Datasets:

marcmaxmeister

/

unitarian-universalist-sermons

like 1

all-souls_org

04.02.22ILeftMyHeartInSF.mp3

Our reading this morning. Is from the same scripture that our anthem was drawn. The book of the prophet isaiah 61:1 through for the spirit of god is upon me and has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed. To bind up the brokenhearted. To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners. To give them a garland instead of ashes. The oil of gladness. Instead of morning. The mantle of praise. Instead of a fame spirit. They will be called oaks. Of righteousness. And they shall build up the ancient ruins they shall raise up the former devastations. They shall repair the ruined cities. They shall be named ministers. Of our god. If you're not going to do it in a church. Then by all accounts. City hall in san francisco is a great place to get married. The dreams and aspirations of the west at the turn of the century with his large inviting steps its tall ornate column that it's enormous gilded dome the building practically looks like a three-tiered wedding cake i do. One of the most famous of those weddings took place on january 14th 1954 when surrounded by snapping cameras and throngs of bystanders. Marilyn monroe and joe dimaggio tie the knot in the gleaming rotunda and all of america swoons for this fairytale couple the young starlet and her old baseball hero. 50 years. And 1 months later. On february 13th 2004 one week ago another city hall wedding drew cameras and crowds. But you haven't heard of these people before. Phyllis lyon. Age 79. And dell martin age 83. Got married in the same spot. As monroe and dimaggio. And while some people applauded. Fathers were appalled. Because phyllis and del are two women. And were the first same-sex couple ever to be married in the state of california. The couple seemed unaffected by all the hype tend in a modest civil ceremony. City recorder mableton pronounce they're not husband and wife but spouses for life. Which wasn't news to phyllis and del because the very next day on valentine's day they celebrated their 51st anniversary together as a couple. Incidentally. Dimaggio in monroe's marriage ended in divorce nine months after their wedding day i happen to be in san francisco last weekend visiting my partner chris who's teaching there for the semester end we went down to city hall to cheer on the crowds. And when i came back on monday i knew that i wanted to share with you my experiences there because so much of what i was thinking and feeling last weekend when i was at city hall had to do with this church and with its families. All of its families. It's all i wanted us to be together this week as a family. Children and all so i can share some of my thoughts and experiences with you all. In particular i want to share with you two images that stick in my mind from last weekend two distinct images that left me with two distinct feelings if you can try to set the stage for if you can imagine city hall in san francisco this wedding cake of a building. Two things were happening on either side on one side you had the people who were who were coming in and waiting in line to get married. On the other side you have them coming out the door to a big celebration after they were married. I want to tell you about what happened on either side of those buildings and would have taught me about family values in america. The going inside. With a side of that i saw first. And the first thing that struck me from a distance now was this sheer number of people i'll tell you when from about three blocks away i look down the sidewalk the sidewalks were filled with people as far as my eye could see and i can see the i could see the line turning around the corner and out of sight later i would learn that the line with three blocks long. The sidewalks were flooded with people all kinds of people men and women of all ages and races and ethnicities and lots of children to. Lots of children. It was raining that day was cloudy and gray. And everyone in this limas would have cuddled under an umbrella or a or a tarp or a tent or a newspaper if they didn't come prepared. Many had slept out in the rain all night long. It is i took all this in i'll have to tell you i was surprised by my reaction cuz here i had come prepared to be all weld up with joy and with hope. And instead my first reaction on seeing this line of people with sadness. And anger. Because i looked at the huddled masses waiting to go into city hall in san francisco the image that came to mind were pictures that i used to see from the depression pictures of families waiting in line outside of food shelters hoping for a meal. 4 pictures of men down and out on their luck who are waiting in line for a job during the depression. And so these images were running through my mind. As i saw all these families and i thought to myself. It is hard enough in this world. Define love. Cantabile that love into a family and to maintain that family and keep it strong over the years. There is no excuse for society to keep putting up more barriers to that love. Who are we as a nation. To make our families wait in line for three days to get the support they need to create strong and loving families who are we to make our children stand out in the rain so their parents can have all the rights they need to protect them and keep them strong these are the things that i felt when i first approached city hall in san francisco. And it made me think back to stories that i've heard. That took place here in washington dc in the surrounding area in the fifties and sixties some stories that some of you have told me about what it was like here then. Because back then multiracial couples. Who lives in the state of virginia remember what have to drive across the potomac. To get married in churches like all souls in washington dc because until 1967 it was still illegal for white people to marry black people in the state of virginia. 37 years ago. History suggests to me. That the human heart. Is a much better judge. Pavlov. Been either this state. For the church. Send for me this long line of families represented not just gay families but all the families in america who struggle to keep it all together. Call the families that are trying to make ends meet you know there are nine million children in this nation without health insurance. There are 12 million children in poverty that's one in six. In washington dc. The number is 1 + 3. And even for family to oren struggling in poverty. With a kind of culture we have now with our busy lives it's so hard for us to to maintain the kinds of bonds we need to keep strong families here in the city. And so these were the thoughts that we're going through my mind as i looked at all these families. That was from the distance i got a little bit closer in the image got a little bit better when it once i finally got a chance to look underneath the umbrellas and look underneath the blankets in the and the newspapers there was a different story to be told. Because everyone seemed to be having a grand old time. Some folks were dressed for their wedding and tuxes or gowns people were sipping wine or champagne. Lot of folks are on their cell phone frantically trying to reach relative to tell them what they were about to do nearby friends were we're trying to get down to city hall fighting the traffic so they can be there to witness be the witnesses for their friends for their friend's wedding children were playing with each other in the wet grass lots of smiles lots of excitement lots of tears. Left to fend for themselves families do figure out how to make it one way or the other. So that's one side of the the picture. On the other side of the picture then on the other side of city hall where the families were coming out after they were married while that was a whole nother story. Because while on the side coming in there was a sensitive of restrained anticipation on the other side that had resolved into an outright. Celebration. One by one the couple's would come out of city hall and hold their marriage license in the air and the crowd of hundreds would break into applause champagne corks popped. Florists gave out a bouquets and garlands garland's instead of ashes people through rice passers-by and cars honk their horns and support the gay and lesbian chorus of san francisco came by to sing a few songs there were even a few straight couples. It was a powerful experience to see people who have been denied something for so long. Finally. Get their hearts desire. Knowing full well that the court might take it away from them in a few days or a few weeks from now. But knowing to that something about that experience would never be taken away from them no matter what happens. For once freedom is on the tongue you can never quite get the taste out of your mouth. Watching this happened last week with something i'll never forget. But for me this to vision on the other side. With a vision of how things ought to be. I thought to myself what would it be like if every family got the encouragement that these families were getting as they came out of city hall that day would have all of our family support that we needed to build strong and loving families what if our government reach out courageously to support families in this country like the way the government of the city of san francisco reached out to gay and lesbian families last weekend in san francisco. What if our government took a risk for our families. When i saw all these people cheering all these families the other thing i thought about with the church. I thought about this church. Because in my mind the church should be a place. Where when it gets hard to be a family in the world you know you can come. And get the equivalent of a big cheer when you come through the door. For when i gets hard to be a family in the world you know you can come through these doors and find support for your family no matter what your family looks like because here at all souls we have all kinds of families. All the families of the city are represented here in this church. We got interracial families and multi-generational families we got single moms and single dads. We got two moms and we've got two dads gay families and straight people raised by their grandparents. Grandparents raising their grandchildren. Rooted families and transient. Parents adoptive in biological and each family has as much value is the next. Baptist church. The church should be the place where it doesn't matter if a child has one parent or two because in this place every child has a whole mess of godparents okay the church should be a place where it doesn't matter if your parents are gay or straight. To take seriously our ministry to children and families. I don't want it to just be something that gabrielle ferrell our religious educator does or something that the teachers in our re-program do or the people on our re committee i want us to see this church as our family and all of its children here as our children. Our god children are extended family. What would it be like if every child in this church had a close relationship with at least one adult other than their parents and the minister what would it be like if sunday school classes were taught not by the parents of the children but by folks who might not have kids at home right now. That's my dream for this church. Not wanted to do a little exercise with you this morning this is the sort of i think it was in sesame street that used to have this song called who are the people in your neighborhood i think it was together today i'd like to ask folks to to stand up when i call out when i describe something that might describe you and your family okay. Straight or gay married or not to stand up look around notice okay give thanks you may be seated thank you now i want everyone who is in your daily life your teacher or if you teach sunday school here at the trooper involved with the ministry to children or if you're a mentor a big brother a big sister or thank you for your work and now i want everyone who is a member of the great family of all souls thank you thank you. But i want to leave you with with one final image from last weekend in my mind there were many heroes from the weekend but for me there were two who stood out. 210 year old boys. Had stationed themselves by the door to city hall where couples came out. After they had received their marriage licenses. And in their 5th the boys had rose petals. And every time a couple walked out the door. These two boys would throw the rose petals over the couple's had. And a couple with pass by. The kids would get down on their hands and knees and gather up the rose petals and get ready for the next couple garland's instead of ashes. These boys knew love when they sought. And they knew that the appropriate response to love was to bless it not to tear it down and that's why they're my heroes. I see your i did leave a piece. Of my heart in san francisco last weekend. Having had it broken open i left some of it scattered there on the steps of city hall among the rose petals in the rice. Lucky for me and for all of us. This church is a place where we can put our hearts. And our families back together again. Maybe so. I'm in.

all-souls_org

04.02.15AfraidOfTheDark.mp3

Mornings readings are. 2 and brief. The first is a an excerpt from an interview with contemporary irish playwright connor mcpherson. He was speaking about playwriting in general and particular about his play dublin carol. People have always said drama is about conflict. I find there's enough conflict in one person to make a whole play. All those swings. The oscillation in the mind. Self-doubt. The uncertainty. The stupid courage. The terrible feelings of inadequacy. That's more than enough. And i suppose even a chink of light is huge. If you are in the dark. If you can somehow. Make a truce with yourself. You're probably going to do all right. The second reading is a quote from james baldwin which a friend of mine sent to me during a difficult time in my life. Is a quotation from sonny's brother in baldwin's novel sonny's blues. For while the tale of how we suffer. And how we are delighted. And how we may triumph. Is never knew. It always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell. It's the only like we've got in all this darkness. Afraid of the dark. Like many children when i was young i had a night light. I was afraid of the dark because alone at night in my room. I felt as though my life which was so out of sync with the adult world as it was. Was even more beyond my grasp. And now as an adult i find i fear the dark for different reasons. The power of darkness as both symbol and reality of the unknown. The invisible. Remains. Strong. And this morning i wanted to reflect some on how i have been puzzled and troubled by the dualism that we have created around light and dark. Puzzled because the light is good and dark is bad over-simplification feels false. And untrue. To my actual experiences of light and dark. And troubled because of what the dark as bad metaphor feels like to myself and i would suspect other people of color. What might it mean i wonder and how might it feel. To question and break down this dualism this light good dark bad dualism. And how might our images of light and dark change. If we brought our actual experiences of them to bear. It occurred to me as i thought about this light versus dark good versus bad metaphor that it wouldn't be such a big deal if we human beings weren't so grounded in metaphors. And i'm not saying that because i dislike metaphors i actually like them a lot and i understand why we need to use them. Think of songs and poems. Our conversations with one another are peppered with images. Will frequently say it was like and then try to find some image with which to explain what we meant how we felt. We say it was a breath of fresh air. Because someone will know what that means what it feels like to take a breath of fresh air. Images of light and dark are some of the most powerful images we've got. Problem i think is that we are in need of some nuance. Light that isn't just or simply or always illuminating. But is sometimes blinding for example. Or an image of darkness that isn't merely confusing or obstructing but is a soothing place of creativity. One of my favorite hymns in our hymnal is it him entitled dark of winter. And in the hammett please. Darkness sue's my weary eyes. That i may see more clearly. And darkness when my fears arise. Let your peace flow through me. It was a moving tale of darkness that i'd like to share with you. I'm moving and powerful tail but came to me in an unexpected place. I thought i was being academic i was watching a video about the book of genesis that bill moyer to put together conversations many years ago and the old testament the hebrew bible scholar walter brueggemann was part of a conversation that moyer's was having about the book of about the book of genesis and about this particular conversation the particular story of jacob wrestling with the angel. And many of the people in the video had fascinating takes. On what the story meant. But none was more fascinating than watching walter brueggemann hoose would have known to those of us who study religion as sort of a dower and serious and a severe academician. Actually share something of himself. He said that this story this is jacob at night being come upon by an angel and wrestling not only with this. Real angel but with his own demons. Brought up something profound for him. He said that he realized in his own life that during the day. When it was light outside he felt always a bit more in control like he had his to-do lists like life had a plan and an order that he could see that there was rhyme and reason to what he could do with his life. I'm at then at night much like jacob in the story that was when his own personal demons came to visit. Was when he wrestled with his own questions of mortality when he wondered whether he had done with his life what he really most wanted to do. When he felt more profoundly out of control and not quite sure of who he was or if he really could be the person he wanted to be. Will i do all i need to do before i die bruggeman said in the video. And in that story i realized in his. Story that there are times. When light and dark fit the stereotype role that we have assigned them. Times when light does make our day feel more ordered and clear and times when night feels a bit daunting. But i wonder. As you think about light and dark in your own lives. What memories do you conjure. That are embedded within them those memories the time of day that they took place. Perhaps this day after valentine's day you remember the romance of a candle-lit dinner. Or the glorious brightness of a sunny day when you were on a hike in a beautiful setting. And what about moments in your life when light and dark played against type. When the bright light. Felt harsh and unforgiving. At a time when what you needed was to hibernate with your pain. Or time when the dark felt nourishing. And comforting. My friends. We live in a world full of thinkers and pundits who like to flatten concepts and reduce ideas to hollow shallow versions of them. That do not honor our lived truths. We know that sometimes light and dark are neither good nor bad. Sometimes they are contacts. They are the place in which life happens. And even more than that we know that sometimes what we need most is gray. Sometimes we need to mix things up and acknowledge that our lives are complex. And irreducible. To take the baldwin quote and turn it around. For while the tale of how we suffer and how we are delighted and how we may triumph is never knew. It always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell. It's the only dark we've got. In all this lightness. May we my friends embrace both light and dark. Within and among us all. So that we might lead lives of greater holness. We we do that this. Season and every season. Hainan.

all-souls_org

03.01.26AwesomeMeetsTheFamiliar.mp3

It is a great joy and privilege for me to be here with you at all souls this morning that's jenny said i grew up in this area and so all souls was always looked on as the great mother church and so it is marvelous to be with you. Bring two readings this morning the first comes from the minister of one of the other all souls churches who i know has spoken from this pulpit before. Forest church in his book bringing god home forest rights organized religion and personal spirituality can exist. Completely independent from each other. At the root of all the wreck human experience of the holy are two things though that organized religion may even discourage. And humility. The word human has italian etymology my very favorite all the words that relate to it humane humanitarian humor humility humble and shumis. Are illuminated. From dust. To dust the mortar of mortality binds us fast. To one another. Jews christians and muslims alike trace their ancestry to the third chapter of the book of genesis where god proclaims to eve and adam whose name lest we forget means out of red clay in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return onto the ground for out of it west val taken. For dust thou art. And unto dust shalt thou return. For this reason alone life requires not only a measure of humility but a leavening sense of humor i love gk chesterton squip that angels can fly because they take themselves lightly you've heard that one before just a little lower than the angels we too can lift up our sites. By lowering our pretensions. And just a little higher than the most humble creature we are wise to remember our mortal kinship and destiny. We may be valiant dust. In shakespeare's words but whether we perceive ourselves as spun out of stardust. Or fashion from earthly loam. When we die. We inherit. The same earth. My second reading comes from someone. Familiar to at least a few of you here. And i did not choose this reading knowing that i was going to be preaching a sermon here. This was written in 1973 by the reverend david eaton who was minister here at that time david was a good friend of my father. And i had the privilege of meeting him a few times before he died. This is dedicated to peg pierce. She may even be here i don't know who she is but perhaps she is one of you. David wright's all living substance all substance of energy and being and purpose are united. And share the same destiny. All people we love and those we know not of our united and share the same destiny 2 deaths this unity we share with the sun. Sr brothers and sisters strangers flowers in the field snowflakes. Volcanoes. And moonbeams. Birth life death unknown unknown our destiny from unknown. Two unknown. I pray that we will know the author and not fall into the pit of intellectual arrogance in attempting to explain it away. The mystery can be our substance. Maybe have faith to accept this. Wonderful mystery. And build. Upon at the everlasting truth. So end this morning's reading. Not long ago i was sitting in a quiet room. Talking with some friends about god. This group of people was very diverse racially culturally age-wise lots of other things about us were different but there was one thing one very important thing we had in common. We were all active and committed unitarian universalist. Our views of god not surprisingly a varied to some degree in a few folks who were not comfortable with that. Old-fashioned and wounded word god. Get all of us have something to add to the conversation. Something that sprang from that deep place inside us all of us it seemed. Do something about mystery about holiness. And about. Chase. One friend in particular spoke very eloquently. Well i cannot quote him exactly i do remember with clarity the essence of his words. Religion and spirituality spring from the place. He told us. Where the awesome metis. The familiar. We're the awesome. Meets. The familiar wow. Buzzwords just knocked me over. They helped me the guy inside me so much that i knew i was going to preach about it someday. And i've been thinking a lot. About what lies at the heart. Of our faith. Our particular face unitarian-universalism a mouthful yes. Butterface indeed. What is the essence of being religious liberally. I want to look at that essence and i want to look at it by talking about two attitudes or ways of approaching space. They have much to teach us. Those attitudes are all. And humility. I got intrigued by these two important concepts when i heard my colleague for his church. Speak these words at a conference i attended a new york city last spring. He sent me to thinking he always does. Are all and humility essential to true face development and if they are. How can we seek to understand them in ways that make sense to us in our particular faith tradition. Have a group unitarian universalist are skeptical by nature of us in this room here today have at some point in our lives. Been overwhelmed by. I have heard many stories throughout the years of my ministry. Avoid in the face of birth. And death stars and sea love. And even lost. I too have my stories of awe. A simple one here. Years ago i remember a hike in the virginia mountains with a campfire girl. Troop. And we went. To a mountaintop it came out. On a cliff. And as i gazed out on the view there it became something much more than just a pretty picture. I saw it through the eyes of all. That it became alive for me more beautiful more perfect than any mountaintop could ever be. For what seemed like an eternity. I watched. And saw and knew that i was not alone. Set the earth was alive. And that i belong. And i have never forgotten that image and it's still returns to me when i feel and needs. To remember my connection to what really matters. It was an every real way awesome. And it woke in my child's heart. A longing and a sense of belonging. Which led me to believe to deepen my belief. In what i choose to call god. Am i experienced on that mountaintop is far from unique. Perhaps you two have a story of all when you felt overtaken by that terrible joy that is the mystery and wonder of life. But all it seems does not come readily to everyone. Perhaps this is because for many the idea of all is caught up with fear the origin of the word austands from a greek word. For pain. For pain. And as we know has too often been used as a weapon. Human-made structures that we look on today at great examples of engineering or architecture and that may make us feel full of all like the pyramids in egypt or the great cathedrals in europe were built. To make ordinary humans feel very small. And god or the king or the priest very great. It's not surprising that the word awful. Has come to mean something terrible. There are of course very powerful and positive ways to experience all. When i hear people in our congregations talk about all its usually of the natural world in which they speak while many of us do feel in something humanly generated like music and poetry and art. Most of us seem to meet the mystery in the natural world. Activity and so nicely put it all comes when we recognize disunity we share with a son or our brothers and sisters strangers flowers of the field snowflakes volcanoes & moonbeams. He didn't leave much out. All comes. All comes when we face the mystery of our connectedness to all of life. I felt that kind of all on my mountain top. But it can and does happen in many many places in essence i believe that the kind of all at the heart of our face. Emerges when we feel deep in the well of our being that we belong that our life matters that we and the earth and all creatures on it. R1. R1. That's what the word unitarian really comes down to mean these days. Because our heritage and our faith reminds us that by whatever name we called the holy. It is always and at its essence. 1. And when we feel that oneness so we can experience the kind of off that opens us to a deeper understanding of what are lice means particularly in relationship to the rest of life. On our planet. Such a lock-in also open us. To humility. Out humility is a far less comfortable topic for unitarian universalist then off. As a group. And i've know what's real well i've been a unitarian universalist all my life we are not the most humble of people 90 that may come as a big surprise to some of you but in case you're thinking that i'm pointing fingers trust me this is where the finger is pointing i know. Religiously humility is even much even more loaded with baggage than off. For many of us humility in the face of god conscious of people prostrate in front of altars flatulating themselves are feeling pressure to confess to imagined sins for the sake of absolution. And women have endured centuries of being told to humble themselves not just before god. Before their husbands and fathers as well. Humility has a strong part to play in our face. From the time i can remember. My father who was not on the surface the most humble of men. Taught me to understand that humility had a profoundly simple definition. To be humble he told me. Was to remain. Teachable. To remain teachable. Whenever we think we know it all real humility reminds us to stay open. And willing to learn. Fourth church believes that accepting our mortality forces us to stay humble. All of us are fly night we are not god. As far as puts it life requires a measure of humility just a little lower than the angels we can lift up our sights by lowering our pretensions. Humility is one way to stay grounded. Has forrest said the words come to shumis and humility come from the same root grounded humility invites us to always remain open to what the world has to teach us and to never be afraid to say. I don't know. In her book kitchen table wisdom rachel naomi raymond echoes the sentiment. As a physician she writes i was trained to deal with uncertainty as aggressively as i dealt with the disease itself. The unknown was the enemy. After years of trading mystery for mastery it was hard and even frightening to stop offering myself reasonable explanations for some of the things i observed and then others told me and simply takes them as they are. I don't know had long been my statement of shame a personal and professional sailing. No wonder if that resonates with any of you. It certainly does with me. Getting dealing with deaths and healing raymond begin to open herself to the awesome mystery inherent in life and death. Rather than trying to explain away the strange wonderful and powerful feelings of awe. That death and healing involved. She began to just let it be. I no longer feel that life is ordinary she writes every day is filled with mystery. She concludes with these words. In some fairy tales there is a magic word which has the power to undo the spell that has imprisoned someone and free them usually the words were some kind of nonsense like shazam. My magic words have turned out to be. I don't know. I don't know. The magic words i don't know or at the essence of both aw and humility and they're also at the heart of our faith. How you might ask. When we approached the universe with awe while our first response can and will likely be wow. Perhaps our second response should be. I don't know. Not knowing does not mean not appreciating it simply allows us to acknowledge and accept the mystery of life without apology. When we say i don't know with all we are accepting that life and creation are mysterious their wonderful and that we cannot know everything about them. That's we have a face. That affirms that creation is too grand a complex to be defined by narrow creed's. And when we say with humility i don't know. We acknowledge that there is still more to learn that we don't know what all that revelation is not sealed. That's we have a face that affirms that spiritual development is a continuing process of learning and growing. Doesn't it make more sense to tell the truth as we know it. As we may not. No it. I don't know these three little magic words may be at the heart of real face that real spirituality even real religion they challenge us to meet the mystery with an open heart. Even as we ask the hard questions that deepen our understanding. And broaden our knowledge. I believe that a willingness to be unsure. Is critical for our spiritual well-being. But at times it can feel paralyzing her not to know can be scary. You know what. So much of religion these days is all about knowing everything isn't it a hundred percent right i've got it here in this book is this creed this guru this is the way it's got to be. Are face offers a different more challenging path. Our faith. At least tries to acknowledge that there are things we don't know that others may experience the world differently than we do. Yet there are times even within our liberal religious faith. When we think we know it all when we're absolutely positively sure we are right. I'm not talking about any of you of course. But this is where all and humility come into play. Whenever i am tempted to say that my way is right and you are wrong i try to remember to take a deep breath. And say. I don't know. I don't know. I try to face the mystery of life with a sense of all and my own place in it with an attitude of humility i try to remain teachable into stay open to this amazing and wonderful world we live in. And it's here that my friends view a face as the place where the awesome meets the familiar comes very true for me. 4 unitarian universalist the world is not a bad place fallen from the lord's good graces. To us the world and everything in it can be approached with aw. For we have learned that the holy dwells not just in the realm of the supernatural. Put in the natural in the here-and-now in this place in this moment right now here among us. By cultivating a sense of all we have the opportunity to look at the world with new eyes. And even the mundane can take on a blessed spirits. The christian mystic teresa of avila had difficulty in reconciling the vast. The vastness of life with a spirit of the mundane tasks in front of her in the convent she was a mystic for many years ago living in a convent washing pots sweeping the floors folding laundry. Epsom point of grace the mundane became for her a sort of prayer. A way she could experience her ever-present connection to the divine pattern which is the source of life. She began to see the face of god. In the folded sheets. We may not see god in the sheets. But perhaps we can see something of the holy in a child's smile. In the falling leaves. In the bleak beauty of the winter sky. And we are i believe more likely to encounter the mystery and wonder of life if we approach the world in humble ways. There's much about life and the living of it that we just don't know all the tools at our disposal to scientific method higher criticism business plans etc can't explain why our heart aches. When we see a loved one in pain or why our world shakes when we hear on newborn baby cry. Thank you good time. Facing that incredible mystery the mystery of life and death with i do no humbly on our lips as a religious posture that works. We can is one of my favourite poet says live the questions with humility with wonder and with joy. To live in that place where the awesome meets the familiars to go against much of what our culture expects of us arrogance is far more popular than humility and all is too often reserved for celebrity sightings. Yet i would argue that the religious path offers us a better way to navigate the shoals. Of modern life. Cultivating a spirit of all does not mean. That you have to have a traditional belief in god or an afterlife and cultivating a spirit of humility does not mean to basing oneself in fear the spirit only requires of us a willingness to remain open to all that life has to teach us and to accept the mystery of life is not something to be afraid of indeed it is something to be revered. There is so much i don't know. But what i do know is that our face unitarian-universalism can be a religion. We're all and humility are cultivated and supported. We do not always live up to our promise i know. But i have hope. Our liberal faith has much to offer to us. And to our world. Look around you look around you i have been watching you now. You're beautiful. Wonderful. See how precious we all are can we can we approach this incredible gift of a day with aw. Can we approach each other. With humility. All and humility. Are two pillars of a faithful life and i think they serve us well. Particularly if we remain willing to say. With all and humility. Those awesome and humble magic words. I don't know.

all-souls_org

04.02.11WhatGoodIsGod.mp3

I've told many of you how excited i am to have all of the guests coming to visit us over the next several months not the least of which is because many of the folks coming to visit our colleagues of mine that i've been eager to hear preach for many many years but i'm usually busy on sunday so i don't get to hear them and so first up this morning is reverend rosemary bread mcnatt whom i want to introduce to you briefly before she speaks. Rosemary serves currently as a minister of the fourth universalist society in new york city in fact i was joking with her this morning that it's in central park west so maybe we should all go visit her sometime soon. She was born and raised in chicago illinois is a graduate of both yale university and drew theological seminary. And before answering the call to ministry she was an editor and widely anthologized writer for more than two decades. She's a former editor at the new york times book review and has written three books of her own including her memoir on afraid of the dark. Rosemary has been deeply active in our unitarian universalist movement for many years in fact i first met reverend mcnatt when i was a student at starr king school for the ministry and she was serving on our board of trustees. Holding one of her sons cradled in her arms they are for one of the meetings he's not able to be held cradled in the arms any longer. But reverend menachem mcnatt lives in new york city with her husband robert and her two sons alan and the aforementioned daniel. Please join me in welcoming reverend rosemary brian mcnatt thank you so much and welcome to all of you this morning and thank you for your warm welcome to me this is my second visit to all souls and i love to come here it was an honor to be asked. To be here while rob is on sabbatical. What was the first religious question you were ever asked. I wish that i could say that i remembered something that i asked it was clever and prescient something like the question that my older son alan asked. When he was 3 years old and he saw the aftermath of a hurricane on television. I was in seminary at the time. And after walking through the living room and seeing the television screen filled with death and destruction allen turn to my husband bob and to me and said that hurricane hurt a lot of people why doesn't god do something about that. My beloved husband coward that he is turned to me and said don't look so well. And i was told the answer to courtesy of the baltimore catechism the requisite means of roman catholic instruction until the mid-1960s some of you are likely products of this particular religious education and i see some nodding head not if you remember you had to memorize a whole list of questions along with the right answers to those questions to make sure you knew who you were who god was and the right relationship between you another question that i remember asking was why did god make you. And the answer was god made me to know him to love him and to serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next. This is why i was more important the church said to take better care of our soul then our body because in losing our souls we would lose god and everlasting happiness. If you grew up with christian religious instruction of any kind most likely you grew up with some variation of these questions and some variations of these answers questions and answers that have comprise the majority of christian theology for century if you grew up with jewish religious instructions you grew up with some variation of the 13 articles of the jewish faith first proposed by maimonides twelfth-century rabbi who first codified the articles of faith for absorbent do god exist god is one and unique god is incorporeal and god is eternal. Also said god knows the thoughts and deeds of men too that's really five and practicing muslim you learned some version of the five articles of faith now these are different than the five pillars of islam. To the bathroom jordi about in the united states will raise or have our primary religious experience in one of these three face the abrahamic faiths than what they share is a belief in one god and to a lesser degree they share a belief in a certain kind of god a god with certain qualities to inspire our trust and our obedience. And our fear because according to all these things god is all-seeing and all-knowing and all-powerful and perfect what are you grew up christian or jewish or muslim or with no particular religious faith at all whether you were developed or careless in your face and practice you probably grew up with these ideas about god ideas that you share with many people ideas that you may no longer believe ideas that you may not even like very much but they're still there just the same dancing around in your head and your often arguing with them perhaps without being aware that you are they are ideas woven into the very fabric of our culture. And they are difficult for us to dislodge even if we want to and difficult for us to question even amid all our doubts. I was in seminary before i found what has become one of my personal favorite books about the idea of god and its hole on our hearts and our mind. The tiny but dense book entitled omnipotence and other theological mistakes omnipotence and other theological mistakes by charles hartshorn hartshorn died only seven years ago at the age of 104 use one of the as process theology an offshoot of process philosophy and it attempts to end among other things the standoff between rational thought and believing in god as the son the grandson and the great-grandson of episcopalian and swiss protestant minister. He married a lifelong universalist. He attended unitarian churches for much of his life. But he hesitated to call himself a unitarian universalist even though he was a member of the unitarian church of austin texas when he died in 2000. He likes to refer to himself actually as a buddhist do christian it was a phrase that he bought he borrowed from another naturalistic philosopher who was very important to liberal religion charles pierce this morning. He spent a lot of years writing about what he thought were fallacies behind these religious beliefs falsehoods that couldn't withstand the insides of science or contemporary life or even the live experience of you and me. And in this book that i'm talking about he wrote a preface and part of that process included these words. Multitude of people today are told by newspapers and popular magazines and books about all kinds of options in non religious matters but they are told little or nothing about the options and religion. The accessibility of options for belief. Is part of what religious freedom ought to me. I have learned he can see me. That lives can be changed by showing that some of the traditional problems of belief. Princeton how to reconcile the power and goodness of god with the evils we encounter in life. Are genuinely solved or at least greatly alleviated by the view presented in this book. So that is a tall order for a tiny book cuz it's about 144 pages and that includes the index but hartshorn in 1984 when he wrote this book was 87 years old and think that he had another 15 years. He wanted to tackle the same questions that you and i have when we read the paper or when we live our lives and cruel and senseless things occur for no reason at all and people try to comforter with platitudes like god knows best for it was god's will or whatever answer they have been taught to give after two thousand years of traditional and contradictory theology the questions is obvious if god knows everything is god is so perfect if god wants us to be happy and yet the world is so cool so sad so filled with unfairness and injustice and even horror then what good is god. Belief itself. Has been and continues to be the flash point for so much of the world's terror. Or as one of the visitors in my own congregation asked on a sunday not too long ago looking around after coffee hour. Who knew that this many people still found religion relevant. And he was not being complimentary. It questions like me the charles hartshorn wrote his little book to answer. Any rights that most classical theism is guilty of 6 mistakes about god. Play god is absolutely perfect and unchangeable. The god is perfect in power and that's whatever happens must be divinely ordained. Third that since god is unchangeable e perfect whatever happens must be eternally known to god. God's love for us is benign unchanged in any way by our joy or our sorrow or troubles or our pain in other words that we have no effect on god whatsoever. 5th that it would matter to god at all it's in the matter of life after death that we must survive death in some form either through heaven or hell. And lastly that revelation is infallible that we know all that we are going to know. The hartshorn attributed these errors in theology. In part to classical theism attempt to harmonize greek philosophy and judaism which your kind of the origin in the the maelstrom around with these ideas formed. I know he believes it's important to continued dialogue between those two tradition. He also agrees it's important to add insights from contemporary life from science and from history including the history of other religions. All of us who have lived our lives are familiar with those six mistakes. The familiar with those six mistakes because they are the mistakes that first helped many of us leave our original religious home. In search of something more. But what more is there. Now there is of course a theater. The belief that there is no god. But all we have is what we can see and what we can prove to be here and the nap. It is a rigorous and demanding pass. For those who follow it. And there are atheist but i would suggest to you that there are many fewer atheist in the world then you might suppose. Many more people i believe find themselves in the camp of the doubter to camp of the unsure. The person who can't possibly countenance the old story about god the old guy with the beard. But they can't necessarily believe the stories that point toward nothing at all. Hartshorne asks us to consider a third possibility. 1/3 way a different kind. Oh god. Hartshorn asks us to consider a god who is changed and moved by us. By our reaction and our every thought by the every circumstance of our lives in our sorrow and in our joy. A god who is changed by knowing and experiencing us. Just as we are change. By knowing and experiencing god. This different god is one whose power does not depend on perfection. Oran in mutability but relies instead on embodying an unsurpassed love. That is in fact thesaurus. And the ground of god's power. Hartshorn and his spiritual brothers and sisters in process theology. Speak in their work of the lure of god. God's love for all of us. Made known to the unspeakable beauty of the world. The unspeakable beauty. 1 in number. And all this beauty may tangible in the longing of our own heart. A longing to which we ourselves barely have words. That very longan. Ineffable egg that we feel in the face of such beauty. They believe is in itself the sign of god reaching out to us and for us. Eager to long. I should be raw. But what about evil and hurricane and death and sadness and all of the inscrutable changes that we know are true. The world that includes this different god these are the inevitable consequences of a world they believe is truly alive a world in which while the laws of nature are real. So is genuine human choice and the genuine human risk think about it so long as billions of people make decisions simultaneously everyday each day is by necessity filled with risk filled with chance. And filled with possibility a god that really loves and believes in humanity might limit champ but could never banish it entirely because to do so would limit human freedom and that would include the freedom to love god's or not to love trust and a law not freely given is no love at all. We people of liberal faith rarely speak of loving god or worshiping god we barely have language for it. It's a small wonder when all our language were god has been so ancient and so anemic and so rooted in this classical theism when even the necessity for god has been the subject of endless debate when our longing for god has been the stuff of ridicule and source of fear who wants to love or worship a source of more or an inspiration for international and domestic terror or and excused for the diminishment of other human beings. The process theology begins to give us a glimpse of something we have dared not hope. An introduction to a radically different. on god worth loving and a god or longing for. The ideas expressed by hartshorn and his contemporaries. Modric see hockey and alfred whitehead and henry wyman and others they offer a chance for an enthusiasm for god that's need not be simply an intellectual exercise. And that vision that possibility of a different god was the basis for the answer to the question that alan asked me so many years ago when he asked me why god didn't do something. About that hurricane. But he did. Do something. And she did something i said. Because god. Is part of us and we are part of god until god cares so much and so deeply that those people were hurt. God loves us so very much. We at. With god's inspiration and help. To help those who need us because we are co-creators. With god and all the while that we work and we struggle and lee love. God is suffering with us and holding us up god is helping to bear our burdens god is working with us to create opportunities through which we might find grace and strength and life even a miss can and even joy. He was probably too much detail for a three-year-old i have been known to give my kids a little too much information but maybe not it is never too soon to learn about a god worthy of the name and worthy of our attention and our love. And the good news is. That it is never too late either i miss.

all-souls_org

04.02.29ConspiracyAgainstVu.mp3

Some of you may have thought that. Service would end early today and that you get away without a sermon but that was just a typo. Our reading this morning is by the poet laureate shack. It's called. To softness. Under junk heaps and burning cars and bombed-out buildings. Under iron and 10 and plastic under us steel and coca-cola and the bridge repainted silver. To cover all the black graffitied hearts and names. Beneath underpass and overpass on their timetables profitability summits margins of error and cuts. Under for your own good and in our best interest. Under frontrunner leveraged buyout arms deal state-of-the-union and rate of exchange. It must be there. Like an ash heap. But alive like avail a half-formed thought. Throbbing it's slow pulse. Behind the lips. A softness. A tenderness. A hand turning pages through the night in a bare room. Eyes of the window hand at the door. Something in need of protection. Something capable. Of stealing harm. I'll never forget something that happened to me. During a job interview many years ago. I was applying to be a hospital chaplain and because the work would entail me ministering to people who were suffering tremendous loss and grief the person interviewing me was probing my own experiences of loss and we happen to be talking about my grandmother many of you know that my grandmother played a formative role in my childhood and i loved her dearly. Alphabet her drawn-out death from alzheimer's disease. Was a slow painful loss. The loss that was especially intense during this interview because at the time we had just moved my grandmother out of her home and into an assisted living facility just blocks from where i was living. As i was talking about my grandmother the interviewer gently interrupted me. And she said rob. You're sharing something very painful with us. Do you realize that you have a smile on your face as you're doing it. Do you realize there's a disconnect between what you're feeling right now and what's your soda showing us that you're feeling. Yeah i know i said. Just checking she said. Just checking. We all try to keep up appearances don't we. Choking back our tears with the forced smile. Holding down the pain with a clenched. Got. Not wanting to show anyone our weakness not wanting to shatter that image we've cultivated so carefully for so many years now of having it all together. I'm not needing anybody else thank you very much. I watch people as they erect this facade of invulnerability even in the face of their own death. For the death of a loved one. I've seen them suppress their grief by biting down on a quavering lower lip until it looked as though that lip would burst. I'm at person's shoulder and say it's okay. Just let it go. I think there's something wrong going on here. I believe that we live. A culture that encourage us. Encourages us to squelch our feeling. To deny sorrow and grief. To pretend as if none of that existed in that we are just confident happy people who got it all together. In other words i believe that we live in a culture culture that is perpetrating a conspiracy. A conspiracy against. Vulnerability. And i can't tell if we are the unwitting victims of this plot or if we are ourselves. Co-conspirators. But what i do know is that when i look around i see a lot of people who are numb emotionally. Who are cut off. You know i think part of it is that is that television in the media just to bombard us with so many sensations forced sensations manufactured feelings. That we rarely have time to notice our own. Clearly another part of the problem is that we spend so much of our time in in work environments where where competence and efficiency and a can-do attitude are valued at the expense of our vulnerability. Weakness and feeling. I mean let's face it there's just no room for a hurting person in the great machine of capitalism. Vulnerability is an inefficiency that the market is designed to weed out. For exploit. Just the other day i was noticing that in my neighborhood in washington. It's a ritual on saturday mornings for everyone to go and pick up their laundry at the dry cleaners. Until you see a lot of men walking back home with a week's worth of starched pressed shirts hanging over their shoulder and it struck me the other day that those stiff shirts are part of our emotional armor and that coupled with that tight knot on our necktie serve to keep everything below our neck cut off from us right. I have women friends who tell me that for them it's the lipstick once they put it on they got their professional face on their public face and that masks anything of sadness. Or grief or insecurity. So because we're too busy to have feelings for ourselves we we're really captivated by watching other people remote for us. So we watch oprah or dr. phil or reality television which almost always ends in some cheerful confrontation and these actors perform our emotions for us. They make a spectacle of themselves so that heaven forbid we don't have to. Stuff sometimes this conspiracy against vulnerability manifest itself in. In funny ways. When i was a kid my parents and i would sometimes go on vacation and stay in a hotel. In the morning we wake up and get dressed and you do get ready to do the fun things that you're supposed to do when you're on vacation but inevitably my dad and i would have to wait for my mother who would spend another 15 minutes or so. Picking up the room. Making the bed washing out the basin of the sink. Dorothy mom the main coming in 5 minutes she's going to tear the sheets right off that bed you just remade i know said my mother but i can't let her see a room like this it's filthy we don't like other people to see our dirty laundry. I'm all this is a classic example of a certain kind of white middle-class propriety i know that other cultures. How other cultures where there's a value placed on striving to prove that you made it. I know those cultures produce similar stories that are both laughable and poignant. Poignant because they reveal how desperate we are. To preserve the illusion that we are invulnerable. We can laugh at some of the silly ways we cover up for our messy humanness. But most of the consequences of this conspiracy. Are quite costly to us. And, at the expense of our emotional and psychological health when we cut ourselves off from our feelings we become one-dimensional inauthentic people. Shallow frankly. We are like emotional raves. Dwelling inside are starched shirts and neckties walking around with our lipstick on and feeling hardly anything. This isn't how. We were meant to live. And while we can survive like this for sometime altimate lee this surface existence leads people to a crisis. A midlife crisis or at any other time where they find themselves asking is this all there is. Isn't there anything more. Who am i anyways. Just because we can deny our pain and vulnerability it doesn't mean that they go away. They just go underground. And believe me they're a lot more dangerous there. Then if we just confront them head-on it's like that old saying i'd rather facing the enemy i know then the one that i don't know. Well i'd rather face the pain that i know. Then the one i buried deep inside of me. Hidden inside of us this pain can eat away at our soul like a cancer. Causing self-hatred. Depressions or worse. And the conspiracy against vulnerability cuts us off from other people too from the ones that we love it's a barrier to healthy loving relationships after all how can we expect to be there for someone else's feelings when we can't even be present to our own. In this state we are in incapable of genuine compassion compassion after all means to suffer with someone and you can't suffer with someone if you deny that you suffer at all. Because i've struggled with these issues myself the image that has come back to me over and over again is that. There is this clenched fist. Deep down inside of us. It's as though we hold the most vulnerable parts of ourselves in in the palm of his hand and it's some point or another usually for a very good reason we learned that we had to sort of close the fifth to protect that vulnerable place. But what's happened is it over the years we've just closed the hand tighter and tighter. And tighter until we've just got this angry fist. Offense offense clenched so tight for so long that were afraid now of what might be inside of it. It's like the monsters that we used to fear we're in our closets when we were children the longer we went without opening the closet to see for ourselves the bigger and meaner the monsters appeared to us in our imaginations. Now our pain and suffering is not imaginary but just. But when we refuse to look at it we magnify that problem. If it were afraid that if we lease our release our grip now we will lose control that our despair will be bottomless. We need. To learn to let go. We need to learn to. To relax the grip a little bit. Topeak in between the fingers of our clenched fist and face whatever pain or sorrow we locked in there so long ago. The alternative is to spend the rest of our lives with his clenched fist at the center of our being. 1/5 it every once in awhile we'll lash out and punch us right in the nose. Not to mention the fist that stretton's anyone. Who tries to come close to us. You're one of the great religious stories of all time. Was about a young man who outwitted this conspiracy against vulnerability. Give me the young prince named syd hartha whose father the king wanted only the very best for his son and so he he shield his shield and his son he tried to shield his son from all the pain and suffering in the world which i'm sure it's something that every parent is tempted to do. But all the king's court conspired with the king to keep suffering and frailty and pain from the eyes of the young prince and instead they lavished him with all the luxuries of the world. Until one day the prince was riding in his gilded chariot. And saw an old man resting by the side of the road. When the princess what sort of man is this. His driver said. Siddhartha this is old age. We all become old one day. The next day. Siddhartha went out again in his on his ride and he saw in a ditch by the side of the road just sickly man and he said what sort of man is this. This is illness. Replied the driver. We all can become sick one day. On the third day the prince's chariot encountered a funeral procession. With loved ones weeping over a corpse and when his driver saw the look of shock and horror on the young princes face he said siddhartha all who are born must die. And from that moment on rather than trying to run away from the suffering he had witnessed the young prince left the royal court and began his quest to face the suffering head on. To know it for what it was. And ultimately to move pruitt. True compassion. Two enlightenment. That's the story of the buddha's awakening. Hear it all souls we have said that we want all members of this church to discover the source of love in their lives. The fountainhead from which our joy and our love flows and as your minister i would be remiss if i didn't point out to you that the buddha's story is not unique. That all too often. The path that leads to the source of love in our lives. Passes first. Through the land of our deep suffering and sorrow. And i would be derelict in my duties if i didn't remind you that so often the source of our deepest love dwells right next to our deepest pain side-by-side inside that clenched fist. Down within us. Just waiting to be freed. We must discover. The people. And the places. Then encourage us to be whole human beings. That encouraged us not to deny our vulnerability but to embrace it. Compassionately. We need to find the places where it is safe for us to begin to unclench that fists. And that's a good news. Of the love and the welcome that are embodied in our name all sold for not only is all souls a vision of a community where all people are welcome at the table it is a vision of a community where all the parts of all the people are welcome at the table not just the pretty parts and the efficient parts. But the broken ones too. My prayer. For you. For me and for all of us. Is that we will discover this generous hospitality. Call hospitality that welcomes our whole selves. I pray that we discover it in our intimate relationships. Here in our church. But most importantly. In our own hearts. Because that's where the healing. Of all our wounds. Begins. In the heart's capacity. To forgive itself. For being vulnerable. May it be so. I'm in.

all-souls_org

07.01.07FamilyMatters.mp3

As i begin this morning i'm aware that several of you on your way instead you were looking forward to this morning sermon. Not the least of which i think it's because many of us just spent time with family. And so i hope that this will be a rich conversation because sermons although they are more monologues than conversation i really do see them as a conversation. And this morning's reading is from one of really what i can say is one of the more remarkable books that i have read in quite some time. I can't commend it to you more highly than i would commend it to you now. It was my first experience reading what's called a graphic novel witch. Isn't well away some sense a comic book for adults if he will. It's a book that's entitled fun home. A family tragic-comic she calls it. By woman named alison bechdel. And fun home is because her family runs a funeral home. And the book is a memoir of her experiences with family life. And in particular her examination of her connection with her father who passed away. Oh when she was rather young and her trying to come to grips with and make sense. Of him and her connection to him. And the book begins with her describing the childhood game that she would sometimes play with her father. Of airplane now i'm sure many of you know airplane is that game where you lie on your back and you put your feet up and get the kid right on your feet and get them moving around above your head. And she talks about how that game of airplane with her father came. To her to serve as a metaphor. For the roles that she and her father came to play in one another's lives. I really wish i could read the entire book to you in even more i wish i i could project the images that go with the words because that's part of what makes it. Such a remarkable book is because it's image and word. Married in such a wonderful way. But i'll just share with you this snippet of fun home. In the circus. Acrobatics where one person lies on the floor balancing another. Are called acarien games. In our particular reenactment of this mythic relationship. It was not me but my father. Who was the plummet from the sky. But before he did so he managed to get quite a lot done. His greatest achievement arguably. Was his monomaniacal restoration of our old house. He could conjure an entire finished. interior. From a paint chip. He was an alchemist of appearance. A savant of surface. A daedalus of daycore. For if my father was icarus. He was also daedalus. That skillful artificer. That mad scientist. Who built the wings for his son and designed the famous labyrinth. And who answered knots to the laws of society. But to those of his craft. It could have been a romantic story. Like in it's a wonderful life when jimmy stewart and donna reed fix up that big old house and raised their family there. Sometimes. When things were going well i think my father actually enjoyed having a family. Or at least. The air of authenticity we lent to his exhibit. A sort of still life with children. In this regard. It was a lot like being raised not by jimi but by martha stewart. Ultimately. However. I grew to resent. The way my father treated his furniture. Like children. And his children. Like furniture. Family matters. In some very real sense i feel that i have been working on this sermon my entire life. This is not to say that this morning's sermon will contain whole truths and complete insights about the meaning of family. It is simply to say and honestly to say. The trying to figure out what it means to be part of a family. And now most recently what it means to be part of creating a nuclear family. To become a parent has been some of the most significant work of my life. And i also recognized as i begin and i think it's very important for me to say this. But the topic of family for many is troublesome and problematic. Family is complex for every single one of us. And always has been. Even before there were when there were fewer forms of family than there are now. But for some among us this morning and for perhaps some who avoided even coming to church this morning when they knew i would be speaking about family. Family can be a source of deep hurt. And intense struggle. All of the levels of family. Immediate and extended nuclear and adoptive and in law. All of those connections that come by way of birth and blood and later in life by chosen tithe. Lead to so many ups and downs. And lead to so many constantly negotiated and renegotiated relationships. And so i know as i begin this morning. That what i say is not. Something that can be seen as monolithic or the last word. But that with many of us having just spend sometime over the holidays. Once again in the company of family members. It seems like as good a time as any. To reflect once again on the meaning of family life. So let me begin. With a personal story because how can you speak about family and not have it be at least a little bit personally. When i began my college career and i was in my freshman writing class trying to learn something about what it meant to put some sentences together. I found that i learned a great deal more when i chose to write about my grandfather. I wrote an essay for my freshman 101 writing class. About my mother's father. Edgar allen greene. And my. Up and down feelings about him over the years. I turned in the essay and we gathered in my professor's office several of us to talk about our most recent assignment. And linda brown my professor at the time turn to me when it was my turn to talk about my essay. And she said that she could tell that not only was my writing muddled but my feelings were. Just as much confused. She could tell that i hadn't quite made peace with my relationship with my grandfather. But i wasn't quite sure how i felt. About him. She said something to me then which i will never forget. Not because i remember exactly what she said but because i remember. What it meant to me. She said something to the effect of. Needing to make peace with a fact that it was possible she said. To love someone. That i didn't always like. That it was possible to love someone that i perhaps frequently didn't agree with. It was my first real lesson. Then in the fact that being family to someone doesn't really assure us of anything. But it doesn't guarantee any certain quality of relationship just because you're related. Being family it seemed she said to me. Counted for something. But it sure didn't guarantee or seal the deal. And so was i left her office and pondered my relationship with my grandfather. Pondered the distinctions and differences between love and like. Between love and agreement and disagreement. I realized i was left with some thoughts about legacy. About how we can be grateful to and love those members of our family who have made our lives possible. Even when we don't see eye-to-eye. And so i lift up for you this morning that same question. I've how is it that those we were late to in our families. How is it that weekend. Love them. And thank them and express gratitude and honor the legacy that they have given us. And the roles they have played in shaping us. Even when we don't get along with them. How do we give fagg's. Adequate and honest thanks. To those who made our very existence possible. And yet of course as we all know. Those family connections. Will require more than simple gratitude. At least they will if they're. To be built on something more than just the obligations of family but genuine care and love for one another. So what happens when there isn't more than that. What happens when you have people in your family that you love because they are your family but you don't feel. Genuine like for them. What happens when you don't feel much. In, nor much affection. Or if when truth be told you don't really enjoy their company so much. You find yourself at that family gathering going through what feels like a wrote. Motions of the things that you've always done with these people that he won't but it's really not you. Then what. You know i i brought this up recently with some friends. We were talking about what you can do in these situations how do you handle the limits of family connection. What do you do if and when you feel like it's so much an obligation and not at all or nurturing or life-giving thing to spend time with your family. These are people you're supposed to love your supposed to go spend your obligatory thanksgiving with these people whether you like them or not. But what if you don't have to. Is it ever okay to choose less connection is it ever okay to walk away altogether. Well i haven't quite decided that for myself yet but i can see where there are times when maybe it's okay. To say that that tv image of the perfect family. Those images we've been handed of what it means to be a family member. Whether they're functional or dysfunctional. That sometimes it's okay to say that enough is enough. But sometimes it's okay. To say maybe this. Just isn't going to work. What are we called to be. Who are we called to be with our families. I don't think it's that person who just sits through family gatherings because you're supposed to. I think the calling is to find a way to be family. That feels real. I think we're called to create family ties that are more than simply a give in. That are meaningful. In their own way not just because we are family to one another but because our connection has love and care and beauty all its own. And that means sometimes. When that isn't the case. Giving ourselves permission. Collect go. Or to give up. When nothing seems to work. Clearly friends. There are many times when our images of family only confuse us more. When are. Send stuff what family should be. Only makes it harder to actually be in a family. And i've been thinking a lot lately about how we talked about all souls church. We sometimes say it's our church family. We have it every week that we are part of a great family of all souls. And yet i think if we are going to continue to throw around the word family all the time. We might need to do some defining of terms. Not just. About what family is which of course is the hot topic in our society. Who gets to say who's in a family and what kind of constellation of people creates a family. I'm not really interested in that debate. Because as far as i'm concerned it's really not a debate worth having families our family's love is love you're a family your family that's it. What i am interested in what i am interested in especially in the context of our church. Is thinking seriously about why we throw it around the word family and how confusing it is to not really know what that means are even how hurtful that is for people for whom family. Is just a sad and difficult and tangled web. We are not family to one another at all souls church in my mind what we are to one another is community. We are people that can remind one another. The network of care and compassion stretches further than blood relatives and. Friends in that typical sense. We are a community of friendship and kinship. In that sense that we are part of a great family. Of. Love and community not family by blood not family and even the. Broadest sense of that term. I suppose what i'm trying to say is that while their qualities that church and family share. Being to fant being family to someone. Is a much more complicated thing that we don't actually have in this building in our relationships to each other. Being family to someone is rooted in staying connected. No matter what. Through ups and downs. It's it's rooted in. Being with people. Leave a room for you to be your true and full self. Which i know some immediate family is doing always do i know you've just been come on it's in the holidays we should leave been with those people who don't allow you to fully be yourself. And yet. These distinctions. He's important distinctions between family and not family. I think will help us. Cannot expect something from one another here at the church. In our church community. That is unrealistic. Where do you expect. Or to confuse and conflate or delay or over on top of our church family. All that we bring with us baggage and otherwise. From our biological families. So let me close. This confusing conversation about family. With another personal story. About my own family. As many of you know my own family has been a source of great confusion and great joy for me not the least of which because the two sides of my family are different races. I went to summer to visit my paternal grandmother. The only living grandparent that i've got left. My nana as i call her who is 89 years old. And is in a retirement community up in new hampshire. That is a specially created for those with memory loss issues. My grandmother is now suffering from alzheimer's disease. And she wasn't quite sure who i was. She certainly didn't remember meeting my partner before and she had no idea who this baby was that we brought to see her other than that she was cute. She was very clear that there was a very cute baby. Several times as we sat there with my grandmother with my nana she turned to my father who was there and said. So you never did have any children. And i realized in that moment. In that complicated. Family moment. That that woman. Wilma burton goodwin. Will always be my grandmother. And i will always be her granddaughter whether she remembers it or not. That i will always be linked to her in ways that i will never fully comprehend. Ways beyond our physical features that are similar. Beyond our character attributes and love of jazz that we share in common. That i will always be her granddaughter and in her debt. But at the same time. I will have to be my own person. She will not remember for me who i am becoming or where i have been. That i have to write for myself. This reminded me that that's. What being part of a family is really like. It's about knowing that you are connected to people in ways that you cannot ask for. But you cannot ever let go of. And yet you will at some point have to be your own person. Chart your own path and course. That will sometimes taking closer to those members of your family and sometimes will take you further away. For family is that place. Where our identities intersect. Where we are child and sibling. Where we are parent or grandparent aunt or uncle. And where we run into trouble. When those roles and those responsibilities become so fixed. So immovable. That we. Can't find ourselves anymore. And don't feel empowered to be ourselves at all. And so my prayer for us. Not only in this new year but in every year in our connections with family. Is that our family ties might lead us. Always to give thanks for the origins of our being. And also remind us that we are the authors of our own stories. But love and care and connection are much more than skin or even blood deep. That we can create family. With nearly anyone. And that the lessons of family. Teach us who we are and who we aren't. Friends may we seek ties. And when we need to may we be willing to let them go. So that our flourishing as human beings. Can be as full. And as whole. Andaz. Encompassing. As embracing as possible. So may it be. And i'm mad.

all-souls_org

07.09.30ThePracticeOfReverence.mp3

A few weeks ago a woman came up to me after church. And said she needed to talk. I haven't seen her in over a year she had come to all souls while attending college in dc but it since moved to the gulf coast. To help rebuild after hurricane katrina. When we finally sat down to speak in my office she told me more of her story a story she's giving me permission to share with you this morning. She left for louisiana a year-and-a-half ago eager to lend a hand in that devastated community. But what you found when she got there. Was even worse than she'd imagined. She described for me. The relentless emotional and psychological strain. Of living and working. In a disaster zone. She spoke of the rage that she felt. At the injustice of it all and how day after day. She had to swallow that rage like a bitter pill. Because of one setback after another. In the relief effort. She told me she'd watch co-workers crack and break down under the emotional stress for no matter how much you work no matter how many hours you put in there always remained an overwhelming amount of work. To be done. And when this young woman's felt. Began to feel that she herself was about to break down she got out. She took a break. Just for a few months. When we spoke she was about to return for another year. Her question to me that morning. The reason she pulled me aside and asked for some words alone was to ask me essentially this. What can i do. To save my soul. What can i do. To save my soul. I shouldn't mean save in the sense of being saved from sin and let into heaven. Cement saved in the sense of. Survival. What can i do to keep my soul from being torn to shreds. In the midst of so much suffering how do i hold a peaceful center. In the midst of such tragedy how do i find grace. What can i do. To save my soul. I share this woman's story with you for two reasons first because i know that many of you have been deeply affected. By your own experience visiting and working in new orleans. Large group from the church went last spring and many of you have been i know on your own. And i thought you could relate to her story. But i have another reason for sharing it a reason to takes me to the heart of my sermon this morning. Because this young woman's story offers in my mind a glimpse into a side of spirituality that we don't often see portrayed in our culture. These days. We tell you what i mean. I am concerned that that spirituality. Has become terribly. Waterdown. In our contemporary. American culture. As if a spiritual life or just another choice. In a menu of life enhancements opportunities. Let me explain earlier this summer i was struck by this when i walked into a pharmacy. What we used to call a drugstore. And overheard a customer ask an employee something i never thought i'd hear asked for in a drugstore. Even a high-end. Holistic drugstore which this was. In berkeley california. The gentleman asked the employee at the drugstore. Do you have any little. Buddhas. And he asked as naturally as if he just said you carry advil in the tiny gel caps. I was further surprised when the employees smiled and said why yes we have little buddhas. And proceeded to show the gentleman i display of not only buddha's small and large i might add. But yoga mats. Candles incense and a smattering of self-help books. And that's when it struck me that spirituality in america is in danger of becoming something that we merely consume. Grab off the shelf. Or worse. That it has become a luxury item. Like getting a facial. Or a spa treatment. Something to make the good life. Even better. And so i share this woman's story to remind us that that properly understood the nurturing and sustaining of our souls is not a luxury but a necessity. Sometimes even a matter of survival. A desperate attempt to keep our lives from careening out of control consumed by sorrow or anxiety. For pain. Into the young woman's question still remains before us. What can i do. To save my soul. Call religious ancestors on the unitarian side. Were among the first spiritual seekers in the west to shift. The essential question of religion from. How do i save my soul for the afterlife. 2. How do i sustain my soul. In this life. Basically believe that they believe that if we took care of our spiritual business in this life. The next one would take care of itself. Msr shift is our focus shifted from the bye and bye. To the here and now. They stopped uri in chance. The world. A world that have been dedicated by both orthodox believers who called it a valid tears and secular materialists who saw it as nothing more than a machine. They went about searching for the holy. In the mundane. They studied human life. Human fulfillment and liberation. The nature of a just society the earth and her creatures believing that the holy could be found here in our very midst we didn't have to look elsewhere. Just as the rabbi studies the torah and love it lovingly immerse himself in his complex minutiae and nuance and contradiction believing that in the midst of all that he'll find god. Our unitarian ancestors lavished reverent attention. Upon this world. Believing that in its minutiae. It's nuanced. It's contradiction. Could be a sound assurances of. And guidance from. The spirit. Life. Was there scripture. But in order for life to reveal its meaning to us. We had to bring a certain quality to our living. Said the early unitarians and they called that quality. Reverence. Irreverence is one of those words that i think we all have a sense of what it means but it's sometimes hard to really pin down. Premier everence is fundamentally. Adeeb. Respect. It is an attitude of all. And wonder. Ingratitude. For something of high or ultimate value. Albert schweitzer. The doctor and theologian famous for his concept of reverence for life. Had this to say about reverence and i hope you'll listen carefully. He said. Affirmation of life. Is the spiritual act. By which man. Women. Ceases to live. Unreflective lee. And begins to devote himself to his life with reverence. In order to raise it. To its true value. I want to say that again and make sure it's sing sin he said affirmation of life is the spiritual act. By which woman. Ceases to live. Unreflective lee. And begins to devote herself to her life. With reverence. In order to raise it. To its true value. For schweitzer as well as our unitarian ancestors reverence was not merely an attitude. With a way of life. A practice. I'll practice characterized by careful reflective. Pension. To life. And its meaning. Let me share with you a quick story about this practice of reverence. Or the lack thereof. This summer i took a hike in the marin headlands. Just north of san francisco. My hike began the path begin deep in a wooded gulch. That gradually switched back up out of the dark woods. And onto a sun-drenched bank filled with. Big scratchy brush. Bushes. That that loomed over my head in the end that claude at my clothes as i walked by so that i could barely see on either side of me. From time to time the brush. Would russell and crack. Under the weight of an animal. Pawpaw. And i was certain that one of the mountain lions that still stalk the marin headlands was about to pounce. On me. Luckily it was just a deer. Find me the brush cleared and i emerged on the top of the hill. With views. All around. In front of me. With the pacific ocean. Shimmering in the sun stretching to the horizon. And behind me. Over the next mountain. I could see the tops. Of the two rust-colored stanchions of the golden gate bridge. With san francisco silhouetted. In the distance. I paused for a moment. And took in the view. But having reached the culmination of my hike and honestly. Still a little anxious about the mountain lions. I quickly headed back down. But after a few moments i stopped myself and reflected on what i just done. On the beauty. I turned my back on. And i'm march myself back up that hill. And sat down. And just savored. Pausing in reverence attention. Before the earth's beauty. Giving thanks. Pursue some path. Said theroux. However narrow and crooked. In which you can walk. With love. And reverence. The spiritual riches that life offers us are not revealed. By a cursory glance. Or surface impression. Life's meaning is revealed. In its texture. Units details. And the only way we're going to notice is if we cultivate a practice. Irreverent. Living. Taking time to savor. And to give. Thanks. What can i do. To save my soul. Before the young woman left my office that morning i pressed into her hand. A little sheet of instructions. They were instructions. For a prayer. A meditation really. The central spiritual practice of our unitarian ancestors is what i put into her hands. You see. Aware that reverence doesn't always come naturally. Aware that there are people like me who can look at a sun-drenched ocean and turn and walk away. Early unitarians developed practices designed to cultivate reverend living. Practices that the develop habits of attentiveness and sensitivity to the spiritual dimension. Omar lives. Now hopefully the ushers have pressed a similar instruction sheet. Into your hands. This morning this one eye is what i'm talking about now. I have these printed up yesterday and i. I delegated the color choice to someone else in the office and i might not have chosen fuchsia. On which the prince of the meditative self-examination though. I was picking on fuchsia and the first service and the the future twins down here in the future down here in the choir took exception to my future, i'm not going to. But on this little card lays out the meditative discipline that i'm talking about. Each day before going to bed our ancestors would take themselves. On a guided meditation of their day. Carefully. Reverently recalling its details. They paid attention to their relationships. Asking if they treated others with respect and love. They notice the work they've done. And asked if it was principled and righteous. They look for glimpses of grace signs of the spirit little moments they might have otherwise overlooked in the rush of their day. They examine the moral and ethical situations that they faced during the day and judge whether they cheated the demands. A conscience. They poured over their lives like the rabbi over his torah. Convinced that it would yield truth. And meaning. And at the end of the meditation that usually fell into prayer. Prayers of gratitude for the blessings of the day. Prayers of forgiveness for that which needed forgiving. And a promise. To make good on the day. By going into tomorrow weiser. Ambetter. Now when you look at it on its little. Piece of fuchsia cardstock. It doesn't look like a very special thing. It doesn't look like it has anything to do with a mountaintop experience or or straw struggling soul. In new orleans. But i think it has everything to do with those experiences. Her only by cultivating a habit. Of reverence. Day in and day out. Can we experience it. In our daily lives. That's what spiritual practices are for. Exercises designed to develop. Our faculties. I've been practicing this. This practice now off and on for over 10 years. And despite. Lapses that i shared with you earlier in the sermon. I recommended to you highly. It has deepened. My life. When the young woman left my office that morning i reflected. On our time together and was reminded. Have a story that a mentor of mine once told. You told me about a time when he was a young man. And he one time was consumed with with rage. And with sorrow. And he was driven to prayer at that during that time not. By the love of god. For he didn't even believe in god back then. But out of a desperate need. Quail that rage. I'm at sorrow. Well his crisis was averted and the rage has subsided. But thirty years later he still praying. Every morning. And now he'll tell you he wouldn't give it up. For the world. Because its prayer life has added in measurable depth. And richness. To his life. And she left my office that morning. My wish. For the young woman. Was that a prayer turns to in crisis. Might one day for her. Become a source of not only solace. But a rich. And reverence. Living. And that's my prayer for all of us.

all-souls_org

07.02.04OurLivesInContext.mp3

So here we are. A sunday after rob's last sunday for 6 and a half months and. I simply want to say first and foremost before i begin the the reading and sermon this morning that i appreciate all of the vote of confidence that many of you have. Whispered in my direction. Many of you have asked me how it's going it's only been a week so ask me again later but so far so good. And i want to appreciate especially jennifer keller's comment to me that this morning that this is the first time in a hundred and eighty-five years that a woman has been leading this congregation so i follow in the footsteps so take that nancy pelosi. So this morning sermon all kidding aside is that entitled out lives in context. And the reading this morning i will beg your indulgence upon its a bit academic and tone. But it's from a book that i found rather fascinating of sociological studies. A book with the wonderful title together alone. Personal relationships in public places. And the authors of this book. Spent time in myriad different locations. And i just love the image of people sitting like in a bar or coffee shop or a gym writing notes about people so look out there might be sociologist watching you wherever you are. They were at playgrounds and inns around support groups in gyms and bars examining how we modern americans are and are not connecting with one another in public places. And at the end of the book. The editors of it. Calvin borel david snow and cindy white. Draw a few conclusions and even more than that raised more questions. That their research points toward. And here's some just a little bit of what they have to say. Who won is. Depends on where one is. Identity resides not in the individual alone. But in the interaction between the individual and his or her social environment. Indeed particular places can highlight or suppress particular aspects of one's identity. And once interactional practices. Interactional. How you relate to be. Thus increasing the likelihood. That one will enact the kinds of relational ties most prevalent in that setting. We now live. In the 21st century. And it is clear that the relational landscape. Has been transformed to include. A greater role for public sociality. Accelerated social mobility. Alternative family forms. And electronically mediated relationships. That could not have been envisioned by previous generation. What is unclear. Is how this new relational landscape. Especially the fleeting and anchored relationships in public places. Links to what are considered more durable and intimate. Ties. How and under what conditions. Do public connections. Compensate for lost or absent. Primary relay. And the sociological. So what does all this mean. What it means to me is that the news about how well we modern americans connect to one another. Is not at all promising. In together alone the sociologist make it clear that although the ways that we can connect with one another. Have never been more variety very dormir.. We are more often are around each other. But we're not necessarily interacting in ways that are significant or meaningful. The sociologist robert putnam in his oft-cited book bowling alone. Has bemoaned the loss of civic organizations. Which used to serve as a sort of glue that held neighborhoods and communities more closely together. We've lost the social capital he says. To get things done. To advance causes that we care about. And most importantly to care for one another. And most recently headlines proclaimed that a duke university study. That was in the june issue of the american sociological review. Had found that most americans now have fewer clothes ties. Then ever before. Certainly more so than in the past several decades. There's circle of confidence is smaller than ever. Apparently only 25% of the people that they surveyed in this duke study. 25% percent said that they have had absolutely nobody to confide in anymore. A third of the people said that they had fewer friends than they used to. Smaller and smaller our circle of connections in spite of the fact that there are more and more ways for us to connect. More and more ways in which we are around each other all the time. So why is this the case. Why are we in one another's company but not really knowing each other. Well i suppose the short answer is because our lives are complicated. I'm not sure that they're more complicated than they used to be but i suppose that some would argue they are. We are busy people. And we have so many things which influence us and which push upon us and demand our time and attention. In the midst of all of the news and the popular culture and the internet searches and the opinions of other people around us. We find it hard in that swirl. To figure out. Coo and. What an. How it is that we should be. In this world. We find it harder and harder to feel grounded. To feel situated somewhere to feel clear. About who it is that we are. How it is that we might pull ourselves together in. Some. Coalesced being. The den of our culture of our world. Around us is so loud. That we can no longer hear the still small voice within. Which some might call conscience. Others of us soul and other still god. We can't hear. Unless we go out of our way to create a space. That will allow us to listen. And then he'd the admonitions of hours for. How can we now. Hold fast to. What we most want. For our lives. Not simply what is most convenient. Or what is most popular. Of course nothing that i've just said is surprising to you. We all know all of this that our lives are busy and complicated. Confusing. What i'm worried about is that too often our response is to sort of take our toys and go home. Too often our response is to close ourselves off it's all just too much so we retreat. Things are so hectic and so confusing and so much as asked of us. That most of the time we rather engage les. Shut other people out and simply circle the wagons of our lives if. And to go from home to work. And back again. Trying to do as little as possible outside of those two spheres of our existence. And then somewhere along the line. We decide that that isn't satisfying either. That living life in a bubble of home and work. Not interacting with anyone beyond our most immediate circle. Isn't satisfying enough. We longed for more connection. And we know that our lives.

all-souls_org

07.07.29GettingBeyondHowAreYou.mp3

Our meeting for this morning comes from lifesigns by henri nouwen a widely recognized rotor writer who spent many years as the master of daybreak a community for intellectually disabled people in toronto. Before his death in 1996. Fearful distance and fearful closeness. Are noticeable in the larger context of our lives. Prison mental hospitals in refugee camps are often built far away from the places where normal people live. To keep the fear evoking strangers at a safe distance. Other types of distance abound. Safe topics to discuss. Fake issues to get involved in safe subject to write about. One can find the safe closeness of the clique. The sect or the club. Places where people huddled together in mutual admiration or common suspicion of the outsider. In a time like ours. When fear takes on an apocalyptic dimension. Is extremely tempting to join a small group they called non-members useless. Dangerous or evil. And offers a unique sense of belonging. To those who. Follow the rules. But whether through distance for a closeness. Fear prevents us. From forming an intimate community. In which we can grow together. Everyone in his or her own way. When fear separates us. Or joins us. We can no longer confess to each other our sins. Our brokenness. And. Our wounds. How then can we forgive each other and come to reconciliation. Distance allows us to ignore the other. Is having no significance in our lives. And closeness. Office of an excuse. For never expressing or confessing. Our feelings of being hurt. A few months ago. I met a 10 year old boy. While having dinner at the friend of a friend's house. I was actually the driver so they had to invite me in. The boy was the son of a couple hosting a dinner party. And he appeared average in every way. Slight build glasses. Quiet and polite when introduced to the adult. And after the introductions he probably chose something from the refrigerator. And disappeared. Every evening drew to a close. I stepped out of the room to get some fresh air. On my way out i noticed the ten-year-old at the computer and one of the rooms down the hall. I casually asked. What are you doing. I'm looking for information about chakras. Is it true that there's a connection between what goes on a and what goes on out there. If it's truly could really help people. Whoa not the response i was expecting i was expecting nothing playing games emailing. Definitely definitely not a boy engaged in an intense search for the truth behind the power of chakra. With the express intent of saving the world. I recovered from my surprise quickly. And i moved towards the boy if he began pointing to the screen and saying you see this blue here that's where the spirit is and this red circle that's the chakra. Anjappar wondering how we can connect the two. I knelt down beside him and we talked about the spirit and spiritual power and the ways people connect the two. At the close of our conversation he thanked me for talking with him. I think his words were. Thanks for help me figure this out. I quickly shared my thanks because i felt we work this out together and that there was much more to understand. Ebony hot dog to the next adventure. Although we didn't put our feelings into words. I suspect he's so grateful for the opportunity to share his questions and thoughts with someone. I know i felt grateful. But the openness and trust he shared with me. I felt honored to enter the struggle for meaning with him. On a topic he felt intensely curious about. Even if only for a moment. As unitarian universalist. We know something about this feeling of gratitude. In finding a community. Where are questions are affirmed. Even when we know the answers are not immediately available. Nor perhaps. Will be ever become completely known. We appreciate the willingness of others. To accompany us on the quest. And we explicitly affirm this support in two of our principles. We covenant. To affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. And we will practice acceptance of one another. And encouragement and spiritual growth. In our congregations. As we consider embodying these principles in our lives. It's helpful to remember i think. The vision of a church stated quite simply by unitarian universalist minister angus maclean. He writes. There are times. Occasions. Areas. In which we as individuals are strong. And there are times and places. Where it is hazardous for us to go it alone. That is why in my opinion. The church could be of immeasurable service to us as individuals. If it's partly live up to what i envision for it. I may be just a visionary. But i do not think it beyond us at the church. To have support. One another in arlo moment. And on the other hand have outlets for strength. When and where we are strong. It is certainly my vision. To contribute to creating more spaces at all souls church. Where we can reasonably expect. You have the support of one another in our times of need. Well on the other hand making space for the full expression of our strengths and gifts. When we're feeling strong. I believe we move closer to this vision. By realizing the truth. And spiritual growth. Sometimes require. Us to move beyond asking. How are you. And invites us to abandon the usual response. Find. Okay. I want to reassure you that casual conversation is appropriate most of the time. The point is. Can we move beyond it when we need to. Can we create the time and a space. To ask bottle question. And can we openly and honestly share ourselves with one another. What gets in the way of an honest answer to the question. How are you. 41. In a culture that teaches us. Probably or stubbornly go it alone. It's hard to ask for help. Or confess our weaknesses. We are afraid of rejection. Misunderstanding. And the whole embarrassment of it all. We sometimes fall back on the notion that we are private people. And uncomfortable with sharing our grief. Our sorrow. Or hurts with others. I want something i heard licensed psychologist dr. robin smith say on this subject. She said. You were not born private. The world taught you to be that way. You were not born private. Allowing for differences in personality. Some of us are truly introverts and shy. And some of us dislike the spotlight. We have to find a way of speaking our heart that matches and work for a personality style. I want to suggest if there is freedom in these words. You were not going private. There's freedom for those of us who hold on too tightly to our feeling. For fear what will happen if we let down our guard. Is one who has been there i can attest to how difficult it is to share your thoughts and feelings with others. But in time you get better. And the best thing is. You get heard. It's also a challenge to bear witness to the pain and suffering of others. When we are with others are inability to saul. Or help them solve the problem. Makes us angry. And uncomfortable. We cannot heal the wounds or answer the question. Then we would like to. You would rather not know too much. Knowing the whole truth. In recognizing our inability to change things. Brings us face-to-face with our limitations. And our fears. We avoid the scary topics. Purse. they will meet a challenge we can't overcome. In a book of conversation starters entitled turning to one another. Meg wheatley tells the story of a south african woman. Who she says began to tell the story of true horror. How she found her grandparents slaughtered in their village. Wheatley continues. Many of the women were westerners. And in the presence of such pain they instinctively wanted to do something. They wanted to fix. Make it better. Anyting to remove pain of his tragedy. Such a young life. The young woman felt the compassion. But i also felt them closing in. She put her hands up as if to say. Thanks. But i don't need you to fix me. I just need you to listen to me. The women learn the lesson in the power of listening. That can heal. What it can't fix. We are listen to. That can be enough. It takes effort. Sometimes a lot of effort to listen intentionally to another's pain. And faith in the healing power of listening. My pastoral care instructor called it listening for both the words and the music. When we listen deeply to another we hear not only the words. But the unnamed feelings and truth behind the word. When have you experienced someone listening deeply to you. What difference did it make for you when someone reached out and cared. Crossing the safe distance together as unitarian universalist. Means opening yourself up to the stories and questions and experiences of others. Those around us. And enjoying the blessing of others. Being with others. What does that mean being with others. We know for example there's a long tradition in a christian. Story. A describing being with others as a means of dwelling in the spirit. Who where two or three are gathered together in my name there am i in the midst of them. And we know the jewish tradition honors relating to one another as an extension of rain relating to the eternal vow. All real living is meeting the jewish scholar butter martin buber states. It is turning forward one another. That we find an experience wholeness. The lakota sioux in the smoking of what is often called the peace pipe with the words. We are all related. An assertion of the spiritual friendship among the participants. And we are aware. Of the ordinary groups of friends and neighbors. Explaining the completion of a project. But impossible in the beginning with these simple words. Some friends and i started talking. Organizational consultant meg wheatley reminds us. There is no power for change. Greater than a community. Discovering what it cares about. It is the power of being together. Avene with others which leads to lasting changes. As unitarian universalist we tend to speak of being with other as entering into covenant. Being with others refers to our ability to accept. One another. Offer encouragement to spiritual growth. To live in right relation with one another. We choose to commit ourselves to being good friends. And good neighbors. As a spiritual practice. Henry nelson wyman called being with others on this level. The creative interchange. The creative interchange move beyond what he calls the cliche. The scale convention. Any automatic reactions we encountered. In casual conversation. He concluded that without creative interchange we experienced a spiritual death. Weiman understood the need to share our experiences vividly. With all the life and color and energy that we can muster. As a creative process. A creative process for deepening our sense of self. And our capacity to give an experience love. We gather in this community. Because we know what it means to encounter the blessing of being with others. It means opening our hearts and minds.

all-souls_org

07.03.18ReflectionsOnSocialJustice.mp3

Social justice. Sunday. So it is. Appropriate that. H a pal davies fund. Sabbatical. Funding are gaspard. And that bishop john selders. That's for this day. So a warm. The ham i'm going to tell you a little bit about him. He comes from several religious route. Flavors. Pentecostal upbringing. Bishop in the anglican order of the african orthodox church. Ucc minister serving as pastor at amistad you. In hartford. But he is my usage. Akali. I was not responsible for this. Haitian but i sure was delighted by it. He is a colleague with whom i have served on the nash. The board of. The coalition. For less. Gabe i said. And bishop's elders and i were nash. Coordinator. Together. Of the bisexual network of our denominator. He is a national spokesperson with the human rights can. Religion of faith council. And. This is where sharon groves and others who go to also. Work. He and his wonderful wife pam have a son a daughter a beautiful girl. He has been my community organizing buddy over the last seven years. And. Is my friend. And i. So. This morning. And no we are in. Country dance. I greet you. It's the word. Blessing. I am humbled. To be here. And it is my honor. Do happen. Ask to be a part of your distinguished guests. Preacher series during the. Sabbatical. Reverend. And yes i am the willing victim of a sharon grove instigation. Reverend hardee's invitation and louise green and her partner. The regina's. Hospitality and most wonderful reception. Of me too. Share some reflections with you as we have gathered today in this sacred space and place. And as i stand behind this most. Prestigious. Pulpit. Let me also acknowledge. Part of my spiritual family who are here among us. The reverend cedric harmon my brother and friend and colleague. Esteemed. Nicole labor in the gospel for some now many years. Would you stand. Angry. Your family thank you. To be in here. Mileage partners at the human rights campaign staff people who are here would you stand. I ryan and. Sharon and kyle. Thank you very much for doing p.m.. Dr. sharon groves and her partner and kyla. And your partner greg. Thank you for being here being my support and moral support and partner. And partners in crime as we do the work we. Have been past doing finally. Special thanks to. My sister. And friend the reverend louise green in a partner. For being such gracious. And loving hose to me. This entire. I love you both and i'm indebted to you next time it's. Stand here. Recognizing and seeing that i am in. The company. Such a great cloud of witnesses. Not only are you here. But the reverend robert little. Co-founder the honorable john quincy adams. Delete civil rights march on the reverend james reeb and the sainted and revered. Reverend david. They are here too. I must acknowledge the memory presents of my own answer. Those of african impersonation. Relatives of mine whose face and indomitable spirit i have inherited and whose lands we now occupy. I dunno ask for the permission. Bataka yahtzee. May we always remember. And never for. And i also too must acknowledge. The memory presents of the bishop william earl sellers senior and the mother queenly as she was annie easter selders my paternal grandparents. The preacher and the musician whose blood runs warm in my veins and whose spirit has overshadowed me from the beginning of my life and to my dad the reverend gerald devron ford whose memory will never grow them in my. May i always. And while i'm at it. Let me see one more thing. I am a black gospel. Trained in the best of the tradition and i am accustomed to the air and flow of preacher teacher and congregation in the idiom and context of the black church worship experience so generally in settings such as if you don't get with me i'm going to be long and boring. Speaking ebonics. If you failed ant-man every now and then if you wave your hand every so often if you acknowledge with her hand clap applause will be soon truth and you'll enjoy the ride. Let me let me let me. Begin. Oh yeah i'm going to preach this morning. Lord i feel like i'm feeling kinda at home up here brother. Let me let me begin my. My remarks in the message. What does a few short a couple. Short passages. That will serve for me the basis of my reflections with you. Well. Charity. Ain't justice. Charity is a beautiful thing but you don't got to be charitable to me if i already got justice. If i already got a sense of participation you ain't got to be charitable to me. Just treat me right every day. That's why that's why you and i are on the same ship in fact we're traveling on the same plane. You might be traveling in first class eating filet mignon and i might be eating peanuts in the back and roll. 55. If you're on the plane being in first class ain't going to stop you from going down with the rest of us. When there's turbulence that's turbulence everywhere everybody shaking it and if the plane goes down you might die first in first class yes yes. What will you do to speak to the pilot to tell the pilot to tell the control center that we've got the change directions to lester purviance leave our own deck. That's the truth. We've got to tell. That's the courage we've got the mustard that's the beauty of soul we must have really reveal to one another in the quietness of our own individual. A reading from. Contemporary prophet. Rev dr. michael eric dyson. Noted author and professor at. Second reading. From one of my saints and heroes. Brother james. If you really wish to know how justice is administered in a country. One does not question the police. The lawyers. The judges. The protected members of. The middle and upper classes. One goes to the end. Those precisely who need the law's protection mobile. And listen to their. Would you. Pray with me for a moment. Cuz i want to talk about. Spirit life is preaching time. And i've been charged. But the task i feel. So. Little. So i need your. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation. Of all about hearts. Speak. According to the center of economic and social justice. Justice is a set of universal principles which guide people in judging what is right and wrong no matter what culture and society they live in. Justice then is one of the four cardinal virtues of classic moral philosophy along with courage and self-control and an imprudence of faith hope and charity are considered. To be in there somewhere as somewhat religious virtues. Virtues are good habits. Help indivisible individuals to develop fully their human potential. Does enabling them to serve their own interest as well as work in harmony with others from their common good. The ultimate purpose of all the virtues is to elevate the dignity and sovereignty of the human person. Define social justice. Ask the virtual which guides us in creating those organized human interactions we call institution. Intern social institutions when's joshua organized provide us with access to what is good for the person both individually and in our associations with others. Social justice also imposes on each of us a personal responsibility to work with others to design and continually perfect our institutions as tools for personal and social development. Let me stress from yardstick. My message here. This morning. That i believe that there are. Great a great deal of definitions. For the term justice. And i don't want to suggest that i have the only definitive answer to what this term is. The concept art. Its implications in my mind. On not just up static. Stayed. Fashionable thing. What i want to. Do. If you would allow me to engage in some thinking. Box ideas about how as people of faith. We relate to our own sense of call. Secondly. How mike weed and the world around us being impacted by our. Both individually and collectively our actions. Both individually and collectively. And i would behaviors both individually and collectively. Because of this sense. I know where i am. Many of us. Who here. Can a great deal about you. That was an amen moment right. Y'all missed it but that was an amen woman right. You got to be q got to be on guard i'm in any moment. One of my many men mobile. We go to great lengths. The far-reaching destinations that have we set up marvelous structures and systems and organizations and institutions and societies and civilization foundations and association processes and procedures to ensure that justice is served and it is served well. Governments and nations have y'all doing good y'all doing good. Don't have to tell you much about the governments and nations have expressed and invested much to extol the virtues of such kingdoms and empires have suggested their perspective and value of justice or the model for all throughout time the hold near and dear. I believe however the james baldwin might have been correct. When he said in his peace and title. The crusade of indignation. Words like freedom. Justice. Democracy. Are not common concepts. On the contrary they are where. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and above all individual efforts to arrive at the respect. What are the people. That these words in. And certainly religious religion and religious. Institutions and organizations across time and every generation have held it through human delivery vastly different notions of their brand of justice or just us. Syphilis. Give to socrates an interesting definition of just. At the beginning of plato's republic. Justice is giving someone what it what is do. We feel we had acted justly when we treat someone as we feel they ought to be treated. We have given them what we owe them what belongs to them what is proper for them and hence is their property. Remember martin scorsese's. The godfather. I hear you going out here. Woman the movie. The undertaker comes to. Don corleone. And because the courts have not punished the young man who wronged his daughter y'all remember that. Is it the purpose that the proper procedure was followed but the results were wrong and he asked the godfather for substantive justice. It is a serious and even compelling critique of our sort of political justice. Because the questions of. Was justice done where the guilty smitten given their just due did the punishment fit the crime. If it doesn't fit you must. Go ahead johnny cochran. Where were you treated according to your dude. These are always the sort of things people would ask the law. And they will. And need answers. Yet many of us today i would venture to say gathered in community have affinity to community to gather themselves around seeking. Justice i noticed that that's your mission in this church. We spend large amounts of time talent and resources and projects that are out to promote justice. Communities rather. Secular or religious civic or social private and public proclaim what do we want. When do we want it. And yet there is injustice. Justin sbarro's in the world singley unrestrained. There are people and people's who's legacies. Build treatment. Steel. Ar. We battle wounds. There are many of us here today. That have experienced either directly or indirectly in justices at the hand of people following the directive from directors out of some scripts that render our performances in such said dramas not adequate. Leaving the church on yesterday. Right outside these doors. We came for me a quick reminder of the realities of this world in dc a black man even in my distinguished garb of a clergy couldn't easily held on a clamp. In the metaphoric words of last year's oscar-winning song of three 6 mafia it's hard out here for a pimp. I said metaphorically. Sickness and disease grip continents like africa and asia then this build-up off of the criminal injustice complex in this country the persecution and prosecution of a war for some reason that remains to me still beyond my comprehension. In this city you all are acutely aware of the meaninglessness. Political gridlock. The dams and the reps can't get it together. The math civic. Social unwillingness of peoples of all walks of life in every nation of this world. We came in hunger. Poverty. Homelessness. It blows. My. The continual granting of the fear-mongering privilege that brenda so many to hate-filled mindless behavior that her name and killed when will it stop when will it in i don't know how i don't know when my heartache. It is certain james baldwin reminds us. But in any case. Where ignorance alive with power is. There lies the most ferocious enemy justice. I believe in hope. And i believe faith offers. I believe love cast out. I believe respect and regard outlast hate. So. My friend profit. Dyson. Said. But the plane is in trouble. And i would encourage our neighborhoods are in. Our families are in. Trouble. Our sisters and brothers battling addiction are in trouble pookie and ray-ray are dying on the street soon assume that they are in trouble yet we are in trouble. On the roshes and pathology are leading us down a road to destruction. The violence that is taking place around the corner you think you may be safe just wait a minute my grandmother would say keep on living it's coming down your avenue. You can't keep running and moving from neighborhood to neighborhood soon as soon as they know you that pookie and ray-ray on their way. I'm sorry they my cousin. And you will be soon to face the reality of the pookie and the rays and the shaniqua of our time and about world that your children too. What will you do to speak to the pilot. Some of us are depending on that the first class cruiser speak first. To tell the pilot to tell the control center. We've got to stop and change directions unless the terminus will lead us all to our own death and demise. I can't said no better than dr. king. Justice anywhere is a threat injustice anywhere is a threat to justice. Everywhere. So. Let me say to you my family. My family espirit. And tim. Ours is to somehow someway busy our lives our true selves in the enterprise of connecting one with the other. Visiting our lives our true selves in the endeavor of life giving and life-sustaining relationship. Losing our lives our true selves with the development of faithful and faithful tasks coming from our convictions and our commitments of faith. Choose ye this day whom you will. Choose to say yes. Choose to say i'll go i'll do i'll say i'll give i'll make the sacrifice when it's time to make. I'm coming home now coming on. Dr. king's epistle from the birmingham jail. She says let me remind. He said i'm in birmingham. Because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century bc left their villages and carried their. said the lord far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns and just as the apostle paul left his village apartments. Like paul i must. Constantly respond to the macedonian call for aid. Maurice's. I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states i cannot sit idly by in atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in birmingham. Injustice everywhere is a threat to justice everywhere we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly never again can we afford to live with the narrow provincial outside agitator idea. Everyone who lives inside the united states can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its about. So-so. Family let me speak to you. Let me say to you. We are on the plane. We're on the same plane. What is your. What is your spiritual devotion that caused you to action. What are you compelled and being compelled to do what is your response to the. What will you choose to do what it come when they come when they come for. I understand that i'm outing myself. As of. Some whatever. Existentialists. At that is to suggest that. I believe we are fully responsible for creating the meeting of our lives. And as such. It is for me. I believe. We must shoot. Puma shoes. Be courageous. At times. Bold. It all the time. Let me. With one of my favorite. Out of the night that covers me black as the pit. From pole to pole i think whatever gods may be. For my uncomfortable soul. In the fall in the fell clutch of circumstance i have not with no crying allowed under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody my but not unbowed. Hold this place of rap infused balloons from the horror of the shape and yet the menace of the years find at your find me unafraid. It matters not how strait. I've charged with punishments the scroll. I am. The master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. Lasley. Learn the song when i was growing up in. I think it might be apropos. Today. Do something. It's going to rain. It's going to rain. Better get ready. Bear this in mind. Got to know. By the rainbow sign no more. But fire next time. Just going to rain it's going to rain. Normal water. Best buy in the next time now listen this is listen listen that's for my. I kind of just going to blow up after while. But i don't know. What you think. We don't get visit. And if we don't get to making peace waves. We don't get too busy making justice way. We don't get busy carrying a banner of love and peace and justice what will happen i think the song right is right. The sign of the rainbow. Might not be no water next this time might be. Heard you today. And get busy not from a sense of. Not from a sense of the snobbery of some of our mainline products. Tradition. Talk to me here. We can poo poo real quick. Alphacool. Fake. From a different space. I heard you today. To recommit yourself. To recommit yourself. To the right. To recommit yourself. Take two. Acknowledge. Your face. Whatever it comes where it comes how everything gets pulled from. I'm deep inside my mama said out of your belly. Shuffle flow rivers. Living. Remember.

all-souls_org

05.01.16SpeakingTruthToPower.mp3

Before i share this morning's reading. I just want to say another word of welcome to. Tamara lynn sewell this morning and to introduce her to you a little bit. The reverend dr. maryland sewell is senior minister of the first unitarian church in in portland oregon one of the largest unitarian churches in the country and my home church. Maryland was my minister. And what's more her ministry and her example are a big reason that i decided to go into the ministry over 10 years ago. Some of you know reverend sewell already you may remember that she preached at my ordination and installation here in 2001 but she's also had a more subtle presents. You see she's a writer and an editor of poetry anthologies and other anthologies and many of the poems that i share as readings on sunday mornings come from her first collection called cries of the spirit. As part of her ministry in portland maryland is an active writer and editor and i hope that many of you will be able to join us here in the sanctuary at 1 to hear her read from her newest book breaking free and anthology of women's writing at midlife. And so it's my great pleasure to welcome you here to all souls marilyn could they have you. And i reading this morning is in fact taken from marilyn's anthology cries of the spirit. It's by annie dillard. Who shall ascend into the hill of the lord. And who shall stand. In his holy place. There is no one. But us. There is no one to send nora clean hand nora pure heart on the face of the earth nor in the earth but only us. A generation comforting ourselves with a notion that we've come at an awkward time. That are innocent fathers. Are all dead. As if innocents had ever been. And our children busy and trouble than we ourselves unfit not yet ready having each of us chosen wrongly made a false start failed yielded to impulse. And the tangled comfort of pleasures. Grown exhausted. Unable to seek the thread. Weekend involved. But there is. No one. But us. There never has been. I just made great pleasure to be here today to be invited to your pulpit to witness for myself the renaissance of this great church already know is rob told you that. Remember the young soldier. Anorak who witness who testified who broke military protocol and confronted donald rumsfeld with a question why do our soldiers have to look for for scrap metal to protect our are humvees when we are in combat the question was a daring a powerful witness and it shook the nation and nation to citizens are too often uninformed are misinformed about the true state of the war in iraq. Out of the person that he is. That he has become 44 you see we witness not so much by what we say but by who we are the saying of the witnessing comes out of the very being of the person. The first is about a wwii hero named butch o'hare he was a fighter pilot on an aircraft carrier in the pacific one morning his entire squadron flew off on a mission but after he was airborne he looked at his field gauge and he realized. You make know or may have guessed that o'hare airport in chicago is named for him for butch o'hare. The other story took place some years earlier you may not remember the name is yeti but surely you have heard of his boss the notorious gangster al capone. Now. he had a son and he dug it on and as you might imagine he provided the sun with everything that money could buy these clothes with cars with a good education he also loved his son enough that that he knew that that he wanted to teach him right from wrong but he ran into a little trouble there he couldn't give his son what he wanted most to give him a good name and a good example and ultimately. What is the connection between these two stories. Legacy butcher hair was easy eddie son. Such a witness does not come simply from an idea or concept that might seem appealing or compelling becomes when a person has arrived at a place when when when he or she can do no other when it would be unthinkable to do anything else except what they must do no matter what the personal consequences. It felt that way for easy eddie and it fell that way for his son but your hair. We speak of living with integrity what is that name means wholeness completeness it means all of the part coming together into one needs an integrated as we mature in our living spiritually speaking we move towards greater and greater integrity. The dikotomy between the professional and the private begins to diminish and then to vanish. We are not one way at home and another on the job we do not adhere to one set of values that church and then to another in our business dealings no one's whole life becomes oriented committed to the good. The flash the mind the spirit all are turned that way to formalize that we show to the world the care the sensitivity is the same that we show in our informal life at home. The respect that we shout to the wealthy man is the same as the respect that we show to the unless of people the man whose eyes are glazed over with drink who stumbles towards you asking for a quarter you may not choose to give the quarter but you may always choose to give respect. The outer life becomes a clear clean reflection of the inner spirit that is alive of integrity. And that is a life that gives witness with every breath that is taken. With every word that is spoken this kind of witness if it's not something that one thinks through and then decide the point rather it has a kind of inevitability. You know this is who i am this is what i have to do. The life of the man that we honor today martin luther king jr had that kind of inevitability about it he was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of a bus boycott in montgomery alabama in 1955 chosen i daresay chosen by god and by his people to leave the civil rights movement when he was a very young man just before his 27th birthday. And he could not turn away there were personal consequences to his witnessing. The very next month the bomb was thrown onto the porch of the king's montgomery home it was the first but it would not be the last he was stabbed in the chest in 1958 in new york city while signing copies of his first book stride toward freedom intensified and. The fallen figure dying there on the balcony of the lorraine motel in memphis on april 4th. 1968 ford f450 speech he said 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 up to the mountain and i've looked over and i've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you but i want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land and i'm happy tonight i'm not worried about anyting i'm not fearing any man mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord. Martin luther king junior's live was a given over life even unto death. Would he witness. I want to talk for a moment now about the role of institutions in witnessing garrison keillor once said and he said this on 1 martin luther king jr day he said rosa parks wasn't an activist she was just a woman with her groceries who was tired now. Institutions. I myself was that that cinder in the 1980s at a gathering original riders strolling about the campus i ran into an elderly gentleman somehow i knew he was plant good seed he writes in part my job is to try to provide opportunities. I think about the institution that isn't sure how much i agree with myles horton here we provide opportunities for people not to make them grow but to invite people to grow your plant good seeds and you nurture those seeds and yes sometimes you have to get rid of bugs. This church is one place where that seed is watered and watered so well and where that seed can grow. We are in a period of our national history just now when we desperately need a witnessing of the truth. I cannot begin to tell you how sick and distressed i become when people in the highest places of our government can look as in the eye and lie through their teeth for the benefit of the few.

all-souls_org

06.12.10AGrowingLastingLight.mp3

A reading this morning is from the poet. Lynn ungar. The poem called hanukkah. And it's addressed to. The maccabees. The freedom fighters who are the star. Of the hanukkah. Story. Hanukkah. Come down from the hills. Declare the fighting done. Be bold declare victory even when the temple is wrecked. And the tyrants have not retreated. Only coil back like a snake prepare to strike again. Come down. Try to remember. A life gentle.. By daily acts of domestic. Faith. The pot set to boil. The bed made up. The table set. Incomm expectation. That one the sunsets. We will still be here. Come down and settle. Unlearn the years of hiding. Light fires that can be seen from miles. The dancing spark and warm that. That you're frozen marrow. Declare your presence your loyalties the truths for which you do not expect to have to die. It would take a miracle. You say. To carve such a solid life. Out of the shell of fear. I say. You are the stuff. Of which such miracles are made. On the first night of hanukkah. In 1838. In a small apartments in brooklyn. A stooped aging father. Don's his yamaka. And did what his father had taught him. As his wife and son looked on. He lit the first candle. Of the menorah. We kindle these lights. He intoned in hebrew. On account of the miracles the deliverances and the wonders which you did for our ancestors. With candlelit and prayer spoken. Father mother and child gazed at the lone candle. Looking back on that moments from years later the boy recalls. That flame seemed. Almost. Pitiful. Against the malignant darkness. Outside our window. It being 1938. There hadn't been many miracles. Deliverances or wonders. Of late. To celebrate. The lingering depression left the streets of new york. Littered with the poor. And just weeks before jews across the world received news of kristallnacht. The night the nazis tore apart the ghettos burned synagogues and began shipping jews to the camps. The boy. Keim potok. Who would grow up to become a famous author remembers the days of that november and december began to go dark. Until it seemed the whole world. Would soon be shades of darkness. Dark sun and dark moon. Dark sky and dark earth dark knight and dark day. Get on each successive evening. His father lit the candles. One after another. When one last time on the 8th night he repeated the incantation we kindle these lights on account of the miracles the deliverances in the wonders. Which you did for our ancestors. Now with all eight candles. Burning bright still says potok. The darkness mocked. The light. From the look in his eye. Botox parents could see that. He just wasn't buying hanukkah that year. The candles weren't working their usual magic. His mother's side. His father asked wearily. You want another miracle. The boy didn't respond. Yes said the father you want another miracle. I also want. A miracle. But if it does not come. We will make a human miracle. We won't let the world extinguish our souls he said. The father continued as all three stared into the glowing menorah. Sometimes he said i think man is a greater miracle worker than god anyways. God doesn't have to live day after day on this broken planet. Perhaps some you will learn to make. Your own miracles. I will try to teach you. How to make. Human miracle. This is my favorite. Hanukkah. Story. One that i tell year after year. Fred always seems to contain a different message. Today as we welcome my child. Into our midst. The father's words to his son suggest to me our own responsibility to the young among us. I will teach you he says. How to make. Human miracles. That sounds to me as good a charge as any. To help our children make. Miracles. Or the very least. To notice them. But what is a human miracle. Anyway. And does the need for human miracle suggest that the age of god's miracles are over. The god has somehow. Abandoned us. Leaving us here to fend for ourselves. When you get down to it really that's the question that lies at the heart. Of all of our winter holidays hanukkah christmas. The solstice at the center of them all is this question this problem. Of our radical. Vulnerability. Independency as human beings. Winter after all was a time when our ancestors found themselves increasingly enveloped in darkness. As night swallowed more and more of the late they ask themselves has god abandoned us has our creator and sustainer left us alone to be consumed by the cold and darkness. No. Have faith resounds the chorus of all our winter celebrations have hope we are not alone. Precisely at our most vulnerable moments. We will be delivered. Precisely in our darkest hour. The light comes. Again. A growing. Lasting light. But in what manner will be will we be delivered. From our vulnerability. That's what i want to explore this morning and a hanukkah story gives us. One such answer to this question. Hanukkah of course. Is the story of a jewish minority. Living under the thumb of a capricious imperial rule. When the greek emperor of judea decided to crack down on jewish worship some jews went along but others fought back. In the maccabees let a tiny armed insurgency. That with the help of god's mighty hand achieved an improbable victory over the empire. Then they marched into jerusalem and rededicated the destroyed temple and though the temples lambs only contained one night's worth of oil. The story.

all-souls_org

03.02.02SolitudeAndLonliness.mp3

I'll reading this morning is from. The unitarian poet may sarton. It's from the very first entry in her best-selling book. Journal of a solitude. September 15th. Begin here. It is raining. I look out on the maple where few leaves have turned yellow and listen to punch the parrot. Talking to himself and to the rain taking gently against the window. I am here alone for the first time in weeks to take up my real life again at last. That's what's strange. That friends even passionate love are not my real life. Unless there is time alone. In which to explore into discover what is happening or what has happened. Without the interruptions nourishing and maddening this life would become arid yet. Yet i tasted fully. Only when i am alone here. And the house and i. Resume old conversations. The ambiance here is order and beauty. This is what frightens me when i am first alone again i feel inadequate. I have made an open place a place for meditation. What if i cannot find myself inside. In this journal i hope to break through into the rough rocky depths of life. To the matrix itself. There is violence there and anger never resolved. And my need to be alone. His balance against my fear. Of what will happen. When suddenly i enter. The huge. Empty. Silence. One sunday morning a few years ago. Headed to church i served before coming to all souls i stood on the front steps of the church much. As i do here. And greeted those who arrived. These front step readings are one of my favorite rituals of sunday morning by chance for me to connect if only briefly with each and every person who walks through those doors. It allows me to take the temperature if you will of the congregation to to feel where people are that morning. The morning particular morning that i'm thinking of a woman ambled up the steps of the church her eyes were cast down and a shadow hung over her face. This was a woman i'd seen sunday after sunday but who had never interacted with me much. I didn't know her very well. We usually shook hands. But that morning she came up to me. And gave me a big hug. That was a minister. I give and receive lots of hugs. It's one of the perks of the job and having having given quite a lot of them i have a sense for what the typical sunday morning ministerial hug feels like it's it's from. But gentle. And that usually lasts a moment or two. Sometimes though the hug is longer and more intense than usual. And that's when i know that there's something. Going on in a person's life. You can just tell from the hug. Cunetto's times a simple greeting becomes a moment. Of ministry. Well i'm at davis woman's hug was long and it was tight and she wouldn't let go. So i held her. And when she was done she said to me with tears in her eyes. That the greetings she received at church on sunday morning. The hogs in the handshakes from minister and congregation. We're the only human touch. She received all week long. Thank you she said. And she walked into the sanctuary and took her seat. Loneliness is a horrible. Horrible thing. And it is far more pervasive than we can imagine. Partly because when we are lonely. We always think we're the only one. But loneliness is not confined to those who live alone it plagues married and partnered people families with and without children people with lots of friends young old middle-aged. Loneliness runs the gamut. Indeed therapists confirm that it is the most frequently cited reason. That people seek professional counseling. Loneliness saps our vitality. It makes us feel scared. And insecure and vulnerable the isolation and disconnectedness that it fosters. Leave us feeling unloved or worse. Unlovable. Loneliness is an assault. On our sense of our own worth and dignity health worth and dignity that are our birthright and that we should never have to question. And being alone for any length of time inevitably brings us face-to-face. With the void. With that series of questions and fears that we don't want to entertain. Frontier. That we are unloved. The fear that we are alone. The fear of that great loneliness. Death. The suspicion that we secretly harbor but rarely odder that there may be no real rhyme or reason to our life no purpose or meaning to our being here. Loneliness can be terrifying. And so we do all we can. To avoid it. Don't we. Anything to bring us back from the brink of that abyss. Of that void. Just think of all the time we spend trying to convince ourselves that were not alone is it just me or does anyone else feel like you've met you spend the whole day. Just checking to see who has contacted you i mean checking your office voicemail checking your home voicemail checking your cell phone voicemail checking email checking to see if the letter carrier has arrived and all the while. Quietly disappointed. That we hear more from those who would sell us something or demand something of us than those who would love us. Even in this frantic and dense. Urban environment where the streets are snarled with traffic in the sidewalks and cafes crowded with people even here we are alone the bumping and jostling of bodies on the sidewalk or the supermarket aisle a meagre consolation. For the absence of authentic human touch. We run away from our loneliness busying ourselves with work and errands and shopping racing frantically fighting traffic running red lights and cutting corners until one day. Does langston hughes until one day. You hurry around the corner. And the person you bump into. Will be yourself. And then you'll know there are no more corners. Saturn. You can't run anymore. Or voicemails all our friends he can't save us. Call my loneliness. Eventually we must meet it face to face. And confront what it is. We find there. Only when this happens friends only when we stop fleeing our loneliness and instead allow ourselves to settle into it. To rest in it. Tolerate the void to ask the painful questions that need to be asked only when this happens. Can we begin to transform. Our loneliness. Into something richer. You know i grew up as an only child. And i've come to believe that. One of the gifts one of the many gifts of the only child. Is that she develops the ability. At an early age. To cope with loneliness. Only children often find themselves on their own and has a child you don't have the agency to flee that loneliness so you learn to cope. You learn to make it your friend. There was a great piece by adam gopnik in the new yorker magazine a few months ago. In it he expressed concern about his four-year-old daughter is the psychological development. You see his daughter also an only child had created an imaginary friend. That childhood playmate who shares our toys and dutifully takes our orders. But this little girls imaginary friend was different from all previous imaginary friends in one significant respect and therein lay the author's concern for his daughter you see his daughter had imagined a friend who is always. Too busy to play with her and imaginary friend too busy to play with you so for instance the little girl with would flip open her imaginary cellphone and imitating her parents clipped new york speech would bark into the phone meet me at starbucks in 25 minutes nervously the girl's parents would watch to see if this time the imaginary friend would make good on the playdate. My point is that children are resilient. In their ability to cope with being alone. They make of their loneliness a companion and though our adult loneliness. Is different from a child's. I think we have to learn to do the same. Defined in our loneliness. A companion. Vinopolis and packer who has explored loneliness in her writing says. Lonely is a funny thing. It's almost like another person. After a while. It'll keep you company if you let it. If we spend enough time with our loneliness. We will discover. That the silent companion of whom packers speaks is of course. Ourselves. The part of ourselves that lies beneath the busyness of our daily lives. The part of ourselves that resides beyond the fear of loneliness and meaninglessness. That place beneath and beyond. Is a place called solitude. And it is different from loneliness. A little bit further along in her journal from which i read this morning may sarton would write the memorable phrase that loneliness is the poverty. Of the self. And solitude is the richness. Of the self. And the self is both poor and rich. Poor because we were created as interdependent beans made for love. And so alone we are incomplete. Insufficient. Vulnerable. But the self is rich too because within us lies the soul and within the soul a spark of the divine. A piece of the holy. A limitless world. Waiting to be discovered. The difference between loneliness and solitude in our inner lives is. Very similar to me between the difference. How we speak about our physical bodies as naked or nude. Naked describes the human body stripped and vulnerable. Naked refers to what the body lacks. Clothing covering. Nude on the other hand. Refers to the bear body as a thing of beauty. A work of art. Sculpture. Similarly loneliness it describes all that is lost when we are alone and solitude. All that is gained. And i reading this morning sartin call the time that she spent alone with only herself and her thoughts. Her real life. Because for her all the socializing and loving that she did in the world wasn't real unless there was an opportunity to stand back in silence and reflect on it. To discover who she was and what she cared about him what she believed. So that she could then bring that fuller. Richer self. Back into relationship. With the world. Solitude can lead to a rich communion with the soul. Conversation. Really. Beyond our fear and our loneliness there is a calm. Companionship. Apiece. And we are at home in our thoughts. Our feelings. And our bodies. And we are not afraid. Anymore. In solitude we do as certain thoughts to do in her journal to break through to the rough rocky depths of life to the matrix itself. And this is a religious task the conversations that are that we have with our souls in this solitude is the fountainhead of the spiritual life from which all else close. The great religious philosopher alfred north whitehead says. Religion is what the individual does. With his own solitariness. And in fact the spiritual journey requires that we do two things. With respect. To that solitariness. It requires that we cultivate. A solitude. They will allow us to discover. The richness of ourselves. And it requires that we create. Community. So that we might alleviate. The poverty. A self. And so friends my prayer. For this church. Is that we might build a community. With a loneliness in each of us. Reaches out to the loneliness. Of the other. So that we might offer one another communion. Can further a community where the solitude in each of us. Reaches out to the solitude. Of the other. So that we might offer one another. A glimpse. Of the holy. May that be our prayer this day. I'm in.

