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2011Nov06Sermon128.mp3

This morning i want to share the story of one of our foremost unitarian universalist saints. Clara barton. Now. When most people use the word saint. What first comes to mind is the roman catholic church. Which has a whole constellation of officially recognized. And canonized saints so designated over the centuries of that faith tradition. Curious about the exact number of roman catholic saints while i went online and there are lots of websites devoted to them. There are more than 10,000. Roman catholic saints. Yikes that's an awful lot of oswego. Roman catholicism is not the only religious organization with a propensity to idolize and honor its heroes of faith. Though we in the free church most decidedly have no formal canonization process. Like the church in rome. You use will at the drop of a spiritual hat. Probably rattle off a long list of unitarian and universalist heroes of the past. Notable and noteworthy people from our faith tradition. Whose goodness and contributions to humanity make them remarkable. We even have a website. Devoted to art you use saints. You've all all you have to do is read about all of our saints is to go to. Ww.w. Dot famous you use. org. You know how many of them there are on that website only 300. M-46. But that's quite a few for a very small religious denomination. At famous you use. org. You will find the biographies of a long and noble list of you use with made incredible contributions to humanity. In the fields of art and literature science and medicine politics and education philosophy and theology. Philanthropic and humanitarian devers and social and governmental reform. So just go online and read all about it it's kind of fun. We are very proud of our long list of you you movers and shakers. All of whom have over the 500 years. Ivar organized faith tradition. Made real contribution. To the human family. And thought. For better or worse then. We unitarian-universalist are proudly inveterate name-droppers we do love to talk about our saints. Evidence the sermons. But over the years as i thought about this very liberal tendency of ours to canonize our heroes. I've come to realize that there's a grave spiritual danger in being so ready. To put our outstanding ancestors up on a pedestal in the responsive reading today you got just a hint. Of that idea. My fear is akin to what the music director in the last church. That i served a fellow by the name of cliff harden. Said to me a few years back when the roman catholic church. Finally decided to grant. Actually it was a rush job. To grant mother teresa. Saints row. Status he came to me in a staff meeting monday and said you know. I was really upset when they made her a saint. And i said why don't you think she deserves it he said oh no that's not it. He said i think she was out spanish lee noble person. Who let a rare and beautiful compassionate life the problem he said. Is it if we start thinking of mother teresa as a saint. Thereby turning into some sort of mystical. Supernatural being. Then we can successfully distance ourselves from her life and her work. And give ourselves permission. Not to go and live as she did. Compassionate. And then clip. Turning someone into a full-blown sink keeps us the living. As we doing our ordinance. Less than extraordinary lives and imperfect lies. From truly calling ourselves to a better way of. I was struck by a think the power and the rightness of this observation. Religious people with a roman catholic or you you. Ought to be very careful about the process formal informal. Of canonizing some great person. The pasta. Some sainthood. Because. Putting somebody up high on a pedestal. Extraordinary nobility and achievement. Just might have the unintended. The permitting ourselves to psychologically distance. Or behavioral. Distancing. From those we have. Let me say this. If we unitarian-universalist fall victim to creating a real superhuman gap. Between ourselves and those we think of as our heroes. We made disempower those truly noble lives. From usefully informing instructing our lives. As we move ahead to try. Deserve. Humanity. So with all of this appropriate caution about canonizing saintly p. Well the past. Today i done the last one to tell you the remarkable story of a true hero of our faith. Of the 19th and a bit of the 20th century clara barton. There she is. She was the universalist. Naughty unitarian. Universal. The angel of the battlefield as she came to be known. By both the union and confederate soldiers of the american civil war and a visitor this morning coming up the walk told me that you know what ulysses has grant said about her. I said no. She outranks me. She was a founder. And longtime president of the american red cross. Articulate act activist toledo. The fight to get the us senate to ratify the treaty of geneva. To regulate war. She was a tireless advocate for women's rights and universal suffrage. And for the universal. Education of all children. She was friend and allied to the freed slaves. And a courageous worker her whole life long on behalf of the downtrodden. And suffering. Wherever she found them not just those in battlefield. As i read several biographies about her in preparation for the sermon. I was amazed. How she was how much she was able to accomplish during her long life and. Strong. Principled and purpose. Her friend the grand duchess louise. Thought. Of barton as quote. One of those very few persons whose whole being is goodness itself. And after she at age 68 no less. Run age of the many thousands who suffered after the terrible johnstown pennsylvania flood in 1889. The local paper rhapsodize. The following. We cannot thank miss barton in words. Hunt the dictionaries. I've all languages through and you will find no signs. To express our appreciation for her and her work. Try to describe the sunshine. Try to describe the starlight. Words fail. Set the johnstown. Sounds a lot like a saint. Doesn't it. But i'm ahead of myself let me go back and. About. How this long and compassionate. On christmas day. In 1821. Clara barton was born into a devoutly universalist family in north oxford massachusetts. The youngest of five children. Her brothers and sister. We're all much older than she and so is she later described it i had no playmates. But in effect six mothers and fathers. Who constantly instructed. And taught clara things they thought she should know. The universalist church in that town also played a central role in her childhood. And although laid in her life she also became someone interested in spiritualism. And christian science movements. As far as we know she remained a devout universal. Her whole life. As one biographer describes her early religious influence. Quote on sunday clara sat in the barton family pew. In the plain white colonial universalist church. That god is love. And that all life is a precious gift never to be destroyed. We're teachings of that church. We're impressed upon her mind and an early age. Chiefly because is universalist teaching. So fully govern her father's. Life. By the end of the sermon when i've read you the full story of this compassionate woman and all that she accomplished. You will all fully understand i hope. Central ruled. Universalist belief. Instilled in her an early age. Played in her life. Cheyenne insecure girl. Clear return to books. And the life of the mind. Intellectually bright and precocious. She was an avid student and learner so much so that by the age of 16. With hardly any formal education. She passed the massachusetts teacher exam. And began to teach at a local school at. For the next 15 years. With some formal schooling at a universalist college blend it in. She taught at various schools in massachusetts and then took a position in bordentown new jersey. At a tiny school for the affluent children of that community. Although there was a law in new jersey. Requiring free education for all. The local school committee only accepted students. Who could pay. And this clara knew was wrong. She single-handedly lobby. Or was it founded. For she was a very strong. She lobbied or hounded. For the proper resources. To create a freeze which was to become the first. Free school for all children in that state. The school which began with six students. Quickly grew to over 600. Point where. School committee comprised of all men. Said it was quote too large. For a woman. To manage. Well i know you talk to your boo on that one. So they made clara the assistant. Dhoom new male principal. This did not sit with her while she soon moved to washington dc to visitors. Very irritated. For a while she contented herself with witnessing washington's convoluted political life. Spending long hours she in the senate gallery when you can get into senate gallery without going through a gun detect. Attending lectures and listening to debate over slavery and other issues. But it was not clear as nature to be idle. In her 80s she wrote in her biography in her autobiography. You have never known me without work. And you never will. It has always been the best part of religion i had. He took an unchallenging job copying letters at the patent office. For this kind of low-level job was all that was available to women. Before the civil war. And she was quickly promoted because of her ability. To confidential secretary. But she still found herself bored. An underutilized and discriminated against. Then the civil war broke out. Clara. Wanted to help in this great national effort. Was very much a. For the union. As one biographer put it. The conflict provided her with an outlet. For her prodigious energy. And satisfied her longing to lose herself in her work. To be needed. For a year she contented herself with soliciting supplies. For the wounded and ill-equipped soldiers of the union army. And was able to attract. Massive contribution. And supplies. But then quote as a horrible effects of battle were reported in washington. She began driving wagon teams of horses herself. And going right into the thick of battle. Eating the wounded and dying soldiers directly. For the rest of that terrible war clara barton was i said has been called the angel of the battlefield by the soldiers. And was eventually named. Supervisor of nursing for the army of the potomac. Was on the field of battle she. Offering nursing and food and compassion. Do union and confederates. And that is a terribly important part i. About her story. In spite of her fierce union loyalty. And passionate opposition to slavery. Her compassion. Extended. True to her universalist upbringing she knew she saw and served humanity and every. Last. And she knew deep to her heart. The rightness of our modern-day unitarian universalist principles the inherent worth and dignity. Of every person. It's printed in your orders of service every sunday it's r4. And she knew it. Has she served. Sides. And today is. American soldiers and his weasel nation. Continue to be involved militarily in afghanistan. And iraq. Several other bloody wars and civil wars. Ranging around the globe as they always do. We would do well to spiritually remember the unchanging truth. That war always causes untold suffer. At all. May we in these violent times like clara barton. Silent time. Never forget. The universal humanity in the worth of. Always realize. But back to her civil war story. One biographer writes bravery and tirelessness. We're conspicuous elements in her service. At the battle fortune chantilly virginia there was a marker in the video you saw earlier from chantilly. One surgeon recorded. When the railroad cars whistled up to the station. The first person on the platform was miss burton. Again to supply us with every article sheet that could be thought of. She stayed there until the last wounded soldier was placed on the cars. He worked for five days in the pouring rain. With only two hours of. One battle account said that she been working so long. Hard around the wounded and dying. That she periodically had to pause in the field hospital and ring. The heavy blood. From the lower portion. A dress. So that she could move more easily. Among the wounded. And i. In another battle another biographer rights. She built fires. Expected bullets with a pocket knife. Made gallons of applesauce baked pies drove teams of horses and perform last rites. Are titleist. Multifaceted efforts. In these unbelievably horrible battles. We're amazing to all who. And her notoriety and fame. Spread. All of the nation. When the terrible war ended she declared i saw many things that i did not wish to see. And i pray god i may never see again. I have labored up. Full measure of. But this remarkable woman was by no means done. It's the end of the civil war as you all know. In spite of her exhausted and weak. Almost immediately with the full support of the federal government. Barton organized and off. Again pretty much all by yourself. To locate an account for the many thousands. Of missing soul. Uniden on both sides. In addition. As one biographer put it barton's perceptive and sympathetic nature. Let her 24c innumerable social problems. It developed after the war. She was concerned about the precarious situation of the newly freed slaves. She fought pacifica sleeves i've said for women's rights and suffrage. Worked on behalf of humane prison reform. Let a tireless campaign. Get the senate to ratify the treaty of geneva. And travel to europe to learn more about the international red cross. And then did humanitarian work. In the franco-prussian war. Which lasted on. 1871. And finally in 1881 with the full support of president james garfield. Founded with a few friends and allies the american red cross. The organization she would serve. For the next 23 years. Until her retirement age. At. 80. For the last decades of her life she lived. In a curious rambling home that is now a national park service site in glen echo maryland. Now in the early days this was a. Home warehouse. And this is two blocks from the last church i served river road is near the potomac river. Her house overlooks the potomac and next time you're in washington. Go to wall the standard. Thanks for take a little trip up to glen echo maryland. Bethesda maryland. It's an amazing home it's beautiful. And their whole floors that were warehouse. Her bandage. And other medical. It's a stunning. Stunning place. After she left the american red cross again as an agent woman in her 80s. Spending time between this home in glen echo and her summer home. In are birthplace of north oxford. She could not stop herself. I'm continuing to be a force for change and good in her society. In 1905. She helped form the national first aid society. Which helped to establish community aid program. She spoke regularly at women's suffrage convention to see her looking a little older. And continuing to lecture and right up to the very end of her life. She was busy. In 1912 she died at the age. Is there any denying. Is powerful and principled woman who never married. I never really wanted to have time for family of. Let a remarkable and exemplary life. Here are a few of the adjectives ioffer in no particular order which biographer is used. To describe. I read these books. They described her as courageous. Fascinating. Bowl. Introspective loyal intelligent. Kind-hearted serious. Idealistic angelic. Tenacious. Conscientious determined resourceful sensitive strong-willed unflappable unfailing honest discipline self-confident witty. Compassionate self-denying persuasive rave loving. Perfect uu profile. As amazing as it seems she was all these things and more but why she is saint please recall my sermon title this morning. Is clara barton are curious and difficult saint i use the words curious and difficult. Describe her because. There is more to her story. Then this laudatory greatness. Much more. Like many heroes of human history clara barton had her share. A personal weaknesses blind-spot successes and flaws i know it's hard to believe you're going to get the dirt now. Listen to some of the other less than glowing adjectives. Again in no particular order which biographers also used to describe this complex woman. Troubled. Rigid. Insecure. Edgy. Self-conscious pessimistic. Self-absorbed. Neurotic. Difficult sickly. Unpredictable restless opinionated. Demanding shaky self-absorbed vain. Short-sighted lonely eccentric depressed just like us. Amazing. You know this rather painful list they just read you. Points out that clara barton was a curious and a complex person who in addition to accomplishing so many things through greatness. Was also a real pain in the. You know and had a great deal of difficulty and struggle in her life. And the same can be said of other outstanding heroes of history like john f kennedy martin. King mahatma gandhi. You read between the lines are biography. Got your saints day. Take a little deeper look. The way. This great humanitarian really struggled in her life. Cuz it's important for us to remember that saintliness. Usually arise. Out of ordinary and ambiguous. Humanity. Other words it arises out of people like. Like us. First because it's no noteworthy i want to look at her physical and mental problem. Play church. Entire life. Like her mother sarah and. Dolly all her life she struggled with. Clinical depression. And with what. Was called in those days nervous disorders. Austin just after she ate almost single-handedly successfully managed. Some disaster or battle or crisis. Edible strength. And fortitude. She would almost totally collapse. Often requiring months of doctor order dress. And occasional hospitalization. In a sanitarium which was the 19th century way of saying. A mental house. We're all her strength in the face of adversity and all her humanitarian achievements. He was neither physically nor mentally stable. This was a woman who did not apparently know how to practice. Appropriate self-care. And there was as a result and erratic and uneven life. Achievement. An illness. And was not easy to live. She was also more than a little enamored with her own fame. And reputation and notoriety and was prone to both self-aggrandizement and self-pity. As one biographer noted quote. Several times. She even went as far as writing flattering articles about herself. Third person. Which she done submitted to various national periodical. In one. Written during the franco-prussian war. She revealed the way she helped. The public would view her this is her writing about herself. Miss barton. Scarcely recovered from the fatigue and indus positions resulting from her arduous and useful duties during the war. Was found again foremost bestowing her care upon the wounded with the same suety which characterized her among the suffering armies of her own country. Leslie on the troubled side of this complex person. She also struggled to maintain many of her. Primary relationship. Well characteristically loyal to her birth family and her inner circle of friends. People who work for her found her difficult and demanding. She was a perfectionist. Did not know how to delegate responsibilities to others. Tolerate no one. She perceived. As a rival. As a result there was over her lifetime a constant disruptive turnover. People and professionals around her in her home staff at the american red cross. And as a result she often found yourself isolated. And lonely and alone in that great big house. So. That's pretty much the whole complicated story of this outstanding remarkable woman. She was without doubt one of the most heroic. Persons alive in the 19th century. Known around the world. For her compassion in humanitarianism. At the same time. She was a person of fear. And erraticus. And weakness. And self-aggrandizement. And difficult. So with this. lori told we now arrive at the question which we must answer whenever we tell the story of any hero hist. What can we take from this life. That will make us better. And more noble peep. I had what is it about the way she lived. Spy arrested. Well it's possible that we will. Variously be inspired. Buy different aspects. Her story but for my part. I moved by her courage. And the clarity of her purpose. She was a. She was a bird dog she was a pitbull. Who's always on what. Amazon. Stick-to-itiveness. Set. Is a very and. All of us need. Even more than this clarity and courage. I am inspired by something i believe she got from her religious. From her universal. Space from our. That's your friends. Powerful and steady universal. Impulse. Of heart. To bring compassion. Care to all his. It was the. Was i believe her nineteenth-century universalist idea that all all people were children of god. Precious children of this creation. Which inspired and sustained. Humanity how could you minister. To all the soldiers. On both side. Unless you believe. We're all children. I want to never wonder. From that car after may. In my speaker. Justice she never wavered from it. This idea. About our radical. Human interconnect. A radical belonging to one another. It's the unique message of universalism. That helped us to grow this religion. That. You can make no successful separation. Jenna saved in the damn the righteous and the unrighteous. The good and the bad everyone. Is a precious. Child of god. I want that universalist. Impulse. Impulsive heart. To drive. My spirit. And this universalist. Impulsive heart is an endangered commodity in our world. I'm going to talk in a few weeks about the sin of other notes. The sin of other nest. Xenophobia. The division. People allow in the world. Bmv universalist impulse. Universal human worth and belonging. Dangerous commodity that we must defend. In every place in our lives. May we. Almost a century after the death of clara barton. Live our lives ever more in service of that universal. Which of the poet carl sandburg. At the very end of his collected poems. Sang so beautifully. When he said simply. There was only one horse. On the earth. And that poor. Is all hers. There was only one bird in the air. Her name is all wings. There was only one fish in the sea and that fish's name is all fence. There's only one man in the world and his name is all man. There's only one woman in the world and her name is all women there's only one child in the world in that. Child's name is all children that's only one maker. And that makers children cover the earth. And they are called. All. Gods.

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2014Jan05Sermon128.mp3

Good morning. And welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach where we welcome all kinds of people. We are congregation. I've open minds loving hearts and helping hands people in this community. Seeking to become our best selves even as together we work to make our world a better place and please know that you are welcome this morning in this new year. Just as you come to us. Whether you're young or old. Gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity whether you were feeling on top of the world this morning. We're down in the dumps or somewhere in between we welcome you just as you come to us and all of your particularly in need. We hope you will find our services morning meaningful and enriching. I think you will find something here this morning. That nourishes our spirit and feed your soul and gives you a new energy and purpose. For the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. Welcome to the new year. One year 2013 has ended another year 2014 has begun but the truth is. There is no beginning. And no end to what we have started. And to what we can do together. This morning we awoke. The sun was streaming through the windows of our lives. The time is now. And the earth is gleaming in space. Spinning. Someone that coming colder and drearier days we need all the love we can give. To keep our lives brighton to spread glad warm. From the wellsprings of our being. Inward to ourselves and outward. To each other. Each day is that important. No day is any more significant than another. Tell me yesterday or the tomorrow today. Now is the time that we are. So when they coming here. Let us do good things for one another. For i offer you a meditation for new year's just a moment of personal privilege if i might. Many of you saw the great big front-page article about us and our faith on christmas morning. Which elicited as you now know if you read the paper from yesterday. A great deal of controversy in town some people not thinking. Hearing about a message about jesus and christmas from the unitarian universalist was appropriate on christmas morning. This is obviously a favorable controversy for us. In as a congregation that raises awareness in our community about the diversity. A face in our town. And. About our inclusive progressive approach to religion which is different than some other churches. 4 years ago when i came here to be your new minister you ask me please to raise your profile in town and i guess i have done that you know it's like a tell megan just spell my name right but rest assured in the days and years to come i will continue to speak my mind. And to hopefully represent our principles and our values as unitarian universalist. Without any arrogance or disrespect directed at those whose religious faith is very different from ours. I believe there are many more people in our community who are seeking our kind of open inclusive loving approach. To religion and i want to reach all of those people and i know you do too. So i just wanted to. Take a moment to say all that this morning. It is a new year. Please listen to these words and then the silence that will follow will do about a minute of silence together i will ring the bell to end our.. Meditation this is a piece i don't know who wrote it was the unitarian minister is simply too entitled. Resolutions. No one will ever get out of this world alive. Resolve therefore in the year to come. To maintain a sense of values. Take care of yourself. Good health is everyone's major source of wealth and without it. Happiness is almost impossible. Resolve to be cheerful and helpful. People will repay you in kind. Avoid angry. Abrasive and abusive persons. They are generally vengeful. Avoid zealots. They are generally humorless. Resolve to listen more. And talk less no one learns anything. By talking. Be hesitant to give advice. Wise folks don't need it and fools won't listen to it. Resolve to be tender with the young. Compassionate with the agent. Sympathetic with the striving. Intolerant of the week. And the wrong. Sometimes in life. You will have been all of these. And finally. Resolve to love. Next year someone. You did not love this year. Love. Is the most enriching. Ingredients. Everyone. In this room knows the story. And you all know it as they say by heart. It is a story central to the moral and ethical narrative. Of our judeo-christian culture. It is the parable of the good samaritan. Toll over 2000 years ago by the tenant jewish preacher named jesus. Of nazareth. Before i once again tell the parable it remind you of its all-important context. As it is recorded in the book of luke. One day jesus is teaching to a crowd of fellow jews. In a temple. What a lawyer in establishment type trying to trip him up. Ask teacher what shall i do to inherit eternal life. And jesus in effect answers him by quoting jewish scripture you shall love the lord your god. With all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And the lawyer still trying to catch jesus in a trap. Ask snidely. And just who is my neighbor. And jesus answered him simply by telling the story. Of the good samaritan. It seems it was a traveler. Assumedly jewish. Who is beaten robbed and left dead had left half-dead along over the road first. A priest that levi both of whom would be viewed. As upright citizens in the jewish community come by but indifferently ignore the man in distress. Finally a samaritan. Who is part of an ethnic group generally despised by jews of that time. A samaritan happens by. And compassionately helps the man binding up his wounds. Putting him on his own horse. Taking him to an inn. Where he pays the innkeeper to care for the man. Until he is well. And which of these three jesus asks the lawyer in return. Which of these three proof. To be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers. And the lawyer. Has no choice but to answer. The one. Who had mercy. On him. And jesus and the interaction by instructing all those who were listening. Call. And do likewise. Anise first fresh sunday of the brand new year. The time of the calendar when we traditionally pause to take stock of our lives in this complicated world. And make personal resolutions for the future i won't say which two of you i saw walking on the barber bridge. Before breakfast week. I said i smell a new year's resolution. At this time. When we pause to take a stock. I would have talked to you about the whole igloo of the world. What is the holy glue of this world. Well jesus already made that clear in his parable. It is simply the most important spiritual and ethical possession any of us as human beings can have. The whole igloo of this world is compassion. Without compassion. Without our kindness our empathy our mercy our generosity and our love this world falls apart. This is the simple ethical spiritual understanding. Behind the international charter for compassion. And you will see that document i don't know where it went on my chancel here it's a blue the blue insert i believe. You see the charter. For compassion. A copy of between clothes for you. The charter which i hope you will take home and read. Is the brainchild of christian theologian and church historian karen armstrong. It was drafted by this former roman catholic nun in november of 2009. And in her native england. And since has been signed by more than 100,000 individuals around the world. Adopted by hundreds of active partner organizations and cities around the world. No please join me in watching this brief and i think beautiful video put out by the compassion. Charter for compassion website. From people all around the world reading the text you have before you you can follow along on the blue sheet or just simply watch. The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious ethical and spiritual traditions. Now. This is the same simple yet demanding ethical message with which buddhists greatest contemporary teacher the 14th dalai lama. Has made the centerpiece of his global message to humanity. It is wonderful 1999 treatise ethics for the new millennium. He called humanity not to a religious revival. Universal spiritual revival much as a charter of compassion does. A revival of compassion for all their he is bless his heart. Miami riots. Is to appeal for a friend approach to ethics based on those universal qualities of the human spirit. Such as love and compassion. Patience tolerance forgiveness contentment a sense of responsibility a sense of harmony. Which brings happiness to both self and others. So what the dalai lama is calling for. Is a global spiritual revolution that will transcend all religious states including his own. And will not in his view occur this transformation this revolution as some sort of mass movement but will occur primarily within one person at a time. One human heart at a time. As individuals quietly begin to live their lives out of a radical new ethic of compassion for in connection with others. He's calling for an ethical awakening. In the universe of each of our hearts. An ethical awakening that will help us to understand that is human beings all around the globe. We radically belong to one another. And must therefore routinely act with concern not for the self. Before other human beings. For whom to whom we are if we would spiritually know it. Intimately related. Let me quote the dalai lama again at length. My call is for a spiritual revolution. It is a call for radical reorientation. Away from our habitual preoccupation with cell. It is a call to turn toward the wider community of beings. With whom we are connected. And for conduct which recognizes others interests alongside of our own. All the world's major religions he writes stress the importance of cultivating. Love and compassion. Let us now consider the role of compassionate love and kindheartedness. In our daily living. And then he goes on. This then is my true religion. My simple faith. There is no need for a temple. There's no need for a church. Or a mosque or synagogue no need for complicated philosophy or doctrine or dogma. Our own heart our own mind is the temple and the doctrine is compassion. Love for others he goes on and respect for the rights and dignity no matter who or what they are. Is all we need. So long as we practice these virtues in our daily lives. As long as we have compassion for others and construct and conduct ourselves. With restraint. Out of a sense of responsibility. Then there is no doubt we will be happy. There is no doubt the dalai lama says. There's no denying that our happiness is inextricably bound up with the happiness of others. There is no denying that a society suffers we all suffer. Nor is there any denying that. that the more our heart and mind. Are affected with ill-will the more miserable we become. Compassion is the one. Principal. That makes our lives meaningful. It is the source of all lasting happiness. Enjoy. True kindness. To affection through honesty through truth and justice for all others. We ensure our own benefit. The only spiritual practice we need the dolly llama and. Consists of nothing more than acting out and ever. Wider and deeper concern. For other living. Beings. And providing. You you undertake this practice sincerely and with persistent. Little by little step by step you will find. That you enjoy. Peace. And happiness. Yourself. Temple karen armstrong. Charter for compassion in the dalai lama's ethics for the new millennium. And glowing and hopeful and yes idealistic language i know. Call us to a new and intentional spiritual and ethical lifestyle. Mark simply by everyday compassion. And this resonates with every last one of our unitarian. Universalist sensibilities and by the way i wrote the sermon two weeks before alaska fluffle came up. Over. Overby i can't believe it i wrote this in early december. It resonates with everything our congregation is about. All of our beliefs in desperation. Look for just a moment at the seven principles of our faith in your orders of service this morning. These are every one of them principles of connection to and compassion for. The wider human family indeed many of you. As a first and fine instinct may want to go when you get home today right to your computer. And type in charter for compassion and go on the website and sign your name up to the charter of compassion. As i did some seven years ago when i lived in washington d.c. somebody forwarded me this link. I love the idea that without really much reflection. I signed on. But i would have us in this run this morning spiritually slow down for a moment. And realize how very challenging and demanding this call to wider compassion. Really is. I think it behooves all of us to engage and some real personal thought and reflection. Before we put our name. On the dotted line. For the charter of compassion. Because compassion. If it is really to become a central organizing principle of your life. Demands a great deal from us a great deal emotionally. Spiritually and behaviorally it's not to be taken lightly. One way to engage yourself in serious personal thought and reflection about compassion. And the charter. Is the promised yourself to reflect separately over the coming days and weeks. On each sentence of that charter. Just put it at where you have coffee and each morning read one of the sentences and one of the paragraph. What i'm suggesting is before you sign it. You stick with the individual parts of this charter each day over a cup of coffee or tea or some other. Reflective moment and think seriously about what. In your life and behavior will have to change. In order for you to really live up. To that beautiful statement that those people around the world shared with us just now it's not easily done. I know. This i know that as i have personally done this over recent weeks studying the charter for compassion. As much of the clergy of vero beach prepare for our new local initiative compassion zero which i'm going to talk to you about in just a moment. As i reflected on this charter. I realize as generally well-meaning and considerate as i try to be as i move through my daily round. I know my spouse will find this incredibly hard to believe i can fall significantly short. Of the high human standard. That this charter asks of all of us. Let me just take one sentence of the charter as an example. Please read it with me now it is from the first paragraph i'm hoping it can be projected up. Kenneth we have that. Maybe not okay. I assume it's in your blue insert. It begins with the word compassion impales. Compassion. Impulses to work tirelessly. To alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures to dethrone. Ourselves. From the center of our world and put another there. And to honor the inviolable sanctity. Of every single human being. Treating everybody without exception. With absolute justice equity and respect all that should be real simple this week to do all that. I don't know about you but. As i unpack. That demanding sentence it makes me. I realize what an incredible challenges before me while i would like to imagine myself above ever acting selfishly i am throwing myself the center of the world. And while i do try to treat every human being encounter with. Justice equity and respect those are found in ruu principles. The truth is that in my weaker human moments i am perfectly capable. Of acting selfishly. Rudely. Impatiently uneven meanly. Without paying proper consideration. To the needs and the humanity of people around me this is especially true for me. When i find myself and aggravating frustrating or conflicted human situations. I am perfectly capable for example of acting without proper compassion and consideration of another. When confronted by anyone of the following everyday situations. When i'm on the phone for example with the cold and impersonal representative from the cable company. Who after i finally managed to get a real person on the 803. Makes it next to impossible for me to cancel my cable tv contract. Or. One of us deal with the indifferent clerk at the department of motor vehicle who tells me on my third trip to get my renewed license that i actually need one more proof of residency which she failed to tell me about on visits 1 and 2. Or. Running behind the oblivious and selfish person in the grocery store checkout. Who sings perfectly comfortable having me and everybody behind me in line wait while they quickly return to aisle six to get one more item they forgot. Or. What i'm in a passionate argument with somebody at my rotary club. Or at the local clergy gathering. I should i could tell stories. Or even in the neighborhood social gathering when someone who disagrees with me totally about something that really matters to me like the guy at my rotary club. Chris has absolutely no justification for any gun control any regulation of any sort over any weaponry in america. He drives me crazy and i would just assume. With every pore of my being argue him into the ground proving him in a rational fool. Not very compassionate. In all these situations and i will admit others in my daily life what you're not going to hear about. If my bad buttons get pushed and you will have them too. When my bad buttons get pushed i can become impatient. Hostile inconsiderate rude i can be less than compassionate. I love these and other stressful situations i failed to live up to the charter of compassion. I personally confess all this. By way of arguing. With to all of you to not be too quick. To sign the charger. Sit with us for a while think about. What kinds of behaviors you want to change. Are you you will not never have corset even perfect perfectly but please sit with us for a while and really think about it. And think about how you can move your life to a much more compassionate. And humane place now. Let me say this all from a slightly different perspective. I think it behooves all of us. If you decide to sign the charter and i hope most of you will get there. To think of compassion not as an emotion. What is the spiritual practice. Feelings like sympathy and empathy those are emotions. But compassion. Is more of a spiritual practice it is a discipline of daily living it is a holy and purposeful choice. That helps us treat others with the respect to which they are entitled. Think of compassion not as some sort of. Warm guzzi in warm fuzzy emotion. That helps us 20 i love all of humanity know that quartile of humanity its people i can't stand. Not some warm fuzzy emotion that makes you just love everybody. But rather is a cultivated discipline. As a purposeful way of good being. As we strive to live again and again in their daily lives. Most especially in the difficult situations when compassion and kindness. Are ready to elude us. I personally want to remember that i signed the promise of the charter of compassion. Not when i'm in a convenient and comfortable human situation. But when i'm in a difficult or irritating or frustrating one. Like trying to complete that transaction at the motor vehicle department. It has moments of personal stress and unpleasantness is in these moments. Stella want to remember that i have pledged. Purposely make my life a saying. A greater and ever more reliable kindness. And compassion. For everyone i meet no matter how difficult. The circumstances. So i hope that after real and serious reflection you'll consider signing. The charter for compassion you simply go on their website and it says sign on. And put yourself even more than signing and put yourself on that road. Toward building a life of greater care and consideration for all other human beings but again. We should not expect ourselves to achieve this overnight or even ever. If it's a road it's a journey. And what is true. For us perfectly imperfect individuals is also true for us collectively. As a society. It goes without saying that as a society we americans are not as compassionate. Or considerate toward one another as we should be. Surely there can be no doubt. Better all levels of our national life in our neighborhoods. In our cities in our towns and are in every state. And in all these united 50 states. There is not enough compassion and kindness expressed toward all persons. Most especially toward minority populations marginalized. Vulnerable disadvantaged people. Sensing that this is true here in vero beach. And then our local community as good and kind and generous as it can be i've never lived in a more philanthropic place. We nonetheless can fall short. When it comes to the compassionate ideals of the charter. For compassion so members of the local clergy have over the last. Human. Send meeting together to see if we can't find waze. To make life here in the spine community. More kind more inclusive. And more considerate. Do this and three of us. From the local clergy. Rabbi michael birnholtz from temple beth shalom. Reverend dan holloway from the unity church and myself the usual progressive suspects. But there are a few more who helped us in the earlier stages father michael goldberg and some other cars jack deal and you'll be hearing more about them there's some wonderful clergy in this town but the three of us. The rabbi reverend holloway and myself were asked to create a document that would guide this local effort toward making vero beach of heineken. Sittercity maybe someday and every road that comes into vero in addition to the tri-city sign they'll be a sign saying florida's most compassionate city. Wouldn't we love it. I prepared the draft. You see before you. And then the rabbi and mr. hallway. Niggled it a little bit but that's basically my work. Did you see the compassion vero. And by the way the website is not up yet so don't try to go to the website there we we have the domain name but we don't have anything up yet because we haven't even started this yet. First church i think it's hearing about this this morning. And you can see that we're going to see from the vision the means and the needs what we're going to do and i'm certainly not going to read all of that to you. And we're going to ask organization to business leaders and. And all kinds of other people to sign out of this. As you can see our goal is to engage civic leaders and citizens from all sectors of our community. Church the religious institutions wieser. And then governmental bodies such as the city and county councils. All the business and civic organizations public and private school. And the many nonprofit and charitable organization engage this entire community. Define concrete and creative ways to make our community more compassionate. More respectful more inclusive and understanding of all of its citizens. All of its groups. It is our hope that over the coming months and years we will provide. A wide variety of compassion bureau programming. Initiatives and opportunities for people of all ages from every corner of our community and. And we're going to be asking claudia to get the whole school system on board with this every school to become a compassionate more compassionate place. To practice all of us more conclusion and consideration in everything we do and let me just give you a few examples. All of the kinds of initiatives we envisioned. First. Community-wide workshops of peaceful and non-violent communication. To help us learn better ways of interacting with one another. Community-wide days of service where people from all walks of life and fate will go together to do hands-on projects what there already is one every spring in vero beach. Third community-wide conferences on problems that affect our entire community such as our extensive. Local poverty and hunger problem. Almost 20% of our citizens are hungry and poor. Unacceptable high school dropout rate. And the need to support and protect gay lesbian bisexual. And transgender youth and adults. And the persistence in our town and crystal are going to talk about this in two weeks on.mlk sunday. The persistence of racial. An ethnic discrimination. Subtle kind the really hard kind to eradicate. Another thing anti-bullying and anti-harassment campaigns in every school. At every age level. And lastly. Interfaith and multiracial and multicultural events. Which got us positively acquainted with one another's diverse beliefs and traditions. And teach us new appreciation and understanding. No matter whose church is selected. Or synagogue on the paper. On christmas morning. These are just a few of the ways we envisioned working to make vero beach a better and more compassionate community. And we look forward to hearing from all of you as we begin this process. It is my hope that in addition to considering personally signing on to the charter of compassion. And again signing on only after some reflection. It is my hope that members of this congregation will also consider. Getting involved in this new citywide initiative. To make vero beach. A better place. Soon we'll be reading and hearing about our initial efforts and the ways that you can participate. And partner with these efforts. All of this is by way of my saying to all of you. On this first sunday of the brand new year. But i pray. You. Quietly resolved. To make compassion. A spiritual and ethical focus in your own personal life. In the months. And the year. That are to come. Compassion. Given freely. Between persons. Really is the holy glue of this world. It is a holy glue. Which holds us together. And patterns of respect. And understanding. And love that alone have the power to make this tired old world of ours. A much better. And safer place. Happy new year. Let's get to work. And i'm at. It was jesus of nazareth. Set this. My dear people let us love one another. Since love comes from god. And everyone who loves is begotten by god and knows god. No one has ever seen god. But as long as we love one another god will live in us. And god's love will be complete in us. God is love. And anyone who lives in love. Lives in god. And god lives in him. So this is the commandment that god has given us. That anyone who loves god. Must also love. His brother. Go in peace. And do that work.

uufvb_org

2014Mar23Sermon32.mp3

Well good morning. And what a beautiful day it is in the treasure coast last night my bedroom windows were open all night i can hear the night sounds like a great place to live. 3 unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach florida we are glad you've chosen to start your day with us. We were current location as you just saw bonnie. Bored. Open minds loving hearts and helping hands people seeking individual selves. Even is together we work to make our world a better place. And please know that you're welcome precisely as you come to us this morning. Whether you're young or old gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you're feeling absolutely on top of the world or down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We are glad to see you just as you come to us this morning. We hope you'll find our services morning meaningful and enriching that you'll find something here this morning to take with you. To feed your spirit and nourish your soul. And give you renewed energy and joy purpose. For the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. Are opening words this morning. Come from 20th century american poet. Carl sandburg. I was born in the morning of the world. Morning in the valley waiting. Morning in the mountain wanting. Morning looks like people look. Biker cornfield wanting. Play cassie wanting ships. Tell me about beautiful wife. There is your morning. My morning. Everybody's. This picture. Isn't my brother eric alexander this photo of him which appeared on the front page of the local newspaper in grand rapids michigan back when he was a curator. At the city museum there. It is a picture of my quirky. Interesting and smart brother taking an mri of an ancient petrified native american skull. As part of his work. What's museum's collection. In addition to being a museum curator and college teacher. My brother was also an alcoholic. So addicted to the drug of alcohol. But he drank himself to death four years ago. The last time i saw my brother-in-law i was when i visited him at a residential treatment center. In oxnard california where he was trying to break his addiction. To the drug. Which by then had ravaged his body and wreak havoc and all his relationships. Just a few weeks later back in home in grand rapids michigan drinking again. And unable to control his addiction he died alone. At the age of 50. Every year in america addiction to the drug of alcohol kills some. 80000 people. That's 200. 14. Men or women. Every. Single. Is the accomplished american actor philip seymour hoffman widely-acclaimed is perhaps the most. Daring talented. And versatile actor of our time. Another very smart. Interesting and talented person who succumbed. Addiction to drugs just a few weeks ago now. In hoffman's case the deadly drug bust as you all know heroin. Mixed his autopsy revealed. With prescription opiates like oxycontin oxycodone. And vicodin. To which had become addicted years ago. And from which he was able to unable to break free despite repeated treatment. By highly qualified professionals. In the end he like my brother died alone. Both his body and his relationships fraying beneath the unrelenting damage. These drugs inevitably cause. Every year in america addiction to opiate drugs like heroin cocaine and oxycontin. Kill. More than 40,000 people that's 110. Men and women. Every. And this this is a photo. A four guys smoking cigarettes outside a bar i don't know them. I simply shot this photo on the web and couldn't resist it. I know nothing about their particular health situations beyond the obvious observation. Unhealthy addictive habits simultaneously. And we know that regular smoking. Being addicted to the stimulant drug. What is in tobacco nicotine. Is the deadliest of all drug habits known to humanity at least in terms of the sheer number of its victims. Every year in america. More than are you ready for this number. More than every year 400,000 of our fellow citizens died. From habitual tobacco use that's 1100 of our fellow citizens. Lost every. It is estimated by various health studies that regular smoking shortens one life span between anywhere from 10 to 30 years. Indeed one anti-smoking website i consulted point out pointed out that the drug of tobacco which delivers the stimulant nicotine. Kills almost everyone. Who uses it for very long. And now let's move on to discuss the drug. That most of america is talking about and fretting and arguing about these days. I found this mellow fellows picture on the web when i googled pothead. Answer me at least this guy looks like he's clearly under the influence of marijuana. Note the glazed-over eyes and the rather how shall i say this spacey expression. Marijuana. Is a mind and mood-altering drug most americans think somewhere lies between alcohol. And casting. And alcohol caffeine and nicotine. Play somewhere between those drugs. And the so-called hard drugs like heroin cocaine and other opiates. It lies somewhere between them most of us think on the danger addiction scale even though. This drug is hardly ever associated with human fatalities. Indeed when you googled drug deaths in america the number of drafts a deaths attributed. The marijuana last year. Was. 0. A big. Fat. 0. The federal centers for disease control reports about a single american died last year or the year before. From marijuana use. Yet despite these benign statistics. It is a debate over the legalization of marijuana. Whether or not legalization will prove to be a good or a healthy thing. For individuals or for american society as a whole it is this argument that is fiercely dividing america today. Many americans i'm sure many of you. Singsit marijuana. Could be treated and regulated about like alcohol and tobacco are today. As socially acceptable legal drugs produced in tax. Under the watchful eye of government. Illegal for adult citizens if they are used moderately responsibly i think that's. Where is many other americans and surely many others. Believe that marijuana is a powerful. Mind bending and mind stupefying drug which dilutes and diminishes. The human personality. An awesome proves to be a dangerous stepping stone. To the abuse of more dangerous and deadly hard drugs. Which should therefore this argument goes for the safety and health of everyone should remain is unavailable and illegal. As we as a society can make it. Southern debate of course but basically the divide. Is between those who see marijuana as a low-risk essentially harmless drug that should be made legal. And those who see it very much otherwise. A little more than half a year after colorado and washington state legalized the drug for both. Medicinal and recreational purposes about half of the remaining united states. Curiously both in liberal and conservative regions of our country. Are considering legalizing marijuana as well and surely it is only a matter of time. Until the federal government and our elected representatives in washington. Take up this public policy issue as well it's coming as a public policy issue. Across america. And inevitably once the marijuana debate is assumedly settle. In the coming months and years. Surely what will follow is passionate about the legalization. Or at least the decriminalization. Of other more potent. And obviously more dangerous and mind-altering drugs. Trucks. And how we as a society. We'll deal with them. Is a moral and a health issue. That we as americans are going to have to increasingly way and consider. I-41. And passionately convinced. Set the health and wellness of both our society as a whole. An individual americans singularly. Will be affected by what we determine as a society. As both legal and socially acceptable the stakes for this debate. I believe are very high. So this morning as i continue my year-long sermon series exploring some of our cultures. Most persistent and perplexing moral and dilemmas and ethical arguments. I want to see if i can set it least some useful light on this critical debate. And i do so course from unitarian universalist. Ethical and spiritual perspective after all we're here in church this morning this is not on a wednesday lecture at the women's club. Leave the values in the spirit of our religion do speak to this issue. Now i must confess. But as soon as i settle down this this morning. Arduously researching the complicated issues that swirl around drugs in america. I was reminded of the saying. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. But here i am. I quickly realized the reason drugs and whether or not we should legalize them or criminalize them. Are a controversial point of debate because. They're both sound reasonable and coherent argument on both sides. I was going to swiftly. And persuasively settle this issue once and for all from on high. You're going to leave this morning. Vastly disappointed. Given the nuances complexities and crosscurrents. Of the drug issue i believe the clear and simplistic public policy. Probably for a very long time. That's sad let me know venture into some sharing some perspectives that might be helpful to you. As you personally think about the issue as a unitarian universalist. And we're in the coming public policy debate. You're going to stand. First in the name of full and frank disclosure i must tell you that almost everyday of my life i used to. Body altering drugs. And i'm not particularly proud of either have it. Every morning right after i wake up i drink a couple of cups of coffee. Largely for the stimulation the drug testing provides my still sleepy body dear god. I love that first cup of morning joe with my new york times. Even though often make me jittery. And sometimes when i get to the office my staff says it's go down scott. Other end of the day most evenings after work exercise and other activities. I usually drink some alcohol usually beer wine. Largely to relax my body and mind. And what the way i like to think about it take the edge off the day. In my daily life that i have been thoroughly used to non-prescribed. Non-essential drugs. To someone alter how i experienced life and people around me. Now as you know these two drugs caffeine and alcohol are both. More less socially acceptable certainly legal. And arguably if used responsibly and in moderation. Do not significantly harm or endanger people like me. Who takes them. Wisely. Still i'm aware that i'm choosing in a regular basis. To alter the natural state of both my mind and my body by taking these unnecessary drugs. Second if you care nothing else for me this morning here this next paragraph. Ford is really the center and the soul. Of what i'm going to offer you this morning. I believe all the non-medical non-essential mind and body altering drugs we take. All the non-prescribed drugs whether legal or illegal. But either hyper sup or dopest down inevitably it here's the key phrase. Diminish our full and natural and vibrant humanity. Deprive us of some of what we wonder asleep. Here is one of the first and foremost facts of our human being i believe. We were made to walk on this earth and interact with one another upright and proud with clear heads. Healthy bodies at attempted spirits. And drugs that alter that clarity of engagement clearly are not over the long run of our lives. In our best human interest. Let me see it a little differently. We human beings were not meant. To stumble or kareem ordos our way through our days doped and drugged up or down wrecking cars and careers. Marriages and families along. The way. At our full matural human best. We are alert. Sober. Engage interacting with our world with just as much clarity and enthusiasm. As we can muster. That. What we were made. Served over the last 40 years of my ministry i repeatedly reaffirm my belief. But the religious life is all about mindfully devoting yourself. To building. Full and healthy relationships in life. Religion religare a build-up relationships bind up. Relationships of depth and passion and caring enjoy with self with others with nature. And with the great mystery of the whole. The song called god. It seems to me. An undeniable truth. Set the regular use of most presently. Illegal. Mind and body altering drugs. Diminishes our natural ability to form and keep robust. Healthy. Life satisfying relationships. With both life. Within a round. I believe it is just that pure and just that simple. I recently discussed all of this with one of our members here. Who is lauren going to member of aa working on his own sobriety and health. He said to me that he personally believes that habitually using drugs. Whether it's alcohol or marijuana or heroin. Inevitably lead to now i called him. To a slow subtle erosion. Of who you are as a person. In a very provocative recent editorial in the new york times entitled we'd been there done that. David brooks was a celebrated speaker here just a few years ago at the emerson center. He suggested by legalizing marijuana in this time. The states of colorado and washington are and now i quote him. Nurturing amoral ecology. In which does a bit harder. To be the sort of person. Most of us want to be. Repeat that. States are nurturing a moral ecology in which is a bit harder. To be the sort of person. Most of us want to be. Brooks talks about his own teenage experimentation with marijuana with his friends. And says his eventual rejection of the habit. We didn't give up for the obvious health reasons. About one out of six teenagers that smoking and driving is a good way to get yourself killed. The young people to smoke go on to suffer iq loss and perform worst on other worse on other cognitive test. We didn't even give it up brooks said. Because. One of the smartest guys in our group became addicted to weed and sunk. Deeper and deeper into the life of a pothead. We gave it up you said because most of us developed. Higher pleasures. Most of us figured out early that's smoking weed doesn't make you funnier. Or more creative. And then he points out academic studies confirm that you really aren't funnier or smarter when you do do. We graduated he writes. Two more satisfying pleasures. The deeper sources of happiness usually involve a state of going somewhere. Becoming better at something. Learning more about something overcoming difficulties experiencing a sense of satisfaction or accomplishment in your life. Legalizing marijuana is not good social policy he conclude. Legalizing weed citizens of washington and colorado. Are indeed enhancing individual freedom. Brooks points out. What sort of individuals individuals behaviors. Governments want to encourage. I would say he goes on. 7 healthy society government want to subtly tip the scale in favor of temperate. Prudence. Self-governing. Citizenship. In those societies he concludes. Government encourages the higher pleasures. Like enjoying the arts. Or being out in nature. And discourages lesser pleasures. Like being stoned. Look. Like david brooks i do not regard marijuana is some sort of great and dangerous societal scourge. But instantly destroys your brain. Makes you an apathetic pothead or even leads inevitably. To harder and decidedly more deadly drugs like heroin or cocaine. Marijuana in my view can be used moderately and safely and responsibly. Much like alcohol is used by millions upon millions of america. And doesn't necessarily function i don't think. As a stepping stone drug leading to heroin and cocaine abuse. Although i have absolutely no use for this drug myself. I personally know people who occasionally use it. To no real apparent personal or societal detriment that at least i can discern. But i do believe again as i have already approved this morning that in the overview spiritually. Okay. We are far better off as human beings when we steer clear of medically unnecessary. Mind and body altering drugs as much as possible we're just better off. Speaking personally. Personally discourage any young people say the children of my nieces and nephews. Am i extend my extended family from ever developing a marijuana heaven. Again that we do not need for medical reasons. Diminished of the clarity of our perceptions and engagement. And i think the quality ultimately in the satisfaction we find in all our relationships. Through our five senses. David brooks i'm not personally persuaded. Set the quotes pole cultural acceptance and total legalization of drugs unquote. Is it good thing for either of us individually or for the society. In fact i would say that i generally would discourage. Drug use even my own limited drug use. Final point this morning. While i am not based on what i have already affirmed. Obviously in favor. Full and unequivocal societal acceptance. Illegal acceptance. Of the drugs currently banned in the united states i am in favor. And i do not believe this to be an ill logical contradiction. I am in favor of systematically decriminalizing. Their possession and use. I believe the so-called american war on drugs. Which federal state and local governments have been waging in our country for the last several decades. Has been an unmitigated. And costly social and legal failure. Our societies criminalization of drug possession and used by means of harsh. Legal penalties and long prison sentences. Has filled our prisons. Has increased crime. Has cost billions upon billions of dollars that could have been otherwise used. For societies benefit like universal healthcare. It has wrecked social and family having especially in for minority communities. Has created illicit drug cartels and their mayhem all over the world. All well totally failing. Totally fail. To curb drug use and drug deaths. In every sector of our american society. I believe that rather than criminalizing drug use and punishing those who fall under its spell. We need to focus our societal efforts. An effective and systematic education and treatment. Let me give just one example of what this compassionate. Chef. Of emphasis. Might look like this new way of thinking about drugs. And those who use them. In spite of our masley. Massive and costly war on drugs. Heroin use in the united states right now is soaring. Thanks to the ever-expanding supply of this drug produced by the violent drug cartels. In mexico. In just the last six years despite our massive interdiction efforts. And harsh penalties. The number of heroin users in united states. Has almost doubled increasing her about 375,000 citizen. To 600. 20000 citizen. Almost one in five hundred of our american citizens. Are hooked on here. 1. 5. Switzerland. Which has shifted its national drug policy to emphasize education and treatment. Rather than criminalization and imprisonment. Heroin use has gone in the opposite direction. It is dropped dramatically. In the late 1990s you may not know the swiss people tired of having their parks. And they're real weigh stations bustling with iv drug users and sellers. And watching both crime and hiv infection rates or all over switzerland about 15 years ago. The swiss people approved referendum. To decriminalize heroin use and possession. Is set up heroin addiction treatment programs or programs. The provide treatment on demand. A clean and accessible state-run heroin clinics. Where chronic addicts can receive free medicine. Anytime well it was scheduled anytime they wanted they can have it. As a result of the shift in public policy away from punishment and toward education entry. They do try a course to work with the drug addicts. 22 and their yearning for it. The positive results. Of this policy of this shift in policy haven't staggering. The number of heroin addicts in switzerland has dropped by about 4% a year. An incidence of death from drugs and hiv infections from needles dropped even more dramatically. And not one patient in the program. Not one patient in the swiss program has ever died of a heroin overdose. Assumedly because the quality of the drugs they get from the government. Is fiercely regulated. Handmade safe. The swiss approach has resulted in lower crime rates. Disease. As well as improve their nation's rate of mental and physical health. Employment and housing. The program is also pulled the rug out from underneath the illegal black market. Until the smugglers and the sellers who wants clog the swiss street and train station. Have moved. Elsewhere. And because. The medicalization program has tarnished the image and the allure of heroin by making it look like you've got some disease you have to go to the state for it has become less attractive to young people. And finally for the fiscal conservatives among you the swiss government saves $38. Per patient. Mostly because of lower police. Court and prison expenditures. They're saving millions of dollars. Every year as a nation. By the shifter. Now this is important to know. The goal of the space program. Are not to cuddle or enable or encourage the users. But rather to help the addict. Free hammer herself. From the grip of heroin. And enable his or her return to full and productive living that is the goal they want people off drugs and they work very hard to get them off of heroin. The average swiss. Patient in the program is only there for 3 years. But it must be acknowledged that some have not gotten off the drug they stay on the drug indefinite. Clear success of these programs in switzerland and other your other european nations germany. Have all created similar programs with similar positive results and now spain belgium and canada are all experimenting with a similar shift away from criminalization. To education and treatment. I am persuaded. But if we americans spent just a fraction of what we now stand on drug drug interdiction and criminalization on drug education and treatment as a swiss have. We could significantly reduce the number of american drug addicts and drug deaths. We could prevent countless young people from starting on those destructive habits. We could greatly reduce local street and international crime. We could greatly reduce our prison populations and we started to decriminalize some of this is you know. Because we had the highest prison rate as you know anywhere in the world. And that we could also help poor and minority communities break the cycle of drug dependence and violence. Which will reduce crime stabilize families and strengthen employment and the economy all that is required. Is a shift. In our thinking. As a society. Removing away from criminals ation. Toward. Education and treatment now. As i've already said. Four overarching spiritual psychological and societal reasons. I'm not david brooks pursley enthusiastic. About american society totally accepting. Or totally encouraging. Marijuana use. Supporters of the new decriminalization laws. In colorado and washington state are right. This change in public policy. May save billions now spent by our government. In the war against pot. It will bring millions upon millions of new tax dollars to the coffers of the state. Money that could be spent on other pressing social needs. It will essentially and the illegal and frequently dangerous street sale of the drug and rid us of drug dealer crime. It will reduce the sale of the drug the teenagers. It will ensure the drugs purity safety and consistency. It will greatly reduce the price of marijuana. It will lower street crime now associated with marijuana use. It will significantly reduce our prison population. And put it into the current. Disproportionately a criminal prosecution of black. And hispanic and other minority users. Of the drug. I realize that the two main points i am advocating this morning. Being. To discourage it as a culture. And to decriminalize it as a culture. That may seem. The contradiction there. This for that is where i believe health and wholeness for both our society and all our citizens lies. This is i think the wisdom and the genius of the swiss approach. As a society heroin use. Demonize reject or punish those. Who fall victim to its addiction. Personally i am persuaded by the arguments made by those who advocate that us drug policy must make. Interdiction and criminalization to education and treatment while still in always discouraging the drug use and decriminalizing at the same time. Well. I covered a lot of complicated and potentially controversial ground this morning. And i'm certain i've only scratched the surface of many of this issues thorny and vexing realities. Reservoir for any of you who want to talk about more. Continue this conversation to do so in this room in about 11 2025. I am positive. That many of you have perspectives that either des differ or disagree with those i have express this morning. I have not given voice to some things this morning that should be acknowledged. Or argued or affirm. As i've said many times. The sermons i offer you on sunday mornings do not end with a.. What's a,. And we're going to do that, stuff. Right after church this morning. In the days and years ahead. America will be fiercely debating drugs. And how best to manage and control them for the good of persons and society as a whole. Because we are unitarian universalists who care passionately. About the worth and dignity of every person. And the health of our society and its future. We must be engaged in this conversation. This is a religious issue. This is an ethical and spiritual issue. We cannot avoid because. Much. Is at stake. Perhaps this morning. Will get us started on that important journey. Figuring out. How we as a people. Must intelligently. And compassionately respond. To the many drunks. They're all around. And i say i mean. With a,. Sandeson benediction. I don't know the author. Speak the truth. Respect. Care for your body. It's a wonderful gift. Live simply. Be of service. Guided by your face not by your fear. Golytely. On your path. Walk. In a sacred manner. God bless you all.

uufvb_org

2014Dec28Sermon128.mp3

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

uufvb_org

2012Oct28Sermon128.mp3

You know what these are. These are the gloves i had to wear on my bike to work this morning. For the first time in eight months that's what these are. I hope you all enjoyed the. Cooler weather. My name is scott alexander and the minister of this fine current gation and welcome to the first unitarian. Universalist fellowship of vero beach. We're glad you've chosen to be with us this morning. Please know you're welcome just as you come to us. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight. Black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you were feeling on top of the world this morning or down in the dumps know that you are welcome just as you come to us and all of your particularly in charm. We hope you find our service meaningful and enriching this morning. I think you'll find something here that nourishes your spirit. And feed your soul and gives you renewed energy and zest for the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. Opening words this morning. Come from dan hotchkiss. Something he wrote that was printed in the uu world publication of april 2003. Call money and spirit. It's time to talk about money. Church. And he wrote. Money is a spiritual challenge. It arouses great depths of passion. Inoss. And requires the best of us in moral reasoning and courage. Money is a medium of power through which we act. And are acted upon. A spiritual life that does not concern itself with money. Can have little effect on our daily lives. Especially. In a culture as saturated by financial forces as h a. Strong feelings about money threatened to preoccupy us. Jamatt lacking. Pride and having it. Fear of losing it. Compulsive eagerness to spend it. What does delight in hoarding it. Each of these feelings has a moral and a spiritual dimension. At worst. Dream can render us. Unconscious of our kinship with god's family. Tried to make us feel like gods ourselves. Fear can take away the courage requisite for moral action. Compulsive spending. Like compulsive hoarding. Turns our attention toward ourselves. That way from the well-being of others. At its best though. Money can be a spiritual plus. Money earned for useful work is an encouraging simba. Of our worthiness and our value. The thoughtful use of money. Spending. Saving. Investing. Giving. It's an effective way to care for others and realize our visions. Of a better world. Everyday experience confirms a strong connection. Between faith. And money. Money plays a central role in virtually all important ethical decisions. The way we earn and spend and give away our money shapes in large part. The memories. We leave behind. Money may not be sacred. But when we approach the sacred in our lifetime. Money is almost always nearby. Doubles. And the most heinous acts of cruelty have this in common. Money is the most frequent medium. Through which the act is done. The most soul-destroying vices. And the most in nobiling spiritual disciplines. Both require. Free. Time. Which alarms are cyattie cost money. What excuse can we have for skittering around the subject. Or for dealing with a superficially in a house of worship. Let me repeat that. What excuse can we have. For skittering around the subject of money. In a house of. Ralph lauren. Waldo emerson says. Money. Which represents the pros of life. And which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology. Is. And it's affection laws. As beautiful as roses. This morning i asked you to close your eyes with me for a few moments. And think about planting roses. In your garden of life. Good morning. Good morning my sisters. Good morning my sisters. I see the guy sitting with their mouth shut. I'm going to try this again good morning my sisters. Okay let me explain. You know how you put your right hand over your heart to pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america. Guys put your hands over your stomach. There is a belly button there. That belly button represents the x. Chromosome you got from your mama. That's your feminine energy you know what i mean. Okay. So you're half woman. You have my sister. Okay just half of you is my sister. The other half is not listen to me anyway you probably. But this have i want you to get her out of the binder and into the service. And i'll try it again good morning my sisters. That's what i'm looking for. Now sisters. Who have two axes. Sometimes we forget that we got annex from our daddy's mama. She's a powerhouse. She had to raise boys she had to raise sons. Do you know what it takes. For a woman to raise a son how tough she has to be. I'm turning because i promised the choir they wouldn't have to look at my back all morning. So when we say good morning again this time sisters bring out that. Woman and you okay. Good morning my sisters. There it is. Now the reason is so important that. We bring her out. And release her especially this morning. As i talk to you about money honey. Is because she has a very. Port. Hard to play. In my message. You've already heard a part of it from. Gloria. Thank you. I'm old and. My internal. Computer is full of information 75 years worth. And i haven't figured out how to plug in. The external computer so that i can remember all these things so you had to help me with claudia this morning but you don't have to help me with money honey i got that one down pat. You noticed in her story what was the renault service called. And was the rhinoceros she or he. Ashy. And we sang this morning about. Mother. Okay. If every. Every woman in the world. We're going to talk about her a lot today. And one of the reasons. Is because there is a man. Or he was living his name was reverend ike. I don't know if any of you know who evan ike was. Raymond scott news. Oh you had a fleet of cadillacs. The match the suits that he wore. On various sundays when he spoken is $600,000. Churchome back in the. 40s and the 50s. But one of the things he said about money. Is. Money swore an oath. That those who did not love her. Could have her. Money. Swore an oath. That those who did not love her. Could have another words if you didn't love her. You couldn't have her. And what that means in terms of money this morning is. If you don't love it. She's going to leave you. You know how fickle we women can be you said it over and over. And if you don't love us we will leave if you don't odorous will go find someone who does. If you don't shower up with shower us with compliments. And perfume and diamonds. Why do we want to stay. When we can go find a place where we will be loved. And adored. And treated like harrell. Treated every sunday as her husband. Just loved her. Carelink going nowhere. No i know some of you may be thinking yeah i know. But. There's this thing about money being the root of all evil. For the love of money being the root of all evil i just want to sing a little ditty to you before i. Debunk. That myth. Because that myth. Is results. Something that we do often. It's about the way we think about money. And the did he goes like this. Thoughts are things. Thoughts are things. Every little thought to us. It brings. Happiness or misery. On its wings. Thoughts. Ar. Install.. Ar. Where do you agree with me. Thoughts are things. Thoughts are things. Every little thought to us death braids. Happiness or misery on its wings cuz sauce are. Thoughts. Ar. Want to join us. Thoughts are things. Thoughts are things. Every little thought to us the spring. Happiness or misery on its wings cuz thoughts are. Thoughts. Cr7. Just try that part. Okay now about money. Cuz i haven't stopped talking about money actually. This thing about. Money being the root of all evil. Would love of money being the root of all evil. Either one. Is incorrect. It's a misprint. It's a misinterpretation. Remember last sunday. What's your friend's name. Thank you. Reverend rodger fritz talk to us about. How jesus became divine. It was in the same manner that we're going to choose the president in a couple of weeks. Going to go to the polls and vote. The only difference is constantine told the people how to vote. He told the priest vote on this and that's it. And that's how jesus became divine. Popular vote. Coerced vote. No in our scriptures. I know it's raggedy. But it's been with me a very long time. And this is the schofields annotated. Version of the king james. Revision of constantine. Bible. And the only. Bible that i have found. That has a slightly different take on first timothy. 610 i think that's the right. I told you about what's going on up here so you can look it up when you get home. Islam's version. Because long's is version. Actually went back to the language peshitta of the village where supposedly jesus. Was raised. But all the other bibles have the same thing. The thing about scofield. Annotated you can't see it from there. But. Have it on the table out there in the fellowship hall if you want to see. In this bible. Every. Word. Has a number by it. Except and the an a. Things like that. But. Every word is bible has been researched. By team of men. To find out. What the actual meaning was. Where that word. And then this man strong. Took all of those definitions. And put them in this. Exhaustive concordance. I don't usually carry this around you can see why. The print is too small. Have to have a magnifying glass i brought one in case you want to look at it. And you look up the number. Old testament hebrews 1 place. New testament. Greek is another place. They. They have said. That in that verse. The love of money is the root of all evil. The word is not actually love. But. What is a choir. Avarice. Which means. Greed. That does not make more sense. The greed for money is the root of all evil. Because love is supposed to be healing balm. If you love something. That's supposed to heal it. George washington carver you know who he is a peanut man. Discovered all those uses for peanuts and sweet potatoes every time you go to the post office and lick a stamp to put on your envelope. That's george washington carver sweet potato. Stuff on that. That's the clue. That's how we got blue. He said. If you love something enough. It will reveal its secrets. If you love something enough. It will reveal its. Steven that's how he got. How he discovered all those inventions. Because he would just go out into the field with his love for. And they would tell him. What to do. 300 something inventions. Peanut. 200 and something from. Sweet potatoes. And other things. So if we love something enough. We can heal it. And let it reveal its secret. If we love money. It will reveal its secrets. And not only that. But it's money male or female. Who said female thank you art. I'm going to ask a question again now that you told him the answer is money male or female. Oh you saying it's so soft i already told the revanite said. Money for notes. That those who did not love. Her. Could have her. But not only did ribbon i'd say that. In the woman's encyclopedia miskin secrets. You look under the word money you'll see that the word comes from. Dunno monett. Monett. Money. And money was made in her temple. And it was blessed. Before it was sent out into the world before it was used. They blessed the money they love the money they sent out of vibration of goodness on money in those days. From her temp. Can you imagine. What your vibrations of goodness. Can do to this thing called money. And how it can change. Economic crisis that we're dealing with today. This this economic crisis. Is not something. That wall street created. Hate to tell you that. It's not something that deregulation created. Thoughts are things. And for a very long time in this country. We've been saying all kinds of things that it becomes self-fulfilling prophecies. One of those is rich get richer. And what else. And how long we've been saying that. Forever. Maybe you didn't say it but you heard it you laughed at it you bought into it. And what happened over these years. The rich have gotten. And the poor are getting. And now we've got 2% and 98%. And we're still saying. And we're still saying money is the root of all evil. And we're still saying the love of money is the root of all evil. And if you have been. I don't want to say guilty but if you didn't know any better. That you participated in this economic crisis. Well. If you help make it you can help undo it. And you don't need anyone else to help you do this. All we have to do. Is make friends. With money. I have some ideas for you. Because i didn't always know. That the love of money was not. The root of all evil. My mother. Who was the minister. Taught me. The bible. But she also taught me something else. Very interesting. She said. Nothing you know what this is. By any chance if i know what this is. Try something else other than. Not molasses. Honey. See it says on here clover honey i know you can see that. My mom taught me that nothing. No bacteria. Norovirus. Good living honey for more than 72 hours. Did you know that. Ivener sapir. Is there a doctor in the house. Bob did you know that. I was going to get validation. But you can go on the internet. Go on the internet and you can get. For yourself. In fact there is a honey that they've discovered. Very recently. That is called super honey and that's what you want to look up on the internet. The super honey will kill the superbugs at the antibiotics that have been created can kill. Because. Nothing. Bad no bacteria. Can live in honey. For more than 72 hours. And what does this have to do with money. Well. When i discovered that i was. I feel my head. With so many. Thought. That were chasing money away from me. Like i said like. Chasing women away. From us. Keeping our. Powerful women. Depressed. Keeping her in the closet not letting her out. Do work for us. Not letting her all to go and get. Her cousins and uncles and aunts in the form of money into bringing them to me. When i realized that i had made that. Mistake. I took my mother's advice. she didn't tell me about honey. To clean my thoughts. But i figured what you on one plane was two on all planes. If honey. Would heal a wound on my body. It ought to heal the wounds in my head. So. I took the honey. I took a jar. I get to show off my purse. And i decided. That i would cleanse. My fault. About money. By creating a symbol. To look at. So every time i looked at it. I would think about. The love. That money is good to me. You know. Before you can have a wife. Or lover. We women want to be. Friends. So. I did this to make friends with money anybody have some money that they can just. Give me for this example and i won't give it back to you. Yeah. Anything here's some money here. Thank you. I'll take all that you want to get me. Oh i meant if anybody else wanted to give me some money.. Wouldn't be upset about that. I put the money in a jar. And i decided to take the stuff that would cleanse the bacteria. And i poured it over the money. Well i was thinking about. Cleaning my mind. With thoughts like. Ain't nobody out there anyway do this economic crisis. Self-fulfilling prophecy. I don't have any money. I don't even have two nickels to rub together. So. Feeling proud. There are some people who are filthy rich. Self-fulfilling prophecy let me tell you about being filthy rich. How many of you work. Go to work. And those whose hands are not how many of you ever worked. Why. Where to go to work. You would go to work on monday early two hours you get up two hours before time to go to work. Work all day on monday. Rush home in if you work. From the binders. You would go home and fix dinner for your children. Get their clothes ready helping with their homework. Get your lunch ready for tomorrow get your clothes ready for tomorrow jump in the bed so you can get up the next day. And go back to work and do the same thing every day from monday to friday. And then on saturday you would jump up early cuz she had to clean the house yet to clean the bathroom had to go shopping had to wash clothes. Etcetera etcetera get your clothes laid out to go to church on sunday rush to church. Come home from church. Iron get your clothes ready for the next ingredient to work over and over and over week after week why. To make this evil thing called money. It's a necessary evil. Isn't that a horrible reason. To do it what if we were loving. The money instead and loving our work. And loving it when we give. Loving the money puts a whole new vibration on. And if you come out to the table. Today. I'll show you $5 that i've had in. A money honey jar for 10 years. It looks different. It's not a whole different vibration on it. It looks like it's love. It wasn't stuffed in the pocket. Like sometimes we. What if you stuff your woman in the pocket. Would she want to stay with you. What you going to get her cousins and uncles and aunts. Come to you. But if you love her money if you love your money if you treat your money like. The rhinoceroses name. If you treat your money like great. Not only was she serve you well. But you want. Stay with you. You don't have a problem making money it's. Holding onto a little bit longer. But in terms of holding on there has to be balance to that too. Circulation is the key. Malachi said in. The old testament. Bring your money bring your ties. The storehouse. Lot of people don't want to give 10% of their money to the. Cuz he want to hold on to it but they'll pay their taxes. The telephone bill. Sometimes they don't think about how the church needs. Toilet paper. Paper towels. Light bulbs. We can't pay the telephone bill. With a smile. Okay. When you give your money. If it's loved money. And you have the vibration of love on it. Everybody who touches. Will be touched. By your love. The church. The telephone company. Comcast. The. Presidential nominees. Not calling any names. All of them. The lobbyist we saw a movie here. Icicle in the name of those brothers in that movie we saw. Coke yeah. They'll be touched by your love by the energy you put on the money. But the thoughts that you think. And if you take the time. To make friends. With money. To call it sweet names. Just to look at this. I have jars all over the house. People come in they want to know what are they. What's my money honey jar. I play with it. To keep me reminded that i do want to be friends. With money and i do want money to love me. And if you will make friends with money. The choir is going to tell you. What money. Will say. To you. Not understand the choir. Is representing money. And it's going to give you a message. From. Loved. Money. That was that was your cue oh yes. Okay thank you so much honey i know you got it. I'll be loving you. How love that's true. Nothing. Oway. Day is may not be fun. Not for just a year but always. Once you're on the road. To making friends with money. You can expect money. To converse with you. In fact money will not only listen to you and talk with you. But money will also. Sing to you. And when the media says to you the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. You can say. That's not for me. Because i love. Money. And she will call her sisters and brothers and uncles and aunts and cousins and friends who will come running to you. Because emma curtis hopkins says. Everything is moving towards love. If you keep money in your heart. With love. And keep your thoughts. Embracing money. With love. And treat her. With love. Money will want to stay with you. And this is how you can help turn this economic crisis. Into a crisis of greed melting. And reforming itself. Into divine circulation. There is enough money in the world for everyone to have some. If all who have some will circulate it. Your circulation of honey bunny. Love money. Will make money come to you. And. To you. We hope that you will. Take this with a smile. Real roses. In your garden. Real rose bushes full of money. In your garden. We hope that you will allow money to bless you. Allow life to bless you. And be a blessed representative of the goodness. And with those words. We bring our service.

