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20110911_ingathering_john_homily.mp3

Mark story reminded me that the winter that i was six and a half. And yes i can remember all that way back. My father built me a boat. Rochester toys. But a real sailboat that i could sale in with him. Was called the blue jay. 13 + 1/2. Centerboard mains'l jib. Even a spinnaker. Big balloon sale. My dad was a boat designer. Among other things and this was. His most popular design ever there 1,000. But by the time i was ten when i had i was allowed to take out on the lake. With just a friend. And play captain of the sailboat by myself. That is if i could get my mom's permission. And mom seem to think that the only safe time to go out sailing in the small sailboat was if there was no wind blowing. But i love the wind in my face. And the boat tilting. Is it sumed across the lake and wheat act against the breeze. And i love learning to set the big balloon sail the spinnaker when we were running with the wind. I learned a lot from sailing so young. When i look back i think it's hot me most basically that there are many things we can't control in life. We can't control the wind. Or the waves are the current. But we can watch them and study them carefully. And learn how to steer and set our sails. If we are going to have. A great adventure together. Maybe even win a race. And most especially come home safely again. So you taught me early in life to accept with serenity. The things i cannot change. To learn how to change. Some things that can be changed. And to seek the wisdom to know the difference. 21 and i. Begin to have children of our own and so did my younger brother and his wife. My dad bless him. Found an old blue jay. Like the one that we had had this boy's any fixed it up. One winter. So that we could use it the next summer to teach our children. How to sail. Perhaps the best family vacation we ever had. With our kids. Where the two summers with my brother's family in our shared. A couple of weeks in an old sea captain's house on cape cod. On a bluff overlooking the outer part of wellfleet harbor we kept the blue jay at a mooring off the beach. And went out to it in a dinghy. That we brought along. And i remember erica my older daughter and her younger sister married when the wind was gusting. And we were talking. Tip it back. But i also remember them getting impatient. When there was no wind at all. And the blue jay just sat there. In the calm water. And they got out to swim alongside and to try to push the boat. Until they got stung by jellyfish. And hop right back in. Wellfleet has a poet named mary oliver. My love. And she has a poem that begins everything. You leap into the boat and begin rowing. But listen to me. Without fanfare without embarrassment without any doubt i talk directly to your soul. Listen to me. List the ores from the water. Let your arms rest. And listen to me. There is life without love. It is not worth a bent penny or a scuff shoe it is not worth the body of a dead dog son buried. So when you hear a mile away and still out of sight the churn to the water as it begins. The swirl in royal threading around the sharp rocks when you hear that unmistakable pounding when you feel the mist on your mouth. And sense a hidden being battlements along falls plunging and steaming. Then roll. For your wife. Tortoise. Torque. I think with the boats in new york harbor. 10 years ago this morning. And out on the hudson river. When they saw the twin towers. Hips and smoking. They didn't haddaway. They found the courage of love and compassion to head toward. Listening. Of the tragedy. And the chaos. One was an old retired. Fireboat some people do from a different children's story. Let's help put out the fire and rescue people. But time itself is a river. The old greek. But no one could ever step in twice. And this summer the visited some really wonderful places. From st petersburg in russia. To san francisco in california. Part of the water i brought here this morning was for morrow and charles river. Which surrounds the town where we live on three sides. And where i went canoeing several times. The summer. All the way down to the dam in waltham. And then back up. Through echo gorge. And on the second triple all the way down through dedham. To where the charles benz and comes down from dover in south natick and above their midfield. Thinking about what the river. Was like around here 300 years ago then more. When does parish was brand new. And the town just beginning. For the native americans who lived here in the early settlers. Before. Well before there were any dams on the river. What kind of fish have been lost. Kinds of birds. Are no longer in the marshes. What plants and animals. Fairbanks. And yet i found myself resolving not to become the stalgic. Paddling up the stream of time. But rather. To use every time of spiritual. Recollection and refreshment. To become more active. On behalf. Ab downstream generations. Is wendell berry. Says and we print it on our order of service. As you would have. Those upstream. Do unto you. And with this green sanctuary parish is a real hub of environmental activism in the town and region. With our own you use service committee working around the world for environmental justice and the human right to clean water. 4 people. Who are often deprived of those things. I think it's important that in these stormy times when too many people forget that we are all on this little blue green planet that we share and then this fragile democracy we call america in the same boat. I think it's important that we gather week-by-week. To remind ourselves. They're within the boat. We must learn and urine to all row together. For our spiritual lives. And those of our children and our children's children and a road toward love. The road toward compassion. Even when it seems dangerous. And how our way or where are we better going to relearn that art. Which is after all. An art of mutual trust and collected faith if not here in this place. For although i wouldn't for a minute suggest that all of us should choose just one model of faithful living i also can't help remembering an ancient wisdom story about. About rabbi jesus that comes to mind. One day thousands of come to hear him speaking about living with faith and compassion. And when the crowds grew hungry his disciples where they were afraid that they wouldn't have enough at the picnic. Duffy's the mall. With just a few fish in the few loaves of bread that they had among themselves but then. Be happy perhaps because the multitude has a little bit more picnic hidden inside their ropes than they've been willing to let others. There turned out to be enough for everybody after all. And even more. And then that night the story goes on. Rabbi jesus stay behind to pray by himself quietly by. About the. Waters. While his disciples went ahead across the sea of galilee in a boat. And when the storm came up. His friends again a little faith we're sure that they might all drowned in the storm. But toward morning they saw jesus coming toward them. Says the story. Walking calmly above them. Above the. Waves on the water. And saying take heart. Don't be afraid. Walking towards the storm. And the storm was call. And across the sea. No wonder we who believe in science and reason than evolution and all those good things do with a story like this. And how do we help our children understand. Well we could be like one you use sunday school teacher who told her minister i know how we'll explain it to the children will tell them that he must have been stepping on sandbars. But then again. Perhaps we should understand that all boating stories. Are metaphors for courageous. And faithful living. Maybe we can figure out that after he was gone. Those same frightened disciples who remembered. The rabbi is someone who had moved through stormy times. With an inner calm and serenity that couldn't be shaken. Associated it with boats and storms. Because they remembered him as somebody who knew the difference. Had the wisdom to know the difference. Between the outward conditions we can never fully controller change. And the course. We set. The set of our sales. Can our inward spirits. This year. As we set out together. May we set. Our faces together even towards the wind. Antwoord the growing love and compassion. That is the source of true human unity. And community. Like the kind we builded share. In this place. So may it be.

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041024_Lyceum6_bookman.mp3

A weekly forum on public affairs. Surrounding community. On family. Economy pine. Childcare elder-care weekly work hours. Enormous impact. We're in the midst of a presidential. Impact. The ordinary live oak family family. Here today. I could reveal at the outfit that are speaker handbook. Is my sister. Married to my younger brother. Mother of. Deal with elder care attorney. Family of origin. And to do it with great compassion and sensitivity. Field of public policy development. Director for the women's bureau of us labor department. And as executive director of the joint congressional commission. Director of the workplace. And has recently produced. Recommendation. Or helping american families. They're going on in the new economy. If her book called starting in our own backyard. Call working family. Available after her remarks seminar questions to her. I asked you to join me in welcoming. Good morning. Let me talk to you a little bit. We need to build. I'm going to start getting a little bit. Reality. When women traditional. Disabled. There used to be a purple contract in the old days where. Good job. You were basically guaranteed a job for as long as you're able to work. Build my own backyard. Take responsibility for others. Representative. Very important. All three companies. Email and cell phones. There are problems with childcare. Working families in massachusetts. School program. 25%. From the school. Another another. Workout. Services are hard to find. Relion. Our families responded. Mini mini family. Call work family. Extended family where. Grandparents. Neighborhood. Value. First as i am. Number of. Family. Just looking for a few example. Take a wonderful model fourier. Important. Kind of family leaves are available for families. Congregation. Can build urban and suburban coalition to work around these were family issues. Different parts of the commonwealth. 1 longer. Talk about. Part of what. Call heather frontpage. Profiles of family. Dealing with. Caught. Things like fuel. Healthcare. Was this simply contemplating but they would not be able to replace. Beyonce. Ar. Really. Much more drastic. You work a lot. Affordable childcare. Chemical greater boston area. Doberman. Community. For their kids. Coming together to work together. Commonwealth. Another word. Services for working-class and middle-class family. Universal. Universal actually. In america. Multiple strategies if you're articulate. Stakeholder more universal. More of a kind of. You know we have a long history of. A problem as a family is really your own personal problem. Somehow we have to break that. One of the ways i've done that for myself and just reflect on the fact that says this generation and which i was raised. You were right. Generator. From public policy. Or. Destruction of suburban schools. Infrastructure that was put in. Family life for low-cost loans that were made available to. Gi bill. I want sometimes wonder whether we don't need something. The universal. Public power. Vanished back into america. Carr's employee. Are under so much pressure and cannot seem to provide. What they provided before i. Audience involved with georgia. Boil down to a. A greater and greater. Amount of. Labor supply. And a greater and greater portion of the cross. Perfume. Public employers. A lot of power. Company decided to break. That. The root of the problem. Grab. Workable. What what happening in these companies when companies make that kind of investment in their worker. Save money because they don't have. Make that kind of. Young people. Children. Paradigm of how our society views. Altogether. Responsible. So i can provide a diverse range of. More about what it means to be responsible for each other and how that responsibility. Really.. Transfer. Silent class-warfare evolving in this country. Federal reserve has years of data on the growing. I think the frustration i feel like i don't understand why americans don't. Unwind. Profoundly disturbed by compromises that you see every day in the wall street journal. People aren't really more profoundly disturbed what's going on. Expressions of people. When was unraveling when it became clear that. Someone who is working. Example of. Many more. Republican. In retrospect. Emissions. The elephant. Yolo. Immigration. Country. Hey. United states. Naked girl. We're going to go in. Correct. My opinion. In oven problem coming up. Taking care of it. And looking. Leave no child behind. In massachusetts. And let those people. Okay thank you i'm sorry. Report updated. Welfare. There was a question raised about. Job. Whatever. I have no idea. The elderly. Perform. Complicated. You know what's really needed our program. And i don't think we've actually come out with. Kind of reform effort for our porter. What's the volume. Possibly better opportunities for. Available. Very basic. And in our family. Hard-working. Thank you very much.

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20111224_a_christmas_carol_for_these_times_sermon_john.mp3

It's been called the original modern christmas legend. I'm referring of course to the classic tale by charles dickens. A christmas carol. You grown-ups know the story and maybe most of the children too. Bah humbug. Said ebenezer scrooge. About christmas. He's a tight-fisted. Old merchant. Who even resents. The cold warms his underpaid clerk bob cratchit. For the day he gives him off from work. To spend with his struggling family. Where the youngest child tiny tim. Is cripple in ill. I'll remind you of the rest in a few moments. Some of you may even know the story behind. How charles dickens who's 200th birthday. Is just two months away. Was the second of eight children in his family. His father a clerk who couldn't pay his bills. And charles was 12. His father went to prison. For unpaid debt. The family went to prison along with him. As was the practice back then. Except for charles. Who was set out to work. 10 hours a day. 6 days a week. Pasting labels. On shoe polish. In a warehouse. On sundays when he visited his family in prison he had to sit through long sermons this won't be one. That threatens hellfire and brimstone. If people did not repent. As a young man dickens thought religion. Therefore it was mostly humbug. Instead he went from being a court reporter to writing imaginative stories about real people in this world. Olicity real sympathy for how. They suffered real hertz. Andrea lynn justice. By the time he was thirty he'd become one of the english. Languages most famous authors read not only in his own country but here in america in fact when he came to visit in 1842. Starting in boston. The crowd that surrounded him at the parker house was so huge she couldn't get out. He was like a rockstar. Or movie star. So he was surprised when. He was brought a note from a local minister named william ellery channing. Who was the leader of boston's unitarians. Please forgive the enthusiasm of the people of boston doctor channing grow. But your stories really touches. Let me send a carriage for you tomorrow night. Have dinner with some local authors at the home of my fellow unitarian longfellow. Dickens accepted. Andover dinner they discussed hello. Authors might support one another win publishers in england stole the works of american writers or americans. Stole the works of english writers like dickens. These were religious people he. Concluded but of a different kind these unitarians. Practical. Down to earth. Compassionate able to see someone else's point of view. Interested more in imitating the religion of jesus. Then just preaching beliefs about him. And so shortly after he returned to england dickens was saddened to read. In the paper the doctor channing who died. And that there was to be a memorial service for him at the unitarian chapel in little portland street london. Led by its minister dr tiger. But he attended. And soon found himself going there on sundays as well. He talked to taggart. Enjoying the unitarians. Christmas was closed and he began writing a new story. In at ebenezer scrooge is visited in his dreams by the ghosts of his old partner jacob marley remember. Warning him to change his ways. If he wants anyone to remember him. With any affection. He better show some. During the weeks before christmas. Scrooge was visited by spirits three more times but goes to prison espace take him back to his wide-eyed wonder as a child. Shows him how he traded innocence for selfishness. Became. Focused on greed. When he could have done otherwise. Came to call christmas humbug. And the ghost of christmas present shows him a wide variety of scenes all around. A prosperous people joyously buying presents and. Christmas dinner in the market. The meager christmas fees being faced by the family of his clerk cratchit. And homes like that of a minor in. Lighthouse keeper. To remind him how. He whether he knew it or not. With the condition of his fellow human beings and third the ghost of christmas future frightens him. With an image. Tiny tim dying untreated. Of scrooge's own grave of visited and untended. On christmas morning. He awakens to change man. Give me the italy goes to order a prize turkey sent to the home of the cratchits. He accepts an invitation earlier rebuffed. To celebrate with his nephew fred and their family. He raises cratchit's wages. He resolves to treat others with generosity. Compassion. Anti begins a reputation as the one who actually embodies. The very spirit of christmas. Scrooge. Not sure where my granddaughters live. A man named michael jean sullivan who's been a fan of dickens all his life. End of this story in particular. Having once played scrooge. Scrooge's nephew. In a stage production of a christmas carol. And later having put on a benefit performance for people with hiv aids. When. Dressed as one of the christmas ghosts he stood with a small basket. After the performance asking for donations. And a well-dressed woman. Berated him. Fracking like a beggar. Clearly having missed the whole point of the story. Sullivan's this year as playwright in residence for a theater company. Got inspired by the occupy protests. That began on wall street this fall. Talking about how sometime the wealthiest. 1% seem to push. Our politicians toward policies that benefit them but increase. Economic inequality. For the other 99. And deepen our social divisions. Problems. And sullivan knew what he wanted to do. 02 version of a christmas carol for our time. That is set in an encampment. An occupied encampment outside a big bank. The ghost of christmas past. Still reminds scrooge. Of the trial that he once was. And look up as. That he could have chosen. To keep other vulnerable children. Inview. As he. Used his vulnerability. To focus. Unbecoming safe and secure. With game the center of his life. And the ghost of christmas present still underscores the hard lives being lived by many others. The unemployed. The uninsured. The wounded. The impaired veterans. And the bankers park. All of this. The world we live in. And the ghost of christmas future still shows images. That could frighten. Of a future. Unsustainable. With global warming and conflicts. Over energy resources and an unsustainable economy. But also the promise. Of a different path. This version is enliven with street theater. With protest songs. And the normally mild-mannered clerk bob cratchit finally speaks up for himself. In sullivan's version. People always think this story is about you he says to scrooge. Just you. One evil man. And if you change everything is different the world is transformed. Cratchit delivers a message that goes well beyond charity. Or individual change. It isn't. You. It's the idea that's killing all of us. These ads. The idea that at the end of the game the one with the most toys somehow wins. It's stepping over the hungry. And the homeless. To buy what we don't need that's killing us. And it's letting them turn our government into a casino that's killing us. It ain't about you. Cratchit says. It's about us. All of us. I haven't seen this version. I just read about it. But looking out at all of you tonight. And you are beautiful diesel. I agree. It's about us. All of us. And i think dickens. With his ability to identify with all the key characters in his story. He was tiny tim. He and his dad were bob cratchit. And yes dickens was scrooge himself. Knowing that he had been. Admitted to the 1%. With successful writing. But it's not just about. That one character is. It is about all of us. In our wealth and our vulnerability. Get id'd. And did i need for change. And so when the morning comes. May we all find a way. To bring about a better day. And a happier new year. And may our resolve to lead a new life this christmas in this new year. And in all the years ahead. Be blessed this tiny tim wants to put it. God bless us everyone. For the christmas spirit. Is deep within. Each of our beautiful. And your name soul. May it be tapped and released tonight. And maybe released enjoy.

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20110424_mortality_and_life_eternal_john_sermon.mp3

Brother eli. Who was the great. Songwriter who. Peace ain't no grave. Down in appalachia. He died in 1978 at the age of 56 something about that makes me think of. Audiology that probably couldn't be much cheaper. Woody allen. With what he saying. I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I'd like to achieve it through not dying. He also notoriously says i just don't want to be there when it happened. Actually on a few sacred occasion. I have had the top role in personal privilege of being present. When loved ones are friends. Through their very last breath. The first time was with a beloved parishioner. In dallas dr. john bartell. He retired after a long career in the chicago area has an obstetrician. Delivering literally. Two or three thousand. New line. Into the world. And then alzheimer's. And towards the end. There was no. Have no future. Only if continuing now. John. Adult his wife margaret and i held his hands when he died. Very loud. Sound seemed. To come from him is he. Drew his last breath was. Now. Most recent occasion louis with my own parents. Well i've lived here among you would need them. My dad was hospice care with cancer you may recall which. Allowed me time to call my brother call the position of in seattle. And only do i think you should get out here right now. But i booked you on the red-eye. Tonight. Arriving at dawn. Dino an opposite doctor to go right up dad and scout into his ear. But we haven't been responsive for days. Is taurine come from seattle. Whatsapp. The old man replied. To tell you i love you. Paul said we all do. Good. Data. And that was the last word he said. Now. Good. Agree with this pain that are human grandeur. Why is in our ability to be aware. Conscience. What sodas are anxiety. Rpu. And much of the burden. That we share it in being human. Human together. Knowing that we are alive now.. But we will have to.. Is mortal bodies of ours if we carry them through the year. Well the older i get the more i realize what many of you know. Can be eventually full of eight pains and ailments and problems. So that they really do feel like crosses we have to bear. And yet human right. Even with all of its vulnerabilities frailty. Is far far more than a via dolorosa. There's are those moments. That transcend time in which we see the deeper meaning. And there are those in every agency and grasp and when is crown of glory. Andrew so very humanely. Westbrook points out that there's no real consistency in. Gospel story about jesus how he died much less about what happened on that first easter morning. We heard the short accounts with molly red for mark but the simplest and oldest of the gospel. And doesn't matthew he cries out very humanly quoting psalm 22 hailey-hailey lama sabachthani. My god my god. Why have you forsaken me. Luke's health jesus. Not alone again. Crucified between. Violent criminals. One of them oxen. So you're the messiah save yourself then and us. The other. The other acknowledges that they at least those two are getting. Punishment they deserve. Well jesus is clearly done nothing wrong. So remember me when you come into your kingdom. To which applies. This very day. You will be with me. In perth. This very day now. In paradise. The place where human life is said to have. Begun. So long ago. Place where jesus said to end. And yet. Present to him. Even in the midst. A very die. Is slowly dying. As we are all. Slowly dying. Sprint. I asked you. In the midst of life we may be in death in paradise. Right here on earth. This very day. If we awaken. If we have eyes to see if used to hear and hearts to understand the beauty and the. Our very being in this creations. His holiness the dalai lama. Says that the source of his happiness. Thomas from a central meditation practice that every day's focuses on his own death. Why. Because it helps him to see. The hearing now. And a few looking past. For all creatures who like himself. Heart-wrenching. Mortal. Everything. But every moment. Can also be. Transcendence. I think about ralph waldo emerson's another spiritual master of the here and now. Whose father a minister like him. Died when he was only nine. And then the most important influence in his life became his father's sister is that mary moody emerson. Who's. Spiritual exercises grounded in puritan tradition included sometimes sleeping in her own coffin. Go up to the town burying ground. See the gravestones inscribe memento mori. Remember that you too shall die. And then awaken. Not the mirror self-consciousness. What is emerson. And the dalai lama daughter. The consciousness of a transcendent reality. In which we are truly one. All across differences. Police religion. Don fields. One man was true. What is in. You. And me. Immigrated. The gospels are written you know there are two very different words for life. 1 is. As in biology. So kind of life that is mortal. It comes to an end. And the other is go away. Zoology. Which means the life the continues. From generation to generation from age to age from spring to spring. Or as the old latin mass had it. Cycle recycle or. When you do a funeral or a memorial service i tell my ministry student. You better stand there and say out loud. Henrietta or george is dead. Don't you dare use euphemisms. Don't say. Much less going to a better place. Never. Make a death west bennett is. It is why. It is separate. It is human grief. But also don't make of death more than it. Because it is not a nihilation. Since the reality of that life continues. Nor is all i'm going like a matter of human memory which is. So palpable in spanish. Continue simply in human beings which may be forgotten. Last week i said from the pulpit in passing that there may be a danger. After all and being remembered. And a blessing. And even anonymous and forgotten deeds of human kindness. The danger in being remembered as well as was traded by the story of jesus who has been misremembered misinterpreted and used and abused to justify the very violence but he aboard the tradition that he transcended. By people who substitute. For the faith of jesus nearly about him. Is though his death. Meaning. And not vice versa. For a desire wives that will give meaning to our death. My friends. And therefore it matters that we rise to life. And live lives. Butterworth the dying. I think of one moment in the gospel where jesus was asked about life eternal in her when the rich young man comes to him. And says good master. What must i do to achieve life eternal. Matthew 19. Is it. Not even he's perfect. Cracker barrel. There's only one who is good. But if you wish. Tinder in hawaii. Keep commandments. Which one is the young man out. And jesus replies with the obvious ones than gold murder cheat wise deal. Love your neighbor as yourself. Young man claims to have done all of this from his childhood. What more should we do. And jesus replied if you wish to be perfect. Good luck. Install all that you have. Give the money to the poor. Young man like most of us is ready. Quite ready to let go of everything. Where to be perfect. Tobiko sarolia way. Burden. By his own riches. Like a woman of whom i also spoke last week who anointed jesus with costly perfume only to be criticized by the disciples for not selling it and giving the money to the poor to help them. The old man's name is not recorded anymore than first one. And yet i wonder if he wasn't transformed. Suriname. By that encounter. Whether he didn't eventually. Give up some of his own anxiety. Need for security. As many possessions in this desire to do well in this life. In up to do some good. And they have a broad enough consciousness and compassion. To achieve consciousness. Beyond that of his own ego. I think of the ucc minister whose story. Appears on the front page this morning glow. Who's been on leave for an entire year from their congregation. Going to treatment. For life-threatening cancer. We christian she says. Still weather. What i want to testify to is that. When the fear of death.. Then the triumph is complete. Twitter who made his fortune as a builder. Now look very modestly. Out in the boonies a little more than a shack. Giving away millions. For human rights card. According to our own service committee. The other two women who. Houston daring things like livin teaches a feminist in saudi arabia. But she lives in a single room. I'm just wondering why the whole house. So that the unitarian fellowship but she's helped to nurse. Could have a spiritual home. And apartments. The glory of human existence is that we can sometimes. By grace transcend our fears. And our anxieties and come to a consciousness of life. And life more abundant for ourselves and for others. Like. Young arab. I heard. On npr yesterday from benghazi. Where young people are challenging their more anxious elders. And really going about creating the civil war non-violent society behind the lines. After years. I'm living under a dictatorship young man who'd been in prison. Under kadafi 45 years said that for the next five he fell dead. And when the arab spring began he was weary. Enum. And then one morning he awoke. And realize that if he did not begin to help he was not fully alive. And now he's never felt more so. The relatively young woman whose only 16 testify to being amazed and proud at how immature she is. In her ability to organize her peers and even elders. To help build a civil society to discuss. What's the democracy they yearn for might look like if they begin practicing now. I think are examples of owosso. The fear even of dying. On the growth of a deeper and more. Universal consciousness. Even in the face of our mortality. It's not the would-be murderers desire for rewards in the world economy. It's a realization that real and enduring and eternal life is present. Whenever. One of us. Anyone of us. Ribs with a faithful enough concern. For all of god's children. After the creation. And whether we do that out of religion. Or simply out of the human spirit. Beyond religion beyond theism beyond heaven and hell. On friday of this week which was also a birthday. As well as good friday. I participated in our service. At harvard conducted by the uu students there's it. Affirmed the face even beyond the present crucifixion of the planet. Source of life for all of us. Life is not intended to end. But god knows it may have derived from. Sufferings weakest perpetrated upon a new form. Like the lake that i lived along when i was a boy. That i saw almost died. Its original one biological life now. Is again live. The new wave. Farmhouse sponsors that when he was younger the gospel that he likely split before it's 1. In which jesus can sometimes seem like an almost alien heavenly being imposed on this planet. But now he reads it differently he understands that mean that there was a consciousness in him. It was free. And universal. At least more than most of us are. Free from the burdens of self-consciousness. And anxiety over more to life. And the evangelist puts it in terms evoking the central affirmation the creation itself is good life is good. And not intended by the creator to end and dead-ends. In the beginning was the word. Begin. The word was god. Was with god and the word was god he was in the beginning with god all things came into being through him. And without him not one thing came into being. What is coming to being in him was life. And the life was the light of all people. Light shines in the darkness. And the darkness did not overcome it. The darkness in human affairs my friends real we know that. Rasiya in ongoing human cruelty to others and in the cruelty we collectively perpetrate upon the creation. We see it in economic and political systems that in rich and protects the few while grinding down the many. And then blame the many for becoming victims. We see it in in french forms of bigotry. Mnro neglect of the good that we could do and do not. Is my friend john nichols puts at keeping space but there's something more powerful than violence. And the injustice. Has been the great task of western religion. Attached to which i'm afraid organized religion has often been too often paper. I don't think you can prove from history. Much less from a quest for the historical facts about jesus. Herbalife of compassion and hope. Not. Open been overcome. Albert schweitzer who devoted his early life to scholarships. For the truth about jesus. Concluded with the only way to experience the life and spirit that was in him was to try to live something like it himself. And so it is for all of us. Perhaps when we open ourselves. Even through that crack of vulnerability. Our own feelings. Through which the light. When we open ourselves to something greater. I hope. What it's all about. Something greater than the fear and bleakness in our own mortal eyes. When we lay down the cross of. Anxiety about herself. Or the need to be remembered. Is little eagle. Would be recognized. For the time listen to good way to. Well then we set the necessary but not sufficient condition. To receive with the poets call that you crown and glory. Homemade the truth. It will make us truly free. Is wife i'm going. But never dies. And the love and compassion. But has the power to cast out our fears. Piano call services. Until a day spring break. And all the shadows.

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20110821_faith_for_those_that_will_follow_john_sermon.mp3

Two weeks ago yesterday i had the chance to be out in san francisco. And present as isabel. Stage three and a half. Took her weekly swimming lesson. I don't know maybe it was my presence. Maybe it's that like me she's an eldest. Just her personality. But i couldn't help but being struck by how she seemed to be working at it a little too hard. Kicking. More than she needed to. Holding your breath longer. Having a hard time. Just relaxing. And trusting the water. I'm floating. And i thought not only arab i won't be saying that floating takes faith but also of a beloved palm by. Unitarian poet philip booth called first blessing. Lybacks daughter. Let your head be tipped. Top of my hands. Gently and i will hold you. Spread your arms wide lie out on the stream and look high at the goals. A dead man's float is face down. You will dive and swim soon enough for this tidewater abs to the sea. Daughter believe me when you tire on the long thrash to your island. Lineup. And survive. As you float now where i held you would let go. Remember when fear cramps your heart. What i told you. Li jun li. And why the lightyear stars. Laibach. Embassy. Will hold you. Gwen and i were. Young parents ourselves a leader in religious education. Who influenced us both john westerhoff. Wrote a little book called will our children have faith. Too many parents you suggested. Worried about whether their children will have precisely their faith. And values. In effect a bit narcissistic. As well as tribal. Better to raise our children to make wise choices. About the form their faith will take. And show them. What face looks like. When i was born back in 1947. Only 5% of all religiously active americans. We're active in a community of faith other than the kind that they have been raised in. Catholics state catholic. Baptist state baptist lutheran state lutheran. And. Many. Even across denominational lines. Sang hymns with lyrics like faith of our fathers. Living still. We will be true to thee till death. But fifty years later in 1997 another survey showed that almost 50%. Of all religiously active americans. Had chosen a faith tradition. Other than the one that they had been raised him. And today it's probably even higher. More and more parents i have noticed. Say to themselves that the only say that they're sure that they want their children to have. Is faith in themselves. And i have now heard that enough over 40 years. But i think that that's fine. As far as it goes. The question is. How far does it go. A recent newsweek article published last month was called the united states of narcissism. In which writer daniel altman says. Imagine the person who does what he wants. Regardless of how it affects other people. Who refuses to take responsibility for his own mistakes. Who thinks he's unbeatable. Despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Sounds like a textbook narcissist right. Well these days. It also sounds like uncle sam. United states. Meaning. Ouch. Oakland sites. How we are happy to spend. But resist sharing sacrifice. Insist. That our economic system is the best in the world. But refused to invest in the education or infrastructure. The research for the regulation that could keep it strong. Psychologists who been tracking narcissism. Through surveys of college students since the 1970s. Say that levels of it measured by lack of empathy. Have never been higher. And when you consider how many levers there are in our society. Pushing us in that direction. From ads that's a relentlessly you you deserve it. Do reality shows the turn regular people into selfish battlers. For evanescence. Celebrity. From twitter feeds and facebook pages offering endless opportunities for self-admiration. Well it's not surprising. That our politicians tend to indulge us in. Short-sighted selfish trends by promising people. But they can make things better. Without anyone. Having to sacrifice or do much of anything. Meanwhile the crushing deaths of the me generation. Increasingly restrict our ability to get out of the economic slump or in. Ed even talented young people go jobless. The best hope altman concludes is in the parents of this generation. Deciding to raise children who will see beyond themselves. Google crave not mentally prestige wealth. Security or amusement. As much as meaningful connection and service to others. To the planet. Into the human future. When i talked with young people who grew up in this congregation. Or the choir of their parents. Even this morning about how they're doing. My face gets restored that we are at least doing our part in that effort. Our children. I think often demonstrate face so each in their own way they get it. But ours is not so much a religion. A belief. As it is one of embodied faith. Faith embodied in our behavior. Instead of must be believed doctrines what we offer here most the children is simply the example. Open the first community of reflective people. Committed not just a growing their own souls. But two doing so by being. Thoughtful about how to promote the rights of others. Sustainable future on the planet. Often by recharging by relaxing into a spirituality. That is simply amazed. And how we can be upheld by the beauty. And the grace of the world. That really does ultimately sustain us all. In her. Latest book 12 steps to a compassionate life. Historian of religion karen armstrong says that she is. 41 simpli-stik. Of having people tell her. People who primarily no religion through the news. Tell her that religion is the chief cause of human problems in conflict. Nonsense she replies. Shirley religion can get dragged into conflict. But it is almost invariably because of some shallow narrow soul. The craves power or plunder. And then wraps its in its peak at ism in some form of pietism. That abuses and distorts religion. The true essence of which. Across traditions. She insists. Is imaginative compassion. Which thomas hardy said there's also the essence of good poetry. You can't prove poetry. And neither can you prove authentic face. Almost by definition. Yet all the countless acts of justice seeking peacemaking. Courageous compassion. Near attention to people who need our attention. That religion and authentic faith evans inspired what about that. Because victor is right. Authentic faith is not the same as a package of abstract beliefs. No matter what religious orthodoxy is macy. Here of course we practice what i increasingly think of is. Well to use a computer metaphor open-source religion. In which are preface draws on wisdom. Not only from many traditions. Humanist and christian jewish and buddhist are centered and muslim. But also. Stays open to the direct experience. A mystery and wonder grace and beauty. But each of us bring. To our gatherings. Edgeworks community. And to ethical insights that hard-won experience. Winchester building bring. Not that any of us should be so narcissistic as to think that we can be truly religious all by ourselves. That way lies delusion. We need one another. As a reading that we used last week here but. Only together. Can we find a candle brighter than our own and a path. That is indeed authentic and faithful. Not merely to ourselves. But to the sheridan. Human enterprise. We have religion. Said my late colleague. Ralph halverson. When we stop deluding ourselves that we are self-sufficient. Self-sustaining or self derived. When we look upon people with all their feelings. And still finding them good. When we look beyond ourselves to the grandeur. That is the creation of the purpose in our own hearts. What after we've done all that we can. We lie back and then entrust ourselves. To life but is larger. That our own. At the end of his other little book why faith matters rabbi wolpe rights. Why does space matter. Because love this world. Of one another. Sr sol hope. In an age when we human beings can destroy ourselves many times over. There's no power that's only good. But cannot be twisted for evil. Religions no exception. But while there are many things that can do much there is only one thing. Pick'n save us. Authentic face. Not blind or bigoted faith but faith that pushes us to be better to give more of ourselves. To see glimmers of transcendence. Scattered throughout the life we share. Such a faith is both an achievement and a gift. And achievement of seeking questioning urinating reasoning. Hoping. And a gift from beyond. From the one who fashioned this world. And sustains it and whose wisdom. Could save it if only we is. Doubters and believers alike with listen. And respond in love. My wife winners you know as a priest in the episcopal church. And she and i may differ on some things. But i'm quite confident we agree with the rabbi on that one. When we raised our own children we were like lamott. You know. You can go to daddy's church or mommy's church. But you can't stay home. Because we wanted them to catch the spark. Now both of them are with child. That's right by december gwen and i. We'll have three grandchildren. And i obviously could not be. Happier. Mary who teaches in the book bostonpublicschools is carrying a little boy. Will be raised by. Her and her wife anna in the unitarian congregation in dorchester. What's the joint west spring. Turn erica. Our older daughter who is. Confirmed is an episcopalian. Yes yeah. Ended up joining the unitarian church in washington. Dc which was full of vibrancy another young adults. And then later married and eiza. Son of a synagogue president. I may not live in san francisco. Where isabel loves the preschool at the uu church. And where andy's job is to add the jewish elements to her religious education and then her sisters. He by the way. Develops wind farms. Trying to make the world sustainable. Well erica works on public policy and healthcare. On behalf of the hospitals that serve the most vulnerable. An uninsured. And do i take some narcissistic pride in my family you bet i do. Every parent. Should. Especially in the faith that they show. The consonants. In the human future and not just themselves. But they give them. For what we worship we are becoming. We need to become people. Boosie the spark. Of untapped holiness in every human soul. Antipas. Poor kindling. When they were growing up when i sometimes joke that it's like most preachers kids they rebelled. We still hope they'd be people of faith even if one was a baptist in the other buddhist. And now we suspect. Because we've each served in ministry many years now. Set the face that will sustain them. And our grandchildren. Will be different. From the forms of faith attempts to stained us in our lifetime. And that have nurtured us. That they will be seeking new forms. Of worship. And practice. New and even more open source music. And poetry. The patterns preaching and teaching and commitment. So will our children and our children's children have faith. I have faith enough to say that they will. If we ourselves will know show them. Deep and authentic lives of faith ourselves. If we stay open and relaxed enough. Faithfully to turn the future over to them. Having done and lived our best. In this world there have always been many opinions about faith and salvation. Said our unitarian for bearer of the 1500s. Francis david. We need not think alike. The weather like. And that my friends is a faith worth keeping. Aphasia free and worthy souls. May we not only preacher. But also show it. In our very lives. To those who will follow.

uuneedham_org

20110403_shared_world_molly_sermon.mp3

Back in january i preached that we are called to follow our passion. And our anger to those places where our hearts break. Those places i said. And i hope you'll forgive me for quoting myself. Are where the world needs our hands and voices. What if those places are a long way from where we are. What affair in libya. Or afghanistan. Or sudan. What. I have to warn you this morning i am following my heartbreak and my anger. It's not what i had originally planned. I came across our reading from naomi shihab nye. And i was moved by it and was all ready to preach a sermon about the shared world we can live in if we try where women share foreign-sounding cookies and powdered sugar covered little girls run around happily. And then tuesday evening i sat down to watch the evening news. And they showed the clip of livian attorney iman olive ag. Bursting into a hotel and attempting to tell foreign reporters of her detainment. And sexual assault at the hands. Gaddafi soldiers. Missing the clap. Cheapest shoveled and injured and angry and when she tries to tell her story members of the hotel staff work with urgency and increasing violence. To silence her. One pulled out a knife. Another a woman throws a coat over her head. And screams at her to be quiet. Several journalists try without success to protect her and she is eventually wrestled away by a cluster of men in leather jackets. Forced into a car. She's not been seen on camera since then. Since the story broke in the western media. Gaddafi government spokespeople have tried several strategies for managing the story. The first was to call her a prostitute and question her sanity. Next they claimed they were seriously investigating her accusations and detaining for allegedly involved. Manna for questioning. And they also claimed she'd been released into the care of her family. We don't know where she is right now. It has come to light that she's facing criminal charges for slander because of her accusations against military personnel. And her family have no knowledge of her whereabouts. And right about now i don't want to live in a shared world. In this shared world women's bodies are legitimate battlefields of war and then they're told by their own country women to shut up and deal with it. This can't be our world. The world we are a part of their world. Livia's far away. Accepted sexual violence is also currently being documented as a widespread weapon of war and tool of repression in columbia. Afghanistan. Sudan. And the democratic republic of congo to name just a few. This is not new or uncommon. As the international rescue committee and american nonprofit working in the area of gender-based violence puts it. The bodies. And spirits. Of women and girls. Are the forgotten frontline. In conflicts throughout the world. Sexual violence is not just a byproduct of war it is a strategy of combat. Systematically used to terrorize and humiliate. The bodies and spirits of women and girls on the forgotten frontline. Are being broken everywhere there is war it seems like no one is talking about. Until one of them has the opportunity and the courage to get her face in front of a foreign camera. And then she gets 30 seconds on the evening news. If that's not enough. We may not want to share a world where women's bodies are battlefields of war but we do. We live in that world. We have to talk about it. I know it's a hard conversation to have because everytime i try i end up saying something like this is evil. Is evil and i don't know what to do about it. But if there's one thing we cannot to. It is walk away. Here in this religious community behold a vision of a world where all bodies are safe. Respected. Where the earth's abundance is shared and we're each and every one of life creatures is cherished. And that world can never. Ever be created by walking away. In this morning's second reading naomi shaheen eyewitnesses a glimpse of this world we envision. This world where trust and love abide and a beautiful moment of shared humanity. I need moments can still happen anywhere all is not lost. These moments can and do i'm sure happen in libya and afghanistan and sudan. But they don't come about by willful ignorance. They don't happen when people walk away. In fact the only reason that night i reach that moment of human kinship was because of her compassion. Because she answered a worrisome call for someone who spoke arabic. And because she got down on the floor. With a woman who is crumpled there wailing and keening and making a scene. That moment. Is part of her shared-world to. The shared world that we work and hope for is one more we trust and love each other across all the lines that divide us. The shared world we live in now. Is by necessity a world of solidarity. Well we are moved to tears by others tears and to rage by others of uses. Both worlds are true. We must live with our eyes wide open to the real world that is and we must keep holding the vision of the world that can be. This coexistence of realism and hope is difficult to maintain. Especially with knowledge of such abuses and yet it seems maintain it we must. Ignoring the world's evils enables them. But so does becoming paralyzed by them or cynical because of them. We need to see how things are but we need just as much to see how they could be. The hold the hope. I don't want to say that we and our relatively safe affluent. Place should be holders of hope for women and distant lands. That sounds to me like a problematic vision of colonial missionaries. What i'm saying is that bearing witness. I'm holding a vision of something better are complementary. Rather than contradictory acts. And we here. Need to find our capacity for both. I was recently inspired by hearing deep ecologist joanna macy talking about justice balance. She said the biggest gift you can give is to be absolutely present. And when you're worrying about whether you're hopeful or hopeless or pessimistic or optimistic. Who cares. The main thing is that you're showing up. But you're here. And that you're finding ever more capacity to love this world. Because it will not be healed without that. That love is what is going to unleash our intelligence and are on chinnu at&t arsala darasimi for healing the world. Easy macy believes that right now is a key moment in our history on many issues. She sees something important happening in the culture. Believe that there is what she calls a great turning in the work. In which we transition. Tua life-affirming. I'm life-sustaining society. With energy and passion. Of course she points out that something else is also happening simultaneously. What she called the great unraveling. Under the pressure of destruction caused by contemporary society. But listen to this. She says. The awesome thing about the moment that you and i share is that we don't know which is going to win out. How is the story going to end. That question seems almost orchestrated to bring forth from us. The biggest moral strength. Courage and creativity. Because when things are this unstable a person's determination. How they choose to invest their energy and their heart and mine. Can have much more effect on the larger picture than we are accustomed to think. So she says i find it actually a very exciting time to be alive. If wearing emotionally. I was thinking as i heard this about our universalist forebears. If they knew how the story would end. Ultimately. They had a radical faith in a god whose love is so powerful and so irresistible that it will always win. Not only here. Among the faithful or the elect. But globally everywhere in places they couldn't even imagine existed among people they would never know or encounter. We may not have exactly the same face now. It doesn't always seem certain that love will prevail on the global scale. But we do hold a prophetic vision. I've a shared world where love can win. There is a powerful calling in that too. You see when it seems that either love or hate could just as easily come out on top together we are called all the more to love. And as joanna macy points out when things are this unstable it just could be that i love can throw the balance. Early universalist minister olympia brown tells us as we heard earlier that every nation must learn that the people of the nations are children of god. You may say that this is impracticable far away and can never be accomplished but this is the work we are appointed to do. And that's how i often feel about our vision of a shared world. It is far away. And i don't know if it can ever be accomplished but it is the work we are appointed to do. We were born into the human family. With a shared fate and shares deep connection and we cannot turn away from that can ship. Iman eluveitie is our sister. The women and girls a conflict or nations all over the world are aunts and cousins. Their bodies are precious like ours. We cannot avert our eyes as they are violated. So what can we do. So we can learn more. Spread the word. We can walk toward our sisters and cousins and aunts instead of away. A couple of good resources for information are the international rescue committee. And a website drcc day.org. We can offer financial support to one of many organizations that are working all over the world on issues of gender-based violence. And we can find ways to join an advocacy efforts. Petitioning our government to keep the well-being of women and girls in sight during their involvement in areas of armed conflict. Like libya now. And yet. Even these things are not quite enough. The world will not be made safe. For our sisters and cousins and aunts. Or even truly for us. Until it becomes the shared world of our vision. Where peace prevails where dignity pervades all wear love. Finally. This world is impracticable. Far away and can never be accomplished. But it is the world we are appointed to create. 1. Small little piece at a time in our own lives. In our own communities. Olympia brown again tells us how here in display. We may illustrate the great principles of our faith by our charity are kind lenus and consideration for all we shall speak. The language of universal love. And it will be heard. The message will be carried far and wide. So it is. With any global issue we must remember the shared world that stretches far and wide. And we must start with us. Our vision of love is a beacon. We can walk towards. Together. Slowly. In our lives. In this community. In the words of the poet rilke. Already. My gaze is upon the hill. The song let one. The way to it fairly begone lies ahead. So we are grass we have not grass. Full of promise. Shining in the distance. It changes us. Even if we do not reach it. It just something we've barely sent. But. And so may we be changed even if we do not reach it by our message of universal love. I met its promise echo far and wide. So that even in libya even in columbia even in sudan. Our sisters may hear its whisper of hope. May it be so. May we make it so.

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20120902_cathy_livingston_middle_school_summer_sermon.mp3

uuneedham_org

20121125_what_christian_sermon.mp3

So now the third in my. Occasional series of sermons about questions. I'll give you the spiel one more time just in case there's people here who haven't heard it i used to be a journalist. I think a lot in questions i think. I have a question to my mind and i want to know the answer to it. I thought that this might be an interesting way to approach. Our camino lies our spiritual lies our religion our faith our beliefs. To think of just six simple questions. Who and why and how and what and when and where. So today is what. I've already asked a couple of what questions. Including the ones that my hero. James luther adams asked. What do you say is the purpose of this church. I think that's an interesting question what is the purpose what do we even do here. Not just the activities and programs and events not just me up here speaking on a sunday morning but what are we trying to achieve what is the purpose. No doubt there are many answers to this question many more than i will ever know. Many more than i could ever tackle in any series of sermons no matter how long. But they want answer i want to give today. Is this. What we do here is we change perspectives. It sounds like an interesting thing i hope maybe like i don't even know what that means like. What do you say the purpose of this church is. Let's raise a different way the word response the jla got. The purpose of this church is to get ahold of people like me. And change them. I don't think he means people like me and just in the sense of those who have trouble with desegregation. People like me are everyone of us. We all have things ideas and thoughts and beliefs we hold. That we could use a different way of looking at i think. That's why i love the piece from meg barnhouse today about fortune cookies. Such a simple. Clear classic idea. What ideas do we hold that we could use a different way of looking at. What if we did know that we are going to see three beautiful things tomorrow or today or this week or even for the rest of our lives. Wouldn't we view things differently she asked. I think so. Which is why as far as i know i am part of the only two events for this has ever actually taken place. In reality. Today i gave you fortune cookies with fortunes i wrote. Some of them borrowed for meg barnhouse. But it's not the first time i did this i actually didn't come up with this idea myself. I owe it to my good friend a fellow seminary student named amanda robinson. 3 years ago we took a class together about spiritual practices. We prayed we did discernment activities we. We did a lot of things. And one of the assignments we got this was an actual class assignment. What's to go spend one hour each of us in this group. Doing something good for someone. Heather has several groups in this class made two different things some of them went to a food pantry. Did work there. Some of them wrote letters to soldiers abroad. We were not one of those groups we wanted to come up with something interesting. Not that any of those ideas aren't interesting themselves but we wanted something different something special that we could do that would really excited and amanda robinson pointed to the specie of red in uu world magazine. By someone named meg barnhouse who i've since come to now. And what you talk about fortune cookies of all things. Fortune cookie. Not the time i was going to austin presbyterian seminary which is in austin texas. And is located directly across the street from where the largest universities in america university of texas. So we decided we were going to do something special. We were going to get fortune cookies and hand them out on the street mostly the university of texas students and stopped because they were easy targets frankly. Now the time i didn't know that you can special order custom fortune cookies which is pretty amazing by the way i think. And i didn't have a worship budget that i could spend that on there either so. So instead of fortune cookies we made fortunes and cookies. We had about six bags of oreos and a couple hundred fortunes that we had printed out and cut up ourselves. We walked around the university of texas campus handing them out you could take either a fortune or a cookie or both it's your choice. We didn't think ahead about this about how people might react to a stranger offering them a fortune or a cookie. Now you all know me and you probably trust that i haven't done anything crazy to the fortune cookies. So i hope you are eager to take when i haven't by the way there's nothing strange about them. But people on the street. When five strangers they don't know walk up to them holding a sign trying to explain this fortune cookies thing we were trying to do and offering fortunes and cookies. That must have been quite a sight i didn't realize until later. So we started keeping a tally actually of how many people actually took something from us as we walked up to them and offered them this and i was actually pleasantly surprised i was hopeful because a whole lot of people took fortunes or cookies. And even the ones who didn't take cookies quite a few of them just didn't like oreos. So in the end our percentages were pretty good i believe 87% of people took a fortune. And about 65 took a cookie. I think it's pretty good. i hope that we changed some people's perspectives that day maybe made them think about their day in a different way. At the very least we probably made them wonder about these five people who are walking around campus handing things out. In this season in which we've just gone through an election. I hope that changing perspectives has a special meaning. We're told a lot of things. From both sides of the aisle. From other people as well. About what's going on in our world and how we should feel about it. They might react to this different ways. But i hope that this community offers yet another perspective and one that can be more hopeful even if it's sometimes more challenging. You see it in the culture and in our commercials. They tell you you're not good enough. You're too fat or too thin or too ugly to 4 to whatever. A my face tells me that this is a big load of you know what. Because i think every single one of you i have met is amazing. And just right and just the way you were meant to be. I do agree with those commercials about one thing though because. I do think each of us can be better to. I just disagree about their remedies. Because it seems to me. All too often the answer is not to buy one more thing it's not. To get that last thing that will make us complete. With we just hand over a few more dollars. The caveat being that occasionally the problem is just one more thing we need that would make our lives complete i suppose. I just have a feeling that it's only about 1% of the time at most. We get these messages not just from our tv but all over the place as meg barnhouse points out. Those messages say you'll never amount to anything. Or you're just like so-and-so. When clearly you're not. All of us will amount to something. And none of us are exactly like so-and-so our father or brother or sister or whoever. We are each our own unique meaning. But like i said part of the message i hope you get here at the surges that you are amazing you are wonderful you are just right. Ann's. You can be better. Because i think that's what we do here to is we change perspectives and we transform lives at least at our bus. That's where this business about our faith communities comes on. Only speak for myself. But i know i'm a better person. Because of what this community and others like it have done for me. Because of what all of unitarian universalism has done for me. I wake up some mornings and i don't feel like a very good person. I have some not especially charitable thoughts about. Myself about others about. The snow outside perhaps. About our world. And often the thing that helps me is that my community calls me back to doing better. I know i'm a different and a better person. Then i was before i joined the unitarian universalist church for the first time. I know i'm a better and very different person then when i started seminary. Now three years ago. I want to take a second just to point out how amazing i think that is. That these experiences of my life can change me and not just change but changed for the better. Perhaps some of you have had the same experience. Maybe that's the why i spoke about a couple months ago in the why we come to church. It's amazing. The being in groups just like this. Just ordinary people. Not geniuses not saints. The ordinary people who are amazing themselves. Can help us to learn and live to grow and change. And actually make us better people. Make us better people can i get an amen here please thank you it will help there sometimes. I think of the people i know in unitarian universalist churches and in the broader community who i have seen change for the better who maybe maybe maybe i have just been a tiny part of helping change for the better. I think of those people on the university of texas campus that we gave those fortunes and the oreos to. Hopefully the good advice from the fortunes wait out the trans fats in the oreos. I don't know. I think of that board member at that chicago church in the late forties. Who was just asked a simple question or one that seems simple anyway. What is the purpose of this church. And now i think of you. Each of you. Today. That maybe those messages inside the fortune cookies you got today. Maybe they might make a difference. Then maybe they might change your perspective for the better. And if one didn't work we seem to have a few laps to try again.

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20130317_generation_to_generation_katie_lee_sermon.mp3

There's an old joke that goes something like this. What does a minister do anyways. Well mostly i. Karriem miriam and barium. It sounds a bit crass but. I find it to be true. And between those milestones. My most important job in yours. Is just to be there. To be present with people. Exactly where they are. I have only one quibble of that old joke it's not just about ministers like me it's about ministers like you because in fact you are all ministers. It was you who dedicated a child this morning. You who will ordain. A minister this afternoon. You have the authority to bless the marriage of two who commit their lives together. You. Hold someone's hand. You cry with someone. You celebrate with and you mourn with. Ministry really does boil down to just showing up. For some of us that means sitting exactly where we are. Feeling sad. Feeling stuck. Feeling sick. Knowing someone will sit right there with us. Fred wouldn't says that religious communities aren't for saving souls there for growing them. And that's what you do here at first parish. You are truly living your ministry with and for one another and day out. You are growing. So. Most often. You're wrong. I talk about your ministry this morning because. On your watch. This is a defining moment. You are preparing to call this congregations next minister. And yes it's a big responsibility and i. But it's also a huge opportunity. And the decision is entirely yours. You get to put into your own words exactly how you want that minister to partner with you in growing soul. At the beginning. Of this congregations. 4th century. You get to give voice to your vision. For this congregations future. And yes with your gifts of time and money and talent you will ensure. That those dreams continue to be this congregations to fund and support this congregations vital mission. And ministry for generations to come. You see to be with those who need to be comforted. To speak the truth in love. To engage in the deep conversations to stand up or sit in for what you believe. To serve and give back. To have what you want for your children. To do any of this and much more. You need strong programs and paid staff persons to shape those program. Santa train and support the volunteers who run them. And oh yeah right the parking lot must be plowed in the office equipment has to work. And we need our faithful renters and grateful tenants. It takes all this and more. To create an environment and a community where people of all ages. Find a place a home. In which to live and teach and learn and explore. What feels most important in life. A place where we are empowered to live our values everyday. And at this moment in the life of the congregation there is something else. To call a new minister you need to know who you are. And have a vision for your future. You want to show your next minister that yours isn't. Congregation with deep roots. And a continuing vital ministry. You want every prospective candidate to see that this ministry is supported with generosity. Couples with fiscal prudence. An accountability. But if you are to look only at the expense side of the equation. Call sis more than it used to. If you were only to look at the expense side of the equation. And to talk about how much things cost. You would be missing the point entirely. Because stories. Like the one you heard this morning and the ones you've been hearing each week. Invite you to look at the assets of this ministry. How can you quantify the worth of the ministry here at first parish. That's a question to consider. How can you quantify. The value. The worst. Of the ministry here at first parish. Because that's what you are pledged. Support. So i want you to look at the balance sheet maybe not literally although you're welcome to see it. But look and ask what hangs in the balance. From my. Perspective what hangs in the balance. Is your future. Your children's future your grandchildren's future. And this congregations commitment to the life of firming unitarian universalist values and principles. And your investment in that future whatever it is. Will deliver. Valuable return. Next sunday i will invite you to make your personal pledge to first parish. Not only what you give financially but yes absolutely that. But i'll also be asking you. To pledge. To give. Continually of your head and your heart and your hands. Your body and your spirit. To guarantee. That the vitality you know now will continue. Generation. Degeneration.

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20101205_a_rebirth_of_wonder_john_sermon.mp3

Wonder. Wonder comes in many forms of a colleague of mine was driving home from church one sunday feeling particularly pleased with his performance in the pulpit that morning. So we turned using to his wife and said i wonder how many really great. Preachers there are in unitarian universalism. To which she responded one fewer than you think my dear. The two greatest teams of the season. Our wonder. And waiting. A growing number of unitarian universalist congregation is not working as they're worshiping programmatic life around. Themes. Next year we're going to try that experiment or need them there many reasons for doing this including the ability to integrate the reflections that go on and worship with adults with. What's going on programmatically. For children and youth. Ensename the seasonal themes that transcend the particular. Traditions that informed religious pluralism do cherish. Hanukkah. Advent. Many of the other festivals of light all seem to involve both waiting. Often in the spiritual as well as physical darkness. And the theme of the rebirth. Awareness in wonder. Ferlinghetti poem captures both. With humor. Sometimes ask me how i think they should transfer. Smith. The traditional stories of this season. So their children especially since there are aspects to all of the stories. We've long since have decided we do not literally believe. I tell them to speak about wonder story. Stories that are not literally true perhaps just eternally true. Or that attempt. The midst of the wonder to capture something of eternal value. Take the story of a hanukkah miracle. You know how it goes. The maccabees surprisingly defeat the much larger forces of the greeks syrian king antiochus and remove. His idolatrous statue from the temple. And then find that there is only a small seemingly one day supply of sacred oil. With which to relight the eternal flame. And it will take a whole week for the priests to properly consecrate a new supply. Get the wonder is that the flame. Keeps burning. 4/8 days and not just one. Boy wonder. Like i have ever felt exhausted. And depleted. And burned-out thinking there's not enough in me to keep going. I'm sputtering. Only to find that we are somehow. Somehow miraculously refuel. From one resource that we didn't know. We didn't know existed. And that certainly is not quite of our own making. I don't know about you but this year in particular i have found myself feeling dark and gloomy. About the state of the world. The economy are politics the quest for equity and justice and human rights just the other morning i've been doing some early morning biblical study which is part of my advent practice. And i've been reading and isaiah old people or my people your leaders mislead you. What do you mean by crushing my people by grinding the face of the poor saith the lord god of hosts. And i have been looking at the text. The benjamin britten selected for the ceremony of carols. Text must have spoken to simple english country people. Who didn't always believe what the clark has finding in their books. What who founded wondrous. But the old story spoke. Mahalia.. In the form of a. Thunder bay. Among poor people. In an obscure part of the empire. And then i came out of my study to read the newspapers and have breakfast with brent and i was soon tossing the paper down on the floor and discuss. I read about a senate minority resolving the holdup all legislation. Whether unemployment benefits for those that need them. Food safety arms control the end of don't-ask-don't-tell unless tax cuts are somehow continued for the riches two or 3% of all american. Cutting. Requires sacrifice by everyone it seems except. Those who already have most of the wealth. And then i added a few well-chosen words i won't share from the pulpit. When was. Doing some physical therapy exercises on the finger that she broke. In an accident a few weeks ago and looked up calmly at me and said. You know the miracle luth my fingers can bend again. You have to wonder wasn't they'll learn to do the same. And i took a breath. Emerson once said the one miracle. But god works evermore. Is it nature. Ended imparting himself to the human mind. Adding i can believe a miracle because i can raise my own arm. When it just reminded me of that. That wisdom. And it calmed the pummeled me. Which is what i needed. I'm just waiting. And took another breath. I decided not to just wait however i sent off an email to senator brown. Tell him just what i thought of holding justice hostage. May not change his mind but it made me feel better. And then as i pondered how not to let my own spiritual fuel supply run low this winter. I took another breath. And then another. This is how the buddhist do it i thought to myself. They attend to the miracle. Not only of breathing's. But if the deeper truths that we are almost involuntarily breathe. In. And out. Breathing out in patients breathing in the here and now. Breathing out frustration. Breathing in the deeper compassion we need. To be human in this world. And then i went outside and noticed. Clear lighters. Early winter skies. And in the breeze that was blowing. The last few golden leaves. Shaking and shivering on the trees. The clouds scooting through the sky overhead. And then i got in the car to go see for the second time this month. A newborn infant. And its mother. Talk about. A rebirth of. Have a sense of the miraculous. You coming home i pondered the wonder story told an advent about mary is the mother of jesus. By an angelic messenger. She should not trembler be afraid. And then singing. But god had expanded not only her womb. But her very soul. She did not cry i cannot. She did not cry i cannot i am not worthy rights poet the beast levertov. Nor i have not the strength. She did not submit with gritted teeth raging for worst. Bravest of all humans. Consent illumined her. The room filled with its lights. And the iridescent wings. Consent. Courage unparalleled. Open for utterly. So i asked is it beyond dustin this season. Cassis. Waiting. For a rebirth of wonder. And instead consent. To its possibility of this coming. But every moment. Is it possible to set aside just a few moments each day to be refuel. By the wonder of existence itself. Is the one passing and most precious miracle. There are two ways to go through life's at emerson. The other is as though everything. Says mary oliver. Are you breathing just a little. And calling it a life. Doesn't everything die at last. I'm too soon. Tell me. What is it you plan to do. With your one wild. And precious life. Let us not just wait for a rebirth of wonder. Let's make room for it now within our very souls. Consent to its rebirth. In this season. In this life when we need it most. And then perhaps we will never lack for the glasses. For the gratitude. Enter prepare away. For justice. And to welcome. So may it be. In this holy season of singing and waiting in wonder. And in all the days of our lives.

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20110717_ive_been_saved_jennifer_channin_sermon.mp3

If you've ever read action books or watched action movies big epic fantasy movies perhaps then you've probably seen a scene like this one. There's been some kind of big fight with a villain and a hero or heroine falls over the edge of a cliff. They have friends were watching all this and their friends. Are terrified they think that the hero must have perished because it is a long drop to the bottom of that. Ravine or down to the river or down to the rock. They don't think this person has survived however when the friends get to the edge and they look over this cliff they see. That this person has managed to catch onto a rock or a branch or something near the top of this cliff and they are dangling there. However. Their grip is not very strong or the rock is slippery or the branch is about to break. And somehow they managed to hold on to it but they know there's not a lot of time left. And then one of the friends. Reaches down over the side of this cliff and says. Take my hand. And the hero tries to swing and reach up and catch it. But they miss. Imma try again and they miss once again and then finally just as their grip is slipping just as branch is about to break they try one last time with all their heart. And they grasp the hand and their friend pulls them up. Over the side of the cliff onto the safety of the solid ground. I've watched a lot of action movies and i've seen a lot of scenes like this. But for me even though i know how this story goes i know how this scene goes down to the smallest detail. I never really gets old i'm always caught up in this expensive it. Maybe that's because i too have been saved. No i've never dangled off the edge of a tall cliff. My lifestyle doesn't include battles with evil villains on top of mountains. However i do know what it feels like to think that there is no hope left for me. And to look down at oblivion and think that maybe the only thing for me to do. Is let-go. And succumb to the fall. And then something happened. Something happened that i didn't expect. A person came into my life at the right time. Or i read something powerful in a book that i had never really paid attention to before or eyewitness some act of kindness some. Vision of beauty. And it pulled me up out of my despair as if it were a friend reaching their hand over that cliff down to me. I'd like to share a story of salvation with you. It comes from a sermon which was given 12 years ago by my friends and my former youth group advisor drake bear. Normally i know it's not a good habit when you start out a sermon to give along quote from somebody else's sermon. However this one was so good that i think it is worth sharing. This is what drake said. But i was 15 and facing a life that seemed more difficult than i had the courage or resources to bear i needed a miracle. Unfortunately i didn't know any unitarian universalists and all i knew about them was that they didn't believe in anything. But there were plenty of born-again christians running around offering salvation. Yes. Salvation. The salvation they offered me was real. Not shallow or contrived. When i asked the holy spirit to come into my life. The visceral feeling of something more powerful than i had imagined pouring down my spine. Was probably like what the hindus call shakti pod. Which is their equivalent of baptism in the holy spirit. Or what some shrinks call it kali gestalt. Which is theirs. The next year-and-a-half of my life was magical. When i return to school after the summer of my transformation some of my friends didn't even recognize me at first. Living in the presence of love that i absolutely believed in. Brought true miracles into my life almost everyday. Most of the time i can clearly distinguish between my subtly destructive impulses. And that part of my intuition which translates the voice of god. Of course. It is after your big miracle that the real work begins and i worked hard. So everything was much easier than before. Building community with people who accepted me. Find encourage developing integrity building an original self-sustaining inner life. At 37 i know that i found the best part of my soul at the age of 15. Carissa versus active faith in a community that believes in transformation. Frank went on to talk about how he left evangelical christianity when he found that its doctrines did not leave enough space for his questions about faith. But how he once again witness the miraculous in his life later on when he became a youth group advisor. Started to experience what goes on in the unitarian universalist. Community. I think it's telling do that drake open to sermon which is really about how he was saved about unitarian by unitarian universalism. With a story of being saved by evangelical christianity. You use are not known for testifying about their experiences of salvation we usually leave that to the baptist. Is salvation really for us. Is salvation a concept that is useful to people of illiberal religious tradition. So liberal in fact that many of us do not believe in a god who judges us. And many of us do not believe in a heaven or a hell. Unitarian universalist throughout history have talked about salvation. William ellery channing is considered the father of american unitarianism coined the term salvation by character. Describe the unitarian version of salvation. Reverend jack mendelson in his book being liberal in a neoliberal age writes about that salvation. He writes about what salvation by character means for you use today. He right. For us salvation is not an otherworldly journey flown on wings of dogma. It is ethical striving and moral growth. Respect for the personalities and experiences of others. Faith in human dignity and potentiality aversion to sanctimony and bigotry reference for the gift of life. Confidence in a true harmony of mind and spirit of nature and human nature faith in the ability to give and receive love and a quest for broad encompassing religious expression. He goes on to say. This is what we mean when we say we believe in salvation by character. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that we believe salvation is character. For we do not mean that character saves us from the flames of hell or takes us to the bliss of heaven. This idea of salvation by character that mendelssohn and channing right about. Is quite in line with the message of the poem that i read earlier by emily dickinson. If i can stop one heart from breaking i shall not live in vain. She's not talking about earning herself a ticket to heaven through her good deeds. Instead for her salvation means having a life of meaning a life that is not in vain. And what makes your life have meaning is being able to do good for others. The salvation isn't about ad80 or for sweeping down to save us it's about what we can do to save ourselves and to save the rest of the world. Salvation by character is still the kind of salvation that you use today most frequently talked about although it's been transformed a little over the years. Nowadays we don't as frequently talked about cultivating the character of the individual but about the character of society. Just as we've gone from talking about individuals into social evil or structural evil. We now talk about salvation. Through the transformation of our society into one that is just and compassionate. It's still about trying not to live in vain by helping people. Just it's just on a broader scale. What is notable about salvation by character though. Is that is based on our own actions our own responsibilities. I think that there is still room in our tradition. To talk about another kind of salvation. To talk about that kind of salvation that happens to us that comes. From something out there and saves us. Rather than that one that we ourselves an act. Part of the power of the saving experiences that evangelical christians testify about is that it comes through grace. They were saved by something outside of themselves at a time when their character might not have been that strong. When their ability to be responsible was faltering. When they might not have been the most moral people. I think they even unitarian-universalist can talk about salvation in a way that acknowledges our weakness and vulnerability. Our gratitude for gifts that come to us unbidden. In emily dickinson's poem there's also the person whose heart is breaking. Haven't we had our own hearts broken. Haven't we been at times. As helpless as a fainting robin. It hasn't somebody come and pick us up and put us into our nest again. The salvation that i am talking about the kind of salvation that i think we can testify to the same passion and conviction as evangelical christian. Is salvation from despair. Not salvation from an after worldly hell but salvation from despair. It is a salvation that may come from a divine source or it may simply come from the kindness of friends with or the insights of our consciences. But it is a salvation that helps us when we feel helpless. And changes us and makes us feel reborn. This view of salvation is more in line with what our universalist forebears believed. When channing road about salvation by character hosea dalu responded by writing an article which he called salvation irrespective of character. As its name suggests. Universalism teaches that everyone is saved and not because we are good moral responsible people. We are staying because the compassion of god in limitless. However because this salvation is for everyone unitarian and universalist and not believe in the powerful sort of conversion experience that other other christians would stand up and testify about. They didn't believe in that one time shift. That moment when a hand reaches down from above and saves us from the abyss. You use are not known for testifying about our experiences of this kind of salvation however i think this might be changing. A couple of months ago i attended a youyou revival. It was hell here in boston in roxbury where any of you there have any of you heard of this. Michigan to boston more. It was organized by some young musicians and seminarians. So you you revival you might wonder what do you do during a revival of unitarian universalist. Well. It was wonderful. There was singing a folk songs and hymns that lasted for several hours. There was a live band. The music went on and on it was lively we could really feel the spirit in that room. But the centerpiece of this revival was the testimonies. One after another people got up and shared about how unitarian universalism saved them. One woman shared how her experience of taking owl that sexuality education curriculum that we offer our high schoolers and also people of all ages. How her experience of taking owl. Helps her to understand her and love her own sexual identity is a queer person. Others talked about the saving message of tolerance that you use them offers to those who have been scarred by their previous. Experiences of religion. These testimonies were not mere congratulations for a job well done or were they cerebral analysis of how we can solve the social ills. Of our time. They were deeply personal stories of people who were in a sense reborn because of an experience of faith. Save them from despair. An experience of faith. Can we talk about faith to. Her face is indeed the antithesis of despair. Facebook life is good. Facebook people are worth reaching out to faith that our lives are meaningful face that our actions matter. Faceit taking the next. Stuff is worth it. Face that waking up tomorrow is worth it. We have no empirical proof of these things we cannot know in any logical way whether our lives matter whether we have lived in vain or not. We go on face. And this faith is nurtured and fed by a million small acts of kindness committed by others acting out of their own faith. It is fed by a million glimmers of beauty and nature and in society. Preserved and protected by people acting out their own face too. I'd like to share my own. Our little story of being saved. When i was 12 years old i was on the brink of despair. I was experiencing the usual horrors of adolescence. Hormones awkwardness acne horrible body image the usual sort of thing. However the main villain that i fought on top of my mountain was an illness that i've struggled with for several years. No one ever properly diagnosed it i still don't know exactly what it was. I often felt tired and dragged down. Loud crowded places the sort of places most children like to go made me feel dizzy and overwhelmed. The worst effect of this mysterious illness though. Was that i had the unshakable feeling that the world around me wasn't real. This wasn't the metaphysical conjectures of an overly philosophical teenager know this was a sensory problem. I could see things i could smell them touch them but they didn't seem there to me. They didn't seem different to me than that which i watched on television there was a dimension that was missing. I would have dreams that felt vivid and real and i would wake up into a world that felt paper thin and fuzzy. Knowing what i know now there's strong evidence that i had a neurological condition that was brought upon by other childhood illnesses i suffered from. At the time though. It seems like something was broken in my soul. And it didn't seem like there was anything that could be done about it. I loved life mind you. But i didn't feel like what i was doing counted as living. And i did not know if i could live with that. During the winter of 7th grade i was dangling off of that cliff and my grip was slipping. I remember one afternoon being in my bedroom and crying something i did frequently those days. And i had just had enough of it. I had to get out. I grabbed a rubber ball the kind you get for a quarter in those gumball machines at the supermarket. And i went out onto the driveway of our house. It was cold outside but i liked the feeling of the cold air i was angry. I was throwing this little ball against the ground i was watching it bounced high into the sky and catching it. Over and over again. And then. Strange spot appeared in my mind. It will get better in march. You just have to wait until march and it will get better. I don't know where this thought came from. March didn't hold any special significance to me i had no reason to believe that my life would improve. But i believe those words and they gave me hope. Those words that seems so arbitrary. I believe those words with conviction. I was overcome with gratitude for those words it will get better in march. They were hand reaching down to me from over the cliff pulling me up onto safe and solid ground. If i were a christian i might have believed that it was jesus speaking those words to me. They certainly didn't seem to come from me why would they. However i was not a christian and it didn't matter to me where they came from. Regardless of where they came from i was saved. Like my friend drake said though it is after your big miracle that the real work begins. And maybe that is what happened in march when it finally did come around. There was no miraculous cure nothing dramatically changed little by little. Over several years the world did start to feel real again. And that too is because many people. Each in their small ways help to save me. My school friends who probably for selfish reasons. Pressured me to join the track team who pushed me to do things with my body that my body did not want to do to make myself stronger to justify my fatigue and my eggs. My mother who took me to every kind of healer she could find who plied me with vitamins and exotic juices. Who never gave up on trying to cure me. My church with which provided the only community i have had where i've been able to express my doubts and fears about what was happening to me. And drake himself. Who when i join the high school youth group. Is a constant source of encouragement and without whom i'm sure i would not be on the path towards ministry today. No doubt there are many of you here who have experienced salvation. And no doubt some of your stories are more awesome and faith strengthening than the ones that i have told today. No doubt there are also some of you here who are in need of some salvation. Who are needing something to come along a person experience a message. To change the way your world looks. To give you hope. Some tiny thing to tip the balance just so and nugs you from the path of despair. Towards the path of states. Sometimes it doesn't take much at all. That's why the it gets better project have you heard of that it's that website and which people post messages to young gay lesbian bisexual and transgender teenagers. Telling them that their lives will get better. That is why projects like that website. Are so powerful. Sometimes all it takes is a little nudge. Salvation can come in many forms. And when it does come. Testify about it. Why testify. Towards the end of drake's term and he argues that one of the reasons that born-again christianity is growing while mainline protestantism and unitarian universalism. Isn't so much. It's because people want to experience miracles. A miracle does not need to be a supernatural event. For someone who is experiencing despair. Anything that tips them back towards hope and faith. Is a miracle. For our movement to grow and thrive. We need to let people know that ours to is a saving faith. Set this to is a community where miracles occur.

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20110515_the_welcome_table_john_gibb_millspaugh_sermon.mp3

So many mysteries surround food. Food is material substance of this planet that we take into ourselves that becomes. Part of us and fuels not only our movements but our consciousness itself. Of all the ways that we related to nature eating is one of the most intimate. So many mysteries surrounding food so many paths that we could embark on. Cure now is the food mystery that i choose to begin are considered reflection. A man walks into a doctor's office. He has a cucumber up his nose a carrot in his left ear. And a banana in his right ear. What's the matter with me yes the doctor. Doctor replies. You're not eating properly. So that was a sweet mystery easily solved but other food mysteries are more difficult to comprehend. For example i've always wondered if you were to eat equal amounts of pasta and antipasti would you end up just as hungry as when you began. Was woody allen right when he said that the food in new york restaurants all shares to big problems first it tastes terrible and second such small portions and finally why is it that the typical american breakfast asks for only a day's effort from the chicken but a lifetime commitment from the pig. Not as sure about that last joke i can tell we joke about food because we take questions about food so seriously what food to eat how to eat at what to say before eating it if anything and who to eat it with. I grew up methodist in small towns in minnesota and missouri so i ingested whole the methodist codes about eating. First was the unstated rule about what to eat. Which seemed to be. Casseroles hotdish potato salad. End. Some reason lime jell-o with little wrinkly bits of unidentifiable fruit quivering inside. More importantly and explicit food rule with the commandment to say grace to express gratitude for a creation and the many hands that brought its bounty to the table. I sang a simple grace from age to age 18 either out loud with my family. Or silently to myself when i was with another group. God is great god is good. And we thank you for our food. These unquestioned rules about food is codes or just part of the air that i breathe i didn't. Think too much about them and they served me well my first 18 years of life. But you and i have become aware in the past few decades that our choices around food are much more complicated than anything that we were taught as children. For me that realization dawned when i arrived at macalester college in st. paul there are three things that happen. First i encountered all kinds of bizarre food in the schools have a cafeteria that i'd never before seen. Not normal food like i'd grown up with. Not tater tot hamburger casserole or macaroni beef satay. No these were strange foods with names like hummus and falafel. Lentils whatever those were and samosas. Tortellini and tetrazzini and holbox glmv them bop. Mcalister drew students from dozens of countries and is cafeteria reflected its broad reach and though i was initially put off by all this culinary variety. I gradually ventured into unfamiliar territory plate by plate. And i fell in love with food all over again. I will admit my only unhappy eating experiences were on days when in honor of this or that british holiday. Cafeteria serve traditional british food and since i am a british descent. I can say that i came to understand martha harrison's speculation that. What motivated the british to colonize so much of the world was that they were just looking for a decent meal. Second not only did i inquire encounter this wide variety of food i encountered it even larger variety of teachings about food as a world religions major i learned about the overwhelming attention given to food and almost all world religious traditions and the conflicting codes that those religions developed based on differing concerns. Sun like the hindus focused on taking good care of your body treating it as a temple. Resisting temptations to pollute that temple for the sake of passing pleasure. Some like a slime slice emphasis on holding political structures accountable for equitable food distribution. And commanded the well-to-do to provide alms and food to the hungry not as an option but as a requirement. The hebrew bible instructs those who grow food to set aside portions of their crops for the poor. And declares that without such deliberate acts of social and economic justice are religious rituals are empty. Buddhist sutras teach that animals raised for food deserve compassion as much as any other creature. Other wisdom focused on reverence and care for the earth like the indigenous traditions and striking us that we need not take any more from the earth than what we need. And not to waste any portion of what we take. So encountering these hundreds and hundreds of. Quotes about food through into question the adequacy of the assumptions that i had grown up with. And i still ask today what do we and unitarian-universalism do. To promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning in regard to food justice. One of the most intimate ways that we relate to the earth and one of the most intimate ways that relate to almost all. Justice concerns. The third thing that introduced me to the complexity of food was by chance at an earth day concert i saw a man holding a poster listing 88 facts about animal agriculture. You stalked was stunning. It stated and i later confirmed that. Animal agriculture contributes more to global climate change. Then the entire transport sector. Don't know if you caught that but. Transportation cars trucks railroads airplanes the entire shipping industry is often seen as the biggest culprit when it comes to climate change. But animal agriculture is a greater cause at least over the past several decades. A recent united nations report confirmed it. So every time that we buy meat or eggs or dairy we directly subsidize climate change. Marie by from whatever source although there are certainly worse offenders than others. So by presenting that fact to me at the right moment when i was open to learning new things. Asolo activists with one poster changed my entire outlook on food. He made it very clear to me that eating lower on the food chain is tremendously beneficial for the planet. And i had to face the question. Why would the preferences of my palate. Which morally speaking are relatively trivial. Why would those provinces outweigh the scores of harmful effects of animal agriculture on the most vital interests of our planet. And future generations. I didn't want to change. I like the food that i was accustomed to. I didn't mean any harm by eating the way i was eating. I was just looking for a good meal. Like my british ancestors. Yeah just as their conquest led to untold damage lasting for generations in pursuit of my own good meal i was perpetuated some of the worst social and environmental. Affecting the planet in my own air era. Climate change land degradation. Air and water pollution loss of biodiversity. And it was one of the very few ways that i could directly have an impact on those areas through the choices that i made. And yet i was making some of the worst choices. So as you might imagine those 15 years ago. I became vegetarian. I'm not only. Vegetarian but religiously. Vegetarian. And not only religious lee vegetarian but righteously angelically vegetarian i was sure that everybody should be vegetarian and then vegan. And boy was i rytas. My fall from vegan righteousness happened thanks to my meeting a latina activist named lauren ornelas. I met lauren at an environmental conference and she graciously listen to my perspectives about eating lower on the food chain and. Then she told me that she herself was vegan and then she told me that. In her urban latino neighborhood in california's bay area. Residents can walk a few blocks and i need directions if they want to buy beer or cigarettes or hard liquor or twinkies. But they would have to get in a car or wait for the bus and go for several miles to white neighborhoods if they wanted to buy unfried or unprocessed meat. Let alone a fresh vegetable. Ironically some of these latinos and latinas spent their days in the fields to the east of the bay harvesting fresh healthy vegetables for distribution throughout the day. But not to the wrong neighborhood. Lauren was and is working to bring a small grocery to the neighborhood and to create a community garden so that residents can enjoy. Healthy organic food. And i got to understand her important work i realized that while eating lower on the food chain might be moral the incumbent on the privileged. People struggling to put food on the table have enough to worry about justin getting healthy food. Not only that but my eating habits at that time were contributing to their health problems and even fatalities. How is that you say. Well at the time the produce that i got was almost all conventionally raised it was grown on farms that routinely exposed field workers to toxins and inhumane conditions. The most recent statistics i can find from our from 2017 united states in at that time. Commercial agriculture had the second highest fatality rate for on-the-job deaths. Through laurinaitis. Took the risk of learning more about the importance of organics. I thought that i'd had things figured out before that but. Getting to know her lands on agriculture i learned that issues around. Food are rarely as clear-cut. Or obvious as they seem. And that perfection is probably not in the cards for at least me when it comes to the choices i make. I learned humility i learned that like any other aspect of the religious life our relationship with food isn't about defending our current understanding. Getting entrenched but it's about. Being open to learning taking our own questions seriously taking our confusion seriously. Rather than setting them aside. It means carrying us to take the step or two that feels most approachable. Not necessarily arriving at perfection all at once if ever. But taking a step or two to live more in keeping with our values and cultivating the will to keep at it over the years and decades of lifelong learning. Until all this started for me i didn't think much about the ethics of food i didn't care much i just stuck to my habits. Not considering the questions. Later i went from. That extreme of not caring. Together. Righteousness. And i think that for unitarian universalists when it comes to matters of ethics. You use like me often find ourselves at one extreme or the other unwanted is righteousness thinking that. My perspective covers what everyone ought to be doing and if i would be doing if they understood the issues as well as i did. You can be righteous about eating local or organic or fair trade or vegan or low on the food chain or. Just drinking starbucks coffee. For that the other extreme from righteousness is apathy and willful ignorance. Where you find the questions and issues involved in an ethical question so daunting. That even though you know they matter. You just refuse to let them get any kind of. Grip on you. A little boy asked his mother what the difference was between ignorance and apathy. And she replied. I don't know and i don't care. Righteousness on one extreme willful ignorance and apathy on the other. Both. Moral hazards. What's the middle path. I'm beginning to think that the middle path involves holding close to humility. I think of universalist minister clarence russell skinner. For about a century ago said that our current comprehension. Is not a tombstone marking the resting place of truth. But it is rather a milestone on the long arduous journey to the truth. What does that sort of humility look like in practice when it comes to mind.. Well judging from what kind of questions are doing around the country the past few years it's a lot of fun. It's a process of exploration it's not about coming up with one answer for. Everyone we are as unitarian universalist after all. It's more in the spirit of. The hungarian unitarian francis david who said we need not think alike to love alike. We're setting a welcome table where all perspectives are invited and. All people and all creation are cherished. Daddy of the welcome table began in the jewish tradition of the stator table which leaves one seat empty for elijah or the stranger. In christianity that turned into the welcome table that jesus had and what she dined with. Prostitutes and tax collectors and lepers and other social outcast you know those people. People that we might be nervous to share our dinner table with today. Jesus's critics understood that when he sat down and ate with society's outcasts. He was doing something radical something dangerous to the status quo. When you invite those people to the table. Those people aren't those people anymore they are. My people. Us. Stranded long decades of slavery in this country enslaved people understanding the power of the welcome table composed to him with which we will later endless services song imagining. A heavenly reign of justice and freedom where all are welcomed as equals. In our unitarian universalist tradition. what would it mean to set a welcome table. Literally what food would you lay if you knew that a migrant laborer or a farming family would be joining you for the meal. Would you choose food harvested by workers paid less than a living wage. Whose work exposes them daily to carcinogens. Truly not. What would it mean to set a welcome table we're not only you and your family would feel welcome and cared for if i your choices. But workers to would feel their inherent dignity and worth respected. And the earth and the birds of the air and the beasts of the field and all those affected by our choices. What would your home table looks like if it truly were a welcome table. For myself if i'm honest i admit i don't know i don't know the answer to that question. But i know that it's incumbent that we ask that question. And i know how to ask that question which is in community. And i know why were asking a question so that someday we can look at a table spread before us in our own homes and say this expresses my values and my spirituality my compassion my respect. My reverence for the earth. And it reinforces them this meal brings me back to my spiritual center. Three times a day. Imagine what it would be like to. Experience some taste of that grace at every meal. And i would say imagine what it's like to engage this exploration here at first parish except that you don't have to imagine you've already been doing a lot as a community at least a number of you. Over the past year through sharing the harvest people at the church have provided local food to families in town who are in need. Your girl a row project has led to many of you pledging to give a portion of your homegrown fruits and vegetables to the community food pantry. You sent were teens to the needham community farm which also supplies the pantry. Some of you have attended gardening forums. He helped create a vegetable garden at the eliot school. Some of you got together to watch and and talk about the eye-opening film food inc. And you've written letters to stop and shop and trader joe's to promote fair food. So please take note if you haven't yet been involved take the chance to look for the table at coffee hours today. I learned about the upcoming ways to participate. Not only in this congregation but in what is a national. Discussion. If you sign up to do something with friends it'll be a lot of fun i know from experience. But finest food justice work can be it has serious implications. Whether or not you in particular participate. Matters. Not just for you but for all of us a people around the world that you'll never meet. Eating is a daily she went to light with worldwide implications on issues that unitarian-universalist care deeply about. The environments. Immigration. Labor practices. Climate change. Animal protection fair trade. World hunger. With varying degrees of awareness. These are issues in which each of us is are already involved. We like to think that what we eat is our own business. Having only to do with our personal finances and health. But as we saying today our world is one world what touches one. Affects us all. In are intimately interconnected natural world there's no such thing as an isolated. Event. It matters that eating less meat in your diet would make more of a difference for climate change then would switching to a hybrid car. It matters if the food we are eating with harvested by people being paid less than a living wage. It matters if we keep paying money into a system that's flooding ecosystems with. Pesticides and herbicides and fungicides. It matters where food comes from how it's grown and harvested or slaughtered. Nothing is an isolated act. And also it matters very much that eating with friends and fellow congregants is a fun way to get to know each other better a delightful way of learning from each others. Experiences and wisdom. It matters not just because you are what you eat of course. But because we are what you eat. And you are affected by what i eat. And what we eat can make a better society not only here but throughout the world. That's the power of the place the power in your hands three times a day. Pick up the power that you are given. The power to bless the world. Shalom. Salon. Namaste. Blessed be. And i'm in.

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20130310_0183_UUUM_Catherine_Senghas_sermon.mp3

Breathing life into dreams. The dreams we have for the uu urban ministry include the aspirations of some of our program participants in our youth programs and our domestic violence shelter for sure but they are also our own dreams for beloved community. The more far-reaching reason we all engage in this ministry together. We learn as much about ourselves in doing this work. Hazard program participants learn in r programming. Placerita high school senior who had been with us in our roxbury youth programs for years and years. In both our academic here and our summer programs. I'll call him bryan. He was one of the quieter students and he has struggled with many of his courses for was determined to stay on track with his homework and complete high school. I remember asking a group of students went to supper what was the most important aspect of our programming for each of them. And brian said just homework help. As long as i can get my homework done that's why i'm here. He's working with him every week in specific subject. And he did pretty well with anything quantitative. But he really struggled with verbal assignments. In the middle of his senior year. Is everybody was coming back from the winter holiday break. Brian told us he'd be leaving the program. Has he had to take on a paying job to help at home. The staff and volunteers were crestfallen and not just because we were fond of brian. But because we worry that he would be just one of the many 18 and 19 year olds who derail before graduating from underperforming public high schools in boston. The four-year graduation rate in high school brian attended which is a block from our site in roxbury is around 60%. That means a 40% dropout rate. A college access programming karen. Sat next to brian. She knew how hard and for how long had worked toward graduating. Karen took out a piece of paper. Brian she said if you want to graduate here's what you need to do. And she actually wrote a list things like get glasses. Pass the biology mcat. A list of very specific tasks. Not just stay in school do your homework stay out of trouble. Occasionally can still drop by looking for one of his former tutors especially just before the biology mcast makeup test. Then we saw him less and less. We asked the other kids. Cibrian. Yeah they stay. He's working. Keystone school. One afternoon in june brian showed up looking for karen. Amos karen. I graduated. She said. Any told a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket. It was the list. I did everything you gave me on this list and i graduated. These are the moments we live for. Thermometer center programs are successful evening before they graduate. And it's a great gift to us when they returned to share their triumphs. Brian's name of the local community colleges still on track to his dream of being a facilities manager sunday. Prancer is not just a simple heartwarming success story about brian. If we work closely with our students we are also transformed. We learn about many of the invisible barriers that they experienced. Very many of them have extremely challenging home lives. And some have learning disabilities that are undiagnosed and therefore unsupported. In many cases are students have language barriers. Recent immigrants from the dominican republic. Cape verde jamaica haiti. Nigeria and other far-off places. The parents of many of these students are under resource and not well informed. I saw a quote recently. Poverty is not about people not having particular things. Poverty is about not having power. Not having access. We learn just as much from the individuals and families who supported our domestic violence shelter. The reason two people stay trapped in abusive situations often reflects the lack of real choices and resources they actually have. And there are not enough shelters to how is everyone ready to leave their abusers even if they feel ready to do so. We're one of the very few shelters for welcoming to people identifying as lesbian gay bisexual transgender or queer or males of any sexual orientation. Domestic violence. It's not just a woman's problem. Becoming a better have the cycle of domestic violence is perpetuated and how we might help to stop it. And anything we've accomplished to date is only possible. The exchange has been driven by a shared vision by everyone who engages there. Whether the volunteer donor staff person or program participant. Together we dream of a human community that is peaceful and just. We dream. Of a community where services like this are not necessary. For me to greatest privilege of serving this ministry is doing the work of our programs in the context of faith-based community. Sure we do this work because there is great need insignificant inequity and public resources and individual opportunity in our society. There are lots of agencies with similar services were any of us tonight. Volunteer or work. Thing that makes this work so deeply satisfying for me. Is that we do this called by a shared religious division. This vision of beloved community. This is the religious aspect of it and by that i mean just is what binds us together the thing that binds us together it's vision. Not sure beliefs not only shared values and principles. A shared vision of a world we long for. And we do it intentionally in a way that brings us together with others to have life experiences. It may be vastly different from our own. Religious beliefs different from our own. Cultural context different from our own. We need to understand more of these differences if we are going to live in this world house together. It takes a sort of intrepid nature to lean into this work. Inspire me now. The founder of the year of mystery almost two centuries ago then known as a benevolent fraternity of churches. With the reverend joseph tuckerman. He wandered around boston. Dispensing charity to those in need from his poor purse. Partially funded by donations from boston area churches. I'm partially from its own personal resources. But even in those days and the communities of those his ministry supported. Learning from them with their needs and concerns were. He's sometimes called the father of american social work. One thing critical to knowing how to help is to be able to hear and truly empathize with others. There's actually a real arrogant in deciding for others would help they need without asking them. Another one of my heroes mary white ovington a descendant of new england abolitionist. Devoted her adult life to combating racial discrimination. Entrance franchising improving material conditions and providing equal opportunities for african americans. It's one of the founders of the national association for the advancement of colored people the n-double-acp. She worked tirelessly for the organization for decades promoting fundraising serving in leadership role through stormy organizational. and helping to set agenda. For her many contributions many of them unpublicized. The n-double-acp. Ford honored her as mother of the new emancipation. Everything i admire most about ovington is it she developed her perspective and her convictions. By working immersed 47 years in greenpoint settlement in brooklyn new york. Single in her 30s. Today's program staff and volunteers are also my heroes and my inspiration. Each of these women and men let-go and lean in. Open to newton site we need to know to be agents of change. Even if it's very small or personal change. I invite you to join us in this adventure. As we open our minds and hearts wide we experience unexpected haha. Moments. And are forever changed. Each morning. Each one of us stands on the threshold of all that is possible. And we press the reset button. Transformed is imperceptible waves by whatever thoughts and interactions we had just the day before. We are new people. He might ask herself engaged and changing the world today. Here in my own little corner. Unitarian universalist we are invited everyday as members of a liberal religious tradition to work together to create the leavitt community. Beyond the walls of our congregations. Beyond the boundaries of our local communities. What will you say yes to tomorrow. Breathing life into dreams. The word for breathing in its inspiration. And then of course. We breathe out. Bear exhalations breathe life into dreams into the dreams of those empowering himself or better lies. And into our shared dreams for world. That is more peaceful. And just.

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20120826_john_genova_science_sermon.mp3

It's simply our human response. The doo mystery of being alive. And knowing that. Someday we'll die. So. I want to say that if your legend is man's natural response to the mystery of existence. Unnatural response. But religious and science really actually has two different question. Religion ask the why is existence what am i doing here. Defiance. Is. Earliest existence. How am i. Physically. Here on this earth and how. Facts. Kontradiksi. People's magical exclamations of the y. Not all of existence is a mystery. Religion claims to know the truth. Science simply. Tries to understand the truth. And the more you understand the less you need to know. So i haven't said that i thought that i just do a quick review of all of science. Scripture for the whole things that everybody is on the same foot. Physics. Physics says that things don't change what they're doing alyssa force to that's it that's all of physics. And that people of the same way. They don't. So if you're wondering in my product of my. So chemistry. Chemistry says and this is why you took those chemistry courses i'm going to give it to you all and one. That's chemistry says that opposite opposite opposite attract. Light sweep album. That's chemistry. Did you can explain everything with that that simple principle. Biology says. There's only one form of life on earth. 14. We're all connected. All from the same. Place. And if you curious about that you can see carbon chemistry. If you're really interested in. Amex. Which is something that nobody likes. I have yet to meet except for physical chemist like me. Says the following that the physical universe is a game of chance. That you can't win. But you can't break even in. And that you can't stop playing. That's all of energy. Theory. What's with all the time in college for no reason you could have just come listen to me and you know it all. Now i haven't a few examples that this like the share with you. Because it wouldn't be. A little bit of fun little. And i'm so the first is the. Burning of this. Sacred light. Which is. The oxidation number. Carbon. That's what this is and you and i doing the same time. The scandal. And myself are doing. Same thing. Now i'm going to give you a little demonstration of. Chemistry i'm just sick as what i believe. And i'm going to show you why i believe what i believe and so hoping that you'll. Come to the understanding that when a science tells you something you probably is telling you. The factual truth. I'm going to say. Watch the bubble. I'm going to say that matter exists. As atoms combined in whole number ratio. And it held together by electric charge. And that because. You are held together by electric charge. You can be pulled apart. That's mighty. So. I give you the electrolysis of water. Electricity. Water. And i'm pulling the water apart. So everyone knows the formula for water is. H2o still alive. You expect to see one. , twice as big as the other. Anyone who wants to look you see the bubbles coming out. Who's gatsby in your balls here. And this column is half the size of that. Which one do you think of the h2. H2. So. I'm not going to do the. The whole demonstration. But. Just to show you. But what i'm saying. And why i believe what other scientist tell me because i'm actually able to duplicate something that they said was true. So i'm going to collect some of this hydrogen. What i say is hot. And so if i'm right thanks i didn't burn. Alright. Trust me a little bit but i'm saying fine and that we can do the other one with her oxygen but it it doesn't really work that well in such a quick tub quick demonstration. So. A little fat little facts. Comes from the latin word ski area. Which means to know. Octonauts. Forces churches doing mystery of knowledge of life and dancing. Mostly science. Just tries to explain. By the way of the controlled experiment. Scientist superficially based on trust. I can't possibly duplicate every experiment that led to my understanding of the physical world. Captain from someone. You can't do. Come get the equipment time. You just can't duplicate. I have to trust. The scientist. What doing experiments. Their results are true. But they aren't lying. I have to trust that other science so i trust. Data that comes from other scientists other science stuff. Scientific review reviewed review journals and that's really where you should all get your. Information from. Ronald reagan. I never thought i'd be. But verify. And that science don't trust. Entrust. Even his own data constantly trying to disprove what he knows john stossel questioning the beliefs that he holds. And so. The facts are the facts and you changed. Change your beliefs to fit. The new understanding. But most if not all religions. Do they don't most religions. Don't change their beliefs. That they're kind of fixing the beautiful. I'm going to say that. I agree that life is a mystery i mean. All the greats like is a pretty much said that it's. It's a mystery. Alright. The religion of judaism. Religions that they basically deal with it. Your life just deal with it. I'm here now and just make the best of it the gods are out to get you. So just stay out of their way and try to live your life as best you can. The buddhists. I think i. Pretty much have got it right but they basically say chill out. Tri-state be, the knowledge that you're part of everything. That's in-n-out. Kind of wrap yourself. And you're being around that notion. You're okay i'm not really alien i'm all part of this universe. And i guess this is what scientist. Call the work but the butter stew and even some of the. Other prayer related thing to do is call the stress relaxation response. Calm yourself down. And guess what. Appoint a few for your happiness. So there is there is some science. In that sort of notion of chanting of praying it really hasn't this a real physiological effect of it hasn't. You did just like christianity islam. Hinduism but i called denial religions. Not dying going to heaven i'm going i'm coming i'm not i'm in denial. That's. Sweet many of us not all of us. Cuz we're all you use. Take rights. Connect. Do we believe that it's really up to the individual. To give meaning and purpose to their own lives. And thus the common theme. And. And this is what really from what many consider what god does. God gives meaning and purpose to life. Maybe it's okay for you to play god. Happy god. But. Play god. Give meaning to your own wife. Don't look for some external. Purpose. Some external force some other things other than yourself. The old meeting really comes from within. And. Let's face it. If you were god you could do a better job. Really you could see how you get rid of the war you get rid of famine you would have people suffering and dying. Which is really pretty much to me. Saying that. God is not a woman. Because of god where woman you know she wouldn't make this mess. Couldn't possibly be a woman. Based on what we sit. If you were god you could do another job really just think about it. You really could. This is this is going to go really quickly. But now i'm going to shift gears a little bit and just say. As a result of skeptical. Which was the age of enlightenment. Stop that has been really the liberation of people in especially. Beckley women. Science tesla technology. Gives engineers the understandings create new devices improve andy's light. And many civilizations dependent on slave labor to operate. The romans the greeks the americans and british all had to subjugated in the class to make the society work. Sadly many places this model is still in effect. But science engineering in mass production. That's bff. 32. Black. Strife and war in the world today. It's really very. Relatively speaking. Competitive. 142. Very very very calm. Only real hope for the continued liberation man. Technology. If you want to have a peaceful. Happy world. Technology believe. And besides and technology. So. The forces of greed and ignorance still with us. And i think the fish should be fought against. The jury is really still out whether or not. Rational thought is going to win. People decided that maybe we should think rationally and. Signing up with the age of enlightenment. The the traits of ignorance and intolerance and green to me. Google play. I really embodied in the ideals of the tea party. Now the tea party. Really is backed by the super rich. Brothers. And is really anti-democratic. Because. Democracy. The power in the democracy is given by. The people. Elected officials. Or answerable to. The people. Super rich have power. Power. Power and are answerable to. Nobody. Not the not the democracy. So. The only way that people. The people. Control the power from the richest through. Taxation. That's it. And. So the founders of our republic recognized. And they recognize this in the fact that they said. Inherited wealth. Is a disaster for democracy. Anyone keep that money generation after generation x. So. Just in conclusion. I'm going to say. Is a blow for democracy. I'm done. Okay just this is from the book of john. Sorry. This is 8:32. And he says. Then you will know the truth. And the truth shall sit shall set you. Free.

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040912_Lyceum1_Little%20.mp3

Prevailed upon my very good friend. Professor david little of harvard to join us. Professorship. Entitled. Professor of the practice. Ethnicity and conflict. At the harvard divinity school. I'm more qualified person. To help us reflect on the issues. That are in the back of all our minds on this weekend anniversary. Of the tragedy of september 11th 2000. And one. Or weekend when we are still absorbing the news. Of the dreadful hostage-taking. Invest long. In southern russia. Talk at. Yale. At the university of virginia. Has served for a number of years as a scholar at the us institute of peace. Has become a real specialist in the religious and ethnic. Conflicts of a number of parts of the world. And for the last 6 years. Has been taking an important place. In the discussions at harvard. About. Religion. Ethnicity and conflict. In the world that we live in today i invite you to welcome with me professor david little. Anniversary of september 11th really leads many of us to start asking the question that. I think a merge for so many americans immediately in the wake of. September 11th. Why this rise. In aggressive. Religious neo fundamentalism. And so much of the world. And especially in the muslim world. When you teach about the rise of. Religious fundamentalism. What kind of factors do you point to. As to the matter of fundamentalism let me just start by. Worrying a little bit about the term. It is much and perverted in scholarly discussion. The term fundamentalism tends to have pejorative significance. It's a battle cry a comfortable if it's the german say. And therefore isn't a good opener for serious. Objective. Analysis of the phenomenon. And let me say a word about my understanding i i tend to prefer. The term religious revivalism. Rather than fundamentalism though we can use fundamentalism as long as we understand what we mean by the term. I prefer the term. Revivalism because i think it communicates less but northerly in the first place but also secondly. It identifies one of the key common themes that i think all of us into it. About what we call fundamentalism namely. The desire very intense desire. On the part of religious people around the world not just in the islamic world. To revive. Traditional practices and beliefs in face of novel circumstances and particularly circumstances which we might describe is modernism armour down at the end. I'll be features of modernity that have to do with cultural moral and religious factors. One needs to distinguish sharply between those features of modernity and technology the advances that we all are aware and regard. Modern civilization one needs to make that distinction because many fundamentalist so-called or revivalist are themselves very perry. In drawing on the modern technology in a variety of ways for they wouldn't be on television united states. Using audio cassette to communicate their message using computers were always hearing that the fundamentalist terrorist start discovered with their computers and all sorts of things up to their not at all. But but they're for this distinction between culture religious morality and technology and all of that needs to be remembered when we think about them another was well that's a rather long-winded preface to what i want to say about. The problem of revivalism or fundamentalism however we. Understand it. I think. It's possible. Just say that globalization understood in a very broad sense. Is one of the fundamental causes of. Revivalists. And i mean. Not just modern forms let's save the 20th and 21st century forms i mean colonialism going back. The way in which the west in a variety of ways has expanded. It's cultural political. And economically influence that i'm saying has created the environment. Abreaction. Reactionary ism you might say. On the part of large numbers of religious people. And more specifically. We can identify areas. Hinduism for example it's the rise of religious nationalism judaism's certain forms of christian fundamentalism a revivalism. Western globalizing impact. Tobacco that's the first thing globalization obviously brings with it not just western influence but a whole range of economic. Variations dislocations difficulties inequities of a variety of sorts. Political problems are raised. By the introduction of the west into the non-western world and these things are still working themselves out of resentment antagonism resistance and so forth. It seems to me that's what we'd want to say about the setting in which fundamentalism in general. Psoriasis. But then we need to say a word about islamic. Fundamentalism or revivalism. And. I would describe that phenomenon as just a specification of the general picture i painted. But we can identify three. Points. Specific points at which islamic fundamentalism heavy merge one would be in egypt. With the rise of the muslim brothers familiar. Do all of your founded in 1929 by hassan al-banna. And then intensified under the influence of the president of the. The political leadership of nasser. In the fifties and thereafter. I'll pick your name saeed. Can you tie to utub. Qutb that's it for now. Apprehended imprisoned by nasser. Executed by nasser in 9056 one of the leading figures who is the focus of. Islamic fundamentalism. A second figure is a man named milana maudoodi a pakistani. Who in the early forties begins to write very aggressively in opposition to british colonial influence and in favor of the need for an islamic state run according to islamic dictates and so forth and then identify would be a famous figure ayatollah khomeini. Regine namely the shah of iran that regime. Overthrows that and develops an ideology of anti-western ism west toxification is as it's come to be known. Developing. Islamic fundamentalism. Should be understood against this background of western. Political economic cultural influence. Islamic fundamentalism is simply a subset. Of the broader phenomenon. But i'm trying. Tobacco pipe. And economic issues lies behind a good deal of what has happened within islam tube of provoked this particular dramatic form. Reactivity irvine. One thing i would add to the scenario that i've been painting out would be the failure of. The post-colonial political system. In these various parts of the world the arab world for example i believe of 22 members of the arab league. Not what. Is what we would describe as an electoral democracy you have to let's call them liberal authoritarian regimes morocco and jordan. Majority if not the total number of these groups. Is really on the right of. Liberal. Democratic regimes. That creates a system of bad governance. Of resentment on the part of the population for obvious reasons that simply exacerbates the problems if you can amoken equality. Are not part of the arab world buffet in a way have been subject to the same kind of bad governments in a post-colonial environment. So this whole package of things. Comes together to produce the sort of negative. But resentment antagonism on the part of populations in these countries and make it very difficult. Move in the direction of liberalization. Current article about the the hostage-taking at this long then the chechnya. A conflict with pointed out that the motivations of the check-in. Who perpetrated that dreadful crime. Seems to rest more in nationalism. Then in any kind of religious motivations. Come in a little bit about how nationalism and and religious fundamentalism get intermixed in the muslim world. I'm not a great expert on the chechnya problem it is a very complicated one and one needs to venture into discussions of that subject with some. Some restraint. I might pricing is reading the newspaper articles that we all have access to is it it's deeply intermingle. It's not surely as putin. President putin has said on occasion. Now totally in the hands of islamic. Radicals for. Fundamentalist. It's a mix of. Nationalist protest. Intermingled now with support from. Islamic interest. More and more you see. Muslim fundamentalists and other fundamentalist jewish ones hindu ones christian ones. Uniting. With an impulse towards nationalism. A strong emphasis on american nationalism and the exceptional role that the united states both shouldn't could play in rebuilding the world. To some degree evidenced in our present administration. With the rise of fundamentalism and israel it's growing political influence. It takes on. In many respects a strong nationalistic. Impulses to intertwine in a variety of ways it's not surprising. Is it is a. About nationalism. That is to say on the one-handed will ally itself with nationalist movement but i'm the others become too kind of focused or transnational language and political protest. And it's not totally satisfied with giving a program for reform in the given country that is primary interest. To bring down. This western influence to restrain it. It's it's almost as though they are engaged in. A sort of extermination operation. Which is to say if they can exterminate. And i use that word intentionally exterminate western influences. Without necessarily replacing it with inappropriate regime they will have accomplished something very important. About islamic fundamentalism and perhaps other forms of fundamentalism as well tribune mansion. Well it certainly is the ideal is not the nation-state. September 11th. Our room. Demonstration. Chose to go after the. The. Perpetrator. Their refuge in afghanistan. And to dislodge and extreme. Revivalist. The taliban in afghanistan. And i think many of us. Since the kind of inevitability. If not. Justification. In that action. But subsequently. We have become enmeshed in. What seems to be a protracted. And difficult conflict. Yeah in iraq. I wonder if you comment it just a little bit about weather. You. Your point of view as a christian atlases. The. Intervention in iraq was either. Prudent or justified. It's a very important subject obviously for all of us. My view is that we ought to understand. Iraq policy question. In the context of terrorism of 9/11. And we are also happen to know that john is going eventually to raise a question about israel-palestine we ought to see. In the same contacts. Because there are i think some interesting affinities and disabilities. Between the iraq case that the israel-palestine thing which we need to think about but let's let's start out by defining the context as a response to terrorism 2911 that's the way i think. The bush administration in general. Define the iraq policy the afghanistan policy let's take note that occasionally certain justifications for the rock policy slip in which on logically independent. Of the terrorism problem and we need to take note of that one is that saddam hussein was himself. Amoral monster and needed. An end in itself to be removed from power and we've done it wouldn't thing in and of itself to remove. That's the first sort of non terrorist. Appeal and then the second one would be by removing saddam hussein we can begin to create conditions in iraq. Reform democratic conditions which will become a model. For the rest of the middle east. To reform itself by. That's. But what i would suggest is those are arguments that get folded in. Back into the terrorist context even by the bush administration when push comes to shove. Fundamentally i think you see it in the present campaign. Vice president cheney president ford. Hector rumsfeld. Victory powell. All of these administration official again and again come back to the point that because we removed saddam hussein. We are safer with respect to the terrorist problem that's the implication. And that therefore removing him was not just good as an end in itself but it was good because it prevents him from developing weapons of mass destruction developing connections with terrorist which would then in turn be a serious threat to the united states and similarly the argument about reform the model for reform becomes again. Move back under the terrorism umbrella. With respect the argument look if we reform all of these regimes in the middle east from which. Numbers of terrorists, we will decrease the likelihood of terrorism. So i think that's an important point i'm trying to say the bush administration rest its case. Terrorism point. And therefore it's fair of us to raise the question. Policy. Justifiable. In reference to. Opposing harris. And i'll give you my direct answer no. It is an unmitigated failure i want to argue its controversial i understand. But in my view and unmitigated failure. In respect to responding to terrorism. And the reasons are familiar to you all we're going over things that are talked about. Constantly but let me summarize my my opinion. Saddam hussein was not a threat with respect to terrorism either in respect to. Possessing wmd or the likelihood of producing. He was not in my judgment a gathering threat. With respect to terrorism. Secondly impress even more importantly. I believe the iraq policy has created more terrorism. That is very strange and i think that is a fundamentally. Obvious phenomenon that is to say it's become a gathering place for terrorism. And even more importantly than that the likelihood of an unstable. Send me chaotic. Which i think is a very realistic. Prosper. Right now and i'll talk about that in a minute. That prospect creates even more likelihood. A gathering place for terrorism. There is of course the point we're all familiar with iraq is become a recruitment tool for terrorists around the world and i very much disagree with the so-called flypaper theory. Flypaper theory says we will attract to a rock now all the terrorists are many of them where we can systematically knock them off. I think that's wrong what you've done is you've simply increased the number total number. Of terrorist and made it worse in iraq and elsewhere. Those are my responses in general. Let me just add one point i don't want to. Subjective course. The other point i would like to emphasise is it the trouble with terrorism as a general feel i do not in any way. Disparage the significance of responding to terrorism i think all of us would share. It's a realistic assessment. The need to deal with a serious threat to national security of the united states and elsewhere around the world i do not in any way that by any means wish to underplay the importance of that response. Trouble with. Allusions to terrorism as a threat to national security. Is bennett and readily become. It protects the temptation of excuse. For imprudent behavior. For counterproductive behavior. A behavior that transgresses moral and legal limits. And my point is going to be in each of those points. The board policy needs to be held to account it's been imprudent and counterproductive for the reasons i've already mentioned. It's made cars and worse rather than. At diminishing it. In terms of its response to. Moral and legal limits. With variety of. Uses violations of civil liberties all of those charges which we can discuss if you like in detail all of those are also. And need to be borne in mind so dangers of invoking. Anti-terrorism as a justification. For a policy like a rock. Is it itself. A dangerous undertaking. Let me just point out. Do you win. Human rights humanitarian law where is my view erect. Abuse of an appeal to national security. By none other than auto. We have international. Because of the temptation. The government are liable to when faced with. I do not important. Responding carefully thought. Russian security chief pointed out that the russian government itself reserves to it itself of the right to take. Preventive action against in any threats that it finds anywhere outside its own borders. Dealings with religious leaders in the middle east i think the the thing that i found most upsetting is the number of. And. Reconciliation oriented. Muslim leaders both sunni and. Especially leaders that i knew from iraq who have been killed. End the violence erupted so when you see a cycle that resembles that we became familiar with in northern ireland where those who extend themselves. To make these. I'll become the first targets of assassination. Reminds me of the the death of yitzhak rabin of israel with whom i shook hands 10 days before he was killed by. Amore extremist. Religious. Nationalist of his of his own. Nation. Could i just add one point about the rock setting before we move on yet i'm not sure where you were but i did want to say. The prospect for an unstable. You rock i think very great right now. And our one reason. For the reason why the policy. It's not a successful one. What i mean by that is the. Analysis. Increasingly. Accepted i think among expert. That you created really a snake. Within iraq which is going to be very difficult to bring under one stable. Political umbrella you've got the shiites you've got the sunnis. You've got the curves all of them in one way or another by the way with their own militias. And the disarming and decommissioning of those malicious it's going to be a very difficult problem but you've got now political-military infrastructures developing. Which is going to be very difficult it seems to me to unify in some common way and the chances therefore for ethnic and religious rivalry. The topic that i'm supposed to be interested in and am deeply interested in our are very very great indeed and if you read the history of the rockets many of you no doubt have. Stability of coexistence very simply rivalry emulated in any respect by british colonialism and so forth. Oh that's a huge problem and if it leads one to reflect on. How we will ring. Some degree of stability and unity. Current issue of. The new york review of books an excellent article peterbilt operates was the former ambassador to croatia. And an expert really on middle eastern affairs. He contends that the best we can hope for. Is a loose confederation. Tripartite in federation. With some kind of very thin tissue of of overarching unity. That's the best we can hope for. I think we need more discussion frankly in the presidential debates about what the realistic prospect. For settling your rock are certainly we won't hear hear this from. It's very disappointing to me that we're not hearing this from carrie because he's the one who could be taking the lead. And by the way if you take the lead and talk about the kind of settlement. I am mentioning i think i'd i agree with ambassador call braids. Proposal. Bosnia. You need to think about after all bosnia was a compelled settlement. Right at you developing an arrangement not altogether satisfactory by any means so i think i'm done working reasonably well. But you needed in order to do that. Some settlement which allowed for the distinction of the entities. And some loose tissue of general unity. Back. A military. Forts we still have like 30,000 troops nato troops in bosnia. My own addition to the proposal would be we're going to need something like. A military backup. Other nato nato plus sore for probably. 10. 510 years i would have supposed. And we need to begin to think about that. Realistic proposal then. How do we get about i go about doing that. Senator kerry it seems to me would need to begin to attend two questions at this time. Many of us who have been critical of the intervention in iraq feel is the. Discussion of these matters was ben they born difficult. Because the there was a distinct lack of a real candor about our own motivation. In the beginning. First place leave the discussion about the weapons of mass destruction in the focus. On saddam hussein almost colliding his identity with osama bin laden. Which was so much a part of the run-up to the war. Seems to me that have made it more difficult for us to talk about the real national security interests in the region that we have associated with the oil supply and with the special relationship that the united states has with. With the state of israel. That the road to settlement of the palestinian. Israeli question lies through baghdad. I was thinking a good deal of criticism and of many people have said that. But lie exactly the wrong syllable that the solution too much of our difficulty with the muslim world would be resolved if we would work harder. On the israel-palestine issue david what's your what's your feeling on that well as i said at the outset i think we need to see the israel-palestine conflict. In this context of anti-terrorism. And the reasons for that are obvious that mr. sharone himself. Has allied himself with mr. bush in terms of having to do whatever is necessary in order to respond to terrorism the two that is pushing her own have been publicly identified with each other and talking about the problems terrorism and so forth. There's every reason. And while i wouldn't go as far as to say that the sharonne policies and israel. Have been. Abject failure i take it some more complicated. Situation we can talk about the details. More complicated than iraq. But i would say that some of my criticisms regarding counterproductive at&t using terrorism as an excuse to transgress moral and legal limits to apply in the case of israel as well and example for. Heavy unilateral. Evacuation of gossip by the government. Seems to me a good example of the counter productivity. Pieces. Name of your going to remove your own you're going to remove israeli troops and settlements from gaza and simply leave it to the gazan palestinians to work it out. And secondly you're going to thereby move some of these people into the west bank. And the policy indicate you will expand israeli control in the west bank so you will trade off you will lose but you will gain in westbank. That this is a recipe for generating further terrorist education because of the injustice from the palestinian point of view i would have thought you want to work out as best you can i'm not saying it's easy. Some kinder. Negotiated settlement for the disposition of gaza-israel. Removed itself and the disposition of the westbank with due consideration for the interests of the palestinians it seems to me you need a bilateral framework within which to do that and the unilateral undertaking which mr sharone is introducing only makes matters worse. And that's the problem of course but i guess the argument would be you don't you don't do yourselves a favor you don't help to create a partner by working consistently unilaterally by. Destroying the habitat of yasser arafat by working in every possible way to destroy the security structure.. To say this is helpful as a way to develop a partner. In order to develop a bilateral approach. This is the beginning of a series of discussions. About religion and public affairs in the united states generally we've now touched on the issues of religion and terrorism. Middle east question lolirock war. And like the time. I'm going to be opening up in this series some concerns about the way in which religion becomes polarized in the united states itself. Of course who was our guest this morning has argued. Underneath it all. Americans have a lot more in common than the political debate. How often. Blame the media often make apparent. That rzr general values. At least in middle-class america. The usual lines of catholic evangelical protestant liberal democrat republican. What is your feeling about the sense of. Religious and political polarization in america. Salad wolf's position as i understand it and by the way i'm not an expert such as allen is on these matters but i'll give you my impressions anyway. That culturally united states of america is not that deeply divided contrary to the arguments of depressed questions like homosexuality are not actually as divisive as we might have thought. Call who are we. Challenges to american national identity in reviewing that book review by the way by alan wolf the potential. All of that is is allen's point and i tend to agree with him on that i think that's right i'm struck myself as i would think you would be a lack of interest. I think that's right my one demure. And i don't know how alan would stand on this that is standard. Well we're not culturally divided we are politically divided in the present campaign. That the american populace population is severely divided and then the cultural issues drift in. As side effects. Revision of the alan wolf faces that i would. But i would recommend. Since you mentioned santana huntington i can't help but ask. To what degree do you think that. Sam's thesis about the clash of civilizations is in danger of becoming. Self-fulfilling prophecy. Right actually i teach a course with sam huntington. I called the religion in global politics will be teaching at this fall retarded last fall. So i'm fairly familiar with sam documents both on his earlier book 1996 clash of civilizations and now his recent book sam and i are going to have a public debate at harvard in october on this book have a new book. Which was as you probably know the argument of that book the 96 book was that in the collapse the wake of the collapse of the. Communist free world so cold. Disputes in the division. A new basis for division has emerged religious and ethnic. Civilization all differences islam against the west. Confucianism against of the west and so forth he's. Large civilizational units are now self-consciously opposed to each other. The clash of civilizations. And. The argument has always been the world. But the argument was it may be true but if we think along sam's lines we might make it through and there is something to that worried i think by the way the argument it's just been in his new book. Creating a d. Cultural conflict those mexican americans in large part are contemptuous. What's an calls the anglo protestant. Identity at a threat to it and a cause for great work my own view is that he's just imported into the united states and. That's my general response to sam way of understanding this religion ethnic and conflict. Antidote. 2. Conflict. Typical whether it is of civilizations or partisans in the united states. Maybe in dialog. Can been real respectful discussion. Of the deep differences in india. That many of us have in a world where more things are. Interpenetrating. Are personal space are cultural space than ever before 9 thanks to the globalization of communications in the light. So i think it's time that we turn to some dialogue. who gathered this morning and give them the opportunity to address them questions and if i could have an assistant microphone. To carry it around i'll go to the lectern and call on people. The dressing a commodore question briefly. Icon. What are you talk. It's almost impossible. But in the background of my mind. Mi religion. Otherwise. Vicious animals. We have it in. Is real what happened in chesnee. No one seems to. Even intimated as a possible solution. Well. My own view is that religion is certainly one important cause of conflict i would not dispute that at all. I think it's brett's over simple to suggest it's all religion i think there are besides pride indicate political economic cultural colonial policies which create conditions. I would say that religion isn't always on the side of violence and conflict studies on religious peacemakers. That's being published by the tannenbaum center in new york city tannenbaum center of interfaith cooperation. I texted me the one of the difficulties in our world is to figure out how to isolate. Religious extremism. How to call upon those who may be tempted to move in the direction of giving religious. Character to ethnic conflicts which is often. The case. How did how to encourage them to instead respond to the higher calling so they're all religious. Standards and i've been very appreciative of the some of the methodologies that have developed been developed in the world council on conference on religion and peace global religious leaders. To have moral influence. On more localized religious leaders and. Persuade them that perhaps submitting themselves. To the political and ethnic polarisation at the local level calls. Calls their own religious commitment. I could give one other example i've had a lot of experience in bosnia. And there has developed very interesting get a religious council consisting of serbian orthodox roman catholic muslim and jewish leaders who have some of them. Negotiating what could have been. Bloody and. Translate government. With a spirit of reconciliation and forbearance. What accent do you think it would be fair for us to think about this religious revival is nationalism. As a logical and maybe. Response. Just some of the abuses of globalization. Clear. That's exactly the idea i think the fundamentalist so-called a revivalists reaction isn't. Totally without merit or at least there's some basis moral basis spiritual basis for the response that people like this have engaged in and if that's true then it's not just. I changed themselves but the perpetrators do need to contribute to the change namely the globalized etc. Is manifest in that case and that becomes a metaphor in a way for the other kinds of similar policy that the west in gauges in around the world so i couldn't agree more and we need to attend to our own house and rectifying these policies in order to make a contribution to. Yes the corrupt elites with whom we have had long-standing relationships. In order to preserve a easy access to inexpensive petroleum supplies. I'm at forsyth. Source of hearing the oil problem is quickly the oil problem i'd forgot to mention curse. Is a key problem in retarding democratization that's now fairly clear in other words if you look and i can give you this dick but if you look at the countries that have oil are dominated by an oil and their political organization. Continues than your rock is in worse trouble so that is a very big problem and it's only exacerbated by the west. Royal. Almost any society dominated by extraction in. What are the most chilling terms i heard this morning was the term extermination. And the question i have is how does one deal with that and some effective way in apa fundamental is that concept. To the revivalist point-of-view and what's the approach to it other than. I think it is very sick and the way i would picture the attitudes of many of these muslim and other revivalist terrorist particularly. Is an emergency mentality and i think we don't understand this sufficiently that is they feel themselves under. Catastrophic threat. They are fundamental religious ideals moral ideals are at risk. In a fundamental way and under emergency conditions and we can look at the flipside in respect to the response in a minute under those conditions one-off and argues you do what you have to. If it means killing civilians if it means taking the life of defenseless people will appear our backs are against the wall and we have to do what we have to do if you read through the literature. Because if you want to eliminate the scourge and the more of it like killing cockroaches. Extermination is appropriate and it's analogous to the hitler attitudes right towards the jews and all is perfectly appropriate. A misguided way. Security measures that they've begun to take are defensible it seems to me. Using rational and reason the problem and not allow yourself earlier. And be distracted by some old carrier oil or imperial interests of whatever slip off and allow those things. And frame the direction of your policy that's the cutest and i haven't heard if i may say so respect. The requirements. In dealing with something like terry's are cute and it seems to me our record so far is not terribly good in that regard. Yes. Zacian. Which i would take two mean. Largely the actions of major global corporations. Have been actively. Harming. Many of the muslim peoples along with. Lot of other people. As a result of which. The terrorists feel under threat. And so they are attacking. Not the global corporations per se. But. The west. And. This reminds me very much. The history of american racism. In which poor white southerners. Were oppressed. By rich white southerners. And turned around. And. Attack. The blacks. Who are not the real enemy. And it turns out. Some historical research by. Actually. Unitarian minister harvard sunday. This was a result of a deliberate policy initiated by white virginians in the round 16 60. But they passed a series of laws designed to inflame hatred on the part of poor whites against the black slaves to keep the poor whites from realizing that they were being oppressed. Bye. Rich planters. In light of that history bush's actions in iraq. Make a great deal of sense from the viewpoint of. Global corporations stirring up this conflict and hatreds to keep. Everybody in the dark about what's really going on and to keep themselves in power. But i'm not quite sure what that says about what we should do about it. Or do you think my analysis is totally positive response to that proposal. It's very interesting because the use of public resources to inflame one group against another is an important consideration. I think my own assessment of what the bush people i've done in regard to iraq and so on. Is not to go in there in order to inflame. Anti-western sentiment. I think that's too cynical into actually imputes to the bush people too much understanding of the region my own view would be would be rather. The degree of. Colonial ebay accept anti-colonial ebay's resentment. And therefore in going in they were naive. Someone calls from neil wilsonian they thought oh well if america comes in and delivers people from oppression obviously they'll be happy and so on. I think to some degree they actually had pitted themselves into believing that kind of thing there for when they got there. The negative reaction which only has been gathering momentum it's a gathering thread. Call husband. That's the variation here that i would suggest in respect to the rock. From your point about american history in the race problem. Well david qualified response but i think we owe you our unqualified gratitude for a wonderful inaugural session of the needham lyceum professor little.

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20110417_liberation_is_costly_john_sermon.mp3

Only about 200 miles. From where the children of israel left egypt. To the very heart of their. Ancestral promised land but as far fries from here and need them to say new york city. So you do know why it took forty years don't you. My wife taught me this years ago. Even back then. Moses and aaron and the men refused to stop and ask the women for directions. And i trust you do know why it took ten play. Ending in the death no less of all of the firstborn children of egypt it said. Collette ferrell. To let the people go. I learned this one from a bar mitzvah boy when we were at temple beth sholom a few years ago. Because he said. Even after the 9th play. Deferral was still in denial. You pay the price but i told you liberation is costly. Is bishop tutu. Put it so succinctly. You paid a small price for some serious discussion of what he. He really means. He was of course speaking to his compete.. In south africa. Following the end of apartheid. Telling them it would not be easy. I suspect. People. Today. Feel much the same way. And so do others. Caught up. Liberation struggle throughout the middle east. To which we are now bearing witness in that is becoming known as the arab spring. Tomorrow night's glenn and i will. As we do every year observe the first night of passover. At the seder table of my sister-in-law and my brother. With friends jewish and gentile alike and family. Will no doubt talk about and pray for. All the struggles of liberation. That are going on in the world. Oildale be in orange on the. Seder plate you know why. That's because some conservative rabbi some fifty years ago said that. Women would be ordained to the ravenous. About the time there was an orange on a seder plate. So now there is. And my sister-in-law who chairs the worship committee at her temple make sure of it. By the way. Has resolved to resume the tradition of having a congregational satyr here at first parish. On the second night of passover. Using the seder plate that was given to us by temple beth shalom. Long ago when they began their worship life. In this very meeting house. This year passover of course. Coincides. With holy week. And with patriots day. Effect that reminds me that the second minister of this church my predecessor. Samuel west back in april 20th 1775 headless add task of calling on. 5 widows and 35 orphans. Whose fathers and husbands had been killed. The previous day. Following the battles of lexington and concord liberation. Is costly. But i don't want to leave our discussion of. Authentic liberation that's a level of history. Or even a social revolution. Serote in my book about understanding the bible there are there are for enduring trues in the exodus story i think. The first is wherever and whenever you live. If you look around you with weis open and with any compassion. And if you see oppression. You're in egypt. I'm second. There is. The promise. And enduring. About better. Freer promised life. What's the only way to get there. Is hard. And full of temptations to turn back. And it has its cost. And 4th. These truths apply not only two groups. They are also true for each of us individually. Personally spiritually. Hard for people like. Me and you. Who enjoy already so much relative freedom. And atleast enough material prosperity to feel. Often quite self-sufficient. The idea that we're still in bondage. And then be tempted to answer well. To an oppressive culture of course. I'm some crazy making politics within it. And there's enough truth in saying that. Not only does our culture still privileged some over others. With subtle and not-so-subtle forms of bias. For those who already have power and wealth and privilege. It's consumerism in competition also promotes of worship. Of wealth. Let me go. Insane. And celebrity. Over any united devotions to the common good. If there is one liberation i would wish for our own land. Ship from being the culture of things to a culture. A relationship. The popular forms of idolatry in our time or manifold. But at the deeper inner level. We each tend to be. In bondage to some. Secret idol of our own. Something. Put up on the altar of our souls. Through a wounded misura fear. The purpose of real spirituality and spiritual growth i think. All across cultural and religious lines. Instapromote something into authentic liberation. To advance individuals and groups. Into a larger consciousness oven devotion to. A secret hole. Along with unnecessary diminishing. The individual clamor. Just as the psychologist carl jung psychotherapy. Is moving. The center of the personality. From the frightened little eagle. To a larger. More faithful. More authentic and get relational self. Religion. Can also be used. Too often to stand in the way of authentic human liberation. I've been in the liberal ministries for 40 years now. Which somehow feel significant on passover. I'm amazed at the journey. And looking back. Have to admit that i've known many who tried to treat unitarian-universalism as though it were a mirror. Spiritual refugee camp. A place to flee to what do you feel hurt and wounded. By oppressive interpretations of religion. This was especially true i think when i was new in the ministry when i was serving. Congregations down in the bible belt. Which i've sometimes compared to. Running a theological decompression chamber for people with the baptist bins. I found that i had to put people back under some gentle pressure. From the questions. Let the biblical tradition asks like like what might still be required of us. Collectively in the way of doing justice loving mercy walking more humbly. If i was going to get their blood gases back to normal in. See if they were of any use in the world at all. Just freedom from will cut it you know. Recently i heard a colleague of mine complained that she's finished. Absolutely finished. With letting parishioners tell her what old stories. Or old words they don't want to hear. She tells every new member who comes into. Her congregation from a difficult or oppressive experience with religion. But among us there's an expectation that we will all begin to work on our own healing. And that healing always begins by facing into the pain. In religion i think healing and spiritual growth is often marked by. Becoming able overtime to find newer. More liberating interpretations and meanings. Old stories. Idle words. Another minister said he'd been studying. What are forebears and liberal spirituality people like channing and emerson. Really meant when they talked about self culture. And it was not at all about self-assertion. Disappointed. It was a program of spiritual growth. With three distinct phases. Starting with self-examination. Second a period of creative self formation. And finally self consecration. Spiritual purpose. Larger than one's own freedom. Involving the worse and dignity and freedom of those. Still. Still more burdens than oneself. It's what buddhist would call the work of a buddy saatva. One enlightened and awake enough to. Help others. Emerson may have rejected so-called historical christianity. As he put it in his divinity school address. But in the same talk he spoke of jesus. As. That one man who was true to what is in you and me. Possibility. That is to be so committed to authentic freedom and equality for others is to be. Free. And fearless oneself. Even in the face. A frightening oppression. Even in the face of death. I think it's a story that i read from the gospel of mark. Feminist biblical scholar elizabeth. A influential. Book in memory of her. How ironic it is jesus who shocked the scribes and priests by treating women. And disciples. Is recalled as having been anointed. Buy one of them. And then telling. The gathering that she will be remembered. Wherever the gospel is preached and yet the mail scribes. Who passed on the story. Been omitted the name. It made her an anonymous. Yep. Something reminds me that there may be a blessing. Even than being forgotten. In living a life of anonymous service to others. That is not made. A perpetual memorial. Only with god perhaps. There's a danger in being remembered and misinterpreted. Think of what happened to jesus. His name later used to justify violence. Which he abhorred. Inequalities that challenged. Tribalism that he wanted transcended. And greed and ingratitude that he condemned. I wonder at times how he feel. About the way in which. So-called followers. Remember him. At the beginning of boris pasternak straight novel doctor zhivago there's a remarkable conversation about the meaning. Of jesus in history one of the characters says that it's. Possible to be uncertain about the very existence of god and quote to believe that humanity does not live in a state of nature alone. But in history. And that history as we know it. Was shifted even began with. His to fold message and what was that. Firstly the character explains. The love of one's neighbor. The supreme form of energy. And secondly. The idea of free personality. And meaningful life as sacrifice. Somewhere else's i recall it perhaps in a letter. Pasternak also said something to the effect that. Once the story of this obscure jewish peasant. Who had challenged the oppressions of both roman rule and of his own peoples. Spread across the empire. The entire structure of roman imperialism began to talk. Until ofcourse. Like the roman soldiers who had taunted him and mocked him and crowned him king with a crown of thorns. A soldier a name constantine. Co-opted his memory. And the church that remember you. And imposed a formulaic read about him. That ironically almost smothered the religion of jesus. Under a religion that was now merely about him. Except of course in the hearts of souls courageous enough. To try to liberate the former from the ladder. As so many of our forebears.. And by any deer name. The costly heritage reclaimed. They're living in their dying. Liberation. Even of the core of a religious tradition. From its distortion is costly. And yet very unnecessary just ask. How costly liberation can be of anyone who's ever struggled or watch the loved one struggle with addiction. Nested ization insult medication with alcohol or drugs. Just ask anyone who's ever had to face into the pain of an abusive relationship. Or the fact in their own life with past abuse. Better yet self-examination that asks. What's feeder what wound what bondage do i most need to be freed from. Is it an attachment to security money or status. Is it fear of loss attachment. Quite. Endemic. Among the professional class do you know. Fear of the future. Fear of death itself. Is every spiritual tradition i know teachers. In one way or another the only. Solution to fear. Is gross and compassion and love for others. Love the finally casts out fear. But it has to begin. With compassion. For the inner self within that still needs liberation. Only by acknowledging our own inner pain and facing into it this the liberating journey begin. The journey of a thousand miles. And perhaps 40 years. That begins with a single step. This morning we welcomed into our myths. A new life. With waters that our forebears would have interpreted is. Symbols. Of the waters departed. The waters that were there at the creation itself. The waters through which we all have to pass. In order to be free. Always it's easier to perform these rights. For another child. Santa grass. How often. Just easier to pay homage to the prophets. Then it is to heed the direction. Of their vision in example. Or so said a great universalist minister. Easier to. Then to seek to emulate their liberating. Faith encouraged. And yet if we are to bother marking these great spring festivals of liberation and freedom at all. By telling the great stories again. Is it not. To try to touch our inner spirits so that they are turned in the right direction. Beginning by opening our hearts to the truth that we too. Need to rise from the dead. Need to escape our bonds. And our fears. May it then come to each. The gift of learning to talk and walk and pray and sing along the journey. Until what the last. We feel ourselves truly. God almighty. Free. Free at last.

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20130331_0193_easter_ressurrection_katie_lee_sermon.mp3

The story of jesus is dying and coming back to life. Was foundational in my childhood catholic faith. Resurrection. It was the miracle of miracles. In the jesus story. I don't remember exactly when i stopped believing that this actually happened. But i was a pretty precocious child and ask questions really early. But i. I started questioning it. And yet in my world questioning it was out of the quest. So i just embraced the pageantry in the music and appreciated the glory and the alliluyev at all. But ask my understanding matured i left. The church of my childhood. But not the true teachings of jesus. In fact. After what i would definitely call my wilderness.. I rediscovered. Jesus. Through the work of scholars. Who are doing the work. Of the historical jesus putting jesus's story in the historical context in which it happened. Then an even more today i've become inspired by jesus's public ministry. And his vision of a beloved community built on justice and mercy. Earlier when the choir sang the last words of david. David from home lineage jesus is 2 supposed to have come. The prophecy. Promised that a king from david's lineage. Must be chaste. The easter resurrection story however. Didn't. Actually mean anything. Until hard times happen. Really fine with the stories of jesus's life. They were really inspirational. But the resurrection. Just i couldn't go there. It wasn't until i knew. Deeply and personally. Depression. And loss. And grief. That i came to understand the resurrection story in a whole new way. Onesource i return to again and again is a 50-page meditation manual for lent and easter called. Into the wilderness. Bayou uu minister. Sarah york. She begins by saying that the wilderness is part of every person's. Soul journey. And that time in the wilderness. Is always a time of struggle. She works her way from that place. To resurrection. Not from death. Resurrection not from death she says. But from deadness. Deadness comes from whatever keeps us from feeling alive. Fiat fear or. Grief. Loneliness. Even our own lack of conviction and sense of purpose. These are the kinds of things that numb to life. In the process. Parts of ourselves. Died and we stuff them away in the tomb of the soul. Sometimes it's an escape. But reverend york is quick to remind her reading her readers that the soul tomb can also be a shelter. Like a womb. It is a place of safety. Of incubation. A place for healing and growing toward our aliveness. She says. Is the seed. Resurrection. This is an excerpt from her meditation called rolling away the stone. This tomb life. Gives us time to feel the pain of the world. Sometimes. It numbs us. And locks us up with our own concern. End-of-season where light and dark balance the day. We seek balance for ourselves. Grateful for the darkness that has nourished us. We push away the stone. And invite the light to awaken us. To the possibilities within us and among us. Possibilities for new life in our cell. And in our world. I have known this kind of resurrection. It is an excruciating and. Exhilarating journey. From deadness. To a new life. For me the jesus story is such a journey. When jesus fled to the desert. When he wept. When he endured the unimaginable cruelty of his last days. We learn what it is like in the soul tomb. When he taught. When he acted out and righteous anger against an unjust system. When he ministered to those who are sick and body and soul. We saw a liveness emerging out of deadness. The story of jesus coming back to life is one of many resurrection stories. You can go back to greek myths you can go back for earlier. You can look at contemporary stories. You will find resurrection stories in many places. One example i like is a buddhist cohen and it fits right in with today's. Service because. The student asks his buddhist teacher. What is the weather. You see even there. The question of the student. Is. What is the way of being. What is the way. And i do believe that the fundamental human quest. Is defined. The way. So the student f what is the way. And the master offers up this response. A dragon. Singing in a withered tree. Now as a student of zen you might spend years. Puzzling over what this is supposed to mean. And even there. You might or might not reach some kind of experiential crisis. That the buddhist call the great. Doubt. I believe many of us. To call unitarian-universalism all religion. Do so because we have known orduno. The great. It is only after incessant living with not knowing. That the student may have a breakthrough. Or come just one step closer to enlightenment. There are no guarantees. It might just be more of the same. I have red roshe john dido laurie's commentary on this cohen. So i can't claim these brilliant insights i think i would be the buddhist. Sitting there for the next 20 years in the next 20 years wondering about the dragon in the wither tree. But the roshe says in the zen tradition. The dragon is an enlightened being. A symbol for buddha nature itself. And a withered tree. Is a symbol of emptiness. It has no life. No apparent characteristics. It is nothing. The void. Perhaps i wonder. The withered tree is the buddhist version of. Jesus in the wilderness. Or jesus in the tomb. But still the student has no answer and finally the master says. Do not mistake a withered tree for a lifeless. Tree. It abounds with life and celebrate each and every spring. With new foliage. The buddhist master challenges us to see that in a withered tree. Out of a parent nothingness. The whole universe. Manifests itself. Spring is the brand is in the branches buried beneath 6. Feet of snow. And life. Is always present. Even with an emptiness. So the wizard tree is both lifeless. And full of life. As for the dragons song. The master tells his student to listen for it. It exists. Everywhere. Mostly we miss it. We're not paying attention. We're preoccupied with our own self-interest. Too busy. Distracted. But the master says the dragonsong doesn't deal with what happened yesterday. Will happen tomorrow. It deals with what's happening now. The dragons song is the heart. Of being. So unless we are absolutely present. In this very moment. Present to the self as it is now. We will not experience. The heart of being. The dragon. Now perhaps i'm dallying with concepts i do not fully understand i own that. But it seems to me. That if we can dare to sit in the soul tomb and wait. Wander in the desert without answers. We might. Just. Possible. Hear the dragons song. It will sound one pure note of clarity. In the midst of lifelessness and life new listener. This i believe. Is what. Salvation is. What resurrection is. It is the still small voice. That eventually. After a seemingly unbearable weight. God saw us out of the tombs of our. Oppression and despair. And brings us back to life again. At least. It almost all my stuff there. There are times when we must wait longer. And even time i believe. When a person might never hear the dragons singing. So. Christian and i decided to explore this concept of what is the way each of us. Having not only the christian version jesus's version but having a little exposure. To the taoist version to shinto version the buddhist version. So when we ask this question. Why do you seek the living among the dead. And then respond he is alive. This is how i have come to understand resurrection. How i have come to believe it's possible. Anyone. For everyone. Because i believe. Resurrection is being alive. Right here. Right now. Do you hear a dragon singing. Resurrection is real. It's a story that. Can be expressed in two words. Life. When. Won't you join me and join together and singing him number six just as long as i have breath.