all-souls_org

07.03.11GrowingASoul.mp3

The reading this morning is taken from a sermon delivered from this very pulpit. By reverend doctor a powell davies whose name you hear frequently but whose words you probably don't hear often enough. Dr. davies was minister of this congregation from 1942 to 1957. And left a lasting impact i feel much in his debt and like it is on his shoulders as well as many other predecessors that i stand before you. He delivered a sermon from this pulpit on september 10th. 1944. Entitled on going to church. And his reasons for attendance at church. Are the heart of why we seek. I believe a spiritual life. And why we wish so often and so fervently. To continue on the path of spiritual development and growth. Once we're on our way. Dr. davies said. Let me tell you. Why i come to church. I come to church. And would whether i was a preacher or not. Because i fall below my own standards and need to be constantly brought back to them. I'm afraid of becoming selfish and indulgent and my church. Brings me back to what i want to be. I could easily despair. Doubt and dismay could overwhelm me. My church renews my courage and my hope. It is not enough that i should think about the world and its problems at the level of a newspaper report. Or a magazine discussion. He could too soon become too low a level. I must feel again the love that i owe to others. I must not only hear about it but feel it. In church. I do. And this alone would make me seek a church. It may seem as though the same things could be found in solitude. But it does not easily happen so. And life must have its sacred moments and its holy places. We need the infinite. The limitless. The uttermost. All that can give the heart a deep and strengthening peace. We need the touch of beauty. Bringing back to life its luster and its loveliness. We need. The unalterable communion of our spirits with the spirit of the highest. All that joins the soul and what it yearns for. All that can raise the frailty of our incomplete humanity. Toward the level of the spirits aspiration. That our earthly dust. Maymead. And mingle. With the majesty. And mystery. Beautiful stuff. Friends in our church mission statement. We say that we are a spirit growing community. In fact we have three entire programs devoted to helping members of our congregation. Grow spiritually. We have religious education for our children. We have adult spiritual development programs and classes for the adult members of our community. And we have our covenant group ministry. Specifically designed to get groups of you together. To talk about your spiritual lives and your growing and learning and yearning together. We have all of this in place because we see it as central to our identity. A key component of what a church exists to do. What is a church if it is not growing the soulfulness and spiritual lives of those who are members. And yet in spite of all of that. We don't have much in the way of a shared understanding of what it means to grow or develop spiritually. How do any of us know. When we have grown. We don't have charts like we do for our children of when they grow into we don't have a chart like that for our souls. So how do we know when we've grown spiritually. And is it similar or different to. Other kinds of maturation in our lives. And what are the practices and rituals. That might help us in our endeavor to grow. More consistently and constantly throughout our lifetime. It's a critical part of our theology as we acknowledged when we dedicated hannah this morning. That we are each born with a soul. A soul that houses our capacity for living and ethical and moral and meaningful ways. And at its best and in our aspirations are you you faith or unitarian universalist babe. Is about cultivating our ability to live from that place. In fact our universalist forebears john murray foremost among them believe that religions purpose. Was to uncover that divine spark that divine light that gets so clogged and covered over by the the routines of our lives. So that we might live all the time. From that soulful and spiritual place that everything we do would be imbued. With meaning. And purpose. And light and life. We longed to have all of our actions flow from what we hold most dear. From our most core and deeply-held values. And that is why that doctor davies davies described in the reading. We need one another. To hold us accountable we need a community of faith to encourage us along that path. But also to remind us. The lives of integrity and dab. Are not cultivated just so that we can feel good about ourselves. But so that we can be people in the world. Who make a difference. So that we can be that one more redeemer. That's sofia foz. Spoke of. While it might be possible on our own. To grow some spiritually to go on spiritual retreats to look within to read books. When it comes down to it the spiritual journey is one that is shared. It's a journey about connecting these inward truths that we discover when we are on our spiritual path. With those who are around us. But our spiritual life. Is a life lived in relationship. So once we have uncovered this soulful way. How do we grow. How do we resist complacency how do we not say well i did my one spiritual retreat for the year so now i'm done. I think we sometimes get complacent because we think of our spiritual lives like any other kind of growing that we do. We figure we human beings are always growing and changing that it's just part of being alive. And therefore. There isn't much intention that we need to give to it. Not much attention that needs to be paid to our spirit and our souls. And yet i think the more that we tend to ignore our spirits and souls the more things that we may have learned ways that we may have grown more compassionate can atrophy. And we give up i think because we figure. We're never going to give our lives holy over to the spirit. At least very few of you have confided that you're thinking of. Joining a monastery or turning your lives completely over to a spiritual path. So how is it that we. Lay folk if you will. Can continue to check in with our spirits and live from a more soulful place. I want invite you this morning to think of your spiritual life. In a way that we and by this i mean my colleague and myself and those of us on program staff have have had conversations about and we had. Conversation with the board about this a while ago. Once you do for a moment envision your spiritual life. As for concentric circles. Four circles that inhabit an influence one another. To think of that as sort of a diagram of your soul. That innermost circle. Is your own personal spiritual life. So that if someone were to ask you right now. How is it with your soul. It is in that very innermost circle that you would look. You would look to your own personal meditative practices your prayer practices. He would say have i been touching base with that wellspring of spirit. Which some of you may call god. Regularly. How am i. I am i in touch with. Who i am. The next circle in that concentric circle of spiritual life is your relational spiritual self. What i think of is sort of our covenant group ministry spiritual selves. And the questions that go with that circle are do you have confidence. Whom you speak to regularly about your spiritual well-being. And by that i mean not people who ask you you know how is that that needed to little achy or how's this. But people who asked you. How is it with your spirit. Have you communed with the holy lately. How is your spiritual well-being. Are you part of a covenant group or a class or some other form of spiritual mentoring. In which others help you to reflect on your soul. Personal. Relational. And the next level the next circle is what i'm. Bb corporate spiritual self and by that i'd have nothing to do with business or microsoft or anything like that. Gabrielle's always getting on me for corporate language so it's good that she's not here to hear this definition but. Buy corporate spiritual self i mean the spiritual dimension which can only be accessed in the company of many others. It's the reason that people go on spiritual pilgrimages. The hajj in mecca. Those who go to lourdes those who go to india to experience the sacred in the holy with many other seekers of that which is. Most at the heart of life. It's the way in which. Singing spirit of life. Is enriched when 500 other people do it with you. But you can't get when you sing it in the shower by yourself. It's that impulse to share the spirit. Which is what we do and worship every single week. It's what is so eloquently described in one of my favorite passages about the spiritual life. I'm in the color purple. When suge and seeley are discussing god. Celie says to shug some things and then should respond she say sealy tell the truth. Have you ever found god in church. I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show. Any god i ever felt in church i brought in with me. And i think all the other folks did to. They come to church. To share god. Not defined. We come together friend each week in order to share the holy. And if you don't bring your fragment of the divine in with you than my image is not whole and complete. So there's something about that circle. That circle of our spiritual lives which. Makes it so clear that we are integral to one another spiritual lives. That you are vision and my vision of the holy are illuminated. And multiplied. Buy yours and yours. The final circle in this concentric circle diagram has to do with social justice. How do you live what you have found when you have gone inward out in the world. How old is your faith. How do your beliefs how does your understanding of god call you to act. In making the world a more equitable and hospitable home. For all people. It is very difficult. We realized when we made this model of four circles. To be highly functioning in all realms at all times in fact if you do that let me know i'm going to sign you up for enlightenment. But this model can help you to notice. When you are focused only in one area. Have you been focused only on your personal spiritual development. And not on the relational. Or only on the relational and not on the social justice. Or only coming to church on sundays but not doing much of your own personal spiritual practice. It can help you to think about how to spread your spiritual practice through all of those realms. Perhaps even help you to notice when your life is telling you that you need. To go further inward or further outward. In your spiritual living. It can help you to think at this moment in my life. What is most called for from me. I just returned from a meeting in boston i've been working with a group from our unitarian universalist association. On re-envisioning and reimagining youth ministry. I'm not quite sure why i'm the expert on youth ministry but we can talk about that another time. But we have a wonderful facilitator a man by the name of ut saunders who's been leading our conversations. And ut is a bit of a philosopher as well as an organizational development guru. And he has talked to us about the wheel of life. That we are all on. And i was thinking about his wheel in relationship to these concentric circles of our spiritual living. In his model of the wheel of life. He talks to us about how if we are fortunate. In our living. We get to go around this wheel 3 times. The first time around from 0 to 28. We are in our adolescent phase. Your adolescent up until you're 28 years old that's kind of interesting but you're in your adolescent phase up until 28 trying to figure out who you are and what you are meant to do with your life. The second time around the wheel from ages 28 to 56. He says the key thing is individuality. Once you know who you are more or less. You're focused and on living out your individual authentic. True real unique god-given self in the world. And finally he says if we are graced with longevity. The third time around that wheel. From 56 to 84. We achieve some measure of wisdom. We are spending our days applying the lessons and understandings from earlier in life. And trying to find ourselves more and more in alignment. Aligning who we know ourselves to be with how we are living in the world. So what is spiritual growth. It seems to me that it has something to do with that alignment. That wisdom. I think that spiritual growth is that which leads us to greater continents. Between our core values and beliefs. And how we live our lives. What does spiritual growth look like. It looks like your sense of compassion. Your sense of the inherent worth and dignity of every person leading you beyond words to embodying it. And how you treat everyone you encounter. No matter what your mood is in that moment. It's found in the way that you forgive yourself. For past mistakes. That you found so hard to let go of. It's found in the way you forgive others. And let go of that grudge or chip on your shoulder that you've been. Nourishing. And carrying for so long. It's found in the openness. That you discover and uncover. When you decide to see something or someone with new eyes. Does not stay trapped. In your single way of seeing things. Spiritual growth looks like movement. It looks like change. It looks like movement toward hope and love and spirit in all that you do. And so friends my prayer for each of us. And for all souls. Is that we might move along as we move along that we love life. We will offer one another courage and hope. To continue to seek. Even when times are hard and when the way is not clear. And that when life is calm. We will remind one another that there remains an undercurrent. An undercurrent of spirit. Which beckons to us always. To greater depths. And greater living. In the world. May we heat it's message. Now. And always.

all-souls_org

03.08.31LaborOfLove.mp3

This morning's reading is by brian ren it is entitled love makes a bridge. Love makes a bridge from heart to heart and hand-to-hand. Love finds a way when laws are blind and freedom band. Love breaks the walls of language gender class and age. Love skinny love gives us wings to slip the bars of every cage. Love lifts the hopes that force and fear have beaten down. Love breaks the chains and gives us strength to stand our ground. Love rings the bells of wanted birth and wedding day. Love guides the hands that promise more than words can say. Love makes a bridge that wyant winds may shake yet not destroy. Love carries faith through life and death and endless joy. Happy labor day weekend some people are squeezing one more day of summer in by sleeping and others are frantically shopping for those school supplies to help kids don't be happy to go to school next week other parents might be exhausted trying to get their children into a rhythm because school has already started. I see mixed emotions come over my sister antoinette every year during labor day weekend i see a feeling of relief that my nephew's will be doing something constructive with her days without her having to plan it and a sense of sadness that marks another year of them getting older and gaining their independence so i'm glad everyone is here this morning. I did a little research on research on the web and found out that historically this sunday you use ministers preaching about the american worker about unions the underpaid and generally about how we as americans work too much. They are all good you use social justice things but today i'd like to take us in a little different direction i would like to spend some time this morning talking about labor of love. That phrase is used all the time to describe someone's something some work done for no pay because we feel that passionately about it and labor of love for example. All souls church member molly freeman was quoted in the washington post 11 years ago when talking about reverend don robinson it's a labor of love on his part she said. During that time reverend john robinson was building up beacon beaconhouse from scratch. Reverend john believe that you you ministry was necessary in northeast washington and now most of our uu churches supported support his plan work last time i was up here. Some members came to me after the service and shared with me their passions and they all sounded wonderful. We seem to be willing to put endless amount of energy and resources into the things we love. But what about the things we don't love to do i don't love writing or delivering sermons but i know i have to do it to be a good minister learning to put my thoughts down on paper and delivering them helps you know what's in my heart. I heard a rumor gandhi grandson of the famous nonviolent civil rights leader speak this year the room said his grandfather taught him that all relationships. Need for thanks. Appreciation understanding acceptance. And. But i'm sorry respect understanding acceptance and appreciation. To me these things don't really come easy it takes work. Love takes work at times it takes its work to love my family and i've heard from my family how it takes work for them to love me back my friends that have been in the last relationship tell me they have to work hard at it keep it healthy even being in this congregation we have to work at loving one another. We can all use these tools of respect understanding acceptance and appreciation at church at home and at work and i believe even nations can learn a little lesson or two. Education minister helena chapin at the first unitarian church of rochester called a spiritual practice. Any activity or attitude in which you can regularly and intentionally engaged. And which significantly deepens the quality of your relationship with the miracle of life both within and beyond you i believe gandhi's model qualifies so i'm going to try this at model as a spiritual practice this year in my life. And what might respect understanding. Depreciation look like the hardest time in my life understanding i remember when i first came back from britain and i started to live with my family again in miami my mother said i should respect her because she was my mother as a quick mouth teenager. What the heck does differential mean so i flip the pages backwards and looked up the definition differential it said marked by deference almost there looking up the page and little further for deference i found quotes courteous respect for or submission to another's opinions wishes or judgment that didn't help me at all. That's freedom to think for ourselves is something both our unitarian and universalist for bear has fought hard for and in some cases died for. It was much more helpful for me to go back to the latin and then translate that way re means back and the verb the car a means to look. Looking back and if i don't throw the baby out with the bathwater maybe there is something to this raise submission to another opinion wishes or judgement. That incident happened over 23 years ago with my mother my mother doesn't remember it and it's interesting that i do my mother remembers other times that i want to forget but that's another story for sermon my mother and i have a great relationship and i think if you asked her today she's say i respect her. For me i had to refrain the whole thing and look at the behavior in terms of value. Do i value my mother yes. Do i listen to her opinions and wishes and judgments yes. Do i value those opinions wishes or judgments i have to say yes. Another part of respect for me is self censure. It's not that others demand that i do something but rava i choose to act in a way that causes minimum harm because i love them so i ask myself do i treat my mother as i would like to be treated yes. Do i send share my behavior around her because i know she may not like it yes so looking back in respect to me is looking back at myself and reflecting on how i show my love. It takes work to allow others people's desires come before our own it takes a labor of love. In a congregation this must respect various forms like paying attention while someone else is speaking or taking those extra pieces to sit a little further back from the front so that those who have a heart attack i'm might sit closer. Or how about taking up a fraction of a time in the meeting so all can speak or providing childcare when the whole congregation is needed to participate. Now my mother and i don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues. A friend of mine said quite simply respect is not having to get your way all the time. Francis david a famous unitarian back-in-the-day said quote you don't have to think alike to love alike and quote my mother and i argue frequently but we have unwritten rules that we now both abide by about how we express those differences. At first they were expressly articulated but now we've been doing it for so long they can go instead churches are like that to some churches have written rules on how we will be with one another but other churches like this one seems to have unwritten rules unwritten rules can be especially if everyone doesn't know what those rules are. Which leads to the second part of a good relationship understanding when all parties do not know what the rules are there is a lack of understanding there could also be a lack of understanding when people don't talk to one another or check their assumptions. Communication is the key here for example i can't go around upset with you because you offended me in some kind of way if i never told you you hurt me. To have a good relationship it takes risking being honest to get to that level of understanding. A labor of love if you will. Way before covenant groups. Does church group people by last name in the herring clusters excuse me. I was in circulate group but before any activity got underway circulated came together to articulate how we would be with one another. We created a behavioral covenant. So that we could have a common level of understanding. These guidelines helped me to navigate the uncharted new found friendships. Now we have covenant groups and small-group ministries here and i know they'd go through that similar process. But i wonder what that might look like if we did this process as a whole community. There is a you you model that a lot of churches are now using the comes from our youth groups. It's called five steps to community building and some congregations are now using this for adults step one is bonding remembers begin to identify the part of a team by cooperating on the top. Step2 is opening up at the at this stage as the group listens to more members trust each other and share more of themselves. Step three is affirming where members leave with a warm fuzzy feeling. Instep for is stretching members go beyond themselves and actively care for one another and the final step is deeper sharing it is not until there is a level of comfort and safety can this deeper level occur but i want to get back to respect understanding acceptance and appreciation. The third aspect of a good relationship is acceptance. This one is another tricky one it's like balancing the balancing act we do in our church around the first and seventh principle the inherent worth and dignity of every person and their respect for the interdict dependent web or do you me and we in an intimate relationship. For the spock on star trek the needs of the one outweighs the needs of the many the struggle between individuality and community acceptance insurance. Tolerance. Is putting up with something when we don't like it. Acceptance. Is like surrender and not having to struggle within about liking or not liking something. My parents are christian and i am a humanist even as a child my sister daughter and i would ask my parents house could love a god that did all those horrible things to people in the bible my parents would try to explain all the wonderful and beautiful good things that god did too but we could not make sense of it i am now older and i have learned in life there a lot of things that don't make sense. But i don't need to have the answers that i want stitt. I've grown to accept. My parents faith in god. Their faith in god has brought them through many a hard time in their eyes no human could pull them through. My humanism liens in a little different direction. I believe we humans have the ability and the responsibility to lead lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity without a reliance on an external influence. This humanism is difficult for my parents. But i know and hope just like my homosexuality they will eventually accept my position but it's a labor of love for them the last one is my favorite appreciation i think of appreciation as an expression of gratitude that i am able to share both the joys and concerns with my loved ones. When i was fighting with my girlfriend did i call but my mother i was very appreciative that she is still alive and could give give me good advice there are other days when it's my best friend billings that comes to my rescue i hope we all have friends like that that we can call on in desperate times. A couple of weeks ago when i called my mother she called me down in her own way here i am yelling for rufina my mother heard they had been filled with dealing with her physical pain but she perked right up happy to help in this situation it's a labor of love but she gets me looking at things in different ways appreciation means knowing when others have gone out of their way for you and acknowledging that. That day my mother went out of her way for me and i thanked her for it. Now it's my turn to return the blessing i'm going home this year so i can see them i haven't been home in about two-and-a-half years i'm traveling because it gives me great joy to see my parents again and not out of obligation. A friend of mine years ago asked me to throw her a party for her birthday with my friends at my house who turned it into a december fling and she was thrilled to blow out the candles with others celebrating her birthday. To see my friend happy made me happy. His holiness the dalai lama says quotes. The more we work for happiness of others. The more our own happiness increases. That is an obvious fact. The more selfish we act. The more loneliness and suffering increases. That is an obvious fact. I see it as a labor of love. His holiness goes on to say whether one believes in religion or not there is an anyone who does not appreciate kindness and compassion. Uncorked. As a beloved community i've witnessed all souls church exhibit kindness and compassion and members appreciating those acts. On 911 members came here to greet and when war broke out we can sold one another. Repairing cluster works diligently to help out individuals in times of need. But i believe we all need to be stewart's in this area of compassion and kindness. We all need to be able to lend a hand when one of us needs help. Like a family. I'm lighter side. Meredith higgins hargrave celebrated her 60th birthday this year and we sang happy birthday to 10 year old anna russell as a congregation. Who here is celebrating a zero birthday. Richland washington. But who here has been in a relationship for decades or cancer-free or celebrating something special this year. I have paid for lunch for us today so that we can have a little birthday and anniversary cake it's just a small way i can show my appreciation to. I also want to take this opportunity to thank kate bordner and her friends from coming down from york. Kate has been very supportive of me because she is my field advisor for my ministerial formation. Respect understanding acceptance. And appreciation. Four aspects of a good relationship. As we go into another year with one another. Let us fall individually practice these aspects. For better community. And look on it as a labor of love. So maybe.

all-souls_org

06.04.02ParadoxAndFaith.mp3

I just want to add my welcome to all of you this morning i'm just so. There's one sunday. Every spring. When the cherry blossoms are out on those two trees out front and it's my one of my favorite sunday's of the year at all souls church i'm glad that we can all. Sarah. Here together. A man walks. The beach. Along the north california coast. On one side of him are the cliffs leading up to the old fishing village of mendocino. On the other side of the pacific ocean. As he strolls the man looks west and watches the sunset spreading a swath of pink. Across the sky. Galls sore and dive. Analyte. Evening breeze. He listens to the steady rhythm of the tide pull gently by the moon that is now just visible in the darkening sky. The boats are in for the day. The ocean. Is calm. And the man is. Possessed by a sense of peace. And beauty. A sense that all is right. In the world. If you've ever watched the sunset over the pacific ocean. You'll know that feeling too. As the man walks along the shore his reverie is interrupted by a sign. That is posted up on the rocks ahead the sign says. Never turn your back on the ocean. And upon reading at the man feels a a chill down his spine for he's reminded. That at any time the now placid ocean. Could surgeon drawer and dash him against. The rocky cliff. It's undertow dragging him out to see. Never turn your back on the ocean. The sign wouldn't be there he realizes if. Other unsuspecting wanderers. Hadn't already succumbed. Will you know how sunset strolls. Get you to pondering. This man begins to ponder. His situation begins to wonder. How the ocean. How it is that the ocean can be at the same time. Both beautiful and terrible. I miss pondering leads him to another thought a realization of sorts. That she too. Is capable of both. Beauty. And destruction. And he wonders again how both of these things. Can be true at the same time. And then it says if. Avail is lifted from his eyes. Reviewing the many contradictions. The many paradoxes. That pattern his life contradictions he's lived with for years but only now fully appreciated contradictions that can make a walk along the california coast. Not to mention life. And a wolverine yet. Risky. Proposition. Friends i want to talk about contradiction. And paradox this morning. I believe the contradiction. And paradox are fundamental to the structure. Of our existence. We can literally say that in the beginning. In the beginning was a paradox. For when we are born. We are born to live yet we are faded. Todai. And from that paradox flows. Others. I know that within me i possess a spark of the divine. And i know that. I willfully route. Disregard. The conscience that calls within me. I know that i'm a generous person and i know that i am selfish. I believe in justice and accountability and i believe in mercy and compassion. I want so much to love. And to be loved. And i want to be protected from the pain. Of love. Because those whom i love bring me the most joy and caused me the most pain. These are the contradictions. That structure our lives. What are the contradictions. And the paradoxes. The pattern your own line. To live in the midst. A contradiction is to experience the pole. Of opposing forces. The tug of competing demands and values. When we feel those forces pulling on our hearts and souls we say and we say this all the time we say i field corn. And the the phrase has become so commonplace that we no longer realize the pain. The fat phrase reveals our souls are torn by the contradictions. Our hearts are broken. By the contradictions. And as a result our lives take on a certain uncertain quality. Life seems more ambiguous as we're caught in these contradictions. There seem to be fewer and fewer unqualified. Good. In the world. And the uncertainty and ambiguity can make us feel one of the things that we human beings hate the. Hate to feel the most. Which is. Anxiety. The kind of anxiety that keeps us up at night. The kind that drives us to distraction the kind that paralyzes us. With fear. Friends i believe that how we cope. With the uncertainty and the ambiguity and anxiety caused by all the contradictions and paradoxes of modern life is perhaps the defining. Spiritual challenge. Of our lives. How do we take in. All the complexity all the competing demands and still find a way to love. And to live with purpose and beauty. And just. That's the question. No it's really. The zen buddhist that get this idea of paradox. And i thought maybe a story from the zen tradition might be illuminating here. What story is about a monk. Who goes to a renowned zen master and ask master. Share with me your greatest teaching. Zen master replies son. The greatest teaching is this. Buddha.

all-souls_org

06.09.03WhoIsAmericaAnyway.mp3

The reading this morning comes from the reverend jesse jackson. And at speeds that i think could be given at this moment. But was given in 1992 at the democratic national convention. We stand as witness to a pregnant moment in history. Across the globe we feel the pain that comes with new birth. Here in our country pain abound. We must be certain that it to leads to new birth. And not a tragic miscarriage of opportunity. We must turn pain the power. Pain. Into partnership. Not pain into polarisation. The great temptation in these difficult days of racial polarisation. An economic injustice. Is to make political arguments black and white. And miss the moral imperative. A wrong and right. Vanity ass. Is it popular. Politics ass. Will it win. Morality and conscience ask. Is it right. We are part of a continuing struggle for justice and democracy links and a chain that began long before we were born. It will extend long after we are gone. History will remember us not for our positioning. But for our principles. Not by our move to the political center left or right. But rather by our grasp on the moral and ethical center. Of wrong and right. We who stand with working people and poor have a special burden. We must stand for what is right. Stand up to those who have the mic. We do so grounded in the face that that which is morally wrong. Will never be politically right. But if it is morally sound. It will eventually be. Politically right. This weekend we join many other congregations of different face in labor day reflection on work immigrant rights and justice. Also this is part of a group called interfaith worker justice that is national and has a local chapter. And you will see a bulletin insert with three faces. Three actual faces of low-wage labor in washington dc. There is kevin. An african-american security guard. Jeunesse and african immigrant parking attendant. A drone. A latino immigrant day labor from the workers union which is right down the hill at 15th and p. These real people are not in some distant locale. But here in our city. Present when you park your car or go into an office building or shop and eat on p street. You may not notice them specifically. And that is part of the problem that those who stay in poverty are easy to pass by. When you do look. The observation that is offered by interfaith worker justice is this. Low-wage work. Is about class. An educational privilege. Not merely immigrant vs. citizen. African-american vs. latino vs. asian. Undocumented versus legal rural white vs urban. These distinctions which are made for political gain. Divide and distract us. From essential truth. Which is that all low-wage workers suffer in similar ways. Lacking healthcare job security. Educational training access legal resources. Equitable pay. In this congregation. We say that when our neighbor is unjustly treated. It affects us as well. Their plight deserves our attention. And the humane an equitable action of our government. Poor people suffer in this country. And on this labor day we will pause to consider some of the circumstances than publications. This is not a policy speech. Or a political platform there are many of those out there. The issues are too complex for one sermon anyway. But i will use some numbers. An illustrated. The nature of low-wage issue the breadth of poverty that is affecting our nation. And our neighbors. Instead this is a sermon for reflection about who we are. As people. And what is required of us. As ones who say. We respect. The inherent dignity and worth of every person. Is also a question about who we are as a nation. And what our policies say about our values. Who is america anyway. Meaning. Who is here. And how do we respond. Now keep in mind that in metropolitan washington one in five people are immigrants. We are one of eight metro areas around the country that have more than a million immigrants. Immigrants are 29% of montgomery county maryland. The majority there is latino and asian. They are 17% of prince george's county. Majority african and caribbean. They're 27% of fairfax county over in virginia majority asian. In washington dc 20% of the population. Is immigrants. A many different varieties. Primarily 40% latino. 36% asian. So in our washington metro area as a whole. 4 and 10 immigrants hold at least a college degree before and 10 also say they don't speak english well. In d.c.. We are truly a global population. And when we think. Immigrant worker. It could actually mean of whole menu of things. When we say low-wage immigrant. Then we do know that language or documentation education are key barriers to advancement. And this is clear up some common stereotype. The words immigrant. And hispanic and latino. Are not synonymous. The majority of hispanics in the u.s.a. full 60%. We're born here. And of the remaining forty the majority. Are legal. The pew hispanic center shows that by the third-generation 100% of latinos. Speak english as their first and sometimes the only language similar to most every other immigrant group overtime. Illegal immigrant. Is also not synonymous with hispanic. Many illegal immigrants are college students. Are workers who overstay their visas. There are for example thousands of illegal irish living in boston. Up to 100,000 nigerians in houston. Many of them illegal. When we think about our immigrant neighbors especially in washington maryland virginia then we really need to expand our categories beyond this shorthand it's used in the media and popular discourse. We know what happens when stereotypes abound. Real people get left out. Our own understanding and compassion to menaces we take the easy route. In public policy debate. I went tv show i said recently. Work to dispel this facile stereotyping of folks that are in a position on immigration issues and you see the opposition in the news every time they cover it. 30 days is a program on the fx network that puts various people in tricky situations and see how they stand it by the end of the month. On this show. They followed a cuban immigrant. Who's now a citizen and who is a minuteman vigilante on the arizona border. He was asked to live with a mexican illegal family for 30 days.

all-souls_org

05.04.24ReverenceForLife.mp3

How are you doing this morning is. Poem from ellen bryan voigt. It's entitled for my mother. When does the soul leave the body. Since early morning you have not moved. Only your head moves. Thrown back with each deliberate breath the ones sound that matters. In the room. My brother is here my sister two of your sisters ripples whining from the bed. The nurses check and measure. Keeping the money records. Are you afraid. Are you dreaming of what is past. Lost. Or is this sleep some other preparation. My sister has put your rings. On my finger. And it seems now like your hand stroking the white brow unable to release you. Not even after you have asked. For death. And we know nothing about such pain except that it has weaned you from us. And from the reedy rusted sunflowers outside the window. Dropping over the snow. Like tongue list. Bounce. There were many times. When. As a young hospital chaplain. I would walk into a patient's room and not. Know what to say. To the young mother of twins. Dying of cancer. To the 21 year-old college swimmer who is bone marrow transplant had failed. To the 15-year old girl whose first child was stillborn at 24 months. Sometimes i would walk the corridors of the hospital for hours trying to prepare myself for what to say. Trying to find words that would comfort trying to tamp down my own fear of the situations that the patients faced. But there was one patient's room that was harder for me to enter than all the others hard or not because of fear but because of uncertainty and confusion. It was the room of charlotte atkins. Who been horribly. 4 news from the doctors before they left though they made one request. That each day a chaplain go to charlotte and pray with her. So every day i walk up to her bed crowded with the machines in the ventilator that kept her alive and i packed her arm. On the place just above where all the tubes and probes went in. And i try to muster a prayer. Even though the doctors kept assuring me that she was unable to hear me or otherwise tense what was going on that she was brain-dead. It was hard for me to be with. Charlotte because i didn't understand how i could minister. To her when when she couldn't sense my presence. It was hard for me to be with charlotte because i wasn't sure that that charlotte was there. When i spoke with her i wasn't sure if i was talking. To a dead person. When i would meet with my supervisor to talk about my reservations and questions he helped me to see that i was struggling with a perennial question about what it means to be human. Is human existence defined primarily by our consciousness. By our ability to experience the world and who to reason with it or is it defined biologically. But health on the functioning of our bodies. Everyone would recognize that that consciousness on biology are intertwined and connected in ways and that this isn't an either-or question but people tend to lean to one side or the other religious traditions tend to lean to one side or the other in making judgments about life. Princeton says unitarians we talked about the spark of the divine that dwells within each of us. The spark that represents our human potential to become all that our creator intended us to be. It's that potentiality that for us has been the locus of human worth and dignity. But we've never been really clear about when that spark is kindled. When it takes up residence in our being is it at conception. At the first gathering of cells in the womb at the on sense of onset of consciousness and furthermore. When does the spark go out. And human life cease to have value. At what made charlotte atkins a human being already departed her when i was praying with her. Any of us who have watched an elderly parent. For grandparents. Lose their minds to dementia. Knows that there comes a time when you look into the eyes of your loved one. And you realize the light has gone out. That whatever made them them. Is gone. But it's at the same saying that that which makes them fully human is gone. This is one of the questions that has divided americans. For the last month. After 15 years in a persistent vegetative state was terri schiavo alive. In any meaningful sense. Of the word. The unitarian tradition comes out pretty strongly on one side of this spectrum between equating life with consciousness or with biological functioning our origins date back to the reformation a movement that said essentially that each person must work out his or her own relationship with god the reformation placed a lot of religious value in human consciousness. But it raises the question that if we depend on our continent consciousness to be in relationship with god. When we lose it. Are we cut off. From god's love. Our tradition is also influenced by the enlightenment whose ethos was perhaps best summed up in de cartes famous line cozitot ergo tsum i think i think therefore i am. It's our consciousness rather than our biological nature that forms our identity and existence for unitarians then the point of religion was and is to groom and cultivate the consciousness so that the individual so that each person can grow into all that god intended. Unitarians find themselves we find ourselves in sympathy with the line from the early church fathers irenaeus the bishop of lyon who said in the second century the glory of god. Is a human being. Fully alive. Fully alive. Belief has exerted a powerful force on history it led unitarians like horace mann to establish free and universal public education in america so that each person could live out his or her full potential to oppose slavery for them to put a human being filled with a spark of the holy in shackles. Wasn't merely an affront to humanity was tantamount to putting god in chains. An abolition led the women's rights led the civil rights led to gay rights right up till today it's a good tradition. But i want to insert a cautionary note here. Because there's a danger to the heavy emphasis that unitarians place on consciousness as the key to life and to being in value. In 1927. The supreme court heard a case about a woman who was sterilized. After she had been mistakenly diagnosed with mental retardation. Upholding the constitutionality of forced sterilization for the mentally disabled. The unitarian supreme court justice oliver wendell holmes. Wrote something that we can barely countenance today he said free generations. Of imbeciles are enough. For holmes and the majority of the court at the time. The more diminished your power of thought. The less value your life. They can see how that kind of thinking can eventually lead down the road to doctrines of of racial purity and human perfection that governed the genocide of someone like hitler. There's no doubt that when making value judgments about life we must be careful because it is fraught with danger. On the other side of the spectrum then there are those who would say this that if there is a beating heart. Then there is human life. And there's something powerful in the simplicity and clarity of that argument it takes away some of the potential pitfalls of erring too far on the side of consciousness it seems to make the issue cut-and-dry. However even many who lean toward this end of the spectrum would agree. Better definition of human life. That reduces us to the mirror functioning of our bodies. That reduces us to the level of an organism. Is utterly deficient. And failed to capture what it means to be human i'll add also that it is unbiblical. If there's anything affirmed over and over again in the bible it is that human life is valued at least in part to the extent that is directed towards god's purposes of justice and reconciliation in this world. I want to scratch the surface of the argument the simplicity of it vanishes as well with advances in medical technology we are able to keep a heart beating and blood pumping long after everything else is gone. Long after everything else is gone. And so terri schiavo was still biologically alive off. years after her doctors agreed that there was no hope. No hope of her regaining consciousness. Kept alive by a feeding tube inserted in her stomach. To part of what we go through as a culture is trying to find the place along that spectrum for trying to find the right balance of consciousness and and biology that sums up life most adequately. Diamond i make an observation here. Reverend goodwin's going down to lee chapel for the children sotha. I'm going to make an observation here in but before i do it i want to be clear about a couple of things. First. I have sat with families. Brother face the decision that no parent should have to face. Whether or not to remove their children from life support. And i'll never sit in judgment of a parents who want to hold onto a miracle. S. Do i disagree with their position i know there are many people of good faith who come to the conclusion. That abortion is the taking of a human life plain and simple. And that it's wrong. I respect people who come to this conclusion and i think we do our culture a disservice. When people on either side of that divide demonize each other. Having said that end with almost a month now between us and the death of terri schiavo i do want to say this. Biosphere. Is that for all our talk about life and death. In our current cultural climate. We are not contributing 1iota. To a culture of life. In this country. But rather are creating what i call. A fetish. 4life. Neither some eagles and nervous laughter fetishes sometimes associated has sexual connotations that has a religious connotation as well and it means. When you substitute a part. For the whole. And devote yourself to the park instead of the whole. I see this fetish for life developing into waze first we as a culture are coming i think perilously close to mistaking a biological definition of human life. For a fuller understanding of what it means to be human for understanding of human existence in all its integrity and all its complexity. I see that danger when for instance we seem to place a higher value on protecting an embryonic stem cell. Then on alleviating the suffering of a grandmother with parkinson's disease. I see this danger when for instance public leaders in america take to the airwaves and to the floors of congress. To intervene to save the life of a woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years. We're substituting apart. For the whole. We're substituting our biological cells for the full complexity. Of our humanity. Can i see the fetish developing an another way to i ask myself why is all the talk about the value of life in our culture focused on before we're born. And after we're brain-dead we have taken our devotion to life and focused it on the limit cases where there is much to disagree about. But in between our birth and our final days there is an average life expectancy in america of 77.2 years when we can all pretty much agree that we are alive yet there is almost no talk about reverencing life during those 77.2 years. Let me put it this way. We don't have to fight about whether the hundreds of billions of malnourished children in the developing world are really alive or a cluster of cells we don't have to argue about that they are alive and kicking and they are fated to die. One of them still dies. Every. Every 5 seconds. Why don't we stop fighting about the limit cases. And begin feeding the children we know are alive. Let me put it another way. For the 45 million americans without health insurance the debate about whether or not to pull the plug. Is a little bit of a moot point. Because let's face it for some of us that plug will never get plugged in in the first place cuz we don't have the healthcare to afford it. Not to mention all the other potentially life-saving treatments that some of us are denied. Why don't we value life by making health insurance universal. In our country. This week we celebrate earth day invite.

all-souls_org

03.10.05Forgiveness.mp3

Last year at this time i followed the advice of a member of my congregation and attended a community yom kippur service. In madison wisconsin. The small synagogue called the gates of heaven where i had performed. Several wedding ceremonies. Was located on the. Inside the door and was handed the liturgy for the service. And as i got my bearings i was surprised to notice that just. 5 ft in front of me stood senator russ feingold one of the senators of the state of wisconsin. I was surprised to see him there but then realized that i was in for a very moving experience. Deeply moved i was by this service. My respect. For the need for atonement and for turning. Was only. Enhanced by my worshipful time that day. The service included these words. Yom kippur means repentance. It means turning. Why do we wait until now. This once-a-year occasion. To do so much turning. Let us today in our returning turning into ourselves outward to others and upward to you god. Attempt to understand not only the turning. But the reason. We wait so long to do so. And quote. At the heart of yom kippur is teshuva. The conscious and willful effort. To turn. The service reminded me that it is indeed and effort. That it does take an act of will. You have to want. Saturn. Set a timer named involves ensuring that our lives. Are ever more in alignment with our beliefs. Our convictions. Our intentions. The why of why we wait so long to turn. Seems obvious. It's hard to ask yourselves such difficult questions. To ask about our lives if we are indeed the person we most want to be. Turning is hard because it calls us to examine how close we are. To being. That person. That person we feel we have been given the divine spark to become. I first started learning the lessons of my own turning when i was a preschool teacher. You won't be surprised to know that. Preschoolers have a particular gift for being honest. I found when i started working with this particular group of preschoolers throughout my time and seminary. Not only did i build a connection with them but i found i learned a lot about myself. I used to say to them that. Toddlers were some of my best friends. And they were some of my best friends because. They held me very tightly to being the person that i said i was. To be the teacher. Who met them with. Compassion and understanding. They taught me a tremendous amount about the art of apologizing. About the importance of being honest with myself and with them. About the value of admitting my mistakes. And acknowledging. Hurt feelings. I can't tell you how many times i learned. Humility at their feet. But i found myself saying. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be that angry with you i'm sorry i didn't mean to yell. I'm sorry i've had a bad day today. And it occurs to me that the lessons i learned in the preschool are the lessons of yom kippur. That in order to learn forgiveness at its multi-leveled multi-layered dimensions. Forgiveness of self. Forgiveness of others. And forgiveness in the eyes of that which is greater than any one of us. Forgiveness. From the sacred from life itself. Begins with acknowledging our shortcomings. It begins. By saying i have let people down. I have hurt their feelings. I have been less than i ought to have been. On many occasions. For an order to forgive we must begin by realizing that we can't pretend. We are someone we aren't. And we can't pretend that we are more than human. This kind of examination. This looking deeply and owning up to all of the times we have made mistakes. Can be very unpleasant. I know this. This deep self-examination and honesty. Is so hard at times that we seek to avoid it. Perhaps almost at all costs. In the end however. We return to forgiveness. We begin again in love. Because it is more of a struggle. To be stuck with that. Burden of which rob spoke with the children. It is harder to. Have that backpack of burdens on. To be living with so much regret. Then it is. To let it go. To acknowledge that there has been. Pain caused and to say i'm sorry. I was thinking. I was surprised to find a lesson about regret when i was watching a video tape. Several months ago. I was going back through with members of my congregation in madison. The series of videos that bill moyers did on the book of genesis. The conversations that he had with scholars and authors and writers. About the stories in the hebrew scriptures. And one of the things that leaped out at me. Was this conversation that he had with people about the story of noah. About the ark and the flooding. It wasn't that the story was new to me or that i hadn't heard it before that i was surprised by its outcome. I was surprised rather by what carol gilligan harvard psychologist. Made famous by her book in a different voice about the differences between the ways men and women communicate. I was surprised by what she said about the story about noah. About god choosing to flood the planet earth. She said that to her. The story of noah was a parable about god's regret. She said to her the story pointed out the power. The destructive power. The wounding power the hurtful power. I'll regret. That stopped me short a bit. But it made me realize that indeed regrets do haunt us. I can't tell you how many of times i've talked to people on their deathbed or. In some great illness. Looking back on their lives. Thinking. If only. And what if. They had done something different or other than what they had done. Regret. Had its hold. On them. So indeed regret does have. Great power. Power to wound us. To hold us in our bitterness. And to cause us to look at our lives with worry. War with dread. I'm through the lens of what we haven't done. Those words we forgot to say. And we find ourselves mired. In. The life we haven't led. The life we could have led. And when we get to that place. We find that we are paralyzed stuck in. The what-ifs and not living in the present moment. And then we discovered that all we are doing is living a life that tiptoes around. Hoping not to bump into other people to reveal something that is true or deep or meaningful about ourselves. We live a life on the surface. And so my friends we are in need of yom kippur. In need of turning from doubt and questioning. To faith and understanding. In need of turning from constant criticism. To an appreciation. Of what could it be. Of the potential in our lives. Yom kippur demands that we ask. Am i living a life. I am proud of. Have i in someway atoned for my errors. Am i making. Of my life. The type of example. I wish to set. Are my n word. And my outward life. One and the same. Am i. In the self that other see. The person i feel and know myself to be. In my heart. These are not simple or trade questions. And surely they are questions that should be asked more than once a year. Questions that get at the core of who we are. And how we express our spiritual beliefs. In our everyday interactions. We must build our connections. To life. The spirit. And two others. That are grounded in a self that is not perfect. What is honest. That he is not complete. But is hole. That is not right. What holds our feet to a righteous spiritual path. We all need turning points. We all need time to ponder places where we might invite the power of forgiveness. To free us from ways of being. That are not consonants. With who we know ourselves to be. Especially. When we are open to the presents. Of the divine. When we are open to our highest aspirations. Our best selves. Our sense of justice. And that spark. Of the inherent worth. In each person. My friends may we never. Never. Ever. Lucite. Of our ongoing turning. Or be afraid to apologize. Or live toward the world we wished create. Maybe so this yom kippur. And each day of the year. I'm at.

all-souls_org

07.07.01MoreJoySomewhere.mp3

I like to start with a reading from a book called we can't teach what we don't know by gary howard. He says racism for wise has been like a crazy uncle who has been locked away for generations in the hidden attic of our collective social reality. This old relative has been part of our family for a long time everyone knows he's living with us because we bring him food and water occasionally but nobody wants to take him out in public he is an embarrassment and a pain to deal with. Yet our little family secret is that he is rich. And the rest of us are living either consciously. Or unconsciously. At the wealth and power he accumulated in his heyday. Even though many of us may disapprove of the tactics he used to gain his fortune few of us want to be written out of his will. The legacy of racism which has been fueled and legitimized by our assumption of rightness. Has haunted the house. Of collective white identity for centuries. I'm grateful that the topic this morning was requested by mary robeson and offered by jeff richardson who supported the congregation in purchasing the spring auction item to choose one of my sermon themes so this is their choice and make it. Adesa turns out my speaking is really part 2 to my sermon last week already plan that focused on the path structural racism really helped create the prelude the results and the aftermath of hurricane katrina. So this week i want to suggest that those who are seen as white your american or other multiracial blends that appear white. Have both great privilege and great loss. Now using the qualifier seen as white because raise is not just what we perceive with our senses but what we have been taught to believe. As perry saying so well this morning we have to be carefully taught. Race is culturally and socially constructed and it has been shown to be essentially a product of intellectual imagination not just biology. Now i'm not saying that we can't make some basic calls about what racial background we perceive. However we should remember that italian were once labeled color in this country. That some folks who appear white have african american ancestry. The people who appear black may have your american or native american ancestry or that people who are latino and culture may be perceived as african-american. So south of simple. For our assumptions are prejudices shape what we think we know. But we think we're sure about. Yet in this country. At this time. Folks like me with european ancestry are labeled white and we stand to benefit tremendously from the system that we have inherited. That was mary requested is preaching about the high cost of racism for the privilege. Let me talk about the privilege bruh moment. There's a well-known article by peggy mcintosh that i first encountered in the late 80s back in divinity school. And in this work called white privilege unpacking the invisible knapsack mcintosh says she has come to see being perceived as white as an invisible package of unearned assets she counts on using this everyday. But was taught to either be oblivious or silent about this. As she explains white privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack. Of special provisions maps passports code books visas close tools and some blank checks. So a few example from the 50 items going to use you may have heard if you're familiar with this article. As a person perceived as wife. I can arrange to be in the company of people my race most of the time. I can turn on the tv or open the paper and see people of my race widely represented. I can swear lol hardly ever do. Arrest in second-hand clothes. Not answer letters. All without having people attribute those choices to either bad morals. For my poverty. For the illiteracy of my race. I am never asked to speak for the people. Of my racial group all the people. I can be sure that if i need legal or medical help. My race will not work against me. I can think over many options. Social. Political imaginative about my future professional. Without asking. Whether a person of my race will be. Accepted or allowed to do this. As a white person i move in the world with a knapsack of advantages that go with me automatically. Not say that identity and privilege are a complex mix so i'm going to add more layers to my racial identity. I am also from an upper-middle-class background. I have educational privilege in advanced degrees. My entire family taught me i could be anything i wanted to be. My professional role as a minister. Gives me a certain kind of authority earned or unearned. And all these greatly assist me. And there's some potential restrictions as well as complex. My gender identity which is perceived as female. The fact that i am bisexual. Perhaps the fact that i am a southerner from texas all can limit and a fact my access and the outcomes of interactions with others but on the ballot if i identify my. Location. I'm sitting pretty. So with all this advantage what could the title of the sermon possibly mean the high cost of racism for the privilege. Return to rebecca parker and a story that some of you may also know she's president of the uu starr king school for the ministry she's preached here before she uses a great metaphor in her essay in a book called soul work is still work came out of a 2001 consultation of the denomination around issues of multiculturalism anti-racism. The parker recounts traveling along in a closed car on a cross-country backroads trip observing the effects of heavy rain. Cheater passenger notice blinking yellow light sissy block taxes they see sandbags that are lining the roadway and yet the drive along obliviously. The comment josh looks like a major flood happened here assuming it's all over. However as they turn a corner they encounter a sheet of water on the road that is rising fast in front of them. And this is her account suddenly we realized that the flood hadn't happened yesterday or last week it was happening here and now. Dry ground with disappearing fast we hurriedly clambered out of the car and scrambled to higher ground soaked to the bone we huddled under a fir tree. No longer where we lodged in our familiar vehicle the cold water of the storm poured down on us baptizing us into the present. The present from which we had been insulated by both our car and our miss judgment about the country we were traveling through. And parker goes on to say this is what it's like. To be white in america. It is to travel well ensconced in a secure vehicle to see signs of what is happening in the world outside the compartment one is traveling in. And not realize that these sign. Have any contemporary meaning. For you. It is to be dislocated. To misjudge your location and to believe that you were uninvolved unaffected by what is happening in the world. To come of age in america as a white person is to be educated into ignorance. It is to be culturally shape to not know. And to not want to know. The actual context in which you live. So i say as a white person when you first realized that the knapsack that you've been carrying or have experiences out of the encapsulation of that car it can be frightening and dismay.

all-souls_org

04.10.24MakingADifference.mp3

Among the. Toros in our community. Shana was. Remiss in mentioning one considerable joy go red sox theologian reinhold niebuhr. Nothing worth doing. Is completed. In our lifetime. Therefore we are saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good. Makes complete sense in any immediate context of history. Therefore we are saved by faith. Nothing we do however virtuous. Can be accomplished alone. Therefore we are saved. Bye love. And no virtuous act. It's quite as virtuous. From the standpoint of our friend. For pho. As from our own. And therefore we are saved by the final form of love. Which is forgiveness. I want to tell you a story. Last weekend i was away in michigan officiating at the wedding of one of our members living buchele lots of all souls hopes were there at the wedding and because libby comes from a long line of unitarians are a number of unitarians are from around the country. And after the ceremony on saturday night libby's father took my hand and took me around the reception to introduce me to all the unitarians and one of them and older. Japanese american woman called me over to her seat and said she wanted to talk to me. Tell me a story. It turns out that during wwii. Her family had been locked up in an internment camp. Can utah. During the war. After the war she and her parents moved to virginia she was in her early twenties back then. And she quickly met a young man and they decided to get married. They went from church to church she said. But no one would bless our union. No one wanted to marry. An asian-american woman. And a white man. No one would marry us she said. Except for the reverend a powell davies. The couple were married here in this sanctuary. 50 years ago. Last saturday she said to me all souls will always have. A special place in my heart for that. And i told her that she would always have a special place here among us. And i invited her to come and visit us the next time she was in d.c.. This kind of thing happens to me quite frequently when i travel across the country. Lots of folks can tell a story. About how this church made a difference. In their life. But i was particularly struck by how this story. Illustrated a continuity. In all souls prophetic ministry. You see the sacrament of a church it's rituals of a marriage and child blessing and memorializing these sacraments are one of the ways. In other words a church's sacraments are ritual expressions. Of god's love in the fifties and sixties. All souls was one of the only churches in the area that would marry an interracial couple. Now decades later it's one of the few churches that will marry a gay couple. Time and again. This church has used its sacraments. To bear witness to a love far beyond the wildest imaginings. How about their church's x change. But some things remain the same and i pray that one thing that will never change is this church's commitment to equality and justice. For all souls. Making a difference. That's what churches are for. Making a difference. Churches exist to help people discover meaning in their lives. Find love in their lives churches exist to bring justice to our communities and peace to our world that's what churches do. But making a difference is also what it's also what we do as people. Isn't that how we find meaning and purpose in our lives by devoting ourselves to something greater than the self. By seeking to make a difference whether it's for our family or our community or our world. But it's hard to make a difference all by our lonesome reinhold niebuhr was one of the great theologians of the 20th century and he reminded us in the reading this morning that no virtuous act can be accomplished alone. And therefore we are saved by love i love that brings us into community with other people to make a difference together. He says further nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime therefore we are saved by hope hope that we place in in communities and institutions in the belief that they will carry our struggle forward for us long after we have returned to the earth. Churches are communities where love and hope mingle where lonely souls come together to accomplish more than they could on their own making a difference we all have our own stories about how this church. And this face have made a difference in our lives i have never told my story from this pulpit before of how this faith changed me. Some of you heard it in in small groups or or one-on-one when we talked but i never share the story from the pulpit but i'm going to tell it to you today cuz i think it'll help you understand where i come from in may of 1993 i graduated from school. And the day after commencement i tossed my few belongings and my diploma in the backseat of my car and drove off not stopping for 3,000 miles until i arrived in portland oregon the reason for my eager and immediate departure from new york state was it earlier in my senior year i had come out realized i was gay and i was anxious to start over again to begin a new life of honesty and integrity portland seemed the perfect or so i thought that among other things in public schools. With with uno radio spots saying that gay people were sinners and pedophiles. Polls show the measure leading by a healthy margin but there were signs of hope to the people who worked to defeat this measure hung signs from their windows declaring their home and business i hate free zone. If you were in solidarity with gay folks you you could take a pink ribbon tied on your on your door knocker on your your mailbox or something but one day i was walking downtown in portland wondering how it came to be that my civil rights were the subject of someone else's political discussion and i turned a corner and i saw a church. Can old church look like it was right out of there that picture books of new england with the red bricks and white columns and all over the walls of that old church were hate free zone signs and i saw a large in this city and everything in that block streetlights trees the building it all pink. Friends this is the unitarian universalism that i fell in love with a generous faith that proclaimed loud and clear that old universalist gospel of god's love for all people of vigorous faith that made that scandalous love manifest in the world through concrete action. That is the faith that at the age of 22 i committed my life to. Sometimes people ask me. Why i'm such an evangelist. For this church and this faith it's because i always think back to how i felt on the day when i first discovered it. And it breaks my heart. To think of all the people out there who still need to discover it. Who still need to hear the good news. Hubble love that embraces all souls. Francis church makes a difference. Can the world. It makes a difference in the world. I was just walking around the church this week going through my regular work week noticing noticing things at the church and i wanted to just give you a snapshot of the things that i noticed noticed this week and end for the homeless which folks once a month. We had a really good discussion at the class that night we left the church about 9 and as we were leaving another group was getting out it was it was the grief recovery group that we've just started the church a group of people who've lost a loved one to our coming together to find solace in his we mingled in the harbor street corridor on thursday night about to leave we heard the strains of the choir coming out of the sanctuary here as they were rehearsing for the sunday service. On friday i woke up and this may still be a surprise to some of you i woke up and was walking down the street and looked into the front window of the newspaper vending machines and saw all souls church on the front page of the washington times to register to match the investment that the city is about to make in the baseball stadium here in the city and on thursday on thursday to make sure that this year all the votes in florida are counted this is important. When we remember those in our community who have passed away over the previous. 12 months. From the very intimate. To the very public this church makes a real difference in the lives of our members and the lives of our community. Each year when i make my pledge. To this church i don't do it out of a sense of grudging duty. I support this church because it stands up. For everything that i care about it stands for everything i care about and it stands up for the people that i love. I supported because i want to be part of this community because i believe in this church because this faith once changed my life forever and i know that it can change other lives to i hope that you two have come to know the importance of this church. In your life. And that you will join me today. In supporting it generously. Reclosing let me. Just say this let mia golledge. What is on the minds of so many of us this fall he just over two weeks time our country. Will choose its next president so many things that we hold dear. Are at stake in this election. And that's the this church will still be here standing up for the things that we believe in it will still be here standing for the people that we love and care about the belle of this church that hangs in our belfry was forged in 1821 in the foundry of paul revere. In the foundry of freedom it told in 1950 and 1859 for the death of the abolitionist john brown and it became known then as the abolition bell. Kid rain for freedom for the emancipation of slaves it rang for freedom during the effort to integrate this city in the 50s and during the civil rights movement it rain for freedom during the struggle for equality for women and gays and lesbians. And come november 3rd it will still be here to proclaim the values that we hold dear. Friends. May the bell of this church. Always ring for freedom may the good news. That is packed into those two short words all souls forever bring solace and comfort to those who hear them may the spirit of life never cease to mingle amongst us in these halls and in these corridors much less in our hearts and may we be worthy. Stewart's of this institution giving of our time and our talent and our resources. So that it will always. Make a difference. Sopian. Almond.

all-souls_org

04.08.29DogDays.mp3

I reading this morning will be familiar to some of you it's when the poet denise levertov and it's called beginners but we have only begun to love the earth. We have only begun to imagine fullness of life. How could we tire of hope so much is in bud how can desire fail we have only begun to imagine justice and mercy. Only be gone to envision how it might be to live as siblings with beast and flour not as oppressors. Purely i'll river cannot already be hastening into the sea of non-being. Surely it cannot dragon the seal to all that is innocent. Not yet. Not yet there is too much broken that must be mended too much hurt that we have done to each other that cannot yet be forgiven we have only begun to know the power that is in us if we would join our solitudes in the communion of struggle. So much is unfolding that must complete its gesture. So much is in bud. My sermon this morning is called. The dog days. How do i know. When the dog days have come to washington let me count the ways i know the dog days have come when i have to bring an extra shirt to work because the one i walked to church with and is drenched in sweat by the time i arrived. I know it's the dog days when i turn on npr and all the familiar radio voices are missing on vacation replaced by strange-sounding understudies i know the dog days have a ride when the rude lady who does my dry cleaning is actually nice to me because she's so desperate this time of year for someone to get their shirts pressed and i know it's the dog days when i drive my car out onto the beltway at midday and i'm the only one there these are just some of the telltale signs that the dog days of summer have come to the nation's capital of course aren't unique to dc they go all the way back to the romans. You see the star sirius is the biggest and brightest star in the night sky for but for about a month during the summer it rises and sets along with the sun. The romans erroneously thought that during this month the warmth of serious compounded that of the sun causing the extraordinary summer heat in the northern hemisphere is the main star in the constellation canis major big dog the romans called the.. The dog days. The hottest most humid most languid days. Of the summer. W ancients always suspected that in addition to just the physical discomfort of the heat there was something the dog days did to our minds and our psyches as well the roman naturalist pliny warned that dogs were more susceptible to rabies like fury during this period and recommended them recommended feeding them chicken droppings as a preventive measure in the normal illness feel like they were on the verge of death to survive the farmers almanac of the time suggested abstaining from heavy eating and sex. I would agree with our ancestors that the dog days do strange things to our mind and for me the word that best sums up my feelings this time of year is a kind of. Melancholy. As the days grow noticeably shorter i look back with nostalgia to when summer was young. That barbecue on the 4th of july. That day at the beach with the children. Or perhaps if you're like me you look back on the fading summer with a tinge of regret for all those projects that you thought you were going to complete this summer installing the brick patio on the backyard reading that book that's on everyone's list. Regretfully we put all these dreams back on the shelf this time of year fairly certain that they will never be retrieved. For my next summer there will surely be other projects. Other dreams. And on top of the nostalgia and the regret. I always feel an impending sense. Resume during this time of year for labor day means the return of all that the summer was supposed to be an escape from school and and work and traffic and congress soon they'll be back again and such are the dog days of summer. But my sermon really isn't about the end-of-summer today. Because the thing that i've learned about the dog days unfortunately is that they're not just limited to the hottest days of the year. The dog days it seems. Come and go as they please. Bringing with them a dark cloud of despair. Plunging us into temporary states. Of melancholy. And here in the dog days of summer i just want to say a few words about the dog days of life. I think you know what i mean when i say the dog days of life the times when it feels that just nothing is going our way. When it seems like there is no enjoyment laugh to suck out of life. When it seems that we just can't get out from under all of the burdens that are weighing us down. Sometimes it sometimes the dog days will come to town and stay with us for a while sometimes they're just passing through. United case they're usually prompted by some kind of of change or transition in our lives either we human beings as a species are not too fond of change. The dog days are often triggered by the loss of a relationship. The loss of a job. Feeling alone and abandoned the dog days of life can be elicited by the changes of midlife. When like the end of summer. We regretfully put away dreams. That we know we won't get to. The dog days can be provoked by events happening in the world. Just this past wednesday at our board of trustees meeting we spent the first half-hour of that meeting reflecting on the genocide in the sudan. The people struggled with one another with their sense of hopelessness. And despair over that situation. We say the genocide will happen never again we say that every time and again it happens. So my question this morning is in how are we to stave off the dog days because i don't think that's possible or even wise the dog days will come and there's no avoiding them the question and i think this is one of the most fundamental questions. Is how do we respond to the dog days. How do we respond when life deals us that blow. How do we extricate ourselves from what sometimes feels like a like a quicksand of of melancholy and despair. These questions cut right to the heart of what it means to be a person of faith. The question of how we respond to life when it deals us a blow is perhaps the most important question we will ever answer. Lots of people think that when we say that we are people of faith that it means the same thing as as we believe in something that faith means a equals belief. I meant to say i am a person of faith means that i can recite some creed and then believe those things are true but that's not what it means to be a person of faith. Space isn't a synonym for believe what faith comes most close to meaning instead is trust. Trust. Just say that you're a person of faith is to say that when the times get tough when the world deals you are blow that there is something that you trust. That can bring you through. But you trust that you will be able to walk through the valley and up onto the banks on the other side out of doubt and despair that's what faith is it's it's trust and the fruits of that trust our courage and hope. Many of you have heard my definition of religion before but i'm going to say it again for me religion is simply people telling stories. Of hope. It's people coming together to tell the stories that give meaning and purpose to their lives to tell come together to tell the stories of what gets them through the dog days. Telling the stories that helped us overcome despair and meaninglessness it's what brings us up out of despair 2 more purpose hope brings us to more lovetomore joy to more life jesus that i have come that they may have life. But not just that they may have life that they may have life abundantly. We come together on sunday morning to tell the stories. That empowers us to live and to love abundantly. Religion is people telling stories of hope. Let me relate a story to you now scott russell sanders is one of my favorite authors. And in a collection of his called hunting for hope he tells the story of being confronted about his despair by his teenage son jesse. I like so many fathers and teenage sons scott and jesse fought a lot and for some reason scott thought that it might be good for their relationship if they went off into the wilderness for a while. In hindsight he probably could have predicted that it wouldn't have worked out well to spend 24/7 together without any of the conveniences of modern life indeed they fought the whole trip on the way back sanders. Try to ask his son. What did gone wrong in their relationship. And the following is his account of that conversation in this conversation should sound familiar to anyone who has parented a team or frankly anyone who's been a teenager their driving home from the woods. Song i want to know what is it about me that grates on you you wouldn't understand dad try me jesse cuddle look-at-me shrugged and then stared back for the windshield you just so out of touch with what with my whole world you hate everything that's fun you hate my music i like some of your. I don't spit on its own i grieved for it. Jesse was still for a moment then resumed quietly what's the good of grieving if you can't change anything. Who says you can't change anything. You do dab. Maybe not with your mouth. But with your eyes. Jesse robbed his own eyes and the words came out muffled to his cup palms your view of things dad is totally dark it bums me out you make me feel the planets dying and people are to blame and nothing can be done about it there's no room for hope dad maybe you can get by without hope dad but i can't i've got a lot of living still to do dad i have to believe that there's a way we can get out of this mess otherwise what's the point. Chris sanders. This conversation with a wake-up call. A blaring horn letting him know that he was suffering through the dog days. And words he was dragging his children down with him. Ask yourself do we really want to leave a legacy of hopelessness to our children. And our grandchildren. And the next generation. And so at that moment scott russell sanders vowed. To go on a hunt for hope. Jackie took out a notebook and he started making a list. Of all of the things that that gave him hope in this world not not the pat answers. You're not the things that were always told they're supposed to let you know cheer us up and make our day brighter not those things the things that have been tried. In the trials of his life that had brought him through the dog days before he made a note of them so that the next time his children or his grandchildren came to him he would have an answer of hope and not one of hopelessness. Appreciation. Stop his son. Then he wrote family. Then he rode beauty. He wrote to delanie next because examples of long-term commitment. Give him hope. He would return to these things sanders would as if they were beads on his rosary. Infinger them and then rub them in his hands when he was going through the dog days to remind himself that he had cause for hope. What's on your list. What are the sources of hope. In your life. Not vague generalities. But the stuff that has brought you through to the other side before. We need to make a list we've literally need to write them down and have them there on hand when we go through the dog days cuz we forget them when the dog days that's what the dog days are all about forgetting the sources of hope. So we need to have them there we need to remind ourselves of them. What is the content of the hopeful faith that you will pass on to your children. What is a content of the hopeful faith that your grandchildren will learn on your knee. For the children that you teach in our sunday school. To sanders list. I would add my own litany of hope. I find hope. When i see a young father. Pushing a baby stroller back and forth in the protest line out in front of the sudanese embassy. Last tuesday. Passing on the legacy of struggle from generation to generation. I find hope when we celebrate a memorial service here at the church when it is so abundantly clear to me that love actually does have the last say. Over death. I find hope in reconciliation. When i see relationships that have been broken. Horribly broken. And when people come together in spite of that brokenness and feel that that gives me hope. I find hope in communities of faith like this one in people who come together knowing perfectly well that they are flawed human beings but who nonetheless come together to try to be the best human being that they can be the best flawed human beings that we can be. And i find hope in god. Again not the god that was. Passed down to me. From my parents. Not the god that i'm supposed to tell you to believe in because i'm your minister and you expect that of me. But the god that i have met. In my moments of despair. The god who is offering me not salvation in those moments of despair about the solidarity and i'll tell you something in in the dog day is solidarity is enough. That presence is enough. Until i find hope in god as well. Friends this is what we're about here. At all souls church. We've set out together on a never-ending expedition for hope hope that is real hope that is true hope that is grounded in the experience of our lives we are in search of a strength that will uphold our lives and sustain us. Through the dog days. That will lead us to life. And life abundant. I know in a couple of weeks. Corso. I will wake up one morning and walk out my front door and will be delighted for the first time by that first crisp smack of fall are. And then i will know that the dog days of summer. Have ended. May we go forward. Into all our struggles. May we go forward into all of our futures. With a similar confidence. With hope. What is tested. Nth room. I'm in.

all-souls_org

04.12.05ToHaveAndNotToHold.mp3

I reading this morning is from the poet and environmental activist wendell berry. When despair for the world grows in me and i wake in the night at the least sounds in in fear. But with my life and my children's lives maybe. I go and lie down. With a wood drake rests in his beauty on the water. And where the great heron feeds. I come into the peace. A wild things. Who do not tax their lives with forethought. A brief. I come into the presence. Stillwater. And i feel above me the day blind stars. Waiting with their light. 4 time. I rest in the grace of the world. And then free. With all the music so far this morning you will be expecting a holiday sermon at this point and i promise that the sermon will eventually make its way back to the holidays. But it's going to start someplace different in fact it starts with a story from a time that feels very difference. From the holiday season story that some of you have heard parts of before but that where i want to begin this morning. 3 months after i arrived in washington back in 2001 i paid my first visit to the phillips gallery in dupont circle. To see a traveling exhibition of impressionist painting. Who's about two months after september 11th and for me the art provided a welcome distraction from the horrors of that time there was something about being in a room filled with great works of art filled with the fruits of human goodness rather than that restored some of my face. Inhumanity. But there was one painting that day that that especially caught my attention it was it was vincent van gogh's roses. His portrayal of a base of what. Move me what this painting was even more exhilarating the brushstrokes is somehow more in passing vortexes of white and green vortexes of emotion to the to the painting to find some clue as to the power of the painting and i learned that van gogh had painted roses from the cell of an asylum. Where he'd been send. After a nervous breakdown. He painted it not long before his scheduled release. I don't know why this swirl of color you could sense both the delirium that landed him in the asylum and the frenzied anticipation of his release. The roses were the beauty that he longed to return to in the world. Vango's poignant yearning for beauty and for freedom struck a deep chord in me back in those dark days after september 11th the days when we to yearn for beauty. The days when we didn't know what horror might fall from the sky next. Has a new minister that paul. I've spent a lot of time caring for others. Trying to be strong. And often not taking time to ensure that that i myself was being cared for. Van gogh's painting was the thing that finally gave me permission. Degrees that fall and i i stood there in the middle of the philips and i just cried and cried and cried. The my story today is really about what happened next. Because it turns out that the gallery that they was packed in a lots of people patiently waited while i saw but i realized i needed to move on and. Will the next morning during my meditation time in the morning i brought out the postcards i was going to use it to focus my meditation sat down and got ready and i looked at the card. And i looked for those those brushstrokes the conveyed all that power and passion of course they weren't there. Postcard was flat. Have none of that stuff in it. Completely devoid of a texture in the passion. So i put it aside and i had to close my eyes and for my mind's eye i had to to reconstruct what i had felt the day before. I thought a lot. About that experience over the years. About the healing power of art. About my response about how we respond to beauty and that's really the part that i want to talk about this morning. The response to beauty. The response to grace because what i've discovered that morning at the phillips actually trouble me. I discovered that there's a powerful impulse within me. Possess. Everything that i desire. To own it. The clutch it. To consume it. I look back now and i'm appalled at how quickly my mind went from this attitude of reception and of the grace and the beauty of the painting how quickly moved from that to this aggressive acquisitiveness. How i took this moment of grace and turned it into a point-of-purchase. And since then i've begun begun to notice if this happens. This happens when i experience beauty i have this feeling in myself that wants to to possess that beauty. I began to notice that there's a tape that seems to go off in my head when i see something a beauteous is cheese that's lovely can i have it for is frankly a less-than-flattering tape. So i went about trying to analyze this. This feeling that i was having. And at first that i thought this acquisitiveness might be for lack of a better word a guy thing you know that that it was somehow gendered and desire from control through acquisition and the culture had brad especially in men and ib instant hearing with you all have to say about that at some point. I have to admit that i usually get a little defensive when western europeans especially talk about the sins of america but what she said next really hit home for me she said americans don't know how to save her. They only know how to consume. Americans don't know how to save her they only know how to consume. I want to face it as a culture we are probably better known for our consumption than our savory we are not known as the people who gladly delight over a small morsel of delicious food right where the people known for saying supersize it. Yeah we're set up to believe that if only we have that snappy little sports car we did that young attractive person we want or if only that weekend at that fancy spa in sedona then we'd be actualized spiritual being that we want to be if only. We can possess our desires. Chester stendahl with a dutch theologian and harvard divinity school who who once wrote the colonialism. And imperialism of the american mind thinks that the only way you can honor something. Just to have it yourself. What you're really rejoice in that which you do not have. He said. That is what we need to learn. To be able to rejoice without possessing. Saber from a distance. So i thought the other guy saying the american thing i think it still goes deeper. Probably won't surprise you to learn that covetousness the aggressive desire to possess to to have things predates american consumerism predates american culture in fact the hebrew scriptures tell us that moses. Came down from mount sinai with two-tone stone tablet in his hand five commandments on each filled with the prohibitions that were not familiar without shall not kill now shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not take the name of god in vain they're all prohibitions against a certain actions. All of them except for one. The last one which says thou shalt not covet. The neighbor's wife and possessions. If you can get that passy anachronism of that of that language there you'll find something interesting because in this case the prohibition isn't against a public action it's against a habit of thought. It's against a feeling. It's against a desire you can't even think about desiring your neighbor's wife and possession when it comes to your neighbor's wife and possessions that commandment says don't go there okay and it's instructive i think this is the only prohibition for a desire. Because it speaks to the corrosive nature of this particular desire to possess. I really think it's an addiction of sorts. An addiction that plagues our culture that desire to consume like any addiction it limits our freedom it traps us in patterns of behavior that we have no control over. It diminishes our joy. Our ability to save her grace and beauty that's that's the other thing i learned with my experience with vango i learned that covetousness. Kill the beauty that it sinks. The moment i moved from a humble and grateful reception of the painting to the desire to possess it. The paintings ministry to me ended. The tears dried up i was busy deciding what what size prints i should buy whether i should pay with with cash or credit you know which bag paper or plastic. When i got home i looked at the painting and lost all beauty. We are tricked into believing that if we own the things we desire they will survive. But in fact it's just the opposite. Beauty it turns out doesn't survive commodification. There's something ephemeral ephemeral about it something delicate and the moment that it's clutched. It's destroyed. Covetousness is especially tricky because it takes something within us it's wonderful. It takes our desire for beauty takes our desire for grace and takes our love for people and for things and it turns it's our. Destructive it's as though it reminds me of the little child who finds a ladybug you know on herself and she she takes it off but she has to be taught to handle it carefully right to not to not hold it too tightly so she doesn't crush it so she doesn't destroy it. We sometimes unwittingly crush. The things that we love. We want to possess them. When what we should be doing is favoring them. I think what's called for here is almost a buddhist. Ethic. An ethic of presence. And mindfulness. In the face of beauty. A mindfulness that allows us to be to be fully present to experience and savor a thing. At the same time. A buddhist sense of of non-attachment to the thing. Inability to let it go. To let it return at his own time and place. Turns out i was lucky. The van gogh painting. That i saw that day was part of a traveling exhibition can was just on temporary loan to the phillips. So what a delight it was when a few months later i was walking through the west wing of the national gallery. And found its permanent home there. So now whenever i'm in a frame of mind like i was after september 11th when i'm filled with that kind of despair. I take a moment out of my day and i hop on the train. And i sit in that little van gogh room in a little bench right in front of the painting. And it's usually quiet there. And then i have more time. To weep and to be in the presence of its grace. This kind of savoring reminds me. How about reading by wendell berry this morning. When despair for the world grows in me. I wake in the night at the least sound and fear of what my life and my children's lives maybe i go and lie down. With a wood drake rests in his beauty on the water. And the great heron feeds. I come into the peace. Of wild things. Who do not tax themselves with forethought of grief i come into the presence of still water. 4 time i rest in the grace of the world. And i'm free. To rest in the grace of the world. Karelis. The beauty of things i cannot own. The favor and not to consume to desire but not to covet. Slowly. I'm learning to love. With a lighter touch. On the day after thanksgiving i was in new york. And have the pleasure of visiting the recently reopened museum of modern art i was struck by the fact that a good percentage of the visitors moved at a rapid pace through the collection digital cameras in hand snapping photographs of the masterpieces of picasso and matisse and quickly moving on to the next. And then out on 5th avenue of course the holiday shopping spree was in full gear people were going into macy's and out of fao schwarz bags filled with presents. It really is an addiction i think. Every year we say we don't want it. Every year it happens again. My prayer for all of us this holiday season. Is that we might come to rest. To rest in the grace. Abdus season. To find peace in the stillness of winter. And discover they're not in the crazy shopping not in the craze shopping spree. But in that stillness our hearts desire. Play this season. Be a blessing to us all. I'm in.

all-souls_org

05.12.04FreedomFromFear.mp3

I reading this morning is from the poet louise glick. The immediate past poet laureate of the united states. Looking for is called the wild iris. A book of poems in the voice of. Wildflowers wild flowers either speaking to their creator or two human beings. And this. Poem is called snowdrops. Some of you heard it before. Do you know what i was. How i lived. You know what the spare is. Then winter should have meaning for you. I did not expect to survive. Suppressing me. I didn't expect to waken again to feel in damp earth my body able to respond again remembering after so long how to open again. In the cold light. Earliest to sprain. Afraid. Yes. But among you again. Crying yes. Risk. Joy. In the raw winds of the new world. 4 years ago this. Week. I stood before you and preached a sermon about fear. Because four years ago this city was gripped by fear. Plane spell from skies. Postal carriers handed us our mail. With latex gloves. We didn't know what the future would hold or whether the world is we had known it had come to an end i preached a sermon on fear because i saw that many of you were afraid i preached a sermon on fear because i was afraid. And i needed to talk myself out of it. My assumption back then was that we'd all get over it soon enough that as we got more distance from the events of september 11th are here with subside. Paralyzed would return to normal. But then the sniper. And then a war. That every once in awhile and murder here on the block of the church. And then the pratts of a bird flu pandemic. And now i realize that well if you're looking for one you could always find a good reason to be afraid. And the other thing i've realized since that serving four years ago is that it doesn't take a terrorist attack or the threat of a pandemic to make a human being afraid. The more time i spend with people in counseling the more i see that these great public enemies that rear their heads on the nightly news really are the least of our fears the things that people are afraid of more are the intimate things private terrorist tucked away in the nether regions of our hearts. As trivial as they may sound compared to war or plague the things that scare us most. Are things like being alone. Not finding love. Failure. Afraid of disappointing others. Afraid we'll lose our job and our healthcare. Afraid that our addiction will overtake us again and bring us to our knees. For that the disease will claim us. Before we are ready. For lots of perfectly legitimate reasons. We are afraid. Now a little fear. Can be a good thing. When i was a child i remember teaching our puppy. To fear the cars in the street. Fear can help us assess risk and protect ourselves can help us survive that's a healthy fear but all too often i see people whose fear controls them. Often in ways they're not aware of. We don't realize how our fear of rejection keeps our hearts all barricaded. Keeps out love. We don't realize how our fear of failure prevents us from following our dream. Poor how are fear the stranger separate sasser my brothers and sisters we don't realize that our fear of dying keeps us from ever truly living. Our fear controls us. It limits the fullness of our lives. Did you ever notice how the word fear is often almost always accompanied in the press by the word gripped as in the city was gripped with fear gripped tells us something about how here operates. Howard chokes us and caesars us and imprisons us. How do we loosen. A grip. How do we reclaim from its clutches the fullness of our lives. We have to begin by dispelling. A fundamental lie about what it means to be human. Ally that keeps us beholden to fear and the lie is this that we can be rid of all the things in the world that threaten us. The lie is that we can achieve a life that is free from risk free from harm free from threat. Emmett when we achieve such a statement burn we will be delivered from our fear. This is a tantalizing and seductive lie and there are lots of people out there who are banking on you believing in it. The developer who tries to sell you the home in the gated community is banking on that lie the defense contractor who sells the satellites for the missile shield. Can't believe is a magic bullet. For that sphere. Search for the magic bullet for fear reminds me of the story of sisyphus sisyphus was the guy in greek mythology who is condemned by the gods to push and enormous stone up a mountain. And just about when he got to the top of the mountain the sloan stone slid back down to the bottom again and he had to start all over again. And again and again. Sisyphus was condemned to push the stone up the hill for eternity. The futile search for deliverance from risk is similar it leaves us eternally crushed. Under the weight of our fear the first thing we have to do to free ourselves from fear is to admit to ourselves that there is no such thing as living risk-free there is no guarantee that we're not going to get hurt in this world that is just not part of the deal that we cut when we got this lease on life. A colleague of mine said recently at a gathering he said the only people who are safe. Are they dead. The only people who are safe for the dead. We cannot guarantee our safety in this world but we can choose to be free the opposite of fear you see is not safety or security it is freedom the opposite of fear is freedom anyone who's ever broken through the grip of fear and reclaim their we get a rush of a freedom. Remembering after so long how to open again in the cold light of earliest spring afraid yes but among you again crying yes risk joy in the raw wind of the new world we cannot guarantee our safety but we can choose to be free i want to tell you a story about a people who were afraid. But then who were afraid no more it's a story that i'll bet most of you don't know and it's about our ancestors in this church in july of 1850 for this church called to its pulpit a new minister by the name of moncure conway. Conway was a young man still in his twenties who had just graduated from seminary but in many ways he was a perfect fit for this church because while he was a unitarian and an educated at the unitarian seminary at harvard he wasn't just a carpetbagger from the north conway was a native virginian whose family had many ties on both sides of the potomac who better to serve a unitarian church in washington dc. I'm sure enough during the first year of his ministry conway thrived at all souls but before long there were signs of trouble. You see from its founding in 1821 most members of all souls were morally opposed to slavery and indeed many of its ministers were outspoken critics of slavery. But they were critics of slavery like creatures today are critics of poverty. They speak out against the evil but aren't willing to offer any difficult advice. About what to do about it but one sunday moncure conway spoke out and advocated. For the immediate abolition of slavery and then he did it again and then he did it again. How to explain what happened next it helps understand what it was like to live in washington in the 1850s. What's striking to me is how similar the struggles were back then as to how they are now like now the nation was bitterly divided between two seemingly irreconcilable cultures. And ways of life. Like now war and violence were a real threat blood had already been shed over slavery in kansas the threat of civil war seemed imminent people were afraid afraid of more bloodshed afraid that a nation their ancestors and help build would fall apart afraid frankly in america and so is that possible solutions should not be discussed from the pulpit this would be vulgar intrusion of politics into religion into this spoke out. And it 1856. Two years after they called in to be their minister the congregation convened a special meeting to fire him but that's not the end of the story more of you will know this part 3 years after the congregation fired conway for preaching abolition john brown let his raid on harpers ferry just 90 miles west of washington dc in many ways the bloody raid represented the apotheosis of all about the impending war in the debate over slavery but when john brown was executed the members of all souls church decided to toll their bell in honor of him and his abolitionist cause depressed lashed out at the church derisively calling its bell the abolition bell capacities. My question is this. What happened. Between 1856. M1859 how did the same congregation that fired moncure conway in 56. Three years later honor john john brown by the tolling of its bell. We don't have a lot of answers. To that question not a lot of details from the archives when i want to suggest that at least i want to suggest at least one thing. That did happen during that time. And that was the people of this congregation stopped being afraid they accept. They acknowledged their vulnerability. They took into account the public abuse they would endure but in the end they stood up for what they believed in. They were people who weren't going to let their fear control them anymore they were going to be free. Sometimes i try to imagine what it would be like for the what it was like for the two or three people who walked up the steps of the bell tower that day getting ready to pull the rope. I wonder what they thought as they pulled the rope and sent the bells sound over the city of washington they knew that they would be ridiculed they could see that war was imminent and that their actions would be yet another provocation. Maybe one of them had a son who they knew might serve and died in that war. If they knew what they must do they knew finally that they had to take a stand. I can imagine that they felt that they the same mixture of trepidation and excitement that our poet speaks of they could have said afraid yes but among you again crying yes. Risk freedom in the whirlwind. Of the new world we cannot be safe. But we can choose to be free. Let me close with a word about courage. It's it's worth noting that the french word for heart for a bad french accent and the english word courage comes from the same root heart and courage. In his book freedom from fear my colleague forest church says that courage is when fear speaks and the heart answers after absorbing fears best argument the heart says no the heart says i know what i love i know what i desire i know what is right and what i stand for and i choose to be free. So take heart my friends. We do live in dangerous times. But there never was a time that wasn't dangerous. And we do risk getting hurt in this world but there never was a person who wasn't vulnerable there are only people who are captives to their fear. And people who are free. Let us choose to be free. Afraid. Sure but among you again. Crying yes risk. Joy in the wall winds of the new world.

all-souls_org

05.07.31LearningAndGrowing.mp3

Morning reading is a poem by philip booth and aptly entitled since the sermon is about learning and growing the poem is entitled first lesson. Laibach daughter. Let your head be tipped back in the cup of my hand. Gently. And i will hold you spread your arms wide light out on the stream and look high at the gulls. A dead man's float is face down. You will die and swim soon enough. Where this tidewater abs to the sea daughter believe me where you tire on the long thrash to your island lie up and survive. As you float now where i held you and let go remember when fear cramps your heart what i told you. Live gently. And wide to the lightyear stars. Laibach. And the sea. Will hold you. I've been thinking a lot and looking around at my life this week. In preparation for my last words to you for a break here before my break. And i discovered especially as we are doing unpacking around my house and looking around that there are photographs and pictures of teachers and mentors everywhere. In my office here at the church. On a shelf. In my library at home. And an album's although i don't really keep album so really in shoe boxes from different periods of time in my life the many faces and voices. The many words and lessons. Linger on from those who have taught me over the years. As i looked over these pictures and thought back over my formal learning years. I realized that all of the best teachers i have ever had shared something in common. They all taught me lessons that went well beyond the classroom. They all taught me soulful life lessons that couldn't be contained in any lesson plan or syllabus. They each taught me in their own way with their own lives. As the primary text. Really this week i had running through my mind's eye i sort of montage of my teachers. I was especially mindful this week because i found out of a breast cancer diagnosis for one of the most important teachers of my life. I thought of mr. weinman one of my high school teachers who grew in me a love of art. Who taught me that the world was larger than i had ever imagined. I thought of john and carol stoneburner. Who taught me that the words on the page could speak to my very heart's longings and desires. Who taught me really by essence of their living what it was to be human what it meant to care for other people. What it meant to be alive. And so with all of them in my mind's eye this week. I have thought a lot about how it is that each and every one of us are taught. About the ways that we learn we are taught my friends and so many ways. We are taught by listening to what is said to us. We are taught by deed and by example of those around us. We are taught by our own life experiences. Which shape our sense of who we are and who we are becoming and we learn by inheritance we absorbed the stereotypes and shorthand ways of categorizing and judging and placing neatly in boxes from family and friends. And it is that sort of inherited learning sometimes those learnings are even subconscious or not even learnings we're aware we have. I thought of those in particular lately as we saw our world torn apart once again in london and i was mindful again of those inherited learnings when i had the unique opportunity on wednesday morning to speak to a group that the state department brought through our church i spoke right here in the sanctuary on wednesday morning with about 20 people from different countries all over the world malaysia and pakistan and sri lanka and afghanistan religious people and educators. From saudi arabia and all over asking me about this tradition of ours. They asked hard questions and in many ways they wanted to know how open how tolerant had we learned to be how large had our hearts been made they wanted to know. We really i think my friends have so much ingrained in us so much that our instincts and ideas which sometimes have been hardened into rigid preconceptions. Sometimes we take the lessons a little too literally. A little too seriously and they become our own sense of truth. Which can be used against other people. And i thought long ago when i first thought of this topic of the lyrics from south pacific you will notice that the musical ever in our household is having an impact on me already that in south pacific. There is a song which bob murray will sing for you when i am done here call you've got to be carefully taught. And i emphasize the word carefully. Bob will sing for you in a few minutes the lyrics of the song which go like this you've got to be taught to hate and to fear you've got to be taught from year to year you've got to be taught to be afraid. Of people whose eyes are oddly made and people whose skin is a different shade you've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught before it's too late before you are six or seven or eight. Behave. All the people your relatives hate you've got to be carefully. Taught. Which is why my friends i'm worried about some of the lessons we have been learning. Worried that as we have been learning and growing perhaps we need to keep in mind that equally we need to be unlearning or relearning to think for ourselves. To listen to our conscience. To listen to our hearts. Hell of anyway i think that all of our best teachers. Pushes to ask. The deeper questions. Asked whether indeed the shape of someone's eyes or the color of someone's skin really tells us everything we need to know. We are pushed to know to ask whether or not the religion that someone follows. The traditions of their family are indeed something to be hated. We are asked. Buy the best lessons in life. To think about what it is that we can live. That we truly and deeply believe in. To think about the ways that we could live. That would be worthy of this gift of life that we have been given. The best teachers in life the best learning and growing that we can do my friend leaves us beyond dates leaves us beyond memorized hatreds and spewed out facts. To a deeper and richer understanding. For the best lessons in life are not abstractions. They're not esoteric little tidbits that fly out in space and mean nothing to no one. We learn and we grow so that we can live. And community so that we can live in ways that are deep and are rich so that we can live in waze. That are true. So why am i speaking about all of this. From a pulpit i'm speaking about all of this from a pulpit because it is very clear to me my friends that this is soulful work that this is spiritual practice that learning and growing in beautiful and rich ways is an exercise in faith. 4 in moments of meditation and prayer. We can see with humility. All that we know and all that we don't know. All of our own ignorance all of our own shortcomings all of the blinders. That we still need to remove. It is in moments of faithfulness my friends that we can move. From knowing. In that self-centered sense. To understanding. And we can be careful to grow in directions that don't limit. We can as the poet suggested in the reading trust. And let go more often. We can lean back. As that image so beautifully illustrated we can lean on the admonitions of the spirit. Which tell us that our learning is never done and that we alone will never have all of the answers. We will see when we learned well and through this soulful exploration that it is only in community that we can come to know what we need to know most. That is that our lives are magnificent. And small. That we need others to show us the way to show us our blinders as well as our brilliance. And that we need to know that there is a hole that there is that see which the poet described. Which sustains and nurtures. Which beckons to us all. That wisdom. That life and its richest. Largest deepest sense. Is at the core and at the heart of all we learn. And so my prayer for us this day. Is that we will unlearn that hammerstein's type of learning that we will unlearn the hates of our hearts and that we will learn and grow in compassion. May all of the lessons that we learn bring us closer to our own souls. And to the reaches of our own compassion. May we be grateful. To all the teachers and mentors of our lives. Who have taught us what it means to be a human being. To live gracefully. And mindfully aware of all others. And may we be gentle and generous educators. To all who seek our guidance. My friends may we continue to grow and to learn. To know and to understand. All of the days that we have to live. So may it be. And i'm at.

all-souls_org

04.11.21ParishTheThought.mp3

Are reading this morning is from the prophet jeremiah. He's addressing the israelite people. Who were taken from jerusalem into captivity. In the cities of babylon. The people ask jeremiah how they should live in the city how are we to live in the city they asked. And here's what jeremiah said. These are the words of the letter that the prophet jeremiah sent from jerusalem. To all the people who had been taken from jerusalem. Into the cities of babylon. Darcy says god. Build houses. And live in them. Plant gardens. And eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Seek the welfare. Of the city. And pray to god on its behalf for in the city's welfare. You shall find your welfare. When is the church. More than a church. That's the puzzle that i want to place before us this morning when is the church more than a church. It's a question i've been asking myself lately as i've been thinking about this church. And its relationship. To this neighborhood to our community to our city it's a question that i think about when i read the prophet jeremiah and when i hear his mandate to seek the welfare of the city. Pour in the city's welfare we shall find our own welfare. So i want to ask us this morning when is a church. More. Going to church. And you better explain where i'm coming from on this i wanted to tell you a story about something that happened to me not too long ago about the moment when i first glimpse the possibility of all souls being a being more than a church. It happened on a beautiful evening last september. It was one of those fall evenings when the air is still warm but it's not hot and sticky anymore my favorite time of the year in washington and i was out on mount pleasant street it seemed that the whole world was out on mount pleasant street at about five or six coming home from work out on an errand or just strolling down the street. I was headed to a cafe to meet a parishioner. Who had lost someone dear to her. When i walked into the cafe i grab a cup of coffee and happened to see the owner of the cafe we chatted for awhile over the years we've come to know each other and i asked her about her business she asked how things were going at the church she's interested in how things are going at the church you see because on sunday afternoons she gets a fairly large post church lunch crowd at the cafe we joked about seeing if there's a correlation between sunday attendance at all souls and her gross receipts on sunday. Pretty soon the church member arrived and we had a good long conversation. But while we were talking a mother and her children came into the cafe and i noticed the two of the kids were we're holding black choir folders in their hands it turns out they were stopping by the cafe to grab dinner before they came to church for the children's choir rehearsal that night and we all said hi. But after my meeting i walked out on the street corner and i ran into another member of the church and he was he was on the corner talking to jim graham the city council member from our neighborhood and so i stopped again and we talked about some things going on in the neighborhood and i kept along my way and then i got to the corner here at harvard street and 16th and i saw a whole posse of little ones in their white martial arts uniforms crossing the street to come to all souls for their karate lesson that night. And then still later. Back on harvard street i said hello to my good friend van romagosa one is the director clinica del pueblo the the health clinic across the street from the church and me we talked about how we needed to get together to start planning la posada the annual christmas celebration that we we host for for children from our neighborhood. And i'm finally back at church. I saw the folks from the na meeting out of the harvard street steps having a smoke laughing enjoying the evening barely noticing all the children and all the church members flowing into the building. At long last i made it back to my office. And i reflected. On all of the folks that i had seen. Over the last hour and a half over the last two blocks. Thought about the cafe owner i thought about the church member i met with about councilmember g about doctor quan about the kids going to karate lessons about the the guys from na and i was struck at that moment. By the relationships. Baptist churches in betadine in this community. Relationships that are deep relationships that are complicated. That are interconnected and that tie our fate to the fate of this neighborhood not in superficial ways but in very real and very personal ways seek the welfare of the city said jeremiah for in its welfare you will find your welfare jeremiah is reminding us that those of us thrown together in prose close proximity in the cities of our nation and world do indeed share. Common destiny. We share a common faith we depend on one another. That's what i realized that night as i ran into one neighbor after another walking through this neighborhood on that night for me the line between what was and what wasn't the church. Began to blur. I had known this before of course i noted intellectually but on that that evening get hit me at a deeper level i had an epiphany of sorts about how our church could be more than a church. And you know since that night those epiphanies have just multiplied. Given the organizing that we're doing with sacred heart church we sometimes go door-to-door in the neighborhood knocking on apartment buildings trying to get to know people and listening to the issues that affect them one day we knocked on a woman's door in mount pleasant. And she showed us. The hole where her kitchen sink used to be. If it leaks for months. And landlord and common finally taken it away promising to replace it that was in august. We visited in october. The woman was washing her dishes and rinsing her food in the bathroom sing. In the bathtub. As she described her situation to me friends it became clear to me. That i was her minister to. She goes to this church not that i'm her spiritual advisor but her minister in the sense. Bet she was within my circle of care. Within our circle. Of care. Or how about another time. When i was walking back from the columbia heights metro station just recently and i i saw a bunch of along lines of children walking towards me school kids from one of the local elementary schools before i knew it one of them was waiting at me and i recognized her face just as she turned to her friend and pointed at me and shouted look it's that guy from church. And where does it begin. When is the church. More. Then a church. For some reason these questions led me to my history books and i went back and i read again about the early days of the unitarian church in america most of you know that american unitarianism began in new england. Specifically massachusetts. Specifically boston the fact back in the nineteenth century that used to to tell a joke about the unitarian they said that even though the unitarians rejected the orthodox trinity that we had a trinity of our own and it went like this the fatherhood of god the brotherhood of jesus and the neighborhood of boston. A little piece of land in each parish. Usually right on the town green. They set aside that for the community to build its church. The one church in the parish and that church was responsible for the spiritual leadership moral development. And social welfare of the entire parish. Javi entire neighborhood church on the town green was where everyone in the neighborhood came to worship on sunday mornings but that was sundays were only the beginning they came back for town meetings on wednesdays they came back and voted at the town at the. Put off from congregationalism there was no longer state-sponsored religion in massachusetts but many of these churches still retained that original identity as a church that had a responsibility for the whole parish and they didn't even call themselves churches. That's the paris were john quincy adams one of the founders of all souls church. Was born and raised and was buried. So what when is a church more than a church. When is the parish. When it takes a seriously its responsibility for the care of the whole community when it puts itself in intentional relationship with all the people of that community when it recognizes that the boundaries between church and neighborhood are thin and the bonds that tie church to neighborhood are strong. A church is more than a church. When it seeks the welfare. Of the city. Knowing full well that in the city's welfare. It will find its own. Another thing i learned about these old parish churches in new england. With that most of them appointed from among the congregation what was called a minister at large. Administer large wasn't the person who preached on sunday mornings a person's the minister large was the person who is responsible for the social welfare of everyone in the parish when i want to propose to you this morning. What i want to ask of you this morning is what it would mean for all of us. To think of ourselves. As ministers at large. In this parish. In our neighborhood. I want to ask you specifically what would it mean for you to see yourself as a a minister at large in this neighborhood maybe you live in the neighborhood already maybe you've just come here on on sundays for church and during the week but because your churches in this neighborhood you're part of this neighborhood as well what would it mean for you to be a minister at large. I want to suggest a couple of things. I want to suggest to you this morning that that relate that ministry starts with relationships. The key to all souls church being truly a parish church in this neighborhood is starting to develop and deepening our relationships. With the people of this community so that when all of us walk through this community people can point us and say hey that's the guy from the church or hey that's the girl from the church developing relationship you know once a month members of all souls church go down the street to sacred heart church from our parish. Who are you there working poor or homeless it's a great way to to lend a helping hand but a better way to start building relationships we do that once a month now we should be doing that once a week at this church. That should be something we do every week at all souls church that's one way to start building a relationship starting to get involved with the washington interfaith network with the organizing that we're doing in this neighborhood this afternoon in fact again we are going door-to-door in about 5 different apartment buildings in this neighborhood just to meet people. Just to find out if they might have a hole where their kitchen sink used to be in to see what we might be able to help them do about it. But the first thing is the relationship. I want to invite every person in this church to find a way to find it to become and deeper relationship. With our neighbors in this community volunteer downstairs at the columbia heights youth club get to know some of the kids in this neighborhood that's that's the first thing. And then from there move to action. Move to action i want to let you know about some of the things that the church is doing in this neighborhood because we don't always hear about it i want to give you just a brief overview of some of the things they're about how many of you were helping stuff bags this morning in pearsall thank you very much for that on thanksgiving. How many beano that we have. A fun at the church called beckner fun how many heard of the beckner fundraise good that's good they're fun is part of our endowment at the church every year the beckner fun gives away tens of thousands of dollars to organizations in this community for trying to do good work we're trying to minister to this community this year to go to to contribute to institutions in this neighborhood that are serving the folks of this neighborhood and our thanksgiving collection later today will help contribute towards that $25,000. So they're there are lots of ways that the church is involved in this neighborhood to the feeding program through to our organizing to registering people to vote and i want you to find a way to get involved in the neighborhood to build relationships. And to serve. And i want to i want to announce one new thing that that the social justice leaders in this church have been discussing that i think is exciting i want to tell you about it today for fifty years now this thanksgiving sunday's been a sunday that we set aside to honor and highlight our neighborhood but i don't think one sunday years enough. So we're starting a new sunday every march called neighborhood justice sunday. And on that sunday we're going to invite all of the institutions in the neighborhood that we have a relationship with to come worship with us. In church on sunday morning to set up tables in pierce hall so they can tell us a little bit about the work that they're doing in this neighborhood so you can learn about ways to serve this neighborhood we're going to give it a ward on that sunday to a person in this neighborhood who exemplifies our desire to make this neighborhood a more just and compassionate place. Let me close with a story friends. I mentioned the woman who had no kitchen sink. I want to tell you about what happened. After we visited her that day. We went back and we worked with a few people in her building including her to organize themselves a little bit we put all that grievances down on a list. And that we made a few phone calls. We called channel for we called the washington post we call jim graham and on wednesday and we called the head of the dcra dave clark was in charge of everything charge of these kinds of abuses and we all brought them at one time to this building the cameras the reporters and everything and we we left the women tell woman tell her story about her kitchen sink and the building inspectors came and they took note of all these things in a few days the landlord showed up at the building kitchen sink. This is the ministry of a church that is more than a church this is the ministry. That are good work and our gifts today help support its worthy ministry friends. And i asked you to support it generously. I asked you to support it generously in fact i want to let you know that and i'm getting ready to ask you to make a contribution now to thanksgiving collection but i want to let you know that about a week ago a member of the church came to me and said to me rob i'd like to i'd like to make a contribution to the thanksgiving collection that is that you can throw to use as a challenge to people in the church to just encourage them to to give as generously as they can to his collection and so we were out. Thanksgiving collection. And he made that check anonymously but he asked me to share that amount with you to just encourage us all to give generously to this contribution not all of us can give $1,000 and clearly but but but maybe you came in thinking that you're going to give a certain amount to the collection and maybe you can give just a little bit more this morning the work is worthy the need is great i'd like to invite the ushers now to to come forward and this year's thanksgiving collection now and its 50-year at all souls church will be gratefully received.