uufvb_org

2014Jul13Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. And welcome to a bright and beautiful summer day. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we're so glad you've chosen to be with us this morning. We are congregational open minds. Loving hearts. And helping hands. Sleeping seeking to become our. Best selves even as we work together to make a better world. Please welcome. Just as you come to us this morning. What are your young or old. Black or white or some other. What do you have a ph.d. Whether you're a visitor this morning member here for decades and what are your feeling on top. We're delighted to see you just as you come to us. The service meaning. And feed your soul. 10 gives you renewed energy and joy. For the living of life. In the days and the weeks ahead of us. Kind of in the spirit of taoism. Jeremiah opening words. Welcome all questioning minds. Welcome all hungry hearts. Welcome all opening. Welcome to those of you who know. Thank you. Welcome those of you who don't. Don't. No. You know. Welcome those of you who wish you didn't know whatever it is you know. Welcome. Welcome to those of you who think somebody else knows more than you do. And i say this one with special affection. Welcome to those of you who've forgotten new. Welcome. In the spirit of the great unknown. And unknowable. When scott. Ask me to do this this summer and then said that he understood was that you all wanted a serious one world religions. I said will could you identify a few people in the congregation who had some experience with each of those religions. Because i'd like them to participate in the service and so this morning i'm delighted that bonnie howard is sharing the service. And we'll do a sharing this morning. Good morning. Taoism. What stages of said about dow. Is that nothing can be said about it. The dow is something for mostly fashion. Before heaven and earth existed. Pervading connecting. Encompassing all things. We have this heaven with anna. And to unite with dowel. We need only look inside. The way. Represents both the source and the driving force behind everything. It's both a noun and a verb. Not just simply being. But rather one of action. To identify with the one must be free. From selling war. And the slaughter of animals. Living in absolute simplicity. And possibly refusing to assert authority over one another. Or over nature. Peace cannot be attained. And aggressively creating enemies. Enriching our nation. Wesoo weaponry to 138 countries. Perpetuating enormous blood profits. And fear. Presents a path to peace. Correcting misperceptions through understanding and compassion. Acknowledging our shared father creator. The doctrine of one god was part of early chinese religions and the dow contain the most monotheistic truth. Intertwined. Representing nature with slow gentle movements. Keeping the body fluid and flexible. Coordinating physical emotional and spiritual energy the practitioner becomes a line. With universal flow. Considering their enormous population chi gong is supported by chinese government. Wisely preventing. Profit first. Medical interventions. Practical and responsible ways to live are encouraged. Preserving health. Leading to immortality. The principles of taoism inspired me to begin classes at the welcoming uu fellowship. Which is having a blessed impact on my life. In many realms. I'm finding it less appealing to eat. The ignored violence. On my dinner plate. Or to support killing in any form. The dow teaches me to value. And embrace all of life fully. Dial wants to work through me and you. To set aside selfishness and orient ourselves with the universal will. The benefit all of humankind. Join with me. In eating from god's table in such a way that supports planetary health. And together. May we nurture the true and effective path. Two-piece. I bow. The indescribable doll. According to tradition. Who was born on a farm in hanan province in 604. Before the common era. His name means the old master. After a long career at the court of the emperor. Lotsa became disgusted with court life resign. And then according to legend. He decided to flee society for the unknown west. Riding in a cart drawn by two black oxen. Came to a border outpost. And they're so the story goes. The gatekeeper recognized for sage and begged him to stay long enough. To write down. The main points of his philosophy. Lots of greed and in a few days he composed. And then he vanished over the mountain pass. Never to be seen again. The teachings. We're quiet. And gentle. A simple man. Content of nature. Carry him peacefully through life. And from this chart. Lots. Said it was impossible. To give. His faith. Inexact. Description. A dialog that legend says took place between luxor and his contemporary confucius. We have a little time today said confucius. May i ask you what is. The great now. Do this. Give a ceremonial bath to your mind. Cleanse your spirit. Throw away your sage wisdom. How is dark and elusive. Difficult. To describe. Well there's no way that i'm going to challenge you on that one this morning my cast rather is to try to explain. Not explain. Or fidel. But what i'm going to do today and in the whole series is to try to share with you that particular gifts but that tradition in this case.. Has given to my life and understanding. End of all this phone plan for this summer. This is actually the most awkward for me. Because of the traditions that will be looking at really the only one with which i have. No first-hand experience. Well i've been around unitarian-universalist and others who have found meaning in dallas concepts and ideas. I've neither spoken directly with a taoist or experienced a living taoist culture. So what you're going to hear from me is seriously limited by the fact that i'm just looking through a window. I have not been. In the house. I think we probably have to start with some kind of common understanding of the word. It is as bonnie began to describe considered the ultimate reality that underlies all things. Similar to the core concepts of most religions. We can try to talk about the doll but ultimately it is. Indefinable. It seems to have. 3. Essential parts. Transcendence. Eminence. Practical implications for living. Is all three of the same time. It is ultimate reality. The source. Mystery. The ground of existence. Is the ordering principle in life. Rhythm of the universe. The driving power in nature. Dial is the way in which we all interact. In harmony. Like some of the words in the first him. Is dynamic always moving always changing. Rather. Then a static. Idea. From the twin concepts of yin and yang. I suspect these concepts in high school. But i don't think that i really engaged with the concepts with any real understanding until some years later. Movement. Ultimately cyclical. Moving from one pole. To its opposite. And back again in constant interplay. Is maintained. The constant flow of vital energy or. She has it is called. Yen. And yeah. Represent the two poles or forces. Manifest in every aspect. The flow of movement within a circle. Aura cycle. Now yang is traditionally associated with such ideas is. Masculine. Paternal. Bright. Firm. Above. Heaven. Active. Movement. Rational. Clear. Warm. Dry. Positive. So if you've ever seen. Tai chi. Feminine. Maternal. Dark. Yielding. Below. Earth. Recept. Rest. Intuitive. Complex. Cool. Moist. + -. So. Yang is the strong creative action of the ruler. Yen is the quiet. Contemplatively stillness. Upstage. And even the body. Hasina's yin and yang. The body surfaces in. Well the inside is yellow. The front is in. Well the back is yang. Each organ. Is either yin or yang. The concept became so important to me that i miliar yen wearing over 30 years ago. And i'm only not wearing it now. Because i need to have it resized again. The ring is in fact. Very old. A simple band of rose gold it was my paternal grandmother's wedding ring. And i never met her. Pneumonia 1924 when my father was barely six years old. But i've always felt a strong connection with her. And when my father gave me her wedding band is a gift. I knew that i would always wear it. Though i had to size it down. It does continue to have her initials inside. And i had the symbol added to the band. From the beginning. You're all familiar with the symbol that i'm talking about. Symbols of circle. Within the circle there are two equal parts. One dark. One light seem to balance each other. And i. More. .. I deliberately wore my world religions. Dallas kimball here. Each part of a necessary whole. Polarity suggestions. That both ends are necessary to the continuance of the whole. Opposition on the other hand has tended to imply judgement. But one must overcome the other. Life struggling against daffy and so on. Most of the time when we think of these two principles. We tend to want to cultivate one. And rid ourselves of the other. Western. Technology places out beautifully for us in our efforts to make the world a better place. To provide pleasure. Without pain. Well without poverty. Health without illness. Good without evil. Literally celebrates this delusion. View this is kind of a crazy enterprise it's a bit like. If one disappears. The whole system goes. Simply as different aspects of the same essential system. While they are not opposed. They do exist intention. And. Kippah system dynamic. There is a second point to notice about the yin-yang symbol. Within the life-form. There is a small. Dark point. And when the dark form. There is a small light point. This expresses the basic truth. Exist the seed of its contrary. Within death. Is the seed. Of rebirth. With in winter. Is the seed of summer. Why we celebrate the idea of new life with the coming of spring. The do we celebrate at the beginning of winter time. Because they're in hibernate. Proceed. In many ways i find this a deeply pastoral idea. With great potential to offer strength. In a time of distress or suffering. Beginning ian constantly and retired each other. As one aspect reaches fullness the other. Is simply gathering its own potential. And will soon emerge. It's important to note that yin and yang are mutually generative. And supportive. Interdependent. Is alan watts once said they represent an explicit. Duality expressing an implicit. Unity. These dual concepts have made their way into the language of our culture. But so i think has been a great deal of a misunderstanding about what they actually are. Take for example our understanding of masculine and feminine. Too often i think we lose sight of this fundamentalist daoist understanding. Masculine and feminine are two necessary part of a whole. Equal. And balanced. Mutually generative. And that each contains apart. Of the other. So as gift to me from taoism is the concept of will we. A guide for living in tune with the interdependent web. Will we has been translated as both non-aggressive action. Creative. It's both activity. And relaxation and the balance between them. It's not forcing. It's just. Going. With the flow. She is based on the belief that true creativity comes only when the resources of the inner self are released. And for that to happen. The surface cell for the conscious mind must let go. Nothing can be forced. Private egos and conscious efforts must yield to a higher power. To the flow of the eternal law of the dow. Once in tune with harmonious behavior. Will spontaneously follow. And praises yielding. Simplicity and economy. Spontaneity. And the sense of wonder. Relativity. And proportion. Action follows be. And stronger action. Will follow new. And stronger being. The real secret. Of what we. Is sticking out the empty spaces in life and nature. And then. Moving through them. Wonderful story of a butcher. Who's clever did not get dull. For twenty years. When asked how he managed the butcher said. Between the bones. Every joint. There is always some space. Otherwise they could be no movement. By sticking out this space and passing through it. Mike leaver lays why the bone. Without. Touching them. For me. This is a little something like what happens in meditation. Seeking out the spaces between heartbeats. Between breaths. And being present to that place. Letting ourselves expand out into that. Or for any of you like me who play a wind instrument. Remembering the importance of paying attention to the space between notes. And keeping the flow of air steady as onenote. Turns into another. Dallas reject all forms of self-assertiveness and competition. The axe falls first on the tallest tree that would say. They have no use for aggressive acts toward others or nature. Even in the martial arts. Well we is the guiding philosophy. Yield. To an aggressor. And let the forceful energy be turned around on itself like a boomerang. Unitarian universalist seventh principle. Respect for the interdependent web of existence. For me captures the essence of willoughby. Nature is not something. Apart. Or other from. Something to be control. Dominated. The scaling of mount everest is still and always referred to as the conquest. Conquest of everest. Swiss speak rather of befriending. Everest. For that is the essence of how one should regard nature. The approach is psychological inorganic. The world is viewed as inseparable from the self. Not as something to be pursued. Or run from. With. The whole art of life. Becomes a process of navigation. Rather than one of warfare. Learning the currents seasons. And cycles. So that our actions move with them. Rather than fighting them. Concepts. Have roots in the third gift to my life. The text that we called a teaching or book of changes. More than 3000 years old. The itching represents one of the earliest and most comprehensive efforts of the human mind. To understand itself in relation to the universe. Originally it was a book of oracles. What does series of lines representing all that happens in heaven in earth. The lines arranged into ace of straight and broken lines which are then from bourne combine to form 64. The lines are not static but represent movements and processes. And the ever-changing nature things. So out of curiosity. Have any of you ever used yaris fixer flipped in the air to form your hexagram and. Consult the wisdom of eating. Really. Only if you a couple of you. Well through the years i've done this many times looking for guidance when i'm confused. As well as seeing if i can discern movement and potential next steps in response. And the last gift. Chinese word means energy breath. Battle force. It is the force of life itself. Thomas rotoviz before the flower. Daichi is an ancient series of forms body moves through. As a way of incarnating. The essence and spirit of the doll. Of the yin-yang and movie. More than just a series of movements it is a way of life. For example. Tai chi chuan sequence begins with a pastor called. Rooting is an effort. To develop a relationship with the ground. It goes beyond just balance. It's a feeling of being connected to the earth like a tree. It's a downward magnetism that makes the body both stable. Again. Rooted. Balance. Relax when you see it before you ever visit here. Making sure you feel that connection. I first started daiichi in 1973 learning what it's called the store young form. And for the next decade moved to the impostors every morning. Enchanted. The movement. And then for some reason i stopped. But happily found it again through dallas tai chi teacher when i was serving in tarpon springs last. My high school and college years used to teach swimming. And i had a way that i always like to begin teaching people to swim which i now regard is very done with. Much of the thinking was to get the person in the water over their head. And let them slay all about. Learning what they could. In fact. Just trying to keep himself above water. I never approach. I thought it was rather violent. I would have people simply stand in waist-high water. And begin to gently move their arms. Paying attention. To the softly. Exquisite. Century westfield. Of a limb. Moving through water. What i was doing was inviting the person bodies and the feeling of moving in the water. So that water. Would become a source of beauty and comfort. Rather than fear. We would do this actually four days before ever. Lifting off in a stroke. In a way i think those early movements. Or something like doing tai chi in the water. Anti-cheat however the movements are through the air. The body moving harmoniously and deliberately through the empty spaces. Acting without forcing. Moving with a natural flow. And you move. Very. Slowly. When you move that slowly. You become more aware the subtleties. And how you stand in relation. To your surroundings. The great. Well we. Honoring the dead. The interdependent colorizing polarities of yin and yang. The flow of the life force called she. Quiet and peace. Movement. Ripples of water. All-embracing. Well. Here's what i did yesterday. I sat down and thought about you all. And i decided to throw the itching. And ask. If there might be some wisdom it could offer. For your. Future. I don't really know you as a congregation but i thought i would hold that thought. And see what came up. And what came up was number 61. Chung fluor. Inner truth. And i'm going to read to you from a commentary. What hexagram number 61 is all about. Pigs and fishes. Good fortune. This hexagram is about dealing with others through the power of inner truth. Pigs and fishes. Refer to the stubborn qualities of a person's ego. The buildup of inner power. Clinging to what is right must be very great. To penetrate through. Inner truth comes to power when we disperse all prejudice and make ourselves receptive. Receptivity. We gain the help. If they're imprisoned superior self. This power can be maintained as long as we do not waver. Whenever our inner attitude is defective our influence is blocked. When we are fearful. We will be attacked. When we barricade the unknown was structured explanations. Room for insight into new knowledge is shutout. When we vacillate on our principles. But when we are firm and strong. The power of inner truth breaks through even to the most mines. Is the accumulated power. A spiritual experience. Because inner truth is firmly placed. They can be felt at the distance of 1000 miles. It even penetrates through. Two pigs. Emphasis. You will know how that may. Apply. To your life as a congregation. Invite you to consider it. And now go in peace. Call making peace. Kindly. Love michael. View the world through the eyes of compassion. And with a global heart. And always. To the mystery.

uufvb_org

2014Mar30Sermon32.mp3

Good morning and welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of zero beach what a beautiful morning. The rains have refreshed everything upon the earth this morning clean and crisp. Waiting for us to live this day. We are congregation. Avoca mines loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best selves. Even as together we work to make our world and more loving. And decent place. Please know that you're welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you're young or old gay or straight black or white or latino. Whether you are feeling on top of the world this morning. Or down in the dumps or somewhere in between we are delighted to see you just as you come to us this morning. In all of your charm. Particularity. We hope you'll find their services morning meaningful and enriching. That you will find something here this morning some nuggets. The nurse is your spirit and feed your soul and gives you energy. Enjoy for the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. We summon ourselves. July 6th. From dirty dishes and unlock floors. From unmowed grass. From all incompleteness and not yet started. From the unholy and the unresolved. We summon ourselves this hour to attend to our vision. Justice. Cleanliness and health. And devotion. Of the lovely and holy and what we can do. We summon the power of tradition. And the exhilaration of newness. The wisdom of the ages of the very young. We summon beauty. Eloquent poetry. Music. This hour of our dream. We would open our eyes our ears are hot. To the airport dimensions of life. We were joyce this hour. In manifold promises. Impossibilities. Hokusai says. Look carefully. He says pay attention. He says keep looking staycurious. He says there is no end to see. Look forward to getting old. He says keep changing. You'll just get more of who you really are. He says get stuck. Except repeat yourself as long as it's interesting. He says. Keep doing what you love he says keep praying. He says everyone. Everyone of us is an ancient. Everyone of us has a body. Jesus everyone of us in sprite. Jesus everyone of us. Have to find a way. To live with fear. Because everything is alive. Chills. Breezewood is alive. Water is alive. Everything has its own life. Everything lives inside us. He says. Live. With the world inside you. He says it doesn't matter if you draw or write books. It doesn't matter if you saw wood or catch fish it doesn't matter if you sit at home. And stare at the ants on your veranda or the shadows of the trees. And grasses in your garden. It matters that you care. It matters that you feel. It matters that you noticed. It matters that life lives. Contentment is life. Living through you. Joy is life living through you satisfaction and strength are life. Living through you peace is life living through you he says don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Look. Teal. Let life take you by the hand. Life. Live. Review. This morning on his final sunday of march i bring you the fourth installment in a year-long sermon series on the seven habits. Happy people with a sermon today on something. Call flo. Which has been identified by the social scientist studying happiness. That's something we have to regularly cultivator forever go to sustain and reliable happiness in our lives. No i've been focusing each sermon in the series on the seven habits of happy people came directed by doctor paul.. Ajo and harvard-educated psychiatrist. Relying heavily on the work of positive psychologists pioneer dr. martens. This team is suggesting that there are seven. Fundamental dimensions of our lives. Which is properly nourished and cultivated. Will lead to a greater sense of happiness and well-being throughout our lives and here they are. Relationships caring and service positive mindset optimism and gratitude covered all three of those. In previous sermons and those sermons are on our website and vault video format. And written text if you missed any of these blockbuster sermons and want to catch up. And we're now flowing to number for this sunday and i hope to get to the other 3 in coming months. Before i move on and talk about this 4th all important concept the flow and it's not. Let me know that i've already explored these first three. And discovery psychologist overall about the 7th. When they're talking about our lives they do not call the happy face. Theory of happiness. And the happy face theory focuses on one more particularly cheerful. Moments of joy in our lives. Laughter and merriment. Happiness in this happy face view. Requires a steady stream of exhilarating opportunities. But the experts were right about happiness and well-being. They suggested if these are the flashy places. That you're looking for contentment then as the saying goes you're looking for love. In all the wrong places. Happiness the kind of sustainable well-being and life satisfaction. It has the power to make our lives quietly blow and contentment. It's not like the hot rush of momentary pleasure you feel from winning the lottery or skydiving from 10000 feet. Or watching your home team when the. 16 or whatever it's called. Kind of happiness and well-being that has the power to really make our lives. Works of sustainable warmth and joy is more like a aloe steady hum of satisfaction. Read satisfaction and. Peace. The flows through our daily lives. So again. Any pause. Writer make a very important point about happiness as a relates to all of these areas of our life. You don't necessarily have to have a cheerful. Bubbly or outgoing personality not even. To find lasting satisfaction and well-being in your life. People with many different personality styles. Including quiet reflective and shy and reserved people. Can be happy. You do not definitely have to go through your life with a perpetual smile. Plastered on your face. Define true well-being in life. No true well-being is more like a quiet a satisfaction burning in a fireplace. That's a fireplace inside your own. Again what the positive psychologists are saying this makes perfect sense to me. Is it sustainable happiness and well-being. Is a quiet and honest intentions quality that's our lives. As a result of our wisely and purposely tending to what really matters in our lives. Over the long haul it's not a flash in the pan. Kind of thing like skydive. Alright. Now this brings me to today's interesting topic finding and sustaining flow. The term flow. Was first coined by hungarian positive psychologist with the incredible name of nehi cheek sent me hiding i had to look it up. Mihai. Except nehi. 6 times fast. As the noted online encyclopedia wikipedia reports. Known for his study of happiness and creativity. And is best known for his notion of flow. For his years of research and writing on the topic. In his seminal work flow the psychology of optimal experience. He outlines his theory that people are happiest. When they are in a state of flow. Which is estate quotes. Of concentration. Energize focus. Incomplete absorption. With the activity. At hand and the situation. And then. It is a state in which people are so involved in the activity. The nothing else seems to matter. To the feeling of being in the zone or in the groove or honor roll. The flow state. Meetme hi right. Is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation. With a person is fully immersed in what she or he is doing. Estate of completely. Focus motivation. This is a feeling everyone has it at different time. Characterized by feelings of grape sorption. Engagement. Fulfillment that here's a keyword. Skill. During which the temporal concerns time food ego-self etc are typically. In one interview csikszentmihalyi. Describe slow as being quote. Completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The eagle falls away time flies every action moved and thought follows inevitably from the previous one. Like playing jazz. And then he in. Your whole being is involved. And this is something i'll return to is a very important point of outflow. When you are in slow. You are using your skills. To the utmost. And she sent me how you thinking. To achieve a state of flow a balance must be struck. Between the challenge of the task. And the skill of the performer. The overall idea. Is it when we are completely focused on something that is challenging us. When life is kind of pushing back and making us work for. Then an activity or process that is meaningful and important to us that that's what that's what that flowstate is i want to give you an example of flow. For my own life to see if it'll put some flesh on this ideas. About two years ago i spent an intense wonderful month. Auto bicycle. Other ride to beat hunger that's the logo from our website. I love cycling i do it every day about 13,000 miles a year. End cycling outdoors and all kinds of weather i got caught in yesterday's rain storm with collins and that wasn't that was it that was flo racing home and then i'll tell you. Cycling brings me great pleasure. So when it came time back in the spring of 2012 for me to take a month of sabbatical leave. As i said to the board at 1 to recharge. My spiritual emotional batteries i knew that i wanted to challenge myself. To ride from costa mesa california on the pacific ocean. Back here to vero beach on the atlantic and raise money to cut to beat hunger while i was at it. For sometime. I've been deeply concerned about the problem of human hunger both on the local and global scale. About a dozen wonderful people from this current location in from the community beyond. We set up the ride to beat hunger. We picked both local and global charity we set a fundraising goal of 50,000 and raised 53000. And that was done it was left for me to do is a 63 year old man with an artificial knee and severe arthritis throughout my body. What's the ride 3330 days about 120 miles a day. With a group of similarly crazy people. And here they are those are that's the dirty dozen who did this with us with me. I think there were somewhere in oklahoma. One challenge i faced on this ride was it i was the oldest rider by about a decade. Almost these riders were racing cyclist guys in their forties and thirties. Who will have a lot more physical energy than i did so it wasn't something of an effort for me to keep up with these youngsters. We had a safe that's me pictures as me and it's somewhere i went through the 3700 pictures that the right leader sent us off. That's me in the leave they're going beautiful part of i don't know oklahoma. Arkansas summer. We had a safe and wonderful trip and. I was. But the point i'm trying to make 30 days. Hello. The physical emotional and relational demands of this trip. Kept me as csikszentmihalyi puts it. In a state of energized focus i was completely absorbed. And totally immersed in what i was doing it was basically ride sleep. Ride sleep talk to my companions ride eat sleep that's what i did for a month. To quote csikszentmihalyi again flow happens when you are completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The eagle falls away. Time. Why. Every action movement and thoughts follows inevitably from the previous one like. Playing jazz. Your whole being is involved. You're using your skills to the utmost you're in the zone. In the groove and honor roll. Every day of the trip i had so simply one simple job get on the bike and ride and go another 120 miles across america. Goanimate went second i could arrive here in vero beach. And celebrate at the splash party that we had down at waldo's. With everybody who would help me to accomplish this ride. The purposeful focus i achieved on this challenging ride. only help me to complete the mileage each day. It also helped me that focus to be completely mindful. Of the beauty that was around me. And the companionship i was with. It was an experience of mindfulness and anybody who knows about. Do when you're in slow your. You're keenly paying attention in a very. Helpful way. I can honestly tell you that despite this rides very real challenges and discomfort which a x. Tested every bit of my endurance and my skills and my strength. I was happy on the ride to be hunger just. Downright deliriously happy i was just happy. Now. I hope that not many of you were going to try to get on a bicycle and ride from costa mesa back to bureau. But. That doesn't mean you can't or you don't experience the joy and the contentment of flow in your. And your own life. Surely every last one of you here in this room today. Has been situations in your life. When you purposely concentrate on something. Engage your skills and get into the flow that leads to happiness. Exact i took the time a couple of weeks ago when i was preparing the sermon to ask after i explain what floor was. Women experiencing. They'll remember one of the key ingredients to flow is challenge. If your skills and abilities are not being challenged. If it isn't hard. You're in you're just effortlessly coasting along then you're not really in the flow. You know it would have been fine if i had 40 mph tailwind behind me all the way that way. Flow involves life. Pushing back at you a bit. So with that understanding here's some examples of flow that i heard. From the current location. Where are eugene. She's out in the lobby that's where she is. He gets in the floor whenever she sits down at the pottery wheel at her class at the art museum and begins to spin her pots. She tells me the time and all the distractions around her slip away she doesn't think about lunch. While she focuses all her energies in the tension on your pottery. When gene is at the potter's wheel she was challenged. She is engrossed. And she is happy. Jack siegel tells me there's jack over there. He tells me he gets in the floor whenever he's getting a sailboat. Ready for a race or when he's in the race. Is totally focused on all the variables that go into being successful. When jack is competing with both the wind and the other boats on open water challenge. Infocus. He is happy. Tell our local genealogist. Tells me he gets in the floor whenever he's absorbed. In his extensive family genealogical work he said to me scott i'm happiest when. On some trip. I spent countless hours digging through the old dusty moldy courthouse courthouse records. Trying to track down one of my ancestors history. Tiny's lunch she says leaving lunch time flies by because i get so focused. On what i'm looking for. Repeat is genealogical digging in some. Musty old courthouse. He's challenged. He's consumed. And he's happy. John maher tell john where are you you're over there. In his beloved white mountains in new hampshire told me scott i get into the flow of a climb. But i find that perfect pace. That allows me to get into the groove on the klein. Challenging challenging and demanding. Suddenly you told me i lose track of time even myself. As i move up the mountain in perfect rhythm. Anality spends time here in florida he reports the same thing can happen to him results solo kayaking. In the stick marsh up in fellsmere. He gets into the groove with the bolts and the paddle in the water in the wind in the sunshine. He gets absorbed by everything that she has is within and around him. When john is out in nature hiking or kayaking. He's focused. And he's challenged. Eddie's happy noel parmentier. Tells me that he gets in the flow. Whatever it takes on a complicated furniture building project. The test. His woodworking skills. He says he loses all sense of time and sell. When he's concentrating. I'm getting all the pieces of wood. 250 gather in a perfectly beautiful. Finished product which as you know is not. Often easy. I talked to still other members of the current gation who described. Talked about getting out of her car. Spending an entire morning focused on. Watching and smelling and touching losing all sense of herself. And all sense of time. Another member talked about being at her large families weekend reunions which they hold two or three times a year. I think totally caught up in the conversations with all these. And the meal preparation in the challenge of. I'm listening truly listening to fascinating diverse and even prickly. Personalities that make up her particular clan. And yet other members talked about the flow of spending an afternoon quilting. With friends. Or diving into a wavy challenging book that they had long wanted to understand. Or working with a difficult child. With learning disabilities as a local after school tutoring program. And still others even mention the flow of a big project at work. You know the 925 kinds of flow project. That you sometimes get into even when someone is. Paying you to do them. I want i got you all thinking about floyd wondered if there were any. Just a couple of examples more. Of when you get in the floor somebody's got somebody's been thinking about when they get in the flow. Alright i'm going to come over here. I want you to tell this is my oprah segments here. And the practice of tai chi. Okay and then you can lose track of all time with her. Anybody else. Pokemon don't be shy. Okay. Phone and i go to assisted living and she's in therapy. You just lose all track of. Yeah. Again. What's involved in flow. Is absorption. Alright. The point is that whenever we're purposely and intensely focused and challenge. We opened the door to our own happiness and satisfaction and contentment. The social scientist determine that people who experience a lot of flow in their lives. Engage in life disciplined way and involving their skills and texting their skills. Also develop other positive traits. Such as high concentration. High self esteem. Good interpersonal relationships and greater health. According to positive psychologists martin sichelman. While about 60% he says of happiness in life. Is determined by your genetics. And by your environmental circumstances. Things you don't really have control over while 60% of it is kind of. Predetermined he says. About 40% of our happiness that we can achieve. Is achieved by voluntary activities. Any suggest that if you divide this 40%. Into pleasure. Things like enjoying a wonderful meal and exquisite concert or well it's mention sex. Or the other half would be slow. Activities. Like those i have discussed and described this morning. So what they're saying is about 20% of human happiness. Relate. The ability to get into the flow and to know how to flow. And the important curiosity remember here. Is achieving flow in your life is almost the exact opposite as the idea of going with the flow. It does not equal going. With. The flow. When you go with the flow. Like flopping yourself down in front of a television to watch a movie. Or going to lounge the afternoon away on the beach or take a leisurely walk through the woods with your dog or spending. Add a leisurely tubing down a gentle florida river with friends. When you simply go with the flow. You or any of your skills and abilities are engaged and challenged until you miss. The deep satisfaction and contentment that comes only when you demand. Something truly real and substantiv. Love yourself do you won't get this. It's different than going with the flow to the exact opposite you have to. Challenge yourself in life and and we don't often think of challenges. As making us happy but the fact is. That they do. Here. Is an in a nutshell is the meat of my message this morning. Happiness the kind. And blesses not the happy face stuff like jumping out of an airplane. But the kind that indoors and blesses us and leads to contentment. Is inextricably bound up with engaging the world and challenging yourself. You probably won't ever be truly happy if you just lazy and language lazily and languidly float your way. Down the river of life kind of. Possibly taking whatever comes. Your way. Define true and lasting satisfaction the experts say. You have to regularly and rigorously apply yourself all of yourself. In concentrated focused and purposeful ways. Your particular person. So i pray good friends. How you can go with the flow something. But get out there. Apply and challenge yourself. Test your skills. See what you are capable of. For only when you dive deep. Handful. Into life will you find. Happiness nestled. Quietly there. Right in the fabric. Right in the fabric. Of your own. Chosen. Alexia mean. And i send you on your way with this again one of my favorite poems. By donna markova. I will not die in unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days i'll roll my living to open me. To make me less afraid more accessible. Loosen my heart until it becomes. A wing. Torch. Excitingly.

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2010Nov21sermon32.mp3

This morning i continue my year-long sermon series on ten commandments. For the 21st century offering. Behavioral rules. If you will. Which i believe will help us as human persons. To live full and joyous and responsible live. Today i want to simply spiritually suggest to you that day in and day out in your life. You should cultivate. A grateful heart. Which for those of you who were here last sunday and heard my sermon on happiness. Is really kind of a spiritual sequel. So that sermon. I passionately believe that cultivating everyday gratitude for life as you already have it. Is one of the most important things a person can do. To enrich and ensure the quality of their lives. And their relationship. And i want to begin making my case. By telling you a true and at least to me important story for my own life. Which speaks directly. To this all-important injunction to work at being more grateful. In your day today exist. Spring of 2008 month sabbatical from my duties of the congregation i was serving. In bethesda maryland. To take a bike ride across america. 120 miles a day 3000 miles in all with thirty other yes crazy type a people. From los angeles to savannah right across the southern tier the united states. In the process i was able to raise more than $12,000 for a. Latino health clinic in washington that my congregation. Have long supported. The show the slideshow that you are now going to be looking at. Is from that very ride. And i'm going to pause just a moment there i am. Applause just a moment you can look at some of these will be running them for a little while that's the group. That i was with. It's important for you to know that i had done a cross-country bike ride like this before. 3 years previous in 2005 i'd ridden from los angeles to boston. About 3,300 miles. It's so i knew something about. What this ride was going to be like the grueling physical challenge of it. What is the 2008 right approach that i began anticipating and planning the repeated venture i realized. That in spite of having immensely enjoyed my first transcontinental bike ride. I wanted to do something very differently on this second journey across the country. It wasn't that i wanted a different bike. Or even different tires or different biking clothes or a different pedaling technique. Yeah don't laugh too much at some of these. What i wanted. There are a lot of these. Fake fake assigns. There i am again in blue. I wanted to be spiritually different. With myself and others as i rode across the country the second time. I wanted in a word to be more grateful and less complaining. That was i'm sure you can all imagine. On a demanding cross-country bike trip. They're really almost endless things to complain about. If you want to you can complain about the weather. About the motel accommodations. About the meals. At least some of them about the route directions about the roughness of the road surfaces. Cuz we took secondary blue highways. About the 18-wheeler. Exhaust. About the support staff. About flat tires mechanical breakdown sunburn. The dogs that chase you across the south. Trust me. There's a lot to complain about on a ride like this including the meals. Some more than justify. In fact the truth isn't on such a ride you can spend a good deal of your time complaining. About the many things that are quite right or perfectly to your liking. In fact let me tell you about one of the riders who shared this particular trip with me. I'll call him will. And he was an ear professional complainer. For the entire month we were together. Will a self-confident and yes rich and entitled corporate executives from illinois. Had a bunch of complaints he would share at the drop of a hat about almost everything. Nothing seemed to satisfy him he was griping all the time in fact on the very last day of the ride. Alabama. John you pick some of the more humorous slides that i gave you. The last morning in. Vidalia georgia where the onions are grown we were having breakfast. And two of the staff were at my table with will and a couple of his and he said. Why don't you serve as hot meals at lunch the food on this trip is terrible. Hot lunch. Will these guys are fixed our tires they're trying to help us not get lost when are they going to have time to fix a hot meal for you for god sake. He always comes. Despite the fact that i apologize. Staff later. He ruined the breakfasts. In any case as i prepared for this second trip across the country i decided. But while i was on the bike i would consciously and purposefully and consistently not complain about everything under the sun. I would engage if you will in a spiritual practice. Do not complain out loud at least about anyting i can have the thought. But i was going to keep it to myself. I wasn't going to complain to the riders. Telestaff. even to those many people who were following the blog i was riding every night back in bethesda. Even when i was feeling grumpy or dissatisfied. To myself. Unlike the first trip when i admit i joined in day-in-and-day-out with the other riders complaining about. This and that. This time i decided i would ride. Wait free. For 3000 miles. And i would strive to be a grateful happyrider. Now i must tell you that i got this idea. About not complaining as a spiritual practice. Community minister in topeka kansas his name as the reverend will bowen. After noticing that almost everybody in his suburban congregation. Complain all the time in spite of their affluence and comfort. He started a movement called complaint free world. Some of you may be familiar with this movement. Here's how it works. If you want to stop complaining and become more grateful and satisfied new life. You obtain one of these little purple armbands. It says complaint. Free world on it. And here's how it works. You put it on either wrist. The goal of the program is to go 21 days. And that's how long leading psychologist at least some of them say it takes to develop a new emotional habit. The goals to go 21 consecutive days. Without complaining or criticizing out loud to anyone about anything. Now you may not have first think this is hard. But the rub is. Every time you catch yourself complaining out loud even a little bit. You must switch the band. From the wrist of time to the other wrist and start all over again. With your 21-day. Challenge. The truth is it takes most people many months. Tickle 21 days. Successfully complete this challenge and some people just. Give up. It's the rare person. In complaint oriented america who only has two occasionally switch the band. From one arm to the other and talk about a whining. Culture. I'm going to stick my neck out this whining about the new tsa security project get over it. Grow up. If you don't want to be scared and you're going to be padded and no one's molesting you shut up. We are winners. Coffee hour. I'm alright it's a terrible intrusion american privacy yeah yeah blah blah. This is all an ad-lib that was not in my text. But i watched the news last night it got me. As i rode from california to georgia that spring everyday i faithfully were two things. I wore my helmet. Anybody who bikes without one is a fool. And i wore. This simple. Purple. Armband. Remind me. Continually to be grateful for everything about the ride in my companions. Refrain from complaining now i must be truthful. And tell you that in spite of fact i was pretty darn diligent. With this stop. With the stop complaining. Spiritual practice of mine i did not succeed. On my second trip across america from eliminating. All complaining. And whining and griping from my lips. Over the course of the journey i did have to switch my bracelet. Several. More than a few thai. Honestly i was simply not able to completely eliminate complaining for my life. But what i did succeed in doing. Over those 30 days was. To be routinely more grateful. About almost every aspect of the trip. Ssi happily road my way i can look at the beautiful country that was. In arizona somewhere. As i wonderfully yeah. It was a lot of fun. As i happily road my way across this vast and beautiful country. I kept reminding myself or the biker slogan every any day on a bike. Pizza hell of a day in the office. And so while the other riders were habitually and unconsciously complaining about the tepid toasted breakfast. Or the cold driving rain. Let's rock first thing in the morning. Are the obnoxious interstate truck drivers who occasionally roared past us blowing their horn saying get out of my way. Are the ride leaders inability to get the map. Precisely right. Or the road debris. Outwest especially which caused so many flats. Or the quality of the peanut butter we were served at lunch. While others complain about all this stuff. I succeeded in maintaining not a perfect. But a basic attitude of gratitude within my soul and i kept my mouth. I wasn't sure as i made this long trek. That my fellow travelers were particularly aware of this little purple armband and what i was trying to do with it. But when i safely got to savannah. And that was a blessing. At the closing bank. Several of the riders came up to me and said you know scott. You are the most positive and enjoyable person on this trip you never seemed down or irritable i really enjoyed. Making this crossing with you. I just smile. And thank them. I realize that while i knew i had slipped every now and again. My decision. Stop complaining and be as grateful as i could. In the main had worked. Both for me and the companions i shared. Now. That's a rather long. Personal story i've shared so what does it have to do with all of us. I'm so glad you asked and now i'm going to tell you. In a nutshell. Here is what i think my decision on that trip to cultivate a grateful heart. Has to do with every last. One of you. Your minister this guy standing right here is passionately persuaded and i've already said. The purposely cultivating a grateful heart. Is one of the most important perhaps the most. Important day today spiritual decisions and emotional. Decisions. Any of us can bake. In our lives. If we are able to move through our day is routinely living. From a place. Of simple gratitude and appreciation rather than a stance. Of the satisfaction and complaint which seems to be the american norm. Our lives will surely be much more satisfying and rewarding for us and. For those who have to listen. Around us. The other day for no particular reason. I decided to take a simple. Spiritual inventory. Of the gifts i received routinely in my life. Every day gifts that i think deserve. My faithful expression of gratitude here is my list. Tell me if this. Anyting. Similar to one. You might write. Each day here in this most abundant and predictable country on earth. I routinely have enough food to eat. And liquid. To drink. I have a reliable roof. Over my head. And several pleasant rooms. In which to move about and call my own. I have just the right clothing including some hawaiian shirt. I have reasonably good eyes. Which permit me to read poetry. And see sunset. I have a nose. That allows me to take in the intriguing aromas of this world and the tongue. With which to taste. Multitudinous flavors of my world. I have ears with. My spouse will tell you while not nearly as keen as they used to be. Nonetheless. Still unable to hear the music and the messages of my world. I have a brain a reasonably piece of functioning hardware. Do they tell me as i get older there's a little less of it. Most of the time coherently connected to my mouth. In ways which allow me to express myself. And communicate meaningfully. Its product. Arthritis side. I have legs. Carry me where i choose. Frequently on a bicycle. With which i can touch. Intend the world and lips. Which left. Talk. And laugh. Smile in the body which. Most of the time feels like a happy. Old friend. All of this. Amazingly. Gloriously. And with a full and simple hard on my best days. I'm aware of all this. Profound. So don't get me wrong like all human beings i have my share of complaints and caveats about the way things are working or not working. Out for me. And i'd be happy without my charging to share any number of complaints with you if you really want to. Listen to them. To painstakingly catalog those existential gripes however is not. Or anyone's bed. What today. This week of our national thanksgiving holiday in the year 2010. I want to affirm. The overarching grace. And he's and blessing of my life all-in-all by any human standard i can apply i am a lucky guy. And so are most. Got guys. Mine is an abundant life. Independent creation. And i suspect. You feel. Same weight was catholic mystic. Thomas burton who was famously said. If you managed only one prayer in your life and that prayer is simply. Thank you. It will be. But i honestly like the rather more testy way that pogo. Set it in the famous pogo strip you don't some of you were old enough for walt kelly. The american newspapers carried pogo from 1948. To 1975. It was set in okeechobee okefenokee swamp in georgia. Anyone famous strip churchy la femme. The rather silly turtle character. Is passing the day with porcupine the wise. What's cynical. Habitat of the swell. In that leaky little boat of theirs. Down in that leaky little swamp they called home. Turtle. Is reading a newspaper and the headline boldly says. Sun to burn out in three billion years ending all life on earth and he's crying in the bottom of the bustang always me i'm too young to die to which party the ever-wise parking or man i shut up. You're lucky to be here in the first place. Not your minister would never use such blunt language. But i stand with porky. You're lucky. To be here. Theologian matthew fox in amor. Decorous. Spiritual town. Writes about how gratitude. Enriches our lives. Most expensive. Even when we face. Unwelcome tarts. Iqor. Gratitude. Changes our lives. It fills us with energy and vitality. When i was 12 years old. Chico's on. I got polio. Could not walk. At all. The doctors could not reassure me i would ever walk again. As it turns out i did get my legs back. But i learned a spiritual lesson in the process i have never forgotten. For granted. I had taken my legs. For granted. Legs at work. Legs that run and play into playball legs that took me exactly where i wanted to go. When my legs. Return. And the polio receded. I was filled with gratitude not gratitude for the miracle of my legs being healed. But rather. Gratitude for having legs at all. I was filled with energy. Fox. Includes. Promised myself i would never waste my legs. For as long. As i live. Perhaps. It is the very. Ordinariness. Of daily life. Allows us to take. For granted. In today's. Sunday new york times book section there is a book. Being featured by cynthia ozick. In her amazing essay. The riddle of the ordinary. She points out. Should we human beings quite naturally fail. Austin. To express gratitude for the ordinary blessings that lie all around us. The ordinary she writes. By making itself so noticeable. It's around us all the time. Has gotten itself in a bad spiritual fixed with us we hardly ever notice. The ordinary simply by being so ordinary. Tends to make us ignorant and neglectful. When something she writes does not insist on being noticed when we are grabbed by the collar or struck on the side of the head by it. Buy a present sort event. We take for granted. The very things that most deserve our gratitude. And this is the chief. And deepest point concerning the ordinary. She writes. But it does deserve our gratitude. The ordinary is above all what is expected. And what is expected is not often thought of as a gift. What is expected. Is not often. Thought of. Alright. Now this is the place in the sermon is the old southern spiritual preacher said where the rubber meets the road. Or as another old southern preaching expression. This is where i move from preaching. The madeleine. Look what i've got here. Oh my goodness less of armband. Now. I conveniently have an abundance of these. For you to take home with you this morning. And here's the challenge i'm making to you this sunday before thanksgiving. I asked the end of the service as all of you who are prepared. Spiritual. To take this. Stop complaining challenge. Come forward and if you're unable to come forward grab somebody near you and have them come up and get you in our bed. At least cost a buck apiece for the church treasury so if you have a buck loose in your wallet. Throwback on the table. Be more the process but i don't want anyone. Leaving without a bracelet just because he didn't bring a buck with. I want you to come and take one. Okay. And i have 150 of them in and i've got a bunch of little kids bracelets so has run out of the purple ones you can shift to the other ones. And we'll get some more real ones for you later but anyway i've got i've got over 200 bracelets. And again here's how this challenge work. You just simply slip this bracelet on one wrist of the other if you don't like things on your wrist. Wake up every morning and put it in one of your pockets or another okay you don't have to necessarily wear it on your wrist. But you have to keep it with you. As you move about your day. And begin then paying attention to what you say whether or not you are succeeding. It. complaining verbally you can have the fun. Just don't say it. And remember whenever you catch yourself complaining about something out loud. Not living from a grateful appreciative place. Take that bracelet from one wrist and move it to the other end. Start all over again. With the goal of eventually. Eventually going. 34 weeks. Without verbally uttering a negativity or akron. I must warn you as i've already said it's not an easy challenge. At first. It might seem. For most americans we are in the habit of whining. To ourselves. And one another in spite of the blessings. That we have. I hope most of you will come forward. Take this bracelet and give the spiritual challenge try. Workover coming weeks and days living your life on the more grateful appreciative place. With fewer criticisms. And then come. To a special brown bag lunch which i have scheduled now for tuesday january 11th. The second tuesday in january you know a few weeks from now. We're going to talk about. How you did. And whether or not this. Helped you. And whether or not this is helping make you a more pleasant person. To be around 7 weeks from now a little brown bag. To see how you did with this challenge. Well. That's simply all i've got for you this thanksgiving sunday. I pray that each and everyone of you will on some level or another. Take up this challenge. To cultivate. A grateful heart really is a commandment. Spiritual commandment that will make your life. Better. I ordered you to do this not only because. As it did for me and my fellow bike riders across america. It makes life more pleasant. To live. From a place. Of appreciation. But more importantly. Because the simple spiritual practice. Will lift. And lighten your days helping to make the daily journey. The blessing. But it wasn't fact. Intended all along. The simple.

uufvb_org

2013Mar10Sermon128.mp3

Well good morning to all you clever ones who set your clocks ahead we will not embarrass those who show up at 11 just pretend like you saw them in church at 10. And invite them to coffee hour don't make a scene. We're going to be nice to have sunlight till 7:30 or quarter of 8 tonight. One more winter kind of down and over it's great. Not downloading upstate new york but down over here. Welcome. The unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach florida and we are so pleased each of you have chosen to gather with us with words for worship this morning. We are congregation standing on the side of love. Seeking to become our best individual selves as we work together to build a better world. Please know that you are welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you were young or old gay or straight black or white or latino or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you were feeling on top of the world this morning or. Down in the dumps or somewhere in between know that you are welcome just as you come to us. We hope you will find our service meaningful and enriching and perhaps this morning a bit fun. And if you will find something here this morning. That nourishes your spirit. And feed your soul and gives you renewed energy. For the light living of life in the days and weeks ahead. Are opening words this morning come from an old unitarian current location in england which begins each sunday service with this reminder. This house was built and set apart as a place where men and women might come to view their lives anew. It is no holier than any other place. Except that we have agreed amongst ourselves agreed without so much as a word passing between us. That here it would be unseemly to speak falsely. Or to think harshly of one another. All life should be gentle kind and loving. Everyday and every habitation filled with compassion and peace. But we know that this is not so. Perhaps not even possible. So we gather here to remind ourselves of the truth. And the right and to gain strength. And to bring light into our lives. Welcome to our good and gentle house. And this from a 1743 not 1830 but 1743 sermon. By jonathan edwards. Sinners in the hands of an angry god. A world of misery. That lake of burning brimstone is extended under you. There was a dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of god there is hell wide gaping mouth open and you have nothing to stand on nor anything to take hold of your wickedness makes you heavy as lead and the god that holds you over the pit of hell much as one hold a spider have whores you and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath toward you burns like a fire. You are ten thousand more times abominable in his eyes than the most hateful venomous serpent. Is in yours. You have offended him infinitely moral center. Consider the fearful danger you are in. It is a great furnace of wrath. A wide and bottomless pit. You hang by us. Slender thread. And you have nothing to lay hold of to save yourself nothing that you can do will induce god to spare you one moment. Your punishment will indeed be incident. This morning. I continued my 2013 seasonal sermon sermon series on the seven heavenly virtues and deadly sins are they are listed. Each of these sets identify many centuries ago by the early christian church. Today today with the 6th and next to final installment. On the human duality. About students and lust. Now as i have spelled out in my introduction to each of the five first. Surah five sermons on the series. In each sermon i'll be exploring what i think is the creative. Spiritual emotional and moral tension. Between these sets of seemingly polar opposites. Which were identified by the early church. What consistently strikes me as i reflect on these appositional sets. Of virtues and vices. Is not how as the early church fathers seem to think. They stand and stark and absolute moral contrast one another but rather. How intertwine interrelated and interdependent they are. In real life. Simply put. The virtuous we are looking at aren't all that virtuous and the sins we are looking at aren't all that sinful. It would be nice i suppose if all we had to do in our lives to be good. And healthy and normal human being. Is the scrupulously live out of the virtues side of the equation. For this sunday's purposes abstinent. And avoid the name sins. Which for this sunday is lust. Am i a but i am persuaded that life and even more importantly our human nature. Is much more complicated than that. So what i'm doing in this. Sermon series is gently deconstructing if you will the simple dualistic constructs. The early christian church proposed. And replace it in our lives and in our thinking i hope about our own lives. With a more nuanced and realistic understanding of what it means. To be fully human. Now. I know you've all been patiently waiting. So let's get right to the decidedly more interesting and juicy side of today's dualism. Let's talk about us. And by the way i'm sure that the only reason you all came this morning with a pure academic and sand and an intellectual interest on this topic on huh. Sure. I want to offer a simple definition of lust so that we are as we begin as they say all on the same page here is my definition. Lost is the intense physical and sexual desire we feel toward some other human being. That is only interested in its own gratification. So lost i think. Strong and i would suggest at its base. Selfish. Or self-gratifying desire. We sometimes feel when we experience an immediate. And intense physical or sexual attraction. To another sexual being. Now given this definition it is not hard to figure out how the early church fathers. Came to the conclusion that lost. Is a dangerous and deadly sin of the flesh. The we must vigilantly defend ourselves against. Historically speaking as you want might have picked up from that jonathan edwards sermon. The christian church and indeed many other ancient faith tradition. Have never been terribly comfortable with human sexuality. And the pleasures that come with it. Indeed sexual desire. Has always been viewed with suspicion by many religions. And has over the centuries generally been understood. As something the good and virtuous people mostly fort. Contain. Repress and deny. Do you all remember that great great scene in the wonderful movie african queen. When katharine hepburn. Who played the proper and very uptight christian english woman deep on a jungle voyage in africa. Says to the rough and crude riverboat captain mr. all that played by a disheveled. An unshaven humphrey bogart. She said to him in the boat one day. Nature mr. all that is something we are put on earth. To rise above. For many. Lost is simply a human weakness. Do either repress or overcome. What is 1 no nonsense think or has written on the subject christine aschwanden. Has observed. But sexual desire is not only natural. It's crucial for the survival of our species. Quote. Eliminate the primal urge to get naked and share bodily fluids she writes. And homo sapiens would die out rather quickly. And then she goes on call us in if you must. But lust is simply nature's way this is a very interesting idea she had. Lust is simply nature's way of nudging us into doing something sexy. That might otherwise seem too complicated or difficult. Energy goes on. Attracting a mate takes effort and energy. And if sex wasn't so pleasurable. It might be something we wouldn't pursue. And then she talks about the constructive role last place in her own marriage. Quotes. My husband and i just celebrated 14 years of marriage and i'm pretty sure that our ongoing lust for one another is one of the things. That is kept our marriage strong all these years. As long and then she goes on as long as lost is directed toward an appropriate person. Lost gives a marriage intimacy and spice. And then she concludes. If lust has a deadly side. It arises not from the sexual desire itself. But from the stupid. Inappropriate and destructive things. It sometimes causes. People. To do. No kidding. Psychologist rollo may in his classic treatise levin will. Also suggest that lost. Hasn't unnecessarily bad reputation in western culture and thought. He wrote that there are four kinds of love. In the western tradition. The first being sex or lust. Eros. Filia and agape. Now the first. Except. Recall lust or libido. The second is eros which is the the drive to love to procreate. Or create. The urge as the greeks put it. Toward a hot toward higher forms of being and relationship. The third kind of love is philia. Or friendship or brotherly love. And the forest agape or caritas. As the latins called it. The love which is devoted to the welfare of the other. The pure spiritual love if you will. The prototype of which. Is love of god for humanity and then rollo may. Goes on after laying these out to suggest rightly i think. That western culture has got off track by viewing these four kinds of love. In a rigid. And ascending hierarchy beginning with the lowly less i guess i've got this backwards actually beginning with the lowly lost. Add a cardinal the animalistic and of things and ending up. With the pure lofty agape. The philosophical end of things. And then he writes every human experience of authentic love. Is a blending. In various proportions. Of these four kinds of love. And then may goes on to say. We begin with sex and lust. Not only because that's where our society begins but also because it's where. Every person's biological existence began at well as well. Each of us owes the rights are being to the fact. That is some moment in history a man and a woman. Left the gap in ts eliot's words. Between the desire and the spasm. And then make includes. Regardless of how much sex. Maybe beta lies in our society. It still remains the power of procreation. The drive which perpetuates the race. And the source at once. All the human beings most intense pleasure. And regular anxiety. So. Lust or sexual attraction. It seems to me at the outset is not. Persei always a wicked. Or a simpler lowly or despicable thing. As both these authors have observed without lust. None of us. Would have come into the world let me say this more bluntly. We all owe the great gift and holy mystery. A finding ourselves alive this morning. In this wonderful and amazing if troublesome creation. To the simple fact that once upon a time our parents. Looked at each other. Felt the hot rush of lust. From head to toe and could not. Their hands off one. So existentially at least. We must thank god. 4 +. Alright maybe i'm being just a tad silly here. But there can be no denying. The fact. That the intense sexual desire the lust. We sometimes feel toward another is a beautiful. A necessary thing that only because the sex that often results. Is good and pleasurable for both parties. But because that's about the only way children come into the world. And sustain our speech. When you think about it from an evolutionary perspective. Lust. Fiercely. Constructive and adaptive for the species. And while we are here taking the long biological view of sexual desire. Procreation. Let me also pause here jonathan edwards aside. To affirm the natural goodness and beauty and worth of human sexuality in general which claudia already alluded to. Well as i have observed many faith traditions. Have for many centuries been systematically suspicious. Or even outwardly hostile toward sexual pleasure. We unitarian. Have long understood human sexuality. And its pleasures. To be good. A natural if not downright divine. Parts. Of the human experience. Which is why a few years back is claudia pointed out we developed this curriculum for our children the owl program with the united church of christ. Which teaches our young people. True value. And trust. And enjoy their sexuality within reasonable bounds. Our sexual attraction to one another. And the sexual activities that result can and often are. One of the most wonderful parts of what make life worth living. So lost. Are immediate and intense. Desire to. Gratification. Must not solely be understood as a sin but rather first and foremost. As a natural and positive part. Of the essence of who we are. As mammals. Colin said in the song. But. With all that quickly affirmatively said obviously the ancient church fathers also knew what they were talking about. When they identified lost. As a potentially dangerous. And unseemly send. They readily understood that lost again that intense. Physical and sexual desire we feel toward another human being. That is interested only in its own gratification lust. If not regularly and rigorously restricted within proper and responsible and caring. Relational boundaries. Can lead as you all know to calamitous difficulties. Sorrow and pain and in some cases evil. And injustice. You all understand of course what i'm talking. Because it is so common. In the course and chaos of human affairs. For sexuality to be expressed. And harmful and inappropriate ways. When sexual desire leads to sexual behavior beyond whole set. A wise and reasonable societal restraints. Much human difficulty and harm results. You all understand some of the kinds of inappropriate sexual behavior i'm alluding to. 1. Adults having sex with children or youth. Never except. Always destroy. Having sex with members of your own extended family or someone else's spouse. Almost always disaster. Enron. Having sex with coworkers. Or colleagues. Students or anyone else. With whom you are in an unequal power relationship. Terribly full. Danger. And i'm just. Having sex on a business trip or at a convention when you're out of side of your family. Jaws. Playing dumb. The list goes on and on. Of examples when lust. Or sexual desire. Might naturally feel. Clearly not be acted on. For our own best. And the inter. Other relationships. We are in. Clearly the early christian fathers who included lost. In their shortlist of deadly sins rightly understood. The human harm the can and does result if we do not regularly restrain. Are natural sexual appetite. And emotions. 12th century poet dante also understood this. When he described in his classic and stern allegorical work the inferno. How those who are unable to restrain or control their lust. During their lifetimes were punished for all eternity in hell. When dante and his poet companions arrive at the second circle of hell. They find those who without judgment or restraint. Gave in to their lust. While on earth. What they found the second ring of hell is that these people these soul. Were swirling for all eternity in a dark and sad tornado. John ciardi the poet translates. Thusly. Dante on the other poets. Find themselves on a dark ledge. Swept by a great whirlwind. Which spins within it the souls of the carnal. Or lustful those who betrayed reason. To the rapper type. Sexual or otherwise. They're sending life was to abandon themselves. To the tempest of their physical passions. And so they are swept forever in the tempest of hell. Forever denied the light of reason and of god. And then she already and his translation. Dante is so stricken. By compassion at their tragic fate of being trapped forever. In the sad empty cyclone. That he swoons. Once again. Until we arrive i think at the great paradox. About lust. Lumber one hand that is clearly a good natural pleasure full and evolutionarily adaptive aspect. Of our humanness. It must on the other hand on the left be regularly regulated and restrained and controlled by us. If we are to live joyful and responsible lies. And then we arrived. Finally. At the second side. The equation. Absence. Which is the heavenly virtue. Which the early church fathers identified as having the power to offset if you will or counterbalance. Lust. Now as i've already affirmed. As each of us moved through our daily rounds with all the other sexual beings in our midst and they're all sending out you know sexual vibes. We regularly and routinely must have stain from acting on most. Of our immediate. Self-gratifying. A sexual desires a nympho. Is obvious. Can you imagine a world where everybody somehow was felt totally free. To act on absolutely all of their sexual urges impulses or attraction. Yikes. What a mess that would be. Indeed when i was in college and i probably shouldn't tell this story but it makes the point. When i was in college there was a silly movie it was a bit of soft core. Spoof on the old flash gordon movie making the rounds with the dorm. And had a sophomoric plot to be sure but when the evil emperor ming the merciless remember him. The flash gordon ming the merciless. He was attempting to conquer the earth by aiming. A powerful cosmix x-ray device he had at the earth. Andaz cosmics x-rayed gun. Set the powerful force that liberated all of humanity from all of their sexual inhibition. And as a result the world was turned into one big orgy that's the film. Aha. Everybody on earth. Benefis x-ray was suddenly having wild ravenous sex. With everybody else all the time so when the movie plot humanity was in dire straits of being conquered because soldiers weren't in their barracks farmers weren't in their field. Factory workers weren't in their factories firefighters weren't fighting fires indeed even the air force was disabled. Because everybody was out having sex. But luckily for humanity flash gordon and his girlfriend. It was very good looking. We're able to disarm and disable the sex ray gun and save the earth from. Ming the merciless domination. The point here. I know i should have told that story but it it makes the point doesn't it. The point here is an any responsible and functioning human society must generally abstain. From acting on our immediate sexual attraction to one another keeping sex. As we do with all other pleasurable things in our lives like food. We need to keep everything in some restraint. If it's to be good. Within proper boundaries. But enough about sex. And how sex must be carefully channel. Because where i really want to take you today for the rest of my time this morning is toward a larger. And i think even more important spiritual truth about the idea of abston. As a great unnecessary virtue. In our everyday living that goes way beyond our lives. As sexual beings now i realize that what i'm about to say about absence at first. Might strike you as a bit puritanical ourselves 29 but that's not where i'm headed. So hang with me here for a minute. I'm not going to somehow p. Talking as the puritans are jonathan edward dead about. Abstinence. For abstinence sake. It seems to me that in the overview. In the particular live each of us live at least as important. In establishing the quality of our personhood. Is what we decide. That's what we decide to do. Is what we choose not to do. What we choose not to do goes at least as far as. Defining our quality of. In this complicated dance we call life. I think we are defined as persons more by what we say no to. By what we don't do. Then what we actually permit in our lives. And i want to see if i can physically represent this truth to you this morning. I have a round. Circle of a cloth here. Sort of. Imagine please. Set this whole floor space in the entire building. Represents all the decisions. The relationships and the actions that are available to us in our daily living all the floor space. In this great big. A building. Life always presents us. If you will with a wide stage. Upon which to dance our particular dance. It seems to me that if we are wise and healthy and responsible and caring person. We choose everyday. Frequently unmercifully without a great deal of forethought or imagination. We choose everyday to restrict. Restrain and regulate are living within fairly. Limited boundary. We choose to restrict. Restrain and regulate ourselves. To a certain circumscribe set. Decisions relationships and actions. That we know or at least hope. Will boundary our lives boundary our lives as a circle. Foundry. In goodness. Imbalance. Responsibility in health. We choose to circumscribe our decision maker. With a very small set of dishes. Everything we do. Talita talita good. Quality life. Let me get some concrete examples of what i'm talking about. Everyday and now i realize i'm sliding back into last sunday's focus on gluttony in moderation. Everyday i do restrict myself i restrict my diet more or less. To those foods and beverages and portions their odds that i know will be beneficial to my health. And i am staying mostly. From ingesting what is. Most of what is deliciously available to me go to a public store what's deliciously available my god you die in a week. If you ate at all. You dying today. And bus i live day in and day out again more or less i live in a circle of circumscribed hell. I limit my diet. Similarly each day. Standing within the narrow circumference of my chosen life. I respect myself with how much television i watch. I restrict myself with how many hours i spend on the computer or telephone i restrict myself with how much work and play i engaging i restrict myself with how much money i spend i restrict myself with how many friends. I gather around you can't have thousands of them despite what facebook thinks. I restrict myself well sometimes i restrict myself but how much exercise i get. I restrict my reading my sleep and of course my sex. Everyday i spend much of my psychic. Energy and activity as a person. Abstaining from what i'm not going to do. As i stand in this circle. Limiting. Purposefully. Limiting. Myself. To that which. Good and healthy for me. How do i know. What to abstain from and when. What guides me as i draw this purposeful circle of limitation around me well common sense first. I suppose. And hopefully good judgment that comes from my experience with life. But i am also guided. In this purposeful drawing of a circle for myself. By the seven principles. Of my unitarian universalist faith. These principles. Help me to know the boundaries around. That my. Create around my life. They helped me and my decision making. About about what i will. And as i've said that even perhaps more important what i will not do for example. Our first principles the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Now that hopefully calls upon me within the daily circle of my life. To be as kind and generous and compassionate. Inconsiderate of others as i can. I didn't tells me that principal impels me. Do not be rude dismissive. Exploitive or mean to others who share life with me as much as i can. My unitarian universalist faith in the theological worth. Of every person. Give me a powerful tool. Just say no to many kinds. Of harmful or unkind behavior. Even if it helps me to draw. A circle of decency and care around my cell. Take me to draw. Confining. Purposeful. Similarly. Our seventh principle. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence calls upon me as a citizen of earth. To abstain from any behaviors. That as i can which will endanger and degrade our planets fragile. Like turning off lights and not letting water running. Riding bike and driving a small car and not being a terrible. Eating up things i don't need. Well i think you get the idea here. When it comes to leading a good and principal life. Abstaining is at least as important as acting. And the curiosity here. Is it simply by abstaining from all kind. And again i am the one who personally makes those. Abstaining decisions in my life. By purposely not doing. Most of what i could. The majority not saying no to the majority of choices that are available to me. It is through the not doing i achieve most of my health and wholeness and decency and i pray success. As a person. It's a bit like achieving success in business. Surely many of you are familiar with the fact that i'm any business schools in business journal. Entrepreneurs are taught that even more important than what they decide they will focus their business resources on. Is what they decide not to allocate their business resources toward. It is all. It is all the possibilities you purposely abstain from pursuing in business. That will most likely lead dear focused business success for example. If you have an attractive and successful store that sells lawn and garden supplies. You probably should not start stocking women's wigs. Or fresh produce or children's book. You should focus on lawn and garden. This is the way i think. The virtue of abstinence. Works in our daily lives. It seems to me that if we are individually to be happy. Incoherent. Insane. And responsible in our living. We must abstain. From most of what is possible. On our way to being someone particular. Inconsistent. It's fine on our way to being consistent. Purposeful and fine. You must say no. Well. Oh. I've lost my place by. The key here i think. As with all the so all the so-called sins and virtues that we've explored in the series. The key thing is that we must never forget that as human beings. We are always obliged everyday to use our vast freedom. Responsibly in will we have vast free. And we must use that freedom well. To make out of the infinite possibilities. The best choices we can. And in so doing choose to abstain. Come many. Many. Many. Many things. If in our daily living we choose our clear personal circles wisely. And through abstinence. Limit ourselves wisely and well. We will slowly construct. Circumscribed. A doctor. Paradoxically liberating there's liberty in the. Being circumscribed. And paradoxical liberating our lives. In the things that are beautiful. And joyous. And responsible and good. I'll bet you didn't think this was where lost was going to take me today did you. Well to be honest me neither. Sometimes as a preacher i am the first one surprised by where a topic takes me. But here i am at the end of this morning. Simply affirming the precious roll. Abstinence. Not doing. Purposeful imitation. Non-action. The role that absence plays. In our formation. As good. And healthy person. Given the radical openness of the world. And the infinite possibilities of the world. Absence is a virtue none of us. Can do without. None of us. Can do without this for. Forex frequently abstaining. From what is possible. We achieve. Clarity. And health and goodness. As a person. A limited purse. Clarity and purpose. And i asked you what could be better in the world. And i say i mean. I sent you one that were on your way with the words of bertrand russell words at beth pearson. Help me to find last week. The great 20th century british humanist bertrand russell said this. Those who live nobly. If in their day they live obscure lee. Need not fear. That they have lived in vain. Something radiates. From their lives. Some light that shows the way. To their friends. Their neighbors. Perhaps. Too long. Future ages. Perhaps too long future ages. The individual russell rights. If filled with love of humankind. With breadth of vision. Courage and endurance. Can do a great deal. Do a great deal.

uufvb_org

2012Sep23Sermon128.mp3

My reading for the sermon this morning comes from the. Press journal this week those of you who read the op-ed page everyday will recognize this it was published earlier this week. By lee hamilton. Who is was it as a former us congressman. From indiana. We must be americans first party members second. I was first elected to congress in 1964 that was the year lyndon baines johnson won a full term as president in a landslide. If ever a president. Hamilton wright had a popular mandate to pursue his goal it was lbj following that election. Get one of my strongest memories of him is not of a president revelling in partisan. Supremacy. But in his cautioning against it. Johnson used to love to meet with freshman members of congress and after taking office we democrat. Put been elected along with him had every expectation. But he would allow us to bask in the expense of our republican colleagues. He didn't. I am an american first he told us. And the democrat. Second. It was a bracing affirmation of a quality essential to national leadership hamilton. Observed. A firm conviction that the good of the country. Comes first. Even if it runs counter. To the interests of one's political party. I can't help thinking of it today in an era when deep seemingly on a bridgeable differences divided democrats and republicans. And when these divisions are being stroked. By the current presidential campaign. Annie goes on. It has been apparent almost since the beginning that our nation's welfare rides on how well political leaders. Balance the needs of the country. The country against their partisan goals. In 1796. Preparing to step down from the presidency george. Washington. Devoted much of his farewell address to this question. Enter the destructiveness of what he called the fury. A party spirit. Surveying with alarm the regional discord and the growing hostility between federalists and republicans that took hold. In the final years of his second term. He said out washington did to remind americans. But the very. Permanence of the union depended on quote. A government. For the whole. Other national leaders of the time understood the sentiment. Patrick henry's famous statement united we stand. Divided we fall. Was followed by these words. Let us not split into factions. Which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs. We are all republicans. And all federalist. Thomas jefferson also said that. The first noel. Each of these leaders. Signaled a bedrock belief. Importance of working together to bridge differences. Find. Because of the nation because the nation's welfare. Now i am not urging. Ask to be naive. Appleton weather. We are not going to abolish parties. And we shouldn't. They help us organize our political choices define and advocate issues. But if we are not careful. He warns this week. They can be carried to such an extreme. That they divided government. When what we need is unity of cover. We need it in foreign affairs we needed in domestic. Policy. This animosity. That we witness now. Lead to distressed within congress distressed. Mistrust. Washington. Weaker administration of government and the inability to resolve the problem. The press against our shared. Without any of this just look around here. Is extraordinary different. To create government that works together for the. But in this era of unforgiving partisanship. It is too easy to forget the importance of trying. And of working hard not to fan the flames of divisiveness. It is crucial to avoid painting the other side. As an american. Or eager to betray the national interest. Just as it is to recognize. That we have. More in common. Then we have. Our differences are import. They are part for we are isn't it. But if we want to overcome our challenges and preserve our national greatness. Unity. The great work of our democracy. As it has been for more than 200 years. Is to learn how to reconcile. Here ends. I have it all be it rather obvious confession to make right off the bat this morning. In my private life which is to say when i'm not worrying about being an inclusive. Tentative. Balance generous and fair-minded minister in the public square. In my private life. I am a passionate unashamedly opinionated take-no-prisoners liberal. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who grew up in a radically progressive wisconsin family. Just one quick story about my progressive roots. When i was growing up in racine wisconsin are us congressman was a moderate to liberal democrat named less aspen. Who later went on to be the secretary of defense. He was a pretty big and tough guy. When he saw my politically outspoken mother. Marsha ewing alexander coming at him on the street or tell event. He would hardly cross the street or run to the other side of the room literally. Run away from my mother. To get away from her. Because he knew it was coming. He would run you would flee my mother because she was in the habit of buttonwholing for mr aspen about all the ways in which he was not liberal enough. Now is my mother's son. I like to think of myself as she was. A well-educated highly informed reasonably intelligent thoughtful compassionate and liberal citizen. And even though on my better days of intellectual awareness. I know such thinking is dangerous. As a person with fiercely progressive leanings and belief. I tend to think of conservatives here in america well i might as well tell you the truth. I tend to think of conservative generally ill-informed muddled thinking narrow-minded sealed intolerance and selfish people who slows social progress and make a mess of american politics and governance there i've said it. As a proud card-carrying liberal i have little user understanding for most of the thinking of american conservatives. Given my worldview most the time i just don't get. Their so-called principles and values. And i do not appreciate the considerable influence they have an american life. Honestly most of the time in my unguarded self. I would just wish conservatives would either go away or get with my program. No. I suppose it's theoretically possible that i am the only. Passionate opinionated self-righteous liberal in this room right now. I don't think as much of a chance of that do you. I suspect that many of you sitting out here this morning. Have real trouble truly understanding let alone appreciating the ideas and ideals and politics. I'll political and social conservatives in america. Even though and this is very important for us to remember. Some of our finest and most beloved members here in this congregation are themselves. Political and financial conservative. Now don't worry i'm not going to put you on the spot make you show me your hand if you're an opinionated self-righteous liberal but i know you're out there. We don't need an instant. Group. Confessional to acknowledge that many in this congregation and certainly many and the denomination. The unitarian universalist have a real intolerance of. And frustration with. Many cancer. Now. If it makes you feel any better. I suspect that if we went out to the. First church of god on here the people who built this building and then moved out to a megachurch. If we went out there this after the sentence morning and i asked them. If they have a similar to stain or lack of appreciation for liberals. Their hands would go up to. This is because as many social commentators in america have rightly recently observed. America in the early years of 21st century has gotten itself into a terribly divided. And polarize place. People who identify themselves as liberal and progressive. And people who consider themselves. Conservative. Now is ej dionne observed that's something i didn't do. I'm sorry i was going to do a video this morning i didn't do it. Over recent years especially during the last four years. During the contentious first term of president obama. All where republicans and democrats have been at each other's throats. This divide has become more than a divided it is a chasm. A deep and jagged and sharp and mean chasm. With both sides standing on their respective sides. Screaming at one another over the divide. An anchor. And judgment. Dismissal. And just trust. And if you doubt this just tune any evening. The cable television. We can first go to the fox news network and watch right-wingers like bill o'reilly and sean hannity. Rail against the evil and idiotic liberals. You know bill o'reilly's book pinheads and patriots. Guess who the pinheads are. Liberals of the pinheads. Conservatives are the patriots. And then switch over after you've gotten your dose of o'reilly and and hannity. Go to the left-leaning csnbc network and listen to rachel maddow and ed schultz. Hair self-righteous lee. Into the conservative as heartless neanderthals. The truth is. The both sides. These days know how to be nasty. And judgmental. At the jordan and dismissive of the other. And both sides know how to cherry-pick. They're fat. Despite both liberals and conservatives claiming that they are the side taking the high road in the conservative. Talk about how terrible the liberal press has been unfair and vice versa. All of them. The fact remains that overall in american life today. Liberals and conservatives share a problem. A problem that threatens the health. Wellbeing in fact the very future of our republic as lee hamill. Suggested in the. And that problem is at both sides tend to be morally and intellectually dismissive. Of the other xinwei which prevent us as a democratic nation. I'm reaching healthy political and social consensus. I'm working compromises. On any number of the pressing issues. Really really challenge. Future american life today. Liberals and conservatives right now are so busy accusing the other of penetrating. Live. And accesses and idiocy. That we don't have any time to listen to one another. And that's possibly discover the truth. I think this is an undeniable truth that all returned to again and again before the selection. That both sides. Both ends of the political financial social continuum. Have something of value something of moral value. To contribute to the cultural conversation neither side is right. Neither side is wrong they both have something of value. Contribute. What is got me thinking about all this. Is the terribly important work of one doctor jonathan haidt. Here he is. A professor of psychology. At the university of virginia. Although personally a passionate liberal and atheist at least that's what his bio says. He is nonetheless convinced. The both liberals and conservatives need to begin to truly begin to understand and appreciate. One another's moral universes. One another's underlined moral orientation. You will. If america's to ever move ahead in solvang. The public policy debates that now divide the nation. His new book is entitled the righteous mind. Why good people are divided by politics and religion and that is the jacket. Get the point. I heartily recommend this book to you or if you don't want to waste your money on the book. Go online and read some of the reviews and some of the analysis about this. The author passionately hopes that both extremes of political partisan. Wilson cearley start to try to understand respect one another. Southern america instead of descending into polarizing political and social warfare. We'll begin to find some common ground and solutions to our problems. I called him. Liberals and conservatives. Inhabit different. Moral universe. There is some overlap and belief systems. But huge difference in emphasis erie. What i want to do now. Height rates rights of his intellectual crusade to get liberals. Cancer and conservatives listening to. What i want to do now he right. Is help both sides understand the other. So the policies can be made based on something more than misguided fears about what the other side. Is up to. The liberal and conservative moral universes. He goes on. Are essential to a healthy democracy. And the interplay between them. When kept within respectful bounds. Is a source of societal vitality and strength. And then he ends. Morality. Is a team sport. That needs both teams. Now. This perspective that both sides have something important. To offer the american political social economic conversation. Is a hard sell to. Conservative. As i suggested at the outset people who sits with themselves. Staunchly at the polar ends of the liberal-conservative continuum. Are passionately persuaded. To the rightness the wisdom logic and moral superiority of their own perspectives and therefore have a really hard time the extremist do. And loosening their grip on their own ideas. And their own prejudices long enough to consider. The possible moral integrity wisdom and rightness of the other perspective. It is much easier i think for both sides to be right. Then it is for them to be reflective. And if you doubt this just. Listen any night on tv does to the self-righteous catfight. Between rachel maddow and bill o'reilly. For example. The truth is that both liberals and conservatives would be intellectually and morally better off. If they would consider now and again truly consider. That there was that they respectively might not have all the answers for america. And that on some issues. They may just be plain wrong. Conservatives ron and liberals. Just consider the idea i might be wrong. But back to the thinking of doctor height. What exactly are these different moral universes that he believes liberals and conservatives occupy. After studying the moral reasoning of different populations. Countries. 4 years doctor height quote. Has developed a framework the codifies the multiplicity of morality. The help explain the very different places. Which liberals and conservatives come from. When the address public policy issues that are in play today. Height right. We assume everyone's ethical compass. Points in the same direction. And label those who views do not align with our own sense of right and wrong as either misguided or evil. In fact he argues. There are multiple. True north. What doctor height is suggesting. Is it both conservatives and liberals in the america in america. Learn if they learn the art of standing outside their own home morality. Stepping outside their own home remedy to view the home morality of the other. Only when we learn that. Long enough to see the value in logic of another will we reach make some progress. I would remind you of the moving antidote told about senator ted kennedy and his memorial service a couple years ago. By his son edward jr. Who got a big laugh at the national cathedral that they. When he told the audience that his dad quote on quote. Taught me some of the hardest lessons. Such as how to love republicans. But then as the laughter subsided. Kira lane. The senator had one seriously and wisely told him. You know teddy. They love america. As much as. And that's the truth. I want to explore today. Alright. Let's go a little deeper into what doctor height is suggesting to us. Doctor heights research. And here you see it. Has identified six foundational moral impulses. Which he has identified that he believes explain most of the moral differences. Between american liberals and conservatives the first on the left being care. The liberal line you see is the out is the green the yellow screen. And the purple is the conservative view. Care that is to avoid harm for people. The moral dimension or impulse suggest it's good to care for people to relieve suffering whenever possible. Conversely it is wrong to hurt people either by action or ria are in action. This is the moral commitment as you can see by the chart. That is. Highly valued by liberals. And is valued by conservatives but not the same extent this is maybe where the. The phrase. Bleeding heart liberal comes. Liberals focus on. Ending song. The second is liberty now liberty is not what. Glenn beck and rush limbaugh mean by liberty. This is the moral impulse in this study. But is concerned with rather whether or not people are being oppressed. Or tyrannize in society. And if you see liberals and conservatives. Basically both agree they want to end tyranny and oppression. People fly. The third is fairness no here you begin to see the difference between liberals and conservatives. This is the moral impulsive justice. Or treating others in proportion. To their actions what they deserve. Giving them their just desserts. So if you listen to rush limbaugh. Rail against all the freeloaders in society that the. That he's convinced the progressives are causing. This is where the simplest comes from. Fairness. If you work hard you get your get the. Ward's society and if you don't work you don't get them conservative or much more. Concerned on this issue of. Proportionality. So these three moral impulses drive much of the thinking of liberals. You see how high they are but the next three look at the look at the liberal line there. Other than the liberals are much less concerned about these. And the republicans. The conservatives stay right up where they have been. The first of these being loyalty. This is the moral impulse that suggests people should always be true to their group. Wary of threats from the outside. Allegiance loyalty patriotism. I understood his virtues and betrayal is seen as bad. Liberals aren't so big on that value. Okay. Just low in service or high. Authority. The fifth one. The moral for this moral perspective emphasizes that people should respect. Existing. Social hierarchy. And asserts that social order is a good thing and necessary for human life again liberal not so concerned about authority. Conservative you bet. In the last sanctity or what height cost purity. Which asserts that the body and certain aspects of life are safe. This is where i auntie italy. At the abortion feeling comes from. Loneliness and health as well as their derivatives chastity and piety or under the. Good. Pollution contamination and the associated character traits of lust and greed are all bad again. This moral indices is a much more concern to conservatives. Enter liberals it's not that liberals don't wash themselves. It's just that they don't another not enough. They're short-sighted a bind about this all the. Basically. So as one author puts it. Heights research reveals that liberals feel strongly about the first three dimensions. Preventing harm. Ensuring justice and fairness. But often very little or feel negatively about the other three. Conservatives on the other hand are drawn to loyalty authority and sanctity. Which liberals tend to think of as backward outdated or just unnecessary for social health societal hell. People on the right acknowledge the importance of harm prevent harm prevention. Just. But not with the same passion and energy as those on the left. Elsewhere in his writing doctor height draws the difference of it clear. Morality he writes is not just about how we treat each other. As most liberals think. It is also about binding groups together. Supporting essential institutions and living in a sanctified and noble way. Conservatives position on gays guns god and immigration. Must be understood to achieve one kind of morally ordered society. But how can liberals learn to see let alone respect. A moral order they regard as narrow-minded. Racist and dumb. That's his. Let me see if i can make all of this clearer. By going a bit more into detail with a couple of the ongoing public policy debates between american liberals. Conservative. I believe doctor heights. Simple 6 point scale. Can help us understand. The deep moral chasm that exists on these two issues i'm going to rain. First mistake the current national struggle over full marriage equality. For gay and lesbian. The most liberals the moral issues an on brainer. Denying gays and liberals and lesbians the right. To civil marriage directly invalidates them. And harms them as persons. And it's profoundly of oppressive unjust and unfair. So liberals support gay marriage because they support care liberty and fairness. But to conservatives. To open marriage to gay and lesbian person. Threatens the old social order authority and loyalty. Including the traditional institution of marriage understood as between a man and a woman only. Invalidates. Sexual activity they further regard as in pure and unhealthy. Dust by naturally focusing on different moral foundations liberals and conservatives. We find ourselves at loggerheads over the issue of marriage equality. The same / thing can be seen in regards to the debate about immigration. And how to handle america's many millions of undocumented citizen. Send workers. To liberals thinking. Welcome and caring. For immigrants oppose documented and undocumented makes perfect moral sense. Immigrants of all types offer when they are denied services. Recognition respect and access to american opportunity. So again care liberty in fairness liberal say of course welcome them. But to conservatives the preservation of national culture. Such as it is. An american social order such as it is and hierarchy. Plus the undeniable fact that coming into the country without permission is illegal. Marlboro priority to them. And so they're much less inclined to welcome immigrants. Documented or undocumented. So again liberals and conservatives divided in their thinking. Based on different moral emphasis. One is not moral and the other is immoral it's simply different emphasis of moral value. Look at the chart. On and on the examples could go. The overarching point being that liberals and conservatives both. Are operating out of clear moral values and guidelines. Both have self-consistent moral frameworks that guide their politics and their perspectives. And they differ radically. Only if. Content an emphasis. No. Dr. height. Is passionately persuaded that america will be much better off. Democratic and reason society. If both liberals and conservatives begin to learn how to resist the easy temptation. 22 smith and disrespect. One another's moral systems. And strive to both listen and learn from one another. Assumedly assumedly then to find. The maximum middle ground. And shared understanding and yes. Yes john boehner john boehner. A working compromises whenever possible. I called hide again. Icy liberalism and conservatism. Opposing principles. That work well. When. In balance. Social order. Authority and sanctity of human life. The conservative concern. Need to be both upheld. As conservatives insist and challenge as liberals maintain he right. Enter the basic design principle heiko's on. You get better responsiveness if you have two systems. Pushing against each other. As individuals hycosan we are very bad at finding the flaws in our own arguments. We have all have a distorted perception of reality. For example he writes liberals tend to have a very optimistic view of human nature. They tend to be very uncomfortable about punishment. And then of their own children. A criminal. Anyone. But i believe the hype who is a progressive person he says i believe it if liberals ran the whole world. It would fall apart. But if conservatives ran the whole world it would be so restrictive punitive and on creative. But it would be unpleasant also. We need the wisdom he writes of both liberal and conservative moral in pulses. To get society and our lives right. Morality hands is a team sport. We need both. No. Is all this clear. I have to tell you. As again a proud and passionate liberal which ion efest unashamedly confessed with the beginning of the sermon. As impressed and interested as i am with doctor heights research. Conclusion and is cautioned about. You know stepping outside of my own moral universe. In the end i find myself in an ambivalent position. In regards for his call for liberals and conservatives. To work much harder to understand and appreciate one another's moral universes. And by the way this is a quick personal aside. I completely lack the shyness. So when i finished the sermon. I found his email address at the university of virginia and shot him off an email and i got this autoresponder i've got a brand new baby i'm really busy i'm really popular i'm not going to respond to anything. You did later i hear from him. We have an email exchange this great sermon reverend ali said the great sermon this is approved by jonathan haidt okay. But he did say now you got this little run in that little run so i made the adjustments in the sermon based. On his thinking in our conversation together by email at sister quickest i had such funding in touch with him. In any case back to doctor heights main point in my ambivalence. I see the wisdom in rightness of this openness to different moral perspective the advocate. And i'm hopeful that. Practice by both sides. Might lead to an american american finding much more constructive. Common ground god knows we need that. We need to solve our financial problem. Entitlement programs are debt problem. And all immigration problem. But i also believe with a bit of sorrow i must admit. The try that we might to expand the conversation. Sometimes. Sometimes in the end i fear liberals and conservatives because of their fundamental differences. Immoral outlook in the bottom lines. We'll simply have to slug it out. Pat buchanan was not all wrong. Years ago at the republican. When he said. We are in a culture. In some some issues. Some. Particular situation. We met liberals. Conservatives have to slug it out without finding much,. Let me use the gay marriage controversy which currently rages as an example of this canun. Two gays and. And their liberal supporters. Their fundamental human and civil rights. The right to marry and be treated like every other citizen. Are not up for negotiation. Conservice anymore than they were by african-americans. When white americans were repressing them. And oppressing them and would not give them the right to vote and eat. It is not negotiable for gay lesbian. Anymore. A negotiable. Four african-american. My fundamental rights. Are not afraid. But. I don't see. How is a religious liberal and a gay man i can really step very far out of my moral universe. To seriously consider conservative ideas. Respective. Just one issue. Which would deny me my phone. I have a moral bottom line in. Yeah and doctor height. In our correspondence he said yes okay you said robert alexander what you having that issue is a moral mandate. A sacred value. And don't forget conservatives have them too but. Sure if it's a sacred value you can't you can't surrender it. As a liberal i have a moral bottom-line to which my conscience does not allow me. To negotiate. Or across the line. And soda many conservatives have these. Amoral mandates. But with that said. I do feel liberals will make much more headway on this issue. Escorts and state legislators and the people of america debate. And decide the public policy on marriage. If after considering where conservatives are coming from unloyalty authority sanctity. If we shift our arguments and emphasis in support of gay marriage. To take him to greater account. Conservatives fears. Concerned. Rather than just angrily. Accusing conservatives of being homophobic. And social neanderthals or hateful oppressors. Who want to keep gays and lesbians from full citizenship. Perhaps the gay and lesbian community and their supporters. Can respect and engaged the conservative idea. The society as well serve. Whenever social order is stabilized. Protective. And can argue. Which reasonably i believe we can. The gay marriage can and will infect operate in our culture to do that by extending. Marriage d'amour we actually make marriage much more stable. Well this will not be an easy sell for either side. Perhaps liberals and conservatives can begin to find increasing common moral ground. Yeh coming to understand that opening marriage. How to gays and lesbians not only ensures everyone's rights but actually strengthen. Institution. But rather of. Again. I have no. Illusions. But this expanded conversation if we're able to achieve it on gay marriage between liberals and conservatives. Or any other. A controversial american issue. I don't think these conversations will come easily. An awesome the middle ground will prove terribly elusive because of the. Gap. Woodloch but like doctor height. I am persuaded that both sides will be well served. If they can discipline themselves. To regularly step out of their own self validating. Moral universe is long enough to consider the potential wisdom and goodness of the other side. As i have already said. This clearly will not always work too and the liberal-conservative divide there are moral bottom lines on both sides. But it could significantly radically help us as a society. To begin to move toward much more consensus and stability. In our life. Let me in by being as forthright and transparent as i can with. This morning. One of my purpose in addressing this topic this morning is to stimulate and encourage. More discussion here. Adieu uscb. About how we can or constructively. And respectfully engage our conservative friends and neighbors. In the congregation and here on the treasure coast and we've got. Money. As religious liberals. And social progressives most of us. I do not always think we comport ourselves well. When we self-righteous lee dismiss. The thinking and values of people who radically disagree with us. And please hear this. Yeah. There are times perhaps many time. When we simply must stand up. Strongly for what we believe in those moral mandate. And without equivocation. Express ourselves and. Stand on their own moral bottom line that we can. But in the same breath. As a thoughtful and respective people committed to democracy. And a respectful open society sometimes we need to step back. From our own. Passionately held perspective. And look for middle ground. And compromise and accommodation sometimes we have to swallow hard. When we make compromises in our marriages. Or compromises. In our political lies. Think compromise. Is not. Several of us in leadership positions in this congregation would like the emerson center. The federal we have here for intellectual and social thought. The emerson center to be a true place one of the few places susan grumpy aaron don croteau on the treasure coast. We're liberals and conservatives might come and sit together and truly engage one another. To whatever extent that we can create a venue here. At this address. For this kind of increasing dialogue. The better off. We will be. The better off we will be. None of this. Can be easy. Smooth. Liberals and conservatives just listen to rush limbaugh are ed schultz if you doubt it. Dig their heels in and just say the other side or idiot. That's a temptation. But i am sure deep to the heart. As an american patriot. That america will be better off. If we all try. If we all try again. And again. And again to step out of our own self validating moral universe. And look at the self validating moral universes that stand next to. And consider just consider. There might be truth. And goodness. And wisdom. Safety for america. Whenever we engaged those. Sincerely. Disagree with. Listen to their ideas. Consideration. America. Will be better. And i say and mean to you. Friends. Let us remember. Before we are liberals. Or conservatives. We are americans. 100% of us. No exceptions. All the time. All in this together. All seeking a better america of prosperity and justice and freedom. Let us recommit ourselves this hour. To the american dream that we have had as a nation. Since our very beginning to dream. That every citizen. Will have the opportunity. To build a life. Of dignity. And purpose. And hope. All of us together. America.