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20111016_comfort_me_with_apples_john.mp3

When i was a boy of 78. 9 + 10. My family lived in a house at the edge of my father's hometown. This was in wisconsin. In a beautiful county. Famous for its orchards. Of cherries and apples. The area right behind our house. Had been a very old apple orchard. Whoever planted the orchard was long since gone. And the apple trees have been pruned. Portended. Someone has soul. The whole orchard. So that suburban style houses had been built. On a new street along 1/2 of the land. The other half was undeveloped. Part of it still orchard. And the rest open field. With the old apple trees that had been taken down. Keep topping branches. That made wonderful places. The hyde. And seek. It was a child's paradise. For that now lost activity called freeplay. And it was full of imagination and story. We boys and girls made forts and houses in those tumbledown branches. We acted out dramas that we dreamed up by ourselves. We took turns playing director. Assigning parts to one another saying. Now you must be so and so. And you must be so and so. In fact that's what we called our. Play. You must be. One sunday afternoon in october we've been out playing in the orchard and field. It was getting late. We were thirsty. And hungry. Timmy. Who live two doors away from me and was frankly a bit of a bully on the block. Sent one of the girls off to the orchard to pick up some apples. And then we all gathered at the faucet behind bobby's house next door to mine. To wash them off. And get some water for ourselves. Bobby's family was new to the town. Answer the neighborhood. His father appeared at the kitchen doorway. The orchard. Jim answer. He pointed at the girls. That's trespassing. Bobby's father. Pointing at me. As the others ran away. I had no place to go but next door. If you want apples work for him. And then i scurried home 2. To my father. Telling him rather. Tearfully. What bobby's dad did said to me. Drawing my dad said. He's new here. You're no thief. God knows who owns that old orchard behind these houses. It was left for you and your friends. The plan to pick. They gave you. And your friends are bad rap. I think that was the first time i'd ever heard that phrase. And then he reminded me how earlier that summer i had been a worker. An orchard in the county hasn't been able to get enough. Mexican migrants. The pick all of their cherry crop and so we local kids. We're asked to come in and glean the orchard. That means pick the last cherries after the first. Pickers have been there. We got paid $0.05 a pail and i mean a big heavy pale. Climbing up on the ladders. And reaching for those last cherries. My mom was afraid to let me climb the ladders. But dad said i could. So i was careful to prove to them that i could do it without falling. And ironed a whole quarter. Which back then was enough to go to the movies. Believe it or not. Later in life as i study the bible. I found the thief. The apple. Itself gets what my dad called a bad rap. You know the story. About our mythical first parents adam and eve in the garden in the tree. With the fruit. Of the knowledge of good and evil. Some scholars think that the. Prudent question probably wasn't an apple at all. But something a little bit more middle eastern. Like a pomegranate or a citron. But nevermind. Apple. Especially this time of year. Mark. Tells me that his son went off on a preschool. Picking apples and i hope some of you did too. Play speak to me of earth shape and beauty. And abundance. And the garden that we are meant to attend together. And the need to share. So i prefer. The part of the bible called the song of songs. Where the singer says. Sustain me with raisins. Comfort me with apples. For i am sick with love. Sick with love. I don't know about you but sometimes i do feel a little sick. When i see. People frustrated. Or badly treated. And maybe that's why i became a minister. Recently some of the student ministers that i teach at harvard. Have been going down every evening to. To dewey square in downtown boston. They go to support and talk with the protesters who have. Been camping out there for weeks now. They're asking for jobs. Injustice unfair taxes. On those who profited most. Unless corporate control over our democracy. One of the students the other day when carrying a sign saying jesus is with the 99%. And. You can't serve both god and wealth. As young ministers to get dressed up. They wear coats and ties the guys. Dresses or suits the young women. They say that they want the protesters to know that even people in business. Are willing to sit and listen and hear them out. And they take a long hot tea. In thermoses. In the cool evening. And bags of healthy foods like like apples. And among themselves i've heard them joke that it's their unitarian-universalist version of a tea party. Now some religious folks. Think that everyone from the time that they're born. Even an innocent like rosalind is a terrible sinner. But that's not us. It's not that we don't know that some people are greedy. And it's some people hurt others. Or do bad things and all too often get away with it. Or that bad things happen even the good people just this the sun and the rain. Shine and fall on the just and the unjust alike. As it says in the bible. And on apple trees. And autumn fields thank god. What we seek to do. Because did you know the rose. Is related to the apple. What we seek to do is to unfold good. And the true. And the beautiful. In ourselves and in other people. Things that are just as real as the bad side that can or merge. And so we don't go blaming it all on the mythical apple and snake in the man and a woman in a garden. In fact one unitarian universalist a woman named ann schultz. Once wrote a funny little poem which goes this way. I've thought it all over what could it have been. What was it really. Original sin. Was it greed. Disobedience envy. Or lost. Or gluttony arrogance pride breach of trust. Intellectual vanity ambition for glory. Quite seems to fit the plot of the story. When the question was asked. Who disobey. Did each one acknowledge the part he had played. Adam true gentleman right from the start. Lost not a moment apart. Was not i was pleased with my diet. That woman you gave me. She forced me to try it. And eve. What's the serpent. Who promised so much. Set the fruit was sweet tasting. Unpleasant to touch. Of all fruits in the garden the most helpful kind warming the hearts and expanding the mind. And the serpent. I played on their weaknesses true. But the weaknesses. There were created by you. Original sin. Still with us worse luck. The original sin. Was passing the buck. So many politicians. Some protesters. Corporate leaders and even ourselves. All try to tone down but pass. And instead. Each do what we can. To restore the chance in this garden for everyone to work contendeth. And to share its abundance. For sharing its work and it's a good fruits. Is what we are called to do. Or is the rabbi's taught in their first commentary on the bible the mishnah. The world we love. Is sustained by three things. By truth. Which needs to be sought and spoken freely even. To the powerful when they don't want to hear. By justice. Which is found only when we see. But we each gather. Where we didn't so. And yet in this garden we share we all others a chance to eat than to learn. And by piece. Buy shalom. Which is god's most precious gift. And may each of these. Comfortis. And bless us. Ahmed.

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20110116_soul_work_kristen_harper_sermon.mp3

I'm sure john has times when he looks at the clock and says. We don't have much time for the sermon. I'm not a baptist never been about this i've always been a you you. And i know how upsetting it is when church goes over a few minutes. So i try not to keep you too long. On april 4th 1968 the reverend doctor martin luther king junior stepped out onto the balcony of his motel room in memphis. From across the way a single shot was fired. Martin luther king jr was dead. The night before at the national headquarters of the church of god in christ. King speaking on behalf of the sanitation workers confessed. Well i don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter for me now. Because i've been to the mountaintop. And i don't mind. Like anybody i would like to live a long life longevity has its place. But i'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do god's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountaintop and i looked over. And i've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But i want you to know tonight that as a people we will get to the promised land. And i'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything i'm not searing any man mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord. He was 39 years old. 2 years younger. Then i am now. It's impossible for me not to wonder on this day a day after king's birthday and two years after the inauguration of the first man of african descent to the highest office. In the united states. It's impossible not to wonder what martin luther king jr.. Which day today. What was the leader of one of the largest and most respected movements in our history a man who in most states. Would have legally been able to vote in only won the presidential elections. A man who sacrificed his life so that barack obama could have the opportunity. To be considered a candidate. A man whose message of oneness community and justice. Made possible my being here today. What would he say. We have. Overcome. Free at last free at last. What do you say we have reached the promised land. Clearly. We can all see that the election of barack obama to the presidency was not our day of deliverance. Has kenny said i don't know what will happen tomorrow or will happen now we've got some difficult days ahead. And so we did have difficult days. A week before barack obama's inauguration the second largest electronics store circuit city announced that it would close all 567 stores and layoffs 300,000 employees. Text change a governor deval patrick. Announced that mobile services would be cut and in many cases police firefighters and teachers would face layoff. 2 years later. We have not reached the promised land as people continue to lose their jobs homes pensions and benefits. As more of our children face greater violence and neglect. Less access to higher education and fewer social services as the unrest in the middle east gross as our timetable to stop climate change shrinks and as our nation is more / politics and hateful speech and action. I don't think anyone would say. We have reached. The promised land. What have we. Overcome. Have we overcome the racial and ethnic prejudices that have played our society for hundreds of years. One of the most prophetic statement about race relations in the united states. Comes from the introduction to parting the waters the king years 1954 to 1963 by taylor branch. Branch right. Almost as color defines vision itself. Race shapes the cultural i. What we do and do not notice. The reach of embassy. And the alignment of response. Our racial and ethnic backgrounds often determine how we see and experience everything. And how we are seeing. And responded to. I remember after the election hearing white men and women say that the election of barack obama ended racial discrimination. At least towards black men. At the same time i heard black folks say. When the election of a black man to the presidency is not a big deal. We will then mark the end of racial discrimination. Barack obama referred to this phenomenon in his more perfect union address of the anger of black men and women like his minister. The reverend dr. jeremiah wright for whom racism. Continues to define their worldview. Anger. At the lack of economic opportunity and a shame and frustration that comes from not being able. To provide for once family. Which contributes to the erosion of the black family angry about the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods. Parks for children to play in police walking the beat. Regular garbage pickup and building code enforcement. Beeswax. All helped to create a cycle of violence. Blight and neglect. That continue to haunt us. The anger obama called is real powerful and is simply wish it away to condemn it. Without understanding it. Only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exist between the races. Bridges go both ways. There's also anger existing in the white community. As obama asserted most working and middle-class white americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged. By their race. They worked hard all their lives only to see their job shipped overseas. Or their pensions dumped after a lifetime of labor. They're anxious about their futures and feel their dreams slipping away. In an era. Stagnant wages in global competition. Opportunity comes to bcn. As a zero-sum game. In which your dreams. Call me at my expense. So when they are told. The foster children to school across town. When they hear that african-americans. Are getting an advantage and landing a good job or spot in a good college. Because of an injustice they themselves never committed. When they told that their fears about crime and urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudice. Resentment. Bill's overtime. We have not overcome all our racial divisions prejudice and discrimination. And we are not free either one of us from anger and resentment. Of the institutional cultural and personal racism. But we can still reach. The promised land. And when martin luther king jr spoke of the promised land. He was referring to scriptural texts. Genesis 15 18 to 21. Amante the lord made a covenant with abraham and said. To your descendants i give the land from the river of egypt to the great river the euphrates. The land of the canaanites the tennis vice the chad minized the hittite the paradise by the amorites the canaanites. The giga right and the jebusites. The promised land. Was a land flowing with milk and honey. Annette. Ken was not speaking literally. He was speaking about a land where all people are able. Completely up to their full potential. He was speaking about a land where race is a gif. Not a liability. We're children are able to get a good education and learn to love. Each other. Alann. Where everyone can earn a living wage and take care of their families where workers rights are honored and war is not necessary. For all people. Regardless of age or fed. Close. And shelter and safety. And unitarian-universalism we call this promised land. The beloved community. And it's not so different. Our face mission is to create a community of justice equity and compassion a place. Where we embrace the connections that make us one. With all living beings one with the universe. Where everyone is accepted as they are encouraged to grow. We're truly. Apart of a peaceful free. Global community. Beloved community is one in which we can live by our conscience. And where everyone of every race every sexual orientation of every gender of every age and religious background of every physical ability and regardless of emotional challenges where everyone knows. They're in currently worth. The election of barack obama to the presidency did not get us there. Clearly. He is not the messiah. Has president obama cautioned himself in his acceptance speech. This victory alone is not the change received. It is only a chance for us. To make that change. And. That cannot happen if we go back to the way the singing work it cannot happen. Without you. To get to the promised land to create a beloved community to survive this economic and global environmental wilderness. In which we find ourselves. Will take serious so work. Now. When i say so work i'm not the spirit referring to some and corporal essence that leaves your body when you die. I mean. That place where hard and had come together we're conscious and compassion merge. That place where me and ends. And we. Begin. She's so work requires that we focus less on our individuality our individual wants world views and opinions are individual control. And truly be apart of community truly be our brothers and sisters keepers truly love our neighbors as ourselves. We must engage in our communities to show up more gives more listen more to remember that it isn't all about you. It's about us. So work challenges us to recognize how our families race culture sexual orientation gender how our experiences. Have trained us to see others. To judge others as worthy or unworthy. To blame others for where we are so we don't have to be a countable. So work. Requires us to have faith and trust in others. To challenge what is destructive to the whole not just what makes our individual lives difference. It also means something that we used to take to here. It means sacrificing. It means sacrificing some of the individual comforts the extra vacations the latest electronic gadget the extra night out the protect his comfort zone of our little enclaves. It means. Helping to bring more people together. People with whom you don't normally associate and committing to one another to help. Disturbed. To protect. And the care for. You may be surprised to hear me say that martin luther king jr. was not the civil rights movement. He did not change the law. He did not change the world mines. It took thousands of people committed to justice and peace people who gave up their jobs who lost their homes who walked miles sheltered and fed and comforted strangers sacrifice their lives not for one year or even for one decade. What they believe. Together. We can make a change. President barack obama was never to change restart we are the change. We have forgotten that we are the change. The largest most diverse most grassroots efforts elected this young man to lead us not to save us. Only together. Will we get through the wilderness. Only together shall we overcome. Although i was born. A year and 3/4 after martin luther king jr. died. I still wish that he could be alive to witness this moment in time. I think he would have seen tremendous opportunity for justice. As he said in his final address we have been forced to a point where we're going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with throughout history. But the demands did not force them to it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Not tomorrow most of us have the day off. And will use it to rest. To do errands or chores we have put off. The spend time with our children are our partners. Button perhaps tomorrow. We can spend just a moment to let go of our individual pursuits. And come together. To celebrate not only martin luther king's first but his dream. Of oneness community. Justice. His dream of the beloved community. Martin lovemarks. Now i'm so happy that god has allowed me to live in this. to see what is unfolding. I like to am just happy. But i am here. That i am allowed to be sheer at this place and this time. Together. Yes we can. May we have faith in life to do weis planting so that generations to come maybe even more abundantly than we. Maybe bowl. In our living and our loving so that the dreams of today become the realities of tomorrow. So may it be.

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20120311_sense_of_an_ending_john_sermon.mp3

I can almost see them now. Austin & ally crow. They were in their 80s back then. But they'd volunteered to serve on the membership committee of the first unitarian church of dallas helping their new minister. Welcome the newcomers. Who were the rather streaming in for a more. Progressive alternative dallas culture. Rank materialism wrapped in christian piety. Had to offer in the way of spiritual community. We were going around the circle of newcomers. People introduce themselves. Sad little bit about their religious upbringing or lack thereof. About their spiritual journey. What did brought them to us. Austin & ally were the last. Chesapeake. Seated just to my right. Wells fargo. We've been raised in different traditions. He methodist baptist. But we came here to learn how to raise our children. In a way that made spiritual room for everyone. Yes it austin. But now our children are grown. Even our grandchildren have children. So when we come to church now. We listen to john here. So that we can learn how to die. I was. In my early thirties. A young husband. With two daughters than 57. I just gulped. I've been reminded of my job. What did i know. About how to dye well. I still don't know much. But. 30 years on. I know that loving people. Means the inevitability of grief. And i know that no one tradition has wisdom on how. How the last. Part of life. Can best be done. The great psychotherapist never had a client over the age of 35. For home. The essential question. Was not one of developing a more religious outlook. On living and dying. Although i hasten to add that. That outlook might well transcend. The particularities of traditional religion. Judaism example has profound tradition which. Elders right a so-called ethical will. This is what i've learned. Listen to me. Run it by your rabbi however if you write 1. So that you free it from any grapes. Or cynicism or bitterness. Because it supposed to mikuni wait you know. And they don't help those who follow.. Christianity favor deathbed confessions. And as i now face my last few weeks among you is your minister i don't want to get model in about it but the multiple mistakes i've made trying to help you serve the inherent mission of this congregation. To be a community in which we need not think alike to level light. To be a religious center with a. Civic circumference. It does inspire a certain lenten miacova. Today before worship i taught about confucius. And how he and other traditional wisdom teachers worldwide. Taught reverence for the ancestors. Without home god knows we wouldn't be here. Sorting out what indoors. From what has now. Got to meet new conditions and change. Remains. A significant. Spiritual challenge just. Think of loud sue. On how consta. Change itself is or. Anyone. In china. Today. So rapidly. Change it. Hinduism is a colleague recently reminded me calls the final phase of life. Vana prosper. Prosper. It's the forest dwelling phase of life. And it's supposed to be focused on meditation. Study. Mentoring. Maybe some writing. Sounds good to me. Funny i want to spend it in some inner-city somewhere. Not the forest. And then there's buddhism. I sometimes drop that maybe i'll get to be a buddhist in my next incarnation. Because in this one i've had the focus on correcting misunderstandings including my own the western religion. But i do admire the way the dalai lama. Meditates. For at least an hour each day on his own dime. And says that that's why he can laugh. And be happy. And teach and pray for others to work for the happiness of all be. Reminds me a little bit of. Ralph waldo emerson mary. Little whirling dervish of a woman. Who's spiritual practice consisted of sometimes sleeping in her own coffin. Like most modern people i think we prefer to put the exit on living. And on ethics. But the spiritual dimension that these things are done in the face of our mortality. Cannot be ignored. In the swerve how the world became modern author stephen greenblatt tells a great story. About the rediscovery about 600 years ago about the time that our. Are chalice lighting was written. Of a classical text by the roman poet philosopher lucretius. De rerum natura. On the nature of things. Following the greek. Thinker epicurus lucretius argued that all things. Boy this was ahead of his time all things are made up of tiny particles of matter energy. That are only temporarily gathered into entities that we call ourselves. Our loved ones. Our community. All things including. Our own lives eventually end. He pointed out poetically so let's. Face fat is in the very nature of things. Face it with equanimity. Without anxiety. By enjoying life. Fully and calmly. While we can. And promoting its enjoyment. It's foliage. Brothers. And to make the most of it while we can. And to help others do the same. Seems to rebels and some traditionalist alike a lot more like carnival than lent. More like. Purim then passover. And yet when i look in the bible itself i find very similar ideas. From siesta keys to the sermon on the mount i said in my heart. Is testing us to show us that we are but animals. Writes the preacher in ecclesiastes. For the fate of animals and humans is the same as one dies so does the other. And i saw that there is nothing better than that all should enjoy. Before we end. For who can bring them to see what will be after. Although there's the rub to subordinate short-term enjoyment for longer-term consequences. Not only for oneself but for others. Which may need something like a religious or god side perspective. Yeah don't worry about tomorrow said rabbi jesus to his disciples. Tomorrow will bring worries if its own. Today's trouble. Is enough for today. So do not judge. But you may not be judged. Which may be partly why we're gathered here taking time. Slowing down today. Setting aside a precious hour like this one to remind ourselves of just how very basic. And universal that need is. To take time out of time. While we have the time. Our ancient sages meditated profoundly on time. And the search for truth. On history and humanity. And then talk forms of mythic timeless wisdom and time transcending spiritual practice that shaped enduring disciplines. As varied as sophie dancing and scientific study. They conjured up varied forms of courage. To confront embodiments of human self-congratulation. And pseudo-religion. A gandhi in front of the british empire with the non-violence of its own jesus. Dietrich bonhoeffer. The courageous nd nazi christian. On the other hand called for what he called religionless christianity. And died confronting the neo-pagan nazis over there deep animus. Toward god's people the jews. He wanted to teach aryan sympathy. Over self-assertion. And a universalizing spirituality of compassion. There is not a religious tradition on this planet that can't be turned into something self-serving. We know that. Not any around or israel not in the bible belt and not even frankly here at first parish in needham unitarian universalist. Yet it hardly justifies us. In an ultimate cynicism. Toward all things religious and spiritual. I'll grant you skepticism. That i share. But not any license for ultimate easy. Despair over the human enterprise. But searches for. Enduring list. Wife. My friends is good. That was supposed to nice jewish boys from. Right here in needham. Put it when they turned it into a major clothing brand. Life is good it's better than death better. Being better than them. So why do we spiritually forget this so often. Not sure. Could it be that we now use the ideals of our implicit humanistic universalistic. Religion to judge all present behavior. Setting impossible standard maybe so. Because waldo. Wife is basically good. We judge. Life rather harshly ourselves. Because here's what's happened. As many enchantments predicted. We now know more than is entirely good for us. We forget. As plato said we would. Once writing and religion were invented. Endtime the shrimp. The speed it up. The creator is no longer so much the eternal. Is an antique. That anxious pietist hope may save me or mine. Either today or tomorrow. And it's the same with most of us who try to stay in the same safe. Short-term territory. Of being just anti-religious skeptics. How much of human history and its tragedies do we really understand. Or will we comprehend before we ourselves in. How much are the spiritual resilience. Or the faith that it takes to overcome life's disappointments. Have we managed to embody. Well maybe not as much as we currently think. We live in time. Does julian barnes rights. In a sense of an ending. It holds us. And moses. I know perhaps i'm projecting on his story the. End of my relationship with all of you. At least as your minister. In. What's 7 more weeks. But who's counting. Some of you. May want to say goodbye the way his character veronica the narrator of this. Short novel says to the protagonist tony webster. You just never got it did you. About me that is. The plot of the book is short. But it's revealing. It's about what veronica never dared to reveal. 2toni. And therefore what led her to say you just don't get it to you. And you never will. Some of you have been so open with me. And it has been so precious. And for those of you that i have. Gotten to know you will go with me. And for those of you. Who i still would like to know. More deeply. And you're real human. The time is short. But it is real. This month and next time on an interface panel about revelation. In judaism christianity islam and unitarian universalism. It's co-sponsored by andover newton seminary and. Houses of faith of those for traditions in brookline. And this is the last thing i want to say to you today. You may never fully get it. About the path in faith. And the spiritual resilience. How's the person. Sitting next to you. Or the one. Going home with you. Because we are all in part a secret one to another. So forgive me if i haven't seemed as understanding or is open. Of your struggle toward meaning. As i might have been as your minister. There is a huge spiritual conflict in today's world. Over which none of us can claim any complete mastery. It has to do with how brief our lives and memories. An understanding still are. Juxtaposed with the need. For deeper and longer term compassion and wisdom. It is all too easy. Dismiss all organized religion is outmoded. It is all too necessary. To see it as part of the continuing. Human spiritual struggle. Simply to thrive. And to survive. The fact that we are alive now and you'd have to face the partiality of the wisdom we've acquired. Should make us all paws more humbled. Placing our personal perspectives in our finite understandings. Before the altar of the infinite in the enduring. Just last week progressive protestant historian and theologian dorothy butler bass. Spoke to tom ashbrook. On his. Npr program. Onpoint. I called as i would for a new reformation. That would move religion beyond belief. And creed. Toward communities like this one the transcend conventionality. While still seeking in the face of real human finitude. Wisdom that indoors. Religion as we've known it. And its traditional forms may well be died. But something new is also always beginning. Out of the particular religious traditions even that of the church as historically known. New spiritual forms are now rising to life. In our lives and in the life we share together. May we continue to be united spiritually. In covenant with one another. And with that which transcends us all. Seeking and finding. Defending and bearing witness to this enduring and revivifying truth. That we remain what we have always been. Children of one great eternal mystery. And all mysteries in part to one another. Also known partially in time. Sisters and brothers. Despite all our differences. Members of one great grateful humble human family. Finite and deluded. Yet potentially caring. Potentially. Tandoori. So may it be.

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20121212_dickens_katie_lee_reading_sermon.mp3

A merry christmas uncle. Bah humbug. What do right have you to be merry your poor enough. What right have you to be so dismal you're rich enough. Don't be cross uncle. What to see you but a time for paying bills without money. A time for finding yourself a year older and not an hour richer. If i could work my will. Every idiot would be boiled in his own pudding and buried with us states on holly and his heart uncle. There are many things from which i might have derived good by which i have not profited. Christmas among the rest. The kind forgiving charitable pleasant time. The only time i know of in the long calendar of the year when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely. And to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave. And not another race of creatures bound on their own journeys. Therefore uncle that has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket i believe that it has done me good it will do me good and i say god bless it. And i said bah humbug. Good day uncle. Yeah what is it mr. scrooge is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute who suffer greatly at this present time many thousands are in want of common necessities. Hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts sir. Are there no prisons. Funny of prism star. And workhouses are they still in operation they are still like i wish i could say they are not. A few of us are endeavoring to raise money to buy the poor some meat and drink and means of warm. What shall i put you down for. Nothing. I can't afford to make idle people merry i support the prisons in the workhouses and they cost enough. Let those who are badly off go there. Many can't go there and many would rather die. Well then they had better do so. Building fewer mouths to feed. I suspect most of you know the familiar scene from a christmas carol where. The humble cratchit family prepares for christmas dinner. It reflects life as charles dickens nuit in 1843 when he wrote the story at the age of 31. Here's a brief reminder of that thing. The ghost invite scrooge to look in on the cratchit family it's christmas dinner preparations. And at first scrooge's shocked at what he sees as such extravagant. How can for cratchit afford a four-room house on fifteen bob a week. Gradually though scrooge begins to see the situation a little more clearly. 8 people. Live in those for crowded room. And virtually everyone is dressed in twice turned and threadbare clothes. And yet it was. Well festive. The mother and her girls are brave and ribbons while bob himself was darned and brushed up to look seasonable. The older daughter martha is late. She's almost always late from her job as an apprentice at the milliner's because she works long hours and rarely get the day off. But scratch it is just arriving home from church carrying tiny tim on his shoulders. And of course the boys wearing his iron braces on his leg and carries a small crush. How did tim behave mrs. cratchit ask. Hunter husband is eager to tell her what happened. He told me coming home that he hoped the people saw him in church because because he's a cripple and it might be pleasant for them to remember that upon christmas day who made the lame beggars walk. And the blind men. That's what screwed saw. A poor family. That look happy. Grateful. And contented. Now fast-forward to a contemporary christmas story. Mr. brickman is amazing. Or he was. He lost his job two years ago. His wife worked as a bookkeeper at the local insurance company but she lost her job 15 months ago. For a while she searched. But now she can't even look for a job. She's facing serious and life altering surgery. After less invasive treatments have failed to treat her debilitating illness. The young couple has a vibrant eight-year-old son who loves the outdoors and hope. He'll grow up to be a mason just like his dad. Brickman is just another able-bodied guy without a job. He takes odd jobs when he can but with the economic situation the way it is he's been even unable to secure a job. In construction. Forget unemployment benefits. The family is drowning in debt. The pickup jobs don't pay even the rent. Now he's staring at this winter's heating bill. We never dreamed this could happen to us she's fast we always believed that if you work hard and you're honest things will work themselves out. But in their case. Things aren't working out so well. He points to the commendation he received from the secretary of homeland security for his work as a volunteer. Helping the rebuilding effort in new orleans. Following hurricanes katrina and rita. It applied. On the plaque. Sacrifice. Perseverance and compassion that exemplifies the spirit and commitment has dedicated professional. He looks away. It doesn't mean a thing now. And it sure doesn't find a grocery. For the first time in their alive. The brickman. Are asking for help. It feel awful. They've always been the ones to step up. Brickman's live in my town and in yours. They made belong to this congregation or the one down the street. They are your brother. They are my sister. There was a time when they were too proud to ask for help. Now. They can't afford to be proud. They say that charles dickens literally worked himself to death. Believing he could help his stories would promote moral solutions to social ills. He himself worked tirelessly to support a whole wide range of charitable causes. Raising funds for soup kitchen. Housing association. Prison reform. Hospital. Adult education and disabled artist. A year before he wrote a christmas carol dickens traveled to the united states and chronicled in america notes. His disillusionment. With our country's institutions. Most particularly slavery. In massachusetts. He met ralph waldo emerson and william ellery channing. Then the leading figure in american unitarianism. 1 scholar road. Dickens interest in unitarianism was virtually the only enthusiasm he managed to bring back with him i'm damaged. At the end of his trip. Once home. He joined the little portland street chapel in london and wrote to a friend. I have carried into effect an old idea of mine and joined the unitarians. Who would do something for human improvement if they could. And to practice charity. And toleration. Mister dickens how i wish i could say we have realized your dream. The truth is we going to therrien universalist in the u.s. today are still dreaming it. Still working hard for it. Still promoting moral solution much of the time. It seems. Still making precious few changes in social whales. We love firm and promote justice equity and compassion and human relations. Weehoo envision world community with peace and liberty and justice for all. Mister dickens. We too. Sometimes feel dispirited. And dissolution. So i brought this. Even hotel to us this morning. And i wonder this how how can we hear this popular tale. And not be disheartened. In a season that. Shines its light on hope and joy. 169 years later the disparities are still here. If anything the chasm is wider. Deeper. Broader. Yes we know that there were disparities long before dickens real to change them and that they will likely continue. Inequity. Inhumanity. Injustice. It seems these no no boundaries. We find them around the world. In the wealthiest nations. And in the forest one. 7 years ago michael timko. Wrote about what motivated dickens to write his now classic tale. Dickens he says shows it is possible to experience a conversion. Not religious one necessarily. But a personal regeneration that leads one to help others. And dickens hoped that. Through committed and tireless work. Work such as his own. The entire youtube and community would have. Such a transformative change of heart. And everyone would be converted. From a harsh. Complacent. Selfish worldview. 21 of love. Hope. And charity. Well. Did you slog through that election rest rhetoric only to find. Big surprise of perched again on the edge of a fiscal cliff. And what are we arguing about. Jobs. Taxes and no taxes. Entitlement. Safety-net. I haven't seen much evidence of. This being the year of the conversion. Plenty of social welfare and precious few changes. Last year about this time i read that thickens great-great-grandson believed his grandfather would stanton would have stood with those in the occupy movement. I'm pretty confident dickens would certainly want to get folks back to work. And ensure a fair wage and a decent safe working his addition. I'm guessing he might be beyond delighted by the likes of programs like social security and medicare. And i suspect you'd be over the moon about a push for some kind of comprehensive healthcare for all citizens. Imagine how he's marvel at these kind of benefit. And how the. How to change the quality of so many why. I do wonder though. As i do it my own dining room table. Once he began to understand the complexities we now face. Are so many difference and complicated reasons. Some of them born and circumstance. Sonneborn agreed. I wonder where dickens would stand on what to do now. Now that we find ourselves unable to sustain the dream of continuing to fund these programs like i'd levels. That weed wants promise. And expect. So many things he could barely imagine in his day and yet in our day like his. Till the chasm between those who have and those who have not. Rose. Every day. Conversion experiences are hard to come by. Even in this most festive season. The want the suffering the need is bellowing to be address. And we live in the richest of nations in the world. So we've been talking about our suffering or our knees pale in comparison. To those in other parts of the world. So i know it's not very christmassy but. It's me. And suffering. Where on the shining a light. This morning. We are in dickens words called to do something for human improvement. It is our faith our unitarian universalist a. That leads us to seek moral solutions to grave injustice has in society. So that would be you and me. The ones of us with a little cushion or maybe a big one. The ones with us living from paycheck to paycheck. And the ones of us who were quietly living in the statistics that would label us. Poverty. What we do. Is a matter of personal choice. To me that we do something. Doesn't feel like a choice. Whether it's giving time or money. Everything. Makes a difference. It may not change the global statistics. But it will make a difference to someone. My guess is that. Most of us are doing something. Our something this month maybe a lot of something. It's as much a part of the season as evergreens and eggnog. But are we doing this something we can as often as we can throughout the rest of the year. So often i hear myself or one of you say something like this. I want to do something i love to do something. Honestly. I don't know where to begin. So what the dickens was scrooge trying to tell us. The second ghost show scrooge miners who labour in the bowels of beer. And then lighthouse keepers and semen on a story stormy night. And as scrooge pondered what a solemn thing it was to move through the lonely darkness over and unknown biff. He saw something strange protruding from the coast road. And the ghost opened his robe and there were. Two children. Brexit. Frightful.. Was a boy and a girl. Yellow and neither. Ragged. Dallas. But. Prostate prostrate to in their humility. Scrooge was a tall spirit are they yours. They are man that the spirit and they cling to me. Appealing from their fathers. This boy. Is ignorance. And the girl. Is want. Have they no refuge or resource. Screw down. Undermount and the belt strap midnight. And the ghost. Said only that. Are there no prisons. Are there no workhouses. Friends this is the call of our face. Not only at this time of year but. All through the year. And yes. When we look for something to do and when we do it. We will sometimes see up close and personal the grim reality. But we will also see possibilities. And we will also see beauty. What will each of us do well. And what will we do as together as a congregation. Dickens died trying. And while i don't want any of you to be in a hurry to die. I hope we will too. How can we live. And live faithfully. If we don't keep trying. What's the dickens was scrooge trying to tell us. Marley's ghost set it right at the beginning. Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business charity mercy forbearance and benevolence. Where all my business. Dealings of my trade were but a drop of water. In the comprehensive ocean. Of my distance. Let's get down to business.

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20130428_community_katie_lee-1.mp3

One person trying to discern if now is the time to become a member of this congregation asked. Besides being able to vote what exactly is. Benefit of becoming a member. Good question. What exactly does it mean to be a member of a congregation like this one. As i've already said signing the membership book is an important decision because. With your signature you are making a deliberate. Commitment. To belong to this congregation. And yes. The signing the book does come with benefits. It also comes with expectations. Both yours and ours. After years of trying to describe both the expectations and benefits. Of membership. I've come up with the 5 c's. Community. Commitment covenant. Call and challenge. So let's start with community. First parish in needham just like every other unitarian universalist congregation. Is more than a club of freethinkers. People often ask why we you use need to get together if we don't share a common belief. Why not worship on a mountaintop or stay at home with sunday paper. And my answer to that. At least in part is community. We need each other. We find wholeness in relationship. We come together by choice. Our friendship grows and deepens out of creative exchange. And out of that exchange out of relationship something new emerges. When you go into the parish hall today and see what you have told the transition team you will see. That you report. Set the number one factor that brings you here and keeps you here. Is community. You'll see that reflected in the information. That they've provided. And they're inviting you to not only look at that information but to continue to engage with it. In ways that they'll tell you about. In the parish hall. In the report called belonging which i quoted from at the beginning. The commission on appraisal sees a congregation like this one. As a laboratory. A great experiment. Where people bring their life experiences. Responses. Feelings hopes and dreams. And put them all together into something. That. Creates meaning. Not just meaning. For each individual. But also meaning for others. And for the community as a whole. The authors of that report conclude. People seek out a congregation because they need a place to belong. To be rude. To work out the questions of value and meaning. And to have a spiritual life. Is that why you're here. James luther adams of famous. Attempt twentieth-century unitarian universalist. Scholar. Describes this desire to belong. As a quote-unquote voluntary association. We are a free people. Exercising free will. And making the decision intentionally. To create this congregation. So that we may come together for worship. Fellowship. Education and service. It is our choice. No one is making us do it. Be honest about how hard it really is. The diverse and inclusive congregation that we envision is not always the converse. Congregation that we are. Building authentic human community is not easy. And like any relationship that requires attentiveness and sometimes hard work. To sustain and deepen its connection. So we turn to my second c. Commitment. What are we committing to you when you sign the book and because. There is an and. What are you committing to us. Every year. At least one or two people tell me something like this. I'm seeking a spiritual community. But i don't want anything to do with organized religion. And when i probed deeper. They tell me that they want to place that will meet their needs. But not place that will put demands on them. Usually is coarse what they mean by that is demands that they believe a certain something worth donate a certain amount of money or volunteer a certain amount of time. For these people i have both good and bad news. First the good news. Here they may find spiritual community and here they may indeed find a place that will meet their needs. Here they certainly will find a place that does not impose. A set of beliefs on them. However. If i'm honest with them and i always am. They will not find here a place that has no expectations of them. Every congregation like ours bestows something and ask something. That's what community is all about. Every community expects. Some measure of accountability. What each member can do is a matter of personal. Choice. Put for this community to meet you or needs you need to find your own way. To be a part of it. And that brings me to covenant. We are not accredo body. We do not recite. Or believe in or adopt a creed. We are up covenanted. And this means quite simply. That were not united by a common beliefs but by common commitments. Mutual promises. Two-way agreements. What are the covenants that unites you asked well. There are of course our unitarian universalist principles and purposes. And they are the latest in a long series of statements. That attempt to articulate our shared commitment. And so we covenant to affirm and promote these lofty ideal. The inherent worth and dignity of every person. A pure and participatory democracy. A global community based on equity. Justice. And compassion. Lofty indeed. I wonder how many of you struggle with these principles regularly. Because i'll tell you. I do. I mean who am i'm lost can say. Without any reservations at all. That she believes in the inherent worth and dignity of absolutely every person. Really. Hitler. Osama bin laden. A perpetrator of incest or sexual abuse come on. And i find that the recent news in our city. Offers a complex. Challenge. To affirm this principle. In light of the bombings at the marathon finish line. We affirm the inherent. Worth and dignity of every. Can you picture those boys as infants in their mothers arms. Can you fathom what it's like to be denied the right. To your ethnic. Identity. To flee what you hope will be a newfound freedom. Only to discover new. And unanticipated challenges. The question i have is can we ever begin to understand the complex forces. That led them. To do what they did. Yes. Those two boys made heinous. Awful. Ugly. Hertz. Choices. And yes. They were born. With inherent. As unitarian universalist we try to live by principles. That challenges. Everyday. And who can in this. Global climate of violence. Hold fast to a lofty dream of global community as if it's. Just around the corner if only were very very good. It's not likely that even at our very best. We can actually attain these principles. And it's certainly unrealistic to think that. We can do so on a sustained basis. And yet. As an association. As members of this congregation. As unitarian universalist. We have agreed to affirm and promote these principles. Until or unless. We decide to change them. If we take that seriously. It's at all. Order. But our idealism grounded in realism. Are covenants are promises that hold us to a standard high enough. To help us transcend our all-too-human realities. I suspect. There's no one here who has not experienced the shock. Of disillusionment when the reality. Sales even to come close. To the ideal. Interesting lee that's commission's report on belonging suggests that living with. And through disillusionment. Plays a crucial role. In developing trust. Loyalty. And commitment. Living with and through disillusionment. Plays a crucial role. In developing trust. Loyalty. And commitment. And since many of us. Here. Are living with or have lived with and through our own disillusionment. I asked you to grasp. The notion. That it may play a crucial role. In your spiritual and emotional. Develop. And short. Sometimes the pain is. Part of the healing. Last year the members of first parish here adopted a new covenant. You all said it. Together this morning. It's easy enough to say the words. It's hard enough it's harder to live them. But in this congregation these are promises you make to one another. These are the expectations that you have of one another. The ideals to which you hold each other accountable. And they are ideal. Because not a week goes by that we aren't called to accept each other's imperfections. To reconcile our differences. To forgive and be forgiven. The comfort and be comforted. To love. And beloved. Because. That's what authentic human community is all about in fact that's what life is all about. When i first read that report on belonging i stumbled across. A snippet of the cambridge platform. A statement that articulated the covenant of the so-called. Standing order congregations in massachusetts in the 1600s. First parish. Datum from which this congregation sprouted. Was among those congregations. The standing order the cambridge platform reads in part. Church members may not remove or depart from the church and so from one another as they please. Nor without just and weighty caught. But ought to live. And well together. So saying the covenant and making the commitment. Is as simple. And as difficult. As that. We are called to live. And dwell. Together. But i think we're called to do even more than that and called is my next category. I believe we're called to find our place in this community. And i also believe that we're called to grow beyond our own particular perspective. We're called to live out our values. Were called to serve the larger community. And if we're truly committed to this bold experiment. We are called to stretch. Change and to transform our own lives as well as that of this congregation. And even the greater community beyond these meetinghouse well. Because that's how we grow community. And that's how we change the world. I know it's losty. And it's definitely not easy. Because you see we are called into covenant with people who are different. In their personal experiences and needs. And in community we seek independence. And community. Freedom. And commitment. And perhaps most important of all we strive to become more than we are now. Define wholeness. Healing. Shalom. So what is the benefit of become. Becoming a member. I hope you guys to join today don't have any reservations after this. Here's my take. Membership offers us the opportunity to become more whole. More committed to one another. And to that which is the ultimate worth. More grounded. And yes. More profoundly. Human. Membership is an evolving commitment. And participation. And finally. I believe. It offers the possibility of transformation. And. Membership also poses an interesting paradox. In a congregation like this one we do not join because we expect others. To change to be more like us. And yet. We are open to the possibility. That we as well as the community itself will change. Because we are part of the whole. I think it's obvious the challenge is apparent. If we are to have such a community for ourselves. We must live with the creative tension. That comes from sharing communal commitments. While at the same time. Welcome and accept. Individual differences. What you have here is a dynamic. Growing system. It is always. In the process. Of becoming. Commitment and call are sometimes forged through conflict. Finding the book makes it official. And here. That means community. Commitment. Covenant. Call. And challenge. It means. Participation however that looks and feels to you. It means. The longing.

uuneedham_org

20120729_paczulla_prayer_sermon.mp3

I want to ask you to take a moment and do something for me. I'm going to ask you to think. About the first time you ever said a prayer. Close your eyes if you need to. Take a minute. Navigate answer maybe never and that's fine. Your life. Coherently are not silent or spoken aloud. I want you to reach way back. And think about the first set of circumstances. Whatever led you to pray. What was happening in that moment. What kinds of things were going on in your life. At the time. What did you say. Who were you praying for. Who were you praying to. I can recall my first prayer quite clearly. About a decade ago. During my first year of college. I prayed. With conscious intent. For the first time in my life. Now i wasn't trying out a new spiritual practice or interested in learning how to pray from something specific theological perspective. I just would have came over me. Because i was scared. About a month after the attacks of september 11th. 2001. I found myself on board an international flight. Leaving from newark new jersey. I was 18 years old. I wasn't religious. I didn't profess any specific kind of beliefs in god. But i started to panic a little bit on that flight. What happened on september 11th. The horrific images that. Crawled across our tv and computer screens. And even more horrific images i'd imagined in my own mind. A blast moments on the plains. A clap hands. A phone calls. Is it filled me with a new kind of fear and dread in the weeks that followed the attacks. And i couldn't help but think about them. As i boarded my flight. I couldn't get them out of my head. And so is the rest of the passengers. Buckle their seatbelts in the flight attendants review the safety instructions and we finally turned onto the runway. I found myself beginning to pray. I prayed silently. Internally. I prayed for god to protect the lives of all the people on that plane. I was so desperately afraid. Can i scan the backs of all the heads of the passengers poking up the seats in front of me. Looking at each one giving each their moment. I remember that i asked god to think about what was in store for each of these lives. Des peres all from what seemed at that time a very real potential for disaster. I pray that god would spare us so that we can follow the paths that we were destined to follow so that we could have children or write books or get married. Care for friends. And live out the rest of the lives that we were meant to live. You might be familiar with the saying there are no atheists in foxholes. Well i guess there are no atheists on passenger planes a month after 9/11 either. We landed safely. But the fact that i had trade. And i prayed that prayer. Really threw me for a loop. I wondered. Who was i praying to. Did i really believe in a god. Could and would intervene in the mechanics of the world and make sure my specific plane stayed in the sky. Just because i asked for it. Moreover did i believe in my own prayer logic that god had actually destin all of the people on that plane for specific deeds and encounters in their lives. And it was in god's interest somehow to see all of these destiny's fulfilled. What does prior mean. What does it do. For tradition doesn't present a straightforward answer to that question. Prayer is a spiritual practice. Which we as unitarian universalist have inherited. From a christian ancestors. But like everything else that's come from our christian heritage. We've changed the practice of prayer over time. We had to wrestle. With what it means to pray today. As a union faith community. Deeply influenced cuz we are by rationalism and humanism and science. And welcoming a diversity of viewpoints on both the nature and the existence of god. How do we pray. Alone or together. If we can't decide who were praying to. In his book simply pray. The human aster eric walker wickstrom. Invites us to think of prayer a little differently. Scan devices to think of prayer not as a petition to a specific being or deity. But as an opening of oneself to the depths of life. Your own life. And the greater life. Of which we are all apart. He goes on to say whatever else it might be. A conversation with the divine. And internal dialogue with your own inner wisdom. A practice of calming and centering. Prayer can be understood. As a movement in. And through the mystery of life. At the end of my first prayer. And following its apparent answer in the form of our safe landing. I was filled with questions about the meaning of what had just happened. I was praying none of those questions were present. None of those questions mattered. Perhaps it seems i'm thinking of me. Reaching out beyond myself. To communicate. With that mystery of life. To communicate with the uncertainty of my future. Tiana shortness of my safety. And well-being. In that moment. I wasn't really thinking much at all. I was moving through that mystery. Not attempting to rationalize it. Or control it. But realizing for a moment. My utter helplessness in that situation. And the reality of my dependence upon forces beyond my control. I think it was the overwhelming desire to accept. That truth. Of my dependence. That let me the price for the very first time. It's that same desire that has kept me coming back to prayer. Whatever prayer is. Wherever it is going. Or whatever it is doing. In the real world. It's fundamentally a way of reaching out to make a connection. We reached out. From the internal monologue of our own thoughts. And the boxton places of our minds. Into some kind of dialogue. I'm not sure who were talking to. Or what is on the other end of that line of communication. Except to say that i am sure it's not a dialogue with another human being. And therefore it is somehow categorically different than any dialog we experience with other human beings. But it is a dialogue. And address to another. It's a reaching out to that mystery of life that we know is there. That accounts for all the things that are unexplainable and uncontrollable in human terms. Prayer is how we communicate. With that mystery. Now we may not find the communication terribly satisfying. If what we expect is the typical mode of human response. We pray. Specifically because we know there will be no satisfaction. We often pray in the moments. When we recognize that our sense of absolute control. And direction over our lives. Is false. We pray when a friend is dying. We know that there's nothing we can do. We pray when the sun rises again. In the morning. And we know that we did nothing to cause it. We realize that we live in a world of power control. And as we pray we admit it. We enter fully into it. We surrender to an interaction. So we can't understand. Because we know that this vision of absolute control in a maddeningly. Unpredictable world. Is a false idol. Answer prayer in this sense is a mirror reflection of the life we actually lead everyday. With so many forces and factors and wills impinging upon the circumstances of our reality. Prayer is a way to speak back. To acknowledge. And engage with those powers. Rather than allowing them to continually frustrate. Or terrify us. Author michelle richards. Recently posted an article online called yuu parents should help their children pray. And if she argues for the value of leaving the physical obvious and logical behind at least temporarily. In the face of the. Seemingly random circumstances of our lives. She says prayer allows the expansion of our minds. And the suspension of ordinary thought. It allows you to enter the world as it actually works. Sometimes clearly logical cause and effect. But sometimes devastatingly unfair. Or blessedly undeservedly faithful. Or just unknown. Uncertain. There's another first prayer that i remember quite clearly. And that is the first time i ever prayed with another person. I was living in washington dc. Working at a nonprofit organization with a woman named terry. Terry attended. A black pentecostal church. And she was quite outspoken about her face at a time when i had only tentatively. Began attending our local uu congregation. We developed a relationship. Where i felt comfortable enough telling her my doubts about god. And when she asked me to pray with her one day. I let out all my concerns. About sharing her kind of prayer. How i wasn't sure god existed. How if i did believe in god it probably wasn't the same kind of god. How i was pretty sure god didn't answer course i know that so many people do not get what they pray for. Tere sath patiently. And listen to me. When i was done with my little speech. All she did was repeat her question. Bentley. Do you want to play with me. So i did. We come together in a religious community. As unitarian universalist to make some sense of the all-in wonder. And the devastation of the fear and longing that we experience in our lives. But i will never forget the generosity of spirit. In our religious community of 2. When i told her that i could not make sense of those things. About mystery in the same way that she had. And yet there she was. Willing to enter it by my side. Anyway. I'll never forget. What it meant to me. To realize that i could be prayed for. That i was worthy of an attempt at communication. Divine. And so i think that this ancient. Practice of prayer may actually be particularly appropriate in our covenant feel safe. Where we don't share one conception of where prayers go or to whom their address and i'm not suggesting we should. As unitarian universalist were free to figure out what prayer means for each of us. But when we come together we have an opportunity. To reach out and show that we understand each other's journey. Through the confusion and complexity of life. If we are willing to pray together. We are willing to demonstrate. But each of us is worth these fumbling attempts. To communicate with a world we do not control. And can't fully understand. A world from which we both want. And have received so much. It can be hard to conceive of prayers being offered. To any being or entity besides the god to whom we were first taught to pray. Has reverend wickstrom says. Sometimes we imagine that we must either use the terms and conditions others have set down. Or we must reject the whole idea of a spiritual life. We know that this is a false choice. Those names and understandings wickstrom says we're all the best attempts of people to express the experiences they had. As unitarian universalist were free to use those traditional understandings of god in prayer. If they're meaningful for us. So we can also make our own new best attempts. And in the end. It matters less that we agree on to whom we pray. And more that we show each other. We are worth laying down are false idols of control. That we are each worth an attempt. At communication. With the mystery.

uuneedham_org

050522_John_Buehrens--The%20pillars%20of%20Islam.mp3

uuneedham_org

20111023_hold_on_to_what_you_must_do_lucas_sermon.mp3

I recently noticed. The good people at youtube have begun running ads before i get to watch videos. Two before i get to watch the latest 30-second viral video about the lady with 700 cats. I have to sit through 10 insufferable seconds of being sold things that i do not really need. I guess it's a fair trade. One of these ads recently caught my eye. It featured a person looking out over the ocean at a sunset. A voice that sounded vaguely indigenous intoned. Your life is your own. I think it was meant to be profound. Which was of course. Undercut by the sale of butter or jeans or mascara that immediately followed. But it is an american dream. Isn't it. Our lives are our own. Our destiny. Is in our hands we control. The future. The problem i have with this vision isn't its falsehood per se. The problem that i have with this vision is that it is profoundly on. Fulfilling. I think it leads to a life that is quite. Empty in fact. That's because i don't believe. That we find meaning. When we do the things that we want. I think that we find meaning when we give ourselves away. To something that is. Greater than us. When we discover our calling to serve others. That is indeed the meaning of a vocation or a calling. It is that which you must do because it's doing is the only thing. That brings you. To life. We do it because it calls to us from a holy place from the very ground of our being. Today. I am going to share the good news that each of us can find and hold on to a calling. In this. Life. No vocation can sound like a very serious and wendy concept. The funny thing is that finding one's vocation is often quite freeing and joyful. It is sometimes found in the midst of difficulty that's true and it does frequently lead us towards uncomfortable and challenging situations. The discovery itself is pure. Joy. When i served as the youth advisor here at the first parish in needham. I led the group on its second trip to new orleans. In a city that had been devastated by the hurricane. I got to work with some use that went house-to-house. We did maintenance for the elderly. I remember sweat in the youth size as they painted andrade. The faint smell of raw is aching arms lifted piles of junk. Discarded by the storm. I remember looking down the street to see one house after another with scattered shingles and broken windows in piles of debris. They all needed the same. Work. Most we could not possibly. Get to. A child into the car with a use after that experience. I was so exhausted that all i wanted to do was collapse into the thin foam mattress back at the volunteer center. And it was at that point. That one of the 10th graders here spoke up. I want to come and live here and work after i graduate. I can't even imagine going back. After this. I glanced over at that youth and didn't see a trace of exhaustion in her eyes. I only saw cutter fulfillment. And determination. Now i don't know if any of the youth from needham move down to new orleans upon graduating. But there was a spark of recognition and many of them. They felt the tug of a vocation from the very ground of there being. From that very place that some of us would call spirit. Or god. It was a calling to make a difference for people in serious need. The harder the work became. The more fulfillment and meaning. They found. The mortuary they found. At its heart. It's funny to think about joy being associated with hard physical labor but i have seen it. It reminds me of a quotation from a buddhist teacher. We already know how. To enjoy ourselves. It is when we are enjoying ourselves that we are productive and we contribute. This line we already know how to enjoy ourselves is perhaps the clearest mark i can think for identifying one. Location. What is it that wakes you up. That makes joy come alive in your heart. Answer that question. And you have found your. Vocation. Kayla northcutt. One of the country's best preachers says that vocation often stirs a deep response within us. It's so deep that it becomes a need. Perhaps it is an etude. To express oneself with beauty and creativity. Orin need help others find resources that they require. I need to discover new truths that assist humanity. I need help others discover compassion and goodness in a world that often lacks. It becomes so persistent that it cannot be ignored. Once we say yes to it. We are freed into a life. A joy. Adeeb yes. From the very ground. Of our being. There is a historical dimension to vocation. It has traditionally been seen as a calling that. Friedman from the status of his or her birth. For most of western history. People were defined by the status of their birth. Peasants and serfs could choose to be nothing other than peasants and serfs. An interesting lead the nobility were similar similarly down by the status of their heredity. The church was the one part of society that maintain freedom and disregard. Men and women could leave the station of their birth and enter the monastic or priestley wife. Whether their pedigree was noble or humble. They had the freedom. To leave it behind. Now the protestant revolution change this idea in an important way. It opposed the idea that location men entering only amonos tacora priestley. Wife. Martin luther didn't abolish the priesthood here. Instead he opened it to people of every profession in status. His pronouncement of the prophet hood and priesthood of all believers meant that. Everyone. Absolutely everyone. Has a vocation. To discover. This vision. This vision has gone largely unheeded. I don't think that many traditions protestant or otherwise have seriously engaged vocational discernment. In fact in his become so secularized that people often associated simply with finding a job. Rather than finding the work that gives one's life meaning. Most questions about vocational training nowadays revolve around dollar figures and educational programs and skill sets. Finding once meaning or purpose has become a superfluous afterthought. Now there is an element of privilege here and i do acknowledge that. I know that it's easier for me to talk about meaningful work then it is for many others around the world. Location however is not simply about the labor that one does to sustain oneself. Location is a way of being in the world. It is a way of finding meaningful relationships in whatever one endeavors. This is not limited simply to the work that one does. But includes the vast network of relationships in efforts. That make up a part. Of our lives. Finding meaning in this way. Is a theological conversation that simply does not happen no. And so many come dangerously close to being defined by work that totally lacks meaning. Character in american beauty. Perhaps some of you have seen this film. The camera pans out onto his blank stare. It is as if he realizes that his life is completely without. Meaning. He thought that wearing a tie for work and having a large house with a manicured lawn would have filled him up. Instead he just feels empty. Inside. Kind of like the walking dead. And even more tragically he realizes that those around him feel the same. The movie shows him floundering between drugs and sex in order to try to locate some meaning or purpose. In his life. Now i am. Not a lutheran but i do want to hold up this radical message that the protestant revolution offered. Every person no matter her place in life. For status of. Or the dollar figure on her paycheck has calling. I think that we have to put questions of freedom of meaning and purpose of pure joy at the center of our conversations about work. We have to ask the question. Is it that brings us. Alive. What is it. In the words of mary oliver's poem that will free us into our one wild and precious. Why. If we don't ask. Those questions. We might wake up one morning feeling a lot like the kevin spacey character in american beauty. We might discover. That we are. Dad. Inside. It would be a mistake to assume that because meaning is found in one's vocation that a vocation is always already meaningful. I close every service in my livermore congregation with the same words by the poet nancy wood. Hold on to what you must do. Do i say. Even when it is a long. Long way. From here. To me these are words about vacation. They remind me that the things that we must do the things that bring us alive. Are far from here. Recognizing a calling is a lot like taking vows in a marriage. It's for better and for worse. A calling if it is a genuine one off to a place that is a long long way from here. Your badlands and desert one travels in order to hold on to that thing. That one must do. No i felt my calling at a very young age. In high school i spent a lot of time with a friend who is dying. I knew that i wanted to spend my life. Especially those places. Meaning. I was also a part of a very socially active youth group. It was committed to taking our liberal religious values our unitarian universalist values out into the world. Those who become the two prongs of my call. Helping people find meaning. And making the world a more compassionate. Place. Both are utterly grounded. In my liberal religious faith. So imagine my surprise when i found out that sometimes weeks go by without a hint of any of that. No i have course new about the four worst part when i entered the ministry. I knew that it wasn't all congratulations on a sermon well done. I also did not realize how frequently the frustrations would come. There's the sixth hour of liaison reports at the district meeting. There's the voice messaging system that regularly stops taking messages because it fills up. Fears of the email informing you that an anonymous person is angry about something that changed a year ago. There's the easter afternoon spent cleaning up the plumbing disaster. There's the comment at the end of the 60-hour work week. It must be nice to only have to work one morning every week. A few weeks ago. I said goodbye to a minister that i admire tremendously. In a small building in the middle of the great. Redwoods. We sat across from each other on wooden benches. It was a cold autumn night. I heard the wind blowing intermittently across the roof. I briefly touched the arm of her fleece jacket in the dim glow of this retreat. Center. Having just participated in a ceremony that celebrated her retirement from professional. Ministry. I asked her what it was that she loved most about the work. You know she said. The longer you are in it. The more you come to love. All of it. Even the heartbreak. Even. The frustrations. Right now she said. I love. All of it. I think that. The mark of the true vocation is that you love it enough to pull you through the expansive badlands and the driest desert. Exhaustion irritation and fordham afflict us all. There is no work that is free from that. But finding your vocation is finding the thread that sustains you through these hardest times the thread that offers the possibility of saying yes. From deep within yourself. Everyday. Yes to both the good. Into the bad. Despite the fact that some people will insist that there are lives and professions that fall outside of the realm of meaning and purpose. I just don't believe it. I counseled bankers and nurses computer programmers and restaurant managers about finding purpose in their work. That work is not always already packed with meaning sometimes it is harder to discover than in other profession. Sometimes it does require a vocational opportunities. Volunteerism that sustains one spirit. And gives you meaning. But meaningful work. The steep yes from the ground of one's being. Is indeed. Open. To us all. Philosopher. Frederick nietzsche once road. The essential thing in heaven and earth is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction. There there by results. And has always resulted in the long run. Something which is made life worth. Living. It is not about making your life your own. It is about finding the direction that sustains your life and gives it. Meaning. Today the steeper direction this thing that offers life meaning is laid out before all of us it's a thing that frees us into a life of purpose. Find it. And then. And then hold on to what you must. Do. Amen. An amen.

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20110710_UU_go_gaga.mp3

Our first reading this morning is pied beauty. Gerard manley hopkins. Glory be to god for dappled things. Disguises couple color as a brindle cow. Paroles moles all in stipple upon trout that swim. Brushfire cole. Chestnut falls. Finches wings. Landscape plotted and pieced. Follow. And plow. And all trades. Their gear and tackle and trim. All things counter. Original. Spare. Strange. Whatever is fickle freckled. Who knows how. With swift slow. Sweet sour. A dazzle them. He bothers fourth whose beauty is past change. Praise him. So. About 2 years ago. Eric mentioned he'd be interested in hearing somebody talk about whether it's possible on the one hand to like lady gaga and on the other hand to hold you you valiums. I like lady gaga and i told you you value. And the tension between those two things decreased a little when she started advocating in a very public way. For equal rights for lgbtq lesbian gay bisexual transgender and queer or questioning people. Especially around the issue of the military stance on homosexuality. But when eric first asked the question we didn't yet know lady gaga the advocate. We knew her solely as an entertainer. And her music is very catchy great for blasting at full volume with the car windows down while flying along on route 128 on my way to or from work at rush hour. Well okay i don't fly along 128 in rush hour but anyway. But the lyrics. Yikes. Let's have some fun this beat is sick i want to take a ride on your disco stick let's play a love game love game. Don't think too much just bust that stick i want to take a ride on your disco stick. Or. I want your ugly i want your disease i want your everything as long as it's free. I want your love i want your revenge you and me could write a bad romance. I quickly discovered that it was one thing to blast her music when i was alone in the car. And quite another when my kids were with me. Especially when cassie was about eight or nine at the time piped up from the backseat. Mommy. Disco stick. I will admit to being sorely tempted to say. I don't know sweetie what do you think. Or. I think maybe it's like a pogo stick. But that's not right. Kids deserve honest answer so i was stuck. I tried to teach my kids but love is not a game. Metro man should be good not ugly and disease. And there i am blasting and singing along to these songs. Songs which seem to glorify hooking up on the dancefloor and unhealthy relationships in general. Play took a deep breath and i said. I'm not entirely sure. But i know some people think it means penis. She listened for a few moments. Said. I think that's right. And that was the end of it. Later though i brought it up again. I said that sometimes music contains thoughts we would never speak but that need an outlet somewhere. We talked about how art is not always about what is good and right and comfortable. But often pushes the edges or crosses the line. Of what is healthy and okay. But sometimes. The purpose is to make us think. And the important thing. Is actually to think about it all. Not just accept the ideas and images within the music is completely fine just because the songs are in heavy rotation on our favorite radio station. Innocent that. What we are spouses of faith. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning. A questioning mind. Rather than blind acceptance. I don't think it's right to say that. I like lady gaga on the one hand. And i hold you you values. On the other hand. I think i'd like lady gaga because i hold you you value. So those of you who know me. I'm catherine. Might find it a bit surprising that i'm up here reflecting on lady gaga. Because i know me. That usually into pop music. Our oldest daughter emma can really a test that my interest in pop music and pretty much all things pop culture waned about 15 years ago. For me the radio means in pr. If i'm blasting something it's. Oldies station. The 70s and 80s. It was actually emma who introduced me to lady gaga's music. Couple years ago. And it turns out i love it. The beat the limit pushing lyrics. To lady gaga reminds me a bit of madonna. Madonna was to me when i was younger. Or you know sometimes i imagine her as the love child of madonna and alice cooper. It's. Absolutely awesome to just crank up. The ipod with. Poker face or bad romance. Danced around the room with the kids. And yes gavin knows lady gaga's music. Can identify it. If you've never tried blasting it and just. Letting loose i highly recommend it. So. It wasn't her music though that brought lady gaga into focus with for me it was actually her activist. Particular her advocacy around the issue was don't-ask-don't-tell. Don't for me don't-ask-don't-tell is always been very personal issue. I am the oldest child of a career army officer. My father started for. 31 years. Due to wars. I can look. Really proud. Epicerie. When i was 19 i came out to my dad. What i remember most about that process. Was his very real fear. If i was honest. With people. who i am. If i was out. Did i would ruin any chance i would power have. He served most of his time in the army before the progressive. Policy of don't ask don't tell. And i can to the stable members sitting with him at the dining room just he and i. Me and my dad. Well my dad told me how helpless he. When a young and very promising officer under his command was discharged. After being outed by fellow soldier. Nothing he could say. About the shot officers. Performance for excellence. Standing. About to promise. In military nothing made a difference. It only matter. This young person was. Super me the policy of don't ask don't tell his always just. Really gone right gone against everything that my dad taught me about the importance of honesty. Personal integrity. And about the value of merit. So how can i fast forward in about 25 years later. I'm getting my little updates. And what's happening is momentum is building to finally repeal don't-ask-don't-tell. I'm sitting at home and i'm watching these video clips. Of this young pop phenom who's musica. And she's up in maine at a rally sponsored by the servicemembers legal defense. Network. And she's delivering arguments against don't-ask-don't-tell in true gaga fashion. Until what i wanted to do today's read some excerpts. From her address last september. So these are her words. My dress you today is called the prime rib of america. I just follow my square affirm that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states. Against all enemies foreign and domestic. And i will bear true faith and allegiance to do the same. I will obey the orders of the president of the united states and the orders of the officers appointed over me. According to regulations and the uniform code of military justice so help me god. Unless there's a gazer soldier in my unit sir. She goes on a few paragraphs later to say. The nexus of this wall openly gay soldiers affect unit cohesion. Like it's okay to discriminator discharged gay soldiers because we were homophobic. We are uncomfortable and we do not agree with homosexuality. And i can't focus on the field of duty when i'm fighting. We have a problem with you. Wasn't that the defensive matthew shepard's murderers. They left him to die on a fence in laramie. They told the judge. Old matthews gay it made us uncomfortable. So we killed him. Throughout this address she restates the legal and moral arguments that have been made by so many others. About how this. Policy i think defiled the core american value of equality. And she ins by addressing the senators from maine. And saying. Equality is the prime rib of america. Equality is a prime rib before we stand for as a nation. And i don't get to enjoy the greatest cut of meat that my country has to offer. Are you listening. Shouldn't everyone deserve the right to wear the same meat dress that i did. Repeal don't-ask-don't-tell or go home. Yes she really did wear a meat dress made out of raw meat if you do not believe me go home and google. Gaga grammy dress. Pictures of rock. So. Can bring everyone up to speed president obama did sign the bill allowing the repeal of don't ask don't tell us december. It remains in force as the military goes through a process. It is needed to finally dismantle the swap policy and if you look at the. Website for the servicemembers legal defense network you'll see that the military claims to have done quite a bit of training at this point and have moved the process. How many needham high school students do you think know who lt. dan choi is. This is a young man whose honesty and activism i think represent. The best what i was taught military honor should be. So how many. Students at needham high do you think a lady gaga. So this is a young woman who's taking her fame and used it. Advocate for people who are disenfranchised. She speaks for generation that from what i can tell is a lot more open particularly on these issues related to sexual orientation. And gender identities in my own generation. Her youtube message to the senate on repealing don't-ask-don't-tell last september has gotten two and a half. Over two-and-a-half million views. Since the declaration of independence i think we as americans have been on a very long journey. We're not done yet. Towards realizing true equality before the law for all americans. And i think. Lady gaga is one of the voices in her generation. It's moving us a little further along this path. So i want it end. Today by. Reading it to you the words from the chorus of born this way you're about to hear it. Done so much more beautiful than i can read it. So these are her words. I'm beautiful in my way cuz god makes no mistakes. I'm on the right track baby i was born this way. Don't hide yourself in regret just love yourself on it and your set. I'm on the right track baby. Cuz i was born this way. As we were putting this all together i started. Wondering what sort of a reading do you do in a service about lady gaga and i found this guy online. Phd in comparative religion he's an ordained interfaith minister trained as a chaplain and a business consultant he's written two books published by hay house. He used to be an executive director at a major canadian healthcare management company. And he blocks. And he declared that as of march 26th 2011. The night of the monster's ball. The gaga is his guru. And here's one of the things he had to say about her. In essence. My summary of what i heard and her message is. Choose yourself. Which is different than be yourself. Be yourself implies that authenticity is best. And that it is actually possible to know. Who you really are. Sooner than later. Choose yourself my new mantra. Means that if we really want to be spiritual about all things. We have to remove judgment. Even from the embrace of true self. True self. Instead we offer empowerment. Education and choice. Then it's up to you. Choose yourself. Means you can be anything anyone anyway. But you have to accept the consequences. If you want health and happiness then of course i'd advise you to choose your most authentic self for a million reasons that i and many others have written about. But in the end it is still your choice. Maybe you don't feel up to the journey of self-discovery. Maybe you need to explore your shadow. Or you may have some mistakes you need to make and learn from. There's so many pads of person takes in life in order to learn. To love to grow to explore. They might not all be authentic and some abstract ultimate sense. But they are all choices. And that's what matters. Choose yourself. It's about knowing your identity is not fixed. And that we choose our stories actions assumptions and how we treat others and let them treat us everyday. The wisdom of choose yourself lies not in the promise of a perfect life. Or advice on what to choose. But instead it is about freedom. Permission. And awareness that identity and self-concept is a choice. It's a powerful idea. Because it shapes your health. Your mental state. Your relationships. And your experience of the world. You can wake up and say i am a healer. Or. I am a renegade. Or. I am an artist. For i am a financial wizard or even. I am a gleaming spark of god. It's a choice. But as they say. With great power comes great responsibility. Once you have made your choice. Can you live at foley. Can you be consistent. Will you be accountable. And in the end. If you need to. Will you learn and grow and change. And then choose yourself again. My tip for today. Everyday you wake up. Is to take a few deep breaths. And choose. Yourself. This is a quote from lady gaga song judas. In the most biblical sense i am beyond repentance. Same hooker prostitute wench vomits her mind. But in the cultural center. I just speak in future tense. Judas kiss me at the fence. Or where an ear condom next time. I believe this quote describes who ladygaga is. Summit view her as a shock entertainer trying to make money and copy madonna. I see her differently. I see her as a role model. I see her as the future. Future music. Advocacy and performance. Lady gaga has sold millions of albums won several grammys and many awards. Her first album the fame. What about fame vanity in society. Her second album the fame monster. Dealt with the dark side of fame and the music industry. An asian express the specific fear of hers. Her most recent album born this way cover several topics. Individuality government. Activism feminism change. Love. Self-esteem and prejudice. The title song born this way. She makes it clear that you should be proud and strong even if you are different. Don't match society's image. This is a message all people in this world needs to hear. Lady gaga's music continues to grow and substance and meaning. Lady gaga is my inspiration. Inspires me to choose who i want to be. Fight for what is right. Do everything i do with passion. She reaches out to all were disenfranchised and insecure. One of my favorite lyrics from the song bad kids is. Don't be insecure if your heart is pure. Difficult to say what she means to me in words. So just think of the most positive superlative you can. Then raise it to the 25th and a half power. Lady gaga has an extremely dedicated fan base. I believe she connects with her fans by sending such a positive inclusive messages. Which are not the norm in the entertainment / music industry. Her message is summed up by the song born this way. Don't be a drag just be a queen. Whether you're broke or evergreen. Your black white beige. Cholada sent your lebanese your orient. Weather life disabilities left you out cast bolete ortiz. Rejoice and love yourself today cuz baby you were born this way. No matter gay straight or bi lesbian transgender life. I'm on the right track baby i was born to survive. No matter black white or beige. Chola or orient made. I'm on the right track baby. I was born to be brave. We are never complete. We are never finished. We are always yet to be. Maybe always allow each other to be. And help and enable each other to grow towards all that we are capable of becoming. Amin.

uufvb_org

2012Jan15Sermon128.mp3

My mother. Marsha ewing alexander. There she is in tulsa oklahoma right after world war ii. My mother was a civil rights activist. A woman deeply concerned about and committed to racial equality and racial justice and the united states of america. During her entire adult life i'm proud to tell you she diligently worked right where she lived for greater racial understanding and equality. Which is something of a surprise i think because she brew up grew up in virtually all white northern wisconsin. We're her exposure to people of different races and cultures was incredibly limited. In the isolated little town she grew up in merrill wisconsin the only real diversity worth mentioning was between the missouri synod. German lutherans in the wisconsin synod german lutherans. But somehow by the time she reached adulthood she had a passionate commitment to work. With an in the african-american community for greater educational economic and social equality for all. After graduating from northwestern university with a degree in social work. In the early days of wwii my mother. Who because of personal wealth had plenty of opportunity. To choose a comfortable and a conventional life. Went to work instead. In a strike at a struggling neighborhood house in the slums of syracuse new york. Where she worked with the children of the poor mostly african-american. She lived. In a rough-and-tumble neighborhood where she lived with two roommates. An african-american social worker colleague wonderful woman with whom she remained closed for her entire life. And and this is a story unto itself. A japanese american woman who also work with my mother. Who my mother had managed to liberate from an internment camp in california promising the federal government my mother individually that she would. Take responsibility for this woman's welfare. And activities. She knew those internment. And liberated one. My mother remembered. These years working in the slums of syracuse has some of the most purposeful of her. After the war she married my father moved to racine wisconsin to raise us for boys. But my mother's commitment to social justice remain. In the early sixties she pretty much single-handedly created a thriving community center. In the one black neighborhood in racine wisconsin. Which i was a poor community located at the valley at the bottom of an industrial valley right in the center of town any of you who know racine wisconsin. You drive down into this neighborhood. After pulling both black and white civic leaders together to launch the project she not only provided professional leadership and encouragement to get the program on its feet. She bought a house. It was pink. And the organization first began as the pink house. But was later named the bray center. After an african-american friend of my mother george bray. Who was the unitarian universalist leader in the community. Still want to win this week. I googled the bray center. And was stunned to see that. Its 50th anniversary year it's become a thriving social service institution in racine wisconsin. Providing again program and support services. For primarily for african-american youth and i had a picture of the gymnasium it is. There's the gymnasium. The bray center they have nationally ranked basketball teams and many wonderful programs. This is one of my mother's children. Anyway. I want to share that all throughout my formative years. I watched my mother in racine and elsewhere work. For the betterment of the african-american. And she instilled in me and understanding of the importance of racial equality and dignity. And the one-time martin luther king came to southeastern wisconsin we went to kenosha and we were the only white people in church i remember that. Perhaps this is why following her death. My brothers and i were shocked. Genuinely shocked. When you went through a bunch of dusty old family photo albums that my mother had in her possession. To find a photograph. Identical to this one. In one of the family album. Although we were. Unable to trace a logo we were able to trace this photo album back to the illinois. Side of arguing char's family. We have been unable to precisely determine who these two sinister characters were. And why their picture. Was in our family album. But i can only assume family albums being that. 50 scary-looking goons. With their sinister hoods and their shotgun at the ready. We're both relatives of mine. From the last half. Of the 19th century. Could these two evil characters be great-uncle great-great uncles or cousins or perhaps even heaven forbid someone. Closer to me. On my family tree i we just don't. No. Beyond the fact that we are certain they are part of my extended family. An embarrassing part. Of my ancestry. As a midwestern american of european descent. Though it pains me to acknowledge that these folks simply or my people. They are my. Fu generation. Some of you may not know the full and rather ugly and complicated history. Of the ku klux klan. The kkk. Is the name given to a number of past and present fraternal organizations in the united states. That are variously advocated white supremacy and power. Anti-semitism. Racism. Anti-catholicism and more recently homophobia and of course nativism. The first clan. Was founded in 1866 in the deep south by veterans of the confederate army. With the sole purpose of resisting reconstruction. And keeping the freed slaves quote-unquote in their place. At the bottom of the social educational and economic order. The first plan was destroyed. In the early 1870s by president ulysses s grant his vigorous enforcement. Of the civil rights act of 1871 also known as the kkk act. The second incarnation of the kkk. Was a massive whites only membership organization which sprang up in the 1920s. With many local chapters and millions of members representing believe it or not this is a shameful american statistic. About 15%. Of the eligible white. Male popular. Fifth. 1 out of 7. This organization which in many parts of the country included midwestern states like ohio indiana and illinois. Where my family cross paths was apparently. Headset have hundreds of thousands of members. And was responsible as you all know for lynchings and fire bombings and other violent activities directed against african. Those. Like its predecessor this twentieth-century kkk. Was committed to maintaining the economic privilege and political power long afforded to white american. While denying. Advancement and equality by force. Intimidation and murder if necessary. Two african-american. Mercifully this organization just as its predecessor predecessor also collapsed. After a couple of decades of sinister activity. And was virtually non-existent as an organized movement by the time of the second. World war. But today is you all sadly know there's still a few pathetic pockets. Modern kkk activity. I'm thinking. Don't loosely now is white supremacist movement. On the margins of our society yes. Aw and wildly repudiated by american culture. In the mainstream. But still here. Is it kind of. Festering. Opposed. The nineteenth-century clan the twentieth-century clan. And their decades of violence and terrorism. Remain a terrible stain on american history in race relations which we must never minimizer. That's why i took what i think it's a risk for me anyway i'm sharing this little bit of my own family's dirty laundry. With you on this martin luther king sunday in the year 2012. I shared it that shocking and shameful. But my own family pass. Not because. Particularly feel any personal guilt. 150 years later i honestly. Do not feel much personal responsibility or even emotional connection. To the terrible choices some of my ancestors apparently made in terms. Erase. And dab. The decisions they made in the context of their own fearful. Ignorant and prejudice lives any more than i would take credit today for my mother's. Noble work. Behalf. Of racial justice. Quality inn racine wisconsin. I share this undeniable part of my. My family story. Because it served me and all white americans of european descent. You are facing the tragic facts of america. America's violent and oppressive racial history. It is a stark reminder. Of the power. The privileged and the prejudice. Which has over the history of our nation. Giving me an all-white amir. Such incredible advantages. Over those americans who were enslaved. And held down. And depressed. Regeneration. Generation. After j. Just one more painful example for my own family history. August legacy of power prerogative and privileges. During. The many years of a successful nba career basketball career everytime i heard the name of patrick ewing. Who was during the 80s and the 90s of standout all a course african-american doll look at him star center the new york knicks. Always could be counted as one of the best players in the nba everytime i heard his name patrick ewing. I was reminded again of my family's. Slaveholding past. For the undeniable truth historical truth is a patrick ewing and i threw my mother share the ewing name for one reason. Not genetically. Because his great-great grandparents were enslaved and owned by my. Ancestors. What's the name. Viewing. That is precisely. Call majority of african-americans today came by their surnames. They were forced to adopt the last name of those who quote-unquote owned. Well i profoundly wish it were otherwise as a privileged white american. Living in the supposed enlightened time. I have some ugly skeletons in my closet both slaveholding. And the kkk are tied directly to me. And to my past. And i am sure. But the same is true. Hello. For a lot of you sitting out there this morning this is not just my narrative. I don't. Now let me be very clear about something right. Do i bring up all this this. Not because believe me i want to lay some big white. Liberal guilt trip on every light skin. Person in. Myself and. I bring all this up on this martin luther king sunday to remind us all of the truth. That is a nation america now just a handful. I'm generations after my relatives put on those ugly uniforms. America's not even close not even. To being finished. With the pressing moral and societal work of correcting the damage done to black and white americans like. By many generations first of slavery and following that generations of. Systemic economic educational and social discrimination. And depression directed at people of color. In the year 2012. All americans as citizens of are still flawed and very unfinished nation. Have a pressing duty. Two-face are shameful racial past. And this is the hard part. We have an obligation. 2. To commit the resources. Economic governmental and the personal resource. They will continue to be required to truly. Heal our nation and begin to make. Truly. Let me take a moment. Here to remind you of a bit more of american history. This somewhat more recent. Immediately relevant. And suggest you wear i think we have to move as a nation. In regards to our very much ongoing struggle with the issues of race and discrimination and equality and privilege. Following the watershed 1954 supreme court decision brown versus versus the board of education. Which began the painfully slow process of desegregated america's racially-divided schools. Following brown versus board of education. For several decades federal state and local governments. Began to seriously implement a wide range of remedial. Social programs. To correct. The accumulated economic educational and social harm. Done to african americans. And others. Discriminated against because of their racial background. The most systematic and noteworthy of these remedial programs were on the federal level as you all know beginning with president kennedy's new frontier proposals. Which were expanded and extended after his death. By the progressive administration of lyndon baines johnson. Who did three things. He persuaded a reluctant congress. To pass the civil rights act of 1964. He announced a wide-ranging remedial war on poverty program. Any push through congress a wide range of other programs. Which would lead he said to a great society. In the year 1965 alone. And i was amazed to be reminded this when i researched this sermon. In the year 1965 alone there were 115. Presidential legislative recommendations 90 of which. We're quickly adopted by a supportive congress imagine that today. Launching wide-ranging programs design. To help the poor. And racial minorities most especially african-americans. Who have borne the hardship greatest of our discrimination is a culture. And indulge me a quick but i think. Telling the side here about just one of these remedial programs. In the last car negation i serve. Yeah it i'll just outside of washington. One of my distinguished oldest older members. Was a gentleman named bradley patterson he's written the book on how the white house works actually. Google i need him a great guy just lost his wife bless his heart anyway bradley. Who happened to be a staunch republican unitarian universalist. Was a member of the white house staff through several administrations in the sixties and seventies. And who among other accomplishments worked on developing antiproton anti-poverty programs during the johnson year. One day when he and i were discussing. The persistent issue of race in american society and he can't come in for a cup of coffee. He told me the story of a white house meeting in the mid-60s with his boss sargent shriver. Who is in charge of johnson anti-poverty efforts. It looking over. The a proposal to spend millions in poor predominately ask african-american inner-city school driver noticed a little budget item. For hundreds of thousands of dollars. Four mirrors. And skeptically shriver. Skeptically as the project manager. What possible use schools could have ants with so many mirrors. The project better without looking. Project manager without looking up madoff actually responded with a r for the classroom. Because so many of these impoverished children have never seen themselves in a mirror and have not had the opportunity to develop appropriate self-awareness. Our self-esteem. Bradley said. Harumph. Back to my brother history. In the sixties and seventies president johnson's great society initiative. Other remedial and i want to keep using that word programs. Designed to lift. Discriminated against minority populations out of poverty enjoyed the widespread support of the american people. Including i remember my parents. And their friends who are totally committed. America achieving greater. Economic and social. But as the nation our nation moved into the last two decades of the 20th century. An african american and other poverty proved difficult to eradicate or even substantially reduced. Many in america. You all know this is true. Became impatient. An increasingly hostile to both the cost and possible ineffective. Of these programs. Economic and social conservatives in particular. Began to raise their voices and political clout against. Tax-supported. Remedial programs. And suggested that the great economic educational and social gaps between various racial and ethnic groups in america. Could best be closed not by quote-unquote. Throwing federal tax dollars at the problem but rather. By insisting that those who find themselves poor take more quote-unquote. Individual responsibility for their own advancement and pull themselves up by their proverbial bootstraps. Under the weight of this conservative argument. And the growing resentment in many american quarters against. Paying taxes for any purpose. Over recent decades. Most especially over recent years as american conservatism has found a louder voice on talk radio. And other venues. We've seen a steady. An intentional decline. In federally-mandated. Federally financed remedial programs designed to compensate. Correct for past. Racial discrimination and oppression. There has also been a similar widespread rollback in part 2. Several recent decisions by the increasingly conservative supreme court. Of what are known as affirmative action. Both in education and business. It is clear to me anyway. In the year 2012 for something out sometime now america has been moving away. From a concerted. Governmental investment and correcting long-standing poverty and racial discrimination at and which is a tran. Which i have many others regard as a grave. Societal. And moral mistake. Whereas i have said. We are nowhere close as a nation. To having sufficiently address. The collective damage. Done by our shameful past. Martin luther king was right. This is not. To be quick. It is not. Going. To be cheap. But of course as is so often the case when we look. Vexing persistent social problems. I suspect that this national situation of ours concerning race. And remediation. For historical discrimination. Maybe more complex than any of us as progressives. What at first to admit. As i thought in preparing this sermon. About the dualism. Here's my dualism. Between the liberal progressive commitment. Do programs of social remediation of the one hand. And the conservative insistence. Are encouraging more individual responsibility and initiative on the other. When you come to this paradox it occurs to me. When we. Are looking at the dream of america chivas greater justice and social equality. These two at first seemingly incompatible things. May both be simultaneously true. They may both be true to a certain extent. As i have already said. Because african-americans and particularly in particular historically suffer generations of spirit. Crushing slavery. And the subsequent economic educational and social subjugation. Of our culture. Additional and substantiv governmental remediation and investment. Progressive programs if you will. Will be required to bring about true racial and social equality in yet at the same time. The same is true whether we're talking about white poverty in the hollows of rural appalachia. Or latino poverty in the barrios of south los angeles. Are the black poverty on the southside of chicago. At the same time. No amount i think. Of governmental remediation and investment will work unless those individuals of any. Racial ethnic or cultural background now trapped. And that cycle of poverty and illiteracy and deprivation. Are able to step up themselves. And take increased responsibility for the future of their own lives and the lives of their children take advantage of every opportunity. Although it is not without controversy. This is precisely the largely conservative message that african-american entertainer bill cosby. An african american economist tom sewell and charles ramsey the no-nonsense police chief of philadelphia. And even oprah winfrey. And other outspoken leaders in the black community are all currently preaching. Two african-american audiences themselves. Although was a progressive. I am always inclined to first support governmental anti-poverty programs. It also does make sense to me. Didn't that no amount of governmental remediation or investment again in any impoverished. Regardless of race. We'll work unless those families suffering. From generations of the cycle of poverty and discrimination are willing to play an active role. With governments committed. To helping. To work. Improve their own. Indeed one of the greatest and somewhat overlooked success stories in american society over the last century. Is the inspiring and some ways spectacular. That million. Upon millions. Of african-american. Whose ancestors were enslaved in chains as recently. Az100. The years ago. And with the help don't forget a pack supported government remediation. Including clarence thomas. Who got a lot of it and now doesn't want any more of it for people who follow but i'll leave him. That's not the text i just sent it. We just print it out i can't help myself sometimes. Where was i. Millions of americans like like clarence thomas have gotten out of poverty. Stunning. The bottom line here is that i believe both liberals and conservatives. Do have something to contribute here. As america struggled in the 21st century to slowly move the whole nation. Toward the justice and equality dreams of. Liberals and progressives both black and white are morally and politically right. To call for more and better design social remediation program. That invest. Significant governmental resources which are tax refunds. To correct past discrimination. And conservatives. Both black and white. Are also bourelly and politically correct. To encourage the impoverished. To invest something of themselves. In there if their personal situations. And those of their children and grandchildren ever to him. Seems to me. That we do not have to choose. Between the progressive view of. Spending money. And the conservative view of. Charging everyone to do the best that they can stay. So we don't have to choose between. Those. Two perspectives are both required. Let me give just. One more example of this merger of liberal and conservative. Prospective. But i was in washing the couple years ago our new wonderful young black mayor adrian fenty. Who has since been. Removed from office. Rpe left. Watch the election. He proposed. A program. Call adult literacy illiteracy elimination program by sheer accident that we have the literate literary services hazard. Sr a benefactor this morning. He announced his program which was a partnership. Between the the district government of dc which will provide these centers and teachers. Do to combat illiteracy. And the residents of dc who needed to get themselves to these programs so that they could learn to read. This it seems to i was delighted with this multimillion-dollar expenditure of my tax dollars. To provide these centers where people had to go. Had to choose to go. And that's the way i say. Government work best. When we take these two perspectives in melt. I returned on this martin luther king sunday and enclosing. To affirm what i believe i believe is our primary responsibility of those of us. We're sitting here most of us. From a place in vero beach florida a privilege. Enterprise. Cast. It's our primary responsibility. As we help america to move toward racial. Quality inn. Our responsibility. As citizens and voters and taxpayers is. Do everything we can. To ensure that our governments. Federal state and local. Wisely and responsibly. Best in affirmative action. And remedial programs design. 2nd. Race-based poverty. We'll never failing to insist that those to whom the funds. Are directed. Do their parts. I frankly saddens me. But at this particular juncture in american history. Very comfortable and successful americans including. Many. Many people. Here on the treasure coast. Want to forget. And deny this truth. About the necessity. That's the work of racial and economic. Justice. Remains. So painfully on. But perhaps. We constantly remind ourselves about. Painful skeleton. In our past life. My picture of my kkk. Patrick ewing. Having to share. My name. That. Perhaps we will find the national will. To once and for all make this right. I pray that is committed and come back compassionate unitarian universalist. We will be steady and reliable voices. In our families and in our workplaces and in our social and friendship circles and in our neighborhoods and communities. Advocating. For america to do the hard and yes expensive. Work. Avant doing the damage of our racist past and present. It is clear to me. In the year 2012 the dream of genuine racial equality and social justice that martin. King head. America. Will take more time. And more money. Any of us would have helped. And more time. And more effort. And many of your neighbors have any patience. But this is a dream. We must never forsake. This is a dream we cannot afford to abandon. This is the dream we must. At the forefront. Of our national anthem. In america. Trinity. Equality for all we are not. And the road. Going. Balong. But we must stay the course.

uufvb_org

2011Jul03Sermon32.mp3

90 + 38. The very first issue of a periodical called comics. Appeared on the american news. Adventures of an alien from the planet. A dark-haired strapping fellow who appeared very much like a caucasian male from our own planet. And whose exposure to our son. Call super powers. Including virtually unlimited strength. X-ray vision. The ability to fly. And perhaps most remarkable of all the ability to make people think he was someone totally different just by putting on a pair of glasses and a suit and tie. This was superman. And he revolutionized american comics. The introduction. Of the concept of the superhero. His adventures were published by dc comics which would follow up on the idea with heroes such as. Batman. Hawkman. And green lantern. While the rival company app. Later marvel wood counter was submariner. The human torch. Captain america. The whole. And spider-man. But the very first was superman. Who's adventures expanded from the comic book into newspaper strips. Television and. People who never read a comic book superman stored for. Say it with me. Truth. Justice. And the americans. Way. Oddly enough this iconic phrase did not originate in the comics. But in the adventures of superman radio show in the 1940s. And of course a great many of us remember it. From the familiar preamble to the adventures of superman tv show in the 50s. Was just truth and justice. The superman fought for in that first issue of action comics. Written by jerry siegel and drawn by a canadian-born artist. Named joe shuster. Way back in june 1938. The 900th issue of action comics. Was published. In may of this year. A small backup story in this landmark issue. Written by david s goyer and. Has created more controversy. Then the previous seven decades of superman stories in whatever media. The story. Intitle the incident. Superman. Being criticized by the national security advisor. To the president of the united states. It seems the man of steel had recently flown. We're civilian protesters had taken to the streets. Demonstrating against the government of iran. Superman had stood there. Silently and motionless lee. For 24 hours. With the protesters. In a gesture of solidarity with the. Or as he put it. As a superhero. As metropolises protector i have fought. Just about every threat images. Alien invaders. Time traveling desperate. Every kind of costume and gimmick you can think of. I'm good when it comes to fighting apocalyptic threats. But the everyday degradation. The humans suffer. Dying. Hunger. People being denied their basic human rights. I've never been very effective. At stop. Things like that. And i want. Tubi. So i showed up in solidarity. It was an act of civil disobedience. Nonviolence. Resist. And now superman is being taken to task. For this by the president tonight. Security adviser who tells them that his action has created an international incident. For the united states. Superman's reply is. You're right. Which is why i intend to speak before the united nations tomorrow and inform them. That i am renouncing. My.usc. I'm tired of having my actions construed as instruments of us policy. Truth. Justice. And the american way. It's not enough. The world is too small. 2. This is only a comic book. And yet it has created a storm of outrage on the political right in our country. A quote from andrew a smith of the memphis commercial appeal. I don't mean to take on fox news but they were bringing the loaded. The story titled the incident was condemned o'reilly factor. Fox & friends and fox nation. Where potential presidential candidate mike huckabee called disturbing. Gop activist angie maher rented on fox. Patriotism. And the it was an eerie metaphor. For america's apparently low. Standing in the world. Meanwhile other media got into the act most major newspapers news broadcast. And online news stories. Carried. You story commentary. Or both. So what. Is the big. A fictional character. Albeit and iconic fictional character decides that his allegiance to his adopted world. Supersedes his allegiance to his adopted. Superman himself. I'm an. Mr. right. Born on another world. I can't help but see. The bigger picture. Well you and i. Are not aliens. We were born on this plan. A planet we share not only with our fellow americans but with every single human being. Every sentient creature. And what our uu principles call the interdependent web of exist. Of which we are all apart. This fourth of july weekend. As we honor those who gave what is euphemistically called the last. Full measure of devotion. It is appropriate to ask. What. Role does patriots. Play. Today's world. What role should play. Today is time i can remember attitudes in our country are polarized. There are many who feel the usa is the most wonderful nation in the history of the planet. Exception. Chosen of god. And incapable of doing wrong. There are others who find this country. Arrogant. Self-righteous. Even contemptible. And pressure. Realized. Truth. Live somewhere. Queen. And here is the real tragedy. There are far too many who feel the disagreement with their own opinions is wrong. Is evil. Is aimed at them. They have not grasped an essential truth stated years ago by john d macdonald. The vast majority of people. Are not against. You. They are merely. 4. Themselves. Most of them are not hostile. They are. A great many of my friends consider themselves conservative and they consider me liberal and by extension unpatriotic. God bless america is playing. They value our country. They cherish our freedoms. So do i. They worry about the culture of. Seems to be gradually replacing the. Self-reliance. I go a long way. Buckley park company when the word exceptional. The conversation. Because far too often exceptional comes to mean superior. And then exceptional leads to another keyword. Entice. Entitled to things that others are not. Within the lifetimes have a great many here today the biggest war in man's history. So far. Was fought against two countries that considered themselves. Superior. And. Entitled to land and resources that others were not. The imperial japanese empire called. The greater east asia co-prosperity sphere. Nazi germany called it even strong. Livingston. In each case the basic idea was. We are better than you are not. The ultimate expression of this idea came in the concentration. You are not entitled to that which we are entitled to. Life. Itself. Now maybe we'll call this and odious. Comparison. And say that that cannot happen to america. Or to american. I would call them to a reality check. If the idea of exceptionalism. Could blind and overwhelm a bastion of culture. Such as germany. Or one of the jeep on our planet. The japanese. It certainly presents a clear and present danger. To the united states of america. Is not what our veterans died for. To turn us into just another version of a self-proclaimed chosen. That's time for a disclaimer. The phrase chosen people is often associated. The jewish. People i am not using the words. And there's somatic sense. But at face value. No. Nation. No religion. No sect. No groove. Can afford to think of themselves as the chosen. People. We are all the chosen. People. Or none of us. And our american veterans died for apply to all people or they apply to none. White. Black. Brown yellow and red. Straight and by capitalist and socialist and communist and marcus and anarchists everyone. Everyone or. Which brings me to my last. Superman. Was right. The world is. Small. Patriotism. Is not. But provincialism. Is. That conservative commentator on my radio station. Michael savage. Some of us think of him. What does a loudmouth. Defined by its borders. Its language and its culture. Now that's fine as far as it goes. Consider these. Things. Behind. It is human nature to fear the unknown. And that is why we identify ourselves with groups. Racers. Political persuasion. A world without group identifications. And the dubious concept of safety in numbers. The world has been rendered in superman's words. Small. Connected. By the electronic communications revolution. And there is something coming. Terrified. A great many. It is. The one. World. Government. My conservative friends tell me they resist the idea of the one world government because. Will not allow us. To have the freedoms and values we cherish. And so we must hunker down behind our borders. Language. And resist any idea of participating in a one world government. These folks seem to have no hope whatsoever. Our ideas of individual liberty. And individual worth. And individual achievement. Vail. Autoworld stage. In other words. They've given. Gk chesterton famous statement about christianity. He said it has not been tried. And found difficult. It has been found difficult. And not tried. Take to world government. World. Justice. World. A world in which the ideal. American veterans. And veterans of good heart and goodwill everywhere. Died for. These ideas. Are not to be hoarded. They are. With everyone. If they are superior ideas of human conduct. They will prevail. Not someone was more guns and bigger bomb shove them down someone else. Throat. But because they are. Right. That. Is. It can be run from. Or it can be embraced. Living and. Sharing our ideas forward on a planetary scale. Will not be. In fact it'll be supremely difficult. But that doesn't excuse us. Doing so is the only. Proper way. To honor those who died. Photos very ideals. Loyalty to one's family. One community. Even one's nation. Can and should be admirable. But it should not degenerate as it so often does into provincialism. The idea that only that which is familiar. Is good. Invaluable. And i repeat. The values that our american veterans died for. Apply to all people. Or they apply to none. All people. Black white brown yellow and red gay-straight and by capitalist and socialist and communist and monarcas and anarchy. Everyone. 1. Sing. For me. If it ever came down to the choice. Of betraying humanity. Or betraying my country. I hope i would have the courage. To betray.

uufvb_org

2013Oct13Sermon128.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach florida. My name is bonnie shelton i'm a member of this congregation. And we're so glad you've chosen to be with us this morning. Wiara congregation of open minds. Loving hearts. And helping hands. We are people seeking to become our best selves. Even as we work to make a better world. Please know that you are welcome however you come to us this morning. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight. Black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you're on top of the world or down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We're glad you're here. We hope that you will find this service meaningful. That you will find something here this morning that nourishes your soul. That gives you a renewed energy and joy for the living of life in the days to come. Our minister the reverend scott alexander is out of town this week. So we're pleased to have as our guest speaker earl beasley. Who's a regular at our fellowship for about the last death 14 years. Earl says he was born into a southern baptist family. He decided to commune with the episcopalians for nearly four decades. And finally as he put it he. Started hanging with the unitarians because he likes the people. And he likes the cookies that they serve after the service in the fellowship hall. We've grown used to appreciating earl sense of humor. In 1970 to earl's founded an ad agency called the alexander group. In north carolina's research triangle park. In 2000 having made vero beach his home base. He added real estate sales to his operations. And he worked for a local firm for about a decade. Before opening his own brokerage firm under the name the alexander group. Realty. He's living on a sailboat in the caribbean. He let us 35,000 member boy scout council. He's been an officer of the local united way. He's on the board of our county's mental health association. He was a founder of the local boys and girls club. And served a term on the board of the local theater guild so you can see how active he is in our community. This morning. We look forward to hearing his observations on interfaith cooperation. As he asks the question. Why can't we all just work together. Are opening words today. Come into the circle of love and justice. Come into the community of mercy wholeness and health. Come and you shall know peace and joy. 99 years ago. October 1914. While german forces were overpowering belgium. And beginning their onslaught of poland. While garrett morgan. Was registering his patent on his new invention. The gas mask. While the boston braves were closing out the first world series sweep in baseball history. Reverend doctor halford lukic. A prominent american minister and a professor at yale divinity school. Published a collection of quick homilies under the title. 5-minute shoptalk. Nearly a century later i picked up a book and found a chapter entitled. What's wrong with the world. It made me think and i thought i'd share it with you. There was a time in the beginning of history. When there was not enough food to go around. If the tribe of savage men were to survive. They had to fight for goodpasture's and farmland. It was a case. Of the strongest winning and getting all it could. Now. There is enough to go around. With a new surplus of product we need a new way of thinking and living to go with it. The old everyone grab bring self method hasn't panned out very well. Yes it has developed good traits self-reliance. Industry energy and initiative. But along with those virtues the times demand a new feeling of social unity. A fairer distribution of privileges. And a fresh sense of common brotherhood. Cooperation is the biggest word in the dictionary right now. The 19th century. Lukaku observe. The 19th century made the world neighborhood. It is the task of the twentieth century to make it into a brotherhood. It looks as though the twentieth century in this awful year of 1914. I've gotten off to a bad start. But it will make a better finish. Alright. Got to ask you up front. Is there anybody here today to expect me to pull out my cell phone. Testimonies of the last time i spoke with you today i've got to tell you the phone's off today. Mom is happy in north carolina and wilmington north carolina talk i spoke with her this morning. And she talked about what a beautiful fall day it is there. I do remember falling back kathy my partner kathy reminds me. From time to time of what fall was like wood and her recollections those north carolina days. Mom says she wishes she could be with us here today if she was. She said i could sit in the audience with that blonde woman the one that has the nose thing. I'm not really sure who she's talking about olive. But just know that you are remembered in north carolina. Is bonnie told you in the introduction i am a recovering southern baptist. As such i love hearing a good baptist story baptist tell great stories on themself. And so i'm going to take the liberty of sharing a little inside track of what a baptist would likely say. But it helps to punctuate the point. For example. Once upon a time long ago. A mighty tall ship sailing across an ocean when it came into a horrible storm. The ship sank. But somehow 10 survivors made it to a nearby deserted island. It seems there were two catholics. To buddhists. To muslims. Two jews and two baptist. After they explore the island and found food. They located water they determine where shelf or was they all got busy. Data to catholics. Got busy and don't cathedral. The tube buddhist got busy and built the temple. The two muslims got busy built the mosque and the two jews got busy and built the synagogue. Oh too bad just got busy. I built the first baptist church on the second baptist church. Yes we can laugh but the reality is there's an awful lot of truth in that story. Whether we're talking about catholics muslims baptist jews whatever. We have little evidence to go on. Getting church people to pull together. Four common goal. Now any churches quick to tell you that they're there. Did they're all about doing good. And yes. Oftentimes churches do make things happen. But do they really cooperate with each other. For the purpose of a greater good. I would submit to you that they rarely do. Let me share a couple of quick examples for my experience. Here in this congregation in 2012. Are minister the reverend scott alexander took a cross-country bike trick. Yes he was going anyway. It was one ritual that he performed for himself once in awhile. But he wanted to do it again. Claiming this might be his last time and he wanted to use it as an excuse to raise money. For communitywide crusade for tujunga causes one locally. Another internationally. Guard enlisted me to help him publicize the ride. We decided to call it the ride to beat hunger. We envisioned a 30 300 mi bike ride with daily blog post. We imagine groups and families and churches across the community not just our church. Not just our members but people across the community volunteering. Donating to the charities that we had designated. Attending a big rally in may late may when scott a ride. I'm participating in a major meal-packing event to be held several days later. Creating meals that would be sent abroad. Yes we got many groups like the rotary clubs that stepped up to the plate mini committed individuals. Became involved. But only a handful of churches help. At all. I remember jack deal from the lutheran church. Mike bernholtz from the temple. Both of whom took an active interest maybe one or two others. I was very proud of reverend scott. And the amount of energy he committed to all aspects of this campaign not just pedaling. But the objective of promoting interfaith cooperation was high on his list of priorities. But when the campaign concluded. I was disappointed in the response of our local faith. Okay. Maybe i can understand the reason. Other churches might snubber invitation to cooperate after all. When the day came for someone to pedal across the finish line. I was going to be a baptist preacher. It wasn't to be a presbyterian minister or the assemblies of god pastor. It was going to be a unitarian universalist. And we all know about those you use. Still. I wish more clergy in the area had seen fit to get involved was a surprise not really because. Frankly this wasn't my first frustrating experience in trying to mobilize an interfaith community interfaith cooperation indian river county. The back was 15 or 16 years ago while i was serving as an officer of the united way. But i work on a community-wide initiative called success by 6. Among success by 6 is objective. The program sought to bring the communities focus on the importance of intervening in childhood development process before the age of 6. When a child is truly experiencing his formative years. Great program many facets to it. I personally took on the tangential effort to enlist. The 104 faith communities which we identified in indian river county of that time. Into a cooperative campaign. To publicize and promote the things that they were capable of doing for families with children. The whole effort was to culminate with a one-day event. We bought a name for this event we called it the children sab. We simply ask our local faith communities to determine what they could offer. Then on this one day on this one sabbath in february to talk about it with the members and guess who ever showed up that day. It whatever format they chose to do as much of the program as they chose to dedicate to it. Or as little of the programs they chose to dedicated to a bed and exchange. What do united way was prepared to do is we would advertise and promote the event to families with children. I would give them a real reason show up at church. What an opportunity. Call it a win-win the families learn about the churches while the churches get to meet potential new members. Here was the deal clincher. United way would provide the full-page ad in the press journal radio spot psa's on the cable television. And a treasure chest promotional materials. Did the faith community some cell. Could use in their own publicity within their own internal campaign. Most importantly the united way was picking up the tab for the entire program it cost the church is nothing. I refer to recruit churches with extensive and exhaustive it lasted several months. Still in the magic date came. Less than 20 churches were involved. Another words not not even one in five churches were willing to cooperate. On a no-cost after that would directly benefit themselves. I was amazed. Totally amazed. We weren't asking him to commit money. To put additional burdens on their staff to make their facilities available for others to use. Automata by their activities really in any substantial way. Still they wouldn't get involved let me give you a little footnote here. The following year we did it again. Course by then everybody realize how much publicity. Had been obtained. And we had 60 plus churches. Participate next year. And the process went on for several additional years beyond that with great success. During this first year this campaign when i was involved in organizing i personally became. Poker scores of preachers in town i got to know the good guys and the bad guys. And i must say let me give a public call out right now to some of the good guys hats off to the late bill nye. From community church. Joe simmons who was a nut at the time is it up incoming associate minister at first baptist. Who's now going on to have his own church. Becky oliver from the ministerial team first united methodist. The riggers who were leading unity at the time. Ya're davis the former rabbi at beth sholom. Are the lutherans dependable leader again jack deal. And of course. Our own richard speck. These delightful team players did make a genuine difference. Okay i'll admit that my frustration with the tooth these two attempts. Have conditioned me to look upon interfaith cooperation through brown colored glasses. Yeah i can recall one very splendid example. When a single faith community. Blessed with inspired visionary leadership. Made a huge difference. Witness atlanta's ebenezer baptist church. Congregation that took on a challenge. United with other churches for meaningful change. And caused the seismic shift. In the affairs of humanity. In this nation and beyond. Against the backdrop of that dynamic black congregation and its accomplishments. And despite the discouragement that i have encountered. I still can't stop dreaming that someday. Somehow. The mighty power of our churches will come together for good. Brake change. Alfred. Bagail divinity professor who gave us our pre sermon reading. Also gave me a quote. That is a personal favor. I want you to take this one home with you. And it's going to show. Hidden going to show. The voice of god says it's not going to show. Remember this one. No one. Can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra. Now the ride to beat hunger. For all that accomplished. Was played by string quartet. The children sabbath. For the modest success it enjoyed. Was still a little more. Then. Is the 13th chapter of paul's letter to the corinthians observe a sounding brass. Or tinkling cymbal. So the question remains. What keeps churches from cooperating. How where to begin. I won't even pretend to offer complete list of reasons but i will try to suggest some reasons that are more obvious. Let's start with full with the faith communities in cell. We see lots of interphase squabbling. The jews don't like the muslims who don't like the christians who don't like just about everyone else. Of course the uu's. Well we're still trying to figure out how we feel about the whole mess. The problems are just not among the churches that also within the churches. Intrafaith squabbling is. On the rise in many denominations. Witness the baptist. My old episcopalians. The lutherans and more. So many churches are preoccupied with doctrinal debates that rage on and on. Abortion and homosexuality seem to be two topics that and dominate the discussion. Keep in mind that. Competition for members is another reality in today's church. The 80th annual edition of the national council of churches 2011 yearbook. Report the continuing decline in. Oh you're going to hate that you're not getting to see all these beautiful statistics i've gathered for you all the screening. Oh look. Gualala. It looks like they might have gotten remade the bed is that true. Okay. Membership. Mainline denominations the catholic church the nation's largest religious community. Has it 682 million members reported the membership decline in one year .44%. And the southern baptist convention. The nation's second largest denomination. And allah and long a reliable generator church growth. Reported a decline in membership for the fourth year in a row. Down 15%. The 16.1 million members. Among the mainline denominations the sharpest rate of membership decline in 2013. Down 5.9% in one year. The 4270 5,000 members was posted by the evangelical lutheran church in america. Who was it that time and it still continues to rage embroiled in a rancorous debate. About the role of homosexuals in the church. Others posting declines in 2011. And the 2011 report the presbyterian church down 3.45% down 2.71 united church of christ down 2.02 lutherans the missouri missouri senate version of the lutheran. Down 1.45 united methodist their 7.8 million 7.7 million members down 1.22% and the american baptist church. Down .19%. In fact. According to dr. lyle schaller and expert. The go-to guy on church membership questions. And the last 30 years the leading the larger denominations have experienced membership losses of 20% or more. As an aside. You may be asking a question how have the uu's been faring in recent years. Here's a chart. Galia. That shows you unitarian universalist membership friend since the 1960s. As you can see you you membership in most recent years has averaged. 162,000 members. Let me help you put that in perspective. Forever you you member. There are 420 catholics. 100 southern baptist. 26 evangelical-lutheran since 04. Flower looking at it let's also take a look at the number of you churches in america. You'll see how the number there has mirrored. The membership situation. Doing short. You use are few in numbers. But powerful in spirit. During the recent past the pentecostal churches have bucked the steady membership decline. Although their growth. Has not been sufficient to offset the loss of membership experience in mainline denomination. Often the pentecostal groups. Have built sprawling church enterprises you know the church. That was. Initially here. Left this building behind we became the airstrip because they moved into the burbs. I built a megachurch. Regrettably some megachurches sheen. Seemed to develop a sense of self-sufficiency. It keeps them isolated. I'm reluctant to get involved with other churches. I'll be on competing for members. Churches are also competing for donations. Again according to national council of churches in 2011 nearly 29 billion was contributed to american churches. The previous year's total was 1.2 billion more. And keep your calculators in the pocket i'll help you out. That's a 4% drop in contributions in just one year. If that decline continues. In about a quarter of a century. Church contributions will be no more. Omg. The predicament of the faith community that was only part of the problem. Responsive individuals who could be filling the pews at these churches is compounding the problem. Involvement fatigue sets and you can call this burnout. You've heard them say. I go there and nothing productive seems to be happening or. When i get involved i get meeting to death. Burnout is a reality. Another perspective i hear. Churchward work is irrelevant the old-fashioned it's it's out of touch with the realities of today's world. In the past. The church provided as an important sense of community of belonging. Nowadays many people feel they don't need a church. To supply that necessary community. Often they replace the churches community. With new communities. Did anybody say facebook. Another argument. Some people contend that society's human needs. Are being handled by others particularly they argue the government. Does that. At the same time they're fighting to slash government funds. Program. Or they will contend that there is a charity to handle that. Brings us to another point. Often. People figured that they can buy their way out of their social responsibility by giving a little money to a worthy cause and expecting the cause to take care of the problem. Show that the world's ills can be solved so simply. So where are churches cooperating. And how is it working. What types of things might we consider. As we look toward thing leadership the leadership we can give. And helping to unified churches for a greater purpose. I did a little google i google cooperating churches and i'd encourage you to do the same to see what you get. First. I was shocked. As an aside here i actually came across several references to churches. And they're mine we're defining cooperation. As not going after the. Fallen member. Who had been rebuked by. Their former. Nearby congregations. Did you follow that. That's right they were saying if church a boots boots somebody out for reasons. Church be should cooperate by leaving that rebuked member alone. So this is operational mind anyway. Next things get a little better. I came across a handful of stories about modest accomplishments. Five ministers in congregation who decide to get their acts together and make something happen. Some of these were fun and interesting to look at particularly in light of our own experience. With a ride to beat hunger. For example i found nine churches in plano texas. Who got together with a shoe store provide 2,000 pairs of shoes for children of needy families. Oh yes their work is commendable. But it's also typical. For the most part these projects are short-term cooperative efforts. To tackle a narrowly focused community need. Providing temporary fix. And requiring closely measured. Commitments by a limited number of people. I'm not complaining about their efforts. But i do feel we need to do so much more. And then there are occasional examples of sustained cooperative effort. Community coalition. One that dominates the search engines is the michigan's muskegon county cooperating churches. I'll tell you just a bit about it. Representatives of 23 congregations met in may of 1941. Consider undertaking the ambitious men mission. Combining a ministry after for their community. By the end of that year. Council head 10-member congregation. They pledged to minister to the physical emotional and spiritual needs of the people their community. Over the years they work their workers range from collaborating with area ptas. Providing. Milk for local school children. Organizing a preschool program. Developing a clinic. Housing needs your address through the creation of a revolving loan fund. They man to jail in the prison ministry they started programs for foster grandparents. A local habitat for humanity in their community mediation service. An institute for healing racism. Their lives truly does go on and on. Similar programs have been in place elsewhere for decades notably. 60 year old program in palmyra pennsylvania to palmyra area cooperating churches. I'm cooperating churches of sussex wisconsin. And even the urban ministries of wake county and my old hometown of raleigh. For many of the urban ministries programs. They actually contract with local governments. Leveraging taxpayer dollars with their volunteer labor force. To deliver community services which might be too costly for the taxpayers to fund a lung. Then while googling some more. A different type of church cooperative caught my eye. It's located in oregon. And call the mcminnville cooperative ministries. Church. What is the strangely named churchwell. It seems on one church property to church is it formed a partnership. Trinity lutheran church in mcminnville and the mcminnville united methodist church got together. Now they share virtually everything. Staff. Buildings property. Ministries worship community and so on. They didn't merge with. Because they didn't merge into a single church. Because they felt that both congregations valued. And wanted to retain the historic ties to that respected denomination. Should i have methodist they have lutheran's they have a lot of other people. Who defines himself. In other ways are frankly don't care what they're called. What do they believe are they charismatic or dogmatic liberal or conservative. Are the evangelical or fundamentalist traditional contemporary. They respond quote. We don't fit some of the categories that people sometimes put churches in. Many of these categories. Represent old arguments and issues that don't seem very important to us anymore. They're beginning to sound a lot like unitarians. No i say that in jest. But when you look at the realization that we unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach and in a larger sense. Unitarian universalism throughout america. We have a unique perspective. Among the denominations in our country. With our creativity energy. Our resourcefulness and persuasiveness. Rvision. Our determination. We can rally people of many face. Mini denomination. To serve a greater good. And though we are small in numbers. We enjoy a powerful religious recipe. Which positions is. Uniquely among church people everywhere. To be the mediators. The conciliators. The consensus builders. The co-operators. The people who can. Make a difference. In a world in need. Delete vincent brown still many unitarian minister. Poet. And embroider. Penzeys lyrics that i'd like to leave with you today. As we leave this friendly place. Love give light. To everything's. May the kindness which we learn. Light our hearts till we return. Going pee.

uufvb_org

2010Sep26sermon32.mp3

uufvb_org

2012Sep02Sermon128.mp3

Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach on this labor day weekend. We expected to see about 10 people here but everybody gone for somewhere but we're glad you're here my name is pete kersey i serve this congregation as a member of the board and as the chairman of the worship committee and various and sundry other things. I please know that. You are welcome. No matter how you come to us this morning. Whether you're young or old gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humidity in between. Weather on top of the world are down in the dumps. Or somewhere in the middle. We're delighted to see you. You're welcome here just you come to us. It all of your particular arity. And your charm. Welcome. We hope you'll find this service meaningful and enriching. Did you find something here this morning. That nourishes your spirit and feed your soul. And gives you renewed energy. Enjoy. For the coming week. Let our service begin. The stream of life. Bye. Reverend general.. The quarry. The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It's a shame life that shoots enjoy through the dust of the earth. And numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It's the same life. That is rocked in the ocean cradle of birth and death. In arab and flow. I fuel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride. Is from the life throb of ages dancing in my blood. This moment. Good morning. Archery this morning abs a little girl named dee ann. She was a child that was in my preschool class. Diane was a small child. And with physical handicaps. Cerebral palsy macaws one-armed to. Not be very usable. And she walked a little oddly because of one foot dragging. She and her siblings lived with her grandmother. When with the help of a couple of ants. They took care of these children. Her mother. What's more interesting. And her drug habit. Then she was in her children. D i was always. Clean and usually happy. She had an extended family that loved her. Still. With her handicap. She had many problems to deal with. It would be very easy for deanne to be overcome by her handicap. Mps she was a complete and it was not a complete invalid person. The director of our preschool was determined this was not going to happen. And every morning is dan got off at the bus. And came into the room our director would say to her. Who's the most beautiful little girl in all the world. And deanna would look up her smile. Well. She left the preschool went on school and i lost track of her. One day i was reading the paper and there was an article about a fifth grader who had one in science. Project that they were doing in the science fair. And lo and behold. He was. Dion. She had done a science project. In regard to the use of drugs and what it can do. Two children. And the handicaps it can cause. I know she went on finished. High school and college. And she talked. Basement time-to-time with groups. About what drugs can do to you and what drugs can do to children and about her own situation. I hope that each of us. For the reviver 105. Remember to value every child. And a free adult. But we let them know. They are special. And they have a role in life. Sometimes. All it takes is a hello. I smile. Delete a person know. They think that we think they are great. Bruce larson in this book no longer strangers. Give. A summary of the monumental brief summary of the monumental work of cervantes. The story of man of la mancha don quixote. It goes like this. Ever since i saw the musical play. Man of lamancha. My patron saint has been. Don quixote. This play is based on the theme of cervantes monumental novel. It is a story of a senile old man who sets off to do battle with the evil in the world. Hundreds of years after the death. Chivalry. He dons a rusty suit of armor. And gold store to right wrongs. His companion is a fat funny little fella named sancho panza. To don quixote. Sancho panza is the squire of a great night. Knowing that he is only a humble servant. On the old man's farm. Sancho panza nevertheless. Loves his master. Edgar's into his fantasy. And sold it to set off on their quest. Don quixote almost blind horse. I'm sancho panza. On a mule. The to ride up to a broken down in where mule traders stop. When don quixote meets a slovenly innkeeper. That's very questionable establishment. Which is no howard johnson's motor lodge. He kneels before him and says something like. Behold. You are the lord of this great manor. I asked you tonight me and the proper fashion. The innkeeper. Protest. This obvious madness. But don quixote insist. At dinner with the mule trailers don quixote sees support. Misuse kitchen wench. Who comes in to serve the meal. His eyes she is a pure and beautiful maiden. Dulcinea. And he asked her to give him a token of her purity. They may take it into battle. As he fights the forces of evil. She insists vehement lee. That she is not though some may about aldonza. In a deeply moving song. She tells us having been born into ditch. Having used and abused and used by hundreds of men. Again. The dime refuses to see the reality of the situation. And declares that he must have a token. From the pure and beautiful dulcinea. The story continues in this vein. Contrasting. Don quijote is holy madness. Where's a brutal facts of the real world. At the end the old man is once again. Back in his bed at home. Dying. Now he is in his right mind. And no longer believes he has a knife. And the most moving seem to the play is it acted when the people. He has encountered come to his bedside. And beg him not to change. Or the strange and miraculous way. Each one has become a new person. The person whom don quixote saw. It is pure and noble vision. There's a great line in the movie herbie. I'm at my best recollection and goes something like this the taxi driver says. I've been driving them out here for years. On the way out there happy and count birds even when there are none. And give big tips. And we have a great time. But all the way back. They are grumpy. Do not tip. And are like ordinary human beings. And you know what stickers they are. Just as the play a movie harvey. Makes a case for a little madness. The play and movie. It goes back through cervantes monumental work man of lamancha. Britain. Many centuries ago. Did so even better. It has all sorts of subtle implications for religion. Is well-known that don quixote in the story. Is symbolic of jesus and also symbolic of. Many other. Historical religious figures. But let us focus on the. Musical movie version of don quixote. And the man of lamancha. Mentioning bruce larson summary. What an exciting story it is. It's about a confused old man. Who seeks to recapture the age of chivalry. Centuries after it has disappeared. It's about the kind of madness that is willing to try to change the world. It is about a willingness. To seek to make the world a better place. What madness. It is about the madness of a quest. To make changes in life. And bring about. Real. Human justice. Is about seeing people. Not as they are with all their feelings. But seeing their potential. The story reminds us that most people have. Much greater potential and we are they. Realize. Don quixote sees the innkeeper. Of a place or a mule traitors. Has the lord of a great manor. And then i'll dante he sees not the kitchen wench who had been used and abused. But the pure maiden. Dulcinea. In a strange and magical way. These positive expectations don quixote. Places in these people. Became a catalyst. That actually did change people. It was madness. But the kind of madness that is willing to go on a people changing and world-changing quest. Now we particularly unitarian universalist. Pride ourselves to. Some extent on our ability to rationalize. Do you think through problems. Largely this is a good thing. But there is a time. A little madness in life. Innocence. I'm suggesting forgive the pun that's sanity. It's not all that it's cracked up to be. Their limits. Do what could be gained through human reason. We know how human emotions make a tremendous difference in life. The psychologist may ask a person. How do you feel about that. Rather than what do you think about that. I recall. Counseling professor. Jack shirley who was. A chaplain at the federal narcotics hospital in lexington kentucky and also. Associate professor who likes theological seminary. He was well known for saying in his first session. Do you feel strongly about that. Backbend nearest think they should put that on his tombstone. We are both intellectual and emotional being. The question. What do you feel about this is just as important as what do you think about that. Where i grew up. In those days. Long behind us thankfully. The community was racially segregated. We were taught subtly. The racial prejudices. Of the time. Also there was some anti-jewish prejudice. I'm sorry to say my father brought into both of these. By the time i was in junior high school i begin to question these. I was raised in paducah kentucky. Small town on the ohio and tennessee rivers. But i ask why. When the greyhound bus cross the river. Did they tell. African americans to go to the back of the bus. And why. In our local greyhound bus station where there two waiting rooms. One for african americans. And1 workout cash. Why. It was a good question then it's still a good question. Well i was a teenager i caddied at the country club. Where i could not enter. And you get a hot dog i had to knock on a little door. Sidewall. The greatest influence there was the custodian. He was an african american. Yo means principal. Desegregated lincoln high school. He was very good to us caddies. He got us some golf clubs. Y'all forgot my friend and i small jobs to do around there. Enterprise. He didn't fit the stereotypes. That i've been given a black people. It's always interesting when are stereotypes of ethnic and cultural groups. Coming to contact with reality. And are found. Picture we've been given we find his false. Positive thinking is limited. But the throw away one's dreams and hopes. But leaves a spiritually empty. Sometimes we just don't use all the spiritual resources we have. There was a great example of this. Told about the secret place devotional some years ago. A true story. Between ministers the ladies of the church. Papered the parsnip. I finished they discovered that paper dover all the electrical outlets. They uncovered two or three. Let it go in the minister. Live there two years. Where is less than adequate power. Undiscovered power was available. That's what i'm talkin about undiscovered power. There is a printer book today that i cannot recall its. Title. Pointing out. The limitations. And the falsehood of what has been called. The power. Positive thinking. How can positive thinking be a message for the whole world. How can we call on people who are starving. Sorry folks to think positively. Difficult. It has gotten more mileage than any one gallon idea. How to get. It was great to written about by dr. darmon that soup eel. Very sincere gentleman. Who preached that the marble collegiate church in new york city. And it has been cloned under the title. Possibility thinking. Same thing. We need the kind of madness that sees people. Baba's ar. But for what they might become. This senile dreamer don quixote. It is rusty suit of armor. May have been mad. Bad enough to battle. With windmills. But in his madness he saw possibilities in people. Don quixote in his madness was able to see potential in people at seems like. Dead people walking around. Now we're not just talking about jesus and the symbolism here. But such other historical religious figures as confucius. Buddha. David. Francis assisi. Martin luther john calvin barton warren stone. Ralph waldo emerson. Alexander campbell aimee semple mcpherson. Gandhi. Emily others i tried to. Presenter very diverse groups are. But they all have touch. Many lives in many different ways. Now many people and hearing that a person is going to become a minister. Priest or rabbi sink. He or she. I didn't say it to me exactly has lost their mind. Perhaps. I'm sure many of my acquaintances stuff that way. My father said to be i think you're throwing your life away. But then he was a shoe salesman. There is a certain madness and religion and in other areas of life. Where people may think they can change society. And people. And make this world a better place. What madness that is. We all need some madness in our lives. To bring out our dreams and our visions and our hopes. Enter reality. People who are perfectly saying that have absolutely no madness. Are both dull and boring. Madness to sync. Is don quixote dead. What don quixote did. Was like to see people as they are but for what they might become. Now i recall the story in the book follows a in the hebrew bible. Opposed. At the direction of god. Marrying a prostitute. You seemed absolutely absurd to me for many years. And then i met a methodist minister in kentucky. Who had actually married a prostitute. It took awhile for the people in the congregation to accept her. The bishop never did i understand. But he was a very dedicated man face. She became a very dedicated woman of faith. There is a kind of madness and how people can change in life. Ira call bill williams. He had been in peoria illinois a member of the communist party in this nation. He had a religious experience. Not unlike the apostle paul he was blinded for a couple of days. And then he became a licensed christian minister. Served a couple of rural congregations. And attended. Eureka college c called just noted for having been the college of ronald reagan. This is the kind of change that has happened to some people. And i can happen. There is world-changing madness. There is certainly in don quixote a person seeking to change people. And the world. His madness. I have known people to become. Banisters. That almost no one but they themselves. Believes. They had the potential within them. Let me tell you about 1. I'm at richard and i'm only going to use his first name. A transylvania college when i was transferring in. And he had just. Flunked out. He is. From the clumsiest person i've ever knew. We could label him a clips in some respects. One day working on the grounds crew. He didn't know how to turn off the ride on lawn mower. At lunch you left it running tied to a tree. He went to a little congregation west kentucky to place called a center. Where he was fired. Lasting only 3 months. Much of the membership. Lives in that little town the 15 or 1,600. The head new tire on the street. He made a farewell visit to every member in town. And years later they could show you the tar he tracked it on his last visit. Ended up serving our community church in massachusetts. And after many failures he finally to got his degree from a theological school. He had gone from failure to failure to failure. But he finally succeeded. almost no one believed. He had that potential in him. It is this sort of lamancha madness. That is needed to meet many of the challenges of life. He had much more potential than anyone realize. And that's true. Of ourselves. And the most of the people we meet in life. We constantly underestimate the potential in ourselves and another people. It isn't the power of positive thinking. But that most people have. Considerable hidden potential that needs are they. Nar we realize. You have to be a little mad to think people can change. Are you can be. Part of a catalyst of changing the world. That certainly sounds like madness. Don quixote we could agree with. Suffering from such misperceptions of life. That it became madness. But he was able to change people. Embassy potential and people at society and given up on. With all don quixote's madness. He had a mission in life and made a question. To change the world. That one form of counseling. This called. And i'm not very fond of it's called reality therapy. It is highly rationalistic. Popular among the military and some others. But i'm not sure that the best thing for people who are emotionally disturbed. There's a heavy dose of reality. My experience in counseling is that the counselor who talks less and listens more. Is effective. Purcell in mcalester that's busy cutting your person. But he. Archie. Should do. The story of don quixote. Is about the human struggle. For identity. Was that powerful question who am i. It's a struggle. In every age. The smile old man don quixote unleash the madness of a quest. In the age. And chivalry was long over. We also have to admire his loyal friend. Sancho panza. Who is willing out of brotherly allowed to enter into the fantasy of don quixote. Sancho panza gives us a picture of what. Loyal. And loving friends. Should do and be. Esesa madness. But also the possibilities. We struggle in every age will this question. Who am i. And indeed. Dietrich bonhoeffer. Talk about. Dad in the struggle. Before he was executed by the nazis. Well our fantasies inquest. Do not begin to equal that of don quixote. He represents the human struggle for identity. We longed to feel we are not just part of the crowd. Unimportant. As individuals. In this madness don quixote sold the hope and possibilities. In the people he met. We are forced as we wrestle with this issue to admit. That we. As individuals. And humankind need some lamancha madness. Has anyone ever said to you. You are out of your mind. I'll just probably has happened to you. They probably said it. Do your back. There needs to be a bit of don quixote in each of us. Their willingness to question life or goals that seem totally impossible. Are you willing to risk being identified as mad at some point. Are crazy. For venturing out and seeking. To effect change. To bring about human justice there's a real madness. In a world. Where there's so much suffering. We are used to call calling people to be rational. Take maybe you use. And what makes sense in life. But the question. To build a better world calls for. Some. La macho madness. So today. I don't call you to sanity. I call you. Des madness. I'm in. Go in peace. The worship is over. Now let the service begin.

uufvb_org

2014Jan19Sermon128.mp3

Well good morning. Did you notice the frost on the rooftops this morning. A beautiful winter day here in vero beach and welcome. To the unitarian universalist fellowship we are congregation of open minds. Loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best individual selves. Even this together we work to make a better world. And please know that you are welcome i say this every sunday just as you come to us. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight. Black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you were feeling on top of the world this morning or down in the dumps or somewhere in between we welcome you just as you come to us. In all of your humanity and your need. We hope you will find our service this morning meaningful and enriching. And he will find something here this morning. The nurse is your spirit and feed your soul and gives you renewed energy and purpose. For the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. And now we open our service with the words of martin luther king. He wrote. We who must keep the church going and keep it alive have certain basic guidelines to follow. To preach good news to the poor. To heal the brokenhearted. To set at liberty. Them that her captives. You see the church is not a social club. The church is not an entertainment center. The church has purpose. The church is dealing with ultimate concern. Sunday after sunday. Week after week people come to church with broken hearts. Take me to word of hope the church heals the brokenhearted. Circulate the role of the church is to free people. People who are slaves to prejudice. Slaves to fear. The church is called is set free. Those who are captive descent free those that are victims of the slavery of segregation. I discrimination. I'm caught up in the slavery of fear and prejudice. These our our guidelines and if we will only follow the guidelines we will be doing what the church is called to do. We won't be a little social club. We won't be a little entertainment center. But will be about the serious business of bringing god's kingdom. To the earth. Pull from time to time in my life as a minister i like to something different than a sermon in this morning is one of those occasions ivan. The reverend crystal brazil to help me talk about. Race matters. Because race does matter still in our culture we're going to have about a 25-minute conversation and hopefully it will be helpful to you and your thinking on this martin luther king weekend the crystal i want to thank you so much for smaller so honored to have you as grand marshal tomorrow and i want to thank you for helping with this service it has been 50 full synthetic delivered his famous civil rights speech we all acknowledge that this past year and if progress has been made both in terms of remediation of the historic oppression and racist american culture and injust everyday race relations in america but as we have discussed over the past weeks you and i we both feel that race matters in america perhaps more now than it ever has charles blow many of you read him in the new york times. He reflected on the 50th anniversary of martin luther king by saying. That while called i'm absolutely convinced. Enormous steps have been made in american race relations because most laws that explicitly codified discrimination have been stricken from the books. Andover tartick elated racial animus has become more socially unacceptable and diversity of cause championed by many. But my worry is that we have hit a ceiling of sorts in race relations in america he writes as we get closer to a society where explicit bias is virtually eradicated. We no longer have the stomach to deal with the more sinister issues. Implicit biases. And of structural and systemic racial inequality and then he he right i worry that there is a distinct and never more vocal weariness. And in some cases outright hostility about the continued need an america to focus on racial inequality. Ebony he quotes on 2011 harvard study which found that quote white now believe they have replaced blacks as the primary victims of racial discrimination in contemporary america go figure that one. Ll nae says we appear to be reset regarding as a culture moving in fact in the opposite direction of martin luther king's dream. Now i want to talk ever so briefly before i asked crystal to respond about a concept called. Privileged distress and i'm going to be writing about this and wednesdays press journal in the news weekly they're going to publish this where i explicitly talk about. Are privileged distress and this is an idea that comes from unitarian universalist douglas muder it was anyone of your recent world magazines i want to call him ever so briefly because i'm privileged. Is one of the reasons why american culture is not moving forward and not hanging with race relations he right. Privileged distress happens like this. As a society progresses toward justice. Historically favored groups start losing some of their privileges. They still have her rights unfair advantages over the rest of society. But notice that those advantages begin to shrink. And if you belonged or those groups he write and never noticed your unfair advantages all you see is that you are now quote on quote worse off. Society rights used to fit you like a glove is a privileged person but it no longer does so you feel persecuted. Even though you're still a privilege by any objective measure. And then this is it this is a great little example here. Once he writes i identified the pattern of privilege distressed i saw it everywhere. Christian's imagine a war on christmas because they can't dominate the public square anymore when tax rates went up after falling for a generation rich people felt punished. Male employees believe they are losing religious liberty if they can't deny contraceptive coverage for their female employees and then quoting the same harvard study the blow did. White sauce anti-white by us as more prevalent than anti-black bias and more recently charged george zimmerman as a real victim in the fatal shooting of trayvon martin. Anthony goes on to give other examples. So. It is a topsy-turvy cultural i believe this is utter dangerous nonsense for us to to be turning the tables on african-americans and suggesting that now. Whites are the victims of racial oppression. It's just it's crazy an end so i wanted to turn it over to you crystal what why do you think that the race matters increasingly now and in american culture. I'd like to comment on something you said about. Stealing white people feeling persecuted. We have to keep it in your face. And to some degree breaks my heart to say this to my congregation. I'm not talkin about you particularly but. In the world. We as black people have to keep it in your face that it that we're not through with this project yet the same way women had to do in order to get the right to vote. We had to keep it in the face of men. Until we got. The vote on the gay communities keeping it in the face that was my next thing. Because if we don't. The power the power structure will go to sleep and think the job. They know the job is not done but they'll just be through with it and move on to something else. And. So. When they complain about al sharpton and. Jesse jackson continuing to talk about race issues. I think we need to. We need to. Clarify the difference between being a racist. And being racial. Jennifer. They are. Ratio. Panera comments. Because in order to be racist you have to have. Power. Over someone you have to be able to suppress. Are oppressed people black people. Can't be racist. We have no power. Over anyone. But we are racial. Now there's another definition to racism. That says believing that another race is superior. I would accuse jesse jackson and al sharpton and black people in general of being. Falling into that category because. We generally think white people are superior. And so with that thought. Then we approach our issues thinking that we have to do things because you are superior. That's an army. And the people we're dealing with bill that they are superior. And so. I think we have to keep. Working on race matters until. Number one black people. Realize. Embody and fully comprehend. That we are not. Inferior. Just because. Of what said on television was written in books. Etcetera. We are not inferior but until we invited that. Then we think. We're. Inferior and therefore we think. White people. Many americans don't realize the power of that historic prejudice and an oppression. Set the gun into the psyches of of generation after generation that stuff lingers that has a has a shelf life of its own it's like looks like garlic the sean hannity's the rush limbaugh's of bill o'reilly's you know what they want the society we can move on why are the racial people like jesse jackson why do they keep insisting we focus on this and the reason is that we have so much to undo. You know if. If we only had one project in the black community. If we only had one issue. It wouldn't be as difficult to listen to and to resolve. But as you said that it's theirs. There's thousands of issues their layers and layers and layers. What are the examples that comes to mind is when bill clinton. If you're familiar with the tuskegee. Experiment where they gave syphilis to. Black man and didn't treat it prank. Okay. So. Bill clinton gave them. Certificates of appreciation a few years back. It probably cost $20 from staples to paper in what happen. But what you didn't address. Is the fallout from those men being. Given syphilis there. Their children. Their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren suffered as a result of that experiment. What i think he should have done was to give several generations freestyler ship education college education. And guaranteed jobs. Because the fallout from that one little thing. In society in our history. Has permeated that family forever. Until something some action is taken. To really apologize for that. And when i speak of apology. I think of how. Japanese-american. Received. What is the word. Preparation preparation thank you for being incarcerated during the second world war. African-american says never received. Any reparations for having been put into slavery. Now maybe. Affirmative action is a form of reparation but it wasn't call that. So why do people think. Well it's about time to end that we've been doing it for ten years now. You should have caught up by now but it's not called reparation. It's called the primitive axe. There's been no apology. There has been nothing to. Say we're sorry and then let's do this about it. So why people don't realize that and black people don't either. That there has been a form of apology. And that there has been a form of reparation. And i think until america does that. We're going to continue to have race matter. Because it's not going to be balanced until that happens so great so i want to move from the national level down to the local 11 katya story i think was very telling about the dodgers neither real local angle about dodgertown and you know the truth is that a vero beach. Has been part of the deep south. And while we've made great progress here in vero beach. Since i've, i've had several startling experiences one of which was an afterthought home invasion on the island when brian simpson was killed by two young african-american males who got pushed into a into a bathroom and got scared and shot through the door and killed him at my rotary club meeting the assistant the one of the key officers of the sheriff's department came and basically told the club that here on the island if you notice anything that looks out of place just call the police. And i spoke up and another one that spoke up about and let's hope it doesn't become a crime to walk while being black on the island but none of the other club members could even here that could even sense that there was anything wrong other than of course we know black people don't belong on the island and i've had other experiences here that have instilled in me a. Deep concern about about how race matters here in indian river county just wanted you to address you've been a leader and gifford community in it and end in the broader vero beach community why does rice race matter in particular here in vero. I first met you just correct one statement i am not. Leader in gifford. I serve in different kayla i am not one of the leaders i don't make decisions. Forget for then i don't speak for gifford. However in terms of. Race issues here. In indian river county there two comments that i'd like to make number one. We heard about. The dodgers state the dodgers and shoot from the story this morning. You know at one point gifford was a thriving community because of. Appreciation. The dodgers couldn't go to vero beach but the dodgers went to gifford and at that time gifford had. A post office. A hotel. A theater. They had restaurant shops they had everything that was needed. The house all of the black people. Who were part of the dodger team or who came to visit the dodger team. Or winter dodger games. So it was a thriving community until integration. And then at that time people would leave different go into vero beach. So we look at gifford now and think all those poor people they've been. For all their lives know it they have. Been through the experience of being a thriving. Community. But now there are no jobs. Ben gifford. And that impacts the community on a tremendously. Make the creature a tremendous hardship. Because if you don't have jobs and you can't beat your family. And the children that are growing up don't see jobs they grow up and leave grow up and leave. And so that's one of the issues in terms of. The. Indian river county. Indian river county receives a lot of money. Because. Gifford is a part of indian river. But that money is not spin. In indian river. I'm sorry and give different right. Are the second thing i like to say about racial issues in indian river county. Is from my personal training and belief. That consciousness is reality. And i think that gifford can turn the table on its experience. By changing its consciousness. We've done this as a community i say we. In terms of me being a part of gifford. Bicolor. There was a time when indian river county wanted to. Replace. Larry staley who was the facility manager. Swimming pool. And they just decided on a friday they would that he was going to be. Put out your shield. And you would no longer be. Facility manager. We made phone calls on friday. And saturday morning 400 people showed up and said no we're not going to let this happen. An indian river county changed its mind. It's so we have to go back to the drawing board and larry is still at the silly the manager they won't touch it. Because they know the community. Will stand by him. But we don't do the same thing on other issues was sebastian high school football coach who was summarily dismissed by. For no apparent good reason and now that the tension in that all the black coaches decided they couldn't work for the new principal at all that's if it's a tragedy there too. But what i'm saying is it's about consciousness if. Gifford would put. Their head together. And stop thinking that white people are superior. That they have to live under. Local power structure. Well they did it once before. This was long before i came here i heard heard about this when i was. Publishing the newspaper there. When the county would not. Creeper filleti's have clean water in gifford. The people had to come to a certain building in downtown vero to get clean water. And gifford was so upset about that that they. Protested they even had the television stations come out. And this is how they changed. That procedure so they got on the water system so it's not like we don't know how to do it but they're just so many issues. I think if we could just take one at a time just put all of our energy on one issue. And focus on that and get that one result and then move to the next one. We would have a greater success at changing things in gifford. Not trying to change things in. The power structure but changing things in gifford changing things. In our minds. To make a. But i'm not one of you sent it. But you are a you are an influencer you have a. Maybe not official power but you have. Persuasion powers hopefully. I don't seem to have any power. You know i'm speaking to my own community here and i'll tell you one of the reasons we don't because the churches don't teach. Here we have a minister. Who is interested in making these changes. And. And you will talk to the community here. You will talk to the. The committee's. You talk to the members. You keep it on our minds that these are things we need to do and this is how we can do it. But the pastor's in indian river county. As i'm sorry and gifford as a group. Are not together to work on that issue. And i can't say why i just know it would make a difference. In los angeles i was part of a ministerial team. Where we wanted to change the law. In california. To give us permission. To give us permission. To teach ex-cons. How to read. Because that the inability to read contributed to as soon as i'm sure we had to get permission from the from california. State legislature to do that. But we did it the minister's came together we had our meetings we had our congregation we had thousands of people working with us to get the job done. We got the job done. She got permission. To teach ex-cons how. Wonderful. Let me move on to work to our third and last focus here. Whether we are proud or comfortable with the demographic you see seated here this morning. This congregation is largely white and largely privileged economically we have very few people of color who attend or part of our community so so what can what can we do given our demographic and given our kind of privileged comfortable status. What can we do here in this community to to help with race matters crystal first weekend sing the net the black national anthem a little more slowly. And for the sake of time i'm just going to read my comments without commentary back you bet. I think our congregation is doing a fabulous job. And i almost want to say just just keep doing what you're doing in that would be sufficient. But i think in our congregation we should also study black history ourselves. So that we know more about the whole of american history. We should study black history. We should study antibody emerson not just. Rita dan n repeat the word we should study emerson and understand. The value of consciousness and affirmation. I think we should go into gifford or any other community that is underserved. With an intention of social justice of being allies. And yes helping to make amends but not. With an attitude of feeling guilty. And not feeling like a we've come here to help you. No. Come into the community like we're working on this. Together i like the way. Johnny marr. Came into gifford. And start working with the leaders there. He didn't come in with the plan but he started working one-on-one with now that's leadership in gifford. I would say he's in a position to make some changes there. Same with dick hate. And. He the way he came into gifford is. Gifford ask for clinic clinic they said not when he doctors dictate showed up that people love him and respect him because he like john studies. The people that he's serving. I think that we should encourage the people to interact. But let me see what am i trying to say. Oh i know i know. And when you're working with the people to encourage them to know. Their own power and their own beauty and the heroes. Avera group. You know we can go in and talk about american heroes. But they're usually white male. If we're going into a mexican mexican community let's talk about their heroes. Encourage the people to think about how powerful. They are the ones who want to serve and i want to. Just close by saying we started yesterday. Since i run the gifford youth orchestra i can do whatever i want to do with them. And so yesterday i started the junior toastmasters club with the children. And. One of the girls gave her first speech and what she said. It's just so powerful and when i think about martin luther king. And how. He changed. The face. Of the world. Because he knew who he was. This young lady's she was asked to speak on. Who is your role model. And she said hi. I am my own role model and i dream about her all the time. And i think about what i want her to do and what i want. Her to become and then i work towards that. And i think that's something that we can encourage. People in the communities that we go to serve. We can encourage them to realize. That they should be their own. Role model. And not look to the outside not look to other people. To be their role models their savior is their god. But to find it with them. Wonderful. And i just want to close by. Saying that again 50 years ago martin luther king dreamt i have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation. Where they will not be judged by the color of the skin but by the content of their character. We have a long way to go to achieve that and we must stay the course my message to you as it as a community here in vero beach we must speak up. And stay the course and be a voice for continuing to remind the people around us. The race. Matters. Race. Matters. When you refer to. Martin luther king speech i have a dream. The general media would like for us to stay asleep and dream. He had that dream in 1963 he died in 1968 45 years. He continued to make a difference war on poverty war on the vietnam war. I would like to say yes have a dream but wake up. And stay awake. And do your work just dream 8 hours a day. The other 16 or whatever. Whatever the number is. They awake. And do your work and i would like to. Give thanks to my community here at the uu church. For doing the work for staying awake. And taking steps to make a differ. That's why i'm a member here. Because this church believe. In social justice. And walk the walk in. Can you please stay crystal for being with us. And we send you on your way again with the words of martin luther king. He wrote. We are in a beautiful struggle for a new world. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter but beautiful struggle. For a new world. Shall we say the odds are too great shelby tell our sisters and brothers. The struggle is too hard. Will imessage be that there are forces of american life. That militate against their arrival as full persons. And we send our deepest regrets. Or will there be another message. Of longing of hope of solidarity with their yearnings of. Commitment to their cause whatever the cost. The choice is ours. And though we my preferred otherwise. We must choose in his crucial moment of human his. Going peace. And unrest. Peace. And unrest.