all-souls_org

06.05.07WhereHaveWeComeFrom.mp3

There are times in our lives. When it's helpful to pause. And take stock. Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. Emerson told us to pass our lives through the refining fire of thought. But how often do we step back and reflect on our lives. When do we ever get the time. I teach a class on prayer here at the church. And in that class i teach a prayer that encourages this discipline of reflection. It's called the prayer of examine. It's a simple prayer. Usually prayed at night. You can sneak it in just before now i lay me down to sleep. It's really a guided meditation of your day from the moment you woke up until the present. But during the meditation you're supposed to notice particular things about your day. When were you grateful. When did you feel. Tingling lee alive. When did you feel disconnected and shut down. With the work you accomplished this day fulfilling and meaningful. What about your interactions with loved ones and colleagues did you treat others as people of worth and dignity as children of god. Or did you treat them as means to an end. When did you catch a flash of grace. This day. And when did you experience its opposite. These are the kinds of questions the prayer asks. And then after you've taken yourself through the whole day. To complete the prayer you do three things. You give thanks for the gift. Of the day. You forgive what needs to be forgiven. For the day. And as you whisper your amin. You commit to begin again. In love. Implicit. In a prayer like this is a belief central to unitarian universalism. That amidst the stuff of our daily lives. We can encounter the sacred. It's a faith that we can come face-to-face with divinity. On our lunch break. And that revelation can occur sometimes on the subway home from work. It all depends on how you see your day. What i discovered is that when practiced regularly this prayer can dramatically affect the quality of intention that we bring to our living. I commend it to you. If you can't find time to do a daily perhaps you can do it robert fulghum does. Every once in awhile when he needs a little perspective this popular author and unitarian minister will drive out to a hilltop cemetery. Where he has bought his burial plot. And he brings a little folding chair with a mini sets it up right on the little piece of land where he's going to be married one day. And they're in close proximity to his mortality. He takes stock of his life. He looks back on time that's passed. And forward to the future. And make sure that his life is properly ordered given the precious little time we are given. He calls this his ritual. Of reckoning. 5 years ago this month you invited me to be your senior minister. And a lot has happened over those. 5 years. It seemed to me that now might be as good an opportunity as ever for us. To do a little reckoning. Of our own. To look back on where we've come over the last. Years together. So that we might better focus on where we're going. As a community of faith. I wondered as i prepared for the sermon if i were to close my eyes and and pray in my own prayer of examine. For the last five years. And ask the questions that i asked earlier in this sermon what moments would jump out at me as moments infused with grace and with holiness and so i did that in preparation for the sermon. I prayed that prayer. And i want to share with you some of the things that came. Timmy in that prayer. The first thing that came to me and this is probably no surprise. Are the events of september 11. 2001. That was the day i learned what church was for. As people learned of the news and were released from work many stopped by the church. Number public transportation shut down people were walking home so people are coming down 16th street stopping. At the church asking how they could help. We decided to have a service that night and and folks got on the phone and called everyone in the church directory. It was a lot smaller back then but it was still a lot of names to get through called everyone in the church directory to check in on them to invite them to the service that night. And that night we lit candles here. In the darkness. And saying. Finlandia. The song of peace. This is my song oh god of all the name. A song of peace for lanza. That day i learned what years of seminary failed to fully teach me. The church is a community that cares. For one another. And for the world. A community that lifts up the possibility of life in the face of death. The possibility of peace. In the face of violence and war. That memory led to another. A blurry memory of the many peace marches that we've marched in over the last few years. I don't remember which march it was but i distinctly remember a little band of us marching down pennsylvania avenue. Singing spirit of life. And i remember thinking that that seemed a more appropriate expression of peace. Then all the shouting. That was going on that day. The other thing that came to me in my prayer. We're a lot of memorial services. And the faces of those whom we remember that those services. I can't even begin to name them all but. I remembered roy atherton. And daisy corprew. Bob meyer isn't an casey bryant. Louis russell. And as painful as those services are i come to cherish the memorial services that we celebrated also i've come to see them as one of the most significant expressions of our faith. For not only are they beautiful expressions of our love for the deceased. But inasmuch as they tell the stories of lives well-lived. They bear eloquent testimony to the things in life that we value most. If i were an archaeologist. And wanted to go back and understand what a people loved most. I've read the eulogies. And i look at the service at the memorial service. Orders of service. They are our rituals reckoning. I remember lots of times as well when i laugh or smile was an instrument of grace. In our time together i thought of the christmas pageant. And how the heavenly host. Play easier by the infant's in our nursery. How each you're there late for their chew. I come to count on it now. 4 years ago we started a church retreat at the ymca camp on the chesapeake we wanted a place where folks to get together outside of church and get to know one another better and my job every year is to organize the intergenerational water balloon toss. We're repair a child in the church with an adult who is not their parents and get to know one another a little bit and i'll never forget the first year. When henry tate. For many years our head usher. Was paired up with a little five-year-old boy. And the two of them were among the finalists in the balloon toss and on the last of the tournament the little boy reared back and and threw the balloon at henry. Pawtucket right in the face and the balloon exploded and henry was soaking wet and what i remember is how this five-year-old boy and the 70-something year old man. Stood side-by-side and laugh. And laugh. And laugh. I remember fondly some of the earliest baby dedications at the church. But now when i see those children and notice how old they are i suffer from a different. Feeling. Really there are too many memories too. Recount that's why you're supposed to do this prayer every day and not every 5 years. Knocking on doors to organize tenants doing get-out-the-vote in in communities minority communities in tampa during the 2004 election taking a silent meditation walk around walden pond with youth group. Watching the kumba players in the first production of free to be you and me. And then just countless moments here in this sanctuary. When the music in this church has made me want to shout. Hallelujah. Were there any difficult memories. Oh yeah. The church's rapid growth has created a heavy strain on the staff and on our resources. And we've had our difficulties because of some of that. And there have been conflicts. About lots of things there been money shortages some year. But fewer than most churches. It's about. What i bargained for. Why don't you just take a moment now though. And do your own prayer of examine. Close your eyes just briefly and pick out the one or two experiences in your history. With this church that stands out for you. Just reflect on them for a moment. See what you learned. And then as we always do. At the end of this prayer. Let us give thanks for those things for which we are grateful. Lettuce. Forgive. All that needs forgive. So that we may begin again. In love. With that affirmation. A beginning again in love. We are brought to. Look ahead to our future together. And i want to share with you a little bit. Of where we are headed as a congregation. So that we're all kind of on the same page. Going forward. I thought maybe you had a chance to read about some of these things in the newsletter. But then what i've come to realize that not everyone reads their newsletter. So you have to say things over and over again. So let me briefly share with you some of the places that i think we're going. And these are visions that come out of now a year-long process of planning that's going on here at the church with the long-range planning. Committee and the board. And i want to just lift up some of the highlights. The first thing that we are committed to as we go for it is to take seriously. Our name. All souls. This means a couple of things let me tell you a story you don't have the same view that i do on sunday mornings at church most of you are looking forward but i get to look towards the back. And here's what i've seen on a few sundays. Right after 11 when we're singing the opening him we're just after that when everyone sat down again. I've watched people come up the front steps of our church. And i've seen them get to the back door there. I'm lookin. They might even crack the door open and peek around a little bit. And they can't find a place to sit. And this is the most heartbreaking thing for a minister to see. Then i've watched them turned around turn around. And walk back down the steps of the church. And go home. I've seen long-time members do this. As well as visitors. On many sundays we are. Overly crowded on. In church on sunday i'm looking for instance to the side of pews here and noticing that they're a bunch of people i can't see cuz they're they're right behind the pillars there there's lots of obstructed-view seats. Here in the also sanctuary. In order that we will not turn away those. Who seek the ministry of this church. In the fall of 2007 we will be adding another sunday morning service. 2rr sunday lineup. Will have two services on sunday morning. To accommodate all of those. Who wish to seek our ministry i made a promise. When after having been turned away from a bunch of churches myself. That i would never. Participate. In a church. That turn people away. And if we are to be true to that promise if i'm to be true to that promise and were to be true to our name. Then this is something that we must. Do. That's the fall 2007. We're giving you a lots of time to transition and get used to this idea and and get ready to make changes. Some people are concerned though that as we grow in numbers that we will lose our sense of community. Here at the church that's something that we hear a lot so something else that we are committed to friends is that as we grow and numbers we will grow in our ability and opportunity to find intimate community here at the church. We're going to expand the number of a covenant groups that we have in the church. Small groups of 10 to 12 people who gather together. For spiritual growth and fellowship. We're going to expand the number of of adult spiritual development classes that we have. We're going to expand the number of opportunities for you to find community here at the church even as we grow larger i want to assure you of that. The research says that as church ironically as churches grow bigger. People actually find more opportunities. For intimacy in the church. Sometimes do the barriers. 2. Division of all souls are not just physical. And here i want to speak to. Our vision of building a multiracial multicultural diverse community. Here at all souls. A multiracial identity is central. To the identity. Of all souls church. And one of the things that happened when the church hired me as their minister of those like okay. Now you've got a white guy who's up here preaching on most sundays and we're going to have to be really intentional about what it means to build a multiracial multicultural church here week after week. This is something that we are committed to going forward something that we are going to devote a lot of resources and time to. To continue to build the multiracial multicultural character. Of this congregation. You know we're part of a denomination forbetterforworse that has historically a white denomination. And so we need to go the extra mile. 2. To reach out and welcome all people to this church. And that is something that i'm absolutely. Committed to doing. We've got a group at the church. That taking a phrase from dr. king they call themselves the building the beloved community team. And they're looking at a range of possibilities and opportunities. For growing our diversity at all souls. And i invite you if this is something that's in past that you're passionate about. To join them in their work. The numbers are against us let me say. In this regard. 6% of congregations in the united states. Are multiracial congregation. 6%. 11 is still the most segregated hour in america. And many of those 6% are catholic congregations it's even less among protestant congregations. This will be our most. Significant challenge. Going forward. But it's a challenge that we must be committed to. And with faith and commitment. I believe that we can. Achieve that goal. Compared to building a multiracial church the next big issue in the last that i mentioned today that faces us. Seems easy by comparison. We need to renovate our building. I know this isn't scintillating sermon stuff right here but i had to take a little bit of time to say this folks okay so you know for those of you who are visiting today or newcomers i'm sorry for the housekeeping that i'm that i'm doing right now every once in awhile. The preacher needs to do this. We need to renovate our building our building is inaccessible. To those who are disabled. To those who are elderly even. Each week i watch people struggle. To climb up the front steps of this church. We have no elevator no way to get from floor to floor. Our church in places is benji and unwelcoming. And there's not much we can do about it by just cleaning because it's old. And frankly our children inhabit some of the most dingy and unwelcoming places in our church. Some of you may not have gotten down to the lower level recently. But. It needs some work. Just about all of the systems plumbing electrical. Whatever other systems there are. They didn't hire me to know that whatever other systems are i'm sure they need to be replaced because they're old. Last month some of the members of the board and some of the members of our development ministry team and i met with a capital campaign consultant. To just get a sense of what. That planning process might look like. That was a very helpful meeting. And i want to let you know that we're starting down that road of planning that capital campaign i think it's going to be you know a couple of years still before we. Ask you to support that capital campaign. But the plans are going to start happening and you're going to be invited to participate in those plans cuz we need to shape the future of this. Building together so let me just recap. Two services. So that we do not turn away people from the ministry of this church. A growing program of small group opportunities so that we do not lose a sense of community and intimacy is our church grows and numbers. A commitment. And strategy to build multiracial to continue to build a multiracial multicultural diverse. Congregation here at all souls. And a capital campaign. 2. To renovate our building. This is a lot of change. It's left some of some of us feeling a little anxious. Right now. But i believe that if we keep our eyes. On the future and on that vision. That we will achieve all that we set out to achieve. Cuz really friends. You know what's not important the points of some long-range plan are not really what's important here what's important here. Is the vision. And is i see the big picture the vision is this. We live in a world. Where racial. Prejudice. Where ethnic. Hatred. Where where bigotry and prejudice of so many kinds. Are dividing our city. Dividing our nation. And dividing our world. The world needs more communities. That can model. How we can come together in community across our differences. The world needs more communities. Like this. And furthermore in a world we live in a world today where we're religious fundamentalism. We're religions that worship a god of some souls not all souls. Are threatening to tear us apart using god to divide the human family rather than to bring us together. We see all across our nation and our world where fundamentalism threatens people's lives. People's sense of dignity. We need to say lift up to the world this vision of a god. Who calls all souls. Mine. Let me just finish then. With one final story. This is one of the last image that came to me. During my. Prayer of examen for the last. 5 years. And again it's taking this vision is taking me back to the fall of 2001. To a sunday morning here in church after september 11th after the anthrax scare but right sort of in the middle of it all. And it for our closing him one sunday we sang the song. Glory glory hallelujah. You know the song glory glory hallelujah since i lay my burden down. Feel like shouting hallelujah. Since i lay my burden down feel like dancing hallelujah since i lay my burden down life is sweeter so much sweeter since i lay my burden down and that's sunday we sing that song that we never sung it before the drumset was going and everyone was clapping because we. Really needed that sunday. Delay our burden down. And after that service was over i went down to the front and i gave the benediction. And i sat down in the front pew next to a little girl. From the children's choir who hit song earlier that day. And listens to john play the postlude and during the posted little girl. Bent over and whispered to me into my ear. She said. Rob. What's a burden. And i said sweetheart it's. It's a little bit like a care. Or worried. Something that weighs you down. She nodded her head and. She turned and whispered the little boy next to her. It's like a worry. And then he passed it on because none of the children had known what a burden is. And that was a crystallizing moment for me. Because it won't be long before our children. And our children's children know all too well. What a burden is. And when that time comes it will be our job. Our job to pass on to them a face. That will help them carry that burden. Help ease it slowed. And maybe even sometimes. Help them lay their burden down. What we are doing today friends is not. Just for us. It's not about me or you or or just all of us here today this church is about the two centuries of history. They came before us. And it's about the generations. That will come after us we have been given a great gift. We must be stewards. Evacuate. Passing on to our children and our grandchildren a church and a faith. That is worthy of the name. Also.

all-souls_org

04.09.26ElectionSermon.mp3

I must confess to you. That there came a time this weekend when i wish i hadn't promised that i preached about the election today this is one of those. I assure you that it was with the best of intentions that i first made the promise you see i had hoped to revive a long-standing tradition in the congregational and later unitarian churches of new england a tradition that dates back to 1634 the custom was that at the first meeting of the massachusetts legislature the meeting at which delegates would elect the governor and his council a clergyman would deliver an election sermon instructing the officials of the religious implications of their public duties. Oftentimes these sermons were pointed critiques of the government's and of society just dorian's believe that the election sermons helped pave the way for the american war for independence. The practice that died out. In 1884. But in recent years a few ministers have to have taken to reviving this tradition not by preaching before legislature but by talking to their congregations about the religious consequences of the election and this morning i had every intention. Of doing just that but then something happened. Something that i wasn't counting on. Ucf failed to realize how hard it was going to be for me to preach about this election with love in my heart over the last couple of days. Only to discover the ancient false start. Sounded eerily familiar in fact each one sounded a lot like the vitriol that we've been reading in the papers. And watching on television ever since this election began aren't you sick and tired of the cheap attacks and the deliberate distortions and the relentless focus on a war that ended thirty years ago when one is raging today there is very little integrity in our public discourse right now. Only sweeter and sweeter and reading the first draft of my sermon. In his or her heart it's a very dangerous thing and it's a violation of the trust with the people put in that preacher to bring them a holy message and not a hateful rant i share my struggle with you because i know i'm not the only one who is getting drawn into this hateful discourse it's a shame isn't it to watch yourself move from fighting for something that you care about two fighting against something that you despise that's where i found myself going in this election prophetic and anger and we shouldn't. Put the challenge for the profit is to do that work with a heart full of love. With a heart full of love and halfway through my sermon yesterday i realized that my heart was not full of love so what i did was i walked away from my computer and i sat down and i prayed. I prayed until i felt i could return to the keyboard and write a sermon for you about the selection that came from a place of love. Honestly it took a while before i got back to the keyboard so when i do come back to the sermon i knew that my reflections on the tone of this election and the effect it had on my soul compelled me to say something about the state of of our nation's soul the state of america's soul as we enter this election and with all the risks that that entails making a big generalization like talking about america's soul with all the what i'm going to try to do today and then you can judge whether or not that generalization serves a function or not. Indeed our own souls are divided along similar lines we are torn between a spiritual orientation of fear. And the spiritual orientation of hope fear and hope are always warring in our breath and in the bosom of our nation and i want to begin with fear. Fear runs long and deep in the american spiritual tradition we saying about the pilgrims who in america the beautiful courageously when their way through the wilderness will let me tell you as far back as those first european settlers who came and carved out a little piece of the wilderness they were four as soon as they started that they were forever peering into the dark woods that surrounded them to see what dangers lurk there in many ways that fear was illegitimate response to threatening conditions in a dangerous world but over time the spirituality that developed out of this puritan and pilgrim legacy became ingrained in our nation's soul this notion of of fear and of the notion that god could just behind the first row of trees. You can trace the underbelly of this spiritual legacy from these early settlers true to the to the salem witch trials to the to the anti-immigrant sentiment of the nineteenth century to the anti-catholic to the anti-jewish to to the clan this is the underbelly of this religion of fear the spirituality of fear of other fear of god but they're the right wing and the radical right doesn't doesn't have the corner on this. So that's one side of america's soul the first person to mount a sustained argument against fear with a gentleman who's reading we shared this morning the great unitarian preacher william ellery channing in an essay called the moral argument against calvinism of fear in people's hearts strip them of their moral agency. The problem he said with calvinism is that at lord's that fear over people essentially channing was making two arguments the first argument was a moral one he said that the sphere limits our ability to make good moral choices. And then he made a spiritual argument in the spiritual argument and it said and this is important for people of faith the spiritual argument said was it someone who fears god can't love god. Pick a god and love god at the same time because fear is a form of coercion it courses love. Tell emerson was a disciple channing's and he spread this message this other spirituality across america and it was a spirituality of hope i believe in inhuman possibility in the possibility of human beings to discern god's willing to make choices that reflected god's will in this world you can see channing's legacy in the famous line of f.d.r. when he says we have nothing to fear but fear itself. So fear and hope. That was a lot of history and theology just there but it's important for our contemporary situation i hope you can already see where i'm going with this argument. Cuz that's fast forward now to september 11th 2001 we remember that day well many of us gathered in this sanctuary that night september 11th 2001 with the day that that we americans looked up into the sky and wondered what danger lurked behind the clouds in much the same way that the puritans looked into the woods and wondered what what danger alert in those woods and ever since that day has been dancing on this fault line again the fault line between fear and hope that everyone was afraid after september 11th fear is a natural response when it becomes ingrained in our souls and becomes becomes the orientation out of which we move it's okay to respond will be sold that we will now become governed by fear rather than hope that we will witness in our country a new generation of witch trials of suspected terrorists from us i fear that our foreign policy will look again a very large and a very dangerous animal attack i fear we must choose hope over fear we must keep our options open and not be governed by. But it's not just about the war on terror is it. Because if you look at the issues that divide us here at home i see fear rearing its ugly head again in june i went to capitol hill to testify against the federal marriage amendment. And there i said in the in the hall i said that the one thing that the politicians who are on one side and the preachers who were up at the table testifying the one thing the politicians and preachers have in common is that we all knew very well how to use fear to manipulate people that is the oldest trick in the religious handbook and in the political handbook didn't didn't really support the federal and to divide us on the basis of fear we need to choose hope over fear we can't let ourselves be divided again we need to respond to our better angels the better angels within the demons within us and politicians and religious leaders know well how to exploit those demons and i have to say that it goes the same on both sides of the political aisle ucuc the sphere being raised on the left as well as the right around around issues of of a changing economy for instance which leaves a lot of people insecure and fearful so we're also and i refuse to accept that the only way to worship god is to fear him away from what we hate and towards what we love until if you love the earth on the earth. Focus on what you love. Now that you have that image in your mind's eye i want you to do everything in your power between now and election day to sure the best interest of those people and those causes that you're holding in your heart right now if you haven't registered to vote yet then pick up a registration form in the harvard street corridor and by all means register and vote but don't stop enough to doing something between to help me register voters election i want to encourage everyone in this congregation to take a vacation on election day and work i want us to all take us and we're going to be going down there to make sure sure that all the votes that worked out in it in the 2000 election. The church can help you find ways to serve between now and election day so please contact our social justice coordinator louise green reach out find a way that you contribute our energy is too valuable to be wasted now on anger and on. And our time is too valuable now to get bogged down in despair. If we work together we can help build a nation the answers to its better angels we can help set america's soul not on fear but i'm hope but do it.

all-souls_org

06.02.12SnowSermon.mp3

Those of you who came this morning with your heart set on claiming our allegiances. My apologies. But as i spoke with our music director this morning they had planned all this great music to go with it and i thought i'll just save that one for another day. So instead you will have a homily of thoughts about snow. And the reading this morning is the first of two readings which i discovered this morning to poems which i discovered this morning about snow. This is a poem with the lovely title not only the eskimos. For as you know eskimos have many different words for snow. So this is a poem entitled not only the eskimos. By lisa mueller. We have only one noun. But as many different kinds. The greenie snow of the puritans. And snow of soft. Fat flakes. Gorilla snow. Which comes in the night and changes the world by morning. Rabbinical snow. A permanent skullcap on the highest mountains. Snow that blows in like the lone ranger riding hard from out of the west. Surreal snow. In the dakotas. When you can't find your house your street. So you are not in a dream or a science fiction movie. Snow that tastes good to the sun. When it licks black tree limbs. Leaving us only one white stripe. A replica. Of a skunk. Unbelievable snows. The blizzard that strikes on the 10th of april. The false know before the indian summer. The big snow on mozart's birthday when chicago became the elysium fields. And strangers spoke to each other. Paper snow. Cut and taped to the inside of grade school windows. In an old tale. The snow that covers a nest of strawberries. Small hearts. Ripe and sweet. The special snow. That goes with christmas whether it falls or not. The russian snow we remember. Along with the warm. And the smell of our furs. Then we have never traveled to russia or warren first. Valon snows of yesteryear. Lost with ladies gone out like matches. The snow in joyce's the dead. The silent secret snow in a story by conrad aiken which is the snow of first love. The snowfall. Between the child. And the space woman on tv. Snow as ideas of whiteness as in. Snowdrop. Snow goose. Snowball bush. Snow. That puts stars in your hair. And your hair. Which has turned to snow. Snow before. Footprints and the snow actor. Snow. In the back of our heads. Whiter than white. Which has to do with childhood. Again. Each year. When i awoke this morning. And looked out at this world changed. By wife. And then when i came in this morning and thought about what we could sing since the choir wouldn't be here. Except for our wonderful amazing impromptu choir. I thought let's sing my favorite hymn about winter. So hence you're laughing at singing dark of winter it's not dark outside right now. But it will be tonight. But i love that image. I love the soft meditative mess of that him. The fact that it's really a song prayer. The fact that it's a reminder that winter which we sometimes either fear or hope will pass quickly so we can move on to the spring which is our favorite season. Has gifts of its own to bring. Winter. Has its gifts. Think my friends of how we get more hibernation now. We get a chance to draw inward that we don't get at other times of the year we get a chance. To reflect. On how we're doing. A chance to keep the home fires burning in perhaps away we don't. The rest of the year. I was thinking a lot this morning about how good it is. Slow down. We live in the city with a frantic pace. Always telling us what's next. Where to be where to go. I'm so when i woke this morning and realize that very few people would even leave their homes today. I thought what a gift. And i thought also as that poem brought forward in my mind. Of my memories of snow from childhood. I think some of winter's best gifts are the fact that some of my best and most vivid memories. From my time as a child. Are related to winter. I invite you to take a moment. To think of the winter's of your life. Since we have this unique. Sunday. A sort of snow day for our spirits. I would invite you as we did sort of with our prayer time. To speak out. Your favorite things about winter or snow the gifts that you have been given. By the season before i go on. One of the images. From my childhood which i think i will never forget even if there weren't a photo to remind me of it all the time. In one of our photo albums is a picture of me sitting in a sled with a baby. Behind me of one of our neighbors kids. And a dog pulling the sled that we were sitting on. And i remembered cuz because that sled was in the middle of the street. Descendants as a child of getting away with something. That i was doing something i wasn't supposed to be doing and that most of the time i wouldn't be allowed to do. But the snow had given me permission. Four different kind of fun. A different kind of day. A different way to connect. To those around me. Some of those images. Of childhood snow. Have stuck to me like the snow outside these windows have stuck. The branches. There was a joy. In those simple snow filled moments. A simplicity. That i wish i had more often. An innocence. Which i have lost. But in many ways try to recapture. But snow reminds me of. Second poem. About snow. Entitled. Snowden snowman. And this one. Is by mary jo salter. Want to make a snowman. Sogos her wide-eyed question. On a sunday in january. I've been sweeping the kitchen floor and prop the broom like a bookmark. Against the vertical line that joins one wall to another. I checked my watch. 3:30. The last light of the weekend. Her last such invitation maybe. She's 13. I'm not sure it's packable it may not be good snow or enough snow for a snowman. Sogo my instinctive. Fun fun naysaying quibbles. I've been in adult a long time. Could we make a snow child then. Straight face. Without guile. She doesn't seem to know she's just invented a word. Or that it's snow fresh sound compels the things creation. Seize the day in a snowball. And roll it across the yard. Leave a paper thin membrane between winter and a spring that's coming up. In clumps of grass and soil. Roll the ball rounder. Bigger. Make a second. 1/3. Then pile them. Roughly centered one on top of the other. Like marshmallows on a stick. And human. For all that. Remarkable how little skill it takes to make us believe in. Fall in love with. This lopsided. Galatea. And why do we say it's male. Why do we feel that poking a tarnished candle snuffer for a pipe in his mouth mouthless head will finally clinch the matter. Dressed at last in every cliche we can think of. Scarf wrapped against the cold of himself. A wide-brimmed hat shielding his unshelled almond eyes. And carrot nose from a burning snowlight ready to buy low sun. He's ready or than she. Reverting herself to pure put-upon type. Be impatient teenager. To pose for a snapshot side-by-side. Each. Soon to disappear. Him shrinking as she grows. But not before monday morning. Flippin out to hunt the rolled-up paper. Threading along with it with it the widespread old news of sunday's snow gone smudged. A little yellow. I find instead. A fine life dust. On everything. Snow on the snowman's hat. Who's bram serves to define the line between what's molded by us. And snow like that. Sno2 light to burden. Is rounded back or shoulders or mine. The shovelers snow. Like breakfast crumbs. I nearly brush from his scarf. Before i catch myself. Inside i stamped my boots. And call upstairs. You're late i usually say. You must eat your toast it's getting cold. How can you how can you take an hour to decide which jeans to wear. In a corner. The forgotten broom still marks the place of yesterday. In the room. Come down. I call up again. Come see the snow don snowman. Friends. I wonder. About your adult selves. Have you been too long. An adult. To appreciate snow days like today. Will you be open. To the beauty. That's around you. Will you slow down and notice. What is precious. And see in each moment. Something of hopefulness. Maybe just for today. Like the poet we can put down our brooms. Put down our need to rush to what is next. Put down our need. To feel useful. Put down our need. To keep up with our to-do list. To just enjoy. Adjust. Simply. Live. And have that be enough. What does the child in you want to do today. I know some of you have already been sledding. I hope that perhaps more of you will go as well. Friends may we be reminded by the snow. By the beauty of our natural world. That our lives also have seasons. Seasons that need to be tended to. Not always by our doing. Sometimes most importantly by our being. Being here. Together. Is a good start. So maybe.

all-souls_org

05.01.02GratuitousGrace.mp3

Summer reading this morning is the poem for the new year 1981. By denise levertov. I have a small grain of hope. One mall. Crystal. The gleam. Clear colors. Out of transparency. I need more. I break off a present. To send to you. Please take. This grain of a grain. Of hope. So that mine won't shrink. Please share your fragment. So that yours will grow. Only so. By division. Does hope increase. Like a clump of irises. Which will cease to flower unless you distribute the clustered roots. Unlikely source. Clumsy. And earth covered. Of grace. The 16th century english preacher lancelot andrews wrote. The ways deep. The weather sharp. The days short the sun farthest off until sitio grimaldi. The very dead of winter. The dead of winter. We don't speak doing about the dead of day. Or the dead of summer. But we do still speak of the dead of night. And the dead of winter. Even here. In the temperate mid-atlantic. And that is because with all its charms. Skiing and skating crisp clear night skies. Which brilliant stars. Hot cocoa. Wood fires. The december holidays with all their song and candles and gatherings of loved ones with all of that. Winter is still the cruelest season. Indeed many of winters activities and highlights are what we feature and create in order to make a world without flowers or grass. Warm. Or light. Bearable. The cold bites at your skin. No impedes your steps. Ice menaces your path well most winters anyway where winter happens. In the gray and brown city. We see people or are ourselves in adequately closed. And homeless folks. Inadequately sheltered. I'm beyond the city there is still the color of evergreen. But in those woodlands you see also animals looking sins. Scrounging for nourishment. Distemper twenter. We have been reminded of hardship and desolation not particularly. Even by the cold and concerns around us but by the terrible devastation. In the tropics around the indian ocean so brutalized by the earthquake and tsunami a week ago. This season has been cruelest where it was least expected. On his bonnie asian and indian and african beaches. We're tourists relaxed. And seaside communities where people who had lived by and in the sea their whole lives. Saw it become strange. And then unrecognizable. And then a nightmare. The dead of winter are there. Increasing by the tens of thousands every day. Untold stories. Of loved ones lost. And unrecovered. Or found broken. And dad. The homes and communities utterly destroyed. The most basic necessities of water and food scarce. Or non-existent. It all reveals. Our own brisk world. As much warmer. And safer. Then we were perhaps aware. The aftermath of that devastation has also been human enterprise and the human will to redress. Nature's onslaught. So it is ironic then. That my topic. For this new year's sunday. Is to discuss the grace and hope that nature offers us when human enterprise. Is not enough. It works both ways. One way this week. It will work the other another time. When our efforts. Are not enough. Or our human actions are the very cause of despair. Nature will offer. Some gift. Some grace. That will renew us and our hope in living. Nature. Grace. Hope. Grace and hope are not the same thing though they are often linked as denise levertov reminds us in her poem. Hope is a self-generated experience it does not exist beyond us it exist. Within us. It comes from within us and is sustained by us. And it is this profoundly self-referential. Something happens or doesn't happen and so we feel hopeful. Hope may define or defy facts that we are facing it may be sustained by circumstances and shared by many or despite circumstances and clung to. By 1. One person is all it takes. For hope to exist. Grace by contrast. It's something that occurs bionda. And then affects us. We enter into it. But we cannot generate grace. Something happens around us. Or in our lives and we experience it as something of love. Blessing. Mercy. Favor. Goodwill. Or beauty. About surpassing. And spiritual nature and this. All this. We call grace. The grace i want to explore this morning is not large and public but minoot. An intimate. The story begins during the winter when i was living in a cottage on a farm in the hudson river valley. A number of people rented houses on the property which we shared with an assortment of dogs and cats. And peacocks and chickens goats pigs and horses who are kept by people who live there. And one of the other residents was tinker. Tinker was an elderly bay horse belonging to the owners of the farm. He'd been a hunter jumper in his day. But in his old age he mostly spent his time in the pasture at izzy's. When did he develop colic. An intestinal condition which in horses. Can easily be fatal. The owners were away and the vet was unreachable. A friend from the farm and i spent all day working on him. The most important thing when a horse is colicking is to keep him from rolling on the ground which they do sort of like a big dog very big dog. Horses naturally want to roll when their stomachs hurt as a way to try to dispel the ache. But if your intestine twists as a result of the rolling the only treatment that can save them his surgery which in horses is usually prohibitively expensive. So you have to try to keep them from rolling which would something as big and strong as a horse. Is really really hard. I did my best which meant walking tinker around in the field 4 hours always keeping it moving never letting him stop because the moment he stopped he would start to go down. But off and i was alone while my friend was on the phone trying to find a vet to come and help us. And so eventually tinker got himself on the ground and rolled. It was january. And he was rolling on snow. About the third time he rolled. As he lay tired and still for a moment i saw blood spotting the snow crimson. It was coming from his mouth. It was hard to tell whether he was bleeding from the throat or if he had injured his mouth and his throws but either way. The site of the tired. Old. Kind horse. Lying on the snow. Would that inward look that animals and people get when they are suffering. Made me sure that we were losing him. Eventually the vet came and gave him a treatment and an injection to give him ease and time for the treatment to work. In 6 hours we would know. Either he would again be in pain or his digestive system with wood resume functioning. 6 hours pass during which i walked him every hour to try to get his digestive works up and going again he looked around interested and vital again on our walk. Gentle. His breath. Blowing beside mine in the winter air. After about five and a half hours when i checked on him again he turned his head. And looked at his stomach. A bad sign. Anyways again in great pain and now there was nothing more to do. The vet came back and the owner came home. And i said goodbye to tanger and went to my own house. Leaving them alone to put him down with an injection. Spring 1 through. And renewed us. And summer unfolded into long green hot days. And then fall began to chris the air at night. One day in early autumn i was working in my office at home when i heard something banging against the inside of a window. Almost at the same moment from the corner of my eye i saw my two cats. Street avidly into the room behind me. I went over. I saw something move in a plant on the windowsill. I parted the leaves. And sitting on a frond. With a young small. Black-capped chickadee. With a wing twisted awkwardly behind him. His beak was parted his breast was heaving. And he was looking straight at me. I shooed the cats away and i picked the bird up and took him far into an upper field. I sat by a rock under a wild crabapple tree and i looked. At my handful. He was very small. With bright black eyes. And very tiny short. Thick. Dark. Eyelashes. He was still looking right at me into my eyes and panting. And i saw there was blood on and inside his beak. I thought of tinker. And the blood on the snow. And i wished that this wouldn't end in death again. The bird didn't move or try to get away he seemed perfectly comfortable in my hands. After about 10 minutes i gingerly began to try to ease his protruding wing into a position like the other. Which was lying smoothly along his side. He let me. And soon the wing at least looked okay. But i was afraid it was hurt. Probably broken. I tried lifting my hands to give him some impetus to make a trap flying. And he still didn't move. He just sat. In my cupped hands. Pantsing less. Looking at me. And looking at me. And looking at me. Gradually he closed his beak. And is breathing slowed. And finally. He ruffled his feathers and settled his wings. Just a little. Silly showed no inclination to move. And so after a few more minutes i shifted to rise thinking to try to place him on a low branch of the tree and see if he could at least hold himself on. As i moved he burst out of my hands. And flew himself. Right onto the branch where i was about to place him. And he looked at me some more. And then he flew away. These two experiences are linked in my mind the huge horse. The tiny bird. The one familiar named. Known to me. So powerful that finally i could not control him. The other wild. Say. Trembling. Dainty in my palm. Both had dark eyes. Both were gentle in their pain. Both put up with my efforts to help. The great strong ones suffered and died. The small fragile one suffered. And lived. And flew away. Bsa's to novelist annie dillard wrote cruelty is a mystery. And the waste of pain. If we describe the world to compass this thing's a world it is a long brute game. Then we bump against another mystery. The inrush of power and light. The canary that sings. On the skull. Unless all ages and races of men have been diluted by the same mass hypnotist. There seems to be. Such a thing. As beauty. A grace. Wholly gratuitous. Annie dillard published her thoughts on cruelty and grace. In a volume titled pilgrim at tinker creek. Beyond the coincidence of incorporating tinkers name. Her essays on nature in for my sense of the day he died and the day the bird lived. And even of the events last week. Because nature illustrates the human condition. That life is breathtaking. Breathtaking. And it's hard whismas. But also. And it's beauty. And even in its beneficence. We have all felt the cruelty of life at one time or another for ourselves. And four others in the world we all know the feeling of devastation the sense that the world is a long brute game. We have all felt the shock and pain that come with an experience of the fundamental unfairness of life. In a world that we strive to order and make better. We have also felt the hurt. The come not. From chance or circumstance but the choice the choice of someone who intentionally gives us pain or who does not care enough to help when we are suffering. There is a difficult reality that cruelty exists not only in nature or in life but in people. Who ignore or even take pleasure in the suffering. Of others. But we have to. Our experiences of unexpected blessings. And reprieve's. For ourselves and others. The compassion of those who care for us when we needed most. Or expected least. There are moments of joy or laughter or love. Beauty. A grace. Holy gratuitous. In a mist. Of great sadness. And morning. We are too often powerless over evil. But also we are truly given more beauty. And moments of transcendence. Then we could ever dream of or create. And it is that free grace. That makes the cruelty of life bearable. Grace gives us solace. And reminds us that there are reasons. To hope. The contemporary poet wendell berry wrote when despair for the world grows in me and i wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives maybe i go down and lie where the wood drake rests his beauty on the water and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things. Who do not tax their lives. With forethought of grief. I come into the presence of stillwater. And i feel above me. Add a blind stars waiting with their light. For a time i rest. In the grace of the world. And i'm free. Barry's words underlined another aspect of dillard's thought the interrelationship of humanity and nature in moments of cruelty and grace. Many people expressed a deep sense of relief. Succour. Peace. That comes with being immersed in nature. Humanity's perception of nature has had deep spiritual impact since at least the onset of recorded religious experience. Barry's feeling of peace and exaltation besides stillwater recalled the experience of another person. Thousands of years ago. Recorded in the 23rd psalm. Of the hebrew bible. The lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside. Still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in such right pads. For his namesake. Here to the connection between simple experiences of nature and sustenance of the spirit is apparent. And profound. The song as lies in green pastures walks beside still water and his solo is restored. The gratuitous grace. In a canary. Singing on a skull. Is a parent's only two human perceptions. Which apprehend the immanence and inevitability of. And sustains us. And calms us. It confronts us with mystery and the waste of pain. But also beauty. And even charm. Animals and plants. And people. Live. And i. And use each other. But also. Lam's frolic. Roses bloom. Seahorse an emperor penguin father's nurse their young with anxiety and tenderness. Trumpeter swans trumpet and mate for life. Puppies exist. And so do rainbows. And dolphins and elephants. A northern lights. Nature is powerful. And awesome. But also minoot. And sometimes even sweet. So can be people. So can be life. There is summer as well as winter and spring as well as fall. We love life more because we lose it. And we love each other. That we know death will part us. We anticipate spring we luxuriate in summer we appreciate the bounties of autumn and we endure and enliven winter. It is many years now. Since the day i tried and failed to help tinker. It is almost as long since the bird flew from my hand. His flight. Does not redeem or mitigate tinkers loss. But it does stand somehow against it. I couldn't save the horse. But i could save the bird. And that comforts me. I know that even if it never worked i would have to keep trying to save things regardless of the odds. But the birds story reminds me. But sometimes it is possible. We can save things sometimes. In this. Chill season. When life pitts itself. Against the enmity of winter. We are much worse reminded of the fragility of life and light. And the power of death. Far from the disasters around the indian ocean. Insulated as we are here in the cold with our heated homes. And early warning oceanic systems. Yet we have all lived. Moments of all. Fear. And despair. Chaos sweeping over us and pounding our lives. We have at least glimpsed once. What is overwhelmingly present there. Andweknow. What pain and fear. And lost our. And so we will do what we can to help. Andweknow. Because we are still alive. After loss. After fear. After pain. That life is never done with us while we breathe. And so we. Must never be done with life. Grace come sometimes when least expected least thought. Always welcome. Laying a gentle hand. On our shoulder. A new year begins. Cycles continue. Life ends. Life rises. And hope. Is justified not only by our highest human efforts. And determination. But also by timing and luck. And all that is beyond our efforts and control part of the mystery is a grace. Holy gratuitous. Which exists. As surely as it indoors. I'm in.

all-souls_org

07.04.01AfterEcstasyTheLaundry.mp3

This morning's guest. Is the second in our series of bills. In addition to his wonderful sense of humor which you've already heard this morning. And ensuring his own words which i read in the back of the hymnal quite regularly. Is that opening words if you didn't recognize them or are in our back of our hymnal with. Of course correct appropriation to him. Attribution to him. Reverend dr. william f schultz. Served as president of the unitarian universalist association. From 1985 to 1993. When he left that position still not done doing good in the world he became the executive director of amnesty international. Where he served from 1994 to 2006. Now. He's doing what i'm thinking of is shuttle diplomacy. Between washington dc. Boston and new york city since he currently serves as a senior fellow at the center. For american progress here in dc. He also is a fellow at the carr center for human rights policy at harvard's kennedy school of government. And served as an adjunct professor at the new school. In new york city. Reverend dr. schultz his visit is made possible by our all souls beckner advancement fund. Which was founded by members earl and meta beckner in 1973. When they established the fun they wanted it to enhance the influence of all souls in the dc metro area. To help make. A community of the church and its surrounding environment. And to foster human rights and dignity. And so for all of those reasons it is a good fun. To help us hear the words this morning. A reverend dr. william f. Thank you shawna thanks to all of you i appreciate that sean has introduction i'd become wary of introduction since. Learning of an introduction that was provided to. President william howard taft who was the last unitarian president and a member of this congregation when he served in that position. President taft was introduced by a industrial magnet of the day name chauncey depew. You'll recall that president taft was a large man and his introduction. Chauncey depew said ladies and gentlemen president taft is pregnant. And president taft apparently a sense of humor said yes it's true. I am pregnant. And if it is a boy we shall name it after me. And if it is a girl we shall. Name it after my wife helen. But if as i suspect. It is nothing but a bag of wind we shall name it chauncey depew so thank you shawna for. For not requiring me to name anything after you when i. When i ended my term as president of the unitarian universalist association in 1993 hashanah said i vowed that i would never preach. In the pulpit. A wedding minister who had not been kind to me when i was president. That automatically eliminated 50% of the congregations but. But not also because. Of course david eaton was a dear friend of mine and whose memorial service i was honored to participate. And because neither rob nor shana were in our ministry when i was president so they had no opportunity to offend me. So it is therefore a real delight to return to this historic pulpit. And especially to see the life and power that you and your ministers have breathed into these old walls. Now as you can imagine my 12 years as executive director of amnesty international were years of great opportunity and privilege for me. Privilege for example of being insulted in the nicest possible way by the famous actress lauren bacall. And a highfalutin dinner party on the upper east side i'll cleanup miss because language but. This is what the conversation. Went like. Darling. Arqule. dolittle schumann rights man that people have been chattering on about. Why. Mccall i suppose i am. May i sit with you at dinner. Me. Swooning. Or i would be delighted. What do you see darling i wouldn't ask you but frankly i don't know another freaking sold here. Or perhaps. Perhaps more to the point the opportunity. Degreed waging sang the father of chinese democracy on his arrival in america after 17 years in prison. Are the opportunity to work with gary gallagher and several others of 123 people convicted of capital crimes in this country. Sentenced to death and subsequently exonerated. Or the opportunity to go into the refugee camps in darfur sudan to meet those terrorized out of their homes. And then into the state offices in cartoon to confront the government ministers who would order the terror. So my 12 years at amnesty were. Years of remarkable opportunity and they were also years of great achievement for the larger field of human rights i. Participated in a conversation with a group of professors at syracuse university shortly before i left amnesty. And someone asked them whether over the course of the last 200 years human rights have gotten better or worse. And with one exception the professor is all offered abstract reasons why the human rights situation was worse today than in 1806. And i listen to all this moaning and finally i said in my customarily tactful way are you guys nuts. I said what just in the 12 years that i've been with amnesty we've seen the creation of the international criminal court. We've seen war crimes tribunal for rwanda bosnia sierra leone. We seen the truth and reconciliation process following apartheid in south africa within the ruling by the british law lords in 1999 that. Tyrants like augusto pinochet it could be held responsible for their crimes of torture in any country in the world we've seen successful civil suits in this country against torturers who have taken up residence here thinking they would retire comfortably with seen a majority of countries in the world who've abolish the death penalty even seen the supreme court rule the execution of juveniles and the mentally retarded unconstitutional and you don't think that we are better off today than when the slaveholder. These were a bunch of. These were a bunch of professors it didn't shut them up for an instant but. Remarkable izzy's achievements have been human rights still of course faced enormous challenges and ultimately they are challenges that will be mad if they're mad at all not just by changes in american policy and iraq or elsewhere but. By the adoption of new attitude for the world around us and that of course is where religion comes in. Now as practitioners of a religious enterprise all of us are called upon to grapple with such. Profound questions as. Why is there something. In the world rather than nothing. What is the meaning of life. Is there a god why do bad things happen to good people these are. Very challenging questions are questions i've been seeking answers to for more than 40 years and if shawna had given me a few more minutes i would supply you the answers this morning but. But the truth is you know that even the answer to the angel question. Is it more religious. Just sit in a pub. And think of the church. For the signature chin think of the pub. Even the answer to that is not self-evident and so. In a way then going from. My years with unitarian universalist association to amnesty international where the kinds of questions we dealt with were. A bit more concrete questions like how can we get the chinese to stop torturing 15. Year old tibetan going from the contemplation of religious questions to questions of human rights is a little like traversing. The reference points referred to in the famous zen saying after ecstasy. The laundry. And yet the struggle for human rights and more broadly for social justice is in very profound ways of religious struggle spiritual calling over and over again i found my working amnesty profoundly informed by my unitarian. Was faith and that's what i. Really want to talk with you about today why unitarian universalist values matter so much to the world at large. Because the truth is that we are witnessing today and enormous struggle in the world. Between those who would close down culture who would insist that there is only one right way of thinking. And those who would keep it open. Between those who would resort quickly to violence and those who would resist it as long as possible between those who welcome the pre-eminence of one nation under those who give their fidelity to the common interests of the globe. It is insured a struggle. Between those with a parched vision. And those with a generous heart. And unitarian-universalism forbetterorworse have always cast its lot. On the side of the generous heart. Epicentre of a unitarian universalist faith is the conviction the truth. Takes many forms. But no single person is ever always right that there is no necessary correlation between. Wielding power. And possessing wisdom. Osama bin laden doesn't believe that but neither does dick cheney he doesn't believe that. President of china huge until doesn't believe that pope benedict doesn't believe that robert mugabe doesn't believe that bill o'reilly doesn't believe that judge judy doesn't believe that. But it is true. No. sometimes i admit i wish it weren't true sometimes. I wish the secret of life was a lot simpler. Vanity. The chinese philosopher home to town once said. Only those. Who can appreciate the least. Palatable of root vegetables can possibly know the meaning of life. Well i wish it were that easy. What is a human being asked the danish novelist isak dinesen. I wish that was all there was to it. But i'm afraid that my sympathies lie with the rabbi. Do upon his deathbed was asked by the head elder to reveal the meaning of life before he passed beyond the lights at the rabbi. Life is like a river. And those wise words were passed on down the role of elders the rabbi says life is like the lowest of the low the poor stupid. What does columbia was puzzled. What's the rabbi mean life is like a river he then the question was passed on back the role of elders until it reached the head elder who put it to the rabbi. Stupid schlemiel has asked what you mean life is like a river. But the rabbi just. Shrugged. Always said life. Why you not like a river. Truth takes many forms. No single leader has all the answers and there is no necessary correlation between wielding power and possessing wisdom had the united states adhered to that simple principle our country would not be shunned around the globe today by friend and foe alike and we would not be in the mess we're in today in the middle east everyone of us and we know for damn sure every one of us is often wrong units. Abbott space at the center. A b generous heart. Remember the second feature of that generous heart and that is a recognition that what human beings share in common is far broader and more important than what divides us. In the midst of the 1994 rwandan genocide. A group school a prep school was attacked by machete-wielding militiamen in the middle of the night the teenagers were rousted from their beds about 2 a.m. and forced to line up in the dining hall and they were ordered to separate themselves who to on this side put c on the other so that the only only. But. Not one of the girls move. And the second time the militia commander ordered them pooped you over here tootsie over there but for a second time not one of the girls movie. I'm finally one little girl naturally terrified. Timorously raised. I'm sorry sir she said. I'm sorry sir but. Turn off separate ourselves you see because. You see suri in this school. We are not coutu. We are not tootsie. We're all just. London just little rwandan girl. At which point everyone of the girls was slaughtered. But what a legacy they leave we are not who do we are not good sick we're all just rwandan just a little rwandan girl. That sentiment is the most fundamental religious sentiment of the mall in the echoes of that young girl's voice the speaker graciousness for which the world is deaf. In a magnificent desolation wrote called the moral necessity of metaphor. The novelist cynthia ozick quotes the famous passage from the book of leviticus the stranger that's sojourneth with you shall be unto you as a home born among you and you shall love him as yourself because you two were once strangers in the land of egypt. Loc goes on to say that it is exactly because at some point in every one of our lives. Weak to every single one of us was a stranger in some land of egypt. But we can identify with. The dinos explored doctors can imagine what it is to be a patient. Those who have no pain at the moment can imagine what it is to suffer those at the center of power can imagine what it is to be outside the circle. The strong can imagine what it is to be weak and we strangers can imagine the familiar hearts of other streaming. I've never been to. I've never had my arms amputated but i know plenty of people who have. And i'm compelled by my religious faith to make a metaphorical leap from my trivial sufferings into those of the hearts of strangers. And what i find there was a star machine what i find. Use familiarity. I find familiar heart not necessarily attractive hearts. Not necessarily kind heart. Not necessarily admirable hearts but familiar. In every stranger. I guess i was just nice. I guess i was just naive but i never thought i'd see the day. When hundreds of people were hunted down in this country. Rounded up imprisoned shackled denied access to their families because of the color of their skins the ethnicity of their names the practice of their religion i thought that day was passed in this country but that's exactly what has happened thousands of foreign nationals here since 9/11. I never thought i would see the day. When the united states government would imprison its own citizens. And then try to deny them. The most fundamental rights any us citizen has a right to claim rights that everyone of us were taught we had in elementary school the right to a lawyer. The right to know what you're charged with if you're arrested the right to confront your accuser i thought that day was past but that's exactly what happened to us citizens jose padilla and yasir but i never thought i would see the day when the united states would. From its nose at the geneva convention convention we helped right thumb its nose at the geneva convention. As we've done at guantanamo bay and the secret prisons we maintain around the world and then deny the right of habeas corpus. The prisoners in our custody i never thought i'd see the day when the transportation security administration would. Construct a no-fly list to prevent certain people from getting on airplanes but not tell us how to get our names off that list so far the no-fly list has snagged a 78 year old nun from wisconsin and consistently snag senator edward kennedy of massachusetts to. Who is the terrorist only for the purposes of republican fundraising and. And i. And i certainly never thought i would see the day when the president. Taken together these actions constitute. The gravest threat. Human rights. Recreation. 48. They threatened to undermine. On which. Human rights have been built the notion. That we are trying to build a civilized world together in which all nations. You need not love your address. You certainly ought not allow them to. But if you strip them of their fundamental dignity. If you forget the fundamental familiarity of their human heart if you deny that your enemies blood to flo's red you plunge the world further even further into barbarism and invite upon yourselves and even more horrific retaliation. The second gift. Unitarian universalism gives the world from its generous hearth is it conviction than what we share is far more important than what we don't and the blood flows red even the blood earth-shattering. Proposition. Let my enemies too. Can't believe. But despite the depredations. All is not lost. Because of the final feed. Of unit. And that is the simple. History is not. The future is not. Everyone of us has the power. And the responsibility. To build. A more benevolent nation a more hospitable p. A more welcoming work. Somewhere. Somewhere. In one of the great. Art museums of europe. Hang. A large painting. The painting depicts spouse. And the devil. Sitting at a chess table. Faust has already made his pact with the devil. And now his face is contorted in anguish. Because he retains on his chessboard. Only a knight and a king. And the king. Use in shack. One day a great chess master happened into the museum and naturally this. Painting caught his eye and he sat down in front of it and stared at it 15 minutes he stared. 25 and then. And then suddenly he left to his feet. It's a long. The chin and the night have another move. They have. Another move. And that my friends is the final message of unitarian-universalism is generous heart that no matter what religious orthodoxy may claim. No matter what political political ideologies may bluster the future is waiting to be shaped not buy eggs erable faith not by an angry god but by human hands either by our foolishness or our benevolent for it is not just the king but the night not just the queen. Every single one of us every single blessed one of us who has another movie. We all have. If i learned anything. But no offense. Unmoved. How immense. No pretty words from a. Cover it up no. Simple faith. Plex theology. Explain it away it just is. Truly religious. People know that. Fear it sometimes flea it but. More often do their best. Or they know. Our job. Our job is not to. Or heartache. At the same time. Losing our. That's what. For 12 years. Almost every night. I lost my. Almost there. And gained it again. That's just the way it is with. I was off until. Did the wish it was otherwise. Never here to never hear another story of tor. To never learn of another senseless killing to never see tears again but whenever i wish. For that state. I reminded myself of just one thing. In the ancient world. A poetry contest was held each year. And the third place winner. With presented a rose made out of silver. The second-place winner was presented. A rose made out of gold. But the first place winner received a real road. A living room. Apollo was far from perfect and didn't live forever. Spoke wallet did. Samsbeauty. Compassion. And who among us. Who am i. If we had to. Who am i.

all-souls_org

06.11.19GraspingHandsToGratefulHearts.mp3

A reading from the gospel according to luke. And jesus said to them. Take care. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. For one's life does not consist in the abundance. Of possessions. Then he told them a parable. The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself. What should i do. For i have no place to store my crop. Then he said i will do this i will pull down my barns and build larger ones and there i will store all migraines and my goods. And i will say to my soul so you have a good laid up for many years. Relax. Eat drink be merry. But god said to him. You fool. This very night. Your life is demanded of you. And the things you have prepared. Who's will they be. May god have a blessing to the reading hearing and living out of this. Good news. Let us pray. Spirit of the living god. Fall fresh on us. Let the words of my mouth. And the meditations of all of our hearts. Might be acceptable in thy sight oh god. Our strength. And our redeemer. Amen. It almost goes without saying what a great honor it is to be here in this great historic pulpit i lived at 1504 columbia road during the first reagan administration and other places around the city subsequently but during those days of the first and then second reagan administration i remember coming and sitting on that back pew to hear a few words from. David eaton back when i was waiting tables and doing all kinds of things trying to figure out my vocation i would sit on that back to. And hear words of sanity and encouragement i thank you for those times in the past i think so many of you who are my old old old friends but truly middle-aged friends. And as always for the great witness that you provide that we are proud at starr king of all of our graduates but none more so than your own rev rob hardy's is who is doing such a fine ministry in partnership with all of you. That's what we like to see. Allow me to get down to the business at hand from grasping hands. To grateful heart. From grasping hands to grateful hearts. We come upon jesus and the disciples jesus and his crew jesus and his posse jesus traveling doing his thing. And teaching and that maddening frustrating fashioned by giving them a story and making them figure it out for themselves. He he brings them a story of a rich man. A rich man who has too much food a rich man and in a part of the world that struggles to be productive that struggles often to feed itself surrounded by people who struggle to feed themselves. Exploited by a colonial power. Rom that sees itself as the indispensable nature nation if you will a room that. Struggles to. Storage surplus even as it reaching lee offers its aid so fraught with strings that the benefits can scarcely be differentiated from the perils. Attached. We see. Our brother. And we. Macy ourselves. So many of us. Here. Compared with the rest of our sisters and brothers around the world. Are among the wealthiest in the planet. Do not travel far distances to obtain water. I. Struggle. To eat what i read books and pay money for people to help exercise this body. I am so many ways resemble. This. So-called rich full. So many of the things that we do how odd how unimaginable how perplexing they must seem to outsiders looking in seeing in the same hospital. People getting their third rhinoplasty as the in the same institution the emergency rooms overflow. With men and children and women. Who have no access to the most basic health care. And wherein and peep others are in there kitten butts lifted they have have plastic surgery they can perform so your feet look better in your jimmy choos and manolo blahniks that lead one to being unable to walk anyway. That i have to remind myself is insane. Makes no sense the invisible resources. Vets around us even as we claim. Our inability. To change big structure that can change them if not we. And who will if not those of us who have been captured. By this very particular quirky religion. That challenges us. And invites us. And demands so much of us we move from the grasping. That is so has become a virtue in this peculiar society. To the gratitude. That will free us. And free. Our world from the bondage. In which. It has found itself. Well. Here's what jesus suggest with his story he describes this guy is a who man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself that was his first mistake. Kids fox to himself. I know that i am not always the best intellectual partner for myself to my own devices vince myself of just about anything. Can lose touch. With realities even as they pressed upon us. To myself we can think of your neighbor a little ways down the 16th street surrounded by like-minded people. Convincing themselves that their opinions. Are based on facts. And that those facts then must be correlative with faith. With divine mandate and we see the outcomes all over the world. But how often we surround ourselves with people who will tell us that we're right and we have the same divorce over and over again with different partners we see our children struggling and we wonder how what do they have in common but their parents or adult child. What should i do. I have no place to store my crops. His first problem is a discourse problem. What will i do with all of this money. What am i going to do with all my porsches i can't drive them all i need a big bigger garage that's the answer the right investment tool that's the answer must have purses to the degree. A storage problem. And and then he goes on to say this is what i'll do i pull down my barn bill larger ones there i will store on migraines and there i will and my good and and then he says and then i will say to my soul his soul apparently is his distant enough from himself that he can rest his soul as a separate being how many distance from howe drink and be merry. His vision for the future of his soul is relaxation eating he is looking forward to retiring his soul to his becoming if you want and that's the vision he has for his spiritual growth. What's a preacher to do i'm in this weather is almost a caricature again if if i didn't see so much of me in it and and it just to our rather than be labor i won't just point out some of my mother always said some people are put in your path to teach you what not to do. One of the things that when i used to work for bread for the world which is an organization as many of you know that organizes congregations to work against hunger and the united states and internationally not only in this could work that you all are doing today but what connected it as you have to a larger social justice vision where people do not have to hope that there's something that they can get at a food pantry. We're many of our food pantries are in some ways subsidizing walmart for their substandard wages. We're subsidizing the rich sometimes when we're giving to the poor. It isn't the insane logic again that that that becomes normal to us we in the united states in terms of elections. But in terms of democratic participation at all levels of decisions that affect the lives of people. People at the local grassroots level wherever people are have some say in the kinds of education their children get for the women have some saying where the walk the well goes or or the kind of healthcare that's appropriate. Participation cuz this guy who's here all by himself thinks you think he grew all that food by himself that much out there. Pick and plant and nurture and harvest all of that food by himself and i'll tell you something i don't know about you but when i came out of my momma's room first time i did not propel myself out if mama had to push. Great. And an idea of possibility that have been previously unimaginable somehow will show up and point a new different way the discourse expanded into a democratic dialogue. And then from a storage problem to a distribution problem if there's not enough room for all of somebody's. Stuff it needs to be shared even if you don't have but a little bit and needs to be shared because i believe that sharing is one of the things that is. Substitute us as human beings. People reading books by viktor frankl or level people in situations situations such as concentration camp humanity and dehumanizing situations by the act of sharing. Sherry. As you share the good news of your liberal face sharing the ways that you have experienced freedom from addictions to whether it's alcohol or white supremacy or homophobia or or or finding ways to deal with any other social or physical or emotional illness. Discourse. Distribution. And finally. Kind of deliverance. How can we find ourselves leaning more on the grateful side than on the grasping side. Well. I need help i need the reminders of a community i need to be reminded to share as you all are sharing with such generosity and love this day but i need you all talk about this being a place for people who want to grow spiritually we talk it's talking about accepting life's kiss with grace and gratitude i can imagine. We want freedom to choose. We want freedom for gay folks to get married i mean those are both great great great things. But we may join and pointing fingers will why did they have all those babies anyway. Or why should i have to worry about schools if i don't have children we tell you something i never i've never been pregnant okay.. When i'm. In the hospital after surgery. The person who is doing my breathing treatment or reading my chart or bringing my medication i really want them to read well. Along with those whom we ignore holding the goods that we have been graced with discourse distribution and deliverance talking about spirituality. As that good time think he wants to eat and drink and be merry i'm mad at him party go ahead have a good time for you however our spiritual life cannot just be about that which feels good to us. Crack is about what feels good all the time crack is not good for us bakeries are about what feels good all the time. To stretch ourselves to challenge ourselves to do those things that we may not be good at right now a personal trainer i'm going to before but you can only get there through muscle failure. Push ourselves against that fragmentation that our brother in the story has where our soul is not something that we speak to as a distant acquaintance and don't even know its proper name but i sold as part of me it is part of what how i cherish myself and it's part of how i cherish other people and all living things and all the beings that are in this interdependent web that we cherish if we can push. Just a little bit. Those of you who are taking on spiritual practices for struggling to be ever better parents and partners and friends and children and colleagues and activist i just want to say be encouraged because those times when it's difficult. You may be on the edge. Of real growth. And power and wisdom you might be right about to shift from the shallow end to the deep end and to move through that water with beauty and grace and be a model and teacher for someone else. Grasping hands are ultimately empty. But a heart that is bursting with gratitude can overflow. Onto every. And any body my mother says i serve and extravagant. i remember one of my prisoners say i'm drinking from my saucer cuz my cup runneth over over your life. And watch. How grace shows up. Amen.

all-souls_org

05.09.04TimeToWorkTimeToLive.mp3

When i was associate pastor at judson memorial church in new york city. We had a tradition of using readings each week which were ancient testimony and new testimony. A cement ancient testimony from some texts of wisdom and new testimony from the time that is what i have chosen to do this morning. The ancient testimony is from isaiah 65 it is a vision of restoration for a people in diaspora. For a people whose city has been destroyed and who are in captivity in babylon and spread across the middle east. For behold i create new heavens and a new earth and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. I will rejoice in jerusalem and be glad and my people. No more shall be heard in it the sounds of weeping. And the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days. Or old man who does not fill out his days. They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not planned and another eat. For like the days of a tree show the days of my people be. And my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain. Or bear children for calamity for they shall be the offspring of the blast. And their children with them. They shall not hurt or destroy. In all my holy mountain. Says the lord. The new testimony comes from the new york times september 2nd 2005. The front-page headline read despair and lawlessness grip new orleans is thousands remain stranded in squalor. The title of the article read from margins of society to center of the tragedy. And i quote professor martin espada. English professor at the university of massachusetts and a puerto rican poets. We tend to think of natural disasters that somehow even-handed. As somehow random. Yet it is always been this. Poor people. Are in danger. That is what it means to be poor. It's dangerous. Rapport. This was supposed to be a labor day sermon about how access to a living wage or any weight at all. Determines everything about living well. I was going to focus on different kinds of low-wage workers in d.c.. And in our neighborhood of columbia heights mount pleasant. And i was going to talk about how those of us who make plenty of money still struggle to livwell. Livwell in our souls. Livwell in our bodies. But i thought of my preaching professor at harvard divinity. The reverend dr. suzanne johnson cook. A powerful african american baptist preacher. Who could move hearts and minds with a word from the pulpit. Get her method to begin the sermon process was simple. She offered a focus and sincere prayer to a higher power. What is your message for the people this week. What is your message for the people this week. I also began my reflection and writing for sermons this way. Hurricane katrina left out on sunday and monday. And on tuesday and on wednesday and on thursday and on friday and on saturday we watched at the nation's greatest natural disaster was met by one of our greatest national disgraces. An act of disregard. The poor primarily african-american are clearly at the center of the tragedy. And it is heart-wrenching lee obvious that those with means got out and those with little. Got trapped. Now millions are displaced and perhaps thousands dead while more thousands are still confined this morning in situations that are horrible to bear. With no immediate rescue. On thursday morning also has launched our bells of remembrance campaign and we began to tolar revere bell of freedom for every soldier last in iraq. And all the civilian casualties which are too numerous to know. We do know how poor americans of color on the front line of this war. And working-class white troops. How the enlisted troops are overextended and inadequately protected. And however more aggressive military recruiting efforts are aimed at youth with no or few economic options. On that morning thursday morning. We heard a furious and grieving louisiana native. Reverend lennox underwood now of dc. Make the hard connections. Between iraq the hurricane the national guard shortage. An american president. Who is willing to fly by in the midst of an emergency. As a former air force chaplain reverend underwood knew the stakes well. On thursday afternoon we had a meeting with la clinica del pueblo staff. And heard about how low-income latino immigrants along 15th street right here at the columbia heights metro station are being attacked and robbed then it went instance practically held hostage and a building under threat of crime. We heard how dr1 armagosa and our neighbors are being disregarded by the dc metropolitan police we heard his pain and frustration. The police discuss the situation endlessly and the latino affairs division and yet still fail to provide adequate protection. And decent emergency response. In one major theft from la clinica. The police came the next day. We know that is primarily because the victims are poor immigrants sometimes without documentation. You have to still negotiate strongly and directly with the appropriate powers. Which they have not yet done. But this is going to change. Another day this week i worked with a woman at risk when we helped through the all souls communityaid fun receive access to a safe and legal abortion. She had little means to pay. She taking a part-time job in addition to her full-time job in order to afford the procedure as she broke down and wept when i told her we would assist her. She went to the clinic. In the middle of treatment a decision had to be made about moving from local to general anesthesia in order to deal with pain and fibroid tumors the clinic counselor ask the patient to leave the table and call me at all souls to see if we would still guarantee payment. Because the woman could not afford the change. Can you imagine asking a wealthy white woman to get up from treatment and use the telephone because the billing situation was more important than her emotional and physical well-being. In all these situations it is clear that poor people are in danger. As professor espada tells us this is what it means to be poor. It's dangerous to be poor is dangerous to be black. It's dangerous to be latino. And i would add it's dangerous to be a low-income immigrant from central america in columbia heights. It's dangerous to be a low-income woman without health insurance beacon treatment. It dangerous to be a southern working-class white person with no car and no relatives out of the region. Is dangerous to be as so many in new orleans were port descendants of slaves who are so entrenched in poverty in a region that they had literally never left the city and their lives. This southern catastrophe. I believe. Evolve directly from the national catastrophe of the massive enslavement and forced migration of african peoples. As subsequent generations with few choices. And so this week i have been feeling grief and horror lost and anger. But i have not been completely shocked. Because i knew i knew. Poor people are in danger. Is the message for this week about how a lack of living wage lack of living well puts our sisters and brothers at risk for crime and lack of police protection. Is it about the lack of affordable health care for millions of people in this country the absolute absence of access except in emergencies in emergency rooms. For the poor working poor and uninsured. Is it about how poverty sends low-income people to war. And kills a disproportionate number of our poor children. Or is it about how environmental blindness and folly. Bureaucratic failure race and class divisions combined in a deadly mix. The trap thousands and thousands of people in hurricane in flood. I confess. That i have struggled with the message for this week. I am outraged at the way are bad choices around war and peace and energy and environment and poverty and race and ethnicity in class and educational privilege and healthcare access and now supreme court justices are so intertwined in failure. We have created massive injustice. Particularly for the poor. Particularly for people of color. And that is a very very large sermon topic. I struggle with that anger and i wonder what is the message. I remembered during the prayer service that we had on friday night for all those affected and concerned about hurricane katrina. But there is an old norse root of the word anger. A route which means grief. We'll use that fact and organizing training when i was teaching for the industrial areas foundation. The iaf of which are local organization washington interfaith action and all souls is a member. As trainers and organizers we ask leaders to explore that anger. To find that inner heat that can propel us to action. Not the hot unexamined rage that is often expressed in spontaneous violence. But the cold focus strategic anger that makes us get up off our seats and move. Anger can be the fuel for action a kind of pilot life in our moving in our being action is like oxygen. It keeps us alive and engaged. Many people feel depressed and despairing and their circumstances. And being overwhelmed is understandable particularly when you are fighting day-to-day for subsistence needs. But if you have some degree of physical comfort. Which this week means food shelter work medical care dry surroundings. Then anger could be and should be. Moving us to action. African american freedom leader frederick douglass says it more eloquently than i can. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation. Are people who want crabs without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning they want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. The struggle may be a moral one or it maybe most both moral and physical but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing. Without demand. It never did and it never will. Find out what people will submit to. And you have found out the exact amount of injustice which will be imposed upon them. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. If there is one good thing happening this week i know there are many good things still happening this week it is that more and more americans are reaching their limit of endurance. And beginning to connect the dots between all these in justices. For some of us this has been caused by a horrific natural disaster aided and abetted by terrible human decisions. For some of this this has been caused by watching and waiting for too long. Douglas says power concedes nothing without demand it never did. And never will. That is the message. For the people this week. That we must use our grief and our outrage and our anger to demand more. We must demand refuge and repair from millions of hurricane victims and an analysis of the terrible failure of this week's response. We must demand that our nation join 120 other nations who understand the grim consequences of global warming seen in this dorm assigned the kyoto protocol to reduce emissions. We must demand a thoughtful and swift exit strategy for the ill-conceived than ever-worsening war in iraq. We must demand a living made wage for all working people with affordable health care. We must demand increased educational opportunities for an entire generation. A poor children whose futures are severely limited by failing schools. We must demand more and be angry enough to sustain our action. Because we cannot do everything. We must do something. And do it with passion and conviction and hope that we can change the world. One-day-at-a-time. What action at a time. We yearn for a seek restoration. On so many levels. Is so many ways. I closed with the words of a new you minister from tampa. The reverend marjorie bowen sweetly. Which i used in a litany on friday night at our service. If recognized in the interdependence of all life we strive to build community the strength we gather. Will be our salvation. If we join spirits as brothers and sisters the pain of our loneliness will be lessened. And that does matter. In the spirit. We build community and move towards restoration. May restoration come. Doleful church. To the many for living in danger all around us. May it be so in our nation's capital. Washington d.c.. May it be so in this fractured. Aching country of 1 billion possibilities. I pray with all my heart. May it be so. I meant.

all-souls_org

06.09.17DearDesire.mp3

A reading this morning is from. The 42nd. Psalm. It's excerpted. As a deer. Longs. For flowing streams. So my soul longs for you. Oh god. My soul thirsts. For the living god. But when shall i come and behold the face of god my tears have been my food. Day and night. Well people mock me saying. Where is your god. But i remember. When i went with the throne. And led them in procession to the house of god i remember the glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down. Oh my soul. And why are you disquieted within me. Hoping god. For i shall praise him. Myhealth. As a deer. Longs. For flowing streams. So my soul longs. My soul thirsts. For the living god. I think. That is a beautiful. Line. A love poem. T'god. In which the poet speaks eloquently. Of his desire and. Longing. For a relationship. With the holy. This morning i wanted to speak about this desire and longing that fuel our spiritual lives. And i wanted to use this text. As our jumping-off point today. And so i spend some time this week studying the 42nd psalm. And discovered something very interesting. I discovered that. If you look back at the king james version of the tax the old. Old english version of the text. That first line actually reads a little bit differently and i want to share that with you this morning. Cuz i was intrigued by this translation it says instead of a d as a deer longs for flowing streams the text reads. As the deer. Pants. After the water brooks. So pants my soul. After the ohgod. No i don't know about you but for me. Pant is is an evocative verb. Have you ever seen an animal pants. My dog used to pants. We take her for long walks high up in the hills of upstate new york and on our way up the hill she would she would range far and wide her ears were perked up she had lots of excitement and energy. But then we turn and head back for home. And she's stay closer tarheels her ears pinned back to her head. And she would be panting. Sucking air. Desperate for the water in her bowl back home. It's not a very spiritual image is it. Panting. Conjuring as a does visions of flapping jowls and flared nostrils and saliva even. And i thought to myself i wonder if that's why they took it out in the retranslation maybe it was a little too earthy for them maybe they found it unseemly to compare our love for the holy to an animal's desperate thirst. For water. But that is precisely why i love the image. As the deer pants after the water brooks so pants my soul after the further me this line captures the alpha and the omega of religion. The burning center of the spiritual life. Is this longing. This. Desire for some it's a fervent desire. To know god for others a longing for enlightenment for still others a yearning to live as one with the earth and with all creation. But no matter how we named it we cannot escape the longing and desire that are central. To the spiritual life. This morning i want to explore where this desire comes from. Howard can lead us astray. And how ultimately. It can be quenched. I believe that this desire. Comes from a place. Deep. Inside of us. Just about every religious tradition that there is. Peaches this truth. About what it means to be human. They teach the truth that it is the nature of human beings. Tubi. Incomplete. That in and of ourselves we human beings are not quite. Whole. There's there's something missing there's there's something that we can't quite put our hands on but we don't have in and of ourselves and this isn't just a philosophical speculation i don't think doesn't our experience. Confirm this. We feel an absence. We feel something. Lacking sometimes it strikes us as a vague notion that there's. Something more to life. Other times we feel it. Cutely. Like pain or probation. It's not uncommon for people to come to me in my office and to say to me. Rob. I am missing something in my life. And i am seeking desperately. It's from this sense. The sense that there's something missing that springs our desire to discover what that something more is. It's the sense that something's missing that sets us on a lifelong search. For that which will. Please. For that which will make us whole. That's searches the defining journey of our lives i believe. Paul tillich. One of the preeminent theologians of the last century. Call the object of this search. Our ultimate concern. Ultimate for two reasons. First because it is the overriding concern in our life. And second because it is a search for the ultimate or the transcendent source of value in our lives this desire this search tillich was saying is literally. What makes our world. Go round. That's why for me the image of the thirsty deer. Panting. For the cool waters of the stream. Seems so appropriate. We are desperate. To have. Our desire. Quenched. This desire is a holy thing. It holds great potential for. Fulfillment and for joy in our lives it can lead us out of our cells and into relationship with our brothers and sisters with the earth. With the holy. It was this desire for something more that for saint francis down on his knees saying your god make me an instrument of your peace. It was this desire for something more that led the young buddha out of his sheltered and privileged isolation and into compassionate connection. With his fellow beans. It was this desire for something more that caused william ellery channing to shout out i am a living member of the great family of all souls. The desire leads us to love and ever-expanding circles it points us toward that which is of greatest value in the world that which will complete us. And make us whole. From me there's nothing more precious. In this world. Then this desire. But there's a shadow side. Here. One of the great tragedies. Of human living. Is that this desire for wholeness and completion. This desire that that that can lead us to life's greatest for filament. Can also lead us. Terribly astray. How should i put this. Sometimes we make bad decisions. About what it is that is worthy. Of our ultimate concern. If you're anything like me. You've made a lot of mistakes. And miss judgements along the way. And spend a lot of time. Trying to recover from them and make up for them. Must we really name all of the spiritual dead ends that we have gotten ourselves into all the the things that we mistakenly set forward as our ultimate concern. The pursuit of wealth. Power. Of self-promotion. Our desire to be to be loved our desire for pleasure. For pleasure's sake. We've all follow these pads and. We still do. Sometimes when i need is more desperate we even. Follow other halves. Our desire to feel whole and complete leads us. 22 drugs or. 42 alcohol to solve the pain that we feel inside of us. What we've done in these situations is taken our ultimate concern this desire that can only be satisfied by things ultimate and we try to satisfy them with things partial. And what happens is the partial thing doesn't suffice. Until we want more of it. And we want more of it. And more of it and it still doesn't suffice. That is my field jekyll definition. Of addiction. Really. Our addiction is our connection to those partial things. But never quite satisfied. The ultimate. Concern. Inside of us. Doubt. All of these things fame money wealth power. None of these things in and of themselves. Are horrible things. What makes them. What makes them wrong is when we supplant them and put them forth as our ultimate concern when we make that mistake. Emerson was up with a perceptive student of human desire. He said this. Make no mistake about it everyone. Everyone is religious. In the sense that everyone will worship. Something he said don't fool yourself thinking that you don't worship anyting. Everyone will worship something everyone has an ultimate concern and therefore he gave this morning he said be careful what you worship. For what you worship. You will become. What you praise you will grow into. From time to time. It's a good idea for us to. Reflect on our lives. And to ask ourselves. What is it that we worship. What is it that we've set before ourselves as our ultimate. Concern. Worthy. Of our desire. I'm guessing that each of us has done this kind of soul-searching. At some point in our past. And if that's one of the reasons we first came to church. Having run into one spiritual dead end and then another we came to church one day saying. Help me put me back on the on the right path again. Help me help me focus. Focus my concern again. Let's do this together we say to one another let's together just cern what it is it's an appropriate object of our desire. I think that our services each week. Give us the answer. To this question. They give us the answer to the question. What is it that is worthy of my ultimate concern you know people said we've been taking these surveys as we've been moving to two services. And we've asked people what what is the thing that you cannot do without. In our. Services. Much to my chagrin the sermon wasn't the answer. Do people love the music and the sermon but people said the thing i cannot do without. Is spirit of life. It's just saying week after week. Spirit of life they said. They said in the survey robbed if your if your sermon doesn't quite you know make it that week if the wires a little off tune as long as i can sing spirit of life. I have gotten what i need to go back into the world. And redirect my spirit towards its ultimate concern and listen. To those words again. Spirit of life. Come unto me. Sing in my heart. Move through my hands give my life. Shape of justice. I think the reason this is so important to us is that. In those very words. Are the worthy object of our altar. Concern. Our connection with the holy. Our relationship with our brothers and sisters. Our sense of oneness with the earth. And with all. Appreciation. Let me close with a quick story. From the buddhist. Tradition. One day a hermit. With meditating by the river's edge. When a young man interrupted him. Signmaster i wish to become your disciple. Why replied the hermit. Not used to company. The young man thought for a moment because i want to find enlightenment. About the master jumped-up. Grab the man by the scruff of his neck dragged him into the river and plunged his head under water. Holding him there while the man kicked and struggle to free himself. Finally when it seemed the young man could endure no longer the hermit pulled his head back up out of the water again and the young man coughed up water gasping for air when he eventually quieted down he said to the master. What did you do that for. The master replied with a question of his own. Tell me. What did you want most of all when you were underwater. Are. Answered the man. Very well said the master. Go home. And come back to me. When you want enlightenment. As much as you just wanted are. Friends in my mind. This is what religion is all about. Religion is for people. Who love as desperately. As a drowning man desires are. Religion is for people who love like a deer pants. For a flowing stream. Knowing instinctively that her own life depends upon it that that is what will make her whole. Religion is not. For the cynical. It is not for the tepid. Nor the faint-of-heart. Religion is for lovers. Plain and simple. Lovers of life. Lovers of justice. Lovers of creation. Lovers of god. That we might count ourselves. Among that number. Is my fervent prayer.

all-souls_org

06.01.22MeaningOfLifePt1.mp3

Once upon a time there was a much beloved rabbi. Put throughout his career had been one of the most learned and rabbis in the land one of the most gifted teachers. Peapod an entire generation of students who have in turn gone out and taught others. The rabbi had grown old though and one day the village doctor came to visit. And announced that the rabbis. Time was drawing to a close. He would soon die. Got the death of a rabbi was an important occasion in the community because of rabbis last words were considered to be the culmination of his teaching. Customary for the students of a rabbi to visit his deathbed and received his final teaching. And that's exactly what happened in this case the rabbi's students came from all across the land to gather by his bed to hear his final words. In order to make sure that the rabbis final words were properly understood and accurately transmitted it was agreed that the students would line themselves up single-file from brightest to. Lease price. To the brightest would be right by the rabbis bedside ready to hear his final words. The student line themselves up in the line was so long that it went out of the bedroom and into the rabbis home and out through the streets of the city. So numerous with the students of this beloved rabbi. We'll finally the village doctor announced that the time had indeed come. The rabbi was on the brink of death. So with tears in his eyes the rabbi's brightest student. Leaned close to his teacher. And said to him. Rebbe. What is the meaning of life. I was a long pause. And then mustering his energy the rabbi lifted his head from the pillow and whispered into the ear of his. Pupil. Student. Life is like a river. The student that was second in line whisper to the first one. He said life is like a river. Sub s students. Deferred student said the same thing what are the rabbi say he said life was like a river. So the third student on and on it went down the line until the s least bright student said to the least bright student. The rabbi said life is like a river and the least bright students thought to himself for a moment and said. What's that supposed to mean and come to think of it the second to least bright student didn't really understand what it meant either and none of them did and so they passed the question. Let me listen to say he was a little abashed at having to ask the rabbi to clarify his final teaching and frankly he wasn't even sure that the great rabbi we still alive but none the less he bent down to the rabbi's easier. And asked him webbie what do you mean life is like a river. And the rabbi mustering his last energy said. So maybe it's not like a river and he breathed his last to begin our exploration of the meaning of life. How many times have we gone to a guru or a therapist or for a wise friend how many times we picked a book up off the self-help rack or gone to church on sunday morning and just wished that someone would give us the answer plain and simple rabbi what is the meaning of life what is my purpose here. How many times have we been disappointed by the absence of easy answers. How many times is a guru or preacher or book thrown the question right back at us again just like the rabbi. So maybe it's not like a river. Leaving us to figure it out for ourselves. The story tells us up front. That the rabbi was a wise man and a great teacher and in this story of his final instruction we catch a glimpse of his genius. His wisdom is a teacher lies and his restraint. His understanding of the limits of his own knowledge perhaps. But even more. His understanding that ultimately. Each of us must answer for ourselves. The question of life's meaning. Even if the rabbi had an answer he was a good enough teacher to know that he would be doing his students a disservice by telling it to them straight out no one can tell us the meaning of our lives. Even if they did and we accepted it. Forgot about the meaning of life may be disappointed now with this these preparatory remarks but it doesn't mean that there is nothing for us to learn on this subject. For certainly there is wisdom to be gleaned for our search and so over the next 3 weeks. I'd like us to go on an expedition together. A romp of sorts through the wisdom of the ages taking note of what some thoughtful people have said on this subject listening to what are religious ancestors have told us reflecting on what our own experience teaches on. We won't shy away from difficult questions. For example we will face squarely the possibility that life is without meaning. Who among us hasn't wrestled with the demons of despair. Meaninglessness. Leo's. Ultimately though. Our search will lead us to an affirmation of life's purpose and meaning. But now i'm getting ahead of myself where shall we begin this journey. What are the origins of our search for life meaning. Ironically the search for the meaning of life begins with our death. Death provides the necessary context. For the question the meaning of life. Indeed none of the great sages have taken undertaken this search without first being exposed to the reality of death labuda for instance didn't go down his path to enlightenment didn't embark on his path to enlightenment until he saw the dying man by the side of the road and inquired into the nature of suffering. Saint augustine school in his his spiritual memoir confessions begins with the reality of death saying that we we come from the darkness of not yet. Vast and eternal. And we will one day go into the darkness of no more vast and eternal. In between is this little bit of light. But i'm trying to figure out what it means. That was saint augustine. Even emerson someone we think of is a sunny optimist. Began his search for truth with death emerson's young wife ellen died when he was 26 years old a year later emerson still hadn't gotten over his young wife's death and so one day he walked to the seminary cemetery and he went to the family tomb and open the door and then he wins to ellen's coffin. And opened her coffin. Because he needed to look in to see that his wife was dead. Several months later he quit the ministry and started off on his lifelong journey. Search for meaning. Death provides the context. For our search for the meaning of life course we all know intellectually. That we are going to die. I think what sets us on the journey towards the meaning of life is nothing knowledge that we are going to die but the felt experience. That we are going to die. A bad diagnosis. The death of a loved one. Sometimes even a bad dream. Listen to this story from a developmental psychologist james fowler i wonder if it will be familiar to any of you and raised through fowler right. 4 a.m.. The darkness of a cold winter morning. Suddenly i am fully and frightening lie awake. I see it clearly now i am going to die. Hi i'm going to die. This body this mind best husband and father and son will cease to be this i taken so much for granted by me will no longer walk the earth strange feeling of remoteness creeps over me my wife beside me in bed. Seems a stranger. My daughter is in the next room seem like they'd memories of people i had once known my work my ambitions my dreams feel like a fiction. Real life suddenly feels like a transient dream. In the strange aloneness of this moment defined by the certainty of death. I awake to the true facts of life. The imminence of our death. And in the grand scheme of things death is imminent. For all of us the imminence of our death makes us take seriously the precious time that we have. There's something about life's impermanence that creates an ostriches ire to ground our lives in something eternal believing that we have invested it out if we have invested i live in the eternal we will have in some way at least transcended that impermanence. Religion says my colleague forest church at at all souls church in manhattan religion is our human response. To the dual reality. Oblivion. And having to die. No freud thought that people who spent too much time thinking about the meaning of life were sick frankly he thought they were mentally ill. But let me suggest that we don't always have to take on this question head-on in some overwhelming existential fashion the question what is the meaning of my life is implicit in a question as common as how will i spend this day how will i spend this day what's important for me today. It's implicit in in lots of mundane decisions decisions like how will i spend my money. Think about it when were when were young adults deciding what to make of our lives what career to choose who to spend our lives with we are asking questions about life meaning. Or when we're at at midlife and we're struggling through that passage. Sometimes called the midlife crisis what we're really doing is taking stock of our lives asking has my life that's far been meaningful. What changes must i make to make it so. And is it too late. The meaning of life is at once the most esoteric and the elusive philosophical questions and at the same time as common as the decisions of how to spend our day. And ultimately therein lies its important. Therein lies the importance to this question the relevance of the question what is the meaning of life the relevance lies in his answer to the question how shall we spend our days to discover meanies is to order our games to imbue them with a sense of coherence and integrity and wholeness. It's to give life a sense of value and purpose. And is that since. Sense of purpose doesn't make us happy in the conventional sense in the convention that freud might want us in the conventional sense in which freud might want us to be happy will at least. It can bring us a sense of joy. That might be different from happiness but giving our lives meaning can give us a sense of joy and that's why i prayed ultimately is wrong about this subject to inquire into the meaning of life isn't to be morbid he isn't to be sick it is to search for join. Retire story semi finished with a story. Of someone who found that joy. I have. Shared with you before the testimony of commerce school the former un secretary-general and nobel peace prize winner. Summer school died in a plane crash in a congo as he was trying to broker a peace in that land. After he died his family came upon a journal that you kept a spiritual memoir really that told the story about how he had come to dedicate his life. To making peace. An inert thomas school breaks this and some of you heard this before. I don't know who or what. Put the question. I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. What is tom moment i did answer. Yes. To someone. And from the moment of that yes. I was certain that existence is meaningful. And that therefore my life in self-surrender had a goal. Yes. I could preach a whole sermon on that word yes. Cuz it's the most important word in the spiritual lexicon and you know so many people end up in the unitarian church because they have had to say no somewhere else right. Those of you who have come clean and oppressive church those of you who have come cuz you were taught about a vengeful god you had to say no first and for many of you that's why you ended up in this place and my fervent prayer before it's all said and done is that you will come to be able to say yes again. Yes. But yes of which hammarskjold speaks of his sort of like an existential i do. Right it's as if we were standing at the altar with the source of meaning and purpose in our lives and we finally muster the courage to say i do yes. We finally mustered the courage to give our lives. To discover the meaning of life is to discover that to which we can say yes. A joyous yes. And almighty yes. I'm in.

all-souls_org

05.07.10TheNeedForWonder.mp3

When i began to compose the service tweak it occurred to me that the biggest challenge to this topic the biggest challenge of speaking about wonder was trying to describe what wonder is and perhaps even more importantly what it does for us and with us and so in an effort to get add an image of wonder away for you to visualize it i have chosen to brief readings the first is from lindsey crittenden and from an essay that she wrote about her experience of prayer as her mother was dying her essay was entitled the water will hold you a. otter at prayer toward the end of the essay here is how she uses swimming to describe a moment of wonder underwater we see how the sky looks from beneath a wavering scrim feel how it is to be held by something we can't hold onto underwater where the same composition of matter and mind cells and neurons but we move in ways not possible on dry land in the pool at the health club when i finished my round of business like adult labs if i have the lane to myself i float on my back the way i did when i was a child my face an inch or two beneath the surface to look up through the squiggles of light and water that always mesmerized each time he's suspended for the between dry land and water when we pray we float between who we are to the world and who we are to god it may look in both like we're disappearing and innocence we are when i finished praying and emerged of morning and bed and desk and work i know i've been somewhere else i blink to hold on to the internal spaciousness the glimpse of transcendence the wonder of love think a lavalier mic. I don't know if it was just me but i was getting a lot of feedback so i think we'll just stick with the pulpit mike the second reading is from vietnamese buddhist monk tik not han about a similar type of awareness put in slightly different terms. Every morning when we wake up. We have 24 brand new hours to live. What a precious gift. We have the capacity to live in a way that these 24 hours will bring peace. Joy and happiness. To ourselves and others. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We don't have to travel far away to enjoy the blue sky. We don't have to leave our city or even our neighborhood. To enjoy the eyes of a beautiful child. We are very good. At preparing to live. But not very good. At living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma and we are willing to work very hard to get a job a car a house and so on. But we have difficulty. Remembering that we are alive. In the present moment. The only moment. That there is. For us. To be alive. The need for wonder. Was pointed out to me on friday by louise we had a. A goodbye lunch for parker and i managed to hold back the tears then which i must be why they came this morning. And we were sitting around having a lunch and lewis said to me so wait a minute let me get this clear last week you preached about grace and this week you're preaching about wonder. What's going on shawna. She said it seemed to her and i think she's right that last week's sermon and this week really could be sort of companions. Almost a series that i inadvertently found myself doing. Because i seem to be covering spiritual language. Or actually spiritual experiences. That we unitarian universalist don't readily embrace. Last sunday when i spoke about grace. I spoke about the importance of making room. Both literal and figurative. Room in yourself and in your life. For those blessings. Those gifts. That life with a capital l bestows upon us. That are unmerited. Unasked-for. Just given. And if we're awake enough received. And this morning i want to speak a little bit about wonder. You see my friends we modern folks are not so good at wonder. We are convinced that everything can be explained. That's facts. Can be found that numbers can be cited. We aren't easily impressed or convinced. That we should approach the world and our lives. As something other than a problem to be solved. I think we could put that in modern terms as just google it. If you want an answer you can just go to your computer and figure out what it is there isn't any mystery left. Our perspective seems to be one of making everything fit into boxes everything has to come out just so and just right and we have the answer rest assured. But my friends wonder is the opposite of that. Wonder runs counter to this assumption that knowledge is always there. It runs counter. To our presumption that we understand everything. Or even the presumption that everything can be understood. When my partner and i were preparing for our wedding my partner is very much a j as you will come to know in the myers-briggs sense of the letter j very organized very direct of putting everything together and we were going over things with our officiant and she said now you will explain everything to them about what's going to happen next. And he shook his head as she was speaking and this look of terror came over her eyes and he said now you remember that to explain means to lay flat and there are some things that we don't want to lay flat. There are some things in life that cannot be laid flat cannot be explained. Away. You need to simply experience them be aware and awake to them. Because my friends life can't and shouldn't be flattened. We need to keep. The mystery alive. So what is wonder and why do we need it why do i seem to think that we need wonder. Wonder it seems to me is what i would may be characterized as a sixth sense or perhaps it's the 7th depending on how you count your senses. A way of perceiving the world. And a way of. Apprehending things. In your life. That without. We are missing a dimension to our experiences. A dimension that audre lorde would say that once we are aware we're capable of experiencing life at that level of fullness at that level of awareness. That we want to achieve it again and again and again. Wonder is a sense. A feeling an apprehension. Of how precious and astounding and utterly remarkable. Life is. Wonder. Is the way we sense. All of that. Somehow someway that life is amazing and remarkable and beyond explanation. And then are able to take that feeling and respond. Respond with gratitude. Respond with a sense of being blessed. Respond with being moved and aware and awake. To a whole nother beauty. Now it occurs to me and it seems appropriate that we have the sounds of children around us this morning because it occurs to me that some of my best teachers in the ways of wonder where the preschoolers that i worked with in berkeley. You see i would show up to work with them i told you this before from my seminary class is feeling very proud of myself very assured that i knew everything there was to know at least that day. And the preschoolers would then calmly well maybe not calmly remind me that i hadn't paid attention to much of anything at all that day. For there was a way that they would just be astounded. By the simplest of things. A three-year-old in a garden is a miraculous thing to witness. We were planting seeds one day and little jamie was working with his his little trowel and he flew so he even turned at one point and looked at me and he said shawna my mom is going to see this and she's going to be so impressed. I said only a toddler in berkeley california would turn to me and say impressed. And i kind of looked at him and i said why. He said because things are going to grow. They would sit there and look at one thing that i thought was boring within 5 minutes and they could spend all morning playing with that. Toy or looking at a cloud in the sky. They taught me tremendous things about what it is to be patient enough. To see the beauty in life. A bug. Can tell you a lot. About persistence. They showed me. Sand has an amazing feeling as it. Drift through your fingers. They showed me. Watching someone's face. As it can towards into tears. Is something not to be turned away from. They told me. Remarkable teachers those children that wonder is around us all the time. And how blind we are to it most of the time. That sense. Of wonder. Without it so much. Is missing. And so much could be found. If we would look for it again. Those children said to me. We don't need structure. We don't need for things to be organized we don't need four things to make obvious sense. We don't even need for this to have a point to it. Because life itself. Life itself was the point. And it was enough. No it wasn't enough it was more than enough. That we were all there to witness it. Together. So my friends since most of us aren't toddlers anymore. How do we access wonder. How do we remember it how do we make it. Easier not to ignore those moments of wonder when they arrive. We need a pathway. We need a route. Destination wonder. And that path and that route can be found hazard reading suggested in prayer. In meditation. In times of silence. At the class that i began on wednesday night we had deep conversation about what it means to be alive. To be aware. Tejon our perception. So that it's. Just like breathing. To live with wonder. My friends i think part of that pathway. Whatever your own spiritual practice is that helps you to grow your capacity for wonder. It also includes our need. To be content with what we have. For friends if we. Are busier wanting what we have being aware of how beautiful this life is we are not busy always seeking in far-off places as one of our hymn says for something else something more something different something better that's something different and better is here and now. Perhaps the best way i can express it is to say that we need a suspension of disbelief. Or even more accurately. Inappropriately what we need is a conviction. That by embracing the extraordinary ness. Of life itself. That. Is belief worthy in and of itself. My friends we don't have to try. To make life beautiful and holy. We have to be open to the fact that it already is. And so my prayer for us this day and everyday. Is that we may never tire of wonder. May we know that we are holy and blessed. Just as we are. Anime we live. Like we believe it. So mad be. And ahmed.

all-souls_org

06.06.04EverWideningCirclesOfLove.mp3

Our second reading this morning is from one of my favorite social critics and novelist james baldwin and it's short so pay attention if the concept of god. Has any validity for any use. It can only be to make us larger. Freer. And more loving. If god cannot do this. Then it is time. We got rid of him. Baldwin always could put a fine point on it. Not too long ago and african-american member of all souls knocked on my door and told me he had a story he wanted to share. What call this number jim not so much to protect his anonymity but that of the other people in the story. Jim told me that about a year back he had invited a colleague from work and her husband to come visit all souls they were black couple in their 40s or 50s who'd been looking for a church home for some time but hadn't felt comfortable in in the more traditional black church. Jim was delighted when a few weeks later he saw them in the balcony on sunday morning. They went over and welcome them and encourage them to return. And returned they did. Sunday after sunday over the course of one fall they came fairly regularly a few months later though jim noticed that he hadn't seen the couple at church for a while. And so one day as he passed his colleague in the hallway at work. He just casually asked if if they were still coming to all souls. And the woman was quiet for a moment. And she looked at gym with women ashamed look on her face. And she said jim we loved your church. Swarm. The music the sermons we liked it all. But my husband just couldn't get over the fact. That the ministers were gay. So we've stopped coming. I'm sorry. Jim's not the only one with a story like this other folks have shared similar tales. Stories like this that have got some people wondering. Usually in private. Usually only among close friends or in the confines of the pastor's study. Wondering whether or not all souls can be both. A multiracial congregation. And congregation that is welcoming to gays and lesbians they wonder if somehow our commitment to these two goals these two peoples is contradictory somehow. There's a reason that people rarely raised this question in public it makes us awfully uncomfortable to talk about it. To sum it to even raised the question might seem as though we're questioning our commitment either to the gays or lesbians or 22 folks of color. Lots of us don't want to talk about this in public because we don't want our church. Our church of all places to be a place where we reminded that things like prejudice still exist where we're reminded that are very identities can sometimes still be contentious. Sunday after sunday we say that this will be a place for the divisions that separate us in our daily lives will come tumbling down and that we will recognize our part ourselves as part of one human family this is a faith statement we make each sunday and is a faith statement it is true we are brothers and sisters all and because it's true some people believe that a church we shouldn't emphasize or talk about what makes us different that we should we should focus on what unites us and i sympathize with feeling. But here's the problem with it the faith that we are one family is true as a faith statement. But it's not the whole truth. There are divisions that threaten to tear apart the human family. And it's a human institution that church is susceptible to these same divisions. And that's hard for us to admit sometimes. That's why is a minister i actually spent a lot of time talking to people who feel disappointed or let down by the church people who expected that spits somehow in the in the church people wouldn't do the dumb things they do everywhere else in the world. At its best the church is a place where people are on the journey. On the journey toward transformation on the journey toward becoming the great family of all souls but along the way we are still tripping and stumbling and hurting each other. So i think we need to have the uncomfortable conversations not only in private but here in public and in this holy place on sunday mornings even though it's uncomfortable believe me i didn't get much sleep last night toward transformation the worst thing we could do. Is remain silent. So let's look at this question then. Can our church. Be welcoming. Two people of color and two gays and lesbians. But before answering that let's examine a couple of the premises behind this question because actually i've got away i got a problem with how the question is even posed first of all the question presumes that. People of color aren't gay and i don't know about you but i know a few thousand people went to black pride last weekend who might beg to differ about that. These stereotypes exist inside and out of communities of color inside and out of the gate community with a result that people of color who are gay and lesbian are often disappeared in both communities. And i don't want that to happen here. That can't happen here. I also want to suggest that the reason we're asking this question right now is because it's a question that we hear a lot in the media these days you can't follow dc politics and and read the local media without being aware of their fondness for portraying gentrification in washington as a conflict only between gay people and black people. Have you noticed this in the press it came up in the debate about the conflict about about black churches and shaw double-parking on sunday morning you read about that whole hullabaloo and then more recently about the bar that someone wanted to open down in logan circle in the owner's happened to be gay in the black church ministers oppose that opening and the media seems to really love this this tension between black folks and gay folks from the democratic party. There seems this seems to be real popular in the media these days this conflict and i've been trying to figure out why that is the case and the other day i think it hit me i think i figured it out. Which is this on the local level at least it's a lot easier. To blame gentrification on a bunch of gay men with a penchant for fixer uppers then it is to confront the shadowy mix of economic inequality and racism that has been at the heart of every wave of urban displacement in the city's history adams morgan. This is all the way of saying that i think this whole conflict between coats of color and gave folks is is fueled by our culture's unwillingness to talk about deeper systemic problems let's be clear the problems are racism economic inequality and homophobia the problem is not gay people and black people which. So we need to be careful how we frame this question when jim-jim first. Share with me the story about his colleague from work it sounded strangely familiar to me. And after while i realize that i've heard a version of this story before and i remembered where it came from. Remind me that that david eaten one of my predecessors here at all souls used to tell a story about the early days of his ministry at all souls and i want to share with you david story because i think it suggests to us. A possible way forward. The david eaton was called to be the first african-american minister of all souls senior minister of all souls in 1969 a year after dr. king's assassination at a time when the nation and the city and especially this neighborhood were deeply divided along racial lines. And in that environment david and this church created something that was remarkable a thriving genuinely multiracial congregation. But from what i've been told race and racism weren't often talked about explicitly during david 10-year they were still to be too explosive to address directly asked david to preach about this subject head-on and in the early 80s he preached the sermon called racism is alive and well. And after spending the first part of the sermon defining racism in describing his experience growing up in segregated washington and being a black man in the army. He moved onto his experience at all souls church. David said and i quote him here some of you know that between 1969 and 1975 i went through the worst experience of racism that i had ever encountered since i left the army and it happened right here at our church. David talked about how when he first came there was a group of white people in the church who try to undermine his authority who questioned his qualifications as a minister and after they fail to convince him to leave they went ahead and left the church themselves and went out to the suburbs. If you look back at the numbers the. The numbers bear this out. In 1968 the year before david with call the senior minister that church membership stood at around 12 or 1300 members by the mid-70s it had declined to around seven hundred or so i don't mean to suggest that everyone who left left for this reason but i think it explains something. And he ended his sermon with a story that i want to share with you today and since i have a transcript of that sermon i'll tell it in david's own words. Something wonderful and beautiful happened in the midst of all this exodus he said. A woman 62 years old came to my office one day and she was crying. And i went over and and held her in my arms. She said i've got to leave the church. And i asked why. She said i'm just not comfortable anymore. It was all right before when our ministers were white. There were a few blacks but now there are too many joining the church. And i'm not comfortable anymore. I feel ashamed of myself i'm a liberal and i never thought that i could have racist feelings but i do. I said david. Well you can try to change the she said no i'm too old for that. I can't change when i go to church i want to be comfortable but i'll send money from time to time to help the church out. And she left. David continued i see her from time to time in passing out of the corner of my eye and if she sees me before i. Motion to her she vanishes quickly and i let her what if i see her first and then she'll smile and we hug each other and she asked me how things are going and we quickly part. What's striking to me about this story. Is that david begins it by describing it as something wonderful and beautiful and at first i thought to myself could be wonderful and beautiful. It was her honesty so david. I appreciated her honesty. Her willingness to confront her on racism her willingness to get past the white liberal notion that just because we don't tell off-color jokes or wear hoods that therefore we aren't racist. But the woman's courage didn't go quite far enough did it. You can try to change that david. I'm 62 she said i can't change i want to be comfortable. It sounds a lot like the couple who spoke to jim. We like to sermons. But we couldn't get over the fact that he was gay. You don't have to be perfect. To come to all souls you don't have to have all this stuff sorted out already. But you do have to as david says. Be willing to try to change. Be willing to make the journey with us. Be willing to confront. Your own homophobia racism whatever it is the oppression that we have internalized because they they are in our systems like they're in our water. You are allowed to make mistakes here. We will forgive each other here religion is a journey of transformation though and we must be willing to take that journey together. David closed his sermon that day by saying to the members of the church you know some of you stayed. Some of you have told me that you felt you have grown by staind. Some of you have gotten angry and and you still stayed and i'm glad that you did i would add to david some of you are still here today and you've gotten angry a bunch of times since david preached that sermon 20 years ago. And you're still here and you grown and we're committed to going forward together so let me suggest this to you. The next time you come up to someone and you want to tell them a little bit about your church and you say you know i'd go to all souls church and they say to you. And maybe this church isn't for them. But there are some people when you described to them the kind of community that we're trying to build here that you will see a glimmer in their eye. And you know that they to believe that the task of building a community where all souls are welcome at the table is a profoundly spiritual and a profoundly ethical task and it past that is so important in a world that is being torn apart by racial and other hatreds. Some people will get that and i believe that there are white folks who will get that in there straight folks will get that in their hopes of color will get that and there are gay so who will get that in there enough folks who will understand that as their vision that we can fill this church a hundred times over i deeply believe that and you better believe it can only be larger and freer and more loving. May it be so. I'm in.

all-souls_org

05.07.03RoomForGrace.mp3

My reading for this morning is from an essay by rick bass that's entitled a texas childhood it kind of happened by accident that i chose this one but seemed somehow appropriate in this reading he's sort of debating throughout the essay about how it is that we human beings receive spiritual insight how it is that we received spiritual knowledge and he for his his own sake believe that the natural world is one of our greatest resources when it comes to gaining spiritual knowledge and then he goes on in this paragraph growth and awareness to our spiritual understanding the words of rick that i believe as others do that there are these lightning-sparked transformative moments in our lives epiphanies in which the milieu of all previous experience is illuminated into an event with a capital e and experienced more profound somehow than even memory itself so that the event seems to have somehow always been within you waiting only to occur predestined miraculous and splendidly unique and yet in retrospect completely unavoidable but i also in the long run as any of those and full of defining moments that occasionally come up welling from the reservoir of one's life to provide that sudden jolt of deeper awareness or even understanding i don't know maybe slow and steady braid of daily beauty is every bit as durable and powerful perhaps even more so as any tiny cluster her or bouquet of crucible forged revelations perhaps in the end it's all the same and there's little difference in this regard between a houston suburb a city park and a montana wilderness room for grants not moving to forgiveness which is what's your order of service by way of significant life events whether lost or joy or moments of change and transformation his question stirred up another part of that formula and equation for me.

all-souls_org

05.08.21BornAgainAndAgainAndAgain.mp3

This sunday's a little special. I've never actually done this with you before i am about to preach to you i can sermon sermon that i've already preached before but one that i've been asked to preach. As many of you know this past june at are denominations general assembly both myself and the kuumba players are drama group were asked to be a part of the sunday morning worship service at general assembly. I delivered this sermon they delivered that drama down in general assembly and what i want to do this morning is cher. This sermon with you. I sure would do not just because it's already written and so it's easy and it's a sermon that in many ways grows out of our experience here together at all souls. And an experience i wanted to share with the rest of our movement but it's also i believe a sermon that will challenge us i know it challenges me. And so i hope that you find this. Meaningful. I'm going to deliver it as if we were in general assembly so i'm going to talk about austin the third person sometimes if i talk about my congregation and in washington at the us so and i'm going to address the general assembly as if you were the general assembly and but you'll get it. You may have heard some of the stories. But i hope that the way the sermon comes together is a little different for you in the end so. Further reading the reading this morning is one of the legends told of the desert fathers. A band of monks who in the third century wandered the desert. In search of god. The stories told about the desert fathers are a little bit like zen koans. They don't give you the answers but. Invite reflection. So let us then reflect. On this story. One day abbott lot came to his teacher. David joseph. And said father as best as i am able i keep my little fast. My little ruler my little prayer. But it's not enough. And father is best as i am able i keep my meditation and my contemplatively silence and i strive to cleanse my heart of all unnecessary desires. But it's not enough. I still haven't found. What i seek. Father. What should i do. In reply. Abbott joseph the elder rose up and stretched out his hands. To the heavens and his fingers became like 10 burning lamps and he said. Why not be totally changed. Interfire. Karen's are reading. I wonder. How many of us. Can relate. David lat. The befuddled monk in our story. I know i can i can relate to his. Frustration. You see he's been working at the spiritual life for years now praying and meditating trying out all the practices that folks have taught him. But to no avail. Something still missing. He still hasn't discovered any answers to the questions that in quiet moments. Make him tremble. Why am i here. What is my purpose. He still hasn't found whatever it is that will fill that empty place inside of him that place that long's and long's and longs to be filled. I can relate. David lat. And i see him. I see him in the faces of the people who passed through. My congregation. Speakers. Who been dabbling in the spiritual life for a while now. Trying this and that you know a little a little yoga on thursdays after work maybe church on sunday the latest best-seller from tick not han on their bedside table searching. But not finding. David lat takes his frustration to his teacher and he says master i've tried all these things you taught me but it's still not enough what more can i do. I'm here instead of appellant avidlove to be patient or two to give a little more time or quart to trade in his his yoga mat for a buddhist meditation pillow instead of that his teacher stretches his hands up to the heavens and each of his fingertips burst into flames and he says why not be totally changed into fire. Friends this morning. I'd like us to consider. What it would mean for us. For you. To be changed into fire. Let me tell you a story. Many view many unitarian universalists are familiar with the name james reeb. Reed was a former associate minister of this church who in march of 1965. Peter doctor king's call for ministers to join him at a march in selma alabama. Read went to summer. And then on the night of the march. He was bludgeoned to death. 54 white segregationist. His brutal murder prompted president johnson to sign the civil rights act of 1965 this year marks the 40th anniversary of this landmark legislation and of reeves martyrdom. Felt whenever i hear a story about someone like jim reeves i always want to know. You know what led them to that place what's their story what kind of faith leads a person to such sacrifice. Reeves faith journey was an interesting one it turns out he grew up a conservative christian. A pretty severe calvinist. In fact when he was a student at princeton seminary read once handed in a paper called the wrath of god in which he wrote with downright gus know about god's judgment upon a depraved and sinful humanity. A few years later though reid found himself the chaplain. At philadelphia's general hospital. For his patience with the poor and indigent of the city many of them addict's. There he had a crisis of faith. You see his theology told him that these folks. Deserved. There's suffering. That it was god's just punishment for their sin. Put another voice inside retold and something different it said these are your brothers and sisters. Who deserves your love and compassion. And they're in the hospital room in philly read experienced what can only be described. As a conversion. A generous and loving spirit entered into him and melted his cold calvinist heart. Suddenly he realize that any god worth worshiping with a god who hates mercy and love upon those who suffered not judgments in storm. And during this time rewrote something telling in his journal. Gyros. When the moralist in you dies. When life begins. This was a turning point for jim reeve. The moment after which his life would never be the same the moment when he was gripped by a love that would not let him go that led him to a life ministry to the poor of this and other cities in america and that eventually led him to the streets of selma alabama. This i think. Is what abbott joseph was talking about. When he said. Why not be totally changed in the fire. He was saying to abid lot all your dabbling in the spiritual life will go for not until you give your whole life over to love. Only a commanding and transforming love can answer the question. Why am i here. Only a commanding and transforming love can fill that empty place inside of us. That belongs. And longs and lawns. We live in a culture that is enamored with the notion of spiritual growth. An entire industry floods the market with wood books and props and prayers that promise to enlighten us but there's something missing from this culture there's a secret that the guru's of growth are not telling us. The spiritual life isn't about dabbling here and there. It's about surrendering our lives. To love. Abba joseph called it being changed into fire. Jim reeves called it something else. Again what he said in his journal was when the moralist in you dies. Van life begins. Gymboree was talking about being born again. Don't let me just pause here and acknowledge that that phrase. Born again makes some of us cringe right so often it comes with a theological and increasingly political agenda that many religious liberals find untenable. Some of the religious left have even voice their displeasure with the idea of being born again with with a bumper sticker that i saw it recently on the beltway the bumper sticker said born right the first time and it does but after i thought about it for a while. Born right the first time struck me. Is it best. Naive. And at worst. Arrogance. Headed to say well maybe you need to be born again but as for me i got it all figured out i'm all right just as i am and the truth is i don't know anyone who feels that way. I don't know anyone who deep down doesn't yearn. For something more in their lives. I don't know anyone who if if they're honest with themselves doesn't say i wish i could love. Better. Love. Bigger. Love more generously than i do today. On the other hand i'm not satisfied with the notion of being born again. Because it suggests that that religious transformation is somehow a once-in-a-lifetime event. I'm bored again i'm saved and now i'm all set. My own position. Is probably best summed up. By the unitarian poet. E.e. cummings. Who once wrote. We can never be born. Enough. We can never be born in mouth. To live in this world we must always be prepared to be born again in love. Always prepared to be shaken out of our complacency and small hardness and plunged into the bracing waters of life re-baptized in love. Think about it for a moment isn't life always calling us. To rebirth. When a loved one dies. And we find the strength. To continue on. We are born again. When we come out of the closet as gay or lesbian. And embrace a new identity we are born again. When it feels like we're down to our last broken heart. Yet somehow we find a way to love once more we are born again when our hearts that have been hardened to the suffering of the world burst open in compassion once more we are born again. With each rebirth that commanding and transforming love takes hold of our heart. Are old battered heart. And stretches it. Stretches that little bit further. Then we thought it could stretch. This is the spiritual transformation. That unitarian-universalism. Calls us to. Not the complacency. Of those who were born right the first time. And not the once and for all pass. Of the born-again. But the generous. And supple heart. Of those who can never be born enough. I guess if i had to. At the summit off on a bumper sticker. Mine would say. Born again. And again. And again. Do james luther adams one of the great theologians of our movement recognize that this transformation. The religious life is ineffectual. He said the elements of commitment. A change of heart. Has been neglected by religious liberalism. And that is the prime source of its enfeeblement. We liberals he says are largely and uncommitted. And therefore self frustrating people. We need conversion within ourselves he said. Only by some such conversion can we be possessed by a love that will not let us go. Friend i hope we can hear these words. Of james luther adams. As a challenge to us. A challenge to our personal spiritual lives a challenge to us as a church and a challenge. For the cause of progressive religion in america. You know we've gathered here in texas this is what i'm talking to the general assembly you know we've gathered here in texas where the focus this week. On how to better articulate our values. In the larger world. And we'd even where you been going to hear later today from george lake off. And he's the guy that the congressional democrats have hired to help them talk about values. I hope that doesn't mean that liberal religion is as bad off as a democratic party is right now i'm looking forward to laycoffs talk it was good but my message this morning. Is that the primary challenge facing religious liberalism is not a communications challenge. It's a spiritual challenge. Until the religious left can offer all those seekers out there a compelling story of how their lives can be filled with meaning and transformed by love we don't stand a chance. Until we are willing to invite the abbott lots of the world into our midst to be changed into fire then our power will not grow the answer to the marginalization of the religious left will not be spin. It will be fire. Whether or not we are willing to be changed into fire. I believe with all my heart. That unitarian-universalism has a saving message. For our broken world. And i want to close by sharing that message with you as i have come to know it. I serve at church. Whose name is all souls. It's a popular name for unitarian universalist churches. And this point i pause and ask everyone who in the gathering hall that morning belong to a church named all souls i asked them to to make a joyful noise out there so i don't want to hear you now. Are summed up all that is good and true and beautiful about religion coming can you imagine a church that was named some souls church they never admit it but isn't that the de-facto name of the dominant religious culture in america today the religious right fundamentalists of all stripes worship a god of some souls god who picks and chooses who plays favorites separating the wheat from the saved from the from the forgotten. September 11th. Reminded us. Adjust how bloody a theology of some souls. Candy. Friends the good news that unitarian-universalism must deliver to the world. The good news that jim reeves discovered in that hospital room in philly. Is that a god who picks and chooses. Is no god at all. It is an idol. And against this spurious faith. We must preach. That old universalist gospel of a love that invite. All souls. To the welcome table. Not somehow love that will not quit until all are drawn into its embrace a love as one wise person once described it to me i love that will not let us go. That will not let us down. Emmett will not let us off. Now that's a message. That is big enough. And generous enough and loving enough to capture our hearts and to change us into fire. In fact this message of of all souls is is so good it almost sounds too good to be true. What is mae west once warned too much of a good thing. Is wonderful other folks worship a god of some souls. And they have the audacity. To call that the good news. We worship a god of all souls. And i daresay. That is the even better news. Now let's go out there. And live it. I'm in.