uufvb_org

2012Feb12Sermon128.mp3

So in a town not far from here there's a buddhist monk. A jewish rabbi anita terry universalist minister of lunch once a month. And they always pick some small little spiritual practice before they actually eat. Well it was the rabbi's turn to suggest a spiritual. The day and she said brothers. What three words do you want spoken your memorial sir. And the two others the buddhist in the you you thought from in the buddhist says i know i know i want them to say at my funeral. He walked piece. And the rabbi and the unitarians at all.. He walked by. There was a rabbi's turning. She said well i guess. Three words i want to hear it. She serve justice. And the first unitarian the buddha said that's beautiful. She serve justice and they finally turned at the unitarian. Universal ostensible what3words you want spoken to your memorial sir. 4 minutes. What is moving. Have i told that before. All right just once all right okay. You don't want a problem with having a 38-year ministries you forget where you tell your jokes. I love that you're barely because it's it's funny it really you know suggest that we aren't all that enthusiastic about waiting for the reassurance of eternal life. I like it but all joking aside. There are three words i was poking at my memorial service i hope people remit remember me scott alexander by simply saying he was generous. Indeed i believe just about that's the nicest thing you can say about any human being is that he or she was a generous person i aspire. Over my lifetime and i'll say a bit more about that process in the moment to become the most generous person. I can become generous and every meaning of the word. This morning i'm continuing to my year-long 12-part series 12 gates to the city. Spiritual pathways for entering the holy city. Of your own life. With an all-important sermon on the quality. The human quality of generosity. Which i am convinced you know. Going back to the theme of my series. To enter the holy city of your own life means to open yourself to the divine traffic. Is everywhere on creation. Is seeking you to become a part of the divine traffic. The holy interchanges. Generosity. Required for the. I want to begin by saying that it seems to me generosity is not a simple or singular quality of human being as some imagine. 2 billion this money-oriented. Money obsessed culture of ours. Generosity simply needs financial generosity is a noble act of charitable selfless giving. Which every great religion in the world. Lift up as important. And this is of course an important dimension of generosity. The kind all returns within the sermon cuz this is stewardship sunday and yes i am going to talk a little bit about financial debt. But it seems to me i want to talk about some other kinds of generosity it seems to me there for. Pillars of generosity we got to slide. To show you what they are. The four. Colors of generosity as far as i'm concerned a spiritual generous. Explain in a moment. Emotional generosity. Religious or theological generosity and finally. Financial generosity i want to take you to the zoo. Tell me the spiritual quality of generosity. Which opens us too full and joyful living is much more than simply opening your checkbook now. Being spiritually generous means a day in and day out is kind of a life habit. You freely give out of your full self pouring yourself positively out to the world. Without fear that that pouring out is going to somehow dissipate or or lose make cause you to lose yourself. Spiritual generosity is giving your time. Carrier attention. Your energy your resources and your heart. From the interpol of those things that you have. So that the world of others may breathe more gently and they live better life. Spiritual generosity happens whenever we set aside that. That natural human instinct for after all we are animals too. To keep into heaven do horde into risk-sharing. Are many forms of abundance that wonderful acidic tale which. Which we heard earlier from. Claudia is that kind of spiritual generosity of talking about. And we do stand on holy ground does that story suggest we simply give. And don't think about. One of my all-time favorite quotations comes from 20th century british. British mathematician and philosopher alfred north whitehead whitehead who once observed this. The secret to happiness lies in this. That we live by the law of expenditure. We find the greatest joy not in getting but expressing who we are. There are tides in the ocean of life he goes on. And what comes in. Depends on what goes out. The currents flow inward only where there is an outlet. Nature does not give whitehead goes on does not give to those who will not spend. Her gifts are merely loaned to those who will not use them. The more you give out. The more you shall receive. Be exhausted and you shall be fed and then he is. The happy person. The one who lives the life. Of love. Of expenditure. I want to put this crucial point about spiritual generosity a little. If i ask you a. When you think about your life do you work from an abundance model or a scarcity. You will know people who operate from the scarcity. They're always. Tight-fisted they're holding back their sure that if. If they give they won't have enough. But if you work from an abundance model. You trust. As you pour yourself out in your resources out they'll come back. So the first thing i want to point out. Is it while the miserly the selfish and the greedy. Fearfully steal their lives and some sort of a sarcophagus of selfishness. It's the generous. No. That all salvation life itself happy. All lies. Opening yourself up by living. Generously. Living a life. As whitehead suggest. Not. Having and hoarding. What. Expenditure. So that's the first. Important pillar. Generosity. Then there's emotional general. Oh this is more tricky. This i think means having. Unnaturally open and compassionate heart toward others. Emotional generosity is quality of being kind and welcoming and understanding. Of others. Even in all of their limitations and imperfections and flaws. Emotional generosity simply means this you give others the benefit of the doubt you cut them some slack. You are slow to be harsh and condemning and judgmental. As i thought about this i realized pretty quickly and i think that this will make sense to you. The only people that the only people that can be truly emotionally generous. Are those who know themselves pretty well know their flaws though their weaknesses no there. No their inconsistency that are willing to see those and others and forgive them. What are most generous friends i have in the face of the earth is a guy who's now 84 years old. And he's a wonderful man over his lifetime this. Kind man. Has come to understand his own weaknesses and as a result. Has become a magnanimous person. He once said to me scott when i was a brash self-confident younger man outta just starting out in ministry out of seminary when i thought i knew everything. I was pretty hard on people. Who live below my standards. But as i've grown older and i counted and encountered my own. Failure in my own standards and my own imperfections and blind spots. And even my cruelties. I have become more gracious and understanding toward those less-than-perfect people around me who aren't fact. Just. Mirror. Images. Of myself. I am passionately persuaded. You can't be emotionally generous to others. If you think of yourself as somehow. Morally or spiritually or emotionally superior to others. Only when you have a certain discerning modesty about your own humanity. Can you be generous to others only if you see. Your own weakness. I want to speak personally and perhaps just a bit too confessionally for a moment. Emotional generosity in my life. Especially when i'm in the conflict or tension. With someone has not been always easy for me especially when i was like my colleague younger. I come from a house should i say this i come for me. Sharply judgmental family in particular my mother. Who is remarkably good and generous person in many ways when it came to her standard she was kind of a. My way or the highway kind of gal. And i learned that. You know you could live in life and it could be my way or the highway cuz that's what my mother could be. How can i put this key could be a bit like attila the hun. With her four sons you know pillaging raping and taking no prisoners that was my mom with my dad and my and my brothers in me. That was a result when i left the family miss i thought that's the way you were supposed to be just you know. Be tough on people. But i've learned. Over the years that i am a work-in-progress. The only way i know that i'm a work in progress. I can buy. That modesty. Knowing my own weakness. I do a lot of council. Ossining counseling someone comes. He's very upset with a husband. Child or neighbor or a co-worker. And i often. Say something that i believe. Most people with whom we share space and time. In life most people we bump up against. Most people are doing about the best they can. Most of us are doing about the best. Yeah there's some really malevolent. Lowdown nasty rotten people but they're in the minority most of us. Rj. Label that are just doing the best. We can. When you know that. When you know that everybody is struggling just to get through life the way you are struggling. It's your life it comes a little bit emotional generosity. Guess a little easier. And i'm on a path in my own life to try to nurture my emotional generosity. But learning how to set aside my own. Demands and standards. And go with. The imperfect. Reality. Of everyone. That i know. Putting most certain. And then there's religious and theological generous. As i thought about generosity i realized for example that this religious organization this fellowship of unitarian. Universal is siri on the treasure coast. Is all about nurturing and cultivating your generosity in mine. We proudly call ourselves a liberal. Congregation now if you look up the word liberal on wikipedia or in any dictionary do you know what word comes up. Generous. Liberals. Our generous which is not of course to say that conservatives are not generous. I didn't say that and if you stayed i said that i'll deny it. Steve kangas puts it this way. Liberalism. Has been defined as generosity. Tolerance open-mindedness and willingness to give and another writer. Does this way. At its core modern liberalism is rooted in generosity. And compassion. Indeed my colleague burton carly who serves our beautiful church of the river on memphis tenn in memphis tennessee it's it's who how many invented the church of the river anybody. Great big panes of glass to time of the mississippi beautiful. Beautiful. Conjugation. And the. Church. He says. The purpose of our church. Is not to give you as some churches promise. The formula or secret to reserve to receive the generosity. You believe you deserve to receive on high that's not the purpose of. But our churches to create generous lives. The adventure of faith for us carly goes on is not to have a strategic plan. Pertaining blessings for ourselves. But how to live a life that blesses other. Not a strategic plan for achieving blessing yourself. How to live a life that blesses us. Exactly. This congregation was founded 30 years ago and incidentally were celebrating our 30th anniversary. On sunday march 18th just 5 sundays. From now with a gala service with video on all kinds of neat stuff. This church was built this fellowship was built on a liberal spirit of generosity. Our religion asserts. Its first principal. The inherent worth and dignity of every. That means we are generous. Towards everyone. Where'd everyone even those who fail in life. Feeling life painful. Although we unitarian-universalist don't always live up to this lofty principles. Of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Really caring and really listening. Really being tolerant of one another. Whenever we come through our doors here we are seeking. To develop that religious and theological generosity. Every time you come in these doors whether it's to attend worship. Or participate as. Is eva talked about the covenant group or take part in a world religion class with bob. Or usher for one of our humanity series where we're opening the minds of people in this town. Or whether we're here to work to clean up our grounds and prune. Shrubbery. Or whether we're bringing our kids here on sunday to. Instill in them values it will see them through the rest of their lives. Whenever and whenever you come here i hope. Understand yourself as you come. Lowe's doors. On a journey toward greater generosity. Word. Kindness. Unaccept. A mercy. That is what. So. As unitarian universalist theologically we are called. To cultivate. M-21. Route to develop generous live. You won't know this. Generosity. It's not just good. It's in your own self-interest. When you have a generous spirit that is the only way to i think to a life of happiness. You're the one who benefits most from your generosity. Yeah sure when you pour yourself out and give freely on many others benefit. But the truth is it's in our own self in. Even if you're. Selfishly generous it's in your own self in. That's generosity always carries with it. Its own self validation of the heart and always carries that with. Never disappoint. It never leaves us poor. And that brings me full-circle. Got you look you do it with candace sunday you know i was going to get the financial generosity but i promise you. You don't have to start running i'm going to be very gentle with you okay. Generosity. In my book everyday spiritual practice which is my best seller. I there's a chapter in here on financial generosity written by my colleague tony larson. Who tony a gives half his income away every. Year. Two causes he believes and he doesn't have much of a car last time i saw me a gremlin. Railroads. Riverdale get arrested wisconsin gremlin he serves my hometown church in racine wisconsin so i know why he's able to give half his money waze. Don't be cocky. But that's not. In my book spiritual practice. He writes a chapter about tithing. And this is a course an ancient practice. We find in the old testament and other places other ancient religions also have some percentage figure in the jewish and christian tradition it has been 10%. Collins and i and many other unitarian universalist tenino. Practice tithing. 10% of everything that we make financially. Pre-tax or post-tax that's a. We give 10% of everything that we make back to arkham. City council. Upwards of 5% to our congregation and then 5% to other. Other. Concerns and organizations. That we have. This year for example. Taking a big hit this ride to. To beat hunger when i spend $7,000 for the. That's a lot for me. So. Tithing is never. But it's. It's a fun thing. And dumb. It's a spiritual practice that i urge. As you think about your resources. You ought to think every year about tithing back to your. The pact organization. You care about. To church's ago i had this wonderful old gal in her eighties. And she came to me one day and said scott i'm afraid i'm so old. All i can give is money. And she was you know apologizing. She can't. Make coffee and couldn't usher and couldn't do. In the church i said hello. What do you mean all you can give us money there's nothing shabby or partial or an adequate about financial generosity. Giving away money is as important as any other form of generosity. Money did you give away is not some sort of filthy lucre it's the capital of your caring heart. Is the capital of your caring heart and while you may wish you can give in other ways. Financial giving is as important as anything else so. Please be proud helen of the giving that you do give it's not. Dirty to talk about giving money away. It's a beautiful thing. And that's why we do talk about it. In church. It's just one form again. Of generosity. No i realized that when i talked about this 10%. Some of you are in places in your life where you might not be able to do that if you're putting two kids through college and may not be able to. He's got a very suspension or very. Smallfoot. Security you may not be able to talk. But most of us. Most of us can. And i are just as a spiritual practice a discipline. In your life. To give 10%. Let me just end by saying that we are in our stewardship campaign. And we do hope that. Part of your tithe. This year will be to this congregation. And out. Are they giving guide which. We passed out. Can take a look at that and see where you fit in. Stretch yourself. As best you can our needs of go out will go up 10%. It's a very complicated. The picture we need. Need to give our staff. Cost of living increase. Do not pay much. For healthcare for a staff. Is wrong. We need. 10% growth we're hoping that. Sola summarized. Before we close today about these four. Colors of generosity first of course spiritual generosity the simple act of pouring yourself out of giving yourself. Liberally to the world. Another is emotional generosity. Possessing a kind of understanding heart. The cut people some rum and gives them some slack. And cares for them even when they're less than. And then of course there's the all-important religious or theological generosity having a faith. That affirms the inherent worth and dignity of every person. It is naturally generous and caring for them even when they fail and even when they fail badly even when they fail. Then ourselves. Another is financial generosity. The quiet. Get crucial habit. Of unstintingly and gladly returning a healthy portion of all that you economically earn. 2 things you care about. The cause of justice. And love. And protection of children. Sick. Caring. For your world. As a new and old testament. Clearly both jewish and chris. The scripture quotes are endless. This religious community stands here at this busy intersection of 16th 17th and 16th. Disappoint. And 27th avenue. As a place to help each and everyone of us. The journey of becoming more generous p. Generosity is a wide archway that leads to the holy city of your own life. That allows for that divine traffic that holy ground. Generosity is what. Passageways were. Regularly go through. To really find true happiness and holiness in our. Whenever we live with generosity we bless our world. And others. And we bless ourselves. Miracle. Generosity. World. And i say and mean to you this morning on man.

uufvb_org

2014Nov02Sermon128.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. We are so happy that you have decided to be with us this morning. We are a very friendly congregation. And we are delighted that you were here and we want to welcome you just as you come to us. We hope that you will find our service this morning meaningful. And enriching. I'm thought-provoking. And that you will take away and experience that will be of value to you. And to add to your well-being. Good morning to you. My name is pete kersey i serve this congregation as the president of the board as well as several other things and once in awhile i stand up here in the pulpit and expound upon a theme that is. Personal to be and a favorite of of mine and what are the themes of this calendar year here at uuf vb has been spirituality. What is it and how can we enhance that feeling. Spirituality in our fellowship. A member of our task 4-cylinder shot wrote spiritualism can be defined loosely as those things that bring to your heart a warm feeling from those moments of intense respect or love of another or a person-to-person deep connection. Such moments. That come about and being in tune with nature. With another person so it's silly vent that is all inspiring. Perhaps things that you have done. That brings a feeling of enrichment to your soul. It doesn't have to be answer. Do any of the traditional religious themes or supernatural themes in religion. Today. My sermon brings to you my joyous embracing. Of the feeling of spirituality as i pursued my ancestors down through the pages of history. The spirituality of genealogy and i invite you to look today. Everything. I on how nearly every moment in life. Can be imbued with this awesome. Pain spiritual feeling. Are reading this morning. Control the author of roots. Alex haley. And he wrote. Tracing ancestors as back. As far as possible. Has brought too many people great satisfaction and pleasure. Even documenting one's family thoroughly but for a few generations can prove just as exciting and fulfilling as a more sketchy documentation across two or three centuries. Each individual ancestral relative previously unknown and genealogical rediscovered his its own special thrill. No less thrilling. Is the discovery of records rich with information. Which would have remained untouched. Which would never have come to light. Unless you would gotten caught up. In the multiple magnetic lures of genealogy. Young and old alike find that knowing one's roots and busby coming. Better to know who one is provides a personally rewarding experience. But even more is involved in uncovering a family history. For each discovered united states family history becomes a newly revealed small piece of american history. Stated simply. A nation's history is only the selective histories of all of its people. And it's only through an unfolding of the people's histories that a nation's culture can be studied. Hit its fullest meaning. Unquote alex haley. To which i add. That. Uncovering a family history. That excitement of discovery. The unfolding of history and my ancestors part in it. To meet. That. Is a spiritual feeling. Okay. It was 1850. And 30 year-old sarah mcleod. One of my great-great grandmother's. Stewart on the back porch ringing that old cavalry. Calling her three children ages 53 years old and 8 months and her husband banisters 10 children. From a previous marriage. In from the yard the chicken coops in the fields. It was a beautiful day. Near the lake. Just outside the town of monticello. In the panhandle of north florida. The family had just moved there. From south georgia. Leaving the high and dry georgia lands will the fertile florida panhandle. Bannister had found in purchase the 237 acres of land near the lake the year before. 150 years later. 2005. I stood. Next to that lake. With my imagination. Running wild. Feeling the ghosts of my ancestors. Running. Walking and totaling across that land where i stood. I could just imagine my great-great-grandfather bannister. Striding in from the fields of corn and hay with my great-grandfather nine-year-old william. Close-by has heels and banisters namesake. Eight-year-old bannister junior running along hollering to his brother hurry up. Dinner is ready. Oldies. Wonderful images. Family life in the mid-1800s. World around my brain has the florida summer sun. Baked down on my head. I stood there. Lost. In the dream of the past. It was a moment of connectivity. It was a spiritual feeling. What the field of genealogy does. For those who delve into the past history. Of their families. Another such moment. This was 1999. Southwest georgia. Another summer day. Or i was spending a week of my vacation. Digging up the past. Down in the basement of the lee county courthouse in the little city of leesburg. We're bannister and his family lived in 1835. He and his first wife nancy law home and three daughters a fourth daughter was on the way a fifth and a 6 daughter. Would arrive before his first son. My great-grandfather william. Born 7 years later. But on that day. In the courthouse. I was seeking proof that bannister and nancy had live there. Enrolled manila folder. How about the history of the county. Where yellowed pages. Depicting the fat. That nancy and her father noah lawhorn. What among the founders of the beulah baptist church outside the tiny little town of parent georgia. In 1835. Now parrots main claim to fame. Is that the mother of actress tatum o'neal was born there. Yeah. But in my eyes. That fame was the founding of its church by my ancestors. I stood there. Jerry. I told graveyard and its markers. On one side of the road. And the church on the other side. Again my head still with family images. Nancy and her three daughters her father and mother singing the old rugged cross. In that small church building. I could feel a spiritual kinship with this woman of devotion my great-great-grandmother. After all. Well i did not found a church here i am. Intimately involved with a house of worship. I suspect. Set my great-great-grandmother. Would have been scandalized. At the notion of a church like ours. Where most members do not believe. Spiritual. Supernatural being. Open the heaven. No notice that i did not say. That her husband bannister was in that church. He apparently. Was not much of a believer either. As a matter of fact. By all accounts. He was a mean. Tempered son of a boom. Who would take advantage of someone in a heartbeat. I found proof of that in the old records or he didn't. Dumb things to people. But my spiritual connection with nancy. And the image of that family singing in that church building. Turned out to be wrong. I found out later that the old church building. Was built elsewhere. Abandon around 1899 notice on the marker. It says relocated to present site 1889. The one i stood in front of. Was comparatively new. The old one. Torn down. Its exact location. Lost to history. Along with. Whatever graves. We're in the grounds at the original church site. My spiritual feeling of connectedness. Dissipated into disappointment. Because not only was the church building lost to history but the original cemetery. Was also lost. My ancestors were resting in perpetuity. How come some field. Somewhere. How was able do to contact a woman who held the church records at that time and leaning on that spiritual connectedness finally got her to agree to look back into the original records and produce for me. The names of nancy and several other family members who were among the founding members of that church. This giving the proof positive. Of the important facet. Of my ancestors life. And that glow of connection. What's burning brightly. My disconnect was reconnected later a couple years later when i went searching for the marriage record of great-grandfather william and his wife mary ellen noel. That's william. Maryellen. My grandfather jeffrey. And the rest of the kids. In the bowels of the randolph county courthouse. The small town of shellman georgia. How is delavan through the records. No picture. These old musty dusty handwritten letters big. 6in thick. Two and a half feet wide. Just as tall look at this. Pageafterpage. How's marriages land transactions cork disputes and more. And i was searching and searching and searching. I'm getting very. Very frustrated. Wondering if once again. The connection would be broken. The index did not mention william kersey. And his 1866 married to anybody. What my grandmother had left me a hand drawn family tree join the marriage of william kersey to ellen noel did happen in that town in the mid 1860. I was about to give up. I closed the huge ledger with a couple of choice words. When a kindly and much more experienced. Genealogical researchers said. Can i help you. She suggested looking for the name of the bride. It's never occurred to me i was new at this business. And sure enough. There she was. Maryellen noel. Married to william kersey. Spilled cursey instead of kersey. No wonder i couldn't find them. The index had a correct. As far as the certificate was concerned but the certificate spelled his name wrong. If you look real close cursey. That's one of the bugaboos of genealogy. The alternative spellings of names that you run into which makes genealogy very much. Like a detective story. She concludes here there yonder. So there i was. Grinning like a cheshire cat. Connected again. To my will-of-the-wisp ancestor. You know the feeling you get on a rainy day when the sun comes up suddenly there's this glorious rainbow. In front of you. Something in your soul. Just. Resonates with that moment. Well it feeling of discovery is the same in dusty old courthouses and library shelves. An old manuscript. When you turn the page. There they are. The ancestors you've been looking for. I cannot tell you the number of times how the silence of the library genealogy department here in vero beach. Where i volunteer once a week. Has been punctured as an excited researcher claims out loud. When they find some long-lost ancestor. Well when the century turned. The summer of the year 2000. I spent another vacation.. Chasing after migrate. Great-great-grandfather. The father of bannister. The family room or was that bannister was born in what was then the capital of georgia milledgeville. In the center of the state i can feel my ancestor. Bannister's father. Hold elijah kersey calling me from the dim pages of history come on find me pete. I was playing with goats again. Once again i turned to the county library and in a corner of the library. Another one of those old type manuscripts in the manila folder tucked away in a corner. A transcript of an oral history of the area. From a pioneer family. They talked about families they knew who had one land in the georgia land lotteries at one of the names mentioned in passing was cut off. Elijah kersey. Son-of-a-gun. From burke county georgia. When you upon a ground. I looked up. From the pipe pages. And i could see in my mind's eye. The figure of old man elijah. Waving at me saying i'm over here. And over the hills and through the hollers and around the twitchy little tulane backroads of georgia i went to the northeast border of georgia burke county. Near the city of augusta. They're once again into the courthouse down into the basement. And the huge ledger's of handwritten records and pension request files like this one. All handwritten. Deciphering some of that old handwriting has really a trick sometime. Boxes and boxes of folded yellow brittle papers from probate court and it was in the section of property taxes paid. That elijah. Revealed himself. Connection time once again. Just like many other researchers. I couldn't contain myself by hand slap down on the counter and i exclaimed gotcha. A couple other researchers recognizing that moment. Just smiled at me and went on with their own research. Elijah the landowner. Had paid tax on $0.31 on 150 acres of pine covered land in 1805. From there i tracked him back to 1793 where he was noted as. Having failed to pay his taxes. The most intriguing thing though was in 1807. In a land lottery. One of the winners was elijah kersey and. Orphans. Suddenly. The vision changed. Here he was a single man with children. Penny early 1800s. Something that happened to his wife. I know not what. That's feeling a spiritual connection. Really strong. I could almost feel the sadness and the desperation. Trickling down through those dusty pages representing of very real person. With very real troubles migrate. Great. Great-grandfather. I have yet to uncover the rest of the story. My assumption is. The banister was one of those orphan the children. Family lore says he was one of four sons of elijah. Their names. James. John joseph. And bannister. One odd name to be cropping up in the midst of those old biblical names. But i thank my lucky stars many times that the man had an unusual name it made it much easier to sort out people in the record. James. John and joseph do you have any idea how many currencies are named james john and joseph all over this country. But only one banister. 1. So there are some of the highlights of my spiritual journey with my crazy family through the pages of time. I've been unable to find that one kersey of my line who came across the ocean from england or ireland or courtesies are known to have lived for centuries by the way rough type of cloth used in the old times for uniforms. And also there is a village of kersey in england. Exist today. And strangely enough not a single person named kersey lives there. Show ladies you may be wondering why is this guy only talking about his male relatives what happened on the distaff side. Remember me telling you about mary ellen noel. Maryellen. Married my great-grandfather william. And for the longest time. I labored in the courthouses and libraries and haunted online files available to no avail. Define her parents. A few years ago. I got that spiritual glow once again. When my niece kathy. My brother is grown daughter. Caught the genealogy journal. And she joined me in the search. I have to tell you. The being a genealogist is mostly a pretty lonely task. That's hardly anybody. Has another member of the family to show real interest in what you're doing and what you find mostly the reaction is. Oh really. That's nice. Anyway she and i were working on my mother's family line when just this year's suddenly she happened upon a man with the last name of noel we had not discovered previously living in the same town where mary ellen and william got hitched. This man was larkin noel. How about that another distinctive name larkin. We would ploughing through the old census records and sure enough larkin had a daughter named mary ellen haha we found you. Good actions. Glow of deep satisfaction. Down in my soul. No my family line seems to have a penchant for names that are a bit out of the usual. My niece and i are now engaged in searching for records that link us to the first member of our family that we hope can prove that fought in this revolutionary war that man's name is. Joel noel. Can you believe parents would name somebody like that. Still on the distaff side. Let me paint a picture for you. Picture an eighteen-year-old girl. Pull the bloom of teenage youth. Having been brought up by a dentist and a stay-at-home mother with a brother 15 years older than she was. This was my mother k. Or mary catherine. It was pampered and petted. Until. On her 18th birthday. Her mother sat her down. And told her. She was at.. Ted been adopted as an infant. 18 years previously before she even left the hospital. What was her reaction. Well. I'll let her tell you. She wrote about it. Has a preference to her life story. Which i put in the book i wrote about my family and our ancestors along with my brother randy. She said. Quote. At age 18. The girl that was me. Stood before a mirror. Sterling accusingly at the stranger reflected. My mother had just told me i was adopted. Who are you. I said aloud. Who is the mother downstairs. Who is that other woman. One i've never see. I have no mother. Neither of them. Armine. Unquote. My spiritual connection. When i first read that. Simply amazing. My mother's soul was suddenly adrift. In time and space. And she carried that feeling with her. The rest of her life. She met her real mother wants. In about that she wrote. She never wanted to see her again. I always believed she had wanted something from me and it was not love i gave her nothing. It was so sad. To read that. Here she had the opportunity. Do possibly heal that wound is 18 year old girl. And instead. Rejected anger. Don't do that folks. Which rare opportunities come upon you take advantage of them. Let your heart. Take control your mind. Like your stool reach out. To that other soul reaching out to you. I guess i'm preaching now. But in that what i'm supposed to be up here in the pulpit. Let me continue my story. As i grew up. There was no effort really wider my mother or father to instruct me in religious matters until i reach the age of about 10 or 11. Then my brother and i were sent to. Church nearby. At that point in time we lived immediately behind a congregational church on the beaches of st petersburg florida in a little shotgun shack that's my brother standing in front of that photo shows him. In 2008. When we went back to st petersburg to rediscover our roots and where we live find the places of our youth. My mother sent me to sunday school when we live there. And that year. Was the extent of my formal education. In christianity. Know my grandfather suggested. Attending church with him a few years later i went once or twice to southern baptist church. I just wasn't very attractive. That was in the 1950s. The 1950s. I did not cross the threshold of a church again. Until the summer of 2001. When i came to this church. Genealogy research. Became a part of my life after my mother died in 1955. Never. Bring up the subject of her real parents with her because she was so. Touchy about it. So i did not. Anytime i aged near that subject i could feel her tension suddenly build up. So i backed up. It was certainly nothing spiritual going on there. After she passed away. When i began researching the files in the state of illinois where she was born. Adoption records were totally closed. I could find no chink. And that wall. Records administrators in illinois firmly told me no. No access. And we can neither confirm nor deny. That's such an adoption ever took place. I even had her birth name. Virginia bail bond. According to my father. There were plenty of bowman families in the area in the year she was born. Which were the ones. And was that really her birth name. I struggled for years with this. Until suddenly the state relented. Illinois. Open adoption. That is they open the adoption records providing. I could prove. That i was her son. And i really was no problem. It did require some paperwork though. Took about three months. Back-and-forth correspondence. Some phone calls. But in october 2010 i finally received. My mother's. Original. Birth. Certificate. Talk about. Spiritual moment. There it was. Her real name. Just as my father said. The names of her real parents. A brick wall boring my path and crumbled. New vistas family exploration. Suddenly opened up. Hi gleefully began the same routine i was done on my father's kersey ancestors. Chasing down census records old manuscripts. Marriage records. Burial records and on and on and on. Not so far my name is kathy and i have traced my mother's line back to 1814. In kentucky. All right about now some of you were wondering. This is all very interesting. Then i'm glad for you peaton your discoveries with. What does that have to do with me and why i'm here in church today. Well it's it's not only. The field of genealogy. That reveals soul satisfying moments. I maintained at nearly any endeavor that you're really into. Can do that. And what i say to you. Take those moments. Perry stone. As spiritually satisfying. Hear them. With those close to you. No it may be that they will not really appreciate what you did to reach that moment. But they will appreciate that feeling of joy. That you share with them. I called it feeling the spiritual. I label it with a hindu word namaste. Which means innocence. I honor. Respect. The spirit of the divine. Which resides you. Everyone else. Goforth. Discovered something. Have a spiritual moment with yourself. And sheridan. Tumi. This discovery of family history has provided me with. Mini moments. That i would describe as. Beautiful. And i would like to leave you with a quote from helen keller. Remember. No effort. That we make. To attain something beautiful. Use ever. Lochte. Go in peace. Go in love.

uufvb_org

2010Jan17sermon32.mp3

uufvb_org

2011Jan16Sermon32.mp3

Good morning my african sisters. Hey. There's no place. Mit. And according to. But we all have an x chromosome a belly button is there anyone here that doesn't have one. Is there any men that didn't say hello back to me you have to remember you got a belly button you have an x chromosome. You're half my sister. So let's try it again good morning my african sisters. Oh yeah little education makes a lot of difference. And this is what the world needs a little bit more of. A little more education. And a little more yin feminine feminine energy. We need a little bit more. Compassion and happiness. Appreciate. Of the divine feminine but i didn't come to talk about that today. But it's a part of the message. Because. When i hear. Dr. martin luther king is only a dreamer. It really grabs feminine side of me and makes me want to shake. Other side. The guys that say this. And i'll tell you why. Because according to the world english dictionary. A dreamer is a person who dreams. Who lives in a world of fantasy. One who is impractical and unrealistic and the person whose ideas. Or projects are considered audacious. And highly speculative. And my question today. Is dr. king more than a dreamer. Is he more than. A person who lives in a world of fantasy. And one who is impractical and unrealistic. Canary carries definition. Then our children today. Definition. And they become teachers and they teach other children. The doctor martin luther king. And according to the same dictionary. It is considered an archaic notion. Set a dreamer is a prophet. And visionary. Archaic. Today we're celebrating dr. martin luther king jr for his many contributions. To inspire. Consciousness. Of those who would only dream. Of social justice. To becoming active participants on its. Such as is the case here. At my church at this church. At this uu fellowship. Dodger kings intense. Doctor kings and sister. Violence. His persistence in fighting for equality fairness and justice. For all mankind. And is powerful injuring speeches are hmong. His most noteworthy legacy. However in some circles the power of his speeches. Are so watered down. That far too many folks only remember his i have a dream. The outside. That the only die idea he left for us to ponder. How to dream. One thing. That his formula for social justice. Had become outmoded. And insignificant. An unrealistic. And that. My friends would be a travesty. Because dr. king. And the timeless reality. Of his lessons for life could be forgotten. Instead of remembering dr. king. As a great. And noble example. For all. Floyd w hayes who is the senior lecturer at the department of political science. At the johns hopkins university makes this statement. One example. Open american. Personality. That has been trivialize. Is dr. martin luther king. Who has been reduced to that of a dreamer. Most young people if they know anything at all about king have heard of his i have a dream speech. And i add to his comments and that's about all they know. Well this tribulation is not common among you you circles. Irreverent look at kings formula. For his dreaming is worth. Flooring. And today as a storyteller. I intend to rebuild some of the elements of dreaming. The king. And getting to his mountaintop speech. There are clear. And definite technical steps. To accomplish his goal. For example. He had a clear vision of his goal. He designed the mantra to keep his mind on target. He stuck to eat objective until he reached his goal. Try to do everything at once it was. One goal at a time. Because he stuck to his promise of non-violence. He graduated from this incarnation with honors. Some of those honors being. We have a national holiday. In his name. His birthplace. In atlanta is the united states of america national historic site. Atlanta is also the home of the martin luther king center near the ebenezer baptist church. Where he and his father. Martin luther king martin luther king jr. memorial will be. Which will feature a lot large statue of him. Ana wala potations from his writings and speeches. Will be unveiled this year. August 28th. On the national mall. In washington dc. And countless buildings and highways and streets. Bear his name. Am i not on. I said don't worry. Be happy. This man. martin. Is the greatest. Social activist. Of our or anytime. Absolutely deserves to be honored. And i'm very proud that my church. And not just on martin luther king sunday. More than that i'm honored to speak to you today in celebration of his birthday. And as you seen i invited a few of my friends. To help me honor him today that was paul amrut. Part of dr. martin luther king. Leslie. Balochi nielsen voice of. Martin luther king and peter's my man friday who is help me put all of this together. I also want to thank our pastor reverend scott alexander and the worship committee. For inviting me to speak today and as i said it is my honor. And i wanted to share with you in case you didn't understand the little scenario. The idea that scenario was. That martin luther king lived many lifetimes before now. And a lifetime see live we have documentation. Up two of them although we can't document reincarnation. And our church doesn't teach reincarnation. But it was my story. And the dates don't necessarily because nat turner and denmark vesey. But the idea. Was that there was a slave who wanted to organize slaves to get their freedom. And he did cause a lot of deaths. And then there was another slave nat turner. Who wanted to do the same thing and he tried not to kill anyone. Something happened something went wrong. My aunt sent back to school. And then martin when he finished his training he was sent here as martin luther king. Did not. Kill a soul because it is non-violence.. You will find printer. From shakespeare. That fills my heart. With love and helps me know. It helps me know that the whole european world is not out to get me. Coming to this church every sunday. Helps me know that that's not true. But there are times that i could fall back into old patterns. Just because the wounds may not have been entirely healed. And perhaps i haven't learned all my lessons. But there is a great poet who says. And if he should die. Take his body. Cut it into little stars. He will make the face of heaven so fine. All the world. Will be in love. These were the words. From shakespeare. But dr. martin luther king. Begin his eulogy. Reverend james. Who was the unitarian minister. Who was the first to fall after going to selma to walk in montgomery. And i think if these words. To honor someone else. He would appreciate having them said about him so i salute dr. king by saying. When he died. We took his body. And cut it into little stars. And he has made the face of heaven so fine. That all the words. All the earth. And love tonight. And that's my dream. But right now i asked you to join me and reviewing. Is dreaming. I have to think with me. About whether or not the results. Of his life. Were those of just a dreamer. Really a person. Who lives in a world of fantasy who is impractical. An unrealistic. And i'd like you to notice. How he describes his dream. There's so clear. That you can easily envision the conclusion of his goals. Actually his goals were mantras. For example. Let's get on the bus. And sit wherever we want. For all people. Let's all have the right to vote. At the drugstore. Let's ride. Together. From the state to state. Let's win the war against segregation in the south. March in detroit in washington dc. And all of these things he accomplished. Before he gave his i have a dream speech. He accomplished all of these goals before he received nobel peace prize. And all of these impractical fanciful. Non realistic dreams came true. Before he reached the age of 35. I can't understand. How a person can do all of this. In this country. Before they reach the age of 35. Cuz i know i'm smart. I know i'm energetic i know i could inspire people and i haven't done not one single. I have to go back to school. But i do wonder how he became so smart. Why isn't brilliant. So charismatic confident strong and assertive. I do wonder how he became so protective and resourceful and straight talkin and decisive. And what inspired him. To use his strength to improve the lives of others. What is. Passion. To become such a magnanimous hero. And inspiring to others. The answer is another element. Of his dream come true. Not really a technique but. It's something that was a part of his life. And it's that. Idea that you don't have to do it all in one life. He didn't do all of this in one life. Get all of these people. That i've named earlier to teach me clean. The universal. Unitarian scripture. Gandhi. Jesus. Course i was one of us. In my story. But he had an opportunity to study for. To prepare him to come into this incarnation. And do the work that he did. By the age of 35. If you're a musician you know. The mozart. Couldn't possibly have written symphony. At 8. 3. In one incarnation. But he's. Candidates for he mastered the piano and the violin. That's a fact. They just never tell us because they don't know because we can't document. The reincarnation of soul. Well we can easily create a report card for this incarnation for dr. king. Going to ask you to participate in this. Because if you agree. That he was successful. And leaving a committed life behind. I want you to help me. Create. Report card. And when i read this accomplishment. All you have to say is. For i agree or yes. Or something. You know you old folks here i mean 09 age. The ones that have been around as long as i have you know i love a menses and say amen if you want. With that sound like something he's worthy of. The honor 40k. His work has the supreme court that bus segregation is illegal. Houston vs southern christian leadership conference. He recovered from a near-death experience in harlem with didn't stop his forward motion. For a single moment. To allow him to catch a well-deserved nap at the hospital. And some good wishes from the public. Oh that was kind of sauce. Itoki didn't need a break. Sometimes folks. Do become ill because that's the only socially acceptable acceptable. He didn't create it on himself but nevertheless that was the only time he stops and rest. He met with president dwight eisenhower to discuss problems affecting black americans who was always meeting with some president. Thank you. He was jailed and released. After intervention by president john f kennedy and attorney general robert kennedy. Thank you for. His work caused the us supreme court outlawed segregation in interstate transportation. And get this. Case you hadn't realized. All people being allowed to sit together and ride the bus. And the boats and the trains and airplanes. From one state to another. I didn't do it. His work cause a so-called tree to be established. It was named the birmingham agreement. Stating that the stores and the restaurants and the school in alabama. Whippy desegregated. And hiring a black. Would be implemented. This proved to be the turning point. In the war to end segregation in the south. He led the largest civil rights demonstration in history. With over 250,000 people in attendance in history up to that time. And that's where he delivered his. Famous i have a dream speech. And two more thing. King attended the signing ceremony at the civil rights act. The 1964. Which was a direct result of his work. You know. He earned the coveted nobel peace prize. Which was awarded to him at age. 35 the youngest person. Ever. To be awarded. That prize for. There was another african-american who was awarded. The peace prize you may remember ralph bunche back in. 1950s my mother's. I kind of knew him he didn't know me. Would martin luther king was the youngest. Ever. And after doing all of that. He gave us some new dream some new goals. He said. Let's train. Let's change the living conditions. Of the poor in chicago. Let's in housing employment. In chicago and hay while we're at it let's create a poor people's campaign focusing on job. And freedom. Of all races. I agree with you sister. Dr. martin luther king jr.. To not ask. But demand. A12 billion-dollar genomic bill of rights. Guaranteeing employment to the able-bodied. Come to those unable to work. And an end the housing discrimination. Way to get that foresight. How did he know we were going to be in this situation. That's the visionaries job. He saw it coming. He tried to do something about it early on and of course he's not the only one. Everything he did was standing on the shoulders of sunshine. That brought these ideas. And these golden these dreams. Completion. He would have. Continue to work on that with annoying his success rate. We would have had a 12 million billion dollar. Bill. To help us with. Poor people. But that's when the powerbrokers new. They had to end dr. martin luther king's dream. Because people believed in them. They believed in him. And more dangerous. The people believed in themselves. They really thought they could accomplish these dreams. And they thought they could accomplish. History. In the little time he had left. To live in the body in this incarnation. He shared more of his dreams. And more of his goals and vision. Let's have a freedom walk. In detroit. Sanitation workers on strike in memphis tennessee. Let's end. The war. In vietnam. Vietnam. Meddling. In the war. War machine. Taking people off the streets and sending them over to some other country. To kill whole bunch of other folks. Warmachine could continue. To be profitable. He had to go. And that's when the dreaming. Came to a halt. It was 6 11601 april 4th 1968. In memphis tennessee. They thought. It would end his shenanigans. Their actions turned him into. An eternal. Martyr. But don't linger on. The death too long. He's simply stepped up to my odds chambers once again. Nfl wing the heart. He said. I have. Many choices. Of how i want. Express my love for you. This next time. I will turn. I will turn to the almighty and ask. If you would allow me to live just a few years. And second-half. Of the 20th century. Now that's a strange statement to make. Cuz the world's in a terrible state of chaos. Our nation is sick. There's trouble in the land. Confusion all around. But i know that only when it is darkest. Can you see the stars. I see god working in this. of the 20th century in a way that men are responding to. Something is happening in this world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled. What is ar in johannesburg. Nairobi kenya. Accra ghana. New york city atlanta. Jackson mississippi memphis tennessee or vero beach. The cry is always the same. We want to be. We want our dignity. Meant for you is i've been talkin about warren peace. But now the time for talk is over. Survival demands that we act. We no longer have a choice between violence and nonviolence. It's non-violence or non-existence. I want to be a part of the changes we will make using non-violence is our most effective tool. I want to serve as a drum major in the social justice parade. When i die. I want you to say that i was a drum major for justice. Say that i was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all the other things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life. Believe. I just want to have. The committed life. And that's all that i want to say. And so ladies and gentlemen. Sisters and brothers. When we celebrate dr martin luther king's birthday in our own line. I'm asking that you consider. Understanding that. Those stars that we turned his body into. Or actually. And that you two have a mission. Whatever that mission is that you chose that's your mission as your contribution. To humankind. And when you celebrate. This birthday. Do it everyday. You don't have to wait. Till next year. And one way i suggest you do this. Is to have a dream. Keep tabs of the conclusion that you come to. And brag about it. Write it in your diary that you had a dream and you did this tell her friend i had a dream and i did this come to church and tell us about it. Toot your own horn even if you only play it for yourself. Because too many of its this is part of that feminine energy that has been suppressed. Too many of us don't take the time to applaud ourselves. We don't let ourselves before dinner my aunt. And we are heart and see how we're doing and then when we graduate say yeah i did it. We just keep going back to school i haven't done it well enough. It's good enough for today. The more you brag to yourself and i'm using the word brag because it has such a negative connotation. But you can lift it up the more you tell yourself. How wonderful you are. The better you will become. The more your dreams come true when you acknowledge hey i did this much of it that dream will go and get his uncles and aunts and cousins and sisters and brothers and bring some more back to some more success back to you. Seymour health and prosperity. Because lacking. Joy. Is the root of all of our ills. Eels come from. The lack of personal joy. So invite you. To consider. Applauding yourself giving yourself a nobel peace prize or whatever the prizes that goes with your mission. And if you want to serve people you don't know how to do it will help you. Table go to the coffee room. At the social justice table they'll be one or more people there. To tell you about the many programs church has. That you can be involved in to help you. Search people to help you get started. And whatever you do for others. In conclusion. Do it for yourself. And so it is thank you.

uufvb_org

2013May12Sermon32.mp3

This is mother's day. Specialty. Affirm. Attractions. Generosity. Understanding. Forbearance. And of course. Father's day to reflect on our mothers and perhaps other special women. With the generosity of spirit parents. Or guardian. Anymore than we ourselves. Your mother or father son or daughter. Brother or sister. Carousel. Call work. And the chair within our family. Play across the island to get a little extra bike riding. Holodomor. And i have to tell you that absolutely perfect florida morning. Friendly blue sky puffy white clouds gentle winds. A hearthstone northern maine in riverside park. As i said. I looked around for a moment i purposely focus my attention. Once i applied myself. Nearby. The study, with the cars and trucks. Crossing the bar for about their work in school. Offset for plane landing at the airport. As i sat there purposely taking my world ears. My breathing relax my mind clear cellphone cluttered and i felt totally apiece. Beautiful world. You know when we take time to stop and listen. Truly listen we discovered that our world is full of wonderful south open and will weird. Like all our human sensory capabilities smelling tasting touching escape. Physically here and differentiate sound through our ears. It's an amazingly simple.. Spiritually wise to remember most of us are blessed at first.. We come into this world with these funny-looking flaps of flesh on both sides of our hip the direct and allows sound around us. Ninja warrior drums. Complicated neurologically so i can't even pretend to really understand. Transmit interpret to our brains everyday and incident variety of sounds from nature from the voices of people from. Better generator for life and activity the environment surrounding. How grateful i personally am from here. My sense of hearing is not as keen as it once was. I can tell the difference. Noticeably more hard-of-hearing. And in many environment if i'm in the kitchen or bathroom of home and there's water running or a restaurant or a crowded social reception for like last night i had trouble making up. Really want to do anything about it yet like getting fitted with hearing aid. It's clear to me that my ears are not working like they used to. Baptist church. But today i will. Between the physical act of hearing and the spiritual art of listening. What's near one slide ahead there john anyway that's okay. Really doesn't require much effort that our hearts other than make sure there's a lot of wax. What the spiritual elizabeth. It's not so easy and it is not so inevitable. The spiritual art of listening requires intentionality. Melissa. Listening real deep sincere listening to life and persons around you. Is a spiritual practice and discipline that one must cultivate. If one is to find a deep and rewarding relationship in one's daily life with the world. Almost all human beings are born with the natural ability to physically. Most of us have to spend a lifetime learning hopefully howsoever more rich listen to life. Deep spiritual listening of something we haven't cultivated. Several years ago when i put the book everyday spiritual practice together.. Because i'm actually persuaded. If we learn to use our physical ability to hear as a spiritual pathway to a deeper richer relationship with life. Then we'll we'll have a much poorer have your life. About spirituality of listening. Two distinct but surely related videos that are living. There is a deep spiritual listening to the natural world natural light around you and teeth spiritual listening to person. With whom you share wife most especially those to whom you are closest it's a family sunday your mother's day was over talking really mostly about family. Listening deeply for the rhythm of the night. Everyone in shirley is an intense and blessed moments of holderness like that's what i experienced when i find my got off my bike and find myself down on the lagoon the other day. Purposely stop and tune my ears who was around. Is mormons are truly blessed when we allow ourselves to be sealed. In her wonderful book radical acceptance embracing your life with the heart of a buddha tara brach was a buddhist church in bethesda maryland. She said. This is her by the way if you want to read more about her thought. She said but the spiritual practice of posit. Is the first step on the road to coming home to the fullness of your own being i hope. Learning to pause. Is the first step in the practice of radical acceptance. Physical activity a time of temporary disengagement. We may take a pause from our ongoing responsibilities by sitting down to meditate. Steppin out. We may pause she goes out further conversation. Letting go of what we were about to say. In order to genuinely listen and be with the other person. In a pause. We simply discontinued. What we're doing. Walking walking writing planning worrying eating and become wholeheartedly presents. Attentive and often physically still. The sacred art of pausing we develop. Cassidy. Stop hiding. From ourselves. Stop running away. Experience. The pauses in our lives. Make our experience in this world. Physically here with our ears all the time even in our sleep. Better health. The sounds keep coming at us. Intuit. We can only claim to have achieved a state of spiritual listening. When we is tyra proxxon. Really focus on that picture so freely come and go. Living. Listening mindful practice. It is one way you can become keenly mindful or aware of what the world is trying to say to me. And every one of us needs to cultivate this simple siri will ability. To truly listen. The world is saved. Look like most of you i lead a rather fast productive and hectic life. Often an incredible speed. Isn't that one of the things that we call pacification in america. Confidently accomplish all that i believe. Always amazed at how much more ikea. And how much more i know if i simply able to discipline myself to slow down. Focus my attention right where i am in the world. Listen to what is coming. If we let every sound that every combination of self. Out of our world data. Take me deeper than my world as a spiritual. Simple form of everyday mindfulness meditation that i often recommend that people who are feeling disconnected or distracted from the deeper calmer places they want to be. Is is a sitting or walking meditation sitting in your home or out in riverside park. Meditation of the five senses. Sight-sound smell taste and touch. Sound spell. This is a simple meditation you can do it at home in a favorite spot in your house when you're stupid. So what you do for this meditation. Is that you paused as harbach suggests. Intensely focused attention on each of these primary senses. Give it to you at 4 a.m.. You could start by saying to yourself. And focus on yourself sense of sight okay now i am booking. 2 minutes 3 minutes. I am looking. Seeing where you are. How do you say no i'm going to smell. And you open your nostrils and you still form energy jump smell where you are. And then after that you can cause the safe now i'm going to listen. And just listen. And so forth and if you arrive at taste of home have a strawberry or a some delicious pistachio. Finally eat something strawberry or blueberry with you strawberry. Whenever we talk regularly in our daily lives to take fully. Full notice of what's around us. Try this meditation 857 sometime today or tomorrow. 50 minutes. Please. So the first place for the spiritual practice of definitive listening. Is any relationship with the natural world. And the second place i want to focus on is the deep and attentive listening that can transform you in your everyday relationships with people. This isn't our relationship with the natural world most of us do pretty well with the physical act of taking through our ears what people are saying to us in our immediate. But we are most of us. Is the art truly listening. Deeply and attentively listening. Complexities and emotions of what people around us are really trying to communicate. So much of what passes for communication. Work. School in the halls of congress and talk radio. So much of what passes for communication. Should be more accurately described as people alternately talking at or past one another. You know this is. There is no problem against most of us tearing the words that people are saying. Even if we have substantial hearing loss. Many of us to our eardrums nevertheless somehow managed to communicate what people are saying. But physical success in hearing the wrong words of others. And having a process in our ring doesn't mean we've learned define spiritual art of true and compassionate listening. You all know that one of the biggest and most persistent problems in human affairs. Even when we do not interrupt or talk over one way. Is effective and complete communication. Whether you're talking about business or government organizations of all sorts every time i guess what comes up. Church communications. Have a hard time communicating to one another. And every church i served 4240 years. There's something we can intentionally do about it. We can improve the quality and the depth of our human communication with one another we can truly learn the art of listening. So where was i. We can learn the spiritual practices in in in direct communication with others the practice of pausing. So that we can more fully cash. What is really being communicated to us. Practicing just keep listening is causing the middle of conversation. Satisfying relationship with the people you care. Universalist minister i am trained. As one of the listening professionals i'm trained in the listening professional. If i were staying as out with this wonderful conversation. Staff ford. Committees and task forces and families and individuals. It's terribly important for me. To pick up appropriate to pick up an appropriate to respond as much as i humanly can't what is actually being communicated. Weather in his information about the project. Or emoji. And what pleases me is that i've actually retained some of what i learned on in berkeley california and one of the first things that i might evan rachel. Active listening we have the logo for that logo. This is the official logo of the active listening movement which was first formulated and taught by the famous american psychologist carl rogers. And i want to talk to me about this concept. Because i was convinced that it is holds a key component of the spiritual and wasn't looking for my book on active listening like on myself. Directv online and read more about active listening it's going to be one listening university of colorado website. Active listening. Awesome people talk to each other they don't listen to teddy university colorado right about something else or. Respond the focuses on the attention on speaker. The listener must take care to attend to the speaker.. Thursday forces people to listen taylor from others. Set they really understand what another person is sad and third attempts to open people up to let them give them permission to say more. There are other more detailed active listening techniques and strategies that you can read about on the way but the central point is an active listening taking the time and the discipline and routine communications to make sure that you understand what it's been communicated. Active listening to able to hear what's being said the deepest level also assures that you hear the words other people speak to you. Including the all-important dimension of emotions for more than information of coral with bollocks us up stations not that we don't receive the data. Don't receive the emotion in one the real dangers of email. If you all know and text me is if you don't sometimes even come close to getting the emotions by little quickly happy faces and sad faces is lots of locking all that stuff you said. Sure this technique of making sure what that you truly heard for you speak your own messages in your own name is helpful at work or when you go see a doctor or even when you're in an auto repair shop. This is were active listening practice. Active listening. Temporary sunnyside of self for the sake of important relationship if you're in an important relationship aside for. All helpful formulaic techniques active listening obviously can be overused to irritation or relevancy to be used or abused by a counselor or therapist or even espoused. Sincerely on a genuine affection respect and care it can be a wonderful thing. Sometimes it takes a great deal of especially when you're angry or you feel unheard by practicing active listening to music. Take that relationship much deeper. Something i've never i may never fully understand my life is hardest for me routinely to listen to those causes cooling. Why does lava proximity in human relationships make listening more difficult when i get home that's where the wax is spiritual wax till 7. Does this ring a bell afraid of using a charger and listen on hold and never elephant. And we have the most emotional. And therefore it is hardest to listen and unconscious. Let me get this one quick example for money. For the umpteenth time and wife is complaining to her husband about the dirty socks he leaves by the recliner in the living room. He thinks the argument is about her excessive needs for household hygiene and order. Ey is occasionally taking this awfully watching the ball game. Crustaceans not really about. It's about her feeling disrespected and disregarded every time she sees those socks in the floor in the morning after she's repeatedly said. About this example that is why the technique and practice of active listening. And you're struggling and i sat in the conversation pause. Pause roblox. Really listenonrepeat back and somewhere another to the one you were conversing with. What you heard both in terms of emotion and pay.. To make sure you understand. Agree with them don't understand. And how you may feel uncertain. Listening affirms the worth and importance of both parties in any interaction. It's called the practical techniques in the spiritual classes. That can take you much people in your life well. You listen to me just about warming up. Active listening skills i was told and every good sermon you tell him what you're going to tell him. I told you what i told you today sophie active listener. With our ears. Is one thing. Truly listening with the fullness of your human being is quite another. Truly weather out in the woods on a beautiful day or at the beach or at the kitchen table talking with your kids or grandkids over breakfast. Truly pausing and making sure you're fully and mindfully listening. What is a simple spiritual practice. It has the power to profound lee deepen. Your life on this planet which is what all spiritual practices do they enrich. Your relationship. The good news. The good news is that everyone in this room no matter how stubborn. Opinionated you are. Can cultivate the practice. Of active and engaged listening. You are free to nice guys. To your world. And two others. Hear what i'm saying. Then i can say. List of my friends. Listen. Everywhere the world is speaking to you. It is speaking to you through the waves crashing on the beach. It is speaking to you to the song birds singing in the trees. It is speaking to you through the jungle sounds of floats through your bedroom window at night. Kid is speaking to you through the. Be humble zillion neighborhood. It is speaking to you of a newborn babe it is speaking to you through that familiar old voice of the person you've been living with for today it is speaking to you. Do the heartbeat you hear in your own chest. Listen. Listen. The world is speaking to you. Open your ears. Open your heart.

uufvb_org

2011Jul03Sermon128.mp3

In june 1938. The very first issue of a periodical called action comics. Appeared on the american newsstand. Featuring the adventures of an alien from the planet krypton. A dark-haired strapping fellow who appeared very much like a caucasian male from our own planet. And whose exposure to our son. Granted him what we would call superpowers. Including virtually unlimited strength. X-ray vision. The ability to fly. And perhaps most remarkable of all the ability to make people think he was someone totally different just by putting on a pair of glasses and a suit and tie. This was superman. And he revolutionized american comics. Including the introduction. Of the concept of the superhero. His adventures were published by dc comics which would follow up on the idea with heroes such as. Batman. Hawkman. And green lantern. While the rival company atlas. Later marvel wood counter wood submariner. The human torch. Captain america. The hulk. Four and spider-man. But the very first was superman. Who's adventures expanded from the comic book into newspaper strips. Television and movies. People who never read a comic book know what superman stood for and what he fought for. Say it with me. Truth. Justice. And the american. Way. Oddly enough this iconic phrase did not originate in the comics. But in the adventures of superman radio show in the 1940s. And of course a great many of us remember it. From the familiar preamble to the adventures of superman tv show in the 50s. Oddly enough it was just truth and justice. The superman fought for in that first issue of action comics. Written by jerry siegel and drawn by a canadian-born artist. Named joe shuster. Way back in june 1938. The 900th issue of action comics. Was published. In may of this year. A small backup story in this landmark issue. Written by david s goyer and illustrated by miguel sepulveda. Has created more controversy. Then the previous seven decades of superman stories in whatever media. The story. Intitle the incident. Opens with superman. Being criticized by the national security advisor. To the president of the united states. It seems the man of steel had recently flown to turan. What's civilian protesters had taken to the streets. Demonstrating against the government of iran. Superman had stood there. Silently and motionless lee. For 24 hours. With the protesters. In a gesture of solidarity with the. Or as he put it. As a superhero. As metropolises protector i have fought. Just about every threat imaginable. Alien invaders. Time traveling desperate. Rogues with every kind of costume and gimmick you can think of. I'm good when it comes to fighting apocalyptic threats. But the everyday degradation. The humans suffer. Dying of. Hunger. People being denied their basic human rights. I've never been very effective. At stopping. Things like that. And i want. Tubi. So i showed up in solidarity. It was an act of civil disobedience. Nonviolent. Resist. And now superman is being taken to task. For this by the presidents and ashley. Security adviser who tells them that his action has created an international incident. For the united states. Superman's reply is. You're right. Which is why i intend to speak before the united nations tomorrow and inform them. But i am renouncing. My u.s. citizenship. I'm tired of having my actions construed as instruments of us policy. Truth. Justice. And the american way. It's not enough. The world is too small. 2. Now this is only a comic book. And yet it has created a storm of outrage on the political right in our country. A quote from andrew a smith of the memphis commercial appeal. I don't mean to pick on fox news but they were bringing the lotus. The story titled the incident was condemned on the o'reilly factor. Fox & friends and fox nation. Where potential presidential candidate mike huckabee called it disturbing. Gop activist andre meyer rented on fox. But it showed a blatant lack of patriotism. That it belittled the united states. And the it was an eerie metaphor. For america's apparently low. Standing in the world. Meanwhile other media got into the act most major newspapers news broadcast. And online news stories. Carried. Two-story commentary. Or both. So what. Is the big. Affectional character. Albeit and iconic. Fictional character decides that his allegiance to his adopted world. Supersedes his allegiance to his adopted. Or to quote superman himself. Story. I'm an alien. Mr. right. Born on another world. I can't help but see. The bigger picture. Well you and i. Are not aliens. We were born on this plan. A planet we share not only with our fellow americans but with every single human being. Every sentient creature. And what our uu principles call the interdependent web of exist. Of which we are all a part. This fourth of july weekend. As we honor those who gave what is euphemistically called the last. Full measure of devotion. It is appropriate to ask. What. Role does patriots. Play. Today's world. What role should i play. Today is much as anytime i can remember attitudes and our country are polarized. There are many who feel the usa is the most wonderful nation in the history of the planet. Exception. Chosen of god. And incapable of doing wrong. There are others who find this country. Arrogant. Self-righteous. Even contemptible. And pressure. Fuel who realized. The truth. Lies somewhere. Queen. And here is the real tragedy. There are far too many who feel the disagreement with their own opinions is wrong. Is evil. Is aimed at them. They have not grasped an essential truth stated years ago by john d macdonald. The vast majority of people. Are not against. You. They are merely. 4. Themselves. Most of them are not hostile. They are. A great many of my friends consider themselves conservative and they consider me liberal and by extension unpatriotic. Me. The only guy in the pub who takes off his cap one god bless america is played. They value our country. They cherish our freedoms. So do i. They worry about the culture of. Pendants. That seems to be gradually replacing the switch. 10 of self-reliance. I go a long way with. But we parked company when the word exceptional. Insidiously in. The conversation. Because far too often exceptional comes to mean superior. And then exceptional leads to another easy word. Anti. Entitled to things that others are not. Within the lifetimes have a great many here today the biggest war in man's history. So far. Was fought against two countries that considered themselves. Superior. And. Entitled to land and resources that others were not. The imperial japanese empire called it. The greater east asia co-prosperity sphere. Nazi germany called it lebensraum. Or. Livingston. In each case the basic idea was. We are better than you so we are entitled to things you are not. The ultimate expression of this idea came in the concentration. You are not entitled to that which we are entitled to. Life. Itself. Now many will call this and odious. Comparison. And say that that cannot happen to america. Or to american. I would call them to a reality check. If the idea of exceptionalism. Could blind and overwhelm a bastion of culture. Such as germany. Or one of the gentlest peoples on our planet. The japanese. It certainly presents a clear and present danger. To the united states of america. And that. Is not what our veterans died for. To turn us into just another version of a self-proclaimed chosen people. That's time for a disclaimer. The phrase chosen people is often associated. The jewish. People i am not using the words. In their somatic sense. But at face value. No. Nation. No religion. No sect. No group. Can afford to think of themselves as the chosen. People. We are all the chosen. People. Or none of us. And the values that our american veterans died for apply to all people or they apply to none. All people. White. Black. Brown yellow and red. Gay straight and by capitalist and socialist and communist and marcus and anarchist everyone. Everyone or. Which brings me to my last poem. Superman. Was right. The world is. Small. 2. Patriotism. Is not pass. But provincialism. Is. That conservative commentator on my radio station. Michael savage. Some of us think of him. What does a loudmouth. Likes to talk about a country being defined by its borders. Its language and its culture. Now that's fine as far as it goes. But far too many people consider these. Things. The hyde. Behind. It is human nature to fear the unknown. And that is why we identify ourselves with groups. Races. Political persuasion. A world without group identifications. And the dubious concept of safety in numbers. There's a lot of people. To death. The world has been rendered in superman's words. Too small. Connected. By the electronic communications revolution. And there is something coming. The abyssal. Play terrified. A great many. It is. The one. World. Government. My conservative friends tell me they resist the idea of the one world government because. They. Will not allow us. To have the freedoms and values that we cherish. And so we must hunker down behind our borders. Language. And resist any idea of participating in a one world government. These folks seem to have no hope whatsoever. Our ideas of individual liberty. And individual worth. And individual achievement. Can prevail. Autoworld stage. In other words. They've given up. Gk chesterton is credited with a famous statement about christianity. He said it has not been tried. And found difficult. It has been found difficult. And not tried. This is the attitude that so many take to world government. World. Justice. World. A world in which the ideals that. American veterans. And veterans of good heart and goodwill everywhere. Died. These ideas. Are not to be hoarded. They are to be shared. With everyone. If they are superior ideas of human conduct. They will prevail. Not because someone was more guns and bigger bomb and shove them down someone else. Throat. But because they are. Right. That. Is. It can be run from. Or it can be embraced. Living and. Sharing our ideas forward on a planetary scale. Will not be easy. In fact it'll be supremely difficult. But that doesn't excuse us. Doing so is the only. Proper way. To honor those who died. For those very ideals. Loyalty to one's family. One community. Even one's nation. 10 and should be admirable. But it should not degenerate as it so often does into provincialism. The idea that only that which is familiar to me. Is good. Invaluable. And i repeat. The values that our american veterans died for. Apply to all people. Or they apply to none. All people. Black white brown yellow and red gay-straight and by capitalist and socialist and communist and monarcas and anarchy. Everyone. 1. Sing. For me. If it ever came down to the choice. Of betraying humanity. Or betraying my country. I hope i would have the courage. To betray.