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2010Oct03sermon32.mp3

uufvb_org

2015Mar15Sermon128.mp3

Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. We're very glad you've chosen to start this beautiful day here on the treasure coast with us. We were congregation of open minds loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become. Our best individual cells even as together as a congregation we work to make our world a better place. Please know that you are welcome precisely as you come to us this morning. Whether you are young or old gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. What do you have a ged or a phd. Whether you were a first-time visitor or been coming for decades. Whether you're feeling absolutely on top of the world this morning or worried or anxious or sad about something. We welcome you. Just as you can. We hope you'll find our service this morning meaningful and enriching that you'll find something here. To take with you. The nurse is your spirit. And feed your soul and gives you a renewed energy and purpose. Enjoy for the living of life and the days ahead. These words from my colleague penny hackett evans. Each of us brings a separate truth. Here this morning. We bring the truth of our own life our own story we don't come as empty vessels. But rather we come as full people. People who have our own story. Around truth. And we seek to add to our truth and to add to our stories. This room is rich with truth. Rich with experience. All manners of people are here. Needy people. Joyful people. Brighton. Anxious. Bored people. Grateful. We all bring our truth with us. May we all recognize the truth and the story in everyone's life. And may we hear and honor the truth. That we all bring. As we gather together. Together we have truths. Together. We have a story. Together. We are. A religious commune. This morning's meditation and please there will be about 45 second. Silence following. The reading of this aisle and the meditation. with the ringing of the bell. This comes from david rees williams one of our 20th century minister. Who wrote. The precious life that is in you and me. Is the same at all. Rich and poor wise and simple strong and feeble we are joined together. In a mystic oneness. Who is soros we may never know but who is reality we may never doubt. When one suffers we all suffer. When one hungers for bread we all hunger. When one tramps the streets in search of work we all tramp. When one destroys a human life we all share the guilt. And when one attends is her or her heart's desire. We are all partners in that troy. This mystic identity. Of the one with the many. Was affirmed by hosea. Buddha. Jesus. Gandhi. And martin luther king. It has been glimpsed by all nearly all the great sears. And saints of humanity. We are our brothers and sisters keepers. Because every person is but our larger self. Lego sense of our vital unity with men and women everywhere possess our minds and our hearts be whole. Thou shalt love thy neighbor. As thyself. Because thy neighbor. Is. So in the 19th century and bus and they called us god's frozen people. So much for that i guess. Thank goodness and thank goodness for that him know which has so many multicultural. Pieces of music as we expand our musical horizons. I have an old friend her name is pat heath and debbie and my friend from plainfield you remember pat heath's she was in our congregation there. She's pet is able to trace her family's huguenot roots back to 17th century france. The huguenots some of you may know we're protestant reformation sect who. Like so many other european religious minorities including the unitarians. Mercilessly persecuted. By the established roman catholic church. And we're finally forced those who had not already been killed. To flee france altogether. The story of their escape which i told you the first that sunday you called me as your minister i told you the story. The story about their escape. Has been orally passed down in pat's family for generations. Is that her huguenot ancestors were jammed into a tiny boat. And was forced to row toward england across the frigid. And choppy english channel. As they began to roll for their lives across the treacherous waters. It became painfully clear. That they were just too many people. In the small vessel. And unless something was done and done quickly the book would swamp and all of them would perish. In the frigid channel. So what did they do. Did they draw lots and throw the losers overboard. Did they set upon the elderly the sick or the defenseless young and toss them into a watery death. Or did they decide by some sort of rational spreadsheet. Who were the least productive members of the community and force them out of the boat. No. They could have decided of course on any of these. More or less reasonable courses of action. But those believe beleaguered huguenots did something else something. Far nobler and lovely ron ultimately something far wiser. Without discussion or dissension. The people in that tiny boat decided that they will take turns. Several of them at a time swimming alongside the boat. So for the many hours of that cruel crossing. As of the few swimmers tired others would quietly willingly. As members of that tight-knit community. Take their place. In the numbing waters. And that's it was. Her family's heritage says. But the small boat and everyone. Who sought refuge on it. Survived. The crossing. Does beleaguered huguenots arrive safely on the shores of england and my friend pat tells me. But they are prospered down the generations since because they understood. Without so much as a word passing between them. That is members of a community they collectively had an obligation. For the well-being and the survival of all. Story number 2. On december 7th 1941 the japanese imperial navy and air force launched the devastating surprise attack. On pearl harbor hawaii. And the very next day the congress of the united states meeting in joint session. Immediately after president franklin delano roosevelt. Day of infamy speech. Declared war. Germany and japan. For the next 4 years. As you all know. The american people came together as one purposeful people. United in their efforts to win the war. Preserve the american way of life. And rid the world of the tyranny. Which so threatened. There were many personal sacrifices to make and hardships and sorrows. To bear but the american people banded together. To ensure the nation's survival. And i want you to look at some of the posters. From wwii era as i speak now these are just going to run through. So you can get a sense of. How the american people. Do together. Victory gardens were planted. Carpool. We're form millions of men and women voluntarily enlisted in the military risking. The ultimate sacrifice. Of their lives. Everyone cooperated almost everyone in with massive coupon rationing. Add recycling effort. Labor unions and management worked together to increase material production. Countless housewives rolled up their sleeves and became rosie the riveter. During world war ii. As any of you who were part of that greatest generation no. All 130 million americans came together. Across racial. Ethnic. Generational. Political and economic divide. And cooperated with and sacrifice for one another. Until germany and japan. Defeated. And then tailpiece. Could be restored around. The globe. And these posters. Dory number three. Fast forward now please. To america today. In the year 2015 when the whole idea of community the whole idea of our belonging to one another. Seems terribly threadbare. I offer two divergent and i think alarming images. For you to consider the first. The sad news this winter out of california and other places that measles. A daily and disfigure a deadly and disfiguring disease. Which we thought we had eradicated in america decades ago through. The wise universal vaccination of the young. Has resurfaced as you know in the population. And is once again causing many kids to become very sick. In some cases. What is the cause of. You all know. And it my view is ridiculous. And dangerous caught. The cause of this outbreak is that hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of american parents. Are insisting against all logic. And the irrefutable science. Did the measles vaccine is safe. The fey need the quote personal freedom and choice not to inoculate their children. To ensure the safety of all. Thomas frieden director of the cdc puts it this way. Study after study has shown. But there are no negative long-term consequences. Of the childhood vaccine. And the more kids who are not vaccinated. The more they are at risk and the more they put their neighbors children. At risk. As well. But today many america. Bar. Too many americans believe that their personal desire to quote. Preserve their individual freedom of choice. Is more important than the hell. And the safety. Of the population. We are becoming. I fear. A self-absorbed insular. Selfish and irrational. The second image of the weakening bonds of our community i offer is one even closer to home. My guess is that most of you recognize this iconic image. It is known as the gladstone flag a revolutionary war flag. With a yellow field depicting a rattlesnake actually a deadly. Eastern diamondback rattler. Coiled and ready to strike with the emphatic words. Don't tread on me. Beneath. The flag is named you may not know i have to go online to figure out all this stuff. After an american general and statesman christopher gladden. Who designed it in charleston south carolina in 1775. During the early days of the american revolution. To express his and other colonists angry resistance. To the oppressive and absolutely brutal policies. Of the english king and his occupying armies. Soon this flag became the battle flag of the newly-formed american navy and marine. And became one of the war's leading symbols of freedom and liberation. From british tyranny. So how is his leg used today. Perhaps many of you like me have noticed it lately all over this town. Flying defiantly on flag poles outside of home. And displayed on the bumper sticker on the bumpers of cars and pickups. The flags been adopted in american culture today for better and worse as a libertarian symbol. And a symbol of what is called the conservative tea party movement. On a website titled the humble libertarian. It states that the motto don't tread on me is being a brace today by american libertarian. Who are basically saying to their government. This is the quote the website. I'm mad as hell. And i'm not going to take it anymore. And what are they mad about. Well from everything i can read online and elsewhere. They are mad about any government control or regulation. Government are mad about governmental programs especially those. Designed to help the disadvantaged than the poor. They're mad about paying their taxes. That are required of them by these governmental regulations and program. The bottom line is it today the don't tread on me flag don't tread on me don't tread on me don't tread on me oh by the way don't tread on me. Originally a symbol. A resistance against a great foreign tyranny. Is now being angela flown by american citizens. Who bitterly resent the workings of their own government. And bitterly resent. Being asked to support the common good. So where do these four stories lead us. What i'm really talking about today and i want all of us to grapple with this as unitarian universalist. For i believe it is terribly important for the future of our culture and our country. Is one of the most persistent and painful tensions in american society indeed alsip. Namely the persistent. Struggle. And creative answer play. Between individualism. And collectivism. There is a persistent struggle and creative interplay between these two things. Since our beginnings as a nation 200 almost 250 years ago. There's been a persistent and often bitter philosophical and inevitably. Political struggle. Between individualism which can be summed up i think as i've done it the need valuing desire. To look out for the benefit of one's own self and one's own family and on the other side collectivist. I need value and desire to look out for the benefit of the whole of cyst. To lookout. For the common good. Now in every country i know of and every culture inoa. These two opposite with canby oppositional perspective. Which constantly both clash and interact with one another. Edwards both have vocal advocates on the extremes. Vie for dominance not only in the political marketplace. But also in our cultural narrative. Indeed much of the seeming intractable and nasty. Political and policy paralysis. But now grips washington dc. Is i think a large part. Due to the fact that in our time the american people. Are pretty much evenly philosophically split. About which of these two perspectives. Hold sway. Over our cultural life. And here's how that breaks down. The next flight. The way i. Individualism tends to focus on personal freedom. Laissez-faire as opposed to regulated capitalism. Restrained government. Anti-regulation pretty much of any sort auntie taxi. And the label libertarian where is. The collectivist side. Tends to focus on community concern. A more regulated economy muscular government. They're not afraid or opposed to regulations or taxation. And that leads you to the word communitarian. And that's what this chart i finally arrived. Core of what i really want to talk about this morning. The painful and entrenched divide in american culture between those on the libertarian. An individualistic side of the equation and those on the communitarian. Or collective site. It is my belief of late. That in america our culture and our cultural and philosophical conversation. Has become dangerously imbalanced in the direction of individualism. And libertarianism and away. From. Communitarian values. It is further my belief that if we in america as americans are ever to achieve. True health and well-being as a society. We must purposely and quickly restore the balance. Between these two perspectives. My first two stories this morning about my friend pat's huguenot ancestors. Surviving. The crossing of the english channel by quote-unquote each. Taking their turn in the channel. And my second story about the american people's fierce sense of oneness. Purpose and belonging. During wwii our stories about active. Communitarian side of the equation. Andarine painful contrast i think. To my last two stories about the excessive libertarian side of the equation. The scores of american parents insisting they have the right against all science and reason. To refuse to vaccinate their children. And. Is individualist flags flying all over town don't tread on me. As though they are being personally oppressed and enslaved. By their own government. And the need to preserve the common good. I saw another worrisome bumper sticker the other day on a pickup truck. Which read. I love my country. It's my government. Great. Good thinking. Again. I believe right now in america in the fluid. And furious contest between individualism and collectivism and please remember. But each of these polar perspective has value in their own right. And no one most especially me is suggesting that we can simply choose one of these over the other. But then the fluid and furious contest. Between individualism and collectivism or individualism seems now to have an unwise. And culturally dangerous upper hand. I am passionately persuaded. But america is it acumen best. When again it manages to balance. The rights and the freedoms of individuals. With the needs and the health of the whole community and this is where the idea of communitarianism. Can play a constructive role in bringing us back into the balance. Communitarianism and now i want to tell you what that is. Communitarianism is the social and political philosophy. Emphatically upholds the primacy and importance. Of the social realm. It emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. And suggest that a person's individuality. Is first and foremost the product of community relationships. And responsibility rather than a product. Derive only from personal traits and freedoms and ran would hate this idea. Communitarianism asserts. The human identity. And well-being. Must begin not with the individual. But with community. And not in the atomistic. Speer. So where is libertarianism or atomistic individualism. Always seeks to protect and enhance. Personal autonomy. Individual rights. Individual prerogative. Communitarianism seeks first to encourage and defend the common good. The sense of community belonging and responsibility but again. This is very important we seek balance here. Without ever losing sight. Give me the terry. Of the importance and the value of individual rights and individual liberty. In the early 1990s in response to what they perceive. To be a breakdown of the moral fabric of society. Engendered by excessive individualism. Philosophers i'm not sure how you pronounce his. At the zinnias his last name. And william ladson. Articulated something they called the responsive. Communitarian. Movement. Which simply means. Ensuring both the common good. And individual. Autonomy. And right. Lying at the heart of responsive communitarianism and the word responsive simply means here. But this communitarianism is democratic not despotic. Or dictatorial. Line at the center. Is the idea that people. You and i. Phase 2 major sources. What they call. Normativity we've already discussed. The common good. Ensuring the welfare of all and individual autonomy and rights ensuring. The maximum freedom that can be provided in a community college. So responsive communitarianism. Seeks to strike a philosophical balance by saying. That strong individual rights and freedoms are good thing. But. They presume first and foremost. Strong responsibilities. For the common good. Of the whole society which also is it. In other words. Communitarianism. Which many of you i suspect or not to do with that particular word. Would not have us neglect either the individual. Nor the society as a whole but again they emphasize. We are to truly have a healthy and humane society. We must always focus first. On the relational needs of the whole society our relationships with others. Before we think of our individual selves. No. I want to close this morning by looking briefly at the seven principles. Of our faith and reflect on how communitarianism. As i have just articulated it fits. With our core values. As i think you can see the principles of our faith. Carefully lift up both the rights and the needs and the liberties of individuals. And the rights and the needs and the demands of the larger social order. An individualistic side we have the inherit the first one the inherent worth and dignity of every person. The need for number three exceptions of one another that means you no tolerance and allowing a person to be who they are. And encouraging them to spiritual growth. And then the. 5th 1234 fifth principle the right of conscience at your own conscience. And the right of the democratic process where is the other. Econo communitarian side we have principal number to justice equity and compassion. And then we have. The goal of work world community number 6. Peace liberty and justice for all. And the other communitarian value respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are apart. What i'm saying here. Is it as we in this congregation. Engage with our neighbors. And our friends. In the all-important american conversation. About the interplay between honoring individual liberty. And assuring the common good. We can look to our own face. Define some sort of proper balance. Again my passionate concern at this particular moment. In the american experiment. And it is still that. Is it individualism. Is running wild. And all out of proportion. To health and goodness. And that is a people we need to return. To our primary commitment as communitarianism would have it. To our social relationships with. And our moral responsibilities to one another. Like those wise huguenot jam together. On a small boat. We americans all need again. And again and again and again. To take our turn. In the channel. And to remind ourselves. I'll berenda soluble belonging. With every man woman and child with whom we share this culture. So that together. That's inhumane. And caring community. We can make it. To the other side. And i singing mean. By god. And i leave you with the words of clarissa estes. Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world. All at once. But stretching out to man the part of the world. That is within our reach. Any small column thing. But one soul can do to help another soul. To assist some portion of this poor suffering world. Will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom. Will cause the critical mass to tip. Toward the enduring good. What is needed. For dramatic change. Is an accumulation of acts. Adding. Adding to adding more continually. We know she writes in conclusion. That it does not take everyone on earth. To bring justice and peace but only a small determined group. Will not give up. During the first. Or the second. For the 100th gale. And then she hands. When a great ship is in harbor and more. It is safe. There can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships. Our belts. Go to your week. And be a good citizen. Concern for everyone around you.

uufvb_org

2010Oct17sermon32.mp3

uufvb_org

2015Feb22Sermon32.mp3

Good morning nancy ganz please if everyone is glad it's in the 80° today but the warm weather. My goodness welcome to the treasure coast. And welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we are carnations the slide set. Open minds loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best individual cell. Even as together as a congregation we work to make this world a better place. Please know that you're welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you are young or old gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. What do you have a ged or a phd. Whether you are a visitor for the first time this morning oregon coming for decades. Whether you were feeling this morning absolutely on top of the world. Or down in the dumps or maybe somewhere in between. We are delighted to see you. Justice. We hope you will find our service this morning meaningful and enriching. And that you will find something here this morning to take with you that nourishes your spirit and feeds your soul and gives you renewed energy and purpose and joy. For the living of life and the days and weeks ahead. We come to this place. Because we need each other. We need to see each other. We need to touch each other. We need to smell each other and we need to hug each other. So we come to this place. We come to work. We come to talk. To sing. To laugh. Enter dance. We call this a religious community not because this is holy ground. But because what we do here. What we say here together. And what we are here. Makes it a sacred gathering. Good morning everyone. I am delighted to be here last night and. I share there in a little bit. What a fabulous. Unitarian universalist fellowship you have established here in vero beach. So wonderful to see. One of my ministerial colleague earl hole. Every once in a while someone realizes. Spirituality ensure. Not. This isn't for some reason. I believe believe. Someone declares. Continuing they say. Harkins. Much more likely. Church on sunday. The response to which is. Of course you can. The more important question is. Whether you are. Believe. Matter little if that's all they are. Express matters more. We believe in education. We believe in medicine. Schools or hospitals are only one way of expressing such values but they are away. We are dealing with one of the old. Of truth. Are more important only as they are. Express. In some concrete action. 44. Out there. There are millions of people i know without knowing it. But they concern me. I know you are unitarian-universalist without showing it. People in other words believe in the value. Freedom of conscience. Tolerance of diversity. Reason a democracy. Fail to expressive. Buy some commitment torture. Which attempts. However imperfectly. Future is not spirituality i know that. And the church is a very imperfect institution. People are imperfect. The church is people. The church is imperfect there's just no way around it or otherwise. I believe in spiritual i also believe in the church. And that's sometimes. Harder. Perfect world it is one of the best things. Is open to anyone who believes in spirituality. Or for that matter even people. Or say they don't. But it wouldn't be. Except for the fact are those. And express that belief by their active. Sapore. Spirituality. Is immortal. Picture. Depends upon us. It's an old truth. But there it is. This concludes. It was a woman. A rare collector's car. A beautiful high performance. 29. Italian bugatti. She went to her local roman catholic church and thought out the priest. She said sure. I just got this wonderful. Wondering if. The kindly priest. Said. I'd be very happy. Your bugatti but. What's a bugatti. Well hearing this woman hesitate. Just would not. Quite appropriate appreciation. Her new vehicle. So. She said well thank you i think maybe i better find someone else to do this. She went down the road. She sought out the priest and she said. Sure. 1929 bugatti. I was wondering if you'd be willing to bless it for me. Reply. Sure i'd be happy to bless your bugatti. What's a cannoli. And again. Feeling that the priest simply would not have the appropriate appreciation for her new vehicle. She continued on her quest. Well following this with the episcopal church. She had essentially the same experience with the assembly of god. With the jewish synagogue in at the pure mind buddhist. So finally. She decided that she would try one more institution. And yes. Return to her local unitarian universalist. She sought out the minister and she said. I've just gotten this beautiful 19:29. Well i was wondering if you'd be willing to bless it for me. Doraemon. Be happy. What's a blessing. I'm tell you this story to remind you that universes are indeed. From a different place. When it comes to our. Religious sensibilities and understanding. Nothing we're better necessarily but we are. Distinct. The question still remains. What is a blessing. How would we know one. If we saw it. Well let me return. I'd like to share. 4. Short stories. Stories are all true stories that they're on the importance. What you are doing. Here at the unitarian universalist fellowship. Abby roby. These are stories that hopefully will. Will point you towards treasures. And blessing. I'll be decidedly different. Treasures and blessings to contribute significantly. Your fella. Ensure. I think it's only fitting and appropriate. About what. As a religious move. Okay so 4. Short story. Number one. Christopher story of carol. Parts of wichita. Millier too many of you reminding you perhaps of your own story. Finding your first. Unitarian universalist fellowship. Sure. I invite you to go there in your mind. Carol. Explain. For most of my adult life. Since the time i was in high school. Finally however. Because. We wanted to church for our daughter melanie. But now. For our cell. Other confirmed non-24 the first few months. I can't believe i'm going to church. Gun sunday. I love this place. I'm amazed at how much. Actually it has enriched my life. Through the friendship. Music. Sharing a. Laugh. Peers. It is lifted my soul. Import my family and me. New meanings of human chin. Very important. Of our lives now. Sure. Without it tremendously in wrench. B presser. In our lives. Much as john just. Testify. Story number 2. Story. Some years ago. Kay's brother john. Was diagnosed. With bone. He was young. Enterprise. Husband. Father. And a marathon runner. And he fought hard. To survive. But when. Said he was not going to make it. He asked for his sister. Help. We're like her. Unitarian universalist. Didn't want a funeral mass memorial service. Sommore. Fully reflect. Then how he. Start to live his life. When the time came. The local unitarian universalist society. For john's memorial. At the church says k. During the memorial service. I kept thinking. He could have been a member here. He would have loved. He would have had a lot. Why didn't i encouraged him to join. Number three. This is my own story. I was 14. And lying. At the bottom of lake sinclair. In grosse pointe michigan. I was conscious. It was dark. And money. Quiet. Covington bold off a boat. I broken my neck. And initially at least i could not move. Slowed way down. I thought. What am i going to do here. At the time. Really couldn't do much of anything. Simply hold my breath and wait. Button. How is still at the bottom. It was still dark and muddy and very quiet. And then. I realize. Ever so slowly. I was beginning. Float to the surface. I was not in pain. But as i calmly. Became quite clear that this floating business was going to take a while. That concern me. After what seems like a very long time. My waiting at last paid off. Finally i felt the back of my head. Break the surface of the water. And i could feel the wind. Pin on my hair my scalp. I turned that point. Just a little bit. So i could get my mouth on the water and very feebly. Help. And passed out. Traction. Surgery and the most intense. Physical pain of my life. Followed over the next 3 weeks. Hospitalization and recovery. my father my two brothers. And a few friends. From time to time. Really was my mother. Was at my side everyday throughout much of the day and night. She was the one who really got me through that trial. I had always been experienced. Was emblematic the constancy of her love and. Sapore. 5 months later. Shortly before christmas. My two older brothers jack and tom and i. Solemnly walked. Our home. My dad. Just called us on the phone. To come home from a neighbor's house. As we marched into the house. I remember exactly. Where i stood. I have no idea. What was coming. As we stood in the hallway. My dad said. Boys. Your mother. Has died. A week or so earlier. My mother had collapsed unexpected. Have a brain. Handless hospital. Or so. No one really talked to me about what was going on. Score. Perhaps. And i just couldn't take a nap. Either way. I had no idea. That she might die. Nneka. I never saw my mother again. After she collapsed. Except i'm allowed children of a certain age. To visit hospital. Two brothers were able to. Visit my mom. But not me. Now. She was dead. She was 44. And i. 14. As you can imagine. It was an utterly devastating. For the whole family. And that went on. I do not understand. It is clear to me. It was my mother's death. Set me on my spiritual journey. In earnest. I turn to the church. With a new sirius. About the meaning of life and. Undoubtedly about. Demeaning. 4 long. I left the presbyterian church of my upgrade. Feeling it was just too narrow a place for me. Not all presbyterians are the same. Mayweather changed considerably since.. Church for me at the time was just too dogmatic. Good priest what i found to be an unacceptable moral superiority claiming the jesus was the one and only. I said to myself. What about all those buddhists and hindus out there. That was just one. Of my question. I have a lot of. I left the presbyterian church. Alone. In my father's car on sundays. I thought i didn't. Church. Video. The new york times. It was a long and circuitous search. I was 16 and i was in. What i would call significant spiritual pain. Pictures of course. In grief. I felt alienated and loan. I was determined nevertheless. To my integrity. Midol. It wasn't until about a year later that i finally heard about the unitarian church after. Checking out about a dozen other possibility. I looked it up. And it was like coming home. Couldn't believe it. Do they actually welcome. Myquest. Actually encouraged me to think for myself. Who they were intentionally inclusive open-minded and non-dogmatic. Wondered aloud about the existence of god which. They were active in the community working for social justice. So ironically there was no doubt now. At last i had found. Spiritual home. No. A different kind of story. Storing number for. The women. Come from all over. After agonizing. Over there just. At last. Had to sign. To have an abortion. They were waiting in the parking lot outside of a medical clinic. They were waiting there because. Protesters were. The young women. Because some of them had come from away. The protesters. Surrounding the van. And pounding on the sides of the van and yelling at the women inside the van. Plastered grotesque. Computer-enhanced pictures of fetuses. To the windows of the van while the police were busy trying to clear. Well. Clearly something. Needed to be done. The next time. But the clinic doors were blockaded. Instead of waiting in the parking lot. The women were driven to a nearby church. That created what they called a safe haven. Program. Programmers. When the planet was black. The church doors were open. Coffee pot was put on. The women and some staff members from the clinic. Eyewear brought into the church. And safety was usher. It was an especially. Powerful. A statement. Said it was a church. The head open. Provide. Sure. I'm happy to say. Where's the first unitarian society. Of milwaukee. Which i serve for many years. We went on from there. To help train hundred. A so-called escorts. Create. They're remarkably successful milwaukee clinic. Which made a huge difference. Both on the streets and in the courts. And reproductive freedom. In the metropolitan area. Of milwaukee. I tell you stories this morning. To remind you that your presence here in the treasure coast community. Is vitally important. Because there are people out there. Who need you. Because somewhere out there there are people like carol. Giving up on religion and church. I finally found archer. When her daughter melanie started asking difficult questions. Imagine living without. Why is this fellowship. Important. Because somewhere out there. In vero beach. Palm bay at fort pierce. Port st lucie. Stricken with bone cancer. But not even knowing. About unitarian universalism. In his hour of need. Why is this important. Somewhere out there there's a lonely sixteen-year-old or 26 or 46 or 66 year-old traipsing from church to church surfing the web looking for a spiritual home. And what he doesn't even know yet they're looking for you. Fellowship. Freedom. Spirituality. Community and social justice can all come together in our distinctly unique way. Why is this fellowship important. Troubling. The world is literally. 4 hour. To be at the table. As much as ever. Today. Today we need an articulate and organized. Spiritual or religious firmly counter the radical fundamentalist right. An issues like abortion. Creationism and evolution. Marriage equality climate-changing. Important issue. So please. Money. Money ultimately. Should not be the issue here. There really should. Because far more importantly. You have a treasure here. So please don't hamstring. Because of the lack of money. It's vitally important that you are here. As a liberal beacon. In a fairly conservative area. And i missed the wonder and terror of it all step up. I invite you to stuff. Imagine what you can be. Because there are people out there and arguably there are people right in your mist. Vitally need you. And invite you to reclaim your mission reason for being here. I invite you to reclaim it and yes. Ultimately i invite you to pay for it. Linda payforit gladly. It's a joy to support of vibrant fellowship like this isn't it. And don't you want to see it represent you well and the community. Please. Consider a substantial increase. In your pledge this year. Double your pleasure. Go ahead. Portland $500 or something significant. So you can meet. What is a fairly substantial goal. This year. And then. When you do. I invite you to open your doors wide. Open your heart. And reach for new heights. Of generosity and service. And then i submit. Then you will know. Absolutely and without a doubt. Then you will know. What a blessing. Friends. Life lesson. May the light of life shine upon us and shine out from within us and be gracious unto us. And bring us peace. This is the one wild and precious life. We are given. So let us all find a way. Rejoice. And be glad. Samantha.

uufvb_org

2012Jun24Sermon32.mp3

They were immigrants. Down on their luck family that no nation or community would really want. They were poor uneducated dirt farmers. With no real economic assets. Prospects or skills. Spare the tattered and stain clothing on their back. They had no savings. Or real possession. They had no schooling and honestly person terrible. Personal hygiene. They smell. I had 30 hair and terrible teeth. They were the kind of folks you wouldn't want hanging around your town and certainly would not invite into your home. They were immigrants who left their own country because they were seeking no doubt selfishly. A better life for their children and grandchildren. And they arrived in america with little else on their mind but food. And survival. Who were they. My read ancestors. John and sarah and their scrawny. Malnourished children. The year. 16:30. And they were among. 700 disheveled and undernourished. Immigrants. Crammed ignominiously on the 11 fragile ships that made up what would later be grandly called. John winthrop great fleet. Pictured there. The dropped anchor. Any protective natural harbor on the eastern seaboard of what is now the united states. In what is now called salem harbour. Massachusetts. My immigrant ancestors. We think because of a lack of available land and prosperous and densely populated salem. Soon move to rehoboth massachusetts down near new bedford near the. Near the ocean. Where they would take up the only means of making a living they knew. Again dirt farming. As far as we know in my family for several generations. The read plan managed to scratch out a living from the land. First advance of chusetts and then after another migration. In ohio. And illinois but slowly over the next 6 generations or so. My read and and ewing family fortunes and status improved. My great-grandfather harrison ewing in ohio. Succeeded in becoming a prosperous and respected physician. Attorney. And judge. My grandfather mark clayton ewing. Became a wildly successful businessman and entrepreneur. Founding several companies most notably the power company which electrify the northern third of the state of wisconsin. And thereby insured. Both the societal status and the wealth. Of my mother. And her three successful and educated brothers. The family privilege and resources which in turn were passed on. To my three brothers. And my nine. Ewing cousin. All of us recipients. Of this largesse. Pull up. Cher now. Prosperous. Play in what is called the american dream. American family story and heritage that i am proud of. A heritage. I just given me anything everything any human being could ever want or deserve but i must never forget. The terribly desperate way it all began. In 1630. With john. And sarah reed. And what i would like to begin by asking all of you on this sunday morning when i'm tackling. The thorny and controversial issue of immigration in america. What is the moral difference. Between my family's old american immigration story. And the present-day story save a poor uneducated desperate mexican family. Stealing across the u.s. mexican border at night or a family from southeast asia being smuggled into lot los angeles. In search of a better life. For there. Cells and their children what is the moral difference. None. As far as i'm. There is not one iota of moral differ. Between the story of my family's desperate arrival here almost 300 years ago on these shores. And the arrival of any one of hundreds of thousands of desperate yearning and yes undocumented. In large part. Human beings. From anywhere in the world i see no. Moral. Look folks i might as well be right out with. This morning. For the life of me i cannot understand. Appreciate or condone the fear. The hostility of the lac. Compassion so many americans what is it about half the population. Seem to have now. Toward those. Who seek to enter the united states. Most especially those. Who are undocumented. Many americans scornfully call them illegal aliens and what a curious word. Alien. The first thing i think of the somebody was a pair of antenna on their head. Coming from some other galaxies. Dangerous ugly folks. Who do not even vaguely resemble human beings that's what i. As an american citizen and the unitarian universalist. I passionately believe in these early years of the 21st century. Weiland please hear this there are undoubtedly need to be some restrictions. And policies and limitations on immigration. I believe our nation should move quickly. Florida much more open inclusive humane and hospitable attitude. For immigrants. Whether they are documented. Or undocumented. As a religious person. That is simply where i stand. And it is a clear ethical and moral place from which i will speak. No i fully understand and appreciate. That the issue of immigration in these united states. Very complicated. And controversial and it is an emotional topic and has ever searched. All of this topic the nuances are just. Incredibly. I further understand and appreciate the good and caring and thoughtful people can and do see this issue. In all of its complexity differ. Play at arrive at different conclusions. About what is the right and the best thing. For america to do. Immigration policy will no doubt play a part. Partisan role in this year's. Crucial national election. With candidates both on the right and the left arguing their different. Convictions. And conclusions that we saw that last week when the president issued his. Is it administrator of order. Barring the deportation of the so-called dream. Children. Who are brought here by their parents. And bringing this all home this morning i am certain. That not everyone in this room right now i will agree with or concur with my own religious and ethical conclusions. On this subject that i've already given voice to. About how immigration. Should be handled here in the united states. No one's perspectives or beliefs on this matter should go unheard. Nor do i believe anyone's view should go on challenge. And none should be dismissed or disregarded. Here in this congregation or anywhere else. And so to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to reflect further and be heard. I have as i already know oz. Scheduled a conversational town hall meeting to happen here. Immediately. During our coffee out after a bit of that. Which i will moderate. The last year in response to our parents and nomination the uua asking congregation. Too seriously study immigration policy. And its effect on these are the states. Are social justice council. Offered an in-depth multi-part seminar on immigration. Led by stover snook and glen rogers. And it is my hope. The fifth sunday will further and defense. All reflection on in consideration of these important issues. What am saying. Is that this service where i will offer my own perspective. As the minister of this congregation. Does not end with a.. Idioms with a,. Every america. And every unitarian universalist. Needs to thoughtfully engaged issues that surround immigration. As our nation struggles to do what is your vein. And right and its own best in. I want to get this conversation rolling this morning. By devoting the rest of the time that is mine this morning. Just sharing three interconnected for spect. About immigration. Los let me show them with your now. First. This nation i believe now desperately needs clear wise and compassionate immigration policies and laws. Present jumble. That also lacks fairness. Reasonableness. Compassion that is my first point. My second flight. For both the economic vitality and cultural health of our nation. We now need immigration laws and policies that are more open. Inclusive. Trusting. And compassionate. In the third point i wish to make. Is it the ethical principle. Social justice history of our unitarian. Universalist faith call us as americans. To advocate for greater hospitality. Openness. Inclusion and compassion. In the immigration laws and policies. Of these united states. They'll let me take each of these points. Intern. And this is clearly. The part of the sermon where if i'm not careful i could get hopelessly bogged down. In confusing the tale so i want to try to briefly describe. The current jumble that is us immigration policy. At the present time and now i quote from uua immigration. Study guide. Here is the broad outline of how our nation is handling immigration. The majority of immigrants. Cortana green card. Aziza which grants lawful. Permanent residency. Do so only. Their sponsor of a family member. Or by an employer. Who is already in the united states. Do after five years as a lawful permanent resident with a green card. An immigrant can apply for us citizenship. Put a tremendous bagwell backlog in processing these visa application. Is putting families hundreds of thousands of them. In the painful position of having to choose whether to follow the law. And be separated for up to 20 years. In some cases from their families. Or to break the law. And stay here. In order. Together. In addition to visas granted to immigrants coming to the u.s. to live permanently. That's what the green card. Visas are also granted to individuals coming to the u.s.. To fill the temporary needs. Of us employers. Primarily through the h-2a program. For seasonal agricultural workers. And the age. Reprogram. For temporary or seasonal non-agricultural workers. Like those needed at summer camp. Or ski resorts. Temporary visa programs are fraud. With your bureaucratic red tape. Delays and unrealistic apps. Far below the actual demand for such workers. As a result it is extremely difficult for enough unskilled workers. To legally enter the united states causing both employers. Both agricultural and non-agriculture. And workers to seek ways to circumvent the system. Additionally these visa programs for temporary workers. Because of the inherent imbalance of power. Between the employer. An immigrant. Are rife with opportunities. For employer abuse and exploitation. As one colleague of mine describes the situation. Once in the us. Temporary workers often face unrealistic hours. Or productivity requirements. Dangerous working conditions unfair wages. Underpayment or non-payment. For their work abusive bosses. And other exploitive. Condition. Adding to the confusion policies and laws. Is the fact that the present time in us history. Our government is aggressively deported. More immigrants. That any time in our history. Flirtations in addition to being terribly. Financially costly. Leave many employers without the labor they need infrequently force families. Two separate. Parents and children oregon underground. Causing further hardship. There's much more detail i could give you. If we had time. But this is the basic outline. Of our policy. Green cards in temporary work. And a quick. The history. Of us immigration policy is largely a sad and shameful. The more often and not reflect. Reflected the current racism and prejudices of our culture. Just one example. Our history of. Excluding immigrants. From china. Today chinese immigrants. Are welcomed as among the most productive. Beneficial. Two american society and economy with other asian people most particularly the japanese. But did you know the 19th century. Chinese laborers were welcomed on these shores because we needed them to build railroads. And work in restaurants and laundry. They were denied completely. Denied completely. The right to eventual citizenship. Dubbed the yellow peril. There's no race. There is there. The yellow peril. Chinese were denied the right to become citizens by the chinese exclusion act. Signed by president chester a arthur in. 1882. A heinous. And racist law. It was not revealed until guess when. 19. 43. From 1882. To 1943. No chinese. You're welcome. As us tennis. A pure and. Not today i have no doubt. Set it as racism directed not at the chinese but it latino people. In particular. That is largely fueling the current hysteria in our nation about immigration. And the fearful two-man to close our borders to build 20-foot walls with barbed wire. And border guards. Machine gun. But back to my main point. Well nearly everyone agrees that our nation needs fair laws and policies to regulate. And control immigration to some extent. Almost every expert who studies the nuances and details. Of the current immigration and visa laws of these united states. Concludes that the current system if it is a system at all. Is confusing. The logical on justin broken. And is. A little more little more than a jumble. Of unfair arbitrary exclusive and inhumane policies. The frequently serve neither those. Who want to become productive working citizens. Northern communities and employers. Who so desperately need specific kinds of ready and willing workers. Yes tough jobs. So. The first point i want to make. Morning. Is simply that we need. Systematic immigration reform. Weis. Clear and compassion. Reform and we need it now and we must. The man. That our national leaders most especially the president. The congress. Make immigration. Policy. A priority. No my second point. For both the economic vitality and cultural health of our nation. We now need immigration laws and policies that are more open more inclusive more trusting and compare. Here i believe. Is the current truth. About us immigration and immigrants. If you truly study the economic and the social facts. If we as americans were only looking. An immigration policy from the perspective. Of what would be best for those of us. Who are already here enjoying citizenship. If we were looking at an only for the most. Selfish perspective. The rational thing to do. That are radically more open and inclusive and welcoming. I want a repeat. If we're only looking at this from our own self-interest as those who already have the stamp of approval like. I did from. 1634 no particular reason only looking at it from her own self. Perspective. We ought to throw. The doors open. Many americans. Like that fearful letter to the editor i quoted from. Before the sermon. Continue to believe despite abundant. An irrefutable evidence. To the contrary. They believe that immigrants from mexico and other places like southeast asia. Threaten the prosperity the stability and the cohesiveness of our nation. But in fact. A healthy flow of new immigrants. Whether they are documented or undocumented educated or uneducated like my ancestors were. They continued immigrants. As they have for the entire history of our nation. To be the greatest economic and cultural engine propelling the united states. In the way prosperous diverse and healthy. Here are some persistent. And pernicious myths about immigrants. That are factually untrue. Yet continue. To be given credibility. In the public square these are myths. And i have made copies of these myths they are on the social justice table so if you want to pick them up and read about them in more detail. You can do so this morning at the social justice table. These myths. Have no basis in fact here they are. Immigrants are a drain on our social services. Including education. Welfare and medical. That is not true. Immigrants have a negative impact number 2 on the economy and the wages of citizens and they take jobs away from american. That is not true. Three immigrants particularly latino immigrants. Do not want to learn english. Not true. 4. Immigrants don't want to become citizen. Not true. 5 immigrants don't pay taxes. That is not true. Text immigrants bring crime to our cities and towns and rural areas no. They do not. Immigrants and all their money back to their home countries instead of spending it here to strengthen our recon. Another lie. Number 8. Most immigrants are undocumented and across the border illegally. Not true. 9 week border enforcement has led to high rates of undocumented immigration. Which we must and can control by building a wall around our border that is not. Immigrants contribute far more to government coffers. Did they use in social services. They pay taxes. Yet they received far less governmental benefits than. Those of us who've been here a long time. And they had billions of dollars to the us economy each and every year ad not. Immigration has a positive effect on the american economy as a whole. And on the income of native-born workers in. 3. Immigrants are more than twice as likely to start businesses. And create new well for the economy as our native born to. More than twice as likely. Just start. Business. Did you know that. For recent immigrants like every wave of american immigrants before them learn english. Or their jobs. And for the future. Of their. + 5. Immigrants are far less likely. To commit crimes. Thunder native-born counterpart. And then add on top of all these positive economic. Effects of lively immigration. The fact that immigrants bring a rich multicultural diversity and excitement. To every american communities they join. Wherever immigrants arrived in an american city or suburb or town. New delicious restaurants open. Antique shops. Innovative and entrepreneurial businesses and jobs thrive. Wonderful cultural festivals and celebrations spring up in the great city of milwaukee summerfest every week a different. Racial ethnic or national group has this. Glorious event on the on the waterfront of milwaukee and then to summerfest in milwaukee. It's a great cultural thing. Schools and churches civic organizations papa. And we are all challenge than stimulated and blessed by new expressions of humanity and culture. Not to mention new ideas insights understanding wardrobes. And what it means to be human. None of this is to be feared. Unless you're a fearful soul. And just a quick aside here canada. Are neighboring nations of the north has since 1971. Multiculturalism and generous. Immigration opportunities. As official policy. I quote now i went online and looked at. The canadian government says about itself. Canadian people here's what they write on them. Canada's website. Canadian multiculturalism. Is fundamental to our belief that all citizens are equal. Multiculturalism. Ensures that all citizens. Keep their identity. Can take pride in their ancestry. And have a sense of belonging here in canada. Acceptance gives canadians acceptance. Gives canadians a feeling of security and self-confidence. Making them more open. Accepting of diverse cultures. The canadian experience. It goes on. Has shown that multiculturalism encourages racial and ethnic harmony. And cross-cultural understanding. Discourages guess it was ation. Hatred discrimination and violence. Mutual respect it goes on. Helps develop. Common app. New canadians. No less than other canadians. Respect the political and legal process. For multiculturalism. Canada recognizes the potential of all canadians. Encourages them to integrate into their society. And take an active part and its social. Cultural and political affairs i have lived three times in canada. And i can tell you. This nation which warmly welcomes immigrants. Is healthy. And dynamic and interesting it's more healthy and dynamic and interesting culturally than we are. Here in america. It's a beautiful. And it's a beautiful country. Largely because they view immigrants. As a plus. Not. Again. Even if you are looking at us immigration policy from the purely selfish. Perspective. Which i will affirm in the moment you cannot do because of our faith. You must not look at this my selfish. Even if you were looking. At this justin what will immigration do for me and my family. You must conclude by any rational analysis. The facts. A healthy flow of new immigrants. Into america from every corner of the world no chinese exclusion act or or ecuador exclusion acts or. Australian exclusion act. Will bring flash. Fresh blood and energizing spirit to our nation's. Well many of our fellow citizens right now are set. In an irrational has. Hostility to immigrants. The truth is. Set abundance and open immigration. Has always been a blessing. In a bun. Always. And that's why i arrive at my third. And perhaps most spiritually. And ethically crucial point this. The ethical principle. Of our faith. Koala. Advocate. For greater. Fatality. Open this. Inclusion in. A lot of resistance. To robust and open immigration in these united states begins. With the fearful belief often expressed in places like that letter to the editor. America through open immigration becomes a truly multiracial. Multicultural. Multilingual place it will lose its cohesion. It's clarity its identity and purpose. The culture that's one of the expressed fears. As i have already affirmed i believe nothing could be further from the truth. Unitarian universalism as a nation of canada. Has always had a confidence. The human and cultural diversity. Always an ultimately works for the human good. As a religion. In a religious movement we have always embraced the view that america. As a global power on a shrinking planet. Has nothing to fear. From increased diversity. In its citizens. And in fact. Has everything to gain. The largely homogeneous america of the 1950s with its cookie-cutter suburbs. El borinquen formas restaurant i don't talk about restaurants too much. But you know denny's okay denny's sorry. Landforms white. Potato food yet. By the way if the president of denny's corporation to ipod. The americas the 1950s while nostalgic nostalgically are idealized by some. Is a thing of the ancient cultural pass. And as a cultural construct. With its racism. And sexism and homophobia. And other problems can never be revived. I believe the spirit of our liberal faith calls us to be enthusiast. For a new america. Of multiculturalism. End of genuine diversity and more immigrants. I like the way my colleague the reverend kendall gibbons. Set it in a sermon. Siri. Priest priest. I would propose that every one of our basic uu principles. Challenge. By the inequality inequities and fears. Of this country's current tangle. Of immigration policies. As a unitarian universalist she goes on. It appears to me that the whole concept. How they managed immigration policy is based.. Unadulterated understanding of the world. And the willingness to live by our basest fears rather than out of loyalty to our ideal. At the heart of every great religious tradition she rights found in the world. Is the fundamental insight that we are all called upon to welcome the stranger. To share our prosperity and. The well-being of humanity. I had. The sovereignty of nations. And then she goes on. Shrinking planet. It makes no sense to build walls against one another either physically or legally. Search wall never achieved their legal purposes. Inevitably cause injustice. In suffern. Progress of humanity has always been she writes about the tearing down of arbitrary. Together with trade. Immigration is one of the most ancient. And enduring ways that human beings learn from each other. And our improved by contact with thought and actions and ways of life. That are different than our own and then she ends. Or in the end. If our liberal faith teaches nothing else surely it teaches us this. That there is no us. And them. Only evil results. From thinking that humanity can be divided into those who matter. Enclosing. This. America. Is proud to label himself. An immigrant. Icomfort. Poor immigrants. When they landed on these shores. Tattered clothes. And please. An empty pockets and nothing of value to share. Accept the hopes and dreams. In their desperate in yearning heart. That's all they have. And what was true for america in 1630. True today. If america is ever to be exceptional. Which is to say if america is ever to be great. And strong and prosperous and humane. It must continue to find the wisdom and courage to open its arms wide. The strangers. Time travelers. Endorphins. And those endangered. All the evidence. Ivar long and remarkable national his. B cells. That we have nothing to fear. And being on being an open. And welcoming. Diverse nation. The only way america. Will ever be diminished. Is if we fearfully close ourselves off. From that rich tapestry of humanity. That's so beautifully. Is walden. Across. Let us have faith. In a bold and open. Hospitable future let us not live from. Let us. Remain the nation. That is made strong. And good. And beautiful. Biased.

uufvb_org

2014Jul06Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. Shoprite in beautiful day. Fourth of july weekend. Hi serve this congregation as president. Universalist fellowship of vero beach. Wiara congregation of open minds. Loving hearts. Helping hands. Working together. Seeking to become our best selves. Just as you come to us this morning. Whether you're young or old or straight. Black or white or some other wonderful. What do you have a ged or a phd. Weather visitor this morning. Remember here for decades. And whether you're feeling.. Here somewhere. Or maybe in the middle. We're delighted to see you. Justin. Rarity. We hope you'll find a service meaningful and enriching and you'll find something. That nourishes your spirit. Then feed your soul. And use your renewed energy and joy for living of life. In the days. Opening words 4th weekend i give you a quote from abraham lincoln. Our reliance is in our love for liberty. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty has the heritage of all people in all lands everywhere. Destroy spirit. And we have planted the seeds of despotism. In our own doors. Those who deny freedom to others. Deserve it not for themselves. Send kenneth long. Retainer. Should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people. Is there any better or equal whole world. Let us have faith. That right. Make smite. And in that safe. Let us. Dare to do our duty. As we understand. Are reading this morning. And it comes from a song by the musical group the monkees you may recall.. Rock and roll. And it goes like this. The case for war. Extractions are weapons. Nipun. What's it called and the echo. Competition trump. More upon more. They fashioned their might. With white on the side of the biting. They puzzled their barns. In the. The bacon. They counted the missing. One upon one. It was over. Before it had begun. Play. They gave a war. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Address here. It was two centuries. Adam. 238 years. Our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived. Are created equal. Something that ruu principals. Echo strongly. It was in the throes of the civil war when abraham lincoln. His creativity. Patriotism. Fireworks exploded in the skies across the nation. When francis scott key wrote the national anthem. Oh say can you see. Early blight. So bravely. At the twilight's last gleaming. Whose broad stripes. Brightstar. Through the perilous fight. The same flag that he was looking at. And the dawn's early light by the way. Is in the american museum of natural history now it was restored in 1914 and again in 98. Mr key at the time was being held in chesapeake. Of course the fireworks that were the real thing. The bombardment by the cannons from the british ships. The bombs bursting in the air and the rockets red glare. I would prompt us today to spend the shoot off fireworks. On july 4th. Music. To come out of our fight against england. Animal wartime for that matter. And of course. Any early years of the civil war. Julia ward howe. Hey you wrote the words to the battle hymn of the republic. Based on the older song john brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave. Warning. I'm about to launch into a whole lot of memories for many of you. So get ready for your musical memory strings to be yang. 56 years after julia ward howe wrote the battle hymn america became involved in world war i. A lot of music that was. Songs like it's a long long way to tipperary. Became popular among the troops in europe. There's our nation geared up to join the war. Over there. Have you found out later though. This war to end all wars. Did not do that. And our future worm anymore military adventures. Each causing pacifist heartache. An ultra patriots heartthrob. Horizon. Central pearl harbor. If we went to war again while much of the popular music of the day was infect patriotic. Much more was people-oriented. Songs about lovers being parted. And men in uniform on the battlefields longing for their women. But they're also songs. Making fun of hitler with. Was featured in a donald duck cartoon movie at the time. And the andrews sisters of course saying the famous. And another one was. They'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of dover. Made popular during the heights of the air battles over dover england. When the war was over. Here's an interesting fact about that. Bluebird. As a matter of fact or not. Go figure. The song was written by an american. Who would never been over there. Probably the most patriotic song coming out of that war was praise the lord and pass the ammunition. About a chaplain. Because power was the chaplain was keeping them out of the hole. World war 2 start. For us. Has a war of defense. And turned into a war victory. A victory over. The faceless nazis. Panda hateful. Japs. Got lost. Hendecagon. It was a horrible war. Which we want. The next big war they called the korean conflict. You may not remember this song. Pickled peppers. When they dropped the atomic bomb. Did enthusiastically anticipated the use of the atomic bomb. And the effect it would have on. Kolkata. That was the crux of the firing of macarthur by president truman. Macarthur publicly argued the other way. Lost the argument. Most popular song come out of the korean war was. Dear john. How about the letter received on the battlefront. My soldier. From his girlfriend saying. She was no longer waiting for him. Heart-rending. About the men and women. Longing for one another. Parents heartache silver lost. One called a heartsick soldier on a heartbreak ridge wondering why he had not heard from his. Here's march dawn and then came. The protest years. On the positive side 66. Bruce springsteen born in the u.s.a.. It was misunderstood as a patriotic song. When he was really singing about lost patriotism. Andaman feeling lost. And his family. And the 60s generation embrace the pole. An anti-war music. In addition to the song blowing in the earlier. Was the grammy award-winning song by pete seeger. Where have all the flowers. Singer wrote the first three verses in 1955. What are became wildly popular. With the 1964 release of the song on a 45 rpm record. Like a pause. And let you listen to pete seeger. Sing this famous song. And watch a video about. Sing along if you wish. Song baby. Some of you might like help me sing it. I'm going to ask my grandson. Singer passed away. In january of this year. He was 95 years old. And the song continues to ring today. When will we ever. Then there was john lennon's give peace a chance. And even the monkeys got on the bandwagon with the last train to clarksville. About a soldier urging his honey. For one final night. Before he ships off the war. Humor hedges place to. Wikipedia. The song is sung from the perspective of a young man who's been drafted. When he reports for duty however. Including. Ruptured spleen. Allergies. Addiction to multiple drugs his college enrollment. Hansel ford. One historian of the draft resistance movement wrote that the song describe nearly every available possible escape from conscription. And then is the song ends. The young man tells the sergeant. Tell me the first volunteer. For a war without blood and gore. The vietnam war produce more music than any other war in us history. And that were also produce such shameful things is lieutenant calley of the beeline master. Of 1968. And the negative reaction of way too many americans. Veterans returning home. From the vietnam war. In my opening remarks. Another portion of that sentence i quoted from president lincoln's gettysburg address. This nation was conceived in liberty. Liberties. So expensive. Has to allow us. To argue publicly against things our government does with which we disagree. And that's how during the vietnam war era in the early seventies. I could freely stand up on a stage and be the master of ceremonies for anti-war rally in fort pierce. And at the same time urging those emotional folks. Do not denigrate returning veterans the somany were doing it. Operation desert storm. When iraq invaded neighboring kuwait and the united states came to their defense. Rolling stones world indiscriminate to iraq. Part of the lyrics. We celebrate so sweet sometimes. You called the banks. Song by mick jagger. After the follow-up 2003 bruce springsteen recorded devils & dust about the war with won him an award for song of the year later. In popular music. The iraq war was the last. Against a standing army of another nation. In the afghan war against terrorism. And i'll cater. Music video. The top. A lot of this music has been celebrating. The spirit of the american soldier. In stark contrast. Do the feelings expressed. I would like the song american soldier by toby keith. I'm just trying. That's pretty much where i'm coming from these days. I don't like war. Connor. Hardly ever. Even when i fight against our government and its war. My fight just as much. To support the men and the women sent overseas.. I believe that as a religious organization as members of the unitarian universalist faith should be supporting diplomatic measures as far as they can go. And only resort to war. Has an unavoidable. How come. The korean war. The afghan war. After the 9/11 attack in new york. Ours was more than a knee-jerk reaction. I believe it was necessary. For our country. Strike back. For the terrorist organizations would have immediately. Door homeland. In my opinion. In the name of freedom. I don't have an answer. I don't know. Right now. Rihanna on the doorsteps of re-engaging ourselves in iraq for heaven's sake. And in the name of freedom these days we look at the edward snowden case and still wonder is this a case of a free man. Whistleblower declaring our government was wrong and. Where is he. Giving vinyl secrets to the enemy. I'm not sure just help michael. And the revealed once again that our government is not above starbucks. Shouldn't be doing. By the way. For the nobel peace prize. But a couple of norwegian members of parliament because quote. Introductions of trust and transparency principal global security policy. The winner of that price will be announced soon. And snowden continue to release information that shows that our government is doing things that seemed to go well beyond the limits of national security. They say they're not listening to our phone conversation. What's proving. No i believe. Nothing nsa people. Honestly believe. If they were at are doing the right thing. But they need to be shown where the line. Is drawn. Just like truman did with a carter over the use of atomic weapons in korea. Macarthur wanted to blast atomic weapons acrostic. To create a radioactive barrier. Across that cont. The military. But humanely. Would have been pretty horrible. This july fourth weekend i have to say. In my opinion. American ideals of stupid. To remind them of these ideals of liberty. Injustice. Quality. I'm afraid is that is going to be a never-ending battle. As overly ambitious people test the boundaries. Continuously. Freedom. And independence and opportunity. Are the hallmarks. Tell the united states. The country of france created the statue of liberty. Standing in the new york harbor. At liberty island. Originally called. Bedloe's island. The words. How many of you have read the entire poem. Of which only apart his discreet inscribed on the base of the statue of liberty. It's called the new colossus. By emma lazarus. And it goes like this. Not like. Reason giant. A greek fame. With conquering limbs astride from land to land. At our sea-washed sunset gates shall stand. A mighty woman. Will the torch whose flame is the imprisoned. And her name. Mother of exile. From her pekin hand glows worldwide welcome. Her mild eyes command the air bridged harbor the twin cities frame. Keep ancient lands your storied pomp cries. With spinal lips. You're tired. You're poor. Your huddled masses. Yearning. To breathe free. The wretched refuse. Have your teeming shore. The homeless. Tempest-tossed. I lift my lamp. Beside the golden door. And today. We're seeing. Waves. Put the homeless. Tempest-tost. Fleeing into our country. From central america. Guatemala and honduras for the most part. Literally. Creating refugee. From what i've seen so far we seem to be doing the right thing for these kids. And being careful that. It's not bad. What are the principles of unitarian universalism. Sums it up pretty well. Wilford and promote. The goal of world community. With peace. Liberty. A justice for all. Including. The children. Hey man. Head namaste. I'd like to leave you with a question today. Are we still lifting or lamp. Beside the golden door. How much control should we be exerting in the face. Of all that crying wretched refuse of teeming shores. Balance is not easy. But it is. Necessary. As far as patriotism is concerned. I'm proud to say to anyone around me at anytime of the year that. Yes. Unpatriotic. And revere. The ideals for which my country stands. Hi fly the flag every day out in front of my house. I have a stylized american flag on the back. Cuz my car. I salute my flag. I salute my country. Salute you. And i bid you. Namaste.

uufvb_org

2011Jan02Sermon128.mp3

Physically. He was a really big guy. 6 foot something and lots of bulk to him but spiritually and emotionally he was as little as human beings come. For this morning's purposes i will call him seth because i'm sure if he ever googled this sermon and i used his real name he'd sue me. Ff4 all i know remains what i can only reluctantly call a small and miserable little human being let me tell you the story. That's what i were neighbors in provincetown massachusetts where collins and ion to summer home for 7 years. I was the elected president of our condo association and a quick aside here if anyone ever urges you to run for the presidency of a condo association run in the opposite direction as fast as you can. In any case. Seth was the owner of one of the other condo units in our small complex and so he and i had to relate regularly about our shared property interest. And community concerns. Without going into a lot of unnecessary detail at every. Turn in our relationship as neighbors. And fellow condo association member seth. Was fiercely self-centered myopic really in his focus upon himself and was never able to even consider not one iota for a second even how his own personal needs wants beliefs interest or desires should or could ever be modified balance restrained. Or checked by the needs wants beliefs and interests of others. He was indignant for example when i am the other owners asked him to stop letting his big dogs swim in the complexes pool. He was outraged and threatened to sue me. When the association natomas avoided to take down a favorite tree of his in the common area which was endangering the building and destroying every painting wall. He was furious when we insisted he pay his condo fees. In a regular and timely fashion. And he was surprised when several other owners objected to his breaking into an unoccupied unit owned by someone else one winter to share. To ship to store his a patio furniture and other possessions. On and on with the battles of bad relationships that swirled around this guy and every time his neighbors and i asked him to be a responsible restrained respectful number of a small community he spewed out anger and indignation and outrage because i guess. We couldn't see the primacy and superiority of his needs and what. Indeed this was his little angry modus operandi all over provincetown. Far and wide he was known in the town as a selfish jerk. This guy big and body. And small in spirit left the dark wake of upset anger and unpleasant relationships wherever he. The systematic little list of spirit and perspective reminds me of that similarly exhibited by one of the most outrageous and oversized. Public personalities of our age namely donald trump. In a biography of the trump family gwen gwen debeer blair reports with justifiable disbelief and disdain. That at his own father's funeral a father who as you may know grace asleep headed mr. trump the foundation. Of his prodigious wealth and real estate hold. At his own father's funeral. The donald as he grandly likes to call himself. Turn his eulogy for his father into a thinly-veiled.. About his own greatness. I quote the author. At his own father's funeral after the other family members graciously rose to extol the man who'd been so influential. And kind in their lives. Donald could not refrain from patting himself on the back. And promoting him. In his eulogy the focus quickly shifted from the man in the coffin. To the one at the lectern. And the tenor of the occasion change. From eulogistic. To solipsistic. And then she ends it was an astonishing. Display. Of self. Donald trump could only talk about his generous father to the self aggrandize land lands. Of his own. A duly noted achievement. Soda. Big real estate tycoon who plays as his name across the top of many buildings and who loves to belo you're fired. At interns on contrived television shows. Turns out to be one of the littlest p. Now. These two admittedly extreme examples of human littleness. Are precisely what we mean in common everyday parlance when we say to another human being who is acting in subway badly and is not in right relation with. With others of the world. We say that was little of you. What we generally mean when we accuse someone of being little is that they're acting selfishly in narrow. Petty self-serving a mean-spirited way acting they without taking into a sufficient account the feelings needs the rights and the values of the other. Or the community as a whole. Clinical psychologist have even identified in extreme cases. Self-centered sms. Called as i think you all know. Narcissistic personality disorder. Which means that a person exhibits and now i quote from a mental-health reference guy that i google last week. That exhibits quote. A pattern of traits and behaviors would signify infatuation. And obsession with one owns with one's own self. At the exclusion of all others. And the egoistic and ruthless. Ruthless pursuit of one's gratification. Domination. And ambition. No. The truth of course is that human littleness. And self-absorption is not restricted. To just a few highly unpleasant narcissistic individuals like. Donald trump or my old friend seth on cape cod. Surely everyone in this room realizes that anyone of us. As normally flawed human beings. Can be naturally selfish to some extent. From time to time unpleasantly so. Inverse we're all vulnerable to at least a little littleness. Now and again i certainly know that i am. Try that i do i occasionally fall victim to not taking. The needs wants and. Reasonable expectations of others into effect and of course the one who always knows this the most. Your spouse. What can i say. But i'm not here this morning. In this place where we come together each week to ponder and work on our live. I am seeking to increase our stature is persons. On this first sunday of the brand new year i am not here to preach a sermon about. The persistent and widespread problem of human littleness. No. This is rather a sermon about the positive. Related spiritual process of growing ourselves. Constant. Into bigger and more gracious person. This process of over our lifetime. Increasing if you will are emotional and spiritual stature the depth and breadth. Of our humanness. Another way of saying this is it this is a sermon about how we can grow a bigger soul. How we can become a larger and more positive presence. Increation. So by posing my sermonic question to you today what size are you. I hope to explore an articulate and hopefully a clear unhelpful. Way as we begin this whole new year. Of one of the most essential aspects of what i think it means to be on. The religious journey. That is unitarian universalism our faith. I am persuaded. The being a serious human religious person. Is in general and being a unitarian universalist is in particular all about. Growing yourself larger. In your aspirations. And your behavior. I am not a. Talking about waist size or hat or shoe or coat size. Although i read the unwelcome statistic this week that the average american gains 7 pounds between thanksgiving and new year's. I'm not talking about that. Dubai does that logic we all are a bit bigger this morning than we used to. In any case. I'm also not talking about the size of your bank balance. Or your stock portfolio. Or your home. I'm not even talking about how smart or witty or clever or sophisticated you become. And i'm certainly not talking about becoming. More charismatic. Or entertaining or ext. None of those. I am rather talking about the size and stature of your soul and the reach. Of your concern attentions and embrace. As a human. I first got this idea about the spiritual question about what size are you. From a liberal theologian. The doctor bernard loomer bernie boomer as we all knew him a wonderful man and as luck would have it at unitarian universalist. Who had as one of his key theological affirmations of his career. The idea that religions primary job is to help each of us to increase our personal stature. To increase our size. As human being i called him now listen carefully. Bite-size dr. loomer wrote. I mean the stature of a person's soul. The range and depth of your love. Your capacity. Or relationships. I mean the volume. Of your life. The volume of life you can take into your being and still maintain your integrity. And individuality i mean the intensity. And variety of outlook you can entertain in the unity of your being. Without feeling defensive or insecure i mean the strength of your spirit. To encourage others to become. Rear in the development of their divorce. And unique. I mean the power to sustain more complex and enriching tensions. I mean the magnanimity magnet magnanimity. Of concern to provide conditions. That enable others to increase. In there. What bernie was saying is that. At its essence our individual lifetime lifelong journey as religious beings. Is all about spiritually growing ourselves into larger and more generous person. Larger and more generous yes. By way of expanding i'm respectful relationships with persons and things beyond our own skin but also larger. And more generous by way of nurturing nurturing our own interior lies our own interior. Attentions and sensitivities and. Connection. Through thought. Quiet. Again. We're obviously not talking here about waist or shoe or hat or coat size were talking about. Soulside. The reach and embrace. The quickest side here. When we talk about the size of a human being isn't it ironic that some of the. Biggest people in human history. Work fact diminutive. In physical stature. Jesus of nazareth. Mahatma gandhi. Mother teresa. The dalai lama were and are all physically small people. Yet at the same time we think of them undeniably a spiritual giants. It's curious. Bigness. In any case. This idea that one of the central goals of being a unitarian universalist. The process of spiritually and emotionally growing yourself into a larger. And more sensitive person. Has long been a persistent. The primary message of my ministry in our movement. I believe in a pure and i hope eminently graspable nutshell. That's a religiously. Particularly a life as a unitarian universalist. Is all about willfully spending a lifetime developing your spirit. In ways. That are ever more inclusive and caring and generous toward life and i even put a book together. About that. It's ruu bestseller it's actually sold more than 10,000 copies which for us is a lot of books. They're making it into an ebook and. I turned over all royalties of this book to the uua so if you pick up one of the copies. That's for sale this morning i'm not benefit. It's going right to the uu8 my book is entitled. Everyday spiritual practice. Simple pathways. For enriching your life. The idea here. Is that we grow our souls. We grow our souls and expand our reach as persons. Through various. Practices. Spiritual practices. Purposeful repeatable activities of the hands of the heart. And had. The help us to achieve right relation. Deprivation. Caring. With other spiritual practice is something you do again and again. 2. Prove and deepen and broaden your relationships. Looks like that's all spiritual practice. There are some 40 of them. Ascribed. Facebook. As i say in the introduction. Everyday spiritual practice is any activity or attitude. What you regularly and it purposefully engage in. Which significantly deepens the quality of your relationship. With the miracle of life. Both within and beyond. Let me just give one little everyday example. One meaningful spiritual practice that can help us i think be larger and lovely or persons in creation. Is a simple spiritual practice of routinely greeting. And acknowledging. Humanely validating. You will the persons who serve us. In our daily rounds. It may seem like a small insignificant matter to some. But i make a real point. In my day-to-day life. A greeting an affirming which means establishing eye contact. And verbally thinking. People who serve me. This means having a kind word and a glint and a glance or a conversation with the grocery store. Clerk. Who tallies my purchases. Or the busboy. Who refills my water glass. The lifeguard. Who watches over me. As i swim my laps. The bike shop repair guy. Who fixes my wheel. The simple relational spiritual process of acknowledging. Who are serving me. Helps me to expand my human reach. And sensitivities and humanizes the whole world. I can't tell you how many times. The water server busboys shocked. When i establish eye contact. And thank. I believe this contributes this practice. To my well-being. And to their souls as well. Everyone feels better about the transaction and. What i am suggesting to you here is a being on a religious path. Purposefully and intentionally choosing to live. Outward. And. In the process speed more people affirming. And live our principal. Are people affirming unitarian universalist principles. Through everyday spiritual practices and caring relationship. Is about the business of growing your soul. And growing your stature. Again. Growing a soul is about the simple. Simultaneous process of reaching out respectfully to others in life. Well you work to restrain your natural tendency. Which we all have. For paying attention to the south. And being self-centered. Process of growing a soul is the process of. Your own little. Growing a soul. Means that you ever morris drive. To look and live beyond your own. It really is. As 20th century catholic theologian and mystic thomas merton widely observed. The healthy spiritual individual is always growing and giving outward from the natural littleness of the isolated in word. Himself. It is of supreme importance. Should we consent to live. Not for ourselves but for others. When we do this we will be able first of all two-faced and accept our own limitations. As long as we secretly adorn ourselves. He went on. Our own deficiencies will remain to torture us. With an apparent defilement. But if we live for others we will gradually discover that no one expects us to be as gods. We will see that we are human like everyone else. Do we all have weaknesses and deficiencies. End up these limitations play a most important part in our lives. It is because of them he goes on. That we need others and others need us only when we see ourselves woven together. In a true human context of mutuality. As members of a race. Which is intended to be one organism. And one body only then will we begin to understand the positive importance not only of the successes. That we have. But the failures and accident. Of our lives. And then he. My successes are not my own. The way of them was prepared by others. The fruits of my labors is not my own. For i am preparing the way. The achievement. Professor. Cornel west west of yale leading african american social. Singer of our times has virtually the same. Think about how. We can grow our. A rich life you right. Is fundamentally a life of serving others. A life of trying to leave the world a little better. That rich life comes into being. In human relationship. It is difficult he writes. To find joy. By yourself even if you have all the right toys. I want to read that sentence. It is difficult to find joy by yourself even if you have all. The right. It's difficult. Cornel west right just ask somebody who's got lots of material possession. But doesn't have anyone to share them with. That on a personal level that's on a personal level but there's also a political version of this. It has to do. With what you see. When you get up in the morning and look in the mirror. And ask yourself whether you are simply wasting time on this planet. Or spending your time. In an enriching manner. We are talkin fundamentally he. And one more quote on the spiritual idea. This one from george bernard shaw. This is the true joy in life. Being used. For a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you personally happy. And then shaw in. I am of the opinion. That my life belongs to the whole community. And that as long as i live it is my privilege. To do for it. Whatever i can. Alright. I hope i spiritually persuaded you this morning that the goal for any of us. As serious. And caring religious person. Is to spend a lifetime. Spend. A lifetime. Steadily. And purposefully increasing the size. The interconnectedness. Of your stature. And your reach. We must do this as individuals. Another equally important basis we must do this as members of a community as members of this. Community this. Congregations like individuals must constantly strive. To expand their reach and soul size if they do not they wither and die. I cannot tell you how proud. I am to be serving the congregation that voted last spring before i became your minister. To start giving its entire sunday offering plate collections away to other organizations here in the treasure coast. Serving people in need. At a time when our own financial needs are not insignificant. We are now giving away more than $1,000 a month. So that others mostly strangers to us. Beyond these walls can live and breathe more easily. And that is a noble and a. That's growing. Size. This is what it means for a congregation to grow its sole. Look beyond itself. And by the way all congregation. Do that. One more example if i might. Two weeks ago just a few days before christmas about thirty of us denise and dick hate will know what i'm talking about. Tracked up to a modest community center in fellsmere to share a meal. With a wonderful group of migrant farm laborers and their children 14 families and 24 children we've been doing this for many years. To provide that only toys and clothing. To go under their holiday tree but also grocery store gift cards. With more than $100 on them this year for their holiday meals. It was so heartwarming to watch those cute little kids. Light up as they met santa where's santa he's here somewhere he was here rodger there he is. Some of the kids more reluctant than others some terrified by eminem. Others delighted. It's received a brightly crap gifts that. That had brought them in to receive the gratitude and. Kindness as we all did of the grateful parents. It may seem like a small matter to some you know that. Comfortable congregation gives presents and makes an f. Echo share a meal. But to me it was a holy moment. Of our expansive sharing and connection. Although no one signed the membership book that. Our congregation that night grew inside. It grew in spiritual. As we reached out to make the holiday brighter. People we did not really. I have a rather ebullient colleague in the ministry his name is david. Who is in the habit of saying to people who impress him. Friend you're really huge right now he says you're really huge really huge. I got to tell you when i see the members of this congregation reaching up and out to give. From themselves. The others. Might lead a better and fuller life i want to say to you you are really huge right now. You generous members of this fellowship practicing. Our faith. You are really huge. And you're getting bigger. And here is the great and very important paradox. About the spiritual practice. I'm spending a lifetime. Pumping yourself up in size and out and. When it comes to spiritual growth. When it comes to growing a soul. Good things come in small and incremental packages. The truth is that. You grow bigger in here. Bigger and soul and sensibility. Not i think by sudden. Spectacular leaps and bounds of some glorious thing that you do in creation that changes. Rather little by little. And small. Everyday ordinary steps. Expansion. Relationship and. In all the unspectacular small ways that matter most in this fractured world of us. The process of increasing our soul size. Whether it's as an individual or a congregation. Through everyday spiritual practice is so quiet. And so usually on ostentatious in gradual that it's often difficult to tell. When you look at a snapshot. Abhinava human life precisely weather. Or how you or someone else. Is truly growing in the ways of the spirit. The kind of spiritual growth that makes us evolve into better person. Happens in little everyday moments of service and outreach. Caring and. Reading. Grocery store. So let me in this morning by once again posing. My really big question to you on the new year. Important question i want you to think about all year long. What size are you. Or maybe the question should really be. More appropriately. What size do you want to be. How big. Do you want. How caring. Do you want it. What size do you aspire to be. How far do you want your soul to reach even as your tugged by your own selfishness. And. How big do you want. How expensive and intricate. Caring. Do you want to be do you want your relationship. The question is. Are you living in the largest and most loving ways. For which you were created. Do you have your own needs & wants. In proper perspective. What can and will you do today. And tomorrow in the many days to come. What will you do to further. Grow your heart. To deepen your kinect. To expand your circle of. Concern. To grow a soul. To grow a soul so that the whole world will feel it's warm. And we'll know the breast the blessing of its embrace. What. Size. What size. Do you get.

uufvb_org

2012Sep16Sermon32.mp3

My readings this morning to poems. The first by contemporary poet. Was lola. Szymborska. A contribution. Out of every hundred people. Those who always know better. 52. Doubting every step. Nearly the rest. Brenda linda hand if it doesn't take too long. Is high is 49. Always good because they can't be otherwise. Well maybe five. Able to admire without envy. 18. Living in constant fear of someone or something. 77. Twenty-something tops. Savage in crowds. Half at least. Cruel when forced by circumstances. Better not to know. Ballpark. Wise after the fact. Just a couple more than wiser. Taking only things from life. 40. Constant pain no flashlight in the dark. Sooner or later. Worthy of compassion. 99. Mortal. 100. Thus far. And the second reading from the 1930s. Play american university. Poet. Sandburg. Psalm. Scarlet. The sunset. Crimson. The dawn rising moon gold red curves through the night. Two stinking moongold red. Poppy red. Sticking woman's lips. Ruddy red the blush of true love's rose. We think the flash. Of a bird wing red. Red. The cardinals hat red. The communist flag. Token red. The corpsman right sleeve crossed red. The emblem cross of surgeon nurse ambulance. Of hospital 10th and shipp. Crimson blood. Stream sport together in together blend into one likeness. Single din mute communion catholic inflow with protestant nordic influx with negro. Scoffers. Skinner's deniers in strength and rest from blood of christian believers. Help. And quiet. To christian believers. From blood of thieves. Harlots. Blasphemer. Deep. How deep. Deep. Oh dip. Sister. The scarlet. And crimson. The human. Blood bank. Hirons. To my mind. One of the greatest tragedies in religious history repeated sadly again and again. Is winter religion. Any religion. Refuses to accept the known laws and undeniable truths of science. It's a tragedy because whenever any religious dogma or belief is put up in rigid opposition to the established. Facts of science in the end. Religion. Effectual necessity loses the argument. And ends up looking well silly. In the eyes of the world. Let me give a couple of quick examples. In the year 1632. The great italian physicist and astronomer galileo publish the book entitled dialogue. On the two chief world systems. Which state had the scientific truth that contrary to catholic church doctrine of the times the earth. Revolves around the sun. Not the song. Around the earth. This new scientific understanding which contradicted the old homosexual acts homocentric. Earth centric theological assertion that the sun revolves around the earth. Let the galileo being tried. And convicted of heresy in a church court. Known as an inquisition. The church authorities ordered all copies of galileo's book. Destroyed. The great scientist. Spite of knowing full well. The extra astrological truth was forced to publicly renounce his research. And he was sentenced to life in prison. Which was eventually commuted to permanent house arrest. Because he was such an important scientist. Galileo still under house arrest for daring. To tell the truth about. Solar system. Died. In 1642. Still under house. And although soon all astronomers and physicists not to mention religious leaders around the world came to accept the fact. The earth did in fact revolve around the sun. It took the roman catholic church until are you ready for this. Until 1992. 359 years after the galileo heresy trial. To officially acknowledge the churches are in its. Here is the story from the november 10th 1992 edition of the new york times. Moving formerly to rectify a wrong pope john paul the second acknowledge in the speech today. Did the roman catholic church had aired. In condemning galileo 359 years ago for asserting that the earth. Revolves around the sun. The address by the pope before the pontifical academy of sciences close day 30. 18 year investigation. Into the church's condemnation of galileo in 1633. One of history's. The new york times said most. Notorious conflict. To make matters even worse scientific pollster john miller of northwestern university reports today that in the year 2012. When asked one-in-five american. Set the sun. Revolve. Here's a second equally stark example of how modern science. Text back eventually always trumps old religious dogma. It is a known and irrefutable scientific fact and if you read doonesbury this morning you know where i'm going. Our planet home earth. And countless plant and animal species have been in existence for millions of years those. And our earth has been evolving and changing with the rest of the solar system and the countless galaxies beyond and at every living thing on the planet. Has come into its present form because of countless years of evolution. Natural selection and adaptation to ever-changing conditions and environments. The mechanism of evolution has as you all know come to lie at the center of all scientific. And medical inquiry. As to how life on this planet works. As famed geneticist. Zenski. Wrote in 1973. Nothing in biology. Any sense. Except in the light of evolution. Today every reputable scientist american scientific organization. That has weighed in on the recent evolution versus. Intelligent design controversy. Has unequivocally affirmed. Evolution as the bedrock of modern scientific knowledge. I quote from a recent. American astronomical society statement on the importance. Just teaching evolution. In our nation. Evolution is a valid science. Siri for the origin. Species. That has been repeatedly tested and verified. Observation formulation and testable statements. To explain these observation. And controlled experiments or additional observation. To find out whether these ideas. I right or wrong. This scientific theory. Is the unifying concept. That explains. The physical. Yet in ancient hebrew scriptures in the book of genesis. In the first book of the bible is now called the bible which was written centuries before humanity even had a vague inkling. Of how life and the universe has evolve. There is a in that first chapter of genesis a beautiful and poetic description to meet wonderful mythological metaphor. Of how the world was created by god here's a early depiction of that in seven days. The tragedy here it seems to me is it as you know conservative christians today insist. Set this obviously poetical. How are earth came into being must be. Not as poetry but as literal. In other words. Then we must all believe our planet earth and everything that lives upon it was once and for all created in seven days seven actual 24-hour days. About six-and-a-half or 7,000 years ago. Disbelief called creationism. Flies in the face of absolutely everything earth scientists and astronomers. Know about the slow formation of our universe. The long history of our earth. And the steady applauding evolution. Including the regular process. Extinction. A plant animal species and so creation is are applied. To the night everything. From the clear fossil records of the dinosaurs which date back. 200. 30 million years. The last going extinct. 65 million. Citgo. Tell the truth that microbes. Evolve sometimes in a matter of weeks or months to become antibiotic-resistant strain. The cannot be treated by modern medicine evolution can be very. Quick. The creationist wedding wedded to the idea that creation is a fixed reality. Created in just seven actual days. Are trapped. As the school board of the state of louisiana is. In the scientifically unsustainable position. The god created our world just a few thousand. How much better i think it would be for conservative christian faith. If when faced with the irrefutable truth. Of millions of years of evolution. They simply said yes. Evolution is factually so. This is how our universe works. But the old poetic creation story. Found in genesis is still true. Because it beautifully described in the literary language of the day how the hand and the spirit of god. Was involved in shaping this glorious world of art. Religion and science do not have to be incompatible on this point. God can be seen. In evolution. My point here is the science. The rational pursuit of the facts about the natural world. And religion. The more elusive pursuit of spiritual and ethical truths that can help us. Live hopefully joyous responsible and good lives here on earth. Need not indeed ultimately cannot. Stand in disagreement with. This is why i'm someone who believes in the albeit separate importance of religion and science. I rejoiced a few years back when i heard. And now i'm getting to my actual sermon. What i heard the genetic scientists including a leading member of my river road congregation at the time of wonderful bright woman named alka jordan with him i spent much time. Had just completed. The complete mapping of the entire dna code for our species in bethesda maryland and i age. And discovered they. Every last one of us anywhere on the planet. Share an amazing 99.9% of our species. Genetic markers. Here is the way the national human genome research institute put this amazing news. About human oneness. When researchers completed the final analysis of the human. Janome project in april of 2003. They confirmed. Set the three billion base parts of genetic letters in humans. We're 99.9% identical. In every human person on the planet. Clothes similar identical. Wow. What an amazing and sacred. What does scientific discovery means is that all of the many and sometimes dramatically striking differences. That exist between persons and races. The wide diversity. Hair. I am skin color. The countless variations of our facial and bodily features. Our differences and height weight athletic abilities and gate. Not to mention our countless personality and intellectual differences. Are all accounted for. I know more than one 1000. Of what makes us human. And the really neat part. Of the scientific discovery about the human families overwhelming connectedness belonging and oneness. Is it this is what our religious tradition has been spiritually saying about humanity since its beginnings 500 years. We didn't even know about the janome project 500 years ago. They're very beginnings as organized religious and intellectual movements in europe in the 16th and 17th century. Both unitarianism. And universalism faith faithfully proclaim. The oneness. Humanity. The early unitarians most noticeably the transcendentalist in early new england. So all persons everywhere is sort of mystical connected together in one. Sacred family living in this oneness of earth and creation. And the early universalist saw every person as a beautiful child of god. The could not be separated from god's holy family no one was to be sent to hell. Everyone would be welcome. To the. To the breast of. That was the. Listen to the way the reverend kenneth patton poetically summarized. The spirit of our faith in a reading called our common bond. Written in the 1950s before we used gender-inclusive language i tried that the genderize have but it didn't work. So here's cure his words from the. Know the bonds by which we are bound to one another for we are not alone. A man is a road where his brothers may walk. His body is the bed of a stream which flows the many waters of his world in his race. His heart is a city. We're his brothers may build their dwellings. A man is many wires. Strong in the wind and he must sing the song of the air that flows over him. Cheers awaken tears and laughter awakens laughter another. Man's sorrow takes up lodging. Within us. When does stranger weeps at the death of one he loves we too must weep. For the death of one is the symbol of the death of all and no man can escape its meaning. When one babyisborn it does the symbol of all birth and life. Therefore all men must rejoice and lose their hearts. The child. Underbites all men hadn't went on. All desire. Afflicts us alike all men are open. Bye love by the ecstasy. Another. 1 enveloping air gives breath to the men of all continents. And one sun shines on us all. From the same river of time has come all the waters of life all men smile with their lips and weep with their eyes. A smile disregard the color of the face. In the morning. Grief is alike. In alton. Pity and compassion. Are the deep works working. Amman. They speak. Fourth. Completeness. Of his. And listen to the way american universalist and chicago poet carl sandburg. Express. The same vision of human oneness. In the preface to that wonderful photo book of the 1950s called the family of man many of you. May have your parents may have had that for. You are old enough. Maybe still have it on yourself i don't know. Anyway listen to his preface. To this book with showed so many beautiful photographs. Call from all over the. Sandberg said. Everywhere is love. And love making. Wedding. And babies from generation to generation keeping the family of man alive and continuing. Everywhere the sun moon and stars the climates and weathers have meaning for people. Tell meanings very we are alike in all countries. And tribes and trying to read what's sky and land. And see say to us. Alike and ever alike are we at all confidence in the need of love. Food closing work speech worship sleep. Games dancing. From the tropics. The arctic. Humanity lives with these needs. So alive. So inexorable. This vision. Human oneness. And belonging. Perhaps the most. Enduring legacy. Of our liberal faith. Unitarian universalism. Has always always been animated. By the theological and ethical affirmation. Human connected. Science. As i have already pointed out. This is with one theological unethical affirmation. That is profoundly confirmed. By human genome. We belong. Again the scientific evidence is irrefutable. When it comes. The genetic marker. 3 billion of. The determine who and what we shall be. Human beings are only one. 1000. 99. .94. So why is it. I spiritually. Why is it that so many religions. Religions that have big shiny buildings in this town. Devote so much spiritual time and effort to define. Humanity along this cosmic fault line. Orgeat. Why is it that so many religions. In the face of the scientific evidence which confirms our radical oneness. And our belonging to one another. Why do they spell spiritual capital. Trying to separate people i don't know like. Sheep from the goats. The saved from the damned. The righteous from those who are deemed unrighteous. The true believers believers. People of the light from people of the darkness god's people. And those people of the devil why do. Soma. Capital. Spirit waste. I might as well be right out and say it. This unitarian universalist believe that. Profound spiritual tragedy. It's so many religions. Refuse to take the reality and the beauty of our radical human oneness. Into their hearts. And into their beliefs. This is of course only natural form. I'm a third-generation unitarian universalist. Who grew up having our faith traditions belief in the oneness. Of humanity repeatedly affirmed. Tumi. And i find the assertion. The humanity. Must be spiritually divided. No matter which imaginary faultline other religions put out there for you to divide people. I find these divisions. Spiritually. Repugnant. And ethically. Immoral. That is why. As i suggested to my sermon title this morning that when it comes to understanding humanity at least. Comes to our theology of first. Unitarian universalist or 99% 99.9% right. We are right. When we see that same universal beauty radiating out of every individual's i. We are right. When we refused to deny our care and concern for those who are outwardly at least. Are they appear very different from ourselves we are right. When we fight for social and economic justice for persons everywhere no matter how far from us they may be on this globe. We are right by god we are right. When we proclaim that every man woman and child. The part of our human family. That deserves respect. And dignity. And protection. And compassion. And justice and love. For the life of me. I cannot understand how some religions. With their share to be sure of positive perspectives. Sound effects and no belief. How so many religions have gotten trapped. Sad spiritual place. They spend so much of their passion and resources deciding how to distance themselves. In this regard and judgment. From so many. Of their human. Against genetic science. Clearly telling us. The people are much more alike. Then they are different. So what a blessing it would be of all religions the world over would focus on that. Holy and healing truth. And begin to act weird all human beings as if they were part of their human family which. In fact science. Tells us. Let me come at this from a slightly different angle. Today is earth science. The physical study of our planet. And it's changing climate. And the challenges now faced by the countless plant and animal species with. Inhabited. Today's earth science now irrefutably is telling us. Homosapien. As a dominant. Species. That our future is a species. Now depends on us all around the globe in every continent land working together. To ensure our earth's environmental. Let me give this one concrete example greenhouse gas. We all we now know that if we are to prevent the earth's atmosphere from overheating to disastrous levels. All the nations of the world. Those already highly developed. Like us. And those found in europe. And the rapidly developing ones like india china and brazil. All the nations must immediately cooperate. In limiting emissions. Cars. Cattle. Empower plan. Name three of the largest offenders. House gases. And if over the coming years the earth begin to dangerously overheat. There will be no successful separation. Between winning nations. And losing. Nation. We will all lose because. We share the same. Limited. Air supply. There will be no successful separation. If we do not solve our environmental problems greenhouse-gas from the damned. And to save. We will all be. Global warming. Is a problem. Humanity as a whole will either solve. Or. Not. Will either work together on this or we will perish. Together in. It is that simple. So. In addition to the human genome project. Tells us. The genetically speaking. We are 99.9% in this together earth science is reminding us. Comes to rc. Inability as a species. On the planet. We are not 99.9. We are 100. I believe in the long history of religion. The time has come. For us to put away all doctrine. Acumen. And the brace only those beliefs. An understanding. And ethical imperatives. Which support and remind us. Of our holy. Human belonging. To one another. The essence of our unitarian universalist faith is simply this. A bold unitary vision. Of all persons in life. We are in this. And this faith and i know i've shared it before. Dysphasia. Ivar's. In the oneness. Of this earth end of humanity is beautifully summarized. By these lines. From carl sandburg with which he ends his epic poem. The people yes. It is what i leave you with today. There's only one horse on the earth. And his name is all horse. There was only one bird of the air and her name is all wings. There was only one fish in the sea. And that fish's name is all films. There is only one man in the world and his name is all men. There's only one woman in the world and her name is all women there was only one child in the world and that child's name is all children there is only one maker in the world. And that baker's children cover the earth and they are called. God.

uufvb_org

2015May03Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. For your wall. My name is paul lamoureux. I'm a member of this congregation. And this morning i serve. The fellowship. As. Public house. Extend a warm welcome to all especially those who are new to us. If you are just having a look. Or searching for a place that meet your spiritual needs. Know that this is a congregation of open minds. Loving hearts. And welcoming hands. Are opening words this morning were written by a minister. In england by the name of george shaw. This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me. I can waste it. Or i can grow in its light and be of service to others. What i do with this day is important. Because i will have exchanged a day of my life. For it. Tomorrow comes today will be gone forever. I hope i will not regret the price i paid for it. George shaw. We will now share together a responsive reading. What you will find. In the back of your hymnal. 650. I will read the first line so you can read the italicized parts. Cherish your doubts for gerald is the attendance of truth. We've questioned to error. For there is incomplete. An imperfection in every belief. It is not true. R-truth if it's a truth arises from each testing. Stronger and more secure. But those who fear not and know its use are founded on rock. Therefore let us know. let us rejoice and its help. Planning a trip to india. Why do you want. And it continued by saying don't you know it's filthy polluted. Well we had heard all those things. To some extent. But the question remains why do we want to go there. Try to answer that question because it has several different parts. The easiest part of the answer is simply because. On earth more than 5000 years old. Very upsetting. Why invite that kind of stress into our lives. The recluse to that answer. Realization. Learning demands were a lot of it. It stretches us and often uncomfortable realization. We knew that this could happen we were ready for such an experience. I will talk about it a bit about india because it was a learning experience that changed our thinking only about ourselves. Universalist. On this planet. I'm talking about this experience with you. I want you to be about or someone you have met. The forced you out of your comfort zone and changed you. What's first. About india. We drove away from an enormous modern glass-and-steel airport terminal that is set in a beautifully landscaped park. Towards the main street. Of kolkata. Formerly called. Calcutta by the british. A city of about 16 million people. Western civilization. World. The streets were jammed with buses cars motorcycles. Cars pedestrian stray dogs and cows. Each competed for every square inch of space. Risking death death. Casually as they plunged down opposing lanes into oncoming traffic. Just to get a few feet ahead. Asuris the traffic was light at this time of night and our 20-minute drive to the hotel 1 hour. The car horn on the car johcar god. Streetsboro commercial and secondary are littered with garbage from the pavement onto the street. We're people and dogs. Pick through the garbage looking for food. Street people either on the pavement. Sharks made of straw or plastic or whatever they confide. Or in buildings that are under construction. Residence there on the sidewalk story that you told. Is exactly what has happened to millions of people in india they have migrated to the cities looking for work. Work is very. Hard to find until they end up living on the streets. 30 minutes on the streets of kolkata of westerners to go home and never look back. The scope and degree of poverty is so great and so shocking that one is overwhelmed by these first impressions. We have to face absorb and try to make sense of what we saw. Yes india has enormous problems witcher and full. View. Poverty pollution and overpopulation appear to be so out of control as to be totally insoluble and unstoppable. With a population of 1.2 billion people it is growing at the rate of 15 million a year. The per capita income. $1,500 a year united states where the income is around 53000. China is the most populous country. Of the global population. Think about that. India is also a country of extreme contrast. Having one of the oldest civilizations and cultures on earth. While also achieving 21st century technological and entrepreneurial success. Recent achievements in space exploration which you may have read about it happened last fall. Equal to anything united states has done in 1/10 of cost of what we spend. Archie technology or increasing the size of the middle class. Except only a tiny minority of the total population. The very rich a smaller number still quickly adopt western lifestyle and use their extraordinary. A great deal of construction is underway a huge building complex. There. Underworld of social safety net. For the poorest citizens. The indian government seems to lack political. To care for its enormous population on any scale big enough for people to notice. An individuals are too busy with personal survival or economic advantage. 21st century. Hinduism. Is the oldest continuous religion on earth and its cultural practices remain central in the daily life. Of the indian. An indian doctor who we know here in florida told us recently cultural producers of india are part of his dna. I want to return to india to visit family probably practices all the traditions that he grew up with. We had to go to an understanding of how all these cultural pieces. Would fit together. And how the country was going to resolve its enormous problems. In short. We wanted to return home happy with what we had learned an optimistic that all would be well. It didn't happen. We arrived home to a disoriented and upset. What does this whole experience mean. What service could i make out of it. Emotional. Was really disappointed in myself. Should not have been able to make sense. Of this experience. Most of us would have answered the question. Because it's rational beings. And we all trying to be very hard show critic. But the real answer is no. No one can make sense of something that is totally new. An overwhelming. The second part of the answer is and it only came to me. You don't have to put everything in tonight's neat little boxes in your life some things you just are not going to grasp at least not right away. However. It's like the egg insecurities or confusion. Equilibrium. Very tempting. To respond to india by saying horrible terrible miserable place. Or anything else to protect oneself from. I don't. Reaction is understandable. Just to accept the experience and the attendant discomfort without dismissing it or judging it. Just. I'm trying to do that. No i don't understand indiana is far too complex and multifaceted. Whoever. I did learn something it was about myself. I think it's generally true of all of us. We can be porsche look outside of our comfort zone whenever we are traveling. Play a different way of life hardship and suffering around us. Of what is normal. Reality is or what reality certainly should be. Is grounded in western sensibilities. Derive my standards. Values assumptions and judgments. About what human life should be. Is not shared. By people who live in china the middle east or parts of africa that i have visited. Mywestern. Are practiced by only a minority of the world's population. So what did i learn. Failed dismally. Churchman sand my criticism. Became the narrow blinders that prevented me from really seeing and appreciating is totally different but incredibly. I'm beautiful culture. Throughout our trip. Myself. How are seven principles were evident in everything that i saw. Walking around. Streets in the in the various cities that we went to. I found a few. The value of human life respecting the inherent worth and dignity. Every person was only evident to me in the orphanage. And of course she was a westerner. When faced with enormous overpopulation incredible poverty political corruption and the pollution of the environment. I just noticed a lot of democratic principles working for the betterment of the average person. Systemic environmental projects to combat pollution or justice equity and compassion i am sure. There are people and institutions in india who absolutely. Maybe i didn't look hard enough. Experience was a collision of civilizations and cultures. The east. Versus the west. No wonder i was so perturbed. Yes i had to decide whether i would just. Dismiss all my western values as hopelessly idealistic. Control myself to the terrible human suffering something happened. It was because these realities. So shocked me. Central or principles are. Because they stand for dignity and value of human life. Which is really a bulwark. Against reality. Are democratic values. Commitment. The western world for the most part. The rest of the world. I can never think of our principals in the same way after my india experian. I must scrape them off the wall of our live where they only exist as idealistic. I must. As all of us must. Interpret them. In the context of the actual conditions of the world. And they must be strong enough. To sustain us as we challenge the coarser aspects of life. Idealism balance. With realism. Reverend gallinger nurik minister of all souls church in new york city says hurry. To do this and he defines courage. Quote. Courage is the knowledge of what is worthy and must be pursued no matter if the road is long. Unclear. Unquote. Where was courage more evidence. Each of these institutions houses. Over 100 mentally disabled. Adults and children. These residents are lifetime. Enter cared for by roman catholic nuns. These residents come from the swamp. And represent only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands. Services like this. What courage it must take to keep doing this work. For the most needy. Survive a day on the streets. To keep doing this world. In the face of such an enormous numbers. In the same article. Reverend bill schultz. Former ua president and former president of amnesty international. With torture and its perpetrators for him at least. Going back to our principles. The belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person is quote a myth. Unqualified. Turn universalist. To hear. For we have so long championed the individuals as a final source or an authority when it comes to deciding right and wrong. Again. Robin schulz said there are too many. Human heart. Too many godforsaken places where a worth and dignity have no presents. We cannot stand idly by and supposedly inherent qualities spring forth in the world. Forward to dignity to exist we must speak and act in a way that creates a place for them. And when human dignity is it stay. We cannot escape confrontation with a forces of idolatry. That would reserve work. To only a few. In the same time reverend bill murray. Who is a colleague of scotch in the president of meadville lombard when i was there. Quotes. Religious humanism husband justly accused of failing to take enough. The death of evil understanding of human nature. Perhaps we. Humanist and religious liberals have not wanted to think about evil because we have been afraid to face it within ourselves. We have failed to acknowledge the demonic aspects of human nature. Without losing faith in human exploitation. We need to acknowledge the magnitude of people in the world and understand. Pride egocentricity and the desire for power over others. All of that. Dr. murray. In india in chester's oppression exploitation. It was the norm. And some indians even admits that they don't notice it anymore. It is shocking for you tearing universalist because we have our own examples of all the same. But in the united states. Hidden from public view. An easier easier for us to avoid or ignore. In india. With a population four times the size of the united states. There is no place to hide problems of this scale. Ourworld saturday and western culture is on collision course with other cultures around the world who do not share our values. Sherman's. Just like her so much. Did they would prefer that we did not even exist. We must rethink what we mean by the popular bumper stickers slogan coexist. On an enormous scale but those cultures that would like to destroy us. We need to reflect deeply on these gritty facts. Before we taste. To our bumper. So we must continue to stretch ourselves intellectually emotionally and fight the temptation to return back into arnone uncomfortable world. We need to question or something. Both of us we take for granted as well as anything else we learn to grow beyond where we are now. President of the u.s.a.. We cannot retreat into our comfortable corners and not recognize the things that affect the world. We are a religion of hope and promise. With a capacity to confront evil. This is our sacred calling to take our faith. To a new level of witness engagement and effectiveness. We have come a long way together. We have a lot of work yet to do. Unquote. So what am i learned from all this. I learned that it was not possible for me to understand india. Complex problems do not lend themselves to simple answers. I found very distressing. Without judgement. And without running away. Realize. How important it is for each of us to know as much as possible about the global realities of the 21st century. As a global superpower are to deal with problems intelligent and informed way. We cannot just be naive cannot just be idealistic. We must be very determined. On the personal level. I was able to. Recommit. Door 7 principles. Enter try to live them as fully as i possibly can. Even though they're shared by a tiny minority. Circulate our belief in the value of human life. Our efforts. To serve others. Particularly. Most. I am also incredibly proud of our religious tradition. We are full. We have always prided ourselves. Two are accepting. Acceptance of the unfolding nature of truth. And our ability to adapt to changing conditions of life around us. Intellectual inquiry. An exploration. Is a major strength and is the way we will educate ourselves about global reality. We must be prepared intellectually logically of global learning. So that we will be able to speak in the world in the years ahead. Intelligent. Formed wesh. May official. Leave today may we carry the spirit and values of our faith. I'm community in our hearts. Goforth. Resolve to work to the highest standards of equity and fairness for all people. So that someday. Honoring our differences and holding sacred are commonalities. Go in peace.

uufvb_org

2013Apr28Sermon128.mp3

And welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach icr ranks are being thin by are snowbirds who are drifting away but you know it's great for us in the summer here in vero and what a beautiful day it is in the atlantic side of this beautiful state of florida morning. We were turning gation standing on the side of love seeking to become our best individual cells even as we work together to make a better world. And please know that you are welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you were young or old gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful state of humanity whether you are feeling on top of the world's morning. We're down in the dumps or somewhere in between we are delighted to see you just as you come to us this morning. We hope you will find our service this morning meaningful and enriching. And that you will find something here this morning. The nurse is your spirit and feed your soul and gives you renewed energy and joy. For the living room light in the days ahead. And is also is my pleasure this morning to be sharing the service with the reverend crystal bujold who is a wonderful member of our congregation and a true leader in our community and we are pleased to hear her provocative title about writing your own. The bible today. This screen will show you. The faces of god. And the screen will show you. It's in everyone of us. To be wise. You may see your face or someone you know. But it's all a reminder of clay aiken song. It's in everyone of us. Tu bewafa. Find your heart. Open up both your eyes. We can all know everything. Without ever knowing why. Because. It's in everyone of us. To be why. Every single one of us and you and me and everyone. It comes with a package. All we have to do is find our hearts. And open up. And enjoying yourself. Will realize that we can all know. Everything. Without ever. Blowing rock. It's in everyone of us. And it shows in everything we do. It comes forth and everything we say. And everything we write in the twinkle of the eye. In the sound of the voice. That it's in everyone of us. 2b. Well. Good morning again. And you know how i'm going to start cuz some of your furby before. And i always start with the same reading. And eventually everybody will know. But i say hello my african sisters you will say. Now i just want to see the hand. How many did not say hello back to me. Haha. And in the first lines of play was once upon a time. When we were all african. I didn't make that up. Some guys and some college said that. That that's where life started. And some geologist said that was the first. Land that came up and so if that was weird started it still ennis. So i'll try this again hello my african sisters. Have a belly button. That belly button screws that you have an x chromosome. And if you have one of those you're my half-sister. The one more time i'll try it. Old testament. A new testament. Have something in common testament. And men have something in common with testing this with women don't want it okay if i say. So i heard it wrong i didn't write it but you can go online and find out or you can just read the bible and find out or you can look in the bible dictionary there a lot of ways that you can discover that. And so right from the get-go. It's not my testimony. And. From the beginning of my life i have felt. That the bible left me out beginning i think i was 6 years old. Ask my mother. When is god going to have a daughter. Because god only had a begotten son and it's sick from sunday school lessons i knew that didn't include me. But somehow or another i thought someone would come along and rewrite the bible and make it there. Like they would change it and think i could have a daughter and then i can pick his chosen daughter. My mother said that wasn't going to happen. So i kept reading and have study and finally came to the place where the chosen people. Where's the children israel. 911 me. I think my grandfather was part of. Of the family that the jewish slave owner had back in new orleans. I did learn the language i didn't go to the jewish church and i didn't know anything about being that you. So the fact that the jewish children the jewish people were his chosen people. Didn't make me feel like i was included. And then i read them further and the. Choice. Sunday school cards kept showing. Dark people as being the bad people you know the battle egyptians. Do all the dark people wear the bad people. And since the bible wasn't going to be bitten i was just stuff. My mother was a minister. So i had to read the bible. Turn it upside down. And if she would have to read the bible. Lucky comb my hair. I told you i was sick so this started before i was six i don't know how old i was when i started reading. For her. And if i mispronounced word. She would put a dab of olive oil on my tongue not to punish me but she said it was to make. My palate. Handle the word little bit better. But i couldn't see it and figure out what word that was se. I eventually got the idea took my time. Dead words correctly. And that older. The bible didn't change. State the same. And i just forgot about. What was wrong with the bible in my opinion. Somewhere along the way. I was studying religious science. What's the license practitioner. Filipino what religious zionism. It's a religion designed. Based on ernest holmes textbook designs of mine. It's in the family of unity and divine science and. Things like that. It's a stepping stone to unity unitarianism actually. Because emerson is one of their. Their teachers one of their. Thomas jordan people like that. Religious science. I learned a couple of things that. Excited me in put me back in touch with. My old pots and feelings about the bible. When is. That. Ernest said jesus. When the way shore. Not just the son of god by the way short. I know that's pretty cool. Jesus came to show me the way. That's alright with me. And training i came up with the idea that jesus said. Put your left foot in take a look it up. And so i started reading the bible again. And jesus said. I am or i did ride you were i think or i believe whatever he's whatever he said i put my name there. Crystal is crystal beads crystal. I just changed meeting of the new testament. No one comes unto the father but through me. Jesus. It was me saying no one comes unto the father but. So. Took it out of someone else's hand. Dignified to know what it meant but it just sounds good. Another thing i learned. True religion sign. When they said their prayers they would pray mother. Father. I had it like that. Because that's put her back in the future for me. They wouldn't say. Mother's father god she's just so. It was still him but it was kind of her but it awakening me to what i needed. A little more for her in my life. I needed a little more african spirituality in my life. I need it to be. One of his gentile children. And so. I decided. It was something i wanted someone else to do and something i needed to have done. I should do it myself. And that's what i did. I started writing my own bible. And sometimes they will do that my question is. Why can't i be inspired by god. Well i'm going to speak to the children in south central la. The old testament is if i get this right. Well. It was kind of hebrew. And the new testament was in greece. Either. If that's what you want to hear it or not so much. Then i did write it but how did i write him a hand on it. Anyone not have a head that way. Nevermind. I knew richard had told them so beautifully and and put them and everyone. Lord help me walk straight today. I've got these new shoes on i'm speaking. Tuesday and i thought i'd wear them here to bring them in. Okay. So this is the way that i wrote my bottle. No i'm not saying that any of you need to write your body. If you should be inspired to do so maybe. Tips for making help you get started. And the beauty of it is once i started writing. It opened the doors to myself that i wasn't aware of. There is a power that comes with the idea. For me. Of writing my own bible. I'm saying that i missed. Powerful. And it is worthy as anyone who ever lived. I'm as wise as anyone who ever live. Just because i am writing my own rival. I want to put in there. And i'm not going to include the things that i don't want you now here's the trick it doesn't change to christian. Tadeo bible that it says it doesn't change king james version. Or any of the 9000 other version of the many bibles that already existed and change them at all. It just adds another one to the list. So i started with the old testament. Genesis. And the old testament first versus in the beginning. So i wrote in the beginning. God is my mother. That's where all my life team from. That's who i knew to be god. She took care of everything that i needed. That's the way i started. And then i started writing about her. Who she was. Where she came from. Information about her. Cuz in my mind. Generations after i dye my family will still have access to my bible so my kids will know. My grandmother was. Go back for generations. So all of those names are in my genesis. In the beginning. Exodus. So when i move to south central avenue. Wherever i move to and when i moved from south symphony to cross the street. So then when i texted it where i was. Paragraphs about that. Why did i. Who did i do with. Well the truth is see i was sleeping with my mom and daddy. And i had a baby. And her husband. Hey my daddy wanted a husband out of his house so he went across the street to the landlord and. She had a duplex and one of them is empty. He came back and he said i rented a duplex for you out for one month. You are going to lose next week in just ride over there that was my exodus. Lord have mercy. Read or studied and see i had to study. If you haven't better study leviticus. There are some parts of it. There's not all of it that you may not want to put in your own bible. And so i didn't put any of that in my own body. But when i did at 4 leviticus. Where those things that are my flaws. Things that i believe in to be. Laws for me. The name of god that's given in the christian bible is i am that i am. So i put that in the villages. I am that i am. And then i added. Everything that i say i am. That's what i am. So that's my law. And that applies to me. Another thing actually never got a lot of compliments from fire this morning. The lightning through tell me i was very pretty and they like this color on me. Well one of my laws is. What do you think about what do you think about me at this very moment. Showboat. Am i cute my beautiful know whatever you think. Well this is one of my lord you ready. It takes one to know one. And then i found him and raise him as. Egyptian mystery schools near learned all the tricks of the trade. Appointment i'm moses said. I'm going to take this to my people. Have you ever started a new project or joined a board for an old project. And you have all these ideas what you want to do. Robert's rules of order before you can have a board meeting. Or you have to teach people. The table. Movie theater. Across the river. Tell you. But they had lived. Ward theaters. If i lived in greece before hundred years i can speak. If i lived in egypt for 400 years i've been able to interpret the carvings on the wall. Because if you can come. What wherever you live you become that 400 years. Good stuff about hate on yourself and everyone of us. Because they were wild. I'm not in the bible. 1st and kedzie. Number this so you can keep up with each other. All about. P1457. All you did was make laws. And the bible mention numbers sober numbers i just put my social security number in my phone number my address my birthday office numbers. 7506. Are you getting the idea of how i was writing my own slide. I just went through those little. And i wrote you something that was personal. Of the world to me. Terms and end song my own sausage show songs from youtube. I thought almighty mail letters. I have a 12:00 open right now in my inbox. How to write your own bible. One thing that opened up to me and i had no idea. It was going to happen like this. I was studying at the aquarius spiritual center and study. Coastal philosophy by marc benjamin. And there's seven virtues. And in this group had to go through be had to go through each of these seven virtues. Alpine one where we were stuck. So fast. And the teacher said what about number. No problem. Intelligent. 30 number for. Freedom from resentment. Well under. Oppression. Freedom brothers desmond while under refresh. So i figured he wants me to take a look at it i wrote all seven of them in my bible for the circle around being friendly staffing. Is that much. Well under oppression. And shortly after that are free. The new adventure something new and exciting. Expand me. So i just heard that on at the end i said that if i have to learn anything else about freedom from me is that enough that you can just take that on. I move to florida. Indian river county. The most racist county. The most racist county in. Florida. California. Nothing like this we never drank out of colored only water fountains. I never went to the segregated. They were but they didn't say they were. And i never said on the back of the bus. And we never had ended changed. Episode way over there in florida. Mississippi and new orleans from my family came from. So. I knew i didn't have any. Here. And this is deborah.. My resemblance where sold. I just didn't know it. I really had to put this in my bible. Freedom from you and every step of the way things that i was doing. To clear this up in my life. I knew i had to figure it out because of cancer had already. Jumped on me. And i kicked it out but. In religious science. And i didn't know. I'm not getting ready crying but i wanted to tell you i didn't write down the street. A lot of things i decide not to put in there but this i did and i'm still writing this chapter. Because what i found in indian river county. Around the corner 43rd avenue and 4th street. Was a little low certo wasn't very small but the pictures. Butthead this is all glass window. All glass wall. And i would go and visit this church and they have his. This rock thing. It's called joys and sorrows what you would stand up and talk. Whatever your joy is coming to remember that. The first time i spoke. My car has broken down and liz mayo. And then the hurricane haman. Blue merle pit houses and then rodger. Kubiak and his wife took me in and. Make sure i would never have to worry about. Thanksgiving came out was hungry. Having to be out here by myself and. Susan johnson. And the list goes on and on about. What happened with the people in this church. In indian river county. In florida. The most wonderful a real. People. Walk through walls. Only has seven chapters. The first one is. I have. The inherent worth and dignity of every person in my heart. I haven't either but i don't have it i have that's in my mind. But what i meant to write about that is. That i keep finding that here in this church. How do i find this church. Because in my bible i'm writing. That i want to be healed. Of this resentment in my bottle i'm writing that i want a new adventure. Am i problem writing that i want to do something exciting. And so naturally what i wrote have the memphis and here i am. If you choose to write your own bible. Just look out for all the good stuff is going to come. Writing your bottle. Those things that you choose to write are doing the manifest in your life. And if you choose to write wonderful things about yourself they will manifest in your life. If you choose to write about the exciting joyce experiences. Money back guarantee. If you do but the spirit tells you to do when it comes to writing your own bible. The lid on your hand when you break it. It'll just writing forever and ever and if you don't write right things you don't like. No problem. The whole idea is. You have a pain in your hand. You can do what you want to do. But if you don't like what's in the other bibles. You have a choice. You do have the right and if you think you don't have the right i'm here to tell you today. You have the right to write. Your own. Is right. Radar morning. You might think. Taking time. To write. Hero bible. It's not necessary for you. And probably wouldn't be read by anyone. And not appreciated by anyone except you. Here's another thought. Generations from now. My children would only have a christian bible to read. All i left the day. But they're not all have my bible to read as well. Time for new religion. Earlier to know the power of your own voice. You have nieces and nephews. Nephews. I didn't put it in the library. Write something. Even if you don't want to call it your phone bible. But i guarantee. Put that at the top of your writing. This is my bible. You have a new day. Very nice day and if you don't just come back to me money back guarantee i'll see that you get all your money back from whatever. Enclosing. Blessings to you blessings to your pain. Listen to your thoughts blessings to your life. You have made this world already. Much more wonderful place to live. Just by being who you are.

uufvb_org

2012Oct28Sermon32.mp3

These are the gloves i had to wear on my bike to work this morning. For the first time in eight months that's what these are. I hope you all enjoyed the. Cooler weather. My name is scott alexander and administer this fine and welcome to the first unitarian. Universalist fellowship of vero beach. We're glad you've chosen to be with us this morning. Please know you're welcome just as you come to us. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight. Black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you were feeling on top of the world this morning or down in the dumps you're welcome in all of your particularly in charmed. We hope you find our service meaningful and enriching this morning. And you will find something here that nourishes your spirit. And feeds your soul and gives you a new energy and zest for the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. Opening words this morning. Come from dan hotchkiss. Something he wrote that was president uu world publication of april 2003. Call money and spirit. It's time to talk about money. Church. And he wrote. Money is a spiritual challenge. Little creek. Enough. And requires the best of us in moral reasoning and courage. Money is a medium of power through which we act. And are acted upon. A spiritual life that does not concern itself with money. Can have little effect on our daily life. Especially. In a culture is saturated by financial forces. As hours. Strong feelings. Pride in having it. Fear of losing it. Compulsive eagerness to spend it. Hoarding it. Each of these feelings has a moral and spiritual dimension. At worst. Unconscious of our kinship with god's family. Pride can make us feel like gods ourselves. Siri can take away the courage rent was it for moral action. Compulsive spending. Why compulsive hoarding. Turns our attention toward ourselves. That way from the well-being of others. Money can be a spiritual plus. Money earned for useful work is an encouraging. How are worthiness that are value. The thoughtful use of money. Spending. Shaving. Investing. Giving. It's an effective way to care for others and realize our revisions. Of a better world. Everyday experience confirms a strong connection. Between faith. And money. Money plays a central role in virtually all important. Earn and spend and give away our money shapes and watch part. The memories. We leave behind. Money may not be sacred. But when we approach the sacred in our lifetime. Money is almost always nearby. And most heinous acts of cruelty have this in common. Money is the most frequent medium. Through which the actors done. The most soul-destroying vices. And the most in novolin spiritual discipline. Both require. Free. Which alarms are ciety cost money. What excuse can we have for skittering around the subject. Or for dealing with it superficially in a house of worship. 7 repeat that. What excuse can we have. Ring around the subject of money. In a house of. Ralph lauren. Waldo emerson says. Money. Which represents the pros of life. And which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology. Affection laws. As beautiful as roses. This morning i asked you to close your eyes with me for a few moments. And think about planting roses. In your garden of life. Good morning. Good morning my sisters. Good morning my sisters. I see the guy sitting with their mouth shut. I'm going to try this again good morning my sisters. Okay let me explain. You know how you put your right hand over your heart to pledge allegiance to the flag of united states of america. Guys put your hands over your stomach. There is a belly button there. The belly button represents the x. Chromosome you got from your mama. You know what i mean. Okay. So you're half woman. You have my sister. Okay just half of you is my sister. The other half is probably. But this have i want you to get her out of the binder and into the service. And i'll try it again good morning my sisters. That's what i'm looking for. Sisters. Who have two axes. Sometimes we forget that we got annex from our daddy's mama. She's the powerhouse. She had to raise boys she had to raise sons. Do you know what it takes. For woman to raise a son how tough she has to be. I'm turning because i promised the choir they wouldn't have to look at my back all morning. So when we say good morning again this time sisters bring out that. Woman and you okay. Good morning my sisters. There it is. Now the reason is so important that. We bring her out. And release her. As i talk to you about money honey. Is because she has a very. Hard to play. In my message. You've already heard a part of it from. Claudia. Thank you. I'm old and. My internal. Computer is full of information 75 years worth. And i haven't figured out how to plug in. The external computer so that i can remember all these things so you had to help me with claudia this morning but you don't have to help me with money honey i got that one down pat. You notice in her story what was the binoculars called. Nosstress is she or he. Ashy. And we sing this morning about. Mother. Okay. If every. Every woman in the world. We're going to talk about her a lot today. And one of the reasons. Is because there is a man. Or he was living his name was reverend ike. I don't know if any of you know who evan ike was. Raymond scott knows. Oh you had a fleet of cadillacs. The match the suit that he wore. On various sundays when he spoken is $600,000. Churchome back in the. 40s and the 50s. But one of the things he said about money. Money. And oates. That's who did not love her. Could have her. Money. Swore an oath. That those who did not love her. Could have her another words if you didn't love her. You couldn't have her. And what that means in terms of money this morning is. If you don't love it. She's going to leave you. We women can be you've said it over and over. And if you don't love us we will leave doris or find someone who does. If you don't shower us with shower us with compliments. And perfume and diamonds. Why do we want to stay. When we can go find a place where we will be loved. And adored. And treated like harrell. Treated every sunday as her husband. Just loved her. Carrollton going nowhere. No i know some of you may be thinking yeah i know. But. There's this thing about money being the root of all evil. For the love of money being the root of all evil i just want to sing a little ditty to you before i. Debunk. That miss. Because that. Is results. Something that we do often. It's about the way we think about money. And the diddy goes like this. Thoughts are things. Every little thought to us. It brings. Happiness or misery. Swings. Thoughts. Install.. Ar. Things chords you agree with me. Thoughts are things. Call r. Every little thought us death rate. Happiness or misery on its wings cuz god are. Thoughts. Ar. Want to join us. Thoughts are things. Call rc. Every little salty springs. Happiness or misery on its wings cuz thoughts are. Sauce. 7. Just try that part. Okay now about money. Cuz i haven't stopped talking about money actually. This thing about. Money being the root of all evil. Would love of money being the root of all evil. Either one. Is incorrect. It's a misprint. It's a misinterpretation. Last sunday. What's your friend's name. Reverend rodger fritz talk to us about. How jesus became divine. It was in the same manner that we're going to choose the president in a couple of weeks. Going to go to the polls and vote. The only difference is constantine told people how to vote. He told a priest. Vote on this and that's it. And that's how jesus became divine. Popular vote. Coerced vote. No in our scriptures. I know it's raggedy. But it's been with me a very long time. And feels annotated. Version of the king james. Revision of constantine. Bible. And the only. Bible that i have found. That has a slightly different take on first timothy. 610 i think that's the right. I told you about what's going on up here so you can look it up when you get home. Islam's version. Because mom's version. Actually went back to the language peshitta of the village where supposedly. Was raised. But all the other bibles have the same thing. The thing about scofield. Annotated. But i'll. Have it on the table out there in the fellowship hall if you want to see. In this bible. Every. Word. Has a number by it. Except and. Things like that. But. Every word and its bible has been researched. By team of men. Define. What the actual meaning. For that word. And then this man strong. Took all of those definitions. And switzer mendes. Exhaustive concordance. I don't need to carry this around you can see why. The print is too small. Have to have a magnifying glass i brought one in case you want to look at it. The number. Old testament hebrews 1 please. New testament. Greek is another place. They have said. That verse. The love of money is the root of all evil. The word is not actually love. But. What is the choir. Avarice. Which means. Greed. That does not make more sense. Greed for money is the root of all evil. Because love is supposed to be healing balm. If you love something. That's supposed to heal it. George washington carver you know who he is the peanut man. Discovered all those uses for peanuts and sweet potatoes every time you go to the post office. That's george washington carver sweet potato. Stefan that. Destiny. That's how we got blue. If you love something enough. It will reveal its secrets. If you love something enough. It will reveal its. And that's how he got. How he discovered all those inventions. Because he would just go out into the field with his love for. And they would tell him. What to do. 300 something inventions. Peanut. 200 and something from. Sweet potatoes. And other things. So if we love something enough. We can heal it. And let it be. If we love money. It will reveal its secrets. And not only that. But it's money male or female. Who said female thank you art. I'm going to ask the question again now that you told him the answer is funny male or female. Oh you saying it's so soft you already said. Moneys wuornos. That those who did not love. Her. Could have her. But not only did i say that. In the women's encyclopedia admits to secrets. You look under the word money you'll see that the word comes from. Dunno monett. Monett. Money. And money was made in her temple. And it was blessed. Before it was sent out into the world before. Be blessed. The money they love the money they sent out of vibration of goodness on money in those. From her temp. Can you imagine. What your vibrations of goodness. Can do to this thing called money. And how to change. Economic crisis that we're dealing with today. This. Is not something. That wall street created. Hate to tell you that. It's not something that deregulation created. And for a very long time in this country. We've been saying all kinds of things that it becomes self-fulfilling prophecy. One of those is which. And what else. And how long. Forever. Maybe you didn't say but you heard it you laughed at you bought into it. And what happened over these years. The rich have gotten. And the poor are getting. And now we got 2% and 98%. And we're still staying at. And we're still saying money is the root of all evil. And we still sing the love of money is the root of all evil. And if you have been. I don't want to say guilty. That you participated in this economic crisis. Well. If you help make it you can help undo it. And you don't need anyone else to help you do this. All we have to do. Is make friends. With money. I have some ideas for you. Because i didn't always know. That the love of money was not. The root of all evil. My mother. Who was the minister. Taught me. The bible. But she also taught me something else. Very interesting. She said. Nothing you know what this is. By any chance if i know what this is. Try something else. Not molasses. Honey. See it says on here clover honey i know you can see that. My mom taught me that nothing. No bacteria. Norovirus. Living honey for more than 72 hours. Did you know that. Ivener sapir. Is there a doctor in the house. Bob did you know that. I was going to get validation. But you can go on the internet. Go on the internet and you can get the. For yourself. In fact there is a honey that they've discovered. Very recently. That is called super honey you want to look up on the internet. The super honey will kill the super bugs that the antibiotics that have been created can't kill. Because. Nothing. Bad bacteria. Can live in honey. For more than 72 hours. And what does this have to do with money. Well. When i discovered that i was. I feel my head. With so many. Thought. Chasing money away from me. Like i said like. Chasing women away. From us. Keeping our. Powerful women. Depressed. Keeping her in the closet not letting her out. Do work for us. Not letting her out to go and get. Her cousins and uncles and aunts in the form of. When i realized that i had made that. Mistake. I took my mother's advice. she didn't tell me about honey. To clean my thoughts. But i figured what you on one playing with chew on all claims. If honey. Would heal a wound on my body. It ought to heal the wounds in my head. So. I took the honey. I took a jar. I get to show off my purse. And i decided. My thoughts. About money. By creating a symbol. To look at. So every time i looked at it. I would think about. The love. That money is good to me. You know. Before you can have a wife. Or lover. We women want to be. Friends. So. Has to make friends with anybody. Give me for this example and i won't give it back to you. Yeah. Here's some money here. Thank you. Anybody else. Wouldn't be. Upset about that. I put the money in a jar. And i decided to take the stuff that were twins bacteria. And i poured over the money. Well i was thinking about. Cleaning my mind. With thoughts like. Ain't nobody out there anyway. Self-fulfilling prophecy. I don't have any money. I don't even have two nickels to rub together. Fulfilling prophecy. There's some people who are filthy rich. Self-fulfilling prophecy. How many of you work. Go to work for. And those whose hands are in a how many of you ever worked. Why. What you go to work. It would go to work on monday early two hours you get up two hours before time to go to work. Work all day on monday. Rush home in if you were. From the binders. You would go home and fix dinner for your children. Get their clothes ready help you with your homework. Get your lunch ready for tomorrow get your clothes ready for tomorrow jump in the bed so you can get up the next day. And go back to work and do the same thing every day from monday to friday. And then on saturday you would jump up early cuz she had to clean the house yet to clean the bathroom had to go shopping had to wash clothes. Etcetera etcetera get your clothes laid out to go to church on sunday rush to church. Come home from church. To make this evil thing called money. It's a necessary evil. Isn't that a horrible reason. To do it what if we were loving. The money instead and loving our work. And loving it when we give. Loving the money puts a whole new vibration on. And if you come out to the table. Today. I'll show you $5 that i've had in. A money honey jar for 10 years. It looks different. Is there a whole different vibration on it. It looks like it's loved. It wasn't stuffed in the pocket. Like sometimes we. Wish you want to stay with you. What you going to get her cousins and uncles and aunts. But if you love her money if you love your money if you treat your money like. The runoff services name. If you treat your money like great. Not only was she serve you well. But you want. Don't have a problem making money it's. Holding onto a little bit longer. But in terms of holding on there has to be. Circulation is the key. Malachi said in. The old testament. Bring your money bring your ties. The storehouse. Lot of people don't want to give 10% of their money to the. Cuz they want to hold on to it but they'll pay their taxes. The telephone bill. Sometimes they don't think about how the church needs. Toilet paper. Paper towels. Light bulbs. Telephone bill. With a smile. Okay. When you give your money. If it's loved money. Are you have the vibration of love on it. Everybody who touches. Will be touched. By your love. The church. The telephone company. Comcast. Presidential nominees. Not calling any names. All of them. The lobbyists. We saw a movie here. I see play in the name of those brothers in that movie we saw. Cahokia. They'll be touched by your love by the energy. Thoughts that you think. And if you take the test. To make friends. With money. To call it sweet names. I have jars all over the house. What's my money honey jar. I play with it. To keep me reminded that i do want to be friends. With money and i do want money to love me. And if you will make friends with money. The choir is going to tell you. What money. Will say. To you. Not understand the choir. Is representing money. And it's going to give you a message. From. Loved. Money. About what. I know you got it. Healthy. Enough. Not for just a year. Once you're on the road. Jamaican friends with money. You can expect money. To converse with you. In fact. But money will also. Sing to you. And when the media says the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. You can say. That's not for me. Because i love money. And she will call her sisters and brothers and uncles and aunts and cousins and friends who will come running to you. Because isn't curtis hopkins sis. Everything is moving towards love. If you keep money in your heart. With love. And keep your thoughts. Embracing money. With love. And treat her. With love. Money will want to stay with you. And this is how you can help turn this economic crisis. Into a crisis of melting. And reforming itself. Define circulation. There is money in the world for everyone to have. If you have some will circulated. Your circulation of honey bunny. Love money. Will make money come to you. To you. We hope that you will. Take this with a smile. Real roses. In your garden. Real rose bushes full of money. In your garden. We hope that you will allow money to bless you. Allow life to bless you. A blessed representative of the goodness. And with those words. We bring our service.

uufvb_org

2015Apr05Sermon32.mp3

Happy easter you know what garrison keillor says about a congregation of unitarian universalist on easter sunday don't you all dressed up and nowhere to go. But that's that's a joke anyway welcome on this easter sunday to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we are so pleased you've decided to begin this beautiful. Stay here on the treasure coast with us. We are congregation of open minds loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best individual cells. Even as together as a congregation we work to make our world a better place. Please know that you are welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you were young or old gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. What do you have a ged or a phd whether you're a visitor for the first time this morning or been coming for decades. Whether you're feeling absolutely on top of the world or down in the dumps or. Somewhere in between. We welcome you just. Morning. We hope you'll find this easter morning service meaningful and enriching. And that you will find something here this morning that nourishes your spirit. And feed your soul and gives you renewed energy and purpose and joy. For the living of life and the days ahead. What easter service would be complete without these words by e.e. cummings unitarian poet. I thank you god for most this amazing. For the leaping greenly spirits of trees. And a true blue dream of skiing for everything which is natural which is incident which is yes. I would guide him alive again today and this is the son's birthday this is the birthday of life. And love. And wings. And if the gay great happening. Illimitable earth. How should tasting touching curing seeing breathing any lifted from the no of all nothing. Human merely being doubt unimaginably you. Now the ears of my ears awake. And now the eyes of my eyes. Are open. The reading this morning is from the judgment. Of the birds. Permafrost entitled. In the event. Search of a little glade one wrong crooked branch. I sat down to rest my back against the stone. I was concealed from the glade. Although i could see into it perfectly. The song with warm air and the murmurs of forest life. Blurred softly away into my sleep. Ar-10. Dimly aware of some commotion. An outcry in the clearing. The light was slanting down to the pond. Who played was lit like some vast cathedral. I could see just move. Avoid pollen in a long shaft of light. On an extended branch. Enormous raven. With a red and squirming nestling. Assume that awoke me. Was the outrage cries of the nestlings parents. Who flew helplessly in circles about the clearing. Sleek black monster differences in he wedded his beak on a dead branch or moment. And sat still. Follow the usual pattern. All that area of woodland. Airsoft found a complaint. Began to rise. An intruder glade fluttered small bird. Of a dozen varieties. Drawn by the anguished cries. Of the tiny parents. No one dared attack to raven. But they are in some instinctive common missouri. The bereaved. Bereaved. The greenfield with airsoft rustling and their cries they fluttered as load to point their wins at the murderer. There was a gym intangible effort. But he had violated that they knew. He was a bird. Abduct. The murderer the blackbird at the heart of life on their formidable. I'm moving. Unperturbed. Untouchable. The song god. It was then i saw the judgement. It was a judgment of life against death. I will never see it again so forcefully presented it again. For in the midst of that protest. They forgot the fireworks. They're in that clearing the crystal note of a song sparrow lifted hesitantly into the hunt. And finally a painful fluttering another another. The song counting from one bird to another self ali at first evil thing we're being slowly forgotten. Julius we together as birds are known to sing. Facetime because life is sweet and sunlight is beautiful they sang under the brooding shadow of the raven. In simple truth they have forgotten the raven. For they were the singers of life. I'm not. Up.. Easter sunday i'm going to let you in on a dirty little secret ministers have. There are a whole lot of us clergy types who secretly dread it when christmas and easter roll around each year. Now don't get me wrong most ministers just love the best music player rituals and the bigger than average crowd. Sitcom with these holidays. All that stuff's great. What we ministers read honestly is having come up with something new and fresh and original. To say here i mean think about how many clever fresh and innovative ways are there to approach the old spiritual messages. Of christmas. At least. If you. Easy i dare you. In any case. You know this dirty little secret about ministers dreading at every time easter rolls around i will tell you this is my 42nd. Easter sunday as an ordained minister my files are full of old easter sermon. Some of them dare i say were downright fresh and inspirational others of the barely above average. And a few i will admit mediocre heaven forbid perhaps if you even worse. Just makes. Perfect sense. Where's when you think about it because of minister no matter what his or her denomination. Only preaches his or her best easter sermon once all the rest are well something less than that right. With all that said let me tell you the story the true story about my first easter sermon as a uu minister. The date i had to go look it up on google. Was april 14th 1974 i was 24 years old and i know some of you seen this picture before this is what i looked like back then. A little warrior. And a lot younger. Just out of seminary totally wet-behind-the-ears the newly settled minister of the first. Church of houlton maine established in 1811 the oldest church north of bangor maine unitarian universalist adorable and brave little congregation when i got there about. 45 adults and 15 children mcdonald's restaurant up there they had 12. Here is polaris main and use the red star is where holton is. It was then a town of over eight thousand souls but today has shrunk to a population. About 5,000. You're looking for very cheap housing for. Retirement houlton maine is a place you could go. Interstate 95. At the canadian border. In that northern part of maine the whole northern part connecticut. There are more moose. 10 people. I'm not talking metaphor. I mean literally. More boots. The people. It is very remote it is very rural and in the winter trust me it is very cold and it is very snowing so. As easter approach that year in the middle of april. As a newly-minted minister i was ready or at least i thought i was ready to preach a barn burning sermon about the return of spring the resurrection of life and the rebirth of hope in the human heart all the things i've been taught on in berkeley california and seminary that would be perfect for easter sunday. Looked outside and here is what the church look like that easter week. Actually. There was about four and a half feet of snow on the church lawn the church walk was a turtle the janitor had been shoveling the snow up so high it was like it was unbelievable. There was much more snow. Indeed that first year of my ministry the snow did not leave the ground until after memorial day i remember that first memorial day barbecuing chicken outside with patches of old hired snow around the fire pit. There i was at first spring and eager cheerful minister already for easter but. Stir wasn't ready for me. About mid-week before that sunday i went into a panic mode. What was i going to do with spring absolutely nowhere in sight i mean what was i going to say for heaven's sake. I mean. Overflowing with poetry and music about human heart. But our little northern maine town was still firmly gripped. Death grip of winter. It would be several weeks more before the. Hint. Well as i remember it i preached the sermon that lamely went something like i went looking for the old sir and i couldn't find it. I think i said don't worry folks i know we're still buried in snow but have faith. Spring will come someday. And your hearts will eventually feel and know the resurrection. I did the best i could for god's sake that first. Turn off fast forward please to easter 2015 here i am 42 years later. Much older and hopefully wiser. But still with an easter problem. And this time however it is for the opposite reason of that first piece. In case you haven't noticed here in vero beach. We live in the traffic. And while we do have a few days of slightly cold or whether it's you're basically the climate here on the treasure coast is. Well it's perpetual summer. Lush green life everywhere. So where is in houlton maine where the easter was nowhere to be found here. It dances gleefully around us in april. And october. Leaving in january. The flowers bloom the birds sing everything is lush and inviting and green. So justice and holton where my first easter sermon felt. Totally out of sync with reality. So to easter here feels to me strange and anti-climatic. We're winter really never gains the power to shut down the natural world. And lock it in a death grip of ice. Trust me. It is a difficult. To write an easter sermon where winter never comes. As it is where winter refuses to leave by contrast by the way my perfect congregation was bethesda maryland where i was before. You know the mid-atlantic get enough winner to remind you that the cherry blossoms are just starting to come out in washington. That was the perfect place to have easter. The point is. But the sermon will be a whole lot easier for me if we were all living in the adirondacks. Adirondack bench right anybody else in the adirondacks this morning. It would be a whole lot easier if we're in the adirondacks where the rivers now rush with springmill. And the crocuses and snowdrops are just starting to peep their heads up. Rei. Gray. Rei. But of course and thank god not all easter sermons most especially unitarian universalist ones. Are climatic are climates dependents. It seems to me that easter at least in most parts of the world. Comes with a dual and complementary message. The natural message. It's a glorious and faithful rebirth of life that does come to earth. Spring. And the spiritual message. Is the reaper possibility of the rebirth of hope and joy and purpose. That can always come. This easter in warm and wonderful. beach was going to be 183 today. And where i at as i have already observed winter never really takes more. And spring is kind of hard to notice. I want to focus on the spiritual. That is so precious. Important with you live in anchorage alaska. Or austin texas or right here on the treasure. And that timeless and universal message. Isn't even after we experience the hardest of knocks in life. Even after we weather the hardest winter storms in our soul even after we experience any sort of. Painful or sorrowful good friday we can still experience. Easter morning. With a 3 berthold. Troy. Can always. Follow. Good. And this leads me to what i really want to say to you this morning on this easter of 2015 my 42nd. Easter message. Here in volney florida. My focus is on the idea. Of resilience. Not the resilience of nature after along new england winter is all that is wonderful most of you and ben up in new england you know how beautiful. I want to focus on the resilience. Of the human heart. The all-important second half. Easter message. Resilience in your heart. Or in my heart after we have suffered. A good friday. Soul. Some terrible loss or. Sorrow or dark. Storm. Human being. Resilience. Human resilience. Is what easter sunday is. Play all about to me. Spiritual. Process. A bouncing back. To life. All of its fullness. Here is the interesting definition of resilience i found on dictionary.com. Resilient. The power or ability to return to the original form. Position at cetera after being bent. Compress. Or stretch it is elasticity. Second definition. Ability to recover readily from illness. Depression adverse. Or the light it is buoyancy. Buoyancy. Elasticity. As i we have already observed the word resilience. Certainly applies to mother earth every springtime. As all of nature does faithfully eventually even after a winter like this one again. Bounces back to green and glad and glorious thing. This is the easy and predictable. Message of easter. The natural resurrection of spring that does come. Every winter. But the harder message. The one that is not so reliable or predictable or certain is the spiritual message. The message that is already said after every good friday of the heart there can be a rebirth of hope. Enjoy and purpose. Soul. The spiritual message of easter is harder. Unless certain a natural earth. Because when it comes to human being. Resilience is not assured. We human beings do not always bounce back to life. I'm the man. What i love about the lauren isley piece that i had lee reed. This morning what a beautiful. Beautiful image that is. Is the spiritual resist resilience. Exhibited by those. Little vulnerable songbirds in the glen after the raven of death has. Suddenly they. Heart. And sang from many throats. Joyous. Together as birds are known to sing they sang because even under the brooding shadow of death. Life is sweet. Sunlight is beautiful. Simple truth. Forgotten the raven for. Singers. Life. Not. What resilience a monkey. You have longer memories than brewery. Does not always come so naturally. I can say this is true because i have been in the business. Of studying human beings and their behavior. For a very long time now. It seems to me in my work as a minister there is a natural continuum. Along which people instinctively fall given their personalities. And their emotional resources and their inclination. Between resilience on the one end of the spectrum and what i shall call brittleness. On the other there is a natural continuum. In people. Between resilience. And ritalin. In my experience those people who tend 10 either toward resiliency which is. Those people who are naturally flexible anna henna roll with life's punches. Bounce back quickly when they have losses are good fridays in their lives. Dawson abling cells to move ahead in their lives. Not as before but with reconfigured. Meaning and purpose of paprika. Figured meaning. Or the people who tempt word brittleness. These are the folks who find it difficult to adapt and recover. From hard and unwelcome circumstances. Thereby tenzing to break. Rather than ban. And then they get trapped. Daybreak. In immobilized fear and anger and depression. One image from the natural world which might be helpful here. Is the way various trees respond during ice storms. Whenever we had massive ice storms in the washington dc area and that was regularly. Countries like the weeping willows and young maple sapling. Have flexible and supple branches that fence down slowly. The ice accumulator only to bounce back. As soon as the sun came out in the melting begin. But other trees like the mighty oak and the ash trees. With pat very rigid branch. That would stand firm until the ice finally became too heavy for them. Causing them to crash to the ground or into rooms with a loud crack. Awesome taking power lines. Down with them. The point here is that people can be like trees. They can be like a. Shuffle. Willow or rigid oak. They come. Brittle. And they come. And i think there are two factors. The decide where we follow along this continuum of resilience and brittleness first. The way we are variously wired. Buy personality and predilection. For confronting and coping with life sunwealth. Surprises. And i think there is a second factor that determines whether or not. We have the ability to bounce back from lice. Different. Isn't that is whether or not when we were young. And learning life's ropes we learn from our parents and other significant adults in our lives. We watch we witnessed other people being resilient themselves. When they were confronted with adversity and hardship. Some of us. I know i did. Have the advantage of having resilience modeled for us by our birth family. But others of us. Head only brittleness. Model. Making a hard i think. To realize that resilience picking yourself up after you've been knocked down by life. Is not only possible but it's in really it's the only way to go it's a life-saving. Spirit saving. Ability. Because these dual treat truth r-truth. The people are both emotionally wired differently. And that they may or may not have had resilience modeled for them. Is very important i think as we approach the spiritual quest in this easter. About how to strengthen. Our ability. To find resilience. In our living. And it's also important that we scrupulously avoid. Ever being judgmental or any other way harsh. For those who are in the face of life's adversities. Simply unable. Too readily or naturally muster that resilience that. Stirring. Quality. In their lives. Surely the last thing. Would someone who is struggling to come to terms. With a hard and unwelcome blow in life needs. He told they are somehow. Foolishly choosing to live a life. Failed brittleness. Or inflexibility. So the one thing i am not saying. Isn't there some sort of. It is some sort of character or moral failure. If finding resilience in your life is finding springtime in your life. Is an elusive quality as it was in houlton maine on april. Sprinkles. But. With all this carefully insincerely sad. I none the less also believe that we all need as much as we are able. To be open to the possibility of developing in our living. A healthy. Ready stance. A brazilian. An adaptation. So that when good friday come. When we are clobber. As we all eventually are in life. A tragedy. Sadness you don't even know how to. We are able at some point or another. To consider finding. Brazilian new pathways back. Torrid meaning. Contentment. Joy in the life. Continues. The good news i think is that for all of us no matter how we are emotionally predisposed. There is always when life throws us for a cosmic loop there is always a resilient. Possibility. I take it as a matter of faith. Set with life santa's reeling. All of us are free. To make certain. Couple. Choices. Of the heart. To avoid falling into those permanently brittle places of the mind and body and spirit. The trapezoid. Anger. And isolation. And resentment. We if we are saved by degrees in our living. And i believe we are. Then it matters one whole lot that we strive. To bring my our spiritual attitudes and emotional choices. The greatest possible measure of resilience. Into our lives. Saved i think again. Weekend. And again in our lives by lose by learning to choose. Easter in our hearts. No matter what time of year. No matter what the weather is. In our personal. Meteorology. Let me see if i can. Define the quality of resilience just a bit more. Resilience. We've observed physical objects. Positive property of quality of being able. To bounce back. And i've already given you that. Concrete example of the supple tree branches in an ice storm the first band and then bounce back. Another example would be those new and clever soft car bumpers. But most auto manufacturers use these days those old metal bumpers. Set the reminder. Minus little bump accidentally caused $3,000 damage. The manufacturers of learned. Make the bumper a little more resilient. Stop saving. Very much. What is true for physical objects is i've already observed. Is true for people. Brazilian people when bumped. Or when bent. Orland forstall out-of-shape. Know how to bounce back. Continue on their journey down the road. With a measure of courage. Home. I have shared before from this pulpit the recent the findings of recent studies. And what makes for successful aging. Which i found that those individuals. Who do their best in the later years as their bodies wear out and their life situations. Provide them with more and more challenges. Those who do bad. Those who are happiest and most content. As they age. Or what the authors of the studies call the adapter. Those who when confronted with illness and losses and disabilities. I were able and willing to flexibly of dab. And reduce them to their reduced and their reconfigured condition. But they now face. Let me get this one example. A hypothetical woman in her late 70s. Who is a voracious reader. Loves to read both fiction and the daily newspapers. Slowly. Loses forsyth. The one emotional and spiritual option surely open to her. Is to become brittle. And resentful for this life lost. And allow her then to shrink away from the rich world. The breeding has always brought her. But another emotional and spiritual option open. To this woman as she loses her sight. Is to be flexible. And find other. Fresh pathways. Into the rich and meaningful world that her reading has always open to. Such as listening to. Morning edition on npr and hearing now and all things considered and yes even garrison keillor in the. Prairie home companion. And by ordering both fiction and nonfiction talking books. Does audio tape books that are now available widely. Division. Brazilian people. People who know how to purposely move on and choose easter as they lose them. Don't deny what has happened to me. They'd rather make room in their psyches for the new realities that have unwelcome least swept into their lives. They make changes in their behavior and their outlook. To proceed with living. With as much joy and engagement. It is as my friend marty flanagan observed. And her sermon on this topic. Resilience. Brazilian sushi rice. Quality of bouncing back. After adversity. Pictures of crime. Some survivors of the holocaust. Some refugees from war-torn corners of the globe. Lose their ability. To trust the world. And some spend the rest of their lives in fear. Bitterness. And suspicions but others find a new way of seeing the world. That does not deny the tragic reality of what happened to them. But also does not compel them to see the world forever then as a treacherous. Place. They adopt she writes a new perspective. Which makes room. For cruelty and suffering. The other firms. There is still goodness. Enjoy for them. In the world. Make room for cruelty and suffering yellow firm there is still goodness. Enjoy. For them. I like this. Dia. The life-saving resilience in our living requires us to make room. In our understanding of life. For all the good friday's for all those. Insufferable. Experience. If we can make room. For the idea that bad things do happen to good people like us. Then when they occur. We are likely to not get stuck. In that brittle emotional and spiritual place. That's simply gets stuck and railing against the cruelty and the unfairness of it all why me oh lord why me how did you let this happen to me. Rather than looking around. Bouncing back. And fighting what is yet possible and. For us. So it seems to me that much of this capacity for resilience. Is in the end a matter of spiritual. An emotional attitude. To proactively see into firm. As life closes a door. Two other doors. Twerk fulfillment and joy and possibility. Remain. What i am saying here is this. How we choose to perceive the situation we are in. The perspective we choose. To adopt about what has happened to her. Can make all the difference in the world. When robert murphy a professor of anthropology. Was paralyzed by a tumor on his spine. He reexamine his attitude about the world disabled listen to his own words. From his book. The body. Tyler. I was badly damaged. Yep just as alive as ever. And i had to make the best of it with my remaining. Capabilities. It occurred to me that this is the universal human condition. We all have to muddle through life. With our limitation. And while i had certain. Physical handicaps. I retained many of my strength. My brain was the only part of my central cortex. That still work well. But it's also where i made my living. Disability he went on to say isn't amorphous and relativistic turn. Some people are unable to do what i do because they lack the mental equipment. But in this says. They are disabled. And i am not. Everybody is disabled. In one way or another. And even though my growing paralysis would one day and my active participation in the affairs of the world. For now. I can sit back. And watch them. This brave and resilient attitude expressed by professor murphy. And one can only hope. That one would be. Equally resilient. You had his. Reminds me of my favorite quotation from albert camus. I afforded it before because it expresses my most most deeply held. Conviction. Camus route. Yes. In this life there are deprivation. There are deprivations which give rise to our worst sarah. But what does it truly matter what we have lost when what we have lost. Is not. Yet. Used. What does it truly matter what we have lost. When what we have lost. Is not. Yet. And viktor frankl. The famous psychoanalyst. Auschwitz survivor affirms the same thing. When he reflected on surviving the many terrible months. He spent in the death camp. We who lived in the concentration camps can remember the men and women. Who walked through the huts comforting others giving away their last piece of. They may have been few in number. But they were are they offered sufficient proof. That everything can be taken from us but one thing the last of the human freedom the freedom to choose one at at one's attitude in any given set of circumstances the freedom to choose one's own way and there were in the death camps. He wrote always. Choices to make. Everyday every hour offered the opportunity to make a decision a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers would threaten to rob you of your very self your inner freedom. He concludes can decide what she'll spiritually become of him or herself. And then yam. It is the spiritual freedom. Which cannot be taken away. And that makes life. Meaningful. A. Brazilian people. Choose. In the face. Applause. To see what they still have. To work with what has not yet been taken from them. And to make the choices in their lives that allow them. To proceed. And there's one last thing i want to say to you about resilience. Brazilian. The end resilience. Is also all. About. Conclude by reaffirming. This morning the most primary tenant of my face. In this earthly existence. In which. We find ourselves. Is an affirmation i often quietly share with people. Who are reeling with some terrible. Blow. Life. Just brought them some terrible good friday when they are struggling to regain their existential footing. And find new bearing a new way to move on. And that is this. I believe that as long as we have access to run. As long as we have breath. Being. Anna mine. Heart. And the body with which to engage life. Regardless. How many losses. Suffered that remains a measure. A meaningful. Significant sufficient measure. A purpose and goodness for us to know. Live. And to serve. I believe bedrock to my heart that human beings were built out of this holy mystery of things. To find meaning and purpose enjoying their lives even. When they face painful diminishment. We are here on earth. To use the freedom. Sunlight. And our days no matter how reduced or contorted from the perfect dreams we once had. We are here to use our freedom to find purpose. Troy in our living. To build. Ever stronger relationships. Life. And to bring the great gift of self. Howsoever limited. Howsoever broken. So ever torment. To the world. For our touch. And that's we return to the great. Spiritual message. But even after the good friday's that inevitably come our way. Brazilian human hair. Is always free. Experienced a rebirth of hope. Enjoy. We human beings are called. Whatever beckoning. Voice of. To resilience. No matter what we have lost we are being called back to life. Called back to what remain called back to find a new way in the face of every good friday we are called to use the greatest of freedoms. The freedom goes birds used in the glens the freedom to choose life over negation. The freedom to choose action over surrender the freedom to live as fully and finally as your circumstances will allow. This message that comes to our heart every. Your sunday. Is as simple as it is life. Life. Is not yet done with. For free. Find fresh. Unfolding pad. Of life. So whisper. It is the words of e cummings beginner service i leave you with these words of e.e. cummings. If among silence guys bluer than believing little gay earth opening is. All the flowers of our eyes april's day. This if now or this young trembling any into flame twig or limb explodes each living a blaze greenlee thing. Meijer's,. Love. By yes. Every new bird no bigger than to sing. Leaf is wing and tree is voice. Morley's polly. Then you. Am i. We. Are spring.

