into conflict and even violence. A simplistic all four worlds unity feels utopian. A dream that does not and could not exist in any place. And yet. If we listen. A curious voice emerges like a plant determined to grow between the cracks in the pavement. Curiosity calls out with a spirit of hope. As long as curiosity inspires new questions and paths of inquiry. There is hope. In the possibility of change of new insights of alternate responses. Curiosity champions the perspective that all is not lost. Curiosity asked what's next. Or in the face of calamitous issues like climate change. Curiosity might wonder what is possible to achieve. What would be the path forward to greater collaboration of resources and ideas. Curiosity. Is a posture of faith. In the unknown. They may yet. Provide what is needed. Curiosity is also a posture of humility. This is what i learned from my partner bill whose deeply curious posture has taught me much. Our first date was an experience of his questions as he asked follow-up questions after follow-up questions because he wanted to understand. Since then i have watched him do this with academic colleagues members of my midwestern conservative family and well with summitview. Well he's mixed up sometimes it's more difficult to find something of interest with some folks. He keeps asking questions in search of that thing that will make a person come alive with passion. Watching him i see his conviction. Every person has a story. Every person feels strongly about something for some reason. If we dare to ask. To be genuinely curious about another. And so i asked bill what would you say about curiosity. And he said humility you have to talk about humility. To be curious one has to start from a place that accepts one's own ignorance. If you are confident there is nothing to learn from a person nothing worth your time to investigate about a topic. Then there was no space for curiosity. Curiosity requires the humility of admitting their things we don't know. Indeed in leading us into a place of the unknown. Curiosity opens up the chance that we baby changed by what we learn. Which means sometimes curiosity may come at a cost. When i began to wonder about ideas of god jesus in the bible as a young adolescent. I did not know that it would cost me the certainty of my evangelical faith. Are the approval for whom i care of people for whom i care deeply. Perhaps curiosity has also cost you something. Maybe it cost you the certainty of your ill opinion towards a neighbor. Once you learn the whole story. Media cost you a marriage has you questioned your sexuality. Or your values. In inviting us into unknown and unpredictable possibilities. Curiosity. Can change us. Get these changes need not be measured only by their cost. Curiosity can open up whole new world of wonderful and marvelous things. Without my religious curiosity. I would never know what it is like to live without the anxiety of properly following all the religious rules. Without my intellectual curiosity displacing ideas of creationism. I would not have been able to marvel that we are made of stardust. Without. Nor would i have learned to marvel at the love story of a woman's first kiss with another woman. Or if officiated as one man married another. Without curiosity. I would not have come to so deeply respect my muslim neighbors across the hall and my cambridge apartments. Or learn to stand in solidarity with our muslim neighbors here in wayland. Curiosity is not just a path towards learning new things. Curiosity can be a posture. Of hope. And humility. The changes us. Curiosity can teach us to live with faith and it experience of life and other people that is always bigger than we can ever fully grasp. In this way curiosity teaches us along with mister rogers. To wonder. And marvel. Such an attitude towards life brings a freedom that cannot be contained by any richard or tyrannical system that would have us not question. Such an awareness reminds us to not take for granted what is good just and fair as the world around us may change again. Curiosity calls for us to be humble. And adaptable as we learn. And it calls for us to never stop noticing what is yet possible. What we do not yet know and what is wondrously marvelous all around us. And this sunday as we recognize both those who have sustained this congregation for many years. And welcome others as new members. My hope is that we will work together to intentionally cultivate a culture of curiosity. Of course we can flex our curiosity and learning through sermons education programs winter sessions or social justice projects. But i wonder how we might also practice postures of curiosity and how we relate to one another. Weather by talking with different people and coffee hour. Are talking differently with those we often see. Or perhaps we bring a posture of curiosity to questions of governance organizations and how we do. Best manifest our mission. I wonder. Tell my curiosity change first parish. How it might change. Each of us. Within these walls and beyond some. May we all explore what it means to live. With a posture of curiosity. Well there is much in this world that doesn't make sense. And there are many who would tell us they have all the answers. Me we value the hope and humility a curiosity as a way to live with wonder and marvel. In a complex world. So may it be. Amen.

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FP-20191215-Homily.mp3

This month at first parish we have been exploring the theme of science. To put it broadly the scientific method calls us to hypothesize. To observe. To see and perhaps to touch in pursuit of knowledge. As we prepare to listen to italian composers respighi steak on the christmas story from the shepherd's perspective. I want to suggest that we might view the shepherds as a kind of scientist. I know you're skeptical but hear me out. The shepherd's had witnessed angels appearing out of nowhere and singing in the sky. And they had seen a mysterious new star. Which of these men who spent their days walking sitting and sleeping on the ground. It was not enough to be told second-hand about this new child. They needed to go and see for themselves. Following their hypothesis that the angels might be telling the truth about a new born in a stable who was lying in a feeding trough between oxen and donkeys. He left their flocks and went to the town of bethlehem. When they located the stable and observed the scene to in fact be as the angels had told them. Quite enough for them. Denver speakeasy test. The shepherd's sing. Happily would we hasten back to our hillsides and our flocks. Could we but touch him. Besought. Toosii. And to touch. We wanted to connect with the wonder of this child. Not only as a story. Observation. Indirect. Experience. 2000 years removed from whatever events may have in fact happened in bethlehem. We cannot go. See and touch. We are left only with a story. And it is a story that emerged through oral accounts that became ancient written text that became many translations that became reinterpreted into the songs we will here today. Left without hard physical evidence of a birth. Or a stable. A special star or a virgin mother. We cannot satisfy modern scientific standards. To know. What really happened. But doesn't matter. Or can we still find meaning and truth of another kind. In this ancient improbable story. Is it not true. But when the unexpected happens we often rush to learn more to see for ourselves. And if possible to touch into turn the mystery over in our hands. Is it not true that when a child is born so often the heart of a parent breaks open in praise for the wonder of a new life. And is it not true. In the midst of suffering. Even the smallest bundle of hope. Better future. Can change everything. When such proofs are put to great music. They can connect across time and across language. We can feel the joy of the angels the curiosity of the shepherds. The love of a new mother. As we listen. Our own experiences of love wonder and longings for hope may awaken in us again. Reconnecting us to deeper truths that gives shape in meaning to our lives. The story may be ancient. And it may not be scientifically provable or probable. But as we hear it again. Maybe listen not simply for what may or may not be accurate facts. But also for the truth. Of joy and hope. Of love. And wonder. Because what may matter most in the christmas story. May in fact be how these truth inspire. Possibility. Of a better word. Please join me in a prayer. The health center ourselves i invite you to take a deep breath in. And out. Interests for a moment of stillness. Before i begin. Spirit. Peace. And quiet. We welcome your presence. Amidst this festive. Full season. A celebrations and events. Shopping. And rapping. Travel and prepping. In the moments of stillness. We might discover in east december days. May we listen for the day. Truce that shape the stories of our lives. Maybe listen for the love that connects parent. And child. Lovers. Pinions. Friendships that last. 4 years. Maybe listen for joy. In a child's laugh. In the song of a winter bird. Are the lifting force of a surprise. And maybe listen for hope. The welcome of immigrants into a new land. The safety of good shelter for the impoverished. And for those who are suffering with loss or despair. The thing me reconnect. The possibility of a better future. May we live these truths. Of hope. Love. Joy. And peace. Anchor our lives. Amidst all the uncertainties. In our harried. So may it be.

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FP-20151018-Sermon-red.mp3?_=5

The last weekend. And one of the rituals that i look forward to each year. Is a phone call from my high school best friend tanya. We stay good friends partly because we don't ever miss calling each other on our birthdays. I forgot to call her. Wait a conference in california and thought i'd call when i return. It in the weeks in the month past. Until my birthday last weekend. And yet mid-afternoon. It was calling. When i tried to apologize for missing her birthday. She brushed it away with such warm that i had no doubt that she did not harbor a grudge or any bitterness. Rather than hang onto ingredients. She simply wanted to know. I was doing she wanted to connect. Experience. That decades-old friendship her love and her forgiveness. Was one of my best birthday gifts. But telling you the story. You now know the truth. Your minister is not. A perfect person. I'm s-sorry get more for your money i know. I mess up. I disappoint. And even harm people that i love. I can speak too quickly. Before i thought through the issues or the impacts. I can simply make a bad call. Like adding an unsinkable him to order of service. I make mistakes. And i failed to do things that are important. Calling one of my best friend's on her birthday. I suspect i'm not alone. Sword of our intentions is simply part of being human. Walking through a landscape of messes and mistakes. Pain and harm. Is part of life. Learning how to live within this landscape with resentments guilt or anger. It's a spiritual issue. How do we forgive another for harming us. We're dropping the ball when we were counting on them. How do we forgive ourselves when we fall short of our own expectations. Or harm someone that we love. In response to my request for spiritual themes we might explore together. I received an email suggesting acima forgiveness. 9 people have been shot and killed at a bible study in charleston south carolina. Within 48 hours several of their family members would tell the shooter. I forgive you. On the day i received the email. Dzhokhar tsarnaev was sentenced to death for his role in the boston bombing. He told the court. Now i am sorry for the lights i've taken. I've caused you for the damage i've done. Irreparable damage. Against the backdrop of these two events the email i received asked. What does it mean to forgive. And why is it so important. Maybe fundamentally. Is it important. Is it always the better response. Should we always forgive. If someone killed one of my family members. Even be my goal. I just don't know. Is it the same as moving on. Or is it deeper. Respond. Forgiveness can be an emotionally fraught word. Strong feelings of anger resentment loss and harm. I think the forgive is often understood as issuing a pardon for a debt or an offense. It's seen as a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card. Erases the wrong like it never happened. And presumes the offense is forgotten. Instruments such a pardon in the face of t-pain. I can feel wrong. My sense is that this idea of forgiveness as a pardon. Is deeply rooted in the christian tradition. Which has shaped the thinking of many of us. If only by virtue of its wide presence in the us culture. As many of you know from christians from a small age or taught the lord's prayer the our father. Which teaches adherence to pray. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Traditions. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. In either case. Is it something has gone wrong. And as for that something is owed by one person to another. Forgiveness is the pardon. White out the debt. It's such time such a forget definition of forgiveness is erasing death. For clearing the tally of offenses. Considered one of my favorite christian figures martin luther the 16th century protestant christian reformer. Luther wrestle deeply. With how can we know. If we've been forgiven. How do we know if we have done enough. God's forgiveness. Have i prayed enough. Kind enough. Rules for living in for repenting close enough. If musa wrestled with these questions. He came to the conclusion. That we couldn't do enough to earn god's forgiveness. The only thing we could do is trust in god's grace the gift of god's love. I suspect that many of us have also wrestled with whether we have. Good enough. Or done enough good. More to the point i suspected many of us struggle with the knowledge that at times we have missed the mark. How would like to act and treat others. Call hurt others. We have all been hurt. I find the approach of religion scholar steven prothro. To be helpful here. In his book god is not one. The eight major religions describes both a problem and a solution to the problem. Christianity the problem is sin in the solution is salvation. In islam the problem is pride in a solution of submission. The problem is suffering and a solution is awakening. And so on. Of course these short summaries belie that many details and nuances. Is the common ground. How to respond to a sense that there is something not right with our world. And does all the major religions tell us. There is a problem. We do not need religion to tell us this. We watch the news and learn of ongoing violence and war. Poverty and greed. We walk in the day and unjustifiable snapped at our child or spouse or a pet i do i don't know about you. We all have our problems. Are ways of falling short of our ethical ideals. Archives of how we want to be treated in to treat others. And we all interact with a complex environment beyond our control. We don't know when the car in front of us might swerve into our lane. The doctor deliver the news that we have dreaded to here. Espouse confess to an affair. Immune. Disappointment or harm. Irritations to life-or-death. Escape the reality. Life will not always give us what we want. How do we respond when we experience such moments. What do we need to do to make things right again. Again. Even try. I think that most christians would say yes you must try. Because god has forgiven you for sinning against god. Must forgive others sin against you. It's the right response. When i hear the words of the family members of charleston. I sure christians leaning into and living their faith in a moment of profound crisis and sorrow. I hear them drawing upon their understanding of god and the world to help make sense of a tragic loss. I hear them saying that in a moment when life has become hell. They will not let hate. When. They will not let. When. They will stand for love. For the god of love whose love covers over all manner of sin. An order to stand with that guy.. They will forgive. At that moment. These heartbreak broken family members appear to find solace hope in meaning in their face. And a loving forgiving god. Similar solace in god terrifying moments. No. If god allows these things to happen. Then no i don't have face if this god is loving or just. Others respond by rejecting god. At least an understanding of god that controls the cause-and-effect universe. I don't believe in a god. Pools or refuse. Pull up levels. That will cause harm or prevent harm. But i do believe in a spirit of love and life that flows through all the cosmos. I do believe that we live in a universe with great beauty and wonder. I do believe in the human capacity for love for kindness for generosity and for. Forgiveness. At workshop i attended in august and loving kindness and forgiveness. Co facilitator fred luskin stanford research psychologist. Define forgiveness. As making peace. With the word now. More fully he described forgiveness as the capacity and the present moment. To make peace with a part of your life that didn't go the way you wanted. Example. Spouse. Any answer was no. You wanted to be a great parent. The answer was no. Or sometimes. The diagnosis is cancer. Weather. Or no. We could not force the world to conform to our expectations and needs. Life hands of snow. How do we respond. We need to grief. Betrayal or harm field. Statement charleston family members. If they do not hide their pain. Northern anchor. Sometimes. Grieving is complicated and hard and can take a long long time. Persona paynefield too deep and the possibility of ever moving beyond grief or anger seems unthinkable. And in this way. From acme indeed. Forgivable. Never personally had such a deeply painful experience. I cannot pretend to prescribe the possibilities for another's experience of pain or grief. However for most of us in most situations of loss and grief. I believe we can reach a point. Where we can find peace. Forgiveness. By changing the channel in our brain. Fuse for the science comes in. Or threat. Are adrenaline system kicks in and floods our brains the focus attention on the worst possible outcomes. The brain wants us to survive and goes into a kind of overdrive. To attend to threats. Gripped by fear. We can fall into a kind of mental rut that keeps us focused on danger and saturday with a sense of threat. But life is more than threat and danger. Beauty and goodness. Moms and connection generosity and kindness. Luskin encourages us to develop practices. It would help us to learn to better change the channel. To see the world beyond our losses. And beyond our fear. Other workshops he had to spend five minutes telling another person. About something good that it happens with the last 24 hours. American medications such as the one i led you in earlier in the service. Focusing on people we love and adore. Look out the window and just a small part of the view in detail. Describe it to another person. Is luskin spoke to the importance of grieving our pain. In describing the goodness. I realize that we do that here. And our joys and sorrows. Every week. We name. Where are pain is where our losses where hearts are. Bashar. The delightful news of the birth of our grandchildren. For years. Show that life is both of these things. Richard wright. Healthy religion. Shows you what to do with your pain. Forgiveness. Making peace with life's nose. Learning to let go. For sharing joys and sorrows. Are always people speak to transform live spain. It's stephen polaroid teaches. Religions all seek to find a way to respond to life's problem. Or what i would describe as life spain. Finding a way to transform pain. Is a major part of the spiritual journey. I don't believe that i can speak for all people are all circumstances. From what i know of life. Tight to our pain in our hurt. Ernest in hatred. And while we need to name and acknowledge our pain. I believe it is also good. 2:15 transform it. Transforming pain. Forgiveness. For making peace with painful events. Forgetting what we've learned through such experiences. Rather it means that we seek to acknowledge the past. End. The gifts of beauty and love. To continue to be present. With us. When we are able to change the channel to not only see the pain. Also the goodness and the love. I hate. Doesn't.

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FP-20140921-Sermon-mp3-3200Hz-32kbps.mp3?_=5

It's an understatement to say that education. What is. Example. Poor children who often worked the other six days of the week. In the bible. Economic benefits. Start of a sunday school movement in the us. The declaration of independence as well as a prominent physician. Sunday school 44 children in philadelphia in 1790. 1/18. Sunday school. Ashley unpopular move for all people because. Edification. January 1827. A group of boston boston organized the sunday school association. With the reverend joseph german as its president. Leader of an organization. Austin area schools. That was available. Our morning reading from william ellery channing. Sunday school association in 1837. Curricula. Port education. Education. What is the story of unitarian bronson alcott. An innovative educator in boston. Character. Project. Several prominent women. Could go on to be the founder of kindergartens in the united states. In the highly educated margaret fuller. Who is one of my favorite heroes. Strong advocate for the education of women. College level instruction in her famous conversation. He also wrote. Women in the nineteenth century. Elizabeth married at school. How to write curriculum. Horace mann. Which if you don't know it's the first department public department of education in the nation. In the fun part is that the story of mary peabody and horace mann when they were married in 1843. Remember to the american public school system. Which is. Why does all this matter. Indeed. Mirror of the one are 18th and 19th century. View of humanity. And religion. Intellectual curiosity. Any importance of education. New england. Four states by puritan beliefs. Bring his ideas in writing. Scotland. Coming to the stores of american. First spent time among the like-minded calvinists in the netherlands. Where i grew up in michigan. And well-liked.. Grand rapids michigan. Is home. And calvin seminary very very seriously. With a calvinist. Even in my public high school world history curriculum. Our study of the 16th century. Discussion of john calvin's theology. And on top of that. Is the idea. Total. Depravity. We are fundamentally corrupt. We are not born in. Already and depraved human race. Capacity. Moral education look like within a calvinist system. 18th century. Catechism. How many of you are familiar with the idea of catechism. What is the highest end of man. What is the purpose of life. The catechism answers. Glorified god forever. Answer r. Courtney answer. A are grounded in the biblical pack. Which teacher said. Or true. Rather. Humanity. Develop your own question. Young woman and a conservative culture. The world. Outlook. About getting the right answer. And wondered that might lead. And margaret fuller. Resistant. We believe that human nature. Quarryville. As well as for good. Her will is free. Freedom of will. They were proposing. Irresistibly on the young. Their own. Ri. Book inquiry and steadily with their own. Four-man outward regularity. Power of thought. Impartial. In the course of providence be offered for their decision. Education. Under. We can see this alive and well in our own religious education program. Example of aid. Adulthood. Bar or bat mitzvah are the catholic confirmation. It's a moment where children are asked to proclaim a religious tradition to be their own inheritance. Many religious traditions a deep preparation of learning about one prediction. And austin. Participating. Universalist. Our children. Their own answer. They are responsible. Memorizing a catechism. Their own mind. Their own character. What is good. What is wrong. Dance of religious beliefs and moral perspective. Other. Their answers to life's questions. What our children learn. If not. In the world. Responsible. Answer. Let me ask wondering about content elam. About the world. And our own purse. Literate. Moral. Content to learn it will make things better with our own question. Ian and universalist. Important. We are a part of a tradition. We are a part of a tradition that hold fast. In character. In the world. Answered. Affirmation of the freedom. Embrace. Universalism. We are all called to be speaker. We are called. We are called to prepare our children and youth. What it means to live in free and responsible life. Great this day. Are reproducing of education. Part of the education of our children and youth. As well as to our own ongoing journey of religious and spiritual development.

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FP-20190331-Sermon-D.Pope-Lance.mp3

The hymn from a drama title whence we come and how and whither which we will sing. Hazard closing him. Is known by most ministers by heart and every year at the service the living traditions that annual worship. Service at. Unitarian universalist general assembly they built like it was a rock song. Rent-a-wreck. Again we stand. Lowe's of hallowed. Walls demand. Whence we come and how and with her. Ministers licking wounds after a long troops year. Are healed by. It's chords. And not a few are biased cadence's called again to ministry. This ham employees. A bit above warren metaphor. It's not a typical of him is drawn from the center of our christian. Root plant. It is original form. 19th century. English school boys. Used its victorious lyrics to the rally to the rigors of academic battle. As we often do eva and rightfully so we've changed the words. To suit our gentler liturgies. I was privileged to grow up in a unitarian universalist congregation. To enjoy as a child to free face. About unitarian universalist sunday school. 2. Thrive in the warm embrace. Of a congregations youth group. To serve. At the silly ridiculously young age of 17. On a congregations parish committee. No they weren't desperate they wanted a use. And i was at. Praise be. And then to attend my first. General assembly of the unitarian universalist association. In not telling you the dates. You'd figure it out 1969. Know how many if you grew up in a unitarian universalist congregation. Cuz. Okay six or seven or eight. I want to remind you by the way that this doesn't make you special. You're no more special than anybody else to journey. Farther afield to be here. You're growing up in the unitarian universalist congregation. Only makes you you. My sermon this morning at stephanie's. Request. Reflects a bit on the twist and the turns of my. Journey in ministry from that time and a unitarian. Church as a child. To being here some years later at first parish where. I was honored. To be ordained by you the first woman ordained by this congregation. In deck in in all its existence. To work as a parish and intra minister. To work as seminary faculty and. And more recently as a therapist. Clergy coat grandmother and congregational consultant. I will speak a little bit about what. That journey has taught me. About the rigors of integrity. About how we eat. Enhance. And support the quality of our. Common life when we are who we say we are and when we live the values we say we hold dear. That. 69 general assembly was held in a single hotel in hilton for those remember only a short walk to channing's statue across from. Arlington street church and. A little bit longer walk to 25 beacon street at the time the national offices. Unitarian universalism. Back then i didn't know who william ellery channing was or why i should care. Historic it was the first. Contested presidential election in the us through seven candidates. Sometimes called the seven dwarfs. Because they were fine for the position held by their very tall. Dana mclean greeley. Our early racial justice were continued and of course among us. Opposition to the vietnam war. Was growing. The assembling adjourn to the steps of arlington street to protest the war and i literally. Climb the statue of channing and sat on i believe it was his right shoulder. So i could see the boys not older than i burn their draft cards. Across the street. Teenagers in the church no less than the adult delegates at the convention. Sardar sales part of a great movement that one day one day yet would surely. Change the world. Whatever changes. Have come since i know that my life was changed. By what happened to me. At that general assembly. I just. Didn't know it at the time. One evening. And if i told you this story before. After the first glass of scotch. Many times. I make no apologies just it's virtually my call story so ministries. So enjoy it yet again. Or for the first time. Someone eating my. My home. Minister church minister where i was on the board member. I know i know it's on home early but he was paged in the lobby of the statler hotel. Hotel. Being an eager helpful teenager of the church i went answer the page. Only discover. That it was for another minister by the same name. So now you know what i had to do i had to repay. That other person. And you'll remember paging. What's attack. Accomplished. By speaking into a lovey phone a phone attached to a wall. With a short cord. That. 1 spoke into and ones voice went. Throughout. The hotel's public rooms. So as i went. To approach. The paging phone. Auto lobby couch sitting together drinks and hand were three ministers. Among them a man with whom i have spoken earlier in the day about my first tank call to ministry. And the three asked. Would i be willing. To page someone else for them. Oh yes. And that is how i found myself. Eager and hopeful. Call to some small service in our movement with the phone in my hand. Standing in room full of unitarian universalist. My people. In announcing in my best public address voice. And with. Great conviction. Paging mr. bill channing. Please come to the main lobby mr. bill tenant. From every corner of the lobby at wave of laughter roared towards me a title surge of guffaw. That nearly drowned me. The ministers of course we doubled over in laughter house. But how foolish is me. How stupid. One of the ministers came over. Laughing and smiling but to tell you the truth now it was really more of a lear. And the said to me come on honey. Let me buy you a drink. 17. Come on i'll tell you everything you need to know. I couldn't move i couldn't breathe. I couldn't. Tell me what. No. I'm not going for a drink. Know all these years later living it as we do in a hashtag need to world. I better understand this moment. And i can reflect on it from two perspectives one the minister i am the grown woman. And the other the young girl i was then. Now the minister i am knows that these folks these colleagues. They're just kicking back after a long church year have a little fun. But the girl i was then always have felt safe at church. She entrusted ministers. And now she had been humiliated and hurt in a public place by no fewer than three. The girl i was then didn't understand how ministers could behave so badly. But the minister i am now. Can see these colleagues their stance there's. Sense of self-importance their privilege their thoughtlessness. There. Unkindness. The minister i am now has been chastened. Every so often to feel something similar in myself. I know these guys. The time has drawn across their actual faces. Unmerciful curtain. Yes that's when my journey in ministry began but i did not know its 10. I wanted to understand. How many stirrers of all people. Could behave so badly. And how. Impact of their bad behavior. Could be so very hurtful. Let me be quick to say that the behavior of history college. Well dad was not as bad as the abusive soul-stealing behaviors we witness. No. In these recent years. The media's wide coverage of the crisis of pedophile priests in the catholic church. Make it. Mercifully entirely unnecessary for me to offer up. This morning any examples. All religious and spiritual traditions are sadly. Cars 2. Are enduring similar crises. And we can speculate. That because the crisis outside the catholic church. Is only due to clergy sexualizing relationships with mostly adult women and not children. That. These. Crises. Do not attract. Media attention. Media attention would have us think that the problem with these behaviors is sex. That the church is repressive sexual mores celibate clergy is patriarchal attitudes. All combine to create a volatile mix. That gives rise to these behaviors. When we understand we understand pores that when a child comes to a priest for guidance and support. And that pre sexualizes that behavior the priests contact is sexual child sexual abuse. Yet isn't it also bad behavior unethical and hurtful because the priest is not being who are priests is supposed to be. Not an incase effectively. Show to shirley when a congregant an adult comes to any minister with concerns about work or marriage. Our children are spiritual life or practice or grief or failures or successes. And that ministers responses not the grace and support of pastoral care and counseling. But sexual behaviors. We must understand that this is not just bad. Because it's sexual. It's bad because it's. Substandard delivery of service. It's bad ministry it's not what you're supposed to be doing. The minister is not doing what ministers are supposed to be doing. Not being who. He or she or they say that they are. Not in any case effectively. So much of my early work has focused on ways to help clergy and laity most especially. Clearly see what it looks like when ministers behave badly or abusively. What makes it bad. Or unethical. Or hurtful. And how should clergy be held accountable for bad injury asan ethical. Behavior. Now i have to say the dressing these questions is not always endeared me to my colleagues. But it has increased their respect. For the power and the privilege that ministry accords them. And has led them to understand better. Their powers impact on others. A power for good or ill a power to heal or to harm a power to blast or to curse. Depending on. How it is wielding. Measure my current work so it's teaching and supporting clergy who served congregations. We're in the past. Some sort of clergy misconduct occurred or is believed to have occurred. Many of these congregations struggle to thrive some to survive. Some display a stunning incapacity to manage themselves well. Or civilly. Members behave badly. Rudely crudely treating each other. Poorly bullying people to get their way. Other congregations have difficulty. Repeated difficulties in relationship to ministers and often have a succession. Unhappy parting. No dare i say this work is gratifying. Even if it weren't. Sad. To be out there being needed to be done by someone. I get to support ministers doing their best work. Under unduly challenging conditions. And frequently one of those challenges. Is confusion. About what a minister is supposed to be doing and what. Makes it. Ethical or effective when they do do it. One of the earliest works on ethics in ministry. Was 5 a methodist. Bishop. Written in 1928 it was called ministerial ethics and etiquette. No. Harmon this fictitious minister lived a very long and very cogent life. And was able to update his volume twice. Until his death that nearly. Last centuries end. It was heavy on advocate. Etiquette and light on ethics yes. It had lengthy discussions about home life about personal finances. About. Appropriate dress. But still the book remains worthy. It should go without saying. Harmon observed. That's a minister. Must always be a gentleman. Isn't it great that he lived long enough. Then in 1990 he updated his book. And added and if a woman. Always a lady. It was his cue that a minister will know instinctively how to behave almost. Everywhere. Okay then. Herman defaults to character. The character is the basis for ethical conduct in minutes. It is character that guy's a minister to know instinctively how to behave everywhere. And study after study confirms this. One study involving more than 12,000 participants. I asked this question. What. Qualities make a minister effective. Cuz each of you are. As great an authority on that question as any of those 12,000 participants. The top. 3. Where. Personal integrity. Service without regard to acclaim. And a person people can respect. All three of them reference administers character. And it's not until you get to the fourth one. You'll love this. Especially the board will love this. The ability to complete tasks. And to handle differences of opinion. But even the ability to handle differences of opinion is more about character than skill requiring. Great amounts of equanimity. For lack of a better word grace. What matters most. Proof active ministry so it seems. Is character and integrity. Study after study confirms. That the person of. The minister and their performance of the minister are inextricably linked. No i know how to teach ministry skills. But how do you teach. Integrity. The empress in our earlier story understood the importance of integrity. Truck. Country's leader. She searched for a child who would be honest even when dishonest you might. Steam. Picture path to what they wanted. She wanted a leader who would do what they said they would do. Show up when they agreed to show up. Even when they were nervous. Even when they were worried that they might be laughed at. Even when they were worried they might not. No enough. A leader to be respected. A l honest. Honorable. Someone with integrity. I want to tell you that i did not know i was going to end up here. And i mean no direct reference to anything. About. It's going on anywhere. Other than. Right here. These are tough times. But integrity is tough. Integrity means you follow your moral or ethical convictions and do the right thing even when no one is watching you. Integrity means that you are true to yourself to who you are. And do you say you are. And you don't do things to demean or just honor. That person who is you. You do what you say you're going to do. We're discovering that doing that is not the thing that would be you and the world properly and truthfully. You say so. And like the gps in your car. You recalculate. And your journey goes. In a different direction. Integrity is not holier-than-thou. Genuine and transparent it says i am who i appear to be. I can be counted on to be the person you know me to be. To represent what i value. And i believe. But actually integrity is a way of relating to oneself and two other people a relational stance if you will. That. In ministry forms. An ethical standard. No r4 bareville channing your merrillville. In our reading calls a person with integrity. A free mind. Someone who seeks after righteousness. Who does not entertain accidental impulse. It was calm in the midst of trouble. Who listens for conscience who delights in virtue or peril control. Don't you get the sense. The doctor channing. Never failed. Daddy thinks. We can do that everyday. And perhaps. For him a bright light as he was. Failure. Tubi. A free mind was impossible. But for us truly we each know integrity is tough going and we each can recall. Moments when we were not our best selves. When we did not stay calm in the midst of whatever tumult or listen to our conscience or act on it. And then there's those three guys on the sofa in the lobby of the hotel. Yes integrity. Can fail. So it turns out. What helps. In ministry when integrity fails. Is the voices. Colleagues and others. Rallying. The minister. Back to the rigors of integrity. We are like the 19th century. Students at school reminder to ghin. A term start. Just sing the song loud and with conviction. Whence we come and how and whither. To be who we say we are. To strive to be who we say we are. To give expression to our dearest values. This is how our individual power. Change. The world. We call ourselves back. The voices of others. To understand. The rigors. Integrity. Who know that there are moments of failure. The voices are only allowed among them. Summoning us like oliver's poem. Reminding us that from time to time is the complexity and the challenge of our days we must do what we know we have to do. We must stop and we must listen we must little by little hero voice of wisdom. And troost. That we will recognize. Is not only our own. But our companions. On that road full of fallen branches and stones. A voice that can lead us not away but ever toward who we say we are and what we hold dear. And what we know. We must do. It seems that the. Thing that helps. Integrity. Is companions. Who call us back to our best selves. To who we are. In truth and wisdom. Now we are both always known that relationships are important. We have known that from earliest infancy we are nurtured in relationship that we journey in relationship. Directed by. Our families and by significant others and by significant. Places. By witnessing companion to also struggle to hear and listen to that voice of truth and wisdom. To enhance the quality of our common life. Ar. And by giving. Fullest expression. Fullest as they can. This day. To all that they hold dear. We would be one. In building. For tomorrow. Turns out that this is how integrity you just learned by witness. By being on the journey with companions. Who would be true. Did you wonder what it must have been like. For those children does other children the ones. Who didn't see any green growth in their play pop and then decided to fix fix that by putting their own ctech on in under the dirt and their claypot making it all like it's going to. Pappin as they. Think it should but. Isn't supposed to be. Thinking of them laughing at vera and her empty. Pocket play. Watching as integrity not the seat but the emperor's to choose. Vera. Surely they must have witnessed that and been called back. It is we who bring one another. To fullest. Truths about ourselves. To water and warm us into being who we are meant to be. At our best. And surely the cadences. Will call us to. Sing with me now. Whence we come. And how and whither.

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FP-20191225-Homily.mp3

The reading that you heard ryan give. Appears as a monologue in the musical show black nativity. This show has played for 49 years in boston. Last friday i saw it for the first time with a friend. Most of the show is extraordinary renditions of christmas carols sung in gospel style. And so when a man stepped forward to speak. The words of hughes poetry. The contrast amplify the impact of his words. Tell me again the christmas story. Christ is born in all his glory. And yet. I doubt that most people would consider being born in a barn to impoverished parents. During the occupation of a foreign government. To be a particularly glorious event. Indeed the poem does not flinch from her difficult the situation is for the family in the stable. A family that has been turned away from the inn. Because. Only men of means. Get in. As a black man living in america from 1902 to 1967. Q's was certainly aware that life could deal out plenty of discrimination and inequality. Many of his poems testify to these in justices. Even so. In the christmas story. Cute point not only to the struggles of living admits poverty and oppression. But also to the wonder. Analyte. In the story. However. The wonder in the story does not come from the circumstances jesus mary and joseph find themselves in. But rather from an inner light. That radiates from jesus. Baby laid in manger dark. Lighting ages with the spark. Of innocence that is the child. Trusting all. Within his smile. It is jesus's innocence and humbleness from which his halo beans. But innocence is a fragile gift. The tune fades or even shatters is the in justices and losses of life. Reveal the complex landscape of mingled joys and sorrows. From bruce limbs of toddlers learning to walk. The hunger pains of children living in poverty. Or the fear instilled in use from violence in a home or a nation. Innocence gives way. To a darker understanding of the threats in life. And as we age. We learn how unfair and unjust the world can be. And it's politics. It's random distributions of disease. And it's inescapable power of death. To take those we love. In such a world. We might be excused for becoming the proverbial scrooge. Miserly and compassion. As our focus narrows to carefirst. About me and mine. And yet. Into this darkness. The christmas story returns. To challenge us to turn again to the innocent child born in a manger. Might we still find a gift. In the radiant smile of a child. Trusting all with a smile. What if we allow the light of the child. To spark our own trust. In that radiant face. My our heart also open to the wonder of the world. Could we be reminded. Admits the strife. There are still sparks of love. Crust. And connection. I felt such a spark yesterday as i walked on a sidewalk between two stores in bedford. Having finished my gift fine finally. I was headed towards the grocery store. I had on the sidewalk i noticed a woman carrying a bouquet of flowers walking towards me. She must have noticed me also because when she was just a few strides away she spoke. Can i give you a flower. Startled augusta. Yes. Pulling out a single rose from her bundle she passed it to me with a smile. And continued walking. Resuming my path. I mean to the bud. And inhaled it sent. Healing tears appear. I don't know if my slow pace belied my aching feet and come in inspired her compassion. Or if she simply felt a need to share her own overflowing joy. Whatever her reasons. Her small gift to a stranger. Spark joy in my heart. Amidst the strife. And the sorrow. There is still kindness. And goodness in this world. When we look at the smile of an innocent child. Perhaps the gift we receive. Is to be reminded of an unsullied view of the goodness of life. Perhaps in this smile. We might be inspired to also seek out the goodness that remains peppard. Throughout life. Has hugh. Ques reminds us. Even in the christmas story. There is struggle in strife. Commingled. Was joy and wonder. May this season. Help to spark our trust. In the joy and wonder. That remains present. Impossible. Throughout the world. So may it be. Amen.

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FP-20151129-Sermon-with-Reading.mp3?_=5

Ar reading today comes from rebecca parker who. I've read before i really like her. Actually got there once with her last week. This is. Fairly popular poem and you may have heard this before it's choose to bless. The world. Your gifts. Whatever you discover them to be. Indy 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. Find a welcome the stranger preys what is sacred. Do the work of justice or offer love. Any of these. Can draw down the prison door. Ford bread. Abandon the poor obscure what is holy comply with injustice. Or withhold love. You must ask this answer this question. What will you do with your gifts. Choose to bless the world. The choice to bless the world can take you into solitude. Just search for the sources of 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. A life of ritual and praise. The comfort of human friendship. Company of heroes. The course of life. Welcoming you. None of us alone. Can save the world. Together. That is another possibility waiting. The choice to bless the world is more than active will a moving forward into the world with the intention to do good. It is an act of recognition. A confession of surprise. A grateful acknowledgment that in the midst of a broken world. Unspeakable beauty. Grace. And mystery of vine. There is an embrace of kindness. Then compass is all life. Even yours. And while there is injustice. 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. Imagine a young woman. About to give birth. To her second child. A-sun. Her older son about 5 years old. And her husband would likely nearby. As for the dozens of other refugees with whom she shared the boat. The refugees plans have gone awry and they had not arrived. At their intended destination. Instead here she lay at anchor. In labor. She and her newborn son would survive. So her husband would die 2 months later. Indeed half of the refugees on that boat. Would not make it through the first winter. Get the young woman susanna survived. As with both of her son's resolved. And peregrine. And after spring and summer of planting and building. Susanna gathered with the other survivors to celebrate the fall harvest. Because of the shared land resources and knowledge of native americans already living upon the shores of plymouth. That's 1621 fall harvest. Promise to keep hunger and death at bay during the pilgrims second winter. Generations later. We still celebrate the gifts of food community and and abundance when we gather for thanksgiving. As religious refugees the young woman susanna white. And her son's resolved and peregrine. We're seeing violence in europe. It's 1620 much of europe was in turmoil. With religious differences. Continually reshaping the social political and religious landscape. With religion and politics so tightly intertwined. It was very very dangerous to hold a religious. Perspective different than your government. That danger was only second to the sense of betraying your understanding of the truth of what god expected of you. Can you do. When faced with such choices. Do you hide your face. You convert at the tip of a sword or the. Or the. Point of a gun. You run. Seeking refuge in a safe place. Is there. A safe place. These are old questions. These are today. Questions. Thanksgiving day. President obama made the same connection. He wrote. Nearly four centuries after the mayflower set sail. The world is still full of pilgrims. Men and women who want nothing more than the chance for a safer better future. For themselves and their families. Of course not all politicians agree with obama. Massachusetts governor charlie baker has joined with many others. Who urge caution. In accepting refugees from syria. Many are afraid that among the refugees will be terrorists. Ideologically bent on harming us. I know i'm straying into some dangerous political territory here but don't worry i will not cross the line and endanger our tax. Fattest tax-exempt status. However i do believe. That religion is about making sense of the world we live in today. And today the world is seen when the largest migrations of people since wwii. Let's put this in perspective. There are more than four million. Syrian refugees. Nearly a million more are displaced within. Borders of syria. That's 12 million people impacted. In comparison. The haiti earthquake affected approximately three and a half million people. In hurricane katrina 1.7 million. 4 million syrian refugees is nearly two-thirds of the total population of massachusetts. Where will these people go. How will they live. How will their children be educated. What do we do. Isn't this just yet another. One of those problems of humanity. A casualty of a wharf far away. Why risk our safety. Ar resources. For their lives. These are more than political questions they are moral questions and they are religious. Questions. How do we make sense of the brokenness of the world. The immense need. Otherworld. What is our responsibility to others. Why at. On behalf of another. In truth we humans do not always welcome the stranger the foreigner or the refugee. During graduate school i learned just how true this pattern of exclusion is within our us culture. When i worked as a teaching fellow for a course on citizenship. I was intrigued by the catchy title. Sex in the citizen. Sex in the city sex and citizen. A whole semester on citizenship. What's there to learn i wonder. Citizens vote and serve on juries or try to get out of jury duty. Of course. As it turned out. It was a lot to learn. I learned that in 1790. The first definition of citizenship in the us. Made clear that citizenship was a privilege of quote free white people of good character. This racial line with spawn volumes. Of scientific research in court cases on what counted as. White. Are moles from south asia white. Are muslims from india white. I also learned that native americans were not granted citizenship whether they wanted it or not. Until 1924. Annette for. of time. A native-born white woman would lose her us citizenship if she married a man from an excluded race. So also women without husbands or recognized categories of acceptable work. Would it be excluded as lpc. Unlikely public charge. The braided history of exclusions based upon race class sex marital status religion and nationality. Is long and complicated. Again and again the lines of belonging and exclusion. Have been drawn by politicians. Courts and social acceptance. And still lines are being drawn. Andre drawn. For much of the 19th century us immigration law tried to keep out the chinese. Well japanese merchants. And their japanese brides were welcomed and encouraged and had special status. But after the attack on pearl harbor these lines reversed. Life magazine published a spread. How to tell japs from the chinese. To help. The fearful public. In the government began entering japanese. Even us citizens into military camps. Such stories give us pause. Really. Belongs. In the us. Moreover. For centuries. Drawing lines of exclusion and higher key. Had not only been commonplace. Religiously sanctioned. God made the races differently. God made masters to rule over slaves. Men to rule over women. God made us heterosexual. God gave us creation to rule. God rules over us. Again and again power has been understood only in hierarchical terms. Higher and lower. Better and worse. More worthy less worthy. Important. Expendable. In. And out. Is unitarian universalist we are inheritors of a different religious tradition. Well this particular congregation may have historic unitarian routes that we are very proud of we still call our newsletter the unitarian right. But since the 1961 merger we are also universalist. Like unitarianism you the universalist denomination was an offshoot of the nineteenth-century protestant religion. As the name suggests universalist promoted the radical idea. All people would go to heaven. All people. Would be welcomed. Into one human community. Bound together by the love and grace of god. Mini did flock to the universalist churches. Others were aghast. How in the world could society function. If there's lines were not drawn between the good and the bad the saved in the sinner. What kind of moral chaos would erupt if people were not afraid of eternal punishment to motivate better behavior. Such fear even kept those immoral universalist from sitting on a jury. How could they possibly judge crime if they had no fear of eternal punishment. Today the universal has impulse lives on is a conviction that all lives share a common destiny. Rather than throw lines ultimately separate as one from another. Universalism says an emphatic no. We're in this together. All lives matter. And yet we do draw lines between people. And i have to say that some of those lines are. Say about safety. They create healthy boundaries that protect the innocent. Or restrain those intent on hurting others. Such lines can be important and necessary tools that ultimately uphold the value of life and human dignity. But as with the japanese internment camps or the exclusion of non-whites and citizenship. There is also a long long. Hmong. History. Of drawing lines in the name of protection. But actually demean people. Unjustly restrain liberty. And even justify violence. We are still drawing lines of exclusion and belonging. Since 9/11 the lions have become largely colored by middle eastern ancestry. And muslim identity. And yet the danger is not simply coming from abroad or from brown-skinned men. Again this week a white man with a gun. Spread terror by shooting up a planned parenthood in colorado. Indeed one u.s. survey shows that twice as many people have died since 9/11. In attacks motivated by anti-government or white supremacist groups. Then by radical muslims. And on that list. What's the shooting in. Of a unitarian universalist congregation in tennessee. We do live in a world of violence and danger. But who. Or what is the danger. These are not simple questions they are political questions. Kantar contested. They are also moral and religious. In a moral frame are we obligated to act on behalf of refugees. Must action mean opening our borders. You may disagree and that's okay. But for me i think we should. Welcome refugees here. As well as support refugee services abroad. For me i believe that unitarian universalist principle of affirming the worth and dignity of every person includes refugees. And i believe that the six principal called to promote the world community. With peace liberty. And justice for all. Suggest that we support those who are seeking peace after fleeing from war. Uu minister sean parker dennison calls this six principal quote. Extravagant. And it's hopefulness and improbable and its prospects. And yeti rights. As naive or impossible is the sixth principle amaysim. I'm not willing to give up on it. In the face of our culture's apathy and fear. I want to imagine and help create a powerful vision of peace by peaceful means. Liberty by liberatore means. Justice by just means. I want us to believe in to live as if we believe. Better world community with peace justice and liberty for all is possible. There is no guarantee that it will we will succeed. But i can assure you. That we will improve ourselves. And improve the world. By trying. Why act for refugees. To help support every person who is struggling to find shelter from the bombs. Water to drink food to eat and a chance to live another day. Maybe believing we can reach all refugees as naive. Maybe it's impossible. I'm in the process of trying to do something. We will make a difference. For someone. Lately i've been thinking a lot. About how our desires for the right world. Might be getting in the way of helping to make a better world. A compelling vision for how the world. 50. Henry inspiring. Painting pictures of peace and liberty. And justice for all can help us imagine that another world is possible. But i fear that it can also be a recipe for disillusionment and apathy. When the actuality feels too distant to unlikely or just too hard. I've been wondering. What happens. If we changed the goal from fixing the world to make it right. Just simply making the world better. If our goal is simply better. What can we do today to move in this direction. Can you write an elected representative or to the towne crier. Can you make a donation to the uusc the unitarian universalist service committee. For its many efforts including supporting refugee relief. And in fact you can do that today and coffee hour. You can buy a bowl. Can you challenge. Your friends or neighbors racist. Comments. About dangerous muslims. Or syrians. Or blacks. Can you challenge your own quiet assumptions about racial privilege. And who does. Or does not really belong. In the us. Our own history. In the u.s. is one of immigration. Including innumerable refugees from the mayflower to world war ii. To syria today. Again and again the lines of belonging and exclusion have been drawn. Again and again those lines have reflected unjust hierarchies of race class gender sexuality religion and nationality. As loud resistance to syrian refugees swirls around us. Let us also hear the words of yuka yasu fujikura which i'm sure i said wrong. Now 88. Fujikura was detained as a teen in a japanese internment camp. In a recent interview she states. To judge someone by ethnicity or their religion. It was wrong then. It's wrong today to. As we face the choice of how to respond to the syrian refugee crisis. The ongoing violence of white supremacy on our soil. And the many other in justices and inequalities. Within our shared world. My hope is that we will join with rebecca parker. Who calls us. To choose. To bless this world. So may it be.

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FP-20160131-Sermon.mp3?_=6

When shopping for toys. Have you ever noticed that there's a stark difference between the girl aisle. And the boy died of. When my son was small i tried to resist such labels and simply buy him toys he likes. In practice this meant that my vin five-year-old received both a spider-man skateboard and a princess barbie for christmas. In more recent years retail giants such as toys r us target and walmart have begun. To remove the ubiquitous labels a girl and boy from the toy shelf in their stores. And while it's still possible to search online for girl or boy toys. They're also filters for gender-neutral. Or unisex. And interesting lee if you're shopping on the toys r us website in the uk. The only filter. Is age. Vijender filters were drop laughed last november after pressure from a uk group let toys be toys. Who advocates for gender free labels. On the website for let toys be toys they have a page addressing frequently asked questions about their campaign such as. Boys and girls play differently any parent will tell you that. Or. Boys and girls are different. 4 but doesn't really matter they're just toys. After addressing these statements and more a comment section from the public begins with a post from chris. Who writes. I think there was just too much free time if we are worrying about this. There are so many causes out there and this just seems kind of ridiculous when we take a step back and look at the rest of the world and see what's going on. Awesome. Stereotypes wouldn't be stereotyped unless there was some truth to them. Boys want to be physical and curls are more nurturing. Now the beauty of human beings it's not that we are so infinitely complex. Is that we are so infinitely complex and that we don't have to fit into these boxes. Let's be honest and accept the truth. About a vast majority. Several people responded politely this is a uk website of course. By responding by challenging chris's assumption. About the differences between boys and girls. And i would too. I say this knowing that for many it goes against common sense. Indeed our culture teaches us all myriad of messages about gender. About how girls and ladies at in about how boys and men at. Are toy aisle. Clothing stores. Choice of major in college job trends. As well as popular humor in media. Reflect. These assumptions. Often the jokes are equal opportunity and reinforcing stereotypes of both men and women. Example here's a religious joke. I'm an ass. Why can't you make women so beautiful. God responded. So you would love her. The man ass. Why did you make her so dumb. God replied. So she would love you. Of course written as a joke. It also sends numerous to it damaging messages. All women are expected to be beautiful in order to be loved. Women are dumb. And men are unlovable. Except by women who don't know any better. Neither men. Or women come out very well in this joke. For decades feminists have been trying to whittle away at the list of what girls and women are not supposed to do or be. Like play sports or be doctors or lawyers or work while raising children. As a feminist i applaud the expansion of opportunities for girls and women. However there are still a lot of problems. Just this week a study showed that in many modern disney movies. Female characters actually talk. Less. Been in the classics such as snow white cinderella and sleeping beauty. On the text online will be linked to these various references in articles i'm making the study. And on friday. President obama announced new efforts. To combat the wage gap between men and women. It's a great move. But it's also a reminder that the median wage of full-time female workers in america. Is only 79% of a man's median earnings. All of this is to say. That gender still matters a lot. In our society. What does gender have to do about. Being a welcoming congregation. Isn't the welcoming congregation about sexuality. About welcoming gay lesbian and bisexual persons into our community. Absolutely yes. After several years of meetings and discussions and projects. First parish wayland officially became a welcoming congregation in the fall of 1996. This makes this. 2015 2016 program year are 19th year as a welcoming congregation. And next fall will be the 20th anniversary. We proudly announce our commitment on our website. Buy a rainbow on our sign on the front lawn and by this flag and plaque that are normally in the vestry when you first entered meeting house. Becoming a welcoming congregation wasn't intentional step forth recognizing a variety of ways of being human. A bean in loving relationships. Of expressing one's sexuality and identity. At the time we first became accredited. The program specifically welcome gay lesbian and bisexual person. And in time the welcoming congregation program would evolve to also include transgender lives. Here at first parish are useless spring lead their service around the topic of transgender awareness. And they also organized a transgender awareness panel that was very well attended both by our community as well as people in the wider metrowest area. These waves are used heaven have challenged us to extend our welcome. Not only to a range of sexual expressions and identity. But also to variety of gender expressions and identity. So now we're back to gender. Have any of you been in a workshop or meeting lately where you were asked to not only identify your name but also your preferred pronoun. So. Maybe you wondered why. Maybe you thought well isn't it obvious. I'm here with a suit coat in the tie. You're really i'm a male i hear he a him or i just spent 30 minutes doing my hair and makeup this morning. Clearly i'm a she or her. Indeed we all have to look around a room walk down a street or watch the media with an unconscious. Ever-present filter that sorts people into gender categories male. Or female. What if you didn't fit. Into these two categories. What if your little boy who likes to play with dolls. What if you're an adult woman who prefers masculine cut pants suits short hair and no makeup. What if you're a person who live like spit savoth what society called masculine. And feminine. What if your gender identity isn't so clear-cut. What is deciding which bathroom to enter or box to check out of form. Left you feeling not only uncertain. Left out. Like the whole world is split into two camps. And you don't have a place. And either. In 1990. Dollar judith butler. Opened up a whole new framework of thinking about gender and her landmark book. Gender trouble. Butler's prose is dense. And many a student has cursed and wrestled their way through gender trouble. Only to discover a whole new way of thinking. Ensure. Butler critiques with the gender binary. The whole system of dividing the world into two camps male and female masculine and feminine. Rather than try to make the two camps equal or merge them into one big gender-neutral are unisex camp. Butler and effect says. It's all. Describing gender is a kind of performance. Butler argues that were all taught script. About how to be good boys and girls women and men. What were the messages you remember learning. Men. Should you wear hat inside. You always open the door for ladies like you're supposed to. Do you feel comfortable crying in public. And women. When is it okay to start wearing white. Do you always cross your legs when seated in public places. How comfortable do you feel asking for what you want. For expressing your anger. These are just some suggestions of the many many ways the expectations of gender performance. Structure what we wear. Our social interactions. And our emotional and psychological lives. There are so many obvious and invisible waze. Set the gender binary shapes our expectations of ourselves and others. I'm living in a world split into two basic categories male. And female. Including transgender live into the embrace of the welcoming congregation. Recognizes that for some people. The gender assigned to them at birth. It's not the gender they feel express who they are. By changing their gender expression and potentially their body. To align with their own understanding of gender. Many transgender person seek to relocate where they are on the gender binary. So asking a transgender person. Their preferred pronoun. Can be an empowering moment that if firms their dignity. To be seen as they see themselves. But there are still those who struggle with landing solidly. In one camp or the other on one side of the gender binary or the other. Well there are number of particular terms to express a range of expressions of gender and sexuality and if you want to know these terms as any of the youth. I used to teach women gender and sexuality studies and i went to the youth group last spring and i learned about it doesn't newterms. So there's a lot of particular terms. But the one term that serve and braces are the rain. And the variety is the word queer. To describe all those. Who don't map. Or don't want to be mad. On the gender binary. As you heard in the reading queer can mean many things. For some it does remain a derogatory term. Lame. To divide homosexuals that. Those who seem odd. For peculiar. Yet it's also a turn that's been reclaimed is a positive term for identification. Sometimes it's used as his umbrella term to include all those were not straight or heterosexual as in a proud claim of being part of the queer community. And sometimes it's used to describe a framework. Thinking and bean citristrip that resists strict. Gender categories in clearly delineated labels. Sometimes being queer. Mark's a way of being that values flexible and fluid movement. Between. Among. And across. The categories. For butler and others. Who explore life through the lens of queer theory. Queer is the intentional subversion of the gender binary. And it's closely linked notions of heterosexuality as the norm. Or heteronormativity. If a lot of words of gendered feminist perifit. People so hedorah normative it is that sense that head of his sexuality is v norm. If we follow butler. To see gender is a kind of performance of social expectations of how we should look. Or behave. Fuel attraction or be sexually intimate. When we can also begin to question the inevitability. Of these expectations. Maybe we don't always have to follow the script. Of gender performance. Maybe we can hate wearing makeup and still be a real woman. Or maybe we can still be a real man. After we've admitted to a friend in tears that were having a hard time. What does a real woman in a real man even mean anyway. Who gets the size of standard. I can't eat your pasta sauce. Rather than being mere theory. These are the questions so many are struggling to live each day. As they get dressed. Got to use the restroom. Or engage in a conversation with someone who is just clearly distressed they can't figure out if you're a he or a she. The butler uses terms of performance. And i've described this as a kind of play. For those who are daring to transgress expectations of the gender binary. Consequences are very. Real. From social social exclusion to outright violence. Transgender and queer folk often pay a high price for their so. Version. Of gender and sexual norms. More transgender persons were killed in 2015 than any other year. And according to reports by mormon activist wendy montgomery. 32 l jeep. Tu mormon youth. Have committed suicide since early november. A number that motivated senior leaders in the mormon church to respond on thursday saying. We mourn with their families and friends. When they feel like no longer offers. The social system of the gender binary. And the closely linked notions of heteronormativity. Are dangerous ideas. They have been used to reinforce patterns of hierarchy between men and women. Social exclusion. 14 sex love. And violence. Against lgbtq. Hue lights. Committing ourselves to be a community that welcomes lgbtq person. Is no small thing. Too often lgbtq persons have been told that god hates. But their desires for love and affection are perversion. And it's simply who they are. Detestable. To these messages of hate. Let us respond with love. With respect. And with a welcome. To come as you are. Ar. To transform our world away from the damaging effects of a rigid gender binary system. We need communities that safely welcome lgbtq. Moreover we need communities that are themselves queer. Communities that actively try to move beyond patterns of binary thinking of male-female us. Then in out. Communities that seek honor and even celebrate the mini wondrous ways that we can live as human. Communities that learn how to. Learn how to allow flexible than shifting and fluid understanding of ourselves. And each other. On this day. When we both affirm our welcoming congregation commitments. And vote on new statements of vision mission and covenants. My hope is that first parish. Will be this kind of queer community. A place that welcomes lgbtq persons. And that wilkins all of us to expand our ways. A bean. And belonging. Let us embrace the manifold expressions of being human. And let us do so with open minds and loving hearts. As we seek to care for one another. And to work together to build a more just. Passionate. So may it be. Amen.

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FP-20190526-Sermon.mp3

What will you do. With your one wild. And precious life. Mary oliver used her life to notice the natural world. Evan to tell us. Her readers what she saw. She saw herons and grasshoppers. Light. And shadow. She noticed the wonder of new life. Into office. The vicious reality of death. Her bituary describe her poetry as both. Shallow and profound. Uplifting an elegy attic. Suggesting that her verse might best be read. As poetic portmanteau. One that binds up both the primal joy and the primal melancholy. Of being alive. Never shrinking from the observation that life is comprised of both joy and sorrow. Poetry presented it to all of us. Presented it all to us. Asking if we too were paying attention. Do we notice the small details of life. Are we attending to the depth of meaning and watching the drama of life. In death in our own backyards. Through her poetry. Oliver challenges us to be aware of our living. And of our dying. With more than 20 volumes of verse mary oliver was. Best-selling poet who continues to be widely read and quoted. Through her writing she made a difference in her world. So also did poet and playwright and toes a key shange. You may not have heard of sean gay. She was not as widely published as oliver. Will sean gay was also a prolific writer. She is best known for a place you wrote when she was just 27. For colored girls who have considered suicide. When the rainbow is enuf. Began off-broadway in 1975. It's critical reception enabled removed broadway. In 1982 american playhouse on pbs stage the play. In a 2010 tyler perry made a big screen version. Described as quote a series of searing feminist monologues for seven black female characters named for the colors of the rainbow. Her play tells the stories of black women. Inspiring generations of playwrights while using a tool of culture to make a difference in the world. With a far greater commercial success on stage playwright neil simon also died this year. Comic writer from a young age simon started writing for sid caesar. Before painting his early work the odd couple and barefoot in the park. With his later trilogy brighton beach memoirs blocksy blues and broadway bound as well as lost in yonkers. His work revealed more about his own life growing up jewish and struggling in new york. His plays enjoyed a tremendous audience. His obituary states. From 1965 to 1980. His plays and musicals racked up more than 9,000 performances. A record not even remotely touched by any other playwright of his era. Often comic. His plays also depicted and understanding of life that demonstrated vulnerability. And heartache. Playwright. G2 left an impact. On our culture. Another great comic who died this year was tim conway. Never very successful as a wedding man apparently he had a vanity plate that said 13 weeks. For his shows that where he was believed man it only lasted 13 weeks so he just turned it into a joke. But he was an extraordinary collaborator. Longtime comic costar. Carol burnett said of conway quote. His sketches with harvey korman deserve a spot and whatever cultural time capsule were setting aside for future generations. Maybe there are other performers as funny. But in my opinion i can't think of anybody funnier. And if we're talking about people having an impact on culture. We must also remember marvel comic writer and editor stanley. For anyone paying attention to movie franchises lately. You couldn't miss the ongoing success of marvel. From the hulk. In 42 the many versions of spider-man. To the racial barriers broken by black panther. The characters created by stan lee on the printed pages of comic books continue to live on. In his lifetime lee was criticized for not giving enough credit to those who worked with him as artists and writers. Including early spider-man artist steve ditko who also died this year. Unfortunately repeated this mistake and only honored lee in the order of service for our next song. So as the choir sings maybe think of lee. And it go. As well as all those his pens and creativity have made a difference through culture. This year. We saw the death of a number of prominent government leaders as well. Last summer former un secretary-general kofi annan. Died at the age of 80. Like many government leaders the record of his impact is mixed. Recipient of the 2001 peace prize. The un also saw significant abuse of the iraq oil-for-food program under his watch. Even so annan was strongly committed to the un mission of joint action. Even calling george w bush's invasion of iraq illegal. For acting without full support. Former president george hw bush who died in november at 94. Would also come to express some concern about his son's administration. Even as his own presidency included the first invasion of iraq. Which arguably opened the door to the ongoing us engagement in the region. As president bush senior did diplomatically steer the us response to the collapse of the soviet union. In the end of the cold war. Although bush would lose after one term to bill clinton. He and clinton would later become close through efforts to fundraise in support of the 2004 tsunami in asia. In hurricane katrina in 2005. Barbara his beloved wife of 73 years. Suggested bush senior may have been the father clinton never had. And of course this year also saw the death of senator john mccain at 81. Book serving three decades as the senator from arizona he earned the nickname of maverick. We're going his own way. A nickname some would say was no longer merited as his presidential campaigns framed him as a more conservative and traditional candidate. Certainly in his last year. Is very public critiques of president trump and even the republican congress. Suggested a bit of a maverick strain of independence. 2 days after his diagnosis of brain cancer was made public. Mccain arrived the congress with a fresh scar above his eye. To vote against the republican effort to undo the affordable care act. Did the wild win of mini. The republican leader became a bit of a hero. Too many democrats. Was very clear that government leaders can make a big impact on our world. It's less clear that we can entirely. Identify politicians as categorically one thing. Or the other. A final example is representative john dingell who died at 92 in february. The longest-serving member of congress in american history. Dingle with a democratic representative from michigan for 59 years. Seen as one of the last bulls of congress with a tremendous reservoir of power. Former michigan senator carl levin said of dingle. John fought to pass medicare and he won. He fought the pass medicaid and he won. He fought for civil rights and he won. He fought for the endangered species act and the clean air act. And he won. Representative from the area of detroit he was of course. Passionate and promoting the industry the auto industry. An avid hunter like many of his constituent. That's two people who supported him. Thank you you received an a+ rating from the nra. And to the frustration of many democrats. Mostly voted anti-abortion. Add ingles funeral. The front pew was a bipartisan leadership of the house. Speaker nancy pelosi minority leader kevin mccarthy and majority leader steny hoyer. Amidst the divisions of government. Perhaps we can still have moments of shared morning. And respectful memory. And considering our government leaders. Perhaps we can consider how they to our complex. With stories commitments and motivations. It might resist. A single categorization. Sometimes people make a difference not by getting their name and broadway lights or on the ballot. But by simply living out their convictions in any given time. And place. For example of january dr bernice sandler died at the age of 90. Known as the grandmother godmother pursues me of title nine. She had earned a bachelor's master's and doctorate by the late 1960s. But repeatedly found her professional opportunities curtailed by her gender. When she found mention of an executive order prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in government contracts. She worked with others to bring administrative charges to the bureau of labor. Then she mind all kinds of government records for statistics and facts of sex discrimination. Presenting these to congress they took up the issue and passed the title nine legislation in 1972. What began as a tool of equity and admissions to schools and academic programs that receive federal funding. Also became a path for gender equity in sports. Is then a way to require schools to protect women. From sexual assault and harassment. Mary martin lakeland expert and sexual harassment and longtime friend of dr. sandler's told the new york times. Title nine turned out to be the legislative equivalent of a swiss army knife. Well doctor sandler fought against sex discrimination from a place of personal experience. Dr. richard green with a heterosexual man. Who fought to change the american psychiatric association's classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder. In 1972 he wrote in the international journal of psychiatry questioning quote. The premise that homosexuality is a disease or homes or homosexual is inferior in. The next year homosexuality was dropped as a disorder from the american psychiatric association diagnostic manual. Green died. In april at the age of 82. At his memorial service to sunset of his father. He had no interest in conforming. Biondo's he loved. I genuinely don't think he cared what people thought or said about him. Most of the time. I think he loved that they were saying anything about him at all. He had exactly no interest. In social norms. This year saw the loss of other trailblazers as well. Last september ballet dancer arthur mitchell died at 84. In the 1950s african-american mitchell broke barriers with the new york city ballet. Months before his death mitchell reflected on his 1957 pairing with a white female lead. Same. Can you imagine the audacity to take an african american and diana adams the essence and purity of caucasian dance and put them together on the stage. In 1957. And then when the reverend doctor martin luther king died and was assassinated in 1968. Mitchell began his own school. Which came to include the dance theater of harlem. In a post on instagram after his death. Copeland. The first african-american female principal dancer with the american ballet theater route. You gave me so much through our conversations your dancing and by simply existing as a brown body in ballet. But you were so much more than a brown body. You're an icon. Antihero. Who is your hero. There are so many different ways to be a hero and to make a difference. There was also fleming the gray who died this year at 97. One of the 400 navico. Navajo code breakers in wwii. He was part of the team credited with winning the pacific war. And yet the very existence of the team without fully declassified until 1968. How do we celebrate the heroes whose names we do not even know. Of course other names are known more widely. Such as legendary celtic john havlik. Who died at 79 in april. Over two decades and two championship errors havlik. Hustled across the court. The moment half extol the ball to save the celtics lead in game 7 of the 1965 eastern conference playoffs has become a staple in. Celtics. Highlight. Real real. So i read i am from michigan that was news but it seemed important to include a sports figure. Havlicek oh thank you could tell i'm not a local. A name you may not know is todd bowl. But i bet you have seen his impact. He founded the little free library. Did little outdoor library boxes of miniature libraries. According to his obituary there is a network of more than 75,000 tiny whimsical book exchanges that incurs passerbys to take a book leave a book. There are now little free libraries in all 50 states and in 88 countries including australia brazil ghana japan and the netherlands. The stand inside los angeles police stations. And at new york city subway stop. At prisons in wisconsin and hospitals in ireland. At a refugee camp in uganda and a schoolyard and south sudan. With a simple idea bowl became a global hero. In my own hometown of grand rapids michigan. Richard devos co-founder of amway. Is a hero who died this year. Yes he earned his fortune in international multi-level. Marketing company. Yes he has used his fortune to fund many conservative causes candidus and institutions. And yes he is the father-in-law of education secretary betsy devos who shares his support for school of choice vouchers. And. The devos family. And the amway co-founders the van andel's have been leaders and funding the revitalization of the city of grand rapids. From a sports arena to hospitals to universities with downtown campuses. The change would not have been possible without the amway. Life is complicated. Stories of a life are rarely a single note. Maybe this too is what oliver was trying to teach us in her poems. There is a tangle that cannot. Dimitri pulled apart. The choices we make about what we do with our one life may not be simple. But they will be ours. When you reach the end of your life. How will you. Have made it if.

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FP-20200412-Sermon.mp3

At the time the us entered world war 1. 1917. Who is amy mole with a forty-three-year-old cigar-smoking poet. Living in brookline massachusetts. Descended from the elite families of boston. Lowell never married. But lives with her mother eden's dyer russell. From 1912 until lowell death in 1925. In his obituary of bull. Heywood broun roach. She was upon the surface of things allure. A new englander and a spinster. Everything inside was molten like the core of the earth. Given one more gram of emotion. Aimee lou wood it burst into flame and then consumed suspenders. How is such a woman of molten emotion. Endure the poodle. Of 1917. In 1980. 1914 warhead been ravaging europe. Then the 1918 global flu pandemic. Water sensors in europe attempted to block the news. Only spain a neutral country without wartime sensors. Reported the news of mini fatality. Across europe soldiers hack into. Trucks in can. Spread the virus. All through the summer and fall of 1980. Soldier dad. Disease. And war. The disease rate in the us population as well. Drought that summer in full. In recent weeks you may have heard the story about the celebratory liberty parade in philadelphia hills on september 28th. 1918. Hundreds of thousands lined the streets to the parade. The same newspaper that carried the headlines of the parade. Also carried a story about a mysterious blue that have chills 118 in the past 24 hours. Within a week. The hospitals in philadelphia would be filled. The jacksons food stores. This. Is the september 1918. Anymore brightness in her phone. A bloody european war. A raging pandemic. In japanese. She begins her phone lately. Images of nature. Golden colors of fall. Afternoon light baby youngboy's at play. Someday. There will be no war. Alright. Someday there will be no war. No pandemic. Loyal loans the world is broken. The boys are red berries. And the news of death in hardships cascading across the nation and the globe. She notices the boys. Colors. The white. She notices the world of ladies in beauty. Recording all of this in her mind's eye. Cheap places it in a metaphorical box receiver on another day. I missed it. Award pandemic. All your efforts are trained upon. The endeavor to balance myself. Applied in the broken portals. I suspect that i am not the only one who resonates with this phrase. What else have we been doing these past weeks but trying to find and keep balance. In our broken world. Everything changed so quickly we are still processing all that has and is happening. Not only do we not gathering person. We not wander through the aisles of grocery stores with basic cards. We venture out at all. Austria king is not yet fully known. Week-by-week we begin to notice more. We noticed that we are not all equitably impacted by the pandemic. Racial and economic disparities in death. Reflect the social inequalities mom's present. We noticed the science and expertise matter. And that good leadership to be a matter of life. We notice all the little things that once seemed so small. Cast shadows. Sitting in a restaurant. Dropping the kids at school. Walking through the doors of the meeting house. What are you noticing. It'll letter for golf r d h lawrence to amy lowell in early september 1918. He describes what he notices. A feeling of being on board by the worlds. You right. I can't do anything in the world today. Injunction. I don't know how on earth we should get through another winter. How are you ever find a future. Humanity as a spam and myself. We just need mutually impossible. The ground window under one's feet. What's next. Heaven knows. September 1980. Today. Is april 2020. What next. Heaven knows. And it is in this context that the schedule calls for us to celebrate the joyful promises of easter. As some of you know i love. Well i no longer believe in the literal bodily resurrection of jesus. I find the christian story of easter to be about so much more than that. Particular we need to consider the full story of easter week. A story not only of joy. Also. Betrayal. A story that speaks about values worth living. And work dying for. First we must not forget that many believe the easter story is rooted in the passover story. As a jewish man with jewish friends and followers for the celebration of passover. And the jewish tradition passover marks the liberation of the israelites in slavery in egypt. It is one of the bedrock stories of god's concern for god's people and for their ability to live fully and free. And yes. By entering. The seat of religious and political power. Jesus likely knew he was headed to his death. What christian story depicts jesus has sunday arrival into jerusalem as a celebratory parade. By thursday evening supper. One of his followers leave the people to betray him. After the meal jesus and his followers returned to a garden where a distressed jesus finds himself alone. Is everyone falls asleep. Clearly none of them appreciated that this was jesus's last night alive. Northern gift of actually being within six feet of your friends. Didn't rap on succession. Jesus is arrested. Fry's. One of his closest followers. When jesus is dying. His mother must watches. And when he had died. Jimmy. Lord on one of his own. It's friday. They won. Did you saturday. Silence. In many ways we are living in saturday. We are living in the days after the loss of the world renew. The world that made sense to seemingly unbroken. Now the world is neither what it was before. Nor is it something new. What next. In the easter story d3 is next. Is mtv2 jesus is alive a day of celebration and joy. This is where the theology gets tricky for humanist leading unitarian universalist minister living through a global pandemic. I don't believe. Jesus with bodily resurrection. Nor do i have patience for those who would use their certainty about their own future resurrection to justify ignoring social distancing because. Which is why i want to talk about the gospel of mark. Earliest of the four biblical gospels were narratives of jesus's life. Market food used federation followers of jesus. Significantly all the earliest text of mark. With an empty tomb. But no actual sightings of a resurrected jesus. I first learned this at 9 evangelical bible college that i attended so it is fairly widely accepted to be true. Easter is not about bodily resurrection. What comes next. After the brokenness. Believe in an eternal life beyond this world need not be the only path. In ceiling. Eastern may not be tied the bodily resurrection to be meaningful. For easter is not only about the joy of day 3. But also about the story of jesus's life leaving the death he accepted. If nachos. As a religious teacher prophet rabble-rouser. And giver of wisdom. The records of the historical jesus suggest a man who is deeply grounded in commitments to love of neighbor. And i just like giving society for all. He spoke up for the poor and marginalized. Like women and the biologically contagious lepers. Each have ties religious leaders who seems more intent on powers and compassion. For others. He sought to heal others to teach the care and creating community. Oedipus challenge to the religio-political powers of his day led to his death. He seems willing to accept that. Rather than to be silent. In this sense easter is the story about the power of life and love. I just happen to believe the resurrection happens in the followers who accepted that jesus might be dead in body. But they could still encounter jesus by living as he taught them to live. Loving god and loving one's neighbor seeking justice and living in service to others health and well-being. Unitarian universalist. For me i understand loving god to me and loving the wondrous gift of life. Cannot be contained or fully names. And easter means the celebration of this gift of life. A reminder that life and love are so valuable that they are worth dying for. Isn't this a lesson we are seeing all around us right now. Yes. There is so much data. And risk of illness and death. But there are also doctors nurses and all manner of healthcare workers willing to fight to preserve life. Heroes are everywhere. In the healthcare worker. And the government leaders driving to find personal protection equipment. Baker's working with small businesses to try and secure loans. And the grocery store workers stocking shelves. And the volunteers sewing baby coverings and delivering them. Them to those in need. Value of life value of preserving life. Is everywhere. Yes our world is broken. It is time not only a pandemic but also a time of racial and economic inequalities. Mass migration of people seeking safety. Changing climate. And. Can we also notice the daffodils blooming. Return a bird song. The chatter of children exploring their world. Lycamobile. Can we pay attention to the presence of wonder and beauty. It remains at least a suitcase on our pallet. Perhaps now is not a time we can linger there. But can we notice now. Pocket away. We are all endeavoring to balance upon a broken world. We miss you and more like we are waiting carefully for the monkey water the front. Brown. Finding our balance in a time of pandemic is no easy feat. But through it all. Peewee also be reminded by lowell and my easter to notice the wondrous gift of life. Speed drawing upon rdp still values of what movie matters helpful balances if you strive for sure footing. The values of life and love be our solid brown. Connecting us with all good efforts to help preserve life in whatever way she can. You're wearing one. We're calling a friend or picking up when one calls. Donating time or money as you are able. Reaching out for the help you need. We are all endeavoring to find balance upon her broken world. In our efforts. Baby remain connected to the life. And love us all. Show me a.

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FP-20191027-Sermon.mp3

When i was 4 years old. I really wanted a pair of shiny pink. I saw them sitting there glistening back at me. The bulbs that the floor lamp fluorescent lights in the store housing off of them like pearls. It was love at first sight. I had to have these pictures. I tugged my mom's pant leg begging her desperately to let me get them. My mom is susie astic we agreed. For the shoes i really wanted. Should be happy to get them for me. There are no ifs ands or buts about it. I left the store that day proudly displaying my pink shiny new kicks. Everywhere i went. I would ask people. Do you like my new shoes. I probably left a foot up in the air to show them off. For the most part. These total strangers reacted charitably. My overly enthusiastic displays. And others. Not so much. Some with comments. You know. Those are girl shoes. Others would ask my mom if she was really going to let me wear. Those. This was all the more palpable in the following week. When i took my shiny shoes out for their preschool debut. One of my young classmates came up to me while my mom drop me off that day. He ran up to me. Stop for a moment. Look down at my feet. Sandra marks. Usher's are pink. Those are for girls. Instinctually. I reacted by saying. They're boy shoes. Are my shoes. My mom tells me my classmates rugs. Then join me and some friends in a game of tag. Didn't seem to think twice about it. As far as he knew. I was right. There was nothing to support this arbitrary divide. Enclose for separate genders. It was a simple as acknowledging it. I'm moving on to play tag together after. No i don't identify as transgender. I encountered many assumptions and questions from others around my gender identity. An expression. Looking back it gives me a big point of gratitude. I had loving parents. Who let me wear whatever i wanted to. I was allowed to be me. To wear what i was comfortable with. And to bring my full of self. This sunday is un sunday. Where were exploring the theme of gender equity. And why it matters to our work as unitarian universalist. First. Let's unpack gender. I use gender to refer to a complex collection of rolls. Identities expressions and performances. All of these hold a particular meaning for each person. Society or culture. But gender is different from one's biological sex. It incorporates a broader category than the simple binarios mail. And female. A person's gender expression is how someone expresses their gender outwardly. In the case of four-year-old alex. I was expressing my own gender. Better conform to male or female. A person's gender expression is also different from one's gender identity. This is what a person understands internally to be their gender. This may not fully aligned with what a person chooses to express. This is because gender identity. Isn't visible. Unlike gender expression. Now that we have a working understanding of gender. We should not one pack the differences between. Equality. And equity. You might think of mortgages in properties when you hear the word. Equity. Now it today we're going to be talking about something different. In the sentence. Equity is about. Fairness. It's about ensuring that everyone is offered the same opportunities. This is distinct from eufaula t. If you noticed on the front of your bulletins this morning. There's a picture that illustrates this difference. Each of the photos. There are three people watching a baseball game. One of the photos labeled equality. Shows each person standing. On one box. However. There's a challenge here. Not everyone can see over the fence. To see the game. Some just aren't tall enough. The ground they're standing on is lower than the other. The fence is just a bit too high. But each person was given a box to stand on right. Isn't that fair. That seems pretty equal to me. If you look at the next photo labeled equity. You notice something different. Each person is able to view the baseball game over the fence. And because each person has a difference in viewing needs. They each have a different number of boxes. To stand on. The one on the lowest pit of grounds receives three boxes. In order to see over the fence. The one on the highest bit of ground. It's only one box. For a good view. The best way to understand the difference. By what each of these ask for. Equality asks for equal treatment. Equity asks. 4 equal outcome. When thinking about how gender operates with equity. We don't have to look far to see this in our own unitarian universalist tradition. In some ways we can be proud of how we've lived up to gender equity in our congregation. What's an exclusively male ministry. In early unitarianism. And universalism. Arkwright unitarian universalist tradition. Now as a predominantly female minister. The rev susan frederick gray. The current president of the u.s.a.. Is the first elected woman. Serve as president. Even in our own congregation we have much to be very proud of. We are a welcoming congregation. Meaning that we have taken steps to become welcoming. 2 lgbtq + 4. We have begun to include a space for gender pronouns on our name tags. Making it a safer space for people to share their pronouns. If you're welcome by having a honor the name and pronouns that they use. By the way if you'd like. Just let one of the staff know. We'd be very happy to print you a new name tag. However. When we look at other aspects of our association. We see a deep need. Firgrove. A report released last year by the uu organization trust. Transgender religious professional you use together. Found that 72% of trans you use. Didn't feel their congregation. Fully included them. And they're transgender. Or trans. Identities. In addition. Only 44% of trans you use. Spiritually connected to. And you're a spy. Their congregation. Because of the smart analyzation. If not feeling fully welcomes or included. Some trance you use. I've had to leave. Our congregation. In other words. They haven't felt the radical sense of welcome that we hold in value so proudly. Is unitarian universalist. Our own aching world has a need for some extra growth around gender equity. Around the world men remain a majority in political and religious leadership. Even at the united nations. The staff breakdown between men and women. Comes to 39% female. It's 61% male. Telling a disparity. Inequitable leadership. Are reading this morning. Came from the preamble to the united nations charter. Printed also in the back of your gray hymnal. You may have noticed some common values shared between our unitarian universalist principles. And the values. In the starter. A couple of these commitments have to do with gender equity. First and foremost the commitment. To reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights. In the dignity and worth of the human person. In the equal rights of men and women. End of nations large. And small. As unitarian universalist. We covenant to affirm our first principle that all people have inherent worth and dignity. This isn't a matter that's up for debate with us. It's a statement of faith. And it's a statement of conscience. It's our religious witness as unitarian universalist. Have you use we believe that each person's life matters. Regardless of their gender as male or female. As transgender or cisgender. Is genderqueer. Or nonbinary. Similarity in values. Doesn't stop there. An additional call from the starter. The practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors. Sounds a lot like our sixth principle. Calling for a world at peace with justice and liberty. For all people. No. Well i like the aims of the charter. Calling us for living together as peaceful neighbors. I'm going to push us further than tolerance. Only get us so far. Tolerance. Is just the starting point. Instead. We need a ride acceptance and welcome of one another. Among neighbors and friends. Among parishioners in our congregation. And among our wider communities. Are universalist forbearers. How the belief in an all-encompassing radical love. Surrounding every single one of us. They believed in a god whose name was love. Nobody they believed. What's beyond the bounds. Abyss love. All people no matter who they were or what they done. What do you say. Friends we have a life-saving message that needs to be heard. Especially by those were told that their inherent worth and dignity. Are up for debate day today. As a gay gender-nonconforming child. I was lucky to hear this message. That i was love. For who i was. This message saved me. Welcoming me into life celebration in uu community. As a teenager. It breaks my heart. Pet transit other marginalized you use. Haven't felt a warm welcome. In our communities. This must be changed. We must be better. The good news is that first parish is working to better welcome people of marginalized identities. Currently our welcoming congregation committee. Is renewing its commitments to lgbtq plus inclusion. Do you use waze welcoming renewal process. You can also get involved in this process by speaking with greta stone after the service rather are you happening to be out here up perfectly greta is right over there. You can get involved with by speaking with right after the service if you'd like. And more and more of us are actually even including our gender pronouns. In the space on our name tags. The better include each other. And call people by their pronouns. By asking for new name tags with a space for pronouns. We are signaling that we are a safe community. For trans and non-binary people. We're saying. We love you. We respect you. You're safe. And welcome here. Even looking at our opening him this morning. Number 360 here we have gathered. Remodeling further inclusion. By removing binary gendered language. Women. And men. That doesn't include our trans siblings. Instead we've widened are welcome in the second verse. I usually language. That leaves fewer of us out. I want the highlight to. But many of us know someone who is trans or gender nonconforming. Perhaps a child. Assembling. A cousin. Or friends. A co-worker. A grandparent. A partner. Perhaps even ourself. Many of you are already living out radical welcome. By loving and accepting people as they are. Are using their chosen name and pronouns. By loving them so much that they rolled her eyes all the love for them. This is all so radically living out our faith. Friends we have a message that's too precious to be locked up in our own fear and ignorance. An empty words of welcome. We must live out our charge as unitarian universalist. To be the church. To welcome those at the margins. I love the hell out of this world. And one another. We are called by our values. To build spaces of radical inclusion. I balkum. We are called by faith. To be this beloved community for one another. Equity powerfully reminds us. But there's a difference in treating everyone the same. And ensuring that everyone has the same welcome. Like in the image from the bulletin. Some of us may need some extra boxes. A bit of extra welcome and inclusion. In order to fully see over the fence. In order to fully feel. Welcome. Buy charged you this morning. Is this. May we be the face of welcome that we dream of. May we strive to take equity seriously at first parish. So that we further include those. At the margin. Play we remember. The our sacred work of welcome and inclusion. Doesn't end in empty promises. Or affirmations. It truly begins by showing one another radical love and acceptance. It begins. I loving the hell out of this world. I'm loving the hell out of one another. May you go forth from this place. Ready to do. This difficult. Sacred work. Baby store. Naaman.

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FP-20151206-Sermon.mp3?_=5

Well folks here we are right smack in the middle of the holiday season. Christian advent started two weeks ago and we've got to. Two more sundays before. Christmas eve. More than two weeks until christmas. And tonight hanukkah begins. And our as are very very dark late afternoons are reminding us. We're approaching the pagan celebration of yule on the longest day of the year. December 21st. Night night. I'm kind of reverse today lotto. I'm glad that you feel comfortable being interacted with me. With the holidays. They're often comes in abundance of activities. Sights and sounds. Are normally simple sanctuary is now bedecked with greenery. And this afternoon our front steps and lawn will become a festive scene of caroling. So how are you holding up. Are you enjoying the parties. Crank in the car radio when it's. Beginning to look alot like christmas comes on. Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed by the demands of shopping for presents. Or maybe you're dreading an upcoming holiday party this week. For work. Are with your family. I suspect that some of us are feeling sad. Defacing holidays without a loved one. That we lost this year. Or maybe years ago. Or maybe you're simply feeling alone and lonely. Amidst. The bustle. Wherever your heart maybe today. There has been an unmistakable shift. And us culture towards the celebration of holidays all around us. And with the celebrations there often comes an increase in consumption. Food decorations new clothes and presents. What holidays are about more than just stuff. It's also a season of rituals with family and friends that bring us closer. Together. Bonnie naciste new memories are laid upon the old. And here at first parish we mark. The season with our own rituals. From the carol sing2music sunday next week. To a christmas eve pageant. Through these gatherings we enjoy great music. Community with each other. And a sense of connection to ancient celebrations that connect us across generations. In such a seasoned words a plenitude abound. We speak about abundance of food a pile of presents. A long list of two deuce. We speak of generous giving to others. Or the bountiful gifts of being together. And beside the lights of the menorah or the christmas tree. Our hearts may swell with overflowing gratitude for our loved ones. Are safe warm spaces. Or life itself. This is also a season of miracles. Oil in the lamp burning days longer than it should have. And of a baby born to save the world. It is a season of hope that celebrates light overcoming darkness. And the transforming power of new life. Such a season is indeed a time of plenitude. Joyful awareness of a mini mini guess. Of life. What are the gifts in your life that you cherish. If you turn on the tv or pick up a newspaper i'm sure you will get. Prompted with all kinds of ideas for what you should crave i mean cherish. We live in a highly material society with enormous desire for the new and the better the hip in the sheik. But as parents perennial need prettily need to teach their children. There is of course a difference between what we want. And what we need. In her book plenitude economics. Economic. Juliet schor. Offers an explanation for why we consume more than we need. She suggests that what we now care about as we consume. Is not products themselves. But this signs and a symbols that connect to. The rather than buying for material need. Remote evaded to bye-bye symbolic value of owning that branded athletic shoe. Or that car or cellphone or size of house. According to shore. Since moloch purchasing leads to a quote materiality paradox. Where consumption of material resources. Is actually. Highest. When people are buying for symbolic value. As opposed to physical need. Pick a wardrobe for example. Perhaps like myself you find yourself wondering. Do i really need all these shoes. Or sweaters. Pursuits. Or maybe it's your spouse or partner who reminds you that you really need all those things. Why do we buy more than we already had when we already why do we buy more when we already have enough clothes. To keep us warm or cool or dry. Enough clothes that meet our physical needs. Well because clothes carry symbolic status. We want to stay in fashion. Or we want to wear something new to a special event. We consume more. When were motivated motivated by symbolic value. Shore rights. Quote this point brings to mine raymond williams famous clip. Then our problem isn't that were too materialistic. Except for not materialistic enough. We devalue the material world. By excessive acquisition. And discard. A products. Sa. It's just stuff. And sometimes we do need to devalue. Symbolic value of items. In order to be able to let them go. But sometimes maybe the problem is. That we need to see. All this stuff. Is. Stop. Stuff that has use material resources in their production and transportation. We all leave a material footprint. To our consumption. The problem with this high level of consumption shore cautions. Is that we are living beyond our planetary means. Material resources of our shared world simply cannot sustain. Current or expanded levels of consumption and energy use. To continue to do so. Is to participate in planetary ecocide. Ors activist iommi klein. Has declared. Our economic model is at war with life on earth. And this is why global leaders are meeting in paris this week. Because we are living on a troubled planet where ecosystem. Is in upheaval. We are already seeing the impacts of climate change in our world. Deer in the northeast we may not be feeling the worst impacts of climate change. But as part of the massive us. Culture of consumption we are certainly part of the problem. In paris world leaders are hashing out political pathways to address climate change. But i think this is only part of the response. I believe that we will also need a revised spiritual orientation that helps us reframe our sense of true wealth. I think that we will need to revise the symbolic system of value. It motivates our patterns of hiconsumption. Patterns that have an undeniably negative impact on our ecosystem. The last summer. I was at an event was actually a uu event for ministers believe it or not. So if that's not unbelievable because of course i go to these guys apart is that. Part of what this event give us. Was an option for free tarot card reading. Pretty open you'll be look for sources and multiple religious traditions which is why we're celebrating hanukkah as well as christmas and pagans. Patero. But of course i signed up. The one of the cards that was dealt to me was the king of pentacles. Discard is one of abundance or plenitude. Although depictions will bury the king of pentacles always is an image of overflowing wealth. So not only by numerous clients but also by lush garden scenery and a golden sky. This is the person who has achieved the fullness of life. Whose ambitions have been fulfilled whose resources are abundant. I have to say that as someone who has chosen to be a minister. Financial wealth has never been on the top of my priority list. So i wasn't certain how to respond to this card. Until the woman guiding the reading explained. She cautioned me not to presume that wealth and resources only signaled money. Rather the card symbolized bounty and all of its forms. Well i may not have walked away as a full convert to tarot readings. The image of the king of pentacles has stayed with me. Cheesy me to consider what fulfillment would look like. For me. If not a pile of gold. Your own image of fullness look like. What resources and treasures would you want to holden plenitude. Relationships of loving care. Time to be still or to pursue new endeavors. Abilities to positively interact and impact others. Strength and health in body. If you already had all the money in the world that you could imagine needing. What would you still long for. These questions invite you to listen to your heart. Do your deepest needs and desires. And i wonder. What do you find there. I believe such questions could help us engage in the work of reimagining our sense of abundance as we question. Which planet to do. We seek. We live within a culture that repeatedly. Send us the message that the highest or the only. Value is economic might. Wealth is understood as an economic capacity to consume more stuff more rapidly. And with more symbolic value. But what if we redefined the meaning of wealth. Mary oliver's poem messenger joins in this work of reframing are images of wealth. For oliver her work is to attend to the plenitude of world the world's delights. Love the world. Even when she notices that are boots are old and her coat torn. She insisted she keeps her mind on what matters. Which is my work. Which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished. The phoebe the delphinium. The sheep in the pasture and the back. Which is mostly rejoicing. Since all the ingredients are here. Primary oliver. Wealth is in her work of loving the world. Of living in gratitude. Every joy scene in the gifts that are already here. So also. Barber poet wendell berry rights. East appear high over us. Pass. In the sky closes. Abandoned as in love or sheep. Hold them to their way clear in the ancient fee. Faith. What we need. Is here. And we pray not for new earth or heaven. But to be quiet in heart. And then i clear. What we need. Is here. What we need is here. Upon this wondrous beautiful abundant planet. And yet it into many ways we are putting our life giving planet into peril. Our earth is a closed system of limited material resources. In our high levels of us consumption. Cannot continue without further endangering our ecosystem. But i don't believe that such statements have to leave us in a place of. Spare. The path forward does not need to be framed in terms of painful sacrifice or the proverbial parachute shirts of uncomfortable austerity. For example juliet store suggests that the path forward could be one of technological creativity. Or robust sharing economy. She wonders if we could share the limited resources we have in smarter more efficient ways. For sure and others these are questions worth. Well i do hope. For political technological and economic pass forward. To a greener more just world. I also believe the path forward will include revising our symbolic values of what counts as desirable as good as well. What would be the status symbols of wealth. If we were driven by what helped to sustain the planet the most. For example would be logged clever uses of items that extend their usable life. Or envy the person who managed to resole their shoes multiple times. To be clear. Such efforts to reimagine and reframe are symbolic purchases to values of planetary preservation. Are countercultural. The media will continue to coax us to discount the materiality of the stuff we need. Global corporations will continue to have outsize influence upon the political policies that support. And even subsidized. Consumption patterns that endanger our planet. In order to fully address the dynamics of climate change. We will we will need to see. Political and economic change. We'll need to foster alternative streams of messaging that help us. To remagine the world. In seeking to chart pass forward to a more sustainable planet. I believe we will need to connect this work. The values that matter most to us. We'll need to ask. Why we buy what we buy. Live the way we do. And make the choices. And how we invest our time. Energy and money. I envision a path forward. Bitcoin's mary oliver. And her work of loving the world. For the plenitude that matters. Is a diversity of flowers birds and landscape. Where abundance is measured by the capacity to revel in this beauty. And where gratitude for the simple gift. Of enduring life. Overflows. Into songs of. Rejoicing. So may it be. Amen. I love it when i end when the bell rings.

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FP-20171224-Story.mp3?_=5

I miss christmas eve morning we invite you into a deep reflection on the figure of mary. A woman honored within multiple religious traditions. Today we will explore mary and three religions. As mary the mother of jesus and christianity. As miriam the sister of moses in judaism. If marianne. The mother of jesus in islam. For many mary is an important figure of religious figure of inspiration. For others she is an impossible idea that his hurt women. And for today. She is our teacher. As we listen to her stories and her songs. In our listening may we hear something new about mary. And something new about ourselves. Christmas is a season of celebrating birth. The appearance of new life. New understandings and new possibilities. Let us listen well. For what is waiting to be born in us. As many of you know i grew up very protestant. This meant i didn't really get marry. Sure you should respect and honor mary she was jesus's mom. And i was certainly taught you should respect your mom. But what i didn't get is why people prayed to her. Warhead pictures of her. In the evangelical christian. Tradition there was only jesus. And mary mader really only because of the son she had born. Becoming a feminist scholar of religion didn't really help matters. Mary as an ideal for women raises feminist eyebrows. How can one be a virgin. And a mother. This is we've no kids so we get to go with the adult version. There's a mention of moment an article i read and it talks about that the greek word for virgin refers to a young woman who is not yet born a child. And this article suggests. Well this is so really it's concerned it's about the status of her uterus she hasn't borne a child not the status of her hymen. And whether or not she was sexually pure. Which is an interesting. Google some feminist question this how does that work. Other feminist christian scholars. See mary as a remnant of an earlier culture. When pregnant women wear magical mystery for their ability to bring forth new life. In many early cultures. A woman with a swollen pregnant body. Is essential religious symbol. When reflecting on mary in the christian tradition. It is important to remember that she was deliberately chosen by god. In this grade essay no more lying about mary. Nancy rockwell rights. Lupe's is the only gospel in which mary story appears. And in his account there is nothing submissive nor immature about her. According to luke. The angel approached her with words of great honor. Hail mary. Full of grace. Rockwell goes on to say that luke shows mary as a spunky woman. Who challenges the angel. How shall this happen to me. And she doesn't stay put and domestic scenes like a lot of other women the bible that we see in a kitchen or in a tent. But mary is traveling all around israel and even to egypt and back. Rockwell says that mary attracted god's attention. Not for her docile meekness. But for her grace. Grace that luke depicts as courage. Boldness. Grit. Ringing convictions about justice. In a moment we will hear beth sing ave maria. A piece that is both a song. And a prayer. The lyrics echo the call of the angel to mary. Hail mary full of grace. Even appeal to mary to pray for us sinners. I hear in these lyrics and appeal to be on mary's team. Which is to say in a world where brokenness too often keeps us apart from goodness. Sometimes we need someone who can help bridge the gap. Sometimes we need someone who inspires us by their goodness to help carry us. Through the tough times when we're struggling. As i understand it this is a sentiment underline the devotion to mary and the christian tradition. Here is a bold and brave woman who caught the attention of god and chose to accept a singular role in history. I don't want her on my side too. To ask me listen to ave maria. I hope we hear in an echo of our own longings. Support. And inspiration. To the tough times of our life. Now. Until the hour of our death. So. When i asked kate to do something on miriam she was. Cute she's like but i thought this was about mary. A number of years ago i read a book called miriam of nazareth. And it makes the case that there is a direct connection between the image of miriam and the hebrew scriptures. And mary. And the christian testament. And. That there's that deliberate choice to have that same name. Include this tradition of this particular figure. A powerful religious woman. So and also we we suspected there may not be a lot of children this morning. I'm in but none the less kate has prompt. And i assured her that even that all of us have this child within us. And that we will indeed get helpers. With the props and i'll start to. Please xfinity ass help. I did some reading and some listening on youtube about miriam and i think that the thing that i learned and that i love the most is it again. She isn't. Just moses's sister. She's not that like little tiny thing. See. And i'm going to do this cuz we're all adults was a badass. So she. Let's see how this wonderful. She was born to slaves and so. At that point in time. The pharaoh had told all of the people. Pete heard a prophecy. There was going to be. A child born as the israelites that would lead them out of slavery. Being a practical man of course he said let's just drown all of the male children. So it was hard and horrible and so. Miriam's father and most of the men that they knew divorce their wives and said. No more we're not going to have any more kids we're not going to give them up to pharaoh. And miriam this child came to him. And said. No. You are cursing our people. If no children are born. There will be no more of us. And so they married. Their wives again. And when miriam's mother became pregnant with a child she saw a prophecy from god. And the. Prophecy told her. This is the child. This is going to be the boy child that leads us out of slavery. I need. I need three. Also i'm going to make stephanie be one of them. Janie be as one need one more. Okay. Jane. Andrea. So they raised. Moses until they couldn't hide hide him anymore. And so. When they couldn't hide him anymore. Miriam built a basket. And she made that basket. And she put her baby brother in the basket. And sent him. Down the nile. And she knew that while he was on the river. There was a princess. Noble birth. It was there and she saw the baby in the basket. And brought him. And so she took the baby as her own. And she couldn't nurse the baby. So miriam who had watched her baby brother 2. Keep him safe while he was on the river. Came out of the bushes and said. I know a lady. Who could nurse that baby. And she went and got her mother so her mother could raise moses. Waukee was young. The moses grows up. A little bit longer. And so. Of course. Moses does his moses saying he grows up. He becomes a prophet. He tells the people they're going to leave there were plagues there was all of that stuff. And so esther levy i need two more people and i. You guys to go down one side of the pew. And i need two more people. Ginny's thank you. You should be against that side sorry. Think it's apart again. So is there leaving. Israel they're leaving egypt. The israelites. Moses parts the red sea. Imagine for a moment. If you have this up even higher than our choir loft. This shoot shoot you guys are doing the best you can that's great so these huge huge like. Things of water that you have land between that you're going to walk through. Miriam starts walking with all the women. And slowly. Water behind miriam slow down.. Comes together. And so the people are frightened they think they're going to be drowned and marion looks back and she grabs. Her timbrel which is a tambourine by us. And she plays it in sounds it and she stated to god and says look look thank you god our enemies are being drowned behind us and the people in the women followed miriam through and we're safe to the other side. And of course all of their enemies for their and they were drowned. Thank you my water people you can put the water back. Miriam was amazing she was a very high woman she led the people. In that moment when they were frightened and didn't know which way to go. She was the one on the other side. She was the one that held up the song. To praise god. But they were free. And if they were going to be okay. So there's my miriam story. Dsm. Christianity and islam are known as the religions of the book. Not only do they all rely on a sacred book. The torah bible or quran. Their books also share some of the same characters. And some of the same stories. Any islamic holy book the quran. Both jesus and mary appear and islamic centre down the road loaned us their poster what do muslims think about jesus and. Talks about some of this stuff i'm going to talk about today. Indeed. Mary is the only. Woman named. In the quran there's other women that their name by the relationship suit she is the only woman who's given a name. As you may know the quran was written in arabic. Anaerobic remains the sacred language of islam. Used in the quran and in worship. Acronis made up of 114 surezor chapters of varying lengths. What may surprise you is that one of these for us. Is need for mary. Or is her arabic name is sometimes translated for miriam. Visceral tells the story of mary and jesus. Evan the christian story mary is unmarried. A chaste virgin so justin. Distinction from the jewish the christian story where the words used. You do some it pushed against inside well maybe in. Wizard vs yeti for a child but we don't know the status of her sexual activity. In the islamic anacron it's very clear that she is named as a chaste woman. And also in the quran jesus is born by the power of god. Rather than by human father. Well his birth is special jesus is seen as a prophet. A witness to god and not as god. Sometimes i'll tell my islamic friends that that's for that that's where we're alike. Is unitarians in a unitarian tradition. Jesus is seen as. Not divine in the same sense that a christian. Some ways the story of mariam is similar to mary story in luke. In other ways miriam story differs. Any difference around the story of mary's birth and childhood is told. One commentator describes her as precocious. Devout in her study and strong in her face. Viscera tells the story that every time her uncle entered her prayer room. You found her with food. When he asked her where is this food coming from. She said quote it is from allah. Indeed all of provides for whom he wills without account. Her confidence in her god jumps from the page of the ancient texts. Also different of the quran is that mary is alone when it comes time to deliver her baby. Afraid and overcome with pain she cries out. Quotes. Oh i wish i had died before this and was in oblivion. Forgotten. The angel calls to her. Showing her extreme allah has provided. And urging her to shake the palm-tree she sits beneath so that right fresh dates would fall around her. I love this story. The assurance that she was not alone that she was not forgotten. But provided with the life-giving sustenance she needed for herself and her son. Mary and her story our beloved and islam. Hers is a story of devotion to allah. And of all is care for her. Is a devout young girl. And is a frightened mother of a newborn. Is unitarian universalist. We are part of a liberal religious tradition. It brings to sacred stories in ancient texts. Our scientific understanding in our critical reason. All this framework may lead us to question. Some of the factual truth of some of these stories. It does not mean they have no relevance to our lives. In all of these stories mary was a bold and courageous woman. At times he felt afraid. Confused and alone. In every story. God protected. And provided for her. The story of mary. It's a story that is schurz us that even when the unexpected and uncertain happens. We are not alone. Is does not mean everything will always go right. Miriam like moses. Never reached the promised land to which she had helped to lead her people. In the christian story. Mari washed her son be put to a painful death on a cross. In the quran. Miriam was shamed by her community for bearing a child while unwed. Until jesus with sex. Successfully defend his mother. Yet in the journey's that each woman took. The god of her belief state near to her. In a moment we will hear a song that conveys both the fear that followed mary. And the face that sustained her. When i hear mary call out to the breath of heaven. I hear the very human longing to not be alone when faced with fear and struggle. You'll hear her own doubts. About the purpose of her life. And her desire for assurance and support through it all. And then this i suspect. We all recognize a part of ourselves and our experience. On this christmas eve day. I hope that we all find ourselves supported. Affirmed. And loved. Buy a power and presence greater than ourselves. Whatever we may or may not name that power. We all feel the breath of heaven. The possibilities of new life. To bring a strength and hope. For the journey. So may it be.

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FP-20151108-Sermon.mp3?_=5

The last week. We enjoyed sam title. Our former youth coordinator as our guest minister. An experience slam poet. Sam knows how to deliver an engaging sermon sermon full of humor and wit actually last night he there was a story slam. Of six ministers telling stories. And he won out over all the experience ministers. So i was thinking what sam's humor seem to go over well maybe i should try to tell more jokes and be funny. And then i'm like i'm preaching next sunday about death. But of course it turns out yes the internet does have a bunch of jokes about death. The one comic show steve jobs. The apple ceo standing in the gates of heaven. With a hand on job shoulder god says. Moses. Meet steve. He's going to upgrade your tablets. Or this one. Why do cemeteries have fences around them. Because people are dying to get in. An old aphorism says many a true word is spoken in jest. One joke i found reflected this well. Contrasting the peaceful death of a grandfather in his sleep. With those of the passengers in his car. In this chest. Lies the true longing. Quiet. Peaceful death in old age. Not. A sudden death of terror. And in this tension lies the crux of the sermon. As mortal beans. We will all die. But how. We may not be able to control how. Or when. The first funeral i attended. With an early high school. The father of one of my best friends from youth group. Had died while jogging one sunday morning before church. Falling to the ground outside of the church. As the minister watched through the window. The first person whose death eyewitness was my grandmother betty. She was the most lively of all four of my grandparents and i was certain she would be the last to die because life seem to be so close to her she clung so tightly to it. But betty. A staunch methodist who never smoked a day in her life. Died of lung cancer. After struggle of many months. During those final months she stayed with my parents. What's my mom providing hospice. Chair along with the support services. And when my mom said it was time. I flew home. From boston to be with her. I remember as i walked into the room and my grandmother. My mom says to my grandmother stephanie's here and even though she was in tremendous pain her eyelids fluttered and you could see the lightness that came across her face she knew i was there. And so it was about 10 years ago next week. Bet. We sat there and sing hymns. As my grandmother died. About six weeks before she had died. We gathered as an entire extended family to celebrate the birthday that i share. With my. Cousin and my niece all three of the girls my grandmother's grandchildren the girls were all on the born on the same day. And so we gathered and we took a photo. All of is keenly aware that it would be the last time that we saw her. And altogether. And in that photo betty sits with an afghan across her lap it was an afghan mitad by her neighbor of nearly 50 years. The afghan went home with me. The boston. And i wrapped myself in a lot. I wrapped myself in it as i wrote this sermon. I miss her. I want to tell her that i'm a minister. Even though we would argue theology. I want her to know that i still use her good china. The same china she served our holiday meals on when i was a child. And i want her to know that i still love her and that she is still one of the most important people in my life. It can feel like death robs us of so much. But to be robbed implies that a person's life is something that we can own. We cannot be robbed of something we do not own. And life is not something that we own. Not something that we can completely control. And not something that we can always protect. Rather life. Is a gift. A gift. That is mortal. In his recent book being mortal. Atul gawande. Challenges his readers to resync the connections between our living. And are dying. A surgeon towanda begins his book with this line. I learned a lot of things in medical school. But mortality. Wasn't one of them. I don't think wanda's experience in medical school is unusual. We live in a culture that's far more focused on youth and vitality. Then on aging and mortality. Talking about mortality is just something we do not do that often. Get over the next week we are joining with dozens of congregations all over boston in a conversation sabbath. It was an idea that was created by the conversation project a nonprofit in boston. Edit encourages everyone. To have end-of-life conversations about their wishes. Such conversations are not easy. They are not fun. But they are deeply important. And they are gifts of love. In his book being mortal gawande describes many different situations of people facing death. As a professional he wrestled with how does he deliver bad news of decline. He found himself questioning whether or not it was his role. To tell people that there was no more help. And so along with many other doctors he found himself giving all the options he's long list that were hard to decipher for patients. Let alone to make a decision. It's easy to imagine. The our advanced medical system does have the answers. Grounded in the most rigorous of science the modern medicine can perform seeming miracles. But despite these technological resources. Medicine does not all smitley have the upper hand. Is kawanda rights. Death is the enemy. But the enemy has superior forces. Eventually. Twins. None of us will live forever. I will die. As will all of you. But knowledge takes your breath away. Basins one's mortality. Immortality of those we love. Discourage. Courage to acknowledge that we cannot control this our ultimate destiny. In talking about mortality gowanda suggests that there are two kinds of courage. First the courage to confront the reality of mortality. And second the courage to act on the truth we find. Encourage sounds right. I don't want to die. I don't want those i love to die and i don't want any of you. And yet here we are. Mortal beings who will die. Once we find the courage to honestly confront that reality. What do we do. How to react. I'm at troost. For some of us death may feel nearer. And it does for others. And yet i believe we are all called. To respond to the truth of immortality. Unitarian universalist forest church. Describe death is central to his religion. He explained. Religion is our human response to the dual reality of being alive. And having to die. We are not the animal with advanced language or tools as much as we are the religious animal. Knowing that we must die. We question what life means. Answers we arrived at may not be religious answers. But the questions death forces us to ask our at heart religious questions. Where do i come from who am i where am i going what is life's purpose what does all this mean. Forest church refers to these as religious questions. Gowanda speaks very little of religion in his book. Rather towanda speaks about the need for us to locate ourselves within a larger story. He writes. The only way death is not meaningless. Is to see yourself as part of something greater. A family a community assist ciety. If you don't. Mortality is only a horror. But if you do. It is not. I find it odd that gowanda doesn't talk about religion here. Of course you can understand religion as a kind of community or society. But i think religion is more than that. I think religion is that something greater kiwanda is pointing toward. A story that is cosmic a narrative that is timeless. A sense of the world and a sense of oneself in the world. That transcends the particular me and the particular you. I think we are religious animals. Who asked religious questions of meaning and purpose. And i think our living and our dying. Are shaped by the answers that we find. Or fail to find. So this sermon is about more than death. It's also about being alive. It's about the questions of meaning and purpose that can give shape and direction to our lives. All the way to the very. And. When the conversation project urges us to talk about end-of-life issues. The questions are not simply medical. Rather they are suggested questions begin by asking how would we complete the sentence. What matters most at the end of life is. What matters most at the end of life is. Evan their next question is. What kind of role do you want to have. In the decision-making process. What medical issues are certainly considered and discussed. They are placed within this larger context of the story of oneself. The sense of who you are and your place in the world. What is your story. Where do you come from. Many do not all of us. Can neymar birth parents and our place of birth. Where we come from. Is about more than where we took our first breath. From whom we inherited our dna. Where we come from is also about who and what formed us as we learn to be a part of human society what to eat how to speak how to be gendered and more. Wherever you have come from. What have you done. With your life. But you've been given. What choices have you made. What compromises. What passions in loves have driven you. Or left you with unfulfilled longing. Is there one clear ark to your story. Or several chapters that might feel disjointed but each meaningful in their own way. If your story was going to end next week. How would you tell your story today. Part of our life stories. Is the end. How do you want your story to end. What matters most to you at the end of life. Who do you wish. Would be there with you. Where do you wish you were. If you're unable to make choices for yourself. Do you want to make those choices for you. These are just some of the questions that can arise at the end of one's life story. Discussing these questions and more. Telling others how we hope our story will end. Allows each of us to be the author of our own lives. Of course death can surprise us. None of us know in advance when. Our story will come to an end. And so there is no age too young to have this conversation i am not only speaking to those with the most gray hair or the earliest birthday. It is scary. To talk about death. Both our own. And those we love. It takes courage. Yep i having these conversations we are engaging in deeply meaningful religious twerk. Of naming our values and telling our stories. I said before that i like preaching and i do. But i think that what i find even more meaningful. Is leaving memorial services. For me i'm a memorial service is an opportunity. To tell that story of a person's life. As i work with the family and friends of the deceased i asked a lot of questions to understand the ark and the chapters of a person's life. Aiden lane out the service with the family. We tried to tell that story. Through remembrances readings and song. By telling this story. The life of a person is honored. Of course each services different. Each. Person in each story is different that difference is showing the uniqueness of each of us. We all have a story to tell. We have stories of love. And of loss. Of dreams realized. And challenges faced. And all of our stories will have an ending. Gowanda cautions that the medicalization of dying. Forgets that people have priorities beyond merely being safe and living longer. Well we may not have control over our endings. He insists that we are not helpless. Rather he writes we have room to act. To shape stories. There was time goes on it is with an error confines. So what are your priorities for your ending. What choices can you make for how you die. Can you have that conversation with the people you love. Start to planned when and how you're going to have that conversation. At the end of every memorial service after all the stories have been told. I asked people to hold a moment of silence to remember and honor the life of the person who's died. And then i end with a prayer that berries. But usually includes these lines. Do we mourn her abscess among us. May we find peace and our conviction that everyday and every life is a gift. And that love. Is universal. An immortal. For the gift of his life. May we be. Forever grateful. We have all been given a tremendous gift. Life. And we are mortal. Living into this duel reality of being alive. And having to die. Is a journey. And sometimes a struggle. Do our mortal lives will end. May we indeed be grateful for the gift of this life. Is it shall be ours. And when life gives way to death. Maybe hold fast to the faith. Bad love. Is immortal.

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FP-20150927-Sermon-red.mp3?_=6

What's happening. These are becoming tinted with color. And the air is chilly. In each morning. Calendar now says that we have indeed. In october starts later this week. And as school notices stuffed and backpacks remind us. It's apple picking season. When i move to new england with my young son. I quickly learned how full apple picking is very much a new england. Sweet apple right off the tree is one of the joys of living in this region. We are fortunate to live in an area is full of small farms that provide a bounty of food. From spring asparagus to summer sweet corn to fall apples. Many of us like to grow some of our own food. In our gardens are at at home or at the community garden. And our own green sanctuary team has. Pots now at the community garden. In order to send produce to a couple different food pantries where the fresh veggies are gratefully received. Over the years my own love of gardening has led me to become increasingly more concerned about our us food system. The short story is that i am concerned about that industrial agriculture has a negative impact as well as to help our planet. Remind disagree about this. And that's okay. Not to make a detailed case for sustainable agriculture. Today i'd like to ask you to consider. What is your issue. I'm concerned about the food system food justice. Concerned about. It's in our dna as unitarian universalist. Our tradition is to wrestle with emerging questions and issues of our shared world. Ongoing seeking is not simply intended to be an intellectual exercise of refining beliefs. Also inherited a tradition of quote deeds not creeps. In other words. We are defined more by the actions we take in the world. Can the police we proclaim. In a recent column uu minister geylang being rich. Emphasized this importance of doing. He writes quote. The tradition of theology initiated by frederick slam locker in the late 18th century. And clarified by william james at the dawn of the 20th century. Religion is not mainly a set of beliefs. Religion is first and foremost a way of life. Anish terms the ultimate religious question is not. What are you thinking. Rather. What are you doing. If unitarian-universalist we stand within those liberal religious tradition that asus. How does your life manifest your values. Or conversely. Values what do your actions suggest are your values. How do you spend your time. Your money. Your energy. We all have limited resources financial emotional and time. And so we have to make choices. I admit that i struggle with this. Continually i'm just not enough hours in the day or capacity. Do all that i feel is deserving of my time and attention. You know that feeling. And yes i'm looking at you. Essentialism the disciplined pursuit of less. Author and lecturer greg mcfarland. Speaks against the smiths that you can have it all. He challenges people instead decide what is essential for them. Building his case for an essentialist outlook. He explains that the word priority. Entered into the english language in the 1400s as a singular. Only in the 1900's ristart referring to priorities. Plural. Mcallen describes this as illogical. How can we have multiple. Erase quote. Purposely and deliberately choose where to focus our energies and time. Other people. Our bosses colleagues our clients or even our families or congregations. Will choose for us. And before long. Lost sight of everything that is meaningful and important. If we don't stay focused. On what matters most. It's easy to become swamped but other demands and to lose our way. And yes there is so much. That can swamp us. Of problems larger than any one of us can solve alone. Again and again we witnessed tragedy. Violence in in justices of all times. Administer katyland rights. I can barely read the news anymore. I share the sentiment from a lot of people. It's depressing it's filled with violence. Sometimes the news is a pornographic portrayal of personal tragedies. X is concerned with real issues. Sharon's mobile impact. Before example i am left. Asking. What can i do. About a dead syrian boy. Or starving polar bear. Can i do. Sometimes it's not even. List. Or the logistics of shuttling the kids around. Or sometimes we are overwhelmed by losses close to us. An aspect of our house. For independence. For the loss of someone close to us. With so much happening in our lives and in our world. It can't be easy to lose focus of what makes our life meaningful. Instead of choosing to live by our own priority. We become responsive to the demands placed upon us. I don't think either mcfarland or i are trying to suggest that we shouldn't care about other people or the desires. Rather i think he's pointing us away from a life where we feel as if we're living inside a pinball machine. Slam from one crisis or concern to the next. Lift a life. Clear purpose and direction. We knew what was important for us to do. And acted on the basis of this priority. Tell me. What is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life. Ask the poet mary oliver. What is it that you plan to do. What do you plan to do this afternoon. I know many of us will head to coffee hour and it's some of you are planning to join the meditation group. And others go to the social action council meeting. Or simply to put up your feet with a good book for the newspaper. If you had to turn to your neighbor right now. Could you articulate why. This is your plan of action. Could you say confidently. Whether this plan is the one you really want. To be doing. Or would you rather be doing something else. I'm asking is because i think too many of us may be feeling swamped and exhausting. In the past number of weeks i've heard from a number of you. Feeling that way about some of the rolls. Play here. One of the things i love about this congregation is that you are a bunch of doors. You roll up your sleeves. From work to the rummage sale. 2 rides for seniors to folding orders of service. I know that if something really needs to get done. To make it happen. Personally grateful for this work. You do for the congregation for me. Other. And i know that through the past years of transition. Many of you have stepped up. Sandhills on. To ken's retirement. The interim. in my first year. Together. You made it. Norm's transmission. A transition that took. Energy. And sometimes took patience. Now in this new season. I want to say that if you are tired and the rules are no longer feeding your spirit or bringing you a sense of purpose and meaning. It is okay. To roll off your position. Cyberghost. Current president of our leadership style. Just a committee met for our annual board retreat. They are already exploring how to address changes in volunteer roles in numbers. To stay tuned for more information about this or reach out to one of your parish committee members to talk to them about if you have an idea on how we might do things. I know some of you are with jim insane. What's going to happen to. Yes. Forward together. There will need to be changes in how we do things. Or maybe even in what we do. Challenges and questions to address. Excited. This can be a time of renewal. Whether you were feeling burned out or ready to commit. I'm excited. With what does give a sense of purpose in meeting and i'm so full of it together we can chart a path that brings more joyful engagement. In a life of our congregation. In such a way of thinking is not just for within the walls the first paris. It is also a way of living that i hope we can take the on these walls. One wild and precious life. What is your priority for life. Compass. Yes i know. I really do like school. On the first day the professor asked us to complete the sentence. In response. I believe that we are all connected power of love. It seeks to foster the fullness of life. In all. Congregation is a community of people whose essential purpose. Is to celebrate this power of love. Enter foster the fullness of life within ourselves and in the lives of others. At its core. I believe first parish in wayland is a spiritual organizations whose purpose is to deepen our sense of a meaningful life of love. And service. And if attending a committee meeting that you sat for a decade. Meaningful to you. To roll off. I'm not suggesting that we don't need or want people to engage in the life of a congregation. We do need a lot of volunteer labor and time. To make the mini programs events and activities of first paris happen. What i am saying is that i believe what you do here at first parish. And beyond these walls. Should feel meaningful to you. Instead bring a sense of joyful engagement. Doing something that is meaningful need not glamorous. Syma meant lessly life-changing. I have seen many of you give hours doing the most monday. Because being part of a larger community. And purpose and purpose of creating the event. Meaningful to you. We can foster that sense of love. And life. In all kinds of ways. Example ushering. So i am not trying to undermine opportunities to serve this congregation or others. Rather i am simply suggesting that the priority. Is gage. That feeds your spirit. Sisters. The fullness of life. Did you plan to do. It's your one wild. Precious life. We cannot do it all. But we can do. Something. What are you doing. Priority in your life. For me and my priority lies in this fostering of life. Last week i chose to do something. In support of a bill to label genetically engineered foods. Which i fear often have a negative impact on the life of the biosphere. Regardless of whether this law passes or not. It's still good to take action. Something that reflect my values. Life felt deeply meaningful. What do you plan to do with your one wild. Preciously. I have no doubt that we will answer these questions in different ways. And this difference is exciting. We need a diversity of passions and responses to address the various needs and issues of our time. We all need to ask. What can i do. This is a profoundly religious question. A question of our values and our priority in life. We cannot do it all. We are all we asked to respond to what we can do. That reflects our values.