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2011Nov20Sermon128.mp3

Today is sunday. November 20th. In the year 2011 and so far at least this is been a perfectly ordinary day. In my life. So perhaps this is a perfect day. Bowling as it does just four days before our national holiday of. The giving of thanks. For me to take in this public forum a brief spiritual inventory of some of the simple. Ordinary mundane things in my life. That when i stopped long enough to think about it. I am truly thankful for the human being. No my litany of everyday gratitude which i'm going to give voice to now is of course my own idiosyncratic and personal list. But i hope many of you will recognize some or all of it. In your own life. The kinds of simple satisfactions you to know. Here then is what stripped to its essence. My life is like on this run-of-the-mill sunday just before thanksgiving 2011. First i began my day by. Hello waking up. Hey how about that for a good start. I simply opened my eyes this morning unstretch the sleep out of my body and by any measure that's a pretty good beginning to a day when i consider the real alternative. But i might not have awakened this morning. But instead would have drifted into the fog that lies just beyond life for all of us. Glory be as luck would have it here i am. Right here like woody allen you know 90% of his just showing up. Once again i'm able to give a run at the day. Just the mere fact of finding myself alive and aware. Strikes me as a pretty special thing. And there is so very much more. I woke up this morning wrapped in the luxury of a big soft bed. Which i can call my own. Beneath crisp inviting sheets and a clean cozy blanket. With my bedroom windows open to the breezy atlantic. In a cool comfortable familiar home next to someone there he is. Who loves and cares for me more than i probably deserve. Despite the chronic arthritis in my knees neck and back i was able to get out of bed. Creek my way to the bathroom turn on the water jump in a steaming shower that graciously loosen. Much of the overnight stiffness that had crept into my bones and muscles. Stepping out of the shower i dried off with a warm soft. Fresh smelling towels slipped into comfortable loose-fitting clothing. And moseyed my way to the kitchen sink be to the miracle of coffee makers with automatic timers. There it was coffee iv elixir of the gods. I done moved quietly to my favorite end of the red sofa. In our modest but sunday's living rooms at does overlook the atlantic ocean. The crashing waves of which i heard through the open slider. And between welcoming sips of coffee quietly for peruse. The familiar. Get surprising pages of the morning papers. Dappled. As they are 2in sunshine. To read the local national and global news in this complicated bittersweet world of ours. Including the comics which despite my astounding degree of intellectual. Mastication i do enjoy every more. As the morning moved on and the sun steadily rose a little higher in the sky and the perused sections of the papers steadily piled up on the floor. I moved to my clear glass dining room table which by then also danced in the embrace of the morning sunlight. I sat quietly and enjoy the simple breakfast consisting of. Two halves of a liver liberally buttered english muffin. Shamelessly adorned by big globs of strawberry preserves offset by refreshing sips from a tall frosty glass of ice-cold skim milk. And the last of my car. These taste mingled. And charmed my pal. Preparing for my day with work and how blessed i am to be able to say that i am meaningfully employed in this world. I shaved. Brush my teeth took my daily medications who doesn't have four or five or six or seven or eight of those. And then dressed for my 30 minute bike ride to church. I left my house. And i biked on fiddlewood past the house where the murder occurred thursday night. And i said a simple prayer. For that family. And all. Who are affected. I got horrible. Events yet. The world was beautiful. Buy that house. Soon. I was on the barber bridge. And i stood up. Pedaling vigorously heading west over the lagoon fully aware and glad that i was both alive and moving with the morning and i took the light in that moment. The fresh morning air snapping in and out of my lungs the exhilaration of my muscles and heart working together the excitement of watching. The hungry pelicans already doing dive-bombs into breakfast. The pleasing pattern of the early sailboats working their way up and down the intercoastal. The puffy white clouds and far-off. Green palm tree horizon inviting me onward. Charming parade once i got across the bridge of joggers in. Neighbors walking their dogs. In what seemed like no time i arrived here at the fellowship safe and sound without a flat tire. Without meeting a car by accident. Ready to take another shower my second of the day. Put on my best start. Lands end shirt. And a bit of cologne to sweeten the pot and bisley got about the work i love doing the keto the building was reasonably clean going over the service elements and greeting all of you as you dribbled in as you always do. And now finally leading worship in this beautiful wonderful space how blessed i am. To work for you you're mostly kind mostly gracious mostly wonderful people. You're all wonderful. But it doesn't say that in there the text but you are. And is it. All of this weren't enough there's much more. When i pause a catalog on all the relationships i have in the world my far-flung. Weber friends and families and acquaintances. I'm held in a web of affection and care that goes far beyond reason and far beyond these walls and so are all of you. And what's more. I as you live in a miraculous natural world that even in these times. Climate change and violence swings of weather. Is incredibly beautiful hospitable and charming. It's rather amazing isn't it through no effort and merit of our only find ourselves. In a creation adorned. With rainbows i saw one day before yesterday and sunsets. Soothing rivers and beaches. Gentle winds and refreshing rain showers in fighting for us billowing clouds singing birds. Yes there are hurricanes. And blizzards and tornadoes and tropical storms and alligators and rattlesnakes and mosquitoes and they're even love bugs. I miss. Planet there's nothing lovely about love bug. When you take all this creation together even a pessimist. Must admit. It's a gracious. And hospitable place and there is more to be. I have enough food and liquid to drink each day i have a solid roof over my head at night and plenty of clothing. To make each come 4-h season come. I have reasonably good eyes which permit me to read poetry. Amc sunset. I have a nose. That allows me to smell this. Aromatic world. And ears which while not nearly as keen as they once were. Enabled me to hear the manifold music of this creation. And all of your voices. I have a brain. A reasonable piece of hardware reasonably intact. Which most of the time is coherently connected to my mouth. In ways that allow me to express myself and communicate meaningfully. With the world. Another person's and my worth and it worsening arthritis aside i still have legs would carry me wherever i choose. And hand with which i can touch until the world and lips which can talk. And kiss and laugh and smile and a body which most of the time feels like a familiar old friend. All this is mine. Without me turning it. And on this sunday. Morning. November 20th i am quietly grateful for this life. Every piece. No. With all this. Cheerfully given voice don't get me wrong. I have lots of complaints and caveats and i'm happy to share them with you. If you really want to listen to them. I'll buy can painstakingly catalog every existential gripe i have. But for today at least the sunday before thanksgiving i simply want to affirm. With full and sincere heart. The overarching truth. An undeniable reality of my life all-in-all i am blessed. I have much to be grateful. Mine is an abundant life. In an abundant creation. And i know that i would truly. Pretty lucky guy. And what about you this thanksgiving. What does your spiritual inventory look like. When you think about the routine shape and substance of your life you know the big picture. Taking all things in all. How are you feeling about your life and more important a question. What are the everyday aspects the on ostentatious elements of your daily routine. For which you. Can say you know i'm grateful this morning. I hope that your heart is able to come up with a list similar to mine. For surely we are all blessed to some degree or another in countless big and small ways as we make our way through this astounding create. This morning i'm offering you the 4th sermon. In my year-long series entitled 12 gates. To the city. Which explores 12 different. Spiritual pez or avenues of human being. Which i believe will enable you to answer the holy city of your own life not somebody else's holy city. Not some imagine city the holy city of your own life. I believe the gratitude simple everyday uncomplicated gratitude for the gifts and graces of what you have been given. Is an attitude of the hardaway of being in the world which enables you to lead a life. Of satisfaction and purpose and peace and which energizes you. To give as well. Has gat. This is because gratitude. Opens and energizes us. Gratitude stimulates as i've been saying in the series the divine traffic. The divine traffic between us in the world which is always seeking to happen. Gratitude enables and empowers that divine traffic. It allows you to go out. And it allows the divine to come in. I can't imagine any person being truly happy in this life without a healthy dose. Of everyday gratitude. Indeed it was 20th century british unitarian minister and writer lp jacks. Who wants succinctly said religion. Is primarily an affair of gratitude. Religion is primarily an affair of gratitude. A catholic mystic thomas merton said it differently if you managed only one prayer in your whole life. And that prayer is simply thank you. It will be sufficient. Actually i prefer the rather pointed wave the same thing as a firm. Find my favorite pogo character porcupine. Now i show porcupine is the rather curmudgeonly porcupine there within areas with pogo. Anda. Talking about a different strip in one of the strips. Porcupine is down in that little leaky boat in that little leaky swamp with a turtle character turkey lapham. Entergy is reading the newspaper article. That the blaring headlines in the paper sunter burnout in three billion years ending all life on earth. And. Turkey lapham is crying with this headlight what was me i'm too young to die to which part of your man's ass shut up you're lucky to be here in the first place. Far as i'm concerned i would never say that to all of you this morning would i. I would never know i would never say. Are shut up you're lucky to be here in the first was having very on ministerial of me. So i won't say that. Difficulties irritations aside you're all pretty lucky just to be. Theologian matthew fox writes about the experience importance of gratitude even in the face of real hardship. Gratitude he writes. Changes our lives. It fills us with energy and vitality and then he goes down when i was 12 years old i got polio. And could not walk for 6 months. The doctors could not reassure me i would ever walk again. As it turned out i did get my legs back. But i learned a lesson in the process that i have never forgotten. Don't take for granted. I had taken he writes my legs for granted. Legs at work legs that could run and play ball legs of took me exactly where i wanted to go. When my legs return to me i was filled with gratitude not gratitude for the miracle of my legs being healed. But rather gratitude for my having legs at all. And then he concludes. I was filled with energy and promised myself i would never again waste my legs. For as long as i live. As i thought about this quality of everyday gratitude has a heart that's so essential to our health. 3g's come to mind. And i want to put them up there for you. The first g is a routine gratitude. The spurt simple everyday gratitude. That i was talking about the beginning of my sermon that i feel just simple good old gratitude. But the second g is holding a grudge. Against life which it seems to me is the polar opposite. Of having gratitude now some people i have known over my lifetime. Seem to specialize in holding grudges against life itself you know anybody like that. Raise your hand if you know at least you know what to say their name just somebody who kind of specializes in holding a grudge against life. Which means you begrudge life for all the way it is unwilling to singularly devoted self to your personal happiness that's what holding a grudge means. I have known a handful of people. Who feel this way. Rather than everyday gratitude which is an open door which allows that divine traffic. Begrudging life is a dark and shuttered door of the heart. That steals you tight. Against life. This is those who always for whom the glass is half empty it's never have full. Just. Just block out life cuz hey my waters halfway down. I can't possibly love this way. Let me share a quick. Garrison keillor joke which makes this chip on the shoulder attitude about life clear concerns a grandmother. Who was walking her five-year-old son five-year-old grandson on the beach. When suddenly a rogue wave comes up g the child and sweeps him out to sea. She looks up at the sky shakes her fist and say god this is unacceptable this is unbearable. No sooner did these words come out of her mouth when another rogue wave comes up and deposits the smiling child back on the beach. The grandmother picks the child up in his arm in arm. Looks to the sky and says. This child had a hat. That's a great joke. Do you recognize that kind of behavior. Broadway lyricist oscar hammerstein once wrote this. I don't believe any of us can enjoy living in this world unless we can accept its imperfection. We must know it admit that we are imperfect. That all other mortals are imperfect. And go in our imperfect way making mistakes. And riding out the rust the wilderness exciting beautiful storm of life. Until the day we die. How easy it is in life. The girl heart will not accept life eternal imperfections. Is child. How to hack. And now i arrive at the third. G. For gratitude and that is taking for granted. Taking for granted it seems to me that even more than holding a grudge against life that walter own majority of us majority of us get in trouble simply. By taking. For granted. Taking for granted. Perhaps it is the very ordinariness of life. Which allows us to fall victim. To this sin of taking for granted cynthia ozick. Who is a essayist. In her essay the riddle of the ordinary points out how we human beings quite naturally. Fall into taking for granted. She writes. The ordinary. By making itself so noticeable it's around us all the time. Has gotten itself in a bad spiritual fix with us. We hardly even notice it. The ordinary simply by being so ordinary pens to make us ignorant and neglectful. When something key rights does not insist on being noticed. When we aren't grabbed by the collar or struck on the side of the skull by a presence or an event. We take for granted. The very things that most deserve our gratitude and this is the chief and deepest point she writes concerning the ordinary. It does. Deserve. Our gratitude. The ordinary. Is above all else what is expected and what is expected. Is not often thought of. As a gift. My colleague roy phillips. Once wrote this. To the current gation he served. This is it. This is the day you've been waiting for. If my words come to you and you're down in the dumps you may ask what's so special about today. Well he writes we noticed the specialness of this day when we consider the imaginable opposite. No day that is unlife non-being death. Domenico's on right now. Your chest rises and falls. Airstreams in and out of your lungs blood courses through your veins you are aware you are alive. But there is this that i'm worried about. And there is that which troubles me and there are these things going on today in my life would keep me from enjoying myself my world other people. And then phillips road. I don't want to be hard on you. But i must say it. If you plan to wait. To live fully. And joyfully. Until a day comes when there are no obstacles no hardships then you will wait past your time for waiting. Life is to be lived and enjoyed now and this time right now in the midst of all of its imperfections it's troublesome circumstances. This. Is it. This is the day. You have been waiting for. Today. Is november 20th. 4 days before thanksgiving. In the year 2011. Today i know it's a cliche. But today is. The first day of the rest of her life. And this is the day you have been waiting for. Being grateful. Sincerely grateful. For the chance you've been given to hang around. This interesting rich world of ours. Gratitude can be cultivated in a heart. That is simply open. Just seeing. All that is really here for us. In the gospel of thomas. One of the ancient narratives about the life of jesus that did not make it into the final collection that is called the bible today. In the gospel of thomas. It is reported that one of the. Disciples asked jesus jesus when will the kingdom of god come. And jesus responded it will not come by watching for it. It will not be said look here or look their rather jesus said. The kingdom of god is spread out upon the earth and people do not. The kingdom of god is spread out. Earth. Do not see it. Jesus was right. The kingdom of god. It's already here. The holy kingdom. Is richly spread out. Apollo world right here. And then every other part. And if you do not see it. It will be unable to bless you. It will be unable to sustain you if your eyes are closed. Is thanksgiving week. Hold this truth. Close to your heart. We are saved. From both despair and dullness. When we quietly. Open our hearts. And cultivate gratitude. For the simple blessings. When we refused to begrudge life. And do not take it for granted. We are saved day after day. When we quietly whisper in our own hearts.

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2011Jun19Sermon128.mp3

Nose bubbles. And all that. I'd like to use the next 25 minutes or so to talk about fathers. About parenting. For this father's day is you know. A day with our thoughts naturally gravitate to the men we called a door. Pop. Or father. Let me begin with the obvious. Every last one of us had or at least. Has a father. And quality. Tone depth and nature of that primordial parental relationship. Can and does profoundly affect how we feel about ourselves over our lifetime. And in many cases has something to say. About how well we do. In our lives and careers and families. And the other relationships. As i began to prepare the sermon i realized. The enormity in complexity and emotional intensity of this topic i decided then to. I asked by email and in person. Amor less random sample of members and friends of this congregation for their thoughts and feelings. Unless universal topic of fatherhood. What amazed me was the incredible interest in energy folks had around. This. Father topic for. Almost everybody wanted to talk to me or write to me about this topic and their relationships. With their own fathers and how they have experienced fatherhood. Either in the case of males who are now fathers themselves. As the giver of fathering. Or as in the case of both men and women as receivers. The fatherly impulse or lack of it. From the man who filled that role. I suspect that as i talked to you this morning. Almost everybody in this room at some time or another in some way or another. May emotionally wander off. To that personal and possibly intense interior place. Were they are with their own fathers and their own experience with fatherhood. And i trust and indeed pray that for the majority of you in this room right now. These wanderings will for the most part. Being nostalgic. Wistful. And hopefully loving and pleasant. But i also said we know that for some others of you. Especially those of you who experienced abuse. Or violence. Or indifference or abandonment or neglect. In your own relationship. Your father that these reflective laundering. May be painful. Or difficult. Or sad. It feels important for me to say the obvious out loud this morning. Some of us have ambivalent at best. Relationships. And some of you have fiercely negative. Feelings and memories about your own father's. That said it is my sincere hope that our time this morning reflecting on fatherhood and. The broader art of parenting. Will in various ways be helpful and healing to all of us. And i myself want to begin. With the personal by talking for a bit about my own father and move on to what i hope then. Will be universal. As i begin to prepare the sermon. I realized with no small measure of wistfulness. That this month marks the 29th anniversary of my own father's death. Suddenly to a heart attack. But i want to tell you a bit about my father wendell. W alexander. He was as they say something of a character every day he went off to work. He sold steel. Four original steel distributor and he wore an elegant bow tie. This is one of his. That i inherited the botany 500. Probably purchased in 1953 or 54. He went out. Looking like this every morning alex as he was known. Was a gentle and nurturing man who loved to have irreverent fun in life. For example as far as i know my father was the only man in all of human history. They have a jewelry box collection. Noah's bubbles. No you may wonder what in god's name is a nose bubble. Nose bubbles are little hand blown glass things i'm holding one now. Which one inserted into one nostril either side will do. I meant to look there's no real polite way to say this like a big bubble of runny nose goo. No my father in. Conspiracy with my uncle lloyd who was an mit engineer who actually made these things. Hand blown glass from his lab. My father would bring these to formal dinner parties church picnics. Cocktail parties. And other social gatherings and then he would take when no one was noticing with take a handkerchief. And would put them those bubble into the handkerchief and make like he was my allergies. Haven't. Hollywood turn to the person next to him and say. Oldies spring allergies are just ruining my life. I can't begin to tell you how how i feel. If you want to see this up close i'll have it in coffee hour. No. It usually took the person. A little while to figure out what the he had been had. And that this childish prank of my father. What always a first engender rather horsehide luxor people would look away. And my father had he had nine or ten of these things. That my uncle lloyd had made for him and their jewelry box was labeled with which noah's bubble it wasn't what it was appropriate for for example. He had one curved called the nor'easter which was for this was for yachting occasions when one was on a boat you will have to have the nor'easter yet another one called a double dipper. Which had a two little bumps. In a bigger. Thing of goo at the bottom in the other ones i won't even describe. Because this is after all a family venue. All of this is my way of telling you that my father was a kind and friendly and. Humorous man. Who regularly used humor. As a way to put people at ease and validate their worth as persons believe it or not even the nose bubble stud. I'll never forget the night that my eldest brother george. Brought his very self-conscious nineteen-year-old fiance sandy who's now my beloved sister-in-law. To meet the entire family will it be kind of a big house in the woods and we were kind of fancy people in some ways. That night we were all seated run a very long and elegant set dining room table with a white tablecloth silver candelabras the whole bit. Much too early in the middle in in the dinner. Sandy. Who was trying very hard to make a good impression on the alexander family somehow. Manage while trying to cut her piece of roast beef to throw it onto the tablecloth next to her plate. And she had a terrible look on her face of embarrassment in the room that the table fell silent. And it was clear she was about to cry when my father said that's okay sending we like to do that here and he picked his up and threw it down the table of my mother spinning gravy. Spinning gravy the whole way. We all left. Most of all my mother. She didn't really care about the tape. Years later at my mom or at my father's memorial service sandy my beloved now beloved family member by the way she has her own nose bubble everybody. Who comes in the family gets one collins knew he'd really arrived when he got his nose bubble on christmas. When we sometimes taking pictures of the whole family everybody with their nose bubble. Inserted so now you know about your mentally ill minister. This is really all that i want to tell you about my father my old man he was a good father. A gentle kind and honorable father. Because of what my sister-in-law sandy received that night of the flying beef. It was a self-affirming. Message each of his four sons. Got loud and clear as we were growing up. Because of the way my father routinely attended and related to us we knew deep to our bones. That we were loved. Valued and seen as capable and worthy people of home. He was proud this. The legacy i carry from. To use unitarian-universalist language my father quietly and steadily. And often with a sense of humor. Affirm my inherent worth. And dignity. The person. My dad threw his routine and austin an ostentatious encouragement and interest and support. Blessed me with self-confidence and self-worth that has empowered me. To leave the kind of happy productive and public. Which i have been blessed with. And this i think is the essence the heart and soul of all good fathering indeed all good parenting. When it comes to a mother or father. It is something more than just vaguely loving our children are the people we are taking care of. Good parenting is the discipline. The spiritual and emotional care we take. To take the time and the effort over the years. To be an attentive parent. Letting. Our children know that we respect them. And value them and are proud of them as individuals. If you're a grandparent. If we parents attentively. And write a relational art which can be accomplished i would point out again by parents or grandparents or uncles or aunts or mentors are godparents. Teachers friends of the family parenting is not restricted. Biologically. To the young. If we parent effective. And right. It is almost assured that our children will develop strong self-worth and self-esteem. Invaluable possession. For later life. In this wonderful book father loss. How sons of all ages come to terms. The death of their dads. Unitarian universalist author neil chettic. Pretty much makes the same point. After interviewing nearly 400 men at various stages of life about what they wanted from their dads. He concluded. But the blessing with sons almost universally await to hear. From their fathers here at every stage of life. Either in spoken word or action is simply this. Sun. I am proud of you. I'm proud of the choices you have made. I'm proud of the life you have created. That's. What's sons. At the very end of his book niall offers this advice to young dads. About how to be good fathers. To their children. Give your son's their focus. Not to the exclusion of your spouse or daughter but find a way to meet. Your son. Read with him. Run with him. Wrestle with him there's just been some articles about how roughhousing with kids is so important tumbling and. In a wrestling wrestling on the floor. Find reasons technicals on. To admire him. And every so often no matter what his age offer him the kit but gift. That can only come from you. Tell him how proud you are to be his dad. And then neal quotes his own six-year-old son evan. Who offered this in the book about what makes for a good father a good dad. The six-year-old said. Lays with you. He takes care of you. He reads you books. And he waves to you. Before he goes away. After reading father lawson is it yet so you you booked. For sale in our bookstore. And thinking about my own dad and then any other dads i have known. I have come up with a short list of things that seem to me to be at the essence of good fathering. And before i offer you this list i ever do need. To address a really big question namely inside in today's modern society where. Gender roles. And the behavior for boys and girls men and women are increasingly blending and merging and liberating. In the new flexible patterns. Are there any any more useful distinctions. Still to be drawn between good fathering and good mothering. Differently. Can every trade we identify as good fathering. Also be said to identify a good mother. Let me give one example. Here in indian river county you are as likely to see a dad. Refereeing or coaching or cheering at his daughters. Outdoor soccer game. And you should not be too surprised to see a single mom on the sidelines. Her son's soccer game or even coaching. Back in the forties and fifties when gender. Stereotypes and roles were much more clearly delineated and demanded by a culture that wasn't very imaginative. Girls played at home with their mothers with dolls boys going to the playing field with dad. It used to be. That one way dad's uniquely affirmed their boys was participating with them and sport. But now sports in america just as an example. Are pretty much a gender-inclusive activity. With both moms and dads. Dissipating in boys and girls. A leagues. And so it is with ballet lessons and mathematic clubs and horseback ride. While there are still to be sure some things i think that distinguish fathering from mothering. For example. Fathers certainly model for their sons and mothers. Certainly model for their daughters how to relate to the opposite sex. So while there are still to be sure some. Gender bound dynamics and nuances. But that's. Distinguish fathering for mothering i would nonetheless argue. At their essence. And that their essential spiritual and emotional course good fathering and good mothering are more or less. The same today. And they are moving closer together with every generation. And this. With that said. And we can talk a little bit more later about how. Distinct roles of fathering and mothering with boys and girls let me offer a short list. Of things that really make for good fathering. The first. On my shortlist. Is a good father's offer their children. Affection. Affection is different i think than love. Which is so often defined so vaguely. There's almost rendered meaningless it's like a big marshmallow you put your fist into it and you're not even sure nothing is there. Affection on the other hand. Is a gentle kind of attentive. Respectful caring. And first of course there is physical affection. Every child. Crave and needs physical touch. And affection and attention from their father. Now dad's me respectively offer different forms of physical affection. To their daughters then to their sons. A dad might snuggle in bed reading a book to his daughter. And kiss her goodnight every night. What were the sun he might. Toss the boy in the air. Or carrying piggyback or wrestle with him on the floor or punch him on the shoulder as he gets older. But the point is the kids need to feel. The physical touch. And the direct connection and affection. Their fathers. And there are other of course non-physical ways a father can express. Affection. Again. Melchizedek. Ultimately affection. Is less about physicality. Then it is about a father's loving attention toward his son. Some fathers sucks show affection he goes on. By simply talking with. And listening to their son. Or engaging in intellectual interplay. Like playing chess. Or doing a crossword puzzle together. Or by taking an active interest in the child's education. Or other. Endeavors so good fathers. Are always affectionate. Intellectually. Second i think good father's offer their children. Good fathers of course. Are physically around. They spend real facetime. With their kids. And perhaps of even greater importance good fathers. Are emotionally present. Emotionally. Available. Neotenic. Reports from his interviews with hundreds of sons. Second only. To the physically abusive father. And more on that tragedy in a moment. Second only to the physically abusive father in generating resentment in sons. Was the far away father. The distance dad. The uninvolved. And unavailable patriarch. Whether such a father meant or not. The message to the sun was clear. You don't matter to me. Many of you whom i spoke to about your father's especially those of you who were raised in the 1940s in the 1950s. When the primary expectation forefathers was they brought home the bacon and provided a roof over your heads. Many of you. Said that. Your dad wasn't really. Present in some significant ways now these days. The new dad paradigm and you all know this if you watch television and then need a sitcom. The new dad paradigm expects the father to be much more emotionally present. And involved in the day-to-day mishegoss of the family and this of course. Is a good thing. So good father's you want to listen to it of lee and good mother's for that matter. Are patiently present with their children they're available. They take the time to truly engage their sons and their daughters. In the daily flow so that the kids. No the parents. So. Presents. And thirdly of course good fathers and mothers. Offer their children protection. Good father's lookout. For their vulnerable children they keep an eye on things. They offer wise counsel and they warned us of dangers. They strap their kids into car seats. They teach them how to safely cross the street. How to ride a bicycle with a thrill that is. Drive a car even worse. And of course. Should the need ever arise a good father puts himself directly between his child. And the physical danger. Again neil chetnik. Sons told me they wanted their fathers to be strong. What to use that strength. As a buffer against danger. A shield against the bad guys. Ghost. And other demons. One spot one son spoke for many when he told me. I wanted to be with my dad i felt. Safe. I knew he would take care of me. As i think back on my own wisconsin childhood i always felt safe. When my dad. Was there. And there is one more crucial aspect. This protection good fathers. And that is protection against. Their own. Aesthetic quotes. Because we fathers. Power over our son. We must use our power. Judiciously. I heard numerous stories in my interviews. Parental. Turtle. Violence. That led sons. To have deep. Wounds and hangers. That lasted. Obviously good fathers. They don't hit. Their fists. They don't hit with their words. They don't hit with indifference and neglect good fathers. Protector. Not abusers. Not. Salter's. Fourthly good father's offer their children. And this is where i began the sermon. They offer them. When i asked my colleague jim nelson who serves our church in. Pasadena california was the one thing his two 20-something daughters. Wanted from him. Their father he said scott both my girls want the same thing. They want myra. They want to know that i believe in them. And see them as good incompetent people. They want to see in my eyes how proud i am of. And then i believe they are maturing and living up. Well. Again let me say it. Course we know that we must love. Orchids. Hopefully in an unconditional and that's my last point this morning unconditional and helpful. But more than this vague moniker of love. We have to respect. It's like hearing the fellowship. We can say we love each other but it's more important that we act. We respect. That's a more mature and i'm more. Creep. Let our kids know we are proud of them. And lastly of course. I believe sons and daughters from both mothers and fathers need unconditional love. It's a phrase. Tossed around. Now admittedly this can be the most difficult of all the fundamentals. Of good parenting i have lifted up today. To love a child unconditionally i think. Is sometimes the hard parental promise to love and support your children. Even when they fail badly. Even through incidents. Profound disappointment. Heartbreak. Betrayal. Bali. Horrible decision maker. Would certainly happen. In all fam. Unconditional love i think. Categorical promise never to totally reject. Totally condemned. Urbanda. A child. No matter how deeply you have been hurt no matter how badly. They have acted. What was apparent you met in a difficult moment with a child. Feel for a time at least you must withhold approval or support. Or even contact or communication with a son or daughter. Who is profoundly lost their way in. Their stories in the. Unconditional love. Means that you always preserve an inviolate core of love and care. For and with your. And then no matter how deep or intractable the problem may seem at any juncture. You never entirely abandon or reject them as human. To hang in there. Unconditional love. Almost at times i know for my counseling practice. Being almost in. Especially when a child act. Cruller. But over a lifetime. This i believe is what good parenting. Demands that we never. Finally close that door. All good father's all good. Spiritually hang in there with their. Even when their lives seem. Gone nearly completely off the. Holding onto hope. Someday rec. Salvation and health in troy. And the promise. To work on that. Remains with. That you'll come have. Over the course of my ministry i've repeatedly seen fathers and mothers. Even some who become bitterly estranged from their children. Eventually. Achieve. A reconciliation. If you read ann landers. She's always talking about. Don't give up. There's always. Even after years of the. Unconditional love. Be very demanding. But for both parents and children. Life is too. So there you have my shortlist. My personal short list of what in essence is good fathering which is also good mothering which is. But there is a problem in this. And the problem is that none of our parents. We're capable of parenting perfectly just as we are not. And those of you who are yourselves parents today or grandparents. We must recognize that this won't be done. You'll make. I imagine that for more than a few of you this morning. As i was articulating my list you were remembering your own father. Or your own relationship with your dad. And that more than a few of you also found these relationships. Severely wanting in some ways. Many of you. Remain ambivalent about your feelings about your parents. And of course it's perfectly all right for you to have these feelings. If you believe your parents. Statue lien unnecessarily failed or wounded. But there is nonetheless. Something else in the end. Today in our society parents get blamed for almost everything that goes wrong. Or bad in the ross. There are even some places where parents are being arrested. Their kids break into. Schools and make a mess. Arrested for the misdeeds of their own children. And i am not saying that holding parents accountable. 4. The terribly damaging and destructive children is entirely wrong. But i am saying that were pretty tough on less-than-perfect parents in the. In a way that's not entirely fair or re. We. Parents do is. One of my. Assertions about life is it almost everyone. Does about the best steak. And that i think is true. For most of our parents while i don't want to ever let really bad parents off the hook and there are some. Really. It is i think. Important. 2. Remember. That. No parents. And the most parents. In one way or another do about the bed. And it is never too late. Is an landers and others. To begin repairing. The parent-child relationship. Has been torn asunder even by decade. Of abuse or neglect. Such work of forgiveness and reconciliation can be some of the hardest. Lifework of all but it. We're meant. Spiritually. To be in close and caring relationship. With our families. With our parents and. Even if we. Now as i said at the beginning of the sermon. It's been almost 30 years since my own father my good and loving and silly nose bubble father. Died suddenly. I still occasionally have dreams. Where he suddenly comes back to life and my mother is also there and all the boys are there and we're just amazed that he's back. How nice that. Feels. But of course these dreams. He is. He is gone. Except in my memory. But he powerfully. Remains with me. He constantly blesses me as a spiritual. An emotional presence. Studies me. Studies me. Life. Go on and i have my own nose bubbles in my jewelry box. At home. To remind me of the real importance.. So again. The gift. Is the gift. Presents. Physically emotional. Protection. Respect. Enduring respect. An unconditional love. To all your dad's out there let me simply said lovingly say do the best you can guys. And be there as regularly as rightly as you can. For your kids. Into my own father wendell wells alexander. Alex. Let me whisper. Enclosing. But i probably did not say enough. I love you..

uufvb_org

2010Dec05Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. Our sermon this morning is by uu minister rev victoria safford. In one of her best-known stories the writer ursula le guin tells a parable. She describes a marvelous city. People are peaceful. Healthy compassionate and deeply joyful. Laws are unnecessary and homeless. Because all material needs are met. Buy a prosperous and just economy. And the people are naturally virtuous wise and kind. Their architecture and music are exquisite. Their science and art are brilliantly creative. The food is plentiful and wholesome. It is a perfect world. Except. For one detail. In a dark basement. On the outskirts of the city. In a tiny and disgusting cell. Single child. Is kept. Imprisoned. She or he lives in abject misery. Body and mind withered by neglect. Kept alive on water and gruel that someone occasionally remembers to shove through a crack in the wall. Everyone in the city knows about it. Every citizen on reaching adolescence must go and see the child. And understand. That whatever health and happiness they know whatever beauty and security they experience. Is dependent. On the child's despair. Each person spends hours afterwards or days or months or sometimes years. Coming to terms with the truth of what they seen. And ultimately. Each one resolved. In his mind justifies in her heart. And feels that. Somehow. It's okay. It's even right and fitting that the price of happiness 4000. Be the suffering. Just one child. No one may speak to the child or speak of it. And no one does. Tesla gwen. There's one more thing in this is quite incredible. Every so often. A man or woman will quietly leave home and walk out. For the community. They go alone when they go. Into the darkness of the land beyond the shining city. They seem to know where they are going she writes. The ones who walk away. That's how the story ends. With no clue as to what happens when a person leaves. Whether the city has changed whether the person is transformed or what happens to the child. The story is titled. The ones who walk away from omelas. It's a haunting fantasy. Of classic utilitarianism. The greatest good for the greatest number. But it echoes in our own world. Where we are well aware. But the relative wealth and stability of some. May hinge. On the oppression of others. The differences of course are obvious in our world. Only the minority will prosper. In our world. More than one child lives in squalor. And in our world a global economy. Hard to imagine how you could even start. To walk away. A man ran up to jesus and asked him good teacher what must i do to inherit eternal life. And jesus looked at him and loved him he said to him. Go sell what you have and follow me. At this the man went away sorrowful. For he had great possessions. In the other gospels he's a rich young man. Or rich young ruler but in the gospel of mark. He's just. Amman. Just a person just like us. And we never find out what happens to him. Somehow it seems clear though that we are here on earth. To write the subsequent chapters with our lives. With our choices. About how we will see the world. How we will be in it. An act. Annette. It's a question of eternal life does not compel you you might ask instead. What must i do to be at peace with myself. And right with the world. In this life. What is required of good people. How much is enough. Enough to live on and enough to share. And what is the difference between charity. Injustice. What does it mean that is unitarian universalist we covenant to affirm and promote. The worth and dignity. Of every person. That we commit to justice equity and compassion in all our relations. How far extends the interconnected web of which we are apart. How can we sit here singing knowing what we know of people's lives in haiti. Darfur. Afghanistan. Myanmar. New orleans in arizona. Or for that matter of the life of that neighbor down the street. Who never raises her window shades. Hardly ever comes out. Seems pretty old. Maybe lonely. But then we're all so busy. And we ourselves are lonely too. But. How do you decide to stay in omelas. Knowing what you know. When do you decide to walk away from the city of denial. Toy the harder. The more beautiful. Country of truth. These stories and their questions haunt us. As they should. Marcus for the theologian. Rights of. Pharaohs. Household. Whero of course with the great oppressive power. Against him the. Hebrew prophets raged. Ford says. Pharaoh's household is a modern metaphor. For all those who derive benefits from the domination system. Without being primarily responsible for it or even in favor of it. Pharaoh's household. Is the house. A privilege. And those who live there may have gained entry due to any number of unearned benefit. Based on race. Class. Money in the bank. Gender. Sexual orientation education age nationality geography religion physical ability. The status of our health or mental health. And so on. Pharaoh's household. Is like. Four points out as gently as he can. That it can be very hard. To hear. And he'd. A call. For social change. Or. See you need. Or speak the truth. Or take a risk or take a stand. Or understand. Let alone change your life. Even if you think you want to. If you are part of pharaoh's household. Many of the people there. Many of us. May wish we didn't live there. But wishing rarely leads. Social justice. For some of us even to admit this even to begin to name the unearned benefits and privileges. That sustain our way of life. And that's uphold deep systems of injustice. The terrible an insurmountable four-step. We resolved in our minds. And justify in our hearts. That the order of things is established and. Unchangeable. Pharaoh's household is like homeless except. We can never walk away from it. It's a permanent. Residence. We can only acknowledge the truth. Of our circumstance. Name it as precisely as we can. And then with others. Both within and outside its walls. Set about methodically breaking down those walls. Essentially dismantling the only house we know as home. This is no easy work. And it can't be done except in community. Although the decision to begin. Is 1. Each one of us must make alone. The whining of guilt. Which leads nowhere. Is not the same song as the calling. Conscience. On sunday mornings and it other times we gather in our congregation. To listen for that call together. Did the cern together its implications. For our lives. For our household. We gather to encourage each other. And inspire each other. When the call of conscience. Sounds too hard too harsh. Too demanding or too difficult. We gather to press each other further. When it sounds too easy. What do convenient. Are too simplistic. At our best. We want to be haunted by hard stories. And troubled by old questions. We want our complacency challenge disrupted. Ruptured. We don't want to live in pharaoh's household or the happy city. Of denial. In the ancient world. The judgments of the prophets were terrible. They forecast ruin for oppressors in the wicked. And the destruction of civilizations. But they also broadcast hope. They described the world that we can't always believe in. Can't always bring into clearer focus. Can't quite rightly remember. When we feel overwhelmed by the enormity of things. They imagined into being a time and a place unprecedented. In which justice would roll down like waters. And peace. Like an ever-flowing stream. They imagined into being a people who would do justice. An act kindness and walk humbly. Tina fantasy city. But in a real. And just. World. Prophetic speech. Then. Is it could do now. Brought to the pool. A whisper of real hope. That finally the truth would be spoken and that change might be on the way. And that same speech. Then i could do now. Brought to the privileged. A real warning. Finally truth would be spoken and that change might be on the way. Does everyone within earshot whatever her condition whatever his circumstance. Was invited to walk together. Out of one way of being. Toward another. To follow in the path of other walkers. Who in small ways or large. Decided to live. In the creative tension. Of truth-telling. Injustice making. It's not always an easy way. But there's freedom in it. And it can be joyful. We think of the stories of hope. The real life stories brought to us each year by our own unitarian universalist service committee. Stories from central america. Where women workers from banana plantations have joined with women in the maquiladoras the clothing factories. Add with women workers elsewhere. Guatemala honduras el salvador and nicaragua. To share stories. To share strategies. And information. Together. They develop. A women. Labor. And leadership curriculum. To support each other in their struggle. For the basic human rights of fair wages. Humane workplace conditions. Physical safety. And basic dignity. Uusc is a partner. Their work. We think of stories from ecuador. We're people denied access to clean water in one poor neighborhood. Reached out to other neighborhoods and formed a coalition. In time. They helped craft a new constitution for their entire country. With the human right to water included. As a basic principle and as a formal article. Uusc is a vital partner in this ongoing and exciting work for water justice. There are stories of hope to inspire us. Real stories. Of the human spirit. Human courage. Wisdom. And compassion. Stories from uganda. Weirdest place people are coming home. Stories from kenya haiti and gaza. Were you usc's. Wright's into manocherian crisis program. Supports young people. And adults. To help communities rebuild. And heal from the trauma of war and occupation. And stories from our own nation. Where ordinary people join their hands for justice. In all these places. Uusc is a partner. To local grassroots efforts. To the work of people who imagine into b. A bright. Peaceful. And more just. Future. We say they are guests at our table. Is brave prophetic partners all around the world. But in fact. We are all. Guess. And we are all. Host. Whether the transformation we seek is physical. Or spiritual. A changed world. Or changed heart. What actions are most excellent. Ask the prophet muhammad. To gladden the heart. Of a human being. To feed the hungry. Including those who hunger for justice and peace. To help the afflicted. Including those afflicted by the consequences of privilege. Who would grow larger souls. Bravehearts. And more expansive imagination. To lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful. To remove the wrongs of the injured. Fat person. Is the most beloved of god.

uufvb_org

2014Sep21Sermon128.mp3

Good morning. And welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we are carnation. I've open minds loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best individual selves. Even this together here we work to make our world a better place. And please know that you are welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you are young or old gay or straight or transgender. Black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity whether you have a ged or a phd. What are your first-time visitor with us this morning or have been coming here for decades. Whether you're feeling on top of the world or down in the dumps or somewhere in between we welcome you just as you come. We hope you'll find our service this morning meaningful and enriching at you will find something here this morning that nourishes. Your spirit and feed your soul and gives you renewed purpose and energy. For the living of life in the days of head. Are opening words this morning come from jewish tradition. Come into the circle of love and justice. Come into the community. Of mercy. Holiness. And he'll come. And you shall know peace. And roy. Please join with me and responsive reading number 594. The back of your hymnals. Open the old fashioned hymnals. I do everything the old-fashioned way. Principles and purposes for all of us. We affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Happy birthday. We affirm and promote justice equity and compassion in human relations. Reaffirm and promote acceptance of one another and encouragement us fish spiritual growth. Weather. We affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We affirm and promote to the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process. Reaffirm and promote the goal of world community with peace liberty and justice for all. Or talk today is going to be on diversity and discrimination. Please forgive me if i do not present a logical and accurate account of my subject. Everyone knows that we women are just a bunch of flibbertigibbet. I'm certainly not capable of logical thought. What the heck is a stereotype. And almost all discrimination. Is based on stereotypes. Rather large and details books. Have been written about discrimination. I will be speaking mostly in general generalities today and perhaps a little emotion. If i am successful. I hope that i will make you think. A little bit. It is my contention largely derived from personal observation. What's the human animal has an inherent drive to discriminate against others. When we believed to be able lower-class. More unusual. Worthy than himself. In doing so. He makes you feel feel better about his position in life. A chico. It does not much matter to him who he puts down. But it is better. But the other poor soul is a member of some particular group or community. It is easier to rant against them. Senate is against single individual. Of course all bets are off if the individual is an unduly thing is representative of a class. Many women unfortunately tend unthinkingly to follow the lead of their husband or some other prominent figure in their lives. Whatever thoughts in his. Don't such. Most of us consider ourselves tolerant and accepting of others. Is not rooting for his own favorite team. At the expense of another's. 10 to make. Take a little friendly discrimination. To the extreme. When they proceeded to riot. Destroy private property start fires or even injure or kill the name of a favorite sports team. Not so much in this country but watch out for england. Most of us consider ourselves tolerant and accepting of others. But who am i. It is any wonder that many of us see nothing wrong with maintaining a good and healthy discrimination toward others. When such important things as sex or skin color or religion is involved. Most of us are very carefully taught as children. We should accept. And against whom we should just criminate. If we don't learn at home. Then certainly we will learn it in church. Is there a church anywhere. Present company. Course. That doesn't look down upon berate or just downright hate someone. Or some particular group. With our individual tendencies to discriminate it is only natural that we as a country. Have a history of national. Decided for political reasons that we should not discriminate. We managed to lay down quite a track record. When the first colonists arrived in this part of the world they discovered a native indian populations with well-established communities. Socio-political arrangements. And managed to settle down most of the arable land. Colonists needed that land in order to survive. The only honorable thing. They took it. What we have on their side was a few muskets. And a very powerful ally. Smallpox. By the time the disease has run its course among the indigenous and very susceptible population. Their numbers dwindled to an easily manageable. The indians last became the first community against which we openly discriminated. Ignorant. Thanks the way that europeans did. You're religious. I didn't believe in christianity. Savages. We persisted in this blatant discrimination interweave driven the indians from any useful land on the arid worthless reservations. Where we would listen live in peace so long as they stay there and behave. Of course if we subsequently found some use for the reservation land. We would simply move them off of it into an even more desolate. As the number of colonists increased. A few undesirables snuck in. These people work. Which ear to the popular religious beliefs. Quakers. And catholics. And they were forced out of many of the established communities. If they didn't agree to leave willingly. Some were killed. We had the arable farmland so we started to develop. Colonist. What's going to stoop to picking someone else's cotton. The obvious solution was to import slave labor from africa and elsewhere. The obvious solution. Were the africans themselves. Who engaged in tribal warfare. And took the beating enemy of slaves. They sold the slaves to the white man for a tidy profit. Dirt by a nominating one problem in increasing the treasury at the same time. Not so ignorant these guys. The imported slaves became the replacement objects. For general discrimination. Which lasted unabated for three centuries. Huckleberry finn. Show the unique inside. Anti-discrimination problem. During huck's raft trip down the mississippi with the escaped slave. Sleeve is injured. The injury. Comments with some surprise. But the slaves blood is just as red as his. Pocket known many slaves. But he had never. Sheenam. To be as human as he was. Following the civil war on slaves supposedly were freed and no longer objects of blatant discrimination. 200 proof rose to prominence. European immigrants. And women. European immigrants came and drove us and establish small enclaves and ghettos in our larger cities. Despite the fact that virtually all the citizens of this country originally came from europe. The new arrivals were subjects of discrimination until labor more fully assimilated into american society. Same time. Religious groups especially situation catholic community. Also again became objects for unbridled discrimination. Couldn't be worse than being an irish catholic in new york. Women were another matter. Discrimination for thousands of years. So it was no big thing to continue to practice. But thanks to some of the advances made during the 19th century. Women in america managed when quite managed to acquire. An education. Many of them now find. But the word man and the declaration of independence. Really met both men and women. They began demanding the right to vote. Eventually it ain't that right. What was many more years before they earned the right to enter the general workforce. And even longer before the glass ceiling brooch. And they started to receive priority. And pay in advancement. I don't remember much of world war ii. But i do remember the 50s to the 90s quite well i was part of that society. Remember the civil rights marches. Yep right discrimination that black still suffered. Especially in the south. I remember the feminist movement. Even though i was not intimately involved in it. I never did burn a bra. But i understood the arguments the women in our society were making. I remember the vietnam war. The protest the violence. And the killing of innocent civilians in this country. I remember president kennedy's assassination doctor martin luther king junior's assassination. And the riots. Across the u.s.. I also remember listening live. To president johnson. Loudly proclaim to the american people. But we were definitely not bombing in laos or cambodia. At the time. About broadcast. I happened to be in vietnam planning bomb damage assessment of our airstrikes in cambodia. So much for presidents and their proclamations. By the 1970s many of these issues have been somewhat resolved in the country went looking for some other group. The could become the new whipping boy for national discrimination. They found it. In the homosexual community. Primarily inflamed. By the ongoing aids epidemic which scared the pants off of almost everyone. Well maybe it scared the pants back on. The religious right. Headlong proclaimed the homosexual is an abomination. Yep cursed of their god. Homosexual it remained in the closet for so long. So perhaps even some of them could come to believe that. No one at the time really knew what caused homosexuality. So when the biggest said it was a choice. People believed it. Many phonies. Claim success in retraining homosexuals. And garnered great testimonials to that fact. Which the media willingly spread far and wide. Meanwhile the average homosexual state fast in the closet. The penalty for leaving the closet was division at best. Orphan becoming an outcast losing one's job. Getting a severe beating. Or even being killed. No one really cared if there was one less homosexual wandering around. Intercourse homosexuals couldn't have anything to do with children their disease might rub off. Please for the primary force. Used to enforce discrimination against the gay community. Beatings arrest. Kale time. What common events. For those determined. Apk. The late 1960s. There were two riots. Major. In this country. Compton cafeteria riot in los angeles. And the stonewall bar riot in greenwich village. Each of these lasted four days. And serve to change the general police attitude towards the gay community. No politician wanted to see another riot in his town. Attitudes. We're beginning to change. A bill was introduced into the us congress in the mid-1970s. That would do for gays and lesbians what the various civil rights bills at done for african americans women and others. It went nowhere. In 1994 stripped-down version of the bill was reintroduced in congress. It also did not progress. In 2007. Representative barney frank. Introduced a new bill. That would offer protection from discrimination to lesbians gays bisexuals and transgender individuals. It was called the employment non-discrimination act. Ender for short. There were three general proposals. Put forth in congress. 1. Dump the whole idea because president bush and vowed to veto it if it made it through congress. Remove the protections on gender identity. And try to get the bill through. Keep the bill ash's. Knowing that it probably would not pass. Hector macho camacho nice arguing they decided on option 2. The bill passed the house with flying colors. When the bill got to the senate. It was intentionally killed in committee meetings. Today there's another version of ender that has passed to send it. And just being ignored in the republican-controlled house. Today we seem to be living in a match for your society. The defense of marriage act has been ruled unconstitutional by the supreme court. Gay marriage is slowly. Maturely. Being instituted across the country. There's even an ongoing lawsuit here in florida to force the state to allow gay marriage. And the pentagon is being pressured. To allow transexuals to serve openly in this country as they do in every other country around the world. It now appears that the transgender community is the current discrimination target in this country. Everyone else is at least notionally acceptable. I have several friends both locally and online who are transgender. And i feel rightly or wrongly. But the more people know about that closeted community. Better life will be for all of them. Pikes peak longitude. Because most transgender live a very stealth life. Play desperately attempt to hide their actual condition. Out of fear of being mistreated or even killed. Should they be discovered. And every year. I do a transgender day of remembrance service. But honors those who have been killed in this country during the previous year. And there are usually about 20 on the list. Guilford no other reason. The fact that they were transgender. Who is doing all of this discriminating. In the political arena the republicans. In the social right now. The religious right. In your own neighborhood. The uneducated. How are they doing it. Are using scare tactics. And widely spread innuendo. And outright lying. Why are they doing it. Because they can. Because we the tolerant and educated. Are willing to shift back. And do nothing about their discrimination. Patientpoint. I love this one. June 2013. California legislature passed a landmark bill ab1266. Which essentially said the transgender children in california schools. Have the right to be treated according to their innate gender. Without prejudice or discrimination. In august of 2013 governor jerry brown signed it. The law went into effect. In january of this year. Immediately after the bill was signed. Coalition of conservative groups formed under the umbrella organization privacy for all students. Led by republican strategist frank schubert. They began to hammer away at the bathroom meme. Spread lies about transgender students. And used other scare tactics to sway public opinion against the legislation. The fact that the same rules. Had been followed for several years. Previously by two of california's largest school districts. Without incident or complaint. What's up no concern to them. The media latched onto the juicier aspects of the pas france. And gave them broad coverage. But that by itself didn't work. Show new organization to pacific justice league was formed. With more money and a broader reach. The lies and propaganda were increased and a petition drive was launched to place the issue on the november 2014 ballot. By which time they hope to have incited the entire population of the state to vote against. They garnered over 600,000 signatures. And thanks to a friendly court decision concerning the deadline for presenting the signatures. They thought they had it made. The signatures were verified. The final count was insufficient to force the issue to balance. Patrician drive pittsfield. Meanwhile. The law is in effect. The world has not ended yet. None of the proponents have been struck by lightning. Guess god doesn't mind. Can i send you on your way with these words for my colleague lauralyn bellamy of atlanta. If here you have found freedom. Take it with you into the world. If hear you a phone comfort go and share it with others. If hear you of dream dreams. Help one another that they may come true. If here you have known love. Give some back. To a bruised. And hurting world. I'm an. Going to space.

uufvb_org

2010Dec12Sermon32.mp3

I shared the words of bill mckibben with joyce so eloquently read earlier. Precisely because the earliest days of our religious movement in colonial america this perspective. That was shared by mckibben. Is where unitarian and universalist and since merger in 1961. Unitarian universalist. Theologically been focused when it comes. In fact the very reason we are a separate american denomination. Is because the early unitarian and universalist. Agreed with much of mainstream christianity in their time both. Puritanical protestantism. And roman catholicism. About what the life and death and teachings of jesus meant. Listen to a little bit of length. To the words of the reverend theodore parker. Easter sermon he preached. In the 1840s. You'll hear echoes of bill mckibben. 1840. Jesus is the greatest person of the ages. The highest product of the human race. He taught the absolute religion. Love to god and man. There are duties he teaches us far different from those most commonly taught. He was the greatest fact in the whole history of man. His mind was full of great ideas parker points out. His heart aflame with noble sentiments. Jesus son of all the law and the prophets. In love to god. And love to man. His sympathy was with the oppressed and downtrodden. And very practical sympathy it was to. I do not believe in the perfection of jesus. He said. You have no faults in character. But he was never mistaken never angry never out of humor never deject. Rejected never despairing. That jesus had no error in his creed or in his life no defect in his character. He is not a man. But god himself. Or a bear pipe on which god plays. And in either case. There was no example in the man. And then parker says. He was not a god. Whatta man. A man showing us the way to god. Not saving us by his death but leaving us by his life. I think that jesus of nazareth. Was greater than the evangelist. Suppose him to be. They valued him for his miraculous birth and works. I do not believe. It was miraculous birth or works. I am sure. He was not. The hebrew messiah. Men vastly underrated the character of jesus. And looking to make him a god. A sad. And then ems. He preached natural religion gave men a new sight of humanity. He went out to seek the lost. The poor those who had no comfort the sick. Those who have no one to heal them the despised. Children of abraham. He came to seek. To save. The lost. Now we have jesus. As armada. I have always looked on jesus. As the greatest pattern of a man. But the human race. Has ever produced. Today is easter sunday. Many celebrate the resurrection of jesus. To me that is all mythology. Yet i welcome the day which brings men to a consciousness. All that great soul. And wish. Man could see what he came for and how he did his work. Seeking to save the lost. Is the special thing which makes him so dear to mankind. It is this. Which makes. His memory. So precious. In his time than parker who i would remind you like all unitarians and universalist. In the 19th century. Was decidedly a pious christian. He was challenging christianity in 1840. To return to what he and what the other liberals of new england called. The pure and original message of jesus. Namely that social gospel of love compassion and justice. Which the gospel narratives the biblical books of matthew mark luke and john. Report that he taught. The people of galilee. It is the same message which united methodist and kristen radical bill mckibben. Is articulating. To the christian community today. That the religion of jesus. That radical message about. Love. Has been hijacked. In many cases by religion about. Whose message is all about. Personal. Salvation. By taking jesus. As your personal lord and savior. I was in a fancy cocktail party on the island john's island this week. In a 4 million dollar home. I don't have to reduce myself to them. And they say is i said i'm the unitarian universalist minister and she looked at me her eyes squinted instead you mean. You don't believe jesus is your personal lord and savior and i said. That's right. Interested. Well i'll never darken your door and she turned around and stopped off. There's a religion of jesus. Another religion about jesus. Today unitarian-universalist whether or not we self-identify as christian. None-the-less believe that the theological value of jesus is not what he can do for us. But how we can take his teachings about human life. And social justice into our hearts and live better lives more compassionate. And loving you. Most unitarian-universalist so i'm assuming most of you in this room this morning. Do not singularly identify yourself with the christian label. For most of us. The boundary. Christian narrative and metaphor. The compact little story that revolves around the life of jesus. Is simply too constrained a spiritual place. To spend a lifetime in. But none of this is to say i'm please hear me loud and clear on this dear friend. None of this is to say that we as a religious movement. Have rejected. Are christian and our jewish roots or that we you use are as a rule hostile. To the christian message. As we understand it or our christian neighbors. Who predominates. Here in vero beach. Nothing could be further. Why we can no longer be understood as a christian movement. Jesus and his message. Still play a significant part of our theology and social witness. Are ethics. Everything we do. In america today. All of this. My by way of my respectfully saying that. This unitarian universalist. Is spiritually and seriously connected. The life and teachings of the one called jesus of nazareth. And i believe as mckibben. The many conservative christian. Having sex hijacked or at least. Significantly co-opted jesus. As mckibben suggested. And if distorted. And twisted his wife and his message into something. He jesus. Would not recognize. Were you two ever return to earth. Indeed. Jesus ever came back to earth and found himself suddenly on a sunday morning and one of those. Suburban megachurches which bear his name he might angrily knock over the tables in the temple. I believe the spiritual and ethical tragedy really. Within christianity today. And as you all know the christian family is so. Terribly complex. With so many different theological affirmations i'm finally comfortable with united methodist bill mckibben for example. But the tragedy with him so much of christianity today. Is it so many who vociferously claim to be jesus's. Trueandco most passionate followers. Have in my view. Lost sight. I'll just pure and original. Message. One of my friends in washington. Recently had a bumper sticker affixed to his car which said. Jesus. Protect me from your followers. Back in seminary in the 1970s i took a course in comparative religion from a very dignified german scholar by the name of dr. frederick feed rebecca. You're the wonderful old guy in his 90s. I learned many things from him one of the most important things i've never forgotten was an observation he made. You said most religions indeed perhaps all religions. Significantly lose sight of the original core message. The founded them. Overtime. Subsequent generations of believers change. Or soften. Or hard or just lose all together. The original. Faith. Message. Mckibben and i both believe this is what has happened. Significant portion. Christianity. Today. So what is the pure original message mckibben. He said. Jesus was pretty specific about what he had in mind for his followers. Love your neighbor as yourself. Call was for nothing less than a radical. Voluntary effective reordering of power relationship. Based on the principle of love. For me personally this. Social and ethical message of compassion and care. For our fellow human beings. Is powerfully summarized in the book of matthew in one of those four original narratives of the christian scriptures. The book of matthew reports. That just days before his crucifixion. Jesus was teaching his disciples as he often did by way of an allegorical story. Jesus was imagining god. At the gates of heaven on a judgement day. With two vast groups of human souls in front of him. In the allegory god turns 21 group standing there and says this. Use that are blessed. Come and inherit the kingdom of. Prepared for you for i would. Hungry and you gave me food i was thirsty and. You gave me something to drink i was a stranger and. You welcome baby i was naked and you gave me clothing i was sick and you took care of me i was in prison and you visited me. Then the righteous will answer him. Lorde. When was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you. Something to drink and when was it. That when we saw you a stranger on welcome.to.our or naked and gave you clothing and when was it lord. When we saw you sick or in prison and visited you and. God will answer them truly i tell you. Much. As you did it. To the least of these who are members of my family you did it to me and then. Jesus teaches. That god turns to the other group. Absol standing before heaven. And says. But you that are accursed. Depart from. For i was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink i was. A stranger and you did not welcome me naked and you did not give me prison and you did not visit me. This. Allegorically. Pure. And original. And incredibly demanding religion. In a galilee wracked. Social violence. An inequality. Racism. And depression the simple carpenter. Outward looking. Social gospel. Of compassion and love. Like my conservative. Christian counterparts. I was trained in seminary. For rigorous. Biblical scholarship and analysis so i can tell you as a matter. A scriptural. Historical fact. But if you look together all together at everything jesus is reported to have said taught and believed him. Almost all of what he preached. Is about humanity creating a just. And compassionate society for all. With an especial. Attention. To the disadvantage. And the despised his was not. A gospel of private istic. Salvation. Or harsh moral condemnation of those. Who are different from himself. Button active love. An inclusive love. Care. For all persons. I would point out to pat robertson and james dobson in all of their ilk. And all other mean-spirited conservatives who claim to speak for jesus. Sofia storical record. Jesus did not talk about abortion. Or birth control or about the morality of two persons of the same gender. Falling in love. What about stem cell research. Or cloning out about prayer in school. Are posting the ten commandments in courtrooms in alabama. Nor about women submitting. Superior authority of their husbands. Nor to any of the other distracting hot-button issues it's so dominate the. Agenda of conservative christianity today. Jesus talked rather about social justice. I'm growing a human heart. To be more inclusive. In your love. It is important book stealing jesus how fundamentalism betrays christianity. Reverend bruce power and. Hellion. Rights of death of the conservative evangelical agenda. This kind of christianity. Betrays christianity's most precious traditions. It has warped. Christianity. Into something ugly and hateful. That has little or nothing to do with love. And everything to do with suspicion and sadism. Quite often. This focal brand. Conservative christianity power goes on. Denies the name of christianity to real followers of jesus. Who reject this barbaric theology. In essence he writes conservative christianity has stolen. Yolk his name and his church to ideas and beliefs and attitudes that would have have appalled him. A religion whose public faces today includes pat robertson ralph reed and james dobson. Is not something the early followers of jesus would recognize as chris. And then power concludes. If the first christian. We're supposed to the rhetoric and action of today's conservative kristen spokespeople. They might well ask an astonishment. How did. People. Managed. Steel. The name. Oggi's. Again when describing christianity today. It is important to draw a distinction between the original message of jesus. As opposed to the religion that has grown up around or about. Jesus. That is taught in so many conservative churches. I'm still promises eternal salvation. Simply to anyone who. Who turns their life. The personal savior. Personal savior. Christian friendly. Uu minister. Who also. Also. Worley identifies with both. Humanism. And buddhism in my own spiritual journey. Christian friendly minister. Being a christian. Is far more about how you day today actually live with and care for other people in your myth. Rather than what you might believe about your ultimate. Personal. I like the way the great american poet carl sandburg want set it. In the great city of chicago i know only to christian men. Thunderbolt shoes. I love that. More than a century and a half. Ago the great unitarian minister william ellery channing said that what. Unitarian church was seeking is not the one christ. But 1,000 thousand price. What he meant of course is it no matter what. Spiritual label. We choose. For ourselves. Jesus was teaching. Call us to live our lives. Out of adjustment. Amore just. I'm more compassionate. And sharing and inclusive. And understanding and forgiving. Place. Jesus's. Message. Call zack. To a practical. Active. About dear friends in vero beach. Is what i would have you spiritually focus on this christmas season. In the year. 2000. M10. More than 2,000 years. After jesus first. What i would like all of us. As unitarian universalist to focus on in this holiday season. Is how jesus. And all the other truly great religious teachers of humanity. Buddha. Gunday. Mother teresa mohammed. Martin luther king to name just a few. All these teachers called us spiritually out. Of the naturally. Selfishly confines of a comfortable private life. Endeavour wider circles of compassionate care. That is the great message of all religions. Grow beyond self. In the spirit. And pay special attention to the for the hungry the homeless. And those. Who are sick. I am chasing. Spiritually. Animotion. Because i don't want to give up. By what. Jesus said we must. During. He lives. He really did. Expect me. To share my well. To give back. My community. Enter take risk. Warlock. In this christmas season. Perhaps it is enough for me to know deep to my heart. That with others of good faith and many other traditions including many christian. Moral responsibility that we have a moral responsibility to create a social order. We're human beings do not suffer unnecessarily. It is enough for me to believe this christmas. But i personally have a moral responsibility. And the ability. 11 ever more generous. Life. And to give back. It's my spiritual practice 10%. Evolved of iron. I tied back to my world. As a spiritual practice. Inspired. I believe by the ethic. Jesus. As a religious. Jesus was that insistent voice. Insistent. Which constantly reminds me that in spite of my natural selfish inclinations and we all have. I must tend to myself less. And give to others. The jesus i welcome into my heart. Is that insistent voice. Which reminds me. I can grow. To a finer and larger. Christmas must never be about crazed and greedy shoppers on black friday knocking each other down at best buy to get some. Goddamn plasma tv. It's not in the text i lost it again i'm sorry. Dear god help us. That's a foolish people. Christmas was not be about plasma tv. What about people like you and me. Quietly growing larger hearts. And doing so in the public. Where. Christmas must be about people cultivating. A true vision of social justice for our society and working. Sacrificing. To make it so. This is what the simple galilean. Preacher. And this is what we must be.

uufvb_org

2014Aug24Sermon128.mp3

Good morning one and all. And welcome to another glorious. Summer sunday morning. And welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. We're glad you've chosen to be with us here this morning. We are congregation of open minds. Loving hearts. And helping hands people seeking to become our best selves even as we work together to make a better world. Please know that you are indeed welcome. Just as you come to us this morning. But you're young or old gay or straight black or white some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you're on top of the world or down of the dump somewhere or maybe in the pain which is a good place to be. Whether you're a visitor. Are you been a member. For quite a long time. We're delighted to see you. Just as you are. And all your particular already in need. We both that you'll find this service meaningful. And enriching. And that you'll find something here this morning. That nourishes your spirit. And feeds your soul. And gives you renewed energy enjoy for the living of life. In the days and the weeks ahead. Alright my opening words are from jewish scholar ruth brin. Who also wrote many. Blessings. For the blessings. Which you lavished upon us in forest and see and mountain and meadow and rain and sun. We thank you. For the blessings you implant within us joy and peace. Meditation and laughter. We are grateful to you. For the blessings of friendship and love. A family and community. For the blessings we ask of you and those we cannot ask. For the blessings you bestow upon us openly and those you give us in secret. For all these blessings we thank you. And are grateful to you. For the blessings we recognize and those we fail to recognize. For the blessings of our tradition and our holy days. For the blessings of return and forgiveness of memory of vision and of hope. For all these blessings which surround us on every side. Dear god hear our thanks and accept. Our gratitude. Good morning everybody. Shabbat shalom. Can you hear me all right. Some of you may remember the film funny girl. The fictionalized story. Of the comedian fanny brice. In the beginning of the film. Young fanny is trying to convince the owner of a tavern. Who is rehearsing and auditioning. High-stepping. Buxom young girls for his nightly show that she fanny. With the. Skinny legs who sticks out. Doesn't look like the other girls. Deserves a chance. She quips. I'm a bagel and a plate full of onion rolls. As a jew. This rueful statement has always run through for me. I suspect. That it rings true for each of us as unitarians. As well. However unitarians may take this fact for granted that they are different. Emory point with some pride. To the fact that they are the owners of this gloriously. Corky. Attribute. It may surprise some of you. However that we jews. Whether secular or sacred. Atheist yes atheists. Or observant. Are not only. Invited to make the great spiritual quest. But it is expected of us. And it is required of us. In fact. It is an integral part. Of being jewish. Of belonging to a face. The causes to a search that last. A lifetime. The small prius will not i guarantee all of you disappoint in this regard for i am still searching. As are most jews. I was taught to observe the sabbath. And high holy days. Kiss grandma. And a mani and a lane and have some fruit and visit your mother once in awhile god bless her and where is it written but anyway. Go to eat chinese food on christmas day. As a jew. I am tot. But god is my shelter. Bought. I am also expected. To let the almighty know. That the roof leaks and ask him to please fix it. And moreover why does it leak in the first place you want i should be wet. Ensure. I'm expected to give god. And myself and argument. As fanny brice it said i'm a natural holler. In christianity. God is the question. And the answer. He is the giver of both the question. And the answer. In judaism. God is a question. And both of us. Are the answer. In fact. Each. All of us. Are the answer. We're partners. It is personal. Weather sacred. Or secular. In the. I have no doubt. That i am known. By the creator universe. Every bit of dna. Has been a gift to me. From the first stardust. The creation of the universe. To my ancestors. A personal relationship with god is at the heart of the story of gods. Comment tu jo. Dreamjobs horrific trials. That god allows. That. Hijau. Did not create the leviathan. Or the fish of the sea and so how could joe not trust. But such an immense and all-knowing god. Would not have things well in hand. It is a story of humility. As we are put before the great mystery. That we as jews call god. For the record. It is a name so sacred that we are not even allowed to print it. In its entirety. That is of course if we are faith center juice. For some of us it's faith. And culture. Or simply culture. The weather's willingly or unwillingly. Tour heritage. According to the book. Jews and words. Traditions. Are not made only awards. But attributes such as taste. Gesture. Song. An expression. But i digress back to joe. Aside from the argument. Joe has with god and himself. I again reference to work. Jews and words. About the literal translation of biblical stories. A profound and genuine truth to which these myths. Refer. Quote. As the novelist among us once wrote. Facts. At times. Become the dire enemies of truth. I would like to finish. Finished with my own brand of preference. For judaism. The biggest questions and produces few answers. I would argue that. Persona are the great israeli writer. Secularism. Is a non-religious understanding of the world. But searching for god is what we do from time to. He advises against. The false trap. Easy answers. But answers are traps. That lead to a false sense of tranquility. Which disappear. And waste our freedom to search. He asks. That's what i. What then. God only knows perhaps. But some acts of faith still have meaning. Even as banal as the age-old maxim. Which goes. And it is written. They tried to kill us. We survived. Let's eat. 8 years ago. Unitarian minister wait still sharp and his wife martha. We're honored posthumously by the us holocaust memorial museum in washington dc. They're only the second and. Third americans. Memorialized with a plaque. On the rescuers wall in the museum's permanent exhibition. The sharps left the united states to become involved. In rescuing hundreds of jews and other nazi dissidents. And had already been honored. As righteous among the nations. By the yad vashem holocaust memorial in israel. Subsequently. The us senate passed a resolution. Paying tribute to the courageous work of the sharps celebrating them as genuine american heroes. At the time. Museum director sarah j bloomfield said. Few people found it within themselves to risk danger by helping their neighbors during the holocaust. That the sharps were willing to leave the safety. Of the united states to save strangers in europe. Speaks to their character. And serves as an inspiration to us today. Particularly as we continue to witness. Atrocities elsewhere. I mention this because it affords such a direct link between our two fades. Unitarian universalism. And judaism. We have and historical length of course. Given that the deep roots of our faith come directly out. Of judaism. So as i have been doing in this series this morning i simply want to share with you. How judaism has fed the roots of my own face. So i'm going to begin with a little confession. I have heard more than a few of my female colleagues in my generation say that. On their journey toward professional ministry. That is a young girl they always wanted to marry a minister. And then the door opened. And it occurred to them. That they could themselves. Become ministers. Well here's my confession. As a young woman i wanted to marry a rabbi. This is true. In my twenties. I had two dating relationships with rabbis one nearly leading to marriage. During the time of the most serious relationship. I was already serving as a unitarian universalist minister and. Well the truth is he just couldn't really get past my being a shiksa. And the other perhaps more telling fact is that he used to tell me that i made a much better jew than he did. No i'm not sure that was true. Or what he based his assessment on. But i do know. But i was faithful about observing the sabbath. I wanted our friday nights. To be about candles and halle and prayers. And i continued. Too deeply value sabbath time. So my first gift from judaism. Is the idea. Of the sabbath. On the seventh day god stopped. Surveyed all that had been accomplished. Spend time evaluating and reflecting and ceased from all the work of creation. God became ruler. The breath. Of the spirit. God took time to listen to god's own breathing. And to rest. Remember then the sabbath. And keep it holy. Labor the other six days but on this 7th day. Take time out to focus. To breathe. To give. To share. To remember. To renew a sense of vision. Tubi. To be blessed. Everyone is to take time out by the way. When the great commandments are given in the book of deuteronomy the words are that quote. You shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter or your manservant or your maidservant or your ox or your ass or any of your cattle or the sojourner who is within your gates. That all may rest as you. The sabbath is intended then as a great day. Of equality. Wood. That our world could observe even one day. Of sabbath. One day. True equality. One day of peace. Just one day. Of rest. From violence. Observing the sabbath has become a lost art. In our society. As my jewish colleagues will tell you attendance at friday night services is way down. The sabbath now has to compete with so many other alluring activities. Same story for christians of course so-called blue long's used to mean that business didn't happen on sundays. Few people work. Stores were closed. Later such laws governed only whether alcohol would be sold. And now. Now even sunday morning church-going hours no longer considered sacred time. People work. Stores are open games are played. The assault on the sabbath is nearly complete. Making it next to impossible for anyone or any family to maintain it as part of their weekly observance. I think god knew a thing or two. And suggesting the importance of a rhythmic cycle that includes doing and being. Includes time for work. Time for play and time for rest and reflection. In fact. I just want to take a moment to really honor you for being here this morning this one hour. This little bit of time in the week. It is a privilege. That we are able to spend it like this so i thank you. The rosian of sabbath time is what i like to call a troubling eco theological reality of modern life. Eco is an ecological referring to the relationship between us and our environment. Axiological and i'm just trying to suggest that modern life is a rotating part of the natural cycle of life within among & beyond. The relationship of humankind to our natural environment. And to god. A relationship that requires periods of rest. And reflection. Bus. Disregard for the sabbath. Is an eco theological problem. I can only encourage you to reconsider this great gift of jewish understanding. And consider setting aside time. For weekly sabbath reflection. As part. Of your life. The second special gift to my life from the jewish tradition is the idea of covenant. The concept is first introduced in the story of noah. In chapter 6 of the book of genesis. In the 9th chapter after the flood. God announces the rainbow as a perpetual sign. Of the covenant between god. And the earth. What god says then and throughout the torah. Is that god will never be the source of harm and destruction of the earth for her people. As long as people remain true to the fundamental ethical laws god has proposed. God makes a promise. And the people make promises in return. The theme of promise is indeed one of the core themes of the entire torah. The essential meaning of covenant. Is that we will walk together. Sharing common understandings and commitments in service. To the common good. The idea of covenant invites us to consider our lives from the vantage point of shared commitments. Compromise. Fantasize with me for a moment. One of our sort of our usual question if we haven't seen somebody for a while. But you know what it is how's it going. Bringing the concept of covenant more deeply into our lives. We might consider very different greeting. Now i know we're not going to do this it would freak everybody out but just think about it. So we greet somebody. What promises have you made. Have you kept them. What promises have been made to you. Do you trust anyone to keep those promises. How does your face. Help you to believe in promises. Even when it may appear. They are not being kept. The hebrew bible tells us that god offered to be. A partner with humanity in this earliest of covenants. At the core then. Is the idea that you don't have a self until you engage with a neighbor. With another. But through engagement. We are given life. God is not doing things all on god's own. God's own self is emerging in dialogue with human partners. This is not a god who doesn't need anyone. Or isn't taking risks. Much of the resulting religious venture has been to strengthen us humans to opold our end of the deal. Tulip justice and be merciful. And walk humbly. That original offer to our ancestors. Is what i'd like to refer to this morning. As a love letter from god. Now some years ago i cut out an ad that was produced fonda jewish theological seminary of america. And it was in the form of a kind of love letter. I've adapted it a bit for sharing this morning. So if god were to send us another. Love letter. I suggest. That it might look something like this. Deer people. I offer you a gift. I hope. You will accept it. But linked with this gift. Is a responsibility. I'd even say a burden. I hope you can handle it. My gift. Is freedom. It means that each of you. Can do just about anything. Say anything use build or even destroy anything within your grasp. But you must remember. But i'm giving this gift. To everyone. Every person. In every nation. So you can see the tension. If all of you are to enjoy this freedom than each of you will have to sometimes make choices that limit your own actions for otherwise you will end up with chaos tyranny uncontrollable crime and misery. Those with the most may look free. But they will in fact be slaves to their own greed. And their fear of others. So that's the bird linked with the gift. You've got to pull in the reins on yourself sometimes. If you choose to accept my gift it's up to you. To make freedom work. Here are a few guidelines. If unrestrained greed is accepted. As success. It isn't working. If the earth is poisoned. And its resources depleted. It isn't working. If people are treated as objects. It isn't working. If people kill to get what they want. It isn't working. If people turn to drugs and alcohol it isn't. Working. If people cheat. Because. Everyone else cheats. It isn't. Working. And if it isn't working the responsibility to fix it belongs to everyone of you. No one. Can be free alone. My gift isn't an easy one my covenant isn't an easy one. Good luck. With love. God. A love letter from god. The covenant of the holy with us. And our prayers become a natural outgrowth of this covenant understanding of relationship. If the relationship holds. And we all keep our promises to each other. Then our prayer life. Need only consist. Of gratitude. And praise. If a relationship breaks or isn't working because i did not keep my promise. Then there's a need for confessing prayer. If a relationship breaks or isn't working because the other didn't keep a promise. Then there's a need for forgiving. Or petitionary prayer. This concept of covenant has become central. To how i understand my relationships. With my spouse and family. With god and certainly. With my faith community. Well i was at the thompson a very personal one here. Because it is judaism that is offered a blessing. For my bare feet. I have had a lifelong struggle with shoes. I don't like them. And they don't like me. I wear only the flattest of heels. The most open weave or fattest of which i can find if i have to be confined in a shoe. And then only when propriety demands. The shoes are off as soon as possible. It has been this way all my life. I prefer being barefoot and can walk that way over most any kind of ground. I'm happiest dispensing the shoes altogether. In the book of exodus. Moses wonders with his flock. Up mount horeb the mountain of god. And god appears to moses in the form of a burning bush. And moses starts to turn away so powerful is the site. God calls his name and moses answers. Here am i. And do you remember god's next words. Moses. Moses put off your shoes from your feet. For the place on which you stand. Is holy ground. Is not the earth holy. Are we not always standing. On holy ground. Sometimes i think it's just possible that my feet are the wisest part of my body. And the most in touch. With the divine. To relate all this to a larger thing i would simply say that judaism invites us to focus on the holiness in everyday life. And the last gift that i want to lift up this morning though there are many other gifts from this beautiful tradition. Is the richness and inexhaustible depth of the stories. Yes every text has a contacts. And yes the stories of the hebrew bible are stories out of the history of the hebrew people. But they are not just stories of an ancient people. These magnificent stories this text. Offers us a paradigm for how human beings relate. To each other. How we relate to god. And to the world around us. They exposed some of the often painful particularities of being human. The temptations to which we are are and with which we must each struggle. Just as it was in the time of the book of genesis. In every generation. There will be two brothers whose relationship is broken by greed. Or fear. Or envy. Did god really favor abel's offering over canes. Was that reason enough. For cane to sleigh. His brother abel. If we keep the questions out there. We don't get to the heart of the story. The story is asking us to take a look at where in our lives. We are feeling that our gifts are going on appreciate it. Or did someone else's gifts. Are more valued. 10 hours. And how does that make us feel. What does it make us want to do. Or. That will be brothers jacob and esau or ishmael and isaac. One more than the other destined to receive the greater portion. Of a father's love. And blessing. What are the things we have done. To assure. Or to secure. A father's love. And as in the time of the book of genesis there will be two sisters whose relationship is broken. By greed or fear. Or envy. Was leah a willing participant in the hoodwinking of jacob. If we keep the question out there again we don't get to the heart of the story. The story is asking us among other things to examine our own competitive feelings with our sisters and what we have done. Or been tempted. To do. To win. Just as it was at the time of the book of exodus in every generation a question of freedom. It's on the table. It is almost. Irrelevant. Who ramses was historically. What matters is that we understand that in every generation. In every place there has been and will be oppression. The continued rebirth of pharaoh is almost assured. Where. Does pharaoh rule now. And what is the name. Pharaoh has taken. Just as in the time of the book of exodus in every generation there will be those like moses who risk themselves to act in response to the pain. Of their community. Who has taken on the mantle of moses. In today's world. Perhaps. In this local community. Justice in the time in the book of exodus in every generation there will be those in exile in the desert. Did god really part the waters of the red sea. The deeper question that the story invite says his rather when was the last time. I reached out a hand. To someone. Who felt lost. Just someone who was fleeing some kind of personal slavery. Did the hebrews really wander for 40 years in the desert. Ship the question. Who is in exile now. Who are those millions displaced. Fling. Homeless. How are they sustaining. Themselves. And how. Frankly do we live with the reality. That they're not. Just as in the time of the book of exodus in every generation there will be those who will turn to an image like a golden calf. Mistaking it for the holy. What are the golden calves. To which we have sacrificed. Some of the richness. Of our own lives. I have been called to wrestle with these and similar questions in response. To the great biblical tales. There are questions enough. From more than one lifetime. These then are the particular gifts of the jewish tradition to my own religious journey. Sabbath. The concept of covenant. And the stories. That invite us to go ever deeper. I would like to close with words from rabbi harold kushner. Over the generations. Jews have read the torah. Not as a novel to see how it ends. But as a love letter. For instance. Why this word. Instead of that word. Why is there a space here. That's the way you read a love letter. And wonder. What did he or she mean. By this word. We jews have seen the torah as not just a book of stories or law codes. But as a love letter. From god. Chalice let's. Light scene. Warm phelps. Music favored. Pleasure tasted. Words spoken. Hands honored. New friends welcomed. Fragility protected. Souls connected. Praise offered. Sabbath. Known. Go now in peace. Go making peace. Live kindly. Love mightily. View the world through the eyes of compassion. And with a global heart. And always bow. To the mystery. I'm in.