all-souls_org

03.11.23Glimpses.mp3

My sermon today is about life in the city. And our reading is. A poem called subway. By susan fawcett. Subway. We speed through tunnels under the frozen ground rocking side to side in rows. Wheels rumble and crash smoke drifts over us in someone's odor to. Our faces lift as if transcending. The shabby man whose eyes roll upward reading advertisements against his will. The young hispanic mother trance. Patting her parcel of pink blankets. Perhaps she is in santo domingo. A small yard she knew was a girl. Cancel decorations blowing in the sun. Here angry signatures of children's prob in their halos of spray paint. Red and black big as false gods. Twist are is hewn stone walls flash past and vaulted arches stained with water like lost temples have perceived. Not understood blurred rows of columns holding only the load of the city. Now we are down to the level of grief. Swaying together sleeve just leave carried fast packed tight. This is as close as we come to bedrock. Soil in each of us. I darken node. Opens like hunger. Life moves fast in the city. Perhaps not as fast in dc as other big cities but fast nonetheless. If we don't pay attention we live in danger of the world. Passing us by. I see it happen all around me people shuttling back and forth from their homes to their jobs and back again their bodies enclosed in window in tinted window suvs. Their faces buried in the morning paper. Their ears plugged with an ipod. Their noses talked into a steaming cup of starbucks coffee. There's a way that city dwellers have a blocking out all of a stimuli around them of retreating into their own private washington. Call urban tunnel vision we move through the city but we don't experience it we we are in it but not of it. I see a lot of heads nodding. This is a dangerous phenomenon. Because in the city so much of life happens out of the corner of our eyes and revelation comes in glimpses. Blintzes. Standing on a metro platform as a train is leaving you catch the glance of a stranger as her face passes by in the window the train. For a moment ucommune. Driving through adams-morgan you glance down an alley and spots a bearded man relieving himself among piles of recycled cardboard a young woman crouching behind a car shooting up quickly you avert your eyes to give them their privacy. One day i was walking the few blocks from my home to the church when i spied two lovers on a tiny rear-facing balcony. They were huddled out there with all the other things that didn't fit into their postage stamp apartment and they're in the setting sun they stole a passionate kiss. The city flickers past us. In montage. And revelation comes in glimpses. It's easy to ignore them though it's easy to fail to see the city life that teams in our peripheral vision to refuse to acknowledge the people with whom we inhabit this tiny square of earth. Put more and more i am convinced that the key to faithful and whole and holy living in this city is to pay attention to the glimpses. Pay attention to the glimpses. Roll down tinted windows. Why are eyes from the headlines unplug our ears from the music and take notice take in the city and all its contradictions broken this and its glory and its integrity it's imperfect reality and its utopian aspirations. From the khaki pants and blue blazers on capitol hill to the pierce noses and used record stores of adams morgan from the treeline neighborhoods of brookland. To the clintons and perry's of georgetown. All of our city. Take it all in. Stitch it together in one crazy quilt. That's what it will take for us to love our city that's what it will take. If we want to make our city a home for all of its residents. How many of you knew that dc has a new city slogan have you have you heard the new slogan city live in dc style have you. City live in dc style the slogan is laughable and it is treacherous. If laughable because the city is trying to give itself a kind of hip chic that it doesn't really have treacherous because in pursuit of that the sheikh it is spending tons of money at the expense of neighborhoods like ours that are struggling to remain diverse and affordable for all people. If we are to build the neighborhood and the city that we desire we're going to need to pay attention to pay attention to the glimpses the glimpses of city life in all of its fullness so that we as individuals and as a church can respond i want to share with you a few of the glimpses. But i've caught out of the corner of my eye over the last few months in this neighborhood. I'm thinking back to last winter. It was the day after one of the blizzards we had last winter i can't remember which one schools were closed government shutdown outside just a few souls wander the streets frolicking in the new fallen snow i was at my computer writing a sermon. Afin scarf. In the man's trench coat. I couldn't see what you wore on her feet because by now she was at least knee deep in snow. And i remember thinking to myself what is she doing. My god she just walked into a snowbank on the coldest morning of the year it's it's got to be freezing. Has she lost something is she mentally ill. I stood up from my desk to peak further out the window and i saw on the other side of the snowbank idling in the street a bakery truck. The driver had opened the back of the truck to make a delivery at the corner store and with an outstretched arm he was holding a loaf of bread to the woman with a loaf of bread that made her lunge into that snowbank. Even three floors above in my warm apartment i could feel the chill of what i had just seen. For many people. This is city living dc style. How's this. Not too long ago i sat on a bench near the fountain in dupont circle. It was a gorgeous fall afternoon and everybody was out walking their dogs and rollerblading and picnicking in the park everyone was enjoying the weather it seemed except for a young man who it's sat on the bench next to me. He was talking to a friend and i only caught a snippet of their conversation but what i overheard struck me. The man admitted that he hadn't been sleeping well lately he said to his friend. I just can't make sense of all the bad stuff that has been happening to me lately. He didn't say bad stuff you said something else but i can't understand all the bad stuff that's been happening to me lately i i lie awake at night trying to come up with an explanation but it just doesn't make sense and it's getting hard to muster the strength to go on. The man's friends. A middle-aged woman a lovely job and admirable job of listening and caring for her friend but clearly his despair made her uncomfortable to. She tried to explain away his doubt. Worked hard to cheer him up but this is city living. Vc style also. Lots of lonely people reaching out to one another. Trying to find companionship trying to find love how about one more glimpse. One day last spring i was reading the the post at a cafe just down the street on mount pleasant street. 10 again out of the corner of my eye i saw a flash that made me look up i lifted my eyes just in time to see a young man without breaking stride leap over a 10-speed bike that was chained to a parking meter. That's a lot of leap maybe it was a flash of his untucked shirt tails that caught the corner of my eye maybe it was the glint of the sun off his just washed hair. Whatever it was as i watched him walk with a jaunty step into a nearby store i wondered what power it was. That had come into this young man and allowed him to clear a 10 speed with room to store it struck me that in that one lie. mustard more lifeforce and i had in the previous six months combined i said to myself out loud what's his secret what's his secret. Few minutes later he emerged from the store with a smile still dancing on the corner of his mouth. This i'm glad to say is city living dc style as well. Surprising ways that joy and life. It just sort of erupt all around you. At this point in the sermon i imagine some of you are asking yourselves you know is our minister of voyeurs i mean my interest is not that of a warrior or even that of a journalist i think i noticed the city and its people the way of love or notices his or her beloved. I noticed because i delight in the details of the city that i love. In any long-term relationship once the glow of the initial romance has subsided love shines through in the details in the little things it comes in glimpses that's why i notice and when i notice is a city where lots of people. Sometimes life surprises me and leaps over 10 speeds in a single bound. All of this is city living niecy style for 182 years now the people of all souls church have glimpsed this city. And responded with a ministry of compassion. The church and its people were here. Noticing administering when 14th street burned after dr. king was assassinated and we were here when the pentagon smoldered after september 11th. We were here ministering to the wounded when blood was spilled during the civil war. Can we were here ministering to the frightened. When blood was spilled last month in the gang shooting across the street. The church and its people marched on the mall for civil rights in 1963 and again for gay rights in 1993 all the noticing and ministering this is our calling as an urban church. And this is our calling. As urban dwellers. The pay attention. And to respond. Pay attention and respond. For the last fifty years or so on the sunday before thanksgiving members of all souls have given generously to our community aid fund. The community aid fund is a special church van that provides direct assistance to people in our neighborhood who are in need of basic services who utilities medical care. Over the last year the church has dispensed nearly $25,000. Top paid hundreds of people in our neighborhood that's more than we've ever given before. Yet demand for this assistance was so great that we have twice this year. Run out of money. Soda prevent this from happening again a group in the church called the the local community task force is exploring how best we can use our finite resources to support a meaningful and sustainable ministry of compassion. To our neighborhood. So this winter before we start the program up again we will assess how best to dispense this aid and i asked you to give generously when we take our collection for the community aid fund after the sermon. And if you were interested in getting more involved i encourage you to lend your support to the the local community task force to help craft. A significant and sustainable ministry of compassion for this church to its neighborhood. Friends thanksgiving is thursday. Which means in case you haven't noticed already the holiday season has begun as always this season we will be inundated with glimpses glimpses of products that were supposed to buy glimpses of the clothes were supposed to. Sitting down to their perfect holiday meal at a table with a perfect centerpiece we know this is not the truth. We know this is not the truth. So why don't we tune out these images this holiday season them out and focus instead on the glimpses of real life. Glimpses of our loved ones imperfect and quarrelsome gathered around our table on thanksgiving with a motley assortment of chairs and a not-so-perfect centerpiece. Glimpses of our neighbors in their soto homes searching for love in their ordinary lives. Glimpses of our city. Broken and beautiful. Sometimes. Life happens. Out of the corner of your eye. And revelation comes in glimpses. May we find in these glimpses. The truth that shall be revealed to us. This holiday season love and peace to you all. Almond.

all-souls_org

03.12.07Power.mp3

How reading this morning is from. James luther adams. Adams was one of the foremost unitarian theologians of the 20th century and hirota famous as they called the five smooth stones of liberal religion. In which he articulated the core elements of our unitarian faith and i want to share with you what he says about the 4th. Of those five smooth stones. He writes this. Do anything that exists effectively in history. Must have form. And the creation of a form requires power. Not only the power of thought but the power of organization. And the organization of power. Gus we are led to the 4th. Smooth stone of liberal religion which is this we deny. The immaculate conception of virtue. Panda firm the necessity of social incarnation. There is no such thing as goodness as such accepting a limited sense the decisive forms of goodness in society are institutional forms. No one can properly put faith in merely individual virtue even though that is a prerequisite for societal virtues the faith of the liberal must express itself in societal forms. In the forms of education economic and social organization political organization. Without these. Freedom and justice in community. Are impossible. The faith of a church. Or the nation. Is an internet is an adequate faith and adequate faith only when it inspires and enables people to give of their time and energy to shape the institutions of the common life. Any other faith is thoroughly. Undependable. It is also. Give me end. Impotent. I went into the ministry. To get power. It's true i went into the ministry to get power power wasn't the only reason i became a minister i wanted to care for people in to marry them to bless their children. To help them discover their beloved miss. To be with them when they died. These things too. But power. With a big reason i went into the ministry. And i'm sure that some of you are saying yourselves what rob that's a rather unseemly thing for a minister to say it's supposed to be interested in the such unholy desires his power. Brothers view my admission may raise some red flags here-we-go-again of you are baffled you're scratching your heads and wondering rob if you wanted power in the world. In fact the former president of argentina nation a person in a much more powerful position than mine once said that being elected president of a small denomination like ours was a little bit like being voted prettiest girl in cows crossing montana population 349 don't take yourself too seriously. So whether you're troubled or puzzled by my statement this morning i want to explain myself. I want to explain what i mean by power and what i mean when i say i want to get some. And in doing so. I hope to articulate a religious understanding of power that is rooted in unitarian thought and history and understanding of power that is both spiritually and worldly-wise and i hope in the process to challenge all of us to consider our own relationship. With power. I have a simple definition of power for me power is the ability to get things done. The ability to shape our world and our lives according to our vision of what they should be. If you think about power this way than you realize that every moment of our lives we and we and others are using power my speaking before you is a form of power your choice to come here this morning a form of power what you had to. It is neither good nor bad but usually we don't acknowledge or pay attention to power until it does go bad. It's working well it's just. Working well we don't really notice it until we feel abused by someone else's power or until we feel powerless we don't pay much attention and this is how power gets a bad reputation. Let me give you an example from my own life recently in this is just a small thing but i think it's typical. Maybe you've noticed that we have a shortage of parking around the church. The parking problem isn't just on sunday mornings it's it's during the week as well and every weekday afternoon it for the south side of harvard street out here has to be cleared for rush-hour traffic so it's not uncommon if you're at the church during that time to see church staff members frantically running out to the streets to move their car before the parking police come. About a week ago i was in the middle of a counseling session with a parishioner when it suddenly dawned on me that my car was illegally parked i looked at my watch and it read 420 i apologize to the congregation left from my chair and sprinted outside just in time to see a police officer tuck a pink citation under my wiper blade. As i approached my car i noticed that there were not one but two tickets on the windshield one march 4:16 p.m. another 4:20 p.m. both tickets were for $100 i asked the police officer why i had been ticketed twice. These kinds of small encounters that give power of a bad reputation. When you layer on top of these the institutional abuse of power like racism and sexism and homophobia and economically injustice then then it becomes even uglier. Here in washington our relationship the power is further complicated by the fact that we live in a city that is essentially a colony whose budget and faith are determined by a hostile congress in which we have no voting representation. Can washington dc power is at once the most coveted commodity. And the dirtiest word. And in that contradiction lies the problem. On the one hand if power is the ability to get things done then we all have need and want some of it yet because of powers bad reputation because it has become synonymous with abusive power we try to keep it at arm's length we pretend that we don't have it or want it. There are two dangerous consequences. Of this contradiction the first is this. Even if we aren't the president for the attorney general or someone powerful in this city each of us has some power in our lives. Even if it's in a tiny sphere of our household or workplace or our church. But if we think of power is bad we tend to deny that we have power and then the power goes underground. It manifests itself in covert and manipulative ways. I'll bet that we can all identify someone in our family for infants who exerts manipulative power through passive aggressive behavior through laying guilt trips by keeping secrets or by telling lies. All the while saying i don't have any power. Well the only thing more dangerous than a powerful person who abuses their power is a person who abused his power and denies that they even have any. Because such a person has no self knowledge about their power and is not subject to anybody else's critique. That's the first problem the second problem i see is that because power is a dirty word a lot of good people that i know. Some of them who are in this sanctuary right now would rather not have anything to do with it thank you very much. They don't want to become sullied by its bad reputation and therefore don't claim the power that could be theirs. They sure took their rights and responsibilities to shape the world as they see fit. They we abdicate. I think that the tragic flaw. Have the progressive movement in america is that it has so constructed its identity around the suspicion and critique of power. That is has rendered itself powerless. And i'm afraid the same can be said of progressive religion to. I don't know about you but i don't want to be powerless anymore. I think we need to get back into right relationship with power. We need to remember that just has power can abused so tucannon liberate just as it can be used for evil so too can it be deployed for good we need to reclaim the power it will take to shape the world according to our vision of justice and compassion. Unitarians have always been leaders in the movements to build power for justice in this country public education. The abolition movement the american red cross the women's suffrage efforts the civil rights movement all of these are examples of where unitarians have contributed leadership to build power from the moment we split off from the new england puritans unitarian religion has been closely associated with building powerful institutions in the society. James luther adams reminded us of why in the reading this morning he said because unitarians don't believe in the immaculate conception of virtue. In other words god isn't going to come down out of the sky and on his or her own make everything okay. Rather with god's blessing we must do it ourselves we are the ones. We've been waiting for. All of the decisive forms of good in history have been organized forms of good. Further. Oops. Excuse me here. Messed up my paper here susan it's not in the right order all of the decisive form that the first time that's happened to me. So when i say i went into the ministry to get power i mean that i have deliberately stepped into this unitarian tradition of using power wisely to build institutions that spread justice and compassion in the world not least of these institutions. Is the church. Itself. The congregation. So you know that over the last two years the elected representatives your elected representatives the board of trustees have looked hard at power that all souls church. Using models from other nonprofit organizations they have developed a governing system that will allow the all souls community to work collaboratively and powerfully to achieve our goals in the world. Since our annual meeting is later today i want to share with you some of the highlights of this governance system. Bear with me here i know you hear the word governance system in your eyes are rolling over but we're going to try to make this interesting here the church used to run like this. There were two separate columns of power at all souls church one of the minister in the professional staff and started with a senior minister in a trickle down through the staff and into the church the other power power and that was reside in the board of trustees and it's filtered down through the committee's. There was a zero-sum mentality about power somehow with the lady got too much power the minister felt his leadership wasn't respected. The minister got too powerful the lady felt they were losing control of their church. Eventually it all fell apart. There was a terrible conflict over power the minister left and then discussed so did about half the congregation. By the time i arrived the congregation was clamoring for a governance system where lines of authority and responsibility were clear. And power was shared. Now the church runs like this. The members of the congregation. You choose the ends towards which the church will work you choose our goals at the annual meeting last december you voted and approved seven of them. The board of trustees as your elected representatives is responsible for making sure that we achieve those goals they monitor and they asked questions and they survey you about how you think we're doing and at the annual meeting today they'll give you an update on how they think it's going. The board however it doesn't say how we are to achieve our goals they give the creative latitude to the staff and to all of the people who are on the frontlines of ministry. To come up with the best ideas to do that work they give us authority and responsibility to the people on the front lines of the work. Further. The board said to staff and lady we want you to work together please. Collaboratively notley's separate power columns like you did before all the work that we do together will be coordinated by a three-person executive team and that executive team itself works collaboratively with one another to help coordinate all the pieces of the church and to make sure we're not. The three-person executive team is is myself and and reverend goodwin at our administrator mail hardy. One hallmark of this new system is that it is not designed to be antagonistic. But rather collaborative. Lady and staff together ministering to the world. We call this shared ministry. The other hallmark is that power in this system is not defined as a zero-sum game. Where when someone gains at someone else loses it. Rather power. Define is the ability to minister to one another in the world. Is limited only by our ability to create it together to build it together. When i look around the church now. I see lots of examples of this new form of governance working so well where staff people ministers and laity are working together both empowered to minister to the church in the world i see a music program. Put on a weekly basis touches our souls i see a covenant group ministry we're in groups of eight to 10 lay people are ministering to one another caring for one another in powerful ways. People of think about that has power but in my definition that's that's where power resides in the church. I see how the collaborative effort of an experienced and professional religious educator combined with dedicated teachers and volunteers has dramatically improved our ministry to our children over the last couple of years. And i work all this past tuesday at city hall when members of all souls joined with members of 50 other churches in the district to pressure the city to create 100 million dollar neighborhood investment fund. In the span of two days thanks to the power of churches working together the projected vote went from a 55 split to a 1:50 majority in favor of the bill these are examples. Al power. I've been around churches long enough to know that most churches when they talk about power. When they fight about power. They fight about things like who chooses what flowers are going to be put on the altar table on sunday morning who is the person with power in the church. Make no mistake about it though people who argue about something like the altar table flowers are not a powerful people they are a powerless people. They are powerless people. The kind of shared and collaborative power that we envisioned here. Can row infinitely the power can grow and it is limited only by the number of parts. That are out there waiting for us to heal them. How were the we can build here together is limited only by the number of communities crying out. For justice. I did go into the ministry. To get power. I wasn't kidding. And it's this kind of power i was talking about. The power that comes with being a part of a community that can shape the world according to its vision of justice and compassion. And i want to invite. Each one of us. Into this collaborative and powerful. Endeavor. How about let's take back the power. But we have given away. How about let's reclaim the powerful tradition of building powerful institutions the tradition that we are heirs to how about let's give power a good name again. Soviet.

all-souls_org

04.09.19CareOfCommunity.mp3

His good to be here and good to see all of you i was thinking just a moment ago during that prayerful time that at the end of the wedding last night one of the family members of the bride said to me to a pretty good job you have here and i said yes yes it is but i think it will a colleague confesses. Now that we've gotten along as officemates for three semesters i don't mind letting you know in confidence. But the poems and stories were teaching are less important to me than they are to you. However beautiful in themselves they don't uplift me as meditation uplifted me when i was a disciple. To be sure i gave up the discipline after a year unable finally to empty my mind enough for the kind of harmony with the void enjoyed by the few enlightened. Now in my fallback mode i try to content myself with working at harmony with the world. I want to know what it is like to be other people. And i'm always practicing. Weekdays with students and colleagues weekends with strangers. Even in the car alone. On a sunday drive. I move my lips with the preachers on the radio as i imagine what longing pushes them forward. As for the satisfied what right have i to judge them. To declare that they shouldn't be happy with the raises they've earned or the holiday reservations they've called in early enough to book the rooms they covet. Facing the ocean. I wouldn't know what to say. If they asked me point-blank. About the life i think they're missing. As for the books were teaching. I think i respond to their plots and characters as fully as anyone but i have to confess. I don't regard them as throwing much light. On the world beyond the page. True to experience now and then the best ones. Maybe. But not something experience merely hints at. Something more spacious and longer-lasting. It seems odd. That the books likely to last can only acknowledge that nothing lasts but wishes. Am i leaving out something that stories and poems help you see clearly. Spell it out if you think so. I'm not too set in my ways. To listen. Care of community. Poet in the poem i just read longs for more understanding he says he wants to know what it's like to be other people and last sunday my colleague reverend hardy spoke about learning to love better. And the words of that poet carl dennis remind us that love begins. With understanding. If i don't attempt to understand you or to understand what it's like to be you how can i possibly. Love you. We have to be willing to be moved to be changed by the experiences of those around us. We have to be willing. To be transformed. And being a part of all souls or any faith community for that matter is in a way a dual statement. It's a statement both about relationship in terms of how i come to know who i am think of it how do you know who you are except in relationship except in the ways that people mirror back and reflect to you their sense of who you are. But also being part of a community has to do with bringing a fullness of cell. Being most completely who you are and not even always knowing where you might be led. Simply put being part of a community is not always comfortable it is however clearly preferable to being alone. Or living in isolation. So there are few points i want to bring up this morning. The first is that life in community takes work. It isn't just something that we do for ourselves that isn't doesn't always come easily it isn't something even that's natural. I think of how often people think of the spiritual life as an inward journey i myself make that mistake sometimes of thinking that the way for me to embody my spiritual life is to sit alone in a room and meditate and being quiet. And yet every once in awhile i realize that some of the most profound spiritual experiences i've ever had have been when i've been pushed beyond what i've ever known before. When i've been challenged by someone else to think anew and again about something i thought i already learned. The spiritual life is not simply an inward journey the spiritual life calls us to know ourselves. To live with integrity and meaning. So that we might move through the world imbued with a sense of compassion and justice for those around us. Back when i was an undergraduate school i wrote a thesis one of those things i thought i already knew about how the world we live in our ability to act with for justice in the world really relates to how we see the world. I remember quoting wonderful phrases from audrey and rich the poet and other people about how you won't actually know that justice work needs to be done in the world unless you see the homeless people on your block. Unless you notice the pain around you. Unless you noticed the joy as well. And one of the things that the spiritual life helps us all do is be more aware. And awake. Take in all that is around us so that then we might act with more love and more justice and more compassion. The spiritual life is about a connection between self. And world. About expanding ourselves to take more in. And once you start to expand your world once you begin to know others and to care about them. You can't help but see the world a little bit differently. Which brings me to a story of a member of my previous congregation in madison wisconsin. A woman who taught me a lot. Who pushed me to grow in ways i wasn't even sure i needed to grow. Was a woman who really struggled. A lot with depression. And i would go and i would sit with her and i would watch her cry she would sit through every sunday service and just cry the whole time people weren't quite sure how to comfort her because it seems that there was no comforting her she was just that sad that bereft that unclear about what her life was about. And i remember one time i was speaking with her and i said something to her about how life itself is a blessing and even though she was going through this difficult time that it was important that she might sometime move through that and that it wasn't it this this thing that you could be able to see that life itself was a blessing. And she looked me square in the eye and she said you know shawna for some of us life doesn't feel like a blessing. And it was then that. Explain to me what it was like to feel stuck. What it was like to feel sad almost all the time. I don't know whether i helped her. But i do know that she helped me. She helped me to understand that my perspective is not the only perspective and that is soon as my arrogance outruns my compassion i'm deeply in trouble. My experience. If not everyone's experience. Button being in contact with hers i grew and expanded to understand. That life feels differently for each of us. That's point number one. The second point i want to make. Is that i really believe in this time that we live in that living in community is really a countercultural thing to do think about it we live in a time of deep distrust. We have been trained to think of those people around us as other to look for all the ways in which we are different. Emphasize or demonize those differences that we find and then act accordingly. And my friends that's no way to live a life. Living a life looking over your shoulder speaking disparaging words and seeing everyone as a potential enemy gets real tiring real fast. And so i want to know how my power efforts. To create a beloved community here at this church be different. How might our time together transform us into more open-hearted and caring people. How might part of our spiritual practice b to look for the best. In others. Rather than the worst. As i was writing these words i thought of a speech delivered in 1986 i was surprised to discover yesterday by the late june jordan who was a poet and writer essay writer who was a professor at uc berkeley up until her death. And june jordan speaks in this wonderful and powerful speech. About the sharp divisions that run between all of us. The speech was entitled waking up in the middle of some american dreams. And it begins very powerful and very movingly with her her telling about her own reliance on her own separateness. She begins actually with a very poignant story about how she was raped in her own home and told no one about it because she felt so separate so isolated. So distinct. Because our american message that we get over and over again is that i'm special and you are special and therefore there's no place where we overlap there's no place where we meet. And then she goes on to diagnose the problem and asked if we wouldn't prefer a solution. She said in this speech and i quote. American delusions of individuality now disfigure our national landscape. With multitudes of disconnected paying human beings. Who pull down the shades on prolonged and needless agony. But if we would speak the unspeakable. If we would name and say the source of our sorrow and scars. We would find a tender and powerful company of others. Struggling as we do. We would undertake collective political action founded on admitted similarities. And grateful connections among us. Otherwise needful citizens. Who now regard each other as burdensome. More frightening. Or irrelevant. I will not pretend that i do not understand terror or terrorism i will not pretend that it is privacy and same and quiet that i want. When would i need. What i need. His other different. Hundreds and thousands of unknown but knowable americans. Always around me. I do not believe. That these new american dreams of mine mark me as special. Four different. Indies longings. And in this space. I do not believe that i am living alone in america. But you will have to let me know. Am i. And quote. Hear it all souls. We are trying to continually offer new pathways. For just what june jordan is speaking about new pathways to connection. New avenues to caring about and for one another. So let us my friends be countercultural by turning our backs on this notion that we are better off alone. I encourage each and every one of you to get involved. To grow to understand those seated around you. To join a covenant group. To sign up for an adult spiritual development class. To join in the social justice work of this community. And excitingly i'm announcing today to join our new pastoral associates program a program in which as much as we have worship associates who helped us with worship we will now have some of you helping with visiting those who are unable to make it to church. To visit those who are struggling. To offer meals to those who need our care. For it is part of our spiritual practice my friends to believe in one another. To have faith that we are our best selves. When we widen our embrace. May we see blessings reflected in the eyes of others. May we be called to renew our dreams and hopes. Four relationships that matter. For connections that hold us. May we know. That we are exceptional. Only in our capacity to love. Maybe so this day. And in the days to come. Amman.

all-souls_org

06.06.25ThisConstantYearning.mp3

I'll begin my sermon this morning with a reading which is a poem. By the sufi poet kabir. And robert bly is the translator. I said to the wanting creature inside me. What is this river you want to cross. There is no river at all and no boatmen and no boat. There is no toll road either and no one to pull it. Do you believe there is someplace. That will make the soul less thirsty. In that grade absence you will find nothing. Be strong man and enter into your own body. There you have a solid place for your feet. Think about it carefully. Don't go off someplace else. Kabir says this. Just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things. And stand firm in that which you are. Whenever i take my child shopping. I always in treated to something like this. Please please please please please please please please please please please.. I say to my husband. Now if we could just get new carpeting in the playroom. And a little patio outside the back door that's really all i want. He kindly does not roll his eyes as he goes to the computer for one more ebay auction. In my twenties i was a walking bundle of desires. I was longing for love career meaning hope. One day i wandered into the minneapolis event center and i started attending. I found value in the dharma talks but when it came time for chanting. I was very discouraged by these words. Desires are endless. I vow to end them. What the heck does that mean. I was not in the right place at the right time. They say be careful what you wish for because you might get it. This must be because we wish for it. What we wish for is not necessarily what we need. This sermon is about desires yearning wanting. The most basic of human traits. And kabir says in the reading we all have a wanton creature inside. It is part of being human. Wanton creature drives the world economy. It makes babies and motivates education and science. Inquiring minds want to know. As i began to write this sermon and i realize what a huge topic this is. We're talking about nothing less than life force. And it is a lifelong task to learn to befriend and tame. The wanton creature. To teach at the difference between healthy and unhealthy want. To distinguish want from true needs. The biblical image that comes to mind for me is the wanting of a whole people. Lead out of egypt by moses the people of israel wandered in the desert. Wilderness of sinai for 40 years. Moses himself never even reached the promised land. This is a story of longing for a home and a place. One that continues from the experience of slavery. Down to this very day to the complicated situation of israel. In the middle east. We all have our own version of the promised land. It always seems to elude us. And the longing for the fulfillment of the promise. Has great power to drive us. Is it ever finally attainable. Or is it really the journey itself that is our home. The inspiration for this sermon came to me through a poem by hafiz. Another of the middle eastern mystics. Kabir and hafeez and several others i'll be mentioning. It is short and the palm goes like this. We are like loose. Once held by god. Being away from his warm body. Fully explains this constant. Yearning. We come from a primary oneness. We become separate from it at birth and then long continually for some kind of reunions. Is your name flows through our experience and we tend to find a million idol's worldly substitute. Until we learn to go deeper to the spiritual nourishment we are really looking for. What we really need cannot be found at the mall. But we have a great deal of trouble letting go of what we think we want. Since my long-ago xanax. i have become much better acquainted with. Buddhist teaching so i'm certainly no authority. Attachment to what we want to our desires. Is a term associated with buddhism and i'd like to talk a little bit about that. Because i think it can be misunderstood. In our society we associate attachment with something positive. Emotional bonding. The buddhist term attachment is different. It's about cravings and addictions grasp. Thursday. Gautama who became enlightened buddha lived around 500 bc in india. Buddhist basic buddhist basic teaching are the four noble truths very simple. Percy says all life is suffering. Again that's not a good translation. We know there's joy in life and so did buddha. That's matter fact. Joyce. Greatly healing and i'll be talking about that. But he was referring to the inherent struggle and laws. Evolving life we all die we lose loved ones. Suffering is inevitable. The second noble truth truth is that suffering is caused by attachment. If their noble truth is that the way to end suffering is to end attachment. What we desire. So that's what they mention that chant. This takes a lifetime for many lifetimes. If you reach the stage of enlightenment such that they have no more cravings or attachment. The fourth noble truth is the eightfold path instruction for gradually. Becoming more aware. For gradually ridding oneself of attachment switch get in the way of wisdom. The final result may be enlightenment but secrets are cautioned not to become attached to the goal of enlightenment. Buddhism teaches the difference. Between the material cravings of our unawakened sales. And the serenity and peace that are available. Once we have learned to loosen our whole on attachments. These attachments are such things as well. Status ego power ego ego. Power power. Violence. Drugs and alcohol. They're the things we make crave but which offer no real fulfillment. They do not lead us back to god's warm body. But only distract us. They're the ones that lead only to more wanting. Feeling our houses and lives with stuff only acts as a kind of temporary comfort. But does not bring us closer to the serenity and peace is come. With a commitment. To lifelong spiritual practice. So is it ever okay to have things to love possessions. I'm happy to say that the buddha taught moderation in all things. As a guideline for right living. For me beauty is a guideline for our need and desire for some. Beautiful thing. Here i think of anne morrow lindbergh's wonderful book gift from the sea. One that i reread periodically. For its wisdom and beauty. She speaks of collecting shells on the beach. I think of those who denude the beach of shells each day filling their houses with them. Lindbergh says a sample of each remarkable shell is enough in its beauty. Is really more powerful. And it's beauty when it's 1. Picking one or a few to be contemplated and appreciate it. I learned while visiting france in french women do not have closets full of clothes. But a few very well-made beautiful. Outfits that last forever. True beauty does bring joy. Owning a few things that bring us joy contributes to our homeless. Beauty. Yes and can be like the loot leading to transcendence. Bourne appreciation. Things that really feed our soul and that are craving. The sufi mystics and buddha have taught me about desire. And so has christianity. I am a lifelong unitarian universalist and i know that we tend to be uncritical. But all the great world religions except those we know best. Specially christianity. We may be too close to christianity and therefore more aware of its flaws. Many people have had some kind of bad experience with it. I am fortunate in that i have not. Rather i have been greatly enriched by my own training at a liberal christian seminary. And by my studies at the shoreline institute. Spiritual direction. On the subject of wants and desires let's see what we might learn from christianity. Now i will say christianity seems to hold us to an unusually high standard. When it comes to controlling our natural human desires. Check your lease sexual desires. And much of the restriction does in the popular culture seem to be counterproductive. When the nun says don't wear patent leather shoes because they reflect up well. Right away most reverend wants to see for themselves if that's really true. You're christianity's core message is love and forgiveness. Is too bad when miss interpretations lead to distortions. Of this basic message. Much harm can be done. I have learned from my study of contemplatively christianity. That understood a certain way god as love is all there is. And is all that matters. What i want to talk about this morning and relation. To desire is the tradition of lent. In christianity. I've giving something up for 6 weeks prior to easter every year. To me there's such a beauty and having a liturgical calendar. A series of lessons and rituals which are meant to lead us back to that sense of reunions we all long for. The point of lent is that we should examine our lives closely enough. To try to eliminate or at least minimize a bad habit. Something i may enjoy but that is not so good for me. Because it works against my home. It is a way to loosen and addictions cole. So this year i decided to give lent a try. I decided to give up television. For six weeks. I must say it was a very interesting experience. I don't really watch much tv it wasn't cold turkey. But the things i do watch i'm very devoted to. Especially the british soap opera eastenders. I also like a number of other pbs shows and i usually watch or watch seinfeld. After doing the dishes. And i occasionally watch movies. These shows do bring me a wonderful feeling of escape and fun. So you may be thinking for heaven sakes why deny yourself a little escape and fun. Well i wanted to see what it was like. Because i fell just a bit too attached to these shows and thought the time might be better use some other way. And it was a way to stick my toe in on this went thing. The first two weeks reezy. Easy to pick up a novel instead or finish the crossword puzzle or imagined talk to my husband. Play with my son easy. And suddenly surprisingly the second two weeks were hard. It was then that i heard those words in my head over heaven sake why does deny yourself a little pleasure. But i stuck it out on principle. By the third two weeks i found something very interesting. I simply cared less about tv. Aha a payoff. There really is something to this i thought to myself. I have to tell you my sense of craving for these shows has significantly diminished. My tv habits have changed. Now it's really just eastenders. Considering how much i feel dominated by the media next year i think i will try giving out the washington post 465 that will be harder. What is true of land and most religious rituals i think is that the value of them is discovered. When there is a conscious choice to engage in them fully. Authentically. Rituals are meant to call us to a higher value relationship with the holy. They must be. Engagement authentically to have an impact on our lives. So i'd like to continue our interfaith reflection and desire with my favorites i save my favorites for labs. These sufi mystical poem. Hafiz kabir. Rumi and woman poet mirabai. All lived around 1400 a d. In the middle he's in or near the area once known as persia. And they wrote in the ecstatic tradition. Which is also called the box. And this is best understood as a. Brand of islam and mystical strand. New radicals in their time i'm sure there. Outlawed today. Their poems are full of the most passionate desire full of sexual imagery and full of god. Ecstatic union which we know in the practice of sufi dancing was the way they blended joy and worship. Such a joy and passion wasn't is so much more satisfying than a trip to the mall. That one becomes converted to a more spiritual sort of wanting and fulfillment. A mystical union. You've heard the hafiz poem about the loot. I just want to share with you a couple more brief example. This from kabir. The guest is inside you and also inside me. You know the sprout is hidden in the seed. The blue sky opens out farther and farther. The daily sense of failure goes away. The damage i have done to myself phase. A million suns come forward with life when i sit firmly in that world. I hear bells ringing that no one has shaken. Inside love there is more joy than we know of. There are whole rivers. Of light. The universe is shot through in all parts by a single sort of love. How happy kabir is in his own little boat. Surrounded by all. Is. And this from rumi. Ecstatic love is an ocean. And the milky way. Is a flake. Of foam. Loading on it. The teaching here for me is that only a shift in awareness is necessary to know and be part of this. Ecstatic ocean. According to the followers of the bhakti path. Who needs the trivial possessions of the material world when such joy as possible. Now i will say realistically that this is a particular taste. Not everyone is going to be drawn to the sufi mystics. I love this poetry and you may have to try it. But if you don't hear is what anyone can learn. Spiritual practices such as mindfulness. Mindfulness is attending to the fullness of the present moment. Headed leads. To joy. Concentrated life on what. Brings you joy in this moment. The present moment. Wanting is about the future. Joy. Is in the present. Cultivate an attitude of openness to beauty. Pay attention to the miracle of life all around. Be awed delighted. Your cravings. Will subside. There's a new school of psychology that studies happy people. To try and determine what makes us happy. A logical thing to try and do that after all these years of studying sand people. Martin seligman has written about authentic happiness. And it's now known that about 30% of our capacity for happiness is innate in our personality. But we can develop more capacity for joy. Do certain habits such as mindfulness. Gratitude. And exposing herself to good news. I want to touch on our passion for a better world and how that relates to this subject of wanting. We don't just want things that are bad for us we want lots of things that are good for us. It is not really the wanting itself that is the problem so much as the attachment to specific results. Of the wanting. Insisting on certain outcome. We want holness for ourselves or community in the world. Indeed the enlightened buddhist monk is not on the mountaintop meditating but in the marketplace helping. Justice is a holy cause and of course we longed for it. My suggestion is not to try to suppress a longing for justice would rather. To reduce our attachment to the specific results of specific action. That is how we stay the course we talked about this at the uu washington office for advocacy and witness. You get way too depressed if we insisted on a certain outcome. Let me echo the words of kabir in the opening reading. Stand firm in who you are. Yes we long for union with the holy. Milan for the whole of life to be holy for peace and justice. Like the hebrews in the wilderness we too long for the promised land. If we can ease up on our attachment to pacific resolve even while working for those very results. And stand strong in our struggle for justice in our comradeship and our common prayers. This can even bring joy. And certainly renewal. For the next day. We are like lutz once held by god. Being away from his warm body fully explained this constant urinating. What does god mean to you. What might it mean in this poetic expression being an instrument of god. Capable of making the most beautiful music. We are somehow here we did not get here by ourselves. Whatever your understanding of life and how we came to be it is surely road miraculous that we are here. And once we are born come into being here on this planet. We are all longing for connection with the whole. What is the spiritual quest for the quest for belonging. Connection and alma's. I returned to the embrace of that which made of. We are made for music. 4beauty for dancing. For reunions with each other and the source of all. Spiritual nourishment is what we all want. Not only do we long and urine for reunions with the whole. The whole of life belongs. For us. For reunions with us. Are very home and place is here now in the midst. Of this miracle. Joy and pleasure give us nourishment but are not necessarily within our control. Their gifts that come over a lifetime. While most children have the gift of joy and laughter. It is often lost through the struggles of life and we may lose our aptitude for simple pleasures. All journeys have their share of grief and pain. Kahlil gibran has written of the carving out of our souls by los. Which also makes us able to hold more joy. Healing is a miracle of love. It is getting god's loot back in tune. In wendell berry's novel hannah coulter. Heroines first husband virgil is lost. In the battle of the bulge. Is missing an action. The agonizing slow process. I'm coming to believe he is really lost. Creates a tunnel of sadness and grief in her life for many years. Yet it is the small pleasures of life. That bring her back. Some fragments of joy. Here is a passage of the thoughts of hannah the widow. At first as the months went by. It was shameful to me when i would realize that without my consent. Almost without my knowledge. Something would make me happy. No big happiness came to me yet but the little happiness is did come. And they came from ordinary pleasures and ordinary things. The baby sunlight. Breezes. Animals and birds. Daily work. Rest when i was tired. Food. Strands of fog in the hollows early in the morning. Butterflies. Flowers. I began to trust the world again. Not to give me what i wanted. For i saw that it could not be trusted to do that. But to give unforeseen goods and pleasures that i had not thought to want. There is the message. We cannot trust the world to give us what we want. But we can trust world to give us unforeseen pleasures. That we had not thought. To want. We can learn to notice. Gifts. When my husband read the sermon he thought of the same thing i did. The rolling stones song. You can't always get what you want. That you all know it. You can't always get what you want but if you try you might find you get what you need. What we can try is spiritual discipline. Letting go of excess attachment to possessions and resolved. A discovery of joy in the moment. Inability to take a firm stand and who we are hearing now. We can all tame and befriend wanting creature. Inside of us and no more joy. We can do this by recognizing our place in the miracle of life. By realizing that we truly belong. We are lutes once held by god. Hand. We are lutz still held. By god. The reunions is as close as breath. As present. As the heartbeat. Of life. So maddie this day. And everyday.

all-souls_org

03.03.30Generosity.mp3

World events make this a rather remarkable time for us. To meet. Each other. I say this because i believe it to be true of all meetings. Taking place. In these uncertain times. We wonder at how reliable those around us are. Weather at the airport. In line at the grocery store. We're riding the metro. We look. To those around us and we wonder with the poet theodore roscka. Of those. So close beside me. Which. Are you. Or perhaps. More accurately. Who are you. We wonder who can we have faith in. Who can we believe in. Can be relied upon. We want to feel we want so desperately to feel and to know. Somehow. There are still some amongst us. Who are not so cynical and hardened. That they have lost all hope. Lost all sense. Of compassion. And our ability to see in one another. Or perhaps also to truly and deeply see each other. Rests i believe on our capacity to summon a sense. Of generosity. I'm so as you and i embarked upon a week of getting to know one another. I thought it might be a good time. To look a bit at the spiritual component. Of how we express. Generosity. And generosity in this sense i don't mean has to deal with how much you put in the basket or plate as it's past. But i'm speaking this morning of a generosity of spirit. For generosity of spirit is a key component and ingredients. To any religious community. We are so frequently in this culture. In this country. To look at things. I'm a perspective of scarcity. Think about it. There is only so much time. So much energy and. So much goodwill. To go around. We have to limit. What we are capable of doing. I worry. Deeply that in limiting what we are capable of doing we might also in the process. Be limiting. What we are capable of being. Limit what you do but not who you are. We close ourselves off. To what could be. Because we convinced ourselves in so many ways. That we can't afford to do otherwise. I can't afford to linger longer in conversation with someone who needs my time. Because my schedule. Is so tightly packed. I can't take time to exercise today or care for my body because my work. Is more important. And i can't. In spite of my desire pause to pray or to journal. For to light a candle. Because all things spiritual. Are fit in only after everything on my to-do list. Has been checked off. And when does that time arrive anyway. These thoughts go on and on in our heads as we increasingly see ourselves as a precious. Natural resource. That is tapped. And might soon. Run dry. Which brings me to a story about my own personal generosity being pushed. To the limits. About discovering within myself a generosity i wasn't sure i had anymore. A story about a difficult time in my life. You see i arrived here from the cold's of new mexico where i was just on vacation with several friends of mine that i went to college with. And this is a college story so it seems rather appropriate to i've just been with some college spirits. I was doing a semester abroad my junior year in college in munich germany. And at the time you will have to use your powers of imagination i had braids so that to here. And i was the i think i was the only person of color of the twenty people from my college that were on this adventure to munich. And it was a wonderful trip and many many many ways i got to see things. But i still fondly recall. And as an art history buff. There was nothing quite like walking into many of the museums and seeing artworks that i had only seen in books before. But i also had a difficult time particularly in munich itself. As i walked the streets and in and out of the the trains i noticed that frequently i was being stared at by the local people by the germans. And i began to feel very uncomfortable. Like from the moment i left my host family's home in the morning until the moment i returned to their home in the evening i was constantly being watched. What had i done. Why did i deserve such scrutiny i wondered. In fact my friends along on this trip try to make light of it try to joke with me about it we would sometimes play the game count how many people are staring at shana when we step on the subway. But there was also a way in which they didn't get it they didn't understand why i felt so alone even in their company. They didn't understand why these looks made me feel not just uncomfortable but a little bit fearful as well. And so finally one evening probably halfway through the 6 months that i was in munich i was riding at home riding back out on the s-bahn to my. Family's home which was a good 20-minute ride maybe 30 minute ride on the train. Out from munich. And i was somehow on this train by myself at about 10:30 at night and i don't know quite what i was thinking even in that regard but there i was. And i noticed as i had my nose in a book that these two gentlemen across the aisle from me. We're looking at me and kind of pointing and i thought oh no this could be trouble i'm by myself i have no recourse my german is not very good i don't know where i would go for help. Amaya mind immediately went to what could go wrong in this situation. Finally one of the two men after kind of the two of them talking back and forth and looking at me he sort of leans leans in my direction. And ask me in german if i speak german. I say i'm bishan. Just a little. And he comes in and he looks again and kind of scratches his head like oh no now i'm going to have to summon up some english cuz he realize that that's what i would speak. He tried to formulate a sentence in his head i could see the gears moving. Any finally leaves over any says. How do you get your hair to stay like that. And you can imagine my relief. He wasn't about to hurt me but actually just wanted to know wanted to understand something he didn't understand. Wanted to genuinely meet me. Where i was and for who i was. And it occurred to me as i left that train and boarded a bus. Annoy beberg. In the suburb where they live that. I almost didn't have that encounter with that man at all. I almost didn't have that encounter because i was so closed off. I was anything but. Generous. I had made so many assumptions about who he was and about how he would interact with me. That i had packed away my capacity for kindness. An openness. And what a loss. To me it would have been to have never had. That interaction. It is a remarkable truth my friends that our attitudes. Our expectations toward our experiences. Can color them. Dramatically. I'm so i asked you about your life. Are there are moments when generosity called you out of scarcity thinking. Have you seen times when an offer of generosity on your part has encouraged it. In fact inspired it. In others. Have you discovered. That when you enter a situation. With a foregone perception and conclusion of how it will go. That's somehow. Some way. Life. With a capital l almost always. Finds away to surprise you. Approaching living with a generous heart. Does good things for a spirit. For there can be no doubt that willy we walk away from instances when we have given. All that we can. When we give as much as we can and when we are as open as possible. We leave those situations feeling content. For we know that we have been the person we feel called to be. We have offered what we could to make things be as well as they might. I was thinking recently that i'm not sure that we can ask for much more than that. We don't get assurances from life. You and i. We don't get to have things turn out as we plan. But we do get to try to live in harmony and concert. With what we believe. We do get to extend ourselves and our hearts. Was recently reading about a new film. And i was reading at the interview with this danish film director suzanne buyer and she was saying about her film this one sentence which seems directly connected to what i'm telling you this morning. She said that the movie that in the movie she said i wanted to talk about forgiveness. And the way that love. Demands immense. Generosity. Love. Demands. Immense. Generosity. We are in the midst of many demands. Many demands on our hearts and on our times. On our spirits. So is the demand of love. Seems not such a great gesture to spread one's arms. To embrace those around us. And yet it is a bold and courageous act to do so. I encourage you in the days ahead. To look well and to think hard about how you might be generous. With your spirit. For your person on the metro who will just wants to know how your hair stays that way. Might be lingering and waiting for you. To offer yourself. So for my prayer for all of this this morning. Is that we might create a beautiful melody. By bringing together. Our conviction. That compassion and love are worth every demand made upon us. May we live out our faith. By being generous. Of heart. Uptime. And of talent. So maybe this day. And in the days to come. I'm at.

all-souls_org

04.12.26KwanzaaService.mp3

My name is denise view there's several reasons why i celebrate kwanzaa. Stop that i'm wearing as a gift for my paternal grandmother who is now 89 and alien. Her spiritual journey took her from the black protestant church of her youth to the nation of islam in the 1930s and 40s. These were in the very early days long before malcolm x make black nationalism hip. My grandmother and her cohort of women setup alternative schools for their children to counteract the public school curriculum of the day was promoted patriotism to a segregated nation. Again this is in the days when challenges to christianity to white supremacy into public schooling for radical are subject to intense fbi scrutiny. Their courage and their questioning continue to inspire me and these conservative times. Although her spiritual journey has led her back to christianity. My grandmother's mark on american culture is indelible. It is partly an honor of her contribution to kujichagulia self-determination that i celebrate kwanzaa. Our family practice of kwanzaa began in 1991 or 92 as our children became more aware of the unique commercial lure a christian of christmas american style. We ourselves have grown up enjoying the music the foods and the gifts of christmas. And we're not willing to deny them to our children. But we were increasingly uncomfortable with the greed and the excess of the season especially since none of us were particularly christian. And search for comfortable compliment to christmas. Consummate more and more sense to us. My family is full of musicians artists writers seamstresses woodworkers etc. Surely we could use our columba or creativity wajima collective work and responsibility bujjamma cooperative economics and nia purpose to create a meaningful celebration of our spiritual harvest. We were awkward at first we doing this the right way. Will the kwanzaa police accuse off of the violations how do you pronounce this word anyway but as we learn we teach our children who in turn teach us about the unity umoja a family. Contraband is a teaching learning laboratory for celebrating our forebears and the lessons of their lives. It rejuvenates our understanding of the principles that we try to nurture throughout the year the principles to which we try to hold one another accountable. Arkansas celebration is also the place where we can be as african as we know how to be. Like most africans in the western hemisphere we reclaim our traditional culture and bits and pieces. Austin needing to improvise as the jazzmasters do so beautifully. Who are playing and singing of music or dance are foods are hair and occasional forays to the black churches and masjidds of our youth and of our grandparents. Members of our family touch the african in us. Sometimes some of us are fortunate enough to travel throughout the african diaspora where ancestors were taken for from which they fled. But we seldom have a weigh-in place besides our annual kwanzaa celebration to acknowledge ourselves as part of a family with us southern and jamaican and ultimately african roots. My own spiritual journey has taken me from this very church which my mother joined in 1959 to the baptist churches of my maternal grandmother and aunt. To the masjid of my paternal grandparents and my father. To atheism to buddhism and back to unitarian universalism. Well i have loved this church through highs and lows. William always touched by the music. Well i feel welcome it is only at the annual family kwanzaa service that i feel my deepest spiritual connection to the divine or imani face. The words of our family kwanzaa serviceware adapted from an all souls church cons of service designed by miranda harpole and other former also has members. Perhaps one day the spirit of kwanzaa will infuse my weekly religious experience at all souls. But even if that happens i will never give up the practice of kwanzaa. Tobogganing. Why are we recognizing kwanzaa in a unitarian church. My question has been posed to me by friends and. Associates. And i thought that this morning it was appropriate that we offer our thoughts and try to figure out what we're doing here in the unitarian church attempting to celebrate or recognize kwanzaa. These thoughts really grow out of a course that was offered over the last. Fall with myself and paula cole jones here. And hopefully can serve to guide us in our attempt to figure out what we are doing here celebrating kwanzaa in a unitarian church. Traditionally the search for freedom justice and equality in america in the african-american community is thought to be split between an approach based on an idea of civil rights. An an idea based on a notion of cultural nationalism. Especially the civil rights orientation is rooted in the great ideal embodied in the declaration of independence. But we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and i'm quoting now men are created equal. Certainly the civil rights approach embraces this egalitarian idea about the self-evident nature for the equality of all human beings as if it were a law of physics. And expects the world to live up to it. Be cultural national historian tatian on the other hand. Holds the view that holds the world in the same moral standard. As the civil rights orientation however it recognizes the fact that since those words were pinned about the self-evident nature of the equality of man in 1776 until about 11:00 this morning sadly african-americans and not african americans live in two separate worlds. Disconnected material realities. That are really separate set of cultural ideas. It recognizes really that these two step two to apply one set of cultural ideas to another reality with me like a man or woman trying to find his way around birmingham with a map of boston. In our minds we have a notion of what is more culturally appropriate or more inherently unitarian. Given the close association between this church and the civil rights struggle we may conclude well of course we're naturally more civil rights story of the church. Then a church that will be naturally associated with black cultural nationalism. Looking around the sanctuary on a typical sunday we may look around and see a number of african americans in the pews and we might conclude that this is a diverse community. We cv african americans like jackie robinson's of the. Like jackie robinson's of the american religion breaking the 11 colorbar every sunday morning. It may conclude. Standard standard particularly throughout much of this church has great history has been predominantly african-american. People who were here during the sixties and seventies miss your greater connection between unitarian church and african american cultural nationalism. People were here remember that leading african-american thinkers advocates and activist. Show me bride spectrum the beliefs including the cultural nationalism were closely associated with this church. They remember that many of these activist adopted a nationalist point of view when the ideal of civil rights was introduced into practice. The notion of civil rights was taken off of the blackboard and introduced into the two separate america's who became evident that just a theory of civil rights and ideal of civil rights would not be enough. Great visionaries look deep into their own psyches and realize that they were many ways products the culture of slavery. I realize that in order to bring about a system that is more just more free more fair but they would need to develop and install a new psychic operating system. Play so wisely realized that other america where they had been born and raised and rooted in the culture of slavery and that to move forward these brave individuals would need to go back to a version of themselves that existed before the slave and colonial experience. And then move forward. They realize it the finish of individualism and materialism the obsessive compulsion for separating and ranking and ordering of things that is the western way would not serve them in their quest to bring these ideals of civil rights into fruition in this lifetime. View in this life there's no inconsistency between the struggle for civil rights and a nationalist perspective. In this view we see the system of rules new rules of the byproduct to start trouble for justice unless we think that this connection between the struggle for civil rights to the development of a new way of thinking. I just theoretical we should know that a group of african-american unitarians provided some of the initial contributions to ron karenga in the 1960s to develop that idea for kwanzaa. So it's not really a question of which is more appropriate and which is more unitarian. So what are we doing here today. What we're doing here today i think. You celebrating kwanzaa we are putting our lofty ideals as a community about racism and diversity into practice. Religious community describes itself as valuing reason and social action. And we reason in practice as well are essential components of a black cultural nationalism. Perspective. Despite this theoretical symbiosis for parent theoretical similarity between we still struggle to incorporate nationalism into unitarian religion. I heard an african-american number of his confirmation say once. Betty only came here for the music. I know that in a city with a cultural amenities at washington possesses but there are easier ways to hear excellent music. And getting up 110 on a sunday morning and struggling to find a parking space on girard street. Because as a community is african-american though i understand. the feeling that one. Experiences by extending oneself into a community as one's true self. When that community is not ready to accept one's true self. The notion that acceptances conditional renowned seeing one's cultural identity before one can be accepted into a community. The notion that the one must read from a map of boston even though one is living in birmingham. I know full well about the feeling that comes from being told that one's place in an institution is simply to smile to nod into agree. George carlin once said. If a man smiles all the time he's probably selling you something it doesn't work. Lotion is church can only accommodate african-americans who smile and nod and agree in the relationship with real people. To the extent that we are religious community would rather not grapple with a raggedy raw practice of asserting and accommodating cultural differences we cease to be in my opinion a religion. We speak, instead. A form of a lack of a better word a superstition. Which is somewhat ironic i think for a church which embraces reason as long as the. We become a a institution that. Hey braces reason so long as a fax don't force us out of our comfort zone. Is african-americans we choose to come here and agree to simply smile and nod and agree. And we're not truly members of this community and we are denying ourselves a true religious experience. We are instead actors playing the part of an imaginary ahistorical nameless generic person from nowhere. Salesman selling something to this community. It really doesn't work. Namely a culturally invisible version of ourselves. To the extent that we have african americans have authentic lee. Talk to discover who you are within the context of our history in this land but choose not to share those findings. With a larger community and assert those findings into the fabric of this church life. We are not practicing a living culture. When we pretend that we are just here for the music. Then we two are acting out a form of superstition. If we seek and fine but we fail to share and assert. The real world including the real world of all souls. And the candles are just props. Disclose african clothes are just wardrobe. African names are just character names are swahili words i just dialed in a game i'm playing african. Is the end of the day this cultural experience is not about going back to africa per say. Isabella psychic return to a pre slavery. Creep colonialism pre-capitalist. Version of ourselves. And then going forward into the entire world having a complete. Authentic. Human experience. Shante shante. Harambe. Thomas spoke to you eloquently about why we should celebrate kwanzaa within and unitarian context and we've had some very rich conversations about what it means to celebrate an african-american cultural holiday within a multicultural community. And it occurred to me and it occurred to them as we talked about at the reason we do rituals at all if we choose to in our lives is because there are marker their way that we say to ourselves pay attention to this. This moment. Is precious. This is a threshold in your life. Notice. Really notice. And pay attention to what this moment means to you. And what's up we enact a ritual rather than just saying words we do something to make meaning of a moment in our lives because we want to pay attention to this. And so kwanzaa is a bad thing we need to do something together as a community so that we can pay attention to these values. So that we can uplift who we are i think you can you learn a lot about people when you hear what they value. What they care about and who they love. And kwanzaa is a ritual that allows families and an entire community of people to lift up what they care about and whom they loved and to use ritual to say this moment each and every year i will remember. And then try to take that remembrance through with me throughout all of the days of every year of my life i will remember who my grandparents are maybe i'll get out there pictures again maybe i'll look at these milestone moments and achievements and accomplishments. So rituals my friends are important that's the why of ritual and this particular ritual is about history. And the present and the future all rolled into one. So we will light our kinara candles in honor of each of the seven principles of kwanzaa and i invite you as i invoke the names of those principles to think about what they mean for you and your life. This year because i would bet that each and every year these words might mean something different to you. Umoja. Unity. Kujichagulia. Self-determination. Fujima. Collective work and responsibility. Apparently this was a particularly tough principal for this year this isn't jama. Cooperative cooperative economics. Mia. Purpose. Kuumba creativity. And finally. Imani. Friends this year. I wish you i wish you much togetherness. Much ability to know who you are so that you can speak your truth. Percentage that it takes all of us to build community and to share in the good and the bad of life. A sense that we need to support one another in our communities financially as well as emotionally. A sense that you will be able to move through this world holding onto your beliefs. That you will take an opportunity this year to create something of beauty. And that you will find within yourself. An ongoing trust and belief. And that which is greater than you. I closed with a story of a family that i know in berkeley california that has a dinnertime ritual each and every night to mothers and their two daughters sit down and they talk about a good thing and a difficult thing about their day every time i had dinner with them the younger daughter when she was first getting the hang of this she wasn't clear about the distinction between. Just by being asked to reflect upon i'm just by being asked to share with someone else what i had done in my life that day there was more meaning and so i leave you with the idea that we have many routines in our lives. We come and go a lot and those routines could be rituals. We could make them more meaningful. If we would but pay attention if we would but in our doing notice to mark the time. See that which is special. And that which is beautiful and each and every moment. So maybe this year.

all-souls_org

04.05.09LifeOverflowing.mp3

Are reading this morning is from the palestinian american poet naomi shihab nye. It's called so much happiness. It's difficult to know what to do with so much happiness. With sadness there's something to rub up against a wound to tend with lotion and cloth when the world falls in around you you have pieces to pick up something to hold in your hands but happiness float it doesn't need you to hold it down. It doesn't need anyting happiness lands on the roof of the next house singing and disappears when it wants to. You are happy either way even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful treehouse and now live over a quarry of noise and dust cannot make you unhappy since there is no place large enough to contain so much happiness. You shrug and you raise your hands and it flows out of you into everything that you touch. You are not responsible. You take no credit as the night sky takes no credit for the moon but continues to hold it and share it. Captain that way be known. Did you notice the moon this week did you notice that it was full and bright. And beautiful. Did his quiet light sneak up on you like it did me and surprise you as you pull down the blinds to go to bed. For while you wash dishes at the kitchen sink. Or when you turned off the tv. After the final episode of friends and did you pause for a moment to take in if pal beauty to receive its benediction on your day. What if ask the poet what if we could live our lives as the night sky does. Taking no credit drawing no attention to itself it's simply makes space. 4. And offers to the universe. The moon's blessing. And by this it is known. What if we could let our blessings flow that freely through us. Or what if we were to live our lives as the moon shown this week. Bursting. Pregnant. What if we lived our lives to overflowing. Light and love spilling from us. What if it was by this. That we were known. Difficult says the poet. To know what to do with so much. Happiness. With so much love. The best we can do she says is shrug and raise our hands and let it flow through us touching everything that we reach. Life overflowing. I want us this morning to at least consider the possibility. Oblivion our lives this way. Living our lives out of a sense of abundance. An abundance of laws and of spirit i want us this morning to at least consider the possibility of seeing our lives as opportunities to bless the world with that abundance to give our lives freely. To throw caution and propriety and prudence to the wind and live with abandon not reckless abandon but gracious abandon gracious abandon. I hope that you're not all staring at me now and thinking what is he talkin about i hope that you two have had moments pleading though they may have been. Moments when you felt full up with life's blessing. Moments when you experience the graciousness of the world on mother's day. A glimpse of the full moon at bedtime. But for that moment at least you felt the blast and so capable of sharing that blessing with others what i am asking us to consider this morning is to live our entire lives in this light. To live always out of the sense of abundant blessing enter sheraton extravagantly. I didn't say horror the blessing. Okay because i know that we can do that too right i know that deep down we're afraid that there's not enough blessing to go around. And so when we get a little you know we're going to keep it for ourselves right. Twerk we don't hoard it well maybe then we're a little stingy with it give a little bit here take a little bit back there. Will conserve the blessing we say you know for the times that there won't be any for us but conservation is a good principle. Is an ethic of gracious abandon. Let me play a different way to you you've you've always heard that there are two kinds of people in the world right there's a people who see the glass half empty and they're the people who see the glass half-full. People who look at this world and this way i don't even think they see a glass at all when i when i imagine in their mind's eye is actually a champagne flute just at that moment you know when you when you pour the champagne in a little too fast. Overflowing with a precious commodity that we have to share. But let me just backup for a moment and acknowledge something that anna mentioned earlier which is this sermon today is one that i auctioned off at the church auction last year the opportunity. When we sat down to talk about it. What he said to me was rob help give voice. To our impulse to love and care for the world. Indian policy said that doesn't come from a place of guilt or duty but from a place of fullness. Talk about how we desire to love and care for the world he said and in so doing preach a social justice sermon that isn't a social justice sermon is what he was saying. Lucy was talking a story came into my mind it's a story about jesus from the new testament book of matthew. Some of you may know this one and it reads. Knowing jesus was in bethany in the house of simon the leper a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment and she poured it on his head. As he sat at the table. Some of the disciples saw they were indignant saying why this waste. For this ointment might have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. But jesus said to them. Why you troubled woman for she has done a beautiful thing to me. You always have the poor with you but you will not always have me. Emporium this ointment on my body she has prepared me for my burial. This passage is much-debated. Some people use it to avoid taking any responsibility. Preparing for the less fortunate in society but that's not what the stories about it all i think the story is about recognizing a different kind of impetus for love and caring i mean here comes this woman who loves jesus dearly in her what she probably should have done was dip her cloth into the alabaster jar and and rub the ointment on her head what did she do instead she poured the whole thing over. An active gracious abandon. The disciples of course want to condemn her for the act the disciples are always portrayed in the gospels. As a glass-half-empty kind of people and they said. The question that the story raises then for us. Is. What is the precious ointment that is in your alabaster flask. What gift do you have to lavish upon the world and what in the world is stopping you. If a woman who anoints jesus at bethany is one of the patron saints of this tradition that i'm. Talking about this morning to introduce you now to a couple of contemporary heroes of the tradition. A few nights ago i went down to the park at dupont circle in the evening and i just love what happens to dupont circle come springtime when the weather is right and they turn on that fountain. One night this week when i went down there to enjoy the weather and a full moon i was delighted to see that there was a group of boys. Perhaps teenagers or young men in their twenties who has. Yummy laid their matt out on the sidewalk by the fountain and turned on are boombox loud enough for everyone to hear but not so loud that it was a noxious. And they started dancing in public. Feather moves were hard for me to describe but it was some hybrid of breakdancing and madonna's vogue dance later i learned that it was called pop & lock. Not too far away to the smoke my cigar and started talking with an elderly gentleman in his 70s. Now i'm convinced that a few hours previously when we were all busily returning home from work these same people moved through that same space and hardly noticed one another except when they bumped shoulders. But because these boys had shared their overflowing energy for life we all got caught up in the spirit life overflowing have i convinced you yet that you may be saying yourself well you know i wish i was still a teenager. I wish i could muster that kind of abandon. What you may be saying rob i don't have that love to share i can barely get enough love for myself. I can barely i barely have enough love to share with my tight circle of family. It's hard to muster the kind of love that you're talking about. To which i would respond i know. It is hard. And you don't have to muster it. All by yourself. The poet reminds us. Get the night sky doesn't produce the moon's brightness. It merely creates a space in its firmament for it. And the mood itself of course. Is only reflection of the light from the sun call the moon does his travel on its orbit and let the let the sun reflect off of it i know something about how overwhelming it can be to think of loving so freely and so generously ministers struggle with on a daily basis. Time in seminary when each of us has this moment of panic. When we realize that when we graduate our vocation will be. I love the whole world and that's when we have to reassure ourselves that it isn't about us. That it's about letting the source of love. About letting the spirit of life. About letting the god flow through. In fact it became something of a mantra for us at seminary we say to one another to reassure ourselves. It's not about me it's about the spirit flowing through me. We just need to open our hearts and souls. And give it room to pass through us. My partner chris. Came home. From california this week after being away for a long time for the whole semester. Celebrate i went out and did something extravagant. I bought a vase full of peonies. 750 a stem. Their petals curled hard like knuckles. But as soon as i put them in water and bathe them in the light of our living room they burst into enormous pink pinwheel. I measured them this morning they were over 6in in diameter friends my prayer. For you. And for me and. For us all. Is that our lives my blossom as graciously as those peonies. That i live my chime as extravagantly as the full moon this week. My prayer is that we come to discover the world as a gracious place. American response to that brace. We ourselves become. Full off. Because at that point as a poet suggest. The only thing to do. Is the shrug our shoulders. And raise our hands and let that grace. Blowout true us. Into the world. Blessing it as we go. Tobias. I'm in.

all-souls_org

06.07.09CallingAndCommitment.mp3

The readings this morning come from. A book by parker palmer which some of you may know let your life speak. The small book that packs a punch. And generally. Dis raps and unsettles you. So i would like to begin with. Poem at the beginning of the book by william stafford. And then parker palmer's comment on that pain. This is william stafford. From ask me. Sometime when the river is ice ask me. Mistakes that i have made. Ask me whether what i have done. Is my life. I will listen to what you say. You and i can turn and look at the silent river and wait. We know the current is there hidden beneath the ice. And there are coming and goings from miles away that hold the stillness. Exactly before us. What the river says. That is what i say. And palmer says. Ask me whether what i have done is my life. For some those words will be nonsense. Nothing more than a poet sluiceway with language and logic. Of course but i have done is my life. What am i supposed to compare it. But for others and i am one. The poet's words will be precise. Piercing and disquieting. They remind me of mama's when it is clear. If i have eyes to see that the life i am living is not the same. As the life that wants to live in me. In those moments i sometimes catch a glimpse of my true life. A life hidden like a river beneath the ice. And in the spirit of the poet i wonder. What am i meant to do. Who am i meant to be. Would you stand with me in prayer. I actually meant that metaphorically but thank you. How interested let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. My strength and my redeemer. Amen. Thank you for that stand. In progressive spiritual circles the theological idea of call and location sometimes brings a kind of skepticism and discomfort. For some. It seems like an idea that we might have outgrown. We associated with a particular religious structure or a roll. Or the idea that god is somehow manipulating us. We might not accept the possibility that we could get a message. The fields wrapped in clear as if it was beaming from some channel and outer space. We might associate the concept of call. With some biblical stories that seem unlikely to happen to us. Now it's some of you don't know any biblical stories but i'm going to share a few. The few tales come to mine for me. And they are dramatic to say the least. There's a dialogue of moses. With the burning bush. That caused him to hear the cries of the enslaved israelites. Right when he was trying to just mind his own business tending sheep. A mount horeb. Or there's isaiah's wild vision of the lord who's sitting on the throne high-and-mighty in the temple. His call occurs when a sick swinging seraphim which is somewhat like the winged monkeys but an angel. Flies towards him with a live coal and touches him on the lips. Don't forget the call of jonah. Who is that reluctant prophet who tried to run away from god. But he ends up in a mighty storm swallowed by a large fish. And then dispute on dry land after 3 days. And of course there's the call of jesus. Baptized by his cousin john in the river jordan. When the heavens tear apart. The text says. And a spirit descends as a mighty dove upon him. Anna voice says you are my beloved. With you i am well pleased. Okay nothing quite that large or cinematic has ever happened to me. But from time to time in my life. There have been big changes that come out of major discernment about my vocation. And my call. These changes usually come after a period of restlessness after a time when i questioned exactly where i am and what i'm doing. They emerge justice parker palmer suggest when the life i am living. Is simply not the life that lives in me. In the words of an old song. I know intuitively when things are not well with my soul. The word vocation has a latin root which means voice. So it implies a call and a listening. Something that moves you to respond. I'm going to suggest this morning that we all know inside when things are not quite right although we may describe it differently. It's a gut feeling. An internal awareness. Call it your deep self. Your higher power. Or name it as the still small voice of the spirit in you. You can pay attention. Or you can ignore it at your own risk sometimes with consequences that are hard to bear. But if you listen and respond. Your life may change for the better. And move closer to that life that wants to live in you. My own call to ministry a rose out of a sense but the life i was living was not satisfying me deeply. I was a professional dancer in chicago. I was turning 30. And i was wondering about my next step. After essentially checking out of church and my conscious relationship with religious life when i was 18. I suddenly found myself drawn to this ucc church united church of christ that i passed on the way to the train everyday. There was a nuclear-free weapon zone sign outside the church and it caught my eye i kept thinking what is that doing there in front of a church. The small detail seem to work on me this is the way called go sometime. And i began to have this idea that i should investigate the place. I finally decided to try the worship service one sunday and i was very surprised by what i found something i had not experienced before. A small progressive. Social justice congregation involved in urban ministry at many levels. A warm welcoming community that worships in a dynamic way. I had this deep sense of coming home to something i hadn't exactly known i was missing. A growing joy in the community and the minister who offered support. After attending for several months. I was sitting in the pew and i was listening to a sermon. When i heard a voice and me saying i'm going to be a minister. The sentence was simple and quiet like a premonition or an intuitive knowing. There was no burning bush no wing sarafem. No great fish. No mighty dub. But i did know that something important had just taken place. And of course it ended up at early changing my life. There is a quote by frederick buechner that is often cited. You're calling. Is the intersection of the world's deep hunger. And your own deep gladness. The intersection of the world's deep hunger and your own deep gladness. One sign of call is joy. The deep gladness of which buechner speaks. If you weren't feeling it. If you keep talking yourself into what you're doing. You may be in the wrong place. Sometimes it's pretty hard to get at what your deep gladness might be. I find that the busier i get the more channels that i have going. The last i hear that still small voice in may. We need some quiet. In order to hear. To really hear. One advantage of weekly worship is that we come to a place where our job is to listen. It also has we hear great music. Thought-provoking sermons we spend time in meditation or prayer. The listening is good. Which is why many of us keep coming back. Each week when we sing we issue our own call. We think spirit of life come to me. Come unto me. Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion. Move in the hand. Giving life the shape of justice. And worship we have a chance to ponder how that's going. That's stirring of our hearts the moving of our hands. The life shaping towards justice we have time to ask. What am i meant to do. Who am i meant to be. I recently went through a fascinating exercise a class that i'm taking. I'm in a master's degree for applied healing arts it's an interdisciplinary program that focuses on individual or organizational transformation and development. And for the final day of the course which was called calling and commitment. We had to write. A newspaper headline. And a short article from the year 2016. So we had to go forward 10 years and write an article which described our own successful work in creating change. We had to imagine ourselves out of this life. Into another life. To see what we would be doing there. What struck me was that the roles that we created came from where we are now. But had evolved into something different. Something more expansive. Something creative. Something full episode bility. We had the opportunity to envision a future and then work backwards. To see how we might get there. With knowledge and skills. In flying up ahead. We had seen a new call. Here's the bottom line. You can't create the future that you want. If you don't listen. To whet your wise internal voice. For your connection with the holy. Is saying right now. Don't let the sunday service. Be the only time that you listen. Let worship invite you into a deeper contemplation. Use the tools that work for you prayer meditation journaling. Conversation with your good friends. Movement practices time in nature. Develop the ability to reflect and ponder. As both the spiritual discipline but really as a way to recreate your life. Stop and ask yourself what is sometimes called the strategic planning question. What would i be doing. If i wasn't doing what i'm doing now. Sometimes the life that we live is so full on. So relentless and fifth gear. That we never apply the brakes. Driving onward we keep perpetuating the same patterns. We keep pushing down that internal sense that something is missing. Until you stop. And observe and listen. You are compelled to repeat your life. Rather than design a new one. A my office wall upstairs i have a framed statement that's by a unitarian poet jennifer boswell. It's entitled called. And i hung it up to remind me that i am still called. Still listening. I think that being ordained minister is not much about the conferring of a title. Or the recognition of some special gift. Tumi. It is about living in a public promise. A promise that i made. Always to ponder my call. In my language. In conversation with the living god. In dialogue with the holy spirit. And reflection on the life of jesus. Is a promise to listen to my internal voice and to discern the life that wants to live in me. Here is an excerpt from boscobel joyous manifesto on living fully. You may hear part of your own call. And what she offers there are many kinds of calls. She raised called to stare rapidly into the blue. Call to brave change. Call to celebrate paradox. Invite the joy and value the sorrow. Call to make words dance together that have not danced together before. Call to travel daily down a road i've not traveled. Call to cooperate in a marriage. The partnerships the world. Call to express life at the out most of my energy field. Call to love. Where love is difficult. Call to cherish my ancestors. Call to investigate where wisdom hides. Call to wage peace in every action. Call to carry the flag of the world. Call to pledge allegiance to the planet. Call tonneau disgrace at each occurrence. Call to recognize the divine in every act of good faith. Call tawanda. In moonlight and rain. Call to know little. Assume nothing. And hope beyond hope. Call to welcome the ministries of others. Call not to be patient waiting for justice. Call to act responsibly as though i am the center of the universe. And call to propose. That there are billions of centers of the universe all as important as me. Call to develop a unique relationship. With the world. Maybe each year are unique call. And listen. May we offer our distinctive set of gifts as a vocation. For the mending of the world. May the life we lead be the life that wants to live in us. Profoundly. Authentically. An alignment. With our deepest promise. Blessed be.

all-souls_org

05.05.01OwningYourSpiritualPast.mp3

I have two short readings for you this morning. The first is from james baldwin baldwin's writing involves working out his complicated relationship to the black church in which he grew up as a child preacher and singer. And he says this. If the concept of god has any. Validity for use. It can only be to make us larger. Freer. And more loving. If god can't do this. Then it's time we got rid of him. And second from the former secretary-general of the united nations dag hammarskjold. I don't know who or what. Put the question. I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering but at some moment i did answer yes to someone or something. And from that hour i was certain that existence is meaningful. And that therefore my life. In self-surrender. Add a beautiful goal. In my grandmother's house. The bible served many functions. But perhaps not the ones you'd expect. You might expect with the bible was a source of inspiration to my devout grandmother the psalms a source of comfort the gospels and assurance and certainly my grandmother received those gifts from the bible but not the one that was in her house not the one that i'm thinking of. You see the bible that i'm thinking of. Blacks i've got it right here when i show it to you. The bible that i'm thinking of is written in german passed down by my my grandfather's family who were german lutherans my grandmother was an italian who married into the family to german in the middle of the places where the family hit written down all the births and the weddings and the deaths the place where the family tree was recorded. She flipped a little further back through the gold-leafed pages. And taught me that the bible was a place where she stored things right there between mark's gospel and matthews she touched the order of service. From my father's baptism. A little further back and mix the letters of paul with a program from a distant cousins wedding mementos like these were scattered throughout the book. And then she explained to me that because the bible was one of the the heaviest objects in the house that it also function as an iron it's the way in the back through the book of revelation i discovered a flower that has been sucked and saved from the corsage of a family bride. Fallen leaf bright orange that had once captured my grandmother's eye for beauty she'd carefully place these organic objects between two pieces of wax paper and press them for years. In the bible. By the time we were done with that first tour i remember saying to myself who knew there were so many good uses for the bible. Today at sits on a table in my office. And it reminds me where i came from. But it's funny i started to think about this bible the other day and all of the things that my grandmother put in it when i was talking about god recently with a group of unitarians most of whom had come into our church from other faith tradition they left the faith tradition of their childhood and when i asked them we're talking about god and when i asked them to describe god to talk. And i said what tell me about the god that you don't believe in and they talked about the guy that they've been introduced to as children many of them talked about a kind of god that can be found one of the gods that can be found in the pages of the bible a god that is the product of a certain kind of biblical literalism or fundamentalism and its flowers. In the back of my grandmother's bible. Which is to say god had been trapped in the pages of a book written in a language they didn't understand. Locked up with these with these metal clasps flatten between pieces of wax paper mora relic. Then a living breathing free dimensional. God. And further though each of these people i talked to had intellectually at least rejected this god it was still the only god they knew and for many of them this this rejected god was still the lodestar of their spiritual imagination. Can i see this happening with a lot of folks in this church and another unitarian churches what i see is how we imprison god. Inno so many ways. Whether it's locking up. in the scriptures that we were taught as a child. For trapping god inside old rituals that don't have any meaning for us anymore or we know what else i see sometimes i see people projecting onto god one of the many bad authority figures in their life right we substitute that person's face for the face of god and then wonder why we have a hard time praying to god the result is that a lot of people who claim not to believe in god. Their spiritual lives are still governed by this god that they don't believe in. The point of my sermon today is to encourage each of us to own up to our religious past. To go back there and take a look at what we've learned along the way about god and religion to take stock of our spiritual heritage if you will and i suggested we do it for two reasons first because unless we come to terms with our spiritual past. We will not have a spiritual future. We will never be able to move with freedom. Into our spirits future. We will always be governed in ways we don't understand by a god that we claimed not to believe in anymore and 2nd. There's something larger at stake beyond our own religious lives there's our culture's understanding of god that's at stake as well too because for those of us who've left a certain interpretation of god behind two images of god we've essentially conceded that those old images are the only ones available to our culture. It's all i want to talk a little bit about this problem today but i want to tell you a story first. I think it's a story that those of us who came into unitarianism from from another tradition might be able to relate to. Amateur that have the sermon going to play with you lifelong unitarian this elizabeth. and so you know just bear with me here i hope you can get something out of it. But this is a story about a woman named helene. Helene is an artist who grew up in a strict orthodox jewish family and much of her arts deals with her complicated relationship to that religious heritage you see when helen was only 29 years old her young husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And during his final days. Helene got her.. Can an orthodox judaism there is a law called nita the law of separation. Which states that when a woman is menstruating she and her husband must not sleep together. Or even touch one another for at least 12 days. Because the woman is considered in pure during this time according to old jewish cultic tradition. Helene and her husband both devout orthodox jews were convinced that it was god's will that they not touch. During. This time and they didn't. Her husband died. And years later helene still struggles to forgive the god who separated her from her husband during his dying days. A seemingly perverse god for whom obedience to ancient celtic laws was somehow more important than the last goodbyes. Have a loving couple. I don't think anyone here would be surprised if if helene had left judaism for good after such an experience and indeed its incidents like this that can define a person's relationship to god and religion for the rest of their lives. But it turns out that helen's relationship to her faith is more complicated than that. Because there are parts of her orthodox judaism that she loves. Her mother who is in her nineties and still a devout orthodox jew exemplifies the beauty of that tradition helen rights my mother does everything in the most beautiful way the the way she does the holidays with the candles the way she keeps a kosher kitchen and and and cooks beautiful food according to jewish law to work through this relationship with god and religion. In exploring that relationship she's slowly been able to sort out the good from the bad to sort the baggage from the gifts. She's learned to leave the former behind. And to take the gifts with her as she moves forward. My experience is that it's a lot easier to do the former. Then the ladder. What i see is a lot of people who are very aware of what they're reacting against from the religious tradition they grew up in. I want to go see as much of his appreciation for the tradition that they grew up in something some gift that they can take from that heritage what i found is that folks who can find a little bit of both. Are better able to forgive. The past. And to move forward in freedom. Into their spiritual futures. So i want us to consider the ways in which we can reclaim both the good and the bad. From the traditions that we come from. Here's another story that illustrates another another problem that i that i see that's common among unitarians in her book proverbs of ashes. The unitarian theologian rebecca parker shares with us the painful story of how as a small girl she was repeatedly sexually assaulted. Buy from next door neighbor. An older man named frank. For many years parker repressed these memories in that knowledge can only years later through therapy did she allow herself to work all that traumatic time and and work through it and after that she went on to a successful career as a minister. And a feminist theologian. Perhaps because of her experience parker found herself very adept at at deconstructing the god of the christian tradition that she grew up in deconstructing the patriarchal god god the father god the lord and master. And she tried to preach to her congregation each sunday a god of love and and mercy and freedom. But at some point she came to a crisis of faith. She writes that after years of trying to preach about this god she writes i had to face that at the core of my being i did not believe in a god of mercy or a god of love or a god of freedom i only really believed in french. I only really believed. In frank this is the force of the abuser in my life she writes he occupies the place of god it was his presence his will his actions that still ruled my life i had no other god before him. By ben parker was president of. Are unitarian seminary in berkeley california. She shared her crisis of faith. With a friend that she met in berkeley who said to her tongue-in-cheek well. You know if your current god isn't working for you. This is california you can get a new god and parker laugh too. But behind the friends joke was a serious point and parker rights his suggestion reminded me that i do have the power. To choose the god i would worship i do have the power to choose the god that i must. Worship. Not the god that is my abuser. And parker is right we do have the power to choose the god that we worship and that choice makes a difference. We can let the god of biblical literalism or worn-out ritual or damaging projection remain the god that we hold in our minds i or we can move forward into our religious lives and the discover the god who is revealed to us now. Quarter discover that we have no god at all but to then embrace whatever source of love that we find in our lives now. It calls to mind james baldwin's words if the concept of god has any validity or use it can only be it can only be to make us larger and pain-free or and more loving if god can't do this it's time we got rid of him. Not just intellectually but really got rid of him. And i would add to baldwin's words it's time we got rid of him and found. Another god. Found a replacement. For him. In 18/38 ralph waldo emerson addressed the graduating class of harvard divinity school a class of all men all of whom were bound for the unitarian ministry. Also in attendance were most of emerson's colleagues in the unitarian ministry his speech that day is one of the most famous famous religious addresses in american history. And it was back then heretical even by unitarian standards is dying. God is dying because god has become trapped. In scripture. God has been imprisoned in an ancient revelation and the people's spirits are sagging he said because everyone's preaching this lifeless god. They're your people he said to the minister's dare them to love god without mediator without veil. His words are probably still heretical today and probably just as pertinent. I have first-hand evidence that people's spirits people who are sitting in the pew today that their spirits are still suffering because they are spending so much time. And so much energy. Saying no. To the god of ages past. It takes a lot of energy to say no. But sometimes no does have to be the first word on our path to spiritual maturity. Knowing what from our past we need to say no to but no can never be the final word of our religious lives. Cuz it's empty. It's an empty word. There's got to be a yes in there somewhere. Religion as conceived in this church. Is all about saying yes. To the source of love. Epicenter of our lives. It's all about saying yes to the spirit of life who lives and moves and gives our life the shape of justice. It's all about saying yes to a living loving god of all souls. Many of us i know still have some work to do. Before we can put the word no behind us. And begin to pronounce. The almighty yes. May ours be a community where each of us. Is given the space. Anna strength. And the inspiration. To say yes. Yes. Yes. I'm in.

all-souls_org

04.07.04HopeForAmerica.mp3

Got it's good to be back here at all souls my daughter erica one of your newest members will groan at this but i hope she will forgive me for reminding some of you who will recall this that when i ran for president one of the many things that my family and friends had to put up with was hearing the talked about as the evangelical rabbi of liberal religion which provoked a card she found and girth wearing a very well-traveled pulpit robe and glasses and beard and hair somehow all loved off on top of the head with a prayer shawl with the label and the caption then do i get to go run and play with a real rabbis well i have just come from playing with your real rabbie's robin shana at our general assembly in long beach california where i praised them for how all souls has become a centre for faith and hope and love here in our nation's capital. Some of you are here in the unitarian church for the first time on this holiday weekend. I remember vividly the very first time that i entered the unitarian church. It was a time when i felt about as hopeless about this nation that i love as i've ever felt in my life it was on the 4th of april in the year 1968 dr king had been killed. I was 21 a senior at harvard college. And i held virtually no hope either for my own future for or provide of this country the cities of our nation were burning including streets not far from here and at the old house in harvard square of appropriate spiritual and moral response to the needs of our time without evasion and without cynicism. Frankly i don't remember a thing that was said at that service. What i do remember is that i stared at a plaque that stood near the pulpit. It was inscribed with a question very appropriate to a religious community that gathers not on the basis of acree but on the basis of a prophetic and covenants spirit of cottonwood questioning. The words of micah what the lord require of thee. But to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy god. Earlier that year i could heard a real rabbi doctor abraham joshua heschel of blessed memory. Speak at an anti-war rally to that very verse. We ignore the wisdom of the biblical prophets in our time he said because we had become a consumer society. But is interested only in turning their questions upside down so that we asked what we might require in a church or a god or a direction in life that we would take seriously. Prophetic voices in every generation try to remind us that something may be required of us. But so distasteful do some fine such an uncomfortable questions as those posed by the prophets questions of justice. That they are repeatedly marginalized and silenced and even killed then he reminded us there is no solution to be found in the lives of isolated individuals the one may hope that the spark of faith can be rekindled in their souls in their hour of great need the only hope is to be found in the lives of communities. That live in the spirit of the prophetic questions often without knowing the answers or even claiming to know all the answers. But determined to keep asking those questions. In home. Hope you see isn't always easy. The last two years i felt it faltering in myself perhaps you have as well 18 months ago i returned from baghdad. Where i have gone with a group of us religious leaders led by bob edgar the general secretary of the national council of churches you've got the idea. And when i express some puzzlement about that he explained you unitarian universalist when i was a member of the congress and bob served for 12 years a district in suburban philadelphia. When i was a member of the congress your service committee back in the 1980s took me down to central america made me and my colleagues look at the human impact. Bob are mistaken foreign policy in that region and that's why i've organized this trip to do humanitarian inspections even while the weapons inspections go on so you've got to come. I could say a great deal. About that trip. Let it suffice to say that i returned convinced that not only was our country proposing to do something wrong in principle. But that and pragmatic terms it stood on the brink of making the gravest mistake in our foreign policy since vietnam. Yet the president refused to even meet with our delegation he refused even to talk to the bishops of his own united methodist denomination who had gone with us and we're also raising questions about whether raising waging unilateral war even to dislodge a dictator could truly be construed as doing justly or loving mercy or walking humbly in a community of nations. Like my dear friend william sloane coffin who was too ill to accompany us on that trip. All my adult life i have had a lover's quarrel with america. Because i do love this land passionately even physically i love all the trucks and reels atwoods it's temple hills i have visited every one of its 50 states of the swamp and it's potion zand it's lakes and streams and i love it spiritually passionately it's ideal even so imperfectly practiced for i know that all of us as human beings. Even scar does america is by its original sin of slavery and racism i love it though with jefferson i sometimes tremble for my country when i consider that god is just. The great jewish stage martin buber once said that at the time of the american revolution and our independence. Three noble ideals were emerging into the world to walk hand-in-hand the french call them liebelt pegate. Which today we might translate more inclusively is kinship. That sense of all human behavior being sisters and brothers as children of one great mystery that followed that arrow said boober liberty seemed to come to the west especially to america and change its character here becoming mere individual liberty to exploit. To exploit others or the land or do ignore the demands of community injustice wally quality wedding and became a loss of the dignity of the individual the equality is all waving the same little red book. The connecting spiritual element. That sense of kinship at the deepest level of the soul. That went into hiding he said. Weather among apparatchik or entrepreneurs. It was kept alive only by people of faith often the oppressed. And brought back into public view only through the sacrifices and efforts of those like the solidarity movement in the east. Or the civil rights movement. Here in america. Spoken as by people with unclean lips sullying their very meaning. The very meaning of what those ideals could mean if they were properly united to the true equality of human opportunity and dignity for all souls. Into authentic stewardship. For the precious creation we have been given to share to proper respect for spiritual diversity. And freedom of conscience which allowed lincoln to express the hope that our fragile democracy might yet be the last great hope of earth. At such times like you i suspect i wonder what's happened to what our founders called a decent respect for the opinions of mankind. We live in a land so rich and things and is our opening him put it tour in seoul. As the poet szymborska says perhaps this old is something we all have now and then. No one has won all the time she's at 4 forever and mine perhaps like yours seems to come and go yet i remember also what emerson said it comes to the lowly and the simple to whosoever will put off what is arrogant and proud. It comes as insight it comes as serenity in grand your soul's health consists in the fullness of its reception within us. Is the soul of the whole. When it breaks through our intellect it's genius when it breathes to our will it is virtue when it flows through our affections it is love. But don't let me try to convince you of all souls about some doctrine of the soul. Just like the transcendentalist who said that they were more interested in the religion of jesus than the religion about jesus i am far more interested in all of us living with soul. And hope and faith and love. Get poles like the chalice hold the flame far more interested in our living with soul that i am in teaching you any doctrine about the soul the buddha said whether the soul exists or does not exist whether god exists or does not exist may miss the spiritual point in tireli or is another poet put it it doesn't interest me if you believe that there is one god or many gods. I want to know if you belong or feel abandoned if you know this spare or can see it in others i want to know if you are prepared to live in the world with its harsh need to change you and if you can look back with firm eyes saying this is where i stand i want to know if you know how to melt into that fierce heat of living falling toward the center of your longing i want to know if you are willing to live day-by-day with the consequence of love in the bitter unwanted passion of your sure defeat. In death. I have been told that in that fierce embrace. Even the gods speak of god. And even the soulless speak again of soul. So my mission here isn't to convince you or convert you to some doctrine. That is not what is required of us what is required of us. This soul. Belief is many things that a tall davis from this very pulpit and so is disbelief. But life is just a chance to grow a soul. And that happens to us when we open our minds to deeper truth and wider understanding our hearts to the greater demands of compassion and our conscience to the call of justice it's when faith and hope and love with freedom equality and kinship when body and soul are united once more. But we do have a mission here never doubt that if i ever doubted it. Those doubts were swept away several years ago when i was in the midst of a trip to india. Where i am going after the gujarat earthquake to bring some material aid and spiritual support to the human rights groups that we support in that country through our unitarian universalist holding india program. I was met at the airport by my friend vivec. Maya nominated to the world anti-slavery award which he won. Produce courageous work in freeing literally tens of thousands of poor tribal people from that modern form of slavery called bonded labor. Was i was coming out of customs and avec treated me i suddenly noticed that we were being surrounded by a mob that was shouting at us rather hostile phrases in the local language. It included policemen and that's when i really got nervous. Until recently met no india has been ruled by hindu nationalists aligned with the hindu equivalent of the christian coalition and when there are not scapegoating poor people or muslims they met the missionaries from the west and vivec soon explained that they were demanding to know whether i was a missionary. And that's what he began shouting back at them yes yes he is a missionary but you have not asked what his mission is. It's human rights justice for the poor democracy for athol not conversions now you tell me if you dare he said what your mission is in threatening us. And before what gandhi would have called the soul force of that man in minutes the mob hits simply melted away. Life is just a chance. To grow a soul. And the older i have become the more i have sensed the body to be frail the more i know that our mission the one shared in this place must emerge from the soul be directed at the soul if it is to be practically and politically effective. After dr. king died when i was first considering against all my youthful skepticism that there might be something demanded of me in the way of building up communities like this one. I was very unsure about churches. Wondered why people even bother to keep coming to the sunday after sunday. I'm so i took my question on that point to the most faithful churchgoer i knew in my family who is my grandmother. Michael church she said to me. Yummy you will learn if you do not already know so sometimes get the very empty. Faith small like a mustard seed. I knew enough of my grandmother's story to have a sense of what she meant since she'd been orphaned before she was 10 came to america through ellis island all by herself at 15 with only an older married sister to m when she reached chicago where she met another orphan and married him my grandfather they had four children together but by the end of the influenza epidemic of my grandmother had buried all four of those children. So get pretty empty indeed. That's what my grandfather stopped going to church is the priest didn't come to the house to give his wife last rights when it looked like she would die as well. And he was angry at god. My grandmother survived obviously. To have my mother and two other children. But during the great depression when my granddad lost his factory job they spent nearly two dust bowl years trying to scratch out a living from a dry piece of ground in south texas. I go to church that my grandmother and in my soul i know again i have to be grateful just to be alive. There i am with the other people. With that my play for the day for me so my thoughts they go out wider and deeper the higher i don't just think about my old troubles my soul get bigger sometimes she said to me doesn't even matter if he's not so very good. None of us can see the future but when i am there i pray for you and your cousins and all young people and hope comes back. I pray for your grandfather and love comes back to i go home to show him not just with my words that is no good in life to stay bitter and i get him to try to do something nice. For neighbor or a friend. That's why i go to church. I'm so i would ask you my friends if that isn't why we are all here even on this holiday weekend. What my grandmother knew intuitively we are free in this place to proclaim more explicitly. Prosthetic face is not about believing some proposition in spite of life's evidence. It is more like living with courage and gratitude and integrity in spite of life's challenges. And hope is not some simplistic optimism about the economy turning around or democracy and are rock or any of the other simple isms that optimus would throw at us. It is more like pointing ourselves. Torta place on the horizon. Beyond which none of us can see but toward which our souls tell us we need to be pointed together. If there is going to be a world fit for our children and our children's children. And finally love of course. Weather love of country or a family. Orab life itself. Is no mere hallmark greeting card sentiment is it. It is more like living in the here and now. Growing a soul. But just real and responsive every day of our lives. That we might do our little bit. Toward shaping justice. Practicing compassion. And helping to walk more humbly. On this planet that is so full of promise. Living with soul. At the intersection. Spirituality and social justice. America's hope. Lies in those who will do that. God bless you all for your witness. Too bad effort. God bless you today. And all the days of your lives.

all-souls_org

03.02.09ReligionIsForLovers.mp3

Are reading this morning is from the poet kabir. His poem is called the time before death friend hope for the guest while you are alive jump into experience while you are alive think and think while you are alive. What do you call salvation. Belongs to the time before death. If you don't break your ropes while you're alive do you think ghosts will do it after the idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is gone that is fantasy. What is phones now is found then. If you find nothing now you will simply end up with an apartment in the city of death. If you make love with the divine now. In the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire. So plunge into the truth. Find out who the teacher is believe in the great sound. Kabir says this. When the guest is being searched for it is the intensity of the longing for the guests that does all the work. Look at me. And you will see a slave of that intensity. There are a lot of people out there these days wondering if religion is really for them. Many of them grew up on church store left the faith of their childhood or had become disillusioned by all the evil perpetuated by religions hate. Terror sexual abuse war all in the name of god. So lots of people have their doubts about religion and i don't blame them the only reason. The only reason they're even entertaining the possibility of religion in their lives because they still find themselves asking the big questions. Questions about the meaning and purpose of life. About right and wrong questions about love. Questions about death. The kinds of questions that religion. Has always addressed. And so they're searching for answers but finding that their spirits don't fit tightly into the little boxes that religion provides boxes called lutheran or sunni or reform or unitarian. There's is a curious face a free-spirited faith and oftentimes. Oftentimes these restless souls will eventually find themselves in the office. Of a unitarian minister asking the questions. Where do i belong. Where is my home. Are there other people out there who think about and feel religion like i do. Really they're asking. Is religion. For me. And what i've decided to do now. When faced with this question is to try to make the simplest case for religion that i can. To try to boil it down for these speakers to boil it down to its essence to show them what i believe to be the true north of faith. So that they might be compelled to give themselves over to it. So when people come to me wondering is religion for me. I answer them. Religion is for lovers. If you are a lover then yes. Religion is for you. Now let's be honest when we hear that phrase religion is for lovers it makes us a little uncomfortable a little uneasy we feel is it perhaps something blasphemous has been said something scandalous. People always talk about religion and love. But religion and lovers. God is often equated with love god is almost never spoken of. As lover. Why. Because for a long time now religion that has been associated with a particular kind of love. A noble and universalizing love that the greeks called agape. I love that was supposed to be perfectly devoid of that passionate and particular and crazy making love called eros. Which is the kind of love we think of when we hear the word lover. For a long time religion habit that agape was for saying sandy ross was for sinners. So yes maybe it does sound. Heretical to say that religion is for lovers. But i intend nothing scandalous at all. All i mean. When i say that religion is for lovers is that the religious life boils down. To this. The love of god. The love of neighbor and stranger. And the love of the earth. And i mean further that religious love is a passionate love it is a guppy mated with your us. I believe that the loving spirit at the center of the universe the spirit that many of us call god does not love us from a distance disinterestedly or conditionally. But deeply. Intimately. Unconditionally. Like a lover. All religious life consists of discovering for ourselves this love at the center of the universe and having discovered it to allow ourselves to feel it. To receive it. And to respond. To respond with as much passion. As the love that was offered us. Religion is not for the cynical. Or the apathetic. For the faint-hearted or the tepid religion is for lovers. Lovers of god lovers of life lovers of justice lovers of creation. Friends there's nothing scandalous here at all. This is just religion stripped away to its core. Remember at our annual meeting last december when we adopted long-term goals for our congregation one of the things we said is that we wanted everyone who comes to this church everyone to discover and articulate. The source of love in their lives. And to develop the capacity to act on that love and ever-expanding circles. That's what i'm talkin about today. I'm talking about making love. The center of our religious lives. But this isn't easy. We know from the other loves in our life. Just how hard it is. To make love central. Just how hard it is to make love last. There are so many things that get in the way sometimes they're just little things. Have you ever been in a relationship where one partner is always wants to over-analyze things. This is a common problem for unitarians when it comes to the religious life unitarian juicy tend to get all worked up over what to call the love that is extended to us is it. is it not the spirit of life is it just called plain old love. Naming the love is important. But it's not what's most important. What's important is that we respond to the love. The most common word for worship in the new testament. Appears 66 times and translated it means i come toward a kiss. Worship means. I come toward a kiss. This suggests that worship is an act of desire. I was longing. Of approaching a love that is already waiting for us. Beckoning us. His spiritual life is about a kiss then we should spend less time studying the kiss. And more time kissing i mean think about it you don't lean into your lover's kiss with your eyes wide open looking to see what's coming you you close your eyes and you give yourself over to the kiss thank you lucas you give yourself over to the kiss. Believe me we will spend we will spend our entire lives pondering the nature of god and god's love. And even so. It will remain largely a mystery to us. So don't wait. Until you figured it all out. Because then you'll be too late. He'll be too late. Another problem in human loving relationships is fear. Fear of commitment. Fear of. Getting hurt. And these are large obstacles to the kind of religious loving that i'm talking about. As we come towards that kiss as we're pulled inexorably into its orbit we can almost feel the fear we can sense already that to succumb to the kiss is to give ourselves over to a powerful life-changing force. And we're not sure we want to go there. Yes we want to we want to feel that love but we're afraid of what that love. Will ask of us. We're afraid of what it will demand. And it does demand a lot. The love of god the love of neighbor and strangers the love of justice and creation it's a tall order and we're not sure we're up to it. And we're afraid to. Because we know how love is. We know that love will always break our hearts. And i'm here to tell you that the religious life will break our hearts too. Indeed our hearts are breaking at this very moment how can a lover's heart not be breaking with the pain of impending war of ethnic hatred of poverty of injustice. Passionate love isn't all tingly and special. Passion means two things simultaneously joy. And pain. And we can be assured that the religious life. Will bring us both. But honestly. What is a r alternative. What other option do we have. Butta love. The sufi poet hafez instructs us that we will all respond to god's call at some point the only question he said is whether we will come dancing as lovers do. For carrying kicking and screaming on a stretcher. We all respond. One way or the other. Many of us can point. To the moment. When we first tasted the kiss of which i speak. The 16th century hungarian unitarian francis david describes himself as having received a burning kiss from god. A burning kiss from god. This kiss is our anointing. It is our commissioning to go out and love. My brain kiss from god came. Ironically. In the form of a handshake. Not a kiss. After college i worked for habitat for humanity in portland oregon and one dreary march morning i went in early to get ready for an important meeting with a donor. Usually when i arrived before i office hours i wouldn't answer the door or telephone but for some reason this particular morning at 7 a.m. i answered the doorbell when it rang. On the steps should a woman dressed in the white grease smeared uniform of a food service worker behind her on the street and old gray chevrolet spewed fumes into the cold morning air. The breadth of three little children fogged-up her car windows. I greeted the woman. And ask what i can do for her. I'm sorry to bother you this early she said i picked up one of your applications to become a homeowner with habitat for humanity but my youngest daughter she. She chewed it up i've heard the one about the dog eating your homework but never your toddler i had no idea where these applications were and it was 7 in the morning i had work to do couldn't she come back later i thought to myself. Let me see if i can find you an application. I said. And as i searched for the piece of paper she began to tell me her story. It turns out she lived in the worst housing project in portland every city has one notorious project the one that everyone knows about and that's where she lived i knew from reputation that it was infested with rodents and teeming with drugs. She'd already lost one boy. Her eldest. Two drugs. I don't want to lose another one. She said. Well she talked i look for the application but i couldn't find one in i asked her if she would please come back during office hours so someone who knew could help her. I don't think you understand she yelled at me. My kids and i are desperate i need to get into a house as soon i'm not leaving till i get my application. I called a co-worker at home. Woke her up. Faster where the applications were and i gave one to the woman. She thinks me and she turned toward the door to leave. But before she left she stopped in the doorway and looked right at me. I just hope this works out she said. You know i work as a line cook at the hospital trying to earn ends meet for my family and you know i work so hard that my hands. And here she pause and she looked at her hands. I'm a lady but my hands are so hard and callous they feel like the hands of a man here feel might feel my hands. She said. And so she gave me her hand and i took it swollen and cracked. From being in cold and hot water all day long. And we stood like that for a moment. Just holding hands. And i. Despair no. But i don't have the words to describe to you. What passed between us. During that moment. But that was the moment. That i received my burning kits. From dawn. That was when love broke through my preoccupation. My callousness. When it broke through and took my hand and wouldn't let go. Hasn't let go. Like all such moments. It has made all the difference. 15 months later. We threw a big party when we blessed the house. Does habitat for humanity and jeanette robinson built together. At that party jeanette and i shared a good laugh when we remembered how it all began when we remembered the morning that she came in and said she wasn't leaving till she found her application. But i was never able to tell her. Just what a difference. That morning made in my life. Friends. Religion is for lovers. Plain and simple. Yes. It is a risk. Yes. It will demand a lot. Yes it will break our hearts. No there's nothing more important. That we can do with our lives. Then to give ourselves over to this love. Passionately. Indiscriminately wholeheartedly foolishly even. To take hold of the hand of love that is extended to us to take hold of the hand and not to let go. To come toward the kiss. Friends my message to you this morning. Is this. When the burning kiss. From god comes. Close your eyes. And pucker up. I'm in.