uufvb_org

2014Nov09Sermon128.mp3

Well good morning welcome in this cool and wet morning you know everyday has a charm to it even this one yes indeed. You're welcome. To the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we are so please. You have chosen to begin your day with us this morning we are congregation as the slide set. Open minds loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best selves even is together we work to make our world a better place. Please know that you are welcome this rainy morning just as you come to us whether you were young or old gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity whether you were a visitor with us this morning. Or been here for decades whether you have a ged or a phd. Whether you're feeling on top of the world or down in the dumps or somewhere in between we welcome you. Just as you come to us this morning. We hope you'll find our service this morning. Meaningful and enriching and that you will find something here this morning to take with you. To make the days ahead more joyous and purposeful. But look at all you bright and sensible folk this is not a good morning. For walking on the beach. Or fishing in the lagoon. Or biking though of course that didn't stop me from commuting in this morning. But it is a perfectly suitable morning for coming to church. For being with others in this warm and dry place. To reflect on our lives. To challenge our hearts and minds. To grow our souls. And become better person than we were yesterday. Spreading our love. And care. And concern. To the whole world. The rain this morning is cold and wet. It's not much of a day. For outdoors. So come in here. To this place of warm. And hope. Enjoy. As a meditation this morning i want to share a poem. I've never shared it before. By walter mcdonald he's describing a knife he and his wife rented a cabin in the california mountains. It's called the middle year. Listen to this poem in the silence that we will allow following it i will ring a bell. When the periods of meditation. Is over. This relates i think to my. Sermon topic about worrying. The middle years. These are the nights we dreamed of. Snow drifting over a cabin roof in the mountains. Enough stack wood and meat. To last a week alone at last. In a rented a frame. Isolated. Without power. High in the san juan. Our children are as safe as i'll ever be. Seeking their fortune in cities. Our desk and calendar clear our debts paid until summer. The smoke opinion. Seats back under almost invisible cracks the better to smell it. All day we take turns holding hands. I'm counting the years we never believed we'd make it. The hours of skinned knees. Pleading. Diapers. And teenage rage. Fever. In the middle of the night and parents dying. In saigon. The endless guilt. Of surviving. Nights we lie touching 4 hours and listen to silentwood so close we can hear the owl. Diving. These woods are not our woods. Do we hold a key to dead pine planks. Laid side-by-side shiplap. Like a dream. That last. A double bed that fits us. After all these years. A blunt. Front feeding stove. But gives back temporary heat. For all the logs. We are on. You know i was. Thinking about my job here at the fellowship the other day. Work i truly loved by the way and i realized it. Being your minister means i'm called upon to worry a lot. The bottom line is if you pay me and honorable salary i would report. To worry about all kinds of stuff. And i do. Let me mention just some of the things i professionally worried about day-in-and-day-out first and foremost. I worry about the spiritual emotional and physical well-being of every last person who was a part of this congregation which means. The between our members and friends and our children i have more than 300 complicated and sometimes quirky people. To worry about. That i worry about you uscb. In all of its institutional dimensions i worry about this congregation to assets. And finances i worry about this building and its upkeep. I worry about our programs and offerings i worry about the quality of our sunday morning experience. How we treat newcomers. I worry about the staff. And the many hard-working volunteers i worry about the vitality of the emerson center. And our wonderful nursery school. Bridges early learning center. And i worry ever and always about my sermons. And everything i say and do publicly and privately. I've heard they're worried about our denomination. Tough times are ahead for all-american denomination i worry about the more than 1,000 of my colleagues i worry about this town. Despite its well. I worry about its people and its politics of the many social environmental problems we have here in the treasure coast. A big fish die-off in the paper this morning did you read it. I worry about florida our so-called sunshine state. Which as wonderful a place as it is to live. Has a whole host of serious social. Economic political and again environmental problems that i have to pay attention to. And i worry about america the precious land of my birth this. Vast an imperfect an angry right now troubled nation was so many problems. And in justices and sorrows and so much work for us to do together. And as if all this isn't enough to worry about i worry about the entire world and humanity and its future. This beautiful fragile vulnerable planet with its wars. It's terrorists its diseases it's upheaval it's changing climate it's endangered biosphere. I professionally worried about all these things. And i'm not alone of course as a professional in this worrying. Teachers worry about their students. Doctors worry about their patients lawyers the good ones worry about their clients. Business owners worried about their workers engineer's worry about their products rod baker and others. Artist worry about what they create. Scientist worry about the research you know when you come to think of it anybody who works who's worth his or her salt is a worrier. And then there are our personal worries. We worry about our own individual health and happiness we worry about the health and happiness. Of our family and friends our neighbors in our co-workers we worry about our children. And our grandchildren. And our great-grandchildren no matter how old or young they are. We worry about unexpected accidents an illness is an unpleasant surprises. We worry about our hairlines will some of you do. And our way slides in our teeth we worry about outliving. Our money in retirement. We worry about getting old and sick and disabled we worry about pain and death. We worried you and i at the drop of a hat. All kinds of. It is awesome wisely been said of course that man and by that i mean both the male and female models. Man is the worrying animal. Wallet can probably be argued. That's certain. That certain of the more highly developed animal species like. Dogs and horses and dolphins perhaps. Worried about their mates and offspring and their human companions you've all seen. Worried on the face of a dog haven't you. If your dog loves you. Surely they're worried never rises to the complicated cognitive level. At which we worry about. I am sure we homo sapiens are unique in the animal kingdom in the terms. In terms of the level frequency and sophistication of our worrying. And this of course is not a bad thing. A psychologist dr. jim taylor of the university of san francisco points out. Worried plays a key role in our success as a species i quote him. Worried. Is a natural part of the human condition. It has historically played a vital role in our survival. And it helps us to cope with many of the challenges we face today. Worrying is obviously not a pleasant emotion he goes on. But it is actually an essential normal and instinctive emotion. That has been hardwired into us. To help us survive since we rose out of the primordial soup. And then it goes on we worried about something. Because we perceive it as a threat. To our existence and worry causes us. To focus on it and protect ourselves. From that threat that's faceit. Real and present dangers to our health. Wellbeing livelihood do exist. And you want to be aware of them. And take the necessary steps to protect yourself from harm. And then he ends. You want to take reasonable precautions against illness injury and accident. So clearly some forms of worrying. Have adaptive value. Unquote. Toy will trust that all of you once you stop and think about it just a little bit can see and understand. The positive role which worried. 1/2 and keeping us safe and well. Different sample when you're the behind the wheel of a car and you're not worrying. About keeping your eyes on the road and obeying the safety rules you are a hazard. Not only to yourself but to everyone who might cross your path. And similarly if while walking in the jungle you are not worried about stepping on a poisonous snake. You might do precisely that. And we all know the good parents are those adults who were irregularly. About the dangers that are out there for our children and therefore. Ensure that every reasonable precaution is taken. As opposed to being a helicopter parent reasonable precaution. To keep our little ones safe so appropriate worry. And notice i say appropriate. Is a very good. But obviously and i know of any of you clever folks are one step ahead of me in this sermon already thinking this. Worry is one of those positive necessary and useful things in life. Which is taken to an extreme or if is out of proportion to reality. Quickly becomes destructive and negative. If we worry too much and worry about the wrong stuff. Don't worry can consume our psychic attention. Cloud our emotions and diminish our lives. Perhaps you've all known someone in your life for whom the word worry wart. Tragically applies you know somebody who moves through their days. Constantly worrying about all kinds of stuff. But any reasonable healthy person would not see as cause. For concern. A worrywart according to the great big dictionary i have in my office. Is quote someone who was inclined to worry unduly. To sweat about things have kathy health that's in my dictionary to sweat about things that can't be helped. Or haven't happened or probably never shall happen. Interesting lee. The ancestor word of worry in the old english is the word wagon which means. To strangle. And in the 17th century. The word took on the meaning to bother to distress to persecute. Surely all of us can see. How excessive inappropriate habitual worry. Chronic worrying can fill our hearts and minds with negative emotions and keep us enjoying. Keep us from enjoying life as it was meant to be enjoyed. No maybe. This is why a lot of people you meet these days despite the positive role of worried we've already talked about. Claim to have given up on worrying. When i first told some people in my personal circle i was going to preach on the spirituality of worrying. The first reaction of a few was immediately negative. Worrying is such a monumental waste of time so the friend. Because worrying take so much precious time and energy and never really helps or changes the situation were concerned about. And another acquaintance of mine offered this. The only thing i know about worrying is i want to do a whole lot less of it. Is still a third person said to me this. I don't know how in the world you're going to say something positive about worrying. My daughter has literally ruined her life. By her constant and unnecessary worrying. She has as the old expression goes borrow trouble. Her whole life. Has literally been consumed. This friend told me by useless and unproductive worry i think worrying is a scourge on the human psyche. So many people these days seem to think that worrying. Is at best a useless activity of spinning are emotional wheel. And at worst something monumentally destructive. Diminishes our lives in very real ways. I would call this kind of destructive worrying. Reading. Running. To my mind is obsessive. Repetitive unrealistic undifferentiated unproductive. Worrying wearing that is so. Wrap up in itself but it can't lead anywhere. What does traps us in a little pointless whirlwind of circular upset and bother. Is there anyone here who has not at some time or another. Falling into that. Destructive exhaustive spirit robbing trap of fretting. We fret when we allow ourselves to get stuck in a repetitive immobilizing pattern of unfocused worry. It just rolls around inside of us consuming. It's like a magnet this is consuming everything it can. When i fall victim to the useless whirlwind if reading is usually about 3 a.m.. In the morning do any of you recognize this. You know i go to bed just fine and it's 10:30 and then i wake up at 3. Turning over and over in my mind. Until something until the sleep i so cherish. Is impossible somewhere or some little detail in my life. I hate. Dr. taylor wright. Healthy worry. The practical form of concern and vigilance would protect you from real and present dangers. Can morph into unhealthy worry. A preoccupation with perceived threats. But are incredibly unlikely i'm not particularly threatening these worries can cause you to obsess much on his low-probability. Low consequence occurrences that can interfere. With your worrying about the high probability high consequence concern. And then he concludes. Unhealthy worry. Comes from the emotional baggage you acquired as a child. And it defaulted on conscious belief that you won't be able to protect yourself. Unhealthy worry. 10th president can prevent you from enjoying your life and just a quick. Practical aside here. I found online this very helpful guide. To self-help strategies. For anxiety relief i have about 30 of these on the newcomers table the welcome table outside so if you. Or someone you know is particularly vulnerable to worrying this self-help guide about ways to kind of. Flip yourself out of worrying is available and if you have any trouble finding it. Just go online how to stop worrying. And maybe type in help guide and you will find it. On the way i thought it was a very helpful little guy so i had some printed for. So where was i. While i'm convinced we've been discussing that exaggerated and chronic worrying is not beneficial to. I want to know offer for your spiritual and emotional considerations the idea that worrying. Regular focused worrying about the right things in the right way in our lives. Is not only profoundly necessary. What is also spiritually and emotionally beneficial to us. Let me begin. My case for the positive spirituality of worried with the wonderful words of american buddhist teacher lewis richmond. Who writes compellingly and positively. About the positive role where he can play i called him at some length. What am i going to do. What will i say. Why is she out so late why hasn't he called what am i what did i do wrong what if i fail supposed she died. These are examples richmond right. Of worried compelling questions that nah. At our heart. Where is the mind's way of trying to deal with a fear to explain it verbalize it to fight it and organize it. So the fear is not so shapeless and menacing. Worry can be exhaustive and destructive. But it can also be creative. Which one it will be depends on our attitude. Thwarted. And how we use our worry. In the same sense that fear is his courage in the making. Worried. Is wisdom. In the making. Worry is wisdom in the making. It seems to threaten us but it is also trying to help us in daily life. Is daily life we worry a lot. Does this mean that anxiety and worry are somehow unspiritual. That worry is a sign of an insufficiently developed spiritual life. I hope not. Where he goes on is not a sign of spiritual weakness. It is an essential part of human being. While some kinds of worry are caused by penina sand vanity. Most worried here's what i get to whiskey point. Most worry comes from care. Care for our livelihood. Care for our family our coworkers are responsibilities as a mature adult. And then it goes on worry itself then can be a spiritual practice. To worry is to be consumed. Find important and pressing question in your life. To work on it over and over. Is not unlike a certain kind of spiritual practice. That is the gift. The quarry brings on. It lets us know what the question is. Worried let us know what is important to. Worry is a spiritual worry as a spiritual practice. Means breathing. The big questions in your life. Walking the question eating and sleeping the question not obsessively. But attentively. With mindfulness. And then he concludes about the positive proactive spiritual roll. That worry can plan our lives. When we worry or are afraid we think we are weak. But when we were er deeper resources are engaged. And part of the energy of worry is to mobilize and strength mobilize our strength and our power. Worried. Gives us power. He concludes. If we are willing. To trust it. Worry gives us power. If we are willing to. I am persuaded with mr. richmond. That are worries rather than be viewed as destructive nagging pests. Should be understood can be understood many times as helpful. Constructive harbingers. Lifeguides if you will. The point the way if we're paying attention. To what we care about. What we should care about. Point the way to what is truly important to us. Point the way the questions we need to grapple. And concerned we need to attend to. I agree with the buddhist teacher that are worries even though in the short-term they vex and trouble us. With their complexity. Ultimately help us to bring to our consciousness. Vital and pressing questions and concerns. That we need to live through and work through. So that we can be better person. All this is my way of saying i guess that have late i have personally. In my own complex and yet quite ordinary life. I've been trying not. To resist. Or deny or ignore or repress my worries but have rather been trying to calmly and thoughtfully. And mindfully welcome my worries at least the appropriate ones. Welcome my worries into my life. Not as pests. But as teachers. As well-meaning tutors. They're trying to help me positively deal with what's really going on with me. I am learning to welcome my worries as everyday agents. Of my own maturation. My own growth. My own transformation. I know it's a bit counterintuitive this idea that we should welcome. Worries. The trouble us like vegetation is troubled when the wind blows. But i'm quite sure that paying attention to them. In the right ways. Can help each of us to become better more effective and yes ultimately happier person. Let me give just one concrete example about how worried. Can help us. As i regularly in phatic lee express from this pulpit over the last 5 years. I am deeply worried about global climate change is happening both here in florida and around the world i'm really really troubled and worried about the future. Of our ecological earth. But this worry isn't just. Pasta pasta pasta me that's driving me crazy. It has led me to do something about. The environmental crisis is breaking over me as a citizen as a voter. As a minister in this town i'm making an effort. Do something about it. The worry has led to action and i know for many of you. Your worries about so many things. Poverty hunger. A homelessness in the environment. Education. Has led you the worries lead you. Do something. And do something good. And similarly worry works is positive magic and other places in my life. In my work here at the fellowship. My activities in this local community on behalf of what is compassionate and just. And worry helps me in all of my treasured relationships. With family and friends. Let me again return. To the buddhist teacher lewis richmond. Worried is an essential part. Of being human. Worry is wisdom in the making. Most worry comes from care. Care for our livelihood our family our coworkers. Our responsibilities as a mature adult. Worried let us know what is important to us. Worried at the spiritual practice means breathing the questions. When we worry our deepest resources are engaged. And part of the energy of worried. Helps us to mobilize. Our strength. And our power. So i hope i persuaded you with the buddhist. Of the positive and empowering role that worried can and should play in your life. Again worried by alerting you to what really matters in your life can lead you to a fuller & finer human place. And yet we must always acknowledge in the same breath. The chronic and excessive and compulsive worried about the wrong thing. Can clearly be destructive and distracting and a disempowering have it in your life. If you're a worrywart or a fretter. You need to kick yourself out of that pattern. Some kinds of worrying obviously are utterly pernicious. But with all that said i want to return at last in the sermon. To my car at formation today. Are worries if properly acknowledged can the allies. In our purposeful unfolding as person. I fully acknowledge it's something of a spiritual and emotional trick. To manage worry in your life just right it's sort of like goldilocks is porridge not too hot not too cold it's just finding that. But equilibrium and sometimes it's 3 at 3 a.m.. As i have said i fall into the unproductive reading in spite of all my spiritual maturity to not do that. So. Enjoy your lives. Your vero beach friends. And ask you to welcome. Constructive worry. Worry appropriately. About the right things. About the things you love. About the things you know deserve your highest. And always keep your eye on your truest and fullest unfolding. Then your worries will. By their ever curious hand. Lead you to a life. A greater purpose. Greater hope. Greater contentment. And that last. Greater love. And i say i mean a man. And i said you on your way this week with this anonymous reading some wishes for you. I wish for you a troubled heart at times. As well as of world and friend come close beside and keep you sleepless. I wish for you the thrill of knowing who you are. Where you stand and why. Especially why. Not prosperity but dreams i wish for you. Not riches but a sense of your own worth. I wish for you. Not even long life. However proud. We'd be to have it. But life. It is crammed with living. Hour-by-hour. And love. I wish for you love. May you give it frequently. Other wish for you solitude. In the midst of company. And a mind full of company. Within your quiet times. Full today's. I wish for you. And full tomorrow. Be of good heart. As you go back to life.

uufvb_org

2011Aug14Sermon32.mp3

This morning i want to focus. I'm a spiritual practice a prayer which is without doubt the most universal spiritual practice known to both religion. And humanity. I am unaware of any significant world religion which does not regard prayer in some form or another. As an essential everyday practice of human face and then. And yet that said it must be acknowledged that many unitarian universalists read many of you. Are how shall i say this. Ambivalence. Or maybe suspicious about the practice of prayer in your own spiritual lives. Indeed some unitarian universalist reject the whole idea of prayer out of hand. Are willing to put grudgingly meditate or silently reflect every now and again in their spiritual eyes. Years ago. As i was preparing to preach under earlier sermon on prayer. If they personally pray prayed. One of the sopranos a wonderful one the name of sally was the first to speak up she said. Only when the plane is landing. Know everyone in the choir last of course has many of you did just now for who in fact. Hasn't some sort of urgent prayer for deliverance on a turbulent or scary airplane ride i have. But the truth is that for many of us prayer at least as it is traditionally understood in the culture. Is not a spiritual practice they regularly or intentionally engaging. Perhaps the first and foremost reason for this has a tatian about prayer. Is that many unitarian universalists i am assuming many of you sitting before me now. Do not believe in a personal god. To whom one can address personal concerns and supplication. And requests. Prayer again as it is traditionally understood in our culture. Is something that happens when human beings purposefully focus their attentions. To talk to or communicate with or make a request of. Their god. The old joke about us unitarian universalist isn't when we pray we address our prayers to to-whom-it-may-concern. But it is even more than that. Foremost unitarian universalist the idea there is a transcend. Supernatural being they can address their deepest life concerns or even further. Ask for something concrete. Or change to change or miraculously happen there lies. Is simply one that does not make spiritual sense to a lot of us. But if you like me occasionally peek at those sunday worship service telecasts from kristen megachurches you know. But this is exactly how many if not a majority in our culture believe prayer works. Search broadcast you can watch people fervently clasping their hands together closing their eyes. Silently asking god to do something specific. In or for their lives. To save their marriages. To cure their spouses cancer. To help their teenage son get off of drugs. To help them stick to their diets. To find a new job. To bring rain to the drought-stricken landscape as governor perry recently implored all of texans to do. Or to end the conflict in the middle east. You name it god is asked by faithful people to change something concrete to change the way life is going. For particular people in particular situations now let me be clear about the. This morning or any other time of telling anyone else. But their understanding or practice of prayer is wrong or silly or misguided. I must tell you that this specific kind of prayer where god or some other supernatural force. Or being. Is asked to intercede. And change the course. Of natural earthly events in accordance with our personal needs and desires. Makes no sense to me. As a unitarian universalist. Surely you will all remember the media coverage about the so-called miracle on the hudson. What a highly-skilled united us airways pilot named chesley sully sullenberger. Safely landed. A passenger jet full of passengers that are fatally collided with a flock of geese on the surface of the hudson winter hudson river in winter. Thereby saving 155 passengers and crew members on board. Astounding event especially to watch on television. A few days after that heroic event the washington post which i was reading cuz i live in washington then. Read a fascinating article on the saturday religion page about what the harrowing experience had spiritually meant. Too many of the survivors. The gist of the article. Was it many of the passengers who had apparently prayed fervently to god as the plane was going down. Believe. The god directly responded to and directly answered their prayers on that day and had no doubt these passengers who were quoted. The godhead in fact. A particular. Personal purpose. Which is why he had saved them from otherwise perishing. Because the survivors and concluded that god. Must have some future purpose in mind for them otherwise he would have allowed them to die. In the icy waters of. The belief expressed by most of the survivors interviewed for this article. Is that the god of this creation can be counted on. 2 super naturally answer personal prayers when we find ourselves in dire situation. No. I was honestly tell you that whenever i encounter this kind of. Spiritual thinking. I wonder about the prayers of those. Passengers. Who are not so lucky. As us airways flight 1549 out of laguardia. My enquiry mind wants to know if god save those us airways passengers in response to their prayers for some larger purpose. Why not other passenger. On other doomed airplanes. As good and well-meaning people undoubtedly prayed just as earnestly and hard. It had just as much faith as anyone. This understanding of prayer when a person asks a higher supernatural power. For specific personal wishes to be granted. When we ask god to intercede on our own personal to have. At least for me a huge spiritual problem attached to it. Because if these wishes are not granted. For example if the pilot does not succeed. And successfully. Landing the plane. It is by logic either god's fault. For nothing powerful or loving or wise enough to bring about the result we seek. Or it's our fault. For apparently not praying right or hard or long enough. Or persuading god that we deserve a favorable outcome. This understanding of prayer. And how it might work. Is antithetical to everything i believe about prayer in the way life on this planet works for me and for all of you. First and foremost for me is a unitarian universalist. As i've already said prayer is not. The process. I'm lifting up some personal desire of mine. For some supra or extra natural to some supra or extra natural force or being. For intervention alleviation correction remedy or solution. I don't believe. It is spiritually wise or realistic. Given the life i have. To ask some transcendent forest whether you call it god or something else. To miraculously cure my friends cancer. Or to make my spouse stop hitting me. Or even to make my favorite football team succeed in the super bowl. Or bring the rains we need to lake okeechobee. We made desperately want all of these things to occur. But i don't believe that's the way our universe works. In my more than 60 years of living i never once experienced what i understood or observed to be. A divine suspension. Of the natural laws of the universe in waze. That are personally beneficial to me not once. And so will i will not so i will not waste any of my spiritual time. Praying for such miraculous events in my own life. As catholic theologian re-new end bluntly put it. The prayer of little faith. Is filled with wishes that beg for immediate fulfillment. The person of little faith this catholic theologian right. Praise like a child who wants a present. From santa claus. No again please hear me. People are of course free to pray. Howsoever. To whomsoever and for whatsoever purpose they wish. If for example governor perry really believes that the prayers of the people of texas will actually bring on rain. He is free to ask for. What i am saying. Is it for me as one faithful unitarian universalist. Prayer and prayerfulness. Looks and works and means something different that what it means. To governor perry of. So all that said what is then understanding of prayer and prayerfulness. That is useful to me and and may be useful for you. Again the answer i am giving this morning. Is fiercely mayon. And if you have other. A sense of prayer in your life. Radically different from mine god bless you. Knowing full well that. In such a complex world people have many different views of this essential thing called. And by the way if. If you have a prayer life that i have not addressed this morning i would love to hear from you by email or in-person about. How you pray and what it means. Alright. Let me begin with what. It is to me. Tumi prayer the noun. The thing i'm i do with my heart and my mind and my attention. And the condition of prayerfulness. The process. You got the. Prayer the now nothing you actually do and then prayerfulness the process the verb that can happen. In our spiritual lives in many forms and moments and menus of venues of our daily living. Prayer to me is simply the following. Caring. Intentional. Mindful connection. With self. And others and the wider world. I want to repeat that. Prayer to me is caring intentional focused mindful connection. With self. And others and the wider world. Prayer which can happen when you are sitting quietly in a great european cathedral. Or prayer which can happen when you're driving in a minivan full of giddy children on the way to a soccer match. Or when you are having a quiet moment morning alone with coffee in your own thoughts as i described. About my friend paul. Or when you were quietly walking the beach with a spouse or friend on a beautiful summer day like the one we have before us now. Or when you wake. Suddenly in the middle of the night. 2 a.m.. You think about a dear old friend. A thousand miles away who's struggling with. Prayer is bringing yourself. Fully. Connection. And communion and care. What is truly in hand in your heart. It's a state of keenly paying attention. So that your life can be lived in the depths of connection and caring it was intended for. 20th century. British poet wh auden. Firmness in his famous poem the christmas oratorio. Or he says prayer. Prayer is paying attention. To something other. Turn yourself. Prayer. Is paying attention. Something other. Then yourself and creation centre theologian matthew fox puts it. The stuff for prayer is life itself. Prayer. Is agree is growing in awareness of life and its mystery. No. Some prayer in our lives shirley happens in the way we tend to think first about prayer. When a solitary person. Set aside some quiet meditative time to close their eyes. Shut out external activity and the noise of the world. And focus upon the deep concerns of their heart in mind. Renewing hawaii earlier quoted says the prayer. Does this a prayer. Being calm and quiet all by yourself. Is the freedom to stroll in your own yard. To rake up the leaves. And clear the pads. So you can find your own way. Through prayer he writes we recapture our own life of fresh. We once again become masters. Over our own. Houses. And quaker mystic thomas kelly who writes often of prayer says this. Are limes grow too complex and overcrowded. Before we know what we are bowed down with burdens crushed. Under committees. Strained breathless and hurried. Parenting through a never-ending program of appointment. We are too busy. To be good wives or husbands. Good companions to our children good friends to our friends. And with no time at all to be friends. Of the friendless. And then kelly goes on. We are weary and breathless. And we know that our life is slipping away without having tasted so little. Of the piece the joy the serenity we seek. The times he goes on. For the depths. Of the silences of the heart seems so few yet. From over the margins of life comes a whisper of faith call a premonition of richer living. Which we know we are passing by. Humanist meditator lawrence leshan. Does virtually the same thing in a different way. We meditate. To find. Recover comeback. 2 something we ourselves. Once dimly and unknowingly had and have lost without knowing what it was or. Where or when we lost it. We may call it access to more of our human potential or being closer to ourselves and reality. Or two more of our capacity for love and zest and enthusiasm. Or our knowledge. That we are apart of the universe and can never be alienated or separated from it or our ability. To see and function in reality. More effective. So perhaps some of you. Have a personal prayer or meditation discipline. I'm setting aside some focused mindful time everyday or every week. There are several kinds of prayer i think. That we can do quietly with ourselves the first. They're ever and always prayers. Of gratitude. Prayers when you pause in your life to name what you are grateful for there's even a spiritual practice that says never go to bed. Without saying to yourself three things. For which you are grateful. A good spiritual practice. Roman catholic mystic meister eckhart once that if you managed only one prayer in your life. Thank you. It will be sufficient. Perhaps you are grateful. In your life. For the intricacies of nature did anyone see that sunset through the thunderheads last night. From the island it was gorgeous. Call grateful for those special persons who loved you and whom you loved in return. Or grateful for the great blessing and mystery of just finding yourself alive. Squirrel. Whatever you are thankful for. It can be deeply rewarding. To give that voice. Voice. Within the silence of the self gratitude spoken within the quiet heart. Empowers us to live with vibrancy in. So you have. Prayers. Gratitude. And there are prayers of confession. A little tougher. When you acknowledge to yourself the ways in which you have fallen shy of your best self. Unconstructive. During these prayers resolved in your heart to do better and to live more finally in the future. I believe it can do us and those around us of world of good when we pause. In a thoughtful way. To take a critical look at our actions are errors. The ways in which we hurt and have. Diminished others. For only when we acknowledge fullen unafraid the way in which we've missed the mark in life much as the archer misses the target. Only when we acknowledge we've missed the mark. Does our aim. In life. Become. This is a kind of prayer that is most meaningful to me personally and i hope to any of you. There are prayers of connection. Contemplation and focus. When you set aside time. And your spiritual attentions tune your spiritual attentions to reflect upon your life. Your loved ones. Your world and that what you call god or altimas. So that you can know and cherish yourself. And the realities that gives shape to your existence more deeply. Often prayers of connection and contemplation take the shape. Ava direct prayer for another person when you lift up in your consciousness loved ones friends. Coworkers even strangers. The people in somalia right now or. Facing such horrible starvation. And this is the kind of prayer i did for so many months with my friend paul. Calling him to mind and two heart on a regular basis. And those prayers led me to pick up the phone. Call him how you doing. What's up today. How's the journey. Not again. For everybody's prayers. Contemplation connection they are not to ask god or some other supernatural presents. To miraculously suspend the laws of nature to alleviate the problem. I was never praying. Paul's cancer would go away that was. An impossible. So why ask. It is an impossibility. As my colleague eric wikstrom right. In this chapter on prayer in my book on spiritual practice. Prairie such prayers to hold people in your consciousness and bring them to your awareness. So that you're better able. To love them and care. I make the assumption that is generally speaking this kind of prayer of contemplation the connection. Most of you are doing. With the stone ritual you're thinking of someone you're you're hoping that they'll. Feel held by. Your love. These are mostly prayers of communion and caring and connection. That we. Cher today. And such physical prayer physical prayer picking up something lighting a candle can be so meaningful. If you have a. And altar set up in your home with some favorite objects many people have prayer rituals. At home. Again with physical objects. If you lift up. 4life. Such prayers. Are wonderous. I want to share one more thing about another kind of prayer. That we regularly do here at you us cbn sunday mornings when we give. Voice in our joy and sorrow time. To we send out our thoughts and our love's in our prayers to someone that we know is not here with us was facing difficulty. Again i would like to think that is occurring gation we do so believing. Not that our prayers will work in some sort of magical or supernatural way that will somehow be able to reverse. Someone's cancer or dying process or heart disease. Or even. Even a mental illness. But real or take away their pain of losing a child or somehow otherwise be able to suddenly transform the difficulties they face. As i've already said. I don't believe that's the way prayers work. Rather. It's a way of. A feeling community and caring and connection and sending our love. It does two things one. It can lead us who prays for something concrete and caring. To to go do something country to visit. To visit your sick friend or write a letter. Or offer yourself to someone else in need. Even if your prayer is for peace in gaza or israel to write a letter for congressional action or go to a meeting or join with others. All of these. Social justice activities are a form of prayer. It's alleged to do something. Do something loving. Again. I do not believe in supernatural magic. And miracles. Another unitarian universalist i never have but i do believe. That i love and caring when expressed through prayer and other silent actions. Have a magical effect both on us. And on the people. Tahoma direct them. I believe prayer has an amazing healing power not like the slick. Faith healers on tv. Who alleged to suddenly take away someone's paralysis or cancer. Hysterical public prayer. Prayer heals rather by reminding the one prayed for the fair park. Of a web of life in a web of love. And they can steal that presents. In their world that they're being held in the reliable arms of love. For those who care for me. There's one more important thing i must affirm about prayer and prayerful is to you this morning. And that is something that i kind of alluded to in my time for all ages. The prayer. And the state of prayerfulness can happen. And can make a healing calming difference in our lives. Right here in the midst. The crazy cluttered daily busy lives that we have. I often pray while biking. What a perfect time with the wind at my face in the sun at my back. And the heart beating with the rhythm of my legs to lift up people and things i care deeply a. In my book everyday spiritual practice my colleague kathleen motique tells an old christian folk tale. About the safely brother bruno. Who was the prayer one night in on medieval england. When you found his concentration interrupted by the large. Loud croaking of a big bullfrog. Just outside his window. He kept trying to ignore the bullfrog. But the harder he tried to concentrate on his lofty prayers to god the more annoying the song came to him finally he leaned out of the monastery window and shouted. Quiet bullfrog i'm at my prayers. Instantly. There was complete silence. As a bullfrog and every other creature obeyed his command. Brother bruno's settled back into prayer but now you found himself even more deeply disturbed by a nagging doubt. Why would god have created the bullfrog and its rasping voice unless there was something pleasing to that sound. Could it be the bruno zone prayer he thought sounded to god's ears like the arrogant croaking of another sort of frog. Bruno cannot push away this uneasiness of thought. So he finally leaned back out the monastery window and again gave the command of all the animals. The throaty croak of the bullfrog again filled the air along with all the sounds of the other creatures. Brother bruno listen carefully to the sound. And to his amazement he discovered. That it was beautiful. Once he no longer resisted it as noise. The joyful concert actually in rich. The peacefulness. Of his night. With that discovery kathleen concludes brother bruno understood for the first time. In his life. What it meant. To really pray. The point here is i think simple as it is profound. Well a few of us might from time to time manage to steal our way. From the hibachi of life here in the treasure coast for a getaway weekend say it's some. A buddhist retreat center across florida somewhere. And that's have the opportunity every once in awhile to practice some pure discipline of prayerful contemplation. For most of us. If we are to find meaningful prayer. Meaningful prayer life it will happen right here. In the little moments that are snatched out of ordinary existence as reverend batik puts it. She's a mother of three since my spiritual life is not formed by silence and contemplation. Where can i find that life within the noise and activity that surrounds me how can i find. Uno in a moment. Which is really listening to the language of my world where i discover the true meaning of prayer. The good news. Is it for all of us there's so many everyday. Des moments and pathways and methodologies available to us. For us to enter into undefined meaningful prayer. There's so many ways and places to find that. Intimate connection and caring that is the true mark of prayer. Prayer happens. Whenever we manage to. Tune out all the extraneous noise of our living to focus on things that we love. Perhaps you will create a simple home altar in the corner of some quiet room in your house. Consisting of a few objects that are beautiful a pebble. From beach of your childhood a simple gift from an old friend a few photographs of loved ones both living and dead. And spend a few moments at that altar everyday. In contemplation. You can. If you are particularly disciplined. Go to praying a monastery or treasure way up to some hypur. A contemplative mountaintop not here in florida buys you the highest. Land masses in florida are trash dumps but you might feel to find some pure spiritual place but the good the good spiritual news i want to leave you with. Is it you can have meaningful prayer in your life right here right now in the midst of your everyday life in the midst of the stimulation and movement and busyness of your life. If you simply develop a language. Pioneer for the language of your life. That is right. Before you. Life itself. Can become a prayer. No matter how busy. And chaotic. So i pray you. Find some time and energy each and every day to enter into an attitude of prayer. To be mindful. To be focused. To be grateful. To remember loved ones. To seek caring connection. And to connect deeply with the world. That is so precious. Take each time. Time each day to focus your heart and mind. Unlife. Deep and holy place. And in that connection. In that prayerfulness.

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2010Oct31sermon32.mp3

uufvb_org

2012Jun24Sermon128.mp3

They were immigrants. A down on their luck family that no nation or community would really want. They were poor uneducated dirt farmers. With no real economic assets. Prospects or skills. Spare the tattered and stain clothing on their backs. They had no savings. Or real possession. They had no schooling and honestly person terrible. Personal hygiene. They smell. I had 30 hair and terrible teeth. They were the kind of folks you wouldn't want hanging around your town and certainly would not invite into your home. They were immigrants who left their own country because they were seeking no doubt selfishly. A better life for their children and grandchildren. And they arrived in america with little else on their mind but food. And survival. Who were they. My read ancestors. John and sarah and their scrawny. Malnourished children. The year. 16:30. And they were among. The 700 disheveled and undernourished. Immigrants. Crammed ignominiously on the 11 fragile ships that made up what would later be grandly called. John winthrop great fleet. Pictured there. The dropped anchor. Any protective natural harbor on the eastern seaboard of what is now the united states. In what is now called salem harbour. Massachusetts. My immigrant ancestors. We think because of a lack of available land and prosperous and densely populated salem. Soon move to rehoboth massachusetts down near new bedford near the. Near the ocean. Where they would take up the only means of making a living they knew. Again dirt farming. As far as we know in my family for several generations. The read plan managed to scratch out a living from the land. First ambassador chusetts and then after another migration. In ohio. And illinois but slowly over the next 6 generations or so. My read and and ewing family fortunes and status improved. My great-grandfather harrison ewing in ohio. Succeeded in becoming a prosperous and respected physician. Attorney. And judge. His son my grandfather mark clayton ewing. Became a wildly successful businessman and entrepreneur. Founding several companies most notably the power company which electrify the northern third of the state of wisconsin. And thereby insured. Both the societal status and the wealth. Of my mother. And her three successful and educated brothers. The family privilege and resources which in turn were passed on. To my three brothers. And my nine. Ewing cousin. All of us recipients. Of this largesse. To share now. Prosperous. Play in what is called the american dream. I am blessed with an american family story and heritage that i am proud of. A heritage. I just given me anything everything any human being could ever want or deserve but i must never forget. The terribly desperate way it all began. In 1630. With john. And sarah reed. And what i would like to begin by asking all of you on this sunday morning when i'm tackling. The thorny and controversial issue of immigration in america. What is the moral difference. Between my family's old american immigration story. And the present-day story save a poor uneducated desperate mexican family. Stealing across the u.s. mexican border at night or a family from southeast asia being smuggled into lot los angeles. In search of a better life. For there. Cells and their children what is the moral difference. None. Absolutely none. As far as i'm. There is not one iota of moral difference between the story of my family's desperate arrival here almost 300 years ago on these shores. And the arrival of any one of hundreds of thousands of desperate yearning and yes undocumented. In large part. Human beings. From anywhere in the world i see no. Moral. Look folks i might as well be right out with. This morning. For the life of me i cannot understand. Appreciate or condone the fear. The hostility of the lac. Compassion so many americans what is it about half the population. Seem to have now. Toward those. Who seek to enter the united states. Most especially those. Who are undocumented. Many americans scornfully call them illegal aliens and what a curious word. Alien. The first thing i think i was somebody was a pair of antenna on their head. Coming from some other galaxies. Dangerous ugly folks. Who do not even vaguely resemble human beings that's what i. As an american citizen and the unitarian universalist. I passionately believe in these early years of the 21st century. Weiland please hear this they're undoubtedly need to be some restrictions. And policies and limitations on immigration. I believe our nation should move quickly. Florida much more open inclusive humane and hospitable attitude. For immigrants. Whether they are documented. Or undocumented. As a religious person. That is simply where i stand. And it is that clear ethical and moral place from which i will speak. No i fully understand and appreciate. The issue of immigration in these united states. Very complicated. And controversial and it is an emotional topic and has ever searched. All of this topic the nuances are just. Incredibly. I further understand and appreciate the good and caring and thoughtful people can and do see this issue. In all of its complexity differently at arrive at different conclusions. About what is the right and the best thing. For america to do. Immigration policy will no doubt play a part. Partisan role in this year's. Crucial national election. With candidates both on the right and the left arguing their different. Convictions. And conclusions that we saw that last week when the president issued his. Is it administrator of order. Barring the deportation of the so-called dream. Children. Who were brought here by their parents. And bringing this all home this morning i am certain. But not everyone in this room right now i will agree with or concur with my own religious and ethical conclusions. On the subject that i've already given voice to. About how immigration. Should be handled here in the united states. No one's perspectives or beliefs on this matter should go unheard. Nor do i believe anyone's view should go on challenge. And none should be dismissed or disregarded. Here in this congregation or anywhere else. And so to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to reflect further and be hurt. I have as i already know. Scheduled a conversational town hall meeting to happen here. Immediately. During our coffee hour after a bit of that. Which i will moderate. The last year in response to our parents and domination the uas can congregation. Too seriously study immigration policy. And its effect on these are the states. Are social justice council. Offered an in-depth multi-part seminar on immigration. Led by stover snork and glen rogers. And it is my hope. That this sunday will further and deepen. All reflection on in consideration of these important issues. What am saying. Is that this service where i will offer my own perspective. As the minister of this congregation. Does not end with a.. It ends with a,. Every america. And every unitarian universalist. Needs thoughtfully engage the issues that surround immigration. As our nation struggles to do what is humane. And right and its own best in. So with all that said. I want to get this conversation rolling this morning. By devoting the rest of the time that is mine this morning. Just sharing three interconnected perspect. About immigration. And us let me show them with you now. First. This nation i believe now desperately needs clear wise and compassionate immigration policies and laws. Not the present jumble. That often lacks fairness. Clarity. Reasonableness. Compassion that is my first point. My second point. For both the economic vitality and cultural health of our nation. We now need immigration laws and policies that are more open. Inclusive. Trusting. Uncompassionate. And the third point i wish to make. Is that the ethical principle. Social justice history of our unitarian. Universalist faith call us as americans. To advocate for greater hospitality. Open this. Inclusion and compassion. In the immigration laws and policies. Of these united states. They'll let me take each of these points. Intern. And this is clearly. The part of the sermon where if i'm not careful i could get hopelessly bogged down. In confusing the tale so i want to try to briefly describe. The current jumble that is us immigration policy. At the present time and now i quote from uua immigration. Study guide. Here is the broad outline of how our nation is handling immigration. The majority of immigrants. Cortana green card. Aziza which grants lawful. Permanent residency. Do so only. Their sponsor of a family member. Or by an employer. Who is already in the united states. Do after five years as a lawful permanent resident with a green card. An immigrant can apply for us citizenship. But a tremendous bag while backlog in processing these visa application. Is putting families hundreds of thousands of them. In the painful position of having to choose whether to follow the law. And be separated for up to 20 years. In some cases from their families. Or to break the law. And stay here. In order. Together. In addition to visas granted to immigrants coming to the u.s. to live permanently. That's what the green card. Visas are also granted to individuals coming to the u.s.. To fill the temporary needs. Of us employers. Primarily through the h-2a program. For seasonal agricultural workers. And the age. 2b program. We're temporary or seasonal non-agricultural workers. Like those needed at summer camp. Or ski resorts. Now these temporary visa programs are fraud. With your bureaucratic red tape. Delays and unrealistic apps. Far below the actual demand for such workers. As a result is extremely difficult for enough unskilled workers. To legally enter the united states causing both employers. Both agricultural and not agricultural. And workers to seek ways to circumvent the system. Additionally these visa programs for temporary workers. Because of the inherent imbalance of power. Between the employer. And the immigrant. Are rife with opportunities. For employer abuse and exploitation. As one colleague of mine describes the situation. Once in the us. Temporary workers often face unrealistic hours. Or productivity requirements. Dangerous working conditions unfair wages. Underpayment or non-payment. For their work abusive bosses. And other exploitive. Condition. Adding to the confusion of these unwieldy policies and laws. Is a fact that the present time in us history. Our government is aggressively deported. More immigrants. That at any time in our history. Disney disney portation in addition to being terribly. Financially costly. Leave many employers without the labor they need and frequently force families. Two separate. Parents and children oregon underground. Causing further hardships. There's much more to tell i could give you. If we had time. But this is the basic outline. Of our policy. Green cards in temporary work. And a quick. But important. Aside here. The history. Of us immigration policy is largely a sad and shameful. The more often than not reflect. Reflected the current racism and prejudices of our culture. Just one example. Our history of. Excluding immigrants. From china. Today chinese immigrants. Are welcomed as among the most productive. Beneficial. Two american society and economy with other asian people most particularly the japanese. But did you know that in the 19th century. Chinese laborers were welcomed on these shores because we needed them to build railroads. And work in restaurants and laundry. But. They were denied completely. Denied completely. The right to eventual citizenship. Dubbed the yellow peril. Well there's no racist term there is there. Dumb. The yellow peril. Chinese were denied the right to become citizens by the chinese exclusion act. Signed by president chester a arthur in. 1882. A heinous. And racist law. That was not revealed until guess when. 19. 43. From 1882. To 1943. No chinese. We're welcome. As us to the. A pure and. Not today i have no doubt. That it is racism directed not at the chinese but it latina people. In particular. That is largely fueling the current hysteria in our nation about immigration. And the fearful two-man to close our borders to build 20-foot walls with barbed wire. And border guards. Machine gun. But back to my main point. Well nearly everyone agrees that our nation needs fair laws and policies to regulate. And control immigration to some extent. Almost every expert who studies the nuances and details. Of the current immigration and visa laws of these united states. Concludes that the current system if it is a system at all. Is confusing. Your logical and justin broken. And is. A little more a little more than a jumble. Of unfair arbitrary exclusive and inhumane policies. The frequently serve neither those. Who want to become productive working citizens. Northern communities and employers. Who so desperately need specific kinds of ready and willing workers. Yes tough jobs. So. The first point i want to make this morning is simply that we need. Systematic immigration reform. Weis. Clear and compassion. Reform and we need it now and we must. The man. That our national leaders most especially the president. The congress. Make immigration. Policy. A priority. No my second point. For both the economic vitality and cultural health of our nation. We now need immigration laws and policies that are more open more inclusive more trusting and compare. Here i believe. Is the current truth. About us immigration and immigrants. If you truly study the economic and the social facts. If we as americans were only looking. An immigration policy from the perspective. A what would be best for those of us who are already here enjoying citizenship. If we were looking at it only from the most selfish perspective. The rational thing to do would be to adopt laws. That are radically more open and inclusive and welcoming. I want a repeat. If we're only looking at this from our own self-interest is those who already have the stamp of approval like. I did from. 1634 no particular reason only looking at it from our own selfish perspective. We ought to throw. The doors open. Many americans. Like that fearful letter to the editor i quoted from. Before the sermon. Continue to believe despite abundant. And irrefutable evidence. To the contrary. They believe that immigrants from mexico and other places like southeast asia. Threaten the prosperity the stability and the cohesiveness of our nation. But in fact. A healthy flow of new immigrants. Whether they are documented or undocumented educated or uneducated like my ancestors were. They continued immigrants. As they have for the entire history of our nation. To be the greatest economic and cultural engine propelling the united states. Into a prosperous diverse and healthy. Here are some persistent. And pernicious myths about immigrants. That are factually untrue. Yet continue. To be given credibility. In the public square these are myths. And i have made copies of these myths they are on the social justice table so if you want to pick them up and read about them in more detail. You can do so this morning at the social justice table. These myths. Have no basis in fact here they are. 1. Immigrants are a drain on our social services. Including education. Welfare and medical. That is not true. Immigrants have a negative impact number 2 on the economy and the wages of citizens and they take jobs away from american. That is not true. Three immigrants particularly latino immigrants. Do not want to learn english. Not true. Hor. Immigrants don't want to become citizen. Not true. 5 immigrants don't pay taxes. That is not true. Text immigrants bring crime to our cities and towns and rural areas no. They do not. Immigrants and all their money back to their home countries instead of spending it here to strengthen our recon. Another lie. Number 8. Most immigrants are undocumented and across the border illegally. Not true. 9 week border enforcement has led to high rates of undocumented immigration. Which we must in can control by building a wall around our border that is not. Immigrants contribute far more to government coffers. That they use in social services. They pay taxes. Yet they received far less governmental benefits than. Those of us who've been here a long time. And they are billions of dollars to the us economy each and every year ad not. 2. Immigration has a positive effect on the american economy as a whole. And on the income of native-born workers in. 3. Immigrants are more than twice as likely to start businesses. And create new wealth of the economy hazard native-born city. More than twice as likely. Just start. Business. Did you know that. For recent immigrants like every wave of american immigrants before them learn english. Or their jobs. And for the future success. Of their. + 5. Immigrants are far less likely. To commit crimes. Then their native-born counterpart. And then add on top of all these positive economic. Effects of lively immigration. The fact that immigrants bring a rich multicultural diversity and excitement. To every american community they join. Wherever immigrants arrived in an american city or suburb or town. New delicious restaurants open. And shops. Innovative and entrepreneurial businesses and jobs thrive. Wonderful cultural festivals and celebrations spring up in the great city of milwaukee they have something called summerfest every week a different. Racial ethnic or national group has this. Glorious event on the on the waterfront of milwaukee avenue anyone been to summerfest in milwaukee. It's a great cultural thing. New schools and churches civic organizations pop-up. And we are all challenged and stimulated and blessed by new expressions of humanity and culture. Not to mention new ideas insights understanding wardrobes. And what it means to be human. None of this is to be feared. Unless you're a fearful soul. And just a quick aside here canada. Are neighboring nations of the north has since 1971. Had multiculturalism and generous. Immigration opportunities. As official policy. I quote now i went online and looked at. The canadian government says about itself. Canadian people here's what they write on there. Canada's website. Canadian multiculturalism. Is fundamental to our belief that all citizens are equal. Multiculturalism. Ensures that all citizens keep their identities. Can take pride in their ancestry. And have a sense of belonging here in canada. Acceptance gives canadians acceptance. Gives canadians a feeling of security and self-confidence. Making them more open. Too accepting of diverse cultures. The canadian experience. It goes on. Has shown that multiculturalism encourages racial and ethnic harmony. And cross-cultural understanding. Discourages guess it was asian. Hatred discrimination and violence. Mutual respect it goes on. Helps develop. Common. New canadians. No less than other canadians. Respect the political and legal process. Remotely culturalism. Canada recognizes the potential of all canadians. Encourages them to integrate into their society. And take an active part and its social. Cultural and political affairs i have lived three times in canada. And i can tell you. This nation which warmly welcomes immigrants. Is healthy. And dynamic and interesting it's more healthy and dynamic and interesting culturally than we are. Here in america. It's a beautiful. And it's a beautiful country. Largely because they view immigrants. As a plus. Not. Again. Even if you are looking at us immigration policy from the purely selfish. Perspective. Which i will affirm in the moment you cannot do because of our faith. You must not look at this my selfish. Even if you were looking. At this justin what will immigration do for me and my family. You must conclude by any rational analysis. The facts. But a healthy flow of new immigrants. Into america from every corner of the world no chinese exclusion act or or ecuador exclusion acts or. Australian exclusion act. Will bring flash. Fresh blood and energizing spirit to our nation's. While many of our fellow citizens right now are set. In an irrational has. Hostility to immigrants. The truth is. That abundant and open immigration. Has always been a blessing. In a bun. Always. And plus i arrive at my third. And perhaps most spiritually. And ethically crucial point this. The ethical principle. Of our faith. Koala. Advocate. For greater. Fatality. Open this. Conclusion. A lot of resistance. To robust and open immigration in these united states begins. With the fearful belief often expressed in places like that letter to the editor. America through open immigration becomes a truly multiracial. Multicultural. Multilingual place it will lose its cohesion. It's clarity its identity and purpose. That's one of the expressed fears. As i have already affirmed i believe nothing could be further from the truth. Unitarian universalism as the nation of canada. Has always had a confidence. The human and cultural diversity. Always an ultimately works for the human good. As a religion. In a religious movement we have always embraced the views in america. As a global power on a shrinking planet. Has nothing to fear. From increased diversity. And its citizens. And in fact. Has everything to gain. The largely homogeneous america of the 1950s with its cookie-cutter suburbs. And boring conformist restaurant i don't want to talk about restaurants too much. But you know danny's okay denny's sorry. Landforms white. Potato food yak yak yak yak yak. If the by the way if the president of danny's corporation tripod. The americas the 1950s while nostalgic nostalgic idealized by some. Is a thing of the ancient cultural pass. And as a cultural construct. With its racism. And sexism and homophobia. And other problems can never be revived. I believe the spirit of our liberal faith calls us to be enthusiast. For a new america. A multiculturalism. And of genuine diversity and more immigrants. I like the way my colleague the reverend kendall givens. Said it in a sermon. Siri. Priest priest. Minneapolis. I would propose that every one of our basic uu principles. Challenge. By the inequality inequities and fears. Of this country's current tangle. Of immigration policies. As a unitarian universalist she goes on. It appears to me that the whole concept. How they managed immigration policy is based both. I don't know if david understanding of the world. And the willingness to live by our basest fears rather than out of loyalty to our ideal. At the heart of every great religious tradition she rights found in the world. Is a fundamental insight that we are all called upon to welcome the stranger. To share our prosperity and. The well-being of humanity. I had. The sovereignty of nation-states. And then she goes on. On our shrinking planet. It makes no sense to build walls against one another either physically or legally. Such walls never achieved their legal purposes. Inevitably cause injustice and suffering. Progress of humanity has always been she writes about the tearing down of arbitrary. Together with trade. Immigration is one of the most ancient. And enduring ways that human beings learn from each other. And our improved by contact with fought and actions and ways of life. That are different than our own and then she ends. Or in the end. If our liberal faith teaches nothing else surely it teaches us this. That there is no us. And them. Only evil results. From thinking that humanity can be divided into those who matter. Enclosing. This america. Is proud to label himself. An immigrant. I come. Poor immigrants. That when they landed on these shores. Tattered clothes. And please. An empty pockets and nothing of value to share. Accept the hopes and dreams. In their desperate and yearning heart. That's all they had. And what was true for america in 1630. True today. If america is ever to be exceptional. Which is to say if america is ever to be great. And strong and prosperous and humane. It must continue to find the wisdom and courage to open its arms wide. The strangers. Travelers. Endorphins. And those endangered. All the evidence. Ivar long and remarkable national history says. That we have nothing to say. And being on being an open. And welcoming. Hospitable and diverse nation. The only way america. Will ever be diminished. Is if we fearfully close ourselves off. From that rich tapestry of humanity. That's so beautifully. Is woven. Across this planet. Let us have faith. In a bold and open. Hospitable future let us not live from. Let us. Remain a nation. That is made strong. And good. And beautiful. Biotin.

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2015Jun28Sermon32.mp3

Well good morning. What a week. In america. Praise be to god and we'll talk a little bit more about that pete and i will at the beginning of our question sermon. I said pete you got to ask me a question about this week. Good morning and welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we are so pleased you've decided to begin this summer day with us. If you have a conservative view about some you may not fit when you hear people in coffee hours saying that they're pro-choice and that they said that they're. They love to have their gay children at home with them. They may not be comfortable but it's but i've said for a long time and every kind of creation that i served one of my parishioners in. We grew up a new face grew up in new england when we were called god's frozen people in the 19th century and you watch that church service in charleston allow that beautiful swaying and singing and there's a difference there but let's get back to the re question. So there are plenty of kids in this town and. Community church has like 60 or 70 i think kids are church in arlington massachusetts has a usable like 78 kids. When you have 50 the next 25 come it got a hino halftime youth director and they've got all kinds of wonderful programming they set aside part of the building for the youth. And again it's a question of critical mass if we had 10 or 12. Teenagers we get the next 10 or 12 it seems to me but so we we got this. Critical math problem here. The other thing of plays into this is it. Every unitarian universalist church that i know of our congregation says why can't we keep in our kids and sunday school they go to what's 14 and then we lose them what happens while they go to soccer league and they go to theater stuff and. There's this natural tendency i think for teenagers to lose interest. In going to church with their parents is just happened. We have to trust that the excellent programming that claudia arranges for our kids. Cease them back into the unitarian universalist. When they get to college or maybe after college or maybe when they it's awesome. True that we don't see them again till they become 28 and start having kids of their own and they say you know i'm going to go back to church. It is just is a difficult. If you talk to cliff melvin at christ by the sea my good friend who did the bike ride with me. They have the same problem. That's very hard to keep. Adolescent. In church it's pretty uncool and i want to reiterate that i feel that claudia. Does a wonderful job that it is not a question of the wrong material being used the wrong ideas or inadequate boring programming it's just a tweet that kids are hard to kids are hard to hold onto amateur. Etc. Alright. On pope francis encyclical on climate change and what steps you personally or taking help reduce the crisis of climate change and what is the uu's stance on the subject. I like the first of the last part of the question the middle part of it when i'm personally doing it unless they were full when i could. We could all do a lot more but let's start with the encyclical. I hope you all saw i hope you've all read or looked at it or at least looked at the new york times analysis of the encyclical. It's an astounding document it's an astounding holistic critique. Worldwide laissez-faire capitalism. And the way the poor suffer in the world by neglect by the powers-that-be. I thought it was it was an absolutely stunning documents at the unitarian universalist very excited about to have. Roman catholic church in a we've been concerned about this for 30-40 years and a longer actually. With were the original spiritual environmentalist with our view of the above the interdependent web of all existence of which were apart. Which we put into our bylaws at 1970 or so. I-75. So it's a terrific opportunity for us to work with roman catholicism and other religiously orthodox people who now understand. That are the moral issue. Is our saving our planet and 10,000 people died in pakistan of the heatwave of the power company's couldn't keep up 10,000 people died last week. This is about global warming and about the ed about the economic structure. Of the world to 10,000 people were allowed to die overheat. His critique is too radical for even some of the more moderate capitalists in the world he was against carbon-carbon banking and all of that and that there has been pushed back and maybe positive.

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2015May17Sermon128.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach my name is beth pearson and i'm a member of the congregation. We're so glad you have chosen to be with us here this morning. We are congregation of open minds loving hearts and helping hands. Seeking to become our best selves while working together to make a better world. Please know that you are welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight. Black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. We are delighted to see you. We hope you will find the service meaningful and enriching and that you will find something here this morning that nourishes your spirit and feeds your soul. As most of you know our minister scott alexander is currently on a cross-country bike ride to beat hunger to raise funds and awareness about the growing problems of hunger and poverty here on the treasure coast. Each week he texting with us via video and this morning he has to brief updates to share with us. Uehara following me on the ride to be hunger i'm in warren ohio today we had kind of a mixed day a little bit of rain and not too bad a the countryside was was pleasant and we we enjoyed the day but it was a long one and it worked out just fine hurry buddy nobody we have some really bad roads very very very poor part of the country mahoning county and youngstown there's a lot of poverty and it wasn't there was a kind of a complicated day tomorrow we go up to dunkirk new york will be along lake erie will end tomorrow and a beautiful hotel right on lake erie which will be a lot of fun to be with and everything is going well i'm now in the last week of the trip those of you who want to follow the written blog of our trip go to bama bama cyclist bama cyclist a.com and click on fast america 2015 mike has beautiful pictures up everyday and a narrative describes also i remind you that well on our way to $50,000 we hope to reach our goal and we hope that all of you will be the splash party on the beach for some final fundraising and a lot of fun with some dunking of celebrities and other things so i'll check in tomorrow bye-bye. Icd-10-pcs are my friends names are all wonderful wonderful sunday morning and have a great time is raining right now in dunkirk new york have a good day and you guys have a wonderful sunday. Her opening words this morning or by nelson mandela. In judging our progress as individuals. Return to concentrate on external factors. So choose one social position. Influence. Popularity. Will. Poor standard of education. What internal factors may be even more crucial. Interception wonders development. As a human being. Honesty. Sincerity. Simplicity. Humility. Purity. Generosity. Absence of vanity. And readiness to serve others. Qualities within the reach of every soul. Are the foundation of one's spiritual life. Never forget. Is a sinner that just keeps on trying. Nelson mandela. A reading this morning is by carter. Hayward. It has no title. Love like truth and beauty is concrete. Love is not fundamentally a sweet feeling. Not at fart a matter of sentiment. Attachment or being drawn toward. Love is active. Effective. A matter of making reciprocal a mutually beneficial relations. With one's friends and enemies. Love creates. Righteousness or justice. Here on earth. For this reason. Love. Requires commitment. We are not automatic lovers of self others the world or god. Love does not just happen. We're not love machines puppets on. A string of a dd called love. Love is a choice. Not simply or necessarily a rational choice. But rather a willingness to be present to others without pretense. And without guile. Love is a conversion. To humanity. A willingness to participate with others. In the healing of a broken world. And broken lots. I have organized this sermon around three stories of ministry. And a unitarian universalist congregation. Story 1. This experience happened to me when i was still a student and theological school. The church that we belong to in new hampshire usually closed for the summer. But that year they decided to stay open. Volunteers conduct summer services. I was one of the volunteers. As many members were away. The service was held in a small chapel that didn't get very much use and not in the large sanctuary. About 30 people showed up that sunday many of them my friend who had come to hear the student. Me. Preach under cheer me on. I was quite relaxed and looking forward to the experience. Until the fickle hand of fate. Intervened. The first evidence that something was wrong was that the sound system in the travel. Did not work. The second was that the guitarist. Who had volunteered. To play for the service. Did not show up. Well okay then. So much for the music. I told the congregation what had happened and that we would just have to go it alone alone without music. Then a friend of mine. Volunteered to play the upright piano in the corner. I was so relieved to know that we would have music after all. That i did not hear her mumble under her breath. Something about not having played. For 50 years. So she slid herself. Onto the piano bench. I began to play. It immediately became obvious. That all was not well. The piano. Was out of tune. And every third know that ruth hit. Was incorrect. All of us were wincing in pain listening to the jarring dissonance of the piano. But with the determined look on her face ruth played on louder and louder with the hope that somehow the notes with a beijar command and create. The melody she wanted. It didn't happen. Fortunately the him i had picked out was well-known but all of us. So we began to sing as loudly as we could to drown out the piano. As we sang louder. Ruth play louder and when the ham was done. We were all exhausted and perspiration was pouring down rose cheeks. The service could have been a disaster. If it hadn't been so funny. We all laugh. I'm look relieved. And i went on with the service hunting quickly drop the idea of two more hamiz. The second story. This story will factual. Did not happen to me. But was told to me by reverend donald rowley my minister for 20 years i thought new hampshire church. And my mentor for many more years after that. He said that the church had a member who had suffered a major loss recently and had come to see him that day. In the evening don called him to check in and offer support. However he felt very uncomfortable about what the man was saying. Saddam decided he needed to go over. To the man's house. To check on him. When he arrived he parked in the street and was just about to get out of his car when he saw the man leaving the house. I'm walking away. Dog got out of his car and began to follow. Show the man realized that don was behind him but he did not turn around. Nor did you speak to don. He just kept walking. They walked like this. Through the town of nashua new hampshire. All night long. Never speaking. But always aware of the other's presence. As the first blow of dawn appeared over the horizon. The man returned to his house. Entered and shut the front door. Don got back in his car. And drove home. Several days later the man called. You told john that he had known all along that don was there but they did he he had nothing to say to him. He had nothing to say to him because when he left his house. He had no idea. Where he was going. What he was going to do with himself. And he's simply. Care. He admitted. But although he still felt hopeless. He had realized that long night. Did someone else cared about him. Cared enough. To be with him during that terribly long night. For now he said. Knowing that someone else cared that much. What's enough. To keep him going. The third story. This one happened to me recently and when i have finished telling it. You wonder why i even included it as it seems as though this story is totally different. I want to go back. I happened to notice that one of our members seemed agitated and upset. When i asked him about this he admitted that he was. I invited him to share his thoughts and feelings with me. He came into my office. Close the door. And began what was a torrent of complaints. I'm criticisms. About everything. Nothing seemed to be right. And no one escaped his judgments. I found my ears dooley pinned back. We all know that anger and criticism one directed our way is not a pleasant experience. These very hard just to sit there without trying to defend oneself. But i knew that i had asked him to share his thoughts with me and so in a way i'd ask for it. I had brought it on myself. I also knew it was my job to listen. To whatever is said. And then if i did that conscientiously without interrupting. I might discern. A deeper meaning to his words. Centrist the sound and fury of his delivery. So i listened hard. And finally like a summer storm his tirate blew over. And he had said all that he wanted to say. I was able to correct a few misunderstandings that he had. Add some new information that he did not know. But essentially he was done. He quickly said goodbye. I left my office. Okay. So you're asking. What do these stories have in common. They seem. So unrelated and totally different. In their particulars i would agree with you. But if their depth. They all come from the same source. They're all love stories. Love stories depicting are different relationships. With one another. And our love for and commitment to. Unitarian universalism. But now i must tell you what i mean by love. Years ago c.s. lewis published an interesting study entitled the four loves referring to four different definitions of love in the greek language. The first of these is agape. The greek word. Meaning love. As a gift bestowed. Without asking. I've always had it explained in a christian context. As the love of god bestowed on human beings. The second type of love is eros. Physical desire and passion. The third type of love is filho. Friendship. And the fourth and most overlooked. Is storage. Storge. The greek word for affection. In this article in his article bonds of affection author scott vader say talks about storage. Or affection. It is not often talked about. But it is a very important type of love and should not be overlooked. Affection he states cruise by virtue of being in the same time and place. With other people. It grows out of regular routines of shared life. Short conversations. Exchanges. Pleasantries. I'm propert thanks and praise. It is linked. To place. I'm frowned among those who work together such as in a workplace. Or in a church community. And its most basic form it is a love shared within a large extended family. But it includes fun feelings we have for other people who live in our neighborhood. Or other places that we regularly. Frequent. Philia on the other hand or friendship. Requires a much higher level of agreement. Common interest and deeper bonds between individuals and because of these requirements. It is usually shared with a much smaller number of people. Affection by contrast. Is much broader. And in a way more democratic as it offers one the opportunity. To be in relationship with many people. Very different from ourselves. But still valued and loved. As the author says. It is this type of affection that is flexible but can hold people together in relationships in spite of differences. Disagreement. It is in this definition of storage or affection. The qualifiers these stories as love stories. And within each story they were gifts. Also given in love. Often when we think of exchanging gifts we envisioned a lovely present. Beautifully wrapped. Probably anticipated i'm graciously received. But just as there are different types of love their roles are different types of gifts and they come in all sorts of packaging. In the first story of ruth at the piano. She did not. Give the gift of musical proficiency and skill. We did not listen to a beautiful performance in fact it was just the opposite. And it is that that made her gift. So. Precious to me. I had known ruth for many years as a very competent parent and professional. I'm not sunday she came to support me. And she was and she spontaneously offered to play the hymn. She was not trying. To prove her competency. The fact that you might or might not be confident didn't even cross her mind. She didn't even have a chance to practice or play through the him once. She just sat down. And played. This was not about her. It was about helping and supporting me. Hers was the gift of love spontaneously given and all of us recognized it as such and loved her for it. I will never forget that gift. I'm a love that motivated it. Our second story is much more obviously. A gift of love and support offered by a minister to a member of his congregation. Why did he spend all night following that man around town. Turn obviously recognize that the man was in deep grief. Unpossible danger. He responded and went to him. John knew he couldn't change the circumstances with the member was struggling with. But he could be present. A witness. To the man's suffering. What is not known about dom because none of you had a chance to know him is that he would have done this. For anyone of his 350 members. That was the kind of compassionate man that he was. And also how he lived his life as a minister. That is very clearly a gift of love to bear witness. To stand with and to be with another person even though. One can do nothing to change the circumstances that the other person is burdened by. This gift of oneself. Is the greatest gift. Of all. And we only have to look around this congregation. To see members practicing it. Every single day. The third story is also about a gift given in love. A purse. Glad it doesn't seem like a gift. It much more resembles a tongue lashing. Aren't gift supposed to be wonderful generous and thoughtful. Become be. But that definition does not go far enough. Sometimes. A gift is unrecognizable. At first glance and this was one of them. Yes this man was angry but his anger was not fueled by hatred. It was not fueled by indifference. But his love and concern for the fellowship. I'm for unitarian universalism. Displaying his very strong feelings of frustration. He trusted us enough to believe that we would listen to him and respect his opinions. Unless he was able to give a heartfelt. An honest account of his concerns. He gave us the gifts. Of trust. Openness. And honestly. I am stated earlier that storage or affection does not require that we all think alike and agree. And we should not have that expectation or goal. As unitarian universalist. We know we are independent thinkers. And we're proud of it. We also know that we work hard to respect points of you very different from our own. And because we give each other the freedom and the space to think and grow to change our minds in our ongoing search. For truth. Our relationships can continue. To prosper and to exist in this community. As is often the case. Discussion and debate between multiple points of view. Can benefit everyone and ultimately lead to more informed decision making. As all points. Will have been considered. I'm atmosphere of peace at any price. That requires conformity and silent agreement. Will ultimately stifle the intellectual inquiry and freedom of thought. That are the greatest attributes. Of our faith. No you may have thought that i chose these stories because in some way they were very important. Or unusual or somehow unique. The fact is they weren't any of those things. There many stories. The each of us could have told. But i chose these three because they illustrate. The different ways in which we share the gift of love. In acts that are generous. Compassionate. Trustworthy. And honest. Each of us. Is differin. And each of us has unique talents. Our strength. Lies in the depth. And brett. Of what we bring to our church community. In many ways. We are almost quilt. In the story that claudia read to us. In the story each piece of the quilt is different. And hazard zone importance. When the pieces are sewn together. They create something far more beautiful. They make a masterpiece. We2. Or separate distinct pieces. Intuitive and our own ways. But when we join together in religious community. We to create something far more important. A loving and supportive environment. Strengthened. Buy the mini inter woven threads. Of our relationships. May we continue to share our gifts of love. For one another and may our church community continue to prosper. And now strengthened by the love of this community. Fed by the communion of souls. Reassured by a common vision. Grateful for the opportunity of service. And blessed. Buy the gifts of friendship. An affection. May we go sustained and nourished. By this time together. Back to our individual lives and into the world. In which we live. With fresh resolved. To make a wise. Unloving. Difference.

uufvb_org

2010Dec19Sermon32.mp3

Instead of a sermon this morning which i'm sure you're we're all done here. We're going to share. Some stories. And songs of the season. The first story comes from my colleague frank rivas. Of minneapolis. It's one of my favorite. He writes. My little sister renee. Was 10 years younger. That i. When she was in kindergarten i considered her to be the most obnoxious child on the planet. So i decided to give her a lump of coal for christmas. I know the people generally consider it's a responsibility to give lumps of coal to bad little boys and girls but i had learned. Over the years not to trust. Santa's judgement. I had seen it over and over again the old man with easy on little kids even obnoxious ones. Responsibility. Felt. I searched the yellow pages. Went to the nearest coalyard and picked out. An exceptionally large chunk of coal. Wrapped it nicely in a box. With a bow. Hahaha. And placed it under the christmas. Our family encouraged recipients of guests to lift. Shake and guess its contents. As soon as the gift. Place under the tree renee was fascinated. What weighs so much. Sound so loud. Why are christmas morning tradition the gifts were sorted into 5 piles. Then. When are the time going around. Circle as many times as necessary. We opened our gifts for everyone to see. Renee. Open first. Ashley unwrap the ribbon. Paper and box. Her excitement grew and so did my anticipation. The moment of reckoning was at. From her first plants at the coal. Beloved. She screamed alight and hug me profusely. Earlier in her kindergarten class she has learned to grow colorful crystals on coal. Humbug. How was i to know this was to be her favorite gift. There is a moral to this story. Frank fm. Watch out. For this season. There is a spirit in the air. That can turn even the most vindictive thoughts. Into good. Did. Hiiraan. Oh holy night. Is a thank you. For all the caring and. Love that i received from. Call home. Long lake. My second story comes from the reverend carl scoville who was four years the. Blimpie classic new england minister of kings chapel in boston. Plenty and sparse. Casey tells this story. This christmas story. Because i grew up in a house without central heating. And i've always felt that cool house. Is a healthy house impervious to cold. And conducted to the flow of blood. However. Do not share the sentiment. At a time they became articulate upon the point is they were growing up. One christmas when i refused to turn up the heat. Sufficiently high. To raise a winter's supply of orchids. My youngest daughter proclaimed in the parsonage behold. A decree went out from carl augustus. That all the world should be frozen. Anthony's went to his or her own room to be frozen. I told her. You're much better off here than if you were living in china or russia. I don't recall her precise response. But she intimated to me that my argument was moved. Something in her tone of voice suggested that the matter was not settled. That christmas eve. When we held our traditional services of song and scripture at king's chapel. We added a small new feature on the old communion table replaced a crush. A terracotta crash. Terracotta figures. Ameri. And joseph the child cradled in its mother's arms. Shepherds. Cheap. And the kings as well. We had never had a crush in king's chapel before. And i felt that if we were to introduce one. The muted colors of these terracotta figures. Mightily veni puritanical. Objection. Well. There were. Tippecanoe crash. We went through the family service at 4:30 p.m.. And the holy communion at 5. And the big carol service at 10:30 p.m.. And i have nothing i heard nothing but words of appreciation. But after the last service was over at after i've finished reading the crowd. The sexton rushed up to me and said. I think you better come down to the front of the church. What's the matter time i ask. One of the pieces of the crash. Has been stolen. He said to me. Which one. I asked. Jesus. Oh lord i thought. The first time we put out a terracotta crash. Somebody takes a piece. As we walk down the aisle of the church i couldn't help wondering who would do such a thing. A drunk. A nut. An objector prankster. We got to the chancel. And looked at the crash and sure enough. The baby was gone. From jesus's from mary's arms. And then i saw that someone. I placed a little slip of paper. Underneath the cradle. I got it. And it said. We've got jesus. By midnight and he'll be returned from the morning service. Read what up at the parsonage. Infant reappeared. And everything returned to normal at king's chapel. Well not quite. Carl and sue story. The benevolent despot of the beacon street parsonage. Tips on less less certainly upon his throne. That is not surprising. Carolands. No monarch. Indeed no despot can ever be sure of his rule. After a child. Husband. Herein. R s. Arizona. In russia. It is said there was once an old woman. Who refused to help the wiseman. When they pass by her home. Looking for the baby jesus. She is called babushka. Which means grandmother. And this is her story. Babushka lived all by herself. In a little house. Where she was forever sweeping and cleaning. She has no time for friends. So she was always. Alone. Once it was sad. She had been both young and happy. With a husband who loved her. And a baby whom they both love. Her husband and child got sick. And died. Long long ago. After that. She became. Isolated and fairly bitter. One dark night. She was sweeping the floor by candlelight. Riding camels. Stopped and knocked on her door. Babushka. The waisman asked if they could come in and rest. And if she might offer them a little food. They would pay her well. Babushka had no kind words for them. And no food either. I'm too busy with housework to be making meals for strangers. When did the wise men try to. We have heard that a child has been born. Who will be a new kind of king. One who will teach love to all people. We followed that bright star. Defined his birthplace. And offered gifts of gold. And myrrh and frankincense. Can you please help us. Babooshka laughed bitterly. Should i know of a newborn king usini castle anywhere around here. Get your camels out of here before they do any of my yard. She turned her back. Slammed. The second wise man called through the door. You don't understand. This is not an ordinary king. We will find him in a humble place. Babushka heard. But she didn't. The one-eyed man got ready to leave. But the last one stopped by the window and spoke. Good lady. See that your heart is. If you come with us. Surely when you look upon this child her sorrow will turn to joy. Again she heard. Pretended she didn't. That night she swept until her back ache. And then she sat down to scrub the hearthstone. But she couldn't scrub thought. Of that newborn child. Remind. What do these strange men know about baby's forehead. Frankenstein. What's good are those things. Before she knew what she was doing. She had opened a small chair. And she was looking at things that. A little blanket. Knitted cap and mittens. A string of wooden beads. Made from scraps. These were things that she and her husband. Handmade. Long ago. Holding these precious things in her hands. She suddenly began to read. For a long time. And when her weeping was done. She knew. What she needed to. The child these men are seeking should have more fitting gifts. The ones that they are bringing. She muttered to herself. These things from my chest. Our sympathy. But they're good. Catch up with those men. Surely someone must have noticed which way they went. But on her way out the door. Babushka saw that the camels hadn't tracked mud on her walk. Thinking it a shame to leave a dirty doorway behind. She took up her broom. And swept the dirt away. She then went off in such a hurry. That she forgot to put her broom down. It is said that she never did catch up with the wise men. She wandered all over looking for the newborn king. Getting her gifts to one child or another. All along the way in her travels. She gathered other toys. And suites. And didn't. Simple things that children love. Even now. In the cold time of the winter. She flies through the air with her broom. And a sack full of gifts. Looking through windows. And if she sees a sleeping child. She leaves the gif. And if the floor is not. She sweeps. Before she goes. There is a wonderful myth. Whose origin is appropriately obscure. It's called. The rabbi's gift. A monastery had fallen on difficult. They're only five months left. The abbot. And for others. All over the age of 75. Clearly. It was a dying community. Name of the deep woods surrounding. Monastery. There was a. Little hut that are nearby synagogue used for contemplation. The next time the rabbi came to the woods. The abbott visited him. And ask if by some chance. He could offer any advice that might save the monastery. Different can you give me a piece of advice. To save my dying order. No i'm sorry the rabbi responded. I have no advice to give. The only thing i can tell you is. That the messiah. Is one of you. When the abbot returned to the monastery he was at. Well what did he say. He cannot help us. The only thing he mentioned as i was leaving. Was it the messiah is one of us. I don't know what he meant. In days and weeks and months that followed. The month ponder monks pondered what he meant. Whether there was any significance to the rabbi's word. The messiah is one of us. If so sad one. He probably meant the abbott. A leader for more than a generation. On the other hand. Brother george. He's a man of wisdom and kindness he could be the one. Certainly he could not have meant brother thomas. He gets nasty at times but. Come to think of it he's almost always right. Maybe the rabbi did mean brother thomas. It surely did not mean brother jacob. He's so passive. A real nobody. But then. He has a gift for somehow always being there. When you need him. Maybe he is the messiah. Of course. The rabbi couldn't possibly have meant me. I'm just an ordinary person. Suppose he did. Suppose i am the messiah. As they contemplated in this matter. The old monks begin to treat each other. With extraordinary respect. On the off chance that one of them might be the messiah. They began to treat themselves with the utmost dignity. At strangers visited the monastery from time to time. They sent sonora of spiritual strength and care. Permeated the atmosphere. And was strangely compelling. They began to bring their friends. And some of the younger men who came to visit the monastery. Started to talk more and more with the old months. And after a while. One asked if he might join. Then another. Add another. And before long. The monastery has become a vital center. Spiritual hope. Hirons the fourth story. As this christmas. Season approach night. I began to remember some of the wonderful gifts of my. Childhood that i received on christmas. Shiny new blue schwinn bicycle i got one year. When i was i think 7 or 8 or 9 i got this cape canaveral launching pad thing in the rocket would shoot off fitness motorized. Cards would take the rockets back in for that was a great gift for about. 2 days until. My favorite one of my favorite birthday gifts i have with me. This is a theodore the bear. My uncle lloyd was a dear man gave me this on my first christmas. It has. It's up i'm 61. Christina. Defeating everything what happened to the eyes. I kind of love that the death didn't i. Can you see it. It seemed better days. He sets every morning now. On my. Beth home. He's always there. That's theodore. What the best christmas gift i think i ever ever got. Was. Christmas of 1981. It was something entirely non-material my entire family my three brothers and their. Wives and children and my parents marsha and wendell. We all went up to this little cabin that we had in northern wisconsin north of merrill wisconsin. Which we had built. It had no running water the well was right outside on purpose. Didn't have no electric lights we had kerosene lights. It had no interior toilet. We built a glorious outhouse which we called tina's place. And summer we built the cabin we built tina's place it's the only outhouse in america that we knew of it had a. Handsome plate-glass window from florida ceiling so that while you were out there doing things you could enjoy nature. Wayback. An interesting fact about this was. We were up there from christmas. The 26. Until new year's day. Very cold. More than two feet of snow is on the ground we trundled in. With the toboggan pulling all of our food and of course our cross-country skis. We cross country ski everyday. One of the unique features back to the outhouse if i may. Isn't my mother had figured out that the way to keep the toilet seat warmers to have a hook. For the toilet seat behind the wood burning stove. And she made a quilted bag so the whenever you needed to go to the outhouse you take the toilet seat off of its warm perch. 100° slip in the bag under your arm. Tina's place. I have the eccentric family. The point of my story. Is that we were together for five or six days skiing. The beautiful northern woods. And cooking many wonderful pot meals on the on the old. Woodstock which we got from a family farm. That had. Collapsed release of the building was collapsing. Got the stove out of their restored it cleaned it up put it back. In this new cabin. Doing board games. Listening to garrison keillor on national public radio that's saturday. Talking. I'm talking to. We didn't know it at the time. But that wasn't fact that winter of 1981 that christmas of 1981. Was the last time we were all together as a family. For my father was to dilate in may that same year. And now my brother. Eric is now also gone. Having died this year that was the last time. We were all together as a family. This holiday season. I want you to know that the best. Christmas gifts you have. Maybe like theodore a little bit. But really there immaterial thing. Time. And love. Spend with. Adan family. And friends people you care about. In the simple ways. Not in front. Of the flats. Tv returning to last week's theme. With one another. Face. This holiday season. They all of us be blessed by the best presents possible. Time. With people we love. Time to laugh. Time to home. How to sing nes time to cry like the bush.. Time to know how precious we really are. $200. That's the best.

uufvb_org

2013Nov17Sermon128.mp3

Good morning. I'm scott alexander senior minister of the current gation here in a supporting role this morning for my associate minister lee page who will be delivering the message. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. On this gentle. Day. May we devote ourselves to all the gentle arts of the heart. This day and everyday. We are congregation of open minds loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best selves even as together we work. To make our world a better place. Please know that you are welcome this morning precisely as you come to us. Whether you are young or old black or white gay or straight. Whether you were feeling on top of the world. Or down in the dumps or somewhere in between we welcome you just as you come to us this morning. In all of your particularity in need. We hope you will find our services morning meaningful. And enriching and that you will find something here this morning perhaps just a nugget. Of something that nourishes. Your spirit and feeds your soul and gives you renewed energy and purpose. For the living of life in the days ahead. For untold centuries people have drawn apart. From the workaday world on sunday. To worship. To celebrate. And to wonder at things beyond and within themselves. So we are gathered here this hour. To raise our sights. And look at new horizons. Life is more than toil for bread. Life has meaning. And purpose. As we celebrate life together. Let us seek harmony within ourselves. And with one another and the world and find our lives. Uplifted. And made whole. The following is a short. Excerpt. By nelson mandela. It will be followed immediately by a short spoken meditation. And then a silent meditation. But i will end by ringing the bell. Nelson mandela. In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors. Such as one social position influence. Popularity. And standard of education. But internal factors may be even more critical in assessing one's development as a human being. Honesty. Sincerity. Simplicity. Humility. Purity. Generosity. Absence of vanity. Readiness to serve others. Qualities within the reach. Of every soul. Are the foundations of one spiritual life. Never forget. Better sink. Is a sinner who keeps on trying. Do the meditation. The hours of the day spend passed us more quickly than we complete our tasks. And our quiet inner voice has been muted by louder more demanding needs. In this quiet space. Let us take the time to stroll peacefully through the secret garden of our soul. Have we cared for all the dreams and hopes and wishes. We have planted there. Have we spent enough time to nourish the fragile growth. Of our highest. Aspirations. Let us take the time to enter quietly. The deepest places of our being. This sacred space. Here. We can rest. Here. We can take stock. Rejoicing in the integrity of our own being. Here. We can regain the strength. To be the best person. We can be. Here. We can renew our commitments. To those we love. And to all who touch our lives. Let us take the time to nourish our soul. To do this holy work. A few months ago. Friends in new hampshire. Moved into a condo not very far from ours. They had to find something quickly. Because they had sold their house and had to move out. We had looked at the same condo the year before when we were caught in a time crunch also. But we had chosen a different one which we liked a bit more. Our friends. We're very excited about their move. They hired a contractor to make a few changes before they moved in. And when the contractor arrived he expressed. Some concern about something that he saw. He filled a glass with water and poured it on the kitchen floor. And the water ran across the floor and puddled in a corner. A quick trip to the basement reveal the reason. The joists holding up the kitchen floor. We're not supported. At the ends with posts. I'm so the joists were doing all the work. I'm trying to hold up the floor above. Over the years the joyce had sang. 2 in. And i suppose it was just luck. But kept the kitchen and all its appliances from ending up in the basement. The remedy to this problem was a very expensive fix. And our friends were justifiably just made about the additional cost. They had not noticed the sagging kitchen floor when they were inspecting the condo. But then neither had we. I might add that the two previous owners. Of the condo had missed it too. Why was this obvious problem invisible to all of us. Part of the answer may lie in the fact that both are friends. We're in a great rush to find a place we could buy. I'm so we did not take the time to look carefully. But i think another part of the answer is that prospective homeowners usually look at other things. The number and placement of rooms. The general condition and attractiveness of the house. The setting the appointment and maybe even outside the landscaping. We don't as a general rule spend a great deal of time making sure that the floors are level. The structure is sound where the foundation walls are not crap. I know that when i'm invited to see your friends new home i don't rush to the basement and exclaim how much i love their joyce poster foundation. As an architect david is for more careful than i am and inspecting the building but in the case of this condo we both missed the structural problem during our short and cursory visit. I will be more careful in the future. Another plausible explanation why these obvious flaws were not noticed. Is because we all assumed that buildings are sound. The singer watertight stable and safe. In the us this is generally true. Whereas in some other parts of the world where i've traveled. Shoddy workmanship. Poor materials cutting corners and graph. Have caused some spectacular building collapses. When something major goes wrong in a building that we live in we're shocked. Even if the problem may have been lurking in plain sight. Most buildings that we have lived in and work in our stable and safe. Should we take these characters for granted. And focus on whether we like what we see in the building. If our impressions are positive we make up our minds quickly and if our initial impressions are negative we will lose interest immediately i move on to something else. With our condo choice it was simply dumb luck that we got the one without the major flaws. I think we all have tendencies to jump to conclusions. And to make decisions quickly with very incomplete information about many aspects of our lives. What can be the case also when we meet a person for the first time. Psychologist write that first impressions are formed in under 10 seconds. And our subsequent behavior both positive or negative towards the other person is predicated on that first impression. A positive feeling about the other person will lead to greater engagement. Which in turn generates even more interest. We can all remember times when we met someone who we like immediately and candy and continue to like just as much as we got to know them. Those individuals can become long-term friends. We cherish for many years. For the most part their personalities remain pretty consistent overtime and they are essentially the same person they were when we first met them. We describe them as. What-you-see-is-what-you-get. And label them as true-blue loyal and steadfast. Many times we get it right. Because our observational skills work so fast. I'm because we take so much for granted about stability and continuity. We can also make. I'm trying to time some pretty big mistakes. We can also think of people who we've met and liked very much initially who turned out to be very different in personality. From whom we thought they were. Sometimes these differences can work out very well overtime. But there are other occasions. With personalities that fluctuate a great deal. And are inherently unstable and inconsistent. Trying to relate to search individuals can causes confusion and unhappiness and ultimately it becomes almost impossible to build a long-term close and meaningful relationship with them. Intuitively we know that in order to be happy. We need stability and continuity in our relationship. General aspects of our lives. I'm thinking about character traits. I am reminded of a conversation i had recently with a friend. It concerned a comet whose wife. Had made to him. She told him. That of all his qualities. The one she valued the most with his constancy. Constancy. He was dismayed. Was that the best thing she could say about him. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say that's no big deal who cares about that. I had to disagree with him and said that his wife had paid him a wonderfully perceptive compliment. Just to digress for a minute. Many years ago. Young parents often name their baby daughter's. Grace. Faith. Hope. Charity. Prudence and constance. I don't know what their names are says. And other equally old-fashioned names. I can think of for women my age that i have known over the years named faith. Prudence corprew. Unconscious or connie. These names have sort of fallen out of favor today. Just as our focus has shifted away from the important virtues represented by those names. It's true that constancy seems like an old-fashioned term and not one that we hear very often. But it is an essential virtue. It is not a character trait that jumps out at you and makes you take notice. But don't sell it short. It's a quiet force embedded in our value system. Are there synonyms for this same quality are steadfast. Reliable. Faithful loyal unwavering committed trustworthy and true blue. Not exactly a short or trivial. Compliment to pay somebody. In fact. To be constant to be steadfast. Is such a modest unassuming trait. We barely notice it. We take it for granted. Just as we take for granted the stability of our buildings and the trustworthiness of our relationships. We cannot lead a secure life without constancy. And it is only when things go wrong in a major way that we realize how is central constancy is to our well-being. Yes. His wife had experienced hardship and loss in the past. I'm so she knew firsthand the value of her trustworthy reliable and loving husband. He was her bridge over troubled water. And helped her to heal from past difficulties. Because she could trust him i could count on him she was secure about her life. And she could direct her attention to the many activities that she enjoyed and excelled at. The author cynthia ozick some discs are perfectly when she said. Quotes. When something does not insist upon being noticed. When we aren't grab by the collar or struck on the skull by a presence or an event. We take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. Unquote. I could not agree more. This past summer i had a visit with unitarian universalist minister from the nashua new hampshire church. Which is our church for 38 years. He had just retired after a 24-year ministry there and had just finished his first year as an interim minister. In a nearby city. Steve is a very modest man. And you said to me that he was surprised and flattered. For the many positive comments he received. From the congregation the interim. Position when he left. He said. But he hadn't done anything differently from what he had done in an actual church for all those years. I was surprised at how much the members appreciated. His part of his participation in the events of the church. Apparently the former minister had not done that. And the congregation recognized the difference and valued his involvement. The key characteristic of steve ministry. Is and has been his dedication to the members of his congregation. And whose inherent unselfishness. He is there to serve others. His commitment is to something much greater than himself. As an example of his dedication. This occurred during his teaching semester at meadville lombard theological school in chicago. Well i was a student there in 2002. He's got a phone call from the nashwood church informing him that the wife of a parishioner had died suddenly. Without delay. He flew back to new hampshire. Conducted the funeral. Visited with the family. And flew back to chicago. He was gone less than 24 hours and back in time to teach his classes. He could have waited. He could have gone at a more convenient time for him. But you didn't. He went when he was needed. What i found admirable. Was it ever talked about this trip. As anything more than just doing his job. Doing his job. Certainly was his professional obligation. But an obligation that he is always wanted to fulfill that he's always been totally committed to. Has accepted the fact. His job would cut into his personal life. The virtue of constancy is always i'm selfish. As it is about something greater and more important than oneself. I came across a short quote by aristotle that says it well. Quote. It's no easy task to be good. Anyone can act. Get angry. Give money. Speak to friends. I'm so on. What to do something to the right person. To the right extend. At the right time. With the right motive. And in the right way. That. It's not easy. Unquote. An older member of our extended family earned our respect in this regard. He had grown up pampered and protected. By his three older sisters and his adoring mother. And later by his wife and daughters. He was a nice enough person. Who had led a very very comfortable life. When his wife became ill. His life changed forever. Suddenly he was cast in the role. A caregiver. I've never done anything like this before. He learned how to cook. To clean the house. Under care for all his wife's personal needs. This was the first and he was not a young man when he learned these things. He did whatever was required without complaint. Until the time of her death. Knowing full well that his of his effort. Could not change the inevitable outcome and that he would lose her in the end. Even in this hopeless situation he carried on. It was the right thing to do. And he was committed to doing it. Commitments of this kind are not based on positive outcomes or just hopeful causes. Often we cannot avoid the pitfalls in our lives. We are forced to deal with circumstances we did not choose. That are beyond our control. We are challenged to cope with situations we have never faced. Sometimes for an indefinite period of time. Can we meet these challenges head-on. We're commitments remain strong and stable. Similarly when we are in a long-term commitment. Committed relationship. We do not get to choose. Just the things we like about the other person. Just the attractive appearance orally engaging traits that originally captured our attention. This commitment is based on the whole person. The good. The not-so-good. And at times downright unattractive. Car personal characteristics. When we make a commitment. To another person we get as they say the whole enchilada. It sounds like i'm lecturing a young couple on marital fidelity. And certainly it would apply to marriage. But it applies to all interpersonal relationships. Add other commitments that we make. To honor our commitments. To be constant. Steadfast. Untrustworthy maybe quiet modest qualities. So very easy to miss until they're absent. But they have to be incredibly strong to endure. Whatever comes along. The author robert johnson sums it up by saying quote. Stirring the oatmeal is a humble act. Not exciting or thrilling. What it symbolizes a relatedness that brings love. Down to earth. Love is content to do many things that the ego is bored with. Love is willing to work with the other person's moods and unreasonableness. Love is willing to fix breakfast and balance the checkbook. Love is willing to do these oatmeal things. Because it is related to a person. Inaka projection. Unquote. I often ask myself whether this modest virtue is innate. Are some people just born this way. Or is the personality. Trait of steadfastness and constancy a learned behavior that we take with us into adulthood. There is no question that we are born within eight physical psychological and emotional traits. And the thieves or shape. Throughout our lives by environmental factors. For trustworthiness consistency and constancy. Are learned behaviors. Acquiring higher-functioning cognition. That includes personal discipline. Determination and decision-making. Either we were taught by adults. Or learn by example. The importance and desirability of these virtues. Somewhere in our youthful development. Of course. We have to admit. That would be so much more fun to be totally selfish self-indulgent and oblivious to everything and everyone but ourselves. Maybe a little while. Let's not deny that we struggle with tampa. With temptations. That's exactly what makes constancy so tough. Who did someone hang in there for the long haul especially under very trying circumstances. Can i trust myself to fulfill my commitment so faithfully. What can i do. Two-and-a-half sees qualities in myself. To make sure that i am all that i can be in my relationships. I know one thing. I know i can't do it alone. I cannot do it in isolation from other people. The task is too big. The burden is too heavy. I believe that each of us needs the support of friends. And family during very tough times. Here at union with me be. We are very fortunate to have a compassionate and loving congregation. Members who reach out to one another whenever there is an aide. I think that this is one of the greatest strengths of our church family. I also believe that in addition to the support we receive from others. We have to respect around character traits. And have the self-confidence that we can meet whatever challenges come our way. Aperol. Each of us has been around for many years. And we have wrapped up a lot of successes. In past endeavors. There is no reason that we can't do it again. Constancy. The quiet virtue. Is one of the values that motivates our lives. And defines who we are. May we offer this gift of ourselves. To all our relationships. I may we receive. This gift. In equal measure. Throughout our lives. May the love which overcomes all differences. Which heals all wounds. Imports to flight. All fears. Bns. And among us. No. And always.

uufvb_org

2011May29Sermon32.mp3

When i was growing up as a boy in wisconsin. Summer to me. Was an absolutely magical season. Of engagement wonder. Enchantment and delight. I don't know how many of you have ever spent much time in wisconsin or the other parts of the upper midwest for that matter during the summer month. But take it from me after the long months of winter and always a hesitant arrival of spring. Summer of those parts was nothing short of a season of liberation. Enjoy it's all those heavy winter coats we had got put away and mothballs and we could be outside. With little or no clothing on mostly. Naughty boys you know. Summer for me growing up was largely synonymous with the rustic little cottage my family had right on the shores of lake michigan. At a secluded spot called forest beach about 40 miles north of milwaukee. Every summer. My parents and my three brothers and i would spend seem like. Countless language days at that little cozy cabin. There was nothing fancy about it except its location. Which step right on the stretch of pure white pristine white beach in as you waited out of the water it was just all little ripley stand for as far as the eye could see in it. More luxurious. And it was adjacent that cottage to lush dark green forest land including some. 7 massive maples we had that work. Before the civil war they were. Most of my memories of chanted summerplace are physical memory. Sight-sound smells and tactile sensations. The clarity invitation of the sparkling blue lake waters. Which will always cool refreshing. The hospitality of the warm white stand. Which was it like a giant sandbox for us as kids to play in. The beauty of the beach roses. And grass is dancing in the summer wind and sun right next to the. The friendly clock cry of the gauls overhead and the pleasing cacophony of songbirds in the nearby trees. The magic of the golden dappled sunlight. Streaming through the verdant. Forest leaves. The mustiness. Fertility. Rich dark black soil. Down there by the lake. The mustache and the buzz and clatter of the swarming insects on the window screens at night and perhaps one of my favorite things the rhythmic lullaby of. Time rain. On the metal roof. With no insulation. All these hospitable summer carnal sensations conspired to make forest beach. At least for this wisconsin boy. One of the most magical and enchanting places on the face of the earth. Barefoot and a minimal of clothing much of the day i remember spending warm language hours exploring the beach swimming in the lake waiting in the creeks. Traversing the woods and bluffs and fields without fear of child molesters or danger. We were so dumb. As a family we ate outdoors for breakfast lunch and dinner meals that were rich. The foods of the season. Sweet corn tomatoes. Cucumber. Peaches. Watermelon. Bratwurst. We swam. And sailed and fish. The lake watch tinajas powerful thunderstorms. Horizon the westin. The roaring bonfire. We had. On the beach at night. Singing folk songs to my mother's guitar and. Be told off. Skinny-dip. In the magical darkness just beyond. The light. The huge bonfire. Find fire 67. Tall with flames. Summer of forest beach. Wisconsin. Earthy. Energetic. Call and although my family no longer owns that. Rest of my mother. Mother's death we needed to. I can return. There anytime i want simply by closing my eyes. I'm thinking of. I'd like all of you to take. The moment. About some enchanted. When you were a child. Bring that. Bring the sensation. I guess you could say that for all of my life. I've been a summer purse. Not only is summer my favorite season of the year. For better or worse i have what most people call a summary personality. I'm hopelessly optimistic and cheerful most of the time ask my spouse. What can i tell you i'm a summary kind of guy. I was just born.. But my particular personality and seasonal prejudices aside. I wanted to talk about summer this morning specifically about the spirituality of summer and the unique blessings. That can come as a keyword can come to. In the warmest. 50 seasons now i know what some of you were thinking. You're saying those. Busy little florida skeptical heads of yours. For god's sake get a grip on yourself your boyhood summers and green and temperate wisconsin sound wonderful and a dilek. But. Being in wisconsin in august is one thing and florida. In august. Is quite another. Any rational person i hear your little busy heads thing will tell you that summer in florida. Is simply too much of a good thing. 80 degrees in low humidity on the sun-drenched shores of lake michigan is one thing. 100 degrees with 100% humidity here on the treasure coast in august is another i know i was here last august. Shirley. Some of you were saying to me you're not going to tell us the spiritually embrace. Summer down here hack. At least half the population of the treasure coast. Most all of everyone who can afford to do so has enough sense to get out of here over the hot season. You'll see scott. Summer in these parts is something to be. Indoor. Rather than enjoy. I hear some. Look. They call me late to lunch. But they don't call me stupid. I fully understand that summer here on the treasure coast. Has how shall i say this. Some rather extreme and vexing challenges for. As a cyclist. I must admit i prefer writing in april when the air is delightfully you know cool about 78 degrees. And in august. When they are on route a1a is kind of like a pizza oven. Summer in this part of florida means running air conditioners pretty much 24/7 and moving quickly between an air-conditioned car in air-conditioned office or home or store. It means avoiding the noonday sun i saw lots of cyclist out at 7:30 this morning. Wearing sun shielding hats. Slathering on sunscreen and scrupulously limiting your hours baking. I know all this. I will fully an unashamedly admit that pretty much by any reasonable standard summer here in florida is a bit over-the-top. It is. A few of us i'm pretty sure. I wouldn't mind if the florida summer climate. Work just a little more temperate a little more subdued a little more low-key and gentle. Despite everything i've said this morning about. Being a summer person. I myself and middle eager to escape a couple of times. To go to a home that i have in the adirondacks. I can kind of experience.. Upper midwest temperature. That i was so used to. Mean enough is enough and all of us. To get away from. But on this memorial sunday. Historically signals to america the american people the beginning of summer. I want to refer my passionate belief that each of the four seasons. No matter where you live in the world. Winter spring summer and fall each of these times. Call to a spiritually in ways we must not ignore or resist. Human beings. Each of the four varied season. Even summer here in floor. Vegas i think. The deep meaningful satisfying. So that's the. Keyword relation. Communions. With self. And others and nature and with the great mystery. That is embedded in all of those. The world wants us. Bags. Year-round to be woven deep and. Into the very fabric. And we ignore that holy infant. At our spiritual. No matter what time of year. Let me say this just of the diff. Play by way of a personal face. I believe with all my heart and soul that we human beings as. As mortal creature. To find ourselves. Without invitation. Suddenly in animes. Creation. We are intended. Intended by the very nature of life and being itself we are intended. Tubi. Close. Joyful. Reciprocal. And mindful. Relationship. I believe that at our. Fullest and best we homosapien. Are active an eager relational creatures passionately taking in our world. And so if we are to reach our full spiritual. Emotional. Inhabitants of earth. We must open ourselves. Fully. Intensely. At every time of the year. To the varied elements in the unique experience. Of the world around us. This summer guy believes that it is our spiritual destiny an opportunity to be fully engaged year-round with this creation. And with the other living things. Habitat. And it is in it is in that full and robust engagement where are joy and purpose in life. Is found. And yes life. Extend the invitation. But we have to rsvp. With our eyes and ears and noses. Tongue. And skin. The world cannot. We have to. To achieve. Spiritual. One of my favorites. Carl sandburg poems is addressed to a child. Thinking summer. What is a. Plies addresses to all of us as children of this creation. Sandberg road. You were made for joy child. The feet of you were carved for that. The ankles of you run for that the rise of rain the shift of wind the drop of a red star on a fire water rimmed it and endless catalog of. Shouts and laughter's. Silent contemplation. They made you. From day-to-day for joy child. For joy. All this is by way. I'm saying to all of you. It is gentle and insistent away is. I can that's summer in florida is. To be something. Seward or outlast. Rather it is a season to be willfully engaged. Can i see that again please. The season is not to be endured or outlasted but to be engaged and enjoy. Alright let's talk. Specifics. Even with the excesses and over-the-top list summer in florida. Is a season. Of radical hospitality. A season of radical hospitality. Which invites us to be a guest. And it's great and lavishly appointed living room. Think about it for a second. Florida here on the treasure coast. Invites us to reduce or eliminate all together many of the usual barriers. But stand between us and the world. In summer we can is the opening film suggested go barefoot on the lawn. And the beach. We pack the jackets and sweaters away peel-off layers of winter clothing and get right down to a simple pair of shorts or a bathing suit. Or even less if you have a private backyard. Oh those naughty skinny-dipping floridians i know you're out there somewhere. We did it in wisconsin we had lots of hedgerows and stuff. In this part of the world. In summer. We can walk. And sing in the rain. Cuz it's warm. We can watch the magic fury of wild thunderstorms from the safety of. Patios. Inside. We can breathe the aromas of countless flowers blooming everywhere. Eat. Produce. Farscape. Sweet corn and lettuce. Tomatoes. Watermelon in the park. We can listen to the crickets and songbirds. Majestic live oaks. Feel the sunlight and wind and rain directly on our faces without any mediation. In summer in these parts we can dive deliciously into so many pleasing pools of simple. Direct living summer in florida and tyson's us to know and touch. Without complication. Caveats sky and see sunrise and sunset forest. Flower beast. Bird. Family. Friends. Summer is a time. Which welcomes us to reconnect. With life and all of its deep. Holy simplus. Reason set aside know that. Computers in the. And the ipads. Have a direct relationship. Listen to this poem about summer by my colleague. Lynn unger it is entitled. Simply. Watermelon. You know what summer taste like. The pink flash. Of a generous earth this rounded life. fully flavored. How could you be ashamed at the tug. Of desire. The world has opened itself to you season after season. What is summer's sweetness but an invitation to respond. There is only one way to eat a watermelon. Bury your face in the wetness of that rosie slab. And b. That's the answer the phone. After reminding. You. And that is all this sermon is dear friend of spiritual reinders stuff you already know. Stuff you know to open. Your eyes. Your hands. Your ears. Your heart. July 5th. The dance. Summer. Traffic. I must. Return to my. By ending. To my main spiritual. Each. And every season. Of our lives. We are mortal creatures. Who are being called. Who are being invited. By both nature. And our destiny as human beings. Into clothes joyful intimate. Reciprocal relationship. With everything that is. Our lives are saved. And made whole. By the quality and depth. Of our relationship. A bar open. 42 way. Our mindful. Stop look. Our engagement. With the world. We are saved by. It has saving. If we close ourselves away. From any season. But let's take this one. By barricading ourselves behind. Air condition cars. Air condition stores. Air-conditioned homes. We will miss the radical hospital. Sunlight. Moonlight. Palm. We will miss it. Shut. And wellness. Like tomatoes. And sweet corn. Songbirds. Cato's. Lazy afternoons with. Getting all the wrong naughty. Brought. Made by god. One of the great philosophers of all time woody allen headed. 80% of success. Just. Showing. Summer in florida begs you to show up. And drink deep. Yes yes i know. Summer here in florida can be too hot and too humid and to sonny and to buggy and too intense into ball dino. But i must remind you that it is in the full flashing. Of these rich and robust days that you can know and be blessed by. Some of the worlds. Holiest simple. So open yourself up. To the divine traffic. That speaks. Flow through you and the world. Open yourself up. To the radical. Fatality. Open. Yourself.

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2010Jul04sermon128.mp3

uufvb_org

05Jul2009sermon32kbs.mp3

Let me precu all the things i'm going to say by telling you that the opinions expressed in this presentation are purely my own. I do not report to represent any group or subgroup within this fellowship. I expect to have a lot of agreement i also expect to have some disagreement. Fasten your seatbelts. Global warming. Falling apart look up chicken little. It may not be all that bad. What. There's no. The sustainability of the earth. May turn out to be not a battle of good versus evil. What's right. It's time for us to look around. And thinks spiritually about our world. And nature. As opposed to supernatural list. Most of us simply do not believe that god is going to stop us. It's up. To us. You. Hello. What do you do this. Hazard pay. A god-fearing person. Time for us to turn our attention to. The seventh principle of unitarian universalism. Respect for the interdependent. All existence. Of which we are apart. The international association of congregations last week. What are those changes. Did the word reference. Add words to that principle. And you heard them just a little earlier. Inspired by the beauty and holiness of the earth. We become more willing to relinquish material desires recognized. Unsustainable. And went on to say we are called to be good stewards restoring the earth. And protecting. All beings. That something could come up again in a couple years. The interdependent web. Of all existence. A witch we. Or apart. That's the environment. Ecology. Preserving planet earth. Are we all doing our part. Let me ask you have a memory special time. Of communing with nature. And your soul experience and inward grulla warmth. And you were left with a feeling of reverence. I'll never forget. The first time that i saw a waterfall. It wasn't the big one at all. Load out of a woods. Down over smooth rocks into a pool alongside a north carolina country road. It was absolutely breathtaking as our family was driving along my dad at the wheel. And suddenly we came upon this idyllic scene along the road. We stopped. Waited. Listening. Looked. We returned time and time again to swim and picnic and be mesmerized. That pond is gone today. Obliterated. My progress. The late 1970s i was a member of a local rotary club here in vero beach and interested in environmental matters. I became a planet earth and travel the four-county area talking about how big. Could help the environment. The concentration was on business because. Composed of representatives of various business enterprises in my business at that time was radio broadcasting. Now the amount of. Ho-hum reception. That my message was receiving. What's the least. While many individuals. Now thirty years later it's becoming environmentally aware war cost neutral. So business is jumping on the bandwagon. Will the individual today. There are so many things that can be done. Will you come into the usb b office on sundays or after hours during the week and you start that copy machine aboard the congregation on sunday. To conserve paper. Let's consider the best. Running the water. Are you aware that we are stalking our bathrooms with green paper. That is paper that contains at least. Has your committee leaves a meeting room. What about your personal habits. Watering the landscape around your home were you careful to water early in the morning so the sun doesn't come along. And using more of a natural resource. On my way home in a recent sunday 12:30 in the afternoon with the sprinklers going full tilt. What a waste. Is your car. More fuel-efficient than the last one. When you take off from a stoplight. Are you the check. Or a bit more conservative than that normally. If you're among those who smoke cigarettes. You casually flip the burning butt out of the car window paying no attention to where it may land. Can cause fires. Certainly has the pollution. It also pollutes the river. The buster carried to a drainage ditch in many cases. Either all good things they are a band-aid. Put on the deep wounds to our earth's ecology. One ardent environmentalist called it shallow. Ecology. So. Our congregation. Be out in the community. Pushing. Local government. Three more environmentally aware. And putting less pollution in the air and the water. Holly springs. And put us in touch. With the spirit. Preserving mother earth. Help us to live up to our seventh principle and show that we believe in. Respect. The interdependent web. Hope all existence. Which we. Far apart. I would like a quote for you a piece from rabbi warren g stone. We are grateful for creation. Majesty. The ever-flowing waters as your blue skies complex life of earth's forests. The myriad of life-forms amoeba and falcon. Wild turkey eagles. Rabbi stone went on. Like the trees. We too deep roots for nourishment. The uplifted branches of the trees point to where future. Unquote rabbi stone. Regardless of your personal space. In the system you believe in. The message is the same. There's a spiritual aspect. To which we say. We pledged our voices. Both in praise of nature. And in defense of all creation. Members of unitarian universalist churches tend to be argumentative. But whether or not you believe i think that most of us can agree. Perhaps. Within each one of us. And within all creatures on this earth. There's a spark of the divine. Essence. There's a word. From the hindu. Namaste. It means terms. I recognize the spirit of the divine. In both you. And me. Spirit of the divine resides in arsenal creators worship spirit. And the portions of the environment they depend on. Life itself. In reality because we depend on each creature. In the chain of life. As mother nature's design hold of us. In that web of life. Even the first generation of man had to pay attention to the environment. Take the garden of eden for example. Ecology one story that i've heard this story. Was the first human being there not adam. And one day she was wandering around in the garden of eden. I'm tired of being by myself. Okay godson. I'll create a man for you. What's that. He's a creature with aggressive tendencies he won't listen very well he'll get lost easily. But never stopped to ask for directions. However. One more thing.. That i made him first. Then they ate the apple lost the garden and we were out into the wild. Legacy of adam and eve. Turned into the conceit of humankind that all could be bent to our will with no care for the perimeter of our existence. And it's other inhabitants. And ultimately. Our own well-being. And this has led us to where we stand today. With mother nature. On the cusp of disaster save me. It appears that most scientists today. We have ignored the good of the earth. And favor the good of our greed for the good life. Things are happening. Scientists are becoming more. A recent report released by the us geological survey. Climatic shifts. Including a more rapid climate change. The previous estimates anticipated the global sea-level rise. By the end of the century and not four. The current survey commission. Hastens the meltdown of the antarctic. Now standing on the antarctic continent. Headed to the glaciers of iceland. Agreement. The natural resources defense council describes the arctic as global warming the canary in the coal mine. Arctic ice melt. The nrdc warns. Will have devastating effects beyond the polar region. Well into the american heartland. Temperature. On the kenai peninsula. Temperature and reproduce. Able to complete a two-year life cycle. In only one year. The insects so far. Have eaten almost 4 million acres of forest. At the national level president barack obama has named harvard physicist john holdren. Both holding our leading expert on climate change. Holdrege is obama's science advisor as director of the white house office of science and technology policy lypsinka leads the national oceanic and atmospheric administration which oversees ocean and atmospheric studies. And does much of the government's research. On global warming. The state of idaho. Is hoping to capitalize on more than just milk emerging from its cows. The state mountains of manure are fueling dreams pipeline. State energy transformed. Message becca. Not everyone is convinced about global warming thing though. There's a report from the opposing side that says the 10 warmest years turn out to be in descending order. 1934. 1998. 1921. 2000. 1931. 1999. 19 5339. That report says if there's a trans there. We don't say it. And they go on the question so an imminent danger. What they didn't say was it those temperatures were measured only in the continental united states. Rather than globally. Nasa's goddard institute of space science says. The meteorological year december 2007/2008. However they dad. That was also in the. of all instrumental measurement. The 918 worldwide globally. I offer you. Did you win environmental sabbath program prayer of sorrow. We have forgotten who we are. Alienated ourselves. From the unfolding of the universe and the cosmos. We have become estranged from the movement of the earth we have turned our backs on the cycles of life. We have sought only our own security. We have exploited. All the land is barren. And the waters are poison and the air is polluted and the creatures are disappearing. We ask forgiveness. We asked for the gift. Of remembering. We ask for strength. To change. This is so huge. What can i do. How much of an impact on this problem. Has an individual have. My efforts would be minuscule in comparison to the whole issue. That's the same type of thought process used in germany. Prior to and during world war ii. It is huge. Which towering over us like a breaking storm and we are ants scurrying for shelter. Is that really the way that we're going to face this matter. Unitarian universalist. Interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. I prefer to listen to the additional words that were proposed to add to that principle. We become more willing. To relinquish material desires we recognize the need for sacrifice. Unsustainable. We are called to be good stewards. Restoring the earth. And protecting all the things. We. You. And i. Together. Make a difference. Like the one word slogan of the obama campaign change. It can happen. But not without effort. One person can do the little they can do. But one person with a group. You want what. Everything starts locally. We can start locally. Has a voice for the environment in indian river county if we so desire. Unitarian universalist congregation. Be in the forefront assisting others and pushing for more environmental consciousness by business. Social organizations. Each other. You wonder how to make yourselves felt in the community in a positive way. Hear something. If you get this voice out there with a clear message. People will listen. Quote tomorrow executive ken her till he said. Lead with purpose. If you're on point with your message. With your permission. People will be comforted. And they will rally to sell. Be sure to sound the clarion call people. If. You decide to do this thing. Craft your message carefully. Pick the time and place to inserted into the public conversation. And then do so with sigur. Let me take note. The all things. Are possible. And i'll leave you with a thought that environmentalism. It's not only practical. It's a spiritual practice. We can. Put our voice in our vision in front of the community. If we bought would do it. Let us sing together. Are humans this point that number 203. All creatures of the earth and sky. The rising spirit. Or in actuality as the ceiling grass you. Number 203. Join me in singing verses 1 through 4. Now we come to the point in the service where we extinguish the chalice. If you would read the words that are on the screen and also when your order of service. As we extinguish the flame. Macy's in the spirit of life. I'll leave you today with words written by buddhist 6-month han. Truhome. Is in the present moment. To live in the present moment is a miracle. Miracle is not so much to walk on water the miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment. Do appreciate the peace. And the beauty that are available now. Peace is all around us at world and in nature. In our bodies. Inner spirits. Once we learn to touch this piece. We will be healed. And transformed. It's not a matter of faith. Chiropractor. So let it be. Go in peace.

uufvb_org

2010Dec05Sermon128.mp3

Good morning. I sermon this morning is by uu minister rev victoria safford. In one of her best-known stories the writer ursula le guin tells a parable. She describes a marvelous city homeless. 4 people are peaceful. Healthy compassionate and deeply joyful. Laws are unnecessary and homeless. Because all material needs are met. Buy a prosperous and just economy. And the people are naturally virtuous wise and kind. Their architecture and music are exquisite. Their science and art are brilliantly creative. The food is plentiful and wholesome. It is a perfect world. Except. But one detail. In a dark basement. On the outskirts of the city. In a tiny and disgusting cell. A single child. Is kept. Imprisoned. She or he lives in abject misery. Body and mind withered by neglect. Kept alive on water and gruel that someone occasionally remembers to shove through a crack in the wall. Everyone in the city knows about it. Every citizen on reaching adolescence must go and see the child. And understand. That whatever health and happiness they know whatever beauty and security they experience. Is dependent. On the child's despair. Each person spends hours afterwards or days or months or sometimes years coming to terms with the truth of what they seen. And ultimately. Each one resolved in his mind justifies in her heart. And feels that. Somehow. It's okay. It's even right and fitting that the price of happiness for thousands. Be the suffering. Adjust one child. No one may speak to the child or speak of it. And no one does. But. Tesla gwen. There's one more thing in this is quite incredible. Every so often. A man or woman will quietly leave home and walk out. Of the community. They go alone when they go. Into the darkness of the land beyond the shining city. They seem to know where they are going she writes. The ones who walk away. That's how the story ends. With no clue as to what happens when a person leaves. Whether the city has changed whether the person is transformed or what happens to the child. The story is titled. The ones who walk away from omelas. It's a haunting fantasy. Of classic utilitarianism. The greatest good for the greatest number. But it echoes in our own world. Where we are well aware. But the relative wealth and stability of some. May hinge. On the oppression of others. The differences of course are obvious in our world. Only the minority will prosper. In our world. More than one child lives in squalor. And in our world a global economy. Hard to imagine how you could even start. To walk away. A man ran up to jesus and asked him good teacher what must i do to inherit eternal life. And jesus looked at him and loved him he said to him. Go sell what you have give to the poor and follow me. At this the man went away sorrowful. For he had great possessions. In the other gospels he's a rich young man. Or a rich young ruler but in the gospel of mark. He's just. Amman. Just a person just like us. And we never find out what happens to him. Somehow it seems clear though that we are here on earth. To write the subsequent chapters with our lives. With our choices. About how we will see the world. How we will be in it. An act. Annette. If the question of eternal life does not compel you you might ask instead. What must i do to be at peace with myself. And right with the world. In this life. What is required of good people. How much is enough. Enough to live on and enough to share. And what is the difference between charity. Injustice. What does it mean that is unitarian universalist we covenant to affirm and promote. The worth and dignity. Of every person. That we commit to justice equity and compassion in all our relations. How far extends the interconnected web of which we are apart. How can we sit here singing knowing what we know of people's lives in haiti. Darfur. Afghanistan. Myanmar. New orleans in arizona. Or for that matter of the life of that neighbor down the street. Who never raises her window shades. Hardly ever comes out. Seems pretty old. Maybe lonely. But then we're all so busy. And we ourselves are lonely too. But. How do you decide to stay in oma's. Knowing what you know. When do you decide to walk away from the city of denial. Toward the harder. The more beautiful. Country of truth. These stories and their questions haunt us. As they should. Marcus borg of theologian. Rights of. Pharaohs. Household. Whero of course was the great oppressive power. Against him the. Hebrew prophets raged. Board says. Pharaoh's household is a modern metaphor. For all those who derive benefits from the domination system. Without being primarily responsible for it or even in favor of it. Pharaoh's household. Is the house. A privilege. And those who live there may have gained entry due to any number of unearned benefits. Based on race. Class. Money in the bank. Gender. Sexual orientation education age nationality geography religion physical ability. The status of our health or mental health. And so on. Pharaoh's household. Is like. Formulas. Four points out as gently as he can. But it can be very hard. To hear. And he'd. A call. For social change. Or see you need. Or speak the truth. Or take a risk or take a stand. Or understand. Let alone change your life. Even if you think you want to. If you are part of pharaoh's household. Many of the people there. Many of us. May wish we didn't live there. But wishing rarely leads to social justice. For some of us even to admit this even to begin to name the unearned benefits and privileges. It sustain our way of life. And that's opold deep systems of injustice. The terrible an insurmountable first step. We resolved in our minds. And justify in our hearts. That the order of things is established in. Unchangeable. Pharaoh's household is like homeless except. We can never walk away from it. It's a permanent. Residence. We can only acknowledge the truth. Of our circumstance. Name it as precisely as we can. And then with others both within and outside its walls. Set about methodically breaking down those walls. Essentially dismantling the only house we know as home. This is no easy work. And it can't be done except in community. Although the decision to begin. Is 1. Each one of us must make alone. The whining of guilt. Which leads nowhere. Is not the same song as the calling. Conscience. On sunday mornings and it other times we gather in our congregations. To listen for that call together. Did the cern together its implications. For our lives. For our household. We gather to encourage each other. And inspire each other. When the call of conscience. Sounds too hard too harsh. Too demanding or too difficult. And. We gather to press each other further. When it sounds too easy. What two convenient. Are too simplistic. At our best. We want to be haunted by hard stories. And troubled by old questions. We want our complacency challenge disrupted. Ruptured. We don't want to live in pharaoh's household or the happy city. Of denial. In the ancient world. The judgments of the prophets were terrible. They forecast ruin for oppressors in the wicked. And the destruction of civilizations. But they also broadcast hope. They described the world that we can't always believe in. Can't always bring into clearer focus. Can't quite rightly remember. When we feel overwhelmed by the enormity of things. They imagined into being a time and a place unprecedented. In which justice would roll down like waters. And peace. Like an ever-flowing stream. They imagined into being a people who would do justice. An act kindness and walk humbly. Not in a fantasy city. But in a real. And just. World. Prophetic speech. Then. Is it could do now. Brought to the pool. A whisper of real hope. That finally the truth would be spoken and that change might be on the way. And that same speech. Then as it could do now. Brought to the privileged. A real warning. Finally truth would be spoken and that change might be on the way. Does everyone within earshot whatever her condition whatever his circumstance. Was invited to walk together. Out of one way of being. Toward another. To follow in the path of other walkers. Who in small ways or large. Decided to live. In the creative tension. Of truth-telling. And justice making. It's not always an easy way. But there's freedom in it. And it can be joyful. We think of the stories of hope. The real life stories brought to us each year by our own unitarian universalist service committee. Stories from central america. Where women workers from banana plantations have joined with women in the maquiladoras the clothing factories. And with women workers elsewhere. Guatemala honduras el salvador and nicaragua. To share stories. To share strategies. And information. Together. They develop. A women. Labor. And leadership curriculum. Disappoint each other in their struggle. For the basic human rights of fair wages. Humane workplace conditions. Physical safety. And basic dignity. Uusc is a partner. To their work. We think of stories from ecuador. We're people denied access to clean water in one poor neighborhood. Reached out to other neighborhoods and formed a coalition. In time. They helped craft a new constitution for their entire country. With the human right to water included. As a basic principle and as a formal article. Uusc is a vital partner in this ongoing and exciting work for water justice. There are stories of hope to inspire us. Real stories. Of the human spirit. Human courage. Wisdom. And compassion. Stories from uganda. Weirdest place people are coming home. Stories from kenya haiti and gaza. Were you usc's. Rights and humanitarian crises program. Supports young people. And adults. To help communities rebuild. And heal from the trauma of war and occupation. And stories from our own nation. Where ordinary people join their hands for justice. In all of these places. Uusc is a partner. To local grassroots efforts. To the work of people who imagine into being. A bright. Peaceful. And more just. Future. We say they are guests at our table. Is brave prophetic partners all around the world. But in fact. We are all. Guests. And we are all. Hosts. Whether the transformation we seek is physical. Or spiritual. A changed world. Or changed heart. What actions are most excellent. Ask the prophet muhammad. To gladden the heart. Of a human being. To feed the hungry. Including those who hunger for justice and peace. To help the afflicted. Including those afflicted by the consequences of privilege. Who would grow larger souls. Bravehearts. And more expensive imaginations. To lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful. To remove the wrongs of the injured. That person. Is the most beloved of god.

uufvb_org

2015Feb08Sermon32.mp3

Well good morning. What a beautiful morning that's so much and albany new york where i'm flying friday morning 9 degrees and snowing but hey. Welcome. The unitarian universalist fellowship not of albany but if vero beach. What a beautiful morning. And we are congregation as. Graphic set of open minds loving hearts and helping hands. People becoming hopefully our best individual cells even is together we work to make our world a more humane. And good place. And you are welcome this morning no matter how you come to us this morning whether you're young or old. Gay or straight black or white. Or some other wonderful shade of humanity what do you have a ged or a phd. Whether you're a visitor with us this morning and i see several or have been coming for decades. Whether you're feeling absolutely on top of the world this morning or rather blue or somewhere in between. We welcome. And all of your. Circularity and charm. And we hope you'll find our service this morning meaningful and enriching. And you'll find something here this morning pick with you. That would give your life more meaning and purpose and joy and responsibility. In the days and years ahead. Friends in case you haven't noticed it is a lovely day here on the treasure coast of florida. And you had lots of perfectly respectable options of where else to spend this morning with a naughty spouse in the sunday papers. Between your toes. You chose none of these pleasant habitation. Chose to be here. Why. Why did you come to this place. To be reminded of the beauty of life. And the unimaginable gift. Finding yourself alive in so wonderful a creation. Far to remind yourself. A behind only demands of social justice. Community service. And human compassion. Where to take stock of your personal life. Your promise to work tirelessly at being the finest. The most caring person. But you can become order pause the music. In the silence and in the words. Orchard greet old friends. Make new one. A part of a community that promises to care for you. And everyone else. Truth. Send send. Or claudia to model. For our children. And our grandchildren that it matters how we live. And instill in them the compassionate them for their whole life. No matter what has brought you here. Welcome. Welcome to this laboratory for good and purposeful living. Welcome. Please play. Pavlov. Welcome. Well dear friends it's finally time for me to come out of the closet. I am. No i did that 35 years ago. I'm a puritan. I can't hide this any longer both in terms of my family heritage. Most dramatically on my mother's side and my religious heritage that would be unitarian-universalism i'm third generation. I have puritanical roots. And this is storacle fact shapes much of what i am as a person today. And the truth isn't whether or not you know it or appreciate it yourself puritanism. Shapes much of what you are as an american. Unitarian universal. If you're one of those. It is fat is a fascinating and importance throid let me begin by briefly. Exploring my own dear what i say someone interesting. Family background. In the year 1630 my great-great. Great great great great great great grandparents. Impoverished puritan. By the name of john and sarah reed. Edie came to america. Here is the actual genealogical chart put together by my uncle. Re-read. There they are at the top john of rehoboth massachusetts and here i am at the bottom. And that you can see that we've got the whole thing mapped out so that's just totally cool. Even if you are by the way alpine materials apartments here in the middle here. So. You and i are kissing cousins man. I mean that's an unusual name. So as an american i descend from john and sarah read my end of my family doesn't actually have portraits of them. Formerly america only the very rich could have their portraits done. But i imagine they look somewhat like this if we have it there they are. This rather austere puritan couple i found. In google images. In any case. My earliest read ancestors landed in america. In the harbor in salem massachusetts with with john winthrop great fleet of a 11 ships. Carrying some 700 puritans. Languages persecution in england. They said it was a couple in rehoboth massachusetts just a bit southwest of cape cod. Where john served the community of constable that means he was a cop. And. He kept the public house. That would be a bar. With his wife sarah. They had 13 children. Two of them died in infancy and another was killed as a young adult in a battle with local indians. The large reed family thrived all over massachusetts but tragically my great-great. Great-great-great-grandmother mary ustinov salem and here she is. That is an actual picture. Her. She was although she was a pious and respected member of the salem community was. Along with her sisters. Rebecca nurse and sarah coil hung as a witch. During the hysteria. Of the salem witch trials one of puritanism darkest and most. Shameful chapters when as you all know in september of 1890 to a handful of hysterical teenage girls. Accused some of the elders of the town of being possessed. Edema. And one of those. Is my descent is my ancestor here. 410 you for the 10 years i worked in boston at the nomination headquarters in the nineties and i did not know this history. I lived in a pre-revolutionary house built in 1758 and every morning i rode the commuter trail and would glance at gallows hill. In salem. Where she was murdered. Bye. The. Founders. Church. Today. Course. Unitarian. In 1711 almost 20 years after her hanging her children i descend through her daughter mary best. The family wisconsin was cast up with cast. I can't even say it compensated. With 20 lb of silver. Fire officials in salem for what they admitted. 20 years later was her wrongful. In any case the family on my mother's side eventually migrated to maine. For my read ancestors remain for several generations until they moved. To my home state-wisconsin as farmers and lumberjacks. In the 1780s. So i along with millions of other americans today have my family roots in puritanism. And so does unitarian universalism. And here is that important side of the story. The puritans were a group of english protestants in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Score just satisfied with the pace of the reformation in england. And who rejected the puritans did many of the entrenched beliefs and hierarchical practices of the church of england. And we're seeking to live a quote-unquote pure christianity. Because the church of england vigorously tried to suppress and persecute them. For their beliefs and practices. Most of the puritan clergy. Officially left the church of england. And became what we're calling called non-conforming ministers. Along with the unitarians who are definitely non-conforming and other free sinking. A clergy. Many of these puritan leaders decided to flee america. Were they hope to practice their religion without interference or compromise. And so it was. The thousands of pious. And deeply religious puritans who like to call themselves the godly. Distinguish themselves from the i assume ungodly. Included my read ancestor. They landed on the shores of new england in the 16 and 17. Centuries. And because of both their prominence and their passions. Face shape. Both american religion. And american culture. In their image. Now this puritan legacy is i grant you a complicated. When you think of the word puritan not a lot of warm fuzzy cheerful things occur. Briefly articulate three key features of this legacy. But i believe our great import of great importance to us and of great value to us. As both you use an america's first. Unlike the church of england. With its rigid top-down ecclesiology hierarchy in governance. The puritans established independent. Local congregations which were democratically governed by what is called. Congregational polity. Now someone knew it as new england was settled. Local puritan congregations which pretty much spraying up an every little town in settlement. And we're often called with what were the first parish churches. Would draft their own covenants. Where in the members of the congregation. Would publicly promised to practice their religion with one another. As purely and properly as they could. Here for example is the covenant of the first parish of salem massachusetts witch is today a thriving uu congregation. This is written in old english. This is their covenant. We covenant with the lord and with one another. And do bind ourselves in the presence of god. Two walk together in all his ways. According as he is pleased to reveal himself to us. It is blessed. Word of truth isn't that. The key point here is that the puritans. Place ultimate religious authority as one historian put it. To that convincing power of truth. Evidence in the understandings reached and tested overtime. By ap overtime by a body of loving individuals mutually pledged. Faithfully to see katsuki truth together as a church. And i'm going community. So long as their earthly life shell-less. So the puritans refused to relinquish authority for the shaping of their faith. Do any pope or bishop or ecclesiastical council. They insisted that the people. Each local community. Would decide by means of reason. And scripture. Ultimate truth and goodness for themselves what it meant to be a true christian. Was a local. No. Even though all the original puritans are long gone except on thanksgiving when we wear those silly hats. This is exactly how we still do religion. And strive to arrive together and individually at what is true and good and loving here at the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach it's a puritan model. We are a puritan style independent. Holy self-govern congregation of local unitarian universalist. Who promised one another. In an ongoing covenant to grapple with what we must believe. And together live out our religion as fully and faithfully and responsibly as we can. And so while we do occasionally look to you your way headquarters at 6 in boston. For guidance and direction. It is we. The people in this room if you're a member of the congregation. Who are ultimately responsible for how we serve one another how we serve our community. And how we live the high ideals of our faith. That. Pure puritan. Alright so we govern and shape our religion just like the puritans did and the second aspect of puritanism. That informs and and enliven our faith is this. The puritans emphasized the moral importance of the common good. The welfare of the whole community over private wealth over private privilege and. Better. Capitalism. Tea party eat your hearts out. That's part of the text i was just an ad lib. The puritans emphasized the moral importance of the common good. When the great fleet. Caring my read ancestors arrived in salem harbor on june 12th. 1630 before they went ashore. To begin building their new communities are the 11 little ships of the fleet were lashed together. And john winthrop who later became the first governor of the commonwealth. Of massachusetts oh what a word the commonwealth. Of massachusetts. Get it. Because that is what the puritans helped to create. Place of commonwealth. Before they landed winthrop. Stood on the foredeck of his. Flagship the arbella. And delivered a sermon which has become famous in american cultural life called a model of christian charity. That sermon which is often quoted by american politicians and miss quoted by american politicians as reagan did in his farewell address at the end of his presidency. Who missed the point 160° but nevermind. It's a famous sermon. Winthrop sterling vision. Was for a shining city. Set up upon the hill. Which is a biblical reference actually from the book of matthew. Where everyone would be knitted together in a community of compassion and concern for one another. The city upon the hill that they were going to create and salem in elsewhere. Would be a close and caring community where every citizen's basic welfare. Would be the concern of the whole community. Here are winthrop's actual words. As he dreamt of the new jerusalem the new city of god and goodness they would build together on the shores of massachusetts let's see that slide i'm going to read it to you. We shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us to provide for our prosperity we must follow the council of micah. To do justly. To love mercy to walk. Humbly with our god for this. And we must be knit together as one we must entertain each other in brotherly affection we must be willing to abridge ourselves. Of our superfluities for the supply of others necessities. We must delight. In each other winthrop street. Make others conditions our own. Rejoice together. Mourn together labor and suffer together. Always having before our eyes our commission. And community. As members of the same body then. God will delight. 212. Among us now this is a powerful communitarian. Statement. That was the first american vision. Of community. The original puritan dream. For the ideal community. Was a community that would be infused. And informed by charity. And compassion. And caring and connection. And i'm going to talk more about the struggling american life today between individualism and communitarianism in just a few weeks. Those early puritan settlers rugged individualist as they were in many ways. Didn't fax the historical record shows share their meager resources of food and medicine and housing and other basic. With one another in those first difficult years when they were getting established. In cold and rugged new england which is absolutely miserable and cold today as they get another 18 in. Snow. They did that sharing so that no one would nessa's unnecessarily suffer. And the one piece of this compassionate vision. It is important to note. Was the need the puritans felt to quote restrain capitalism. To ensure for the common good. One historian describes puritanism emphasis on community over capitalism this way. The puritan ideal called for the subordination. Of individual advantage. To the common good. Puritan laws put restrictions on the amount profit traders. We're allowed to realize in their sales transaction. And beyond civil penalties for profiteering. Churches impose their own. Discipline on merchants. Deem to charge too much for their wares. A number of early american businessman. The. Historian notes. Finding they could not operate under the puritan regime. Return. So. One way of thinking about the early puritan. Is that they were americans america's original advocate. For compassionate community. Restrained capitalism and social justice. For all. Dow today. 21st century you use. We continue to be inspired i think and animated by this moral emphasis. On the common good we live. The time of anomic individualism. Individualism has the upper hand. Yet we continue to be inspired by a larger and more compassionate vision. Here in vero beach all of our social justice and community. Outreach project. And we do a lot of those. Reflect. This puritanical ideal. We would like nothing better than through our efforts with others. Here in this town to build a shining city setup upon a hill even though there's no he'll highest elevations about 4 ft for god's sake. But. If it's better for okay signing city setup on a hill right here in the sand flats. And everywhere else in america i pray it. This is what winthrop and my puritan relative. Reputable. They showed us the way. The real community. Realsource. Justice alright third point. The puritans at least are armenian and unitarian. Branches of puritanism. Adopted positive doctrine. Of the nature of humanity. And the possibility through the use of our god-given reason and conscience. I'm continuing moral. Spiritual and intellectual growth. For each individual's and for. Each individual and for the congregation. As a whole. The hangin with me this part of our history. And the history of puritanism. Gets a bit complicated. A great split occurred between the armenians and the unit the unitarians. And the calvinist. It gets complicated. In the late 1700s clear split in puritan theology develop. Between the predestination. Original sin. Judgmental calvinists those are the guys who were really no fun. And the free will. Salvation by character arminian. Who are largely hopeful humanity affirming unitarian. So you had the calvinists and the unitarians and the armenians. Where is the calvinist taught that each individual salvation or damnation. Was predetermined. Spite all-powerful and angry angry god and therefore they asserted. But there was nothing an individual could do about his his or her ultimate destiny. The armenian unitarians taught the importance of free will. And believe that human destiny. Cosmically speaking even was not predetermined. And if i choosing to live an upright life of compassion and good works. Dubai the light again of your own reason and your god-given conscience. A person could achieve not only refined character. But salvation. So where is the calvinist darkly insisted that only a sliver of humanity. Woodbine salvation by a whimsical god who said we'll all save a few but most of you are. To hell with you. Where is the armenians in the unitarians positively insisted. The every human being every child of god who naturally possess. The qualities of god. Was free and capable of achieving salvation. By working and striving for personal. Improvement and elevation in goodness. Some of you have heard the old expression the protestant work ethic. That's strong ethic of work and discipline that many believed accounts. For america's and northern europe economic success in the world well. Armenian unitarian branch of puritans puritanism. That only applied this ethic of diligence and purpose to work life. It also applied to one. Religious and moral and ethical life. To be a good and true and faithful puritan. In the unitarian center. Nothing you constantly worked. As one of god's children. Again by means of your reason. Add your conscience and your free will in the fact that you can do good works. You work. As a puritan unitarian. To improve your standing in the world as a person. Insured over your lifetime to be a never better person in the eyes of god. They believe that was possible. Should be.. The lifework of all. 19th century. As puritanism began to fade away as a distinct movement. Both the unitarians and the universalist. Thoroughly imbued with this puritanical spirit. Of moral and intellectual and spiritual self-improvement. They constantly our forebears talked about the duty of evermore living a truly christian life. And thereby achieving what they called salvation by character. I believe it was nineteenth-century unitarian great william ellery channing who did the. Responsive reading once famously said. Be careful how you live. It is the only sermon. You will ever preach. Let me see all this just a little differently. What the early unitarians in the early universe were teaching. I am seeking to achieve and their religious lives. Was pure puritanism. Puritanism. The early unitarian and that means early unitarianism and universe. All believe. There should be a clear and noble congruence. Between what you believe. And how. You live. Puritanism. They all believed that and this idea. About truly living your religion out in your daily life. Ties us to another important movement within protestantism that be. Pietism. Pietism. Which has its roots in german lutheranism in the 17th century like puritanism. Had an amazing and powerful impact on christianity as a whole. The pietists who like the puritans were fed up. By the arcane and entrenched. Garbage of the has a procedure of the roman catholic and lutheran churches in germany. They emphasized that each individual christian was responsible. To live quote a vigorous christian life. Of devotion and compassion to the true teachings of jesus found in the bible so one way of thinking about the german pietist. Is there where the first. Christians to use that popular phrase wwjd what would jesus do. What the pietist word effect sing. If you call yourself a christian. You should live like one in your daily rounds. You should live a life and have a soul that reflects the pure compassion and goodness. The forgiveness and the mercy and love. The jesus of nazareth. Taught. And died for. This is the message. And the approach. To the religious life. Set the early taylor unitarian and universalist both took to heart. Even as they began as we moved in the 20th century. To move spiritually away from the confines of christianity as we began to be influenced by humanism. And by the religions of the east. Eunice both unitarians and universal soup well the christian stories important but that's only one piece. Spiritual. And the message. The message that grew up in our in our movement is is removing the 20th. 20/20. What good is it to have a religion. What good is it to call yourself a religious person. If you don't actively and passionately live out that face. In your day-to-day living. And so our liberal tradition from its very beginning. In america was a faith tradition that insisted on piety. We are positive. We insist. Set your life reflect. Your values. And that. True for us as individuals and is also true for the congregation. So. By the 20th century as the unitarians and the universalist merged together into unitarian. H became a modern faith tradition. Firmly, committed to the idea that our religious beliefs and values. Must be reflected. In the content of our lives. One of our movements favorite statements began simply was this. Don't tell me what to believe. Show me how you live. And. Our minister hearing reserve the minister of our church in st paul minnesota in the 60s. Famously articulated the sermon title that everybody's in the movement stole. He put up on the church marquee one sunday. If being a unitarian universalist were against the law. Would there be enough evidence. To convict you. What a great sermon title. What he was saying of course. Is it if you're truly a unitarian universalist. Truly committed for example to the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Or justice equity and compassion for all which are. Our principal say or a better world filled with more peace and decency. But that fact should be evident to everyone around you. As you live your life. Serve life. So. Whenever i teach the essence of unitarian-universalism at the saturday workshops. That we offer for new and potential members. I don't scare them off by saying we're neo-puritan. You now know that. What i do say. Is it. Being a unitarian universalist is a lifestyle religion. And everyday practical ethical religion. The demands that each of us in the current location as a whole. Live out our beliefs and principles of daily base. The question we must ask is not exactly so much what would jesus do. So that could be an important question. What should i. As a unitarian. Universalist. Again. In this church in this faith you need ever-growing congruence. Between what you say you believe. And how you live your life. In our tradition. It matters more how you live. Then what you stay. No. Some of you may think all this sounds just great and makes you proud to be a unitarian universalist. But i must remind you that this liberal commitment of ours to strive constantly. To ensure that our lives. Reflect our beliefs. Can be very demanding and heroin work. Some outsiders when they look at our seven principles. And see how much freedom we give each individual in this tradition. To determine what is true and right for them. They mistakenly conclude that being a you you is very easy say compared us being a roman catholic we have to do this at the believe that. But the truth is. That because. We like the puritans and the pietists. Expect each individual to constantly work on themselves. And grow a soul in a principled and congruent way toward a better and more loving and compassionate self. This serious religion of ours. Can be incredibly challenging and demanding. If you think unitarian-universalism is all fun and games on your own terms. You're in the wrong place. Alright. It's time for me to put a wrap on the sermon about our puritan roots. As an american in the 21st century unitarian universalist. I'm grateful. To my puritan ancestors for several things. First i'm grateful that my puritan relatives came across the ocean and survived that i really do appreciate their genetics. Secondly. As a unitarian universalist i thank them for passing down these three fundamental strengths of our liberal tradition. Insisting on congregational polity. Committing. To the common good. And challenging me and all of you to grow a bigger soul. Has become. A better. Person. May we never lose sight. Of these noble legacies we have received. From our puritan forebears. Even this together. In these early years of the 21st century. We find ever new and creative ways to make our world. A kinder. And better. And more loving. Habitation. For every last.