uufvb_org

2010Nov28sermon32.mp3

Yikes darlings i just finished watching a doozy of a terrible movie on tcm. One that has to be seen to be disbelieved. Claptrap. The movie of iran's ridiculous novel. Starring gary cooper and patricia neal as glamorous. Sexy fashion. The movie was written by the novelist nutball. Russian american writer philosopher iron rand. Promoted a form of highly anti-communist philosophy called. Probably because it is so objectionable. And quote. On december 7th of last year i write her name martha co published an article called. And still dead wrong. Like ideas are back from the dead. And have attracted the attention of torch bearing angry villagers. Like the. Cinder block size manifesto atlas shrugged are reportedly at their strongest ever and this christmas we have not one but two rand biographies from which to choose. There are also lots of. Who is john galt. T-shirt. Who is john galt. He's a pompous misguided bloviator. In other words. Glenn beck. Twitter version. She also wrote a book called the virtue of selfishness. Enough said. And quote on october 27th of last year andrew corsello published an article with the charming title the b**** is back. He proclaims. 2009 most influential author is a mirthless russian-american who loves money hates god and died in 1982 but her spawn soldier on. Her idolization of mickey spillane. And cigarettes. And capitalism. Her contempt for shakespeare and beethoven and karl marx and facial hair and governments and subnormal children and the poor and the baby jesus and the un and homosexual and simpering social workers and french impressionism and a thousand other things the flesh is heir to. On may 10th. Up 2009 on the tv series the simpsons reference is made to. Lisa says to her mother mom. Isn't that book the bible of right-wing losers. As stated imran died in 1982. All the words i've just read were written. Year. Nearly 30 years after her death. There is no mistake. But hatred. The contempt. The ridicule and those words. There is also no mistaking the fact that her books remain perennial bestsellers. To the delight of some. And as we have just heard to the outrage of others. I'm rand is analogous to her adopted country the united states of america. And if there are those who feel that the usa is the most wonderful nation in the history of the planet. Exceptional. God and incapable of doing wrong. There are others who find it. Arrogance. Self-righteous. Even contemptible. And precious few who realize that the truth. Lies somewhere between those two extremes. Here are two paragraphs from wikipedia the online encyclopedia that give us a fairly unbiased view. Irvine ranch. I'm rand born at lisa rosenbaum. February 2nd 1905. Died march 6th 1982. Was a russian american novelist. Philosopher playwright and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels and for developing a. Called objectivism. Immigrated to the united states. She worked as a screenwriter in hollywood and had a flame produced on broadway and 19th 3536. She first achieved fame in 1943 with her novel the fountainhead. Which in 1957 was followed by her best-known work. The philosophical novel atlas shrugged. Is reflected in both reflection and emphasized individual rights. Including property rights. And. Enforced by a constitutionally limited government. She was a fierce opponent of all forces. All forms of collectivism and stays ism. Including fascism communism socialism. And welfare. She promoted ethical egoism. While rejecting the ethics of altruism. The only means of acquiring knowledge and the most important aspect of her philosophy stating. I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism. And i am not primarily an advocate. Egoism but of. That's wikipedia steak. Iron rand. Here's mine. It's a scene from the movie adaptation of the fountainhead. The hero is howard roark. Played by gary cooper. Is the maverick architect whose unwillingness to compromise his design. Go along and get along. Has left him wandering the streets. Without work. As he stands at a construction site he is approached by the newspaper critics. Ellsworth m2. Play by robert douglas. They exchange the following dialogue says to rourke. There's the building. There are buildings going up all over the city which our chances refused and given to incompetent fools. You are walking the streets. While they're doing the work that you love. But cannot obtain. The city is closed. It is i. Who have done it. Don't you want to know my motive. Twitch work says. No. Says i'm fighting you and she'll fight you in every way i can. Roark replies. You're free to do as you please. Tui says. Mister rourke. We're alone. Why don't you tell me what you think of. In any words. And roark replies. But i don't. Think of you. I have no idea how old i was when i first heard that exchange. Why don't you tell me what you think of me but i don't. Think of you. When i heard that. I wanted to be that man. I wanted to be howard roark. I still do. Unfortunately no one can really live up to the ideals of a howard roark. The ideals developed if not originated by ayan rand. No one could live up to them and that included ian ran herself. Therein lies the reason. The woman is both loved. So what happened. As objectivism matured and design ran herself aged. And hardened. The same thing happened to objectivism but happens to all philosophy. All religions. And all ideas. It hardened. Into dogma. Listen to the words of a very different author tom robbins. From his book still life with woodpecker. Not only can be misused a invite miss you. And the better the idea. Tomorrow. That's because only the better ideas turn into dogma. And it is this process. Where to buy affresh. Stimulating. Estranged. Into robot dogma. That is deadly. What a good idea is run through the filters and compressors of ordinary tunnel vision. It not only comes up reduced and scaling value. But in its new dogmatic configuration. Produces effects. The opposite. Of those for which it was originally intend. That is how the loving ideas of jesus christ. Became the sinister cliches. Of christian. The words of tom robbins he was talking about religion. Also summed up very very precisely what happened to iran's philosophy. In the early years. Before and during the time she wrote the fountainhead. I am rand was a seeker of truth. And she stopped at fruth. To the free and vigorous exchange of ideas. Later on. Her focus was not on seeking truth but i'm in parking cruise. Hertrich. And god help anyone who dared to disagree. Launch cluster wrote this in 1993 legacy of iron rand. Is that of a moralizing autocrat. Who gathered about her an inner circle would she ironically called. The collective. Awkwardly this collective professed egoism and individuality. They were intellectual renaissance. The price of admission to this group however was slaving conformity of one's life. And professed philosophy. Ryan rands poems and eccentricity. For example she did not like men who wore facial hair. Or listen to mozart. And if you didn't give them up you were unfit. 4 rands. The words lance clapton. That reference to facial hair and her dislike of it which we have heard twice now. Iran would have no use for me. Absolutely no use because i have facial hair and she's out the facial hair was dishonest. The men who wear mustaches or beards have something to hide. This from the woman who had proclaimed that reason was the most important part of her philosophy. Employing reason i would reply. They mature male human face. Is designed. To wear facial hair. Elks the beard will not grow. Man who lets the beard grow. And the dishonest man. Gucci. Don't get ahead of me.. No personally i don't wear a beer to make any kind of statement. I wear it because i like it. .. But i would not acknowledge a like or a dislike. She had to have a logical foundation for everything she thoughts. Said. Or did. Even when the logic had more holes than a swiss cheese. And because he was articulate and a skilled wordsmith. She could make even a flawed argument sound compelling. Listen to this paragraph from atlas shrugged. It is a night watch. Talking to the heroine of the book. Dagny taggart. The subject is. Smoking. I like cigarettes. Miss taggart. I like to think of fire held in a man's hand. A dangerous force. At his fingertips. I often wonder about the hours when a man sits alone watching the smoke of a cigarette. I wonder what great things have come from such hours. What a man thinks. There was a spot of fire alive in his mind. And it is proper that he should have the burning point of a cigarette. As his 1xpression. Iran's largely negative reputation is no one's fault. But. Iron. As recently as last month noah crassula green wrote this. As long as rams lived she belligerently chased away anyone who disagreed with her philosophy of objectivism. And the revelations of ranz destructive affair was nathaniel branden undercut. Rams writing. On rationally practicing sex. I'm loved. Her acolytes were called crazy on the rare occasions they interacted with the outside world. And yet. She is amazingly persuasive. And that's why her ideas live. 30 years after her death. They live for good. And they live for evil. Wren's admirers and her detractors claim to her character of howard roark in the fountainhead. Evolved into the character of john galt in atlas shrugged. I maintain that they couldn't be more different. And roar. My hero. Would have had precious little use. For galt. Even detest rand's ideas maintained that they glorify selfishness. Screwing over of one's fellow man. And the power that greed provides. When greed attains its goals. There's not much of that and howard roark. He lives by his own values and for his own sake but not expense of anyone else. This is the man who said. The creator neither serves no rules he deals with others. Through free exchange. At one point. Rourke is approached. To design a low-income housing project. On the grounds that it. Need it. And people will benefit. From it. His reply is. Before you can do things for people you must be the kind of man. Who can get things done. But to get things done. You must love. The doing. Not the people. Your own work. Not any possible object of your charity. I'll be glad if men who needed find a better method of living in the house i built. But that's not the motive of my work nor my reason nor my reward. Myrewards. My purpose. My life. Is the work itself. My work. Done my way. Nothing else. Matters. And again remember that wonderful exchange between roark and ellsworth touhy. Why don't you tell me what you think of me. But i don't. Think of you. Imagine. What a world we might have. If the world emulated howard roark. If men didn't spend their time thinking about their enemies. Blaming their enemies for everything that's wrong about their lives. Unfortunately they society we live in today does show the influence of iron rand but not the iron rand of the fountainhead. Society follows the much easier and much more emotionally satisfying path. Of emulating. Iron rand of atlas shrugged. And the hero of that book john galt. Who sings 60 pages. Telling people how they should live. And when they disagree. Calling them. Who are the heirs of iran in today's culture they are. Rush limbaugh. Sean hannity. Glenn beck. Neal boortz. And perhaps the worst of all. Michael savage. They are the champions of name-calling. Dare to disagree with any of them and you are a pinhead. A psycho. A fruitcake. And a traitor to your country. By virtue of the fact that you dare to disagree with them. Is what iran had deteriorated into in later life. Castigated excoriated. Do mean. Even those closest to her found themselves walking on eggshells in her presence and a great many of them were estranged. By the time of her death. The woman who. That she honored and idolized man. I'm glorify the individual. Did not hesitate to treat individual men and women. With contempt. And duration. And the people i mentioned limbaugh hannity savage and the rest. Follow her example with maniacal glee. Nor is the course of instability limited to the right. Remember the examples we began with today. The people who tore ran herself apart. They were rising from the left. With no less acid. No less vitriol. Tell me what you think of me mister rourke. But i don't. Who dares to follow roark on that high road. Not the rock is perfect. His stubbornness extends to the statement. I never asked for or give. Help. Like all random characters the idea of empathy. Is totally missing from his emotional makeup. And that's too bad. Another of my favorite authors john d macdonald. Wrote in the long lavender look. The curse of empathy. Is to see yourself. In every death. Fantasy the child. Hidden in every corpse. Iron rand obviously shared that concept of empathy as a curse. Would that she had seen it. As a blessing. A compliment to the other virtues of her ideal man. What is honesty and his integrity. His lack of malice toward his fellow man or desire to use them in any way. Temperate. Was just a little empathy. And you would have. One hell of a man. Notice i said empathy. Not altruism. Totally condemned altos because she felt it was a betrayal of a man self. To give that self away. Without return. And. From her childhood in the soviet union she knew the difference between caring for. As in. The people's republic of this other people's republic of that. I'm caring for. People. Without the the. In front of it. When randstad shida tested elsa was them she could have had in mind this quote. From the screwtape letters by cs lewis. A sensible human once said. If people knew how much ill-feeling. Unselfishness occasions. It would not be so often recommended from the pulpit. And again. She's the sort of woman who lives for others. You can always tell the others. Tyler hunt. The ideal man. Or woman. Does not rule his fellow has not ruled by them. He lives by free exchange with them and pursues his own happiness but not at the expense of anyone else. With the basic idea that if he is happy with his work. And his life. That everyone else will be happy around. And if he sees suffering around him he will move to do something about that too. Just because such action makes his world a better and happier place to be. Not because such action is a duty. Or an onerous. Burden. The proper approach to ian rand and her ideas is the same approach that we as you use take. Any religion. Philosophy or any idea. We take that which we find good. Which makes sense to us. The passes the test of our reason. And our compassion. And we reject. That which does not. This morning we have barely had time to scratch the surface of iran's ids. Should they interest you they are easily accessible to you. If there's any point to be made it is this. These ideas are worthy of consideration. And they can be employed for great good. Or for grades. Evil. As always. The choice.

uufvb_org

2015Jan04Sermon32.mp3

Well good morning. Aren't you glad you're in a place where it's going to be 85. Welcome to vero beach florida and the unitarian universalist fellowship with. Wiara congregation of open minds. Loving hearts and helping hands people become our best selves. Even this together is a current location to make this world a better place for all. And please know you are welcome precisely as you come to us in this new year old black or white or some other wonderful. Whether you're struggling with longtime illness or feeling on top of the world physically this morning. What do you have a ged or a phd with your a visitor this morning. Or been coming for deck we welcome you. We're delighted to see you. We hope you will find our service this morning meaningful and enriching. Let it go find something here this morning perhaps small. Take with you. Double feed your spirit and nourish your soul and give you renewed energy and purpose. For the living of life ahead. Recently retired from wayland massachusetts new year's sunday. Year upon year the season. Sears arrive century century millenia upon millenia time it's cyclist. Thoughtless way. Play mortals mark and purse walk out and measure. Making lines crossing. Naked spinning space. Hoping to reach an inference. To remind eternity. We're here. My hopes more mundane romaine and x grand procession. Nor even that this year she'll be different to me than others before but different. More open to the truths persist. The we shall not. Of life on this planet that maybe if i yell it loud enough. It's a whole new year. My struggling faith. Show more fully capture my soul's attention and wake me. From the dreamless sleep. And lead my feet upon new pads. Dangerous. Promising. And fresh. It's a whole new year. Let it be like an alarm clock. Good morning world. Unforgotten. How bright and warm and wonderful. The sun can be. How does smell of hibiscus work how the deep pain and loneliness of those. Around me. Do the whole grade halo universe mocks our little game. The lines we draw. May this one be for the occasion me this one before us the occasion. For real wakening. For faith reborn each of us shouting to ourselves and our cells together. It's a whole new world. Take. Let us be one in the spirit of meditation. It's a whole new year. There is nothing holding you back from becoming the kind of person you wish to be. There is nothing holding me back. From being the kind of person you want to be. This year. You are free. To break free of the past. To live in fresh pathways. And wonder. Calm. And love and service. There is nothing holding you back. From being the kind of person you wish to be. It's a whole new year don't make silly resolutions. But there is nothing holding you back. From becoming the kind of person. You want. We were hardly noticing another whole year has flown by and here we are already four days. In the 2015 it's amazing no matter how old we are how quickly. Time. Because time is so fleeting khali cancel reserve. I wanted to pause on this first sunday of the brand new year and reflect. As i said i would in the congregational record on what i believe to be the. Single most important spiritual practice that any of us as human beings. Can place at the center of our lives. And the curiosity about the spiritual practice is it in all likelihood. Your fourth grade teacher probably tried to regularly remind you of this when you were nine years old at least. Minded. I went to the fourth grade way back in 1958 at fratt elementary school in racine wisconsin. And i can hardly believe it but i actually found a picture from the local newspaper of that time of me and some of my 4th grade classmates. There i am on my hands and knees in the front right with some of my other and that is my fourth grade classroom so that's not my fourth grade teacher. It was the drama person we brought in. My teacher that year was mrs. daily. A young attractive no-nonsense. Panama important i don't know what it was. Anyway. Mrs. daily had several admonishments to remember for example i remember that whenever one of the students read one of the boys. Bailout the world worth. As in like it's snowing outside. Misses daily would immediately say to the offender. For horses. I also remember and that made a great impression. Well maybe i do but when i do. I also remember that mrs daly was very good at reminding the students including me about the spiritual practice i want to lift up today now i i asked you on the congregational record of any of you have any guesses and no one called me. The most important spiritual practice at mrs. daily taught me what is it. Got to have a guess. Listen to. That's also very good. Play fair another great with well what is really was. Is she would say. Mr. alexander. Mr. alexander. That's like listen. Until what i want to reflect on this morning. Is on this all-important first sunday of the freshman year is the incredibly important spiritual practice of paying attention in your life. If you're not purposely paying attention. And paying attention to your life in the present moment. Three important lessons and realities and relationships that are at hand. Then you will put on earth. To notice. This is not the first time i've addressed this topic. Character uscb nor will it be the last. At least once a year i remind you about paying attention to being mindful. I'm reminded of the my colleague carl scoville the great minister of kings chapel. Together of the 10 things you should never say to a minister in the reception line. I enjoyed the guest minister you invited to preach last sunday how soon can you have her back. Another was reverend i really enjoyed your sermon this morning just like i do every time you preach it. But i will admit. Don't like all ministers. I return time and time again. Leaving the most important themes of our lives. As of already a firm this morning i believe that paying attention to your life. Truly mine. In the present moment. Is crucial. If we are to make the most of the lives we have on this earth. I believe the most important spiritual practice is being fully awake. In the life you find yourselves. Generally vaguely right. What exactly do i mean when i say the for a spiritual. An emotional well-being when we need to pay purposeful attention and cultivate more daily mindfulness well. As i've said before i think an undeniable. And the children story. Alluded to. Most of us living in this high-tech. High-speed twenty-first-century culture filled with electronic media and computerized gadget. Lead lives most of us of significant distraction. Regular entertainment to the present moment. It's not of course that we're all stumbling through our lives each day and some sort of. Fog or stupid. Most of us managed to wake up recently arrested in the morning. Kirk ourselves up with a cup or two of good strong coffee and whole. How does how does that ever make a day. Fuel our bodies with a bit of nutritious breakfast. Peruse the morning papers are television news shows to catch up on what happened in the world overnight. And then we most of us. Activity and engagement we're not stumblebums. We modern americans are a busy and purposeful lot. But what most of us call a busy or purposeful day cannot truth be told. Be acquainted with really paying attention. At least not in the focused mindful spiritual way that has the power. The singular tower to really bless your life. If we're to reach our full potential need to regularly and purposely work. A cultivating. A much greater mindfulness in our daily routine. But what am i mean by mindfulness. The word is thrown around a lot in common culture. I want to try again some water. What does it really mean. In his wonderful book wherever you go. There you are. American buddhist and mindfulness guru jonathan kabat-zinn. Offers this helpful definition there he is. Mindfulness is an ancient buddhist practice which has profound relevance. To our present-day live. It has everything to do with waking up. And living in harmony with oneself and the world. I'm cultivating some appreciation. For the fullness of each moment we are alive. And it has to do with being in touch with where we already are. No matter where that is. Mindfulness he goes on. We have to pause in our experience long enough. Pause. Can our experience. To let the present moment sink in. Long enough to actually steal the present moment to see it in its fullness to hold it in awareness and thereby to come to know and understand it better. Mindfulness he goes on. Means paying attention in a particular way. On purpose. To the present moment and in the keyword and non-judgmental. And then eannes. This kind of attention nourishes greater awareness clarity and acceptance of present moment reality. It wakes up after the fact. That our lives unfold only. In moments. If we are not fully present for many of those moments. We may not only miss what is most valuable in our lives to realize. The richness and the depth of our possibilities for growth and transformation. Anthony and. I'd like to think of mindfulness simply as. The art. Subconscious. Living. In my book everyday spiritual practice which i put together several years ago to help people in our denomination everyday spiritual practices. My buddhist friend and colleague james austin. Similarly affirms that through everyday simple mindfulness which is really. Just. Intentional focused and key noticing of the present moment. We can deepen our relationship with everything in life. I called him. Mindfulness is a kind of remembering. Remembering to be here. To be present to pay attention to this moment of life it is characterized. Remember this phrase it is characterized by. A spacious knowing. Of what is happening. Knowing. What is happening. Time in our lives austin. We sacrifice what is right in front of us we sacrifice. This present moment dwelling. On the past or imagining or worrying about the future. If we do this repeatedly our minds become very places to live. Running back and forth. From the past experience of the present moment. Much of the time. Our mind has a mind of its own. Easily wanders off into some fantasy of the future or some evaluation. Or judgment or remembrance of the past. The prison. We only know what we're doing and we know we are alive. Till the first aspect of mindfulness practice in daily life you can close. Is to just find everyday simple ways to remind yourself to show up. In the present moment. By being in a deeper and richer way. We connect directly. To that inherent self-worth. That is our birthright. Unquote. You know i'd rather simple and sterling way of thinking about life is to realize. Nothing more than the past where we just were. Constantly interrupted. The fleeting place we now and have it. Before i move on to the future which i cannot inhabit. You can worry about it. But you can't inhabit it. Life is always interrupting itself with newness. And the trick is to move yourself mindfully along. What is actually unfolding otherwise your living everywhere except where you are. So the great trick of mindfulness which all the mindfulness teachers teach. Is to focus your attentions on the present moment. So as to not let the past. With its inevitable memories in complication nor the future. What is inevitable plans and worries and anticipation. Crowd out the present moment. The trick for mindfulness is to refuse to allow the past and the future to crowd out. The present. Mormon. Way back in the 70s. Famously said. The trick to mindfulness is to be here now. To push the future in the past back away from the present moment. To create that spacious knowing of what's right in front of you which james austin talked about. And this is difficult because there is so many ready and seductive distractions from the present moment. Pressing in on us. Let me give a concrete example for my own life. Witches i confess. This is something i struggle with constantly. As a minister every single day many diverse and important and interesting things by for my human attention. All day long no matter what any given moment i am focused. I'm seemingly bombarded by many competing stimuli. Stuff that was to intrude on the present moment. It seems like there's always a dozen or so things clamoring for me to pay attention to. And this makes mindfulness. A real challenge. Everyday get to the office i have books and articles to read. Sermons to write services to organize ideas to ponder meetings to attend meetings. Phone calls to make emails to answer. Post to look at and respond to interact with just a name. Some of the seemingly endless casting stimulation. The president upon the few hours i have each day to work. What is really difficult for me personally especially given the fact that just as i have in 4th grade. I have a short attention span grateful that they didn't know what add was cuz i surely would have been diagnosed with it but i wasn't like i got through that whole thing. But i have trouble focusing on what's right and it's often hard for me when i'm at my desk. On the phone with someone. Not to look at the 47 unanswered emails in my inbox. Do you recognize that problem to you. And it's often hard for me when i'm writing a sermon my smartphone when it beeps indicating i've just gotten a text. And it's sometimes hard for me when someone comes to my door. For me too and i always could gladly do this. To totally set aside. What i'm working on so that i can fully. Attend to what is in front of me. Against. In front of me. The very morning i was writing this portion of the sermon my office phone rang. I turned away from my computer. I was talking with one of you who just learned that there was a fatal illness in your family that was going to take a look. When the phone it's very important. Pay attention. Buddhist vietnamese meditator. Does it when the phone rings he treats it like a meditation bell calling him back so he says the phone rings and instead of being irritated. A phone call. Google important phone call. Ha try that next time you're in the office. When the phone rings. Phone call. Dear friend i am freaking as much to myself this morning about mindfulness as i'm preaching to. As i've already confessed in my busy complicated and fast-paced life with my office and smartphones my email accounts facebook pages internet connection. I constantly have to remind myself. Can really only do one thing. Once and that's the present moment and pay attention. What is directly in front of me. Humanely unnaturally. So i need really to practice what rhonda said in be here now if i'm going to be an effective minister shutting out the past. Shutting out the future shutting out all the things i have to do i have to do my list. What's all that back so i spacious leak and experience stacious lino. What is right in front of me. And you know. I know i'm not the only one who struggles with this i suspect that all of you are least most of you. As creatures in a distracting and distracted culture. Can relate to this struggle about pushing back the past and the present. They're constantly. Seductively saying. What modern-day enemy of mindfulness. Is a relatively new cultural american habit of thinking as many of us as we can successfully multitask. Several things at once. Many busy americans maybe some of you. Proudly proclaim that in my last church outside and the inside the beltway in washington i had all kinds of sophisticated federal people who signs in a big shot attorney. Ambassadors of thought the multitasking they regularly bragged about. Driving down the interstate while talking on the cell phone. Or checking both the nasdaq and s&p 500 on a split screen computer terminal. They think they can do all that with clarity and excellent well i've got news for you. We homo sapiens were not wired. For multitasking. While we like to think of ourselves as neurologically quite sophisticated it wasn't so long that our ancestors jumped out of the trees. Savannah. And the truth is. And science tells us this. Our brains are not really capable of paying attention to more than one thing at a time. I know you're the exception but most of us. Numerous recent studies on multitasking. Children except for a meager 2% of the population people called super casters and i really don't want to spend much time with any of them. Rare people. Can handle focusing on more than one thing at a time. Every study indicates of human performance and productivity suffers when we divide our attentions. Let me speak personally. I know full well that if i try to read email from a committee chair while talking to someone on the phone about an upcoming community event i do neither task well. So one simple thing. We can do to enhance. Our experience of the fullness of the present moment. Is to remind ourselves and this is not that hard. Just do one. Sting. It doesn't mean. You're stupid. It means your focus. And here's another important thing to remember about mindfulness. Mindfulness is not just paying attention. To the wonderful and easy moments of like like when you're taking a sunlit walk in the park with a dear old friend. Or playing with your two-year-old grandson. On the living room floor. Or enjoying a wonderful sloppy delicious meal with old friends. Ortanic great classical music concert. Mindfulness and again. Is often. Also needs to be done in the hard demanding. You need to be mindful for example when you're facing heart-wrenching grief. When you lose someone you love. Or coping with an illness or a disability that makes life a painful challenge. You need mindfulness when you're dealing with a strained or failed relationship. Or managing some major obstacle or loss of disappointment. Don't flee into alcohol or. Or get that the internet when you're when you're suffering mindfulness means. Non-judgmentally being with whatever really is in front of you. Attention means paying attention to all of life. Not. He just a happy parts but the unwelcomed. Parts as well. Alright. So assuming. I've convinced you. Of the spiritual and emotional importance of mindfully paying attention to the present moment. The question becomes yeah but precisely how do we do this. What are some simple practical techniques we can employ in our day-to-day life. That will help us to heighten awareness of the moment we're in. Well. I have several. First of course there's a tried-and-true discipline of regularly sitting meditation. Many people find that taking as little as 10 or 20 minutes a day for meditation. Pausing say at the beginning of the day or at lunch hour at your desk. Or even before you go to bed in some special place in your home. Quiet your mind and pay attention to what. Can greatly enhance. Your day. I find that even shorter periods of meditation 2 minutes 3 minutes at my desk. Ir jennifer my desk and go to one of my chairs in my office and. Close my eyes and concentrate. Does a long does a great deal for my mindfulness. I also have a personal a practice i called meditation. Of the senses where i'm out walking in riverside park. I will say to myself. Now i'm going to listen. And such a moment a minute or two i will just listen to the birds in the sound of the trees in the wind. I will just listen to the sound of a distant train. And then i'll stay to myself after i'm done listening to look. And i will just look keenly look at what's right in front of me really seeing what's in front of me. And then i will smell my world for another couple of minutes and then i'll find some object a tactful object like a smoothly for us. Hora en orange or something and i will feel that world. That that that object. Just going through my senses and taking i can't i do this on the bike sometime. I doing walking you can do it as you're going to sleep at night. The many many things you can do. Meditation of the senses. Just to remind yourself the only way you have to take the world in. Is through your ears and your eyes and your nose and your tongue in your fingertip. And let me finally share. Third most useful meditative technique. Again despite its incredible simplicity i believe it has. Power to greatly enhance our presence in the present moment. For the last couple of months i've only been doing this the last couple of months i personally paused it pretty much. Random moments in my day. I take a deep breath and then i quietly and slowly ask myself a series. A simple question. And those questions are. Where am i. What am i doing. Who is here. And what matters. What do i truly love. I just simply asked myself those questions. There are of course many other techniques and practices that can help us achieve greater mindfulness. In our daily routine. Find some of you find focus through yoga or tai chi. Others of you use prayer or meditation guided meditation use of classical music listening to classical music. And others as i use repetitive exercise swimming or cycling or walking. Lol a very much a mindfulness meditative technique to bring you back fully to the present. The point is it is terribly important that we all have ways. In are distracting and busy live. To call ourselves back purposely call ourselves back. Not to the past to the present future. And i invite you again let's try this practice. Right now asking these five questions of ourselves. Right now we'll pause between each of them. Bring this into your life. Where. Am i. What am i doing. Who is here. What matters. What do i love. What do i love. Right here. Right now. 32 years ago i found this afternoon years in a unitarian letter. Iowa uu fellowship. I've waited 32 33 years to read this. If my wishes for you in 1982. May your tea kettle. Whistle. Your bird sing. Your clock chime. Your doorbell ring. Your grass grow. Your star. Wink. Your cake. Rise. Your pot. Sync. Your bills. Diminish. Your time. Increase. Your lamb. Come home. And your heart have peace. God bless.

uufvb_org

2010Oct10sermon128.mp3

uufvb_org

2014Jun08Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to unitarian universalist fellowship vero beach. We're so glad that you have chosen to be with us this morning. We are congregation of open minds. Loving hearts and helping hands. People seeking to become our best selves. Make a better world. Please know that you are welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you were young or old gay or straight black or white. Or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you have a g g e d or phd. Whether you are a visitor this morning. We're going to member here for decades. Whether you were feeling on top of the world. Dumps or somewhere in between. We are delighted to see you. Just as you come to austin.. Julie hagerty. And need. We hope you will find a service meaningful and enriching. Haven't you will find something here this morning that nourishes your spirit and feed your soul and give you renewed energy. For the joy. Living of life in the days and weeks ahead. Welcome. Whoever you are wherever you come from. Welcome. Come and join your hands and voices with ours. Come and help us remember that life is good and worth living. Good love. Possible. That do the moral arc of the universe may indeed be long. It does been toward justice. Come and help us realize together. And life is good and worth living that love is possible. And then we can bend. The universal moral are. Towards justice. Let us worship. Now might be a good time for me to officially introduce today speaker. Craig rossi. Is it ohio. To the airport in spokane washington eastern washington university. His early passion for emergency medicine. Yes you he worked as an ambulance attendants. While i drink is collegiate years. Gave way to a calling to religious leadership. So he enrolled in starr king school for ministry in berkeley california. His first call was back in ohio united unitarian. Fellowship in north olmsted. Astor barber on the westside of cleveland. In the ensuing years he served in numerous capacities for churches in the cleveland area. And worked in the computer industry before returning to full-time ministry. As you minister of the east shore unitarian universalist church in mentor ohio. In september of 1991 hits. From the first jefferson unitarian universalist church. In fort worth texas. And 18 years later became associate minister main line unitarian church. And devon pennsylvania. 2011. He was serving as you you raise director of witness ministries. Charged with promoting public witness and social action. Then like so many of us move south. The 2013 reverend ross haven responded to the need for an interim minister at the unitarian universalist society. Of the daytona beach area. Which is actually located in ormond beach. Today as result of a pulpit swap. We enjoy having reverend craig ross haven join us. I know you will appreciate his message. As well as the opportunity to meet him personally in our fellowship hall after the service. Now reverol saving. Like to. Share with you a reading from. Stories in the postmodern world. Orienting and disorienting. Stories are told in every culture and they are being told and will be told in the postmodern world. And stories are told for many purposes. What is a store sells about one particular thing that stories do for us. You think about the way that is changing in the postmodern world. I am thinking about. The way in which store he's helped us find ourselves. Find out who we are. The way used to be was that my life was a story. And i found myself by fitting my story into the great story into which i believe it fitted. In between my story. And. Some degre story. Came all sorts of other stories but especially the story of my role model some keep person. Who would already discovered the way he or she may sense out of life by being part of the great story. Thereby serving as an example. Or inspiration for me. As i grew experimented and learned about life. However there does not seem to be any single story. Into which. I can fit my life in the old-fashioned way. The postmodern world is a world of the interweaving of many stories. In a world in which we recognize the positive value of stories in which we do not take heart. The very stridency with which do many people are still trying to deny. This is a sign that the old way is not working very well. By the way i thought the director of religious education for a story to parallel the theme of the service was spot-on. Weather in politics or religion we quickly sense a great fear of moving away from the traditional way. In which we organize our lives. Theoretically at least around the various stories in which we were actually. Engaged. Let us begin with the story. During the 1940s a boy was born and raised in south dakota. As child he attended the lutheran church where he was taught that god so loved the world that he sacrificed his only son. So that we might have eternal life if only we believe. The boy believe. Allowance. Contribute to the mission hills church sponsored in africa. So that the people of africa could learn of god's sacrifice for us. And thereby also have a chance for eternal life. However when is the young man he went to college and then later seminary. Jesus portrayed in john 3:16. Was not the jesus. He learned that his minister had known this all along but had been afraid to share his knowledge. He became quite angry because he felt that he had been deceived all those years into believing that the jesus portrayed in john. Accurately reflected the life in mission of jesus. The boy now a man. Bi-curious turn became a professor of religion. His name is marcus borg. He tells the story of his. Disillusionment and anger. Eventual return to the church in his excellent book meeting jesus again. For the first. Time. The story of the christ the story of orthodox christianity is just one of several grand stories that have been central. To our culture. We discover who we are by locating our personal story with was within one of those larger stories. It says if these large storage provides a map and boundaries by which we learn where we are where we're going. Who we are. They are orienting stories. For many people particularly europeans in the 19th century. In early 20th century the socialist story the story author by karl marx became a substitute for the traditional religious stories of judaism. And christianity. Many believe that the blueprint provided by marx and his followers would eventually create a golden age. In which poverty and corruption and even the state would disappear. But for almost all this story has lost its luster. In the grim realities of its enactment. And they too have become just illusion. Another orienting story. Is that at the liberal dream of progress. The dream that advance the arts. And people standard of living would gradually transform the world into a heaven on earth. A golden age of prosperity. The liberal christian faith in the rain of god the jewish faith in god's care for god's people. If both been shaking though if not destroyed by the atrocities of the 20th century. The century world and not one but two world wars. Conflicts that involve gas warfare. Genocide. In the firebombing of cities. Liberal dreams of future utopia are now seen as simply dreams. It's hard to overestimate. Overstate the devastating effect that wwii had on that liberal story that dream. A progress. Yet another orienting story has been that of the power of technology. We used to believe that we can engineer our way to lasting prosperity. Some of us are old enough to remember the glorious predictions of the past. Happily imagine that the widespread use of clean and safe nuclear power. Would eliminate pollution and provide inexpensive power for everyone remember. I remember confident predictions of labor-saving devices and every home in. Factory that would yield such great advances and productivity. That our greatest challenge would be how to spend our leisure time. How's that working for you. Technology was a magic carpet that would fulfill our fondest hopes grandest dreams. But today we live three mile island chernobyl. And the severe pollution of rocky flats colorado. Contrary to the fanciful predictions of too much leisure time. Most professionals at least in this country. Are spending more time at work rather than less. Finally imagine if you will that we are living in greece during the golden age the hellenic era. And everyone knows the gods live on mount. Olympus. What would happen if one of us. One of us who is particularly strong and adventurous managed to climb mount olympus. What is after finally arriving at the top. She were to discover that there were no gods. That is our situation today that is our dilemma today. Story story. The stories within which we found meeting and hope and purpose. The stories and oriented are not in fact. Fiction. We have been to the mountaintop and discovered. We are alone. The result is not only loss of faith in that one story. Little loss of faith in all stories. We have come to suspect that all the mountaintops are empty. That there is no promised land. That's a mythical pot-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow. It's just an empty tin can. Rh has been one of the bunting the old myths. It is a confusing time for finally disorienting time. I was born in the 1950s. In the fifties it was still possible to believe in the american dream. But even then the gaps of the story we're becoming more obvious. More and more people came to question the myths. To doubt that the promise gods existed. Still believe. It didn't matter really what story. Change machinist square. Serious. Earnest. Responsible. John wayne. Eagle scouts represent. On the other hand over those who understood themselves to be hip. Skip to the fact that the mountaintop. Was empty. In the 1950s allen ginsberg began a career in marketing for a major corporation. He wore the regulation gray suit and reptile and successfully played the role of organization man for a few years. What is job. And started writing angry question. Poetry. To the fact. Did the path envision for and by people like him lead. Nowhere. I came to find my. Meaning and value not in the grand stories of the time. When what was left after they were destroyed. Debunked. For me one of the point most poignant lyrics of those years with the chorus and bob dylan song ballad of a thin man. Something's happening carrie you're really don't know know what it is do you mr. jones. The mr. jones of my youth were telling me and my fellows that we were simply lazy. Discipline that we had abandoned the american dream. Not because we didn't want to compete but because we couldn't complete. In a similar vein those women who began to question the role of women in society. Betty ford and germaine greer gloria steinem to name just a few. We're often portrayed as sore losers who are simply crying sour grapes. Obviously i've just been more attractive and could have married better they wouldn't be complaining. Becoming hip to the real story becoming wise to the fictions required to maintain the status quo. Was profoundly liberating too many. The great liberation movement overtime the women's movement the civil rights movement the gay rights movement all required. A degree of disillusionment. With conventional wisdom. In order to begin. I suspect that all social reforms and revolutions originate from disillusionment with. The raining story of the day. But something more has happened disillusionment with one particular story. What is different now is dissolution suspicious of all. Grand stories. Not so long ago in what. We can call the modern world. If we became disillusioned with one story. We would simply abandoned it in favor of another story a better story. But those days are gone. Today we live in a postmodern world. A world where we have become doubtful of all grand stories. As a result we have trouble telling our own story because we have trouble believing in any. Story. Today we live in a world with fewer heroes because we have trouble believing in heroic stories. We used to fit our little story into the big story by finding some role model a hero. Someone who made sense of life by successfully fitting into the big picture. But today. Many if not most of us can't fit our lives into one single story. Despite the striped sea of those who claim that it is precisely that which is what is wrong with us. We see too many signs. We can't help but see shades of grey where we used to see just black and white. Today we have too many. Chef many stories. Weaving them together picking and choosing in order to find ourselves. Another factor that has made it more difficult for us to believe in any particular story. Is our suspicions of our motives. Both freud and marx showed us that we must be prepared to look behind beyond our apparent intentions. If we are discover our true motivations. We have learned how easy it is to hide one's. Intention from oneself. Roy thomas all of the reality of our unconscious motivations. Wellmark spot us to see through the self-serving rhetoric. All those who benefit from the status quo. The discipline of sociology shows is how what might appear at first glance to be individual actions and preferences. Are all too often actually characteristics of one's class race or gender. I've learned that the value i place unpunctuality the extent to which i readily volunteer my opinion. And the clothes appropriate are all characteristics. What of a middle-class heterosexual male of northern european heritage born in the 1950s. This state of affairs is both liberating and discouraging. It is liberating than that we are much less likely to become true believers. Unquestioning followers of demonic story such as hitler story of the aryan master race. However it is discouraging and that heroes are harder to find. And that meaning. Is more elusive. All those solutions may be far more elusive in this purse postmodern age. We are less likely to seize upon a solution that is wrong. Is not a hero of mine i do admire some of the phrases of the journalist hl mencken. And he once observed. For every problem there is a solution. Which is simple. Elegant and wrong. Elegant solution provides an opportunity for us to discover. Albeit on a much smaller scale. Better answers to our questions. Contrary to popular understanding jesus did not tell moral fables. Allegories. The parables he told. We're not moral tales and he fit into a culture story to reinforce its norms. On the contrary they disoriented his listeners. Surprised and shocked them. But in the process enable them to discover a truth. Then otherwise they never would have even glimpsed. One of the central themes of postmodern theology. Is that what is most important can only be discovered when one story. Our imagination can only. Of our orienting stories when those stories. Phelous. Only then can we notice the reality that we had heretofore overlooked because it didn't fit into our story. Dylan and the other artists of my use help me question the conventional wisdom of my time. Did discover what i otherwise. But not have seen. Lyrics of dylan the fiction of kent questioned the conventional wisdom of my time. I learned that i could discover my own meeting. I understand now why dylan warned don't follow leaders. The spell that hid enchanted me had been broken. The enchantments of the guiding myth of a culture had been dispelled. In the absence of conventional enchantments i learn to make my own magic. The cast my own spells. To look with my own eyes to listen. And hear the beats of my own drummer. I'm grateful that i discovered the unitarian universalist church in my early 20s. It was and continues to be the ideal place to question. The question is cover an authentic meaning and value. I am a unitarian universalist because in our communities i have not only been allowed but encouraged to explore what it means to be human. Religiously. Provide a sanctuary. The sanctuary for those who value the authentic over the convenience. Chewy for those who doubt question. Who hunger for wholeness. What are the characteristics of a postmodern sensibility is a healthy suspicion of anyone or anything that purports. Explain it all. I'm suspicious of saviors in grand scheme some eclectic in my theology. 20 years ago or so there is a bumper sticker from the. Orthodox christians who said i found it. And unitarian-universalist responded with a bumper sticker that said i found it too it said to keep looking. I have a variety of beliefs not all of which are consistent with one another. Mighty ology is eclectic. I've learned not to be bothered by the lack of integration. After all emerson wrote that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. Someone or something to explain it all. But i honestly don't think i can believe that. No matter how hard i may try or how much i may want it. David herbert donald is the author of an acclaimed biography of abraham lincoln. In the preface. Lincoln emphasized david approach to problems. He wrote. My policy is to have no policy became a kind of model for lincoln. A model that infuriated the sober doctrinaire people around him. Inclined to think that meant he had no principles either. He might have offended his critics less if he had more often use the analogy. When explaining his course on reconstruction. The pilots on our western rivers steer from point to point. As they call it. Setting the course of the boat no farther than they can see. And that is all i proposed to myself. Great problem. Donald concludes this section of the preface by noting that. Lincoln had a quality. That john keats called. Negative. Capability. Negative capability that is when a man is capable of being in uncertainties. Mysteries. Doubts. Without any irritable reaching after facts or reason. Can you repeat that. Negative capability that is when a man is capable of being in uncertainties ministries doubts without any irritable reaching after facts or reason. Almost tempted to entertain grand schemes. Going to attempt to explain too much. When i'm most uncomfortable what time certainty mystery. And doubt. But uncertainties mystery in doubt are always with us. I can never hope. To escape. Indeed i shouldn't even try. Far wiser is lincoln's method of setting the course. No further than one can see. Evan tolerating the uncertainty. Of not knowing what's around the bend. Instead of imagining that one can. We live in a postmodern age. Each of us needs the negative capability that keats defined. We need to be able to tolerate uncertainty. Mystery in doubt. Without irritably insisting on certainty. We need to be able to find our way as best we can. Knowing what we can. But content as knowing content as well as knowing that there is. Much we are unlikely to ever know. It seems to me that part of our mission as a unitarian universalist congregation. Is to offer a haven. The sanctuary for those who are prepared. Tolerate. Uncertainty and doubt. I believe this is one of the best. In the meantime let us help one another continue to seek the truth. Even though we know it will always be partial. Coronavirus. And income. Mansfield. Words of edward cyril in our minds and hearts. Humbly we stand in the face of death. Confidently we stand with life. Our strength is the strength of many. Indeed it is the strength of all humanity throughout all time. Because we share one fate and a great compassion. May understand and go with us and pistou. Together in charity compassion peace enjoy. In this spirit lettuce. Individually and together. Go forth to live and to love. May we share this journey together toward greater wholeness. As a congregation and there's a religious movement. With hope and with love. Mattyb song.

uufvb_org

2015Mar22Sermon32.mp3

Well good morning. It's still a little foggy outside but let there be no spiritual fog in here this morning. I talked to our member ken drake up in central maine this morning where it's 16 degrees so you're a little frog you're still way ahead of the game and besides. Welcome. Welcome this sunday morning to the unitarian universalist of fellow fellowship of vero beach we are so pleased you've chosen. To begin your day with us here. We are congregation as the graphic set of open mine. Loving hearts and helping hands. People seeking to become our best individual cells even as together as a religious community. We work to make this world a better and kinder place. And please know you're welcome precisely as you come to us this morning. What are you were young or old gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. What do you have a ged or a phd whether you're a visitor with us this morning or have been coming for decades. Whether you were feeling absolutely on top of the world this morning. Or down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We welcome you in all of your particularity and charm. We hope you'll find something here this morning. In this service that is meaningful enriching. I think you'll find something here that nourishes your spirit and feeds your soul and gives you renew joy and energy and purpose for the living life in the days ahead. The big they enjoyed their. These words come from protestant. And minister fredrik bikaner. Who wrote. It is the first day because it has never been. 44. And it is the last cuz it will never be again. Sofia live. Today. Of your life. What's to be done. Follow your feet. Put on the coffee start the orange juice the bacon. Think about the work. Of your hands. Lyrics of the day. We are all architects of each day. As you can tell from the quote at the top of the order service my theme today is happiness and misery i just love this quote why should i be happy. Were there so many beautiful things. To be miserable. I don't know who said it i even googled it no no sorcerer credit. So. Call so much happiness. Listen to her poem. And the silence that will follow a ring a bell to end our. meditate. So much happy. It's difficult to know what to do. With so much happiness. With sadness there's something to rub up against the wall. To tend with lotion and claude. When the world falls in around you. I do have pieces to pick up something to hold in your hand like a ticket stub or chain. But happiness. It doesn't need you. To hold it down it doesn't need anything. Glands 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. Everything has a life of its own. If two could wake up filled with possibilities of. Coffee cake. Ripe. Peaches. And love even the floor which needs to be swept. The soiled linens. And scratch. Records. Since there is no place large enough to contain so much happiness. You shrug. You raise your hands and it floats out of you. Into everything you. You are not responsive. You take no credit. As the night sky takes no credit for the moon. But continues to hold it. And share it. And then that way. Be known. Last year as i'm sure you all remember. I preached the blockbuster sermon series on the seven habits of happy people based on recent happiness research. About some of the qualities at our disposal that make for human contentment. From social scientists at harvard and yale another places. Because i think these habits that they identified as so important. To our happiness and our satisfaction in life i wanted to quickly remind you about them and here they are projected above the 7 habits of happy people. And let me just say an explanatory word about each of these seven habits relationships. Caring. Fitness. Flow. Spiritual engagement strengths and virtues. And positive mindset first relationship. Express your heart. People that were more close friendships are happier than those who are isolated. It doesn't seem to matter if we have a large network. relationships are not. What seems to make a difference. Is if and how often we cooperate and activities. And share our personal feelings. With friends and relatives. You can't be happy. Caring. Cultivate kindness. People who volunteer or simply care for others on a consistent basis. Seem to be happier and less depressed. Although karen can involve volunteering as part of an organized group or club. It can be as simple as reaching out to a colleague of co-worker a classmate or neighbor. Who looks lonely. Or is struggling. With an issue. Here's one of my favorites. Keep moving. Regular exercise has long been associated with improved mental well-being. And a lower incidence of. Multiple studies of the relationship between exercise and depression reveal. That those who regularly exercise experience much higher levels of happiness and satisfaction. In their lives. Then those who are 70. Fourth something called slow. If we are deeply involved in trying to reach your goal. For the activities that is challenging. Well suited to our skills. We experienced a joyful state called flow. Which leads to personal satisfaction. What happens when we quote-unquote get in the zone. And achieve concentrated energized focus. And engagement. With whatever we are doing a key piece of that isn't has to be. Spiritual engagement and meaning. Discover meaning studies demonstrate a close link between spiritual and religious practice. And happiness. Spirituality is closely related. Discovery of greater meaning in our lives. Through the meaningful life. Discover a deeper kind. Of happiness. 6. Strengths and virtues. I like that little kid. Discover and use your strength. The happiest people are those that have discovered their unique strengths such as. Persistence and critical thinking. And virtues such as humanity. And use those strengths and virtues for a purpose. That is greater than their own personal goals and that relates to what i'm talking about. And 7 positive mindset. Simply optimism. Mindfulness and gratitude. Treasure gratitude mindfulness and hope. Gratitude mindfulness and help in their lives. Have a greater positive emotion a greater sense of belonging. And lower influences in their lives of. Stress. Gratitude and optimism which related. Are particularly a key. 2 greater. Satisfaction in life. Remind you that my sermon series about those seven. A helpful habit is on our congregations website under recent sermon. Just underneath my picture on the homepage. I'm so if you're interested you can go to this address. And just scroll back to october. A2013 and you'll find the sermons in the next year or so of all the video format. But. This morning i begin a different. Yet curiously complementary sermon series on. Surefire ways to make yourself miserable. For just i think as they're clearly our habits which happy people develop. To make their lives works of joy there also i think several surefire absolute fail safe way. That any of us can make ourselves. With these shadow or negative habits. Are what these a shadow or negative habits are what i want to explore with a number of. Sermons over the coming months. Now i trust that is obvious to all of you that just as i hope. You will regularly in purposely learn to cultivate. Those habits of happy people that i just put up. I also hope we will develop the life skills. Predilections. Too diligently avoid. At the statue. Those your fire and pesky ways. Which we human beings. Make ourselves miserable by alright. We're finally ready for this morning's surefire way to make yourself miserable. Can anybody guess you're my title don't flatter yourself mary what that is all the gay men in the audience should know what it is. Jim what don't let finish this gym finish this line for me. Don't flatter yourself mary. Cuz it's not all about you cuz it's not all about you. Right. Now the reason just saying is frequently used. Is that there are more than a few gay males were what the community call drama queen. A drama queen for those of you don't know. Is a self-absorbed guy often fussy demonstrative in loud. The world revolves just around him. And so he's always going on and on and on to anyone who will listen about how difficult the world and relationships are. For him. And guess what only him. As i'm sure you are not forbetterorworse restricted to the gay. Male community. Self-absorbed people who think that the world should singularly revolve around them and their needs can be found everywhere. Regardless of sexual orientation. Ray's age national background or economic or social standing. Drama queens are everywhere. No. I'm not here talking so much about what is understood in psychological source. Narcissistic. Personality disorder. Here is how psychology today magazine described. Narcissistic personality disorder. Individuals with narcissistic personality disorder generally. This condition is characterized by a lack of ability to empathize with others. And the desire to keep the focus on themselves at all times. Narcissistic personality disorder. Involves arrogant behavior. A lack of empathy for other people. And a need for admiration all of which must be consistently evidence. At work and in relationship. Next slide. People who are narcissistic are frequently described as cocky. Self-centered manipulative and demanding. Narcissist tend to have. High self-esteem however. Narcissism is not the same thing as self. People who have high self-esteem are often. Humble. Where is narcissus. Rarely are. And then it ends the latest evidence. Narcissist. Are actually secure. Or grandiose. At both. Levels. No. Who are unfortunate enough to be plagued with narcissistic personality disorder. I have known a few in my day. As i'm sure many of you have i know some of your thinking about family members and friends and neighbors. For whom joseph. And coworkers. Pathological narcissist are not only unpleasant to interact with. They're also in the end usually unhappy p. They're ultimately unhappy because their obsession and demand of concentrating everything on life. Exclusively on themselves. Actually makes it impossible for them to have healthy. Loving. Add reciprocal relationships with others and those they become. Increasingly isolated and alone. As one leading psychologist puts it. Extreme narcissist n2b persons. Remove. Toward eventually cutting off others. And becoming emotionally isolate. This morning i'm not really talking about narcissistic personality disorder. A spiritually and emotionally and psychologically dangerous as that is. What i'm focused on and honestly i think many more of you will recognize this habit from your own life. And from eliza people you know and love. Is get ready for this. The veldt on shower. Or have it. I'm taking almost everything personally in your life. No. The highfalutin the world word belltown show. Thomas from two simple german roots or words. Well felt meaning world and. Down meaning you. Or outlook self beltone shown is just a fancy way of saying. Did you have a basic worldview. About how the world in life works and you filter all of your experience. Ruth at belltown show. Belltown channel is a comprehensive worldview. Fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society. Encompassing the entirety of the individuals or societies knowledge. And point of view so it's a very powerful thing. If you see the world only in one belt on town. Everything is interpreted. Paranoid. Glorious weather. So. What do i mean by the veldt on sound or habit of taking. Almost everything personally in your life. If you live everyday. As if life and other person. Are solely here to make you happy. Entering you satisfaction in your life. Then you are as big spiritual and emotional trouble. Trust me. You're in big trouble because mary the truth is life isn't all about you. If you move through your days take everything personally. And therefore therefore come to resent and take offense every time someone or something doesn't precisely go your way. You will make yourself. Perfect. So let me acknowledge right off the bat hear that all of us by natural necessity as human person. And are what. We will call self-referencing creatures. We human being. Irregularly and of natural this necessity. Self. Referencing creatures i mean think about it. The only way any of us can take in the world and process and make sense of what happens to us. As an individual is through our own direct an idiosyncratic. Human experience. So when we meet for example our first grandchild for the first time. The joy and delight we feel is uniquely ours. And similarly when we get a nasty case of the flu. We are the only ones who know the misery and unpleasantness. No matter how sympathetic. Others baby. Florida that's slow recovery to hell from the flu is ours to suffer alone so of course. All of us are selfishly. Concerned about how life and relationships. Are going just for us. That's only natural. But what i'm talking about this morning. Is the danger of habitually taking everything. That happens to you. Personally. Let me get a couple of quick examples. Beginning with the little and the easy stuff. Let's say you're out driving on interstate 95 and there's a construction zone that has traffic backed up for several miles. Justice you approached the point where the two lanes merge into one the driver in the lane next to you. Suddenly bumps and squeezes i had just enough to cut you off. Baby and you bang the steering wheel allowed lie and say you're see the way that jerk cut me off. No i'm not saying he's not a jerk. He or she may well be behind a jerk. Will never know. But what i can say is rather than view this moment of driving as a personal. And purposeful upfront. Just to you better cut me off. You could just relax and assume that the other driver may simply have been merging into one lane as best. Here she knew how to. Whether we whenever we drive an automobile it is helpful to remember that we share the road with countless other independent drivers. Summer pool. Negotiate traffic pattern precisely the way we wish. Or think is fair or best. And will be a lot happier. And have much lower blood pressure. If we don't take every traffic situation. As a personal affront. Ohrinsel. Let me give a second. Last week my wonderful and somewhat quirky nephew. And his wife from port washington wisconsin. Announce by blast email to the family that they would not be attending. Our annual alexander clan fourth of july reunions wisconsin i hold up at our home. In the adirondacks. His email said they were choosing instead to attend oh dear god a grateful dead concert in another part of the country. There is a pretty strong unwritten expectation in my family that everyone will make a real effort to gather. For this wonderful family blowout accountant i host every 4th of july. And i will admit that when i got his email i was disappointed by his. I suppose that if i were inclined to quote on take this personally and be a drama queen. I could have shot back and indignant letter or email there are dozen such emails in and landers every week. Ruined my summer. I could have written email back to ryan telling him that they are letting us down and ruining our summer. But the truth is and thank god. I understand this. The truth is my nephew and his wife were not put on this earth to meet my expectations. Or needs or what. Their choice as die hard rock music fans is completely understandable and legitimate. And i'll see them next summer on the 4th of july god willing. My point is it would be monumentally stupid and unproductive for me to take. Their decision personal. Fortis simply a life choice to which they are entitled. And godless. And so it should be with so much of the other little stuff in life. When we have to deal with the motor vehicle department or social security. Who are seemingly the person making things absolutely as difficult as they possibly could for no reason. Or when we're struggling in a busy publix which i was in one this weekend everybody seems to be in my way. It was like personally why are you in my way. I want to grab some hamburger why are you standing in front of that hamburger for 3 minutes out of my way. Because i don't take this personally i don't have that reaction. When we were in a hurry to get home for dinner and repeatedly gets stuck in traffic. When someone in our family doesn't give us the kind of attention. We think we deserve. With all this little stuff. In life. Learning not to take everything personally. Helps us to move there are days with much less frustration. Anger and resentment because the truth is. The most of what stymies and frustrates us in life is in the end. Not really about us personally. But rather reflects more about how life. And other people just. Stumbleine karina had. Margiela's. It stumbles and fumbles its way. And so it is my friends. All the really big stuff. As your minister i'm obliged to tell you the truth. Most of the really big stuff. In life. We find really differ. And really grieve. And really maddening. Is also not in the end. Personally. Let me give an example for my own inner. Paul gordon was one of my very best friends in life his widow. And son and grandchildren were here with us last. Sunday. Counseled me last week. Paul was a. Successful veterinarian a superb athlete. For decades. He and i ran together. A loving husband and doting father. Just an all-around great guy that countless people adored and admired. But then suddenly in his 57th year of life when he was clearly in his prime. Paul was diagnosed with a rare aggressive cancer growing in his back a large tumor. Wrapped pernicious lie around his spine. The doctors were honest. With paul from the get-go about his chances of. The cancer they told him would kill him within five years. Like any smart life loving guy paul did everything he could. To resist this cancer. Scrupulously followed the regimen treatment at sloan-kettering in manhattan. He improved his diet and exercise as best i could and kept text. Meanwhile he lovingly tended to his business. His family. And his friends. He kept a positive upbeat attitude and refuse. Self-pity. Ensure he gave us a good fight. But as is the way so often. After five years indeed the cancer did spread throughout his body and overwhelmed him. At the age of 6. What i will never forget about paul going through the stuff. Final chapter. This life. Is his refusal. His absolute psychological and spiritual. Refusal to. Any of this. He would regularly say to me and to the many others around him. But he was sick simple because of the bad luck of a draw. From life's random deck of. Hey scott you would say to me. There it is. Some people get cancer. And one of those some people is me. End of story. I believe that my friend my friend paul's repeated refusal to take his illness. As a personal affront. As a personal injustice. Helped him not only to emotionally and spiritually stay in the game of his life. For as long as he could. It also helps them to live longer. And with more purpose and joy than anyone. Imagine. Just seems like a good time to share one of my favorite quotes. George. Bernard shaw the 20th century. Who wrote. This is the true joy in life. Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature. Instead of a feverish. Selfish little claude of ailments. Grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy i have spoken my sermon. He is precisely right. The world and other people even those close to you are not here to devote themselves to your happiness and satisfaction and thinking that they are is a pathway to misery for you. Let me tell a very different story. With a different ending. Involving two different people i knew at the same time i knew my friend. In the last conjugation i served for 12 years the river road. Uu congregation in bethesda maryland. There was a couple. They happened to be two women but that has no bearing on the story. There was a couple who every time something difficult or unpleasant happened to them and i will grant you. They did seem to have more than their share of trouble. In their lives. But every time something difficult or unpleasant happened to them. They immediately persuaded each other in a. Kind of tight circle. Victimhood and despair. That it was because life or other people were out to get them. Particular. When one of them lost her job for example it was because all her co-workers were out to get. When one of them got sick it was because life was once again picking on them. When one of them had a career stall it was because others were purposely standing. In her way. Whenever a friend disappointed or failed them it was always on purpose. And on and on and on and on with the ways they did take everything personally. Again. Again. And guess what. They were perfectly. And angry. And resentful toward life. All the people. Their habit of taking everything personally literally poisoned their lives. Darkened their days and they were among the most tragic and unhappy people. I have ever known and the system was in pain. Not. Play them. To a different belt ocho. Let me see all this just a little differently. If you were in the habit of taking everything personally. Whenever difficult or unpleasant or frustrating thing comes your way. Then the first question on your lips is probably. Why me oh lord why me. But because difficult and unpleasant and frustrating stuff randomly comes into all our lives eventually. Perhaps the better and wiser question is. Why not me. Why should i think myself exempt. From life's complicated and rotten stuff. Why indeed. Spiritually and emotionally should any of us thing. We are exempt. From our measure of difficulty. One of the most important thing. I think to learn about life on this earth. And learn it early. Is that some of what happens to you. Is not fair or reasonable or. Some of what happens to us during our lives. Is random. And unpredictable yes and of course not to our liking. In this world we are not promised the free and easy ride. Nor are we doomed to a life of misery or hurt. But the point here. Is it if we take everything that happens to us personally. Including the really hard stuff. We will inevitably come to resent life. Or god. Or others. And that's a recipe. Alright. It's time for me to wrap up this morning. I want to sum up what i've tried to say this morning again and seminary. 45 years ago joseph firefly. Unless professor. So i'm just when i reach the point where i'm telling you what i told you. Human beings are naturally self-referencing creatures of course we care about our individual stories in a quote on quote. Personal way. Similarly as individuals. When difficulties and hardships come our way that's only natural. But the only way to successfully navigate life's complicated ups and down. An inevitable hardships is to avoid taking everything. That happens to you person. Because. In the end life really isn't about you. Mary. Life. It's amazing complicated. Serious and often random roadshow. The heather's cast you on center stage. Singing the lead 24/7. And if you think it is. If you think life is all about you 24/7 then you are sure to make yourself. Misery. Please dear friend. Learn how to spiritually step back from your own life. And see the big picture. For happiness awaits those. Who take a humble place. In the grand scheme of things. And do not imagine themselves. Epicenter. Of creation. If i have ever said anything wise your to you. Don't know what it would. I leave you with the words i assume of a song. Written by irving berlin. Taking stock of what i have. Edwin i haven't. What do i find. The things i got will keep me satisfied. Checking up on what i've got and what i haven't what do i find. A healthy balance. Got no mansion. Got no yacht. Still i'm happy with what i've got. I got the sun in the morning in the moon at night. Sunshine give me the milky way. Got no checkbooks got no bags. Still i like to express my thing. I got the son of the morning. Abood at night. And with the son of the morning. And the mood light. I'm alright.