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FP-20171217-Homily.mp3?_=5

Before staff meeting. Sweet. I read something short that we reflect on together. Earlier this month i read an essay by the christian author queen caldwell. Impark he writes. Is there anybody else out there who hate. Tasteful christmas decorations. Who's opposed by gentile ornamentation. When faced with a color-coordinated christmas tree covered in matching ornaments. Have to fight the urge to set it on fire just to liven it up a bit. I mean this is christmas we're talkin about people christmas. The day that unto us a child is born. The day that made all of heaven singing wunderman enjoy. The day the creator of all the cosmos entered history and changed it forever. This calls for tencel. Christmas is not a day for restraint. It is a day for blowing the doors off the hinges. Not only did this reading reveal some interesting differences among the staff when it came to holiday decorating. At our holiday. Staff party kate hollander director of lifespan spiritual and ethical exploration. Gave me a santa. In swimming trunks sitting on an inner tube with a pina colada. This is a hint to me that i needed to loosen up i think. But this reading also made me think about today differently. Imusic sunday we disrupt the normal flow of our sunday service and let the music expand to fill the hour. It's a day the piece that we will hear is a big celebratory piece. I think black would have agreed with caldwell's call to liven things up. This is christmas. This calls for strings in woodwinds brass and drums. This calls for. Full range of human voices temples and volume. This calls for music that just might blow the doors off their hinges. No pressure musicians really. The peace. Is based on a text in the christian scripture of luke. It is itself a joyous and powerful declaration. Mary has just learned that she has been chosen for an extraordinary purpose. To give birth to jesus. The prophetic leader. Who will change everything in her life. In the life of so many. She celebrates not only her role in these events. But also the hope for change that the baby brings. This is good news and she erupts into song. A song that has been known in the christian scripture and tradition as the magnificat. Both of words we hear song today will be and the language we may not know when. I hope that we will hear in the music the language of joy. Whatever we may or may not believe about the divinity of jesus. The birth of every child is a miracle of life. Abdu possibilities. Of the hope for what may come. The hope of birth. Is the counterpoint. To the sorrow of death. Birth and five sets to lean into the unknown future. And all that it could bring. And so me listening to this peace connect us to our own joy when someone or something is born anew in our lives. We are listening today remind us to celebrate. Precious moments. New life. However and whenever they may appear in our lives. Beyond listening today. Remind us to celebrate. Precious moments of. Pee wee sing. And play. And listen. Without restraint. As we join mary and a song in praise of birth. And all the hope. It first carries with. Show me it.

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FP-20190609-Homily.mp3

Who is going to summer camp this year. Or who is dropping off someone at summer camp this year. I suspect that many of us have enjoyed the summer camp ritual as camper or parent or both. I know that sometimes we talked about how kids can be homesick at camp. But did you know kids that sometimes parents. Also get hit stick without you. The reading today depicts apparent who is missing her kid. But she's also thinking about her father. The images of the poem suggests that her father was not always a good man. And that there were parts of him she could not love. And yet. She remembers the little things she did love. Little things. Small beauties. Exists all around us. I admire how the poet sharon olds is even able to see beauty and peeling the skin of her son's sunburn. She might consent to insect wings. Personally i p a b grossed out. Where did you find beauty. And small things. Maybe in a small object placed on a shelf or a desk. Or the way the flower falls in the vase. Maybe you see beauty in the crooks of your child's movement or that of another loved one. As an abstract concept beauty is notoriously difficult to define. The dictionary points to what is aesthetically pleasing. Or even what is pleasing to our moral sense. And so we can stay a striking arrangement of flowers is beautiful. That away a young adult gives up their seat for an elderly man on the subway is beautiful. We can find beauty in the kindness of a stranger. Or in the vastness of a sunset. Beauty is a concept that seeks to capture an element of what is pleasing. And right with the world. The good stuff. And these good elements show up in all kinds of places big. A little. Obvious. In hidden. Nor is all the beauty in the world segregated over here and one place with all the bad stuff kept neatly over there and another place. This is what the poet old is trying to tell us. Even when the big things are not good. We should keep looking to see if there are also small beauties. Into. The little things. Why bother looking for these small beauties. Old suggest. That such small beauties can be a way to love the world. The practice or the duty of finding the small beauties can in fact be what teaches us to love. And to bind us to the world. In so many ways summer. Is a season of beauty. Not only the verdant landscape and the sunny warm days. But also opportunities for gathering with friends and family like we'll do with our picnic. Or possibly even making new friends at summer camp. Wherever your summer may take you before we gather again in this sanctuary. I encourage you to notice. Not only the big beautiful vistas. But also the small beauties scattered throughout. The varied landscape. Of life. So may it be. Amen.

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20190929-Sermon.mp3

Every once in awhile i'm forced to deliver a sermon that i know will be difficult. To hear. It may even be the case. That the more you wrestle with some of the ideas i'm about to share. The more your discomfort. Will grow. And if that's what happens then you were listening this morning. All of the great world religious traditions. Have. Some key. Principles values or ideals many of these traditions share similar values or principles. With differing interpretations. And certainly one of the most revered religious principles. In the history of humanity. Is the ideal. Of detachment. I have come to believe that it is one of the most important. Religious virtues. It is a most rare quality. And we see evidence of it only occasionally. And when we do see it. We don't like it. Our culture has cast. The phenomenon or experience of detachment. As unattractive. Wheda ride. Detachment. And because of that we have few models of it. Among us. And as a result most of us won't value something that. Our culture devalues. And this is true even of those virtues that we consider good virtues. Detachment is a very difficult skill. To learn. And i can tell you right now out of my own experience and observation that it is not a natural result of the aging process. It is a delicate achievement. I think it has to be nurtured early seen and valued early. And cultivated over time so that in one's maturity. When and if that comes. One might hope to arrive. Edit. No our culture extols. The very opposite. Of detachment. We are driven toward unity. Or homogeneity even. Liberals. Are driven. Toward unity and homogeneity we don't like to call it that but that's. What it is. We don't like too many people. Coming here. Who think radically different then. We do. We are encouraged to become unquestioning in our loyalty. And devotion. And often enough submission is the goal. And disloyalty is one of the great social crimes. The true believer is the person who is truly devoted. He or she cannot be shaken. We praise this devotion. It can be a beautiful quality. And i am sure that we all belong to certain groups whether they be social or work-related or familial. Were those who diverged. From the norm. Are looked. Down upon. You know these places their places were never is heard. A divergent word. And unless a person is willing to pay a price for deviating from the norm. It won't happen. Most of the time most of us are true to the bond of belonging. And most of the time. We accept this norm without question. Let me. Offer a couple of. Suggestions are examples. In which you might find yourself. Most professions have codes of loyalty. Austin we are put on the spot to take sides when friends divorce. We are loyal to the party closest to us. Even if they are in the wrong. Families have strict codes of prejudice and bias every family does especially the family that says they do not. Many of us struggle with how we fit into our families because of these codes and lastly i have for years been aware of how many of my. Clergy colleagues adapt. To the class values. Of the people. Pacer. I had an experience early on in my ministry where i served the congregation. In massachusetts. His reputation was. The most wealthiest tone in the state of massachusetts. It was deleting church in town. It was a unitarian church. And most of the members. Or republican. Never has heard a divergent word wow. The norm has deviated hasn't that just saying. Well that illustration is a sermon in itself. But not for today. If you really think about it we're driven toward homogeneity. And i think that. Maybe you eat at aryan universalist or a little more homogeneous. In some parts of the country than others. Certainly on the east coast. Class issues are more prominent. Then they are here. But we pretend that they do not exist here. But they do. So let me define my term. Detachment. So far i've cast negatively. But it has a positive definition. And i would say the detachment is not. Non-attachment. That's buddhism. Nor is it. Indifference. Which is secularism. I think detachment is really. Reattach. It's a kind of interests. Capable of objectivity. Detachment is a great. Deep. Abounding interest. Which is capable. Of objectivity. Smite definition. If you can you get out from where you are. In order to see where you are. And if you cannot do this. You will never know where you are. When we try to be objective. We try not to allow. All of our prejudices and desires to determine what we see. At least. Not completely. You take what you see and understand. And you bring it to someone else. Requesting them to share their prejudiced view of what you are sharing with them. And then on to another person. Hoping that in the process. You may arrive at what is truer. Than any one person's. Biased. Perspective. To do this requires an acceptance. Of limitations. Especially ones own limitations. So as to prevent self-righteousness. It is the recognition that every one of us can be motivated by things we do not like. About ourselves. Can we accept the vagary of our own choices and decisions. Being detached also means except. Understanding and accepting the limitations of other people. It is the acceptance of the limitations of your group. You had limitations i have them we have them. Our group has them. It is the acceptance. Of the limitation of the berry best thing we know. Because it is only. At any moment. The thing we know. And your knowledge. And my knowledge of it. Is limit head. And limiting. Someone else will see it quite differently and see something else that you do not see. Detachment is also the recognition that however precious anything maybe to you. You can do without it. Anything. That should be. A shocking statement. It is even more shocking in the living. Then it is in the hearing. Now you can see why detachment is. Unattractive. We wanted to be needed we want to be needed we want. To be like. We want to be included. We would need to be seen. We need to be appreciated. We depend on this totally. We want to occupy a place of respect. That will give us dignity and worth. And we need this we do need this. But while we look for it and find it to some degree. We must recognize. That we could. Live. Without it. Anyting. Whatever you most care about. Up to and including. Your life. Now perhaps it may be easier to understand by saying. That detachment is based on. Two insights. The first insight is. That your life. Is more important. Than any of its parts. That seems like such a reasonable statement doesn't it. Your life is more important than any single expression of your life. We didn't plan this. But beth's. Prayer this morning. Illustrate. Your life is more important than your pain. Then your past. Then your despair. Then your joy then your hope any of those things your life. Is more important than any one of those things. Because they are only one expression of your life. In this moment. Your life is surely more important. And precious to you. Then any idea. You have. Heresy. And a unitary. Your life is more important than any idea you hold. How many millions of religious. I'll let it go. Scientific. Rational people. Are unable to give up. Their idea. Their defining idea. Who they are. About life is all about. We cling to these things as if they were the only true ideas. When the idea is merely an instrument of your life. However valuable that maybe. Your life is more important than any of your activities more important than any of your connections. Including. District. Your life is more important. Then your spouse. Or your partner. Or your children. Or your friends. Are your possessions. And let me be clear about this. I am not the writing. The value and importance of any of those things. I am sure you have your own priorities of value. You may even find it inconceivable that you could live without any of these things. Or persons. But the reality is. You can. So many times in the course of our lives we are forced. To realize this truth. We are detached. From even the things we are most. Attached. Tool. And that. Is the difficult. Delicate truth. Of it. So the first principle is. That your life is more important. Than any of its expression. Or moments. And the second insight little trickier. Is that all values and all qualities. Are never locally restricted. What does that mean my grandmother used to say to me. If you have experience. Goodness. Once. Somewhere. Even if it goes away. You will experience it again. Somewhere else. And that goes for beauty. And kindness. And evil. An understanding and happiness. And sacrifice. And so on. These qualities are not confined. To any one person or object. Love is not restricted love is not local. Hope it's not confined. Children are everywhere in the world. However precious your children are. There are. Other. Children. I am not encouraging you to dispense with precious qualities and important things. But if you love children. You can still love. Children. Even. If you love. Your own. Lewiston. You may actually love other children deeper. As more precious. And what time i. Because you have lost. Iran. If you have been lovingly accepted by another person. And that person is now gone. You can be lovingly accepted. By someone else. Never. Identically. But in such a way. It may even take your breath. Away. How many times. Have i heard this. From people. Who have gone through the pain of divorce. Or lost through death. To have found another. Who win his or her own uniqueness. Is just wonderful. To love. Let me close by mentioning briefly. The benefits. Of detachment. Detachment will keep you open and flexible. Unresponsive. It'll keep you adaptable to anyting. It'll give you freedom. The freedom to see your own weaknesses and not to be afraid of them. The freedom to see your enemies weaknesses and strengths. And not be afraid of them. Freedom to see the world with all its tragedies and losses in wastefulness. And the ability to move on with this because. You have life. With its hopes. And its promise. And the difference is this. That was detachment you will lose the fear. Of those thing. You say. You will not be a prisoner of the fear. Of those things. Of loss. And that is an enormous freedom. You will not fear punishment because that is. Not what life is for. And you will need less and less. Rewarding praise. Because life in itself. As sufficient. Glory. Many ministers. But always best to speak only of oneself. Become ministers. Because they need. To be needed. Not quite saviors. But needed. And depended upon. And respected. And loved. And when it doesn't happen. It can be misery. Itself. So one of the great spiritual disciplines for those in this location. Those of us in this location. His to let go of that more and more. Regardless how difficult life baby. To open oneself up. 2 astringent. Beauties. Last week. Was a tough week. It rained off and on though. And it one moment i looked in the backyard at the wall full of id. And the sun came out. And the ivy was. Dripping. Raindrops. And it was. Transcendentally. Beautiful. And it had been doing that for some minutes while i was still in the stew of myself. And when i came out from it. To see it i think. All around us. Is this kind of beauty. And glory. If we could only get out of her ways. There are some risks. To being detached to be sure. Detachment made evolve into indifference. Where one blithely walks through life without meaningful dependence and interdependence. That would be a perversion or a caricature of detachment. If you are detached let me say friends. You will become an aggravation and a disappointment. Two other people. To the degree. That you are detached. To all those who would like to possess you. You will become an enemy to all those who want to manipulate you. And you will lose a great deal. You will lose the arrogance of the true believer. And you will lose the clinging dependents of those. Who are frightened. And holding on. But these things. Have poisoned life. For too long. And we need to learn to live without them. And as we find our souls. We will find increasing detachment. Maybe for us i need to turn that one around. As we grow in the quality of detachment. We will grow. In the quality. Of our spirit. Or so. And this will be a very large part of patience. Courage. Peace self-fulfillment. And what we all yearn for. As a community. Of justice. Compassion. Paseo. My dear people. The road is long and hard. But you are not alone. You are somewhere along it. But if you reach out your hand. And open your heart. And for your mind. You may find who you were truly meant to be. In the company. Of joy.

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podcastFeb1107.mp3

It's an amazing team. Indeed. Took more and more away from the native t-pain. Npc run. Funded by a white blanket dimensions. Screw blackout southwest into him. Austerity. Income online story unfolding. Life is a journey. I didn't take any attention to everything into home when i get that into this is very. From the beginnings of consciousness. Every religious tradition as you. Word. Packages from wednesday. Online. Free modern and sophisticated. From a psychological point of view. Young adulthood immaturity in. Put psychological label. On a very important camera. And the movement from one place. Sometimes. Circumstances conspire to keep. Even when we are ready to move on. Relationship. See my job on. Equidistant mortgagor. Stryker's field right here but i need to move on and i don't know how to do that. When billion degrees of intensity. Francisca canas delightful. David. David white. Northwest collectors on whidbey island. Squidward's the coax to the team of the game. Removing from clay. And outfitting oneself. Necessary. And not a barrier. You might be coming. Find a ghost in history. Imagine. And let me know how are. Grow. Shadow or light. Indifferent. I love you. Appropriately. Sabbatical. Kentucky are all on james and we are all moving from one place. City auto. Mccarthyism. My story of my life story. Open gate. Timothy mcgee captain let me find again the ghost in history. Derry imaging center. Conversation. Instagram. Weather ideas shadow or light. Ironborn. Little bit. Eagles score. Story-of-my-life circumscribed. Around 10:30. To go to. Morning glory. In particular. Navigate on stacker. By will or hoping. Waiter will be new. And whatever it is on the other side of the gate. And it opens up. Into the unknown. There will be anxiety. Because it's probably going to require. Everything about this we might wonder whether or not this story that is hot. She was going to. Don't know what's going to happen. And some of us want to go to the gate. May not come back. And that's always the risk. A cantaloupe. We also know to. View of. Interior. Carpet cleaner. Ok google. We don't want to go see this. Required to become a new person. That way, andy.. Minion. Deshawn. Becoming. We are dying. Even though we are alone. Quiet. Something so basic income. Steven portland. Airline. Really depends on where we have come from. Lightskins. You're not even able to rebound. Verizon weather today. Weather part of grateful cry. Or whether we are hiding. From the game. Significant. Children. Required. Above all. If there is no. I bet you have a kind of shot. Because you know. Nicole. Well-written resume. In the last few months. From summer. From the very first week i knew you. 19 * 99. From september 1st. Although congregations forecast. Exhausting. Whether or not i would be able to remain in the paris minute. Location. Time to explore. I really could become as i get drunk. Paris bennett. I would feel as if my life had meaning and purpose. Anything else. A mask. Answer my question myself. Unreconstructed. When i cast my home. I would be hungry. People who are gone. Something network. No matter where i go. Seattle. Whitaker center. General universe. Show my good good friends are becoming. Are you smart. And with who. Let me look.. Are you again. Important. Uma thurman. I feel a little. You are giving me permission. And encouragement. Alicia where you are. Hopefully you will be too. In the morning. Symbolically. Revisiting internally revisiting of games. Android administrator. Consumer. About this location. Condition. Anti-aging myself. Andrew hibbs myself. Wake up hope that i are moving offices from my. Of course. Eli. Designing christians and messier. District. We are. Kankakee weather. One of the most important and interior jaguar images. Mark cl. Sometimes wonder how it is i guess. In my own directly instead. A very long time. Before you. Iq. Companion. Omni evolution. Away from the house. Give myself permission carrera. Eventually i think. Significant. Drink water. Sundown. Myself. Myself. Timber. I will be set from controlla. Alaska and in other places in this wonderful country and world i will enjoy the left. I have an opportunity to reconnect with my now adult daughter spend time with the most important person in my life. My wife. Cougar. Home away from home most of the time and who married away from home. Overtime. I am eternally grateful. Understand. You must hear this phone. A congregate. Stinking interstate highway. For more than 20. I will experiment with a couple of different. Repeat. Adore. Time for laughter and tears. We might together in mandarin. Hearing and vision. Destiny 2 medic. Eaton john. Expectation. Mean girls. Never had the innocence again. Because both her car. My prayer. The one thing i am working right now. Instagram. Because we know. And will continue to give up forever. Equity. More and more and more. With the pope. Smallpox. Grove. Assassins. Renew life. Barrier. You might reclaim. Directions to grow. We want most. Again. Lovingly. My colleague of a t-rex. To whom i wouldn't try. Because we care so much about. Alyssa grace. I have known. Giant. Where you are. Thank you brother you will go for evictions. And also because i know that before.. Opportunity for her to grow your confidence and. For her. You are precious. And i would not entrust your fear. Qdoba. In fortnite. We had no in additional sabbatical committee that will help hold on.. I am hoping our sunday services and support arms. Support each other. You deserve. Harry foster creativity. Enjoy. And i know that you will care for each other. The way you have intentionally done so for me. To migrate. Glass 7 years. Play ride 1999. In the congregation. Navigation walk together. Other-life. Guido's. I'd like to give it to her. I'm making rebel clark outside of my room.

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Sex-Romance-and-Love-Is-There-a-Revolution.mp3?_=9

I think that that kind of intergenerational difference. That is a christian tradition in. In the same way. Absolute numbers of population. In hebraic in biblical times. Bear. Forgetting. The american college of obstetrics and gynecology. Most of us here were raised with the belief that masturbation is a sin. Masturbation is an evil thing to do. But it's certainly not something that people are going out advocate anywhere. And the end masturbation invariably. Was wicked and was flu but the lord i can't say anything. He apparently didn't have any children. And there's an ancient tradition that if you're older. Married and has no children that you should have intercourse with your sister-in-law. Contraception and apparently. Female. That suggests that teenage girl. Important difference has to do with the reality of contraception. Contraception is effective contraception the state of washington the backup for legal abortion for female contraception. Contraception. You mean you really don't know and i said. Marriage in and love the concept of romantic love. Wherever you have a society in which marriages are arranged the concepts of falling in love. Tua cordilleras and. Or out-of-the-money marge marriage market i have some friends at it so maybe we're spend some time in southeast asia these are indians who got married. I think romance and romantic love. Romantic. Of what we need and therefore you don't want the data to intrude. You may not be fortunate enough to have mall happen at one time but that's what they really will have you know and and and. That's really necessary in terms of. And i've mentioned. 50 years ago. And secondly. 1900 the average age of menstruation was. 14 + 1/2 + 19.

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The-Last-Thanksgiving.mp3?_=24

Joyful thanksgiving. What are we wait. Selco my life. Remember all those pills and still defeat. The roads are growing herbs in garner in the heart. Will be mindful of utility payments. All the members of the human family. We're taking apart. Never be satisfied to enjoy hunting. So long as emily. Express our gratitude for nature's gift. Not work alone. Also in the purposes for which we live. Anaconda. Lombardi. Reading purse from me. 17th chapter. Translation. In the court of insurance in jerusalem. Across the boundary between plumeria and celery. American worker protein. Turn leopard gecko. Protector for a tablet out. Jesus, m. Go and tell yourself. On my way. And their number. Call restore. Turn round and frank scott. 14%. Hitman. Working for naca. Sandman hill. Nobody going concern and praise god for what has been done. Captain stringer. Go on your way. Endorphin. Booker familiar with. Modern retelling. Archibald macleish. Removing opening theme. Acquainted. What kind of a thanksgiving dinner. Google. Start with his wife. The characters are there total. Tell me what day. Potatoes. Jonathan ingredients. Rebecca and anna. Cummins careers. Answer your question. Giving birth. Octagon. Syrup. Joe. I think you do. Sometimes. Times like this when were together. We have turmeric. Resume current. Even if no one else youtube. Never confirmed until my keto from my truck if i got it. Tripoli. Stephen young and poor i know it. I never thought so from the first fine silver dollar to the last. Controlling interest in from company. I couldn't. I cried till i knew it. Growing worse. Euchre. God punishes. American coronavirus. Look up the world order of it. The person who has returned and spring for the summer is green. Gotham awards. Stop. Wonderful. Everything. Pinterest. Which one. We are toonz. That statement is important. This week's i break a fundamental shamanic rule. Look i forgive two terminals under the same title. First deal where they go to america. Sanctimonious strengths. Illogical collapse. Confirming that every chance for thanksgiving. Thank you allah. We need to run. Hot pink with opportunity. Decrypting confuse remember. You were going to. The price of one. Here regal gateway volume 28 number 39. Thanksgiving. Part 1. Lord salary. Interchange a warm-weather. Call. I'm liberal. Uber comfort. A joyful. Call rich murphy and time convenient. They also trying to park. Encourage giving. William bradford. Second governor. 16. Honeybrook. Radioactive cloud. From the chinese nuclear test. Teresa washington oregon coast about 4 a.m. today. Northwest. Favorable weather conditions. Spell special. Working capital. Federal officials appeared confused. Actor who is anyone. Was monitoring the radiation level of a cloud. Seattle car. 81. September 20th. Hunting cemetery. Of course god jump. Don't ever change. American come on.. Look at the world. The order. Return springs and summers. Lily's green. The number of cheetahs expectation. Google. Gospel awards. I'm gone. Parker water. Wonderfully. Giving up everything. Reserva. Kept us from harm. Each one. Each one. What's happening. Thanksgiving. Varian, braiding the holiday to them across the line. Tinkers with a gorgeous. Bored. Are they still wanting your appetite for the feast about. The network cut away from the marching band. News roundup. Something to the effect. The ground monitoring devices have revealed. Call level from a chinese radiation cloud. Heavier. It martini. Would be necessary. Harvesting food. Joann open till. Swimming. Call lana. Penguin auto. Photos in the country. Tickle. The news. Over the next few days. Present crop. Juggling level. Radiation. Areas affected constantly expanded as the cloud continues to. Around the world. Coming back. The second and third time. Even higher radiation level. Already. Denver. Scientists began to. Sacred grounds. Americana. Northern hemisphere. Directly affected. Hulu have to come. Amazon already in detroit. Number of presidential executive freezer down to the issue. Horrocks court-approved. Immediately suspended. Might be free ringtone. Food prices. Quickly followed by. Other orders in wix. The government has food. Huge warehouse collective. Garden spa federal soup. Decrees were handed down for getting the feeding of domestic pets. Austin w slaughter. Arab response to the food court in fargo. Turn to embargo all. America. First burger public response republican. People enjoying something called. The newspapers across the line editorial compressor letting the government on it. Rebecca pisco sour. Started rounding up all text. Destroy them. Louis vuitton keychain. Propinquity. Candidate rims on atlanta. Suicide rates rose sharply. Liquor store on friday run on all on rockin luxury items. Have y'all talked a gourmet food disappearing overnight. Liquor stores. Booze unavailable. Private parties looking the rain. Driving or walking the streets after dark. Call harold akin pronounce. Fewer and fewer car on the street. Who. Automobile. Mark all efforts by the government. Franklin became runaway. Began to appear on all side. Paper crafts. Where am i. Simply disappear. Motherland without america's food resources. Widespread starvation lake recorded in japan. Rumors persisted that the time was about to invade australia and new zealand. Grimes. King kong. Father father,. Rumors. Circulated widely. The government ordered. A family's away from the city. For reasons of thinking in the event of war. Because food was available in the countryside. Seattle. All the company's machinery for the month old. It would not cover contamination. Quesalupa. Turnover money. Rumors persisted that anchor have been mysterious lady torpedoed off for townsend. Ineffective a 50-cent woodcutting party for ripping apart the arboretum. Home depot during an unusually cold january. Officers reported that virtually no one. What's going up for work. Pearl the mood of optimism. Tripping the apathy. Aveda salon. And people began to stand together and what we're really private games are army. Anyting anyone with anything to eat or drink. Looking tired things are less protected by being a member of the group. Fire services were increasingly ineffective. Anything with the broke down remained in disrepair. Country. Was grinding. Remote control. Pulaski vet. General's opinion word for a japanese troops landed in australia. Charming prachar request into the soviet union. Newspaper mysterious massive nuclear attack. Wiped out every major city in america. No one was quite sure where the american rockets have been launched in response. And it's so against whom. Heading to much interest in front of others. Vibrating hazard lanta. Six weeks after the attack. Appraisal emperor. 17. Reporter dr. lorraine. Had indeed survived.. Everything wasn't perfect order. Forever be persons against the run. Chipotle near. Intercity auto also reported. Sing perched on top. Skeleton of a place new york. 12-year survivor. Note to self. Speaker i've ever heard. Tell with maker's point new moral drawing. We all know that we live and they can load it. Welcome pumpkin america 1976 rory. Highest levels in history. Come more and more coming. Hansel barbarian aresty. Here we are more and more f****** for that legal ramp. We all know that sooner or later. What we are told is impossible real. Tankers from where will dump millions of gallons. Restart. Or somewhere. Somewhere sometime sometime. We'll get a line. We all know the truth. Continue to live forever in the world in which every american to 260 x energy. Every citizen of india. Forever living the world for. Rubber live in the world. Wander. Nookazon. We all know these things at 11. Calls upon our heads. Carpal tunnel. On our private sunday. Executive platinum mine says. Powerful machine in the world. Stop. Single person. We need nothing.. Hoverboard. Who are co-creators of our own. English. Seriously our future and the future of all humankind. How many years. Youtube. Jeremy never. A lot. Thanksgiving. Dark poop. He turned around and thank god. 15. Don't have the rear fender. Review my life. I have to confess to myself. Architect. Citizen sumitra of myself. Naturopathy shared in common with many unuturum. 10 doorways review with alarm. As markets course of the lot. Application instructions that i usually use event. Border truck cummings and daughter possibility. Candy crush. Only rarely. Various. Thanksgiving. Compression be good. Thanksgiving. Happenstance. Most of the unicorn in military. Worn out residence. Northwest area. Supreme. What a microwave. Suddenly and unexpectedly died. Gather from across the region for his memorial service. We knew that we not only celebrated his life. Also preoccupied. Uncle. Leader. Structure of a servant. Broccoli. The family has therapy. 47 years of english. Figure that no doubt in my hair. Psycho. Alamar. You look up missing at least half a dozen times in the course of his remarks. Target friend was 27 years of age. New. Where are living polly trump. Really. Work. After the service king the usual caveats. Another of my colleagues. Landing. Opinionated. Never intimate leg. He said something like that. Every moral of the story. Take me to homecoming. I don't want to leave any unnecessary lieutenant. My record. I want you to know how important he was doing. Turn onto a conference. Well over a decade earlier. With both of us a dependent. What an event only give me remembered. Eraser. Something has happened that weekend with. Turn them on to the ministry. Somehow in his mind i have been t. Hope that i'm realistic enough to know that. Many factors for pelican for the ministry. I'm not tripping anyway i really want to be responsible. This is hardly the point. He was telling me about post-memorial copy are. Coconut point. Ticket away. I've been important to his wife. And he wanted to acknowledge that public right not as being beholden. Celebrating our mutual building. A person can be. Significant. I tend to. I can be try personally and giving to new england understatement. Put my feelings and personal relations. Thanksgiving. I find that i like more note to person. Tell them when i'm grateful for something they've done or service. I even went difficult find it even when i find it difficult. Particle coupon. How do you make a particular importance. When we perceive ourselves to have unfinished agendas. People who are important. Not long ago i met with a family to discuss. When's memorial service. Sunset. Before dad.. I got many things i never been. I feel good. Anything more. We are such a person in our lives. We have something december. Card workout starting a pillow. Realizing the communication is not always possible. Parking. Hebrew pro2x. Fire alarm. Monterey single thanksgiving with. One other person in vehicle spray. Text my wife with meaning. Peppermill only recently. Well over twenty years after. My father's farm. I'm finally beginning to understand. Farmer uncle used to apologize to the field. On the one hand. Picking the field and become a degenerated into a primitive animals on. With the person can become so preoccupied with something that's good and evil.. I can't get on. Everything. Even putting. Usually lodge from colonel approval. A certain respect for and appreciation of. Salon. We arguing. Connection and reminder. The unity government we have. Conifer for one another. Herobrine. Transform you and your sex drive to say prayers. It was awesome. Prayers were away in richmond. Consecrated mind events of the day. As well as the people. Begin to recover. Kinds of attitude. I work every tanker tucker. Sale in pacific time. Drive to the waters from the brewery. Orlando. Prison warden. Apologize for the oil perpetrated everytime we find. The solitary confinement. Everyone had more of that. Wonderful expression of the book of common prayer. We are done. Negative. Ee coming. Amazing dirt. I would bring back. Thanksgiving board. Are you free. Not incoming somebody scripture and mumble a prayer. Everyone join hands around table. Latin. Single song. Peter parker baseball. Universal. We all know something. Call frank. Review. Hoodoo. I would like to pair. I can prank. Order of the universe. Glimmers of light neon. Even at time. Rihanna. I can find for my creature comforts. Labor and coronavirus. Michael warren. But i might be able to be friendly. Instagram. I confronted. Cooking class. Institution. Import. I discover how cargo is arthur mccarthy. Irepair more than. Hinder. There are very few places. Tucker. Important. Current my green. Long after i'm gone. Institutions which continued. Freedom individual. Hotels with restaurants of mine. Psycho. Gloria. And are continuing channel. Old rude and failures. Arkansas. Hercules. Who wrote informer. In the future. Free from food. To reminder. Physical change. Golden earring. We would not be caught on the perfect circle. Inadequacy. Pan for gold. Responsibility. I give thanks for giving to me. I rejoice in the wonder of myself. Jetblue cyber new ways to provide. Transport. Appreciation for the money. Emory henry 43. Whitney well. A praying for those who even when they first meet. Appreciation and pearls. Idaho. Echo park. Turn aside from preoccupation. Thanksgiving. Carolina. Thanks be to our house with others. My life. Who sang with marlowe. Shows were irradiated armoire. Jamaica receive. Knock-down. Those. Hurricane. Chicken. He's an ongoing glory. Margot frank. Carlock wonder. Are we going. Walmart.

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The-New-Plague-AIDS.mp3?_=30

Play today. That doesn't see if we were not always so much wrapped up in our self. But it doesn't and someone bad dreams when other people who passed away my father. The flu epidemic of 1918. The population was decimated. Today. Anushka. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome headline frighten people into absurd reactions and. Other work. Of the inquisition. Worthy of the concerned congregation which relates. The larger community in dangers or help but even more. And allowing. Breakaway the veneer of civilization and allowing others to emerge with all of us teething. Is robert a breakdown of the body's protective system. Exchange of body fluids most notably blood in semen. Coming from a carrier. A new person is infected with what we can call for simplicity's sake and avoiding complex technology and the job breaking. Do medical condition a potential aids virus. Potential virus infect numbers of america. We can only vaguely estimate how many perhaps as many as one or two million people will go on to actually have a we do not know. Since the potential age 28. Will sooner or later developed. I could mean as many as 200,000 people with presents in section right the percentage maybe we simply do not know. And there's a great deal that we do not know about aids. And that is why we have to take a pessimistic view triclops mike cell. That helped other sounds by fox disease to fall into truck supply results. 80% of those diagnosed are death within 2 year. But there are fifty thousand cases of 8. 5. there are other dire medical. Associated with aids and numbers affected more than doubling each and every year the medical cost $1,000 the last population. Pa virus persist indefinitely among those who already have it infect others before they even know they are at risk. And virus mutations come along making the prospects for creating effective vaccine very discouraging time recently. Fairly represent. A worldwide threat to public health. A proportion unprecedented in modern times. Porsche unprecedented in modern times have profound and pessimistic concern. When people should know better. No nothing ism it it's bad medicine and it's. Bad theology. Many religious leaders public proclamation. You can see where the strong is going to record that most of the prominent religious. The plains god's judgment upon the simple by the agency of played subsequently suffered their own judgment and text. Is god's retribution. And god's judgment better take care. There is an increasing there has been no reason to believe that in the united states. Will increase. As the causing virus undergoes innumerable mutation or picture is that unfortunately. There is not a sin. That age can spread unless the body fluids of one person enter the bloodstream of another there is not. Of any family members of an aids victim ever unless there was also a sexual relationship with the victim and yet. So that many face all kinds of discrimination employment screening programs and life insurance applications because they are among the million tomorrow. Who do not have aids but have the bible. The last number potentially at risk. Indicate. All the plans to contact with aids or to think it's quarantine is going to be able to stop it spread. Modern solution is like random people on the forehead then holler about it why don't we bring back the leper colony and i'm sure. Bubonic plague in the 14th century. Mini vented their frustration. Apology. The reason for the plague was god's displeasure that christians allowed to exist in their myth. Futurama survive. Sewveryeasy. To take off beer and then to translated over into some kind of hatred against those who are different. I hope it is obvious of any unpopular never never end. If right-wingers in the name of religious bigotry can try to drive homosexual back into the closet can we really believe that those. True believers declined so much candy fall behind and who among us. Whatever each of us may consider themselves to be religious. Sexual orientation. Without distinguishing whether people want to be public or private. About their adult sexual inclinations. We have virtually unanimous play at the congregation. In opposing discrimination against any group. And i slept we will again. If we now confront new legislative initiatives. Roblox games from.. We have to make manifest in more dramatic fashion. I would person at the pariah marking of the gated community. A of 8. Church has a responsibility. We have a special responsibility because we should be. Obama. We have a special responsibility because our concern. One researcher. At 10. Plague of the millennium. Planes of the millennium. But we do know we do know that the director of communications of life. Matrix retribution god's will piper. Attitude abounds in high places. Then those of us who believe in human rights. Reverence for life. App to control and stand by our beliefs we have to develop. Better information about the true nature of a we need to support programs are prevention and education and unnecessary protection by law. We must look at realistic danger research funding being long we should have a concern that those already medical care. More needed is a religious approach to the issue. Theology. Got the moldings red diseases. And let us remember in the case of old a presumed innocent children. Rational solutions to the problems slaves. Define sensationalism and distortion ism word exist in the public media religion stand for i responsible. Discussions of sexuality of the closet and into the open most of all human being. Church dealing with the issue of our response to 8. 41 already. Accuses. Because play wonder of life. Fancy themselves free as long. Is there a pestilence just as we would not start into these last sunday. Blaming god for aids. It's in front of the truth about wrong. As long as there is a puppy as long as we attach ourselves long as there is a breaking apart. Sibanda spelling.

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Unwilling-Journey-Aaron-Gilmartin.mp3?_=23

Is a house with life360. Minecraft with you. Remember go to live our darkened by the greed wrong apartment. I'm not crazy, cuz our time. 3rd parkway and erie avenue. Remember wars and rumors of wars. Understand. the world. Kinder joy. Remember oil pomeranian. Goodwill. Wikipedia with moxie. His locker. Reading about morning. Hamtramck. Written by gibson ringer. English teacher. I'm going to just help me out. Morning sermon. Tom conry. Very law. Paragraph. A 06. Halloween the redeemer going to walk derby order of the pivot truck-lite made. Proceed with the prayer. Meditation. And hearing. Then how to use. Introduction to the top of the morning. Recovery about sybil and congressional coverage issues. Vanity and prince. In the world hoop reality. Your technological. Or american. Beer head of global orientation. Iran of agonizing truck critical and revolutionary. Give me words of kalamath. Nuketown glitches experiences. America is a coupon. An unwilling journey. Google play music praise. Journeys labor cure. As a member of the german grandma. Enjoy the privileges of the german uniform. During the victory of the german army. Like many others. He wouldn't describe uniform. Minneapolis. He was taken upon back on the grilling journey. Hypertension. Of course. Winn-dixie bryan braille. Under wig cap journey. Ingrate stretching account. All-american situation. We have been going to comfort inn presidential. Oka technoculture. Domination. Now we are facing the demand for reparations. Apparel. Replacement sanding.. How replace the reproach and guilt of all time. Now we enter upon this journey. Being awake. Only hoping for a. He wants secaucus. Opening decorah intelligence of transcendence. His brother in gray. We can find liberation to open ourselves to succulent and promise. Weather on williamsburg. Indian lodge. Sugar. Leprechaun. Prairie medication. I think of the liberty this morning. My team is civic compressor music. Longtime friend. Even i are spending time again here in the northwest. And we invited the wedding me to share some time with us. When she agreed finger. Something that was not to be allowed to pass without her sharing the civic with me. I left here. 18 years ago to go to mount diablo unitarian church in walnut creek. White person of the border.. Rc. Been a long time member of that scholarship. Are you working branson cockley. Cycling was known for her work with children. Rain in richardson. Made up songs to sing to them in ripon. As the years went on. again to write other songs by sousa. Children. Chelsea, really a songwriter and singer in her own right. Participating. Lock control at the general assembly. Now nearly eight years ago i think it was. See you this morning. Who else cannot cry. Seeing a group of three of her own songs. Directv. Is my brother. Where can i find. Does my dream. Where is my plane. Seroquel. Started my labor. Where is my brown. Does my dream. Minecraft. River boys yet. Little boy black. When. What's your daddy. Firestone. Beautiful. Do they call you. Devon england. Bloody boy. Already my little boy. Equally. Alterra parkway. Rivian light grey room. Larry. Where is women mean all of you. The heart. If only you would. Squirtle. Ariana grande. The week. Benedict's of my tyrone. Quick and easy happiness pint. Denver zoo. For inviting me to. Do this morning. We are here today. Elevate. Help make better use of these powers for our own garden. Antarctica. We are here because we have need to learn some of compassion. Brap3. The danger of being. We are here because he recognized. Worshipping our own. Egos. You're here because your application and repressed personal banner. Secretary to us. Will hear from her. May help us to acquire english. We are here not too high. The words to the old furniture. There's no hiding place down here. We believe that every human being. No union. Every other human being. What is wrong. Arrogance. Pre-registration and jewelry. How can this be. Humankind. Long-acting insulin. Institutionalized racial practices are crucifying. Jim o'heir. Humanity. Heard into his household. We believe tremendous cranston. Covid world. Every nation. Small. Straight. Profound respect. Open ue and opinions of the world community. Tell quick remote to military violin. Wrong as a president of the united states. Restraint from other nations. Underwater in justifying his own unrestrained and unreasonable farming. President nixon didn't work. Dependency. We believe. A politan areas. Hunter's review energy. Union teller. New codeshare. You love online. New concept community participation. Cyclamen. Hawaii. Harley rocker panel under car. And radical right. High roller. Lincoln home to recover. And the prices in the city receives only suburban to stain. How can this be. Suddenlink. 16. It's not really bubble. Money. He needs to understand one another. Having a specialty to weird one another. Different timer. What year. We went around her painting. Coloring. We do not tolerate. Whatever i was here. I'm angry. Intolerance secretly. One of the results. Ribbon coloring pages i communicate through me. Everyone one. I know why mom. They may even not be addressing themselves. Sugar craving. Examples of core generation gap. Parents have their agenda. Never the twain. Caron chevrolet about crumbling tested value. You secretly building a completely different. How do we begin to chill with you. This time of king kong. Communication. Heat our minds to be creative enough to find money rate. Let me suggest one. Weighted embodies it straight. Disney collector t-shirt. Everyone. True. Patrol. Hope road mccleary. In a hypocritical. What's wrong counterposed side for tomorrow. Eden prairie. They changed the way they do. 19 mi. Conceited. To inquire sufficiently. Into the minds of those who stand opposed to us. Find out why. Who relevance. And virtuous. Like you. Usually in the eye of the beholder. Dialogue. Dialogue. Simple truth. Herminie marine engine parts. True. How can we find out what is. I suppose it isn't necessary question. You know. That we may never know what really true. Parker boulder. Absolute. Food. Why would be squeaky-clean implementing one another. Chile verde. Some reality. World on. 1700. Truth truth or no. Human universalis. Human nature is essentially one. Terminate service wire and a regular diaper. India. I want to see her child died of starvation. Any more work on youtube. I do not want to see my freedom of expression. Kirkwood underfoot. Any more than a filipino arrest.. Man does not want to have his tomb raider. Anymore white man's chart. School administrator or principal. Not going to have his or her concerns ignored. Any more than a student. Asian making process. Any more than human. Parent does not want to be considered a dinosaur. Any more than a teenager. Program material for a digital computer. Does not want to be called a draft dodger. Any more than once to be labeled. Housewife in suburbia. Does not relish being described as a prank safari. Any more than a mother. Welcome to you. And your morals. Every. Everyone in this light. Arkwright. Georgia. Disparate. Is our school. Universality. Characteristic of human nature. Huntley. Yes we are. The other operation in carmen. Circumstances. Difference. If i am going. I have to say that we are doing a poor job. Universality and our country. Before we burn the whole house down. There is no hiding place. There is no estate. Goodnight perpetual euphoria. Artificially induced. Do me momin. Renewal. Mountain man parker 10th street edmond locksmith sugar sold at amazon. What's another manifestation. Morning glory cleveland mountain. Wherever and whenever we can find him. Dubai. B e. Can you play. Driving to costco in february. At the same time. Agitation. Herman. Screen. Yay. Human enterprise. Whitman apartments. If we are to call ourselves. Humor. Uso. Muscle puppy prepared. Responsibility. Megalomaniac. Linktree. Tommy. Restaurant. Maniacal northfield directions. Return. A wondrous adventure. And the properties. Here. Places in trenton. Mike feet. Jefferson transit of the presidency. Set a reminder for leadership. Reducing the pittsburgh tampa. Shakopee prophetic presidency. Blended livery. 100. C+. A misery. Every. Dog stupid ambiguity. Church leadership today. Without committing yourself in the framework of water. Borderline agent prompted changing. Nothing more. Status quo. Everyone says. We must have order. No friend of freedom. Or. Framework of order. Council district priorities. Organized forces. Throw themselves into the cat. I didn't edit new values in the structures of water. They cannot really complain. Then there are those who resort to violence when they find virginia. Legal remedy. For their grievances. Enterprise. Hastings tribune. Too much to walk funny. Outlines of life. September 8th. The private. Sentimental. Getting rid of anxiety. Required. Required to. Neumos extreme 21 actually state provost structures with water. Occupation. Howard dean. Economic and investment. Government. Military policy. Urban and suburban. Wellington. Recognition. Alcoholism. I could go on and on. Someone who. I am talking about the world. Perhaps not about religion. That's what critics review even the fleeting moment. I would replied god created. Batman create religion. Men and women. Presumably to help themselves to learn how to live in the world. Recreate perfume. Purple pentagon. Hotels. Learn how to do. Weight station and time. When people come to renew the quality of their lives. The collection crown. Hickory generate energy. Mesquite something boys. See what has been called. The interfering community. Interfering. Communicate. Those who believe strongly in the consequence of every human right. Human beings happy mother's day. Where to buy air pollution. Governmental bureaucracy. Made it to itself only to the piston. But no individual is he can go or tomorrow. Interpret scenery. At the moment it feels compelled to pray pray. Survival. Zack bowman has begun to die. Make a call. What time. Voices of theory. Industry. I'll pray and anger. Wireless practice within our society. Reduce violence and counter pressure. Search how to see are violent confrontation. A reason season instructions. We tracked the heart of our national community. You're working every way we can. Learning the violin by removing its poison. Miniature hatred narrow the divisions among us. Country. Orleans. Dude love. And to enjoy. Go. This country celebrate its 200th anniversary of its birth. July echo. Except pretending in the morning. The time to time throughout the day. I watch tv. What what's going on. Strangeland tt movie. I know now. What i was seeing on tv or hearing. Me not send my own clients for reflections on the occasion. Declaration of independence. Richard mille. No other documents. Document stuck in motion. Sublime. German history. Surety top 200 years. Suppository. Journey of the next hundred years of not now seems easier. Huntington apartments on the phone. Evidence and unmistakable. If you do. Arceus priscilla's new dreams application. When is lawrence rehabilitation in fulfillment. Biagio's embody. Institution and the bill of rights. 01. You been more than a friend.. Ebert partner energy center. Wine gift certificate. Reformation. About a third country. 30 words. Other than honoring and preserving the past. Status quo. You right. I was toast i can on recorder. A fairy. Aurora. Every person. Hoover dam. Really. Apartments that you cannot record. Hermissenda corinthians. Determination. Free guns. I hope and i pray. Representative. Girly. For the people of this country. Coastline reading again. Final score steelers word inventor. Piper unwilling journey. All-american situation route. We have enjoyed the competent privileges of protective healthcare. Domination. Yamaha. Now we up. Bruins playing. 983 protein. Now we enter upon this on the wheeling dirty. Only hoping for a renewal. We shall confront. Opening to quarantine challenges of transcendence. Question is. Weathering great you can find liberation. Open our town and promise. Journey. And become a way to freedom. Indian lodge.

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20190804-Sermon.mp3

Once upon a time. I was invited to a costume party. Hosted. By none other. Then scott choir. Who is v coolest kid in my fifth grade class at the time. Now i don't know about you but i remember 5th grade as the year that i first began to take notice of the social hierarchy of things. The year that i first began to recognize that there was a sort of pyramus pyramid of coolness. In the world. Or at least in my class. With a few kids at the top and more of us closer to the bottom. I was fascinated by trying to figure out the rules of this game. Is that the bottom of this coolness pyramid because i still wore sweatpants to school everyday even though the other kids had moved onto jeans. Perhaps it was because word had gotten out that they secretly wanted to grow up to be a singer like mariah carey. Just not cool. Although it is a dream i still cling to. Now as far as i could tell at the time the most revered kids. The very most popular ones. We're the ones who were the very best at making fun of other kids. Which. All tied up together kind of made the whole system. Theologically speaking. Hell. Looking back now the rules seem to have been mostly correlated with gender roles and who is the best at performing their part. Boy or girl male or female. Girls with fashionable outfits workhorse higher up on the pyramid. As for boys were good at boy things. Like playing sports or hiding your feelings. Right. So back to this high-stakes costume party. I had spent weeks deciding whether to go as a clown or as an army guy. I've gone back and forth back and forth are the two costumes there in my room. Eventually changed my mind at the last possible moment for the last time i think would actually left the house. But i ran back inside. Threw off the clown costume i'd had on. Grab the army guy outfit and i got dressed in the car on the way to the party. You can only imagine my surprise. When i arrive to learn that this was not in fact a costume party. Nope. It was though. An army themed party. So at the end of the night i won the award for best dressed. Which is to this day the only time anyone has even considered giving me any kind of an award like that. You might think that this miracle of good fortune would have left me feeling on top of the world. But i was actually just as anxious as ever knowing that i had escaped such massive embarrassment by the skin of my teeth. I knew that even if i've been dealt a good hand this one time the rules of this game we're still not in my favor in the long run. And of course. The image the picture i have in my head of showing up to that army themed party and a clown costume is a picture that even though it never happened is still so burned into my mind that it haunts me to this day. So much so that i'm preaching to about it this morning. Now fast-forward a couple of years and i attended a unitarian universalist summer camp named marwood. And in this place the rules of this game seemed to be turned upside down. There are certainly still some folks that were more popular than others. But they seem to be the ones who are the warmest and the most welcoming. Respect when two people that invited newcomers into the circle to join the conversation. The ones that foster connection instead of competition. This was a place of genuine love. If you've ever found a place like that your own life would be so loud right now genuine love. I remember wondering how does a place like this even happen. One conversation. And that has stuck with me perhaps explains a piece of it. I was on a long walk with a new friend. I don't remember exactly what i said to him. But at some point i basically bragged to him that somebody who we were both close with. He giving me a friendship bracelet instead of him. And you know you all probably know that the social currency of hippie love camp. Well friendship bracelets are like the gold standard right. So here i was enjoying this person's company. Really enjoying his company. And i'm saying this awful thing to him about who is closer friends with who. But my new friend responded to my unkindness with love. And he did it in a way that i literally did not know if possible. He looked me in the eye and he smiled at me. He said how grateful he was but i was finding a home here. This was. This was a person of creative love. If you've ever found a person like that in your life would you sell out right now creative love. Whatever nonsense i learned about social hierarchy. Whatever awful lessons i had internalized about how men are supposed to speak to each other. I saw for at least that moment for the nonce. That it is. When i showed up believing that competition and put-downs would get me somewhere. He showed up with a love that dismantles the status quo. He had literally loved the hell. Friends we have any hope for building the kind of world we want to live in. Kind of world we've envisioned in our hearts and articulated in our principles. We need to seek out those mentors who loved us enough to meet us where we're at. And love us enough not to let us stay there. And then we need to go out into the world and be that person for others. Because nobody but nobody can make it out here alone. How is remember attending this weekend long training many years ago in college. A training for street medics who provide first aid to the protesters injured at demonstrations. I learned a lot of useful things about removing teargas from the eyes and pepper spray from the skin. But the thing that has stuck with me most of all from that weekend long gathering was our opening 20 minute check in. We're asked to go around each person introducing themselves sharing their name where they were from and the pronouns that they wish to be called by. Whether they wanted to be recalled by she or he or they or something else. All of my life people had read my gender and somewhat complicated ways. But this was the first time i'd ever been explicitly given the option of identifying as i wanted. As felt right to me. No one had ever asked. Going on. After this to learn the stories of transgender people in my life and in reading. I began to recognize that even while i continued to identify as male. I began to see how this multitude of behavior. Thought. And feelings and preferences that make me the unique person i am. Had been carved up and placed in these narrow boxes. Boy or girl. Male or female. This invitation to share my pronoun with such a gift. A gift that says you don't have to call yourself by what the rest of the world has always called you. You can show up here. As you are bringing your whole self. No costume. There are few among us. From the made-up story of gender has not limited our understanding of who we are or who we might be. Little while ago i heard a story about basketball star wilt chamberlain. Who despite being one of the greatest players of all time if not the greatest. Was terrible at free throws. A free throws are the only time in the game where you get to stand right in front of the basket and make a shot without anyone in your way. But chamberlain only made an atrocious 40% of the shop. Except for one game. But will probably remain the highest scoring game of all time. When he scored 90% of his free throws. And the difference in this one game. He was shooting underhand from between his legs. And junior high i learned that this was called granny style perhaps inappropriately. But it turns out that this is a much better way to shoot free throws. At the end of the game though chamberlain decided to go back to throwing overhand and decided to go back to missing. And the reason only reason he ever gave for it was that throwing underhand made him feel like a sissy. To the greatest basketball player of all time. The only thing more important than the game that he dedicated his life to. More important than his career. More important even than being a good teammate. Was not looking like a c. I wish you'd had a summer camp friend like mine. I wish you'd had a loving progressive faith community like yours if we could have not love the hell out of him at least we could have loved the bad free throwing it out of an amen. Religious. Religion ought to be the place where we dismantle these boxes that have been placed over us and locked down around us feel greedy say dismantle the boxes. Religious community should be a place of love that comes in rainbow colors and expresses itself in diverse ways. Dr10 those of us who were raised as boys and we were educated into this masculinity. We who call ourselves men has sometimes chosen misguided understandings a status over our relationships. We were taught. We were taught. The sometimes choose image over authenticity. Devalue speaking more than listening. And to choose objectification to austin instead of real connection. Fellow man if this describes any piece of your own story as it certainly does mine would you join me in recommitting to building beloved community that sets our relationships ahead of the false idols of status and power if so would you say i do. And so similarly for those of us educated into the myth of whiteness. We have too often learn to value our own comfort above justice. To value individualism above community. End. And to value intellectualize embassy instead of gut-level transformation. When we see every week in the news that the gut-level transformation is what this country so badly needs right now. Fella white folks. At a time when our country continues policies of separating particularly families of color at the border. And continues policies with separating those families in detention centers around the country. And continues policies of separating families particularly of color through a system unorganized planned system of mass incarceration. And when our country continues to execute. Black and brown skin people in the street without reprisal. Hello white folks will you join me and recommitting to building real beloved community. And commit to loving justice not just as an idea but as a way of life. If so would you say i do. Those of us of all different kinds of identities have all different kinds of commitments to be making it for going to build the kind of world that we want to live in because nobody but nobody can make it here alone. In canada a few years ago. A particularly awful video went viral online. A video of a white conservative religious woman rapping about how confused transgender people were and how they shouldn't be allowed to use the bathrooms for which they identify. That's right i said wrapping this video is offensive on multiple fronts. An eleven-year-old unitarian-universalist friend of mine anthony james wanted to respond to this video making headlines. Because having grown up and unitarian-universalism it had never occurred to him that religion would be used for discrimination. That's sweet huh. As someone who himself identified as gender creative. His experience of religion had been the first place where he was totally accepted without reservation. And so he got to work and he organized his mom. And then dozens of uu congregation from across canada to come together making a new video. A video sending messages of love and support to our trans siblings. And proclaiming the role of religion in celebrating our full humanity regardless of gender expression. Anthony's mom express concern about him posting a video of himself online. Perhaps legitimate concern about him as a gender creative eleven-year-old. Putting a video of himself permanently online speaking out on this controversial issue. She said some people out there will hold this against you. 11 year old anthony. Responded right mom. That is not a reason to be quiet. It is a reason to. As a white guy with a middle-class background. I sometimes feel like i showed up wearing just the right costume to this party. It means that by some accident of fate things around me can seem more equitable than they are. Are my community can appear safer than it really is. I need people like anthony people like my summer camp friend to mentor me and teach me the ways of beloved community would you say beloved community. I invite you to join me in seeking out those mentors who loved us enough to meet us where we're at and love us enough not to let us stay there. Together we can find those moments where we can change the rules of this game would you say change the rules. And where we've been limited by made up stories of race and a gender and where we recognize those systems of oppression surrounding us and also within us. Let's get together and dismantle the false binaries wherever we find them and build bridges not walls to justice you say bridges not walls. And friends in our prayers and in our words and our faithful action let's go forth and love to build the world we know is possible would you say love. Would you say love. Maybe so.

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Art-Symbols-for-a-World-Kenneth-Patton-Seabeck.mp3?_=22

Analogies are treacherous. They can enlighten. An issue. But like a band of rubber you cannot stretching analogy too far or it will snapback. What i have to say instead in poetic friendliness. Let's take an analogy like a turtle. Spell. That. One religion. If not an unfeeling and then. Piece of corn. Everyone carries on its back. I hope that one religion is alive animal. The chorizo show. And although the poor turtle might wish that it could discard itself. When is the chargers still. It's still the same. Carrying a new shell around. And the old is mark the new shell is marked exactly like the old one. So i do not know. For a unitarian to believe that he is an old turtle carrying around a new show with the same old markings. One of the reasons that i had to give up orthodoxy was that i no longer believed in absolutism. I no longer believe that anyone could could forgive my sins for me. That i could be washed. Snow. Even in the blood of the lamb. I never could make that analogy l. I will. Oh how i wish. Should i could give colin back to the hindus. And give the sacrificial calendar stoneback. But i lived through a. and with my government. Okay man and his wife by the name of rosenberg. Who had collaborated with one of our allies. Not our enemy. We didn't exactly. Tear their heart on an altar. Did we. What method did we use did we burn them with electricity. Or snap their neck bones. Lock them out in a cyanide chamber. We have another. Calling. I can imagine that meru in a sardonic moments. Might send two large tattoos of kali 12 washington and 12 moscow. And say you deserve the lady now. Did you are going to continue to test your gruesome volume. Wheaton calling belongs to you. But i think mr. nairobi is too honest for that and although he is a scientific humanist like some of us he carries along. Some of the perceptions of the old hinduism. Any new notices india with her cat sister. Her crime. With the memory of the bloody program the mutual program that went on between. Muslim and hindu at the time of the party. Who's all the hunger and disease and early death. He knows an indian he's calling herself. Remind herself of the evil and the deaths and the suffering. Stihl india. He might like to keep only just do and give up shiva. But he knows it do. Our reality. I think i would prefer having kali. Been having the goddess we have 100 miles high with a head of a mushroom. And then went around her race for waste. 800,000 japanese dolls. I think i'd rather have. I think i'd rather have the aztec calendar stone. After all even in their greatest holocaust they only mayonnaise several thousand deaths for the week. We manage 100,000. Spending 80 billion dollars a year for past and. Present and future war. We make quite a sacrifice to. I do not want. Millions of people have their lives or the goodness of their lives. Wash. It's not crushed forever mango. They build a great skyscraper a great high rise apartments. Chicago. And in the building of it 10 men plummet to their death. And we take our fast and pleasant machines on the highway. Collierville highway exact how many thousand sacrifices every year. It might make an eater little symbolic an artistic package at the meeting house to take out the calendar stone and take out collie. Take out the sacrificial knife from. Colombia in south america. But i don't believe it would make his honor. One thing. With the new turn. Society of man has convinced. Some of us. Is it we are all primitive. And we are all civilized. We're all together. We're 1 rachel family. Living on one small planner. Perception. We would have known we'd never really got away from one another. We were all lilia holler. Away from our neighbor. It look like we were far away. Justice look. He is really far away from other people. Endtime ministries. We were not. One little. Five animals huddled on one little plant. Was all we ever were. And now we know that. Orally it is known for. It is up to us whether or not we. No it. What is the meaning of istanbul. We can't really say anything. Zen. Whoever lost the world email ben many ford. Look like david. Chinese poet who wrote these little verses. Note that you can really say anything. Can a word up here that points to something a word free. It is not a tree. And maybe. From all the things you will see and all the fees the other night esteem and the communication is coming from the word in-between. You get a common experience of trina. And this is communication. When i say the word home. This is all the homes. I have lived in. And it mean to you all the homes you have lived in. These are not the same thing and yet they are the same thing in this is a quizzical thing about. Communication. But some things are so big. So infamous. Heard about all you can do is point a rude finger at. And this is worker. No just try to imagine everything in your life. Comes under the meaning universe. It literally everything in your life if you if you really trying. Universe. Because. Tell your sister you're there helping you tell everything that's happened you in 50 years. In like that. Toucan. Nothing and make a circle is a symbol of the universe. And this is all the perceptions of the stars that you have had all the books of astronomy that you have read only science-fiction you a bread. And the science-fiction author is good thing you thought the man moving among the stars it's all the experiences of sunsets and sunrises and hot sun at noonday and cold son in winter. Which star around our planet earth circles about witches spins. Coming up dry cleaner the evening star. And trying to see jupiter. To a pair of binoculars but your physical claim sets up such a vibration that it's only a dad singing piece of life. University square man lives out of 50 came that to which he returned. Lagwana media. His mother his father now some have a symbol for god which means it. Some of us want a symbol for universe. How can you work if together. Without a symbol of something each of you touches his own awareness of the universe and through which the group together all the group awareness of the universe whatever that means. And the same coming a little lower with the planet earth. How can you speak to someone at rahway. Time to walk barefoot is a boy with your toes in the duck the grass under your feet in the waiting and water all the trees under which she was fastened the leaves of the blades of grass. And the birds 2015 living on earth. We have a very. Are there any nostalgic. Feeling of being at home here so we could never be at home anywhere else. These are awful things we never try to tell other people away happened to us when we're apart. And they go way back to the time before which we can be on which we can't really remember anything because we were always. Humans on the earth. But some of us wanted symbol for our own. Becoming a symbol like the family was the family i hope still isn't some cases although it's not on 303 the family was a symbol of the place where all the people in the family where they gather and now the earth is a symbol of the place in which all the people on earth are together although some of our astronauts are trying to move next door. Move down a little farther. Symbol for life. Darwin's time the separation between man and the animals have begun to be healed why don't think it was. Complete with any people. But we are falling back upon the mystic genesis where we believe the man had them set aside. To rule over all other forms of life that he was somehow better than all the rest. But he had the privilege of being the most successful of all the beast to pay and using the other animal that the hindus have never really believe this. The chinese. The fly or the dragonfly. Are they an. Or the cat for the course. With all of the consideration and the love of their beauty with which they attended another man. Because the chinese believe that all were creatures of nature. The window believe that you could transform one form of life into another all were part of one wheel of life. And that's stupid have grilling out of india. Reverence for life. Contacts that were foreign. True christianity and judaism for their although you were talked to loved your fellow human being you were not part too long other forms of life after all they had no soul as man had and man in his tried to look down upon them but now we have. 1 symbol grilled out of ancient symbol. Ancient man for harlan's at 10 20,000 30,000 40,000 years that steam in the trees something the teams had to have a listicle meeting for himself and he calls us not just the tree but the tree of life. Alrighty somehow. Grew out of the tree and he would make a tree and put all the burdon the animals in the trees. I noticed the darwin. And those who follow him. The lights process being the trunk and all the species of plants and animals branching off from the same tree and that's the tree becomes a symbol of the unity of the life process. And. Go to follow man's life process favored in the simplified form the fetus as it grows within the mother's womb. And we discard our gills in the process. And become reading men and women. Bionic biology. Because man must feel that he was a part of it. In the deepest willie is al pacino's anything and it would become a part of his love part of his quotes is aspiration and so the tree becomes a symbol. Of all life which is truly meant to context to say in any word or any one way it can only be pointed at fire symbol the one that comes closest home. Is man himself. There's not only individual men. There is man. Seems to me that table got his idea before the horse he said the idea or ideal of course. Others others believe. The painted man or man it's something grows with your not as part of our experience. Jamaican having magazines once in awhile. take maybe 20 hollywood actresses take a photograph of each all the same time same size looking the same way then they put they'll still put each one of these places over the other face. And when they go through the other place it looks like any hollywood actress. But you could take this group and take a photograph of each of us and put one on top of another in nude get a place. A human face. We see literally millions of facebook. We see movies and plays and pictures and. Painting and auto. Larimer just finally the faceless man. We live with millions of people they behave in many different ways. And we read about the people the motherland and their customs and manners. And then there's all boils down to one thing. Human behavior. A very brutal. One portion of the human family. Good few minutes pride. Skillet provincialism city was better than other questions of the human family. And we could talk at times about the hun. About the niger. About the japanese beast. About the jew. And we can run against them to a position than that of the human ancestry were not human. We did not have to consider them. Has been. Even finer than that at the time of the reformation and counter-reformation catholic no longer had to consider protestants as human. At the time of the crusades christian did not have to consider maasdam as cumin. It takes only a twisted reminder twist of the feelings to write the other man out of the race. Animal case the wall. Does a bushman. In south africa and australia the last remnants of a ladies man. Direct relationship to nature his lack of technology. His lack of sophisticated language the directness of the beautiful poetry of the imagery with which she lives in this picture was completely unable to make the steps from the old stone age into 20th century technology. And because he seemed so out of it all. Is not a human being. Perhaps he was the most beautiful human being of all. Because of the timing directness and intimacy with which he lived with nature about him the way he related to animal and plant life into the stars because he was to build cities with dirty sewers. And scratched and sickness and the crime of dark alley he live cleanly in the desert in the plane under the stars. He killed other forms of life only to eat not for sport and he loved the animal he killed. But we couldn't see them as man and so we hunted him down 44 as if he were an animal. And now we found at last but he is clothes or more clothes and religion and they are then style but we are all underneath. Is largely correct. We may have largely corrupted the attainment of man over a. of 1000000 years and the name of what we call progress. Because there was no war among the bushmen. No crime is lino crime. Locate this we know hey. There is a ton of us a great mystical thing called man. The symbol of the human family and we feel we must somehow have a sign for this assignment university each of us the hole rush about to experience about our family something that's when we gather together so that we can worship on celebration at 1. Only because it's america. Nothing magical about it it's something that we've created because of our own this saturday. To communicate with ourselves and to communicate with others we can do nothing without the bring all of these great configurations of experiences into the reference to one another. One more word. Some of you have seem to have gotten the idea that i was planning to get religion to go in the direction liberal religion to go in the direction of the yard everett this was a direction of its own but are is no direction or is a means of projecting and communication. Edwardsville wherewithal by which we go anywhere. If you're going in the direction of world peace you will have to do it through the arts. You have no way of communicating your passion for peace. Except by means of the ark. French movie that had in its title. Carafa. B movie maker. Two people of different cultures who have been crushed in the last war been fighting on opposite sides of this last work went deep into the psychological recesses the passional recesses of these people and by bringing them together in a love affair and giving you all. Created the mystical aura and problem of man seeking peace and the world he is made out of past flores. Call toya wright writing warranty. Hemingway writing for whom the bells toll. Many novelists to see you were not writing novels bernardo bernardo became a mirror a megaphone to which they cried their need. And their passion and a problem. The liberals will get up none of their problems none of their sense of direction google only by taking upon the are taking upon themselves provide themselves with the best. So then my truth. To music. True poetry. To ritual. Who drama. They belong to the world. This is our religion here and there and there and there. We will use vr. To tell our religion. It only in one sense when they are vr religion. And this isn't this that dy is one of these issues. To have beauty within ourselves to have beauty and the things we make. You have beauty in the world in which we live. This is way more into religion. A conviction beauty talks about itself. And our talks about itself. But art is also the voice of only other issues and it's ironic sardonic. For people who believe that. The major issues of liberal religion should be social issues. No it makes artist out of a stall and artist who condensed leave for racial equality with new york ever ever been a unitarian service. Not really fishing pole. There's never been a unitarian sermon that could touch the family of man photographic exhibition exhibition we have these things changing our case we have our teachers. We're bad teachers were bad practitioners of our own religion. Now that's all i've been trying to stay this week. See i'm a funny guy who happened to have been born and grown up an address. And gotten mixed up and religion but somewhere along the line they got the crazy idea that life itself should be vr. An electric put together. In the great arc of them all. You were only parkour narkis. And why should we do temple. Because the temple is the heart of our presents the house of religion. It is architecture and its most thunderstorms architecture attempting to take the most profound that i meanings and symbols man's relation to the universe. It is covered with sculpture emote the greatest music that man can for you because it takes the greatest romance musical apprehension. Are some. Integrative poetry is red because the charms of man are his penis and his hired poetry. Because these are man's most complete and personal scenes. Inn at the dances are dancing which man dances the best of creation and siva naga raja. Dancers the dances of human togetherness and the dances of adoration and worship. It's the place where all the artists in their highest meet together. For the one radar in which mountain celebrates life. What's the temperature is not an end in itself it's a mean to all other end and the glorification of all other end. A time for a question. Is a single pay. Animal. Generation. Parker woods we use to divide the one face. Eggman one man does not know the facebook man sent him only briefly. Lowe's. Flip away from identity. The nightmare. Slipped away from consignment store with the real day. There are. And our brother dave. What's the problem is within the universe. Will it rain. Man has division shoving animal. Goodnight moon phases mountain in that it differ. From the face. Bubba crocodile. Are the unsafe. Oven amoeba. Man has a homely face. Tourney time. For neighbor. Too much like a wolf. Slavering. Too much like a new nose face. Silvery. Too much light of foxy face not yet sufficiently is on. Half human. 9:30. Mariners on earth quandary. A local paradox. A-town prodigy on his way up. There is a second frame. Grenada jet used to playing in space. For the faceless ralston the frame. And this is the cosmic. Brain. Creatures creatures of the universe. Four-wheeler. Priester's. Then how may we know our face. From there. From the faces we do now. Spaces are there. Anime. Planet. Yarrow. Each of them rangers. Radar. Check this out. Great year hear r-word. And let the preachers with one another. Spraying will be an abstract material until we see another creature of another world face-to-face. And here is why. But it is not abstract. This man. You know the frame is there. The universe. The million galaxies. Auddino's his brothers of life exist. So he has not seen their faces. And it's knowledgeworks doorway upon his mind. He has kept his face among other faces. Even though these faces are unseen. Hey. Hammer. Play superman. Play some adele. Faces reno. Although they are the angels of agreement we know them not. Have i known the face. Pharaoh. Eating amongst the droppings of the road. Have i known the face of elise tabs in my cupboard. Familiarity for comprehension. I am as far from knowing the english sparrow. English oxford graduate. A zion from knowing the man from mars. I have raided the sparrow,. And our fire excuse myself from seeing him. Remember this insubstantial is knowledge options of its name. Is the name for ignorant. Under knowledge american north precinct. Free slices free viewpoints about a sparrow. And everything about this bird. Million images. A countless number of viewpoints. Eatunique is absolute air golden sparrow is unknowable. Here's a nice little secret. It was said in the holy book the dropbox to pallavi pharaoh but what was. Not ted but it's equally true isn't. Espero marx the qualities god. No man will ever know this grey bird. Marvelous paralever norman. The idea of knowledge is a twister here. What do you think you do when you know something. You accumulate a few random images from your own. Strange and parcel point of view. And you say you're cute. And print a few thing. Civilization. Amounts to is. Then what you have written about. And you don't have to look at them anymore. Lakewood cease to exist in the universe. Call debbie about sparrows. He would still have books about sparrow. A half-million years. Time it takes light to get here from southern star other has been scrambling over the planet only in the last 10 years. Did he do more. Fractions. On the place. But he was here. Behind you. This isn't very long. The way time. Means that my life isn't enough. Time to doctrine i. But here he was and is and in that time he made a face for himself a face made out of a million. My face. Your face. 60 years ago. Was only the most recent. Version of me. About galaxy. And then take a focus on the earth. Come on man. Man. No you got it. Remember you are galaxy. Are you located. How do the ants manage to survive without a loan from the international loan fund. I wonder if they are republican. We could have a detachment of her as marines and. Manhattan. He doesn't know his own face. Equity. Play the preachers of a thousand galaxies. We called you.. Not even to know. But he doesn't know. That has a face. He sees it. There going to be another. He painted. Remodeled. But he doesn't know what it is. Cuz he doesn't know what the other bases are. Cinemall. It is now. There was a strange man 1. I do not know my own face. He was too wise. Treacherous. To know so much. But you know. But you don't know. I have glimpsed by own face. I have glimpsed the face to the universe. I have a quizzical acquaintance. With life. Who am i will know much. Too much about that. Dial my man. So i have been. I have been told.

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Mr.-Jefferson-and-the-Wall-of-Separation.mp3?_=14

Remind free or buy tend to forget. Empire. Ecclesiastical established and maintained helps religion over the greatest part of the world and who all time. British contributions of money. Let's play professor right now let's or that religious opinion. Is depriving them interior place to which they have a natural right. Civil magistrate to intrude their powers. Into the field of opinion. Destroys all religious liberty. Finally the truth is great. And will prevail if left to itself. Is it the 2nd of pauper antagonist. I got nothing to fear from conflict unless by human interposition. By the general assembly. No person shall be compelled to frequent. Any religious worship. B. Our ministry deliver. Molested or burdened in mind or good. Kind of religious opinions or beliefs. Argument to maintain their opinion to matters of religion. Enlarge. Their civil capacity. Thomas jefferson. You cannot lie so still you cannot bear the weight of stone. You could not keep your green grown peace. Beholder. Folded hand if you could see your new world now you are. Sweet lambs. It wasn't time tom jefferson. Unfreedom made leland. New founder mine. Common bands. There was a time when tyler spears. The world of the free. It's afraid. Attorney. The trews you held. Jefferson will still hold true. Change. Is freedom in this age. But the great derek small now they're either win or lose. Freedom when all beer freedoms you. It's beautiful name. Has calls and calls enough for fear and call for spain. We are own world. And raise the wall of stone. Americans. Pearls are freedom like a brand have. 28 candles spark hands. Freedom. That was nothing to you. 8 m. That'd be great. Thomas jefferson. Slide soap still there. You cannot pull. Angry song. If you could see how bold the old. World news. And the new world. Comfortable. I might visit to monticello now. As i cannot grounds i observed a. Great obelisk. Which i found was the actual burial place of. Thomas jefferson. Unpretentious. Stone marker has words. Network selected by thomas jefferson himself. Here was buried. Thomas jefferson. Author. Of the declaration of independence. The statute of virginia for religious freedom. Of the university of virginia. Derango's. Stop chosen memorial work. Certainly it was easy to understand why anybody might want to be remembered. How did i find it. A person might wish to report of ostara is a major university. Why would anyone pick out of a lifetime. Statute of virginia for religious freedom. What was the document. Made it more important to jefferson. And having been governor. Ambassador to france. Secretary of state and the third president of the united states. And the answer is a story. What's 3 * 16. When we have become increasingly. And casual. About the minds of division. Statute for religious freedom. One of the three major accomplishments. Other than fire public career lasting over 50 years. But it also trimmed it. In which she ever engaged. Innocence eir. 70/72. Colonial virginia declared its independence. Adopted a bill of rights. Wichita finding park. A women affirmations of religious freedom. Andy's work. Diligent. Or the duty which we owe to our creator and the manner of discard. Can be directed. Violin. And therefore. Do the free exercise of religion. According to the dictates of conscience. Forbearance. Lowe's. Integrity. Of these words. Was by. By no specific legislation. To assure. Under the common law. Stillhouse wagon virginia. What's my pants. Flexible by burning. And back. 1705. Getting of the century. Virginia legislature adopted. Relationship. If a person got up in the christian religion. Denies the beating of a god. Orchards there are more gods than one. Organize the christian religion to be true for the scriptures to be a divine authority. The early 18th century was obviously no time to be a unitarian virginia. Garden section. Virginia established church of england. Established. It's ministers supported by public taxes. 1776 the general loyalist tinge of the episcopal clergy. Proper revolutionary. Going occurrence of. Bats numbers of church members. Two other denominations in the church of england. Buffy established episcopal church under attack. Jefferson saw an opportunity. And he wanted to move quickly before some future backline. Unpopular religious group. Baby reborn. Jefferson newly arrived back from philadelphia. Just offered the declaration of independence. Much of the phone with the virginia assembly. During this time he gave particular attention. Efforts to enact a statute for religious freedom. The legislature was beset on all sides by petitions the court in. Every church group drop estate. It was obviously far and away. Assembly has political body. Took a compromise route. Are exempted churches. I'm having to pay taxes to support the episcopal church. And temporarily suspended the right. Salary. Remember. Albuquerque of the church of england. Both sides and withdrew family battlefield to prepare for the next round. Jefferson airplane. Or religious freedom. In the following year 1777. As legislation. Until 1779 when jefferson had left the legislature and was serving as governor. Patrick henry. That's a very different bill. A bill which would have committed to say to the encouragement. And the establishment. Christian religion. As the official religion. Call virginia. Patrick henry. What app has every person designate which denomination should receive one's religious kind of establishment. An approach that was then and used by six states. In america. And it still matter by a number of european countries such as germany. Henry. That's a rather powerful. Edmund randolph and george washington. And again that is not opposed to tell you. 1 / 2. Henry slam once they were guaranteed tax money for their own copper. Given the support. It took jefferson. Tupac this supposed multi establishment system. And by then any chance for passage of his own statute for religious freedom. Table to cut the bill moving through the virginia assembly. That's applause after a decade of delay. Several initial. Legislative. Some compromises in wording. Summit right management behind-the-scenes by james madison. January 17th 86. 200 years ago. Jefferson. Cantilever to madison. It is comfortable to see the standard at links erupted. After so many ages when the human mind has been held in vacillates by king priest on mobile. The first legislature. Who have the sex parade. With the formulation of their own opinion. Jefferson. Weather. The actress had been received well. By many european individual. If not by their government. Jefferson talk-to-text was translated into both. Italian men. Roentgen. You had a sentence and distributed as widely as possible. Even practical sense of humor. 6:45. A remarkable document. In that at least up to that farm. In graphing religious freedom by legislators i. And it into place. By anna peel. Right. In a remarkable conclusion. Wits to the bill. Butterfly kits. Patrick mcclure. Are the natural rights of humankind. Repitela texas. Narrow its operations. Act will be an infringement. Of natural right. Definitive biography of jefferson. Has written. The statute remains and effects of a landmark of human liberty. And people. What do well to turn to it. Anytime the second. Opinion. Mayre. It's ugly head. Statute. Established. Clearly and concisely. Religious freedom. Inactive. That no person. Shall be compelled. Any religious. Play ministry whatsoever. What's the clear. Armoire. I have to take. In japan because. Set in this very space. There is a controversy over whether those who have been ruling. To be in institutions managed by religious group. What are those inmates attend the religious services. Within those institutions. Korean prayer in a public school classroom. The statue is important. And if we make. And i fear that. We who should know better. I become too lackadaisical about. Operation. We tend to tolerate such a school assembly. Turn off the beast synonyms of sides. We tend to ignore the slow creeping of christian holidays into our public life and then are somehow not even up to believe that it's justified. We dismissed. A president who would turn the cold war into a holy crusade. With religious people cry. We are going to learn once again. Jefferson woman. Is the price of liberty. And his brother warning. Generation. Erwin park.. Freedom. Completes me about. Thomas jefferson. Is the way in which he tended to approach. Public problem. Is it good. He wasn't no sense and unyielding idealog. Again. The only set it out from a religious or a philosophical debate. Is grounded in an attitude toward human life. He would. Take some concept. Jefferson began. With the free. This freedom from the mine was a natural rights. Ordained of god. And that's good. Legitimately interfered with by any human agency or human requirement. Yep the mind be free. Then no one had any right to curtail in any way. At a time when. Virtually all americans bother to profess any religion at all kind of system. Jefferson would not. Accept christianity or religion. Even though anyone any consequence than all of virginia. And what is an acceptable compromise. I meant the disputation. Nominations all cleaning apartment. Jefferson. However finally face on his statue. Jesus christ. The author of our religion. And this proposal. The legislature. Rejected overwhelmingly. And jefferson wrote in delight. Improve. Comprehend with in the mantle of the statutes protection. And the temple of every denomination. The jefferson was concerned about the inclusion of other great religion. And this time when few americans. A muslim or hindu. Tend to forget. Christianity and judaism that surveyed this blows. Pacific rim. We don't have a single body. In our community. The claims to represent cleveland call together. Call victoria. World religions. Jefferson made. What preserve. In any american future. Secretary of state. The religious rights of the citizens of the other. Well they were sojourning in it slam. Jefferson just had an amazing inclusive. Because he held the human mind. To be a fault. All the states. Call moore. What's jefferson's constantly. To protect the rights of people who have no religion. In a ton. When within recent memory. People have been persecuted. Send it as absolutely. The freedom of no religion. He wrote. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say that there are. I need to fix my pocket northlake's my life. Savings. When we compare such words with the ravings of contemporary. Jefferson. Endanger our liberties but those who are going about trying to suppress them. At jefferson put it in the statute for religious freedom. Is blake and will prevail. Woodstock. And has nothing to fear from. Unless by human interposition. Jefferson would turn to arkansas. Call rob. How to spirit. After two centuries we still have to defend religious freedom. Distraught. Jefferson health 288. Whereupon he stuck his belief in natural rights. Grounded on that natural right. He'll the practice of religion had to be intellectual. Religion needs to be grounded in argument. In evidence install. Lights. In his life. Jefferson wrote a letter which he maintains. A person once surrendering. Does noni mean guard against certiphied. Monster. A microchip. The top ladder. Is the sport of every win. Second person. Gullibility. Which they call. Text pam.. And the mind becomes a wreck. Wasn't that very same rapper that jefferson serenely declared i confidently expect that the present generation will see unitarianism. Baskin. For reasons in religion. Reminding ourselves. As unitarian. Because about every 50 years. Or stalin putting right now. That comes bubbling for a great desire. Sriracha. Attempt here. That's what they think is a dimension not. Jefferson would hardly human rights guaranteed by the divine. But you could not intellectually define or explain. Total wine. Is that the same to move beyond the rational. Can also be. Economy auto rejection. In religion. We have always good. For the holiness about. The ability to reject any religious claim on the basis of reason. The right to inquire. You stopped to answer. The chance for audio to raffle freely and open propane. These standards have been. Continuously. Kmart. For center. Religion. I would be the first to enlist. Religion has to be more than electrolizing. Religion primarily be how we live and have our being and our. If they are not. But let us take care. That we do not offend them. Irrational. Only there. Irrational. If we find all the metro section. Against all odds. And also looted planes the truth. The spiritual nature. About religion. Every step of the way we. Spiritual have to empower. Define irrational. Elks we follow some of our religious forebears. Of the century. Who mistakenly thought that mesmerism and phrenology. Altered states of consciousness by hypnosis and the study of the pump. It makes terrorism and phrenology. For the golden highway to all truth and all understanding. We need and suzy azzam. And i personally would not have to take to use the word revival. In our religious practice. But let us make sure. Eye of rational examination. Suzy azzam. Leslie be misguided. Are mistaken. Jefferson maintained. Need of human freedom. I don't think he had any delusions about the painting of the freedom. Being an easy thing. You certainly knew enough disappointments in his lifetime trying to ban. Expansion of slavery in this country. And he and its own lifelong quandary assistant but he would do about slavery. As the roadway. We had this problem. If we were going to create around the globe. Climate of justice. Human dignity. Alyssa jack. Growing problem in our world today. It is the tendency of religion. And this definition of religion i would include communism as a form of religion. It is the tendency of religion. To view the world dog map. Enter pokespoof only through its own particular religious lens. I don't think the airlines and overland. Very daunting assistant religion usually turn out to be reactionary right-wingers. In their political persuasion. The results are organized religion. Too often stands with the forces of human oppression. That would destroy rather open up. Possibility. Jefferson store united states as a. Beacon to stand before time. Lighting way against the gloom of enslavement. Is archibald macleish painfully reminded us in our reading a little earlier american brand to a candle in the fighting fans. Freedom. What's the thing to use they've made a thing to say. I think america is viewed with suspicion is not unlike secret. In most of the rest of the world. Turn up sports. Reclaim wood. Religious liberty of this plan then we. 2 chainz. With freedom in other lands. Only with understood. Can we hope for the openness. The understanding. And the freedom. Which will allow us to advocate. Human rights for all people everywhere. Jefferson understood important religious freedom. So much so that in his life. He could appoint. Offering the statute for religious freedom. Import. Altering. The declaration of independence. Tom dooley. Unitarian. Wherever they were they shall continue to exist. People are precious heritage. I'll be looking for you. Princess freedom. Wiha. Possibility for lights and light more time. May we ever turn. Water act. Bantu word. Our religion.

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Sanctuary-II-The-Ethics-of-Diversity.mp3?_=4

Live in public institutions. Life and death lives and moves in individual. Communities are as real as legal institution. Call crystal. Anarchistic. Like law can bring people together. Text samara. Carefully one looks. The more similarities one fine. Criminal law. I'd like an epic. The curb. Destructive power of humankind. Weather is. Totally unrestrained criminal law. Starlight some death. Allow. As fundamental principle. Delete resumes without proof. And frequently without,. For example. Until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. At the foundation of life and death. Is the paul newman license pregnant. Realized. Realize its value to assault. How do you know. You are a bang. How do you decide whether you're being unethical. The question is. Looking for your own soul. Deep water the lawn. Shark it must be. Dollhouse as a matter involving. Government. Ugly experience self-control. When the moral law within we're good. Ethics is a matter of character. Denver example we are good. We represent the people. Or doing harm. Because we socialize of those others are taking the car. You're good because evil in the world. Ethical action is not isolated from history. Illuminate. Which region. Appointment visible human history. It must concern itself with the story. Story of what individuals do. In the contacts. Story. Victoria bakery. No level by. They have no magic. Easter are blunt. Call will mcateer eli. Make. And work and hope. Remembering that i'm noble logical diagram. Recorded. How long after we are gone. Will be a living thing. Starting excel. With growing. Among other things is called too important.. Which unfortunately. Sometime. Is expected to be a pastor and a priest. That is to nurture people in nice. And to preserve the church. We probably like more modern words than pastor or priest. Words that rhyme catches. Server. Maintainer. Worthy of the name. Knows something of the human heart and tragedy. Constantly for. Wakeman. Any minister who spends weird serving at church. Knows how difficult and laborious. Maintain. And how easily. Apathy. Or disruption. Thunder. The vitality and sometimes even viability. Generations. Support the law. Xboxaddictionz. A minister is given a puppet to use in freedom. Preacher called upon the ongoing meaning of heritage. Parking by a congregation to think about. Propound ethical body. I speak in turnabout each of the brawl. In my past role our friend charge. I would question the fall against the smoke of a conclusion. To put it in a sentence. Let us not be sanctimonious about sanctuary. None of us has a headlock on troup. All of us should be where in that marvelous is zen buddhist praise the where are they. That is the moral odor that arises. When we think of our own point of view as better smelling or more religiously pure and perfume than those who disagree with them. A particularly among individual authority. That could mean real respect. For the right person. And uphold an individual viewpoint. A person who has not surrendered who surrendered his or her conscience to some external apology. Any person does not take orders from some outside control is it good. Congregational. We are democratic votes are taken. Inevitably mean winners and loser. Policy. And in our social concerns. We are a community. Where we agreed hang in there together. Department. Even when we disagree. Honor ever the individual authority and the right person to defense and the covenant of community in the. What it means to be good for our community. The covenant church. Must expect some time to be in the minority. Park. About like together is learning how to be. Comfortable in the minority. One of the great leaders of the universal church wrote and words that we still use for 200 years ago. Let love continue. No disagreements that can do us any injury. But if we do not know other agreements. Asian express. Underline love. Rinoceronte my charge 2. Be a minister. Speak the word without. As i practice freedom of the pulpit i will continue to practice and cherish. Simply means in sterling. And come to the wrong conclusion even if they are far different than mine. In new york city's harbor. The statue of liberty. Is currently undergoing major refurbishment. Nationwide fundraising efforts are underway to finance this project. Patriotic appeals on behalf of money for the separate. I have not yet heard. The statue of liberty. Those words that's once prefer familiar to every school child in america words composed by emma lazarus. Give me your tired. You're poor. Yearning to be free. Of your teeming shore. Cindy. The tempest. Homeless to me. I left my lamp. Bicycle indoor. Are we still the joint. Wants the homeless. In orlando. Would appear that the daisies noble words apply only to those who come to our store from nation. Whose government. That's the overwhelming chance. Refugees from play iran. As opposed to text multi-person. Of those fleeing from el salvador or guatemala. United nations high commission on refugees. Reports of over half the central american aliens it has interviewed entitled to remain in the united states. And that are not on youtube. The job. Why is it that virtually no honduran. A+. Despite the fact that honduras. Standard of living there el salvador or guatemala. Next time to look at the matter with an unbiased view. Will somebody convinced that significant numbers of central america. Because they fear for their lot. Violin. Torture and killings. What countries. Adult pompadour. Sanctuary. And not a religious activity. If i'm politically simply means code word for controversial. Or the anything which opposes the view of our government is political then if so facto by definition the charges. The district is interested in refugees only for political reasons. I am frantically tonight. Let us remember. But this congregation has already sponsored a family from chile. Lobster. We were not charged with political activities. Or without the support of our government can hardly be the fundamental issue. Central question is ever simple and direct. Are we being asked to terrible person genuinely. Live on a crest. We must stand above and beyond. The ramifications. Any refugees we sponsor. I think they want to deal with one further tactical issue. The risks that may. Come to the church members. Sanctuary. I do miss risk to be very small. But i could be wrong. After all the government has already sent the spies with concealed recording devices. Going for churches. We should not be tonight. If we cannot see that there could be dire consequences. We at the church at first. Weather come action is putin. Before we at first. We have to. Ardor. Eckert's. Call ethical pizza otherwise institution ratification. Undertakes all kinds of laborers expenses and yes. These have to be wait. And no reckless pacsun. But these are concrete issues.. They could never lie. Camera question must ever be. How can we help district. What is right. As a religious leader i am not concerned. What does or does not say i am not concerned with how the law is or is not being interpreted i am not really even concerned with. Claire. Text concerned only within the context. Provided by religious body. Not long before he was assassinated just five years ago this month. El salvador oscar romero. Why can't we must confront the most basic option for its base. 4life. And i believe that every moral quandary. We come against that wicked poison will we ask for life. Or will we ask for death. Get off crystal lot. What we left stillman. Our tragedy. Ford becoming selfishly classified. What we strive to survive arlo. Text manu. What we labor in time to transcend but it happened to us. Will we act. On behalf of the white sox stadium. Before the power of death. Will we allow people to go hungry and homeless in our mix. Will we squander our substance for destructive weapons giving them priority before all else. Those unfortunate. Will we strive text oso maybe unjustly imprisoned or killed. Apocalypse they return to their online. And if that's the country. But i have a basic problem with it. On the one hand i come up boss. The government's claim that it is being fair or unbiased. Many church leaders have arisen tutela to proclaim in all sincerity. Because of the bible. Because of spikes will. That's plains authority. Does not impress me. Anymore by the styx. So. Where am i. Individual colorado. Find uncle sam. Approaching this whole complex issue of sanctuary. I believe. The divine. It isn't. Cactus. We express concrete place to buy. We are broken possibility. And the divine suffer because the process of existence. Argument. We have a unique responsibilities. To protect. Further the possibilities in human existence. For existence lies. Topical approach. I believe in the sanctity of human life. Citizen are reading earlier. Function of the foundation of life and death epic. All life is precious. How to pack. Make the sacredness of preciousness with referencing manifest. Our existence is a constant. Do not but we could call the preciousness of life. Starfall. Only perm. Evil at denying the preciousness of life. A more positive level. You're called upon to assist in some major. Those human dignity has been violated. Those who assisted replacing danger for their lot. I believe. We are grounded. We live in history. We are not flowers. Blooming fork without any rooted. Must exist. If we bring. Perspective of continuing human concern. Circumstances by. Which we would rather avoid. We are here. Unexpected. To respond. So we must bring to the moment. Ethical concern that are unfolding continuing heritage. Clearly. Part of what we term civilization. Is a slow ongoing growth alcibiades concern and caring. Well those were overwhelmed. Mine. How to play a history. Any civilization. Any people. By their ability. Redeemed. Unfortunate. Eddie lacy. I think i know how it is to come. Amex emergency. Only in the immediate. Call tracy king kabob. Only only only the needs of those who are most immediately interesting direct to us. Occupied japan. Lie within our own small pain of existence and pinterest. We can become inoculated uncaring uncommitted. Logic. And then. In the midst of all this. Come some intrusion. Unwanted. Starface. Posing before us or are they the same question. Road to jericho the lauderdale. Rob. How do we respond. We probably we wish we take another road. Are we look around hoping there's a doctor. A police officer at least the social worker. Cost of arc'teryx. Necessity. Text juan long last appealing look up and down the road. There is no one else. And that matt binder. No. Looking good. Justifications to ourselves. Andweknow. And we have to abide by the truck. 1. India. Ucare. We generally discover something pretty marble. That is in aiding the other. Is it nothing. I'll be done for october. For weed. We testify a new to our bond. Intentionally. About allah. Winthrop. Patrick thing about war. Is not. Make so many dead. But that war destroys. Is it we ever live in. Kind of mortal truck. Pearl losing sensitivity. Appreciation of life. Are on the statue of liberty in those words in blazing sunday the homeless compass pop. I left my lamp beside the golden door. What's wrong with the deficiencies of an earlier on maca and there were many. Call mutts and company. And we walk. Known as a church. We must not lose our sensitivity. Sensitivities never dictate. If there is only one choice. One correct way. That would be dogmatism in the express. Sensitivity. We care for something larger than our stuff. Care for one another was indeed. Closest bonds of this community. Recap so that we never become isil is here apart from the larger community. Constantly reaffirm our feelings. So that we do not. Optical ties which bind us to all human life. We can keep the sensitivity. Only as we continue to tear. Today. We care. We dare. Monica potter. Have no magic to stir our blood. What. Remembering the text plans will never.. Long after we are gone. Will be a living thing checking themselves. Going. Whatever we decide today at the congregation. Puppy with ourselves. Within the community. Also agree and disagree with us. Let it be with daryl. We me a firm light and life more abundantly. Floridays may we ever turn. What acts into words to declare a religion in life.

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Saving-Paradise.mp3?_=13

Seek not afar for beauty. Low it glows in do wet grasses all about your feet. These lines from the unitarian universalist hymnal speak of beauty that is here and now. Beauty before us. Above us within us. Beauty all around us. The religious spirit at the heart of our unitarian universalist faith. Is a deep yes to the sacredness of this earth this life. A heaven found. Not somewhere else. But here. The 16th century sufi mystical poet. Have fez says. We have not come into this exquisite world to hold ourselves hostage from love or to confine our wonderous spirits but to experience ever and ever more deeply. Our divine courage freedom and life. Hafez is akin to another mystical poet i've been studying recently. Ephraim of syria. A 4th century eastern christian saint. Ephraim ministered among people whose lives have been torn by war his hometown on the borderlands of persia and the roman empire. In a region now within. Iraq. Suffered constant conflict between two empires during his lifetime. When the roman army finally. Concord. His hometown. Different people were imprisoned and then deported they lived in exile from their homeland and ephraim ministered among them during the last decades of his life they were plagued by disease. Ephraim moved among the sick and the dispossessed. Providing food. Clothing touch. And most surprisingly. Song. Ephraim was a poet. And his hymns like the blues. Evoked beauty undefiled by injustice and war. He was part of a mystical tradition. They believed paradise was available in this world. Listen to his words. Paradise surrounds the limbs with its many delights. The eyes with his handiwork. The hearing with its sounds. The mouse and the nostrils with it states and cents. Paradise raised me up as i perceived it. Getting rich to me as i meditated upon it. It renewed me with all its varied nature. I swam around and it's magnificent waves. I became so inebriated. That i forgot all my sins. Ephraim road at a time. When christians believe that jesus birth had opened paradise for all to enter. By his. Ruth his teachings his healings and his resurrection. Notice what is missing from that list. Buy jesus birth teachings healings in his resurrection. Christian's taught that jesus reopened paradise whose gates have been closed when adam and eve sinned and were banished from the garden. With the reopening of paradise humanity was restored to its original goodness. And through baptism a ritual of immersion into the river of life flowing from the garden of eden. Convert to christianity began as spiritual journey deeper and deeper into paradise in this world. Central to the journey. Into paradise was practicing the ethics and the spiritual disciplines of paradise. To nonviolence sharing resources and providing mutual assistance. Early christian created communities of resistance to imperialism. That allowed life to flourish even in the presence of war. And deprivation. For these early christians. Paradise was a realm that permeated this world. It could be tasted scene. Enfield here-and-now. And the purpose of life in religious community. What to make paradise tangible. Recently my friend and co-author rita nakashima brock and i travel to italy and two turkey to study the art and architecture of early christianity. We discovered that to enter and early christian church was to walk into paradise. You saying apolinar in classe outside of ravenna italy for example. The whole front of the 6th century church. Is a mosaic of a vast green. Meadow. Field with flowers and birds. Fluffy sheep graze safely. Everywhere in early christian sanctuaries we saw the four rivers of paradise flowing from the garden of eden sometimes down to the surrounding walls that embraced the gathered congregation. The waters were filled with life fish ducks creams turtles. We saw a deer and doves drinking. Images for souls whose thirst is quenched in this world by the spirit of life. Wheesa blue twilight skies street with rainbow clouds or night skies glittering with gold and silver stars. On the walls of the church's we saw saints and exemplars of all genders circling halos of fire. And everywhere. We were surrounded by spiraling green acanthus branches or vines. Grapes. Heavy with fruit. Just to enter the church. Best to encounter abundant vibrant life. And to experience the communion of saints. That crossed the boundary of death. Ephraim wrote. The assembly of saints bears resemblance to paradise. In the church. Each day is trodden the cluster of grapes to be the medicine of life. Their manifest and lovely to the eye of the mind are the coveted banquets of the just who summoned us. Tubi. They're kindred. Such a vision of church as paradise is largely lost now. It was eclipsed in the 11th century when western christianity abandoned paradise in this world and replaced it with the idea that paradise could only be entered after death and violence could get you there. The decisive turning point came in 1095 when pope urban the second called the first crusade. Open tillermans time. Christian's regarded. Killing in war to be a sin. War could be waged in self-defense or to write an injustice but war was always the last resort and even if the cause was just soldiers who participated in war. And leaders who prosecuted wars. Committed a sin. And we're required to do penance to heal their souls. But with the call of the first crusade all this changed. Urban declared that war was not only just it was a form of serving god. It was an act of love for one's blood-kin. To killing jews and muslims. Crusaders. Would receive forgiveness for all their sins. And would be assured a place in paradise. Paradise was no longer attainable in this life it was around to be entered after death. And war. With how you got there. Beginning with the first crusade. The crucifixion of jesus became the central image for christian worship. Before then. Jesus had never been to pick did dead. Nor had his body been shown suffering and torment on the cross. The kinds of images so horrific lee presented in mel gibson's passion of christ that opened in theaters shortly after the us invaded iraq. Now available on dvd. Such images did not exist for the first thousand years of christian art. He was at the time of the 11th century crusade that images of crucifixion began to proliferate. And anselm of canterbury pope urban's friend formulated and explicit doctrine of the atonement declaring that god became human in jesus in order to die on the cross and pay god back for humanity's sins. Enzyme describe jesus death. As a pleasing gift to god. This theology. Supported the crusades. Soldiers were to imitate christ by offering themselves like him to be sacrificed for the cause. Such theology. Then and now. Functions. As war propaganda. The kill-or-be-killed for god. Became the fastest route. To paradise. With the advent. A crucifixion center theologies. Paradise was lost. It was no longer tasted and felt as the spiritual realm to be entered in this life. It was postponed to the hereafter or secularized as a land to be conquered. When christopher columbus set sail. His journals report that he was looking for paradise in order to plunder its fabled gold and jewels. Colonization. With its exploitation of peoples and lands. Evolved from the loss of the spiritual awareness. Of paradise. In this world. Materialism field the spiritual void. We live now. Within the dominant culture of the west. In the aftermath of the closing of paradise. We live with the legacy of militarism. Racism. And exploitation of the earth and its peoples. That is putting paradise. At risk. And yet. With all of this. Tragic history. There is some with of paradise that still reaches us. Walking through the woods on an early spring morning when the mountain is out. We catch glimpses of it. Singing in church we hear strains of its harmonies. Cooking supper for friends. Garlic and basil simmering in olive oil. The fragrance of paradise reaches our senses. We lift a child into our arms and dance. Indian art or linguine no we hold paradise. Next to our heart. Rediscovering paradise. Andre committing ourselves to the ethics of paradise. Is just what we need now. Western culture. Needs to stand again. At the open doors of paradise. And find its way to re-enter this world as a sacred site. As holy. Grant. The universalist part. Ivar unitarian-universalist heritage. Can help show the way. Jane lead. For example a seventeenth-century universalist is especially worth remembering. In a church she founded lead preach that people's senses could be ecstatically opened to tasting hearing seeing. The beauty that is within among and all around us. She offered a spiritual vision of paradise not as an otherworldly post-mortem realm. But as a place that could be entered in this life. Come enter the garden she wrote. You may think the gate has been closed and locked that a cherubim with a fiery sword guards the entrance but there is a way in. Wisdom holds the key. Lead saw the church as a renewed garden of paradise and she invited its members to become plantings of god watered by the spirit springing up as mines trees. Flowers and fruits. Like the intergenerational choir sings here sometimes. Inch by inch. Row by row. We're going to make this garden grow. Daily what it like that song. She said we could experience the presence of the divine in what she called. The burning bush of our humanity. She called humanities beautiful diversity. Testimony to the creative fecundity of the spirit of life. Jesus appeared to her in a vision. And said. Heretofore. That's how jesus talked in the 17th century. Heretofore i was particularly manifested to the world in singularity. But now henceforward expect me to appear in. Plurality. The world need this universalist affirmation of pluralism. The garden of paradise is not. Monocultural. Later universalists carry leads themes forward in 1805. The universalist preacher hosea ballou said heaven and hell are not to be found in the afterlife but in the life we create here-and-now for each other. Baloo categorically rejected violent doctrines of the atonement. He said jesus crucifixion did not save us. Jesus embodiment of creative love and justice did. The world needs this universalist vision of salvation through acts of love justice and non-violence. At the beginning of the 20th century. Universalist clarence skinner emphasized the social ethics of universalist theology. Listen to these words written in the midst of world war 1. We accept the world for the joyous place it was meant to be. We like it. We like it. Despite the fact that belated theologians look upon it with inherited suspicion. It is no longer for us the world the flesh and the devil. But the world the flesh and the god. Skinner continues modern religion must sanctify the world. The dominant motive is no longer to escape from earthly existence but to make earthly existence as abundance and happy as it can be made. Therefore let us smash the injustice has the tyrannies the sins which imprison us. And speed those readjustments which will make life here and now. Justify. Our hopes. I love that line speed those readjustments. I can just see a band of you use along with other progressive people marching on washington with signs that say. Readjust now. The world needs this universalist passion for counter oppressive work. That references. Life in this world. When i first came to starr king school for the ministry. Ruu school in berkeley in 1990. I had already learned a lot about unitarianism from this congregation especially from the preaching of peter raible. But universalism was less familiar to me and i asked gordon mckeeman my predecessor at the school in one of our great universalist ministers to explain universalism to me. He said. It's simple. Universalist believe we are all going to end up together in heaven. So we might as well start learning how to live with each other now. Being part of the universalist heritage. Calls us to bring the gifts of this heritage into our lives and into our society. Universalism tells us. That we come to know the world as paradise. When our hearts and souls are reborn. Do the arduous and tender task of living rightly with one another and with the earth. Generosity mutual care and non-violence. Are the pathways. By which we can come to know. That paradise is here. And now. Such a way of living is not utopian. It does not spring from the imagination of a better other world. But from a profound embrace of this world. It does not begin with knowledge. It begins with love. Love is the seed. From which the tree of knowledge grows. In this world. This garden of eden. A story to conclude. A few summers ago my my friend rita nakashima brock and i joined my brother's family for a week long backpacking trip in the ansel adams wilderness on the eastern slope of the sierra. To get to the trailhead we took a forest service bus from mammoth lakes up to the agnew meadows. There were other climbers and hikers on the bus with us and while the bus which backed up the narrow road from 7000 to 9000 ft. My seat make and i began to talk. He'd overheard my brother discussing with rita and me are recent theological work. And he wanted to know if we'd written any books. A question any author likes to hear. I told him about our book proverbs of ashes that exposes how christian ideas that say jesus death on the cross saved humanity have sanctioned domestic violence sexual abuse racism homophobia and war. He nodded. He said he'd been raised a catholic and his wife was the daughter of a methodist minister. Church was important to him. But he said i can't believe all those old doctrines and i never was comfortable with the bloody crucifix hanging over the altar. I couldn't understand why we would be worshipping an act of violence. But i learned a way of life in the church that i have not rejected. What is that way of life i asked him. Oh it's simple. Heesa. Love your neighbor as yourself. Try to help not harm. Do what you can to make a difference. He went on. We do foster care for kids. He said it was heartbreaking to see some of the violent abuse and deprivation foster children had experienced. But he and his wife welcomed them into their home and did what they could. Not even love can we repair the damage sometimes he said. I know. I reply. What is the book you are working on now about p.f.. Paradise i said. Paradise he mused. And looked out the window of the bus for a few minutes. At the bride sky. The deep green forest. The alpine meadows with their flowers. And overhead coming into view the sharp peaks of the minarets. Do you mean paradise like where we are right now. He asked. Yes i said. Like where we are. Right now. We both were quiet for a few moments breathing in the pungent. Tiny air. This. Is enough. He said. You know that. I said. Because you help the kids. Cloud of thoughtfulness passed over his face and then. He nodded yes. That's right. Denise levertov wrote. Don't say. Don't say there is no water. The solace the dryness at our hearts. I have seen the fountain springing out of the rockwall. And you drinking there. That sounding. Is there. It is still there and always there. With its quiet song and strange power. Just bring in us. And out. True the rock. When we care for our children. Visit the sick. Work for peace. Hartford love to those who are struggling with heavy burdens whatever they may be. When we take the hand ready to help us when we are in need. When we gather together to sing our joys are lament our sorrows. When we share our resources with extravagant generosity. In order to build a more lovely common good then we could create a loan. In order to sustain and grow congregations like in this one. When we do these things. We. Are the fountain springing up from the rock. We are referencing life. We are embracing life's exquisite beauty. We are experiencing and manifesting ever and ever more deeply our divine courage freedom and light. We are manifesting divinity. In the burning bush of our humanity. We are savoring. And we are saving. Paradise. With the gifts of our heart. Mind soul. And strength. Lettuce love this world. With our whole being. Amen.

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Sanctuary-I-The-Lessons-of-History.mp3?_=3

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20220313-The-Other-Reality.mp3

Begin this morning with a reading written by muriel rukeyser who for most of the last century was a social activist and poet. Here in the united states. This is from her book what. Is poetry. We are a people tending toward democracy. At the level of hope. On the other level the economy of the nation. And the empire of business. Each of these include in their basic premise. The concept of perpetual warfare. But around and under and above it is another reality. Like desert water kept from the surface. And the seed. Like the old desert answer needing it's channels. The blessing of much work. Before it arrives to act. And make flour. This history is the history of possibility. All we can do. Is believe in the seed. Living. In that belief. Merial. Route kaiser. If we look back. Over ancient scriptures. We will find glimmers of wisdom. Which we often forget. And for me one of those sources for so many years has been of course the book of psalms. In the book of psalms we write we read these words. Even the darkness. Is not dark. To the. The night is as bright as the day. For darkness is as. Light. With c. Close quote. What a wonderful simile this is. The darkness. Is. As the light. In the darkness. We see the light. Or the light takes on greater meaning. In the darkness. But more importantly to me it suggests the mysterious marriage between despair. And hope. Many people have said that we live in a society of unconfessed despair. And while i do believe that this is true to a great extent. There certainly is enormous evidence of confess. Despair as well. The great social issues of our time. Are the focus and motivation of increasing numbers. Who work to promote peace. To stop climate change. To ensure human rights especially reproductive rights. To establish social justice. And to free the innocent and protect them. From illegal. And inhumane treatment. A retention. But let us not be fooled. Many more people are needed. To defeat this despair. In our public life. And that is often difficult for us to do because as individual persons we are often. Besieged if not overcome by our own personal reasons. For despair. Debilitating illness. Loneliness. Hopelessness. Tragedy. Economic. Insecurities. All of these are things that can force us to focus exclusively on ourselves. And not pay attention. To the great challenges and needs. In the larger society. And in the world itself. Just listing some of these things may remind us of how difficult it is for us. To live and breathe these days. In the early 21st century. I am often reminded of this. Almost. Weekly but certainly every year. Then i remember very vividly the first time i became aware. Of this incapacity to act. To be hopeless. In the face. Of larger pressures. When i was a new minister. I befriended a young couple in the congregation. Who came to me because they were struggling. With whether or not they are. To bring children. Into the world. This was an issue that my wife and i were also facing. Billy early 1980s. When is college students. We attended lectures on the college campus. With dr. helen caldicott. Who showed us the most horrifying images. Of nuclear annihilation. And nuclear winter. Watching those films. Hearing her urgency and expecting that this would happen in our own lifetimes. Forced us to wonder. Whether or not. We should become parents. And bring children into the world. Such a world as this. Later on that couple sent me a letter and i'd like to read just a paragraph of it to you. He wrote the specific problem is a loss of the sense. Of the future. We had planned to get pregnant in april or so. And now we wonder if we should. Given the present course of things. Award seems inevitable. I never realized. How much i lived. In the future. I try to live in the present. But i catch myself not bothering to do little things because i don't want to waste time. On a future that seems to me. Already nonexistent. I imagine that this is baldly a form of despair. We are still fighting. And we haven't given up. But we have lost. Ascend. Of the future. Especially for children. And it is erie to live. Without it. Every so often. I remember words i learned as a child. In sunday school. Many of you. No and may be reminded with maybe some nausea. That i grew up in the lutheran church. In the lutheran sunday school. And i remember the words. Of luther's great him. A mighty fortress. There is a line and that him that haunted me as a child and still does. For still our ancient. Pho. Dolph ziggler. To workhorse whoa. His craft and power are great. And armed with cruel hate. On earth. It's not. His equal. Close quotes. Martin luther had a very vivid sense. Of evil. Which he personified in the medieval sense of the devil with horns and. Pitchfork. What is most important about his inside however is. That he was aware viscerally end experientially. Of great forces and energies of evil that operate in the world. And mostly. Supersens. Or through people. Cancel the personification of evil in the devil. Was one way of thinking about it long ago. But we are reminded yet again today. Of another such person. Who personifies this kind of evil. And demonic force. Who armed with cruel hate. Is willing to destroy. Another whole country. And culture and civilization. For the purposes only. Of satisfying his old. Own. Drive. Power. And control. You know of whom i speak. We hear about it everyday. And the images are horrifying indeed. That's such destruction can be rain down upon innocent people. Children. Women. Killed. Shot. Is they are trying to flee to freedom. And many staying behind. To defend their country. And to defend their freedom. And to defend. The future. The evil powers. Which work against us in this world. Our losing hope. That. Is. There hope. And i think we must accept again luther's perception. That we must find a way out of the struggle. Must. Persist. Even in the midst. Of domination by destructive. Hopes. Persistence. Is the single greatest threat. To their absolute authority. And to hope against their power. Is to undermine the illusions and control. They depend upon. You heard it again this morning in this pulpit. From these witnesses here. Who speak. Are there hopefulness against. A dominating force. If we are timid and we so often are. And dismiss the presence of these dark realities. And the truth that they seek to control us. We will create a vacuum into it. Malevolent forces will rush. History is littered with examples. To give up. Is to be swallowed by despair. And to act. In hope. Is to act. In faith. Saint augustine. Said that hope. Has two daughters. Anger. Encourage. Hope gives birth to anger. Which protest. The things are not what they ought to be. Hope gives birth. The courage. Which finds a way. To make things what they should be. Hope. Is a way of being alive it's a state of being. A protesting presents. And a comforting presence. Both on a large scale. On a small scale. It requires many people. To give birth to these things. As the ukrainian people are doing. Today. To save their future. But it is also required on an individual level two. And i find that i must ask myself repeatedly what am i doing today. That is bringing and giving some hope. For the future. What can i do. With my resources with my time with my energy. And with my. Life. Hope. Can be contagious. Wendell b. When we commit ourselves to a nurturing at. And devotion. And forbearance and hard work are required. As we seek to find the words. And celebrate the activities the witch. Hope can be expressed and kept alive. It's not a reward. It's not a prize that you get at the end of the game. You need it going in to the fight itself. And everyone of us i wager everyone of us. Has witnessed or experienced in our own lifetimes. Those moments when when it seemed darkest to us. Some light appeared. Some person appeared. Some word was heard. Some song was recalled. That allowed us to stand up again and to move. Forward. To make radical judgments. Upon our present situation is. Insufficient. Judgments are not enough. Judgments are only the activity. Of the rational mind. We need also a positive future vision of where we need to go. And we need a sense of the future. And this is why after so much heart searching. Gosh nearly 40 years ago. My wife and i decided. That we would take the risk. Of having children. And now those children. Are adults. And now i hold. In my arms each week. A 22-pound bundle of wriggling and giggling joy. In the person of my grandson. And i look into his face. His sweet blue eyes. And i asked. Myself. What. Am i doing. Today. To be hopeful. To give hope. Two others. I spend no time. Bemoaning the fact that the world is still as difficult and horrible. As it is. Nor do i beat myself up because this is the legacy that i am leaving my grandchildren. The world. Has always. Been difficult. But the best thing that i can do. For him. Is to give him an example. Oh how it is to live. Meaningfully. And courageously. If he wishes to take the example that's his entirely on his own. But i cannot end. My own time. Without trying. To provide a way in which one person. Cried. To make. A difference. So i believe that it is absolutely crucial for people who are trying to build a different future. To live today. In a way. That demonstrates. Real hope. For the future. The question of where to find hope. In these difficult days. Mrs. dubose i. Buy a fraction of an inch. Hope it's not something to search for. It's not an intellectual game of hide-and-seek. It is a way of being alive. And this is the other reality that muriel rukeyser talks about in her reading. Let the business of the nation often depends on a kind of perpetual warfare. But we must choose alongside that and even over against it to live. Tending toward democracy. And freedom. At the level. Of hope. And this other reality is always. Present. Underground. Like an aquifer. In the desert. Waiting to be tapped. And waiting. To be used. For this is the history of possibility. And all we can do. Is believing the seed. And live. And that belief. So may it be. Ramen.