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2011Jan02Sermon32.mp3

Physically. He was a really big guy. 6 what's something and lots of bulk to him but spiritually and emotionally he was as little as human being. For this morning's purposes i will call him seth because i'm sure if he ever google this sermon and i used his real name he'd sue me. Seth for all i know remains but i can only reluctantly call a small and miserable little human being let me tell you the story. Seth and i were neighbors in provincetown massachusetts were collins in iowa to summerhome for 7 years. I was the elected president of our condo association at a quick aside here if anyone ever urges you to run for the presidency of a condo association run in the opposite direction as fast as you can. In any case. The owner of one of the other condo units in our small complex and so regularly about our shared property interest. And community concern. Without going into a lot of unnecessary detail at every. Turn in our relationship as neighbors. And fellow condo association. Was fiercely self-centered myopic really in his focus upon himself and was never able to even consider not one iota for a second even how his own personal needs wants beliefs interest or desires should or could ever be modified balance restrained. Or checked by the needs wants beliefs and interest of others. He was indignant for example when i am the other owners asked him to stop letting his big dogs swim in the complexes pool. He was outraged and threatened to sue me. When the association natomas leaf order to take down a favorite tree of his in the common area which was endangering the building and destroying everything wall. He was furious when we insisted he pay his condo fees. In a regular and timely fashion. And he was surprised when several other owners objected to his breaking into an unoccupied unit owned by someone else. One winter to share. To restore his patio furniture and other possessions. The battles of bad relationships that swirled around this guy and every time is neighbors that i asked him to be a responsible restrained respectful number of a small community he spewed out anger and indignation and outrage because i guess. We couldn't see the primacy and superiority of his needs and what. Indeed this was his little angry modus operandi all over provincetown. Far and wide he was known in the town as a selfish jerk. This guy big and body. And small in spirit left the dark wake of upset anger and unpleasant relationships wherever he. The systematic little list of spirit and perspective reminds me of that similarly exhibited by one of the most outrageous and oversized. Public personalities of our age namely donald trump. In a biography of the trump family gwen gwen debeer blair reports with justifiable disbelief and disdain. Set at his own father's funeral a father who as you may know grace asleep headed mr. trump the foundation. Of his prodigious wealth and real estate hold. At his own father's funeral. The donald as he grandly likes to call himself. Turn his eulogy for his father into a thinly-veiled.. About his own greatness. I quote the author. At his own father's funeral after the other family members graciously rose to extol the man who'd been so influential. And kind in their lives. Donald could not refrain from patting himself on the back. And promoting him. In his eulogy the focus quickly shifted from the man in the coffin. To the one at the lectern. And the tenor of the occasion change. From eulogistic. To solipsistic. And then she end. It was an astonishing. Display. Of self. Donald trump could only talk about his generous father to the self aggrandize land lands. Of his own. A duly noted achievement. Soda. Big real estate tycoon who plays as his name across the top of many buildings and who loves to belo you're fired. At interns on contrived television shows. Turns out to be one of the littlest pet. Now. These two admittedly extreme examples of human littleness. Are precisely what we mean in common everyday parlance when we say to another human being who's acting in subway badly and is not in right relation with. With others of the world. We say that was little of you. What we generally mean when we accuse someone of being little elizabeth are acting selfishly and narrow. Petty self-serving a mean-spirited waste acting without taking into a sufficient account the feelings needs the rights and the values of the other. Or the community as a whole. Clinical psychologist have identified in extreme cases. Self-centered sms illness. Call doesn't think you all know. Narcissistic personality disorder. Which means that a person exhibits and now i quote from a mental health reference guide that i google last week. That exhibits quote. A pattern of traits and behaviors would signify infatuation. And obsession with one owns with one's own self. After. Illusion of all others. And the egoistic and ruthless. Ruthless pursuit of one's gratification. Domination. And ambition. No. The truth of course is that human littleness. And self-absorption is not restricted. To just a few highly unpleasant narcissistic individuals like. Donald trump or my old friend seth on cape cod. Surely everyone in this room realizes that anyone of us. As normally flawed human beings. Can be naturally selfish to some extent. From time to time unpleasantly. Unfortunately. We're all vulnerable to at least a little littleness. Now and again i certainly know that i am. Try that i do i occasionally fall victim to not taking. The needs wants and. Reasonable expectations of others into affected of course the one who always knows this the most. Your spouse. What can i say. Here this morning. In this place where we come together each week to ponder and work on our lives. I am seeking to increase our stature is person. On this first sunday of the brand new year i am not here to preach a sermon about. The persistent and widespread problem of human littleness. No. This is rather a sermon about the positive. Related spiritual process of growing ourselves. Constant. Into bigger and more gracious person. This process of over our lifetime. Increasing if you will are emotional and spiritual stature the depth and breadth. Of our humanness. Another way of saying this is it this is a sermon about how we can grow a bigger soul. How we can become a larger and more positive presence. Increation. So by posing my sermonic question to you today what size are you. I hope to explore an articulate and hopefully a clear unhelpful. Way as we begin this whole new year. Of one of the most essential aspect. Of what i think it means to be on. The religious journey. That is unitarian universalism our faith. I am persuaded. The being a serious human religious person. Is in general and being a unitarian universalist is in particular all about. Growing yourself larger. In your aspirations. And your behavior. I am not a. Talking about waist size or hat or shoe or coat size. Although i read the unwelcome statistic this week that the average american gained 7 pounds between thanksgiving and new year's. I'm not talking about that. The by the fatlogic we all are a bit bigger this morning than we used to. In any case. I'm also not talking about the size of your bank balance. Or your stock portfolio. Or your home. I'm not even talking about how smart or witty or clever or sophisticated you become. And i'm certainly not talking about becoming. More charismatic. Or entertaining or x. None of those. I am rather talking about the size and stature of your soul and the reach. Of your concern attentions and embrace. As a human. I first got this idea about the spiritual question about what size are you. From a liberal theologian. The doctor bernard loomer bernie boomer as we all knew him a wonderful man and as luck would have it at unitarian universalist. Who had as one of his key theological affirmations of his career. The idea that religions primary job is to help each of us to increase our personal stature. To increase our size. As human beings i call him now listen carefully. Bite-size doctor lumber. I mean the stature of a person's soul. The range and depth of your love. Your capacity. Or relationships. I mean the volume. Of your life. The volume of life you can take into your being and still maintain your integrity. And individuality i mean the intensity. And variety of outlook you can entertain in the unity of your being. Without feeling defensive or insecure i mean the strength of your spirit. To encourage others to become. Freer in the development of their diverse. And unique. I mean the power to sustain more complex and enriching tensions. I mean the magnum rt magnanimity. Of concern to provide conditions. That enable others to increase. Is there. What bernie was saying is that. At its essence our individual lifetime lifelong journey as religious beings. Is all about spiritually growing ourselves into larger and more generous person. Larger and more generous yes. By way of expanding i'm respectful relationships with persons and things beyond our own skin but also larger. And more generous by way of nurturing nurturing our own interior lives our own interior. Attentions and sensitivities and. Connection. Through thought. Quiet. Again. We're obviously not talking here about waist or shoe or hat or coat size were talking about. Soulside. The reach and embrace. When we talk about the size of a human being isn't it ironic that some of the. Biggest people in human history. Work fact diminutive. In physical stature. Jesus of nazareth. Mahatma gandhi. Mother teresa. The dalai lama were and are all physically small people. Yet at the same time we think of them undeniably as spiritual giants. It's curious. Thickness. In any case. This idea that one of the central goals of being a unitarian universalist. The process of spiritually and emotionally growing yourself into a larger. And more sensitive person. Has long been a persistent. The primary message of my ministry in our movement. I believe in a pure and i hope eminently graspable nutshell. That's a religiously. Particularly a life as a unitarian universalist. Is all about willfully spending a lifetime developing your spirit. In ways. That are ever more inclusive and caring and generous toward life and i even put a book together. About that. It's ruu bestseller it's actually sold more than 10,000 copies which for us is a lot of books. They're making it into an ebook and. I turned over all royalties of this book to the uua so if you pick up one of the copies. That's for sale this morning i'm not benefit. It's going right to the uu8 my book is entitled. Everyday spiritual practice. Simple pathways. For enriching your life. The idea here. Is it we grow our souls. We grow our souls and expand our reach as person. Through various. Practicing. Spiritual practices. Purposeful repeatable activities of the hands of the heart. And had. That help us to achieve right relation. Deprivation. Caring. With other spiritual practice. Something you do again and again. Tune. Prove and deepen and broaden your relationships. Looks like that's all spiritual practice. There are some 40 of them. Described. Facebook. As i say in the introduction. Everyday spiritual practice is any activity or attitude. What you regularly and it purposefully engage in. Which significantly deepens the quality of your relationship. With the miracle of life. Both within and beyond you. Let me just give one little everyday example. One meaningful spiritual practice that can help us i think be larger and lovely or persons in creation. Is a simple spiritual practice of routinely greeting. And acknowledging. Humanely validating. You will the persons who serve us. In our daily rounds. It may seem like a small insignificant matter to some. But i make a real point. In my day-to-day life. A greeting an affirming which means establishing eye contact. And verbally thinking. People who serve me. This means having a kind word and a glint at a glance or a conversation with the grocery store. Clerk. Who tallies my purchases. Or the busboy. Who refills my water glass. The lifeguard. Who watches over me. As i swim my laps. The bike shop repair guy. Who fixes my wheel. The simple relational spiritual process of acknowledging. Who are serving me. Helps me to expand. And sensitivities and humanizes the whole world. I can't tell you how many times. The water server busboys shocked. When i establish eye contact. And thank. I believe this contributes this practice. To my well-being. And to their souls as well. Everyone feels better about the transaction and. What i am suggesting to you here is a being on a religious path. Purposefully and intentionally choosing to live. Alfred. And. In the process speed more people affirming. And live our principal. Are people affirming unitarian universalist principles. Through everyday spiritual practices and caring relationship. Is about the business of growing your saw. And growing your stature. Again. Growing a soul is about the simple. Simultaneous process of reaching out respectfully to others in life. Well you work to restrain your natural tendency. Which we all have. For paying attention to the self. And being self-centered. The process of growing a soul is the process. Your own little. Growing a soul. Means that you ever morris drive. To look and live beyond your own. It really is. As 20th century catholic theologian and mystic thomas merton widely observed. The healthy spiritual individual is always growing and giving outward from the natural littleness of the isolated in word. Himself. It is of supreme importance. Did we consent to live. Not for ourselves but for others. When we do this we will be able first of all two-faced and accept our own limitations. As long as we secretly adorn ourselves. He went on. Our own deficiencies will remain to torture us. With an apparent defilement. But if we live for others we will gradually discover that no one expects us to be as gods. We will see that we are human like everyone else. Do we all have weaknesses and deficiencies. And that these limitations play a most important part in our lives. It is because of them he goes on. That we need others and others need us only when we see ourselves woven together. In a true human context of mutuality. As members of a race. Which is intended to be one organism. And one body only then will we begin to understand the positive importance not only of the successes. That we have. But the failures and accident. Of our lives. And then he. My successes are not my own. The way of them was prepared by others. The fruits of my labors is not my own. For i am preparing the wave. The achievement. Professor. Cornel west west of yale leading african american social. Singer of our times has virtually the same. Think about how. We can grow our. A rich life you right. Is fundamentally a life of serving others. A life of trying to leave the world a little better. That rich life comes into being. In human relationship. It is difficult he writes. To find joy. By yourself even if you have all the right toys. I want to read that sentence. It is difficult to find joy by yourself even if you have all. The right. Cornel west right just ask somebody who's got lots of material possession. But doesn't have anyone to share them with. That on a personal level that's on a personal level but there is also a political version of this. It has to do. With what you see. When you get up in the morning and look in the mirror. And ask yourself whether you are simply wasting time on this planet. Or spending your time. In an enriching manner. We are talkin fundamentally he. And one more quote on the spiritual idea. This one from george bernard shaw. This is the true joy in life. Being used. For a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you personally happy. And then trianz. I am of the opinion. That my life belongs to the whole community. And that as long as i live it is my privilege. To do for it. Whatever i can. Alright. I hope i spiritually persuaded you this morning that the goal for any of us. As serious. And caring religious person. Is to spend a lifetime. Spend. A lifetime. Steadily. And purposefully increasing the size. The interconnectedness. Of your stature. And your reach. We must do this as individuals. Another equally important basis we must do this as members of a community as members of this. Community this. Congregations like individuals must constantly strive. To expand their reach and soul size if they do not they wither and die. I cannot tell you how proud. I am to be serving the congregation that voted last spring before i became your minister. To start giving its entire sunday offering plate collections away to other organizations here in the treasure coast. Serving people in need. At a time when our own financial needs are not insignificant. We are now giving away more than $1,000 a month. So that others mostly strangers to us. Beyond these walls can live and breathe more easily. And that is a noble and a. That's growing. Size. This is what it means for a congregation to grow its sole. Look beyond itself. And by the way all congregation. Do that. One more example if i might. Two weeks ago just a few days before christmas about thirty of us denise and dick hateful know what i'm talkin about. Trekked up to a modest community center in fellsmere to share a meal. With a wonderful group of migrant farm laborers and their children 14 families and 24 children we've been doing this for many years. To provide that only toys and clothing. To go under their holiday tree but also grocery store gift cards. With more than $100 on them this year for their holiday meals. It was so heartwarming to watch those cute little kids. Light up as they met santa where's santa he's here somewhere he was here rodger there he is. Some of the kids more reluctant than others some terrified by a man. Others delighted. It's received a brightly craft gifts that. Dad had brought them in to receive the gratitude and. Kindness as we all did of the grateful parents. It may seem like a small matter to some you know that. Comfortable congregation gives presents and make an effort. Go share a meal. But to me it was a holy moment. Of our expansive sharing and connection. Although no one signed the membership book that. Our congregation. nike grew inside. It grew in spiritual. As we reached out to make the holiday brighter. People we did not really know. I have a rather ebullient colleague in the ministry his name is david. Who is in the habit of saying to people who impress him. Friend you really huge right now he says you're really huge really huge. I got to tell you when i see the members of this congregation reaching up and out to give. From themselves. That others. Might lead a better and fuller life i want to say to you you are really huge right now. You generous members. Of this fellowship practicing. Her face. You are really huge. And you're getting bigger. And here is the great and very important paradox. About the spiritual practice. I'm spending a lifetime. Pumping yourself up in size and out and. When it comes to spiritual growth. When it comes to growing a soul. Good things come in small and incremental packages. The truth is that. You grow bigger in here. Bigger and soul and sensibility. Not i think by sudden. Spectacular leaps and bounds of some glorious thing that you do in creation that changes. Rather little by little. And small. Everyday ordinary steps. Expansion. Relationship and. In all the unspectacular small ways that matter most in this fractured world of us. The process of increasing our soul size. Whether it's as an individual or a congregation. Through everyday spiritual practice is so quiet. And so usually on ostentatious in gradual that it's often difficult to tell. When you look at a snapshot. Ivanov human life precisely weather. Or how you or someone else. Is truly growing in the ways of the spirit. The kind of spiritual growth that makes us evolve into better person. Happens in little everyday moments of service and outreach. Caring and. Reading. Grocery store. So let me in this morning by once again posing. My really big question to you on the new year. Important question i want you to think about all year long. What size are you. Or maybe the question should really be. More appropriately. What size do you want to be. How big. Do you want. Call karen. Do you want it. What size do you aspire to be. How far do you want your soul to reach even as your tug by your own selfishness. And. How big do you want. How expansive and intricate. Caring. Do you want to be do you want your relationship. The question is. Are you living in the largest and most loving ways. For which you were created. Do you have your own needs & wants. Improper procedure. What can and will you do today. And tomorrow in the many days to come. What will you do to further. Grow your heart. To deepen your connection. To expand your circle of. Concern. To grow a soul. To gross also that the whole world will feel it's warm. And we'll know the breast the blessing of its embrace. What. Size. What size. Do you get.

uufvb_org

2013May12Sermon128.mp3

This is mother's day. Today and may we set aside special time to both main and remember those special women who have brought us into this life. And there's your last in so many ways really at every stage of our lives. Mother's day a day when we celebrate honor affirm all those qualities of good and attentive parenting. Protection. Generosity. Understanding. Forbearance. And of course. As we eat father's day to reflect on our mothers and perhaps other special women who wrapped us in the embrace of their care let us do so. With a generosity of spirit for no apparent. Or guardian is ever perfect. Anymore than we ourselves. So on this day may week whether we are mother or father son or daughter. Brother or sister grandparent uncle and orcas. No matter what are familial roles. We commit ourselves to the noble task of love. Nurturing and care. We all work. And the chair within our families. To make life joyous and safe for all. Every morning i come to work i go a long way across the island to get a little extra bike riding in. Well the other morning i was spiking on the island halfway through my usual 13 mile loop to get here. And i have to tell you is that absolutely perfect florida morning not as though we haven't been having this lately. Friendly blue sky puffy white clouds gentlewind. Mild spring temperature eat your hearts out northern maine in riverside park at down and inviting band facing the lagoon. As i settled into the moment and here is almost exactly where i was sitting sitting. I looked around for a moment and then i purposely focus my attentions. Listening. Just. Listening to the world around me. Once i had quieted myself attention i realized there were so many sounds that were pleasing and calming and welcoming to my ear first the steady sound of the water gently lapping against the rocks on the shore. The rich and varied call of the many many songbirds. Surely their respective greetings from nearby trees. The wind to the tall palm and palmetto trees. The study home of the cars and trucks. Crossing the barber bridges people were about their work in school has. Offset by the assistant sound of an occasional speed boat or plane landing at the airport. As i sat there purposely taking in my world primarily through my ears. My breathing relaxed my mind cleared itself of cluttered and i felt totally at peace. Uniregistry beautiful world. You know when we can make time to stop and listen. Truly listen we discovered that our world is full of wonderful south the bless the open and willing year. Like all our human sensory capabilities seeing smelling tasting touching deep those precious gateways enable us to experience our world our ability to hear. To physically hear and differentiate sounds through our ears is a stunningly simple gift. It's an amazingly simple gifts but it comes to us incredibly intricate complicated and delicate device season funny-looking flaps on the sides of our heads most of us but not all of us. Spiritually wise to remember most of us are blessed at birth with the keen sense of hearing. We come into this world with these funny-looking flaps of flesh on both sides of our head direct and allows sound around us. Indoor eardrums. Which empire complicated neurological means i can't even pretend to really understand. Transmit interpret to our brains everyday and infinite variety of sound from nature from the voices of people from machines you name it. Energy generated by life and activity in the environment surrounding. As i prepared this sermon on the spiritually listening i realized how grateful i personally am for my own physical ability to hear nowadays 64 i will admit albeit reluctantly my spouse will tell you i will admit. The my sense of hearing is not as keen as it once was on the favorite word around our houses. I can tell the difference. Noticeably more hard-of-hearing. And in many environment if i'm in the kitchen or bathroom of home and there's water running or if i'm in a noisy restaurant or a crowded social reception or like last night was a big dinner party on the island i have trouble picking up much of what was said to me. Although i'm not happy about it and stubbornly don't really want to do anything about it yet like getting fitted for hearing aids. It's clear to me that my ears are not working like they used to. Alright baptist church. But today i will as i reflect on the spirituality of listening i need that the outset make of crucial obvious distinction. Between the physical act of hearing and the spiritual art of listening. Physical act of caring. What's your one slide ahead there john anyway that's okay it's just the lack of hearing spiritual act. The physical activity. Really doesn't require much effort on our part other than to make sure there is a lot of wax in your ear every moment every day are yours are flooded the sound to come to us from the world unbidden and unfiltered the sound system.. What the spirituality of listening. It's not so easy and it is not so inevitable. The spiritual art of listening requires intentionality. Malaysian hannaford on our parts. Listening real deep sincere listening to life and persons around you. Is a spiritual practice and discipline that one must cultivate. If one is to find a deep and rewarding relationship in one's daily life with the world again. Almost all human beings are born with the natural ability to physically. But the most of us then have to spend a lifetime learning hopefully how to evermore reckoning acutely to genuinely and deeply listen to life. Deep spiritual listening of something we have to cultivate. Several years ago when i put the book everyday spiritual practice together now john. that's one of my books i'm failed 40 different spiritual practices i failed to put listening in my own book now it's still selling well so if i ever do another edition i'm going to add a chapter on the spiritual practice of listening. Because i'm passionate persuaded. And if we learn to use our physical ability to hear as a spiritual pathway to a deeper richer relationship with life. Then we'll we'll have a much fuller and happier life. This morning then i want to talk about the spirituality of listening. Two distinct but surely in a related venues in our living. There is a deep spiritual listening to the natural world natural life around you and deep spiritual listening to persons. With whom you share life most especially those to whom you are closest it's a family sunday your mother's day was over talking really mostly about family. Listening deeply for the rhythms of the natural life around you. Every one of them surely has had intense and blessed moment with boulware ennis like that that i experienced when i find him i got off my bike and quite of myself down on the lagoon the other day. Purpose we stopped and tune my ear to a around me. Is moments are truly blessed when we allow ourselves to be healed. In her wonderful book radical acceptance embracing your life with the heart of a mudak tara brach was a buddhist teacher who shared our building my last church in bethesda maryland to fill our church every wednesday night with month. She said. This is her best forth by the way radical acceptance if you want to read more about her thought. She said that the spiritual practice apposite. Is the first step on the road to coming home to the fullness of your own being i hope. Learning to pause. Is the first step in the practice of radical acceptance. A pause is a suspension of activity a time of temporary disengagement when we are no longer moving toward any goal. We may take a pause from our ongoing responsibilities by sitting down to meditate. We may pause by stepping out of our daily life to go on a retreat or to spend time in nature or to take a sabbatical. We may pause she goes out further in a conversation. Letting go of what we were about to say. In order to genuinely listen and be with the other person. In a pause. We simply discontinued. What we're doing. Thinking talking walking writing planning worrying eating and become wholeheartedly present. And often physically still. Do the sacred art of pausing we develop. Cassidy. Stop hiding. From ourselves. Stop running away. From our experience. The pauses in our life. Make our experience in this world. Although we physically here with our ears all the time even in our sleep. No matter how busy we are at home or at work. The songs keep coming at us. Intuit. We can only claim to have achieved its state of spiritual listening. When william's tire frogs have pod. And truly focus on that which is so freely coming to into angela's. We live in. Listening then isn't intentional mindful practice. It is one way you can become keenly mindful or aware of what the world is trying to say to us. In an every one of us needs to cultivate this simple spiritual ability. To truly listen. 212 world is saying. Look like most of you i lead a rather fast-paced productive and hectic life. I moved through my days often and incredible speed i frequently multitask and spite of knowing better. Isn't that one of the things that we call sophistication in america multitasking. So that i can confidently accomplish all that i believe i'm expected to accomplish. But i'm always amazed at how much more i here. And how much more i know if i'm simply able to discipline myself to slow down. Focus my attention right where i am in the world. And listen to what is coming. Into my head through these funny little things. If we let every sound that every combination of sound. The fold-out of our world data. I let those greeted embrace me and take me deeper into my world not as a visitor of my world but as a resident as a spiritual citizen then i truly become home. Trulicity. One simple form of everyday mindfulness meditation that i often recommend that people we're feeling disconnected or distracted from the deeper calmer places they want to be. Is that is a sitting or walking meditation you can do it either sitting in your home or out in riverside park. But i call it the meditation of the five senses. Sight-sound smell taste and touch. Sitesell spell. Taste and touch. This is a profound simple meditation you can do it as short as 15 minutes to majan that you're at home in a favorite spot in your house and your steven. So what you do for this meditation. Is that you paused as tara brach suggests. Simply intensely focus your attention on each of these primary senses. Give it to you at 4 at the time for example. You could start by saying 22 yourself after. And focus on yourself obsessive side effect now i am looking. 2 minutes 3 minutes do nothing but look. Now i am looking. And after a few minutes when you sure you've seen where you are. Then you say now i'm going to smell. And you open your nostrils and you still for a minute adjust smell where you are. And then after that you can pause and say now i'm going to listen. And just listen. And so forth and if you arrive at paste if you're doing this of whole have a strawberry or a some delicious pistachio doesn't matter what you have. Finally eat something strawberry or blueberry with you when it comes time to rather than chew on a nearby tree taste that strawberry. Whenever we pause and pause regularly in our daily lives to take fully. Full notice of what's around us. Try this medication at 572 sometime today or tomorrow. 650 minutes. Please. So. So the first place for the spiritual practice of definitive listening. Is in your relationship with the natural world. And the second place i want to focus on is the d-pad attentive listening that can transform you in your everyday relationships with people. Justice in our relationship with the natural world most of us to pretty well with the physical act of taking through our ears what people are saying to us in our immediate environment. But what we are most of us farless good at of course and you all know. What is the art of truly listening. Truly being deeply and attentively listening. To the intricacies and complexities and subtleties and emotion of what people around us are really trying to communicate. So much of what passes for communication. Work. School in the halls of congress and talk radio most certainly will passes for communication. talk radio and yes even here at the church. So much of what passes for communication. Should be more accurately described as people alternately talking at 4 past one another. You know this is true. There is no problem again in the most of us hearing the words that people are saying. Even if we have substantial hearing loss. Many of us do our eardrums never the last somehow managed to communicate what people are saying. But physical success in hearing the raw words of others. And having a process in our brain doesn't mean we've learned the fine spiritual art of true and compassionate listening. You all know that one of the biggest and most persistent problems in human affairs. Even when we do not interrupt or talk over one day. Is effective and complete communication. Whether you're talking about business or government. Church communication. Have a hard time communicating to one another here insurance. And every church i serve 42 for years. But luckily there's something we can intentionally do about this. We can improve the quality and the depth of our human communication with one another we can truly learn the art of listening. So where was i. Just as. In the case with our natural world. We can learn the spiritual practice in in in direct communication with others the practice of pausing. So that we can more fully catch. What is being communicated to us. Practicing the deep listening is causing the middle of conversation. Helps you to build a much more satisfying relationship with the people you care. Universalist minister i am train. As one of the listening professionals i'm trained in the listening professional. It might work day in and day out with this wonderful congregation. But the staff board. Committees and task forces and families and individuals. It's terribly important for me. To pick up appropriate to pick up and then appropriately respond as much as i humanly can to wasn't actually being communicated. Weather in information about the budget. Or emoji. And what pleases me is that i've actually retained some of what i learned on in berkeley california and one of the first things and my 7 or 8 till i mean it's it's something called active listening. Active listening we have the logo for that moving ahead with you have that logo.. This is the official logo of the active listening movement which was first formulated and taught by the famous american psychologist carl rogers. I don't want to talk to me please about this concept and i'm sure some of you were doing it because i'm convinced that it holds a key component of the spirituality of listen know anyone looking for my book on active listening icon myself i couldn't find it so i googled active listening to find out if it's still. What i say the next few minutes at riggs you i heard you to go online and read more about active listening with some of its more active listening the university of colorado website tells us. John was my friend there is an active listening university of colorado website. Awesome people talk to each other they don't listen attentively university colorado right there off of distracted half listening half thinking about something else or a busy formulating their next response in their hands to give you active listening. Responding the focuses on the attention on the speaker. The listener must take care to attend to the speaker fully and then repeat often to the listener in his own words precisely what he or she thinks the speaker said the listener doesn't have to agree with the speaker he or she must simply state but they hear the speaker say so. First forces people to listen attentively to others second and avoid misunderstandings as people have to confirm. That they really understand what another person is sad and third attempt to open people up to let them give them permission to say more. No. There are other more detailed active listening techniques and strategies that you can read about on the way but the central point is an active listening taking the time and the discipline and routine communications to make sure that you understand what has been communicated to you before you move on to communicate what you want. Active listening and able to hear what's being said the deepest level also ensure that you hear the word other people speak to you. Including the all-important dimension of emotions for more than information of course with bollocks us up in communications that we don't receive the data. Receive the emotion in one of the real dangers of female. If you all know and texting isn't you don't sometimes even come close to getting the emotions and spine little squiggly happy faces and sad faces is lots of locking all that stuff you off to this really being said. No sure this technique of making sure what that you truly heard before you speak your own messages in your own name is helpful at work or when you go see a doctor or even when you're in an auto repair shop but it is most helpful obviously with those closest to you your family and friends lovers partners spouses. This is where active listening really canceled practice. Active listening. Temporary setting a side of self for the sake of important relationship if you're in an important relationship if you do not have set yourself aside for you you're going to be a clumsy lummox relationship. No like all helpful formulaic techniques active listening obviously can be overused to irritation or relevancy to be used or abused by a counselor or therapist or even espoused. But if it is done sincerely out of genuine affection respect and care it can be a wonderful thing. Sometimes it takes a great deal of discipline bring yourself into it most especially when you're angry or you feel unheard order abused by practicing active listening to make sure you've heard what the other person saying to you before you launch into your own. Take that relationship much much cheaper. Something i have never i may never fully understand in my life is why and it's hardest for me routinely to listen to those closest to me. Why does lava proximity in human relationships make listening more difficult really don't think i have much trouble listening to you as permission when i get home that's where the wax is spiritual wax till so i think my listening skills are pretty high but with my partner i'm glad he's not here. Does this ring a bell for any of you that it gets harder elizabeth holden deliver elephant. Then we are most vulnerable and we have the most emotional. And therefore it is hardest to listen and unconscious. Let me get this one quick example finite. For the umpteenth time and wife is complaining to her husband about the dirty socks he leaves by the recliner in the living room. At the end of evening about her excessive need for household hygiene and order. And doesn't see why is occasionally taking his socks off always watching a ballgame. Is this such a big deal. When in fact her frustration is not really about. It's about her feeling disrespected and disregarded every time she sees those socks in the floor in the morning after she's repeatedly said pick up your damn socks before you go to bed. I'm going about this example that is why the technique and practice is active listening. So the next time when you're with someone you love. And you're struggling and upset and a conversation pause. Pause our block. Really listen to lil peep back in some way or another to the one you were conversing with. What you heard both in terms of emotion and theta. To make sure you understand. Not necessarily agree with them but understand before you move on to see how you were. And how you made me feel unheard. Listening affirms the worth and importance of both parties in any interaction. The practical techniques in the spiritual classes. That can take you much people in your life well. You listen to me just about mormon up. Active listening skills i was told and every could sermon you tell him what you're going to tell him. And then you tell him what you told me telling you what i told you today so be active listeners. Communing with our ears. Physically taking in the soul is one thing. Truly listening with the fullness of your human being is quite another. Truly clapping weather out in the woods on a beautiful day or at the beach or at the kitchen table talking with your kids or grandkids over breakfast. Truly pausing and making sure you're fully and mindfully listening. What is a deceptively simple spiritual practice. It has the power to profoundly deepen. And enrich your life on this planet which is one all spiritual practices do they enrich. Your relationship. The good news. The good news is that everyone in this room no matter how stubborn. Animated you are. Can cultivate the practice. Of active and engaged listening. You are free to tony's funny little guys. To your world. And two others. Hear what i'm saying. Then i can say. List of my friends. Listen. Everywhere the world is speaking to you. It is speaking to you through the waves crashing on the beach. It is speaking to you to the song verse singing in the trees. It is speaking to you through the jungle sounds of float through your bedroom window at night. It is speaking to you through the. Study homo zillion neighborhood. It is speaking to you to the wing of a newborn babe it is speaking to you through that familiar old voice of the person you've been living with for today it is speaking to you. Do the heartbeat you hear in your own chest. Listen. Listen. The world is speaking to you. Open your ears. Open your heart. Don't. Miss.

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2012Apr15Sermon32.mp3

Well as you can see. I think i'm ready for my big cross-country bike ride the ride to be hung i'm at least as ready. Has any nearly 63 year old man. And chronic arthritis and a week back candy. To prepare my body for this grueling 320 journey from costa mesa california. Back home to vero beach and riding about 300 miles each week. And over recent weeks i've been taking longer rides on the weekends with bill penney bill is here. Mark will be riding last 4 days with us also from savannah. And they've been helping me to train. Having crossed america by bicycle twice before for charity. I flow full well some of the physical and mental challenges. That any long endurance ride such as this one can be through all kinds of weather and hazards. Including storms like the ones that happened out in the midwest. Last night. And the dogs lots of dogs chasing us. And to be honest. I'm a bit more anxious this time because there's no denying i'm a little older. And a little physical physically creek your than i was on earlier rides but here i am wild guizar jack that i am. I'm ready to rock and roll. I'm taking that carbon fiber trek bike. Is already in costa mesa waiting for me. And i will be riding so i'm not terribly superstitious i am riding with three good luck charms. A small enamel pin from. Free health clinic. I in washington dc that i did the first two rides for. And a beautifully smooth. Sea bean token given to me by deborah angela one of the members of my rotary club here in town. And a native american necklace here it is that i bought last time in the high hills above sedona from a native american crafts person. And it will also carry close to my heart all of your prayers and. Expressions of good wishes that i received over recent days. Some of you may not know that i come by this biking fanaticism of mine. Honestly. This is a picture. Of my grandfather. Mark clayton ewing. Was an outstanding endurance athlete in the early 20th century. In his early twenties he was a circus performer and trick 4th rider. His scotia is show stopping routine gallop with his teeth. That was sort of his. Tricking other people done to. After his brief years in the circus he became a salesman. Chewing tobacco. Climax plug of climax minnesota. And there's their logo on his cycling and you notice his signature there truly yours mark clayton you and that was for the ladies who were very enamored with the star athlete. The midwest is a bike racer and they usually had to handicapped him put in 40 yd back behind the other guys so that there was some sort of a race. In any case after that my amazing grandfather started several companies in wausau wisconsin. Including the paper dispenser. That's one of the companies he helped to found. And eventually founded the wisconsin public service corporation built 5 dams on the wisconsin river and electrify the northern third of a sconce and that's all he did. But that's a story for another day. Cycling. Is in my genetics it's in my bones and i suspect that my grandfather who. Climax plug. Territory north dakota south dakota minnesota wisconsin and iowa mostly on the bike and the good weather. I know he experienced some of the same joy. That i will be experiencing. I have a one-way. Airline ticket this friday to costa mesa california john wayne airport us air and by the way just a quick aside here when i made the reservation. The travel agent said one way ticket to costa mesa super haragan home. Sol i'm i'm biking home. And i gave her the website address and she promised to look it up so. An airline reservation that just love that story. I'm flying out to the west coast on friday i'll be with i'll be coming to you next sunday via video. I'm having breakfast with joe and carla caldwell members of the church will also have a home out there and i hope to have them in the. Reef video i bring to you next sunday and every sunday i'm away. You'll be seeing 45 seconds of me on the screen so. That's just great and i will be. And i hope many of you will follow my daily progress on the website the ride to beat hunger and we've got the website just in case just one word. The ride to beat hunger. I'll be publishing a written. A blog everyday and i'll be sending a video blog everyday thanks to jim daly. Will you'll be in touch if you want to be. And i think it'll be a lot of fun to follow my journey we're also going to have a big map in the foyer to show you with a little pin where i am. The purpose of course of this long trip. Is it you know to raise funds to address both local and global hunger. As i've said since the beginning of this fundraising campaign i've been at this for about 8 months now. Being free of hunger. Is humanity's most fundamental need and right. It is the obligation i've gone on in public gatherings to say. Of everyone who has the means. To do whatever they can to eliminate the scourge of hunger and starvation. From our shrinking and everly in interdependent planet. The two very worthy organizations the harvest food & outreach center here in vero on route 1. Which addresses local hunger and water crisis needs. And stop hunger now and in the international organization i learned out through my rotary club. The packages many millions of food. Dry packets their spice. Took to the pallet of where they are going. I am we will be producing i'll tell you about that in just a second will be producing some meals here after i get back. Today. We have raised more than $20,000. And we hope to be much more than that perhaps over 30. By the time. We are done and i thank you for your many contributions and you can make a contribution directly on the website if you wish to do so. And. Don't forget that with the assistance of stop hunger now will be having a food packaging day. At the gifford youth activities center on saturday june 9th. That is. About two weeks after i get back. And i hope you'll all be able to attend this packaging event. We will certainly package more than 30,000 meals and they'll be shipped. Very quickly to where they're needed most in the world. Now. Hope you'll all get active in that. But in the time that remains this morning i'd like to talk to you about as my sermon titles such as. How life is like. Riding a bicycle. This is an actual quote from the world-famous brainiac albert einstein. Picture of albert einstein on a bicycle. Well it's on the web but i'll give it to you. Tears on stein's crawl. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance. You must keep moving. And i liked well enough and it's certainly true we always need to step in. Two are unfolding lives to keep them moving with positive. Activity and genuine excitement. To tell you the truth. That's not what i'm going to talk to you about the time that remains. Frankly i use this einstein quote simply because i wanted to know how terribly erudite and intelligent i was. I am really not that interested in the quote. So you can forget about his crawl. But i am as i thought about over recent weeks about the challenge in the magnitude of my upcoming ride it seems to me. But there are four spiritual things that i should do. As i ride across america for spiritual practices if you will. The wisdom of which i learned on my two previous cross-country rides. And here's the amazing part. As i thought about these for spiritual practices and i need to engage in to have a really rewarding experience. I realize that they spiritually apply to every one of your lives as you stay back here on the treasure coast. Add the apply to you even if you've never thought about getting onto a bicycle seat. Every last thing i think i should spiritually focus on. As i ride across the vast expanses of these united states i think you should do. Dan and day out on your lies so let's get started. The first thing i must do on my ride across the vast expanses of this great nation. Is simply to sit up. And pay attention. Set up. And pay attention. It is so spiritually important. Was that is me by the way that's one of the trips i'm not sure whether that was the first of the second trip i think. Whether you are cycling madly across america or just getting through another ordinary day here in vero. It's simply to sit up and pay attention to the world and the people around you. Mindfulness. Mindfulness. Purposeful. And keen attention to your surroundings. Both human and natural. Is the most fundamental and foundational of all spiritual practice. Because without mindfulness without. Where you really are. The deep and caring connected relationships that make our lives. So rich and rewarding are simply impossible if you are not there. In the there that you're in. You simply are going to skate on the surface of your life. Let me see this a bit more positively. Simple everyday mindfulness enables us to experience life in all of its life-saving richness and death. This of course. Is not the actual bike. But i'll be taking across the country that because i've said is already waiting at the lovely ramada inn in costa mesa california. But it's almost this one identical to that bike especially because it has. Across. The handlebars nazi dropped once but the straight across. No. That is so for me please i can fully see and taking the train in the town. In the sky in the wildlife on the weather that i will encounter. Who will be with me on this trip will have the drop handlebars. Will be down all day long like a little faster. Well. Go right ahead. Eat your heart out but. That's not. What i'm going to do. I personally have nothing. Against moving through life with speed. But. I want to be a little more upright so that i can take in. The wanderers. America around me. Said differently. I want to see. America. Across. I personally think it's something of a tragedy to go across america with your head down. It doesn't make sense to me. Cuz i'll be a little more upright than the wind will be a little more in me. But i want to see what i'm going through. And that is what. You. Should do also. Biking with your head constantly down. Is a perfect metaphor. For the sad how many of us having our routines of having our. Having our heads down and not really sitting up and paying attention. With keen mindfulness. To the world and the day. That we are in. And so just as i have purposely chosen a certain kind of bike. That allows me to see america. You need to purposefully choose practices in your life. Did will help you to be mindful. It will help you noticed truly noticed the subtle glories that are always at hand. I take it on faith. The great purpose and blessing of this life. We have. So miraculously find ourselves in. Is to build deep caring and attentive relationships. With nature. With other persons. With the cell. And with god or the great mystery beyond. That is what we're here on earth to do. Not too. Go through life with our heads down. Not noticing thing. So. During the next month cuz i traversed 10 of the united states in about 3,300 mi. I strive to mindfully notice and to savor. Just as much of my world and my human companions as i can. And why don't why lime-a-way you renew your daily mindfulness practices. Lawyer life down a little bit. Take that extra 10 minutes in the morning at the kitchen window. With your warm cup of coffee to watch the birds. As they frolic amidst the waving palmetto trees. Pause during your trip to a grocery store. To give a cheerful greeting for the produce guy who is stacking lettuce. Sarah lunch with that co-worker you-know-who struggling a bit at home in her life. Take a look take a little longer to tuck your kids or grandkids and every night or write a little longer message to your grandkids. Or on skype. And before you turn yourself in at night. Sit alone in your dark in living room. And remember the little blessings that came your way this day. Everyday i promise you i will be riding upright and alert across america. And you too. Can ride. Upright and alert. Do the landscape through which you will be gone. Alright. Shut up and pay attention. 2. The first the second thing i should do as i travaris america. Is to learn to appreciate the flats. That is a picture. Of some of the guys some guys got a flat and the rule by the way you take a ride like this if you're running with five guys and one gets a flight y'all stop and you help. What apps for those of you who don't know which is a punctured inner tube are a regular occurrence i'll probably have 15 to 20 of them. Before i get back. In a month. The way a group ride like this works cuz i've said is you'll be riding with a smaller group i was with. Apparently. The five others on this that this moment. And sooner or later. Almost everyday. With a group several times a day when someone will get a flat. Do the courtesy inn, rotary rule as i've said is that when one person in the group gets a flat everyone in the group stops. And helps the one is immobilize get back on the road. Now some riders especially the type a personalities you know some of these kinds of. Get really frustrated and impatient. With these unexpected time-consuming delays. They fumin a fuss and they grind their teeth and they growl while someone's trying to fix their flat. And i quickly learned my last to ride. Important spiritual choice to make every time someone i was riding with crayons and i've got a flat. I can either look forward. To this unanticipated the interruption and complication as an opportunity. To chatham my companions. To get off the bicycle seat for a minute and look around at the wildflowers in the trees and terrain is not a whole lot of terrain there is there. Or just to rest my mind and body for a moment. I could do that. Mindfully enjoy that moment or. I could resist and resent the flat as a cosmic irritation. In which was always allows you to ruin the 10 or so minutes that it takes. To get a flat fixed and get the companion back on the road. On both of my previous cross-country trips i strive to learn despite the natural impatience of my personality. To appreciate the flats and the other inevitable interruption. You know breakfast that's low at whatever it is that they're things that go run a trip like this. And i found the spiritual process of instructing my head. Appreciate and welcome the flats another complication. Made an incredible difference the way the day went for me. If i didn't get anxious about the inconvenience inconvenience. You're going to get to the next motel you're going to sleep at night why worry about it just go. Through. With an attitude of appreciation and patience and. I'm here to tell you. That the same spiritual lesson can of course be learned in your life. Without a bike. Whatever rotor journey you're on. Life for all of us everyday and always is full of unexpected and unwelcomed inconveniences in complication. A service vendor. Who is 3 hours later they train those guys and cable. Cable guy school never to show up on time. And unnecessary meeting at work release into your lunch hour. A long line at the checkout counter at the grocery store that the laser trip home. A sick child that requires constant attention. Life is full of unexpected and an unwelcomed inconveniences. But if we are emotionally. And i know it's a cliche but i'll say it. To go with the flow. I suppose you might dismiss this as the predictable buddhist part of the sermon but really. If you can train yourself to just trust the moment and go with. The flow. It will really enhance your spiritual and emotional health. As it teaches you. To be right where you are. And embrace the unexpected and the inconvenient as both necessary and instructive. The day. When i return in a month i'll let you know how i did. About appreciating flats but it's my intention. When i hear that oh i've got another flat. Did just enjoy. Alright. Appreciate the flats. Number three. Participate in paceline. Now what in god's name is the paceline that's me by the way in the middle there with the colorful shirt. My friend bill is right in front of me i don't know where that is arkansas are summer. I told i told the you would have paceline wasn't it about. 9 months ago on a sermon and any serious cyclist will know what a paceline is. Purslane happens when a group of cyclist anywhere from 3 to 10 people. Amore for that matter. Decides it when they're facing a strong headwind or other difficult weather to work together to achieve greater speed. That'll lower level of physical expenditure for each. The line works this way the group rides together single file as you see here. In recently tight formation that's all there's a couple of gaps are the shouldn't be wheel2wheel. With the ride leader the guy in the yellow. Pulling the rest of the group through the wind as a veal and much like a flock of geese. But every couple of minutes or so. By a mutually agreed-upon signal was working. Second person he or she. Picks up and goes faster and works for 2 minutes real hard and then his there's all that are being pushed aside. Any and everyone takes their turn pulling and resting. Hugo 12345 12345 you can do this for forty or fifty miles. Without stopping. The point here and by the way the efficiency of the group is increased by about 25%. The point here. Is it writers who choose to participate and cooperate and pay attention in paceline. Not only get to the destination faster. They do so more rested. Fortive radically shared the work the hard work of breaking into the wind. Does highly synchronized and intentional cycling practices of course a metaphor. A helpful metaphor for all our lives as we live in community with one another. Apace line is like. The rummage sale the garage so you got to paceline going yesterday when i walked in 20 more than any wood in splendid isolation. I think it is clear the first law of human community. Is it all individuals achieve. And benefit more when they choose to lend themselves. With others and active collaboration and communication and care. When human beings cooperatively combine their talents and their knowledge and their wisdom in the strength. There is a logarithmic expansion. Achievement. Especially in congregations like this one. So whether we're talking about me participating in a paceline getting to the next town faster. Across the deserts of arizona or whatever. Or you helping to clean up the indian river lagoon with a community group. The truth is that we human beings accomplish much more. When we lend ourselves. In working communities of people. When it comes to human life there really is no such thing as splendid isolation. There's no such thing as splendid. We all need to trust. The only one we eagerly join with others are our lives truly blessed and enriched as they were intended to be. Appreciate the flats. Participated paceline. And the fourth thing that i'm going to try to do while riding across america. Is stop. Complaining. And be grateful. Now. This is me on the first morning of the 2008 ride capturing pacific water in costa mesa. Which we then carried all the way to the atlantic. In savannah. In the ride booklet sent to all the riders by the coordinators of the ride which has all kinds of detailed information about logistics and everything. There's a simple paragraph in that ride book about attitude. One should bring to the ride and i want a quote that paragraph for you now. The attitude you bring to the ride the ride leader said. Peugeot long way in helping you reach your goals. And getting along with your fellow riders and staff. It's all about choice. If you choose to have a good time. There's nothing. Not bad weather. Not take some pain. That can spoil your adventure. And then the ride you the one on instead. We've seen people who embraced the philosophy that you're worse than the bicycle. Is better than your best day in the office. Whether it's raining. Cleaning. You got a flat or whatever nothing seems to keep them smiling and being pleasant around everyone. Their attitude was. What a great day we have to ride. I'm free to do exactly what i want. While someone else there either goes on with a different attitude. Will make everybody's day miserable. They complain. If their room was not ready. When they arrived at the last motel if their eggs at breakfast work to dry. Or the road for today's rude was a little busy or the lunch truck wasn't fully set up when they arrive for lunch well. You get the idea.. If you are this type of complaining an unpleasant person who tends to be upset a little things that come along. You should seriously reconsider whether this is the right one for you. and a paragraph. I am certain. Absolutely certain. Did more than any other single factor a reality the attitude of heart that i choose to bring to everyday of this ride as i cycle with my companions. Today's they're easy and fun and some other days that are driving cold rain for 11 hours and we'll have a couple believe me. I am certain that the attitude i bring the weekday will largely determine. How rewarding. And joyful the experience will be for me. There was one irritated and really irritating guy on the last cross-country charity right he was a german engineer from rockford illinois i won't say his name. Who complain constantly. About every last thing that was not completely right or perfectly to his liking. And often when he launched into. Some complained or another i thought of the great quote why should i be happy. When there are so many beautiful things to be miserable about. Whether you were riding a bike. From pampa texas to elk city oklahoma as i will be doing 17 days from now. Or putting another routine day in front of your computer screen. Here at your home on the island. Or in the mainland. It is all too easy for you to let the normal irritations and complications of any day. Obscure your gratitude. For all those opportunities and blessings that are in fact yours. Let me give just too quick examples of how. Spiritually useful it is to refrain from complaining. On a bike ride like the one i'm undertaking. Instead of waitress at 6 a.m.. Miss my eggs are called. It is just as easy and spiritually more effective the same miss could you put display to mine in the microwave for 35 seconds. There's no difference in the outcome. But there is a difference in the outcome. But the eggs will come back the same way. Instead of cursing the strong headwinds that are blowing right in your face across the panhandle of texas. You can instead say to yourself. Well this wind is really going to make me earn my lunch isn't it. I'm going to earn my lunch today. And give me more of a time to notice the rock formations. I miss ride. I truly want to be grateful. Braless right and not complain constantly. Dissipation of the ride and spikes. A year-and-a-half ago that. several who else. A year-and-a-half ago thanksgiving i i told you about the complaint free world. And i have three hundred of them and most of you took them. The idea of this little band is to stop complaining. And the way this works is unity minister in kansas city devised this. You put it on one wrist. And every time you catch yourself complaining or griping or saying something mean to people. You have to move it. From there one wrist to the other and the ideas to go 21 days. Without issuing any complaints are graves. And if you've gone 21 days that's how long psychologist say it takes to develop a new habit. If you can go 21 days without driving or grousing. You have become a complaint free person. And i am going to wear this bracelet. Every day on this ride to remind myself that i have a choice. I can be flipping this band back and forth. 12 times a day or i can find ways. I'm getting my needs met. Without complaining. And without. Griping. It may first seemed too simple to be true but i believe that if we discipline ourselves. To routinely live. From a place of gratitude. Rather than a place of griping. Our lives will be much more joyful and we will be much. More happy. Call my time is it is up my goodness. And i have to be off. This is a picture of me and just a moment. Of a savannah georgia where i'll be in and bill and i will be picking up our rides from there. I sincerely want to thank you for all your prayers you've told me to be physically safe and strong to ride. Hazard an accident free and do enjoy the good weather and. Plentiful food in abundance sleep and wonderful companions i hope i have all of that. But i also ask that you pray that i will find the spiritual wisdom. To do these for spiritual practices that i've outlined for you. And i'm going to remind you you know that it when i went to preaching class way back and said there they said tell him what you're going to tell him. Tell him. And therefore spiritual practices. Your life you silly puppies. You got your life. You got to participate and paste lines and work with others. For god's sake stop complaining you're lucky to be here in the first place mary. Those are the four things i want you to remember. In six weeks i'll tell you how i did. We're all on a wondrous adventure samurai dear friends. I say to all of you as i leave go for it. And i say. Be glad.

uufvb_org

2013Mar10Sermon32.mp3

Well good morning all you clever ones who set your clocks ahead we will not embarrass those who show up at 11 just pretend like you saw them in church at 10. And invite them to coffee hour don't make a scene. We're going to be nice to have sunlight till 7:30 or quarter of 8 tonight. One more winter kind of down and over it's great. Not down over in upstate new york but down over here. Welcome. The unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach florida and we are so pleased each of you have chosen to gather with us with words for worship this morning. We are congregation standing on the side of love. Seeking to become our best individual cells as we work together to build a better world. Please know that you are welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you were young or old gay or straight black or white or latino or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you were feeling on top of the world this morning or. Down in the dumps or somewhere in between know that you are welcome just as you come to us. We hope you will find our service meaningful and enriching and perhaps this morning a bit fun. And if you will find something here this morning. That nourishes your spirit. And feed your soul and gives you renewed energy. For the light living of life in the days of the weeks ahead. This morning. This house was built and set apart as a place where men and women might come to view their lives in new. It is no holier than the other place. Except that we have agreed amongst ourselves agreed without so much as a word passing between us. It would be unseemly to speak falsely. Or to think harshly of one another. Life should be gentle kind and loving. Everyday and every habitation filled with compassion and peace. But we know that this is not so. Perhaps not even possible. So we gather here to remind ourselves of the truth. And the right and to gain strength. And to bring light into our lives. Welcome to our good and gentle house. And this from a 1743 not 18th 1743 sermon. By jonathan edwards. Sinners in the hands of an angry god. A world of busy. There is a dreadful the wrath of god there is hell wide gaping mouth open and you have nothing to stand on nor anything to take hold of your wickedness makes you heavy as lead and the god that holds you over the pit of hell much as one holds a spider have whores you and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath toward you burns like a fire. You are ten thousand more times in his eyes than the most hateful venomous serpent. Isn't yours. You have offended him infinitely moral center. Consider the fearful danger you are in. It is a great furnace of wrath. A wide and bottomless pit. You hang by us. Slender thread. And you have nothing to lay hold of to save yourself nothing that you can do will induce god to spare you one moment. Your punishment. This morning. I continued my 2013 seasonal sermon sermon series on the seven heavenly virtues and deadly sins are they are listed. Each of these sets identify many centuries ago by the early christian church. Today today with the 6th and next to final installment. On the human duality. Abstinence and lust. Now as i have spelled out in my introduction to each of the five first. Five sermons on the series. In each sermon i'll be exploring what i think is to create. Spiritual emotional and moral tension. Between these sets of seemingly polar opposites. Which were identified by the early church. What consistently strikes me as i reflect on these appositional sets. Of virtues and vices. Is not how as the early church fathers seem to think. They stand and stark and absolute moral contrast one another but rather. How intertwined interrelated and interdependent they are. In real life. Simply put. The virtuous we are looking at aren't all that virtuous. And the sins we are looking at aren't all that simple. It would be nice i suppose if all we had to do in our lives to be good. And healthy and normal human being. Is the scrupulously live out of the virtues side of the equation. For this sunday's purposes abstinence. And void. Which for this sunday is lust. And i a spot i am persuaded that life and even more importantly our human nature. Is much more complicated than that. So what i'm doing in this. Sermon series is definitely deconstructing if you will the simple dualistic constructs. The early christian church proposed. And replace it in our lives and in our thinking i hope about our own lives. With a more nuanced and realistic understanding of what it means. To be fully human. Now. I know you've all been patiently waiting. So let's get right to the decidedly more interesting and juicy side of today's dualism. Let's talk about us. And by the way i'm sure that the only reason you all came this morning was a pure academic and sand and an intellectual interest on this topic on huh. Sure. I want to offer a simple definition of lust so that we are as we begin as they say all on the same page here is my definition. Lost is the intense physical and sexual desire we feel towards other human being. That is only interested in its own gratification. Celeste i think. Strong and i would suggest at its base. Selfish. Or self-gratifying desire. We sometimes feel when we experience an immediate. And intense physical or sexual attraction. To another sexual. Now given this definition it is not hard to figure out how the early church fathers. Came to the conclusion. Is a dangerous and deadly sin of the flesh. The we must vigilantly defend ourselves against. Historically speaking as you want might have picked up from that jonathan edwards sermon. The christian church and indeed many other ancient faith traditions. Have never been terribly comfortable with human sexuality. And the pleasures that come with it. Indeed sexual desire. Has always been viewed with suspicion by many religions. And has over the centuries generally been understood. As something the good and virtuous people mostly fort. Contain. Repress. Deny. Do you all remember that great great scene in the wonderful movie african queen. When katharine hepburn. Who played the proper and very uptight christian english woman deep on a jungle voyage in africa. Says to the rough and crude riverboat captain mr. all that played by a disheveled. An unshaven humphrey bogart. She said to him in the boat one day. Nature mr. all that is something we are put on earth. To rise above. For many. Lost is simply a human weakness. Do either repress or overcome. What is one subject christine. As observed. The sexual desire is not only natural. It's crucial for the survival of our species. Quote. Eliminate the primal urge to get naked and share bodily fluids she rides. And homo sapiens would die out rather quickly. And then she goes on call. Bloodlust is simply nature's way this is a very interesting idea she has. Lust is simply nature's way of nudging us into doing something sexy. Otherwise seem too complicated. Energy goes on. Attracting a mate. Takes effort and energy. And if sex wasn't so pleasurable. It might be something we wouldn't pursue. And then she talks about the constructive role last plays in her own marriage. Quotes. My husband and i just celebrated 14 years of marriage and i'm pretty sure that our ongoing lust for one another is one of the things. That is kept our marriage strong all these years. As long and then she goes on as long as lost is directed toward an appropriate person. Lost marriage intimacy and spice. And then she concludes. If lust has a deadly side. It arises not from the sexual desire itself. But from the stupid. Inappropriate and destructive things. It sometimes causes. People to do. No kidding. Psychologist rollo may in his classic treatise levin will. Also suggest that lost. Hasn't unnecessarily bad reputation in western culture and thought. He wrote that there are four kinds of love. In the western tradition. The first being sex or lust. Eros. El agave. Now the first. Except. We called lust or libido. The second is eros which is the drive to love to procreate. Or create. The urge as the greeks put it. Florida heart toward higher forms of being and relationship. The third kind of love is philia. Or friendship or brotherly love. And the forest agape are caritas. As the latins called it. The love which is devoted to the welfare of the other. Pure spiritual love if you will. The prototype of which. Is love of god for humanity and then rollo may. Goes on after laying these out to suggest rightly i think. The western culture has got off track by viewing these four kinds of love. In a rigid. And ascending hierarchy beginning with the lowly less i guess i've got this backwards actually beginning with the lowly lost. How to colonel the animalistic and of things and ending up. With the pure lofty agape. The philosophical end of things. And then he writes every human experience of authentic love. Is a blending. In various proportions. Of these four kinds of love. And then may goes on to say. We begin with sex and lust. Not only because that's where our society begins but also because it's where. Every person's biological existence began at well as well. Each of us owes me rights are being to the fact. In history a man and a woman. Left the gap in ts eliot's words. Between the desire and the spasm. And then make includes. Regardless of how much sex. Maybe beta lies in our society. It still remains the power of procreation. The drive which perpetuates the race. And the source at once. All the human beings most intense pleasure. And regular anxiety. Lust or sexual attraction. It seems to me at the outset is not. Persei always a wicked. Or a simpler lowly or despicable thing. As both these authors have observed without lust. None of us. Would have come into the world let me say this more bluntly. We all owe the great gift and holy mystery. A finding ourselves alive this morning. In this wonderful and amazing if troublesome creation. Do the simple fact once upon a time our parents. Looked at each other. Felt the hot rush of lust. From head to toe and quit.. Their hands off one. So existentially at least. We must thank god. 4 +. Alright maybe i'm being just a tad silly here. But there could be no denying. A fact. Set the intense sexual desire the lust. We sometimes feel toward another is a beautiful. A necessary thing that only because the sex that often results. Is good and pleasurable for both parties. But because that's about the only way children come into the world. And sustain our speech. When you think about it from an evolutionary perspective. Lust. Mysteriously. Constructive and adaptive for the species. And while we are here taking the long biological view of sexual desire. Procreation. Let me also pause here jonathan edwards aside. To affirm the natural goodness and beauty and worth of human sexuality in general which claudia already alluded to. Well as i have observed many faith traditions. Have for many centuries been systematically suspicious. Or even outwardly hostile toward sexual pleasure. We unitarian. Have long understood human sexuality. And its pleasures. To be good. A natural if not downright divine. Parts. Of the human experience. Which is why a few years back is claudia pointed out we develop this curriculum for our children the owl program with the united church of christ. Which teaches our young people. True value. Amtrust. And enjoy their sexuality within reasonable bounds. Our sexual attraction to one another. And the sexual activities that result can and often are. One of the most wonderful parts of what make life worth living. So lost. Are immediate and intense. Desire to. Gratification. Must not only be understood but rather first and foremost. As a natural and positive part. Of the essence of who we are. As mammals. Colin said in the song. With all that quickly affirmatively said obviously the ancient church fathers also knew what they were talking about. When they identified last. As a potentially dangerous. And unseemly send. They readily understood that lost again that intense. Physical and sexual desire we feel toward another human being. That is interested only in its own gratification lust. If not regularly and rigorously restricted within proper and responsible and caring. Relational boundaries. Can lead as you all know to calamitous difficulties. Sorrow and pain and in some cases evil. And injustice. You all understand of course what i'm talking. Because it is so common. In the course and chaos of human affairs. For sexuality to be expressed. And harmful and inappropriate ways. When sexual desire leads to sexual behavior beyond whole set. A wise and reasonable societal restraints. Much human difficulty and harm results. You all understand some of the kinds of inappropriate sexual behavior i'm alluding to. 1. Adults having sex with children or youth. Never except. Always. Having sex with members of your own extended family or someone else's spouse. Almost always disaster. Enron. Having sex with coworkers. Or collie. Students or anyone else. With whom you are in an unequal power relationship. Terribly full. Danger. And i'm just. A business trip write a convention when you're out of side of your family. Plain dumb. The list goes on and on. Of examples when lust. Or sexual desire. Might naturally feel. Clearly not be acted on. For our own best. And the inter. Other relationships. We are in. Clearly the early christian fathers who included lost. In their short list of deadly sins rightly understood. The human harm that can and does result if we do not regularly restrain. Are natural sexual appetite. And emotions. 12th century poet dante also understood this. When he described in his classic and stern allegorical work the inferno. How those who are unable to restrain or control their lust. During their lifetimes were punished for all eternity in hell. When dante and his poet companions arrive at the second circle of hell. They find those who without judgment or restraint. Gave in to their lust. While on earth. What they found the second ring of hell is that these people these souls. Were swirling for all eternity in a dark and sad tornado. As john ciardi the poet translates. Thusly. Find themselves on a dark ledge. Swept by a great whirlwind. Which spirits within it the souls of the carnal. Or lustful those who betrayed reason. To the rapids heights. Sexual or otherwise. They're sending life was to abandon themselves. To the tempest of their physical passion. And so they are swept forever in the tempest of hell. Forever denied the light of reason and of god. And then she already and his translation. Dante is so stricken. By compassion at their tragic fate of being trapped forever. In the sad empty cyclone. That he swoons. Once again. Until we arrive i think it's a great paradox. About lust. On the one hand that is clearly a good natural pleasure full and evolutionarily adaptive aspect. Of our humanness. It must on the other hand on the left be regularly regulated and restrained and controlled by us. If we are to live joyful and responsible lies. And we arrived. Finally. At the second side. Equation. Absence. Which is the heavenly virtue. Which the early church fathers identified as having the power to offset if you will or counterbalance. Lust. Now as i've already affirmed. As each of us move through our daily rounds with all the other sexual beings in our midst and they're all sending out you know sexual vibes. We regularly and routinely must have stain from acting on most. Of our immediate. Self-gratifying. A sexual desires a nympho. Is obvious. Can you imagine a world where everybody somehow was felt totally free. Do actin absolutely all of their sexual urges impulses or attractions. Yikes. What a mess that would be. Indeed when i was in college and i probably shouldn't tell this story but it makes the point. When i was in college there was a silly movie it was a bit of soft core. Spoof on the old flash gordon movie making the rounds with the dorm. And had a sophomoric plot to be sure but when the evil emperor ming the merciless remember him. The flash gordon ming the merciless. He was attempting to conquer the earth by aiming. A powerful cosmix x-ray device he had at the earth. Andis cosmics x-rayed gun. Set the powerful force deliberated all of humanity from all of their sexual inhibition. And as a result the world was turned into one big orgy that's the film. Aha. Everybody on earth. Beneath this x-ray was suddenly having wild ravenous sex. With everybody else all the time so when the movie plot humanity was in dire straits of being conquered because soldiers weren't in their barracks farmers weren't in their field. Factory workers weren't in their factories firefighters weren't fighting fires indeed even the air force was disabled. Because everybody was out having sex. But luckily for humanity's last gordon and his girlfriend. It was very good looking. We're able to disarm and disable the sex ray gun in save the earth from. Ming the merciless domination. The point here. I know i should have told that story but it it makes the point doesn't it. The point here is an any responsible and functioning human society must generally abstain. From acting on our immediate sexual attraction to one another keeping sex. As we do with all other pleasurable things in our lives like food. We need to keep everything in some restraint. If it's to be good. Within proper boundaries. But enough about sex. And how sex must be carefully channel. Because where i really want to take you today for the rest of my. Time this morning is toward a larger. And i think even more important spiritual truth about the idea of abston. As a great unnecessary virtue. In our everyday living that goes way beyond our lives. As sexual beings now i realize that what i'm about to say about abstinence at first. Might strike you as a bit puritanical ourselves 29 but that's not where i'm headed. So hang with me here for a minute. I'm not going to somehow p. Talking as the puritans are jonathan edward dead about. Abstinence. For abstinence sake. It seems to me that in the overview. In the particular lives each of us live at least as important. In establishing the quality of our personhood. Is what we decide. As what we decided to. Is what we choose not to do. What we choose not to do goes at least this far. Defining our quality of. In this complicated dance we call life. I think we are defined as persons more by what we say no to. By what we don't do. Then what we actually permit in our lives. And i want to see if i can physically represent this truth you this morning. I have a round. Circle of a cloth here. Sort of. Imagine please. Set this whole floor space in the entire building. Represents all the decisions. The relationships and the actions that are available to us in our daily living all the floors. A building. Life always presents us. If you will with a wide stage. Upon which to dance our particular dance. It seems to me that if we are wise and healthy and responsible and caring person. We choose everyday. Frequently immersively without a great deal of forethought or imagination. We choose everyday to restrict. Restrain and regulate are living within fairly. Limited. We choose to restrict. Restrain and regulate ourselves. To a certain circumscribed set. Decisions relationships and actions. That we know or at least hope. Will boundary our lives boundary our lives as a circle. Foundry. In goodness. Imbalance. Responsibility in health. We choose to circumscribe our decision maker. With a very small set of discs. Everything we do. Talita talita good. Quality life. Let me get some concrete examples of what i'm talking about. Everyday and now i realize i'm sliding back into last sunday's focus on gluttony in moderation. Everyday i do restrict myself. I restrict my diet more or less. To those foods and beverages and portions there as that i know will be beneficial to my health. And i abstain mostly. Ingesting what is. Most of what is deliciously available to me go to a public store what's deliciously available my god you die in a week. If you ate at all. You dying today. And plus i live day in and day out again more or less i live in a circle of circumscribed hell. I limit my diet. Similarly each day. Standing within the narrow circumference. I respect myself with how much television i watch. I restrict myself with how many hours i spent on the computer or telephone i restrict myself with how much work and play i engaging i restrict myself with how much money i spend i restrict myself with how many friends. I gather around you can't have. Thousand of them despite what facebook thinks. I restrict myself well sometimes i restrict myself but how much exercise i get. I respect my reading my sleep and of course my sex. Everyday i spend much of my psychic. Energy and activity as a person. Abstaining from what i'm not going to do. As i stand in this circle. Limiting. Purposely. Limiting. Myself. To that which. Good and healthy for me. How do i know. What to stain from and when. What guides me as i draw this purposeful circle of limitation around me well common sense first. I suppose. And hopefully good judgment that comes from my experience with life. But i'm also guided. In this purposeful drawing of a circle for myself. By the seven principles. Of my unitarian universalist faith. These principles. Help me to know the boundaries around. That my. Create around my life. They helped me and my decision making. About about what i will. And as i said as even perhaps more important what i will not do for example. Our first principles the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Hopefully calls upon me within the daily circle of my life. To be as kind and generous and compassionate. Inconsiderate of others as i can. Ellen impels me that principal impels me. Dismissive. Why does or mean to others who share life with me as much as i can. My unitarian universalist faith in the theological worth. Of every person. Gives me a powerful tool. To say no to many kinds. Of harmful or unkind behavior. Even if it helps me to draw. A circle of decency and care around my cell. Betroth. Confining. Purposeful. Simile. Our seventh principle. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence calls upon me as a citizen of earth. Abstain from any behaviors. That as i can which will endanger and degrade our planets fragile. Like turning off lights and not letting water running. Riding bike and driving a small car and not being a terrible. Eating up things i don't need. I think you get the idea here. When it comes to leading a good and principled life. Abstaining is at least as important as acting. And the curiosity here. Is it simply by abstaining from all kind. And again i am the one who personally makes those. Abstaining decisions in my life. By purposely not doing. Most of what i could. The majority not saying no to the majority of choices that are available to me. It is through the not doing i achieve most of my health and wholeness and decency and i pray success. As a person. It's a bit like achieving success in business. Surely many of you are familiar with the fact that i'm any business schools in business journal. Entrepreneurs are taught that even more important than what they decide they will focus their business resources on. Is what they decide not to allocate their business resources toward. It is all. It is all the possibilities you purposely abstain from pursuing in business. That will most likely lead to your focused business success for example. If you have an attractive and successful store that sells lawn and garden supplies. You probably should not start stocking women's wigs. Or fresh produce or children's book. You should focus on lawn and garden. This is the way i think. The virtue of abstinence. Works in our daily lives. It seems to me that if we are individually to be happy. Incoherent. Insane. And responsible in our living. We must abstain. From most of what is possible. On our way to being someone particular. Inconsistent. It's fine on our way to being consistent. Purposeful and fine. Mustang no. Well. Oh. I've lost my place by. The key here i think. As with all the so all the so-called sins and virtues that we have explored in the series. The key thing is we must never forget that is human being. We are always obliged everyday to use our vast freedom. Responsibly in well we have that. We must use that freedom well. To make out of the infinite possibilities. The best choices we can. And in so doing choose to abstain. Comenity. Many. Many. Manything. If in our daily living we choose our clear personal circles wisely. And through abstinence. Limit ourselves wisely and well. We will slowly construct. Circumscribed. Paradox. Paradoxically liberating there's liberty in the. Circumscribed. And paradoxical liberating our lives. In the things that are beautiful. And joyous. And responsible and good. I'll bet you didn't think this was where lost was going to take me today did you. Well to be honest me neither. Sometimes as a preacher i am the first one surprised by where a topic takes me. But here i am at the end of this morning. Simply affirming the precious roll. Abstinence. Not doing. Purposeful imitation. Non-action. The role that absence plays. In our formation. As good. And healthy person. Given the radical openness of the world. And the infinite possibilities of the world. Abstinence is a virtue none of us. Can do without. Notify. Can do without this for. Forex frequently abstaining. From what is possible. We achieve. Clarity. Health and goodness. As a person. A limited purse. Clarity and purpose. And i asked you what could be better in the world. And i say i mean. I send you on your way with the words of bertrand russell words with beth pearson. Help me to find last week. The great 20th century british humanist bertrand russell said this. Those who live nobly. Say they live obscure lee. Need not fear. The thing of lived in. Something radiates. From their lives. Some light that shows the way. To their friends. Their neighbors. Perhaps. Too long. Future ages. Perhaps too long future ages. The individual russell rights. If filled with love of humankind. With brett the vision. With courage and endurance. Can do a great deal. Do a great deal.

uufvb_org

2013May26Sermon32.mp3

Good morning welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship. We are very glad you've chosen to spend a part of his stay with us. We are the conjugation of open minds. Loving hearts and helping hands. People. Seeking to become our best selves even if we work together. To make a better world. Please know that you're welcome this morning just as you probably was. Straight black or white or some other wonderful state of humanity. When you were feeling on top of the world this morning or somewhere in between. We're delighted to see you this morning justin to come to us in all of your particularity in need. We hope you'll find our services morning meaningful and enriching. You'll find something here this morning that nourishes your. Spirit feeds your soul and energy and. Enjoyment for the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. Good morning america. The blue-green waters here on the treasure coast already sparkle in the morning. Play the gentle touch of spring light. And all across our nation. Delight. Purpose. Jogging. Good morning america. Assassination. Compromise. As we learned this week. May our hearts forever the noble ideal. And by the work of our hands important. Shape america. Good morning america good morning. Story. Unitarian universalism. It is not a spectator sport. Nor is unitarian universalism. It is not simply espouse with was this. Everyday right here right now. However and wherever we find ourselves. Unitarian universalism i want to say. Must be practice. Day in day out all the intentionality. Protection purpose enjoy we can muster. Universalism isn't anything but it's casual. Easy religion. Use our individual freedom. And devote a lifetime to becoming the best person. We can become. Relating to life with as much fullness health and hard as we can be ourselves. Ceaselessly. To the saving of our world. This is a faith that continually call foster diesel city old-fashioned emblem. It was 20th century do you mr heron reserve provocative sermon title church sign board in st. paul minnesota. Unitarian universalist were against the law. Would there be enough evidence to convict you of the famous unitarian minister he said you live. It is the only sermon you will ever preach. Ours is not a sunday only religion. Ours is a religion of peace. Deb requires you to bring your fullest and sinus tell and you're religious principles. To your daily limit. Twenty-four hours a day. Seven-days-a-week. 365 days a year. Unitarian universalism. Is awake. How's life. Good morning reading. Let me tell you what amazing story. It was earlier. With little working on behalf of the humanitarian unitarian service today. She was on the secret mission in prague. And safety at the british embassy. Activities. Unitarian leaders in boston. Like something a mild-mannered massachusetts minister wife. Might find yourself in the middle of here is her report. We leave early darkness. Noting that the driver had a companion in the front seat in the dress which was near my destination. In the front seat. His questions. Arriving at the place i hastily paid the driver and walked around the corner. The first doorway to watch and see whether i follow. The same corner. The driver suddenly. Set my follower.. I flattened myself against the entrance of the door still where i was. He walked right by where i was hiding. And then headed back to the cavs. Martha sharp at great risk to her personal safety succeeded in ushering the check he wrote the safety. As dinner concert at night elsewhere in the city. With another. Over the course of world war ii. The act of bravery skill and derek of this husband-and-wife team and other workers to the unitarian service committee which is today.. Enable thousands of adults and children to escape nazi persecution and murder including many hundreds of jews. Isn't that your 2016 items is fascinating. The names of rachel sharp and martha sharp for graves in the wall at the garden of the righteous among nations. And israel only one other american. Husband simerly armor. By the jewish people. For rescuing jews from the holocaust. We're righteous gentiles who germany and france and spain on the places only three america. I want to tell the story of the flaming chalice of our faith. Which we sermonia 3-light every sunday morning as we gather here together. Some of you may not be aware. Here is the official. Chalice logo from the website of our determination that's the official one that boston uses. Symbol of our faith. The flaming chalice is the one unifying symbol and ritual of modern-day unitarian universalism. This morning and every unitarian universalist congregation scattered around the world. 1056. Justice rejected will be ceremonious we just usually as worship together. Just too worried if i might about this particular chalice that we like here every sunday. This beautiful handcrafted challenge. Is made of pure sterling silver and what's the gift of early uuff swole. It was handcrafted informal historian of our communication ellen lagerkommandant tells me what i said. The king was made by silversmiths from the florida keys. According to doris sloan specification. You can see a lovely piece of art. So because this is a one-of-a-kind shower. Unitarian universalist congregation of the world has one like this one. American pottery others from various metal and they're fueled by different by different combustibles. Music candle from used. Lamp oil we use. All lights on. Has any of you who visit other who you confusing travel. The content of sunday morning worship services in our denomination. Can vary widely from church to church resemble at king's chapel in boston which is very episcopalian they say the lord's prayer. Editor very very different.. But the flaming chalice. Is the universal and widely beloved symbol of our religion and everything we stand for. Adjustable was born. In the dark days of world war 2. When martha and rachel start working the same. Slave labor and astoria mr. moment. It is also important practice of you use lighting challo. Is relatively new. William anderson dentistry in january of 1974. The flaming chalice was basically unheard of in our congregation. The first time the symbol was used by the denomination is similar to 90. Was on the cover the 1978 77 denominational directory. About the time we were founded. Lighting a chalice on sunday. A widespread and beloved practice in our congregation. Insensitive the flaming chalice has become the official logo and symbol. Unitarian universalism around the world. Today the flaming chalice is central to our identity. Are you using will probably remain so. I need to go back to world war ii. Story of how the flaming saddles came to represent. The chalice. Two asian archetypal religious images that can be found in ancient mythology as well as in many of the world's great tradition. These two ideas together. As a unitarian symbol. Austrian artist by the name. That was in 1940 when i went online only picture on the world wide web. Do my colleagues and hostages. Tell me a story. Living in paris during the 1930s. An austrian refugee group critical cartoons of hitler. Paris 1940s that's led to the south of france that just fade as finally with an alternate password to safe in neutral portugal. They're even the reverend charles joy. Executive director of the unitarian service committee that my predecessor at the church of larger fellowship when i was last at the nomination headquarters. The service committee was new. Boston. Eastern europeans escaping.. As well as jews. Elizabeth headquarters. Charles joyce oversaw a secret network of couriers and agents who among other things. Creative space travel papers replacement papers for an injured people. Trying to play europe. The joints was most impressed as soon he was working with the service committee. He later wrote reverend floyd death. There is something that urges me to tell you how much i admire your other self-denial and ready to serve. To sacrifice all your time will help. Your will need to help help help. You might actually call a religious believer. If your kind of life is the profession of your unitarian face. Dim religion ceasing to be magic and mysticism. Becomes confession to practical philosophy and what's more active and ready useful social work. And this is a religion. To wish i could say uncle martin dies from. Go back to the story. Unitarian service committee 1941. Realized. In the clothes and false identity papers and files. Creative symbol. For the us travel papers and replacement documents. Choice for a symbol so that they can issue these two artists for the lecturers and dissidents andrews was trying to sleep better. The same time to symbolize the spirit of our work. Chalice and the plane. And then river enjoy writing to the board of trustees of our denomination of boston said this about the new symbol. A challenge with a flame. I kind of tell us with the greeks and romans. Oil burning in a symbol of helpfulness. And sacrifice. This was on the mind of the artist. Another word for joy when not in his letter to the board of directors. Suggest a cross. Also has there. At the present moment our work is for the tv. From the christian tradition. Civilize christianity. Ended the central theme of sacrificial love. Chalice of our faith was born as a practical striking symbol of our unitarian. Humanitarian efforts. Amazing car. Design. Never seen a unitarian or universalist church never heard the unitarian sermon. What he had said was our faith in action. People who are willing to risk it all for the sake of others in a desperate time. About this legacy wedding shower. Today. And the unitarian universalist association our denomination. Officially or unofficially it's functions as the logo for more than 1,000 convocation. For our worship. For interpretation of the chalice is official. The flaming chalice like are free. History. Send us a story of the slave and chalice of our faith. Instead hospice rightly deserves there is no one meeting. Inspiring symbol of our faith is a flame of community. Remaining all of them. Other congregation 62 flame of truth. Assault greater understanding. Navigation. Play mumford with the flame representing the love justice and compassion we speak. The clinton callaston is open. Different things to different people. Especially given the history of an origin. Is nazism in so much debt. To me the flaming chalice is a sacred step fiber. Appease. More than another old unitarian saying the nineteenth-century salvation by character. Don't tell me what you believe. Show me my videos. Hours of the stage as a bill saltar famous minister right of 13. Is used to help rescue jews and others during world war ii. We cannot be casual bystanders bystanders in the troubled world to me of heaven. Arkell's reminds us that our religion is not as a friend and what i read you earlier it's not an armchair exercise. Yourself an intellectual agreement with our 7 principles of federalism service. To be a real unitarian universalist. More than name only. You must also personally committed. Animated history. Exactly your individual life exactly where you fluff up against creation. Your body and serve them not just by yourself but with others not just in splendid isolation but with others that you serve various aspects of our community life and in this car. the creator. The flaming chalice of our safe remind me at all week long the half of love and justice and compassion and the sardar, humanity and get directly involved in making this world a better place for everyone. Eat sunday the flaming chalice beckons us. Satisfying work berkeley. Let me bring all this phone 20p if i might. After several months of reflecting about who and what we are as a particular congregation as one of the 1050 in the united states and canada. If you're born as trustees just last week. Unanimously adopted the following statement about the usb people to remind ourselves, we are the current location and how we possess ourselves. To the wider community this week. The unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. Is a congregation. Open mind. Loving hearts. If you're looking for a midsize sound fight answer when you're at the publix influencing for you go to church. Navigation. Open mind. Loving hearts. His helping hands. The covers i think every aspect. For here in this unitarian universalist community. Christopher's. To the wisdom of all the world's great religions and all great religious and spiritual inside an ethical truth wherever it can be found others may sarton. Play or some other face tradition laser-blast is another probably going on. We are open. Secondly loving her. We seek to approach everything in life. With loving and compassionate heart. Affirm our first principle which is the inherent worth and dignity of every person. And the third part of this helping hands. We serve others. Most especially those in need or what. Was helping a generous has sharon one we can. Promenade apartments. And working with others of goodwill on their people's goodwill. Who work with us a homeless shelter. Food pantries that are lots of good people. We will bond and work with projects that increase human dignity and justice in the quality of life we're not the only ones until together. Do you like this chalice of the service. I hope it reminds us that we are coming together out of the social club. Garden club we are gathered as a people of space. We will come into this stays. With open minds. Loving hearts. And helping hands. And when we leave here. That's the way we will leave days of the week we will live. With open minds. And loving. Hearts of helping hands become ready here. Weather ourselves to the work of making ourselves and the world better. And we come here because we know. Did the future of the world just like it did for those unitarians and world war the future of the world live in are in. It matters profoundly how we live. Each of us is that important in matters profoundly. Do you live. And helping hands. And i say to you this monday i mean. 1530 sadore parker. Religion looks like sunshine goes everywhere. It's trying the good heart gets freed all through its ritual force of love. This profession of thing. Define livid. Go to your weed. I'll be good. Unitarian. Universal.

uufvb_org

2013Nov03Sermon128.mp3

Well good morning. Going like that curry clean fresh air this morning wasn't it wonderful to feel fall in the air the beautiful part of the year here in the treasure coast and welcome. To the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach and we are so pleased you've chosen to be here with us this morning. We are congregation of open minds. Loving hearts and helping hands. People seeking to become our best selves even as together we work to make a better world and please know that you are welcome. Just as you come to us yes with all of your idiosyncrasies and doubts we welcome you just as you are. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you were feeling on top of the world this morning or down in the dumps or somewhere in between know that we welcome you just as you come to us. We hope you will find our services morning meaningful and enriching that you'll find something here. To take with you that will make your days and your weeks better as you live life as you were meant to do it. A day. Oh yes. Another day. This day is ours its beauty and its promise. It's weight of sorrow and disappointment. The brightness of its opportunity. For doing an achievement. It's opportunity for the deepening of love. An understanding. This day is ours. Even as we make it ours. By the readiness and warrants of our appreciation. For from it. We shall receive according to our measure of giving. Letter giving then be of ourselves. And from the heart. May there be laughter in this day. And if there be tears. Then generous tears. Another day. Oh yes. A day. Get a life. In which you were generous. Look around the azaleas in the neighborhood where you grew up. Look at a full moon hanging silver in a black black sky. On a cold night. And realize that life is the best thing ever. I meant you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about his goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money that you have spent on yourself. I'm give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister. All of us want to do well. But if we do not do good to. Been doing well will never be enough. It's so easy to waste our days our lives are ours. 4 minutes. It's so easy to take for granted the color of the azaleas. The color of our children's eyes the way the melody in his symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist. Instead of live. So live. Generously. Morning i bring you the second installment of a sermon series which we preached over moral s7 random sunday spaced out over the coming year. On the seven habits of happy people. The sermon today on caring. Which has been identified by social scientists who study human well-being. As something we must regularly do wish we were ever to achieve. Sustained happiness in our lives. Now we all know that happiness is as american as apple pie indeed happiness or at least. The freedom to pursue it is written right into our nation's declaration of independence. And as a people. The americans routinely expect their lives to be well happy. But happiness as you know is a big. And elusive idea and frankly a lot of us are. Uncertain about precisely what it is. And how exactly to find or achieve or sustain it. As one psychologist putted happiness. Is inherently subjective. So it's hard to know who has it. And what it looks like in day-to-day life. But recently leading psychologist who have created a new a new field called. Positive psychology on the study of happiness. I've done a great deal of fresh and i think exciting research on what makes for happiness and even the more important concept. Human well-being. They've been looking as one author puts it for what makes the human heart. Really sing. And over the course of the series i hope we can discover. More what that might look like. In our own lives. I will focus each sermon in the series on one of the seven habits. Identified by a team directed by doctor paul de san. Yale and harvard educated psychiatrist. Relying heavily on the groundbreaking research of positive psychologist pioneer. Dr. martens eagleman. The team has suggested. But there are seven fundamental dimensions of our individual lives. That if properly nourished and cultivated will lead to a greater sense. Of well-being and satisfaction in our lives. The ancient greeks call such a favorable psychological state. Eudaimonia. Which roughly translate into english not as happiness. But as well being or even more salient. Flourishing. What it takes to flourish. As opposed. To the more fleeting emotion of happiness. Here are the seven habits that the. Scientists have included concluded the people need to cultivate in their lives. For greater sense of well-being. They are. Relationships which we covered couple of weeks ago. Today's topic caring and service. Health and fitness. You'll love to get a sermon for me on that subject i'm sure. Hello. Spiritual engagement strengths and virtues and positive mindset. Optimism. Ingratitude now before i begin to talk about the second. Of these habits. I need to talk about the realizations of positive psychology in the overview. When positive psychologists talk about happiness. They do not mean what i should call the happy face theory of happiness. The happy face theory of happiness i have to tell you. Once i in the sixties are minister in binghamton new york. His name was harry thor bless his heart he used to preach in orange jumpsuits. He made the congregation every sunday as the interest rate sing this. Zippity doo dah zippity day my oh my what a wonderful day. Plenty of sunshine coming my way. We had friends in that current gation who's so hated that they stopped going to church. That is a happy face theory. Of happiness. It focuses on when we are in a buoyant or cheerful mood. Those times were full of laughter and a boolean and merriment. I recently wrote a thought piece in the sun sentinel when i was down in fort lauderdale. Where the author equated his happiness in life. With all of the quote-unquote. Thrilling experiences he had had over his lifetime. Winning the soap box derby when he was 10. Getting a date with the best-looking cheerleader in high school. Being accepted into the coolest fraternity in college. Driving his first lexus off the car dealers lot. Getting the promotion of his dreams at work. Holding his first grandchild for the first time will you you get the idea. This is a happy face view of happiness. It requires a steady stream of moments of gleeful and giddy delight. Things that would light up mr. smiley face up there. But the experts were right about happiness. Sustained. Happiness. And well-being suggest. But if you were looking for contentment and joy in all these flashy places you are as the song says. Looking for love. It all the wrong places. Happiness. The kind of sustainable well-being and enduring life satisfaction. But has the power to make our lives glow with contentment. Is not. Like the hot momentary rush of pleasure you feel. When you win the lottery. Or skydive out of a plane at 10,000 ft. Or watch your home team win the super bowl or even devour a two and a half pound lobster. The kind of happiness and well-being. What is the power to really make our lives. Works of sustainable warmth and joy. It's more like a steady low hum. A-reliable satisfaction it's not noisy. Quiet. Low decibel hum. Of satisfaction. The quietly arises again out of these ordinary aspects of our lives. Relationships. Caring and service. Health and fitness in the others. No let me pause here and make a very important. Observation about happiness. All the experts say you do not necessarily have to have. A cheerful ebullient or outgoing personality. To find lasting happiness or satisfaction. In your life people with many different personalities and styles of being including. Quiet. Reflective and introverted people who do not look like mr. smiley face every minute of their lives. Can be happy. You do not have to go through your life. With a perpetual smile plastered on your face. For you to know that true sense of well-being the kind of burns like a quiet amber. Isn't november fireplace. Again. What the positive psychologists are saying this makes perfect sense to me. Is a sustainable happiness. And well-being. Is not achieved in our lives. In flashy or dramatic or noisy moments of happy face glee but rather. It's a quiet an ostentatious quality that steals into our lives. Because we're doing these kinds of things tending. To what really matters in our lives. And not jumping out of airplanes. To skydive but tending. To what really matters in our. That brings me. To today's fundamental topic. Caring and service. What the psychologist studying happiness are telling us. And i think the should not surprise any of us. Is it if you truly want to find satisfaction in your life. You must regularly find way to care for and serve the needs of others. Here is the way the study puts it. And they say here is not the bottom line. Here is the top line they the rothers right here is the top line about caring. People who volunteer or simply care for others on a consistent basis. Seem to be happier and less depressed. Then people who do not. The seems to be especially true. For older individuals. Most people who care for others in a selfless manner. Study goes on. Do so because of a genuine desire to help others. And to improve the world around them. None-the-less modern sociological research has shown that caring has benefits. For everyone involved. And then they go on. People who volunteer or care for others on a consistent basis. Have better mental well-being. Including fewer depressive symptoms and higher life satisfaction. Although karen can involve volunteering they right. As a part of an organized group or club. It can also be a simple as reaching out to a workmate. Or classmates or neighbor. Who looks lonely or is struggling. With an issue. And then they end. Studies show that people who reach out and serve others. Even for his little as two or three hours a week. Can benefit in multiple ways. And experienced more life satisfaction and that's one reason. I inserted. This simple guide to how to become more generous in your life i told you to take it home. Maybe put it on your refrigerator for a few weeks take a look at it every once in awhile. We all i think intuitively understand the truth in the old saying. When you bring sunshine to others. You cannot avoid it. Yourself. When we selflessly care and serve the needs of others not only do we definitely brighten the lies of others and make our world a better place. We also as a kind of a free bonus. Feel better about ourselves. I believe there's a deep and natural tendency in all of us. Tawana be helpful. And generous and kind. In part because it makes us feel good about ourselves. When we do something for others simply put. We humans feel good. When we do good. And this is good because it enables us and causes us to do more good. It is wonderful book emotional intelligence. Dr. daniel goleman asserts that all human beings come into the world. With a strong and natural empathetic impulse. Toward others and their needs i quote grollman. The roots of empathy can be traced to infancy. Virtually from the day they are born all infants are upset. When they hear another infant crying. Infants feel empathetic distress. Even before they fully realize they exist apart from other people. A response that is. He writes the earliest precursor. Availability. In a similar vein. Recent studies of the human brain reveal that we are actually wired. For generosity and service did you know that. 2 years ago to leading. Neuroscientist at the national institutes of health about a mile. From my last church that i serve. Dr. jorge morel and dr. jordan grosman study the brains of volunteers. As they were asked to think about donating a sum of money to a charity. Or keeping it for themselves. I quote from that study. The results showed that when the volunteers place the interests of others above their own. The generosity activated a primitive part of the brain. That usually lights up only in response to pleasurable things like food and sex. In other words giving makes you feel as good as food and sex. So altruism they go on. Was not a superior moral faculty. That suppresses basic selfish urges but rather. Was basic to the brain. Hardwired. And pleasurable. They're finding that unselfishness can feel good lenses scientific support. To the admonitions of spiritual leaders such as saint francis of assisi who said. For it is in giving. That we shall receive. And so the everyday have it. Of caring and serving others. And what the authors are mostly talking about here. Is the practice of regularly volunteering. Tourism organization. For the well-being of others. The everyday habit of volunteering or otherwise caring. Not only strengthens our basic connections to another it also has the tangible tangential. But powerful benefit of making us feel good and valuable ourselves. I trust all of you. Have felt that boost of self-esteem and satisfaction that comes. When you take the trouble to gather with our folks who are putting the meal together for the family homeless family center. Once a month. Or if you take a shift volunteering at the front reception desk. At the indian river medical center or at the vmas hospital house. Jim your dad i would always see him at the front desk at vna hospice house. Beaming as he served others. Orem. Spending a saturday painting a new house which our local chapter of habitat. For humanity has built. I'm entering a disadvantage child for a one-parent home through our wonderful youth guidance program here in town. Or. More simply going to the trouble to take over a plate of fresh baked cookies to your neighbor. Who just lost her husband. Of the last. 40 years. Any one of these simple acts of caring and service. Work their powerful magic not only in the lives of those who are being helped. But also in our own lives and psyches. Caring comes naturally. To us. For other people. And we almost always feel better about ourselves when we get. Now. Despite all the good news about the pervasiveness of human caring and service. Surely you of all noticed in our time. In these early years of the 21st century that. Selfishness. And self-absorption do seem to be on the rise. Are materialistic culture. As countless social commentators and analysts have already observed. Is one that is increasingly marked by an ethic of self concern. Self-interest and self-focus. Sadly and american life today. We are all given ample cultural permission. To turn inward. To pay increasing attention to our own needs and wants and desires. While at the same time expressing a growing indifference. To the needs and wants and desires of others were given permission. To be selfish. Claude's. It is important book bowling alone. America's decline in social capital. Sociologist robert putnam argues that there is a dangerous decline. In american today. Social capital or civic engagement. The kinds of invisible threads of belonging and responsibility and care. The hold us together which alex de tocqueville. Talked about american life just after the american revolution. That makes our culture a beautiful fabric of mutuality at its best. Putnam makes the case that as a people we americans are becoming. Increasingly private istic. And isolated from one another. Are once plentiful voluntary associations. Everything from bowling leagues to service clubs like rotary and kiwanis. Do churches and synagogues to pta. Even political parties. Are declining. And there's a result he writes the bonds of community that once held us together. As a healthy and vibrant and engage culture. Are weakening. The erosion this erosion of community connection and caring as reflected. In the declining rate of volunteerism in this country. The bergen county record newspaper in new jersey recently reported i don't know how they get the statistic. 3.6 million fewer americans volunteered. Today then they did just seven years ago. Another study entitled volunteering. In the united states in in 2012 which uses numbers from the us bureau of labor statistics that again i don't know how they got to do statistics. It is reported that the volunteer rate declined by 303 tenths of 1%. In the last year alone. Now down. The 26.5% of the population who regularly volunteers about a quarter of us. 1 and 4 americans go to the trouble. Irregularly volunteering. And this is a decline. From just a few. Decades ago. Here are some other interesting facts about volunteering in america. More women volunteer than man. Married persons volunteer more than those who are single and this was a bit of a surprise to me. Caucasian americans volunteer at a higher rate. Then blacks asians and hispanics. Volunteer rates not surprising are lowest among the 22 24 year olds. And highest among those of us between the ages of 35 and 45. Was volunteerism tapering off slowly after that but that doesn't seem like the case here on the treasure coast. Does it. This. Area. People in the treasure coast in this retirement community can be found volunteering all over town and more on that positive reality. In just a moment. Finally individuals with higher levels of education. And engage in volunteer activities at a higher rate than those with less education. But the bottom line here is a volunteerism. The organized and intentional act of caring for others in need is slowly declining in america. With fewer and fewer of us. Troubling to set aside time and energy. And then our financial resources to serve. The needs of those around us we have. Turn this ship around. I take it on faith. But the rate of volunteerism. And the commitment to service to others. Is radically higher in this congregation. The one in four americans in general i trust that we have a much higher rate. Volunteerism here in this congregation. And indeed in all religious congregations. In america. Are liberal religious tradition in particular. Has always emphasized that we have a moral and spiritual duty to care for others. Most especially those. Disadvantaged in our society i quote again. From this morning's chalice lighting words which are printed in your orders of service it's used in many of our congregations. Love. Is the doctrine of this church. Quest of truth is it sacrament. And service. Service is it's prayer. And intends to dwell together in peace. To seek knowledge and freedom. To serve human need. To the end that all souls shall grow in harmony with the divine. Service. And. A service is mentioned twice. And so dear friends. The truth is that if you want to be both are real and the happy unitarian-universalist you've got to be a volunteer somewhere. Get out there in our community. It'll all the little ways that quietly count. Make an effort to serve the needs of others and even if you are physically restricted in your life or. Can't just don't have the energy. There are many ways of volunteering as you know on the phone or by making charitable contributions. And that it will be both a blessing to you and to our community. Play chester new york minute. Isn't there more to the spiritual story here than my predictable and admonition as a minister. To increase the amount of caring and volunteering in your life. Yeah wait just a new york minute. As i thought about caring. And service to others. The second all-important habit of happy people. I realize. But in our lives we surely always have to balance in our lives. This instinct to selflessly reach out. With a good old healthy dose of self-interest. Is it life. Balancing your life between self-serve abetweene service of others. And service of self. It seems to me. That a healthy balanced life is a balance between. Self concern and other concern. Is it real life always a dynamic interplay between these two legitimate spheres of concern. Shirley selfishness. The inward focus and desire to take care of your own life and needs and those needs of your loved ones immediately around you. Must peacefully coexist. In our lives with a certain measure of self. Listeners that outward desire. To really attend. To the needs of others at a cost to you. What i'm saying here is in spite of all the positive benefits that. Are caring and service have for us it there must be practical limits. After we put about how much we put out into our world. I have known a few people in my life who i think gave. Too much. And as a result their personal lives. With their families did suffer. It is logical and right for example. Immediately after you spend a demanding and useful afternoon down at the local food pantry. Packaging bags of food for hungry families in our area. Did you go home and indulge yourself. But a long hot bath and then sit back. And enjoy a glass of chilled chardonnay on the porch all by yourself as the sun goes down. Or. And this is a match for you guys do nothing more socially useful than as many of you will tomorrow do watch the green bay packers thrashed the. The chicago bears as i know they will go packers. So well i'm from wisconsin i can't help myself. My uncle is on the board of directors once of the packers underwear or bad on the packers. Let each of us remember that for our spiritual and emotional health. Our generous caring are out looking this must always be balanced with a bit of self-indulgence and self-care. Her only in the balance do we find an equilibrium that allows us to go through our lives. With that bright sense of. But with all this said before i am this morning. I must return to warn us all about the very real spiritual emotional dangers. Of excessive selfishness of excessive self concern. I want to see a picture of hands how many of you know someone you regard as truly truly selfish raise your hand if you know somebody like that. Someone who. Who just drives you crazy with their selfishness. Are these fun people to be around. No. Here i think is a sad truth. About truly selfish people. Play imagine that by keeping all their focus on themselves. On what they already have and possessing one. That they will find in that holding this. Daily blast with lasting contentment and satisfaction but in fact. The exact opposite is always the case. A selfish person who like their sisters can only look. I'd hammer herself. And you never looks. At the needs and wants of others. Is like a fetid stagnant pool of water. No fresh water in. No fresh water out. I love the way the british philosopher and mathematician alfred north whitehead. Once put this truth. About how healthy given take in life. Is necessary if we are to ever know well being. Listen to his wise words. The secret to happiness. Lies. And knowing this. That we must live by the law of expenditure. We find the greatest joy not in getting. But in expressing what we are. There are tides in the ocean of life he goes on. And what comes in depends on what goes out. The currents flow inward only where there is an outlet. Nature does not give to those who will not spend. Hear gifts are merely loan to those who will not use them. And then he goes on empty your lungs and breathe. Run climb work and laugh chair. The more you give out. The more you shall receive. Be exhausted and you shall be fed. People do not live he goes on for honors or for pay. Their gladness is not in taking. And holding. But in doing and striving and building in. Living. And then he concludes it is higher it is a higher joy to teach them be taught. It is good to guess justice but better to do it. Fun to have things. But more fun to make them. The happy person. Is the one who lives the life of love. And expenditure. Not for the honors it may bring. But for life itself. And so my dear friends please remember this great and obvious truth. About our living. And about happiness. You cannot be happy. If you do not know how to share. And care and serve others. Well-being and contentment. Is this magic carpet ride. On this magic carpet ride we call life only comes to you. When you learn the craft generosity. Excessive selfishness. Cuts us off from everything that is holy. In life and everything that can sustain us. Only through generously pouring ourselves out. To world and the others. On a regular basis only then. Can we quietly discover. The great door. To heaven. Unsatisfactory. And i say and mean to you this hour. And it is wonderful book written 14 years ago with the turning of the millennium the dalai lama. Set this. May i become at all times both now and forever a protector. For those who are without protection. A guide for those who have lost their way. A ship for those with oceans to cross. A bridge for those with rivers to cross a sanctuary. For those in danger. A lamp for those without light. A place of refuge for those who lack shelter. And a servant. To all in need. Live a generous life this week. Andy black. Amentia.

uufvb_org

2010Jun13sermon32.mp3

uufvb_org

2012Jul08Sermon32.mp3

This morning. As we do hopefully enjoy these long mellow and yes quieter days of summer. I want to share an important that i think truly interesting story. Harmar unitarian universalist past. Which i suspect few if any of you are familiar with a less you google. Abner did you google abner nealon. Well you're the only one bob. Far as i know 19th century universal. .. Abner neelam's historical claim to fame is that he was the last man in america jailed. For blasphemy. That being the year 1838. In massachusetts. I'll tell you that dramatic and interesting part of the story a bit later in the sermon. But there's much more about the life and thought of abner kneeland. Who won the nomination historian calls quote the most controversial character. Ever ordained a universalist. That is important for us to understand his story is. As you use living almost 200 years later. The story of this complicated. And iconoclastic man whose thinking was in many ways remarkably about 100 years ahead of his time. Pretty much single-handedly tells the story of how our faith. Has changed and evolved over the last two centuries. An evolution that is crucial for you to understand. As we continue this faith tradition. Here in vero beach. In the 21st century. But before i can effectively tell the story of abner kneeland i need to give you a little background into the history. Of american universalism. And american unitarianism. They were separate movements. So you'll understand the context in which reverend kneeland made such. Splash. Volvo both religious movements of our heritage go back was in 500 years. When they sprang up as organized movements in the reformation in europe. Both unitarianism and universalism were essentially liberal. American. Christian. Sex. Then establish themselves in new england. During the 18th and 19th century along with methodism and presbyterianism and all the other denominations that we have reformed church. All the other many. Reformation sex. No. Even though the early unitarian universalist pretty much theologically resembled. Then. What a lot of mainstream christian denominations look like today. Play new england they were regarded as dangerous heretical movements. Buy the more orthodox christian traditions. Including the puritans. Who dominated religion. Early america. Indeed are very names unitarian and universalist were basically - hostel slurs. Given to us not by ourselves. But by the conservatives they were saying well you know nothing but a unitarian. And so forth. Puritan missionaries on the western frontier places like st louis for example routinely referred and their fire and brimstone sermons to those twin evils. Infidelity. And universalism. Unitarian. Were similarly maligned by the orthodox tradition. You need to remember is if both halves of our faith traditions were born in a hermetically context. We were considered by the theological majority. To be false and dangerous religious thinkers. Are unitarian and universalist forebears always had to fight. In the public square. To establish the legitimacy of their liberal theological beliefs. And faith in the face of being labeled heretics by the dominant church. Just to give you a snapshot of nineteenth-century universalist kristen thought. I want to read to you now the text of what is known as the winchester confession. Adopted by the new england universalist convention in the year 1803. Which define universalist theology in that time only read it to you. The winchester profession of faith. We believe the holy scriptures of the old. Contain a revelation. Of the character of god. End of the duty. Interest in final destination. Of mankind. We believe there is one god. Whose nature is love. Revealed in one lord. Jesus christ. Buy one holy spirit of grace. Who will finally restore the whole family of mankind. Holiness and happiness that didn't make the puritans. We believe. That holiness and true happiness. Are inseparably connected. And the believers ought to maintain order. And practice good works. For these things are good and profitable. Unto men. So this was the fiercely christian contacts. Into which abner neyland cause such a ruckus. No here's his story is another more handsome charming picture of him as a younger man. And by the way yours affectionate. Abner nealon this is sort of like a public. Still i guess. He was born. In gardner massachusetts on april 6th. 1774 two years before the signing of the declaration of independence. He was the sixth. Of 10 children. His formal education in this was true for many universalist ministers. Who are more rural and less educated than their urban. Unitarian. Counterpart. His formal education. Stopped after one year in the academy. It's basically a high school. In chesterfield new hampshire. After which. He moved to vermont with one of his brothers. To practice carpentry. Like his father before him. And he also taught school and compiled. Spelling book. After joining the baptist church in nearby putney vermont at the age of 27. He began to preach as a lay baptist preacher. Years he met the famous universalist preacher hosea ballou. Who's theology in belize he shortly thereafter adopted. Early universalism defining theological idea which. Very very different. From the sin and damnation centered theology of the puritans. As the winchester a confession reflected. Was the god they viewed was in charge of the god in charge of this creation. Was a good and loving it a powerful god not an angry and vengeful. In the end. Would save an embrace all his human children. Even the most wayward. Does the university of sad that there was no hell and damnation. For all human souls would eventually be united with god in heaven. And that humanity with its inherent. Goodness given to them from their father god. That humanity was capable of creating an approximation of the kingdom of god. Here on earth. Kneeland took this positive theology to heart. And began to preach these universalist words. He began his universalist career as an itinerant preacher in new hampshire. Finally setting settling in the church in langdon new hampshire. Which he successfully pastured for 7 years. During this time he was credited with converting several orthodox preachers. To the universalist caught. In 1811. New-look move to a new church. In charlestown massachusetts just outside the thriving city of boston. Under his energetic and charismatic leadership the church prosper. And his reputation as a. Persuasive. And inspiring preacher group. 1 cardigan. Describe him thusly. The most venerable man. I ever saw in the pulpit. Does commanding presence. All illuminating blue eyes. His voice never boisterous. Distemper never ruffled. Wonderfully impressive and calmness. And persuasive candor. Remarkably self-possessed full. Atarax. There was a quiet dignity in all of his movements. Mms first-year watan. Besides all this his moral character was clear of blemish. As we can reasonably hope to see anywhere. But just three years into his charlestown ministry kneeland abruptly resigned. His pulpit. Abandoned the universalist ministry. And went into the. Dry-goods business. With his wife. He claimed to be leaving the ministry for financial reasons but the truth was. He was beginning to have serious doubts. As one historian put it. About the authenticity. Of christian scriptures. And the authority of christian revelation. He wants road. I had my doubts as to the truth. Of many things recorded in the bible. But the universe was general convention the national church body of the universalist. Would not accept losing so talented and energetic a minister and so in 1814 they begged him. To return. An 18-16 after a long correspondence. Debate with his old friend hosea blue over the fine points of universalist and christian doctrine. Which was published by the way these letters back and forth. He did return to the universalist full. First. To our church in white's whitestown new york in 1816. And then to the lombard street church in philadelphia in 1818. Was unable. To repress. The serious doubts he was having about christian faith. And both his colleagues in the universalist ministry. And the congregants in the churches he served were alienated. And upset and offended. By the increasingly unorthodox content of his sermons. As new orleans theological and social ideas became more radical and controversial. Controversy swirled around him. But it didn't slow him down of yet as one story and rights. Doreen is philadelphia years. At the lombard street church. Neyland was almost superhuman lee busy. He published sermons and tracts. Edited denominational in secular newspapers. Compile the hymnal. What's the universalist church rejected. Made a translation of the new testament. And developed a new system of spelling. Engaged in several public marathon theological debates with other orthodox clear with all orthodox clergy. And helped his wife with a new dry goods store and served. As a government. Spectre. Of imported cats. That's all he didn't. I'm known as kind of an energizer bunny myself but this guy puts me to shame. By this time after neyland. Who's the illogical and social thinking was moving further and further away. Traditional. Understanding. Was in perpetual conflict with both the universalist church of america. And with every congregation. He served. After bitterly dividing is philadelphia corrugation with his radical ideas. He moved to a church in new york city. And thereafter conflict over his ministry arose in that congregation. 21 in boston where is preaching once again caused him to lose his pulpit. You know he was not a stable career kind of guy. Finally 18-29 things came to a head. At the urging of his old friend hosea balloon you informally renounce. Christianity. And was the fellowship by the new england universalist convention. Bethesda.net the neyland. And is incredibly fertile mind. Was silence. In 1831 having abandoned. Sharetea. But not free religion. He started his own newspaper called the boss. Investigator. Any became active in an emerging movement called the free thought movement. Which was not christian. But liberal. Where the intellectually remained in this free thought movement. Until his death. As the lead lecturer of the newly founded first. Society of free inquiry is that a great name. If which was basically a congregation. First society of free inquires of boston. Neon film. The federal state federal street theater each sunday and wednesday evening. With more than. 2000. Listener. Accession. And they were excited. Intrigued in boston by his modern radicals. And just what did he believe what was all this radical thought well. In 1833. He put much of his post-christian. Naturalistic. Libertarian thinking. Toilet paper. Called a philosophical creed i read from it now to you. I believe kneeland began. In the existence of a universe of suns and planets. Among which there is one son. Belonging to our planetary system. Other suns being more remote are called stars. But they are indeed sons. Two other planetary systems. I believe that's all he was going to put humanity cannot into perspective. I believe that the whole universe. Is nature. And the word nature embraces the whole universe. And the god of nature. So far as we can attach any rational idea to other. Are perfectly synonymous terms. And then he went on. I am not. Epsom charge. That is instead of their believing there is no god. I believe all is god. And that all power that is is in god. And if there is no power except that which precedes. From god. I believe the god is all in all. M.. Whatever that is. And that it is in god we live. Move and have our being it is. God. We live and move and have our being. And at the whole duty of man. Consists in living as long as he can. And then promoting as much happiness. As he can. Well he lives. And elsewhere in explaining how we move past traditional universalist. And kristen thinking he wrote. In some respects i am still universalist. But another's i am not. I still hold of course to universal philanthropy. Universal benevolence. And universal charity. I'd like the universalist i do not believe in punishment after death. And in these respects i am still universalist. But in several other important aspects. He said i am no more a universalist. Then i am an orthodox christian. Universalist believe. In a transcendent personal god which. I do not. Universalist believe in christ. Which i do not. I believe the whole story concerning him. Is as much a fable and a fiction. As that say of the god of prometheus. And then he goes on universalist believe in miracles. Not. A universalist believe in the resurrection of the dead and immortality and eternal life. Which i do not. I believe that all life. Is mortal. The death. Is any turtle extinction of life. To the individual who possesses it. Edit no individual lives forever. Ever be a turn. And then that was a. Sharks. Those who believe in. Crisis in the turtle figure. And then anyone engine. As universalist. No longer wish to consider me as being of their faith i no longer wish to be considered in their order either you can't fire me i quit. Add a relates to the belief he went on in things unseen i profess. Believe it all realities of which i can form a rational conception. And nothing more. Tony1 essentially evolved. From being a universalist christian. In a traditional universalist way. To being irrational naturalistic humanist. Almost 100 years before rational naturalistic humanism. Text significant holes in american intellectual life and then unitarianism and and universalist. In addition to his on unorthodox. Theological and philosophical ideas he also held it may not surprise you to hear radical social and political views for his day. He was fiercely communitarian. Believing as jesus said. The society's wealth must be shared for the benefit of all he was not a teacher. He endorsed tax-supported national education system. He supported anti-monopoly laws for big business. He fought for improved conditions for american workers. And land reform for the rural poor. He also supported equal rights for black. And the fact was one of the first universalist clergy to come out again. Slavery. In 1830 when no one in all of boston would provide the great abolitionist william lloyd garrison. A place to speak. Abner invited him to speak at his free-throw at society and julian hall. Anyone even spoke up in favor of them the almost. Universally condemned practice. Of interracial marriage this in 18. He wrote. The basic principle of society. Should be the principal of perfect equality. Esther rights and privileges. Totally regardless. Lovesac. Irregardless. Of color. Neon also care deeply about women and families issue family issues. Enthusiastically married. 4 *. Being being widowed in succession by his first three wives. And even fathered a child by his fourth wife when he was late in his six. Advocated equal rights for women suggesting they keep their own names and bank accounts upon marriage. And have the right to divorce their husband and almost unheard-of suggest. In 1840. And have the right to practice. Birth. During a lecture late in his career. After he had rejected much of biblical scripture authority. Frequently calling the bible fiction. Neyland read from the old testament book of leviticus. In this speech. Which instructed husbands to quote. Suffer not a woman. During her time of month. To be near you because. She is unclean. And then. Deland bellowed from his pulpit. That's not true women or not i'm cleaning it anytime. And then he said this isn't a very good book in its attitudes toward women and he threw the bible. Like that. Now you're getting to know why he's about to be convicted of heresy i think. This story best illustrates why this free and fiery thinker. Who always had a way of drawing public attention to himself was in the persecuted prosecuted and jailed. For blasphemy. After years of radical lecturing and publishing in boston. He was accused by a massachusetts grand jury. Of being an atheist and a blasphemer and was indicted. I must point out here that sadly. Many of his accusers. Came not just from the puritan circles but also from the unitarian elite. Who dominated massachusetts. Kneeland underwent five blasphemy. From 1834. And 1838. Where is several historians observe he was try not only for his unorthodox theological ideas. Before his social thought. As well. At one place in the court record it was recorded quote. The denial of god his creation or final judging of the world. With the intent and purpose. Nederland to disparage god. And a or destroy the reverence due to him capitulate. Is. In fact kneeland had moved in this thinking not to atheist. As he himself said. He had moved to pantheism. He wrote i believe the god of nature. Both capitalized in his writing both god and nature. So far as we can attach any rational idea to either. Are synonymous terms. And instead of leaving there is no god i believe is i read you earlier that all is god. It is in god we live and move and have our being. And that the whole duty of man. Of living as long as he can. And then promoting as much happiness. No. This is rather tame stuff. In the 21st century. And in many many in our congregation. Hold similar theological views before 19th century. Kristen new england this was all too much. Ulta modern all to way way way left. The prosecuting attorney for the commonwealth of massachusetts further warned the jury. And some of you may recognize this as being similar to the attack. The religious conservatives are making against gay marriage today. He warned that if neyland were not punished for his ideas quote. Marriages will be dissolved. Prostitution made easy and safe. Moral and religious. Strength will be removed. Properties in the foundations of society broken up. @property made common. And universal mischief. And misery will ensue unquote. 4 ton. Kneeland one appeals. The guilty verdict. But the fifth time is fifth blasphemy trial he lost. And the governor of massachusetts. Refused a petition of leniency. Sign by leading unitarians ralph waldo emerson. Ralph william ellery channing another intellectual luminaries of boston. Based on the principles of freedom of speech and the press. Kneeland served his full 60-day term in the dark. And miserable recesses of the boss. Common jail. When i used to walk to work in boston. I would pass that. It's a miserable. Play 6:9. I think they liked it up a little bit put in some windows and other stuff. Anyway those who visited kneeland in prison found him quote in fine fettle. Enjoying his markers roll. At 11 of the great unitarian clergyman theodore parker wrote after he visited him. Abner was drugged for 60 days. But he will come out as beer from a bottle all forming and he will make others phone. But this was not to be the ku bring about a beer beer and bourbon last week we're still on beer. But this was not to be the case. The truth is that abner nelons left jayla broken man. Disappointed. Dispirited humiliated. And hurt by the many vicious attacks directed at him. Including those attacks. It came from him. From other universala. Even his natural enthusiasm for life. Could not hide the fact that after prison. He was a broken man. Upon his release. Abner decided to abandon massachusetts. It was all its orthodox. Social and religious constraints. He gathered a few of his free-thinking followers. And move to the midwestern frontier to a place. Call. Celebria. Iowa. Near what is today farmington iowa on the banks of the des moines river. This is a plaque. That. Rest. There. Indicating the founding of this utopian. Community. A utopian community where free thought. Free speech. Intellectual pursuit and social equality. Would be encouraged. But the small light district idealistic community never prosper. In large part. Kneeland historian stephen papa report. Because of its impractical location. Some 100 feet up the steep bank from the river. Which made. Supplies from the boats difficult. You know. Kneeling was a better theologian and philosopher that he was topographer. Despite the fact that this community languished. His granddaughter reported that although during these iowa years. Neyland was poor and not in good health. He had his integrity. I just family and he was happy. And she wrote of the quote loving atmosphere of their home. And the pleasant social life. In the little settlement in iowa. As one historian and story. Goberian never flourished and folded soon after nelons death. In 1844 at the age of 70. Only a few headstones remain there to mark the settlement. But historians of his colony. Still live in the area. And astorian remember him as a founding father. Of the state of iowa. I hope that on some level at least everyone here this morning. Find some aspect of this man's story to be of interest. But regardless of whether history is really your thing or not. Have to do with us. Is unitarian universalist. Living in this. Early these early years the 21st. I think this life reminds us about two important events. First. Even unitarian-universalist proudly. Born because other condemned us is heritage. And still cannot believe. Fall victim. Tenero parochial conventional and excusatory. Exclusive tori thinking. In this congregation today we're blessed by having people all over the theological and philosophical map. We have theists in humans. Different varieties here we have atheists and agnostics. Skeptics of various or. We have mystics and pagans and natural as good as than christian. And people treasuring their christian roots. And numerous other theological and philosophical nuances i can't even imagine until you tell me about the. Unitarian universalism. Is a welcoming. An open place. Where we cherish both. The spiritual diversity we have. And the fertile conversations and cross pollination. Which naturally arise when we share our differing ideas with one another. Syracuse usdb at in our movement as a whole we must never forget. That our greatest strength is when we are a very large spiritual tent. Deborah phan theological 10th and political. Refuses to exclude anyone. For their beliefs. So that's the first thing we're a very big tent and must always remain so. And the second thing neelam reminds us up is the eternally evolving and fluid nature of our particular faith. Justice neelam thinking. Constantly changed and evolve is over his lifetime. So must we as individuals and as a movement evolve and be open to new expressions. Of ourselves. American unitarian-universalism is. And always. Is hand-eye has always been a moving living growing changing thing. The last time we worked on the seven principles that. You see on the order of service. This. A statement of principles was established in the 1970s and we are now beginning a process of taking a look at these seven principles. To see what changes we want to make. Overtime we are going to evolve. They want to stay absolutely encrusted with their oldest ideas. We are not that kind of face tradition. Sweet natalie. A welcome change we initiate it. And so we are a movement that. Constantly. Moving evolve. Well neelam's thinking. Seemed downright blasphemous in 1834. Today his ideas. Same kind of calm and benign. Indeed nealon point of the way almost three generations before our movement was ready for the transition. Toward humanism and toward a social humanism. The cared for all purse. So i take it on faith. Over the next couple of. Decades unitarian-universalism will change. That is a very. Very good thing of very good. The story of abner nealon. Remind. We have little to fear. The new ideas and the evolution of face and thought. His turbulent and passionate life. Reminds us that while change and new thinking is never comfortable. It is absolutely necessary. If we as a religion are to maintain relevancy. Dynamism. And health. So hold on to your hats dear friend. For the story of our faith is a work in progress. I trust and hummus trust. The theme to fresh new exciting places. We won't always be comfortable with the way we're moving. But we must move. To a transformative. Healing and good place. And i just want to say today. Thank you abner. Thank you for showing us the way. To being a fresh. And dynamic. And open. And i say i mean.