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2014Sep28Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. And welcome to what i hope will be. Care on the treasure coast. Alright that maybe god will listen to us or whoever's in charge of such things. Welcome to a soggy treasure coast. Terry universalist fellowship. To begin your sunday with us. Nation loving hearts and helping hands people seeking. Even as together we work. To build a better world. And please know you are welcome just as you come to us with all your quirks. Whether you are straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity with you. Have a ged or a phd. Whether you've been coming here for decades or brand new to us this morning. Whether you are feeling in top of the world or down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We're glad you're with us this morning. We hope you'll find our service. Meaningful and enriching you will find something here this morning. The feeds your soul and nourishes your spirit and gives you a new droid and purpose. For the living of life in the days ahead. Are opening words this morning come from universal list ministers of the 20th century. The reverend doctor. We summon ourselves this hour from the demands and the delight of the daily round floors from the. From all uncompleted and not yet started. From the unholy the unresolved. We submit ourselves to our to attend. Vision. Of peace and justice of clement and hell. And devotion. Of the lovely and the holy. Of who we are. And what we can do. We summon the power of tradition. And the exhilaration of newness. The wisdom of the ages. And the knowing of the very young. Summon beauty eloquent poetry. Music. And to be the bearers of our dreams heart dimensions of life. In this place of holiness. And help. Make a project of your physical health and i just want to ask you about that. Well it wasn't like. Overnight thing it was something that took some time and. I joined the local gym. As some of you know from my shameless. Facebook posts. Planet fitness. I did some. Looking back i joined the planet fitness in february of 2012. I didn't start going until that august. So i am the king of procrastination. But even with that. That's how i looked. I went to puerto rico that was in a rainforest. And i remember walking through the rainforest and it was up and down. I was just out of breath and mike took that picture. Before what i thought i was going to die. And it turns out to be kind of like a before picture cuz soon after that i started getting serious with my program. You're always inspired by my father who passed away and. Going on there could be 33 years. Wednesday. And he was. Yeah walking everyday is not exactly kind of gun diagnosed. He couldn't finish his. His walk every every morning he'd be walking honey was in really good shape then. Life was very good and still is and i just wanted more of it. But it wasn't like an overall burning bush type of event to me was. It was something i got to get going and got to get going i got you know one morning i can't remember but i just got going. Nation of diet and exercise with diet and exercise. I was on blood high blood pressure which anymore. And you know other things cholesterol that's not something i have to medicate myself for anymore and i'm really kind of like don't want to take pills i know that they're out there. I'm open to to take medication but i really try to avoid it. Well the rewards if i mean it's not just. Ditto. Feeling good and. Looking. That's it. That's vanity. There's a place in my life for that it's it's feeling good inside it it's connecting with other people that are also taken. But you know it. It's not. It it's a wholeness of my my life i i feel like. Everyday is a good day but i have balance to i mean. I'm involved with you know theater i have two productions now and i had this thing called work that gets in the way of that every once awhile. In order to have time for other things too. Exercise. I'll leave at 4:30 and 2 hours home. What are the things people say to me is i just i just can't. Well i can only speak from my own personal experience i don't try to tell people what they should do but. Start my date earlier in order to get the time and if i don't get it done in the morning i tend to my day gets busy and i don't have the time. Now find excuses and quite frankly my energy level as you know i didn't have anything else to do i would work out and do my stuff in in the afternoon cuz i think that my energy level is best. But i just don't get to it if i wait. And so i do it in the morning and i've done it i've done in the morning for the last. 3 years. And i feel like that's the time that i don't get a good workout in the morning but i get to work out. And sometimes it's not about how good the workout is it's just getting through the doors. Maybe it's just a 20-minute treadmill. I said about 40 minutes in that three and a half miles an hour instead of 5 miles an hour or maybe it's just you know working on certain parts of my body and not the whole. It's something getting through the doors. Steel salesman in racine wisconsin. Every breakfast every morning after breakfast before work they walked three miles and every afternoon at 1:30 he swam for 45 minutes. And he lived. Taking care of your body is is the word routine. It has to be part of your routine you brush your teeth to go to the bathroom take a shower. Just do it. Thank you. In addition to his many obvious talents your minister is a superb mind reader. Would you like me to prove it. Although all right although has said this to me this morning i am certain that more than a few of you are thinking. Right now something that runs along these lines. Why in the world on a perfectly dental and relax sunday morning that i bother to get out of my comfortable bed. Take a shower. Weight of a cross-country bike riding minister told me about not taking sufficient what was i thinking. Am i right. Okay already. So let me at the outset try to put you at least a little bit and use this morning. On this sunday when i talk about the obvious and important connection between. As much care as you can of your physical health. And achieving personal happiness and well-being. Scolding or making you feel shameful or guilty is not what i have in mind. This morning i'll be giving the last installment of my year-long sermon series about the seven habits of happy people. Identified by a team directed by doctor paul the saint. Harvard-educated psychiatrist. Relying heavily on the groundbreaking work of positive. Psychologist pioneer dr. martens. This team suggested. Identified. Zathura 7. Fundamental dimensions to our individual lies with. If properly nourished and cultivated will lead to a greater sense of happiness. And well-being throughout our lives and i've asked if those be projected there they are. The over the long-term affair live. Lead to well-being. This morning about health and fitness. The all-important habit of cultivating fitness & wellness in your life. I want to talk briefly about the overview of what they of what the psychologist found. About well-being and happiness. When positive psychologists talk about happiness. The happy face theory of happiness. Which focuses on when we are in an exceptionally cheerful or buoyant. Those times when full of laughter and everything goes right that's not what they're talking about these sort of peak moments of merriment. This requires a steady stream of moments of glee. The lights up mr. smiley face here. But the experts to writing about sustained happiness. And well-being suggest that. If these are the flashy places you were looking for contentment and joy. You are looking for love in all the wrong places as the old song goes. Happiness the kind of sustainable well-being and long-term life satisfaction. That has the power to make our lives glow with contentment. Is like the hot rush of momentary pleasure you feel. If you win the lottery. Or skydiving plane at 10000 feet like. Claudio jimenez. Or even watch your home team win a national championship. The kind of happiness and well-being has the power to really make our lives. Works of sustainable joy and warmth. It's like the low hum. Of a study satisfaction. The quietly arises out of these ordinary and yet terribly important aspects of our daily living at 5 rises out of relationship. Caring and service and positive mindset grateful and optimistic. Getting into the flow of your life. Spiritual engagement strengths and virtues and today's. Topic. Health. Again what the positive psychologists are saying in this makes perfect sense to me. Is that a sustainable happiness. Is a quiet and honest intentions quality. Step steel gently into our lives. As the long-term result. Of wisely and purposely tending. To these things that really matter it's not a flash-in-the-pan kind of thing. So all this then brings me finally to today's important. And yet sometimes uncomfortable and guilt inducing topic. The real tangible benefits of regularly pay. Purposeful attention. As jim daly.. To your own physical health and wellness. I'm sure that everyone of you in this room this morning no zarley suspect. That taking care of your own body as best you can. Regardless of age and physical condition. Contributes greatly to our happiness and our well-being. As the authors of this study on happiness report quote. In conclusion. There's a great deal of evidence that getting adequate exercise. Proper diet. And sufficient sleep. Are associated with improved mental well-being. And a lesser incidence of depressive symptoms unquote. Just all of course makes logical sense. And we've heard over and over again from health experts. About the importance of exercise. Diet and sleep. How many times has agreements when someone quotes american writer augusten burroughs who wants wisely road. When you have your health. You have everything. And when you do not have your health. Nothing else. Obviously without good physical health happiness can be a very elusive thing. But one very curious and important open question of the study of the happiness expert. They admit they don't know. Weather taking percocet. Leads to happiness or whether people are already predisposed to happiness are more likely to be the exercisers they don't know. The positive psychologists are sure that physical and emotional wellness. Are positively correlated with one another. But they don't know which comes first to happy people exercise naturally. Or are exercisers made happy. By exercising and watching their die. This uncertainty may be bad news for chronically unhappy people. Because the possibility exists that the reason unhappy people have poor physical health. Is it because they're fine nature not likely to take care of. What does curiosity aside. We do not know as countless studies confirm beyond any reasonable doubt. We do know we do know. The people exercise regularly eat wisely. Get sufficient sleep are significantly more likely. To experience happiness and contentment in their living it doesn't necessarily mean they'll live any longer. But they'll be happier. If you want to be happier and more content in your life. To exercise frequently. Eat right and get plenty of sleep. It really appears. To be just that simple. But let me move on to another very obvious and important truth about happiness and hell. No matter how purposeful or discipline we are about our personal wellness habit. None of us in the end. Is immune from the stress and unhappiness that can come. From illness. Disease disability and of course. Knowing that we are dying. I'm sure most of you have known conscientious people. Who exercise regularly a trike got plenty of sleep. Became tragically. Sick or disabled or died. Before they were supposed to. A bit of help myself i always chuckle to myself when i see the popular bumper sticker that reads eat right exercise and die anyway. There is well there is truth to that. So i suspect i'm not regular exercises don't get enough sleep and don't eat right but that's another subject for another day. What makes the bumper sticker funny is the unavoidable truth. Scrupulously taking care of your body. Does not exempt you. Attitudes of nature. Statistically it makes you more likely to be healthy but it doesn't make you immune. From these disaster. What happened. Guarantees either happiness or longevity. But that difficult fact acknowledged it must immediately be set again. Regularly doing everything you can to take care of your body and your personal hell. Is essential if you're going to maximize whatever contentment and happiness. Is to be yours. And one more important curiosity about happiness and health if i might. One study i read in preparing the foreman. Being seriously ill or significantly disabled. Or even close to death does not necessarily mean. You will be unhappy. Over the course of my long history i have known more than a few amazing people. Who are unfortunate enough to be struggling with a terrible illness or disability and yet pretty darn happy. Unsatisfied with their life anyone like this through a terrible thing but they're still well they're they're happy in their they have well-being. Even. That's a deal with stephen. Clearly having your body and some sort of significant way fail you. Does not mean you were doomed to depression and unhappiness. I see people all the time in my work. Who i guess by sheer force. Of willing spirit are able to surmount physical difficulty. And maintain a genuine contentment and satisfaction with their lies i've told you the story before. Every morning to work and i've always passed this guy. Completely paralyzed. To be able to get out of exercise he worked around his disability. To be a happy. Guy. So what i'm affirming here this morning is you don't have to have a perfect body. Or perfect. Help to be happy and that's very important to remember. But with all these caveats and curiosity. There is still avoiding the fact that most of us will do ourselves. And emotional and spiritual. Favor. By exercising regularly eating right and getting enough sleep not to mention brushing. If you want to live the fullest and best life possible. There's really no excuse for neglecting the very real health needs. Of your body. When it comes to your health of your body. The nike slogan which gym quoted says it all just. Do it. And topping the list of self-care habits. Americans are too likely to neglect in their lives is. You guessed it. You knew. Of all the things. Exercise. Is thing. That we do.. I know most of you like most modern americans are working at eating better. I'm getting enough sleep is not a challenge. For most of us. But the truth is that a significant number of us in this congregation. And you know who you are. I need the exercise. To keep our bodies fit and our spirits high. Hang in there with me for a few minutes more for one about to say about exercise. Is not a skull it is just a friendly reminder. The federal government used to say. Exercise. Three or four times a week. For just 20 minutes. That comes to a little more than an hour's exercise a week the federal government used to say. To maintain good physical health. But lately all the experts on our bodies and bodily health. Up the exercise antillana. They now say the minimum. You should exercise 150 minutes. Hours of vigorous or moderate aerobic activity. Spread out over a week. And a lot of the experts are now saying you really needed one hour every day 7 days a week. To this party of yours. It needs a run for its money. Everyday. In addition. They recommend strength training and if you don't know what strength training is going to go online and take a look at it. Push back exercises with a machine or against a wall. It forces the muscles to grow it. Depends all the addressing it's happening. Very little strength training 10 to 15 minutes at a gym every day is enough. To undo the vicissitudes of aging strength training. Is very important because. It counteracts skeletal muscular atrophy the loss of muscle mass. Edit it a stimulate strength training does the growth mechanism within the bones and the muscles. Here is how the mayo clinic. Describes the new exercise. And fitness standards. Moderate aerobic exercise includes brisk walking. Biking. Swimming. Swimming ellen. Vigorous aerobic exercise include such activities as running. Or aerobic dancing. Strength training mayo clinic says. Can include the use of machines or activities such as a rock climbing rock climbing. Or heavy gardening. As a general goal aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity everyday. And if you want to lose weight or mute meet specific fitness goals. You may need to exercise more. You can achieve more health benefits including. Weight loss if you ramp up your exercise. To 300 minutes a week in other words 45 minutes a day. You all know about the widely-reported obesity epidemic that we are experiencing in these united states. And how many americans both children and adults. Are getting heavier. And heavier every year. It also that obviously has epidemic has led to the. Reversal of longevity rates with americans are now starting to die or earlier. But did you know what the nation and it's absolutely flabbergasted. Listening to npr of. All things considered one evening in the adirondacks. Did you know. Americans are not eating any more than we ever did. It's true. Nashville public radio reports that the calorie intake of the average american. Has stayed exactly the same from the 80s until now. What is different. Isn't in 1988 only 10% of americans reported. That they essentially did little or no physical activity in their leisure hours whereas today. We are sedimentary. We don't do anything. To exercise our bodies. The report report that american workers who now sit in front of computer terminals all that used to be a. We are much more sudden terry as a people than we used to be and that is what's causing us to get bigger and bigger. The sad truth is a precious few of us. Are getting anywhere near the amount of exercise our bodies want and need. The us public health service says it just 20% of americans. Exercise enough to get any cardiovascular benefits. With kids today and you've all seen the news about and you see obese children all over our streets here. The numbers are even worse. As new york times health writer james brody had noted. The average american spends more time showering. Been working out. The bottom line here is it as a people we americans are exercising our bodies less and less and we're getting well. Fatter and fatter. But here's the good news. No matter what your chronological age. And no matter what your physical challenges or disabilities or limitations you can find. Appropriate and beneficial exercise. To engage on a daily basis that will not only maximize the health of whatever body you have. But lift your emotions. And your contentment as well. For most of us is beneficial exercise can be accomplished in fairly simple ways. Walking every morning after breakfast through your neighborhood. Biking on the sidewalk or bike lane that runs along a1a pretty safe. Spite of the terrible tragedy that happened last night on on the 17th street bridge. Bike paths that the poor kitty was. If i drunk driver last night friday night. Inverse simple ways swimming in a local pool dancing. At a local studio going to a neighborhood gym and doing a few repetitions. I know strength training machine. Participating in the wonderful yoga class we have here every wednesday morning at 10. Even gardening in your own backyard can be significant exercise. If you have significant physical limitations or pain issues. You will obviously want to consult your doctor about what kinds of physical activity would beneficial aqua aerobics free sample. Is excellent for people with real disability issues their aquarobic programs all over the city. We're at the waterholes your body and suspension if you have. Joint and muscle issues. There are many many many ways. To exercise. 18 people confined to wheelchairs or two other wheelchairs. With passive resistance machines at the gym. I told you about my own father who after a massive coronary just put it into his routine. My point here is that for almost all of us. If we want to exercise. There are methods and modalities that will fit our bodies. Our abilities are limitations. And even more important our preferences. I can no longer do a stationary bike for more than 5 minutes so i can. Jump off a bridge. I have to be outdoors. I hate those. But i found my way and my way is biking to this beautiful county. And i might as well right here address the biggest and most frequent visitors excuse gym and i've already talked about it. People just say i just don't have the time. I'm just too busy my job. Retirements busy my job's to import. What i sometimes say in response to this excuse because i know how high the stakes are. In terms of everyone's health and well-being is. I said come on my friend. What you really mean. Is you choose not to set aside sufficient. Time for. The truth is we human being. Manage to find the time in our lives. For everything that is really important. What you face is not a problem of too little time. You face a problem. Of the wrong priority. I'm usually afraid channel guy but i do sometimes.. Look. As i've already acknowledged this morning course in complete control of our personal health. And well-being. Our bodies no matter how diligently are well we care for them. Are still vulnerable to so many diseases and disabilities especially as we get older. But that was also be acknowledged. Each one of us has a great deal of control. Over. And responsibility for. The fitness and health of our bodies. The point i tried to make you this morning as gently as a physical fitness nut can. Is it each of us has the free will. And the capacity to take maximum good care. Of whatever body we have. Making sure that they get regularly exercise they want a run for their money. Wholesome food. Restorative rest. Tearing. Amazing bodies. And maximizing our own personal health and fitness. We not only help to ensure as long and productive life as we can have. But a happy one as well. And i asked enclosing what could be more important. And deserving of your attention. And your bike crazy minister says to you. Amen. I leave you with this thought. We live we are elected now by time. Out of many. To use the sunlight now. Just stand up under the sun upon the earth then break the silence with a voice of praise open the door that opens toward the skype rest of the world. For we live. And we are elected. Now. Fight time. Healthy week. I meant.

uufvb_org

2013Mar03Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. And welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach i hope you enjoy our lounge lighting this morning. Or maybe it's for an evensong service our powers about half out this morning in the sanctuary. We can see each other still. And i'm so glad that you fall. To be with us this morning no please if you are welcome. Just as you come to us. Whether you were young or old. Gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you're feeling on top of the world this morning or down in the dumps or somewhere in between know that you are welcome just. You come to us. In all of your particularity and need. We hope you will find the service this morning meaningful and enriching. And then you will find something here this morning. The nurse is your spirit and feeds your soul. And gives you renewed energy. For the living of life in the days ahead. An hour opening words. Gordon mckeeman. We summon ourselves the tower from the demands of july. Of the daily round. From the dirty dishes and wax floors. From the on mowed grass and untrimmed. From all the incompleteness and not yet started. From the on hallway and the unresolved. We submit ourselves to attend. To our vision. Of peace and justice of peace and health. Of delight and devotion of the lovely and holy of who we are and what we can do. We summon the power of tradition. Wisdom of the ages and knowing of the very young. We summon beauty eloquence poetry music. To be the bearers of our dreams we would open our eyes. Ears are mine. Heart. Dimensions of life. We rejoice in the manifold promises and possibilities of this out. How did i ever find readings. Before the internet. I went looking because of my theme today i googled life is a feast. And this blog came up from food writer jamie schiller. It's a reflection about the premature. Death. Of her beloved brother michael. At age 53. It's a little longer than usual. Enjoy this reading. And the silence that will follow treated as a meditation. She right. Life is truly a feast. A huge smorgasbord. Spread out before us as far as the eye can see a multitude of good things. Free for the taking. Some foods tempt us with a lowering aroma. The scent wafting up from the plate and swirling around our head or arranged on the plate gorgeous to look at delectable treats promising a moment. Of honor pleasure week. Stand before the spread plate and hand hovering over each and every morsel. To taste savor enjoy. Knowing full well that we must pick and choose. Understanding that there is too much on the table for any one person to rationally. Sanely enjoy so we are. So hungry so excited ready to grab. Live life at its fullest. Some things are sweet. Like a huge dessert buffet covered with cakes and bonbon chocolate fountains and daisy pettifor. Graced with swags and shiny glazes. Filled with smooth creams or dazzling us with spun-sugar beauty. Life can be oh so sweet. Babies born. Summer vacations in the sunshine. Running barefoot on the beach. Snuggling up in socks and sweaters in front of a blazing fire. Sharing laughter and secrets. With best friends. We lick our fingers. Thai contented blissfully wishing. That we can turn to this ambrosial banquet every morning. And feast only on what makes us truly happy. Get as we walk along the edge of the slushious feast. And glance at 1. Offering after another trying to decide we know that although we have visions of joyous. Festivity and living forever on the good things life has to offer we know. Deep in our souls that we cannot always stand. At the salad at the desert bar. We have to admit. At the feast that his life is not always laden. With candy. And cakes. And sports poised above each dish we must not take our chances risk the bad in order. To taste the good. Some things are sour. Popped into our mouths luck's lips pucker. And we jump back and surprise the tart not quite. Balance out with enough. Sweet. The fall not cushion with enough whipped cream. Friendships gone bad. Sing sad goodbyes. Being pushed around. By the less than kind. The less. 10 sweet. Or. Spicy hot and exotic. The far-off lands in hidden mysteries. Excitement and adventure although our eyes met water. These are tears mingled with pleasure. Foreign countries only dreamed. Or the hot rush of love at first sight. Gobbles up like so many curry's. Gene's deep-fried actriz and seafood creole over rice. Savory salty like. Salt lake city water washing over us it could be warm and soothing like hot pretzels. Eating on the boardwalk or a crock pot full of steaming homemade stew. Comforting us at a rainy day but it could be cold also. The waves pounding on the beach clouds rushing. Through the sky for telling a storm. We dive below the surface. And come up choking on a mouthful of salty water. Like. So many tears. The dark. Wrapping around us. We struggle. Breathe. The salt taste lingering as we paddled toward the shore. Nothing. Drastic. Nothing we won't forget once we light the bonfire. The salty taste of roasting. Sausages. Brings the smiles back. And sometimes. She goes on with b. Into a delicacy that looks promising only to discover too late. A bitterness. Hidden there. Eyes watering we desperately grab a napkin. Thinking only to spit it out banishing it from our memory is quick as we get rid of the bad taste in our mouth. Hoping no one is watching. Or. Dry bone dry and brittle turning to ashes in our mouths. Wishing we had never come. We wonder at how we could have been taken in. Who could have played such a nasty trick. Our hearts. Breaking with sadness. Yet. Furious. Cat being burned. Athene tempted. By the scrumptious first course. Only to push our plate away from us. In disgust. Or in anger. And hurt. And then schiller ends this reflection on the premature death of. All we can hope in life. Is that the bitter is mingled. With the sweet. A sad smile on her lips. Happy memories making the bitter ones. Easier to swallow. The sweet taste. Lingering. Life. Is bittersweet. Well this morning. I continue my sermon series. On the seven heavenly virtues and the seven deadly sins revisited. Identified many centuries by the early christian church with the fifth installment this morning on the human duality. Of temperance. Noah cyrus spelled out first for sermons of the series. In each of these sermons i will explore what i think is to create. Spiritual emotional and moral tension. Between these two sets of seemingly opposite polar realities. Which were identified by the early church. But consistently strikes me is i reflect on these seemingly opposition oppositional sets. Virtues and vices. Is not how as the early church fathers seem to think. They stand and stark and absolute moral contrast 1. How they are intertwined. Interrelated and interdependent with one another in real life. The virtues will be looking at aren't all that virtuous really when you peel the layers back. Is our doll that sinful. It would be nice i suppose if all we had to do in our lives. Be good and healthy and normal human beings. What's the scrupulously live out of the virtues side of the equation and is to all the sins in the weaknesses. And for this sunday's purposes that is temperance or moderation. Avoid the sandwiches gluttony but i am persuaded. Obviously our human nature. Is much more complicated than that. Series that the gently deconstruct. The dualistic notion of sin and virtue that the early church was so. Clear to set up. And propose a more nuanced realistic understanding of what it means to be human all right. So let's take a look at the fifth pair of these human qualities. Against each other. As virtue and vice namely temperance. And gluttony. And let's begin as i have with each of the first four sermons of the series begin. With the obviously more difficult and dangerous and troublesome side of the equation. Namely the obvious. And unpleasant sin. Of gluttony. What in the world can be said in favor of this deadly and destructive and rather unappealing. Still no it was name. So many centuries ago well. It seems to me that gluttony must first and foremost be understood. As simply too much. Of a good thing. For surely there is nothing wrong in fact there is something very right. With having i think a healthy robust appetite. 4life. For food. For drink and the other. Physical pleasures of the body dare i mention it. Sex but. More on that next week when i get to lust. What a healthy and robust appetite is a good thing right. It is important is important to know. But like all the other deadly sins we are exploring in this series. Pride. Envy anger greed lust and sloth. Gluttony is simply a sin of excess. That is allowing something that is good and natural and appropriate. Get way out of whack. Or way out of proportion in our living. Here's how the online egalitarian encyclopedia wikipedia defines gluttony. Gluttony derived from the latin word. What's here. Meaning to gulp down or swallow means overindulgence. And overconsumption. A food. Drink or wealth item. To the point of extravagance. Or waste. Blood needs an happens i think when we fall out of proper. Healthy measured relationship. With a potentially wonderful life essentials. A food and drink and as the dictionary from wikipedia points out. Other things. Like wealth items or possessions. Gluttony. Gluttony is a lot like greed. And when i google images for gluttony this is one of the images of popped up that related to the fact it's not just about food those are dollar bills that gentleman. Is stuffing in his mouth. What's the name. Is undo an unreasonable focus and attachment. I'm consumables. What in common everyday parlance gluttony is generally understood to be something akin to. Read towards something we ingest into our bodies. Most particularly food and drink. Most of the time. When we think of a gluttonous person. We think of someone who has an unrestrained. Or unreasonable or unhealthy appetite for things to stick. In their mouths and stomachs. People who greeley eat and drink things and this is important to understand us in. Consume them without mindfulness without gratitude appreciation thoughtfulness. Wolfing things down they don't have any relationship to what they're wilting down really to mindless. Irrational. So gluttony in this is very important to state. What city has absolutely nothing to do with your body type. Your weight. Or whether you are skinny or rotund. The sin of gluttony. Does not care about the digital readout on the bathroom scale when you step on it. It doesn't care. If you are on a rigorous diet. We're blessed with a high rate of metabolism. Which burns off every calorie allowing as some of those irritating people you know they can eat whatever they want and never gain a pound smoothie all go to hell. I don't really mean that so that limits on the texture it just squirted out. But i know i just look sideways and an extra glass of chardonnay and i gained a pound what can i tell you. Gluttony because it is joyless and heedless. Overconsumption of food and drink. Gluttony poisons your life and your body distorts your living and prevents you from enjoying the delicious everyday blessings of food and drink. In his interesting book the seven deadly sins roman catholic theologian henri farley is usually pretty sedate. In his descriptions of those who fell victim to the various seven sins and i'm going through. But listen to the first. Rather harsh paragraph in his chapter on gluttony. And i wouldn't google again and looked for a graphic of gluttony that i thought might work for this reading. For those of you who lack imagination. There is. Here's roman catholic theologian farley. Watch a gluttonous man at his food. His napkin is tucked in his collar and spreads across his stomach announcing the frenzy of the business. In which she is engaged. Is bulging face and popping eyes are fixed on his plate only occasionally does he look up at his companions with a glazed look. His mouth has only one function and orifice in wish to push his food. Now and then he made grunt. At something someone has said otherwise. He stuffs. Feels like a hog at the swill. The theologian rights. He may ignore his companions but they cannot ignore him. Even if they can avert their eyes from the spectacle the swamp of his mouth. Where the tide ebbs and flows the seepage from its corners. There was able to block their ears from the noise. He sucks. Each spoonful through his teeth as if it were the sargasso sea. He does not chew his meat but thompson thompson crunches and crunches he crams and gorgeous and wolves and bolts. And then the delicacy illusion ends. The glutton. Might well. Alone. As with all the deadly sins. Gluttony makes us solitary. When we fall victim to gluttony. We place ourselves apart. Even at the table sharing. No. You think that's a tough description. Let's go back eight hundred years to dante. The poet. In his marvelous translation of the inferno. American poet john ciardi describes what dante sees. When he arrives at the third circle of hell with the gluttons. Like all the sinners of the sweeping morality tale the gluttons are being punished. To having commit their sinful behavior that they committed on earth for all eternity that's dante's wickedness. Set the sinners must live that way then for all eternity. Here is trt. Describing the third ring of hell. Dante recovers from his wound and finds himself in the third circle. A great. Storm a future vacation. Falls incessantly ami's commissioner of. Stinking snowing. Freezing rain. Which forms into a vial. Slush underfoot. The souls of the gluttons who lie down there lie in an icy pace. And cerberus. The ravenous three-headed dog of hell. Stands guard over them ripping and tearing at them with his claws and teeth and then she already gets to dante's. Spiritual point. About the. In life these glutton. Made no-hire use. The gifts of god. Then to wallow in food or drink. Producers of nothing but garbage. An awful. Here they lie then through all eternity themselves like garbage. Half-buried infected slush. Which. Sabria. Slavers over them. As they in life slavery over. Their food. The crucial point which both the 12th century poet dante. And the 20th century roman catholic theologian farley make about gluttony. Is it when we fall victim. Two blessing he's a success. It blinds us as dante puts it. To the gifts of god. Gluttony which is human appetite gonewild. Prevents.. From seeing and enjoying that only the rich and varied louriza food and drink. But also the rich and very glorious. Of our human companions in the interactions we can have around a table. Farley goes on in his book to delineate further about precisely how he believes. Gluttony crudely isolates us. From god and life and. He writes. The solitude to which the. To which gluttony condemns us. Is partly a result. Of taking something in our lives food and drink. Which has an appropriate value in place and lifting it. Out-of-place. Exaggerating it's important. Indian he writes. It is no longer a part of our lives but takes. The place of living. What candy is more interested in eating. Then in the food itself. It is the app it is the appetites in themselves. And their need for gratification he rides. The take-over one's life. And the object of each appetite. Which might in itself be pleasing. Is submerged. In the inordinate desire for it. And then he goes on. What knee. Leeds. 2a carelessness. Of life and beauty. Does not find any beauty in food. What need does not give a particular value to anything if consumed. It does not save her. It only devourers. What need does not let us see. What is beautiful. And then he concludes. A disrespect for food. Is a disrespect. Recreation. A disrespect for the goodness. And the bounty. Of course. I think farley. Precisely. When you describes the sin of gluttony as an isolating. An ultimately disrespectful falling out. Of a mindful relationship with life. Grateful. Improper relationship with food and drink. And with the companions. Who usually shared with us. Flood museum. Is a self-imposed kind of hell. Isolation and inhale philhealth. And as you all know is taken to the extreme gluttony will literally. Perhaps another way of thinking about gluttony is it is much like. Any addiction. Which is in the overview i think and unhealthy and excessive dependence. Upon some substance or substances. Beer food. Or drink. Or drugs or even sex. Can be addicted to all these. If we are addicted that is if we cannot modulate and control our consumption. If we cannot regulate our lives. Event in regards to any substance or feeling. And we've got to have more and more of that eventually we are in deep deep a dick. Trouble in our lives you all know this. Now let me pause here and state the obvious. All of us are at least occasionally vulnerable to gluttony. Two unhealthy excessive and isolating app. Nearly everyone in this room. If indeed not everyone of us no matter. Whether we are skinny or overweight carnivorous. Or vegetarian or whether we eat to live or live to eat all of us. At least occasionally. Feels guilty. That we are vulnerable to gluttonous. Excessive impulses. What it comes to things. In our mouth. Who here this morning does not feel that they lease. Usually wax. Into an inappropriate excessive. Unhealthy relationship with food or drink. You all know what i'm talkin. Taking that second helping of pie after dinner. Which you clearly did not need to physically survive to the morning. Or making that furtive. Late night trip to the refrigerator or is it the second one. Sneaking around your spouse. To get some more ice cream. Or making that impulsive candy purchase at the grocery store. That item you know is not good. Or inviting that third glass of wine at a party you know neither your body. Nor your brain for conversational purpose. All of us. No matter how disciplined and well-behaved we generally are with things we ingest. Are vulnerable to letting our appetites for food and drink. And sometimes even more dangerously drugs. Inappropriately dominate. Centrioles. So because we are creatures that consume things. Through our mouths. Gluttony is always seductively knocking at our doors is. And that's somewhat sobering realization brings us just in the nick of time. To the important other side of the equation that being the virtue of temperance. Or is it is more commonly. Stood. Moderation. You know temperance card. That word got stolen by the 18th and 19th century people who are against alcohol. It's really we're really talking about. If you look at the pure definition of temper. It means simply. Moderation. It was ancient it was the ancient greek philosopher plato who many centuries. Identified what he determined to be the four natural virtues. Which led to moral excellence in human living in those virtues were justice. Prudence. Fortitude. Intemperance. What's the great big dictionary on my shelf. Describes. This way. Temperance. Moderation in action thought or feeling restraint. Self control. Moderate indulgence of appetite or passion not extreme or excessive. Regulate. Or restrain one cell. Being not. Stream. Or excessive. Inure. Behavior. A word that was central to greek philosophy ethics and religion. Was maiden a gaian. Which simply and wisely means. Nothing in excess. The greeks further talked about the virtue of always living in what they called the golden mean. Living in the moderate middle if you will. Restraining self-assertion. Impulses to unrestricted freedom and obeying the laws. Of harmony and proportion. Living in the golden mean is obeying the laws. Of harmony. No following in the greek. Philosophic footsteps similarly hundreds of years later. When saint paul. Compiled his nine virtues. He calls. Call the fruits. The spirit. He included self-control. And when latter-day morales bill bennett put together his book of virtues. A few years back. Included self-discipline. As one of his 10 essential traits. 4 wise and responsible living. Bennett went on to point out the obvious truth. Quote. There is much unhappiness and personal distress in the world. Because of human failures. To control our tempers. Our appetites. Our passions and our impulse. So temperance. In the broadest sense. Is not just about refusing alcohol. It is rather. The everyday virtue of living. And always. With. Self. Restraint. And moderation. As opposed to living in the extremes. Now that we understand the wisdom of the ancient greek idea of temper. Moderation in all things. One needs to look. At the destructive results when we human beings are not able. Sufficiently restrain and control our appetites. Compassion. And thereby fall into any number of destructive. Addictions. What addiction is as i've said it seems to me is that one. When something that we like or need or enjoy in life. Simply takes over and begin to dominate our lives. To the detriment of our health. The balance of ourselves as purse. Are balances persons. And our relationships. With one another. There's so many good central things. In life. To which one can if we fail. To have self control. Can become gluttonous lee addicted. As you all know and you will know the list. Food. Alcohol drugs chocolate. Caffeine sex gambling. Television. The internet. And even exercise. Need i point out that on friday i bike 200 miles. It was a charity ride but i still did it cuz i loved it. All these things can be. All of these things when you think about it. Golden proper and essential to the well-being. Enrichment of our lives they are so long as we partake of them. With self-control. And moderation. Winchester new york minute. Is the virtue of moderation. Always good. Or can that to like gluttony be taken too far. Do we really want to spend the bulk of our lives focus on all the ways in which will moderate ourselves. Control our emotions are appetites our habits and are self-expression will this guy. As many of you who know me may know i'm not the most temperate. Self-restraint human being on the face of the earth. And i don't think that is what in the end. Unitarian universalism. Or indeed life itself. Wants from any of us. Life doesn't want us to be hopelessly moderate. Like all the virtues i'm exploring in this series. Temperance and self-restraint can be taken too far. And dust become not virtuous and energizing but rather life and spirit robin. I want to tell a true story. I serve the church in plainfield new jersey for 10 years. Back then is almost 30 years ago there was this tweet older married couple in the congregation. Adam lillian by there by name they're both long gone of course now. They were the most. Fiercely modulated and disciplined people i have ever met. They did absolutely everything in moderation. Decorum and restraint. The earth has never seen more moderation. And self-control than these two possessed. Top-to-bottom stem to stern sunrise to sunset in their lies. They lived in an ostentatious neighborhood in a plain modest. Square white clapboard house. With minimalist landscaping an ordinary shrubbery. Inside the small practical rooms were furnished. With plain furniture land rugs. Plain draperies and very subdued art. The husband and wife. Dress conservatively in gray on earth tones they were practical shoes and drove a practical. Late model gray four-door chevy sedan every week for more than five decades of their marriage. Fate precisely. The same 7-day dinner menu at precisely the same time 6 p.m. i know i ate with them several times. Monday was meatloaf mashed potatoes and broccoli. Friday baked cod. Rice and peas sunday chicken egg noodles and spinach will you get the plate numbing idea. And heaven forbid that they would ever drink or have a desert. Regardless of the social setting and lillian were always. Subdued in flight never flamboyant controversial allowed. They were always a picture of careful restrained rectitude and every aspect of their living they were. No. While i admire. In a way they're astounding temperance. And self-control. I also found their systematically. Modulated lifestyle spiritual heroin. And emotionally depressing. I found this harrowing and depressing because. I believe deep to my soul that's some intemperance some little flare here and there some. Pockets of recklessness are crucial to a life well-lived. While your minister is not of course recommending you all run off to greece and become zorba the greek dancing wildly in the streets and eating whatever you want. Shirley. Shirley. Moderation can be taken too far back. I do i don't recall seeing a whole lot of clever things when i was an adolescent but once when i was around 13 my favorite uncle lloyd. Once constantly and categorically said to all eight of us cousins. Boys and girls all things must be done in moderation. To which i retarded someone to lloyd you're saying that even moderation must be done in moderation. But he didn't like my smartass answer. Shirley. Even moderation must be engaged in moderately. If you were a full and free person you can't be temperate and self-restrained all the time and every way you're going to have that second piece of rhubarb pie that you have sli love you god help you if you don't. And so i think we come the sinful circle back. To the healthy joyful soulful balancing point. Which lies somewhere between gluttony and moderation. You and i are human beings. Earthly creatures who were built up. Blood primordial soup. 12 healthy appetite. For all things physical. We were made by god. To imbibe and enjoy. And drink. Physical touch and sex more on that next week. And again. Healthy and passionate appetite in life. Is clearly a good thing. As long as it does not wax. Into the gluttonous. Or the heat. So i pray you sure practice. Temperance. And moderation in your life. Practice it everyday faith. Olean regularly that's where. Balance. Enjoy live. But for god's sake also don't. Totally. Temperate all the time. Have some. Be a little outrageous now and again. And for god's sake allow yourself and occasional excess. But not too much. For in the end. The greek. Another lillian really had it right. Virtue enjoy our phone for most of us most of the time quietly. And ostentatiously resting. In what the greek. The golden mean. Right in that holy. Measured. Middle. We're with joy. We avoid. Both xs. And self-denial. So need your lies as much as you. In the comfort. The golden mean. And i say i'm mean to you this day. And i send you on your way with this poem in the haiku tradition by poet nano sedaka. In the haiku tradition. Soil for legs. Forehand. Flower. For eyes. Bird. 4 years. Mushroom. Or no. Smile. For mouth. For lungs. Sweat. Foreskin. Wind. For mind. Justina. Enjoy your week.

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2011Oct09Sermon128.mp3

Here's what we think we know. That he wrote walden. And a treatise civil disobedience. He wrote about the maine woods and other. Treatises authored many wise sayings and sade commentary on life citizenship and government. And social justice. Linden woods near concord massachusetts and did time. What cannot be said to be a hard time for non-payment of a poll tax. Well. Yes. We think we remember that he was an avid walker and runner. Wrote a fascinating piece on what he called sauntering. What's a pencil maker and surveyor. And gathered a number of bugs and butterflies for the harvard collection that are still in possession of that university. Again. Yes. And we may be tempted to include that he was a very social and popular fellow and successful writer. Always his own person and perhaps a ladies man if that. Emptyhero that spared surrounding woods from a devastating fire. Oops. Sorry. No no no no and no. To the contrary he was deemed aunt. And strange. Do to slow sales his publisher ship to him the unsold copies of walden. Which was most of them. That he stored in his attic. For a long time he mimicked his hero emerson and words ideas and mannerism. Had no luck at all in love or romance. Never was married and due to a wrong impression that he never live down was known largely around concord as the man who burned the woods. Do vegetarian he was a troubled one. Sometimes said he i could eat a fried rat with good relish. Wear it necessary. But not even when necessary. A certain woodchuck once gave him quotations range thrilled of savage delight. And strongly tempted was i to devour it raw. Not that i was hungry then he went on except for the wildness. It. And henry was a loner. He fell in love or thought he did on rare occasion usually with someone quite inaccessible to him. Related most comfortably to women somewhat older than himself and there is no evidence that any relationship ever was consummated. In a day for the walking was, he trudged great distances daily always with a sharp eye on every natural thing as did his mentor emerson. He observed nature's creatures at close hand without harming them. He was flushed a critter into the open field and was quick enough to head off its escape. In every direction till the poor thing was exhausted. Then knelt beside its terrified. Ending body. And inspected it up close. Before leaving it to resume its own life. But he then put into writing what he had seen of that living pulsing. Brother animal. He was also an avid collector of butterflies and other insects. Harvard heard of his skill and arrange for him to provide hundreds of species and thousands of specimens. Now this is course entail the deaths of those winged marbles and the time came when henry no longer conscientiously could do so. And his work for harvard came to conclusion. Then came the incident in the woods. The road trance far and wide around concord and once saw a woods fire already in progress. He had to think quickly and assess that being alone in all likelihood he could not extinguish it by himself and it were better to get help. It would be larger by then but more manageable for additional hands. And as luck would have it someone saw him running towards town. And as the fire grew it was assumed that weird strange henry's a loner had started. Rumor grew faster than the conflagration and when all was said and done henry was stuck with an unwanted reputation that he never could shake. He was. The man who burned. So instead of an elephant popular and pop compelling town voice. The road was no not so much as a writer. To those people. And he was understood not at all emerson could appreciate him though it is not clear that he understood. Henry. Either. Harrison to was a locker and uses daily brakes for thought. Meditation. A meaningful conversation and allowed very few others to walk with him. He turned down people who would say mr. emerson may i walk with you away and he would say no. But one of the select few was henry. Emerson began many letters journal entries and even his famed address. To the divinity school at harvard with references to nature. Especially what he had seen during his daily walk. And henry came up with a delicious little book. Titled walking. Taking as he said from days of the crusades. When vagrants in france. Hoping to be fed by householders. Told them they were going allison tear. To the holy land. To help defend the faith. And people were not fooled by these beggars since they walked idly and without purpose. But the ruler jesus all often enough. To all i sent here to sumter about our environment. Taking time to drink and breathe in all sights and sounds that calm body and soul. And to be alert to the remarkable mystery that involves us. And if you do not read that. It should be next. On your list. And then there was. Walden. Just a few years ago was the 150th anniversary of its publication he said he wrote it for all those who lead lives of quiet desperation. What she said. What's most people. And on august 1st 1850 for a man named wor. Alger. What's the first person. To plunk down a dollar. And buy a copy of the rose new book. And since that time. People have paid anywhere from pennies for it or up to 10 grand. For good first edition. But henry did not live to see his success. It took five years for the first edition of only 2,000 copies. Disallowed. Then it went out of print. Till after his death. 3 years later at the tender age of 45. About the civil war. By comparison longfellow. Song of hiawatha. Came out a year after the rose and sold 40,000 copies. In his first two years. No wonder that the day after walden's formal release. Henry noted in his little journal. His main thoughts. And activities for the day. And in six. Curse words he said. Walden was published. The elderberries needed tending. And the waxwork. Was yellowing. Now that's what you get for being way ahead of your time. It has been said that as literature. Walden is not america's greatest but it is among our most american. In today's idiom i would say it rages against the machine. Do henry's literal words were that the average person even back then that we think was so lackadaisical. He said the average person has not time to be anything but a machine. And ever since we've been railing against our workaholism and frenetic way of american life all to no avail of course. And now the intern. It's here. Anyone who authors nature writing. Or plays a significant role in the conservation move. Not only has quoted but owes a great debt. The henry thoreau. Nessa book isn't. Or wasn't just about nature. 1 chapters about communications. Broadway. And just titled reading. Wherein he assails the cheap novels of his time. And the sensationalist news article. Which he said distracted americans too much. Sound familiar. And then another delicious note may still apply. Dimensions the rush to construct the telegraph. From maine to texas. And concludes. But main and texas. It may be. Have nothing important to communicate. It is also assumed that he was quite the free spirit. And besides cutting out a couple years in a hut on the pond. That he fearlessly roam far and wide well yes. No. Not only is a human to err. About to get down in the dumps as well. He went to walden pond after having moved to staten island and then back again the wild are to tutor emerson's nephew and trying to launch a literary career in new york. He was not a success. And after his brother's death. He came back to concord. We're a friend and nephew to the great unitarian preacher will william ellery channing urged them to go hang out in the woods. And that wasn't a very independent venture the land was owned by emerson do you see a pattern here. What's who's the role not only hung out as much as possible more like followed emerson around. Sometimes staying at his home. Doing odd jobs and handyman's work and finding himself a tractor. The emersons wife. But to the pond he did go and when you think about real estate prices these days keep in mind if the rope built his bare-bones cabin in 1845 for the sum of $28. And moved in on the 4th of july. Nor did he sit out there for 2 years straight. But took off for the maine woods. And returned to wrap up his stay at walden pond. He came back to town or shall we say. Back to emerson's house. None of which strikes me as much of an independent guy but more like someone who needs to get his act together. So he spent a couple of years by upon that was not far from town. Spent only one night in jail for non-payment of the poll tax but she hadn't paid in 6 years anyway and then he got out because someone else paid it for him. He reminds me of kramer. In the in the sitcom seinfeld. The creamer whom george costanza accused of having a fantasy camp life. Food without paying for it and sex without dating. Now i don't even tell people who want me to live in the woods. Our camp out on the beach that jungle gym i am not. Nor am i tim allen. I do not do well in the woods and when i try to fix houses i tend to hurt them. And to his credit the role was quite at home in nature. And not a little handy around the house. His and anyone else's. And though he wrote grandly and poetically of wilderness and the wild. The maine woods scared. Jesus. He had never seen such darkness. Before. Or felt so alone. Any fear that one point that he would fall off. Mount katahdin. And so he sat in it all in the darkness. Feeling a loss of identity and ask himself. Who. Are we. Square. Are we. And compared to those in massachusetts. He cared much less for the indians in maine and he saw them as sinister and slouching. We began to see and edge. To being civilized. And finally declared that the best place to be was not entirely while. Not too civilized. And saw himself as a border. Person. Between the two. Finally he came to make the remarkable comment that quote there is such a thing as too much wildness. A statement that made the great john muir think less of thorough. Now here's what this is really hard about thank you for your patience for that little. Tour through the life of a remarkable person. It is not what we are at our worst. Or are most contradictory. That makes us valuable to each other. And to society. It is hot it lasts comes up. From the best that we are. And the most noble things that we managed to say or do. From time to time. Let us remember that all that is good. Isn't nowise perfect. Our personal craziness. And the battle against our demons. Hail beside the love and goodness. We managed to bring to the table of family friends neighborhood. Community society and the world. But we are left mostly to tend the little corner. Where we are. It all counts. And that's what henry did essentially unknown in his time. Little photo. And largely off to himself except for a few friends. The choice ones. They were indeed. And at the time who could guess. That people ever would care about what came to be called nature riding. Put your soul abroad now. When heroes. For the first time. Slide and stupid frame. At the age of 20. To speak at the concord lyceum. And venture to say. I wish to speak a word. Nature. Who ever could have dreamed. The life about to be lived. Henry was just taking care of his little corner. Finding lessons in the natural world and speaking his mind. He applied nature to life and the world the government taxation and social justice. And then precisely 100 years after his death martin luther king jr.. Dictated a protest. From a jail in albany georgia based on thoreau civil disobedience. It also inspired resistance leaders in south africa during the darkest hours of a partay. And the danish underground in world war ii. Does rebuking their own nations policy of passivity for safety's sake. After all thorough had said that resistance against tyranny was a necessity for the free spirit else it risked being ever free again. And gandhi first read walden in johannesburg in 1906. And spread its ideas. Among the cause of indian independence. We never know when our loan and solitary voices may inspire just those around us. Or in a far greater circle. Weather in our lifetimes. Or after. Clearly his days with mimicking emerson were long past and henry. Became his own person. He should not be one whom we applaud regularly without. Really knowing much about him. Indeed we often confuse his words for someone else's. Or quote him without knowing it because we fallen out of touch. With everything he said. But you can't ignore henry. No matter what you do. He had great thoughts. Spoke his mind about them and rouse the world and its history. You can still stumble across some of his books for free. 4 pennies. Or for 10 grand. But if we stop thinking that we knew who he was. And what he said and read it again. We too may become. Revolutionary. Probably not. But being at the border. Between wild and tame wouldn't be so bad either. And while we're at it. It wouldn't hurt. To think of henry. And now and then. Speak a word. For nature. Bad and i think the rest of the congregation did too. Everytime john is filled my pulpit i've taken the indulgence of. Giving a brief response. Janta me the real take away from your sermon more than the tales about about thoreau's life is that affirmation and reassurance. Did you gave us to all be quirky odd people i just want to. I want to repeat your words. It is not what we are at our worst or our most contradictory that makes us valuable to each other in society. It is what it lasts comes up from the best. That we are. And the most noble things that we say or do let us remember. That all it is good is in no way perfect. Our personal craziness. And the battle against our demons. Pale beside the love and goodness we managed to bring to the table. The family. Friends. Neighborhood. Community. Society and the world. And i think that's. Really true as i read those words i thought of this one one of my favorite poems is a john updike poem. Where he describes a pear. That he finds on a wild pear tree and the rebecca and mark you'll appreciate this it was in a farm that did not use pesticides and insecticides for the pair. Husband been horribly misshapen. By you know. Things that happened to it without the cultivation that of the ones that you see in publix witcher perfect so. As i read this. This poem pair like a potato you must imagine it in my hand. Misshapen. Us. Was it worms having once bitten and then wilted away or some tanker. Known only to nurseryman. Whatever the reason. The pair. Fresh plucked from the tree where leans and struggles in the gardens dappled corners. Is a heavy dwarf head. Who is faceless face puckers. And frowns around a multitude of old problems. It's burrowed brow and evil squint and percy mouth and pinched in reptilian ear. Re scrambling. Feature for feature as i rotate. Just wait in my hand this. This friendly not of fruit flesh this. Pair like a potato. Wanted to grow. And did. It had a shape in mind. And if that shape in transit was waylaid by scars. Baicells to mean to join in. Leaving its dense between bulges like quilt buttons well. It kept on going anyway. Our brains are like this. No doubt having swelled in spite of traumas of languages we never learned of grudges never said. Aside but coronavirus end. Like parasites that died but forever snapped. The rhythms. Whereby cell. Lynx up. Cell. Plato's. Was a manner of speaking. Perfections. And idea. The body and soul make a run at. Falling short. They feel this world instead that with the lopsided jumbled that is. The congregation. Of the failed. Yet not uncareful. Like. This. Poor.

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2015Mar08Sermon32.mp3

Oh good morning. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. My name is paul lamoureux. I'm a member of this congregation and i'm serving today as pulpit host. We're glad you have chosen to come spend a sunday morning with us. We are congregation of open minds. Loving hearts and helping hands. People. Seeking to become our best selves. Even as we work. To make a better world. Please know that you are welcome just as you come here and all of your particular tease. Whether you're young or old. Gay or straight. Boulder young. What do you have a ged. Or phd. You are welcome here. Whether you are on top of the world. Or down in the dumps. Are welcome in all your particularities. We hope you find this service meaningful and enriching. And that you will find something here this morning. That nourishes your spirit. Feed your soul. And gives you renewed energy and joy. For the living of life in the days of weeks ahead. Are opening words this morning. Come from american poet walt whitman. And his. Massive piece leaves of grass. The sun and stars that float in the open-air. The apple shaped earth. And we upon it. Surely the drift of them is something grand. The light and shade. The curious sense of body and identity. Unspeakable joy and sorrow. The pride. And out stretching. Humanity. The wonder that everyone sees and everyone else. And the wonders that killed each minute of time. Forever. Be not discouraged. Keep on. There are divine things well enveloped. I swear to you. There are divine things. More beautiful. Then words can tell. From walt whitman. Like the begin have everybody take a good deep breath. And. Fasten your seatbelts. Secure any loose objects. And. Keep make sure your feet are firmly on the floor. Breathe normally. Try to stay calm. Now we're down by the river kebar. The heavens were opened and a stormy wind came out of the north. And a great cloud. With brightness rounded and fire flashing 4th continually and in the midst of the fire. Gleaming blonde bronze. The likeness of four living creatures. And they have the form of men and each had four faces and four wings. And the soles of their feet were like a calves foot. And they sparkle like burnished bronze. We better take a look at a picture of this. Whoa. And each had the face of a man in front. A lion on the right side. An ox on the left side and an eagle at the back such were their faces here's a here's another view. This is even worse. I don't know about that lion in the ox that's it could be a little cumbersome. But you know. I kind of like that beach in the back of the head. I think that would be kind of handy to have. Like. How to watch your own back. In the midst of the living creatures that were something that look like. Burning coals of fire. Like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. And the fire was bright and out of the fire went fourth lightning. And the and the living creatures darted to and fro like a flash of lightning. So now we get something like this perhaps. Wow. Now is i. Looked at the living creatures i saw a wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures. One for each. Like the gleaming of chrysolite. Whatever that is in that the stuff that superman had trouble with chrysolite. Their construction being a wheel within a wheel. I think you can see the. The outer rim in the inner rim up there. The four wheels had rims and spokes. And the rims were full of eyes roundabout. And when the living creatures went the wheels went beside them. And when the living creatures rose up from the earth the wheels rose. For the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. Here's another view. Kind of the same agency the. The eyes on the outside of the wheels there in the inner wheel in the outer wheel. And over the live at the heads of the living creatures there was a firmament. Shining light crystal spread out. I heard the sound of many waters. The thunder of the almighty sound of tumult. And there came a voice from the firmament. From the throne like sapphire and seated above a human form you see him up there on top. And upward from his loins i saw gleaning fronds. Like the appearance of the. Bow that is in the clouds of a day of rain. So the appearance of brightness such was the glory of the lord. And when i saw it i fell upon my face. And heard. The voice. Of 1. Wow. So there are several ways to regard ezekiel's vision. Kind of a famous event in. Bible history. One is that he saw a landing of extraterrestrial beings. At the cloud and flashing fire the burning coals at torches and lightning or rocket engines. Easing the craft down-to-earth. And the gleaming bronze and wheels with eyes were part of the spaceships. Wood windows. And the beings were alien astronaut. Much has been made of this. The spaceships of ezekiel. And if you google it off you'll find all kinds of. Shall i say. Nutty stuff. But hey you have to wonder why highly advanced civilizations visiting earth would still be using. Fossil fuel rockets. And why they're beings would look like ezekiel. The one on the right being the most. Common depiction of people who claim to have had et encounters. I don't quite see the resemblance do you. So a better notion might be. That. They had science fiction back then too. They certainly did they had imagination they had a rich vocabulary. And ezekiel time they were abundant resources of art and mythology and babylon. Persian egypt as well as israel. To fuel his imagination. The cherubim. The man-beast cameras. Think of the sphinxes and egypt. Beds of fire gleaming metal thrones circle wheels. All of these would have been familiar to ezekiel. Who prophesize in exile in babylonia not in israel itself. Just before the destruction of jerusalem by avocados are in 587. Dc. So they had science fiction back to then to. And perhaps also ezekiel was in a trance. In chapter 3. We read that he ate the scroll that yahweh gave him. He said it was sweet as honey. And then he lay on his left side. 4. 390 days. With his arm extended toward. Jerusalem. While bound up. And then on his right side. 440 more days. That could induce. Some vision. I can't lie on my left side for more than about an hour and then i got to flop over at night. Now is ezekiel's vision. Visionary message is on the angry side. Thus says the lord god. Behold i will bring a sword upon you. I will strike you down. I will loose against you my deadly arrows and send famine. And wild beasts against you and your children. Pet store. Blood shall pass through you. I will blow up on you with the fire of my wrath and melt you as silver is melted in a furnace. And this is kind of weird. Father shall eat their sons in the midst of you and son shall eat their fathers. Really. On and on and on lots of this. So we might say that is ezekiel had some anger issues. Always speaking for yahweh. But what is he angry about. In a word. Idolatry. The worship of false idols. Forgetting the true god and worshipping the wrong thing. And what would that be today. Well. Money. Greed. Neu. Going to bid on the 23.9 million-dollar. House on vero beach with. 17000 square feet and 14 bathrooms. Or for just a million more you can get a house with. 25 rooms down in boca. So greed. More money more property more stuff. And what are you going to do with it. Why don't we go down and visit the. Rooms in the south west wing today that would be something. Greed. Power dominance all kinds of addictions and obsessions. Well expounded from by about from this pulpit by scott. Which are not healthy and good for us or the world. We know what they are and ezekiel railed against. Partially yes. But also hopefully. With ezekiel. I'm happy to say all is not retribution. I'll to close this reading with his. Vivid allegory which has been put into quite a bit of song and poetry. The lord sent me down in a valley of dry bones. And there they are that's an old etching. Very very many very dry. And the lord said. Behold you shall live. And that was a rattling. And the bones came together bone to bone and flesh came upon them. And send you. And skin covered them. And breath came into them and they lived and stood on their feet you see them they're in there. Various. Forms of recomposition. An exceedingly great host. And the lord said behold. I will take out your heart. Stone. And give you. A new heart. So there is hope. Now is ezekiel is. Richwood metaphor. Catching out. Catching allegory. There's an ezekiel line of clothing. There's ezekiel bread and ezekiel cereal here's a box of ezekiel 4.9 cereal. Ezekiel 4.9 about. I will. Take the wheat and barley and beans and lentils and. Put them in on one vessel make bread they don't bother to. Or they omit the a little later when ezekiel. Threatens the moabites that he'll cut him up into little pieces. The birds. Wild beasts. So i do hope you'll be inspired when you get home to blow the dust off your bible and read some of this. Exotic book of prophet. Certainly the wildest and most entertaining of the prophets. So perhaps. Not to the kids or grandkids. It's at bedtime. Well. We don't have to look far. Defined a lot of images of circles and wheels and religious art and. And. Thank you very much guys for. Yeah. Cheer for the graphics guys. Are many more i could project up there these are just a few we all know the yin-yang from dallas. Confucianism in china. And the next one going to the right as a axe. Sand. Sculpture of sabaton. Sabaton. And that a prayer rug. You can barely see sidharth in the middle the buddha. And we all know. The pictures of buddha with a round belly and the roundhead. The next one is the samsara wheel from jainism and hinduism. And then on the lower left is a the inside of a mosque dome. Islamic domes. And if you google up. Mosque domes or islamic domes or something like that you will see the most amazing. Mosaics. The insides of the. Many many doan's at once. Somewhere in turkey. They're just. Extraordinary how there's so many circles and circles within circles and interlocking. And then the christian cross that's the greek cross. With alpha omega. And it's often enclosed in a circle and a lot of times you'll see a circle behind the cross. Suggesting the halo and then again down the lower right from an old fresco we see. Ezekiel himself with a halo. Circles are indeed. Very common in religious symbolism. Not arrows or roads or train tracks or rope. Skyscrapers but circle. And why is that. Because religion is about the heart and soul of life which is circular not linear. Now we unitarian-universalist with our covenant groups and. Are inclusive worship also have. Our circular symbols. Whoops. I'm sorry. Put put the next one out there where you guys there we go. These are the well-known overlapping circles from. Adapter night stopped in 19. 66. With the merger of unitarianism with universalism complementary but not strictly similar religions. And i've been studying these circles and. Discovered a rather esoteric secret about them i like to demonstrate for you now. These are the two circles. And. This is little known many of you have been in unitarian universal. A long time and you've never seen anything. Now watch carefully. Let me try over here. Do you see the circle within the circle. A little bit. It's kind of kind of hard to catch a calf to relax your retinas. Get it now. Let me try one more over here. Now you can do this at home. This is a loner board you can take it home with you. You saw it here. Usb b. So life is a bunch of circles. They weave and overlap and interconnect in the vast mysterious maze. Our galaxy is a spinning pinwheel. That light takes. 100000 years to cross. This image here is composed of something like 219 million stars that can be observed with our present technology and there are thought to be. Not millions but billions of stars in the milky way galaxy. In the middle is a black hole. Which is sucking in capturing the innermost stars and debris. We are a tiny speck on the orion's spur one of those spurs about two-thirds of the way out. To the edge. Which. Stables on. With our solo son in concentric orbits. With where life has been. Able to grab a hold and it took only a few billion years. To get where we are today. Dr michio kaku spoke here february 28th i was away and had the mrs. talk. But i've often heard him in the media talking about. Wormholes and string theory based on the curvature. Space the immense wonder of the spinning. Mass and energy. Dimensions so difficult to comprehend. There are mines boggle. Install as we even. Try to comprehend it. Even albert einstein. Experiences wall of understanding this limit. And this is his famous quote from. One of his writings the most beautiful. And most profound experiences of sensation of the mystical. The source of all true science to know what is impenetrable through us really exist. Manifesting itself is the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty. Which are doll faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms. This knowledge. This feeling. As if its center of true. Religiousness. So wonder and awe. To approach mystery and worship and art and nature. In our loving personal relationships this is religion. This is what we're here for. And we know that. Certainly. But. We forget it off and don't we. So. We're on our big rock earth. Are big round earth and. When i talk about. Mysticism and all i have a suggestion for you the next time you're out on the beach at dawn. And. You spaghetti to see the sun and light. Emerging. Remember that the sun doesn't rise or set as my ten-year-old granddaughter studiously informs me. The sun actually doesn't rise or set granddad. It's the big round rock that we're standing on its turning slowly mighty mightily in exora bleed. Toward the sun. And if you try to focus on this as your. Watching gone. You got a real sense of how that big rock is just moving. At 14 miles per minute relative to the sun. Which is 88. Beat every second. There we go. There we go. There we go. Zip zip zip. Turning toward the sun. You can really get a sense of this. If you work at it. It's all amazing. The movement of earth. Sky and water. And whether the seasons we cherish. And celebrate so much poetry and art about the changing seasons. I'm an autumn guy myself. I feel akin to the soft subtle colors in the muted sounds of autumn. In new jersey where i grew up. Saturday morning with burning leaves back when you could still do that. And distant muffle thumps of our high school band over at the athletic field practicing for the game that afternoon. The great oaks with their leaves of amber and amber and burnt orange fading to brown. The brilliant yellow of the beech trees. Blaze of deepening red in the maples. And through it all as soft sense of. Beauty and loss. Autumn is my kinship time. Is shirley each of you have a favorite season some of you were probably. Springers you like the the damp earth and the smell of spring and new emerging growth or. Some of you are summary folks you like the the long evenings in the lazy days. Swimming in. All the things that we do in summer. Even here in florida with her seasons are less vivid more delicate shifting. They still pull and ternes. And sing to us. Certainly. So we living all these cycles and circles. Circadian rhythms. Sleep and wakefulness in. Excitement quieten. Interaction and alone time. Working and resting absorption and expulsion the list goes on and on. All those balances which. When we understand them. And correctly go there seeing saw their yin and yang. Help us salon. We ride the rhythms and utilize their energy. Think of think about parenting for a moment. When our children were small. We found ourselves reading the same stories. That were read to us is. Remember that. Playing the same games pattycake twinkle twinkle. I spy with my little eyes something blue with polka dots. Oh yeah there it is. All those little games. And teaching them to garden and watch bugs and fish in the pond. And hugs and tucking in and. Those little bedtime sayings you are wonderful beautiful and we do love you with all our. All those little things that were given to us by our parents we give on to our children cycles and circles within circles at all comes around. We're very social animals. We humans. We thrive on interaction even the most perfunctory. That little greeting we have in our in our service it makes a difference doesn't it. Maybe you. Have the extreme experience i do when it's announced tyty silently grown. Oh no i have to stand up with my flaky back. And. Greet people i may not know that's always a little. But then when i do it i feel so much more connected in it home. No longer sitting in a big room with a bunch of other. Sitting people. But among friends in a congregation. Inter-religious. Space. So that's my experience and i hope yours. Everything connects. And circles back person-to-person we reach out to be embrace. And are touched by touching. And families friendships congregations. And even more. And our close bonding. Myself goes out to yourself and is returned enhance. Define given. Perspective. And humor. Remember juliet's soliloquy about her romeo. My bounty is as boundless. Ecstasy. My love is deep. The more i give to thee. The more i have. For both are infinite. The more i give to the. The more i have. For both. Our infinite. I'm talking to you person out there whose name i promise not to mention in this sermon. That's an insider joke. Sorry. Everything circles and cycles in the deepest love. We are pulled into a vortex. Whirling dance that constantly forms. And reforms over the years. Even after many years together we can be surprised and delighted by r6. Significant other. So never ever take him or her for granted. And never underestimate. Your own ability. Surprise. Candlelight. Time is not linear but circular. The yin-yang symbolizes balance within our circular journey. This is a mantra. Resounding in the now. Holy. Wholeness. Devotion. Words that are about being still. In the sacred now. And scott is. Preached many sermons hear about being in the now being grounded in the now. Which is not to say there isn't. Linear thinking. And linear time. Linear thinking is how we get things done get from a to b and get progress or through the ages but. We have to ground. The past. And future thinking in the now. All religions recognize this and celebrate life significant passion. Birth. Coming of age. Marriage anniversary. Death and its memorials. Wheels within wheels. Spinning orbs of human fulfillment and wisdom. Pass through the generations sing hallelujah. It's all beautiful and wonderful. And worship. Isn't it. Or is it. What's that you say. I hear a doubter among us. I hear someone telling me that it's not always beautiful. And wonderful. Whether you're on top of the world or down in the dumps or somewhere in between we've heard those words sunday after so. Which must mean that some of us are indeed down in the dumps. Those circles have an apex. Animator. A dark side of the moon. And then we talked about the cycles of life. Beautiful wonderful. Yeah. But aren't we also talking about. The repetition. An endless drum drum of it. Life goes round and round. Yes it sure does. We load the dishwasher. Unload the dishwasher. Load the dishwasher unload the dishwasher. We shave our faces. Yeah it's laborious. And what for. Those whiskers just grow right on back. Make the bed. Mess it up. Make it up. Clean up mess up clean up. And remember those autumn leaves in new jersey i spoke so nostalgic lie about a few minutes ago. We'll come on let's go rake them up. So we all rake. And more fall. And we're a cup more big piles and dispose of them. I may fall fall fall. And next year. The same thing all over again. All things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter it. What has been is what will be. And what has been done is what will be done. And there is nothing new under the sun. What does a man gain by all the toil in wichita falls under the sun. For all is vanity. A striving after. Let's take another look at that. Samsara wheel from. Jainism hinduism and to a lesser degree buddhism. You know it's not such a pretty picture. Notice the beings inhale and the hungry ghost. Notice that greed hatred and lust are in the center. And what about yama the lord of death turning the wheel. How do you like those. Skulls and serpents. And claws. Very schumann's around the perimeter you see they are engaged in all their commerce of living. But they are fixed to the big scary wheel hearing the whales of the underworld and spun around by the power of death. Samsara. Symbolize here is bondage. The wheel of perpetual suffering. That we are chained. So all my previous talk about how we carry. The joy into the beauty. A parenting for instance. Doesn't that also mean that we carry forward the hurtful. Destructive aspects. Perhaps we are haunted by those hungry ghost see him down in the lower right there. Influence of our parents and their parents which were not good for us. Which we can't seem to cast off year after year. Why did they ignore me. Why did they criticize me even when i tried so hard. Why were they mean to me. How am i unwittingly transferring that hurt. Into my important relationships now. Those ghost indoor. 44 generation. The pentateuch. Perhaps you were weary of it all. The same heart patterns the same walls. The same arguments it go nowhere because everyone is entrenched. Their weapons blame. I mistrust. Or perhaps your career has stalled. Bank accounts constantly depleted. Getting by another week is about all you can handle. Like sisyphus your groaning and sweating. Too pushy huge boulder up the hill only so i can roll back down. And you can start over and there's the. Famous 1548 painting by titian. Of sisyphus caring is. Rock up the hill. Where you'll drop it in a roll back down. Start all over. Sometimes we feel that way.. Or perhaps you hear the rumblings of the god of death is he turns the wheel. Debilitating illness threatens you or your loved ones. Terrible treatment. Required. Hospitals. Pain. An uncertain future. Life on the real. Can be hard. We work and grow and gain some measure wisdom. Only to face what. Extinction. The loss of everything we accomplished. All things. Are full of weariness. A man can. So what i've given you is sermon 101. The cycles of life. Are they sacred. Or scary. Are they profound or profane. Are they exhilarating or innovating. Exhausting. Are they charming or chaining. Worshipful or worrisome. Life-giving or life grieving. How do we get off that samsara wheel. How do we obtain liberation enlightenment. Are those just exotic words that have nothing to do with us. And how do we obtain wisdom see through the eyes of ezekiel's larger wheel. How do we slogin swim-up through the inferno for purgatory of depression. Spirit orizaba. Well here's a word hook to help you. Word. This morning. A word you've heard a lot faith. But probably don't use to. Because faith is not a popular unitarian universalist concept. You know i've been around you use for something like 50 years. And i've never known one parent to name their daughter faith. Have you. I asked scott the same question. Nope. He hadn't either. So i looked in our hymnal and. I looked under lowe's topical heading. For the hymns. They haven't talked we arranged in the back. Under faith r18 hymns. And i went through all those hymns and i could actually find the word faith used only seven times. Whoa. So then i looked through all of our responsive and affirmation readings. And i could find the word faith only use six times. And all those reading. Why is that. I think that you use dislike fate. Many of us have been beat over the head with a call to faith meaning belief in god and jesus. Is christ and savior in the doctor. Do the orthodox church. Oh come all ye faithful. Uh-huh. And what about those who doubt or question. Guess they don't get any exaltation. Joyous and triumphant. If there's a triumphant when they're also be a vanquished. What about those people. Faith has a militant exclusionary ring. And at the same time just kind of a wimpy were. If i have faith in truly believe i'm save so now i don't have to do anything right. No. Faith is not a favorite uu word or concept. And that's why i wanted to offer you an alternate way to look at. Consider this. None of us know anything. Time. Space. Matter-energy. How all of this is. And how we exist in. Is a complete and utter mystery. Ever since i was 8 or 9 years old i've been how asking. How is it that is is. That there is even such a thing as matter and time. As opposed to nonmatter or nothing. And wouldn't nothing be something to. I'm touched by. Alan watts remember him the 19th. Guru. Who described himself as a sort of intellectual yokel who gates and stares at what sensible people people take for granted. Who cannot get rid of the feeling that the barest facts of life are unbelievably odd. How is it that is is. And was is and will be. The puzzlement of time. I do dwell on all this oddity. And it becomes kind of oniric or dream like. No i don't do that while driving on i-95. Is watch wrote it's unbelievably odd indicating that our very existence is not really believable. That it takes an actual assumption an act of faith. To even believe that reality is real. And if reality is real than isn't our consciousness made of miles of filaments and cells and tissue and plasma and mucus and merrill. An evolved over billions of years also real. That is we choose to believe that it's real. It isn't health in growth and full manifestation of this reality something we can also choose to believe in. You know. We can't prove. That life is worth living. If you had occasion as i had a. Am i a number of times in my ears. Unitarian universalist ministry. To sit with someone who is deeply depressed. Suicidal. You know that you can't persuade them. You can't prove that life is worth living. What you can do is sit with him. And listen is a friend and give testimony to your own choice. Your faith. That life. Is worth living. Here's a wonderful book. This is. The depression cure. By dr. steven. Lrti. You say. And he was interviewed just last sunday on npr the people's pharmacy some of you may have heard that or listen to that program. He talked about how we become so sedentary and so cloistered indoors. Not getting nearly enough fresh air in natural daylight. And not using our bodies as they are biologically evolved to be used. So that depression has become pervasive today in fact he called it an epidemic. Now the depression cure he offers has six little steps i'll just briefly mentioned them for you. You can get this book and read it so wonderful book. Healthy eating with lots of omega-3's. Daylight. And sunlight exposure. Get outside get away from that computer except as needed necessary. Physical exercise and all of us can do some kind of physical exercise even if we can't even stand up. Do something. Good sleep enough sleep. And these two the last two are definitely church friendly. Contact with other people and engaging activity we got plenty of it here. That you usb-b. These are all things we know to do and we know how to do. But sometimes we lack the will to do. And that's where faith comes in. Behind all the cures and things we know that are good for us and the world there's a simple choice. Am i going to lie here ruminating and worrying and suing and spiraling downward or am i going to get up. And be my better self. Am i going to slog around and nowhere life-scripts and relationships and fights and bickering and playing. Am i going to get up. And be my better self. Am i going to get up and get going. And do something worthwhile and good and healthy for myself and for the world. Or is they saying the commercial fishing business in south carolina. Get mad with it and get it did. So faith. Is an active determination. And sometimes also that means hard thinking. Those spinning wheels can bring us wallow in darkness sure. The patterns of our generation can be hurtful and influences. Toward hurting others even those we love. So we have to think carefully and intervene because. Our parents were harsh and remote doesn't mean that we have to be. Because our parents were too permissive or indulgent doesn't mean that we have to be. Because our parents. May have been pessimistic or overly critical doesn't mean that we can't rethink and redirect our own parenting. And family presents. We can change we can study and figure out and do things differently we can start a new cycle. A new wheel. Anu loop. And fate speaks also. Do the inevitable crusher factors beyond our control. Illness. Debilitation accident. Death of a loved one. That awful silence. Fate tells us that. All things come around that our bodies and minds always tend toward healing. That grief gradually fades into memory. And that even while we are chained to that samsara wheel fern by jama the fierce god of death. We also have been given away to become. Enlighten. Larger. And smarter. We can see through the eyes of the outer circle. We can step out of that small inner circle the me circle. The one i got to have what's in it for me and comprehend the larger we. The community the us. The love. Which is what will save us. As for that dishwasher. The humdrum repetition and boredom of the same old same old. Faith as a response to that too. Gandhi talked about. Simplicity. And a worshipful attitude. About the most quotidian or mundane things we do. Sweeping the floor can be a religious act. Washing. Cleaning. Weaving in a loom very repete. Can be done worship. With enlighten conscious. So when we remove those dishes and place them in their rightful cabinet. Would like dishes. Let us cherish. That simple repetitive act. Thankful. That we have strong and steady hands to do that. And mindful that some people do not have strong and steady hands. And that we may not have them. Someday. Even. For unloading the dishwasher. I drive a lot. I drive up to south carolina on i-95 and back. Monthly. Check on my clams. Trip i've taken perhaps. 40 times since i started. Relating to that same certain person i referred to earlier whose name i promise not to mention. The sermon. And when i. When i talk about my 460 mi monthly commute to people. They commiserate they say. I-95 it's so boring. Adele roadblock flat country endless grinding traffic. I feel for you brother. And yes i agree sometimes it seems that way especially when i'm tired or. You know down. Some reason or other. But there's also another way. I tried to call.. I-95. Crosses vast marshlands in. Broad title rivers lush with fish crabs. Shrimp crustaceans or as i was saying south carolina. Shrimps crabs. Oysters and clams. Some sections of i-95 or line with huge pines at glisten in the sun and hardwoods. Subtly change seasonally in latitudinally is idrive. South is last trip. A few days ago. When i left south carolina all the trees were bare. And then in georgia i began seeing redbuds. And by the time i got below jacksonville new green growth. Popping out everywhere. Amazing. And as for that traffic. It's a flowing stream with constant situations to navigate. Requiring full mindful detention. Or traffic slide i can allow some of my attention to. 2. Analyze. Thinking make plans. Sketch stories and sermons and all that kind of. 2. We take our trips our life journeys and we have a choice everyday all the time. We can grumble and sputter. And stagger along. Corsa road. Fixate on the destination instead of the trip. Until we are not driving but driven. Until we are not driving. But driven. Or. We can make a deliberate choice of fate. And find ways to delight. The trip itself. And the moment right now right here. We can see with the eyes. Of the bigger wheel. The trip suite a cape may look like straight lines you know on a map. The last stop. And think that every trip is actually a segment of the globe you know even my. 460 mi. 1.87% of the curvature of the earth. Not a straight line but an ark. So. We're all on a life trip. And all of our trips. Are segments. Of that bigger circle that arc or is einstein said that highest wisdom. And most radiant. May we cherish. Every turn. Step. And b of our life trip. And may we are. Florida place where in the words of ezekiel. Those dry bones come together. What new flesh. And skin. Breath. Given them. And a new heart. And a new spirit. For the spirit of the living creatures. Is in the wheels. As we extinguish the chalice. I read he's closing words. Which are one of my favorite readings from james baldwin nothing personal written in 19. Before. It is a mighty heritage. It is the human heritage and is all there is to trust. I learned it through descending into the eyes of my father and mother. I wondered when i was little how they bore it for i knew they had much to bear. It had not yet occurred to me that i also would have much to bear. But they knew it. And the unimaginable rigors of their journey help them. Prepare me for mine. That is why one must say yes to life. And embrace it wherever it is found. And it is found in. Terrible places. Nevertheless. There it is. And if the father can say yes lord. The child can learn that most difficult of words.