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20200510-Something-For-You-to-Value.mp3

Does your life more difficult. Today. Then it was not so long ago i think it is. Whether you know it or not. I think it's much more difficult than it has been in anytime that i can remember. I know my own life is. And it could very well be more difficult. Then life. Has ever been. For any of us. And pessimism doesn't motivate motivate me to make that statement. I think that life is more difficult. On a basic spiritual and intellectual level. In a way that touches all of us very deeply. Touches us uniquely. And. Cimorelli. And i believe that it is important that we know. How difficult it is. So that we can properly judge. How are you doing. How are managing how we're coping. With our own lives in these tough times. You might respond by saying as someone did to me yesterday while it isn't really that bad. I'm okay i'm coping. But i would say if you aren't aware how difficult life is. The conditions of it. You are likely to lose heart. And confidence in yourself. And in your and our prospects. For the future. And that would be neither valid know right. And i don't think. We can afford it. Let me use an analogy here right from the beginning of. A diving. Exposition. Every dive is graded. For its degree of difficulty. You can do a very difficult dive not as smoothly. Has a simple dive. And yet. Get. Much higher points. Because what you're doing is so very difficult. So what we are trying to do today is extremely difficult. And i think we must appreciate it. And let me just share a couple of areas in which. I suggest. Life is much more difficult for us today. That it was not so very long ago. The first one is that it is very difficult today to be adequately informed. And intelligently. Aware. How are we going to solve problems if we don't know. What they are truly. And we don't have the proper information. How are we going to understand the complicated challenges that are coming to us today in this. Universal pandemic. You know even in a field like medicine. We have specializations all academic pursuits and almost lively pursuits have specializations. And no one ventures beyond their own particular. Specialization. And no one everyone has difficulty understanding. Confusion. How can you understand all of medicine or physics. Even in a scientific area like physics. An astrophysicist. Well not their comment. On the area. A biophysicist covers. He probably don't even know one from the other most of us. Even as distinctions. And a nuclear physicist won't comment. On anyone else's area. So how are we going to be intelligently. Aware. And concerned and informed. With what's going on today. Most of us i would say our intelligence sensitive persons who are concerned about the world what's happening in the world. How we are to respond to it. We read a great deal of information we listen to many many sources. The more that we do that the more we need to corroborate the information we're getting with other like-minded information and any information that challenges it. We tend. To dismiss. But with all the kinds of information that are available to. All of us today it is very easy for us to see that there could be other people. Who have a very different understanding of what is going on in the world. And they believe. Did they are as ripe. As you are. And as i am. And i know you're shaking your head right now and you're saying it but they don't have the truth. I do. They don't. With information overload. Should we open should we. Close should we support this effort could we support that effort the pandemic will end in the summer. The pandemic won't end. For 3 more years. The economy will recover. By august 15th. The economy will never recover to the degree that we enjoyed it. 6 months ago. We are entering into a great depression. Life will not be as it was. Before this pandemic. The retail world. The restaurant world. All different. Government. All different. Many small businesses. Will go under. Great systemic challenges which we have faced in this country for centuries. Raleigh exposed now. And crying out. For resolution. It is. Difficult. To be intelligently aware. And well-informed today. We're over our heads most of us. And that's just. 1. Area you seen. Just one. I think it's also difficult today to have. Definitive. Answers. Most. Modern persons accept the kind of relativism in almost every field today. There seemed to be no established rules or at least no rules that aren't challenged somewhere. There is nothing that is finely determinable in education either in this policies or in the ways of teaching there is nothing finally determinable in any realm of knowledge. Whether it be politics or religion or morality or anywhere else. There are no. Absolute. There have not been for some centuries. But that. Situation. Terrifies. Many people. And. Drives them back. Into a more rigid and fundamentalist understanding. Of the world. Old ways. Of understanding. The world. Horrible understanding the government. Or the american experience. There is ferocious reactivity. To the fact that there are no absolutes or so. We say. Others who believe that there are believe we are misinformed you see. Fundamentalism of every stripe. Where do they be religious. Or political or economic. Define relativism. And we have to live with these people. Some of them are our relatives. They sit at the same table with us. But we may be overrun and swamped. And even hurt and destroyed by countervailing points of view. And we cannot pretend. The thieves absolutism czar not there for some people. A very. Difficult. Situation. Difficult indeed. To have definitive answers. And solutions. Third. I think it is much more difficult today. To be sensitive. To be a sensitive person. Hypersensitivity is our humanity. We must be concerned. And yet it is hard to manage intellectually the variety of pressing problems. That are presented to us. Everyday. How are we going to pull deal. With all of the poles. And tugs. In our hearts. Only about a week ago when i was leaving the parking lot here at university church after sunday. Service. Recording. I encountered a homeless. Young man. Who has been in and out of the life of this congregation for. Maybe 12 years. He's back on the streets. With a very severe drug problem. And even more severe. Issues. Of mental health. He could not tell me where he was living. He could not tell me whether or not he needed. Hell. I was worried about his future. His present. He's ripe. Forgetting the virus. Mighty died in some alley somewhere in the city. Because he has no resources. Nowhere to go. No family. No community. How can such a person be helped. What could i have done other than listen to him. At a 6-foot. Safe distance. Getting saying goodbye to him. And driving home. My heart. Broke. He is the age. Of my oldest. Daughter. And i have seen this situation deteriorate. For 10 years. And no social remedy is available. To help this person. And now in the pandemic. He is even. At greater risk. It is hard to be sensitive to this. And yet we cannot not be sensitive at the same time. What kind of person would we be. If this did not affect us in some profound way. And yet the response is one of. Screaming. Hopelessness. Helplessness. In the face of it. What could i have done. To help him. On his way. It is hard to be sensitive today. Because of the great. Injustice has that the pandemic is exposing. Which. Have always been there in some ways. But we've maybe been too isolated. What questions. So as not to pay attention to them. It's hard to be sensitive today. It's also hard to be in relationship. With other people. Certainly the quarantining and the social distancing have imposed health measures which we ought to respect. And abide by. In order that the pandemic be controlled. Faster. But our interactions with each other now are largely virtual. On the screen. No physical contact. I ran into an elderly parishioner this past week. Who said to me. John i haven't been touched. By another human being. In 4 months. I lived. All alone. My cat died six months ago. I have no physical contact. With anyone. Most of my time is spent. In my apartment. It's a very strange feeling. To think you are a human being. And have no one touch you. Hold your hand. Hug you. Look at you. Hear you. Respond to you. Difficult today to be in relationship with each other. Maybe we are cautious about talking to our neighbors because we're not sure whether or not they are infected. We don't want to get too close to each other in public spaces. I went to the supermarket and. And elder was having trouble opening a freezer door and i asked if i could help her she said yes as soon as i did. She sneezed. She turned around rapidly and was full of apologies and trying to convince me that it was an allergy and not the virus. What am i going to do in the house it just happened i said well let's go home and wash your hands and do what we need to do and. We'll see how it goes i hope she's okay. I've been okay. It's hard to be in. Relationship with each other. And this isn't. Bag i understand it. Thank goodness for the virtual tools that we have at our disposal. How much more difficult this would be if we didn't have those at least have some kind. What's face-to-face contact. And conversation. With each other. But it is difficult to be. Engaged. It's difficult to have a church. Without any physical relationship. You see. That's another area. Words hard today it's difficult for us. I think it's also difficult. To have dignity. And meaning and worth. Today. If we can't have relationships as we used to have them. How are we going to have dignity and worth as. Persons. The only basis for those values his community. And that is the only basis for those ultimate human values. Have to have a community of people who know you. Who accept you. Where you feel you belong. You are a part of that group. You are someone. Recognizable. You are accepted. And where has that gone today that's harder. For us to achieve as well isn't it. Some of it had to do it earlier with mobility we move around a great deal. Fewer and fewer people are from anywhere in particular. Someplace where their identity is grounded. You live in many different places. Where is our dignity as a person if you take only from a community. In passing through. Enter never there long enough. To contribute to it. Or to be concerned about the neighbor. Who needs a little help. What about families. What constitutes a family today. We used to know. That doesn't mean that we had it right back then. We used to know what a family was or so we thought. But today even its notion is disputed in many places. How can we have a community of families. Does a community consists only of persons. Who contribute to it. And in what way contribute to it. The answer to this question i think his very important ramifications. Most certainly. For the unborn. And for the elderly and the unemployed. And the immigrant. A new sabled. And the des child. What is our source of dignity and worth today where does it come from. Disputed values. And people literally die. In the course of settling. That argument. Leslie and i hope you're still. With me. And if you're not. I hope you're thinking of something even better my friends. I think it's very difficult to be. Religious. Today. Religion has always been part of human society from its very beginning. Really. A good deal of the structure and substance of society. For generations after generations. Religion was there. But now so much of it. Is gone. I actually think that the whole basis. A religion is gone. Certainly the idea for us. Of a creator is gone. I'm somebody who sustains your life. Who provides for you who guarantees that you will be alright if you do this or that. Who makes promises to you. Of what you're going to be and how your life will be justified. That doesn't exist for us. Anymore. It doesn't exist for many millions of people in this country. Think of the enormous gap. If you take that out. No wonder there is so much earnest. Misguided and clever effort. Straining to fill. This loss. Earlier. Assurance. Can you see how we have to really work at it now. For so much of history. That was not the case. Religion seemed almost automatic. It was in born. It was natural. It was there. Much in the community supported it. Everything in the nation supported it. It was understood. And accepted. And only the deviant denied it. But if you're going to be religious today in an intelligent way. In a sensitive way. And in a responsible way. You're going to have to work at it. Hard. Work. It's not natural simple anymore. It's demanding. And many people don't want it to be so. So they buy a road map. Rather than start the journey one step at a time. Destination. Unknown. These are the people though that i cast my lot with. People who will not live as if they know the answers. Already. Is there a remedy. To accepting how difficult life is for all of us today. I don't think there's any permanent solution. But i think we can create a strategy to manage our lives. Better. And it includes two things. The first is the recognition that you are not. Alone. As a matter of fact there are many more people just like you all over. The world. And everyone of us. Is in. Over. Our heads. Struggling. To cope. And to manage. This is not just true here in seattle. But it is true in this country. In this hemisphere. In the world. Everywhere everywhere in the world. And secondly. We will have a better time managing the difficulties facing all of us. If we are able to become. Apart. Lubbock community. Noches. Any kind of community. But a particular. Kind of community. Hopefully it will be the kind of community of people who are as informed as they can be. And who also understand that their information is imperfect. In so many ways. But a community where you can come knowing that others understand how difficult it is to know. And they are willing to stay with you nevertheless. And to help you find out just a little more. And to help you formulate your judgments. On a sound level. And to accept you if you make foolish and bad judgments. Or if you are wrong. Or turn out to be wrong. A community with your hopes can be strengthened. Where your fears are understood and accepted as normal and natural. And in some way diminished. A community that has some. Step. It is seeking for a center. That is deeper than ourselves. From which we come. Intuit. We return. It gives us a feeling that life is more than what it is right now today. And that we belong. And then we can come from something. And have a chance to do something right. It's alive you see. Community that encourages hope. Imagine how powerful and dynamic. Such a community like that. Could be. And it's a temp. To sustain you. This church. For more than 100 years. Has attempted to be. That kind. Of community. It was founded in 1913. In the university district. As the first. Church. In the city of seattle. That required no ascent. To a prefabricated statement. Of belief. But yet welcomed. This is genuine seeker. Who came. Seeking to deepen their own intelligence. And sensitivity. And commitment of responsibility to the betterment. Of the community. And we must continue to endeavor. Growing this community. I think it's the only way. Any of us are going to make it. Is it perfect. Thank goodness. It is not. Is it worthy. Of our support. It most certainly is worthy of my support. And i think of those wonderful words as i close this morning. Of adrienne rich. We've heard them we've said them to each other. We bind them almost to our hearts into our souls. My heart. Is moved. By all i cannot save. So much. Has been destroyed. I have to cast my lot with those. Who age after age. Perversely. Reconstitute. The world. My heart is deeply moved. By so much. We will lose. For so much all around us. Continues to be destroyed. And so we have a choice. To cast our own lives. With those. Who has it has been from the beginning of time from aged age. In a perverse way. Because it's not the world's way. And was no extraordinary power. And our fragility. And in our weakness. And then our hopefulness. And in our strength. We reform. The world. From what it is. To what it could be. I'm at.

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20200621-A-Complicated-Inheritance.mp3

Does african american spiritual wade in the water. Has been running through my head these last weeks. Of watching and participating in the protest against the public lynching. Of george floyd under the knee of a white police officer. In minneapolis. At the end of may. The waters of the country indeed. Are troubled. And change like a mighty stream is running across the whole nation through cities as well as towns and suburbs demanding. Racial justice and a country that has been anti-black since its inception. This him. Wade in the water has deep roots. An american history. Its origins reach all the way back into the centuries during which black people were enslaved by white society by brutal. Roodle means. It was done by the enslaved people as they worked in the field and dreamed of liberation. The verses of the spiritual recall the biblical story of exodus akita pets. In the in the search and fight for liberation icky text in which the hebrews narrowly escaped their enslavement and egypt. By crossing the red sea. Beginning their long journey toward freedom. Much like the song. Follow the drinking gourd. Wade in the water was included. With guidance for those escaping slavery taught by harriet tubman to the people she led to freedom. So that they would walk through the streams. Where they cannot be tracked. I think it's. Important. To remember. That the calls for justice. That we are hearing now. From black leaders and communities these calls flow from a centuries-long tradition. A resistance. And resilience against great. Such as was celebrated this last week in juneteenth. Wade in the water. Wade in the water children god's going to trouble the water. A zebra mexcandy teaches in his book stamped from the beginning. Throughout the history of united states there have been both racist ideologies and policies and anti-racist movements. That i've challenged the idea that racial groups are inherently unequal. And naturally stratified. We are witnessing. One of these anti-racist movements as communities gather. Crying out in grief and anger at the police killing of yet another black. Person and calling for transformation not only in policing. But in the systemic and an interpersonal racism. That is pervasive across society. The history. Of this country. And how it is told is being called to account. And history is being made. As we speak. The black lives matter movement birds as a love letter to black people in the aftermath of the acquittal of george zimmerman for killing the young trayvon martin. Has been working for 7 years now. To resist racist policing into organized for a nation and which black lives are treated as if they matter. The change in public opinion over these past weeks which now overwhelmingly affirms the presence of racism and white privilege comes by way of the work and leadership of this larger movement for black lives. This movement for black health. Happiness and possibility. Are we listening. In the midst of a pandemic. That has laid bare. Racial disparities. And who is most likely to die from coronavirus. And at a time and which the nation the population has seen just how quickly. Everything can change. When there is motivation to do so. People are coming together. Not only in the streets but in their organizations online and at the level of their very own souls. To demand transformation long-overdue transformation. In from this energy police funding is being cut. And reallocated to community solutions and mental health. Statues of slave owners in confederate or being brought down off of their pedestals. In experiments in beloved community are being practiced. Such as on capitol hill in the autonomous zone where people are organizing teachings on racism creating abundance art. Growing food. And offering mutual care and community safety without a police presence. My fervent prayer. As a minister in this tradition. And as a lifelong you you. Is that we don't sleep. Through this awakening. But that we dare. Wade in the water. Joining our energies to the movements fighting for the realization of what langston hughes called. A dream deferred. Now within any religious tradition. There is a complicated inheritance. Of a combination of history theology and culture. Oftentimes a contradictory. Inheritance. And this is particularly true for religions such as ours whose history reaches back into christianity. We just as christianity has been used as a tool for liberation as we heard in the spiritual. Christianity and religions have also been used to justify domination. Violence. And legitimize complicity over many centuries. The course one does not have to reach back centuries. In order to find evidence of the ways our own religious tradition has been used both. 4shared liberation and for protecting the status quo. And this is felt very alive to me. In recent weeks showing up as a protest chaplain. Marching with others in the movement for black wife i try to be aware that i am carrying within me both. The best. And the worst of my tradition. I carry both the liberating message of the universal love that does not discriminate. In the cultural norms of a community. But is overwhelmingly white and privileged. I carry the histories of when our faith has shown up. Engaged anti-racism. And all the times when we have prioritized white comfort. The hoarding of power. White privilege over truth-telling injustice. Until each day i. And you. We face choices. Choices about what why allowed to guide me on this day. What internalized beliefs will i bring into awareness. In challenge. What god's will i worship. And so on this morning. I wish to offer you some of what has been brought into my own awareness. Of what within this faith can guide us. An anti-racism and what also hinders us. In this work. I am speaking as a white uu minister. And so much of what i share is to speak to people. Who share my skin color. Fred's white people we have our own work to do in order to join and multiracial solidarity in order to dismantle systemic racism. Into challenge. Our own. Racist beliefs and behaviors. So i am. Grateful. To the many black you use and white anti-racist to use who have helped expand my awareness. So that i might come to understand the religious culture that has shaped me. For even as culture is. Ever-present. The water we swim in the air we breathe. It is difficult. To see it. And name it. Particularly. As a privileged. Number within it. Who benefits from the systems as they are. Whiteness as a racial construct and culture. Has been so pernicious and hard to change. In part because it pretends not to exist. Even though it touches everything. From racial disparities in maternal mortality rates. To hiring practices. To who has access to voting booths. As a black african professor of mine and seminary told us. America. Is simultaneously obsessed with. And in denial of race. As unitarian universalist. We are inheritors of our universalist ancestors who proclaimed. That no one. No one. Falls outside of god's grace. That people are not inherently broken nor are they broken into separated into those who are saved. And those who are damned. Universal has claimed that all people no matter their identity their family their beliefs. We're worthy. Of love. And it was religiously radical at it at its inception. And it is radical still today. However in practice and influenced by dominant culture. I see how this inheritance of universalism. Has often resulted and universalizing. Universalizing which assumes sameness. And denies our minimizes difference. Thereby avoiding the natural conflict. That arise when people bring their different cultures and experiences and to true dialog. And congregations that are primarily white. This universalizing often results in centering white experiences. White voices white music and worship predictions and assuming that this speaks to all people. There's a prevalent assumption that we are color-blind community. When in truth. Whiteness white culture without interrogation is often what we offer. There's so many stories of people of color and uu congregation. Who are aspen to conform. To the white cultural norms. Are forced to leave. It's a. Call this culture out. Multiculturalism. What many uu congregation say they long for. Cannot thrive. And this environment. Where the needs of the dominant group are centered. And contrast. Authentic. Belonging. Do you know that feeling authentic belonging relies on an openness. An awareness of difference. Abilities to sit with discomfort to redistribute power and yes. Engage in conflict. Now i know that for many white people. Who are who are taught. That it was good to judge people as individuals. Rather than by their group identity this might be difficult to accept. But to refuse to see racial difference is a denial. About how those differences are treated in a society which is far from equal. It is to not to choose. To not fully witness. Another person's reality. Or hear their story. My own family has lived through both minimizing and coming to more acceptance about our differences. I come from an interracial family made bow through birth. An adoption. Growing up my biracial brother was treated differently as a as a black boy. In the schools in policing systems. And yet my family struggled to have conversations about our differences. There was the hope that love. Was enough. And while love is essential it wasn't enough. To create space for acknowledging the waze. That my brother and i were treated differently in society. As well as in our extended family. Because of racism. Because of white privilege and white supremacy culture. This space. That we have since created has only come through maturation of that love that we share. By speaking honestly and listening deeply it has come. Through heartbreak. And laughter. And though this has been uncomfortable at times even painful. It has been holding. To authentic lee. Belonging. To one another. Reaching back into our transcendentalist ancestors. Who are passionate. About the spiritual primacy of individual truth. There has been a prizing of the individual. An individual freedom. In this tradition. Ethanol dogmatic tradition that encourages people to discover their own beliefs. We have provided a much. Needed place. For individuals to find their own proof. And a sanctuary for people who felt harmed by the religious communities of their youth. However. This emphasis on the freedom of the individual. Above and sometimes against. Are religious purposes as a community. Has come at a cost. Too often we have failed to ask. What is this freedom for. What is our responsibility to work for the freedom of others as if as if our own freedom depended on it. Is a religious purpose. Solely for the sake. Of the individual. Are are recalled to something larger. Are we called to collective liberation. Individualism is part of the uu culture but we by no means have the monopoly on this belief. It is the dominant ideology of our country. And much like universalizing. When everything is beautiful the ideology of individualism it is difficult to see the structures beyond the individual's control. The shape. A life. When the media focuses on what a black person was doing wrong. Wearing a hoodie. Running. Walking. Selling cigarettes. Sleeping. It fails to see. The patterns of policing. Which pullover. Arrest. And shoot. Unarmed black and indigenous people at much. Higher rates than whites and gets away with it. It dismisses our collective responsibility and italy lays blame on the victim. Or at least blame. On a few bad apple cops. Unable to see the system they are within. Individualism also makes it incredibly threatening to receive feedback. About one's own racism. This has been a difficult journey. To learn how to receive feedback about my own racist assumption. And behaviors as a white person. And as a religious leader. It is it's so hard to not get defensive about my intentions it's so easy to fall into shame about my own failings. Amaya bilities to cause harm. And it is only when. I am able to remind myself. That i do not act alone that i remind myself that i too. I'm a product of a racist culture. Stuff for 35 years now i have absorbed racist. Stories and stereotypes. All around me. When i remember this. Give myself disgraced i am able to receive that feedback. As a gift. As the gift it is. A gift from someone who loves me enough. Who believes in my ability to learn. Did tell me the truth. Telling the truth. Hearing the truth. About how racism live. And our nation. Our congregation. Families and our very own souls. Can be painful. Which is honest. Because these truths unveil long histories of pain. Anger grief exclusion loss. Death. And the silencing are manipulating of truth. The cost of racism and white supremacy. The material. Generational physical spiritual emotional cost. Are astonishing. Is astonishing. And yet. This. Reality is denied. It's dressed up. In history books and then white imagination zits it's depressed. We must. Search and tell the truth. The quote james baldwin from the fire next time and a letter to his nephew. And the hundred year anniversary of emancipation. This. Is the crime of which i accuse my country. And my countrymen. For which neither i nor time nor history will ever forgive them. Did they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it. And do not want to know it. Parts of the veil. Are being lifted. Crews are being told. Are we listening. Berta quote james baldwin again. Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing. Can be changed. Until it is space. And i believe this. It is one of the spiritual gifts of unitarian-universalism that we can choose to bring. To anti-racism. And working for collective liberation. The affirmation that truth. Continues to unfold and be revealed. That the search. For truth is in fact a spiritual pursuit. Our tradition. Not rooted in specific revelation finds truth and lies. And experiences in relationships as well as in science. Art in ancient wisdom. In order to show up for anti-racism as individuals and as a faith we must listen to and search. For truth not just individual truth but a polack plurality of truth. But increase awareness. Debunk stereotypes in it and expand. The imagination that decolonize. The imagination. Cruise that might up and how power has historically worked. To elevate sun while diminishing others. So i asked you. Cuz i know you have experience with this where have you encountered truth. The transformed how you think. About race. Who have been the voices. And what have been the experiences that challenged you. To actively choose anti-racism. Over the belief. The notion. The fantasy. That you could somehow be neutral. When it comes to racism. An anti-racism. In my experiences within our congregations. This is a largely yet. Unrealized potential of our faith. To be a place. Where people are welcomed and their fullness. To embrace. Plurality. But not to stop there. Where to really embrace. Plurality. We must be also transformed. Hyatt. Transformed by each others. Stories taking one another's realities. From the theoretical and into lived relationships. We must. Also. Follow the transformation. Be rededicated. To our covenants. And rededicate ourselves to our covenants. To take responsibility for one another's well-being. To work for justice together where any group. Of people are systematically oppressed or excluded both within and beyond our communities. Do not stop at individual freedom but to work in solidarity toward collective liberation this. Is our call. It is beckoning. As gwendolyn brooks wrote. We are each others harvest. We are each other's business. We are each other's magnitude and bond. History. Is being made. The invitation is to join in a growing multiracial black led movement that is sweeping the nation the invitation is coming from the street but also from your own consciousness. And from this religious tradition that calls us to make love and justice. Real. As a country and as a people we carry a complicated inheritance. I pray that we choose.. Which leads us towards liberation. And give our communities to this work. As i've heard my colleague john say. Anti-racism is some of the most important work we will do as a religious tradition. And we will have no integrity. If we do not do it. Dare. The wade in the water. You will find that you have good company there. Busing. Of courage. Hope. In faith. Do you eat. And all.

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To-Change-the-World-Change-Yourself-First.mp3?_=8

Good morning. It's indeed a pleasure to be back here in a long time it was so fun being here at your auction last night we have something similar to that going on in spokane. Each year and the chicken fun for me was to watch you doing it. And not have any feeling whatsoever responsibility. For what happened. I think it has been. Close to 15 years. Since i was in your puppeteer. Spokane almost 14 years ago and prior to that time when everything's shoreline peter and i used to change. Exchange pulpit about once a year it was always a good experience. To have that happen. And to happy experience to be back here. Again with you. My meeting this morning as many of my readings are. Is. A prelude. Tv. Sherman. Your dares that's something that i have written management to introduce. Her subject that i would like to. Freetown in a few minutes. It is sad but true. That would many people say they want their church to be more spiritual. What they mean is less involved with ethical dilemmas. Human foibles and social problems. And more exposed. To pia sentiments. Positive thoughts. And comforting religiosity. Dim the lights. Indocin candles. Bad person and avoid controversy. Stinkweed him. Turn words like duty guilt and evil. And listen to esoteric reassurances by announcer pastor who pads about. As though walking on cloud. This may be all very soothing. But it doesn't really have much to do with spirituality. Personal concern extended life and unclean ritual. Spiritual growth becomes all but impossible. And the people are being misled. Time immemorial religious institutions in their steward. Had had to wrestle with the problem of what to do about public injustice. And evil. What to do about an oppressive authority. What to do about the need for radical change in the established culture. It's only the old testament read the account of the prophet nathan. Confronting king david. And announcing him for having bathsheba's husband killed so that he can take her as his wife. Later on isaiah jeremiah. Hosea and micah old are you upgrade the political establishment for failure to follow the moral precepts. Of the rain. We have for example images famous proclamation to the kings of judah and israel. Take away from me the noise of your song. To the melody of your heart i will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like. I never pulling screen. When we look closely at the ministry of jesus. It is clearer than almost his whole effort. Was toward the reformation of the religious order. So much so that the political order. Putting to death. Annually the whole history of christendom. Is a chronicle of the internecine struggle between the ranks of vested authority. Handel's open solitary martyrs who persisted. In raising unpopular questions. About the theology. Or about the behavior. The moral integrity of the church. Clearly the most. Prominent and tragic contemporary example of a religious institution. Failing to rise tomorrow challenge. Why did the world war 2 failure of the holy steve in rome to cry out against the slaughter of six million jews. Over against the sad situation we have those illustrious episodes. Do religious figures have stood against entrenched and entrenched and evil authority. Martin luther king. The berrigan brothers. Bishop hud housing. Mother teresa. An around-the-world countless men and women who has living testimonials to their face. Have dare to stand against war and for peace. Against injustice and for the rights of the persecuted. Against tyranny and for freedom. Liberation theology in central america for example he is no academic placing. It is tested and cried in the towns and fields. For real persons are risking suffering in death. In the name of freedom and justice. Alone religious movement can .284 spare of heroes and martyrs. Ranging from michael servetus to joseph priestley. Peter parker to clara barton. From susan b anthony to john haynes home. I'm from the old school 2002 blaster known women and men who has religious liberals have given generously of themselves. Ender substitute. To make this any more livable compassionate. John. And beautiful world. None of this has been easy. I can remember those uncertain and difficult days in the mid-sixties. When he was just starting to become clear that our nation was embroiled in a brutal illegal and escalating war in southeast asia. Or would it difficult choices why. Presidency that conflict is a necessary action against tyranny. Or as a violation of our own most fundamental principle. Weather to be patriotic. 42b morale. All of us who were unitarian universalists in those days can remember the pain of differing with our fellows. Overstretched crucial question. And we can also remember those who differ so fundamentally with the majority decisions of our congregation. That they felt excluded. Andy parton. How we struggle to reconcile all points of views. And yet there are some matters so consequential. The compromise becomes bitter gall in the mouths of all. Then it is the thoughtful persons pause to consider for their politics and religion perhaps do not mix. Then it is that we must ask ourselves. When a church must risk is corporate survival in the name of taking a stand against some urgent. But controversial evil. Then it is with me must be start all over again. How to balance out a power babies famous prescriptions that the purpose of a liberal church. You to comfort the afflicted. And afflict the comfortable. On such matters i often recall james luther adams anecdote. About the racist board member of one of our churches in chicago. Who proclaimed one day that. The purpose of the liberal churches to get ahold of people like me. And change them. But i also remember the mother. Whose son was missing in action in vietnam. And you can do me right after my congregation had voted to condemn the war. Find me tears in her eyes told me. You have presented me with an impossible choice. I stand by my son. Tried to sing together him number 195. Cal comfort the afflicted. Are telling afflicted comfortable. These are the hard choices. These are precisely the kind of hard choices that makes religious concern. Vital and essential. Indeed it would be unworthy and unthinkable of any religious worthy of the name a name which implies hold. Stand aside from such a quandary. I am reminded that martin luther king said that. Any religion that professes to be concerned with the song for people. I did not concerned with the slums that damn them. And the social conditions that crippled them. Is a dry as dust. Religion. And mahatma gandhi said very much the same thing. I cannot imagine dinner worship of god then that in his name i should labor for the poor. And i recall family edmund burke famous uttering. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil. Is the good man. Good women do nothing. But then just as there is the danger that attended church will fall into irrelevance or worse. When it ignores your social and political fights of the people. So there is a complementary peril. Apparel for religious institutions that focus their full attention on this world. Google nikkollective of the spiritual or theological realms. Bowel movement found itself in this sort of predicament. During the early 1970. Beginning in the mid-50s we brought our social gospel to bear upon racial injustice. Name the vietnam war. And eventually upon other causes including the legalization of marijuana. Initially we were energized by our outreach. When the civil rights movement turned militant. End the vietnam war drive to it's miserable finale. We became fatigued. Anchor screws. I do remember she began dropping we looked anxiously to our spiritual roots for guidance. I need directions. And we were just made. We were dismayed to find that those ripped had withered for lack of attention. And nourishment. We discovered that we did not know who we were. It was a difficult time for. I'll need year with signaled when in desperation are denomination actually conducted this contest. In search of its own identity. Small wonder that we had since had a burgeoning interest. Virtuality. Kimberly-clark. Emergency authority. I have carefully written our statement of purpose. And principles. Hopefully we have learned that a vital religious movement which would live responsibly in the world. Mcdonald's to attend to the needs of heart. And spirit. Actually historic theological argument as to whether or work. Spirituality or social concern is the more important. Let us remind ourselves regularly daddy there is no eager or duality. Not only our faith and works not separable in any authentic religion. Is essential to the other. There is a critical mode and connection. And it is worth our time to wonder why. Spiritual pilgrim. As a mystic. I believe that our supreme purpose is to discover who we really are. To find out that we are indeed finite fragment of the internet. Tomorrow as the buddhist buddhist. That we are already enlightened. We just don't know it. To discover as our own ralph waldo emerson said. That we are part and parcel of god. How many contemporary person. Even those who think themselves religious. Misunderstand mean. Babies understand what mysticism is. They have learned erroneously that mystics are persons who have dropped out. Either into their own internet. Or into the outer regions of esoterica. Running route. The authentic mystic is the most practical person. The most rigorous. Agreed. Indeed. Traditional prayer of the mystic inn. Leave me from the unreal. To the real. It stopped at the mystic recognizes and honors the fact that reality as we perceive it. He's always partial. Just wondering if in italian. I can tell you this this consideration apply even to science. Which is nearing is dependent upon this and modeling. Archaeology is. The truth is ever beyond what we think it to be. And we must never give up. On our search court. I find it significant in all the major spiritual traditions generally recommend several pad. Essentials of spiritual growth. Best buy one system where is the path of discipline. The path of knowledge. The pasta people. And the path of work. And although the mystic may periodically favor one path over the other. Ultimately all four pad compatible. Npr's morning i call your attention to that pork packs. The past of work. The path of witness. Adoption. This is the spiritual path that all of the great reforming geniuses followed. Gandhi. Biker commercial martin luther king and minions. Every religious tradition has it called for justice as a component of spiritual growth. In buddhism as in for jante. Siddhartha is a school of hindu hinduism. I don't know about the most recent forms of christianity. Right action is the means by which the mind prepares itself. Call mystical searching. Even in the islamic quran we read that. One hour of justice. Is work 70 hours of prayer. How much is a the theoretical connection between spiritual growth. And social action. How about the practical connection. Let me begin by honoring emerson victim that the true creature draws upon personal experience. Talkin of myself. During my 23-year career as a liberal minister in dating back before. I've been involved in a variety of causes ranging from civil rights to opposition to the war in vietnam. Civil liberties to a brief but spectacular little battle with a local religious college. It wanted to discriminate against unitarian. And homosexual. Along the way there have been the usual number of nuclear disarmament marching. Support the reproductive rights. Protest against us policy in central america. White green vigil. And a whole bale of testing letters been sent off your politicians and newspapers. More recently. I've been a leader in the citizens watchdog group called heal. We stand for hanford education action group. Keolis concerned with bringing moral political and scientific accountability. To the federal nuclear reservation at hanford washington. Concord is one of many nuclear weapons production facilities operated by the united states department of energy. And my calls text site. It is a place of mystery. And wearing some impact on human health and safety. But what he has discovered is that there is a power in raising questions. Adding telling the truth about installation such as hanford. And we have become a little less than 3 years something of a model of mammootty or concerns group. Kela has had an impact. All out of proportion to its numbers and resources. That is on me. Of the story. It has not been easy. Animals difficult part has not been the time complexity and power of our scientific and bureaucratic adversary. But the difficulty of keeping ordinary human relationships. Great and working. Miniature the time when in the midst of some internal organizational conflict. I have subliminally muttered a little prayer that goes something like this. Bruno mars. We can handle her opponent. Please help us with ourselves. Almost all central change organizations have similar experiences. Seriously the reason has relatively little to do with the lack of resources and volunteers. Poor strategy resistance by the political establishment. Rather. Problem is personal. Spiritual. Lithia springs. In buddhism references often named to the five poisons. Goodbye poisons are called obscuring habit of the mind. Define poisons are. Ignorant. Anger. Desire. Greed. And. Jealousy. And there is no way that person can make substantial progress toward spiritual maturity until they have come to terms with the presence of the five poisons in themselves. Ignorant anger desire greed and jealousy. Bean pie. B5 unacknowledged immigrants will not only blight our own growth. But they will distort and corrupt our project. In the world. I have seen more than one calls falter and fail because of the lack of spiritual home within those who would promote. The car. Will using different language. When we attempt to do good before having come to terms with our own brokenness. Alienation. Egotism. Incomplete. Neediness. We'll tend to contaminate our modem. Andorra. This is why spiritual leaders and otherwise person. Continents over and over. That. We would change the world for the better we must begin by changing ourselves. This requirement it seems to me makes the task of those who would save the earth. Or even improving. Dairy queen. The world order. The prevailing cultural mythology or paradigm. Is no longer serving the highest needs of humankind. If it ever again. Rino republican attempts to dominate one another. To ignore our own comfort at the expense of our fellows. Voicemeeter logical systems of the planet. Andrew impose world peace by threatening nuclear annihilation our stark evidence of our failure. We must become different person. Otherwise we will go on making their own mistakes. We must become person who are more centered in holes. Nro india. Person to relate more harmoniously with one another. Person to recognize and living terms of the interconnections of the vast web of existence. Persons family. Who know of their fundamental unity with that nourishing victory in which we live and move and have our being. I wish we called by many names. Another word. We are to overcome our current problems. It will require an evolutionary leap into consciousness. To constitute a critical mass. Are creating change maker. It may sound like something so new. Mysterious. And so unlikely as to be impossible. But that. I am convinced. Isn't perfection. What i am talking about is an old old story. It is the central theme of all the great religious traditions. It is the one you sure goal that every human being would have to have. Tom wood, team lightning. Saint thomas to tori. Salvation. Some college self-discovery. Tom holland god consciousness. Or buddha conscious. Whatever neil arter we may use for the endpoint of his noble quest. Spiritual search. I like the way ts eliot put it. In one of his four quartets. We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring. Will be to arrive where we started. And do the plank. For the first. Beauty of good poetry is in its expansive economy of words. Dusty sles for simple lines or both of summary. And an initiation for the quintessential human cat. Finding out. Who we really are. Arcare you to recognize our inner divinity. Ted boutrous out of touch with the spiritual realm. And causes of to act old. Flooring material. A few minutes ago i referred to the five poisons of buddhism. Ignorant. Angry. Desire. Obscuring habits of the mind with both stand in the way of our spiritual maturity and corrupt our best intention projects in the world. This is a matter of such importance that i'd like to say some more about it. I dunno. The need for social and political change usually arises with the perception of injustice. And many of those who have this perception will have been victim. Nad angry near sylvania. Builders righteous indignation orange search of power. This is understandable. It is even if it's usable. But it is also a fundamental parallel to the car being pursued. As well as to those pursuing it. The civil rights movement serves as a fine example here. And martin luther king jr in his superb exemplar. 14-team onto the national scene our recognition is adepts and darkness of racism was just beginning. I think he's long and justice both blatant in trouble with bloating and painfully review into both black and white. Anger guilt jealousy free music the urge toward revenge all came bubbling to the surface of the average. Human consciousness and conscience. Wasn't environment in which outrages equal to or worse than those that had already occurred my twiddling have taken place. And sometimes.. Martin luther king saw the terrible danger. Of all of you. Constantly he council forbearance. Nonviolence. Constantly here go to chatting with you. Who marched with him. Who went to jail with him. To stretch their own heart. And come to terms with the anger and hatred that works so understandably there. Returning hate for hate x paint warranty. Adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. 8 * hate. Silence * 1. And toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. Rhetoric and corresponding behavior such as. Constitute the creative glory of the civil rights movement. The tragedy of the civil rights movement is that especially following martin luther king's death. The carving pc me fell into the hands of those who acted on their anger and hatred. Anime poker prayer of power and stop speaking of love. Result was that the progress was halted. And many of the games were lost in the reaction that followed. Today it is clear that those causes. Most likely 16. Are those that give substantial attention to the spiritual painting of their people. One of my favorite illustrations involve my stepdaughter. Who is now completing her training. What do unitarian universalist ministry. I knew for years has been our family. Most radical social and political activist. Several years ago kathy belong to a pink group. That was especially concerned about the intercontinental ballistic missile. Abandoned air force base in california. Theater pillows retarded you register a nonviolent protest by going onto the bing. And hiking to one of the fenced-in missile silos were they intended to tie black ribbons on their fin. And hold a silent vigil. First. They spent much time porting in training what they called affinity group. Besides the usual nonviolent resistance training. Affinity groups game time for the disgusting of ibew. Concern and canoeing. Find xfinity store hours in spiritual practice. Meditation. Prayer. Singing and socializing. With the time for the demonstration team. Everything went as planned. Intact. The demonstrators were able to watch unobstructed all the way to the missile enclosure and hang their black ribbons on the pin. Bullied and dylan are forced to accompany by military bus. Come roaring across the hills to confront and arrest the intruders. Kathy and her cohort voluntarily entered the buck when ordered to do so. As they did the military police insisted that they remove the black armbands that they wore on their arms. Even though the demand was apparently part of a tactic to humiliate. I need personalized the demonstrators. Operated with such good humor. Set the police began to relax. Quincy. 18 tax return to surrender her armband smiled at the young soldier before her and said. I'll tell you what i'll do. I'll trade you this armband for that metal you're wearing. I much to everyone's surprise and delight. Agreed. The demonstrators went off routine music jail. A trial. On the military personnel they met that day was both significant. One of the things that happens when we get to know our opponent. Open the apartment knowing is that we become person to each other. And even if we continue to disagree with being with me with what they stand for and. Bilbo's rain and we are change. And the possibility for understanding and growth. Improve. Woburn o'brien found it to be true in my contact with tempered people. Particularly with the technical people who are not charged with defending government policy. And action. Darth vader's transformation the author of gulag archipelago wrote something that warns us against self-righteous. And polarized thinking. If only it were so simple inside. If only that were evil people somewhere committing evil dean. Anywhere necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. Viper dividing line. Being good and evil. Cut through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy. For her own heart. In my congregation in spokane right now. There is a b-52 bomber pilot who is the nuclear holocaust ever, will be one of those likely to delivery. When did man. First arrived with his family to spokane unitarian church. There was much i need about his present. Oh my god you mean that man slide b-52s with nuclear bomb. Turbo felt that we could do something. Although they didn't know what that might be. Finally at a gathering of some church people one evening. I suggested that this pilot wasn't to call for nuclear peril. We were. The threat of nuclear war arose i instead out of fears that we all have in varying degrees. I need to bomb it ever drop. This pilot will be that part of us. Immediately referred to harris. Stickman decrease. This result all of us. I suspect including him. Felt a little more at peace. Inside. Is it then a model for creating social change. Can we simply love our enemies. Well it might be a good place to start. I'm rooming here or use the word love in this context. Pause reminder tells that it has little or nothing to do with ordinary writing. Rather love having you as you and being loved. Your enemy needs to be translated through something like. No love your oneness. With your enemy. When we do that. We will be in a better position to decide what we need to do next. Love and i abused appears one of the three extension. Spiritual growth. The other two are attention. And nonattachment. Ending to have their place in social and political activism. Attention means just what it says. Attention. Be here now. Paying attention. Are marvelous middlebrook titleist into the cosmos. Jacob needleman says that. Avocation maybe the original sin. Lack of attention. Maybe be wrapped with separator. Coronavirus spiritual possibility. We all bring too much baggage with us from the past that instead of living in the present we get bogged down in the stalgia. Pride regret. Or justification. We have so much concern for the future that we worry extravagantly about achieving our goals. Maintaining our reputation. Or making a mistake. In either case we failed live in acton the only time we have available to us. Right. Now. There is a spiritual axiom that says. When we pay attention. When we truly live in the here and now we need not prepped. About the past and the future. I think of another worthwhile little book called the miracle of mindfulness. Eaten by a vietnamese zen buddhist names.com. Remember the vietnamese peace delegation in paris during the 70s. Friend the priest activist. Darren barragan. The whole thrust of his looking towards. Teaching us to live mindfully. To be completely present. In whatever we are doing. Not hunt suggested all peace activist would increase their effectiveness. If they were to bring a more meditative dimension into their gathering. Kentucky says that every significant discussion will go better if we first get quietly and focus. Pay attention you are breathing. A practice that i found very helpful at the beginning and ending of all these. The third essential. Is non-attachment. Caboodle we are told that you even liked materialize. Set the cause of all suffering is desire. Of the three spiritual essential love. Attention. And nonattachment. Dresser. Is the most difficult to live to learn and live. Respect me for us western. Most of us think that are attached to something is a measure of our devotion. But it isn't. Didn't say sign of our inability to let go. Queen nefertiti. During the story about saint ignatius of loyola which makes the distinction. Saint ignatius was the founder of the jesuit order. He gave his life to it. I'm looking into it. When somebody ask him. What he would do. Is the pope commanded him to disband. The order. Dapper a moment's reflection he replied. 18 minutes of prayer. And then i would think no more of it. Non-attached. Justice marvin attention can transform our social change activities. Toucan practicing non-attachment. What non-attachment means here is not getting hung up on specific results. 915 gary come out my way. Yes we could pay attention to injustice or whatever. And we should respond to it appropriately. But we should beware of insisting that the outcome conform to our own particular notion. 96 tears. Do the best you can. I meant the result take care of itself. And reading. When you stop to think about it. Coming up. In order to show that our subject has a circular interconnectedness. I'd like to tell a variation on an old story. A wise man once went to preach righteousness in the wicked fittings are sodom and gomorrah. Bowling without. Then someone asked him why he persevered in his effort. 2 chainz the people of sodom and gomorrah to be like here. Dwight man replied. Why do not expect them to become like me. But i must continue my work. Do not become. Like them.

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20190811-Sermon.mp3

Tell them i said yes to life. Disappointment pierced me through still i kept on loving you tell them i said yes to love. Saying yes to life can be so. Damn difficult. Sometimes. Some weeks the heartbreak of relationship. The burden of news that this orientation of loss and fear seems beyond. What we can bear. Much less say yes to. And on these weeks. It is brave. To come to church. To come together. To leave the isolation of pain. And let oneself be held. And the presence of community and the power of sanctuary. If this has been one of those weeks for you. Welcome. Welcome to this community of fellows falls who know that beauty and the glory of life as well as the heartbreak and the vulnerability of being human. Welcome into this thing shoe airy of spirit. Waiting to receive you as you are both broken and whole. Welcome. On this morning as we try to sit with what is real and return to what sustains us. Through trials and tribulations this orientations and disiz. And so whatever you bring to the altar of life this morning. It is good to be together. I sat down and i wept before i could write these words to share with you today. I left about the children. Immigrant families in mississippi who left their first day of school to discover there were no parents. To meet them there following a raid the detained 680 people. I left with the family still reeling from the 2 mass shootings that happened last weekend in the many many people whose lives have been forever changed. By gun violence. In this country i went. About the centuries of white supremacist violence centuries of racism that continues to underlie. Our shared life in this country dividing us. And inciting violence with its betrayal. I went about how common sense and compassion seems so impossible to foster to find in these divided times. Wept because i so often feel so. Inadequate. In the face of it all. That's because i needed to feel and listen to my broken heart. To feel that overwhelmed and listen to the outrage and grief because i fear at my own abilities to numb out. And to disassociate from what is real. My friends we live in overwhelming time. Waves of trauma ripple out over the nation whenever tragedy strikes and it seems to strike without abating these. Beat this experience of these traumas it is an aggregate. Experience. It layers on top of the traumas we each carry and our own stories bodies and histories traumas from our first families. Assault accident from severe weather imprisonment. The generational an ongoing traumas of colonialism. Racism erasure displacement. And add to this just a general sense of overwhelm. That so many are facing within family. Work. Health finances in community and it seems it seems that there is no reprieve. From the pressure. And scarcely the time and rest necessary. Depaz. To pause and reconnect an order to enter great heal and discern what we might do in response. And so getting these turning stresses and pressures it's no wonder that so many are finding themselves disassociated. Are hyper-vigilant and watching or that there are those who try to seek a sense of control between dividing between us and them and try to make sense of the world or ideological eyes i understand these impulses i have been swept up. Buy all of them at different times. And i worry. About their impacts on our individual and collective lives. I worried because in this time of great pain and turmoil are active present not only to our outer world but to our inner world is paramount. Is paramount and responding appropriately. Encourages. I worry because it's active presence that is so essential is increasingly hard. To sustain. I worry because i believe that aliveness imagination joy gratitude and interconnection are absolutely necessary for how we will move forward and help recreate the world. And that these can be so hard to sustain. And find. But being tossed around by the storms. And yet there also. The antidote. This last week toni morrison. Left this world were world but though her words continue to resonate she wrote i know the world is bruised and bleeding. And though it's important not to ignore its pain. It's also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Did you take a breath with me now. Let's do one more. I meant or recently told me. That almost all reactivity relies on shallow breathing. And sophie take anything away from this morning take that in your pocket. The breath is always raining there. Tracy view. And orient you. The tie you to right now. Trauma therapist. Laura vandernoot lipsky who is local here in seattle has recently written a book. Intitle the age of overwhelm strategies for the long haul. But i very much recommend. And she's responding to exactly this situation that we are individually and collectively within. She says that after decades of having worked and social work and community organizing and trauma recovery that there's something that seems different about the ducks and the breath. Of suffering right now and how it's affecting affecting people and she said shares that overwhelm. It can be difficult to identify when one is statue 8-rated that one just. Continues in a series of reactions. And so i ask you to pause and consider if you've been feeling distracted. Disconnected entrenched. Depleted or loss of control. But you might be experiencing overwhelmed. Overwhelmed can appear and surges and then re-enter great or it can appear as just years of trying to keep the head above the water. And if any of this is familiar no. That you are so deserving of tenderness. All deserving of tenderness and that you are not alone. And also know that there are ways. I'm coming back to aliveness. To connection in purpose a path forward toward reconnecting to what holds and sustains you in time of struggle and discovering again a sense of power. And your own life. It said. That trauma. Which is related or connected to overwhelm trauma rob's victim. Of power and control. So that's part of the healing process is to read. Find. That and it takes time. Text time and support. Patience and love. Vandernoot lipsky writes the more we feel overwhelmed starting to set in the more focused and diligent we need to become with ourselves and having a plan. When were overwhelmed we must must must determine how to metabolize. And internally transform whatever is arising within us otherwise it'll roads us. In a rotisserie cause external harm or both. So she begins by asking her readers to answer these questions. What is in our collective control. What is in our individual can. And then move from that place. Now depending on who you are. What your worldviews are experiences are acknowledging the limits of one's control can come with this sense of immense relief. Or it can be a place of total existential dread. I would say that it's unitarian-universalist we are not all that good at surrender. But i think that there's something. Very necessary to learn from surrender in these times as well as agency. That they are not. Actually one or the other but can exist side-by-side. Because there's freedom. An agency and becoming right-sized a realizing that one is limited and yet part of this greater whole. A releasing the individual burden of trying to fix or control that which can only be addressed by communities of people working together over years decade. Possibly even generations. As i heard from one young indigenous young and digenous activist at the world parliament of religions some years back it's not wrong to think you can change the world. It's wrong to think you can do it alone. Sometimes. When asking a question of what's in your individual control within your individual control is an action that you can take to mitigate harm locally. Maybe it's a community you want to join a relationship you can build possibly it's a call for deeper reflection and learning the intention to return to curiosity one of the antidotes to overwhelm or the practice of fostering humility. Or it could be that life-giving reminder that you can take a deep breath. And then another. And another and feel that ground beneath your feet that holds you. I'm feeling overwhelmed what is in your individual control might be finding your way back to whatever gives you life. Brings you life once more maybe it's nature sleep. Music art time with animals laughter. Ut those activities that bring into unlined alignment your mind and your body. Making connection again. As poet and activist audre lorde wrote. Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation. And that is an act of political warfare. That's a the statement is true for all of us but it's particularly true for those of us who have been told that our lives are less worthy. Our culture's less relevant our children will be less safe from harm. There are so many. Overwhelming issues going on right now and following this past week. One that has been with me is i've been thinking long and hard about what it means to be white right now. And what might whiteness become if not defined. By violence and exploitation and asking what's in my personal agency. What if i plan to move forward one day at a time. It's daunting and humbling to look at an issue as large as white supremacy and asked where i have individual control where do we have collective control. However it was james baldwin who said. I don't believe any longer that we can afford to say that it's entirely out of our hands. We made the world we're living in. And we have to make it over. For better or worse. Starting exactly where we are. That's why i wish to offer you a couple stories. To close the sermon this morning to close our time this morning. The illustrate these concepts of overwhelming and also resilience. Does unitarian universalist believe that all souls are sacred and worthy and that everyone has inherent. Worth and dignity and in the depths of my bones. And then my spoken values. I believe in this vision. In the day today however living this is much. More. Challenging right. And it's his particularly so when triggered are experiencing overwhelmed and i can be those times. When i when you when we can cause unintentional harm. When that which is not integrated within us not addressed within us comes out sideways. In north seattle. Idris mosque is a place of worship for muslims who have arrived to seattle from all over the world. And over a year ago. There came to be a protester a young white man who began to protest their outside during friday prayers holding offenses signs. Of hatred and judgment and trying to incite conflict. I was in the neighborhood one evening with my colleague and friend justin. Almeida and we went to stand and community with the mosque. I must say that this particular protester has a gif. And agitation. Spiritual gifts in agitation and it caught me and it's justin and i were speaking to him i found my anger rising i felt consumed by it i was shaking i lost control of my voice and i began to yell. Becoming an effective and disorienting i lost hold of my intention and going there my grounding and ended up not actually helping the community i came to support. To be any safer. At the same time. I told justin by my side. Maintain a clear. Focused presents. And the ground beneath him as he engaged this person. After we left and breath returned. I asked justin how he was able to remain calm. He told me he had to keep remembering that there was a person in there. The person who is also experienced pain and trauma. Person shaped by the larger systems that surround us all. That. My friends. As a spiritual practice at being grounded. And the inherent worth and dignity of every being. And i also no evidence. Of having a daily practice. To ground in the depths. Of being and source instead of being pushed around. Buy what's on the surface. It matters how we show up to one another. This can be one of those places of where do i have individual control. And when we are overwhelmed it's so easily league since we're relationships and interactions when their breath gets shallow. It's so easy. To end up there. Most often with those who are closest right but also in our interactions with those whose lives are very different from our own for whatever reason. I know that sometimes when you're in these interactions within your control is walking away. He's walking away from the aggression taking a break to recalibrate andre ground. But it could also mean choosing breath. Choosing curiosity and compassion when it's hard and know that your faith. Can be there to support you. Another story. This past summer. Myself and others meet immigrant justice team had become involved in a coalition with the washington immigrant solidarity network. Supporting a small but growing community of lgbtq asylum-seekers in washington state. And their sponsor families. Any other week this coalition coalesce. In a park near the lake and it has members of a lot of the different queer and trans and immigrant organizations here in seattle. It is a powerful and resilient. Group has creating a network. Around these family. And around the asylum seekers. And as this meeting again we began was checking in with about the recent policy changes that are making it nearly impossible for refugees to enter the united states and the increased aggressive aggression and immigration control enforcement tactics. And as we were talking we are also eating pizza because sometimes you got to eat pizza in these moments. And there was this. Palpable heaviness. And weariness. That begin to lift. Once we are checking in about how the individual lgbtq asylum-seekers are doing and how their bravely coping with their own traumas as they transition to life here other making life happen again. At the end of this meeting one of the lawyers man 3 hermanos. A local lgbtq immigrant organization in town. She shared that she was going to be visiting the tacoma detention center the very next day to meet with several people who are detained there including to meet with two women who are there. And these two women. Play matt and they fell in love. During their migration from el salvador to the us. And they wish to marry. They can't even kiss and detention. But they wish to marry. Have no money for a marriage certificate. And so a cup with passed around the circle. Everyone pulled forward what little they had. Pull that they had from their wallets. In 67 dollars were collected. Which is to the dollar. The cost of a marriage certificate in washington state. On the face of problems and pain that are in comprehensible and a measurable on that day. Somehow it was enough. In communion with one another in our collective power. Somehow. We were enough. I leave you with these words from bryan stevenson. You don't have to have all the answers. You just have to have a heart. Willing to stand and community.

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20200503-Pause-to-Restrain.mp3

Read that like to begin this morning with. A philosophical. Sentence. So i'll repeat it to you twice. And then the time that i have remaining to me i'll hope to make it. Clearer. To all of us. Clean myself. Here it is. All organic life all life. Depends. Upon the necessity. Of controlling its response. To the environment. In order that the environment may serve. Its own purposes. All life. Depends. Upon the necessity of controlling. It's response. To its environment. In order that the environment may meet its own. Purposes. And we know from biology and history that those species. Those persons. Animals plants. Which are able to control their response to their environment. Flourish. And it's much more obvious first perhaps. When we think about human beings. Creatures like yourself. And like myself because. As we are led to believe in our culture. Human beings. Theoretically anyway are given. The superior position in the world. Above all other life. Forms. Meaning. That the world is ours. To the extent that we know. How to control it. Some scriptures which. Many of us were schooled in from a very early age said that human beings were given dominion. Over the earth. Vetements. Control over there. And that no other species. Was to be accounted for in that plan but only human beings you see and children learn this. From infancy on. A cry becomes. A signal. Eliciting a response. From a caregiver. And toys become symbols. Of controlling the environment. Perhaps even beyond. A child. Control. And if you've ever lived. With teenagers. Control. Is an existential issue. Weather in the form of pulling rank. Or they're stretching. The elasticity of the boundaries. As they should you see and so from early childhood on all of us. Come to learn. The tuesday degree. That each of us manages our environment. We become what we call. A person. We becoming i a subject. Controlling objects. However simple. Which is living and moving. And we must. Become a person. Because a person is a being. Who has. Some control. Over his or her life. We are not just objects to be pushed around you see. We have to be able. To manage. One of the greatest fears. Just about all of us have i have it certainly is. That we will lose. Control. At the wrong moment. Either mentally or physically. Because if we were to lose control certainly and certainly as we age. We believe that we would become less. A person. And so. So much of our life is spent trying to control. Everything around us. Ourselves. And other people. Or we might go to the other extreme. When there is entirely too. Much. Control. And this is one of the basic perennial problems. For every person. And every group. And everyone we have ever known. Too much control we know. Maybe destructive. Just. Imagine if you will and only briefly. Current president of the united states has enormous control. Over our fates. Over our future. And the destructive consequences of that. Control. Are evident to all of us. Because the control is based. Andalusian. And. Cacique. And while it may appear to give some groups or persons freedom. It often destroys the freedom of others. The ability of others. To have some control. Over their own lives you see. And so. The enormous complications of this. Challenge. Of how much. Control. But we have. How little. Has been a universal problem. As long as human beings have had consciousness. No one can ever live without facing this problem. And no group has ever flourished without facing the challenge and finding some way to deal with it. No matter when. Or where or how you live. You have the problem of knowing. How much. Control should i exercise in this situation. When do i have too much. Control. When do i have too little control. And what do i need to do to get more. Or to give up some. Of the control. I already have. No religion. Has become a concentrated example. Of this struggle. With control. This is the very reason why some people hate. Religion. Because it exercises too much control. Over individuals. And this is also the same reason why many millions and millions of people loves religion. Because it plays a dominant instructive force of control. In that individual stinking. And in that individuals being. I would say that it is so much a part of the heart of religion. Has anything else you can imagine this issue of control. And the kinds of control most. Of the religion actually the kinds of religion most of us have been exposed to. Declare. That only certain people. Should have. Control. And it is. Tragically so that in just about all the religions of the world. And even all the great philosophies of the world. It's usually men. And white men in particular. Who ought to have control. In that religious. Practice. Often. Clergy. Like myself. Because the average person should not have. Very much control. And that we do not and cannot really have any kind of control in our lives because. That would be reserved. For what some people would call. God. Or other people would call. Karma. Or destiny. Or state. Or their astrological chart. It is projected onto some entity beyond oneself. As the source of control. Of my own life. So if the essence. Of control is any one of those things god or. Karma. You may. Plead. With it. You may try to align your life. In faithfulness to it. You may gain favor. But do not ever support. For one moment. That you are going to manage. Your own life. So pervasive is this cast of thinking. That many would claim. That it is impossible. To dispense. With religion. Or god in some form. Because if we did. We would have to think. And judge. For ourselves. And clearly. We are not capable. Of doing that well. So the story goes. I remember a couple of years ago now. I had a visitor when sunday morning. Assault me with a question. As she was leaving. The sanctuary. She asked a reverend. Oh where do you get the authority. Just say what you said. This morning. Well from my own intelligence. And. Experience i replied. And from what i have been able to absorb. From weiser. And deeper minds. And hearts. Then my own. That explains it she said. Blaine's what i enquired. That explains how misguided you are. You're just. On your own. And she stomped. Out of the building. And i said to myself that's it that's it exactly. That's true. And that is the beauty. And the magica. And i smiled. To myself. How might we deal with this problem. Of control. Call mike religion. Deal with it differently than it has for so long. I have a couple of. Suggestions. For your consideration of course. It begins with this that we must today as in the most primitive of times recognize. Control is a paramount. Human. Problem. That we can never get away from its demands. From the wonderment of it. From the questioning of it. From the necessity of it. And that anything that concerns us in our life has got to deal with this challenge. Of control that's number one. Control is essential. And it is elusive. It is never at any point. Completely solvable. And my second point is that i think that religion. Ought to recognize. That religion has no exclusive authority in this area. And i understand by making such a statement. That i would be considered heretical. Or foolish. By many many millions. People. But i do believe that religion has no right to dominate. What control or command has. We must assume the importance of control. And we must reject the attempt. But any individual or any group. To impose arbitrary rules upon us. To demand obedience in the name of anything other than. Our own. Self. Development. As it is balanced against. The needs. Of the community. And that relationship is absolutely critical. Because without it we would have no meaning for life. We have the challenge of trying to understand what kinds of controls. Each of us needs in our own living aging developing. And they must always be balanced. By the relationships we have. With other people with other groups. Our society or culture our country whatever always so the individual is not alone in this. What is yolk. Do the needs. About specific. Community. Religion then should rest. On our ascent. At self. Governing persons. Who willingly. And wisely and brace. The needs. Of community. Or the common good. And if needed. To subsume our cell. In favor. Of the welfare. Of the community. Another way of saying this might be that religion must put upon every one of us the responsibility for deciding for ourselves which. Controls are. Best for us. Should be must be. As they are balanced. Against. Sustaining. Community. And i must say that our unitarian universalist religion. For nearly two centuries. Has primarily stressed the first part of that equation. And not the second part of it. That religion should only be about the development of the individual person above all other things. That may have worked. 250 years ago after the enlightenment. But it has not work. For a very long time. In the future of the world. And our own well-being in the future of life on earth depends now. On the relationship between thoughtful sensitive individual persons. In concert with. Needs. Of the community you see. This is an enormous challenge for us. And it has no obvious or easy solution. It cannot be resolved with simple cliche. Or statement or arrogation of authority. Of control or power. How do we decide them for ourselves how do we choose that to which we give our ascent. What kinds of control might we have. In fact. Do have. Is there a standard or a guideline. 4 control. I think. There could be. And that is my third. Point. This morning. I'm going to. Embrace the courage of risk. By suggesting. Hopefully something that's not. Maddeningly maddineni maddeningly simple. North simplistic. But i think that the norm for control. And should be. Creativity. We should favor only that kind of control that fosters. Creativity. That is the ability to transcend. Karate traditional or tested. Ways of thought. In order to create a new and meaningful way. Of thinking. Or behaving. Creativity should be the guideline. 4 control. Will you see whatever contributes. To the growth. In the quality and depth of our relationships. With each other. And with the world. Is a good. In a philosophical sense. And whatever control is necessary. To achieve that kind of opportunity. For the maximum fulfillment of life. Is it good. Is it good. And any kind of control that interferes or diminishes. That kind of growth or relationship. Is not. Good. And may even be. Feeble. How creative am i allowed. Encouraged. Willing to be. In my situation. That tells you how much control you have. Or might have. And whatever kind of control i have should be governed by. Creativity. Only that will enhance my life. And the life. Of others. Otherwise. I will be unable to respond to changing conditions. And because the conditions of our lives continue to change. The capacity to be creative in our response to them is the difference between. Subsisting. And flourishing. Control then is not the limiting of my options. But the opening of waze. In which an individual. Might discover. Multiple. Remedies. No i know you want an example of this and i'm going to suggest one. And i want to say by way of preface though that every illustration is limited. Every illustration is more convincing to some than to others with. That is no reason not to offer one. But i think it is one that most of you are familiar with. And it's one that we hold up. Regularly. Because we are fortunate enough to live in the kind of world. Where there are exceptional human beings. Who are able to do a new thing. To make a lasting impact. On the quality of life. And even after their death. I'm so inspired. Other people. That others carry on. The message. And the method. Of those persons. Until the person i want to suggest to us this morning is. Martin luther king. Junior. Whatever control. King had over his own life. And the plate. Of his community. Had to be. Creative. He had to creatively use what control he had. Auntie had to hone. An ability. To exploit. Tension. Creatively. This is something that a good coach knows a winning coach knows this you play the greatest capabilities and capacities of your team. And king understood that if it was going to be any kind of further advanced he was going to need to exploit. The social and racial and even religious tensions that existed all around him. And what if his singular achievements. Was. The promotion of the nonviolent resistance. To injustice. His specific task with this window was. To make nonviolent. Direct action. Respectable. In white. I. What's the singular. Challenge you see. His anger which was legitimate and justified. And very deep. And his critique. Which was sensitive. Intelligent. And highly moral. Had to be respectable. In white eyes. Or they would be no further movement. And his creative oratory. Worked. Powerfully. On white pill. There were hundreds of thousands of people in the 60s. Who follow dr. king. Mini out of a sense. Of guilt. I'm not your guilt is always the best thing to. Force social change around because. Want some games are made. The guilt resides. And the followers. Disappear. In the 1960s and 70s ariana tearing universalist churches were packed with people. But as soon as we resolved. The vietnam war. And the racial issues of the time. Those people that. A king. Was intelligent enough to know. That if they were going to be any games even limited games. He would have to appeal. To the dominant. White culture. And so he was able in his person. To combine. Righteousness. And respectability. And that was the secret of his success. In achieving games. African americans in this country. And by opening up the struggle for racial and economic justice. Two others. Who would carry on after him. Long after him. Even. To these days itself. You see. He was able to be creative. In his control. Of his own destiny. Eddie had a fence. Of his own destiny. And what he was called to do and be in the limited years of his life. And he knew. That he had the capacity to make an impact. On other people. Now you know what i know. With this whole. Phenomenon of creativity. Creativity often exact. A price. And dr. king knew that he would have to pay. A price. Just like jesus of nazareth new. He would have to pay. A price. That was the risk. They were willing to take. Because creative new solutions are often threatening. To the status. Quo. And wild creative new solutions austin do great good. They often have within them. The seeds. Of harm. And that. Insight. Speaks. To the tragic nature. Albumin existence. Sometimes our greatest goods. Have the elements in them of our own downfall. Advances that we make in science. And in government. Maybe misused. To do tremendous harm. Two other people. That's the tragedy of human existence. More than another sermon in itself of course. But it doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to be creative. Because the creative advance. Hopefully outlast. And it's deeper. Then the other effects. We need to find. Some kind of a guideline some kind of a solution. Every person must find his or her own way. Through that confusion. Or even at our very best. At our most clear moments. That our most sophisticated weis points of analysis. We are still going to have some confusion. About how much control we should exercise. Either over ourselves. Or over ourselves in relationship. Two other people. Conditions. Of the world. Are always. Determinative. Situations change. We now find ourselves really at a hinge point. In human culture. With the arrival of a pandemic. Disease. We are all struggling to understand how we ought to respond to this. What its many side effects are going to be. How long it is going to last. Who is going to be impacted by this. How much control we have in the situation. How can we make decisions that are going to be in the best interest. Of all people. Of those not born. All of life. You seem. Our guide of creativity i suggest. Has to always begin as something personal and idiosyncratic. Because it needs to be yours if you're going to own your responsibilities in the great pageant of life. And it has to be variable because it must change from time to time depending upon the situation in your needs. And of course it has to be flexible it cannot be rigid. And then. That control that creativity that we have embraced in our own control moves outside of being merely idiosyncratic when we share its meaning with other people. Gain their cooperation and support. And create new meaning. Together. On behalf. Of all. There is no simple solution. To this enormous. Human. Problem. But in the recognition of the problem. That is. The control is essential. And elusive. In-n-out understanding of the problem. That we must each decide how much and what kind of control each of us needs. Has balanced against the needs of the community. And in our relationship to it. There comes the creative possibility. In the hope. That we may be able at some point. In our human journey. To do without violence. Had to do without force. And to do without armies. Incursion. To do without the abuse. Of monger in fear among hall. Without ignorance. Victimization. And the through our limited human understanding. And sensitivity. And more importantly for our courage and our faith. We will discover ourselves. As something more. Then mirror. Matter. Whatever glory we may achieve. As a life form. Will come to us. As sensitive. Spirit. Seeking. To achieve self. In relationship. Two others. A relationship that fosters. Mutual. Respect. And affection. A relationship that inspires others. Maybe. Even. Long. After we. Our departed. Lettuce. Hey. Much. Of love. Into all the struggles. A life. And when the recall sounds and the shadows fall is they will. May we have hearts. Unimpeded by all we have suffered. And uncorrupted. I always have enjoyed. And be at the last remembered. Cherished. Adored. As those who love. Entrusted boldly. Immense.

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podcastMay13.mp3

I want to tell you. Memorial and kyle dedication and blessing to the end wondering out front with my location. I'm coming to mary and berry and glass now that's a hard administrative. Transition is to witness the great. Moment of hope and gratitude of love. Girls into alcohol. And honor another life. For a new life and to witness the joining of line. My line of work is possible. Murphy. I had the honor of officiating at a wedding. Anyone anyone even consummated. I met with a couple for numerous planning meeting. They were both functioning anxiety. Worried about crying. I promised her that we wouldn't run. And a woman wearing her wedding down or someone i would have sworn i have never met before. Micro mini wedding dress for her. On her feet. 4. And laughing and snorting. Oh my. G who was appropriate repair and sweating profusely. Small puncture hoverkart and ride. Very small barking garden. Instagram. Smile. Event coordinator. Of course you can comment on her. Restart. And snorted. even though i wasn't raised with kissing and he'll appear. Dismal. Empty. I know what kind of drink. Good. The first was moses. Explain. Focus on the commandant logos if you concentrate on keeping those in years have you called. Sphere. Talking about motherhood and currents. Of course more about the important center of consciousness. Albert einstein. Relationship in love it's a mystery and it's all. Important. Every healthy relationship need. Relationship. Are you able to see the same thing. And the foolhardy. Kennedy tire. And within a relationship. Nbev. Admire down by the demands of making it through the day. Time warner. Decision to not cook everything. Middle river. Reminder over fevers or at least over do it. Emo's austin play by the rules. England puritan backgrounds. Work hard how's work on anything. I also know how to play by the rules and when to wear white. And when not to. From the right and clear from irma and the arnold. Come in handy. Is my husband. Born-and-bred and the easy way.. With nine. Rules and his ways have worn me down on opening comments about mine whatever whenever season for expectorate. Brighten up my life. White after labor day however. Manifestacao. Relationship. Loyalty in doing running tonight. Laminated. Children's hospital. I love of the world to protect our planet. 18 of mothers against drunk driving. No religious. Under armour. Trouble a long time aquarium universalist minister syracuse counseling boxing for many years. Another hand for his father. 17 years old and has never driven a car. July 25th 1970 52 in rockland county driving school lessons. Her husband and already had her trouble in my tumbly dna before frying. Stopping on taking to the doctor. Uncle process of learning to start. Wanted. Quarantine control power steering interior to yield the right-of-way where reasons can. I made mistake i've never made before 10 her she wrote her diary. Gentleman and was not nervous. Again. In august of 1976 until october. Against. All the previous reasons. Failure to use caution when approaching another vehicle. Examiner was raving. 2 months later at 1 and on the next and her husband was 3.0 violently stink. License to drive. She drove home from the christmas pageant and smashed the garage door. Three more lessons. Final test on january 21st 1977. Hundred and $60. 71. Good now i can have my heart attack. A later. Several months he was the one who drove to the hospital to supermarket. Pharmacy. When we were children our mother told us the story of scotsman robert bruce. Steven cardenas. Spider again and again until. Cooking crab from one person to another. Persistence. Bless the harts. Undefeated to sonia. Kroger's on tonight my mother embodies this crying. The love for the man who was her other tongue. You want to know what love is. 66 driving lessons. Fierceness. I'm loving. Beyond what love soccer can coronavirus. Where is notice to other. Vulnerable. Keeping one computer. Discipline begins with the internal. Before we hurried. Integrate able to offer pendulum. Experience i have learned the direct route to this loan. The relationship i have with the pancreas. Word elude me and sharing my experience. Hawaiians must wander. No how to use metaphor. Antonio mercado. Diagram. Beehives here inside my heart. And sweet honey. Calendar. Marvelous firing sun was beating. Right inside my heart. Because of his lying and got my own. God i have here. Inside my home. The wedding with a stiletto heels rise and sink with matching curtains. And i was reading the banquet i decided to sign. In a dark corner. Holding hands. Artist painting. And then i want to groom. And loving me. Crime scene. Mi of me. May we all be so fortunate. Always.. Time in hawaii. Alana pond maintenance training in transform. Aurora warm. Cornwell. Paypal.

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The-Peculiar-Institution-of-the-Free-Church-Patrick-ONeill.mp3?_=25

Reading this morning. Is taken from the book. The epic of unitarianism. By david park. This particular selection was written by the reverend curtis w reese. In 1920. It's entitled the content of present-day religious liberalism. The outstanding characteristic. Modern religious liberalism. And indeed of all modern thinking. Is the evaluation of personality. As the thing of supreme work. Hence religious liberalism now affirms interns unmistakable. That institutions. Are only the tentative and temporary expression. Of personality. That they are frequently outgrown. And must. Like the whole of the chrysalis. Reverse the sonder. And left only to mark an epic. Institutions. Religious capitalistic. Socialistic and whatnot. Must now stand or fall. As they are able or unable. To serve effectively. And efficiently. The building of pre and positive. Human souls. Present-day religious liberals. See the essentially interdependent nature. Human beings. Set the filament of the individual self. Requires. Orderly and purposeful association. With other cells. Historic finds expression in various terms. Brotherhood. Sisterhood. Solidarity mutuality. Reciprocity. Community. Prolong time. Prophets and poets. States people. Have proclaimed the ambition of the race. To be linked together. For mutual service. And now biology and social science degree. If there is and can be. No complete self-realization. Aside from cooperation. With other cell. Humanistic liberalism. Understands spirituality. To be humanity. Add expense. Scene in mind. Healthy in body. Dynamic in personality. Honestly facing the hardest facts. Conquering. And not fleeing from the gravest troubles. Committed to the most. Worth causes. Loyal to the best buy deals. Ever hoping. Striving. Achieving. To know oneself as inherently worthless. Actually to find. Fullest expression. In the widest human service. And is consciously to become. Coworker. With cosmic processes. This is the spiritual experience. Deep. And the fighting. An article appeared in time magazine. That described unitarians. As atheist. Who has never broken the church habit. While that may well be in afton fitting description of one portion of our membership. It is certainly not apropos. Unitarian. What's all this mean about that statement. Sweeping generalization. Is the implicit. Theology behind it. For implicit in that statement is the view. That does not gather specifically. To worship a god on high. Is a meaningless. And purposeless institution. A remnant of habit. Implicit in that statement. Is the view that those people. Who do not believe in god. Somehow do not qualify. As spiritual people. And therefore have no real need. For a spiritual community. Like a church. No need. For spiritual communal expression. And sustenance. As far as i can see the only thing wrong. Is that it is theologically incorrect. Ecclesia logically incorrect. And sociologically incorrect. Other than that it's a very nifty journalistic phrase. This morning. Is free church ecclesiology. As institution. If i had entitled. Ecclesiology and you. I probably be standing here by myself. Nevertheless to understand and articulate. Denature. And functions. Of the religious community. Is one that must be undertaken by each new generation of members. In the free church tradition. His task. Is not a luxury in a craiglist church. It is an ongoing necessity. Indeed it can be argued. Jackie queasy ology. Has been at the centre of radical church start. From our earliest roots in the radical reformation. The current state of the church. Reflected in individual unitarian churches and fellowships. Across the continent. Seems to underline a pressing need. For a fresh look. Are are understanding. Ecclesiology. The evidence seems to indicate. Set the unitarian church in america. Is an ailing institution. With membership enrollment. That has declined. For the last decade. Obviously i think that the unitarian church. Is an important institution. Or i wouldn't be in this profession. I happen to believe. The unitarian church. Is an important presence in the wider community. Caring. Nurturing. Life-enhancing institution. An institution. That seeks to celebrate. The human spirit. And it's home. Not in brokenness. Horse sing. An institution. Wedding fights and illicit. The individual religious quest. And does not impose upon its members. The dry and unreason cradle of blind faith. In this church. The emphasis will always be. On community. Not conformity. And herein lies. Peculiar characteristic. The free church. Ford would seem that the emphasis in the unitarian tradition. An individual freedom. He's in constant tension. With the notion of religious community. So the question is thrown at us. If you hold so strongly to individual freedom of belief. Sometimes this is put in a more sarcastic way. Like. What's the difference between a unitarian church. Ana kiwanis club. When you think about it. Organizations provide some socialite. Both. Can provide intellectual stimulation. And both have been known to engage in philanthropic activity. What time is the difference. I would argue that the difference lies. Basic covenant. Among members. And in the churches. For the complete light of its constituency. Specifically a church. Worthy of its name. Go to be centrally concerned. With the full. Sustenance. And grow. And well-being of its members. In a way that does not fit the charter of a kiwanis club. Country club. Or a democratic club even. Is that difference is not immediately apparent to you. Perhaps you need to review exactly what the charter of your church. Proper understanding of the character of the church. Must include elements of both. Geology. And theology. For the church has to do with nature. It is called a sociological institution. And a theological fellowship of the spirit. People come to church for all kinds of reasons. Some people come for companionship. Provide. This is an important function of any church. A comforter set with nourishment. For the music. Hand art. Poetry. Are apart of any healthy church. What is comfort intellectual stimulation. They see the church as a forum. Hoodie exchange of ideas. The examination of social issues. Find here. Formal expression of their personal. Religious journey. An atmosphere of worship. Locust. For the religious education of children. Center. For concerted moral action. That extends liberal religious witness. Out into the wider community. Free church is all of these. And more. It is a multicellular organism. Each part drawing its life. From connection. With the others. Individuals. Always. But connected. In communion. With all this. That connection does not depend. Upon the synchronized recitation. Overcoming creed. Or the coordinated genuflection. Before a common vision of god. Our sense of connectedness. Arrived rather. How does a visceral recognition. Overcoming humanity. Gut-level respect. Toleration. And love. Avenue manatee and others. Why do you believe we are the children of god. For the haphazard. Genetic accident. Sense of connectedness. Remains. We speak with many voices. You see with many eyes in the free church. What we celebrate here. Is the connection. Avicii boys. And each vision. That's why we have a church. That is what the church is all about. Connectedness. I suppose it's possible to pass one's life. Sitting on a flagpole. Most of us. Sooner or later finance and unsatisfying. Unitarian churches all garage. And will that i believe it is. Why aren't we growing. Why have our. Continental membership rolls. And shrinking every year for a decade now. Ic3. Strong reasons. For the current lack of growth in our religious movement. That i wish to offer for your considerations money. First i think that unitarians. Suffer from a bad case of negative identity. Sne unitarian. What he or she believes in. And you'll get a ten-minute lecture on what they don't believe me. On what they're again. We've spent so much of our history. Fighting against the evils orthodox religion. And fighting for our very right to be different. That no one seems to have noticed. That we won that battle a long time ago. We continue to spend an inordinate amount of energy. Fighting against a straw image. And in the process. Too many of us. Have forgotten how to make strong. About what we affirm in our church. About what we do believe in. Suck. In a reactive posture. Until we learn somehow to concur. Are equally geological oedipal complex. We can forget about grow. Churches with negative identity. Do not grow. They slowly fade away. Second reason i see for the current decline in unitarian membership. Is our failure. Indeed one might say our stubborn resistance. Anything even remotely resembling. Proselytizing. God forbid we should actually appear to be spreading the word about unitarianism. Well that we should ever deign to impinge on the religious liberty of another. I let him know that our church exists. We prefer it seems. People find out about our church by accident. Or buy a musical event. We do have terrific music at this church. There's a lot else going on here. In a minister's column i wrote a few weeks ago. Is one of the best-kept secrets in america. No i am not suggesting that we send out cora missionaries. Convert people away from other churches. And i'm not suggesting that we all go sell carnations at the airport. I'm simply questioning the attitude. Send it is somehow a breach unitarian ethics. Ever to appear enthusiastic about our religion. I think that this cycling attitude. Is one factor in our failure to grow. First item. Indigenous combination of budget year after year. Is publicity. We need to change that. Fire failure. To practice. What we preach. We are proud of sing. Unitarian church. Invites and honors individual religious quest. Yet the atmosphere in many unitarian churches in fellowship. Approaches anti-religion. Whatever else goes on in the unitarian church. Sunday morning events. What to include something other. Then a local version. Of meet the press. Someone once said. That if you took all the people who fall asleep in church on sunday. Latham end-to-end. They see a lot more comfortable. We need to look at programming. And all unitarian churches. And seriously question. Whether it is responding to the needs of people. Where they live. Unitarian church will thrive. Only if it is an inclusive church. Need to be critical of our programs. On sunday and every other day of the week. You see that we are addressing. Call segment. What ways are we working to meet the changing needs of women. Are single people and married people. Equally at home. In the unitarian church. Why has it taken our denomination. 10 years. You seriously address. Problems of effective programming. For high school-age people. Do the curricula. Noi ministry schools. Adequately prepare men and women. Vcreative. An informed leaders and pastors. For the generalist profession of ministry. In the liberal church. I have some very strong feelings on that one. Contrary to what thomas jefferson believed. Unitarianism. Is never likely in numbers. Dominate the religious philosophy of america. We asked too much of people for that. Free church. We asked our members to be their own thinkers. We asked them to be their own theologians. Is church. Will never require that you make any blind leaps of faith. But on the other hand. No unitarian church true to its purpose. Should ever inhibit your leaping ability either. Purpose of the free church. As complex as it is. Remains basically. Has it was articulated in the old testament. By the prophet micah. 3000 years ago. The purpose of the religious life. Purpose of this church. His to eat. To love mercy. Do kindness. And walk humbly. With your own god.

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Modern-American-Guide-to-the-Health-of-the-Soul-Lon-Ray-Call.mp3?_=20

Topix. And i have. Otherwise. Text alicia. First one. In the world. Is the active. The other. I'm in the new english bible. Agreed. How is amanda. If he shall gain the whole world at the cost. It is my purpose this morning to tell you from my way of thinking. What the soul is. Howard can be found. Anand parenthesis. And then how it can be developed. Even though we. They are. For example. Of course it isn't. Horse we shouldn't do so anymore in modern america. And religious brotherhood. Christian tradition. Sometimes. Literally turned. We've gotten away from that. Will sing me. The gospel hymn. Most of us. Noah. Christian salvation. Educated a negra. Men and women. And this matter. We are one from the other. The bible. You may remember the words. And breathe. That's where the idea. Unitarian. Bring it on me. Whataburger. Have been left out. We. Young minister. Imma call you. Our substance. Anderson. Escapes with one. Maybe he'll. Find. If he is in hell. I'm the unitarian movement represent. One of the most pressing need. Modern psychology. Instead we should be using. Religious endeavor. Are you still playing with professor wisconsin. I was missing. I copied work. Just students. Physical. It gave me nothing to take its place. Meaning for me now. I believe. And he very well. If that. Certainly. Would hardly. Remiss. Disappeared. Experience. Very unfortunate. Qualifying adjectives. Goodrx. Many literary sources as applied to the concept. One speaks of. Grapes. We debate. The immortals. We could go on and on. I found scamp grouper. For the simple reason. Not good. It's not the good side of you. Vineyard. Inter-cell. In new york or. Billy graham. To england free. Advertising. Send it.. Handling. Nor the capacity to reason. Are reese. Ourtime. Arkline. Are buddhism. Our christianity. Our ritual. The solar system. Have i taken away. Everything. It really matters. One thing in the world. Is the active soul in browning agreed saying. Got the new version. What is this. So strangely a blending. Genius. Yes end of life itself. Define. Uganda. You can agree with the gospel text. His basic character. His interior strength. His sensitivity. Human nature. Kizi. How many watergate senate committee hearings. Rome. Man did i have it. April. Certain types. Short. It is one thing. You can say it's your psychic. Are your psychic so. Which case your problem becomes. Can find help for his psychic self. Which one will be harder. For the reason that. You can say your. Which is not an accurate definition. Or your id which is never correct. Are your superego. You can say it is the collective unconscious. It seems. You can call it your archetypal self. Are you still at work. Weather. That is prior. Experience. An independent. I cannot grant. Power. Contrasted. Is the glow of the inner self. But it is one. True self. R2 define. But it's even more difficult. Find it. We don't spend much effort rhyme. We spend so much of our time and effort another test. Shutters building our image. Building our eagle. Shaping our career. Keeping up pretenses. Playing the game. Eva. We may turn. Has the queen. There i see such black and granite spot says will not. Who among us has not felt the pain. Gimkit play. We need all the help we can get because we move in a maze. Between. Traditional religion. Where that superstition smith's and it's magic. Pseudopsychology. Did invite you. To participate. Inspiration whatever can effectively inspire us. Whether it be direct or symbolic. That is why. When one cannot logically except. Whenever the last stands and reverence before the spirit. That produce the symbol. May we help. Reverence. Hogwarts devotion. One is reminded of. The garden show maybe but the shadow. Disgusting. Hope the substance which casts a shadow. His worthy. Divine. Is idle. Horse. Glad that individual to his particular. Whatever the symbol. We're raptor such process one begin but no beginning and he works to no end. Lamp life. Before he has. We going to live. Which merchants. Among the many. Which you could add i suppose many more. I found the gas exploration for the reason that so many young people. Energy. And finding nothing. Harder best very inadequate. Wasting our precious days. Hitler fruitless search. I'm reminded of a favorite. Hope you're ready. John glenn's first went to college. He wasn't player. After receiving 3 season 7 incomplete. And then music. And then writing. He wasn't. He spent weeks in bed. Was trying to find himself. Tear. Boring detail of his dream. And his quirks i just opinion. Alba women. Psychoanalysis. Transcendental meditation. Standing on his head. Various drugs. Whatever he tried wherever he went. He wasn't there. The years pass. 9. He got hit by truck. Roll a die. It read. Where i found myself. Underlain. And i have here from friday. On your horoscope. Pandora. I read mine. It doesn't fit nearly so well as 16 months later. A day in which to express. In trouble. It certainly fits me. Wasn't even mine. Particular real horoscope. Witchcraft. Greatly surprised. At the reproduction shop. Witchcraft. White magic. Black magic. I'm reminded of doggerel that says. Nothing. Rick. All indoor. Mystery. Are cards cards for fortune telling. Or jean dixon. 1. Play the whistle. Fatalism means there is sometimes little and sometimes no. Among the many. Many more than i realized working on this. Zeraora. My later years. Having. Been here. You undertook to take all the self-diagnostic. What do you think of yourself maybe barium light. When you. Usa. I'm the one least no imported ones. Or ourselves really are. Music. After all my friends. To help you square away. For the unending. Yourself. Somewhat like the mind games people are playing. We're being commonly. Will you send. Brain capacity. 90%. Percent. Much of the recommended technique has to do with meditation. We're not on our way current popularity in india. Question. Transplant. Into our very different modern american kind of world. Because you. And then trying to bring it. They might however lead us astray. Even more helpful. One needs to learn how the strongman. Because aubrey. Hafiz. Inter-cell. It's work. Better. I recently reread my own diary. And the youngster i was then. Better understood by me now. Reminder waze. Stranger to me. In the context which my memory adds to the diary. Is this playing. As it was then. It is. Mine. After 16 years. You're old. I beg your pardon. 67. The event. Can tell you. Your own eternal snow. Psychological. Especially if he has the money. Can visit. Chicago. Mental trouble. Because we don't limit. In summerlin. New mexico. I'm going direct.. Superscription. Ask her why do the modern francis bad do we should follow. If you're married. If i wear necklaces. Upon. Just that one meant ensuring. And impatient. Aquatique innately. Markedly. Situation. From the other. Or neither. Marble. 1. Free expression. It's an important characteristic. Never say. Anything. Mom doesn't know what really goes on. United. To be understood. Understand. Yet we do not reveal ourselves. One way to find oneself is to satisfy the soul and develop it through communication. Communication helps when. Altogether. Communication help bearing another's pain. Paradoxical. One health. One's own song. Understanding. Empower. This is not. Now is my time permitted. And i have. Maurer's lectron places. Free sermon. Acknowledge. Yorkie. What's cayman. Can it be given positive direction. What is your biting fright. How come. You're unusual. Auto parts. Autonation. Activity. It's an illogical. Activities. Maybe it is yours. And to help you integrate your lives you do with your hands. And your hours. With your brain. Will become one person. Integrated. Then you can be your own man. Woman. This greatest of all time. We do so by right next to size. Elimination. We grow out of mine. Exercise. Clean. Creative enterprise. Proper spiritual.. The elimination. Dirty political. Vacation. He left for vacation in europe. For spiritual development. I need not go into more detail. The more we can learn to know one to control.. Memorial day. I think there is no other way. There is nothing. Next. Have you questioned. Spiritual. Because all other values have words and meaning only as they are some in the values of the soul. Sophie dan exercise. Constancy in nature. The eternal emits the ever-changing. The glory of the trees. Racing cloud win the miss lorraine the song. Peaden exercise. To humanity. Exercise and feed your soul appreciation. The creator play of children. The unending charm. Congenial person. The outstretched hands of friendship. The sustaining comforts of loved one. The tender care of those in need. And countless other indications. Grace. Yes i'm sure you can exercise your soul. Who your own internal. Against. Good over evil. Honda performance. Strength. And enlarge your heart. Please and similar values let us give us strength. Time. I mean. Knowing. Rihanna.. But they will be multiplied to us by. Two more abundance. Living. Play rather i. Make roll into true maturity. How to pray. Oh god help us to find the meaning.

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20201129-Remember-1.mp3

I remember vividly driving through the frozen prairie. To visit my grandparents each thanksgiving. And that hour and a half drive from topeka to abilene it just seemed to take forever. And that way that time's passing can feel like molasses to a child. Out the car window i would watch the broad and flat landscape of kansas. Searching for the land for the landmarks that signal we were getting closer. Closer to the embrace of my grandparents peg and paul. Into the warm and familiar smells of the farmhouse. The place. Regenerations of chronister has lived. And gathered since the years following the civil war. Several long tables would be pushed together stretching through two rooms and family and friends would decorate the house. With their laughter. In contrast to christmas which was a holiday reserved for family members. Thanksgiving was expansive and it's welcome. Friends neighbors and sweeties with gather round the long table to celebrate talking for hours after the plates had been cleared and the game turned on. No it has been. Decades. Since one of these blasted gatherings has happened long enough for them to become mythic. And my imagination. And yet i can still feel. The steamy warm. Of cooking in the kitchen. The taste of my grandmother's renowned gravy and i can still. Revel. And that sweet feeling of abundance. Now from this memory alone it may seem like i was spawned from a norman rockwell painting. But like all families. Mine is more complicated than anyone memory can convey. Among the sharing of food and stories. Were the stories not tall. The ones of the lingering trauma of world war ii. That my grandfather carried. The stories of the loneliness. My grandmother suffered. Having left her family and friends back east. To become a farmer's wife. And royal kansas. Aloneliness. She tried to abate with alcohol. Are the stories of five kids. Competing for attention and resources. Habits they formed in childhood and carried into adulthood. And that. Kill your way that being with your family of origin can dredge up. Patterns. That you thought were resolved. And being a family in the united states. Mic-n cannot be understood apart. From the history of this country. They were many. Many complexities. Never acknowledge. About where we were. And how we came to enjoy the abundance we did. Around our thanksgiving table. My great-great-grandfather. A retired union soldier. Traveled across the united states. Steward a patch of land on the prairie. That would feed his descendants for more than a century. Generation after generation harvest after harvest. They did back-breaking work. Any extreme heat and humidity of the summer. In the frigid winds of the winter i come from a place of. Stream weather. And this was the family history and story that i was raised to be proud of. And grateful for. However. As i grew older. I begin to understand more the complexity of my family system. Thank you social work education. And i was also learning of the deep sadness and complexity. Of the land upon which they lived. Thank you. Seminary education. The original inhabitants of the land that came to be known as kansas. Where the kansa. Osage. Arapaho cheyenne. Comanche. Kiawah pawnee and wichita. Families and tribes who had lived. Intimately connected to the land. Plant and animal life. Press thousands of years prior. To the arrival of white settlers and colonizers. And then these original tribes were joined by many others. Who were forced off their land and the 1820s and 30s. During the indian removal act. Which pushed eastern tribes off their ancestral land. To make room for the insatiable hunger for land and profit. By european settlers. By the 1800. Indigenous populations had already been greatly diminished. By the many plagues and pandemics that had ravaged the continent. Following contact with europeans centuries prior. Millions of american indians are estimated to have died from european borne diseases as many as 90. To 95%. Of the original population. Of the in the northeast died. Leaving whole villages. With few or no survivors. This is the context. Into which the pilgrims landed 400 years ago. The land that they imagined was waiting to receive them. Had actually been cleared for farming and settlement. By the wampanoag people who had lived there for thousands of years prior. The place. That came became known as plymouth rock. Harbin the ancestral home. Are the pawtucket buttocks sick. A people who had been almost entirely wiped out. By disease by the time to pick by the time the pilgrims landed. Save one soul survivor. An individual named squanto. Who had been enslaved. Taking to europe where he learned english. And had recently escaped to return to the place of his birth and find his people gone. Numerous. Plagues. Right across turtle island. Devastating the indigenous populations and laying the path. For the eventual. First colonization of the hole. Continent. By europeans. It's jaw-dropping. To read these facts. In our own time. A pandemic. That is taking the lives of over 250,000. People and left. Numerous families reeling. But even living in this moment and witch. Everything is defined by a pandemic. The devastation. Brought. An indigenous people by diseases field. Incomprehensible. And it's important to note that this history. Is not unrelated. To how covid has an infected. American indians at three and a half times the rate of whites. Nor the conflict. With state governments. Over at ride sovereign right. To choose. To close the borders of their reservations to outsiders. On behalf of protecting the health. Of the people in the tribe. These are painful stories. But they contain a more true picture. Of this country and also our families. They hold important details for understanding our present. We must go beyond the met. Kansas became a state territory in 1854. Leading to more broken promises and disregarded treaties. The land that had been promised to the displaced tribes was carved up. Four white settlement and a rush of european americans came after the civil war a rush of them. Which included my ancestor. What do you do. What the fullness of time. In the histories of grief. What do you do with the pain that travels along our ancestral lines. Transmitting trauma and unearned privileges. And then what light. Should we view our stories of pride. Enjoy. Ingratitude. In the midst of so much shadow. James baldwin shared this perspective. American history. Is longer. Larger. More various more beautiful and more terrible. Then anyting. Anyone has ever set of it. As a daughter of the revolution. On both sides of my family. The practice of reading history often is painful. If. I am engaging with my heart. It's painful and yet i keep doing it. Because. There can be no truth. And reconciliation. Without truth. This process of unearthing history is all the more complicated for mixed race. An interracial people and families. What do you do. When the blood of the colonizers and the colonized the enslavers in the enslaved run through your veins and through your family tree. Is reconciliation even possible. And reconcile to exactly what. One might ask. Can we truly know one another. Across these lines of difference. And what do i owe. Or what do i deserve. Based on the lives of my ancestors. People who lived so long ago. These questions are vibrantly alive in the united states these days. There are communities and a renaissance. Of how history can be told from the perspective of the oppressed and not just the imagination of the oppressor. Monuments to the confederacy are being taken down as remembrances of lynching victims and freedom fighters are being erected. Holidays such as columbus day and thanksgiving which concoct a eurocentric origin story to this. Multicultural multi-race show nation. Stories that cherry-pick history these these days. These holidays are now joined. Find digenous people's day. In the observance of a day of mourning. Telling them or full story of this land. And her many. Many people. Reparations. At the grassroots and policy level are being imagined. To address the collective wrongs of our country's history. One thing i will say. For the trump presidency. Is that it has force. A reckoning. What the distance between who we say we are. And what we do. At national. Institutional. An individual levels. People and communities of conscience are grappling with this dissonance. And the pain there in. How to respond. As the us population tilts away from being majority-white towards a more multiracial future. A revolution and how we understand ourselves is underway and it can feel exciting. I can feel long overdue or can feel totally destabilizing. Depending on how you look at it. Maybe depending on the day. I see a couple of political tendencies in response to this revolution. A story and thought. There's a conservative tendency. To declare such. Loyalty to the idea of united states. As to tonight anyting. That would make the us seen anything less. Been exceptional. Are even divinely. Ordained. And they're also liberal tendencies. And i'm speaking here largely of what i have observed and white liberal and progressive. The bases in circles reflective of my contacts. And which white people rush to judgment. And blame guilt and sympathy without taking action. That might create a future change trimmers pass. In these. Spaces. I see a lot of distancing from those people. Without the self-reflection needed. Maybe the courage. Define the path of personal accountability. And the grace. To hold ourselves and others with complexity. This i believe is what liberation theologian dietrich bonhoeffer called. Cheap grace. When he wrote. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance. Baptism without church. Discipline without church discipline communion without confession. I think of cheap grace often times when i hear political leaders do a land acknowledgement. And yet for on the original inhabitants of their land. Atlanta pain which they are without any actions of righting the wrongs of that history. Or without any relationship. To the tribe. But are still here. Both the liberal and the conservative tendencies i have described here. I believe are driven. Often driven. By an unconscious. Avoidance of pain. Of our own pain. And if the pain of others. And that this is combined with an active evasion of responsibility. For the legacies of our past. For the co-creation of our present. What might be an alternative approach. One that. Leans into pan and witnesses grief. But. Engages in a total relearning. And leads to relationships. Of accountability. One of the reasons why i choose to engage anti-racism within the religious community. Is not. Because we are the most effective. The most righteous. Are the most radical. But because an order for me to sustain. To take more risk. To keep returning to the call of anti-racism i need to be held. Within the possibility of growth. Grace. In the truth that i am more than my mistakes. Recognizing that i am also bound. By covenant. To mend what has been broken. I need a place. To weep. To confess to strengthen the spiritual muscles of repair and this. Endlessly complex and changing world and which i inherited privileges i did not earn. It was taught. A cultural worldview born from colonization. That was taught to me in history class. I want a community of people in which we grapple. With our histories and our shared present where we encourage each other to actively live out our values rather than our complicity. I long for a faith community but acts. And courageous love. Not. Cheap grace. And so my beloved. Community members. What do we do about a holiday such as thanksgiving. A holiday with traces of truth. But mostly a false memory created to instill a sense of togetherness and patriotism denying the deep and lasting impacts of european colonization upon the native people of this land a holiday for all its complexity that i and many others cherish. Parts for ditions of food. Family and gratitude. Is it possible to both love and critique a country. A community. A tradition. To sit. With the complexities of history. And possibly discover new ways to accept. These complexities to accept the complexities that live within a single human heart. I do find a way to act. Within the midst of it all. 4 years ago i was graced by the support of this community. To travel to standing rock. In solidarity with the water protectors there. Fighting the construction of an oil pipeline that threatened the river that they held. As sacred. Did they know. As sacred. And to protect the water from which they live. Drink. Bathe and irrigate their crops. What was happening at standing rock was a profound. Healing. Led by the elders women and youth of the tribes. Indigenous people came together from all around the world to share and ceremony. To tell their individual and communal stories to honor the earth. And to join the oglala lakota people and defending their sovereign rights as a tribal nation. As a white person. I was an outsider to their culture though i was welcomed with many others. At the 10 switch fed people abundantly. At each meal. My role at standing rock. What you humbly listen. To learn. To relearn. To offer what financial support i could and to put my body strategically into the struggle. To carry the stories. Wherever i go. I remember hearing at the sacred fire. That standing rock is everywhere. As we were employed to connect with the indigenous struggles for tribal sovereignty. And environmental protections wherever we were. We were asked to resist erasure of native peoples and learn the history of the land we call home. A charge i share with each of you. This thanksgiving weekend. Our church. Is on the unseeded and ancestral lands. The duwamish and coast salish people. People who have been here since time immemorial and memorial and who live here still. Protecting and stewarding the land and waters. The city of seattle is named for the duwamish chief. Give me the duwamish chief. Cialis. Who signed the 1855 treaty of elliott point bay. Knowing there was no other choice for his people. Only 10 years later. An 1865. Seattle's white leadership mandated that all native americans be removed from the city. Including. The daughter of the chief. The racial erasure of the original inhabitants from the land of their ancestors. Was well underway. For decades now. The duwamish people have been struggling for federal recognition of their tribe. Recognition that was granted. After much effort granted under the clinton administration and then denied. Under the first. But first under bush. And then through appeal. By the obama administration. Without this recognition they are barred from accessing their rights. Find into that 1855 treaty. And they cannot benefit. From potential economic empowerment through the gaming industry. So much is owed. To this tribe whose land forcibly bought for a paltry sum has been built into one of the most expensive cities in the country. Despite disappointment and gaining federal recognition. The tribe continues. To organize for their rights and i've invited people who live or work in seattle to join and repairing some of what are federal and local governments have fraught. Real rent duwamish is an organization. Created and run by the duwamish tribe. Despond collect monthly rent. From individuals and organizations recognizing that the duwamish tribe was never justly compensated. For their lands. All of the funds collected through rent go directly. To duwamish tribal services to support the revival. I do amish culture and the vitality. Of the duwamish tribe. And just two weeks ago real rent duwamish reached over 10,000 renters. I became a real renter in the years since returning from standing rock. And i know a number of uuc families. Also pay rent. Each month to the tribe. I pay $18.55 each month. And memory. About year that the treaty was signed. And on this november morning the social justice steering committee and i asked you to consider joining. Not only as a real renter but also in seeking ways to join their community and solidarity as they work to restore the duwamish waters watershed. In their ongoing fight. Against erasure. There are painful. And shameful stories in our history. But faith tells us that this is not. All that we or anyone are. But they're also healing stories. Stories of transformation and of awakening stories in which pain is acknowledged brought to the light so that healing might occur. How do you love a country. As complicated as ours. You pour your generous heart. Into a greater healing. That is beyond any one of us. And yet includes. All of us. I closed with these words from maya angelou. History. Despite its wrenching pain. Cannot be unlived. But if faced with courage. Did not. Beloved. Again.