all-souls_org

05.04.10AReligiousLiberalExaminesHisHeart.mp3

By reading this morning is an excerpt from an article written by a gentleman named garrett kaiser kaiser is a former episcopal priest who is now a writer in vermont. And this is from. From an article that he wrote for mother jones magazine. Called left to right and wrong. What's missing from the debate over values in america. He's a little irreverent i'll just i'll let you know. What the bleep do we know that's the name of the film my wife and i have come to watch at the nearby art house theater gets roughly 10 days after the bush victory two places pack my wife says she hasn't seen a crowd like this since they showed fahrenheit 911. The theater has the feel of us of a progressive noah's ark same space boys and dreadlocks trotsky look alike in denim shirts passing east dusted popcorn to susan b anthony why a blue states blue bloods if you will never carry stickers on the bumpers of the subaru parked outside darwin's name inside the chrome jesus fish with feet i have a sense of being in church not only because this is my tribe but because i come here just supposed to hope. I admit to having some trouble following the philmil ostensibly it's about recent discoveries in quantum physics and how they might be applied to our personal lives but near the end of the film it seems become clear as two of the guru's on the screen inform us that we need to evolve past the outdated categories of right and wrong. There's a scary shot of a flickering interior of the catholic church, screening and edifying. then of a of a serene chiropractor all around the people sit in wrapped islands. And i'm aware of a bitter and i would have to say reactionary sentiment welling up in my throat. I say to myself is the only viable choice is between people can who can blithely affirm the obsolescence of good and evil even while standing in the shadows of rwanda and dachau between them and between. But i recognized it for what it is but thought perhaps. Not unlike the one that a number of americans took to the polls this past november. The only thing more insufferable than a pretence of moral superiority. Is a pretense. Of superiority tomorrow. As if the task of an evolved woman or man. It's a stand above the struggle. Rather than on the right side. Back in january i got a call from a member of the congregation inviting me out to lunch. We ended up sharing a meal at a restaurant in dupont circle right in the middle of the inaugural festivities. Can you return a remember what the city look like during during inauguration week it was taken over by visitors from around the country and we had the balls at the hilton. What's the matter with liberalism he said to me why is it feel like we're doomed to perpetual failure is there some tragic flaw something inherent to this philosophy that we adhere to that dooms us to failure you don't have to answer me now he said. And i've given it a lot of thought over those four months. And i'm not here today to preach about politics. Liberalism is a political creed but liberalism is a face-to and though not all of us in this church of political liberals all of us. By definition of unitarians are religious liberals. And i've had to search my heart over the last 4 months. About whether or not my face. Is suitable and strong enough for these time. I want to share with you today a little bit about the process that i've gone through and some of the conclusions that i've drawn. I don't want to tell you first of all that i've had a guide in this process i've i've been reading a book by a great unitarian theologian named james luther adams and i want to tell you about adam cuz he went through some of these same the same questions himself as a young man early in the last century in germany. And later in the 30th he went back and forth several times. And what you found in germany. Terrified him. He discovered that by and large religious liberals had become complicit. With the rise of nazism in germany. He discovered that there were three kinds of liberals in germany the first kind were where the good solid middle-class german lutheran. They were distasteful yasso some of hitler's tactics but frankly it didn't affect them. Frankly they didn't see it on a daily basis frankly when they went to church on sunday morning their pastors didn't talk about it and perhaps when they were in their living rooms on an evening sipping their drinks they talk about what was happening about the barbarity of it all. But they didn't ask there was a there was a kind of tolerant and open-minded liberalism liberalism of that well live and let live variety to each his own that that's failed in the rise of hitler. There was a second that kind of liberal time when he had a conversation with one of the leaders of the the lutheran church in germany one of us the the minister's high up in the high in the hierarchy they're also a liberal he was shocked to hear the minister explained to him how god had sent hitler to fulfill the german people's destiny on earth just has yahweh had come to the aid of abraham's descendants to help them fulfill their destiny in the bible. 40 didn't see the irony that that the germans people's undertaking of their destiny meant eliminating the people with whom yahweh had made his covenant. Adams tried argue with him he reminded the minister that when when abraham's descendants trade from god's mandate of justice then god turned against his people and punish them. And the minister stood up from his seat in this argument without he stood up from his seat and shouted at adams how could god be against us god is within us. God is within us. That last line should sound familiar to you and its familiarity should send a chill up your spine because of course what we say every sunday morning when we when we when we dedicate a child here. Is that where your friend that god is indeed within them. Right. The god is in each one of us. And so here was an apologist for adolf hitler saying the same exact thing and adam said that's when i realized the human capacity for self-deception. And the danger that liberals have of trusting so much the god within them that they can't distinguish it from the evil. Within them. And then there was a certain kind of liberal and it was rare the third kind of libera liberal where those who risked everything to oppose the nazis adams had gone to seminary with a good friend at harvard divinity school five years later he went to germany to to meet up with his friends and found out that he'd been sent to dachau. For his opposition to the hitler had gone underground people were worshipping down in the catacombs like the early christians because you couldn't preach against hitler from a pulpit like this these people risked their lives and their families. And adam said that the watch words. The watchwords among this group of liberals were decision. Commitment. Enjoy it. There was a 10 3rd, time to choose. The sunset, time to make a decision for right or for long and there was a sense that one had to commit. Until adams came back from germany. With a profound sense of the kind of changes that liberalism needed to make in order to live up to the challenge of the times. And i've been thinking a lot about those things these last couple days i've been thinking about two things first how easy it is for liberalism to relinquish its moral compass. And that's become complicit with evil. And second how liberalism failed to muster commitment among its adherence. Were there for content to sit in their living room and tut-tut from afar. So i've had to take this to heart and think personally about about where i fit among that range of liberal response to the time. I've had to think about about where my commitment is and how strong my faith is and if my face is adequate to the challenges that we face in the times ahead of us. And i've come to realize that i've got a lot of work to do. And i want to share with you a couple of things that i have been praying about over the last few months things that i want to share with you and suggest to you as well as ways that we can become stronger in our face and stronger in our commitment to justice and some of these may sound they might not seem like they follow it first. But i'm hoping that i will make you help you to see how they follow in the end. The first thing that i realize that i need to do. As a person of faith. Is every morning before i start the day i need to start the day on my knees in prayer. Do i apologize if i haven't made this more explicit to you. From earlier in my ministry here. Because i'll take some responsibility for having sort of talked around this issue before. To act on that love and ever-expanding circles and what i want to say to you today i wish i had said my very first sunday here which is that there has never been a stage or a profit that has believed that we could have a relationship with god or with the spirit of life or with the source of love in our lives. If we didn't have a regular practice of prayer of devotion. For meditation. Hasn't been a prophet in the history of humankind. So i've been i've been praying regularly for the last eight years or so. But not regularly enough. Cuz one of the things that i realize in my life is that it's easy it's easy to go along with the way things are in the world and the only time that i have the opportunity to spend time in the morning reflecting on my life reflecting on what's happening around me in prayer and meditation holding the world and my actions up to the test of my conscience. Emerson said that every heart. Will worship something. Every heart will worship something and so i have to ask myself if i don't start everyday in prayer and meditation what is it that my heart is worshipping. What is it that is my heart's true desire. Until i have recommitted. Myself to to my regular practice of devotion and prayer and journaling and morning meditation. Cuz i think it's going to make me a person who's going to be better able to face the challenges in the world the challenges that are to come. And i have another thought about my practice as a religious liberal. Rejection epiphany that i had recently and i want to share with you about a month ago i and several other people were interviewing candidates for the church administrator job you know that we're looking for a church administrator. He was a good guy he was a strong candidate and one of the things he did was bring in some of the examples of his work to show us the kind of work he did so we brought in a copy of his baptist church's annual report. Of course we're supposed to look at it to see you know how you know how well he had outlined stuff and how on top of the numbers he wasn't all that kind of stuff but i couldn't help but look at the budget and answer to see how how things were going to other folks on the search committee couldn't resist that either and so i looked on the page i looked on the page about giving. 42% of that congregation. Gives more than $5,000 a year to their church. 40% of the congregation tithes. 10%. Of their income. To the church. He told us that each year the church ends the year in the black. With significant reserves such that when they settle on a new ministry opportunity the money is already there to pursue it. In other words at any given time they literally have more money than they know what to do with it and we wonder. Why the religious right has power. And so forth i want to spend some time on this moment on this point for a moment. And i want to say that i'm not ashamed to stand in this pulpit and talk about giving and money and generosity cuz it's not the line my own pockets. No one's getting rich here at the church. I want to give you one reason that i do talk about money from the church. Last week i spent most of the week with with your children actually with about a dozen teenagers from this church we went to boston for a unitarian heritage tour. I always love love going on trips with teenagers because i always learn a lot from them and as someone who's never parent to the teen it's it's very enlightening and i learned two things in particular. And what and i learned what goodhart's they have even though sometimes they try to hide it but there were situations over the course of that week when i was able to see their good heart in action but i'll tell you i saw something else as well. I saw what. Their parents are up against. And what we all are up against. In trying to nurture those good hearts in trying to nurture that spark of the divine over against a culture that is so strong and that is so saturated with violence. And materialism. And misogyny. And i saw that too over the last week. And i want to say to the parents in the congregation that i have a respect for you now that you know that i just didn't have before god bless you all with exactly the kind of thing that we needed to be doing more of. We have no opportunity we have no chance. To present children and youth with an alternative to the values that they get from the dominant culture by just teaching them on sunday before an hour on sunday school on sunday mornings we need to be spending more time with them we need to be we need to be sending them away with their minister more often we have a lot of work to do. And that work cost money and so that's just one of the reasons that i'm not ashamed to come up before you today and to say that that i'm making a change in what i do with my finances now. I've been working on this for a while but this is what i've committed to from now on i've committed to myself tithing. To give away 10% of my income. And the way i want to do this and the way i want to suggest that we all consider doing this is not that we give all 10% of the church. But what i want to suggest is that we think about what it means to tithe as a religious liberal i want to suggest that we give 5% of our income to the church every year. You take the other 5%. And we give it to all of the other institutions. Better caring for the things that we love and believe in in this world. And then friends. I think we'll be surprised. With a kind of power. Play we can muster. That's a challenge. That's the challenge. But it's something i want you to really consider. And it's something that i've committed to now. I wouldn't ask you to do something that i haven't committed to myself. James luther adams used to have a sane four times like these. These times when liberals sort of got into their soul-searching mood he used to have a slogan he's say liberalism is dead long live liberalism. What did he mean by that. Well first he was simply pointing out the fact that self-critique and self-renewal are integral parts. Of what it means to be a liberal it's built into the system we believe that revelation is ongoing is not sealed that truth is always opening up around us so we're always open to self-critique and renewal but he also meant. That there are parts of liberalism that must die. In order for the redemptive parts of liberalism. To survive. Liberalism is dead. Long live liberalism. These days are clearly to me one of the times and we must decide what which liberalism needs to die and which liberalism needs to be taken forward as we face the future and i want to submit to you today that the liberalism that must die is the liberalism that spends so much time sorting out the issues it never takes a stand for what's right and wrong. Did the liberalism that must die is a liberalism the even after the most inhumane and violent century of recorded history still refuses to take seriously the human capacity for sin and evil. Because of the way the religious right has misused them. The liberalism that must die is the liberalism that has such a negative attitude toward power and authority that it permanently regular relegates itself to the status of powerlessness. The liberalism that must die is the tepid faith of those who can't make up their minds the wife of oliver wendell holmes once said to someone who asked her what her religion was she said we're unitarian and he said to her why and she said because it's the least you can be the liberalism liberalism us. The liberalism that must die as a liberalism that has abandoned its historic commitment to justice and that instead has become a theological cover. For middle-class respectability. Liberalism is dead. Liberalism long live liberalism liberalism that must live on is the liberalism that looks at the human heart with a clear and unsympathetic high and still can find reason for hope that can say with william ellery channing display all of our failings i still thank god that my fate is bound up with the fate of the human race. The liberalism must live on its illiberalism whose commitment to the worth of every person is such that we always ask who among us is not free. The liberalism that must live on though is the liberalism liberalism with a grown-ups understanding of freedom freedom is not i can do whatever i want. Freedom is i can do whatever i must. I can do what my conscience calls me to. The liberalism that must live on is the liberalism that takes all the available knowledge the knowledge of faith and reason and based on that knowledge makes judgments about what's right and wrong. The liberalism that must live on is a liberalism the dahlias of rational mind yes. But that values equally the convicted heart. And the committed will. Friends religious conservatism. Can only take us into the future by amputating a good portion of the human race. It is not a viable faith to take us into the future but religious liberalism will only be a viable faith if it can muster the courage of his convictions and commit itself to its highest ideals and i'm here today to let you know that i'm recommitting myself today. Sounds a little bit like an altar call well then maybe it is okay because i'm going to try harder from this day forward i'm going to i'm going to pray harder from this day forth i'm going to commit myself more strongly to the cause of justice from this day forward i'm going to give of my time and my resources more generously so that we can build powerful institutions for our faith. Thank god we don't live in nazi germany. But we do live in a nation that reeks with injustice. And this nation in this world don't need more people who are content as long as things are good for us. These times need more people who recognize themselves as members of the great family of all souls and who won't rest until all their kin are free. The friend. Who asked me for months ago about the future of liberalism. I say to him what james luther adams said to us. Liberalism. Is dad. Long live liberalism i'm in.

all-souls_org

07.06.17ImportanceOfNurture.mp3

The reading this morning is a poem. Are those who took my workshop at the retreat know that i'm fond of steven done. A poet and this is a poem of his entitled in the open field. That man. In the field staring at the sky. Without excuse of a dog or a rifle. There must be a reason why i've put him there. Only moments ago. He didn't exist. He might be claiming this field as his own. Centering himself in it. Until confident he belongs. Or he could be dangerous. One of those men who doesn't know why he talks to god. I thought of making him a flamingo standing alone on one pink leg. A symbol of discordant. Between object and environment. But i've grown so weary. Of inventions that startled. But don't satisfy. I think. He must have come to grieve a good friends death. And just wants to stand there. Numbly. Quite sure this guy he's looking at is vacant. But. I see that he may be smiling. His friend's death was years ago. And he might be out there to savor the solitary elation. Of having discovered. What eluded him. Until now. The importance of nurture. The poet's description of the man in the field standing still until he has found. Some sense of confidence. Some sense of clarity about who he is and what he is meant to do. In this world and in his life. Seems to me an app description. Of the role of nurture. In our lives. Throughout our existence we seek sources of nurture and nourishment. First we rely on parents. Fathers we celebrate today the mother's we celebrated a month ago. And loved ones. To remind us of our values. And our gifts and talents. Of how much we are capable of when we draw upon the best within us. We look to others. To remind us that we are loved and worthy. And that we shouldn't underestimate what we can do and. Whom we can be. In this vast and often times confusing world. As we age. We look more and more to ourselves for those reminders. We want to feel as fundamental and real and true. Our own intrinsic value. We realize as we grow older that we can't always look. To external sources. That we must have a faith. A belief in and for ourselves. And nowhere to go when we feel we have lost our way. When i first looked at this date on the calendar i thought there was an odd an impossible combination that had come together. Father's day and juneteenth. Especially given all of my talk about freedom in regards to emancipation day in april. And then our wonderful guests neil chassix comments last sunday about fathers and the important relationship between parents and children. I was a little worried there wasn't much left to say on either topic. And then i realized that perhaps there was a connection between the two that i hadn't noticed at first glance. A connection between freedom and the nurturance of apparent. A connection between knowing who we are and living out our true selves. It occurred to me that to exercise and take full advantage of freedom. It helps to act with confidence and conviction. And in those that i've known throughout my life. I've discovered that those who seem most grounded and rooted in self. Are the ones who seem to. Have no qualms about being out in the world and being who they are and that that has come. First usually from wonderful parents. Parents who taught them from the very beginning that they were worthy and loved. But they had it within themselves to. Make the world a better place. That their unique life had something to give and to offer. And similarly i've noticed those in my life who struggle and wrestle with finding a sense of purpose. With finding a sense of meaning in their lives. That perhaps they haven't always had it affirmed. That who they are. Is worthy. And matters. That they are loved. And it occurs to me as i say that isn't that an april i said there were two kinds of freedom at least. There's the freedom that you can be given. By others but the freedom that the powers that be bestowed when they emancipated slavery. Freedom that other is give you from bondage when you can know when you're no longer the property of another human being when you don't have to look. If someone else to tell you who you are or what you will do on any given day. When you are not chattel. And then there is. The freedom that must be claimed. That whether or not we have ever been held in bondage we sometimes hold ourselves back. We confine ourselves to someone else's box. We tell ourselves that we are not good enough. That we're not worthy. But that social justice project is too too big to great. For our little being to make any difference on. There's the freedom. That we must claim. The freedom that we know something about who we are. And there are moments in our lives that call for unashamed. And unbowed being. Regardless of whether it is popular. Or conventional. Freedom. And selfhood. Must be continually. Nourished. And nurtured. You are not freed once for all time. Whether you were. A slave or your family had slaves in your ancestry is and they were once freed by a piece of paper signed by a president. And walked into the glaring light of freedom and thought what now. Who can i possibly be now that it's up to me. Or whether you are just like any modern 21st century american being who wakes up every day. With those same questions. Of what now. What is my full potential. Who cannot die on should i be. This and every day of my life. Emancipation. Is not a one-time thing. And as i thought about all of this. About freedom and selfhood and knowing who we are and claiming who we are and living. From our best. Selves. I thought again about that long-standing scientific and psychological argument about human beings and human nature. The nature-versus-nurture debate. The one that says our lives are either. More dominated by our genetics by are inherited and 1/8 traits given to us. By the generations that came before us. Or that we're more made up of our by nature by the environment that we grow up in. By the people that we are surrounded by as we are learning and growing. Now it used to be that that argument seem to be an either-or argument but i think. There are now few who would argue that it isn't a both and proposition. That we are both. The products of our genetic and 1/8 characteristics and traits. Combined with those. Gifts given to us or those challenges given to us by the environments that we grew up in. That the connections that we have in our lives. Matter. That the nature. The environment around us. Has a lot to say about how we will become. How we will grow into our full selves. And we say every time we dedicate a baby and we said today and our acknowledgement of our high school graduates. That it is important. That the community we create hold and nourish and create space and room. For full flourishing. Growth and change in the lives of the young people in our congregation. But i'm not sure we take that as fully too hard as we could. What kind of space do we create in our congregation. We say we want them to grow old cradled in the arms of peace. That we want them to feel that this is a community where they can grow in love and life. That's a nurture. Kind of conversation. And friends since we can't really change the nature part of the equation so much. Since we can't really change who we were born to and which traits we received from our parents since in spite of medical of advances that allow folks to. Did to change their their body chemistry a little bit here and there we still can't unlock some of the mysteries of. How our bodies are and how we have grown to be. Shouldn't we focus a little bit more on the nurture. Shouldn't we take seriously. The kinds of community spaces that we create for other human beings in our midst. To grow and change and flourish. I wonder would it change how you connect with other human beings in your life if you saw more clearly. That who you are and how you are with each and every person. In some minut way models and shapes for them. Their perception of a community of others. That is either out to help them or hurt them or move them and positive or negative directions. How you are. With others creates part of the grounding from which they venture forth. In freedom. In a very real way that perhaps we will never fully understand. We create. A space for wida private from others. So that they can live in freedom and justice and hope. And as we talked about what it will take. In our own little piece of the world to grow the racial and ethnic diversity of all souls church. And we talked about welcoming and inviting more african-american people to our congregation more latino latino people more asian people to our congregation it seems to me that this is a critical part of the work. The part of the work will no doubt come from us literally creating space. Making room that is nourishing. Making places where other people can enter and claim whole and free and authentic selves. That are not confined by our understandings of who they are supposed to be. How much our society likes to tell us. This is what blackness is and this is what it will look like in this is how it will be lived this is what asian ness means and this is how all asian people will be. This is what. Latino latina memes and that's this is the way it will be that's not a nourishing space. That's not a space of freedom and openness and abundance that's a space of confinement and limitation. And part of what we try to do. Part of our aspiration in saying all soul i almost want to say all of all souls. In that. We need to create in this place. Spaces that allow each and everyone. To bring their whole selves. Whether that's their tears on a sunday morning over. What they haven't been that meek. Even though they wanted it. Whether that's the joy they feel at some great event in their lives. Whether that's some. Trauma that happened to them during the week. Related to class or race or injustice we need to create space for all of that. And so i asked each and everyone of you today to think about how it is that you can be. A nurturing presents. In the lives of all of those with whom you our lives intersect. Both here in the church and in your life. Wherever it takes you. I want to close by saying something about. How i know it's not always easy to be nurturing. Especially when you feel that your own wellsprings of nurture have run dry. And so i want to lift. As we turn toward summer. Officially summer starts on wednesday or thursday of this week. And i want to want to invite you over this summer months. To think about the ways that you can. Refuel your capacity and your compassion for nurturing. Because it's very real. Especially in this city. That we find ourselves feeling depleted. That we work long hours. That we find ourselves not feeling very compassionate even towards our own being none the last toward anyone else that we might pass in the streets. Or those we live with at home. And so i invite you over the summer to think about. The perhaps reacquaint yourself with. The wellsprings in your own life. To think about where it is that you go for nurture. When you feel tapped out. How do you replenish and recharge yourself so that you can believe again. In both yourself. And in the possibilities of compassion. For those around you. I'll speak finally about my own reminders. These past two weeks. You see as the church year at least as the program year comes to a close i often find myself feeling a bit depleted. A bit tapped out a bit like i'm running around trying to put out more fires than i know how to put out. And at the end of many long days i often forget. Why it is that i'm doing what i'm doing. Why it is that i turned to ministry as a career that would be meaningful. And sustaining. And hopeful. And i had two such experiences in just these past two weeks. That i want to lift up to you. I visited i i made it a point before i leave to go to general assembly tomorrow a visiting to members of our congregation who are quite ill. I took an hour-and-a-half to visit clarence davenport last week. And i spent about. 45 minutes or so at the bedside of wesley haynes this week. And i realized. That in my running around. In my writing newsletter columns. In my writing of sermons and reading through poems. But not much of it matters if i forget to be compassionate. Toward those in our congregation in need of nothing more from me than my presents. And that i am not present. If i am too busy thinking about my busyness. I sat with clarence and toward the end of my time with him. And clarence told me that he was about to turn 89 last week. He said shauna i'm not sure that this you're spending an hour and a half with me as a good use of your time. Man dying of cancer. In his nursing center room in hospice care told me he wasn't sure it was a good use of my time. Spend an hour and a half with him. Friends all i can say to you as you head into summer. Is there was no better use of my time that i can possibly imagine on this earth. And i hope. That you will find time. This summer to honor your freedom. To honor the nurturance you have received. To nurture your own beings. So that you can give again to those in your life so in need. Of your loving presence. Not your perfection. Not your absolute best to self on your best day but just your presence and your openness and your honesty and your real true you. May you uncover and rediscover and live from that being. This day. And each new day you are blessed. Nomad.

all-souls_org

05.01.23SpiritOfLife.mp3

Feels a little strange doesn't it. Something's missing. Every sunday after our silent meditation and before the sermon alone voice rises out of the congregation and leads us in song the same song every week. The practice is so familiar to us that when the song is missing we noticed. This is a sermon about that song. Spirit of life. It's a sermon about why it is we sing it. Every sunday. A sermon about what the song means in about why we miss it when it's not where we expect it in the order of service. On sunday. I've asked a couple of people to to help me by singing the song at different points throughout the sermon and then at the end finally. We'll all be able to sing it together like we always do. But let me begin with a story. It's a story about a family who attend another unitarian church here in the washington dc area the family was active in their church they participated as a family in church dinners and retreat the. The parents served on lots of committees in the church and and the two children. A brother and sister. Staying in the children's choir at the church. It just so happens that on the sunday morning in which this story takes place. The children's choir had song. For the morning service. In fact they saying a choral version of spirit of life. You see the children in the sunday school were learning the song they were memorizing the song like the children do here at all soul so that it would become a touchstone for their faith as they grew up in the church. And that morning to show the adult how well they've been learning it they decided to sing it. With a beautiful version in close to four-part harmony. After the service the family when the fellowship hall for coffee hour the parents visited with friends and. Probably conduct a little church business they needed to take care of in the children as they often do went to romp about the far reaches of the church during the coffee hour. Finally about 1. Mom and dad gathered the brood together. And they set off for home. Walking along the same route they took every sunday morning. They never saw the bus coming. It struck and killed their six-year-old son. 30 minutes later a colleague of mine friend. The minister of that church. Arrived on the scene. The parents were busy with the police and fire department. But my colleagues found the little boys eleven-year-old sister sitting on the ground near her brother's spilled blood. Hugging herself. And rocking. When my friend tried to comfort her she didn't respond. She was in shock. She just rocked back and forth. Singing spirit of life. Over. Andover. Andover. There are times in our lives. When we need our religion. When we need its comfort. When we need its strength. And usually when we really need it we're not in the position to it two to think about it or court to try to reason our way to it. It's got to be deeper than that like a seed planted deep down in our soul that is ready to blossom in our moment of need. That's why we sing spirit of life. Every sunday. At the same time. We sing it. So it will be there. For you. When you need it. We sing it for the grieving child struck dumb with shock so that she might none-the-less have a prayer for her. Dead brother. We sing it for the patient lying on a hospital bed about to go under anesthesia. So that he can summon a comforting presence. We sing it. For the despairing soul. Unable to sleep at night. So that she might find. Peace of mind. For them. For us. We sing spirit of life. Every sunday. One night back. In the late 70s. A woman came home from a social justice meeting at church. Like so many other meetings on so many other night she returned home late. And for despair. Frustrated that they never seem to get anything done at these meetings. Frustrated that that with all the protests and all the organizing things didn't seem to be getting any better in the world. Deborah come home from a meeting feeling like that. It's over their husbands and children. Already asleep upstairs. She sat down in the dark. At her piano and did what she often did when she felt despair. She began to play. She writes of that moment. There was no plan or expectation only my deep and immediately to all that move generative lie through life. My plea that i stayed faithful to the movements i loved faithful to the people of those movements. And to their tally of goodness toward a world healthy and justforall a world in which reverence shown among us. And then the prayer with complete. And somehow it connected me she writes. And continues to connect me. With that which i need in order to continue on. That's how carolyn mcdade wrote. Spirit of life. Actually she said later i i didn't write the song i i prayed it. Into being and that's what it is. It's a prayer. A prayer that springs from equal parts. Despair. And hope. A prayer for our lives to be ordered not by selfishness or whim. But by the power that creates and sustains life. It's a prayer that says please spirit fill my heart with compassion. Please give my life the shape of justice give our world the shape of justice please. It's not a prayer for personal salvation it's a prayer written for communities of people engaged in the work of justice. It's a justice prayer. In fact when the people who put our our unitarian hymnal together ask carolyn mcdade if they could. Publish it in the order of in the in the. In him know she hesitated because she didn't want it to be taken out of the context of the struggle from which it beat it arose. She'd wanted to become part of some narcissistic spirituality. I don't know if carolyn mcdade was here. Last april. But i'm thinking back now to to the march for women's lives how many of you were at the march for women's lives last april lots of you good. Emits a hundreds of thousands of marchers were wearing intrepid band of unitarian universalist about 3,000-strong marching behind our banner and there was one moment during that march that i remember vividly we were turning a corner. On the pennsylvania avenue when we found ourselves in the midst of a shouting match. On one side where the anti-abortion folks and they had their big placards with bloody fetuses and they were shouting sinners. Shane. They're on the other side where the marchers were shouting back get your hands off my body. And other things that i can't repeat from the pulpit. I don't know how it began but in the midst of this shouting match someone in the all souls contingent started to sing. Spirit of life. And after a while what happened was after while the people who were shouting stopped and started looking around to see where the music was coming from and who were these people singing i think they were trying to figure out whose side we were on. But even they realized. Bet against this soft him of love. Their shouts. Sounded hateful. Their child sounded absurd. Spirit of life is a prayer born out of the desire that our struggle for justice be based not on anger. For hatred. Put on hope. And love. At least on that one day in april. The song work that magic. Among us. Thomas jefferson. Who called himself a unitarian. Thought that god was like a clockmaker who built the universe according to certain mechanical specifications. Got the springs and gears just right and then wound the clock and then washed his hands. Of the whole affair. Jefferson's god with a distant creator. Absent from the flow of history and trials of our lives. For the most part unitarians have bore witness to a very different understanding. Of god. While some denominations worship god the father and others prefer god the son jesus unitarians have always had a soft spot. For god the spirit. God the spirit isn't a distant creator or a human manifestation of the divine but rather the animating force that moves within us and among us and beyond us. God the spirit isn't a god who spoke once long ago and then withdrew but a guy that is always present in the world always creating always revealing godself in new ways in in new truths revelation is not sealed. Said emerson. God speaks. Still. In the bible. The word spirit. Is the same as the word breath. Spirit and breath are interchangeable and so in genesis it is written that in the beginning the earth was unformed and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of god hovered. Over the dark waters. For the breath of god blew over the dark waters troubling the waters. And god said let there be light. Later it says that god-shaped humankind from the dust of the ground and breathed into our nostrils. The breath of life the spirit. Of life. I love this image of spirit. As breath. Cuz every sunday morning when we get ready to sing spirit of life i can hear us all. Take that breath together. And i can almost imagine that it's that original breath coming back into our nostrils. Eastern traditions testify to the spirits ongoing presence in our lives as a kind of animating force some traditions college she gets a force that moves through us we get strength when we work with this life for us when we go with the flow so to speak and we get worn down when we work against it. To the spirit of life taps into this rich tradition it's a prayer to this life forming life-sustaining power it's a prayer that that power will continue to shape and form us in so we ask things of the spirit we say come unto me. Sing in my heart. Shape my life. Hold me close. Set me free. Spirit of life is important to our church and our movements. Because it gives people it gives us. Who might have diverse understandings of who or what god is. For whom they even doubt the existence of god at all it gives us all a common language with which we can address. The mystery. Force that creates and sustains life. It is important. That we have this common language. For our worship together. You know we sing spirit of life in church every sunday but. Most of my memories of that song come. From when i've sung it outside of church. I'm thinking in particular of the many times that it's been sung. In a hospital room. For beside a hospice bed. I look out over the congregation today and i can conjure the faces of the people who are no longer with us with whom i've sung spirit of life. In the last hours or days sometimes we sing it together. Sometimes when they didn't have the strain. I sang it to them. A final lullaby. I remember one time when when three generations of a family all of whom attended the church gathered around the bed of their dying grandfather he and his wife were there the children the grandchildren and all of us held hands around the bed singing spirit of life. It seems that we most want to be near this spirits. This breath of life. At the very moment. Better we are about to give up that breath. At the very moment that we are to return. To the dust from which we were formed. It's as if we are giving our final thanks to the spirit for having briefly dwelt. Within us. Within our loved one. And so it is. But the spirit that was present at our creation. And that animates our days and gives us power. Accompanies us. Till the very end. It is this presents. To which we sing every sunday. May our voices neverbeast ending. Appraised. I'm in.

all-souls_org

04.08.22QuestionsOfFaith.mp3

So we do something a little different on my first sunday back from vacation we have a tradition called questions of faith over the last two sundays during the service people have had the opportunity to fill out questions that they wanted to ask of of me and they put them in the offering plate and we've been collecting and we're last two sundays and dorothy a handful of them that she's going to i'm going to answer. Rena pastors lavalier mic back and forth. Reverend rob as religious liberals. How should we reconcile our love for truth. Will the tolerance for others views in particular if a harmful public policy is based on a well-intentioned but foss. False ideology or theology. Should we oppose only the policy or also the underlying beliefs. And if the latter is that proselytizing faith is that we recognize ambiguity the ambiguity of our modern or postmodern world and that makes faith a little bit more complicated frankly but it doesn't mean that doesn't give us the excuse not to act. And so well i feel as though we can never be sure. We always have to hold open the possibility that our faith may change that we will be led to new and and deeper insights into truth that doesn't give us the chance to come let us off the hook until we have to act. On what we believe are our best estimation of the truth as we see it now. And we have to act firmly and and with with purpose on our best estimation of the truth i remember john kerry speech at the democratic convention lincoln who said that you know we can't assume that god is on our side but we must ask and and pray humbly that we are on god's side and so that's i think that lincoln really summed it up with that phrase. And to the second question which is about theologies behind public policy i think we i think we do have the mandate to to critique not only policies but the ideology in the theology behind them because there are powerful worldviews that underlie a lot of public policy in our country obviously and. I think that forgiveness is. The hardest thing that we have to do perhaps. And i think part of what makes it hard is that somehow we think that. To forgive someone for something is somehow an offence to justice. That the it offends our sense of justice if we if we forgive someone we think of that means that we've let them off the hook somehow or that that work that in some ways were condoning what they've what they've done the act that they've committed and i don't think that's i don't think that's true true i think that we need we can both judge and act and judge people for what they've done and say that that is right and that is wrong that is good or that is evil and we can end and must. Forgive. I think i believe that we that as people of faith we are called to be reconcilers in the world and that that that that the spirit life calls us to draw to draw all of creation together and not to separate it in my my definition of sin is the separation of the human family the separation of creation from one another and from god and so is people of faith were called to be reconcilers i'm thinking of paula cole jones has great peace and reconciliation and denominations a few months ago for called to be reconcilers and that includes forgiveness. I think probably you know the most important thing to say about forgiveness is what it does to those of us who can't forgive. Cuz i believe it's kind of like a cancer honestly to me not because i feel it inside me and i know the corrosive effect it that my inability to forgive has inside of me and and i want to let it go i want to let it go because i don't think it's good for me. And the other thing that i'd say is question talks about a willingness to forget i think. I think that's a where we practiced forgiving is actually by forgiving ourselves and i think my experience is at the hardest person to forgive is yourself often times and that just as we can't in the golden rule tells us to love others as we love ourselves that presume that we actually love ourselves okay well to forgive others we need to be able to forgive ourselves and and i don't think we can forgive others unless we've actually come to terms with the broken cells that we are and can sort of embrace all of who we are. But it is hard. Hardee's what is your concept of god and of life. Are they the same and that is meant that our tradition would comes out of the christian tradition has always been less if you think of the traditional christian trinity of father son and holy spirit and among us that is uranus. To the good to the beautiful to the holy to the just. Emerges in the still small voice that we hear when we when we quiet ourselves down and emerges in when we pray together as a church community and emerges sometimes when we're singing spirit of life and i can feel it it's not something i can i can see but it's something i can feel in here on sunday mornings many times so. So god is a is a spirit for me that is if it's a no luring spirit its beckoning luring me to the good into the holy that's how i see god and i see life as as. A gift from our creator from god and with that gift comes a responsibility to tahiti that call that we here to see that spirit that is that is that it's calling us and beckoning us. And to and to give our lives over to it to give our lives over to it do lot of other things that compete for control of our lives but i think the proper response to the gift of life is to give ourselves over to the spirit. Dad that gave us life. And i think that you can. I think that's what i see ology that works even for those who don't fit don't believe in in god in a in a traditional sense for agnostics that to give one's life over to the good to give one's life over to that which is is most good most just most beautiful is is the purpose of life. Rob how can i feel that i'm making a difference in the world when there are so many tragedies spades famine war. If god is all loving why does god allow these horrible things to occur. Weather two big questions they're the first is how how can i feel like i make a difference and you know we're talkin about the sudan this morning in this week in washington you know the immense suffering that's going on there or aids in africa and in in in the united states and all over the world how can i feel like i make a difference. That's fell hard for me this summer i have been a series of sort of i don't know sometimes the news you know just hits you and you know some days you can take it and some days you just can't take it and for me this summer has been one of those summers that i've been really hard to take but i really believe that that that we do make a difference and that that we need to find spheres of of of power and and and. And what's the word i'm looking for. I write them in the sermon that easier to do on saturday nights instead where we had the agency spheres of agency where we can make a difference whether that's our neighborhood or our family or you know to carve out a sphere of agency this church together we can carve out a sphere of agency with were in this neighborhood in our city we can make a difference i have this belief that every good act. Build on the last. And then no act of goodness has ever taken away from the total amount of good that's in the world that that once is committed it sits forever out there we lost control of it but it's forever out there it's touch someone it's you know that ripple effect that goes out from us and that hug when you know they need it i mean that makes a difference and then above that i think we need to band together as as communities to have the agency in the power to make a difference in and it does take power to make a difference in the world and part of why we come together as a church is to is that as one person we we might not have that power but as 700 we we can have that power if we're smart so. That's that's my answer the first part of the question. The second is how how does an all-loving god allow. Suffering to happen like this right. Which is one of the oldest questions known to humankind. I don't believe that god allows. These things to happen i do believe that god is all loving my my god is all loving i think the god who said that all souls are mine is all loving but what i believe about god is it that i don't believe that god is all-powerful honestly and. Are traditionally in in western religious thought you had three propositions and you can't have all three one of them has to give either god is all good or god is all-powerful or theirs. Dodging only be all-powerful with our help and of course that's what i believe. While i respect my fellow unitarians who are who are theist. I think all souls is losing its humanist base and emphasis. And we agnostics feel marginalized. The time and so that's that by way of addressing some of the questions of marginalization i think we from all saiyans so but i can see why you know perhaps even more so because the time on every belief to disbelief and from doubt to faith and and this is one of the few places where you can actually come and bring those questions okay so. All of us. Is to this question of humanism though i mean we need to know what humanism is something that comes at least in the west out of the judeo-christian tradition it's not a secular tradition humanism comes from the judeo-christian belief that that human beings were made in the image of god and therefore word were inherently worthy okay and that's that part of the western tradition that that that we still hold very strongly but. There's one other thing i wanted to say there. Can't remember now that's a start at least. Last week manish mishra sermon highlighted the winds of change much of the function of faith is to help us accept and deal with change but what role does faith play when there's not enough change. When our lives have gotten stuck for a long time. I haven't had a chance to read manisha's sermon from last week yet but he's right in saying that that's a lot of what faith is about is helping us understand and cope with and and continue to live through change and transition and in life and society and that the difference isn't faith that you see in the world today are very much differences of. Hub how faith reacts to change fundamentalism looks at change and seeks to go back to previous previous episode of time okay has always been a faith tradition that's been based on hope. And hope in the midst of change not fear in the midst of change we've been a tradition that has loved the past but is also trusted in the future. And so we are called to be copa change on the question then goes to what happens when we're stuck and i think it depends on how we see our lives is stuck sometimes we're stuck in. We're stuck in patterns in our life that feel like they're self-defeating right that we do we we have have attitudes and behaviors that that we want to change and that that they become patterns and they're just so hard to break out of and and and in that case faith. You know i think the impetus to change comes from. Comes from listening to what i said earlier which is that the spirit moving within us the still small voice that whispers and some of agitate us when we wake up at 3 in the morning thinking about that behavior pattern that we really want to change okay it's listening to that. Everyday. And i think on a broader level when it comes to change i think that i want to lift up the prophetic tradition in religion i've always in profits of religion who have come to people at a complacent time and have said you know let justice flow like a mighty stream and and so we need to be in stay in touch with a prophetic element of religion and not just get wrapped up in the personal enough you know sort of religion of self-improvement and a religion of my own spiritual life in my own my own soul that all is important then frankly spurious faith it's a lie the lie it can't be just that so i think. And being able to discern the false prophets from the true prophets but that's another question. Kevin hardy's i'm a first-time visitor to all souls church. I aim to be a loyal and dedicated person. To my wife my work in my community. To become a good member of all souls church. What i have to connect the same. To spirituality or faith. First of all welcome to the first-time visitor who has to to be a better person to live a more dedicated. And honest and good life is the impetus the drawers most people to this church so i think you're in good company and the question of you know to do that do i have to do that head out to tell that to spirituality or faith well i think what you have to do is it what this church is about as tying our lives to the ultimate. To that which is of most value in the world and in y'all have talked about that so far today as as god is listening to the spirit. But my agnostic friends wouldn't use that language they would say you know hira my highest values and i need to cleave my life to that those highest values got another way of saying it but so i think that we needed it with a church does as each week reminds us of what's most important in our lives. And i think we need that because i always forget that you know the other six days of the week often and so need the reminder need the energy that i get from church on sunday morning need need that encouragement from my friends in the pews in church brings to our our endeavours to lead a better life i think it gives us his companions it gives us reminders reminders without being an official member. Can i be part of the church without being a member i'd like to be able to sit down with a person who has a sense of unpack that question a little bit there are people who've been encouraged to become members of the church. I think that and i think we live in a culture that sits pretty individualistic and i think a lot of people have a hard time joining a joiner's because institutions make make demands on us and we don't always like demands put on us we don't like obligations put on us we like our freedom and so institutions will place expectations on us and i think that's a good thing actually. So i would encourage this person to you know to think about what what it is about another someone might be some legitimate reasons not to become a member and we could talk about those but what our obligations to one another as members of this church community whether were official members or not i think i think our obligations to one another are certainly to care for and love one another. I think our obligations to one another are to encourage one another in our on our search for truth and for meaning in life to encourage one another along our spiritual paths we do this in covenant groups and we have these lots of these small groups that meet in the church they meet twice a month and and and their groups of people who who form you know intimate bonds and friendship but also of of sort of companionship on the spiritual journey by the way we have about six new in september and opportunities to to join a group very soon. I think there's a well say this i think there's a tendency to church to sort of rely on the minister to provide all the ministry to the people of the church and i don't think that's the the the the way it should be another and that goes to the embassy on wednesday does it doesn't count for all of us. And we're bad at it. We always we screwed up. All the time. We don't know how to love well a lot of the time and and that's the cause of so much pain in our lives. And part of what churches is a community in which we practice. What it means to love better right churches you know it it's it's a community where we hold one another, lynn then and can say to someone you know. That just didn't feel like you know let's let's try to work on this relationship a little bit better cuz it doesn't feel like when right relationship to one another or that didn't feel like a a compassionate way that i treated you last sunday. Or you know i felt that you weren't treating me that compassionately last sunday for that matter i think that when we have sort of. I think that's what we do here in churches hold on another accountable as well and a gentle way and in love not the sort of a judging you know finger-wagging way but in the end we hold one out there accountable in love and practice what it means to be human in community.

all-souls_org

03.11.09WhenDeathComes.mp3

I'll reading this morning is. From the poet mary oliver. Cold when death comes. When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn. When death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse. To buy me and snaps the purse shot. When death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades. I want to step through that door full of curiosity. Wondering what is it going to be like that cottage of darkness. And therefore i look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood. And i look upon time as no more than idea. And i consider eternity as another possibility. And i think of each life as a flower as common as a field daisy and as singular. And each name a comfortable music in my mouth and then as all music does. In silence. And each body a lion of courage and something precious to the earth. 28 is over i want to say all my life i was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom taking the world into my arms. When it's over. I don't want to wonder if i have made my life something particular and real. I don't want to find myself sign and frightened for full of argument. I don't want to end up simply having visited this world. When death comes. What will it be like. Will it be painful. Frightening. Peaceful. Will i go in my sleep. Will i be alone. Will i have regrets. What will happen to me afterwards. When death comes who will remember me. Have these questions ever cross your mind. Have they crept into your thoughts. During a rare moment of repose. In the middle of your busy week. Have you ever found yourself sitting bolt upright in the middle of the night unable to get back to sleep because of them. Have you sat by the bedside. Of a dying loved one and wondered what it will be like. When death comes for you. If you have. You are in good company. The foreknowledge of our death and its attendant fears and anxieties have preoccupied us. Now for millenia. Luckily for most of us at least the preoccupation with death isn't a 24/7 obsession. If it were we would find it hard to go on. But none of us can avoid the confrontation for long before long death announces its lurking presence in our lives. And i'm not talking about the moments when we get it intellectually that we're going to die we we can take that we can have a conversation about that i'm talking about the times now when the reality of our death. Seizes us and we feel it in our bodies. You know the feeling i'm talking about. Did i reading this morning mary oliver describes the feeling as an iceberg between the shoulder blades. Sometimes it's a chill that catches us at night and leaves us bathed in cold sweat. Other times for me to fear of my death makes me feel like i do when i get on a roller coaster. You know how the car slowly climbs to the top my stomach starts feeling queasy and anxious and then it plunges over the other side and the pit of my stomach comes up into my throat that's how i feel. When i fear death viscerally. That's why i don't ride roller coasters anymore. Sometimes when i'm overcome with this experience i'll turn on the television. Or open a magazine or call a friend anything to distract myself from the fear anything to take away the loneliness that it provokes. But it always returns. And sometimes i'll stay with the fear for a while and i'll allow the anxiety to shutter through my body. And i. into an abyss. That is the eternity from which i came and to which i will one day return. And then i wrestle with the questions. Why am i here. Why will i one day not be here. And what then is the meaning of it all. What we do with this experience. What we do with our first-hand incounters with mortality is called. Religion. You see i believe that the visceral foreknowledge of our own death is one of the fundamental experiences of the religious life. It's the experience that puts our lives in the proper context. For once seen through the lens of death are ephemeral lives are too precious. To be spent on trivia. Or petit causes. Mortality is one of the things that gives life its seriousness of purpose. Zach the other day i heard a radio program on npr in which a group of ethicists were discussing the implications of advances in medical technology that could one day extend human life beyond what was previously imaginable. What if we can live to the age say of 150. In addition to the upheavals this would create a society ethicists wondered aloud whether people might take life less. Seriously. With that much time on our hands. Another words they wondered if the diminished reality of our mortality meant that we would care less. About living. A purposeful and intentional life is always lived in the felt tension. Between living and dying. A religious life is lived in that tension. Indeed my colleague at all souls church in manhattan forest church defines religion quite simply as our human response. To the dual reality of living and having to die. Let me say that again religion is our human response. To the dual reality of living. And having to die. What's up we wonder about death. We try to make sense of it and integrated into our lives in some meaningful way. This process can start at a very young age for some. I'll give you an example when my partner chris was a boy. He was a very devout catholic. So much so that when his little sister used to giggle during mass and climb over the pews chris would become distraught over the fate of her immortal soul. Around the time of his confirmation when he was about 12 chris wrote a long letter to his parish priest asking all sorts of questions about god and life. And he ended the letter by asking father. What is the meaning of death. The last year at thanksgiving chris discovered the letter. That the priest wrote back and god bless and that priest wrote out several pages of detailed responses to this little boys questions 25 years after the fact i read his answer. To the 12-year olds. Final question. The priest road. Death chris. Is a punishment for our sins. Now when i was a hospital chaplain one of the first patients i saw. With a boy not too much older than 12. Who is dying from non-hodgkin's lymphoma. And he and his parents were spending a lot of time wondering about the meaning of death. I had grown up learning the death was a punishment for our sins to. And i realize just how repugnant that notion is. When i imagined what it would be like to tell this dying boy. That that was the meaning of his death. That it was a punishment for his sin. Because death scares us so. We are prone to assign it and equally scary meaning. Switch in a vicious cycle just makes us more scared of it again. And compels us to do whatever we can to escape this reality to escape death to deny it rather than to face it this is what skeptics have always said about religion isn't it gymnastics deny the reality of their death. They say it's a crutch and it's proof they point out the fact that a great number of religions offer eternal life as their promise. But for legion is a crutch. Let me say that i see a lot of people out there hobbling around looking for one and i'll count myself among them. I see people struggling to find meaning for their lives in the context of death struggling to cope with grief and loss and religion does and should provide understanding and yes consolation. In the face of death if that's a crutch so be it. The problem that i have though. Is when our understanding of death leads us to denigrate life. Rather than uphold it. Like calling death of punishment for sin. Tell a twelve-year-old that he's dying as a punishment for sin is to denigrate his life. Why think of religious fanatics fanatics who use the promise of an afterlife as an excuse to sacrifice their lies and to take others with them i think of called massacres like jonestown or heaven's gate or religious terrorists. But i even have a coral. With a philosophy that i find myself lapsing into from time to time the philosophy that says well it's not that important what happens now. Because it'll all be better. In the by-and-by. It's okay to believe. In the by-and-by. But not if that belief compels you to say in effect bye-bye. To this world. That too is a denigration of life we have misinterpreted the meaning of death when we use it as an excuse to check out on this world. To debase live. Death is supposed to remind us of life's preciousness. Knotted triviality. I've learned all i know about a healthy understanding of death from spending time with people. Who are dying. Is a minister. I spend a lot of time with people dying or grieving a death or. Recovering from a near-miss. And what they taught me is that our preoccupation with death is is somewhat misdirected. Let me explain a lot of religious literature for example focuses on jeff as a passage a passage from one life to another doorway if you will a portal to another unknown world and much energy is spent speculating about what that next world will look like. Will it be empty. Will it be paradise. What the hell. Did a lot of energy spent talking about how. Even in our reading this morning mary oliver begins her poem with this understanding of death she says when death comes like a hungry bear in autumn. I want to step through the door. Full of curiosity wondering what is it going to be like. That cottage of darkness. The people who i talk to. Who are dying will sometimes ask about what comes next. And i tell them honestly that i don't know. If there's going to be a door there. What is a universalist. I trust that if there is. It will be fun open wide. Let the gates of heaven will be open to all souls not just some. And this person is open to hearing it i will share them one of my favorite quotes from the book of revelation where god says i have set before you adore that will never be shot. But my experience with people for whom death is near or imminent is that most of their concerns are not. About what is to come. They're about what has been and what still is. They are talking about the life they have led about how to bring closure to it about how to give it a sense of wholeness and meaning. Many of their thoughts are about the loved ones they will leave behind. Or about people they have wronged or who have wronged them they're looking for ways to say goodbye or to make amends. In other words for many people death represents not so much a doorway. As a mirror. A mirror that allows us to look at our lives to take stock. To bless them. And to let them go. This experience has led me to believe that the meaning of death lies not so much. In another world as in this world. That death is best understood. As yet another stage of our living. This transition is reflected in oliver's poem to. Well she begins by pondering what it will be like to step through the doorway to death she finishes by talking about life doesn't she. When it's over she rides. I want to say all my life i was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom taking the world into my arms. When it's over i don't want to wonder if i have made in my life something particular and real i don't want to find myself sign and frightened or full of argument i don't want to end up simply having visited. This world. I believe that the most healthy understanding of death. Is the one that turns us back towards our lives. And encourages us to be more than visitors in this world. But rather active participants in it. To be able to say as channing did i am a living member of the great family of all souls and to recognize the vitality that is meant in that statement. It turn back on our lives into focus on the love that gives it meaning. The love. That will be the focus. Of next week sermon. We may indeed. Be visitors in another world. At some future time. I'm agnostic on that question myself. My sentiments are with those. Of one of our unitarian ancestors henry david thoreau. Estero lay on his deathbed. I loved one asked him. Henry. Can you see the other side. Anthro replied. One world at a time friend. One world at a time. Soviet. I'm in.

all-souls_org

03.10.26ListeningToOurLives.mp3

You can't read. The newspaper these days. Without noticing what's going on. In the episcopal church next sunday if all goes as planned episcopalians in new hampshire will ordain the reverend gene robinson as the first openly gay bishop in the worldwide anglican communion. The impending ordination has conservative churches in america preparing for secession. Threatening to split off and pledge their allegiance and their money two more theologically conservative bishops in africa. As i read about this painful split and see how it is tearing apart friends and colleagues of mine in the episcopal church it makes me realize how thankful i am for all souls church for our. For full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church but because of our whole approach to the religious life. For if this debate has revealed anything besides deep-seated prejudice in the church against gay people it is that there are two fundamentally different ways. To go about being a person of faith. In the world. And today i want to talk about the importance. Of our liberal way in religion. But i'm going to go do something a little different today i want to begin my sermon this morning with an eloquent testimonial written by an episcopal priest. From georgia barbara brown taylor. And what i want you to listen for in her testimonial is not so much where she comes out on this whole issue but how she gets there i'm sharing an extended portion of an essay of hers because it's beautiful. And because it's a compelling account of what it means for a religious liberal to be faithful in the world today. It offers us a roadmap for how we struggled mightily and faithfully with a difficult questions before us and how our way differs from that. How's the religious rights. Before i share this portion of her ass that want to give you one piece of contact contacts she's going to begin by alluding to a famously bitter struggle in early church history when the church fathers were still trying to hammer out whether jesus was fully god or fully human or both so you'll hear an allusion to what is known as the aryan controversy. In this case aryan doesn't refer to a race of people but a bishop from alexandria named darius. So i invite you now to listen with open hearts and minds. 21 episcopalians struggle. With this issue. During the 4th century at the height of the arian controversy in constantinople one christian roach. That it was impossible to go into a bakery. For a loaf of bread. Without debating the nature of christ. Was he fully god fully man or both. With bishops physically assaulting other bishops over this a question and emperors changing sides on a regular basis the debate spilled out of the church and into the streets. When i read this chapter of early history. I thank god for letting me live in a later chapter of history but that was before the 2003 general convention of the episcopal church. One of my jordy of delegates from across the states confirm the election the gene robinson as the first openly gay bishop in the anglican communion since then north georgia. Has come to resemble constantinople in at least one regard. No episcopalian goes anywhere without being asked for his or her position on homosexuality. The problem i run into. At the bakery. Is that i do not have a position. On homosexuality what i have instead. Is a life. I have a history. In which many people have played vital parts when i am presented with the issue of homosexuality i experience temporary blindness. Something like scales fall over my eyes because i cannot visualize an issue what i visualize instead. Is the homeroom teacher. Who seemed actually to care. Whether i showed up at school or not. I see the priest. Who taught me everything i know about priesthood. And the professor who roasted whole chickens for me when my food money ran out before the end of the semester. I see the faces of dozens of young men who died of aids. But not before they had shown me how brightly they could burn with nothing to live on with the love of god. I see the face of my sixteen-year-old friend still waiting for his first true love who says that if you found out you were gay he would kill himself. Other people have other stories i know but these are the stories that have given me my site to reduce them to a position seems irreverent somehow like operating on someone's body without looking them in the face. I used to believe that swapping stories was one way to get closer to people who see things differently than i do. So they both have our truce could get stretched but i have almost given up on that. Where i live at least there is a little sense that life stories. 5 passages that were written at least 1950 years ago. I love the bible. Fire spend more than half of my life reading it studying it teaching and preaching it when i do this however a peculiar thing happens. As i practice what i learned in the bible the bible won't let me set up house and its pages. Like some parents intent on my getting my own place. It gives me a kiss and boots me into the world promising me that i have everything i need to find god not only on the page. What in the flash. If jesus own example is to be trusted than following the word of god may not always mean doing what is in the book. Instead get maiming deviating. From what is in the book. In order to risk bringing the word. To life. These days. I guess everything sounds like a position. Even a confession like this one. I do not know what is right. All i know. Guess whom i love. And how far i have to go. Before there is no one left. Home i do not. I read this column for the first time on friday morning. The first thing i did after reading it was give thanks for its author barbara brown taylor. S s thing i did was. Tear up what i had already written for my sermon today and start over because what i had hoped to do in this sermon with tell you why i love this church and this face. And why i think we all need to support it as generously as we can. When i read taylor's sa i realize that she had done it for me and that i wanted to share it with you today. Taylor gets right to the heart of what it means to be a religious liberal when she says this. I don't have a position. On homosexuality what i have instead. Is a life by history i have real experiences with real people i don't have a position on an issue i just know who i love. You know as well as i do. But there's a whole school of religion out there that would say to taylor frankly. I don't care what your life has to say. And i don't care who you love. Here's what the bible says and that's what's true. This is the same school of religions that never would have let barbara brown taylor become a priest in the first place because she's a woman it's the same school of religion that has said to women and afghanistan i'm sorry if your heart and mind tells you you want to be a doctor the quran says it's not a woman's proper place. This is a school of religion that cuts across all faith traditions. And it says that the authority of the holy text is supreme and unquestionable this is religious fundamentalism. And it's one of the most powerful social and political forces in the world today. You need to know. Can you go to a church. That stands for something completely different. A church that listens. To the stories of our lives. And take some seriously. Church whose holy scripture is our lives church that. Takes life and then passes it through the fire of reason and of thought that puts life into dialogue with the wisdom of the ages. A church that puts each of our individualized into dialogue with one another believing that through this process we come to religious truth. This is a liberal way in religion. A faith that says to fundamentalism please please close your book. And open your heart. Close your book. And open your heart if only for a moment. Two weeks ago i was asked to give an interview on public radio assessing what's at stake is theologically in this debate about gay folks in the church. Essentially i said there's a revolution happening in the pews of america. A rather unlikely place frankly for a revolution to be happening but the hearts of the people the hearts of the people are rising up to embrace with the book has told them for 2,000 years was a sin. The people have momentarily close their books and open their hearts. And then gone back to their books again. Conceited. With new eyes. A revolution in the pews. The unitarian church has been on the vanguard of this revolution. Albertsons emerson in the early 19th century said that from now on when he preached life would be his text we have been leading this movement of liberal religion this way that values the open heart and the open mind and not merely the open book. A movement that says if there is any god at all. That god is the god of the whole human race. The god of all souls not song. I got who invites everyone to the welcome table not a god who picks and chooses or plays favorites. Princess is a god whose love is more generous. Then any fundamentalist has ever dreamed and that most of us have ever dreamed. Tennessee god who calls us. To love more generously than we ever imagined possible. The stated purpose of this church. Is to help each and everyone of us enter into relationship with the source of this universal love whether we call it god or not. And to help each of us act on this love in ever-expanding circles to reach out further and further always stretching always seeking to break down the barriers that impede that love. To that at the very least when we are confronted with the difficult moral issues of our day we might say with barbara brown taylor i may not know for sure what is right or wrong. But what i do know. Is whom i love and how far i have to go before there is no one left who i do not. Here at the church. We also know how far we have to go before our ministry lives up to the promise of our name all souls. And so the theme of this year's canvases begin to imagine. We have only begun to love as generously and freely as our faith calls us. So begin to imagine if you will a world where everyone treated one another as if we were all members of the great family of all souls. Begin to imagine a church that is truly diverse and multicultural and anti-racist a model for the kind of communities that we must build if the human race is to survive the 21st century. Begin to imagine a church that is located as we are at the crossroads of cultures and peoples in our city and its stand as a beacon of justice and compassion there. Begin to imagine worship services covenant groups spiritual retreats and classes that help us discover the source of love. In our lives. And empower us to act on that love in ever-expanding circles. Begin to imagine a new generation of children the children of the religion of the rhythm of life. Who are raised believing that they are members of this great family of all souls and the distinctions of race and creed and class and sexual orientations will no longer divide them will leave none of them alone and scorned. I see glimpses of this future. Every day that i spend with you at this church. And everyday i see more clearly just how far we have to go to make our dreams come true. And now i want to ask you. How much is it worth to you. How important to you this face and this church. At the ripe old age of 24. I decided that it was important enough to me to give my life to it in ministry and after september 11th when we saw again just how dangerous a religion of closed hearts and minds can be just how bloodthirsty a god who picks and chooses can be i became even more passionate about this faith. And every year at this time i write a check. For 5% of my income. To support the work of this church. I'm working toward a tithe giving 10% of my income away 5% to the church and 5% other causes that are dear to me. But for me the church comes first. Because it drowns everything else. And it helps me understand what is most important to me in my life. Some of you may have been coming here for a while now. Maybe join maybe you haven't. But you don't really believe that your participation is going to make the difference in this church. Well let me say to you today that you do make the difference. Anyone who has been in this church for longer than 5 years or so can tell you just how close this church came to closing its doors. The packing up and moving to the suburbs. The only reason we are here generation after generation for 180 years now is that each generation steps up to the plate and says this faith and this church are important enough to me to support. With my gifts in my time. It is our generosity whether were longtime members or knew whether we're we're young or whether we're empty-nesters whether we're unemployed now or we just got the best job of our lives. It's our generosity. That will assure that this church will always be here always helping us to discern the difference between right and wrong and always always helping us remember whom we love. And how far we have to go. Before there is no one left whom we do not. Sobien. Common.

all-souls_org

06.08.06AreWeHavingFunYet.mp3

The reading this morning is a story from a book called the art of possibility by yasmin stone xander and benjamin zander. Two prime ministers. Are sitting in a room discussing affairs of state. And suddenly a man burson. Apoplectic with fiery shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. And the resident prime minister admonishes him peter peter he says. Kindly remember rule number six. Whereupon peter is instantly restore to complete calm apologizes and withdraws. For the politicians return to their deep and heavy conversation only to be interrupted yet again 20 minutes later buying a sterical woman whose gesticulating wildly her hair flying and again the intruder is greeted with the words marie please remember rule number six. Complete calm descends once more and she to withdraws with a bow and an apology. That when the scene is repeated for a third time. The visiting prime minister addresses his colic my dear friend i have seen many things in my life but never anything as remarkable as this. Would you be willing to share with me the secret of rule number six. Very simple replies the resident prime minister. And wanting to know i'm quoting rule number six is don't take yourself so goddamn seriously. After a moment of conjuring he inquired and what may i ask are the other rules the resident prime minister replied. There aren't any. So it's august now and i wonder are we having fun yet. Forget the heatwave this week and just work with me for a moment on the general time.. There is something about summer that lends itself to fun. The slower-paced the chance to travel the break from workplace worries. The time to spend with family and friends. I think a fun as pure joy. Freedom to play. Creativity enjoyment of people and plans and travel. There is a sense of lightness that may be harder to find when we are immersed in the steady rhythm of yearly activity. Taking ourselves too seriously maybe the number one enemy of fun. Of course the truth is that we can have fun all year long. You may be like me your own worst enemy in the fun department. Saving that fun for summer vacation. And not experiencing it as you move along. Another truth is this if you are not having fun probably the people directly around you are not either. People who have no fun are not fun why is it that as our schedule fills in our to-do list grows longer. That we become sadly forgetful of this essential rule number six. Tell my original idea for the service was to bring in music for us to sing from the training ground for fun that i most loved musical theater. I thought that we could sing along to my favorite things or getting-to-know-you or oklahoma as an object lesson in being less serious. Now granted this was my vision of a good time maybe not yours but that's the power of the pulpit and you are really sitting duck sometime but most unfortunately our music director john straying informed me that this while possibly fun was definitely illegal. So these copyright people really know how to quash a good time but i would still like to reflect on the lessons that i learned from these beloved shows. Stories where there are no tricking nuances no moral ambiguity but instead absolute clarity about good and evil right and wrong fun and no fun. Now when you see oklahoma or sound of music or the king and i you know exactly where you are. And you may not want to live there permanently but it is worth a vacation trip. And if you haven't seen these shows may i humbly suggest you put them on your netflix list and expand your horizons a bit. No warning to the renter you will have to put aside many liberal progressive sensitivities and a lot of seriousness but think of this as a long practice. for real number 6 you will be okay really. And you can come back to complexity at the end of the musical now in oklahoma is my personal favorite we know right away that the cowboy curly is the one for the bold and independent lori. He wants to rent this great surrey with a fringe on top i can't sing it cuz it's illegal but you know what i mean. In order to take her to this barn-raising picnic for their date and he is clearly the fellow with the best sense of humor and the ability to play. Now in contrast poor jud who will soon be dead if you know the song is wooing lori with the scary possessive menacing intensity. Not a good day. And not fun by a long shot curly is fun and therefore the best mate. In the king and i. Anna comes in with this bigger as the new teacher for the children of the king of siam and she brings this fresh spirit to the place. She goes up against a rigid traditional ruler showing her backbone her sense of fairness i love jodie foster in this and she offers the kids comfort the women new educational venues the whole system gets rattled. I'm afraid that things don't turn out that well here at the end overall but it's clear long the way that anna is the one to watch. What the king is also stretching and growing she is the one forging new trails risking the most. Civil asset is this is fun when you don't do business as usual. Now in the sound of music. Have you seen it. We really have the most classic tale of fun versus no fun. The earnest and naive maria shows up to be the governess for this highly energetic von trapp children. And soon they are just flying about and look-alike clothing singing and trees doing plays about the lonely goat herder and this greatly disturbs this recommended order of the militaristic captain von trapp who is so clearly not fun and the sophisticated. Well-meaning but also not fun and maria is an epitome of goodness bursting with love for the captain while she's struggling with being a nun and of course he dumps the baroness and response. It's all excellent it ends well and even though the nazis intervene in the middle and that evil boyfriend of the eldest daughter betrays everyone good ultimately trump's evil and the world is seta right. That is the best kind of fun. Maybe it's this real business of upsetting the world of right that makes many of us in dc have extended time periods with absolutely no fun unlike musical. Washington is full of people who live grimley by a to-do list. And there is no singing. Folks stay focused on political goals there and efficiency their intent on production their multitasking it is enough to separate you from fun for a good long while. Perhaps because we live in such a toxic anti-fun environment the august issue of washingtonian magazine offers us the cover story for remedial fun-seekers entitled have more fun if you were in search of fun i ordered you to get this magazine as kind of a low-cost self-help book the 50 things that they offer under the headline go out and play will surely get your fun deuces going. If you can just put down the cellphone the blackberry the laptop for a moment. Barbie says fun how about kayaking or wine-tasting creative writing genealogy puzzle nights jewelry making. Astronomy woodworking learning a new language teaching reading. Mentoring a child swing dancing. Volunteering with dogs. Tarot card reading. The message is variety. Do something new. Please. Or do something that moves you literally away from your desk. Or do something where you can play and have a good time. Do something different. Instead of the same old something else. The number to anime of fun. Is that we tell ourselves we don't have time to do anything except the same things we are always doing. Not fun. Not interesting not going to get you out of bed in the morning with that maximum zest in the spring in your step. Break out of the pattern and try a little difference. And see if it isn't cheaper than therapy. One of the best things about this have more fun issue is that they list the semi well-known washingtonians and give little features about what they do for fun. So this could surprise you. For starters the current director of the dc department of motor vehicles and whit has an interesting hobby. As an aside let me say that i just spent. Almost a week at the dmv and it was not fun so as an antidote to this environment and went on a trip to key west two years ago and she heard that lilting melody of steel pan music. Does she realize every time she heard the music she was smiling it always made her smile so she came back she bought a steel drum she took lessons and now she's in the pan masters steel orchestra maryland and aunt said that their recital in april was and i quote the most fun i can remember in ages this is our director of the dmv. Or let's try jon mclaughlin who's the former deputy and was acting director of the cia. What does he do for fun it turns out that he is a magician and that he has performed whoonu but he has performed at parties for years because as he says magic keeps the live a sense of wonder and mystery he did mention that his family asked him to please stop already but at parties he's ahead. And you can check out the wrc-tv news anchor susan kidd. Who's an african-american woman who always believed as a child that santa look just like she did it. So her fun has been collecting 200 black santa claus figures from around the world and she puts them all over her house from thanksgiving through christmas all the way into the super bowl which is now february and has the row of black santas and cheer her on. Or how about that joke at buddhist who is the former assistant secretary of commerce. He's now ceo of global insight he does economic analysis and forecasting not the most light-hearted work but 35 years ago. He saw an ad that said 11 lessons for $11 for ice dancing. And he did with his kids and he love the feel of play in the workout and he has been gliding along for 35 years with the washington figure skating club. The point is clear for us for medial fun-seekers. Even is very driven very intense dc success stories. Managed to have a great time when they do something out of the ordinary. In fact you could say that having fun sort of loosens you up. Makes you lively gives you more energy. And even adds to your productivity overall. If productivity is what you want to worry about i'd suggest that the more important question is what is life for. Anyway. Remember the t-shirt that says what if doing the hokey pokey is what it's all about at the end of the day or the end of your life it's not likely that we will all wish we had worked more and had less joy play and fun along the way challenging words giving back changing the world are all important i applaud all our efforts. But life without much fun is. Boring. If you are living a life that short enjoyment chances are you are also a pressing the unfortunate people with whom you live and work so intensely there's a wide ripple effect. To all work and no play and that expanded outcome is not pretty. Fun might be the missing ingredient that makes your whole life take on new leicester and shine and the folks all around you will be very grateful. Get out there and enjoy yourself because the quality of your life depends on it. I meant.

all-souls_org

07.07.22ThePurposeOfPrayer.mp3

Mornings reading. Is an excerpt. From a spiritual memoir that i read several years ago. By woman named lauren winner. The spiritual memoir is entitled simply but provocatively girl meets god. And it covers this excerpt both why prayer can be and feel so frustrating. And difficult. And also then talks about how liturgy the rituals of church service and of traditional prayers and some of the other traditions. Mainline protestant traditions. Can help serve as a grounding. For prayer. She writes. I have a hard time praying. It feels usually like a waste of time. It feels unproductive. My time would be better spent writing a paragraph or reading a book or practicing a conjugation. Or baking a pie. Sometimes. Whole weeks elapsed when i hardly bother to pray at all. Because prayer is boring. Because it feels silly. After all. You look like you're just sitting there talking to the air or to yourself and maybe you are. But above all because it feels. Unproductive. Still there are weeks when i do pray. The weeks when i trust. Or at least manage to act like i trust. That prayer does something. Even if it is something i cannot see. Aquinas wrote. Prayer is profitable because it makes us the familiars of god. What i am learning. The more i sit with liturgy. Is that what i feel happening. Bears little relation to what is actually happening. It is a great gift. When god gives me a stirring. A feeling. A something at all in prayer. But work is being done whether i feel it or not. Sediment. Is being laid. Words of praise to god are becoming the most basic words in my head. They are becoming the fall backwards. Drowning out. Advertising jingles. And professors lectures. And sometimes. Even my own. Interior. Purpose of prayer. One of the first sermons that i preached here at all souls church was about prayer. And several of you have asked me again and again to bring it back. Either because you missed it the first time or because you still struggling with this prayer thing and you wanted level more advice on it. Prayer you see in my experiences a topic that many unitarian universalist struggle with. Our long history of humanism as a movement. Our long history and reliance on the importance of logic. Andreesen. In being. People of faith. Leave little room for the face part. And still and yet there is a yearning that many feel. In our congregations and in our movement as a whole. For a more expansive spirituality. Which is founded on and in disciplines and practices. Of the spirit. In the previous sermon i mentioned my own struggle with prayer and i talked about three themes of my own struggle which i'm going to talk about again this morning. The issue of whom to address your prayers too. The issue of how to find the words to pray. And the issue. Of what we hope the outcome of our prayers will be. I told you then of a story of a seminary teacher of mine who liberated me on that second count of finding the words to pray. As i'm sure is the case with many of you i have my moments of feeling a bit like a perfectionist and if i can't find the exact right words to capture what i feel i want to stay in prayer. I won't pray at all. And my teacher in seminary a former catholic nun by the name of dodie donnelly who was then probably in her mid-to-late 70s. Said something that loosened that. Chain and bind around me. She said to us quite simply. That there is no such thing as prayer. Only pray she said. Meaning that there is no such thing as prayer with a capital p. The right way that it must be done or said. Only people who pray. People who fill their hearts and lives with prayers to offer. And the reading from lauren winner this morning reminds us that perhaps the most important aspect of prayer. It's not the outcome which is one of those other things i was saying we frequently get hung up on. But rather the very act of praying itself. The very act she seems to say to us is transformative. Sediment is being laid i like that lime. Our hearts change. We are opened up. And we direct our intention. Toward those we worried about or care about. Torta shoes in the world. Toward those with whom we are in conflict. And we find some sense of solace or some sense that at least we have done something. About all of the beauty and heartbreak. Which enters our lives. Lauren winner seems to be reminding us something we forget frequently. Which is that praying. Is more an end in itself. Then we think. So perhaps that's the first lesson about prayer. The first lesson being that we need to change our expectations. Both of ourselves when we enter moments of prayer. And of the outcome on the other side when we come out of prayer. For friends we will not compose flawless and all-encompassing prayers that are perfectly worded. To take up and lift up everything in our lives. We will not use prayer in order to achieve something particular in the world. But what if we pray instead to change our own hearts. To channel the spirit of the whole community. For those in need. What if we see prayer. As what we can offer. To those huge and intractable problems in our world that are greater. Then any one of us will ever be able to control or influence. And for those of us who are theists. Perhaps prayer can be seen as a vehicle. As a way to get closer to god. To commune with the divine. Offering our gratitude and sharing our fears with that which is. Greater. And any of our one lives. It seems to me friends that we pray because it is a language. Maybe sometimes feels like the only language. That we have. To express something that is inexpressible. In any other way. Think about it. When you pray you don't do something that you could write an essay about. Or write a letter about it something unique it's a way of talking a way of communicating those deep. Innermost yearnings and longings and fears. In a way that nothing else will quite capture. Prayer is. Unique. Now as for that last part that god park. That whom we are praying to. Which gets so many of us liberal religious folks frequently stuck. I like offering often to you. The definition from alice walker's novel the color purple. Because it seems to me a definition of god not only that i deeply enjoy and appreciate. But one that helps us move beyond. Stockness. The character shug says the following in the novel. Here's the thing. Say shug. The thing i believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world. With god. But only them that search for it inside. Find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking. Or you don't know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks i think. Sorrow lord. God don't look like nothing. It ain't something you can look at a part. Apart from anything else including yourself. I believe god is everything. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that. And be happy to feel that. You found it. I love that quotation for so many reasons. One because it reminds me that we need to search for god becomes it in her sayings here we need to search for it inside. Do if we find god inside that helps us to see god manifesting god self. In other places. I also love that she puts her finger on the fact that many of us can go along to our days and if we're happy we have no sense of anything greater than our own being because our being. Is enough. My life is enough when i'm happy. But trouble do it for most folks i think she says sorrow lord. But for some reason we don't even turn to prayer. Unless something bad is happening. To us and with us. It reminds me of those times when many of you saunter up to me perhaps a little bit sideways and ask if it's okay to come and talk. Even if you aren't in crisis. And i say to you that's what i'm here for to talk to you no matter what. So that we can lift up in together in spirit and in prayer and in reflection on our lives. Whether things are good or bad. Or some mix of the two as is frequently the case. And so i wonder with you this morning about why it matters so much. That we know precisely. Who god is or what this greater something is that we pray to. That we have an image precisely of what god's self looks like. Because we don't need that image in order to pray none the less. Whatever you name that source to which you pray perhaps you name it the origin of compassion. Perhaps you pray to the source of love. Or perhaps you pray to the strength to work for justice in the world. Whatever name you give to that to which you pray. Or perhaps you even only pray to that within you. Which knows that something greater. However you conceptualize or envision. That toward which you move in prayer. I can't imagine. But not praying at all is preferable to praying to something. Or to engaging in that act of prayer because of what it does to you. To sit still for a while. To take stock of your life. To give thanks to those who have. Giving you so much. Friends i think it's worthwhile. To take a chance. To take a chance in speaking to the mystery. In speaking to that which is greater. Because it can move us beyond the stalemate. Of needing to have everything figured out. That we human beings get so stuck up in whether it's about prayer or anything else. We don't like to try to do anything unless we know we've got everything aligned and right and clear. And prayer is one of those things that we will never have so clearly charted or figure it out. Or marked in an appropriate box. So why not take a chance. Take a chance on praying to that which is ultimate. And mysterious. And will never be fully known. But can be hinted at. And guests toward. Friends we pray to the ultimate. Because we know we won't know what the result will be or that we will ever fully understand our lives or that which is greater than our own ego and self. But we pray because we know that somehow. And in some way. Simply offering gratitude. And blessing. And wishes of consolation. Matter. They make a difference in our lives. Even if that only difference that we know for sure. Is in our own hearts. Even if the only difference that we can truly count on. Is in the reshaping and expanding. Of our own souls. Isn't that worth it anyway. Isn't it worth it to make time to pray. For that. In and out of itself. To expand your heart and your compassion. To expand your capacity. For justice. Lastly i want to look a little bit more at this issue. Of the words. Despres. Too often. We hear ministers or others pray and we think i could never do that. I would never find the right words to say what i need to say and prayer is so important that if i can't get it right. I'm better off not doing it at all. We feel like it's crucial that we capture precisely. How we feel. Or what we want. Or what it is that's pressing in on our lives. And for some reason. We fear that if the words are wrong. The meaning itself will be lost. Much as i can't imagine praying to a god. Who has love. Who has anything less than love and compassion for all people. I can't imagine a god so exacting. That she wouldn't understand the meaning of a prayer. And certainly the feeling behind it. Even if the words are less than ideal. Can you imagine a god that wouldn't get what you're saying even if the words aren't perfect. Very act and effort at prayer is so much more. And so much more important. And getting it right. You see i think that we are all amateurs when it comes to prayer. We're all groping for something sublime. With the everyday language that we have. We're doing the best. With what we've been given. To try to express something. Which feel so beyond has. So let me close with a prayer. A prayer by the trappist monk thomas merton. One of the most eloquent prayers that i have ever heard. Not because it is beautiful. But because it is honest. Because it is i would say aching. And because it is written in hope. In hope. Better that even when he cannot feel a short of. Might actually come true. This is thomas merton prayer. My lord god. I have no idea. Where i am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain. Where it will end. Nor do i really know myself. And the fact that i think i am following your will. Does not mean that i am actually doing so. But i believe. That my desire to please you. Does in fact. Please you. And i hope that i have that desire in all that i am doing. I hope that i will never do anything apart from that desire. And i know. That if i do this you will lead me by the right road. No i may know nothing about it. Therefore will i trust you always. Though i may seem to be lost. And in the shadow of death. I will fear not. For you are ever with me. And you will never leave me. Face my perils. Alone. Friends may the prayers of our hearts. Always feel sufficient. May we trust and believe. In our hearts prayers. May we know that expressing gratitude and beauty and blessing. Is for us one and all. And whatever words we can find. So may it be.

all-souls_org

07.01.28LookingForward.mp3

Before i share this morning's reading i want to beg your pardon. A preacher facing six-and-a-half months of pulpit silence. Might have a lot on his mind to say on a given morning and you'll excuse me if i go just a little bit longer. Then i usually do. Not too much though. Are reading this morning is from the torah. The book of exodus. Chapter 25. Verses 1 through 5 and. 20 through 21. God said to moses on mount sinai. When you enter the land i am going to give you. The land itself must have deserved. A sabbath. For 6 years. So your fields. I'm 46 years prune your vineyards. And gather their crops. But in the seventh year. The land is to have a sabbath of rest. A sabbath. T'god. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. The people may ask. What will we eat in the seventh year. If we do not plant or harvest our crops. Do not fear. For i will send you such a blessing. In the sixth year. That the land will yield enough. For three years. Here in three. In ancient israel it was the practice of jews. To let their fields lie fallow every seventh year. To give them rest. To allow the the soil to replenish itself. To recover some of the minerals and nutrients that it had shared and spence. During six successive harvest. The israelites lived close to the land. And learn from it. And somewhere along the line they realize that what is good for the earth. Is sometimes good for its creatures. 2. That just has the soil needs time for replenishment. So2. Does the soul. Then if we work this all year after year if we harvest its offerings and rely on its sustenance it eventually becomes depleted. It loses its. Soulfulness. And so they set aside the seventh day. And called it sabbath. A day of rest. And the seventh year they called the sabbatical year. A year. To replenish. And that's how it became common practice. Over the years for clergy. After about six years of service to receive a sabbatical. In agricultural communities the fallow year is seen as an investment. In the future. Of the lamb. And the community. An investment in the land's ability to continue to share its abundance. Down the road. In religious communities the sabbatical is an investment to. And investment in the people's shared spiritual life. An investment in their leader and teacher. In the hopes that. A replenished soul. Might have a little wisdom and inspiration. To share for another 6 years worth of sermons. And counseling. Many of you have asked what i'll be doing on my sabbatical. Part of what i'll be doing. Is resting. Together with chris who as an english professor has managed to wrangle a sabbatical of his own this semester. Many of you know that we spend much time apart and this will be a time for us to be together. We will be resting in a very beautiful part of the world. I thought i'd try to keep this a secret for a while but that's not going to work. Tomorrow afternoon our plane leaves for barcelona and will spend most of the sabbatical there. Rest in flies. Rest implies more than vacation though. It also requires the focused attention. To the spirit. During the sabbatical i've set aside chunks of time for prayer. And meditation. First at a monastery in france. Called to say. The meditative chanting of the two brothers have long been. Have long drawn pilgrims from across the world. And it has been my dream for over 15 years to visit and. Chan. In today. I will fulfill that dream. This sabbatical. Later i'll spend time at a buddhist retreat center the same buddhist retreat center that i went 26 years ago. When i had to ponder and meditate whether or not to accept the call. About 180 year-old church. From washington dc. It had good results the first time i went i hope it will again. A significant part of the time will be spent studying and writing many of you know i'm pursuing a doctorate. On the subject of my project is the spiritual practices in disciplines. A nineteenth-century. Unitarians. And how they might be used to enrich our own spiritual lives. Many view taken my class call. Unitarian universalist spiritual practice. And this research deepens and extends that effort. My goal is to introduce unitarians to our own rich spiritual heritage. A heritage we are largely. Unaware of. I'm also working with an editor to shape some of my thoughts and sermons into a small book. On the subject of spiritual resilience. Why do some souls bounce back. And others not. You've heard me touch on this before and you'll hear it again when i. Return. So that's just a little bit about me. But this morning i really want to talk about you. You see in the torah when god tells moses about the sabbatical year he anticipates. The people's. Anxieties. And so in verse 20 of exodus god says to moses essentially now when you tell the people about the sabbatical they're going to freak out. They will say well that's all very well and good for the land / pastor to lie fallow for the year. But what will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops pastor. And maybe that's better question on your minds as well. What about us. What are the spiritual opportunities of the sabbatical for the congregation. I can think of many but let me mention. 3. First. The absence of the senior leader of an organization. Provides an opportunity. For the leadership of others. Staff and laity. Flourish and grow. Last week we saw an early example of this when janet randolph our congregational president stepped up to this pulpit and asked us to dig deeper. To balance our budget. But only after she and our board had done so themselves. That was a leadership moment. The sabbatical provides all of us at all levels of the church and opportunity to take on a little extra leadership. While i'm away to find our vocation in the church. There is no one for whom this is more true. Then the reverend shawna lynn good. And let me just say how good it feels for me. To leave. The leadership of this church in the hands of such a good and talented. Colleague thank you so much, shauna will be acting senior minister and chief of staff while i'm away and will continue to preach once a month. And be in the pulpit nearly every sunday to provide a continuity of spiritual leadership. For all of us while i'm way. Shawna will lead a talented professional staff that you are only beginning to get to know. I hope that while i'm away you will take time to discover and recognize the gifts. That every member of our staff brings. The sabbatical is an opportunity for everyone to step up. And that means you too. Frankly while i'm away. Your church needs you. To lend a hand. Even while i'm here. A couple of ministers aren't enough to care and tends to the needs. Of almost 800 members of this church. We rely on one another to be the shoulder to lean on. To bring the casserole when we're sick. The plant the church gardens and make them grow. To teach our children. The sabbatical is an opportunity. To find your way to serve the church so please. Show up. And linda hands. The second spiritual opportunity for a congregation during the sabbatical is this. It provides the congregation with a chance to rediscover its identity. Apart from its minister. I know i don't need to remind you all that this church is 185 years old. And it for most of those 185 years it has been a vibrant and strong congregation. Bringing a strong voice and progressive religion to our nation's capital. Immediately before i arrived at the church. It had gone through a difficult time and had dwindled in numbers. And as a result i fear that some of us have lost the powerful sense of continuity. Of the strain of this church. And have law that failed to remind ourselves that that strength is apart from any particular minister and comes from all of us in the pews and all of us who've come before us in the pews. The sabbatical is a time for us to remember the many sources of strength. Of this congregation. A minister when they go on sabbatical faces the difficult challenge. Of finding their own. Humanness. Apart from their role. Invocation is minister. And that often presents a crisis for a minister. On sabbatical. You have that same opportunity here at the church. Define. The identity of this congregation. Apart from your minister. The third opportunity that the sabbatical of fords and this is one that you should be very excited about is the chance to receive an abundance of fresh spiritual insight. You know i'll tell you i wish i were going to be around for the next six and a half months to hear all the outstanding preachers that we've lined up to preach from this pulpit while i'm away. Weave. We've lined up some of the best preachers from within our movement and beyond for instance did you notice on the front page of the post on wednesday one of our guest preachers showed up. It was melissa harris lacewell. Dr. harris lacewell is a lifelong unitarian and professor of african american studies at princeton. A frequent commentator on racial politics. Harris lacewell appeared on the front page of wednesday's post. In that article on barack obama. And his relationship with the african-american community that i'm sure many of you read. So there was a guest preacher at all souls on the front page of the post. Or take for example bill schultz. Reverend schultz is the former executive director of amnesty international. And former presidents of our denomination. 12 years at the helm of amnesty. Has leadville to fundamentally re-examine his theology. In the light of the torture. And the human rights abuses that he saw over those years. He will share some of those thoughts with us when he comes to preach in april. Forest church comes in may. The late son of the late senator frank church and one of the foremost public theologians in our movements. Tara brach one of the leading buddhist teachers on the east coast. Rabbi daniel swartz a committed environmentalist and jewish theologian will preach on earth day. This is a wonderful list of people who will grace this pulpit and share it with reverend lynn good and the other pastors of this church. I hope you will show up and listen to them. You can think of these guests preachers as opening fresh windows on your soul. Is giving you new insight letting new light in. So that you can hear perspectives that you wouldn't hear. From me or from shauna. Now i want to say a word about our future. Yeah we've been making such a big deal about this sabbatical i sometimes forget i'm only going away for six and a half months. I'll be back in august and when i come back replenished and rested. I'm going to be raring to go. And there will be much exciting and important work for us to do together. And by way of segueing into our future let me share with you just a little story. Before church one sunday morning. Pastor smith. Noticed little alex standing in the for year of the church. Staring up at a large plaque. The plaque was covered with names. And small american flags. The seven-year-old had been staring at the plaque intently for some. Time now so the pastor walked up to him and said quietly. Good morning alex. Good morning pastor. Set alex. And pointing to the plaque he asked. Pastor smith what's. What's this. The pastor said well son. It's a memorial. To all the young men and women. Who died in the service. Alex continue to look soberly. At the plaque. And finally in a quiet and trembling voice asked his pastor. Which service. The 9:15 or 11:15. Which is just a way of reminding you. Then when we go to two services in the fall it's not going to kill us okay. On september 9th the sunday after labor day we will move to a format of two identical sunday morning services. If you will look around you this morning and see how crowded we are you'll recognize the need for it. They'll be at 9:15 and 11:15 a.m.. It's been getting crowded here at the church and all of us want to make room. For every person who seeks the ministry of this congregation. I for one am convinced. That the ministry of this congregation in a unitarian universalism has only begun to touch the people. That we need to touch and the fall will make room for them. Natsu services won't kill us. But there is a war raging right now that is doing just that. I was so proud to join. So many of you yesterday down on the mall. To call for an end. To that unnecessary. An unjust war. Clap your hands if you were at the march yesterday i want to hear from you and you know i was reminded of something yesterday because there was a big interfaith service and rally at a lutheran church before that and. I was asked to participate in that rally and the members of our choir were asked to leave that congregation in singing at that rally. And then when we got down to the mall afterwards you would have been proud to see our minister of social justice louise green. Actually emceeing the first part of the rally downtown the mall itself and what it reminded me what it reminded me is that increasingly this congregation is called on to provide leadership and our nation's capital to be a voice for progressive religion and i am looking forward when i come back in the fall to continuing that good work. Because when i come back this fall. This nation will be launching. A new electoral cycle. And in it is an important cycle. For the outcome of those elections in the outcome of those elections the issues of peace. Justice. And the very future of our earth. Are held in the balance. Our role in that election cycle will not be to support one candidate or the other. That's not the role of the church. Our role will be to make sure that progressive religious values and the issues that we care so deeply about are the defining issues. Are the 2008 campaign. We have important work ahead of us and i look forward to returning in this pulpit in august so that together we can spread the good news of our faith. To our larger world. Enclosing. Enclosing let me just say that there is one. Pastoral duty. That i will. Continue while i'm away. And that is that i will continue to pray for each and everyone of you. And i asked that if you're praying unitarians that you pray for me too. Sometimes people say to me. Rob i have a hard time with prayer. Because i'm not sure i believe in a god who answers. Our prayers. Here's what i know about prayer. When i pray for someone. The quality of my love. For that person. Improves. Weather and how god answers our prayers is a mystery. It is a fact though. The prayer. Increases our capacity of love. For another person. So i will pray for you. And expected because of that prayer. My love for you will only grow stronger. While we're away. There may be something that you'd like to communicate. To me about those prayers while i'm gone. And then pierce hall after service. There'll be a box. Avril postcards. For you to write either a good wish. Or a request a specific request. For prayers. William away. And i will take that list. As well as the membership directory. With me. So i can hold you all in my heart's. So i will miss you. And i will pray for you. And i asked it under shauna's leadership. You all take good care of one another. In my absence. I already look forward to returning to you on august 19th. And taking up again the work. That we share together. The work of knitting are broken communities. And our broken world. Back into one great. I love you. Amman.

all-souls_org

03.09.07WindAtOurFace.mp3

Before i share this morning's reading i just want to say welcome to all of you on this glorious first sunday after labor day homecoming sunday weekend it's so good to see the sanctuary filled with all of you again and i also want to apologize that we ran out of programs this morning especially for those of you who are new it doesn't feel very good little disconcerting not to be able to follow along in the program so we apologize for that and promise that next week we'll have more than enough a reading this morning is from the german poet rainer maria rilke called a walk my eyes already touch a hill and so we are grasped by what we cannot grasp it has its inner light even from a distance and changes us even if we do not reach us reach it into something else which hardly sensing it we already are a gesture waves us on answering our own wave but all we feel is the wind at our face and friday it finally came so why am i talking about the weather this morning. Rather than reveling in the glories and blessings of creation we allow life the only life will ever have to pass us by that's what i mean when i say sometimes my soul feels like a washington summer the image that comes to mind to me is of someone sitting on their front porch on a hot august afternoon in their feet are up and they're sipping iced tea and they're fanning themselves trying to keep cool and occasionally the person will doze off in the drowsy heat of august while the car is in the people while while life passes them by now that's a fine way to spend an afternoon but it's a lousy way to spend a life to its fullest to all of us to once again engaged in holy living and by holy living i mean this by holy living i mean the thoughtful and passionate love of life. The thoughtful and passionate love of life. Are there two pieces to that there's a thoughtful love of life i love that is considered and and reflective hell of it takes our experience of our lives lives and passes it through the fire of thought so that we can discern meaning and purpose in our lives that's a thoughtful love of life but there's also the passionate love of life engaged in a passionate and thoughtful love of life. Or does this line from mary oliver's poem resonate with you today mary oliver asks us are you breathing just a little and calling it life are you breathing just a little and calling it life i know there are times when i left into this malaise.

all-souls_org

07.06.24NoEqualOpportunityDisasters.mp3

So by this time i'd say that we are all aware of the events of august 2005. Which led to the devastation of new orleans and the gulf coast in the landing ashore of hurricane katrina. And the subsequent breed to the levee system. A combination of environmental degradation over time warming sees a busy hurricane season mixed with engineering the glass in failure and adequate warning and evacuation systems for the poor. Government and aptitude callous disregard. All created a horrific catastrophe. To this day the disaster continues to play out. And rebuilding of the area remains a huge challenge. For a very powerful review of the events more than i can do here i highly recommend spike lee's movie when the levees broke. It's a moving for our work of storytelling and music we watched two sections to prepare for are all souls intergenerational service trip in which 70 of us aid 6286 travel to new orleans during easter week. It's worth the investment of your time and energy to watch and it shows the incredible spirit and anger and hope of the people on that service trips around the room could you just stand for a second will acknowledge your service on that trip. Sun this morning i only have a short time to preach on this huge topic not for hours like spike lee which should relieve most of you we have all struggled to make some sense of this catastrophe. Where the worst of the country seems exposed. Any an aptitude of our government with shocking and enraging too many. We watched journalist become overwhelmed by emotion stumble forwards and then say very very awkward thing like wolf blitzer did on september 1st 2005 on cnn. Trying to make some sense of what he's seen he says you simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals so many of these people. Are so poor and they are so black and this is going to raise lots of questions for the people who are watching the story on lots of questions about how our own environmental and engineering failures created the circumstances to put certain of our neighbors are fellow americans most at risk. I know that sounds in the room may also be experiencing katrina fatigue it's okay feeling that attention can only be sustained for so long. Weary of rehashing the disturbing story in the images. Did i want to preach about the situation because our service trip to new orleans affected me so deeply. And because i believe that the way we see the disaster and the area now is important both in our national conversation and in shaping the recovery effort. I'm reminded of the story that was just told by reverend jeremiah wright at general assembly this last week and portland he talks about a preacher who gave his first sermon after graduating from seminary. The young graduate waxed eloquently for a very long time. About the many themes that had galvanized him during three years of study. The congregation side and tried to hold on. Finally he moved to the closing on man. And an elderly member of the church came up to him at the end and poked her finger on his belly and said son i commend you for all the fire and passion in there but please please when you preach. Give it to me in a cup i can drink. The minding that warning. Let me start with the contrasting world that we saw in new orleans and paint a picture. As part of our trip we were urged by local residents to spend money in the economy and put our dollars to work. As fanny brice so famously said do you know this one money is like manure it's no good unless you spread it around so some of us stayed and comfortable hotels ate meals and the beautiful french quarter and garden district wait jambalaya and heard cajun music we listen to fabulous live shows late at night. We marveled at the mardi gras historical exhibition at the state museum. We stopped people all over town who are still exuberant funny kind and determined to rebuild what is our unique national treasure. Which there is a large portion of the city that is completely back to normal. And a fantastic place to visit. As another view of our trip many of us stayed in one large dormitory-style room and hands-on network and made communal meals. All of us did service work. Either as the gutting and rehab construction teams who work very hard on the hardcore get in the housework or those of us who did work in animal shelters library gardens or neighborhood. We all contributed. And we tore the worst devastation i have ever seen in my life miles and miles and i mean miles of ravaged neighborhoods some of which look like the storm happened last week no change. One especially striking image was a destroyed elementary school in the lower 9th ward new orleans this is a working-class african-american area that has come to represent the worst destruction of katrina. But you may not realize that this now somewhat infamous area was actually 60% homeowners. It was very similar to my own neighborhood of petworth in dc in previous decades before gentrification began. We saw a school that had been completely destroyed it was very similar to truesdell the school that sits across the street from me. The place where shouts of kids racing on the playground wake us up every morning. But now the school in the lower ninth was a huge jumble of riding smelly wood. Twisted metal having been completely submerged in 8 to 10 ft of water for more than two weeks. Eight to ten feet of water for more than two weeks. We walked around the building with the homework without backpacks with a little library books and stuffed animals children's art. All mixed together as if someone had taken the school up in a plane thrown it to the yard and then turned it in a cement mixer. This was just one building. I'm one block and one neighborhood in an area of damaged is 90000 square miles. From new orleans up through mississippi and beyond. The scale is huge. And it's hard to comprehend. How are we to make sense of these two jarringly contrasting worlds that we experienced in new orleans. The fact that we could have beignets and coffee and listen to live music in the french quarter and then we could go to the lower ninth and practically everything was subsumed. What differences lead to each of the outcomes in very different areas in the same city. I believe that the answer lies in the title of the anthology that i've been reading this week. It's called there is no such thing as a natural disaster. Race class and hurricane katrina. There is wind and water and storm across the planet up and down the gulf coast. But there is no equal opportunity calamity. There is no level playing field when the hurricane is actually bearing down. This is true around the globe in many countries and true in the united states. What showed in mind-numbing detail on the hours of tv coverage of places like the hellhole of the superdome. Was it a new orleans mostly poor. And mostly african-american residents were the ones left behind. We can point to a multitude of reasons and each one is important in new orleans. Poor and working-class black people were more likely to live in the low-lying areas. They're cheaper they're more likely to exclusively use public transportation and have no car to not know people who have a car. To be part of families where the majority of folks lived in the same neighborhoods for generations. We heard after the storm that 60% of the residents of new orleans have never been outside of new orleans and their entire life. The same low-income groups that are skeptical of government institutions for a reason and warning. The same low-income folks who were trapped in the large charity hospital the low-income senior homes and on and on. And after the storm we again have seen very unequal rebuilding success for another multitude of reasons that is interlocking poor and working-class black residents are more likely to need state and federal rebuilding funds because they don't have the private savings account. To jumpstart construction. They are more likely to live in an area where there is still today not full restoration of electricity gas and sewer. If you don't have all three you can't get a fema trailer. It's a catch-22 you have to have the utilities before your granted the trailer. They were more likely to have been placed on an evacuation bus or plane when they finally did come and be sent out to a city that was not of their choice. And be lacking the funds to return and on and on. So the cumulative effect of the various structures that are coming into play create this kind of sticky web were few moves are possible. Said like a quote at length from an illuminating at they called towards the transformative view of race in the book i mentioned earlier it tries to make sense of what we were and are sing in the middle of the sermon so hang in there it's a somewhat academic source but i think it's important analysis. The four riders put it this way the inability of americans both white and black conservative and progressive to analyze the katrina disaster in a way that would have rendered visible the central role of structural racism in the disaster resulted from the narrow way in which we tend to understand racism. The norman ever used. We think it is the aberrant behavior of white supremacist. Or it is easily identified by the discriminatory intent a perpetrators. Furthermore we sometimes believe that racism is static it is an offense committed by a particular person at a specific moment in time. Racism happens and then it ends. The authors go on to say that racism however is as much a product of systems and institutions as it is a manifestation of individual behavior indeed structural arrangements produce and reproduce produce and keep reproducing racial outcomes and then can reinforce the racial attitudes of people who are witnessing this reproduction. So the usual conceptualization of racism as primarily a psychological event is inadequate and incomplete above all else it fails to consider the ways that institutions work together to perpetuate racial disparity. It is hardly surprising then the authors conclude. That in the discourse on the katrina crisis. Almost no one acknowledged that the connections between the public and the private institutions over space and time. For many generations. Limited the resources the opportunities of the city's black residents and conspired to put them directly in harm's way. Another way to see structural racism is in the visual metaphor of the birdcage which was created by maryland fries in the same chapter if you see a single strand of a cage one at a time. It's very hard to think why a bird couldn't just fly around it. But when the bars are lined up together. Eminem place under a lid and locked in for the foundation the bird is trapped inside. Structural racism work this way with the accumulation of bar after bar after bar gradually forming a cage where almost no escape is possible. We saw this both symbolically and in actuality in the destruction of hurricane katrina. This was no equal opportunity disaster because some folks had the ability to fly in many directions. And other folks we're sitting ducks. For the devastation and the suffering. To this day structural racism. Which we will name as the connection between public and private institutions. Overspace overtime limit the resources the opportunities in the recovery and the healing effort. The authors of that essay argued forcefully that if we can see the structures working together. That we can get out of the trap of both individual and institutional blame. This blame is used by both conservative and progressive. It keeps us in a position and makes us unable to change the landscape. The inner work of community organizing with washington interfaith network we often are asking essential question about how we see. Who is the city for in around city of washington in all us urban areas. We see how structures are linked together to create these low-income areas of color. Bird cages where the same opportunities are simply not present in new orleans when we asked who is the city for. There will be a complex set of issues to address. Over what is widely acknowledged to be 10 to 15 years of recovery. But in the rebuilding. We actually have a rare opportunity so much was devastated. That the planners can shift some of the essential structures that kept certain residents trapped. Will advocacy on gulf coast issues take into account the need to build a political well around creating opportunities for all levels of education and come. Will the funding streams and the bureaucracy benefit only the wealthy few or the upper middle class. Four-wheel the money leverage new lives for the poor and working-class whites and people of color across the region. When we join in the work of hundreds of congregation sending literally thousands of volunteers will our efforts benefit those. Who need assistance was desperately. Are those who have the means to be most organized. I won't try to answer those questions at this moment are go on to draw more conclusions for then i might be considered guilty of handing you more than the cup of the moment. Let me end by saying this. As we do the deep work of transforming ourselves. Our point of view. Our understanding our actions we can grow and change in our understanding of the institutional and structural racism that emerges from the particular history of this country. In this congregation that welcomes all souls we have stated that our core mission is to be diverse spirit growing justice-seeking institution. We have affirmed that our lens. Or the permanent pair of glasses that we choose to wear. Is that of seeing our church as most dynamic most vibrant most interesting. What are we are multiracial multicultural an anti-racist. That pair of glasses that we put on comes in with a built-in power analysis that asserts that what we see. What we say is happening. Is shape a constructed. Natchez by individual acts. But also by institutions. And not just by institutions but perhaps most importantly. By institutions connecting with each other. Is structures that promise both peril and promise. Our choices matter. Baby keep our eyes wide open. Baby be unafraid to speak truth to power. Maybe commit with solidarity and accountability over the long haul in new orleans and the gulf coast for those who are struggling most supply.

all-souls_org

03.12.14SeasonOfMiracles.mp3

There's no reading this morning you can skip that part in the order of service just a sermon in a story. This is the season of miracles. The time of year when people all over the world pause to remember and retell the stories that have been handed down over the ages. Stories so fantastic. They can only be called miraculous. Like how a ragtag band of rebels. Call the maccabees. Squeezed eight days of light. Out of one day's worth of oil. Or how an angel named gabriel came to a woman called mary a virgin. And told her she was pregnant. With the son of god. Or have a son after months of sinking lower and lower in the sky and leaving us cold and dark finally turned around and decided to come closer again. Or even how a very large man in a red suit manages to squeeze down a very small chimney each year to deliver our presents. No it doesn't feel like it this morning the gods must look with favor upon this time of the year for it is a season. Of miracles. Or is it anymore. It seems that one by one the miracles seem to get debunked. First scientists explain that the earth orbited reliably around the sun accounting for its seasonal departure and return. The rabbis have been arguing for centuries about whether the hanukkah oil really lasted eight days or not. And nowadays most biblical scholars believe that the greek word that used to be translated as virgin probably should have been just translated as young maiden. At least we still got santa claus. So is the age of miracles over do we live in a disenchanted world. I hope not. I for one still believe in miracles. And this morning i want to tell you a story. It's a story about a miracle and or if not a miracle exactly then at least a story that has been called the closest thing that unitarian universalist have to a miracle story. And so i invite you on this wintry morin together round for a moment and cozy up and listen to one more story to add to this season. Of miracles. Our story begins in 1750 with a man named thomas potter. Thomas potter was a farmer who who owned the farm on the coast of new jersey near barnegat bay. Not to me jersey seems like an unlikely place for a miracle to occur but the town in which thomas potter's farm was located was called good luck new jersey. And potter would soon encounter some. Potter was a devoutly religious man a quaker who love to discuss and debate religion with friends and strangers. He was a curious so eager to learn about other people's faith in to share with them his own so on sunday mornings he would gather folks around the kitchen around the kitchen table to talk about the big questions of faith and it was in this manner that thomas potter first became exposed to the face that changed his life of faith called universalism. The belief that all souls. Not just. Song. Would ultimately be saved. The belief that god's love wasn't partial or tuesday but generous and universal. Will one day the story goes mary potter thomas's wife got sick and tired of him using her kitchen table for his sunday gatherings and so potter build a small chapel out in the farm. A chapel who's express chapel who's express purpose with the house a preacher of the universalist gospel and so potter built the chapel and he waited for his preacher. And he waited. And he waited. And his wife mary told him to give up hope and after a few years is neighbors. across their fences and wondered what this crazy man was doing with an empty chapel in his yard. And potter kept waiting. Now about the same time. Far across the atlantic. The man who will become the hero of our story was having a crisis of faith. John murray was a modest englishmen. An englishman who had been raised an anglican but later converted to and became a preacher of methodism in london. Murray joined with all the other orthodox preachers of london in excoriating an irishman who would come to town and irishman named rally james rally who is known to be leading his flock astray with this very belief that god loved all people. And not just some. But one day while visiting rallies church to see the center for himself murray was converted by the love that he experienced in the chapel that day and he became a universalist preacher himself but just as this happened marie was beset by tragedy. First his wife and then his only child died of tuberculosis. Anne-marie mired in debt with tossed. In a debtors prison. Upon his release he renounce his faith and his homeland and. Like so many other europeans who are down on their luck at the time he cut his losses and sailed to the new world. Murray booked passage on a brig called the hand-in-hand and set sail for new york. For the trip across the atlantic was treacherous. Bad weather and navigation errors forced to bow to reroute to philadelphia and then come up the coast to new york but as it did the hand-in-hand struck ground. On a sandbar. Just off. Good luck new jersey. Murray was put in charge. Of going ashore to look for help. And the first house that he stumbled upon. What time is potter's. His potter recall the incident once he heard murray story of his trials and london and his trip across the ocean potter knew he had found his preacher it has been 10 years since he built the chapel. He knew he had found the one who would fill the pulpit of his long-vacant chapel and with joy potter threw his arms around murray and said to him i have longed to see you. I have been expecting you. For a long long time. Now well potter was convinced that murray had been sent to him by god. Murray was not he protested that his preaching days were over and and it's so many evils have befallen him yet lost his faith. Besides he said i have to leave as soon as the winds are favorable to lift the boat off the sandbar. So potter and potter said the wind will never change sir. Until you have delivered to us. In that meeting house. A message from god. Sault marie struck a deal he said that if the boat were still stuck in the bay the following sunday he would indeed preach in potter's meetinghouse what if the weather change then he would be off with the wind well sunday morning came around. And the ship was still stuck. And on september 30th 1770 jonmarie preached a sermon on universalism to potter and his family and neighbors. Perhaps the first universalist sermon. In the new world. The next day the wind changed and marie left but soon returns to goodluck new jersey and with his friend thomas potter traveled throughout the villages of the area spreading the universalist gospel. Later he left to found the first universalist church in america. In gloucester massachusetts. And in 1793 he organized the scattered network of churches into the universalist. Church. Of america. Which m1961 merged with the american unitarian association to found the unitarian universalist association. And that's the story. That's the story of how the notion. That god loved all souls. And not just some. Spread throughout america. So it's not a virgin birth. Or even a parting of seas. But it's still a pretty good story i think. But my question this morning is what are we to make. Of these stories. What do we do with them. Do we suspend our disbelief. Like when we go to the theater or the movies and allow ourselves to take in the story just as it is no matter how improbable. Where do we poke holes in the story revealing its inconsistencies and impossibilities like the smart aleck at the school assembly who always tried to figure out how the magician did his tricks. Or. Do we shrug our shoulders. And lemons. But maybe there was an age of miracles long ago. When god and people worked wonders. But that age isn't our age. And that god is in our god anymore. And we aren't those people. Anymore either. What do we do with these stories. And what do we do with all those little miracles that happened in our own life. The ones that were. You're the ones that were even afraid to tell our friends about because they were afraid they might think we're a little nuts if we shared it with them but deep down we really believe they're true. A lot of times in the confines of my study people will confide in me. A miracle that has happens to them. They figure that their minister at least has to listen to them and hear them out but they even asked me gingerly after they told me the story. Do you believe in miracles. And i tell them that yes. I do believe in miracles. Here's what i believe about miracles. For me a miracle is something fervently. Hoped for. That actually comes true. And that wouldn't have come true. If it hadn't been for the hope. A miracle is something fervently hope for that actually comes true but that wouldn't have come true. If it weren't for the hope. The miracle of hanukkah oriole would never have happened if the maccabees hadn't had the hope and faith to light the candles in the first place knowing full well they just had oil for one night. John murray would have never spread universalism in america gift thomas potter hadn't had the hope and faith to build a chapel in good luck new jersey of all places. And wait for someone to come by. And preaching it. And i do hope that we're. Still the kind of people. Who can make miracles happen. A people hopeful enough. Faithful enough expectant enough. That we will set out on the path of making our miracles occur and open ourselves up to the possibility that one day the spirit of of life might come along. And lend us a hand. Because that's really what it means to be a person of faith. To live and to work. In that hopeful and expectant. Frenzy age of miracles. Isn't over. Yet. My prayer for all of us this holiday season is that we experience. The hope. And faith. And expectation. That sometimes makes miracles. Come true. Happy holidays. I'm in.