uufvb_org

2014Jun01Sermon32.mp3

Well good morning. On this wonderful first gentle sunday in june. The bike ride in my future. How are you going to use your afternoon. Family. Friends. Fitness for fun. Spend your day well. Welcome. To the unitarian universalist fellowship fellowship of vero beach we are so pleased. You've chosen to begin this sunday with us. We are retiring gation as the sign hearts and helping hand. Individual people seeking to become our best selves even is together we work to make our world a better place. Please know that you're welcome just as you come to us. What are you are young or old gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you have a ged or a phd. Whether you're a visitor with us this morning or have been a member for decades. Whether you're feeling on top of the world. Down in the dumps or somewhere in between we welcome you. And hope. To be of support to you. We hope you'll find her service this morning meaningful in richmond that you'll find something here this morning. The nurse is your spirit and feed you stole and gives you renewed energy and purpose. Put a living of life in the days ahead. A quote for a recent article in the new york times washington post. No less an authority quote. Numerous recent studies have shown a house of worship regularly. Healthier and happier and live longer. All those sickly miserable souls unwisely languishing in bed this morning with coffee in the paper. Or enjoying brunch with her friends are taking an early morning walk on the beach. Don't know what's good for them. It is. He keeps doing this. What you. Smart healthy people. You were right in the right place morning and on the right track. For you have come to this house of worship this morning to give thanks for the gift of life. To reflect on the quality and depth of your life. To remind yourself of alduin the world and to enjoy the company of others as you celebrate this day. So welcome to our worship service and forgot. In the right. Play. Meditation this morning by my colleague friend. Richard gilbert of our. Rochester church he's retired now. Listen to these words will have a minute of silence at the end and i will ring the bell to conclude our time of meditation. Be silent. Be still. Be serene. In this house of the spirit. Put aside all noise all noises that annoy. All sounds that irritate the cacophony. Confounds. For here you are at home. Leave behind all the frustrations that the little. The causes that fret the troubles that torment. Here you can be. Oppressed. Put away all the plans to be made. Things to be done victories. To be one. Here. You are at peace. Breathe deeply. Clear the mind. Of all cluttered thought. Courage the spirit of all unkindness. Rinse the soul. Clean and pure. Here. You are home. Easy. And the oppressed feel your body recover its resilience. Your mind its bearings. Your spirit. Its strength. Once again we have come home to the source. We feel the collective power of our companions. The warmth of their welcome the support of their caring. We who have been wanderers groping for something we know not what are again at home here is the. Place. For us. We are home in the sanctuary. And with these people. We were home on this globe. That was all who dwell upon it. We are at home. In this cosmos. Our home. For all times pass. And all time. To come. We are. At home. Delete your heart out elton john. A house up in windsor doesn't he. Elton john. All right will will it go get him. The 30-minute choir will begin on june 16th to weeks from today. This is an opportunity for some of the choir to join at 9. 915. And hopefully be every sunday from june 15th. People will feel free to come out. Trailer pipes. Great. This morning on this gentle first day of june i bring you the fifth. Series on the seven habits of happy. With a sermon on spiritual engagement. Now spiritual engagement i'm happy to report has been identified by the social scientists who study. Human well-being. As something we must regularly cultivate if we're ever to achieve sustained. Have reliable happiness and contentment in our lives. Basically what the experts are telling us. Is it a few don't have a spiritual life at all offer a definition of that in a moment. If you don't have a spiritual life. It'll be difficult for you to find true satisfaction and contentment over your lifetime. Surprise you to hear that as a religious leader myself as a professional. Clergy person who has devoted his whole adult life. Encouraging others to be on a spiritual path. I am so pleased. But the happiness expert recognized the importance of spiritual engagement. In our lives and what's more they are right spot on with this observation. As many of you know from the first of four sermons. I've been focusing each sermon in the series on one of the seven habits of happy people. Identified by a team directed by doctor paul the saint. Yale and harvard educated psychiatrist. Relying heavily on the groundbreaking work of positive psychologists pioneer dr martin stigleman. This team is suggesting that there are seven fundamental dimensions of our lives. Properly nourished and nurtured and cultivated will lead to a greater sense of happiness. And well-being throughout our lives and here are these seven. Habits. Relationships. Caring and service. Positive mindset. Optimism and gratitude that being. And something called slow now those for sermons are on the website both in video format and text so if you missed any of them you can go on our website and click under recent sermon. And see what we had to say about those four and today we move to the 5th. Which is spiritual engagement. But before the one that talked about that. I want to talk in general about the discoveries of these psychologists studying human well-being. When positive psychologists talk about happiness. They do not mean what i shall call the happy-face theory of happiness. What is obnoxious. But happy face. We are cheerful mood those times when we are full of laughter and joy ebullience and merriment which we all like. Requires a steady stream of moments of gleeful and giddy delight. Things that light up mr. smiley face back here. But the experts were writing about happiness and well-being. Suggest that if these are the flashy places you're looking for contentment. You are as the song says looking for love in all the wrong places. Happiness the kind of sustainable well-being. And life satisfaction that has the power. To make our lives kind of glow in contentment. Is not. Like the hot rush of momentary pleasure you feel from winning the lottery. Or skydiving out of a plane 10,000. Or watching even your home team win the national championship. The kind of happiness and well-being that has the power to really make our lives works and this is the key phrase. Of sustainable warmth and joy. Is more like a low hum. A-reliable and study satisfaction. The quietly arises again. Out of these ordinary aspects of our day-to-day living these things such as. We shall hear. And let's pause for a moment and make a very important point about happiness that i've made each time i talked in the series. All the experts say you do not have to necessarily have a cheerful or bubbly or outgoing or optimistic even. Personality. Define lasting satisfaction and well-being in your life. People with very many different personalities and styles including quiet. Reflective and reserved people can be happy. Definitely do not have to go through your life with a perpetual smile. Plastered on your face. Define true contentment in your living. True well-being is like a quiet amber of satisfaction. Steadily burning at the center of your soul it's not a bonfire on the beach. It's more like a steady cole. House warm. And satisfaction and amber. Again. What the positive psychologists are saying this makes perfect sense to me. Is that sustainable happiness and well-being is a quiet and ostentatious quality. That steals gently into our lives as a long-term result. Of our wisely and purposely tending what really matters it's not a flash-in-the-pan kind of a thing. It developed over decades. Alright. So this then brings me to today's interesting topic the benefits of being spiritually engaged in your life. At the most basic level. As we already mentioned in the opening words that i. Cleverly. Rolled into a conversation. There's a whole raft of recent studies would conclude that religious people. And by this they mean. People who regularly participate quote. Gathered congregation. Are happier healthier and live longer than those who don't. Let me quickly mention the health benefits of being a religious person. Before i talk about how being spiritually engaged. Also contributes to your happiness. In a recent op-ed piece in the new york times are 30 m. What is most striking scientific discoveries about religion. In recent years. Is it going to church is good for your health. Religious attendance key right. Boosts the immune system. Decreases blood pressure lessons with the likelihood of depression and suicidal thoughts. Years to your life unquote. 1 studies attract thousands of americans. Founded regularly attending religious services. Can increase the lifespan by an average of 7 years for white people. And 14 years for black people. Traffic in america. Perhaps that striking racial difference can be attributed to her socially and emotionally important the church is. In the african-american community no one explained that but. Blacks do twice as well as whites in this regard. 7 to 14 years. Although other studies more modestly suggest. Church is more like only two to three years. But all the studies agree that religious people live healthier and longer than non-religious folks. Another study of over 100,000 people done by john hopkins university. Found that attending religious services on a weekly basis reduces the risk of death the following year i almost 50%. Why does participating in a congregation make one healthier. Years to your life. Well. Almost everyone studying agrees. It's not the belief in god. It's the human contact. The social support. And quote the personal connection connections and friendships. That one finds in a congregation which undoubtedly plays the key role. Religious congregations are places where you can find caring supportive and in our case in this conservative community. And friends will help you cope better with lice inevitable challenges. Sorrows of pitfalls. Another apparent reason. Is it being a part of a congregation encourages healthy behaviors. And discourages unhealthy ones i quote from the spirit. Healtheconnections website quote. A growing number of studies suggest that people who are more involved in religion. Better health. Because they're more likely to engage in positive. Health behaviors like maintaining of reasonable exercising and maintaining a web of personal relationships. Enter less likely to engage in harmful health behaviors like overeating. Leading a sedentary lifestyle. And engaging and alcohol and drug abuse. How does this work the website goes on to ask. Simply put religious teachings regarding healthy behaviors. May be transmitted and reinforced. Through informal social interactions with like-minded. Companion friends. Unquote. So the facts are in. Inactive engage part of a religious congregation statistically at least. Makes you more likely to be a healthier person. Who will live longer headsets good news. But even more intriguing than his health finding. Are the recent findings of being part of a congregation actually makes you happier. And more contented person. Let me point out please the obvious truth. That all these observations about the positive benefits of being active in a religious congregation. Are in the end statistical. Every station i've been apart of over the last four decades of course. Has had a few noticeably unhappy souls i'm not naming anyone in this congregation this morning. But i'm sure that a few of you sitting on the fuse this morning are at this juncture of your life. For a variety of perfectly understandable reasons. Feeling well existentially grumpy or even downright discouraged by life. Complex world. Could it be otherwise. The point here is that everything we know about spiritual engagement and happiness. Who come to church. Will be happy all of the time of course. And this is precisely why every sunday at the beginning of our worship service we say and me. We welcome everyone. Precisely as they come. Regardless of condition regardless of mood regardless of. Whether you've been pummeled by life this week or have an easy time skating through it. We welcome everybody here. However they spiritually and emotionally, that's a very important information. And all the studies indicate religious people are again in general. Significantly happier. 10 non-religious people. Look at this absolutely fascinating chart that i found. On one of the night at all explain this okay. This shows the statistical correlation between the frequency of attending religious services that's over the bottom you see the. Horizontal line never least once a week it correlates that. With the positive and negative emotion. The positive emotions being. Represented by the green line the negative emotions. Oshun. By the blue line. So the more you go to church the less miserable feelings you have in the more happy feelings you have. Why is this. What can explain this church has unwanted motion estate. Will the social scientists think they know. I quote from a recent article in psychology today by north dakota psychologist. Play route ledge quote. Religion may promote happiness for a number of reasons. Studies show that religion gives people a sense of purpose. And order. And serves as a resource for coping with negative life experiences. An existential fears. However he goes on. A number of studies really seem to suggest. Set the magic ingredient the magic ingredient in religion that provides happiness is. Social. Connected. And it goes on. Those people especially an individualistic nations like the united states talk about religion. As an intern or personal belief system. The truth is that religion is rarely successfully done in solitude. Instead religion is typically a social activity. And research indicates that social ties and when the most important. And then he hands. Religious people report higher levels of social support. And higher levels of social support. Leads to higher level of psychological well-being. And then he goes on to point out something i affirmed in the earlier thurmond when i talked about how relationships make you happier quote. Having a rich social network and feeling socially valued. Are key ingredients to finding happiness. Religious people are happier on average than non-religious people but the key variable. Does not appear to be religion itself. Or even the belief that god or something else loves you. It is rather the social connections of the religious life. Duck make. People happy. So as important as religious beliefs are. It is the caring interpersonal social aspects look at these lovely church ladies who are friends it's the social aspect of religion. That makes for great a happiness quote from another study. Attending religious services regularly and having close friends in the current location. Are the key to having a happier more satisfying life. Even attending services irregularly increases a sense of well-being so long as there is a circle of friendships within the community. And a strong shared religious identity. Ability to call on people for social support is very high. Even if the people are not necessarily people you would call your best friends. And then this author goes on so well being among religious people probably has more to do. With having religious friends. Send a habit of going to church warming the pew. Church attendees who say they have no close friends in church. People who say they participate. In private religious practices. Such a service is held at home or out in nature people to never come to church or those that do it just in nature. Are no happier than those who never attend. Congregational services. So this is very good news for all of us who believe is the value of the power. People coming together in one special place at 1 special time. To do the work of religion and the work of the spirit. Study after study shows. The thing apart of a local face-to-face communication. Has the power to bring you much greater happiness and contentment. In your living now this. Would be very bad news to one of our liberal heroes. Thomas jefferson. The famous for father of our nation. Who repeatedly identified himself as quote-unquote a unitarian. But never regularly attended as far as the historians know any of our early american congregations. Jefferson once famously declared without explanation. That he was obliged to be a unitarian all by myself. As elsewhere said he was obliged to be a stacked all by myself. Just rejecting the all-important social and communal aspect of religion. No i suppose there are few solitary and discipline guru types of the pictures you can but i just love that guy. I suppose there are few guru types. Who managed to create a rich and rewarding spiritual life. In some sort of pure and splendid isolation has a wi-fi connection up there. But based on the finding of all these studies about the positive social benefits of current gation alive. I believe most of us need the stimulation. The feedback. The fellowship and support and caring we find a good old neighborhood church or synagogue or mosque. Like this one. If our lives are to truly be rich. Early years of 21st centuries that there are many who consider themselves. On the cutting edge of religion. Cornell suggesting that because of the advances of modern communication technology. And a noticeable lack of interventionist in and commitment to. Established institutions of our culture in the part of younger americans. Many people are saying. But the brick-and-mortar going to sunday congregation. They have for centuries largely define the american legends experience. Are quickly becoming outdated and irrelevant dinosaurs. Of the past. And i don't know if you know it but they're about 300,000 congregations in america and many of them are struggling. They're not and we're not getting a lot of young people in our doors but a lot of congregations are struggling because it's. Youngest generation. Doesn't seem to be interested in the idea of a gathered congregation. Even in our own unitarian universalist movement there is a rising crescendo. A voices urging ministers and laity to consider moving past. The prevailing paradigm about quat's quotes what church should look like. Heather talking about things like a virtual church. Which were via community built and maintained through online internet forums like. Facebook and twitter god help me. Or even something called second life that online virtual world where people interact with one another through avatars. Azeron. Different strokes for different folks. Or some other structure. Spiritual community that would rarely if ever meet together. For worship and fellowship they would do the work of religion remotely or by themselves or in small groups. Well i for one welcome this consideration of shifting. Religious community toward new and more remote technology. Expressions formats and platforms. I nonetheless think that all this recent and very clear research about the emotional value of. Good old-fashioned face-to-face convocation a life. Cannot be ignored. Coming. To people-oriented places like this one on sunday and during the rest of the week. Is not only good for the soul which i hope we nourish air every sunday. It's also good for the body as the scientists have said. 4health. And good for the heart. Because participation in church community clearly increases. Your personal happiness and contentment. So i hope i have thoroughly persuaded you. That the spiritual engagement you find here with other members of this community is something that will bring you greater contentment. Beyond the obvious social and interpersonal benefits of keurig ational life. There is i think another even deeper aspect of spiritual engagement. Also persuaded leads to greater personal fulfillment. And contentment. And that is the fact. But the religious life. Call sus beyond the narrow confines. Of self-interest. And personal gratification. To pay attention religion calls us. To care for the world and persons around us religion by its nature. Calls us out of the shell of the anomic self. Word religion. You might not know has its route. In the latin word laghari. Which means to bind up. Religion. Is all about are purposely cultivating our connections. Our connections with and caring for all that which lies. Beyond the narrow confines of the cell. British rider wh auden once famously said. To pray to pay attention. Do something. Or someone. Other than yourself. To pray. Is to pay attention. Twosome. Or someone. Other than yourself. I believe that one can ultimately be happier fulfilled in this life. Unless you were active about the spiritual business of connecting and clothes and caring ways. To life and persons around you. Indeed the authors of the happiness study on which i've based the sermon series put it this way. I love the sentence. Spirituality can be defined as the intrinsic. Human capacity. For self-transcendence. The intrinsic human capacity for self-transcendence. In which the self. Is embedded in something greater than the self. Including the sacred. Edwards motivates the search for connectedness. Meaning. Purpose. And contribution. Let me see all this another way. From the opposite direction by way of a simple question. Have you ever in your life. No natalie self-absorbed or selfish person. Who is really happy. Have you ever known a really selfish person. To be happy. Did they have toys. Tarzan boats. But are they really happy. For me the answer is no. Only for our own self and family. Isolate ourselves and way that makes true satisfaction and contentment in life. Impossible. We can never truly be happy or fulfilled sealed in the airtight sarcophagus of the self. I like that that phrase i made it up. Airtight. Sarcophagus of the self can't be happy in there. It is only. By being truly expansively lovingly engage with the world and persons around you. Did you have any hope of finding the lasting joy and satisfaction that makes this life. That's steady glow of satisfaction. Alright. Our hour is almost up and it's time for me to wrap this up and way back in seminary my homiletic professor said that any good sermon. You tell him what you going to tell him. You tell him what you tell him. I didn't tell him what you told him. Important stage in the morning. Religion. Has the power to make us happy and bring real purpose. Regularly in the caring. Cauldron of community. Enclose and caring conversation. Communion and collaboration with others. 1 spiritual life cannot usually be done alone in some sort of jeffersonian. Splendid isolation quote on quote. We need the support the enrichment the feedback of others if we are ever to find the kind of spiritual engagement. Double blessing deepen our lives. Embrace of the self. With our which are little greedy ecos encouraged this. Narrow embrace of the cell. Religion is about widening out. Embracing the world. And everyone around you. The bottom line here dear friend. Is it only when we seek. Caring connection in communion with that which lies beyond our own skin. The streets of our own skin. We can ever hope. To make our lives. Works. Goodness. And contentment. And happiness. Only if you look beyond the self. And i say and mean. I'm just for sunday in june. My friend john curotto who is he. We will keep a place for you. Wherever you may go. Will sustain. Go in peace bring home two hearts that yearn. Keep a place for you. Size of days gone by. Our blessings we hold dear voices memory call. Sausalito. Go in peace spring hope two hearts that urine. We will keep. Tell you return.

uufvb_org

2013Dec29Sermon128.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. My name is beth pearson and we are so glad you have chosen to be with us this morning. We are congregation of open minds loving hearts and helping hands. People seeking to become our best selves even as we work to make a better world. Please know that you are welcome. Just as you come to us this morning. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight. Black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you are on top of the world. Down in the dumps or somewhere in between we are delighted to see you just as you come to us in all of your particularity and need. We hope you will find this service meaningful and enriching and that you will find something here this morning that nourishes your spirit. And feeds your soul. And gives you renewed energy and joy for the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. The theme of our sermon today. His truth. As opposed to the mean-spirited forms of communication. Did we see so frequently these days with half-truths and outright lies. As opening words we offer a quote by winifred that willard walther from the 7th playing interworld messages 1946. She said. Nobody wants mathematics from a methodist viewpoint. Nor physics as a presbyterian doctrine your chemistry as a congregational subject nor ethics from an episcopalian angle. But. With a chief and eternal concerned with truth. The church is becoming free intellectually and spiritually. Through truth were ever discovered. Unquote. My question before the house today. Is that true. Or is that wishful thinking. In line with our sermon today about truth and incivility. Ar reading comes from ernest h cherrington a leading tempers temperance journalists and activists in the pre prohibition era. He is quoted in a publication called leaves of gold printed in 1938. I quote. We are accustomed to say the truth makes men free. It does nothing of the kind. It is the knowledge of the truth that creates freedom. You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. We are now at that stage where the main emphasis must be laid on the dissemination of the truth. We need as we have never needed. A campaign of education. With men and women going hither and thither in a great lecture campaign. Weaving itself across this nation like a weaver's shuttle. We need a baptism of the right kind of literature periodicals and truth carrying messages that will make the people of the nations and the rest of the world. Sit up and take notice. We have reached the place where we can no longer take the defensive. We must once again resume the offensive. The colleges universities and high schools with the millions of young men and women in those institutions who are to take their place in the life of the nation just a few years hence. Are the laboratory where truth must be demonstrated. Before we get underway with a sermon. I suppose i should pause and say we are about to enter a new year aren't we. So happy new year 21 all. Yeah. Now let's delve into the meanness in america. Have you noticed in the last few years out easily and quickly so many people slide down to the meaner side of life. How easy it is to accept mean-spirited political advertising. How quickly we lap up anyting mean-spirited about an issue or a politician with whom we disagree. What's going on here. Why is it. Did we accept those mean-spirited diatribes directed at those of the opposite camp. And then get all hot and bothered at the mean comments directed at the issues and the people that we tend to support. Where is the first uu principle. Where is fairness. And honesty. Where is compassion. I'll tell you where it is. It's in the backseat. And mean. Is driving this juggernaut of a vehicle. Toward the cliff. Do we really want to sit back and laugh at all this stuff and cheer it on or should we be exercising a little righteous indignation. And stop accepting. The situation. If you do it for all the mean is maybe you should consider talking about it to people. Other than those who are your close friends or family. Stop preaching to the choir so to speak. Part of the problem seems to be the conviction. That if it's in front of your eyes. In black and white. We're on your computer screen or on the tv. Must be true. Right. Part of the problem seems to be the conviction. It seems most people when reading their newspapers believe every word. Even the editorials and the letters to the editor for what when they watch the commentary on tv than they watch the commentary on tv. They know they're listening to and watching someone with an agenda and what they say may not be the entire truth or could even be deliberately misleading. Let's take this a step further. When you read political ads and flyers sent to your home there's a tendency to believe what is printed. Especially about your own candidates. So let's turn to email. Now that's where i see the essence of meanness the most. What an acquaintance forward you an email that's a mean-spirited diatribe toward some current hot-button issue. Why is it. If so many of us are ready and willing to swallow the line being delivered hook. Wine & sinker. It just gets passed on to the next group of email correspondence without question. I'm talking about items at both praised my take on the issue and those that knock the other side of the issue. Everywhere i turn the truth is getting blown off and something inconsequential. That was really true and painful to watch in here in the last election. Both locally and nationally. The best can be said of this is. People just naturally seem to want to trust others and or it's part of the general feeling if it's in black and white in front of my eyes it must be true. But my experience truth is sharing the backseat with compassion. The majority of things being forwarded to others via email and through facebook or either totally wrong. Hugely exaggerated or at the very least misleading. The internet seems to bring out the worst in a lot of people. Because they can do things anonymously. They think it's great fun to originate stories and accusatory whiting's to hoodwink large numbers of people into believing something that is patently false. Or swapping exaggeration for example. A photograph and story during the presidential election hit the emails lambasted candidate mitt romney supposedly showing a group of children in front of an american flag with t-shirt spelling out the word money money. Someone had taken a campaign photo and digitally altered the original photo. There's the original. With t-shirts spelling the name romney. Digitally altered to say money previously. That's funny money. Chuckle but realize it is in fact mean. A similar thing happened to obama. A photo of an alleged document showing him having been born in kenya in 1964 raced across the internet. It turned out to be someone else's digitally altered australian birth registration document. Change to say the republic of kenya and showing barack hussein obama his name. Not only was it manipulated digitally they got the name of the country wrong. It was the dominion of kenya in the year that obama was born. In another country. Pure mean. Deliberately falsified. Unfortunately taken at face value by. Thousands of people. What politicians are not the only ones getting wrongly hammered on the internet. Several years ago an email began whipping around the internet stating that starbucks did not support the troops in iraq. It seems that was sergeant. Had heard something from a friend who heard it from someone else you're getting the picture there. But the sergeant all hot under the collar shut down his keyboard and he pounded out a scathing commentary on a starbuck and set it out to 10 of his friends. He discovered just a little bit later. That the information was completely wrong. So he's sending out a retraction to all 10 of his friends. But it was too late. Most of them had reddit. Got hot under the collar and forwarded it to 10 of their friends. Who in turn sent it on to several of their friends who sent it out to even more. None of them check the facts. All of them work. Perfectly happy. Ready to accept that a large corporation was totally at odds with most americans at the time. People in general seem to have a propensity to believe the worst about large corporations how about something that could affect us. Personally. Take the hoax about. An olympic virus that was supposed to wipe out your hard drive on your computer if you open some email labeled invitation. Now that email started circulating back in 2000. Panic all sorts of people. Faded away. Reappeared in 2006 for the olympics. 2009 for the olympics and relabeled. Black in the white house. And swiftly moved through the internet. It was all purely malicious and scary. No such an incurable virus has ever been found. Mcafee one of the largest antivirus companies research. They could find nothing. You watch. With the 2014 olympics coming up. Do not be surprised. To see this garbage reappear on your computer screen. Then there are the emails that put words into the mouths of famous people words that they never got hurt. Such as an email quoting bill cosby claiming that he wrote a piece saying that he was tired of being told he needed to spread his wealth around tired of people with no ambition living on the dole at his expense. He never said any such thing. The quote actually came from some bloggers and somebody put those words into cosby's mouth emailed it out and it spread like wildfire. My facebook is another place where such. Untrue stories spread and facebook has been the victim of such tall tales and 2009-10 11:12 and this year. A story kept on appearing that facebook was going to start charging subscription rates to its users. That caused a huge backlash every time it came around. And every time it was totally untrue. Frankly. I've pretty well reach the point. We're look with suspicion upon idiot. Electronic item that is forwarded to be especially if it's passed through several hands before reaching me. And as far as advertising printed or video. Tv or radio. If they have an accusatory tone. Even about those products that i just like. Flippin chicken levi any issue of the day. I don't believe any of them. Because everyone seems to be buying into this mean spirited and truth altering method of communication. What am i eating at here. Is the notion. All this kind of activity violate every sense of fair play and compassion in human affairs that i can bring to mind. And william urging one at all to do. As far as email and facebook is concerned. Is taxis accusatory and off-kilter stories with the same skepticism you normally show when listening to some wild-eyed commentator who lets say like rush limbaugh. Or the ultra sarcastic verbiage coming from stephen colbert. And before you send one of those emails off to a bunch of your friends check them. Weather level of truth it's easy. To do. If you're interested. Grab a pencil right now i'm going to tell you how to do it. Write this down. It's a website. Trusted by law enforcement and many others for ferreting out the real story. Snopes.com. Exxon website. Like i said trusted by a lot of people they do real diligent work there's another one called truthorfiction.com. As far as i've been able to tell they do not exhibit bias. There are a few other so-called fact finding websites that are biased. They don't warn you that they lean one way or the other. Lape report. To be even-handed. But don't take my word for any of this. Just go to one or both of those website snopes.com or truthorfiction.com. And be astounded. At the huge number of false and misleading email stories that they have researched and debunked. It's amazing. More trouble than it's worth you say. Let it go you say. Don't matter you say. Well yes it does matter. Because in my mind that all contributes to the increasingly shallow depths of intellect in america. It shows a lack of self-education. A lack of proper education of our children. So. Let me climb down for my soapbox now. Yeah i just talked to you a little bit. Some people say that this mean-spirited way of being. Goes in cycles. Well maybe so. But i think we need to break that cycle. I'm concerned about the moral fiber of our country as a whole. In my mind. It's just far too much willingness. To accept the meanest. The deliberate falsehood. And the intended misinformation. Has. Portable life. I think that's the wrong path to take. That path. Is taking our nation. Into the corner where one wears a dunce hat. You know that conical shaped hat that symbolizes this person's not too terribly smart. And what's worse. Doesn't air. One of the things happening to me. As a result of all this mudslinging and meanness and political discourse in elsewhere. I've almost. Lost all my face. In the political process. Not what i appear. Is that if i'm beginning to lose my faith. How is everybody else doing. The my particular personality is such. That i cling to beliefs. Up to the point where they are totally debunked. Beyond question. For example. And i'm sorry to admit this. But i was in nixon supporter for a long time after it became obvious to most others that the man was pretty rotten. I was extremely reluctant. To believe that my president. Had done such things. But i finally had to concede the point. I bring that up. To point out that if. If i. So slow to accept things that are contrary to my wishes in my beliefs. How are other people doing. When it comes to losing their faith. In the political process. Are we already falling down that mountain. Got to bring this into the pulpit. And now this is a sermon not just a rat in a rave. If we. As unitarian universalist. And other religious bodies. Simply sit on our hands. And do not speak up about this trend toward being mean and nasty. What's going to happen to our country. We say. That we believe that every human being should be extended that inherent worth and dignity that our first principal talks about. Yet how many of us in considering an issue with which we have strong disagreement. Are willing to grant. That inherent worth and dignity to the people on the opposite side of the fence. Let's say. The abortion issue. If you support abortion. Are you willing to grant. That the majority. Of those who oppose it. Are doing sort of a genuine belief. And that you should grant them. The inherent worth and dignity of anyone else. Even those rabid ones who are in your face on the subject. We say. We seek out justice. Equity and compassionate human relations. But most of us seem to be willing to believe the worst evil motives that the opposition might possibly harbor. And regurgitate it for public consumption. We say. That we seek a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. But when we hear or read stories about someone we strongly disagree with on an issue story is a testament and a terrible light. Do we just accept that story. And not question the motives of the originator of the story. Are we willing to believe these evils. Because we want them to be true. We say. Do we support the right of conscience. The where is our conscience. When we hit the forward button to send the rumor laden email out to others of our acquaintance. Or posted on facebook. Without a single father to his truthfulness. 20k. We're all human aren't we. But perhaps. We should be willing to take a sharp look. And how we acted react. When we find ourselves being opposed and things we take personally. Maybe when something starts going against our grain we should be willing to. Think out-of-the-box. I'm about to launch into a slightly off-color story. About thinking out of the box. A husband takes his wife. To play her first game of golf. Of course the wife promptly hack surfers shot right through the window of the biggest house adjacent to the course. The husband cringe. I warned you to be careful now we got to go up there find the owner apologized see how much your lousy drive is going to cost us. So the couple walks up to the house and knocked on the door wormboy says. Come on inn. Are you the people real. Broke my window in that bottle. What the people saw when they came in was. Broken glass all over the place. A really nice face. Shattered. On the floor. Yeah we're sure sorry about that the husband said. Oh no apology is necessary actually i want to thank you. You see i'm a genie. I've been trapped in that bottle for a thousand years. Now that you release me. I'm allowed to grant three wishes i'll give you each one wish but if you don't mind i'll keep the last wish for myself. Wow that's great said the husband. He pondered just a moment blurted out high like a million dollars a year for the rest of my life. No problem said the genie. You got it. It's the least i can do and i'll guarantee you a long healthy life. And now young lady what would you like to have. I'd like to own a gorgeous home and every country in the world she said consider it done the genie said and your homes will always be safe from fire burglary and natural disaster. And now the couple ask the genie. What's your wish. Well. Since i've been trapped in that bottle for a thousand years. And i haven't been with a woman in that time. My wishes to live with your wife. The husband looked at his wife and he says g honey you know we both now have a fortunate all those houses what do you think. Over for a few moments and she said you know you're right considering our good fortune i guess i wouldn't mind but how about you well. I love you sweetheart and i do the same thing for you. So the genie and the woman went upstairs where they spent the rest of the afternoon. The genie was insatiable. About three hours later the genie rolls over and he looks directly into her eyes. Penny asked. How old are you and your husband. Why we're both 35 she responded breathlessly. No kidding he said. 35 years old. And you both still believe in genies. It was pretty mean to. And shows the folly hoping to willing to take a story at face value. Being willing to question stories and willing to invest just a little bit of effort and time into educating ourselves on the subject matter at hand is something i come into to you wholeheartedly. So i feel the need here to paws. And quote to you from a sermon that was delivered delivered by uu minister reverend on von foerster to this congregation many many years ago. He said quote. Caught between point and counterpoint are we. Caught between angels and demons. What good fortune did weaken know it. What good fortune that we can wrestle our hallelujahs in our grounds to a draw and then give birth to laughter. Robin vaughn forester went on. We know not to aspire to hold us and yet be forever anxious over fractured us. Is nothing short of ludicrous. And this is our salvation. Roll the war angels must rest from singing. Our demons must also rest from their despair when the humor of our situation overtakes us. There is hope. As long as we can respond to the jester. I say to you and closing. Look with a scant two things. Keep your sense of humor about you. Keep believing there are more good and decent people than mean ones out there in the world. The mean ones. Her just loud. And we need to match. They're vale. My final words to you today. Take the heart the hindu word. Namaste. I honor and recognize the spirit of the divine which resides in you. And me. Everyone else in the entire world. Use the essence of that far. The guide you when you find yourself confronted. With mean-spirited untruthful or twisted truth. Weather in print. Electronic or otherwise. In other words. Be firm in your beliefs found in the seven principles of uu. Amen. And the lost.

uufvb_org

2014Sep07Sermon32.mp3

Well good morning. And welcome back is first sunday after labor day. I'm glad to see so many of you here this morning. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we are so pleased you decided to start this day with us. We are congregation is the graphics of open minds loving hearts and helping hands people individually seeking to become our best selves. Even as together in this community we work to make. This world a better place. And please know you're welcome. Just as you come to us. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. What do you have a ged or a phd. Whether you were a visitor this morning or have been here for decades. Whether you're feeling on top of the world right now or down in the dumps or somewhere in between we welcome you. And want to make you feel at home here. We hope you'll find our services morning meaningful and enriching and that you will find something here this morning to pick with you. It feeds your spirit and nourishes your soul and gives you renewed energy and purpose for living life. Years ago i set the unitarian universalist principles into a responsive reading. This little thing is the most widely used thing i've ever written it's used by people all over the denomination are regular basis. I'd like us to begin our worship by sharing this it will be above also. There it is. Your part is indented. This together. In a world with so much hatred and violence. We need a liver. In a world with so much brutality and steer. In a world with so many persons. Abused and neglected. In a world with so much dogmatism and falsehood. In a world was so much tyranny and oppression. In a world was so much inequality and strife. In the world was so much environmental degradation. Backpage independent rational dispensary. Whiskey arkansas. And then the world. With so much uncertainty and despair. Renee. A religious spirit. Is a pilgrim. A spirit in search of a way of life. That is authentic. And true to itself. Call to some serious engagement at the world it is not about standing still. All the status quo. Religious living. Is about movement. It's about journey. A religious spirit. Is by nature. A question. Spirit. For most of us. That questing takes the form of primary questions. Questions of meaning and purpose. Questions sacred and secular. Questions of destiny. End destination. Questions of how. And why. And whence and whither. Where. And i. How important these questions are. So they make of us philosophers and dreamers. Poets and singers. Sinkers. Mathematician. Builders. Explorers. The questions you ask. Important. In many churches. The challenge of faith. Is a fairly passive. Or receptive. Activity. The beliefs of tradition. Systemically state. An organized overtime. By theologians. Introduction. They are simply handed down. They're handed down to the believers. Who live in accordance with those. Membership and practice in such a churches. Is largely a matter of conformity and acceptance. Oven already defined. And unitarian universalist tradition. We have intentionally chosen a different basis for religious community. Our way is not based. On any fixed body of doctrine. It has been our common practice going back over four centuries. To the first unitarian communities in europe. Not. To adopt. A set of creedal formula. For vocabulary. As a condition. Membership. Instead. We have fashion together a style that is decidedly not. And not the sole province. A professional theologians. How are unitarian universalist church. Takes a different approach to religion. It is an approach. That values connection. Over conformity. Diversity. / division. Reasoned ethics. Over blind. We simply do not ask those who would join our church. Do you believe. We know there is a much more important question for us all on our journey. The root question upon which any personal theology. Or church community must be faced. We only asked of those who would walk with us. Do you. So this morning as we transition from summer into fall and coincidentally as i begin my fifth year as you're settled minister. My how time flies time flies when you're having fun. Honest sunday we transition from summer into fall i begin a brand new sermon series. Which i will preach on occasional sundays over the coming months about the six official sources. Of our unitarian universalist faith now it is my educated guess. If you had absolutely no idea until i announce this sermon series. That unitarian-universalism even had an official list of sources. But it does. Most of you are pretty familiar with our 7 official and guiding principles we print them faithfully every sunday in the order service. And incorporated them into the opening words. This morning. And here they are projected. Over again. These are the seven principles which hold us together as a faith community. As found in the by-laws of the denomination unitarian universalist association. But just a bit of important history of our mine. These seven principles of ours were not as i am sure you understand found on ancient tablets centuries ago on a mountaintop. Lord descend from heaven into the hands of ralph waldo emerson. And henry david thoreau or any of the other great you use of the past. They are rather the result these principles. Of hundreds of years of evolution of our free church tradition. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries here in america. Both the unitarians and the universalist faith statements documents. Which articulated their liberal christian beliefs. But our current and dare i say modern list of seven principles didn't begin to take shape until during world war. When the american unitarian association lane plan. For the expansion of our faith following world war ii. Commissioned the most famous articulate minister of the time. Of washington dc he was a great man. Many of his sermons were published in the washington post on monday mornings after he preached and he was. He was sort of the. Famous famous preacher of the day. They asked him to head up a committee. Charge was coming up with a statement that would quote. Set the theological ground for the girls. Of the movement. And here are the five guiding principles they came up with in the mid-1940s as the world was being ravaged by world war ii. And i'm going to read five principles. Unitarian faith individual freedom of belief. Discipleship. To advancing truth. The democratic process. In human relations. Universal brotherhood. I'm / nation. Race or creed that was pretty amazing during world war ii. And finally allegiance to the cause. United. World community again. Hard beliefs. Can 1943. These five liberal principles worked well for the denomination in the years following world war. Incredible rapid growth in our congregations especially in the burgeoning baby-boomer suburbs. Of america's expanding. The church i serve river road unitarian bethesda by 1963 had 600 children in sunday school. Indeed in 1961 when the universalist denominations finally. These five principles were incorporated with a few other affirmations and ideas. End of the bylaws of the new denomination. But just a few years later in the late 1970s especially women in the movement. Demanded a more gender-inclusive statement of our principles and purposes. Do you erase pencil several agonizing years carefully drafting a new statement. Ab7 foundational principles which after much debate and revision. We're finally officially adopted by the delegates of the general assembly in atlanta. In 1984 and this is the seventh the list of the seven principles and i've already shown you. That is the document adopted in 84 which we still use 30 years later. Now. The seven principles which again. By the denomination. Because our free faith is is as the reading today in plaid is not a static thing it's a voyage. They will be revised. These seven principles none-the-less are today they serve us as the center and soul of our faith tradition. Because these seven statements do reflect our core values and beliefs. As a religion. They guide us as we strive to live out our lives in this troubled world. If you remember that last summer the summer of 13. I preached the 7-part sermon series. One by one on these seven principles. And if you amidst that series reflecting. Click on recent sermons and scroll back to last summer and you can you can look at all seven of of them. But enough on the well-known principles of our faith. As i've already said this morning i'm beginning a series on the sources. Of our tradition. After enumerating are seven principles the bylaws of the denomination. Immediately go on to identify. Official foundational sources. That gives shape to our face. And here they are. This may be an unfamiliar document to somebody i'm just going to read them through. The living tradition the bylaws say which we shared draws from many sources first. Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder affirmed in all cultures. Which spirit. An openness to the forces with create an apple light on it that's the one i'm going to talk about this morning. It's powered by. Words ending in men. Which challenged us to confront powers and structures of evil. With justice compassion and the transforming power of love. Third wisdom. From the world's religions which inspire us. In our ethical. And spiritual life. 4. Jewish and christian teachings. Which college to respond to god's love. By loving our neighbors as ourselves. Next humanist teachings. Would counsel us to heed the guidance of reason. And the results of science. And warned us against idolatries of the mind and spirit. And lastly six. Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions. Which celebrate the sacred circle of life. And instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature and actually this six source was added a little later. As neo-pagan center movement said hey how about this important. Set of traditions as well. And then the statement. Grateful for the religious pluralism. Which enriches and the nobles our faith we are inspired to deepen our understanding. And expand our vision. As free congregations we enter into this covenant. Promising one another our mutual trust. And support. No. You may well wonder why our free-thinking denomination has bothered at all to formally enumerate six sources. Which informant shape a tradition. It's because like all faith traditions ours needs to answer.. Logical question. The epistemological question. In religion before. The question is by what authority. Does your faith tradition. Say something is real or true. Is good. Or right. Because epistemology which is kind of a fancy academic and philosophical word it simply means the methods or grounds or siri. Acknowledge. So the episcopal question is this by what authority. I think it's. Obvious to anyone who thinks about it. Pedophile religion any religion answer that question in a reasonable manner. It isn't real intellectual and spiritual trouble. Who says. If you if your face says i believe in purple unicorns. By what source do you say that true or real. No. For many traditional christian religions as i'm sure all of you understand indeed for most of the christian congregations here in vero beach. The epistemological question for them is answered it away something like this. In mainstream. Kristen customology. The source of authority for our religion is the word of god. And the teachings of jesus as recorded in the bible. And as interpreted by church doctrine. And tradition. Christian articulations is a clear. And reasonable epistemology. It's it's reasonable. Indeed in the 18th and 19th centuries both the early christian unitarians and the early christian universalist. Had biblically-based epistemology. Very similar. To that one jesus differently than a calvinist. But they still had an epistemology. Approximately as this one. Both early unitarianism and early universalism. Relied almost exclusively on biblical scripture. Albeit their unit of albeit their liberal interpretive understandings. To understand the nature of god and the teachings of jesus. As the source for ultimate truth. Unethical behavior we were biblically-based traditions. What's the arrival of the 20th century. Both unitarianism and universalism as faith traditions began to generally open. Evie influenced by religious humanism. And the other great religions of the world in other words we stopped around 1900. Being stuck in the in the in the in the christian narrative the christianaires. The confines of the life of jesus. And most especially we were interested in learning from the eastern traditions of buddhism hinduism american humanism. With the arrival of the twentieth century we began to embrace. How much wider and more inclusive spirituality and epistemology. And began to move beyond. The ones comfortable confines of biblical and christian roots. Unitarian universalist as they increasingly encounter the wisdom of other religions and philosophies of the world. Especially the teachings of modernism. The sources then. Moved way beyond christianity and began to look a lot more like the the list that i put up before. This one it looks more like this with the expansion of our understanding beyond christianity. Now. You will see that in honor of our distinctly judeo-christian roots. Bat the exit the fourth one flip flip the fourth one if you can. Set an honor of our judeo-christian roots. The fourth source of unitarianism is jewish and christian teachings. And i will address this all-important fourth source later in the sermon series. But as i'm sure is already caught your attention. Modern you use while honoring and valuing. Do not see jewish and christian teachings. As the first and foremost epistemological source of our faith 4th. But the three other sources can you go back one slide to the. There it is. These are the first three. That they mention. And what did they list as first and therefore arguably thought of as formal. Source. The topic i'm doing today. It's very interesting i think very telling. The first source of unitarian universalist. Is direct experience. Direct personal experience. Transcending mystery and wonder i'm not. No. To me all this whole statement is useful and important. But i'll get through every part of it. Quickly. By far the most important part of the statement are the first two words. Direct. Experience. You remember that your festival logical question iphone. Say something is real or true gutter right well in our face tradition. The single most important source of truth and wisdom and moral guidance. It's not something written in an ancient book or brought down on ancient tablets. What is your own direct personal experience with the world. Assertion. That gives great authority and credence to your own personal and direct experience with life. That's us radically apart from most american face tradition. Which we have already observed believe that the single most important source of truth and wisdom in life. Is the holy bible that reveals the law of god. And the teachings of jesus. To the faithful. But for us unitarian-universalist it is our own direct and personal experience with the world. That must first and foremost be consulted. And trusted as we shape our spiritual and our ethical lives. In our faith tradition than each individual is urge to engage the world. And use unusual to very important words. Daryl reason. And their own conscience. Their own direct experience. To determine what they must believe. What is an ultimate value and how even more importantly how they must live. This radical trust. And empowerment of the individual. Is foundational to understanding our faith. Here in this faith communities going to tell you. How to understand the world. Or shape the purpose and meaning of your life. Will be with you and will help. Think it through but we can't do that for you that's work. Each individual. Epistemological. That your own heart. And your own mind will over a lifetime show you the way. What is real and true to what is golden rice. Here we truly believe he can be trusted. With that spiritual and ethical freedom and responsibility we trust you. To do that work. Define what is real and true what is good and right. Now as i'm sure you can all understand and some theological quarters specifically. And mainly christian conservative one. Wii u use have been sharply criticized over the centuries. For having given so much authority to each individual to discover their their own truths. And chart their own spiritual journeys it has been passionately suggested by the orthodox. Play more conservative tradition. The human individuals when left to their own intellectual and spiritual devices. Can wander off. Into dangerous and erroneous theological and ethical places. And i might agree with this fear about the open epistemology of our free church tradition. If this first source of authority on direct experience. Was the only source we list. But if you will notice. And this is very important for understanding our face tradition. We immediately follow this first source about direct experience trust in your own experience. With five other sources. Five other solid time-honored sources of religious truth and ethical precepts. That bind unitarian-universalism to all humanity's great spiritual and ethical traditions. Prophetic leaders of the world those are all external sources. That rely on the wisdom of human history. It is very important to remember that the individualism and the freedom we so boldly lift up. This is the second half of it experience is. Is constrained offset and balance. By these other sources of our faith which rely on thousands of years of diverse religious insight and wisdom traditions. So what i'm saying this morning is it if you look at all of these six sources put together. You are not free. In this liberal religious community to quote unquote believe anything you want. Constantly need to blend. And compare your own direct experience. The first source. With all of these other next five. This crucial. Epistemological balance in our tradition. Between your own personal direct first-hand experience. In the time-honored spiritual and ethical wisdom of all of humanity's great traditions. It's a balancing act between. Alright. So now that we have. That epistemological balance question settled least it's settled in my mind. We can move on to the rest of this first source statements so we're going to go on now beyond experience to the rest of this statement. Because. You have to answer the question direct experience of what. I need direct experience of purple unicorn snow. Direct experience. All that transcending mystery and wonder affirmed in all cultures. Which moves us to renewal to spirit and an openness to the forces. Which create a top whole life now that. Quite a spiritual mouthful isn't it. How do i. Did the denominational leaders drafting the statement back in 1984 how did they come up with that. Which was subsequently officially voted on at a general assembly by delegates representing every congregation in the movement. I think it is obvious. It should be obvious to you that they struggled long and hard and i can tell you that they work diligently. For more than a year. Tacoma. With an inclusive but hopefully meaningful statement. The could be embraced by unitarian-universalist across the illogical and philosophical spectrum. While still using the language which are former uua prison is bill sinkford call. A language of reverence. That would reflect our spiritual siri that's seriousness as a movement in other words. Without allegiance to either the theorists in our movement or the humanists in our movement or anybody in between. They work to find. A way to affirm. But ours was a spiritual movement. Concerned with deep and holy and sacred and ultimate things. Without exploding anybody or being too specific a humanist can look at that. Conservative christian unitarian at king's chapel in boston. That the transcending the screen wonder that to me is gone. The political genius if you will of this rather broad and inclusive statement. Is justice that most unitarian universalist can look at it and confine. Some meaningful way. To interpret that for the. In the context of their own spiritual search. No some might dismiss this rather vague spiritual statement. As a terrible example of what happens whenever a committee of people is put in charge. Drafting a. I mean this was an impossible task impossible task force which would have irritated the humanist. Possible document to create. But given our broad and interesting theological diversity i think they actually did a pretty good job of coming up with a statement. That will work for us. In any case it is my hope that everyone in this congregation no matter. Where you are on your individual spiritual path. No matter. How precisely you understand. The purpose of life on this planet i hope that everyone can read into that first source. Something that is meaningful. For them personally tell you how i relate to it. As i have regularly shared from this pulpit over the four years that i've been you're settled minister. In my own spiritual life i regularly experience something that i can only call. A fragile yet reliable spirit of holiness. Purpose and grace. That is sunk down deep down into everyday. Things on this planet it's not in charge of creation. But it's reliable and it's there and i see it in many ways. I feel this life-sustaining and loving spirit on a daily basis. In the manifold beauty of nature. In the goodness and compassion of persons and communities. In the love and care of my family and friends. I even sent it deep within my own heart. As i seek to grow in my own capacity to become more loving. More compassionate more gracious. Elmore joyful. In my spiritual life. This. Spirit of holiness. And health that i feel so present it gives me hope and meaning even though it cannot conquer all the evil in the world. God knows there's so much wrong with our world. It's there. Elder shores me that my life can have both purpose in troy. For me the sacred spirit the breathe through my world is very much a transcending. Mystery and wonder and it does leave me. To renewal my spirit and openness in my heart to the forces would create. And i pull life support so that's how i personally relate to the statement. And i hope that each of you whether you call. If god or spirit or. Or justice or beauty or holiness or something else. But you have some spiritual something. Which is larger and lovelier and more lasting than yourself something that transcends you. Which calls you in your spiritual life calls you back in a few to purpose and decency and goodness and love i hope you. Something like. Burning in you. What is essential to remember as unitary as a unitarian universalist. Is it here in this tradition. We first and foremost expect you again. To rely on and trust your own direct experience. To inform and animate and inspire your personal faith. Well at the same time we expect you to honor. And respect all those other great sources. Of of human wisdom. That the six sources identify. But first and foremost we ask you to use your own reason. And your own conscience and i'm really talking about this next week and my sermon on the banality of evil. Because so often are lies we have to know how to listen to our conscience. To avoid evil. We asked you to trust. This. To shape your own spiritual and ethical conclusions. As you responsibly live your life. Yes our liberal faith gives you a great deal of freedom to chart your own spiritual course. But always always within the light of the other five sources enumerated. So the bottom line is it in our free church tradition. Your personal faith. Should arrive free and unfettered. From within your own heart and mind constantly be nourished. By the wisdom of the human centuries. If it's both and you see. In our face tradition. We say trust your own mind and heart but at the same time. Listen to the mind and the heart of universal human understanding. And traditions. This interplay. Between the self. And universal human understandings. It's in the center play. That we find. Proper balance. And this interplay. Is enough to keep all of us busy. For a spiritual lifetime. And i say and you on this sunday. I meant. I send you on your way to your week with these words adapted. From the pueblo indians of new mexico. Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth. Hold on to what you believe. Even if it is a tree. The stands by itself. Hold on to what you must do. Even if it is a long way from here. Hold on to life. Even if it is easier. To let go. Hold onto my hand. Even when. We are apart. God bless.

uufvb_org

2010Dec26Sermon128.mp3

My hope this morning. Just remind you with some things you do not want to ride. Do your list. Of new year's resolutions. But i should remind you that i am not the presenter today i am the reader. This presentation was delivered at 43rd avenue on february 24th 2002. Why are then interim minister the reverend donald w long forester. But i called to ask his permission to read it to you. Donald only gave me that permission. But asked me to extend his warm regards. Do all his friends here. In vero beach. His title was and i change it slightly. His title was. The basics. Up self portrait. Do you know what a warrior worthy warrior is. It worried boiler is someone who overhears a conversation on the bus or at the airport. About poppers weight problem. And that agonizes the rest of the day and the night. Ben on how to help opera overcome. And lose some weight. Such a problem is none of anyone's business. Unless of course you're scale washers for weight watchers. But if you are a worry warrior. Anyone's problem will cause you to lose sleep. We're at worried about your wallowing in one's own mental agony. Is more important. Then whatever problem. Is being worried about. Actually. Worried boiling is kid stuff if you are really serious about maintaining. A high level of s6 central agony. And my experience in the ministry is that existential. Personal agony. Tool. Is a high personal and collective priority. In theological terms this means that people not only acknowledge. But they want to be sinners. They are. Sinners. Now this is not a happy thought. But if this is the case. And if the phrase deeds not creed's. Is the be our watchword. The the maximizing of personal agony should be given. Serious attention. Google most of us have been only middling massacre. Going about the important task of worrying over acknowledged and unacknowledged guilt. Only hit or miss. Methods. Self-flagellation. As your spiritual leader i feel i should take the lead and teach you some more effective methods of achieving. Mental agony. Then you may already know. If i must deal with guilt and sin let it be with people who are confident. Indirect pressure. If you listen closely. When you leave here this morning you will know some of the best techniques for putting yourself down. You'll be better able to brew. Then before. You can be proficient at riggers regret. And self-recrimination. You can become a true child of our puritan forefathers and foremothers. Nba's guilt-ridden and dismal as god made adam and eve after they bit into. The forbidden fruit. You will make a frantic search. For some psychological fig-leaf. You will in short be better able to strive for excellence. An individualist. Agonizing. Or. If you decide you will be able to use what you learn to avoid. Such negative pitbulls. If you really want to avoid them. And thereby live a more satisfying lee positive. Mentally healthy life. My preference is to make this choice easier. By giving you an authoritarian recommendation for you. Portobello against. After all in our liberal context if the prichard prescribes any course of action. You're supposed. The do the opposite. To listen. Not the words of a specialist. And short stealth torcher. Or anyone who works with people you have to know these things if you are a minister. Even more importantly. You have to know it. In order not. To do it. Remove your practice of self-torture from an erratic exercise of a folk art. Into the systemic tract. Of a science. You need to know to import. How progressively to worsen your personal anxieties. And how to make people. Reject you. The first is something you can do a loan in the depression of your own bed. Or in your own bloom closet. The 2nd. It's something that can quickly drive people away so that you can return to your depression. Gloom. But do so with a sharpened sense of self. People who know how to make other people totally resent them. Become real pros. But self-torture. No obviously there are nothing but amateurs in this room this morning. The proles are at home brooding. So let me get on with a description of techniques that can make you unable or unwilling ever. Get out of bed again. First. You need to know how to create. Play first-class anxiety. Otherwise you have only simple everyday type worries that anyone of us can cope with. Such as. Whether your doctor's appointment is tomorrow or the day after. Or did you leave your car lights on. Or do you have enough milk at home. The first to be dealt with my telephone call. The second by quick trip to the parking lot. And the third. By stopping at the grocery store on your way home. These. Only solve a problem with what you needed yourself. I really first-class anxiety must meet three conditions which these do not. First. There must be hell to pay. If your fears proved to be true. Second. There must be some evidence that your fears will. Prove. To be true. Panther. There must be a substantial period of time to wait. Before you can find out if your fear is true. But a solvable problem can be made into. A first-class anxiety. Just listen. A classic example of a solvable problem can be. Victory elevated to a first-class anxiety is the fear that you were coming down with an obscure. But deadly disease. For this to work well you would have to choose a disease that could have dangerous complication. And worse. Require lengthy. Spencer's painful. And humiliating treatment. If you are approved to have it. It is even better if you have chosen a disease whose early symptoms are so general. You would find them in a common cold. Or upset stomach. You're really score high if you have to take time off from work or your regular activities. And spend several days in the hospital. Undergoing tests. And your whole worried is elevated to an anxiety of the first magnitude. If you cannot bring yourself to go to the hospital. Because of the fear that it will prove to be all in your. And the cops don't do it all is the underlying fear. That if you just sit back. And don't do anything. It soon maybe too late. To do anything about it. If you can succeed in making yourself believe that both action and in action. Are impossible. You have created an exquisite tools which to torture yourself. And if you're really are ill. Or about to be. You can make things much worse. The name might have been. By being unable. To do any. Another practice that will worsen your anxieties as to have a time set aside. Simply to brew. You can call it meditation. For prayer. Or simply solitude. As long as you do these things. With a brooding attitude. If done properly. Brooding will create a happily depressed. Background. For your first class. Anxiety. The best time to brutus usually sunday afternoon. That hiatus between the frantic pressures of saturday night. And returning to work. On monday morning. Another good time. Is that an evening your friends are having a party. Do wish you would not been. Showman practicing self-torture will instinctively make good use of rooting time. But if you need specific exercises to get started. Your arsenal. Write a letter to someone. Miller. Or send it by late night email. And then try to figure out which part. Mike most easily dismiss understood. Delhi medical book. Copy down the symptoms of a dozen fatal diseases. And see how many of these symptoms. You already have. An excellent device to create mental and emotional agony used to make some lists. List of what's wrong with other people's behavior or ideas. What's wrong with society. And where god or the universe left you dangling. Or favorite someone else over you. On some ethical or religious. Or interpersonal issue. If you do all of these. You can start yourself. On a downhill slide. It would prove hard. Making yourself miserable in the privacy of your own home has its woeful pleasures. But just doing this to yourself become boring. After a while. Beside you can't know. But you made it into the big league agonizer is until you are able to make other people put you down. In a way that justifies. A self-righteous. Response. From you. This brings me to the second important thing you need to know. Tumi. Making yourself miserable. And what science. This is the process of getting others. To reject you. Total. Abysmally. No obviously the more people you can get to dislike you. The more miserable. The first thing you need for rejection as a suitable reject me men image. Such an image requires you to expunged from your personality. Any appealing qualities that might encourage people to accept you. And indeed to be. In alphabetical order. Unapologetic. Boring. Critical. Cynical. Complaining. Impatient. Irritable jealous nervous suspicious. Tendentious vituperative. And is wishy-washy. Is prudence will allow. You don't want anyone to knock you on the head. So you shouldn't get too extreme here. Don't other people. Motive. Taking yourself too seriously. Nurse grudges. Salt. Feel bad. P.m. possum. Complete. Remember. The reject me image if not everything. Is necessary to making that irritating first impression. It will bring out the worst in others. So that they will automatically inflict. They're worse. On you. Matthew stablished ineffective reject me image. How do you go about getting others to put you down in a meaning for what. There are two basic weights. Unremitting apology. And. The reject. Formula. Both of these are tricky. Because it's a tough world out there and the people you are trying to get to reject you. Baby crying. To get you to reject them. Unremitting. Apology. It helps to have a few standard collection of apologetic remarks on hand. For ordinary use. Here are some examples. On telling a joke begin. I guess the story doesn't have much. I'm going out with someone for an evening say. I wanted to take you to a better place but i couldn't get reservations. On serving dinner to a guest say. It may not taste so bad you. But this isn't the way it supposed to taste. You got the idea. Unremittingly. Apologize. Never leave the impression you deserve any positive consideration. Anouk. Very likely. Therefore. No compliment coming your way. Should be left. Untainted. If someone says. You're looking great. Reply. I need to lose 5 lb. If they say. That was clever of you. Just reply. Unremittingly. Apologize. Surgically formula which i mentioned is a finely tuned process for trapping the other person. In doing apparently instant. Put down. It has three moons. You asked for a vote of confidence in a way that suggests. You don't deserve it. Where you refuse to accept any vote of confidence. And ask again. Being sure to make rejection. The easier response. And when you succeed in winning rejection however slight. Just let them know you're terribly. Assurance. Vista shores. Future rejections that will enable you to savor the poor me elements of self righteous. An example of how this works. Move number one usa. I suppose you already have plans for tonight don't you. Potential ejector says nothing definite. What. New number two. You say. Oh. Well i was thinking of having some people over. No i don't really know how interesting you would find them. You do have other plans don't you. Rejection says well yes i did sort of promise these people. Maybe some other time. Meet number 3 you say. You never seem to have any time for me anymore. Now that you've made other friend. The versatility of this formula is immense. You can use it to lose your job by trapping your boss into finally agreeing with your low opinion of yourself. You can avoid new romantic relationships or destroy those who already have by leading your spouse or lover into pointing out your false. And then self. Withdrawing. You can use it to lose all of your friends. By making them aware of how much. More successful than they are. And how much happier they are how much less they have to worry about. Then you. Altogether a reject me images supplemented by systematic use. The apologies and self-righteous ploys of the reject me formula. Will ensure that you have a lot of time alone. In which debruin. In fact the truly efficient self misery makers are left alone and have all day everyday. In which two pity. Stem cell. That is a condition to which lesser mortals can only aspire. But surely i've given enough information for you to judge how far along the road to ultimate self misery. You have taken yourself. Now that you know how to do it. You have to decide if you want to be. A big league. Full-time. Pro agonist. Another close. On and on sertiko note. On the off chance that someone here might think i really am recommending. That we torture. Partial. Is it a bit boneheaded to push ourselves to such ridiculous. Streams of self-torture as i've described. Certainly we all have our private guilt. And suspicions of unworthiness. But to set ourselves up and set up other people. So that our guilt and unworthiness has. Control our lives. Defeat. Drives us away from being what are more positive in ourselves. Julie walters. Tubi. We have antenna stubbe. Well we're of one another. And not just. Of ourselves. To be moved. Buy another. And not just. By our own fear. We haven't ennis to live whole fulfilling. Self-affirming people affirming live. If we don't let our reject me dynamics. Getting our way. We have an interest to extend ourselves to listen. The sing the share the joys of life. With others. If we do not trap ourselves. And it downward self misery making. Slide. But it is so easy to slide in. It's so easy to convince ourselves of the evil in life is pursuing us and deceiving us. Where is it usually is we. Who pursue it. Ngcu. Are so. Let me conclude by actually stating the two main points that i've developed. More by implication. Send directly. First. We have a lot of control. Over just how miserable and alone we want. And second. If we know how to make ourselves miserable. We also have a lot of knowledge. How to make ourselves. The other way. Happy. A joy to be with. And filled with optimism. About positive outcome.

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2011May29Sermon128.mp3

When i was growing up as a boy in wisconsin. Summer to me. Was an absolutely magical season. Of engagement and wonder. Enchantment and delight. Now i don't know how many of you have ever spent much time in wisconsin or the other parts of the upper midwest for that matter during the summer months. But take it from me after the long months of winter and always a hesitant arrival of spring. Summer of those parts was nothing short of a season of liberation. Enjoy it's all those heavy winter coats we had got put away and mothballs and we could be outside. With little or no clothing will mostly. Naughty boys you know. Summer for me growing up was largely synonymous with the rustic little cottage my family had right on the shores of lake michigan. At a secluded spot called forest beach about 40 miles north of milwaukee. Every summer. My parents and my three brothers and i would spend what seemed like. Countless language days at that little cozy cabin. There was nothing fancy about it except its location. Which step right on the stretch of pure white pristine white beach in as you waited out of the water it was just all little ripley stand for as far as the eye can see in it. More luxurious. And it was adjacent that cottage to lush dark green forest land including some. 7 massive maples we had that were. Planted before the civil war they were. Most of my memories of that enchanted summer place are physical memory. Sight-sound smells and tactile sensations. The clarity invitation of the sparkling blue lake water. Which will always cool refreshing. The hospitality of the warm white sand. Which was it like a giant sandbox for us as kids to play in. The beauty of the beach roses. And grass is dancing in the summer wind and sun right next to the beach. The friendly clock cry of the gauls overhead and the pleasing cacophony of songbirds in the nearby trees. The magic of the golden dappled sunlight. Streaming through the verdant. Forest leaves. The mustiness and fertility of. Rich dark black soil. Down there by the lake. The must and the buzz and clatter of the swarming insects on the window screens at night and perhaps one of my favorite things the rhythmic lullaby of. Time rain. On the metal roof. With no insulation. All these hospitable summer carnal sensations conspired to make forest beach. At least for this wisconsin boy. One of the most magical and enchanting places on the face of the earth. Barefoot and a minimal of clothing much of the day i remember spending warm language hours exploring the beach swimming in the lake waiting in the creek. Traversing the woods and bluffs and fields without fear of child molesters or danger. We were so dumb. As a family we ate outdoors for breakfast lunch and dinner meals that were rich. The foods of the season. Cantaloupe. Sweet corn tomatoes. Cucumber. Peaches. Watermelon. Bratwurst. We swam. And sailed and fish. The lake watch tinajas powerful thunderstorm. Horizon the westin. The roaring bonfire. We had. On the beach at night. Singing folk songs to my mother's guitar intro. Be told often skinny-dip. In the magical darkness just beyond. The light. The huge bonfire. Dalal this. Bonfire 67. Tall with flames. Summer at forest beach. Wisconsin. Earthy. Energetic. Call and although my family no longer owns that. Or after my mother. Mother's death we needed to. I can return. There anytime i want simply by closing my eyes. I'm thinking of. I'd like all of you to take. The moment. About some enchanted. When you were a child. Bring that. Bring the sensation. I guess you could say that for all of my life. I've been a summer purse. Not only is summer my favorite season of the year. For better or worse i have what most people call a summary personality. I'm hopelessly optimistic and cheerful most of the time ask my spouse. What can i tell you i'm a summary kind of guy. I was just born.. But my particular personality and seasonal prejudices aside. I wanted to talk about summer this morning specifically about the spirituality of summer and the unique blessing. That can come to us and that is a keyword can come to. In the warmest. The seasons now i know what some of you were thinking. Now you're saying in those. Busy little florida skeptical heads of yours. Stop for god's sake get a grip on yourself your boyhood summers and green and temperate wisconsin sound wonderful and a dilek. But. Being in wisconsin in august is one thing and florida. In august. Is quite another. Any rational person i hear your little busy heads thing will tell you that summer in florida. Is simply too much of a good thing. 80 degrees in low humidity on the sun-drenched shores of lake michigan is one thing. 100 degrees with 100% humidity here on the treasure coast in august is another i know i was here last august. Shirley. Some of you were saying to me you're not going to tell us the spiritually embrace summer down here hack. At least half the population of the treasure coast. Most all of everyone who can afford to do so has enough sense to get out of here over the hot season. You'll see scott. Summer in these parts is something to be. Endured. Rather than enjoy. I hear some. Look. They call me late to lunch. But they don't call me stupid. I fully understand that summer here on the treasure coast. Has how shall i say this. Some rather extreme and vexing challenges for. As a cyclist for exam. I must admit i prefer writing in april when the air is delightfully you know cool about 78 degrees. Then in august. When the air on route a1a is kind of like a pizza oven. Summer in this part of florida means running air conditioners pretty much 24/7 and moving quickly between an air-conditioned car in the air-conditioned office or home or store. It means avoiding the noonday sun i saw lots of cyclist out at 7:30 this morning. Wearing sun shielding hats. Slathering on sunscreen and scrupulously limiting your hours baking. I know all this. I will fully and unashamedly admit that pretty much by any reasonable standard summer here in florida is a bit over-the-top. It is. A few of us i'm pretty sure. I wouldn't mind if the florida summer climate. Work just a little more temperate a little more subdued a little more low-key and gentle. Despite everything i've said this morning about. Being a summer person. I myself and midli going to escape a couple of times. To go to a home that i have in the adirondacks. I can kind of experience that. That upper midwest tempering this that i was so used to. Mean enough is enough and all of us like. Get away from. Treasure coast summer. But on this memorial sunday. Which historically signals to america the american people the beginning of summer. I want to refer my passionate belief that each of the four seasons. No matter where you live in the world. Winter spring summer and fall each of these times. Call to a spiritually in ways we must not ignore or resist. Human beings. Each of the four varied seasons even summer here in floor. Vegas i think. The deep meaningful satisfying. So that's the. Keyword relations. Communion. With self. And others and nature and with the great mystery. That is embedded in all of those. The world wants us. Begs us year-round to be woven deep and. Into the very fabric. And we ignore that holy. At our spiritual. No matter what time of year. Let me say this just a bit. Play by way of a personal faith stay. I believe with all my heart and soul that we human beings as. As mortal creature. To find ourselves. Without invitation. Suddenly in an amazing. Creation. We are intended. Intended by the very nature of life and being itself we are intended. Tubi. Close. Joyful. Reciprocal. And mindful. Relationship. I believe that at our. Fullest and best we homosapien. Are active an eager relational creatures passionately taking in our world. And so if we are to reach our full spiritual. Emotional. Inhabitants of earth. We must open ourselves. Bully. Intensely. And every time of the year. To the varied elements and the unique experience. Of the world around us. The summer guy believes that it is our spiritual destiny an opportunity to be fully engaged year-round with this creation. And with the other living things. To have it it. And it is in it is in that full and robust engagement where are julian purpose in life. Is found. And yes life. Extend the invitation. But we have to rsvp. With our eyes and ears and noses. Tongue. And skin. The rsvp. The world can. We have to. To achieve. Spiritual. One of my favorites. Carl sandburg poems is addressed to a child. Thinking summer. What is a. Addresses to all of us as children of this creation. Sandberg road. You were made for joy child. The feet of you were carved for that. The ankles of you run for that the rise of rain the shift of wind the drop of a red star on a fire water rimmed it and endless catalog of. Shouts and laughter's. Silent contemplation. They made you. From day-to-day for joy child. For joy. All this is by way. I'm saying to all of you. It is gentle and insistent away as i can that's summer in florida is. To be something. Endure or outlasted. Rather it is a season to be willfully engaged. And enjoyed. Can i see that again please. The season is not to be endured or outlasted but to be engaged and enjoy. Alright let's talk specifics. Even with the excessive and over-the-top list summer in florida. Is a season. Of radical hospitality. A season of radical hospitality. Which invites us to be a guest. And it's great and lavishly appointed living room. Think about it for a second. Lord huron the treasure coast. Invites us to reduce or eliminate all together many of the usual barriers. The stand between us and the world. In summer we can is the opening poem suggested go barefoot on the lawn. And the beach. We pack the jackets and sweaters away peel-off layers of winter clothing and get right down to a simple pair of shorts or a bathing suit. Or even less if you have a private backyard. All those naughty skinny-dipping floridians i know you're out there somewhere. We did it in wisconsin we had lots of hedgerows and stuff. In this part of the world. In summer. We can walk. And sing in the rain. Cuz it's warm. We can watch the magic fury of wild thunderstorms from the safety. Patios. Inside. We can breathe the aromas of countless flowers blooming everywhere. And eat. Produce. 4 states. Sweet corn and lettuce. Tomatoes. Watermelon in the park. We can listen to the crickets and songbirds. The majestic live oaks. Feel the sunlight and wind and rain directly on our faces without any mediation. In summer in these parts we can dive deliciously into so many pleasing pools of simple. Direct living summer in florida and tices us to know and touch. Without complication. Caveats sky and see sunrise and sunset forest. Flower beast. Bird. Family. Friends. Summer is a time. Which welcomes us to reconnect. With life and all of its deep. Holy simplus. Reason set aside know that. Computers in the. And the ipads and. Have a direct relationship. Listen to this poem about summer by my colleague. Lynn unger it is entitled. Simply. Watermelon. You know what summer taste like. The pink flesh. Of a generous earth this rounded life. fully flavored. How could you be ashamed at the tug. Of desire. The world has opened itself to you season after season. What is summer's sweetness but an invitation to respond. There is only one way to eat a watermelon. Bury your face in the wetness of that rosie slab. And b. That's the other the poem. But after reminding. You. And that is all this sermon is dear friend espiritual reinders stuff you already know. Stuff you know to open. Your eyes and your hands. Your ears. Your hearts to life. The dance of the summer. Are the tropics. I must. Return to my. By ending. To my main spiritual. Each. And every season. Of our lives. We are mortal creatures. Who are being called. Who are being invited. By both nature. And our destiny as human beings. Into clothes joyful intimate and reciprocal relationship. With everything that is. Our lives are saved. And made whole. By the quality and depth. Of our relationship. A bar open. 42 way. Our mindful. Stop look. Our engagement. With the world. And we are saved by. It has saving. If we close ourselves away. From any season. But let's take this one. By barricading ourselves behind. Air condition cars. Air condition stores. And air-conditioned homes. We will miss the radical hospitality. Sunlight. And moonlight. Beach. Palm. We will miss it. Shut. And wellness. Grape tomatoes. And sweet corn. Songbirds. Cato's. Lazy afternoons with. Getting all the wrong naughty. Brought. Made by god. One of the great philosophers of all time woody allen headed. 80% of success. Just. Showing. Summer in florida begs you to show up. And drink deep. Yes yes i know. Summer here in florida can be too hot and too humid and too sunny and too buggy and too intense and tube all i know. But i must remind you that it does in the full lash enos of these rich and robust days that you can know and be blessed by. Some of the worlds. Holiest simplice. So open yourself up. To the divine traffic. That seeks to flow through you and the world. Open yourself up. To the radical. Fatality. Open. Yourself.

uufvb_org

2011Aug21Sermon32.mp3

Two weeks from today exactly in our service. We will solemnly mark the 10th anniversary of perhaps the most. Mistake in american. 911. 2001. September day as you all know when vicious terrorist. The pact. Hijacked for domestic commercial airlines. And succeeded in flying two of them into the towers of the world trade center. New york city and another into the pentagon. In washington dc. Causing massive destruction. And killing over 3,000 innocent. I was in our nation's capital that day and we'll talk more about what i personally experienced. Then in 2 weeks. But suffice it to say that september 11th 2001 was incredibly sad and surreal day. In washington i myself watch the pentagon burn. The congregation i serve the nearby bethesda was profoundly affected by the events of that has lost her ex-husband. And his wife and her two children on the plane that went into the pentagon. And many people in our congregation. In government. Had some sort of direct personal connection to individuals who died in both d.c.. And new york we had also many people work. The pentagon. Did survive. And something else that was truly noteworthy about that tragic day was. At least it struck me that no less than two of our members. Jeff. And miles both business guys who traveled frequently by air. Had incredible. Unlikely improbable last-minute good luck that kept them off that plane. Goodwin. Into the pentagon. If kept them off. Look. Let me just tell jess story. I'm at faithful day jeff was the finance chair of the current gation the stalwart member the choir. On that day he flew out of dallas on the 7 a.m. flight bounce in los angeles. But the night before he came this close to changing his reservation to the. It would have been much more convenient for him at the last minute what the heck i'll just take that damn 7 plane and get up so damn early. At the very last minute he decided not to bother with the change in that decision which felt utterly inconsequential to him at the time kept him. From a fiery death. Luck is so curious. And your curiel. Jeff told me a few days later how very close to death he felt he came. And the said that this stroke of improbable good luck was life-changing for him. With tears in his eyes and a quiver in his voice he said scott i will never take my family and my life for granted again because. I came so close. So very close. Losing. Jeff reported to me that his teammate on the 7 a.m. flight was equally if more dramatically lucky. Because he was flying on government business the day before 9/11 he had begged and kajol the federal travel agent usually hated to work with. But he wouldn't over some. Some cost-saving rule. That irritating travel agent. Also by lock. Saved this man's. Life. Later that week the washington post right after 9/11. Told a third story about someone else's good luck i'm not being on that plane. It seems there was a virginia flight attendant. A mother-of-two who was not scheduled to fly. And ask the other two attendants who were scheduled if they would please change flights with her which they would usually do and they refused he was very very irritated at her friends. But because again curiel good luck. She is around. To raise her children. And they. Arnot. Luck is this. Canby awesomeness sword. Terrible. Double edge 2. It fascinated me on this subject of luck. In the days following that terrible tuesday's the nation's newspapers and television. We're filled with stories about luck. Both good luck. And bad luck. That were told about both survivors who adjust dodge the bullet. And about those who died. By just being on the wrong side of luxe razor edge. There was an ambitious young arab-american bond trader for example who worked in the world trade center. Who won the first plane struck his tower was not at his desk on the third floor where everyone survived but was on the hundred and first floor from which no one escapes doing a job interview. To advance. His career. There were stories of other world trade center workers who unexpectedly ran late to work that morning who worked on the upper levels. All kinds of silly irritating reason in that building a whiny child not ready for school a dentist who irritatingly took too long to do a filling a traffic jam caused by a cinnamon bun that irresistibly beg them to come into the bakery shop and have a cup of coffee before. Little and silly irritating last-minute reasons that saved dozens of lives. The media reported these stories of good luck i think because. We find them fascinating and intriguing. Just buy a momentary decision. Luck can either turn into a horrible thing or a wonderful. Luck. Is no inconsequential thing in our lives. Just why i'm preaching about. And here right off the bat is the first and foremost thing that occurs to me about luck. There seems to be so much darn darn much of it in our lives. My dictionary define lot lock as quote. A purposeless. Unpredictable and uncontrollable force. The shapes of ants favorably a nun or unfavorably for an individual. And then the second definition of luck. A chance combination a chance combination. Of circumstances operating for or against an individual know when you think about it. Our lives are filled every day with countless. Unpredictable largely random circumstances that when they sequentially fall into place. And play themselves out. Strike us as either. Lucky. Or unlucky. Just from that one faithful american tuesday there were hundreds. Of dramatic stories about good luck and bad luck that made all the difference to the individuals. In the world and so it isn't everyday living for all of us. Just too quick examples if i might an extra couple of tips. Of your mornings coffee allows you not. To be at the intersection where some distracted motorist. Goes right through a red light. And smacks into a car. And similarly registering for a college course that you were really ambivalent about. Led you to meet the love of your life. Standing in line. Because you register for that damn course on. You know french horn playing or something that you hated. I believe. In luck. I believe it was a senseless bit of good luck. A whimsical decision not to bother to change a ticket that saved my friends my friend jeff's life. I believe also there were lots of little bits of senseless. Bad luck. That led to the deaths. Of many others. What i do not. And this is where i suspect i part company. With perhaps a majority of people in our culture what i do not be. Is it any of us. Have a predetermined fate. Or preordained destiny. That is somehow being played out. Let me take that terrible tuesday for an example. I do not believe that the complex events of 9/11 that unfolded. In america. We're in any way predetermined are foreordained. Words which my deck dictionary uses to define what we call faith. Or destiny. I do not believe that certain people will somehow mark. For death. While others were somehow pre-selected. To survive. And similarly i most certainly do not believe that our lives unfold in accordance with some wise universal master plan. It is directed by some unseen cosmic honduran transcendence intelligence that has it all laid out in some sensible. Scheme. Emphatically do not believe that. What happens to us often in this chaotic world is somehow scripted. Or determined ahead of time. By some higher or wiser power. Rather i believe in luck. I believe the countless absolutely countless human and natural forces. Circumstances and choices decisions and actions behaviors and predilections. Accidents and ironies come together over time. And lot in largely random and unpredictable ways. And make precisely what happens. Happen. I do not believe that anyone's faith like my friend my positive positive fate of my friend jeff. Was sealed on that terrible tuesday until the very last moment. Take for example the passengers on the 4th. Plane that crashed in the pennsylvania farm field. We know that a band of brave passengers after they figured out what the hijackers had in mind decided. To act. Decided to attempt. To control what was happening to them. Let's roll one of them said and they stormed the cockpit. And possibly may have come very close. Turi taking control of the plane from the hijackers. And thereby had things gone just a bit differently. Have they succeeded in reversing their luck they might have saved. Their lives. Who knows how close they came to succeeding. What we do now. Is it by attempting to retake control of the plane from the hijackers. Singing all probability save the lives of many other people in washington dc. That plane was desk. Crash into one of our federal building. And so it was with countless last-minute circumstances that unfolded that day. What an end. What in the end happened to countless person's was up for grabs until the very. Last. Until the cinnamon bun back-end until the whiny child refuse to get ready for. Until the very last moment. Nothing. Determined. September 11th was an astounding. Extraordinary and ordinary day. Filled with astounding an ordinary bits of luck both good and bad. Determined what happen. Look. I know a lot of people. In our culture think differently about fate and destiny. But this is how i think the world works. Life is first and foremost. A random and fluid mystery. Nothing in my direct experience with life anyway and unitarian universalist. Put a great deal of authority. In your experience with everyday life to help you understand your reason and your intuition about life. Nothing. Direct experience with life suggest that there's an anyway a predetermined master plan. I'll be there personal or global events. You often hear when someone tragically dies in a plane crash. Or conversely when somebody astoundingly hits the. Jackpot lottery in winds 200 million dollars people say it was or it was destined to be. I for one don't believe it. I do not believe for example. Categorically do not believe that those more than 3,000 americans who died on 9/11 were somehow selected. Or somehow doomed ahead of time. Preordained to parish. But somehow their time and unavoidably come. That's not the case. Because many people at the last minute did something that meant their time did not. I refuse to believe. That we all we can do when tragedy happens is see this as part of life's ineffable and in alterable plan. I refuse to see my creation. As one intentionally and altered restructured for so much pain so much cruelty so much death and meaninglessness. I similarly do not believe that all those lucky folks who were the last minute. Did not get along those planes or did not get to work on time at the world trade center. That they were somehow preordained or selected for god-knows-what reasons to go on living. Again i'm i'm not criticizing the beliefs of others but a natural instinct when somebody you know doesn't get to the world trade center. I simply. Cannot accept my for my own self this worldview. I think it's fanciful thinking. It's not that i don't want those survivors to feel blessed or lucky. I do and they are my friend jeff felt remarkably lucky that he survived. And i pray they will never take their lives for granted again all those who survived by a last-minute twist of fate. I hope they will always be grateful. But i believe that. Some are chosen. But to believe but to believe that some are chosen. By some invisible force to survive while others are chosen to cruelly parish. Puts us i think and do an impossible spiritual and theological box. For that would mean that god or some other ruling force would somehow allow or direct or caused the deaths of those thousands of americans. Equally fine and loving people all of them. And that was further mean that the lives of those who were lucky enough to survive the attacks. Like my friend jeff. Their lives somehow possessed the superior purpose. From those unfortunate ones. Who were in the wrong place. At the wrong time i personally can't believe that. I won't believe. Tammy locke is a truly blind and random sing. That just unfold. For good and ill. And for all of us there is no logical purpose to it luck is just that. It's. Again they still my direct experience with life. Watching year-after-year is natural and human circumstances unfold and incredibly complex and random ways and of course i'm fairways. For good and righteous people certainly do perish. When evil people survive. I for one believe refuse to believe there's any sort of master plan. Our overarching purpose. These random ways that luck. Unfold rather i am persuaded. But in this complex interconnected fluid creation of ours. Things just happen. Most of the. Good things and. Bad things lucky things in unlucky things. Life continues to mysteriously and curiously unfull. From billions upon billions of loosely interconnected realities and forces. And as far as i can see at least there is no overarching plan no cosmic. Consistency. Nowise design. Just. Life. . all jumbled up this life with joy and sorrow with. Holiness and horror. With. Disaster in the light that's the way i see the world. And that's the only way i can see the. Tornadoes do not target. People who. Avoid them. We're lucky.. Some would say that. This. How shall we call it this existentialist view of mine. The good and bad luck and unlucky things just happen randomly without purpose most of the time. Something that this makes human life. Meaningless and tragic. Depressing to which i responded with full and sincere heart. I don't believe anything could be further from the truth. This existential view that luck happens is not a sad thing. It seems to me. That life's great and sustaining meanings and purpose for us. Come not from precisely how good or bad are luck. Is. But rather in this is crucial. Our purpose and our meaning. Is based on how we choose. To respond. To the lock. Or the lack of it. That comes into our lives. Good luck like that which my friend jeff had on 9/11. Can awaken us to the full. Potential and possibilities and purpose of our lives. And bad luck. If it doesn't manage to kill us. Padlock considerably strengthened and enliven open. To deeper and fuller living. I believe it is the nature and the quality not of what comes at us. But how we respond. To the lock. And the circumstance which comes our way. That largely determines whether it will be good or bad. For us perhaps you are familiar. With the old very old chinese tale. It's a common thing you've probably heard it. About the young man. Who's prized horse suddenly runs away and everyone in the village says. Oh what terrible luck. Which has wise old father said. What makes you sure this isn't a blessing. Some months later his horse returned. Bring splendid valuable stallion. Congratulated him as good luck but his father said. What makes you so sure this is not a disaster. The household was richer by the flying horse. What's the man love to ride that one day he fell off the fine stallion and broke his hip. Everyone rides to consult him over his bad luck but his father said. What makes you sure this isn't a blessing. A few months later invaders from a foreign land crossed into china and all the able men of the village were conscripted only with a handful ever to return alive. Only because the sun was laying with his broken hip. Did father and son survive. To take care of each other. And the taoist tale ends with this simple interpretation. Truly blessing. Turns into disaster. And disaster to blessing. The changes have no end. Nor can the mystery. Beast. Nor. Can the mystery. Significant events from my own life concern. Can't confirm the wisdom of this paradox. Without going into unnecessary personal to tell a good number of years ago something happened to me. Which i was sure was disastrous. Bad luck. The sad and disruptive events were certainly painful to me at the time. But in the fullness of time. With the passage of several years. And the subsequent events unfolded and i responded as best as i could to the struggling circumstance. I discovered much to my spiritual and emotional the light that what i had. What letter what i was sure. Was terrible deadlock was in fact in the end the single most positive defining event the best lock. I ever had in my life. That led me. To fresh new opportunities that have. Shape the rest of my life in positive. Similarly. Over the years of my ministry i've had countless people report to me with full hearts. The paradoxically and unexpectedly some serious illness. Some terrible loss like the loss of a child. Spouse. In their lives. Which at the time they were sure was an unmitigated unlucky disaster. In fact eventually open them. The new life. A new love. In ways for which they are great. Now believe me i know in no way want to be flipped. Dismissive. About how difficult. Can be for anyone. To move on from a patch of very bad luck or hard circumstances. And i certainly don't believe that bad things happen. You know just strengthened us or to ennoble. That's not why they happen. Happen. Because. They happen. And i refuse to believe that bad things happen. To somehow make us better people though they often. Folks say stupid things. In the face of someone else's misfortune like. The reason your child was run over by that car was to make you a stronger. Are the reason you lost your baby. Is because god is calling you to be more deeply in love and caring for the children. You already have. Say this time. And these people should have their mouths. Sound shot or at least have their driver's license for life revoked. It's bad stuff. But that's just an opinion. I hope your experience confirms. What i am affirming this morning when i say that. Great blessing and opportunity and. Can an awesome does arise in our lives from hard. And difficult circumstance. And vice versa. Luck then is surely not some simple straightforward thing. That always has the power to shape and define our lives at their deepest level luck doesn't have that power. Luck yes often shapes the outward circumstances and the immediate responses and yes it can bring great and painful changes and challenges to our lives. But the towering truth. If you hear nothing else this morning hear this. The towering truth of luxe power to shape things. Towering above that is the holy fact. Did we human beings. Are supple. And resilient. And adaptable creature. We can outwit locked. Cuz we are supple. And adaptable. And resilient. Who are free and capable of determining deep within our lives over the long-term what random events shall mean. And how we shall move through them and with them even the most difficult one. I believe it is the essential attitude of heart. The camber of heart. If you will. That we bring to that which befalls us good or bad. Which in the end has the power to determine whether we will be blessed or cursed. By those events. Does chuck swindoll put it in one of his books. The longer i live here writes the more i realize the impact. Of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than the facts. Attitude is more important. Then the facts. It is more important than the past. Then education that money circumstances and failures and successes. The remarkable things when will goes on. Is it. We have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day we cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play the one string we have. And that is our attitude and then you can close i am. Persuaded. Good life. Is 10%. What happens to us. And 90%. How i react. And so it is with you. We are in charge he writes. About attitude. And then there's the vexing question. About whether or not there's such a thing. Lucky people. An unlucky. In the dramatic case of those unfortunate souls who had the incredible bad luck. To cross paths with those deadly terrorist on september 11th. The answer is obvious. They were at the very last moment and their fates were determined. Truly unlucky souls. And now they have no more life to worry about or negotiate. Cuz of that bad luck. But for the rest of us. This question about whether we are lucky or unlucky is more subtle and open and unfinished. I had an elderly parishioner in that church in bethesda that i serve before i came here. Who had over his lifetime. More than his share of what could have ejected lee be called hard knocks. And difficult circumstances. When he died. The sweet man's daughter repeatedly reported as we planned some moral service. Set her father's all-time favorite saying which he gave voice to all through his difficulties is. You know. I'm a really lucky guy. Four days following his memorial service i just couldn't get that one lighter out of my head you know. I'm a really lucky guy i really. Lucky guy. The only thing that separated this guy from the rest of us in terms of his luck. Was it he was simply more. Spiritually resilient and existentially grateful for the blessings. He still had in his life. Trulife thick and thins were good and bad this guy chose to view himself. As a lucky guy even when the facts on the ground. Might lead you to say. Otherwise. You know. I'm really a lucky. Similar vein someone recently said to me you know scott people make their own luck. While i'm not sure that's entirely true for as i've said i think luck is this random thing that happens to. I do believe that if we view ourselves as basically lucky which is to say we have an attitude of not feeling regularly sorry for ourselves. Our lives. Will be boys. By that optimism. Let me speak personally just for a moment. I am now in my 60 second year of life i know i don't look nearly that'll. And i must tell you that. Like that parishioner back in dc i feel in the overview. Over the long haul. When all is said and done i feel incredibly lucky as a human being by almost. Any objective standard. I've been one very. Lucky. Puppy. First. I was born. Consider how lucky that is reasons my parents. 9 months later. There are million reasons why any of us might not have been born what's more. I was born into a happy loving comfortable wisconsin family that's a virtual by itself. In the freest and most prosperous country in the world i've let a life i've been blessed with profound economic social and educational privilege. I've never really materially aided for anything my body which. Works well morales all the time except for rickety and arthritic knees. As far as i know i'm free of debilitating disease. I have a special guy i love and live with i have wonderful friends in the best job i could imagine working for some great folks and vero beach i'm a lucky guy. What can i tell you. And on and on my personal good luck story could go. So when all is said and done i want to knock on. Wood. But i'm a lucky guy if any of you were feeling lucky i would point out. In the front of all your pews so if you just want to if you just want a knock for just a second and acknowledge that you know i've had my trouble i've had my share of difficulties we know. I guess i'm i'm pretty lucky you can go ahead and knock on that wood this morning. I passionately believe that acknowledging to yourself all the ways in which you are blessed and are lucky is the first step. Toward spiritual satisfaction in this complicated life we find ourselves. Theologian lp jacks. Pretty much said it all when he said religion. Is primarily. Airfare. Of gratitude. If we despite our inevitable hardships and losses are grateful for what we have. And appreciative for how life has basically treated us. That attitude will empower us for further purposeful and positive living. As one guy who feels very lucky. I know that my own deep and real gratitude is one of the most powerful tools i have for building a satisfied future. For myself even if. Circumstances. Turn south on me. My basic sense. Of being blessed. Will sustain me. But before i close. I must acknowledge. For we all know some folks for whom this is the reality. There are some objectively plain and simple. Really unlucky people. You probably all know somebody. Who's been really unlucky. People who's bad luck and tragic circumstance follow them like that little cloud over charlie brown's head in the peanuts comic strip. Bad luck which threatens to overwhelm all their joy and purpose in living. Maybe a few of you in this room feel that way i hope not but. Some. Perhaps. To feel that way. I called him my mind several people in my own universe who through no fault of their own. I've had incredible runs of bad luck at one time or another. Jobs in loved ones lost diseases and disabilities discovered. Negative life circumstances unfair and unjust things happening to them all conspiring to kind of dragged them down spiritual. No one. Should emotionally underestimate. How challenging. Bad luck can be for any of us. Lock can change in a flash. And no one should tell another one. Struggling with tough times. Just think positively or tell that chinese story about blessing and curse that's. Cousin. Do it. But nonetheless dear friends here. Here is the only place where my heart will allow you to leave to leave you this morning spiritually. In the end i believe no one. Controls or chooses their luck or has their luck. Controlled for them. As i have repeatedly said luck. Involves uncontrollable unpredictable random circumstance that breaks over us. For no particular reason. But that fact doesn't mean we are helpless victims. A random good and bad events. Lafollette. We are human beings. Who are amazingly supple. And creative creatures. Who have incredible power. To choose our attitude to make our own way to make adjustments of the heart and of the mind. That can profoundly determine. What are lox. Good and bad will ultimately mean to. I take it on faith. Which is very comforting to me actually. So we are always free as we face life's inevitable ups and downs. To bring ourselves to those circumstances is best in bravely we can. Always with whatever resources remain. Well we cannot control our bad luck. By our gratitude. By our courage and by our refusal to stop being human and to stop and. Refusing to stop plugging away at things. We can shape and evolve our lives. And slowly turn even the worst circumstances. Into something darn your beautiful. Even amidst all the inevitable. I believe with all my heart that. We are not at the mercy. Of what. Wild swings. And gyrations. We are not helpless pawns of some sad and capricious cosmic chess game. Being played out by omnipotent god. Heavens. Yes we find ourselves mysteriously here on a randomly spinning earth. The deals out all kinds of complications and circumstances and. But we are human beings. Who have been given a suppleness. And the creativity. We can shape our attitude. Decide. How we will react. So that our lives continue to have meaning. And hope. Purpose salt. I say to you and closing get back out there this morning. Don't be afraid. Good and bad luck. Work with what you've got. Whenever possible refuse to feel sorry for yourselves. Choose to live as bolden. Best lie as you can and oh yes i. I do have to say it. Good luck. I meant.