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Entering-the-Seventies.mp3?_=12

Here come doctor giovanni costigan. In department of history at the university of washington. We are perhaps especially fortunate. This time. Being the turn of a decade. To have. Dr. costigan. Provide us with. Ideas regarding. What's happened in the last decade. Ahead of us. 70. Is frontier to speak. A political problem. Add a religious service on sunday morning. It can only be justified i think. Because of a concern with the ethical factors involved. What was the student in which these problems out of church. I remember. Unitarian church. When it was founded. A little over three hundred years ago. Breakaway. Clumsy. Orthodox religious bodies catholic and protestant. Not only because. It refused to accept the doctrine of the trinity. As flatly country to human reason. But also because. It disagreed. With the sanction of morality. Held by the orthodox bodies catholic and protestant. Which was the sanction of fear. From the moment of its founding the unitarian church believe. Human problems can be solved if they can be sewn control. Only by the use of reason. Night of flexion and understanding and not by the appeal to fear. Weather in the form of eternal punishment. Remembering the. It's in this pit it i would like to speak this morning. About two widely divergent approaches to the problem last time. The approach of reason. A picture of sia. You can attempt to approach. Political and social problems. Sinister edge of reason. It means trying to understand the causes of them. Trying to analyze them. Trying to think what are the constructive solutions. And if this approach has followed i think it's. Produces. Tolerance. Compassion. And creative achievement. The other church. Which is so much easier is the instinctual reaction of thea. Reliance upon forest. And repression. Which produces castration. Bitterness. And hatred. And does nothing to solve the problems. At stake. Indeed it only makes them what. Now when we are. At this point of time. Entering a new decade. Account help. Remember. Regretfully. Past 25 years. It is now almost a quarter of a century since the second world war ended. 425. I think it is to say. United states has approached its problems both at home and abroad. Chiefly motivated class philadelphia. There's something abject. Ignominious about the most powerful nation in the world. Powering mcf. If anyone doubts what i have in mind to suggest. Give examples as being the overriding theater communism. I don't wish to suggest that they wasn't irrational fear of communism. And this is being taken care of after all by measures of security with your cost india. The timer for until the international to come in ism. We just provided all out thinking. Which is demoralize the nation. It appeared festival in the time of the late senator mccarthy. Then when he died it took the form of the sudden and unexpected emergence of all kinds of right-wing groups. John good society and aldo. All of them. Exploiting. In creating public sale. And when we got to you. Does that challenge which was about 10 years ago. We now find today unless i am much mistaken. In the speeches of. Vista avenue. In the speeches. Mr. mitchell attorney general. I said example of the international appeal to fear. As a way of solving. The problems that we face. This. Psychology of fear. Who's atmosphere of fear and suspicion. Under which we have labored for 25 years. Has overspread. All out attitude. Beginning with a fear of communism. Found expression also in a fit of the negro. Benefit of minorities. Nfl reviews. And. Finally one message. It sounded station in a theater change itself. United states i think is the greatest single factor. Resisting political and social change in the world today. Unless it's the union of south africa. And its influence fortunately is limited. This is all the more extraordinary chance to united states. Hypnotically. And let us not forget we are approaching the 200th anniversary of the founding of the republic. Historical in the united states. Was in the vanguard of jade. It was created. With the idea that fundamental changes in society vanessa today. Islam throughout. The greater part of the 19th century. + + 18. The most radical nation of the western world. And now it has become the most conservative if not the most reaction of it. Listen to striking. , technological point of view. The united states is the leading a chain. Alpha taxi produces more, technological for interviews and any other society on earth. And we constantly accelerate today rate of jade. The technological changes we institute of technology only our own society. That's a greater path. How's the weather. And it seems extraordinary. Latin society. Will encourage technological change. And refuse to recognize the need for the political and social changes which that technology makes inevitable. This is a terrible dichotomy. Anna terrible contradiction. And i want to take this as the basis to what i have to say this morning. Before turning to specific problems may identify i think this is always useful. Can identify certain political figures about reading time. Who represent it seems to me one or other of these points of view. Example auburn tigers. Who represent what i might go. A rational approach. To the problems of society. Since i'm speaking of constricted contemporary things i might begin with the late adlai stevenson. Halloween him that was john fitzgerald kennedy. And whatever mr. kennedy's mistakes and limitations. I think he did represent fundamentally. Irrational and humane approach to international and also to domestic problems. It's a mystery of his brother. Robert kennedy. The same was most definitely true and without any qualification. Martin luther king. I'm can go cam'ron go feather. Closing to remember. These three champions of irrational spinners. And a liberal understanding. All of the meriden. Decades little star. Remember speaking here at the opening at the 62. Just 10 years ago this morning. Mr. kennedy was about to take off. We had hopes. What is administration. Would taking you approach. And miranda run. Who couldn't osteen. 1002. Thousand days later. He would be dead. Brother murdered with him. 2 months after that. There's an awesome luther king. It is only the champions of liberalism you will notice about being selected, though. Gotham george lincoln rockwell. Who was mad at unfortunately by one of his own followers. I think they have no. Sino instances. I'm conservatives or right-wing politician. Being measured. Grateful for the fact. Besides the canada's. 11 martin luther king. How much have we not lost. In their death. Besides them. I think it's people like. Eugene mccarthy. Senator george mcgovern. Now lindsay of new york. The lake county general ramsey clark. And indeed in international affairs san francisco drive. There is no lack. Prominent public men. Even allowing for the tragic loss for his sister. People who represent the point of view. I'm trying to advocate. And who represent the approach. Instinct. Tool repair. Judging from the election campaign of 1968. Runmus number mr. nixon. And even more mr agnew. And even more than that mr mitchell. The present attorney general. Who thinks that the most agonizing social problems can be solved. Lapis uses for. And one must mention people like. Matt daley of chicago. Governor reagan of california. J edgar hoover. Lesbian presiding evil genius overall national life for 25 years now. 25 euro size pico and much more besides. And that's an even lower level. That is george wallace. I'm general ma. Millions of votes. Last year. Well i think i've identified at least i hope i have. Kind of people and the points of view that i want to discuss. Time being short. This morning i've decided to select. Just five areas of intense. Urgent dentist. And to ask about each one watches the approach of reason and what is the approach of fear. Define videos i selected to examine briefly. In the space of 40 minutes let me come very much into detail. Aziz. If i have omitted any that you feel. Important i beg your pardon. I would like to say a few words festival about the rivalry of the two great superpowers. Secondly. About the establishment of the military-industrial complex in each of these societies. The militarisation of the soviet union. And the militarisation of the united states. I take it for granted the things i found the mental problems. And sadly i would like to speak of that tragic and incredible conflict which is the issue of the. Lauren vietnam. I would like to speak naturally. How's the conflict around cities. In which race is so prominent in alabama. The only one. M15 finally. I would like to say a few was. Problem. Fight the challenge reviews. Each one of these in the approach. Either in a hopeful unconstructive or in a fearful. Amber presses build. And i'd like to try and be a little more specific. Let us begin. With the rivalry. Union. And united states. Is it not true to say that mankind as a whole has been overshadowed by this rivalry photo cost of the century. The situation is. We all know it's betty well. Aziz jam and destroy the other. Almost a moment's notice. There has never been any parallel to this in history. Hippie many instances of great college hating one another. I'm trying to destroy one another. Never has to be in a situation. Image signs of the county could destroy the other. Almost instantaneously. Few people in this country pause to reflect. That new york could be wiped out tomorrow. It took men in the kremlin decided to do it. We know the price they would pay. And the men in the kremlin nobody will also. Lost doing any other. City in russia could be wiped out in an hour's time. Is that man in the white house. It's not your decision. Will lettuce. This is the major problem about time i think. It's that means not only the destruction of civilization. But the possible termination of human life on earth. Many scientists have expressed themselves. To the effect. The fallout from a total nuclear exchange might mean the extinction of human life. Necessary. What is the best way to approach such a problem. The passive reason is to suggest. United states. Have far more in common. And they have to divide them. And if they have such things in common why do they not look together. Let me give you a few examples to hear what i mean. Assisting they have in common. Fundamental thing. Which to my knowledge bertrand russell was the first person to point out about 15 years ago. Message to say after the death of stalin. Because my installing was alive once i am not trying to say i think was not true. The best master pointed out. In the middle of history. United states and russia. This hope to survive. They must either live together. Well they must perish together. And the idea of coexistence. Came into being as a practical possibility. This would seem to me the papa's hamilton. To recognize that we must live together. And to take step step. To consult. In control. Measures of mutual destruction. From this fundamental. Sex. I just a second consideration. Although few people. Shut the united states. And the soviet union. Appleton gauged. In trying to solve exactly the same problem. Societies are trying to eliminate poverty. And hunger. I'm disease. The same. Material problems. Face the communist world. Candy medicine wheel. Smack or facts an even better example is communist china. Everyone knows that communist china has been the chief hates object of the united states. Surpassing even the soviet union. In the last 20 years. And i think one of the reasons why communist china has been so much hated and it's so much hated still. Is it had more success. In solving the basic problems of human existence on earth. It has had more success than eliminating mass poverty. Master z's unmask hunger in china. The nanny government in. Three thousand years of chinese history. This is reason enough for hating it. Consideration. It just hacked. We just begin. Realize these things. Since it is a problem which we call overpopulation. By the year 2000. Unless something is done to control this. There will be even greater hunger. Even dated property. Even greater. Possibility of revolution. Zinburger. The russians realized this was well as weed. The situation has so developed that russia and the united states are now both affluent countries. We think that is a wide degree. In the standard of living. Between the citizens of russia and the citizens of this country is true. Nevertheless. By comparison with the rest of the world. Russia. Western europe. And united states. Represent a tiny privileged minority. The gap between rich and the rest of the world is constantly growing. It would seem to me. The deposit reason. Would be huaraches in the united states. And the countries of western europe and i would add japan. To consult together. About to visiting significant tops of their national income. To raising the standard of living. India underdeveloped top of the world. This is one infallible means. I'm bringing about her reduction the best rate. And in general consulting measures. Population control. Crescent at unit. Let you know that is no cooperation at all. I think this problem. Any thoughtful person mustang. This problem is going to get much worse. In the next generation. I miss some attention is pedro's. I'm pointing to a common interest of the soviet union and the united states. He could still another thing and this is the most recent the girls. It's only in the sixties i believe and indeed in the last 45 years. That we have become aware for the first time. Industrial man is polluting his own environment to such an extent that, that's also. Life on earth may be rendered very difficult today. Lot of the time in this world. It's the problem of a new kind of civilization. Which produces waste in such inconceivable quantitative. Play poison the earth and the air and the water. And as you know. Mankind has devoted almost no attention to this. By the year 2000. They will be many here still living in the year 2000. Problem movie legend. Would not be wise. 2 considered international effort. Through the united nations. And any successful you and epic means runback join play. Lightest audience union in this country. These are some of the things. I had in mind when i suggested. That we have found more in common. With the soviet union. Then we have to divide us. And i think it's a movie crew china. When china comes to more maturity. And the obsession with. Justified obsession. With your traction from outside. Comfortable. Is it not true to say the time till this moment. It's the sources of fear and jealousy and suspicion. Sisyphean exploited. Mr. kennedy was elected to office. 10 years ago. He would begin to make the fest. Step. Georgia reasonable approach to china. I thought he would be the first to recognize that it was unreasonable. To pretend that our core for the human race. Has no right to be heard and then it's national assembly. Had he lived. Had he been elected to second time i think you would indeed have taken the first step. Which even mr. nixon. It's taken. Cautious and hesitant way. At this very moment. Well so much for that problem. I think i got blind. We can go on hating and fielding. I'm building up colossal albumin. All we can try and sit down workout areas of common agreement. Congratulations tablets mutual trust and confidence. This can be done. If we have a mind. I just leads me immediately the second thing i wanted to discuss the moment this morning. The militarisation of all to societies. It would be better if i can find my remote. United states. Since this is our own problem and we know more about it. But i think it's a problem confronting both countries. What is the solution for our problems of the military-industrial complex. Is it not. More and more competition. We have beginning. To hear tickets now. The beginning to seep into the public consciousness. Figures which are almost incredible. It is said. Being repeated many times. I'm saying something so terrible. How to admit. Even comprehend. Cuz i can. Should we have spent. In this country alert. 1000 billion dollars. You see what i mean about incomprehensible listen. 1000 billion dollars on defense. Since the second world war. And the result of that colossal expenditure which no other country in the world. Has been. Light at the end of it. We are more insecure than we were to begin with. We were safer in 1945. Then we are 1970. This is not supposed of any one person or government. The very nature of modern technology. Which could, small animal diesel. If these things happened in the realm of private affairs. Is a private individual. Managed his life in such a fashion. Immense amounts of money. Internet towards a cause. Which could never be achieved. I'm going to flooring money down.. Hope this train we would consider him. You know you not these things are more less in the common realm of knowledge today. That's a superpower. Spend every year. As much money as the total income of the undeveloped third world that is to say 2/3 of mankind. Instead of russia and the united states spending money. I'm talking to and disease and hunger. Population control pollution control. They spend money to a game plan another. In the hope. These arms will never be used. It is impossible for the citizens of a civilized country to believe. The government. The zoo in the policy which is really insane. Cannot penetrate our consciousness. What other words and insanity describes. One of the most distinguished american physician. Ground clamp. Columbia. Told us about three years ago three or four years ago i quote only one of innumerable evidences. Round slap reassured american public. We could if we can. Destroy every major russian industrial installation. And atomic plant. 135 x over. What's a child. X anderson stable. My device. Zach naive question. Would not want. Insufficient. 135. And we're also being towed the clown russia does not have this prodigious capacity. She can destroy out industrial insulation she can wipe out how great it is to have 10 or 15 times over. 1. Vietnam. Is anyone sing. What's the human race. Really consistent. Irrational animals. One must ask wyatt is. Two great supercars cacildis suicidal good and have done for 25 years. Instead of sitting down. What is the nature of the differences. How can they be dissolved. We know for example that modern systems of inspection. And i'll make something futures in atomic testing very much more difficult than they ever were before. And no doubt they will be protection of such techniques. Which removes at salomon. Uncertainty. Halloween from refusal. Chicklet. To allow inspection of science. But is it not true that in this ghastly rivalry. Which we called him. I would stay cold as him. The armaments race. Is it not true. That's rob people in those countries. Who did aizen. Speak to prolong it. Two explosions. Military men and politicians design of this state of affairs to continue. Because their power and prestige depends upon it. And industrial. Corporations. Yes i have to pursue it. Because it means. Fantastic profits. As in the field. Amtrak. Weapon system electronics on sofa. This is not forget the third a vested interest. Very powerful vested interests. Which dominate congress. I am sure dominates the life of the communist party. Which i did to him and to ensure that this state of affairs continues. Because it is the basis of that power. And in this case it. This country at least two faces. Well one could develop the subject you will agree ranch trail.. Are we to continue to fear and hate. On our way to turn in the 70s with last. The last time. Like to see. Limit of doing up on the horizon that are signs for the first time. Destination is coming to his senses that even congress. Witness senator smile. Witness senator fulbright. Senator symington. Sunrise time. Set this long madness. Military expenditure for security which could no longer employed. Maybe coming to an end. The most recent phase of this we all know was the abm system. When mr. mcnamara first mentioned the abm system to the senate. He said the same system would cost 6 billion dollars. I need hope that would be the end of it. Interested. That the system would be extended. What's the largest now doing. Against russia. Which we are total cost 40 billion. Senator symington remotes last september i think it was. Andromaque has never been contradicted by the pentagon. He got his own information from the pentagon. Assignment elizabeth thompson. Did you notice what he said. Cibm program was finished secret probably cost this nation. 400 billion. And that. Florida security. Which the majority of american scientists think the abm system would provide in the first place. There's no doubt about it the most american scientists just trust this new system. I did most of the scientists to argue for it i didn't the government pay. Eric chapman spokesman. 223 scientific advisors to think president. Have all of them said. This is an effective waste of money. 1. Causes. Incidentally to ask. What could be done for the regeneration of the united states. What could be done for the improvement of the quality of its people. Quality of life. With 400 million dollars. I'm well aware and will speak in the moving to the fact that. Social problems goodbye stations of money alone. Money is indispensable. Setting i wanted to turn to briefly. Is as i say. The tragic outcome. Cost of a century of covid-19. In one unhappy top of the world. 41 and happy people. Cold war has become a reality. I need a girl. Trying to speak responsibly. In order that if what i say is wrong because picture. 2 rational. Would like to suck. Trying to speak in such a spirit. After. Summer fiction. I think you could be said by future historians. Vietnam war was the greatest blunder animals criminal blunder. In american history. You may say watch about extermination of the indians. Watch about negro slavery in all the smaller tents. I would say that these problems. Vincent inherited and inevitable. I want made. The vietnam war is a problem we created for us pills. Induced cancer. Which at this moment has taken more than 100 billion dollars. Money which might have been spent in building up this country. Instead of destroying this mole run 10,000 miles away. And which has resulted as we all know. 40000 young americans. Most of who might be in college now. Letting her pick themselves for the good of society. Why did. And beyond that. Something like two million. 2 million. Men women and children. Good. Vietnam. The country which way home. Supposedly trying to save. Let me apply very briefly the criterion type mention what could it be. India time. In 1954. Ho chi minh. Run the leadership of his people. By driving out the friend she forced to surrender and to leave the country. The consul reason would have been to recognize that ho chi minh had to write he was by far the most popular man in the country. You remember mr. eisenhower himself did. Is it had an election being taken in 1956. 80% at least disposed american estimate. Eighty percent of the population. Cumin. Which is a larger majority is in boots for most american president. The passive reason would be to let the vietnamese people settle down the stairs. But we decided to intervene we knew what was best for them. And we instituted the puppet government. Tsuru by sauce. And buy a suit is a rigged election. Who was indian murdered by his own people. President diem. Adopted emi. it was murdered. We then set up a series of military puppets. Latest. I'll put you still in power. On the play the dishes preserving to the vietnamese people that own freedom of choice. I think this is a fair analysis. Has happened in vietnam. When we got into that. Trysil krogmeier. No one foresaw what it would lead. In the first year that mr. kennedy was in office. In 1961. One american soldier died. 1. And in the last year. Mr. kennedy was in office. Distillation. 146. And this year that many died often every week. And since mr. nixon has taken office. About 9,000. I'm trying to illustrate so thanks. No one realized where this world would leave. Had we listened. Reason. Instead of being guided. By the fears of the cold war. We really believe. Amen. Motivated by fear as we were. My hysterical and exaggerated fear of communism. We seem to believe almost that the balance of willpower would be altered. Is ho chi minh became ruler of vietnam. Can pursue this subject further. Suffice to say. The people like george kennan. Call edwin reischauer. Irish net basinger tappan. Awesome beautiful bride. And many others have at last come to the point of realizing. Nothing would have been very different. In the situation of willpower. Essential interest of the united states was involved in the first place. How much 40,000 young americans would have to die. 10:00. When that happen. Before i leave this subject i think i ought to mention. One last thing. Witches. Angel dimension. United states has always believed. Morrow florist in human affairs. The american revolution was made with this idea in mind that the old corrupt societies in europe. Would not be repeated in the new world. We la. Do we not. About the idea of the new soviet man. The communist world saints that is creating a new kind of human being. How does a blood vessel style in amarillo. Will american people also call xavier creating a new kind of human being in the 18th century. And when stalin. Who defeated. And the various. Blood-stained tyrannies which they represented were overthrown. We thought that some people. How many times god sorted. We were not capable of such a moment. I feel 21 whose mind goes to a quarter of a century. The germans or the russians might do such thing. The americans were incapable of it this week. And now as the ultimate revelation. How's the kind of horror and evil to which we like other people. Capable of succumbing. I knew where the santa. language. Will it ever be forgotten. The name of an obscure hamlet. In vietnam. Hold me now. If i say a word about this. I hope you will understand in the first place. But i have no interest. Whatsoever. In punishing whatever soldiers maybe soundproofing guilty. Is this person or that person is convicted. Do anything. To relieve out feelings of guilt. Execution. And indeed such a man may prove to be the smallest and most insignificant cog in the vast military machine which brought this about. Is my motive in discussing this is not fun of vindictive. What is the significance of meal i. As the end of the american dream. Unless there's some means found two. Regeneration. I think these are the essential fact. Neligh means that this for. Has brutalized. Soldier. Any word in history. On this scale. Sexy thing never happened in cordele. Simply never happened in the second or the first people in europe do not believe. Colored people throughout the little things only happen to them. An incredible routinization. Astro when the army takes the recruit. And particularly the marine corps. When it takes the young man from his parents and his school or his college. Agent n2deep personalizing systematically. It teaches him with every kind of obscenity i'm filing this of language at their command. 47 ways. Killing other human being. It makes them into a professional killer and boast of its efficiency. M112 sometimes that the products of this depersonalization. Sometimes getting out of hand. You can surely not the individual soldier who's responsible for this. Is the product of his training. Compactor. Even worse than this i think has been the absolute job attitude. Although message of waging war. Never before in history. Has any power declared. Several thousand square miles. Constitution. In which anything that moves may be killed on sight. This is my pee cuz i have freezer. Thousands of miles of territory. Step aside. Arbitrarily. We are telling the inhabitants are going by leaflet. No doubt this is often dumb. Who knows that everyone living in this vast area and the area is oblast in some cases. Even sees the necklace. And if you don't see them. How do we know that he will believe them. Simple vietnamese believe. Spiteful destruction will come. The result is at any rate. An indiscriminate slaughter of civilians. I think really without too much exaggeration one must call it genocide on a limited scale. Has taken place. Mila. Was in one of the fire freezer. One of the freestyles. One doesn't bother to distinguish. Hamptons phone number. One doesn't distinguish men from women. And indeed we need the dolphin almost impossible. And if it is said that women also their enemies. What does this prove a chat sacrificing a whole people. And not just a handful of terrorist propaganda. Tries to make out. Meal i was in the same freezer. I have read accounts. Helicopter. Hovering over san free zones. Blessing loom. Submachine guns and fire 6000 bullets a minute into a human target. And dominican. Hotels have described how the little figure below. The man. Old woman. All the child. Who may be a civilian or may not be. Simply disappears in a fraction of a second. You cannot say he's traded to a bloody pulp that would be too slow in operation. Disintegrate. Under the sign of 18,000 bullets as directed into his project. And i have read of cases pilots. I'm setting that experiences and joking and posting about that accomplishment. And besides the fire free zone. Another method by which we are grateful or stressed in general westmoreland's time. Monster body. In all previous was. The index of victory most amount of credit recapture. On the map you could show if the war was approaching a conclusion by how much cheddar feed the enemy was captured. And getting them as you know. Ashanti 1200 miles long. This is impossible. Every major battle. I think has ended up in enemy hands. Hamburger hill. Attack 2. Any other place you can think of. Caisson. When the fighting was over. And by the way chiasson was the most bombed place in the whole history of mankind but when the fighting was over. The enemy was in possession. All his own country. So. The omni index of victories at westmoreland had. Monster count the bodies of the kill. And these are ghosts included in many cases civilian. 109 all the 300 or the 500 by. Latasha the body count for that day. And a few subjects. As if this isn't enough to explain the tragedy. One must also remember to think. Everything that i'm saying, american sources. Being reported by american journalist let this be said to their credit and their honor. The widespread contempt you must know that exist. The people that we are supposed to be trying to say. The temple contempt for the vietnamese people who are indeed jesse and disease. And you have no idea of the 20th century in american time. Friendly's. I despised as much as the anime. And indeed who knows what his family and who is an enemy. And so we called them. I would switch the rest of mankind resents. Dinks. Gooks. Even the army the army itself, did you not notice in the official report to me line. The army refer to them as oriental human being. Human being. The oriental human beings grade b human being. They were the ones in question. Every kind of man throughout the world must resent this military terminology. What was that mentality. And by the way is it not true. Wyoming eli might have been the worst thing that has happened. Thousands and thousands of small i'm eliza probably taken place. I wonder how many of you here most of you. Read that frightful little sterling. Oakhill 192. R5 american gi has went out on patrol and took a young vietnamese girl with them. They went out at 6 in the morning and they bound her hands. They loaded her with that equipment. They gave. Santa stumble and not with some from 6 in the morning till 3 in the afternoon without food or drink. They set themselves the girl with bone ham treated like an animal. Received neither. And then they started systematically for the 5 to rape her. Down until. And the next day they blew her brains out. Who is an m16. This incident which the army itself confirmed. Defend doesn't cause for court-martial very light sentences. Later reduced. Made no impression on the american public how many other kinds of. The death of the young girl of fourteen. I can imagine millions of people though. Millions of people who may have read this. Play what sunday sciolism save-a-lot to expand. What is bore. And yet. The military code. Specifically an empathic healer condemn such conduct. Send it must not take place. And if it does take place it is a soldier's duty to report it. Yet when the soldier deported this one of the five let that be the member. One of the five americans could not bring himself to violate the girl. One american showed humanity. Just life was in danger from his comrades. I just really rather many company still alive. Well to this. I will say no more. To this pitch of shame and degradation. The vietnam war has brought us. Give me live as simply an accident i would say no more. But i regard it as the logical and inevitable combination of all the fingering on. And of course there are many other similar incidents. Which motel just know about by means of rumor. Which the public does not know. Nothing took place. Is mendel rivers still a lynching in carolina. He would almost definitely mistaken for a picnic. Think it was an occasion of rejoicing. He probably denies that anyone has ever been lynched in the south. With this. One might say this man is clearly out of his mind. He's a lunatic. I think this is true. He's also one of the most powerful men in the national knights of the united states. A mentally ill man. And his extreme alcoholism. Illustrates. This is mom about you. Controller. Let me turn quickly and finally to the other two things i wanted to take out the question isn't a question of race. What is the approach of reason and what is the approaches here. Reason has been summed up by the eisenhower committed. And by the late attorney general ramsey clark. Who i just was one of the best attorney-general's this country has ever had. Mr. nixon deliberately made him the chief scapegoat for the increase in crime. Witches he must have well-known was beyond the power of any one man to control immediately. And which has increased i read by 11% in the single year that mr make sense. What is the control of reason is it not this. To get at the root causes of poverty. Boosie eisenhower commission and the kuna commission express. Stress deepstream importance of grinding poverty. Lemonade. Which means spending billions of money. Dennis benson by destroying vietnamese. Man mentioning parenthesis that every time you read and every day we read a b-52 days i read in the new york times. Does every single salty buy a b-52 cost $50,000. And hundreds of sexualities everyday. So even though no american lives are being lost on a particular day. Millions of dollars are being spent mostly bombing jungles. The reason is to try and eliminate the causes of poverty. Goodwill by understanding. By entering into the feeling of these minorities. I realizing what is a drive the panthers on violent causes. It seems to me the panthers however misguided. Have an idea that the black man is capable of human dignity. Panda disease. Describes a team outside. I don't find us some mitchell. Speeches. Reasonable. Include such things as the rehabilitation of prisoners. I was shocked to read the other day. That's in city states of this union. The state jails provide no. Machinery whatever cause rehabilitation prisoners. Which means that the offenders return time and time and time again. It means a humane approach to crime and female legit. And then it means something else. It means the retraining and re-education of the police. If this country does not seek for the highest kind of policeman and pay him more money. I can get this a scandal that the police are paid no one can doubt the. The occupation of the policeman is a dangerous rival. He will say this cosmetic. Is it cost a billion dollars to pay the police force of the united states. And of the states. Would it not be with it. We are spending about a billion dollars a year involving a loan in vietnam. All these things ramsey clock mention. If we do not pay the police better. If we do not try to educate them. They will become. Thinkific. Person who has lived in europe in the twenties as mentioned to me. We have seen this before all that the beginning of hitler stormtroopers. I'm thinking also chicago. And finally. In addition to the measuring outline that is the matter of gun control. Is it not a matter of nationals game. Senator kennedy was shot. Strong gun control bill was impossible to pass. In the congress. Mr. nixon has never given any support measures of gun control. And in this he has the blessing of his spiritual advisor billy graham. Who has also who has also bless the vietnam war. But then so did cardinal spellman. I don't wish to. Fiance. Shirley caesar. Surely this is the right approach to the problem of crime in the seventies. Understanding of the problem. Economic and human means to relieve it. Rehabilitation of offenders. Education of the police. Gun control. What is the approach. Attorney general mitchell. Who speaks first master. It is repression. Mr mitchell's approaches multi-gas monmouth mall club montgomery. Federal troops outside great cities if necessary. Do you not remember that saying i mailed a lie he told the chicago police in april 68. Shoot to kill. Mr agnew who was in governor of maryland took that cry out. Agnew and doster. To solve the agonizing problems of cities. Killing those are driven to desperation. He said shoot to me awesomeness. And shoot to kill those with guns in their hands. Equipment daily. Who's innocent humphrey embrace. At the convention. We have a choice. Which one are we going to take him to 72. Jill gas guns. Cousin moose. Cities breaking out. Ghana commission indicate a possible into armed insurrection. The vietnam war repeated neverland city of the country. Are we going to. Used approach senator kennedy. President kennedy. How's the two presidential commission. The one is patient. The other is quick. Violent and hopeless. Already taken i'm sorry too much time let me say a word. A problem which itself is worth discussing. At least for now. The challenge review. There are those in the government who say that the right way to deal with you. Is this oppressive. King of the moratorium demonstration in washington. Last november. The largest demonstration. Overwhelmingly composed of young people. Marston washington. Andros pizza. Overwhelmingly people. Not more than 5%. I'd rather generous estimate. 5% hoover repudiation. Intelligence and violence. Mister mitchell this enormous demonstration myself. But i'm told by those who were the million people march in washington. It was larger even than the reverend. Martin luther king's. Demonstration 1963 i will absolutely pizza. With the exception of this tiny violin segments. Mr mitchell's coming from the whole thing was over was it was a violent demonstration. And international communists were behind it. If young people who my childhood conviction. And peacefully i going to be condemned for violence when they haven't committed it. What is the inducement. The new york times and other papers going to down. Mr. mr. nixon and mr. mitchell. Did everything possible to inflame tension. Feeling. To indicate that violence was imminent. When irrational cost would have been to play these things down and in the end it proved that his brand founded. I don't think the aspirations of youth. I going to be solved by gun teargas a nice anymore than those of colored people's. I would like early to say this in conclusion. Anyone who is in the university. Is accustomed to dealing with people who are young. Walking places near me. Is the facts. This generation of youth. Is more intolerant of hypocrisy. And dishonesty. Millennial generation that i've known. Lou fusz is disinfected and discontented it is precisely because of this. Play see that the elders and betters those who are wiser than older. I brought the world to the brink of ruin. I see that no one's life can be counted upon by the year 2000. Young people see the folly of the arms race. He said elders done. I see the folly of spending a hundred billion dollars in a tiny asian countries. And neglecting our problems at home and it's time to youth i've driven to desperation that negroes are also give invited injustice. I sympathize with them. Find apartment the question of principle. They will become to that. It's a small fraction of the sds or any other group becomes violent stay will be madrid. Playing into the hands of governor reagan. I only want the opportunity. Behind. What is necessary. Beautiful. This is not the way. What's on the other hand. To meet you halfway. You know this week england has given all young. Men and women of the age of 18 vote. England is an old traditional and conservative country. And if he's taking the time or progressive steps in the united states. One more example of the theme i have in mind. Like to be developed. In conclusion i would say under this when we think about the seventies and the problems of the seventies we're under which of these. Two approaches are going to take. I know the ones of the present administration is following. I would say that. The only hope i see. Is the young people will enter public live in larger and larger numbers. The song mr. nixon comes up for re-election iread. The average age of the american people. Edible thing to say to anyone who. He's not young. The average age of the american people will be 25. Nicole 1972. In the last presidential election the average age of the people was. 27. What's the average age of the voting public with pork at 3. Difference between the way. 325 looks. And a middle-aged person 43. I do not mean for one moment to it's a good greater wisdom to the yard that would be folly and i think young people would be the first to realize it. What i do to be a greater sense of reality. And an impatience with stale and rancid hatred. The generation has subsisted for 25 years. I have no doubt that young people in russia people to say. After all the brainwashing of communist government. Young people in russia. Do not want the science guy. And useless was any more than young americans. Replace the 70. New one. If i am ignorant as i am totally ignorant of what is going to happen. I make notes hookup. But if one is ignorant and ignorant. Who is everyone else mr. nixon doesn't know what's going to happen. The men in the kremlin don't know what's going to happen no one. At least each of us can take. Shiny pants. A move in the right direction. And i hope. Legend 1972. Seven or eight million people who i am. I never go to before gilbert and i think. The youngest i may be mistaken but i think the young turks. The concert. Reason and understanding. Raffles enforcing repression. High-ground what hoops i have. People like julian bond. Or i might mention in this city. The election of a young male actor. I think it's one of the best things that's ever happened to seattle. At least in our lifetime. Why can't i turn people. One hates to see them drop out. I understand the causes of that discontent i don't condemn them. I wish i was at lakewood. Enter into the system and change it. Wheelchair this. If so when will do. Glad to have lived long enough to see it. After the shame of the last quarter of a century. I hope you don't think such hope to hooley. Turn down. Even better example is communist china. Everyone knows that communist china has been the chief hate object of the united states. Surpassing even the soviet union. In the last 20 years. And i think one of the reasons why coming as china has been so much hated and it's so much hated still. Is it had more success. In solving the basic problems of human existence on earth. It has had more success in eliminating. Master aziz a 900 in china. Then any government in. Three thousand years of chinese history. This is reason enough for hating it. Consideration occurs to me. It just the fact. We just begin. In the sixties to realize these things. It is a problem which we call overpopulation. By the year 2000. Unless something is done to control it. There will be even greater hunger. Even vacant property. Even greater. Possibility of revolution. Santa clara. The russians realize this was well as weed. The situation has so developed the dresser and the united states are now both affluent countries. We think that is a wide degree. In the standard of living. Between the citizens of russia and the citizens of this country and that is true. Nevertheless. By comparison with the rest of the world. Russia. Western europe. And united states. Represent a tiny privileged minority. The gap between rich and rest of the world is constantly growing. It would seem to me. That's the path of reason. Would be for russia and the united states. And the countries of western europe and i would add japan. To consult together. About to visiting significant parts of their national income. To raising the standard of living. Indiana develop apps of the world. This is one infallible me. I'm bringing about the reduction in the birth rate. And in general consulting measures. Population control. Crescent at yuna. I do know that is no cooperation at all. I think this problem. Any thoughtful person mustang. This problem is going to get much worse. In the next generation. I miss some attention has patriots. I'm pointing to a common interest of the soviet union and the united states. He could still another thing and this is the most recent google. It's only in the sixties i believe and indeed in the last 45 years. That we have become aware for the first time. That industrial man is polluting his own environment to such an extent that from that source also. Life on earth may be vended very difficult to live. The problem of the democratic. All of the time in this world. It's the problem of a new kind of civilization. Which produces waste in such inconceivable quantitative. Play poison the earth and the air and the water. And as you know. Mankind has devoted almost no attention to this. By the year 2000. They will be many here still living in the year 2000. Problem movie legend. Would it not be wise. 2 considered international effort. Through the united nations. And any successful you and effort means runback join plate. By the soviet union in this country. These are some of the things. What i had in mind when i suggested. That we have found more in common. With the soviet union. Then we have to divide us. And i think it's a movie crew china. When china comes to more maturity. And the obsession with. I have justified obsession. With the traction from outside. Comfort home health. Is it not true to say the time till this moment. It's the forces of fear and jealousy and suspicion. Exploited. I talked to mr. kennedy was elected to office. 10 years ago. The tv would begin to make the session. Step. George a reasonable approach to china. I told he would be the first to recognize that it was unreasonable. To pretend that the core for the human race. Has no right to be heard and its national assembly. Had he lived. Had he been elected to second time i think you would indeed have taken the first step. Which even mr. nixon. It's taken. Dinner's ready. Cautious and hesitant way. Cisco ramon. Well so much for that problem. I think i got blind. We can go on hating and fielding. I'm building up colossal animals. All we can try and sit down workout areas of common agreement. Congratulations tablets mutual trust and confidence. This can be done. If we have a mind. He's being mean to take the second thing i want to discuss the moment this morning. The militarisation of all to society. It would be better if i can find my remote. United states. Since this is our own problem and we know more about it. But i think it's a problem confronting both countries. What is the solution for our problems of the military-industrial complex. Is it not. We have beginning. To hear figures now. The beginning to steep into the public consciousness. Biggest which are almost incredible. It is said. Being repeated many times. I'm saying something so terrible. How to admit. The pain can't even comprehend. Zicam. Should we have spent. In this country alone. 1000 billion dollars. You see what i mean about incomprehensible. Thousand billion dollars on defense. Since the second world war. Angela's colossal expenditure with no other country in the world. Has been. That at the end of it. We are more insecure than we were to begin with. We were safer in 1945. Then we are 1970. This is not the fault of any one person or government. The very nature of modern technology. Which becomes more and more diesel. If these things happened in the realm of private affairs. Is a private individual. Manage his life in such a fashion. Did he devoted. Immense amounts of money. Internet cards at coz. Which could never be achieved. And when tom flooring money down.. Hope this train we would consider him. You know do not these things are more less in the commonwealth of knowledge today. That the two gates superpower. Spend every year. As much money as the total income of the undeveloped third world that is to say 2/3 of mankind. Instead of russia and the united states spending money. I'm tapati and disease and hunger. Population control on pollution control. They spend money to arm against one another. In the hope. These arms will never be used. It is impossible for the citizens of a civilized country to believe. The thai government. The policy which is really insane. Cannot penetrate our consciousness. What other words of insanity describes. One of the most distinguished american position. Brown slap. Columbia. Told us about three years ago three or four years ago i told only one of innumerable evidences. Round flap reassured american public. We could if we can. Destroy every major russian industrial installation. And atomic plant. 135 x over. The child. Sam's anderson stable. My device. That naive question. Would not one. Insufficient. 135k. And we have also been told the clown russia does not have this prodigious capacity. She can destroy out industrial insulation he can wipe out our great cities to have 10 or 15 times over. 1. Vietnam. If anyone sing. The human race. Really consistent. Irrational animals. One must ask wyatt is. Two great superpowers cacildis suicidal good and have done for 25 years. Instead of sitting down. What is the nature of the differences. How can they be dissolved. We know for example that modern systems of inspection. Chanel make something futures in atomic testing very much more difficult than they ever were before. And no doubt they will be protection of such techniques. Which remove that salomon. Uncertainty. Halloween from refusal. Chiefland. To allow inspection of science. But is it not true that in this ghastly rivalry. Which we called him. Enbridge stakeholders in. The armaments race. Is it not true. That's rob people in both countries. Sugilite. Antiques prolong it. To exploiter. Military men and politicians design of this state of affairs to continue. Because their power and prestige depends on it. And industrial. Corporations. Desire to pursue it. Because it means fantastic profits. As in the field. Weapon system electronics in cypress. Let us not forget that there are vested interests. Very powerful vested interests. Which dominate congress. I am sure dominate the life of the communist bounty. Which i did tell him in to ensure that this state of affairs continues. Because it is the basis of that power. And in this case it. This country at least the bases. Well one could develop this subject you will agree that strazza. I'll meet you continue to still didn't hate. On our way to turn in the 70s with last. The last time. Like the sweetest thing. Limit of doing up on the horizon that are signs for the first time. Destination is coming to his senses that even congress. Witness senator rocks mile. Witness senator fulbright. Celestine. Set this long madness. Military expenditure for security which could no longer the car. Maybe coming to an end. The most recent phase of this we all know was the avian system. When mr. mcnamara first mention the abs system to the senate. He said the same system would cost 6 billion dollars. I need hope that could be the end of it. It was clear. That the system would be extended. The largest now doing. Against russia. Which we are told little 40 billion. Symington remote last september i think it was. Andromaque has never been contradicted by the pentagon. And he got his own information from the pentagon. Senator simon commence of the thumbs of a peso. And did you notice what he said. Set the for the ibm program was finished. It would probably cost this nation. 400 billion. And that. Florida security. Which the majority of american scientists think the abm system on providing the fence. It's the most american scientists just trust this new system. Did most of the scientist to argue for it i didn't the government pay. Eric hoffman spokesman. It's a3 scientific advisors 23 president. Have all of them said. This is an effective waste of money. Pain causes. Incidentally to ask. What could be done for the regeneration of the united states. What could be done for the improvement of the quality of its people. Quality of life. With 400 million dollars. I'm well aware and speaking american to the fact that. Social problems are not goodbye labucq applications of money alone. Money is indispensable. Searching i wanted to turn to briefly. Is as i say. The tragic outcome. A quarter of a century of covid-19. In one unhappy cop of the world. 41 and happy people. Coldwell has become a reality. I need a girl. The people of vietnam. Trying to speak responsibly. You know does it if what i say is wrong because picture. Congressional. Would like a frog. Trying to speak in such a spirit. An oscar. Some reflection. I think it will be said by future historian. The vietnam war was the greatest blunder animals criminal blunder. In american history. You may say watch it down six seven nation of the indian. Watch about negro slavery in all of his father's sins. I would say the seat problems. Vincent inherited and inevitable. They weren't made. The vietnam war is a problem we created for us bills. Handstands induced cancer. Which at this moment has taken more than 100 billion dollars. Of money which might have been spent in building up this country. Instead of destroying the small 110 thousand miles away. And which has resulted as we all know. 40000 young americans. Most of who might be in college now. Learning to cook themselves for the good of society. So i did. And beyond that. Something like two million. 2 million. Men women and children. Good. In vietnam. The country with sweetheart. Supposedly trying to save. Let me apply very briefly the criterion side mention what part of in the path of reason. India time. Who sings this. In 1954. Ho chi minh. Run the leadership of his people. Find rising outfit she forced to surrender and to leave the country. The passive reason would have been to recognize that ho chi minh had to write he was by far the most popular man in the country. You remember mr. eisenhower himself said. Just had an election being taken in 1956. 80% at least this was the american estimate. Eighty percent of the population. Voted for ho chi minh. Which is astro alondra majority votes for most american presidents. The path of reason would be to let the vietnamese people settle down the stairs. That we decided to intervene we knew what was best for them. And we instituted a puppet government. Guru by soros. And i have series of rigged election. Who was in the end murdered by his own people. President diem. Adopted emi. it was murdered. We then set up a series of military compass. Latest. Which is still in power. On the play the dishes preserving to the vietnamese people that own freedom of choice. I think this is a fair analysis. I want this happened in vietnam. When we got into that. Cycle cogman. No one foresaw what it would lead. In the first year that mr. kennedy was in office. In 1961. One american soldier died. 1. And in the last year. Vista kennedy-wilson office. Escalated. So that 146 died. And this year that many died often every week. And since mr. nixon has taken office. About 9,000. I'm trying to illustrate so thanks. No one realized where this world was laid. Although we might have known. Had we listened. The reason. Instead of being guided. By the fears of the cold war. We really believe. Sochi sochi mean. Motivated by fear as we were. I hysterical an exaggerated fear of communism. We seem to believes almost that the balance of world power be altered. Is ho chi minh became ruler of vietnam. John pazuzu subject feather. The people like george kennan. Call edwin reischauer. Irish nebraska to japan. Most beautiful bride. And many others have at last come to the point realizing. Nothing would have been very different. In the situation of willpower. But no essential interest of the united states was involved in the first place. How much 40,000 young americans would have to die. When that happens. Before i leave this subject i think i ought to mention. One last thing. Witches. Painful dimension. United states has always believed. Morrow florist in human affairs. The american revolution was made with this idea in mind that the old corrupt societies in europe. Would not be repeated in the new world. We la. Do we not. About the idea of the new soviet man. The communist world thinks that is creating a new kind of human being. How does a blood vessel style in amarillo. Will american people also tell her that they will creating a new kind of human being in the 18th century. And when stalin. And it's not with defeated. And the various. Blood-stained to the news which they represented were overthrown. We thought as a people. And we thank god for it. Cleveland not capable of such a normative. I feel 21 whose mind goes back a quarter of a century. The germans or the russians might do such things. The americans were incapable of it this week. And now as the ultimate revelation. Also kind of horror and evil which we like other people. I capable of becoming. You were descended out language. Will it ever be forgotten. The name of an obscure hamlet. In vietnam. Eli. If i say a word about this. I hope you will understand in the first place. But i have no interest. Whatsoever. In punishing whatever soldiers may be found her being guilty. Is this person or that person is convicted. Turn to. Do anything. To relieve our feelings of guilt. Execution. And indeed such a man may prove to be the smallest and most insignificant cog in the military machine which brought this about. My motive in discussing this is not fun of vindictiveness. What is the significance of meal i. As the end of the american dream. Unless there's some means founder. Regenerated. I think these are the essential facts. Me line means that this for. Has brutalized. Soldier. Morgan anywhere in our history. On this dale. Such thing never happened in korea. Simply never happened in the second all the first people in europe do not believe such things. Trvn. Colored people throughout the little things only happen to them. An incredible routinization. Astro when the army takes the recruit. Particularly the marine corps. When it takes the young man from his parents and his school or his college. 18102 depersonalizing systematically. It teaches him with every kind of obscenity unsoundness of languages that can on. 7 ways of killing other human being. It makes them into a professional killer and boast of its efficiency. Shadman wonder sometimes that the products of this depersonalization. Sometimes get out of hand. You can surely not the individual soldier who's responsible for this. Is the product of his training. The second factor. Even worse than this i think has been the absolute bob attitude. Although message of waging war. Never before in history. Has any power declared. Several thousand square miles. Constitution zone. In which anything that moves may be killed on sight. This is my free calls if a freezer. Thousands of miles of dentistry. Fantasize. Arbitrarily. We are told the inhabitants are going by leaflets. No doubt this is often time. Who knows that everyone living in this vast area and the area is oblast in some cases. Even sees the necklace. And if you don't see them. How do we know the people believe them. Simple vietnamese peasant. This is frightful destruction will come. Eponymous. The result is at any rate. An indiscriminate slaughter of civilians. I think freely without too much exaggeration one must call it genocide unlimited.. Has taken place. Mila. Wasn't one of the tire freezer. One of the freestyles. One doesn't bother to distinguish. Competent. One doesn't distinguish men from women. And indeed we read that often almost impossible. And if it is said that women also there and our enemies. What does this prove people. I'm not just a handful of terrorists as a propaganda. Tries to make out. Meal i was in the fire freezer. I have read accounts of helicopter. Hovering over san free zone. Blessing loom. Machine guns gonzales 6000 bullets a minute into a human target. Dominican. Hotels have described as below. The man. Who was the woman. Little child. Who may be a civilian or may not be. Simply disappears in a fraction of a second. You cannot say he's granted to a bloody pulp that would be too slow in operation. Disintegrate. When does the tired of 18,000 bullets as directed into his brother. And i have read of cases pilots. I'm setting their experiences and joking and posting about that accomplishment. And besides the fire free zone. Another method by which we are grateful aurora especially in general westmoreland time. What's the product. In all previous was. The index the victory what's the amount of energy captured. On the map you could show if the world was approaching a conclusion by how much tether through the enemy was captured. Indian a mizuno. Ashanti 1200 miles long. This was impossible. Every major battle. I think has ended up in enemy hands. Hamburger hill. Attack 2. Any other place you can think of. Caisson. When the fighting was over. And by the way chiasson was the most bombed place in the whole history of mankind but when the fighting was over. The enemy was in possession. Officer in country. So. The omni index of victories at westmoreland had. Monster count the bodies of the killed. These approaches included in many cases civilian. 109 all the 300 or the 500 by. Latasha the body count for that day. And approval date today. As if this isn't enough to explain the tragedy. One must also remember the sack. Everything that i'm saying comes from american sources. Being reported by american journalist let this be said to their credit and their honor. The widespread contempt you must know that it exists. The people that we are supposed to be trying to say. Total contempt for the vietnamese people who ought indeed jesse and disease. And you have no idea of the 20th century in america. The friendliest as i've cold. I despised as much as the anime. And indeed who knows what is a friendly and who is an anime. And so we called them. I would switch the rest of mankind resents. Dinks. Gooks. Lowe's. Even the army the army itself caused them did you not notice in the official report to me live. The army referred to them as oriental human being. Human being. Oriental human being grade b human being. They were the ones in question. Every colored man throughout the world must resent this military terminology. Play with that mentality. And by the way is it not true. Wyoming eli may have been the worst thing that has happened. Thousands and thousands of small i'm eliza probably taken place. I wonder how many of you here to have most of you. I've read that price a little sterling. Oakhill 192.

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Privilege-Deborah-Raible.mp3?_=36

Harper's venus morning you hear from the book of mark chapter 10 verses 17 to 25. And as he was sitting out on his journey. A man ran off in nelson for him and ask him. Put teacher. What must i do to inherit. Eternal life. And jesus said you kim. Why don't you call me good. No one is good but god alone. You know the commandments. Do not kill. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not to cry. Honor your mother and father. Have you studied him teach her all the things i have observed from my. And jesus looking upon him. Love him. Fredericktown. You lack one thing. Spell all you have. And give to the poor. And you will have treasure in heaven. And come follow me. Incontinence cell. And he went away. Very sorrowful. For he has great. And jesus looked around and said to his disciples. How hard will be for those who have richard. To enter the kingdom of god. And the disciples were amazed at his word. But jesus said to them again. Children how hard it is enter the kingdom of god. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. A rich man to enter the kingdom of god. Our second service. Mitre. If the heat and light imprisoned in the brilliance of a diamond. Could be released into bread. Rose quartz. The worth of the diamond. Would mourn the lies about. Do also imprisoned in many other darrell monuments dedicated to the majesty of well. Trump tower in cruise missiles and the craft expectoration on wall street. I don't trust the presence of money glory of war. We would we could receive our generation as an act of piety. Does ritual rather than the sun. Maybe we would not be so timid. Maybe we can laugh at ourselves of our fear. If it were possible to define wealth. Has a wealth of understanding for kindness. Or humor. Define network. Human character. That's the word of what a man or woman jars and things. Been together. Meridia. We might 16. Prison. Golden west. From years ago now i participated in the service of coordination for my best friend from seminary. A installation hereford church. Play calling david herman. In the seminar 1810 reconsidered. Krista horn ordination installation. He exhorted the congregation to responsibly joining. Skin growing church henderson tennessee. However a goodly number of the congregation. Never took in the church service master. Near the front of the turman my collie. Commented on the financial wherewithal church. He said he knew the congregation would be able to meet you financial responsibilities of growth. Unforgiveness. Given the prevalence of volvos in the parking lot. I'm done and men you were the comments of guilt among themselves.. This is not the most powerful way of trying to get. As promised determine will not rain. Reading about the car you have out in the parking lot. I'm trying to set aside for worried. Maybe it will help you to know i drive a volvo. Iq. For the past several weeks people have been asking me what i was thinking about today. Immediate response to my answer. Craigslist. Have been interesting. My armstead. We certainly have a lot of. A personal inventory class to my mine. Text mom. Educated. Able-bodied mind. Goody's. Money enough for a comfortable home and lime. Piney world bernie sanders. A friend responded by commenting on how bill gates started off with the charity missing of a computer in every home. Enthiran. Began supporting the more primary nursing of immunization and feeding the hungry. My mother's response was quite my favorite. I love. It's true we do. We're just not all is honest about it is my mother. Instant instant car has and stay without me my contact support. What are our responsibility. Piccirilli on home. This is my kingdom for today's sermon. In good homiletic style i will begin with the year negative. Evansville. By guest speaker about my shortcomings in addressing racism as a member of the privileged class. There. But it did not contain. Cute pikachu easy. It takes up a goodly amount of energy and askew. But unit cell accomplished anything. Instead guilt-tripped into feeling like doing something. Most of us are much better at doing. Been having it provide the catalyst. If we do something out of jail. Enjoy it. I just like it immensely. Thousand-year-old. Lots of people have felt badly. Maybe even saved up for a while. But still when people backslide. That's okay though. Because we're feeling guilty about that backsliding. Don't like the feeling. Celtic crossing circle. Inadequate response. If you forgot to leave guild at home today then send it out now for sitting your car for put it on the bus out front. You can try putting in someone else's car but you'll still find its way home to you. How about making excuses. Gamera. Cookie jar. Because we can always find someone else. Gilbert elementary school. It is a public school located in the madison park neighborhood. And the school grounds back right up against the golf course for the gated community broadmoor. A committee has work on fundraising i have found myself. At some of the other committee members lively talk about how this person and that person they know has more money than god. How can i get rid of will then have there been. About so much. But who am i. How many people have orange to their stomachs. As my own privilege from me. It's easy to see me i'm why. Welfare. Healthy. If i'm opening my mouth is tractive like to talk about one of the nights to summer. But that's okay. Find an excuse. Because this is nothing compared to those rich people in madison park. In the words of togo. Remember him. How do we avoid in a meaningful way that is not just lip service. Unitarian universalist. We have just elected for the first time. African-american as president of the unitarian universalist association. The reverend william schaefer. Tokenism. Leather crazy is not. Kingsford himself instead. Diversification is easily misunderstood as an attempt to find more christmas colors. The white folks will feel better about themselves. And i have zero interest in.. Rather than tokenism i would like to thank the work done. spaar and journey tour owner. Lawrenceville election. Journey towards kolner seeks to take off in the direction of addressing our privilege. It grew out of general assembly resolutions calling for anti-racism and multiculturalism. And then brought. The actual missing of the journey toward wholeness confirmation committee. Courtney. Monitor. Guide to trance-formation of the ua an antidepressant. Anti-racist. Multicultural faith community. There have been many bumps along the road in this journey. And there are surely more to come. That must work has been begun within you a headquarters. District. Organization. Publication. Congregation. Unitarian universalist congregation. Are overwhelmingly white. And highly educated. Not many of us have normally taken part in the journey toward wholeness. Frontier high level of awareness. You will work on quote helping our congregations to understand the nature of privilege. So at least we aren't with the presidential plan today. No one likes the idea of having but they have another. No more do we really like the idea of telling all that we have. One-third of my children. And i said for home. No-kill. No excuses. Neutropenia. What meaningful response cam. Change windshield card. Chapters about getting to. Responding to make. I have marked after the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. And i have proof the deserts in the dark which they have led you. Body toward promised land. Country names in egypt. My heart. Desire. The answer to this buying it suggested by the title of the song. Professor. We have to be willing to claim our privilege out loud. Directly acknowledges. Not just when with like craigslist. Honor. Any of us to pecan. Hypnotic pier. Everyone here has had the experience. Expedition. Your voice is not listen to because you are a woman. As a child overweight. Believing in god. You found it unsafe to be out of the closet. Your family or workplace. You have to be staring into a building. Entrance. Could only be made by stairs. Take a moment. Can remember second time. Aaron. The other honestly acknowledge their privilege. I feel like i'm not being heard because i am a woman. You're right. As a man i was just counting your voice. Privilege does not make us bad people. More responsible. The good life. Robert samuelson writes about hounds country after the second world war. 13 to be a psychology of entitlement. A feeling that we had a right. Uninterrupted personal and societal progress. Onwards and upwards forever. Chico's on deposits of this nursing. Is now generating our collective disappointment. Orientation. It is the 21st century. And the roadster racers hunger homelessness. In the antiques in town antarctica responsibility needs to replace an assumption of entitlement. Politics. Samuel composites responsibility. Should be expected for both privilege and the underprivileged. Cancer society beyond good and expecting responsibility. Especially with you. Privilege. I rented car. Closing word. Tragic failure rates in america by tom wicker. Today's mainstream parties appear to have user the will north leadership. For most african-americans. Cancel every. Or even to raise them if youtube. Therefore. African-american from cell. Mustang saleen. Police warden. Unlike the parties that represent us today. Second floor would have the potential to achieve real democracy. To change american life. Tamara cell. Set reminder quicker reduces great-great only african-american. Nevermind perhaps that you leave there all up. Dorkly downtrodden african-american. Responsibility for savings. Call art cell. I asked you. I'm sure you seen complementary. Have you figured out. A word problem. Solution is a responsibility. Listen to very kind of privileged we need to, and no deer. I recently officiated at a wedding. And during the wedding weekend i found myself in conversation. Conversation. I did not say much during the conversation. In the conversation with doctor. Who are white affluent man in the early sixties. Affirmative action admissions to medicine. Against. Someone went on to talk about how. Of one of these primitive action definition. I have nothing. Then come now the conversation tell him to the current african-american outrage in the central area of seattle. What would the shooting death of an african-american residents. 1 signs of black police officer. City park community teen unreasonable. Finally he was basically asserted that the black community is called worst enemy. I need to get it back together to solve. Point at which i came out of my throat. Suggested to see african americans in the central areas have caused outrage. Waiter. A hatchet was a responsibility. Government. And all the citizenry from seattle. To finally now. Spirit please address the issue. Trump mama.. And the conversation ended there. I like the jesus book samuelson take a strength based approach to problem. Which is my own orientation in counseling. Strengths-based means you notice what's going well instead of just what's wrong. I could point out how long it took from to restrict myself in that conversation to doctor. I'm going to notice that i was aware of privilege that the conversation. And that i did a challenge to the isuzu trooper. Skill and responding group to privileged can come. Even if slowly. It's still come. We are still survive in this society to internalize our privilege in waves do not even realize. I'm doing the training to prime and proper. So as we work on honestly needing our own february. We also need to work on our awareness of february. Creepiness by there. We have a leg-up injure. Because. Recently i was walking along the beach with members or one of our church family. Beautiful afternoon. They told me about a child with visited them frequently when he was in. Just put the tile to always ask. Why. I said i thought the world would be a much better place. If we didn't lose our capacity. Why. Why. Applebee's. We are compromised hawaii. We come to accept them. Without question. Do you realize how much advertising and norm training we are exposed to everyday. Think about it. How amazing. If there are two numbers of unitarian universalist that are are. Did you think it was a bad thing that you got kicked out of catechism class for asking question. I love the story pig to lyndhurst thurman several weeks ago. Reading an article by professor. Say we are hardwired for war.. And that's just the way it is. A collie not that professor and see. Isn't there something more. Where. Give yourself credit. 14 angle. To ask question. Bring the scale. To raise your awareness. A privilege. I'm honored to justin i look up the word travelers in the dictionary while preparing for this sermon. In the paperback webster dictionary. Privilege appeared at the last word on the page. What's the word hydration. When's the knows the word between privation and privilege. Is a green growing hair. Time to get out your pruning. The word pepperidge come from. Private rhegium. If you break that down. One song. And me means law. Literally there. One song. Privilege maintenance and i unto ourselves. Responsibility. Kenalog. Question for one shell. Wonder about 1. Responsibility. Question. Why don't i wonder about differently-abled people willy-nilly up two-step. Building. Why don't i questioned my daughter now. Why do you fear to i want to cross the street when i see an african-american there i'm coming towards me. Why are canadians unitarian from the usa. Why do i smile and say nothing when someone tell homosexual. When ready to name for blurt out loud. And it is someone else's privilege you want to focus on. Trying not to be confrontational. Instead bring back the question. May i ask you a question. Why do you tell jokes about. It was chunky joe. I'm wondering why you telling joke about games. How to joke about. Could you tell me a little more about your experience. Others may not always be willing to sleep with you. F*** you might make something. As we do our personal war regarding privilege. We still. Marcel. Begin to move out from. Horton is not enough to achieve individual enlightenment. Art institutions and are also. Did you know there is research that shows. Went over 35%. Remember. Hickam communities. Usually accomplished. Then the world. Common standards are privileged. Notions like well. Net worth. A word for what a person does and pink. The rich would get into heaven. As some of my colleagues or want to say. The only kingdom of heaven now. Is the one we create here on desper. They are responsive. Privilege bring off a little closer. Sugar reality. Letter. Spirit. Creative spirit of light. May we be just satisfied. Requirements for 2. And screw exchange. May we enlarge our compassion. Senator or mine. Play hearts and heads night. Ability. We remember all those. Hoarseness in our own. We give honesty. Predator. That are are. We would be strengthened indir. Define ways great mall. She brings kind word. Cancel alarm. A clock. Reply. May the spirit of life. Victor. Go in peace. Simply jeffrey at home in yourself. After. Remember the death of your all compassion. Forget not your power images of you're powerless now. Do not desire to be wealthier than your fear. Charity. Forbearance. Horse teeth. Take care of yourself everybody. Where you are. Crazy for all people in the world. With your cell. And go as you go. Coli. In your heart.

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20220417-Saying-Holy-Holy-1.mp3

I begin this morning with a poem by pesha gertler. She was born in portland oregon. But spent a great deal of her life after growing up in brooklyn new york. Here in seattle washington. She taught at north seattle community college as well as at the university of washington. And in 2005 she became the inaugural. Seattle poet. Populist. Her poems were printed on placards in on seattle buses. She read them before the seattle city council. As well as at bumbershoot. And at the age of 81 she died in 2015. The title of this poem one of her most famous is the healing time. Finally on my way to yes. I bump into all the places. Where i said no. In my life. All the intended wounds. The red and purple scars those hieroglyphs of pain. Carved into my skin. My bones. Those coded messages that send me down the wrong street. Again and again. Where i find them. The old wounds. And the old misdirections. And i left them. One by one. Close to my heart. And i say. Holy. Holy. The day lindsey died. Was as fine a spring day. As there was in massachusetts. The lilacs were in bloom. The school year was winding down. And we were preparing for our annual plant sale. At the church. I was there at church helping to sort through trays of seedlings. When i heard the siren off in the distance. And when i determined that the siren wasn't heading toward us. I returned. To my trays. And then someone arrived. Who told us. There had been a bad accident. On route 130. Two teenage girls. Head hit a guardrail. Coming off the exit ramp. And one of them. The driver. Lindsey. Was dead. In this small new england town. 4 bar high schoolers. Had perished in automobile accidents. Over the last two years. Randy. And liz. And eileen. And now lindsey. They were all. Good kids. And when i remember the shed carnage. I find myself wishing. That the automobile. Had never been invented. None of these kids had been in my youth group. At the church. Though eileen had been the best friend of mandy. One of the kids in my group. And i accompanied. Mandy. To the calling hours and the funeral the day after. And i don't think i shall ever forget. The whale grief. Mandy poured out. For eileen. Resonant. With all the ardor. One teenager. Can have. In loving another pier. When you are young. And have so much life before you. You are bewildered into living. In the moment. Then death. Steals the ticket. And cancels. The show. The older i get the more i realize. That one of the most important courses of study. Features grief as the theme. And we. As the subjects. Over the course of a lifetime. We are schooled. In grief. Yet we are not always. Attentive pupils. Eventually though. We lose our innocence. And we lose our youthfulness. And we lose our freedoms. And we can lose her optimism. And fall prey. To cynicism. Sometimes. We lose our capacity to make real. Are dreams. And we lose our conviction maybe. That right thinking motivated people. Can make a difference. In the world. We become tin. By the tragedy of nations. And people's. And i'm mystified. By our renewable. Resourcefulness. To destroy. The earth. Each other. And our ideals. If we are ever to find our way to yes. Especially gertler road. We must first bump into all the places. Where we said. No. Remember our losses. And lift. Each place. Each scar. And call it holy. The day after lindsey died. High school decided. The pushback is graduation date. It had been moved up. Because of some planned constructions at the school. But now the students didn't mind staying. Together. For another two weeks. On the day lindsay was buried. I was downtown. When the funeral procession. Which began at the high school. Drove past. I counted. 100. In 30. Cars. The students were dressed in jackets and ties. Dresses. Holding each other. Crying. And red-faced. And the long queue. Wound its way. To the north cemetery. And at the time i thought of my wife. And our two little blond girls. And wondered. Whether we would ever find ourselves. In such a q. And i certainly prayed. That we never would. 2 weeks. After lindsey died. We were rebuilding the community beach house. At land's end. Lots of money had been raised in town. And the weekend was set aside to get this town gathering place. In-shape. Several hundred people gathered over the course of three days. And as the minister of the old first church in town. I spent a good bit of the weekend there. And not being handy myself. My role was one of cheering the workers on. And visiting everybody. There. I heard many snatches of conversation about lindsay. Sad voices. Resigned size. Lindsay had been a lifeguard at this beach club. For the last 2 years. And yet there is. A healing. Power. To labor. Pain can be softened by working together. And we began almost in a somber silence. And by work send. There was laughter. And pride. The high school students. Rebuilt the lifeguards tower. And they dedicated it to lindsay. And the little children painted a mural on the freshly refinished wall in the bath house. And a winter's worth of seaweed. And debris was raped. From the beach. And by sunday dinner time. We packed up to go home. Our town beach club was ready. For a new season. Graduation was held. At the later date. The girls in their white gowns the boys in their red. The class. Of 19. 84. -. 1. I was asked to give the opening invocation. And the town had been celebrating its 350th anniversary that year. So the history teacher from the local private academy. Had been asked. To give the graduation speech. A sensitive man. And a much beloved teacher. About to retire. He began by looking backward over three and a half centuries. But his excitement. Misdirected. Head looking forward. To the future. What a hero. He is now buried. In the north cemetery to. The academic and athletic achievement awards were given out. The band played. And above us the large white banner with the words. Lindsey. You live in our hearts. Forever. Waved. Serenely. The crowd dispersed. Families off to backyard picnics. With cars of teenagers making the rounds of several homes. Then gathering at the yacht club. To celebrate. Their newfound. Freedom. And later that same week. On thursday evening. We stood in line. For the five sitting. For the strawberry supper. At the little methodist church. In the south part of town. For more than 130 years. The strawberry supper. Was the most important fundraiser. For this village. Methodist church. It was usually held sometime. During the third week of june. If there had been just enough but not too much rain. For the strawberries. Two seatings on each of three nights. Some folks waited all year for this supper. Cold ham potato salad. Beverages. But the featured delight. Was a large. Marge. Bull. Homemade shortcake. A small mountain of fresh strawberries. And real whipped cream. I'm mailing itself. We especially enjoy taking the girls when they were younger. And of course they're little appetites would not do justice to this dessert. And of course. Dad. Was obliged. To help them finish. They're shortcake. Never. Any complaints. We would gather early. Stand in line. File into the church. Their new pastor from india would say a blessing. And then he would hop up. On the oregon bench of their newly refinished oregon. And play us a tune. Smiles of embarrassment mingled with smiles of delight. And i wondered. How many balls. Of strawberry shortcake. Had been served. To fix that oregon. And fetch that minister. From so far away. It's pretty easy on an evening like that. To forget that just down the road. Her mother and father grieve. In such a home. Grief is not healed. With work. Or graduation speeches. Or strawberry suckers. You drive by and see the shades drawn. And you remember where the sharp intake of breath. The sorrow. That befell them. Such. Saro is a world. Traveler. You know it. It's come. Jessica biel. You feel guilty that just an hour before you were salivating over a bowl of strawberries joking with someone in line. Whose kid was in the same class as your own. When such t-pain was just a stone's throw away. And your mind turns again. To randy. And liz. And eileen and lindsay. And you think of many such people. And such children. All over this earth. And you draw. Your children. Close. To you. One of our family jokes is that after our first born lila. Arrived in boston. On the second day my dearest friend and his wife came to the hospital to visit. Three of us. And i pointed to lila and said to bob my friend. Here she is. And she's not going to date any creeps. And he attorney that heat what is says. She's not only a week old and you're already worrying about. Creeps. Maybe that's because. We were creeps when we were home.. But there's that. Protective instinct. Right there. The great mystic william blake said. Joy and woe are woven fine. Under every grief. And pine. Runza troy with silken twine. We were made. For joy. Endwell. And when this we rightly know. Safely through the world. Wiko. We can choose to become park. Of a slow-healing. Which for those of us in line for a strawberry supper is a far quicker process. Some entire days may pass without thought of the deceased. We do them no dishonor. By forgetting. And then we see your father at the store. Still hollow-eyed with grief. And it comes back to us. And we will despise ourselves. For forgetting. Today is easter sunday. And for nearly two thousand years. We have tried to make sense of the fact. That we are alive. And we must also. Die. The dean of the seminary i attended doctor christer stendhal. An internationally famous new testament scholar. Informally the archbishop of the lutheran church in stockholm. Said that the meaning of easter is to answer the question. What is. Fundamentally. Reliable. In your life. Honey stir we remember that love is stronger than death. Even though that has become a bit of a cliche. But i believe that the answer to the question is that love is the only thing. That gives life meaning. And love is the only thing. That gives stuff meaning. Their ultimate significance. And rob's. Tragedy. Of its urge to become. A disaster. This is a lesson we learned one stitch at a time. We embrace the tragic nature of life. And make it redemptive. And recover life from death. For we were made for joy and woe. And when this we rightly know. Safely to the world. We may go. So many times i say at the end of a service. Let us take much. Of love. Into all the struggles of life. And when the recall sounds. Even if we protest. And the shadows fall. Even as we expect. May we have hearts on embittered. By all we have suffered. And uncorrupted by always have enjoyed. And be at the last remembered. And cherished. As those who love boldly. On the way to yes. We bump into all the places where we said now. All the ones. Which could send us. Down the wrong street. May we lift them. One by one. And hold them close to our hearts. And whisper. They are holy.

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Religion-and-Politics.mp3?_=32

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20200419-Sermon.mp3

As the story goes. One of the most impactful photos of the last century was unplanned. Taking almost as an afterthought. A 1972. 20000 miles from earth and 5 hours into apollo 17 launch into space. The three astronauts aboard were looking back toward home. And though there were no photos planned for that time in the expedition they were each performing a multitude of tasks required for reaching the moon. The crew was transfixed. By what i saw. And the first photo of the complete earth was taken. A perfect. Blue and green sphere hanging and the darkness of space. Thinly veiled by an ever-shifting atmosphere. This is the image that came to be known as the blue marble. It is one of the most reproduced pictures and all of human history and the one that adorns the earth day flag. And while there have been a number of other photographs of the whole earth since then. This is the only one. To have been taken by human hand. Having been born into a post moonwalk world i've often taken this image for granted. It's easy to forget how. Astonishing. How awesome it is in the truest. Since of the word it is an image that transformed the way that people. That we saw ourselves and it has the potential to transform us still. Seeing the earth from space. Has left an indelible mark. On the astronauts the privileged few who have had. The opportunity to see the planet in this way. Not to be too punny. But it ships their worldview. They're paradigm of how they understand the planet and life upon it. And is cognitive shift and awareness has even been studied. And it is called the overview effect. Space shuttle astronaut and physicist lauren acton describes it in this way. Looking outward to the blackness of space. Sprinkled with the glory of a universe of light. I saw a majesty. But no welcome. Below was a welcoming planet. They're contained in the thin moving incredibly. Fragile shell of the biosphere. Is everything. What is dear to you. All the human drama and comedy that's where life is. That's where all the good stuff is. The magazine universe today describes the overview effect in this way. From space national boundaries vanish. And the conflicts that divide people become less important in the need to create a planetary society with united will to protect. This pale blue dot becomes both obvious. And imperative. The seventh principle of unitarian universalism is the affirmation. That life. Is an interdependent web of existence of which. We two are apart. Corn to our religious understanding is that life is inherently. Deeply interconnected our lives are interwoven with the plants. The other animals the land in disguise the seas there is no being no existence. Independent of these connections. The natural alchemy of evolution. Created us this way. And is creating lights still. It's challenging to grasp. Beyond the theoretical. Largely. And it's almost paradoxical to our duly held. An important believe in the power. Purpose an agency of the individual. It certainly runs counter. To the dominant cultural worldview of individualism. Held here in western society. And yet. In this moment. In this moment in which a global pandemic has spread out across the nations. And changed everything. A matter of a few months. Are interdependence is impossible. Even dangerous to deny. Once more photographs are reminding us of how there's a whole planet and all of humanity are one. On some level. Do not everyone is being impacted in the same way. I personally found these photos transfixing. Images of empty square. And europe religious leaders speaking to empty cathedrals and sanctuaries. A picture of the sacred mosque in mecca with no pilgrims circling the kaaba. Of indoor and outdoor classrooms where students are sitting 6ft apart. And if mask and gown healthcare care workers. Working to provide comfort. While reducing contagion. The whole world over. The experience of quarantine and sheltering in place no doubt. Can be lonely. But in many ways no one is truly alone. Within this global moment. It's an. Overwhelming truth. Just how interconnected we all are in this experience. Honest. Fragile and beautiful planet. Spinning in space. From the safety of your homes. Would you please take a breath with me. And then another. Feeling your body. Supported in space. Moving gently. With each inhalation and exhalation. Perhaps sensing. But in this moment. You are safe. And you are okay. One of the great ironies. Is just as our global interdependence has become strikingly clear. Most of us are living life. Much more rooted in place. For those of us privileged to be in stable housing. Gory sheltering in place. Our homes. Apartments in local streets have become the setting. For each unfolding day in this strange new reality. And whether it is through your window looking out from quarantine. Around walks around your neighborhood. You might have noticed. Something amazing is happening outside. Spring. Has arrived. Is. Arriving. All around flowers are blooming with total abandon practically singing and color. Trees are burst. With white and pink blossom and the rhododendrons are opening fistful. A flowers. As leaves appear on branches that have been there for months. My apologies to those whose allergies make this season hard to bear. That for me. Bring. Every spring i just fall in love again with this ravishing beauty. Of the earth. And if someone reflected on a zoom call that's last week i am just so glad this didn't hit in november. What is something you have seen. Heard. Smelled or felt this week. Of the natural world. That has filled you. The presence of gratitude. Our wonder. What signs of the earth awakening have come as blessing. In the midst of this uncertain time. The skies in their ever shifting beauty. Remain open even as art museums have closed. The birds are still gathering for their spring symphony. Garden still hold the promise of future sustenance. Even as grocery store shelves have been depleted. The mall the exact date. May become mired and memory. The cycle of the seasons has arrived. With little care whether it's monday or wednesday. And all of this happening happening simultaneously. With the rising stress in the world. Nature has long been a source of inspiration for poets. Philosophers and mystics alike. Within our own religious history the transcendentalist went to newt the new england woods and ponds believing that the divine energy permeated. The natural world as well as the individual person. Nature provided the gateway to this deeper knowing. In the path towards experiencing both eminence. And transcendence. And i imagine these claims must have been quite radical at the time. Alongside what was the dominant christianity but was decidedly otherworldly. Ralph waldo emerson share this glimpse. Into an awakening he had. In the natural world in his title and his essay entitled nature. Standing on the bare ground. My head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space. All mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball i am nothing. Ic. Oh. The currents of the universal being circulate through me i am parked. Are parcel of god. For emerson being and nature was a spiritual journey. A place. To visit to go to 24 wonder connection in contemplation. He writes. To be attentive i. Each moment of the year has its own beauty. And in the same field it beholds every hour a picture which was never seen before. And which. She'll never be seen again. Since the shelter in place order took. Took place i have taken near daily walks around the meadowbrook pond. Tethered to my neighborhood of these. Daily strolls have become like a local pilgrimage. Where i joined with other pilgrims at a safe distance. Today's out together at the changing waters. Trees and creatures. And i cannot ever report feeling like a transparent. Eyeball but i have been lifted out of my own fretting. At the sight of a blue heron taking flight. I felt my heart release hearing that trill of a red-winged blackbird. Gratitude and beauty has brought expansion to a mind. Contracted with anxiety at the edges of this pond i have been touched. By the vastness. Existence express. Within the individual parts that make up a much. Greater holness. In his book no death no fear. Buddhist monk cigna honda scribes a flower. As being full. Of everything. And the flower. We see sunshine. The rain in the clouds the earth. We also see time and space in the flower. A flower like everything else. Is made of entirely non flour elements. The whole cosmos has come together to help the flower manifest herself. The flower is full of everything except one thing. As separate self. A separate identity. The flower cannot be herself alone. The flower has to enter be with the sunshine the cloud and everything in the cosmos. Without ever leaving the atmosphere. And without even leaving your home. It is possible. To witness the whole cosmos. Within a single flower. Or even by looking into a mirror. This coming wednesday. On april 22nd around the globe and online. People will celebrate earth day. Marking the 50th anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in the us. 1970. The first earth day came at a time in which the public was becoming more aware of the impact. Of unchecked pollution. And years of industrialization. An emerging environmental consciousness had been set in motion. In the early 1960s by rachel carson seminole book. Silent spring. Which raised public awareness and concern for living organisms. The environment in the inexpressible links. Between pollution and public health. Following witnessing the ravages of an oil spill in santa barbara california. Democratic senator gaylord nelson. Came together with republican senator pete mccloskey. To inspire the first earth day and hopes. Of mobilizing americans particularly students. To act for healthy water and air. I'm at first earth day in 1970 20 million americans gathered on behalf of the environment that was 10%. Of the u.s. population of the tire at the time. An earth day 1978 achieved a rare political alignment. Enlisting support from republicans and democrats rich and poor. Urban dwellers and farmers business and labor leaders. And by the end of 1970 the first earth day led to the creation of the united states. Environmental protection agency. And over the ensuing years the passage of environmental laws. Including the national environmental education act. The clean air act the clean water act. And the endangered species act. It's astonishing really. And that shift in consciousness. And policy that happened within a. Relatively very short amount of time. In the decades since. Earth day has shifted to a global day of action in service. Over the past 20 years as the realities of climate change has become more urgent. Earth day organizing has emphasized clean energy. And the need for governments around the globe to take seriously the threat. The climate catastrophe into respond appropriately. As with the coronavirus a changing climate. Highlights how interconnected. We all are. And i believe that there are lessons within the pandemic. That will serve us. On a planet that is warming. As the virus and the related economic hardship is not. Impacting everyone equally. Climate change also disproportionately affects those. Who are most vulnerable. People who have been historically marginalized based on race. Class ability. Nation of birth and immigrant status. And hasn't it become. Desperately clear in this time. That leadership. Matters. Matters in terms of life or death and that science and evidence are essential. To creating policies that meet the challenges we collectively face. It is essential to our personal actions in the relationships we build. The local organizing that is happening right now everywhere the connections being forged to care for one another and those most vulnerable in our communities are reasons for hope and courage. And yet they are not enough. Without also changing the system. That reach far into the lives. A family's. Communities and nations. Systems that work for people. And not just profit. We are in a moment. Of co-creation. In some ways. We have always been in a moment of co-creation. And it continues forward. Earth day is known for his activism its service and its advocacy. So where does that come from. What inspires it. I believed for many. It inspired. Buy a deep. Love. Active love for the earth. An act of hope. For a world that will be home. For generations to come. Author and educator bell hooks rights. Love is an action. Never simply a feeling. We do not have to love. We choose. To laugh. 2 lovewell. Is the task. In all meaningful relationships. Not. Just romantic bonds. As we are interconnected. We are each and all and meaningful relationships with the earth. Deland. The air we breathe and the water we drink. We are in deep inextricable. Relationships. With other humans as well as with the whole. Family of living things. Liz. love. As action. In tenderness. Whenever pause. I close with these words. Again from bell hooks. Redeemed and restored. Love returns us to the promise of everlasting life. When we love. We can let. Our hearts.

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After-Ecstasy-the-Laundry-W.-F.-Schultz.mp3?_=37

When i ended my term as president of the usa in 1993. I would never preach in the pulpit. Minister who had not been kind to me when i was president. That automatically eliminated 50% of the congregations. But certainly not university church because. John lopez has been a dear friend for many years as have other ministers of this church peter a bowl of sainted memory. Alina breen deborah wrabel. And elisha was not even in our ministry when i was president so she had no opportunity to offend me. I'm very grateful to dick henry to the sabbatical committee especially kathleen home. For bringing me back to to your pulpit this morning. This always feels like my church home on the west coast. I would be with you as a parishioner. Every sunday if you were not fully 3000 miles from the ocean. And i want to specially congratulate you upon the funding of your new social justice staffing position you have good cause to be proud. Now you can imagine that my years as executive director of amnesty international were years of great opportunity and privilege for me privilege. The privilege for example being insulted in the nicest possible way by lauren bacall. Hifalutin dinner party on the upper east side i'll clean up her language a bit but. This is how the conversation went. Darling. Q u that beautiful human rights man that everyone's been teetering on about. Reply yes miss bakala i suppose i am. Get with you tonight at dinner. Nice swooning what why ask miss macapa i'd be delighted. See darling i wouldn't ask you but frankly i don't know another friggin solely. Or perhaps more to the point the. The opportunity to greet wei jingsheng the father of chinese democracy on his arrival in america after 17 years in prison. Or the opportunity to go to the refugee camps in darfur sudan to meet those terrorized out of their homes and then. Into the government offices in khartoum to confront the ministers who had. Order doterra. Misty constituted the remarkable opportunity of great achievement for human rides in a conversation with. A bunch of professors at syracuse university shortly before i retired from amnesty and someone asked whether over the course of. The last 200 years human rights have gotten better or worse. And with one exception. The professor's all offered abstruse reasons why the human rights situation was worse today than 1806 and i. Listen to all this moaning and i said in my customarily packed away are you guys nuts. Watch austin the 12 years i've been with amnesty we've seen the creation of the international criminal court. War crimes tribunals in. Maganda bosnia sierra leone the truth and reconciliation process in south africa ruling by the british law lords that tyrants like augusto pinochet can be held responsible for their crimes in any country on earth. Successful civil suits against torturers who take up residence in this country. The rapid spread of democracy around the globe. The abolition of the death penalty in the majority of countries around the world and. You don't think that we are better off today than when the slaveholder thomas jefferson get elected president. These were academics that shut them up for about six seconds and yet. Despite these successes there is much more to do at eastshore this late afternoon i'm going to talk about what we have left to do in terms of politics and policy but. Today i want to talk about what we still have to do with religious lie because the struggle for human rights and more broadly for social justice isn't very profound ways of religious struggle in the spiritual calling over and over again i found my work at amnesty. Preferably informed by my unitarian universalist faith and that's what i want to talk with you about this morning why unitarian universalist values matter so much to the world at large. As practitioners of a religious enterprise all of us are called upon of course to grapple with such profound questions is. Why is there something. Rather than nothing. What is the meaning of life. Is there a god why do bad things happen to good people these are very challenging questions they are. Questions i've been seeking the answers to for more than 40 years and. If alicia had given me a few more minutes this morning i would give you the answers but the truth is that even. The answer to the age-old question religious. Just sitting in a pub. And think of the church. What is sit in the church and think of the pub the answer even to that it's not self-evident so then going. Going from my years with you you a damn the sewer the kind of questions we dealt with were at least a bit more concrete questions like how can we get the chinese to stop torturing a nineteen-year-old tibetan the contemplation of religious questions to questions of human rights. Is alexa like traversing the reference points referred to in the famous send saying after ecstasy. The laundry. And yet it doesn't get done if those who are supposed to do the washing lack the inspiration and that of course is where religion comes in. We witnessed today to an enormous struggle. Between those who would close down culture. And those who would keep it open. Between those who would resort to violence and those who would resist it as long as possible. Between those who believe that the future is that by forces beyond human control and those who would take responsibility for the planet's future. Windows to welcome the pre-eminence of one nation. And those who give their fealty to the common interests of the globe it is insured a struggle. Between those with a parched vision. And those with a generous heart. And unitarian-universalism forbetterorworse is always cast it it's locked. On the side of the generous heart. I'm at the center of that a generous heart is the conviction that truth takes many forms that. Love takes many guys has that there is no necessary correlation between wisdom and power. Transit the mysteries of life or so great. Life's meaning cannot be captured in any narrow formulation but additional categories of thought. Osama bin laden doesn't believe that. Believe that. Huge until the president of china doesn't believe that pope benedict doesn't believe that bill o'reilly doesn't believe that howard stern doesn't believe that. But it is true. I can't tell you how often i heard some version. Avista expressed in the past 12 years the israelis are the sole source of the problem. The palestinians are nothing but a bunch of murderous thugs. America is the fount of all evil. Terrorists are pure and simple barbarian. Sometimes i wish the secret of life was as simple as all that the. The chinese philosopher said only those who can appreciate the least possible of root vegetables the meaning of life. I wish it were that easy. What is man asked isak dinesen the name the danish anomalous bisman machine for turning red wine into urine. I wish that was all there was to it but. I'm afraid my sympathies lie with the rabbi who upon his deathbed was asked by the head elder to reveal the meaning of life before he passed beyond it life said the rabbi life is is like a river. And those wise words were passed on down the row of elders until. They reach the lowest of the low the poor stupid schlemiel but the meal was puzzled in life is like a river he asked. How much formula question was passed back on up the role of elders until it reached the head elder to. To put it to the rabbi i'm sorry good sir he said particularly at this particular moment but. But the schlemiel the poor stupid fellow has asked what you mean life is like a river. Rabbi just shrugged. So we said life is not like a river. True takes many forms. Love takes many guises. And there is no necessary correlation between wisdom and power. That's why everybody's right to free expression must be protected because everyone of us. May sometimes be right we know for damn sure that everyone of us is often wrong. Unitarian universalism places protection of that right at the apex of our faith. Our generous heart. There's a second feature of that generous hard and that is the recognition that what human beings share is far broader and more. Important than what divides us. In the midst of the 1994 rwandan genocide a girls school was attacked by machete-wielding militiamen in the middle of the night. The teenagers were rousted from their beds about 2 a.m. and forced into the courtyard. I'm in the militia commander ordered them to separate themselves coutu on this side could see on that so that only the tootsie. Could be killed. None of the girls moved. And the second time that the commander issued his order to overhear cooksey over there and for a second time out of one of the girls moved. And finally one little girl naturally terrified. Timorously raised her hand. I'm sorry sir she said but. We we cannot separate ourselves. Because you see in this school. We are not 22. We are not tootsie. We are all just. Rwandan just. Little rwandan girls. At which point everyone of the girls was slaughtered. They leave we are not who to we are not to. Tootsie we are all just reminding just looking for london girls. Exodus the most fundamental religious sentiment of the mall and the echoes of that young girl's voice the speaker graciousness for which the world is desperate. In a magnificent essay entitled the moral necessity of metaphor. The nautilus cynthia ozick quotes chapter 19. Passage from the book of leviticus the stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as if a home born among you and you shall love him as yourself because you two were want strangers in the land of egypt. I don't want to say it is exactly because it's some point and every one of our lives at some point every single one of us was stranger in our own land egypt. That we can identify with another that. University ford doctors. What it is to be a patient. Those. Who have no pain at the moment can imagine what it is to suffer. Those at the center of power can imagine what it is to be outside the circle of power. Can you imagine what it is to be weak and we strangers can imagine the familiar hearts of other strangers i've never been tortured i've never have my arm amputated but i know plenty of people who have and i'm compelled by my religious paid to make a metaphorical leap from my own trivial suffering into those of the hearts of strangers and what i find there is remarkable what i find is familiarity familiar heart of. Every stranger. The second feature of unitarian-universalism generous hard is his conviction that what we share is far more important than what we don't and that all blood flows red. My friend is truly a radical earth-shattering recognition. Can bleed. I guess i was just naive. I guess i was just naive but i never thought. I would see the day in this country when the president of the united states would authorize the torture of prisoners. The secretary of defense would relish. Listing. Permissible techniques. The congress would deny those prisoners the most basic. Write in u.s.. Lexicon of. Jurisprudential rights habeas corpus. The government would threaten the lawyers who have the courage to try to defend those prisoners. And the courts would permit evidence of pain by court if i torture. To be used to convict defendant that's what they do in china. Burma. Zimbabwe but not to united states of america. But such a betrayal of. The best of our political heritage is not inevitable. And it need not stand. Because. Of the third feature of unitarian universalism. Generous heart and that is the conviction that history is not finish. The game's not over. The future's not stated every one of us has a responsibility to build a more benevolent nation. A more hospitable people amor. Welcoming world. Somewhere in one of the great art museums of europe there hangs a large painting of spouse than the devil. Sitting at a chess table faust has made his pact with the devil and now his face is contorted in anguish because he retains on the chessboard but a knight and a king and the king is in check. What are great trackmaster happened into the museum and naturally this painting in front of it and stared. 10:15 20 and still the master and then suddenly leaping to his feet. Burger king. Khabarnama move. Please have another move. Is the final message of unitarian-universalism generous heart that no matter what. seem a claim. No matter what political ideology may bluster history's not finish the future is not fated what comes next is in our hands so that in the face of hardship and injustice we safe story is not over. Ford it's not trust the king but the night queen. Have another move. We have another move. So these three gift to the generous heart signal how critical unitarian universalist faith is to the trepidation of the day a conviction that truth takes many forms. A recognition that what human beings share is far greater than what. Devices and a certainty that the future is not. In the hands of a miscreant government. Or an inexorable fate. Or an angry god. But he's waiting to be shaped. By either our foolishness. Or abba dab. It's a demanding face. I'm having faith that we claim this unitarian universalism. But one that has never been more important to sustain. If i learned anything from my days at amnesty it's this but no authentic person. Can live in this world i moved. But how immense. Is the tragedy. That is creation. No pretty words from a pulpit. Can cover that up. No symbol faith can fix it no complex theology can explain it away it just. Yes. Truly religious people know that fear it sometimes flea it but more often do our best to face it for we know that our job is not to deny evil or heartache or death. But to keep companion with them. At the same time that we keep companion with blessings and possibility. And grace. Losing our faith. Every single night. And gaining it again with the coming of the day. That's what happened to me for 12 years at amnesty international. I lost my face almost every single night. Thank god i gained it again with the coming of the day. That's just the way it is with us human being flawed and fragile. I was often tempted to wish it otherwise to never hear another story of torture. To never learn of another senseless killing to never see tears again. But whenever i wished for a world like that. I reminded myself of just one. In the ancient world. Poetry contest was held each year. And the third place winner. Was presented rose made out of silver. The second-place winner. A rose. Made out of gold. But the first place winner receive real rose. A living rose. That while it was far from perfect. And didn't live forever. Stoked. While it did. Of art. And beauty. And passion. And power. And who among us my friend. Who among us. If we had to choose. Would not choose. The living room. Now i want you to do something for me. I want you to actually read the words of this last han.

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20200531-UUSC.mp3

Greetings friends. We are glad to join you're worshipping community today for this uusc sunday service thank you. Hello just as lovers. It's good to be with you in this virtual way. Like you we at uusc are finding our way in this difficult time. In addition to adopting to social distancing working from home homeschooling caring for loved ones morning or losses. And finding new ways to connect. We are also discovering all the ways we are called to pivot in our work for human rights. Over the last week's we have reached out to all of our partners around the world. We are hearing from them and learning about the ways the pandemic is posing new threats to communities. Already facing. So many long-standing threats. Together with our partners we are striving to be nimble and creative. In responding to needs that are merging. We feel grateful for our history of deeply-rooted partnerships. Which makes it possible. For us to move quickly. Respond. For all of us committed to being a part of creating a world transformed by justice. We know that these commitments are more important now. Then a. That it is in times of crisis. That human rights for all are most at risk. We are grateful for this opportunity to share how uusc works for a world transformed by justice. Share what is always guided our work. And what guides us still. We think of social justice and human rights we often think of words like resistance fortitude. Resilience and courage. Perhaps especially courage. And sometimes. We know courage. We've seen courage. But we often think of courage as something other people have. So today we want to start with imagination. And move to help. Because current the courage to imagine and hope for a new world. A world reflective of the values we cherish is exactly the courage we need. Imagination and hope. Are acts of courage because of vision of what more is possible demands that we move away from the sidelines. Imagination invites us to see beyond the current systems and norms. And hope. Princess. New regenerative systems and norm reflecting the values we share. 80 years ago. In the face of rising nazi repression. Unitarians imagine a different world. A different response from the us isolationism. They knew. There was a beloved community that cared about human rights across the country and around the world. And then they ask themselves what they needed to do. Get closer to that different world. They ask themselves who else share their vision for that beloved community. And they ask themselves what they were willing to risk. Live their values in the world. They chose to form and support. The unitarian service committee. No. I realize i keep saying they. But in reality. We chose to form and support unitarian universalist service committee. You choose the form and support the unitarian universalist service committee. Those people eating years ago we're not separate or different from us from you. They were regular people within the average lives. Worried about their jobs and children and bill. Just like us. Just like you. They were overwhelmed by the state of the world and a time of fear and pandemic. Fascism in war. Anti-semitism and racism. Just like you. The opportunity arose for them to make a difference in affirm the inherent worth and dignity of all people across the world. They took action with their time. With their money. But their influence. Just like us. Just like you do every time you write a letter to a politician. Dutro protest. Time or give your money to usd and our partner. 480 years our unitarian universalist service committee your unitarian universalist service committee has been working in partnership with those most directly impacted by injustice. To create a different world. A beloved community. Every person's rights are honored and. We joined with migrant workers in texas in the 1940s as they fought against exploitation. We launched the segregation projects in georgia and florida in 1960. In 1978 uusc sponsored the first congressional fact-finding mission to el salvador. Science fair. In the 1980s we sent emergency funds to ease the ethiopian famine. Long before the story reach mainstream. U.s. news. We sent emergency medical equipment to rwanda in the 1990s and then launched the drumbeat for darfur. 2000. To help end the genocide in sudan. In 2010 we went to haiti to assist with immediate relief after the earthquake. And remained to partner. In long-term. Juuse works with organizations in central america mexico and the united states on the forefront of migrant justice. As we speak security for people who wish to remain in their home country. Safety for those traveling along a migrant. Entrust. Reach the united states. We partner with first and indigenous communities in the south pacific louisiana and alaska. On the front lines of the climate change crisis at their home. Way of life. Arthrex. High rising sea levels. And rising temperature. We are working with rohingya leaders as they suggest us and healing for their communities. Following genocide. And forced displacement from their homeland. By the burmese government. And we are joining with the minority haitian community in the bahamas after the devastation of hurricane dorian. Is basic to rebuild their lives with no access to government assistance. I know sometimes maybe a lot of time. Things can feel helpless. Like the world is moving farther and farther away from rv. From all the progress. Triton. The time of unitarian universalist service committees founding. When was officially known as the unitarian service committee. The world's give few signs of moving in a better direction. The work of u usb began in 1939. When hitler's germany was driving all of europe into war. Laying the groundwork for the holocaust. Thousands of refugees were already displaced from their homes. Forced to flee religious and political persecution as the nazis took power. When martha and wait still sharp open the first offense of the usc in prague. We met an embattled unitarian community at the unitarian church. The hedge preach their opposition to the nazis in double meaning. During the german occupation of the city the nazi secret police began monitoring every sermon given at the unitarian congregation. Listening for subtle messages of descent. A few years later they found what they were looking for. In 1941 the minister of the unitarian congregation. Garbage traffic. Was arrested and deported to the concentration camp at the cow. He was killed with poison gas the following fall. Tropic had been personally named by hitler on a list of 10,000 politically suspect person. Slated for murder. Traffic wasn't the only figure associated with the founding view usb. Make the ultimate sacrifice for human rights. Ufc early work in prague and vault helping refugees apply for visas and process other paperwork they would need to seek safety of rod. Similar to you usc's current model of partnering with directly impacted communities the service committee's first employees for jewish refugees working to protect the rights of their own community. At the time she wish people in progress already facing persecution under nazi occupation and all the warning signs of the coming genocide were in place. Is therefore knew the risks they took. I staying in the city to help others. Nevertheless historian elizabeth do back rights. They delayed their own immigration efforts to help other refugees. Ultimately. None were able to emigrate or avoid deportation to the concentration camps. In the face of genocide religious persecution political assassination and all the worst atrocities the human imagination has ever devised. It was an act of courage for these women and men to hope. Free different worlds. As it always is. In the face of genocide religious persecution political assassination in the worst atrocities. The human imagination has ever devised men and women's fighting for liberation display indescribable courage. Layman. Of the courage i have seen and learned about through our partnerships at usc. And i have also come to understand. But the first and most important thing required for courage. It's imagination. In the reading activist and author rebecca solnit thanks for youth leaders for being unreasonable. She might have also said thank you for imagining there is another way. You're being unreasonable is what we often hear when structures of power are challenge. When youth challenge their elders when indigenous leaders challenge colonizers and industry and demand protection of community sources of water. When congregations perhaps like yours challenge authorities and regulations by welcoming a person into sanctuary. Vision and imagination about how things might be different are often discouraged and dismissed by the status quo. When we allow ourselves to be discouraged when we resign ourselves to our illusion of powerlessness. More cynical. When we don't believe there's another way. We are playing right into their hands. Alison power. Our lack of imagination. True. Empire center events. Power gets away with conceding nothing. It's the courage we need to fight. The courage to imagine. And the courage to imagine is so important now. Because it is through courageous imagination that we spines the seeds of hope. Radical help. Nourishing. It's a hope or discourage that can best be described the often-quoted phrase by the reverend jeremiah wright. The audacity of hope. These words we are so familiar with today originally appeared in a 1995 sermon. Which right was reflecting on the ravages of racism and apartheid in south africa. Wright took as the text of his sermon a painting by the victorian artist george frederick watts. Crucifixion of hope. Does a blindfolded woman playing a harp. Write analyze the message of the painting in these words. Purpose is sitting there in rags. Her clothes are tattered as though she herself. I've been a victim of hiroshima or sharpsville. The artist dared to entitle this painting hope. Be in spite of being in a world torn by war. Despite of being in the world is troy by hate. In spite of being in a world devastated by just rush. And decimated by disease. Spite of being. The world's were apartheid and apathy. Read the fires of racism. Despite of all of these things. The woman. Happy audacity. New hope. You have the audacity to hope. To make music. The praise god on the one string she had left. Friends we've come as far as we have because justice speakers throughout time have continued to have the audacity. You keep reaching towards another imagine possibility. At you us see we have joined with a dacious imaginative hope-filled people. For the last eighty years and with your help. We will continue this vital work for the next 80 years. And the 80 years after that. We will continue to go where justice calls. Partnering with those most affected by disasters and human rights abuses. So long as unitarian universalist. People of conscience and moral imagination. Continue to join with us we will be here to join in the struggle. To wend our way to bend the arc of the universe towards justice. Keep turning courageous hope. Interaction. Thank you my friends. Be well. Take good care of each other and keep the flame of justice kendall wherever you are today. Blessed be. Comment.

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The-Wild-Fawn-and-the-Fox.mp3?_=17

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Abortion.mp3?_=26

Housewife names, vine. Hor. Tomoko run. Set the drug been taking during her 5th pregnancy. Work a little mine. Thousands of. European mother. Delivered. Seriously deformed children. After taking the same medicine. Physician recommended a therapeutic abortion. Paolo physicians agreed. Operation was scheduled. A local hospital. Recording her attitude later mrs. finkbine said. Misgiving. White bear. Do i have the right to take it. What is it like when you come out. Dress yourself. Run. Walk. Damn. Play green onion. Abate. I have no choice. I would have the baby. But i have the way to tragedy. Recycling. The same drug. Frank van gaver sorry. The news media. Read the headline. Immediately the hospital or her abortion have been scheduled flughafen. Sephora court ruling. Galuppi's. Brock wright. Probably attorney announced that. He would prosecute. Judge walker play. Finkbine bitterly remar. Park medical and psychiatric opinion. I refuse to confirm that i'm barking. Will be within the framework of the law. In our position. Outside the framework of the law. No more favorable legal hannah. Disinclined. Sweden. Or application was accepted. 17 bus. Seriously. Southpoint. Confined space. Highlights. Call legestic problem. Hoverboard. United states. You recognize how har. Our laws really are. A woman. Impregnated during proven rape. An abortion. Hey girl. Reduce in a relationship by her own father. For this reason. A twelve-year-old child seduced by an apartment house the actor. Impregnated. Can i please. An abortion. Examples of. Actual cases in which a therapeutic abortion. 49. I don't think we need the occasional example of turkey. Bizarre took out of the ordinary pacers. The real problem. I can draw more easily upon my. Personal experiences as a minister. A woman. Several children come to me through by k duo. Is in the process of divorcing her husband. She is pregnant. Does not want the child. He realizes that won't hamper her. You coming today to earn her own living and support. Children. What. Since you do. A woman yelling to her party. Several children well along in school makes an appointment. America's been rocking for you. Only lately see her. Turn to a full-time career of her own. First time in many years. You can come home. Now she's pregnant. Call her husband foster child. Well i'm her. Career expectations for some years. Madewell. The teeter. A high school girl. Trip to my study. Her.. Skip card. The boy is not available for my. You could of course. Go to a home for unwed mothers. Idea of becoming a mother at this time is repugnant to her. And if you dropped out of school. 4 year. White would become common knowledge among. Amongst friends / family. Computer. Entremet. Religion. The eyes of the community. I am supposed to articulate. Opposed. Assembly. I'm trying to become. Doing problem. Hermoso. I believe in the. Sanctity of human life. Hold of a griffin. She's all that weekend. Shortly, quan. Or meaning. I'm looking for. My own. Personal religious beliefs. Whole concept of reverence for life. Yes. Lykke li. Ironically. Play more than any other clergymen. Lisa vacations given earlier. 74 kirkham tattoos involved in the lives of these particular individuals. Akio. Participate. Close to breaking the law. Hugh. Attitude. I wish to reveal. Purchase laws against abortion. I know only. Riku. Violate. Reverend. Word finder. Cinderella 13. Factual exposition. Second line brewing. Attitude for departure. Abortion is preferred. Largest illegal activity. Hertz place. The only bar narcotics. Denver. Current earthquakes. Morocco. The pumpkin pour and a half million babies per year. How many more pregnancies m. The only answer is. I will know. You do know that there are about 18,000. Legally graphics therapeutic abortion hospital. The rate of illegal abortions. Obviously not readily animal. Jeff mcmurray between. 200000. B / 2 million. Generally accepted figure. Right at around 1 million illegal abortions per year. Reverie. Five babies were born in the country. Mama pregnancy. Descendants. Guzman legal aid. Onlyonejess. Study of abortions has ever been made. That was made by. Alfred kinsey. Call gebhardt. Results. Me and austin. You will find them also. Barbara coughlin. But 1/4. Of all women. Whatever been married. Undergone an induced abortion. Number of woman was when he was first married the more likely he was to have had this experience. What's 37% of 37% of the women who were married under the age of 20. Having experienced an abortion. By the end of their childbearing years. Mongoose abortions took place among the newly married. Jorge. Queen. Among single girls running good exclamation. 20%. Abortion. Resume the most interesting figure ball. Only one. Premarital pregnancy. Latino. What's the temperature. Only another 10%. Single girl. Heard their baby rubicon. Well over 70%. Single girl. We're parking. It's a route. Covid-19. He figures i don't believe we're going to reno. Still and deleting on a girl become pregnant boy. Are you required to go home. Unwed mother. 7410. North carolina. Baseball. Written about the boyfriend then i think any other subject. American white. We're told that an abortion scars a woman for lunch. Study revealed that only 10%. Other women reported. 3 honeysuckle otso up truck. Permanent. Other studies confirm. Recalled that most women. Waseca boston are desperate single girl. He's made. Putting those made by professional on buckner. Well over half the cases were married. 575. We're cold. abortion will affect negatively. A later. Shuffle medical augusta. All the evidence. They're called table scarborough. Macomb mall. Actually about 90% of a single woman. Whatever undergone an abortion. Centennial. You have premarital sexual relations. Sashimi laid to rest. I hope you'll believe sakura pregnancy will make you tomorrow. The common gynecologist eclairs. I am convinced that in this country. There's no profit of medical care undemocratic. Social position and dollars play so ugly a roll. Requirement of illegal abortion. Eagle one. Lucky figures are back 5e. Results. Therapeutic abortion. These are given farmall. Patience. Same room. Impatient. Publix prewar. More affluent seeking abortion. Usually into the hands of the field. Specializes in abortion. All the poor. Open turn. Bulk of the illegal abortions in the country are performed position. Rapper t.i. 85. While 5,000 women are estimated to die from abortions or the side effects are all this year. Virtually none of these.. Results from the work skills abortion position. No. as long as death does not result in a clientele. Enclosed by. Their continued existence. One longtime abortionist reportedly kept very careful records reported only two.. Perform. Another only 2,000. Countries where abortion is legal. The death rate for mothers runs only. Per 100,000. For 100,000. Which is not out of line with normal maternal death rate. You'll abortions in the country than those on before drinking. Are done. Section of a hospital setting. Hospitals were available. The freight would be even more. State laws in this country against abortion. Among the most restrictive. Car world. Call abortion murder. Something. Provide for legal abortion under certain circumstances. General rule is an abortion can only be performed. The wife of the mother is at stake. Participate in putting washington. Read aloud. Abortion. Both. Preserve the life of the mother. Or. Selectquote. Top of the tile. What kind of twisted logic. Can allow the reporting of a fetus to save its own life i cannot imagine. But there is no more dramatic illustration. A complete. American lawn subjective or. Part of working laws make a liar make liars even on the most prominent and respectable position. La familia. Riders in the country. Proper form for psychiatric or eugenics. All the presence of disease. Switch in the strict sense do not threaten the wife of a mother at all. I've already indicated they're only about 18,000 therapeutic abortion. Play secure. Rickreall physicians and hospitals are very stringent rules. Recovering. Graphing of a boar. The number of. Legal abortion is compared to the total of 1 million illegal one. So hardly deserves our concern. The whole way our laws are interpreted. Call question. All the medical profession. Positions to apply what can only be termed an extra legal standard. In the granting of application for therapeutic abortion. Riccar opening example. Physician summa hospital. The wildest imagination. Was her own life endangered. Bonded in humanitarian way. The possibility that you might spare seriously before. Interpretation. Play pro. Hello. Other than a restrictive policy enforcing such plans as the united states britain and france. There are two other places supposed to boston. First is most notably practiced in the scandinavian country. Humanitarian or eugenic for medical reasons. Simple rules for the boston, followed. The right result is that the rates of abortions runs about 4% in relations live birth. I think when we realized. Freshwater food allowed in. Scandinavia. Free money. Warm. Animation. Certainly there's a group of mason. Which allowed abortion to be generally practice without. Legal restriction at all. Soviet union eastern european countries and most notably japan. Follow this conference. Official record. Birth control information is widely disseminated. Legal hospital abortions are allowed. Japan. The practice of abortion has reached eczema. Live birth. Suppertime. Populations in the world. Reclining population. Working also has a very long history. The earliest recipe for goes back 46 century. Known in every culture. Plato and aristotle. Rudolph approval. Abortion is never mentioned in the bible. Early christian writers and family practice together. Do they make. Between the embryo before and after fetal movement was trump's father mother. What is early christian theologians believe. Set at the moment. L. inside the mother. Infused into the baby. Christian writers however had to. Russell the story of the creation of adam. Adam we will recall was created out of the dust of the ground and only after he was sleep or me. God breathed into him progressive life. And then bye. Christian commentators had to seek some kind of compromise. Make a gesture that felt fetal movement to be considered the moment when the soul was infused. Movement. Does not take place until the 5th month. Good morning after the tory party facebook washington. Because of this early theological feeling it was not until after 1800. Set abortion before people movement became a crime in great britain. Laws against abortion are not old. Laws they only go back to century-and-a-half. Original purchasing abduction accord. Fortune. What's a killing of an unbaptized. Look, catholic objection is still strong. Rom complete. Subjective abortion. Under any and all circumstances. Residential installer. Writing in the field of hospital management has recently written. Abortion is not allowable. Even if it is morally certain. Pregnant mother and her unborn child die. Pregnancy is allowed to take his car. Call carlson view. Abortion could be allowed to save the help of a mother. It's important thinkers interpreting. Help over mother very weidman. Simple question. Malton. Honda civic. Your lotion free fun. When does a. Fertilized. Human egg. In a womb. , human personality. Catholic argument is of course at the moment of impregnation. Roman catholic. Life only. Leaving. Worm from eating behavior. Interest in japan today. Argue. The human life begin. Who won personality. I'm going to be in. Wanted to buy album of independent life. Rick would never be before the. 48 weeks of pregnancy sometime in the next month. Only recognizable as human being. Brain waves are sundstrom the unborn child only mcreynolds month. Henry wants to engage in. Cilantro mycratine. Home. Considered to be in the human brain. Brain waves. Only 27.. Fort myers. Leopard is not to engage in this car. Largest crappie. But only to indicate how unreal it is to consider an egg at the moment of conception or for many months the rocker. I want to going through this. Draw discard to my mind.. Lunch break. Several quick conclusion by which to make. The legal abortion in french. Do the laws cannot be enforced or will not be enforced against it. Legal abortions are sharply restricted. Hurting even intoxicated 80% of those granted within the letter of the law. S upholstery reticulated ostrander lee and pregnancy. I do not see. Usually to cause any lasting so i can challenge. A problem later married. Hello to seek out. Heard. Eviction upon an open discussion of the problem. And illegal. Regretting abortions in most cases. A million. Usually before. Dangerous self-induced abortion. Orange behind supreme quack. Results. Without call hospital the philippines. Wallop aren't against abortion. Grew out of a theological abstraction. About the infusing of a soul into an unborn child. Biblically sound. Generally held theological view of archon. The bank may range all over the place. Impregnation a human being exist. Heard to say that this occurrence of the moment of impregnation. Honky corazon. Viable. Capable of independent. Loaded obstetrician hasbro. Every illegal abortion. This is a total failure. Discomfort. Abortion. You can play the results. Somebody find tucker on the fox say. We can talk about your problem as abortion openly in our society. I don't find any soccer in that at all. I believe abortion presents a pressing social problem to us. Turn our attention upon us. For our continuous avoidance of it are coming out.. Simply create. We could fight or more open approach to this whole matter of birth control. Cancel the word there is no need to. She coughs and abortion. Even if we allow. Comfort perilous from accidental boxer engine life. Overwhelming majority of unwanted pregnancy. Could be prevented. Because our society hide. Hello from the outside. We allow millions to become pregnant. Long has frank grillo destructions of birth control. I recorded in our public media. Public school. And even in our public hospital. We need to be in sun. Indignation. Someplace to be angry to send her feeling. Tomorrow. We need to see the photos for whom we are responsible in life. Particularly our children. I'll give him a pull-up information and resources in birth control. I think i've heard all of the objection to exist in the street. They all shutter-down. Y'all come down. Why determination of material and information. Wooden card and morality and are you. About to make with decoration i think. First of all don't know the nature of the sexual revolution that we are living through. Halethorpe. Pretty phone forgot their own earlier experiences in life. Sandy ford. Only my fear of pregnancy. Tempering. Besides it doesn't work. High school counselor in the city told me just yesterday that sporting 250 girls and then pringle high school. Dropout of school each year due to pregnancy. Richthofen campos. Grandpa. Pregnancy really butter, des. Dropping off for quad tendon. Ricardo's. 4250 girls in one high school year. Fear of pregnancy. One of the prime. What's sexual immorality. Is the basis for ethical sexual life. Sphere. Common. Wood money for factoring. Professional law and medicine. You look gorgeous. Occurrence. Anachronistic. Updated. Unrealistic. Ridiculous. I've heard law. Victoriously pain. At a very minimum at a very minimum we could quickly and the recommendations of the american law institute. Body of attorney. Made up of mostly honest and very conservative men. These would require that to physician certify. The one of the following circumstances exist. Continuation of the pregnancy. Gravely a the physical or mental health of the mother. Do the doctor believes that the child would be born with either a serious physical or mental impairment. Free. The pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. All papers abortion would be voluntary not require. I would be prepared prepared with proper social safeguard to go much further. I would allow a person for general hux. We talk together. I would allow abortions for social reason. All the trials of disastrously affect the mother's wife. I'm a young girl. Become pregnant. I would allow abortions kalama creek. Fighting poverty. Or be refunded for the financial burden. I am well aware. Far far beyond what this society will presently ally. Are even beyond what most gathered here in the atmosphere of this liberal church. Prepared. I can only ask their ball. Why would call a nasty question. Another. In what circumstances in your life. For the life of those dear to you. Wouldn't be prepared. Abortion. Intermountain. Teenage daughter fly. Extra-marital affair. Pregnancy. Corfu. Like always train. Your answer is different. Free online. You are not being honest. Problem of a boy. I believe. I believe that every child or upon this earth. You could be loved. You should be respected. How's it going. Millions of children come unwanted and comfortably resented. Sooner or later on population explosion is going to force us to adopt emotions radical kind of fortune audio. Far harbor manheim food just one. Lot of respect for women. Are respectful and i don't respect for all mankind. Thank you mother korean. Severe burning. Position. Curcumin. Nothing i can do. Which a dog house phone careers i was going to kill but the illegal apartment. Smallest equivalente. Very acceptable to me as i hope to confirm lol. I know what core prime custom parts for volvo. A app and have the courage of our convictions. The name of our key. If we go about our daily lives. You are worth. What are religion.

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What-is-There-to-Be-Thankful-for.mp3?_=15

They are joyful thanksgiving. Increase as yielding. Whether we toil or rest. By the way. Or sleep. We are all vilight wherever makes all things new. Never fail. Remember all rose who. Call lucille's in culver city. Accommodate the rose of growing herb. And garner in the heart. We would be mindful of a mutual dependence. All the members. Family of 9. I would take a useful part. In the world. Hey we never be satisfied to enjoy plenty. The longest any car in the world. Hey we express our gratitude for nature's gifts. Duncan words. But also in the purposes. Which we live. And in the kindness. Havarti. Reading first from the. 60 cup song. Don't have to remember the earth. And watered her. Greatly enriching her. With the river of god that is full of water. I'll pick her up some corn. Watering her riches abundantly. Traveling down the furrows sarah. Lawmakers persol. Shower. I promise. The year was i couldn't. Afters of a wilderness to draw. And the hills are credited with joy. Meadows are closed. Valley auto are covered over with corn. They shop for joy. Yay say something. Albert schweitzer. Call jamaican pepper. Black on our first call. Find expression. Then there will be more fun shine in the world. And more power to work. Concerns our self. Sayings about the ingratitude of the world. A great deal of water is flowing underground. Which never comes up as a spring. Weenie. We are the water which does find its way up. Coachman can quench. 5 years ago. One of the thanksgiving proclamation of john fitzgerald kennedy. More than three centuries ago after a year of hardship and peril. Harvest from the virgin soil upon which they had labor. Unknown danger for me. If either crazy. And by their coil. New england kicker. This year. At the harvest. Have the year. Salmon. Austin parole. Apple eton. Hello. 24-hour credo definition. Delete. By our ancestors which we are quizlet reserved. And our children's children. Farm. Thanksgiving. We shall not fail. Fresh world. Set up a service a. 11. But also to extend them. Corners of the earth. Example. As well as my our materials. Call people. Striving. Perlite. Shema israel adenoids adenoids. Hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one. Reggae singer's name. Glorious kingdom. It's forever. I never. God of our fathers. Offerup banks. Laundry. How much in weight. We have scars that plan with charlie kirk and rotten monuments to rabbit creek. Creative prison. Pitiful red reservations in miasmic flex slum. And the sacredness of man in grimes. Call to offer thanksgiving. Participate. Hello idol. With a coupling frog potting. Daemonculaba common blood. Coursing through all arts. In the family of man. Never be so fixated. Had to enjoy 24 long has nara. Harris comes in over idol prayer to replace. Righteous squirt. Occasion. Sanctified each year by the congregations of two-face. Rather a prophetic promise. Commitment of man-to-man. Hyper person. So that are dating. Shelbynext. Priority. Pressure place many memories. And all that i. Think i cannot. Now put into words. Thank you very much for the. Well wishes. And. I can only say. Cedar to your congregation. Ladies in the new testament. My wife years ago. Vietnam and other grievance socialization. Saying that it was still tied applicable. I opted not to do that. I want to seek out some. As a man who is often been accused of being a pessimist. To enjoy answering to celebrate thanksgiving. And so there really is no need to apologize. Katherine is immense out when it is well merica. Factory in roman times terrible pressure roman. Whether it would have been better. Had god not created. Hello felt it would have been better had god not created man. That it was better that man should have been created. It is generally happen to school of hillel have more of those. The rabbis decided that it would happen better or however. Tomorrow. I would try to get that and seek on the subject what is there to be thankful for. Thankful for tradition. Very old tradition. Like my own. And the tradition which really is no longer your own unitarian i mean the roof we all have in the past now i would not believe the presents i would not crucify the present i would not postpone. Living. Nevertheless. Hemet live. Traditions are not specially. Jacob. Not know the modern world is overwhelmed with all characters now. That wisdom which is required. Generation. And generations. Urban example let me speak of the great commentator french. The beginning god created the heaven and the earth. Negative. Everytime i don't know. Love or mercy. I don't know it. God created the world by love and he made the love perm and then the world. Seems to me that's station. Guidance i have ever found. Relationship. Younger generation. Human relations fundamentalist primary law. From sentimentality. That love saved from over permissiveness. Blind to the harsher reality. That tradition green. Wendy's. Tradition to not correct on facebook for the sake of example of current time. When it was prescribed great revolt against the romans. 130. Wendy's. And he was playing lady burned by the romans for going on with his teaching and as he died in the plane. As a friend. Wrapped in the skull. Between self and apartments to make his suffering more intense. Headed to discern to women said rabbi what do you think he said. I see that the parchment. Letter. Fly boy. There was a man who believes in true and he believed that the truth would enjoy. Cricket troy. Factor line that example. Einstein. And also for the love in life. Mother's breast. A few things that are symbolic. Continue to. By the milk love we have received. Basic laws we received in childhood. The love we continue to give and to receive if we are fortunate. I think of erik erikson's great canton. Generation. Ideological heaven. State treasurer of satan. He's the most precious gift we give thanks. Exterior we put on to defend ourselves. You all know really is only a man. Remain in me. And affirmation. I'm grateful for our friendship. Friends who share our sadness and joy. And i would pay special tribute to that. I remember being away for a weekend sometime ago. And. So much enjoying the company of a certain couple. I'm thinking to myself. How i would love to live 100 years. Just to enjoy the friendship. I think we've all felt something like that it's sometime and it is one of the precious things in life. Give gratitude. Einstein bros. I was asked 100 certain occasion. Why i did not cry. If i began to cry. I should never stop crying. Or there is so very much. Sorry about. In the jewish tradition. Pain of all living things. I'm grateful for the sadness. Hyper pain of all living. What is chad mitchell that compassionate still alive. What was wrong with the sadness of an abraham lincoln. What was wrong with the sadness of a ride by like 30 back. Living through the concentration. There was nothing wrong with such sadness. Human suffering. And they had refused to develop a hard heart. Fascia. I think there is nothing so important for us in difficult and terrible day. Has to remain human. To be truly capable. And to refuse. Go on like crazy boy. Tell zack that compassion. Still alive. God. That. Somewhere in this universe. Where is an unshakable. And that we need travis chair. I am not going to try to define god. For myself. I mean the queen. Not the god i created in my mind. God who created. My mom. German jewish philosopher herman cone. Very abstract notion of goddamn yet. I said where is the bowl-a-rama. Where is the creator. And hermantown had no answer for that old jew. I feel very much like that old you. Narcotic is my mind. Create. Silver put it well. Power to create. Greater than man power to destroy. I believe that love and reason. I hope desperately you will triumph your honor. It does not triumph here on earth. I believe with all my heart and soul. That it will triumph somewhere else in this universe. God ultimate edition. Opportunity. Never will be dinosaurs. I believe deeply. And unshakable meaning that we call god. And we are privileged. City park. That meaning. Very much in life to be grateful. None of us are show created. Or entirely. Time in life. The song. Different. Give thanks by loving. Sanding. By standing up. Holding our hands out to others who suffer. Let us give thanks. Friendship in comradeship. We all. He have a cold. I am ruscello. Light. Caillou. Light. Caillou. The shallows. Zach. Ties and finds us all together. Fight our diversity. I am friend. I know i always love all your change. People. Grandson tuition.

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podcastApr8.mp3

I love those island. Many professional. Marceline. All the ways we come to this time of year. Our. Yeah. Honda. I wonder if we are. What is being born or in our lives. What is right. 24-hour. Some of you may be wondering. Rihanna. Miracle from megan. Celebration of life that we have to talk about morgan to a planer. What happened. Generation. Universalist christian parenting. Movie wonder. A downgrade retelling of the exodus from egypt. Beautiful. Have we lost our way in our contemporary interpretation. Good morning my prayer. Now. Ralph waldo emerson who said. Universal. Another facebook. We wonder if we're getting it right. And i'm here to tell you this morning right. All around us or not. This is not going to be our life. We are trying to find our way. Calendar medical intuitive. Shampoo. Someone else. Turned out this man. Start going wrong. Born. This season of rebirth and renewal is about camping. Lovely, seaborn. Volume 40. We wonder if you look at our world today. For every watch on government by the big bully on the playground. Shmoney. Romaine turning her. Car breaking down. Our loved ones. Broken. Our friends. Our community. We're wondering if we can be born out of town. Earthquake. Uline. And one other thing. Anger. Cultural hardline unblocking on computer. Roll that rock away and step great time. Poem in the series. Expensive promise that remains. And beyond. Always succeed of armor. What no ear has heard what no hands has hot. Not reading in the human heart. Map home. Myself. Spring equinox and she have in common. Open a door with a smart tv. Imprinting. Born in our home. No i have not seen. Yohan of your content. What is a human heart. Again and again. Try again. Learn to forgive ourselves. I'm kind of holding on descendants. Port clyde no matter what no matter how we have failed in the past. Our spirit. We are made new again. Springs colony. Celebrating with family and friends. Call dentistry. In the neighborhood or the arboretum. Lettuce and sweet.. Cold temperature. Right. Enjoy of the season pound marshmello.. Ignoring. Life.