all-souls_org

03.08.24MarchOn.mp3

It's been a tough summer in d.c.. As i said a summer of violence. With gangs patrolling the streets around this church killing innocent people. In their crossfire. Violence spreading throughout the whole community the violence not stopping at the borders of our city but throughout the world with war in liberia a deadly bomb at the un building in iraq. Another cycle of terror and retaliation in jerusalem. Just when we thought peace just when we thought we might be on the road to peace again. Friends labor day is next weekend and as for me i'm ready for this bloody summer to be over. So we needed some good news this weekend we needed something to celebrate we needed to be reminded of a better summer in washington a summer 40 years ago when a quarter million people gathered on the mall and their marching made a difference if you were at the original march on washington for jobs and freedom in 1963 will you please stand up now thank you or congress of racial equality which incidentally met in the basements of all souls church to provide security at the march and so dan was in his yellow t-shirt yesterday cuz he was doing he was doing security again yesterday at the end of march. And stood under the same tree where tom stood in 63 and heard dr. king preach his i have a dream speech. Yesterday was filled with lots of stories. You may not know that all souls was one of the major staging grounds for the march on washington d.c. news wanted to film their 40th anniversary special here in our sanctuary but apparently the lighting was all wrong so they went somewhere else but. 40 years later it was a much smaller crowd at the lincoln memorial and everyone was asking what is the significance of this march for us today how far have we really come over the last 40 years so some speakers emphasized the accomplishments other people focused on how far we still have to go to achieve the dream we still believed we could make it all better as people of faith we must equip ourselves for this march for this long march and we must march on. They speak different words on wednesday under the boot of a corporate lobbyist. And we see firsthand the progress we thought we'd achieved at the march was really only the beginning that there was still much work to be done. But just because we know these things are true is no excuse for us to succumb to cynicism or apathy cynicism is spiritual suicide instead we need to think about marching in a different way the history of the marches on washington teaches us that we need to conceive of our whole lives as a march for justice every day another step. And we must prepare ourselves for this long road and we must march on. Cuz i think about our lives as marches for justice. I'm reminded of something that was said about a former minister of all souls many of you know of the story of jim reeves jim served this church in the early sixties know he had grown up a fundamentalist jim converted to unitarianism after seminary and spends his brief career ministering to the poor and oppressed of this nation's cities especially here in dc and is part of this commitment read heated doctor king's call in 1965 for white clergy to join him in a march from selma to montgomery for voting rights. One night in selma is jim was coming out of a black diner for white segregationist came out of the shadows and in the middle of the street. Bludgeoned gym with a baseball bat. He died the next day. In one of the many eulogies given for jim in the weeks that followed one colleague said. Jim was marching long before selma. Jim was marching long before selma. What did he mean by that. He meant that this hasn't been some spontaneous or cavalier decision for reed to to go on this march that jim's whole life had been a careful march for justice each step he took was a step for freedom not just the few steps between selma in montgomery every step. What would it mean for you to conceive of your life. Does one long march for justice. And freedom what would it take to make that so. I think if we were about to begin along road race our coach might say to us just focus on one step at a time and i think that's good advice for this race 2. Focusing on one step at a time means that that we need to look at every decision we make in our lives through this lens of of justice and freedom so that the details and the dailiness of our lives reflect our larger commitments. Similarly the road away from justice and freedom. Is built one decision one step. One choice. At a time. Which path are we on. S. If our lives are to be long fruitful marches for justice then we must have the spiritual equivalent. About long-distance runners endurance. This is not a sprint. And if you haven't yet discovered. The deep wells of spirit that will sustain you over the long haul than i beg you to keep searching. And when you find them to dig deep. We must find sustenance and joy in this work are we will not last. Emma goldman said you know nobody wants to be a part of a revolution where there's no dancing. So take care of your body and your soul and your spirit. A little dance as we march. Finally i would say that the march is too long. To go it alone. And that we must surround ourselves with others. Who are on the same path. And that this is where the church comes in. The church is a community of people who are on this march together who sustain one another who who challenge one another who support one another in this long march of justice. You know this church through the ministry of its people over its long history. Has made along march of justice of its own. Purse for abolition. Later for integration and civil rights. When mccarthyism was on the rise this church march for civil liberties later for peace in vietnam then for women's rights and for the rights of gays and lesbians. So far it's been a 180 year march for justice and freedom at all souls church and we have only just begun. I want to say that the next step. For justice. The next to decision that we can make comes this october 3rd and 4th. Friday night and saturday when we will hold a social justice retreat here at the church when together we will determine what are the next steps are going to be in this march for justice where we will strengthen our existing ministries. And we will create exciting new ones and i hope that everyone here will mark their calendars and be present on that weekend in october it is that important. Because friends there is. Too much at stake. There is too much at stake. We must march now. To save our precious earth. We must march now to create peace rather than to rage war. We must march now until the circle at equality and justice extends to all of our brothers and sisters. We must. March to take back our nation from those who are leading it straight to hell. So put on your walking shoes and march on. Hold on tight. To those you love. And with them. Maruchan. I know the march is long keep your eyes. Fixed. On that vision of the finish line. The vision of the world. That we can build together. And let its beauty. Beckon you onward. Sobien. Almond.

all-souls_org

07.04.22EarthDay.mp3

On this earth day i'd like to introduce to you. Rabbi daniel schwartz. Rabbi swartz has work in the social justice field for the past decade. Combining his religious training with his fervent love and respect. For the environment. He served for two years as a coordinator for the greater washington interfaith power & light. An organization which works with congregation. And other religious institutions. Would rest moral and practical dimensions to energy use. We welcome rabbi swartz to also. Holding mic down a little i don't think i'm going to be making the all souls basketball team anytime in the near future. A student once asked her a vibe. Rabbi why do so many rabbis answer. A question with another question. The rabbi considered this carefully muttering to himself and. Consulting numerous learning texts. Finally he looked up and said. Why not. So in that tradition. I want to start with three questions. First with apologies to ross perot as former. Running mate. Why are you here. Now. Don't worry i don't mean this in a fundamentally existential sense. Rather. Why are you here in all souls this morning your. You're busy people. I'm sure there's work just crying out for attention let alone aaron's long overdue for completion. And then. There are surely more spectacular entertainment available in town. No. I'm guessing the. Something more important. Brings you here a search. 4. But more on that later. The second question is the obverse of the first why besides today. Am i no longer hear that is here in washington rather than in this church. Our family had been in dc for 13 years and a comfortable home in a great neighborhood and lovely. People's republic of takoma park. But we left because we too were searching searching for. But more on that in a moment. And now my third question which is. Imparting a n exercise i want you to all close your eyes for a moment just a moment not not going to sleep yet. And pictures of first image that comes to mind when you hear the word environment. Okay get that image firmly in mind. Now. Open your eyes. And raise your hands. If there were any. People in that image. This is a problem. In fact in many senses it is the problem the one that connects my three questions indeed connection is what it's all about. We are displaying and this is not unusual everytime i ask this question i get the same result. A profound lack of connection not only with the world around us but in a variety of other dimensions as well. I would bet. That one of the major reasons that you come here is to find. Connection. Connection to the transcendence. Connection to a sense of meaning in your life. Connections with caring community a connection to friends. And i left here. In part because of the ways that this area. Can make it hard. To connect. The search for connection within a religious fear. Is not too surprising the root of the world religion after all this ligera to connect like are ligaments connect. Parts of our body. But more precisely really gary means to reconnect. Remembers connection whether or not we seem to. I found it yet on this planet. Spiritual disconnect has very practical consequences indeed. I think it is at the heart of. Significant environmental problems from. Global climate change to. Overfishing in the oceans. How so. How does the. Check the world around us well. There are two flavors. To this disconnectedness each with their own set of consequences. And. Ways forward. The first described musically is. I drink muddy water and sleep out in a hollow log. Spiritually yes. Ezekiel chapter 37 in grammatically it's the disconnect. Between us and them. The second flavor can be sung to. I think to myself. What a wonderful world. Read in psalm 148 parsed by the disconnect between. What we do. And who we are. Let me start with the first a more obvious if no less intractable disconnect. Which lies at the intersection somewhere of environmental avenue and justice way. When we arrived to that corner we see. And then disconnected and it least two ways the first is through ignorance that expands into sheer obliviousness. Think back on our own little exercise about. What the word environment conjures up. Not seeing ourselves as a part of the environment. Means that we are apart from. It. Austere. It there. Endust what we do doesn't affect it and it's health or lack thereof does not affect. But in fact the environment. Is where we live. Where we learn where we work where we playing. Where we grow. Where we pray. So when we fouled we muddy our own water. Or more accurately. People. Muddy the waters. Of those with the least economic. And political power. We leave on lights not thinking that this little light of mine. Might come from some pretty cool play it spilling out. Deadly fumes. In neighborhoods that are disproportionately poor enough color. We drive and consumed goods trucked in from a distance by dirty diesel. Not thinking about the. Poison coming forth from our tailpipes. Or how they might be exacerbating asthma. In the children. Citicorp. Obliviousness at this late date. Seems pretty inexcusable but hey you know our species. Has a long history. Of other obliviousness. Humanity invented the plow. And domesticated the auction at the horse at roughly the same time in roughly the same part of the world. And it took. Several hundred years after that for someone to put the two together. Or if you prefer a more modern example. Look at what was considered fashionable in the 1970s. So please practice a bit of patience. Are obliviousness. But also persevere in your prodding until poop. People papa wake and then perhaps he will learn the environmental equivalent of the golden rule that is do unto those downstream. As you would have those upstream do to you. What really is inexcusable however. Is when we recognize that we affect them. And use that recognition. To exploit them for whether we are talking about the segregation and subjugation of people or the despoiling and destruction of land the same dynamic unfolds. Certain options. See them with less power. And so knowing that they can get away with it. The profit. 114 others to pay the price. So what if our profligate waste of energy floods some distant island. What are they going to do. As long as profits can be made by moving factories to exploit cheap labor. Or latinbar middle laws. Factories will be moved. And waters. Will be muddy. And so it is. That the counter the voice of prophet we need a prophetic voice. Ezekiel speaking for those downstream is he doesn't chapter 37 where he talks about the fat of the land. Who not only get the choicest harvest and the best water. But then going muddy up. That would just left over for the lean. The hungry. The poor the week. Or martin calling on the whole flock together to become a beloved community breaking down walls separating. People from people poor from rich people of color from people of pallor. Developed countries from those developing even congregations united in one faith. From. Unitarians. Sometimes. That voice that prophetic voice will turn a heart. Or if they are heartless. It may move them through shein. Or when they have no shame. It will call for justice to be established through law. So that the fact sheet. And the wall builders. Camp getaway with it anymore. And waters wants more run clean. What does think about profits is it you're not supposed to sit on your tush waiting for one to show up. When the bush is burning your supposed to shout out in any. Here i am ready. Truth to power. On behalf of a beloved ecosystem. But there are still plenty of pushing around all sorts of them plenty of water is still being muddy. How many katrina's will global warming have to spawn before you realize that walt hurricanes don't discriminate against tracer class they surely shine a bright light on societies that do. How many yvonne splinters from flocks of passenger pigeons in the sky 4 hours. It now exists only in memories. The great whale sounding and depths. It seemed no longer oceans once brimming with life that have become watery desert. The glaciers once sculpting granite mountains as if they were soft clay. Fantasy. How many will disappear. 4. Hearts. Rake. With longing. How long. Will the us of the present. Deal from the venoms of the future before we realize this is our own children and our children's children. Is the capitol power plant burns coal. Milwaukee fancy vehicles hummus on the beltway. For those of you who have. Some representation with your taxation. It's it's more than time for congress to move on a climate bill. And for those of you living in the nation's colony oaks i mean capital. The city council has introduced the clean cars bill here modeled after laws passed in california and a half-dozen other states designed to keep the day's children from choking on car exhaust while protecting the future by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Push that through. In my people scriptures the torah we are taught. But god is faithful the alumni are usually translated as forever and ever but more accurately let alone means to the end of time and space. And had means and then even further. Can't we be faithful. At least till tomorrow. Reconnecting with them. I'm pleasing to the minds of all that we are indeed all apart of the sings small globe world. Truespace will not be easy but at least we can be stirred up for the task. Through. Anger and guilt. Powerful combination. In at least two solutions, modes were comfortable with. Familiar with such as passing legislation but the other disconnect. The one between what we do and who we are. Poses a very different set of challenges into remake that connection we will need. Miracle. Now. Before you go accusing me of asking unitarians to take something on face. A propositional moses dubious is asking jews to be in unanimous agreement. Let me explain what i mean by miracles. But instead. Are purely subjective and often quite. Quiet. Phenomena. More suited. Say to chick flicks in the latest george lucas saga. Listen for a moment. To a midrash a story about a story designed to seek out the truth about what certainly seems to be one of those big special effects. The tale of the parting of. The red actually the read but that's a different story c. Are rabbits rodents. As they cross the sea there were those. Who only look down they said it was bad enough. What is that smell. What is this moses character think he is anyway. For them. This midrash concludes. There was no. Miracle. Miracles are supposed to be measured not in grandiosity now it and how expensive it would be to bring it to the screen. But how much. Play change of heart. In the prayer of thanksgiving that is traditionally said frysteel e-juice give thanks for the miracles that surround us evening morning and afternoon. Why aren't you telling me you don't see miracles surrounding you each day. Then perhaps. You would have missed joshua bell. As you probably heard or read about. In what i found to be a miraculously moving post article. Joshua bell one of the world's top violinist poses a street musician at a. Metro stop. And almost all the adults. Look down at the mud. And didn't see the mirror. Although every child. How many other miracles do we walk on by. Psalm 148. Tells of a world chorus with everything from the great creatures of the sea steps to the mountains themselves singing together. Don't forget for a moment. The scientist. Obviously not paying attention to psalms. Discovered wheel songs less than 50 years ago. Ask instead how many of us have ever heard of mountain sting. How often have we even been. Quiet enough. Listen. Weather right now. A mountainous singing. There is an ideal in my tradition of saying 100 rockholt a day for holter usually translated as blessings but in this context might be more accurate to call them. Miracle markers. Herodes. To this wonderful world. There are rainbows in mountain in the first flowering tree in spring or seen a shooting star casino beautiful and unusual creature good-news-bad-news. There are separate for smelling fragrance spices fragrant herbs and fragrant fruit. There are in fact. Bracket for almost everything except for helping another. Which is considered to be an act so sacred so miraculous. But it doesn't need a blessing. But you can't say 100 breathitt a date without noticing 100 miracles a day. And you can't notice 100 miracles. If you're always rushing about. So what do we do to solve this disconnect. Oh that's the problem. We do. Too much. Our lives especially in the city of crack berries. An 80 hour work weeks. We're one cruise ones value by being busier than your neighbor. Where does a rear introductory conversation that doesn't ask so what you do so what do you do. Our lives are over filled with doing. And yet somehow the all that doing leaves us feeling hollow aching longing at our core so we turned instead to consumer therapy. Shopping. Which yields plenty of consumption yes consumption that eats up for us to muddy's fast waters but. Timothy. Not so much. Try as we might. We can't shop or legislate our way out of this one. Instead we need to start. Undoing. Over the centuries my people have developed ever more complicated rules governing what can and cannot be done on shabbat the sabbath. But all these rules can be summed up quite simply. If it's useful. Don't do it on shabbat. Spend the day instead. Undoing. Septa. Reconnecting. That's not easy especially here i i woke up some mornings when i lived in dc. Starting at - 20 broncos. But. But even here many can and do find stillness. Hampton inn to the songs of hulen street. Infine new songs arising. So. Experimental. Try doing nothing. Useful. Ford start small 5 minutes a day. Maybe 10. Try stopping every now and then. And wherever you are trying to see somewhere in your line of vision a miracle happening right then. Turn off the news every now and then. And think to yourself. What a wonderful world. And all of its not as something unconnected to activist souls not as some hermetic isolation keeping yourself safe while letting the rest of the world going down the drain. So that you can release. A dvd called the secret of undoing. No. I'm doing and doing should be as connected as breathing in. Is connected to breathing out. Shabach the day of undoing is supposed to be the breath. That reinstalls ourselves so that we are ready connected once again to call out he nanny here i am. When we see that bush burning. Or that water about to be muddied. Connection. I began with questions in one exercise about it let me. Close with one final question in exercise. Just something martin buber used to do with his students. Want you to take. The hand. Of those next to you. Hold their hand. Okay. Does unitarian church you can do that. And now i want you to tell me what you feel i'm not asking this rhetorically and you don't have to raise her hands cuz they're holding somebody right just just shout out. What you're feeling somebody. Connect energy connecting his life. Martin buber did germany remember and so of course he would always wait until one of his students said hands. And then he would say. How many. And think about it. If you're holding. You actually feel four hands. Not too. Your own hands. You can't feel them by the ourselves it is only when we are connected when we are in relationship that we could even know ourselves. This is because fundamentally we are made to connect. And when we do. When we make that connection. We can see the spike all the whores unfolding in it. The truly. What a wonderful world. This is. Stayconnect.

all-souls_org

07.09.09TheUnspeakableGift.mp3

Good to see all of you here on homecoming sunday. I want to share with you this morning to very short. Readings. The first a poem. The second line in scripture. The poem is by raymond carver. It's called late. Fragment. And did you get what you wanted from this life. Even so. I did. And what did you want. To call myself. Beloveds. To feel myself. Beloved. On the earth. And the second reading is from the apostle paul in his letter to the corinthians. Thanks be to god. For this unspeakable gift. Thanks be to god. For this unspeakable. When i decided to begin the new church year. With a sermon about love. I have no idea what contested theological terrain. I was treading on. Let me explain. A few years back reach researchers asked leaders of american congregations unitarians included. What elements are always apart. Of your worship service. The second-highest response from 50% of churches was. A sermon about god's love. Incidentally the top response the most common elements in sunday worship was the presence of piano or organ music. Which garnered 80% of votes and probably explains why music directors usually have better job security at churches than preachers do. However. Walt sermons about love our frequent another survey this one over at the website. Holy observer.com. Shows that at least some parishioners are not finding their pastors love sermons. Very helpful. One young man from ontario canada complained that sermons on love were hampering his dating life. He said that if he took his pastor's advice his pickup line with saint something like. I'm ready to make a life commitment to you into father your children but not get emotionally or physically involved until marriage you in. And stacy kramer. A teenager from bend oregon complained that her youth pastor. Preached about abstinence at least once every 3 weeks. And concluded if you weren't so cute i believe the youth group. Good for you stacy. Well this morning i'm going to do as the spiritual says and wade right into these troubled waters. With yet another sermon. On love. Not a sermon about dating. Or sermon about sex. Justice sermon about love. Plain and simple. We're playing enough so simple. As the case may be. But as to whether it's a sermon about the love of god or human love. And where the distinction between the two lies. I'll let you be the judge. But i'd like to begin with the story. Not long after i arrived in washington i happen to give a sermon. Over in anacostia. At a rally for habitat for humanity. When the rally was over. An older gentleman. Wearing a clerical collar. Came out of the crowd and introduced himself to me. I'll call him. Thornton. Thornton was the very picture of a white. Protestant pastor. Yeah kind approachable face. A shock of neatly trimmed white hair. And a warm tennessee accent. He told me he liked my speech and asked if we could get together for lunch. Which we did. And thornton and i immediately fell in with each other. Though 40 years separated us in age. We found we had a lot in common we admired the same preachers. We found inspiration in the same spiritual writers. We even shared the same favorite restaurant in san francisco. Thornton graciously shared with me wisdom glean from a long career. Parish ministry. After our first lunch we had another. And then another. And before long thornton and i enjoyed a budding friendship. From the very beginning of our relationship though. There was one thing. That gave me pause. Whenever we part ways. Thornton and i would give each other a hug and as we'd end the hug. He would stop me. He put his hands on my shoulders. And look me directly in the eye and say in his southern drawl. Prob. I love you. You know how much i love you. And i must confess to you that the intensity. Of his gaze. And the forthrightness of his expression. Both startled and confuse me. I love you after all can mean so many things. Each time we met i'd feel a little uneasy wondering what foreign men. Do i know this might sound like a stretch in fact it's not. It's not maybe a stretch of definitely he's a stretch but the whole situation actually reminded me of a little vignette from the christmas story. I'm thinking of the encounter between mary and the angel gabriel you may recall that right at the beginning of the christmas tale mary is is just sitting around minding her own business when out of the blue this strange person at an angel apparently comes up to her at apropos of nothing says to her greetings favored one. The lord is with you. So i'm guessing the gabriel as a as a messenger of god was with perhaps accustomed to a certain kind of enthusiastic response to his arrivals. Maybe a little excitement a little gratitude for god's blessings. But mary. This is what i love about mary. Mary is a little off put by her unannounced guests. And instead of welcoming him with open arms the bible says. But mary was greatly troubled at the angels words. And pondered in her heart. What sort of greeting this might be. I got to tell you that. Whenever thornton looked me in the eye and. Told me he loves me. I felt a little bit like mary did with gabriel what exactly do you mean. The expression fell almost too intimate for such a new friendship. And i wondered if there wasn't some particular connection to thornton felt toward me that i didn't feel in return. No. We know how mary's story turns out. Gabriel. Sensing her misgivings reassures her saying don't be afraid mary. You have found favor with god. Mary after she pondered for a while and perhaps possessing an intuitive sense that she was indeed in the presence of an angel. Decides to receive his good news and the rest as they say is history. I'm afraid my judgment wasn't as keen. Has mary's. Because of my uncertainty. Discomfort. With thornton's expression of love. And without ever discussing those concerns with him. I gradually withdrew from our french. We drifted apart. Seeing each other only occasionally. And after a while hardly at all. Thornton would call and ask why. We weren't getting together. I blame my schedule. Which was partly true. But not the whole truth. This winter while i was away on sabbatical i received the letter from another friend. Who also happens. And the letter included a newspaper clipping. It was thornton obituary. With a heavy and guilty heart. I read the article. Which eloquently capture the essence of my old companion. Is warren. His friendliness. His generous spirit and theology. Before the end of the article i came to a paragraph. That broke my heart. He was a quote from the associate pastor who had served with thornton. For many years and their parish. In washington. He said. Thornton possessed a deep sense of god's love. In an uncanny ability. To share it with others. None of us will ever forget. He said. How he would piercingly look into our eyes. And say to us. Directly and simply. I love her. Do you know how much i love you. I have misunderstood. The nature. Appointment love. Unlike mary. Who finally came to her senses. When i stood face-to-face with the love of god. When did have literally grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me in the eye. I turned away. I offer you this story. Confession. As a cautionary tale. A little bit like the recovered addict or repentant criminal who goes to high school assemblies and and pleased with others not to make the same mistakes he did. And i offer it because i know that i'm not the only one among us. Who has succumbed to what the nineteenth-century unitarian. James freeman clarke called. The fatal. Ingratitude. He writes. Real ingratitude. The fatal. Ingratitude. Comes from those unable. Or unwilling. To recognize love. Can i give her. Those are strong words. Fatal ingratitude. But i think they're spot-on. Because i'm thinking back to that poem by raymond carver that i shared as our reading at the beginning. Let's listen to that one more time. And did you get what you wanted from this life. Even so. I did. And what did you want. Call myself beloved. Feel myself. Beloved. On the earth. If to be beloved is indeed our deepest longing. Then it is probably not too strong to say that to deny the gift of love. Can indeed be fatal. Hazardous. To our souls. If we go through our lives. Unable to receive and give. Long. Spiritual death. Will ensue. And so my message today friends. Is very simple. It is that we give ourselves to love. Do we open our hearts and our eyes and our ears so that mean we may recognize and receive the many ways large and small that a gracious love is offered to us. The woman who shares a slice of ripe tomato with us at the farmers market at 14th and u. The person who smiles and makes room for us on the 42 mount pleasant. When it's packed like a sardine can the driver's miserable and the air conditioning is broke. The allies who lend their voice to our struggle for justice. The steadfast patience. Abar spouse. A partner. Our friend. Oftentimes when we're not suspecting. Even when we don't deserve it. The world offers to us. We can either be the kind of people. Could look for it. Notice it. And receive it gratefully. Or we can be the practitioners. Of a fatal. Ingratitude. It's a friend's my prayer my prayer is that we might. Be a people. Who. Like mary. Have the good sense to recognize. An angel. In our presence. Are people who can bear the bright light. Of love. Direct. Games. But people who have stripped away all that stands between us and love all our baggage all our insecurities all our arrogance. And having made ourselves channels of love. Can share that love freely. With the world.

all-souls_org

06.05.21TheLeftHandOfGod.mp3

Friends it is not often. In the five years that i've been in washington. But i've gone out on my front stoop. On a given morning and. Looked at the front page of the washington post. And found something to cheer about. But but on saturday morning i went out there and i picked up my paper and they're on the front page of the washington post. Was an article and in the very first sentence of that article i read the words the religious left is back and i give out of chair. It is true that over this past week we have hosted 1200 activists from across the country who have come together. To help form. A movement that will offer up a different vision of what it means to be a religious person in this country about about what god means in this country and it's been such an exciting week here and i just want to say. First of all i want to say to all of you who have. Who have participated in any way this week we volunteered this week put up folks in your home this week or who sang this week at the at the conference all of you who have purchased or just attended the conference this week if you participated this week i want you to stand up now so weekend. Thank you all everyone who participated thank you thank you so much. I just want to say how. How proud and. Grateful i have felt this week to be the pastor of. This great church. To work with all of these. Greatpeople. We we really we shown this week and i want to thank. You all from the. Card for all the hard work. That not only you as members of this church but our church staff. Put in over this week so we're taking a couple of days off so don't expect. I have some special very special guest to introduce this morning. And i'm going to introduce them one at a time first rabbi michael lernen then after he speaks maureen fiedler. Rabbi. Michael lerner. How is the head of the network of spiritual progressives the founder. Spiritual progressives he's a rabbi in berkeley california who many years ago founded a great. Progressive. Jewish magazine called tycoon. From that the origins of that magazine into coon has spread into a community of activists and now has spread even greater into this network of spiritual progressives. Rabbi lerner heads this movement that is seeking to lift up a different vision of what it means to be a person of faith in this. Different vision of what. God is an. This morning i'd like to invite him to say a little word. About the left hand. Of god rabbi michael lerner please join me in welcoming. I am so grateful. + 2. Your. Byerly's. Rob hardee's. A pleasure to be. In this building. This community of. You are so serious. And yet and at the same time so loving. And then to have the inspired leadership of your pastor. Rob hardee's. Was amazing. Should have heard him yesterday. He was he was. Incredible and i also want to say reverend louise green. Your social justice person i hope you know how. Really extraordinary blessed you are to have these kind. I hope you did fantastic. So i'm going to say just a few words here this morning anyway even if you heard it all week. When i talk about the right hand of god or the left hand of god. I'm talking about a. Struggle that's gone on in human consciousness for the past several thousand years. Between a way of seeing what the human condition is. Which focuses on one worldview. It says that we are thrown into a world by ourselves. And find ourselves in the midst of all kinds of people who work. Primarily self-interested looking out for number one and likely to take advantage of you and dominate you. Unless you can dominate and them first. And it's a war of all against all it's what some people call the cynical realist world. It's the worldview that says power is what counts it was first articulated in western literature by through syndicates in the in plato's republic and in others of his dialogues. It's the dude that says really what everybody wants is to dominate and have power over the other and that every system of ethics or system every worldview is really about who can get more power over whom. And that worldview which is certainly reaches its apex of of articulation. Contemporary washington. Is. But it's been around for a long time and it's not connected to just one party. It's that worldview has been in contention. And that other worldview that i called the spiritual world you. Is a worldview that sees says first of all no we don't we aren't thrown into this world by ourselves we actually come into the world born of a mother. And that experience of having the first few years of our lives we would not have survived without the altruistic love of a mother another hepworth whenever wherever i say this some people say you don't know my mother. None of us would have survived without those first two or three years without a mothering other with somebody with their was your mother or biological mother or somebody who adopted you or a father but somebody who played that mothering other role and who had no reasonable expectation of a good return on the investment of time and energy. So. And that. Leads to a different world view that love is really possible that it's possible to build safety and security not on the basis of domination and control but on the basis of love and caring and kindness and generosity. Nell and i called this the right hand of god because most of us let's say first of all that most of us have both of these worlds in our head. They are and constantly we are judicata in between the two because sometimes we look at the world from the standpoint of the fearful other and sometimes we look at those others from the standpoint of the possibility of love and caring with others and where we are on this kind of continuum between these two poles is always a bit of attention and it's always moving. Depends in part on early childhood in adult life experiences in part on the religious or ideological systems we believe in. A part-owner assessment towards social energy is moving because the more social energy moves towards. Fear towards the towards the theory of power and domination the more those voices in our heads. That have been told that this world is really a scary place and that one has to adopt a cynical realism about what others intentions are those voices start to feel more validated as the social energy around us lose more and more towards that fear conversely when it moves a wendy's social energy is moving newark torto then the voices in our own head that have heard that message start to take that more seriously. The part of our test as. Spiritual progressive is to try to move the energy more towards her. But we have to understand that in all of our religious traditions. In all of the holy text of the human race both voices are always there. And i call this the right hand of god because when people approach god and listen to the the god of the universe or however you understand that the fundamental. Voice of ethical voice of the universe the spiritual voice of the universe the communication of the universal human being. They always heard it through the framework of who we are as limited human beings. And so we always get god's voice through the frame of wherever we are on this continuum between fear and hope and so in the bible you'll find both voices there sometimes people hearing god's voice from the standpoint of fever and sometimes hearing it from the voice of hope. And there is a quote after the jewish people are getting out of egypt the israelites are getting out of egypt and they sing a song to god and they stink and they say your right hand got your right hand is filled with power. And so if got the right hand just identified with power than i've written a book called the left hand of god to talk about those other other ways of seeing god. Know the truth of the matter is is that that most of us are say have both voices and in the contemporary. these two have gotten out of whack in which the the right hand of god is the only frame that many people see god from and the left hand of god has been radically underplayed and so one of the things that spiritual progressives have to do is to rectify the balance to bring back that other voice when the voice of god in the in the bible is seen as a voice of power it's always for the purpose of identifying a source of inspiration support. For people who are depressed for people who have been put put down it's the israelites were slaves looking at the incredible power of egypt and saying to themselves. How will we ever get out of this how can we possibly get out of this one this is the most powerful empire that is ever existed. And they then pull up on the voice of the right hand of god to see how they could possibly since they can't imagine themselves having that power how how they could possibly get over that or jesus faced with. The empire of rome and he and his fellow jews looking at that empire and seeing no rational way they could possibly overcome it then they focus on at points the vision of our god of power to empower them to be able to imagine the possibility of getting beyond the most cruel and yet powerful empire that has ever existed. Now the irony of the or the distortion in the contemporary discourse in the religious world. Is that the religious right. Has taken this voice of the power the power of god. And assigned it giving it over to elites of wealth and power. Who use that. Vision of god to justify cutting the taxes of the rich eliminating social programs for the poor and justifying militarism and war to dominate other countries around the world. And this is a total inversion of what the biblical intent was because insofar as there was a right-hand vision of god it was a vision of god that says to the poor and the powerless can be empowered over the powerful but today we have a religious right which is given that vision through the powerful who use god as a justification to dominate and control the power of the bible is about. The work that we've done to start the network of spiritual progressives which i am here in park hoping that some of you who weren't at the conference will nevertheless join. And become part of. Stems from a the following recognition. At the point that i just made isn't enough. That the point about what's wrong with the right isn't enough that we can that we is liberals are progressive can be very self-satisfied with pointing out the contradiction the distortions and so forth but that is not been enough to win election. That has not been enough to shape or transform the political face of america and so we did we started some 29 years ago with a study of the psychodynamics of american society and what we found and we spoke is particularly on people were moving to the right politically. And what we found is this that many of the people who moved to the right politically are actually in agreement with liberal or progressive issues on unfreeze a war or if on environment or on social justice. But they move to the right because there is a deep spiritual crisis in their lives a crisis that has to do with living in a world in which the bottom line is money and power and in which in order to survive in the in the real world the world of work the economy they have to learn how to see other human beings from the standpoint of that right hand vision of what can i get from you how will you be abused to make how can you be somebody who can take care of my needs and that's that perception becomes more and more the common sense of daily life as more and more people learn to see other people through the framework of utilitarian framework. And that creates a tremendous prices because more and more people start to see each other. Through that frame through the frame of. What can you do for me how can you be abused would you satisfy more of my needs than anyone else in fact marriages often end up being somewhat based on a kind of implicit contract amongst the people were likely to fall for me in the short run you will satisfy more of my needs than anyone else there for him with you. And of course the tremendous insecurities that that creates in marriages because more and more people realize that their partner might at some point in their life when someone else who they believe either realistically or fantasy-wise will satisfy yet more of their needs and then it's a rational maximizer of self-interest. As a person who has learned how to look out for number one as the common sense of the society it would be irrational for them not to try to cut a better deal. And that creates tremendous insecurities not just in the 50% of marriages that end up in divorce but also in the 50% that don't end up in divorce because the first most people don't know which of those two categories they're in and so-so. So. There is an end and what we saw it as we listen to people stories was that there was a tremendous hunger for a different kind of consciousness. What we call a spiritual conscious. For being able to be seen by others not just for what you could do for others but rather to be seen in spiritual terms as an embodiment of the sacred as somebody who is valuable regardless of what you can produce whether what you can deliver for other people but more and more not only in their world of work but in their family life in their friendship they feel that people are only looking at them or seeing them in an instrumental framework and that middle-income working people. What they're doing to some higher meaning and purpose for their lives that provide some sense that they are that their lives are about something more than the bottom line of money and power that they are maximizing for the people who for whom they were. And as a result of an astounding was the first that there's so much hunger for meaning in people's lives a hunger for a rick warren purpose driven life. For a life that connects to some higher meaning and purpose now when you have a life in which you are both. Hungry for meaning and purpose in your life and yet stuck in work situations in which you really can't see how this connects to your own highest values on the one hand and on the other hand you have a life than your personal life with your surrounded by people who but nice as they are cordial as they are nevertheless seem to be seeing you primarily an instrumental terms and in terms of what you can do and what you can deliver these to come together to create a huge. And the tragedy of american politics is that it was the right that recognize this in articulated. And recognize that there was a real spiritual crisis in this society and it was based on the efforts of materialism and selfishness but then what the right duck goes on to do is to then blame it on the demeaned others of the society. So instead of asking where does this come from in the economic order that we live in in the values that are perfect. Perpetuated through the economic ordering and then onto into the television in the larger culture they instead turn around and say. Oh well they picked whoever the demean. they're supposed to primary to meet others in american society have always been african-americans and native american and so for a long time that was the most strong focus of demeaning of the right but in the last 30 years it has expanded this category to include number one feminist women why because women. And then the right turns to gays and lesbians and it says well they're not raising the next generation of of children which by the way we know to be false that is that very large numbers of gays and lesbians are trying to wherever there's a community that isn't oppressive to them and isn't so. They don't understand the spiritual crisis they don't talk about the spiritual crisis i don't mean to say this next election you won't have every single democratic party candidate quoting bible you will they'll all be quoting bible in the. A real reality in the lives of people and this the liberal progressive forces have not yet come close to understanding that people are in real pain that there is a real crisis that it is rooted in the ethics of selfishness and materialism. They think that i have equal opportunity to make money and that's all i need is equal opportunity but it's equal opportunity for what is it equal opportunity for many people to achieve a kind of life that has not been fulfilling. You see what i'm talking about. Coupled with that we got another problem that there is a liberal and progressive world a kind of culture that is that is that puts people who are religious or spiritual in a one-down position there's a religio phobia in sectors of the culture item in the democratic party. I agree with the democrats understand the other thing but when i came in there they told us over and over again when i was part of that movement they were always saying something like this. Keep your religious or spiritual baggage at the door because it has no real place he remember one and number two yeah if you believe in god that's fine you're allowed to be here but frankly we think you were to lower level of intellectual psychological development. Maybe you have an unresolved issue with your father or thyroid in your you know but you know you're in a flight from freedom but you're obviously at a lower level some point you might come to our higher level and realize that this whole god stuff is ridiculous and then we will accept you is equal now for people who for whom their relationship to god or their relationship to a spiritual practice is really a serious part of who they are they feel deeply misunderstood. And on the other hand to challenge the religio phobia of the left and to say you've got to stop this put down culture of religious and spiritual people and understand the religious and spiritual people that the ten thousand years past ten thousand or twenty thousand years of religious and spiritual development of the human race has something to offer you not something that should be left at the door. That we're not just addressing the parties and we're not part of a partisan effort. Because the central demand that we have is this america needs a new bottom line a new bottom line so that instead of institutions and social practices and legislation and government policy. Being judge incorporation. Being judged efficient. Rational productive to the extent that they maximize money in power we say that institution should be sufficient wrestling productive not only to the extent that they maximize money and power but also to the extent that they maximized love and caring. Kindness and generosity. Ethical and ecological sensitivity enhance our capacity to respond to other human beings as embodiments of the sacred and enhance our capacity to respond to the universe with all gratitude. Wonder and radical amazement of the grandeur of creation. That's a new take that seriously and you see immediately it's not a left-right politics exactly is he doesn't fit into the categories of either side it's a spiritual politics it's a politics that says what really counts rust is a world of love what really counts for us is a world in which people can be seen is embodiment of the sacred what really counts for us is an environment that can be protected what really counts for us is an orientation to the environment that is not just instrumental but also that is filled with awe and wonder and radical amazement all that is that a spiritual alternative that we believe will speak to many many people on both sides of the political spectrum. So we we've been taking this new bottom line. And put forward a spiritual covenant with america and eight points you can find our whole position on the web if www.progressive.com. They say there you'll find of authorized version of what you'll find in my book the left hand of god taking back our country from the religious right. Urge you to use that to create study groups with it and to share it with a lot of other people and to join the organization we had 1,200 people here on the east coast that are conference are forming conference here at this wonderful church we had 1,400 people on the west coast at our conference in july this is a movement that is building we had at this conference we had the your honorable national president of the uu's william sinkford we had people leadership of the met methodist world of the of of the presbyterian world. Great. Cuz i i'm here not not looking for cheers i'm here looking for allies and the allies i want her people who will actually go to our website and join the organization and spiritual progressives. And join with me in figuring out how to spread this different kind of politics to say to our politicians or political organizers and so forth we are at the end of compromise politics we want to go for highest vision of the goods we refuse to be realistic by accepting the terms of realism that have been shaped for us by the median our political leaders who then lead us into crazy wars policies that are destructive to the environment social injustice and each time we ask for something different even in the democratic party. I just want to tell you how wonderful it's been to be with your community this week. Both because i was covering it as a journalist. But also because. A spiritual progressive. Who i am. I have been involved in progressive church reform movements and social justice movie. My entire life. And it is so wonderful to see this now from my reality. Expanding into. A really interfaith community. And not only that i was looking for a good. Catholic word to describe this. I think i want to thank you. As a community for being. A sacrament of hospitality. Because that's what you have been i do know what the great symbol is. Is that. I began to think. With some of the rabbi's images in mind of the ancient israelites. Who pitched their tents in the desert. What a great symbol in the baroness. Of washington d.c. you have. You have pitched a tent of hospitality in this otherwise barren land. And so i think that is a great contribution this week. I want around. As a journal. With my microphone and i want it i want to share some of. What i heard. The participants in this conference. And give you just a quick assessment of where i think this movement. Can go. If the energy remains at the level that i saw and experienced. First of all i always ask. What's your face. And believe me if i can stretch that tent analogy a little further. This was a big ten. I found roman catholics i found methodist presbyterian lots of unitarians. Lots of people from the jewish community but also muslims and hindus at least one woman who told me she worshipped the goddess isis peck she wasn't the only one. And a whole lot of people who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. And then of course. You have what i would call the mixed-faith traditions these days. For example. The young man who told me while i was born jewish. I'm studying to be a unitarian minister. And i'm going to hear tick not han next week. That's not all that unusual so this was a big tent crowd. And i also asked people. Confer. Labor. Spiritual. Progressive. And i heard a variety of ants. But. Many people talked about. Discuss. The politic. They're going on in our country today. They talked about. The fact that the religious right is so far from representing the kind of face. They hold. That they felt impelled. To do something about it. But i also heard a lot of people say. You know. I wondered if there was anybody else out there like me. And so many of them said. I now know i'm not alone. And i came here to act and i came here to change. The face of my church. House of worship. And to change the face of. And i asked them almost universally i asked everybody i said. Did you get what you came for. Everybody. 100% when in poland. Said. Yes. I got what i came. There was general universal praise. The conference. And for the many prophetic voices that spoke. You just heard rabbi lerner. And you know that you heard the voice of. Contemporary isaiah. You should have heard rob hardee's. But you have that every sunday that message. And. There went jeremiah. Anyway. What potential does this have finally. I think if this. Movement. Continues at the energy level that was here this week the energy level you made pasta. With your house. Kalaty. That it has the power to revitalize. Churches. Synagogues mosques. Temple. Houses of worship across this country. To begin to change the reality of the face community. And to wake up. Many of the people in the so-called mainstream faith community. The need to change the moral agenda in this country. I think it also has the potential. To revitalize. Progressive political movements. Whether it's the anti-war movement the environmental movement the union movement the social justice movements. Any of those need to be infused as michael says so well with a sense of spirituality because many people talk to me about how. Sterile. They felt. Their political groups were at home. And how they came to try to put together their spirituality. With their political reality. And they felt that they did that. And finally. I think this movement does have the potential. It continues as he has. To change the moral agenda in. So that we don't have. People who stand up as clergy. And demonize people because of how they love one another. Has it ever occurred to you what a ridiculous idea that is. But that when we talked about what. Moral or immoral. We move out of the bedroom and put the emphasis on the boardroom and the war room. So then what's a moral. Ar. Policies like. Preemptive war. Anorak. The demonization of muslim peoples worldwide. The globalization of selfishness. Racism not just here but also in our foreign policy. And of course. Sexism. And again that is global as is homophobia. Bats. And so. There will think this has the. Potential to make. Those issues and those are just a few of them as we know and i. I should say to the. Damaging and the destruction of the earth and the environment itself. And the inability to respect the human intellect and science. So that people begin to believe global warming is for real and we got to do something about it. And so. What does together with the new vision. Because it's michael said it's not enough just. But rather to put together a vision of what's moral. And that's. The spiritual covenant with america. A vision based on sharing. Generosity. A vision based on. Forgiveness. An understanding. On reaching out to the other. Different talents. Based on listening to one another. Loving one another. And opening the heart. To one another. It's an agenda that will give flash. To peace and justice. And i think there's no better way to sum it up. And the great phrase that. Of which i very much. Love. They often say. There is that. There is that. God. And i think this move. Has the ability. To recognize that. Not just on the. Your personal level. Not just on the national level. But on the global level. And i for one pray. Thank you.

all-souls_org

03.11.30Pilgrimage.mp3

There is a reading this morning and it comes from a book that engaged be heart and spirit this summer a book entitled the singular pilgrim travels on sacred ground. And it's by rosemary mahoney. And the beginning of the reading is from her introduction where she talked some about why it is that she decided to investigate pilgrimages in the first place. She says. What's a modern corrosion of organized religion. I mean emergence of quick. Spiritual sixes and alluring self-help seminar is now available. Why was religious pilgrimage. A practice that reached its height in medieval times. Not only still thriving at the end of the 20th century. But enjoying a mark resurgence. What stories lay behind contemporary spiritual searches. Who undertook them. What exactly constituted a pilgrimage. And why. At any point in history. Have human beings felt the need to leave the place they know. And travel great distances. To envision or experience. God at a preordained site. Why do certain places on earth seem to possess a greater holiness than others. The self that can be transformed by a physical journey. But in what way would it be transformed or changed by physical journey. With a spiritual intent. In an attempt to answer some of those questions rosemary mahoney went and travelled to six different holy sites over the next two years. And when she was in israel. In the holy land she spent some time on the sea of galilee and traveling throughout that region. And she wrote this reflection on that particular pilgrimage site. The specificity of these places. Which no human being could verify with certainty. Was geared to boost belief. To make the event less vague and more real. In jerusalem. Every spot in which anything of significance had happened was commemorated. With a church. Or a mosque. Or synagogue. These buildings were matched with famous events in a way that satisfy the human need. For a palpable historical reality. A reality that could serve as effort to see and touch things that were part of a story. That had lodged in the mind. A story that explained the purpose of life. If you could go someplace. And touch one of those things. You could be part of the story. If you could see the spot where mary died or muhammad ascended into heaven. You could get closer to them. Touching these stones. And thinking about these religious figures. You could believe intern. That day. Might be thinking. View. Pilgrimage. Much like rosemary mahoney i have for quite some time now been fascinated with how people of faith live their beliefs and express them. About questions of doctrine and polity and the ways in which religions are structured can be interesting and draw my attention. But they do so much less than the motivations. The convictions. And the feelings. Behind why and how someone believes as they do. How did you. Come to hold the spiritual beliefs that you hold today. What role did tradition and family play in the formation of those beliefs. And in your everyday life how would others be able to see that faith express. I think pilgrimages interesting because not only does it imply but and also of course describe the need for a journey but it's clear that the journey that mahoney writes about and that all of these pilgrims go through is it this a travel journey of a distance not only in miles. But a distance within ourselves that we must sometimes travel. In order to see more clearly. What purpose or call our life is meant to answer. These actual journeys on which pilgrims go to lourdes or to varanasi in india or anywhere else are actually a physical embodiment. And a reflection of something. That is felt in the inner life. They are sort of but a mirror to this internal process of journeying. To reach. Greater understanding. Clearly another piece of pilgrimage that is important is the element of devotion. I'm drawn very much to this sense that people would travel thousands of miles to go to a site that would reach their spirits in a way that they couldn't just by reading a book or by talking to others who believe as they do. But they need to express their commitment to this idea their commitment to their beliefs by actually. Showing that devotion. It reminds me of a time that i myself went on a pilgrimage that i would describe as unintentional. You see i was studying abroad in europe and i was on a trip with my classmates to florence and italy. And i had always been enamored with art history and the study of art and impart my love of art was for the fact that it can break you open in a way that simply. Reading things or being caught in your brain cannot that there's a way and image can open you. I never had that happened more to me than when i was there in florence with my classmates. Visiting a monastery that had the works. Of the very very early renaissance painter fra angelico all over the walls his murals. And i was struck because one of the most famous images that i have seen throughout our history textbooks that i had been reading for years was actually painted on the wall of this tiny cubicle in which one none in that monastery would live was her or his room i don't know if it was monks or nuns at the time probably but it was amazing. And i was just shocked and stunned to think what would it mean for my spiritual life. To awaken every day to that image. The quite literally live. With this radiant. An amazing icon. A spiritual devotion on the wall. What would it mean to have that kind of devotion. Cannot only follow my spiritual life but to live it out in a daily way and be reminded of it. Every single moment. Put to be a pilgrim is to be in search. But it is also about bringing with us on that journey. That part of ourselves. Those parts of our being that we already hold. Nearly. You can't be broken open if you don't know what it is that you're bringing with you. That could be changed or transformed. I don't know who you are when you arrive at the monastery or you arrived in any of these sacred sites that will be hard to know. What is possible. What the potential for your transformation is. And of course this element of devotion it's clear to me is very difficult for us as an itarian universalist. We are a lot that seem to find more devotion in our skepticism. We seem to be more interested in questioning and reason and logic then an opening ourselves to that which cannot be defined. What would it mean for us. Define a devotion something to which we devoted ourselves. In finding meaning. In our living and our loving. And are dying. And so i wonder. I ask all of you. What pilgrimage would you make. That might help you and enable you to grow. In a way that you are regular routine does not. What would you expect to find and how would you be changed if you arrived at your destination and then discovered much to your surprise that the answer you were given was not the one you had asked for. We who are so full of answers. So full of technology that will tell us everything that we need to know. So full of certainty. May need to once again discover. The humility the devotion the openness. That pilgrimage of us. I recall that my german art history professor on this same adventure was trying to get us excited about a renaissance painter that we all thought was rather doll and trav and in the paintings were very black and dark and and he tried to bring our attention to it by getting very passionate and excited himself bouncing around a little bit. Could you all of you you know you even been to the moon we have done all these things we don't care we don't believe anymore. And we were moved. Buyback. What would it mean to believe that much. I find it within ourselves in the pilgrimages of our daily lives. That were at there were things that we could be that devoted to. That we could believe in that much. And it seems to me that perhaps this is the reason. That pilgrimages have this resurgent popularity now we want to step out of this every answer is given to us and we know everything there is to know about anyting way of being. To see something new. And so whether it is a pilgrimage to a monastery or a sweat lodge or a neighborhood park. Or a holy site. The destination we seek my friends is the same. A spiritual life of greater depth. And sustaining power that matters to us in all times. And all places. I think. Wii u use i may be down don't even think i think i know that we unitarian-universalist have a hard time wrestling with spiritual questions because like all religious people we have a hard time wrestling with things that we can't explain. At my ordination someone describe the role of ministry as trying to explain the inexplicable. So much in our spiritual lives is beyond our ability to express. And so instead of words we use another medium. Much like the artist. We go on a journey in order to see. And to do all that we cannot say. When rosemary mahoney was in varanasi india exploring hindu cremation rituals at the ganges river. She met a guide who did much more than lead her to different spiritual sites. She met a sixteen-year-old named jawga who had lived for time in the countryside because his parents thought that it would be better for him to be out of the city. And stay with his extended family out in the the beauty of the the countryside. And then he had indeed returned to the city where rosemary met him. And she describes the moment in which she's talking to him and she asked him to explain why he was religious for jogging has now lost faith once again. In seeing the suffering of the people around and in the city of varanasi. And she describes her conversation with him this way. He raised his hands. Palms upward. And after a long silence. His mouth opened. How shall i explain. He stirred one of the upraised hands in a sweeping circle to encompass that street around us. And widening his eyes he said. I was looking at the things of the earth. Seeing and seeing. And i asked. How did this come. The trees. The wind that bends them. The rain that falls. I felt rather nervous. People can make many things. But not this kind of thing. And i was impressed. With god. My friends. Whether or not your pilgrimage. Leads you to something that you would name god or to something that you discover and then lose and then rediscover later in life. It is important that you seek. It's important that you take the journey. May all of your journeys both near and far lead you to embrace a life of meaning and of spirit. That lead you to gratitude for the blessings you have known and may yet no.

all-souls_org

06.05.14MotherTongue.mp3

The reading this morning continues in the mystical metaphorical vein by one of my favorites roommate the 13th century philosopher mystic and poet. Ebay. Not christian or jew. Or muslim naat hindi buddhist sufi or then. Not any religion or cultural system. I am not from the east or the west. Not out of the ocean or up from the ground. Not natural. Or a serial not composed of elements at all. I do not exist to not an entity in this world or the next. Did not descend from adam and eve or any origin story. My place is the placeless. A trace of the traceless. Neither body nor soul. I belong to the beloved. I've seen the two world as one. And that one. Call pooh. And no. Laugh. Outer inner only that breath breathing. Human being. It's mother's day i thought it would be a proposal to reflect on mother tongue. A phrase for the language of birth that feels most secure to us. The language that shaped the reality that we hold most true. The term exist because of that primal mother connection that we all know about even if we don't experience ourselves. And the tricky thing is. But there are many true realities in mother tongues. Experience in contradictory ways by various people. Speaking many languages. What is it about our mother tongue that draws such a fierce and invested respond. By this i mean to suggest a metaphor i don't just mean language. English swahili chinese but also the language of faith. Or spirituality or ethics the language of political positions. The language of class. An educational privilege and racial difference. We come to dialogue as constructed individuals. And we bring in a sense of self that comes from our own place around history and so sometimes we lose our underlying consciousness of connection. Roomies view. About our essential nature breath and human being is a kind of existential consciousness about our fundamental mystical unity. I can be completely lost. We become trapped. In our own individual stories and unable to access the language of others. This week also has prepares to welcome any breathing human beings over 1,000 from diverse communities across the country. And i'm reminded of an interfaith experience i had last year. Where i heard a prayer interrupted. I was at the uu service committee the stop the torture campaign. It was held as an interfaith gathering it was set up around the theatrical trial of three that were being held accountable for us policy on torture. There was a majority of unitarian universalists in the room. Just have been organized by a group that works particularly with our denomination. And when the invited african-american preacher began the opening prayer he started with dear heavenly father. Immediately several voices shouted loudly from the back of the room what about mother what about mother. Why are we so defensive. About our individual and tribal languages. What keeps us locked indifference instead of seeking common ground. What would it have caused those individual. To hear the language of reverence express in a different form. For one sentence. This is not a choice about a continuing community of faith. It wasn't a place where someone was asking them to make a long-term investment in joint worship. It was a way station from our own communities. And someone was praying in their own voice. Could we journey with an african-american preacher for a few short moments and really hear his invitation. The image of mother is not anymore all-encompassing as a description of the divine or the transcendence and that a father. Answer this image of father for a moment. Is an opportunity to listen to another tongue. I submit that we are changed for the better when we suspend the defense of whatever our mother tongue might be. Anna laughed and said an expansion of our usual path. The last spring also has member ronnie adams and i taught a class that was called telling her own good news. And we work with a groupon finding our own political or spiritual language. Ronnie made an analogy that stayed with me. She spoke about our need to become multilingual. To speak our own political core values from a uu spiritual perspective. In a way that could be heard by different communities. To learn to hear. And to dialogue with those of different political languages to not make assumptions and to dismiss some of the stereotypes or at least suspend them. That limit our listening. I believe that to be multilingual and political or religious terms is similar to be multilingual as for example english tamil hindi. More is possible. More is understood there are more ways to engage and move in various cultures. We can be grounded and articulate in our mother tongue and still choose to deepen our conversation with others. Well i was in divinity school i participated in an interfaith dialogue project that was called nccj seminarians interacting. And we spent time visiting many different schools catholic-protestant jewish-muslim evangelical christian multi-denominational. Over three years in that program i visited a number of face settings and i participated in facilitated conversations on topics that are usually shorter to divide congregations and religions. Now its future religious leaders all students and they seminaries in divinity schools. We all felt passionately about our own language of faith. And usually this came with a set of political and social issues that felt important also my own mother tongue. Was progressive christian. Presbyterian turn the assisi. And if you stop languages coming from yoga and meditation practice with a dollop of earth space spirituality. Now this multilingual mix led one at angelika christian student to assert that i was a witch his language not mine and several catholic and jewish students were confused by me and said i seem more like a unitarian which i took as a compliment at the time. I knew barry of tongues in my own spirituality and my own practice but i found several of the languages that i encountered confusing. Why didn't the greek orthodox women. Theme to speak my language of feminism. Why did the reconstructionist jewish students seem to set off the reform and conservative students when they seemed more similar from my vantage point. What did muslim students mean when they said islam with the most progressive religion. As part of this disorienting and challenging learning i decided to go to israel during my middle school break as guest of two friends there that were studying to be rabbis doing there ever been a cool year. And this is certainly a geographic area where language and culture or religious difference political debate often meltdown. Two tragic result. And israel i encountered many layers of culture and history and i experienced the hebrew and the arabic which surround me as profound difference. I could not read the alphabet. I didn't know the words. And i was dependent on someone knowing my mother tongue. English. Some of the cultural language markers escape me as well. I got into a shared taxi system when i first arrived at the main jerusalem airport with an orthodox jewish man. And he promptly got out the other side i didn't know that he could not ride in the same car with an unorthodox woman. I spoke to a shy person at a rabbinical school party. And ask him about himself and he answered and halting english all around us for animated conversations in hebrew. I didn't recognize that he was an arab palestinian and that he was the pizza delivery man waiting by the door for payments wondering why i was asking him about his life preparing to be ordained in the united church of christ. When he learned that i was not setting greek or hebrew for biblical work that i could choose spanish as my language requirement instead he was incredulous. Factory dick.pic slammed in english how can you even know where you're going. Maybe knowing where you're going depends on understanding where you came from. Without making too many universal proclamations about the absolute nature of reality. Too often our languages be the cultural or spiritual or political are limited and their understanding of difference. We are constricted in our ability to move. We work so diligently to articulate around voices but stay threatened by variety. There is a key distinction between articulating what is valuable to you. And needing everybody around you to speak your language. My jesus need not threaten your buddha. Your ethical humanism. Need not threaten my holy spirit. Our spirit of life stays secure when allah is invoked. When we come to believe in the ultimate importance of our mother tongue but discount the cherished tongues of others we are fundamentally disrespectful. And simultaneously we are limiting our own potential growth. The national conference of the takoon network of spiritual progressives will descend on wednesday. Bringing over a thousand fellow human beings to this place. We will have our languages and our cultures are political and identity diversity. Some will speak in tongues that we recognize and some will speak in tongues that upset our comfort zone. Most people will define themselves as progressive. But there's going to be a wide representation of what that. Chaotic stirring of a very complex do. Prayer and politics comes in many languages many tongues. In this creative and combustible mix may we be our best multilingual you use self. Seeking knowledge. Exploring difference choosing growth. My hope for this congregation is that we continue to respect many voices. That we challenge ourselves to grow indifference. And that all souls truly be welcome in this house. Letter on mother tongues be clear and true. 11th have the ability to hear a different voice. Without projecting an immediate threat. Secure in ourselves may we be open to the language of others. And embrace the opportunity to grow. I meant.

all-souls_org

04.08.08GraciousAbandon.mp3

Today's reading is taken from reverend hardee's may 9th 2004 sermon on life overflowing the reading is from the palestinian american poet naomi shahib 9. So much happiness. It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness. With sadness there's something to rub against a balloon to tend with lotion and cloth when the world falls around you you have pieces to pick up something to hold in your hands. But happiness floats. It doesn't need to hold you down it doesn't need anything happening this lands on the roof for the next house singing and disappears when it wants to you are happy either way even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful treehouse and now live a world corey of noise and dust cannot make you unhappy since there was no place large enough to contain so much happiness you shrug you raise your hands and it flows out of you into something into everything you touch you are not responsible you take no credit as a nice guy takes no credit for the moon but continues to hold it and share it. And then that way bino. In reverend hardy sermon he proposed that we should view our lives not as a cup half-full or a cup half empty as a cup over flowing blood bubbling over with the world's beauty how could you forget that sermon particularly the hand jesters it's not about me about the spirit flowing through me. Flow through us. My question is how in the world do you feel that cup what i'd like to refer to as my big girls glass. In words masters of love to flow through us. Maybe for some it comes naturally not for me there were times when the strains of family concerns and loss of loved ones can draven resolve what do you do when you've been wrong dry there lots of things that fill my cup jimmy carter church family friends volunteering and may i say that volunteering feels it to the rim but it doesn't get it bubbling over. I have to fill my cup and i do this by taking myself on a date. There is something this is something much more than treating myself to a lovely meal reading a book in the park or going solo to the movies once a year i take myself to carter barron amphitheatre. Is washington's best kept secret right at 16th and colorado and i treat myself and me myself and i to a marvelous evening of music the most memorable nights were when i heard keiko matsui she's to be the former pianist with spyro gyra and it was well. Another evening was when the national symphony orchestra. Performed a piece by an african-american classical composer by the name of william grant steel it never heard of him and it was a marvellous piece they did steal symphony number one and then they ended the evening with duke ellington's a sweet for them from the river. Double wow. Every june i searched the car bearing schedule i tell all my friends about the anticipated concerts but i don't tell him about the one i always pick the one night when i don't depend on the kindness of strangers. Instead on the kindness to me and myself i love the nights when i take myself to town. I prepare lovely picnic for myself one play one napkin one set of silverware i always take take two glasses of wine just in case i want to share and with gracious abandoned i take that drink of wine and the stars and enjoy the summer nights are its rejuvenation hallelujah. One day i hope to experience the aurora borealis maybe i'll take a date. But i'll continue to date you mean myself and i although i know that i'm not the best person i do try to know the best parts of me. I need to nurse myself i talk to me and me talks to myself so that we all have a sense of understanding a sense of knowing how to make ourselves happy content to have our cup runneth over yes once markup is boiling bubbling over again i'm free to give to volunteer. Take care and to love. And that is why i take me myself and i on a date. Just about six weeks ago i was walking through a pasture in the north of england when i noticed that the very large animals in the field with me we're in fact bowles and excited to see me as i was to notice them threatening. They tossed their heads they were spraying saliva they roll their eyes back in their head they were making crunchy bull noises and they started pawing the ground they advanced till they got within about six feet of me now fortunately a few days earlier i have been talking to a farmer and she had said to me the bulls are very frisky this time of year and if you should ever get in. Till i crept over to the fence 80 ft away and it took me all about a year to get to the fence but once i got over that fence i was dancing the woohoo i could even look back fondly on those crazy bowls. So what was i doing in that pasture in the first place. Following a dream. This spring and summer i took two months off from work and when you work for yourself you know that means no paycheck two months off from work to walk across england by myself. Add to take notes for a book i want to write about the experience. Now i don't know if i'll get a publisher to publish this book and i don't know if it gets published if anybody's going to read this book but i know i'm writing it and it is an absolutely joyous experience. But there is another part to this story. Within 24 hours of my returning home from dropping over mountains and through peatbog boggs all by myself i was in serious pain. By the time i got to an emergency room i had a very infected gallbladder and a bad case of pancreatitis. I was one sick puppy. So after surgery and 5 days in the hospital they sent me home. And that was when i learned how rich i am not rich and money but rich in the love and care of my friends and my community. The day i left the hospital my covenant group called and told me a message that brought me to tears claudia said don't worry we're all organized and my dear friends i had a steady stream of people bringing me homemade chicken soup and other fine dinners. They brought me extravagant flowers books gifts and maybe even trashy magazines to read thank you nancy my friends rearrange my furniture to make it easier for me to get around they brought me groceries they brought me vitamin e oil for my scar they drove me to the doctor and they played with my cat sammy sosa and possum to the point of exhaustion that is point of exhaustion. And so this is how i spent my summer vacation. Reveling in the joy of walking alone and learning that i've never really alone at all. Before i start telling my gracious abandoned story. I want to use my editorial privilege and acknowledge that my mother dolores my nephews elijah and keith are here with me from kansas city today. And i'm delighted. I also want to acknowledge that tomorrow would be my dad's 84th birthday. And this vignette. Strangely enough is about his funeral. Hardly an occasion that usually generate the feeling of happiness overflowing into gracious abandon but let me tell you about it my dad was in many ways larger than life. He had few classic vices no drinking no drugs and only cigar-smoking which is grandchildren ultimately goaded him into ceasing. He could do almost anything and even all these many years later my belief is still true. Twice he renovated and enlarged the home that he and my mother purchased as young married and lived in for 50 years. He was a union steward at the meatpacking plant where he worked and he honorably represented employees. And would not represent them for stupid issues. My dad was a public figure in kansas city kansas. He almost single-handedly breeze lifeblood into the civil rights movement in our community from the mid-50s until the mid-80s. During his tenure as president of the congress of racial equality core he was the driving force behind the desegregation of restaurants hotels and the public schools. He even organized a boycott of local retailers until they agreed to hire minority people as sales clerks. Rather than just stalkers and cleaners. One store owner defiantly declared that he would rather close his doors than allow black people to sell his clothing. His business did not survive the boycott. Because he discovered that his loyal black clientele was unwilling to be caught by my dad crossing the picket line. My father also negotiated with the executives of general motors the community's largest employer to ensure that minority people were hired into salary positions as well as the traditional hourly positions. He organized multiple voter registration campaigns. That included carpools for those without transportation and escorts for those afraid to go to the poles alone. That may sound strange in kansas but many of the people from kansas migrated from the south and they were terrified to go and vote. I know a lot about my dad because as a child i was in shadow of the four children i was the only one who enthusiastically went to the rallies listen to his speeches and edited his newspaper articles. When he died in 1997 several of his compatriots from the civil rights days spoke at the service. As they talked i was comforted to be reminded of the things i recalled about his glory days. But then it seemed that each one also began to recount events i've never heard about some of them were funny which was quite surprising because pearl randolph was never intentionally funny he was highly principled courageous and extremely serious. The event shared by one of his close associates was so compelling and so animated it change the mood of the solemn gathering 21 where laughter penetrated the sorrow. He related that on about august 25th 1963 the day before 10 busloads of people were scheduled to depart for the march on washington all the officers of core were served with subpoenas by the fbi and told unequivocally not to leave town until after their grand jury appearance. The man who shared the story said he immediately changed his plans recognizes he'd be in grave jeopardy should he take that trip he hurriedly called my dad to consult with him about the best way to proceed with canceling the trip and getting people's money refunded on such short notice my dad in his true style interrupted him and stated emphatically that there would be no cancellation daddy said the fbi is bluffing they're trying to reduce the crowd at the march by making people like us afraid to go we committed no crimes and we have no reason to be frightened into missing this event. He went on to add and if they're not blessing they'll have to arrest me on the road or in washington needless to say that group of 400-plus people left kansas city on schedule and no one was arrested not on the road not in washington and not upon their return when the standing-room-only crowd in the church heard that story everyone burst into laughter and sustained applause my dad in effect. Told the fbi in organization that had tormented him in countless ways for several years to go to hell and he won the battle by the way the grand jury did not indict any of those who were subpoenaed. As this another stories were told. The funeral began to feel more like a joyful celebration of a great man's life. I still feel happy as i recall some of the amusing stories i heard about my father that day. The occasion of my father's funeral allowed me to learn some new delightful dimensions of him and that made me happy happy that his life had been even richer than i knew happy that i had even more reason to be proud of my father happy that i was born into a committed and loving family parented by carl and dolores randolph. As that happiness overflowed me i was swept from sorrow into gracious abandon. In john 10:10 jesus says. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy i have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. To have life and have it more abundantly life overflowing gracious abandoned such grandiose words. But are they possible. Sweetheart incredible testimonies of how we can live an abundant life props it's by taking our life into our own hands and learning to appreciate what we already have ourselves. Maybe it's about seeing joy even during a sorrowful time or perhaps it is when we are most frightened that we can see the overflowing nature of life. What about those times when we just can't see it though. What about those times when we feel that our joy has been stolen from us. The author of john's gospel speaks of the thief who comes to steal kill and destroy. As i reflected on this idea but cover thief who comes to steal i was reminded of a scene in bye bye birdie i'm a member of the gay men's chorus of washington and had the joy participating in our own version of the musical this past spring i don't think bye-bye birdie has ever been performed. Of course like all good musicals of that time everything works out in the end and everyone lives happily ever after. A thief of love. A thief who comes to kill steal and destroy. The thief of our joy. The reality was that conrad didn't love him he was playing his part hugo and built up this elaborate drama in his mind that led him to act so desperately. I couldn't help but think of my own life and how i build up elaborate dramas that have caused me to decry someone or something has a thief of love when in reality. Open terms of transactions. Or a culture of abundance. The brings transformation. I'm not sure if he thought the original with him but i'll give him credit and on the left. I was very moved by this as i began to reflect on my own life when i looked at my life from a culture scarcity with the idea that i'm somehow lacking something i need to be happy then i begin to act as if my relationships are a series of transactions. What can i get from this person i've given this much so find you back the same. On the other hand when i've lived my life from a from a culture of abundance. Abundant life abundant love life overflowing then i view my my relationships. Opportunities for transformation. So when i begin to relate to people in a transactional way of give-and-take i try to remind myself of the abundance of love and life all around me and allow it to transform me. In this way i can ward off the thief that comes to kill and destroy. The thief of love and joy in this way i can truly experience a life overflowing and by so doing not only transform myself. But the world is well. To have life and have it more abundantly. To experience life overflowing. I cannot think of anything more important to me.

all-souls_org

03.10.12RiverOfLife.mp3

Are reading this morning is from a source not often read and unitarian churches the book of revelation it's also the tax that inspired the anthem that angel saying shall we gather at the river one of my favorites. Revelation you may know is thought to have been written by a man named john who is exiled for his faith to an island called patmos where he received strange images that he believed were from god some of them were horrible images of the destruction of the world. The apocalypse. Others were beautiful healing images. Including the one i share with you this morning from chapter 22. Then the angel showed me. The river of the water of life. Bright as crystal flowing from the throne of god through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit. Producing its fruit each month. And the leaves of the tree. Are for the healing of the nations. And nothing accursed. Will be found in the city. Anymore. We began our service this morning singing. One of my favorite hymns. Down in the river to pray. And it's one of my favorites because it conjures up so many images for me. When we sing it. Want to share some of those images with you but i wonder if the choir could just help me a little bit here by humming a verse of that him while i show these images. Whenever we sing it i imagine the isle of this church as a cool gentle river that the choir is circled around. Calling us to worship calling us to celebrate life and then i remember how for generations the faithful have come to the river to pray i remember how moses lead his people out of slavery in egypt and right up to the banks of the jordan river with the promiseland shimmering over on the other side and there they pause and gave things before they crossed over i imagine generations of hindus coming to the banks of the ganges to ritually cleanse themselves and it's holy water for imagine a small church in the world south and how once a month after service all the new members getting dressed up in their flowing white baptismal robes they go out back behind the church to the bed bend in the stream where they are done tin and saved and each morning when we sing this him i imagine us joining with all the faithful of all the generations in a procession to the rivershore some of us seeking freedom on the opposite side some of us taking solace from the rivers gentle current others still simply offering things thanks to the river of life the poet philip larkin once said famously if i were to construct a religions i would make use of water. And indeed larkin wouldn't be the first. For since the beginning of time the river has captured our religious imagination has been the place where we came to pray in india the river was a symbol of fertility revered for bringing life to an arid land in the seven rivers of the sub-continent are worshipped as goddesses with ganges the mother of them all in ancient palestine where the abrahamic religions took root the landscape was similarly forbidding inhospitable for the rivers and where they flowed well that was the land of milk and honey. The promised land. Further ease the buddha grew up in a region where travel was interrupted on a routine basis by river crossings and so you're always hopping onto a raft or a or a ferry to get across to the other side and lo and behold the image of the river became central to buddhist thinking. This morning i want to do something a little different. I want us to play a little bit with this river imagery. And i want us to use it. To help us understand the different ways that people talk about god in their lives. You know the polls are we show that well over 90% of americans believe in god but the study's rarely probe what people mean by that word. Am i looking at this image of the river and that in the many ways it's been interpreting our religious imagination we can better understand what people mean what we mean when we say god or for the holy or the spirit of life. And so i'm going to identify at least three ways of understanding god of of imagining god that come from this river image. And in doing so i hope that you will be able to identify your own theology somewhere in those categories or. Because you are unitarians after all perhaps you'll develop your own twist on the river metaphor but let's let struggle with this image today let's imagine that we are on a journey and that we have come to the edge of a swift and wide river one of the things that is likely going through our minds is that we want to get to the opposite shore. Maybe the grass looks a little greener over there maybe there's something about that distant goal that is attractive to us that we long for until we are learning to crossover. To cross over to the other side. The first way to imagine god then or the holy in this river metaphor is to imagine god as the opposite shore. As the dwelling place. Of our highest values the embodiment of those values. People who espouse this opposite shore god. Don't see god so much as a person. We often think of god as a person but they don't see god as a person so much but as a place that we are struggling to arrive at. Get some future time and place where things are going to be better than they are today where justice and compassion will be the law of the land where the people will study war no more. At the scripture say. Judeo-christian tradition this place is called variously the promised land. The kingdom of god. Dr. king took that language kingdom of god made a little more egalitarian he called it the beloved community. Suffer some opposite shore believers the distance between here and there is a long long way. So great that the opposite shores imagined as a as a whole other world. It's a place called heaven where which can only be reached by the great crossing over of our death with a place called paradise which will only know after the destruction of this world as we know it after attack of the apocalypse is how some imagine. But there are others who believe that the opposite shoulder is a little closer at hand and that it can be built or at least approximated here on earth and the vision of what lies on that opposite shore lures them to do the hard work of trying to make this earth look a little bit more like a place we wanted to be this i'll admit is a face that i identify with. Tenants of faith that's common among unitarian universalist think of some of our most familiar and favorite hymns here at this church think about hail the glorious golden city imagining that opposite shore as a golden city of peace and justice think about we'll build a land which we sing so often. We'll build a land where we bind up the broken wheel build a land where the captives go free that is the opposite shore the holy beckoning us this is a faith that says that shore may be a long way off but we've got hands and we've got oars and we've got each other and let's start paddling to the other side. Buddhism is an opposite shore kind of faith to in an opposite shore way of understanding god most buddhists don't believe in a personal god. But rather the cultivation of an inner state of being called enlightenment. For the buddha the shore we stand on now is life as we know it a life characterized he said by suffering. Suffering in ways large and small. The crossover said the buddha is to realize that suffering is caused by our egos and they're and its desire for our private fulfillment and we will have reached the opposite shore called enlightenment when we have transcended the boundaries of our of our personal egos and through compassion identified with all sentient beings. The buddhist the opposite shore is not a physical reality in the world but an inner state of being. And so these are opposite shore believers. People who have an opposite shore kind of face. Side but he's taking a good look at this river and he is noticing how strong the current is. Is noticing the downstream a little ways there's some rapids and some white water and some rocks that he might crash up against and he's hearing the funder of the of the waterfall even further down the distance and he realizes that he needs some help getting over the river. He's a little help crossing over in other words this is someone who has struggled with life's trials and and tribulations and seeks a god who will be with him in the journey. My god who will be with us as we make the journey over not just some immovable distant shore. This is a personal god. companionable god who comes to our aid in times of need. If we're struggling against the current this god is right there next to us giving us up a pep talk and and urging us on. If we're getting close to the rapids this god may come to our aid with a raft and paddle and lead us to safety this is asking for help for a listening ear this is betrayed by her and it felt that our prayers were not answered so we've been abandoned in the water and this is. Long for the kind of personal relationship that other is fine so reassuring with this personal god and i will say to you today that i have felt the presence of this personal god in my life. It's by no means a constant presence then it's not the image of god that is is strongest for me but i will say this i would have never become a minister if during one of the most difficult times in my life i hadn't experienced a mysterious yet comforting presence that i have come to call god. And i wouldn't be standing here before you today if during some of my loneliest hours. I haven't experienced a sense of being loved unconditionally. It's that experience that has brought me here today. And so i do know a little bit about the god who meets us as we struggle to cross over another the third way that people have used this river image to talk about and to understand how god works in their lives and this world view is not of the west and this is the belief that god is the river. Hemisview god is neither the immovable impassable distant shore nor the intimate companion but rather the animating flowing force of life of force that if we are to live fully we must step into and and be swept away and its current this is a worldview that comes from the east in particular from the taoist tradition believes that there is a force and energy and life that they call the dow the way the point of the spiritual life is to tap into this life giving energy and harness it and and to use its power to propel you forward in the world and not to struggle against it against the current let it take you out it'll take you where you need to go and then you can swim back in that's the point of taoism. The goddess to tap into that flow of life's energy for doubtless the river is the best analogy for this life force because the river let's gravity let's nature do most of the work for it. Seeking out the path of least resistance to its destination finding the low places but at the same time creating one of the most powerful forces in the world flowing river the river that has the power to bring down mountains and cities and and if the same time bring life to an arid valley so i have to admit that i'm not a very go-with-the-flow kind of guy myself though i did spend several years in california so this easter. Can we back in that that spirit flow through us and and animate our lives and give our lives the shape of justice that's when i think i can relate to this sense of a life-force this sense of a flowing spirit of life this notion of the holy as a river that if will only work with it will take us exactly where we need to go these of the some of the ways that the river has helped me talk about god and understand god and i hope it helps you to find and articulate the different ways that you think about the holy of the divine in your life and you don't even have to use the word god to use these categories of thinking in your own spiritual lives but i also want to make a larger pointier want to make the point that a liberal and diverse religious community such as ours must be bound together by shared images and stories and symbols story than symbols are the building blocks of every religion including our own the only thing that's different about unitarians as we don't require that everyone interpret the story than the symbols the same way. But by having shared symbols and stories we provide a focus for our religious lives together so for instance as we sing spirit of life every sunday and one person chooses to close her eyes and imagine that were singing about the holy spirit as in father son and holy spirit. And another person imagines missed spirit of life as the flowing river of the dow or the way that's okay. In fact that's the whole point of us coming together as a diverse religious community then the knowledge and the faith that sharing our individual stories with one another will enrich each of us and deepen the faith of everyone of us so many are images and symbols be rich. And they are interpretations. He many. I want to leave you with one final image of the river as you know is we've said today this week one person was killed just a block from this church another person was shot hundreds of children and adults were sent fleeing in terror. A little later that night people were coming to the church the children's choir was coming to the church that night we had 45 children coming in the midst of a huge police search all of them wondering what why did this happen what is going on we had an older member of the church come to church on the bus that day and then she stepped off the bus she stepped into a pool of blood left by the young man who had been killed earlier that afternoon and since thursday i for one have searched for solace for me and for us and for this neighborhood and i found some solace from that image from the book of revelation and image of the river the river of life bright as crystal flowing from the throne of god right down the middle of the street of the city it says and i imagine that is flowing right down 16th street and on either side of the river says the scripture the tree of life stands with its 12 kinds of fruit producing fruit each month and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations and nothing accursed will be found in the city anymore that is my prayer this day i long for the day when the river of life will wash away the blood from the streets of our city i long for the day when our children won't lie and seek shelter in build jeans but will seek the shade of the tree of life that is my prayer for the city that is my prayer for all of us who dwell within it may it be so, in.

all-souls_org

05.03.27WhenStonesAreRolledAway.mp3

The reading this morning is from the gospel of mark. The earliest gospel is the final paragraph from that gospel. And i think you'll find that with his striking about it is how abruptly it ends. I think it was struck by the starkness of this. This earliest account of easter morning. So this is mark 16 one through eight mary magdalene and mary the mother of james and salome brought spices. So they might go and anoint jesus. And very early on the first day of the week when the sun had risen they went to the tomb they have been saying to one another who will roll away the stone for us. From the entrance to the tomb. When they looked up so they saw that the stone which was very large had already been rolled away and as they entered the tune they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side and they were alarmed. But they said but he said to them do not be alarmed you are looking for jesus of nazareth who was crucified he has been raised. He is not here look there is the place they laid him. But go now tell his disciples and peter that he is going ahead of you to galilee there you will see him just as he told you but the women went out. And fled from the tomb. My sermon today is about a stone. Of course you say the the stone the stone that the angel rolled away from the tomb so that the women could see that jesus had been raised that's the stone you're going to preach about on easter morning rob right. Well sort of sort of i'm going to get to that stone this morning i'm going to come back in a moment to the easter story but really i want to tell you about another stone this morning about this phone right here. And the stone that was rolled away from the tomb on easter morning and i know you're thinking what rob this sounds like a little bit of a stretch and it is but i'm just going to ask you to go on space with me hear that that we are going to travel so the story. A few weeks ago i found myself in the home of the president of the board of this congregation the board of trustees was having its annual retreat welcoming new board members setting priorities. As a way to get to know one another better each of us was asked to bring an object to share not just any old thing but an object it was important to us that it revealed something about our religious lives. One member of the board steve marshall. What i want to do for you this morning is reconstruct for a moment the conversation that we had about that stone on that morning i've also interlace some other conversations i've had with steve about this stone into this account but i think it's a pretty accurate account again by telling us that he's a scientist he's a geologist in fact on stones. Is a scientist had always maintained a healthy skepticism when it came to matters religious. One day many years ago steve was out in montana studying the rocks out there looking for clues to the geologic history of the area and he was down in a valley surrounded by the mountains digging through a bunch of rocks when he rolled away some stones. And he found this one immediately he said i knew that this stone was special i knew it was special he said because it was smooth and polished and there aren't many ways in nature to smooth and polish a stone from someplace else. Steve has a quiet way about him which you could tell he was getting excited remembering this moment until we asked him steve what's so special about the stone and he drew himself. About that time i was looking at this stone and thinking to myself this do would have to come from a pretty big chicken and anticipating our next question steve continue. Well now he had our attention now everyone wanted to learn more about this guest role if what kind of dinosaur steve it's hard to know he said a brontosaurus maybe a big dinosaur for sure. How old is it. Another asked where the dinosaurs roam the earth about 150 million years ago. So that's when it was in his stomach. But the stone itself he said is probably 300 million years old. One board member said quietly. Gee that's almost an eternity. Eventually someone asked what's what's the spiritual significance of the stone for you steve and over again before. What came before the dinosaurs what came before the stone it was as though the stone put me in touch with an immense mystery. The cats receding further and further into the past it was an awful experience it was a turning point. In my spiritual journey. We sat silently for a while and we took that in. I'll bet a lot of us have had an experience similar to steve's unexpectedly bumped up against the mystery and the grandeur of creation the mystery and the grandeur of life. And we were filled with the sense that we are apart of something so awesome so so powerful so beautiful so large that we felt two things simultaneously two things simultaneously we felt was small and insignificant. Yet at the same time we felt ourselves strangely exalted and ennobled because we experienced ourselves as part of that great mystery and we were errors to its grandeur i remember a time when i had an experience like to portland oregon and i never seen the mountains of the west and i moved to portland in part to experience those mountains because. To teach me for the first month i was there it was cloudy the entire time i never saw the mountains i've begun forget that they were the reason i move there and then one day i woke up and the skies were clear and i was i was walking to work and minding my own business watching the sidewalk ahead of me and i lifted my eyes and i saw. You mean like a celestial palace on the clouds its characteristic flat-top a reminder of the power that dwell within it that's ripped off the top three thousand feet of its interruption in 1980 and right there on that sidewalk i felt that sense of wonder. And a noble part of something larger than myself something so beautiful and powerful that the only name i could give it that would do it justice. With god. It was the only name that would do it justice. But i have a little old little problem to overcome you see because i'd grown up with with a notion of god that was a little different than the notion of god i had when i was growing up was sort of a law giving father figure and no offense dad who's here today and much more mysterious. Until i began to read and i discovered that indeed there were others who spoke of god less of as a person and more as an immense mystery i learned that the medieval monks used to chance about god omanya. Oh great mystery omanya mysterio. Incomprehensible powerful i read modern theologians like the jewish mystic martin buber the german theologian rudolph auto who called god me steady umm umm i'm not sure why they always use latin when they're doing this but. That inspires all that inspires total praise. even a guy that always raises more questions. And after that i grew to appreciate. I grew to appreciate finally that god would always remain a mystery to me that all my questions wouldn't be answered and that my life would be richer for being in relationship to a god who was never fully known my life would be richer so after he passed it around the small group that was so you can touch a stone in the stomach of a dinosaur. Questions they would grapple with for the rest of their lives how can our friend jesus have died yet still feel so present to us. How can god be absent. Get present at the same time what does it all mean these are the questions that gave their lives meaning. Now you go home today and you open up your copy of the bible you likely to find a different ending in the gospel of march because what happened is that the someone wasn't satisfied with the original way the story ended and so later manuscripts. Of the same gospel added all the explanatory stuff back in they tied up all the loose ends the story was stripped of its mystery god was stripped of god's mystery. Close by saying two things first. That's the problem with too much religion these days is the people want to strip god of god's mystery people want to make god literal and concrete they want to pretend that we can know that every moment god's will a great mystery. I want to save this many of us have walked away from god because we believed that the tidied up and certain version of god was the only god and val'able for us to embrace. We were led to believe that our doubts and our uncertainties that we had about god sometimes as children sometimes as adults were somehow heretical at inappropriate that a questioning faith was somehow a lesser faith we were taught that doubt was the opposite of faith but that is not true friends the opposite of faith is not doubt. It's certainty. It's certainty faith is a trust that you feel deep down even though you entertain doubts. Even though you are uncertain it's an abiding sense of the possibility of god amidst the mysteries of god faith wouldn't be saying. Without questions without doubt without uncertainty. And so on this easter morning let me commend to you. This god who is both known and unknown. Let us be sure that it is a valid and rich religious calling to spend our lives a mitsubishi mystery let us trust that such a religious life will indeed bearfruit and imbue our lives with richness and meaning and excitement. Let us look with the frightened women into the dark and empty tomb and wonder let us love with the smooth stones of our earth and seek answers. Let us live with the sense of hope and possibility that comes. From never knowing what will happen when stones are rolled away. Happy easter.

all-souls_org

06.03.26JustSayKnow.mp3

How wonderful really it is to be with you here in my hometown it's nothing like. Being home. It is an honor and a privilege and. I remember. This congregation from my growing-up years here in washington in the 1960s in. The important leadership. This is church played in the city and for this nation in the 1960s and i thank you. For that history. And i thank you for the history that you continue to make your for the lives at. You are helping to save. Here. In our nation's capital. And i thank the unitarian universalist association. For being willing to partner. With united church of christ. To develop our whole lives. A curriculum. About human sexuality. Which is saving lives. The saving many lives. Of our children all across this. I especially want to thank those young people. Who are here. For that training this week. Because what you're doing. Will save the lie. Advisors. And i bring you greetings. From the north american churches of the world council of churches. We just finished the 9th assembly. Of the world council in puerto alegre brazil. Where are seeing was god in your grace. Transform the world. And i believe that that is a prayer in which we must all join. And work. Which we must all do. For it is only by god's help that we will be able to transform this role which god created. In which we have so abused. Now i know they didn't the unitarian tradition you often use contemporary prophets in writers. But i want to use a very old and ancient one. Everyone knows. The story of jonah. People who have never read the bible know the story of jonah and the whale. And i'd like to read from the book of jonah. From the 4th chapter verses 1 through 11 using. The translation called the message. Jonah was. Ures. He lost his temper he yelled at god got i knew it i knew it when i was back home this is i knew this was going to happen that's why i ran off to tarshish. I knew you were sheer grace and mercy not easily angered richard loving ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment. Into a program of forgiveness. So god if you won't kill them kill me i'm better off dead. God said. What do you have to be angry about. But jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in her soul. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city. God arranged for a broadleaf tree to spring up. It grew over jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry stalk. Jonah was pleased and enjoy the shade. Life was looking up. But then. God's in the world. By dawn of the next day the worm headboard into the shade tree and it had withered away. The sun came up and god sent a hot blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on jonah's head and he started to fade. He prayed to die. I'm better off dead. Then god said to jonah what right do you have to get angry about this shade tree. Jonah said plenty of right it made me angry enough to die. God said. What's this. How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mirror shadetree that you did nothing to get. You neither planted know who ordered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So why can't i. Likewise. Change what i feel about nineveh from anger to pleasure this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don't yet know right from wrong. To say nothing. I'm the innocent animal. I'd like to spend. Just a few minutes this morning. Reflecting on this theme. Jess. Say no. Would you pray with me. More of the lord. Less of me. More of the lord. Less of me. More of the lord. Less of me. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you oh lord our strength. In our redeemer. Now the verb to know. Has many meanings. Jonah says to god. After trying to avoid god's god's plan for him to preach to the backsliders of nineveh. See that's why i was avoiding you got i knew you were a pushover and although you said you were going to punish the people of nineveh i knew you were going to forgive them instead. I knew you were a god of forgiveness. Instead of a god of punishment. You would think that jonah would be happy that god is a god of forgiveness especially considering the fact that he had tried everything he could to avoid doing what god wanted him to do. To go to nineveh to preach repentance to the people and god had forgiven him. You would think that he might be rejoicing in this god and in his own success and helping to change the people of nineveh was evil ways. But no. Jonah was angry. Furious even. With this god. He claims. To know. To know. To perceive with certainty to understand clearly as in. We know the facts. To be aware of or have perceived as in she knew we were at home even though the lights were all out. Do have a firm mental grasp. As an actor. Knows his lie. To be acquainted with. Is and yes your honor i know the defendant. To have an understanding of or skill. As in they know their music. To recognize by recollection is. And i know that face anywhere even though i haven't seen her in 30 years. To recognize and distinct. As in to know right. From ron. And then. There is what is often defined as the. Biblical. And legal usage. To have sex with. As in adam knew his wife even she conceived and bore king. But wait. Even in the bible. The word no has different meanings. Even in the book of genesis. Where the word appear is 58 times it has different meanings. In five of those times god is the subject of the verb and is the one knowing so it has no sexual meaning. In four instances it is part of a birth narrative formula but in the other references it means to gain knowledge. So there is no one way. To define know in the bible. Or even in the book the first book of the bible. In this. Right-wing my side or no side good vs evil with us always being good women back into the kitchen and slaves back into the plantation and bible something. World in which. We live. More and more. It is demanded that there is only one reading of scripture but it seems that. In the bible itself words really do mean different things at different times and in different places. Something which is important. For us all to remember. Mount the noun related to the verb know. Is the word no legend in the story of adam and eve in the garden of eden god tells adam and eve not to eat of the tree of knowledge. And when they do exactly what they were told not to do. The bible says they knew that they were naked and that god then punishes them. From eating from the tree of knowledge. Is it any wonder then. That our society influences it is by stories of the bible is ambivalent about knowing. Especially when it concerns knowing about being naked. And knowing about sex. But. Back to jonah. Who thought that he knew god. Because the truth is that none of us can ever know all there is to know about god. None of us is wise enough or purina or merciful enough or ancient enough to know all there is to know. About god. The best any of us can hope for is just a little glimpse of god. The best that any of us can hope for it to be touched by just a little bit of god's mercy or strengthened by just a little bit of god's courage or comforted by just a little bit. A god's love. The truth is that jonah didn't really know god and the truth is that jonah didn't even really know himself. For knowing god is part of knowing yourself and knowing yourself. Is park. Of knowing god. The first part of jonah story that i didn't reach with how he tried to keep god at a comfortable distance from him and that he ran away in the other direction from god. Jonah didn't even know his own gift well enough to understand why god would choose him. To do god's work. And he feared the tasks that god has set before him because he didn't know enough. Of god. To know that god would be with him and god would give him whatever he needed and so. Hiiraan. But you can never get away. From god. Even in this time of television survival shows the story of jonah is. Pretty far-fetched. A man swallowed up by a whale. But not digested. Living in the whale's belly for 3 days. And after praying to the same god he was running from. For help. Being spit out. On dry land. It's no wonder that he then went to nineveh as god had commanded him to do in the first place. And then. A miracle. The whole city. The congress persons and senators even those on the tape socialites the republicans and the democrats stephen king george and assistant king did the whole city repent. Pretty far-fetched. So i think. Set this story about jonah. Is just a way of telling us. Some important facts. About faith. This far-fetched story. Is a way to get us to think. About god. And i. First. God nosek. Back to that word. No. God knows us. And god still wants to use us knowing our weaknesses knowing our fears knowing everything there is to know about us god accept us for who we are what we are where we are and god still. What do user. Let's face it. Jonah was a very reluctant prophet. Instill. God used him. So whatever we think we know about ourselves it's important to know that god already knows all that and more. And despite all that. God already love sex. Indeed. Because of all of that. God. Already love that and god wants to use her. In the words of. Archbishop desmond tutu we are god's eyes and god's hands in god's feet. In this world. Not only was jonah a reluctant prophet who ran away from god but even when he obeyed got it did as god told him and even after the whole city turned from their evil ways jonas still didn't get it. Chica. Angry with god and went off to pouch. Now the second thing about this story is that. We humans are just so self-centered so focused on our own happiness our own definitions of success that we sometimes miss the important message the important thing that god is trying to show us about ourselves and our world. Sometimes we fall prey to a irrational fears in the ancient taboos and so we miss the opportunity to be god's instruments of love. And when that happens. God can sometimes choose. Some pretty astonishing ways. To change our hearts and our minds. Last summer. I went to cuba. With the delegation from the world council of churches. And on our last night do. We met for 3 hours with fidel castro. Now. No matter what your opinions of fidel are. You have to admit. That he is a larger-than-life person who initiated a complete cultural and social change in his country. And despite the embargo despite the obvious poverty of cuba the children in havana. Have a higher literacy rate than the children in washington dc. And there was a lower mortality rate in havana. Then there is in washington dc. Well. He told us that night of how when he came into power most of the doctors left tuba. And he was faced with the problem of how to provide healthcare. For his people all of whom by the way have healthcare. So he developed a fast-track way of preparing doctors and through the years he shared his doctors with the world's poorest nations with haiti within goal with many latin american and african countries. Any tolls as hell during a coup in one of these nations he sent a plane to. Pick up the cuban doctors who refuse to leave. And not one of them was kidnapped or hurt because the people love them so. And what went through my mind at night. And when is gone through it many times since then. Was what if. What if. After 9/11. What is after this terrible tragedy which happened to our nation what if we had chosen to send doctors and teachers and nurses and engineers to afghanistan into iraq instead of soldiers and bombs and war. What if. Can you really change hearts. Mine's with bombs. Now. Even when jonah did something right. He did it wrong. Even when he did what god told him to do and he succeeded he got angry with god because god had the nerve to change god's mind and save none of her. Jonah you see. Was a victim of his own success. Sometimes we too are victims of our own success. Maybe that is what is happening in our country right now. Young women. Who don't support the right of women to choose about their own reproductive freedom. Because they really don't understand what it was like before. They never saw the death. They never saw the complication. They never saw the agony. Young people. Even young people whose parents were leaders. In the civil rights movement. Who don't understand oppression. I read one of the most powerful interviews i have ever seen. Of harry belafonte. Talking about how he was uninvited to speak. At coretta scott king's funeral. A few weeks ago. Harry belafonte. Who had been close to the king family for years. Who had financially and personally supported them through the good times and the bad times. Uninvited to speak. After president bush decided to come. Harry belafonte. Who said he looked at the podium at who was on the podium at mrs. king's funeral that day. Install the power of the oppressor 2 co-op even the children of those whose lives. Have been devoted to working for liberation. And he asked the question. What have we done wrong. So that our children. Do not understand what real liberation is all about. He asked the question of how those of us would work for civil rights and human race can reclaim our children from the religious writing from the political conservative. Yes. Like jonah. Sometimes we are the victims. Of our own success. And we must find a way to help you who are the next generation. To know what the movement to transform this world. Is really all about. But. God's word. Through this far-fetched story god's word through this bumbling yes unworthy prophet jonah is that god is still at work changing hearts and minds. If god could change jonah then god can change. If god could use jonah then god can use us. That's my word to you. God can use you. God will use. So embrace that power that god is giving you. Use the opportunity that god is placing before you and god will plant that tree to give you shade god will give you whatever it is that you need to be god's prophet and god's instrument for love and peace in this world. Visit him. A four-line him. Which says it all for me. Spirit of the living god. Fall. Affresh. On me. Spirit of the living god. Fall afresh. On me. Melt me. Mold me. Feel me. Use me. Spirit of the living god. Fall. On me. That's my prayer. For myself. And that's my prayer. For each one of you.

all-souls_org

05.02.20WhereIsOurParadise.mp3

On new year's day. I awoke from a mid-day slumber. And for a moment i didn't know where i was it was one of those moments on the threshold of of sleeping and waking one of those moments where dreams dwell and i open my eyes and i found myself by the shores of an azure lake. The bright sun warmed my body a gentle breeze rock the hammock in which i reclined. A half-bred novel lay on open on my lap on the other side of the lake free volcanic cones rose out of the water like sentinels. Over my head i heard singing in the are the songs of birds parrots. Their wings beating in the wind and then my eyelids got heavy. And the last thing i remember thinking before i drifted off back to sleep was. I must be in paradise. Actually i was in guatemala which is beautiful but not paradise but you can understand why i'd be mistaken. For later ii search for paradise. On the internet and and most of what i found what i search was exactly what i just described who i found descriptions of beach resorts and of exotic tropical destinations and of sunny escapes from the winter snow one website even wanted to sell me a timeshare in paradise 2 weeks worth. I thought to myself if i ever do find paradise i'm going to want to stay for a lot longer than two weeks. Paradise. Paradise is the place that we long for. More than any other place. Paradise is that fabled place where everything that's wrong with the world is made right. Paradise is a place where we're all that we desire happiness and love and and beauty and justice where all of it is perfectly fulfilled. Paradise is the place where the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be. Is confused breached. There is a discontent within us how dissatisfaction that compels us to search for this place to seek it out and to make it our dwelling place we longed to live in this paradise. Problem is. But people are looking for paradise. All the wrong places. So today i want to say something about our search. Prepared ice. I say the people are looking for paradise and all the wrong places let me say something about that there are some of us who look for paradise as we look for paradise we want to go back to the garden if you will for these folks the model of paradise is is the garden of eden work for adam and eve dwell together with god and in and nature in perfect harmony. Please poke paradise is something that existed at some point back in history. But then we lost it. And that sense of loss makes some folks nostalgic. It makes other folks really angry if only that darn serpent hadn't come along and and mess things up we still be there now the tricky thing that happens with this kind of paradise is what happens if people tend to substitute for the garden of eden whatever historical moment is paradise right whichever time they consider to be the good old days when times were simpler when whenever. When the men were noble and the women pure for this kind of paradise lost. Sometimes it feels like we did take a wrong turn somewhere along the way sometimes it feels like the world is just too complicated now maybe it would be simpler if we more clear-cut if we could just go back to the way things work but then i remember. So people are looking for paradise in all the wrong places. Some of us look back to find paradise but but a lot of folks you know i looking for in the future. For their paradise. They're going to wait it out. They are waiting for paradise to come to them in the grade by and buy on the opposite shore in some distant future at the end of history when god will reign in glory. In this version the world as we know it will end and all are suffering with it and the saints will be lifted up on angels wings and we will all dwell together with god in harmony and it sounds tempting. The only problem is. But anyone who's not a saint will be destroyed. Here on earth. For our sins. This version of paradise requires that most of us. Paris. Now you may be saying you support rob this is a caricature of belief. People don't really believe this. But let me tell you that i talked to people in my office who receive letters. Some people in their family maybe you received a letter from from let's say a distant cousin who's written you about her concern about the state of your soul. She's afraid that you're going to to paris. At the end time and she loves you and she wants you to be with her in paradise or your sister-in-law who's not sure if you can be in relationship anymore with her because of the state of your soul. People believe this. It's a real believe it's not a caricature. Nm friends of this vision we just a private affair i would hesitate to speak against it. I would hesitate to speak against it but everyone's vision of paradise has consequences for everyone else. A vision of a paradise is inherently political in that sense in the broadest sense of the word it is political and so. Mystic rhythms. Fundamentalist evangelical christian song those are called christian zionists support israel because it in the bible it says that the re-establishment of the state of israel. And the rebuilding of the temple and the amassing of armies poised to attack the holy land are the necessary conditions for the apocalypse to come and then for paradise to be ushered in and the bible warns that god will judge individuals according to how israel in the final days. Gilchrist this puts jews and israelis in the familiar position of saying you know with friends like these who needs enemies because for the christian zionists this story has only two possible endings for jews. Either they convert at the end. Or they burn here on earth with the unitarians friends in all seriousness when human lives become a pawn in someone else's science fiction apocalypse. When the salvation of one person's soul requires the sacrifice of another's life then someone's got to stand up and say people are looking for paradise. And now i admit the christian zionism is an extreme example but it's by no means rare and it's indicative of what happens when folks pin their hopes in the buying by. When you believe the paradise will come in the next world the danger is and it doesn't always happen but the danger is that you won't really care about this one. This world has no value and oftentimes people end up with sort of a defeatist attitude about this world you know well i'll get i'll get mine in the next world and i'm just going to sit this one out. Mark's called at the opiate of the masses. Because it deadens the pain. Deadens the pain. And you don't you lay all the all the violent extremism aside. I got to say i have some sympathy with this. Point of view with this hope for the by-and-by. Sometimes i feel like this world is beyond redemption. Sometimes it feels like we things have just gotten too far out of hand. So we've been trying for all these years to build a better and and more just world and it's still all mess up. When it be better if i just started with a clean slate. But i for one. I'm not prepared to give up on the only world that i know. People are looking for paradise and all the wrong places. So where is our paradise. It's not that timeshare in sarasota. It's not in some future world if it's not in an idyllic past where is it. Where is this place of our hearts desire where is this place where all our hopes and our dreams for the world might be fulfilled where is the place that we desire more than any other place. This is a question that i young student asked. Of his rabbi once in an old rabbinic story. The story goes like this. After spending years with his head in the clouds looking for paradise and not finding it. A young man came to his rabbi and said master where is our paradise. And the old man lifted his arm and gestured to the world and sent yes. Not sure what the rabbi meant the student asked again saying master where is our paradise. And the rabbi took the students hand and pressed it against his weathered face. I said this. Still confused the young man said to the rabbi one last time where is our paradise and this time the rabbi reached down and scooped up a handful of dirt and smeared it in his fingers and said. And that's where the story ends. Put in my own mind i imagine what happens next. I imagine the young man thanking the rabbi for his teaching. And then i imagine him going to a place where he could be all by himself and i imagine throwing himself on the ground and weeping. Weeping bitter tears. Tears for the loss of his dream. For the brokenness of the world he weeps and weeps. And then one day. When the truth that the rabbi has told him has settled in the young man picked himself up off the ground. And goes out into the world looking for what the rabbi told him looking for paradise. Looking for for any blimps or glimmer of it and every once in awhile he sees it. Glimpses it in the way one woman goes out of her way to care for a complete stranger. Kid catches a fleeting glimmer of it one night on the hillside as he's as he looks over the place of his birth and watches. What is the sunset. He discovers it in fact that it was he discovers in fact that it was present in the moment that he found the strength to pick himself up off the ground. Flashes of grace. Glimpses of paradise. Once he started paying attention they start cropping up all over the place for the young man. Have young man doesn't stop seeing all the hurt and injustice and violence that had always made him weep and long for paradise those things were still there but now the truth that he tended in his soul with each new glimpse of paradise that truth compelled him to move beyond his weeping it compelled him to try to shape the world. To try to work with other people to build up the world so it looked more like the vision he held in his heart he found himself inspired to redeem the world. Now the young man. Has grown very old. And wise. And even at his advanced age. He's still weeps. For the world. But his tears are bittersweet now tears of sorrow for the brokenness of the world. And tears of joy for the shining glimpses of paradise. That he sometimes sees. It hasn't been easy this face. It hasn't been easy for the man throughout his life holding both the sorrow and the glory all together it's stretched him it's stretched his soul. But now he wouldn't trade it. For any other faith. And now when the young ones come to him. And when they ask him master where is our paradise. Adjusters to the world. And he touches a face. And he keeps mirrors the dirt in his fingers and he says this. This is the world that we've longed for more than any other place this. The only world. Pinguino. I'm in.