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2013Sep29Sermon32.mp3

It looks like we have another day on our hands. We're all here and we're wealthy i welcome you to the unitarian universalist fellowship of zero beach and we are so pleased that you have decided. To spend a part of the stay with us in worship. We are congregation of open mind. Loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best cell. Even as we work together to make this world a better place and please know that you are welcome. Precisely as you come to us this morning. Whether you are young or old. Ar straight. Black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you are feeling on top of the world this morning or down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We welcome you. And hope that this hour of worship. Adam celebration. Will be meaningful enriching for you. And that you will find something here this morning to take with you. It will make the days and the weeks that are coming better for you. We bid you welcome. Who come with. Where is spirit seeking rest. Who come with trouble that are too much with you. Become hurt and afraid. Put in your heart. Who come with anticipation. This morning proud and joyous. We bid you welcome. Who are speakers of a new faith who come to probe explorer who come to learn. We bid you welcome. As a homecoming. Who have found here room for your spirit. Who find in this people of family. Whoever you are. Whatever you are wherever you are on your journey. We bid you welcome. Are meditation this morning or get it this is the true me mystical persian poet day. This is a poem by rumi. Call the guest house. I will read it and then we'll have about a minute of silence which i will end with the bell. This poem by rumi is called. The guest house. This being human. Is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. Ijoy. A depression. Amine. Welcome and entertain them all. Even if they're a crowd of sorrows. Who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture. Still. Tree. Each. Guest. Honorably. He may be clearing you. Out. For some. New delight. The dark spot. The shame the malice at the door. Laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes because. Each has been sent. As a guide. From beyond. I have a reading before the sermon which is it is exerted by an op-ed piece by dr. mark epstein is a psychiatrist it was published. In the car we can review in the new york times on august 3rd. I quote him at some length. Talking with my mother for the half years after my father died from brain tumor. I was surprised to hear her question itself herself you think i'd be over it by now she said. Speaking of the pain of losing my father her husband of almost 60 years. It's been more than four years she said i'm still upset. I was pleased to have this conversation with her. Grief needs to be talked about. Support. Mother i respond. Trauma goes away completely. It changes perhaps softens with sometime but never completely goes away. What makes you think you should be completely over it i don't think it works that way. There was a palpable sense of relief as my mother considered my opinion. So i don't have to feel guilty about not being over it. She asked. It took ten years after my first husband died. He remembered suddenly thinking back to her college sweetheart. To his sudden death from a heart condition when she was in her mid-20s. A year before she met my father. My mother said i guess i could give myself a break. I never knew about my mother's first husband dr. epstein goes on. Until i was playing scrabble one day when i was ten or eleven and opens a weatherby copy. Of webster's dictionary to look up a word. They're on the inside front cover in her handwriting was her name inscribed. Only it wasn't her current name. And it wasn't her maiden name. It was another unfamiliar name not sherry epstein but sherry steinbach. What's this. I remember asking her. Holding up the faded blue dictionary in the story. Came tumbling out of her. It was really spoken of thereafter. At least until my father died half a century later. At which point my mother began bringing it up. This time of her own volition. I'm not sure that the trauma of her first husband's death that ever completely disappeared. It seemed to be resurfacing again decades later in the context of my father's day. And then epstein goes on. The result of major disasters. It does not happen only to some people. It is an undercurrent of trauma he writes runs through ordinary life. Shot through as it is with the poignancy of impermanence. I like to say that if we're not suffering post-traumatic stress disorder we are suffering free. There is no way to be alive he right without being conscious of the potential for disaster. One way or another death. And it's cousins old age illness accident separation in-laws. Over all of us. No one is immune. Our world is unstable and unpredictable and operates to a great degree and despite. Incredible scientific advancement outside our ability to control it. My response to my mother. The trauma never goes away completely points to something i have learned through my years as a psychiatrist. Epstein right. In resisting trauma. In defending ourselves from feeling its full impact. We deprive ourselves of its truth. As a therapist i can testify how difficult it can be to acknowledge one's distress. And admit one's vulnerability my mother's knee jerk reaction shouldn't i be over the death of your father by now. Is very common. And then he gets to a very interesting. There is a rush to normal. And many of us. That closes it off. Not only to the depths of our own suffering but also as a consequence. To the suffering of others. And then he hands. The willingness to face trimmers. Pj large small primitive or fresh. Is the key. To healing them. They may never disappear. In the way we think they should but maybe they don't need to do. Trauma. Is an eradicable aspect of life. And we are human as a result of it. Not. In spite of it. Here ends the reading before the sermon. Every once in awhile i come across something in the morning newspapers i instantly know i have to share with you and that happened to me. Last august. Fourth what i read this wonderful five piece in the new york. Timespy doctor. This morning i want to further reflect on what he has written. And i want to do so at this particular moment in the life of our congregation because. As many of you know over the past several months many members and friends of this congregation. Have experienced a great deal of trauma and grief and loss and disruptions things seem to go in cycles and we're in the down cycle. Of trauma. In this congregation. Many of you have recently suffered either in your own lives or the lives of those close to you illness. Pain suffering brief dislocation. And so the time seemed ripe. To spend a little time this particular sunday to think about trauma in our lives. And what we can do to successfully move. And ruin. Both emotionally and spiritually now before i really get rolling i want to share a slight. Ministerial worried that i have for you this morning and how shall i put this. Sensibility. The sermon does have a bit of a zen quality to it and my fear is that while some of you will instantly understand. The tone of what i am saying about trauma this morning others of you rooted. Firmly in the habit of western rational discursive thought patterns. They have a bit of trouble following my buddhist town this morning that said let me begin. The first point i want to make this morning is 1 the factor epstein makes. In the new york times piece and that's simply is. Expect. ,. During your lifetime. I believe it is important. For all of us both emotionally and spiritually to expect. Again here is how epstein puts this persistent truth. An undercurrent of trauma runs through ordinary life. Shot through with a poignancy of impermanence if we're not suffering post-traumatic stress disorder we should be. Experiencing free. Traumatic. Stress. Disorder. This potential. For disaster. Is everywhere. And no one. Is immune. Understand. Universal reality about the fragility. And the risk and the danger of our lives and when trauma suddenly doesn't rude. In our personal lives when a marriage falls apart. When a child or grandchild becomes gravely ill. Or guys. When a dear friend is killed in a three-car accident with an illness we never saw coming. Suddenly takes over our lives and threatens our very existence as has happened to dottie grant this. Week before last. When trauma. Intrudes us. We are awesome shocked and totally resistant to what's happening that's natural i guess. And if we treated as if the laws. Universe have suddenly been upended and crazy and unacceptable. Laws of the universe. Suddenly been upended in crazy. Or unacceptable ways they are simply. Play always have. In unpredictable and often on pain painful and unwelcome way. Trauma is a persistent part of life and we should expect to encounter it again and again. And now we arrive at the second point about coping with trauma in our lives i wish to bake and that is simply. When it breaks over you don't instantly ask. Why me. That's natural you know we always do it first. But you can't get stuck there that why me question. Usually when the worst. Usually the worst and spiritually and emotionally most unproductive question to ask. When were kicked in the pants in life is why me. It almost never makes any constructive sense. Why has this calamity. This loss or hardship why is this grief this illness come to me. Honestly amor sensible and fair question to ask when trauma and intrudes is. Why not me who am i to think. I am exempt. I mean. We. Who of us are. Able to think that we will effortlessly. Skate our way through life without bumping up against real hardship in this location. Why should we somehow imagined ourselves exempt. From the trouble of the world. Besides on the other easier side of life's equation. We don't usually ask why me when really really really good things happen to us. Why do i deserve these loving children and grandchildren of mine we expect it. How come i've been blessed with such good health good friends good times a good career of course i deserve that. So why should we ask the question. When the negative. Any more than we asked when the blessings. I guess what i'm trying to say is gently as i can. Is it when trauma inevitably comes into our lives and they get even the luckiest and most charmed of us. Eventually we'll encounter in. We should not spiritually take it personally. As if some sort of cosmic affront. Or unjust punishment from the hand of life but rather. Accepted as quickly as we can as a natural and necessary part of life. Something we have to face. And engage and move through. Until we get back to a place of equilibrium and call now. Let me say this just a little differently. And yes a little more pointedly. 3 mi 40 years in this business of ministry. I've worked with some people who when their lives were swept. In the traumatic or difficult loss or pain. People who are totally unable to integrate the hardship. Enter their understanding or their narrative of their life. Results. They spend all of their emotional and spiritual capital arguing with life about the unknown. Bare hands they have personally been dealt. Rather than moving as i like to say moving with the new information about how their life is going to be. Instead of saying i am now a person who's going to live with cancer. They say how dear life. Let cancer. Come. Tumi. People who spiritually and emotionally absolutely refuse to accept trauma. As a part of their lives block themselves. From proactively moving with that trauma and through it. And dusty make it all the more difficult to get back. To any sort of normalcy that is joyful for them do you understand this. I know this is a hard thought but i believe all of us over the course of our lifetime. Need to strike a kind of stoical existential truce when trauma comes to us not befriend it. Or submit to it. But somehow strike a truce with it. And be willing to bravely and patiently slog our way through these tough times. Without thinking ourselves as some poor picked on victim of life. Spell the words don't flatter yourself mary it's not about you. I am passionately persuaded. Whenever trauma and all of its manifold and complex possibilities. Comes into our lives we need to accept as rumi was saying about the guest house. This being human is a guest house with all these visitors. Except the power and the reality of the visitors. Give it its 2 and then move in our lives not. Not from where we would ideally like to imagine ourselves but where we actually are steadily working our way. Back into life in the context of what has befallen us. I guess what i'm really talking about here. Is it kind of. Emotional and spiritual mindfulness in the broadest sense that enables us. Be fully with the traumas of come our way. Move. With them and threw them wensing our way back to a life we can be at peace with. In my now classic book. Everyday spiritual practice which much to my surprise is still as a nomination will best it's all like twelve thousand copies that's a lot of books i'll tell you. In my my blockbuster book everyday spiritual practice. Simple pathways to lending to enriching your life. I have a chapter on mindfulness written by my. Colleague jim austin who was the the it guy at uua headquarters is in the ministries nit buddhist. And. He talks of. He talks about mindfulness is not just something. That we need one more cycling we're taking a beautiful walkthrough riverside parkour. Looking at our grandchild in our hands for the first time. Mindfulness is not just reserved. For the pleasant things it's also is reserved and needed for the traumas in the difficult times i quote him from his from my book. Mindfulness is a kind of remembering. Remembering to be here to be present. To pay attention to this moment in life to remind yourself to show up. In the present moment. Be that moment. Pleasant. Or unpleasant. Mindfulness seawright is characterized by a spacious knowing. Of what is happening. It requires from us a willingness to be open to our experience. And then it goes on. We human beings have a natural tendency. Do not want to experience unpleasantness. The human animal like all other animals recoils. From painful or undesirable experiences. And is attracted to pleasant or gratifying once but sooner or later jim wright. We are all confronted with the changes of growing older. The loss of loved ones and our fears of approaching illness and death. Mindfulness practice he concludes. Can help us see that though we may not be able to control what is happening. We can learn to work with our resistances. And move. Through the pain and unpleasantness. To a better. What gym the buddhist saying is precisely what dr. epstein the psychiatrist is affirming to us. And that is my fourth point. When my third point. I guess. Winston areas when trauma comes into our lives again always unbidden always unwelcome. We must face them. We must lean into trauma and give them your two. And although it's hard let them have the spiritual emotional space. They are going to demand. For only then. Will be able to work with them. And threw them back to a better place. The 12th century persian poet seem to understand this necessity we're in another quote he said. Don't turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandage place. That is where the light. Interest. Let me see if i can physically represent. This healing spiritual emotional stance of leaning into trauma with you paul amaral. Imagine paula some big and unpleasant trauma in my life. You're really sweet guy. But right now you're a big unpleasant, so when. So when i encounter you i need to engage you. And i need to lean into you not try to push you out of my life. What arena do you and not to let you overpower me. But to stay in this thing and as you begin to move. I need to move with you. And pay attention to your emotions. That are uneven and unsettling as he pushed me back and is i try to. Positively resist you this is a physical representation of what i'm talk. You're really not such a big an awful trauma. Move with the trauma. Lean into it. Bringing to bear just the right amount of personal attention. And spiritual and emotional pressure that is required. To stay in balance with it. Until it fades. Away. Important besides. Although i think it is crucial to engage and move with trauma with an energy or life. I do not believe. The trauma has a purpose. Or that it visits us quote and how many times have you heard this. To teach us something to make us better or stronger or more loving person. Trauma has no such purpose. But it is often true my life experience tells me. The trauma does. Demanding disruption. Through its unwelcome visitation. To quote rumi when that. Guest house. Darkness comes in. It does. Work. To make us better or stronger or more loving people. Perhaps this is because trauma. Forces us. To see life differently than we ever have it opens cracks. In our. Smooth exteriors. That lets the light in that we would never have expected and never have welcomed. Trauma walk always. Painful in the welcome. Leaves us often positively transformed that's not its purpose. But that's austin would have. Second decide is a warning. Instead of engaging their trauma. As i did with paul right now. Many people seek to hide. From the reality and the demands of the trauma. That was not giving it to do. Buy emotionally running away. Instead merging their lives and drugs. Or alcohol or other avoidance mechanism. That never work. I have a friend who after the death of her beloved husband of 40 years fled into the world of. Computer video games. Rather than move proactively with her heart loss. In her own psyche and soul. She submerged yourself. Into the nonsense. A video game. She let the noise and the clutter of the game's distract her from doing the soul and grief work. She needed. I hope you all understand except except the wisdom of what i'm saying about the psychological and spiritual necessity. Of giving trauma it's due. But it comes. To our door. Not surrendering to it in self-pity. Or despair. But rather leaning into it. Engaging it the old adage you can run but you can't hide. Applies here. When trauma visits us we must mindfully and soulfully engage it. Work with it. Move with that. For i believe that is the only pathway to ensure that the dark power will fade. Allowing us. Just slowly see the sun shine again. Of a normal morning. And that's why i arrive at the final thing i want to say to you this morning. About trauma. And about proactively dealing with it in our lives and this is one of the key points. Which dr. epstein made in his essay. And that is to resist the temptation after trauma hits. To rush back. To the normal. Again i called him. Whether they be large or small primitive or fresh. Trauma may never disappear in the way never disappear. Trauma isn't eradicable aspect of life. We are human beings as a result of trauma. Not in spite of them. What are you suggesting is in our american can-do culture. Which always wants to fix everything you know america's mr. fix-it. And return everything to normal immediately. We are missing the spiritual emotional poem. When it comes to try my grief for loss of we think we just want to fix things immediately. Decrying will he call the rush back to normal. The many people attempt after trauma he writes. Morning. Morning mourning morning has no timetable. Grief is not the same for everyone. And it does not always go away. The closest he writes one confined to a consensus about it among today's therapist is the conviction. Set the healthiest way. To deal with trauma. Is to lean into it rather than simply keep it at bay. The reflective rush back to normal he writes is counterproductive. In the attempt to fit into be normal. The traumatized person and that is most of us. Deals. Estranged. And then he concludes. We are offering conditioned to believe that normal is where we should be. But the truth is the victims of the boston marathon bombings. Will take years to recover. Soldiers returning from war carry their battlefield experiences within. For decades. Or their entire lives. And the grief we experience. When we lose a loved one may well linger with us we'll linger. For the rest of our lives. It's not something. You quote on. I wish i could count the times. The people who have tragically lost someone very close to them a partner a child a parent have told me. They feel the pressure from well-meaning people around them. To be over there grease in a year or so. That pressure. Which may largely be the result of other people's anxiety. And discomfort with your loss and sadness. They're making it about them by telling you to get over you. Is totally unrealistic and always not helpful. When you lose someone terribly significant to you. The grief and trauma does not depart quickly or oncue. And in fact they reside in your soul should reside in your soul out of your love. A for the rest of your life. As it did for dr. epstein's mother still grieving the loss. Of her first husband. 2 years late. There is no formulaic timetable for healing. From lawson trauma. And we must all refrain from suggesting two others that there is one. Rather we should stand faithfully by those who grieve letting them heal in their own ways. On their own. Let me summarize enclosing. Where i hope we have traveled together. This morning. What i'm gently suggesting to all of us this morning is that we need. A patient. Trusting and more buddhist way of thinking about and responding to the trauma. 7 - lee. Comes into our lives. Americans tend to resist. I resent plow through. Attempt to overpower their grief and sadness. When in fact a more zen. Response is called for. Without surrendering to their dark powers. We must lean into the trama. To come through our doors. Engage them. Welcomed away. Except the emotional and spiritual time and space they will occupy and work with them back. Word. This is hard sole work this. Bravely moving with trauma. But it is the only way. To wind. Your way back to a life. Of hope. Satisfaction. And i say and mean to you this morning. I quoted her before. I will not die on live life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days. To allow my living to open me. To make me less afraid. More accessible. To loosen my heart until it becomes a wing. Torch.

uufvb_org

2013Jun30Sermon32.mp3

Good morning everyone and welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. We are current location here. Remind loving hearts and helping hands people better world. Please. Whether you're young or old. Where's somewhere between sporting. We hope you will find our service this morning meaningful something weird morning the nourishes your spirit and feed your soul and beauty renewed hope and troy for the end of life. Sporting. I continued my 2013 summer sermon series 7. Seven principles. This reaction always pleases me and yes i see. Immediate positive reaction. It's actually a rather iconoclastic and controversial colleague from texas is named as the reverend doctor davidson lure. Liberalism. Elusive. With genuine acceptance for the different perspectives beliefs and conclusions. Sincere encouragement. For all. Spiritual. This is why. A sincere openness to diversity. Perspective. Genuine interest. In the spirit and spiritually supporting those different conclusions. Spiritual spectrum. Atheist. And just a plain old downright confused we are variously interested or not interested in christianity judaism. What is an islamic religious and philosophical traditions of the world. Who's sister's well-being is decidedly in purposely eclectic. International sourcing. Unitarian universalist refused illogically label cell or put themselves into any face for example. You need to know the disc bars to diversity inclusion and acceptance is as old as unitarian-universalism itself. Early unitarian pioneer francis.. Who is the founder of our unitarian movement in transylvania. We need not think alike. Chihuahua lifespan. Unitarian universalist. With their rigid hierarchical ecclesiology an absolutist doctor's about god and jesus were not impressed. Imprisoned and finally. For his insistence. Should be allowed to reach different conclusions about the nature of god the teachings of jesus and the purpose of life. And how their freedom to variously practice these divergent believes. Delete is one of the early martyrs of arcing. Encouragement. Loveland. End of equal just oracle importance. Toleration. Which was the first of toleration in the western world sign and 15:58 the first and only unitary jean. Every person in the kingdom. At the right to freely embrace the religious beliefs and doctrines that they found on their heart. Toleration. Our little face tradition since it's very beginning. Insisted that all persons in our interrogation must be free. Spiritual. Holy places of diverse and genuine tolerance and acceptance and open and respectful. This is why you your congregations a lot of systemic and lively places. We're spiritual differences. Irritating actually welcome. What does commitment mean. Once you put the challenges of diversity of belief and acceptance of human difference. This way. If you think you were coming to a church which projects. Then you probably will. Sooner or later if you want me to unitarian universalist of groups against your own theological political social views. Variety. Inspection. Engaged in dialogue. 2. Unitarian universalism is our principle that a long-standing commitment. Acceptance. Construction. What's the critical analysis part of the sermon. Shirley freedom tolerance. Certainly it has complications and limited. What are the easy criticism. You can't be taken seriously as religion because you're so open. In your church everybody to believe. It would indeed seem to embrace and encourage. Pretty much any idea. This is not the case. It is far from the case. Because this third principal i am passionately persuaded. Enclosed electrical an ethical relationship. To the other six principles. Are seven principles are and must be seen. Categories. Yes our religion must be done in a free and open up for principal. Responsible responsible. Google or destructive place. And i'll be talking about that. In addition to our discernment about unacceptable. First two principles the last. Which ideas and beliefs are acceptable.. Obvious example of a universalist. Because our first and second prisons are very clear. Universal human equality and worth. Racial or ethnic minorities. Unitarian universalist on open to a fairly wide range of spiritualism perspective. The nearly six centuries of our history. Play scary real limits on what kinds of ideas are acceptable. Universalist. Moral. It is instructive. Build your own space express your own condition even if they are not held by a majority of. In other words. Our congregations in our congregations there are very real boundaries to the acceptable more flexible than orthodox. Because as it says we encourage one another. Where we critically engaged at the key phrases critically engage one another's ideas and beliefs in religious conversation. If we are truly doing our job. Our religious thinking and our religious practices. Let me tell you what personal story.. Back in the 1990s. When i was working as a senior executive at the nomination. I had a woman working for me soon. Who is donna unitarian-universalist was clearly a free thinker. Existed. Overwatch for some of us. Numerology. Online encyclopedia. Relationship between observed or perceived events. Numerology associated with the paranormal astrology and ciliary natori parts. Centuries ago parker am a mathematician. Listen to sarah.. Sarah i said i have to play with you. Yes be the unitarian universalist teams if you are naturally tolerance or value. The century-old principles of our faith and responsible search for truth or support. Boulevard. If we practice disturbed principal thoughtful and wisely. Quality control not all religious ideas. I also little distributions full of people who support. When was the last time williams at faith community truliant. Can be difficult. We need to take the risk and truly engage one another's disagreement. Starting this september running through april season really is here i'm going to host the series. The our talking about our feelings and thoughts and truly trying to one another in the grave ethical and moral issues of our case that. R6tracker. We must also keep in mind.. We cannot accept. So what has continued to practice here in this building and inclusion as we can. Do all movie or greater understanding greater wisdom greater responsibility. That is a lot of hard hard work but i can say that our traditional to join us in 550 years. Diversity. Is always always mean to you. We will keep a place for you. Wherever you make them. If you have cable to know. Go in peace and bring home two hearts that you're in this week. We will keep a place for me. Until you return. Miles in size and days go by our blessings before gear. Voices now a memory. Home. Go in peace and bring hope this week. We will play keep a place here for you. The spirit of god in love.

uufvb_org

2010Jul11sermon128.mp3

uufvb_org

2013Jun23Sermon128.mp3

Welcome. Undisputed full summer sunday here in the atlantic seaboard of florida. We were kind of geisha with open minds loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best selves he's even isn't work to make a better world together and please know that you were welcome to come to us this morning whether you're young or old gay or straight black or white or some other one. We are delighted to see you just as you come to us. We hope you will find our service this morning meaningful and enriching and you'll find something here this morning that nourishes your spirit and feeds your soul and gives you renewed energy and joy for the living life in the days and weeks ahead. Are opening words this morning, from boston minister david rees-williams who wrote this in the 1950s. The breakfast light. Citizen you and me and sustainable. Simple strong and feeble we are joined together in a mystic oneness. Who is soros we may never know but whose reality we may never doubt. When one suffers we all suffer. When 104 bread we all hunger. When one tramps the streets in search of work we all travel street when one destroy the human life. We all share the guilt. Hearts desire. We are all partners in that droid. Dismiss an identity of the one with the many was affirmed by hosea. Buddha. Jesus. Gandhi and king. It has been nearly all the greatest ears and saints of humanity. We are our brothers and sisters keepers. Because every person. Is but our larger self. Santa barbara weather unity with men and women everywhere possess our hearts and minds behold. Don't you love thy neighbor as thyself because i. In the year 1850. As a part of the sad political compromise to try to save the union than was the united states. The congress passed and president millard fillmore shamefully sign. The fugitive slave act. Federal law which required the slaves who had escaped. Freedom in the north. Turn in chains to their southern slave owners. In boston massachusetts leading unitarian minister theodore parker. And the large congregation he serve fiercely refuse to obey this re-enslavement law that have been passed. And it's a direct act of civil disobedience gave sanctuary to many escaped slave slaves typically found safety in parker's on parsonage. It was hounding orator abolitionist and social activist parker became the leading public voice. Calling for the northern states to resist the fugitive slave act. In one fiery sermon parker told his parishioners and by extension the president of the united states this. When rulers have inverted their function and enacted wickedness in toulon which treads down the inalienable rights of man to such a degree as this that i know. No more about natural justice i care that hateful statute of kidnappers to shivers i trample it underneath my teeth i do so in the name of law in the name of justice and of man and in the name of dear god. Any slave catchers were working and the streets of boston. Here is a poster. That was put up all over the city during that time. Reverend parker kept a loaded pistol. Sitting on his desk in his study. Ready to defend to his death if necessary the freed slaves living under his room. And no down for partially for political effect. Every sunday during that year when parker stepped into his last and pulpit he took a saver with him and slammed it down and left it there for the entire sermon sending the message to any slave catchers if they dared stop by. The reverend theodore parker is one of the enduring heroes of our faith because it's real risk to himself. Justice equity and compassion. In human relations. At a time when both congress and the president of the united states ordered america. Ordered them. Under threat of imprisonment. Turn their backs on the freed slaves. Fast forward now please 115 years. The spring of 1965. Martin luther king. And other leaders of the southern leadership conference in alabama. Fighting from floating light switch for generations as you know have been systematically denied to all african americans. Any organized a dramatic march for citizens from selma. To montgomery the state capital. As the march began hordes of white state trooper through although the image. Come on horseback without provocation gas feet and bloodied the nonviolent marchers at the edmund pettus bridge just outside of selma alabama. Seriously injuring more than 75 men. Women and children who were peacefully marching for their rates. Who shameful episode was captured by the three national television networks. And countless americans in every region of the country was shocked and outraged. Justice of the police with him. That night telegram was sent out by dr. king. The religious denomination. In the vicious maltreatment of defenseless citizens of selma where old women and young children were gassed and clubbed at random. We have witnessed an eruption of the disease of racism which seeks to destroy all america. Kingman on no american is without responsibility. The people of selma will struggle on for the soul of the nation but it is fitting that all americans helped to bear the burden and then he sent this. I called there for on the clergy. All phase. Join me in someone. Within hours more than 100 unitarian universalist ministers and number which represented at the time 25 per-cent of our active clergy. Far away the largest percentage. Represented by any american states group in selma including more than a hundred of us including. Do you win president taylor religious second from the left there. Headed to selma support dr. king and the disenfranchised. Citizens of alabama. What's the reverend james reid. Travelpro boston that that's him standing in front of the all souls church in the washington dc. He traveled from boston to lend his voice for the side of justice. Soon after he arrived to he and two other unitarian ministers i personally know well clark olson and orlof or. We're walking back to where they were say from a cellar restaurant. One of the few and tell the master light. When they were set upon and beaten by a gang of segregationist white then. Wonderful wielded a 3-foot section of metal pipe. Reed was people with pipe suffered brain injuries and died in selma the next day. 38 years old. Shock the nation. President lyndon baines johnson taking note of reeves death. Clear the events in selma to be an american tragedy. And his voting rights proposal reach congress just two days after reed's death. And was quickly into water. Like theodore parker. James reid. Is a hero of our faith because he put his life on the line he gave his life. Compassion. This morning i continue my summer long series of the seven principles of our fake. There they are. With a sermon focus on the second principle. Equity and compassion. Human relations looking for my delve further into what i've already introduced. I want to remind you a global terms of what i'm attempting in the over the span of the 7-part series. As you know. We have our seven principles prominently displayed in the main main wall in our lobby. And because our building is frequently used as it was yesterday for major concert the public often comes in here. Lot of people who are not unitarian universalist see our principles and make comments like wow. I like your principal these are things i believe into. This reaction always pleases me and i do secretly hope that some of these people are move when they come to a public event to return on a sunday and learn more about our faith and our congregation because i believe we have religion worth sharing room. But there is a problem inherent with the immediate positive reaction these seven principles getting that problem is that these principles as they are worded are rather grand and blowing religious statement. So noble and idealistic they're kind of hard to disagree with. Some to. I am rather a kind of clastic and controversial colleen from texas is named as the reverend doctor davidson war. Who has little use for the seven principles of art. Banality. She means these principles. Quantity of religiosity. They come here pies. From the secular culture. And from the secular values of american liberalism. They do not distinguish unitarian-universalism as a religion. At least not one with a clear and compelling spiritual path or lasting spiritual insight on quote. Nope while i passionately do not share overlords live and categorical categorical dismissal of our supper principles. I do think he has his finger squarely on a problem with all 7. Each of our principles are undeniably i think gran and blowing generality. While the bowl that hopeful statements about life of the human condition. The need to deconstructed they need some critical analysis and reflection. If they are to be truly useful to us. As we seek to live our faith in this complex and very challenging world. Over the course of the series and i continued it again next sunday with a sermon on third principle. Not only do i want to affirm their obvious wisdom and value i also want the name there limits. And describe or reflect on the ways in which they perhaps. Need to be corrected or modified oncoming train if we're to be a serious religion. 40 series tire. And with the dramatic tales of theodore parker resisting the fugitive slave act and. Jamie dying in the streets of selma. Let me turn to our second principle. No as a third-generation birthright unitarian universalist. I have always found this is all and i think frankly compelling and clear second principle of art. To be extremely inspiring and spiritually and other than helpful to me. As i speak to evermore live out my faith in this difficult world. Simply put i passionately believe with all of my heart and soul. Then it is my duty. How's the unitarian universalist. Who actively worked right here where i live in this profoundly imperfect world. To work actively myself for more justice more equity more compassionate. Our faith tradition but you can trace its origin as an organized movement back more than 500 years to europe in the united states. All religion has always been a religion which is understood the obligation for both individuals and congregations. To be active in the world on behalf of the ideals. Justice. Inequity and compassion. True stories i told you at the outset this morning about parker and read. Perfect reflection. Best of what it means to be a unitarian universalist. I'm just back from the 52nd general assembly of the unitarian universalist association there is the logo it was in louisville. Our parent denomination which was formed in june of 1962 when the unitarian and universalist roy gather each julie and this was the 52nd meeting. The general assembly which was held at 27 lewisville is a week-long event packed with hundreds of workshops. Presentations exploring various aspects of our faith. And this general assembly as an average general assembly had scores of practical workshops. Reflecting our denominations historic commitment to our second principle about justice equity. I want to show you some of the workshop offering there were available this last week. Loving the hell out of the world that's the cutest it a theology of ecojustice appalachia and beyond. Building a movement to end the new jim crow. Redeeming pilots building piece sharing truth. Another workshop for reproductive justice in our congregations and communities. Immigration. What congregations are doing. The shape of justice. Keeping promise in our communities aren't more black appalachia oppression with him and oppressed population. Civil disobedience it takes a team. The true cost of coal we're meeting in appalachia please it'll lot on appalachian social justice issues. Justice. Climate change civil rights for all ages. Navigating cultural differences we never even knew we had. And covenants of gratitude. Our commitment to the earth that's just some of the workshops that were offered in the last six days at our general assembly expressing our ongoing commitment to the second prism. No. As i said earlier in my introduction to the sermon series. Each of these big and bold s statements of ours is vulnerable. Criticism caveat and correction once you begin digging a little deeper. That is certainly true with our sweeping justice equity and compassion physical. Many social and economic conservatives for example. What are. Then our long-standing uu progressive commitment to social and economic justice. Parody and compassion. That is to say our historic habit of taking the side of the disadvantage. If you will be conservative saying goes too far. And does not challenge. Manage of our society to take responsibility personal responsibility to improve their own life situation that is the conservative argument against our progressive willingness to help. They are cute without substantial persuasiveness and clarity. The goal of any good and healthy society. Should not be to engineer across-the-board justice equity compassion for all. Who created maintained and environment equal opportunity. An unfettered freedom. For all citizens. To hopefully a chief economic and social advancement. For themselves and their families. Do the hard work their discipline. Between. Are the progressive position societal support generosity and engineering on the one hand. Individual opportunity and responsibility. This device. Is the nexus of the great political and moral that they that is raging right now in our culture. Between those who label themselves progressives. And those who call themselves conservative. Progressive most but not all unitarian universalist fall in the progressive kim. Progressives tend to believe. The society has not yet provided enough justice. He doesn't quality enough compassion in its social order. Where is conservatives including many affluent movers and shakers here on the treasure coast as you know. Many conservatives tend to believe that society has indeed already providing enough opportunity for the disadvantaged. Problems. Historically impress the immigrant to take full responsibility for the advancement of the great social today in america. I honestly think that the health balanced and nobility bc cancer society. Live radically between these two rather extreme positions. I believe progressives like unitarian universalist with other liberal groups. Alright. To challenge the social order. To provide more systematic justice equity and compassion for the disadvantaged. Debate about whether is good or bad. Affordable housing. Job training for the unemployed. Health insurance for the uninsured. Welcome immigrants. And i believe conservatives are right to insist. Individuals need an individuals in need. Need to step up to the road plate. Hard to take advantage of ample opportunity to provide. I do not become dependent. I'm headed out to other forms of society societal notarized and support. Appreciate understanding. Let me see all this another way. Going there will never be nor should there be a society or world for that matter. With the cure. An absolute justice equity and compassion. Advantages of society will never until be equally distributed among all citizens. That was maybe one sweet dream of pure communism and socialism but both have failed on the national stage. Has failed under the weight of human nature. We are acquisitive creatures who want to provide for our old family you want to get individually ahead it's failed under the weight of our human nature and communism also failed under the weight of global free-market capitalism which naturally distributes wealth unevenly in communities in between it. So give us a complicated dynamic and uneven realities. Every human society. I think it was idealistic second principle of ours this. Justice equity philosophically. Too far it asks too much. And it is unsustainable idealism. If i have been on his nomination committee responsible for the final verdict of the seven principles of principle need something like this. Unitarian universalist we seek to expand. An increase. Justice equity and compassion in human relation. In the imperfect world we in the oven. But you were ideals justice equity of compassion. All have i taken very real limits and must be understood on a variety of levels. As being impractical and ultimately i think unattainable. But all that said i remain profoundly glad this principle wildly impractical. Elgin sometimes is. Is high on the list. Unitarian universalist affirma dream for the human. Just because. Absolute justice. Absolute equality an absolute compassion are not obtainable or isaac even desirable in human society. Does not mean that we should stop pursuing more doses. More equity and more compassion in our congregations in our communities and our country and in the world. Just as principal of ours. Reminds us that we cannot be true unitarian universalist. If we are content to just sit back and some comfortable intellectual armchair. In some safe and warm library of the mind. Glowing a noble beliefs about what human life podcast ideally look like. Are facebook wires us rather to do something. To do something real and active and regular on behalf of our deepest hopes for the human family. I like the way my colleague butcher gilbert what's the challenge of our second principle of a chapter in a book our denomination put together a few years back and title. With purpose and principled essays about our 7 principles. I called reverend gilbert. Unitarian universalist with a proud history of repairing the world. We cannot be content. 2b nier occupants of time and space. We want our time on earth to mean something. We want the space in which to live and move and have our being. To be input repaired. We are ill content. To wear our religion only. In our heads and heart we want it to be express. With our heads. Service social justice work. Is not simply another option on the spiritual menuhin add-on and extracurricular activities. Part of the parcel of what it means to be a unitarian universalist. Justice equity and compassion are lived values of a free fake. Suggesting that the spiritual life. Must express itself. I love that safely. Unitarian universalist means that you personally commit yourself. To work in the world. More equity and fuller compassion. And you can't just say it with your lips. You need to roll up your sleeves and work with others to bring. Fruition. Another world. No. It may be true. That are personal and usually local efforts on behalf of justice equity compassion. Will not be as noteworthy as those accomplished by the likes of martin luther king. Or mahatma gandhi. Her mother teresa orange braids. Sacrificial of theodore parker. We must never minimize the importance of our everyday africa behalf of a more just more equitable and more compassionate world. So maybe we both as individuals living out the routines of our private lives. Add together as a congregation here on the treasure coast. Driving to live up to the heritage. Activist faith convention. May we take the second. Big and bold principal of our faith. 2 golden heart. And hands. Working together to transform this beautiful yet troubled world of ours. Trulia place. Evermoor justice. Evermore equity. Send you to the new week with these words like thomas gallagher. Do not despair that you cannot change the world in a day or two. Indeed give your very best in the little things you do. Daniel find imitation, look when taken altogether. These little steps. And make it to world. A little better. Be a good heart.

uufvb_org

2015Jan18Sermon128.mp3

Well good morning. And welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship on this day when we celebrate the living legacy of dr. martin luther king jr.. We are so pleased you've decided to begin your day with us. We were congregation of open minds loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become. Our best individual cells even is together as a current gation we make work to make this world a better place. Please know you're welcome just as you come to us in all of your diversity in butte. We are so pleased. Everyone is here with us this morning. We hope you will find our services morning meaningful and enriching. I think you'll find something here this morning. The nourishes your spirit and feed your soul and give you renewed energy and purpose and joy. For the living of life in the days ahead. Are opening words come the words of dr. martin luther king jr.. We you must keep the church going and keep it alive have certain basic guidelines to follow. To preach good news to the poor. To heal the brokenhearted to set at liberty. Those who are captive. You see the church is not. A social club. The church is not. An entertainment center. The church has a purpose. And the purpose. Is to deal with ultimate concern. Sunday after sunday week after week people come to church with broken hearts. They need a word of hope the church heels. The brokenhearted. Secondly. The role of the church is to free people. People who are slaves to prejudice. Slaves. Fear. The church is called to set free those who are captive. Set free those that are victims. Of slavery of segregation. I'm discrimination. And those caught up. In the slavery. These are our guidelines and if we will only follow the guidelines. When we will be doing what the church is called to do we won't be a little social club. We won't be a little entertainment center. But we will be about the serious business of bringing god's kingdom. To this earth. Invite you now into this meditation about martin luther king it came to me by way of pete kersey. Who founded in a meditation manual. And lie and i will share it. Attorney wellspring. A thundering river. Story is told of a hiker who enjoy vacationing in the wooded ravines of northern wisconsin. What day you came across a beautiful crystal clear riverland. A pure spring water. Warm from is heike improvised a drinking cup out of the crown of his hat. And after dipping it into the brook. He took a long satisfying drink sparkling water. The high court decided to follow the winding stream. The valley to its source. Hidden deep in the recesses of the forest. The water was bubbling up. Marcy bed and sparkled like the purest diamonds in the sunlight. Get the f*** of the spring was so small. You can literally cover the spot of its origin. With the palm of his hand. Even so you could not stop the flow. The water runs through his fingers and made. It's way down the valley seeing gailey. Went about its journey of mercy. To color a life-sustaining blessing. Bird and beast. The flour and field. Leaving everything in its path. Green. Beautiful. Call sierra. Unhappier. This day has been set aside. To honor the memory of a single solitary. Humble life. The life of man who had both a dream. And live that dream. Like the tiny font of the river. In our parable. The man we honor today was a wellspring. His ideal his convictions his faith bubbled up. From the secrets from their sacred source within and push through the massey overgrowth. Of bigotry. And intolerance bursting forth into the light of a better day. Fruitvale the point of origin may have been small. A mighty river of morality. And social commitment has truly flowed forward from it. Do some try to block the brooks flow. Some pride oh so mightily. Nevertheless as the psalmist declared. The eternal one. Projected truth forward. And nothing could stifle. It's inevitable surge ahead. We gather this day on the banks. Are they truly majestic river of thought. That has made its way out from its modest source. And traveled on a journey of mercy until eventually it has touched. Every haven and hamlet. Across this great nation. It is none other. Down the river of liberty and justice for all. Which offers its life-sustaining message. Men. And women. Of every race and creed. Leaving everything in its path. Green. Beautiful. Healthier. And so let us pause. To give thanks to the source of all life. For having placed this courageous dreamer. In our midst. We are truly to be grateful for the manifold blessings that have come to us as a birthright. Even as we rededicate ourselves on this day in particular. To the thundering. Admonition. Of the prophet. Do justly. Love mercy. And walk humbly. With your god. Hirons. The morning but at. This morning. As it once again developed this third sunday in january to honor and remember the great legacy of dr. martin luther king jr.. We must do so this year in the terribly divisive shadow of what happened in ferguson missouri and subsequently. And many other angry communities all across america. You all know the complicated chain of violent and painful events that were triggered in suburban ferguson missouri. On august 9th of last year when michael brown. An 18 year old african american who was not carrying a gun but did apparently fight. With the officer trying to arrest him. Was killed by multiple race relations in america continues to be a very complicated. Painful and divisive subject. One which engenders a great deal of emotion hurt. And strong opinion. Honestly i'm a bit hesitant in the first place about waiting into these controversial waters this morning because. Doing so can be a bit like waiting into the waters of our beaches off the treasure coast are you never know. What a shark. Or a barracuda. Aura jellyfish or a stingray will come out of nowhere and get you. But it's my job. As your lead minister. To take the risk of speaking as honestly and intelligently as i can about important topics that we as americans together face. And to encourage open and responsible dialogue among us. So that together as a religious community. We can move hopefully tour deeper. And more constructive understandings. And so did that and as i have announced there will be a dialogue about 30 minutes into coffee hour. Outback in this room will ring a bell and any of you who want to engage the issues that i raised and other issues please do so i asked in the meantime. That is you listen to my perspectives this morning you trust my good intentions. And my honest struggle. To advance this important and crucial conversation. American publicly. Alright. I have six points. To articulate for your consideration i will take each of them and turn number one. As is the case with so many of the pressing social issues in american life today. The question as to whether or not african-americans are treated justly. By the police and courts which ferguson other tragedies involving the death of black males at the hands of the police. I've caught the nation's attention. Has revealed deep and painful divisions. In our nation. Following the ferguson missouri grand jury's decision not to bring charges against officer wilson in the shooting of bartow brown a washington post-abc poll shows that the american people are starkly split almost exactly down the middle. With forty-eight percent of americans approving of the grand jury's decision. And 45% disapproving it. When broken down by race and this won't surprise you only 9% of african americans approved of the decision. While 85% disapproved and among white 58%. Approved. Of the decision while only 35% disapprove. So america is deeply and angrily split both against conservative-liberal lines and racial line. And let me talk about that political division. While 80% of white republicans support the grand jury's decision only 37%. Of white democrats to. So the trouble in ferguson and elsewhere has further divided our nation along both racial and political lines. And here in the treasure coast i continue to be disheartened. By the stark and angry divided as always reflected the letters to the editor in the press journal where do these people come from. Concerning the event. With many in the white community ready and eager to blame the black community and black culture for these deadly confrontation. While others assumedly liberal and black. Illiberal and black lizard can be two different groups. Want to blame all the trouble on systemic american racism injustice and prejudice. I passionately believe that these start divides in the way we understand and see these racial situations. Prevent us again and again and again from joining together. Black and white liberal and conservative republican and democrat. To honestly together face the complexities of race in america. And begin to move toward real progress. That will be a solution for all americans and for the culture as a whole. We simply must find ways to stop talking past each other. Playing the blame game. I'm doing the hard work instead of constructive engagement. As is now once again painfully obvious to everyone our nation desperately needs to address. The painful and destructive divide. That exist in so many ways between white and black american. And this is going to require patience. An openness. And self-examination and grace on the part of every. Number two. In each of these cases of african-american males being killed by police officers. The facts relating to each incident matter. At l be there from the african-american community or police organizations should refrain from exaggeration. Outraged stereotyping and selective application of the facts. Let me briefly talked about the death of michael brown as a perfect and painful example of this. I agree with john mcwhorter and african-american columnist for time magazine. Who recently wrote. The focusing that by focusing our national attentions on what happened in ferguson that night we have quote. Chosen the wrong tragedy. To wake this country up. Do the in justices of the american criminal justice system. Well many liberal americans including many unitarian universalist believe this young man was a victim. They totally unwarranted police shooting. Others including many more conservative americans believe he was a defiant troublemaker. And a lawbreaker was alone responsible for his own death. Will the facts as i understand them after a great deal of study. Don't allow me and i honestly don't think they allow anyone else. To conclude with any reasonable certainty whether or not this incident was. A lawful and just shooting. Orland justified killing or. Something in between. We know for example. Put on the night in question michael brown was high on marijuana. Had robbed a store. Assaulted a clerk. But his dna was found inside the officers car suggesting that this 6-foot for 300 lb teenager. An initiated some sort of armed struggle. Additionally offer of officer wilson had cuts and bruises on his body indicating that a physical altercation. That occurred on the other hand we know that brown did not have a gun in his possession. And that some but not all of the witnesses said he had his hands raised. Assigned surrender when he was shot. And we know that officer wilson discharged a total. Of 12. Shots. The last witch last of which was fatal. I don't know about you but it isn't totally unclear to me from these and other murky facts. Whether or not this particular police shooting. Was justifiable or was wrong. But i can tell you is it as an american i'm a little more just i'm a little bit more. Then a little more than. A little more than just made. By the number of highly vocal leaders on both sides of this issue who seem to think they know precisely what happened that night. And whether or not justice was served. In ferguson. And staten island and cleveland and everywhere else america's be they black or white gets shot or otherwise killed by police. The facts matter. And we need on both sides of the issue to avoid wild speculation. And baseless accusations. But that hadn't been said we must move onto my sink the third point i want to consider. And that is regardless. Of the actual facts on the ground. In each of these recent incidences of african-american males being killed by police. The reason the outrage and protests have been so strong and so many communities. Is because african-americans and other minorities are reacting. To a long and painful an undeniable history. Of injustice and violence perpetrated against them by american police. Of courts. And that is something we americans must together address regardless of the particulars of each. Unfolding situation. The morning after the grand jury in ferguson refused to indict officer wilson in the slaying. Of michael brown are denominational president peter morales. Observe this. Ferguson is not about ferguson. It's about the systematic dehumanization. Of people all over america. There's so much bottled up frustration so much injustice. So much repression so much fear hatred and racism in our nation. That the explosion of violence and rage in ferguson. Asymptomatic. Of a cultural. Disease unquote. As i've already said i have many unanswered questions about the particulars. Involved in the recent and highly publicized death. Of young african-american males at the hands of police but something i do not question. Is the saturn obvious truth that for many generations now african-americans and other racial minorities. Have been widely mistreated not everywhere in america. But in too many places. And in too many ways. With injustice and prejudice and harassment and violence both. Perpetrated by the police and the courts now. As i just said. Not all american communities. And not all american courts are all american police officials. Art. Guilty of unequal and unjust application of the law. But clearly enough have been. Jamaican indisputable that many african americans have not been treated with equal justice and fair play and the ended in the respect they deserve. As citizens of this democracy. I believe it would boiled over in such a rage and destruction and ferguson. Was not so much anger about the particular death of michael brown. As it was fury unleashed because of decades of abuse and harassment. By the local courts and police. Surely many of you have heard the reports on npr and elsewhere. There's a widespread distrust of and anger toward the local police. And courts which fueled protests are in ferguson and other. Predominantly african-american communities across the united states. A systematic pattern. Evangelist police and court activity has long been in place for example. In 2013 the municipal court in ferguson a city of just 21,000. Issued a whopping 33,000 warrants. For nonviolent offenses mostly minor driving violations like having a burned-out taillight. Or failing to use a turn signal. African americans their makeup 60. 7% of the population. Butter 86% of the motorists who are stopped by police. Well why to make up 29% of the population only account for 12% of traffic stops. Arch city defenders st louis area public defender group says in a report. The hat more than half the county's in the st. louis metropolitan area including ferguson. Engage in illegal and harmful practices of charging. High court barnes fines and fees on nonviolent offenses like traffic violation. And then arresting people primarily those in minority communities. When they don't or can't pay. Last year ferguson collected a whopping 2.6 million dollars in court fines and fees. Permits mostly black citizens. Which turns out to be the second-largest source of income beyond property tax. For that municipality. As the report concludes. Folks in ferguson. Have the impression that this practice is a form of low-level harassment. It isn't about public safety. What is about. Money. And a quick but important to sidebar here even though african-americans. Make up an overwhelming majority some 3/5 of the voters ineligible voters in ferguson. The elected leaders of that city as i think you all know from report are overwhelmingly white. What explains the sun representative government two things. That city's governance is structured so the city council is entirely elected at-large. Which means the black neighborhoods do not have the opportunity to vote for a local representative. And. A majority of this is impressive even more. A majority of african-american voters their do not vote or otherwise engage in politics. In the most recent elections local elections in ferguson. African-americans accounted for only one-third of those who cast votes. With the result being that most elected officials and policymakers who control police department there and the courts. Are white. It seems obvious to me. That in ferguson and elsewhere. Policing practices and court policies if they are to change for the better reflecting the wishes of the community. And protect and serve all the citizens equally. It is the african-american voters themselves. Who will need to enfranchise and empower themselves and get involved in their local governments. Well of course we can no way in no way condone or tolerate any and justices. Perpetrated by the police or courts. And with other concerned americans will actively do my part. To ensure that we become a more just and fair nation i further believe it is not enough frankly. For african-american communities simply to protest. Or riot. When policing and court activities occur to them. The seem unjust. While we must all work together to end all manifestations of racial injustice and discrimination. African americans separately need to get involved in local politics. And their own disenfranchisement. So that they can shape the policies of their police and courts. That have jurisdiction over their lives. Alright. The third the fourth point that i wish to make i'm jumping ahead just a little bit. After all the arguing and posturing is done about the particular recent instances of black males being shot and killed by police. The fact remains that all across america today in far too many communities. Police shoot and kill black males all out of proportion. To their involvement in serious crime and this is a grave racial injustice. That must be addressed. Wild is undeniably true. And this is a fact many conservatives. Constantly site. In defending the current realities of american policing. What is undeniably true. The crime rate for african-american males is significantly higher. The dad of white males. The number of black males who are shot to death by police. Is statistically astronomical. A recent study by propublica. Reports that young black males are shot. Dead by police at 21 times the rate. Young white men. And recent fbi statistics show that most police shootings in america involve either young black man. Or mental. Dill. Young. Charles blow the african-american columnist to write so compellingly about racing america recently pointed out. That while what most white criminals receive and expect to have the privilege of arrest without incident. Many blacks do not expect. Or receive that same privilege. At the hands of police. I agree with washington post columnist eugene robinson who recently observed. American police are much too quick to shoot. Especially in this is where racism and injustice come in. Especially when the confrontation involved. A young black male. Add a quick to slide here if i might. There are at least two aspects of current american policing policies. But must immediately changed i think jack stiefel for getting me on this radar. Putting these on my radar. One we must reverse the recent militarization. Of local police. That has led to extremely deadly and totally unnecessary weapons and techniques being employed. In local confrontations and we must challenge the technology sector. And policing experts to develop and produce. Less lethal means. Of controlling and subduing law offenders be they white black brown yellow whatever. All right now that's that i arrive at my fifth point. The police in this nation. Have a very very difficult demanding and dangerous job. Which sometimes leads to shooting incidents. And the line between justified and unjustified shootings is awesome unclear and complicate. One obvious truth. That makes policing in america so difficult and dangerous is the fact. That america is absolutely awash in firearms. It is estimated that there between 270 and 310. Million weapons out there close to a firearm available for everyman. Woman and child in america isn't this a great nation. The best estimates. Are the there are about 400 justifiable police shooting. In the united states every year but in great britain. Whether have firm gun control laws and fewer weapons in the hands of citizens. British citizens are about 100 times less likely to be shot by a police officer. 10 americans. Last year the british police all of them together. Fired their weapons at ota love 3 times. With no deaths resulting. And the previous year one british citizen was killed by police gunfire. Compared to well over 400 americans who died. At the hands of police last year. Surely one understandable reason. American police pull their weapons out of their holsters as frequently as they do. Is because of the preponderance of guns in the hands. Of the population. But again the larger truth. That our whole culture must focus on. Is it american police. Need to have a much more restrained gun use policy. Policies practices and procedures. Far too many americans died by police gunfire. Far too many we've already observed and far too many of them are young. And black. And nail. It was that key point once again reiterated there is one more difficult thing. But i need to say here today. The sad and troubling truth. Is it many young black males in america are in crisis. Their lives and behaviors are spinning out of control. In many ways that leads to another thing's dangerous confrontations with police in the courts. And this must somehow be addressed. In several different ways. Let me speak personally and frankly for a moment. Before i moved to vero beach five years ago i spent 12 years living in the heart. Of washington d.c.. We're almost all of the street crime and police shootings. Well over 95%. Involve young black males. Who are on the wrong side of the law. Now we all know. The thera many obvious and interconnected reasons for the high crime rate and high incarceration rate among young african-american males. Generations of poverty. Discrimination and unemployment inferior school spirit robbing lifestyle living situations broken family absent father the availability of gangs and drugs on the street. And the self-defeating culture of street thug. Which is so common in cities. Like washington. To name just a few of the deficits in the challenges young black males face. But. Even though i is an american liberal. Who wants our society to compassionately address each of these deficits. Which must be a course understood as having. They're genesis in slavery and jim crow. The fact remains i think. The some aspects of young black male culture over which individuals do have much control. Put everyone in danger and must be addressed. But i lived in our nation's capital. And this was particularly true after i had a gun pulled on me one night during an unsuccessful mugging. If i was walking home. After dark and saw two young black males in dark hoodies swaggering with their pants hanging down walking toward me on a darkened residential street. I would cross the street. And if they subsequently cross the street i would. Anyone living in washington d.c. black or white will tell you. Given the heim high cranebrook high crime rate among young black males. And they're often ominous street demeanor. It is not racism. Or prejudice or discrimination to get out of there way it's common sense. I tell you this all the way of affirming that i can personally understand. The caution and nervousness and yes the stereotyping. Which many inner-city police officers feel when they similarly have to interface on the street. With young black males with attitude. Let me some all this up by returning to the events of ferguson. That august night. It appears undeniable. That michael brown made a series of terrible. Personal decisions. He robs a store. He assaulted a shopkeeper. He refused to obey police officers instructions into a police car and physically struggle with the officer. None of this means he deserve to die. But he made a series of terrible personal decisions. Did i believe played a role. In the terrible outcome. What i am saying here. And this points to the disagreement. American liberals and american conservatives have. When it comes to understanding the problem of the high-crime behavior of young african-american male. And that isn't there two polar ways to see the problem. One is the tendency among american liberals to solely blame generations of poverty. And racial discrimination. Does focusing their attention on remedial program spending money you know. So forth. And the tendency among american conservatives to blame the failings of the black family. Black culture and black male behavior. For the dangerous epidemic of crime in our cities and dust conservatives. Focus their attention on the need you've all heard it for personal responsibility. On the part of black families black culture. And young black males. Now course we can't easily reconcile or choose between these two polar ways of seeing the problem. But i will admit. In spite of the fact that i am a dyed-in-the-wool american liberal. To seeing some validity. The perspectives expressed by both sides. I believe that is we together address to stat american legacy of racism and oppression. Which governmental resources we also need to address the crisis. In personal responsibility. And unacceptable behavior. That's so plagues so many young black males. And of course it is entirely important to remember this is not just young black inner-city behavior. The needs examination in some communities it's young men in latino gang. For making bad decisions. And endangering everyone in a mini royal places in america is out of control. Young white men. Who are terrorizing. Their communities. So maybe the problem is just young been i don't know. But the nationwide debate about ferguson. Has of necessity focus all our attention. On the crisis that exists among young black male. And our society will ignore that at its peril. I can only hope that many of you see the same complexities here that i do. It'll be open. To considering the intersecting validity of both liberal and conservative thought here. Alright it's time for me to bring this very long sermon to a close. La. Apologize for going on but i just needed to it the what kind of time. We're almost done ramos done. What i've tried to say this morning is at ferguson and other incidences of young black males dying at the hands of our police. Rather than further dividing us as a nation or tragically providing us with one more opportunities. For liberals and conservatives to talk past one another and blaming each other for the problem. The ferguson can provide us all together with the opportunity to once again focus. On race relations. And begin to move in a positive and purposeful direction. As a multicultural multiracial nation. It will take a lot of work. On the part of a lot of people. To begin changing the entrenched dynamics that lead young man like michael brown. To die at the hands of officers like darren wilson. First police and courts and government leaders need to systematically review how they operate in their communities. To ensure that the american principles of fairness and equity are. Applied to all. Second we need to continue as a society to allocate. Significant governmental resources to undo the steel residual inequality that remains. From the scourge of american racism and inequality. To move america florida place where all communities have adequate housing. Adequate employment good schools and healthcare. And the opportunity for all citizens to live in a safe. Clean and peaceable neighborhood. And 3rd. We need to support social understandings. And cultural behavioral expectations which demand that all citizens respect one another. And refrain from violence. Disrespectful. And criminal. Call.. On this martin luther king holiday in the year 2015. Race relations are at least as strain. And endangered as they have been at any other time in our recent history. Let us therefore promise ourselves this day that we each here. Will lend ourselves. To being as the old. 1960s saying goes. Part of the solution. Rather than part of the problem. Let's work on transforming our culture. Rather than blaming others. And most important of all. But if keep our hearts open to every last one of our fellow americans be they. Black. White yellow brown. Or some other wonderful shade of what it means to be a human being. Martin luther king sunday reminds us this year perhaps more than others. That this work is as urgent. As it is difficult. So let us wanted once again get about that work. So that america can i pray it. Someday soon. Become true to its promise of life. Liberty. And the pursuit of happiness. For all. All of us. The part is in bold. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter but beautiful struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the children of god. We are caught in an inescapable network. Mutuality. Hide in a single government. Obsessed. Whatever affects one directly. If we are to have peace on earth. Our loyalties must transcend our race or tribe. Our class. And our nation. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It is not haphazard. I'm superficial. It comes to say that an edifice which produces beggars. Needs. Restructure. Let us all be about that work. Go in peace. And unrest.

uufvb_org

2011Oct02Sermon32.mp3

My airline sermon series on 12. Unless you can see from this description. The central affirmation of my series which i passionately believe in. Is it we human beings were made intended if you will. Experience divine traffic. That's my phrase. Define traffic between ourselves and beautiful. Fun. In our creation we were made if you will for deep. And holy interchange. For life-sustaining relationships in this rich and amazing world of ours. And how. We bring ourselves to life. Can make all of the disc. How we allowed vine traffic. Is a saving. And i'll be returning to this theme. All year long. I want to begin this morning by talking about one of the most important. Spiritual qualities i think any human being can possess namely enthusiasm. For enthusiasm is one of those things that allows for that divine traffic. Between ourselves. And the world we live in. The simple truth dear friend is it pure and simple enthusiasm for life is something we are all born with. But often lose along the way to prove my point about this natural enthusiasm. I want you to watch another brief video clip it's been making the rounds on the internet. Of too enthusiastic twin brothers. We're having a conversation in their family kitchen. Videos. I realized it was hopelessly cute. But it makes a serious point of suzy azzam we disregard at our peril. Human beings are all more or less born into this world with nearly unbridled enthusiasm for this thing called life. Joy watching. Young kids at the mall and stuff. All the energy and eagerness for life were born with witch. Under the preston problems of life we all too often lose. What i'm going to suggest you this morning is it if we are to lead lives of fullness and joy in this creation we must as we get older and. Life loses some of its luster andy's. Which it always does. We must learn how to cultivate and keep. Are enthusiastic for the mirror gift. Human being. For the gift of life itself. Regardless of how complicated. And difficult life does beaker. When i was preparing the sermon immediately thought about an old friend of mine. The reverend david boynton park. A ministerial colleague of mine who has never lost his enthusiasm for life. I went online that's the only picture. But what is very serious and intellectual. All of which i reminded was a certain form of enthusiasm for life. David who is now 81 years old. And a colleague of mine has a nearly boundless and i might add infectious enthusiasm for life. And ideas and persons around him. When dna was passed out my friend david got the zest gene pure and simple there's nothing mild about the salsa. The flows in this guy's vein. Whenever i whenever he greets me as he did when i called him out of the blue last volvo of the blue for me i knew i was going to preach the sermon about him i didn't tell him i just wanted to call him and chat with him. He said. As he always does. He approaches everything in life. With an open and eager spirit. His favorite expression whether we are talking about the first. Touchdown of the monday night football game. Or some new book project here i are undertaking. Or the alfredo sauce that his wife has just made. 4. What he did with one of his six grown children on vacation. His favorite expression is always. Everything is. With david. He's kind of a uu ministerial version of tony the tiger. I have many wonderful memories of effervescence. On the cottage david and his wife at the time marta. We're visiting us at this little wilderness lake cottage we had. It was a beautiful and language july morning on the lake. The gentle son. Teaching above the hills to the east. Loons off in the distance. Mystically chortling to the dawn. Steam rising from the still lake waters in response to the warming air. In the ministry at that time. We were down at the dock feet dangling she and i in the cooling waters with a hot cup of coffee each of us. Talking quietly about i don't know some aspect. The business. When suddenly david. Bony knees sticking out from beneath his bright blue nightshirt. With his hair all askew from the night on the pillow. Still lacking glass. Next to his bed stand. He bounced out on the porch looking like this boat legno no teeth anyways. All that i could do was laugh. Out loud it was absolutely hilarious here's his brilliant man with all of these complexities and challenges in his life. Fully aware. How difficult and tragic life. Terry was almost like a child. Mid-70s. Elderly unable to contain his enthusiasm simply. The gift. Of what was in fact. Stunning. He had an absolutely right. It was. Stunningly. Contrast my friend david's enthusiasm character from children's literature name. From aa milne. Famous book. Winnie-the-pooh. Eeyore from winnie the pooh days is a listless laconic. Down at the mouth monkey who spends his whole life. Barely managing to even lopez way through his daisy or. As a character noticed a little cloud above him. Is defined i think by a total lack of enthusiasm. He's almost dead to the world. Barely aware of creations energy hardly contributing. To the energy pool around him. Maui or maybe endearing and non-threatening the kids when i went online looking for the right picture of eeyore. They're all kinds of pictures of kids hugging eeyore characters and stuff. Dolls. But the results so i think something profoundly sad about yours. Total lack of enthusiasm. Ps i think by any measure kind of a tragic figure. And so contrasting my friend david's energized enthusiasm with eeyore's total lack of it leads me to conclude that enthusiasm. Is without doubt one of those crucial qualities of human being a key possession of the human heart and soul. Which is a precious. Gateway. If you will. 2 full living. The etymology origins of the word enthusiasm many of you know at the tells you where i'm going spiritually. It's origins come from two greek words. Theo's which means god. And m which means in put together you get nco scism and it literally means. To be filled with god or to have the god. Within. Enthusiasm dan in the original greek meaning. Is much more than simply getting really excited about something. Like a miami dolphins game or a new york times sunday crossword puzzle why anybody finds those intro. Enthusiastic. That's my own prejudice. Enthusiasm it seems to me. Is a deeper longer-lasting quality of being filled in your life. With the spirit. The great spirit. Enthusiasm is having within you the highest most sustaining energy of the universe. And this is the crucial piece of the equation it means. That you are able to vibrantly live. Your life out of that energy. Do you have energy. To contribute to the world. Having enthusiasm than in the deepest spiritual sense. And now i'm talking to those of you who are comfortable with god language and for those of you who prefer not to use that line. Having enthusiasm is to have within you because you have allowed it in. An abundance of the life-sustaining and life-enhancing energy of the universe is out there. And it's available. To you. And to naturally then share that. Reggie with life in. Essence around you. Enthusiasm is being open to the divine energy traffic. Between you and the universe it is seeking. To come in and seeking. To go out but you have to be open. To it you have to open. The gate. To let that energy. I'm in. And to let that energy. My friend. David when he was on the dock going morning. Was answering the holy city of his own life. By allowing that divine traffic. The flow. From deep within. Unbridled. Traffic let me put all this in one. Hope clear sentence. We have life-saving enthusiasm. When we open ourselves. To life's abundance divine traffic. And that's become one with the highest. And most energizing. Suzy azzam. Taking life energy in and letting it back out allows us to be fully engage participants. The precious life. Whether its enthusiasm. Quietly done through your eyes. For a beautiful sunrise. Or walk. The quiet woods. Or a hug shared. What's a grandchild. Or a moment spent with a wonderful new idea discovered in a book. Enthusiasm. Is a spiritual quality satellite allows us to fully live. In the days which. We possess. But may not. Only. Suzy azzam. As you all know is not always easy to have or to find. I have an old friend right now. Who's going through a really hard spiritual and emotional time. He recently lost one of his beloved grown children. To cancer. And is having a hard time. Bouncing back from his grief and sorrow. Excelled his soul. During his son's long struggle. 4life. This friend is usually a pretty enthusiastic and upbeat person but he reports to me that for the last few months. He just hasn't been able to find his characteristic enthusiasm. 4life. As he moves through his daily rounds. He often. He says i feel lethargic and empty. Things. That used to bring. The pleasure he said just don't right now. And i just can't find the energy and zest with which i'm used to living my life. This often happens to us of course. As human beings. When difficulties or tragedy occurs it's like a. Cloudberry. It just simply or a fogbank. Just simply comes in and. Envelops us so we can't see the things in. Noticing. That we've known. Inordinate. X. There are inevitably such hard times in all of our lives when we're not again. We're not able to feel that divine traffic. Flowing naturally between us in the world of course we're not always. Cheerful that would be. Grimm. I have encouraged my friend to be patient. With this largely listless time that he's in. I trust that is his grief and sorrow. Fade and change. Energy and enthusiasm will return. But one cannot expect. Course that one's life. Q. Will be able. To be enthusiastic. One must be patient. When different seasons. Of the soul break over. And not all those c. I'm spiritually convinced and i take this as a matter of personal faith about the life that i find myself. That despite these times when we do not feel filled. With god. Or filled with the great spirit. That we were made. We were made none the less for this divine. Traffic. We were not put on earth to drag our sorry lackluster selves and rear ends. From one day to the next cut off like er. From the amazing energy of creation. We were made rather. Alright. So this all may be well and good. But the question quickly and importantly becomes. How do we create and cultivate. Enthusiasm in our own lives rather than just trust it as something innate or given. Which some lucky and optimistic people are simply. Warren would let me just talk for a moment about the genetic part. Enthusiasm in my experience. Some people like my friend david. Are just simply born. With enthusiastic personalities. My friend david couldn't bolt through his life if he wanted to. And neither frankly can i. I have often been described as better or for worse. As a rather enthusiastic person and i would not deny that. Justin energy and many times in my about many things in my life just come naturally for. In my case this quality came to me i think both by nature and by nurture. First i come from incredibly enthusiastic scottish stock. My extended family there is no other way to put it is a pretty enthusiastic tribe. When collins my partner first met my raucous and loud family he didn't know what to do with the energy. When my ewing alexander clan gets together it's not. A calm thing we play bagpipes we do scottish sword dancing we sing we storytel we exercise we eat. And yes we drink beer. It all comes naturally to us. I was born. With possessed jean. But i also think that this is a learned thing at least in my case my dad was. Very energetic playful engaged person with a great sense of humor. But my mother is specially wasn't enthusiastic. Spirit. She did just about everything in her life. Pluck. Passion and purpose. She knew how to take in my mother the abundant energy life. Was seeking. To send her and she surely knew. How to put it back out. My mother was not somebody you would ever. Miss. I think i learned. To be enthusiastic. And those we arrive at a very important thing i think about enthusiasm. Enthusiasm whenever we encounter it in another person especially those clothes. Closest to us. Is an infectious thing. When someone near you is filled with enthusiasm beat for a sunrise on a man lake. Or a down-to-the-wire ball game or an intricate intimate conversation or even a passionate kiss when someone is enthusiastic around you. You get swept up in that positive end. Each of us has variously born. With a certain measure of enthusiasm. And i would have each of you pause now to. How much enthusiasm were you born with. In addition how much did you learn. From. Your other. Folks. A quick importance of side here. If as you think about yourself in this regard how enthusiastic you are. Has little to do with where you fall upon the introversion and extraversion continuum that myers-briggs and other tests of personality inventory. That. Yes extroverts who tend to be louder can be enthusiastic but introverts. Can be enthusiastic too it's just a different form of. So we're all born. With some measure of enthusiasm. No matter where we fall in the introversion extraversion scale. But i think it's also true. That we pick up enthusiasm from others around us it really is an infectious. Quality. Formation decide the last important question for this morning i think ramay. Is enthusiasm this positive spiritual quality of human being opens us to the divine traffic. Is this something we ourselves independent of the influences of birth. And the energy of others is the something we are free to create. Or cultivate within our lives and i have to answer. I believe that each of us can make choices everyday spiritual and emotional choices in our lives which open us more deeply. To the energy. And the grace and the spirit and the charm of creation we have decisions to make. We can each of us by heart choice. By heart. Choice increase. The divine traffic in and out of our lives. Engaging with our world and working to enhance our relationships with nature with others with self with books. We have this capacity. To increase. The dab. Of our relations. I take it on faith that each one of you no matter. What sort of a personality you have. Can intentionally open yourself. More freely to the richness of the world we have around us and as a result have more enthusiasm to share with others. For the last number of years dr. martin. Signalmen. And his colleagues at the positive psychological. A psychology center. At the university of pennsylvania. Have interviewed thousands of individuals. That the key to happiness. Appears. Not to lie. In external events you know that the facts on the ground about your life do you have cancer and having trouble walking your kids are your kids miserable lousy. None of that. A good health economic wealth. None of that matters. But in the cultivation. Of character qualities they call at the psychology center heartstrings. Like happiness lies. With cultivating gratitude. Hope gas. Forgiveness. And the ability. To love and to. And the good news is that the scientists have found that people who identify these heartstrings. In their own lives and then use them in new ways and their everyday lives report themselves report themselves as much happy. And much more satisfied than. And those who don't cultivate those. More people engaged themselves in the flow of their own life. The happier they feel. What i think these studies suggest is that we human being regardless of how much of the zest gene we were given at birth. And regardless of how much enthusiasm we may or may not have picked up from our parents and other caregivers. We are all free each of us to live our lives. S'mores aston energy. To create an open ourselves more to. Perhaps it is a sign of arsenical times. That there's a popular tv sitcom now in eternal reruns called curb your enthusiasm how many of your fans. I honestly say i have never seen the program and frankly i don't intend to because as you know from the sermon i don't believe in curbing. Your enthusiasm. I'm here this morning in fact to tell you not to curve. Butter cultivate. Your enthusiasm. Wake up. To the fascinating beckoning flow of life that is yours open yourself up for god's sake. The divine traffic that seeks to come in and wants you to put out. Deepen your relationships with life and persons around you by choosing to live. The heart. And not to truncate yourself like annie or of the soul. And don't be afraid of a little zest now and then. Enthusiasm simple common everyday enthusiasm in your daily rounds is a gateway. That leads to the city of your holy your own holy life. The holy city of your own life that's already there and please don't forget. Tomorrow morning i'll be another crisp autumnal day here and you can. Step outside of your condo your house on the patio in your nightshirt and you can go. I'm in.

uufvb_org

2010Jun20sermon128.mp3

uufvb_org

2011Apr24Sermon32.mp3

Unitarian universalist are rather curious.. Kristen sunday's like easter. Let's face it we are in a bit of a theological pickle but it comes right down to or have the cigs. But you do with easter. More than a century ago almost unitarian universalist moved past the spiritual singularity of are distinctly christian roots. A firework electric open humanistic an interfaith spirituality. Chihuahua do you still have a few complications in our generation all new england. Still probably identify themselves as liberal christian. Gameost. Well they feel uncomfortable with the intricate story in theology. Around the historical christmas jesus of nazareth especially. The dramatic easter tail. America's wall. Is resurrection. Parker. Basically denied in 18th. And yet despite our unitarian universalist. And friends are celebrating this easter. All across the continent this morning at aryan universalist congregation to gather a lot of liquid acid and nice bright clothing just like the presbyterians in methodist. Easter egg roll. Easter easter easter sunday. The truth is most of us is religious liberals are pretty confused about what metaphors in meetings to take this day but we are not as confused as the kids from mrs. rogers 4th grade class over at vero beach elementary. It seems that when mrs. rogers answer your young students about the meaning of easter this week. The hand of a little leaguer episcopalian i know i know he said confidently and sing lullabies to jesus. Easter confused. But that alone little roman catholic girl her headshot i know easter is when you fill the house watch football all day and give thanks for anybody understand. Next jewish boy for hino is truthfully decorate the front of the house on american flags for the parade and shoot off fireworks. Finally. Bartlett unitarian universalist kid in class raised his head and he said. Easter is when we remember that after a three-year ministry among the judean people to use this road triumph was crucified on the hill with two, thieves and finally buried in the kid yes that's right. As religious liberal. But it doesn't work about christian friends and neighbors. We aren't necessarily getting clearer about what this day. Cheerful april festival about the return of spring. So don't get me wrong. Celebrating first resurrection rhythms at this time of year it is good or is it closed. But this is your morning this planetary university. Was looking for something a bit more spiritual. More theologica sustaining. To affirm in my cart. That's pregnant. I'm speaking in easter make a difference in my personal spiritual life. So what reliable is the reformation. Can arrive at a school spring to our unitarian. Universalist. Well after struggling with this question over recent days i want to suggest. As for us is unitarian universalist easter should not just be another festive.. In the spring calendar. One more convenient excuse for a family dinner though. Nor should be about. Historical fact. Or fantastic theological discussions about the end of the earth. Jesus. Easter rather for us should be everything always. A decision. A decision of the human heart. That is not limited. 21 springdale. Easter vigil to live with hope. Purposed. E-juice. Even in the face. Easter covid-19. Imbecile. Melville. Herman melville from his classic. Cannibal. Depart. Is story. What's 40 day while working out from their mother wailing if you. Small harpoon boat under the command of a wheeler named starbuck. Is separated from the other small boats and run sound of what. Set the appointment storm comes up. At the same time the small craft encounters big aggressive 12 at swamps the bone and socket. Stanley cole malone. Up to water the boat is fighting for its life. Melville protagonist describes what happens next. The water covering every ribbon plank the wind increased watch how the waves dashed their buckler's together the whole squale roared sports and crackled around us like a white fire upon the prairie. In which unconsumed. We are burning. Immortal in these jaws of death. Insane we hailed the other boat as well roar to the line poles down a chimney. Furnace as those folks in that storm. Meanwhile belleville with the driving scud and racking fist darker with the shadows of knight no sign of our ship for the scene. The rising sea forbade all attempts to bail out the boat the oars for useless as propellers performing now the office of life preservers. So. The last name of the waterproof after many failures starbuck contrives to ignite the lab in the lantern. They're stretching it on a wave pool. As the standard-bearer of forlorn hope. There's a nice nap. Holding a candle. Of that almighty forward list. Sign and symbol of a man without. Holistic holding up. Of despair. That is what. Easter egg. Courageously see. Life and hope. Purpose. Or despair. Or meetings. It is similar easter vane i'm deeply moved by eb white's description. Of his cancer-stricken wife catherine. Without her new england card late start over. Planning as easy white rice planning the planting of bulbs in her garden. Get the last autumn of her life. There was something, touching in her bedraggled.. The small hacktober figure her study absorption in the implausible no game. Another spring. Oblivious to the ending of her days which she knew perfectly well. Sitting here with her chart. Under those dark skies in october. There she was only. Traveling. Resurrection. Last year last. Holding cup handle. Warlord. Such artistic decisions. The decisions of hope and purpose. You're all 32 makes around our lives. Death of crystal medication. Intentionality apparel. You still understand i think the probability. Thomaston possibility. At least drive a friend and colleague reverend bruce marshall draws distinction. Optimism. At home. Listen to his words. A friend whose wife is undergoing treatment for a serious illness told me that their physician advised them. To approach the situation with cole. Not optimism. At this make sense. Optimism as i understand it is an attitude or expectation. Very particular result will occur. That a person will recover from their illness. Specific goal that the publishers clearing house bill pick my number millions submitted. The dictionary brusco's on defiance optimism. Nation to anticipate the best possible. And we are told that optimism optimistic outlook is a good thing but i am rarely found so. Optimism often leads to disappointment. When the best possible outcome doesn't recur. We are let down the gauges of steel trade my life. Become the opposite. An explanation to anticipate the worst possible. Is more resilient more enjoy more helpful hope is less specific. How big is an atom. That looks for possibility and whatever. Life. Hope abbott. Looks for possibility. And whatever. But useful for us the possibility that something useful will come from this. Advises us to where we at the realities.. Remainings america possible. Is the spiritual quality that keeps our eyes and our hearts. Focus on what is that possible compromise but. Possible. Hopefully is not applying for the insurance lee believing everything will always work out love you. It is rather an attitude. Whatever life. Let me bring this closer. Couple of years ago one of my very best friends in the world a great guy by the name of. Paul hornung. Died early age of 62 after a long and valiant for your battle. Terrible. Malignant cancer. Areas of speech. From the very beginning of the film has very aggressive and deadliest cancer. Call scientist. Used to live. And that's false optimism fliprus perfect. With someone or cherry police if you would somehow miraculously beat the bad medical pods that had been dealt with. Call the optimism that everything was going to turn out alright. What does brave and purposeful man and was live with. Active intentional personal hope hope focus. Choices. And good possibility. Good deal to say about how life is going to be. Address for tomorrow. Knowing full well that sunday the cancer was overwhelmed body. He doesn't listen live deep stay with intentionality a procedure used in this is mikey. He refused to surrender. Is human agency. This capacity to act he refused to surrender his agency. 4. He was going to remain the purple player in life. Even as they grew sicker and weaker as the cancer march licious lie through his body. Call active lean intelligently participated in his complicated medical. Working with the doctors to fight for his life and maximize the quality of the rain. Call mrs. health. Veterinary practice. Continue to share and enjoy this wonderful. The joyful. Why circle friends. Rave wailers isabel swappable. Call harold that imbecile. In the heart.. Irrational. Rave standard-bearer. Personal purpose. Using to allow his wife to be over in a body. Story about paul will make the spiritual formation wisdom of this man clear to you. It's about the last time pollinate i were able to cycle together. Colonize instant first marathon running buddies and then after we both got older it cycling fred. Enjoying to a buzz long challenging rides. Whatever we managed to get together throughout the year. Our bike rides were always farts a lot of laughter and i must have met a lot of physical dependence. Just bus before he died just after his latest round of powerful chemotherapy with your profile. Downtown new jersey to our mountain home in west virginia. Call mountain. Rolling mountains. Officially come to this place every summer. Anyway they join collins indiana rustic home. Call abilene. And love cycling to the beautiful hills in the valleys a lot of pike road suite 14. Lightning bolts down along the streams highlights. That last october. Keystone auto. He was so sick by then he was disturbed alaba's for physical self and when you stepped out in the car as they arrive in west virginia. Possible. Glasses ray-ban discover card. So with excitement is boldface right there in the dooryard farm up.. Obviously i can't do any of the rides. Is there a wall. Downhill run. The next morning. How can i fight. Pickup truck. Start it up. Thank god we did that long-ass beautiful downhill run. Scream. No one is going from all the lush. Mean. I will never forget paul. Struggling. Eating downhill with 12 year old boy. Live happy creative space. What's worse the last time my friend paul gordon ever gonna fight. At the risk of course i'm good friday sadness. About that smile memory. The larger spiritual point on this easter sunday. Large spiritual point everyone of us. And take it to our hearts that we like my friend paul. Human beings with agency. Beings choice. We are players in this creation. We are always free to hope. Purposely well for as long as we are given. Your pictures of the server. Always choose to pack. Entropy. Refuse to submit or surrender our agency and our freedom as creatures of this earth to pull handle. We are always cheap. Meaning of cosmic creation. Purpose. And love. Enjoy. It is that. Which state is this. And makes our lives. What. Clarity. Even under the eyes of the raven. Even in our last october. Even when the ship is sinking. Up to our knees. Even as cancer. Is about. Living. And livwell. Some may need more of a theological promise than that. It isn't..

uufvb_org

2011Feb13Sermon32.mp3

You know. I like to think of myself. As a generous person. Every once in awhile i must admit generosity. Can be a hard commodity for me to find. In my heart. I will confess that this reluctance of the hard happens happened to me. In a way the particularly caught my spiritual tent. During my last cross america. Charity bike ride. A couple of years ago. One of the riders we called him berkeley bill because we had three williams on the ride so to keep them straight and conversation. We called them new jersey bill. And berkley bill cuz he came from berkeley california. Berkley bill. Was in the habit of doing something that i and many of the other riders. Phone. Very irritating. He would often do something called drafting. Behind the other cyclists without permission or reciprocity olivia explain to all you who don't spend half your lives on a bicycle like i do. And technique of drafting. Which is no small thing amongst serious cycling. Austin. Aha. A visual. Group of cyclist is riding a long-distance together as we did that spring across. The vast expanse of american by the way i flew across america twice this week. Amazed i didn't any case. As this photograph was taken on that trip i'm describing. A group will form up into a highly synchronized group it's called a paceline. Formation. And ride close together wheel2wheel. One follows the other in a straight unbroken line. The idea of course is to break the wind for one another. Like canada geese do when they fly south in the ottoman that v. So the whole group can go faster. And use less physical energy. Across the country toward their next destination now. End cycling etiquette the way of paceline works. Is it all the participating riders. One at a time and in sequence. Pulling in the yellow jersey is in front. And he actually breaks the wind and creates the efficient v. In the air for the others. The lead rider pulls. Usually for no more than a mile or so or maybe a couple of minutes. And then he turkey with verbal notification. Go peel back and go to the very back of the line and then the second guy or gal will take their turn pulling. And does it goes. Sometimes. For many many miles sometimes for hours of group will do this. The key ethic or rule to a paceline. Beyond paying close attention so you don't inadvertently crash into another rider. Primary etiquette is each writer every writer takes his or her turn. Doing the hard work of pulling up front. For the benefit of course of the whole group well. Brooksville. He loved to get into pace line. But he would almost never take his turn up front. Sometimes when i was riding with two or three others in a paceline like this. We would pass brickley bill. Just a little bit. Giraffe. And sneak in the back of allina just hang there in the sweet v spot. But whatever i could go in front of him. Antelope the rest of them could do the work. Now this has really irritated me and many of the other riders for obvious reasons. For the first couple of weeks on the trip almost every time he pulled this. i found myself. Having ungenerous and unkind thoughts for him. Here i am on a charity ride with uncharitable feelings okay. This was disconcerting. And i found myself. Avoiding him at lunch or in the evening is the group formed up into small groups to walk to dinner from our motel but. Overtime. I didn't like the way this felt. Slowly decided. With what proved to be little cost to my pride and soul. Generous towards tolerate this one breach in his behavior. What helped me get to this more generous place in my heart was realizing. And this conclusion was certainly true. As it is so often true in human affairs. When people disappoint or irritate us. I realized that bill was doing about the best. He could. He was an older and somewhat awkward writer. Who's simply wasn't in physical shape. To handle the rigors of this fast-paced. Hard-driving 120-mile. Add a cross-country ride. And so for him rafting behind the others and never taking his turn at the demanding front-of-the-line. Was one way for him to get through the day with some measure. Of dignity. Energy and pride. Once i got my head around the idea. Not taking his turn was the best he could do and was not in fact. Costing mirzya riders much of anything. Because we were creating z formation and doing it anyway after all. I relaxed once i realized he was doing the best he could i relaxed and my resentment melted away. And i could enjoy my, rathiri with him and say to him hey bill get together. For dinner tonight. The generosity i finally found. And place. At the center of my heart. Made the trip more pleasant for both me. And for berkeley bill. This morning i'm continuing my year-long sermon series here on the ten commandments. For the 21st century. Ten commandments. With a reflection on the absolute spiritual importance. Of your cultivating. A generous heart and my cultivate. A generous. Or said differently. The commandments. To practice. Generosity regularly. This is especially important to us as unitarian universalist for honestly. I have a hard time believing that you can really be a unitarian universalist unless. You're regularly cultivating cultivating. Generosity. It almost every dimension of your life. As i thought about generosity is a chi chi chi commandment for living. I came to realize that for me at least there are three interconnected. Distinct. Kinds of generosity. First. We need to cultivate in our lives everyday emotional generosity. The kind of basic heart generosity i finally found for berkeley bill. The second kind is spiritual or theological generosity. Which is really philosophical generosity. Toward humanity as a whole. Which is what are liberal faith has to be about a theological. Generosity. A kindness. Toward humanity. And thirdly financial or charitable generosity. The kind of tangible monetary generosity which we. And the rest of the culture generally thinks about when the word generosity. Comes up financial giving. Let me take each of these three kinds of generosity intern first. The kind of already explained everyday emotional generosity. The kind of generosity that i found on that cross-country ride for bill. Emotional generosity of think is simply the quality of being. Kind. And welcoming and understanding two persons around you most especially. When you bump up against their limitations. Their flaws and their imperfections. Possessing this kind of generosity first and foremost means i think. If you were aware and accepting of hello. Your own limitations. Laws. And in perfect. And dust can be understanding intolerant. When you bump up against these limitations and flaws. And imperfections in others. Having emotional generosity in your heart means that you give other people. The benefit of the doubt. But you cut them some existential slack. As you interact with. And that you are slow. You are slow to be harsh. Condemning. Dismissive. Or judgemental. Back to berkeley ville for a moment. By the clear another dogmatic rules in the cycling world. I had every right. To be indignant and angry. By this. The habit of his a freeloading. In the paceline. But i finally emotionally and spiritually figured out. But there was no mileage. Literally. No mileage for me or for any of the other riders. And being so judgmental and dismissive. 2 bill. In fact the opposite. The generosity i finally was able to bring to my heart. Read me. Read me and blessed me and significant ways on that ride. To enjoy the ride more vividly than i was. The lack of generosity. Was holding the back. Like a 40. Town. So the first thing i want to affirm about generosity this morning is an emotional generosity emotional generosity. We exhibit toward others is a lovely and liberating thing for. A lovely and liberating thing to freeze us not only to. Two more enjoy our own life. What are the firm's the inherent worth and dignity where have i heard that phrase before of others. Even though they may be making an. Remember it's often unintentional. Maybe making our lives more difficult than they need to be. You know i'm right about. Just think back to the last time your heart or mind was filled. With some ungenerous thought or feeling. Your spirit was filled with ungenerous emotions. Are your hands. Worm animated by ungenerous action. Directed at another. Not only did your lack of generosity diminished. The person toward whom your hardness of heart. Was directed at also diminished you. Edit diminished your satisfaction. In that day. Emotional generosity bestowed upon others. Is amazing. Two-way lubricant. Dw40. For the. For the heart and the soul. Which makes everybody's life. Run more smoothly. Put differently emotional generosity. Is the good everyday platform of the heart. From which all other kinds of generosity and joy. Lowe's. Which brings me. To the second kind of generosity i would urge upon you that the. Religious. Or theological generosity. When you think about it are liberal faith. Unitarian universalism. And this liberal congregation. Are all about nurturing and extending the human quality of generosity. We probably call ourselves a liberal religious community. And if you look up in the dictionary or in any philosophic reference book. If you look up the word liberal. The first definition. Is simply. 1. Who is generous. That's what it means to be a liberal. . that doesn't mean that. Conservatives. Parsimonious of course. But the word liberal. Means. 1. Who is general. I like the way writer stephen kangas puts liberalism he writes. Has been defined as generosity. Tolerance. Open-mindedness and willingness to give. Another writer says it this way. Modern liberalism is rooted. In generosity. And compassion. It is precisely this generous. And caring spirit that has always animated our face when it is been at its best. Indeed my colleague burton carly who serves. The uu church of the river right on the mississippi in memphis. The stunning building 40-foot panes of glass. Overlooking. The river. Burton carly. Asserts that the very purpose of every uu congregation. Is to create more generous lives in. I really like the simple idea. We gather here in vero beach every sunday in this house. To create more generous live. More generous lives. Within ourselves. Within our children. And within one another. We are constantly working. Unsharing generosity. And reaching out to the wider community. As we sow increasingly. I doing here with our gifts. Valued service. Nations i quote reverend kylie from. The purpose of our church. Is not to give you. As some churches promise. The formula or secret. To receive the generosity you believe you deserve. From on high. The purpose of our church is rather to create generous lives. The adventure of faith for us carly goes on is not to have a strategic plan. Blessings. For ourselves and ourselves alone. But how to live life. Blesses others. He hasn't just. This congregation forum 30 years ago now. Was. Built founded. Adult liberal spirit of generosity. Are liberal theology which asserts the inherent worth and dignity of every person. And believes in justice equity and compassion for all. A generous. Organization. Let me give just one quick example from today's headlines if i might. Many in our nation. Over the last year or so have been screaming often at the top of their lungs. That our society. Cannot afford to provide healthcare protection. For everyman. Woman. Child with whom. Cher. These. Most noticeably. They are saying we can't afford. To protect the poor. Underemployed. The very young. The sick. And there are million. Waukon doesn't of the cost. And concerned about the national deficit as everyone must be. The congregation. Al-bar unitarian universalist association. 1050 of the. Buy votes at our annual general assembly's have urged. This nation. To adopt universal health care. As a national priority. Not because. Liberals want a stupidly and willy-nilly spend money that we don't have. But because. We have a generous. For those. Unitarian universalist faith by its history and instinct and very nature. Calls upon us to be generous. To make sacrifices. Soludo's in need. Of this healthcare basic protection and others. Can receive those. That is the very essence of. We are at. One way of thinking about this place. Is that this is in fact the house. Which generosity. And i hope that whenever you come in through our the doors of our fellowship into this beautiful room. Whether this to attend worship on sunday or. Participate in an adult enrichment class. Or prepare meals for the homeless families in our community. Or work with others to prune the shrubbery. Or bring your kids to sunday school to ensure that they are exposed. Tomorrow and religious values that will help them live lives of decency and care. Whenever you come here. I hope you understand yourselves. Azan a purposeful journey. I'll try to create a more generous heart for yourself that's what we do here that's what we do best. That's what we are about above. Fallout. It's why we give our sunday played collections away. Each week. This complication exists. To both encourage. And even more importantly to embody. Theological. And don't say arrived at the third and the last kind of generosity which i believe is essential. To all unitarian universal. You knew this was coming. Stewardship sunday. Financial generosity. Don't get uptight. Just relax and listen to be talkin about financial literacy i'm not going to club you over the head. Or sneak my sticky little fingers into your wallets while you're not looking. I want to say a word. About the necessity of financial generosity. This third noble pillar of generosity. Is so important. In my book on everyday spiritual practice. Which continues much to my amazement to be a bestseller in our movement in my book on everyday spiritual practices. Including entire chapter on charitable giving. Written by my colleague tony larson. Who's from my hometown church in racine wisconsin. With talks about the importance his chapter on tithing. The ancient biblical pract. A returning. 10%. Not 20 not 30. The biblical practice are returning 10%. Of all the urn or on back. To the wider community. It's an ancient. An ancient figure. Temprist. Tithing. Is a yearly spiritual practice which my partner collins and i strive. To. Faithful. And i sincerely recommend. The practice of tithing. To you. The really neat thing about tithing. Not only does it make you feel good. Because. You know that. Contributing. To the welfare of others. But tithing is so incredibly simple and straightforward. A discipline. You figure out what 10% of your assets are. And you. Give that away wisely. And when you're done. You can say to other people who ask for money. I've already tied. I have. Made a plan and given what i need to give to. Most worthy organizations i know. That's the simplicity. Avatar. No. All of us have financial ups and downs. Including among other things.. So with unexpected medical other expenses and some years are scarier than others. Like the last couple of years of economic uncertainty in downturn which. For more than a few of us has meant. Significant loss. Personal assets. Or portfolios. But like most of you. I try to discipline myself to live well within my means each year. So that i have some discretionary income. A portion of which. I am able to give away. Buddhist practice. Of tithing. Now. With all this said about. The value of financial giving i fully realize that some. In this room.. The goal of giving 10% of your of your assets back to the wider community. May not be possible this year or other.. Like when you're simultaneously putting two grandkids. York college. Or paying massive medical bills for a 6,000 or living. Shrinking. Pension. Or portfolio. But i would be spiritually remiss if i did not at least encourage all of us. In this community devoted to helping us create more generous lives. Remind you of the virtue of always moving toward a goal. I hope the charitable giving. In your life is a spiritual practice. The brings you sent satisfaction and a sense of living responsibly in well. Quick quick. Aside here. In a recent edition of newsweek magazine there was an article which presents. New scientific evidence. The charitable giving actually makes you. I quote from the article. There is now abundant evidence supporting the philosophers and the great religious teachers have told us since ancient times. That's a generous person is also typically i happy. A survey of 30,000 american households found that those who gave generously to charity. We're 43%. More likely to say they were very happy in their lives than those parsimonious one. Who did not give. End of quote. A very reliable source new. I suspect. This is true with all. The kinds of generosity i. Being generous. Whether it's emotional towards some guy who's drafting at the back of a bike line. Or theological towards someone you do not know. Or financial. Fire giving tucci. Rewards you with happiness and satisfaction it is that pure and that's a. Being generous. Before i close this morning i want to briefly talk about what woody talked about this morning. About our needs as a congregation for after all this is stewardship sunday. We had a wonderful celebration last night with wonderful food and drink and the entertainment that's on protho put together so clever. A great time was had by all. And we have articulated. That we are. Raising our needs here 15% this year. Are your entire board of directors. Has already each increased their pledge amount of giving for next year in collins and i. Even though i've only been here seven months. Cousin i have personally increased our pledge for the new year by 20%. We have already. Received. But as of last night. Many generous pledges increase. From many members and friends of the congregation. All of this is by way of my asking you. That if you have not already made your pledge. Please be as generous as you can. You didn't increase it you were generous. You'll be too happy to go back and talk to you what do you have to scratch the old number and put a new one. Definitely b. here in the text. This congregation. Is a strong and purposeful and very compassionate. That deserves and needs your support. To continue its ever-widening mission of servicing. Immunity we are getting old in this town. I hear it all the time at rotary club in other places. Oh. Your church is. Careful those. Should i say yes. We're getting a reputation. Hey we're just getting. The simple truth is. We need every last one of you. Who values this place. The work we do here. Moving for. The light is green. But you've got to. So in closing. I always want to remember the three kinds. Sweetheart emotional generosity. But sometimes it's very hard. Like. That i finally found. 4 mi. The theological generosity. Upon which our faith is built. That all persons are deserving. Of grace. And our love. Arcare and r. And financial and charitable giving. You can be a. Kind of the heart as you want but. To hold everyone of your check. The never give to. You failed. In a way. Impart. Having. Truly. Generous heart. You have to embody. The generosity. I pray you will always. Keep this precious commandments. Without shall cultivated. Not only because it's the right way to be secure. Triple play. And make you have. A little poorer. But happy. Amen.

uufvb_org

08Nov2009sermon32kbs.mp3

uufvb_org

2011Mar13Sermon32.mp3

Early. On the morning of august 14th. 1942. Nazi soldiers. Surrounded the jewish ghetto in the town of balboa. And began rounding up all the men. Women and children. Terrified and still in his pajamas. 12 year old samuel oliner. Hit on a roof. And watch. Terrible. Chaos low. Here in his own words. Or what happened to him next. After several hours which seems like a lifetime i escaped from the ghetto. Peasants along the way told me what had happened the trucks had taken the others. Including my entire family to a forest. They're the soldiers forced them to undress. In the most vile and humiliating way and then made them walk about 60 ft. Across huge planks laid across a mass grave. They then shot them. And watch them fall into the gray. It took 18 hours. Kill 1,000-piece. And bury them. With a thin coat of soil. After that. Eyeliner goes on. I wandered around the countryside for 3 days days and in disbelief. I slept in barns or infield and ate food awful and finally i decided. To go across the hills to the village of bystra. We're catholic woman. Name spell wiener pipes which lived. Ballerina ballerina new my family from before the war. When i knocked at her door. One night. Ballerina immediately recognized. She knew what happened at balboa. She saw how scared and disheveled she took me in and comforted me hugged me fed me an offer.. Let me sleep in the attic as i climb the stairs bellina said crying. You poor boy i will help you must live. Belweder change my name. And taught me how to. Pretend to be a catholic. And help me find a job at a nearby farm and thought it was. That i survived. And then samuel oliner. Finishes. Ballerina partridges act of kindness compassion and bravery not only saved my life. It's formed my life. I am aggravated to the united states after the war. Became a sociologist. And spent my career working to understand. What motivates altruism. Like bell weiner. And the hundreds of thousands of other people during the war. Who put the welfare of others. Alongside of their own. Who put the welfare of others along the side. Their own. Here is a picture. Of the eminent sociologist. Dr. samuel owens. Pioneering thinker. Who is devoted as he said his long and distinguished career to the study of altruism and compassion. In human affairs. And what might you ask has doctor oliner discovered about good people like the woman who saved his life. After he and his research team from the altruistic personality. And prosocial behavior institute which he founded. At humboldt state university in california after they interviewed. Some 1,500. Of what have come to be known as the righteous gentiles. Those brave non-jewish european. Who risked everything. Often endangering their own lives to rescue jews from hitler's murderous regime. He concluded aligner did. But the one defining human quality people all shared. Was that simply of. Empathy. It was empathy pure and simple. He has concluded. That made. This these people so compassionate brave again old liners own words. We found a clear correlation. Between empathy and altruistic behavior. These helpers simply could not stand by and let others suffer and die. Altruist unlike bystanders who did not help pecos on. Internalize. An ethic. Of caring and social responsibility which they had learned. From their parents. And other adult bottles. Our research shows. They all shared. Pms. The capacity. For love. And compassion. This morning. I continued my year-long series. Here at the fellowship in vero on the 10th on ten commandments. That we need for the 21st century. With a sermon on what i shall call commandments 6. Thou shalt cultivate. An empathetic heart. As a religious leader who's been thinking about are impossibly complex and difficult human drama. For almost 40 years that's what ministers have to do think about. This mess we're all here. I apparently persuaded that empathy. Is one of the most important spiritual possessions any person can have. I am persuaded. Empathy is something we must both cherish and teach in our religious communities and in our homes. And in our schools. Again old liner. Moral behavior. Is the consequence of empathy. Caring for others a strong attachment to the moral community. International obligation to all life. Reaching out to others. At a considerable personal risk as bolina pike switch did to me isn't terrified twelve-year-old boy. It has many many others have done. Has been the force behind much of that which is good in the world. It is saved innumerable lives. And inspired new acts of generosity. And heroism. The research of samuel oliner and his research team along with other researchers in this field. Has persuaded me that infect empathy that. That quiet on ostentatious quality of the heart. Is a spiritual prerequisite for all compassionate and loving behavior. If you don't have apathy. You will not be loving. It is people infused with a. Simple heartfelt empathy for others. Which naturally act. Altruistic and protective ways. Setting. Safety and needs of others next to their own. Simply said. It is empathy we find in our hearts. Powers us. To be the good and caring person. Of which humans are capable. It is empathy. With leaves. What better source. But not everyone in our culture agrees. With the importance of empathy in human affairs. Do you all remember during the confirmation process for justice sonia sotomayor. That our president was harshly criticized. By many members of congress. We're saying the one of the quality. One of the koala. He was looking for. In his nominees for the high court. Was empathy. It was as if these congressman. Mostly. Equate an empathy with sentimentality. Or the excess of a quote-unquote bleeding-heart heaven forbid. Do we have a supreme court justice. Who emphasizes with the suffering of others heaven forbid. That's not important. Again to me empathy. Is one of the most important. Possession. Any person. Or for that matter any. But with all this said the question quickly becomes what is. Precisely. And a vehicle important really something we can cultivate in ourselves. And others teach to our children for. Let's begin by defining a. By looking at the etymology of the word. The greek word empathy comes. From the greek word empathia. Empathy i was literally mean. Feeling into. Or feeling with. As several authors i consulted put it. Dealing with. The situation of the other. This is a much stronger connection to another. Which is. Feeling from a distance. About what another person is going through i sympathize. While sympathy is important. As a level of human caring. A equals d pricing. And causes us to actually do something tangible about the suffering of another. I like the way my colleague the reverend richard gilbert from rochester new york put all this. Empathy which is feeling the feelings of others he right. Is at the core of kindness. It is the irrational root of ethics it is essential ingredients of human compassion. The word compassion gilbert goes on comes from the latin. Meaning together and potty meaning to suffer. The word literally means to suffer together. The german word mislead. Is feeling the misfortune of the other. There are times when our only responds to another's pain gilbert right. Share it. Sorrow shared is charo charo have as the old german proverb puts it. And then he concludes empathy then comes from a feeling of deep sympathy for another. It is accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the pain and remove its cause. Sympathy. Feeling heavy. Empathy feeling with. And finally issues in action to serve. The needs. Of the neighbor. And empathy. At its best i think it's not complicated intellectual process. A plane. Simple emotional one. I'm reminded about the story about the nine-year-old girl who was sent by her mother for a loaf of bread at the store which is a short 5-minute walk. Down the street. Live. When the nine-year-old had not returned home with the bread after half an hour's a mother who concern. There she was about to go set out to see what it become a daughter. The girl bound to do the loaf of bread. What on earth kept you so long some other ass. The daughter answered well on the way back from the store. I came upon a boy who had fallen off his bike and hurt his leg. I had to stop to help him cry. I had to help. Stop. To help him cry. Empathy. Quality of feeling with. Or feeling. Imp. One another. Is experiencing. And because of that clothes identification with that person. Compassion and caring. Close out of us. But again. It must follow the feeling of. So empathy. Leads to goodness. An absence. Or lack of empathy. Can also lead to great human evil. I once had a wise old ministerial colleagues reverend peter fleck. The famous. Jewish banker in the rothschild house. Who also. Barely escaped nazi germany. As he was dying. Is it old man. One of my colleagues went to see him on his deathbed. And he said. In reviewing everything he thought he knew. I've become convinced the human evil. Is only possible if you look into the eyes of another human being and do not see god there. Which is the same as images the rabbi suggested. Opening words. Until we recognize. Are brothers. One painful example of evil that can happen. When an embassy is absent occurred while i was in washington dc. It was reported in the washington post the next morning. One afternoon rush hour on busy i-95 going down south in virginia. Emotionally distraught woman had climbed over the railing on a high bridge over the rappahannock river. A state police negotiators tried to talk. Her into their arms. Impatient motorist. Who are going to be late. Getting home. Began yelling. Jump. Which. She finally. Evil have. When you look into the eyes of another with a predicament of another and do not see. Ourselves. But as real as such acts of indifferent cruelty i want to flip. The theological talkback. The positive. But that's where i really want to take us. Positive way of saying all this. Is the human goodness and compassion. Can only happen. M2 only happen. When we have empathy. And see. In others. Diy reflection. In their eyes. Liked it back. What's a wiener patriots when that knock came at the door from little samuel oliner that night in the summer of 1942. Cheetah.com subhuman creature. That nazism. Portrayed. But simply. A precious. Boy. And the same could be said of the brave and selfless rwandan hotel manager. Paul rusesabagina. You all saw the movie perhaps. This is his real picture. Who's brave and compassionate action. We're portrayed in that film. At great risk to himself. And his family. He say. Hundred. Because he found himself. Emotionally unable. To separate himself. From them. He was unable. Create that separation. Required for. And the same could be said for the reverend wait still sharp. And martha sharp. A unitarian universalist minister and his wife from wellesley hills massachusetts. Who during that same war repeatedly risked their lives in europe to help many hundreds of jews. Escape nazi persecution. Only three americans. Rmd. Famous. Garden. Righteous gentiles. For helping save jews during wwii and you're looking at two of them. To unitarian universalist. Social workers basically. Who act accordingly. It in there a tribute. I said acted according to the most noble principles of humanity. By risking their lives. To save jews. In the holocaust. From holocaust martyrs and heroes. Remembrance. Now. As inspiring as it may be to work out these true stories. Tell me the patriots. Rachel sharp. Hotel rwanda manager. What does all this. Have to do. We can only hope of course that if we ever. Found ourselves. In such a situation facing genocide or violence against others. That we would bravely act. We hoped we would. Such. What's an even more important than a practical spiritual focus for us two days to ask. Ourselves how we can. Nrotc live these relatively safe. And humane united states. How can we cultivate greater empathy in our hearts. And then the hearts and lives of our young people. The good news is the lot of evidence suggests that empathy is cultivated. It can be grown it can be. Nurture. It is wonderful book emotional intelligence doctor janiel daniel goleman. Asserts that all human beings coming to the world. With a strong empathetic impulse. In other words it's hardwired into us he says. The roots of empathy can be traced to infancy. Virtually from the day they are born infants are upset. The infants feel empathetic distress even before they fully realize. That they exist. Apart from other people. A response you right. That is the earliest precursor of empathy. And dr. harvey weinstein in his important little book. Cruelty and kindness. Asserts the parents. Teachers and other adult role models. Who live compassionately. Can and do produce more altruistic and compassionate children. I called him. The development of empathetic altruistic dispositions in children. Is very much contingent. Upon the quality of parental behavior. That the child observes. Parents who shot who shot our their children with rewarding hogs. Squeals kisses. After they witness acts of generosity by their children are more likely. 2. Rear. Empathetic altruistic children than those. Four more coolly dispassionate about such good behaviors. Again and again. In his interviews with the righteous gentiles who saved jews during world war ii oliner. Discovered that those brave. Individuals learn empathy from their parents. One rescuer said. My parents taught me to respect. All human beings my parents. Taught the discipline. Tolerance in service to others. When they needed something. I'm honored to tell you the back when i first was preparing the sermon on empathy. I was able to have a conversation with samuel lighter herself i was born lacking the shinesty. So i read some pool liners stuff. So i go online and i found his. His phone number on the on the web at humboldt state university the altruistic center and i dialed the number. He didn't answer. But i left a message and then because his website also gave his email address i sent him. The draft. Of the sermon i said how am i doing with your. With your work. Couple days later. He called me. And with that thick polish accent of his. Cuz after all he was born in poland we had this wonderful. Conversation he is now 83 years old. And what is the polish accent. I am very much optimus. About behavior and goodness. We all know he said to me it's easy. Prejudice and hatred. Individuals and communities are wildly successful. That all the time. But i am passionately convinced my life is. Is dependent on it and i know it's true. But we can also teach altruism and empathy at home and in our school and in churches like yours you must preach the sermon. Where we have a captive audience. We can teach our children. We can teach our children to act. We know we can teach evil and hatred and indifference. We can also. So what's a good doctor is right and i pray and believe that he is. Empathy is something we can instill in our young. By exhibiting ourself. Children. Have as the old book says crap detectors that work a hundred percent of the time. If you preach. Empathy and compassion and you don't live it. They will get the message don't get the message. Don't know it doesn't. Matter. The good news is it. Theologically also this. Karen armstrong's wonderful book the great transformation. She asserts that in the 9th. The second century bce also she calls at the axle laid before the birth of jesus. The great world religious traditions all. Emerge. The teach-out a move away from tribalism. And teaching that your summer save all of the movie. He said. Two more empathetic view of all persons belonging in our tribe. And this. Just heard the great religious transformation. That makes. All religion meaningful today the shift. Tribalism. To sort of a universal. Empathy. I called her briefly. The axial age was pivotal to the spiritual development of humanity. The prophets mystics philosophers and poets of the actual age. A spirituality. Of empathy. And of compassionate they insisted that people must. Abandon their egoism and greed violence and unkindness and embrace. Respect for the sacred rights of all persons. Any tradition she right develop their own separate golden rule expression of this. The axle tradition sheehan. All talk to the people behave with kindness and generosity. To their fellows. They could save. The world. We unitarian-universalist flow directly out of this religious tradition. Our roots are primarily judeo christian and humanistic and rational. We are part. Our second part of our name is universal. Which means. That we feel any retrievable connection. And duty. We're all human beings. No child left behind. No man left behind. No woman left behind. No one turned away at the door. With the nazis. Breathing down. There. Ours is first and foremost. A religion. Of empathy. And compassion. I want to end this morning by telling an old hasidic tale. Told by holocaust survivor. Elie wiesel. It seems there was a young boy in jerusalem. To the great. City of jerusalem rather a great city of rome. Which was down the bustling capital of the world and his mother. As all mothers of adolescents are want to do tonight wanted to go but she said well. You know where will you eat where will you sleep then. And of course you didn't have. Any satisfactory answers but he wanted to go to rome. His mother alleged say alright well perhaps. I can let you go i guess you'll make do. You're clever boy you'll find food and work before sleep for sleep. You must please take this pillow. But i have embroidered for you. And where. You will lie your head each night no matter where you are take this pillow you must take this. Well the sun went off to rome. Adidas evening after enjoying the sights and the sounds of the sensation in the smells of the bitties busy city. He would venture out to the quiet countryside beyond the walls of rome. Where with his pillow. And his other sparse belongings. He would find a place a peaceful place. Lions head. What time does. Like this wiesel says for many nights but then suddenly. His pillow burst into flames. Why. Pillow cut fire because that night the temp. Jerusalem. And these alex planes. Flames. Juventus team connection. Which all jews must feel with one another. The closest pillow. Just spontaneously. Bozell says that all jews no matter how far they might wander from jerusalem. Mystic we belong to one another in into soluble. Dentist was. The pillow. Caught. So dear vero friends. I pray you will take a commandment. Thou shalt. An epithet. May your pillow then ever more. Over your lifetime may your heart growing its capacity to express and embody empathy for others. No matter how difficult or different they might seem to you may your pillow catch fire. May you ever more teach others around you that this is the way we must live with one another. May your pillow catch fire may your pillow. Catch fire. With empathy. And evermore infuse. And a noble.

uufvb_org

2012Sep30Sermon32.mp3

Following the reading will have about a minute for. Quiet meditation. When scott asked me to do the reading today for a minute when i saw the name of it. I thought maybe he had sneaked into my apartment but i realized it goes a lot deeper when life is messy. By the rev richard gilbert. It is easy to pray when the sun shines and we are grateful for another glorious day of being. It is hard to pray when wind and rain and thunder plagued our every step. And spoil our every plan. It is easy to be virtuous when life goes well and our existence is a journey from bliss to beauty. It's hard to be virtuous when life assaults us. And our very being is a pilgrimage from bed. Taurus. 2 worst. It is easy to be cheerful when healthfirst and us. So that we can feel the very pulse of life. It is hard to be happy when we suffer for our efforts. And we wonder if we can go on. It is easy to do good when i only feel the power of pride and accomplishment. It is hard to do good when we suffer for our efforts. And are troubled because we've been misunderstood. It is easy to feel religious impulses well up inside us when inspiration lives that are elbow and walks on our path. It is hard to feel religious when we are tired with work to be done. And discouragement seems to mark our every move. Oh god of order and neatness we give thanks for all that is good we are grateful for manifold blessings bestowed upon us. Oh god of chaos and disorder. Be with us also when life is messy. Bless are coming in and i are going out. From this day forth. Golfing with monkeys you absolutely nothing about where i'm going this morning did any of you google the phrase. I like all you did eva. Did you see that i preached the sermon 40 times around the country and if you know what list is the beer that made milwaukee famous golfing with monkeys is it with the sermon that made me famous. So. She's going to know it's not like you're clueless. But they're golfing with monkeys we got it up. Here's the story. The reverend gregory knox jones a presbyterian minister who serves a church in northern virginia writes that once the english had colonized india. In establish their businesses there that urine for recreation decided to build a golf course in calcutta. Golf in calcutta whoever would prove to present one unique obstacle. Monkeys from a nearby natural habitat would drop out of the trees scurry across the course. Mcs the golf ball. Play with the ball. Tossing them here and there. At first. The golfers tried to control the monkeys. The first strategy was to build high fences around the fairways and greens this approach. Initially held a bit of promise but was abandoned when the golfers discovered that offense is no obstacle for an ambitious monkey. Next the storyteller right the golfers tried lowering the monkeys away from the course but the monkeys found nothing as amusing as watching humans go wild whenever these little white balls. We're disturbed. In desperation the british began trapping and relocating the monkeys but for every monkey they carted off another. Would mysteriously appear. Finally the story and. The golfers given reality and established a rather. Novel ground rule for the course. Golfers in. Calcutta were obliged to play the ball. Wherever the monkey. And then revenox reflects on this story. As you can imagine playing under this rule could be maddening beautiful drive and some damn monkey would go over and drop it in the roof where the opposite could happen. Hookah or a slice of alway in the rough in the monkey. Which would rush toward the middle of the of the course in traffic right in the fairway for you near the pin. The unpredictable monkeys. Apparently brought. Equal amounts. Opportunist. To the golfers of. Got it now. When i first read the story i was charmed and fascinated by it and the perpetual preacher and me realize. There's a sermon. In the story. And you're going to get that sermon right now. It deserves a sermon. Because life is so often. As we try to navigate. The course of our. I want to reflect about this is mistress monkeys who insert themselves capriciously into the game we humans are trying to play. What's a very spiritual instructive. I think how we can get through. First. There is the obvious truth of life. Otter unpredictability. It's freaking randomness. And if you will is perpetual unfairness. We're almost as soon as we begin to think about life as little children. We human beings like to think the spite. The regular abundant and unmistakable evidence we received the contrary. We like to think that justice every golf course has clear rules. It will help the that if the players observe them they can finish the course well and succeed at the game. We tend to assume the game of life also has. Clear rules to follow over the course of our days. And if we faithfully observe them wheel also successfully navigate life. Most of us even through adulthood have a tape. At least subliminally plays in our heads a script something like this. If i just work hard. Live right. Mind my p's and q's obey the law. Live by my principles watch my diet. Brush my teeth. Exercise regularly don't drink too much alcohol. 10 to my marriage and career carefully rear my children if i follow all the basic rules and live like i'm supposed to then i'll sail through life and everything will go pretty. Just tape or narrative that plays in our heads. Is fine except. For one thing. Life doesn't work that. I can say this with certainty. Because i've been banging around this unpredictable and painful creation now for more than six. 3 years. And for almost four decades i've been a minister. And one of my primary jobs. The help. Go through times. When life. Does not work. And does not turn out. 1 heartbreaking. From my own personal. I have a dear friend. In milwaukee. His name is drew. Who was recently at the absolute top of his game. Happily married. Weather for kids. His career going along fabulously widely respected in the community even a pretty good hockey player. Picture of contentment health. When all of a sudden seemingly out-of-the-blue he was diagnosed with an aggressive. Now instead of effortly sailing long he's now fighting. For his life. What is future. In just. Hurt. Everything changed for my friend of mine. And so a can for all of us we know this. Tell me if your wife is indeed if. Where i live. On this planet. Will be happily playing along right down the fairway on all of a sudden. The monkey estate jumps out of a tree. And deposits are ball in a very difficult. This is an unpredictable universe. It's awesome paint. And we are not in control. One of the biggest tree. And justice in the case of these mischievous calcutta monkeys and here i arrive at the second part of the story that i think is so true for me. Well it is undeniably true that sometimes our ball is capriciously dropped right in the rough. As a case of my milwaukee friend with this very hard diagnosis. Other times. Many times actually and this we must never spiritually forget many times our ball is placed graciously right next. The pin. No effort. Of our own. I believe. This remarkable open and fluid world of ours. We do not despite our best and most dutiful efforts succeed in controlling. This remarkable overland open and fluid world of ours. Holds at least as much amazing grace and good luck. As it does misfortune and heartbreaks at least as much. And i for one do not believe in this is a core theological and spiritual belief of mine. Seven forms the way i respond to events in my life and the lives of others i do not believe. Skip this creation ultimately has any sort of. Purpose. Or ultimate intention or ultimate plan anymore than those monkeys who randomly inserted them into the game in calcutta. Had a purpose. Or an intention. Or a plan. Creation is not out to get us. Any more than a promise is nothing easy ride. Creation and life on this planet is full of random and unexpected events and outcomes and there's simply no way no matter how diligently we try to play the the game by the rules we think are in place. There is no way to make ourselves immune from these random occurrences. We cannot control is if we wanted to the many pleasant events in wonderous outcomes. The cummer way like. Meeting the love of your life. On a commuter train some morning. We're having all three of your kids. Girl bright and charming and healthy and successful what's the chance of that. No discernible competence on your part falling in your whole life. Or being a lucky enough driver as i've been since the age of 16 to never have more. Set up. White bump. Car. Knock on wood. There is simply no accounting in this life. For the good luck. An abundant and undeserved grace that comes our way. And on the other more complicated side of life's equation as i've already observed we certainly cannot control most of the unpleasant events and difficult outcomes that come our way. Like developing as so many of us will in our lifetimes. A life-limiting. Or life-threatening disease. Or injuring yourself badly. From a stupid fall at home. Or having a marriage. All slowly apart. Through no. Malfeasance really on your part. Or losing your job due to global economic conditions. Or having a son or a daughter get in trouble with drugs. Spite of the. The way you raised them. No matter how careful. Or confidence or clever we are analyzed you won't know this is. No matter how diligently we follow all the rules we imagine are in place. We cannot control most of the misfortunes that will come our way. And any glib. New age guru for implies. That you're choosing whatever is happening to you and. Oughta be shown the spiritual door. Far as i'm. We live in a world. We're weird wild wolfel and wondrous thing happens. And evil. And the sooner like those wise golfers. The sooner we learn that we're not in charge. And then we have to begin playing the ball with a monkey drops it. The better off. We're going to be. After making this fundamental assertion about how random life. At what feels like another crucial observation i think we human beings are far better at a paying attention to and cataloging in our psyches. All the misfortunes and the difficulties and the unpleasantness that comes our way. Then we are at cataloguing all the amazing graces and blessings. The regularly come our way. Let me speak personally for a moment. I think it's apparent to most of you who know me that i'm a really cheerful and upbeat guy in fact my spouse finds it so irritating at 6:30 in the morning. But i must tell you that. In spite of my characteristic optimism. I know that in my daily life i'm quick to notice and grumble to myself and complain to others about if they're accessible. Any numbers of inconveniences or difficulty or challenges. Then randomly come my way like the like the toilet flush handle that came off in my hand the other day in the master bedroom bathroom. Or the flat tire i had on my bike a few days just after seeing myself g it's been a long time since i've had a flat tire. Don't ever do that don't even say. Are the chronic knee pain from arthritis that now cramps my style and makes me limp. Or the unexpected weekday interruptions in my office that prevent me. From accomplishing my master for work plano if you people would all leave me alone i could be a much better minister. You know i complain about all the monkey wrenches. Okay i complain about all the monkey wrenches. The cat thrown into my life. And what's more despite my best efforts to try the spiritually and emotionally notice and be grateful all the. Abundant good brakes and blessings that routinely come my way. I am more reluctant to acknowledge how very lucky and blessed i am. The breeze that is so often at my back. The kindness isn't courtesies that come my way. The beauty of the natural world that surround me a good night sleep. Good last night that. Arrest me. I'm not so good at thinking about all those things of him about all the little irritations. Why i'm not i regularly whistling to myself under my breath. Happily skipping my way. A down the middle. Fairway. And i'll bet you anything that's just like me most of those calcutta golfers were better. Complaining when the monkees dropped their ball in the rough than they were when the monkey. At the ball. Aggravation. More than the blessings. When the ball got shot sunday. Green the temple is not nice. And there's something else important about this grayson. Difficulty and noticing it. Recent studies about happiness. Conducted by highfalutin psychologist at harvard and elsewhere. Some of you may have heard these studies. Conclude and now i'm going to put it in this context of the golfing with monkeys. The weather are ball is dropped deep in the rough. Buy some mischievous monkey causing l or whether it is placed. Sweetly on the green. We human beings consistently overestimate. How happy or how unhappy we are going to. Just that this will make us. We under we overestimate the unhappy circumstances we. Overestimate how happy things will get us. Dr. daniel gilbert of harvard in his book stumbling on happiness rights. What we've been seeing in my research over and over again is that people have an inability to predict. An inability to predict won't make us happy or unhappy. Few of us see right accurate can accurately gauge how will feel tomorrow or the next week or the next month. People routinely rights overestimate how future successes or future failures will affect their happiness for better or worse. The truth is he goes on bad things don't affect us as primarily as profoundly as we expect them to. And this is true of good things to other words. The good isn't as good. And the bad isn't as bad as we think it's going to be and then he goes on our research simply says that weather. It's unpleasant or difficult event that occurs in our lives. Both will matter less. Over the long-term then you think they will in terms of your happiness or you're unhappy. And the truth is that regardless of what happens. Good or bad these studies indicate. And here's the key word. Human beings adapt. They adapt quickly. To either set of circumstance. So the good news. Gilbert rice. Is it going blind. Isn't going to make you as unhappy as you think it will. And the bad news is winning the lottery isn't going to make you as happy as you think it will. And why why is this well according to the behavioral scientist it's simple. We human beings and now i quote him again. Are generally unable to recognize that we adapt pretty quickly and well to new circumstances. And we seem unable to predict. That we will eventually adapt to whatever we're giving we can't predict that. And that's why i arrive. App to my heart at least what is the crucial spiritual emotional point embedded in this golfing with monkeys. And that is the supreme value. The supreme value. Of an adaptable heart. This unitarian universalist minister is passionately persuaded. Study emotional survival and spiritual success over the course of our lives. Depends as it did for the golfers in calcutta on our willingness to adapt. To unforeseen. Realities. Both positive and negative the top into our lives. We have to learn how to add. Just as those calcutta golfers wrote the monkey. It monkeys into the rulebook we have to write. The monkey wrench. Come our way into the rulebook. Getting along. Of our. 1. Little examplify might a few years ago i had a little cottage. On the chesapeake bay and we had a terrible. Hurricane. That cost hundreds of millions of dollars of damage that hurricane came right up the chesapeake bay right up we were on chesapeake avenue. Our cottage was across the street was spared. But our neighbor who had the waterfront property. He was on 20 ft plus the water came up and over and he woke up in the morning all his lawn was gone right to the house. And i it was a disaster area to spend about $650,000 to bring in hundreds of trucks of gravel on riprap. And timbers and all the. The morning after the hurricane. There's. Jinx out there. And i'm over there with jinx and wentworth standing between his house and the precipice is 20 ft down and i was commiserating. Now i've got a beach for my grandkids. And i looked and sure enough where there had never been a beach. There was a beach. And he again said to me yet. The hurricane took my yard. Play the ball. Where the monkey drops it. One more quick example. I had a long conversation recently with a friend of mine. Who has been trying to adapt to this new information that he was diagnosed. Diabetes. Which is going to request it is requiring in bob a lot of lifestyle. Is diet. It's the way you live. And i was saying to him this is wrong i'm so sorry bob and he said hate scotty said. I would have never wished this medical crisis on myself but i believe this is really been an opportunity in a blessing for me. It if i'm just willing to make a few changes i'll be a much happier and healthier man. Any infections what's eventually. He's lost weight he sleeps better. He's off of insulin. He's made some changes. And you never would have wished. But he said to me scott diabetes. The best things that's ever have. Want to bring this a little closer to home. Most of you don't know this but for most of my life i was an avid runner. I used to run half a marathon. Everyday. Seven-days-a-week one friend finally said to me why do you do that i said. Because i can. What's finally of course with the inevitable. Time. My knees gave out and i can't run a stephanie. But what i was able to. What's the state of myself well i. I can't run. And slim. And so because i had adaptable heart i've taken up new exercise forms which i. I love by. I love swimming. I still dream. About being able to run. I still dream that i can run. But my heart is adapted. And my lifestyle. Is adapt. And now i'm so happy a cyclist i think i have. Bugs on my teeth have. One last example. From cycling. I think last year i told you about a cyclist. He was about thirty years old i used to see him regularly when i was on the capital crescent trail going from my home in downtown washing. Map to my church on river road. Many days have passed this guy he was utterly unremarkable except for one thing. The cyclist was a paraplegic. He had. No use of his legs. How do you cycle them. I asked well he had someone build him a special bike. Like this. One that allowed him to pedal with his hands like this which still worth it every time i would see this guy. Again he always had a big smile on his face. Pedaling wildly up sick the capital crescent trail. These words of albert camus would come to mind. Yes. 0 deprivation. There are deprivations which give rise to our worst sorrows. What does it truly matter what we have lost. When what we have lost. Is not yet used up. And then come over. There are so many things susceptible of being loved. That surely no discouragement can be final. To know how to suffer. To know how to love and when everything collapses. To pick it all up again simply richer for the suffering happy almost. In the awareness. Ivar difficult. In a similar vein. Rabbi harold schweiss. Tells about the handicapped violinist. Itzhak perlman in this amazing story. It's one of my favorite piece. He's talking about a knight seeing his wife. Went to see perlman in. We have seen itzhak perlman. Who walks the stage with braces on both legs on to crutches he takes his seat. Unhinges the clasp of his legs. Tucking one leg back extending the other laying down his crutches. Placing the violin under his chin. On what occasion. One of. His violin violin strings broke. The audience grew silent. But the violinist. Did not leave the stage. He signaled the maestro and the orchestra began playing its part the violinist played with power and intensity on only three strings. With three string ski modulated seachange andre composed the piece in his head. He returned the strings to get different sounds tune them upward and downward the audience. Applauded. Their appreciation. Asked later. How we accomplish this feat. The violinist answered. It is my task to make music. With what. Remains. Allegacy mightier. So the concert. Make music. With what remains. Complete the song. Left for us to sing. Transcend los play it out with heart. And soul and might. With all the remaining. Strength. Some of you may not be aware that recent studies about success. Beijing. Success in life in. It is the adapter. It is those who are willing to adapt. The new information. It comes into their life adapt loss. Adaptic. Adapt. Shrinking. Of the world. Who succeed. It is the adapter. What's supple. Soul. Alright. I've almost been going 30 minutes send. The hours approaching. You know what i was in seminary the old rule was to tell him what you going to tell him tell him. Tell him wichita. Here's what i'm trying to tell you. Life is often hard. Life is often too. Life is often unpredictable. And chaotic. It is most certain. Austin. Random things happen to us. The throwers. For a loop. Wreak havoc in our lives and rendered inoperative all those shore rules. We try to live by. And try to control our lives by. Increation. As opening fluid desires we cannot control circumstance we are not masters of outward circumstances. But we are in charge. Of our inner lives. We can control. How we react. And how we proceed we can adjust. The camber. In our hearts. To live. With what is. We can. Learn. Play the ball. Where the monkey drops it. Now i see some of you with your spouse is missing and i know that when some you go home in a half an hour 45 minutes you're going to walk in the door on that lazy spouses been in bed reading new york times going to say. What did you learn in church this morning. And because i wanted all the info give the right answer let's practice. I learned that i have to. Play the ball with a monkey drops it can we try that again. What did i learn in church this morning. What did i learn in church this morning. You got it. My work is done. For all of our life. We sing our thanks. And praise. Gift. Which we are called to use. To build the common good. And they coronavirus. They got in peace go with you.

uufvb_org

2015Mar08Sermon128.mp3

Well good morning. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. My name is paul lamoureux. I'm a member of this congregation and i'm serving today as pulpit host. We're glad you have chosen to come spend a sunday morning with us. We are congregation of open minds. Loving hearts and helping hands. People. Seeking to become our best selves. Even as we work. To make a better world. Please know that you are welcome just as you come here and all of your particular tease. Whether you're young or old. Gay or straight. Older young. What do you have a ged. Or a phd. You are welcome here. Whether you are on top of the world. Or down in the dumps. Are welcome and all your particularities. We hope you find this service meaningful and enriching. And that you will find something here this morning. That nourishes your spirit. Feed your soul. And gives you renewed energy and joy. For the living of life in the days of weeks ahead. Are opening words this morning. Come from american poet walt whitman. And his. Massive piece leaves of grass. The sun and stars that float in the open-air. The apple shaped earth. And we upon it. Surely the drift of them is something grand. The light and shade. The curious sense of body and identity. Unspeakable joy and sorrow. The pride. And out stretching. App humanity. The wonder that everyone sees and everyone else. And the wonders that feel each minute of time. Forever. Be not discouraged. Keep on. There are divine things well enveloped. I swear to you. There are divine things. More beautiful. Then words can tell. From walt whitman. Like the begin have everybody take a good deep breath. And. Fasten your seatbelts. Secure any loose objects. And. Keep make sure your feet are firmly on the floor. Breathe normally. Try to stay calm. Now we're down by the river kebar. The heavens were opened and a stormy wind came out of the north. And a great cloud. With brightness rounded and fire flashing fourth continually and in the midst of the fire. Gleaming blonde bronze. The likeness of four living creatures. And they have the form of men in each had four faces and four wings. And the soles of their feet were like a cavs book. And they sparkle like burnished bronze. We better take a look at a picture of this. Whoa. And each had the face of a man in front. A lion on the right side. An ox on the left side and an eagle at the back such were their faces here's a here's another view. This is even worse. I don't know about that lion in the oxecta could be a little cumbersome. But you know. I kind of like that beacon the back of the head. I think that would be kind of handy to have. Like. How to watch your own back. In the midst of the living creatures that were something that look like. Burning coals of fire. Like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. And the fire was bright and out of the fire went fourth lightning. And the and the living creatures darted to and fro like a flash of lightning. So now we get something like this perhaps. Wow. Now is i. Look at the living creatures i saw a wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures. One for each. Like the gleaming of chrysolite. Whatever that is in that the stuff that superman had trouble with chrysolite. Their construction being a wheel within a wheel. I think you can see the. The outer rim in the inner rim up there. The four wheels had rims and spokes. And the rims were full of eyes roundabout. And when the living creatures went the wheels went beside them. And when the living creatures rose up from the earth the wheels rose. For the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. Here's another view. Kind of the same you can see the. The eyes on the outside of the wheels there in the inner wheel in the outer wheel. And over the live at the heads of the living creatures there was a firmament. Shining light crystal spread out. I heard the sound of many waters. The thunder of the almighty a sound of tumult. And there came a voice from the firmament. From the throne like sapphire and seated above human form you see him up there on top. And upward from his loins i saw gleaning bronze. Like the appearance of the. Bow that is in the clouds of a day of rain. So the appearance of brightness such was the glory of the lord. And when i saw it i fell upon my face. And heard. The voice. Of 1. Wow. So there are several ways to regard ezekiel's vision. Kind of a famous event in. Bible history. One is that he saw a landing of extraterrestrial beings. At the cloud and flashing fire the burning coals at torches and lightning or rocket engines. Easing the craft down-to-earth. And the gleaming bronze and wheels with eyes were part of the spaceships. Wood windows. And the beings were alien astronauts. Much has been made of this. The spaceships of ezekiel. And if you google it off you'll find all kinds of. So i say. Nutty stuff. But hey you have to wonder why highly advanced civilizations visiting earth would still be using. Fossil fuel rockets. And why they're beings would look like ezekiel. The one on the right being the most. Common depiction of people who claim to have had et encounters. I don't quite see the resemblance do you. So a better notion might be. That. They had science fiction back then too. They certainly did they had imagination they had a rich vocabulary. And ezekiel time they were abundant resources of art and mythology and babylon. Persian egypt as well as israel. To fuel his imagination. The cherubim. The man-beast cameras. Bank of the sphinxes and egypt. Beds of fire gleaming metal thrones circle wheels. All of these would have been familiar to ezekiel. Who prophesize in exile in babylonia not in israel itself. Just before the destruction of jerusalem by avocados are in 587. Dc. So they had science fiction back to then to. And perhaps also ezekiel was in a trance. In chapter 3. We read that he ate the scroll that yahweh gave him. He said it was sweet as honey. And then he lay on his left side. 4. 390 days. With his arm extended toward. Jerusalem. While bound up. And then on his right side. 440 more days. That could induce. Some visions. I can't lie on my left side for more than about an hour and then i got a flap over at night. No zekios vision. Visionary message is on the angry side. Thus says the lord god. Behold i will bring a sword upon you. I will strike you down. I will loose against you my deadly arrows and send famine. And wild beasts against you and your children. Pestilence. Blood shall pass through you. I will blow up on you with the fire of my wrath and melt you as silver is melted in a furnace. And this is kind of weird. Father shall eat their sons in the midst of you and son shall eat their fathers. Really. On and on and on lots of this. So we might say that ezekiel had some anger issues. Always speaking for yahweh. But what is he angry about. In a word. Idolatry. The worship of false idols. Forgetting the true god and worshipping the wrong thing. And what would that be today. Well. Money. Greed. Neu. Going to bed on the 23.9 million-dollar. House on vero beach with. 17000 square feet and 14 bathrooms. Or just a million more you can get a house with. 25 rooms down in boca. So greed. More money more property more stuff. And what are you going to do with it. Why don't we go down and visit the. Rooms in the south west wing today that would be some. Greed. Power dominance all kinds of addictions and obsessions. Well expounded from by about from this pulpit by scott. Which are not healthy and good for us or the world. We know what they are and ezekiel railed against. Partially yes. But also hopefully. With ezekiel. I'm happy to say all is not retribution. I'll to close this reading with his. Vivid allegory which has been put into quite a bit of song and poetry. The lord sent me down in a valley of dry bones. And there they are that's an old etching. Very very many very dry. And the lord said. Behold you shall live. And that was a rattling. And the bones came together bone to bone and flesh came upon them. And send you. And skin covered them. And breath came into them and they lived and stood on their feet you see them they're in there. Various. Forms of recomposition. An exceedingly great host. And the lord said behold. I will take out your heart. Stone. And give you. A new heart. So there is hope. Now ezekiel is. Richwood metaphor. Catching out. Catching allegory. There's an ezekiel line of clothing. There's ezekiel bread and ezekiel cereal here's a box of ezekiel 4.9 cereal. Ezekiel 4.9 about. I will. Take the wheat and barley and beans and lentils and. Put them in on one vessel make bread they don't bother to. Or they omit the a little later when ezekiel. Threatens the moabites that he'll cut him up into little pieces. The birds. Wild beasts. So i do hope you'll be inspired when you get home to blow the dust off your bible and read some of this. Exotic book of prophet. Certainly the wildest and most entertaining of the prophets. So perhaps. Not to the kids or grandkids. At bedtime. Well. We don't have to look far. Defined a lot of images of circles and wheels and religious art and. And. Thank you very much guys for. Yeah. Let's hear it for the graphics guys. There many more i could project up there these are just a few we all know the yin-yang from dallas. Confucianism in china. And the next one going to the right is a ax. Sand. Sculpture of tibetan. Sabaton. And then a prayer rug. You can barely see sidharth in the middle the buddha. And we all know. The pictures of buddha with a round belly and the roundhead. The next one is the samsara wheel from jainism and hinduism. And then on the lower left is a the inside of a mosque dome. Islamic domes. And if you google up. Mosque domes or islamic domes or something like that you will see the most amazing. Mosaics. The insides of the. Many many domes at once. Somewhere in turkey. They're just. Extraordinary how there's so many circles and circles within circles and interlocking. And then the christian cross that's the greek cross. With alpha omega. And it's often enclosed in a circle and a lot of times you'll see a circle behind the cross. Suggesting the halo and then again down the lower right from an old fresco we see. Ezekiel himself with a halo. Circles are indeed. Very common in religious symbolism. Not our rosa roads are train tracks or rope. Skyscrapers but circle. And why is that. Because religion is about the heart and soul of life which is circular not linear. Now we unitarian-universalist with our covenant groups and. Are inclusive worship also have. Our circular symbols. Whoops. I'm sorry. Put put the next one out there where you guys there we go. These are the well-known overlapping circles from. Adapted ninth doctor 19. 66. With the merger of unitarianism with universalism complementary but not strictly similar religions. And i've been studying these circles and. Discovered a rather esoteric secret about them i like to demonstrate for you now. These are the two circles. And. This is little known many of you have been in unitarian universal. For a long time and you've never seen anything. Now watch carefully. Let me try over here. Do you see the circle within the circle. A little bit. Kind of kind of hard to catch a calf to relax your retinas. You get it now. Let me try one more over here. Now you can do this at home. This is a loner board you can take it home with you. You saw it here. Usb b. So life is a bunch of circles. They weave and overlap and interconnecting a vast mysterious maze. Our galaxy is a spinning pinwheel. That light takes. A hundred thousand years across. This image here is composed of something like 219 million stars that can be observed with our present technology and there are thought to be. Not millions but billions of stars in the milky way galaxy. In the middle is a black hole. Which is sucking in capturing the innermost stars and debris. We are a tiny speck on the orions were one of those spurs about two-thirds of the way out. To the edge. Which. Stables on. With our solo son and concentric orbits. With where life has been. Able to grab a hold and it took only a few billion years. We get where we are today. Dr michio kaku spoke here february 28th i was away and had the mrs. talk. But i've often heard him in the media talking about. Wormholes and string theory based on the curvature. Space the immense wonder of the spinning. Mass and energy. Dimensions so difficult to comprehend. There are mines boggle. Install as we even. Try to comprehend it. Even albert einstein. Experiences wall of understanding this limit. And this is his famous quote from. One of his writings the most beautiful. And most profound experiences of sensation of the mystical. The sower voltran science to know what is impenetrable to us really exist. Manifesting itself is the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty. Which are doll faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms. This knowledge. This feeling. As if its center of true. Religiousness. So wonder and awe. To approach mystery and worship and art and nature. In our loving personal relationships this is religion. This is what we're here for. And we know that. Certainly. But. We forget it off and don't we. So. We're on our big rock earth. Are big round earth and. When i talk about. Mysticism and all i have a suggestion for you the next time you're out on the beach at dawn. And. Use begin to see the sun and light. Emerging. Remember that the sun doesn't rise or set as my ten-year-old granddaughter studiously informs me. The sun actually doesn't rise or set granddad. It's the big round rock that we're standing on its turning slowly mighty mightily in exora bleach. Toward the sun. And if you try to focus on this as your. Watching gone. You got a real sense of how that big rock is just moving. At 14 miles per minute relative to the sun. Which is 88. Beat every second. There we go. There we go. There we go. Zip zip zip. Turning toward the sun. You can really get a sense of this. If you work at it. It's all amazing. The movement of earth. Sky and water. And whether the seasons we cherish. And celebrate so much poetry and art about the changing seasons. I'm an autumn guy myself. I feel akin to the soft subtle colors in the muted sounds of autumn. In new jersey where i grew up. Saturday morning with burning leaves back when you could still do that. And distant muffled pumps of our high school band over at the athletic field practicing for the game that afternoon. The great oaks with their leaves of amber and amber and burnt orange fading to brown. The brilliant yellow of the beech trees. Blaze of deepening red in the maples. And through it all is soft sense of. Beauty and loss. Autumn is my kinship time. Is shirley each of you have a favorite season some of you were probably. Springers you like the the damp earth and the smell of spring and new emerging growth or. Some of you are summary folks you like the the long evenings in the lazy days. Swimming in. All the things that we do in summer. Even here in florida with her seasons are less vivid more delicate shifting. They still pull internus. And sing to us. Certainly. So we living all these cycles and circles. Circadian rhythms. Sleep and wakefulness in. Excitement quieten. Interaction in a long time. Working and resting absorption and expulsion the list goes on and on. All those balances which. When we understand them. Incorrect league over there seeing saw their yin and yang. Help us along. We ride the rhythms and utilize their energy. Think of think about parenting for a moment. When our children were small. We found ourselves reading the same stories. That were read to us is. Remember that. Playing the same games pattycake twinkle twinkle. I spy with my little eyes something blue with polka dots. Oh yeah there it is. All those little games. And teaching them to garden and watch bugs and fish in the pond. And hugs and tucking in and. Those little bedtime sayings you are wonderful beautiful and we do love you with all our. All those little things that were given to us by our parents we give on to our children cycles and circles within circles at all comes around. We're very social animals. We humans. We thrive on interaction even the most perfunctory. That little greeting we have in our in our service it makes a difference doesn't it. Maybe you. Have the extreme experience i do when it's announced tyty silently grown. Oh no i have to stand up with my flaky back. And. Greet people i may not know that's always a little. But then when i do it i feel so much more connected in it home. No longer sitting in a big room with a bunch of other. Sitting people. But among friends in a congregation. Inter-religious. Space. So that's my experience and i hope yours. Everything connects. And circles back person-to-person we reach out to be embrace. And are touched by touching. And families friendships congregations. And even more. In our close bonding. Myself goes out to yourself and is returned enhance. Define given. Perspective. And humor. Remember juliet's soliloquy about her romeo. My bounty is as boundless. Ecstasy. My love is deep. The more i give to the. The more i have. For both are infinite. The more i give to the. The more i have. For both. Our infinite. I'm talking to you person out there whose name i promise not to mention in this sermon. That's an insider joke. Sorry. Everything circles and cycles in the deepest love. We are pulled into a vortex. Whirling dance that constantly forms. And reforms over the years. Even after many years together we can be surprised and delighted by r6. Significant other. So never ever take him or her for granted. And never underestimate. Your own ability. Surprise. Candlelight. Time is not linear but circular. The yin-yang symbolizes balance within our circular journey. Just as a mantra. Resounding in the now. Holy. Wholeness. Devotion. Words that are about being still. In the sacred now. And scottish. Preached many sermons hear about being in the now being grounded in the now. Which is not to say there isn't. Linear thinking. And linear time. Linear thinking is how we get things done get from a to b and get progress or through the ages but. We have to ground. The past. And future thinking in the now. All religions recognize this and celebrate life significant passion. Coming of age. Marriage anniversary. Death and its memorials. Wheels within wheels. Spinning orbs of human fulfillment and wisdom. Pass through the generations sing hallelujah. It's all beautiful and wonderful. And worship. Isn't it. Or is it. What's that you say. I hear a doubter among us. I hear someone telling me that it's not always beautiful. And wonderful. Whether you're on top of the world or down in the dumps or somewhere in between we've heard those words sunday after so. Which must mean that some of us are indeed down in the dumps. Those circles have an apex. Animator. A dark side of the moon. And when we talked about the cycles of life. Beautiful wonderful. Yeah. But aren't we also talking about. The repetition. An endless drum drum of it. Life goes round and round. Yes it sure does. We load the dishwasher. Unload the dishwasher. Load the dishwasher unload the dishwasher. We shave our faces. Yeah it's laborious. And what for. Those whiskers just grow right on back. Make the bed. Mess it up. Make it up. Clean up mess up clean up. And remember those autumn leaves in new jersey i spoke so nostalgic lie about a few minutes ago. We'll come on let's go rake them up. So we all rake. And more fall. And we're a cup more big piles and dispose of them. And they fall fall fall. And next year. The same thing all over again. All things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter it. What has been is what will be. And what has been done is what will be done. And there is nothing new under the sun. What does a man gain by all the toil in wichita falls under the sun. For all is vanity. A striving after. Let's take another look at that. Samsara wheel from. Jainism hinduism and to a lesser degree buddhism. You know it's not such a pretty picture. Notice the beams in hell in the hungry ghost. Notice that greed hatred and lust are in the center. And what about yama the lord of death turning the wheel. How do you like those. Skulls and serpents. And claws. Very schumann's around the perimeter you see they are engaged in all their commerce of living. But they are fixed to the big scary wheel hearing the whales of the underworld and spun around by the power of death. Samsara. Symbolize here is bondage. The wheel of perpetual suffering. That we are chained. So all my previous talk about how we carry. The joy into the beauty. A parenting for instance. Doesn't that also mean that we carry forward the hurtful. Destructive aspects. Perhaps we are haunted by those hungry ghost see him down in the lower right there. Influence of our parents and their parents which were not good for us. Which we can't seem to cast off year after year. Why did they ignore me. Why did they criticize me even when i tried so hard. Why were they mean to me. How am i unwittingly transferring that hurt. Into my important relationships now. Those ghost indoor. 44 generation. The pentateuch. Perhaps you were weary of it all. The same heart patterns the same walls. The same arguments that go nowhere because everyone is entrenched. Their weapons blame. I mistrust. Or perhaps your career has stalled. Bank accounts constantly depleted. Getting by another week is about all you can handle. Like sisyphus your groaning and sweating. Too pushy huge boulder uphill only so i can roll back down. And you can start over and there's the. Famous 1548 painting by titian. Of sisyphus caring. Rock up the hill. Where you'll drop it in a roll back down. Start all over. Sometimes we feel that way.. Or perhaps you hear the rumblings of the god of death is he turns the wheel. Debilitating illness threatens you or your loved ones. Terrible treatment. Required. Hospitals. Pain. An uncertain. Life on the real. Can be hard. We work and grow and gain some measure wisdom. Only to face what. Extinction. The loss of everything we accomplished. All things. Are full of weariness. A man can. So what i've given you is sermon 101. The cycles of life. Are they sacred. Or scary. Are they profound or profane. Are they exhilarating or enervating. Exhausting. Are they charming or chaining. Worshipful or worrisome. Life-giving or life grieving. How do we get off that samsara wheel. How do we attain liberation enlightenment. Are those just exotic words that have nothing to do with us. And how do we obtain wisdom see through the eyes of ezekiel's larger wheel. How do we slogin swim-up through the inferno poet purgatory of depression. Despair towards. Well here's a word hook to help you. Work. This morning. A word you've heard a lot faith. But probably don't use to. Because faith is not a popular unitarian universalist concept. You know i've been around you use for something like 50 years. And i've never known one parent to name their daughter faith. Have you. I asked scott the same question. Nope. He hadn't either. So i looked in our him nolan. I looked under those topical heading. For the hymns. They haven't popped we arranged in the back. Under faith r18 hymns. And i went through all those hymns and i could actually find the word faith used only seven times. Whoa. So then i looked through all of our responsive and affirmation readings. I like to find the word faith only use six times. And all those reading. Why is that. I think that you used dislike fate. Many of us have been beat over the head with a call to faith meaning belief in god and jesus. Is christ and savior in the doctor. So the orthodox church. Oh come all ye faithful. Uh-huh. And what about those who doubt or question. Guess they don't get any exultation. Joyous and triumphant. If there's a triumphant when they're also be a vanquished. What about those people. Faith has a militant exclusionary ring. And at the same time that's kind of a wimpy were. If i have faith in truly believe i'm save so now i don't have to do anything right. No. Faith is not a favorite uu word or concept. And that's why i wanted to offer you an alternate way to look at. Consider this. None of us know anything. Time. Space. Matter-energy. How all of this is. And how we exist in. Is a complete and utter mystery. Ever since i was 8 or 9 years old i've been out asking. How is it that is is. That there is even such a thing as matter and time. As opposed to nonmatter or nothing. And wouldn't nothing be something to. I'm touched by. Alan watts remember him the 19th. Guru. Who described himself as a sort of intellectual yokel who gates and stares at what sensible people people take for granted. Who cannot get rid of the feeling that the barest facts of life are unbelievably odd. How is it that is is. And was is and will be. The puzzlement of time. I do dwell on all this oddity. And it becomes kind of oniric or dream like. No i don't do that while driving on i-95. As watch wrote it's unbelievably odd indicating that our very existence is not really believable. That it takes an actual assumption an act of faith. Do even believe that reality is real. And if reality is real than isn't our consciousness made of miles of filaments and cells and tissue and plasma and mucus and merrill. An evolved over billions of years also real. That is we choose to believe that it's real. It isn't health and growth in full manifestation of this reality something we can also choose to believe in. You know. We can't prove. That life is worth living. If you had occasion as i had a. Am i a number of times in my ears. Unitarian universalist ministry. To sit with someone who is deeply depressed. Suicidal. You know that you can't persuade them. You can't prove that life is worth living. What you can do is sit with them. And listen is a friend and give testimony to your own choice. Your faith. That life. Is worth living. Here's a wonderful book. This is. The depression cure. By dr. steven. Lrti. You say. And he was interviewed just last sunday on npr the people's pharmacy some of you may have heard that or listen to that program. He talked about how we become so sedentary and so cloistered indoors. Not getting nearly enough fresh air and natural daylight. And not using our bodies as they are biologically evolved to be used. So that depression has become pervasive today in fact he called it an epidemic. Now the depression cure he offers has six little steps i'll just briefly mentioning for you. You can get this book and read it so wonderful book. Healthy eating with lots of omega-3's. Daylight. And sunlight exposure. Get outside get away from that computer except as needed necessary. Physical exercise and all of us can do some kind of physical exercise even if we can't even stand up. Do something. Good sleep enough sleep. And these two the last two are definitely church friendly. Contact with other people and engaging activity we got plenty of it here. At uu fbb. These are all things we know to do and we know how to do. But sometimes we lack the will to do. And that's where faith comes in. Behind all the cures and things we know that are good for us and the world there's a simple choice. Am i going to lie here ruminating and worrying and stewing and spiraling downward or am i going to get up. And be my better self. Am i going to slog around and nowhere life-scripts and relationships and fights and bickering and blame. Am i going to get up. And be my better self. Am i going to get up and get going. And do something worthwhile and good and healthy for myself and for the world. Or they saying the commercial fishing business in south carolina. Get mad with it and get it did. So faith. Is an active determination. And sometimes also that means hard thinking. Those spinning wheels can bring us wallow in darkness shore. The patterns of our generation can be hurtful and influences. Toward hurting others even those we love. So we have to think carefully and intervene because. Our parents were harsh and remote doesn't mean that we have to be. Because our parents were too permissive or indulgent doesn't mean that we have to be. Because our parents. May have been pessimistic or overly critical doesn't mean that we can't rethink and redirect our own parenting. And family presents. We can change we can study and figure out and do things differently we can start a new cycle. A new wheel. Anu loop. Fate speaks also. Do the inevitable crusher factors beyond our control. Illness. Debilitation accident. Death of a loved one. That awful silence. Faith tells us that. All things come around that our bodies and minds always tend toward healing. That grief gradually fades into memory. And that even while we are chained to that some sorrow wheel turn by jama the fierce god of death. We also have been given away to become. Enlighten. Larger. And smarter. We can see through the eyes of the outer circle. We can step out of that small inner circle the me circle. The what i got to have what's in it for me and comprehend the larger we. The community the us. The love. Which is what will save us. As for that dishwasher. The humdrum repetition and boredom of the same old same old. Faith has a response to that too. Gandhi talked about. Simplicity. And a worshipful attitude. About the most quotidian or mundane things we do. Sweeping the floor can be a religious act. Washing. Cleaning. Weaving a tulum very repete. Can be done worship. With enlightened conscious. So when we remove those dishes and place them in their rightful cabinet. Would like dishes. Let us cherish. That simple repetitive act. Thankful. That we have strong and steady hands to do that. And mindful that some people do not have strong and steady hands. And that we may not have them. Someday. Even. For unloading the dishwasher. I drive a lot. I drive up to south carolina on i-95 and back. Monthly. Check on my clams. Trip i've taken perhaps. 40 times since i started. Relating to that same certain person i referred to earlier whose name i promise not to mention. The sermon. And when i. When i talk about my 460 mi monthly commute to people. They commiserate they say. I-95 it's so boring. Adult roadblock flat country endless grinding traffic. I feel for you brother. And yes i agree sometimes it seems that way especially when i'm tired or. You know down. Some reason rather. But there's also another way. I tried to call.. I-95. Crosses vast marshlands in. Broad title rivers lush with fish crabs. Shrimp crustaceans or is a wood saying south carolina. For shrimps crabs. Oysters and clams. Some sections of i-95 or line with huge pines at glisten in the sun and hardwoods. Subtly change seasonally in latitudinally is idrive. South is last trip. A few days ago. When i left south carolina all the trees were bare. And then in georgia i began seeing redbuds. And by the time i got below jacksonville new green growth. Popping out everywhere. Amazing. And as for that traffic. It's a flowing stream with constant situations to navigate. Requiring full mindful detention. Or traffic slide i can allow some of my attention to. 2. Analyze. Think and make plans. Sketch stories and sermons and all that kind of. 2. We take our trips our life journeys and we have a choice everyday all the time. We can grumble and sputter. Stagger along. Course the road. Fixate on the destination instead of the trip. Until we are not driving but driven. Until we are not driving. But driven. Or. We can make a deliberate choice of fate. And find ways to delight. The trip itself. And the moment right now right here. We can see with the eyes. Of the bigger wheel. The trip swietej take me look like straight lines you know on a map. Let's stop. And think that every trip is actually a segment of the globe you know even my. 460 mi. 1.87% of the curvature of the earth. Not a straight line but an ark. So. We're all on a life trip. And all of our trips. Are segments. Of that bigger circle that arc or is einstein said that highest wisdom. And most radiant. May we cherish. Every turn. Step. And b of our life trip. And may we are. Florida place where in the words of ezekiel. Those dry bones come together. What new flash. And skin. Breath. Given them. And a new heart. And a new spirit. For the spirit of the living creatures. Is in the wheels. As we extinguish the chalice. I read these closing words. Which are one of my favorite readings from james baldwin nothing personal written in 19. Before. It is a mighty heritage. It is the human heritage and is all there is to trust. I learned this through descending into the eyes of my father and mother. I wondered when i was little how they for it or i knew they had much to bear. It had not yet occurred to me that i also would have much to bear. But they knew it. And the unimaginable rigors of their journey help them. Prepare me for mine. That is why one must say yes to life. And embrace it wherever it is found. And it is found. Terrible places. Nevertheless. There is. And if the father can say yes lord. The child can learn that most difficult of words.