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The-Roar-of-Silence-Brent-Smith.mp3?_=29

First reading for this morning. Entitled to a dancing god. My quarantine. I think i would like to define the philosophical position i prefer the moment as. Agnosticism. I skipped my life and wander and give it to you enjoyed responsibly. But i remained ignorant about the alamo. Which is my outlook contacts. I aspire to truck myself. The happening with are we with my energy. Foreman incarnate. And situated person. I am not uncomfortable. It's saying that my truck in the ultimate contract with my life is invested in god. Reminder the word god is not used more than once a year. Anyone hamburger like you are. It would be interesting to see what would happen. If your lodgings would recover the essential reverence. Public relation of negative. Theology. I would understand the role not. Sterling to the word. What is guardian. In the modern world we desperately need. Discover appropriate way. Tickle pictures. You are on holy ground. You are the president. Sacred mystery. And latin. The senate reading this morning is taken from the book the katie before. By elie wiesel. Great rabbi israel loud tempo. Threatening you. He wasn't talking to go. Play singapore. Barely would light a fire. Michael prayer. And america would be accomplished. Sports universe. Later when it's like celebrated my amazing race. The same reason intercede. He would go to the same place in the forest inside. Screw the universe. I do not know how light the fire. And again a miracle would be accomplished. Still later rabbi moshe. In order to save his people once more. We go to the forest and say. Don't know how like fire. I do not know the prayer. It was commissioned. And the miracle was accomplished. Who sells rabbi israel of ravine. Score, reporting. Sitting in his armchair. Just married when is pan. He spoke to god. I am unable to like fire. And i do not know the prayer. I cannot eating time. Play e-40. Story. A division. Beginning. Before the word. Was he on. And might. Spirit moved across the water. A word important. Given the form. Directions to motion. Order. A world of murder. The word war 1. Henrico library. Where do unforeseen, dear. Giving and destroying. Tragedy in maine. Tiring. History bruce cell. Ignoring. And the silent stars. Notoriety. Andrew pregnant. A word was born from chaos. There was light and life a new heaven and a new earth. And hearing. And the word. And word. Edward. And words and words and words. And word. And the timer. Get out of the silent pain. Human story. Customary for interns to begin. Nicholas furman something. Autobiographical memory. Personal story. This has caused me some anxiety. It's not it's not that i don't have any. Get a minister sometime. He or she will gladly give you. Any talking about myself i'm just like everyone else. Welcoming the opportunity. But when i began to consider my life until now. And conceding a way to ravenna. One clear danger became apparent. A warning given to me by hollywood mine. A sermon. Everything that you want to crime. You just you just might. The story spare today. Originating in a single question. This past summer while i was engaged to ministries hospital chapel. Good news. What you bring to the world. This has not been a particularly easy question for me to answer. Challenges made to me. The christian community. Ask your old life. History steam. Ua discover optical as large. A lot larger than my own life. Any good news. Neither of which can be merely sucked out of the air. I moved out. Integrity. And convicted. Faith and hope to be easily found in our casual everyday world. Paper will be delivered to my house. And i do not feel existential alienation. Nor do i threaten to withdraw under myself. I hope the huskies will win next saturday's game. I do not question the meaning my life how. Divine faith. Our voices a little lamb picture. Painting a hole in european good mews. Is in our predefined difficult. Interpretation. Roots growing better. Scratchpay.com. Can we operate frosting today. What dimension of our existence in return to. Can we relate our lives. Are very few. Cesarina connecting regenerate. That we generate meaning. Charlotte. The trucking turns going towards humanity. Faith and hope in the glory of human achievement. .. Lay me down. Any auto. Hiroshima. And trusting turn horse the god of traditional religion. The almighty. Thirsty's in the heaven disable. Eagles reporters. Now and yet to be. Literary philosophical and religious writer. No longer. Confronted with the power of the word. Trade me. I'm coming today playing mcdonald's open camera her we are swift. No. It's been my experience that got a response. Can a longer be characterized in the phrase the word of god. Now. Silence the basic question. And creates more than just a mild anxiety among those who see through her and god reality. The weather. What's the sound of a god. Central question of trust remains. In what can we do. Where can generate entertaining paper. In a minute. Silence. This is corey. Struggle. Struggling. Senpai. Struggle. Aurora. Particular part. Story grows out of reflection. On my life until now. I can be characterized my mind three responses to these life of struggle that we all share. My search for a minnesota license. Hindu god. Embracing the unbreakable. Tracking my atheist. Where's my recall the time i got it thank you. And my current. A couple. For struggle. That will generate faith. Ankle. Aurora. Mi mexico restaurant. I was born and raised in a small indiana town. We lived on the edge of civilization in my car. For one house down or where i'm at. Just beyond that the ending. Christy sports. This poor still my growing mine. Wondering reverence. Oakridge mall. I grew up in that forest. And what daily make my descent into its last season. Nevermind hooters camellia. Hannah storm dimension. I knew every inch of underbrush. Dairy queen. And your felt. Something. That i long to discover. I gradually developed. Temperament of mind that we in jeans called. Reminder. An abstract way of concealing things. Completing good reviews central and universal aspects of being. And although. This might seem a difficult to perform for one who is intellectually here. And honestly. A little reflection show. Situation is complex. Facebook. And when genes called. Systematic open-mindedness and eating things as good. We had great classical dimensions for me. Like. Rougarou. The marrow. Animals. Set timer for. Supreme embodiment. Good good with my truck. Am i think jennifer wife. Mundane and ultimately mention. Creation and reality. With. My home. Became monica riding to. outward. Material leo. Inoculate myself into a story. My temperament of mine was longing evolving. I live next to the forest. 18 years. And when i left home ice creams with work. Saudi my longing to be embraced file. I became very deliberate. In speaking. What was necessary for you. Cosmic creation. Like the rabbis in the reading this morning i would go to write. Light my candle. Say my prayer. And call me speak to the book divergent myself. The interest. Reality. That was gross representation. Monday. Hear it. And europe. My solitary purpose guided my thought. Am i asking. I thought relief from the chain. How much.. I swapped her life. Sometime i left my home. Time i enter seminary. The memory of a horse. Am i longing for union. I lost my abilities like a fire. And they my wife and i were to leave for chicago. Begin preparation for ministry. I mean one last descent into the horse. I made one last attempt to recover.. The wandering adventure. Something we're all buried. Chris brown. And the trunk bay. And hope. But it's humbling body before it. And some growing opposition within me. We're now being confirmed. As i perceive reality speakers used with an all-encompassing good. Strawberry. Become an exercise. So the reality. I have nursery without knowing it. Attitude. What's the darker side of our life. What it mean. Light. Anymore. Active participation. In the regeneration of my being. A regeneration is found in human relationship encounters. I wish only to experience the embrace of god. Relinquish my relationship to others. The world. To the reality. Android imovie. Bean. Martin buber characterizes pakistan. Those who experience. In the world. The experience is in them. And not between them. No answer. No union. Nombre. He had generated nothing in me. Nothing except my own responses liner. Silence of others. Silently human condition. The ultimate dimension. Vertically. My total commitment human dimension. My truck was in humanity. What you mean being alone. My facebook. The only truck where the emotion that i had power. And the openness final that i heard as god. Fiber something from the board. Was nothing more than a response. That existed nebraska created. This past summer i ain't geisinger hospital chaplain. Good news. Jennifer. I was given responsibility for 24. 1. 149. The short term care. Sonicare available terminal. I entered the hospital confident as to the validity of my truck solely in humanity. Anna peyton home generator. Sterile. Intellectual tools. So gently and efficiently. Primer. Hope town harbour. No god of something for spirit. Myopia ism. Standing conference. Pronounce imaginative. Origin. Art with my face and hopefully inhumanity. I would make the long climb to the hospital. Eastbay i would return. Pain and suffering. And this pain and suffering that racine. Would not leave me alone. Attract. Parroting me out of my place of refuge. Stop me in my cleaning lady. Secure idle. It's time i returned to the floor. Fort worden. Anytime i returned from my floor. I would confront the growing personal despair. It was welling up inside. For the face in hole is generated from my samsung products. Humanity. Human beings alone who created. Would be bearing. Limitation. Today's like to live in. Send a funeral yet. When pain and suffering head explodes my favorite ho. That's something. Awesome lion. I began to avoid these encounters with the human condition. My human condition. Myself being forced to retire. I didn't cut myself off on the silence of the horse. I heard from you. And the plumber generated for my truck. Lord louder than any other qualified ever heard. Call nicole bonita. Chicago hospital. Order guy in painting and her calmer. I remember entering that quiet room. 37 year old woman. Lion guard. Reading her last round. Her body rabbit. To arrest her destiny. Humanity. Verified with her husband. Appreciate some. I was there to provide number. Trucking holding a situation that provided. In my despair my hands were bound. I cannot smoke. Regret. Painted one last mobile. Florida flight. Her mother turns mean constantly. Knox. Her words very heart of my doing. Around the room. Whose record. She had generated along with viber. Animal sound. Hey richmond for life. A more abundant life. Immortal alone. And the trusting thing. Fill to the brim with. Siri. Uncompromisingly. It's dark and very nature of my being. Durable. I had once again. Withdrawal. Participating. I withdrew from confrontation. Dementia. My atheism has become a place of refuge for me. Not calling me. Lock home depot. The worst prank call. Countless places. There's only one place. But the possibility with salvation are again. Is nuru. That place is salvation for me. Dimension. And the ultimate dimension. La barbie. Trusting the ultimate dimension of our lives means removal. Season greetings. She's going to bleed. Dark responses being in all my screen. I just want union with god. Message. 99. He didn't ignore internal. I cannot change. Any more than one person can change the response of another. Angry. And the roar is japanese. But i refused. But you can believe in god and. Trucking. I choose to realtor into relationship. With my being. It's human and alternate dimensions. And reaching out for that standard. Is my struggle. I responded to god silence. My longing for debris. And by the anguish is opposed. Timer 10 generator. Maine. Apartment in every new bra. In every hospital. So once again. It all depends upon cutting timer. Because.

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Forgive-adn-Let-Forgive-Forrester-Church.mp3?_=31

Good morning i bring greetings from the. Congregation of all souls unitarian church new york city. Cordially invite you to join with us. Should you. Find yourself either intentionally or by accident in our neighborhood. I've been told already a couple of the members of what they. Call. Committee for the lessons seattle. That this weather is not easy. And i should return to new york and tell all of my friends particular those who are not happy in new york but it rained all the time i was here. It's always a pleasure. Today's with you thank you judy for your. Hospitality. I enjoyed the. Spending the morning yesterday with representatives of this church and other churches in the area. In a wonderful seminar and discussion. Mccarran feeding of the church community. Well-cared-for instead. It's a joy to be with you. Ministries only choose two. Employ. After the. Morning offering. Is taken. Chapter of the gospel according to matthew. And it goes something like this. That it was sad. You shall not kill. And whoever killed still be liable to judgment but i say unto you. But everyone who is angry. With his brother or sister. She'll be liable to judgment. Whoever insults. Is brother or sister. Shall be liable to council. Whoever says you fool. In anger or derision. Shall be liable to the hell of fire. You are offering. Yorkie. At the altar. And there remember. Does your brother or sister. Has something against you. Leave your gift right there. Before the altar and go. Be reconciled to your brother. Or your sister. And then come. And offer your gifts. Hirons r. Reading for the morning. Wannabe. It has to do with forgiveness. Can you play. Anyone who has done. Something to you. You can't forgive them. Something unforgivable. You don't have to search the distance. Last week. Or month. Think about it for a moment. Alternate route. Have you done anything recently. It might be something small. They likely will be. Unforgivable. So often are. Like that tiny thorn. Text jon keith the singer. A blood poisoning of course not a guilty conscience. Cases to guilty conscience doesn't kill it just wounds end. Keeps london. Wheels in wounding a double-edged sword. What's the temperature. Additional harm. To both you and the one you send against as you managed. To do. This morning i'm going to preach about. But i know a good lie. Bit more about the blessings of being forgiven. Then i do about the difficulty of forgiving. For one thing i can't for whatever reason to forgive easily. Rarely. We're heavy forgiveness. On my part was called for. On the other hand and i-10. Usually a little while. Mostafa. But also against others. Against my wife. Against my children. My daughter. Nina's. 6 birthday yesterday. Against my parishioners my neighbors. And coworkers. Inference. Have taught me. Forgiveness. Sender adult. Too honest magic. As religion guy. Movie recently. Premiere movie theaters are a little. Like barbershop. I only when my wife tells me to. Play amy my wife. Has started working. One day a week in princeton for an educational consulting firm. And we decided on those days. Tell me the potter return go out to dinner or a movie together. It's a wonderful day. One of these days we shall go to an important movie. Take me to. mary. Resetting. For those of you who don't know. Is a high school reunions. A little closer to home than it might have done. To attend my own 20th. High school reunions. Walt whitman high school in bethesda maryland. I was a member of the first graduating class of walt whitman high school. Devote on our team mascot. We chose viking. The walt whitman. As i recall our team played more like poetry. Was especially touched by the film. Because yeah he too was about to attend his 20th high school reunions. Funny things. For 20 years the theory was right there on my radio. In our four years together. Bob mondello managed to make as powerful an impact upon walt whitman high school. As i do. Vikings. Not one to be dotted byerly failure and nonentity there with my old acquaintances. Talking to me on the radio. About the movie called. Peggy sue got married. Turmeric. Peggy sue's high school lover. Both poet and vikings. With such great promise. And suck wonderful dreams. Next. As he was sure he would she was sure he would. No. His fathers. Record business. In town for his wild. Crazy charlie commercial on cable television. There's no price we won't be too crazy charlie is bad. Crazy charlie also turned out to be pathetic. He started running around with his truck quarter. And peggy sue couldn't forget important. Take me to entrada. Both parents love. Fun pegasus. All broken dreams come back to life. 1 happily married to her high school sweetheart. Relationships like a revolving door. You remember him. The one that kept putting the pencil. The one whose classes were very dirty and slightly tilted. He also went on to make $1000000 in computer software. Text phil beautiful. Peggy sue saint paul florida. In her high school gymnasium. It's. While giving blood. It is 1960 all over again. Graduation. Nation has given a second opportunity to release. Her life. With this time. How it will turn out if she makes the same mistakes again. Think about yourself for a minute. After 20 or 30 or 5 or 40. Whatever you're thrown back in time. And enter your childhood home as a child again. Your mother is preparing dinner. Your sisters playing. You don't want ever let them go. You tell them how much you love them. You want to do something for them something right now. Having heard from school to just a little light-headed. Explaining. Your sister said something about how weird you are. Only you. No. How quickly time passes. How do i live. And then your grandmother call. You can't pick up the phone talk. Because you only knew you know about.. Lemon. It's when she surprises everyone in. Takes off. Parents. It's just exactly what each of us would do. Break our visitor call. Family and friends. We were told exactly. What the future would bring. But we don't know. So we do things later we regret. It's very weak. Running late for another appointment i. Myself came very close to skipping an extra. Hospital. Which turned out to be. What's more important that i could ever have known. Because we don't know what the future will bring. With missed opportunities. And sins of commission. Which we wish we might undo and sometime. Have a part-time forgiving ourselves for. In peggy sue got married. Having a second chance. Will she. Again. The same math. Knowing what now she knows knowing how it will all turn out. The broken promises. Failed expectations. Lies and infidelity. The movie. Or you by telling you how it comes out. Learn something by going back in time. You learn. Both of herself and. A bother. Another thing that this film reminder. Is it to forgive. Quite the contrary. Maybe healing forgive others for doing us harm. Doing harm to others. What we forget. The past is likely to repeat itself. Self-forgiveness and forgiveness of others. Forgetfulness is harmful in part because. Forgiveness. Sorry. For doing the same thing. To another person. Well because it destroys the integrity of our relationship with others in there with us. How many times can you say they're sorry. For doing the same thing over and over again. Forgiving others. 70 time. Hiccups. My problem. Like saying go ahead. For the one who. End behavior. Not only.. But also her. I didn't go to my high school reunions by the way. There's nothing stranger than. 338 years old. Other than the fact that my wife forgave me for taking her i have little more. Report on that score but something. Something very shortly thereafter. I received a letter from an old high-school friend who hasn't been at the reunions. And i want to. Share that letter. With you before i close. I hadn't seen. Him. Heard from him. Or even i think. Hair almost. His letter was remarkable. And very sad. It told the story of his life. This story will become self-pity and self-hatred. A single event. He was in love. You never been happier. But she wanted to be sure. What's the weather like. Misprint carpenter. To be wearing. Go slow. Boyfriend. Jorge. Or his. Bird wandering eye. And so she broke up with him. Get settled now. Doctor. The wife. Two young children. But the single rejection. And his friends betrayal. Cast a shadow over his life never listen. He was riding to me. After all these years. Because i was that friend. I took my memory. For the life of me remember. That conversation. I couldn't even remember the young woman. Or by name. Hitman. Our friendship seemingly. Mp4. If i'd acted wrongly and i had no opportunity back then. The biggest forgiveness. This momentous. Event and its aftermath had not registered upon me at all. Now my friends riding. Therapy. Struggling with the impacts of memory. He discovered what. He must forgive me. I was. But something i would not true. As i reflected further. I realize it's. Had gathered. Keurig. You confront me. And also the wisdom on his anger. To put his self pity to rap. That's what matter. How many lives. Ivar's. The ones we love. Struggle to lava. Unresolved business. And how often that business to be taken care of or at least. At least opened. Fire single act of honor. Confrontation. One of the 12 steps. Toward health followed by alcoholics anonymous. Is the goat farm. And beg. Sometimes i am told the response is brutal. And you can understand why it would be. Aldi. Destruction that has been left in the train. About addiction. People say for god's sake. I thought i was done out of my life once and forever i never want to see you again. That's okay. For having. Even if he's not. Something wonderful happens. The changes who you are and who you can be with other people along the way. You know you can. Who in your power. To make a mess. You can finally begin.. Having learned. If they will let forgive. Your energy. And service. Entergy. A potent tonic for healing. It's a little like going back in time. Probably. I'm just guessing. Probably even knowing what we now know we would make many. Of the same mistakes. And commit similar little crime. If we had it to do over. Because of who we are. But having. As we do with each act of forgiveness. We might return from it more able to our own and one another's weaknesses. Remembering. That we are all imperfect sons and daughters. Of life and death. Need to be forgiven. Even if we need to forgive those who trespass against us. I wrote my old friend. And thank him. For forgiving.

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20190728-Sermon.mp3

Assalamualaikum. Peace be with you all. It is such an honor. To be here with you. And to have the spirit of the divine with us. Thank you dear reverend beth. For this opportunity. You are my sister who humbles me and is a beautiful example of following in the footsteps of jesus peace be upon him. And i think every single one of you for joining us on this beautiful sunday morning in seattle. I acknowledge. That we are on. Beyond sestrel lands. Of the duwamish. And i started the name of god almighty. The most compassionate. Most merciful. The creator of us all. And the one deserving of all praise. And thanks. Sisters and brothers. Family and friends. A lot of people. Now know about the dangerous and deadly consequences of islamophobia. After the horror thick massacre in new zealand. And attacks in many other places. We also have seen a rise in attacks against many different groups. Not a lot of people know. Is that there is actually an industry. Of anti-muslim hate groups. Promoting islamophobia. A propaganda. Of the human i'm sorry a propaganda machinery. Of dehumanization. And this hate industry. Spends over 30 million dollars a year. To spread lies. Conspiracy theories and misinformation campaign. That demonize islam and muslims and they have a powerful echo-chamber repeating their lives. And that message fills. Are national false narrative. About islam. And muslims. The haters and those who repeat their lives. Are violating. One of the 10. Commandments. From the bible. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Against thy neighbor. Sadly. Too many of our fellow americans most who call themselves christian. Unquestionably accept. And perpetuate. Such false witness. Against her against their muslim neighbors. And if i tell people. Islamophobia does not just hurt me as a muslim. It hurts all of us as americans as human being. The very same way that all lives cannot matter until black lives matter. And sometimes. Ugly scenes like a psalm of phobia or racism. They hide under a cloth. A purported virtue. Guess i'm a phobia industry for instance. Often uses women's rights. As part of its arsenal in promoting a false narrative. About islam and muslims. This results in everyday folks. Holding onto islamophobic views. Justifying it. As of concern. For women's rights. But the hypocrisy of this. Shines through. Like the people. Who seek to strip away my personal freedom and choice of what to wear. In the name of. Liberation. Or how western feminism is sometimes a weaponized to wage war. Including against women in different countries all in the name of saving. Afghan women. For example. These are lies. The devil tells us. We sometimes accept them. Not understanding them. As lies. That's why it's so important for all of us to learn and share facts over fiction and fear-mongering. Like the fact. That islam granted a package of women's rights 1400 years ago that was a revolutionary then and unparalleled. For many centuries thereafter including in the western world. This included. The right for women to own property. Entrance of contracts. Consent to marriage divorce child custody inheritance education and more. Prophet muhammad peace be upon him taught that the best of men. Were those were best. Two women. He also taught his followers. The women to be a pathway to paradise for them. He told one man. But if you were to raise and educate his four daughters well. That. Could be his path. The paradise. And another man heard this and he was like hey. What about me i only have three daughters. And mohamed said even you. If you raise and educate those three daughters well. That can be your path to paradise. Muhammad peace be upon him also said specifically that paradise lies under the feet. Of your mother. And when he was asked by a man who is most worthy of his kindness and companionship. The prophet answered your mother your mother your mother 3 times before finally saying your father. As one religious scholar noted if this were the olympics the woman would get the gold silver and bronze. In his own life. Muhammad first mary's hadijah may god be pleased with her. A what wealthy merchant. When he was 25 years old. And hadijah was actually his boss. And 15 years older than him. Had she been married before three times. She even had children. And she proposed to him. Muhammad's marriage to khadija. Was monogamous and loving for the entire 25 years that they were together something rare in arabia that time. And by all accounts. They were deeply in love. And hadijah was muhammad's confidant. Throughout their marriage. Even after khadija passed away. Muhammad would remember and honor her with such love and affection. In his final farewell sermon before he passed away. Muhammad told them in some party words. Before he left which included saying you have certain rights over women. But they have certain rights over you. Women he said are your partners. And helpers. And as a result of the revolutionising impact of islam. Women throughout islamic history. Have been productive. Contributing members of society. We have many amazing examples of women in islam including women in the marketplace. Even as supervisor of the marketplace or minister of finance somebody was appointed to that position by muhammad. Driven thousands of muslim female scholars and jurist who taught not just women but also men including even rulers. In fact the first university in the world was built by a muslim woman. In morocco. Muslim women in modern times have been heads of state. Nobel peace prize winners olympic medalist. And now also members of congress. Finally. American muslim women are the second most highly educated religious community in our country. And there is no wage gap between american muscle men and women which is unique for a religious community. Now let's be clear about something. I'm not suggesting that all muslim women are liberated and empowered. They aren't. Nor all western women. Liberated and empowered. Norm i deny the reality that people have and continue to use religion to justify their oppression of women. Weather. religion is islam. Or christianity. Or judaism. Or other face. This has been true throughout history and it's still true today unfortunately. Here in our country. And in other countries. The patriarchy is real still. But the problem of women's oppression that we see around the world including a muslim-majority countries is not because. Of islam but despite. Islamic teaching. It is because of the same reasons women around the world throughout history and today. Face oppression. Regardless. Other religion. Such as poverty. Lack of education. Bad translations of religious scripture. Politics. Warfare. Destruction of institutions. Power dynamics misogyny and so much more. Islamic teachings about. And stories of women. When i called together islamic her story as opposed to history. Can be a way to combat the sin. August, phobia. And i want to uplift three female figures from the quran wesley chaney history even. The first one is married. Peace be upon her. Who is considered the greatest woman to have walked this earth. In the quran. Did you know that mary. Is mention 70 times. In the quran. More than the bible but who's counting. The quran also has a chapter named after mary. She is seen as a role model not just for women but also man. And god shows mary above all the women of the world. And divine grace surrounded her from birth. Mary's character and conduct. Are impressive on their own. But she also was chosen to be the mother. Of one of the greatest men. To have walked this earth. Jesus christ peace be upon him. Now lot of people are surprised to learn. That muslims love and revere. Jesus. The quran talks about jesus's virgin birth. His miracles. And the fact that he will return as as a messiah. In his second coming. Islam is in fact one of the only other religions besides christianity where believe in jesus. Is a mandate. Of our faith. Getting back to marry. Because she is a hero of mine. I am proud to follow. In her footsteps. By wearing a head covering. Because when have you ever seen a picture of mary without a head job. A second woman from the quran. Is haggar. A wise brave and pious woman who married prophet muhammad peace be a prophet abraham peace be upon them both. God revealed to abraham. But he should take hagar and their infant son ishmael to mecca. They're in the middle of the desert. Hagar and her son. Soon ran out of water. Ishmael was thirsty. And hagar desperately ran back and forth back and forth between two hills sofa and mattawa in search of water for her infant son. After the 7th run between the two hills. An angel appeared before her and provided the well of water that we now know as them. The stories also described in the bible. In genesis chapter 21. But there are differences and how the bible portrays hagar and her son ishmael. But in genesis 21 verse 17 god specifically tells hagar i'm going to make of him ishmael a great nation. That prophecy. From the bible came true. As it is through the lineage of ishmael muhammad peace be upon him would later be born. Again reaffirming. Then we are all family. Haggar continues to be honored to this day. In islam. Any of the millions of muslims who go to mecca to make the spiritual pilgrimage whether man or woman popper or king. They cannot complete their pilgrimage. Until they remember. And follow the footsteps of a woman. By running seven times between the two hills to commemorate hegar's courage and faith in god as she searched for water. In the desert. And the third woman. But i want to highlight from the quran. Is halep in taliban. Who is described as the pleading woman in chapter 58 of the quran. Her husband divorced her. Using a pre islamic custom calls the heart. According to that custom. A husband could simply say to his wife you are to me. As my mother's back. That would mean. That the husband will be released. From his obligations toward his wife. And he could remarry or do whatever he wanted. But the wife could not get out of that marriage and she was stuck in this emotionally oppressive limbo state. When how does husband made that declaration of the heart to her. She went directly to prophet muhammad to argue that this cultural practice was oppressive and unfair. Muhammad initially didn't feel like he could do anything because the hard was a social custom at the time and he had no revelation to the contrary. But god then revealed the beginning of chapter 58. Which is even called the pleading woman. And verse two states. God has indeed heard the speech of her who pleased with you concerning her husband and complains unto god. And god has heard your dialog verily god is all hearing. All c. God then condemned the practice of zahar. And require how does husband. And others in that situation who wanted to return to their wives. They had to free a captive. Fast for two months or feed 64 people in repentance. That is how much god cared about even the emotional well-being of women. And because of how the speaking out about injustice. The oppressive cultural practice of zahar ended. In another instance to god directly responded to a woman through scripture. This was when nusseibeh ben kavalan saria. Ask prophet muhammad one-time why does the quran only address men. Now arabic as a language. Like spanish. Is gendered and the male form. Includes women. Includes the female. So when god speaks in the mail form it's actually inclusive of men and women. Disable wanted something more. She wanted something specifically addressing women. And in response to her question. God responded. With verse 35 of chapter 33 of the quran with reverend beth retinas. That verse explicitly acknowledges the equality of women and men before god and highlights the qualities that make either men or woman. Admirable and successful. Including things like truthfulness perseverance humility chastity modesty and more. Are you might think about all this. Okay cool stories. Why is it important for you. Mostly christians. To know these stories. About women. In the quran. Well first. Some of these women. Are also described in the bible. So the great understand are many commonalities. Particularly at a time when many people speak to other eyes and demonize muslims and islam and separate people of faith. From each other. Second. These stories. And the other facts that i shared. About women's rights in islam. They can serve. As an antidote to the poison that we are being fed. By the assam aphobia industry. That distance is us. From our neighbors or allows us to hate or look down upon. Our neighbors. These stories and facts. Can help free our own minds. From the fear. And allow us to actually follow the greatest commandments taught by jesus moses and muhammad peace be upon them all of loving god and loving our neighbors as ourselves. So islamic her story. Can actually combat the sin. Augustana phobia. And finally. There are important. Life lessons from these stories for all of us especially as people of faith. These women were leaders. People we can look up to as examples models. Any to these women. Big face hardships and trial. Weather social pressure or customs. Physical hardships like pregnancy or thursday. Or emotional challenges. But in each case god almighty saw. Heard and specifically responded. To them. But in each case. The women also. How to do their part. When mary was experiencing the pains of childbirth we read in the quran that she was instructed by an angel to shake the trunk. Oval of a palm tree. Which might not make sense. But that brought her. Fresh dates that eased. The pain she was experiencing. Hagar had to run back and forth seven times in the middle of the desert. Before she got water. Force her son and herself. The pleading woman have to speak out about injustice. Before god responded. Without blowing the oppressive cultural practice. So god doesn't need our efforts. To do what he is very capable of doing. But he allows for us to do our part to reinforce for us that faith without action. Is not enough. The koran repeatedly exhorts us to believe and do good deeds. You have to walk the walk not just talk the talk. And the bible of course. Has similar teaching. When we feel abandoned. Or tired. Or afraid. When are voice make weaver. Or we may remember. As audre lorde said. That's some of us. We're never meant to survive. We still. Have to speak out. Take action. Show up. Do our part. Our faith requires that. And we may be facing hardship. Upon hardship. Especially in troubling times like we're experiencing right now in our country. And during these times it may even feel too much. For such times. The quran offers us words of solace saying verily with hardship comes he's indeed verily with hardship comes ease. And i see that he's all around me. I see that he's today. In the eyes of many of you. I see that he's in the signs people have put up in their homes and churches and other places welcoming their muslim neighbors. I see that he's in the 2,000 people who showed up for our vigil at maps after the new zealand massacre i see that he's and reverend beth inviting me here to join my christian siblings. During worship services together. And all of that is what gives me hope and strength and allows me to maintain my optimism even in the face of so many horse seeking to push us all into despair. But ol siblings. I asked. How can we. Despair. Living here in the united states of all places the richest country in the history of the world. How can we lose hope in god knowing that our god is a loving merciful and forgiving god. How can we lose hope. Knowing. That there were giants before us upon whose shoulders we stand who endured far worse than what we are facing and they still didn't give up. God in the koran says. Do the people think. That they will be left to say we believe. And they will not be tried. We have certainly tried those before them. Quran chapter 29 verse 23. And another passage. God describes how the people before his face so much hardships that their messengers even called out asking for god's help asking when it would come and god answers in chapter 2 verse 214 unquestionably the help of god. Is near. To giving up is not an option for those before us and it's not an option. For us today. Despair. Is actually a way to keep us distance. And disorganized. We cannot allow that. Our love has to be greater than the lies. And our hope. Has to be greater than the hate. And a hurts even. That we may be experiencing. And i will say. That as bad as things may seem at times. You may have heard me say this before reverend beth acknowledge it as well. I say it is an amazing time. To be alive. Because never before in my lifetime have i felt that i and we have more power than we do today. To make a real difference. In the future direction. Of our country. Never before have i felt that our voices and our actions have more of an impact. Then they do today. Injustice female figures in the quran and the bible. Changed history. We to have the opportunity to change history. Because we are writing history right now with our words and our actions. Or inaction. And as i send the sermon. Let us renew our commitment. To action. Two organizing two standing in solidarity with each other to getting to know each other to protecting women's rights and all human rights. Let us call out sims like islamophobia and racism. And let us seek change through our political system legal structure media entertainment and more. Let us also confess. Our own role. In perpetuating. Circumstance. And let's address that fear within ourselves. That fear is human. But the quran teaches us. But that kind of fear that divides us. Is from the devil. And the bible in 1st john 4:18. Encourages us to break through the fear saying there is no fear in love. But perfect love. Drives out fear. So i am by asking god almighty to bless us all in this path of understanding and unity to allow us to successfully use islamic history to combat the sin of islamophobia to strengthen. Our work together advocating for justice for all. Through education and engagement with each other. Do support and solidarity. Truehope despite the hardships. Through courage and conviction. Through lights and liberation. And through love. Over and over and over and over and over again. Amen.

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Why am i get simpler butts. I'm craving food safe. I might say about the workshop. I believe the most controversial. Citroen liberal religion. Is the use of the yard. Largely because it's no controversy at all. Unitarian universalist road even consider it as a possibility. Set the various arts could have anything to do with religion. Some crazy beat make long hair from boston in vail. Seattle and san francisco the home of the beatmakers. And next thing. Crazy assumption that you can't have. Religion without art and symbols. He immediately started up all kinds of controversy. Hello humectar controversy. Well i would like to invite to this workshop those people who do not believe in are. Some of the others who can come along. But i'd like to. Chiropractor. Convincing some people. Symbolab. Tonight i would like to give. You might say the necessity. That is a necessity for a new religion. And. The necessity which is a new set of symbols a new set of art forms and architectural forms with a ride. Tomorrow morning we will consider. Rental property within ourselves. Our own personal limitations a limitation of man. Where we go from there more less depends on how you pick it up and. The direction that you indicate we should take. I think i could get out of religion entirely. The reason for this is. It is. Carmen presumption. In our world religion is a special affair. Hey kind of kings x. This is the reason you have a separation of church and state. Every man must have freedom. To choose his own religious beliefs and presumption. Can we make a further. Assumption. There are no rules. Any man can be as crazy. As a coot. And because of religion. Equalizes everything. A gentleman in detroit a big businessman. Can talk about becoming governor of the states and begin. Citing his lunch towards the white house. Ender. Nobody seems to. Barber about the factor. And i believe mr. thompson are. Secretary of agriculture was also a mormon. I'm not saying anything against this particular religion right now. Settings. Mary baker eddy. Just thought of. When a automatic writing i guess. What we had was a complete mess you know who put the science and health do nice orderly fashion and made presentable. A unitarian minister. Come home to roost. I'm getting ideas. You welcome. Meet the assumption. When it comes to religion. I'm kind of faith. Any kind of attitude. You're somehow alright. And 183 another. Listen play teresa. Practically are things about which religion is concerned. Are just as much a matter of fact. Have any of the sciences. Energy ordinary. Business affairs of life. General electric general motors. At&t. Politics. Cookery. Whatever activities you pick up. These areas of concern in areas of facts and evidence that pertain to religion are in the same category. But you would think they were they were entirely different. We have gotten away with this by removing religion into another realm. And the liberals. Have not all of them for taking this. Euphonious. Permissive. Realm. I'll talk to you later. Tonight i would like to give you an outline. Apply there is a necessity for a new religion. And i'm going to ask questions. Trinity. Heading and i'm going to ask you a question. And i'm challenging anybody here. At any time during the week tony thinks he has an answer. To answer this question. The reason for the new religion has been called a. Head explosion of knowledge. What i have to say here is not going to be no but i hope so. Empire may have a new address. In the last century of the half and mainly in the last half-century. Human knowledge has literally exploded. The science of my mother studied when she went to high school in three oaks michigan. And i studied when i went to thornton township high school in harvey illinois. Is not science to either one of us. Contractors. Harvey leaving today. There is a new program in mathematics. Several other one is called the illinois plan. And they're kinda launch all youngsters. Into the new mathematics and they always give this morning. If a student is elected into this plan they give us warning to the parents. Don't interfere. Don't assume that you can tell your child anything about matt. You don't know from nothing you stay out of it. Call the youngster taking an entirely different. What is the first of these areas. The first of these areas is the nature of the universe itself. At the meetinghouse we were looking for a symbol. Universalism. We had a big arch about 25 ft high and 15 ft across. It was just a blank wall. Very good unitarian symbol. We weren't content with it. What minister told me and return to the black wall that every member of his congregation. Vinegar only role there. I wish i snorted rather impolitely. I have more of a hunch they play tic-tac-toe or made out there. Shopping list. A blank wall does not mean anything. But we wondered what we could put in it. And that's why we decided that. Which would be a symbol of the universal child until we cast about this time. Astronomical. Who would guarantee underwood orion nebula in andromeda. Because this is the only extra-galactic. Nebulosity that can be seen with the naked eye. In other words every other star. Everything you see in the sky as it is within our own milky way galaxy so call. The only thing you can see you is the next door neighbor. Andromeda. Hundreds of millions of galaxies. Andromeda about. 5 billion star. And so we want some and got astronomical photographs from yerkes observatory and california institute of technology. May we call it a window into the universe. Who sang. This is. You can relate to this however you want. Waiting for you to get away from it. Photograph. We can say you can say the heavens declare the glory of god. Say the heavens declare the glory or. It's up to you. We were having a prime series 14 and so. We invited madam kepastian who was the head of the. Department of astronomy at harvard university. The wife of. Professor kepastian who was also an astronomer. Here is really a quality. I recommend this to the gentleman who's doing the family dip. They have. Channel gray helpful vigorous children. Imagine a man being a professor of harvard and having his wife as they head of the department of what you remember. Just imagine a woman being the head of a department at harvard. She was a delightful person. Call kind of horsey. Homely. But. A person. Completely unselfconscious. Until she was saying we have to talk about man place in the universe. What's so happened that she and her husband had spent their life. Studying. Double stars. And the best place to study variable stars. So-called word. Andromeda. How did you could study them over there next door betting you could home. For some reason. A little beyond me at the moment. She said that 25 years ago. About 30 now. Astronomers didn't even know what. Andromeda. 200 inch telescope and a lot of other things and. We got a powder. dog on the back for having chosen andromeda because. Some years after this. Carlos a player who has. Proceeded matanuska posthumous head of the department of harbor. Came out and said the universe is galactic center. What he meant by this was that the universe is characterized. Is the galaxy. It seems to be like the atom is a basic component of matter of the galaxy is a basic component of the au verse. Another word. 30 years ago. We didn't even know what the nature of the universe. We didn't know what to do in component. We had almost no idea of its extent or its nature. What question i want to ask you. How could anyone. Amateur and attica prison. Before he even knew. The nature of the universe. My wife has been highly grateful for this but. Well maybe somebody else can do it. Could somebody have a glass of water and a boy scout from the crowd. You know this is a rather rather startling thing when you come to think about it. All the assumptions made by the theologian. Made by the prophet. By the ocean where the self-styled. Voices of god himself. Several thousand years. And only within the last 30 years have we known what kind of the universe we lived in. On what basis. Did they make all their, cosmogenous cosmogony their stories of creation. Isn't it necessary to have a pretty new religion. Woman same thing goes. For microcosm as well as macrocosm. When i went to school. The picture we got of the atom was. Something hard and indivisible. The atom was the last. Couldn't be split. No they chatter. We went away. A science exhibit. Happy's the cargo. Museum of natural history. And there was a display talking about i was called you tree on. So i haven't heard of this for. Animals that are so much smaller than atoms. Well. An atom would look like andromeda. Compared to the earth. Is a nutrient in relation to the earth in relation to andromeda. Millions of these nutrients. And evidently didn't keep on going forever. In other words. We not only saturday adam into many the visible part. Will creative. We have found out of matter whose life. Man is 1,000. Concept. Has literally been exploded. And then i'm fine comes along and he says perhaps. Lemur. Be satisfied with a field theory. There isn't any such thing as tangible matter matter and energy are the same thing. Should i tell the tape but i just taking a swallow water. Probably consider. Solid material is a field. A field of energy. Whitehead said every atom in the universe premiums every other atom. What i'm trying to say in every. Include all the universal. Every nutrient ever. Just want to leave alone when i went to high school. We didn't even know the nature of the matter of a building blocks out of which everything in the universe. Compose. So i ask again. How could you have an adequate philosophy of religion. Facebook contact. Whatever you want to call it. Before man even losing nature. How matter and energy. Halle berry stuff out of which the universal soul. Is the earth on which we live. Columbus. Sailed across the atlantic in 1492. He was about a controversy because he believed the earth was wrong and other people thought it was flat. I live in chicago area there were certain zionists on the southside. Another kind of zionism. He lives in zion illinois. Jalisco baby. I'm sure many people still do. We still don't know what. Call the earth is composed. Going to drill down. Mobile. I'm going to drill down to the bottom of the ocean in the deepest part of the ocean. Find out if they can penetrate the crust are emergency more things about it. When you realize it copernicus and the others were just beginning to crack. The nature of the of the year. Solar system. A few hundred years ago. Understand the nature of our itself. We came to yellowstone. We're still wondering how the geiger operates and i don't believe that all of the plants. Volcanoes. Thermal manifestations in this car thing has really been solved. The very earth from which we walk. One of the most horrible stories that i ever heard in the press. Had to do with a man who worked in the steel mill. I'm still. Railway trestle it rides off and then you dump off the flag. Hannah sprague, desoto. Small mountain. Psycroptic school. It was a lot quicker to get home after a hard day's work by walking across the flag in my walking around it. 190 was walking across it one evening. Psychiatrist. Quan. Pretty much the way the crust of the earth. Underneath. Fire. We are just beginning. Kelowna nature lyrics. Which we live. How can you have an adequate religion. When you don't even know the nature of the planet. Richard well. Alright we've been talkin about three things relating to reality. Realities that composes us and the surrounding put it goes deeper than that. First motherfuking anthropology. Back in the latter half of the last century. Heaven sent. The farmers in europe with turn up stone tools. Hand-axe. Slipknot live. They didn't know where they came from nobody was really curious about them. Less than a century ago. We had no knowledge of our own ancestors. Who from a museum. 4 billion years ago, during the week. go along with. Maybe stone tools. Slowly build up the basic. Science isn't tool the civilization which is giving us all that we have sinned. It's been only within the last fifty or sixty years. We've been able to go back and charge this. Immense amount of data. And begin to get an idea about the. Just come from three weeks. That's the universe. Chicago. And learn what is to me a fairy talking thing. Chicago including meadville theological. Make almost no use whatever of the oriental institute. They did. But i was there some time ago. The oriental institute is primarily concerned with what is called the cradle of civilization. Egypt. Palestine sumeria. On around to the indus river valley. The great leader of the oriental institute james preston. Around about 1920. I need your apology. And began making all kind of clean. Attitude. Time in the near east and its relation. The old testament. How your you had a people. Who depended upon the bible. They look upon the bible as a divine revelation the bible was just part of their religion really. But these people didn't even know. What kind of a world bible king from. Hello anthropology beginning back with it. Paleolithic man. In spain and france. It was a magnificent civilization lasted from 35,000 bc to 12000 bc. That's a long time for an arc. Civilization. Start culture produced some of the most magnificent paintings that have ever been made. In fact some of these animal paintings. As great as anything to castle. Rembrandt. Davinci mikelangelo any of these boys ever. Limited all gone. Dredging up. Now we understand. See you in about 10,000 bc. Will it beginning of settled agriculture the domestication of animals in the beginning of village life. Embarrassingly enough in relation to the bible the oldest billy joel. And goes back to 6000. We find it at 4,000 bc. The great civilizations. And egypt began to emerge out of village life. And the third dynastic or high civilization began about 3000 bc. 2500 with one of those great explosion. Creativity in boston area and babylonia and the great efflorescence of egyptian in sumerian and assyrian and babylonian civilization came about. After this civilization of egypt went into decline. Startling fact. Egyptian civilization had reached its height. And then in decline for 1500 years. Before jesus. Before the beginning of june. Welcome to. Yesterday. Because we are still breaking news open. Hey professor at brandeis justice commerce. He thinks he will solve the problems of the derivation of the cretan language. Mycenaean language was broken only a few years ago. You tight language was broken only a few years ago. Only within the last 2 years or more. Everything. No we know. The man existed on earth in a recognizable form for at least 2 million years. He probably originated somewhere in central africa. South central africa. Something has happened to me this past year it's going to. I think going to have a very full song. He's texting app on my phone orientation my whole perspective. Give it to in crib. Hunnam shopping. Astronomers. Suicidal. 1 weeks. We have discovered to be made certain basic errors in mathematics. Cinar in figuring the distances of the stars in the. Text me the farther. Astronomical elementary inclusion that everything is twice as big and prices far away as we thought it was. So make a slight adjustment your calculations and we'll go on with our business. Triangle chocolate. Then i read another news item in the chairs. He probably took as long. For the fireworks to evolve into the amoeba as it took the amoeba to evolve into man. All of a sudden evolution is double. This is the way they treat. This is what it meant buddy. Laurens van der post republic 2 broke. When the lost world of the kalahari. The other which i have in my briefcase past year if he carries on the story. Who are drawn into the kalahari desert in south africa to find the last remnants of the african bushman. Here is pretty olympic man. Neolithic man. These are our ancestors who lives in developed on this earth for a million years. Before this. Questionable. Urban. Urban development. Again. Redevelopment or what. I know don't know but what. This supposed to be getting of a cured of decadent. Describe them are the loveliest creature that i have ever known. Pregnancy. We haven't even begun to replace her. Leonardo crime after the beginning of pretty lights and all. Getting all called about to take him to me. Calendar of them ocracy anthony grenier in this country says. The negro is not the calendar. So you want to know. Uber driver. Thermometer is democracy. Human ecology. As an animal by justin bieber and the fight. Almost definitely. Another thing for many years just booked members considered the runt of the human liver. All other branches of the human family were probably equal. Biologically mentally. Emotional labor. Akc australian bushman interiors a lot. No children are beginning to go to high school and college in australia and they have had to completely reverse there.. Noted look because of the agency of his environmental adjustment. He may be the one superior human strain. Superior. And i prefer to all other groups of the human family. Well here it is. I want a telescope for and 51 at archaeology and the other anthropology there really one. Temple tractor videos before century we did we had almost no idea of the nature of human civilization of the growth and development of the human being. End of the dari language. The artifact. All of it is incorporated into our person. We were almost completely without any. How can religion. When they don't even know who they are or what they have been. This wasn't bad enough. Towards the end of the last century. Indiana and. Surrounding areas men like freud and jung and adler. Began to call the human mind. The science of psychology and psychiatry is still an input science. Said it may be dubious sciences yet. Some would prefer to call it a study. Science of man's mind. Emotions. Man personality. Two philosophers. Jesuit. University of washington d.c. couple of years ago public. A big truvolume. Work. It looks so dependable. Roman catholic could appropriate air of the basic. Psychological conceptions and therapeutic practices asteroid and eliminated entirely. His philosophy. In other words they recognize that fact. Study religion today unless. With man's new understanding of himself. Horn theological terms his soul. But roy and his followers showed us that aside from the. In pipe, crandon from certain power to novelist. Mystics and others. Man was almost ignorance. He has profoundly how little we know. How about that very agency in reality which is conceived. The end-all and be-all of religion itself. Man person. Horn theological terms. Again. Until 50 years ago man had literally. Almost no idea whatever about the nature of insult. Least tern. How could even form an adequate amateur religion. The most important event of the 20th century. I am quite sure is one. Almost never gets into the press. I've never heard anyone else. Cracking up to. Focus upon this one although i think that many anthropologist would agree with me. It doesn't the atom bomb. Wm. Cold war. Is many of these big spectacular thing. It's affected in this present. In the rainforest to buy africa. Innate. Isolated areas and. Upper amazon. In a few valleys in new guinea. Tribal cultures. Are dying. When this decade is over tribal cultures be gone. See the most important thing for a man. Here's what happens to men. Animals important thing the most important happening in the 20th century. Is not how we attended our ideas about the nature of the universe and all this. It doesn't even lie on the nature of ideas. The most important thing is that we are at the end of a. of revolution in the very nature of human society. The very nature of the human community has undergone. A radical change. Up until this time man was characterized by. Tribalism. In terms of his religion. All of his religions are the end result of tribal religion. They all barely any radical fun prints and dimensions. Tribal religion. And no historical religion therefore will be adequate for the future. Not as such. Elements of candy. What man has moved. To a new world. You want a booklet pinpoint. Now available in paperback. This has something to do with the democratic process i think. Margaret mead new lives for old. She did her phd work. Herb produce. In the manors islands to the north of australia. She went there to study. Young people. Childhood merging into maturity. She was prevailed upon 25 years later. Make the interesting study of going back and finding what it happened to these people in the intervening 25 years. 25 years one generation. What you doing there 25 years ago this was an untouched tribal culture. Hadn't been invaded by the outside at all. In the intervening time the second world war or part of it had been fought. Keep on. 25 years has moved from a tribal culture to world coaster they were now concerned about their place in the world they understood. That there was the rest of the world and they were. Who won world. Notarized. What happened in the manus island has happened and will happen immediately. All the tribal culture. One of the heroes one of the markers of justice young rockefeller. Now in new york city across. The street song. The rockefeller museum. Is he. At exhibit. Artifact. That young rockefeller brought back. And for which he sacrificed his life. He went there as a apologists are going to these places. In order to find. The last remnants of tribal culture. Because quincy. Sargon. Tribal culture will be over forever. A way of life. That has endured for 10,000 years and yes maybe a million years in the past is gone. And there was only one alternative before man. World culture. Before he might have been locked in a little. Mountain valley. Or on an island. Or separated from others by a stretch of desert or by prejudices. And leave them to himself. You will find african tribe separated by only a few miles that are completely separate in latin. Incredible custom. In ark. Art style. All of your african tribes have been invaded. And it's not completely destroyed mainly destroyed. This is a sad thing for an art lover. Come the trade goods from africa where the african people. Attempt to make these pretty slick imitations of their once grades are on nausea. We haven't got enough our ourselves to know how noisy is they are can we put them in our shops and buy them. Are tribal art. Accepting these two places alive. She called you can't have an arc without a true culture. A culture that supports. When the culture has gone the article on the religion is gone. You know what i just said. I intend to be called the tribal cultures of the world has gone well as man's religions have done. Tribal religion. Semana. He won't recognize the necessity in the immediate reality. Emphysema. Brian says the beginning one religion is not a matter of preference. The matter of coming to terms with reality. They're they're just as hard. Just as impenetrable. Just as undeniable as any other reality. And if you don't come to terms with him. Your religion is super thick. These are root word. But they are necessary word. I sometimes think all cruises rude. Liberalism. It's an attitude. I sometimes think that liberals believe that religion is only a certain set of issues. You probably got season. And a workshop fine so felicia. Cuban in boston and lived through as many meetings as i have you will know the feast a major come up. Just about ad nauseam every year. A proposition. Go to the same argument. Almost the same reaction as you get if you were a heretic. I've had the train. Experience. I'm trying to. Interested art. Rod social action. I don't know her. Liberalism is 9837. Liberalism is an attitude. Attitude of open-mindedness of experimentation. Upchurch. I think of the scientific. Nothing. Because the scientific method is a liberal attitude appliance. Study of rihanna. That's one of the bigger of the liberal church. You're going to depend upon whether they focus. Their attitude there shirt their efforts. Upon those issues remote the most technical and creative and demanding. On the human scene. There is one issue today. That is a new religion. Lattanzi. Adequate. Is already a fact. Not a complete set. Because almost every branch of the human family is still involved in its own private way is protecting them and trying to bring them back into power and resources. Almost every group of the human family is trying to breathe life. Read brett back into the court. The manors at. Human cultural evolution has flame. Tribal road is gone. Yes you will have regionalism in the new world differences. In different areas different personality different groups of people. Every part of the world will be related to every other part of the world has it never was before. And somewhere man has to find a religion with some to turn. Because there was not one valley. One neighborhood. And that is the planet itself. There is one human family biologically proven. Archaeologically anthropologically proven. It has been demonstrated there was only one human culture. And there is in reality only one human religion in many varieties going by many names. We have. Unitarianism universalism. Uni. The unit the one. We should we have the liberal. Ultimate. 2 wakefield circle. Will not be merely the accepting of these beliefs. Body engaging in ourselves activity. Stop projecting this into temple. Interceptor weary into. Into. Into the office communication that can bring this message into the personalities of all mankind. Allegiant with justice. 5th avenue. I thought type building. Turned out to be an episcopalian church. I walked inside and son. Unitarian universalist don't get into. Restoring aren't you. So make. Stained glass. I stayed there for about a half an hour. How many of you would walk into a unitarian person sit downstairs for a half an hour. There wasn't somebody to talk to. And as i got up and left i said to myself. Who do we think we are. How do we think we can give the episcopalians horses until win the race. How do we think we can. Zebroid ourselves of all the art. Still buy are simple personalities. Convince all people to the right person. Who do we think we are. All of you are so are always now however. If there is only one human family then every beautiful thing that man has ever made. Every beautiful very beautiful poems. Every opportunity under and grace that man has polluted is h. And they can be quitting our temple. So we can put into the mall. And welcome them all. And artistic challenge. Heather rae. Never before in human history has this time,. 7 million years just time has been sleeping and waiting to come. And it is come in our lifetime. Has a challenge. Aura colors. The patent i had infinity. Since you work today. Closet.

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The-Straight-and-the-Gay-Homophile-in-a-Heterosexual-World.mp3?_=11

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Jesus-and-the-Gnostics.mp3?_=27

Kirk redding from teachings of us covered in 1945 and egypt and the selections from the teachings of soberanes i'm throwing this morning to call the bike lane pablo who was grandma took my right one. Operation this morning. 250 g of the teachings of piranha in the streets which lie heavily upon you. Apart from the oblivion ability with darkness. Why do you pursue darkness the light is available to you. Wisdom called you yesterday fire.. Cool everything else. Know yourself bringing your god in your teachers. The mind is the god but wheezing is the teaspoon. According to your mind. Water pump for tomorrow. Lightening your mom. White lion. Within you. On yourself as a pomodoro. Walk upon yourself. Azan earthquake road. Working on the road is impossible for you to go acrylic. Open the door for yourself. You know nobody. Whatever you will open for yourself. You will open. 75 years ago. Albert schweitzer. Completely exhausted starting. Historical jesus. Results of his research republic. Quest for the historical jesus. Provide a tremendous impact on newcastle's scholarship ever since. Getting called rob sandwich. Torture spaces own conclusions. There's nothing more negative in the world run a critical study of the life of jesus. Jesus. Means humping parole. Because they might be paracord. Green scum him inflows into all-time also. Bigbottombehavior beach hilton. Talking tom. Bible store on discovery. It is however the solid foundation of christian apple. Jesus as a known jesus original. Who is significant for all time in kampala. Google start on jesus birth date for from him. An invisibility cloak. Spas in florence and hoover. Which overcomes the world outing and eternal in jesus. Absolutely independent of the parking lot. Baby understood by contact with his girl. Still at work in the world. Proportion of rehabilitation. We have the punahou for jesus. Jesus avocados be stored personality. Remains a stranger to all time. Supplies hidden in his world. Nolan complicity. Avon in colorado. Names by which human beings express the recognition of jesus. Massage. Son of god. Comic book store. We can find mode. Witches couples. Puppy mill. I'm go out of 10 unknown without me by the lights party painted those new england. Big block retaining wall. What's up to the path between house to fulfil. Hico mountain santigold who obey him. Weather will be warm or simple. Google. Comfort. I'm open and ineffable missile they shall learn in your own experience. 35 years ago this month. Call boys digging in the ground mirror, some 300 miles south of cairo egypt. Funeral a large. Open world. I'm thinking it might contain something by olivia value picked up a shovel and smash it to smithereens. Rasika pointment however. There were all novi with ozone lumber of. Power within. The album was not on cross. What i'm promoting he took the writings homan telephone number some strawberry his mother is my progress along with the stronghold kingdoms. Google the condom scarlett mobile. Blomstrom.. Welcome tom before the remaining manuscript blu-ray black-market operations found their way into scholarly now. Reaction. Call russell cell work. 1500 years old. And they were poppy from earlier sucking country and ad. Many of which were previously unknown. Aesopian captain corcoran. To wait. They gave us a much clearer insight into the diversity on into the falcon taking place cindy early primitive cooking trouble. Play we learned a great deal more about the ancient colosseum known as. Auto shops made in heights biblical scholars. Lowe's. Particularly interested in the origins of christianity. Remote control. From a sermon talking about on a skewer scrapbooking. Winning to oblivion some 1500 years ago. I think the answer is because they knocked pixar worth. Knowing something about because they have some fascinating religious audio. So how's meaningful today. And in particular for those of us who claim the name. Unitard. The market term. Come to us from the greek word meaning knowledge. Maybe more familiar with it in the term agnosticism meaning not having knowledge about the wrong. Caustic mean. And it was thinking think there's nothing of the month.. Order to be enlightened religiously. A person in a person who had to achieve a particular result. Tell that jesus christ is closest to pompano. A secret. Whatever one. This one. This world is an illusion. What is truly important in the light of the syrup. Which was not founded founded. Mountain a physical reality. Jesus. was not. A human being. But rather a spiritual being. Who's the naughty song through hippo. Call the most pixel any liberal view of the crucifixion and resurrection. What's up man. Mommy. What's the weather like in palmdale. Walton net worth 88. What they said was rather. Did not.. Good presents to be experienced in the present in new visions of the store. 1 robert mccleary. You would not i think want to invite enough stick home for dinner. What's more he probably wouldn't want to come eating and drinking as well as talk. It appears with the freedom of the strut. Uno god. My morning. So what's up. The flying saucer kind of religious science fiction 1000 years ago. And indeed one contemporary scholars or just simply being the crazy of the soccer central. Before we can strongly gnostics off tv after being the victory. Aeropostale. The most important issue. Looking at any religion. What is the religion. Call ghazala religions claim to know. The claims to know. We are well aware of a vast majority of religions. Big girl party clean. I'm cooking app store. Evidently in our culture. Scruby's on the authority of the bible. We're cold we should be leaving the bottle because it is the revealed word of god. How do we know about a real word of god. Because the bible. This time of traditional religious external authoritative. I just reverse the completely. Only knows two images. What's up with somebody else's words. I will take the word for some teacher of the philippines on the floor baby. Human bean. Opti xbox one play with others. Turn off the tub challenge. Bill wright toyota. To get off the visible playing. I'm going to the spiritual plan. And that's when you come about spiritual original become created. Inventiveness original. Was the multiple come out explain. Russell person did not order. Sober spiritual personal. Saw the first time for personal revelation to the spill. Spiritual revelation was always individual personnel and fresh new and unbounded barquero. Columbus were roaming about the day they would undoubtedly be among the greatest appreciate a wreath of modern art looking on it as something on the phone about additional formal. Gymnastics world. Anthony, guarding authority. They wanted each person to talk to his or her own intuition. Religious writings for the monsters for useful. Only if they are sensitive person in the process of strep throat as governor. Was that a person could communicate directly with an alarm. Garou. Centuries and centuries later. In the words of ralph waldo emerson. When you're 150 years ago he said before they graduating class of the harvard divinity school and subject. But me and monica you said i'm going to come. To go alone. Who refused good model. Even those that are sticking in the imagination of people. Without mediator orevillo. Imitation cannot go above tomorrow. The imitator do yourself. Brooklyn. Mediocrity. Reply. A newborn the ball of the holy ghost. Anna queen all a scam. The earlier gnostics. Gone beyond the boundaries of a liberal interpretation of jesus's teachings. They believe that the present and produce more the future. Would reveal more knowledge for the government owned by the british for teachers. Jalapeno poppers. Public authority was a personal phone screen. Dick russell career all second-hand testimony or producer. Each person. The person does not bow down. Before any ecclesiastical official. Any scripture. However revered or exalted. Boosted gave a toast to a ongoing questioning attitude in burlington. It's good again. The increasing male dominance. Of the early church. Donut shops near me. Football people. Spiritual being to the mountain. This matter of religious articles on we will return in a few months. Most important about spartacus moment. Obstacle course. Opposition. To the hierarchical go within the christian church. Just left no word. Orno writing with supreme. No human church authority could command the store. Cindy small. Starburst. Geographically widespread. Feminism christian song. Sensory. Demopolis could be tolerated. Superman of one approach among many. To who cheapest one. How's the church moved on going. Canyoning institutional future. Trivago in the roman empire. The primitive church more and more moves quarter. Centralized administrative authority where the emergence of a power. Of the bishop of rome. Powerpuff hardly gainesway. Or remain unchanged as long as the muscle. With the fundamental a boyfriend out of pages for about. As long as i put you on a date. So that was kind of historical inevitability. To the branding of gnosticism first of the hall of fame. Ruthless. Moving out of the north texas realtor. And then they're scratching by every means available. So. Certainly by the year 400. Had been completely eliminated they were no more. Import long century. What we mean when u of a propagating jumping it all. Was buddha columbus. They were rooting against them by the early church fathers. Stomach muscles little club is the unreality of this world. All city. Call cliff. Pounding the religious adventure on protho however. Knuckle saloon foreshadowed some. Unitarian religion. Spiritual descendants of anak. Simple model of authority. Both holes of the ultimate authority mccall we live within the first one. Simple the journey of religion. Google person who starred for the stars. Yonder. Probably differ from an oscar. I'm a member of world denial. Joe frames on mobile. Weather information of this world. Unitrans would still hold a certain sympathy for the gnostic view. But we could never belong. The week would not be call putting 2017. Bobby immediacy of the brook. Call the way. We should not 60in next only impractical dealing with the momentary. That we lose up to mention of the human story. Storms beyond the pole. Google. Universal. What other apps. Domestic approach for auto. Also can you pour painting. Go on microsoft but i'll move. Believe that there was a special night. Only a few could know and embrace. Play we're not so different from me for this one unicorn into something religious. Somebody the rest of the world would roblox. One reason the dental plan for never been missing mungry. The rest of the world move evolution always. To apollon upstate. And everyone will deal with the problem we should not want her down or are we looking for a song from coca-cola. Bongo. We are central pa. Secret knowledge of our coup. Knock knock. And if i can get my phone out of my cheap warm-up. I will confirm that the mountains have lasted. Lasted exactly 300 years. Hank williams a similar olympus attitude. Who make barn with neil playing survival be about the same. If there's anything worse than this earth on a van a religious from now.. It must be the it must be the religiously smug. Superior exist above the fray because they can't lower themselves. You have gone with jumping a paint. But this minister is an example or a religion of individual. I want our gospel pray to every person. We'll probably end up crying without knowing. Tell my story. I want to call who agree with us. We've already noted. Individual. Against the growing patriarchal authority of developing christianity. Hulu freezing. The monstercat no particular need to. Religious prediction. Only one example out of money. Let's go back to what is perhaps the most tail of all in the bible. Mainly the garden of eden store. Radical wetumpka hotel. First of all.. But he is a countdown for today we would call a possible. Depressing state. Entropion is temporary rescue. And she appears. No. Ryan. Immediately afterward became a deed. Adam rose. Immediately he opened his eyes. And when he saw her before. You will be called mother of a living. Because you are the one. Fugazi. Me. Original sound. Number word agnostic documents on brooklyn woman. Place of honor. They incorporated lebron. Directly with the summer. Follow is a diversity in the gnostic texts while they were by no means a monolithic group. Call the summoning dimension of the devon bridgeport. Gnostic scripture things almost as if it were directly out of a dollar store looking. Wiggles taylor creation on. Similarities of the yin and yang of taoism. Take this description of the. Creation of the universe when i'm off.. From the power of salah. Appeared a graco pump. The morning of the universe. Noni juice and emails. A great intelligence. Is a female. Smokey robinson californian views of the female produces all while the male models is all a little thing as a cooperative. Elkhorn practical reality was that a musket organization. Women and men held equal real. Find it. Significant update. Privation of equal rights for women in primitive christianity. About mako beyond. Alkaline song song. 20 divide and conquer game was played by the developing christian. First woman could be deprived of their power in the church. And that would be called many gnostic women of their positions of power and then the weekend nail number. Could be surprised. I'm going listen to me is a minority rights or a cop. Then the white minority. Is a lufkin who took me will not coffee. Tragically we learn. General spring. Now. Hateful gyros. 1980 quarter. Muppets because of the reduction of external authority. Found the meaning. Guede instilled in. Commutable. Christianity groove. The relatedness of those within the church scene. In primitive christianity. Church was a community of believers. Who found meaning in jesus become. But this community was not notice for a compromise bill delete delete the motor is indicated in his constant dealing with these numbers. Sinking of the small christian sect was the. Alberto. For one another. What is queen elizabeth rule instagram biscayne. Total community no longer. Everyone. But only those who held to the right delete. Those of differing views. Excommunicated. And then of course little overtime execute. Not describe the whole30. Quality of christmas related to watermelon. Was the meaning of the truth. Because of an octopus world with similar place. It's simply a place in which one good. Show me important part of this world to the master choir. Booking a religious community. Person could be. Interpersonal service. Good luck. Come up from the hospital right. End of the funding into unity is the true nature of the church. Optics for round. When do they start to understand the importance. Albuquerque housing institution. They do because they could not be concerned. With the issues of this wife. Or the f*** teresa with allowed on keto bars. And i think alyssa maley unitarians is retinol. Idealistic commitment to the community of the church. Holding a person's within looking up baby. We must not lose some. Popsicle ways by which community is created. 19. Community does not simply. Only review. It does not happen simply by having. Little popsicle madhuri take care of themselves. Community dental provide a circle. Within which person can be super related. Then we must carefully worked out.. Means that we must make sure the church institution. Mitchell person within the church. And that we must have ever labor to make the turkey. A better service. The first one. Who cleans uncle. No nothing. Thumbs up. Morton speaking. Denver broncos. Listen to this passage from scripture. God created humanity. Now human being. Duncan korean news in the world. Human beings make god. And worship their creations. It would be appropriate for the god. Commercial swimming pool. Rino modern alcolock hotel. Could be any more radical and a simplification of the meanings of religion. For the mouth. If a human person is separated from the debron operation does not result from russian christian pop. Subway on signal. Knowledge can overcome software. Alliteration. They overcome ignorance. Quinoa clive number. Oregon. But with a single human being. Person would become more divine. Can the human have to first initiate. Apple first begin the adventure. Gnostic scripture. Google read earlier. Knock on yourself as a pompadour. I'm walking upon yourself as a straight road. Open the door for yourself 14a know what else. Whatever you want open for yourself. You will open. The realm of god. Whoever into the realm of self-discovery. Every human experience. Is a further discovery of the devon. Keep it mello. Gnosis. Each person not to be simply a christian at helena. The mostest. Free speech person to become a junior one. Agreed we discover ourselves. Who got the green we discover when they come across. Propanol. Uniprim way of thinking this is that jesus was the vong. Only in a way the mall women being potentially become duvall. Nicole schweitzer on morning reading when he said that jesus comes to us as one unknown. Look for those who follow him they will learn from his fellowship. An inoperable mystery. Who. Grandiose. Storming nature of the monster. Wasn't there are no humans. Edgepark acres a little bomb. There is no. I'm going to human being could become. Most dramatically. Every person. Sunday. It is important to know that. 20 centuries ago there was in the formative years of cristiano boo. Important. Significant group. Whispering in its way in toledo. Some important ideas, new orleans. Democracy has an oscar for the same. For they are bothersome communal praying for today in boca raton while y'all archie. We have important spiritual bonneville. What we believe in our religion. Therefore, into the very beginning years of christianity. Represents some ancient swimming pool. Obama. Religious exemption. Is all about. We have a long and proud the illogical cry-baby. Which goes back before the institutional founding of the unitarian church. Some poor countries ago. Killer burger. Bianca. I never give a plumbing of this pipe. Read through the obscure a primitive christianity. Given the universal thing on the complexity of the individual and human disease. Oklahoma lottery commission. My responses of arbonne certain passages in the gnostic scriptures and crawls or rto trucks were late across the centuries our resumes to those who would not sell external authority. Lowe's with no wonder who fraternal episode. Waterfront church. Go to paws of a bomb. Inhumans the intimidator. Downtown pomona police number for aquariums. Nevada time. I remember that we spell our lives on alcohol called largest food. Turn up the volume. About phone. Noxitril. The homefront a christmas club. Your number of the devon body on a. Think i think they ever require a message from heaven. Invisibobble, in guatemala. Teachable. Is a whole universe of marvel on wonder. Another way even when we are at our lord. Baseball hotdogs on the most. Grandiose wonders of creation. We must. First of all upper elementary level. Validate. Before we can. Auburn. Or we can split the world at large. Her before we can even except for the vine. Profile. Bialo. Acknowledges that we first talked to corey marcella. And then if we cover king. No matter how old a clue. Accordingly. Santa rosa community. Rental assistance. And the top between abiding in the volume. Well circle austin.. Memes literally. The eagles. Believer. Long ago. Far away. Corpus christi. Forever and always. Reboot. Even if it is a little square as being an unknown ninja rebirth is also. A grandiose people oreo. Shining star. Late. Rhode island. We have a more. To worry. Apparel. Aruba.

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Dont-Tread-on-Me.mp3?_=2

He coming. Number to liberty harbor bill. Nobody else. India live for you. How can you be alive. Or anybody else. Tom cindy dixon. Eu. Responsibility. Responsibility. You can call. And go about other people's business. And do or undo until you drop. Handsome. Introduction. Play top 10 roof. Can i see williams. Corset. So much revolting at work dude so. Closely related to the personality of the one who does it. Emotions which deeply enough to demand expression. Lighting power. Oliver changed in their circle. Ending. Particular and sometime. Navarre florida. Images of it. Weeds about the salt from work together. A wealth of monaco. Speed. Beyond labor. Spider-man. Singular. Supalonely audio. Lonely. So horrifying to think about that we usually don't. Subway. Talk to each other in. Right. Lowry trailer and call each other. Shotgun long distance. Land and sea. Clock hands with each other and eating and talking. Fighting each other and leaving destroy each other. Because i always. Tumwater. Break through the walls with each other. Chautauqua. All of us apartments to palo alto california. Asados. Smiledirectclub. Is the umpqua ignorant equipment. Spell incorporate. Futurama. For the duration. Call i happened upon a book in my photos library. Which contain. Call frank. Northline kingshighway. Particular population. Banner plumbing home of the american revolution. Play day. Rattlesnake mountain lake rentals in lake wylie. Rattlesnakes were virtually unknown in the new england. I have never seen a lot of things. But there was no mistaking the warning and blazing on-the-fly beneath the lotto tonight. Write on me. The doctrine of individualism. Has never been more succinctly. Only years later that i came to understand that individualism is a little more complicated than the maho. Cam newton. Individualism. Preamplifier. Namely. Call lolita. Scorpion. Solving barnes preoccupation with out. Such a person growling in stomach. Robin burrow the luxury of pondering the idea of individualism. An individual then we must first of all how. Chicken material. Blocks to red.. Myrtle beach. Globe for the summer number. Shut down on groupme. Automobile opinion that individualism is andrew. With the pursuit.. Is open up the expense. An exploitation of others. Directly opposed to the commonwealth. Make a reminder. Because the landlord raise the rent this year another 20%. On his return from payments in hawaii. Bruckner playing to a certain problem with material individualism. Namely that it allows the wealthy on the power cord to exact measure. Certainly. The whole. Domestic history of the american nation in the temporary. What's happening such a liaison drug cause heart problems. Running. We have placed upon our second book. Limitations apply. Individual. Cinco through the hole. President reagan's economic policy. His prescription do or do not need to be placed on the material individualism. Wealthy. Grammatical debating maybe. Is it virtually everyone agrees with some restrictions are episode. For example we would not allow any group incorporated into advertising as a boon to help. Normal everyone agrees. Some people. He made from marbella. Important economic issues. Arguments of both conservative and liberal hawaii. It wasn't practical machine. Laquinton material well-being. Respectful to being an individual. Second effect. Awesome looking like remember. We live in a complex. Football. There aren't any robinson crusoe's running around on digitalocean army. Wearily. And promote them up. Good parts of all sense of being. Companionship. Chilango. Or pencil song. Being involved relationship. Hope it goes well. Examples of surrounding us on every star. Oh is that. It is usually isolated individual. Baseball player who domination. Biking pulling group. He the people who. Interrelatedness. Quahog. Something go next week when we talked about the. Malone. Material well-being 412. Still want to do a limit morning. Being being. Portland. Being a part of individuality cintron. Hornball. Subjective internal temp. Who we are when we begin to run. How do you feel about dogs. Being individual involves having a quarrel. Public relations. Yet we are hard to find these ingredients within ourselves. We don't any of us imports. About individuality. Importance of are feeling good about ourselves. Here is the recap. Title defense of rio being in america. Sacramento. People who do the control of their lives within themselves. Or more likely to describe their life experience probably. Windows and keep themselves controlled by. Those big print white as being here controlled or copper. I'm more like people actively positive experiences. I'm often called the blank in the domains of life. I'm already went there that they have had their share. Onboard air. Portrait thing. Who is more important about everything else. Imperial motel. Is austin we have control over our lives. Happy garden. Isn't this study found. Socratic questioning. Shape of being in control. Did mop anyway anytime with a person receive. Walmart education or lack thereof. On our age or even to a small degree. This made dispatcher. All the embassies in the sky. Jumpin jumpin. Cancel game. Being discipline does not depend on the usual social measurements of employment agency. Highly individualistic. Ingredients. Believe we have a lover online. You know our particular uniqueness. Calling ingredients. I need some feeling good about ourselves. Is only thing tomorrow impractical evidence. Report. Unitarian bi-lo. Luke bryan religion wrecks on individual. Which is to say that each person must come to his or her own beliefs. Requiem religion whole circle. Facebook. We are aware. Subscription. Simple beatles hat. Outback. And i'll probably send off. The human nature evil. Individuality or they're going to ride off the reservation. That people have to be told. Name of the church and state. And they must be made to act in ways that will. Constantly subdued. Barrick table maker. Christianity today. Calling to apply to everyone in arkansas. We must be restricted in our private sexual activity. Particularly homosexuality. Acceptance for teenager. They must be dictated to by having prayer in our school christian doctrines made evidence in our public life and secular humanism. A human being. Ismael. Flourishing with a v and termination. We all know. Michael. Chipotle. Far against. Many people may object to this researching one of my looking because it. Goes against the law. Opposition against crimes against. Theological. We believe i don't know hold all right. Go back to the ancient religious restrictions. We believe that suppression. Breaking feeling that they're full of responsibility. Wow. We believe that our own aquarium control. Over human being. Eliza texted me. All religion band begins with responsible individual. Hey responsible individualism religion. Call abusive. Good back control of any society. System is ever and always the song. The unpopular minority. Practically with violates the human spirit.. Undercutting the sense of well-being with arising. I'm feeling and control lamar la. We cannot allow correctly. Call pop's auto control declares that. Put more religious freedom. Is an evil thing. Very very strong. Religious freedom. The wife of individual conscience. Still be a matter of dispute. Closing.. Hickory creek products grand dragon of the ku klux klan. A munsters on.. Chicken aruba. Fundamentalist christianity. Individual freedom. Testimonial. Comfortable individualism. Painting the abuse of power. Protective protective. Highly negative litmus test. Tumi. David logic explored individualism. Got it one another. Public accountant. Application. Do we protect the individual rights of all. That means i was purple to couric. Hemoglobin. Google wemo. Two weeks ago a person can give me down pompeii. How can you call yourself a religion and you didn't mention the word job 1. Apothic white officer earlier there were a million of religious group rancho. Soprano saxophone. Whatever might be her own particular personal view. People never refuse religion. 18 oak point of view. Chattanooga. Review of religion was restricted. She could not seem that a religion embrace all kinds of promise that should work absolutely. Responsible. Individualism however. Good morning. Which one is a good little sometimes abused work. Walkable. Call v donald. Aizawl relationship. Now that is for sale. Respond to other not as yet. Computers down. Meaning that we see another month as a thing to be taken into account. Why do we respond to the fishing pole. That is no income. Any of us more aware goggles consequence. Limited in our ability to respond to another. We are at our most profound level. When all individuality in court. Individuality. Another. Usually we are so blocked up by elena. Resources for encouraging others. We all have time for all the response. And we know that can come make a we have actuator. The person game. Epic moments we pulling the computer. Her present smooth become. We went over this i got all of our relationship. We picked him up for monica lee. In our relationship strong total. Every parent knows that they. Showing. Allow are issued to reach football. Which one do you agree. Independence. Jamaican choice quizzes. About petersburg.. We are hurrying her. This is never. Subrogation. Brother we return ever trying to make. Craigslist. Rhonda taco. Robin drinking colbert. Grumpy white's. Metropolitan railway between apocalypse. Even one on 72, so i'm commission agenda. U-joint. Thankfully we garnered some. For october and june into their own laws. And make those lines for play willow by the. Agree that we've successfully naturally persons of october. We are usually able to have. Meaningful relationship. I need to bring one girl. Homemade a prolonged period of strong and strike. Alienation. Robin. Well we can have a and loving relationship. Withal. But in the process. Google about. We are aided by the societal cultural expectations. Independent. Nrlc seeking. Call. Petition is usually. Call morgan. Or we can find a couple muscle. Double mattress. Yeah you to be your own self. No i don't want you to go anyway but threaten me or our relationship. Only to the degree that we feel secure within our car. Happy to the greeley co liberated in our own individuality. The way how. Power to allow another. Local home repair. You become a bow. Whom we can relate. I'm getting tomorrow. Relationship. Stranger. We have power in the life of another world. You'll really the car of the life of another with an outcall. Only as we are able to. Hello. Being of another. Open up testosterone individuality. Is our ability to allow another convenient care. Move along with halfways above. That is always 18.. Overall your until. The only. Cover between two individuals. Parking garage. Call domingo ventured off the window. We are getting a little earlier. Timothy william jefferson we are all something for celebration. Regard. Goodnight incorporated individuality in the final analysis. Whitening cream. To be an individual means. In the brain nature or what. Paper rolling. Being individual mean sometimes and by oneself. How many bonded. Did they clean shampoo, far from christmas on route 4 from brockton. There are always. Write it down. All they wanted. Cumberland parkway. Coloring woman devil. Has meaning matt nichols login. We can always forego our own unique position. Ending it over to somebody else. Nirvana. Only a greeting tour. Loneliness. However nursery may, long-life parkway. Can we come too. The palms disorder can be a frida kahlo. Only come about when. Individual contingency something that is larger than themselves. Best creative maps. Telephone. We look back over history. Continue being. People who in trouble they have a unique covenant as a people. What y'all do with gout. Reminded galloway never spoke to the jews and gather them all together. He didn't speak. Yahweh robert roberto. Turn tivo on branham. Yahweh well. Get me the majestic. Poor rural universe. Could have. Delivered play the ten commandments directly to the hebrew people without. Having become a motorcycle some mountaintop to deliberately. Community. Only through the movie. Blind. Who he. Then contribute uniqueness of them call. Carlo gambino. Each of us have a green power. Which we can contribute to making something larger than ourselves. And that is not the law. Robert the enhancement. Eliza to extend our individuality for other than waze and always a and meaningful to the shop. Greenhouse. Feeling empowered with markel. He coming. Nobody in your lawn for you. Nobody. Very responsible. Pompadour. Glen coco. Kobe mysterious wonder become mcgregor. When we know that. Google chrome. No. Do without laws. Everly. Working whoever won. Dissolve slowly. You show up with a person. Individual. I need to call each uniqua. Huntley potential to contribute to the human question wayne. Good morning christine. And willow. We become significant to the pool. Note 5 can run during that inputs. But writer. You taking 12-year an individual to the store. Largo. Fighting. More more. No trouble. Family. That is our continuing. Being a wife. More. Who are they. We have returned more. Where are we living in. You're welcome. Ichiro have a beautiful. Which we can contribute to making something larger than i'll try. And that is not the law. Robert. Fort liza to extend individual okay for others in ways are we a amiibo to the south. Rehab. Feeling empowered without cell. Temporary housing. Ability to get power. He coming. Nobody in your lawn for you. Tom convicted arias mobile. Nbu. Various responsibilities and emo. Takis. Kind of grandeur. Hippie mysterious wonder become a global. When we know that all of those snowflake. Motu. Call kevin. Snowflake. Togedemaru. Heap program. Taking google. Furniture row in gulfport. Youtube. Youtube. He's about to baby. And egypt by each year. Hangry potential to contribute to the human quest in waze. Good morning christine. Camarillo. Who becomes the hoonigan. Don't buy from rendering that inquisition. Hobart waterfront. Brother. I'm taking what is hater in individuals with a cell phone. Wake me up in largo. Nobody. More more. Family. That is our continued. I did nothing of the sort we have life. More. 11th and morgan. Going to worry. Where are we.

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Gratitude-the-Hearts-Warmth-Cynthia-Breen.mp3?_=34

And in the beginning. Relationship. An introduction in a church. After service. Initiate a significant furniture. Iran. Professional relationship. Deep and rich. Hello. Dim light. Hello,. We are out to meet new people everyday. Hello. Hard knocks. Reach far beyond the casual. Yeah every hello. Also contains a good box. And we open in manifold way. Engages in a workshop. At the end. Linger on. To postpone the moment. Another kind of goodbye avoidance. We have good bars that are wrong. That's with a friend. Has anyone's close relationship. He's an actor and black parade. The yunginz sometimes come with. Szechuan years ago. As i was tripping another church. Are older members to sam's with me. Leaving church on easter morning. Er. 2 minutes later she was dead. There were. No formal goodbye. Goodbye. But the anguish and remains. And every hello. There is always contain. For every relatedness must come to an end. An ultimate final app. One way. Poignancy in goodbye. Better now. Underline a reality. What we are to one another is now passing to a new incarnation. What is now. Will never be the same again. When the child leaves home. And we know she will visit again. But the comings and goings will not be.. Sprint across the country. Occasional reunions. The daily. Will no longer be. Such as today. When the moment comes on a congregation. Covenant once made in a. Call. And service of insolation. Ring skull. Conclude today her present call rv. Minister of religious education of the church. We will not be leaving seattle. She will also continue to be a member. Public property. We talked about brenda g. she will. Become actor. Hindu and diverse way. Celebration. Is it our relationship now. She will find employment elsewhere. She will be covered by a professional code. Provide ministerial services for honor. We in turn. Much respect.. And take care of cuz you're supposed to sound. Privacy. Expect. Her give up her professional talent. What kind of food like manor. Our friendship will continue. Universal unitarian. These structures. Maybe difficult. More than for myself. Cynthia and i'm trusting calling. By no means. What's extrapolate boxing what is extremely rare in our entire. Uniframe movement. Reflective and honor. Relatedness. Hannah parrish master. What is friendship. Collegiality. I will be grateful for my ministry. Among the living. Should not be a memorial eulogy. A ministry. 1st and her children. Which will continue to influence money live. Surprise paw patrol dimension in her ministry. Haven't touched intimately i'm significantly. Many persons and family. Whether it wasn't her delights. Advocacy programs in which he believes. A ability before 121. With ichima. These gifts will continue. Anu. Hindu manifestation. Anne morrow lindbergh. Anyways in many languages goodbyes are set. The japanese word sayonara. Declarative. Reality. Too much. Template. Keystone. Dystopia and we now turn the page. Enter a new chapter in our lives. We express our gratitude for her ministry. For the new ways in which team. In her ministry. And are continuing. Wikibuy. And will. Knox. I reading this morning. Turn the word cuz. Tigerair. Gratefulness. Prayer. Recommence is a mindful. Interact. Our will. Feelings are all engaged. When we are grateful. But when we play mindful someone might. Get the impression that we want to scrub the mind over again. The rest of our crew. Speak. Rather than the mind. Gratefulness is a. Respond. Heat.. Can we send kind. Kenna. Cartier. Gratefulness. Cardinal. Two-person dental. And this is precisely with the symbol of the heart stand for the whole person. Stage one another i will give you my heart. They do not mean i will give you. Have myself. Not even if they want to say is that they are willing to give themselves in their innermost. Northern air. The heart is not a symbol. It arrived. Alignments in more than merely the physical form. Chick-fil-a. I will give you my heart. I will give you my life. Alignment. And that. All of my past history off my teacher possibility. Car seats in the present moment. Together. Together. In-center are barbie where intellect and will and healing mind body past and future come together. Can we discover that software i like hold together. We discovered her heart. That is why i call the hartford. Taproot. Planted we know that we have taken hold plans. Pandora moments when something chart. It went to our hearts. We all remember time when something charcoal iheart. We know from experience that precious moment purple mindfulness rr1 without all. A memorable encounter long-awaited event. What's a surprisingly small matter. An everyday occurrence. Something done a hundred times 4. Seems to be no reason why it's 102 amazing attention but it does. A mother looks at her baby sleeps in the crib. Every afternoon today. Forward. Will you drive a stretch of highway in twice a day. The red and white flags at the used car lot for the moment. Diesel power. Piercing word. Pinpoint them. Instruct memories. When one remembers most about these moments. Tents of gratefulness. It's not the same as thanksgiving. Ticket price to thanksgiving but it life. Even before its first poison to thanks to god or to light the current deserve the name gratefulness. Because it is one. Read given. Moments. Winner to come together. One kid friendly. One is responding from heart. Combat center. Where are. My favorite singer here this morning. The reading is paired with you. Important. Gratefulness. In our lives. I honor and support. Important. The human heart. Our principal. And often at the children in this community. Call dad heart. A children fix morning. I have wrestled. Recently. With the ability. In x r. Pain. And major payne. Times when bad things happen. Considering those times when difficult to you. Arrived. Human intervention. Events such as serious illness. A hurricane. These bad things happen in the aftermath can be extremely difficult. Let me begin with some example her. The human heart. Connie was a beautiful. An easy baby when she was born eight years ago. She was free when the cancer was found. Many treatments from a weekend with no mobility or cognitive functioning. She is presently lying still too many. Parents. Standing by her bedside. Many. Why. Nothing that will give me more time. That would. Allow her more than just a few months. Accentuate energy curry. An unexpected storm comes up during a climb on mount everest. Extreme cold and siri. Unable to reach perkasie understand. Carson's father. Friends brothers son mediterranean. I'm in great form positive energy and strength. Angry because his dad told him he would come home. He does not understand how a storm overwhelmed. His dad's court. So what do we say when cancer spreads are the clouds move and. This is something i have rental rare as i have. Tragedies.. And tragedy. You have to ride with me. Chico. Eula. I've been with. And i try to help them in tearing the pain. Question. And berry farm. Screaming. Sometimes my facebook. Even terrible things occur. In time. Believe that. I had a master plan things work together. Has not. Our hearts or. Satisfy. Power down. Dancer we can even suggest that there may be one is found somewhere else. Children should not suffer. From an unexpected blue nation. Thank you. Cancer grow. Open and people. Hurt. That's the way life is. The pain is still real know we cannot change what has happened. Steambrite. Talented resourceful loving. Hina. Anderson. We rain. At life. We know an emptiness feel like a small rocking. Part of our soul. Eventually we met. We have no choice. Khalil gibran. When you are sorrowful. Look again in your heart. Can you receive an intruder has been your delight. Describe. The anger can pay. And be replaced by bitterness. Excellent heart becomes frozen. Can you turn cynical and suspicious that any good that comes their way. I can sympathize. Other way with some hesitation because i'm certainly could be understood as a hacker. Numbing. 9news. I don't feel either but i'm talking about. I have seen a. Tragedy. I have appreciated at 7 memorial services. Since this past january. My my days away from the church. I've been currently working in my. Second hospital starting. As a chaplain. I suddenly lost a dear friend and family member last name. I have recently experienced relieve taking. Of our four children from the home. 6 years. With my daughter. Juvenile diabetes. I have internet. And cynicism. The choices i have made and one eye tear with you this morning is moving from one law. Morons and suffered to embracing what. Never. Subway. Gratitude. I bet you. Auburn karen would never get back to gratitude. Just wait has become clear to me. Many more in my life. We have a choice. Scooby-doo. Two months ago my in-laws. An extended burger. My father-in-law. 88 years old. Find finance. Bicycle. 15 miles a day. Pandora. 8 mile a day. Dan isn't much of a talker that difficult to wear his hearing aid. That makes it very difficult. And in the 12 days that he was rather i was only able to engage him in one conversation at least one that i can recall. Sitting outside looking at the western sky did for. Hours of teens. To watch the western sky the mountains in the rain in the light. Brenda sister. Have you always been this way. Dan said no no. 70 chronicles song. On new year's. I made a resolution. And i have not ever profen. I recall. Every and. Thank you. And he said further or bad thing. About anymore. Mountain checking with other family members that has proved to be true. Quite an astounding pairing. We can spend. Ingratitude. Knowing and loving. Experiencing. Fiction never be taken away. Gratitude doesn't make things look different. Fred. All around. Expedition comes in. Are police and the dignity. Potentiality important resources. When we. We can be sustained and comforted by our own work and potential. We can tap into our inner reservoir power. In order to endure. Are facing the secret. And cannot be neglected. Are deeply-held trucks that light is good and worth living campesina and the face of adversity. Define meaning and value even in our bleecker. Moment. Finally our commitments. Can director. Insolent. When is concord. We can be. Gratuitous. We can certainly do that right here university unitarian church. An enduring kirby reminded of the importance of gratitude. Here that i must acknowledge. What is real farm today. Time hearing. Hi in tearing a law. Leaving my service to you. That's one of your ministers is a. Decision. Which army. Introduction. But nevertheless major change your name. Tonight at 4 months. Summer backgrounds. And i intend to do it. Further. Overwhelming. Shearing tour. You is. Gratitude. Thank you. Thank you. Here. I have had. For the most part has been rewarding. Encourage me. Cockney. Do you have supported me. To even start me to graduate school and got me in terraria. To me again and again. Some would say you raise me up. I'm eternally grateful. I'm still never forget my years here. Fairies. Blended and stapled community. Archibald macleish. Sharp pain in lawrence in his modern. Play jg. He is a lucky man. See her white children. Many blessings however. Ethical. In the biblical story. Furniture rental. Well. And finally his wife leave him. God. Shang-chi. Light show. Katy and humble. In questioning. Question when you use would never have difficulty with. Enfield forgive. Tucker. Final. Decals for glory from me. Can you sing sarah. White. Return to home. Her words offer. Many women i know offer. A new perspective. Sure cuz you wanted justice. Only love. Enjoy be required referring to god. He does not roar. And that's the wonder. Saying that light beer. Necessary change. And greece. Our answers are found in the law in our hearts memory. I love it right. Our gratitude. Skyline. I love the natural world. Gratitude. Importantly i feel. Are the answers we find another. Are steering. Ratatouille. Standard auto parts. Answers to be found in human warmth and compassion. Sharing.. Grateful. Sarah's last words. Styrofoam. Then blow. My darling. The light now. Earnhardt. The lights have gone out. In the sky. The candles in church. Are out. And where. Highway 49. We were oh god.. Zircon to new frontiers in ri. We in the obituaries. And we need message. Tim mcgraw. Condom challenges. Divine. Discontent. Helper to know that strange moments rings batman. Familiar which has become dire. Can we have person to our lives. May we continue to honor the part of them. Become part of us. And which one. Carry forward. Canoe. We joining grateful thanks for all serving the great causes. Because of their picture. Because of their dedication. Insights of all creation. Greed. 162 the material. We marked those who proclaim to father example. Surrender. We salute the during of tearing line. 2 limited. We honor those. Generation black lion. A minister to those torbett. Grieving. Gratitude all those reminder pannu of audio. Renewed. Eckersell. We join in thanksgiving. For those who covenant easter causing formation. By their generosity in time. The continuing volumes with priests. Yandar online. You remember enjoy within this community of memory on hope. The conscious. Celebration. And the comment effort by our days together. Glory in the moment with ice cream. Slept on holy ground. We pray. Now moved out in new ways ministry. While remaining faithful to her covenant subordination. Fire her. A new arena. We are grateful for all the approved. Even in the parking. Continue and learning no. We have.. Nruas together. Play tycho from prankvsprank. And the bride ever in the power of god. Revelation. Despair repair. Continue smile. Impala medication. Kindergartener for 5th grade. Surrounded by tiara pervading presence of the holy. Iheart. Cheap crappy car me. Ammoman troll. Setting good time. Foreign bear. I may not forget. Back to risk my life. Committed. Cheap rescue carmel. The moment. my high recall.

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What-Do-These-Signs-Mean-Samuel-B.-McKinney.mp3?_=33

Fairy. 7 mckinney. Church. February. Adamantly. Church membership. Best african-american. Human rights. Call ian. Washington state. Call democrat. Andy 1988. Send delegates. Reading for the morning, scroll. Joshua. 8:14 versus. We're all the people who was safely across the lord scripture joshua. Building 12 men's clothing for special child. Work. Play gaston from where the priest. In the middle of the georgia. Carry-out impound them up as a monument. Place where you camp tonight. Joshua's coming 12-man. Program. Go out into the middle of the jordan where they are. Youtube used to carry out a stone on your shoulder. 12 stones. 112 tryon. We will use them to build a monument monument. So that in the future when your children iran. What is this monument for until then. It is to remind them that the jordan river stopped flowing. What's the ark of god with a girl. Monument will be permanent reminder to the people of israel. Amazing mirror. So the men didn't joshua told. They took 12 stones from the middle of the jordan river. 13th tribe just as the lord has commanded joshua. We carried them place where they were camped for the night. Trusted of monument valley. Joshua also built another marty middle school. In the middle of the river. A place where the priest was standing. Adidas pants. Greasable carrying the are good in the middle of the river. Show all these instructions of the lord. We have been given the joshua by movie. Edmonds marina. Meanwhile the people that herd across the river band. And when everyone was over. People want to see.. Troops of ruben gatherings that have problems will not. Bully on the movie had instructed. And 40000 strong. Lizzie other tribes of the lord's army. Cost of the plains of jericho. It was a tremendous day for joshua. Lord vision breeding the eyes of all the people of israel. I'll be revered in this month. Leslie has movies. Racism deeply of his life. Images of the. Longwood gardens. Personal mini. Goodwill enough for me to invite me to leave own congregation at rookie. You are. Yo. I was wondering if ryan would be. First service. Unless you can have the original. Around 3. Granite cleaner this is my first. I'm inside this building. Anytime on the outside. First time. Unitarian. Worship. Are you real. Music. Obituaries for trafficking. American history. That have something. When does kendrick ball road. Not only do i wear during the month of february. Results of the woman robot. That was not sure. Google you were. General. Techno trance on me. Loaded mini. Looking. Benediction. Elizabeth taylor sexy. Reddit former herkimer. I won't keep you long. Miralax. Pork chops. Joshua. We have a story of the children of israel. Finally leaving the wilderness for 40 years. Crossing the jordan river. Promised land. Listening to be a little. Girl moaning. Went through. That joshua was told to take. Representative. Nice try. Man and pick up. Ticket to read. Middle of you. River and. And then when. The children. Future with asperger's mean. They would be able to tell them that god held back. The water. Jordan river. Lovey crossed over on dry ground. After you're done. 40 years earlier when they left. Egypt and went to. Promised land. Some people who have a difficult. Gold everything happen. One came home from credit union. Robert was generated washington. What did you learn today. Did i learn how the children of israel cross the red sea. Goodwill al 747 landing. Do the children of israel downtown golden to the promised land. Robertson that doesn't even make. Livwell dispensary. Rev9 then. Good morning stretches during the event. Bible verses. More than suggest children. This is america. It happened and it was cool to create. Memorial. Lisa jones arranger the memorial of how god had. Little children of israel wilderness. Cross the jordan river at. This was an active member to be. What are you every time. Remember. And never. Down through the country god has given over. Signs and symbols. War memorial. God gave noah a rainbow in the sky. Divine love. Reprimanded. Circumcision. Marion was giving the gift appointment. Liberating the crossing. York. Scrambler. Painting the lord god and ronnie was a symbol of. Veteran presence until. In the wilderness. Temple was seen as a place of god willing. At work it was a time of praise and gratitude. Grecian. And pizza. These were enduring symbol. Ben. Where is oaxaca. People what do these stones mean. Love you come up with some type of memorial. Something of this nature. Somebody will ask a question. Gladys presley children. That's children can ask question. So you need to ride him. Checkbook. Lucky sparkles. Hello. What do these stones mean. What do they mean for. I was suggesting you. Water bistro empathic. I'll try to be. Call stumpy. Southwest if you don't strike. 3:35. Will try to hold your attention is. Every chain. I'm really not a comedian but i know where. Many years ago. What newest starting time. Starting. America. Buchanan. What do these stones mean. First of all. It is a call to remember when. God has providentially done. Garage. Godsmack. We are each our children. About what has happened to us and how god has. Please don't play debbie causes that time brooklyn. And people have to use symbols. Symbols. Symbols. Stop. Lion. Vines. Let's universal in every turn in 90 degree weather. Ruth world food world petrol any other world. Ryan outer space race. One of those signs out there. We are to remember what. Has. Jewish. Never let the world. What happened. Videos of concentration camp. During. Hitler's reign of terror. And the world should not forget. Oregon humanities. There's another form of holy crossword. People don't believe ever happened. Springs in vermont. Hugo de goree island. Right outside of dakar senegal. 40 minutes. Variable ride from downtown jackdaw. You will go through a house. Are you asleep. And through that door. Paragon display. What is now north america central america and the caribbean. American you see here today. Somebody. Like that. People don't want to hear about that. Practice movies at hollywood 18. Coming to theaters last sword. Last night. Seattle art museum. Call stan. Story of what to play. Kinkos casserole. I got a chance to visit gas wheeler. Locust lake camp around the corner. Rosario muniz where. Columbus christopher columbus. Journey. The western world. Summer goodman. Lumber. European didn't know where he was going. Do you ride overheated no rain wall. When he returned to europe you didn't know where you been. Get it all with somebody else's money. Please stop there an el nina. Right down the road is another one. Call mom. I know in my own family. I represent. Generation. Going outside. Not that long ago. My grandfather's on moosecraft. Born in. Rock and roll. We have to tell our children. Where we have been. What we have done. We have. Call dad. So not only must we remember. But we must never forget. We have selected remember. We remember what we are to forget. Don't forget. We can remember all the pain in the hood. We forget what we have done. Carrabba's. We should never forget worth. God has done. Because 203 become preoccupied. Tracking going on today. Perfect man. Good word. That is just. Round me up in a nonviolent way. To hear the word liberal track. Wednesday. And what bothers me even more. You're right. Remembrance of the world. I don't expect people. Weather name of that trailer. Lakewinds with his fastball the roll over and play dead. I am an owner string. Liberal. Now that is a good word. Nipper. Not if you are a liberal. Love you. Somebody right now. If you are. Ryan buell now. Somebody pretty round frame. Because it's a good word. The word liberation. Rings. Had it not been for the liberals in this world. Those of us who are african-americans will still be in right now. Anderson. Aetna dental some liberals in south africa. The majority of the people in that country still be suffering under apartheid right now. Number to logisticare. I don't necessarily grab tv. Curriculum. I do go along with the parallels use the mystery. 1980. Civil war. 19. 1980. 1960 civil right. 19718 governors reconstruction. 1970. Nick. 19 1980. Robber baron. 19. 80. If you do not. 19 to 1890. Plessy versus ferguson. Shredding in concrete. Jim crow laws. 1990. Rush limbaugh. Contract on america. Northwest america for americans. And the people who are victimized. Those who refuse. Ryan. Hitler's germany when he first came to power. Miranda vtuber virgin killer. Never forget. London. Trying to sound any alarm william. Because if we're not careful. We going to be in. That we are i think somebody. Not symbol. We have a tendency to forget. What god has done. And we get so caught up in the present. We cannot see the reality. Is that all. Love the children of israel. Goldie to remind me. Talk to me. There's no power in having memorial. But there's no power in the stone. There's no magic in a rabbit. What method of the rabbit was still happy. I am an intelligent person. Rendezvous. Get on an airplane. Without taking your number. Why. I was on the plane several years ago. Flying from kansas city to hot springs. Markus golden. Usually travel with an umbrella to gotti. From that moment on. I know. I know that if i jumped. Oh damn plane that umbrella will not help me one day. Nothing.. Zebulon videos. I'm exploding vine right now. You know within yourself you have some little things. Roscoe's menu. Call vasantha. I don't think anybody who liberated. Freedrum. But the idea here was no makeup setting. Logan memorial. And remember the importance of. Thanksgiving typical time. Normally. Weather jordan river flows between israel and the nation of jordan. There's no whining in this room. You can go from nevada. Motiva mi to almost a half a mile. I'm here. God performed america. God bible says. Jordan river. Crossover. On dry ground. Ab gardening. Difficult. Deadpool thanksgiving and do god at all times with it on the mountain. Weather in the valley where the times are good. Weather. Time zone. Keystone golfer reminder not only. What god has done for us over daughter's doing. For others as well. Some of us suffer from what we call. Nearest bank. We can only see and interpret life. In terms of what happens to us. Receive somebody on the street. Hungry howie's. Streamer. They should have taken better care of themselves if they want to leave. Frankly and strippers. Judy ride. Number people who. Call tina. In the office buildings or whenever and wherever they can find. Personal vanity. And go to a job. They're working everyday but they don't have a place. That is not because greg has not taken care of them. Green. Reading pillow. That's cool. And we must be mindful of the. Wings brother. Cuz unfortunately.. Leopard seals and vineland. Timberland. I got mine. You get through. God bless the child that got his own. Life is more than beer. Every month. Mindful. One of these spoons also. Symbolizes making position. We have to make. Memorials as enduring as possible. But something is evil. Vanderbilt building. Buildings in comes out. Lyrics seeking the other saturday let us know that we have no applied in tabernacle. I grew up in cleveland ohio and for over 30 years. Euclid avenue baptist church of utica. Member structure. Corner of euclid avenue and. East 18th street. The money to build the church was given by john d rockefeller. Left home at 4. Last time i passed. New york. Maybe something wrong. Buildings. Building come down. God wants us to have something. More enduring gospel. Moses you can build my temple. Because there's blood on your hands. Level give you something better. Redi-med. I will give you a line in human life. That will never. Runner. Going to self destruct memorial. Candy. Bonita beach. Mckenzie. One thing that isn't christmas about. This place is working that you have it. Latona. I've been in churches that are so horny. Lotto know where the translator. What to do with everything is spring and circle. Beatles through the model you have in mind. That is open for. New truth. You can see invisalign. As you choose. Memorials need not be elaborate but they can be. Significant. I didn't corporate unity is all the people of god. Moses or joshua. Joshua terry dog movies. Take one. Representative. Truck. Oldest crime. Note to drive exactly right. Jacob mad about you why. You go back and eat. And then representative. No one tribe was just alike. So when the 12 men gather stones at went into the middle of the jordan. Yesterday represented. Various types. Human family. Available. Some people that has wide variety. There was a time and people felt at the melting pot would be ideal for america. You never work. I did never will work. Go do something.. Just. Another flower pot. Arose. Another song. Japan. Video of americans again soon as you become quite or act. Extra. Joshua didn't call. Across the river. He wanted people to recognize that whoever you are and whatever you are. You are acceptable in god's sight. Left behind deal. Democracy be color blind. I need a chicken out of carpet. Duck king. Horses donkey king. Don't judge me by the color of my skin to buy the concert. My character. True. Not trying to so you were saying. That i am black. He was not told he was short everybody can't recall. Everybody can't be. Everybody can be strong everybody can. Everybody can. Black and beautiful. Look whatever you are and not ashamed of it and there's room. But i can't go along with the idea. Are you being troubling you can call somebody else. Things you when you leave. Frieza from you. Because you can't tell the color weather tonight in green or red. You are things you're not only to yourself. Somebody else. But having to see color and then moving on beyonce. You. Wow. All 12 minutes. How to steam a deville. Bill. The monument. Heat won. Local 12. Or here in action. And what. Weather. They were also. Portuguese shooting themselves that pride. God answer the personal commitment. Flip wilson used to play on television the devil made me do it. Another words i'm not responsible for what i do. Sinister 2. Put longman. Pass it on to somebody else. Is not. Way we are to go. The people who said. Germany. What smell does strange coming from the other side. Wouldn't i did not know what it was. Neither was i.. Find. Another goodwill i was simply doing. Mychart. I was told. And therefore. But you still are responsible. Youtube. Weather snowmobiles. Then another stone was a reminder that one could not go back. Wilderness. Could not return. Goodnight google. Wilderness even though they had a memorial right there. Before then. They have to go forward. Could not. Google. Luke industries this time. American history. 1840. 19. This time the humans in the timer. Reconstruction. Open till. 1950s. Jim douglas. White males with aids. We have difficulty minutes and not any in this congress. I can tell that. You don't have to dress up. Your money or your body. Many mills are not that way. They have a design right. Rule the world. Bill wise women. People remember racial background and some of them are dying. These united states with no longer. White anglo-saxon protestant. Evacuate screens going into some car. Ross video 360 landing. Things have changed in greensboro. Somerset teaching by the pan. 14th street. There's a reminder that you cannot go back. You cannot return to a better day. Ronald reagan. Rangoon. 1015 ever had. Take me to the glorious future. You can't. You can't return. You must. Then another story. Hey memorial tonight. Only way to shooting of israel's promised land. What's the golden jordans. And the only way they could. Preston group jordan. Gold hill baptist water. Attributed them to crossover on. Dry ground. Without being buried in the waters of the river. Minnie ross. Before we reach the promised land about. Hello. 6:30. Difficult. Sandeep water in life. When you passing them we are. Golden we are not alone. We have designed and talked to companionship. Your company owes on the drain. Braun strowman stephanie reminder. We are preaching. Meaning of life. And the image of a mighty god. Ultra flex joint. Subway. Is what we do. God autumn. Hand-to-hand design. Cora a. Weekend.. What are the. Questions in the back of the lineup. Iroquois. Long time ago. Your wife is giving birth. Not only want to know. White. Mother is doing well. What you want to see. I don't dispute the trial. Would you have that. Seating in the back of your head where you will stay tonight. You want to see if that child looks like you. Laundromat congregation out to you might as well or you know i'm right. You want to know. Let this clown looks a little bit like you. What you just look exactly like you might have skipped a generation back to somebody you can identify as being a part of your family. And image. Almighty god. We all look like john sometime. We all do something. Right guard. We ought to reach out and care for one another and share with each other and love one another and forgive one another one another one another. Got a tip back the water. Jordan ramallah. God is holding up. Pandora. That we have done. When we do all day. The weekend. Remember the words of mahalia jackson when she sang. My living room not being. Viking helmet. My life will not be. Energies my labor my a. John mayer. Well done. This moment of silent prayer react to each of you will reach out to take the hand of the person. Closest to you. Horny credit crossword. Ringworm. Woman taking your present. The song. Salem virginia. Sunday. Heavenwood. The word. Go to symphony. Elegantly. Spirit of your people here assembled. Creo black. Valentine. Each one as one roosevelt. One particular. Pascagoula keisha. Rain together. Realize. And help you fulfill. Your kingdom here. Order. Lord bless you and keep you. Lord smile upon you. Discount on ua.

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After-the-Great-Companions.mp3?_=35

Assurance i would like to. Because it's. World. Call the ministers. And thereby. But no minister and our condition ever asked anyone. That is important. Over the years.

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Jesus-III-A-Jew-Nothing-Less.mp3?_=6

In addition to a selection from chapter 10 i also include birthday selection from chapter 5 of the gospel according to matthew. Seminar for the clergy of other face several hundred mainly turkey. And doctor cycling socks or just written the book. As we thought i wanting meeting jesus and he was a rabbi. But rather a sociologist and the professor everything as revealed in the gospel accounts was normal of that time. This is partly a radically new notion. It has been strongly advance in the past by both jewish and some christian thinkers and if the speaker had anything new to say was mainly in terms of his. Doctor cycling came as a kind of bombshell the containment of jesus within judaism. Which they found the speaker did not challenge normative christian views about jesus as christ and son of god as a jew obviously the speaker did not believe that jesus was the messiah. Greatly tempted i do confess to wahoo pursued that vector probably if we inquired. No one can debate jesus was born and died at you you never left the face whatever else he was he was certainly not the first. And they last sermon that i gave in the series i tried to deliver hate these various groupings among the jews in jesus's dad. And i was completely capitulate this morning by playing the diversity of viewpoint among the various jewish groups was wide enough so that it would be impossible to say jewish positions religion. Enterprise the jews held together on any matter. It was. They're repugnant at the desecration of george worship jesus. They do represent mainly about the life of jesus from a contemporary story. Because anyone can find time in the.. We have accounts of jesus during the roman centurion servant. Driving a spirit woman's daughter but i think a careful reading of these gospel accounts which suggests that jesus saw these episodes as exception. To his maker minister. His primary clientele where the downtrodden and outcasts among the living out on the countryside and margins of society. When do so. Jesus would deal with the needs of those who are we should remember that teaching in judaism along with a specialness of the jews to yahweh. Necessary. Earlier. Some of the jewish prophets. Adair explain a coming universal religion. The lamb with. Lie down with the lion and the sword 50 ft natasha. Thompson highway. A time when people everywhere throughout the world live in peace and justice with one another. And i believe it's called the jesus share. And that's a fact. There was no attempt. Among these brakes to respect salvation only to those who profess judaism. When the messiah arrive all the righteous. That jesus brought legalism. Set the time. be set against the structures such as we read earlier from matthew. And jesus. And he makes his point by quoting scripture. He reminds the pharisees house king david had gone into the very sanctum sanctorum center of the temple itself and there had gone to the holyoke. Along with his phone. What was david's excuse for the sack. Importance of the sabbath. Text legal abstraction. He was obviously. Jesus suggested that human beings are far more important than which we also started to long-held. El sol by extension he suggested. Watching hunger and illness. You might also point out that please. Pharisees in there. Had been criticized from. That came at the pharisees almost family direct opposite position as the jesus. Even the rain. Appellate. When the king's troops are learned that the jews simply wasn't sent on the 7th. And once they learned that the foreign poop obviously avoided the jews as much as i could for six days out of the week saturday. Actually turned jews into the enemies of judaism. Transport the jews fought on a sabbath on at the point being no law is an absolute. Just have to allow for exceptions of necessity and i think that's a point worth remembering even today or we occur occasionally hear rhetoric blathering some people who should know better about law and order in our line is so long and of itself is a moral absolute. Render assistance i believe that we have to say that one of the great contributions of judaism to the center is embracing the sun. At its most universal stop to interpret laws or ordinances by their compatibility with the demands for love. As the old testament prophetic book of hosea god rather than offering and this was a verse that according to matthew jesus also coated with brakes. And the rest is commentary. Do unto others as we would have them do unto you for reasons. That's actually hillel conception is a higher and far better epic but what amuses me in the context of space sermon is a christian to all. What is hateful to these do not do to anyone. Best and most human beings love to neighbor. To approve or disapprove because of the. Material from. Also make that a matter of pure speculation. And what we all need to do isn't a this epic from the claims made by. Are we going to give our allegiant universal possibilities and human life and survival on this planet. I'm talking about events of this past week events that have everything. In ways that take us beyond. By the way in terms of our own being today. We would take to draw from his life inspiration and serving and loving with our fellow kevin b.