all-souls_org

06.08.13From%20YouIReceive.mp3

Our reading this morning is from the poet and essayist kathleen norris. Taken from her book. Amazing grace a vocabulary of faith. She writes hear about the word church. And what it means to her. Church is other people. A worshipping community. The worship or praise of god does not take place only when people gather on sunday morning. But when they gather to paint the house of an elderly shut-in. When they visit someone in the hospital or consoled the bereaved. When the sunday school kids singing christmas carols at the nursing home. If a church has life its programs are not just activity. But worship. And this is helpful. Because if the sunday morning service falls flat. It is the other forms of worship that sustain this life. When formal worship seems less than worshipful. And it often does. If i am bored by the sheer weight of verbiage in presbyterian worship. And i often am. I have only to look around at the other people in the pews. To remind myself that we are engaged in something important. Something that transcends our feeble attempts at worship. Let alone my crankiness. By some mysterious alignment of the stars it was five years ago almost exactly when i first walked into the sanctuary. A very new transplant to washington. Just graduated from college knowing practically no one in the city. I didn't even have my cat yet. I adopted her a few weeks later so that someone would miss me when i left my apartment. On that sunday five years ago i walked into the sanctuary having picked out all souls over the internet before even moving to dc. I walked into the sanctuary not knowing what gifts i would receive here. But feeling sure that something awaited me. As it happens a lot of things awaited me. In that first year i became involved with young souls and met other dc transplants. Is church became a place of friendship for me. I was lucky enough to create the first roots and wings class with janet randolph and sheila campbell. And this church became a place of empowerment for me. A place where i wasn't just the young person in the office at work. But a member of team at of a team at church where my input was valued. In my second and third years here i became involved with the washington interfaith network. And this church became a place of justice for me. That third year to i met the man who is now my husband here. And this church became a place of love for me. I will tell you that it adds a certain something it to the worship experience when you come in on sunday morning hoping to catch a glimpse of the person you had a first date with on friday night. In my fourth year i entered seminary and sundays became a return home to a community that i knew would help me make sense of all i had learned during the week. This church became a place of support for me. In my fifth year at the church i began a ministerial internship at river road in bethesda. Until my sunday attendance bottomed out. But when i had the chance i ducked back in. And this church became a place of welcome and of respite for me. In may my husband and i were married in this sanctuary. Surrounded by our family and friends. And this church became a place of commitment. And emotion. And now as i stand before you preaching for the first time in the sanctuary. This church feels to me like a place of promise. A place of grounding and centering. A place of joy. It is a place of friendship empowerment justice love support. Respite and commitment. Now that's a lot of things for a church to be. And the last five years have been such that i have really packed in the church experiences. I can't promise that everyone's experience of church will include the discovery of your friend and a calling to ministry and a husband. That's a tall order even at all souls. But i know we all receive great gifts from this place. I know you wouldn't be here today if you didn't receive something from this congregation. Unitarian universalism doesn't tend to be a face in which people attend church because of guilt. Or habit. Something brought you here this morning something brings you here. Perhaps every sunday morning. What is it i wonder. We are blessed in this congregation with strong preachers with ministers who really know how to send home a message. And so many of you may come on sundays to hear a word of peace. A word of justice. A word of hope. But i don't think that wonderful preaching is enough to keep you coming back. There is something more you find here i am ajan. That keeps you in the pews on sunday. And more importantly takes you from those pews to pierce hall for lunch. And from pierce hall up to the eating room. For a meeting about getting out the vote. There is something here that gets you on your feet clapping as the choir saying. And that keeps you on your feet. Walking door-to-door to inspect housing code violations. There is something here. My suggestion to you today is that what you find here. What you come back for. Is each other. My own connection to the people of all souls extends far beyond my friends and my husband. It is a connection i feel to the entire congregation. A sense of being in a community of people who value what i value. Who will fight alongside me send me off into the world with blessings and welcome me home when i return. This is a church where i can cry during hymns. And no one will look at me funny. A church where i can let my hair down. And it's a church where people won't leave me alone. We don't leave each other alone during difficult times. We reach out through pastoral care we send cards signed by the congregation. We check in and we bring suppers. This is a church where people gather each other up. Providing support. And comfort and sharing the burden. This is also a church where people just will not leave me alone. And we should be that place too. A place where we don't leave each other alone to be content and complacent. There's a common saying that a preacher's work is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. I think that's all our work. In this church we don't leave each other alone to think that justice has been achieved and racism eradicated and sexism a distant memory. We know that's not true. I know it's not true. But sometimes i need to be reminded. And this church is good at reminding me. A powell davies the minister of this congregation in the 1940s and 50s. Put it this way. He wrote. I fall below my own standards and need to be constantly brought back to them. I am afraid of becoming selfish and indulgent. And my church. My church of the free spirit. Brings me back to what i want to be. This church reminded him two of the work he had to do. Now that's a gift that being reminded. But it can also be a little uncomfortable. Perhaps i don't want to talk about ecojustice and how much we throw away. But there i am at lunch and the seventh principle folks are heading my way. And sometimes i like to look around this congregation and see all the different colors in the pew and think 0/0. But then i'll see someone from a door coming around the corner. And i know they've got difficult discussions and wake up calls for me. This is not a congregation that will let me rest in my complacency. Well thank goodness. I need someone to give me a little pinch now and then. Let me know there's still a lot of work to be done. And even better. I know that here in this church the person doing the pinching. He's planning to do that work with me. That's the saving grace in a congregation. That's what makes it a safe space to struggle. And work. And grow. We'll all still be here on the other side of that struggle. Will come together again on sunday. Will light the candles and listen to the sermon shout amen if we're feeling adventurous. Will be sitting next to each other in these pews. Not looking funny at each other if we cry during the hymn. This is what we give each other. Our presence. Our enduring and abiding presence. And it is because of this presents that we can feel safe in a congregation. Safe enough to allow ourselves to be changed. Safe enough to listen to the nudging of others as we walked together on our journeys of faith. Ultimately a congregation provides companions for those faith journeys. People that are around so that we don't make the spiritual quests and tracks on our own. Even throw alone in his little house on walden pond. Went into town to see his mother. And from what i've heard to have her do his laundry. Now i don't expect any church members to do my laundry peter you are not included in that tavia. But i do expect you to be folks i can check in with. Folks who will keep me on the right track. I depend on the seventh principle committee and a door and when and all souls all vote. I depend on them to bother me and nudge me. And keep me moving in the right direction. This church has so many groups like that groups that will bother you and that's you along. My husband's had belonged to the same men covenant group. For the last 3 years. And those twice-monthly meetings have been a source of support for him i know. Roots and wings offers a chance for new members of the church to get to know folks who have been around longer. And for everyone to forge deeper relationships. Are religious education teachers build a system of support around our children. Helping them to grow up in a place that tells them they are loved. And whole just as they are. I can't even keep track of the different age and interest related group young souls and silver souls and lambda souls. We seem to be so excited by the possible risks on the church name that we just can't stop. And of course that's the point of church isn't it. Ways to connect. People inviting you to join them. So how do you get back. Oh you start by saying yes to the invitation. Show up for the party don't forget to stick around for cleanup. Showing up though that's the first step. And it really is who we are as a congregation. And as a face. Unitarian universalist don't come together around a set of strictly defined belief. We come together because we want to be together. We bring together a diversity of beliefs a diversity of language about god and the sacred. We bring together all these different people. And we decide that we want to be a people together. And i think that makes our being together even more amazing. Our relationship to each other as a congregation is not about believing the same thing. But rather about our desire to be a community. That models how to be with each other. This congregation knows something about that work. Through its jubilee workshops on race. Through its work on a covenant of right relations. And simply threw the kind of interactions that happen every sunday. We try. And we fail. And we try again to be the kind of community that we seek. But what is important here what makes it possible for us to keep trying. Is that we're all in this together. And that my friends is the gift we offer each other. It is simply our presents. Our promise to be together. I have always loved the image and shakespeare's anthony and cleopatra. When anthony tells his love how close they are. He says. My heart was to the rudder tide by the string. And thou should told me after. I'm not suggesting that we are as a congregation engaged in an epic romance. But i do love the idea that we are tied to each other. Bound together by our willingness to stick around. To see it through. We are here together to stand with each other for what is right. To hold each other up when life throws curve balls. To celebrate together when the sun is shining. And our being together and maybe one of the most important things that we can do. In a country and a city that sometimes seem to breed isolation. And reject commitment. We are making a statement by our coming together. We are saying that our commitment to each other our commitment to this congregation is important. That we do not stand alone. That we are a people together. In our reading this morning kathleen norris wrote. If i am bored in worship i have only to look around at the other people in the pews. To remind myself that we are engaged in something important. Of course we are never bored and worship here. But even if we were by some fluke. We too could look around the fuse. And see the people. And know that something important. It's happening. Are closing him today which will follow the offertory is one that is often used at rallies and protests marches. You might know it. We will sing about being a gentle angry people. We will sing about being gay and straight together. Young and old together. And we are those things in this congregation. But this morning i want you to listen particularly to what comes next. Listen to what we are doing in this him. We are singing. We are singing for our lives. That my friends is the essence of our being together. We come here on sunday morning we file into the pews and we open our hymnals and then we sing. We sing for our sisters and our brothers who are hurting. We sing for our country and its brokenness. We sing for ourselves. And we sing for each other. Lifted together and song our voices make a powerful noise. They make a joyful noise. We sing in many octave and sometimes in altogether different keys. But we sing together. We sing for our lives. So when we sing that closing him this morning i invite you to look around and see the people. Who are singing with you. And know that just being here with them is a gift you bring. And that they are giving that gift. Right back to you. My friends it's like a big birthday party here every sunday. And we mean what it says on the invitation. Your presence is the only gift. That is required. May you know it is a gift indeed.

all-souls_org

07.09.16Surge.mp3

Before i show this morning's reading i want to. Give my. I'm about to give my sermon. About iraq disclaimer. Which is that you all know my position on the iraq war. If you don't you will in a couple of minutes. And i know that not everyone in the church agrees with me. And that's okay this. Church is over well over 800 members and i have never known 800 unitarians to agree on anything. And well i believe the moral issues of this war. Are clear-cut. The strategic issues are far more complicated. And people of goodwill can differ. We can learn from one. And i'll offer a different disclaimer. Which is that. In the form of a prayer that sometimes. Righteous anger can also be. An instrument. Of love and. On august 19th are unique up at appeared in the pages of the new york times. It was a piece about iraq. But it was not written by leaders of either political party. High-ranking military officials former secretaries of defense or washington pundits. Instead it's by seven soldiers. From the army's 82nd airborne division stationed in baghdad. I want to share a couple of excerpts from their peace with you is our reading this morning. You can find the full text. Online. Beauty and misses a little bit longer of a reading then i'll usually share but it's worth it. Viewed from iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment. The political debate in washington is indeed. Surreal. To believe that americans with an occupying force that long-ago outlived its reluctant welcome. Can win over a recalcitrance local population and win this counterinsurgency. Is farfetch'd. As responsible infantryman and non-commissioned officers with the 82nd airborne division. Soon heading back home. We are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict has increasingly manageable and feel it is neglected the mounting civil political and social unrest. We see everyday. The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed american centered framework. Yes we are militarily superior. But our successes are offset by failures elsewhere. And what's soldiers called the battle space remains the same with changes only on the margins. A few nights ago for example we witnessed the death of one american soldier and the critical wounding of two others when a lethal armor-piercing explosive. Was detonated. Between an iraqi army checkpoint. And the police one. Local araki's readily testified to american investigators. Little rocky police and army officers. Escorted the triggerman. And help plant the bomb. These civilians highlighted their own predicament. Have informed the americans of the bomb before the incident. The araki army. The police or the local shiite militia would have killed their families. As many grunts will tell you. This is an ear routine event. Reports that a majority of iraq e army commanders are now reliable partners. Can be considered only misleading rhetoric. Given the situation it is important not to assess security from an american center. Perspective. The ability of say american observers to safely walk down the streets of formerly violent towns is not a resounded indicator. A security. What matters is the experience of the local citizenry. The most important fronts in the counterinsurgency. Improving basic social and economic conditions is the one on which we have failed most miserably. 2 million iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering come. Close to 2 million more. Are internally displaced and fill many urban slums. Cities like regular electricity telephone service and sanitation. Lucky the rockies. Live in gated communities barricaded with concrete blast walls that provide them with a sense of communal. Claustrophobia. Rather than any sense of security we would consider normal. In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets. Engaging in the banality. Of life. Has become a death. Define apt. 4 years into our occupation. We have failed. Let me begin my sermon. By sharing with you the names of the soldiers who wrote that piece. As i do you might want to reflect on the risk that each of them took. In writing it. Army specialist boudicca yamaha. Sergeant wesley d smith. Sergeant jeremy roebuck. Sergeant edward saint myers staff sergeant jeremy a murphy. Staff sergeant ian. Tigre. And sergeant. Omar mora. Editors at the new york times gave the soldiers op-ed piece the title. The war we saw. Suggesting erroneously that their tour of duty was already over when in fact the soldiers on schedule to come home. Until november. The prematurity of that title was underscored earlier this week. Because on monday. Is general petraeus an ambassador crocker were greeted with fanfare on capitol hill. On monday when an entire nation awaited their testimony and when senators. Put on their best ties for the cameras. On monday on a road in the far reaches of the american empire. Staff sergeant yazz gray. And sergeant omar mora. 4 kill. When their truck crashed on a bagdad road. Sergeant morris story stands out for me. Morrow is 28 years old from texas city texas. With a wife and a five-year-old daughter. Born in ecuador moore's parents brought him here when he was two. He had just received his citizenship papers. And was awaiting his return from a rock. To be officially sworn in as a citizen of the united states. In an interview maura's mother. Olga tapatio. Confessed that she had been especially worried about her son in the last month. In early august. He'd watched a friends died in his arm. He grown increasingly despondent. And when mother and son spoke on friday. 4 what would be the last time. Miss cappuccino told her son. Dios te cuide auricle. God will take care of you. And bring you home. I begin my sermon with the story of these young soldiers. Because i've been watching events unfold on capitol hill this week. Hoping to find glimmers. About leadership. They can bring an end to this war. Leadership that makes for peace. I've been sadly disappointed. Seen instead only more of the same more posturing. More spinning. More stalling. And i found myself almost clinging to these young soldiers and their op-ed piece because in a small way they demonstrate for me precisely those qualities of leadership. That weird that were missing this week. And then i believe these times call for and so this morning i want to talk about the kind of leadership. That makes for peace. No they don't allow ministers to declare and mount surges. But if they were to do that than this morning i want to offer my views about exactly what kind of surge. We need. To bring it in. To this war. The first thing that struck me. When i read the soldiers article. Was its brutal honesty. Their first-hand narrative provides a straightforward street-level view of the daily life of soldiers and civilians in iraq. They don't spin or posture they don't offer misleading statistics they tell us the truth. As they see it and i for one found that remarkably refreshing this week. Because here in washington. We have been lied to about this war from day one. Vice president cheney. To this day. Insisting saddam hussein had ties. Tonight 11. Colin powell. Disgracing his and our reputation. By taking to the security council bogus evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Viet ministration for 4 years promising that first one benchmark and then another would be the beginning of the turnaround in a rock and each time congress and let's give the president time for his plan to work out. And then. The benchmark fails we go by and the whole process starts over again we failed to make progress on so many benchmarks that ambassador crocker's suggested the other day that it was when it comes to iraq we should think in terms instead in terms of. Mini benchmarks. You've got to pay attention to the language in this. On wednesday with great fanfare. The president announced that he supports a pullback of troops. When in reality the troops that he's pulling back. We're already scheduled to rotate out of their tour of duty anyways. But that didn't stop just about every newspaper in america from posting a big headline on thursday morning. President supports. Pullback of troops. And then. In his speech before the nation on thursday. The president rolled out another slogan. For the war. A slogan filled with more orwellian. Irony. Then the slogan we heard a few years ago mission accomplished. You know what the new slogan is. Return. On success. With all due respect mr. president. There has been very little success. And the only returns that i've seen our soldiers coming home in body bags or on prosthetic limbs. Mr. president stop lying to us. That's what i want to hear people say stop lying to us how come no one said that on capitol hill this week. Yeah i am fed up with a kind of washington to coram. That says that you can't. You can't question someone's integrity because it's in place in impolite to do so and in the meantime we allow killing lies to be passed off as truth one of the things we need to bring an end to this war is a surge of honesty. In washington d.c. a surge of honesty. I was also struck. In reading the article by the soldiers. I was struck by their courage. You know i've never been in the military and i'm sure some of you can fill me in but i can only imagine the way that these soldiers lives could have been made miserable. By their commanders and colleagues. For what they wrote. But clearly it takes a certain kind of courage to serve in iraq in the first place. But the courage of which i speak. I see is different from and in addition to that. i'm talking about the kind of a kind of intellectual courage. Having the courage of your convictions the courage to say what you believe in spite of the consequences that's what i saw in the soldiers. Peace. I must say friends that courage is another quality. In short supply these days among our political leadership. And when it comes to war the lack of such courage can have devastating. Counter for. Let's remember a lesson from history. In the last decade new. Information has come to light about president johnson's decision making. About the vietnam. War. We now have tapes of many of his phone conversations as well as confessional memoir from robert mcnamara his secretary of defense. We now know for instance. That is early as february. 1965. As johnson was ordering a bombing campaign of the north. And just months before he would launch his own. His own surge of about 40,000 american troops. The president made stunning. Admission. In a taped conversation. With mcnamara. He says and i quote. Now we're off to bombing these people. We're over that hurdle. I don't think. Anything is going to be as bad as losing this war. But i don't see anyway. Of winning it. The presidential historian michael beschloss who wrote a book on the lbj tapes said that when he heard johnson's and mission. It sent a physical. Shutter. Through his body. Historians always assume that. The johnson wasn't sure about victory but that he had a plan and believed that we could win. But here he is telling mcnamara that we can't. Johnson didn't want to be the president. Who lost vietnam. So instead of ending the war. He didn't think we could win. He escalated it. Don't you go down. To the mall. And you follow the names chronologically. Across the vietnam wall. You'll see. The consequence. A president johnson. Failure. At the time the president admitted he didn't think we could win. Only 500 us soldiers had died. In vietnam. By the time we actually lost. And pulled out. 58000. Soldiers. Has president bush believes we can win. In iraq. And has a clear strategy for that victory. Then for four years he has failed to share that with the american people. Or to provide to us a picture of his endgame. But if like president johnson. President bush feels that we can't win. And doesn't see a clear strategy for victory. But doesn't want to pay the political price for that admission. Then we have the right to ask. How many more lives. Mr. president. Will you sacrifice. For your lack. Encourage. And we also have the right to ask. Members of congress. How many more lies will you sacrifice. For your lack. Encourage. Because now we have a president a lame duck president who faces no more elections in his lifetime. And the democratic congress with 60% of the public agreeing with them that we should end the war in iraq and neither can summon the political courage to end the war in iraq we need a surge of courage in washington dc to end this war leadership for peace requires courage. It requires courage. So honesty. Courage. I would add competence to the list of leadership qualities. As everyone agrees that this war has been terribly and tragically mismanaged. And there are many others. But for me there's really. One more surge. That i believe has the power to bring it in. The war in iraq. One more surge that can help create peace. That we saw yesterday here in washington as people took to the streets. To demand. Peace. You know a lot of people. Dismiss peace activism. I love you both send me rob don't bother marching. No one listens to protesters anyways. And i have to admit that there were times when i was tempted to believe them. Yeah i'm thinking back to the winter of 2003 in those first anti-war marches when it seemed that every day we march the temperature dropped. Below freezing. And that the public reception was almost as frigid. To our marches. And there were moments when i asked myself is this making any difference. With the movement spread. As movements do. And more and more people and more and more places march for peace and took to the streets and wrote letters and showed up and pressured their representatives and friends we have watched public opinion shift about this war and i know that activism has played an important part in that forget that. That we possess. But we haven't made all the difference. Yet that we need to. I'm so if there is one certain that we need more than any other to end the war it is a surge of principled opposition. To the war by people of faith. And of conscience. We don't need more troops on the ground in a rock we need more foot soldiers for peace here at home. Which is why i was so heartened yesterday to see so many war veterans. No marching. In an army. A piece. Surge of foot soldiers for peace. Is what will help bring an end to the war. In iraq. I love you just close by saying this. Every sunday morning. Now for the last 2 years. Before church starts we have tolls. Our bells we used to pilar bells ring them loud and clear to call people. Church. For the last two years we've told them. To remember the dead. Civilian and military. In the war. In a rock. This week as those bells toll. They will toll for among others. Sergeant omar mora. And staff sergeant yance. Gray. As well as a five other soldiers into iraqi detainees who died with them. In the truck accident this week. As we grieve. Their loss. And the loss of so many human lives. Let us also take heart. In knowing that the sounds of that bell. Reaches far. And wives. Let us take heart. That our prayers and our protests are being heard. And let us surged ahead. Holding. In our full hearts. Both. That grief. And. That hope. It's the only way forward.

all-souls_org

06.10.15Empathy.mp3

This morning's reading is from a book which i highly recommend to you if you don't mind that it becomes sappy and romantic at the end. It's a book by woman named elizabeth gilbert it's a book entitled eat. Pray. Love how could administer not read a book called eat pray love. Which is about her adventures traveling. In italy india and indonesia the three i countries. She decided after a very hard divorced that she was going to spend the year. And and four months in each of those three parts of the world. Trying to learn from italians something about pleasure sounds like the right place to go to me from the indians something about devotion. And from the indonesians something about balance. And during the section that i will share with you she's discussing her delight and her struggles and trying to learn the italian language. And she talks about speaking with a deer italian friend of hers who becomes sort of her. Helpmate in learning the language and she's teaching him english at the same time her friend. Giovanni. Elizabeth gilbert's words. I work hard at italian. But i keep hoping it will one day just be revealed to me. Whole perfect. One day i will open my mouth and be magically fluent. Then i will be a real italian girl instead of a total american who still can't hear someone call across the street to his friend marco without in swanton instinctively to yell back polo. I wish that italian would simply take up residence within me. But there are so many glitches in this language. Still overall it's so worthwhile. It's mostly a pure pleasure. Giovanni and i have such a good time teaching each other idioms. In english and italian. We were talking the other evening about the freezes one uses when trying to comfort someone who is in distress. I told him that in english we sometimes say. I've been there. This was unclear to him at first. I've been where. But i explained that deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location. A coordinate on a map of time. When you are standing in that forest of sorrow you cannot imagine that you could ever find your way to a better place. But if someone can assure you. That they themselves have stood in that same place. And now have moved on. Sometimes. This will bring hope. So sadness is a place. Giovanni asked. Sometimes people live there for years. I said. In return giovanni told me that empathizing italians say. Lowepro vatos salami opella. Which means. I have experienced that on my own skin. Meaning i have also been burned or scarred in this way. And i know exactly. What you're going. Friends we have. All throughout our lifetimes heard many cliches and truisms about the importance of being empathetic human beings. We've been told that we should walk a mile in someone else's shoes. We've been told that it's important to try to envision the hardships. Of others around the world. Those who don't have enough to eat. Those whose lives are torn by violence. So that we don't take for granted our own good fortune. Or forget that there is still more to do. More to understand to try to wake the world a more just place. And yet as much as we've been told these things. About how important it is to understand other human beings. I would like to say this morning that i believe that we actually have never been had this case made to us firmly. Enough. It seems to me that we've been aiming for the wrong thing when we've been told that we should empathize with how other people are doing or feeling. How their lives are. We've been taught to aim for a sort of. Broadly general sentimentality. I'm almost there there. Oh i feel sorry for you oh isn't that. Too bad. We've been taught almost to substitute pity. Or sympathy. 4. Empathy and compassion. And so when i came across that phrase in elizabeth gilbert's book. I thought wouldn't i much rather live in the society that strives for having a say i have felt that on my own skin. What would it mean. To live in a place. In a world where we truly attempted. To relate to someone else's feelings and experiences in a way. That is validating. And not presumptuous. That is understanding without trying to make it our own. What would that be like. Now i realize of course that it's not always possible to empathize with other people's experiences. None of us have ever experienced everything there is. In being human. It's hard to empathize with loss and grief if you have not experienced it yourself. For example. But empathy is i believe one of the most basic. An integral and. Key capacities that we as human beings have. And it's one that i feel that we don't cultivate or grow as much. As regularly as we could. So engaged with me for a moment in an exercise of empathy. Think. For a moment. Of the last time that you had a strong disagreement with someone. Perhaps you were arguing politics with a member of your family or perhaps you were debating what would be the best course of action. With someone. Debating a life decision that you were about to make. During that disagreement in that argument that conversation. I wonder whether you paused for a moment. To not only express your own view to try to get this person over to your perspective. But to think for a moment. About how they may have come to believe as they do. To take the time. To perhaps see the world a little bit from their vantage point. You see i worry that we get too entrenched in our own views. Our own opinions our own ways of seeing the world. And then we get misunderstood or not fully seen and deeply hurt because someone else hasn't understood. Where we were coming from. And friends we never get to that point of deep understanding we never get to that point of empathy. Because we don't get to those formative experiences. That have shaped the person before us now. How would that conversation. Go. If you asked. Beforehand. What were the formative life experiences and event. I have shaped. All of the choices that you have made in your life. How would your conversations with friends and family and others go if you ask them how it is that they came to believe as they do. About god or. The bible or human nature or any of the major questions of life and existence. How would that conversation go if you simply asked. What has your life. Shownu. About loss. And love. About hope. Enjoy. I bring all of this up this morning. Because i've been thinking and talking with a great many of you recently about how we care for one another in this church. And during those conversations it's become more and more clear to me. But i've been missing that first question. But i haven't been asking enough how is it. That you came to feel as you do. About this. Throughout my just over 5 years now as a minister. And i realized this august when i was away from you thinking about five years as a minister that five years is just long enough to figure out a few of the things that i do well in ministry. And certainly long enough to figure out all of the things that i have absolutely no clue what i'm doing. Throughout my 5 years. As a minister both in wisconsin and here in washington. I have learned that concerns about. How we will care for one another. Are always present. And i can tell you that while those concerns are always understandable. For we all want to be sure that when we need help or care. Our church will be there for us. I would hope that the worries and the fears. Would be less prevalent. Let me speak from the heart for a few moments about why. As one of your ministers i can tell you that both reverend hardee's and myself see pastoral care as one of the most important services that we offer to you. Let me tell you that i did not go to seminary or choose ministry as a path as my life's vocation and work because i enjoy committee meetings or because i enjoy asking for money or because i enjoy long hours. Friends i became a minister for three reasons. 3 reasons. The be with people in meaningful ways. To talk to people about those things that matter most to them and their lives spress lee god and spirit and spirituality all things of the heart. And thirdly to create community. That might just might on its best days. Help make the world. A little bit better by its presence in it. And i can tell you that throughout my 5 years of ministry. The richest moments that i have experienced have been those moments when i have been closest to members of the congregation. Those moments when someone has sat in my office and cried. About depression. Those moments when the call has come into the church and i have rushed off to the hospital to be by someone's bedside. Those moments. When i have sat with a small group of you and heard you are souls speak. Friends there is nothing that i enjoy more. Or feel is more precious or more important in ministry. Then that ministry of an accompaniment. Of being with you and so every time you call. If i am in town and i am here i will make room to be with you. And i can't guarantee you. That my presence will make everything better. For as my pastoral care professor once said the last thing you should ever tell anyone when you're with them is it will be okay. Or it will all be better. She said how do you know. You could say that and it could get worse. But i can tell you that i will come and i will be there and i will be a presents. With you and alongside you. During moments when things don't make any sense. During moments when life. Seems harsh. And i will tell you. That we have dedicated and skilled labor volunteers serving are caring network. And serving as pastoral associates. Who will help your ministers to be there with you as well. Empathy. And compassion. Which literally means to struggle with. Are deep spiritual work. Make no mistake. That to feel as the italians do that you have experienced something on your own skin. When you hear of. The challenges in the struggles of those around you. Is deep deep work. And so it is my prayer on this morning when we lift up those who offer care. Those who will continue to offer care. And those of us who receive the care. It is my prayer for us all that we will be ever willing to see in one another. Our common humanity. For it is that common here in a humanity that enables us to relate to one another. Whether that is in moments of pain. Or enjoy. And it is my prayer that we will be willing to ask that additional question. Spend that extra moment of time. Two on earth. The how and the why we have come to be. The unique. And precious soul that we are. So mad.

all-souls_org

03.11.02BeliefAndUnbelief.mp3

This morning's reading comes from what i consider a rather remarkable novel and i will try very hard to introduce this well because i think it's really a beautiful thing to novel entitled pabi and dingin by an author named ben rice. And it's a novel told entirely from the perspective of a twelve-year-old the twelve-year-old is the protagonist of the book. And it is set in rural australia in opal mining country. And poppy and dengan are actually the imaginary friends of the lead of the protagonist. Sister kellyanne. And the whole plot centers around the fact that the father of this family told his daughter not to worry about pobby and dangen that he would take them with him to work. And then he lost. Potty and digging at the opal mine and kelianne. Ends up deeply distraught and the father is actually accused of trying to. Wonderful truths about what we imagine and what is real. And what is true and it seemed very fitting for my sermon this morning. So in the first excerpt from the novel the first paragraph from the novel that i will share with you. They're talking about the man sid who has accused of the father of not actually looking for popping dengan but of time to steal his opals. Span of the way that the judge speaks with sid. At the trial for the father. And this is all again from a schmorl's perspective the twelve-year-old. He the judge asked sid about his family. And sid said he hadn't got any. And that his wife had died 20 years ago. And the judge asked him if he ever talk to her privately even though she was dead. And sid said he did sometimes. When he was up on the agitator because his wife used to help him sit through opal dirt. Because she had better eyes than he did. But i don't think sid realized what was going on. The sly old judge mcnulty had trapped him into admitting that everybody has an imaginary friend of some kind. Even if they don't think they have. And that old sid himself was a bit on the short-sighted side. Well i hope you won't forgive me for ruining the plot of the book because i have to in order to read to you this next excerpt. But what happens is ashmole goes looking for poppy and dinging and discovers that they have died. And then in the end in her distraught and it's the sister who has been wasting away this whole time but they can't find bobby and dengan eventually herself passes away. And this part is the very end of the book. Where ashmall the twelve-year-old is reflecting on his sister's loss. My sister kelly ann williamson was buried with her imaginary friends. In the same grave. And although in the end everyone believed that poppy and dengan head really lived and were really dead. Nobody at the ridge could quite believe the funeral of kellyanne williamson was actually happening. And i ashmole. Still can't believe that it did. I can't believe it at all. Even now one year later it feels like she is still totally alive. And i find myself lying awake talking to her all the time. And i talked to her at school and when i'm walking down opal street. At home safe and i when we are out at the museum talk to her together. And you will still see today. If you go to lightning ridge. People pause in the middle of doing what they are doing to stop and talk to kelly ann williamson. Just as they still pause to talk to poppy and dingin. And opal. In their dreams. And the rest of the world thinks we are all total nutters. But they are all just fruit loops. Who don't know what it is to believe in something which is hard to see. Where to keep looking for something. Which is totally. Hard to find. Belief and unbelief. There were several courses that i never had the opportunity to take when i was in college. That i deeply regretted missing. One such course inspired the title of this morning's sermon. Belief. And unbelief. I wondered then as i do now what they discuss. And what they read in that class. Someday i may even get up the nerve to ask my former professor and current friend for a copy of the syllabus. For i have always found issues and questions. Surrounding what people do and don't believe. Fascinating. What does it mean. What does it mean to believe. In something. Or someone. What shape or form does that belief take. And what happens. When we lose it. When we lose our ability to believe. For our faith in one another. Bar believe that the world may yet hold. Wonders for us to witness. It is fitting then that what drew me to this topic once again was a passage in a memoir entitled girl meets god by lauren winner. That examines belief. She begins by quoting religion scholar diana attack. The latin credo means literally i give my heart. The word believe is a problematic one today. In part because it has gradually changed its meaning. From being in the language of certainty so deep that i could give my heart to it. To the language of uncertainty. So shallow. That only the credulous. Would rely on it. And quote. In other words. We don't give our hearts too very much these days. And we think that people who do are mistaken or naive. We quite simply my friends don't believe. In believing. Lauren winner goes on to make this point even more personally and powerfully when she rides. And i quote. Once. When we were still dating steven read aloud to me from an obscure british novel. Here at a scene in which a believer and a cynic are debating god. Of course you believe in it. The cynic says. What i want to know is. Do you believe in it the way you believe in australia. Lauren winner says some days. I believe the christian story and you could substitute the religious story. Even more than i believe in australia. After all i have never been to australia. It is just a picture on a map. Living the religious life however is not really about that australia kind of believing. It is about the promise to believe. Even when you don't. Saying the creed or living the religious life is like valuing to love your bride forever and ever. That vow is not a promise to feel goofy and smitten every morning for the rest of your life. It is a promise. To live love. Even. Especially. When you don't feel anything. Other than annoyance or disdain. Although she says this in a playful way. I really truly believe that lauren winters point is a profound one. What do you give your heart to. What. Have you promised to continue to believe in. Even when you don't. We have been challenged my friends again and again by the events in our world. To continue to believe in peace even when we don't see evidence of it. To believe in the power of love and compassion. Even when fewer and fewer people around us express it. And to believe in the resilience. Of all in life that still offers joy. And hope. In spite of all the negativity. So much have we been challenged. In fact. That we often give into our unbelief. We talked about our lives in negative terms. We are all too willing to tell people what we don't believe in. All to able to speak about the ways in which we mistrust those around us. In our own unitarian universalist tradition we like to get into our little camps of different beliefs. Humanist section in the pagan section in the jew section and we don't talk enough in my opinion. About the power of what we do believe together. We don't talk enough. About what it really truly means. The implications of what it means. To believe. In the inherent worth and dignity of every person. In some ways i realize that this is understandable. We can't after all go around giving our hearts away all the time. However. What if we never do. What if we end up jaded and callous people who are always looking for and finding the worst. In everything and everyone. Perhaps then the message of the sermon is simple and threefold. 1. Do whatever it takes to uncover what you believe. And lean into that belief. Lean in the direction of the affirmative. Rather than the negative. 2. Articulate that belief to as many people as will listen to you. Tell others of the importance of it in your life i think that's what our first. And statement discovering and articulating the source of love in our lives is all about. A call to belief and two expression of that belief. + 3. No matter what. Hold on to it. It's almost at langston hughes kind of hold fast to dreams. Hold fast to what you believe. No matter how. Small it may seem in the face of those things going on about you. Hold fast to all that you can find within you. That you might still yet give your heart to. Were there will always be and i do mean always. Be. Reasons to doubt and to question. And of course you need to hold your beliefs fervently enough for them to matter. Without making them static and unbending so that when things shift and move your beliefs can shift and move and grow and change with you. But we need. To believe. Whether it's in an imaginary friend. A reliance on a real one. Or believe that there is an abiding love that will never let us go. We need to. Not give into that temptation to see our world. Ourselves. And others. With cynical eyes. And closed hearts. May we each. Cultivate and live out our beliefs. In ways that sustain. And nurture. And call us to give what we can. To this world so in need of our loving belief and attention. So maybe. And ahmed.

all-souls_org

03.02.23ImInAFunk.mp3

Are reading this morning. Is an excerpt from an essay by wendell berry. When despair for the world. Grows in me. And i wake in the night at the least sound. In fear of what my life. And my children's lives maybe. I go and lie down. Where the woods drake rests. In his beauty on the water. And the great heron seeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence. Of stillwater. And i feel above me the day blind stars waiting with their light. 4 time. I rest in the grace of the world. And i'm free. Friends living in washington is taking its toll these days. Toll on the human spirit. The 9/11 terror attacks. Anthrax. The sniper. An impending war a lousy economy code orange terror alerts a blizzard a flood. It's good to be able to laugh. But at the same time. We need to acknowledge that i'll after is a nervous laughter. And anxious laughter. We need to confront the fact that living in washington has been a trial these last two years some of us are scared. Many are anxious. The recent post poll revealed that over half of area residents fear that they personally. Will be the victim of a terrorist attack. Parents wonder if this is a safe place to raise their children. I'm not certain that our political leaders will be able to address these feelings. If they dwell too much on fear and anxiety they're accused of dragging down the country's morale. They've learned their lesson from jimmy carter's infamous malaise speech so they put on their game faces and deliver their pep talk acting as if calm and courage can be conjured an instant. But here at church. Here at church we can acknowledge that for many courage and hope are not so easy to come by. We should admit and honor the fact that whatever courage we muster during these times is a struggle. And whatever hope we find. A treasure. For these are the times that test our faith. Tell the truth is i had plans this sermon on despair and hope well before current events made it seem so appropriate because of course it doesn't take a code orange to cause us to despair all the struggles and indignities of our private lives can accomplish that thank you very much. In fact i intentionally scheduled this sermon for february. Because winter for some people can be an especially hard time on the spirit. Every grey cloud seems to herald the onset of our despair every dark day feels like the twilight of our hope. For some of us the cares of war and terror. Are just one more thing. To weigh us down. So today i want to talk about despair. Particular kind of despair despair that is different from say clinical depression so it can coexist with and lead to depression. But depression is a medical condition that can be treated often with prescriptions and therapy. And what i'm talking about is what some philosophers have called melancholy. And melancholy is a spiritual malady. An existential disorder whose solution lies not in the pharmacy lab but in our hearts and souls. In his book the real american dream a meditation on hope the cultural critic andrew delbanco describes melancholy as a kind of malaise. A funk. It's what we feel he says. When we have no hope. When we are disconnected from the source of our hope and suddenly instead of feeling the momentum of our purposeful and coherent live we feel adrift. We feel lost. In january 1842. Ralph waldo emerson's. Five-year-old son waldo jr.. Died of a fever. And emerson the great philosopher of hope. A man who once called himself a professor. Of the joyous science. Found himself duress. That night he wrote a letter to his friend margaret fuller wondering. Shall i ever dare. To love again. Later in an essay called experience emerson describes the melancholy that he felt in the weeks and months following waldo's death he writes this. We wake and find ourselves on a stair. There are stairs below us which we seem to have ascended and there are stairs above us many a one which go upward and out of sight. But we cannot shake off the lethargy now at noonday. Sleep lingers about our eyes as night hovers all day in the bowels of the fir tree. Ghosts like we glide trunature. Did our birth fall in some fit of frugality and nature that she was so sparing of her fire and so liberal of her earth. That we lack the affirmative principal. And do we have health and reason. Yet we have no access of spirits for new creation. We have just enough to live and bring the year about but not announce. To impart or invest. All that are genius. We're a little more. Of genius. The anthropologist clifford geertz sums up with emerson illustrated he writes that melancholy is the dim. Back of the mind suspicion. But we are adrift. In an absurd world. In a hopeless world. Novelist graham greene called melancholy. The logical belief. Can a hopeless future. Melancholy leaves us bereft. Joyless. Whispers. I know what it feels like for me when i get this way. When i live in hope it feels as though there is a life force and electricity almost that i can feel move through me propelling my life forward. But when i experienced melancholy. It literally feels like i've been unplugged. From the source of that energy. Disconnected from the energy that animates my life i go through the motions of living but with no joy. Or meaning. How do we overcome the melancholy how do we tap back into that energy it says emerson described we are stuck halfway up the stairs of life how do we find the strength to continue climbing. How do we recover the joy we once found in the journey. The answer lies. In rediscovering. A sense of hope in our lives. When melancholy strikes we must search our souls deeply and fine there the story of hope that we can tell we must find the story of hope that we can tell. Again del banco rights we human beings need to organize the random sensations of our lives the the pain the desire the pleasure the fear we need to organize them into a story. Tell me that story leaving somewhere and helps us navigate through life to its inevitable terminus in death. The next story gives us hope. Melancholy. Is what we feel when we lack such a story or worse. When we don't believe that such a story exist. Faith is the opposite of melancholy. And faith to have faith is to trust. That there is a story. Of hope to tell. In religion. Is the stories that people tell about hope. You've heard me say this before my working definition of religion is this religion is people. Telling stories of hope. Religion is people. Telling stories. Of hope. The religious project is a hope project it's the search for a hope that is real that is strong that is compelling even when the times get tough even in times like these. We have to be careful about stories of hope though because there are lots of them out there. As many stories as there are people to tell them. And one person's story of hope. Is another's fairy tail. Or worse. They're bitter pill. Take job for example. Wednesday to curled one can one catastrophe after another at jobe destroying his livelihood taking away his children and his health jobs friends came to him and they consoled him with theological niceties. With platitudes. Your misfortune is a punishment for your sins they said. God's ways are mysterious drones another. And these were of no use to jobe who refused to believe that he had behaved so badly as to deserve this fate who raged against a god so capricious. He cursed these fictions job call them proverbs of ashes because all they dealt was death they were the stories of the dead. Not the living. Nar suffering may not be that of jobe. But these are the times when we must discard the stories of hope. That no longer suffice. But no longer bring us through. We must discard the proverbs of ashes. And discover for ourselves the stories of hope they give us life. Or should i say we should remember them. Remember the stories that give us life for most of us. Most of us know them. They're just buried deep down under all that despair. He said when despair for the world grows in me. And i wake at night. At the least sound and fear of what my life and my children's lives maybe i go in lie-down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water and the great heron seeds. I come into the peace. Of wild things. Who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief i come into the presence of stillwater. And i feel above me the day blind stars waiting with their light. For a time i rest. In the grace of the world. And i'm free. That's berry's story of hope. The greatest sufi mystic rumi tells his own in a poem that he writes about his own despair. He says to us there is a secret medicine. There is a secret medicine given only to those who hurt so hard. They cannot help anymore. And it is this. Look as long as you can. At the friends. That you love. Look as long as you can at the friend that you love. That's a good place to start in our search for the stories that give us hope. To look around us at the people in the in the things that we love our family our friends our earth. Our god. And not just to look at them says rumi but to look at them as long as you can. To contemplate them to meditate upon them to remember in those familiar sights in those familiar faces to remember your story of hope. That's what emerson did. Give her a call that we last left emerson. Bathed in despair. Halfway up the stairs of life. Unsure if he could take another step after the death of his son waldo this essay that begins with that image continues on and becomes emerson's hard-won story of hope. His solution was similar to rumi's standing there on the middle of that stairway he first reviewed all the old stories of hope. All the proverbs of ashes that people lavished upon him to help him try to make sense of his son's death be reviewed and he discarded them. And then since he had no energy to move on. He simply paused and contemplated the world around him. He looked at them as long as he could. And that's when emerson discovered that for him for him hopefully not in some grand narrative of redemption. Not in some description of what the end of the staircase would look like once we got there. Instead he decided to take one step at a time too passionately embrace the present. To fill the hour he urged. That is happiness. To fill the hour and leave no crevice for repentance or approval. To find the journey's end in every step of the road. To live the greatest number of good hours this he said. This is wisdom. The only ballast i know. Set emerson. Is a respect for the present hour. Without any shadow of doubt i settle myself ever the firmer on the creed that we should not postpone or refer or wish but do broad and justice. Where we are. To do broad justice. Right where we are. Friends. There are many stories. Of hope out there. But most share at least one thing in common. They tell a story. Of something greater than us. Something larger than us and also they tell the story of our relationship to that's something greater. In other words. To tell a story of hope is to place our lives in a context. Larger than ourselves. To see ourselves as connected to the earth as bound up in love for others as cradled in the arms of a loving that god has consumed by labour's of justice and right. To tell a story of hope. Is to establish a vantage point for our lives that lies beyond the mere satisfaction. Of our desires. Turns out that emerson's essay. Ends. Has a big loving pep talk to himself really. The essay that began in despair that that discovered hard-won insight along the way and that ends then finally in an affirmation to himself. And to us. Then i'll let these words at emerson be our blessing today. Two years after his son's death this professor of the joyous science wrote. Barbie from me the despair. Patience and patience friends we shall win at the last nevermind the ridicule. Nevermind the defeat. Up again old heart. Up again. Baby song i'm in.

all-souls_org

04.08.01StrengthOfRegret.mp3

This is the fourth of four servings in a row from me so those of you who've been around this summer certainly have gotten to know me a little bit maybe more than you wanted to the reading this morning as you noticed many of my readings have been poems and this morning is no exception it's a poem by former poet laureate of the us billy collins. It's a poem entitled this much i do remember. It was after dinner you were talking to me across the table about something-or-other a greyhound you had seen that day or a song you like. And i was looking past you over your bare shoulder at the three oranges lying on the kitchen counter next to the small electric bean grinder which was also orange. And the orange and white cruets for vinegar and oil. All of which converged. Into a random still life. So fastened together by the hasp of color and so fixed behind the animated foreground of your talking and smiling. Gesturing and pouring wine. And the camber of your shoulders. But i could feel it being painted within me. Brushed on the wall of my skull while the tone of your voice lifted and fell in its flight. Time to imagine. What i worry about. However is those times when we look back and then get stuck. Get stuck in that past moment. Just for a moment i want you to imagine. For many of us have moments in life that we look back on and we think. What if. If only i had. I wish i had done that differently. Handled that situation better. Ben moore open more forgiving. More honest. And we get so stuck in thinking about those moments that we wish we had been a different person perhaps or that had we had drawn on that better self that we know ourselves capable of. That we have a hard time moving on and living in the now. Do i have an ironic story to tell you i was actually inspired for the sermon by a pop song or actually an alternative pop song cuz it's not something you would hear on the radio but i was driving around in my car one day and i was listening to a cd fairly newly-purchased and a cd that i just took a congregant to buy recently actually it's part of my auction item of taking a member to the cd store. What's the use in regret. They're just lessons we haven't learned yet. And i like that very much. As a worldview as a way of not getting stuck in regret as a bad thing not getting stuck in what you could have done differently so surprised when just the other day i went to put the cd on to listen to the song make sure i wasn't misquoting her and i pulled out the liner notes for the first time and i was reading her description about why she wrote this song. And guess what it was the opposite of what i expected her meaning to be not that i misinterpreted the line but i misinterpreted the impulse for why she wrote the song this is what she says. It was a little epiphany i had when i realized how useful regret can be for finding a way forward. Deep stuff from a pop singer huh and not at all what i expected her to say i thought she was trying to say that regret we just need to get over it and need to move on but she actually in some ways was pointing out what i think is also equally true. Perhaps a deeper meaning of where i was planning to go with you this morning just from the line and her song. She sort of sang do you know it's not that we need to shove aside regret that we need to just move forward and simply go on with living as if we never made any mistakes at all. As if we always are our best selves know she seemed to imply that actually regret can be a stepping stone if you will. Bed by looking at those moments when we've made mistakes in our lives we can actually move them forward with a free or step. A clearer sense of who we are a deeper understanding of ourselves. A better understanding of those around us when they are in pain but when they have something they have done that they feel they will never be able to move through. A little epiphany. When i realize how useful regret can be for finding a way forward regret for regrets take my friends is pointless an endless loop of berating oneself for not being better for not having a perfect track record in life. But you don't need to have a perfect track record in life. You can use those mistakes. Those points of sadness. Those weaknesses those moments of what if and if only as a stepping stone stone to a greater you a stepping stone stone to forgiveness of yourself and of others. But i don't mean to imply that regret doesn't hold very real power why would we feel the need to move forward at all if it wasn't for the fact that regret can hold onto us with an iron grip. I remember when i was doing my hospital chaplaincy which i spoke a little bit about last week that we used to talk about how when you go to see someone who is in the process of dying you never hear them say wow i wish and if only i had spent more time at the office. If only i had gotten more promotions a bigger paycheck. If only my curriculum vitae was a little better-looking. Went on their deathbed people will often say if only. I had repaired that broken relationship. If only i had told my parents before they died that i love them in spite of all our differences. If only i had gotten past my own need to seem perfect. To actually extend a hand of apology. Stand a hand in love and forgiveness. Those are the regrets that people speak of. When they arrive at the end of life. So what if only we used our mistakes to embrace rather than to pull away. I realize that this regret problem is something that goes back as far as human history because i was thinking of how i had heard a psychologist talk about god's regret. Believe it or not in the genesis story of the scriptures. Carol gilligan the famed feminist psychologist talked about how she had seen the genesis story the parable about noah noah's story being really a parable about regret. A parable about god's regret. And i thought well if god can regret so can we and regret has so much power so much power that i was looking through an interpretation of the noah story a fascinating book that cat lou is turning me on to the other day when we spoke a book called god a biography in which author jack miles tries to describe god as a almost a character in a novel which seems a blasphemous thing to do but if you're going to try to understand who god is you might have to look at how all of the stories of scripture help you interpret who god might be. And i thought i might learn something. And jack miles describes god's feeling in the noah story this way. God was embittered and it is out of this bitterness that destruction. Arises. And i end quote there. Hawaii the scale of that biblical narrative outpaces anything we can know ourselves. We can relate to how the bitterness that we have in our regrets can lead to devastation. Devastation of self. Devastation of family devastation of friendship. Devastation of hopes and dreams of possibilities and potentials. The question is my friends how will our regrets help us. To move through old habits and assumptions. To move forward. Without pain. Going to remove forward with pain but with a new and renewed sense of life. Regret it seems to me. Has power for harm and four hurt. But it also has powerful redemption. And renewal. So it all comes down to i believe whether regret will serve as an endpoint to all of our searching and growing and seeking or whether we will utilize regrets in our lives as sort of a means to an end means to a greater end. If rather than holding onto past mistakes we will look for modes of transformation how regret might move us to deeper connection. Or in a new direction. We each of us no times when we have found that mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Times when we have said i forgive you will you forgive me. Times when we have recognized that repeating a self-defeating pattern is not helpful anymore. Times when we have realized. That we have stayed too long on the surface of our lives. When we have realize that it is time now to go deeper. Instead of pinning pining and pinning at our hopes on something else. Wishing that we could undo or take back. Some long-ago mistake. Why not my friend. Use that regret. As beth orton says. Find a way forward. My prayer is that we will all arrive at the end of our days. Not with a laundry list of regrets. But with a sense of a life lived fully. A life of mistakes made of good done of apology spoken. May we live on a frayed. May we see dead ends and wrong turns as a pass to new lessons. And two deeper truer. More meaningful understanding of ourselves and of others. Maybe so. And i'm at.

all-souls_org

04.11.14WhereDoWeGoFromHere.mp3

Good to see you all here this morning apparently a lot of people have the question where do we go from here on they're mine i want to say that what i'm going to be saying this morning is political and it's it's political. Ar reading is from one who often try to wrestle with the dual issues of religion and politics thomas jefferson. There's some debate over whether or not we can claim jefferson to the unitarian we're always trying to claim people who jefferson never attended a unitarian church but described himself as a theologically as a unitarian but in virginia at that time when he was alive there would soon be a time in america where every american was at unitarian we fell a little short there but here we are after the passage of the alien and sedition acts. A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches passover their spells dissolve. And the people recovering their true sight. Restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit. And encouraging the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience. Till the luck charms. And then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost. For this is a game. Where principles are at stake. What's been about 2 weeks now and i think i'm ready to talk about it you know it's been hard finding speech in the last couple of weeks i was at a minister's conference last week with mostly left-leaning ministers and it was clearly still a little too tender for people the closest people came to the recent unpleasantness. The time for grieving is over and if you've been exhausting to the time for exaltation is over enough time has passed now for us to clapcast a clear eye on this election and assess what implications it has for us as people of faith. Individually and collectively. That's what i want to talk about this morning. Summerhill remember back to the 1992 presidential campaign when bill clinton's campaign team had a mantra that they posted up on their walls a month or that soon became very popular and famous and is you some of you remember it was it's the economy stupid. The results of this year's election have prompted at least one commentator to rewrite that old mantra and to say that in this election it's the theology. Stupid and if you've been reading the post-election analyses then you know what he's talking about. You know the big news that as voters left their polling places on election day more people cited moral values. Does their overriding concern for our nation more folks than mention the economy or the war on terror. Moral values with the highest priority for 22% of people in the economy got 20% terrorism 19 iraq 15 of the voters who mentioned moral values as their overriding concern 80% voted for president bush. Lots of folks of challenge to pull in there lots of you can always pick apart a pole right but i think that no matter how you cut it that's pretty convincing numbers. And it's not the only information we have to work with we know that evangelical christians comprised 1/4 of the voting population this year. With the president garnering nearly 80 per-cent of their votes. 41% of the electorate attends religious services weekly. 61% of them voted for the president that people of all faiths for those who never go to church the numbers were reversed. The churchgoing demographic would have been even more skewed republican if it weren't for the fact that african-americans remain a loyal democratic constituency for all the talk about bush ruling away conservative african americans. Then i don't know me and i don't mean no offense by this but. What are you white folks seeing him if you really wanted me to explain so it's not all the churchgoing folk many of the folks who said the moral values was their number one priority mostly evangelicals are working-class lower-middle-class rural and suburban families. People who if they were to vote strictly on grounds of their economic self-interest would have voted for the democrats. In fact i gave kerry high marks on a range of domestic issues sleeves democrats and union folks frankly sort of shaking their heads and wondering what's going on here why are people voting against their pocketbook or ignorant. I think that rather than chalking up this striking phenomenon to ignorance or to gullibility the political left i'm speaking about the political left here not the religious left the political left would do well to ask itself what could be so compelling to voters. That they would vote against their economic self-interest. What is so compelling because i see a silver lining in the fact that people conceive of their self-interest in broader terms than the material it says to me that people have an appetite. A hunger for a moral vision hunger for a purpose in their lives greater than their own self-interest in their own self. And this is where the political left. Failed this year. They have the money they have the ground game they didn't have a vision. They didn't have a moral vision you listen to the debates. Do you remember how many times john kerry use the phrase i've got a plan in the debates remember that i've got a plan for jobs john kerry and i have a plan for healthcare go to our website look at the plan but more than a plan. A plan wasn't enough for them they wanted a vision the people wanted bread. And the left gave them stones. One stone for every plan on john kerry's website the bible teaches us that without a vision the people perish the election taught us that the same calculus supplies. The presidential candidates. But if it's fair to sum up the election. With this mantra. Is the theology stupid. Then the election wasn't just a defeat. For the political left. The election represented a defeat. For particular kind of religion. Particular kind of theology. I don't mean to say that it was a victory for christianity over judaism or or judaism over islam i'm talking about a kind of religion that cuts across different kinds of faces i'm talking about an attitude towards religion. What kind of religion. Lost in this election. Well for starters the religion of the prophets. The religion of isaiah and of micah. And of jeremiah the religion that reminds us that we are our brother's keepers. The religion that holds entire societies accountable for how they treat the least among them that kind of religion lost. In this election. What kind of religion lost in this election the religion that believes. This salvation isn't something that we are given as individuals. And are drawn up to one at a time in our own private rapture the religion that believes instead that salvation is something that we will find as a community for we will not find it all. That we will sink or swim together that religion. Los. This year. The religion that says that the earth was given as a garden. And then it is our responsibility to 10 and to care for that darden for all of creation that religion lost this year and the kind of religions that believe that god's face smiles on love wherever it is found. That religion lost. This election. Friends our religion lost. This election and i don't say that because a particular party one or a particular candidate one i say it because of the way the issues fell out this election i say it because of the way the rhetoric falled out this until out this election we took a little bit of a beating is made by the religious left. This year and i want to talk a little bit about the religious left now not the political left for the first time their religious left was it was active and organized in turning people out to vote the post said that the left registered about a half million voters this election and raised 1.75 million dollars. But exit polls on election day revealed that while 38% of voters had heard a message from the religious left during the election 71% had heard a message from the religious right. And so we have some work to do in our in our organizing as people of liberal faith we've come a long way honestly i think actually that 30% is a hopeful number for me from where we came from but we have a long way to go and so the question that i want to ask us this morning then is where do we go. From here. How do we restore this country to its proper spirit again and i want to offer you a couple of suggestions the first. Is the advice. That the elders. Gave to their children who were lost in the wilderness. Standstill. Stand still and wait for a moment. Because if we stand still i believe that we know who we are. We know where we stand we know what we stand for. And i invite us to take time now to stand still so that we can know that place more fully so that we can no more fully who it is that we love and what it is that we care about and that we can speak more deeply from that place. The way forward is not in in changing who we are to become more palatable or more electable or anything like that it's to no more deeply where we are. And to speak a compelling vision from that place. Standstill. The other thing that comes from standing still. Is a moment of self-examination. In a moment of self-critique. Because i think that now is a good time for us as liberals to be honest about the ways that we fail also to live up to our own values right. Because we fail to live up to them all the time. And part of standing still and being quiet. Is being able to name hypocrisy. And shortcoming. I'm trying to do something about it. So we need to stand still. Number two. We need to improve our religious literacy friends open up your bibles and start reading okay. I hope that this election has made you realize just how powerful religious symbols are in this country. Bright and and how if we relinquish those religious symbols we don't just relinquish relinquish the symbols we relinquish our country. And so we need to we need to open up our bibles and to reacquaint ourselves with a stories for the for the power that they give us in our own lives but also for the power that they hold in our public discourse. Tell me you get caught uncomfortable i know when i when i you know talk about soon or if i talk about salvation or if i talk about the kingdom of god and you say rob you know you're sounding like jerry falwell. The divide that is splitting our nation in half. Is splitting our families in half to isn't it i know that many of us are thinking about going home for the holidays and we've got that mixture of dread and excitement that we always have and we go home for the holidays but this needs to start at home because if we can start talking about these issues around thanksgiving dinner table and we need to heal the divide that is splitting our country with people. And let the conversation go from there. We need to find some mutual understanding. In this country. Number for we need to mobilize. Okay. We need to do we need to mobilize on a national level with other people of liberal faith with with with christians jews muslims folks across all of the face to share a similar attitude towards religion by michael lerner from the tikkun community. Heaven friends i think we need to work locally. No part of the danger now of feeling like you know if you feel this way of feeling like your lost is you feel like you don't have any power feel like you know you're on the outside looking in one of the places we have power is here in washington dc. And i just want to let you know that that we are part of a coalition of many churches of all faiths and and all races in the city called the washington interfaith network which is planning over the next two years a massive voter registration campaign to hold mayoral candidates in the next mayoral election. For much of american history. It was the religious left. Not the religious right. That commanded centre-stage informing society in this country it was a unitarian vision of human dignity and potential that brought universal public education to america it was. And dr. martin luther king gave a famous speech in that year to the leadership of the sclc he was realizing that this religiously progressive multiracial coalition was starting to fray there was there was pressure from the left of the black power movement there was pressure from from the right with white white racism and dr. king have. Where do we go from here. Where do we go from here. And within the year he was he was murdered. And the truth is. That coalition that multiracial progressive coalition. Never found a way to answer his question. Where do we go from here we're still asking that question. These many years later. Difference i don't think we will take back the power that we once had. The power of shaping our society to our moral vision. Unless we can take what is now a loose coalition of a plans and policies and and special interests and agendas into we can take them and shape them. Into a compelling vision. Of what the human community can. And will become. That's the work. That is before us now. May we be up to the task. I'm in.

all-souls_org

04.03.21MeaningOfPrayer.mp3

This morning's reading comes from the same person but from two different sources of her writing. Will give you an indication of the types of things i have been reading these days i have found myself fascinated by spiritual memoirs. The readings this morning are from lauren winner. She wrote a spiritual memoir entitled girl meets god and her latest book is entitled mudhouse sabbath. And these writings from her begin by talking about just the challenge of prayer itself. And then the second part of the reading is her talking about the particular struggle of liturgical prayer those. Prayers that we say in public worship. Those prayers that we say again and again. Worth of lauren winner. I have a hard time praying. It feels usually like a waste of time. It feels unproductive. My time would be better spent writing a paragraph or reading a book or practicing a conjugation. Or baking a pie. Sometimes whole weeks elapsed when i hardly bother to pray at all. Because prayer. Is boring. Because it feels silly. After all you look like you're just sitting there talking to are or to yourself. And maybe you are. But above all because it is unproductive. Still. There are the weeks when i do pray. The weeks when i trust. Or at least manage to act like i trust. That prayer does something. Even if it is something. I cannot. See. What i am learning the more i sit with liturgy is that what i feel happening bears little relation to what is actually happening. It is a great gift when god gives me a stirring. A feeling. A something at all in prayer. But work is being done. Whether i feel it. Or not. Sediment. Is being laid. If roach nest is a danger. It is also the way liturgy work. When you don't have to think at all all the time about what words you are going to say next. You are feet free to fully enter into the act of praying. Put differently. I have sometimes set aside my prayer book for days and weeks on end. And i find at the end of those days. That i have lapsed into narcissism. The meaning to commune with or reverence or at least acknowledge god. I wind up talking to myself about my emotions dujour. What i say. To critics of liturgy. Is this. Sure. Sometimes it is great. When in prayer we can express to god. Just what we feel. But better still. When. In the act of praying. Our feelings. Change. The meaning of prayer. I would hazard a guess that many of us have had times in life when we feel just as lauren winner expresses. That prayer isn't worthwhile. That we can't see any change or any difference being made. Why bother. We asked. What is the point. What has prayer ever done for me. We are people who like to embrace our skepticism about prayer. And i have found as a lifelong unitarian-universalist that we are particularly good at that skepticism we get very caught up and i can tell by the chuckles that you know what i mean we get very caught up in debates about to whom it is we are praying. When i want of the jokes about unitarian universalist is at the prayers all start to whom it may concern and it will be an argument general assembly oh you use the wrong word and i know that frequently i'll talk to members of this community about the prayer that i give or that rob gives in and it will not have been addressed to the appropriate source and you're telling us that we need to return it to sender so we get caught up we get caught up into whom is it that i am praying and we wonder about whether or not we're getting the words right. Me i can't pray i don't know how. The words i say aren't good enough they aren't well enough put together to really be a prayer. And we get so caught up in this thinking our way through and around and over and under prayer that we lose sight of. What prayer is. We lose sight of the fact. That the very act of praying itself does something. It does something that i find very hard to express so what did i do i wrote a whole sermon to try to do just that. It does something when you sit in humility and ask for help. It does something when you request an openness that you often don't feel. Something happen. In the very mouthing of the words of prayer. Something. Somehow someway shifts. Or changes. It's part of what happens here each week. When we sing spirit of life. I can't tell you how many times i've sung that him. We know the words so well by now. But it no longer has to do with the words themselves that prayer. It has to do with how we feel when we sing them. You see i faced a bit of a crisis at seminary with my second year of seminary. And i thought by that point in time i got to be someone who felt comfortable. With prayer. What good is a minister i worried. If she doesn't know how to pray. In fact. What good is a minister if not only does she not know how to pray but she's not sure. Pregnant is even a good idea. So i enrolled in a course on spiritual direction. Hoping that i would find some direction and fortunately for me i found in the person of my teacher. A woman by the name of jody donnelly who was at that time probably 72 years old. A former catholic nun. A great deal of directions. I came to that class with my hang-up about prayer and wondered and worried over whether i would leave with any new sense of what this prayer thing was. And there was a day very early on in the course when dodie looked at all of us and she said i want you to know. First and foremost. But there is no such thing as prayer. She says there is no such thing as prayer. There are only. Pray. Spurs. Took me a minute to realize what she was saying. So badly was i in need of her direction. Pray. She said. People who pray. There is no such thing as prayer only pray or. People who pray. Well this was liberation to me for she was saying there was no right way to pray there's no correct. Way to pray. There's only honest. And real and true. Pray her. It occurred to me as i sat with dodie's wyndham. But this could be said of many of our major life spiritual quests and questions. But there is no final say or obvious answer. And that even if we could find one in your search for one that that's search would not only be fruitless. But sort of beside the point. I think we struggle my friends with prayer not only because we think more about prayer. Rather than being in prayer. But also because we come to it with great expectations. If i'm going to bother with this prayer thing then i sure as heck better see some results. That's about a call-and-response it's not. About the act of praying for praying sick. We are people who demand noticeable outcomes. We want to know. We want to be assured. That if we pray. What we pray for. Will either be. Answered or that at least. The prayer will have mattered in the grand scheme of our lives. What is the point in praying. If i can't tell the difference. Between before. And after. The difference. As lauren winner suggested in what i read to you this morning is that in praying. Something is being done. Whether i feel it or not. Something. Sometimes i'm not sure what that something is and i think most days when we do sit in prayer none of us are quite sure. Sometimes that something is more clear. Then others. But to not pray. Do not take the time to. 5th and silence 2. Listen for direction when we need it. Do not ask to notice more clearly the faces of those around us. Tonight. Sit with the questions. The worries. The doubts. Where would we be. Well we not to pray in our own way where we not to breathe prey oars. And it's so it is my my prayer. As one prayer. That we may each and everyone of us find a way into. Prayer or meditation or whatever word you are unitarian universalist. Arguing person self wants to come up with this week. I realize i don't really care. So much about to whom it is you pray whether or not you even like the word prayer. But it is very very important to me. That you sit. With that which is most holy to you. That which matters most to you in your life. That you create an opening and a space. In your spirit. On a regular and intentional basis. That matters to me very much. And much much more. Then quibbles over language. May we not be distracted by our perfectionism. Where are need for logic. Where are need simply to debate and argue over things that matter. Not so much. May we know that it is in the soulful conversations. With life itself. That we are being called to wonder. To all. To beauty. And to see in this world and this life. And this day. Abundant possibility. So may it be. And all men.

all-souls_org

07.05.20WhyAreWeHere.mp3

So i guess today i wanted to do some myself briefly today and would love to meet with you. I am also on the track to be ordained at the unitarian universalist minister and hopefully that will happen this fall here at all souls church. So welcome. Ar reading today comes from a book call turi and chance the world a philosophy of unitarian universalism. Why are we here at the author richard gregg and you're tearing universalist and philosopher. Any answers we are here to champion the dignity of the human person. Over against the dehumanizing forces of commodification. We are here to celebrate the human beings ability to discern the sacred and to stand awestruck before mystery. But now we can add another answer to the question of why you use are here. An answer that perhaps is not as obvious as the first dancer. Is it not increasingly our unique contribution. To present to our society the possibility of inclusive pluralism. We are ourselves already and exclusively pluralistic community. But wouldn't it be desirable for us to model that inclusivity and such an attractive and compelling fashion. Betty becomes not simply an option within but also without. This is not the same as saying that all tradition to become unitarian universalism. Not at all. Conservative judaism for example would not become indistinguishable from buddhism. Such that they would pull together whatever spiritual resources happened to be in the air the time. On the contrary buddhism with state buddhism and conservative judaism what's a conservative judaism. But my neighbors would no longer be taken aback if i were to tell them. That i was a conservative jew and a buddhist. Why are we here is unitarian universalist. Why is it that we gather in this community on sunday morning. Why do any of us support the work of the spiritual diverse community with our time our talent and our treasure. The reasons are both too many to fit into the space of a sunday morning service. And at the same time. Too subtle to find a way into words. Why are we here. An answer to why we are here. Richard gregg begins by addressing what for me is one of the central reasons for our gathering here on sunday morning. To be refreshed to be strengthened and to be reminded that we are more than consumers and potential market shares. We are reminded here of our inherent worth and value. Simply because we are. We are living sensing and sometimes loving human being. Our coming together helps us to resist the efforts of the commercial media to assign a dollar value to our every action reaction and choice. We are here to affirm our unique identity that youman beans. Worthy of respect care and consideration. And to celebrate. Yes to celebrate as greg says our ability to discern the sacred and to send awestruck. Before mystery. After reading his book he says the more obvious answer is this one. I'm not so sure it is. What might it mean to have the ability to discern the sacred. For me the sacred is best understood as a feeling. A sense of being connected to myself and to others. It's an experience of connection that is often unexpected. Without any effort you are suddenly aware do you have gone beyond thinking only about yourself. And your heart is open to new experiences. Ordinary boundaries of race gender class time or species disappear. In the moment of recognizing the sacred connection. Margaret wheatley author of a book of discussion starters called turning to one another. Shares an example of experience with a secret while watching a mother bird. I've noticed a mother bird flying back and forth to write worms dangling from her beach working diligently to provide for her babies. Watching her i remember my own mothering and suddenly i feel connected to all other beings whom as mother's try to keep life going. A brief moment of noticing one hard-working bird and i feel different. More connected. Instead of feeling tired by such responsibility. I feel blessed. Wheatley's something sperian of the sacred as a recognition that i belong here. Recognition the sacred can happen at any moment. No special words or ritual necessary for the experience to be real and meaningful. And yes there are experiences that open the door to the sacred for you. Let me not serve that purpose for someone else. And this loses to the other point and griggs reading in addition to celebrating our inherent worth in our ability to discern the sacred. Any ordinary moments of life. We are here to affirm our diverse spiritual path. I believe i think many of us instinctively believe that there is something good and right about our walking diverse spiritual paths together. We know what happens when we attempt to fit ourselves into a way of being religious that does not fit. In those environments we feel we have to leave too much at the door. Too much of who we are and too much of who we are becoming to feel welcome. In our need for community some of us have been known to forfeit i need for choice for freedom for dialogue and for honest search for tree. But no more as unitarian universalist we acknowledge and affirm the right of individuals to choose the spiritual path path the best suits them for some the papal involve time and nature. Walking and appreciating the beauty as well as working to protect and conserve our natural resources. The secret revealed itself in a tiny seed and in the cycles of days and seasons. For some the arts are the means for connecting with the sacred. And music poetry visual and performing arts the sacred reveals itself and moving and fascinating forms. For some working for social justice and advocating for the rights of others puts them in touch with the sacredness in life. Planning and marching with others to heal the divisions of the world is sacred work. For some the secret is revealed in the creative source of life. Which energizes and sustains the hope of the world for more love and more compassion. And for some there is no clear path at the moment and that's okay too. We who find ourselves here are buoyed by the j.r.r. tolkien quote not all who wander are lost. For many of us the path not drawn as distinctly as these examples. We can be nurtured and influenced by a mixed and a multiple string of spiritual path. When i first became a unitarian universalist about 12 years ago it was the rational reasonable approach of humanism that most connected me to myself and to others. Everything had to make sense. It was a long time before i discovered the religious humanism that while anchored in reason is open to the mystery and the awesomeness of the unexplained and the unexplainable i am finding that as i gain a greater understanding of the religious human is path. I can more readily transcend myself and connect with others and my own religious upbringing. Yet despite the presence of so much diversity we remain one community. A break says we are ourselves inclusively pluralistic as a community. But he goes further by challenging us to model this inner diversity in such an attractive and a compelling fashion. Baby come simply not an option within this space. But also out there. What would it mean to model diversity in this fashion. Blood believe we demonstrated our ability to influence the religious landscape become more tolerant and appreciative our religious differences. The power of a reliable perspective becomes clear to me just yesterday when i did a quick search on an austin her quote in the unitarian universalist church has frances davies quote we need not think alike to level like we often use this code to point to the high value we place on the freedom to think our individual thought to follow the path that are conscious takes us but the same time maintaining a basic love and respect for everyone we need not think alike to love her like so imagine my surprise when the first sight to pop up on my search engine with a liberal christian group who is using the quote to promote next sunday may 27th as pluralism sunday the words are friends of david court preacher 22 king john sigismund in transylvania. the only you quoted on a christian website to promote pluralism sunday. And reading the material about the thinking behind this event it's like reading something that a unitarian or universal with might have written generations ago according to the center for progressive christianity pluralism sunday take the big step beyond your tolerance. And a firm that other faiths maybe is good for their appearance is our faith is for us. And the world is often so / prejudice hatred fear and misunderstanding we once intentionally celebrate the diversity of religious past whereby people can seek and experience the god of their various understanding. We believe that god is big enough and good enough to meet people where they are as they are we believe in god is no way constricted or limited by the traditions doctrines dogmas or text of anyone religious tradition. We can celebrate and treasure our tradition while at the same time realizing that others will celebrate and treasure their own through it all we are connected to the same infinite source and we are all unified by the same all inclusive spirit. The upcoming pluralism sunday in the liberal christian church provides i think encouragement to our efforts to demonstrate that diversity is not only out there and other communities but also inside our communities as well it may take some time for a neighbor to join us in this way of thinking with this example of pluralism sunday says that it's possible it is possible if we model inclusive pluralism and attractive and compelling fashion beginning with name er own spiritual path and attending to the spiritual practice that connects us with what is sacred. An exclusively plural community means finding opportunities to add and even to your own spiritual life. We can have religious integrity and feel sustained by multiple sources. It means taking action by joining the spiritual practice group or better yet starting one. It may also mean sharing how your religious conviction inform your life. One member of also share with me so we'll on jury duty she continually work to affirm the inherent worth and dignity of everyone involved doing so she says helped her to keep an open mind when i applied to seminary i wrote about answering the question that was most often told by my family and friends. Why are you at unitarian universalist. My aunt my answer always begin by saying becoming part of this community add so much to my life i am encouraged to seek inspiration in ways that speak to my heart and soul the world is truly enchanted by the affirmation that many pap that connects us to what is truly important in life. Is inclusive pluralism means anything it means adding adding a greater understanding of one's own face adding an appreciation of the paths of others. An adding space for continuing to learn as new revelations are revealed to you in closing i offer the image of the child as another way to understand inclusive pluralism. Are flaming chalice is a uniting symbol for a denomination. The flaming chalice come by the shape of a cup and a flame is history as a symbol of protest in service informs our understanding of our mission to transform ourselves and others. Its shape reminds us of the communion cup of john huss a fifteenth-century protestant reformer who wished introduced changes in the catholic church he wanted to allow people to drink in the communion cup it was only reserved for the clergy. For this heresy he was burned at the stake in 1415. His followers wore the flaming chalice on their cloaks to commemorate his martyrdom as a symbol of their religious beliefs so unitarian service committee commissioned the creation of a symbol to communicate with people fleeing nazi germany in the second world war the artist committee with a flaming challenge design and it continues to serve as a symbol of unitarian universalism all around the world. The chalice is also an apt description of what holds all of our diversity in one community. In the car we all mingle with our diverse theology and spiritual understanding. If you come together and account from one another at the center of this new epicenter a new understanding is made possible. In the fryer oven counter differences are not burned away rather they are illuminated and appreciate it in the encounter with one another we are able to transcend ourselves. To modify or change our own outlook if new information becomes available. We can claim our multiple identities while maintaining religious integrity we have the unique experience and i believe privilege of affirming not only our inherent worth but also the worst of our various spiritual path. May it be so.

all-souls_org

06.03.12CityOfRefuge.mp3

I've to readings i'd like to share with you this morning. The first is from the greek poet. Hibachi. Homework is called the city. You said. I will go to another land. I will go to another see another city will be found a better one than this. Every effort of mine is a condemnation of fate and my heart is. Like a corpse. Buried. Wherever i turn my eyes wherever i may look i see black ruins of my life. Here. Where i spent so many years destroying. And wasting. You will find no new land. You will find. No other see. The city. Will follow you. You were wrong the same streets. And you will age in the same neighborhoods. And you will grow gray in the same homes. Always you will arrive. In this city. Do not hope for any other. There is no ship for you. There is no road. As you have destroyed your life here. In this little corner. You have ruined it. In the entire world. And from the profit. Jeremiah. Seek the welfare. Of the city. And pray to god on its behalf. For his welfare. He will find your welfare. After church today something exciting. Happening. About 100 church members myself and reverend green included will spread out and small teams across the neighborhood around the church. And meet our neighbors. We're going to find out who our neighbors are and what concerns and dreams they have. 4. Our neighborhood. And today's walk will be followed later by two others one in june and one in september. Just before the democratic party primary. Which for all intents and purposes in washington is the election. The ultimate goal of the series of walks is not simply to listen. It is to make social and political change. Based on our conversations with our neighbors today we will formulate an agenda for city elections this fall and call on candidates to declare their support for our agenda. During our walks in june and september we will be focusing on voter turnout. Reaching out to. I forget the technical term for them but the under motivated voter. The people who vote some of the time but not as often as we'd like them to. We'll be trying to turn them out and we'll be passing out cards detailing our agenda and encouraging our neighbors to support that agenda. And the good news is we're not just doing this alone as all souls. Our sister churches in the washington interfaith network or win will be doing the same all over the city and all told will be walking and over 40 precinct. What's that number 40 precincts between now and the primary election. In what will almost certainly be the largest non-candidate specific. Voter turnout effort in the city. Why all the fuss. Why now. This is a watershed. Year. A watershed election for the district of columbia. With the potential at least to dramatically change the power balance in the district. About half the people on the city council are running. For something else this year. There could be lots of turnover on the council. And for the first time in eight years we actually have a competitive. Mayoral race. Coming up which. Gives us the leverage to make a real difference in our city. And the next four years are going to be an important time for the city lots of decisions will be. Being made that answer the question where is this city going and what is our who is our city. 4. Big projects like the redevelopment of the anacostia waterfront. Will fundamentally alter. The character of this city and we want to make sure that we have a say in what this city will be and who this city. Is 4. Because the church isn't. A political. Institution. Foremost it is a. A moral and spiritual institution. And so we don't simply enter into this. This. Political fray for political ends. But because we have. Immoral. And spiritual vision for our city. And really it that extends to our nation as a whole. And this morning i want to share with you. Some of that vision as i see it. And i'm going to say that i found inspiration this morning. In in an unlikely place. A place called the book of numbers. You don't even know what the book of numbers is and. You might be imagining a guy on a phone at the at the horse race tracks flipping through his in his little book of numbers there that's not the book of numbers i'm talking about. I'm talking about the bible. Book of numbers is one of the five books of the pentateuch. The first five books of the torah. According to ancient lore were written by moses himself. You need to know that the book of numbers is an unlikely place for a religious liberal like me to be going for inspiration. Because numbers along with its companion pieces leviticus. And deuteronomy are can be dangerous territory for a liberal and really for many modern people. Here is where you get the passage that says homosexuality is an abomination. Here's where an eye-for-an-eye kind of justice is par for the course. Here's where the disabled are proclaimed unworthy and therefore forbidden. From being priests. Here's where the bible justifies slavery and where elaborate purification codes force women into isolation. For 7 days. During the time of menstruation. What's more god makes threats in these books he details and it's a he in this case and elaborate series of punishments. If the people disobey the rules the first time they transgress he will reign terror down on them the second time send the plague the third time smite them with his own stash. Remember a few weeks ago i talked about the difference. Between conservative and liberal theology in america. I talked about how is the difference between folks who believe in a god who was a strict father. And god who was a nurturing parents. Well this is pretty much strict father stuff right here in. And numbers and. You know in the ancient world there were lots of tribes that were competing for land and territory need to try bed their own god and and when they went into battle the person who won they believe that they won because their god was stronger than the other tribes.. Some people i want to say is a disclaimer some people use these images of god here in. In this part of the old testament. The entire old testament. Picture of god. God is as. As as brutal and and warmongering that's not true i want to say that there other. Life-giving. Hebrew bible as well. Talked amongst all of these. Thou shalt nots in all of these presents. There is a striping. Striking image of mercy. And it's an image of the city. In the 35th chapter of the book of numbers god said to moses. Tell your people. When they cross the jordan into the promised land. Then you shall select. Cities. Obesity. The cities that you designate shelby six these six cities shall serve as refuge. For the israelites. And for the residents or transient alien. Among them. So that anyone who kills a person. Without intent. Safely there. What is that mean so that anyone who kills a person without intent can flee their will in this eye-for-an-eye world that i described for you justice demanded that any murder. Even on an unintentional murder required that the murderer be killed. Customs allow the family of a person who is killed to track down the murderer and kill them even if the murder was an accident so in deuteronomy we're actually given a for instance in this example of the city of refuge it says this. Suppose someone goes into the forest. With another to cut wood. And when one of them swings the ax to cut down the tree the head slips from the handle. And it strikes the other person who then dies. The killer may flee to one of the cities of refuge. And live. Because it was an accident. I'm resisting the temptation to make a dick cheney joke right right here. City of refuge. I promise i was going to say that. But all joking aside think about that image of the city of refuge. Think about the nature. Of justice that is. Raise by then oasis of mercy. In a desert. Hi-desert otherwise unremitting. A place of reprieve. A place where someone down on their luck. Can get a fresh start. Sanctuary. App store. Find myself drawn to this image because i realize i've always seen this city. As. City of refuge. As a place. Where people. Have that who may have been victims. The larger society notion. Of what is just. Misconception. Just have come and found a place and found a home here in the city of refuge. I think about how this has happened throughout the city about how the city provided a refuge for african americans to build up communities and cultures when restricted covenants and other races practices prevented them from living elsewhere. I think of how the city has provided a refuge for gay and lesbian people to live in relative openness and freedom when they couldn't elsewhere. I think it's how the city has been for generations a place where immigrants and refugees have come and build institutions and and communities and lives here having fled a nation. That was filled with violence or injustice or were they simply wanted to to have new opportunity i think of how for young adults throughout the generations the city has been a place to explore freedom. For all these people and more. The city has been a city of refuge. I think that what this passage is trying to teach us. Is it there need to be places of refuge. There needs to be sanctuaries in the city. For all the people. The city needs to be. For all souls. That's what i think. The passage is trying to teach us this morning that's what i think is men. By the city of refuge. To think about the city as a city of refuge. Forces us to ask. Cool will our city. Before. Increasingly. The answer to that question. Is that the city of washington dc. Will be for. The rich. And for the wife. You can see the cranes. As you walk out of church this morning. Over by the columbia heights metro state. You can see if you spend time in this neighborhood how building. By building. The poor are forced out. The immigrants are forced out. People of color are forced out. The neighborhood is going condo. Which means going rich and white for the large. Part for the most part. And. This means that the people that work here. The people who is churches are here the people whose community institutions are here are instead scattered to the nether regions of the beltway forced to build new lives forced to find new communities found new churches and start their lives all over again. I think. Did the city of washington must be a city for all souls. And i think that that vision must be lifted up. Churches. But this becomes difficult for us to talk about. When we realize. When i say we i mean many of us in this church not all of us when we realize our own. Complicity. In. Making a city less of a city of refuge. It's a complicated thing is and i'll use it's easier for me to use my own story as an example and be personal here i. I live in a home just a few blocks south of all souls church near the corner of 16th. And you. This is what is called a transitioning neighborhood in washington d.c. a mixed neighborhood racially and economically. And i have the good fortune thanks in part to the help of the church to buy a little apartment there a few years ago. And. Over the last few years i've seen the the value of that apartment. Increase substantially right. Over the course of the last few years. Next door to my apartment building. R2. Are two buildings that are subsidized housing one is for the working poor. And one is a kind of transitional. Housing. Every once in awhile at night on saturdays i'll sit in the park outside my front door i'll have conversations with people who are taking their dogs out for a walk. And. People will say. Things to me like. You know. Rob. I want to get the absolute best price. That i can. For the investment that i've made. On my house. In washington dc. And you see those those properties right next door there they are bringing down the values in the neighborhood. You know if they went condo. Yeah we get a better price for our our place right. And they say it with a kind of matter-of-factness and. This is satellite in washington dc these days but it said with a kind of kind of matter-of-factness that suggests that what they are saying is. On the face of it rational and true and morally acceptable. As if the maximization of profit work a foregone conclusion for how we should live our lives and govern our relationships in the city. But it's not. We need a broader. Moral vision. For our city. We need to recognize that what jeremiah said is true jeremiah said speak. The welfare of the city for in. It's welfare. Is your welfare. I think jeremiah had a vision of the city that was. More of an interdependent vision of. Of self-interest then then my friends in the park. Out walking their dogs i think it's a a vision that recognizes that a city is kind of an ecology. We can borrow something from the environmental movement here in imagine a city is a complicated ecology of people and forces and markets and institutions. And that if if that ecology is going to be healthy all of those people and all of those pieces have to be a part of it. To make it work everyone has to find a place in the ecology for the ecology. To be healthy. We have to raise up a vision for the city. That is clear that the maximization of profit is not a morally acceptable or sufficient calculus. You know which means that that at uncomfortable moments when we are talking with people in the parks are talking with people at streets are having a dinner in and inevitably that conversation comes up about housing prices in washington dc. We have to be able to save. The maximization of profit is not a morally acceptable. Calculus. And then people will coffin to their wine glasses and feel uncomfortable but it's got to be said. It's got to be said there had we have to be able to find the balance people say to me what robert my children child college education is riding on the maximization of my profit of my retirement is is riding on the next. But we have to hold anika anika logical vision. The city. We have to have a broader sense of our own self-interest. As individuals in the city. For we must. 4 in the city. In the city's welfare. We will find our own welfare. But i think it's something else needs to happen to. Yeah i believe that any kind of social transformation. Needs to ultimately start from a spiritual. Transformation. I'm here i want to lift up the work of howard stern. Our thurman was for many years the dean of the chapel of lost. University. A black preacher and theologian. He was actually asking you when dr. king was getting his doctorate there and was a big influence. Pontoon. Thurman often talked about. The city of refuge. It was a metaphor. Preaching. But but one-time howard thurman had this to say. He said ultimately. A person's only refuge in this world. Is a heart of another person. Ultimately a person's only refuge in the. Is the heart of another. Thurmond was an activist. But he was also a mystic. And he understood that social change. Must be grounded. Can a spiritual transformation or it will ultimately. This morning i would like. Ask all of us 2. Sitter. What would mean. You consider how much room. There is in our own hearts. Frosted think of our hearts as a place of refuge. For our neighbors in the city. For the pete for all the people. How much room is there. In our hearts. Our our hearts of refuge. For the stranger. And for the neighbor. A change of heart. Without a change of hands and feet. Can deteriorate into cm. And so i will. Invite you to join us after. If you would like. To go out into the neighbor. To meet our neighbors. Tumi. People who may be strangers. + 2. Understand a little bit more what the ecology. Of this neighborhood. Division of the city of the rest of refuge comes from the very beginning of the bible but in the last pages of the bible in the book of revelation the prophet john. Offers us. Another vision of the city. With which i'd like to close. This morning. He writes. Then i saw the holy city. Coming down out of heaven. From god. And i heard a voice say it's. It's gates will never be shut by day. And there will be no night. People will bring into it the glory and honor of all the nations. There. God will be with god's people. And will wipe away every tear from their eye. Death will be no more. Morning will be no more. Behold. I am making. All thing. Let us be among the people. Whose hearts are made new. So that our city may be made new. City of refuge.

all-souls_org

04.07.18Reverence.mp3

It's a truth that minister is sometimes don't like to tell parishioners that some sermons are harder to write than others but i'll tell you this one was a little challenging for me perhaps it's because reverence is something that's a little bit hard to talk about but i'm going to begin with a reading which i hope opens the doors a little bit it's from a book that's entitled reverence renewing a forgotten virtue it's written by a man named paul woodruff who is a philosophy professor at the university of texas at austin. And shame reverence is often expressed in and reinforced by ceremony and reverence as a virtue is primarily a capacity for having certain feelings at the right time and in the right way you don't learn a virtue like reverence from outside you'll earn it by finding the virtuous things that you do and doing more of them so that they become a habit ritual and reverence in common life are so familiar that we scarcely notice them until they are gone. And he says most helpfully i think that reverence must stand in all of something and that something must be one of the following things. One it cannot be changed or controlled by human means to it is not fully understood by human experts 3 it was not created by human beings and for. It is transcendence reverence. As with many things related to the spiritual life i find that reverence is hard to pin down there is some strange way in which even though reverend seems obvious were natural or i would suggest even essential to the spiritual life it's also equal parts elusive. I invite you for a moment to identify times in your life when you have felt reverent. What did they all have in common those moments. How do those glimmers of moving and compelling living change you the reading suggests that references the kind of thing that we human beings know don't notice until it's gone those of you who are joni mitchell fans like i am know that one of her best lines is. How can you not understand someone and yet feel and abiding respect for them how is it that you might have a sense of calm and clarity when you're facing an important decision in your life that you don't realize has slipped away until a week later you're feeling nothing but distracted and confused while anyone moment by itself of lost reverence may not not seem like a very big deal would refer suggest that our whole society has lost reverence. And if that is indeed a very big deal that all we do now is a culture is celebrate irreverence. But we don't find moments of quiet and calm and reflection. That we don't take time to add any sense of ritual or ceremony to our lives. He suggests i think rather compellingly as i thought about all of the rituals of my day that if we just took a moment any one of those things that we do as habit might take on a little more meaning. What could you add to your ritual of preparing for bed that might make that moment feel a little more ceremonial. A little less routine and a little more reverent. In our culture we spend more time shouting at one another we spend more time running about answering cell phone calls returning emails and very little time thinking about what makes it all possible. I will confess that recently i've been a bit of a c-span junkie and not that long ago i stumbled across a speech that our former president clinton was giving in honor of his book about to come out and the first i kind of stumbled onto it and i thought well i don't know that i'm really going to listen to this for very long but he got to the end of his remarks and he wasn't really talking much at all about his book anymore it occurred to me as i was listening to him that he was almost preaching a sermon he said something like this. That one of the things that was the most compelling thing to him in his presidency was when he first found out about the human genome project. About all of this research and he said it was really compelling not because it might solve all of these medical mysteries that we hope to someday have the answers to although that's of course very exciting to find cures for parkinson's cancer and all of the other diseases that we might find answers to what he said. That we human beings are 99% the same. He said any racial different sexual orientation different tribal different ethnic different any difference you want to raise up is really about 1% of what makes us human beings human that ninety-nine percent of us. Is the same. And he said that what worries him is how much damage has been done over that 1%. So why do i bring this up i bring it up because i think that has everything to do with reverence. What would it mean to stand in awe and wonder and respect at how similar we human beings are. And how much difference has wrought. In the our ability to do violence to one another. What would it mean if instead of having our public debates and discourse cheapened by our petty bickering by shallow ideas and a deep end and heightened distrust and cynicism for one another what if we actually just got this being human thing that we all have in common is rather miraculous rather remarkable reverence reminds us that how we feel matters. And how we feel in those moments when we try to create a common life a common language matters perhaps most of all and this is very very easy to forget. I forget again and again in a culture that tells us. That really is all about each of our own individual egos that it's about wanting more for yourself. And not thinking about all that you might give to those around you. I need to make this a bit more personal so it doesn't stay in the realm of abstraction it occurs to me that in my own life lessons about reverence have come both easy and more difficult. I've spoken before to you about my reverence in the presence of nature and in the presence of great works of art. And that's true that those moments have brought out in me a humility and amazement and all which has reminded me of my connection to everything. I have spoken of reverence as being that feeling of being both small and large at the same time but it occurs to me also that some of my most vivid learnings about respect and wonder especially respect and wonder at the gift of life have come when i have experienced loss. And so i will tell you perhaps the greatest story of loss in my life that had a huge formative impact on me and created my sense of reverence. I've not taken for granted any breath that i take when i was 20 years old i was very active in my unitarian universalist youth group in fact i frequently will tell you that those years my unitarian universalist church and my friends made through it worth saving grace for me for like many awkward adolescence i found my high school years almost unbearable. And so i agreed one year in the midst of all of this working with the the youth group that i was doing i agreed to be you'll be surprised to know co youth minister of the week for a conference on a beautiful island off the coast of new hampshire called star island and so a friend of mine was the chair of the conference and i wrote an application and she accepted me to work with another colleague of mine and other youth person to facilitate all the worship services for the week-long conference and we were supposed to meet throughout the year gathering together to plan this wonderful event for a couple of hundred youth and during that year it was my i think it was my sophomore year in college i was home in december for the holiday season and i don't remember where my mother was but i know she she was out and about doing something and i was at home with a video. When the phone rang. And one of my friends who was serving on the planning committee of this conference with me was on the other end of the line calling from cambridge massachusetts. And she told me something that i will never ever forget or get over. She told me that the news that i had heard on the car ride from the airport back home on npr about a shooting at a college in western massachusetts had taken the life of our friend only two people were killed at simon's rock college that day by an eighteen-year-old walking around the campus with an ak-47 assault rifle and my friend galen was one of them. He was to be the registrar for that conference. He was a bright light of a person whom i have never forgotten. My sense of loss. Mi-sant of the tragedy of losing someone so young and so amazing was heightened even more when my friend said to me on the phone it was as if we all loved each other so much. That we believe that nothing like this could ever happen. You see shootings on college campuses happen to other people. Losing friends that happens to other people in other countries that you've never visited. It doesn't happen to you. But what about when it does. What is life mean when you know that it can be taken away. How do you go on carrying within you hope. A sense of passion and compassion for living when you know that living can be taken away my friends you turn to reference. Reverence that any one of us gets to be here at all for however long we get to be here. That we get to love people even if they can be taken away from us. Because we know that it is better to love than not ever to have one carts broken. We need reverence. We need it because without it we lose sight of that which makes us human. Of that which connects us to one another of that which connects us to the spirit of life in every form that it takes. It is almost impossible to describe how reverence feels. And yet without it. That sense of assurance that sense of possibility that sent that it is worth being here that it is worth living life in all of its complexity and beauty and ugliness. Is lost reverence my friends is not about control. Not about making your life something that it's not it's not about logical answers because you can't explain away or explain your way around moments of reverence. What they are about is perception about intuiting and noticing and being fully present. To all. That living brings with it. May we my friends be reverent livers of life. To appreciate and i use the word appreciate and its deepest possible since. To appreciate all that we have been given may we not take for granted all that inspires us. May we become habitual practitioners of reverent living. I closed with a prayer from gordon mckeeman. Man now in his eighties universalist minister now a unitarian universalist minister a prayer of his that is entitled for all occasions. 4 simple things that are not simple at all. Four miracles of the common way sunrise. Sunset. Seed time. Harvest. Hope. Joy. Ecstasy. For grace that turns our intentions into deeds. Our compassion into helpfulness. Our pain into mercy. We lift our hearts in thankfulness. And pray only to be more aware. And lost. More alive. So may it be. And i'm at.

all-souls_org

05.10.23SteppingUp.mp3

Tek catalyst for castles or it's because you are my love you are my accomplice you are my everything but we are so much more than two we are so much more than two. I don't know about you but our anthem this morning has become one of my favorites at all souls. And i think there's a lesson for us in its text this morning a lesson that is important for us to remember as we gather on this generosity sunday to consider the importance of this church this community in our lives. At first glance the anthem appears to be a simple love song. Picture of i love you but if we listen carefully to the lyrics and if they're translated for us as they are in our program we realize that this isn't your typical love song there's something else going on here that simple love between two people appears to be threatened in some way for the couple must take to the streets to defend what they love and pretty soon we're not just singing anymore. The song was first brought to all souls from latin america by pablo benavente and melinda st. louis members of the choir. It comes from a place where unless you stood up for and defended who or what you loved. There was no guarantee that what you loved would survive. In such a context there's no such thing as a simple love song any love song by definition is a political song to a song about the things that you are prepared to protect and defend. The song reminds us that no love song can simply be between two people it must involve the community that stands up for and defends that love. Friends i want to suggest to you that we also live in a time and in a place where the people and the causes that we love are at risk when the causes that we cherish are in danger. If you are or love someone who is working-class just scraping to get by. If you are or some or love someone who is gay or lesbian if you are or love someone who is a person of color if you are or love someone who is among the 40 million americans without health insurance in our country if you are or love someone who is a child in our public school system in america if you love the earth if you believe in knowledge and in science if you pray for peace if you care about justice and fairness in our nation if you worship a god of love rather than a god of vengeance than warning the things that you care about are in danger in our country in our world right now someone or something. Just like a parent wants to believe that her love for her child is enough to protect the child. Better take care of is sufficient we wish that our love for the people and the causes we hold dear were enough to secure their future. But we know that it's not enough. That's the lesson that breaks our hearts over and over again in our life that our love is not enough to protect those who are dear to us. Our hope lies in channeling our love into communities institutions and movements that are strong enough to defend the causes and the people that we love. Friends this church is one of those communities. It's one of those institutions and i think we can take heart i take heart from remembering that this church and its members are no strangers to the kinds of challenges that we face in our world right now i think back to 1859 when the church's bell that was one of the public bills and washington dc was told on special state occasions and was claimed when there were fires in the city will one day the church this church told that bell for the abolition of slavery for the cause of freedom the leaders of the city the newspapers came down the church indoor public derision the bell was called derisively the abolition bell. But slavery was abolished in 1954 when much of washington was still sub stubbornly segregated church members evicted the whites-only police boys club and started dc's first integrated youth club in the church basement and though it seemed impossible at the time segregation at least legally mandated segregation is a thing of the past. Also in the 50s when senator joseph mccarthy started going after people in the state department and accusing them of being communist when he went after members of this church and falsely accuse them of such the minister and members of this church took on mccarthy in the washington post and helped to bring him down. This church and its members are no strangers to sticking up for the causes and the people that we love. Can i could go on with the stories but we don't need to rest on our laurels for this today we continue to meet the challenges of our time by organizing with tenants in our neighborhood to preserve decent affordable housing and caring for and nurturing progressive religious souls young and old. There's been one thing though that's been on people's minds at church. For job here at all souls church for the job of our administrator and to show us a good work that he did in his previous church that he was administrative i was to baptist church in virginia he showed at the annual report that congregation it was very well formatted. The 50% of the congregation tized. To the church. It revealed that at the end of each calendar year the church had a surplus that they put in the savings account and when a ministry opportunity came by conference of religious progressives came by. Prince i've had to come i've done some soul-searching. Over the last. Several months. And i've had to come to the conclusion that conclusion it's been painful for me which is that one of the reasons that the people and the causes that we love are at risk. Is because the religious and social and political people that are in power now are more committed to their causes than we are to ours. And it pains me to say that because i know you. And i know how committed you are to the causes that you believe in her now how so many of your lies are dedicated to those causes and i like to think of myself as a committed person to but if you take for example the religious right. And look at the way they support their congregations in in volunteer time and in money there's it's just a fact friends. That they are standing up. For their causes in ways that we are not. I don't want to be in that position anymore one of the choices that we are going to make in our budget next year one of the things that we are going to add to our budget next year if we meet arkansas goal this year is we're going to add health insurance. For our custodial staff at the church we have a custodial contractor that doesn't provide health insurance for our custodial staff and we just this month in fact have started ensuring them and paying for their insurance over a contract costs and it's in our budget for next year but you know what. I don't want to be the kind of church that has to be making decisions about whether or not we are going to provide health care for our custodial staff we need to be way beyond that point a liberal progressive church in this standing up for our values in this country should not be having to make those kinds of decisions about its budget we should be well beyond that point friends. Our goal this year for our campaign. Is $800,000 it's about $100,000 increase. Over last year's goal and i want to tell you some specific things so you know. What that increase money is going to go to to support i feel like if part of it has been my fault that i haven't come to you you're after you're in bed as explicit as i need to be about the kinds of things that we're trying to do in our budget next year's budget includes more support for the salary of our social justice director and for social justice ministries. Our social justice director is paid below denominational fairness guidelines and irony right that our justice director receives an unjust salary. We are including in our budget funds for intentional growth and outreach to support our multicultural growth strategy at the church. In four years are religious in the number of children at our church has doubled what a joyous thing that we have twice as many children nitrate finally next year's budget includes support for halftime religious education assistant to help run the religious education program in the church with a significant new staff position at the church main priorities the first will be membership director whose primary task will be focused on the growth of the church and particularly our growth in to become a more multiracial multicultural congregation the second part of whose job description will be to serve as volunteer coordinator one of the things that we hear from you if you're a leader you say we're having a hard time connecting with volunteers if you're a volunteer you're saying. But we come to a moment of truth of sorts. When we look at what it's going to take to make this happen. I've never been as forward with you. As i will be today in asking for your generosity. But my forwarding this will be in the form of. An example an invitation. I've realized that one of the things that i can do to protect and defend the causes and the people that i love is to be more generous with my finances. And this year for the first time i have decided that i'm going to tithe my income. This is going to be a big change in the household finances. And it's going to cause a lot of readjusting in my life. The way i'm going to tithe is i'm going to give 5% of my income to the church. And i'm going to give another 5% of my income to the causes. That support and defend my values in the world causes that are symbiotic with our church. In that way i hope to do a better job to do my part. To protect and defend the causes. And the people that i love. So i want to ask you all today. As we make our pledge next year to the church. How much is it worth to you. How much are you willing to stretch. How much. Are you willing to give up cuz it does mean giving up something it does mean sacrificing. But this is for a good cause. This is for the cause. The causes that we believe in this is for the people that we hold dear you know james luther adams one of the grades. Theologians of unitarian-universalism once said this about unitarians and i'll leave you with his thought. He said of unitarians unitarians reject. The immaculate conception of goodness and justice in the world. It doesn't happen by magic. It doesn't happen just cuz we pray for it. It happens because of our commitment. And our generosity. Friends i asked you to be generous today as we make our pledges to support. All souls church.

all-souls_org

05.11.13SpaciousSouls.mp3

I have two short readings that i want to share with you this morning. The first is from. Emerson. Who says. With consistency. A great soul. Has simply nothing to do. Tell me repeat that with consistency. A great soul has simply nothing to do. 10-second from william ellery channing. In true. Soul is always bursting. Its limits. Excuse me i'm getting over a cold this morning. I was out in front before before church and they usually i'm shaking people's hands and i got out there today and i realized i couldn't do that i didn't know what to do with myself before church if i couldn't shake people's hands so i'm. In seminary aspiring ministers are required to take a battery of psychological tests to determine their fitness for ministry. And to make sure they're not disturbed long hours low pay or a profound psychopathology. Have you been hearing voices lately have you experienced the sudden urge to kill someone. He said rob those tensions can either be a blessing in your life or they can be a curse. They can either stimulate creativity and vitality where they can shut you down. Rob he said you have to learn to love the tensions. Better in your soul. I was silent for a while. Wondering how he knew about the contradictions i was carrying around inside. How did he know that i just returned from a year living in a jungle in guatemala and now it come home feeling like a stranger i mix the wealth of my own country. You know i just come out and was still struggling to embrace a new identity the psychiatrist could tell i was lost in thought and so he said did you hear what i told you. I said yes. You told me to live in the tension but that's not very helpful i don't know what that means i said. No he said looking me straight in the eye. I didn't say live in the tension. I told you to love. Pretension. That conversation took place ten years ago. But it still haunts me. I'm still trying to figure out what it means. Deep down. To love the tensions and the contradiction. That life sends our way. But i become convinced that with the school psychiatrist said to me on that day represents one way of articulating the fundamental spiritual challenge of our times which is how do we live. Like how we live here in the richest nation on earth yet one and five of our children live in poverty is one on the backs of the comparative poverty of other nations and other people's. What causes human family is polarized by religion by race by by ideology by will like how we're all so different from each other and and how there are so many barriers to us living together as one human family maybe there was a time when it was simpler than it is today when things were less complicated. When is fear of an individual's life was drawn so tightly that it was easier to make sense of and to understand or maybe we just like to imagine that there was such a time. Whichever the case we no longer live in that world. The veil has been lifted and we are all now privy to what's happening all over the world it's been brought into our living room. Where i find listening to people. And counseling them is that all all of the complexity of the world takes its toll. Choose to ignore or deny or worse to destroy that which doesn't fit. Into their tidy definition and understanding of the world. Their response to the world and its complexity is to shut it out to somehow obliterated that is basically what religious fundamentalism is. A defensive and sometimes violent response to the overwhelming complexity of the modern world. A complexity that is perceived as and in some cases rightly as of threat. So that's the response of some folks on the right then there are others on the left who get so fed up with a contradictions and disparities that they retreat to but it looks a little different from people on the left when they retreat is first a certain kind of ironic and apathetic distance. From the world. It often looks like a superiority to the world. But sooner or later that irony and that apathy corrodes and starts to look more like cynicism. Which is itself a form of abdication of the world. And it's about is soledad mean as fundamentalism is. Heaven somewhere in between in the well-meaning middle. We have folks who have tried to take in the contradiction. And to experience the world in all its complexity. But they have broken down takeout burned out. Play suffer from world-weariness. The sociologists call it compassion fatigue. These people tend to retreat to the nuclear family they declare that the household is the limit of what they can care for. For what they can respond to they may be aware of all that's happening on the outside but they had the luxury that usually comes with wealth and privilege of retreating from the friend. Dino in my own heart. But i'm susceptible to all of these temptations. And have succumbed at one time or another to all of them i will also point out however that the most common trap for unitarians. Is that last one. But i talked about. With the psychiatrist was telling me. 10 years ago within each of these retreats from the modern world is a form of spiritual disease. Evidence. we must find the spiritual resources necessary to live in the midst of all the contradictions and complexity of the world and somehow. This was the confusing point for me. Somehow to be able to love that place attention and contradiction and complexity somehow to embrace it until 11. Until this got me to wondering how we can do this. How we shape our spiritual lives in such a way that we can live in the modern world and all its complexities and i realized it's my water. I realized it when i used to think of spiritual growth i had an image in my mind i used to think of spiritual growth in kind of a vertical kind of way the image i had was the story of jack and the beanstalk and it went like. The problem with that model of spiritual growth is that you often times end up with your head in the clouds form of a retreat. Spiritual growth closer to about that time that i came across that unitarian theologian named bernard loomer could be a different way to think about spiritual growth. What is the size of your soul which is your soul's ability to grow into that life throws your way. Bloomer help me to see the spiritual growth isn't about some vertical ascends into the heavens it's about growth in every dimension its spirituality in 3d if you will its volume and capacity. Bloomer challenges to grow spacious souls. But how how do we do that. How do we grow souls that second stretch. How do we grow souls that are supplement up to take in the bombardment of the world that we live in i thought about how best to describe it to you and i realize it. You might have heard me say this before but any singer knows that in order to make a joyful noise. There must first be us a spaciousness write a spaceship down in your diaphragm. You've got to breathe deeply. You all don't get to see it but when i when angela is directing the children's choir on sundays i can see the little signs that she makes to the children upfront and before they begin each verse i watch her say to them. She doesn't have a reminder in college who used to who used to take us to breathing exercises where he's say breathe breathe in the world the problem is when when people try to sing without taking that deep breath. To the world. Yeah that's why the cynics always sounds like there yapping over in this corner they're not speaking from that that's spacious place and that's why the fundamentalist. That's how we get spacious souls when the world threatens us with threatens to overwhelm us with its complexity when we feel our anxiety rising with all the tensions that are mounting when we're feeling setup and ready to throw in the towel the first thing you do is you got to breathe. In the morning when i begin my prayers i always begin with veep. Deep breaths. Because it puts my soul in a spacious place and that's where it needs to be to receive the prayers. Of the world. I wonder if you'll do something with me right now i teach breathing in my prayer class. Exhale. To do it again. About when you took that deep breath if you didn't feel your hand your stomach expand. With that breath. Then you're not breathing right if you're breathtaking from up here if it came from your throat then it's not the kind of spaciousness that i'm talking about i'm talking about our diaphragm expands. That's what i'm asking we do with our soul. I'm not sure that work for you all but that's that's one of the ways i'm trying to explain it this morning the other thing that i think we need to do is be able to tell a story about the complexity of the world that somehow. Makes it. Something larger than the sum of its parts. He is someone i look to in this regard is the poet is the writer alice walker. Alice walker is someone who embodies some of the contradictions. Of the world she is of freda sense african caucasian and cherokee that is called some things that i like about my free bloods. And i think somehow that's what we need to be able to do is we need to take the contradictions that come together in our souls and be able to to write a poem or to tell us the story about them that's weaves them together in a way that gives us. Meaning. Alice walker said let's take the contradictions in our soul. And wrap them around us like a shawl. Let's embrace them and let them inbrace us. We need to try to tell a story. About the contradictions in our lives. That gives them meaning. Brutally if we are to act in this world we must not become paralyzed by the tensions and the contradictions of the world sometimes our life becomes so complex that we we do become paralyzed and here i want to turn to this quote by emerson who said with consistency a great soul has nothing to do. And speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again. Although it contradicts everything you said today my hard words i imagine emerson to mean speaking from your diaphragm what it's like i was talking about earlier but what he's saying is we must not let the complexities of the world keep us from speaking and acting for justice. We must continue to to speak and act even with the sense of humility. That comes from knowing. But tomorrow we may learn something different about the world. And we may speak and act differently. But paralysis he reminds us is a recipe for death. There's one last way. That we can live with spacious souls in the world and if you thought the breathing thing was hard to explain that this might be even harder but there's a faith that's involved here friends. By faith i mean a trust. To live amidst the contradiction. And the complexity. And the suffering of our world. Requires that we have a faith that ultimately. Creation is good. That the world is a good place. That our loved ones that our fellow human beings are good souls. Ultimately we must possess a faith. That was embodied in dr. king. King's quote when he said. Set the moral arc of the universe is long. But it bends toward justice. It is that safe. That allows us to taken the joy in the suffering at the same time and not be broken by it. It's that space that allows us to take in pain and joy at the same time and not be split in half by it. It's that faith that allows us to take the great wealth and privilege that we see in our world as well as the poverty and to not be paralyzed by it trying to figure out what to do. Friends when we possess. Such a faith. We can stand together in the midst of all the tensions of our world and discern the truth. And work for justice. And love one another. And through it all. Breathe. I'm in.