uufvb_org

2013Sep01Sermon32.mp3

Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach weekend of summer in new england. Loving hearts and helping hands working. The world. Justice. Whether you're young or old is drake black. What's the weather. Absolutely. We hope it will find the service on richey. Diluting applying. Morning prayer. American culture. Earl's are mother's always sleeping. Read megan's starting renewing. Eagles soaring see the mother season morning. Something marvelous is sacred. What happened everyday. Listen to this meditation by robert terry western holster. Call the weather's like. Thailand following vacation on greenville. The weather look like. There is a living will. Deborah. Universe. Linking on see you sweetie and through all life has stars. Each of us knows our room corner of the world. This were our all. We know more see the farther reaches of threads and we see the stupid. They are there. Is television as a rebound. Last. Adrenal gland. We rule ourselves. As they are close to us inside your feeling. You object. As we look a little where's the fog lifts. Beauty. Call verizon. Armrest. Switch out a riverhead. Feeling a little foolish.. Is real. Orchid. Until the next week after their summer break. Florida summer officially, stool. Swallow. I think of is our inclusive. Waterline your overall tournament series. As you know we had me seven crystal problems in the lobby. Because our building is. Responsive reaction always pleases yes i do hope you come back. Guided by these principles needs to grow and needs to be shared. Problem. Reactions are worded they are rather grand and blowing. Hard to disagree with. Iconoclastic. Was little use the seventh warrior of our movement or the seven. By which he means for him these principles lack clarity profundity and religiosity, he opines. The secular culture from the secular values of american liberalism. They do not distinguish unitarian-universalism as a religion. Or at least not one with the clear. Spiritual path. Or laughing. Casually do not do not share reverend lord's kliban category of our principals. Each of these principles. Are undeniably wildly hopeful statements about life. Creation and human condition. And i think he needs a deconstructed so critical analysis. If they're really going to deliver just seriously religion. The serious time. Navigation. It was listed last. What are denominational principles were last revised in the mid-1970s. The first thing i need to point out as far as i know. What's the very further ecologically minded statement of belief. Articulated by any major or established world religion. Menifee. Will unitarian-universalist glad the way almost half a century ago now. In understanding we. Urgent spiritual and moral important as a beautiful dragon pole. The demands are referenced attention and caring kind of like. The first time we saw the whole earth from the spacecraft that mother earth. Not only. Did we purposely gladly address 7306 earlier. About about the same time. Denominational list. And i wanted to show you these are. Resources. And i want you to just quickly kind of look at all those. The ones in the middle all kind of predictable. It's the first and the last one the last one we had it about the same time. The first one will know.. That transcending mystery wonder. Open 24/7. Spiritual teachings of birth center traditions virus remain native american tradition pagan traditions. Sixth edition. As a religious leader in the school but i'm very proud. Leadership ethical and spiritual leader show within the religious world and ecological services for the world years ago now. But i believe. Will be absolutely required in the 21st century and beyond we are just beautiful and fragile primitive art. With a life in the world worth having claudia story about the trees of kenya. World worth loving. We must. Equallogic. As i observe 2 weeks ago when i reflect on the sixth principle that means of a world season liberty and justice for all. Are very beginning as a state of america. Which has seen and heard the unity of life of life in person. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is our nation established. Play the european settlers would venture across the atlantic. It wasn't.. And the universal. Separate liberals kristen set. Ariens universal. Who offered spiritual vision. The world's wonders. At a time when the cowboys to the puritan. Focusing exclusively on desolation. Eternal life for the day and judgmental god. The unitarians call whole different world. The song creation. And the universal is humanity. As god's good and fast holy family. American vision. Unitarian universalist of always. Spiritually. We have been global thinkers. You look.. Unitary. Until this design of the ecological consciousness of ours. Interconnected to flight and listen to these i tried to find a quotation from the 1930s. Like a famous words of 19th century during minister thomas parking. He was an anti-slavery california claret i went to thomas starr king school in ripon california. He was credited with keeping california hours of singapore. One of the first white people to visit yosemite in sierra nevada. He is describing the interdependent connection. Maryland lottery. The minutest organizations on the earth's surface. Are so related to the largest and wildest horses a picture. Asthma show a wonderful day. And subtlety of law. Winn-dixie, plants and shrubs growing so easily we have no idea order of the globe. Is tone to their descendants. With regards to a cover wildflower. We may see that the force of gravitation is fibers in the earth and sprint. It supports a constellation. Verizon cell. Hairy white p****. The size of the sea. The swiftness of the earth were laying the diameters of its orbit. Are determined with admirable relation. Play some flume and the changes of the season. Adulterated. Even a slight percentage. Partnership. Would destroy the possibility of the daisy like. Brian furious power creation. Are ordered. The needs of the most delicate structure. And every flower. It's so nice and endo. Between the forces of the universe. If one might believe looking at an exclusively. The singer sisters were built. Turn off. Sentara very beginnings of the american teenager. We have seen and understood. Misappropriation. And now in the 21st century. Ecosystem. Little caesars. Still need the word. Indian religious and spiritual world. Play the spiritual ecological unethical time. It is truly global. Know-it-all character. We are the world.. Videographer. Large leaf ecologically-friendly world. Exactly until very recently. Heavenly. On the need for the preservation of our playlist fragile ecosystem. Hello. It is holy book to colorado. The environment is just love a sick representatives on earth. And if not charged this long with a smiley face painting charge. Bunch of christianity. An orthodox jew. Tradition is having storage on the side of the. Weaker ecological world 2. 1 which place is humanity of the center of creation. Absolutely. Encouraging. Any responsible exploitation of our planet and its resources. As has happened. Human centered worldview of christianity. Worldwide effort. Ecological an interdependent world youth has its beginnings in particular waldo. In the very first this way. God after creating. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Dominion. Over the fish of the sea end of the birds of the air have communion. Over every living thing. I have given you every plant i just reported to ascend. You shall have them for food. Every green. The lady religious and cultural scholars. Believe it was precisely this. Eccentric worldview this draft ancient. Humanity at the center of the universe. Rather. Ishi's personal. Created by our god. Solely for our purposes of exploitation and pleasure. Compounding the spiritual problem of humanity itself center of the universe. Is the idea within the snow christian conservative circles. Physical world. So true believers don't worry about this world worry about the next one for their salvation. Orthodox christian declare in working with others marble roll. Progressive political social and economic. To deal with global warming. Mercifully over recent years christianity and judaism. Even in the orthodox spread. Is there spiritual ecological worldview away from the agents and there is a primitive understanding the world. Korean methodist for the light. To be spiritually an ethically responsible relationship. Recently. Angelica lynn very good service. In february of 2006. 86 defective angelical christian leader. Call other faithful christian blog. For federal regulation. Generating carbon dioxide. I told him that 2006. Alarm for ghana neighbor that compels us to greece salvation. Family and the sanctity of marriage and take the whole gospel of jesus christ. 203 world also compelled us to recognize that climate change. Is a serious christian issue. Virus infection. Please report sample. Interstate organizations like the national religious partnership for the environment this is their logo up there are. Denver lodo. This is a sign of the covenant. For all future generations. This organization is comprised of. Catholic mainstream and evangelical environmental organization. Better working together. No i called caesar website. In, dibble.. Patrolling the ponderosa steak edition. Service environmental sustainability. On freaking world mission. Purdue university. World religions. I get it. I'm bored. Unitarian universalism. Taking place religion. People from all corners of the globe where. Global environmental and spiritual epic and consciousness. Representative. Adorable theological and ethical leadership. We have exhibited in this dawning understanding. No. Two sundays ago my dear colleague the river flood murphy from daytona beach. It is rather than scientific server the reason i asked you. He shared with me the latest cosmological thinking. I'm leaving theoretical astrophysicist. Lucy and even celebrate. The entire universe as an interconnected and still mysterious dammit. Space energy. And i think is spiritual value. Is valley with russticals understand intellectually and emotionally. The we are profoundly interconnected. I want to bring the idea of the interdependent way up. Downhill much more practical level. For me the key. Seven springs boulevard. Google. Place creation next to every other living thing. Reject the biblical view the playlist classical center the universe and make the whole world are play flo rida much more helpful and modest. Play. 21st century. And that's what has been since a donut. Dangerous spiritual death illusion that we are the center of the universe. It is crystal clear. Waterworld. Volume place for skydiving. We homo sapiens. Find our business on earth. Here is our pope. Our carbon footprint in our other footprints. Giant pool cornfield today. We need a very different way of doing business. Stream. Helium china shop comes to our world environment. One blood. Trusted. The bottom line is the humanity. Responsibility and care tomorrow relationship. Best creation. Millennium. Bill. Long sleeve there are hopeful signs. Slowly and rapidly. Spiritual and ethical version. Already have two new technologies and lifestyle. Like the incredible when i took my last bike ride across america. A gigantic. In california in oklahoma. And i believe with all my heart. The 7th christmas. Constructively points away. Isabel stress. And excessive human activity and population growth. Connected. Englewood park and wisely learn. Because we unitarian universalist as long as they're still exist fully interconnectedness we still have a special responsibility. I need a google. Publix. And act up in our lives on the half of the stragglers. Let us this day. Tirelessly on the hat. Of our planets still open future. Despite all its stubbornness. Persuadable. Our species candler. New ways of living on this earth and blood pops unitarian universalist. Renee. I'm just tapping. Calculator. Disco league. Convergent. We join with the ureter. Any channel. There's something.

uufvb_org

2011Mar27Sermon128.mp3

Some years ago i read that a sociologist at ohio state university had determined that the more frequently. People go to church the more often they have sex. And then a few years later i learned that a government researcher had concluded that the more frequently you go to church to lower your blood pressure presumably because you're getting so much exercise. Well whatever the consequences i'm glad to be here and given what i've just told you i'll bet you are too. And i'm especially glad to be here in vero beach at one of the very few congregations that has a hundred percent or almost 100% membership in uusc and. Had the good sense to call my friend scott alexander as its minister either one of those behaviors alone. Would be cause for applause but the combination not to. Permanently inoculate the state of florida against whatever ridicule it may occasionally be subjected to from the rest of the country. So scott and jack seipel are wonderful uusc volunteer rep for 26 years you usc's volunteer rep in this time congregation right here thanks to you and and of course to scott and all of you for hosting us this weekend my colleague cassandra ryan is here you can meet her at our uusc table after. The service when i was running for president of the u.s.a. i was aged 34 and i used to quip that if i lost the election. People could save me what gladstone is reported to have said of disraeli. He is a young man with a brilliant future behind him. But now the question for me at age 61 is why would. An old man with a limited future in front of him take up a new presidency that of the unitarian universalist service committee and the answer is because i truly believe. That uusc is quite literally the most effective way. To put unitarian-universalist values to work in the world to make our faith shine. To make justice roll down like a righteous streaming to ensure that we unitarian universalist are in the vanguard of the torrent. I'm going to tell you about our work in just a moment and then. Because uusc get no money from the uua that's a point that many people are confused about the uua. Provides no financial support uusc is entirely dependent upon the generosity of the unitarian universalist like you. I hope that you're in a coffee hour you'll go to the table we've set up and if by chance you're not a member and i know there are a lot of new members here a new folks who have joined this congregation i hope you'll join us for $40 and if. Like most of you you already are i hope you'll consider giving $100 or more because a hundred dollars more every dollars match dollar-for-dollar by our congregation in shelter rock. New york. But first i want to tell you about the eighth deadly sin. The seven deadly sins were first systematize in the year 590. By pope gregory the first and they're not part of the catholic catechism. I will bet. That unless you are an ex-catholic and were a very attentive and guilt-ridden student in catechism class. I'll bet the most if you can't name all 7. Though perhaps if i give you a hint. You can come up with one of them. It is associated with frequent church-going. You got it lost bingo but. But those of you actually who were thinking to yourself low blood pressure. You might be right to because if low blood pressure is making you sluggish you might be guilty of another one of us in. Right. And then of course there are rats. Greed. Pride. Envy. The seven deadly sins were the early churches roadmap to hell. And by the way i should say it is not just. Christians who worry about the afterlife you may be familiar with the story of the devout. Orthodox jew who was close to death his wife and daughter at his bedside. Moisture they said is there anything we can get you. Yes he said. Get me a ham sandwich. Well naturally the family was. Distressed a gas but they ordered up a ham sandwich and moisture. He ate it eagerly and then his wife said when you've been such a devout religious man how could you do this on your deathbed. I'm about to die whenever i get where i'm going the lord will say to me more to all and all you've been a good man but. Remember the time your stolen apple is a boy. Remember the time you raised your voice to your good wife. Remember the time you were mean to that no-good son-in-law your daughter married against your advice remember the time and you see when he gets done a ham sandwich i'll know it's almost over. So what's your trusting to me what is interesting to me about the seven deadly sins. Is that i can well imagine circumstances. In which every one of them could be construed as a virtue. Without wrath of the evils of the world. There would be no social progress. Without lost the human race could not procreate. Type a personalities could use a lot more sloth. If we feel insufficient pride in ourselves we are said to suffer from low self-esteem. If you are in a refugee camp with no food or running water who would really begrudge you greed or envy or gluttony. But there is one. Very common sin of which we have all probably been guilty at one time or another that in my book trump's the ball is worse than all of the others and that is cruel today. It's hard for me to think of any circumstances in which. Could be construed as a virtue. And your cruelty. Was not included in the seven deadly sins why is that. What was the first place it is because the god whom the early christian church worship. Was unashamedly a cruel god. This was the god who told moses to slay all non-virgin women in midian. Had cruelty been included in the seven deadly sins god himself would have had a lot of explaining to do. Jesus certainly repudiated cruelty. The early church fathers believed that it was their duty to torture heretics because otherwise. Those heretics pernicious doctrines would spread and anyone. Coming under their influence. Would suffer though. Fires of hell cruelty was a small price to pay to save people from the dangers of hell. And the other reason that cruelty was not included in. The church's official list of sins was because as i say virtually everybody doesn't. Not every one of us can be accused of being angry or lustful or. Taking an extra flagon of mead at the dinner table but. Everybody knows in his or her heart that. At some point we've done something me even even jesus had an off-day every once in awhile remember the time he was hungry and coming upon a fig tree that was out of season and therefore borne no fruit had a bit of a temper tantrum and condemn the poor treat. So. Cranky is very common but. That makes it no less despicable and the reason true cruelty is despicable. Well the reason is not just because it causes suffering though that of course is one of the reasons but. Despicable because it makes the whole world. Bliss radiant. That's the connection that bikaner is drawing in the reading i've shared with you this morning between the beauty of the world. And the imperative adjuster. Between. What he calls stirring in the blood at the sound of rain our celebration of the world. Graciousness and beauty. Thickening of the heart that the sight of misery are. Impulse to do justice. If unitarian-universalism. Teaches us anything at all it teaches us that despite all its carnage. And privation and disaster and disease the world is still full of blessings the warmth of the sun that refulgence of the earth the healing power of our bodies the companionship of animals. The complexity of our minds the generosity of our hearts the very breath of life itself these are outright gifts that. Creation presents to us for the taking we did not earn them we did nothing. To deserve them they just are the gracious gift of an ever. Giving universe the radiant gifts. Creation what the theologians call the. Manifestations of grey. If you have too little water. Drink. The sun. Become a lot of blessing. Put a curse. If you just spoil the earth. Ruin the environment you no longer have reach of. Lyrics majesty. If you have. Too little to live on. Your complex mind your generous heart may shrivel up and die. If you are tortured or raped the very breath of life which otherwise ought to be such a blessing. It comes a company not by joy but by agony the reason cruelty. Is not just because it causes suffering it is because any wrecks roblox. It turns the awesome. And it makes what is gracious about life so much more difficult to see. Soap. Universities job. With your help and on your behalf is to combat cruelty in order to set the world's radiance free. And how do we do that just a few exam. Women in refugee camps in darfur sudan. Are not supposed to be raped by the united nations police who are designated to protect them in the camps. But until uusc introduced a training program and an accountability system for those police. Whenever women in the camps would leave the camps to collect firewood they were at risk of rape not justify militiamen but by the police themselves. You get that you change that you and uusc. Access to clean water is about as basic anita's i can imagine if anything. Is a gracious gift to be had by all it is water but. In too many places on this planet including in this country water is priced out of reach of the poor and people who can't pay for it don't get it the tax returned off. U&u uscr working to ensure that the human right to water applies to everyone. 200000 people were massacred in guatemala over the past 40 years most of the mayan indians most people have forgotten about them but. Few of their killers have been brought to justice virtually none of them but today uusc and its partners in guatemala are collecting forensic evidence. To do just that to bring at least a few of them to justice. No one in this country should have to live on $15,000 a year that's what a worker earning the federal minimum wage makes but that is below the federal poverty line for a family of three and consider this $15,000 is less than what the average ceo at an s&p 500 company earned before lunchtime on any given day. Uusc is working to raise the wages of poultry workers in arkansas of restaurant workers in georgia in georgia restaurant workers wages are set at $2.13 an hour. So that jobs will lift people out of poverty not keep them in it. In some muslim countries if you speak out for religious tolerance or the rights of women you are harassed and even arrested through our partners in the muslim and arab world uusc is working for a more tolerant progressive aslam as well indeed our partner in egypt hamza has been instrumental in the recent amazing transformation there just last week i learned. That a comic book. Comic book that uusc had translated into arabic. To teach people in the middle east about martin luther king and nonviolent action for change. That you usc's comic book was being passed around tahrir square in the middle of the egyptian revolution. You are doing all of this you and uusc you are making justice roll and nowhere. Know where are you doing that on a larger scale or in more effective ways than in haiti. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake unitarian universalist gave $2000000 to put haiti back together again. University and its partners are focusing on the forgotten people whom the large agencies often overlooked children in refugee camps for example who have no adult family members to care for them or who were sold into slavery before the earthquake or now the bottom of the food chain when it comes to aid and recovery. And thanks to you in may we will begin sending medical teams to haiti followed by dozens of unitarian universalist volunteer mission people who want to put their skills at the service of the haitian people not in the same way that hundreds of volunteers did in new orleans. Building skills education skills health field agricultural skills. Uusc unlike so many other people so many other agencies we will not forget. Haiti. We will not forget we will be there at least for two more years. Well. In all these ways and in many more that i don't have time to tell you about. Uusc is your vehicle your vehicle for what. The great preacher reverend ike. Used to call. Tangibility dating. Cancer militating your unitarian universalist values. And in the process of combating cruelty you get two bonuses first you get a lot more radiance in the world a lot more happiness a lot more. Grace and second consider this you've heard of carbon offsets. Carbon offsets in which. People pay for the planting of trees website in order to neutralize. Their own contributions to greenhouse gases will. I'd like to think of you you sc. As my own personal cruelty offset. The next time you with a fig tree. Send a chat to uusc you'll feel. You'll feel a lot less guilty of cruelty offset you see. When you join. Uusc you not only saved the world you save your own soul do you really have a better use for $100 than that i doubted. I love the unitarian universalist association our religious movement i work for it as scott said for 15 years it deserves. All of our support i give generously myself to the uua do you exist to serve the interests of our congregations. And who you would see exist to help unitarian-universalist serve the needs of the world that's the difference. Because you see in the battle against anguish and despair. It's not enough to wish. Not enough to talk not enough to worship not enough to pray not enough to hope they're all good. But they're not enough. In the face of tyranny and repression and greed and fear what is required is to join hands to use our power to combat these. Deadly santa make. Our voices count to join our sisters and brothers to join the vanguard of the torrent to make our values lift a make our faith shine to join and support uusc and to let justice roll. Everywhere. Around the world. Atelectasis.

uufvb_org

2014May18Sermon32.mp3

Well good morning. Fellowship. Loving hearts and helping hands, you'll sell. Even as together we worked to make this world a better place. Please do as i say every sunday you are welcome precisely as you come to us. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you have a ged or a phd. Whether you are a visitor here this morning or have been coming for decades. Whether you were feeling on top of the world. Or down in the dumps or somewhere in between. Just as you can. We hope you will find our services morning. Meaningful enriching at you'll find something here. That nourishes your spirit and feeds your soul and gives you renewed energy and purpose for the living of life in the days ahead. Almost 40 years i hand typed on my hermes portable typewriter in houlton maine. Colleague named john curotto had written it. When i showed it to him yesterday he didn't recognize. These are opening words for this morning my friend. This is our special place we make our presence. For our church is not a building. It is not mortar or stained glass. It's not an institution or a doctrine. It is a people. Our time here is special to me or creed. But because we choose to lend our present. We are here to lend our presents. To share moments of ourselves. To live questions. Answers. We are here because we can grow and humanity. Ourselves. With one another and with the history and flow. Of our free religion. Who we are. That we are important. Everyone. Are goodness and importance. And remembering is affirmed when we sink. And cher. And laugh and are together. In this chosen place and time. Welcome. Ward church. Well good morning again. And first i want to thank god and all of you for inviting me back i. Certainly enjoy being here and you're receptive and open faces. Make me a better preacher than i am so i love it. And i do want to say one thing about the music before i. Meditation. We all have our different ways of focusing shattering meditating whatever you want to call it. And one of the ways that i do it most intensely is i. Go to the piano in the morning. Without preconceived and something i will. Pick a song an old song something that i've heard before not know even sometimes what key i'm going to play then. And considerate a love letter from the past. And 11% as a bunch of notes in a wet a bunch of notes that are started in this web of sound. And i get in that web. And then i kind of explorer not knowing always where i'm going to go with it or even going to say in the same key. And in that way i'm just so focused i do it my music teacher told me to go and i never did that which is concentrate. And be right in the moment. Olive detering how deep is the ocean so. But now. These words let him take it wherever they need to. Good god we are a queer lot. So you need some difference so odd. Each of us all of us every. Brother and sister creation. It's as if each and all of us where some part of some grand fairy tale told by a master spinner of tales and maker of stories. That's exactly who we are. We are children of something that love stories. Who loves each and every story and loves them with almost a full of compassion. Yet despite how i'd be different we are. To the guy that the holds that all we are one covering yours. Even if snowflake. 41 blanket. So help us all of us see how we are all so preciously queer. And feel how we are all passionately love. And know that in the eyes of eternity. We are one. Amen. I have been told and i found this to be true that. When you talkin to a liberal congregation. And you haven't. Biblical references. But you better check them out a little bit to see if they know stuff so. I like to start with association test. I just fill in the blank demand. Pretty good huh this one even has a couple answers. Hey that's good. Noah's. Oh you're fine you know some people get that confused with. Joan of arc. His wife front of but there's a difference you see because noah's ark. Is made of wood. And joan of arc was made of orleans so they aren't the same thing.. Oh there's one more then. This is a real test. The shortest. Man in the bible. Who's that. Matthew well that's what. That's enough of that isn't it. Well actually this is seriously. I did ask once if. People knew about biblical people and i said how many and how many of you've never heard of and how many never heard of adam and eve. Garmin start today with a. A biblical mess. And the misses a story that tells an important truth on many different levels. Modern communication. The 11th chapter the book of genesis. The story goes like this. Now the whole earth had one language into words. And his men migrated from the east they found a plain in the land of shinar and settled. And then they said, build ourselves a city. At a tower with it stop to the heavens. And then let us make a name for ourselves must we be scattered. And the lord came down. The city and the tower which built. And the lord said have one language. This is only the beginning of what they will do. Let us go down and speech. So the lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the earth and left off the building at the city. Therefore its name was called the lord confuse the language. And from there the lord. So the folks got bad and they were ground that's the essence of that story i guess. What are the longings of the questions or the needs. Dismiss the story. But i do know that we have a different language problem today which i want to talk about a few minutes. Because the tower of babel today it's spelled differently. Words that give us several removes from rounding and being grounded. Several removes from earthiness from reality from. The directness of our experience. And just as this mythical. Tower of babel. Group to be perilously removed. From the earth. Our bibles remove says perilously. The back to the oldest for just a minute. Song god is the bad guy right he's rounding the people and he's punishing them. Well. Most problems. Unitarian theologian of the 20th century. James luther adams didn't think so this is what he wrote. Diversity of place in perspective and language. So the ancient. Method bible tells it's the way it is our differentness is there and it's expressed in many ways because. And don't we have a common humanity spring something something. Potentially different subdue understanding. You know what does it mean to be you we can be in the same church the same time. What does it mean to be you and what do you see the same thing. We are. Blessed by the diversity of a bach of a beethoven. It seems to me that this god of babel is is really an appreciative. Wonderful god. Who affirmed this diversity. So that when people express the beauty of the human body mikelangelo. And with tragedy we go from what. Jobs at 2. The king lear not of one time even though we express some of the same things. We are not of one tongue. But here we go again. Battle. Rubber trying somehow to. It squeezes together as if we were some kind of pimento that you're sticking it out of. In modern babel we try to follow up god's curriculum. Remove from concrete instances and differences toward abstract. I'm sure many of you here are familiar with george carlin. And one of the things he wants said he was talking about syllables in concrete. I want exact examples his particular. I profoundly personal to me. He takes the phrase shell shocked. Two words. Dairy. One of my grandfathers onofrio's a veteran in world war. One mary was disabled. He was gasping shot with a machine gun. And when he came home in a robbery he was shot again. So he had shell shock. That was july 4th he wasn't in the middle of the house. Two syllables. Wwii battle fatigue for syllables that stress syndrome. All of them from that witch. I don't know where common level. You can't buy a used car syllables you have to buy a car this previously owned. Okay. And is that truthful. I bought it and i kept it on the lot and i never stepped into it. But used to something different remove from concrete experience i don't think anymore it's. Writing fluid. You know that. And maybe you can notice how in this age of puffed-up. The word event helps event event. I thought the sale was an event. Nothing's worse than redundancy how true how true. Church's puff things up. We don't go to church we have now religious community. You know everything. And i was talking to scott about just the other day about. So ministers will come into a church and say. I wanted in my contract that i have a pastime. Now you and i would call that a day off okay. Grants to buy a fishing license to see their allstate agent. Here i am i'm going to be having salmon time. More importantly sometimes we use words that equivocate. Or even deceive. Lovelace cartoon the wizard of oz. And there is the wizard there's the king on on his belvedere saying to the people he says vassals. Picture. If you are now so see it's is all i know. There no more clerks there are no more salespeople or cashier's there are only now. And i don't think that gets them any more pay. And i am no longer a customer. I'm a guest. And i wonder if i'm a guess why don't they. I mean if i'm a guest. I have a customer. I just going through these things because there was so many ways in which we get away from concrete reality. We use words to soften things up. Politically correct that the whole of your sermon. Do you know where the word political correctness comes from. That comes from the soviet era. Totalitarian russia. To be politically correct. Anyway. Administration. We start having poor people. Today schoolspeak of exceptional children. And when they say that i swear i don't know exactly how the children are exceptional. And now it may mean they have some kind of disability. I don't know what's really happening what does it mean what does it mean to use language. Tell what's really happening. Mentally. I was on the board of a mental hospital. I'm not in it by the way but on the board of it. And mentally ill people were killed in anyway they didn't have any particular diagnosis. Functional deficit. And they were a target for service strategies. And i swear that i get in that board. And sometimes i couldn't. You know. Even masturbation has lost its earthiness it's now. Self-pleasuring. Which to me might also mean getting an ice cream soda or reading a good book. I. Wrote himself you may be familiar with its in the. And it's not politically correct. Because it's an addition in storm and rain which is redundant. It was supposed to be in dark and rain. But dark was deemed. Tubi. Racist. + -. It's a negative image. So i asked. You mean like dark eyes. It it gets really really very strange. In battle there are words and phrases that make absolutely no sense. Go to the airport and they say now we are pre-boarding. How can you pre-board. Did you pre hear what i was going to say. What's the trouble besides. I guess it's a nation we should be proud that we don't torture people anymore enhanced interrogation techniques. Instead of two syllables that tell you what's happening to make it sound better. And people who are accidentally killed in war are collateral damage. I suppose they are acceptable. Casualties during a preemptive strike. The trouble is that modern babel. Distance is us from reality is that sometimes we would rather not face and we call it every time we hear it. But it isn't just about words it's sometimes about controlling the words that people use. One example now if if i use examples about unitarian universalist because that's the group binomials. Importance of course is to talk about things like that. End racism. And there's a programmer one of the theological school says. And we'll show you how to hold a conversation. Isn't that something. You know my thoughts are free but you're going to show me how to talk you're free to ask anything you want. Doctor. Once again that's let's make you from n toes and we'll put you in the olives. Another example of this that i've seen use is the fabulous i-statement. No try to avoid blaming say you're a such-and-such. It's supposed to be there's a there's a fine am i feel. That when you do this. Because. I've always had trouble with. I feel hurt when you drop a hammer on my toe because it hurts. Beer is good. And i think it's a good tool sometime but unfortunately more often than not in my notes.. Talk this way are more and more interested in controlling the conversation what does it mean to be. What does it mean to have your experience communicated to me. I think it's a free person you have the right to say i prefer to speak in my own voice thank you my own way. Because the real question in real conversation. What does it mean to be. Babel formulations don't like that. Besides which they get in the way of good clean communication. Example. In one of the churches i serve the. President devore name susan. I had a couple of teenagers. Apple ice and she was. They were doing the chores the way she liked to so she started with this formulation of i stopped. Given our uniqueness are individual. Speaking ways which deny the depths and the breadth of our gifts of our. Experiences of our perceptions. And when we lapse into battle we not only deny the preciousness in the uniqueness of each individual even though we say we believe in the value of each. We promote confusion and obscurity rather than understanding and clary. We confuse intellectualization more syllables more important with intelligence. And abstraction with depth. And we put ourselves worst of all in a removed from the world that were participating in. We remove ourselves babel. Not shell-shocked but i've got. We diminish our ability therefore not only to communicate. And to listen but to help to bring some healing to a world that is. Continually hurting. Consider good director.. Consider this suppose that. Martin luther king jr.. Addressing those tens of thousands of people. Gallagher's in front of the mall. August 28th 1963 had said. In the best most murders. At the end of the day after giving 110 per cent. To a robust complex and packers sets. I have a conceptualization i like the surface and cherry process with you. About the actualization lifestyle. I thank the god of babel. Find the parting of the red sea and a and. Direct you know what a dream means. We know what i was. In the beginning was the word. In the beginning is the word. And we can choose to use language which speaks of our gifts language which brings clarity rather than. We can show that we will use our intelligence in our schooling in a way which will neither hurt. Nor deceive. We can choose our words. Perhaps we can even help the language we can help shape the language in the world that we. Encounter every day and that's what we must do weather report. At school is a volunteer in government business and the professions. In human service agencies we can help. By just cutting through. And getting right to it. In the beginning was the word. And the beginning is the word. We can work in the babylon our lives we can challenge it we can question it. We can do our damnedest to refuse to be imprisoned by it. Well i began with a passage from the bible so i'll end with one this is much more obscure. It is something that we iteration mythological form what we can do and what we must do about battle. It concerns hezekiah when he was king of israel. Any time an idol made of brass and it was in the form of a snake. Now what the heck john if they had invested in this object. Hezekiah songs. Pawtucket. He broke. And he said. This is the hoschton. This isna hoschton which means this is just the snake made of brass. That's what it is. This is no god. He called a snake a snake. We must call a spade a spade and aardvark an aardvark strawberry strawberry award reward torture. Torture. There's too much distance in harm in the world. That's hidden behind battle. Characters of the word. And do words of the word must also be choosers. Because we have the power to help shape. Not only our lives but the rights of others elijah's humanity. So let's use it well. Amen. The most necessary. Is faith in ourselves. Not faith it will always be wise when we are awesome poolish. But facing our past we were capable of wisdom and that we can talk to be wiser than we are. You always be good. We are sometimes wicked. Faith that we can be inspired to greater good. And greater compassion. We will always be strong and brave. For the best of us is often week. What states that we are capable of strength. And that through faith are potentiality in our potentiality. Greater firmness. Knox. The we are always wise. Org. Or brave or strong. But that we are capable. I'll becoming wise enough. Good enough. Brave enough and strong enough. To make a habitable world. You are the light of the world. See the lights. Be the light. There's a line. Share the light. And be blessed and a blessing. Amen.

uufvb_org

2010Apr18sermon32.mp3

uufvb_org

2014Aug31Sermon32.mp3

Blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. How fortunate are those who become poor in spirit. Today show experience. The radical blessing of infinite. Possibility. Blessed. For they shall be comforted. How fortunate to mourn. For they shall be strengthened. And become comforters. Themselves. Blessed are the meek. For they shall inherit the earth. Fortunate are the gentle. For an honoring their connection to the earth. They receive the power of creation. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For they shall be satisfied. Fortunate are those who hunger for what is right. And just. For they shall be filled. And complete. For they shall obtain mercy. How fortunate are the merciful for their hearts will be opened. Blessed are the pure in heart. For they shall see god. Blessed are the pure and open his heart. For they shall see divinity everywhere. Blessed are the peacemakers. For they shall be called children of god. Blessed are the peacemakers. For they shall restore harmony in the world. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Is the kingdom of heaven. Fortunate challenged in their devotion to justice. For they shall know. The beloved community. Good morning today's time for all ages is the good samaritan retold by marilyn mcfarland. One day a lawyer asked jesus. Master. What must i do to live for eternity. Jesus said. What is written in the law. The lawyer answered. You so love the lord with your god with all your heart. And with all your soul. And with all your strength. And with all your mind. And your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said. You have answered right. Do this and you shall live. But master. Who is my neighbor. Jesus answered with this story. A man was walking on a lonely stretch of road between jerusalem and jericho. When a gang of thieves jumped out from the side of the road and demanded his money. The man resisted. She needed that money to buy goods for his family. One of the thieves pooped up a rock and hit the man on the head. Wounded the man grown and fell. Glanced around. No one was inside. Take everything one said. They stripped off his clothing stole his money and hit him again before they ran away leaving the man half dead. After a time. A priest came walking down the road. She saw the man lying on the dusty ground and he hurried on by. Soon another man i'm device appeared. Keeps who saw the wounded man lying in the hot sun naked and bleeding and he scurried away. A long time past. Flies buzzed over the man who would soon die of his injuries. But someone else was traveling that road. He was a samaritan riding his donkey. Now the people of samaria we're not friendly with the people of the wounded man's country. Famous trusted and even hated each other. This samaritan do did not hesitate when he saw the man on the road. She did not stop to think whether the man was a friend or not. She saw that this was someone who desperately needed help. And she felt compassion. Samaritan took healing oil and wine from his bag and cleaning the man's wounds and covered him with a robe. He gave him a drink of water and helps the man on to the donkey. Slowly they walked to the next town where the samaritan found an in and made some and comfortable. Before he left the next day he gave money to the innkeeper to pay for the room and to take care of the man until he had recovered. When jesus finish telling the story he asked. Which of these three men with the neighbor to the man who fell among thieves. The lawyer who had asked who is my neighbor said. The one who showed mercy. Jesus said go and do the same. Maybe all endeavor to be good neighbors. Like authority. In fact. Throw out. But what can i say. After all that question the mind of god. And of course he went to church every sunday. And yes he was. In fact past chairman of the board of deacons decatur heights baptist church. This is sting position and title. And whenever i was visiting on a sunday morning. Along with my little cousin we called them. The georgia cooter's. Grandpa and parades. Across the street. And inside the church for sunday school in the worship service. Now the preacher decatur heights baptist. The reverend also another girl. He told me about the furniture. Vengeful. I wondered if god had a strong. That was granddad's name for the leather strappy hung in his bathroom. For the purpose of sharpening his razor. He threatened to use honest many hundreds of times. But i never saw him once razored against the skin of a cooter. Overtime i can't granddaddy. And maybe even god. Weren't all that frightening. In fact. I started to like both of them. And this jesus fellow they talked about. He was supposed to be god's son. A child of god. And they told me that. So did not make jesus my brother. And if he was my brother. Jesus. It'd be nice to talk to him and ask him some personal questions. Maybe he had a better idea for hiding string beans under the rim of my plate. Scripture verses seeing dark and scary. Not me. Verses that speak better. God is love love one another. Turn the other cheek. I shared my versus with my granddad. He predicted that i'd make a fine baptist preacher someday. How do years past. And soon it was the summer of 1963. New hope baptist church in raleigh. Called an emergency business meeting wednesday night in lieu of the regular prayer meeting. It seems our congregation had received a letter from some folks at the black baptist church down the road. They wanted to know. If they showed up at our church one sunday morning. Interested. Would they be welcome. Queen of the baddest richard also taught me to sing lyrics. Red and yellow black and white they are precious in his sight. No reason for a meeting that day. The answer was obvious. But as i heard the debate began i soon learned differently. And that night. I did what jesus did. It's described in the shortest verse in the bible. It reads. Jesus wept. Skip ahead to college. And a newly discovered progressive episcopal parish. Earned confederal registration. Lots of committed church people got together and here's where i started meeting unitarian universalist. Wonderful people. Now skip even further ahead. 219 93. My life's journey. And placed me on a sailboat. And then delivered me to vero beach. There was only one problem here though. My familiar liberal tradition. What's harder to find here. Still around the community. Books like joyce and when levi. We volunteered together for the theater jail. We also socialize frequently. One night they took me to dinner on their boat. Earl you belong with unitarian-universalist joy told me. Clearly you're one of us. Finally it dawned on me. My brother jesus. It was about time i do it well. And i haven't regretted it yet. Thank you. Wanted to share this reading. By joy jordan lake. Get us going this morning. Frankly i've never been wild about the story of jesus at the home of mary and martha. Not because i live in fear that jesus would say to me what he said to martha. I would not be accused of too much time in the kitchen when i could have been listening to jesus. Since my husband and i believe in egalitarianism marriage and he insist on eating foods beyond the realm of my own special abilities. Speciality's. Pop-tarts cheez-its granola bars. He performs the culinary seats in our house. What worries me. Is that i'm not at all sure as he did marry either married situation. Here's the thing. Jesus makes me nervous. God almighty is one thing but jesus makes me uncomfortable. Jesus would make everyone uncomfortable as far as i can tell. Imagine asking the guy home for lunch. Not only does he not lend a hand in setting the table or pouring the drinks. He's got your other would-be helpers spellbound at his feet imbibing ages while the pot roast withers and the salad wilt. How does one prepare for jesus's visit. Would you clean the house more thoroughly than usual. Or let's be honest would you clean the house for a change. Would excessive cleanliness suggest that you've been neglecting some spiritual. Would you borrow fine china to show your deep and abiding respect for the messiah. Or use paper plates to symbolizing in material goods. Would you impressed him more with a menu featuring maine lobster and edible version of pouring perfume on his feet. Apparently he always knew a good wine when he saw one. Or would you fare better slapping peanut butter and jelly on stop & shop's cheapest bread. Carefully calculating the money you save and buying groceries for a homeless family. Jesus might praise either choice. Or either. You might say good and faithful servant or you whitewash sepulchre. Depending on nasty little intangibles like motivation and intent. It's that lack of ordinary predictability that makes me nervous. Other people have the grace to smile and politely mumble something vague when you make a social faux pas but sends you stumbling into the mop closet so their private lives. Jesus on the other hand. Strides in quite intentionally. And before he has so much as said his backpack down answer another guest how her fifth husband or was he just a live-in. Is proceeding with a delinquent child support payments to his former wife. He'd welcome the uninvited entrance neighborhood ravel. Sistrunk and spanning the carpet was dubious smelling foreign substances. The kind of guessed you'd like to leash to the barbecue grill and leave there for a while. Jesus called them and they saw them. Public opinion swayed him no more than the storm spirit winds and waves. A desirable trait for a little league umpire but a regrettable lack of path for a dinner guest. I think peanut butter on find china. And french wine in paper cups. If i could screw up the courage i tell him the truth. But he makes me nervous. And i'm not sure what he expects from me. Then it might occur to me to apologize for not inviting everyone to dinner for might of wanted to come. Then the few of us would sit down on the floor i think. The dogwood depositor 87 lb beside him no doubt an anointed feet with her fond drool. Maybe he'd smile. And while he scratched her behind the ears and pulled off a tick or two he teach us once more. What god's love is like. I'd listen. I wish i knew whether to wipe is now slimy feet with my hair or just say something theologically astute and intellectually dazzling. Ticket then point to the nearest child and suggest i learn about god from her. Maybe then. I just sit and listen. Peanut butter off fine china and drink french wine from a paper cup. And take comfort i could in the fact. It's somewhere. Candle deep within my discomfort. Was a heart wheeling. To be mad nervous. By jesus. Morning it's fair to say that i am a little over my head. Religious tradition that i have studied for years. But exist in the heart of the founding of this country. And its influence our culture as much as anything else you could name. But it's been part of my life since birth. Out of this tradition. I'm trying to morning. The three or four of the most significant gifts that is offered me. And i don't know if it's really possible. To do that. And unlike the other. Religions in this series i am also aware. But for many unitarian-universalism. By the christianity. Of their birth. And so it's a little different. Talk about christianity in this. And this congregation then other world religions. Throughout most of our unitarian universalist history we have understood ourselves as christian. The single sermon that most defined our religious movement. Was one preached in 1819 by william ellery channing. It was called unitarian christianity. The sermon by the way goes on 442 single-spaced. Pages. That's how they did it most days. Channing argued for the use of reason and interpreting scripture. And understood the bible. To contain truise relating to the unity of god. The unity of jesus. The universalist notion of the goodness and mercy of god. And the nature of holiness as love to god. Jesus. And benevolence toward others. During the 1930s and 40s things changed rather dramatically with the rise of the movement. Which found a solid and supportive home. In our denomination. Overtime. Humanists agnostics atheists. Grew in number in our congregations and became more numerous liberal christians. But then the 1980s came and the pendulum began to swing the other way. More and more people began coming to our church looking for a spirituality that often has something to do with. Proclaiming or rediscovery meaning in christian imagery and symbols. And language. Summer. Quite surprised to discover. But unitarian-universalist have offered a liberal version of christianity. For centuries. We just. In the skinner house book christian voices in unitarian universalism. Peter talks about jesus's and i quote. I'm canning ability. To awaken in others across a staggering array of centuries and cultures the transcendent desire for authentic. Human existence. Humanist. Atheist. Whatever our path. His teachings are profound. As religious liberals we have understood christianity not as a religion about jesus but as a religion a religion based on. His resistance to injustice. And his compassion for all but particularly those. Who are oppressed. As religious liberals. We tend to agree with gk chesterton when he remarked that christianity is probably a good thing that's just never seriously been tried. As religious liberals we lift our christianity that calls us to create a more just and loving world. And deliberate rather than confine or diminish the human spirit. The jesus that we know. Would have had no part in condemning anyone else's religion. Or denying glbt persons the right to marry or to adopt children. He would have had no part in services to children of undocumented immigrants. Censoring books that acknowledged sexuality is part of being human. No part in supporting children having access to guns. Boosie's really. What child needs to learn how to shoot an uzi. No part in the senselessness of developing nuclear weapons that can kill hundreds of thousands. No part in the justice system symbolized by a woman holding two scales while blindfolded. Take off the blindfold and look at the inequities he would have said. The jesus we know. Understood loving god as loving your neighbor. As creating right relation and justice among humans. As bringing the divine realm into the human. By the force and debs. Of our love. So how can i possibly. Choose the greatest gifts of this. Tradition. To my life. It has breathed through my life. But here goes. I'll start with the stories the parables. Bearers of such profound truth. These teaching stories have offered and continued. To offer insight and challenge to my life. Nearly all religious traditions have stories. But the parables of jesus stand as unique forms of wisdom teaching. And for me. There are the stories that i am most. And i've heard over and over again. They're the ones i know by heart. So they come to mind easily. When i'm trying to understand my world. And find some guidelines in difficult moments of decision making. One of these parables in particular has been helpful repeatedly. It's a professional ministry. Rephrase you can't please all the people all the time. Heaven knows i know that by now. I displeased. This please people all the time. There's no way please everyone interface community as diverse as ours. What is difficult for me and for most ministers i know. It's how much it troubles us when someone is really unhappy. With us. I suspect that's not unique to ministers. I'll bet many of you know exactly what i'm talking about you the best. At whatever. Most people are happy or satisfied with you or your presentation or whatever. And then there's that one or two will make it clear that you haven't measured up. You tried hard to keep it in perspective. But it is nonetheless. And sometimes. The hurt gets so big. Outweighs the fact. That most people like whatever it was you did. So i remember jesus's parable of the hundred sheep. If one of them strays. The shepherd leaves the other 99 and goes off in search of the stray. And once found. The shepherd is more delighted over the one stray. The 99 who never strayed. It's just so true. In our hearts we want. Everyone. To be part of the fold. Secondly i would have to say that the words attributed to jesus ever referred to as the beatitudes. Have served. As a powerful teaching passage for me. You heard my own rephrasing. This morning. Found in the gospel of matthew their part of jesus's sermon on the mount. They're not easy of interpretation. Much less easy to put into practice. The beatitudes are not rules or laws to be obeyed. They are rather blessings. To be contemplated. And made incarnate in us. They're meant to be received with love. Received. Like a tiny seed. Each held in hand to see whether it bears fruit and meaning in our lives. To paraphrase simply. The beatitudes offer ways of living that promote. Happy blessing. To be poor in spirit. To mourn what is lost. To be lowly and meek. To hunger and thirst for justice. To be merciful. To be pure of heart. To be peacemakers. To love justice with such passion. That we are willing to suffer persecution for the sake of making it a reality in our world. Sermon on the mount jesus considered by many. To be the greatest prayer ever. Prayed. For more than 2000 years this prayer has fed religious speakers. And i feel it. When i say it myself. I'm aware of the collective spiritual energy into trying to get inside 54 english. In order to somehow move closer to the essence of the divine. The words. Where jesus's response to the question of how best we might pray. He talked a bit about. Cleansing our hearts before prayer. About how important it is. To forgive others before we begin praying. For years i had difficulty with this prayer. It was just waited too much theological baggage for me. I couldn't get past the address. Our father. Which art in heaven. And then i wasn't. Some way that i could be part of this beautiful prayer that is meant so much to so many. Until some years ago i was old enough to try a rewrite. That would allow me to participate in the beauty and power of his prayer. But also kind of keep the rhythm of it. And then of course a few years later i discovered the even more multi-layered meanings of it that appear in the aramaic version the language. Jesus actually spoke. But the point is that this prayer has become part of my daily prayer life. I recited everyday. In my words. The buddha said that we are on some of our thoughts. At least daily my thoughts include the aspirations of this prayer. It is my hope that overtime. I may be able to exemplify this prayer in the living of my life. With increasing intention. Integrity. And sureness. Spirit of life who are dan earth. And an obtuse and throughout the universe. Presence. By wisdom come. I love be known making of earth a haven. Grant the bread of life. And forgive us when we do not live in harmony with the. May i be forgiving. May my heart be compassionate in my mind be strong and resisting temptation. And learning from my mistakes. May i grow in understanding and gratitude. Serving the glory of life. Forever. I'm in. I guess i would have to talk about the gift. Of radical inclusivity. It is the arena in which i have to say christians and sales have fallen the farthest. From what jesus taught. I'm pushing myself something other than a -2 numb reaction when i see a cross hanging from. I want to have a positive response reflecting my high regard for living christianity. But the wearing of the cross has too often connoted exclusion rather than inclusion. The teachings of jesus were radically inclusive. His actions were radically inclusive. He welcomed the sick and the poor and the sinner alike. Just share his table. And walk his path. 10 most popular stories about jesus concerned is accused of adultery. Ancient law required that she be stoned to death. We all know what she said. Let. The one who is without sin cast the first stone. And no stones forecast. Jesus simply understood that we are all imperfect and we all make mistakes. What he asked us to do was to recognize that great truth. And substitute compassion for judgment. And realize. That the possibility of healing is open to all if our eyes and hearts can open. He was radically inclusive. In the best universalist tradition. In his belief. But all of good heart and goodwill. May be redeemed. One of my treasures novels is titled a dresser of sycamore trees. The main character is a pastor serving a small church in vermont. At one point in the novel. He's thinking about a conversation is had with a priest from another town. Regarding. Artificial flowers. His little church is decorated with donated artificial flowers which the visiting priest says he's simply must get rid of. Because. God doesn't like a phony. But the pastor thinks. These are what is people like and use themselves must be okay with god. But the light up 3d picture of jesus in the garden of gethsemane. It strikes him that goes well beyond plastic flowers. And so he writes in the novel. I found a storage room behind the oil furnace one saturday morning when we met to clean up the church basement. Probably laying there for 30 years. I suspect that a past rector had attempted to contribute to the beauty of holiness by moving it one step closer to the trash. Oh boy i still had. If they get their hands on this. Knobbly stealthily. I slid the thing into a box justin for the dump. But a woman with her mind on rummage sale. Until the picture was discovered a second time. I do not think that some of my fellow laborers would have been more impressed by piece of the true cross. They wiped the glass carefully. An anxious hand took up the plug at work. It did. I'm a little ashamed to admit that i'm more or less hoped it would explode. I was also a little ashamed to speak up when they begin to wonder aloud. How such a thing could ever have wound up in the garbage. But my confession embolden mean. As they went on to discuss the proper place for such an object. To mutter. Not upstairs. Yeah here as often in the past they knew something i didn't know. The picture was indeed venerable. A numinous. Like those russian icons reputed to weep inexplicably. It seemed to endow all those who stood nearby with some of its electric radiance. It may even have spoken to me. Don't you realize it seemed to say. But these people have been pulling me out of the garbage for generations. Your kind. Was always trying to throw me. Because. I am a little embarrassing. A little accessible. Accessible. Much. I tell you if it were necessary to suffer and die for second time as utterly tasteless as that might be. I would. Because it leads us right into the heart of jesus i think. A little embarrassing. A little too accessible. A little too much. And every time we are tempted to ignore jesus. His message. Someone drags it out in reminders. Someone issues a challenge. Wwjd what would jesus do bracelets. I don't know how many people who wear them really ask themselves that question and then carefully taken answer. It's a darn good question. It adds another decision. A dimension sees me to decision-making. A parallel for us might be asking ourselves here. Whenever we have a decision. As a church community. Or even us living into our unitarian-universalism how does this reflect. Our unitarian universalist principles. Living christianity is powerful stuff. The jesus that history has recorded. Does make me a little nervous. As the author of this morning's reading put it. Jesus is always asking me. To embody compassion. And live a whole lot larger than i do. What jesus had to say. And the ethical system and social vision he espoused. Could be. Truly. Living christianity. Or what nineteenth-century unitarian theodore to parker referred to as the permanent. Versus the transient. In christianity. And like the author of my reading this morning. I think that's somewhere in my discomfort. Is a heart willing to be made nervous by jesus. At least. Every once in awhile. You know i have a curious question how many view of eversong that. Isn't that. Three before. Amazing. I don't hear words. So my closing words are adapted from a very ancient piece to him of jesus. We want to be saved. And we want to save. We want to be free. And we want to free. We want to hear. And we want to be heard. We want to join with others and we want to be joined. We want to pray. And we want to be prayed for. We want to bless. And we want to be blessed. We want to be given to. And we want to give. If we look at each other we find a mirror. If we seek each other. We find a door. If we travel to meet each other. We find a road. The mirror is our soul. The door is our listening ear. The road is the path of our beloved community. And now please. Go in peace. Go making peace. Live kindly. Love mightily. View the world through the eyes of compassion and with a global heart. And always. Bounce. To the mystery.

uufvb_org

2013Aug04Sermon32.mp3

Unitarian universalist fellowship. We are glad you have chosen. People speaking. We are delighted to see. We hope you will find meaningful. Maybe we'll find something here this morning. He said a minister for 40 years. And he's been in florida for 10 years. Life. Coming into this house of worship. Come in and find peace and rest. An aspiration. Fellowship in love. Come in and find light. Friends cast. Music. These words are from elizabeth. Universalism. Research. We say often and revelation.. Indicator always new beginning. So. O'donoghue. Where your thoughts never think to wander. The beginning has before. Waiting until you were ready to merge. For longtime it is watching your desire is growing inside you. Noticing how you willed yourself on still unable to read what you had outgrown. What you had outgrown. Watching play with this safety. Integrate seamlessly spurred. Truewell rise and relent. Would you always live like this. Dana delany. Energy. Opening before you. Destination. Your destination is not yet clear you can press the promise of this opening. I'm thrilled yourself into the grace of god. Awaken your spirit to adventure. Hold nothing back. Learn to find keys in risk. For your soul senses the world. That awaits you. Play story. I must tell you a story. Young girl with her.. And in the course of your said if she went. Rabbi looked at her with kindness. When i was not much older than you i will have to prepare and take a long study blackman, where am i. And while i was at school suddenly i felt. Example i went. Senior. Of the school. And i said i cannot go on with my studies i am filled with misgivings about i lost my face. Ratify. Send. I mustn't tell you was lori. When i was. Not much older than you i was serving my first congregation. And some beers into would i call myself and doubt. And i went to the school president. And then i said. When i am so filled with that off and just gave his i have lost my baby. Rosie 5 moments. Pastor said. When i to observe the parish and i like you decided to go into the teaching of ministry. And. Generated. Elder professor of the school. He was a dusty place you could see in the sunlight that little bit of dust when we're glad the book. Respiration minecraft. Fatigue. He turned to look out the window for racine a very long time. Who's telling this story. This happened so long ago i don't know if it happens. Just lyrics just passed your son and i were together. I believe in god. We sat down. And i believe. In time mystic. To figure out what it was i believe. And all i can come up with was i dreaming. Well. Mark's father. And just learned which brand. What did i mean. Western civilization. And if you don't like the old guy morgan freeman store near universal. I believe. Like. Wendy. How do i know what that is. Why can't i find god was like. Waiting for godot. Is around the world. About 2,000. Aldi images of god. Disappeared. Is it in the sacred spaces. What epidemics they have. Disappeared. Is god dead. Recipes. Yeah when we start talking about god. People say all sorts of greatly. And the strangest places to hear everything about daughter. Farfetch. I can pay attention to the hebrew scriptures. The second commandment. No ids. This is the great britain. Eternal. Where is it. Where is he where is she where are they. God is awesome. I like to start at 8 today. List. Happens. If i tried to describe that. The wiz. 30 psalm. Does it time to take impossible. And. It doesn't take much to. Take me to george's burger.. So is he. Every time you try to frame it in some way of expressing your night. You had this experience. Wisconsin wisconsin.. What's behind the symbol. You stripped away all these ways of expressing your faith in the hole. And they proved inadequate. When there be anything left. Very scary place. You're intrigued. Almost 50 years later still asking the question what what in the world do i need if i said.. What is the meaning. .. Is requirement of throwing up. You need to keep working on the question. Part of our job is to teach people over and over again we are born. Again. Heelys. The top versus f. Microsoft. 80 - 5 years ago. What's happening to our sense of. Isolation. Out here. We often say you'll recognize these words. We come here to accept you wherever you are in your spiritual journey. Is morgan park. We don't have a box full of truth out. We expecting. In the southern region. Novus mantra faded valentine's all we do unitarian universalist congregation how we are together. And then when we learned how to be. You go out sign. Schedule a very brief introduction to say civello. When a baby comes into the world before she can have pieces of food. A judgment about the world. Play univision in the cinnamon for the word. And if you have some coming. And won't go through life and you'll discover that you place your trusted. Actor that gets into the storytelling. Who's taking genesis. How many days it take for the godfrey. You already asked inspection i could call me candy 6.4 hour. What is the story mean. Understand. Joanna. Harry you know that nobody knows. Eritrean at all brothers. Oliver comes home. Look up a picture of god. And are just leaving. The container store. Spiritual career. Decided to do india. And somehow. Muslim. Ask the big questions. You seen this many headed dragon versus congregation there's a. Side by side. It will be the same. Christianbook. Into this point of universal attending passion work. There's no need to put him down as we play something you think is spent so. Well here's your sign. Today is. And. Google seriously. No squatting bicycle. 20 freeway. Italy 96. Orthodox judaism. Is italy stuff that just makes no sense. Attorney versus. American society. Theistic principle. Free go launcher. You're a few folks and good reasons. Nobody. Carne frita.. United airline. Isn't it amazing. Vs wiki. Things that are particles in an atom. Weebly. Is 30000-60000 light-years. Diameter. You will find a little essay that talks about the physics. Music. 13-14 year-old attic and 4th belief. Did you hack. 16000 mi converted only 15999. So here we are. Emerson said to us. Oh, ralph. Examinar. Covanta hempstead. Where is street. Infections that are part of that. When was the last. I suggest you not doing this through to work. Why am i here. What am i. What is exit 303 versus skeptical of your own. Where we going to the trouble is. Just might not. When i was a child i thought like a child now in an adult and i think more carefully. Let me get this straight roll a craigslist all of us. Let's have the next lies please. Have some connection with something greater for transcending value in traditional religious values. Action. And you know we don't have. That's what we want to go. Transformers and say what justice requirement. Service is our prayer one of our application. And the only way we can do that is if versation. Between my experience and yours. What are our shared values are shared convictions. How can we as a community is faith carrier value since the world. Here's a question we're wrestling with these days. I hope you're having conversation about these kinds of questions. President of planned parenthood check. I was. A lot of preston 1970. Arguments. 40 years ago with no different than it is today how do we find a way through this impasse. Impala. Choice independent woman's right to her life integrity and those who stay. Gay folks want to get married while i was grateful for getting unmarried is very traffic craigslist. In a chinese people. I'm a mother was in the nursing home and they were hired. Airport. The last question. So here we are. Amazing friends. You are beautiful paradise. There are 10 to the 20th power. Estimated stars in the universe. And there is convincing evidence that there's more than. Hey universal. But the importance of questions. The desire to be wondering about things. What would it take could we use this congregation as a curriculum for learning how. Weather. What is arvada. As a community justice peace. Have an obligation. Distribution. Obligation to do something about that. And it will be a wonderful experience. And you will redeem the world. Just like asking who. So curious. Ohsu go out to this day. So that we may all grow truth love and wisdom make you so namaste.in.

uufvb_org

2013Feb17Sermon128.mp3

Beth pearson and we are so glad you have chosen to be with us here this morning. We are at congregation standing on the side of love. Seeking to become our best selves even as we work to make a better world. Please know that you are welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight. Black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you are on top of the world down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We are delighted to see you just as you come to us this morning and all your particularity and need. We hope you will find the service meaningful and enriching. And that you will find something here this morning that nourishes your spirit and feeds your soul. And gives you renewed energy and joy for the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. Our speaker today is board member and worship committee chair puker see he has been a member of this congregation since the summer of 2001. And has held a variety of committee positions in in addition to being our administrator from 2005. Through january of 2010. Opening words. R words that i wrote. A couple years ago. Ab holding them. For just the right time. The time is now. When and if. The world comes to an end by the hand of man. It shall not be for a lack of love. It will be for love misdirected. Love of things. Love of power. Rather than love of law. Love in its purest meaning. The meaning that says. I give you my love. Openly. An. Thoroughly. I require nothing in return. You can have such love for ideals. Like freedom. Equality. Democracy. For any two people to be in that position. With one another. Is a beautiful thing. Some people look at couples in that position and they just can't believe it. They have to. Pick at it. Question it. It's it's like a scab on their souls. The kit. Their hands off of it. I believe what they're really picking at. Is the rhone black. Of love. Show today in this sunday service. We celebrate love. And some of the people like saint valentine and romantics down through the ages. As well as some thoughts and things that have surrounded the concept of love. Over the centuries. This morning's reading is make not a bond of love by kahlil gibran. Following the reading there will be a short time of silent reflection. Love one another. But make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup. But drink not from the one cup. Give one another of your bread. But eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous. But let each one of you be alone. Even as the strings of a lute are alone the quiver with the same music. Give your hearts. But not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of life can contain your hearts. And stand together. Get not too near together. For the pillars of the temple stand apart. And the oak tree and cypress grow not in each other's shadow. But let there be spaces in your togetherness. And let the winds of the heavens dance with you. Love one another. But make not a bond. Of love. Well. Here we are. On a cold february 17th. Only 3 days after valentine's day. And i have a few things that you may not have. Such as. Men spend. Twice as much on valentine's day as women do. And this year the average man around the nation spent $116. For every 120 single men. Who are in their twenties. They're 100 single women. In the same age range. The story changes drastically when we look at people over 65. There are 33 single men. For every 100 single women of the same age range. Should we say happy hunting. More than one-third of men would prefer not receiving a gift on valentine's day less than 20% of women feel the same way. Around this season dozen long-stemmed roses cost an average of about $75. About 30% more than the normal price. And more than 9 million pet owners. Bought gifts for their pets this valentine. 15% of women. Set themselves. Flowers. On valentine's day. I'm not going to ask for a show of hands here today. And here's one for you. The condom industry says. Sales skyrocket. On valentine's day. And the corollary to that is. More at home pregnancy tests are sold in march than in any other month of the year. So cupid is indeed a busy fellow this time a year. So where in heaven's name did the name and the word cupid come from anyway. And roman mythology cupid latin for cupido. Meaning desire is the god of desire affection and erotic love. Is often portrayed as the son of the goddess venus of person or even deity who was shot by cupid's arrow is filled with uncontrollable desire. Cooper's ability. To compel love. And desire. Please in instigating roland several myths or literary scenarios. The old roman days. And cupid was a continuously popular figure in the middle ages. 100 christian influence dual nature is both heavenly and earthly love. And in the renaissance. With a renewed interest in classical for philosophy endowed him with complex. Allegorical meanings. Edin contemporary popular culture cupid is shown shooting his bow to inspire romantic love. Often is an icon of valentine. And that brings us back to valentine's day. Where did that come from. Let's travel back to the year 44 bc. The lupercalia festival. Partly honor of lupa. The she-wolf. Who suckled the infant orphans romulus and remus the mythical founders of rome. Explaining the name of the festival lupercalia or the wolf festival. That's a festival celebrated near the cave of looper cow on palatine hill. Which is the central hill where rome was traditionally founded. This festival xph and purifies life in the spring. Unknown lupercalia festival of 44 bc attest to the continuity of the festival. Oh those were pagan days of fun and frolic. But. The straight-laced folks of latter days. Hey couldn't handle that. So they set out to more. The celebration of valentine to abolish. The heathens. Lewd. And superstitious custom. Oh boys drawing the names of girls and honor of their goddess trouble at the juno on the 15th of the month. Several rather jealous as pastors. Substituted the names of saints in the place of girls. And that rather put a bit of a damper on love. Yep. It's been suggested. The valentine's day was created. As an attempt to supersede. The pagan holiday of lupercalia. Mid-february enroll. Now we go to the year 270 a.d.. When we try to answer the question. Who was saint valentine. Samsung roman priest. Marker during the reign of claudius gothika. He was arrested and imprisoned. Upon being caught marrying christian couples. Helping christians. At that time of the. Ancient days. What's considered. A crime. Perhaps akin to the persecution. Not so many years ago in this country. I'm homosexual. Outlawed. Time here. Anyway the priests valentina's tried to convert the emperor. He tried to convert the emperor. What he got for his troubles was beheaded. Outside the gates of rome. But the festival of libertalia survived the initial rise of christianity in fact it was outlawed though. As it was being done christian. At the end of the 5th century about 490 ad when pope lasius declared february 14th as. Saint valentine. However. The wolf festival. Still celebrated in some places today. As a matter of fact that festival just ended. It was february 15th and 16th. That cartoon. Is the official shall we say mascot. For the. Adherents. Did the lupercalia festival. Has moved out to the middle ages. That's when the day became definitively associated with love. Sometime during the middle ages and that's 1,000 year. by the way 500-1500. Approximately. It came to be commonly believed in france and england that february 14th was the beginning of the birds mating season. Which added to the idea that the middle of february valentine's day should be a day for romance. So what is the saint really look like. Nobody really knows but. A commonly ascribed. Hagiographical. Wonder. Word. Hagiographical. It simply means a study with a biography or pictures of saints. But i digress. Hagiographical identity appears in the nuremberg chronicle of 1493. Which provides the first depiction of saint valentine in a woodcut portrait. Join him caring for fellow prisoners after he had been arrested. Now what legend has it that in the middle ages young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentine would be they would then wear those names on their sleeves. For a week. Today. To wear your heart on your sleeve means being transparent with your affection. Ever wondered where that came from there are you know. Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the middle ages the written valentine's didn't really begin to appear until about 14. The oldest known valentine still in existence today. Was a poem written in 1415 by charles duke of orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the tower of london. And i was following his capture at the battle of agincourt. The greeting by the way is now part of the manuscript collection of the british library in london england. And try as i might. I searched the internet as hard and as far as i could. I cannot find a copy of the poem to read to. Only references to the fact that it exists. Oh well. Meaning of the current legends that characterize saint valentine where invented in the 14th century in england notably by geoffrey chaucer. And his people. When the feast day of february 14th first became associated with romantic love. Historian jack oreck. Is made the case. That's your traditions that we associate with valentine's day. Documented in geoffrey chaucer's works. Set in the fictional context. Open old tradition. Had no such tradition before chaucer. He says that the speculative explanation of sentimental custom. Posing as historical fact. Heather origins i'm on 18th century antiquaries notably alban butler. The author of butler's lives of saints. And they've been perpetuated ever since. By respectable modern scholars. So saint valentine's day is a myth oh well. 1836. Some relics that were exhumed from the catacombs of st. hippolyta's. On the via to bertina. Near rome. Ratified was saint valentine. Replacing the casket. And transported in a procession. To the high altar for special mass dedicated to young. At all those in love. Alleged relics of valentine also lie in france at the stephens dome in vienna. Involve them in malta also and blessed john duns scotus church in glasgow scotland. And there's a gold reliquary bearing the words corpus saint valentine m. That's the body of saint valentine martyr. At the birmingham oratory united kingdom in one of the side altar. Do that church. Soap or saint david allen. Is all over the. Although saint valentine's day is now celebrated on february 14th and remains in the catholic church's official list of saints. In view of the scarcity of information about the man. His commemoration was removed from the catholic general calendar. For universal liturgical veneration. Well that was revised back in 1969. The catholic encyclopedia and other. Hagiography. Source. I love that word. Anyway they speak of three saint valentine's that appear in connection with february 14th one was a roman priest another the bishop event romna modern tyranny. Both buried along the via flaminia outside rome. At different distances from the. The third they say was a saint who suffered on the same day with a number of companions in the roman province of africa. For whom nothing else is really known. At any rate. There's no doubt. That saint valentine was associated. With romance. What are the most famous romantics of all time though was b siana. The author of the kama sutra. This excessive. And probably celibate scholar. Who lived in classical india around the 5th century. Adp. Is an unlikely candidate to a written history is best known book on erotic love. No i'm not going to click the look on the inside. Little is known about foxy on his life but in his famous book actually a collection of notes on hundreds of years of spiritual wisdom passed down by the ancient sages. He wrote that he intended the kamasutra. As the ultimate love manual and a tribute to, the indian god of love. Though it has become quite famous for its sections on sexual instruction. The book actually deals. Much more. With the pursuit of fulfilling relationship. And provided a blueprint as it were. For courtship and marriage and upper-class indian society at that time. It was another famous romantic. Sappho's. Greek lyric poet born around 6:10 bc. In the majority of her poems. Sample road about love. And the accompanying emotions of hatred. Anger. Jealousy. Among the members of her largely young and female circle shuffle gave her female acolytes educational and religious instruction. As part of the preparation for marriage. The group was dedicated to. And inspired by aphrodite. The greek goddess of love. Then we come to the name of casanova. Loan sense. Come to conjure up the romantic end of an image of the prototypical libertine and seducer. Thanks. In large part. To the success of giacomo casanova posthumously published. 12 volume autobiography. Which. Chronicled with vivid detail as well as some exaggeration. Is many sexual and romantic exploits in eighteenth-century europe. That made him the leading champion of a movement toward sexual freedom. And the model. The famous don juan. Of literature. Ennard x you cannot talk about great lovers will that bringing up elizabeth taylor. And actress from early childhood. Dark-haired violet-eyed elizabeth. She died in march of 2011 by the way. She was perhaps it over her rarebeauty best. And her epic love life best of all. She was married a total of 8 times. Twice to the same man. The actor richard burton. Whom she called one of the two great lovers of her life. First film producer mike todd. He died in the plane crash in 19. Taylor and burton met on the set of cleopatra. And that's how she. Depicted there of course. And their affair soon made headline. Around the world. Romance. Rose blooming. Passion and love made it common for friends and lovers of all social classes. Do exchange small tokens of affection. Or handwritten notes. And americans probably began celebrating and exchanging handmade valentine's in the early 1700s. That in the 1840s esther collins. Began shelling the first mass-produced valentines in america. Howland known as the mother of the valentine. Media elaborate creation. Real lace ribbon colorful pictures. And today according to the greeting card association. An estimated 1. Billion valentine's day cards are sent each year. Making valentine's day these. Largest card chic. Sending holiday of the year. As you might imagine chris. That's 2.6 billion cards. And women get this women purchased approximately 85% of all valentine. Why is that. They don't say. That's according to hallmark. One version of the saint valentine story has it that valentine was so loved. By the children of the town. That they would constantly write him notes. Speaking of their affection. Hence the origin of exchanging valentine's by children. No. Let's talk about it about hallmark. They produced their first valentine in 1913. And today hallmark. Employees and 80 person research staff. Do annalise. The sales pattern of previous valentine. That analysis combined with more than 100,000 annual customer interviews. Are focus groups and in-store observation. They make a science out of. Anyway that helps create roughly 2,000 cards. It hallmark score valentine's day line. No. Well homer. Offers thousands of different cards on valentine's. It was one card. That was a top choice of customers in new york. Los angeles. And virtually every other city in the country resa. This card. Which has the romantic name by hallmark of. V335. Simply states. Each time i see you. Hold you. Think of you. Here's what i do. Eiffel deeply. Madly. Happily in love with. Happy. Just think. Saint valentine probably. Is responsible for the fact that many of us. Or alive and walking the earth today. When the excuse of saint valentine's day. How many of our ancestors would never have courted and consequently never have married. Something to think about. Perhaps. We all owe a debt of gratitude. Justina valentine. For our very existence. So you might ask. What is all this got to do with you you. Good question. Never repeat to you what we said in the chalice lighting earlier this morning. Love. Is the spirit of our church. And service is its law. This is our great covenant. Dwell together in peace. To seek the truth in love. And to help one another. Saint valentine's day rightly or wrongly is all about love. And we you use continuously proclaim. That love is one of the prime tenets. Hope unitarian universalist. So perhaps. When's saint valentine's day rolls around next year. We could send cards out too many more people than those. To whom we are just romantically entangled. Our final words this morning. Come from mother teresa. Who said. Love cannot remain by itself. It has no meaning. Love has to be put into action. Whatever form we are able or disabled. Rich. Or poor. It's not how much we do. What how much love. We put in the doing. A lifelong sharing. Of love. With others. Go forth now. Love a lot. Enjoy life.

uufvb_org

2011Jul24Sermon128.mp3

4 years ago. As my partner charlie and i were preparing. To move out of new england where i had lived my entire life. My mother gave us a very wise gift. A global positioning system. Or gps. In the months before we moved. We use this new navigational tool in areas that we knew well in order to get used to it. In those early days we would occasionally miss a turn. Sometimes because we misunderstood. What it meant but sometimes. Being on familiar turf. We would know another way to go a better way to go and so we would ignore her instructions. Now i say her because we had programmed our device. To speak with a female voice. For a while we even let her have a british accent. But she kept using kilometers instead of miles and when you're trying to figure out where your turn is you really don't want to be calculating on-the-fly much as we think it would be good to use the metric system. I came to enjoy missing turns. She would say. Turn right. And charlie would say. I'm going to go straight instead. And i would say. She's not going to like that. And sure enough. As soon as she proceeded the departure from the route you would say. Turn around when possible. No course. The gps did not like or dislike our actions it was just doing what it was programmed to do keep us on track. But sometimes i couldn't help feeling like we had disappointed her. Could just hear that frustration in her voice. What are these people doing. I'm pretty sure. That the factory did not install a voice with frustration in it. But it's a good lesson. About the way some of us project our emotions onto. Someone else or something else. Those of us who like to follow the rules and not disappoint people sometimes assume that our departure from the expected. Will cause frustration and we hear it even when it doesn't exist. This is just silly when we're talking about a machine. We're talking about a real person. It can add unnecessary confusion and tension to the relationship for example. We might cause ourselves wrath by rigidly following the rules. Nobody else really cares. Or we might break the rules and assume somebody else's really upset. And we behave accordingly and they're wondering what the heck our problem is. I heard of one person. Who is sure that her gps size when she goes off route. I'm pretty sure it does. And i wonder if that person hears other people spy. When they do not as well. Hearing judgement that doesn't exist is a problem for a lot of people. Eventually i learned with my gps. That. I wasn't causing real distress when i chose to take my own path. I understood that as long as i had program dinner route. My gps would simply. And non-judgmentally. Keep guiding me toward my destiny. And then i got to thinking. I guess that's a little bit like god. Or at least. A universalist god. The sort of god that loves you no matter what sort of god or i guess in this case will say goddess. The gently guide to back onto the right path. Turn around when possible. Beacon to go astray. Turn around when possible come back this way. Or if i have gone beyond the point of turning around. She has to calculate another route to get me back where i belong. At this point my gps flashes a message that says. Calculating new route. Now of course in life these corrections can come from a god or goddess. The universe are higher power or experience of reality. Or our inner voice. Sometimes. We veer off path. And most of us have something. Have something that helps us get back on path. I think there's another whole sermon taking shape in my mind about. Who and what we listen to at times like these. It's a question of what is authoritative for us. But that's for another day today. I will simply assume that each of us has some way. Of detecting. When we. Are going off path. And might need to get back on it. Now if i can personalize my gps. I suppose i can personalize my source of authority. Until 4 today i will call her my goddess. Just like my gps. My goddess and attacked if i've gone off track & beyond the point of turning around. She too is determined to leave me back. To where i belong and she is rarely so obvious as to flash the message. Recalculating new route. But. Recalculate she does. Like a while back. I overreacted. To an email. I'm sure none of you have ever done this. Her judgment where it did not belong. And then i reacted to that perceived judgment in a. Not so helpful way in fact it was a downright unhelpful way. And i could feel myself going off track veering but it was too late. The send button. Had been pushed. And there she sat my goddess. Quietly and compassionately calculating a new route. Because we were not going to get there on that path. And so my new route. Included. Several extra turns. Anna stop in the picturesque little village. Asking. Forgiveness. I was fortunate enough. To receive a warm welcome there. And i'm now at least for the moment back on track. No one critical difference between my gps and a loving all-knowing source of wisdom has to do with destination. I would like to think that a loving all-knowing source of wisdom. Would not have to be told the destination. However on my gps. I choose the destination that i program it in. And it would be just as happy to take me somewhere i should not be going. At somewhere i should. And i think there's another whole sermon. Brewing on destinations and how we choose know or discover them. Before today let's just assume. If the destination or at least the general direction. Is known. No i've always been a big fan of maps. I like reading maps i like planning trips i like being the navigator. And when. I had first had a gps in my life. I rarely looked at a nap anymore. And this was a mixed blessing. The gps is really easy. I just jumped in the car and go. And i'm much older at going to new places when the gps is my co-pilot. But the gps doesn't give me the same perspective as a map. I can zoom in. But. It's a small screen. And it loses the detail fast. And i noticed a change so shortly after we arrived in texas the first place that we lived outside of the northeast. I never really developed a math and internal map. Of the dallas-fort worth area. It left me a little lost. When people were talking to me about things like. When someone told me where they were from they say oh yeah i grew up in frisco. And they would think they had actually communicated something. And all i knew was that they grew up someplace in that really large state of texas. Even worse was when i didn't know where something was. And i've actually been there. It was an ethiopian restaurant that we liked and it was in a place called addison and because of the gps i only knew it was someplace vaguely east of us. Had i had to look it up and find it on a map i would have known where i had been. When we move to miami 2 years ago 3 years ago now i tried to be a little more conscientious about looking at maps and learning where i was though. Miami happens to be on a grid so that makes it a little bit easier and this really large body of water that you all have. Actually help orient. 12 the directions as well. But i love maps and people often use a metaphor. Ava map. To talk about the worldview that each of us has. And that we use to navigate the world. There are many physical aspects to nap but i think our spiritual world is not there as well. Our map of the world includes our ideals and our values. Our ideas about relationships. And our understanding of our place in the universe. We use it to make our way through life. And i got to thinking about the guiding voice of my gps. My gps offers me. 1 pack. To my destination. No i can click on vine alternate routes but generally at any one time i'm looking at 1 route. Focused on one paw. But a map. Map shows new bots with pads. Some good some not-so-good some direct some scenic. I get a lot more information from a map. But i have to work a lot more out. For myself. I started to think about the path offered by my gps as being like the path offered. Buy a spiritual tradition. It's 1. Of menopause. Jesus said. Follow me. The daily prayer of the muslims includes a request to. Be kept on the straight path. The buddha offered the eightfold path. The baha'i tradition. Is a liberal tradition that developed out of an islamic context in persia in the 1800's. Their sacred writing fills many books. I was told that i would find. Those writing. Completely consistent with my. Experience of the natural world. Why then i ask do i need to read the text. And the person i was speaking with said. Are you free to figure it all out for yourself if you want. But really it's much easier to read the book. I could nap my own route. But. Really it's easier to turn on my gps. Perhaps which navigational tools we use. Depends in part on what kind of journey. We are on. Sometimes i want the scenic route. Sometimes i just want to get there. Sometimes i want the big picture and a sense of adventure. And sometimes i want the comfort. Probably a tried-and-true path. That others have traveled before. This is true in the physical world. And it's true in the spiritual world as well. I began to wonder. If this is part of the reason why sometimes. People who have been enjoying. The map of many paths that is available in liberal religion like hours. Sometimes people find that in times of crisis they gravitate. Back to the more orthodox childhood. Auditions. That they come from. When i'm in crisis. I don't want challenges and new adventures. I have enough of those. Bought right here my heart that is in so much pain. And do you know can you tell me how to make that pain go away. Can you. My sorrow. Sometimes the person who. And they need. Lure. See new vistas. They need to turn off the gps and get out the map. Or the atlas. There are lots of tools. It's think about it what would be the spiritual equivalent of some of our other travel tools. Travel agent. Guidebooks. An array of online. Tools now. Package tours. Hired guides visitors death who signs along the way. And of course one of the things we gather for. The tales of our traveling can. That we meet. On the way. So many ways to travel. So many tools for our journey so many paths. Tools. Four different journeys different pass for different days. So perhaps. Perhaps my role as a minister. Perhaps your role as a congregation. It's to help connect people. To the pav. And the tools. That are right for them. And to inspire and encourage them. To take. The first step. Story. From the early buddhist tradition. In the city of chevoski in northern india. The buddha had a large center. Which people would come to meditate and listen to his dharma talks. Every evening one man would come to hear his discourses. For years he came to listen to the buddha but never put any of the practices. Teachings into practice. After a few years. One evening this man came a little earlier. I'm found the buddha alone. He approached him. And said. Sir. I have a question. Keep the rising. Raising doubts. Oh there should be no doubts on the path of dharma. Have them clarified. What is your question. Sir for many years now i have been coming to your meditation center. And i have noticed that there are a large number of recluses. Mumps. And none. And a still larger number of les peep. Both men and women. For years some of them have been coming to you. Some of them i can see. Have certainly reached the final stage. Quite obviously they are fully liberated. I can also see that others have experienced some change in their lives. They are partially live. But sir. I also noticed that a large number of pee. Including myself. Horas de were. Or sometimes they are. They have not changed at all. Or have not changed for the better. Why should this be sir. People come to you such a great man. Fully enlightened. Such a powerful compassionate person. Why don't you use your power and compassion to liberate them all. So where do you live what is your native place. Sir. I live here instead of austin. The capital city of the state of kassala. Yes but your facial features show that you are not from this part of the country. Where are you from originally. Sir. I am from the city of rodger griha. The capital of the state of montana. I came and settled here instead of ostia few years ago. And have you severed all connections with rodger 3 have no sir. I still have relatives there have friends there i have business there. Then certainly you must go from shruggie stuff to rush agree how quite often. Many times you cheer i visit rock rihanna and return to the pasty. Having traveled and returned so many times on the path from here to version 3. Certainly you must know the path of every well. I might also say that even if i was blindfolded i could find a path to rodger griha. So many times i have walked. And your friends those who know you well certainly they must know that you are from rodger greehey and that you have settled here. They must know that you often visit russia 300 turn and that you know the path from here to rosewood rehab perfectly. All those who are close to me know that i often go to rodger griha and then i know the path perfectly. Then it must happen. That's some of them come to you and ask you to explain to them the path. From here to rodger griha. Do you hide anyting. Or do you explain the path to them clearly. I explained to them as clearly as i can. You start walking toward the east. And then head towards pandora. And continue on with until you reach gaia and then rodger kriha. I explained it very plainly to them sorry. And these people to whom you give such clear explanation. Do all of them reach russia greehey. Those who walk the entire path with n. Only they. Will reach. Project. This is what i want to explain to you. People keep coming to me knowing that this is someone who is walk the path from nirvana and sonos it perfectly they come and they ask me. What is the path to nirvana to liberation. And what is there to hide i explain it to them clearly. This is the path. If someone just nods his head and says. Well said well said a very good path. But i won't take a step on it a wonderful path but i won't take any trouble to walk over it. Then how can such a person reach the final goal. I do not carry anyone on my shoulder to the final goal. Nobody can carry anyone else on his shoulder to the final goal. Atmos with love and compassion one can say. Well this is the past and this is how i have walked on it. You also work you also walk you also will reach the final goal. But each person has to walk for himself. Has to take every step on the path himself. He was taking one step on the path is one step nearer the goal. He was taking 100 steps is 100 steps near the goal. He was taking all the steps on the path has reached the final goal. You have to walk. The path. Yourself. There are many. Journeys to take and many paths to be explored. In our liberal religious tradition we honor many paths and then he forms of exploration. We recognize the value of the individual journey and yet. And yet we come together to share our experiences our knowledge to offer sustenance. And support. Our paths may be different. Our tools as well. Our guides and even our destinations. Mayberry. And yet we come together. Together in our common humanity. To build a spiritual community. That changes lives. One step. At a time. Please join me. In a moment of reflection.

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2015Nov08Sermon128.mp3

Volume morning. Are you ready for another day of record heat. I do not want to hear any complaints in february when it's 46° i don't want to hear any complaints if you're complaining now you can't complain then. Welcome. The unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach and i'm so pleased that all of you are beginning your day with us. We are congregation of open minds loving hearts and helping hands. Individual people seeking to become the best persons we can become even as together as a religious community wework. Hard. To make our world a better place. And you are welcome precisely as you come to us. What's your feeling absolon top-of-the-world this morning or down in the dumps whether you're struggling with something. Privately or just a full of joy. We welcome you in doesn't matter with your young or old gay or straight black or white. We always welcome everyone of you were so delighted to see all of you here this morning. We hope you'll find our service meaningful and enriching. And that you'll find something here and be patient for it this morning something here. That nurse is your spirit and feed your soul and gives you renewed energy purpose. Enjoy the living of life in the days ahead. These words by great 20th century unitarian minister jacob trap. To worship is to stand in all under heaven of stars before a flower a leaf and sunlight. Or a grain of sand. To worship is to be silent. Receptive. Before a tree astir with a wind. Or the passing shadow of a cloud. To worship is to work with dedication and with scale at his to pause from work. And listen to a strain of music. To worship is to sing with singing beauty of the earth. It is to listen through a storm to the still small voice within. Worship is a loneliness seeking communion. It is a thirsty land crying out for rain. Worship is kindred fire within our hearts it moves through deeds of kindness and through acts of love. Worship is the mystery within us. Reaching out to the mystery beyond. It is an inarticulate silence. Learning to speak. It is the window of the moment. Open to the sky of the eternal. Today's reading before the sermon by frederick and marianne prasad. Patience. Is an essential element in many spiritual traditions. Since most of us haven't gotten the point about the value of patience we are given plenty of opportunities. To practice it in our daily lives. A recent study showed that an average person spends 11 or more days each year. Waiting in line. Add to that figure the time waiting for appointments hours spent stuck in traffic and all those moments. When someone is late. Make the most of these minutes by using them to deepen your practice of calmness. While you're waiting. Don't focus on what you want to have happen in the future. Simply be grateful for what you're experiencing during that very moment. Don't think about what else you could be doing at this time notice what you're actually doing and who is around you. While you were standing in line. Say a prayer of peace. In a traffic jam relax and survey your surrounding. If you feel a surge of irritability or anger rising and you recite the words of saint teresa de avila. Let nothing upset you. And keep repeating. Upset you. Patience involves not only the ability to tolerate delays. But also the willingness to let events unfold in their own time. For example. Many groups are in such a hurry to get things done. Did they make decisions. Too quickly. Without having enough background information or input from members who couldn't come to the meeting. Practice patience in your group. Brake cable in discussions or postponing votes. Until the next meeting. And practice patience in your relationships by trying not to force changes in others. Demanding immediate attention to your knees. Try the simple patients exercise. When you ask someone to do something make it clear that this request is for quote. When you are ready. Then don't complain if it takes longer than you expected or wanted it to. Finally. Make patience part of your spiritual journey by accepting that you're not in control of the timetable. Accepting this truth is not easy especially if we or a loved one's are experiencing difficulties or suffering physically or emotionally we longed to have it over quickly. Let patience be a wall that protects you. And waves of trouble crash over you. It is also helpful to look at spiritual leaders who have waited until the time was ripe for their weird work. We must often proceed slowly. Step-by-step little by little. There is no way to push the river. Or hasten the harvest. Instead spiritual maturity. Comes through diligence. Persistence and patiently waiting. Until. The moment. Is right. Hirons. Good morning reading. So 1993 american social and political commentator and conservative william j bennett produce this book the virtue. A book of virtues. And he identified the following attributes as being virtues. Are they are they are they are there his. Now this is clearly a useful list of virtues. What is a further reflected on the concept of virtue from the unitarian universalist perspective. I decided i would expand the list and take some of his and then i would invite all of you to suggest virtues this morning's topic was suggested by cindy. Impatience. And here is my expanded list. Of uu virtues. There is an uci preached several today's a topic is patience that's the third. And then next sunday i'm going to talk about the virtue of manners and then the following sunday the virtue. Of gratitude and so will go on through the year i'm going to cover as many of these as i can. I probably won't get to all 17 of them but i will get too many of them and i really appreciate all the recommendations you gave me about things that are virtuous i'll work them into sermon. Over the next couple of. But before i get to this morning's all important virtue of patience. I want to provide you with a concrete definition of virtue which will hopefully make coherent. Where i'm going intellectually with the entire series so here. Is what i hope in clear and simple language. Is a working definition of virtue which will serve us all. A virtue is a regular habit of human being. What you can nurture cultivate and develop that both ennobles yourself. And contributes to the greater good of human society now. I assume this all makes sense to you but the key component here. Is it's a habit that you have control over. But you can nurture and cultivate and develop. Virtues it seems to me are not things are necessarily born with. Nor does it mean that if you are weak in a certain virtue you have nowhere to go with that. All virtue. Can be developed by the choices of heart and hand and mind that we make. We can strengthen. Our virtues and dust become better people. That only happier in our own being but better citizens and. Much more pleasant to be around. So that's the really good news. About go to the next slide please i jumped ahead a little bit. It's a good news about every one of these things you can nurture your capability alright. With. Further without further ado i want to get to this morning's all important virtue. Patience. And it's corollary vice. Impatient. Let me begin this topic by making something of a personal confession. Scott alexander not not the minister but the person. Needs to spiritually and emotionally work. Becoming. Much more patient in my daily life. Well i told collins my partner last 35 years and i was going to address this topic equipped me that knee preaching about patience. It's a bit like attila the hun hosting a peace conference. It may not be quite that bad. But i am self-aware enough to know that i personally would be a far better person. Calmer. Happier. Kinder and more charming. If i just learn to be more patient. When i bump up against situations and people that frustrate. When i become impatient again something which i acknowledge happens far too frequently in my life. My blood pressure and sometimes my voice rise. My face becomes. I become irritated and upset and invariably i become more unpleasant to be around. When i allow impatience to take over my personality and that's the. When we allow impatience. To take over our personalities. Cuz that's the way in patience works. About all i ever accomplished. Is to make me and everyone around me more miserable. My impatient rarely improves the situation or gets me what i want. In fact impatience almost always makes matters worse and perhaps some of you know this. From your own life. Let me give three quick everyday example. A frustrating situations that can trigger my impatient. I'm in the grocery store right after putting the items i want on the card i had that i had to the checkout area only to discover. But the lions which were not exist. When i came to the store are suddenly lawn. So always learn hurry and always hating to wait in line. I try to pick buy my own mental calculation. Which line will move the fastest you recognize this. And more times than nut. I picked the wrong line with a particularly slow check out person who was to know. Or i for with the people in front of me who have 17,000 coupon. Or questions about the price of some item. And so i stand there steam be coming. Out of my ears feeling my impatience and my unhappiness growing. Focusing only on what i perceive is not going right for me. And by the time my turn comes to check out i'm filled with frustration sorry that i came to shop in the first place and grumpy with the clerk. Second example i know none of you. Second example in the gate and heading. Smoothly out the runway to take off when the pilot comes on the intercom you all know this. And shares the news that the plane is being held on the tarmac and quote an indefinite. Ground hold i don't really know what that is but i've been victim of it many times now. I got a tight connection i really want to make a new work in a couple of hours to get home on time. And even though i know there's absolutely nothing i can do about getting that plane into the air sooner i sit there fuming steam coming out of my ears muttering to those around me what a terrible inconvenience this is making. My both myself and perhaps my seatmates on happy when i. Could just. Wisely and calmly open a book. Relax take a nap and wait. Or what will. A third example. Something has gone wrong with my cable television service it doesn't matter which company. Doesn't matter what kind of problem you're having you all know the frustration of dealing with the cable guy so i've called their 800. Customer service center. It's taking me 15 minutes and three separate attempts to reach the various. After reaching various electronic deadened to navigate their automated phone system which by now i am sure was diabolically designed to prevent me from ever actually talking to a live person who can help me. So finally with my blood pressure at reaching a boiling point i'm actually connected with the so-called customer service specialist who proves to be nothing of the kind. As we go round and round with me repeatedly describing the problem in the person on the other line either being unable or unwilling to understand or help me. I become totally. My voice creeping skyward several act. Warlock. I find myself. Taking my frustration out on this innocent person on the other end of the line. Fully aware that my impatient. Is now out of control. Is not bringing me any closer to solving my cave. These are just some of the kinds of everyday occurrences. Enlai frustrating moments when things don't go my way. Or seriously inconvenience me. The trigger my impatient. And will the end lead me to be irritated and unpleasant know sometimes i will admit. My impatience when i don't manage it can almost be like. I don't know what internal beast would suddenly rises up and makes me not only unhappy but mean. My occasional impatience my lack of patience in difficult moments. Can completely take over my personality and robbed me of the calm and caring courteous person that i usually am. No i'm not saying that when i get impatient i completely lose myself as a tv character the incredible hulk did remember him. Never that. Ii-i'm not that bad i promise. In the original show every time. Something made mild-mannered bill bixby angry he would suddenly be transformed into that raging green monster of destruction i'm not that bad. But needless to say i'm not proud of those instances when. Patience takes control of my personality. Thereby adding to the sum of total stress and unhappiness. In the world starting always. With my own unhappiness. Now impatience. In addition to being a particular personal problem is a cultural problem for all americans did you notice the idiom i put at the top of the order service. I want patience and i want it now that's an american expression. As frederick and mary rashad wrote in their essay. Which i read you earlier. In our american culture. Patience is not highly respected and old german proverb goes in america an hour is only 40 minutes. We like fast food they write over leisurely dinners and prefer email over snail mail. We watch recorded tv programs so we can speed through the commercials. Phrases like do it now or get on with it american lingo. In business they go on it's considered bad customer relations to keep somebody waiting. Waiting has become almost uncivilized. In this era of hyperspeed. In in the speeding up climate being patient is a counter. Cultural stance. Being patient. Countercultural staff. And then they write given the widespread feeling that each and every disruption of our plans. Is a personal catastrophe or a front. Being willing to wait. Unaccommodating. Ourselves to others. Seems downright subversive. I think there is no denying that as a rule we americans are an impatient. So in addition to preaching this morning to my own impatience self. Perhaps as a creature of this culture this is a sermon that relates to you is. Alright. So assuming most that all of us need to cultivate more patience than are alive. I want to be clear about what patient is and how it works to make our lives. And the lives around us. Spiritually and emotionally calmer and more pleasant and satisfy. After thinking and reading about this for a couple of weeks i have concluded. Patient. At least the kind i think you and i need more of in our lives. Has four essential components. And here they are. For your consideration. Patience is first choosing. Calm. Waiting. It is second practicing spacious mindfulness. It is third removing yourself from the center of the universe hint. You should have never imagined yourself there in the first place. Core. Appreciating at accommodating the very pace. The personalities of others and quick order. It seems to me that the first and perhaps foundational key to bringing more healing patients in your life. Is to realize. When you are growing impatient. And then quickly doing something to stem that tide of frustration and anger. So you don't become something akin to the incredible hulk. It is crucial in your day-to-day life. To be aware of an in touch with your emotions when that beast of impatience begins. Raising its head inside of you. So first please work in your emotional and relational live. To quickly recognize. And acknowledge when impatience. Is arising inside of you and then learn to say yourself when you feel this coming on. Learn to say to yourself not out loud necessarily but quietly in that deepest. Say this situation or person is frustrating. And upsetting me and i'm about to become someone. Irritated and angry that i don't really. What. As soon as you had acknowledged this to yourself and believe me to take some practice to learn the internal cues. About when your about to blow your stack. But as soon as you acknowledge what is happening. Take a deep breath. Then another day. And another and choose to take. Have other. Then the impatient. Let me give an example of a path other than impatience. That can be chosen. When i shared the sermon is that was writing it with katrina are wonderful administrator who's lutheran bless her heart. She told me a story about something that happened recently to her brother. While he was vacationing in england with his family it seems they were all he was headed. In their rental car for the car ferry at dover. With sa10000 of his closest friend. When the traffic came to a complete. Screeching halt. Something clearly it happened up ahead and. The parrot that given. The total. Traffic jam as far as the eye could see the traffic would be stymied for. And so while he is a typical impatient american i want patience and i want it now. Began to fuss and fume and fret about how terrible it was that he wasn't going to get to the ferry on time when he was starting to erupt as an american all the brits around him. Cheerfully got out of their cars began chatting as if they were long-lost friend and then broke out what food and drink they had in their respective vehicle herring and canned crackers cheese beer and enjoyed together a picnic. Enjoyed together a picnic. Those brits somehow instinctively knew how to choose a path other than impatience do you get this metaphor. You're free to choose a picnic. Rather than a temper tantrum. Choose a pic. Second. Practicing spirit spacious mindfulness. What author who writes about the spirituality of patience says that impatience. Is that feeling of exasperate. Exasperation. That keeps us away from being present in the moment. Calm and attentive. To the unfolding of life. It is not as we wanted to. And then this author says impatience. Tries to rush us swiftly to the next moment. Without due regard for experiencing the present one. That is right. So the second thing i believe about patience is that whenever we encounter. A situation which frustrates or irritates us again. Take a deep breath and wake yourself up. To where you are. Choose. To be mindfully attentive. To where you actually. To what you're actually doing and can do. And who you are with. Thereby feeling truly at home in the moment and in the world at hand. Let me tell you a story about a little amazing something that happened to me the last time i was out in california. Professional. I was in the los angeles area ever been through los angeles traffic in the midday. I was in a boring little rent-a-car on the famous 405 interstate that runs from san diego. Up north. When suddenly traffic slowed to a crawl. No at first from deep inside my body i started to notice my frustration building because. I hate traffic. True mirror. And i really wanted to get to the conference center to relax and see all my friends. I was on the verge of making myself in that car miserable in impatiens. But then for reasons i can't entirely explain. I was able to choose another path. Calm myself down and expand. My attention. And spacious and liberating ways to focus on the actually beautiful world even in the los angeles area that was around me. I put on soothing music of a classical radio station. I took a few deep breaths. Began to feel my body relaxing into come right there in this mess of a traffic jam. Then i began to look truly look at what's around me. It was a beautiful. The sun was setting. Cool and purple. In the stunning sky over the mountains that surround los angeles to the east. The building's even the building's industrial buildings on the 405 were bathed in soft yellow light. And the city somehow came alive to me in that moment. It was a lovely calm and of that day i began to look at all the colorful cars and different kinds of trucks and i started to. Catch people's eyes and we were waving at each other and smiling at each other. I liked it even sent here something people say. Yeah we're stuck together here in the 405. But we're neighbors and companions in this moment away able to share a smile. Even though we'd all rather be somewhere else. In that moment by entering what i can only call a spacious mindfulness. I was able to calm my mind relax my body and actually enjoy being. The 405. In that. And the story ends well i got to the conference center. all that late really. A relaxed and happy camper instead of an irritating. In his essay an open and spacious awareness for an open and spacious. What is teacher larry yang describes the kind of. Stance of mindfulness. But i experienced that day on the california interstate. Our lives are always more expansive. Then we think them to be. Especially when we are able to unable to move beyond a specific problem. A spacious mindfulness. Can benefit a sense. Of larger perspective a bigger picture and openness. That can soothe the vine. Home the heart. I must tell you that. That's soothing call my experience on the 405 outside of los angeles lasted. 4 hours and reminded me that even in the most. Limited and frustrating. Experiences i am free. Be spacious. In my attentiveness. Open myself. To the death. Enough. The world. Surround me in ways that. Sir. Remove yourself please. From the center of the universe. Because you never should have ever imagined yourself there in the fur. It seems to me that much of our impatience in life. Stems from martin nearly universal human impulse to look at life and everything that happens to us. From a selfish. Or self-centered perspective. Let me give another example collins and i have a little condo down in fort lauderdale we spend a little bit of time down there. In south florida. do you know what south florida traffic is like during during the tourist season will i'll tell you. Some of the intersections you have to wait two or three cycles with the left turn lanes in the right turn lane. You have to wait sometimes 10 or 15 minutes. At a busy intersection in fort lauderdale. Through. And sometimes when we're driving to meet our friends reagan richard or other friends there for dinner. I will wear those intersections catch myself feeling to myself. Why are all these people in my way don't they know i'm going to be late for dinner why are all these people in my way. Cuz i think myself. Center of the universe. You know the world. Is supposed to perpetually arrange everything so that we are never frustrated delayed irritated or inconvenience right. But it never works that way. A key part of page. Kind of patients that will help you be a better person. And help you live a better life with others. Hyster realize that the world was not. Hate to disappoint you i know you all know this. The world was not put in motion. And does not always flow for your convenience. The world is not here. For you. It is just. Here. Many times in our life we. Patiently wait. And not take it. Because it's not about you married don't flatter. Alright last. Appreciating accommodating the varied pace and personality of others. One author i consulted for the sermon on patience road. You know people can irritate and aggravate us. That is a reality of human interaction that we all have to say. But if we accept. An attitude of equanimity. Where we are prepared to offer up a tolerance space that's the key phrase. Offer up. Tolerance space for people to operate. Which is exactly what we expect them to do for us. Then we can avoid slipping into an entrapment of corrosive feeling. That can cause untold psychological.. I want to make another quick personal convention. In case you haven't noticed i'm a really fast guy. I do almost everything fast. I bike fat. I eat fast i read that i talk and type fast i talk and write and drive back. I think that not brilliantly just fast. Just call me. Your speedy gonzales minister. This personal tendency of mine for everything. Means that sometimes i have trouble finding patience. With people around me who are removing shall we say. At a more measured pace than i do. Or more introverted pace than i do. For example. If i'm stuck on a narrow no-passing road behind a driver who is moving. For whatever reason at a pace that i consider best suited to a snail. I am unless i am able to catch myself take a deep breath and relax and go with the flow i'll start having the steam coming out of my ears why is that guy driving so damn slow. Another return to don't put yourself at the center of the universe. His pace as a driver is slower than mine. Similarly i find myself in a conversation with someone and god knows there are lots of good and smart folks out there like this. Who take longer than i do to get to the point or express themselves clearly. I can find myself internally saying come on man get to the point. I'm already at yo you're an a and i've already moved a b c and d come on. The real point here. Is that it is a virtue a great interpersonal virtue. To appreciate and make genuine room for the pace and personalities of others even though it means. Relationship where the event may not move at the pace. Best suited. Do what you think you want. One of the spiritual and emotional disciplines of my life. Constantly working to develop and again virtues are things we can develop. We're not stuck being a miserable inpatient son-of-a-gun. Is to relinquish my expectation. That everything will move at my speed when i interact with. And this is a two-way street. I am certain that people who move at a slower more measured pace. Can similarly be frustrated and impatient with fast-paced people like me who are moving too fast. Just as i'm impatient when i perceive them to be moving to. The point here. Is it when we learn emotional and spiritual discipline of moving comfortably with the very paces and personalities of others. We will not only affirm their inherent worth and dignity we will also find ourselves happier. And less irritated in our lives. Just give it up let me. Be who they are and move at the pace they moved. Some of you may have already discovered and now in your own lines the obvious truth. That patience for the pace and personality of others. Is often required. In our relationships with those closest to us i know it's a shock to you but sometimes. We get irritated at our children or grandchildren are leaving our spouses. 4. Not moving. The way we want them to. May we all learn patience with those around us. Accommodate them and let them be who. Alright. It's time for me to wrap all this up and i. Thank you for your patience. This morning. Let me get to the end of the sermon. I hope i persuaded you as though you didn't already know. The finding true patience in your life. With situations and with others is an indispensable and ennobling virtue. It is a virtue that not only makes you a calmer and nicer and happier person. It is also a spiritual quality. Patience a spiritual quality. That ripples out into the world and blesses everything you touch and everyone you interact with. Again. Line at the center of a patient person. R2. Crucial understanding. You were not created at. And you must not ever imagine yourself. At the center of the universe. That's not where you were born. And to the world and others are neither obliged or incline. To devote themselves exclusively. To your needs and wishes and time to. Once you get these too often difficult truths into your head. And heart and soul. You will learn how to move through your days. Evermore page. Making yourself. Everyone around you. More joyful. And just downright. And i'll leave it with these simple words. By emily green ball. Let us strive to learn to live together. Let us be patient with one another. And even patient with ourselves. We have a long long way to go. So let us hasten along the road the road of human tenderness. And generosity groping. We may find one another's hands. In the dark. Be patient. And have a good week.

uufvb_org

2015Jun14Sermon128.mp3

Yes it's flag day. Found it in waubeka wisconsin my brother often plays bagpipes in the parade he may be doing it there this morning. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach on this flag day june 14th 2015. We are so pleased that all of you have gathered on this warm summer day to be with us. We are congregation as the graphic set of open minds loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become. Our best individual selves even as together as a religious community we work to make our world a better place. And please no. That you are welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. What do you have a ged or a phd whether you're a visitor for the first time this morning or been coming for decades. Whether you're feeling absolutely on top of the world. Or down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We welcome you in all of your particularity and charm. We hope you will find our service this morning meaningful enriching that you'll find something here this morning. To take with you in the days ahead. To make your life a finer and more joyful thing. We are privileged to have with us this morning. The reverend ken hurteau. There he sits. He helped the board do some strategic planning yesterday. He is the lead professional of the southeast district of the uua which kind of makes him an archbishop i guess you could say. Is that what you are. Southern region i did not southeast with southern region sort of our archbishop and we're very glad to have him with it. I can and i have both been in the ministry for more than 40 years we've known each other a very very long time we regard ourselves as friends. And i'm most pleased to be sharing our pulpit with him. We come together this morning. To remind one another to rest for a moment. On the forming edge. Of our lives. To resist. To resist a headlong tumble into the next moment. Until we claim for ourselves. Awareness. Ingratitude. Taking the time to look into one another's faces. And see their communion. The reflection. Alvaro 9. This house of laughter. And silence. Memory. And hoe. Is halibut this day by our presents together. Two lessons for this day. The first by. Unitarian universalist clergy. Victoria safford. Describing. The purpose of. Our mission. Our mission is to plant ourselves. The gate. Of hope. Not the prudent gates of optimism which are somewhat narrower. Nor the stalwart. Boring gates. Common sense. No more. Lower the gates of self-righteousness. Which creek on shrill and angry hinges. Dorothy cheerful flimsy gate of everything. Put a different and sometimes lonely place. The place of truth-telling. About your own soul first. And it's condition. Who is it with ice all this morning. The place of resistance and defiance the. Piece of ground. From which you see the world both as it. Is. And is it yet. Could be. A zit. Will be. The place from which you glimpse. Not only the struggle but the joy. In. The struggle. Faith communities are always dealing with the fact that we do not live. In paradise. Buy the land of promise. Somewhere still in exile. And deserts of despair. Emily dickinson gives us a benediction to. Victoria safford when she says hope. Is a thing with feathers. That perches in the soul. And sings the tune without the words. And never. Stops at all. And sweet. Swedish is the game. In the game is heard. And. Sure must be the storm that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm. I've heard. In the chillest land. And on the strangest sea. Never in extremity. Can i ask a crumb. Hope is the thing with feathers. That purchase. In the soul. Here is lessons for this morning. As an occasional guest of this congregation. And with our associations general assembly. About a week and a half away. And in my role of the lead executive. Southern region 200. And 15 congregation. 31000. Unitarian universal. Comprising what. Used to be the deep south. I'm tempted. Oh that's better. I am tempted to. Talk to you about denominational fair stuff. And if you're really curious about that during social time afterwards i'll be over in a corner someplace. And be glad to chat with you. I'd rather be. Reflections. It is good to be with you. Uark. I'm not supposed to have favorites. It's always a delight to come back to you. William wordsworth. In the early part of the nineteenth century. Said. The world. Is too much with us. Late. The world is too much with us late and soon getting and spending getting and spending we lay waste to our powers. Little we see in nature that is all. Even in england even in the early 19th century the unitarians or being environmentalist. His poem was a protest against. The industrial era and what it was doing. To society. We lay waste. It was about 18 years ago. Wednesday afternoon. 1. Late march. I had been. Working on a long essay. Call the loss of faith. Little did i realize i was doing a biographical exercise at the time. I took a day off to go work with a spiritual director to talk about. Confusions i was having about my call. Trying to understand what the next. Going edge for me was spiritually. And that afternoon as i. Left the restaurant. Plain old boring restaurant. Everything. Everything that i knew. Had faith in at hope about. Austin went away. It's as though my soul washed down a drain. I don't want to be overly dramatic i still knew who i was it wasn't a psychotic break. I still knew the difference between right and wrong and i actually was able to drive the car back to work with furthering that afternoon with. Spiritual advisor. And when he said how are you i cried for an hour. Everything. That i thought about myself. And the gifts that i had. All the work that i had done. All the people i had tried to reach. Everything that i have devoted so much my life to. I was. Empty. I felt like that mule. Old and useless at the bottom of a well that nobody cared about. And it was tempting to think i was going to be stuck there. I like that story. How much how how much dirt. 42 muchness of the world throws up on you. You can always climb above it. In one of his books james baldwin rights. It is perfectly possible to go to bed one night. Or wake up one morning. Add to discover between inhaling and exhaling that the south one has sewn together with such effort. Is all dirty rags. Is gone. And out of what raw material. Holy build. Cell phone. My. Day of. Disappearing everything. It's not unique. Tumi. And i don't want to be a grand isaac. I've known lots of people. In my ministry. Who would come to me and tell me of a time in their life. When everything. Fell. A career of great import disappeared because of the economy and through no fault. Of his own. My father was rendered. With no place to go. I've had freshness cry in my office over a divorce that they did not see coming after 37 years. A commitment. To their partner. I've counseled. Young adults. Who say i can't take it anymore. I'm going to leave. Maybe they're going to take their life. Now that's. How about you how is it with your soul. I pray it's filled with joy. I pray it is. But if it's not i want you to hear. The parable of the mule that no matter how bad it is you can rise up above it by here's the secret that i learned. Stop secret. I knew it. I got out of that. Empty spot. With the gracious good care. Someone who listen to my story. And two others who walked with me while i try to figure out how in the world. Could i ever stand in front of a group of people. And preach the truth the gospel of love. When i had nothing in me. How could i do that. Well i was blessed that i had colleagues and friends. And parishioners. Who accepted me in that state of beer. And lost. And walk with me and held me. Hopefully they didn't take away the problem they didn't emily cole. Everything's going to be alright. They said it. It's pretty awful. But you're not alone. You are never alone. Now i grew up in a typical first born male of a first born son of a first born son. In the midwest where is your email the last thing you do is whine and moan. Or think you're anything special. And you should pull yourself up by your bootstraps or whatever scraps you can grab a hold on and stop waiting for somebody else to do it for you. So asking for help. Standing there too i don't know what to do. And have somebody say neither do i. But i walk with. I didn't need anyone to fix my problem as much as i would have been grateful to say it said well everything's going to be alright all of these four steps and take two aspirin and see me in the morning. I would welcome that. But i wandered. Asking to myself. What raw material will come to me. To help me. Recreate my. Took a lot of friends lot of faith lot of hope. That i couldn't believe in. Capoxxo. But that's not the end of the story. It was that in my. Eventually the fog lifted. And i was humbled by. The many times i stood at the gates of self-righteous the. Cocksure that i knew what the. Wife and i joke all the time while we know what the answer to life it was right there in hitchhiker's guide to the universe number 42 what more do you need to know. No i need to know more than that. I need have a reason to get up in the morning. As a minister.. Come and stand with you. Can i help you find. Can together we find them and walkthrough. Ground in the reality of. Some of what. Bothered wordsworth. Bothers me. How is. Reviewing an episode of. The newsroom today y'all know that. Cable series thing with andrew sorkin. At any headache a vignette where. Where. Stations. Equivalent of walter cronkite. Is interviewing. A deputy director of. About climate change. I read it and then i went and watched it again. It just basically went like. It's pretty bad isn't it. Do we do anything. Well yes and. Commentator says good. 20 years ago. Maybe even 10 years ago. I walked around another phone for several days after. Contemplating the possibility. That we are already over at. And then perhaps like you like. Just i'm baffled by this. Terrible. Development in the world called isis. People seem to. Think their only purpose in life is. Destroy others. And then i read about religious intolerance in. In india and other places in the world. And i see in our own society. People. Wanting to have. Test of purity. That if you would do not sign on to their political agenda you are somehow a pariah no longer worthy of respect and. Fascism and communism at its worse. It's. Embodied hatred that you must. Oh i said to myself it might be a logical training suddenly returning that's calvinism. The prevailing theology of the american society. If you are saved. Eddie was already self-evident in your prosperity. And if you are prospering well then clearly you are damned. That's what calvin said. Until we see increasingly in american society. A movement of wealth and capacity and power. Two fewer and fewer people. Thoroughly undermining any concept. And i despair and i am in rage by that and i wonder why we're letting it all happen. So passively. Then i turned on the news and and i see yet another story about somebody shooting somebody else this time it was a four-year-old shooting her three-year-old sister. And and then the next night there's another story of a police officer. Losing control of his. His discipline. And shooting someone. Choking them to death. What the hell is going on. Excuse my french. Is it possible for a whole society. To go into a pit of uselessness and darkness. After the first world war the war to end all wars. William butler yeats irish poet. Forshaw oddly unresolved issues in europe. Only coming. Tune to come back and here it was his prediction in 1920. Things fall apart in the center cannot hold mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. Blood-dimmed tide is loosed. And everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned. The best. Blackhawk conviction. The worst. Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand. Shirley at second coming. Is that han. If we get to see the history of this gyro. Live long enough to be able to reflect upon what's happening on his maybe we'll gain some insight. But i really don't understand this regression. This slipping into hatred at every opportunity. Vilification of polarizing. Plants against white. Latino latinas. Again. Flags. Migrants against. People with. Without. Cementation. The rich. The poor. Suburbs. Cities. By god. How is this happening. And i we. Not to despair that there is no hope. Well that would be a realistic kind of. Way to look at. Pretty g. The end of the story. Never the end. We have each other. We can learn together we can witness together we can. Deal with hunger in this community with. Occasional gifts. We can be engaged in. Working. Climate. We find ourselves. Never the end of the story as long as we have each other. To work to bring love and justice into the world. The challenger would offer you. Even in your moments of wanting to give up. Is that love calls you to love more. You get out of your stuff place. By reaching out to love and care for others and when the society itself is. Broken. To love the society and. And to be present. The show up. And did you all you can even if it's not everything. Unitarian author edward everett hale. That at the end of the 19th century. I am only one. I cannot do everything. But. Don't let that. Stop. I'm doing. The one thing. Refine. Hope. We stand at the realistic gates of. Challenges. Opportunities. Ask each other to hold hands and hearts. In the step boldly. Do the one thing. So my request of your my admonition to you this week is to think about. One thing you can do for one other person. Either in this community. Or in your neighborhood. Grocery clerk at the store. That will bring a little more love. A little more sunshine. Into their lives. And so that we will not let the only voice that's being heard. Is the voice of despair. Futility. Bring sunshine. Bring me sunshine bring you sunshine. Let's. This. Unemployment levels have soared to record numbers. The business sector credit squeeze expert. 210 continues to blame the bank the banks are blaming the public sector for the economic downturn and there is no clear and hub the prices outside. Bring me some sunshine in your smile make me happy. Hope. Is the thing with feathers. The purchase. In the soul. Let's bring my shutter lots of love. But that's where the hope is found. Amen. Permission. The plan ourselves at the gates of hope. The place of truth-telling about your own soul first. Place of resistance in defiance piece of ground from which you see the world as it should be. The place in which you not only struggle. Define joy. And that struggle. Hey will you be worthy of our calling. To plant the seeds of hope.

uufvb_org

2010Sep19sermon128.mp3

uufvb_org

2012Oct14Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. It is a wonderful world. The wind coming off the atlantic this morning. Sun coming up welcome. 2 each of you. We're glad you have chosen to spend apart of your sunday with us here at the unitarian universalist fellowship. You're welcome.. This morning. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight. Black or white or some other wonderful state of humanity whether you are feeling. On top of the world this morning. Or down in the dumps or somewhere in between know that you are welcome just as you come to us. In all of your particularity in charm. We hope you will find our service meaningful this morning and enriching and it will give you. Zest for the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. Let us worship. With our eyes and ears and fingertips. Let us love the world. Through heart and mind and body. We feed our eyes upon the mystery in the revelation in the faces. Of our brothers and sisters. We seek to know the wistfulness. Of the very young. End of the very old the wistfulness of people in all times of life. We seek to understand the shyness. Behind arrogance. Fear behind pride. Tenderness behind clumsy strength. English. Behind cruelty. All life. Flows into a great common life. And if we will only open our eyes. To our companions let us worship. Not with closed eyes. Stop it. Let us worship. With the opening of all the windows of our being. And the full out stretching of our speed. Life comes with singing. Laughter. With tears. Fighting. With a rising wave too great to be held in the mine. And heart and body. To those who have fallen in love with life. Let us worship. And lettuce. Learn. True love. My team today is the spiritual nature. Of our creation. So i had a meditation written by john ruskin. Addresses. Feeling. Listen to these words and the one minute of silence that will follow. Let us enjoy this is. He writes. There is religion. In everything around us. A calm and holy religion. Indian breathing sings. In nature. It is a meek and blessed influence. Stealing in as it were. Unaware upon the heart. It comes quickly. And without excitement. It has no terror. No gloom. It does not rouse up the passions. It is untrammeled. Bike reeds. It is written on the arched sky. It looks out from every star. It is on the sailing cloud. And then the invisible wind. It is among the hills and valleys of the earth. Where the shrub list. Mountain top. Pierce's the thin atmosphere of eternal winter. Or where the mighty forest. Fluctuates. Before the strong. When. Dark waves of green foliage. It is spread out. Like a legible language. Upon the broad face. Avalon. Sleeping. It is the poetry of nature. It is that which uplifts. The spirit. And which opens. To our imagination. A world. Of spiritual beauty. Today. I want to be a little more bold and personal than i offered him in this pulpit. And share with you and the structured format of this sermon. My basic theological understanding about life on this planet. At this hopefully wise and mature point in my lawn ministerial career. But before i do that i need to discuss an occupational hazard. That is next to me my entire career namely. That's some people in every congregation i have served over the years get upset with me. When i take a clear personal position in this pulp any position. Theological. Ethical social philosophical economic or political. If it differs from their own. I've always been somewhat surprised by this. First because in our free church tradition one of the most. Time-honored and sacrosanct principles is. Freedom of the pulpit that principle is written right into the contract i signed with you two and a half years ago you said i will give you as a congregation. Freedom of the pulpit. Freedom of the pulpit guarantees the minister in any others who deliver sermons here. The right and privilege to express always in a responsible manner of course. But still full and unafraid to express. What is truly on their hearts and minds. And secondly i'm surprised when people get upset with me. When my position differs from their own because i have never assumed. As a minister. When i speak from the pulpit that i speak for anyone other than myself. Yes. Ministers are automatically invested. With incredible authority whenever they step into a pulpit. It's part of the time on a roll of being a minister. That goes without saying. What is a unitarian universalist minister in this. Free tradition. Affirm something from the pulpit. That fact with the fact remains i do not. For any of you. Nor do i speak for the church. Or the denomination in heaven forbid i do not speak for god. However you understand it. I know i have a great tool authority but i don't speak for god. I speak only for myself. Is hopefully one earnestly yet thoughtful religious leader try to make sense of the world. And discover for myself what is good and true and right in it. But alas it never fails. When i do speak clearly and passionately from my personal perspective again about almost anything of importance. A few at least in the current location. Come up to me and say either in exasperation or anger. I strongly disagree with everything you said this morning. As if. My job as minister is to always give voice to their understanding their beliefs their opinions. That's not my job. When i'm in this wood box. Let me give this one example. About 10 years ago. At the last congregation i serve just outside of washington dc one sunday. I preached the sermon. We're in i confess that i'd slowly. Come to a mixed moral mind. When it came to the death penalty. I simply was no longer ethically sure i said. How are you you principle of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Was best on earth. Well. Several people that said they were so mad at me. For not expressing their categorical and absolute opposition to the death penalty. They threatened to leave the church. A medication. One person came up to me pasay city. Patently disagreed with my ambivalent conclusion i said. Good job this morning. And he looked at me for plex and i said to him john. Expressing honestly and clearly we're struggling with this very complex issue. I've apparently helped you. Clarify and reconfirm your own beliefs. And that's much more my job helping you discover what you believe. It is my giving perfect voice or lip service. To what you believe. This observation did not mollify him. But it should have. 4nr free uu tradition. What a minister says something you don't agree with. It doesn't mean i am right and you are wrong off and you're wrong and i'm right but it doesn't necessarily mean. Animal certainly does not mean you have to change your beliefs or understandings to conform to mine. All i'm saying. Is it in our free tradition you must never invest in me the power to speak for you. Or the congregation or unitarian universalist. That is never what i am doing. All of this. It's by way of carefully practicing what i want to spiritually say to you this morning. I probably have you're terrified already just by. Laying all this out. And just a few minutes i will share with you that i personally do not believe. Anything supernatural. In this creation nothing. I personally do not believe in any supernatural being. Or forces or powers or reality. None nada zero. But if you believe. In any spiritual natural forces being the realities and i'm certain there are those of you out there who do i say. Good morpower to you. This morning by my sharing my personal spiritual beliefs. As your minister. I am not i assure you dismissing or denigrating or denying any of your spiritual. Or your right to have them. I'm simply affirming how high is 1u you spiritually sees the universe. Started a conversation in the congregation about these realities. My point here is that no matter. Where you met personally fall on a spiritual continuum. You can use my present articulation of my personal beliefs as a reference point. To examine. Ponder and clarify. Your own conclusions at this point in your spirit. This morning if you will you can creatively bounce off my thinking. To reach a clear personal understanding. Or yourself wherever that is. You won't get what i'm saying to you this morning. It feels important for me to have you understand when i. Where i'm coming from. If we are to be a successful and synergistic as minister in congregation. You must know that i will speak my truth. But always idiosyncratic lien. As a way to help you read. Your own spiritual. Alright. Let's get going. This morning i want to offer you as i've said. The personal spiritual perspective i've slowly moved to over my long ministerial career. About the life. And creation that we also mysteriously find ourselves in. I have long looked for a simple label that would accurately describe this faith perspective i have moved to. And i finally arrived at it is simply. Spiritual naturalism. Let me begin by defining the second word naturalism. Because that is where the foundation of my face. Must begin and end. What i mean by the word. What i mean by this is it the word spiritual. As i'm using it. Merely modifies. The core word naturalism. Anchor word. Which primarily define. My face. As a religious person when i try to understand. My place and purpose and destiny is a human being on this earth. And at the same time give shape to a faith will guide me as i strive to lead a life. Of dignity and compassion responsibility joy love. I must do so i must do so. Based on my direct personal experience. With the natural world that i find myself. I begin my faith journey by accepting untrusting all of the known scientific laws. The facts if you will. About the way we know. Through our science and our sensory apparatus. How our natural world infect operate. What are some of these natural scientific laws that i trust and rely on. I went to a intriguing website called howstuffworks. You can google it if you want. And here is a list i know i looked up natural laws cuz it's up to you what are some of these laws. List 10 foundational. Laws natural laws. About how our world actually operates. Pops up top top according to the people at how stuff works. They are. And i'm going to read them. The big bang theory. That of course describing how the universe came into being billions of years ago. Hubble's law of cosmic expansion don't ask me to give you more than 20 words on that but it's. The universe is expanding. Kepler's laws. Of planetary motion. Gravitation we all can rely on that everyday. Newton's laws of motion. The laws of thermodynamics. Archimedes buoyancy principles. Principal. Evolution. A natural selection. Einstein's theory of general relativity. Heisenberg's uncertainty. Principal. Of course i make no claim. As a minister. 2. Entirely understanding all the nuances. Of these known scientific laws about the way our creation. Came into being and how it continues to faithfully work. But i do know. What i do know is that as i strive to make spiritual sense. Of my world. I must begin. With science. With the world as it actually is. As i and all of you physically experienced it reliably everyday. Including and this would perhaps be my 11. Law of nature. The law of mortality. The fact that all living things on this planet as far as we know. Will eventually die. Almost. And. Including almost existentially and an escape. Myself. I am a true believer. In the physical laws of nature. That eyewitness. Participate in through my sensory apparatus. Everyday i awake. What i do not believe. Because i have absolutely no first-hand or direct. Or reliable experience with. That's what i do not believe is what is called the supernatural. Which i also could call. Transcendent or otherworldly forces. That's somehow operate beyond or higher than the visible and quantifiable. Laws of the natural. Let me be very specific about what i do not believe supernatural. I do not first believe in any supernatural beings. I do not believe in god the father sitting on a throne. I don't believe that. I do not believe saint peter is waiting for me. At the pearly gates. I do not believe that. All the stuff was easy to find on the web. I do not believe. Jesus is someday coming back literally. To set things right and fix everything in the world. I don't believe. In the devil. And his minions. Similarly i don't believe in angels or ark. Guardian angels guardian angels that we all have in our lives. Call guardian in. I don't believe in ghosts. And. Other spirits. And i don't believe in fairies. Well at least not this time. Nor do i believe in trolls. No trolls or gnomes or elves are leprechauns or other magical little people know i don't believe in any of that. The only things i believe in. Are the natural physical biological beings. All the utterly amazing a diverse plants and animals. Including humans. That i see. Here smell touch and know everyday iowa. And beyond supernatural beings. I further do not believe in. Other so-called supernatural forces. Or realities are processed. Including but not limited to. The so-called psychic powers. Paranormal phenomenon reincarnation or eternal life. I don't believe in magic i don't believe in fortune-telling i don't believe in astrology numerology i don't believe in miracles. I believe my world work. Day. After day after day by predictable natural processes and principles. Even though our world. Perpetually filled. Chaos. And random circumstance. An unexpected grace. And tragedy and absurdity and unpredictability. All of which of course. Are perfectly natural. So. When it comes to my world. As a person of faith looking for meaning. That will help me live my life well. I simply believe the what-you-see-is-what-you-get. More and nothing. I am i guess a hard-nosed realest. Who wants to work not with a perfect or fanciful or other world i might dream of. But rather work hopefully free of illusions. With the actual world i do have. Just as it comes to me and all of its bittersweet tumble. So. First and foremost spiritually i am a naturalist. Who insist on taking the world in all its natural knowable truth. Even or is it more most especially. When i want a better deal. Dennis creation. Escape. Giving me. What this means is. The winning my world heartless terrorist strike. Or good friend develops terminal cancer. Or a tornado wipes out a town i know. Or sweet child tragically dies. Or a new unwelcome painful limitation is placed on my life. Or the life of someone i know. I seek to work. What's the world. I have and move. What's the world. And the fact. The world. That i have. Nothing more and nothing less. Aspire never to turn. Toward unverifiable supernatural hopes. Or magical expectation. That's just me. But this fierce. And insistent naturalism of mine. Is modified. It's modified. By my spiritual. Buy a spiritual sense in me. The fact that i'm a natural. Does not mean i do not have a deeply spiritual or mystical relationship. With my world i do. For my personal faith stats as a unitarian universalist as i said is not just naturalism. But spiritual natural. Which means that with them. The rather insistent confines. Of my no-nonsense. Scientific natural approach to the facts of life. Is an abundance of spiritual richness. And opportunity animotion. Which i can only call holy. And wanderers. And sacred. The fact that i am a cold-hearted unbending scientific thinker. I never asked my mortal world. For a better. A deal that is capable of giving me. Does not mean. Good when i open my eyes in the morning i do not see a magnificent world. Of holiness. And grace and beauty. I do. When i watch the sunrise up red. And hot and pure out of the atlantic ocean as i did just. Few hours ago. My little human brain does not launch into some cold astronomical analysis of the rotational timing of the earth. The degree of particulate matter in the stratosphere or the cold chemical makeup of the sun. And the steve rather. When i wake up. See the sun coming up. My whole being breathes in the wonder and the grace of. For me son. See. And. When. Wavering. Palms. Soaring. Pelicans. Conspire in a holy dance. That lifts the heart. Calm. Divine. And blessings. The soul. Just because i never doubt or deny the quantifiable realities of the natural world. Does not mean. That is a religious. And spiritual person. I cannot be swept up. The holy healing. Of this amazing world. Harsh pandit hospitable and cruel. Can the other time. The fact that i say i do not believe in the supernatural. That is to say that i do not believe. In a transcendent god sitting on some throne. Waiting to judge me. Does not mean. That i cannot. Do that i cannot or do not say the word god. Or experience something i understand is divine. Or holy in my life. For a regularly do and i do with great meaning and joy. That's what should i call god is not some distant. Cosmic. Parent. Or judge. But rather a mysterious. Yeah treeland life-giving spirit graciously sunk right down. To my world. Am i being. My now-deceased colleague clark do we wells once described his god as. That dearest freshness. In deep downfall. That dearest. Deep down. A sacred presence that is right here with us in this world all the time. Even when it is obscured by pain. Justice wife come. God taught me. Is an elusive a terribly powerful and present spirit. A spirit of holiness. Healing and loving grace. Which i find dwelling. And everyday, thanks incarnate. Is the word theologiae. Used. Describe. Deep down in incarnate. An indwelling presence. Another way of saying it. A presence of the most high. A present. Which is natural. And here in the world. As a positive spiritual resource for me. As i strive to live a life. On this mortal earth. A life of purpose. And peace. And compassion and love. Let me say this. Another. Simple. Way. That's what i call god. Truly. Something super. It's wonderful. At the saving presents in my world but it is not super. Rather it is. Holy. God rather than father king or ruler to me. Is a holy natural presence in the world. That's things to me out of the daily stuff of my life. Sings hope. Beauty and blessing. Compassion and love and justice. I see this god. In the pure twinkling eyes of an innocent. Laughing child. I see this god. In the last breath. Have a brave 92 year old woman. Who is lead a life. Generosity. Grace. I see this god. In a stand of stately palm trees happily astir in the morning when. And in the flock of graceful. Coordinated pelican. Lighting. I see this god and communities of people. Who willingly share their resources so that others. Might breathe more easily. No. Anomic. Individualism. And i know this god. Every time something unknowable stirs within me. And beyond all expectations brings out my noblest. Aspirations. And my most generous impulse. I passionately. Want you to understand this mist. Sense of god. Which enlivens my spiritual and natural life. The spirit. Holiness alive in my world. 901 reliance. Is not in charge of the universe. That which i call god is not transcendent. Not a willful force or being with a master plan or purpose. Design looking down. On everything. That we know. Things in my world happen. Not by the will of god. But rather by the laws and the rules. Of nature of the natural flow of life. Hard though these can. 4. When i do a hard-nosed analysis of this world i live in when i look. And what's happening in my world. I left. Conclude that there is no all-powerful all-knowing all good god that is somehow in charge. What's. How could that be. For the world i live in and please tell me if yours is any. When i look at my world i freaked. Ac almost as much violence. As peace. As much. Hatred is love. Cruelty is goodness. Tragedy is blessing us. Depravity. As nobility as much death. How's life. So it makes absolutely no spiritual sent to me. That sounds spectacular supernatural something like a parental god. Could be directing. Or designing. Or allowing even. So chaotic. And a 1/2 world. Does god really want or allow a mother. To run over her child in the driveway because she does not. That child. Behind the minivan. But again. That can. The god is not. Does not mean i do not believe there is holiness. What. This world that can bless and strengthen us i do again when i say god. I am describing. A real reliable presence in our world. A spiritual presence. Not supernatural. But naturally. By the very. Noble essence. Of creation. And this natural knowable. Holiness i observe and no here's a real kicker. It invites my human participation. In the sacredness. And beauty. And love of this world. That which i called god invites me. On a daily basis. Through the natural knowable everyday pathways of my little existence here on the treasure coast. To know and participate in two sometimes helped create. Life's. Deepest holiness that. Dearest. Freshness. And deep down. Let me see. All this slightly different way. As i am. I personally have a deeply mystical and spiritual relationship. With my natural world. First and foremost i am an insistent empiricist. Imma just the facts ma'am kind of scientist. When it comes to understanding how my world began and how it works. But i am a spiritualist. What it comes to feeling and embracing my world. In all it's utterly amazing grace. Beauty and holiness. This is the only way i know how to spiritually move through my world. Never denying the hard-and-fast rules of the mortal world. And yet never closing my eyes. To the abundance sacredness and grace. That is always singing around me. Inviting me to sing. So there you have it. My friends. As clear and honest and explanation of my. Personal faith dance as i can offer you. I miss. October. In the year 2000. + 12. I am deep to my core a spiritual naturalist. But again. What is most important. Is that you nazi. World through the same spiritual lens that i do. What is important. That you do the hard and joyful work of figuring out what it is you believe about this world. And even more importantly how that understanding of the world obliges you and inspires you. To live and love in the world. We are truly best here in this congregation. Not when we necessarily speak with one voice. Spiritually or ethically a religious and we can't. When we are truly an openly engaging one another. And respectful conversations about our personal beliefs and understandings. And the covenant group. For example is a place where those deeper conversation. Genuine respectful sharing can occur where no unanimity. Spiritual perspective is required. When we engage in these kinds of conversations with one another. We thereby collectively deepen our relationship with everything that is so. The question becomes. Not with scott alexander believe. What do you believe. About this creation. And your place in it. I've shared what. I believe how icc. How about you. What do you believe deep to your soul. And what gives you the strength. To live the best life. With that question. I leave you with the words of mystic. Thomas muller. But nature's curious wisdom. Feel you. Let the world mystical heritage guide you. Paint your canvases. Play your tunes. Give your all to the worlds. That are born from you. Give your all. To the world. That are bored. From you. Go in peace.