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Impactspkr0305.mp3

Okay well and revolving public health so he's going to be talking to us about our income disparity and others play saosin decided to go help you sleep. I titled it how does globalization impact our health. And at the university i. About these these kinds of issues and i begin austin by acting this philosophical question there's a branch of philosophy called epistemology which is basically is how do we come to know and believe the things that we think are truth. And i raise that because today i want to talk about things that many of you may think may not be true. Or at least you haven't heard of before and so. I had titled my presentation how does globalization impact our help well health is a confusing term in this country. Because many of us think it's synonymous with healthcare. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let me try and conceptualize hell. And then ask what globalization is. And then we might be able to see how it impacts our health. Let me try and prevent a different way of looking at health that might help us understand. Varying concept. World made up of of cell. Give me remember if you can think back to high school biology class maybe you looked on her in a microscope at some things that the teacher said we're cell. Add a nucleus. And they had cytoplasm in a cell wall. But wichita made of herself right that's all we ourselves in a bit of water. What is a spell need to be healthy. Well. Victory auto sales need oxygen glucose and a few trace element. All cells need to be healthy. And if some of you've ever worked in the lab and growing cells and tissue culture or in culture plates you sort of know you could some aguilar in there and make sure they have some oxygen and these cells grow. We're just a bunch of cells all stuck together as human individuals. If our components are cell just need oxygen glucose in a few traits elements to be healthy then truly that's all we need. We're just about yourself oxygen glucose in a few trace elements. But for those of you who look around it society in united states and you look at our feeding frenzy you know we're killing ourselves with more and more glucose. And that's not good for us. And those of you who know something about clinical medicine will know that. If you give babies a hundred percent oxygen to breathe they go blind and if you give adil a hundred percent oxygen to breathe they get lung disease. Got a funny. So what's the best advice for producing health in a component of ourselves one of these cells may not be the best advice for producing help in the community of cells that comprises the human individual. Doesn't appear to be logical but if we do what if we make ourselves if we we do what's best for ourselves to be healthy oxygen and glucose nephew trace elements that's all we need to do to make a human healthy. So what do we do need to do to make a human healthy. Well it's all the stuff that you taught all the time eat right exercise don't smoke wear a condom notorious.. None of those things. Have a cellular counterpart. You can't tell us tell. To exercise. Hotels do you can't tell if they'll do not smoke. You can't tell estelle to wear a condom. But if you. Do all the right things to make yourself healthy. Can you sell record of automatically healthy. You do what's right to make you healthy and your cells are healthy as a byproduct. So what do we do when we think about the health of populations. The help of. University district or seattle or washington state or united states. What do we think about for making that entity health healthy. Well we just take the individual advice. Tell everybody to eat right tell everybody that exercise tell everybody to not smoke. And we assumed it.. That will make the whole population help. When you start looking at. The health of countries you find some things that don't make any sense. The healthiest country in the world by any measure. Is the country that has the most males smoking. So when i learned that i had to rethink. How i conceptualize help that you're the healthiest country in the world and yet twice as many men smoking japan as in the united states. And yet they don't die from smoking-related diseases. As much as we do. Msp factors that affect. Population. Set produce health in a population. That have no individual counterpart. And if we get them mixed right for producing health in a population. Then what the individuals do or don't do. To become healthy. Doesn't matter is so much. Okay no worries i'm not saying that's the advice that i give i work as an er john. So i'm i'm not saying that the advice that i give my patients they're not smoking and wear condom and that sort of thing is not good advice. The best advice for an individual. What we need to do is to consider what makes a population healthy. If we understand that then maybe we can make the population in here i would be speaking of state washington state or. United states healthy. And then what the individuals do or don't do doesn't matter so much. That's looking at health at different levels of organization in society. The health of the cell one of our component to health of us and there was sort of comfortable with all the things i said. And we have to been asked the question what is there something that produces helping the population. That's different than the way we could instantly think of it. How do we define the health of a population. How do we define health of a of a population well as you with the health of an individual. Except it is very hard to define how healthy an individual is. So you may go to see your doctor you for the stories of people who go to see their doctors and given a clean bill of health and they walk out of the doctor's office and they collapsed and died. He'll we forego story and so it's hard to tell how healthy a person is when i work in an emergency department with a patient comes in i have to figure out. I have to get a an acute sense of their health. And i look at them. And then i take your vital signs. The vital signs that's a good turn neil vitals in there so that's those kind of like life in the bible find her a person either temperatures he repulsed their blood pressure and how fast do breathing. Apple's numbers are in the normal range would i see a patient in the er i don't have to jump so fast. But if they're really out of whack and they're incompatible with living very long if the person is in shock for example i have to do something right away or things get better. So. The vital signs for a person their pulse. Blood pressure temperature and how fast they're breathing. An important indicator of somebody's. State of health right then and there. And i try to do something about. Making sure those vital signs are in the normal range. And then as i'm working like that i've been think do i have to admit this person to the hospital or can i send them home. Interesting place. And as i reflect upon when i first started working as a doctor in 1973. Bookpeople head home. And so i could send people holman and that was pretty easy. These days there are so many people in this country without home. Especially children. 122 million children who don't have homes in this country now. The doctor treating individuals it would be nice if i could make sure these people went home. If they were if they weren't that sick to needed for the need to be admitted to a hospital. If i don't run a bed-and-breakfast though sometimes i think that would be a good idea. Because a lot of people need homes and yet as a doctor treating people that's not something i can do. So here are vital signs for the health of an individual that tell you whether you have to do something quick or not. What about the vital signs for a population. What about the vital signs for city of country estates. Well a good maker is how often someone die. Makers of mortality. All you have to know is whether someone's alive or dead. And that's pretty simple. You come up with measures. The bible plans for the measure the measure of health of a population are usually things such as the average length of life. In a population. Or what proportion of babies die in their first year of life. Everybody think a reasonable vital signs for a population. Well i suggested with my cell individual population analogy that there may be things that impact the health of a population that are different from what makes an individual healthy. So we should get asked the question what makes the population healthy. Just don't really have a good sense of what that my feet i know. During my training as a doctor he's never brought up that would i talk to medical students today that question doesn't come up either what makes the population healthy. Well so what are what do. What do respected sources say i like to go to. Our federal government and say what do they say what does our federal government say about what makes a population healthy. Well the institute of medicine is the federal body that is sort of a federal think tank about these issues. And they produced a report in 2003 called the future of the public's health in the 21st century. And on page 59 the right. Morag alterian society. I eat those with a messy differential between the richest and the poorest have better average health. And of course. That's what are federal government. Nothing pretty clear to me. That we might not trust our government right sometimes people think that our government isn't telling us the truth so that may be wrong. Bob collected a statement from another store. And there's a book written by jeffrey rose is a preeminent he's got a guy but he's a preeminent british epidemiologist in the book was called the strategy of preventive medicine. And published in 1992 by oxford university press the last two sentences in the book i want to read to you. The primary determinants of disease. Are mainly economic and social. And therefore it's remedy. Let's also be economic and social. Medicine and politics. Cannot and should not be kept apart. That's a little different from what the shared say. Economics. And politics medicine and politics cannot and should not be kept apart. And he's a brit and what he means by disease and medicine is more brawn than what we think and we think of diseases affecting individuals but brothers are thinking of of diseases of populations and mention in the british sense is a much broader terms in the stuff we take out of a pill bottle. Well if rose is correct that suggests that our political policy. Artifact medicines that treat population. Summer good medicine. And some might be bad for you. Just like some medicines we used to take we're good somewhere bad. Free sample of playoffs the pain medicine that was taken off the market because it killed a lot of people. We're home hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women tri-county kills more people than that's helping we took what we didn't take the armhole medicines off the market to just stop describing it as much. Are there can be good and bad medicine. More egalitarian society testator average house. How can we look at that. For example in the 1950s and some of you may die. Maybe late this the highest marginal tax rate. The taxes paid on the highest level of income that rich people made with 91%. In other words if you made say $500,000 back in 1950 on the last hundred thousand dollars of income you pay $91,000 in cash. In the united states. They're not many people made that much money back then. Sweat much point in making all that money. At the same time those with low income hate about 22% of the highest portion of their income in tax. Today those with low income still pay about the same proportion. But those with the. What's the top level of income pay much less. I only 35% at the top levels of income. Unless your income with capital gains and then it's only 15%. You have to pay less than supportive on capital gains tax. So what happened is it the poor pay disproportionately more tax now than the rich. Until the gap between the rich and the poor has risen astronomically. That sounds fine except that it's bad medicine for a population. Socastee that this is bad medicine for a population. In 1950 we were one of the healthiest nations in the world. If we take average length of life. Like the feds say. Have better average health. Something called life expectancy is the average number of years lived or infant mortality the proportion of babies that died in the first year of life. Burger critical vital signs for any country. And we were one of the healthiest countries in the world 55 years ago and had his change pretty profoundly. I first noticed this when i began medical school at stanford in 1970. Then there were a dozen countries that were healthier than united states. My professors didn't seem to be concerned. And then i continued to follow how our health compared to other countries decline. And that bothers me. 50 cent's as a doctor i was supposed to make sick people well. Well by 1992 they were 21 countries. That were healthier than the united states and i went to public health school trying to figure out why. Spell microphone i went to johns hopkins university which has the biggest public health school in the world. I was astonished at my professors and work concern. That we reflect that we would head stalking and health standing compared to other country. I asked him why they weren't concerned they said well nobody paid us to ask good to look at this question. Don't like anything important in life i had to figure it out for myself. So. That's what i've done then spent the last fifteen years or so trying to understand this question what produces health of the population. And i like that guy in there in the feds report in 2003 they lay it out very explicitly more egalitarian societies have better average cost. So today we are less healthy than. Pretty well all the other rich countries and a few poor ones as well. We're buddies healthy is cuba. And we've been striving to look for the last 45 years. In other words because of our political policies in this country we all die much younger than we should. This is hard for us to face namely all of us in this room whether rich or poor whether we have healthcare insurance or not. Whether we drive a jaguar or an old ford we die before our time. The data are very clear on that. Let me call you again for the fairest in this pain institute of medicine report the future of the public self in the twenty-first century that i mentioned before i'm page 20 they right. 4 years life expectancies of both men and women in the united states have lagged behind those of their counterparts in other industrialized nations. And they go on to point out just what i said another word. The bed tell you what makes a population healthy and they tell you that we're less healthy than all the other industrialized nations. You may not want to believe that but that's at least what they say. Infant mortality. The interesting finding is that from 2001 to 2002. The proportion of babies dying in the first year of life in the united states. We're not for the first time since 1956. And this is sustained in 2003. No infant mortality is such an important vital sign that are central intelligence agency monitors countries where it's increasing. Because they can predict that there will be political instability and turmoil in countries were in mortality starts to rye. Just let your ride was noticed by a french demographer emmanuel toad. In the early 1970s in countries of the former soviet union. Soldering kit mortality was going up. 1976 he wrote a book called i should see now the final fall. In which he said the soviet union is going to collapse. He wrote that book in 1976 and of course we had to wait another. 15 years for it to happen. But it did happen. Infant mortality is like the vital signs with my patient in the er. Something is happening that is. Portending a bad outcome unless we act quickly. Knowing that just completed winter olympics in torino. We won the second highest number of another. Every summer games we always win the most medals and occasionally in the winter olympics we come in second. In some of the other measures we come in best-in-the-world free chapel we have the most nobel prize winners. We have half of the world's billionaires. Ever the richest most powerful country in history. And so on. But when it comes to our hell. We are so far behind good even if we eradicated are number one killer heart disease is the condition that will put almost half of us in this room into the tomb. We still wouldn't be the healthiest country in the world. But a half a century ago we were. What sort of doing scare tactics we are trying to make you think that this is a serious problem which is. It is a very profound problem. Put the medicine that we need to think of to treat a population is really economic justice. The kind of medicine we used to treat ourselves within the past when the rich paid far more tax. Where does healthcare you're probably sitting there thinking where does healthcare fit into this picture. What last year in 2005 we spent half of the world's healthcare bill. Almost to trillion dollars 1.94 trillion-dollar. He was a sixth of our total eaconomy we spend on on medical care. And furthermore the increases in costs of spending on healthcare increase so much. Stephen 2000-2004. The increasing costs were one-quarter of our total economic growth in this country. Then we can order groceries something that we sort of pride ourselves on having high rates of growth and quarter of our growth came from increases in spending on healthcare. During that same time our help is a nation compared to other countries declined. To elementary logic suggests that whatever we're buying with our healthcare dollars it isn't the health of population. That's pretty purple. I won't say anything else about healthcare other than it's my day job or sometimes my night my night job in the er. It's what i do that sort of put bread on the table. But it doesn't produce helping population. Any authority. Back me up on that. Go to summarize at this point we've learned how to take the vital signs with a population or a country. Namely how often people die in at what ages. It was average length of life infant mortality rate. We find in the united states that are infant mortality rate is rising for the first time in half a century. And that suggests we should be concerned that our central intelligence agency is correct. Revolver find that the scientist in the feds agree on what produces health in the population. Namely having an egalitarian society a small gap between the rich and the poor produces better and every channel. Yet our current era. Time we're living in right now can be characterized as taking from the poor and giving to the rich and ever-increasing amount in the hope that a trickle comes down upon us. And that's the reason for our declining health status compared to other countries. I would say that this is this mentality is a hood robin mentality. Remember robin hood was took from the rich and gave to the poor we're taking from the poor and giving to the rec. We seem to like the rich in this country. Ebay rich individual. Or rich corporations and we want them to have ever more. And because of this choice we die younger. And the picture clear on. That what i speak about these issues in public. I don't want to appear foolish to lie they will want to what do respected people say. Jimmy carter former president won the nobel peace prize in 2002. In his acceptance speech. Yeah he he said quote. I was asked to discuss here in oslo the greatest challenge that the world faces. I decided that the most serious and universal problem is the growing chasm between the richest and poorest people on earth. The results of this disparity are root causes of most of the world unresolved problem. Starvation illiteracy environmental degradation final conflict and unnecessary illnesses from guinea worm to hiv-aids. After jimmy carter. I like your sense. An economist won the nobel prize in economics in 1999. And he has said quotes. I believe that virtually all the problems in the world come from inequality of one kind or another. Looking for. Strong statement. But i think echo would i expect. But i said how does globalization. Impaktor health. Well again need a definition of globalization. Here's his last consensus. We use terms like free-trade and having the ability to buy things from anywhere in the world. And to see what's happening anywhere in the world. And. Anytime you use the word freeze your opening up yourself the trouble and so in the interest of time i don't want to talk about three trees. What are water proposes that globalization means corporate center trait. Huge corporations are the new kid on the block. Or rather the new kid on the planet. Take for example a headline a couple of weeks ago when exxonmobil announced that they had achieved record profit. Any company at any time in the world mainly their profits were 36 billion dollars last year. Are you may have noticed that they took out full-page ads in newspapers. Were they porvo. That is because i asked about how the drug companies made higher profit margins on revenue. Cuz they wanted to somehow diffuse the impact of the fact that they had these record profits. And our government was of course helping them to do that. They had to do. Something to make it look like they weren't stealing. Especially given the high gasoline prices. The other interesting phenomenon disease. Corporation making profits from readers that belong to we the people. People sleeping is royalty. For taking what belongs to what. And then if you've been reading the papers you seem any news reports about how we are taking and demanding smaller royalties from the energy companies. Do they make bigger profits and of course the two are connected. We received fewer royalties and they make higher profits. Another interesting finding is that. These corporations. Pay little or no tax. For example in 2003 time warner. Made 4224000000 dollars in profit. And you all pay more tax than they do. That is a paid zero tax. They're frightening examples of this all over the place about how corporations no longer pay tax. And of course the burden falls disco fortunately on the pores. Benefits of course as a source for this information for example the general accounting office writes it from 1996 to 2000 during the economic booms 60% of us corporations paid no tax. Globalization which all these corporations are touting. It's going on really represent corporate standard trade and the figures i can clearly spell that out. In other words we're making it easier for corporations to amass ever-greater well. If the gap between the rich and poor is related to our houses in society as the fed's report. Clearly the corporations in globalization seem to be the forces that are making us sick. Spell it's hard to talk about these things because they seem kind of abstract. Talk to see the increasing gap between the rich and the poor but an easy way to think about is how much we pay. Are the chief executive officers of corporation to ceos. New york times reported in 2004 that they ceos made 531 times what an average worker maid. In the world's healthiest country japan. Ceos made 10 time. What an average worker made according to that new york times article. 10 * is about the ratio we had in the united states when we were one of the world's healthiest countries 55 years ago. So pretty what's going on in the united states is different from other countries. Hood robin isn't making the give me the rich evermore is really what's going on. It's a recent studies look at the amount of income that the top. .1%. A people making the country the top. Pensava percent of the very rich. The amount of money during making his tripled in the last three decades compared to the previous decades when we were much healthier. But this increase has not occurred in japan. For example the healthiest country in the world. The increasing gap between the rich and the poor leads to declining health status for a country. Truly that simple. Well what if you want more proof. There are a variety of ways of going about this if you don't believe what our federal government says. And i can understand why you might not trust them. Good example is to look at what happened. To the former soviet union after it collapsed in 1991 90 1992. The gap between the rich and the poor group a nominally there. So now russia has the third largest number of billionaires in the world. But it's 20th of our number we have half of the world's billionaires. At about 341 last year and they have about 27. And 10 years before that they had none. And their health has declined. In russia the health of the whole population has declined profoundly since 1992. Our health has declined in an absolute sense the way there's. That is our health compared to other countries has declined. But in russia. And ukraine and belarus and other countries people are actually living less long than they did in 1992. And if they're hell had stayed the same as it did in 1992 there will be about 20 million people more alive in the former countries of the former soviet union. Then then there are. And if we think about it. It's about 2 about 3 holo-card. And yet we're on the where and when i talked to russian people they're unaware of it as well. And yet you won't find any expert to disagree with what i said. Another thing to do is to how is to look at how. Most countries fared in the decades before globalization. We can say that modern corporate center trade really began in earnest in 1980s or 90s. If we look at how countries did in the 1960s and 70s and compare it with the last two decades were talking about all the countries in the world now. They're helping provement we're better in the decades of the sixties and seventies. Compared to the last two decades. When modern globalization has been at work. So what are we going to do about this. Universalist unitarian could become our population health doctor. We need. People to treat population. And i think you people can give us the medicine that we need. And if i think about the tenants of the universalist unitarian. From your materials i get statements lights the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Justice equity and compassion in human relations. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregation. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Epistemology. The right of conscience and the use of democratic processes within our congregation and in society at large. The goal of world community with peace liberty and justice for all not just for the rich. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are apart. That's pretty clear to me that this is good medicine for a population so what are we learned. Population health well according to the feds what produces better average health is egalitarian. Globalization. Seems to be making our health as society than individuals worse. Unitarianism is near as i can tell us about social and economic justice and that's the kind of egalitarian medicine we need. What are we going to do about it. Well we could convert more people to universalist unitarian principles. We could make more people aware of what produces health and population. I think we need to inform ourselves. And then teach what we've chosen to learn. The illiterate of the 21st century won't be those who can't read or write. But they but they will be those who cannot learn unlearn and relearn. Stop i said anything's today it's that we need to relearn how we think about health. And then. Teach others what we've chosen. Killer. Who what use what can you do after today's session. But you can decide whether these ideas are important. Then learn about them. And maybe try to speak to five others about them in your own words he's got to find ways of discussing this with other people in in our own words. Right now we have opportunities to talk about these ideas because because these ideas really are the helpful to fix how different countries stand in the ranking of hell it should be an olympic event but it's not. And since we stood number 2 in in total medals in the torino olympics. Surely we deserve to finish better than in 29th place which is where we are in the health olympics according to the most recent data. Every year we should resolve to follow how. United states is doing and how's compared to other countries. We regrouped at the at the university called the population health forum that meets regularly composed of students and faculty and staff and people off the street. And our goal is to try and disseminate information about what i've been talking about today namely what makes the population healthy. So join us come to our meeting because somebody in the choir was telling. She's come to a meeting and and it's at a not a good timer in this galaxy university which is not an easy place. And so i suggested to her that perhaps you could form a group here. At the at the university is unitarian. Our congregation i'd be happy to help get this group going to work on. Spreading the word about these issues of population health. Put me in with a story that i think the pixar taunt. Imagine the chauffeur who drives a sleek limousine through the streets of seattle. With a billionaire in the backseat. We have about half a dozen billionaires in this area so this is pretty as it is not inconceivable. Are the window the billionaire spots a homeless woman. Better to children huddling in the cold sharing a loaf of bread. You're just a chauffeur stop the car. When the devil comes to a halt to chauffeur open for passenger door for the billionaire. Billionaire then walked over to the mother and snatches the low primer. He slipped back into the car and they drive on. Leaving behind a baffle group of sidewalk witnesses. For his part the chauffeur feels clogged about what his master is done because unlike his employer he's known hard times recently himself. But he drives on the left. Let's call this the chauffeurs dilemma. It's a terrible for life in the united states today. Sturtevant seen rexy witnessing this team. As you listen to it. Or more exactly half of us are in the rule of the chauffeur opening the door for the billionaire. And the other half of us. I'm watching from the sidewalk. Bewilder and dismayed. And doing nothing about it. Something's been going on between the front and the back of the car something in the way of a private moral deal between the billionaire and the chauffeur. The deal left. The world's a lot meaner. Insulting emotional problem for some people. Who giving away their old lives are being squeezed. Find themselves with less empathy leftover for others. Outside your social circle. In other words we find our lives increasingly stressed. Fast-paced and difficult can we no longer look out for others. I think we need to recognize this empathy squeeze to try to grasp why so many americans think and act like the billionaire chauffeur. When they're not in fact. In his employ. Big ideas with deals i pointed out have the most profound influences on her help. Far more than anything we can accomplish by changing our dryer. Play exercising stopping smoking in all the things i used to write my patients about. There are many ways to decrease the gap between the rich and the poor. American revolution was an example of breaking away from the old aristocracy. We might need something similar. And a good start for people like you creating awareness of how unhealthy we are society and pushing for more citizen participation in the governance of this nation. The richest and most powerful in world history. I think we can't leave the running of this country up to a few stupid white men. We have the lowest voter turnout of all democracy. And the people that don't vote in this country are the poor and they yawn. No president has ever drawn attention to the fact that the poor don't vote in this country. That would be political suicide. So i'm asking you to inform and organize people to improve our health. And that universalist unitarians could be our population health doctors. To give me a fish you said me for a day. If you teach me to fish then you fed me until the rivers contaminated or the shorelines to use for development. But if you teach me to organize. Whatever the challenge i can join together with my peers and we can fashion our own solution. And i think it's universalist unitarians you people are the best people find hagen society. To take up the challenge and get us to organize around your principal. And that would make you our population health doctor. Let me. Suggest that. I grant all of you the india t20 gris-gris are population health doctors. And how can we work on this together. That was wonderful i really really refreshing.. Actually. As i look at this i realized. That. What we are think of his progress. Really is sort of an attempt to buy a little bit of time to get us out of a kik. And for most of human existence. We lived as hunter-gatherers. That is. We lived in pristine environments. Are where there was very little work to do. Women hit nuts and berries for a couple of hours a day and then went off for 100 couple of weeks. And the restless line just sat around and you were lazy. But i think that is what we are genetically designed as human beings that's what we've evolved to be social groups living in groups of 25 to 75 and. Having a lot of time doing that very much but engaging in social contact with each other. When we. Eventually over 500,000 million years are true. Our population ruin oscar not all of us could live in pristine environments. Who made the transition to agriculture. It was technology. It was the original technology the ability to find these seeds that were a little bigger and had a little more nutritive value that we could. Saving plan. Can harvest in plant again. What happened to our help when we made the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural society. I was shocked to learn that our health decline. And all the experts in this on uniform agreement when we made the transition to agricultural societies from hunter-gatherer societies. With that technologies. Things got worse. Spell. Alright this is so that's the first example of technology and i would say technology exist. 2. Have us get short-term fixes. For the situations that we've created in society. For example. So many people walk around though. That's a lot of time working in a pain sometimes in the poly person comes over here from rural village really don't have any of our technology and one remark and somebody was with these americans they seem to have soared shore jars all the time. And face-to-face contact people. We no longer live in these small groups. And and now we are desperately adopting this technology that makes our lives worse than many senses. Try to maintain the vestiges of social contact. Incorporation of all these calling plans and free phones and. And everything else. Are we why bother another one. Are we really benefiting from this technology. I would offer that medical technology for the most part is not benefits and whole society. It creates huge profits. For the corporation. They're the original technology really was. The original state of human existence was close-knit community. And so many things have tried to break apart those communities. And we desperately want some way to reconstitution and technology is sort of the stopgap measure rather than more population style pixie. I was in france the last summer. And in rural france nobody use cellular phones i only saw them in the city and what did they do they sat around and just spend a lot of face-to-face time. No. They have structured society to have that. In france everybody has to take five weeks vacation and they have to take three weeks in the summer. I was surprised just to to drive buy one of these sort of campgrounds for their print libya's huge fields and all the pencil be crammed in one corner. And i thought to myself that's not like the campgrounds here. Why are some people why do you all camping this one through two corner kicks. Yeah we like to be with each other where's when we do you know we thought we go to a campground and we all try to be far away from each other from each other. And so they have the real thing and and we are desperately using technology to try and recreate the realtor. With the exception of high aids prevalence countries in sub-saharan africa and the former soviet union in the last decade. Help kate ryan proving. But it improves lacking this country compared to other countries. And the fastest improvement ever seen on the planet where in japan after the end of the second world war. 19 coronavirus. And you know how they got even by outliving us we gave them the medicine to do that. That is the world's greatest population health doctor went to japan disguises the five-star army general in 1945 whose name was douglas macarthur. And he had carte blanche to do whatever he wanted to the occupation and basically he wrote in his memoirs that japanese people hadn't destroyed and i wanted to rebuild their self-esteem. Eddie did that by demilitarize in the country by democratizing the country and by breaking up the corporation. And and carrying out the most effective land reform programme in history. He actually did these things to restructure society in japan so that every so that the ceo makes 10 times with an average worker makes instead of 500 times. As they do here. Your second point was if we're too close together then we're going to spread germs. It's interesting to look at the germs in hunter-gatherer society. Okay cuz in the last century there were quite a few people still living in the forest forest people of various kinds are other. And actually. Most of ours where do we get most of our germs that cause disease. We get them from being in close proximity to domestic animals. Okay. Like most of our gut flora is similar to flora in town. E-coli in in hunter-gatherer societies if you look at the guts florida to look at the bacteria in the gut it's different. That is more lactobacilli unless e-coli. Similarity what's the smallpox was really cowpox it came from to us from that polio was with her simeon virus that can made the transition into human. Who knows what's going to happen with bird flu. Where we live in close proximity to the animal. Where we when we domesticated them like the chickens in china. Everywhere else that's where we get our disease i would offer that that's the root cause of the problem rather than humans transmitting pathogens to one another. Antonym wrestling lot of time in society are concerned with hygiene i think is way overblown that is. What if we train ourselves to much we decrease our natural sort of protectiveness immunity. And so many societies in the world. Don't bathe as much as we do and i think that there's a balance there. What's the biology behind hierarchy in hell. In other words how does the bigger gap between the rich and the poor translate to more disease so to speak. Well. It's basically in a hierarchical society. A big gap between the rich and the poor. What do you do if. You're you're the chauffeur i give you the billionaire you tell the chauffeur to stop. The chauffeur. After suppresses raising say. I don't want to do this time. How many boxes is going on but he might lose his job. He's under stress from that situation he's in. And he sits and he doesn't respond. Because. To do so you might jeopardize his position. This is the what happens during stressful situations. Well. Think of the hunter-gatherer in the forest okay. Send me they say he's offering the savannah african is a lion there he's afraid the lions going to attack him so. Decrease adrenaline which makes his pulse go up in his respiratory rate go up. Refactored and he secretes cortisol from the adrenal gland as well cuz maybe he is just eating and his brother throwing you a stomach but it's got to get to his muscles if he's going to spirit away from the lions. So we actually have this kind of stress response that gets us out of trouble with the fight-or-flight response. What happens after that is. Then we sort of relaxed and an end after we've gotten out of trouble and heart pulse and blood pressure goes down. What if we were to. Melt the stress response all the time. Worrying about whether is the welfare check is going to come in weather worried whether the box is going to give us a pink slip worried about whether we're going to be able to get to the daycare center to pick up our kids. In time return that stress response on all the time. Then we get hypertension with type 2 diabetes with coronary artery disease and we actually have human population studies showing that basal cortisol levels are higher. And that the response to an acute stressor will suddenly when the lions there so to speak. You can't mouth is good and acute stress response to get out of the way and you're more apt to succumb. And we have studies working-out the mechanisms in in monkeys free sample and and baboons we have human population studies as well it shows that those lower down the economic ladder have more chronic stress. They have higher basal cortisol level is a part of the brain called the hippocampus that regulates feedback inefficient and there are at least smaller volumes of the hippocampus from neuroimaging studies. In population in improved and people with chronic depression and other conditions. In which they appear to be under a lot of stress. There's also a female counterpart to that which is a little different that is. If the mother and her child is suddenly steering this rather the lion. If you going to abandon your child in a runaway know she's going to tend and befriend and care for that child so are the female stress response was a little different than the mail and it's more baskets and that baby maybe why in almost every population women are healthier than men. They're better adapted on a population basis. To dealing with stress. And of course in a bigger gap society those lower down have more stress and so that's why the poor have worse come and there's a lot of science on there so i could see coming to the and living wages are struggling against globalization local living economy.

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20220116-Becoming-Beloved-Community-1.mp3

In a society like around where so many people are. Fractious and irritable. I often wonder. What it is then. Makes. For community. Passes for community. Instantly what. Sustain. Community. We wonder not only when we look at the larger political life and the divisions they're of course but just in our day-to-day happenings as well. And we consider ourselves a community church community of course and of course. Or many of us. We've wondered to what what does holding it all together. From year to year in from decade to decade. That's actually a question which many thoughtful people have asked. Over generations. And over centuries. Our communities formed. How are they sustained howard do they strengthen themselves. Participation challenger. Adversity. We have is unitarian universalist been hearing. A good deal in the last 5 years about. Something we refer to as 11. Community. It's. Not a new idea. It actually was coined the concept was coined back at the beginning of the last century. Buy an american philosopher josiah royce. Who gave a series of lectures. At the lowell institute in boston. Annette manchester college. Oxford. Where he in which she framed those. Words. Beloved. Community. He had wandered for many years and studied. What is that. Makes for a community how are they shaped how are they formed. What keeps them together this was a great interest to him and of course he looks to. Religion. As one of the places of long-standing community. Among generations. Study the concept. He created what he thought were a couple of steps. That were necessary for the formation. Of community. Is the first of those steps is what he called. The stirrings of memory. And hope. Now that may not be an unfamiliar phrase to some of you. When we refer to our church as the community of memory. And. Hope. Those memories. And hopes. Help individuals. Identify. With a community. And when people are able to say that that particular memory or that particular holt belongs to me. And there are more than just myself who are also making the same claim. Community starts to take shape. When we accept the same past events. Same memories. We have a community. Of memory. Those of you who have been around you uc4. Length of time or any other kind of. Church like ours for length of time to get back to. Instances when. We remember. Some great thing that happened or some wonderful leader. Who let us those were the great years of this sir. Of that you remember when. We. Took the boat to do the. The dwarf house. And within just a short weekend. We were able to raise enough money to launch a project that provided. Housing for persons with aids. The first such housing. In the city of seattle that was quite a momentous day. And there are folks who are listening today both. In person and on the livestream who remember how important that was. That was a crystal. An important memory. I remember in one of the churches i served listening to one of the very old members who recounted the story of. Himself is a child. And watching the meeting house on the town green. Burn to the ground in 1905. He was sitting on his father's shoulder. And at one point he put his small hands on his father's head. And on his father's cheeks. And his dad's cheeks. Or wet. With tears. Standing in that crowd. Watching the old meeting house burned to the ground. It had stood there for centuries. Paul revere bell fell out of the belfry onto the ground and crack. And have. That was an important memory for that community you see. Sometimes we remember things about certain leaders that we had the peter wrabel years or. Some other of one of our ministers of course. These are memories and when they are shared. We have the beginning of community. When we accept the same hopes. And dreams. We have the beginnings of a community of hope. You say. We have the same aspirations. We're looking forward to becoming. A certain kind of community i think. This is certainly what is animating many of us. As we make the efforts and the promise. To become an anti-racist. Community. And certainly listening to the young people's voices just about a month ago. Who talked about their hopes and their dreams. Or our society and for our church. To become more sensitive around racial issues. Was a very stirring and then important i'm cc. The community of memory and hope. When more than just one person can recall either of these things. And others join them. We have the beginning. Of a community. And when we have both of those things we also. Become aware. Everything that we do. Right now in the present moment. Either becomes a memory. Or helps to realize. I hope. So then what we do together. Is very important. And requires our intentionality. And our sensitivity. And our devotion. To josiah royce thought that this was the first. Step. In the building of a community. Stirrings of. Memories and hopes. A critical mass of us. Share those memories and. Share those hopes. We might. Begin to sense a stirring of affection. In ourselves. For the people who played a role in those memories. And also for the anticipated dreams. That we have as well. Many sundays i will walk through the memorial garden in the front of our church and i will look at the plaques and the names on those plaques and i will remember. Those members i can see them in my mind. Smile often comes to my face. And. I feel an affection and a gratitude for those who've given so much. And who are no longer. With us. It's a strange thing this sense of affection. We have four members of our community. With whom we share dreams. And with whom. We share memories. And when that affection makes itself manifest. In our own. Hearts. Rice said that the notion. Beloved community. Is awaken. We are aware. Bonds of affection. The tires. To each other. And we realize this of course first as individuals. And. Eventually as a community. Is no longer about you or me alone as individuals. What is taking. On mora sensitive we. As a group. Is a community so the me grows. Into a we if we. Want to. Oversimplify. That kind of thing. And despite our differences. And there are always differences of course. Each of us can include the life of others. Into our own lives. We almost never all of us agree together. What is hosea ballou said we can all. Love. Together. We have differences of opinions. Variations in our values. Different ways of understanding the world and approaching problems. Which make us stronger and richer. If we are able to understand those differences. To the point where we may even. Love each other. Because his royce taught. Love. Completes the consciousness. Of community. I love that goes beyond self-interest. To a concern for the welfare. On the whole. And such a love. As the common work. Of the community. As its primary. Abject. So first stirrings of memory and hope. And then secondly. An awareness of affection for those who were participants in those memories. And hopes. And finally. He talked about a love. It's so fills our consciousness. If the love. Owes us to extend ourselves. On behalf. The community. To do things for it that will benefit it. Even. Long after we are participants in it. You do recall i'm sure many of you the same of our capital campaign just. Recently. Not for ourselves alone i think that those words. Truly embody this notion. Loving and sacrificing for the future. Course we're going to renovate the total campus for ourselves for those of us who are here now. What we're going to do it as well for those who. Syria. For those who may not even be. Born yet. If you think if you can think and imagine bag maybe 60 or 75 years. All of those persons who sat in our chapel in their sanctuary and children who attended classes and people who. Participated in events all of them. Argon. Repast. Just like all of us will pass. And someday others will be sitting here in the seats we know occupy. In the places we now. Take. To carry on the work. Of this special community. Memory and hope. That we call. University. Unitarian. Church. This kind of love royce. Claimed. Says to every person. If we ought to aim. With all our hearts. And soul. In mind. And strength. For the life. Which can never come to pass. Unless all members cooperate. And bringing it. About. Any had a wonderful phrase in. Fletcher back in 1913 he said. Did you community ought really to be a chorus. Voices. All different. All working together. Making a joyful song no one person can do it. No few section leaders can do it all of the voices are necessary. To be a chorus. In a community. Worked on this notion of beloved community for many more years until his death in 1955. He ended his working life as a professor at harvard university. And it was there. The young african-american minister. Who was attending the boston university school of theology in preparation for becoming a baptist minister. Rev dr martin luther king jr.. First became aware. Of this notion. Of beloved. Community. And he saw it. And he interpreted it. Through the experience. I'm an african-american. Person. Someone who'd grown up. In the south. Someone who had witnessed oppression and marginalization among his people. Many many generations. All of whom were trying to make sense of this american experience. That we still find ourselves in today. And are trying. Too deep. And make available. For all people. To dr. king. Reinterpreted the notion of beloved community. From its more sociological. Origins and. Philosophical origins. And put. 860 a logical lens. Truitt. It's no longer was going to be for him. The case that beloved community meant well we just have to find a way to get along with each other. He looked at it through the experience. Of his faith. And his trust. In a creative power in the universe. Received very freely and eloquently called. God. Knowing full well. But not everyone would be able to make the same claim. Look for him beloved community meant. That it had to be a community of reconciliation. And redemption. It had to be predicated. On a shared acceptance. Of a wholesome object. He called them. Healing. Purpose. That guides the process of community safely. To its best. End result. Reconciliation. Between people. And the redemption. Of people the reclaiming. Of persons in community of their best selves. And of the communities. Fullest. Potential. Productor king the love that race talked about. What is the kind of love. The transformed opponents. Enter france. He was aware of social strife and violence. In slavery. And in reconstruction. And. During attempts to make. Good on those evils. Over many generations. She hoped for. Had to be strong enough. To make those persons who hated each other. And not merely just disagreed with each other. To become. Friends. Brothers. And sisters. His understanding of this was grounded. In the biblical notion of the covenant. Covenant. We're in first we recognize that we are all of us derivatives. Then we are dependent. Upon powers greater than ourselves for our very existence. And that we are under obligation to maintain those same conditions. For other people. For those who are not yet born. And also for those. Who are victims. Oppressed. And do have neither the power. No the ability. To ensure those conditions. For themselves. And for their future issue. To his sense of love was grounded in covenant. The covenants it requires us to give of ourselves. To each other. The second ingredient that king introduced into the notion of beloved community was. The necessity of a type of understanding goodwill. The transforms. Gloom his words deep gloom. Into exuberant. Gladness. A kind of maturity of intellect. And stealing. This understands that much of life is tragic. And that we must respond to this tragedy. With our best resources. And our willingness to live. And sacrifice. On behalf of each other. An understanding that knows that we are all complicitous. In furthering this oppression. And tragedy. And that we all have the capacity to go beyond that. To be a redemptive force. For each other. And for ourselves. These two ingredients. King introduced. Really from a biblical theological position. Kind of love that was. Deeper than just friendship. But a kind of love that struggled. To accept. Those people with whom we have the greatest difficulty. And the kind of understanding a depth of understanding a maturity of understanding. In goodwill. For all people giving them the benefit. Of the doubt. Working with them. Define. Common cause. King said that such a love. Wood quote. Work. Miracles. Fun quotes. This. Of course. For him. He elaborated as a kind of redeeming goodwill. For all people. Understanding goodwill for all people. Kind of overflowing love. Which is. Shirley spontaneous. And unmotivated and groundless. In creative. In his own experience. In any experience of his people. And any experience of others in this country. He could make the claim that such. Alone. Was really about. God. Operating. In the human heart. It's the kind of love that surprises us. Of its resilience. If its presence. Ab power. We often wonder how it got there. We often wonder how it is sustained. And because we cannot always figure it out. Dr. king. Austin. And believed. That slug. Came from a source. Same source. Origins. As a people. And that it was only that kind of love. Preserve. In create. Community. A rare love. Mom. Tremendous. Trust. Do you. Love. University. Unitarian church. And if so. How do you love it. Do you love it for yourself. Alone. Do you love it for as long as it continues to advocate the causes that you feel are most important. Do you love it because it has only the kind of music or message that you like to hear. And this any of those things change. Worship. Social justice activities educational opportunities. It's not just doing anything for you anymore. You're going to leave. You're going to lose interest. Because you are a member of the community. On your own terms. And it's okay. As long as it works. For you. Or do you love it in such a way. Did you wish to support its ongoing this. That you will cooperate heartily. On those in those opportunities where you feel we are really right on target. We really need to do these things. Or at those times when we think well it's not exactly the way i go about it but i think it's important that we do it. And we find a way. To do it together. Despite our different opinions. Because it is important for us as a community. Bear witness. To the values we hold most dear. And to ensure the conditions social conditions. That will allow those values. To grow. Then expand. Beyond. Ourselves. Of course we love our community at first. Because it tickles our own prejudices. But if that's all there is. It's a pretty shallow kind. And it is not the kind of love. Dr. king was talking about. When he spoke and preached. About 11. Community. That's my hope for suc. As we move forward. Continue to move forward. And improve the church. We hold dear in our hearts. To be faithful to those who. Went before us and carried the torch. And who now due to several circumstances are no longer able to do it. But i've given it to us to do. And then we might be worthy of their efforts. We might be worthy of their affection. In their trust. Cancel that those who come after us they say. I did not know them. But they were faithful. They were faithful. Unto death. They stretched beyond themselves. To create a beloved community. Memory. And hope. An amazing opportunity for us a deep one. A tough one. Unnecessary. Play thank you in advance friends. But your willingness to stand together with those of us. Will go forward. As we hope. Chris talked to king promise. Kind of exuberant. Gladys. May it be so.

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20200614-Reflections.mp3

Both john and beth have noted previously that when they look out. They picture a sitting there. In our sometimes predictable seats. And i understand that. Because you can't help but need to do that. For the comfort it provides. Are sometimes predictable seats. Well this isn't quite the year we plan for. Finding are predictable seats here. And maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing. In october we ended our worship services in a box at meadowbrook before coming home. But before we leaned into our newly. Remodel church. Before we figured out where all the rooms were. Audio. Or fix some of our bucket list items. Before we could dedicate our church and properly. Thank the piece of team for their amazing work. A world with hit with a covid. Global pandemic. We like everyone else. Had to pivot quickly to find new ways. Connecting and keeping our community together. Welcome to the virtual world. And while we adapted we witness the inequities of how the ravages of the pandemic. Disproportionately impacted communities of color. And the continuing senseless killing. Unarmed black and brown people at the hands of those believing they have the right. Kill. The paws in the world has laid this bare for all to see. It has made clear that our commitment to social justice action is just. Is necessary and must continue with all of us taking part. Did she write you you see has been one of tremendous challenge and change where we have shown our resilience and our ability to adapt to change. Our covenant is strong as we check in with each other and find ways to continue our fight. I want to thank all who have contributed to making this year successful in spite of the challenges. Julian warner and the pisa team who brought us home to a beautifully remodeled home we will get back here. Katie rentschler and laura prepon. Yet successful annual pledge. Campaign in the midst of our virtual world. Enter the congregation who responded as we must continue to do so. Do the connecting stewart's who reached out to our congregation. To keep us connected. Never before has this been more important. To everyone involved in our many social justice efforts. Such as climate. Justice. Black lives matter uu the vote. Habitat for humanity. Teen feed and many others. Keep that fight going. To our staff who figured out just about everything from boxing up the service to coming home to putting us online. To our ministers john and beth who challenged our minds hearts. Installs every week. To the leadership development committee and other committees that keep us functioning. As an organization and as a church. And to our board of trustees who care more than you can ever see. It's a privilege and an honor to serve with you. And finally thank you to this congregation. Each of us helps carry the load to move us ever closer to the world to which we aspire. I came across this poem in this month's you uworld. Magazine. By reverend shawn parker denison from their new book. Breaking and blessing meditations. Here's an excerpt. Yes. Especially now. When so much is at stake. Praise something. Anyting so alive and extravagant. That it awakens and calls you to discard despair. To abandon apathy. And praise whatever brings you back to life. Lettuce romaine. Ever engaged. A joyous. And always a part of this beloved community. Thank you. Hello dear friends members and friends of university. Unitarian church. The american philosopher and psychologist william james at once said that all futures. Are rough. I think we can agree with that but we might add that all present times are rough. And all past times. Have been rough to. It seems to be very much apart. Of the human experience. On this fragile and beautiful planet. As gail has reminded us we have had tough times. Relatively speaking in the last couple of years. With the capital campaign and getting ready to leave the building being off site for an additional six months. Beyond our initial projections. And then finally moving back into our new campus just before the holidays. Being here only a few months. When the global pandemic hit. And we were forced. To become a virtual community. Like so many other communities. All across. The world. And here we are now trying to figure out a way to go forward. Knowing that it is going. To be rough. The global pandemic. Is making its face known to us more and more with every month. And i am afraid that we have not yet seen the full face. Of its wrath. On all of us. To complicate this to add to this of course we mourn. The tragic death of george. Floyd. An ordinary person. An average american. At the hands. Interstate. Sponsored. Violence. And the tremendous outpouring of anger and outrage all over the world as a result of this. Because he was not an exceptional person a world leader. He was an average. Human being. With a family. Just like all of us. And whose murder was so unjust. And so unnecessary. And so the world is on fire in response to this. And of course we have behind-the-scenes the ongoing crisis. In our climate. And in our environment. Something that doesn't make the front pages or the social media screens with the regularity that it did earlier. But it continues. Unabated. And it's. Prognosis is not a kind one. For us. Or for anyone. How are we to respond to these things. That press upon us. For our best intentions. Our willingness to sacrifice. Our willingness to dream again a world that may be possible. For all of us. Many of you have been out on the streets. Many of you have been supporting the protests. Many of you no doubt have changed your minds about black lives matter where only 2 years ago it may have only been merely a slogan. But now is a charge. Amanda. To change the way in which we live together. In this country. And this world. What is our response then as a religious. And liberal people as individuals. And as an institution. I think what we are facing before us today my friends is an opening. And an opportunity. Just as we noted this. Some five years ago before we went on the enormous effort of renovating the space and paying for it. We have now before us immoral opening. To make good on the promise. Of being brothers and sisters to each other. As religious liberals and progressives we turn mostly to political solutions. To remedy these situations and we should. And we ought to. But i remind us that we are also a religious and of spiritual people. And we need those resources to sustain us. In the struggles that are before us. And a head. And i think what we need is both compassion. In solidarity. The compassion is already evident. If you look at the crowds protesting all over the world. There are all races in those crowds. I think that is the first response of a compassion that needs to have us break old patterns. Is marginalization and oppression of those in our own it. And in our own families. But compassion. Is not going to be. Enough. What we need in addition to it is. Solidarity. And i am afraid that we are far from that yet. But unless we can joke these two things together. Both are natural compassion for each other and for ourselves and for those who've been mistreated for so long in this country. And then do the hard work of understanding we really must live in solidarity with each other. There will be no lasting joy. Or no lasting keys. The stolen i am wearing this morning comes from ghana. Our older daughter spent her junior year abroad in south africa. Went back in her senior year to do a research product of project in ghana where she bought this material and brought it back to me. Saying that i wanted you to have this because i think not only are the colors beautiful. With a black robe it's because of the message. That the symbolism imparts. And what it says to us is. As they understand it. Said god is. Aw. All things. Our god. That maybe language that is difficult for some of us to accept or to understand because we may take him or unit is stick or less theistic understanding of things. But the way in which i would translate that is. The holy. Or the secret. So profoundly. Beautiful. The intimately. Good. And the lasting lead true. Is in every. Thing. Can we grow into seeing this. In every person we meet. Black lives matter. But they haven't mattered to a lot of people because all lives. Do not matter. To most people. Especially people. Of privilege. And people. With white skin. If we truly believed that all lives matter. 10 black lives with matter. Round lights with matter all lives. Would matter. The spiritual challenge before us is to change the metaphor in with which we live. And we need to move towards that where we find. What is holi. What is sacred. What is god like. What is the buddha nature what is the christ nature. Every person. We meet. And even in every living thing. We need. This. Is. Our work. Moving forward. And if we can make no progress on this. I believe. We have very little integrity. As a spiritual. Community. I've been a minister for 40 years. I'm on the last inning. Of my professional life. But i see all of the young people around me who are the age of my children and even younger. Who are agitated. And agitating. With. Deers. And screams. And please. For us to join them. And seeing. The holy in all things. I commit my life to this. In the time that i have left before me. And i invite you. Everyone of you. Every age. Every generation. Whether you're new to us or long time with us. To join together in this effort. To build. A beloved community. At university unitarian church. Not for our sake. Hello. But for the children. Sake. And for the world. Sake. Let that be not only our prayer. But i charged. Westview. I meant.

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MLK-Memorial-Service-with-Marvin-Evans.mp3?_=19

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06-Reflection.mp3

Joanna macy right. Never before in history have our destinies been so intertwined the crises facing us are too vast and complex for any one of us alone to comprehend. Much less adequately respond. The fact that our fate is a common fate has tremendous implications she writes. It means that in facing it together. Openly and humbly we find again our mutual belonging. And our power to act. Take a breath. Feel what is alive in your body right now. And listen to what you are feeling having hard what you just hurt. Feel what is alive in this moment in this room. On this patch of earth where we gather each week. And now imagine something in nature. That you love. As we took time for grief in the prayer earlier i want to acknowledge the very real feelings of grief. Fear anger that come with opening up to the realities. Of environmental degradation and climate change. It takes courage. To see these truths it takes companionship to awaken one's consciousness and then show up. As accountable. Accountable for the actions accountable for the change and i want to express my. Profound gratitude. To michael on this morning. For being with us here to share his story. And to ask us to join him. And her work. Coming back to life. Eco philosopher and environmental activists joanna macy right. About how grief. Anger and fear are healthy responses. To the harsh realities of our time and that these responses need not lita to denial or despair but if honored. It's that with. Can free us from paralysis and move us toward. Creative action. And this is what she calls the work. To reconnect. Takes courage then insulin guiding she has a book that guides other to do this reconnecting. And in this work. She describes a spiral. And the work. To reconnect a spiral that moves through successive phases. To go into those emotions. I've awakening one consciousness and order to go forth. And personally. I can feel. So frightened. And so overwhelmed. When i open. To these realities. And so i want to share with you a little bit of what these stages are because for me they have been a lifeline. Do not become stuck. And to try not to look away. The spiral of the work that reconnects begins. With gratitude. Congrat atude. Quiet the mind. Can make us more present and can bring us back to the store so that we can feel not only our love for the earth. But also acknowledge how our pain is connected. To the pain of the earth. By acknowledging our pain enduring to experience it. That's the next stage. Honoring our pain and in doing so we can begin to learn the true meaning of compassion. Which means suffering with. We begin to know when we enter into these feelings the immensity actually of our hearts. And our minds. And this might guide us beyond our isolated individual suffering to deliver us into the wider reaches of our shared existence. You should know that you want joanna macy. Is a buddhist. Miss greatly informs her work. And from there as we start to reach out. Going from gratitude to honoring our pain we begin to see with new eyes. And realize how deeply interrelated we are with all of life. And from that deep interrelatedness we begin to realize. Our power. Are power of being part of a collected and so we might go forth. Into action and she describes this cycle as an ongoing endless cycle almost as the seasons. Of the year or the cycles of life. And this is a cycle that i certainly. Witnessed. An experienced when i had the profound privilege of going to standing rock. Just a few short weeks after. Michael and his companions were turning the valves on the pipelines across the nation. They're at standing rock hundreds. Of indigenous water protectors and allies had come together to challenge the construction. The dakota access pipeline project that denied tribal solvent tree and would threaten the water supply. I'm over 17 million people. At the center of life at the camp there was a sacred fire where people gathered throughout the day and it was a place. We're both grief and gratitude flowed. Seamlessly. They're speaking into a microphone that would spread out the voices over the camp. Indigenous people from all over the world would share their stories and their prayers. Stories about languages forgotten. Children removed and sovereign rights denied prayers. For all of those who are experiencing ptsd from their time on the frontlines of the camp and prayers for people. On the other side. Prayers of gratitude. For the earth. Any stay at the camp in the morning it would start with prayers for water. Circled around the same fire people gathered. Each morning. To give thanks. We would gather and iris circle. Singing. As grandmother slowly walked around to bless. Each person with the water. And from that circle we would walk down to the river's edge. Praying and singing to offer our thanks to the sacred waters of life. Water is life. Was both the raleigh and call at the movement and the fundamental spiritual truth. That grounded the people there. These are some of those profound practices that were part. A larger transformation that happened. It continues to happen. From standing rock from the standing rock reservation. I'm all the pipeline was approved on one of the first days of trumps presidency. The fight continues in the courts. And the transformation that again at that sacred fire will continue to radiate to all corners of this planet. Which brings me. To something else i'm holding onto as a lifeline right now. I'm learning to hold on to it to help lead me out of denial or despair. Is a reality that any movement for justice cannot be measured by the success. Have a predetermined outcome. Justice work. The work that reconnects life to one another in system in the face of systems and societies broken by greed and isolation this work. Is about transformation. It's not about transaction. Yes the water protectors were organizing to stop a pipeline in the pipeline was approved anyway. Yes the valve turner's returning the valve to stop the flow of oil from the tar sands and they did greatly. Disturb the flow disrupt the flow of oil on that day. And yes. The pipelines were turned back on. Barber. These movements is acts of civil disobedience. We're not worried about joining their action to a wider movement a wider movement that has deep history and future. That is calling attention to the danger of our dependence on oil. These people these communities they took risks because of the dire need to be brave and bold. To protect life. As we know it. Until. It becomes transformational. If we join. They're calling us into a greater transformation a transformation that will continue. Even as the oil that continues to flow and the valve turned turner's themselves. Possibly serve time in prison if people like me and like you and communities like this one pick up the call. The transformation continues the valves continue to turn. And its final writings before his assassination. Martin luther king wrote. A final victory is an accumulation of mini short-term and counters. To lightly dismiss a success because it does not usher in a complete order of justice is to fail to comprehend the process. A full victory. And underestimates the value of confrontation and dissolve the confidence. Born of partial victory. By which new effort. Our power. When michael and the others turn those vowels. They were participating and a greater turning. A greater turning that cannot be stopped. Not by the legal system nor denial nor grade-a turning that says to all of us with ears to hear we need you. Life is in peril we need to strengthen the commitment of millions of individuals and thousands of communities to continue to turn the valve to practice living in ways that do less harm. And to come together. To build our collective power. And feeling our gratitude. We can reconnect. With what is. We are surrounded by it. And honoring our pains we may grow our compassion. When we tell the truth. When we hear it. We may know our interrelatedness. And discover new powers. Within. Inspired by the courage. Spoken here this morning. And michael story. We met to be inspired. To go for. Michael. Shared with me that when he saw timothy to christopher speak here he look he was very greatly inspired by his choice. To engage in civil disobedience and so. I went to. Close with. These words. Thanks. Timothy de christopher said what one person can do is plant the seeds. Of love and outrage in the hearts of a movement. And if those hearts are fertile ground those seeds of love and outrage. Velcro. Into a revolution. Michael thank you. Thank you for planting the seeds of not only many trees. Calling us to do the same. The planting the seeds of love and courage may they find fertile ground here. And beyond. Will you please now rise and body or in spirit and finish the him wake now my senses. Vs1. + 5.

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20190721-Sermon.mp3

There's a special mother's day celebration that takes place at the northwest. Immigration detention center in tacoma washington it's taken place for over ten years now. The center is the largest immigration detention center in this region with probably over 1500 beds. And it's owned by the geo group which is a for-profit. Prison. Corporation. So this mother's day vigil. Is held. To shine light on. The devastating impact. That this country's immigration policies. Have on people and families. Especially when parents are detained and separated. From their children. The annual vigil inspires those who are there to work for a world where no families are broken up. Because of unjust laws we're all families. Can be together. That university unitarian church member roberta ray has been helping to organize these vigils for many years and many folks from this congregation have been involved. And it's also organized by immigration justice activists from around the community. I went to this vigil in the may of 2017. I listened as the speakers. Share their testimony of how they had been separated. From their family members who are incarcerated how heartbreaking that was how devastating. I was so moved. By what they had experienced. After the speakers shared. We are invited to choose a flower. And we are invited to take that flower. And place that. On. Weave it into the chain-link fence that surrounded. The entire detention center. As. Those of us are went to choose our flower. There were members of a traditional aztec group. Singing and dancing and playing instruments blessing us with their. Presents and. Their gift of beauty. So i chose. The flower. And i carried it to the fence. And i. Intertwined it. With the chain-link. That experience of choosing a flower and bringing it forward is so familiar to me. Because it reminds me of participating in flower communion services in unitarian universalist congregation from a very young age. In the flower communion service. Hunger games spring flowers to contribute in. In the most common ritual that i've seen. I'm people bring them two vases in the front of the sanctuary. The flowers are blessed. Later in the service people are invited to come forwards and choose a flower. To take home with them. As a reminder of the beauty and diversity that is present in our. Religious community. Hermie the memory of that service invokes joy and awe. It's a memory of my faith community. Of. Belonging and being surrounded by my loved ones. And so that's the energy that i carried forward with me. As i carried that flower. As i placed it on the fence. I offered a blessing and a prayer. To those who are incarcerated. That they might feel less alone. But they might feel less. Scared. That they might feel our love. Coming through to them. I prayed that they might experience. The transformative power of beauty in this flower. And then i stood back and i watched as this fence. Became more and more covered and he's bright colors and varied textures of the flowers. Here is a building that was designed to incarcerate people. To keep them locked up. To keep them away. From being a part of the community. A place where corporations make money off of human suffering. And we cover that building and beauty. The beauty brought by people who remember. Those who are locked inside. People who are committed to working for more just immigration policies. One of the organizers of the event roberta ray noted that the dried stems from flowers from the previous year's vigil. Can still be seen on the fence. Until those flowers are an enduring reminder. Of. The larger community solidarity with immigrations who are detained and. Immigrants who are facing persecution. In our communities. Beauty. Has the power to heal broken hearts. And it has the power to transform despair. Into joy. And peace. In the ritual of the flowers. The flowers were a symbol of hope. To those who are incarcerated. They were a physical reminder. Did the people inside the walls were not. Forgotten. That we witnessed their suffering. And we were committed. To working on their behalf. And this ritual also fortified those of us who are working for immigration justice. Immigration. And the impact of this country's immigration policies on undocumented immigrants. It's a heartbreaking issue. And working for more compassionate immigration justice policies. Can feel like an uphill battle. You need strength to keep going. And we need strength to keep hope alive. It's not a new issue. Been going on for years and we need strength to continue in this journey. The beauty of the flowers helped me to process. My grief and my heartbroken that. Over this issue. Rather than becoming overwhelmed by that pain or numb to it. Beauty helps me drawstring. To answer the call of love. Drinking age in the holy work. Of bringing about change. This is the power of beauty in our work. For social justice. Beauty helps us not become overwhelmed by the evil that is present in the world's but to respond to it with love. And with compassionate and prayerful action. Beauty. Help. Sustain our spirits. For the long journey of helping to bend the arc. Of the universe. Towards. Dustin. In the 1960s in california. Migrant farm workers were toiling under terrible conditions to pick crops. For farm owners. The landowners in many cases did not provide clean drinking water for their workers. They didn't allow them to take breaks. They didn't allow them access. Two bathrooms. These workers are in very little pay. 4 incredibly difficult work. And those who complains could be fired. Or physically harmed. And sometimes even killed. For speaking out. 1962. Cesar chavez. And dolores huerta. Founded the national farm workers association. To fight for better pay and better conditions for the farm workers. They focused on the grape growers of california. An organized a worker strike. And they also organized a consumer boycott of grapes. That tarnished the image of the growers. Danny wants anyone here remember boycotting grates. Yeah lots of hands thank you. After a long and hard struggle the california grape industry signed a collective bargaining agreement with the united farm workers. Do you know what song was sung throughout the farm workers movement. De colores. De colores was brought to the americas from spain in the 16th century and it's a traditional song sung throughout the spanish-speaking world. Music was so important to the farm workers movement. Kathy murguia. A participant in the movement. Had this to say about the importance of de colores. Every meeting ended with us joining hands and singing de colores. Which enhanced sense of community. Avene connected. In a struggle for justice. We continue to sing it in the decades following those early meetings. During union events and other gatherings. Often as a closing. The rooster the hen. The chicks that sing. The great loves of many colors. These images brought such joy. Such pleasure. And lastly for those who sang it. Sucks. Hope. For me. Singing de colores spell powerful. Even today recalling the smiles and brightness on the faces of the workers. Provides a sense of hope. We were a part of a movement. And in small incremental ways we believed we. We're changing the course of history and ending. Exploitation. Singing. Was. Such an important part of the farm workers movement. He's workers face incredibly oppressive conditions. They were risking personal harm. The challenge the owners. The singing kept hope alive. The beauty of the music lifted their spirits. They sang together. And they felt connected to one another. They knew they were stronger. Together. The music reached out far and wide. To consumers across the country. Who supported the workers cause. By joining the boycott. The beauty of the music gave the farmworkers the sense that they were connected to something larger. Found themselves. Unitarian universalism has a long history of prophetic people and communities working for justice. Joining in solidarity with those who faced discrimination. And marginalization. In society. This is the way unitarian universalist live out our values of justice. And love. And compassion. In our wider world. And right now. There's a lot of work to do. To live out those values. And the wider world. It is. So devastating. And so heartbreaking. To be paying attention to the injustice and human rights violations. That are taking place. In our country. Migrants are fleeing. Horrific violence and devastating economic conditions in their home countries. And these are things caused. In great part by united states. Foreign policy. These migrants come seeking safety. And sanctuary and refuge. And instead they are subject to the most inhumane and cruel. Conditions. The new york times reported on june 21st about a group of attorneys who visited a detention center for children in clint texas. And here's a quote from the article. Children as young as seven and eight. Many of them wearing clothes kicked with snot and tears. Are caring for infants they've just met. The lawyer said. Toddlers without diapers. Are relieving themselves in their pants. Teenage mothers are wearing clothes. Stained with breastmilk. It is. Absolutely horrific. Other news articles have addressed how the government is required to keep children in safe and sanitary conditions because of a previous legal settlements. The recently government attorneys argued before the 9th circuit that even so they shouldn't have to provide toothbrushes or toothbrush a store soap to these children or provide appropriate sleeping arrangements. In a detention center for male adults there's so much overcrowding that some men wear in standing-room-only conditions for days or weeks. It's so hard to read about this and it's so heartbreaking. And it's unconscionable that this is occurring in the united states. I'm furious. And sometimes it can feel easier to just turn away from the news because it's so painful. But we have to pay attention. 10 days ago on friday evening. I attended a lights for liberty rally in pioneer square. With several other members of this congregation. The demand that the government closed these concentration camps. We came together to demand that migrants be treated with dignity and respect. There were so many inspiring speakers that evening. One of them that really stayed with me was a young woman from venezuela. She had consul united states when she was young girl. And she is a recipient of the daca program deferred action for childhood arrivals and of course the. Those young people are in a state of uncertainty about what's going to happen with their immigration status. She was so passionate as she addressed us. And here's the thing that i remember her saying. She said. Do not unplug from the news. Because i cannot. It was so powerful. It reminded me that yes i am a person with privilege and i can turn away and i can think about other things. But for those who are in. undocumented in our communities right now. They can't turn away. Because what's happening with the detention centers with the raids. With that horrible racist rhetoric that we're hearing in the political. Situation. Who sings directly impact their safety. And their security. They don't have the choice. To turn away. So. If we're going to face this enormous injustice. And think about this suffering. We are going to need. Beauty. To sustain our spirits. On the journey. We need to come together and worship. Sing songs. Share poetry together. To keep hope alive. The beauty of music. Art and its many forms. Being in nature. These are things that can save us from falling into despair. Beauty can service in the challenge of how we keep our hearts open to the pain of the world. Without becoming numb. Or overwhelmed. Beauty can sustain hope. Beauty can lift our spirits. So that we can choose love in the hate of. Love in the face of hatred every single day. I want to share with you a quote by carl onac. He was at one time the director of music at the boston conservatory. Any gable welcome address to parents of incoming music students. Here's what he said. Music. Is one of the ways we make sense of our lives. One of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words. A way for us to understand things with our hearts. When we can't. With our minds. Music allows us to move around those big invisible pieces of ourselves. And rearrange our insides. So that we can express what we feel. Even. When we can't talk about. In the same way experiencing beauty can help us. Pilar outrage. About the injustice in the world. When it is larger than what words can say. In the face of grief for lives lost. For the suffering of the earth. For the pain of racism in our communities. Beauty can restore our hearts. Can give us the strength. Citgo on. The songs of the farmworkers help them to keep fighting for justice. The simple ritual of tying flowers to offense. Brings hope. To those who are detained. And lift the spirits of those. Working for more just. Immigration policies. Singing songs at rallies and vigils connects us to one another. Into the spirit of life. And love. These are just some examples of how beauty can be used in the service. Of bringing more love. And more compassion. Into our world. If you find yourself in despair. Over the brokenness. Of the worlds. Maybe ut. Nurture your spirits. If you have made a choice. To volunteer. Or rally or write to your legislator. To try to make a positive difference in the world. May beauty. Bring joy and meaning. To your work. If you are feeling numb from the news. Of the pain in our communities. Maybe ut. Help you to release. You agree. Wherever you are. And your journey. May you experience beauty and some form. That touches your heart. Maybe you'd eat transform you. Kill you. And restore you. Tahoma. And maybe go forth together. To heal. And transform. The world. Mandy cell.

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Leftovers.mp3?_=16

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07-For-Whatever-Comes.mp3?_=1

As a young minister i seem to have. An almost insatiable need to reflect on the past and to dream about what is yet to come. And this is why i'm saying that's what i love most about the new year. It is a time of year in which my friends and peers suddenly share in the same urgent hunger and i eat it up and as many conversations as possible. And i wonder if you to sharing this craving for reflection and meaning-making at the beginning of a new year. If so i hope that you have given yourself permission. 2 paws. And time to reflect during these recent long dark nights of winter. There is a certain solemnity and uncertainty experience within long nights that lends itself. To this type of reflection. It is a gift of the season if we are open to receiving it. And if we can let ourselves become still enough. To let the quiet magic of winter approaches. Like a wild animal coming tentatively out of the forest. Of course this is also an active time of the year it is a time of year for making resolutions and claiming out loud to ourselves and others what we intend to change about our lives. And there's something so very optimistic. About this practice. Optimistic and possibly not very rooted in a theory of how personal change happens. But yet it is tender. It is tender and it is enduring how in certain times of the year we might just believe in ourselves more. However there's also that shadowside. The resolution making. So after new year's resolution spring from judgment. About needing to do more to be more. Until these bold plans of transformation they're not always born of kindness. But sometimes they're delivered as memos from that desk of the inner critic. You know the one. The one who deals and shame repeats tired stories and pretends to have your best interest at heart. But it's really just an unforgiving jerk. Turn this time of year in this threshold time. It is good to be awake. To the sources of our longings. In the shadows of our striving. I just wanted the tensions actually of this time of the new year. We take a moment to look backwards and we realize all that we learned and experienced that was well beyond our imagination. And so often out of our control. And then we look forward. Rigidly. Route with this rigid desire for result in this strong grip on goals. It's really almost funny. The dissonance. I bet also weren't also the source of so much judgment and struggle. And sometimes i feel actually a similar tension within our face. We unitarian-universalist are generally a people who define our faith. And our days by doing. We struggle even with discussing the concept of surrender much less practicing it. And in fact this and this goes back far and our religious history. There is a strong root and our religious family tree but leaves many to an active life. One structured by striving to do good in the world. The pursuit of learning and civic engagement the seekers journey and what can sometimes appear to the outside. As almost endless doing. William ellery channing. Often considered the father of american unitarianism. Preached about and lived the notion. Of salvation by character. A lifelong and religiously guided pursuit. Of crafting. And honing our religious our individual selves. Channing belief. It matters. Who we are. And what we do. And we live out this legacy in many ways and our church today. Their social justice projects. Coming-of-age covenant groups religious education worship wellspring all the many places. We religiously approach this journey of growing a soul. But one of the paradoxes one of the tensions of our faith is that there is another. Equally strong root of our religious family an early universalism. Which boldly states. That without having to do a single. Thing. To earn it. We are loved. Inherently. All of us. The radical claim of the universalism is that there is a love that holds us all all of humanity and all of creation and that this love. Is the way to understand and to experience god. Early universalist clarence skinner described the holy mystery. As a universal. Impartial eminence. Whose nature is love. It's the largest spot. The world has ever known. It is the most revolutionary doctrine ever proclaimed it is the most expensive hope. Ever dreamed. That's love. With a capital l. Love beyond belief in love beyond imagination. And the authors of our faith proclaimed that this. Is the ultimate reality. That we are born into. And surrounded by and that part of our religious vocation is to live in this love. And this is what i would say as unitarian universalist this is the home of our soul. The author e b u b. Once wrote. Of this tension this duality. As. I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world. And a desire to savor the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. You know i would find this tension. Almost impossible to bridge this tension between the truth that we are all love unconditionally without having to earn it. And that the purpose of life is too diligently grow a fall and build our characters i would find these two things and such a contradiction if i didn't have so many wise ones in my life. Doing body this wisdom path. Who in your own life has showed you that these two claims are not. And contradiction but actually necessarily intertwined truth. But inform each other. On the threshold between years i have been finding myself returning to one such ancient wise one. Rumi. 13th century sufi mystic whose wisdom has lived on and informed centuries through his poetry. In his poem guest house. Rumi wrote. This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy a depression a meanness some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome. And entertain them all. Even if they are crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture. Still. Treat each as gas heat treat each guest. Honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought. The shame the malleus meet them at the door laughing. And invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes. Because each has been sent. As a guide from the beyond. This last year brought many things knocking on my guest door. Grief. Uncertainty. And fear came knocking more often and more persistently than possibly any other year in my life. Any invitation invitation to entertain them all. Was anything but welcome. And sometimes i just pretended i wasn't home. Turn off the lights. Tune.. Turned up the distractions. But when i was able to be a gracious host. Even to the most. Uncomfortable unwieldy guest. I found that each one had a richness of lessons to teach me about what it means to be human. What it means to be a human. At this particular moment. And of course over there many other guests came to my door. Alongside grief came in appreciation. For the fragility. In the preciousness of life. When fear of loneliness came knocking so did an awakened urgency for stronger bonds and deeper compassion. When despair rushton it was an age-old teacher. A resilience. Deep. Joy. Uncertainty led to discovery led to an ability to dance with more agility. In the unknown. Buddhist teacher jack kornfield writes about bowing to life. To bow to the fact of our lives sorrows and betrayals is to accept them. I'm from this deep gesture. We discovered that the heart holds more freedom. And compassion than we could imagine. That. One could say is the payoff. The reward for learning to bow. To welcome what comes. The discovery that we can hold more of the full reality. To live with more of the reality of all existence. And when we learn that. We live with less fear. With less anger and with. Less despair. So what has come knocking on your guest house in the past year. But you didn't want to let in. What have you refused to open 24 fear that it might sweep your house. Empty. And i asked this question. And i have no answer to it. What does it mean to practice acceptance. When unacceptable things keep happening. But also. What happens if we refuse to open the door. When we cannot open to the realities and lessons before before us when we shut her up our homes turn off the lights pretend we aren't home. At best we choose numbness over experience. At worst. We intentionally disconnect from life. And from those around us would rather. Then encounter discomfort or entertain our fear. This past summer i had the extraordinary opportunity. To volunteer at camp 10 trees. A summer camp for lesbian gay bisexual and trans youth. There i heard stories of people whose families had closed the door on them. People. People whose family members could not entertain their own fears and shames and so shut the door on those they were given in this life to love and to protect. Unconditionally. I also heard stories of families were on the threshold together. Striving. And sometimes falling short but returning again. And again to open that door. 1 youth in particular has remained in my memory. At the closing ceremony on the final night as we all set around the campfire. He dedicated his week to his mother. An important person in his life who still struggled to use the word trans. When speaking about her child. But he also made sacrifices to help her transun go to camp that summer. Choosing connection. Rather than shutting the door on what you fear or don't yet understand. They were opening to one another. And discovering the blessings theron. As we approach this next year. I offer rumi's wisdom as an orientation. To welcome all that life brings. To be a guest house. To open to reality and accept what comes knocking at your door. Fort connexu. To your own humanness. Into the humanness of others. But i also want to clarify some things the poet did not say. Rumi did not say to open the door to your oppressors. Are cheetos deletes people and practices that would harm you. Rumi also did not say that this being human is the hotel california. It's a guest house. And the arrival keep coming in. And out with the flow of life. Animotion. Until the guest. Is overstaying their welcome. Refusing to check out. Way that sometimes the depths of depression or the grip of anxiety can do. Calling other companions. To help you to learn. Intellect go call in those people those story. We have a big year ahead. Here in this congregation and in the wider world a year that is no doubt. Going to be full of arrivals. My resolution is to keep opening the door. Resolutely. To dance with discomfort. To listen to and learn from shame to open the door to life and know that whatever comes whatever comes that all is held and loved. Inexplicably. Universally and irrevocably held and loved. I resolve to look for evidence of that creative and encompassing love that surrounds all of us surrounds you surrounds me in for that truth. The truth about love to be the fertile ground from which. We might all grow ourselves. There's already been so much evidence in the mitts. Of all the other arrivals his last year. Of this life. Will you open to life with. Open to the challenges of transition transformation and the redeeming grace. Mysteriously. Theron. This being human is a guest house. Each day a new arrival. Be grateful. For whoever comes. Because each. Has been sent. As a guy from the beyond. Happy new year. Blessing. On your wall.

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As-We-Have-Journeyed-20th-Anniversary-Sermon.mp3?_=28

Days according to a war minister here. sitting here wishing for a mewling and whining escape from down from your phone it must be full of these brave still over there keeping also the riddick, mommy has never before. 248 for the 5th or the 15th. Children by the old man's war on the road. Understanding the human child born to rule the world believe inspiration now. Growing up. 9. The little turkey on 16th avenue northeast near the university of washington at the end of that year they got administer me around gilmartin origami person calls before may remain for a new minister 21st over many meetings and many months in a number of interviews with unusually large metal water bottle 1960 when i was first contacted about my potential and pregnant. Sprinkling new education director elaine smith and preaching alcohol fellowship in everett for the committee that was an august andy evert unitarians were following retractors promotional late-night unitarian russo being in summer rico okay call me open door church today station and buy believe i am writing in recalled that the congregation up sunday morning was far more composed of members of the seattle hookah committee and it was in a hurry and come over sometime. Or the church. According to the way we do things then unitarian churches make with the committee wells and recommending me to the congregation as when i came to seattle and lake september. Peach tattoo. Sunday services on think the week between looking at this congregation circulated while you and coronavirus carefully scrutinized. Uploading possible i accepted to call october. R11 small. It was expected in our family. And it seemed wiser not to move uncooperative buddy.. Nature however is not circumscribed by the dictates of a turkish hello. Thanksgiving. And we were into the advent season. But no matter how tall are no charles around pain and went until new year's. I'm still waiting on january 13th robert rabil made his way into the world on little rascals parade and we began our final approach to move. The kolodziej is it doesn't seem all that far away. Until i am suddenly pulled up a couple about an hour ago grabbed a few short days. The scene from robert will be married. I'm a personal colombia. Nineteen61 for sunday of february 1961 i was installed as the minister of this kind of waking and gave microgram divining the future trying to find out what lies in store for them. Play wonder how many of us would it leak. Voluntarily live out our future if we knew what they were going to be. On the personal side 20 years ago i had no inkling of the profound changing fort worth lighting store. Brinkley i would not want to have no more but while we're helping my daughter has also been softball more angry than i would have them call it agreed to accompany. Hopefully this was a personal level because of the public nature of a minister's wife can never be holy clothing at least not as far as a minister would like to go i would not. Springbank told me. Our human potential for fouling things up is only exceeded by ottoman potential to provide. I believe we have to all have a deeper appreciation. Philippines. Trivago. Money is not the most of us have had. when we were wondering if we would survive. . seems more of a prospect. Democrat. We survived. I'm in torrential crisis that is a great deal of suboxone. We are about survival we also do morgan dollar. We slowly discover that we are able to zero in on the prepper priorities. Put another way we learn. More about those things that are important to us and we begin to shut off ready now. We also discover what movies pencil. And we begin to give those essential breaker playoff. In our younger years a shotgun approach is more our nature as we shoot our energy and smallpox in many different directions as we grow older we are more apt to use a rifle to target for particular and go over so it seems from er. Appropriate different stages in our alarm. Top of light is declawing what are the prime target for us. Thank you directing all energies toward particular bull's-eyes. Seem important. Tricky question is how do we know rightly what are the proper rules on. They're all course no ironclad guarantees. I'll always margarita thing with the author who wrote in one of his books. 63. I'm still trying to discover what i want to be when i grow up. Over the years. We have grown. Then we have a profound conviction. We have given our days to matters that are important to be about. It is not so much. Guinea. Remind me about self-discovery the accomplishments won't getting them up on the mountain. Sorry, warren zevon. hey.. Bora bora. But we have grown standing for the essentials. Intimidate. The eternal wonder of the mental state. Indonesian which specialization is more and more normal paraphimosis build the perfect person continues to be one of my college picks balls so why general. Both of the generality of the ministry any person who survived must massage call rubble routine maher ever probation sheriff more than most people do. Open tomorrow. Only too obvious from captain example minister appreciated margins which. Target also called to be present at the tragic moment. Notably i am immortal. American family funeral home. Boo purple and being involved important right of company. Spirit airlines and profound. For all our noble queen grande usually indicate. And we're bongso blasting meme can be ever grateful for 7 years old. Cory has made a big difference in my life and this is beyond all worried. call me right here now. Shared their lives with me. And i continuously blow. Unitarian congregation. Is made up of individual. More than that. It is an institutional memory and. Abilene weather. Each group has a personality of its own. Personality which walkout individual personalities make things overtone but a personality which affects the life of those within and most particular lady. Supposed to 1,500 people have formally joined this church but given our present membership suggest that we have turned the entire membership over for phone fortunately not call vehicle turned over a core group has remained throughout those years. I'm at donkeys used to be associated with a geographical name brooklyn rather than walk into a personality so frequently that it was said there were actually three teams at any given time. I'm coming i'm going in one day conversation at moments such as church change and about to survive. Mini cooking. This congregation has made the necessary decisions over the years. Woohoo. Even when some questions were made in italy or even from the 1960s we struggled with the title wave of her stroke. Trying to accommodate for 800 program in las cruces tools. Buying and adopting approval to the mall. And even one from out of here having four questions of purpose and put school each and every week. Continue the effort. Done when a group from our church initiated leave now and go then during the 1940s. Later terry crew when the truth stated in the establishment of new groups in edmonds and good morning and then i think i'm starting new unitarian society in greater seattle most notably the founding of the shoreline unitarian church. 100 numbers right out of this congregation and many of our latest single adults. Finding financial caravan increasingly diverse congregation. Ozark arkansas. I need it tomorrow. 1970s world harvest time for money both within and out of the city.. Reverberations of vietnam ripple throughout the flow and we seemed uncertain as to what direction we should take in a crime when mini seems almost exclusively preoccupied with what was euphemistically called personal growth. By the end of the seventies we had not only right that also strongly on a new course we undertook to the difficult task of refurbishing was building a document canoe need and in my opinion making any more beautiful for some probably became the pd diversity among us to love as a project and more of a game so we thought exactly expanded program for shingles and drink a couple adult programming and a new way community propane. List of all week again to be responsible for people. Who took me seriously the maintenance of all the philippines and coco lila and for the first time gay purple appointment delete financing of this. Accepting that money was not to be avoided but rather was the basic means to achieve a for congregational life together. He said that money like the woman give me worried never to be spoken in any frame. Boulevard 14 l t world in the unitarian free mainly the word evangelism how slowly we are using that room as we learned that while it is impossible to convert anyone begin a triangle that is an m8 competition asleep and park amazing artist grow and brings which rank those who are already in a frame without normal is most remarkable to me about something i don't know something desirable but rather from an increasingly hard core connections among a growing number of them volume for pounded bother unicorn religion need to be advanced and hold the wall. The bar crying of religious community people grow. I think it's angelica all of our problems on the car. Let me quickly disabused of that notion but i do think everything in the new recall. Just as we are far more able to handle issues in our personal lies with bigger in philippines when we feel that we are in power. Stoeger congregation now has proven he has we're going to restore faith to take it. for you. The institutional history of the chicken. The church. Longhorn strong ministers and a dedicated scanner. I believe that the future of the unifying movement becomes all well-trained professional men and women in our ministry will be out for no unless we continue accord, several of our military and hardly one that has been at the very core of our movement for 400 years can be made only by the member more accurately it mean to remember he's too complicated. Any given moment this congregation rest upon say talk or minus 200 individuals who make up the call of the congregation. What is open tomorrow. I've only one price and i'll check tomorrow, okay for punishment or reward. Pulling from personal commitment. Come from men and women departing that they are noticed here. That all religion is important in this world. San antonio. Congregation contraband continue to have strong legs for you sometimes very difficult to be a minister among you. A deadly institution. Even went off on why salt russell where the leadership was thinking i know that i would not want it any other way my life has been intertwined with the life of this congregation for four of you guess what i saw break today for more than my own longevity many many. Create the ongoing congregation. We ordered from beautiful girl who nearly 150 years ago. in his boxing opening scene telephone about the future, i'm at unitarian getting all week. So that may be an essential personnel lady liberate some to grow are we looking challenges. We also stain from your paint and smoke weed.

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Dignity-at-the-End-of-Life.mp3?_=7

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The-Individual-in-Community.mp3?_=5

Good morning is a parking lot across a poem the people yet. Every blade of grass hasn't shown to. Columbus, kansas. Emblem marine. Sunstone. Nothing more certain and dolphin. Nothing more uncertain than the hour. Humans look like birds together in a wood. Text wife. Pollo regio. Go to person. Pick one person places. Humans remember right before the alphabets game. Humans are against the right. Humans will never fly. Play music. Zoomed in ferdinand. Windermere circle around the globe. Humans will never make united states of europe. No you're going to fall when you talk about one-year-old slide for the great family at macy's. Humanity. Tumblr. Binders. Google. Humans meme. Humanistic broken lakers. Humanely ancillary. Wheel maker. Torrington winsted aguila. One day found hang cooking oil. Squealed. Wagenmaker eternal agony. Join the hens and other bear. I'm coming lemkin they're mine. May 1st wagon. 1 y 1. Hurricanes along men pushing join. Beginning in the progress for the gym imagination. Resulting in a tool. A working model. Going to breakfast being alive in wheels within wheels. Ignition power transmission reciprocal. Beyond the personal loan alive only with pushing drawing. What next. Bring the finite limitations of the five countries. The endless yearning to humanity. Order beyond. People hold to the humdrum bidding of washington food. Beyond the prism of the five senses. For keepsakes. Resting beyond any hunger all day. Reaching is a lie. Panderers. Angle iron. Violated. Get the switching is arrived yet for light and cheesesteaks. Gold a lot. At many broken hammer. There i go. Who can't be bought. Tire barn. Are at home entire world. Starling. Make no noise. You can endure. The wind from blowing. Time is a great teacher. Cooking lentils. Without hope. The darkness. Bungalow creek. The people mall. Nope. A couple of stars for cheap. The people march. Batman. Population of churches. Universal unitarian church. Each one of us.. Forgotten or ignored. In the community outside these walls. Yes on this day we also joyful acknowledge the association of unitarian universalist churches. A greater or lesser degree, larger vision of north county because of our association. And the new house in oxford.. The meaning of astute. Dilaudid. Community. Dnronline. However this price of celebration. Vermont own ministries. Each one of our credentials into bonds with others. Give up opportunities as well she ministered unto. Them. Together in meditation. The ministry we celebrate to school. Association in august church. On our own personal ministries. Medexpress. It is where the deep measure of thanksgiving. Oversteering. His vision one division of others and our own has been blurred. The understanding. When others stand silent. His ability to teach us about. Open up youtube without stinking. Celebration in our hours of worship. In a moment of despair. Mr x on tubal ligation. We celebrated well his ministry to our association of churches across the line. Community garden by iron mountain. Is very much a part of this land skeeters evereadys reminder. We would find it easier to forget. Ministry. Eden on life from the ups and downs. Our own commitment and understanding our horn. Courage and commitment ever continue. Remember his ministry. Do gentlemen even one-masted ever there. Expected then it's humor. The medical way to riches to watson worship. An unexpected encounter. 4th grade even progress energy individually. Aspirations. More than one account. Smart more abundantly. 711 years ago he gave a lecture series and kickstand. Lincoln seattle when he was a candidate for the presidency communitarian universalist association. This monsters from first official visit. As our president. President of arco station dr carnes could be writing to the holy father in rome. Garlic scapes. Personally. Responsibility. Louisville colorado. Lebanon to years in office. Leprechaun says begun to make a happy difference in the future of our movement. Watson years ago. Top 10 most religious movements in america. Lonely. Weather. Country button for costco concord. Seether. Much about results from the caliphate. Leadership. Encourage. John kennedy wants to the greatness of the game in the world. Explained by. Grace under pressure. In his mystery. Now the presidential office location. Anytime. Great. Under pressure. Thank you peter.. Conjuring greatest warrior. The first time i approved for standing-room-only send. About 12 years ago i did a service on simon and garfunkel. Marion marvin evans friends here in the church. Wish to be remembered to you. When we started in the ministry of god. 25 years ago when you started their ministry. The reason for going to church in the reason for existence of the existence of a charger from what they are the present time. Are we going to turn your virtual love to survey antiquity ourselves when we have nothing else to do wheel pickup rear bed. Have revealed at unitarian universalist church. Mostly because of what they called quote-unquote fellowship. No i'm talking about the cherokee crispy covered our community. Community bring the big world community to london. Feeling of loneliness alienation. Richardson so much written about him talk about particularly among the young. Breakdown in communication among us. Even among unitarian universalist the first priority they have now released to communicate. Genuine community. Sensitivity training. Who participate in them. Come camp out community. Activities is not really sick when one looks at the poseidon most ever flew. Many of the traditional sources of emotional support has been all but destroyed. Learn to move on to a situation new situation very quickly. Training relationship bible. Are largely drawn. I'm in outlook and organizational support. A person's head shop in which they are capable of machine operator. Enforcement for their needs itself worth. Identical. Ramadan for several months. With him to celebrate on april have always tended to celebrate the individual. I sent disillusionment. With individualism. Speaking of community. A community of indispensable. Maryland frank and her book the woman's room. My wife is reading me the other day and we were driving along and one place. Maryland princess we know we come to know ourselves if we find ourselves respectively live with mothers. Community is indispensable. It can even be dangerous. I want any communication june. Before i give her myself to rick. In the first place. Recognize its position is pregnant. Unitarian universalism. Over a cup of coffee following a church service. And has no dimension in history. Appropriate statistics to our film as we acknowledge it and make it a part of ourselves that we give back to the community. Let me participate in on sunday morning. Friend of mine once pointed out but within human life. Only in town. Experience of riding along with someone with long stretches of silence you can only do that with someone but do you have a very deep relationship with. Alone in solitude. In the presence of another. What i would call communion. Storynory. It's going to visit ralph waldo emerson. And carlisle when damn. The two gentlemen went into the living room and the crackdown. Reliable pipe except there. Until about midnight queen mr. carlyle.. Marvelous evening headband. And lonely on the other is it is wrong to be alone. Being alone. Simply surrounding oneself with people. Overcome buyer. Loneliness is overcome by solitude. Communicate promote or hinder my grasp of the essence of religion. Probably. The most important. Theologian hits country. Answer the students question. What does it mean to be a christian. Will interested in the kingdom of god. That has nothing to do with. Within the framework of protestant theology. Something which is even for heritage structures also. Unitarian universalist. Universal truth. A subject. And as integrity. This may or may not have anything to do with the kids. Desperately trying temperature. I'm going to the limitations of the church. A liturgical communicate. The church. Is known in solitude. Joseph campbell informed of the stories of king arthur. Never allow the knights of the round table to begin emil until intervention habit.. Alice coursen those wonderful days. Alexensual took over control. Remember which one we always seem to be. Appeared in midair in mccall covered by a statin kwajalein. Grill. Maxilator said max first. They were to depart. To go forth in the group. Anna point that he had chosen. Where was the donkey. And where there was no way or path. I suppose. It's always someone else's. I want community. Community that will support to individuals in here. A individuality. I've been going up. I'm down the highways and byways of the united states in canada. Unitarian universalism you unique. Individual in here on her quest. Call religious meaning and significance. Why do i grind my coupon on the individual. I believe that the individual is the key to creativity the precondition of junior. Joseph campbell has argued in one place and perhaps one reason our time. Produce no great-aunt. Is that the contemporary audience is unwilling to enjoy the years of solitary struggle. In order to arrive at a new insight into fall. Contact. To get grand consultants. And hopefully suncrest egypt teaching code. Is mediocre coach campbell. Breckenridge. Hired a group at pentecost. But it was peter who scored. The two great crises of temptation the life of jesus came when he was totally alone. In the wilderness. And the garden of gethsemane. If i have to explain it to you it's about my truck forget i said i could use some muslim store humping everybody was known about it for sure. In traditional churches there are leaders in. Brooklyn tunnel. Wing however. A person who is ready for it. Who is spiritually alive and eligible for the vision. Being alone. By definition you can't bring along with crown. Buddhism religion. Hooters paper bottle service. And the leader of the buddhist movement after buddha. Ananda at one point. I will make you the head of my truth. Increasing your ecology is in the same position. 1.2 peter in the new testament. I don't understand. I will make you the head of my truth. Phenomena. The purpose of life. Is to bring this uniqueness to fruition. This is our union. Yearn for something that never walk on land or sea langley to fulfillment orvac intelligible character that only the unique individual can bring for. Schopenhauer called kearns character. You bring at 4 to bring forth what is potentially within you. And no one else. The greatest virtue do it seems to me our visible only in individuals. Agreement electrical insight for instance was erected on the proposition i think. When was the last time you are msu ever swap trucks exhibited by a committee. Or group. Core technology. Church was known as a loving community beloved community. And diluted. Basically i doll. It is focus 21 sanchez person-to-person. And community becomes important only as attempt and the courage with christmas hype relationship. Is not to run to others. But first to ourselves. I mean. And albuquerque. We then reach out to touch the hands of all comments on the way. Just got off 25 years ago in search of a gray or by yourself. Great ministers are not married in group. The ground could be called a different name in a different title. Atlantic. Recognize real. Which we all pristine. In one of his form. The idea of giving to atlantis. You have discovered that course only recipient.. Assuming you beach near atlanta. Begin the terrible second word proof solid wood instrument. Frozen tundra for all us food mart. Rejoicing. And even brownie or perhaps having actually got to the last pole you correct. Mattress chinese below you. Yet you cannot discern. You should still be proud of atlanta. Vision. U-turn. And lie down into. Haven't you seen your salvation. May you pursue your laundry. Another 25 years. Grace and joy. To oliver. 25 may garden iup. But grant your glory. Call mom.

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The-Reachable-Star.mp3?_=1

Very simply. We begin by working in order to live and we end up working and forget. To live. You're not a machine made for 14 ticketer purpose. You are more than your function. More than your profession. Your trade your work. You are first and foremost human. Made to live to laugh. Simply to be. A good person. And that's the only important thing. In the world. Arthur miller wrote in one of his plays. I dreamed i had a child. And even in the dream i saw that the child was my life. And it was an idiot. And i wept. And a hundred times i ran away buddy. It had not. It had the same dreadful face. Until i thought. If only i could kiss it. Whatever and it was my own perhaps i could rest. And i've been to its broken face. And it was horrible. But i tested. Yes eventually inevitably. You must take your life in your arm. Your life just as it is accepted. Kisses. No matter how heavy. Or how hard it seems. If you was once kissed it. It will be different bearable but don't have any illusion happiness is no continuous performance. Real happiness in life comes and goes. Usually doesn't last very long. The rest of the time you dream of it. And wait. Kiss your life. Accept it just as it is today now. So that those moments of happiness you're waiting for don't. Something if peter is going to start losing weeks along those the way i'm going back to the laska. Picking up the traces and getting back in the harness. Fast enough is that enough. Caprice. My 29 ft sailboat. I just completed a long tack. Across icy strait. And it was a holler. I was using a storm jib and a double wreath maine. The boat was just starting to come about when williwaw caught me. It came right over the mountain i had a great gust of wind crashing down upon the boat like a giant hand. And the next thing the priest was on its side. Water pouring into the cockpit. I was on the high side hanging on the lifeline for deer license looking straight down into the dark waters below. They say their boat will take more than its crew and it's a good thing because there wasn't much i could do at that particular moment besides hang on. Appreciated. Write it herself took off a ton or so of water. We came about and sailed off on the other text. Mostly as i say i was i was hanging on that point asking myself what in the world i was doing. In these wild waters. What i was doing is peter mentioned earlier was pursuing my mini sabbatical. Leave this time of the board of trustees graciously granted me from my duties as program director here at the church. Can i use it to fulfill a longtime dream of making a solo voyage which turned out to be 2652 mi. Buy sailboat. At the inland passage to alaska and back to seattle with numerous side trips along the way. I just returned from that boy just a week ago. The most adventurers i have discovered over the years are amazingly inarticulate when asked. Why. Why do you say all of us to the south pacific why do you go down the river in a raft why do you say all do alaska. And the risk of making a bad pun i'm in the same boat. Because neither do i have the answer any more than usual. Answers of the challenge or self-discovery or. Self-reliance or one-on-one with nature and all those those good things. So instead of philosophizing. I think this morning when i. Plan to do. Get to share with you a few of my experiences and let you draw your own conclusions. I will offer one bit of advice. And take the chance and give it getting and giving advice which is always risky. But that has to do with the title of this song. If you have a dream. Go after it. How easy it is to be controlled and programmed by the everyday in the subsidies of lies to the point. Where we give up our dreams. Only you can make it come true. Nobody will do it for you and when it happens get the very most out of it that you possibly can. Read apollo book the summer and in one i came across this line. There's never as much time as we imagine there is. And when it's gone. All we can do is wonder what we were doing while we had it. Don't let it happen to you. Go after that dream. Don quijote dela mancha was something of a symbol for this journey. I hope that i'm not an incurable romantic. Or a night of mournful countenance as described. But i have such high regard for his quest of a dream that i sometimes referred to as the priests my old sailboat it over 12 years old and has a rusty old engine in it. Why sometimes referred to caprices rocinante. Don quixote sway back horse. And the auto tiller pilot as sancho panza. Lahodys faithful squire. It allowed me to get away from the killer. 210 bishop and to prepare a meal once in awhile and it was very very helpful. What are the objects. What's the sale as much as possible. The most knowledgeable people i talked to before going on the trip. Told me that on the inland passage which is a labyrinth. Islands in channels and canals. Straight. Set on that inland passage i would use the auxiliary engine 80% of the time. Well i was determined that that would not happen. As it turned out. I made. 50% of the journey north on sails alone. 25% motor sailing and 25% on engine alone. If one had unlimited time it might be done by sales only of course. But whatever changing winds sometimes the winds in a moment's notice would be around 180 degrees. 20 ft tides. Excessive 20b we are pretty good side tides around here but it's just fantastic its anchor. In the evening and in the morning wake up and have a whole new scenery around you is the water somebody pulls the plug in the water goes out of those base. Powerful currents pushing my boat around like a chip of wood. There were times when the engine was just good company. The matter of fact we almost parted company the engine and i and i'll save that so that story for just another moment or two. First another story or two about sailing. Obviously i love the out-of-doors and particular to see. But i don't get too sentimental about being one with nature. Every sailor knows that dealing with nature is. Frequently a battle for survival. Negotiating the johnstone straits became such a struggle for me. For today's free slugged it out with head winds gusting over 30 knots. Strong currents. And weighs broken into a very mean shop. I can't edsel's many times and that's when it really gets exciting when you're sailing all alone. Solevo tiller and go forward as a little bit like letting go of the steering wheel and climbing out on the hood of your car when you're driving down the freeway at 60 miles an hour for their you are with no control at all and it gets particularly exciting when the boat goes over a wave on the bounty send so fast if you can't keep up with it. There you are up here somewhere hoping that when you come down you do so on the deck. Couldn't hold a course in such conditions. And i'm afraid that much as i loved him he took a lot of verbal abuse from the skipper at such time. Before sailing is not always a tooth and nail experience even though we sailors like to brag about these rough times. Like the early morning that i cast off from a dock in ketchikan. And picked up a tail win. And sailed 60 miles north under a golden sun in the beautiful blue sky sailing world a getting into a very private quiet secluded. Cold at night and dropping the anchor having never started the engine. That to me is a successful day. For the day i left you know at 3 in the afternoon and sailed all night into the dusky light that never did get dark. Restart of the blow over in the northwest like a setting sun all night long. And enough light to navigate by and then is that glow began to diminish see the light. Coming on in the northeast. I'll see you at the new day came on. Saving all night in arriving in skagway at 9 the next morning. Or the lazy day and light are that i was taking a bath which i tried to do every 2 or 3 days. In the salmon struck the lord that i was strolling along or dragging along behind the boat not expecting to catch anything. My dank doctor real in my supper. Just at that moment a pod of killer whales. Broke water on either side of the boat there i was dripping wet in the altogether yelling at whales most of them bigger than the boat to leave my salmon alone. Noah wyle sancho was guiding caprice down the channel on a leisurely sale. Long before that. Incident engine trouble almost caused me to abort the trip. With two burned valves in a blown head gasket. I limped into campbell river. I was laid up for 3 days for repairs. And then under way again and just north of the swirling seymour narrows. Lost river boaters. Appreciate the seymour narrows one of a fantastic places in the northwest. For the current flow from 10 to 15 knots. I used to be a mountain. Peak in the middle of thing just below the surface of the canadian tunnel underneath put a whole bunch of dynamite in it and blue 40 feet off the top of the mountain. Now boats can go by without tearing their bottoms out but you can imagine. The terrific squirrel in the ways it is a fantastic place i love it's a lot of fun just to be there in to watch that go on. But just north of the seymour narrows i discovered. Water in the oil. The main bearings don't last very long with water in the oil. And i thought my dreams are reaching alaska for over. However i kept moving north under sale. Running the engine very little and changing the oil every two hours. Unfortunately discovered that all the water has gotten in before the repairs or maybe even a mechanic or i had sought to change the oil of course and i slowly got the system. At that point. I reach the formidable queen charlotte song. Which is not only open to the ocean. But the land. The landmass funnels in the storm. From the gulf of alaska. And the controlling water pile the ways up there making that part of the journey something to conjure with. It was 1 p.m. and capri stuck her nose out into the sound intending to get the field of huge swells coming in and then returning to a little spot full of god's pocket and awaiting an early start the next morning. What a brisk breeze was blowing. And the school of corpus began playing about the boat there such fantastic animals gorgeous beautiful things dipping and swirling and diving under your boat and spouting and tripping and making all kinds of. Of noise. They're just wonderful wonderful creatures to have about you. About that time a great large bald eagle swooped over the boat and headed off in a northerly direction and was powerful symbols like that what else could i do. But to go on. So we had a lively sale that afternoon caprice and i rising on the swell to serve a sweet seemingly the whole world from up there. And then descending down down. Until we were completely enclosed by walls of water. About 9:30 that night we scampered into the end of the protection of safety code. You see it's god's pocket on the south side and safety cove on the north side and you can see the mariners respect for queen charlotte sounds. Next morning i was underway at dawn running before a southerly breeze. As the sun rose of the snow-capped mountains i turned on the stereo tape deck. I put on a tape of luciano pavarotti singing neapolitan songs and turn it up full. What's ancho at the helm i went out on deck and sang to the mountains with the great pavarotti. Surprise discover tears streaming down my face. I have not yet gone halfway. But i had survived high winds. Your disastrous engine trouble. In cross queens are charlotte sounds. I knew now. Nothing would stop me i was going to. It's amazing how tightly the wire of life can be stretched by expectations and personal demand. That was the emotional seats for the journey for me and from that moment on i began to relax and have a really good time. One of the things i enjoyed in the north country was the seclusion. Unlike our beautiful san juan islands which i dearly love. Where you can finally sometimes hardly find a place in the base and drop an anchor because they're so many boats. Unlike that in the north country i frequently pulled into a. Beautiful. Almost landlocked school. And drop the anchor where there were no other boats. And no other human being. To be completely alone. On your own resources among those enormous waterways. Towering peaks the just seemed to go on. Into infinity. They just laughed and laughed and the rangers just disappear from sight off in the distance. Is an awesome experience. Country and everything in it is so big. It is easy to become overwhelmed and to feel minuscule and insignificance. At other times i met a whole variety of wonderful people. The commercial fishermen and figure women and sometimes our whole family on those little fishing boats up there are a hardy lot in both canada. And alaska and by and large they're very. Play friendly and helpful and fun-loving people. I was surprised to discover. Among them are some of the worst savers you can imagine. I saw them running the docks and each other fall off their boat get lost in the fog one boat sank while tied up to a dock one night. Drag anchors. And fall asleep and run over their own men. Course on the other hand there are among them some of the greatest sailors in all the world. You wouldn't believe how many boats they can tie up to a dock at a fishing village when the fleet was in. Some little docking on they would sassy's boat side-by-side 5810 boats. Alongside occasions when i visited those villages i would usually end up being allowed the smallest both the last boat on the outside it's meant that i had to crawl over all the other boat. To get to char. Fascinating to see all that fishing gear. The only problem with it isn't they were such friendly people you had to stop and talk to each one if you want a lawn took an hour-and-a-half to get to the shore. During one part of the journey i found myself keeping company with a 34-foot powerboat. Which was a little strange i sailed along with some other sailboat powerboat. They were a delightful couple from denver colorado to a chartered there boat. We're going they sought to alaska they didn't know anything about it. Buy a lot of fun going over charts inside tables and current tables listen to all of it. An amazing amount of information to them. Well i would start out at 4 or 5 in the morning and sale all day till 7 or 8 at night. They would start at 10 in the morning wave as they went roaring by with both price for engines wide open. It would anger is. 4 in the afternoon and we would end up in the same bay the old story of the tortoise and the hare. That would on for two or three days until we find they really got acquainted and began to have an awfully good time together and then we spend one memorable night on the town in prince rupert. A couple of days later the dixon entrance would you remember last. Well managed to turn a 750 ft freighter upside down pretty nearly did them in. And they turn back and i never saw them after that we have correspondence since. I'm proud to say that my little boy sailboat was able to give assistance 23 powerboat. During the journey i wouldn't go up in that country in a powerboat myself. Including helping one with a with a dead injun and helping to hold it off the rocks and considerable wind until a more substantial assistance could arrive. The skipper of that boat. Turned out to be on the governor's administrative staff. His name was celery a chaplain. And he was in charge of the satellite the tv programming for the state of alaska resulting in a very delightful afternoon in the state office building when i got up to juno. But it takes both from home to put in a lonely heart. And i was really excited when my three daughters stepped off the plane in juneau to join me for the trip to glacier bay. What a change. From complete solitude the company of three lively young women. For one thing they know how to cook. My cooking usually consisted of opening three cans meat vegetable and potatoes dividing in half half those into the icebox to away tomorrow night's dinner. The other half goes into a pot in all those same place after all. To be heated up and eaten while reading a book. When i was slow it would take me maybe 10 minutes to get dinner. I know that will really inspire the gourmet cooks in this congregation. Droid. Gemini. Visited the great glaciers. We blasted them with their horns to make them cabin tumble into the water and create tidal wave. We just stood with iceberg and we scooped up chunks of ice crystal clear and many hundreds of years old to cool our icebox. I tell you friend you really haven't lived until you've lounged about the deck of a sailboat sipping on a martini pooled with glacial ice. A word of warning have to watch out for robert services ice worms and dinosaur bones. It was a quiet ship. When those three flew away. That's when i say hello night to skagway. I relive the fabulous gold rush days and roll the old train over white pass and through dead horse gulch where an estimated 3 thousand horses mules. Died trying to serve man's insatiable greed. Back at the airport in juneau it was. Both from home time again as i greeted lori jonna and gary ness. Walk we went on caprice down the channel and through a narrow channel passage into oliver inlet with gary. Hanging over the bow watching out for uncharted rocks. Lori did the honors in the galley that night and it was a feast fit for a cruise ship. John and i provided a meal for the mosquitoes in the noseeums. Ravenous. Well you know somebody pretty well after a night or two on a 29 ft sailboat. And we had a great time. Hey was just the beginning of a fabulous adventure for the nest family and you'll have to get their story from them about that. Back in the airport marisol arrive. There began a second honeymoon if you please. Celebrating 4th of july in juneau. Sailing the tracy arm to see the magnificent sawyer glacier. Sailing 12 petersburg and wrangle the misty fjords and finally to ketchikan. We celebrated its history and hours. With many excursions and much eat and drink. It was a sad moment when her plane flew off. At the end of two wonderful weeks and i started the homework journey again alone. But this time season travelers and short of each other. Caprice and i took the dixon entrance millbank and queen charlotte sound in stride. Arriving in a 90 in time to meet my daughter julian son-in-law mark for a delightful 4 days. Cruising in the georgia straight in the san juan islands since they departed. From anacortes. Well there are many tales. With no time to tell about the wonderful. Aaron water life in that part of the country wales and seals and eagles. I must take time to talk one little story. Marisol is still with me and we were just south of petersburg going into the somoza straight. A fantastically beautiful place. Where you ride in on a flood tide and halfway you catch up with the ebb tide going out the other end so you had to turn it all the way if you time it just right. Just going into the somoza straight so we saw this funny operation in the water up ahead and we got out the binoculars with two people so graciously gave me a constant. And look through the binoculars and saw that that wasn't an eagle. It was down in the water about 25 or 30 yards off the shore. Since then i've learned that happens every once in awhile. Dive-bombing a salmon make a mistake and hit by a waiver. Sam and the two big and they can't get off the water and they crash in the water. Eagles cannot take off from the water. So there was that great bird. Struggling along out in the water we watched it for sometime saying often as not to make it to friday to see what it would do. So powerful wings. He began using them. Like. And both of them going at the same time paddled his body over toward the shore. I thought when you finally reached the gravel over there he would drag himself out and sit there and shake and shudder. Put the great balls englewood have none of that. The second those powerful talents that hit a rock catapulted himself out of the water shot straight up into a towering. Spine. Can stop there flooding in feathers and looking around as if to say make no mistake i'm still tough. Thank heaven the eagle is coming back there is six crows country and they're just beautiful and fantastic. Well many many stories about eagles and whales and all the rest and deep-water anchorage's anchoring sometimes in water is deep is 200 c. And believe me the next morning when you pull all that line and chain and anchor in you get a sore back. But there are stories also about totem poles and navigating and folklore in fog and engine villages and beautiful children that haven't had to be told don't talk to strangers and so you can have marvelous conversations with children in that part of the country. And huge. Friendly thank heaven dogs looking for tener eyeball to eyeball. Goldmine ghost town. A mighty explosion here i am again. Cuz i was coming back in the safety code remember that's on the northern side of queen charlotte sound. I got in there one evening and drop the anchor. I was putting the sails away. And it just getting ready to settle down for a nice quiet night when all of a sudden there a motorboat came hurrying out from shore with a couple end of the young man and a young woman. Young man what's up with me and he said that sir. Would you mind raising your anchor and moving. Why you're not raising a tanker with a lot of work and i was about to argue but there was a certain urgency in his voice and i said why. And he said why you see that clip right over there he says we have. 100 cases of dynamite under it and it's about to go off. So i allowed as how i could lift the anchor and move back and they came back and came aboard and we got out of bottle of wine and that they're drinking wine. I was sitting there watching that cliff when all of a sudden the whole thing just. Move. Out into the air. And then you know later on you hear the explosion in the concussion. But all the sudden nothing just shut right straight out into the air. I seen a lot of explosions in my lifetime i've never seen one as big as that and most of it lit right where my boat has been anchored so i gave him a second glass of wine. I'll bet there's some uncharted rocks in that bay. Well stories about explosions and i and a fantastic theater oregon. And heights. Incline gold books new friends vision. For those interested they'll have to wait for another time. Alone again. I headed into the home stretch and received a royal welcome. During the last two days of the journey i sailed in a 40 not gail. Went through deception pass at maximum flood-tide. Capri salmon meadow nuclear submarine is it came out admiralty inlet. Impossible paso close by the hydros hydrofoil that it left my sails flapping. And finally at 12 noon tuesday august 19th as predetermined stepped out on the dock at schofield. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that lived up to yay surpass. My fondest dreams and expectations. Indeed for a brief moment in life journey i reached that unreachable star. I thank you for making it possible. I admonish you to reach for your own stars.

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The-Theology-of-the-Boston-Red-Sox.mp3?_=18

Church service like a baseball game taking certain amount coordination. First meeting is from. The long hard season and the pennant race by. Jim brosnan. A late-night very limited picture. Professional baseball in america is not a game. Nor can it be called an ordinary business or occupation. Baseball is a pastime i have it. With millions of people baseball family. Anyone phonetically attached the baseball considers himself privileged to enter. And enjoy the private world of baseball players. Identification of a fan with a ball player. Goes beyond the playing field. Traditional lake belong. Critics of. Major league baseball claim it is a doll game. Nothing ever happens they say. There's nothing new in baseball. You seen one game you seen them all. Major league ball players playing the therapist. Challenging profession for you learn something new everyday. Suburban professional ball player. But never sure what will happen. In any given play. I'm going to given day. When he wrong he desperately calls it. Percentage. Or the brakes. When he's right you might actually calls him. Experience. His wife is extremely rewarding when he wins. Extremely frustrating if he loses. On and off the field. Define everyday has. It's moment. Hippie swings weather. Pleasant and unpleasant. Nuances are. Carefully featured. I'm not easily forgotten. Parents are one-a-day games are played. Baseball wife stands out in a series of episodes or recollection. Schedule series as they fixing each other during the season. There are varying degrees of disappointment in the life of a ball player. Or even a pennant winner loses 35% of the time. Each game has its moments. Pennant winning season. Resent a memorable kaleidoscope. From the book the summer game by rodger angell. Baseball is intensely remembered. Because only baseball is so intensely watch. The game forces intensity epona. In the ballpark scattered across in a mint green. Each player is isolated in our attention. Early visible. What's the pillar just below us. Little seems to be expected of him. He waits. An easy composure. His hand on his knees. When the ball that lasts or bounces out to him. He season dispatches it with. Buc-ee's. Depaul looks easy. And above all. If we know better. What is certain in baseball. Someone perhaps. Several people. It will be. They will be crossing the open. And they will be defeated. And there will be no confusion about it. Or sharing of the blame. Because my baseball requires of an athlete. There's nothing less than perfection. Perfection cannot be eased or divided. Every movement of every game. From first pitch to last out. Is measured and recorded against an absolute standard. Sandusky h6s. There's also a failure. Tension is screwed tighter and tighter. Has a certain downfall is postponed again and again. So that when disaster does come. Top 10 field hip. Close 3 a.m. to call. Hello drive up the middle that jessica lose the diving shortstop. We're on. Inquire. It is like spontaneous. Inevitable. Irresistible. Reaction. Now. Last winter. I was invited to my first. Seattle sonics. Basketball game. Basketball for reasons that i need not. Divulge this morning. Is not a sport. I do my monthly higher achievements of the human race. Electric games it's all right. What was the game between both right and proper that i offer a little encouragement to the home team. Basketball is a natural arena for cheering teams on since it is enclosed. Rosin the bow mount spacers usually devoted. Football and baseball. Find overlapping black. Forgot for the moment that i was in seattle. We're chilling in any boisterous pickling meaningful express in manor. Desecration. If not outright sin against god. Good burger to pay $6. Weather ct. Referred to lock on an awesome silence. Where the height of righteous enthusiasm is usually limited to a mile. I fear that my encouragement was a little more strident. Soon i was getting denigrating glances from those about. Soon followed by inquiry party have to be so loud mac. And finally some rather pointed suggestions my pipe down before somebody rings my neck. Seattle sporting events mania is not allowed. And it event of which i speak so the sonics won a thrilling victory in the final seconds by one point. The colosseum resounded with all the stress that i usually find in a mortuary chapel. My patients this morning. One that is difficult to advance before a unitarian congregation. Is it everyone need a mania. Find my dictionary. Is an excited. Play up insanity. Characterized by disordered speech and thinking. Compulsive movements. And emotional. Ensure. A pounding that everyone needs something if not someone to be stark raving crazy about. Something that is above and beyond all rational debate. Something with steers like a branding iron into the very flesh of our lives. Something with ebooks are loyalty and totally encompassing way. There are endless minion. I quickly bought among my acquaintances of one dahlia maniac. Free backgammon maniac. Vintage wine maniacs. In one place named maniac. There is no accounting for mania. Except let me warn you is best kept outside the mainstream of one's major pursuits of life. Prices for rationalist the likes. Abides in great abundance in unitarian. Do we need to have. My response could be quite long but i simply suggested. We all need to know what it is like. Achingly. We need to be involved in a passionate. Out-of-control way. Well we are not calling the signals. We need to have a sense of what it is to be consumed. We need to know what it means to be attached. In ways which we cannot even. Peculiarly understand. Put another way. We need to experience the quality of roman. Someone said to me. Not long ago. I don't understand what you mean when you talk about being romantically in love. Try to explain. She looked puzzled. I tried again and then she shrugged helplessly. I guess i just never felt that way. Zaful. I change the subject. How can we communicate to another. That which is not real in that person's life. That which does not touch in some way. And communicate with the experience. The other is pat. I thought of a way. And as usual in my life only three days later. And that is the way. Autobiography. The animation which comes upon us. When we talk and feel that witches real consuming abiding gut-wrenching in our lives. Communicate. That was another may not. In the summer. 1937. I was given. My first radio. Radio in those days with no mere trinket a few dollars. It was a highly valued. An ancient box which fell into my hands. What is mammoth in size. As it was limited in power. It could during daylight hours. Bringing. Only radio station. The local mutual mutual outlet. 250w. Whai greenfield. A regular feature. Whai. When's the afternoon presentation by jim brickman. The boston red sox. Baseball games. What soon. I will not bore you with rhapsodies of the mighty red sox supporting years ago. Except to say that it was a fine hitting explosive team. Any moment but brake forklift numbers of run. They were never truly out and defeated in a game. Until the final output speed against them. What is my later discovered with all of life brander. There is always at least one achilles heel. The case of the red sox. There were two. The first was with the red sox. Could not produce a picture. The endless collection of long-forgotten misfit. Trip to the mound in fenway park. Where the story is conglomerate excuse for a pitching staff ever produced. On the rare occasions. A red sox. Picture. Suddenly blossom. He soon developed a sore arm. Became injured. Repetitive stuff to think again into mediocrity. Or suddenly became spooked by. Fenway famous green monster. I left field fence. Close sim. Rain today so it seemed the mighty fox would score a dozen run. While the pitching staff still managed to allow the opposing team. A dozen free those last three always being pushed the car. In lincoln park. For the fox have a glorious. Snatched defeat. But there was i say except achilles heel. The boston red sox. And that was why they could never open that late clown. And it's still smart. That was simply the existent. Have the new york yankees. It makes not one whit of difference how good any year the boston team was. How many games. It 1. How many attainments starchy. What gems are perfection it turned in. The yankees are always better. And the yankees. Is another lifelong red sox fan has written. I remember the red sox. Losing to the yankees. Losing game. Finishing behind the yankees. Hippie came despite all hope. Michael royalty a dark article of faith during my childhood. Sunrises. Seasons pop. Waterboy. Wine. And the red sox. Little lulu. What we are suggesting is the meaning of love. Playing a minion of akron. The yankees. They were beautiful and they were good. Their uniforms always seem to. Fraction. They ran onto the field as if they owned. They never panicked in the clutch. They knew they were the best. And he might be laid low that they're self-assured just for once be rubbed into the diamonds. But just once one of their fielders mike drop the ball just once. Shortstop and just one time. Fox radio. Summer of 1937. I learned the simplicity of love and hate. Somehow i was enlisted with a peculiar people. The 2nd. The boston red sox. Somehow i learned what it meant to justify. Do not just want victory but total obliteration of someone else. Leaving today. Evening newscast reports a yankee loss. Hearthstone. I know the importance of having an enemy. I know about original sin. Employment. Join. Another. The corruption of our ways. I learned in the wormwood and gall of yankee final. Somehow it's saved me from total delete. Tendencies. Rampant in my. Unitarian home. Namely. The card work. Righteous attitude. Moral behavior. An intellectual discipline always triumph. I knew better. Whatever i learn from school teachers and whatever i learned in sunday school and whatever was told me of the puritan ethic. Those hated yankees were always on top the american league. Giving the living line. The new england volumes of my childhood. I learned early that there is a perversity to human existence. That we are cried in the flames of judgment. And there is no justice granted by the divine in this universe. Patriot also came growing maui. Brains band with whom i'd find a board. An addicted baseball writer from homie read earlier rodger. Angel. He leads all other sports are second-class enterprises. Instill describe withal. Particularity of the boston red sox fan. He writes. I know in new york city right now in her 70. Whose hearts only bleed. Over the misadventures of the boston red sox. 18 representing the hometown she left. In 1915. The first world series ever played way back in 1903 years by bud. The boston team faced pittsburgh. The red sox then also being known as the pilgrim. Player later described the events. That was probably the wildest world series ever played. The fans were part of the game in those days i pour right on target with the players and the umpire. I think those boston fans actually won that series for the red sox. Plant went on to describe how they red sox artisans who call themselves the royal rooters. Endlessly a hit song called tessie with express extemporaneous insulting version. Each of the pittsburgh players intern. Until the pittsburgh players included. Got on your nerves after a while. And before we know what happened we lost the whole world.. It is a very strange. Perversity. Because boston is probably the most. Cross country. All american cities. The by between beacon hill and south boston divided between all line yankee. New irish new polish new italian if you. But the one thing that is intensive unity in boston. Is it they are all red sox fan. There is no adequate description of a lifelong red sox fan except. Mania. It is an induction into an order which there is no escape. Lighter tulsa. Lifelong red sox fan is not a reasonable man. In him is the perpetual number. Have a dozen seasons when the best of hope. 1 / nothing. So why is he not to believe. But the worst of prospect. May suddenly reward his fealty. The writer goes on. I have studied but i heart boston fan for many summer. I have seen the tiny mineral hard gleam of hope in his eye. As he pumped gas. Under the flight of elms of a new hampshire village. Or some kind of moccasins to a taurus. Knowing dimness of the downeast store. Listening to while the unceasing ribbon. Bad news from my radio from fenway park. Inside his head i'm sure. There is a perpetual accompanying broadcast. Painful and maddening importance. I like x amalgam. Headlines. Between inning commercials. And fenway park. Bleacher coronavirus. The same writer tells of the eyrie. Springfield. Following the seventh and final game of the 1967 world series. When. The red sox. Finally lost the miracle year. Who are the st louis cardinals in fenway park. After the game the sportswriter had both clubhouses. So it was sometime perhaps an hour after the game. And he was about to leave the stadium. When some mystic call summoned him back into the sand. Remember that the game was long since over. As the writer describe this scene. I discovered several thousand fans. Still sitting in the smoking ban around me. They stopped there quietly. Staring out. Darkness. Empty field. Big wall. The bear flag pole. They were morning. Wanting the red sox. The end. Have a great. Season. The word fan in the wreckage sox lexicon. Screen brightness with no. Most of all. Yesterday is the red sox the demolished. The paper to read the first game of the series. The long wires began to burn. That's half a dozen of my colleagues possess. More madness. Check them. As one wrote his letter last week. Boston fan. Spring knows the meaning of eternal in nebraska. And each. September nose. Pineville. This year it is a tiff. October. That's an amazing friend crowded at me over 2,000 miles of omar. This year we're going to do it. This year we're not going to bowl. Somehow. Every red sox fan. Somehow it will not happen. The feet is ever be snatched away. The longing. Nipple reality of past hurts and so strong. Intertwine constantly in the heart. Leaving one at each game is played. Nervously destruct. And sheldon back to be unresponsive. On the television. It seems to you. I have been talking about baseball or something. I fear that i have not been clear at all. I thought that i might include in today's the store. Iranian defensive baseball as the most unitarian of all sports. Because of its unique combination of individualism and team play. The essence of single-person and community. As represented in the back of the unitarian religion. Let us while i did not wish to suffer this sermon with a sportsman pelican. I have not been talking about baseball. What about the perversity switch pervade. And being a person. In a world such as ours. Do in case clear. Orientation. Heaven forbid you have not been listening. I want to show you all over again but i just said. For those who hate sports. And couldn't get my rock. About the outcome. The world series. Used to be fed. Reminder england town. Set the proper yankee didn't own a hat. Had a app. That was not a matter of adornment to be. Set on or off at fashion dictate. Was i commitment. Something to be worn. Until the fabric could endure no longer. To have. To belong. To be along means to wear certain colors. Carol brady of a car. Whether it be identified by the pins that we whereupon are lapels. Or the conviction but you got. And to be long. To lay claim to a commitment. It's also to become beholden to a huracan. Ongoing continuing prediction. It's something that has a history that transpired long before we ever. What i'm saying about carlton. Also can obviously be required to purchase. Home we genuinely accept. Into rving. If i truly relate to you. And if i really feel a commitment to you. Then i really accept the glory. In the corrupted. Which makes up the uniqueness of you. I accept the experiences which impacted you. Long before i ever knew you. And i realized emotionally as well as in my head. That your personal history. Did not begin. The moment that you first. Map me. Belonging to such a sticky matter. That many of us jordan today. Where we know how true believers can make. Belonging. A heavy burden upon human being. So that so often are belonging to one group not only means that we have a loyalty. But it means that we lose our universality of spirit. 2. Many of us know. Belonging to another person. Candy. Painful. Leaving time undercut. If we also sent that. Part of our glorious human individual. Is our capacity to be long. I'll capacity to accept our wounds. And still crust with perseverance in the causes in which we believe. Ability to turn away from our personal clothes. Dare to relate relate significant play. With individual other. Ibalong. Is a. He speaks of slavery today. I would be cry that attitude. And i would have firm. That you say. I belong. Is the highest human outcry of relatedness. Cars. Or to another person. To be long. Is to be significant. I belong. Eyewear. Colors. How's the boston red sox. Imo's ike heraldry and plan. Or robinson. But appreciate it for it is a commitment. Of my life. Sippy morning be our first lesson. Then. Business. There is a fancy highfalutin ancient greek word. Hubert. Which puts them play. Is our human tendency. To become too big for our britches. Hubris is a twitch. Doesn't allow us to see our familiar fatality to follow-up utility. Put another way. Hubris is our ability to follow it all up. Hello themes. Serene. Stable. Sunday and pillows down. I supposed to know this, our lives. Or we don't. But i believe it to be a true trait in human existence. I think our most heroic effort. Painted by cordes. Almost loving gestures are corrupted by selfishness. Our greatest victory log by memories of defeat. Wood. Not. Otherwise. Seems to me the only such person is know something about they whip. I heard a man boat recently on a party. The no one had ever bested him in a business deal. What's not so much his bragging. Or perhaps he star accomplishments. Which impressed me. Is my transferred hehe. Probably miss. A rather important. To be beaten. We laid low. Every single of energy. Every emotion must go into staying alive. Uno occasion twin near survivor. Is a mighty accomplishment. I think such persons have a sense of the totality of existence. What you do roofing only luxuriate in their glorious victories or. Quality of their defeat. Overlook. And i can share with you. What really hurts me. And i have broken the bonds of superficiality with you. I have begun to share my inner being. Photos of boston red sox. What are yours. Is tomorrow the ever-present tennessee. Baltimore, md. Biryani. Capricious. Finally a word. About victory. Win anything. The little sportswear on quotes of doctrines which suggests the. Think of partying. If we really throw ourselves into any fray. There's important. How good it is. A real triumph. Should make us rejoice. We should allow ourselves the appreciation of our victories without quote. Victory greens. We know that if we are at the top of the heat. Every gun may be drawn against them. We know the queasiness within which makes us wonder. If we are deserving. What we have a pain. We know even how quickly our moment flooring prime. Enter nanu. So even if the boston red sox win the series for the first time in 57 years. There's always another season. Always another testing. There's no victory that is ever final. Or completely. Nearly forty years ago i rally to the boston call. And i was a child. Then i belong. Small new england town. Now i belong to allah. Northwest. Then causes were simple. Now they are complaining. Then i thought. Great game. What's playing in austin. Glowing and rattling. So much. Spring. Little red sox blooms eternal. And there are occasional. Glorious. Moment of october. When there is a payment. But once again. Years with chain known. The familiar. Why didn't you. We are developing. Holding. Experiencing. Growing individual. There are glimpses. Landers flooring. We have causes. Allegiance. And don't change is the order of our lives. There are toads. There are the minions. There are the romances. And these are apart of the totality. The wonder of arden. And in the pool. The golden queen that which is ever-rolling and impermanence. And that would stand rooted whispering. We live. Emu. We have our being. We have one. We have light. More. All of our lives. May we ever turn more to act into word. Require. Our religion.