all-souls_org

04.04.18LivingDownstream.mp3

Our first. Reading this morning is. From the buddhist monk. Tick not han. Water flows from high in the mountains. Water runs deep in the earth. Miraculously water comes to us and sustains all life. Water and sun green these plants. When the rain of compassion falls. Even a desert. Becomes an immense green ocean. Emma s reading. His from the talmud. The centuries-old collection of rabbinic commentary on the torah. The talmud asks. If a mighty river. Has been struck by drought. What hope is there. For the waterhole. In an alpine meadow high in the rockies. 25 miles due west of creede colorado. The rio grande river begins its 1900 miles journey. To the gulf of mexico. It's waters have travel this route for millennia. But in the spring of 2001. The river never reached. Its destination. Long before modern settlement the river's headwaters were formed each spring as melting snow trickled down from mountain peaks into cool mountain streams beside which eagles made their nest. The water is gained momentum tumbling down the eastern face of the continental divide before plunging into the great red rift valley canyons. That bisect what is now the state of new mexico. Once ancient civilizations thrived here on the river's shore. Further down its course as canyons gateway to plains the unruly water is meandered and split creating vast wetlands and marshes and floodplains filled with cottonwood trees. Further still near the present-day city is of ciudad juarez and el paso the river changed course heading south by southwest through the parched desert before emptying itself into the sparkling waters of the gulf of mexico. Beginning in 1925 human beings began to tame the mighty river dams were built and reservoirs created to prevent flooding and drought the wandering waters were channeled into appropriate pav's. So development could rise up along the banks. Cities and towns grew up along the river. Santa fe albuquerque cuates brownsville el paso each city took from the river the water it needed and returns to the river sewage and waste and pesticides. In rural areas water was diverted to grow things in a desert where nature had never intended things to grow. For a while there was enough water to go around but as population and development brew the water needed to be brokered by complicated agreements between colorado and new mexico and texas and treaties between the united states and mexico and then when drought struck in the year two thousand cities and farmers sucked the river dry. And in the spring of 2001 the newspaper has announced the sad news. The rio grande has become the river that can no longer find its way to the sea. Having been diverted and damned and polluted all along the way it's remaining trickle. Evaporated in the syrian desert heat. Just 50 yards shy of the gulf of mexico. Leaving only a poisoned and muddy swamp. Where once a mighty river flowed. When i first read about the scene at the mouth of the rio grande the image struck me as biblical in its portent. Factor reminded me of one of the most striking images from the hebrew bible the valley of the dry bones. Some of you remember that image that when god wanted to warn the prophet ezekiel that his people were in trouble he gave the prophet a vision a heads-up call if you will is it gilrich oz the vision this way he says the hand of the lord came upon me and he brought me out and he sent me down in the middle of a river valley. It was full of bones. He led me around them and there were many lying in the valley and they were very dry. And god asked me. Mortal. Can these bones live. If you could jehovah might scoop us up today. And put us down at the mouth of the rio grande and asked us a similarly pointed question. Living downstream. The phrase has become something of a mantra for the environmental movement these days shorthand for the kind of devastation that we've brought upon places like the rio grande. The phrase comes from a parable that's often told and environmental circles a parable about a riverside village whose inhabitants one-day begin to notice people who had been swept up in the river's current and brought along and we're drowning out in the middle of the river and so the villagers devise ways to go out and save these drowning souls and over that as the months go by they devise better and better ways to save people but each month more and more people come down nevertheless and more and more people perish and then one day. Someone finally things to go upstream and find out who's throwing the people in the river in the first place. In other words finally someone says let's not just treat the dying here let's figure out who's trying to kill us. Living the downstream describes the position we find ourselves in at the turn of the millennium for we do live downstream from a century-and-a-half of industrialization which has brought great progress. But at a great cost. For with the progress has come polluted air and poison water. The destruction of entire ecosystems. Species. And cultures. There are now actually civilizations on islands in polynesia who have signed agreements with new zealand so that when the ocean level rises they will relocate their entire population to new zealand. Not to mention the fact that we have witnessed the most bloody century known to man i'll living the downstream mentality reminds us that these conditions don't just appear out of nowhere. They come from somewhere. Living downstream is a consciousness that compels us to go upstream and tackle the source of the problem. My partner chris. Suffers from asthma and when we move to dc it got about 10 times worse. Asthma is a huge problem here especially among children of color. Where is nationally about 5% of kids suffer from asthma in dc 8% of children have these attacks. And surveys conducted by the sierra club and local activists in the river terrace neighborhood east of the river showed that nearly 50% of the children in that neighborhood suffered from asthma attacks. The other two ways of looking at a solution like this i mean we can buy more and more of those inhalers. Hand pump our children's lungs with all the steroids that are in those inhalers cuz that's what it is. Dams or we can clean up our air. The river terrace neighborhood is surrounded by a highway a garbage dump and buy two of petco's dirtiest. Energy plans. It's no secret what causes the children. To have asthma. The phrase living downstream became popular in 1997 when a young biologist and poet sandra. Steingraber published a book by that name. At the age of 20. Steingraeber was diagnosed with a rare form of bladder cancer. And the book describes her search. For the seemingly inexplicable causes of that cancer but what she uncovers instead is in is a cancer epidemic. The world health organization tracks cancer mortality rates in 70 countries. And 1/2. Of all the world's cancers occur. Among people living in industrialized nations. Even though we account for 1/5. Of the world's populations. In 1950 25% of adults in america could expect to get cancer during their lifetimes. Today about 40% of us. Can expect that fate. Steingraber points out that most people don't want to talk about the environmental causes of cancer while science suggested environmental factors account for anywhere between 80 and and 90% of cancer most people prefer to think of it as a genetic thing. Or something that smokers get. Steingraber uses her own story as an illustration. She writes this. If i tell people that i had cancer as a young adult. They usually shake their heads and sympathy. If i go on to mention that cancer runs in my family that usually start to nod. I can almost hear them thinking. Oh she comes from one of those cancer families. And sometimes i leave it at just that but if i am up for blank stares. I added that i am adopted. And i go on to describe a study of cancer among adoptees that finds correlations with their adoptive families but not their biological families. At this point she writes. Most people become very quiet. By the way d.c. ranks 10th on the list of us counties. With the highest incidence of cancer. Now if any of us still needed proof of the seriousness of living downstream then dc's water crisis. Should have provided all the evidence that you need. It is really hard to believe but we are in the capital of the industrialized world and right now our children and pregnant mothers cannot drink our water. Lead contamination contributes to learning disabilities lower iqs and loss of other physical and mental capacities among small children. I'm still trying to sort out what happened with the water in dc but it turns out that the head of the brita water filter company is a former parishioner of mine from oakland something tells me it's going to be a good but they have donated thousands of water filters to be distributed in low-income communities in dc and in fact the church has on two occasions distributed those filters but i was out in california. No recently dc switch to the chemical cleansers that it was using in the water. But it turns out that this new chemical reacts with a water puddle lead pipes so that the lead from the pipes then leaches into the water. That's how he explained it to me at least. Now clearly there are lots of levels of blame here right i mean we've got the negligence city officials who fail to notify the public and adequately respond to the crisis. There was a bad decision to switch the chemicals in the first place and the choice of materials for our pipes but before you even get to all that the root cause of the problem and what a living downstream mentality asks us to take note of is that the whole chesapeake watershed is horribly polluted that's the source of the problem ultimately. Our water is poisoned. And we need to do something about it. Kinds of solutions that are necessary. To rid our dirty are of carcinogens and make our drinking water safe for children are complicated and they must be comprehensive and it's not a preachers job to outline them here today but if we are going to have the courage to make those decisions and to make the sacrifices necessary. To carry them out. Then living downstream have to become more than a description of where we are now living downstream has to be an ethical perspective that we live out of as we move forward into the future because just as we are now aware that we suffer the consequences we must realize that our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren are living way downstream from us. And we will be the ones that they point their fingers to when they try to figure out the predicament that they find themselves in a hundred years hence. As an ethical framework living the downstream works out much like the native american ethic. Which says that we make every decision with the best interests of seven generations at heart. We need to start making our choices even the choices that we make in our daily lives with the best interests of those downstream in our hearts. When we decide on garbage night. At 10 or 11 when we finally remember that it's garbage night whether to sort or whether to lump all the recyclables in together with the trash let's sort for the people downstream. So their landscape won't be dotted with garbage dumps. If and when we buy a car. Let's buy a car for the people downstream. So the next generation of children of riverterrace won't have to suffer from asthma like they do now. When we choose which foods and cleaning products to buy let's choose for the people downstream. So that their water system won't be polluted with pesticides and cleaning agents like ours is when we go to the ballot box next november let's cast a vote for the people downstream to ensure that our political leaders will take their interest at heart as well. What will a river look like. By the time it flows downstream to our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. Three of whom we announced and welcomed into our community today. Will they inherit. The mighty flowing river. The river of life. We're by the time it gets to them will it look something like the pathetic and polluted trickle. That is the last stretch. Of the rio grande. Will we leave them. Like the prophet ezekiel. Standing in a valley. Of dry bones. The clothes i invite us to turn now in our hymnal. To reading number 478 it's a litany of confession that's been written for religious communities to share with one another on earth day number 478 in the back of your hymnal. Call the prayer of sorrow. I'll read the regular text and invite you to join in the italicized portion. We have forgotten who we are. We have alienated ourselves from the unfolding of the cosmos. We have sought only our own security. We have exploited simply for our own ends. We have distorted our knowledge. We have abused our power. Now the forests are dying. And the creatures are disappearing. And the humans are despairing we ask for forgiveness we ask for the gift of remembering we ask for the strength to change. I'm in.

all-souls_org

04.03.14LetsTalkSexuality.mp3

The reading this morning is a poem by our unitarian poet. E.e. cummings. I like my body when it's with your body it is so quite new a thing. The muscles better the nerves more i like your body. I like what it does. I like it's house. I like to feel the spine of your body and its bones and the trembling from smoothness which i will again and again and again kiss i like kissing this and that's of you. I like slowly stroking the shop fuzz of your electric fur and what it is come over parking flesh and eyes big love crumbs and possibly i like the thrill of under me you so quite. I'd like you first to join me today by taking a deep breath and then indulging me as i talk about sexuality. Let me start by mentioning a couple of events in our common lines. 10 years ago surgeon-general jocelyn elders lost her job for among other things. Mentioning that masturbation should be a part of a comprehensive education program in schools. The very mention of masturbation shocked the masses when it is a viable and healthy option for both single and partner people. Hola. January the week after the janet jackson. Exposure incident producers of nbc's top-rated drama er bowed to public pressure and chose not to show the breast. Of an eighty-year-old woman on the operating table. There was not enough time to reshoot the episode and so the producers chose to blur out the shots of the breast in that scene. And more recently several members of this congregation asked me about how would i be approaching a sermon on sexuality. With nervousness and anticipation i could send. The people were genuinely concerned for me. But also the risk involved in taking on a topic usually exiled to private conversations and not the public dialogues. So why are we so skittish around and about sexuality. I think it's because we are embarrassed to talk about sex and sexuality openly and the topic has been taboo too long in religious communities. Cynthia green former director of religious education at the uua said quote. Sexuality is simply too important. Too beautiful. And to prevent potentially dangerous. To be ignored in a religious community. Unquote. I agree with cynthia. Tissues of sexuality are too important to sidestep because they encompass much of whom we are. Is too beautiful because sexuality can be positive and healthy. Into dangerous because sexuality can be unhealthy and destructive. When people think sexuality everybody's mind goes directly to sex. Meaning sexual behavior with sexuality is much more than just sexual acts. Sexuality also includes gender identity. Emeril's. Sexual orientation eroticism pleasure intimacy and reproduction. Business experience. Unexpressed. Insults. Fantasies. Desires. Beliefs. Attitudes. Values. Behaviors. Practices. Roles and relationships. Quite a long list. What sexuality can be all of these dimensions not all of them are always express. Or experience. Not everyone experiences or expresses. Their sexuality through all of these dimensions. And for an individual all of these dimensions may not be expressed or experienced. Healthy sexual relationships. Are consensual. Non-explosive pleasurable and safe. I can be a healthy sexual being by sitting with my own fantasies as long as i'm not harming anyone or forcing anyone into them. Driving to my job site just got a little bit more interesting. Some unhealthy expressions of sexual behavior might be forcing my partner into behavior she may not want to do. I remember when i first met my partner i asked if i could kiss her. She immediately assumed that i meant something more than a kiss. At that point i could have pushed for that kiss. But instead i honored her decision and waited for her to kiss me. We still talk about that incident today because it reminds us. That we have to stop jumping to conclusions. And if we do we need to check out those assumptions with one another. Religious communities. The boys struggled. With how to talk about sexuality. As a way to demystify the role of sexuality in our everyday lives. Several clergy and religious professionals from different faith traditions. Four years ago came together and produce. Religious declaration on sexual morality justice and healing. In the declaration relation acknowledge the joy and pain around sexuality. The declaration states quotes. That all persons. Have the right. And the responsibility to lead sexual lives. That express love. Justice. Mutuality commitment. Consent and pleasure. It also states. The religious community is called to see here and to respond to the suffering caused by the violence against women and sexual minorities. The hiv pandemic unstated sustainable population growth and overconsumption. And the commercial exploitation of sexuality. I've had a copy of that text put in the order of service. So you can look at further at your leisure. Since that declaration was produced more than 2250 clergy and religious leaders from 39 denomination. Have endorsed it. John buren's the uu president at the time and do you seminarian debra hafner were there during the drafting. Reverend hafner who taught my class sexuality issues to ministers. Because the heated discussion about infidelity infidelity the framing of the declaration around god and whether to include same-sex unions are not in the document. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall and those discussions to see how interface leaders could come to an agreement. On a topic as heated as sexuality is something quite miraculous. There's some discussion now whether the declaration should now be revisited and changed to include marriage instead of unions in light of the current sexual justice going on around same-sex marriages. But we will have to see. I remember president buren preaching passionately about this declaration in this very pulpit 4 years ago i was so proud to be unitarian universalist i hung a copy of that declaration in my office where it is still display today. Even given those positive moves forward. I still worry why unitarian universalist. A people who are generally on the cutting edge. A controversial issues. Are still so skittish about talking about. Our own sexuality. We can rally around the rights of others who are exploited or press sexually but we can't talk about our own sexuality. Import. I feel this reluctance. Might be influenced. By the interaction between social economic cultural. Ethical religious. And spiritual factors. And i would like to touch upon some of the spiritual religious and ethical factors today. Sexuality is a part of our human experience. And not talking about it. Oregon almond tickets. Will not make it go away. That concept. I'm struggling with scripture and tradition. In light of our own experience. Is who we are as unitarian universalist. Dinner principles we honor the very struggle to make sense of our lives. And we highlight our journey as a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Not search. Helps us determine what has ultimate value for us and that makes it spiritual. Because we honor that process in community it makes it religious as well. We have a lifespan curriculum that includes adults. To help us form our theology and to give us a better understanding of what we believe. And we also. Have a lifespan curriculum on sexuality in light of what we believe. This cricket is called a whole lives and it helps us to understand how to be healthy sexual beings. And understand how are you you face. Reflects that. At through a series of age appropriate. Curricula that spans kindergarten through adulthood. Whereas ruu theology is very dialogical and interpersonal. Other faith traditions. 10 to look at sexuality issues in hierarchical terms. As a one-way dimension where truths are passed along through authority figures or traditions instead of finding truth within our own individual struggle. In such faith communities. The questions tend to be. What does the scripture and tradition say about sexuality and how should it be expressed. And what does the church say and what does the pope say. And what does the rabbi say. But there are diversity of voices even within those faith communities. Like jim nelson a christian theologian that says quote surely this question of what does the scripture in bible say is essential and not ever to be neglected but it is not enough we need to also ask. What does our experience. As a human being a sexual human being tell us about how we read the scripture interpret tradition and attempt to live out the meaning of the gospels. The movement must be in both directions. Not only in one. I am sure we can remember occasions when biblical scripture in church history have been historically used. To condemn and abused many people. And it is crucial for us. To understand why and how that is interpreted that way. But maybe a part about work needs to be re-examining those honor text. And reach into the same scriptures. And histories and find other tidbits. The heal those wounds around sexuality. For example listen to this passage from the song of solomon. Oh may your breasts be like clusters of vine. And the scent of your breath like apples. And your kisses. Like the best one that goes down smoothly gliding over lips and teeth. This passage is many in the song of songs. That illustrate mutual desire passion and fulfillment for heterosexual lovers. As a seminarian i learned some other interesting things about the bible. Like there are passages. To affirm sexual intimacy in old age or love at first sight. Or sex in long-term relationships. The bible has been incorrectly used. To condemn homosexuality. And yet the text. It mentions the special love but david had for jonathan and vice versa versa. Rarely gets mentioned and there are several biblical passages. Set a firm transgender behavior and did you know that there are no biblical passages. Let's say abortion contraception. And masturbation are wrong i didn't know this. And when it comes to church history. The highlights are equally surprising. Like st. augustine mistress and son being sent away by his mother could have influenced. His attitudes towards sex. Clearly augustine missed that intimacy and love in his life. K2 heathens sex in marriage essential even without the attends appropriation. Or the writings of luther come after he himself married one of the nuns he helped escape. Luther was clear about how sexual and sensual feelings were part of the human experience. He said quote. Seed. If it doesn't flow into flesh. Will flow into a nightshirt. Uncut that's what is blunts and to-the-point about sexuality probably have been influenced. By what we have been told by the biblical scripture and christian tradition. And so it is important for us to revisit those beliefs. And ponder whether they still hold true for us today. By freeing ourselves. From the old dogma we can expand our spirituality and our sexuality in life affirming ways. Was taking out. Books classes therapist other resources whatever is necessary to help us explore healthy expressions and experiences. Of our sexuality. I discover like e.e. cummings did something quite. Met at lisa.

all-souls_org

04.08.15HoldingFirmAgainstWindsOfChanges.mp3

A universal reality that none of us can escape. Is that change is inevitable. Nothing stays the same forever. And how we respond to this fact shapes the way we react to the unfolding events of our lives. It can in fact. Determine our attitude and our feelings about life. Marge piercy offers us the poem to have without holding. In which she described the possibility of loving without holding on so tightly as to prevent change for growth. Learning to love differently is hard. Love with the hands wide open. Love with the doors banging on their hinges the cupboard unlocked the wind roaring and whimpering in the rooms rustling the sheets and snapping the blinds that's black like rubber bands and an open palm. It hurts to love wide open. Stretching the muscles that feel as if they were made of plaster. Then of blunt knives. Then of sharp knives. It hurts to ford the reflexes of grab of clutch. To love and let go again and again and again. A pastor's to remember the lover who is not in bed. To hold back what is owed to the work that gutters like a candle in a cave without air. The love consciously. Conscientiously. Concretely. Constructively. I can't do it. You say it's killing me. But you thrive. You glow. You float and sale. To have and not to hold. Love. With minimized malice. Hunger and anger. Moment-by-moment. Balance. This weekend marks the beginning of a two-week olympic media blitz. Nbc is bombarding us with the life story of just about. Every american athlete in athens and ronald mcdonald is yes. Appearing in synchronized swimming commercials. Those of us watching the olympics might have missed us swimmer michael phelps his participation in the opening ceremonies. But he's already 11 gold medal and it's only one of what's expected to be a slough. While the olympic competitions are always fun my favorite part has always been the opening ceremonies. As a former foreign service officer. I always enjoy seeing the most unexpected countries in the parade of nations. The ones that show up simply to represent their country. Not with any expectation of actually winning anything. Friday's opening ceremonies in athens included in case you missed it a salute to the previous cities that have hosted the olympics. A greek runner ran around the olympic track. Breaking ribbons dedicated to every city that's hosted the modern olympics. When you got to world war 1 and world war ii. The intentionally stumbled. The note and commemorate the fact that the olympics had not been held. During those periods of global conflict. He got to the 1980 moscow olympics and i was actually expecting the runner to stumble again. But when he sailed on through that ribbon i remembered that while we americans boycotted the moscow olympics. The rest of the world attended. 1980 was a stumble for us. Not for the world. The olympics also got me reminiscing with my partner chris who many of you know as our church's board of trustees president about watching the olympics on tv as a kid and other youth as an openly gay man now legally married it was fun recalling with chris howe during the 1984 olympics. At the tender age of 13. Obsessively watched the men's swimming and diving events on tv without i must admit any real appreciation for why sports with scantily clad guys held extra fuel for me. What i could not intellectually comprehend my teenage hormones intuited. As i recall that he's earlier olympics. I reflected on how much the world and indeed my own life has changed. Europeans ravaged by internal conflict and two world wars now have a european union that spans from ireland to poland. The soviet union that existed during the 1980 olympics is no more. The thirteen-year-old coolest kid of 1984 myself. Went on to become a diplomat and now a unitarian universalist seminarian. Everything changes. The only thing that's constant is change. Change is inevitable. There are seeds of change winds of change. Seeds of change. And changing times. Our culture has come up with dozens of ways to describe the reality that everything is constantly in motion nothing is permanent. The buddhist tradition provides a framework for this and its theology. Which describes everything in the universe as made up of five different aspects. Aggregates they call it. These five aspects of the universe are constantly coming together a new and different ways. If we think of it scientifically. At a cellular level. We in actuality are different from moment-to-moment. Blood cells float through our bodies never stopping in any one location. Skin cells are constantly flaking off nutrients and waste are always being processed. We are literally. Moment-to-moment never exactly the same physical person. Our physical bodies are in constant change the world around us is in constant change. Yet if there's one thing i've learned about change it's that we human beings absolutely hate it i hate it. I crave certainty i want safety. I want steady companionship. I want to know that my friends will be there tomorrow i want to know where my next paycheck is coming from i want to know that i won't be homeless or hungry or ever without adequate healthcare i want to know that my marriage will last forever and always be strong i want to know that terrorists won't kill me that i won't get anthrax opening the mail and that i can go to a hockey game at the mci center without the stadium blowing up. I want to know that my pets are healthy my brother and my parents my husband are healthy and that everyone i've ever cared about is healthy and will live forever. And. And. I want my church community. Stay exactly as it is exactly the way i like it forever and ever and ever. Yes the world changes around us. There are never any guarantees regarding what tomorrow will look like. Get me humans resist change every step of the way. We want everything in our lives to stay comfortable safe. Familiar. Heck who wouldn't want that a world that is comfortable safe and familiar that sounds great to me. But we know the world doesn't work that way. So we have two contradictory human realities. The first is that we want nothing to change. We want eternal comfort security and safety. And the other is that nothing in the world is permanent. Anything could change at any given moment. It's almost as if to strong currents meet in the ocean one absolutely determined to go east the other absolutely determined to go west. And the result is a whirlpool that threatens to drag us under. That threatens to drown us. This is frequently the case with change. When we are determined to resist we wind up responding to circumstances from a place of fear. The 13-year old boy who loved watching the male olympians. At the age of 20 almost took his own life. Because he could not bear the thought of being gay. I had grown up in a reality that assumed i was headrosexual. I had no conception of what a world in which i was openly gay might look like and that seem like too big of a change. An overwhelming change and how i identified myself to the rest of the world. Would i lose all my friends with my parents stop talking to me would i be discriminated against. These questions terrified me. Yet the reality i was clinging to was also untenable. My resistance to change drag me into the whirlpool. Into a descending spiral of depression. In order to survive i eventually did change in the ways that i needed to. Almost eight years later i was living the life of a successful diplomat. It was deeply unhappy with my work. I actually hated living overseas. I hated being a bureaucrat. And i hated serving under homophobic federal personnel policies this may sound familiar to some of you. Get the notion of changing professions with something i resisted for years. I was burning it burning a good salary with great benefits. And i had the perk of near guaranteed job security. How could i leave all that. To pursue a future that i couldn't even envision. Here to my resistance to change eventually proved to be something that was keeping me from being the fullest. Happiest. Human being i could be. We resist acknowledging internal movement towards change like those that i just described. But frequently changes also imposed on us externally. A beloved friend grows apart from us. We lose our job due to downsizing. Marriages fail. Cancer aids or any number of other illnesses strike. Fear drives us to hold on to our vision of the present reality even if it's no longer true. For as long as we can. In denial we act as if nothing has changed or is changing. As it becomes clear that the changes aren't going away. We may respond with anger or aggression. We blame others for being responsible for the changes we don't like. We blame a friend we blame our spouse we blame the system we blame those in positions of authority. Finally sadness might strike as we begin to realize. That the reality that we were really so fond of. That became to love. Is in the process of evolving or outright disappearing. Through that sadness we may eventually come to an acceptance of things. As they are. At that point we stopped resisting the way that's been pushing against us. We're now literally going with the flow. I don't think it's coincidental that the reactions to change that i've just described mirror the famous almost tried. Stages of grief. When confronted with a catastrophic loss like the death of a loved one. It's common that those who survive the loss go through distinct phases. Denial. Anger. Sorrow. And then perhaps eventually acceptance. It is not so surprising that the stages of grief seem to mirror the process we go through when confronted with change after all we only grieve that which we love. And we frequently only resist change because we love the status quo. So perhaps the first thing we need to understand about change. Is that we frequently need to breathe in order to work through it. We need to be gentle with ourselves. And give ourselves the time and space. To grieve the losses that change brings. Yet while we may grieve i think we can also take heart in the firmness in the solidness of that which doesn't change. Years ago as i struggled with my decision to leave the diplomatic service. A trusted spiritual friend and mentor. What was the question to me. Gas. Who are you. I responded a diplomat. He said no i'm not asking you what your profession is. Who are you. I said. I'm an american. He said that's an accident of birth. Who are you. I started to get flustered. I responded this time by saying. How many. He responded. That's your name. A name someone gave you when you were born. Who are you what makes you you. As i realized that i was genuinely stumped i felt embarrassed and deeply sad. I understood his question. But i didn't know how to answer it. And i so lost my sense of self that i couldn't even describe who i am as a person. Who i am underneath all the societal labels. I actually started to cry right then in there. Partly out of frustration partly out of sadness. Aunt. Love my cat. I'm someone who really loves animals. And i knew that to be true fundamentally true about me. The point he was trying to make the point that he in fact very effectively made. Was that while i was putting all this energy into holding on to a career that was making you unhappy the career wasn't me. The career was a profession and there was a me a heart and soul that existed beyond the labels and titles that society gave me. That tentative start. Remembering that i really love animals. Marked the beginning of months of self-examination. I wanted then to reclaim and honor who i really was underneath all the fancy job descriptions i had come to enjoy. The transcendentalist ralph waldo emerson would say that there's a bit of the eternal in all of us. Emerson believed there was a part of our souls. The part where beauty and truth resides. That stays firm and unchanging. This is the part of our soul that is dedicated to higher purposes and principles. This is the part of our soul that understands. The unyielding power of love. I believe as emerson did. That there is a part of the center light this inner truth in all of us. While our understanding of ourselves while our relationship to the world around us is constantly evolving and in motion. We can draw strength on that solid core. To hold us firm. It is like the deeply rooted oak tree. That survived storms and even floods. We must sometimes grieve the changes that shake up our worlds. But maybe we can also find comfort and solace in that firm loving and beautiful part of ourselves that is eternal. Omits the wind. It is possible to hold firm. Change affects us as individuals but also as a community. My experience has been that communities frequently react to change in the same way that individuals do. In any given community facing transition there are questions and their candy fear. There are those wanting to hold onto a reality whose time has perhaps come and gone there are those in denial. There are those who may be angry. There are inevitably those who are saddened by change but are trying to make peace with it. And invariably they will also be those so new to the community that they may not even recognize that it is in transition. Such was my experience in 1998 when chris and i attended all souls. For the first time as visitors. This community was transitioning out of a ministry that had just ended. Chris and i had no experience of that earlier ministry. And therefore we couldn't really relate to the changes that others were struggling with. There were church members who were sad. Some who were angry and a lot of folks who are really just trying to move on and adjust to the new reality. As chris and i got to know this congregation more deeply. We could see its heart and soul. We could see that this community was one passionately committed to loving and caring for its members one firmly committed to diversity in all its forms and one rooted in a long history of justice seeking and justice making. On the surface the community was going through transition. Many were in different stages of grieving. Get the heart and soul that was true and firm shone brightly. It is that soul the soul of all souls. That nurtured a future unitarian universalist minister. And a current congregational president. But i learned back in 1998 might might have relevance for today. Though i'm a member of our church my seminary studies have required me to spend the majority of my time in boston over the past. Few years. As i've sporadically returned home it has been a joy to watch this church more than double and its size and programming. I have no doubt that this community will continue to grow and flourish. I'm convinced that the best is yet to come. Get with that pride and joy have come questions there are so many new people here so many new faces and names i don't know. Do i still have a place here. Or has my church outgrown me. If i wondered such questions as someone fully committed to this church i can only guess at the possible anxiety that other longtime members might feel. And then of course there will be newer church members who might not even be able to tell that some of us long time folks. You're anxious. Occasionally. Our church continues to evolve and transform and i like all of us here face that reality. I miss the smaller intimate church that we were but that longing is nothing in comparison to the joy the excitement and a possibility of what we are becoming. I think what's let me get through the sometimes anxious questions i've wondered is a recognition that i know the soul of this congregation. It is a soul that i have witnessed and experienced 25 different ministers. I know that what holds us together is strong and unyielding. I recognize the passion of this community soul in all the faces and all the names that i don't get even know. I also know that there is enough love in this community to envelop all who come here. We all resist change we all grieve change. But there is nothing in life that stays static. Are him spirit of life reminds us that roots hold us close and wings set us free. So it is with us as individuals so it is with us as community. Vibrant living tendrils those eternal truths that comprise us and guide us anchor us firmly. Yet also give us the freedom to change and grow. Let us call on the power and confidence of those roots that's soul essence. As we understand and move through the changes that affect each of us. And our community everyday. We are at church of justice seekers and justice makers. We are at church of diverse individuals. We are a church that finds the love to care for all who seek community here. Rather than ending by saying may it be so i'll end instead by saying it is so and it will continue to be so. I'm in.

all-souls_org

06.04.30ClaimingAllegiances.mp3

I hope that. Preaching a sermon as a little bit like what they say about riding a bike. Cuz i found myself feeling a little extra nervous this week like maybe i'd forgotten everything over the past four weeks about what it means to be a minister or what it means to preach a sermon i'm hoping that's not true i'm hoping that's just my own fears. But this is a sermon that's entitled claiming our legion sue's and it begins with a reading. That's adapted from an excerpt. That was in a magazine recently the new york times magazine a couple months ago. Had a piece from a book new book entitled covering. The hidden assault on our civil rights. Which is written by yale law professor kenji yoshino. And in his book. He contends that we need an increasingly nuanced way. To ensure the freedom of all people. And he he says we actually need more than just law in fact he thinks that primarily if we really are going to ensure that everybody is free. Going to have to happen outside of the legal realm. But in the passage that i share with you he begins bye talking about what drew him into studying the ways we try to. Hide our differences to fit in. Mn defines covering. The term that he uses. Which is at the center of his argument. For a new way of looking at law. And life. When i began teaching at yale law school. A friend spoke to me frankly. You'll have a better chance at 10 year he said. If you are a homosexual professional then if you were a professional homosexual. I took my colleagues words as generic council to leave my personal life at home. I could see that research related to one's identity. Referred to in the academy as me search. Could raise legitimate questions about scholarly objectivity. I also saw others playing down there outsider identities to blend into the mainstream. Female colleagues confided that they would avoid references to children at work. Lest they be seen as mother's first and scholars second. Conservative students ask for advice about how open. They could be about their politics. Without suffering repercussions at some imagined future confirmation hearing. A religious student said he feared coming out as a believer. As he thought his intellect would be placed on a 25% discount. Many of us it seemed. Had to work our identities as well as our jobs. Me search being what it is. I soon turned my scholarly attention to the pressure to conform. I didn't have a word yet for this demand to tone down my difference. And then i found my word. I found my word in the sociologist erving goffman book. Stigma. Notes on the management of a spoiled identity. Written in 1963. In the book kaufman discusses passing. And he observes that quote. Persons who are ready to admit the possession of a stigma. Main on the last make a great effort to keep the stigma. From looming large. And quote. He calls this behavior. Covering. He distinguishes. Passing from covering by noting that passing. Pertains to the visibility of a characteristic. While covering. Pertains to its obtrusiveness. I'm going to say that sentence once more. He distinguishes passing from covering by noting that passing pertains to the visibility of a characteristic. While covering. Pertains to its obtrusiveness. In the end yoshino suggests that all of this matters. Because our sense of rights is rooted in our sense of self. He concludes this way. All of this just brings home to me. That the only right i have wanted with any consistency is the freedom to be who i am. It is now time for us as a nation to shift the emphasis away from equality. And poured liberty in our debates about identity politics politics. Only through such freedom. Can we live our lives as works-in-progress. Which is to say. As the complex. Change ball. And contradictory creatures. That we are. Claiming our allegiances. Along with many of you who were born and raised in this country. I was taught in elementary school to pledge allegiance. To the american flag. I remember vividly those. Days when in homeroom we would all stand. Cover our hearts. And pledge allegiance. 2b flag. I wasn't quite sure at that time what i was doing really. But i have now over recent months thought a lot more about pledging allegiance. To a flag or to anything else. And as rhetoric about what it does and does not mean to be an american and who gets to stay has intensified. I have thought a lot about the myriad ways each of us is allied. About the things we are asked to pledge commitment to. Over our lifetime. Weather explicitly. Or implicitly. Who are your people. With whom do you stand. And how often have you been told that you have to choose sides. Most interesting and confounding to me as i've begun thinking about this. Have been issues and questions around how you locate yourself. When who you are cannot be neatly placed in one camp or another. Which camp are you with or in when you are for example. Both jewish and gay. Or black and female or male and muslim. What happens when the camps collide. Or are seen as opposed to one another. Cow. How can you possibly act authentically. When different parts of you might be called upon. More in various and different situations. The more i thought about this especially that. Tug-of-war that happens when any of us feel like we are actually part of more than one team on more than one side when we are multifaceted and confusing and complex. I've realized that the challenge of our current cultural climate is that we are pushed and pressured. To be either quiet. Silence by the majority worldview those who say there's only one way to be and it's this way cuz it's right. And anything else is wrong. Or we're pushed. To shape and mold ourselves. To fit in. To go along to get along. 2in yoshino and gosman's language to cover. In fact yoshina would argue that we have stages. By which we are pushed and pressured first were pushed to convert. Firsters conversion first you've got to become you actually have to become. Subsumed by the majority culture and change completely who you are. Then you have to pass if that won't work you have to pass and pretend you're something you're not. And if that won't work then it your last resort is to simply cover. To try to make the differences that make you who you are. Seemed not very significant or important. That's pretty hard to me. And of course the trouble is. Neither of these options works very well. Either way you are not able to be your whole self. Either way you feel repressed. Or as though you are only being some small fragment. Of your asses. Gosman said the toning down comes in for major axis of our lives. You tone down in appearance. You turn tone down in your affiliation. You tone down in your activism. And you tone down in your association. You can call them the forays if you will appearance affiliation. Activism and association. There are many ways to run. From who you are. And the problem is of course that we are either allowing this monolithic view to win out. Allowing the idea that all women are this way or all folks who are poor are this way to win out. Or we are trying desperately. To conform to a mainstream that in truth. Is always shifting. And may not even really be a very true thing at all anyway. What is normal what is mainstream. The goal it seems to me. Should be not to find this least. Common denominator. By making our differences less visible or significant. Our hope should be to create rather a place. A space in this world. In which each person can flourish. And bloom. In an expressive wholeness. So why do i bring this all up in the context. Of all souls church. I bring this up in part because there is a course a spiritual component but i also bring it up because i've had many conversations with many of you. In a few years that i've been here. About how we do this work of being a diverse community. About how we do. Anti-racism and multiculturalism about how we truly and genuinely are. In ways that would be welcoming to all souls. That would allow us to be as diverse as our aspirations call us to be. And it seems to me that there are many things we can learn from. In this whole idea of covering. And passing. We have things that we can do in a community such as this that we don't always get to try in this world. We have the opportunity to welcome new perspectives and multiple opinions. Perhaps even most importantly we can push ourselves not to jump to conclusions or sumption is about those around us. We can decide not to lump someone into a category. Or assume that based on one aspect of who they are we know everything there is to know. We can't for example assume that. All newer members feel one way or all people in the congregation of a certain age or race or gender share the same perspective or experiences. We have to be opening open to hearing. The whole. Truth. It seems to me that so many of the in sensitivities. So many of the ways that we hurt one another. Come from those incorrect assumptions and conjectures. We jump to thinking i know how this person feels. Or where they are from. Where what is important to them. Without first asking. Without first doing the hard work of really listening. And so i suppose i'm saying that my prayer for our congregation. Is that we will strive to make all souls a place in which we take the time. Hear others out. And to listen closely for the fullness. Who is doing the speaking. Friends i become more and more convinced of late. That we are asked to draw a legion seuss. On so many levels. There's the personal level. We are allied with our family and our friends in a way that we're not allied with strangers on the street. There's the political level. Will reclaim our values and our beliefs in the world. And there's the global level of claiming our own. Nationality or country or ethnicity. We each draw circles of connection around us. We each draw or ties of allegiance are bonds closely. And in doing so sometimes we draw some people in and we leave others out. It's natural to do this but. I think it's important that we. Keep on top of who we are pushing aside and who we are keeping in. The challenge is to have our allegiances without prizing our own perspective over others. To live authentically and honestly and to do so in such a way that open space for others to do the same. For there is still work to be done. But in that work. We cannot lose sight of individual lives and experiences. All of us do indeed need to be seen as equal. Under the law. But as yoshino argues we need more than that. We need to see one another as precious individual sharing this planet. It is critical that each of us sees ourselves. In both and kinds of ways. As part of a group and a national with our national or ethnic identity and also. Rooted in life callings and a sense of vocation. I spoke. A month ago about each of us having a ministry. And that's the theological piece of this. The both and is that yes you have your family have your national origin and. You have your unis. You have your soul you have your essential self. Which was given to you by the spirit of life by god. And that is the trick that all of us try to balance how do we bring our soul in alignment. With who we are in the world. How do we bring together who we are and how we are. For each of us. Has a vocation. What the psychology theorist. Tw winnicott called a true self. Winnicott define the true self as that which quote. Gives an individual the feeling of being real. More than existing. It is finding a way to exist. As oneself. And quote. We each have a way of being in the world. Which is ours alone. And it is our job to be our fully human selves. And to do our part to create a world in which everyone can do the same thing. It is. Our life's work. Perhaps the most important task and job we have. We have this vocation. This calling. A vocation is defined as an inclination. As if in response to a summons. To undertake a certain kind of way of work or being. And so friends. That is my prayer. That we may feel summoned indeed. Summoned to be our best selves. Summoned to be changed and transformed by those around us. Summoned to act in ways that are consonant with something greater. Then the fads or trends or whims of the day. Summoned. To be that true self. That is in alignment with the spirit of all life. Witch nose. That the souls around us are are as. Precious as our own. May we each find the wisdom and the strength. To live our truest selves. And maybe find the compassion. And the openness. To encourage others to do the same.

all-souls_org

05.09.11BringManyNames.mp3

all-souls_org

04.11.07Resilience.mp3

It doesn't feel like every other sunday for some reason but it is very good to be with you is very good to be with all of you the readings this morning are too the first is a poem by stephen dunn entitled simply welcome if you believe if you believe you have this collection of ungiven gifts. As i do. Right here behind the silence and the averted eyes. If you believe an afternoon can collapse into strange privacies. How in your backyard for example. The shyness of flowers can be suddenly overwhelming and in the distance. The clear goddamn of thunder personal. Like a voice. If you believe there is no correct response to death as i do. But even in grief where i have sat making plans there are small corners of joy. If you are body sometimes is a light switch in a house of insomniac. If you can feel yourself straining to be yourself every waking. Minute. If. As i am you are almost smiling the second reading is from reverend howard thurman a gentleman who is critical in the formation of rev dr martin luther king jr howard thurman's commencement address which he delivered it and garrett biblical institute in july of 1943 you might imagine what was going on in the world in 1943. Wasn't address that he entitled religion in a time of crisis. And i have slightly adapted it so that it has inclusive language. Curious indeed is the fact that at a time of crisis people must be constantly reminded that the crisis does not mark the end of all things. It is the nature of crisis so to dominate the horizon of our thoughts that everything that is not directly related to the crisis situation seems irrelevant and without significance. At such times human beings seem to accept the contradictions of experience as being in themselves. Ultimate. The crisis throws everything out of proportion out of balance and the balance seems almost superficially to be on the side of negation. There continues ever a margin on the side of the good. This affirmation becomes the ground of optimism and inspiration in the bitterest crises when times are out of joint. If the ultimate destiny of human beings is good. Then we must find in the present. A way of life that is worth living. We must. May find refuge. And refreshments. Friends i have marveled. Over and over again in my life that how it is that we human beings find a way through trying times. How is it that we cope. That we keep going in the midst of pain and loss. How and why are we able still to find solace and comfort. Define love & hope. If you think about it for just a moment with me we human beings have an amazing regenerative power and ability to seek sources of renewal when we weren't sure that we could. When we weren't sure that we had it in us a. And yet is howard thurman points out we need to be reminded of this capacity every once in awhile. For when despair arrives we panic and we think that this visit will always be that this is all there will ever be. And we wonder if we will make it through. Some of you may remember that a while back i preached about happiness and ironically i found myself returning to the sermon i did hear months ago pursuing happiness because i thought of the study that i told you about then to refresh your memory and to let those of you who missed it in on the premise of this work that i'm referring to let me summarize it again. Affective forecasting and here's what they've come to believe. And i quote the problem that we human beings have they have come to discover is that we falter when it comes to imagining how we will feel about something in the future we overestimate the intensity and the duration of our emotional reactions. Our research simply says that whether it's something significant or something small both of them matter less than you think they will. Things that happened to you as much as you think they make a difference to your happiness. You are wrong. Buy a certain amount none of them make the difference you think and that's true of both positive and negative events and quote. Simply put we don't trust our own resilience we are convinced that when a particularly strong storm enters our lives we will be forever knocked off our moorings we will be unable to function unable to move ahead and move on with life. Their study would suggest. That we tend to think the worst or the best of things but rarely do we find the middle road. And yet i think my friends that we can all point to times in our lives that prove that this is not true. We all have redemption stories. What is that colonel that core that you hold onto no matter what and come what may. What is it that holds onto you. How is it that you keep going. Keep moving forward keep believing. Keep trusting. In spite of. Or perhaps sometimes because of it all. There is some in a resolve. Some soulfulness. That we can call on. The guide us. At moments when doubt and despair seemed easier to embrace than hopefulness i frequently find myself thinking of friends who have astounded me by their strength. I want to tell you the story of just one of them this morning my friend chris bishop chris and i became friends in college in fact the more i think of him the more i am reminded of conversations that he and i had of intense connection. And one of the things that chris and i realize that we had in common was a deep abiding connection to our mothers are single mothers we both grew up and homes just with our mothers chris and i and so it was deeply saddening to me when i picked up the phone but year or two after graduating. Define chris on the other end telling me that his mother was dying of cancer. He had little-to-no connection with anyone else in her family. They didn't see much to care for him or be connected to him. And of course talking with him made me turn into my own fears about my own mother and a day that would come when i would need to miss her as well. There were many silences in that conversation across hundreds of miles. I wasn't sure what to say. I wasn't sure how he must be feeling and yet there was something that i identified with in the deep sadness in his voice. And then he called me weeks later to tell me that indeed his mother had passed away. That he was an orphan in the deepest sense of that word. Feeling adrift and i lost. Not quite sure how he would put one foot in front of the other and continue on with his life. An orphan at the age of 28 or 29. How has he done it my friend chris now married expecting a second child organizing people bounding about with more energy than i can even fathom in durham north carolina i can't keep up with chris and then the last hold on to the hopefulness that he still has about life and about love and how abundant they remain. But how much his mother would be proud of what he is doing with his life. I wonder not only at how chris has managed to do it but how my friends we all do. I think there are few things i have thought of this week about this marvelous human capacity for resilience. One is our ability to take the long view all of your life all of your identity is not wrapped up in anyone single aspect. Of you are being not in any one event any one moment. So no matter how grave our mistakes may seem no matter how much the storms about us may seem to rage with ever-growing intensity. There is a wholeness. That we need to keep in mind. A truth to the fact that our lives are much greater. Then anyone event. Can anyone moment. And perhaps the thing about resilience that has made it possible for me to smile more this week than cry. Is the fact that i was reminded once again. But the list of things which abide in our lives. The list of things which are eternal. Islam whatever the current tempest there will always be those wellsprings of spirit that remain. I was walking around wednesday feeling a bit sorry for myself. Worried that i would be sad for a long time when i was reminded. That beauty would contend continue when i was reminded that jazz still existed in the world that artwork was still there for me to gaze upon that poetry still existed. But they were connections which held me just as strongly wednesday morning as they had monday night. And i was especially reminded of all of that yesterday at the wedding. It was like a wedding i have never been a part of before. And i will always be indebted to janiece and gordon for inviting me to be a part of it. Yesterday evening i stood next to them at the back of this very sanctuary as the two of them having just been joined in marriage stood and song a duet about how love changes everything. And this week especially. I need to know and to remember that love still lives friends of their song about peace peace and love still abide no matter what. There are those eternal things. There is beauty that continues on don't let this week shake those things from your minds i don't let your heart forget. Those things which always call to it again. For my friends all is never lost. Sometimes some of it is but all is never lost there is something in us that longs to live. Our souls seek the sun and crave connection. And though at times our vision of life with a capital l is obscured there is a reminder like a springtime tulip i want saw growing in chicago after i was freezing through february in the midwest there is a reminder. Like the fall leaves. Like the crisp air. Like the blueness of sky that awakens once again our hope we go on my friend because something beckons us forward we become aware once again that there is living still to do. That there is a unique gift that we have to bring. But we have to bring and which this world so desperately needs. Share that gift with fullness. So for those u of u who grieve still this day may you grieve but not despair. May we all know that grace remains. And may we continue to be stewards of love. Which can indeed change everything. This day. And in the days to come.

all-souls_org

04.10.17PushingTheLimits.mp3

I want to once again extended a thanks and a welcome to lesbian and gay chorus of washington this is the second year in a row we've had you here and it's wonderful to have you here and i was thinking just the other morning i was out walking my dog and my neighborhood and i saw these folks with a homemade t-shirt that said save marriage and appropriately straight friend who's really worried about their marriage that my soul wants me to lead is a question that seems at least as meaningful as the question am i leading the life i want to live given the vagueness of the pronoun the number of things it want at any moment. Fictive or not the sole asked for a few things only it's not just one so life would be clearer if it weren't so silent inaudible even here in the yard an hour past sundown when the pair of cardinals and crowd of starlings have settled down for the night in the poplars have i planted the seed of my talent in fertile soil have i watered and trimmed the sapling do birds nest in my canopy do i throw a shade others might find inviting these are some handyman thor's the soul is free to use if it finds itself unwilling to speak directly for reasons beyond me assuming it's eager to be of service. Now the moon rising above the branches offers itself to my soul as a double it's scarred face and image of the disappointment i'm ready to say i've caused if the soul names the particulars and suggest amendments. So fine are the threads that the moon uses to tug at the ocean that galileo himself can't couldn't imagine them he tried to explain the tides by the earth's momentum as yesterday i tried to explain my early waking 3 hours before dawn by street noise. Now i'm ready to posit a tug or nudge from the soul some insight too important to be put off till morning might have been mine if i'd opened myself to the occasion as now i do here's a chance for the soul to fit its truth to a world of yards moon's poplars and starlings to resist the fear that talks that to talk my language mean to be shoehorned into my perspective till it thinks as i do narrowly. Be brave soul i want to say to encourage it you are student however slow is willing the only student you'll ever have sermon this morning is entitled pushing the limits. We live in a culture my friends that rewards and upholds as one of life's purpose really striving each and everyone of us is supposed to want to strive we're supposed to constantly go forward in an endless search for something we are encouraged to succeed at all costs we are taught that the best we can do is to live in such a way that we will be able to point to a long line of accomplishments a record of achievement and as i watch the olympics this summer i wondered about the value that we place on drive and ambition in our culture i began to see the streaming of these athletes these elite athletes a sort of metaphor for how all of us stretch for the finish line or reach for the wall by trying to have a wonderful resume or curriculum vitae or something that we can point to that says that we all this work was worth it. But i worry about all of this striving all of this pushing ourselves constantly i worry that we have lost a sense of balance that there is an important line of fine and will fine line and distinction between pushing yourself in a positive way you know pushing yourself to try something new that you've never tried before pushing yourself to get to know someone who is very unlike you pushing yourself to live up to your own internal barometer of what you are capable of for who you are at your best there's a fine line between that kind of pushing and the kind of pushing yourself that has to do with expecting perfection recording burnout to work a 70-hour work week and it seems to me in a little over a year that i've lived in washington dc and professional qualities so i wonder why is it that the second question anyone asks you is so what are you do for a living aren't we just getting ourselves in a little deeper on that is what we want to know about one another rather than what kind of person are you what makes your heart beat fast we don't ask how can we be more gentle more kind more tender with our bodies and our spirits the soul that the poet spoke of in the poem. Because it seems to me that the great and frequently sad irony of this loss of balance is that when we push ourselves to our absolute limits of sanity and functionality we can't actually be that person that we want to be we can't actually connect with people in a way that we would like to connect with them we actually move ourselves in the opposite direction in all of our striving we damage and hurt our chances of coming even close to being the person we want to be pushing ourselves too hard can lead to physical illness emotional exhaustion and an inability to reach out and connect when we need to most the harder you push shhhh. The more you lose sight of yourself the more you forget who you are have you ever noticed that in the midst of the frantic pace of your life someone might come over to you and ask how are you. Eating a balanced bar i was walking quickly and a gentleman who waits by the paint shop where i live always waiting for another job he and i've struck up conversations as i walked by now all the time and he said to me in a rush you're always in a rush i said you're right i need to slow down. How are you someone asks and they really want to know they don't want you to just say fine. And you don't have the answer. What is all of this mean i think it means my friends that we need a new definition of the good life we need a new definition of success for what do we have to show for the rat race that we have been caught in aren't we doing life itself a disservice when we have no time to notice beauty what good is all the doing the human doing rather than human being of our lives if it isn't rooted in something deeper in a core of relationships. If we aren't even half of the time fully in each and every experience of our lives. Don't things continue to ring hollow. Aren't we only a figment of our best selves. So i want to invite you for a moment to think about your life. To think about who you are to think of the poet's question are you leading the life your soul wants to lead what are the moments in your life that stand out as the most soulful. What do those moments have in common. Were you most yourself free of worry sharing the best you have to offer with an intense generosity of spirit. My friends. My prayer is that we will all slow down enough to push not the limits of our energy and ambition but the limits of our compassion and our love. May we embrace life not push against it and may we know that we move away from bickering and pettiness when we slow down long enough to look into our souls. A live from our hearts. May we do so more and more each day. So that when we look at our days we will be pleased with a record not of accomplishments and professional achievements but a long line of loving connections compassionate action and a deep sense of abiding love. So mad b. And ahmed.

all-souls_org

07.09.23TheBookOfLife.mp3

This is one of my favorite times of year not only because i enjoy the growing crispness of the fall air or at least there was some krishna so few days ago but because i have great appreciation for the spiritual significance of this time of year all souls day is rapidly approaching and on our way to honoring those who have died and the role that they played in shaping and giving us life we pause in this holy season for judaism and for islam this season in judaism of atonement and repentance of reverence and humility is so rich at this time of year the past the past several falls when we come to the service in our lives rosh hashanah and yom kippur bring with them the wisdom of how important it is to pause and with intention look deeply at our lives to take stock of how much we are living with awareness or not and i have since first learning of this practice in judaism been deeply appreciative of it for what a core and challenging human tackett is to give thanks for the blessings that we have received and to seek forgiveness from those we have wronged and from ourselves for all of the times that we have fallen short of our own standards judaism reminds us at this time of year that if we don't say we are sorry and offer ourselves some measure of understanding and compassion we too often find that we are stuck in regret if only i had if i could somehow take it back and if we're not so in this season of self-assessment i asked you to take a moment this morning to look inward have you friends let go of all you need to let go of have you moved on or forward from those personal hurdles that have been holding you back have you adequately and humbly and without defensive this asked those you have hurt or disregarded or somehow wrong for forgiveness. This year rabbi lynn good wants to look a little bit differently at the high holy days to look a little more closely at one of the other dimensions that we don't lift up as much when we focus on the forgiveness part of the high holy days i want to reflect some on the powerful image of this time of year in judaism of the book of life of there being a book of life into which god and scribes our names for the coming year you see it is the conviction of judaism for those of you not as familiar with the faith tradition that on rosh hashanah which was september 12th this year god inscribed the names of those who will be held in life for the coming year with some sort of notation about what kind of life each and every human being will enjoy or shall enjoy in the months ahead and it is also believed in judaism that the 10 days that follow the days of all each of us an opportunity to read how god might view our living for the year to come after those 10 days and commit ourselves to a path of integrity and of honesty of heart that 10-day window judaism seems to say to us is a thin place if you will a time of year when we can be most in touch with our spiritual selves and therefore ultimately most in touch with god i have always liked this image this compelling image of the book of life and an image of god inscribing each of our names one almost imagine the little notation next to each of our names for what sort of year we might have like god might have little signs and symbols that say this year to comes going to be a challenging one or this one's going to be a good year and i was thinking again about that image of the book of life and then i recently saw a church sign. At a wedding last weekend in a homily to the couple that i was marrying i spoke of how they reminded me of how important it is to live like we mean it to live like we believe in who we are to live as if we believe in what we are making of our lives and our days to know again in our living that our lives are not for ourselves alone but are in some very real sense always lived in service lived in service sometimes to a cause sometimes to a belief or a conviction sometimes to an aspiration or dream sometimes toward the cause of passion toward others. And i think this time of year that having that belief that belief that our lives matter that how we live our lives matters is so very important. I've said to you before that the word believe the book the word believe itself means literally to give one's heart to to give one's heart to and this time of year reminds me that sometimes we spent too much of our days and covering over our heart being je t'adore hard-hearted being hard-to-reach or inaccessible and the high holy days remind us. That it is an open and receptive stance there's a reason that prayerful stances the world over world religions over often have us with palms outstretched and open to receive to receive the gift of life again to be reminded wants more of what we are meant to make of our lives to be reminded that our purpose is greater than simply getting through another day we need to believe to give our hearts to what matters. I figure out for ourselves what living ethically means. For i think there is a connection between our open heartedness our ability to see clearly god's wish for us and how god sees us perhaps how you see yourself and how god sees you at those best in moments in your life are not that different and so i asked you to more spiritual questions this morning are you living a life that you cannot only live with but one that you're actually proud of do you think that when seen through the eyes of the holy one the sum of your days the sum of the days of your life speak of what is mobile important to you how you answer those questions so that your life might feel in alignment with what is most precious to you i close with a poem by caribbean poet derek walcott nobel prize winner in literature in 1992 sweet short poem entitled love after love are in this high holy days. He will smile at the others welcome and say sit here beat you will love again the stranger who was yourself give wine give bread give back your heart to itself to the stranger who has loved you all of your life whom you ignored for another who knows you by heart take down the love letters from the bookshelf the photograph the desperate notes peel your image from the mirror sit feast on your life friends that is my prayer for us that we may see ourselves in the mirror perhaps even some days in god mirror and be happy with what we see that we might indeed find in our lives a banquet worth feasting on may we indeed relish our living and do so by seeing ourselves clearly and may the image in the mirror and met the book of life hold us for another year and may that year be filled with days of integrity humility and gratitude so maybe and on then.

all-souls_org

05.06.19MovingToForgiveness.mp3

The reading this morning is from the washington post on thursday june 16th. And the story was about nationals baseball team manager frank robinson who accused in anaheim angels picture of her on his glove so he would illegally gain a better grip on the ball. No robinson was correct and the picture was a ejected from the game. A fierce argument ensued however with angels manager mike scioscia. In retaliation co-ceo threatened to have every nats pitcher undressed when they came into the game search for any foreign subject substance on the glove or other way of cheating. Now robinson reacted to the threat by lunging forward to intimidate co co. Both benches then cleared most of the players jumped up onto the field and referees had to separate the arguing teams. And the post said this. In the hours after the incident robinson said he had quote last a lot of respect for my tonight as a person and as a manager quotes. And indicated that he wouldn't accept any sort of apology. He didn't waver from that stamps on wednesday. As far as forgiveness and stuff i don't feel like it right now robinson said i'm not that kind of person you step on my toe it hurts for a while and i'm not going to forgive you for stepping on my toe until maybe it stops hurting then i might think about it i know how frank robinson feels even if i've never gotten. I also understand his refusal to accept an apology. Because i've been there i can't say that i understand in the slightest why this offense in baseball has him so riled up however i do recognize the intransigence the hardened stance the feeling that you have been wronged and it's not your responsibility to move. Maybe you've been there too. You know who stepped on your toes. And you know who hurt you deeply. It wasn't fair. And you burn with that particular anger that the unfairly wounded possess. Maybe they're people in situations that send you into that lock down position. Sure of your moral high ground. It is a proud and sometimes comfortable place. Knowing that we are the injured parties. Deserving of sympathy. And an apology. We may also know an uncomfortable truth deep in our hearts. Refusing to move to forgiveness is actually. What keeps the toe throbbing. The resentments smoldering. The anger summary. We say like robinson i'm not going to forgive you for stepping on my toe until maybe it stops hurting. Then i might think about it. But saying that we won't move is the very thing that keeps the pain going. It's not going to stop. Until we let go. A reading in courage to change which is a resource book for the 12-step program al-anon. Put it this way. The most loving form of attachment i have found is forgiveness. Instead of thinking of it as an eraser to wipe another slate clean. Or a gavel that i pound to pronounce someone not guilty. I think of forgiveness as scissors. I used it to cut the strings of resentment. The resentment that binds me to a problem or a past hurt. By releasing resentment. I set myself free. In order to move to forgiveness we have to push through some mud. We are forced to look at disappointment. At grieve. At pain. Our very worst was. And this takes admitting that we are wounded and being willing to feel it completely as we clear the path. It's easier to hang on to the wounded toe. And refused to budge. We choose the pain of the immediate present and hang on more fearful of the pain of the accumulated past. The tale we tell is about how we were hurt. And how we can't possibly budge because of the other persons offense. That's our story. And we stick to it. In the new testament gospel of matthew the disciple peter asked the question of jesus. If my brother or sister sends against me how often should i forgive. As many as seven times. Let's seems like an open-minded offer from peter and he might have expected that his rabbi affirmed his generosity. But instead jesus says something that is typical of his tendency to turn expectations on their head. Not seven times but i tell you seventy times seven. 70 * 7 the seems like an inordinate amount of patience and tolerance for the mistakes of others. I wonder if jesus is on to the spiritual practice the forgiveness. We are invited to use those scissors. The cut the strings of resentment they keep us tied to hurt. Connected to the throbbing toe. Not just a few times. But seventy times seven. Bc in the end it's not for the other person. Express. Last month i heard a remarkable talk that got me thinking deeply about forgiveness. An israeli woman and a palestinian woman were on a us speaking tour with fellowship of reconciliation and they came here to the eating room. They represented the parents circle which is an organization of bereaved families that share rage and loss with each other in order to heal and work for peace. Israeli woman lost a young son. Serving his required army term. He was shot to death by a palestinian sniper who killed nine soldiers and civilians at random. This morning mother sent a letter to the parents of the now jailed sniper. Hand-delivered by her palestinian friend who was with her on the tour. Asking for. An offering forgiveness. Speaking to begin a dialogue. She wrote that the only way through her grief. And passed the seemingly endless cycle of violence and israel-palestine. Whisper those who have lost the most to insist the reconciliation. Is possible. Fellowship of reconciliation publication called living another possibility chronicles the us interfaith delegations that are sent to experience and bear witness. The both sides of the conflict. And then a member of the parents circle writes this about her life. It is not our destiny. We can change it. Our blood is the same blood. Our pain is the same pain. Our tears are the same tears. Moving to forgiveness is all about changing our own destiny. Creating our own future. It is the door opening. The gate coming down. The fortress unlocking. It is an agreement to say yes instead of no. A decision to bind the wounds and yearn for healing. Moving to forgiveness is a way to participate in the future and expect change. It opens up a whole realm of choices that were foreclosed in the insistence that the other person move. Forgiveness is a decision to move yourself. To be expected. Prayerful. Hopeful. Letting go of what binds us we step out into living another possibility. I was thinking about forgiveness last week when i read a fascinating tale of persistence. And i saw in it a symbol of the dormant seeds for change that we each hold within. The sunday new york times chronicled a date palm seed taken from an excavation at masada in israel. In the year 73 ce in this fortress that is high up on a cliff in a starkly beautiful desert 960 jewish revolutionaries died by suicide rather than submit to roman assault and capture. I'm going archaeological study has yielded a number of items from their life there including three date palms these they were recently turned over to to enterprising scientist who wanted to see if they can make them grow the date palm is the original plants and judea. Now and israel-palestine were imported from california years to bear days but live for 200 always providing the fruit that made the honey that's referred to in the land of milk and honey they are praised in the hebrew scripture and the koran as a symbol of goodness associated with the righteous and the ability to bring forth fruit in old age. It seems that one of these fees was nicknamed methuselah after the one in the hebrew scriptures who live for hundreds of years. It's about 2000 years old. And has now sprouted into a foot tall plant. This didn't happen without effort the agricultural specialist work to dry them out of what she called deep dormancy. By soaking the seeds in hot water to soften the skin. Then in a hormone rich acid bath then in the special fertilizer with enzymes made of seaweed. She planted the seeds in good soil and a new pot. And then she waited. The first two leaves that came up for kind of pale and odd then make it. But the third was a winner a normal daily physics eded and getting out of a very ancient seed. This ain't we call them probability. Emerging from what was once termed of a caltrain seed which is an actual term in botany is now sprouting into a 12-inch miracle growth. We can do the same. With our ancient seeds of grievance. In spite of our fears. The whole bag of forgiveness is to keep resentment hard and dormant. It is to refuse to soften the skin with water to fertilize with nutrients to irritate regularly. Withholding forgiveness is a decision. Conscious or unconscious. To refuse to sprout. We are the ones who lose the chance to grow. A poem called the healing time by pesha gertler talks about this difficult but rich opportunity to grow. I offer her powerful words and closing. Finally on my way to yes. I bump into all the places where i said no to my life. All the untended wounds. The red and purple scars those hieroglyphs of pain carved into my skin. My bones. Those coded messages that send me down the wrong street again and again. Where i find them. The old wounds. The old mister actions. And i lift them one by one. Close to my heart and i say. Holy. Holy. May we move beyond our old wounds by embracing the movement of forgiveness. Baby grow well. And find abundant ways to live another possibility. Blessed be. And i meant.

all-souls_org

04.10.03Devotion.mp3

Morning reading comes from rainer maria rilke and from his book of hours love poems to god which was written after rilke made a trip to russia and observed spirituality there which moved him and so then he wrote these poems. Between 1899 and 1903 about those experiences really disorder than outpouring of his own spiritual life and since i'm speaking about devotion this morning it makes sense to share someone else's devotion it was also interesting to me when i was reading these words. But oftentimes i get a lot of people who say wow you're too young to be a minister what is this ministry stuff in your thirties and rilke started writing these poems when he was 23 so i actually think i'm a little behind so two of the poems that i share with you this morning are written that he doesn't use to describe his own devotion for longing which is sort of at the heart of devotion and spiritual practice. Broca's words. If only for once it were still. If not quite right and the y this. Could be muted. And the neighbors laughter and the static my senses make. If all of it didn't keep me from coming awake. In one vast thousandfold thought i could sync you up to we're thinking and. I could possess you. Even for the brevity of a smile to offer you. To all that lives. In gladness. The second poem. I'm too alone in the world and yet not alone enough to make each hour holy. I'm too small in the world yet not small enough to be simply in your presents. Like a thing. Just as it is. I want to know my own will and to move with it and i want in the hushed moments. When the nameless draws near to be among the wise ones. Or alone. I want to mirror your immensity i want never to be too weak or too old to bear the heavy lurching image of you i want to unfold. Let no place in me hold itself closed. For where i am closed i am false. I want to stay clear. In your sight. I would describe myself like a landscape i've studied at length. In detail like a word i'm coming to understand like a picture i pour from at mealtime like my mother's face. Like a ship that carried me. When waters raged sermon entitled devotion my sermon begins with my own fear ironically enough for i will confess that i sometimes fear for this unitarian universalist tradition that i love i worried my friends that we squabble too much and that we pick needless arguments with one another by arguing about the fine points around how we believe rather than the what we believe in when actually at the moon. For i am much less concerned about what language you use to talk about your spiritual convictions. No i'm very much concerned that you have worked to uncover words with which to speak your spiritual truth. And i'm not at all worried that you were beliefs need to match mine. But i am worried that like rilke you are unfolding. I worry that in our efforts to be a thinking person's face we miss out on some of the lifeblood of experiencing spirit experiencing god experiencing the sacred cuz we're too busy thinking about it and arguing about it in the abstract. All of which is precisely why i wanted to speak some this morning about devotion. Because as spiritual cynics we often cast a derisive i tore devotion. We think that those who have it must have blind devotion they must be misled or unthinking. And i think that this need not be true. For i believe that you can be a devoted person of progressive faith. Which brings me to two separate anecdotes about a devotional spiritual life the first is about a retreat i led when i was serving my previous took a hearty batch of 20 folks from that 150-member congregation on a spiritual retreat to the saint benedict center. A benedictine monastery really only about 25 minutes outside of downtown madison so we didn't have to travel far to feel like we were light years away from our regular daily lives. We were welcomed with open arms by this community of very small community only a handful of sisters who lived full-time at the monastery and they had a devotional spiritual practice to which we were allowed to join them in which we were allowed to join for the couple of days that we were there and their practice as those of you who've been the monasteries know is really a ritual that starts in the morning then again worship at noon then again you go to worship in the evening and i found myself falling into this amazing to live fully in then to arrive at noon and worship again to give thanks for what before and what i might still yet do with that day and then again at the end of each day. To say wow what a bun dance i have lived in. And it was interesting not just because i noticed a transformation in myself and because i was inspired by the devotional life and practice of these sisters who had that sort of deep spiritual. Spells souls that were just formed and created in that life that just led them ever deeper but i was also struck by how much i and the members of my congregation struggled with their practice we gathered wants after the morning worship service a member of my congregation was in tears. I couldn't quite understand what it was about the service that these women had let us in that scared her so much why it was that she was so deeply upset and disheartened but i think it had something to do with being a bit afraid of the devotional life of others worried that there was something happening that was a little too mystical perhaps a little too. I don't know drawing other people in in a way that she just felt like we weren't seeing the whole story he was a little worried a little guarded about having that kind of deep spiritual experience. It made me worried for our tradition. That we are so easy and quick to cast a derisive i and not nearly as quick to sit with a devotional practice and then figure out how we might. Make it work for us. I was also reminded of my second anecdote. I'm sitting in a seminar with parker palmer i told many of you who sat with me for my seasons of the soul adult spiritual development course about learning from parker palmer who's a quaker educator and he had this great description about the soul about how we have all of these practices to try to to gain some sense of who we are that is deep and profound but he says that again and again and. You wouldn't go running into the woods screaming and hollering because you know that your soul would just run off scatter in whatever direction it could to get far away from you who makes so much noise and are so busy with your to-do lists and aren't quite sure what it is you're about. He said if you wanted to find your soul. Once you find a nice tree. Sit under. And sit for a while. Then sit for a while longer being quiet. And then maybe. Just maybe. If you were lucky and it was a good day and you had managed to go deep enough within. Out of the corner of your eye you might just catch a little glimpse. Oh that's phantom that is your soul and your spirit that essential you that part of self that you are not self without. Our spirits and our souls my friend are found in devotion. And devotion to stillness. Devotion to constancy. Devotion to a life that puts spirit and soul somewhere close to the center. Her devotion is not an end in itself. But is part of the process of living a religious life it means sticking with it even when it isn't clear that you're making any progress at all it means recognizing that the spiritual life is not always convenient. Or easy or even comfortable. In her book grace a methodist minister mary cartledge hayes talks about how taking piano lessons as an adult taught her something about the gift of devotion. Bi-rite. When i practiced the house was filled with a rare sort of beauty. Not the beauty of perfection of notes played accurately correctly smoothly and in perfect time. There is no perfect time or perfect place or perfect way to live or move or have your being. There is only the possibility of beauty. Here and there and now and then as the ultimate repayment. For devotion. And quote. My friends may we seek that beauty. May we find the courage to remain faithful. The sing songs of devotion to live lives full of spiritual practice. May we not quibble with others over the rightness or the wrongness of what they believe but ask them to share with us. How they struggle to live love how they have been shaped and changed and grown by all their heart has known. May we ever deepen as a community of believers. Maybe so. Alarm at.

all-souls_org

06.08.20QuestionsOfFaith.mp3

So we have a tradition. Every. Year on the sunday that i. Come back from my. Summer study leaving vacation. Instead of a regular sermon we have a question-and-answer format sermon. This has a couple of benefits. The first of which is that an opera offers and opportunities for there to be some dialogue in for me to get a little bit of a sense of. The kinds of questions of faith that are on the minds of people in the congregation which informs not only my answers today but my. Preaching them throughout the year. Keep all those questions. It has the added benefit of meaning. I don't have to write a sermon for my first sunday back. So. Now i've seen the questions that i didn't choose the questions they've been they've been submitted over the last two weeks on cards in the in the pews. And the worship associates have chosen the question. And i just saw them briefly last night but i'm going to be giving spontaneous answers to them today so they're not. Thoroughly they're not researched answers their this is just an impromptu question-and-answer so. Nancy guest in sharm lecrae are going to be asking the questions that you all have submitted and that's that's what we'll be doing today so. The issue of war and peace has been on a lot of people's minds we had quite a number of questions around. They weren't that issue. And i will give you rob. A compound x compound question. Incorporates several together. Please give us your views on the conditions under which war is justified. How does this fit with our faith. Are there good ways and bad ways to conduct a war. Please try to draw some distinctions and relate that these back to you you beliefs. What is the uu position on non-violence and pacifism. Is it similar to the quakers. Given the inherent worth of all humans is it ever justified. To kill each other. And finally but wait there's more does the uu church support the just war hypothesis is any war justifiable based on the usual tradition. What an important question. Let me speak a little bit about the unitarian tradition and its relationship to positions around war and peace there three. Attitude religious attitudes to war and peace one possible religious attitude is that people can be pacifists and opposed war and violence under all circumstances. A second position is. The position of some of the holy warrior. Who believes that his or her cause is righteous and it's there for fighting under god's banner. At the second attitude towards war. That i really decided to zoe's where the third is what nancy alluded to as the just war tradition. Which comes out of the western christian tradition in the notion that. War is evil war is wrong. But there are circumstances under which war is necessary. So it's not like a holy warrior position the war is not righteous. People know we're just war tradition admit that war is a sin and that it's evil. And therefore try to put limits on how wars conducted under what circumstances it is waged. I myself am. Personally. Adhere to that third position of the just war tradition i'm not a pacifist. But i believe that. The. That the. The violence that wore does obviously creates an ethical presumption against it. And that that war is evil and sometimes and evil that is justified to prevent. More evil or are greater evil from taking place. So. And that's where the unitarian tradition has come down most often very there are several notable pacifists in the unitarian tradition but the tradition is a whole has been adjust. War tradition and even frankly a a holy. War tradition. Interesting i've been reading this summer. A book called the secret about the secret six the secret six were. Many six man in new england who funded john brown's raid. On harpers ferry just before the civil war. Many of them were unitarian unitarian unitarian ministers and abolitionists and they believe that the violence that john brown was going to do at harpers ferry was indeed ordained by god and and a and a holy cause. So it it's interesting in the light of contemporary discussions about holy war and you know and terrorists who believe that their violent causes is holy. To remember that. I in our own nation and in our own tradition. There has been that that. So feeling as well. But just war is is where. Icon. Down and. You know i think that. Just a comment on the current war a little bit that you know the reason that i oppose the war in iraq from the very beginning with that i didn't one of the conditions for just war is that. With warm must be a last resort. The ethical presumption against war is so great that all means must be exhausted before work and be wage and then there was the war must be a response that is limited to the. The the violence that created the cause the war in the first place so it has to be a proportionate. Response i oppose the war in iraq really on the first grounds believing that it wasn't the last resort and that in fact there weren't just cause. I wasn't just cause 2 to invade iraq so just a. Contemporary example of that. So that's i think that's all i'll say right now about about just warren and peace. Many unitarians are pacifists. Today i mean i know that a number of people in this church are pacifists and that that of course is also an ethical commitment that. That that i really respect. I guess i wasn't done yet. And and ultimately. You know it really comes down to what you think religion. Is four there so two schools of thought is religion supposed to be and i really just people supposed to make a witness to a pure faith. Answer to stand on that principle intent witness to that pure faith. Or is their responsibility of people of faith. To to get down in the city. Dirtiness if you will of the win in the in the mass and the and the the moral ambiguity of. Al politics in the world. That's two and quakers are very much in the tradition of sort of stand on the witness. And unitarians have been more in the tradition of. In order to make the world more proximately just more just than it is one actually needs to engage in the political system in that means that you're that your political witness isn't always can't always be. Pure. And therefore this notion that that war though is a it's a fan of the justifiable sin in certain circumstances prevent more evil. That's where that comes from. Who really is it gets to a more philosophical discussion is your faith so dumb and idealistic to have witness to a pure faith. Or a faith that is willing to sort of get down. Down and dirty in the in the politics of. Of a broken world. Thanks rob we had a lot of members of the congregation that were interested in life after death and what happens after we die. So. What is your view on life after death. Is there an afterlife. Or is this just something that we have created to comfort ourselves. And if that's all it is. Does it lessen its value or meaning. And. For some this will be a fun question for other serious but. If you believe in the afterlife do you believe in the spirit of dog. Yeah we do dogs have souls are dogs immortal. I'm not going to step on that territory. I'll start personally. By saying that let me start someplace else. It's interesting. The interest in an afterlife i think raises a question i mean what. What is behind folks. Preoccupation with and in desire for an interest in an afterlife and what i think that question gets too it's important for us to realize. Is that people are searching for. And realizing that. The cell. Is not a sufficiently ultimate sphere. Of concern. Discussions about immortality rampart discussions that are saying. My own life. Isn't a sufficient. Sufficiently transcendence thing to devote my life to. And so impart that the discussions about immortality or discussions about a purpose and a and a point of transcendence that's greater than our own sort of been our own individual lives. Now. Some people will find that point of transcendence outside of the world. And and and believe that that there is an afterlife and and that the soul is is immortal. And that is that that's what it satisfies that desire for a point of reference point that's larger than the self. Other people search for that in different ways and find that. In. In. In giving of the self to things that are larger than the self that are that are nonetheless of this world. 22a cause to a community of people to a principal. So. Those are in many ways similar kinds of religious. Quests are really just longing the longing for. A reference point to one's life that is greater than the self and that's a really important thing to realize in religion because that's something that religion teaches is that. Ourselves are not. Inappropriate or sufficient reference point. Four lives. Something larger than the self must be the reference point for our life. I believe. That. Piece of. Are so that our souls. Come from a common soul. Emerson believed in the oversea called at the oversoul. And i so share emerson's belief in the oversoul. That was his word for god really and it was the belief that. Are each of our souls part. Are part and parcel of. A common soul that is god or. Emerson would have spoken it that way. And that when we die our soul returns to that common soul. Returns to that. I don't have any evidence to point to for that that's a. Faith statement. I also believe. That. Each of our actions in this world. Contributes to a certain kind of in more bodily immortality to that. That each of our actions towards. Justice then effect. More people which benefex. Others and in others and that way that no action is ever lost no action good or no action evil. Is ever lost. But it it just goes out in ripples and and in that way there's a kind of. A prominence that comes out of the body as well at least our of of our actions in this world so. Those are some of my thoughts. On on the afterlife but i think that's what the question behind the question is a really important one for all of us to consider which is. What reference point in my life. Greater than the self. Gives my life. Meaning or purpose. There were several versions of this question regarding our denomination. I'd be interested to know more about how unitarianism. Transition from a frankly christian denomination. To the pluralistic form it exists to end today. Was there a break. Decision. A gradual evolution. What is the role of the historical liberal christian views in today's uu church. When we got an addendum here. Oh dogs insult. I'm at you know i'm not going to answer that one today i can answer that one. Okay so the uu's and the christian tradition within unitarian universalism. This is a really. Good question love people i don't know the history of this so. Unitarianism and universalism were formerly to denominations to protestant christian denominations that merged in 1961 to form the unitarian universalist association most churches now in. Have these complicated histories emerged and nominations and what-have-you that's not really so interesting. But. What what what the question gets to is. How did traditions which were franklin explicitly part of the left-wing of protestant christianity. Gradually move beyond and exclusively christian focus. And that gets back to the reason that happened gets back to sort of a core principle of. Progressive religion which is the doctrine of inspiration how do you know. The truth about. Questions about god or questions about ultimate things what wood is your doctrine of inspiration what is inspired what is inspiration in truth. Revelation come from. And. The orthodox believe that revelation came only from the bible. For the for the most part. And that the bible was the sealed revelation from god. No. Other protestants believe that revelation could also come. True through the mediations of the holy spirit you know that the spirit of god could actually speak to individuals speak to people's souls and that that was a form of revelation authentic revelation as well. Unitarianism and universalism both come out of that tradition of the belief that god and people can have an intimate relationship that's not mediated by a priest or by a minister. And an emerson you know was even sort of more radical in this he believe that. You know that. The human being could experience god. And have intimate relationship with god you know in nature. In in a loving community in intimate relationships he he said in his famous one of most famous speeches you know in american religious history the divinity school address he said dare to love god without mediator or vail. And by mediator he meant not only priests and ministers but he meant the bible. And and and this is where you going to tereson starts to move. Pass explicitly exposed to christianity because emerson basically said look you don't just have to rely on the teachings of jesus or the bible to know something about god. You can find your sources anywhere i can find inspiration in lots of different places. So. You know that that doctrine then leads itself to. The kinds of curious people that that that you all are wanting to sort of search for truth. Wherever sort of your conscience takes you takes. And that's that's something that makes unitarians you know unique assertive that that the the radical freedom with which we undertake that search. And and the ways that we don't place bounds on that search. That commitment isn't. Antithetical to an ongoing commitment to christianity. But it's a very sort of radical form of christianity. And. And certainly allows for a faith tradition now we're we're with a rich you know pluralism in were people in this congregation draw religious inspiration from lots of different places so it wasn't just it's an important takeaway here is it's not just believe whatever you want. This evolution to a more pluralistic form of faith comes from. The religious conviction that. In that route that revelation isn't just contained in the bible but that that the holy can be encountered. Throughout creation. Next question as unitarian universalist we covenant to promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. How do you find the inherent worth and dignity in people who see. Be terrible. Murderers rapists or extreme terror. Sun comes up every year. How do you find the inherent worth. A human being in an evil people. The inherent worth. And dignity of the human being. To me is is both a faith statement and an ethical. Assertive. Grounding. And it's not necessarily. This and it's not equated with the statement all people are good. Okay to say that human beings should be should be ends in love themselves and not means to an end that that they are endowed with a kind of dignity. That that demands affect that that we all be treated as ends and not means and if there's something sacred about the human being does not mean that everyone is is. Good. Because. Who what unitarians have always believed is that people have. Have a soda. A spark of the divine within them and that the purpose of religion is to grow that's barking for our lives to grow in love. And to love and ever-expanding circles. But we also must realize if we're going to be honest with ourselves and honest with history. There are lots of people who don't do that. For lots of different reasons. Most fundamental of which is that human beings are. Just good. Are in a work prone to. To descend into do you know. I-90 unitarians don't like that word then. But let's face it. People do evil things. And end and faith it doesn't face up to that is ultimately a faith it's going to let you down. A faith that doesn't take seriously the potential of people to be to commit evil deeds. Is a faith that lead to a lot of frustration. And. And and set you up for. For a pretty big fall i think. So we need to be realistic. We need it we can be idealistic about the potential of the human being its divine origins and its potential to be to grow and to love an ever-expanding circus we also need to realize that. That human beings can be corrupted. 2. But lots of different reason. And so. I would still say that the person who the terrorists completed committed great evil is a person who had is still as a human being. Has inherent worth. And has dignity as a human being. Which is in no way condoning what they have done. As a human being in the end the end the ethical accept they've committed. And it's not the same thing that they're good. There cuz they're not. But if you cast away your ethical sort of commitment to the the worth of the human being then what you also castaway if you knowing that if you let the terrorists or the or the murderer take that belief away from you which you let them take away then is sort of the basis of your ethics. The basis of you and for you to say that it's actually not right to kill someone in the first place right. Because if there isn't people aren't inherently worthy and don't have dignity than. Then what's the ethical stand against you know against murder in the first place. So my feeling is don't let. The evil in the world take. Your belief in the worth and dignity of the human person away from you. Cling to that faith but don't confuse it. With a naive. Understanding of. Of human nature or a one-sided understanding of human nature. Unitarian universalist menaul progressive religion has been critique over and over again. We're having a too idealistic view of human nature. And and then that gets us into to trouble you know when world war 1 and world war two come along. You knowing. The whole nineteenth-century had been this idea that human beings are adjusting to get better and better and better onward and upward forever. Is the belief. And then world war one happen and then wwii happens. And we had to reassess well actually maybe. All this education all the progress of civilization actually isn't going to get us to the nirvana that we had expected. So. Here's a question marriage has become a polarizing political force. How can straight couples mark their union. Without sanctioning the current. Exclusivity or limit. That prevents gay and lesbian couples from celebrating legal marriage. Someone took question repeated. How can straight couples. Mark their union. Without sanctioning the current limit that prevent gay and lesbian couples from celebrating legal marriage. That's a question that folks ask. If folks ask a lot and when we're doing premarital counseling as well how can i participate in this institution of marriage in such a way that. Doesn't feel like it's condoning. Did the limits on that institution right now like lots of couples have that question when they come in for premarital counseling. And i think. Yeah that's that's a really. Ethically sensitive question to have and i n. You know there are lots of of ways that that kind of. Question and commitment can be worked into a wedding service. It can be done really subtly it can be done more overtly by something that the that the minister says or buy something with a couple say. Sometimes couples choose to use language that. That isn't. It in the ceremony that use language that's not explicitly marriage language even though what they're doing is getting married and i'm planning their wedding their marriage license at the end with their they're using language was more so did inclusive. So they're there are there there ways for for heterosexual couples to to incorporate that that. Into their to their services night i work with couples to help do that. I've also had folks in the church asked me why i still sign marriage licenses. When it's the belief of our church that the marriage should be open to take. Couples as well virgin domination that that marriage should be open to gay couples as well and are not participating in. I just groomatory institution. And shouldn't i stop signing marriage license isn't and they're actually number of my colleagues who have. Done that who have refused to sign marriage licenses now. Until they can sign a marriage license for for all everyone in their church who wants to get married. I haven't done that i mean that's not that's not the. Form of ecclesiastical disobedience and i'm choosing to to pursue in this i feel like my part of my duty as a minister is to is to marry. People in the church and to participate fully. In that rite of passage. For them and so i do i do that. And am i witness on this issue has been more around so political organizing and and and testifying and capitol. That has been the the form of witness that i've chosen to take on this. While still signing marriage licenses for. Everyone. Who who. Well. First-rate talks who can who can get married. And i should say that my the wedding service that i do i'm actually call it a wedding service for. For either. Gay couples or straight couples. And so the service that i do isn't materially different for. I had her sexual couple or a gay couple. Thanks robin i get to ask the final question of the day. I'm as you know i'm also has has a very strong social justice ministry. Is there ever a moment when this face tradition become so focused on social action that we lose the notion of being a church. And those social justice commitment of the church becomes so strong that we actually lose sight of being. A church. I think that that the that danger exists but i think what's important to say previously is. How the social justice commitments a rise out of religious. The religious commitments. Of this faith tradition. And so you know it's it's always been my belief and spend that the tradition of this church that it's. The church's job heart of the job of people of faith and and the church. Is to create. A community in this world. That approximates. The the the beloved community the kingdom of god on earth. However you want it to phrase that. But to build a community that approximates more than we have today never ever closer approximation is to a community of love and equality and a justice for all. That that is that is a religious. Commitment. That stems again from our belief in the worth of every single person. Can you can't. Have an unjust society. And reconcile that with the belief in in. The worth of every person. So it's so the social action that we undertake comes from a religious place in the danger comes when we forget that. When we come to church and think that. Oh i'm doing the get-out-the-vote work cuz i'm trying to you know. Elected the person from this party to. To be the next mayor of d.c. weather off in the same party but i want this candidate to win. So it's always an example to get-out-the-vote work that we're doing in this mayoral election isn't about electing adrian fenty or linda crop or anyone else to be mayor of washington dc it's a group of churches getting together to say here is an agenda that's based on the justice commitments of our faith traditions the people of all faiths traditions come together to say that. Bringing together an agenda and realizing that you know politicians don't just do things because the church is say it's a good thing you know oh well we think you know that there should be a housing for all people who who i'm housing in this city and it says 0 the minister said that i really should do that that's not the way politics works. So churches who against gets back to the belief in whether or not churches get down and dirty in politics. Churches have to then realize okay if we want to make our vision. Adjusted surreality in a community. You need to to. Work in the systems of power that exist in the world as it is. So you know you register a bunch of people to vote and you can you turn them out on election day and you you ask candidates to commit to an agenda based on your commitment to justice. And and tell them that you're in about against them if they don't commit to that agenda and that you're going to punish them. If they go back on their promise. But you know bye-bye voted by working against them the next time so. It's always a difficult tension because that's really political political to do that kind of work. And. We need to remember that it's our phasic that compels us to do that and we and we need to keep making the connections especially when we're here in the sanctuary on sunday mornings we need to keep making the connections between why it is that our faith calls us. To do the work of justice in the world why does why does our faith call us to create a fordable housing. In this city why is housing something that is an important religious issue. You know. That those the kinds of questions that we need to be grounding whatever political work we do in. We didn't get to all the questions that that were submitted obviously or even the ones that we had hoped to get to today but i hope that this format has been so you know it's different and i hope that it's it's been at least a little enlightening but thank you all for your questions.

all-souls_org

04.09.05WorkingForWhat.mp3

This morning d.c. jobs with justice is holding an interface observance of labor day. In 23 churches and 30 synagogue in d.c.. Their program is called labor in the pulpit or labor on the bima rent-a-center gog. Is an opportunity to preach about work issues as a community and to use common materials for worship service. I reading this morning comes from their religious working group of which i'm a member. It's an excerpt from something they call their theological statement of purpose and this section is called where our hearts are. We desire to be part of a process whereby all people especially the working poor realize their own worth power and control over their lives. We long for all people to recognize their interdependence. I'm one another and to act on the basis of a shared humanity. We believe all people have the capacity for goodness. And the responsibility to act with compassion and justice. We are deeply troubled by the growing disparity between the rich and the poor. And we believe that our face require that we create a world with more justice more compassion and more signs of hope. The phases of the working poor are all around us. And yet so often invisible to us merely because we do not pay attention. This morning i want to look at our immediate neighbors. And to focus on a very different reality than most of us not all of us face day-to-day. Let's examine what many of us feel we already know. In order to remember again in order to feel compassion once more. We need to understand at a heart level not ahead level that it is our sisters and brothers who are struggling. These are folks with hopes and dreams. I desire to be with family and friends. A yearning to be in a better place. Financially emotionally spiritually just like us. If we truly recognize the interdependence of all people. And our shared humanity then we have a religious responsibility to see to hear and to respond. Is that hard to find the numbers to paint the picture one in for american residents is in the category called working poor. You can work full time at minimum wage which is $5.15 an hour i think many of us forget that it's that low and that does not even bring you up to the federal poverty level. Making six or seven or eight dollars an hour and working full-time still makes supporting a family on one job almost impossible. More than 39 million residents in the us have no health insurance coverage. Half of all the bankruptcies in the united states come from catastrophic health events where there's no income protection. No health insurance that's adequate and people of color are disproportionately represented among the working poor for example we know that african-americans make up 22% of those in poverty just 11 of the population. And a full 30% 1 and 3 of those without health insurance are latino. Now at all folks we've developed a set of seven end statements that are meant to be a broad vision of who we want to be is a congregation. And one of those brings us very close to home. The columbia heights adams morgan mount pleasant neighborhood is a more just and compassionate community because of all souls prophetic leadership. That's what we said that's who we want to be. This proclamation is about what values we espouse as a church and what we hope to help change as members of a community. It's impossible for us to take prophetic leadership to be just and compassionate if we don't know the stories of people who struggle as the working poor in this neighborhood. Here's some more numbers that paint the local columbia heights picture. The area is primarily residents of color. 53% african immigrant or african-american. 34% latino latin american immigrant. 3.6 asian with a predominantly vietnamese community. And the residents here all around us earned significantly less than the usual dc household the median income for dc is around 40,000 in columbia heights it's 25,000 that's the median two means many many fall below. Almost 3% to one and three other families in columbia heights live below the federal poverty level. Which is around 15,000 15,000 for a family of four. We know that mount pleasant and columbia heights have a housing story the rising rents less affordable housing fewer hud section 8 vouchers or apartments and increasing building sales that are driving the shortage. The net result is that many working poor are under tremendous pressure all around us and a great number of our neighbors are leaving squeezed out in the housing boom. Because you a couple of stories about folks who are feeling that squeeze. One of them is very close to home. Many of you know nora and blanca and camille are janitorial staff here at all souls. Oh keep this big building very clean with their hard work. I was talking to nora on my first day back from vacation and found out that she had moved out of the neighborhood. When i asked her why she said the rent was going up again. And her husband and her five children could no longer afford to live in columbia heights. 2000 worried about the local public schools she worried about the lucky no gang violence in the neighborhood and she wanted to make sure sheldon were safe so we made a big decision nora and her family moved out to maryland and now in order to get here to work at all souls 2 takes a bus then the metro then another bus. All in order to commute back to our own building. The high price of housing has driven her family out as a low-wage worker. Just yesterday i started talking to milagro's who is a salvadoran immigrant at my gym. I go to results on u street. And most of the people who are in the gym i think walk by milagros and the other cleaning stuff barely even noticing their there. Working at results is just her weekend she makes $7 an hour for 8 weeks of work sorry 8 hours of work on saturday and sunday which is an extra $56 a week. The monday through friday she has another janitorial job and makes $8 an hour for just less than full-time work with no health insurance. Milagros has been in this country for 17 years. And she still working 7 days a week. To make ends meet. Do you know that the washington interfaith network action team of all souls and leaders from sacred heart which is just up the street. Started talking to residents of 3145 mount pleasant street last year they went door-to-door and they talk to tenants about the poor living conditions and saw for themselves huge areas of mold and decay i've seen the pictures gaping holes in the ceilings and walls missing kitchen sinks which the landlord had taken out and not replaced so it was harder to live there unsafe and unsanitary hallways. The landlord was deliberately trying to push people out of the building so he could sell or put the units in market value. And judith bauer of our church. Ushering today told me that to see people living in such a terrible building just blast away from our congregation was deeply troubling. She and others had the chance to see and hear first-hand what struggling tennis who are our neighbors face. That picture is worth a thousand words of writing about policy on gentrification. When we pay attention to the stories of nora or milagros or the tenants who deal with landlords trying to force them out it's not just about social justice as a remote concept. Most of our justice work at all souls is about people real people with histories and hearts and minds like ours. For a liberal congregation like also then for those of us who are involved in many different issues it's critical to keep those faces in mind. We need the actual interaction the conversation to keep our hearts open to the reality. Otherwise we can distance ourselves. Behind principled statements and abstract policies and political slogans. And stay content to write a check. Also stands for high values and broad ideals for the inherent worth and dignity of every person as the unitarian universalist principles today. We want to be a leader in the uu movement by witnessing to uu values and our nation's capital as another one of our end statements race. And we hope to bring it all home to our neighborhood by helping to make columbia heights mount pleasant and adams morgan two more just and compassionate community because of our prophetic leadership. Those ideas cannot become reality without our knowing the stories in the faces of our community. Without being in real relationship with residents on our block. With other community groups to bring the abstract into the concrete. Our social justice work is not about sitting in our own building with our own principles and we try to make sure that that's not the case. It's about knowing and working with penance of mount pleasant street or staff and clients that like clinica del pueblo across the street or change incorporated up unnerving for the latin american youth center several sites on these blocks or cut us and the central american resource center in the methodist church on columbia. Asian-american lead who works with vietnamese community. Partner congregations like sacred heart in washington interfaith network. Prophetic leadership does not emerge from a vision on a mountaintop for most of us. It comes from hearing the reality of those who suffer and struggle and deciding that we are called to respond. This man. Is our brother. This woman. Is our sister. These children. For our children. And to lose 12 poverty and neglect diminishes us all. On this labor day let us remember especially the working poor. Individuals and families who cannot manage to cover housing food clothing transportation and healthcare even though they are working full-time. Sometimes it more than one job. What is be grateful for nora and blanca munoz mail. Call milagro's. Are the tenants at 3145 mount pleasant street and courage in difficult circumstances both inspire us and call us to be accountable. I reading this morning also puts forth ideals. We desire to be part of a process whereby all people especially the working poor realize their own worth power and control over their own lives. We believe. That our faves require that we create a world with more justice. More compassion. And more signs of hope. May we as a church fulfill our call to prophetic leadership. With real people with a real community that lives right outside our door and beyond. Happy labor day. And amen.

all-souls_org

06.11.12TheRabbisGift.mp3

Are reading this morning is from. The novelist and poet. Alice walker. It's just one line so i'll repeat it twice. I will rise up. And sing from memory. Songs they need once more. To hear. I will rise up and sing from memory. Songs they need. Once more. I never thought i'd forget it. But i did. Some folks say that a new minister spends their whole life preparing. For their first sermon. To their first congregation. That might be stretching it a bit. But i can tell you. Good from the moments in may of 2001. When you voted to call me as your minister. Until that second sunday in september when i began my ministry with you all i can think about. Was what i was going to say. In my first sermon. The truth is i knew little to nothing about ministry back them and. All i knew was it on that first day i'd have 20 minutes. To try to shape the course of our time together. What's september 9th finally arrived. And i do remember the service as hopeful. And beautiful. And i remember taking monday off as is my practice and coming to work on tuesday morning. Puzzled by the scream of sirens. And the plume of smoke that rose above the city. Recently i was telling a friend about my first few months at all souls. She shared her own story of the fall 2001. She wondered what i'd said to the congregation on the night of september 11th. What i'd said the first sunday after. And then she asked me a question that took me by surprise cuz no one has ever asked me it before she said rob. Whatever did you preach. On the sunday before. September 11th. And it was only then that i realized i'd forgotten. In the rush of history that swept us along since september 11th i hadn't even given another thought to that very first sermon that i spent months preparing. That realization course led me to an even more troubling one which was. If i can't remember what i say on sundays. We're not going to go there this morning. And thank god for the church website because after just a few minutes searching the internet i found the text of my sermon and read it. And the centerpiece of that sermon was an old story that's been passed down through the centuries called. The rabbi's gift. When i re-read the story. I was taken aback. And my faith in the power of words to help. Work a transformation among us. Even if we don't remember them. Was renewed. I'd like to share that story with you again today. And see if you don't come to the same conclusion. For those of you who weren't here back then. It's important to set just a little bit of context. For the story and the situation which is it back in 1998. All souls fired my predecessor. And the struggle to let him go badly divided the church. People hadn't treated each other well. Ms result attendance on sunday mornings had dwindled to about. 150 or so folks. I arrived at the church after three years of interim ministry. And this is the story that i told. On that first. Sunday. It begins as all good stories do. Once upon a time. There was an old walled city perched high. On a hill. And the very center of that city at its highest point stood a monastery as old as the city itself. Built to be the beacon. About city. And indeed. For many years the great monastery had fulfilled its role well serving the city's poor providing sanctuary for weary travelers. Inspiring all who entered with its beauty and its warm worship. It truly was a beacon of hope. And love and justice in the city. With the monastery had fallen on hard times. Slowly but surely. And for reasons no one knows. It's light began to fade. Worship wasn't joyous anymore. It was tired. The monks hospitality seemed more grudging than generous. And as a result few people visited the monastery and even fewer joined the monastic order. Such that now there remains at the monastery only for monks and their abbot. All over the age of 70. Now there was in that same city. A rabbi. Who lived in a small house lips by a small fire. Not too far from the monastery. Do neighbors the monks and the rabbi had never spoken. But one day the abbot of the monastery decided to pay a visit to the rabbi. To see if he had any advice. Elsa how the monastery might be saved. From its extinction. The rabbi welcomes the abbot's into his home. And after they had sat down by the small fire he listened to the abbot story of the decline of the monastery but he could only commiserate. I know how it is. He lamented. The spirit. Gone from the people. Hardly anyone comes to synagogue anymore. So the old abbott in the old rabbi. Sad together by the fire. And wept. And then they open the torah. And they read and studied and spoke quietly of profound things. And when it came time for the abbott to leave he pleaded. One more time to the rabbi is there no advice you can give to me to help me save my dying community. I'm sorry said the rabbi. I have no advice. All i can tell you is this. Remember. The messiah. Is among you. And without the two old men embraced and parted ways. When the abbott return to the monastery the monks were waiting for him on the front step what did the rabbi say they asked eagerly hoping for some saving word. Nothing. Sobe abbott. We just cried and studied torah together. And when i left the only thing he said to me was this he said. Remember. The messiah is among you. But i have no idea what he meant by that. Disappointed amongst shrug their shoulders and return to work. More certain now than ever. That their community was soon die. Get in the weeks and months that followed. The rabbi's parting words lingard among them. Could the messiah really be. One of us. Each month secretly wondered to himself. If it's true that one month it must be the abbot's he's such a wise man. On the other hand he said it could be brother thomas he is a holy and loving man. It certainly isn't brother eldred thought another month. Is he dusted the abandoned sanctuary. He's so crotchety and cantankerous. But then again he does have important things to say. And yet another monk declared to himself up. Brother philip is certainly no messiah he's so passive and and quiet. He's always there for you. When you need him. As each month wondered to himself if the messiah was among them. A funny thing happened. They started treating each other with extraordinary respect. And each. On the off-chance that he himself. Wisdom messiah. Even treated himself better to. No. For years the dwellers. Of the walled city had passed by the monastery without even noticing. But ever since the rabbi's advice the townspeople. Send something different going on sometimes as they passed on their errands they hear laughter. Coming over the monastery walls. Or they'd see a smiling face flash in one of the windows. Or they'd hear the months heavenly chanting. Sa rose from bed in the morning. The old place was beginning to radiate a kind of aura again the people found hard to resist. And before long they began coming to worship on sundays because they wanted to be a part of this loving community. They needed to be apart. About community. And they started bringing their friends too and when people came to the monastery they found that they were transformed. By being there. Their souls were replenished their hearts and minds nourished. What's more this feeling stuck with them throughout the week and permeated their daily lives. Pretty soon even the young people in the village were inspired by the monks. And one decided to take vows and join them. And then another joined. And another. And so it was. That within a few years. The monastery was once again. Driving. Once again a beacon. Of hope. And love. And justice. In the city. That's the story i told. On my first sunday at all souls. The story i forgot. 2 days later. When i saw the plume of smoke rising over the city. The story i only recently remembered. When prompted by a conversation. But friends. This is our story. This is our story. It's the story we've been living. For the last five years. There are lots of things. We can lift up and celebrate. As part of why this community has flourished and nourished us over the last several years but the most important factor of all is the one suggested by this story. It's because we've learned to respect. And love. And care for one another. Again. Not perfectly. No human being loves. Perfectly. Much less a group of us. But still we become a place where people walk in on sunday mornings and feel the warm. And the love and the spirit of this. And sustains them throughout the week. We come up we become a place when we're struggling through difficult times we can we know we can count on one another for support or a much-needed hug or at least a home-delivered casserole. We become a place where we can work out our differences with respect a place where we welcome our newborns with love and we say goodbye to the departed. With great respect and love. It's a place where the love that we feel feel here is spilling out over the walls and into the community where we're working for justice and compassion. Insured friends were learning how to love. Better. Which is just about the most important thing. Where charged with. On this earthly venture. Of ours. To learn how to love. You know reading. Alice walker. Says. I will rise up. And sing from memory. Songs they need. Once more. To hear. I can think of at least two reasons why today is an appropriate day for us to remember. This story. The first is. Because i'm getting ready to go on sabbatical. In the new year. January 28th is my last sunday in the pulpit. Until mid-august. During that time the church will be placed in the capable hands of reverend linwood. Who will serve as acting senior minister. And shana will be supported by our outstanding professional staff. And by committed and talented lay leaders. In addition we've invited some of the best preachers in our movement and beyond to come and grace our pulpit. During that time and i know that the church will flourish and thrive. Well i'm away. Which is a good thing because we got a lot of work to do when i get back. With a sabbatical is a good time for us to remember. The lesson of this story. Which is at the church isn't about its leader. It isn't about any one person. It's about all of us. And the quality of our love. For one another. I'd like us to imagine the time that i'm away on sabbatical. As an opportunity to remember that truth. Enter practice it. The other reason i think it's important to retell this story today. Is because today we celebrate the 180. Fifth. Anniversary. Of the founding of all souls church. Happy birthday. We have a tendency when we look back over the history of this church. To pick out. Highlights and milestones. We talked about the stand against slavery. We remember that the reverend james reeb died for his commitment to the civil rights movement. We remember that we hosted a nationwide gathering of religious progressives just last spring. A community who according to a front-page article and fridays post now appear to be making some headway. In our polity. It's good for us to celebrate these things. But what makes a church truly great. What is the foundation upon which all those other things are done. Stability of the people in this church. Hello love and care. For one another. Church that doesn't do that. Has no business. Taking up space. Friends over the last 5 years. We've rediscovered. If the messiah is indeed. Among us. And that it isn't any one person. It's all of us. That faith has served us well. For 185 years so far. Matt leaders boldly. Into the future. I'm in.

all-souls_org

04.05.30LanguageOfReverence.mp3

Good morning. I begin with a fable once upon a time the people say the world is big and we are small and they were afraid. So with a busy fingers and gold they made a thing they side as it glittered in the sun let us bow down and worship him and they did. And they were afraid. I don't like bullies you don't either yet all too often god ends up being the biggest bully on the block here's the scenario god is nicer than you smarter than you older than you richer than you and rest assured bigger than you you know the words you don't stand a chance. Self-appointed representatives of this view of god often take it upon themselves to pronounce god says this and god says that and they aiming straight at you so you better watch out you better not cry you better not pout i'm telling you why this is bad religion this is the kind of religion that actually institutionalize as of value the notion that might makes right. Nothing on earth can get away with this nothing but religion think about it religion and religion alone has the power to conform how very conscious to something as morally destitute as might makes right. Small wonder the ender many for whom the very word god carries way too much baggage. Good religion however turns the logic of bad religion on its head. Good religion insist. It is right that must make might not the other way around. Write make smite. Now that puts god in a whole new light to. Doesn't it. Evil. Morally wrong immoral wicked. A lack of concern or an outright defiance. Defiant disregard for right conduct or principles. Evil the term we use to describe a person or an act that is more than just bad or a wrongful deed it prescribed the state of inherit badness or wrongdoing evil is also a tool that is often used to set a diametrically opposed alignment of the hero and the villain the saints and the center. Look at our president the axis of evil. Bin laden is evil saddam hussein is evil. As if by labeling these things people and countries is evil is enough to just enough justification to annihilate them. But what about bin laden's for al-qaeda claimed that the western world is evil. Or more importantly the united states is evil. Evil is a tool to ostracize or alienate someone from their humanity to make them less human therefore easier to discredit and in extreme cases kill. So how does one become evil. Can someone be inherently evil. As you use we focus on the inherent dignity and worth of each and every person. In other words inherent good of humanity. We sometimes refer to this as a divine divine spark within us all. It is the understanding of our first principle that compels us to do social justice work. To strive to write all the injustice has or evils of the world. Although goodwill is behind these beliefs and actions it is the same beliefs in lines of thought that can lead us to the same the same dichotomy of good and evil used by the right the conservatives the christian coalition. And the fundamentalist and our president. Rarely do you use consider the issue of inherent evil. Some would say that there is no possibility and inherent evil if you believe that all are inherently good some others would say that you cannot have evil without you cannot have inherent good without inherent evil that one defines the other sets the parameters of the other space. To know good is to no evil. One of the age-old questions is did lit did hitler have inherent dignity and worth. Some would say that he was evil and leave it at that. Others would say a form of intellectual compassion others would show in it a form of intellectual compassion by suggesting that there was something about this upbringing or abnormal begging brain chemistry that lead the way to such a tri-cities of humanity. But rarely do i hear you use questioning is there some part of me there's potential as a potential for such inhumane acts. Is there some part of me that is inherently evil. For us to truly do good things in this world. To better this world we need to move beyond our intellectual compassion and gain compassion from our core being. By asking me is very difficult questions of ourselves. We must find potential for evil within us all. Donuts. Understand it and consider the potential for evil within us all is part of the human condition. Without this understanding i feel that you use will always have one remaining barrier to truth a true understanding of dignity and worth. Nearly all spiritual belief systems seek to provide their adherence with some sort of moral code to guide their lives. Judaism christianity and islam have shaped western culture to the extent that their basic even by those who. Traditional western worldview sees god the transcendent deity who is the ultimate source in personification of good. With evil conceived as opposition to god's will. God is sacred and divine because he is ultimately good and vice versa. Goodness is obedience to god's will evil. Building on this basic concept western nations biltmore less humane societies and millions have been inspired to noble acts of unselfishness. Williams have also slaughtered their fellow human beings in the name of god and goodness. Dualistic worldview. If to do good is to do god's will. Proposed god's will evil. The complexity of human life it is far too easy to see oneself. Country or belief system as being of god which carries the automatic corollary that one's opponents must be evil at anti-god. I want you to truly believe that then anything becomes permissible. If god be for us who can stand against us. Most of us are familiar with the sad history of war and violence pinstripe arising for disbelief. From the religious persecutions of the reformation to our current political leaders leaders condemning of the axis of evil. It was not always this way. The most of human history most people did not worship the single supreme deity. What city in the world is separate. The result of goodness and the gods we're not identified. Typically pagan creation myths again with something already existing a great see great mountains but. Have a deities emerge from it had to remain a part of the world. Personification of natural forces and continue in the seasonal cycles of creation and destruction death and birth. These belief systems describe describe the world without shutting it accepting fall that is as divine. In the pagan viewed there is no transcendent good or evil. The natural world is sacred but is not divided along moral lines. However paganism is not a moral. Mega morality arises from the belief that divinity the spirit of life is eminent in the world. Poseidus ennis. All around us. When we look at nature. We see that she values life and diversity and a balanced interplay of life and natural forces. We see ourselves as part of that variety and balance and feel oneness loaf and completion that's part of this divine whole. A sense of oneness with the divine world shapes our awareness of the consequences of our actions. Provide a context in which to judge. Acts which deny our connection to other beings do not leave the punishment button actual consequences. If we treat people as objects rather than as expressions. Are the divine than the world we live in becomes less pleasant. And we to become objects. If we treat the earth object. Helically exploiting and polluting her. Then we are the natural consequences. For the pagan. Evil is failing to see all of life is sacred. And failing to understand where the balance lies and idolized and in the life of the earth. Well not offering an absolute moral standard this belief system does provide a very effective guide to decision-making. Every action and reaction reverberates in the universe. We must seek insofar as it is possible to always packed respect and promote the life force or si uu principles put it to respect the great web of existence. Of which we are part.