uufvb_org

2011Dec25Sermon32.mp3

What is christmas morning rather than hacking through some boring old sermon. I thought i'd tell you a story we have some kids with us this morning. With barbara robinson story the best christmas pageant ever. If you haven't heard it before i hope you enjoy it. And if you have. We're absolutely the worst kids. In the history of the world. Install smoke cigars. Even the girls. They talk dirty. And hit little kids. And custer teachers and the name of the lord in vain. Fire. To fred shoemakers old broken-down tool-house. Just so all-around awful you can hardly believe they were real. Ralph. Imaging. Leroy. Clyde. Ali and gladys. 6. Skinny stringy-haired kids all alike. Except for being different sizes they had flunked one another. Over the garage. At the bottom of sproul hill. Nobody use the garage anymore. But the earthman's used to bang the door up and down just as fast as they could to try to squash one another. That was their idea. Of a game. The erdman's moved from grade to grade through the woodrow wilson school like those south american fish that strip your bones clean. In three minutes flat. Which is just about what they did to one teacher after another. But they never. Never got held back a grade they didn't know anyting. Abc's not their numbers. Colors or shapes the three bears even. But they were past anyway no teacher wanted them two years in a row. And no teacher wanted to herdmans in their class at one time. We figured they were all headed straight for hell. By the way of state penitentiary of course. Until they got themselves mixed up. With the church. And my mother. And our christmas pageant. My mother was running the pageant that year. Our church christmas pageant isn't exactly what you call farce before star entertainment. The script was standard. Deanne. The stable the shepherd's the star. Primary kids. Intermediate kids shepherd. Big boys as wise man. Elmer hopkins the minister's son had been joseph for as long as anybody could remember. And my friend alice is mary because. She's so smart. So neat and clean and most of all so holy looking. Well. One sunday the herdmans showed up at church. You know why. Because they had heard you get cookies. After sunday school. Anywhere for free cookies. Even church. Of course they showed up on the day we were choosing parts. For the christmas pageant. After church we all filed into the back 7 fuse. Along with two or three sunday school teachers who are supposed to keep everybody quiet. This isn't going to take long. My mother told us. We'll have a rehearsal side wednesday at 6 p.m.. Now we did a mary. I know many of you girls would like to be merry. But of course we can only have one. Volunteers and then we'll decide all together who should have the part. Four hands. I was so shocked. When alice. Who is always marry. Didn't raise her hand. She just. That they're chewing on a piece of her hair. And looking down at the floor. And the only person who did racer. Imogene herdman. Do you have a question imaging my mother asked. No i want to be married. Then she looked over her shoulder. Ralph said. And no one else. Raise their hands. They were too scared they were afraid the earth. Beat them up. Alright. Stepmother. We have our mary and joseph. She looked a little pale. Nobody volunteered to be the wise man either except. Leroy. Claude and ollie herdman and then gladys she volunteered to be the angel of the lord. The rest of us ended up in the angel chorus or a shepherd. I was an angel but. Boys. Sorry for my mother. There she was. Duck with a christmas pageant full of herdmans in the main rules. Everybody. Of course was upset. They just couldn't believe the earthman's were starring in the pageant. Finally everybody quiet down. For one thing reverend hopkins got set up with all the complaints and told everybody where to get off. Of course he didn't. Say go jump in the lake. Or anything like that. He just reminded everyone that when jesus said. Suffer the little children and come unto me. Jesus meant all the little children including. Everybody up. So they started rehearsals. The first pageant rehearsal was usually about as much fun as a 3-hour ride on a school bus. And just as noisy and just as crowded. This rehearsal though. Was different. Everybody was quiet. For fear of missing something awful the earth bends my do. Mother started to separate everyone into angels and. Shepherds and destiny. But right away she ran into trouble. Who are these shepherds. Leroy urban wanted to know and all your admin didn't even know what a shepherd was. What's an inn. Ask claude. Honestly my friend alice grumbled. Mary and joseph were there. Why. Imogene hollered at my mother. What happened first. They really scared. Because. That beginning. The thing was beardman. About the christmas story. They knew that christmas was jesus's birthday but everything else was snoozed. The shepherd's the star the wise men even the crowd it in. That's because i never went to church before. And i never read anything. What comic book. So they just didn't know. And my mother said she had better begin by reading the christmas story from the bible. She began. Joseph and mary. Is espoused wife. Being great with child. Pride ralph erdmann. Well that's good thanks. All the kids began to giggle. Ellis whisper to me. I don't think. Very nice. Mary. Pregnant. But she was i pointed out. In a way though i agreed with her it sounded two words. Anybody. She pregnant. Crate. With child sounded better. Burberry. Imogene yelled at allison me i want to hear this. I couldn't believe it. Among other things the earthman's were famous for never sitting still. I'm never paying attention to anyone. Not teachers not parents. the truant officer the police even. Eyes glued on my mother taking in every word. I couldn't believe that irvin. The wise men were like the president of the united states. When my mother said that really they were like kings imaging. Well it's about time. Maybe they'll tell the innkeeper where to get off and get that baby out of the barn. And they hated those are the presents. The wise men brought to the baby. Frankincense and myrrh what's that. Precious oil. And fragrant resin. My mother explained. Imaging holiday. What kind of a king hands-on oil for a present. Then my mother came to king herod. And had to explain that it was herod. Who sent the wise men. Define the baby jesus. And that he plan. To have him put to death. My god claude said. He just got born and they're already out to kill him. The erdman's about herod. What do you look like how richie was. They were really interested in harris. I figured they liked him. He was so mean ancestry. I couldn't understand. You would have thought the christmas story came right out of the fbi files. Herod worried about mary having her baby in the barn. And called the wise men a bunch of dirty spies. They left the first rehearsal arguing about whether joseph. Or just chase the innkeeper into the next county. Unfortunately. That was the best rehearsal we had. Gladys got into the communion wine. Once she stole pennies from the happy birthday bank. Once everybody thought the church was on fire because imogene was smoking cigars in the storeroom. And we never could find a real baby to play jesus. None of the mothers in church would let their newborns near the earth. Imogene offered to steal one of those out of the carriages they're always at the a&p supermarket. But my mother told her. On the night of the pageant. Nothing seems very different at first. There was the usual big mess all over the place. Kids were running around and screaming everywhere. But everything finally settled down and its 7:30. While the angel choir sing away in a manger. The ushers lit candles all around the church. After that we sang to verses of old little town of bethlehem. And then we were supposed to have it. While joseph and mary came in from the side door. Only they didn't come right away so we. Home. And. After a while. It didn't sound like a song anymore it sounded more like an old refrigerator. Finally. Ralph and imogene were there. Only for once. They didn't come to the door pushing and shoving each other. They just stood there for a moment as if they weren't quite sure. They were in the right place. Because of the candles i guess. And the church being full of so many people. Ralph's hair was. Sticking out as usual. Imajenes bail was cockeyed as usual. They look like people you see on the 6 news. Refugees. Said to wait in some strange ugly place. It suddenly occurred to me that this was just the way it must have been. For the real family. Stuck away in a barn. By people who didn't much care. What happened to him. Imaging at the baby doll slung over her shoulder. And before she put several times on the back. I heard alice gas. I don't think it's very nice to burp the baby jesus. She whispered. I don't know why not. He could have been fussy or angry or hungry just like any other baby. After that. That was the whole point after all that was the whole point. Jesus. Didn't come down on a cloud but he was born and lived. Like a real person. Next. The shepherds came in. Then gladys from behind the angel choir pushing people out of the way and stephanie. Gladys was the only one in the pageant. Who had anything to say. She made the most of it. Collards. She hollered it. As. And. If it was for sure. The best news in the world. Then came. The three carol's about angels we got a little rest then while the boys sang. We three kings of orient are. And everybody in the audience around to watch the wise men. March up the aisle. I could see. They were carrying something heavy. Leroy almost dropped it. It sure wasn't frankincense. Gold and myrrh. It was. And right away i knew where it came from. It came from the. Church charitable works committee it was the urban. Food basket ham. It still had the ribbon around it would said merry christmas. This had to be the first thing the erdman. Had ever given away. Except for lumps on the head. So you had to be impressed. Leroy dropped the ham. Right in front of the manger. At that point the wise men were supposed to leave the side door but they. Didn't. They just sat down. That was said they were ruining the whole thing. But i didn't think so. It made sense for them to sit down and rest. Come along way. You wouldn't expect them just to show up. And leave. In fact i think the erdman's improve the pageant a lot. Just by doing what came naturally. Like burping the baby. Or thinking a ham. Would make a better present. Then a lot of perfumed oil. At the end of the pageant. I really felt good. That was when everyone sang silent night. Including the audience. When we got to the last first i happened to look up an imaging. And i almost. Dropped my hymnal. On a baby angel. Everyone had been waiting all the time for the erdman's to do something absolutely unexpected. And sure enough. That's what was happening. Imogene herdman. In the candlelight. Her face. She just sat there crying. Crying. Well. It was the best chris. We ever had. Everybody said so. And as far as i'm concerned mary is always going to look a lot like imogene ordman. Sort of nervous and bewildered. But ready to clobber anyone who laid a hand on her baby. And the wise men are always going to be leroy jonas brothers. Fairing. A ham. When we came out of church that night. It was cold and clear. With crunchy snow underfoot. And bright. Bright stars overhead. And i thought about the angel of the lord. Gladys. With her skinny legs. A dirty sneakers. Sticking out from beneath her role. Yelling at all of us everywhere. Is born.

uufvb_org

2012Nov04Sermon32.mp3

Well good morning. Look at all you clever people who reminded turn your clocks back an hour on my lips are sealed about who is here at 9. I will not tell you. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach and we're so pleased that all of you are back here with us again this morning. Please know you're welcome just precisely as you come to us. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight. Black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you're feeling on top of the world this morning or down in the dumps or somewhere in between know that you are welcome just as you come to wasn't all of your particularity. And charm. We hope you will find our service this morning meaningful and enriching. You will find something here perhaps just a nugget. It will help you lead your life in the days and weeks ahead. With greater strength and joy. The reading before the sermon. I thought peace written. For the press journal was in the press journal about a month ago by former representative. Lee hamilton of indiana. Devil long reading. Very apropos i believe this sunday. Before our national. The conventional wisdom he writes about this year's presidential campaign. Is it is about the proper role of government. In our nation's life. This is a good argument to have. But don't expect it to be resolved by the selection. Americans have been debating the question since before the constitution was drawn. And have not yet come to terms with it. Now we've got a republican challenger who embraces the conservative conviction that government must be as limited as possible. In this view much of what government spends is wasted. Ronald reagan's comments government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem. Is it mantra. Conservatives want to reduce regulation. Make cutting taxes the highest priority. Propose handling medicaid other responsibilities to the states as block grants. And consider a more active government as the wrong answer. In almost every. Against this view. We have a democratic incumbents back by liberals who seek. To see value in government's role. They are concerned about social inequality. Support a publicly-funded safety-net. They're prepared to levy the taxes needed to pay for it. In this view public spending is necessary to stimulate the economy. When needed. And regulation is vital. To checking. The excesses. Of the free market. The gap between these views. Themes. Unbridgeable. Especially in the midst of a presidential contest between two parties. Whose interest isn't highlighting their differences. Yet in the end this fundamental political golf is not as wide. This is because the real question and governing and he ought to know he was. Governor for governing. Israeli what is the india logically proper thing to do instead it. How do we run this country day today. And how do we get a diverse group of politicians to make progress. On our current problems while putting aside the problems they cannot solve. And then it goes on. Here is where most americans find them. They don't consider government to be all good or all evil. They wanted to work well and efficiently to be productive as the private sector. To exert itself to keep the market function over regulates business. And to get a handle on entitlements. Coulter sustainable over the long term. Most americans he writes believe. That is a nation we cannot prosper. Unless government built infrastructure. Protect property rights. Helps develop the economy sustains basic scientific research. Undergirds the development of human capital and protects. The social. And then he goes on. For most americans. Government. It is one of the ways americans me challenges that confront us. Fighting a terrorist attack. Or educating our children safeguarding our retirement undergirding commerce. And protecting the country's. National treasures for everyone to. And then he writes will probably never reach a. On the proper role of. We are more likely to work out solutions issue-by-issue. By issue. Trying to reach a pragmatic solution for whatever problem. And then he hands. The nation's currency. Physical difficulties were surely force government to do less. Send many people want. And the public sector will have to become smarter and more. This is not bad. But no matter who is in charge. We are unlikely to veer too far right. Or too far left. Because the debate over the proper role of government will. Remain unsettled. Unsettled. In america. And that's not a bad thing. Here ends. Other friends. Here we are once again. As american citizens and voters on the eve of an important national election. Many commentators. Curiously. Have declared this election. In the year 2012 is perhaps the most important decision point in a generation. In adidas takes do feel very high too much of the electorate. As evidenced by the passion partisans on both sides. Including countless and i might add frequently misleading and overstated. Political ads. The reason i think the stakes feel as high as they do. Is because the two national parties the republicans and the democrats have both staked out. Very clear turf a rather extreme ends of the political social and economic continuum. Which is what hamilton was. Before i discuss precisely what i believe is steak for all of us as voters this. Which because of the luxury of early voting here in florida feels kind of anti-climatic to me and others have already done this for the mini case. I need to once again forthrightly address the issue of whether or not it is ever appropriate. For a minister or anyone else for that matter to discuss. Election. Politics. In church. Many of you may not know. From the founding of our nation. Before. 1950. There was absolutely no legal restriction of political activity imposed on american religious congregation. None. From the earliest days of this republic. And i'll get to that importance to those important specifics in the moment. Government. Was told to stay out of religion. What religion was never told to stay out of government. Here are the facts. The widely referred to an often misunderstood principle of the separation of church and state which was first articulated. Play the english philosopher john locke in the 1600. This principle was from the very beginning in the american democratic experience. An entirely one-way street. Designed solely to prevent government from interfering. With the free exercise of religious expression. By both congregations in individual. There is absolutely nothing in the constitution of united states that refers to this principle. But the first amendment to our constitution clearly and precisely states. That congress that is. The legislative branch of our government shall quote. Make no law. Respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting. The free exercise thereof or abridging. The freedom of speech. Which thomas jefferson explained elsewhere means. Building a wall of separation. Between. The church. So. The principle of the separation of church and state as expressed in the first amendment to our constitution. Andaz defended and clarified. Many times by congressional statute. Supreme court ruling. Is a purely one-way boundary of protection. 4. Religion. Affirm insistence a government. Never interfere or express preference for any religious group. For expression. Now i must pause youtube releasing out the sadly over recent years there have been some attempts. Mostly initiated by conservative force. To weaken the boundary. There's one of the amendments. Today on the. Florida. That wishes. Fun. Religious organization by government that isn't attempt. To weaken. The separation of church. State. By conservative. Republic. Legislature. In. Now. And what other example is. School choice. Vouchers. Tries to allow tax dollars to. For the most part. The one-way principle of keeping the state. Out of religion. Has been honored. What this all means is it for the first two hundred years or so of the american experience. Religious institutions have felt free to tell government and cannabis. Precisely what they thought of them. Their policies and their laws indeed in the very early years of the republic. Immediately following elections the clergy were invited especially in massachusetts in the commonwealth of massachusetts. Clergy were invited to address the newly seeded state legislatures to preach to them about how they should run massachusetts and the other new england states. It was called an election sermon and they didn't after the elections. And those were pretty stern sermons. And for many generations to follow american church women and men. Felt free to bring their face. Directly into the halls of government. But then curiously enough in 1954 thanks to you'll never guess. Linden. Bane. Johnson. Denver freshman senator. The state of texas. The practice of the separation of church and state. Suddenly became a two-way street. When the united states congress under his urging pass the law. Explicitly prohibited religious congregation. From direct. Participation in political campaign why was this change made. Because in 1964 lbj was upset. But a texas nonprofit. Not a church but a non-profit. Breast. Opposition to his candidacy. Peak of partisan rage. He persuaded the congress to amend the irs code the internal revenue code to henceforth prohibit all 501 3c nonprofit organization. Including churches from an anyway endorsing or opposing political candidates in election time if they wanted to keep. Attack. Status. It all happened. For now. As a liberal and progressive religious leader myself i happen to wholeheartedly agree. With this one clear limited 58 year-old restriction on religious organizations by the fed. I do not believe that ministers or congregations should at election time. Endorse or oppose particular candidates or parties. On a partisan basis. If they indeed want to remain tax-free. And i am perfectly. Willing to abide. By this irs restriction. As i understand it as i think you know many. Conservative and liberal religiously. Do not agree. With that and they're testing it. Testing the 19th. Law. But i will absolutely not the endorsing either covertly. Or overtly. Any party or candidates this morning. You are all thank you very much perfectly intelligent voters. And i will not insult your intelligence by suggesting how you should vote even though at times i want to. In my view ministers this sunday. Keep their mouth. Basically. But. None of this is to say. Did i don't believe churches and ministers. I do not believe. Churches should stay out of. All political and governmental matters. Nothing could be further from. I believe that religion. Most particularly our unitarian universalist religion. Must. Must. Actively in regularly engage the many public policy issues. About what kind of nation. These united states is going to are going to be. Which both government and politicians address an advocate. As unitarian-universalist like all serious religious people. Be the catholic. Jewish. Baptist buddhist whatever. As unitarian universalist who care deeply about the shape and substance and future of american life. We should never ever hesitate. To regularly bring our moral ethical societal theological convictions. To the halls of government and of the voting booth. Our nation's founders had it right it's. Wild is terribly important the government at all levels. National state and local. Scrupulously and systematically stay out. Of all matters religious. Religious people must never stay out of government. And governmental power. I am passionately persuaded. That there can never be any successful or appropriate separation. Between our religious beliefs and lives and principles. And the political aspects and activities that we. Engaged. As members of. Religious people. Who care about the shape and substance of human life. Community. Was never leave their beliefs and values. At the microsoft. Can i please persuade you. Right off the baptist. That no religion worth your allegiance. Can abrogate its responsibility. To speak of. Care about and try to influence. Society in. Look just for a moment. At the seven principles. Of our faith. That i read that we read together. Yeah this morning in the opening words. How could you take these justice and humanity centered principle seriously. And not have them systematically inform your democratic decision. In the voting. Adele. You can't. You can't be a serious unitarian universal. If you do not apply these prints. To your body. As unitarian universalist you must never. Ever has a. To bring your values. Your beliefs to government. I can't say that strongly and. And that's why i arrive after this rather complicated. I'm detailed preface. At this. Hard-fought national election. That i pray will be finalized. I hope that as a religious person you will bring. Full and total self. To the voting booth. Speak your truth. 2 power. As you strive to express yourself as an american citizen. Look again just for a moment that those seven princes. Which i incorporated into the opening words. That i already. Need to move ahead here. Alright. So what i want to do with you. What the time left. Is cher where i personally find my cell. As i strive to bring the highest principles of our faith. Of my face into the voting booth. Where i am this november. Is a pretty disquieted and dissatisfied. Many of you may be in the same. Facing the voting booth i find myself rather dissatisfied. With the rather extreme choice i seem to be singularly presented with. When it comes. To the central philosophical divide that seems to be driving our national pallet. This year. Namely. Representative hamilton already suggested in the reading. The question of what is the proper size. Scope and role of government. Both parties republican and democrat are basically telling me in this election. I must decide. Between these two choices. The dominant republican idea that government and taxation are the problems that are holding an a. Back. From prosperity and success. The government. Taxation are bass. Evils. That must be. Strain. Or collapsed. Call cost. And the prevailing democratic idea that big government. Corollary spending. Must be protected even expanded. So that i can address. Almost every imaginable. Social need. Honestly what. I yearn for as a progressive and i think. Fiscally savvy. And conservative american. I really just. I want a far more balanced. Anew wants to. That recognizes. The clear moral need right now to control government and. Exploding entitlement program cost. Does rain in our out-of-control national debt. While at the same time not abrogating. Or gutting our collective responsibility for the well-being of all our citizens. Most particularly those vulnerable citizens in deprivation in need. Read the importance please of the affordable. Care act. And other humane and justice oriented program. Design. To help. The poor i want a more balanced and nuanced. Pitbull allowed both. This heartfelt need of mine. For more balanced and nuanced approach rather than the rather extreme. Polarizing take-it-or-leave-it rhetoric of both national parties. Is why i was so encouraged almost exactly two years ago now. When the bipartisan simpson-bowles commission on fiscal responsibility and reform named for its chairman. Republican alan simpson and democrat erskine bowles. Issued as you all know. A detailed. Report advocating not doctrinaire. 1 take it or leave it approach. But a balanced approach to the role in the size of government. It's called for democrats and republicans. To move to the center to work and compromise. In terms that in terms of ideological purity but you actually compromised. To pass what hamilton talked about. Practical legislation. That would both. Reduce federal spending including raining in at least somewhat. The costly entitlement programs that are so burgeoning. While increasing tax. Are all. Most particularly the well-off. To pay for those services. Truly needed. But sadly true to the divisive tenor of our times both republicans. And the democrats cynically walked away. From this bi-partisan. Vice presidential candidate paul ryan who actually sat. On the simpson-bowles commission walked away from it. By voting against. The plan. He helped. To draft. And president barack obama. As the national media observed at the time did not embrace. The compromise report because he apparently did not feel it went far enough. To protect. Social spending. So. Given their shared unwillingness. 2 compromise. On the size of role of government for the social and economic good of the nation as a whole. I am not thrilled as i stand here today with either party right now. Nor the rather rigid ideologies they seem to be largely unwilling. To even consider straying from. I wish both parties could begin to show both the intellectual suppleness. And moral maturity to realize. Is best what is best for the nation. Weis. Between. Extreme. As it always has an american. As i affirmed a few weeks ago on that sermon i preached on america divided. But i shared the thinking of social psychologist jonathan haidt. Both democrats and republicans. Today operate from clear and honorable moral values and i showed this chart. Which i want to put up again. The green is the liberal progressive or democratic values and the purple are the ones held by conservative. They all care about the six indices of moral life. The only difference is the emphasis upon which they. Which are they placed upon these. It's not as though their sheeps and goats. It's just a matter of degree and nuance. It's so important to realize. The foundational moral concerns. Which drive the politics. Policies of both parties. Are shared by although there are real difference. The differences between liberal and conservative. Is not a difference of kind. It is a difference of emphasis. The crucial point here i believe. Is it both sides. In the great american political divide. To realize that everyone. Liberals and conservatives alike value. A healthy prosperous and compassionate america. Neither is the devil neither needs to be demonized they just disagree on emphasis about how to get. So. Let me push this appreciation for the validity of the thinking of both sides even further. If i might is it possible. Is it possible. That the republicans could be right that burgeoning federal spending in the resulting expanding.. Endangers our nation's future prosperity. Is it possible that higher taxes especially unsuccessful american. Endanger entrepreneur risk-taking investment and job creation. Is it possible that some welfare entitlement programs negatively affect individual responsibility and initiative. Is it possible that some bureaucratic government regulation. Can make large and small businesses alike. That's productive. Yes. It is possible. And. Is it possible. The government must become even larger and more compassionate to address. All of our citizens basic human needs. Is it possible that all americans especially the rich. Must paint some more tax. In this era. For the benefit of the disadvantage. Is it possible that universal medical coverage for all citizens. And all other basic safety.. Let that programs are moral necessity. And is it possible. That government regulations are crucial. To protect this nation's environment. Food and drug supply highway and workplace. Safety. This sunday. Before our national election. Diehard progressive. An unrepentant liberal that i personally happen to be. I will none-the-less suggestion. As i have said before in this pulpit. The both liberals. Conservatives. Both republicans and democrats have something useful. An honorable. An intelligent. To contribute to the national conversation about our future. And i hate these ads. Which demonize the other side for being fools or. Being evil i hate them. Because that's not the case. Everyone loves. This nation. Liberal and conservative. I am persuaded that if america is have a sound and prosperous future it will need. To heed the wisdom. Coming from both sides. Of the political aisle. More than anything else in this difficult and divisive our of american politics. This nation needs leaders who will listen to each other. Way perspectives that do not come naturally to them. And compromise their idiot logically pure extremes. On the practical basis as hamilton. Suggested. For the good of the whole nation. So all this said. How do i sync you was unitarian universalist should vote. The select. Well. This sunday before big tuesday i'm going to repeat what i will tell you every election. That i'm honored to be. As an american citizen. You should vote. Your heart. And mine. And conscience. In the waze. Send affirm honor andres. Reflect. Promote humanity affirming principles. Of our faith. Always keeping in mind the justice seeking compassion history of our free faith. You should vote for those candidates. Hardee's. You believe will best work. For a better and. Humane. Just. Society for all. And in this election in particular i hope you will add significant. Consideration. To those men and women running for office who will show a willingness. Turn the go she ate. And compromise. Candidates. Immaturity. An intellectual reach. To set aside their idiot logical purity. On a bipartisan basis. For the good of the whole nation vote. This november as you all know america is still not in the best. There's a great deal of tension. Anger and sadness. Sorrow. And suffering. In our land. We have many social. Economic and political problems. Approved both vexing and persistence. And will not be solved simply. Whoever whoever we. But i have no doubt. That was wisdom. Maturity and goodwill are two historically dominant parties can begin again to work together. For the good of the nation. And all her pee. Pray that it be solved. And vote. And one final. Important. Many people. On both the right and the left have said. The most important election. With some breathlessly saying that the very future of the nation is hanging in the balance. Well i am reluctant to say that is the case. Much is indeed clearly. At stake. Primarily because of the widely differing visions offered by the two candidates and their respective. Parties both of them have. But i want to share my beliefs better which candidate or party. Wins. The national election on tuesday which is to say. Whatever party. Gains the upper hand. I am sure that america will not suddenly be radically different. Whoever wins. America's not going to get radically better and it won't get radically worse. Despite what you hear on talk. Radio. It may in fact remained radically the same. No matter who was elected president for the next four years no matter which party controls. The two chambers of commerce. Go to hell. Nor will all our problems being miraculously fix. The three branches of our democratically established government congress the white house. And the supreme court will continue. To be balanced modified slowed and checked by one another. And the shape of our lumbering national destiny will slowly unfolding just as it has. 4th generation. All of this is my way of saying that i believe that no-one whether they are a passionate partisan on the right or the left. Compactor bags for new zealand or france. If their candidates in my last church i had a young family when george w was avoided. They moved to new zealand. In six weeks they were gone. Took their baby with him. People on both the extreme right and the radical left and everyone in between needs to lower the volume. Lower the arrogance. And the exterior of their proclamations of doom and the condemnations of those who. Agree with some ice. Amtrust. That the checks and balances of power and ray. Possibility that were written deep into work. The tution will enable our nation to. Ahead. What's stability. Reason. Common sense. As it always more. Or less. So dear friends next. Tuesday on election night. Root for the candidates. And even pray in your heart. Right minding people like. Right-thinking people like you. Will carry the day. And then. No matter what the numbers are take a deep relax breath. And go get some sleep for christ's sake. For america will survive the selection at his has survived every election. It's going to be okay there friends. Rush limbaugh doesn't think so. America. In all its beauty and its goodness ruined or it challenge. And we will be okay. And with that. Isaiah mean. Bf good. And called hearts. My friends. And renters it regardless of what happens on tuesday. We all remain. American. 1 people. Diverse. Get indivisible. Committed. To democracy and one another. May our nation and our people never forget the ideals upon which this good republic was. And then we ever were devote ourselves. Building a society. With as much freedom. Injustice. Inequity is. Compassion. Peace. My fellow americans. Make sure you vote. I never lose faith. In one another.

uufvb_org

2011Sep04Sermon32.mp3

As you all know this is the big labor day weekend when we americans historically at least. Set aside a day to honor workers and their union. Antoine officially mark the end-of-summer although that part of the holiday hardly fits. By the climate here in florida we can at least expect another month of heat and humidity. But in any case. I want to use this occasion to reflect with you on how we might find. A healthy balance in our lives and in our culture. Between the duties of labor. And the enjoyment of leisure. Or set of it differently. A healthy balance between work time. And free time. Know some of you might think that balance would come naturally to americans who for generations have had clear labor standards. The limit the length of the workday and ensure that most workers get two full days off a week. A wise. Free time break known as the weekend. What are time is supposed to be around except for ministers of. But that's a subject of another day. The host of commentators on american culture of recently observed. But americans seem increasingly unable to enjoy or to take leisure just last weekend was the parade magazine. With that basically americans are absolutely lousy at giving themselves a break on saturday and sunday. Not to mention the rest of the week i quote from this lead article. These days in america managing your weekend is like running a marathon and a sprinter space. With a stagger across the finish line on sunday night. Most people i work with aren't enjoying themselves on the weekend. So psychologist amy wood. They are drained by monday morning. It wasn't always this way the article goes on there was a time in america when those two days saturday and sunday. We're a truly collective respite. Weekends used to provide us a safety valve against stress and work. But now i'm most people continue to leave their stressed out live. 24/7. And then the article concludes we need to learn how to put back a bit more fun. Into our free time. Now some of you may not think that this problem of being lousy at leisure. Applies to us so much. Here in the treasure coast you might reason that here in this tropical paradise and it is that what a great weekend we've been having. With our almost infinite resources and venues and activities. For relaxation and play and pleasure here. You might think that we would all know how to chill out and bathing are free fun time. And some of you might further reason that because this is a retirement community in large part though fewer than half the people in indian river county retirement a quail. You might think that in this current location which is full of retirees. The leisure would be something we'd be near experts at. But the truth is that like all americans we floridians even happily retired one. Are in general still pretty lousy when it comes. To truly knowing how to practice leisure. Leisure has somehow worked its way out of the american genetic code. As exhibit 1. I know that everything is part of the exhibit 1. All the nasty scornful judgmental commentators. Who won our president mr. obama a very hard-working. He was going to take. 10 days. With his those darling daughters of his and his wife. Activate vacation on martha's vineyard. He was publicly excoriated. For daring to leave washington. Without having single-handedly solve the global debt crisis. The economic downturn the skittish stock market and hurricane irene. To martha's vineyard. Look. I will be the first to recognize that this is without doubt a complicated american summer. And i am sure there was always something more that our president can do for our nation. But for god's sake. Even our presidents worst enemies realize that this are hardworking commander-in-chief. Needs a few days off once a year or so. Sleep in late. Play golf with his buddies. Take a bike ride with his daughters did you all see that cute picture. Rita murder mystery on a porch overlooking the harbor. Without a simple thought for washington and his mind. And have a leisurely lobster dinner over candlelight with his beautiful wife michelle. Doesn't even our president. Deserve 10 days without being excoriated for taking a little leisure. God. Help us. Leisure is disparage by some of us as an unnecessary lazy frill in life god help. You'll notice the quote. At the top of the order of service. Have leisure. And no. That i am god i'm not exactly sure what that means but i like the quote. A few weeks ago two weeks ago. I was able to carve out two full weeks not is like the president but actually 14. Out of my busy ministerial life. To drive up to the adirondacks where collins and i have a home we love on a beautiful wild river. Now without trying to make anyone jealous because believe me i know how to take time off. I will tell you that those two weeks were shear bliss in leisureland. In leisureland. You do not set an alarm clock when you go to bed you sleep in to your heart's desire. Getting up only when the bird songs through the open window beckon you to coffee. And that first morning paper. The new york times. In leisureland. Leisureland. You don't check your business email on vacation dates of 10 times a day and respond to every idiotic inquiry from your coworkers. In leisure land. You don't wear a wristwatch. Or keep up with cnn or slog through that long to-do list you have him leisureland. You ride bicycles. Swim in the river take naps in a hammock. Tube down the rapids enjoy a cold drink on the deck with your neighbor's bbq heaps. Of greasy chicken and wonderful. Sweet corn. You eat by candlelight inn leisureland you have an after-dinner cigar in the gazebo will maybe not that. And you go to sleep. Whenever you. Tired. In leisure lab. My two weeks in the adirondacks. Was sheer lazy. Healing. Free time. Yes. And every american every last one of us. Are mental and physical and spiritual health. Is essential. We have to know how. To dive into leisure and stay in those cool pools of relaxation. Totally aretha energized for the work that we inevitably happen. Perhaps. I need to give a precise definition of leisure before i go any further. Leisure. Is freetime to be just to be with self and friends and hobbies and nature's and loved ones. Just to be as you will. Away from the pressures and expectations and demands of anyone else your employer your nation your community or condo association even your own children for god's sake. My merriam-webster dictionary define leisure in the following way. Freedom or spare time. Provided by the cessation of activities. Free time as a result of temporary exemption. Temporary exemption. From work or duties. Time and this is a key part of the definition. Time at one's own command. It is free of engagements are responsibilities one's own time at one's own convenience and the last word they use to define leisure. I think of leisure them as a relaxed way of being in the world. Which enables us it's a kind of mindfulness. Enables us to keenly notice and enjoy the world which is at hand. When we do return to life and work and do to work and duties. We are rested and ready. Practicing leisure in your life is intentionally allowing for there to be some renewing space. Around your working duties which allow you to be positive and cheerful about. Rest of your exist. I would suggest you as many others who written about human happiness and well-being have done. Didn't order for any humans. To have a well-rounded meaningful healthy life. One needs more or less. Equal amounts of three fundamental. Human activities. I had john makeup this chart for you work of core. And if you retired work can me laundry and. And all your volunteer stuff. Sleep. We know the federal government now says it no matter how old you are you need at least 8 hours of sleep. Americans are getting as a part of this whole drama. Americans are getting less and less and less sleep. We are asleep deprived society. All because we're working too much. And leisure. Now when i say leisure i also mean. Leisure and logistics for example if you have to commute to work that could be construed as leisure-time or. Doing laundry aura. Some of the routine tasks that you have which are. Pacifically work in your. In any case. Health and happiness. Lies and balancing these. Three things i say. What i want to ask you to view this morning is. In your life. How are you doing. With this pie chart of balance and health how are you doing really how are you do. I think the evidence is irrefutable. The most americans despite our obvious freedoms. And privileges and material wealth. Have a serious problem when it comes to creating and protecting enough. Genuine leisure time in our lives even if we are retired. Simply put. We are. Some of us badly a dick. Did too much. Too much labor. Too much information. Too much accomplishment. Too much service even too much activity too much hurry as j walljasper put it in the oven e-reader a few months ago. More and more it feels like our lives have turned. Into a gruelling race toward the finish line we never reach. It wasn't supposed to turn out this way he said. As a kid in the sixties i remember hearing. The one of the biggest challenges of the future. Would be what we would do with all our leisure time. Haha. And then he goes on. Amazing inventions. Aries. Ipads. Iphone. We're going to free upgrade stretches for our days for what really matters. Friends family and fun. But then walsh jasper says. Adjust. Has occurred. We hurry through alive. With more and more work. Unless unless we. Most americans no longer know how i think. Truly go to leisureland. We have simply fallen out of the practice. We are still tethered for one thing. These devices. Free up lots of time supposedly. Crystal. Here are just a few of the facts. Over recent years americans who are already the hardest-working and most productive people on the face of the earth. Are working harder and harder. Juliet schor in her book the overworked american the unexpected decline of the leisure rights this. In the last 20 years the amount of time americans have spent on their jobs. Has risen steadily. Each year the change is small. Amounting now upwards of 9 hours or slightly more than an additional day of work each week. The accumulated increase she writes over the last two decades is substantial. The growth of work time did not occur. As a result of public debate. She observes. There has been little attention from government academic civic organizations or union. For the slow job creep. For the most part. The issue has been off the agenda. A non choice. A silence. Unwitting. Shift. In american life. It may startle you here as it did. Me when i recently heard the statistic. Do you know how much time how many days is the average. American family if you want you know husband wife and kids. The average american family do you know how many vacation days the average family shares together in a year. Mine. 9 days. Which if you add the weekends is just about two weeks. Compare that with european families are noticeably calmer. Less stressed out and less prone to heart disease european neighbors. 8 weeks off every summer and all kinds of silly holidays. The average american family gets 9 days. I saw a report recently and thought i sometimes watch fox news i'll admit it. Which suggested this report on fox news. Said that most americans suffer from a new dangerous disease. Ddd you know what that is. Vacation deficit disorder. Vacation. Deficit. Disorder. The truth is that in america today millions of us routinely work 10 12 14 hours a week. You know what you know where are killing our church meetings work p.m.. And even if that people. In washington that they started at 7 in the morning what's wrong with this picture. I don't quite see as much of this here on the treasure coast of course. But. The fact is it across america lawyers and doctors in computer consultants and supervisors and floor managers and storekeepers. And restaurant owners m tree trimmers. Even ministers. Countless americans work far more than the standard eight hours a day which was protect which was established 100 years ago to protect workers safety and health. The bottom line is clear. In spite of the fact that it was never supposed to be like this 21st. Century american. Have more work. And less time at their own disposal less leisure time to just be who they are in the world and grow spiritually and emotionally healthy. And there's no reversal. Of this in these tough economic times. A reversal in this trend. And tragically we have passed on this. Non-stop workaholic ethic. To our kids. And our grandkids. Study after kids over programming. Google take a look at some of the article. Study after study shows that countless american children especially those from families weather high expectations. Are terribly over programs now when i was. Growing up in the fifties and sixties i'd ride my bike around town and swimming lake michigan and. Goof around and do naughty things in the woods with the other boyfriends that i had. Knocking over out houses and stuff like that. You can't do that kind of good stuff anymore. Never knocked over now house i never did that. Never get it. All you carrots and grant. Have a responsibility. The help. You're at your grandkids and your kids to learn how to not be over program. And in this. Culture which so values productivity and so scornful of laziness. I would generally have you think of leisure the kind we need much more of. Not as some sort of lazy inactivity like. I'm sitting as a couch potato watching television so that is a form of leisure. But rather again. Leisure time at our own command. At our own bidding when we choose. Justice from the busyness. And rather find a relaxed engagement and focus. With our own lot interior lives. People nearest us the families we love. The friends we love. Leisure is not laziness. It's a different form of a. My colleague will saunders suggest. But if we are ever to find health and balances human beings we need to let go of work. And it's corollary. Buying and spending. So you know and ask him if the mall isn't. We need to relieve ourselves two rights of activities that cause worry. Paying bills. Preparing tax returns making lists of things to do in the coming week. We need to waste time. On the pleasure of being. With family and friends with the light. He writes of leaves of the delight of simply enjoying the world. We need to set aside time to renew our relationships he goes on with nature. And with god. And with. I think this is the key benefit of leisure. It enables us to renew relationship. Self. Family with neighbor. With nature. Whatever god means. And what's more leisure pursuits. Well they may accidentally. Help us to become wiser and better routed and smarter and more productive. They must never be engaged in for the potential usefulness that's becoming a backhanded kind of work. But rather for their own calming. Spiritual sake. Leisure looks like. Could you get a hammock in the backyard watching the infant changing pattern of the summer clouds. Or spending an afternoon tenzing. The stamp collection you've had since you were 12 year old boy or girl. Or taking the family out for a laconic picnic or volt ride-on lagoon. Or strolling through your favorite museum for the umpteenth time. Are going birding in that favor wetland of yours near here. Or spending a morning leisurely researching your family's genealogy on the world wide web.. Or even taking a delicious. Dreaming that. Without setting an alarm. I quote again from the free time free people statement by the good rabbi. Having time for leisure goes to the heart of what it means to be a human being. Human beings need time for self-reflective. Miracle-gro. For loving family and for communal and community. Staring. It is simply. Time. Poet carl sandburg. In a short poem entitled happiness. Also speaks. To this quality of leisure listen to my second carl sandburg palm of them. He writes. I asked professors who keeps the meaning of happiness. To tell me what is happiness. Famous executives who bought the work of thousands of men they all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though i was trying to fool with them. And then. One sunday afternoon. I wandered out along the des plaines river. And i saw a crowd of hungarian. Under the trees. With their women. And their children. The keg of beer. Vista. And thousands of other blessedly impractical. Non-official. Perfectly enjoyable activities. Is what leisure should look like. And feel like. The simple truth. Is a hard-working. Plugged in. Totally informed and up-to-date. Fast-paced americans. Are not structuring enough. Soul. Nurturing. Leisure. Into their lives. Father's true that some employers. Are pressuring. Or tragically forcing some american workers to labor too long. And too hard and more on that unacceptable outage in just a moment. I would suggest it is mostly ourselves. Who are responsible. For the demise. Of leisure. Many of us. Fall victim to what one commentator called curry sickness. We just. Hurting all the time we we fall victim to an o-1 imposes. Hurry sickness auto. We choose it. Maya the first title for the sermon my working title was don't just do something. Stand there. Don't just do something stand there but i changed it to the lost art of leisure was my working title. That's what we need more in life don't just do. For god's sake. Dm. Leisure. We know clearly. Tradition to working on our own interior lies we must insist. Governmental. Corporate leaders. Allow each worker to have a balanced healthy life. With reasonably limited humane work hours that's part. Of the. Free time free people stating that i urge all of you. As you move around our culture. To encourage that kind of thinking. That we're not we don't have to be workaholics. Be good. And productive citizen. I try to limit my work hours here to 40 hours a week because i know. I went to the minister friend of bragg kali group said he was working 90 hours a week. I once i finally said to him. Godzilla. Got it. Kuiu. Who are you doing this favor for. Of burning yourself out you. Can't be in effect. Working 90 hours away. You can't be ineffective. If you're working 90. Would you can't be ineffective. 90 hours. All of us. Have a responsibility for helping our culture rebalance. Labor. With leisure. In our own lives. In the lives of those we see working at publix. In the checkout line. And mcdonald's. And the tree trimmers. We must say to everyone. Power. Help us establish. A balance. But again. We can't just rely on public policy and public attitude. In the end. Most of us need to make a change. In here. If the quality and balance and health and our own lives is never to come to pass. Well our work and retirement situations. Very widely. We each will have both the freedom and the responsibility. To make decisions. Truly live. Joyous palace. So i pray you good folks do not regard leisure. As some superfluous. Or optional dimension of living. If you are to be fully and joyfully human. Which is what being a unitarian is all about if you're to be fully and joyfully human. You need and here's a bit of the iron that you need discipline. Cultivate and find. Leisure. In your life. Enclosing a remind you of one of the wisest sayings. Ever. Vale park animal bumper sticker. No one ever says on his or her deathbed she i wished i'd spent more time. Down at the office. Gee i wish i'd spent more time. Down at the office. Look my dear friends. Life is both precious. You would not put on this earth. To be a joyless slave to your job. Or work or even volunteer commitments or careers you were put on this earth. The full. And fine. And relaxed and balanced human beings taking in your world. Enjoying it loving it that's what you. Your work is good. But leisure. Is holy. Please protect the gift of life. It has been so miraculously given to you by balancing these things in. Insist that your life. Has this balance. That is required for robust and joyful humanness. And talk to your kids. And your grandkids were working too hard in cincinnati. Or portland oregon. Just don't let. Stop it. Go on. I pray all of you. Measure. Your days. Fournette measuring. Heaven. And happiness. Nothing less. And i say and mean with a little bit of scolding.

uufvb_org

2014Jan05Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. And welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. Aggregation. Evolving minds loving hearts and helping hands people in this community. Seeking to become our best selves even as together we work to make our world a better place and please know that you are welcome this morning in this new year. Just as you come to us. Whether you're young or old. Gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful feeling on top of the world this morning. We're down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We hope you will find our services morning meaningful and reaching. You will find something here this morning. The nearest resume spirit and feed your soul purpose. For the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. Welcome to the new year. One year 2013/2014. There is no. What we can do together. This morning we awoke. The sun streaming through the windows of our lives. The time is now. And the earth is gleaming in space. Someone that coming colder and dreary or days we need all the love we can give. Keep our lives bright warm. From the wellspring of our being. To ourselves and outward. Each day is that important. Any more significant than another. Yesterday or the tomorrow today. Now is the time that we are. So when you coming here. Good thing mother. Before i offer you. You saw the great big front-page article about us and our faith on christmas morning. Which elicited. A great deal of controversy in town some people. Hearing about a message about jesus and christmas from unitarian universalist was appropriate on christmas morning. This is obviously a favorable controversy for us. Awareness in our community about the diversity. A face in our town. And. About our inclusive progressive approach to religion which is different. 4 years ago when i came here to be your new minister you ask me please to raise your profile in town and i guess i have done that. And to hopefully represent our principles and our values as unitarian universalist. Without any arrogance or disrespect directed at those whose religious faith is very different from ours. I believe there are many more people in our community who are seeking our kind of open inclusive loving approach. True religion and i want to reach all of those people and i know you do too. So i just wanted to. Take a moment to say all that this morning. It is a new year. Please listen to these words. And then it will follow us together i will ring the bell to end our.. Meditation. Resolutions. No one will ever get out of this world alive. Resolve therefore in the year to come. A sense of values. Take care of yourself. Good health is everyone's major source of wealth and without it. Happiness is almost impossible. Resolve to be cheerful and helpful. People will repay you in kind. Avoid angry. Abrasive and abusive persons. They are generally zenful. Avoid zealots. They are generally humorless. Resolve to listen more. And talk less no one learns anything. By talking. Be hesitant to give advice. Wise folks don't need and won't listen to it. Resolve to be tender with the young. Compassionate with the agent. Sympathetic with the striving. Intolerant of the week. And the wrong. Sometimes in life. You will have been all of these. And finally. Resolve. Next year someone. You did not love this year. Love. Is the most enriching. Ingredients. 31. Story. It is a story central to the moral and ethical narrative. Of our judeo-christian culture. It is the parable of the good samaritan. Toll over 2000 years ago by an antenna preacher named jesus. Of nazareth. Before i once again tell the parabola remind you of its all-important context. As it is recorded in the book of luke. Teaching to a crowd of fellow jews. In a temple. When a lawyer in establishment. Ask teacher what shall i do to inherit eternal life. And jesus in effect scripture you shall love the lord your god. With all your heart and with all your soul. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And the lawyer still trying to catch jesus in a trap. Ask snidely. And just who is my neighbor. And jesus answered him simply by telling the story. Of the good samaritan. It seems there was a traveler. Assumedly jewish. Who is beaten. A priest. As upright citizens in the jewish community come by but indifferently ignore the man distress. Finally a samaritan. Who is the spy. A samaritan happens by. And compassionately helps the man by. On his own horse. Taking him to an end. Where he pays the innkeeper to care for the man. Until he is well. And which of these three jesus ask the lawyer in return. Which of these three prove. The robbers. And the lawyer. Has no choice but to answer. The one. Who had mercy. On him. Jesus and the interaction by instructing all those who were listening. Call. And do likewise. Anna's first fresh sunday the brand new year. The time. And make personal resolutions for the future i won't say which two of you i saw walking on the barber bridge. Before breakfast week. I said i smell a new year's resolution. At this time. When we pause to take a stock. I would have talked to you about the whole igloo of the world. What is the holy glue of this world. Well jesus already made that clear in his parable. It is simply the most important spiritual and ethical possession any of us. This world is compassion. Without compassion. Without our kindness our empathy are mercy our generosity and our love this world falls apart. Is the simple ethical spiritual understanding. Behind the international charter for compassion. And you will see that document i don't know cancel. You see the charger. For compassion. A copy of between clothes for you. The charter which i hope you will take home. Is the brainchild of christian theologian and church historian karen armstrong. It was drafted by this former roman catholic nun in november of 2009. And in her native england. And since has been signed by more than 100,000 individuals around the world. And adopted by hundreds of active partner organizations and cities around the world. No please join me in watching this beautiful. Charter for compassion website. From people all around the world reading the text before you you can follow along on the blue sheet or just simply watch. The principle of compassion lies at the heart of ethical and spiritual. This is the same as contemporary. Has made the centerpiece to humanity. It is wonderful 1999. He called humanity revival. Universal spiritual revival much of the charter of compassion.. A revival of compassion for all.. Miami rice. Is to appeal for a print approach to ethics. How does universal qualities of the human spirit. Such as love and compassion. Patience tolerance forgiveness contentment. Woodsprings. Is a global spiritual revolution. Transformation this revolution as some sort of mass movement. One human heart. As individuals quietly begin. Auto connection with others. He's calling for an ethical awakening. In the universe of each of our hearts. Will help us to understand this human beings all around the globe. We radically belong to one another. Atmosphere for routinely act with concern for the self. But for other human beings. For whom to see if we would spiritually. Intimately related. Let me quote the dalai lama again at length. My call is for a spiritual revolution. It is a call for radical reorientation. Away from our habitual preoccupation with cell. It is a call to turn toward the wider community of being. With whom we are connected. And for others interests alongside of our own. All the world's major religions. Love and compassion. Let us know the role of compassion. In our daily living. And then he goes on. This man is my true religion. My simple faith. There is no need for a temple. There's no need for a church. Our own mind is the temple and the doctrine is compassion. Love and respect. Is all we need. So long as we practice these virtues in our daily lives. As long as we have compassion for others and conduct ourselves. With restraint. Out of a sense of responsibility. Then there is no doubt we will be happy. There is no doubt that, says. There's no denying that our happiness is inextricably bound up with the happiness of others. There is no society suffers we all suffer. Nor is there any denying that thought that the more our heart and mind. Are affected with ill-will the more miserable we become. Compassion is the one. Principal. That makes our live meaningful. It is a source of all lasting happiness. Enjoy. Kindness. Section through honesty through truth and justice court all others. We ensure our own benefit. The only spiritual practice we need the dolly llama and. Consists of nothing more than acting out and ever. Wider and deeper concern. For other living. Being. And providing. You you undertake this practice sincerely and with persistence. Little by little step by step you will find. That you enjoy. Peace. And happiness. Yourself. Chipotle. Charter for compassion in the dalai lama's ethics for the new millennium. In glowing and hopefully yes idealistic. Call us to a new and intentional spiritual and ethical lifestyle. Mark simply by everyday compassion. And this resonates with every last one of our unitarian. Universalist sensibilities and by the way. Over. Overby i can't believe that i wrote this in early december. It resonates with everything our congregation is about. Aspiration. Look for just a moment the seven principles of this morning. These are every one of them principles of connection. As a first and fine instinct may want to go when you get home today right to your computer. And type in charter for compassion and go on the website and sign the charter of compassion. Cuz i did some seven years ago when i lived in washington d.c. somebody forwarded me this link. I love without really much reflection. I signed on. But i would have in this room this morning spiritually slow down for a moment. And realize how very challenging and demanding this call to wider compassion. Really is. I think it's a who's all of us to engage in some real personal thought and reflection. Before we put our name. On the dotted line. For the charter of compassion. Because compassion. If it is really to become a central organizing principle of your life. Demands a great deal from us a great deal emotionally. Spiritually and behaviorally it's not to be taken lightly. One way to engage yourself in serious personal thought and reflection about compassion. And the charter. Is the promised yourself to reflect separately over the coming days and weeks. On each sentence of that charger. Just put read one of the sentences in a paragraph. What i'm suggesting is before you sign. You stick with the individual parts of this charter each day over a cup of coffee or tea or some other. Reflective moment and think seriously. In your life and behavior will have to change. In order for you to really live up. Beautiful statement that those people around the world shared with us just now it's not easily done. This i know that as i have personally done this over recent weeks studying the charter for compassion. As much of the clergy of vero beach prepare for our new local initiative compassion zero which i'm just a moment. As i reflected on this charter. I realize as generally well-meaning and considerate as i try to be as i move through my daily round. I know my spouse will find this incredibly hard to believe i can fall significantly short. Of the high human standard. Set this charter asks of all of us. Let me just take one sentence of the charter as an example. Please read it with me now it is from the first paragraph i'm hoping it can be projected up. Kenneth we have that. Maybe not okay. I assume it's in your blue insert. It begins with the word compassion intel's. Compassion. Impulses to work tirelessly. To alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures to dethrone. Ourselves. From the center of our world and put another. And to water the inviolable sang to me. Of every single human being. Treating everybody without exception. With absolute justice equity and respect all that should be real simple this week to do all that. That demanding sentence it makes me. I realize what an incredible challenges before me while i would like to imagine myself above ever acting selfishly i am throwing myself the center of the world. And while i do try to treat every human being a counter with. Justice equity and respect those are found in ruu principal. The truth is that a human moment i am perfectly capable. Acting selfishly. Rudely. Impatiently meanly. Without proper consideration. Cuz it needs and the humanity of people around me this is especially true for me. Find myself an aggravating frustrating or conflicted human situation. I am perfectly capable for example of acting without proper compassion and consideration of another. Of the following everyday situation. When i'm on the phone for example with the personal representative from the cable company. After i finally managed to get a real person on 803. Impossible for me to cancel. Or. One of us deal with the indifferent clerk at the department of motor vehicles who tells me on my third trip to get my renewed license. Oblivious and selfish person in the grocery store checkout. Who sings perfectly comfortable having me and everybody behind me in line one more item they forgot. Or. Passionate argument with somebody in my rotary club. I said i could tell stories. Or even in the neighborhood social gathering when someone who disagrees with me totally about something that really matters to me like the guy. Chris has absolutely no justification for any gun control any regulation of any sort over any weaponry in america. He drives me crazy and i would just assume. With every pore of my the ground proving him in a rational fool. Not very compassionate. In all these situations and i will admit others in my daily life what you're not going to hear about. If my bad button. I can become impatient. Hostile inconsiderate rude i can be less than compassionate. These and other stressful situations i failed to live up to the charter of compassion. I personally confess all this. With to all of you to not be too quick. Just sign the charger. Stick with that for a while think about. What kinds of behaviors. You want to change. Are you perfectly but please sit with us for a while and really think about it. And think about how you can move your life to a much more compassionate. And humane place now. Let me say this all from a slightly different perspective. I think it's. If you decide to sign the charter and i hope most of you will get there. To think of compassion not as an emotion. What is the spiritual practice. Feelings like sympathy and empathy those are emotions. But compassion. Is more of a spiritual practice it is a discipline of daily living it is a holy and purposeful choice. That helps us treat others with the respect to which they are entitled. Think of compassion not as some sort of. Warm guzzi in warm fuzzy emotion. That helps us to all i love all of humanity. Not some warm fuzzy emotion that makes you just love everybody. But rather is a cultivated discipline. As a purposeful way of good being. As we strive to live again and again in our daily lives. Most especially in situations when compassion and kindness. Are ready to elude us. I personally want to remember that i sign the promise of the charter of compassion. Congenial and comfortable human situation. But when i'm in a difficult or irritating or frustrating one. Like trying to complete that transaction at the motor vehicle department. It is moments of personal strengths of unpleasantness is in these moments. Remember that i have pledged. Purposely make my life a saying. Of greater and ever more reliable kindness. And compassion. For everyone i meet no matter how difficult. The circumstances. After real and serious reflection you'll consider signing. The charter for compassion you simply go on their website and it says sign on. And put yourself even more than signing a put yourself on that road. For building a life of greater care and consideration for all other human beings but again. We should not expect ourselves to achieve this overnight or even ever. If it's a road it's a journey. What is true. Forrest perfect imperfect individuals is also true for as collectively. As a society. It goes without saying that as a society we americans are not as compassionate. Or considerate toward one another as we should be. Surely there can be no doubt. Turn all levels of our national life in our neighborhood. In our cities in our towns in every state. There's no compassion and kindness expressed toward all persons. Most especially toward minority populations marginalized. Vulnerable disadvantaged people. Sensing that this is true here in vero beach. And that our local community as good and kind and generous as a candy i've never lived in a more philanthropic place. We nonetheless can fall short. When it comes to the compassionate ideals of the charter. For compassion sylvia. Few months. Send meeting together to see if we can't find waze. To make life here in this fine community. More kind more inclusive. And more considerate. To this end. From the local clergy. Rabbi michael birnholtz from temple beth shalom. Reverend dan holloway from the unity church and myself the usual suspects. Furthermore. The rabbi reverend holloway and myself were asked to create a document that would guide this local effort toward making vero beach of heineken. Sittercity maybe someday and every road that comes into vero still in addition to the tri-cities sign they'll be a sign saying florida's most compassionate city. When we love it. I prepared the draft. You see before you. And then the rabbi and mr. hallway. Did you see the compassion vero. And by the way the website is not up yet so don't try to go to the website there. First church i think it's hearing about this this morning. And you can see that we're going to escape from the vision the needs and the needs what we're going to do and i'm certainly not going to read all of that to you. And we're going to ask organizations that business leaders and. And all kinds of other people to sign out of this. As you can see our goal is to engage civic leaders and citizens from all sectors of our community. Religious institutions wieser. And then governmental bodies such as the city and county councils. All the business and civic organizations public and private school. And the many nonprofit and charitable organization engage this entire community. Define concrete and creative ways to make our community more compassionate. More respectful more inclusive an understanding of all of its citizens. All of its groups. It is our hope that over the coming months and years we will provide. A wide variety of compassion zero programming. Initiatives and opportunities. For people of all ages from every corner of our community and. And we're going to be asking claudia to get the whole school system on board with this every school to become a compassionate more compassionate place. To practice all of us more conclusion and consideration and everything we do and we just give you a few examples. All of the kinds of initiatives we envisioned. First. Community-wide workshops of peaceful and non-violent communication. To help us learn better ways of interacting with one another. Community-wide days of service where people from all walks of life and faith will get together to do hands-on projects what there already is one every spring in vero beach. Third community-wide conferences entire community such as our extensive. Local poverty and hunger problem. Almost 20% of our citizens are hungry and poor. Unacceptable high school dropout rate. The need to support and protect gay lesbian bisexual. And transgender youth and adults. And the persistence in our town and crystal are going to talk about this in two weeks on mlk sunday. The persistence. A racial. An ethnic discrimination. Subtle kind of really hard trying to eradicate. Another thing anti-bullying and anti-harassment campaigns in every school. Every age level. Lastly. Interface and multiracial and multicultural events. Which got us positively acquainted with one another's diverse beliefs and tradition. Antitrust new appreciation and understanding. No matter whose church is selected. Or synagogue on the paper. On christmas morning. These are just a few of the ways we envisioned working to make vero beach better and more compassionate community. And we look forward to hearing from all of you as we begin this process. It is my hope that in addition to considering personally signing on to the charter of compassion. And again signing on only after some reflection. It is my hope that members of this congregation will also consider. Getting involved in this new citywide initiative. To make vero beach. A better place. Soon we'll be reading and hearing about our initial efforts. And the ways that you can participate. And partner with the sephiroth. All of this is by way of my saying to all of you. On this first sunday of the brand new year. But i pray. You. But quietly resolved. To make compassion. A spiritual and ethical focus in your own personal life. In the months. And the year. That are to come. Compassion. Given freely. Between persons. Really is the holy glue of this world. It is a holy glue. Which holds us together. And patterns of respect. And understanding. And love that alone have the power to make this tired old world of ours. A much better. And safer place. Happy new year. Let's get to work. And i'm at. Jesus of nazareth. Who said this. My dear people let us love one another. And everyone who loves god. No one has ever seen god. But as long as we love. And god's love will be complete in us. God is love. And anyone who lives in love. Lives in god. And god lives in him. So this is the commandant has given us. Anyone who loves god. Must also love. His brother. Go in peace. And do that work.

uufvb_org

01Feb2009sermon128kbs.mp3

I know it runs counter to the. Unitarian predilection for social activism. But. I'm not really a fan of the bumper sticker. I think bumper stickers are the public discourse with the professional wrestling. It's a sport. There's one however that i do like that is claimed. I'm by no fewer than five new england unitarian congregations. It reads. The most radical thing we can do is introduce people to one another. Whatever the source that resonates with me because that's what i do i introduce people. The one another. As a former member of the board of trustees and now director of the pilgrimage service. Of the unitarian universalist church council. I helped oversee an organization that was formed in 1993. To foster and support relationships between north american. Congregations and unitarian universalist congregation around the globe. Our mission is to make international outreach. And the support of liberal religious institutions overseas. A normative art. Of uu congregational life. Just as the social justice committee send welcoming committees. I have become part of uu congregational life. It may come as a surprise to you. But there are unitarian universalist. In more than 40 countries and on every continent. Of this earth. Before i introduce you to some of these people. I'd like to spend the first part of my time today. Giving you a quick refresher course on the theological and institutional roots. Of our denomination. Am i experiencing. American you use are largely ignorant of their own history. Eden park that's understandable. We are by definition of forward-looking faith. And in practice a very personal. Religion. So when we think back to where we come from we usually think. Go back to what the flowering of new england and emerson and channing. Another good as far as it goes. There's so much more. We have a rich. Inglorious money. Dating back centuries which we should be informed. And rightly proud. And i believe that even a cursory knowledge of this history goes a long way towards informing us about arts and nomination today. And the journey that are partners overseas have taken. If the officers will bar the door i'll proceed with a history lesson. Trust me this is good for you. The question that jesus asked in the bible. Who do men say that i am. Was not answer definitively for more than 300 years. After his death. The two he was god or man or something in-between. Was hotly debated. By the early christians. Areas of alexandria in particular gained a large following with simple message that jesus. Was not coeternal with god. But have been created by god is instrument for the salvation of the world. That's all they're being a perfect man arius argued that the sun was supporting it to the father and human rather than divine. Theological arguments or serious stuff in those days much like political debate now. Slogans were shocked on the walls fiery speeches were made and marketplaces. And it got heated enough to come to the attention of emperor constantine do it only a few years earlier converted to christianity himself. Constantine was a politician. Not at the election. And he really didn't care much. About what he considered. One of the fine points of his newly adopted religion. You just wanted everybody to agree so that he could get on with ruling the world. 7325. In nystea he brought together all the bishops of the church to decide once and for all. Who and what does jesus was. They debated for a month and reduce the argument. To whether jesus was of the. Same substance as god. Or are they similar. Ascot. Was an interesting bit of trivia here. The greek words to describe these two conditions are spelled the same. Except for the letter i. Or iotum in greek. This is the origin of our expression and iota's worth of difference. As you probably guess arius and his followers lost the boat and or excommunicated. His writings were burned and he was banned. From returning to alexandria. And he won that argument. We unitarians with the guys and those big churches on the town square in the baptist would be renting rvs. If you google areas you'll find a host of website. Such as bible.com wanting you to their heresy index which usually contains a reference to unitarian. As. Marines. Mention this morning. The argument didn't end at the council of nicaea much to the chagrin of constantine. I persevered in 1531 that's the reformation was sweeping across europe a spanish physician named michael servatus. Published a book entitled. On the errors of the trinity. Which in addition to questioning the biblical validity of the trinity. Also disputed the notion of original sin and the need for. Infant baptism. Servatus was a well-known physician. He was the first for example to publish. A description of the blood circulation through the lungs. It was also widely traveled which brought him to the attention of john calvin. And the protestants of geneva. History's unclear here. 1553 calvin either invited servatus. To debate him. Oyster babies came of his own accord the debate with kelp. The debate never took place. Alvin hipster babies arrested. And burned at the stake. Something presbyterians won't tell you. Just a decade later. In the nearby kingdom of transylvania the radical reformation was reaching its zenith. In those days transylvania was an autonomous i'll be at week country savant surrounded by powerful neighbors. And in 1566 a calvinist minister named francis david. Working right earlier. Begin preaching against the trinity. In converting large number believers to the humanity. Jesus. Mcgann religious division threaten the security of the state. Enzo king johnson jasmine. Call don each of the major religions. Send a representative to the date. The merits of the respected theology. In the course of those debates francis david converted the king and much of the country. What would later become known as unitarianism. He also he francis david also brought so just went around to the idea of religious tolerance. And in 1568. King issued a remarkable 23. At station park. No one shall compel them for their souls would not be satisfied. They still be permitted to keep a creature whose teachings they approved. Therefore none of the superintendent's or other still abused. No one shall be reviled for his religion by anyone. And it does not permit it. Anyone should threaten anyone else. By imprisonment or by removal from his post for. Is the gift of god. So while much of europe would fight religious wars for another two and a half centuries. The first and only unitarian kingwood codify the practice of religious tolerance. Has become one of the cornerstones of our faithful. Unfortunately these things always seem to go. The king died young. Catholics return to the throne. David was charged. Blasphemy and innovation. And imprisoned as a heretic. He died a martyr's death in the fortress at davis. 1579. Despite that. And another 450 years of almost continuous oppression and persecution. Unitarians are transylvania have kept alive the flame of the religion. Today there are about 60,000 unitarians in about 120 churches. In transylvania in more than 100.. Congregation sprint partnership. With north american uu church. With the fall of nicolae ceausescu in romania end of 1989 it became possible. Rustic connect. Going to turn into transylvania and what we saw was a church. Whose infrastructure was teetering on the brink of collapse. Partner church council began as a grassroots movement. Shortly thereafter. And how does its original focus. Hoping the transylvanian church to rebuild. More than a decade later the fruits of these partnerships are abundant and diverse. There are rural health clinic. Water projects. Unitarian dmvs for echo tourism. Community development. Model farm scholarship. New dormitory. Programs to help the unit train young people go to high school and college with all of this comes a renewed sense. From both sides of the atlantic. And our partnerships are not just in europe anymore. There are thriving indigenous unitarian movements in the cosby hills of northeast india. On negros island in the philippine archipelago. Elementary many countries throughout sub-saharan africa. Rolanda runde. Canyon. And others. These rural denominations have attracted tens of thousands of adherents with a physiology that blends tribal monotheism. With a reading of the bible that startling and its similarity that a friend to study. There's enough time today to do justice to their stories and they're martyrs. It's important to note that they were all born independently without any contact with support from. Oriented knowledge up. Unitarianism in the wider world. And a wonderful bit of ironing. That makes you think there just might be a god. The founder of the philippine unitarian church. Reebok motto. Founding address. The universalist church of gloucester massachusetts in a new u.s. newspaper that have been used as packing material for shipping a bible. He wrote to them. And they wrote him back. And you discovered then but he was a universalist. The motto was. Murdered by right-wing death squads during the marcos regime. Eradicating land reform. But the church he founded has survived and continues to grow. Sew-ins dentistry. Okay so they're unitarians and universalists in other parts of the world so what. So why should you care. First. I find it. A wonderful. Opal story. I think it's profound. People in far-flung corners of the earth would end of thunder blades. Arrived at the illogical positions. That would fit right in amongst. Abusive kings chapel in boston. These are not the boston elite. Unitarian universalist of transylvania india and the philippines. Are largely subsistence farmers. One could argue. That we have plenty to occupy us here at home. Poverty or planet looming financial crisis. It's a lot to keep a caring community busy. Right here in florida. Well we have to look no further than our own six principle to refute that. Second-to-last on the 7th one is all that poetry about independent webs and such. So in case you forgotten what you signed up for. Mirai nikki. You use have made a promise to promote the goal of world community with east liberty. Oral. And i would submit to you. No greater threat on this planet to adjust. Peaceful world. And the spread of religious fundamentalism. Much of that effort. Comes from these shores. Everyday the mormon church. The baptist church the jehovah's witness. Another fundamentalist. Send scores of missionaries abroad. Spread their worldview. Religion and popular culture. Are the two american exports the continue to grow. If you accept. But the spread of fundamentalism works against r6 principal. And takes us further away from the state of golden world community the mat logical extension as follows. By embracing arco religions. And their struggles. We helped us. Our promise. Who better. Join the struggle against fanaticism patriot. Places like africa alkins indonesia and elsewhere. Continents in empowered. Terry anna universalist denomination. Committed to the ideals. Reason. Freedom. What are young minister under a kazoo. From. Pennsylvania saturday sermon she delivered in lexington mass. Transylvania today many missionaries come from the evangelical and fundamentalist church. The united states. They're successful in romania no matter what denomination is belong to because what matters. They're from the dreamworld of america. Let us know the other side. What's are the democratic tolerant realistic ways of living in belize. Let us know kalimba. Compassionate. President william sanford speaks to the need for unitarian universalist to bring advocacy. And witness to the international arena. On his first visit. Transylvania he spoke these words the thousands of unitarians at their annual outdoor gathering. Something you really should see for yourself. Thousands of unitarians on a hillside all day. Art religious service park political rally and part talent show at so wonderful. Anyway. William sanford stood before them and said these words. We hold out. A word of hope. Oakbrook global unitarian universalist community of faith. Not hidden behind walls we construct in an attempt to find safety. The face building bridges of relationship to help the universe then. Justice. I think it's important to note that we not confuse global partnership with social justice. Social justice movements tend to be uni-directional. And heather esther central component. An attempt to address. Some structural inequity of the world. Certainly there is an economic element that we rich americans bring to this movement. The disparities between our respective circumstances. Are just too bright. Partnership implies mutuality. And as we've come to understand our partners we learned that it's. Much more. Money. Are the words and another young transylvanian ministry lawyers forensic. With your help we built new churches. Establish centers for the care of our old people. Youth centers in high-school dormant. Best places. Live our faith. The most important way to keep in touch with the city. Which makes the partnerships real. When we prepare for visitors from the partner church many congregants joining up repairing. There's much more life in the. Which brings us closer to each other. We feel we're not alone in this world. We're partners friends brothers and sisters in the most powerful country in the world. Means a lot. And that's the last point i want to make. Partnership changes live. As well as. Those of us who've been touched by our contact with the transylvanian unitarian. Travel there with feelings of deep reverence. As if we were on a pilgrim. And indeed we label our trips with just that word. Reply to encourage ruu pogroms. Remain open to the possibility that they might be transformed by this contact with our historical faith. And with the people whose church has literally kept them alive. True horrific time. I believe that these encounters are critical. Or american unitarian universalist. We forget that our own experience of liberal religion. Merely one strand in a larger family. Members of our churches are often surprised to find that are transylvanian can are unapologetically christian. And we have to help them realize that the path chosen by the american church. Simply would not have served the needs. People overseas. Personal side. When my parents. Are ask good presbyterian. What it is. What is it that john really does. Their answer is. John is commissioner. And that just bother me. Like many of you probably i am an escapee from the christianity of my parents. I took my travels to transylvania and my exposure to their flavor unitarianism. Tell me realized it in my haste to get away from the christianity of my parents. I left a number of things behind that had meaning and value city. Things like religious ritual. Imagery. And vocabulary. With my parents and mothers want to label me a missionary i'm okay with that now. Frankly i think that's way past time. Or religious liberals to claim that or liturgical language in the vocabulary the second. Reverend scott princeton. Go to sermon division more global this way. Reward of my own journeys there has been to find myself exchanging spiritual navel-gazing. Provision that extends outward. Even though as a educated me about myself. Has faith in relationship gives our movement both roots and wings. The roots of forbearance with struggled and perseverance fed and warmed by a faith stronger than persecution. And the wings of a broader and richer vision. Embracing even those strands of our face the challenges. Church that emerges at this threshold. The edge between east and west. Edge between tradition. And freedom. Is not a church of simple answers. But it is i believe a place. Where we may find a sense of belonging to a grade and fertile religious family. And reap the rewards of an honest and radically. Is american unitarian universalist we can no longer avert our eyes and live out our faith isolated on this concert. Some come back on us to reach out. And bring our partners until religious. Religionists into the circle. Occurring. The world needs. Unitarian principles and values need to be informing world opinion. And shaping the course of history. Our partners needed. They need to feel connected to their spiritual can hear in this prosperous and powerful country. In order to help sustain themselves through difficult personal circumstances. And their churches in often hostels around. And we need it. We need the spiritual depth. The sense of rootedness that comes from knowing. We are heirs to a proud and ancient history. And members of the global community of faith. Power of what we do lies in the miracle first ones altman so many. I'll close with an excerpt from ts eliot. The cocktail party. To approach the stranger. To invite the unexpected. Release a new for. What's the genie out of the bottle. Start a new train of events that is beyond your control. Go change your mind but you're not free. Made a decision. Set in motion forces in your life and in the lives of others. The muskrat bowl things.

uufvb_org

2014Dec28Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. My name is pete kersey. I serve this congregation as the board president but my role this morning. Is that a pulpit host. For dr. jeff nall. A friend of the congregation. Jeffrey doll holds a masters of liberal studies from rollins college in a phd from florida atlantic university. He's an adjunct professor at indian river state college philosophy. Critical thinking and florida atlantic university free teaches women gender and sexuality studies a little later this morning. This morning a brief poem. Written by edward markham. And he wrote. My enemy and i. Circle. That shut me out. Heretic rebels. And sing the flower. We drew a circle. That took him in. This morning with a big circle to welcome in one and all. In whatever frame of mind yourself. And from whatever section of society that you might find yourself in space. Here in this sanctuary. And though others may not believe the same the to comfortably. Commingle. In comfortable questioning. Wiara congregation. Open minds. Loving hearts. And welcoming hands. People seeking to become our best selves even as we work to make a better world. Like a reed for you from the. Emeril. One call cherish your doubts. By robert weston. Cherish your doubts for truth. Doubt is the key to the door is a serpent. Discovery. A belief which may not be questioned or there is incompleteness. Endeavor. Beliefs. Truth. Is an acid which eats away the false. But no one's here for the truth that doubt may consume it. Is a testing of belief. The truth standard testing. For truth truth. And more secure. Are filled with fear their houses are built on shifting sands. I know its use. Are founded on rock. They shall walk in the light of growing up. It is. Doubt. Is the attendant. Of truth. This morning comes from. Keepers of all quoted wendell berry poet and activist. We don't have a right to ask whether we're going to succeed or not. Question we have a right to ask what's the right thing to do. What does this earth require of us if we want to continue to live on it. Unquote wendell berry. Elroy said he's right. And what we're talking about personal or collective choices about how to live. We need to take care not to discourage or paralyze ourselves by worrying about whether or not enough. Work fast enough. When i become overwhelmed with a concern for someone i love going through a challenging time. I remember and focus on these words from arthur ashe that have become a guide for focusing on life. Instead of wasting precious energy. An attachment to results that we cannot foresee. He said. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. Ariah wound up. Play we each asked for find and have the courage to do what life asked of us this year. And may we encourage. Each other. More than 1,200 years ago. The ancient maya of mexico and central america. Among the first to use the cacao tree to make chocolate. The maya use the seeds produced by the pods of the cacao tree to make a spicy chocolaty drink. Even as currency in dealing with the aztecs. At the time you could purchase an avocado. 43 cocoa beans. Or you could get yourself a small revenue. If you had 30 beans to spare. Why we don't use cocoa beans as currency these days. I'm willing to bet you had gone long enough without your chocolate fix. You might be willing to quietly partway with a rabbit or two in exchange for a kit kat bar snickers maybe a three musketeers. And while some of us might not be swayed to give up our beloved rabbit from your chocolate bar. You throw that chocolate into a cup of milk and espresso. And some of us would give you the rabbit. And maybe throw an avocado in with the deal. If you love chocolate and coffee. You are not alone. 40 billion dollars on coffee 10 billion dollars on chocolate on individually sized chocolate items. The average american eats about 12 pounds of chocolate. But to be clear some of us are fairly certain that we're only eating about 4 lb. Which means that some of you folks are making up that 8 lb difference. But that's another story. Crunch. The guilty chocolate numbers. Some good health-related excuses. For our contribution to our nation status as a global consumer of these delectable indulgences. Cocoa solids contain flavonoids of cardiovascular disease. Properties that help improve circulation. Stimulants. It helps to produce nitric oxide lowering blood pressure. Minerals such as calcium. Copper magnesium. Phosphorus potassium and even. Studies have even found. Theobroma salad provides relief from chronic crossing. Believe it or not. Note to self benefits are restricted to products containing significant amounts of cocoa salad such as dark chocolate and cocoa powder amounts of these solids while white chocolate lacks all of these properties because it only contains cocoa butter. The coffee to it turns out has its own health benefits. Researchers have found that coffee consumption is associated with reducing chronic allergy and everyday allergies. Reduces the development of type 2 diabetes this is coffee. Parkinson disease reduces heart disease alcoholic cirrhosis by 80%. Coffee consumption of developing cancer. And the larynx colorectal cancer aggressive prostate cancer. Women who drink coffee are less likely to develop depression endometrial cancer which develops in the lining of the uterus. According to dr.. Professor of nutrition epidemiology at the harvard school of public health says that laboratory testing indicates that quote he has much more antioxidants than vegetables and fruit. As many of you would like. Delta health angle enough. Support my local girl scout troop that's the only reason i bought 10 boxes. You really needed help. The money i spent on this candy bar fun only reason. No after all i mean really what says happy anniversary happy valentine's day happy halloween merry christmas better than. My favorite defense for a buying indulgent chocolate infused coffee. Is that will basically my career depends on it because how else am i going to get grading 150 papers without the help of a peppermint mocha latte other i just don't see how it's possible. Chocolate in particular turns out. Is a great metaphor for many aspects of our life. We seem to know it so well we know how it looks we know how it taste. We know where to get it. Awesome how it makes us feel. We see and we use it all the time. And the interesting thing is we know so very little about it. Nutritional qualities. Few of us know how chocolate is cultivated. Or manufactured. Indeed the very power affirming goods. Improve our health. Communicate our affection. And help us celebrate the holidays. Or often cultivated by workers who are. Grossly exploited. Living spiraling poverty. And in far too many cases. Are modern-day slaves. Many of them. Our children. Most of the chocolate we enjoy so much originates on farms and the african nations of ivory coast and ghana. These nations produce. More than 50% of the worlds. Farmers cultivate. Cacao trees produce flowers that develop. If you see me after the service and you're interested this is in the actual pod interesting. Smells nice. Workers harvest the pods they cut them. To collect white-coated beans cocoa beans. Within them. The beans are then dried in the sun. They're bad. And then it's sold to an intermediary. And this intermediary sells the cocoa beans to national exporters who wash pack cell and then ship them to chocolate manufacturers. Investigative reports by the bbc in october 2000. In knight rider newspapers in the falls 2001. Found that both child laborers and enslave child laborers were routinely employed to work on coco farms on the ivory coast. Boys and girls usually between the ages of 12 and 16 but some. As young as seven and nine. We're being smuggled from neighbouring countries such as molly. Fossil. Toner's. The children were often into slavery. Upon being sold the plantation owners children. We're forced to engage brewing manual labor carrying extremely heavy bags working with machetes and pesticides. They often work long hours as many as 80 a week. But rarely if ever where they pay. Song failing to work fast enough. Branches. Bicycle chains. And some while attempting to escape were bound with rope. Severely beaten. And left with scars. A fifteen-year-old boy with skates his enslavement. If you work slow or refuse to work they will beat you. Those who comply nevertheless suffered as a 2005 survey concluded that 92%. Of these children workers engaged in work such as carrying heavy loads that cause. Open wounds. These exploitive. Dehumanizing conditions. Continue more than a text. After the first set of widely published investigative reports paul kenyans 2010 bbc investigative report. Documented continued. Child slave labor supply line. Canyon tells the story. Eiffel tower a twelve-year-old boy who was taken from the king of faso. By his uncle. The boy's mother said that she left her son in the care of his uncle while she was working. Upon being recruited. Being reunited with her as a result of the expose done by the bbc. The child said i don't even find food and sweet. It's the joy i feel upon seeing my mother. Mickey misturado. And roberto romano 2010 documentary. Revealed a evidence that the trafficking of children. Is widespread. The filmmakers meta-man in mali who documented his interception of hundreds of children smuggled from molly mckenna fossil and niger to the ivory coast. In the film a village chief. Tales of more than 100 children being abducted by traffickers. According to a child miriam. H-12 smuggle. Smuggling with thornton. She said her trafficker had lured her with promises of opportunities to make money. Traffickers often prey upon children. Sync seeking to earn income. Is enslavement. Says that the traffickers at-risk children going. With them. The makers of the dark side of chocolate including mr. romano who actually passed away in 2013. Afterlife. Commitment to exposing. Hideous. And justices. Sicklerville secretly record recorded those directly involved in the trafficking of children. One-man says that plantation owners pay him and others to take children across the border. To work. The document plantation owner casually explained brother. For cocoa production. Despite the chocolate industries earlier efforts. Take children out of the supply line. These issues persist. Estrado and romano filmed largest sellers of cocoa beans. Purchases their products. Many of these children are from the king of faso. Heavy manual labor that use machetes carry large loads. Leaving no doubt. A march 2011. Report sponsored by the us government concluded that more than 1.8 million children. In west africa alone. Continue. To cultivate. Our coco. A november 2011 investigative report by the bbc said that it is commonplace to see children. Enjoy lessly hard at work collecting and cutting open the cocoa pods that contain the seeds. There was that the reporter says there was no laughter or play. On their legs were scars from machete injuries there was no first-aid kit around or any protective clothing. Despite the chocolate industries assorted non-biting proclamations. The u.s. facts study. 4%. Of the people in the cocoa production. Producing regions of the ivory coast. Have been since the industry said that it was going to do something about it. Given that many of us are under the presumption that we're paying a pretty penny. 4-hour chocolatey goodies. One might wonder why cocoa farmers would resort to such drastic. A family immoral practices as enslaving children. Without condoning their behaviors it is important that we understand that these cocoa farmers live in absolute poverty. Despite accounting for more than half of the world's cocoa supply these pharmacy little in return. According to the international. Labor rights forum cocoa farmers on the ivory coast in about a dollar 56 today while farmers in ghana or in just over a dollar a day. Generally 70% of the money. 4 chocolate bar goes to cocoa and chocolate companies. 17% to retailers. 7% intermediaries 6%. For the regents 5.5. Million cocoa farmers 90% of whom. Less than 12. Acres. Those with a chocolate. Clean conscience. Annapolis face with the reality. That child labor and forced labor are not confined to the cocoa industry. The us bureau of international labor affairs. December 2014 report just came out shows that 74 countries make 136 good produced with child labor or forced labor. Agricultural crops most prominently utilize. A child labor. Sugarcane and coffee are two of the four agricultural good most commonly produced. Which child and forced labor. Child labor is used in the cultivation of coffee and books. Guatemala and colombia which are both leading exporters of coffee and the united states. In addition to coco child and labor and forced laborers. Are used to cultivate coffee. On the ivory coast. Though. Though they are beyond my focus today i just want a very briefly point out that it's worth looking into two recent reports showing that there are children. Cultivating tobacco like tennessee. And kentucky. Children age 12 and 14. Human rights watch documented this and also very important expose by the los angeles times talking about the conditions of adult and also child workers are responsible for cultivating our produce and mexico. These facts are overwhelming. This is actually just the picture of some of the children involved in the production of the cultivation. Tobacco-free. Some of the pictures from. For much of our produce. These facts are overwhelming. And that they reveal a great deal of suffering. They further reveal startling moral consequences that many of us seated. In this room have however unintentionally. Foster these whores. And even benefit from them. Through the seemingly mundane and a merillat. Grocery shopping. Such an inescapable conclusion provokes both the embrace of denial of responsibility. Such an inescapable conclusion provokes. Both. Assertion that our ignorance alleviates us of our responsibility. As such ignorance becomes an allied systems of oppression. Another common response to such obvious. On the misdeeds of those in power. Politicians for failing to enact appropriate safeguards against. And corporate leaders for directly or indirectly profiting from. Many of us i believe have grown comfortable. With the moral alibi provided by increasing corporatization of our society. It provides a buffer. Between our lives. And the people outside of our blissful ignorance. People upon whom we relied provide people upon whom we ignorantly or perhaps. Knowing. Sacrifice. At the altar. Of our convenience. Of our happiness. Paraphrasing william butler yeats. African american philosopher cornel west says takes more courage to examine the dark corners of your soul. Does for soldier. The fight on the battlefield. And indeed the battlefield. Of our moral ideals is much nearer to our everyday lives than we often realize. Beneath our feet. As we walk the grocery aisles. In a cups of coffee we pour for friends. Chocolate christmas stockings. Courage will find that chocolate. Is a valuable provides a very valuable and too often overlooked lesson. For people of all political and moral persuasions. The world's evil. Is not principally caused by inherently wicked or sadistic. Most of the evil in the world is the sky. Is disguised as an everyday. Why people like. Those of us in this room. Who generally believed. Generally believed themselves to be doing right. Perhaps the easiest answer to the question at hand. What should we do about this. Is that we should buy chocolate coffee and sugar. Fair trade certified. We don't need to boycott. These goods. In fact a lot of people's livelihood does infact depend upon. But if we can just take. The demand that we already. Making and the industry. And shift our money. Shift our resources. Away from. Good that are produced through exploitation. And move our demands. If we can recognize that every time we make a purchase we are making a moral decision. Then perhaps we can bring some of these. Travesties. To close. I would like to conclude by saying that. When my youngest daughter mimi discovered chocolate as a toddler. She discovered tastebud bliss. Like many children her age. At the corner of her mouth with a grin. And ask for more without a thought about preventing the inevitable encrusting that was taking place on her face would need to be wiped out later on. As the family's bakers goodies. Loved ones cookies. And brownies. Told me mia's with her younger brother winter. Was a satisfied with chocolate chips and some sort of baked mastiff he's just give him the bag of chocolate chips and they're happy. But as i learn more and more about the realities of the chocolate industry i could not enjoy her chocolate. Smeared face the way i once had. Her delighted brown lips lost their innocence. How could i possibly treat my children. With delicacies cultivated. Whose lips salty tears. And exploited labor. And the simplest answer was that i could not and that i cannot. Should you not take away from this sermon only the bitterness. I've been confronted with the unintentional harm. Our. Seemingly. Innocent indulgence. Instead i invite you to take. A b. Enter the morally delectable opportunity. That you have. To enact immediate change. Thinking through. Your purchases by learning more about fair trade. At about taking personal. Responsibility. For the consequences. Of our. Seemingly mundane. Actions. Enclosing. Where is written by former president robert estelle. Moral courage is a rare commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence yet it is the one essential vital quality of those who seek to change a world. Which yields most painful. To change. But those worlds words we send you off into the world. Heading to the new year. Namaste.

uufvb_org

2012May27Sermon32.mp3

I want to begin this morning. In the spiritual place. The future all visit. Every morning. That is a place of gratitude. I'm grateful. Safe. An enjoyable trip. And more details on that in a moment. I'm grateful my body was up to the physical challenges it faced and at least of equal importance that my spirit. Was up to the mental challenges which really the right is more mental than physical. I am grateful for the many wonderful people who rode with me. And encouraged and supported me the dirty dozen is we called ourselves the 12. Riders who went from costa mesa to savannah. And then i am by the way there wasn't one sane person. Among those 12. 11 men and one very crazy women. Who who kids out pedal most of us. And then from savannah. Down 2-0 beach with me. President of the marine bank and trust and marsh already off with his wife hiking in arizona. And. I'll be the spouses shari and karen. What provided are our sex support and gear vehicle and wonderful lunches and just in. Incalculable supply. So i want to thank. Thanks tim. And thanks and gratitude also to the many people here at usav who made this ride. Success. The community outreach effort in the social justice project. Possible. First the board of trustees more than a year ago. To raise money for world and local hunger and they said yes. And by the way i said it that time i wanted to raise $10,000 in rogers. Sokovia. 10000. This is vero beach we're going to raise $50,000. So what by god we did. So wanted to thank them in particular. And i'm croteau who agreed to chair the ride to be hunger. For some 10 months. His as i wrote in the blog. Play.. The wonderful roll. And so many other members of our congregation who stepped up to make the slightest success or beasley who developed the website. Earl kirkbride and kristen jolly who helped with the administrative tasks jim daly. Helped my blog. Battle. Delorio. And others. Community. Just helped in so many different. And the many generous members. Elvis this congregation who made significant personal contribution. About 35%. Of the $50,000 total was raised. True members. We were by far the. Generous. Component. Of the ride to be. And then how can any of this be helped the possible without the help of two ministers. The first is sitting with me right now we will you please stand up. Will you please tell her much appreciate. She provided pastoral care to this congregation for an entire month. Cheetah. Worship guided guidance and leadership in office time she was just an indispensable. Hazard affiliate minister. And then john curotto back in michigan i've already thanked him several times. I know you enjoyed. Him and his quirky. A style of leadership also and. And the many other people on the treasure coast community. Who. Who pitched in. And. You saw an article about this every what three or four days for the last 6 months. They were just and they think this project and committed to a morally and spiritually. And i just they were just fabulous. And of course there are members of the my local rotary club and other rotary clubs and waldo's restaurant and its manager lee olsen who. The splash party on. Patra. So many many other people. Who helped in the media. The media including the press journal which took such a keen interest. In the ride to beat. And so many other citizens i can't we kept getting checks from people i did not know. Wonderful. So yes i rode the 3,300 miles and i guess in some measure that some sort of accomplishment. But again nothing of importance. In service to others could have been done without. And something of real importance. And service to others did happen. We raised. 50. Thousand dollars. To address world and local hunger the denominational magazine which you'll get this week. It has lifted up this. Does something. The whole denomination. To know about. I'm very proud of. But even more significant. Then the $50,000 is what the ceo of the. Harvest food & outreach center austin. Has said again and again. But this project. More than raised the money it raises a conscious. In our community. About the reality of hunger. And the need for us. The caring and civilized. To address. Diminish. Scourge. As i've repeatedly said to the press. And it was in the clip. On the fox news clip. You saw. This week. The most fundamental of all human rights. Is the little life. Free of hunger and desperation. It is my deepest prayer that all the effort which i and so many others put in on this. To make the ride to be hungry. Will have a lasting effect. On the way this community pays attention. And addresses the scourge of hunger and. And change the way we understand ourselves. Relationship. One another. And by the way. Online meditation across united states. Every time i do this i am shocked by the poverty. Native american poverty in arizona and new mexico. Very rural poverty. The poverty in mississippi the poverty and techs. Poverty in oklahoma. In georgia and alabama and arkansas. Florida. Everywhere i wrote on these secondary roads. Call people living. Trailers i can't count them. Rusty trailers. Thousand. More trailers than homes. This is not a prosperous. This is a country divided by. In the prosperous. And. This trip across. Poor. Small. Communities of america. Reminded me. How much. Society. Over the last 10 months. Just how long we've been working on this project. We have accomplished something real and good for our. Family. And i am. 2. So how was the ride for me. What did i learn. I must begin with a little bit of truth-telling you might think than a long cross-country ride like this. You know where sometimes i wrote alone for an hour or two at a time. That i'd be able to stand back and take a trip. And total existential look at my life. Think about all my relationships and all of my. My every aspect of my life with the truth is that for me and for most of the other riders and i talked about this. Most days it's enough. The focus on what you're doing. Tell your little butt. From one town to the next and get to the next motel. I did not have any sweeping existential revelation. Okay i haven't figured out all of humanity's problems or my own. I don't have any grand sweeping existential or eternal observations. To share with you that just overwhelmed me and clearly that's not the way i ride life. But that's sad. Several of what's immediately store some of life's greatest truths were reconfirmed from. And i specifically the sunday before i left some of you were paying attention remember. I talked about for spiritual practices that i was going to try to do on this ride. And i want to revisit those spiritual practices and tell you how i did. First on april 15th that sunday i told you that has a road across. Is vast and wonderful land i was going to try. And here's our first visual gym. I was going to try to sit up. And pay attention. Now that may seem. Like a simple and obvious enough. Truth. But i can tell you that there is a tendency. Analog amanda dried like this. To put your head down. And not really notice what you're going through the ride leader told about the two years ago they did the same ride on one of these guys on the ride. Always had his hands down in aloe and once going uphill in new mexico on the freeway shoulder hit the back of a semi tractor-trailer truck that was parked there. He didn't see it. He did not speak fell off the bike. And what's that. You you can you can lose sight of of seeing things. Instead of sitting up and radically noticing and appreciating the environment and the. With what you're going through it's easy enough to miss a lot is avastin lovely country. What's the one of my rolls with the people that i was. In addition to trying to pay attention myself was. We'd be in the middle of arizona st. Look at that glorious pewter. Look at that wonderful cloudformation or grass is over here in the right look at those. They're beautiful and the other riders with. Look up annette and look and say yeah that's great. They want something sarcastic. In my blood one day i found myself alone on the road in oklahoma. And it was a very straight road and there were like hundreds of telephone pole. They were getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and rig grain elevators way down the road. And i wrote this. Today i rode alone for some 30 miles of the 112. For a while i paid. Picking retention. To the songbird. That were sitting on either the low barbed wire fencing. Or the high telephone lines that stretched along the long. Straight highway. As i passed many of the birds. Cried out a sweet solitary song as if they were greeting. Perhaps they were paying. No mind to me at all. But i took pleasure in focusing on their warbling. And help me to push myself down the road. Making my trip more effortless. When you pay attention. The world of ours is filled. With small. And saving. Pleasures. So i tried again and again. On this ride to call myself and those who rode with me. Back to mindfulness and awareness of the richness. That was everywhere around us. And as i said on the sunday before i left. Mindfulness. Paint. To the world you were in. Is the most fundamental of all spiritual practice. Or without. Search purposeful attack. We miss so much. What is. Unlife. Delicious. It's always there. But many times. Several riders thanked me. For my reminders. On the trip. Pick up there. Cell. I did pretty well. Secondly i told you i was going to appreciate the. And what i meant by that was. Simply that want a flat table on when an unexpected complication came along. Rather than my blood pressure whipped up about how life was inconveniencing me. I was going to. Relax and get off the bike and talk with the three or four other people and help. The flattened. Just enjoy that process. The i-10 to be an impatient. Goal oriented person. So i have to work. A depreciating flats or going with the flow or accepting. Bumps in the road i have to work at. I will grant i will grant you the. But as i've discovered on these cross-country trips. When i when i do managed. Go with what's happening. I have much less anxiety and i have a lot more fun. I find when i settle in. What needs to be you know what it is what it is. When i settle into. What is is. The whole day goes a lot more. Easily. For example. You know with a breakfast with the waitresses slow or we're all trying to get on the road. We just simply have to realize that we will get on the road. We will get to the next motel the day will pass. It will be just fine just relax. Breakfast is going to take a little longer. No i'm not saying. That is a worthy spiritual practice to always submit to every difficulty that comes our way. But i will affirm and was reminded nearly constantly. Of the wisdom of health of moving with the river of your life rather than fighting upstairs. Constant. With what is. Life is after all simply what it is. As opposed to the ideal we imagine. And it wasn't water once said. You know the grumpy of the ones who are constantly mad at life. For not dividing itself entirely. Your happiness. That is the truth. Life is not in the business. Dividing itself. Do your happy. So get over it. Third. I said i was going to participate in paceline. And the carapace line is when a group of riders all lineup. And they break they got their going into a headwind and you follow each other very closely. And the lead rider will ride up front for about a mile. And then he or she will peel off and go all the way to the back and everyone takes their turn. Pulling. Through the wind to get very tired when you pull. But it's like a synchronized dance. One of the rides one of the days we had a big head when they're like five of us doing a paceline. When you're in a paceline it's. You can hear the hum. Of the five people's wheels. It's like a machine is like a song. You just hear the five of you you're like one organism. It's really cool. So. My metaphor here. Is that in our lives we need to. To create a slide. People all the time. Contribute. To cooperate. Take your turn at the front and then take your turn resting. In true community true reciprocity. It's a very simple thing and it was a lot of fun. Yeah we didn't always. Skinnytaste lines if there was a tail when people don't tend. To get spaced out and that's just fine. But. Priceline is a is a metaphor. No one bike ride or in. Community life here there's no such thing really is splendid isolation. You never can be splendidly isolated all the time you have to hook up. With others. And create. A genuine. Community purposeful. Unison. Anna paceline never happen. Without your consent. And it never happens. Without you willing. To expend your share. Of the effort. Paste lines can never happen if you're always the one. At the back of the line cng this is fun. I'm being drafted i'm being pulled. By others know it requires through reciprocity. As every community. Does the. Navigation everybody has to pitch in and help. We're coming up on a capital drive free. Everyone has to be involved in that. In our wider community of. I hear in the trash. So the forest spiritual practice i promise. Was i was going to stop complaining. And be grateful. And. That perhaps the biggest and trickiest spiritual practice i committed to on the ride. Because there's always something to complain about on a ride like this i guarantee you. Deanna kept with me that little purple arm that i left it on my desk by mistake was going to bring it to you. Again this unity minister in topeka kansas. His current location is noticing they were grumpy. And he got his little arm bands for the man and the idea was you were supposed to go 21 days without complaining and every time you catch yourself complaining. You have to ship the item down to the other wrist. But he read that somewhere there's a psychologist it takes 21 days to develop a new habit in your life. And so i took that little. That little purple arm behind my rear light on my seat stem. To remind me that i was not going to complain. As things. When a lawn. And.. And i did i did really well at that i was considered the the end of the ride the the ride leaders gave me the map that we had used. And every of every motel they gave me this map because they said i was very positive and helpful. And all the writers wrote little looks at the 5m. All the all the writers wrote little notes thanking me for the way i rode. And the way i participated with the right i was very pleased with that. But i got to tell you the truth. I had the nerve. When i got the email addresses two days before the ride of the twelve riders i sent them all my sermon. That i preached here. The previous sunday. They all knew what i was promising. And two of the riders went to the albuquerque church and heard me deliver a sense of the same sermon. So i'm not unlike day9 i was in a restaurant for breakfast. And i turned it for my cab instead. Waitress is taking her sweet time isn't she. And steve heard the sermon said is that an observation or a complaint. Evan from that point on all during the ride anytime somebody complained it was is that an observation or a complaint. Come back to haunt me just a little bit. I did pretty well but. You know. We all liked on and steve who it was a is it as an active jew. I spent my whole life. It's a good idea i'm jewish i can patch. Humor was used. Every morning we basically had breakfast in these little you know of hampton inns and. Days inn stuff like alexa things that they. They buy some where frozen is little like little flying saucer egg things that sort of make like eggs. We got like really sick of those. So on about day 21 of the writers greg laura from from california decided to come up with a list of things that you could use those egg things for on a trip other than eating them. And we have some pictures exfoliating pad. That's one thing you can do with those eggs. A yamaka. That was for steve's benefit website bike shoe insole. Chase your shoe is hurting a little bit. Chamois pad seat cushions a little extra. Attrition. That's it all right if you just the idea there was another one of him sitting in the bathtub using it as a soapbox. Anna coaster login. So william. We tried to use humor. As opposed to complaining to the staff about the damage that we hated. Animated big it made a big difference. All right and then there's one more spiritual practice. Beyond. Not complaining and just being great. Alfred. The fact that you're out on the ride. Another spiritual practice that i decided to do was to greet. Everyone that i met degree doll. And what i meant by this is it as i. I traveled across the country is if i pass a farmer who is. You know driving a fence post and i would i would say hello. Kids sleepily waiting for their school buses early in the morning like cuz we left fort smith arkansas there all these kids waiting. Which was i say hello to him and the other riders started to greet people to. The utility workers stringing lines way out in oklahoma we just i just start saying a lot of these people in the young mother pushing her stroller and infant down since mall. Sidewalk in a small town. I just made a practice of everybody i pass i just say hi how are you. The amusement of some my fellow riders i also extended this to animals. So when i when i pass a field of cows i would i would say hello girls. Hello girls. Even though i knew some of the more guy cows. Emma's horses i'd say hello mister ed. Hello miss daniel they look at you. You know they're behind defensive did you see animals looked at so i said a loaded. Dogs and cats and goats. And we saw one herd of antelope actually. I said hello to every living thing. Notice may seem commonplace. And unimportant but to me. It was it's a validation.. Of our seventh principle of interdependent web of all existence. Apart just to acknowledge. Invalidate life around us. Whether it is. People. A person or an animal. It's just. Very important. Acknowledge. And affirm. Strangers. In our midst so that was my fifth. Spiritual practice. Being connected. To the life that. Well. It's time for me to wrap this. And it feels really good to be home here in vero beach. Again once. Amongst you all. Here in the car. For the last month i have been on a purposeful journey. Ride to beat hunger a trip across. The wonder is expansive united states. To make a positive difference. In my world. Again whatever i personally accomplish. It would mean little without the generous and principe. Support of so many. In a literal sense we all did this ride to. You were all for 2. Even though. You didn't do much saddle toy. You are very you are very much. And closing. I would remind you that just like my month-long track across america which had a beginning. A middle. And and and. So to do all our journeys. To this world. They are finite. One day the journey will be completed. For each one of us. This is tumi ultimately not a sad. Or a tragic truth this realization. That we do not have forever. That all journeys. Have an end. For our faith teaches us. In the meantime. Until the journey closes. In the meantime we are all free. Powerfully. And wondrously free. To give our lives. Real purpose. Real meaning. And real joyful. Everyday we find ourselves open opening our eyes. We have yet another chance. Just stand up. To make choices. And build satisfying and responsible relationship. With other life and person. And yes that can include bellowing a cows. Hello girls. That's a relationship. But more usefully. It means. While you were alive offering the gifts of your spirit. Your care. Your compassion. Your enthusiasm and energy. Time and devotion your love and. And life around you. Who need and want. The best. That is in you. So let's. Saddle up. And get out there on the road that stretches. So invitingly before each one. Yes there will be headwinds. Tires. And rain and sleet. And lousy. Egg breakfast. And barking dogs. And aching. But if we move to our days. With as much purpose and joy as we can muster. I assure you.

uufvb_org

2011Jul10Sermon128.mp3

Although many of you probably think of me as the inveterate cycling parsons where i'm everyday on my bicycle around this town as many of you know i actually come. From a family of inveterate and enthusiastic walkers. Whenever the alexander's are together regardless of the nature of the family occasional in the favorite. Frequently asked questions regardless of external weather time of day or season is. Who's up for a walk. In our house who's up for a walk. Some of my fondest memories are in fact of simple walks that i have taken. Some unforgettable solitary john's all by myself to be sure but the most memorable walks of those taken with your family and friends. I recall walks. Threw some deviled suburban neighborhoods walk salon sunbathe or moonlit beaches. Walkthrough winter woods at sunset walkthrough. Cemeteries golf courses we live. Next. Golf course. Walks. Along the ocean just before done my family walkthrough summer downpours. Into the teeth of 20 below zero weather. And even when the weather is pleasant. Springlocks winter walks autumn walk summerwalk the season never matters. Each time of the year is perfect for walking even here in the traffic. Just slow down a little bit in the tropics. Walks. Taking morning-noon-and-night and every time in between it's never too early. Too late. Boardwalk. Some walks with loved ones that i've had have been silly. Light-hearted playful affairs. Others have been brisk. Largely silent watch when. Words would have only distracted from simply sharing the panorama of nature. That goes by you when you. Everything. Changes. Step forward. You notice. Still other walk. My family have taken. I've been waiting sirius. Tearful. Been together after death. Or with a family member dying. Set hardware. The simple act of walking in the wide-open outdoors with. People close to me. His playdate. Difficult and treasured role. In my life. And i pray for them as long as i live i will be able to engage in the holy simplicity. Of walking. And yes. Of being with other. Indeed it was a major loss and upset in my life before i had darlene my knee replaced about a year and two months ago. It was a profound. Upset to me when i found my ability to walk. Profoundly. Curtailed by the severe pain and limping. Caused by my totally worn out knee i. I've never run all those. The ability to walk. Which many of us foolishly takeforgrantd is one of life's. Simplest. And most precious gifts. And let me offer at this juncture. Simple but important reassurance. Caveat right off the bat. Although i am going to be spending a significant portion. The sermon talking about the joy and liberty of walking. And the somewhat. More intentional practice of sauntering. Those of you for whom walking. Is difficult. Painful or now impossible. And that applies to any number of. Be assured you will not be left out. This message. For soldering. More than walking. Hang in there with me. Will get to everyone regardless. But back to the gift. The habit of walking. For me walking is all about having a healthy relationship first. With my body. Which always enjoys the benefits of exercise. Invigorating good wok ring. Second my relationship with my natural world. The intricate web. Of nature that. Claudia talked about. Which walking allows me to notice. At a pace. Can take it all in. In a written driving through a forest or on the jungle trail in a car. Varied if. Then walking. And finally. Walking enables me to nurture my relationships. People close to me. When you think about it. Walking as such. And everyday simple miracle. It's one of the first most fundamental skills we learn as infants and how thrilled parents are everyone when their toddlers. Take those first. Tentative steps. And whenever you see a chart picture of a child has just learned to walk that. Total joy on their face when they realize he i can get around this place fast. Ditch my parents. Stuff like that. Another sad or side of this anyone unfortunate enough to lose the ability to walk later in life as. Many of us for any number of reasons lose. Tell you we must never take the simple. Physical ability for granted. But that. Precisely. When was the last time you spiritually stopped in your tracks. Thank you. Just. For the gift of. That work. Can we put one in. Of the other. Theologian matthew fox tells a personal story just. I called him. Gratitude he writes. Changes our lives it fills us with energy and vitality when i was 12 years old. I had polio. And could not walk for six months the doctors could not reassure me i would ever walk again. As it turned out fox goes on i did get my legs back. But i learned a lesson in the process that i have never forgotten. Don't. Take for granted. I had taken my legs for granted. Legs that work legs that run and play ball. Legs that take me exactly where i want to go when my legs return to me. I was filled with gratitude not gratitude for having. The miracle of my legs being healed. But gratitude for having legs in the first place. Legs that work. I was filled with energy. Conclude. Promised myself i would never waste. My leg. For as long as i. Walking the ability to simply put one foot in front of the other. Is almost. Two basic. Nothing. Two wildly approve. But that. What. And it turns out that i'm not the only one to think so. Body year-and-a-half ago before i left washington dc. The washington post one of the most prestigious and wonderful newspapers in the world. Devoted an entire section 1 saturday 10 full pages. Walking. Devoted to the importance of the wisdom of the glory of walking. The lead article. Written by sue redfern i quote. If a pill. Would be discovered that could significantly lower the risk of heart attack. Diabetes. High blood pressure stroke osteoporosis and breast and colon cancer while reducing your weight. Cholesterol levels constipation depression impotence and the likelihood of age rated dementia. And also increase muscle mass fat-burning metabolism mental acuity improve your circulation and digestion flatten your belly reshape your thighs elevate your mood and sense of well-being in the world and even make you look better and have no negative side effects there would be panic in the streets. There is a course she right no such pill. But a large and growing body of credible research demonstrates that taking a good walk. Most. The days of the week. Delivers all these health benefits. And more although we admit the better-looking part is hard to poop. And then she goes on. For the vast majority of americans who are not faced with prohibitive disability. Walking is the best. Choice for the regular form of physical activity and exercise. For long-term. And then folding susan johnson. An expert on physical fitness. Accepting that an activity as basic. Can have powerful benefits. May require updating your thinking about ex. We used to think that exercise had to hurt. You know no pain no game. And you had to bleed or throat and throw up to accomplish anything. But then she concludes but a gentle. Dance stressful walk is all you need to work. So many miracles. Your mind. So the scientific. The discipline of regular simple everyday walking does you a world of good. And so even though i am a physical fitness not i'm going to tell you remind you get out there folks. Strut your stuff. The weather like. All that human. Lower the traffic. The slow it down. So you don't become. A big puddle of sweat. Walking regularly. Literally one of the best. Simplest ways to. Keep your body fit. And your mind. As you may have noticed this is not a physical science lecture. This is a religious. Sanctuary. And so i'm not going to give you a vic tanny. Rendition here for the rest of the morning. Our primary focus here of course is on the spiritual dimensions. So i want to go somewhat deeper. What's the topic of walking rather than enumerating it's obvious. Multitudinous benefit. Physical. And. Emotional. You will notice that my sermon title this morning is sauntering. Toward salvation. A certain kind of walk. A certain way of being. That i really want to talk to you about. Sauntering. Is walking. Spiritual practice. As a practice. Of mine. A practice of being fully awake too and fully engaged with. Your world. Now this is not the first thing. The comes to most people's minds when they hear the word. Saunter. In fact have a great big massive webster merriam-webster's dictionary in my office. And the first definition of saunter in my office dictionary is. To walk about idly. In a leisurely manner. Not knowing where to go or what to do. Tucson her is to travel around aimlessly. My dictionary says. From place to place that adds insult to injury to saunter is to dawdle. This definition of sauntering treated as a kind of pointless. Moping around with your feet at a slow pace. Which is something far different than its original spiritual meaning. As far as i know from my research it was the unitarian transcendentalist our forebears in the 19th century in nineteenth-century new england. Emerson. Channing. Alcott thoreau to name a few. Who both defined and practiced sauntering 200 years ago. God is walking in a lazy in different manner. But rather as an intentional. Spiritual practice that puts our feet on a path. Toward greater mindfulness in our living. Estero put it in his classic walden pond. We must live in the present. Launch ourselves on every wave. Find our eternity in every moment. Only that day dawns. To which we are awake. We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake and sauntering. You see thoreau in the background of this artist rendition. Walking. The edge. Walden pond. Sauntering. Was the term he gave to walking as a spiritual discipline of mindful. Again i quote thoreau. I think that i cannot preserve my health. Spirits unless. Spell. Or. Hours. Soldering through the woods. And over the field absolutely free from all worldly engagements. The walking of which i speak. Has nothing in it akin to taking exercise. What is itself. Thoreau write. The enterprise and adventure of the day. William ellery channing another great unitarian writer and leader of that day. Similarly define sauntering in spiritual terms saving. Here. No wealth. 10 by the requisite leisure. Freedom and independence. Which are the capital in this profession. It comes only from the grace of god. It requires direct dispensation from heaven to become a walker. You may be interested to know that. Some of these transcendentalist. Derive the term saunterer. From the vagabonds. Who roamed the medieval english countryside. And beg for money. Disanto. They beg for money on the pre. On the pretext. I'm going to the holy land. They never did they just wander around collecting money. Again 40. I have met with one or two persons in the course of my life. Who understand the art of walking. That is of taking walks. Who had a genius. For sponsoring. Which word is beautifully derive from idol people. Who rolled around the country in the middle ages and ask charity. Under pretense of going to the holy land. And then thoreau write. They who never go to the holy land in their walks. They pretend are indeed mirror idlers. Vagabond. But they who go to the holy land. Are cilantro. For every walk. The sort of. Crusade. Reaches. Preached by some. Peter the hermit. To go forth. Andre conquer. Reconquer. Ar. So. Or sorrow and the other early transcendentalist. Clearly the forebears. Forebears of archer. Sauntering. Practice. Through the world in a relaxed. Keenly mindful. Tempest way. A spiritual way than able. Them. To arrive the sacred depths of life. Of the road. Of a holy land of the rhone exist. In the gospel. According to thomas. Fascinating ancient book about jesus. Just like the other one. It was not included in the canon. Not included. According. New tesla. For god knows what reason. In the gospel according to thomas. It is reported that jesus was asked by his followers. Jesus. When will the kingdom of god come. And jesus. Said. It will not come by watching. It will not be said look here it is or look there it is. Route of the kingdom of god. Out upon the earth. And people do not see. Rather the. I hope. This is in fact something. Jesus said it will never know if. Aldi's. Narrative. Where oral. Who knows what. But if jesus did in fact say this. Calling us spiritually. Do everyday mindful. As a route. Giselle. As a route. The holy. As a route. Calling us to notice. Truly notice. What is spread out. Nothing other than the. Sauntering which was again promoted by our transcendentalist forebears. Is a spiritual tradition that continues today for example the famous vietnamese buddhist. Teacher hitting on her. Teachers the special kind of walking. Today. Yes it even has a sensor one of our churches. Virginia. Fairfax. Listen. 2. Tickle hands. A words. Classic books. Peace is every step. I locked i like to walk alone on country pads. The plants and wild grasses on both sides. Putting each foot down on the earth. In mindfulness. Knowing that i walk on the wondrous earth. In such moments existence is a miraculous and mysterious reality. If any rights people usually consider walking on water. Orsten are a miracle. But i think the real miracle. Is not to walk on water. Or in thin air. But to walk. Simply on earth. Every day he goes on we are engaged in a miracle which we don't. Even recognize. A blue sky. White clouds. Green. Leaves. The black. Curious eyes of a child. Indeed our own two eyes. All is well. And then take gun on describes how one can make the simple act of walking. We walk slowly. Alone. Or with friends. If possible and some beautiful place. Walking meditation is really to enjoy the walking. Walking not in order to arrive some. But walking just to walk. Purpose he writes. Presence. In the moment. Underwear. Breathing. And the walking. To enjoy everything. Not thinking of. Future. Pass. But enjoying the pro. In a similar spiritual van my colleague. Tamil and tol. In his book entitled sauntering. Write this. The psalter is one who strolls in a measured manner. With one eye on nature and the other unsoul. Treating the land and all therein is holy. The sorcerer. He writes is on a sacred quest. Not exercise. But exploration not recreation but. Recreation. Sauntering is a mystical adventure. Trousseau a time goes on. Stride in stride and reverence appreciative gate. Treating the land every piece of it as hello. Touching the earth. With deft hands and. He arrives. The point about mindful. The point of life. Is primarily. To show up. To take our seats. And pay attention. And then he concludes. Fundamental religious. So. I hope all of you can see how regularly soldering. Which again is the art of walking in the mindful way would benefit our bodies. Washington. But also our soul. Teach us to open our lives. Roolee. Dialogue. The world can float. Awasan out of us. Truly opening the windows and the doors of our. We can see the holiness. And here is the universal good news. For everyone in the room regardless of how. Able you are to walk. Or how restricted. You don't actually have to walk. To be a successful santi room. Sauntering is a simple yet purposeful act. Intentionally showing up wherever you are. Slowing yourself down and taking in the world wherever you are. So you can saunter. Through your world while you are stationary in a wheelchair. On your back patio. You can saunter while seated in a familiar old chair in your kitchen. You can saunter while reclining even on a sofa near a living room window. You can saunter even from the passenger seat of a speeding automobile. Or even. In a hospital. All that is required for soldering. Is a mind and a heart feeling. Pay full attention. To notice. To become awake. Do what is right. But like most things in life. This one has a hit. You know. I hear some of you saying come on. I understand how thoreau. Spend 4 hours a day walking around. Walden pond. Becoming so deep. Spiritual give me a break that's a. Three-finger one. You know i've got to pick my grandkids up i got to go up 95 to the orlando airport. Shopping app. 60 in. I'm busy in my. Husband needs this and that. How am i going to find. Really slow down. Really take it in. I mean what is soldering have to do with getting. Play through my list. Groceries. At the public. It's all jammed. In the winter. There is no way i hear some of you say. I can really take the time. Massager. Look i'm a practical man and i realized. We live in a fast. Monitor. Few of us. Go to walden pond. Been 4 hours. But sauntering. In the broadest spiritual sense. Which again transcends actual walking and applies to all of us no matter where we find ourselves and however we are to move. Sauntering is about choosing. To control life many distractions. Our american life. Spires. So many ways. To distract us. We live in. Distracting. Distractive. To move. Through your world in common measured focus. Requires you. Bear some discipline. So don't no matter where you are. Whether you are driving to work on route 1. Tomorrow morning. Or watching your kids or grandkids play soccer. Or conducting a staff meeting at the office. Paying. Those bills in front of your. Home. Computer. Or preparing dinner. Or helping pull weeds. In the condo. With some other neighbors. No matter where you are. You are always free. In the midst. These activities. Put yourself. To open yourself. And move. Sauntering. Focus. Bully on the prowl. See. Truly astounding people. Things. Literally. Right. In your path. We are such. Freaky. Jesus. Had it right. The kingdom of god. Is spread out upon the earth. People do not see.

uufvb_org

2012May06Sermon32.mp3

Want to start out by with a short reading from corita kent. Always there. Remains just need to explain to each other that we are good. We all have a constant need to be reaffirmed. The individual needs this. The whole human running race needs this music. Big ceremonial pat-on-the-back that says tomorrow. Come on. We can make it. Play imagine. You're like most folks in this group i will find that there are. At least a few of you who our mystery fans any knives their mystery fans out there good. And i've noticed when you trying to solve the mystery is this. That. The person trying to solve it goes over it again and again and again and sometimes it's going over it again and again and again again. Gets sketchy stuck in a rut. And your can't solve it. Until suddenly something or some event. Just turns the story of little bit gifts. What you call a different angle on it. And so you see it differently. Are you start from scratch again and then bingo the mystery is solved. Well i think that can be said about trying to read or understand ancient tales. Including biblical tales. Now i don't know that i'm going to solve any mystery here this morning. I do want to retail or examine an old story that was all her again and again and again and again and most likely have heard interpreted a certain particular way. And have gotten tired of it. And i want to hopefully get out of that rut take it in a different place. And see the wisdom about well what claudia was talking about. Relations family relationships and is she was indicating. You know the family means a lot of different kinds of things. You could say this is about human relationships you could also say this is. In an even more general way about grace grace that we can find in our relationship. And this has become by the way my favorite. My favorite tell about the child-rearing and maintaining your sanity while doing it. So let me let me first tell you the clues we have to work with. By going to the bible and those of you had your bibles with you may want to turn with me to. To the gospel of luke and i will read it as it is told in the revised standard version. There was once a man who had two sons. The younger one said to him. Father give me my share of the property now. Southern man divided his property between his two sons. After a few days the younger son's sold his private property and left him with the money. He went to a country far away. Where he wasted his money on reckless living he spent everything you had. Then a severe famine spread over the country and he was left without a thing. So. So he went to work for some citizens in a. Far country who set him out to the farm and take care of. Of the pips. He wished he could feel himself with the bean pods the pigs ate. But no one gave him anything. Chuy's. At last. He came to his senses and he said. Has hired workers have more than they can eat here i am about to starve. I will get up. I'll go to my father and i'll say. Father i have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer fit to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired workers. So he got up and started. Back to his father. He was still a long way from home and his father saw him. And his heart was filled with pity. How do you ride any through his arms around his son and kissed him. Father the sunset. I have sinned against heaven and against you and i am no longer to fit to be called your son that the father called. Then go and get the prize calf and celebrate have a feast. This son of mine was dead. And so the feasting begin. In the meantime the older son was out in the field. On his way back when he heard when he came close to the house he heard the music and the dancing. So he called one of the servants and said it's going on. All your brother came back home and your father is killed apprised. The older brother was so angry that he would not go into the house. So his father came out in. All these years i've worked for you like a slave and i have never not even a goat and now you have this piece for this wastrel son of yours. And when he comes back home you kill the prize care for him. My son. You are always here with me and everything i have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be happy because your brother was dead. And now he's alive. He was lost and now he. Has been found. Well. In my early days as preaching i did the usual bit on this. Which was about of mirror acceptance and forgiveness. Unitarian congregations and i would hear it afterward. They didn't like the story. And how do you know it won't do it again this isn't fair. And i was wondering why this was happening and one fellow named sam said john it's because we're all four sons. Where the achievers. You know we believe in low that gas coops casanova's we are. So i want to look at this again and shake this up. First of all this story is often called story of the prodigal son. But that's not who it's about. It says here who is it about a man had two sons. It's about the old man. Will discover he's a good man. A man who knows who he is he's a good father he's a man he's not a sauce or the highway. He is a good friend of his adult sons but he's not appear. He's not a bunny. Is the man who in the parlance of today is a single parent. Agricultural entrepreneur. Or as i like to say a farmer. A man has two sons. Felix and oscar. You understand that right. The odd couple. And i will death that in most cases if you have more than one kids you have at least one right. So he has a felix and oscar just in case you don't know he has felix. Who is a neat freak. This is the kid who got all a's and schools. And who now irons his underwear before he wears it. And not only is underwear but it sucks. According to color but in alphabetical order. You know paige brown carlos whatever he's got three is. Is the earnest and sensible person. He not only knows what he ought to do he knows what you ought to do. And everybody else. He never takes a drink. Unless it's milk. And then non-fat. The only television he watches his pbs. But not too late because he gets exactly 8 hours of sleep. Kiss mr. perfect. He dies. Of old age and nobody cares. He never gets married and my mother explains why because nobody's good enough for him. Okay. And then we have oscar. His room is. I'm a mess. He's got barbecue sauce on his t-shirts. And his clothes are all over. If you can find them in the room by the beer can. And the pizza boxes under the bed eye-rolling something green we don't know exactly what species it is but it's there. Under his pillow is the sports illustrated swimsuit edition. He has the latest kardashian posters up on the wall. He likes to stay out late with the guys. Where he watches espn. At hooters. With a picture of heinekens. And that's just for him. So the two sons. So i asked her. Asked for his inheritance. And he converted to cash. Any leaves. He doesn't write to doesn't crawl and nobody knows where he is. Now let's look at the story the first thing what does the father do. This is what i want to tell you a story. What does he do he goes on living his own life. He doesn't say. We had big plans for him we wanted them to be a doctor maybe a lawyer. He doesn't his salvation his self-image his self-worth his ability to function is not tied up. In what his son does. The father is not to use. Languages. Trenders you're an enabler. He does not file a missing persons report he doesn't say get out an apb. Justin put the kids picture out on milk cartons. He doesn't hire a detective. The father doesn't do this he doesn't goes on living his life. And he doesn't climb aboard a guilt trip. In other words he doesn't shut down himself you know i should have done this i should have done that. I messed up. He knows that he did the best he could. He is. Patient. Love is patient. He will not interfere in his sons. Making his own mistakes. He's not going to get in the way of his sons making his own mistakes and having the natural consequences follow. He will not play the codependent. So what happened with oscar. Oscar takes his inheritance converted to cash. Any runs off to vegas. Okay. Arctic cruise ship off miami. Annie blows it all on gambling on liquor on women and the rest away. Okay. So. He blows it all including his credit rating his good name the family's good name. And then the economy goes west. So he has empty pockets. Can he drift. The ends up slopping pigs in iowa. For okeechobee. And he starts thinking. This is fun. And then he comes to his senses that's a great line comes to his senses. He grows up. Now here is something very important sometimes as parents we don't let this happen. We don't let it happen. We keep bailing our kids out of trouble. Instead of letting the natural consequences take-home webelo. But here he is and he finally comes. 2 senses. He knows he's been wrong. And he knows that he has quote sinned against heaven and his father. Question. Where would that. Since come from. It would come from his father where did he learn his valium. A man who's not afraid to say this is ron this is right a man of value. A man who has value. Decades ago psychology today had an article about fathers and sons. I suppose it could have been about mothers and daughters about fathers and sons. And it said that. A father had a strong sense of values. And communicated it. That the sun would also have a strong sense of values. But what the sun would learn. What's that values are important. Values are port the content might be different. As opposed to about unitarians and sunday school. Was it a male or a female. Are romani we know we studied about cannibalism. What do you think about that mama when you get old enough you can decide. No. There was a man who had a sense of values and that's what he communicate. And that's where the kid gets his from the tents of i have sinned against heaven. And against my father. So now i ask who's willing to accept the role of worker serving. And what does he say he doesn't say i want to return to my pictures or i want to return to the house. I want to return to the hood he said i want to return. To my father. Which says again something about the power of relationship. Now where did he get that again. True the relationship. Through the bond with his father. So he goes home. Annie goes to his father. And now notice the wisdom of his father. I see the sun at a distance. And he knows it's him even though it's at a distance maybe it's the hat on backwards you know the sloppy genes they. Now you know the t-shirt with the barbecue sauce. And he doesn't make the son eat worms he goes to embrace him. Oscar's been rehearsing i love you. He has his act down and how many of you if you have. You if you have sons daughters. Brothers sisters. And suckles you know this trick. He's been rehearsing and i will go to him and i will say he's worked on it your dad dearest dad i want to show that i'm really really sorry and i thought about it. So he has his speech all prepared. I love this part. He starts it and his father interrupts it. He ignores it. He overlooks it. In other words his father whose has a strong sense of values isn't going to let the sun tell him con him with this job about i really thought about it i really really so i've sinned against you. So once again. The father wants to get on with it. He gets to the heart of it and he leads with his values. He's not going to let. The kid con him with his little written stuff. With his values. And how does he leave with his values. It is not. Where the hell is your back. What you be a temptation most of us might slip into energy. Let's get on our knees and pray it's not that either let's have a party. Let's celebrate i thought you were dead you are you're alive time for a party a little loopy. And think of the psychology of this. All of the old friends are invited over. And how can i ask her after all of this with all of his friends. You know i just. Hey. His friends jason and kevin are going to say. You know. Dr. bebe was the disc jockey we have the ribs with k cajun sauce all of that. 350 labatt's blue everything there how can how can he. Turn away from that there's all of his positive. Reinforcement there instead of eating worms. Now that sounds pretty good. Until. The ugly has of sibling rivalry answers okay. Now she has been out in the field working. Of course is the supervisor right. He is there and sensible shoes he has that to kind of carne plastic you know safety had on white department of agriculture already do do iron to a fare-thee-well. Neatly pressed. And there he is with his clipboard and i'll checking it all out when he hears the commotion. What's. Going on. So he broods. And his father shows up to figure. That the old man has celebrated with an e i or injury to. By this time he's had a few right. So he's really happy. And he goes to him and he says you know why so glum chum. Felix let him have it. He says what is this this is the old story of everybody loves the charmer. But nobody remembers the responsible persons birthday. Right that's the way it is we know how it is. And then. Slam number one this is going to sound very familiar. I don't want to embarrass any married couples here but this one is going to sound so familiar that it hurts. Look what your son did. Centralia. I just love it i mean you know you don't think the bible tells you the true story that's really want your brother. You know not oscars your son did. And he ignores it again. A personal values who is not reacting to all of this. But knows who he is and stays inside julio's you know what your son did henna second one. Is powerade all of your money. Well the truth of it is it wasn't the father's money anymore it was the inheritance and he gave it to him he gave him what he said he was going to give him. So there it is the. And how does the father respond to this. He doesn't fight. He doesn't respond to this land. He doesn't defend himself. He doesn't argue. He knows who he is again what is values are and he remains situated right in those values. And on top of that. He turns this into a teaching moment. He turns it into a teaching moment. This is how i treat my kids. This is what he does. He turns it into that moment of saying this is hot what i believe this is how i treat my kids. I am always here for you. I always was. I always will be. And i am here for you. And your brother. And notice he asserts that relationship. Your brother. Your brother. Got himself in the sixth he got himself in a jam. It cost him dearly. We call this natural consequences kid okay. Eddie's condom. And so the father. Gives both sons again. I would call it a gift of grace. Because is it rational. I don't know. We can figure out all the reasons it is i suppose. Is it undeserved probably on both parts. Is it generous. Certainly. And is when my friend says you can never argue with generosity. So there's the story again. A little different maybe i hope it is i hope that this. Make some sense and maybe make some sense out of. You going home and not listening to you. Your daughter did today. Good. Sensible first son's and daughter rational religious liberals we like common sense. We like, cincinnati. Fairness. What you deserve. Hard work rewarded. But grace gracious. Generosity. Go. Above and beyond that. Jamaican trouble us. They can travel us and yet. It is grace and generosity. The mysterious gratuitous generosity of grace and the graciousness of generosity. Whether it's from god or from nature's beauty or from our family or from our friends or our neighbors. We're from the other people who you. Sit within church. That's wonder. It is that amazes us. That blesses us. And that truly brings us to life. So. Always there remains this need to explain to each other that we are group. We all have a constant need to be reaffirmed. The individual needs this. The whole human race needs a yay. Big ceremonial pat-on-the-back that's it come on. Come on. We can make it. Amen.

uufvb_org

2012Jun03Sermon32.mp3

Today's service worship. It's just a little bit of the ordinary. The style of a sermon to be presented this morning he is somewhat of a history lecture. With spiritual feeling woven throughout the pieces. I say pieces. Because the sermon is based on the stained glass window. What you gaze at each sunday morning. It's called a stained-glass sermon. Big surprise. Adobe slide showing sections of the window at a time. And my commentary and philosophizing. On. Each of the symbols incorporated. In that window. The service will also be one of exhortation. Urging one at all to live life as prescribed in our 7 principles. It's my contention. That. If we proceed any act verbal or physical. With the internal question to our self. Is this consistent. With one or more of the uu principles. And other people's lies with us. Will be greatly enhanced. More enjoyable. And more worthwhile to you and to those around you. Does it sound simple of course. But it's not. It takes concentration and takes a while to develop the habit. I lay no claim to being a paragon of virtue in this. Respect when it comes to doing this myself. However. I do lay claim to be a person who strive. Not our first him this morning. Has elements of what i just said will be singing about truth standing like a rock. Coming together as one. Life is good. Love. Is with us always. It will just allow it to come in. And sing the songs. Our lives. And religion. Are full of symbols. Here. On the slide. There it is. Ark few symbols. The chalice of our uu fellowship. The fellowship of welcoming congregations in the center. Is the stained glass window. As it originally looked. The day we first step foot in this building in 2005. How many times. Do we look at something. Or someone. While walking past. That you don't really see it. Look up there. That are stained glass window. How many times have you looked at that. And wondered about all those symbols that are embedded in there. Will they fit. Do you you. Unitarian universalist. Backup a second. All through 2005. This building was the site of. Hard work. By many. Making it basically what you see before you today. Let me ask a question. How many of you. Here. Started with this fellowship. Before january of 2006. Less than half the congregation. Now. Most of you. Probably know a lot of history. But the rest of you may or may not know. Show me the history of the stained glass. And the chalice itself. Would you do me a favor and. Turn the spotlight i you did already. You jumped the gun. You noticed it. The chalice. Looks a whole lot different without that spotlight. Okay switch it back on out. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a short while. First of all. Maybe remind those who do not know. That this building was originally a church of god house of worship. Many of you may have found that out by reading the press journal article that's got referred to earlier. As they told. Little bit of the history of. Church of god. That we came into this building from. No that's flat platform. Underneath these stained glass. Incaseyoudidntknow contains a baptismal font. Where folks were baptized by total immersion. It seems only right and proper. That. We are here in what was once a bastion of christianity. Because our very roots. Or in that religion. And we have expanded from there to embrace any and all religious persons who wish to worship. Without being found to a static. Today. Through fields of stained glass. The glass was here when we moved into the building left over from the church of god. It was a lot. Conversation about that piece of artwork. So wanted it to. Go away. Others wondered it. Covered up. What if you saw an opportunity. To combine the faith of unitarian-universalism with the roots of our being. But i get ahead of myself. Let's take a closer look at this piece of artwork. Are going to start at the bottom. And work our way to the top. The first thing you see at the bottom or what looks like perhaps rocks in that half circle. And on either side. With a stalk of corn. Shooting up. Through the center. Go to me. And please take note that all this about these symbols in the stained-glass are all my own interpretation. What's a symbolic of nature at its base the ground. Yielding the harvest of food. And food is nearly all religion. From jesus feeding the multitude with fish. To hear at the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach fourth friday. Or we feed one another. But of course we do more than feed one another sustenance for the body together here we revel in the fact that we gather and always seek that loving community. And similarity of religious liberalism that marks us as you use. We glorify. Constant seeking for what we perceive. As religious truth. The reaching for spirituality. And sowing the seeds. Of our brand. A religion. I take another look carefully at the stained glass on the screen and note that bursting out of each side of the ear of corn. Reaching for the surface of the earth. Is across. The ultimate symbol of christianity. This is so absolutely appropriate. What are you you house of worship. The grounding the base of all living things comes from the earth and nature. Just like the grounding the base of our uu religion comes from christianity. So there you have it in the stained glass window. Orbitz. Coming up from the very beginnings of our faith. So what else do we see in the bottom section. Of this stained glass. Well to me it looks like a pair of hands on each side. Cupped around a positive and a negative symbol. Of course. Life is full of both sides of the equation. Inceldom. Are we writing the perfectly balanced. Between positive and negative. Let's take for example the change that is about to happen in our religious music program here at uufa. Anne hosler our director of music. Is about to head north to her homeland. Now that's both positive and negative. Positive in what she's done for us in the fellowship and negative and that she will no longer be with us. We will have a new director. To help lead us. Out of the wilderness. And point the way for us to become perhaps. Even more and better musically and spiritual. That's distinctly positive. The negative side. Paint. Change is always difficult. Like coping with the construction of a new roof. The fixing of our walls. The installation of an elevator. Paying. What like the cup hands in the stained-glass if we embrace both the positive and the negative. Live with it and see where it can take us will be a better congregation. For having done that extra. The cupped hands are above ground. Out in the air. Breathing free with us. Embracing us embracing life. Be like those hands. Embrace what's coming next. Pray if you do. You'll like it. A lot. There's a rainbow in the sky in the next section of our stained glass window now i strongly suspect that the meaning of that rainbow in the previous incarnation of of a church in these halls is far different. Then what we are welcoming congregation give to that simple. I guess we all know the previous meaning of the rainbow. Set this guy as a promise from god to noah and the children of the earth. After the great flood quote genesis chapter 9 verses 13 through 15. I do set my bow in the cloud. And it shall be for a token of a covenant. The earth. And it shall come to pass. When i bring a cloud over the earth. At the bowl shall be seen in the cloud and i will remember my covenant. Which is between me and you. And every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall no more become a flood. To destroy. So that's what the rainbow means in the basis of our religious heritage. As far as the rainbow flag being adopted as a main symbol of the gay rights movement in this country. A little history maybe in order. As i understand it this comes largely from wikipedia a man named gilbert baker. The flag does not depict or show an actual rainbow. Rather as originally designed the colors of the rainbow horizontal stripes. With red at the top. Purple at the bottom. It represents the diversity of gays and lesbians around the world. The purple stripe sometimes replace with a black stripe. The show masculinity. The other colors each have a special meaning also. Red stands for life. Orange stands for healing. Yellow stands for the sun. Green for nature. Blue for harmony. And purple stands for. The original rainbow flag had two additional strike. A pink stripe. Interlochen. These two colors are in the bisexual double triangle and the bright pink is also similar to what's called a pink triangle. The pink triangle is another symbol adopted by gays worldwide. As a direct result of hitler's germany forcing game used to wear a pink triangle on their clothing. Same way jews were marked with a special symbol. The original eight color rainbow flag flies over the castro in san francisco. And from the lesbian gay bisexual and transgender community center in new york city. No. Here we are. A welcoming congregation. With a rainbow. In our stained glass window. And i might mention on our order of service to. What a splendid. In fortuitous thing define. When we moved into these facilities. Don't shovel this may not be familiar with what welcoming congregation stands for in uu. That's an official designation from the unitarian universalist association of congregations. After. A congregation goes through a series. Meetings and discussions and comes to the conclusion. The gs. We do wish to be known as a fellowship that welcomes lgbtq. Lesbians gays by sex. I'm transgender. A group of human beings that have long been discriminated against. Fly society. And by the laws of various society. Our fellowship began the welcoming course of action then 2006 soon after moving into these quarters and several months later. Following much conversation. We applied for the designation welcoming congregation. And that's whack. Now stands proudly or hangs probably in our hall just inside the main entrance. Across from the nametag closet. If you hadn't noticed. Take a look. What it all means is just as we you use drive to recognize the value and worthiness in all religions. We recognize and celebrate the fact. Other ways of living life and having interpersonal relationships are just as valuable and meaningful as the mainstream. But welcomed and celebrated. These days. More and more individuals and organizations. Which have come to terms with race relations. Are y'all coming to terms with sexual relations as well. Like all large changes it is torturously slow and frustrating. For those facing the daily stress. Of discrimination. Permitting. It's still too daunting even dangerous. To come out of the closet. Here. All of us. I found a home. To be ourselves. Of many religions. Sexual. And even political persuasion. Gay pride day. Was founded in 1988. A year after the half big and strong march in washington dc in support of gay rights. In 1996 our national yu-gi-oh association adopted a resolution supporting the legal recognition of marriage between members of the same sex that argument still goes on across the nation today. I simply ask. Be aware of these things. Remember. We have the rainbow on our stained glass window. We are in fact a welcoming congregation. Do what's right. In concert with our first principle. Affirming the inherent worth. Dignity. Every. No. Let us move on to the next section of our stained glass. And what do we find here. A dove of peace. Flying through blue skies. Burying the traditional olive branch. This is an international symbol and we can take it to heart to stand for r6 the principal. Covenant with one another. We covenant to affirm and promote. The goal of world community. With peace. Liberty. Justice. For all. Take a real close look at that. The first part. We covenant and affirm. The goal of world. Community. I have noticed lately. And you probably have noticed as well you can hardly not. World community. Is staring us all in the face. Everyday now. We are into like it or not true global economy. Almost everything we buy these days. Has some basis in another country. From concept to manufacture sibling to promoting. World. Community. If we don't stand up. Any embrace. What is best. About a world community. And what wonderful things at 10 bring. It's liable to run us over. And leave us gasping in the dust of the future. Wondering. What happened. In this. Brave new world. It 10 min the double piece flying for the blue skies of every land bringing peace once and for all. But that will not happen. Without a lot of work. A lot of words. Words from people like you. And me. Words placed in the right venues. Guided to the proper ears. Of those who would seek peace. Without selling our soul in the process. It seems to me. Our world is that a momentous point in history now. This globalization could run rampant and bring us an aldous huxley world of safety and peace. But no soul. It could bring us a rule of absolute capitalism. Or with careful guiding from folks. Hear that type of world. It could bring a world of harmony and striving for more and better control of our world its resources and ourselves. Singers. The groundwork for whatever is in our future and our grandchildren's future. Is being laid right now. And we need to pay attention. And voice are disquiet. Where that is needed. And our applause. Where's that is desired. The industrial age brought about huge changes throughout the world but now we're into the electronic and cyberspace. My friends. Is upon us. And the dove is flying through turbulent times. We must hope that dove. To hold onto that olive branch. And not lose sight of the rest of the gold in our sixth principle piece. Liberty. And justice for all. It seems to me that over three piece. Is the most attainable. But liberty and justice. Maybe the most endangered in the world in which we now live. Why would i say that. The most likely piece of the short one is going to be one by force of arms. Or force of economy. Such as the economic juggernaut. Being built in china these days. Either way. That kind of peace is not necessarily conducive to liberty. Today we in america have a mess of liberty. Invoice. And that's what i fear could be endangered first. Liberty is being enhanced by the cybernetics of today. At the same time we have people wanting us to be politically correct. Skin fought invoice. And of course we also have religious for that accept many stripes. Robbing at the mouth. Wishing you enforce their own brand of peace. If the liberty goes. Justice. Will not be far behind. So care tenderly for our dove peace. Flying through our stained glass world. And try to discourage those carrying slingshots who would break that. Are you jealous. Up there. Is layered over a cross of christianity. Literally. Another challenge the stained glass window. As usual his laird itself over christianity other religion. And the non-religious as well so we layered the chalice. Over the cross. On our stained glass with. As a symbol. What does the chalice represent. In 1939 a czech artist named hands.. Was asked to design a symbol for the unitarian service committee which have been formed was just people like him flee from the nazis. The motifs elected was the flaming chalice. In a simple stylized modern form. Unitarian universalist association in the meantime adopted a version that sets the chalice within an interlocking double circle. No. Our particular chalice. What's a work of art crafted by paul to kill studios located. And funded by a group known as the women's alliance. From yu-gi-oh. Originally hung on the wall behind the pulpit at our former home on 43rd avenue. As matter of fact. Stained glass window itself. Was also crafted by mr. for kelly many years prior to him doing the chalice. The chalice. Carefully removed. And transported over here. Where the discussion took place. Where. Let's be placed. On the wall behind the pulpit and some fashion was the logical thought. But there was this. Beautiful. Glass window. With a huge christian cross. Right in the middle of it. The creative minds and hands of ken wells. Anel parmentier. Went to work. The chalice was mounted on gold painted wood then carefully hung suspended in front. Do the stained-glass. In front. Of the cross. We lighted up every sunday morning. What does spotlight. So let's take a look at our chalice point-by-point. The first thing to notice is that the circle around the chalice is not closed. We are not a religion to close others out. On the contrary we're open to others. The next thing to notice is that the circle does not represent the traditional two interlocking circles going completely around. What are the things i really appreciate. About unitarian universalism is the fact that the religion itself is open to change. And in fact is constantly reinventing it. The interlocking circle stands for the merger of unitarianism and universalism back in 1961. Unitarianism standing for the belief there's only one god. Not a holy trinity. As proclaimed in many christian churches. Universalism standing for a belief that salvation is universal. Not just for those who follow a certain creed. Doubles beliefs about going away over. Yours but youyou has enlarged. To encompass much more than those two belief systems. We have moved on to the point where the existence of god. Is frequently openly question. And certainly the manifestations of god are believed to be many. And divinity for most of us. In the uu world. Is within each of us. Not just within a certain holy figure. Agnostic. Atheist. Boots. Hindu muslim. Christian and more. Rolled out invited in. So the interlocking circle unitarianism and universalism as a symbol of it basic departure from mainstream christianity. Thunder hole quite the level of impact. As was once the case. So what else do we see about our chalice. The upper curve. Is the blue of the sky above. The lower curve the green of the earth. You can look at this as an upward reach for spirituality. And the clinging to nature. And the warmer that our feet at the same time. The chalice itself is earth tone brown. The flame-red for the fires within us. Seeking knowledge. Giving light. And hope. Dubose stretching away from our bondage. Restrictive lies and spiritual. And finally. At the top. It comes together with red for the fire of freedom of religion. The blue sky. The rocks of the earth below us. The stars in the sky above us. Where humankind will always reach. And hunger. For the unknown. To be brought within our circle of. May it always be so. Amen.