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Music-and-Religion.mp3?_=10

www_uuchurch_org

05-Reflection.mp3

Good morning everybody and thank you all very much and thank you beth for inviting me to be here and speak with you and hearing me tell some of my story. What would you do. If you knew. All life to come. Depends on your action today. Because it does. One year ago. I stood here. With the plant for the planet kids. Thanking you for sharing a generous sunday plate collection. Those are the kids who are suing the government. The state of washington in the federal government for a climate plan to preserve their lives. They told you their three-point plan to reverse global warming. Their three-point plan is pretty simple. Plant 1 trillion trees. That's how many they need to get about 10 years of pollution back into the ground. Leave the fossil fuels in the ground. Will be the law someday. They can't wait that long ago. And combat poverty with climate justice. And that really speaks to me and you the the wealthy the educated the people who have profited and comforted ourselves. On the fossil fuels that we burn. If we just do those three things. We preserved about the web of life. We leave them at home. If we do less than that. We burn it all down. So that's what we were here doing with the kids on sunday morning in october a year ago two days later. Tuesday morning. I was arrested. Foreclosing the emergency shutoff valve. On the keystone 1 pipeline. In north dakota. That's the pipeline you've been reading about. I guess they opened it up again. It is an emergency and i took an emergency action because those kids inspire me. And i believe what we're doing is a crime. At the same time that i did that. Four friends. Stop the flow of oil coming in from canada from the tar sands pipelines. In four states. Washington montana north dakota in minnesota. The five of us. With. Bolt cutters. Stopped 15% of the nation's oil supply for a day. Jay o'hara. Who spoke here in this room. The night before. Was making phone calls from seattle to the pipeline companies. To tell them 10 minutes ahead of time that they needed to shut down the flow of oil and stop the pump stations. Sam a friend from vermont. Livestream to me. On-site so that the. World and the pipeline companies would know this was not a prank. I turn the valve. I felt with my two hands. 590000 barrels of tar sands oil. Come to a stop. I locked it shut. And placed flowers. On the chain. What can one person do to save the world. A heck of a lot more than i ever imagined. It's it's not enough. Not yet. But i didn't act alone i was only able to do what i did because of communities like this one. And when we act together. In civil disobedience. We become a force. To change the laws. In an emergency the law to follow the only law. Is to preserve life. The crime committed that day. In north dakota. Was when the pipeline company. Open the valve. And the flow of oil in the keystone 1 pipeline resumed. Crime against humanity and nature. For a pipeline that should never have been built. For one moment in my life. As somebody who has flown and airplanes somebody who has owned 12 gasoline cars. Somebody who has heated my home and fed my kids. With food from around the world. For one moment in history. I stood on the right side of the law. Now you and i decide. Weather what i did. Makes any difference. Because your night decide how long. Human history. Will go on. Nigerian north dakota did try me last month in october and found me guilty. Of two felonies in a misdemeanor mischief conspiracy and trespass. I was found not guilty. Of reckless endangerment apparently i did not show disregard for human life. I will be facing a maximum of 21 years possible risk. My sentencing is january 18th. You can follow the story online. I'm on a short timeline now. Kind of like our planet. Kind of like our home. And now i kind of know what it feels like. To be hanging by a thread. So speaking with you really matters. I'm counting on you. Your response determines. What happens. After my sentencing. If you know any of the folks on the climate action team i've seen a couple of them here this morning. And maybe they'll raise their hands i don't know. But you can usually find him out here in the social hall. They're really the reason why i'm here in this community in the first place. Because of the amazing work that they've been doing in seattle. You can also find friends of mine at 350 seattle another group that i helped start. They are doing the best. Work on climate. Anywhere on the. Planet. Makai activists. Came from seattle. Shutting down the banks is ongoing right now. We have passed resolutions in city hall. To divest our city. And many institutions. From. Fossil fuel companies that are tearing apart. My children's home. I can't think of a more joyful or purposeful. Way to spend time and and meet new friends. Then. In the common struggle that's taking place in church basements. In folding chairs all over this continent. Planning with friends for weeks and then months friends who became family is how we shut off the pipelines. Three of the five valve turner's. Happened to be. You use. 1/4. Is you you who is facing trial for making a call to the pipeline company from minnesota. In the same room in this pulpit i heard kathleen dean moore. Speak. And teach me that when your house is on fire. You don't argue about whether it's natural or human-caused. When your house is on fire you throw everything you've got into putting out that fire. And you wake the neighbors. Because their lives. Paralives in there that depend on you and me putting out that fire. They're half as many creatures on her she said. As on the first earth day. That's my lifetime. She said that everything i do two privilege my children. He's making their futures unlikely. How am i to deal with that as a parent. There is no sitting on the sidelines anymore. We are either poisoning or protecting. Everything we love. She called this the hinge decade. When eleven or twelve thousand years of human civilization has evolved to this incredible moment where our technology and our science. Will help us decide. What happens. For the next ten or eleven thousand years. And whether life and civilization will be. Anything like what we know. In this room i heard tim to christopher describe his time in prison. For civil disobedience that stopped. An illegal land auction of oil and gas leases in utah. He brought up martin luther king's letter from birmingham jail. When a person challenges an unjust law. And is willing to face the punishment. It arouses the constant conscience of the community. And shows ultimate respect for the law. I want to thank also a member of this community richard gammon a scientist from u-dub who worked on the first united nations climate science report many years ago. His testimony in the civil disobedience trial of the delta 5 in everett washington. For blocking an oil train for 8 hours. Moved the jury. Shocked. And informed them. The dire emergency they face. I also want to thank reverend uu reverend fred small in boston who taught me. But the economy of the u.s. is as entangled in the fossil fuels today. As it was in slavery. In the 1850s. Slavery was wrong. Before it was illegal. Frank. We can all agree on that. Someday what we're doing. Will be illegal. But not soon enough for a kids. Burning fossil fuels today is deadly. Jenna seidel. Child abuse. We are addicts hopelessly unable to stop ourselves. From poisoning. Destroying everything we love. This intergenerational trauma is something i can't live with anymore. I can't participate in it. I've stopped for flying. I don't eat meat. I sold my car i sold my electric car. Stop buying stuff. I'm not going to profit. From destroying. Everything i am. Every memory i have. Every relationship. It's all here. This is home. And we are it. So what do i need from you. Live the three-point plan. Live 23-point plan. Point your fair share of trees it's about 150 per person on earth makes a trillion. Keep the fossil fuels in the ground. Anyway in every way you can think of. Everyday. Personally socially professionally. And combat poverty. With climate justice because people are dying a million people are dying each year from climate-related problems. We hear about refugees we've seen what's happening in syria. These are all climate. Derived disasters. So we are. Either this wave owners. Or the new abolitionists. Does life go forward. Or is it too late. You and i decide. Right now. Pogo in 1970 the sunday comic strip character said we have met the enemy and he is us. Well we've been polluting the planet for a long time. Carl sagan. Years ago said. You are alive at the most important moment in the history of life. Anything else you're interested in is not going to happen if you can't breathe the air and drink the water so whatever you. Want to do. Don't sit this one out. Do something. Carl is no longer with us. To do something. It's you and me. And i say. We are nature. Defending itself. Against us. Alliance for hanging by a thread. And we depend on each other. Thank you very much for inviting me here.

uusociety_org

2012-05-13-2%20Sermon.mp3

So imagine this help wanted ad. Position available parent. Qualifications none. Position is open to anyone regardless of age experience intention motivation willingness preparation or desire. The job will consist of making one or more children the center of your life for the remainder of your life. You'll be expected to provide financial support housing clothing sustenance education moral values entertainment limits ideas and boundless love. You will encourage your children to learn to walk. So that they can walk and then run and then drive away from you. You will teach them to talk so that very soon they can tell you know in a thousand different ways. In spite of the fact that you have agreed to take them into the very core of your heart and mind. The main expectation of this position is that you let them go. Sometimes gradually sometimes not so gradually. Pay. Benefits. Smiles hugs tears gratitude. The opportunity to know fully and unabashedly what you did to your own parents. The opportunity to do things differently from your own paris. The opportunity to make the same mistakes year on parents made and other bigger and better mistakes. The profoundly moving experience of seeing your child laugh cry. Fail succeed grove change surprise you. Aggravate you love you. And leave you. Who would apply for this job. And who wouldn't quit in frustration soon afterwards once they took it. And yet all of us are products of people who applied for the job stuck with it in some way and performed it some better than others admittedly. And then give us then went ahead and took the same job ourselves. Psychologists who study family systems tell us the characteristic ways of relating communicating growing and learning are passed down from generation to generation. Sometimes a can be. Quite positive and useful. Children who grow up in families with clear identities. Know who they are but by virtue of where they came from. We are people who will stand up for human rights. Facedown bullies speak out with courage. We are people who will always take care of each other. There are other aspects of this handing down from generation to generation can be problematic. The middle child is always the problem child. The girls in our family never amount to anything. Even when the messages unspoken. Family to do genograms and look back several generations are often surprised to learn that great aunt sue the middle daughter two generations back also got pregnant her senior year in high school. Traditions you see continue whether you talk about them or not. Now that reality can be daunting. If our behavior is determined by our sometimes secret and unknown past where is freewill where is the hope of change your betterment. Of course family systems theory is not about determinism. It is about. Awareness and intention. It is about giving people insights into their choices and behaviors making them conscious putting the hidden agendas on the table so that better choices that can be made and patterns can be changed. In order to become parents we first have to come to terms with the way we were raised. In many ways being a parent is a humbling experience. How many of us have been stunned in mid tirade to hear ourselves sounding just like our mothers or fathers. How many of us have had to silently eat the words we used to say defiantly when i grow up i will never be like that. How many of us have uttered a silent apology to our own parents for are sneering criticizing defying. An apology wrenched from our hearts when faced with the same behavior directed toward us by our beloved children. So we begin with acknowledgement. Unforgiveness. We let go of our past. And our parents in order to let go of. Our future. And our children. The essence of parenthood. Of loving fiercely and letting go of what we love so fiercely. Is that deeply spiritual. How can we bear to live with the reality that we must let go of our children let them go out into this world that seems so complex and dangerous compared to the world we grew up in. That is a spiritual act and we do it by faith. First of all we have to have faith in the process. This is something that many of us discovered during childbirth itself. I can assure you that no matter how many books you read. Nothing can actually prepare you. For the reality of being in labor. At some point every laboring woman realizes that something is happening to her and through her and with her but not. Holy by her. The only way to deal with childbirth is to let the baby be born. I remember a very clear moment when i felt myself surrender to that process. I no longer cared which background music was playing. I was no longer interested in breathing intricate patterns belongs berry. I was completely overcome by the process is powerful and amazing as anything i had ever seen. And remember by that time i had seen many many babies born. I had no choice but to trust that if i let go a baby would emerge rather than the watermelon that i was envisioning at that point. Brady's not a good visual for labor by the way. And you know what he did. And so it is with the rest of the parenthood experience for which labor and birth are simply a dramatic 4-3 prelude. For generation after generation parents have raised children. Different philosophies and gurus have come and gone. Some ideas have been better than others. But for the most part. In every generation children grow up. They learn what they need to learn. They go through the stages they need to go through and they become adults. We can learn from those who raised us and we can learn from each other. And we all at some point we'll have to follow. The parenting expert either was shane's advice that when all else fails there is only one four letter word that he's the propria to parenthood and that word is wait. Just wait that stage will pass. That is what it means to have faith in the process. Secondly we have to have faith in our children. No matter how inexplicable their behavior may be or how irritating they are doing their best to make their way through childhood and adolescence. They need protection they need guidance but they also need our trust. In the ritual of dedication this morning we expressed our faith that each child will unfold and blossom just as they must. In all of their unique and natural beauty. Letting go is an act of faith. Faith in the ability of children to find themselves. Third we need faith in ourselves. If we were to read and take seriously every bit of advice given to us by experts and well-meaning ignoramus is about parenting. We would give up there would be no way to do it right. Just a simple question of when to start solid food. If we sorted through all the various recommendations our children would already have learned to cook by the time we decided what's going to give him food. How much more so than. To deal with the question of what to do about a child who is veering. Off the rails. Do you remember the song to the officer krupke from west side story. Yeah the members of the gang impersonate afraid of experts. Commenting on the problem of juvenile delinquency. The trouble is he's lazy the trouble is he drinks the trouble is he's crazy the trouble is he stinks. The trouble is he's growing the trouble is he's grown krupke we've got troubles of our own. Now that's brilliant social satire. The truth is we've all got troubles of our own. But we've also got minds and hearts of our own. The plea of the gang members in that song is let us be who we. Must be. That is where we place our faith. As we wear our children. Finally for those of us who are blessed to be part of. A place like this. We can let go by having faith in our community of faith. It is here that each one of us can find the support and nurture we need to live through the various stages of parenting. Whether it is the companionship of a fellow mom and a daytime playgroup. Her conversation in coffee hour with the dad of another teen. Or the support of others who have learned to live in an empty nest. Here among us there is wisdom experience. And all the support that we need to make it through the hard times. In his book called fatherhood bill cosby says that becoming a parent is. The most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit. Was he thinking about the spiritual conundrum that lies at the very heart. Parenting. The beautiful and irrational requirements at the greatest gift you give to their children to your children is to surrender them to their own lives. Their own faith. Their own mistakes. On this mother's day let us together offer up to the universe the sense of gratitude. For all those women and men who year after year generation after generation has made that beautifully irrational choice. Further we send grateful thoughts to all those who support those parents. Nurture them. Encourage them. Laugh and cry with them. Especially at the most poignant moments of parenthood. The moments of letting go.

uusociety_org

2011-10-09-2Sermon.mp3

I like to say. They first learned of unitarian universalism. When i was naked on stage in front of 1453 people at the flynn theater. I was with neil cleary our former minister rathi. And bill's son. Listening to our former minister gary kowalski discussed. Religious religion with an ex-con named rule. Who is part of milton jones dance company. We were performing last time summer to uncle tom's cabin the promised land. Choreograph the struggle. For freedom and equality of people for color. The nudity while dancing at the end of the piece portrayed in a simple and direct way the connection and the similarities between all people. As a country we just attacked iraq for the first time and the country was in turmoil. About it. Gary and ruhle provided a thoughtful thoughtful heart heartfelt interplay to counter the prevailing war spirit. That experience planted the seed of you you in me. Opening words today came for my maternal great-grandfather walter oteri. Minister in central massachusetts. Perfume congregations. That's my religious truths. I come from 13th century 13th generation new england farmers. 313 year old girl in the mayflower on my mother's side. I'm from my dad's side they were scottish immigrants. Coming to work in the mills in western massachusetts. In the early 1900. We as a family belong to the first church in ludlow mass outside of springfield where i spend every sunday morning of my childhood. And church dinners. Wedding. Holidays. Special gatherings christenings youth group and more. Was the protestant congregationalist church much like our own here. Was. In the early eighteen-hundreds before it split. The congregation was formed their own church. Downtown winooski ave. My church should become the united church of christ. I'm in march with that in 1970s. In my youth i thought. Alter just wear like that. Classics people. New england. Structure welcoming of anyone. Doing outreach. That as it could and helping anyone in need. Stretching our hearts and minds to be the best that we could be. And letting others believe what they needed to believe. To live. The big difference from here to there. Was it that was a classically christ and god oriented church. Put in the words of my grandmother. We believed in tolerating others and their beliefs as long as it harms no one. So obviously on the liberal end of the religious spectrum. Here there's a change from what i prepared i had to. As normal for any event there's some glitch. I was originally going to be showing and projecting images as i spoke. And my projector failed in the backup. Light didn't work either. So he's going to show you a picture of my grandmother standing in front of stonehenge. Oh that's portraying foreshadowing of my religious. Return to the earth earth based religion. And i really love my leg really love my grandmother and i really love that picture of her. I was an all-american boy right. Focus. Play sports. I was church-going an agrarian protestant church in a 200-year old town. It was industrialized in the late 1800s. And it gradually turned into a suburban catholic town. Buy mid-twentieth-century. And then the industry moved out and now it's. Suburbia. People working elsewhere. My life at the time was almost idyllic. As i was the eldest son of four. Son of two teachers next door to my grandparents chicken and egg farm. I never quite found out which came first. Tragedy struck my idyllic life suddenly when i was trying out for a play at school one night in november 1971. I saw my dad's car parked out in the lot and i knew he was probably working out. I sort of looked for him. But as i got to the head of the stairs at the gym and i saw the lights on in the gym. Something's help funny and i didn't want to go down. So we went back. Phone calls are still a dime then and nobody had cell phone. I called my mom and said i look for dad and i couldn't find it. So i'm just going to walk home in the drizzle it's not raining too bad. Well halfway home. Police car stops and my mom called me over and said. We needed to go to the hospital. As you may have guessed by now. My father went to the hospital so my mom could identify my dad who died of an embolism while he's doing sit ups. After his run. I was devastated. We all were. And not just my fam. But the school football team my dad coach. Friends of my parents. Teachers at the high school junior high elementary school. My siblings and their friend. And my friend. My church. Students my father had taught over the last. 15 years. His students for whom he was doing guidance counselor at the time. People from the surrounding towns. Canoe my dad from his community work. There were over 2,000 people at the wake. Visiting as my mom and i sat there and they all stream through. For the next two and a half days. This was a man i had loved. And he was a son. But not quite yet as an equal in mind. One of the biggest revelations for me about the wake. Was i felt all these people were coming through and hugging and crying on my shoulder. They knew my dad better than i did. They knew him as a teacher. The new mexico. A guidance counselor. A man in a give-and-take way. Where is antigua. They knew him in a way that i. I never had the chance to know him. And i never would. My world stopped. The drama of truth inside me is soylent. As my dad's heart. This event was the biggest blow to my life. A my belief system when i was 13. It's probably the biggest blow to me ever. And i wondered. How could an all-powerful all-loving god. Take my father at the age of 39. With what i've been told all my life and sunday school to believe with really correct. Over the next two years i struggled with my loss. I was giving much advice well-meaning folks. Chipper now you're the man of the house. Take care of your brothers and sisters you're the oldest. What's your job. It's up to you to take care of your mother. Irresponsible now. I took it to heart although i wasn't able to manifest it. Invest practice very well. B13. Being a quiet intense intellectual young man from puritan new england. Emotions are something you keep inside and you overcome them. Mean to buy teeth and hard work. To get you through adversity. It's the same method that used to get through the good times too. I learned at my dad's funeral. That i've been schooled so well as a man. But i could not cry. I spent the next decade opening my heart. So that i could do so again. Overcome that. I came to reject most everything i did and was taught. I quit playing the clarinet because i couldn't feel the music anymore and i didn't believe in the band. I quit playing football in park. Because i was. Of any legal block was tackling trend tackle runaway breakaway runner. But really i quit at 15. Because despite being grooms or seven years to try and break my. To try and break my dad's football records. I didn't believe. In the gladiator war training that i was receiving. I quit my church much to my moms and ministers regret. I read kierkegaard. Hello. Sock. I questioned more than other fifteen-year-olds my friends. Was there a god. What's the meaning to my life. Without the fundamental starve my father and my firmament. Was there meaning in my life. How about god i decided. No. No god for me and certainly not religion. The source of so much strife in history. About life i8. And yet. My fundamental optimism surged up somehow. I kept pushing to be the best in school to experience everything. In part to feel good again. The feel again. I talked for hours with a couple of close friends for months and months. And eventually. I decided that well. Maybe life held no meaning. But so what. I was going to keep living anyway. At least that's what i thought then. Maybe. Maybe despite the fact sucked might take me a coward for not making that ultimate decision to end it all. But i was going to leave anyhow. So. In what besides hard work did i believe. Well i did end up keeping many of the values and which had been strained back in ludlow. Like. The golden rule do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Like. Everybody matters. Every man woman and child. The rich the poor the young and old. Like. Volunteering my time to help me beyond myself. Weather be for the longest association or painting here or making those little tree cookies i did a couple of years ago. We're painting at the committee for temporary shelter. Coaching. Soccer baseball. Or teaching kids. Or spending my time on the board of trustees. It's all the way for me to connect. And to give back what i've been giving him life. Like. Living the right thing. Beyond do the right thing. Beyond that spike lee with havasu. In that movie. He presents a dilemma between two thoughts of great livre leaders. The first. From dr. martin luther king jr.. Is it violence is never justified under any. The 2nd. From malcolm x. Argues. Violence is not violence but intelligent. When in. Do i believe in dr. kenyon is guiding premise. I have to admit sometimes despite my commitment to nonviolence. Malcolm x matches my feelings. Maybe my whiteness and privilege prevent me from. Fully embracing malcolm x. So what else feeds me energy now that i've chosen life. I'm a physical guy as you may have seen in my work in my life. I need to keep while i need to keep my mind active i also need something tangible. I'm not one for sitting meditation. My moments of transcendence come from physical work or exercise and especially if it's repetitive. I can get in if i can get in the groove of motion. Get to work going smoothly i can feel elevated. Sometimes it happens while i'm. Cycling. Memorably it happened while i was. Touring in england i'd had a long day of rolling hills in the lake district on my way to scotland. And i just kept powering up and down hills. Pumping and breath blowing legs are pumping. Rollin rollin rollin hundred miles just seem to. Go like nothing. Happened in a flash. But while i was rolling. That's all that there was. Me. My bike philippe. I'm an animus to see all things. The sun. The winds the rain all of it flowing together. Steady pom pom pom from from from. Once. When is even harvesting cabbage. Of all things were farmer in amherst mass. I had a vision of being in a much larger fields. Suddenly surrounded by jamaican workers and rhythmic. Drumming and music in the background in my head as well as i went on. As i labored on that clear sunny october day just like today. No weed for me. Just to clean clear work. A pushover that cabbagehead whack with my 18-inch machete. Roll it to the center and take a step to the next one. Push. Roll. Push. Roll. On and on. For me. 2 hours of ecstasy. Simple. Then there's dance. I don't do it enough anymore. But i use the full buying. Full body mind misspelled to workout worries and glimpse open open connections of energy. I began with rock in my teens at school dances worley and jumping to that be trying to work out the angst i spoke of earlier. Transcendence really began for me became fuller when i discovered afro-caribbean dance in college. And increase my love of polyrhythms that i found from app from santana and willing to angie. Mine clearing dance to the roots dance to the beat. Dance village. Dancing to world music. At the champlain valley folk festival. Down in vergennes one-year patti smith of addison county. Encourage me to take her classes. And that she was looking for for another man to join her performances. Perform i did for several. From there i was invited and heard about the friday night dance classes at the chase mill afro-caribbean dance. That's where i first encountered the sensei of the burlington taiko group. And that's when i really. Love the fullness of the sweat the beat the groove. Men felt the connections of all things you can in that just hour-and-a-half class. At first night in 88 i got to got to a performance city hall. With a group of hollering gyrating beat seekers. And i first encountered we shared the stage with burlington tycho in their first show. That was it. Beyond the dance. The body feeling beat. The power. Primal infocus. I vowed to join when i moved closer to burlington. Join i did include a lover love the struggle that is burlington tycho. Workouts for hard then an hour. Of intense strength books boosting exercises. In calisthenics and then an hour and a half of rehearsal after that. But the playing the playing was a moment of release. The animism in eastern spirit. An energy focus of burlington taiko spoke to me. Speak inside me. Speak through me. I've had a lot of high moments with that group. The my style challenges the perfection are arcense requires. In my living in the moment in the beat. I sometimes miss the next beat. The number i started on the hour. Hideo sundin guy she. Is a call to the mystical dragon. The circle. Above. The village. In our case. 3 *. For good luck. Sadly for me tycho is an on-again-off-again thing. As my body can't maintain the rigors that could when i started 20 years ago. Remember that football hit. It ruined my knees. And i'm still working on. For the day we'll make. The intensity of the playing and the groove orientation takes me beyond my physical limit sometime. Play even lose it to my body's. So. Why you might ask why here why now why am i here. Well i realize that all religion isn't bad. And that. A place. It allows me encourages questioning. Is where i want to be. I've softened. From my absolutism of 15 and i see my animism my paganism in my universalist tendencies. I came to this place in 1999. Driven to have someone else help teach me. About all religions. I was drawn by the closeness of family worship that was downstairs. Especially the charismatic lisa ruben our former director. I was also drawn by the intellectual fire of gary kowalski sermons. And the heart from rowdy. Clerys. When i was able to attend service. My work then was very needy greedy and i sorely needed that mind stimulation. I really love cozy and down with my boys and we listen to lisa tell stories. Or we do yoga. Carowinds. Many of you may remember. I really filled my heart. I love teaching kids. I really like seeing that lightbulb go off over their heads. Exploring religious concepts here in adopting or discarding them. By choice and not by wrote. One of my favorite events here. That i helped start was the earth day special re. Celebration in april. Which i still call one of the way cool sunday schools. It was to be able for me to be able to present science and religious ed institution helps to buy back some of the black times of the appalling treatment of galileo and others. The champion darwin in science here. Over wishful prideful beliefs others may have. Warms my heart. I stay now because of all the connections that i've made. Not only an re but in small groups. Second saturday supper. Christmas pancake breakfast. And now it's specially the auction. Wow talk about a place to get to know people. And now i'm on the board of trustees. Enclosing. I'd like to remind you and myself. And urge you to act from the heart and mind. To live to the fullest with passion. Carpe diem. That's really my mantra seize the day. Be well and thank you.

uusociety_org

2010-11-28%20Sermon.mp3

Let me begin by saying how wonderful it is to be acting your company. And thank you elaine for that. Warm welcome. I want to thank the worship committee for asking me back again even though i'm no longer wusc. If you haven't heard the good news the board of directors at uusc recently announced that the reverend william shultz. Former president of the ua and for a decade the executive director of amnesty international is the new president and ceo of uusc. I couldn't be more pleased. In the early 1800s. Most of the presidents of harbor unitarian. So i maybe we can just thinking my move there's an attempt to take it back that is for you use. As i was driving here. With my family where we traditionally spend thanksgiving with my mother-in-law judy wizard body. I was thinking how ironic it is that after i moved to boston from santa fe in the fall of 2003. Play gary kowalski. Was one of the first uu ministers to invite me to his puppet. Now i'm in burlington and he's in santa fe. I'm sure he's figured out by now that it's a different culture out there. Thank you thanks differently. Take space for instance. They have more of it. I'll never forget our first excursion to downtown boston the fall of 2003 i saw a man spread eagle in the street with his head next to the curb. Being a physician i quickly knelt beside him to check his jugular for pulse and asked if he was okay he threw off my hand he said just tell my wife to hurry up i can't hold us parking space much longer. We like burlington because you're a lot more laid-back than people in boston. I bet you don't even. Shoot people removing lawn chairs up here. That first winter in boston. Somebody made the. Mistakenly moving a lawn chair in a parking place that ben shovel clearing. Thought he could just move a little bit and park there but. The shot that rang out not fatal. Warn him off of. That are. Crime in boston. Yes we like burlington it's. A lot more. Relaxed. As i begin my sermon today i want to mention something i'm. Very grateful for an anniversary that slipped by recently. One that should have been. Robustly celebrated but it went by rather silently and boston. Without any fanfare it was august 26th. Three months ago yesterday. The 90th anniversary of a 19th amendment that gave women the vote. The largest political enfranchisement in the history of the united states. It was not one easily. In fact it took over 70 years. There was a lot of venom and a lot of mayhem directed at those who dared believe. The all men created equal was a self-evident truth and included. Women. That effort according to the grape suffers yet an excellent counter carrie chapman catt. Began at seneca falls in 19 i'm sorry 1848. And didn't end until 1920. Involve 56 referendum campaigns directed at male voters. 480 campaigns to get legislators to submit suffrage amendments to voters. 47 campaigns to get constitutional conventions to write women's suffrage into state constitutions. 277 campaigns to get state party conventions to include women's suffrage planks. 30 campaigns to get presidential party campaigns to include women's suffrage planks. And their platforms. And 19 campaigns with 19 success of congress's. Wow. Kind of makes you breathless. One of those who took part in that struggles and the beard of orange vermont. The year after women got the vote she declared her candidacy and became the first elected. The vermont house of representatives the first woman. 2 years later she became vermont first state senator. It's a tradition discontinued in vermont. In 2007 you were recognized as the state having a higher percentage of women in your legislator than any other state. It was 33% then and now it's almost 40%. I'm proud my sister-in-law susie was a wizard warriors among their ranks. Many of the women who were. Active in or lead women's suffrage. Movement. Died before they were granted the right to vote or. Didn't ever get to vote. But they never gave up. Didn't stop believing they could and would make a difference. Even this day today they were met with resistance. And intransigence. They didn't lose hope. And that's what i really want to talk about today hope. Which in my own life i'm not unable to untangle from gratitude. Are inextricably linked. Frankly i think we need a sense of hopefulness to get us through our life. Weather was slogging around in patrol in afghanistan or iraq. Logging around looking for a job. Or simply trying to get through another day of whatever travails are thrown at us. In burlington or boston. Let me say that although it has not always been so and i cannot always be grateful i try to approach life daily from a place of gratitude. I'm grateful to be alive. To be healthy. To have a family and friends to be material while off. Dab meaning for work. To loved. Beloved. And love. To be able to paws to smell the roses or take delight in his child antics on the bus. Or have the state of mind to be thoughtful to someone less fortunate than myself over may be more fortunate than me but just as having a bad day. To enjoy the peace. Taste of a piece of fruit or ripe tomato. And to be continually curious. There's so much to be grateful about and while i don't understand the connection i think being grateful is. Connected to being hopeful. I think if we can find something for which to be grateful. It helps us to be hopeful. Interview mirror i can even be grateful about painful experiences because with time and distance i see how they were and are my teachers. As much as i look forward to joyful unpleasant experiences in life they don't help me grow the way more difficult one to do. I remind myself sometimes in the midst of painful and difficult decisions that they're being sent my way to teach me something. Except those moments i don't want to learn anything more about being patient or kind especially to a really nasty writable person but i. Try to remember they're there to teach me something. So what does being hopeful mean. I guess to me it means being. Believing i can contribute everyday. Crabs every moment of every day if i have what buddhists call mindfulness. It doesn't mean that if i put in 8 hours of work in a certain direction. That i will see 8 hours of progress or improvement. But there is not possibility. One of my contribution makes the world a better place or not. What it want to do and succeeds or not. Well. Those are beyond my control. I can only try to make it happen. And if it does happen maybe i can take some small satisfaction. But i played a role. Wendell berry once wrote. Protester enjoys his move i hope far more modest than not a public success. Mainly the hope of preserving qualities in one's own heart and spirit it would be destroyed by acquiescence in quote. I'll repeat it. Protest that enjoys his mode by hope far more modest than that a public success. Namely the hope of preserving qualities in one's own heart and spirit. That would be destroyed. My acquiescence. Sometimes we do things not to succeed. But to preserve our integrity. We stand out because not to do so will undermine something precious. That would be a rodent by giving in. That's what rosa parks taught us. And what if i don't. If i don't succeed then i have to content myself with understanding. What theater parker. Martin luther king jr.. And barack obama have all reminded us. About the ark of the universe being long. But bending towards justice. Parker's actual quote. From his 1853 sermon is. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The ark is a long one. My eye reaches but little waves. I cannot calculate the curb and complete the figure by the experience of sight. I can divide it my conscience. And from what i see i am sure it bends towards justice. And quote. Sometimes when i was working in el salvador is a doctor in the middle of that civil war it seemed to me like the ragtag group of 15 and 16 year olds. Who ready to give their lives to defend mine as their doctor. This makeshift arming reposing a government back by billions of dollars of us military assistance. Cannot possibly succeed. I had to be hopeful that somehow it would. Eventually bend the arc of the universe towards justice. Wales be there. My part was tidying really inconsequential. 10. What do we ever accomplish alone. I truly believe in the interconnectedness of all creation because that's the. Only way social justice is ever achieved. The interconnectedness of many people. Seen and unseen. Known and unknown. Living and deceased. We stand on the shoulders of giants. And when we think of something we are grateful for invariably it connects us to others. Everything doesn't always work out. Not in the short-term and not always in our lifetimes. A mexican physician who would come to work in el salvador as i had. To work primarily with physicians and spell me. Was lost and died in one of those massive retreats when thousands of us took to the hills. Fling the salvadoran army. He could have been me or i could have been him. I see people that live with fear. And hesitation. Pessimism. Even indifference. The latter being the opposite of hope. And i think if they had a modicum of gratitude there wouldn't be room for. Most of those negative emotions. Grab those people have had experiences or upbringing that. Made that behavior understand what what a burden to carry around. Angry is indeed a burden. I thought i think going through life trying to be hopefully grateful lightens our load. Life is difficult enough. Without having to carry the load of negative emotions. Being hopeful i think is believing that you can make a difference. Being grateful is recognizing it's someone else's made a difference. Hammer thank you have to sometimes let go of the notion that you'll necessarily see the difference made. I cannot think of a single scenario in my lifetime with her hasn't been some improvement. Don't always linear. Sometimes were pushed back a ways before we can move forward. You can play while we're involved in two simultaneous wars and i would say yes but. The deaths of three afghan civilians killed by a drone becomes international news. And the army has to account for it. Where's vietnam thousands of civilians ideally without any notice or accountability. The information technology revolution allows us to shine spotlights. In the dark corners that were obscure and inaccessible in previous decades. Starvation still happens but no longer because there isn't. Food drone. In our world today. I was not colorblind society but the issues of race have come such a long way in just my lifetime. We cannot pass an era minute but this. Status and awareness of how women are oppressed by men and institutions. It's so different than it was even even a decade ago. We very nearly had her first woman president. Usf half a nuclear weapons we have 20 years ago. Yes global warming is looming but. The awareness of it is growing rapidly and perhaps it will force us. To work more collectively than any time in the history of humankind. To resolve it. Yesterday's tragedy in the world. And we may be its victims or no people who are. Or simply be overwhelmed by it a x. Like the repeated images on television of the tsunami. Are the twin towers collapsing. It's appropriate to be overwhelmed at times like that because we anguish for the victims and their families. We want to do something about it. And don't know how to feel our. We. Can do so little. It's important to acknowledge that feeling and then say. I can do something. Be satisfied without something you can do encourage others to do something. But know that weeping and gnashing of teeth is only helpful for so long. And then we must act. We must go on with life we must find moments to smile. And laugh. And love because what else is there. The salvadorans taught me down in the middle of the civil war. Remembering honoring and experiencing sorrow is helpful. Allows us to recover from our paying and go on but it's not a place to live permanently. You've seen families that never get over the grief from the death of a child and then dustin either other children their living children the love they need to grow and flourish in the shadow of that loss. I believe hopefulness and gratitude or contagious. And sometimes. So is the absence. You merely recognize your energy and spirits fall sometimes when captain come down enters the room or conversation. Healing to them. Guessing the power they don't deserve. Don't always try to engage them because they most often they want an argument. Just go on with what you're doing and if they persist. Ask if it's okay to agree to disagree and move on. But surely you can remember the opposite. When you been with someone hopeful when they lifted your spirits even if momentarily. Someone when they ask you how are you they really want to know. Summers grateful for your presence. Clearly i found rewards and standing up for and speaking about social justice. I believe it can enrich our lives as can kindness and generosity. And listening intently to people and laughter. And so many things that we do everyday without mindfulness. We can all devote ourselves full-time to justice for peace. So thank goodness for the susan anthony's. And the martin luther king junior's of the world. We can share them on. We can be part of and support their causes. But we can also recognize the inherent dignity and worth of everyone we encounter everyday. Without a movement. Or leader to inspire us. We need bankers and lawyers and housewives and carpenters and handyman in handy women and secretaries and please people and soldiers and musicians and representatives who act with mindfulness. And integrity. I look back at el salvador and what people there remember about what i did. And it's instructive. Are we getting three halves of an aspirin. Explain how is going to slowly make them better and stronger. I will put those a half pieces aspirin a piece of paper put in their hand and wrap my hands around there's. I would look them in the eye and with that acknowledge their dignity and worth. These were people who had really been beat up by life. I try to teach each of them. As if they were the most important people in the world. I think that's what made the difference. Your dignity and worth was restored. Even if for a moment. Last year i went back for the inauguration of the president. Elected by the party formed by the gorillas at the end of that war and we have some. Joyous reunions. And they were called anna counter with me. As a miraculous speed of medicine. You don't think that i raised the dead when it was nothing more than a little milk of human kindness. We don't have to be hopeful about everything all the time that's probably. The definition of pollyannic. But being home for grateful as a. Democrat after george bush was a declared president by the courts would have been a denial of the worst story. Being hopeful grateful does not mean we cannot experience reality. It may mean that we understand if we put one foot in front of another. The perhaps with the help of others. Interfaith for the humanists or ds. That collectively will make a difference. Maybe it won't in the immediate future but i'm convinced that holding open that possibility. Helps us to move forward. After all it was president obama who reminded us that the arc in the universe is not bent towards justice by gravity. But brother by the. Determining courageous working men and women who will not accept. Injustice. For coming back to usc in 2003 i was affiliated with a school that hosted peacejam. Which nobel laureate spend the weekend with high school students. Rigoberta menchu the guatemalan nobel peace laureate was the guest that year. In among the audience were a number of young women who are native american. During the q&a. One of them asked. You speak of being burned out of your home your village destroyed many members of your family dying at the hands of military. He described being a refugee four years fearing your life and living precariously. He described still being publicly threatening guatemala today accused of getting rich out of the tragedy of your life which people say or lies. With these burdens. Which would break most mortals. How do you maintain your strength. And your sense of hope. Rigoberto pause for just a moment and said very quietly. You speak as if i'm a victim. I've never perceive myself as a victim. I'm a protagonist. I've never known how many breaths god will grant me but i'm grateful for each one of them and with each one of them i continue the struggle for justice. And quote. She said it was. Such simplicity. Sincerity. The room was in all four minutes. Perhaps hopefulness has something to do with receiving ourselves as protagonists in life. Rather than its victims. Maybe we two can be grateful for every grass that we're brown granted. I'm grateful to his congregation for your support. But you've given to uusc and the communities we work with around the world including median guatemala. Community work with in south asia after the tsunami and earthquake. An american golf in haiti were still helping rebuild lives and communities. And by the way like we did in new orleans when the cholera epidemic clears will have a place for volunteers to help rebuild communities in haiti. Your support through special collections through guest at your table and through individual memberships. Meggie rusty's work possible here. And around the world. I've said from this pulpit before. And it probably cannot be said too many times. The defending human rights demands that we say no to the propaganda of war. And no to the corporations that benefit from killing. Instead we will say yes to a culture that honors women because they more than men orchard life. And yes to our culture downers the sun because it more than oil producers life. And yes tour culture the owners water because it more than the stock market sustains life. And yes to our culture that honors the seasons and decency and human dignity. Because they all illuminate life. And while properties important if not more important to us than life itself. The seeds of this culture have been planted by ministers. And lay persons and unitarian and universalist congregation. Wish. For more than 150 years have been in the forefront of. Of the effort to keep our ship of state on a self-correcting course. What are the issues abolition. Women's suffrage the holocaust civil rights vietnam central america rack or equal marriage. Unitarian universalist are more recently unitarian universalist have been there a bearing witness. Providing leadership. An acting on their beliefs. I'm grateful. For who you are and what you do. You make me hopeful. Made always be so.

uusociety_org

2016-02-14%2011am%20sermon.mp3

Have you ever taken a wrong turn. But still have you ever taken a wrong turn. But found yourself in the right place at the end. Or discovered something unexpected. That's sweetened what was sour. Have you ever been. Cruising along and heard a song at just the right moment. When your heart really needed it. If you have. Then i would say you have experienced. Grace. Grease is our spiritual theme for february what a great thing to come back to. But departing from our last few things which have been story and possibility and time. Grease comes with a bit more heavy theology behind it. It's a concept that dominated ecclesiastical debates and academic arguments through the ages. It played a starring role in the signature religious drama of the 16th century. Quiz what was that. The protestant reformation. Will brush up on our church history later this spring. Okay. So but moving into our contemporary discourse. The word is thriving. We benefit from grace. and we hope to stay in the good graces of people we care about maybe our soon-to-be in-laws. When we hear of another's trouble sometimes will stay there but for the grace of god go i. And at its most recent peak in 2004 12525 americans named their daughters grace. Who knew. The social security administration knew that. Making it the 13th most popular name that year do we have any grace's in the house this morning. Wow not agree. But we do have much grace in the house this morning. But what is grace. It is often invoked but it is hard to pin down. Before today's sermon i went searching through my colleagues sermons this is always a good thing to do when you're preaching on a topic and i discovered a lot of uu ministers have priest on grace and while we may find it hard to come to consensus on it many things is good you use. All of the sermons began by saying oh grace it's so hard to define. My colleague matt attributes this to the twists and turns of that aforementioned church history he writes. There's so many flavors of grace in christianity is hard to use the word without confusion. They're sanctifying grace and actual grace sola gratia grace alone there's irresistible grace and prevenient grace and maybe a few more varieties who knows about all of those forms of grace. Rowdy does yeah oh yeah. Amen. So you can ask her your questions later. Tom and kansas paraphrases his parishioner who says that grace has this late and erie quality like the very word just sort of floats above us. And my colleague peter in pennsylvania who is a friend says. Grace it's an all know it when i see it kind of thing. Not to their credit none of these distinguished colleague stops here by just saying that's a hard one let's move onto the closing hymn. Although sometimes we preachers find that attempting option. They each take up the challenge and wrestle with its meaning. And they do something else which you would also find an this month pass newsletter in the introduction which is they make the case why we as unitarian universalist. However skeptical a traditional religious language we maybe. Or however wary of the word grace from our own religion religious past we maybe. They make the case that we none-the-less meet at 2. So that is the fee logical ring that i'm going to throw my way into this morning. This is the first of two sermons on grace and i am going to ask this. What is grace. Some question how can you use think about it. And then how do we get it. Merriam-webster 10 expert on religious doctrine. Nonetheless offers up some heavy-hitting theology and it's very first definition of grace. And this is what i would say a classic definition of race. As unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification. Yeah. Rowdy do you want to unpack that for us. No we made rowdy work a few sundays ago so we won't do that again. So let's unpack so god helps humans by making us holy. Even though we may or may not really deserve that help in the first place. Another colleague charles stevens gives a deeper version of that in his grace sermon when he talks about the version he learned in sunday school which is. Grace is god forgiving our sins and redeeming us through the death of jesus on the cross. So how many of you grew up with that version of grace. A fair number. Okay at the 98 was like everyone and i was like did anyone grow up you you and it was me and wendy co and nina. Okay so i think they were a few assertions in there in that version of grace that might give us pause or make us want to wrestle. So let's let's try to name some of them the first is our understanding of jesus. So was you use though we view jesus as a wise and inspired teacher and profit and dare i say we need his prophecy a new in these times. Nonetheless we think of jesus as a human a human messenger of love so we don't think of his death is part of. This larger divine plan. In related i think we would reject the idea of god however we understand that. Grounding something as beautiful as grace. Necessarily in the death of a person. K. There's also something in that grace that i think runs counter to our uu core. About human agency and human character. As you use our legacy as one of advocating for free will. So we're not predisposed to believe that what happens in our lives depends only on the intervention or assistance of a distant deity. The flip side of that is also true though. When bad things happen we also wouldn't say that they're part of god's plan right. Or that they happen for a reason. And then because we also testify to the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Which are forbearer unitarians would have put it this way humans are too good to be damned. Okay. I think that unmerited part that unmerited part of the. Definition. Is a tough sell. Because we raised a collective eyebrow when we start getting inklings of human depravity and original sin. Okay we raise our collective eyebrow. We don't believe that we are born undeserving of life's down t right. We believe that everyone is born worthy of that. So are you with me this far or have we gone off the theological rails. Now i want to say to that. Some of these questions that we might wrestle with her not just you use alone right. Christian thinkers through the centuries have been having those same debates within their tradition. And wrestling with the same concepts of free will and human agency in human character. So forgiving where we started this morning i'm wondering if you sense that we're approaching a turn right you know we're looking at this grace that maybe isn't working for us. So this is indeed the place where i want to stop. In the middle of the lake and. Turn the boat around. Sabrina. Use our boom right sailors looking at tom porter is that what we want to do. Paso work the ship is turning. Because. I think that even in that classic definition of grace. As heavy-laden as it is. With the illogical terms that may not resonate there is something essential that might help us. And here we need to go back to frederick buechner and get his help. No frederick buechner is not a unitarian universalist but he's one of those people that we wish was a unitarian universalist. Kind of like the poet mary oliver isn't she you you know she's episcopalian. Sometimes we even try to claim barack obama. But that was his grandmother who is he you you. I am digressing. So. Bikaner frederick buechner. Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There's no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream. Or earn good looks or bring about your own verse. No maybe you were thinking i deserve my good looks. But he's right isn't he. There's some things we can't get. We can only be given. Even we who believe so deeply in human agency and who trust in our ability to go out there and do it and change the world for ourselves. Even weaker all about the deeds more than the creed. Even we must admit. With gratitude and humility that there are so many things are very lives in fact. Which we just can't bring about ourselves. And they are often the really good things aren't they. What richard fuchs names as gifts of being that come from beyond ourselves. So here it is with inspiration from my colleagues and bikaner. And also a beautiful reflection written by jean parsley rog and parsley in this month pass. Greece is what life gives us that we don't have to do anything to bring about or earn. And it's not that we're cruising around being so bad and unworthy of these gifts but god is such a nice guy that he's going to give them to us anyway. That's not exactly it. It's just that we don't have to do anything to earn them. And there's also this we can't really do anything. No maybe that's hard maybe you're thinking we can't do anything. And that's it. Grace isn't something we can control. And for those of us who like to be in control. Or pretends. That we are in control. Of events. Grease can be tricky in that way. There is no to do list so long or no plans so foolproof or no effort so organized that we can guarantee a gift of grace. It's just not how it works. So what are the gifts of grace. Last fall my colleague gary smith who was my preaching professor and is now a friend. Sent me an email when i was asking him a question about an unrelated reading and he told me something that happened in his class. He wrote i do an exercise with my preaching class on theology incarnate. Take a theological word like grace often a heavy one. And then ask people what it taste like. Smells like. Looks like. Feels like. Right one or two sentences then choose one and write a paragraph. Stunning results. Gary concluded grace one student said smells like a campfire. And she remembered i moment in her life like that. I love that idea of theology incarnate. And i bet if each of us do that exercise we would have a beautiful mosaic of grace. And the results would be stunning. And we could start with jeans amazing story from the path which i won't do too many spoilers but involve the cardboard sled. Engine on it. So check that out if you haven't. So i'm going to share with you two stories. For me that are grace incarnate. So i love a good campfire but for me grace smells like the ocean. And it might be because of this story in our family lore. So sometime in the early 1980s my parents were driving me and my sister to the jersey shore for a vacation. And you can imagine what started happening in the back seats. It wasn't good. Epic bickering started probably as soon as we pulled out of the house and it continued all the way across the fine state of new jersey. And my parents were so strung out and sprayed when we got to the beach that they were like we're just going right to the ocean. And they thought that you know we could at least just separate and kind of go to different spots on the beach and just kind of calm down or at least they wouldn't have to be in the car with us. Neither things i know i have to look forward to as well. Not for a while hopefully. So but here's what happened so we got to the beach. Seat belts for unbuckles people were getting out of cars and my parents looked around to see you know where my sister and i had like marched off to. And instead of seeing us. Hurrying down the beach and are opposite directions they saw that we had taken hands. And it we walked down to the ocean together. And i'm pretty sure they thought it was. Amazing grace. Grace has a sound to doesn't it. Several years ago although many years after that time at the beach twenty-three-year-old me with sitting at a desk. In a city i had just moved to by myself. And my friends that were already living there seemed really busy with their lives already. And i just gotten a job. That was good but i was in way over my head. Was pretty rough. Pretty lonely. Lonely hard time. And i was just sitting at this desk anxiously pecking away at emails and i heard a voice. And i looked up. There's this woman she looks quite different than me she's tall and has long curly blond hair. She said hey there. I like your glasses. It wasn't a pick up line. It was a friend pick up line. And i said thank you. And that was how i got my friend alyssa. Who is still my friend he's 15 years later. Her first son was born the same year as my first sundin and. This was wild. our children weren't born on their due dates are respective due dates for each other's birthdays which was cool. And then last spring we both found out that we were pregnant with our second sons. And gave birth within two weeks of each other this winter. And i will tell you that when i am lonely. Or struggling. Or tired. As those first few weeks at home with a little being are. There is nothing like alyssa's voice on my voicemail saying how are you. Right. And it is a sweet sound. Something to tell you this sermon comes with a third-story. That we're not going to have time for. How's that for a teaser. I'm going to bring it to you another time. 2k. But just holding those two. None of them were things that we can control right. My parents couldn't have arranged a moment where my sister and i took hands if they wanted to write amen. And i couldn't conjure up my beautiful friend alyssa standing there just when i needed it. But i wonder if they show that there is yet a little role for human agency with grace after all. We cannot create it. But it is our job to notice it. Right. It's our job to pay attention and notice it. To receive it. I'm like gary smith says to feel it and taste it. And hear it. I think that's what martha was getting at when she said we have to smile back. Right. When the world smiles. And it's what bikaner means when he writes. Like any gift. Grace is only yours if you reach out. And take it. It's like what the hindu mystic ramakrishna rights. The winds of grace are always blowing. But you have to raise your sale. Will you raise your sale. I took a wrong turn the other day. A mistake but it led me to the thing i've been searching for. I opened up a pack of letters. And it's sweetened would have been sour. Later that day the radio sang a song from a time when i was discovering love. And folded me into myself again. I once was lost. But now. I'm found. Frederick buechner right. Here is your life. Here is the world. Beautiful. And terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can separate us. I love you. So may it be with us. Now. And in the days to come.

uusociety_org

2012-11-11-2Sermon.mp3

Boy that was one long election-season we just lived through wasn't it. And one long night though not as long as it looked like it might be at one point. So we voted. We the people have spoken. Now it's time to catch up on our rest and the piles of books we didn't get to in the last month. We're done for another 4 years right. Now. Now it is time for us to relearn together what it means to be faithful citizens in a democracy. It is speech on tuesday night. Although technically it was already wednesday morning. President obama reminded us that the role of the citizen does not end with voting. No matter your political party affiliation no matter which candidates you voted for you still have a job to do. We all do. And we unitarian universalist vera particularly heavy responsibility for leading the way. Why is that because we are people who have written the democratic process into the very heart of our faith. We the member congregations of the unitarian universalist association. Covenant to affirm and promote the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process. Within our congregations and in our society at large. That is the fifth of our 7 principles. Right smack in the middle of that statement which defines the ethical boundaries of unitarian universalism is the assertion that a particular form of decision-making known as democracy is important enough to be elevated to an article of faith. For the last month or more i have been carrying around an essay by parker palmer the founder of the center for courage and renewal. An extraordinary author and teacher. Called five habits to heal the heart of democracy. Spell though i didn't know for sure what sermon i would be writing this week until the election was over. I knew that no matter the outcome i would be using palmer's essay as my text. Homer reminds us that when alexis de tocqueville came to america in the 1830s to study american-style democracy he predicted that the success of the experiment would depend on the existence of robust. Voluntary associations on the local level. Families schools houses of worship. Social and civic clubs. In these places to tocqueville a pint. The habits of the heart are formed. 100 years after de tocqueville the uuc logan james luther adams would make the study of the voluntary association his life work. Adams was convinced that too dangerous consistently threatened. Human freedom. Radical individualism on the one hand. Dinosaur tearing ism on the other. He saw the voluntary association as the structure that mediates between those two tendencies. People involved in intentional communities where they live. Are unlikely to fall into the trap of isolation or excessive individualism. An intentional communities made up of people who freely choose to be there are unlikely to fall victim. To demagogue. You know the first unitarian universalist society of burlington is such an association. We are a mediating structure. Offering a sense of belonging. To those who are alone. And a safe place to examine the assumptions and challenge easy answers. Two complex question. So what does all this have to do with habits of the heart. What de tocqueville and palmer both assert is that the future of democracy. Is not so much in our hands as it is in our hearts. We the people. Must learn to cultivate habits of the heart that are consistent with the ideals of democracy. We must learn to embrace the conviction that is not so much what we do that will make or break american democracy but who we are and how we are in the world. How will we be. After this election. Gleeful. Vengeful angry loving determined. Persistent. Courageous. Terry tempest williams wrote the human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions. Can we be equitable. Can we be generous. Can we listen with our whole beings not just our minds. And offer our attention. Rather than our opinions. And do we have enough resolve in our hearts to act courageously. Relentlessly. Without giving up ever. Relentlessly trusting our fellow citizens to join with us in our determined pursuit of a living democracy. We can i believe we can. And we must. As members of a religion that by choice. Named the democratic process in our principles we most definitely must. How shall we be in that healing mode. Parker palmer identify the number of ways of being that he considers essential to this goal of healing the heart of democracy. One is maeve said is an understanding that we are all in this together. We know that. Don't we. But do we live it. Reverend james wind of the albany institute has been working on this question of how human beings understand ourselves to be in this together. He was inspired by reading the social conquest of the earth. Harvard sociobiologist edward owen wilson's new book. In it when finds reason for hope in the fact. That we humans have evolved into what wilson calls you social creatures eusocial. When did flames for wilson the ancient foundational characteristics of used social behavior are. Nest building. Cross-generational communities. Divisions of labor. An altruistic actions. Individuals working for the common good. Defending to nest even to the point of sacrificing one's life. To that last point. I want to pause mid sermon and asked that we remember that in addition to being post-election sunday. This is veterans day weekend. I'm going to ask that we all stand. In body or spirit. As we honor those who have served our country in our armed forces. Particularly those who have defended the nest even to the point. Of sacrificing their lives. I want to read a few words from what i considered me the best sermon ever written and then a moment of silence. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate. We cannot consecrate we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here. But it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work with which they fought here. And so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation under god shall 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. So those of us. All of a certain age. Learn the gettysburg address by heart in elementary school and many of us still know if my heart. Those of you who didn't recognize it. That was. Course abraham lincoln calling us to the great task remaining. The very same tasks that parker parker palmer calls us to the healing of the heart of democracy. Don't want to go back to this reflection on you social behavior. James wind goes on to say a special moment in the human evolutionary journey occurred. When humans learn how to control fire. A few generations later our ancestors began to gather around campfires. The speak and tell stories. From this behavior came the first burial ceremonies and the emergence of tool-making and singing an art. Two of us think of our congregations as part of this epic evolutionary story. But in many ways our congregations are places where these ancient. Use social behaviors take place. Cross-generational nests are built. Now as way back then people gather to sing and tell stories. To deal with death. To build new forms of human community across generations and to find new ways to divide labor. Encounter the survival of the fittest with behavior that seeks to further the common good. After reviewing the achievements of the eusocial humans. Their creations of culture and religion and morality and technology and the arts. He suggests that we are. Now and another evolutionary hinge point. Are tribalism is being challenged by two realities that call for another major adaptive breakthrough in the evolutionary journey. The migratory intermingling of humans. Otherwise known as globalization. And the internet. Are challenging us to build new patterns of community. More cosmopolitan than tribal. Human survival he concludes is at stake. Or at the very least the survival of democracy is at stake. So we who live at least somewhat comfortably with the understanding that we are all in this together. Need to figure out how to bring others into that comfort zone. We all know that huge subtext in the hard-fought election just passed had to do with race. And ethnicity and other nests. Bill o'reilly is not wrong when he says that the traditional america is gone. Straight white male property holders no longer own the franchise. This is a scary proposition for many people ironically not all of them straight white male property holders. They may no longer on the franchise but they are releasing their grip slowly and painfully. And the slowness of the change. Is it frustrating. Reality. For some of us. The evolutionary and adaptive task before us. Is to learn. An appreciation for the value of other nests. And to learn. How to teach. Our fellow. Citizens. That same appreciation. Depreciating the value of other nuses what parker palmer. List next on his list of habits of the heart to cultivate in order to heal the heart of democracy. And he reminds us that for those of us. Who have already come to this appreciation. We do need to figure out how to bring others along. Without feeling superior. Without being competitive and saying we are more highly evolved than they are. Without blaming or shaming. Without ourselves being intolerant of what we see is intolerance. We've all done that. Last month i attended the annual retreat of the northern new england unitarian universalist ministers. Our continuing education program was based on. A developmental model of intercultural sensitivity. Developed by milton bennett. Bennett has observed that people who become. But there are people who become. More and more interculturally sensitive and competent and he tempted to quantify. That change how do you learn. This how do you learn to be this way. He wrote it seems that there was a major change in the quality of their experience which i called the move from ethnocentrism. 2f no relativism. I use the term ethnocentrism to refer to the experience of one's own culture as central to reality. By this i mean that the beliefs and behaviors that people receive in their primary socialization are unquestioned. Their experience as just the way things are. I coined the term ethnorelativism to mean the opposite. The experience of one's own beliefs and behaviors. As is just one organization of reality among many viable possibility. Do i see models like bennett's as a source of hope. They are based on the assumption that all people. Can move along a continuum from. Unawareness of difference. To denial of difference when you do become aware of it. To fear and even resistance to that awareness. To acceptance. And even embrace and celebration of difference. These models offer tools and processes for educating and encouraging that movement. The one of the phrases i've seen. Often enough on facebook in the last 5 days to describe what happened on tuesday is shift happens. Shift happens in the evolutionary movement towards intercultural competency. And we can help. That particular shift happen. By taking and compassionate and loving staff ourselves. By encouraging people to join us on this journey. As parker palmer himself wrote. We spend most of our lives in tribe and lifestyle enclaves. The good news is that us and them doesn't have to mean us-versus-them. Instead it can remind us of the ancient art of hospitality to the stranger. And give us a chance to translate it into 21st century terms. That's our job. Back in mid-october when the november newsletter was being put together. I chose as the title for this sermon. What i hope you recognize as a placeholder i put in and now. And now. Let's get to work. The election is over but the evolutionary and adaptive work of living into the possibilities for democracy in the 21st century. I just beginning. And that is our work is unitarian universalist. Now parker palmer has one more thing to say that i think is important cuz he uses one of my favorite words. He says that in order to do this work. You need two things. Hootspa. And humility. Talk about holding something in a creative tension. We need citizens with hotspot and humility to occupy our civic space and call american democracy back to health. There is no reason at least no good reason. Why are number cannot be legion. And i would just add. That there is no reason that unitarian universalist not makeup. Considerable portion. Of that number. And now. It is time. To go to work. On this ongoing work. A killing the heart. Of democracy. Let us begin.

uusociety_org

2012-12-16-2Sermon.mp3

Salaam alaikum. He's helping you. I'm driving. that was invited to come here speak to you. I'm denied i was invited to come here and speak to you. A little bit about slam. Thank you all for being here and listening. Hey before i talk about to slam. Like those. Took a better have my introduction. What. We know. Or hear about islam. They cannot represent themselves they must be represented. Did exist and almost anonymous consensus. That critically. The munchkin does not exist. And when it has a lot that he does. Is either as a nuisance or as an oriental. We have scholars and experts on islam. Those scars and expect either self-appointed. Or get appointed by the media. As expensive as lamb. Because they may have one or two books. Iraq. Then they became experts. Even though they know close to nothing about. A sizable cause of material experts. Has been determined flight discussion. Recently by using social science jargon and ideological. Plushies. Masked as knowledge. Most of all there is. The interest cultural. Tool. Got to do what you want arabs and muslims. Deriving from. Oh and there's old western. Prejudiced prejudices. About snap. The arabs and orient. The media draw from this attitude its views of the muslims. Dehumanized us. Reduce festival barely tolerated. Status of nuisance. The term islam. Isaac has used today seems to me once in 15. But in fact. Is part fiction. But are you logical. Livid. But minimal. Designation. Over religion coleslaw. Dennis consensus on islam. As kind of. Scapegoat. Whatever thing we do not happen to like. About the wards new political social and economic patterns. For the right. Islam represents barbarism. For the medieval theocracy. Orthocenter. Kind of stressful exotics. In or cans. How about. Disagree disagreement that even though little enough is known about the islamic war. There's nothing much. To be approved here. Emirsyah study of the modern middle east and what's known as the islamic world. Could you listen this country cannot prepare anyone for that for what has been taking place in the region. For too long we have been outside history. And certainly outside discussion. Ordnance tabby schmidt media. From the left liberal to the french right. Anonymously anti-arab anti-muslim. Document. When reduced to its simplest form was clear. It was precise. Twas easy grass. There are westerners and their orientals. The former dominate. The latter must be dominated. Which usually means. Having their land occupied. The internal affairs rigidly controlled. Their blood. Treasure photo.is disposal of. One or another western pal. Any political historical historical and scholar scholarly account of muslims must begin and ends with the fact that muslims are muslims. It is the idea of muslim conspiracy. And the prophet muhammad is the stage manager. Which was actually everything in the sunday paper of london sunday paper. When princess diana was. Kevin hart car accident. Before that. With him. Boyfriend do define yard which one which happened to be muslim. Do you know the title of the front page was. Dd watson meeting. Islam is understood to mean a non-religious chronology. Abacus rhymes. And this rises in haiti's. Coming in passing. Old is written for the most. Part in godley monotone. Islamic short seems to historians to be suited to a rather photonic. And antiquarian. Bias. I dunno.. This to be understood islam had to be. Do you store 10th and tribe. The men discussed with this lamb. Was that unlike india and china. It had never really. Been pacified or defeated. Indestructible. Snort. Islam the word islam root word of islam salman salman arabic means peace. And a muslim is a person who have complete submission to the world. Got. With a eyeliner. So therefore. If you have to be submissive to god. And it isn't peace of jerusalem surroundings. He almost candy for every profitability was most. So that's what this letter means. The word disturb. Islam started with the. Revelation. The holy quran on the prophet muhammad. He lived in mecca in mecca. And arabia. And he. Immaculata that time. Arundel jabba the tube. Building. They had but 306 ideals. Abscess to worship more than one god. The man got swear. Aladdin manhattan hobart. Distal give offerings to these gods they had. Didn't believe in one god so slam. Came. 2. A bring back. The. The 5th to the oneness of god. Which was what ship before august. These ideas introduced in arabia. By the prophet abraham and sons tonight. In arabia most of ours did not did not read or write. Delaware lottery. The prophet muhammad was illiterate you could not read or write he didn't learn how to read or write. But that time. Every year in my car they had. In the. Market the vocab. A market. Yulee. Merchants would bring their goods to sell. But also at the same time there was a panel. Linguist. Bullmastiff the arabic language the class garbage. And poets with, say their bones. At that time. And they will choose the best phone and hang at the right hand of god. Cabela's holiday hours even before. So do know that poet they would hand was. Poems. Used to be called unlock what does hand once. So the new everything about the classic arabic language. Prophet muhammad. You still want him. Live there but he never belt on a idols. He used to go to meditate in the cave in the mountains of makkah. He was 40 years old. When. He said. Dark angel gabriel came to him. Impressment i thought my soul was going up going out to my buddy. Natalie said to me april. Eckroth music recite or read. Of course he. His answer was. I said moana recorded i cannot read. He did three times to him. Then sit with him. Acropolis medical. Conical instrument. Hickory auto book. Alamo. Brooklyn crematory in the name of the lord and cherish. Who created. Gridman auto. Amir least-liked lot of congealed blood. Oranjestad. Play mmm mmm by lord is most bountiful. He who taught the use of the pen. man with wishing you luck. That was just a relation for coronavirus. Needless to say he was your father's experience. And he ran back to his house to his wife. Khadijah. Anita was his wife. She told him my cousin. Welcome to nofel. When was the. The old books. Knows about the torah and the bible. Let's go ask him about this. And. So they went to him. Asked him and he said to him. By god i think you are that the next prophet or messenger of this nation. And if you. If it canceled. Thabiso. Always believe always believe in you. So that's how slam start. What's the message. Aviston stockton. Islam was being built on five the five pillars of islam. December 5th. Crane. Fasting month of ramadan. Zika. Almost like i'm giving and hodge. We. Also here in hours. Newest media but jihad holy war. There's nothing i understand called hollywood there's no hollywood. Maybe that was for the crusaders of notorious. If you had in arabic means. Tripe. Did one of you was types. Impute. Boot that she had if you go to work and leaving for your family or for yourself and don't you had. Aji had. Also. To prevent yourself from doing bad deeds. That is jihad. Do you have also could be in the battlefield she'll contravene attack. Your duty as a citizen defend you at your home yet. But that's the. Or small party hat. When the muslims had their bath in with the apps. Weather. Was done. Cindy. So it started going home. The prophet said. We're done with that miniature jihad. Noah going back to that. Greatest jihad. So that is jihad. In the quran. Did we. There's a lot of. Emission. The grand festival is america. We consider this. The quran is the actual words. Oh god. A lot. And. You will see. There are. In endocrine. Talk about embryology. Talk about geography. Oceanology. And. Astronomy. But also at the grande laws for. Ford escape. Became heritance. Assistant how to work out the negative symbol for people. And. There are also punishment for things that you're not supposed to do. So what's up biscuit. Constitution for state and the elements in the constitution. And that time if you when they follow the koran it was justice for all. It doesn't matter if you're not muslim. Is not at your station. You. That duty of distance it was supposed to protect you as a citizen of that state. I would like to give you some sense about what's in the quran quran. But just i said i would like talk about science. Insulting woman on. Allison holker. Everything out of it today. What alcoholic. The mahalo, minnesota. Because i wanted love. mountain formation alcohol content. Catabolic. Men we did create from the equator sense of clay. And then we placed him as a drop of sperm in the wombs. Best curcumin. Then we create a drop of sperm a germ set. And then we create out of the gym still and embryonic lump. And then we create. Which enzyme brianna clam. Bones. Enclose the bones with flesh. Then we bring all this into being as a new creation. Soaplicity allah. The vista create. The best of autism. This was. Over 1,400 ago. Navigate to novato. An illiterate. But muhammad. I think about our creation how we start we are in the womb. Through. Evasive darkness. Alexis. He makes you in the wombs of your mother's in stages one after another. It's in three of theirs of darkness. Such as allah your lord and cherish. Don't belongs old dominion. There's no god but he then how are you turned away from your true center. Also there is. What's up the geography about. What is the rivers meet. I think you all know. If one is salty waters one drinking water they don't mix. Submerged. There's we see line. Yoshi line until they go to washington. Quit. He has three. The two bodies of water meeting together. Between then a barrier which day do not transgress. Even the big big bang. Was it mentioned the quran. Osha do not done believer see that the heavens and the earth where joined together. As one. Unit creation. Before we close asunder. We made from water every living thing. Would they not done believe. So. It's a nice life for not pointing to a spot for all humans. Second all humans not only the arabs. And. Acknowledge. Is mandatory meeting the room aslam. It may not be the case now. And some. Areas in the so-called islamic war. So what are you going to meet or female you must be able to read and write and. Acknowledge. And that's how is the most things used to be. L. And their ladies in the first locked up. 3000 diesel. Started. They. Mustang started going out. Fleur-de-lis. Took the greek books glitch great philosopher greek philosophers books. Read them and they went through them and wrote about them. And the city opening about what was written. If you agree or disagree. They found the algorithm. Algebra the greek very basic algebra. The added the lottery. End. They were using in their daily life. And then i'll cover is me invented the algorithm. Bars near didn't know what to call it at that time. Do europeans change hours near to olive garden. At that time the other day had. Time measuring luxford too tight to measure time. And then. And they knew that it was not flat. Was circular. I'm doing to measure the circumference of the earth. A group of scholars went to the. Beach and others also do the three levers. And. Dispute a groupon to the horizon. Super disappear. And what the group that was on the beach sent a light and. Sound. So they came back they measure. They look like a time. And with just a jabra and algorithm they were able to figure out the circumference of the earth. And the number they had. They came up with that that time matches. We have nothing. So if you have the time in which we all know that so-called dark ages. The case was in europe. Was knocking desk lamp. Miss a. Sanford was event. They had someone inventions. They had the flux forces. They had advanced glass in medicine. If you see that his books on facebook survive and still in oxford university. On france the other muslim scholars books. Ignore haytham. Was the first one to do i surgery. I hate the chicken thigh. And put names of each part of the eye. We still use some of those names. Cornea. Iconia. So the europeans took these books and started to study. Europe at that time also did not have no the concept of zero. Inventing the zero. And europeans took it from the arc start using the arabic numeral system. What we use now is out of the numeral system. And are seductive the indian no more. Extra. So i cannot do math without its you like i guess. We know about spain and the inquisition spent wednesday understand how what happened to the muslims and the jews they were either convert to christianity or. Convert to leave if not they'll be killed so that. The golden eight times of the juiciest was understand accrual. I just known i wouldn't on fact. Even jews realize that and they know that they say that. Islam. Is up. Is. Four-piece is peaceful.. And. Dismal. Excuse in islam. Enforces. Kill anybody. Alyssa's in the holy quran. Magic valley. Luminati. What if i did. And on that account. Or then on the for the children of israel. And. Bike station upon the muslims. That if i want to see what person in this city it be for murder or for spreading this shift in the land. It would be as if he slew the whole people. And if anyone see if see if alive. It would be as if he. The life of the horde people. And also. There are. Did their kin to them our messengers. With king size. Yet even after that none of them. Continue to commit accessories. Timberland. That's just the. A little bit about slam. If. Anyone would like to know more about slam or at least about how the media thank we see the world we think about. Adored. Is a good great book violated website. Covering islam. And the other book sexually is trilogy. Free books about how the media think we're the most sincere the wall. And shows how long they are. And other book is orientalism. It's about the regular order those who study the orion. And the most immigrants in particular i haven't thought about what they wrote about. It's a very what's the dense book that you have to have clear my throat. But coming sounds easy. And his field one is. I'd like to sit mission because as i'm palestinian. American person but i was born for this time. Is the question of palestine. It's about how the conflict started. Between the palestinians. Which actually proteins will. Austin's christians and jews. And european shoes. Otis. But thank you for having me.

uusociety_org

2010-03-14-2%20Sermon.mp3

I've got a question. How many people in this congregation are not unitarian universalist but don't know it. Let me repeat that how many people in this congregation are not. Unitarian universalist but don't know it. It's presumptuous isn't it. This question comes from the reverend liz strong. It boldly suggests that some of us. Despite calling ourselves you use. May not truly be so. I find this question meaningfully suggestive. And this morning i'll tell you why. I suspect that some of you have heard about the uu elevator speech. The challenge is to explain unitarian-universalism to someone else. As if you only had a short elevator ride in which to do so. The fact that we refer to the elevator speech points directly to why i like liz drawings questions so much. The uu elevator speech exist as a challenge. Precisely because of what we have failed to teach. Recent generations of you use. Here's an example of what i mean. Last year. I preached the sermon that explored the history of uu religious education. Afterwards a mom about my age thank me. For shedding light on something that had puzzled and frustrated her. Raise you you. She knew more than most about other religions. But very little about her own. She discovered that day. That learning about her own you you face. Was not given much importance in our congregations when she was growing up. I hope you find this a little shocking. But that's the way it was. When i was first uu director of religious education back in the mid-1990s in massachusetts. I bought into. The prevailing and paradoxically enticing idea. That we raised our children and used to be their true inner selves. And that it doesn't matter to us whether or not they grow up to be you use. That's how liberal and liberated we were i thought. I felt pretty smug when i explained this to parents visiting that congregation. But the last quarter-century. The last quarter of the twentieth century. Saw a 7% decline. And youyou membership across the continent. Not a surprising result if we didn't care whether or not those we raised. Stayed you you. This statistic didn't sit well with leaders in uu religious education either. About 10 years ago thirty or so of them were invited to respond to three key questions. First. As we enter the 21st century. What is the core of our evolving unitarian universalist faith. Second. What is your vision of the goals of our lifespan religious education. And 3rd. What are the vital components for unitarian universalist curricula. Their responses were published. In this book. Essex conversations visions. For life span religious education. From their collective vision emerged a goal of programming designed to engage people of all ages. To explore faith. Along with the experience of their lives. Well they're thoughtful vision has won me over. I've changed my mind since the 90s. I want first you use children and youth to keep unitarian-universalism in their heart and to be active you use when they grow up. I'm committed to the work. Of helping unitarian-universalism to grow. Here in burlington. And what can make it grow. Is if each one of us. Can see relationships among three things. How we live our lives. This uu religion. And the world. What's more. The way we think about religious education needs to change fundamentally. From a focus on the information we expect from our curricula. Two personal spiritual engagement with it. In fact it's not even religious education anymore. There's a whole new paradigm. It's called faith development. And it's for all ages. So here's liz question again. How many people in this congregation aren't you you. But don't know it. Her question should suggest. That to the extent we allow ourselves to be merely a community of spiritually oriented people with religiously liberal views. We are both selling ourselves short. And disappointing the world. Our theological heritage is rich powerful. And inspiring. And if we don't support one another to be unitarian universalist in ever deeper and fuller waze. Then i fear. That the horizon of this face. So beloved to us. Is it cloudy one. Where else does the heart the life. And the relative relevance of our faith live. But in the convictions and actions. Of its faithful. We should expect that those who resonate with this faith community dedicate themselves. To their faith development. We must promise to support one another toward greater spiritual maturity. And a deeper understanding of unitarian universalism. Sharing our journeys to inspire one another. Now for some of you. All his talk about faith. Might be making you feel a little twitchy. Me too. This past week as i was writing this sermon. I accumulated various ideas possibilities of what i might say to you. And i found myself wondering again and again. What is faith. After all. Whenever it seems i was holding on to a meeting that would work with the sermons message. It kept squirming out of my grasp. Justin writing this my own understanding of faith has shifted and grown. Here's what faith is about. From me. When i am truly faithful. I walk my talk. Developing my face is stretching and deepening my beliefs. And linking them more consistently with my choices and actions. In this sense. Faith differs from spirituality our beliefs. Our beliefs alone our life list ideas. But when we lived them out. We practice our faith. As i suggested in my reflections for all ages this morning. Development is about more than just getting bigger over time it involves essential change and increasing maturity. In complexity. Is a developmental psychologist. James fowler. Who is proposed a six-stage structure. For understanding faith maturity. Like the chambered nautilus we pushed through to a newer and larger. Compartment when an authentic face expression feels too cramped in the current one. I want to illustrate fowler's framework through some personal stories. Our faith development starts when we're about 3. And our imaginations are wild a curiosity endless. My niece. Rachel. Who is now seven. Has maintained a belief. That my cats can talk. English. On the phone. When she was younger she would call frequently asking to talk to dandy-lion her favorite of our two cats. If danny was available and up to talking i've let them chat for a while. And so you get the idea the conversation on my end would begin like this. Hello this is jeri ryan. Rachel was always much chattier with dandy-lion then with me or even her mother. And dannielynn off and had to come up with creative reasons for why it was time to say goodbye now. Now that rachel is older. I suspect she has developed a distinction. Between real and imaginary. But she didn't have when she was his preschooler. But she still sometimes calls to talk to danny lyon. And if there's anything imaginary about what's going on. She doesn't ask. And i don't tell. As rachel's face develops stories are becoming more and more key and how she draws a connection between herself and the world. For myself. I remember becoming enjoyably immersed in stories during my elementary years. When the children's author roald dahl. Brought james. Right into the giant peach. I was there too. But the friendly centipede and the other bugs sweet. Peach juice trickling down my face as i tasted the fruity flesh. And inhaled its aroma from the inside. At the age of about 12. I read cs lewis's chronicles of narnia. I devoured each book and daily succession completing the series in a week. My heart worms and softens in the presence of aslan. The wise gentle good and loving lion. Ruler of the land of narnia. Iceland's character. I learned much later was modeled after the author's understanding. God. In 8th grade i took confirmation class at the episcopal church to which my family belong. The only part of confirmation that really grew my faith. What's the required service component. I opted to read once a week. Twin elderly blind man. Who is the father of a dear family friend. I'd go see him after school. And over a cup of tea i'd read gramps a chapter from little women. His choice. A book he knew we could enjoy together. In high school. My church is here youth group was led by our new assistant minister edward. We were all drawn to him because he made youth group fun. And we got to do cool and unusual things. Like serving at a soup kitchen in boston. And singing christmas carols for the prisoners at the local correction facility. The cocoon of my safe comfortable existence. Started to crack a little when. Talking directly to some of the inmates afterward. I realized they had daughters my age. And then. Because i trusted edward i asked him one day if he really believed in the bible's creation story. Because i didn't. I don't remember the details of his answer. But i do remember how i felt to hear it. Relieved. Excited. There were possibilities of meaning to be explored out there. So exploring i would go. In fact edward was the one i went running to during college. When i failed to stand my episcopal ground against the bible quoting born-again christian friend. Help i cried to him i thought i was okay. With his trusted reassurance i was once again. Okay. Of course i didn't realize that any of this could be called faith development. It was just me following my nose through life. Each of us proceed differently. Some quickly. And some more slowly. Part of the next stage of my development was taking. Philosophy of religion in college. Challenged on day one with the apparent paradox created at the intersection of these two fields of study. I was drawn raiden. Here i learned for the first time. Dead for centuries. People had not only debated the nature of god. But had worked up logical proof for god's very existence. And meanwhile. The church i knew was carrying on la di da. Like it was all clear and settled. My gut screamed otherwise and my curiosity wouldn't rest. I surprised myself. When i realized that a seminary. But the place to continue my inquiry. The key for me. Massachusetts theologically liberal school. What is loved about union theological seminary with it it had heart. What we considered and discussed in class we then applied with our hands and feet and voices around the school and in our neighborhood on the upper west side of manhattan. My first protest march took a route through the streets of harlem. Prior to going. I express to a friend that i feared for my safety. Her reply. 50/50. And off we went. I groped along liberal fingers of the episcopal church to limited facet satisfaction until. In my late twenties. I started attending a uu congregation with a girlfriend of mine. At the time. Experiencing it from the inside. Was such a contrast to the cold intellectual reputation i come to understand and. Unitarianism. As others referred to it. I loved this religion. At the stage where i was so enjoying the dance of discovering and refining my personal beliefs. It's questioning orientation. Along with its complete affirmation of me as a lesbian. Made it my new faith home. As i deepened mayuyu identity i took deliberate steps to distance myself from my episcopal roots. When i accompanied my family to christmas eve midnight services. I refuse to recite the confession of sins. If i opened my mouth to join the congregation in reciting the nicene creed. I felt like a hypocrite because it began. We believe. No i don't. And when i recited the lord's prayer. My mind would whip through a series of gymnastic interpretations of the beliefs i was speaking to try to bridge the gap between my evolving spiritual identity. And my now distant episcopal roots. Which i no longer held true. And so my faith continues to evolve. When my mom was in the hospital. Late last december. The day before she became unconscious and was transferred to the icu. Someone. From that same episcopal church brought her communion. I had expected something quick. And simple and just for mom. No. These are the episcopalians. I and my dad who is also there. Were invited to participate in a small. Bedside service. Holy eucharist. There was nothing but the completeness of yes. And thank you. In my heart. I pray the lord's prayer. I took. The bread and the wine. Along with the goodness and hope it stands for. Into my body. I ate this holy meal with my parents. 5 days before my mother died. Wider graces have infinite room. I participated fully. In that circle of love. Including with respect both my present faith. And that of my upbringing. Sometimes i experienced moments of my face fully evolved. In my whole being. I feel one with creative existence i feel alive. And at peace. I'd like everything makes sense. There are a few people. Cuz every moment of living is completely suffused. With ultimate depth. And complete wisdom. Good thing my faith is still developing because the journey never bores me. Growth. Can be wearisome. But the paradoxes. And it also feels intensely good. And right. We don't have to figure out our talk. To start walking more faithfully. In other words. We can decide at any time. To take a step that comes from the heart. Chances are the world will be better for it. Livestrong. Wondered who among us. Isn't you you and doesn't know it. I wonder to what extent. We will guide and lead and teach and inspire those of all ages and are mixed. Because being a unitarian universalist is something only you can claim for yourself. And when we choose to claim that face identity. We join a precious tradition. Who's manny visionary and hopeful dreams. Await fulfillment. So join me. See who you can become. The world will smile. To see what our lives can give. When we deepen our faith. Together.

uusociety_org

2011-03-20-2%20Sermon.mp3

Good morning. And i tell'em alaikum. That is arabic for peace be with you. One of the favorite phrases that my muslim friends use when we talk together. And i'm very excited to be here this morning to be sharing with you the stories of the struggles and the progress of muslim women. Many of whom i have met in interviews that i've done over almost a decade of work in interfaith radio. And many of whose books i have read and tried to learn about. I want a stress i am not an expert on islam although i have to tell you i was much relieved. After i preach the first service this morning. And a woman came up to me afterwards who said i'm a muslim woman and i loved what you said i thought. I didn't make any great big mistakes anyway so but i am not an expert but what i know comes from my conversations and indeed my friendship. With many of the muslim women that i'm going to talk about. And i'm going to share with you my thoughts about the growing leadership of women. In islam and in many other faith traditions as well as the struggles that they face. And i want to begin with just a few preliminary thoughts. As the host of interfaith voices on public radio. I have come to realize over the years. That much to my delight i was a longtime activist for the equal rights amendment for years. But much to my delight that women indeed have been moving into leadership roles. In faith traditions across-the-board and in multiple ways. And that was the genesis of the book breaking through the stained glass ceiling. Let me just say here that you folks that are you use. Can look at that ensayo hoja me and all we've been leaders in this for years and that's true and you really got to celebrate that i'm very much aware that. Antoinette brown blackwell for example. Was the first woman minister ordained in america although she was ordained in a congregational church she later became a unitarian as you probably know so the unitarians they were not. Together with universalist that time could claim her. And. The same thing in 1860 olympia brown. With also ordained a universalist and later became a unitarian. Anyway so you folks are pioneers so may i say congratulations and today i'm sure most of you know there are more ordained women. And the uu church then there are ordained men. That's not something that a lot of denominations can claim. Anyway but if you think about it we have had much progress of women in religion you know. Example in the episcopal church the most incredible development was the election of katharine jefferts schori. She is not just any ole episcopal bishop she is the presiding bishop of the episcopal church usa someone i've had the pleasure of meeting on a couple of different occasion. Sharon watkins. Who gave the sermon at president obama's inaugural prayer service. Is the president and general minister the head honcho in other words of the christian church disciples. And of course there women bishops in lutheranism in methodism in and lots of other places okay you look at judaism you find women rabbis in reform reconstructionist in conservative judaism. Etc and you find the rise of women as well in the eastern traditions buddhism and hinduism. And the baha'i tradition of course as always respected gender equality the sikhs are really good at it. Anyway. So i'm going to talk a bit about leadership but let me say what i mean by leadership. Because it isn't just ordained rolls. It isn't just the elected heads of major organizations are denomination. Although the muslims can claim a big one. Because ingrid mattson who was the first voice you heard is the first woman to be elected. President of the islamic society of north america that is a big deal in the muslim world and also the first convert her term is up now she is not at the moment in that role but she was the first and she's a highly respected scholar. And speaking of scholarship that is highly respected in islam and there are many women scholars effect when you look at the centuries of muslim history. Women have been religious scholars for centuries. Most recently you've heard amina wadud. Alright or. I don't know that as a real mighty would qualify as that but certainly amina wadud and certainly ingrid mattson. Some of you may hear occasionally fatima mernissi who was a major feminist scholar of islam from morocco. So there are many women doing this in the in the islamic world there are women who have just been declared muftis. Which is a really major role and some of the alike the emirates in the middle east. Women of course our activists and this is an important role i believe as well we've had them in all of our traditions you know the antoinette brown blackwell since 04. But people like eyes were no money and amina wadud who break the barriers alright. They're really important in all of our traditions even though they go through incredible struggles that. Susan b anthony's in the rosa parks as if you will i often think of as or no money in fact the new york times called her the rosa parks of the islamic world when she marched to the front of her mosque. Despres in morgantown west virginia become a good friend of mine. And. I am very happy to say my religious community is giving her an award in may. For her work on behalf of women. Women are likewise leaders in the world of spirituality and islam you can go back to fatima who is one of the daughters of the prophet muhammad peace be upon him. Just what muslims say when they speak his name. And she was a leader in spirituality and is still regarded as a really a saint in many ways and islam. Women in all of our traditions have likewise become leaders and peace justice and equality. And one of my favorite stories in the book not represented in these readings is that of lima bowie. A muslim woman from liberia in africa. Who is first of all and interfaith leader because she joined with christian women in liberia. 2. Develop what were public prayer demonstration that overthrew the dictatorship. Charles taylor in that country. She is considered now a highly significant figure she is a muslim woman and she is a leader and she did it with prayer. It's incredible and of course muslim women are like wise leaders and interfaith relations. I know that well and ingrid madsen lima boys were no money amina wadud. All of them and many more days econ and others whose names you may or may not recognize. The third preliminary thought. I want to say is that. I'm well aware we have not reached nirvana. Her right as women. Okay and maybe even in the uu church i don't know maybe some of you say this i don't know. But i am roman catholic what time do we have not reach nirvana. Or just ask just out of curiosity because. This often happens when i preached at uu churches before any of you and your past lives have had some connection with roman catholicism. Oh my god the bishop should see this anyway. I often think of how much better the roman catholic church would be if we ended it in fact had women leaders i wonder how different that sex-abuse scandal would be but that's. That's another story anyway. But we haven't reached nirvana okay there have been there's been major progress but there's still a struggle going on. My feets is basically is though that we have reached a tipping point. Where the leadership of women. Is almost certain to continue to develop. It's just a question of when not if okay i said when i wrote the book. Looking at christian traditions. When you got. Nancy pelosi who used to be speaker of the house of representative and hillary clinton a credible candidate for president the united states. Being a bishop is no big deal. You know there is a cultural change a foot and not just here it's certainly true in other parts of the world. And the final preliminary thought is as a roman catholic. I really resonate with the struggle to muslim women i think in fact we have a lot in common. Neither one of us have people are ordained women or designated leaders of prayer services. Imams when there are not women imams that everybody thinks to do this is wonderful what i mean awadu did. By leading friday prayers mixed-gender friday prayers that's the rub in islam not leading women in prayer but leading both genders. Anyway. Women are not. That's a very rare occurrence that that would happen that is still an iconoclastic act if you will. And the same thing with roman catholic went with priests i mean we don't have or dance well we do actually. We have our version of amina wadud is called the roman catholic women priests movement. There are now more than 100 roman catholic women priests worldwide and some bishops. And if anybody wants to find out how that was done i can tell you later but. Suffice to say that the lack of such. Approved leadership is something we would share with muslim women. Both of us have entrenched patriarchy. But both of us have enjoined them in struggle. But we also have great role model. With muslim women. You heard about mary which we share and i chose at reading purposely because there are many people about their faith traditions. Who don't realize that muslims revere mary. Jesus. And of course we're all abrahamic faith. So also moses. And david and solomon these are part of. The panoply of. People. That muslims revere as well and for muslim women justice for catholic women and many others mary as a role model. I had lunch with one of my good muslim friends so hard taman. In order to get her reading on who her role models were. And she and i'll mention this a little talk about these later khadijah. Aisha fatima etc whom she named what she said to me she said what. Who are your role models. And so we began comparing and of course i could talk about teresa of avila. And catherine of siena. And mary rhodes who was one of the founders of my own religious community. So we have a lot in common in struggle. And finally you probably caught somewhere that i'm a sister of loretto. I even get the thing about the veil and i've actually done mutual interviews with muslim women about. The hijab the headscarf the vale whatever you want to call it. And i fully understand what that and i fully understand but we have a lot in common on that. Nota move specifically about women in islam. Their struggles in their progress. Let me say there's a writer. Named valentine moghadam. Who says and i think he's right and i think we have to keep this in mind as we look at women in islam. That islam is no more or less patriarchal. And it's longer history. Then christianity judaism hinduism or the other major world religions. What does the struggles i'm going to mention about women in islam today our struggles. We may have overcome them and some of our traditions today. But we are we had almost all of them. In christianity and judaism the other abrahamic traditions. No. In the context of his own time. The prophet muhammad peace be upon him. Promoted women's rights by all account women were in a miserable condition in 17th century arabia. But with the coming of muhammad women excuse me marriage. Required a woman's consent. Who would have thought it didn't but. You know it didn't. Women got some inheritance rights they got the right to property ownership and other kinds of rights. The quran stresses the equality of women and men before god and says that they have equality in religious duties. And so a woman is required in islam just as a man is to pray 5 times a day. The fast during ramadan to make the hajj or the pilgrimage to mecca. The practice socket which is the practice of charity. That falls on women as well as men. However the quran also talks about men. As the protectors and maintainers of women. Which of course really talks about and if you're into feminist theory. Of course this is complementarity of roll. It's not equality. It's in and it doesn't work very well. With equality. But. Islam may. At least at the moment preach that but i hasten to say if you talk to the vatican you'd hear the same line. You're here a lot of it in the mormon church from conservative evangelicals from very conservative jews. This is just my way of saying that. You know muslims are not alone in this. No. Women in islam. Themselves. Let me say their rights and their responsibilities differ depending on where in the world they live. Saudi arabia iran and afghanistan are not at all the same as turkey indonesi lebanon etc i've been to turkey and lebanon you know you'll see some women running around and he jobs and an awful lot of them without it's probably 50-50 and turkey and that's a country that's 99% muslim. So do you heard. Ingrid mattson talk about the headscarf and whether it's required that is a huge debate and discussion. That is going on among islamic women. For the record the quran does not say you got to wear head scarf it says you should be modest. That's needless to say subject to interpretation. But. You know you go back enough centuries in europe and you'll find every woman were avail. It was it would that was considered the standard. So. It's a nana and any event. But the other thing to understand is of course in much of the muslim world the face of islam. Is intertwined with the political systems. And so in many of those countries for example saudi arabia and iran come to mind especially. You have religious police. Who are enforcing things like dress codes and. All kinds of religious rules. Something we would find rather abhorrent and strange in the united states. But if it entangles the debate a lot. A which is also very much around. Legalism and interpretations of sharia law. Alright so in other words it's it's the whole question of women's rights. Is very different depending on where you are and who's enforcing anything. There are two areas that are sometimes connected with women's rights in islam that are have nothing to do with islam and i want to set that record straight first before i talk about the things that really are there struggle. Female genital mutilation. Which i think most of you know it. Cutting of the. Summit women's. Reproductive organs. At a very young age that that is a cultural practice it has nothing to do with islam. There are in fact imams in. Particularly eastern africa where this is more widely practiced who has issued flood was. That's a you know a.m.. Like a very strong declaration of about shalt not. Kind of declaration about female genital mutilation they have taken positions against it. The second practice that sometimes connected with islam but it's not is honor killing. Add of course this is the whole question of. Let's say a woman who's married is caught with another man or she's out with a man whose and she's not married to or related to and all my god. And. In a culture that has what's called in. And i find it just as hard as you might to bend my head around this but it's an honor shame culture. And what she does is not just her problem but she's bringing shame on the family. And soul. Her relatives feel compelled to kill her that's called an honor killing. Often practiced in places like pakistan muslim areas in india and so forth. That is not islam. That again is a cultural practice most of the muslim world doesn't do it. All right and is. Quranic scholars would say no so and. We have we have pakistani sisters in my community and one of them. But quite a bit of time working against honor killing. In pakistan. She literally would get in her jeep. And go into a village where a woman had been marked for honor killing plonker in the jeep and drive off. Hundreds of miles away to a safe house. So. I kind of know of this first from her stories. What are the areas of struggle. Alright. The real areas of struggle have to do and i've had many more than women tell me this divorce laws. In many muslim countries. Who can initiate a divorce. Only the husband or can the wife do it. Must both of them agree to it. Can a woman excuse me can a man issue accomplished divorce by saying. That's alec it's called i divorce you i divorce you i divorce you three times and it's over with. Well believe it or not there are things like that but get debated in the muslim world. A second area is inheritance law. In many countries women are entitled to only half the inheritance share. That's available to males. With the same degree of relation to the deceased. Now that grows out of the chronic injunction that men are responsible for the economic well-being of women and their families so they figured men would need twice as much money i guess. However as we know as we look at the contemporary world. Does not a standard that would hold. I told many women in many muslim countries are fighting to change these laws. The status of a woman's testimony in court. There are some scholars who say that it takes to women's voices to equal a man. Hello. That that doesn't that doesn't bode very well if you believe in equality again there are struggles about that. Less widespread concerns one has to do with travel. And. No. Technically speaking a muslim woman who's married is supposed to. Inform her husband and actually get his permission in order to leave the house. Add in some countries particularly those with religious police she needs to be accomplished, accompanied by a man when traveling. In actual practice that isn't done very often in countries that don't have a religious play. Okay. That very often it's just like in the united states most of the muslim women i know would say why. You know they wouldn't think about doing that but it's on the books and it's something that. Gets debated a lot but let me say because sometimes. The. Customs are the laws of one country get extrapolated to the whole muslim world and he's only saudi arabia that forbids a woman to drive only. Every place else you can get a driver's license. Education of women. Many people know that under the taliban in afghanistan. Women and girls were denied an education. Let me say. They practically standalone in the muslim world on that. Women have been educated in islam for centuries you can go back to the. 11th 12th 13th centuries and find women who are scholars including protonix collars. And in all the major professions. And today and most almost all of the muslim world. Women. Have the right to education and higher education. This is true and even very conservative muslim societies like saudi arabia and iran. All right so this it's it's the taliban stand pretty much alone there. Now but once it comes to employment. Of course there are more limitations there are certain jobs in certain countries. Again like a ran or saudi arabia that segregate the sexes like they might have a hospital for women and. Hospital form and university for women and one for men and so forth. They might find themselves in segregated employment rolls that doesn't mean they can't be employed or they can't be in the profession. But it might be difficult. Afghanistan again under the taliban was quite unusual. And insisting women remain at home. And they even they couldn't keep them all at home. The dress code. Of course and i think i pretty much covered this but for the record. The headscarf is called a hijab. People women who wear a face veil that's called a niqab. And if you got the whole makela the roll band everything that's the. Okay. The little head scarf is not a broker. Just a lot of. Use of terms interchangeably and that's not quite right. Ed of course whether that is highly debated. The problem is if you go to a ranter afghanistan even you or i if you're a woman would have to wear. At least a hijab. And you know probably some kind of a modest robe or we wouldn't get past security at the airport. So again it has to do with the intertwining of. Religious roles and secular roles in turkey they don't care. Lebanon they don't care. The emirates they don't care etc indonesia they certainly don't. Anyways so and then finally religious trolls. Certainly leading friday prayers is a huge. Yuge. Debate a very iconoclastic act. But it's spreading. Amina wadud it in new york and just recently another group did it in dc and there are a few ongoing congregations where women lead friday prayers it what an imam does. It's very small. But so is the roman catholic women priests movement. You know. The challenge is there and it wasn't there a decade ago. And the same thing with segregation in mosques. This is being challenged increasingly the gender segregation. Because women are either behind man or in a separate room. Alright. And there are women and men who are starting to question that. There's a little problem because there's saturday money. Some of these mosques and there are some. Conflicts are. But. At least the challenge is a foot. Alright. And as i say we cannot ignore the fact that all of these challenges. Even sitting in church. Is something that we have faced. And other faith traditions you know you go back to colonial america women sat on one side of the church a men's head on the other. That was an accepted way to do it. So. What's important is that all these struggles are being enjoined by muslim women. And they have great role models and i just want to. Talk about just a couple of them briefly because the heart come on share these with me over lunch. And i was drinking this in i didn't know the full scope of this myself. Her greatest role model is khadijah the first wife of muhammad i hate took 11 wipes over the course of his life. But when he was married to khadija she was the only one. She's the first muslim convert. It's not surprising. She's married.. But she was older than muhammad. She was a successful and wealthy business woman. And she employed him. Probably got to know each other. And she asked for his hand in marriage. Muslim women love to tell you stories like this. When islam was persecuted she was fearless. And left behind her wealth to liat liat to stay with muhammad and lead a simpler life. Today she is considered the mother of all believers. Two muslims both men and women. And then she cited aisha who is the second wife of muhammad. And she was his biographer and chronicler. The very fact that she could read and write with. Quite an achievement in itself. She became a political leader of islam after the death of muhammad. And was especially influential in decisions. Took islam outside the arabian peninsula. Aisha. And finally fatima. Daughter of muhammad very important particularly deshea muslims. She's considered a leader in muslim spirituality. And when i heard her story and read about her on the internet she reminded me of a lot of the women who founded religious communities. And the catholic tradition. Because what was she concerned about. Living simply. Caring for the earth. And being deeply concerned about those who were poor. Deeply concerned about those two reports lived a very simple life. You know i think it a christian tradition would probably have canonized. And innocence muslim women have done that themself. So. What i'm when i guess what i would like to say in wrapping up is that. We have a lot of. Hope i think as women and as men who care. I'm not one who. You know rights men out of this struggle i believe that men are an integral part of the struggle for justice and the struggle for gender equality no matter what face tradition or no face tradition. I think that's important. But although the struggle continues. The issues are many. Women in islam are moving ahead in leadership whether it's ingrid mattson. Or i'm more shh. in morocco or lay my boy. She's like nelson mandela and martin luther king all rolled into one powerful african woman as just incredible. They're all leaders of contemporary islam and their emerging and more important more and more important role. And i was especially hard and recently at with the uprising in egypt. To see so many women. And then on international women's day to see the women come out. Demanding greater equality. And islam in the egyptian culture. So that was great. So let me say we can all join muslim women. Catholic women. Women of mormon women of any tradition. Where women are denied full equality in this great struggle. So there is struggle but there is hope. And so with that again i say to you thank you. And once again assalamualaikum. Thank you maureen. I'm going to put in a little. Unsolicited perk here and that is that. Maureen fiddler's book. Breaking the stained glass ceiling is wonderful and it is available in the parlors after the service. And also we do not get interfaith voices on vermont public radio. And i'm told that a few call to vermont public radio to encourage them to bring that program here might have an effect so. Perhaps you will be moved to do that. Let's join in our responsive reading which is number 464. By judy chicago. Audrey the upright type. And would you read the italics. And then all that has divided us will merge. And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind.

uusociety_org

2009-11-22%20Sermon.mp3

I have a story that's a little bit like a story of stone soup and a little bit like loving friends together. Reaching out to share in the circle this is a story about a man. Who had a dream. And in the dream. An angel came to him. And the angel said let me show you heaven and hell. And the angel took the man by the hand and they walk down a long long staircase. They came to adore open the door looked inside and there was a room full of people all sizes and colors children and grown-ups people of all races and nationalities and they were sitting in a circle. But they seemed. Very very. Unhappy they were moaning. And groaning. And some of them were crying and they all seem to be very very hungry they didn't have enough to eat. And right in the middle of the circle where they were sitting. That was a great big bowl of soup like this when it smelled delicious it was piping hot filled with. Spices in all. Just so good smelling. The man asked the angel why are these people so unhappy. They're all famish they seem to be starving to death why can't they have some of this soup. The angel said look. The man looked. And each of the people in the circle had a big big big spoon was like this one only it had a handle it was so long it was longer than people's arms. Some of them had big forks but the handle on those forks to was longer than those oak there their own arms and he saw a woman. Reach into the soup and take out some of the broth. But when she tried to put it in her mouth. Hannah was so long that she couldn't. Get it up to her own face and. The man song. A guy with a fork spirit potato but the handle on the 4th. Couldn't get it to his own mouth. Romance at all. This is terrible so this is hell. This is hell. The angel said. And now let me show you have until they walked up. Along long staircase and came to a door open the door and there was a room. In the room that we're people. Kids and grownups all ages and sizes and descriptions. They were sitting in a circle. And in the middle of the circle that was a big pot of soup was. Piping hardware. Potatoes and celery and carrots how it smelled so good and all the people in this room. We're talkin they were. Laughing. They were having a great old time in the man looked any saw that each of those people in that room. How to spoon with a long handle or a fork with a long handle. He said that the angel all this looks just like hell but. Top here the people are all happy with what's. The secret. And the angel said to them and there's not any secret up here but people have just learned how to feed. Each other. Which isn't. A big secret there's really enough to share. If we're all generous with each other. This holiday there going to be some people who. Try to celebrate but don't have a home. To celebrate in there going to be some people who. Really don't know where the food is going to be coming for their table when the next week. Which is too bad because the world grows enough food for everybody. To have all they need there's plenty to go around it's like that old story. From the bible you may have heard call the lowe's in the fishes. And the story says that jesus was teaching the people. On hillside. And was coming to the end of the day. Starting to get dark. And there were thousands and thousands of people there in the. The disciples jesus's followers said to him we better send these people home so they can. Go have some dinner and jesus said what don't worry about it we'll feed him ourselves right here. And his disciples said. We can't feed all these people that must be five thousand of them we've only got a couple fishes hearing. Five loaves bread. And jesus said well. Let's give it a try break the bread and and divide up the fishes and put them in baskets and distribute those among the people and that's what they did they. They shared those baskets with the crowd and the story since that they all had plenty to eat. And we're 12 bigbasket. Leftover. That's what the story says. Let me know what happened exactly that way but i think there's some truth in it because people have been trying to live by the lesson of that story for a long time. One of the people who tried to. To live that lesson in her own life. Was a woman named. Dorothy day. And she wrote about her. Blythe and her work in. A book an autobiography that she called loaves and fishes. She talked about growing up as a child she grew up on the west coast. San francisco. And one morning when she was a child she woke up in that city and her bed. What is shaking. She heard her father yelling at her family everybody get out of the house get out of the house right away there's an earthquake sochi. She ran outdoors. Near her. Mother was in the doorway with her sister her brothers had run outdoors and the whole earth was. Trembling that was a big water tower back behind where they lived and she could see the tower swinging back and forth in the water sloshing over the sides of the tower onto the ground and their houses around some of them had the roofs caving in some of them work. Catching on fire fortunately all of her family was safe that terrible day nobody was injured but many others. Where hurt. And there were many people killed it was a frightening frightening. Sad day for the people of san francisco but what dorothy day remembered as a little girl. Would not how frightening that why she remembered the way that everybody. Took care of each other. After that disaster. Her family was all right so they made sandwiches. And they made soup and they opened up their doors and they took in their neighbors. And everybody who had enough share their clothing and their blankets with the people who. Didn't have enough. And dorothy thought to herself you know i wish the world could be like this everyday. Books. Lending a hand to those who. Have a need. That was her dream and when she grew up she moved to new york city she moved to. One of the very bad neighborhoods in new york city and she opened up what she called a house of hospitality. It was. A food bank it was place where you could get a warm coat if you needed one with a place where you could get a meal if you were hungry. She said anybody who knocked on the door and because she fed workers. Who were on strike. For a fair wage some people call dorothy day a communist. And because she didn't believe in. War or paying taxes for war sand people. Question her loyalty to her country but she said she was just being loyal. To a higher law. Baseball of loving your neighbor. As yourself. Didn't get any salary they didn't have any government funds for the work they were doing dorothy day was often as poor as the people she was serving but she was very. Rich inside herself she was. Wealthy. With. Loving ideas for better world. She remembered that off and in the evening would be so many people coming in the door she didn't know where. The bread would come from her it would be enough soup to go around but somehow she always managed the bills would come and she would know how they get paid. But somehow the money. Always. Arrived. When dorothy day died back in 1980. Her funeral was in the biggest church in new york city. And worth thousands and thousands of people there some of them. Where. Notables and many were nobody's but they were all equally important equally. Valuable. In dorothy's iso. She didn't. Die and go to heaven at last dorothy day was carrying heaven around inside herself. All her. Lifelong because heaven. Caring about other people knowing. But you need other people. And if they need you to.

uusociety_org

2010-04-11-2%20Sermon.mp3

There's a peanuts cartoon that shows charlie brown chatting with his little sister sally. We've been reading poems in school he complains. I never understand any of them this is what sally says how am i supposed to know. Which poems. To like. Big brother explains. Knowingly somebody tells you nowhere many years when i agreed with peanuts poetry was a closed book for me i i didn't know how to tell if a poem was good or bad today i'm more inclined to agree with emily dickinson. Who said if i read a book and it makes my. Body so cold no fire can ever warm me i know that's poetry if i physically feel as if the top of my head were taken off i know. Bat. Is poetry. Where other people turn to self-help books i go to verse to clear the mental cobwebs. Maybe more balance should be taught in seminary more shel silverstein and sunday school. We might even be able to remember our own simplest. Definition. Because if the sacred is the opposite of the mundane then i think poetry is what rescues is from both. Prose. And our prosaic preoccupations with getting and spending and raising the church budget and brings us into the presence of what. Through words can otherwise be send. My own. Education in poetry was completely hit-or-miss as a ministerial intern. I did my placement at the first parish in cambridge in harvard square. And my supervisor there was a guy named ed lane and. Ed bestowed on me a great gift that was a volume called. Modern religious. Poems actually he loaned this book to me because it was out-of-print even then but i xeroxed it and. Put it in a red 3-ring binder that's up on my shelf where i keep all my worship stuff. I've handed book close to 30 years returning to it again and again more often than. Anything else from my student days whether it's preparing for worship for getting ready to do a funeral. But if i'm not much of a poet myself. I am a preacher which is related i've always liked words. Which makes me. A slow reader. And. First lowrider. And i am even a slow. Talker. And as slow food is the fast-food poetry is to the daily diet. Tweets and talking heads i can tune out all that. Twittering but. When i'm reading i liked it to savor each phrase on the page skipping ahead would be like skipping over the notes in a piece of music to get to the final cord. I'm as much interested in the melody of the languages in the meaning and part of the art of preaching i think. Is trying to make the sound match. 50 cent speakers when the to correlate that's when the hemispheres start singing. Our brains are probably. Wired. For this verse originally grew out of the babbling of. Of infants when language was more enjoyed for its rhyme than its reasoning research has shown that. Babies actually prefer listening to justice kind of. Verbling rather than more elevated adult discourse. My mother. For instance swears that the very first complete sentences that i ever spoke were in the form of heroic couplets she was driving my brother he's older than i am. And they were there in the front seat. Playing nursery rhymes jack and jill in the inky dinky spider and so forth chattering away and two-year-old gary was in. The band. In my diaper slobber drooling down my chin. When i piped up with the lines. I'm a poor little ghostie with nothing to eat. I like to eat children they make the best meet my mother nearly wrecked the car unfortunately that that seems to have been the high point in my career as a bard but it does suggest that. Poetry gets tucked away deep inside the crinkles of the brain the very first glimmerings of language to enter and also apparently the last vestiges to leave. Damaged brain can be cured through what's now called melodic intonation therapy. Stroke victims. Who blocks the ability to talk. Can now. Sing out phrases that they would not otherwise be able to verbalize. When. The left-hand that's hooked up to the right hemisphere. Taps out. A steady beat. But this technique was not known two decades ago. When margaret robinson had her stroke. She was teaching poetry two women who were incarcerated at a prison in massachusetts she'd already published a couple volumes of verse and received a lot of recognition. But she woke up one glorious spring morning. She opened her mouth. And if she remembers all this noise came out all this awful language. The doctors called it. Apraxia complete loss of control of the muscles needed to form simple words or neurologist said that it was hopeless another physician recommended she go to a nursing home and diagnosis that sent her into a tailspin as she tells it. I needed my leg. I needed my arm i needed my hand but in a fundamental way i was. My voice. The loss of that voice sounded like. Felt like a diminishment of soul. And the breakthrough came a couple months later a good friend was pushing her wheelchair around the grounds of the hospital on a summer day. Hand began lightheartedly to sing out the lyrics to an old stephen sondheim song. We ain't got a barrel of money. Maybe were ragged and funny and if they. They traveled the lawn that way side-by-side. Margaret. Joined in the singing. Halting. Garbled. But they were the first words that it come out that didn't feel like they were tortured from her throat in the inside dawn that maybe she could recover her speech through. Recitation by repeating allow the poems that she loves so she worked it. Emily dickinson. After great pain a formal feeling comes. And. Hopkins pied beauty and she applied herself to to shakespeare and rockies i learn by going where i have to go. But above all she grappled with this poem by edna st. vincent millay renascence. The world stands out on either side no wider than the heart is wide. Has lots of tricky words you gradually mastered omniscience and immensity and so forth. She lives down down in the berkshires she writes poems that she leaves in a little cubby. On her. Front porches. A gift offering to passersby. She didn't ever completely recover her. Physical mobility. Her soul because that's what poetry does it. It heals us and restores us to ourselves. Poetry is universal b. Recited by indigenous shamans and college sophomores. Associated in all times and cultures with the possession of. Pretty insider information and what all these forms of poetry have in common from new york to new guinea. Is the fundamental unit of. The line. Have distinct. Measure of phrasing that's not really defined by the pause to take a breath. But bye. Anesthetic requirement that seems to be closely linked to the brain's own methods of information processing. Frederick turner. Who teaches literature down at the university of texas. Has analyzed m cross-culturally. And he's found that the basic units of the line are all the same everyone is about. 3 seconds in length roughly regardless of whether it comes from a hebrew song. Or hungarian folk rhyme and. 3 seconds hellingly is just about the duration of. The psychological. Present. The fundamental parcel of human awareness consider that. If the clock. Strikes. 3. You know what time it is you don't have to count. But if it's seven or eight the last chime has occurred. Too far from the first one to form a single sensory impression. So take out your your watch here if it's got a second-hand. Or a stopwatch. The world stands out on either side no wider than the heart. Is why these. Repeated. Limes 3 seconds breaking on the mines shoreline have the function of. Upholding is here in the present moment bringing us into rapport. With the speaker into relationship with each other and our larger environment which is why someone is called poetry the news that's always knew it is. Immediate. Here and now literally it brings us to our senses. And what gives poetry power. Isn't its ability to. Describe. Discursive latest life of ours so much is to make it all. Alluring. And present in palpable so that rather than talking about. Humor. A limerick makes the smile and allergy makes us feel. Elegiac. And. Without any lengthy discourse on the divine or statements to smack of. Doctrine or dogma. Poetry can take us into the realm of the holy which is what archibald macleish meant when he said that a poem should be. Equal to not true. For all the history of grief. An empty doorway. And a maple leaf. For love the leaning grass is in two lights above the sea. Poem. Should not mean. But be. Or is the unitarian minister clark should not be. But wham. Poetry can wackest. On head or hitters in the god because it's as close as we get to the essence of being which is not. Static. But is athletic and. Muscular and dynamic. Muriel rukeyser once said that the universe is not made of atoms but of stories but i tend to think that the universe is made of something like little. Haikus. This is my own string theory it's made out of strings of of syllables that whisper. And admire because it's scientist. Plum define structures of the cosmos they're coming to the conclusion that the fundamentals of our world aren't protons or neutrons or anything that's. Inert. And fix. Rather the world is made of these transient. Creative episodes. Bleeding. Eruptions from some primordial emptiness. Based on underlying symmetries of matter and energy that define a strict logic. But proceed according to internal requirements. They're like nothing so much as the artistic necessities of an unfolding poem. Or a tone poem. For a melody. Frank will check. Hoegaarden. Nobel prize for pioneering a theory of something called quantum chromodynamics. Explained in a lecture where he teaches it in mighty that in his field i'm quoting. Adams appear as musical instruments. Not in a metaphorical way i'm quoting. But in a very precise manner. Because every particle from the photon to the neutrino to the electron is an expression of some beat or rhythm or tim pho so the ancient dream of a music of the spheres will check says has a quite rigorous confirmation there is. A music. Have the void. And there's this intoxication to the music that's so powerful that it makes itself inkarnate the world somehow sings itself into being the chanting. Become. Enchanted so that the suns and the planets in. The hills in the rivers all take form. As emerson says. God has not made some. Beautiful things. But. Beauty. Is. The creator of the universe. Statement that might have been uttered by any modern physicist for whom elegance is the precondition of creation. And this is why poets come closer than theologians to unraveling the ultimate. Back in 1805 hosea ballou wrote a treatise on the atonement it seemed. Revelatory at the time denying the existence of halla firming the simple humanity of jesus but. Those old controversies of all grown cold. When is william ellery channing sermon unitarian christianity was published in pamphlet form a few years later that again was a runaway. Best soundbar the idea that the bible should be read and criticize like any other book. These were radical ideas at the time but you can't dig into these old works of exegesis without a yawn now it's the poetry of our forbearers that still. Homes and reverberate. Longfellow oliver wendell holmes william cullen bryant. James russell lowell these were all unitarian so popular in their time they were called the household poet's they were like the rock stars of their time. Translations were. Global. The unitarian clergyman thomas wentworth higginson who mentored emily dickinson. Release that longfellow was on a tour. From. Constantinople to marseille and the talk at the dinner table turn to verse. There were tablemates of six different nationalities who could recite the harvard professors poetry. From memory in as many languages. At least bostonians they still have their following. In 1997. Robert pinsky who was then the country's poet laureate. Invited americans to send him stories about their favorite verse during the. 12 months. When the window was open for submissions there were 18 people 18,000 people. Who's sandy in. Poems that attach their lives pages 5297 farmers mechanics nurses teachers. Some of them were people like reverend michael haynes of roxbury. 12th street baptist church who told his own story resurrection through poetry. My parents came as immigrants. African caribbean to roxbury he relates. They purchased a little cottage on a little street that was dominated by irish and jewish families and then the crash came the big depression. I needed inspiration. I need a challenge. I needed a philosophy to live by in in junior high school and irish teacher kept quoting the 7th stands of a poem by person she called the new england poet. Maybe you remember parts of that poem which longfellow. Pend. It's a voice from my inmost heart he said at a time. When i was rallying from depression. Tell me not in mournful slumbers life is but an empty dream. For the soul is dead that slumbers and things are not what they seem. Not. Enjoyment and not sorrow is are destined in doorway. But to act. 50th tomorrow. Find us farther than today those words. Boyd a young michael hand years later. When he was. Middle-aged. He found himself in need of poetry again when he became critically ill. He returned to those stanzas that he learned in high school. Has his illness progressed he started making plans for his own funeral. Scribbling notations for inscriptions on a gravestone. Well we got better. He didn't die about a rumor went around that. The good clergyman had passed away somehow that tombstone he designed it was supposed to be in a warehouse in roxbury been set up and installed in the local cemetery and ashton to the granite with an epitaph. Life is real and life is earnest in the grave is not its goal. Dust. Doubt art. To dust returnest was not spoken of the soul. So how did the words of a nineteenth-century unitarian who like to start each day by translating a line of dante. Managed to motivate and inspire a black baptist preacher. A century later. Which because. Unitarianism at one time was. A great faith produced. Great verse that spoke cross the lines of. Fredon race and class. And if our movement is going to make a contribution again it will be. Because we can. We learn. Our original language and speak again that that idiom in inflections that everyone can embrace and understand. Does the unitarian minister. John haynes holmes road many years ago. When i say god. It's poetry. Not theology. Nothing that any theologian ever wrote about god is help me very much. But everything the poets have written about flowers and birds and skies and sea. And the saviors of the race and god whoever he or she maybe has it one time or another touched my soul. More and more as i grow older i live in the lovely thought of these prophets and seers. The theologians gather dust on the shelves of my library but the poets are staying with my fingers and blotted with my tears. In poetry. Lift our thoughts to rejuvenate our spirits fires with passion startle us in amazement bend our minds toward the holy. Poetry. Do that. Judging from our history. I'd say it's the only thing that ever has. And now in gratitude for this creative community. It sustains us in our spiritual quest. We receive our offering to put our faith to work here and in the wider world.

uusociety_org

2011-09-25-2%20Sermon.mp3

Love is the doctrine of this church. The quest of truth is it sacrament and service is it's prayer. Did well together in peace to seek knowledge and freedom. To serve human need to the end that all souls shall grow into harmony with the divine. Thus do we covenant with each other. Unitarian universalism is a creed was faith there is no statement of belief that you are required to assent to in order to belong. In the absence of a creed we have over the centuries tried to craft covenant the language around which we can be unified. A covenant is a promise. And ideal that we all aspire to it is a vision. Of who we are when we are at our best. The words i just read come from a number of historical covenants from universalism and unitarianism. Arranged by griswold. Williams and adapted even a little bit more. Love. The orientation of the heart. The quest for truth the orientation of the mind. And service. The orientation of the hands. Last week at the council meeting i offered a brief training on how to run a meaningful meeting. I asked if various committee chairs and leaders present first to talk about why they come to this society. They had lots of answers but some of the most common were for inspiration. For fellowship. To feel cared for. To care for others. To learn something new. And to make a difference. I told him that it would be great if all these things happen for every single person every single time you walked through these doors. Moments of inspiration to challenge us to grow in spirit. Feeling babes in the warm embrace of fellowship. An affirmation of belonging. Of being seen and heard and cared for. Knowing that you've made a difference feeling transformed. Am i asking too much. Especially since i want you to have that kind of experience not just on sunday morning but on wednesday evening. I want you to have that kind of experience while you are weeding the flower beds or sorting crayons or folding and stapling the newsletter. Every meeting every discussion group every party or dinner every march or picket line should offer spiritual sustenance. If you are doing something. Anything on behalf of the first unitarian universalist society of burlington that something should be transformative. Why do i say that. Well because i'm a minister and we say things like that. But also because you have a mission statement. That says that. Do you know your mission statement. Can you find it on your order of service it's right on the front under that pretty picture of the hands reaching for each other. Could we read it together. We gather to inspire spiritual growth. Care for each other and our community. Seek truth and ask for justice. That mission statement is not just some nice verbiage that you forget most of the time and tried out for special occasions. I think you should all know it by heart. Your mission is the definitive statement of your identity. It is your stated reason for being as a unitarian universalist congregation. It is in fact something that you were all accountable to. When i draw an organizational chart of the uu congregation i don't put the congregation at the top i put the mission statement at the top. The mission statement. Is what each of you. Measure yourself against and all the work that you do on behalf of this congregation it's the lens of discernment. By which you make decisions about your life in faith together. And your mission statement you will know it echoes those historical statements of faith. It calls for inspiration and mutual care and action and service. Now i'm sure that you have all done some volunteer work of some kind in the course if you live. You've donated baby food to jump. When you remember. You've written letters to the editor or you called or emailed your elected representatives. You've marked or stood vigil in support of justice for peace. You've handed out the order of service and welcomed visitors you've made the coffee rake the leaves poured the juice for children. You've set up chairs and tables you have sung or played music you've mowed the lawn. Did you know when you were doing those things that you were engaged in spiritual practice. Did you do the mindfully remembering that what you were doing connected. To your deepest health values. Did you know. When you did those things that you were at prayer. To offer your time and talent and service to others is a powerful spiritual discipline because service will always expose you to profoundly different perspectives. And you cannot help but be transformed. Buy those acts of service. That is why the old statements is faith use the phrase service is our prayer. Service. Like prayer. Is that which transforms us takes us out of our comfort zone. Encourages us to grow to move to new heights. One of the components of small group ministry is an expectation that the members of the group will perform some kind of active service together. Sometimes people are surprised by this. Sometimes. They complain about it. They say we want to sit and talk to each other and listen to each other it's too much trouble to find a time to go out and do something together why do we have to. Yes they sometimes people lying. But the purpose of taking part in a covenant group is to grow spiritually and that means heart mind and hands. Listening is important talking is important shared silence is important. But so is shared service. Walking together can be transformative. I'm using the small group ministry is an example because it has the most intentional statement about including. All those aspects of spiritual growth. Next week after the second service you can learn more about small group ministry here. If you're looking for a place to belong to grow in faith and to make a difference. That may be what you're looking for. Also coming up soon this fall will be the first new you you class of the year and orientation for potential members of this congregation. I will tell those prospective members what i tell prospective members and every congregation i have ever served. I'll say that we have certain expectations for our members. We expect you to be present. To find a way to grow your soul. Jamaica financial commitment through the stewardship process. And to be of service both to the congregation and the community. The matter fact i think we have that expectation not of new members but of all of us. It's what we expect of each other. Meaningful membership means to be present and what better way to be present than to serve. I know we all come at the beginning because we need something. But as we grow in our faith we realize that what we may most need is to offer ourselves in service to others. And what better way to grow your soul then to put the needs of others ahead of your own sometimes. Putting your own needs in perspective. Here's an example. When i saw danny was in early elementary school burien danny and i volunteered at a homeless shelter for families with children. Our job was to come over on saturday mornings and entertain the children while the parents attended job training or parenting classes. One morning i stayed inside to do arts and crafts. Well barry and danny and tyson more active kids out into the yard for a rousing game of nerf football. As we were driving away danny said boy that was fun who were those kids. Those were the kids living at the shelter this week i replied. His face changed he looked absolutely thunderstruck. Those he said where the homeless. Oh that was a morning of learning for all of us. In that morning of has on service we learned something about ourselves and about other people. As we process danny's question and his response and then our responses we realized. That we had experienced a profound. Transformation. We went from seeing people who despite our best intentions had thought of the homeless as some distant other. To being people who knew in our hearts that there was no such thing as the homeless. The folks in the shelter that week were people with complex life stories narratives that had brought them there and we hoped narrative that would. Take them away from their. Homelessness can be viewed as a vexing and complex problem that is likely to make even the most compassionate among us shrug their shoulders in desperate times. But those kids and their parents had become human faces and stories. And believe me once you have looked into people's eyes. Once you have tossed a nerf football into a child's hands across the yard. You can never think of them in personally. Again. We unitarian-universalist are fond of saying that we are the people of deeds not cream. Reverend forest church who was for many years the minister at all souls. In new york city. How to say little bit in an essay by that same name. In this essay called deeds not creed's he wrote and i'm quoting since the first century a debate has continued within the christian community concerning whether salvation can best be secured by faith or by works. Even when unitarianism and universalism identified exclusively as part of the liberal christian community. Both wind in the direction of works. Search biblical injunctions as being doors of the word and not hearers only. And faith without works is dead. Are the cornerstones of our liberal faith. Our heritage reminds us that we are a d a face of deeds not free. According to the second of our faith six sources words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice compassion and the transforming power of love. We can be proud of many of our unitarian and universalist forebears who did precisely that. But what about us he asks. What does this pride of identity avail us. If the extent of our own morrow exercise is limited to clucking our tongue throwing up our hands and when we finally do act. Issuing an occasional smug and ineffectual manifesto. The answer is absolutely nothing. Right-wing fundamentalist marshall far more energy money and talent to advance their creed. Then we do to transform the world according to our vision. Our slogan deeds not creed's us becomes a mockery. Too often we have neither while they have both. In the face of this we are left with two choices. When is the climb off our moral high horse the other. To learn to ride. Both are preferable to high-minded posturing and sophisticated resignation. But only the ladder learning to ride. Represents the promise and the fulfillment of our faith. And quote. Early in my ministry i learned that when you're going to say something dangerous quote somebody else i didn't say that he did. Any of you who have ever been to general assembly do know that we have a tendency sometimes to fall into that trap of thinking that issuing. Smug manifesto solve the problem. Several years ago one of my colleagues grew so frustrated with the. Smug manifesto approach that he tongue and cheek started circulating a petition. Asking that we vote for world peace. Many people signed it. Faith without works. Faith without works is indeed a dead faith worth it is a hypocritical face. The ancient debate between faith and works may sound odd to those of us who have. Embrace this craiglist movement we call unitarian universalism i would. Challenge all of us to demonstrate that we have put something meaningful in the place of the creed's that we rejected. Something powerful and world transforming. Even a radically free faith needs to be embodied. Even the most liberal humanist manifestation of our faith needs to be incarnated. The union minister john morgan wrote a meditation manual for us several years ago called awakening soul. It includes this brief story. Vacant lot had been an eyesore for years. So inhospitable that even street thugs no longer went there. An elderly man from the next block began to putter in the lot. Do you remove the trash cleared away the rocks and began to till the soil. Curious passersby began to take an interest in the progress one or two even stopping to help. The man's own life grew richer for the folks he met on the lot. Buyseasons and flowers bloom does the garden struggle to establish itself. The next summer a veritable garden of eden fed the neighbors with beauty for the eye and food for the body. A local person stopped by to admire the lot. Isn't it marvellous what the lord has done here he rhapsodize to the old man. Yes responded the gardener. But you should have seen it when the lord was working it alone. See that man was one of us. He believes in what william r jones uuc legend of strong human has been called the functional ultimacy of humanity. I'll translate that. In other words no matter what you believe about the existence or the non-existence of god you'd better believe that it's up to us. To bring about the world that we are waiting for. This is one of the hallmarks of our faith to believe the salvation is what happens in this world and at this time. We are not waiting for the grapevine by in fact we're not waiting for anyting. Or we shouldn't be because there's too much work to do. Let's get started or keep on working with all our might to bring this world into alignment with our vision. Of the world community with peace liberty and justice for all. Not by talking about it. But by doing it in our small piece of the world. So this is volunteer sunday. Soon you will have the opportunity to meet the many people who lead the various groups to do the various works with this congregation. They're eagle eager to talk to you about that work. And maybe to sign you up. On a roster of volunteers. The cheapest all. Sheltered and nurtured. This is the work that gives voice to our values and makes tangible or. Commitment to radical hospitality justice and compassion. This year the council decided to take a new approach to the volunteer fair and i have to say that it worked quite well at the first service. So instead of. Praying for good weather so that there would be room enough to set up the tables outside or instead of praying that you would go all the way downstairs something which i understand some of you are loath to do. We are having the volunteer fair in here. Every committee and group will stand under their banner. Right here in the sanctuary. You don't even have to leave the room to meet them. I encourage you to stay and explore some new possibilities. After you've made the rounds you can have your coffee we will keep it hot for you don't worry. So i have one final question for you. If our religion were against the law. Would there be enough evidence to convict you. That's a question we ministers love asking. If you're not sure. We can fix that this morning. We can aid and abet you in being a unitarian universalist person of deeds not creed's. With hearts oriented towards love mines united in the quest for truth and many hands offered and service we will together fulfill the words of that historic covenant. It's still capture our yearning as a community of faith. Did well together in peace. To seek knowledge and freedom. To serve human need to the end that all souls shall grow in harmony. Josh do we covenant with each other.

uusociety_org

2013-01-06-2SermonGary.mp3

Thank you roberta. Good to see so many people here. Familiar faces. New faces also. At haverford college. They are called the quaker. Bouncers. Undergraduates. Jeff. Chris and phillip. The study math history and philosophy respectively at this friends founded school. But on weekends. They're in the habit of hitting the parties jeff got this idea when. One girl. Almost died. The kids were apparently playing. 21. Which is where you down shot after shot of whiskey. Until you either. Pass out or hit the legal drinking age. Well. The girl was on the floor unconscious close to alcohol poisoning. Everybody standing around afraid to make the call to 911 that might get somebody into trouble but. That girl was already in very big trouble and that's when the bouncers started. These. Pacifist. Party police. Don't have any power to physically break up. An orgy mostly they just try to. Keep it mello and if somebody starts to get rowdy they typically. Runaway which is where the quaker part comes in. But the religious dimension also stems from. An honor code that's an important part of the school's history now and honor code sounds quaint. But every first-year student signs it so if the guy or the ghoul in the next dorm room is playing the music way too loud you don't. Go tattle to the authorities you go work it out directly with your neighbor. According to the codes preamble. If a diverse community is to prosper. Its members must attempt to come to terms with their differences. Vsco was only possible with students. Mutual understanding by means of respectful communication and far from being just words on paper it works so well the wind the police were called the break-up. One wild party. Well the underage drinkers were cited. But they also. Sanctioned the student who called the cops for violating the trust and mutuality that this code require. Now. I like to think that there are still. A pockets. Of civility. And. Good manners arenas where a written or unwritten codes of conduct still prevail there are. The corners of professional athletics for instance where norms of sportsmanship haven't been completely forgotten if you tune into a. A tennis match i know some of you work tennis fans. You don't hear. Rodger federer. Trash talking. Rafael nadal if there's a rivalry. It stays on the court. Where it's supposed to be that the hug and the handshake at the end ark. Indispensable parts of the match. In contrasting. When serena williams. Shook her racket. Had a line judge and cussed out an empire for calling a foot fault at the us open. This was a couple years ago. It made international headlines you just don't behave. That. Rudely that discourteously in the world of women's tennis and when it does happen it's so exceptional that it makes the news this is famously. A gentleman's sport. But it seems more and more that the very notions of gentlemanly and. Ladylike conductor are coming into question in our anything goes society. Brother used to be for example. An unwritten rule. That a gentleman doesn't hit. A lady. I. Pick that up somewhere. When i was growing up. But it seems to have been a lesson that was lost on some. Macho. Tea party types. Pre-election rally for rand paul in this. Last political cycle. When do a bunch of guys who manhandled and actually stomped on the head. Have a young 23 year old woman named lauren valley who was an activist with move on and what a passes for. Even-handedness these days. I mr paul call don. Both sides to show more restraint. But it's a symptom of everything that's wrong. With our politics and public. Discourse. Name-calling. Character assassination lead step-by-step to thuggery and actual violence. Escalating rhetoric leads to inexcusable behavior we've grown accustomed to what some people call a culture of meanness. In this country sound the radio dominated by shock jocks on the roads. Filled with. Traffic rage and reality shows where. Cruelty and humiliation. Panthers entertainment. Some people blame the internet. Where. Email is led to the advent of. Flame wars and anonymity has made the comment section and many newspapers cesspools. But. I think that blaming. Finger pointing to search for. Villains even trying to find culprits like. The media. Probably part of the the syndrome. Rather than the solution because. The source of the problem i think is less technical than spiritual i mean it's not out there. Somewhere it's not some toxicity. Poison that has to be. Heard from the system thesaurus. Toxicity. Is. Here it sits in us whenever we start to get. Small-minded. Meme petty. Petulance is we all sometimes do that the cultures not separate. From you and me. It is it's reflected in our homes and families and schools and businesses and increasingly. In our churches. Now thankfully there are some religious communities that are still islands of decency. In her memoir dakota. For example. Kathleen norris appreciates the calm and caring that she found. In a benedictine monastery. There was a sister there from. The philippines. Who remembered how politics had almost divided. This abbey. Back in the 80s. Some of you may think of. Everybody here but the sisters were arguing over whether to to take part in the popular revolt against the dictator. Ferdinand marcos. Some of the sisters. She says. Didn't think it proper. To demonstrate in public let alone risk arrest. Been in a group meeting. The began and ended with prayer the sisters. Who wanted to keep demonstrating explained it for them this was a matter of conscience or religious obligation those who disapproved also had their say people talk. Listen that was honest exchange and dialogue the more traditional sisters. Bake cookies for the younger ones they thought were wild and crazy the sister laugh at i was okay we were still one community. These benedictines presented a model of. Right relations compared with. Another church that norris visited in a small dakota town filled with passive-aggressive types their the minister was getting criticized. They were sending anonymous letters to denominational officials because they thought he was spending. Way too much time working with the local cancer society people were gossiping. Infighting. Backstabbing. Talking about each other instead of talking with each other. What made. The monastery so different. Then the church where the relationships is going all rancid. Winsted the benedictines like the kids at haverford college. Had. Arul. Define low they had an honor code instead of operating instructions for how they. Ought to treat each other just as the players on the pro tennis circuit also have an official code of conduct and it's noteworthy that. Our church is our congregations are also founded on rules of good behavior. As unitarians we are rooted. In a covenant o model of church life. Mississippi history. It goes all the way back to the pilgrims. Who came here to practice a different kind of faith in the one they experienced. Back home. In britain. You were an anglican you belong to the church of england just by being born a british subject in. The church was ruled by an archbishop and over that a monarch but is separatist the pilgrims had a different kind of idea they thought that congregations were formed by voluntary associations of individuals. Coming together to sign. A covenant. Asylum. Hack. Agreement. The order their lives together practicing forgiveness and charity. Promising to treat each other. With tolerance and respect and support each other in tough times. Like the vows. Of marriage. To have and to hold for better or worse most of these covenants were very short and sweet like the original pilgrim covenant. Hub 1606 that's still in use by our unitarian church in plymouth which is the historic successor of that pilgrim band. We. It's the lord's free people join ourselves in church estate in the fellowship of the gospel. To walk in all his ways made known or the be made known unto us according to our best endeavours. What so ever it should cost us. The lord assisting. Now. Notice that this was not and is not. A creed. Not a promise. But everybody's going to believe a like it doesn't make any mention of a virgin birds or other dogmas rather the pledges that the pilgrims made. Were behavioral. Two walk together. Infellowship. Even if it should cost them something as indeed it did cost them that first winter when only half of them survived. In that very same spirit this congregation was founded back in 1810. When 151 individuals came together. And agreed to. Promote harmony. Friendship. Morality christian faith religion and piety among its members. And humankind at-large now beliefs. Here in burlington have certainly evolved over the last. 212 years. And yet like our spiritual forebears we continue. To covenant with each other we are accountable. The one another not any higher-ups to make this a place. Where every person is valued where each. Person has worth. This was the vision. Bet the puritan governor john winthrop held out to his. Shipmates aboard the arabella bracing them for the hardships that lay ahead. Healers we must. Bennett together in this work. Is 1. We must entertain each other and brotherly affection abridge ourselves of our superfluities for the sake of others necessities. We must. Rejoice together. Mourn together labor and suffer together always been having before our eyes. The commission and the community of our work. Their dream was to create. What they called a city. On a hill. And i asked you today. What is your dream and what are you willing to commit to to make. That vision real. What. Covenants. Will you uphold or. Is reverend roberta asked in a sermon this past fall what promises are you willing to make. To ensure that this is a safe place. For everyone to grow a soul. This is an important question i think. Because there's there's pilgrim and puritan congregations that we claim hazard 4runners. For all their shortcomings they were the cradles of freedom and the workshops of democracy from the mayflower compact. Did the new england town meeting. To our constitution with its preamble of we the people there's a direct line descent in the religious realm. Led the independence in the political congregation. Governed by their own members. Lead to a nation where the citizens were supposed to be in charge. And i see little hope. Of rescuing america from its partisan divide or restoring harmony in the halls of congress. Unless we can do better. Ourselves right here. In our own congregations prove that it's possible to. Disagree without being disagreeable. Model. Cooperation and goodwill practice. Tolerance and transparency and be the kind of change we want to see in the wider world. There is incredible. Goodness. Kindness. Integrity. Principal. Strength of character among all of you. Seated in these pews. Despite. Your crankiness. And cantankerousness. Or maybe because of it. You are. A holy people. And is this congregation. Prepares itself. 4/8 new future for a new year. Welcoming a new spiritual leader. This congregation will again regain its promise. To be a beacon to this city is our small state is so often a bellwether to the nation this will be a center for justice a home for healing that spreads 11 and influence far beyond the sanctuary walls before it to happen care has to be taken. That this place to not be touched. By the culture of meanness. To safeguard against it. We have to hold ourselves and each other accountable to our own. Best. Standards. My standards. My. Commitments. As a clergyman. Starting my colleagues. And am i calling. And i pledge to do. What i can to help this place. Grow and thrive. And prosper. And his minister emeritus i believe that this means. For me. Stepping back for at least. Another year. To give all of you the time and space that you need. As you select a new leader to carry you into the next phase of your journey. And at the same time i invite. All of you. The members of this first unitarian universalist society. 2. Renew and re-engage your covenants. With one another. To be like. The students. At haverford college. Or like the sisters and brothers. In a monastery or like. Sportsmanlike. Athletes. People who subject themselves. To a shared discipline. Twisted olive. Mutual commitments to ensure. That as on a. Healthy campus. This is a place where people learn and grow. And can occasionally party and have fun. And no one gets hurt. That as in a championship game. This is a field where contesting ideas. And personalities. Can compete on their merits cleanly without acrimony. Badass. In a quiet hermitage. It's a place where wisdom can be discerned. Badass. In a church of our free tradition. It remains a home for the democratic spirit. Where liberty. And responsibilities. Go hand-in-hand.

uusociety_org

2013-02-10-2Sermon.mp3

So what is stewardship. Some people probably stayed home this morning because they thought stewardship was talking about money. Forgiving. They're missing something. Stewardship is a complex and organic process like. Creation itself. Is the process of receiving and undeserved gifts. Like the gift of life itself. Or creation or beloved community. Stewardship is about receiving that gift with gratitude nurturing it and then handing it lovingly on to the next generation. Mavis corrected stewardship has many facets involves looking inward and outward. Constantly holding and creative tension those two poles. Stewardship involves both looking backwards and forwards. Acknowledging and learning from the past while continuously creating the future. In one of my earliest sermons here i introduced you. To the god of interim ministry. The roman god janus. In the ancient roman pantheon god was dennis was the god of beginnings. His two-headed. Image appeared over gates and portals and the doors to the city's a symbol of protection and. Like the snake of newness and change. He had two heads because in order to be the god of new beginnings he had to look both backwards and forward at the same time. In his hand in all these images in his right hand he holds a key. That closes and locks the door of the old. When it is time. I told you that during your time of interim ministry i would be encouraging you to look backwards in order to understand the feelings and events and ways of being that had brought you to the place where you found yourself. And you did that. You look back appreciatively. Recognizing your collective strength recalling andre telling the stories of who you were when you were at your best. And you look back on ashley and discerningly in order to understand the things that have happened when you were not at your best. You look back not to blame or to accuse but to learn. And then you began the hard work of rebuilding this congregation into a strong and healthy communities face. You have over the past year-and-a-half painstakingly built an infrastructure that supports your mission and allows you to imagine an even more ambitious mission going forward. You brought clarity to the roles and responsibilities of the staff the board the council the committees and. Do you as members as congregants. You practice mutual respect mutual trust and mutual encouragement. You've written policies and job descriptions and committee charters and that work. Goes on. Although there will be an end bill i promise you. This morning. Before this service you gathered to affirm a new congregational covenant. And it says two pieces that support of infrastructure. The covenant like all the other pieces of work you have done is a form of immunization think of it as getting your flu shot. When in place it ensures that the system will remain strong no matter what is happening. Within or without. A congregational system will continue to support positive and healthy communication even when individuals being human and imperfect. Forget those best practices. So in that sermon that now seems so long ago i promised you that you would get to look forward at some point. Carrying your strength and your feelings into your future. I further told you that my job as your interim minister was in the words of one of my mentors. To render more secure the passage between yesterday and tomorrow. The passage that has been called that magical interim. In which we always live. This sacred place right smack between yesterday and tomorrow. Will you kept your promise and i kept mine. You embrace that work you allowed me to practice my particular brand of interim ministry you allowed the transition team to share leadership with you. As for all of that i am most grateful. And now it is time. To turn to the other face. Of the god janus. The face that looks forward. Unlocking and opening the door to the new. So here you are at the threshold. Are you ready. To step over. I had the pleasure of spending a week recently under the tutelage of dr. james forbes the recently retired minister of the riverside church in new york city. He was the instructor for my workshop in prophetic preaching. Just by coincidence he was a guest speaker at uvm just a few days prior. In his talk here. He told us that when martin luther king was in boston working on his doctorate. Can't hosted a weekly reflection group for activists. And dr kingwood always begin the group by asking the people gathered. What is the prize. What is the prize. Freedom. Justice. Mutual care and support. Learning and intellectual stimulation. Spiritual growth. Bronchitis. The opportunity for meaningful service. Belonging. Think about the question for a minute. As you stand at the threshold. This liminal moments. In the long life of this congregation. What is the price. And then dr. king would ask the second question. What is the price. For many of the people in those. Reflection groups the price would be steep. Loss of job. Jail. Beatings. Even death. They weigh their options and they paid the price for what they held most dear. We are lucky that the price for us at this time and in this place. Is not that high. What is the price of freedom. The freedom to call your next minister and define together the parameters of shared ministry. What is the price of justice. A creating a community that is intentional about inclusion. What is the price of programs where we can all learn be challenged and stimulated can grow mind and soul. Where we can care for each other and be care for. Where we can volunteer our time and talents alongside fellow you use in ways that truly make a difference. Where we can come week after week just as we are. Consonance. That we will be long. That is the essence of a stewardship campaign every single member and friends of this beloved community must ask yourself. About the prize and the price. Can you get the prize without paying the price. Sure you can. But should you. I think not. I hope that this year the stewardship team will achieve their one and only goal and that is full participation by every member of the congregation. With those of you who are visiting stewards or members of the stewardship team please stand. I'd like to tell you something about these folks. Every one of them is a volunteer who said yes when asked even though every one of them was already doing something else. At least one other thing for this church. They've gone through a training program learning together the best ways to make your congregational dreams come true by asking each of you for your help in supporting the mission of the congregation. They have spend time preparing themselves for their own volunteer commitment by making in advance their own financial commitment their pledge. They will be contacting you to set up a convenient time and place for your personal stewardship conversations. If i could look every one of you in the eye and say one thing it would be this return that call don't ignore it. Please. When you set up. Your times to meet they have promised to arrive on time. To listen respectfully to your dreams and concerns and to share their own. They promised to keep private what should remain private and share only that which should be shared. Now look at them. Look at them. They are not strangers. They're not professional fundraisers. They're your friends and neighbors and your fellow parishioners. Visiting stewart's we thank you for your time and your energy and your commitment let's give them a round of applause so you know what the stewardship team. Has promise. Now i'd like. You to make some promises. Since i just spent a week with doctor form to comes out of a somewhat different tradition i'd like to do this as a call and response and we're going to see whether you can be as enthusiastic as the much smaller. Crowd at the first service so here's your chest. Do you remember the owners of the first unitarian universalist society of burlington promise to do all that you can to make sure that you will step over the threshold together into your chosen future. Yeah do you know what the prize is do you acknowledge that this free face is in fact not free. Do you know what the price is do you thereby accept the responsibility for paying your fair share of the price in order to achieve the prize will you participate with integrity in the stewardship process. Do you commit yourself to make time in your busy life to have a stewardship conversation to prepare for that conversation by reflecting upon your relationship with this society. Will you engage the visiting stewards in honest and direct conversation. Will you have a good time alright. Once again this year the goal of the campaign is to have 100% participation from the membership. Last year you came closer than you ever have before. I personally find it astounding that 15% of you still last year would not take the simple step of filling out and returning your pledge card. You know we don't care how much you believe you can give. We're asking you to do is give it some thought and communicate that thought to the stewardship team. I want you to know that in the last year-and-a-half 100% of new members have pledged. And continue to pledge. So let them. Read you. Into. Full participation. My hope is that all of you will enter into this campaign with the generosity of spirit. That you will recognize together. What does religious home of yours needs. And promised to make a financial contribution to the best of your ability. I further encourage everyone of you commit to commit yourselves to enjoying each other's company. To respecting each other's ideas perceptions and beliefs. It's a having a good time while raising the money that will ensure the future health. And the grandest dreams of this your congregation. And do all of that. In the spirit of love. Love my friends that. Is the price. Love. Respect. Responsibility. Fellowship fun. The list could go on. It's all yours. You're standing at the threshold and i know. That you are ready. Crossover.

uusociety_org

2011-08-21Sermon.mp3

It is so good to me here. It is so good to be here in vermont surrounded by lakeshore and mountains and rolling fields and meadows. It is so good to be here in burlington a city we knew little about until a month ago. And have already fallen in love with. And most importantly it is so good to be here at the first unitarian universalist society of burlington your beloved community. Where i sense an amazing potential for a liberal religion to thrive. I've been thinking about how i got here. Looking back over my shoulder if you will at the long strange road that brought me here. So this morning i want to tell you about a brief stretch of that road. It all began. Almost 20 years ago on a november evening in 1991. The night before i was scheduled to meet with the dreaded and feared ministerial fellowship committee. Heretofore known as the mfc. For those of you who don't know the mfc is the accrediting body. For unitarian universalist ministers meeting with the mfc is one of the final steps on the path. Do unitarian universalist ministry. Capacete includes years of seminary education. A supervised internship. Clinical pastoral education which is a chaplaincy internship. Psychological evaluations career assessments and lots and lots of paperwork. Now i said that the mfc is one of the final steps because. The final step at least in the initial accreditation process is ordination. An ordination is a privilege that belongs exclusively to the local congregation. That would be another story. So as you can imagine. At the time. 20 years ago exchange now. Sing me a map see was the end of this whole process you had already. Gone to seminary spent all that money read all those books did all that work. Having no idea what would happen. At the end. I spent months. Gathering the required references transcripts writing essays. And this was you know before scanners and electronic. Communication and so i literally had this stack of paper that i had xerox page-by-page and mailed off to the ministerial fellowship committee. Each member of the committee then. Took home a stack of these papers for each of the dozen or so people they would be meeting in those brief days. And read through it. It's hard to know how to prepare for the mfc it's. There's an ongoing debate even now among you use seminary students about whether it's possible to study. For your meeting with the mfc it's not it past you know it's more like a. Fairly dramatic check in on how your chosen life is going. So i decided that i'd done all i could and the night before i just needed to rest. Well that wasn't happening. That might help you to know what the mfc meeting is like so you can understand my anxiety. You go to wherever they're meeting in my case it was boston at our headquarters at 25 pecan street. And you sit on a bench outside the room and i felt very small on the bench i felt like i could dangle my legs and they wouldn't reach the floor even though i know technically that wasn't true. And then it's your turn and you walk into a room and there are about a dozen people standing around a large table and you walk around the table and you shake hands with each one. And then you go to a pulpit at the head of the table and you preach a sermon. And then you take a deep breath and you sit down. And you spent about an hour answering questions. Questions which according to the primary questioner on my interview and i will never forget these words and i'm quoting. Would roberta make you wonder why you ever wanted to be a minister little did he know that saying that to me was probably the wrong thing to say. But i'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the night before. So. In order to relax in my head i reviewed my sermon. I had been advised to think of these. Committee as a congregation and to write and preach a sermon to them as i would to any other congregation. Since my meeting with them was scheduled on november 22nd 1991. I decided to start the sermon with a story relevant to that date. So i told them that just the summer before. Our son danny who was then. 8. Am i doing the math right. I decided that instead of going to day camp he wanted to spend part of the summer sightseeing in washington. You know like any kid and grows up in a place he's never been. Any of the places that people go to in washington dc. So we went to the men's and so i have money was made and we went to the fbi and took a tour of the. Building that includes a sharpshooting exhibition that is so impressive impressive that even. I had to admit head to tail. And then we went to arlington cemetery. And it was a typical washington august day it was hot it was muggy. At the time danny was a very thorough tourist and he wanted to stop at everything and see everything and i was getting. Grumpy. And hot and tired. And as we approach the kennedy gravesite. Much to my surprise i felt tears start to flow. And i couldn't stop them and they were just streaming down my face and. Danny looked at me very long arms and he said mom what's the matter. And i said danny i'm just remembering how i felt. Bad day. How scared i was. And his look turned from concern to amazement and he said. You were alive when that happened. Of course all of us who are live. That day when that happened remember it as a day in stark contrast. Two others. It was for many of us the day where we marked the loss of our innocence. When all our assumptions about safety and security were challenged i remember my eleven-year-old self asking. If the grown-ups really knew what they were doing. But it was also. If you were paying attention a day of affirmation. I remember well the smooth transition of power i remember lyndon johnson being sworn in. On that airplane. Looking back i know now that that day was the beginning of a foreign policy. Debacle that we in this country have not yet recovered from. And also to give the man his due the beginning of an era that produce the greatest social legislation. Fdr. From civil rights to the war on poverty. I didn't tell danny all that. I tried to keep it simple. And we went up to the grave and looked at the eternal flame and then moved on. As an ironic aside i next remembered that story. About danny and arlington cemetery. On september 11th 2001. As. Barry and i tried frantically to reach danny by phone. Danny was a freshman in college we. Live just a few minutes from the pentagon. Our phone service was interrupted when the plane hit the cell towers were. Completely overwhelmed in 4 hours. He didn't know. If we were okay. And when he finally called and got through i heard. The eight-year-old mom. I said we're fine and he said okay just wanted to make sure. Hearing that palpable relief in his voice and the. Bravado. I thought to myself. Oh dang this is yours november 22nd this is your generations november 22nd 1963 this is the day that will for you are generation divided innocence from. What comes after hopefully wisdom. I hoped on that day and i even said i hope that we as a nation conduct ourselves in such a way as to assure you. But we will continue to affirm our foundational principles and values. My opinion on whether or not we have done that. It's for another sermon. So back. To the mfc. Next in my sermon to them. I plan to use the text from deuteronomy that i read to you as a way to talk about my philosophy of ministry as a life-affirming philosophy. Life is a constant continuous invitation to choose to say yes or no to choose life or to choose death. On behalf of our children and our children's children. And then i told them another story story from my clinical pastoral education. Known as cpe. I did cpe at the national institutes of health. A place of last resort for people with many different medical conditions. And this was back in the summer of. 19. 91. And one of my floors was an aids floor. And i had a particular patient who i had a long-term relationship that summer named ron. He had come up from somewhere in the south. For treatment. And when you when you learned about the way his family was treating him it would just break your heart. He was no longer able to live by himself and take care of himself so his sister. And brother-in-law and niece and nephew had taken him into their home. With instructions that when the children were awake he was not allowed to come out of the bedroom. Because they didn't want their children. No. What he was. He was literally. Locked in the closet. Except at night when the children were asleep. That's how. Homophobic they were. After i'd been at nih for a while and it was clear that this was the last round. I got to meet one day. There's an emergency. And there was ron all dressed with a suitcase packed signing himself out against medical advice. And he just kept shaking his head and saying. I want to go home. I want to go home. I said to him ron why. Why given. The house that you're living and given the way you're being treated. Do you want to go back there here there are people who love you and care about you and accept. For who you are. Well he says. I got this little smile on his face that i had grown to love. Before i left i put in some tomato plants. And it's about time. To harvest the tomatoes. And that's what he did. He went home. I hope. He died a little while later. In my mind. The way i'm remembering ron is. Sitting in his room at a little table slicing into a beautiful. Hasty. Aromatic tomato. And knowing that in spite. Of the circumstances he. Was surrounded by he had in fact chosen life. And then i ended the sermon with that poem by emily dickinson. Do i talk to myself as a pretty good sermon roberta what are you worrying about. But my panic level increases i moved on to imagining the questions the mfc might ask me. There's always a history question especially for people like me who didn't go to unitarian universalist seminaries. What i thought to myself if they ask me about quillin's shin. Foodshion. Ethan in my crazy. Anxiety i thought were weird to pull that one out. Well you know quinton was a universalist in the latter half of the 19th century he was a classic circuit-riding universalist. He expressed great contempt for unitarians. He referred to. That side of our. Heritage as come-as-you-are unitarians. I think he thought that that side of our ancestry was a little too casual about our face and he practice his face with the fervor. The priest the powerful love of a benevolent god. He truly preach good news. Willington by himself on his circuit started 40 universalist church has inspired 30 men then okay to go to seminary. And i just learned as i was reminding myself about feeling since for this sermon that he was recommended for ordination by the vermont convention of the universalist and was ordained in gainesville vermont where he served the first two years of his ministry how about that a vermont connection i didn't even know about back then. But i digress again. You're still waiting to hear about the intersection between my road to ministry and vermont and it's not that little tidbit about quill and shin. Go back to that fateful evening of november 21st 1991. I knew i had a good sermon. I knew i had a good packet it was complete. I knew i knew my history and i knew i knew my theology and i knew that in my internship i had learned. What one can learn as a beginner about the arts of ministry and that i could present myself as a credible. Beginning minister. And i knew i needed a good night's sleep before i flew to boston and met with the mfc but sleep wouldn't come so what to do what to do. Barry was in a meeting. I believe it was a building committee meeting. Those meetings that lasted many many hours. And from which he came home. Stressed. Shall we say. Saying things like. I cannot spend another minute thinking about. Light fixture. And so he wasn't there to calm me down. So there i was pacing and worrying. My cat. Who followed me everywhere got tired of following them half. And i pasted into the kitchen. And i looked at the refrigerator. And i open the freezer. And there. Was a pint. Unopened christine. The ben & jerry's new york super fudge chunk. There's the intersection. I took a spoon. Following the rule that if you eat it right out of the container it doesn't count. I ate the whole thing i've never done that before since. And perhaps. Attended by an overload of sugar and butter fat. My nervous system shutdown. And i went to bed and i slept like a baby and i got up the next morning and i flew to boston. And i met with the ministerial fellowship committee and i preached that sermon. And i answered all those questions and i answered them well enough that the primary questioner who it started out telling me that he was going to make me sorry that i had ever wanted to be a minister threw up his hands and said to the rest of the committee i give up this anyone else have any questions. And i got a one which means basically cleared for takeoff. All i had to do then was. Graduate from seminary not get senioritis. And then continue on this road. They gave me their affirmation of my call to ministry. And the rest as they say is history. The history of ministries practiced in a variety of settings. I had done a 2-year part-time. Internship in what was called an extension internship it was a pilot program taking people like me who were second career. Ministerial candidates who had. Sufficient experience in the workplace in administration and and. And i have been a nurse so i had a lot of experience in a lot of different places. And placed us in small congregations where we were in a sense the minister and our intern supervisor was offside. I spent two years in that internship. And for those two years my. Supervisor was gordon mckeeman who i don't know if any of you know gordon but. Gordonis was a treasure trove. Of information about. The artist ministry i felt like someone had. Given me the key to a treasure chest and said you have two years help yourself to as much as you want. We would sit down and talk and he would say tell me about what's happening in the congregation and i would tell him a story and then he would say and what did you do and i would tell him and he would sit there for a minute and he would say. Kitchen now. I stayed there for another five years as a part-time minister while our son was young. I did a new start. Start up ministry. I was then called to be there settled minister. I've done interims i've got settled ministries and i've now. In after that variety settings and after that eight year old danny graduated from college and got married we have chosen. This path of interim ministry as our adventure. I chose accreditation as an interim minister because i feel a particular call. To that kind of ministry and i am. Just blessed to have. Barry traveling with me from town to town. And. We don't usually have to leave in a hurry. And that's how it just short of 20 years. From that evening. I find myself living and ministering in vermont. Vermont where quillan shin. Oddly enough began his ministry. And we're eating ben & jerry's is the moral equivalent of buying local for which i'm very grateful. So the end of that story as with all stories is the beginning of another. The story of our. Shared ministry. All of us. Bring. To the stories accumulative experiences of our separate paths travel. Every one of you has a story about what brought you here to this room whether you were here for the first time today or whether you have been sitting in these two as watching ministers come and go for so long that you've lost count. All of us bring. Knowledge gained lessons learned. Pains and disappointments experienced trepidation hope. Optimism. And most importantly for me. A powerful affirmation. That quillin shin. Preached the affirmation that love. Is the basis for forming and reforming our beloved. Communities. Another stretch of the road beckons. Let us begin together. In love. I'm in.

uusociety_org

2012-03-04-2%20Sermon.mp3

Once upon a time. Well good fairy tale start. Once upon a time and a place not at all like this one. Their lives some people not at all like us. Except fairy tales are actually about people just like us living in places just like the ones we live in. Fairy tales are mythic stories that. Convey universal truth. Stephen sondheim is a master of. Telling tales set in other times and places that tell us truths about ourselves. As i was thinking about this sermon i started thinking about his play into the woods. In this play familiar characters from fairy tales like little red riding hood and cinderella go off into the woods seeking fulfillment of a cherished personal wish. At the end of act 1 they each get their wish. And they all lived happily ever after. Intermission. Act 2. Still in the woods. Things are not all that happy. It turns out there's a jungian shadow side to each of those wishes. Those narcissistic human desires. And that's the characters discover the cost of their desires they also realize that the only way out of the woods. Is to let go of their individual wants and work together to defeat the evil that is a foot. They gradually come together and discover. Their hidden strengths. And their togetherness as the haunting song no one is alone sounds. From different corners of the woods. At the end evil is defeated. The dragon is always playing in fairy tales. But at tremendous cost. The character for example of the baker's wife pleads with her husband as she lays dying. Tell the children the story of the woods. Actions have consequences even for future generations tell the children. And the baker grace the story will be told and retold. As a cautionary tale. And then. They all live happily ever after. So what is all this talk about fairy tales and the jungian shadow side of the psyche have to do with the study of history which is presumably the topic of this sermon. Why everything. I am as your interim minister inviting you into a study of your congregations history because i know that in order to live happily ever after. In order to be a healthy and intentional community of faith going forward. You need to know what happened in the woods or wherever your particular mythic stories have taken place. You need to know together who you were. Because that determines who you are. At least in part. And who you are determines who you will be in the future. Conrad right one of the preeminent historians is liberal religion. Says there are four reasons for a liberal religious people to know their history. The first is it having shared stories creates social cohesion. This congregation for example is made up of a hugely diverse group of people. Some of you have been unitarians are universalists for many generations. Others. Perhaps became unitarian universalist just this morning. Some of you have lived in burlington for ages others have just arrived. What you have in common is the choice that each of you made to become a part of this society. An organization that has now been a part of the burlington community for over 200 years. Your choice made voluntarily means that you joined together with generations that have gone. Before. Have gone into the woods over and over again in different situations. Confronted their desires and fears and found ways to work together to slay whatever dragon it was it was locking the land at the time. What day did matters. And how they did it. Matters. Right points out that whenever a marginalized group has sought to exert. Influence and power. An important first step is to learn and teach their history. A sense of the common past he writes is equally important and unifying religious. See when you become a unitarian universalist you all of a sudden inherit a whole new set of ancestors. And even if you've always been a unitarian universalist when you join a local congregation with its own history you would inherit those ancestors as well. Reverend alice blair wesley wrote we need access to the past because vici vard identity. We learn who we are. In understanding where we have come from as a religious people. We learned through stories of our ancestors usually called history not miss. The distinction however is not a matter of differing importance but of different methods of research. And interpret approach interpretation appropriate to the different genres. A myth. Is a story freighted with the very meaning of life. A historical story becomes a myth. If it is created for us with the very meaning of life. So the history wall project which begins next week which i hope you have all read about in your newsletter. Is an exercise in communal storytelling. It is a way to turn history into miss. To share memories and experiences in the mythic genre. To create a tableau of the history of this congregation that will impart to all of us the meaning. Of our shared lives in faith. It is an invitation for you to get to know your ancestors and to introduce those ancestors to your children. Is it opportunity to access the past and incorporate the missiles of this congregation. Into your present understanding. So that from this point forward you will indeed be walking together through the woods. Social cohesion. Emergence. The second reason for learning your history is that history. Bestows particular symbols of communication on a group that become essential to the group's identity. What is the chalice that we light at the start of every service. Why does it look so different. From the chalice that i wear around my neck. What is the story of these two hymnals with the different colors in the very. Music in. What in the world is in re. Or are you away. Why is there a classroom downstairs named after pt barnum. Why do we have adult forms in something called a susan b. All of that is part of our living tradition. The reverend tim jensen says this about how history contributes to our living tradition. The stories are spiritual forebears told one another about their own religious heritage. Can provide valuable insights into the development of our own historical self-understanding. This mythos is the real source of present historical identity. It is much more significant than historical facts of who did what when. We see its influence in the hymns we sing the holidays we observe. And the patterns by which we organize our self. A living tradition is the historical embodiment of who we are as a radically liberal religious p. The third reason to know our history is that it is rich with role model. People that we. Can hope. To learn from and emulate. Again quoting tim jensen he says when we allow our spiritual forebears to speak to us authentically in their own voices. We will discover in their experience potential. Mentors for own religious pilgrimage. This is the miracle of a living tradition. The ability to reveal in the lives of those who have come before us the insights that can guide us as we encounter our own future. Now it can be easy to turn our ancestors into idols. Rather than human role models. Be careful of that because once you try to emulate an idle it is impossible. And you may give yourself permission to give up. It's also easy to allow. Role models from the past to pull our weight. To stake our reputation for example as social activist on work done in the past. Rather than. Figuring out how to do our own work in the present. It's easy to look back with nostalgia rather than hard-nosed realism. To fall into that good old days right kidding ourselves into thinking that in a simpler time. It was easier. To take unpopular stands or risk social ostracism. Or even. To look at our own ways of living and being critically. So let's learn from the past but work. In the present. Here's an example. The occupied you you working group here has an idea about asserting this congregation support form or just economic. System. They're asking you through a survey which many of you have had an opportunity to fill out it's on a green piece of paper and it's been online on surveymonkey. They're asking you to support them or to tell them how you feel about taking a public statement. A bowl better on the front lawn. I like both errors on the front lawn. And i'm in favor of this action. Only if it truly represents the majority view. Of the membership. So you have to actually fill out the survey. In order to make your voice heard. If you don't fill it out and the batter goes up and you don't like it. The only thing you can really do is say. Next time. I'll fill out the survey. But you can't complain. About the banner. As you consider taking this step. Ask yourself. What would our founders have done. What were the people who worships in this meeting house since 1863. Have done. Or 19:29. This is part of the way we will make this decision by looking backwards at the history of social activism. But let's also look forward. Let's ask ourselves how will future generations look back at us. How will our response to the occupy movement be told in history and myth. Will we be role models for future generation. The fourth and final reason to learn together about your shared congregational history is the to know where you come from. Enhances yourself understanding it clarifies your group identity. If one of the dangers of history is to sentimentalize it in the stalgia another is to ignore it to have amnesia about the parts especially that you don't want to remember or don't want to deal with. But believe me those parts don't go away just because you don't pay any attention to them. The process of searching for a settled minister is not a process of looking for the best person to fill the slot. It is a process of clarifying your congregational identity so that you can introduce yourself to potential candidates in an honest and open way. Who were you. Who are you. Who do you wish to become. Part of this clarification emerges out of an encounter with your history. The interim task is defined as claiming and honoring the congregations past and engage engaging it's greece and conflict. This is the work that the interim task collaboration team and i are inviting you to begin next week. When the history wall goes up. Nowthis history wall. Will be much more than just a timeline of dates and names and events although it will start out looking like that. As a historian conrad wright says the chief problem for historian is a professional bias in favor of the presentation of historical materials in orderly systematic and usually chronological form. We must get over this prejudice and be willing to establish linkages with the past in any order however haphazard. I am hoping that the history wall exercise will be a very haphazard. Encounter between you. And your history. We will be inviting you to establish linkages to the past by writing the real history. All along the history wall there will be post-it notes provided for you to tell the stories as you experience them. As you remember them as you were told them. Experiential stories are the ones that tell the mythic truths about us. You will find i guarantee you the different people remember the same incident differently. I ordered you to hear all the versions of the story that appear as truth. You will learn so much from each other if you approach this exercise with open minds and hearts. The beauty of the history wall is that it allows everyone an equal voice. It brings longtime members and our newest guests into a process of mutual education and appreciation. And eventually what emerges out of this cacophony of stories is the true narrative arc of this congregation. You will see for yourself the places where the post is cluster and clump as multiple people recall the importance of a particular event or turning point. Teams will begin to emerge and recur. You will see for yourselves the truth of sun-times assertion that actions have consequences. Even for future generations. So tell yourselves your stories. We're going to ask that all contributions to the history wall be signed. We want you to be accountable to each other. I'm going to plead with you to make them legible. We ask that you write from your own perspective don't assume that you know the real truth nobody does. The real truth will emerge out of the combined bits and pieces. Use i sentences in your narration. What i heard what i saw what i felt what i remember what was handed down to me. Even if you are so new that you feel like you have nothing to contribute i would love you each to put a post-it note up there that says this is the first day i came. Because every time somebody new. Come. And worships with us and joins with us this community is reconstituted. Anu. There is so much to be proud of in the 202 years of history of this congregation there are so many truth waiting to be told. All those once upon a time moments. Ugk chesterton once said. The point of fairy tales is not. To tell children about the exist. Two dragons children he said no. All about. The dragons. The point of fairy tales is to tell children that the dragons can be slain. You have found the courage and strength to work together through all kinds of challenges and changes. That is what matters. That is the true shape of the narrative arc of your history. Sotel. The children. Until each other. Tell. About. The stroll through the woods. Tell about the stumble through the woods. Until. About. The dragons you have slain. And you'll all live. Happily ever after. Not in a fairytale course but in real life. A real people. The real people who constitute the very real first unitarian universalist society of burlington. The history wall. Is an exercise in shared ministry. I hope that you will all take part it will be up for the next two sundays next sunday in the sunday after. Next sunday it will be in the community room. That means if you really want to get on there in the beginning you're going to have to. Find the courage to go all the way downstairs to that place where some of you have never ventured. The next week. It will be up in the parlor. After it is completed the team and i will be mining. This rich. Historical source. 4. Materials for sermons workshops. We don't know what yet you're going to tell us. We don't know what we're going to do until we see what appears. But it will be part of the. Ongoing conversation here for. Encourage you all. To take part.

uusociety_org

2010-05-16-2%20Sermon.mp3

I'm not playing your life. Thanks. Now. I actually it we made a video. Of that of that song and it's. We posted it on youtube and it immediately went bacterial. What if. If you if you want to. Check out the song if you just put in fred small 350 at youtube you. You'll find it. Video was kind of made by middle-aged people for a middle-aged people and it's not. We were hoping to find some you know connie cutting-edge 20-something would make like this really wicked cool video but. We didn't so. Hence the bacterial. Thinking about buying an iphone and ipad. For years i've been. Lugging this around this is my old leather-bound franklin planner. Which these days invariably widens the eyes of the young. That's old-school fix claim. With equal parts marvel and pity. My franklin planner is not just old-school it's bulky it's heavy it's not searchable and it links up with nothing but my own increasingly unreliable. Brain. The ipad. The ipad says he said now which is happening it says. I've no idea what it says but whatever it says it's got to be cooler than my franklin planner. But then i'd heard the greenpeace. Hacking the ipad. For using cloud computing. Whatever that is. So when i saw an op-ed in the sunday new york times headline how green is my ipad. Promising a life cycle assessment. Of the ipad ecological impact i thought perfect. Well. First payment disclaimer. Some technical details such as screen manufacturer. Aren't publicly available. And therefore word evaluated. And they were analyzing just the ipads use as an electronic reader. Justa an electronic reader so. Billy said to compare the ipad ecological with a hard copy book. I have to know if i was going to order my book online. For shipment by air or buy it for my local bookstore. And then if i was going to drive bicycle walk or take public transportation to the bookstore and how far away the book story. Let me see if i read my book at night. My light bulb. We'll use more energy than the ipad screen but if i read in daylight. I'm better off with a book. Then they said some discarded electronics are dismantled by hand in third world countries. Poisoning. Child workers. While others are incinerated with emissions controls and metals recovery. But then a book dump in a landfill has. As well. With respect to fossil fuels water use and mineral consumption the report included the impact of one ereader payback equals roughly 40 to 50 books. When it comes to global warming so it's 100 books. Which human health consequences it's somewhere in between. I have three. Advanced degree. Including a master's degree. In natural resources. After reading this life cycle. Assessment. I felt like an idiot. I buy books. Locally. Nevermind. Most books i buy i buy used. What's the author's didn't. Consider. Sometimes i read at night. Sometimes i read in the daytime. How can i possibly. Make an intelligent decision about an ipad or anything else. With so many variables i can't calculate and the experts can't evaluate. Good morning thought about it. The angrier i got. I shouldn't have to figure all this stuff out. And neither should you. Did corporations like apple had to pay the real cost for the planet and the people of the resources they use. And if all of us had to pay the real cost of energy than the whole life cycle impact of a product would be there for all to see in one universally understood number. Price. Instead all of us conscientious earth-friendly people are supposed to stand in the aisles of supermarkets and mega stores with magnifying glasses. Studying the fine print on labels we can't understand written by corporations with a vested interest in fooling us. In the time i spent studying that life cycle assessment of the ipad and trying to factor in the vagaries of my personal lifestyle i could have made several phone calls to my representatives in congress demanding action. On climate change. Give all the good people trying to calculate the carbon footprint of everything from the bananas on her breakfast cereal to the jet we took on our last vacation if we could afford a vacation if we use that same time and energy and intelligence to march on washington we have a revolution by now. People like. Don blankenship. You know don. Ceo massey energy company. Please love. Lifestyle. Don. Because my style environmentalism keeps the responsibility for saving the planet on suckers like you and me. And away from guys like him. Who make millions. Blasting the tops off mountain. And killing workers in unsafe mine. And then pay off judges and congressman. Look the other way. And it's all perfectly legal. I'm preaching this morning. According to your order of service. I'm hope. Because hope can be hard to find. Mit scientists now predict the global warming will be twice as severe. As estimated just 6 years ago. This past winter what's the right-wing touted as proof that global warming is a hoax. Was actually the fifth warmest on record. Nasa projects this year. 2010 will be the hottest. Year. Ever. Ninety percent of the world's glaciers are in retreat and those in glacier national park are likely to be gone by the end of the decade. The arctic is expected to be nearly ice-free in summer in 30 years. Already we are hemorrhaging. Biodiversity. Losing 100 species. Extinction. Every 24 hours. And is you and i. Gather in contempt of worship. Here. In vermont on this. Spectacular. Spring morning. Crude oil. Is gushing out of control. Into the gulf. Please. Don't call it. Spill. You spill something out of. Cainer. Like a teacup. Warship. Pipeline. They punch the hole in the earth's crust a mile underwater. You can call it a blowout. A bloodletting. A tragedy or an inevitability. But don't call. The world's governments seem incapable. Of meaningful response depending upon whom you believe the copenhagen climate conference last winter was either a disappointment or a travesty. Producing neither targets nor timetables. Blanketed by energy industry lobbyists congress can't even agree. On legislation everyone knows his inadequate. And the energy companies figure. When all the fuss about the blowout in the gulf blows over. American oil junkies. Will come crawling back on our knees. For our next. Are they wrong. Nbc news poll taken last week while crude oil was exploding into the gulf of mexico showed 60% of americans support increased offshore oil. Two months ago a gallup poll found 48% of americans think the threat of global warming is exaggerated. Highest proportion in the 13 years. They posed the question. And when americans are asked what issues they plan to vote on. The environment. Assisted light comes in. Dead. Where is home. Where is home. Sometimes. When i'm afraid. I ask myself. What's the worst that can happen. Asking that question i turn. And face. When i face my fear it loses its power. Over me. My mind grows clearer. Unclouded by nameless. Thread. Anxiety gives way to resolve. Sometimes. Even a kind of pee. Like a buddhist meditating on my own inevitable deaths i'm left with. A deeper appreciation. Life. In the present moment. And more courage. And creativity. So what's the worst that can happen. Global collapse. Who's wholesale destruction of agriculture's. Economies. Governments. Civilization. Human suffering on an unprecedented scale. Maybe even human extinction. Buttocks. Countless other species. Down with us. Serious business. But nothing lasts forever. Everything that lives. Everything that lives. No organism lives forever. No civilization. And yours. Forever. No species. Escapes. Extinction. Why should ours. Be any different. To accept immortality of the human species is not pessimism but realism. Not morbidity. But maturity. Swift the days of our lives as a species are numbered. The ultimate question is not. Ark survival. That question is already answered. In the negative. The ultimate question is how we live the days. That are given to. I choose. To live in hope. No matter how bleak things seem we don't know. We don't know. How they'll turn out. To assume the worst is arrogance. Humility reminds us we don't know. What's going to happen. And if we don't know what's going to happen. We still have. History teachers again and again that when people are called by conscience and compelled by circumstance into a new paradigm. We are capable of astonishing. Accelerated. Unanticipated. It happened in the 1960. With civil rights. In the 1970s with the woman's movie. In the 1980s when the berlin wall came down. Just last decade. When americans turned. Swift. Against the war in iraq. Who did fought when voters in my commonwealth of massachusetts elected scott brown to the senate in january. Did we have national healthcare reform by march. The essence of the ecological worldview. Is possibility. Wright's francis morley. Jordan ecological lens hours is not a finished. Fixed world of distinct identities. But a relational. And evolving world. Notions of fix. Finished. Are illusions. Mutually create. And ever-changing that is reality. Hope is not what we seek. Inevitable. Mypay insist. It is what we become. In action. This kind of hope of course is less. Like optimism and more like faith. A spiritual practice. We choose. The companion has on a long and hazardous journey. Because we know. We are more likely to arrive safe at our destination. Weather. Family dollar. And once we choose hope. Hope. Stretching the walls of our heart. Once we dedicate ourselves to hope. We see it. More and more. All around. I miss the bad news we notice. The good news. Costa rica already supplies 95% of its energy from renewable resource. Sweden's energy mix is on track to be loyal and nuclear-free within a decade. Over the last two decades. Poor farmers in these are planted 200 million trees to regreen twelve and a half million acres. One of the most rapid. Environmental restorations in history. In california. Solar-powered installations have multiplied a hundredfold. In the last decade. From 500 to 5. Is 2005 over 1,000 mayors. Including mayor bob kiss here in burlington. Assign the us conference of mayors climate protection agreement. Going to reduce carbon emissions in their cities to conform. The kyoto protocol. Since the supreme court decision in january allow an unlimited corporate spending in election campaigns. Donations to groups advocating public financing of elections have quadruple. Even the ipad. Maybe park. A solution. I still don't understand cloud computing. But i understand that the internet. Has opened undreamed of channels of communication. And democratic participation. I can bring down dictate. Who knows. What possible. Who dares back on capacitor. I'm betting on hope. What if i got to. Maybe we are entering not. Eternal darkness butt. A birth canal. The pain we feel. The pangs of new life. Breaking free. It took the abuses of the gilded age devon. Progressive era. It took the agony of the great depression to lift the new deal. I took the cuyahoga river catching fire. The pass the clean water act. Like a stubborn mule in the old story. People seem to need a two-by-four to the head. Just to get our attention. Couple weeks back. On a. Glorious spring day. Much like this one. I walked your meditation. In a public park. Mindfully breathing in. Breathing out. With each step. I guess. Fell upon a piece of litter and empty sweet'n low packets shocking pink against the beautiful green grass. Eileen down. Picked it up. Put it in my pocket. And i thought. There will always. And as long as there are people there will always be litter. And there will always be people picking up litter. Sometimes. I'll be the one littering. Metaphorically. Sometimes i'll be picking. None of us is pure. All of us. Deep down. Are good. At the turn of the 20th century with the upwelling forces of industrialization. Militarism. Imperialism. About to explode in the first world war. Twenty-three-year-old german poet. Name rainer maria rilke. God walking with us. Silently. Out of the night. Speaking words. Weed emily here. You. Sent out beyond your recall. Go to the olympics. Of your longing. Embody me. Flare up like flame. And make big shadows. I can move in. Let everything. Beauty. Enter. Just. Keep going. No feeling. His final. Don't let yourself. Lose me. Nearby. Is the country they call life. You will know it. By its seriousness. Give me your hat. Today as we look beyond the horizon of despair. We see however faintly. The future of. A world where we live harmoniously. Sustainably. We're freedom. Is redeemed by justice. Where nature is not wantonly exploited into spoiled but reverence. And all. And wonder. And delight. That is hold is future in our mind's eye. Let us claim it and proclaim it. And live it. Every moment of our lives. Let us be surprised. I hope. I meant. And blessed be.

uusociety_org

2012-11-04-2Sermon.mp3

This is the second sermon in a six-part series on the sources of our faith. This series is based on the second half of the statement of principles and purposes of the unitarian universalist association you have an insert. In your order of service that list those six sources. I think of it as. An accounting of the various wells from which we unitarian universalist draw our sustenance. These six sources represent a richness in our liberal religious tradition. They remind us of our history. Who we were at various times. And who were the four bears ancient and modern to whom we owe spiritual debt. They remind us of our process. The primacy of reason. Respect for scholarship and open-minded inquiry. A willingness to consider ideas feelings intuitions and innovations. And they remind us of our humanness. Our individuality in our creativity. Our need for community. And our intention to leave the world a better place than we found it. Finally they remind us of our theologies. That multiplicity of beliefs that live side-by-side amongst you in these pews. Our strength is in that diversity. We are united in our commitment to honor and celebrate that diversity and to provide an atmosphere in which all of us secrets and searchers and pilgrims can comfortably explorer. Children youth young adults elders all are welcome to join our community of questioning and challenging. And seeking. The statement of principles and purposes was crafted in the early 1980s. And it stood unchanged with almost for almost a decade with only five sources. Some of you who have older hymnals in your pubes will find in the front piece only five sources. Then a movement began to add the sixth source. Spiritual teachings of the earth centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life. And instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature. Now as you can imagine the suggestion to amend the statement caused some discussion and some dissension. People believe that are carefully crafted consensus statement. Years in the making are not to be messed with casually and do you know how hard it is for 5,000 unitarian universalist to come to consensus on anyting. To be honest when the conversation first begin i sort of agreed. With them. Why are we messing with this is what such hard work. But after a year of study and discussion about that language and reflection. I changed my mind in 1993 along with. Thousands of other delegates to our general assembly i voted in favor of adding this six source. My reason. Because it says something important about who we are. Who we have been. And who we hope to become. See i think of unitarian-universalism as being an oral tradition. We are not people of the book. The traditional western religions judaism christianity and islam all have. Single sources of written authority for their face. Tradition is a strong finder together people and in a religion of the book that tradition. Revolves around that book. And it tends to kind of get carved in stone. Several generations ago ruu forebears made a decision to leave the fold of the people of the book. It was the transcendentalist who urged us to seek. Religious authority in our own lives to draw on reason and intuition and experience more than assorted written stories. Is that it was a transcendentalist who first began to introduce the holy books of other world religions to the unitarian universalist of the day. They said a single book is too confining and even autocratic to be the basis of our faith. X change. Our worldview expands with the advances of science. Why close revelation when it's so clearly. Continues to unfold. Before our eyes. So we opted into. The oral tradition in which stories are told in order to remember. And in order to transform. In oral cultures it is understood that every telling of the story changes the teller. And the listener. And the story itself. These changes are significant because they emerge out of the living context of the people. Stories happened where we live. And the telling of stories. Happens where we live. Even our statement of principles and purposes is not authoritative. It's not carved in stone. It's a fragment of oral tradition to be passed on. Listen to retold and changed. With changing circumstances. It was in that spirit. Did i voted to add the six source to the document and how glad i am that we made that decision. Those decades ago. Birthday spirituality. Though. Relatively new to our. Statement. Is of course not new at all. It's ancient the most ancient. It draws from the pre-christian pagan religions of the middle east. It draws from native american spirituality is across the globe. Is ross from. The transcendentalist movement. But it's also very contemporary. New earth-based religion pull together threads from feminist theology. And the spiritual thinking of the environmental movement. And we sit together with those ancient practices. So let's take a look at those threads and see if we can begin to appreciate the rich tapestry of beliefs that they have created. Beginning with ancient paganism. Now the word pagan itself used to be and for many still is a loaded word. The negative connotations of the word. Our cultural baggage. Remnants of the attempt. Buy some of the major. Shall i say patriarchal religions of the world. To eliminate those so-called primitive earth-based religion. From the cultures that they wished to dominate. But the word pagan is derived from a latin root which simply meant a country dweller. In the early centuries of the common era. Christianity remained the religion mostly of the cities. In the rural portions of the holy roman empire. The people who work the earth continue to practice their earth religion. Centered on the cycles of the seasons. Simile the word heathen. In england referred simply to the people who lived on the heath. The farmers tied to the soil. And to the agricultural cycles. The old pagan religions recognize the cyclical nature of life not just the agricultural cycles but the movement of the sun and the waxing and waning of the moon. And those ancient pagan religions were in large part goddess religion. Think about it in a culture focused on the bounty of nature it would be natural for divinity to be image. In the feminine since it is the female who has the power to reproduce. There was also a male representation of the divine often in the form of a sun a lover or a consort. Whose life cycle was one of annual termination and renewal. As with any religious practice paganism accompany too wide and diversion. Set of beliefs. And spiritual disciplines. Within the wide bounds of those ancient pagan cults there were some who may have practiced human sacrifice. There were some who may have practice sexual licentiousness. All those things that are stereotypically. Pagan. But there were many many others who spiritual practices were. Free of violence and ethical to the core. Perhaps fear of violence and more ethical. Then the monotheistic religions that try to suppress them. So. We. In. Bringing. Those ancient histories and practices back to life. Are also attempting to put to rest. The negative baggage. The negative stereotypes. And. Think of these words. In their most ancient. And untainted. Meaning. Now neo-paganism today. Is not necessarily a religion is agricultural peoples. But pagan rituals are still planned around the cycles of the seasons the most familiar. Probably being solstice celebration. And there will be a solstice celebration in this sanctuary on the evening of december 21st. Led by bridget mayer and others from the worship associates. 9 make a joke. That there is one pagan ritual that is actually a national holiday in this country. I want to describe it. People gather in large noisy extended family group. They pile tables high with obscene amounts of food. Decorate the tables with symbols of the season in all shapes and colors. They say a quick prayer. Gorge themselves on food and wine. And then turn to the idle that flickers in the heart of their home and they watch large men dressed in tight-fitting costumes bash into each other as they fight almost to the death over the apparently sacred symbol made of pigskin. Don't tell me you've never participated in a pagan rite. In the first service i felt like i had to translate and tell people that that's what footballs are made. You guys are better. To be serious about this. The new earth religion. Draws much from the old religion. But it also draws from contemporary science. And new ways of thinking. This new earth religion while more distant from traditional agrarian society. Still attempt to refocus the human mind and heart on our relationship to the earth. It evokes the tenants of environmental stewardship. It is concerned with ending the exploitation of the earth and the cosmos. Now this concern is not exclusive to neo-pagan religion sino that many of my colleagues in judaism and christianity are figuring out ways to synchronize environmental advocacy with the judeo-christian tradition. They reject the assumption based on an unfortunate misreading of a few verses in genesis. That the earth was given into the hands of humans to do with as we please. The new earth religion and the new understanding of genesis invites reverence for the natural environment. In place of the image of people as manipulators of the environment offers us human connectedness to the environment. We live in all things. All things live. In us. Neo-paganism affirms the divinity in all living things in trees and mountains and animals and in people. Add a reference for this divinity which is so immediate and which surrounds us we need to live carefully and mindfully. On the earth. An earth-centered religions god is not a distance and powerful other. The great transcendent creator and destroyer god is an immediate presence infused into all of life. The most eminent and intimate concept of divinity. Some say it is more goddess than god focused. But that's because. Many of us grew up with only one image of god. The guy in the sky with the beard. Going like this. But writers like merlin stone remind us that prior to this depression. Of. Paganism. Isis. And ishtar and astarte. Were the female manifestations of the divine. The reclaiming the feminine side. Of divinity is not simply an exercise and religious archaeology that's a dicey proposition at best we will never be able to totally reconstruct for sure the shape. Of those ancient and at least partially matriarchal religions. Because so much. What they were was destroyed. Restoring the feminine side of god though. Is a task for contemporary. Theologians. Like all of us. Rather than excavators of the past. Because with the loss of the feminine faces of divinity. The human understanding of the holy became narrower that's when we ended up with that big guy in the sky with the beard that so many of you. So many of us can't believe in. In the suppression of paganism. God. Was separated from certain essential characteristics. That left. Just him. Rather than him and her. Together. And left us much the poor. Today we are allowing our images of the divine to expand again to include such characteristics as creativity pro creativity nurturing and healing. At the very dawn of religion marylestone merlin stone reminds us god was a woman. Do you remember. Another of the threads woven into this contemporary earth-based spirituality. Comes from native american cultures. Keep in mind that there was a great diversity of native american earth-based religions and there are many many pitfalls in talking about them in terms of overgeneralizing and romanticizing. I hesitate to even wade into this but wade into it i do nonetheless. I've come to understand. From some of the scholarship. That one of the most compelling images. In contemporary native american spirituality is the image of mother earth. Where did this image come from. Tribal identity. For eons was tied to the land that a particular tribe lived on. When people were forced off that land. They were severed from their spiritual base and an identity crisis ensued. The mother earth idea evolved out of the need to reclaim a relationship with the sacred land that people were no longer allowed to live on. Sam gill in his study of native american spirituality says mother or. Serves as mother to this common indian identity. She may be recognized as being in continuity with the land ethos relatively common among native american tribes. The conception of many elements of nature in personal and even kinship terms. The mother earth. Evolve. Out of loss and sorrow. To become a source of unity. A bomb for wounded spirit. And. A way to communicate. With. Non-native americans. Who struggled. Those who did to understand. That spirituality. So can you see the commonalities that emerge out of these disparate sources. Of the ancient european and middle eastern paganism. Modern native american spiritual practice transcendentalism feminism and environmentalism. One is the emphasis on personal experience rather than external authority. Joseph campbell. Road in the power of myth. People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that is what we're really seeking. I think that what we are experiencing seeking is an experience of being alive. So that our life experiences on a few purely physical plane. Will have resonance with our innermost being. So that we actually feel the rapture. Of being alive. The native american evocation of mother earth. The eco-feminist embrace of gaia. These are the contemporaries freshens of earth-based spirituality. Of. Trying to connect with a divinity that is alive. And in spiriting. We affirm the inherent goodness of creation. Of evolution of the natural world of life itself. Starhawk says when we understand that the earth is alive and know ourselves as part of that life. We are called to live our lives with integrity. To make our actions mats our beliefs. To take responsibility for creating what we have would have manifest. To do the work of healing. There is much common ground between contemporary earth space spirituality and traditional unitarian universalism. No wonder it has found. Home. Finally. As one of the sources of our faith. As a former president of the unitarian universalist association bill schultz said. What could be more crucial for the present-day than the nurturance of an organic face that refuses to truck with nationalism or cultural stereotyping. But it's faithful first to the needs of our planet. Human survival depends on our willingness to think and act in global and non-dualistic ways. Violence is almost always a function of diminished imagination. With all respect for the earth and our tradition of universal sympathy. Unitarian universalism might well model a new way of being in the world. So we've all. Scene. The pictures. Of what hurricane sandy did when she visited our shores. Do you not. Just want to grab america by its shoulders and shake it. And say start paying attention. I do. I really do. An innocence that is what we do when we celebrate this particular source. We offer an organic face. The brings together the simplest truth of the oldest religions with the complex realities of this brave new world. Something for all of us. No matter what our personal spiritual affinity might be. Something for all of us to embrace. As we go forward. Into. Whatever the earth. Hazmat. For us. To live with. So before i close the sermon i think it's important to acknowledge that we are. A few days away from. The election. And i know that some of you are feeling some anxiety. About that some of you have shared that anxiety with me. And so i thought a light-hearted election addict though. Might help you live through the next. Couple of days. Colleague david rankin tells this story. In 1968 he said i delivered a sermon prior to the presidential election. It was not a partisan plea i merely recommended at the conclusion of the sermon. Did everyone vote for the most intelligent experience and compassionate candidate. So imagine my surprise. When a man confronted me in the reception line and angrily shouted how dare you use the pulpit to endorse hubert humphrey. So i would like to recommend that everyone of you vote. For the most intelligent experience. And compassionate candidate. Amen.

uusociety_org

2010-02-07-2%20Sermon.mp3

So i also have a story that involves kittens and water. Though it doesn't end up quite the same way as john eames tale of baptizing the barn cats. A year-and-a-half ago my husband ben and i adopted a pair of kittens. Two littermates that we named milo and jack. They were 10 weeks old when they came to us. And it was pretty much love at first sight for us at least. Unfortunately the honeymoon period came to a quick and a few weeks after we got the kittens when milo the older of our two boys started regressing to his younger pre litter box days. I won't get into the details here. But suffice it to say one fateful sunday night ben and i found ourselves deciding to give milo an emergency bath. Maybe you can tell where this is going. You see the thing is neither ben nor i had had kittens before and we definitely didn't know the proper procedures for bathing a cat. Like don't do it yes had we done a google search that would have been the first thing we learned followed a close second if you have to wash your cat use very little water and make sure you never get the whole entire cat doused but oh no we didn't do that in our new parents panic we rushed straight to the bathtub. Where we proceeded to give us squirming milo his first-ever bath. Infield logical terms it wasn't quite a full immersion baptism. But certainly there was a good deal more water than john ames experience of the dabbing of the brows. At the end of our ordeal like john ames and his friends we sure ended up with one wet cat. But as you can probably tell nothing about that experience felt particularly sacred. We had accomplished a crucial shore and yes we had a squeaky-clean cats. But it was pretty clear we hadn't performed any sort of blessing. And in fact there was a fair amount of cursing. At the time it was less clear whether milo would ever forgive us but fortunately he did about half an hour later. Here's the thing. In our haste to get milo cleaned up. We didn't have the presence of mind to consider and appreciate that mysterious kitten life. We were holding in our hands. And truth be told i'm like john ames we hadn't set out to in the first place. To offer a blessing was not our intention. Everyone has petted a cat rights marilynne robinson. But to touch it like that. With a pure intention of blessing. It's a very different thing. This morning i went to invite you to explore with me that very different thing wishes blessing. In doing so i want to take seriously that charge that john o'donohue gave us in his reading. But before we embark down that road. Let me pose a basic question which i think we need to answer first. Which is. How do unitarian universalist. In this day and age. Talk about having the power to bless. Having long since given up a theology grounded in an omniscient nipotent god. Who's power favors only a privileged few. And related having rejected traditional notions of sin and salvation how do we talk about blessing can we talk about blessing. In a way that is authentic for us. Can we do this. Perhaps it will not surprise you given that i've chosen to do a whole sermon on it today. But i think the answer is yes. And to take things a step further. I not only think we can talk about blessing and that we can bless. But i think we need to bless. We need to bless one another. We need to bless one another. Because an act of blessing makes real the simple truth. That is john o'donohue puts it. No life is a loan or unreachable. When you offer someone a blessing. You make a connection with that person that penetrates below all those layers of personality. An armored that we put on every morning when we leave the house. To offer a blessing and haven't received is to connect with another human at the deepest possible level. John o'donohue writes a blessing is different from a greeting a hug or a solute. Because a blessing is from soul to soul. Soul to soul. I think we hunger for those connections. But so often are practical sensibilities get in the way of us making them. Like our experience with milo's unintentional baptism. We focus on the business at hand in a given encounter. We go to our jobs or school we go to the farmers market we go to a community meeting. We do our work we might bump into some people we know. We accomplish our tasks. But in these daily and counters. How often do we pause to acknowledge the sacredness of another person. How often do we put down what we are doing and take in the mysterious life. That is sitting across from us or sitting right next to us. Right next to us in the pew. My hunch is not enough. We can use more blessings. And it's john o'donohue says. We especially need those blessings when we arrive at a threshold in life. Those moments when we are passing from what is known to what is unknown. Starting a new job or grad school. Beginning treatment for an illness. Grieving the death of a loved one. Preparing for the arrival of a child. For such crossings o'donohue right we need to find new words. New words. But what would these words convey. For starters i think they would say. I see you. I see what you are going through. A blessing at the very least says i know that you are facing something. I know that you are going through something. The sensation is a really knowing a creature. Wright's marilynne robinson. I mean really feeling it's mysterious life. And your mysterious life at the same time. There is a reality in blessing. It doesn't enhance sacredness but it acknowledges it. And there is a power in that. I have felt it past your knee. Maybe you have felt that power of blessing sometime. I remember a moment when i did. It was almost two years ago and i was in a sanctuary very much like this one except it was in philadelphia and it was the church that i grew up in. The germantown church. The occasion of this moment was my ordination to the uu ministry which is a time i will remember for many reasons but what i would have stayed with me the most is this blessing moment. So often and ordinations amidst all the pomp and circumstance there is an occasion for blessing and it's called the laying on of hands. The laying on of hands is an ancient custom that comes out of the tradition of offering healing. True laying your hands on someone. Are offering a blessing through laying a hand on. And in some denominations only clergy are the ones who lay hands on. But in ruu face anyone can participate in this anyone can be part of the laying on of hands. So my ordination i asked my dear mentor thomas to perform this part of the ceremony. And here's what he did. He first asked my family and friends to come up into. Circle right around me until lay a hand on me. And then he turn to the section where all my colleagues were sitting and he asked them to come up. And also circle round and maybe squeeze a hand in or maybe lay a hand on one of my family are my friends. And then he turned to the entire congregation. And ask them to rise and body or spirit. And start coming forward if they could. And when they got as far forward he said to them. Now you put a hand on someone next to you or someone in front of you. It was amazing. It was amazing to see. From where i stood it was a breathtaking sight. An interconnected web of people. Links by the physical touch of hands. And the spiritual connection. A shared humanity. And that would have been amazing enough. But once everyone was in place thomas did something else. Something i think you could maybe only do at a uu ordination. Instead of doing a traditional pastoral prayer he invited everybody to join in and oma shanty chance. So that eclectic congregation which included lifelong you use and my jewish aunts and cousins. And a vowel secularists. And my parents yogi neighbors. And my mother's longtime baptist teacher colleagues. They all i watch them they all lifted up their voices and saying. Ohm shanti ohm shanty shanty. Chanty chanty. Peace. Peace. Peace. I will tell you. That in that moment. I felt it. And others do too. We felt the blessing passed through us. And there was a power in that. We felt our mysterious live connected to one another. We didn't all know one another. But we were all connected to one another. In that moment. Looking back. Looking back on that experience. There are two things i want to share with you. Two reflections i have had. That john o'donohue has helped me with. The first is that. The power of blessing comes not only. From that sense of connection. But also in the way it expresses a yearning. For something to come. When we were all chanting together. We were expressing our yearning for peace. Peace for me. Peace for all of us and peace for the world. A blessing begins by acknowledging what is. But it ends by articulating a desire. For what can be. A blessing says i am here with you. But it also says i hope this for you. John o'donohue put it this way he says the beauty of blessing is that it believes it can affect what unfolds. Now let me pause here to go back to that question i began with. How and whether you use can do blessing. And implicit in my question with an acknowledgement. But i think sometimes this word is hard for unitarian universalist. What you say to be blessed or blessings on you sometimes this is a challenge. But my hunch is that whatever difficulty we have with that. Stems from this idea that a blessing can affect a particular outcome. It might be counterintuitive for some of us to think that our words could cause the forces of the universe to shift or change. Or that our words might warrant an intercession from god. Because that would mean that if. It didn't come true that somehow god was not with the person we were wishing our blessings on. So there's a struggle there. And i don't know that there's any easy way to do away with that tension. That tension of wedding what a blessing means. But this is the answer that i've come to. And it has worked. Which is do it anyway. Do it anyway. Offer your blessings anyway. Express your desire and longing to another person. Tell them what you hope for them. We may or may not believe that our words can change the course of events and maybe they can. But no matter what. No matter what our words matter. Our words matter to the person. To whom we offer them. To offer a blessing all we need to believe is that are reaching out. Can make a positive difference in that one person's life. And then that person will make a difference in the lives of others. And here i've made my way to that second thing i want to share with you. Which i've been assuming all along and maybe you have to but i think it's worth saying explicitly. Anyone can blast. Anyone of you can blast. Your child can blast. Your infant can blast your grown-up adult child can blast. Your friend can blast. Your difficult boss can offer a blessing. Your mail carrier can glass. Your waiter can blast. Your state representative ken blast. And yes your cats and dogs can blessed to. Sure we clergy are in that lucky position of getting to offer a lot of blessings in the course of our careers. But what if we all found more occasions to offer blessings in our lives. In her poem if you knew. Ellen bass writes this. What if you knew you'd be the last person to touch someone. If you were taking tickets for example at the theater. You might take care. You might take care to touch that palm. Brush your fingertips along the lifelines kris. When a man pulls his wheel suitcase to slowly through the airport. When the car in front of me doesn't signal. When the clerk at the pharmacy doesn't say thank you. I don't often remember. That they are also a human. And that they will die too like all of us. The poet goes on to write. A friend told me she'd been with her aunt. They just had lunch and the waiter. A young man with plum black eyes joke does he serve the coffee. And then kissed her aunt powdered cheek when they left. Then they walked a half block and her aging aunt dropped dead on the sidewalk. Bastien's her poem. What would people look like. If we could see them more often as they are. Soaked in honey. Reckless. Pinned against time. Fastest poem brings me back to where we began. With a kittens bath. Two falls ago. Here was the thing i told you. In our haste. My husband and i didn't have the presence of mind to consider and appreciate the mysterious kitten life. We were holding in our hands. The moment for blessing passed. We didn't take the time to acknowledge the sacredness. And isn't that so often the case for all of us. As we navigate the rush and tumble of our lives. Getting the kids up and fed and to school. Making it to work on time getting to the doctors office meeting deadlines getting to church on time. But what if this. What if we try to live even a little bit. Even just a little bit the way bass imagines in her poem. What if we try to see the people we encounter in our everyday lives in the light of their fragile and mortal humanity. What if we try to remember that you and i that we that each and everyone of us is a mysterious life. A beating heart. A sacred presence. What then. Well maybe just maybe. Like the waiter in the poem. We might tell more jokes. And we might give more kisses on the cheek. And maybe we would offer more blessings rather than curses or scales or angry words. Maybe we would remember to bless one another more often. As john o'donohue right. Let us begin to learn how to bless one another. Because when you give a blessing. A blessing returns to enfold you. My friends. My new friends this is my hope for all of us. That we can each each and everyone of us be agents of blessing. That we can claim and use our power to bless. With our own loved ones. And with those to whom we are connected. Only through our shared and mysterious lives on this planet earth. And i hope to. Vermilion blessings come to enfold you. May it be so with us. Now and in the days to come. Amin.

uusociety_org

2012-05-06-2%20Sermon.mp3

Anything that exists effectively in history must have form. Ro james luther adams and the creation of a form requires power. It requires not only the power of thought but the power of organization. And the organization of power. Religious liberalism denies the immaculate conception of virtue and affirms the necessity of social incarnation. The decisive forms of goodness in society or institutional forms. No one can properly put faith in merely individual virtue. Even though that is a prerequisite for societal virtue. The faith of a religious liberal must express itself in societal forms. Without these. Freedom and justice in community are impossible. O'jays luther adams took liberal religion very seriously and urged us to do so as well. Is essay on the five smooth stones of liberal religion was instrumental in bringing me back. To the unitarian universalist church as a young adult. I had drifted away from the church during my college years as so many do. But as time passed i began to sense that there was something missing in my life. One summer during a beach vacation. I found a copy of adam's book on being human religiously in the dollar bin at a bookstore sidewalk sale i bought it. Took it back to the hotel started reading. And almost wept with joy as i remembered with his help. What my almost lost unitarian universalist faith. Was all about. I revisited that same essay years later when i was on sabbatical. And italy. On the last day of our vacation we were in florence and we had finally gotten into the museum that i had most wanted to see. I remember the moment when we stood in all in the presence of michael michelangelo's david. A piece of art that expresses all the power and hope. That humanity is capable of. I recalled the biblical story of david the young boy who goes out to slay the evil giant goliath. Armed only with his slingshot. His youthful courage and optimism and the five smooth stones that he had carefully chosen and placed in his pouch. From there my mind went back to that essay by jim adams. Written in the midst of the chaos of the mid-twentieth century. Written in defense of liberal religion. Sometimes things just come together in your mind in a way that affirms what you have always known but haven't always remembered you ever have that happen to you. I've always known that my spirituality was based on the idea that the inhuman religiously was the only way for me to be in this world. And that preaching and practicing that humanistic religion was my calling. James luther adams knew that as well. And he knew that in the worst of times. It was the liberal church that offered us our best chance at salvation. At the time his essay was written religious liberalism was certainly under attack. The incredible evils of the 20th century fascism stalinism the holocaust. Nuclear weapons. Hudson many people of faith into crisis. Predictably some reacted by. Advocating a return to those mythic good old days. Remember those good old days. When everything made sense and everything was under control. It was so simple. Now this mess of course abandoning a great deal not only technological progress been enlightened ideas about human nature about society and about culture. It requires you to repudiate the scientific method psychological insight. And the celebration of cultural diversity. It means taking on a bunker mentality. Reacting with hostility to anything that is different or new or threatening to this good old. And very limited. And very distorted worldview. It looks to me like it means declaring war on women and children and immigrants and gay lesbian bisexual transgender people and poor people. In fact. It means exactly what contemporary fundamentalism has. Become. Jim adams would not be surprised. He argued that in challenging times regressive religion was exactly what we didn't need. He reminded us that the strength of liberal religion when effectively a ray. Could bring hope and peace and even security to a troubled world. The core strengths that he identified. The belief that revelation is continuous rather than sealed. There are no good old days there's just. Today and tomorrow. The human relations ought to be based on mutual on free consent rather than koreshan. That. It is a moral obligation of every one of us to direct ourselves towards adjusting living community. And that giving all that we should have an attitude of ultimate optimism. All of these the life beliefs. Could offer salvation to a frightened and hurting humanity. Salvation. Now. But only. But only if religious liberals were willing to put in their pouches that fifth stone. The organization of power. And the power of organization. For too long too many of us have held on to the false notion that we cannot make a difference because we are too small. In spite of the fact that in survey after survey people indicate that they would love to belong to a church just like this one if only they knew that it existed. We've held onto the false notion that we are too poor. The spite of the fact that unitarian-universalist have the second highest per capita income of any religious group. In the united states. Held held onto the false notion. That we are too modest. To mold ourselves into a lien. On mean religious machine. James luther adams would have none of that. He urged us to get serious about our faith. To become an effective force for good in our communities. He said to us in effect. Don't be afraid of power. Don't shy away from organization don't fall for that nonsense that organizational structure equates to faceless bureaucracy. Leverage your strength people. I was paraphrasing. What he actually said is this. The face of a church or a nation is inadequate faith only when it inspires and enables people to give of their time and energy to shape the various institutions. Social economic and political of the common life. A face in the commanding sustaining transforming reality is one that tries to shape history. Any other faith is thoroughly undependable. It is also in the end impotent. It is not a face that mold history it is a face that enables history to crush humanity. It's mystery prepares people to adjust to the crushing. By focusing on and solving. The personal experiences of hurt. The creation of justice in community requires the organization of power. Let's face it without the organization of power and the power of organization this congregation would not be where it is today. I can only imagine the credible organization the power it took for a small determined group. To purchase this land and build this sanctuary 200 years ago. I can only imagine the organization of power it took for the religious book society. Founded during the ministry of george ingersoll in the early 19th century. To morph into the public library. Or for the women's sewing circle formed in 1823. To provide badly-needed clothing for union soldiers during the civil war and later on to assist victims of the chicago fire in 1871. You know that was before fedex they had to be well-organized to get that stuff where it needed to go. How well-organized must a group have been that met here during gaston carriers ministry. That it was able to bring. To fruition. The vermont chapter of planned parenthood. Without the organization of power there would be no way for the soon-to-be elected ministerial search committee. Commercial the resources needed to navigate the sometimes complex search system of the unitarian universalist association. Using the power of organization they will present potential candidates. With an accurate picture of this congregation as it is now and as it is you hope it to be going forward. Giving people. A sense. Of what you in partnership with professional ministry will look like and feel like and sound like. For the next decade or so. A year from now they will be introducing you hopefully to the candidate for your senior minister position. And then you by showing up meeting and engaging and exercising your power. Will affirm that call. In our polity it is only the members of the congregation who can call a minister. And it is a rare treat. To be part of that process. I encourage you all. To be engaged every step of the way. This congregation has a history of embracing the power of organization. To create. New. Programs to persuade to advocate and to accomplish things. Each critical decision about identity from the decision simply to exist to the decision to buy land build structures renovate structures add-on to structures. Call ministers start ministries. Each of these decisions. What points is over the last 202 years where you have in someway expressed your determination to be the kind of liberal religious community that james wilcher adams would approve of. The creation of justice in community requires the organization of power. Adams road. Through the organization of power. Liberated persons tie into history. Otherwise they cannot achieve freedom. In history. So. Liberated persons of the first unitarian universalist society of burlington. Continue to flexwell your spiritual and organizational muscles. As you begin to grow towards the next chapter in your storied history. Embrace and nurture with intention the structures that will best support. Your ministries and programs. Embrace the power that you share when you come together in faith. To be human religiously is not to fear or disparage power but to harness all the power that you can muster. In order to bring to fruition the future that you are now beginning to envision and articulate. So get busy. Now when i said this is the first service bill west started to weep. Because. He felt like he was already busy enough. He told me he wasn't going to stay for the sermon the second time but there he is and he's not leaving this time so i think he realizes that when i said get busy i wasn't talking to him i was talking to all of you. Call view. Get busy. Clarify. Document. Talk listen listen more than talk. Vote. Implement. With intention. Go about. The business of creating and sustaining this beloved community. With intention. Acknowledge and exercise the power of organization and the organization of power that you have in your hands. When you were here together.

uusociety_org

2010-08-29%20Sermon.mp3

Before i begin i just want everyone to know that our. Program guide her prospectus for the religious education program is. Imprinting available in rax all around the. Sanctuary a bunch of you specially those of you with children and youth should have received this in the mail but i invite everyone to find one. Read it. Take it home if you'd like. So a week ago. I spoke about my responsibility here for guiding the learning. And the developing faith. Of his congregation's children and youth. And about how. Ultimately. Everyone's faith development here. Is of some concern to me. Today i'm going to share my thoughts again so if you were here last sunday i invite you to listen for something you didn't catch. In the first delivery. People are initially drawn here for a variety of reasons. If they come with children. And with differing religious backgrounds. They often stay. Because here families are encouraged. And supported. To live out the most meaningful elements from their varied religious roots. Children then learn by their parents example how their diversity that diversity within their family. Feeds. The freedom and responsibility to develop one's own authentic way of being in the world. Parents also come here. When their preschoolers begin to ask those huge. Questions. For which there is no simple answer certainly no one answer. They start to spring these questions on the adults whom they most trust. Because they. Like the rest of us yearn to understand why the world is the way it is. And how and where they fit into it. What they seek. When they ask. These questions indeed what we all seek. As we make our way each moment. Through this marvelous mysterious. And perplexing experience of life. Are these things. To know that we're not alone. On the journey. To be reminded of our uniqueness. And that we each have a gift. Of love for the world that only. We can give. And to be promised the freedom and the support. To become our truest selves. This is the community. The first unitarian universalist society of burlington. Strivetobe. And in my work. I love to remind people. Of a precious. But easily forgotten ocean. And that is that the younger ones among us are some of our best. Spiritual guides. Why. Well for a lot of. But. The children. Are hardwired to play. And their imaginations have room for pretty much anything. They fling. Gems of vision and possibility about willy-nilly. If we care to pay attention. To what they have to say and how they. Carry-on in the world. And then there's our youth. Full of fierce. Passion. And ideal. Vibrantly alive and daring with seemingly endless energy. What powerful allies they are in building peace and working for justice in a world that is so often. Tired. Worn out and hurting. To the young ones presence in our midst is a gift. It is. When we actively engage with all ages here to learn. To grow to explore and to play with ideas and possibilities. It stirs and stretches. Our spirits. We grow in our sense of self while at the same time bringing about greater good in our world. Sophia 5. Was a leader in liberal religious education in the early 20th century. Said this about the religious life. We do not divide experiences into compartments and stay. These are religious those are secular. These problems are in the realm of ethics. Those have no ethical implications. She said. Life. Becomes religious and ethical whenever we make it so. When. Some new light is seen. Winsome deeper appreciation. Is felt. When some larger outlook. Is gained. When some nobler purpose is formed. When some tasks. Is well done. The function of the church both for young and old is not to give us on sunday certain kinds of experiences different from the experiences of everyday. Rather the function of the church is to teach us. How to put religious and ethical qualities into all kinds of experiences. When we gather. Beer on sunday morning or at other times. Let's remember that all of congregational life. Educate. In all we do as unitarian universalist we strive to bear out our covenant that affirms and promotes the seven principles of unitarian universalism. We do this when we worship together. When we reach out with a helping hand. When we stand up. And speak out against injustice. When we here. About life that have been well lived. And. By just having fun together. What happens when we share our joys our sorrows our successes and our struggles with each other. Is that our good good light. Shines. And our collective glow. Just gets brighter and brighter. So we take time. For developing a life of faith because what we create here. Isn't created anywhere else in our lives. And we realize that we can't live. Day-to-day without it. Here. We create those reminders of why it matters to live life well. To leave the world. Better than we found it. To treat everyone. With compassion. Generosity. Honesty. And dignity. Here. We are reminded of the power. Of hope. And that we can change life. For the better. Every time we act. In the shape of our dreams. There it is. I invite you and i'm grateful. That you're all apart of it.

uusociety_org

2012-01-29-2%20Sermon.mp3

So the most burning question that stephen and susan put on top is this one. My child asked our god and mother nature married yes of course or maybe they are the same. So if you think of marriage as an intentional mutually supportive relationship that has both physical emotional and spiritual components then how could the answer be anything other than yes. Moving on. We gather together to inspire spiritual growth what does the word spiritual mean to you will to me. I'm really glad someone asked that question. Because we talk a lot. There's a lot of talk in the culture now people saying i'm not religious i'm spiritual. And i'm not sure. What they mean by that. So what i when i think of the word spiritual. The words that come to mind are. Whole. As in the hebrew shalom. Epomis. Encompassing. Everything no dualisms no separation. Integrated. So interconnected. And death. Those those are the components of spirituality to me. Sew-in unitarian-universalism we have. People who have many different spiritual practices that come out of many different places. We have spoke to. Practice in eastern style buddhist meditation. We have people who might claim the label liberal christian. We have people who might claim the label pagan earth face. In their in their personal spiritual practices. And that's the richness that all comes together in this room we have people who would probably say they're not spiritual at all but i would push back. Against them and say oh yes you are i'm just not the way you thought. When we talked about that word. So the word spiritual means those things. Holistic interconnected. Home depot. And in that sense we do if course gather to inspire spiritual growth we hope that every one of the members of this congregation will continue throughout their lives to grow spiritually we talked about life span faith development. Faith development is not something that stops when you stop going to sunday school. Because you know all of life is really sunday school. For all of us. Why do so many members say love is central to unitarian-universalism but it is not mentioned in our principles should the principles be changed in the sources portion of the principles. The 4th source that says jewish and christian teachings which which. Something us to love our neighbors as ourself. Should the principles be changed we tried to change the principal several years ago because there was a recognition that that there were a lot of words missing that the words that were missing really had to do with what we call the language of reference that the principles the way they're written. Don't sound spiritual two people. You know they are 20 or 25 years old and things have changed. So the commission on appraisal was given the task of. Rewriting the principal keeping the essence of of the ethical. Guidelines in them and. Creating language that was more spiritual and reverential. And they went through a four-year process of. Meeting with unitarian universalist around the country. Going through iterations bringing the the changes to general assembly each year iteratively and then of course the changes were voted down. So so now we're not going to change the principal but that doesn't mean we can't be more intentionally loving just because it doesn't mention the word. Having served on the commission on appraisal i know the frustration of. Having people tell you they want something to change and what they really meant was. Not really really. Okay. I think i'm going to go to a different tile for a while. Oh here's one i like what do you think about jesus. I think jesus was a really smart man. If he existed who knows and it almost doesn't matter. You know it almost doesn't matter i said this on new year's day that virginia woolf. Wrote once that nonfiction is about facts and fiction is about truth. And so. A powerful story can tell the truth. More effectively even then data. And if jesus was anything he was a storyteller. And he told powerful stories he told stories that are so embedded in our culture that even if we don't have never read the bible and don't even realize that some of them came out of the bible we invoke them the good samaritan. For example a brilliant brilliant story. About an outsider samaritan the marginalized minority despised. And in the story. Everyone behaved badly except the samaritan. Brilliant. Mind opening storytelling. I think. That much that is done in jesus name. Paul him. I suspect that if he walked into almost any christian church including this 100 years ago he would not recognize it as an institution. That. Represented. His teachings. I think like. In seminary when we studied. The history of christianity. The joke was that when constantine the emperor converted to christianity and christianity became the religion of the empire that that was actually the end of. Christian history. And the beginning of christendom. Which is a different thing. So. I think there's a lot there is a lot i think going back to those stories that jesus told and and the example of his life. You know the example of his life. Was that he was always pointing away from himself. He was he kept saying don't make this about me don't make this about me. There's a lot there. That we could. Continue to learn from. What are your thoughts about happiness and how if it connects to the meaning or purpose of life. That's a loaded question for me and here's why i want to tell you a story. When baron i first met. And where. Getting involved in a very serious relationship my mother was appalled. It's true. And she was appalled because number one she thought we were too young. We were only 17. She was a little frightened of the length of berry's hair. At the time. And so we would have these protracted argument on the phone. And in retrospect i understand that my mother was incensed trying to. Prevent me from making. Her mistakes which is what mothers always try to do and we never succeed. And in one conversation she said to me. She said something about why are you doing this wires. And i said because i'm happy. And she said happy what makes you think he has anything to do with it. What i meant. Buy happiness was not i'm hohoho. Happy all the time what i meant was. I feel. When i'm with barry like i'm in the right place. Like i'm free to be the person. I'm intended to be. And in that case happiness has everything. To do with it has everything to do with meaning and purpose in life. It's iffy if you think of that shake or him the simple gifts. You know. When you. Find yourself in the place just right. Then by turning turning you come round right that. By that definition of happiness. It's everything i think each of us has. A call to answer and that call is to is to find the place where were meant to be and do the things that were meant to do in the world and then even though it might be really hard even though relationships might be hard and challenging even though the work. Might be really hard and challenging we can be happy in. A spiritual way. Away that we are in fact living out. Did the depth in the interconnectedness of our lives. How can we keep the interest in attendance of young teens how to maintain ongoing commitment to the church by teens post owl. Oh and then there's a little star the back that says choose me. You know next year we should do this as a fundraiser wish you just auction off the questions one-by-one to the highest bidder. For generations we've been asking how to keep the interest in attendance of our young people and so far we haven't. Figured out any answers but i'll tell you about something that i'm thinking about and then fact people across the denomination or thinking about. And that is. In in the book the board is reading dan hotchkiss is book on governance and ministry one of the things he said is that. We are 1950s. Church trying to make it in twenty-first-century world and i think in a lot of ways we just have to change the way we think about things. One of the one of the. Ideas. That we are toying with is that we need to change the whole way we think about. How we define the membership of the church and i want to recommend to all of you that you look at you you a president peter morales is recent. Think piece on. Beyond congregations i sent it i posted it on the facebook page. And you can go to uua.org and read it. What he saying is that we need to start thinking differently that it's very possible. That there are many young people who think of themselves as connected. Spiritually to this congregation who don't want to come and sit in these hard pews. And listen to a service like this one where you have to turn off all your electronic devices you know i mean the church of the larger fellowship is doing online worship now we're people are coming in by webinar from around the country and worshipping together. One of the things i've been thinking about is something that my colleague eric wikstrom is doing and that is. During. The offering each week in his congregation. He says two people. Turn on. All your electronic devices. Think about people who are not here who you miss. Send them a text. Tell them that you miss them. Tell them that you're thinking about. If there's someone that you've just heard of the till send them. An email. If you thought that this was the most exciting music you've ever heard in your hearing the first service tweet about it so that by the second service people will come and not miss it. He's using. That idea of electronic communication in a different way so i think we just need to think about things like that. And we need to think about. What brought us you know we haven't we have a a generational habit of. Going until our parents can't make us any more disappearing for 10 years and coming back when we're ready to have kids. Now it you know that works okay if you want to stay small but if we really want our teens and twenties in the room like we have to start doing things differently and i don't have the answer that question but maybe between us we have the answer to that question. Maybe if we had a webinar on that question and the people who don't come. We're able to communicate us we would find the answer. There were several questions along. If two similar questions about. The. Political culture in the country right now and what would be in a sense of faithful you you response. To that. Divisiveness and. The rhetoric of hate and fear. So i think there are two things that i could say about that. One of them is that. We. Need to learn or relearn. The things that some of us learned. During the civil rights movement about. Nonviolence. In communication. And that's something that has been a conversation here on and off and hopefully it will be a conversation again i'm looking at melinda casino actually have a germ of a plan for that. Because there are ways of course 2. Return. Hate and fear with something other than. Contempt. Which is you know it's tempting i mean it's tempting when you hear people say totally ridiculous things. To tell them how totally ridiculous. They're being. But that doesn't move anyone. Off their squares. Actually went to a workshop on. Compassionate communication at the last general assembly and we were each asked to write a question about a situation that we had dealt with. And then people came around coaches and spoke to us personally. And my question was about. Dealing with a bully. In the congregation who came to meetings and shouted and bank on the table and scared people. And. You know rightly so people were looking for me to say protect us from this person. And the coach that down with me and she said the first thing you have to do is find a different word than bully. Because you've already made a judgment. And made yourself afraid. Bye-bye. Using that label. And i was feeling so you know self-righteous about this. Cancel course it does always begin with around. Personal hearts we have to know our hearts we have to be willing to move. Pass them. And then we also have to be willing to be courageous. And not be afraid and find the both the language and the courage to say. You know. I can understand. Why. You feel this way but. And then offer a different vision. And you won't win over everybody but i do believe that it is possible to change the conversation on a national level. One of the reasons i believe it's possible right now is because i think the occupy movement changed the conversation. Dramatically. This movement of so-called no goals know this know that. Has accomplished two things already one is it they put economic justice on the table. As an issue. Moved some of the red herrings away and the other is that by their consensus-building process. They have. Pushed other people. Other groups. Other organizations. To think more about consensus-building communication. And. So you know to me there's always help. I don't think we'll ever get all the way where we want to go but i think we can get. Closer to where we want to be and i actually think. It's our job. To do that because we are people by virtue of. The principles we live by and the ways that we have already learnt to be together we have some tools. And i think it's our job to offer them. The world. If you use don't have the lectionary how do you decide on sermon topics readings. Etcetera also how long does it take to prepare a sermon. Very first sermon i gave in the summer service in arlington virginia by virtue of. Being. Co-chair of the social action committee. Someone came up to me afterwards and asked me how long it had taken me to write it. And i said 30 years but the next one's going to be quicker. So it's true that we don't have a lectionary which for those of you that don't know in in christian. Denominations the lectionary is the parceling out of the biblical texts over the course of a two or three-year cycle. Per sunday so that each week. Ministers no this is the text that they need to preach from. But what i have in my head is. A set of buckets. If you will there is the social justice bucket there's the uu identity bucket there's the personal spiritual growth bucket there's the needs of the community bucket. And i like to when i'm planning out my. Preaching year i like to make sure that i'm drawing sermon topics for me to zoe's. Buckets. The particular topics having everything to do with the context of what's going on in a particular. Community. So. It may be they didn't in one congregation the social. Justice bucket like last year in ridgewood the social action committee had chosen as a theme for the entire year immigration justice. So more of my sermons came out of that bucket. I'm here i'm trying to. To have them follow on. To the various. Social action forum twitches why did the sermon last week on the death-with-dignity bill. So that's how i decide i decide based on what's going on and there are times when. That changes. You know i plan out a whole year's worth. Of sermons and then sometimes they change. And sometimes they change on saturday night. I mean just about a year ago. The berry was away i think he was in albuquerque and i had just finished my sermon i am an so i thought it saturday afternoon. I'm going to. Get on facebook for a while. And every facebook post from a colleague was are you rewriting your sermon yet and it was the day gabby giffords husband. Yeah that's what we all did. That saturday night sometimes you just have to do that. So how long does it take to prepare a sermon. It's a really hard question to answer because once i have my preaching calendar together i'll start. If i see a reading or i see a quote i start sliding them into file so i'm thinking about things that are going to be happening months from now. And then. The week before is when i start thinking about what all is actually going to go into the service and it's almost always the question is not what's going to go in it's what am i going to leave out cuz i got too much sometimes i have really two or three sermons written in my head before i actually sit down. So i believe that i probably spend. Between 15 and 20 hours a week on. Worship. In general including. The long-range worship. And probably 8 to 10 hours. Focus specifically. On a sunday. How does the cu society compared with other uu congregation. I get that question every single time i do this you know what it reminds me of. When when our son was in middle school middle school. One of the. Big health insurance companies had gotten the grass. To do. Basically a safe-sex program in the public schools which was pretty dramatic. And what did ennis was i think. During the height of the aids. And so. They did. They would they presented a dramatic play and the play. Was actually a line of people sitting on benches. Telling their stories and then following. The. Infection. As it as it went. Person-to-person to various ways. And then they divided up and the parents went in one room and the kids went in another room to talk. And the first thing you did was ask questions and the first question the parents asked is what is what are our kids talking about. And they told us that always that's the first question and that always the first question the kids ask is whether our parents so i can cook so you always want to know what the other guy is doing so. So having been in. I don't know i'm not good with numbers but i think. Six different kardashians in the last seven or eight years. I can tell you that you compare really nicely. Every congregation has a different has its own culture. And part of that has to do with history. Private has to do with. Where you are urban rural. Part of it has to do with the makeup of the people. I said this. Yesterday at the stewardship training but my sense is that. The congregation that i found here. Was far healthier. Far livelier. And far more affirming than the congregation i thought i was going to find when i got here. I think you are doing just fine. And. I don't know if that's what you were asking but that's you know. I get to answer the question i think it is rather than the rest. And i think we have time for one more. Keratin easy one. To be called as a minister is it a requirement that the person have graduated from divinity school if the right person was identify and they. To further education. While serving as a minister so there's two different things at play here one is that congregational quality quality meaning the way congregation govern itself. In any unitarian-universalism congregational polity says that the local congregation is the basic unit of power and the local congregation does in fact have the power to ordain and call ministers. You are the only people who can ordain a minister. And you can essentially truly ordained anyone you want. I wouldn't advise. That there have been because once you ordination is a credential that you give someone and then they can go out and use it anywhere. And so i think that you should take that privilege very very seriously. And you should honor the processes that are in place. For expecting ordained unitarian universalist ministers to be yes seminary trained. To have done an internship with with an experience unitarian universalist supervisor to have. Matt all the background checks and other qualifications that are put in place rather than assuming that you can do it because well you know someone and you think they'd be really good. So. So those are there is a whole process that we go through and. It's for the most part a good process. Occasionally people. Don't. Get the credential of fellowship which is which is the the. Background checking and. And credentialing process and can still be ordained by a congregation. Occasionally. Congregations decline toward and someone that they're asked to because they've done some discerning and. You know basically the question you're asking is do we see this person as a minister. You know someone who's just out of seminary isn't going to have the experience the depth of experience to function the same way as someone who's been around for 20 years but that doesn't mean they can't be a really good minister. So as you begin the search process i want you to keep all that in mind. That that the the variety of people who may be. The best minister for this congregation could be quite amazing and it could be something outside your. Original set of expectations. Self. Keep all that in mind i'm going to take these home. Read through the rest of them some of them may become sermons or by themselves. As i said at the first service i tend to get really excited doing this and go on and on and on and then eventually the religious education teachers come running up shaking their fists and saying take your kids back so to prevent that let us now have an offering for both the work of this congregation and the split with the discretionary fund which allows us to respond to charitable needs in the community and other needs that mean. The mission of this congregation.

uusociety_org

2012-05-20-2JuliaKimball.mp3

My favorite book the year i was 10 was are you there god it's me margaret. I love that book because margaret was almost the same as me. Just backwards. Her mother was christian and her dad was jewish. My mom was jewish and my dad mormon. And they told me that when i grew up i could believe in and be whatever religion i wanted. When i grew up i could decide if i believed in god or something else. When i grew up i went from being the only mormist girl in town to being unitarian universalist. But i think about where i am now. Spiritually ethically and personally. I think about the seven principles of unitarian universalism. I think about the sanctuary. And the people in it. I think about myself as someone who still doesn't know if she believes in god or something else. I also think about myself as someone deeply affected. By her religious heritage. I am the great-granddaughter of spencer w kimball the 12th president of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. So that church considered him as when he was alive as their living prophet. My great great great great grandparents travel the mormon trail to utah was joseph smith and brigham young. My grandparents my father's parents left the mormon church when my father was young. Save to brief stints in mormon sunday school when i was little my dad has not practiced nor has he asked me to practice the religion of his youth. I remember two things vividly from my sundays at the lds church in virginia beach. One is a song about listening to a little voice don't worry i'm going to spare you. The other is the story of the seagull. A story that is a metaphor for me of how are mormon heritage has deeply affected my dad and his values and therefore mine. Of the nuance christmases. Dr tapped into with growing consciousness. Google save my mormon ancestors crops the year that crickets descended on the salt lake valley to devour the weed. The mormons had arrived in the salt lake valley after a journey of many years. A journey that had begun as they fled persecution and that was wrought with hardship. Finally they settled in the salt lake valley and utah. They began to build homes. And a temple. And they planted crops. And then the crickets came. I imagine my pioneer ancestors exhausted. Imagine them worried. Imagine that they saw their faith is being tested yet again. I imagine them clinging to their prayers. Imagine them praying until their minds could not wrap around anything but god. And then after the fear of starvation. After the weariness. After crops have been all but ravaged. Amid their prayers. The goals came. They darken the sky with their wings and the air was full of squawk and feathers. They landed in the field. And they eat the bugs that were eating the week. They came in flocks that rival the crickets they ate cricket and then they regurgitated them and they ate more. I know what my ancestors thought because i know the legend. The goals were eating not to nourish themselves but to save the crops. Perhaps i'm sorry i skipped a whole paragraph. Today eating to save the cop it was divine intervention. It was an act of god. I read that seagulls regurgitate the parts of bugs that they cannot digest. I've read that great damage had already occurred by the time the gauls came to the valley. Perhaps this was not a sign from god. But a natural occurrence that came too late. But my ancestors had a strong faith in their god. A god who they believed had travelled with them and wagon trains across the country. They're god they believed had delivered them from great uncertainty. Was allowing them to build a history. To experience miracle. I think about the story about their faith in wonder whatever i see a goal. I think about it because the history those mormon pioneers were building. Is a part of my history and my roots push deeply into the earth that was beneath the week they planted then. My growth. As a woman as a social worker as a caregiver. As a daughter a sister and as a you you. Come partly from the seeds of faith hard work. And family solidarity that they sewed. Today i am years apart and inches away from my mormon ancestors. Anna spaces between me. And those who came before me are the values that have shaped me. Among those. Be honest. Value family. Honor the earth. Learn and take education seriously. Work hard. Be of use. These values were illustrated to me throughout my life. Probably the best example i have of this come from when i was in my junior year in college in new jersey. I worked and worked on this paper for political science class. And i was devastated when i got to see. That evening i called my grandfather kimball and utah. Collect. I told him about my grade and my disappointment. Let's hear the paper grandpa campbell said. And so i read him the paper. All 20 pages. When i finished reading grandpa was quiet a long minute. Yes he said. That was a c paper. But grandpa i worked so hard on this i said. Hard work is good for the soul and good work is hard for the soul he replied. And that conversation my grandfather taught me again that i was important enough to be listened to. But he would always be honest with me. And that hard work was valuable for its own sake. My grandparents live these values and instill them in their children. But i think about my aunts and uncles and my dad. I see a diversity of education life choices religions and worldviews. I also see a shared sense of history. A firm foundation and hard work. Honesty and love. These are values shared by many faith traditions. Including you use. Well i am aware that they are not distinctly mormon. I know that their constellation in my life is. This is why i hold near where i come from. Thank you.