uufvb_org

2012Apr29Sermon128.mp3

We are a community of memory and hopefully meats in the present. Please be present to this day and the presents that it brings. It's warm. And while we enjoy the joy of human warm. We also enjoy a little space in our togetherness. Embrace that space. The space between the notes that allows music to happen. The space between the words that allow flight to happen. The space in the silence that allow your thoughts. And the deepest habits of your heart. Euchre. Wow that embrace it. Be present to it. We are a community. Of memory and hope that meets in the present. Please be present. And be blessed. Well good morning glad to be here again. I keep on learning new things every week it's really really great i'll be. I'll be a custom pretty soon. Like when. Lee was talking about coffee hour. She said something i don't think i've ever heard before in the unitarian church. In a walkout and turn to your right. But that's good. I'm i'm. Happy to hear that we are all that we invite that we really welcome everybody so that's good. These are invited to echo eight short lines. From a modern translation of the 90th psalm. I'll say them in if you wish if they don't defend you right but you to act with them. Let us value our days. Best value. Halloween each as a trust bestowed upon us. Acquiring a heart full of wisdom. And love for the living earth. Through all the days though we suffer. And all the years that we sorrow. Rejoice and be glad. For the precious gift of life. We celebrate earth we celebrate our part in it. And i want to talk a little about our part in it. Fingers back. I'm not sure how many now but i know it was. Before 911. I was visiting washington d.c. it was a lovely day i said it was before 9/11. It was before the economy went down. A lovely day. And while i was there i was renewing acquaintances with a. With a another clergyman someone with whom i had work. On a number of projects. A lovely man by the name of tilden edwards i don't know if any of you know that name. Tilden has is the. Is the director of the show lamb. Institute for spiritual growth. And he's written a couple of books he's written several books but to that i would highly recommend if you want to get inside yourselves. Living simply through the day. And sabbath time or among his book sister. Terrific and easily accessible books. Buy terrific guy. So there we were on this lovely day walking by that lovely area that is around the washington cathedral. And our conversation. Was not about theology or church. At least it wasn't apparently about theology it was about our grown children. And about their growing up. And about our struggles with their growing up. And their struggles and our struggles with their struggles. And what they were doing and how we were dealing with what. They were doing. In this world. Again before 9/11 before the economy went down. A world which had formed values for. All of us probably almost all of us here who are now living. And it seemed to us as we talked that they have had more choices growing up and we had they had more freedom they had freedom with fewer restrictions on it. To name a couple of things that made their lives a little free or the end of the draft. And the effectiveness and the availability of birth control. Significant bennison's blessings. Benefits of that particular era. And they had. Giving them a larger bit of control over there yet young lives. Well was it controller was it illusion. Or were they merely floating on a kind of myth about life it's so popular and so pervasive. That it is not only taken for reality but some people assume actually. Is reality. Somehow or other we came to a theme and then like jazz musicians we rest on it. The theme was they seem to believe. That they can manage their lives. And then the rifts. Yes that's it managed life itself and all its times and seasons. Yes it's become such a powerful belief they don't see any limits to it. I guess there's still. Then there are going to have a very powerful shock. When they come upon a serious illness. Arwen death rises to meet them. There are some things you just can't manage. So we. Walked on and on and not into each other as we continue the theme. The thing that life is something that can be managed. It's a popular myth of our time even with the economy and with terrorism. Life is something to be managed. No. When i received the poo poo this idea does that mean that. I believe in a life that's the thoughtless that's lived haphazardly responsibly. Course not. On the other hand i am not so thoughtless so haphazard or so irresponsible the thinker. As to believe that life. Can be managed. Wouldn't it be nice if life could be mad at. Maybe something with all like it it rank above disneyland up there someplace. But can it happen. Ask joe. If you happen to be on the same mailing lists that i get on whether i like it or not. You get a lot of offers to attend seminars where you will learn how to manage things. I can hear the chuckling. You can learn how to manage your money how to manage your time how to manage your work how to manage your career how to manage conflict how to manage people. This is not to mention pain management which i'm all in favor of by the way. Absolutely. But what happens when you run into something you can't manage. Is it just a matter of. You didn't learn the right technique. Are you learn the right technique but you didn't get it right. It's like a matter of something we. Get have to learn how to manage. Or is there something a little bigger involved. And what about people who choose. Not to manage aspects of their lives that they could manage. Are they merely dweebs or suckers or fools. Writer and episcopal priest. Barbara brown taylor. Writes about a friend named matilda. Matilda heather brio management problem. Here's what the taylor rights. Matilda had. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis better known as lou gehrig's disease. Which means that she gradually lost control of all of her muscles. Her face went first. Dinner vocal cords. Better legs. Talk about a management problem. Talk about loss of control. Facing such circumstances some people take what control they believe they have. They on their lives. Other seek someone to help. Assisted suicide with college. And certainly any of us with. Any iota of compassion can understand that choice. And those of us who are ministers or carers who are want to be caring. Should bring our compassionate selves to people no matter what their choice happens to beach when they are in the valley of the shadow. Barbara brown taylor goes i'm a little more about matilda. For the last year of her life. Matilda communicated by writing on a slate one of those erasable things that kids. Play with. Sometimes you get so excited that you would ride in the race faster than anyone could read. And when she couldn't talk anymore she taught herself. Paint. Paint with watercolors. Until our kitchen walls were papered with tulips and peonies and daffodils and hibiscus. Something bigger than what i emotionally could understand was going on with matilda. Every time she lost something she thought she could not live without. She found that she could. The day she died. She said her cup down. And it was empty. There was nothing wasted. Nothing left over to spill of lament. She died clean as a whistle. And several of the people who watched who sat by her bed say that their fear of death died with her. Having watched her do it. They believe they can do it too. But she couldn't manage it. Or could she. Certainly by the reckoning of those who believe that the only way to manage one's death is to die in the way at the time one chooses. By that she. Didn't manage it. Unruh story like that. Mike murphy heather st peter's hospice in albany new york once told me this story of a critically ill woman named maggie. Her chances of getting better wear slimmer than slim. The death was near. But her family didn't want to accept it. They chose to do what i have seen a number of families do. First of all to keep the prognosis from maggie. And then they decided they would manage her and they would manage her illness with diet. Why have i seen that. They virtually forced maggie to to eat. And all that did was make her more miserable of course. So mike confronted them with what they were doing and after some wrangling they agreed that mike wants to know the truth of her condition and decide for herself what she was going to do. And of course what they decided to do was let mike. Tell her. White lie i bet you and i have been in that situation more than a few times. Been there done that. Well mike bent close to maggie who by this time was hard of hearing. Maggie. We can't fix it. Oh maggie didn't quite hear what he said so she started talking about something else. And then louder tones he said we can't fix it maggie. Maggie stop talking. Turned her head to mike and said almost nonchalantly. Oh i guess i understand that means i don't have to eat that awful stuff anymore. I am not against managing some things i'd like to be better at managing my time i talent my resources. A lot of things i'd like to manage but i don't want to be a person who falls prey to the belief that life. It's something that you can manage. Drawing on a phrase from the bible. I would like to be a person who is in the world. But not of it. And what that means to me is this. That while i am a part of the everyday secular world that we all share in. I don't aspire to be conformed to the values of the world that we share in. I want to be something or at least i long to be something and belonging to something greater than my own fleeting whims. Greater than the values of the street or the values of the marketplace. Are the belief that you can manage things. I would like to live out. The principles of my highest values i don't achieve that often. But that's what i'd like. And i guess that's what all people of faith desire. It's a different kind of management. And it's tough. And it's not an illusion. Now earlier this month. Easter was celebrated. And according to the easter story. Jesus was a man who wouldn't. Or couldn't manage his way out of a terrible death. Not before i go on i need to confirm something for those who are these skeptical thinkers manyam. I'm looking at jesus from a liberal humanistic lee religious. Point of view. Do i believe that a man named jesus actually existed. Or that all the things ascribed to him actually happened. And that the accounts of his life in the small outpost of the. 1st century roman empire are factually accurate. Well no less of thinker and a religious liberal that albert schweitzer spent a whole book talking about this. And he averred that we can never know. If there wasn't a storical jesus. But here's what we can know. Ancient judea was a land of great upheaval and suffering and incredible login. And in that land there were many men who claim to be messiahs. And there were many men who were put to death by making that claim and threatening the established order. And out of that and out of the incredible and persuasive and organizational. Powers of paul of tarsus through a religion of hope. And love. And the person of jesus was the magnet around which the essence of this religion collective. Now those are the facts. To the extent that the stories about jesus remain meaningful to us. They carry truth. The story of jesus is passion to me is the story of the truth of the man. Who couldn't or wouldn't manager. The truth is someone who belong to something that was greater than the management mode. Now you know the basic facts of his crucifixion. The man reputed to be a messiah was betrayed by a follow-up follower was arrested. And was given a series of trials and sometimes that seems to be confusing people think is one trial know. He was dragged from pillar to post in in in the night according to the story. I don't remember if it's six or seven different profiles. All illegal of course. And then he was vilified by the citizenry. Tortured and put to death. And if we judge jesus by the myth that you can or should manage life he was either a fool or a failure. Just think. Based on what we get in the mail but we read what we can know now. Just think how we could have been spared. If he had taken the courses that grow out of the current belief of salvation through management. My myself i could have directed him to a few that would have. Would have helped him managing his team. First of all he could have put them through the myers-briggs personality profile test. Some of you know that. Testa writer you know what started the psychological horoscope i call it. And he could. You should see some of my ministerial colleagues who are you an infp. No i'm in ej something-or-other and lsmft i don't know some of these letters they keep going through. You remember you they keep going through all of these numbers cuz they figure out a personality profile. And that would have been a good way to find out who would understand his parables. Who should be at his right side and who he should not trust with the silver. If you go through the personality management program. If he had taken the method of management he could have discovered which of his disciples. Were auditory which ones were visual and which ones were serebral. And he wouldn't have any cross-communication. Because cross communications are things you definitely do not want especially when you are in a small advocacy group. Juicy. And certainly if jesus and his gang had dressed for success they would have been in a lot less trouble. And if according to the way we seem to believe these days jesus had gone to one of the prosperity churches. He would have realized that he had everything he needed and i don't like that that everybody else had everything they needed and then he wouldn't have had to heal anybody. Are preach anywhere to save all the trouble he could have managed. But he didn't. If he had. Studied as we can about management he would have learned how to deal with difficult people and in communication how to pace and lead. And perhaps he could have appealed to the inner child in everybody. He couldn't manage it. Or maybe the situation couldn't be managed. Or maybe he didn't want to manage. Alone in the garden. Contemplating what is about to happen to him. He asked scott if this bitter cup can be taken from him. And then he finally says. Not my will. But sign. What are we to make. Of those who submit to something deeper and greater than themselves. Something they cannot manage. Nor wish to manage. What are we to make of human sacrifice. It's hardly a management thing. Just a few hours before his arrest jesus shared a meal with his friends. And he relished and reveled in the most basic things. The most basic human things. What are they. Something to eat. Something to drink. People to love. That's what he reveled in. Something to eat something to drink. People to love. Bread for the body. Line for the blood. And what about loyalty. Translated this way cuz this is really what it means by the life that was lived. I'd break my body for you even as i break this bread. I pour my blood for you even as i. For this wine. And if those were the exact words that jesus spoke. They were indeed what he meant and how he know they were. Is because that's what he did. John carmody a christian theologian. Died after having his body ravaged by cancer. Pain which equals crucifying. And among the words that he wrote to be printed on the order of service for his memorial service. Worthy's. We are most attractive. When we are most eucharistic. That is. Grateful for wine and bread. And life. We are most attractive when we are most eucharistic that is grateful for wine. Thoroughbred. 4life. That's not smart. Clever. It's not full of good ideas. And it's not able to manage things in a neat and tidy way. Grateful for wine for bread for life. Grateful to share wine and bread and life. Grateful for those who love deeply enough. But they not only share love but they are willing to break their bodies. Or pour their blood. For those they love. Can we manage it. Well the truth is. That we are the humpty dumpty's of creation. We are noble fallen creatures. With egg on our face. We want to make things turn out right. Right by our own standards. We want to make things good. Ir sensor what's good. We want to make things fit according to our plans we are manager. And we want to make. Man life manageable we practice techniques to do that. However. Life. Is 2 dynamic. Too powerful. Too playful. To transcend it maybe even too wise to be managed. As one comedian used to say years ago. Let's faces it's bigger than all of us. Life is not an object to manage. We are life subjects. Creatures of dustin breath. And life can manage very well without us. Life merely has to change. The subject. So let us value our days. Halloween each as his trust bestowed upon us. Acquiring a heart full of wisdom and love. For the living earth. Through all the days though we suffer. And all the years that we sorrow. Rejoice. And be glad. For the precious. Unmanageable. Gift. Of life.

uufvb_org

2015Dec06Sermon32.mp3

Good morning welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of 0 beef the place where we answer the violence of the world. About that this morning. Please know that you are welcome precisely as you come to work this morning. Straight black or white or latino or some other wonderful state of humanity. What do you have a ged or. Absolutely. We welcome this service meaningful. Welcome. In the christian calendar. December. As it celebrates their respective festivals of life. At the darkest time of the year. This day. Translator. Navarre medication. Call. The mutilated world. Remember june. Wild strawberries. Did you. Remember we were together. Broom. Return. Good morning. Ellen and i are going to be sharing with you. An ancient whatever new spiritual idea. The blinds at the very center install of modern judaism and i will be suggesting to you also lies. Epicenter and soul of our unitarian. Universalism. In hebrew the word chacon mean. To repair or perception in the world. To repair the world. The phrase hakuna llamas found in the mist. Expression in judaism. Palestinian revolution. With among other things a beautiful creation myth. Tell the story about how good and evil came into the world. According to lorio and now i quote. A modern rabbis describing the story and what claudia and paul. According to lauria. Read the world. What if porcelite into the vessels they catastrophically saturday. Tumbling down towards the earth which is the realm of matter. Our world has consist of countless charge. The originals. Sparks of the divine light. Flightaware all the bad. And the evil of our world reside. Humanities grace. Involved. Scattered light. Raising the spark back to divinity. And restoring. The broken world. Spiritual work dimension. Outward services society by helping those in need. Inward service to the divine by liberating the sparks within each of us the divine spark. Our purpose as jews write another rabbi. Is therefore to help gather the lost life. Another word whenever a jew follow the commandments. Or words to make the world a better place by working. Either individually or collectively for social justice. Or improving their own soul. They become partners with god. In repairing or healing the world. Here is the definition of alone. Found on the website of reform judaism. Envisioning an ideal world. Often translated to repair of the world. And even as social justice. Religious way of life. In perspective that works for the time of. Pharisee health and justice. For all. In the website. The importance of working individually and collectively for the better and redeemed world. Is vital to our understanding of what. An active being an active jew meme. Another. The most modern and broadway. Is that a repair in the world. Humanity's great responsibility. It's earthly surrounding through acts of loving-kindness. And justice and righteousness. It implies that each person idea. Of his or her own existence. As well as future generation. Shokudo lamb. Ownership of their world and all their human frailty. Who it is it is them. In all their human frailties not god who will bring the world back. Original. Appointment. Member of our congregation. What's the code alone personally mean to her as a religious and spiritual person. I will then share how i feel to cuddle on speaks directly to our spiritual journey. Is unitarian universalism ellen thank you for being with us. Reform judaism. Repairing the world. We aren't obligated. No one. We are. Mercy. Tomboy. Weird. Repair what is broken. Repair. Recognize. Another. Dark. Rabbi lawrence. The answer is. The very nature of our spiritual. Beautiful quotes. Empathy. Understand. Whether we know it or not. A larger goal. Wood works of art. Around me. The world. The world. My world. Kinder. Human. Between our spiritual and physical cell. Entirely. Is a force for good. Woodward community. Woodward community action. Stability. Creation of the universe. Lucky like. What would you do. Scream. One more year. What theater is an ocean. Everyone. Lucky life. Life. Repair world. Unitarian universalism has always benefited. Define light in the world and thought to bring its pieces together. Unitarian. Creationism one hole we have always believed that human society. Life and love of the universe which is why for the last 200 years we've always been a religion. Ever for minded trying to improve society. We have also been directed tradition. Leaving salvation by character. Liquor holy flame. Everyone can see and that makes a difference in the way you touch life and relate to all being. We're very very simpatico. With. With what. Vision of love. And this is why. We do so much work in our community with the hope for family center. Better. World neil. I'm working to make refugees feel safe in america. There are just so many thing. For us to do. Observes earlier are very dangerous times for america. And one thing we cannot afford to lose our vision. Divine life. It seems a very long way. God's light are sharp colorado springs. We must never give up on the vision. We can live from the divine place within. So we can help to create. Divine kingdom. You must never forget that that is our duty. And our privilege. Who won the first day of hanukkah. When we celebrate. Recommit ourselves. Lunala. Beauty and the freedom. Spiritual and ethical. To gather and share divine light. Scattered all about it and is very much. Here is a great good. Spiritual news. And unitarian universalism. We human being. Fragile and finite and frail as we are. Great light holiness into the world and help repair. And make you the forms good again. Ourworld. Let us this day and every day. Let us know. Shakuntala. Are broken. Working both within our own. More justice everything and everyone we touch. Call work order.

uufvb_org

2011May08Sermon32.mp3

I begin this morning. With a cough. But true story. Elie wiesel. Was just a wide-eyed and innocent adolescent. But he and all the other jews. Of the transylvanian village of cygnet. We're jammed into cattle cars on april 9th. In 1944 by ss troops. And shifted shift ship shipped. To auschwitz. Years later having somehow survive that experience never forgets recorded. His death camp experiences in his haunting book night. Of all the horrors he describes in that slim little volume. The one that i can never remove for my mind's eye is that even execution. Experience. A free fellow prisoners. It seems that the ss have captured two man. And the young boy. And had sentenced them to death by hanging for allegedly collaborating with the polish underground. To make an example of the prisoners of auschwitz. In the camp yard. As the three victims were stood up on chairs and had their next placed into the nooses. The two men cried long live liberty. But all eyes were on the child. To remain silent. Diesel then only a teenager himself remembers. The boy. As having a refined and beautiful face. He was lividly pale. He's alright. Almost home. Biting his lip he had the face. Of a sad angel. As the sign was given by the officer-in-charge to. Take the chairs out from underneath the three prisoners. Buzzell heard a man behind him in the crowd mournfully asked. Where is god. Where is he. There was total silence. Throughout the camp. Horizon. The sun was setting. All the assembled prisoners were then forced to slowly march pass the gallows. These el rights. The two adults were no longer alive. Their tongues unswollen blue-tinged. But the third rope was still moving. Being so like the child was still alive. For more than an hour he stayed there struggling between life and death. Dying and slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look upon him. Results. Full face. He was still alive. When i passed in front of him. His tongue still red. His eyes not yet glaze. Behind me i heard the same man asking. Where is god now. And i heard a voice within me answer him. Where is he. .. He is hanging here. Arnie's gallows. Ezell's friend francois. Moyock. Who knew the details of the authors deeply religious jewish childhood later wrote about what this execution. Famous los. From the time wendy's nails. First of all. He had lived only for god. And he had been reared on the talmud. Dedicated to god and to the eternal. Put in the death camp nietzsche's cry became an almost physical reality for gazelle. God is dead. The god of love of gentleness of comfort the god of abraham of isaac and jacob. Had vanished forever beneath the glaze of that tortured child. As we sell himself wrote. Never shall i forget those moments which murdered my god. And murdered my soul. And turned my dreams. It took time magazine until the mid-1960s to declare on its cover that god is. But for many whose lives have been torn asunder by the grotesque evils of the twentieth century the heavens. Since emptied of the all-knowing all-loving all-powerful and caring presence of goodness justice and light. The old. The rancid smoke that drifted up from the ovens at auschwitz. Rose to a dark and empty existential sky. And the theological message which many in our postmodern age. Heard ringing out of the stillness of those heavens was the thick the all-powerful. All loving god of the old judeo-christian bible the god. Who is supposed to be in charge of everything. And i promise to wisely look after his people. Indeed all human affairs. Was dad. In reflecting on the many tragedies of our twenty of the twentieth-century my colleague tom michaelson. Rights. There is a god sized hole. Increation. This has been a difficult century for god in western culture. The staggering violence of totalitarianism. Lead many toward moral numbness or cynicism. And others toward practical atheism. Humanity it has widely been said in our postmodern age is now on its own. And in the face of this world's many evils. Awesome there is little to do. But to weep and mourn. For the world. This remains i would assert the tortured theological contact. In which we in the 21st century must-do religion. The unspeakable evils of it of nazism. Followed by other genocide. And national in saturdays. Places like cambodia. Rwanda kosovo. As i speak this morning hundreds. Some civilians being killed in libya. And syria by their own government. By their own leaders. How in the face of such horror. Can we believe either in the unquenchable nobility of humanity. Or in an all-knowing all-powerful justin loving god. Who is ruling the universe. For me and many others including most unitarian universalist of my acquaintance. The strictly proportion god. Of the old and new testament. Jewish and christian scripture. The omnipotent god visele believed in as a child. But not in auschwitz. Is dead and gone. The divine power and personality who pulls all the strings of life in history. Manipulating earthly events for us. For his inscrutably divine purposes. For many people is face including me. This concept of god. Is completely enough. You all remember the old spectacular stories from when you learn many of you bible when you were a child. God of the bible that. Fantastic cosmic personality male of course. Fiercely patriarchal. This god was a wise and willful. Ruler of earth has. As as. Claudia said he could be a. Kind old man or an angry old man. Micromanaging god in the bible could and would manipulate people and events of nature to get what he wanted. Without batting a cosmic eyelash god could cause seized apart. And then sled them back over evil pursuing armies god could speak through burning bushes. Give commandments down from mountaintops leaving tirenation by generating huge pillars of fire for them to follow god could destroy or save. Whole cities based on whatever he wanted to. He allowed exile. And enslavement cause pregnancies and illness. Carried on loud and lengthy arguments. With reluctant messengers like moses. And jonah. You all know the story. He was a great and powerful god yet strangely i got in a very human form. More powerful and wise that us for sure but nonetheless remarkably like us in his. Ability to anger or to mercy. His communications and his desires his thoughts and perspectives even his prejudices and is quirkiness. Either god made us remarkably close to his image or we made him remarkably close. To ours for the god of their christian bible. Is very human in his dimension. I have two main theological problems with postulating the existence of such a god first of course. As a conscious and sentient being in this creation i simply see no such. Wise wonderful. Supernatural god operating either regularly or reliably in my universe. I see no powers of fire no red c style miracles i received no clear commandments from the mountaintop. Nor watch any anyone like jesus. Bringing the dead. Back to life. What's more i don't see evidence. That's some all-powerful being as wisely or justly directing. History. There. Was no all-powerful god in heaven to stop out schmidt. Nor to stop. Slaughter in darfur. Orin. Today syria. And because my unitarian universalist faith has to be based on my actual experience. With the world. I must respectfully reject this ancient idea of god i just don't see the signs. Of any such god anywhere in my creation and so i will not believe. The second problem i have with the old idea of god. Is it requires with the illusions call if the odyssey. The odyssey. Is the timeless theological attempt to reconcile. The assertion that the universe is ruled by a good all-knowing and powerful god. Reconcile that with the undeniable reality of so much evil in tragedy and injustice in the world. The vexing questions all theodicy attempts to answer. If god is so good i'm so powerful then why do so many tragic and evil things. Theodicy however frame. However articulated have never spiritually work for me. Just one example. Every time a destructive or deadly hurricane hit anywhere in florida fundamentalist christian preachers from the panhandle to key west. Who are devoted to this old idea of god in charge of creation. Suggest. The destructive winds and waters come to us to do harm because god is angry at us for something we did. This is a stupid. Idea. Theological. What's my colleague in in bethesda maryland preached the sermon the problem with religion i said what is that he said quality control. It's a bad idea okay. You know every time the hurricane goes around virginia beach pat robertson says that's because of me. Grace theology. Sorry. All theodicies any theological attempt. To reconcile. The realities of evil and tragedy and randomness. The idea of a perfectly controlling god will always fail. Can anyone believe there's a god really heaven who would allow 6 million jews. You slaughtered us. Would anyone believe. Any god. Allowed. He or she were. Many of us facing this theological reality. Feel like poet james kavanaugh who wrote i have lost my easy god. The one whose name i knew since childhood he was a good god. He was a predictable god. He made pain sensible and patience possible the future foreseeable now he haunts me seldom this god. Some fierce umbilical is broken now i live with my own fragile hopes. And my sudden rising the spare my easy god is gone and in his stead the mystery. Of loneliness. And love. All i. The old simple gods of history and childhood. You're paying. Argon. We live in a postmodern. And yet time magazine was once again. Wildly wrong. When it declared. God. Yes the primitive. Conceptualization of god. But the yearning. For god. For some sense. Of the divine or sacred. No matter how brutal or cynical the times become no matter how silent or hostile to heaven. Sometimes seem to us. Most of us can't quite get this yearning. Or something larger than ourselves out of our consciousness. There is. This unquenchable hunger in the human heart. The steep yearning in the human soul the snagging inclination in our minds to wonder if perhaps perhaps arisen. Something larger something. Lovelier than ourselves. Purposefully. Purposefully aster. Increation. I fully understand that there are people sitting before me. Who self-identify as atheist or humanist or at least severe agnostics. For some of you the very thought of god. Is of no spiritual use. And that of course is an honorable spiritual. Perspective as long as life. But for many of us. Especially. In those tenderly fleeting moments when life's. Qatar. Holy. Healing beauty and mystery do break in upon us. As when we witness the birth. Of a new child. Or captivated. As we are so often here in florida. Beautiful sunset. Or witness enact. Radical generosity or love. We are held in the or held in the arms of human love. We wonder still if there isn't something something we can reliably call god or spirit. Breathe through our world. This purpose. His creation with. The idea and the yearning of god. I mostly across all cultures. There is something universal i think. In the urge to human beings have. To know and then to attempt to name. Something larger and lovely or something more sacred. Themselves. As long as we have the. Mysterious. Duck life. As long as we find ourselves. So wondrously alive in this astounding creation no matter how much pain or tragedy we may experience this yearning. I am reminded of the modern. Acidic tail which is told. About three old rabbis. Auschwitz. After many months in the deaf. They decide finally. Put god on trial. For allowing the innocent children to be massacre. Of course. Find god guilty. Of these murders. The god of israel that god was supposed to rule the world and protect his people the rabbi's conclude. Broke his part of the covenant real bargain. Yet a moment after the three old men conclude their trial. In their shack at auschwitz. One of the rabbis glances up. Through the dirty window sees the setting sun and says why my friend. It's time for our prayers. And they bow their heads. And they pray to god. Question and yearning of god. Powerful and persistent. Not even the ardent. Ernest an absolute humanism that i grew around my philosophic solder in college. Has been able to protect myself from this impulse. Has the longer i live the more i fully experience to my world. Just couldn't get away. Something i call god. Steele's gently into my heart regularly and i've never able. To defend myself. Good thing like the old rabbis in auschwitz. No matter how senseless life may seem to me how i'm just. I will never be able to get god out of. My soul. Perhaps some of. Is secretly true4u even if. You call yourself. Used to fly a lot as a minister and i had a colleague edward frost from atlanta when he was sitting next to a seat made on a plane and somebody asked him what he did for a living he said. I manufacture rawhide dog chews. And the reason he said that he's there was never a follow-up question. I never had that wisdom when i used to fly when somebody would say what do you do i would say lima minister. And then number is time somebody got a very long flight and i'll be over kansas or something. Couple of times i engaged this person conversation by asking. Well which god is it you don't believe in. And invariably the answer was this old god i'm just driving this old proportion got avenue in old testament. I don't believe in that got either. And i would. Converse with him about spirit. And wondering if there was some way of there. Responding to the universe.. Once i kind of describe the god that i was unable to chase from my soul. Many times they would say well if that's what you mean by god i uncomfortable with that concept it's just i thought everybody believed in this old angry. Parents who was running. The universe. If you take time to engage most people in conversation about god. It's not that they. Denied all sacredness or divinity. Of the patriarchal. Here's the neat thing. As unitarian universalist we have so many creative spiritually enriching ways to think about god. And this diversity is not only logical it's good. I believe that god is above all else erratically. A personal reality when i was in seminary i just sold. German. Comparative religions professor named frederick. He was a dignified old man if you google famous theologian. The one thing i took from my course with him. I is whatever several things. But he said. That. God is in the realm of the inexpressible in your ear of fool if you ever try. To tell someone else. Or impose someone else on someone else your idea of god. He would implore us. He said. Be content. To know and name your own god kind of inside as a feeling. But please don't try to transfer argue to someone else your sense of god they must discover their own sense of life. Ultimate sacredness and not try to fit themselves into the box which is yours. And over the years of my ministry i've. I tended not to heed that advice i think it's important to talk about god but. The basic. Of his remark was good. God is a fiercely personal reality and you don't need to justify it to anyone you don't need to even be able to articulate. But if you have a sense of the divine or the sacred. Or something you call god. Rest with that and don't worry about. Proving. I've had art. Empiricists are from unitarian universal circle hook. Don't have to. This is religion that science. I don't have to define. I don't have to. Explain it to satisfy you. That's not the way god works. All of this is my way of preface swing by briefly sharing now my own personal idea of god and what god is i experience it means to me. It is my own experience and i don't want any of you. Cleave to it or expect. That you will find this. Circulation. Just perfect. I want to share what the word god means. To me it's a way of perhaps stimulating your thought. And you're feeling about what it might mean. To you. That which i called god is a very personal mystical and largely intuitive reality of my life. It's something i feel more than think. I cannot describe it in precise rational or scientific terms. Rather in poetic. Exponential and metaphor. One that may not. When's it may not make a whole lot of sense to you. That which i called god is not as you might well guess from what i said about the old biblical understandings my god is not a supernatural personality. Nora cosmic consciousness nor a divine intelligence it is certainly not. A ruler of the universe no such god of history makes any sense. My god rather is an elusive. Life-giving spirit. Sunk deep down in my world and my being god is to me and elusive but terribly powerful and real. Spirit of holiness of. Of healing and grace. Dwelling. In common. Ordinary. An indwelling presence. It's another way to say it in the world. A present which is there for me as a positive spiritual resource and source of energy as i strive to live my mortal life on this earth. And love. Contentment. And joy and. One of the original hebrew meanings for the word spirit is breath. Of life or. Wind. The spirit of god that i see and sense and seek to serve in my life is like a faithful wind. The blows like we have. Always here. In vero we have a lovely wind blowing at us. What's the ocean. God for me is a study reliable. There i can. See it. It's their civil iable. Can i call god is a faithful everyday presence of presents with. Blesses and stirs and energizes my world like. Caressing summer. Freeze. let me be clear about this. The spirit of life is sustaining. Beauty and goodness and purpose and love which i feel pulsing through nature. And in all things and i see in people and even in myself. This thing i seek to know and celebrate. Serve as best i can is not in charge of the universe. It is not in charge. It does not. Control. The world it does not rule it. It does not it cannot manipulate historical events there is no master plan for humanity. Nor conscious intent for my life or your life i don't think. I cannot and do not pray to this god. To steer or change or fix things in my life or in. The world history. And there are to be existentially sure other powerful and countervailing forces. Southdown in deep in our world there are forces of emptiness. Forces of angst and cruelty and sorrow and ugliness. Pain you all know these things they are real and they are. Deep down. In our world.. You need look no further. Then the killing fields of our world. I know about. These. Our world is not ruled. Goodness. And love. That which i called god is existentially restrained. And restricted by other realities in this creation. Artistic. Cause me despair nor cause me. To mute. Or to disavowal you this spirit. Now i fully appreciate that for some such a god such an elusive mystical spiritual presence. It comes to us like wind. That does not change faith and does not shape history and does not ensure happy endings. That this god for many is not powerful are personal enough or. To be of comfort in usefulness but for me this is the only god possible in so fragile and i'm pretty. All creation is the one you and i live in. The fact that which i called god cannot and does not do all things on q and conformity. To my wishes and desires or yours. Does not for me at least diminish its present. It's preciousness. And its potential. To help me find a satisfying way of human being. For me even though the spirit i feel and everyday things. Is not all-powerful our all-knowing it is holiness enough it is a sweet and saving presents. It is reliable. It infuses my life with grace and power and goodness enough. It's enough to save me. Save me and countless moments. And as i have said that which i called god is not personal. In the sense that i don't have a direct conversational. Human-like relationship with the spirit. But my relationship with this great and gentle presence is nonetheless fiercely personal everyday i awake. I strive to serve in to see and to celebrate and just serve this spirit. Whenever i'm. Watching the other hibiscus right now along a1a in tucson. Communing with dear friends over a messy. Candlelit dinner or lending myself with others of goodwill to some. Social justice cause or struggling in my own quiet moments of the night. To be the best person i can be. I do fall into hush relationship. With my god. And try to draw my life and being closer to the spirit. That which i call god. Does that come rolling out of the clouds at me or. Offer me 10 simple commandments. I'm old. Tablets. My relationship with that which i call god. Doesn't mean the things automatically go my way. As my colleague tom michelson is right. There is often a god. Shaped hole in my heart. And a god-shaped hole in all of creation. William wordsworth. Spoke to me when he wrote. I have felt a presence. That disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts of tents. Sublime of something far more deeply infused whose dwelling. Is the light of setting suns. And the round ocean. And the living are in the blue sky. And in the mind of humanity. Emotion. And a spirit that impels all thinkin things all objects of thought and roll. Rolls. Through. All. My colleague clark joey wells once poetically talked about his god as that dearest. Freshness. Indeep downswing. That life. Giving presents that sings out of the muck and mara love this life. A spirit that is available. And a spirit. More to the point. A spirit. Calls me. Begs me taunts me huntsman. To participate in its holy. Work. It's wholly waze. This is called process theology. The idea that. God. Invites us to be partners. With. It's spirit. In the creation of a better world. I love this idea to become. Co-creators. 2. To become a part. That spirit. That's spirit. Which i call god kevin doesn't course. Operate for life and love quite without me. But it also begs me it calls me into its purpose and its greatness. And becomes itself. Stronger and lovelier the more. Strong and loving i become. God is changed. Find me. And i am changed. By god. Theologian. Dorothy soleil boldly said. To believe in god means to take sides with life. And to end our alliance with death. It means to stop killing. And wanting to kill and to do battle with apathy which is so akin to killing. To take sides with life she goes on. And to experience how we can transcend our cells as a process that has many names and faces religion is one of those names. Religion can mean the radical and wholehearted attempt. Simply to take side. Westlife. We enter the spirit of god. We participate in god. Whenever and however we hear the call and lend ourselves. Lend ourselves. To taking the side. Of life. And love. And goodness. For example. If you stand faithfully by someone's deathbed holding their hand soothing their brow and singing to them. In the night. It is your presence. You are loved your physical and brace. That is god. And then the opposite. Spiritual realm. The opposite is true. If we fail to bring our best and most loving selves to some earthly or human moment. Then god is diminished. By our refusal of the spirit. God regularly needs us. If god spirit. Hyster grow. In the world. And the spiritual irony of this. Life. Is it on a daily basis the great. Spirit of creation is dependent upon us. It asked it welcomes. Encourage. Energy. And gifts. To help make the world right. I am sure the old primitive gods. Are all dead. To me at least. The world is at best a fractured place of triumph and tragedy holiness and hellacious mess. Sacredness and suffering from suffering the world is torn between forces of light and love and goodness and. Apathy darkness. And cruelty. And i refuse to believe in such a world that anyone. Or anything is ruling. The heaven. And deciding everything.. But i believe deep to my bones. Deep to my heart. Creation is nonetheless. Eternally easter. With a holy presence. A presence of gentleness. Presence of purpose. A presence of grace. Presence. I believe there was a holy spirit on the winds of this world that seeks to bless. And nurture all who are open to feel it's study power. And it's healing. And i pray. The call it whatever you will. Describe it in whatever way that works for you. Please be open. The sacred mystery. That lies just beyond you and within every. Part. Of your body. And your soul. Dog hammarskjold. Had it right. When he simply said god does not die on the day we cease to believe in a personal dd. But we die. On the day when our lives cease to be illumined. By the steady radiance. Renew daily. Of a wonder. The source of which. Is beyond. All.

uufvb_org

15Nov2009sermon32kbs.mp3

uufvb_org

2012Dec23Sermon32.mp3

I'm so glad you've chosen to. Share part of this holiday weekend with us we invite you back to our christmas eve service tomorrow night at 7. And i will help you be with us again tomorrow. Please know you're welcome. Whether you are young or old. Black or white or some other wonderful shade or expression of humanity. Whether you were feeling on top of the world this holiday weekend or. Down in the dumps or somewhere in between. And you are welcome just as you come to us at all of your particularity and charm. We hope you will find the service enriching and meaningful this morning. And that you will find something here. The nurse is your spirit. And feeds your soul and gives you renewed energy and zest. For the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. My colleague alfred cole once wrote. Bring us to christmas wear for a season. The routine world. And find the poetry of life the surprise in the familiar until with a new vision we may see what we failed to see before. Bring us to christmas wear. At the altar of wonder we take counsel. Of simplicity. Andy, to the mystery of our own hearts. End of the universal mythic in all of us. Bring us to christmas we're in the world of imagination into our stories with song and legend. And another realm of human wisdom. Bring us to christmas. Where is most of the spirits triumph daily round overcome loneliness. Face separation. Except change contain. Conflicts. Be sustained all times of hardship and lived. Live. Bring us to christmas. We become more aware of the themes of ultimate concern. In the world. Justice. For the excluded. Community build-a-bike goodwill. Bring us to christmas in ourselves. We made like candles to the darkness in our own mind. And make prayers to the music of the world. Bring us to christmas. My eyes that see. Ears that hear. And parts. That understand. It is our new tradition here since i've come anyway. For last to celebrate on this sunday before christmas and intergenerational service. With a few stories and songs about christmas. We begin this year with a story told by leslie. About how the christmas tree. Came to america. Summer jam. America has not always had christmas. In the early days of our nation. Christmas was celebrated without decorated. Yes during the revolutionary war. Hessian soldiers had decorated pineville. But it was not until 1832. The christmas tree. Became a part of our holiday celebration. It was a unitarian minister a german refugee named charles fallen. Who has lived in the united states for several years was responsible. At christmas time something was missing for him. Reverend fallon. Thought and thought about. What was different from the christmas celebration he was used to in germany. Then one day. He was strolling down a lane surrounded by pine forest. And its face lit up. She knew exactly what was missing. When he returned home he spoke to the cook. And ask her to be very careful. Opening the eggs to use for cooking. Please crack them open evenly. Rinse them off and save them for me. She requested. Next. Keep purchased many candles and small candle holders. The day before christmas. Robin fallon took a shovel. And walked into the pine forest. He carefully.. To not damage its roots. He put the tree in the tub. Surrounded space with moss and took it home. While no one in the his family was looking. He brought the tree into the parlor and close the doors. All the next day prepared the tree. While he was feeling is francis with holiday surprises. You remembered how his own father would love to watch his children's faces. As they caught sight of the christmas tree for the first time. The surprise happiness and glow of their eyes. That evening. Reverend fallen and his wife carefully gathered their children. Outside the parlor door. They lit the candles. Reverend fallon stood next. So he can see his children's faces. Experience the miracle of happiness. And wonder of holiday joy. The door is open. And the children's scared with white eyes. Their mouth became round. And then. Oh how beautiful they cry. Christmas. Reverend fowler. Finally discovered what was missing for him. For the christmas. The glow in the children's eyes. When they saw the tree. Every year after reverend and mrs. fallon prepare to decorate a tree for their family in gas. Other families in that part of massachusetts began to decorate trees to. Soon it became a holiday tradition. For all americans. So if you enjoy christmas trees every year. Same to unitarian minister. The reverend charles. In fact many of the favorite. Carol's of the seasoning. We're written by unitarian minister. Before her husband's medical complications made being here in possible. Irreverently page agreed to tell a story from her own christmas past. She wrote it and has sent it and i will be reading it. It is entitled the aftermath of hurricane andrew. December 19th. Here is her true story. You may remember hurricane andrew during august 19th. And the terrible damage it caused in florida. And on the east coast of the united states. But it also devastated many of the islands in the bahamas. Packing winds of more than 175 mph. I'm leaving in its wake 250 million dollars of destruction. In the bahamas alone. What are the islands in the hurricane's path was harbor island a tiny sliver of land. 3 miles long and about half a mile wide. Nestle close to a much bigger island. Both islands were almost completely destroyed. In the best of times she write harbor island is not a major destination on any tourist map. But it is the home of bone fishing. And therefore the go-to place for bone fishing enthusiast. As both our sons wanted to try his hand at bonefish. We decided to go there for christmas and invited my stepfather to join us. The island offers no luxury accommodation. Please ask. But our choice of lodging this christmas was drastically reduced. By the hurricane. As most houses. Guest cottages and restaurants have been destroyed. And we're boarded up. We were lucky to find a small cottage colony reopen. At a tiny store or we could buy food to cook for ourselves. The proprietors. Both were happy to see us. Or anyone who had any money to spend. Friday's she writes the boys fish that we all explored the islands and walked on the beach. Even though it was the christmas season the town was empty with only a few businesses open. Some streets were blocked off by huge piles of hurricane debris. Waiting to be picked up. One of the prominent landmarks on the island the end concerto. Had lost its roof. Is a hurricane. And what remained was now only the hulk. The massive stone walls and empty windows of this formerly proud structure. The story was at the hurricane has lifted the entire slate roof off. And the whole and its whole superstructure off the building and dump it somewhere on the west of the island in the atlantic ocean. Allegedly they never found any part of the roof. In better years. The community. Would have been festive with christmas spirit and bustling with tourists. Deserted. Sq visitors chose to come to harbor island. And the local residents with little to-do simply stayed home. Christmas. As the sun went down in the sky darkened into night we began to hear voices. Kerry dennard direction by the warm wind. The community was waking up. As people started to gather outside their home. We left our cottage and joined a group of neighbors neighbors moving toward the town. Others join. Was heading in the same direction. Closed churches. We had walked past during the day and hardly notice. Head open their doors. And lights filled out under the cobblestone. Streets as people entered the sanctuary. As we walked on. We heard christmas music that grew louder and louder. As the crowd float toward the center of town and there. At the top of the small rise. Was the anglican church. Now a blaze in spotlights double doors wide open the windows. And light beaming through the roof space into the night. Uber carry long she rides. Find a space in the rear of the room. All around us payments dressed in their best clothes and the ladies in huge brimmed hat. We're laughing and talking to their friends and neighbors. There were more people gathered in that church that we had seen since their arrival in the island. Musicians in tuxedos behind them. Acquire of eight women in lawn red evening dresses carrying microphone. Mountain dew slowed the lowest state. Sheets of christmas carols were distributed by the oscars. And then the singing began we all began to sing. The temple of our familiar carol and calypso or reggae. Louder and louder the music game louder and louder we all saying. The carols broadcast by the band and choir joined by the voices of the large congregation. Poured out of the church into the streets and throughout the community. And inside all of us surge back and forth. Swaying and clapping in rhythm. Together we were soon all bathed in perspiration. But no one cared in the singing just went on and on. Hallelujah hallelujah. The crowd shouted and we sang and shouted to as loudly as we could even though we are from new england. It seems as though the music would never end. Pathetic. We sang silent night. And the service was over. But the exuberant mood of the congregation did not change at all. As the people cheered laughed and shouted. To one another as they left the church merry christmas they were shouting merry christmas. And they stopped us on the back and hug.. Out on the street. Leann's. The crowd was gathering again. As we walked back to our cottage we saw that a block party was just getting underway. It would law it would last long into the night. I'm at christmas eve and for a few brief hours. All the hardships. Caused by the hurricane. Or forgotten. This was a night to rejoice. This was a night to give thanks. The spirit of christmas was abroad. Abroad in the world. And the people of harbor island. Had survived. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And now arthur will tell us about christmas. In the boot camp. I've looked forward to christmas all my life. This year i'm going to look backward. Safer. I'm not sure the boot camp is a place to celebrate anything. Just happen to be there. Fort mcclellan anniston alabama. Any of it wherever there. I'm sorry about it. So are you. There's going to be a non-christmas in every sense of the word. Reason being verse symbol. Somebody somewhere had the gall to come down with spinal meningitis. And that meant that everybody in company abnc. Restricted. Did our company streets. All training sessions canceled. Until further notice. One person a day. Could go from each company. Supposed to exchange. We did not expect a gourmet. Christmas dinner. For me it was worse. My then best girl had got it into her head. To come from ohio to alabama so i wouldn't have to be alone on christmas day. I wasn't sure she could do under the post. I know for sure i could not get off of it. Unfortunately her mother heard about it. Maybe. The daughter. Talked in your sleep i don't know but anyway. Mother heard about it called my parents in massachusetts. Join my girl showed up shoes chaperone by three very concerned adults. One bright note. That was the christmas. Set my parents decided to give me something that i had wanted for a long time. An accordion. The small instrument 48 base. That means anything to anybody. And i know absolutely nothing about playing it's always making the usual. Hopeless record. On one of my buddies had for muskie. By name. Asked if he could have a try. So i gave him my new toy and it started to play. He played the entire rest of the day. Right through shopper. Right into christmas eve. I went to sleep to the sound of polish polkas and waltzes. And i woke up christmas morning. Hearing the same. I don't recall. Did he ever repeat himself on any single piece of music except one. Paczki repeated because i asked him to so i could learn it. I never did. That was the longest concert i have ever attended. It was also. The most profoundly uplifting. That christmas we had dinner i assume. No trees no lights. No fancy wrapping paper. My car didn't come simply in a great big box. So none of the trappings are used to. No carol's at all. As i said we had nothing to do and no place to go all we could do was listen. So that man playing his accordion. And for those. Hours. It was his accordion. I found out many years later that ed for musky. Father was a. Accordion instructor in new york city. Green was become the same sometime. I used to look in the yellow pages for new york. To see if there was a from osky accordion school. I never found it. I also found out his grandfather in the old country. Wasn't accordion maker. Anime dead. A going-away present one dead and his family left. Poland. Just before the german invasion. There's a full size concert band instrument custom-built. There he was playing on my little toy. That's all it was unsure. I doubt if anybody in company c ever forgot that christmas. My guess is it nobody company's amv nextdoor forgot it either. Incidentally. The date date was a disaster. Teenagers can't have a date with three adults. Look at them over their shoulder. What. It worked out in the long run after all. She lives right up here in sebastian. Maybe i'll ask her what she remembers about that first christmas. We spent together. I might learn something. Is this a christmas story it happened on christmas day in 1845. But that's the only chris. About as far as i can tell. Except that i think. Basically. It was the spirit of christmas. Fart and i did not discuss what we were talkin about so. My story is about a musical instrument to. Ilearn. About awareness. Of the less fortunate. At the age of 5. And that's why it's. Discussion is about my fifth birthday. My little pea-brain who are less fortunate. Then i was. And. To go back. My my parents. We were musical family. My parents took me to the philadelphia academy of music. To hear. A very famous violinist fritz kreisler. When we were on the way home after his recital. I said. I would like to have a violin for christmas. And my parents says that's rather expensive. Okay we'll think about. My father was president of the. Kiwanis club. In the town where his. Dental practice was. They used to collect boxes and clothing and toys. And go to an area. In a town that was. Out beyond where i was living and i never seen this town before. And the christmas eve was when they distributed these gifts. My father said. I'm going to take joan. To help me with this. Mother said i think she's too young for it he said no it'll be a good experience for. And it was leave me. The place that we came to. To distribute these gifts. Was made of a license place that had been discarded. In new jersey and those days. When you got a new license you took your old plate. To the office. And they tossed them all out. In a. An empty field. These huts i called him but i don't know what else to call them. The people had gathered these license plates and tack them. 2. Post. And branches and anything else they could. To make a place for them to live. And this was the scene that we saw. When we came up to this. Field that i've never been to. It was. Outside of the local towns. And my father said. We will. Take these boxes and gets into people i said where he says living in these. Hot. How they how they survived in the wintertime was a cold-weather is beyond me. But at any rate we got the boxes out of the car and the people had heard us coming and so they managed to open. Some kind of door that they had. Design. We went in the end of this hut. It was one room. There was a grandmother lying on a mattress. On the bed on this on the earth. Which was. Had been muddy but it was frozen then. They had an oil lamp. The child a little girl 3 years old. A boy 5. And then the mother and father. Well we had these boxes and i had put a couple of candy canes on the top just for decoration. The two little kids the saw that candy canes was so excited. I had no idea what else was in the box. They jumped up and down they had candy cane. Tamiya candy came with something you decorated with him forgot about. But. They they were shrieking they were so happy. And the when we gave the day parents and the grandmother on her mattress. Boxes with toys and gifts in it. The people were crying and hugging us. The little kids 42. I'm sorry i'd still move me. It is it is so clear in my mind the picture that i saw then. So we left and we went to the next place. Made the same way. Distributed the goods there was a baby in that house. And the the parents of people that receives it's a little kid. We're hugging us and crying and jumping up and down they were so thrilled with what they were getting. Well. I survived that by saying i'm not doing any more of this i can't i can't handle it. So my father went to the different places in cave the boxes. And the food and the gift. To the other hut. The next morning was christmas day my sister and i were upstairs and we were awakened by my father playing we wish you a merry christmas. And mother singing rebound it out of bed. And ran down and got her bathrobes and slippers ran down the steps. 216 steps to the landing and then there was four more steps to the living room. I took one look at this big trade it was decorated and presents all underneath it and aransas. Living room. And sat down and said i don't want them. So for the next 2 hours. I sat on the steps. My aunts and uncles came and had more gifts. My sister was running back and forth showing me what you'd gotten. And i still said. I don't. I can't do it i don't want them. So my father came over to me about 2 hours after and he said. If you will open one gift. I will have a surprise for you. So i thought okay that's a bargain. So i was five-years-old remember. So he gave me a big box and i opened it. And there was a violin in it. And i said what's the surprise and he said if you learn to play the violin. I promise you that next christmas the kiwanis club he was president. Would have a party and we will send a bus out and get all those people in those huts. And bring them into our hall. And have a special party and you can play a solo on your violin for them. I did nothing that day but try to learn the violin my father played for in five instruments so he he could teach me. That night. I play. Drink to me only with thine eyes. Which could have been the aaa. But that was the beginning and 415 christmas is after that. We put on a show for those people it was during the depression so there are plenty of them. To entertain. And i played violin solo with improved i hope each year. And we had kids performing and adults singing to them. And that's when i became aware. Of the less fortunate. On christmas. At the christmas time. Member of this church. Because. To me that's the predominant feature that they offer here is awareness of the less fortunate. Merry christmas. I want to tell you. Aquarius and somewhat. Christmas story from my own family. Which mercifully has what i think of as a happy ending. Some of you know that i come from a close and caring wisconsin family. My mother march and my father wendell raised us for boys. In racine. By every measure we were close-knit and happy. Harriet. Only without the good looks. There was one let me call it an unpleasant wrinkle in our family story that was never much discussed. And that was the existence of my half-brother. James. Who is the product of my father's first short and unhappy marriage. As america and the war and the world was drifting toward the second world war my father who graduated from duke with an engineering degree. Fell in love and married a lounge singer. And entertainer. Edison jaymes soon followed. Although my father never said much about this early failed marriage he did tell us it was a disaster almost from the very beginning. And just after a couple of years he had left the marriage joined the navy and went off to europe to fight in world war ii. Evolution of the war he immediately met my mother. They married move to wisconsin and began our family as far as i know. He had little or no contact with either his first wife or his son james. The way people handled it in those times. Indeed for many years he had no idea even where they lived and she went on to mary's six or seven more times. I moved all around the country. One christmas i believe i was about 10 years old allowed brown box manufacturer just my father arrived. Adult store. With a gift in it. I remember him opening it only. To find a full set of white tableware in blazing with his first initial w. It was from his son james. Who was by then in college. And every piece in the box of china was shattered. Broken assumedly in shipping except one piece. A solitary coffee. With the letter w for wenzel on it. I believe this was the occasion when i first learn that a son named james existed at all. We boys ask dad quite a few questions about this which he answered as quickly and briefly as he couldn't you can tell he was uncomfortable with the whole subject. Llc years pass i don't recall any further contact with his first son. But we did know somehow that he become a phd psychologist and a college professor. Lone survivor. Ended up in the kitchen cupboard of our little summer cottage on lake michigan where it stayed summer after summer. I remember looking at that cup over the years and wondering what had become of the half-brother i did not know. In 1980 many years later i was serving the carnation in plainfield new jersey. After his emotional memorial service i decided i would try to find this lost. Coronavirus. I needed to know. As a step in the dark i called the american psychological association offices in washington dc and they said a james alexander was a tenured professor. At the university of utah and they gave me his office number. With no small amount of trepidation i took a deep breath and i dialed the number. And then someone answered. James alexander. I stammered.. Said hello this is scott alexander. Wendell alexander is my father. I think you're my half-brother. Then i heard. Yes. I told him of our father's death. And of my brothers and their families and my mother. I know he spent quite a time on the phone sharing information about the outlines of our lives our relationships our careers. James it turns out like me is an endurance athlete. Who regularly does long-distance charity bike rides. And is internationally known and psychological circles as the creator of a therapeutic approach known as functional. Family therapy. And is an expert in juvenile crime and recidivism. Studying while young adults in trouble often become repeat. Here is a recent photo of jim that i found on the university of utah website. Since then both our brother george and i have met jim. When we both travel to salt lake city he lives with his wife mary beth. I met him for lunch just once in salt lake about 10 years ago when i was there for the general assembly of arjun domination. But we kept in touch he gets our newsletter. And we can touch my phone email. Even trying unsuccessfully because of our busy professional schedule to take a long terry bike ride together we became close one summer but didn't quite make it. I'm thrilled that this christmas to tell you that in just a few weeks my brother jim and his wife. Will be coming here to vero beach. Suspend. I look forward to his visit as a wonderful opportunity to get to know a brother i always had. But have never. Really known. Through all these years. Seemingly a million miles separated me from my brother james. The one curious lonely christmas cup. Emblazoned. With the letter w. At the lake. Provided me with a tenuous connection to someone. To whom i belong. Christmas is always a time. To seek real connection. With those. To whom. We belong. John reminded us that maybe we belong. Maybe this christmas. There's somebody out there in this whole wide world. To whom you need. Switch out. And make a real connection. The story comes from. Reverend. Robin. Hold'em. Call the christmas in august. One year i didn't receive many christmas cards. That fitted february afternoon this troublemaking realization actually came to me out of the back. Room of my head. It is a source of much useless information. Guess i needed. Some reason to really feel crummy so there it was. Why didn't say anything about it to anybody. I can take it. I won't complain. My chief friends don't even care enough to send me a christmas card. I can do without love. I was nesting in the attic order to a mess. I found stacking. With the holiday decorations holbox. I tossed them into the box. To open at leisure in. Send ran out of leisure in the. Samples of the usual christmas panic. Caught up. Retina. Stopping in the attic and we'll straighten out type of next year syndrome. I hauled the box down. And on a hot. Day in the middle of august in my bathing suit. Sitting along sharon. On my deck. Sunglasses coconut butter and a quart of iced tea. And a puzzle frame of mind. I began to open my christmas cards. Just to help i put on christmas carols on the portable stereo cranked up. Hero was. The angels snow wiseman candles. Boro's horses slays the holy family. Elves and santa. Heavy messages about love joy and peace and goodwill and if that wasn't enough. Through all those handwritten messages of affection from my cheap friends. Who in fact had. Come through for the holidays. I cried. Seldom have i felt so bad and so good. Wonderfully rotten. Elegantly sad and. Millencolin nostalgic. Bathurst. As fate would always happen. I was discovered. In this condition by a neighbor. Goodman. Good been attracted to the scene by the sound of christmas carols in august. She laughed i showed her the cards and. Then she cried. And we had this outrageous christmas ordeal right there on the deck in the middle of august. The mormon tabernacle choir to the final mighty strange oh holy night. What can i say. I guess the wandering all enjoy. Always there in the attic of one's mind somewhere and. It doesn't take a lot to send them off. And much about christmas is outrageous whether it comes to you and december. Born august. This christmas. I will be warm. The thurman d joia. Will be joyous. Will be peaceful. The therapy love. I. Will be loving. Go in peace. And going.

uufvb_org

2012Feb26Sermon128.mp3

You know. Eat sunday morning i stand here and when the sermon time comes. Are you all sitting out there is attentive and polite listeners i mean. Look at all of you well-behaved folks quiet is good little church mice. Waiting for whatever it is i'm going to say this morning. Now. Indeed religious liberals have never been known for their raucous sunday outbursts. Someone in the nineteenth century when it's far as to famously call the boston unitarians. God's frozen people. Because of their stiff new england unresponsiveness. But that doesn't really describe you good folks here in vero beach you're really a very engaged and responsive. Congregation walkthrough you don't often speak up or stand up or otherwise carry on when i say something during my sermon. I know lurking deep within each of you as a southern baptist waiting to be responsive. Anti call things out so i'll need your help to get going this morning and i want to hear it from you folks. Are you ready brothers and sisters. I'm at wasn't quite good enough are you ready brothers and sisters all right. I ask you is there anything worse. When you've tried to a diet plan after diet plan to shed however many pounds you have. To listen to your cheerful next door neighbor described how easy it was for her to lose 32 pounds in 8 weeks is there anything worse than that. No. And is there anything worse. When your grandson who is off again attending community college who doesn't exactly have ambition or self-discipline as his middle name. Regularly disappointing you listening to your neighbor bragging at the backyard bbq about how their grandkids are breathing respectively through stanford and harvard is there anything worse. And is there anything worse brothers and sisters after you have told at your spouse for being impatient behind-the-wheel 22 days later have that spouse call you on it when you're behind this incredibly stupid and slow driver and you're cursing is there anything worse than that. And finally is there anything worse. On a perfectly lazy and gentle february sunday morning in florida after eating a delicious. Breakfast. With absolutely no exercise plans in your day listening to a minister. Who was the physical fitness nut. An endurance athlete whose about for god's sake to bike all the way across america in 30 days is there anything worse than listening to him preach a sermon on the spiritual importance of paying attention to your body and fitness is there anything worse. But that is precisely what's going to happen this morning. It's going to happen. Because i'm continuing my year-long series on the 12 gates are pathways that can lead you to the holy city. Of your own life. Am i believe you cannot have spiritual emotional or intellectual health. And that fullness of human life which makes life and being worth. Doing. Where you can experience all as i've been saying in the series the define traffic. All around you eager to have you interact with it. You cannot. Experience these things unless. You take proper care. And have a proper relationship with. Your physical corpus. Your body. And yet this is a topic we americans seldomly serious raised with one another it's kind of an off. Limit. Antabuse subject especially in a church where the topic is supposed to be spiritual on seventh-day adventists. They're big health nuts but they're about the only ones that i've been able to find. You know what i'm doing this morning reminds me of the old. Southern preacher who once preached about another taboo subject money. And the board president came up to him after the service and said preacher. You crossed over. From preaching in the madeleine. Now believe me the last thing i want to do is metal. In any of your lives. But nonetheless it is my responsibility in this sermon series on joyful and responsible and full living. To remind you. And that's all i'm doing i'm just reminding you of stuff you already know. Remind you what it's going to take to live your life. With full depth of spiritual and physical being. And the one thing it takes is two wisely take care of these physical mantels that we are stewards of this. Body electric. As whitman so powerful. Rodan. Poem that i read to you. One of my colleagues the reverend on boudreaux and i understand they're a couple of people from venice this morning who know don boudreau. I don't know my servant listen here's a quote from him. He serves her. Our church over there. He points out that unitarian universalist are no better about seeing their to their physical self care than other americans in general. Where he writes. Are the resolutions at the uu general assembly that's our annual meeting. Stressing the need for us to get our bodies in better shape. Or staying in shape. Wii u use he writes live far too much in our heads. And our seemingly unaware howsoever bright we maybe. But there is something called the body. Which. For some of us is really part of a true trinity. Body. Mind. And spirit. Actually there is a very old philosophical reason. Why here in western society and in unitarian-universalist circles we have trouble. Giving our bodies the spiritual import and attention they deserve and that is called. The cartesian dualism. Remember that maybe you heard that some point the cartesian dualism. It is a cosmic divide. Between the physical fleshy material colonel. Realm. And the realm whatever that means of body of spirit mind and intellect. This was. This has held a harmful and powerful philosophic sway. In the west since the time of the greeks. First postulated by the by ancient greek thinkers like plato and aristotle. The cartesian dualism draws absolute dichotomy. Again the physical. Fleshy material carnal realm. Which is philosophically devalued by the greeks. Because it appeared so temporal so. Leading so. So earthian common. And. So what they valued the greeks was almost totally the realm of the mind of the spirit or the intellect. Although first articulated by the greeks. It was 16th century philosopher rene descartes. Who cemented this great distinction between the mind and the body. In his sixth meditation on philosophy. Descartes argued for a position called. Substance dualism. Which asserts quote that in addition to our physical bodies. Each of us also has an immaterial soul. No. And he further believe that a person's mind. A person's mind. Can exist independently. From that person's body. And that it is not automatically destroyed. When the physical body dies i quote they car himself. Two things. My body and my soul are distinct. Since they are capable of being separated at least by god. It is true they cart went on. Did i might have a body that is very closely joined to me. But nevertheless i have a clear and distant distinct idea of myself. Insofar as i am simply a sinking. Non extended thing i am really distinct. From my body descartes said. And can exist without it. Okay. And so. It is down the centuries since that in western fought at least the body. And all things physical. And colonel. Have been devalued and ignored. While the mind and the spirit and all things intellectual and spiritual have been exalted intended to. I think this is lead. To a lot of us even highly educated thoughtful you use to ignore the primacy. And importance of good bodily health and care. It is because of this cartesian dualism. That we actually. Think we can have an intellectual and spiritual life. Without referencing and caring for our bodies we. Begin to imagine we can have all that without referencing and caring for our body. Yes yes we say to ourselves i know i'm house. In this corpus of skin bound flash. And i know intellectually i'm like the card. But i can't really get along without this. But. Where i really live and move and have my being is in my head. And in the immaterial realms of heart and soul and that's where most of my attentions will get directed. And so we fall victim. You can know you know i think what i'm saying is true. We fall victim to paying insufficient attention. To our bodies and their constant need for tender loving care. Which is not limited to. Proper diet and you all know what proper. Everybody in the room knows what a proper.. A lot. Lots of exercise. One of many forms. Based on whatever physical capabilities. No. I know what many of you were thinking out there right now i can hear your little gears working. Like i'm getting no you can't pretty well. You think all scott. Got the exercising to wait for natick who commutes to and from church everyday. Even in the driving rain and sweltering sun for god sake he's about to go from preaching to scold. About to tell me. Take better care. Of my body. He may be right in some abstract sense i hear some of you saying but i don't have the time. Or the energy to pay attention to my body like you suggesting i must i'm just too busy with my life my work my kids my grandkids. And all the computer work. For that kind of physical time i do the best i can so get off my spiritual case okay well. I'm not going to get off your spiritual case. I'm not even get off your physical case. When you installed me a year-and-a-half ago i promised that i would always preach the truth and love to you. Does pulpit. Well this morning i'm giving you just a little dose of tough love both philosophical and practical. I am going to talk about physical self care and physical fitness this morning. And let me be very clear again i'm talking about at for you at whatever level and age you can achieve no matter. How vigorous or how restrained you are. You can still take care of your body to the maximum extent. That you can't. Very important remember we're not talking about one standard he. I'm talking about physical self care and sitting. Because most of us even those who try to take. Reasonable care of our bodies. Are still not giving this crucial aspect. Of ourselves enough. Attention. Despite the centuries of intellectual progress in the western world. The still has us by the. By the by the ankle philosophically. And we've got to move. Pasta. It gives us permission. To let these. Critical physical aspects of our living. Slide into nickel. Pay much more daily attention to our bodies really is spiritually inhumanly important so we need to talk about it even in church. So. How do we get past this cartesian. Dualism in our lives. I want to forget diet for the moment because again we all know. What a good diet looks like and we all don't. Do that. You know i won't even tell you what i had. Recite after celebrating. We all know it's good diet is. I want to focus more on the importance of exercise this morning. I assume that you all know that recent scientific studies number of the maval concluded. The regular physical exercise again at whatever level you could do is the single most important contributing factor. To both longevity. And happiness in human life. And many of you are aware so it's clearly asking a lot of us. The federal government to be specific the department of health and human services. Has recently upped the ante and now recommends officially that all americans get one full of exercise almost everyday. One of your 24 hours is supposed to be for your health devoted to exercise that used to say. 20 minutes of exercise three times a week was enough but recently they realized. The body requires much more than that it really requires. 1. Our. Of. Day. They've upped the ante seven times. This rigorous exercise regime. In conjunction with maintaining a diet that is you all know emphasizes whole grains and nuts and fruits and vegetables and d emphasizes. Meats and trans fats in fried foods and starchy things. Is recommended for our full and healthy living. And yet precious few of us. Pay anywhere near this amount of attention to our bodies. I'll for exercise and for healthy food. A recent lewis-harris survey found that only. Get this. Only 33% of americans say they exercise regularly. That's down from 37% in 1991 and you know how many people lie on surveys if i do exercise. You nosey. The us public health service says really that just 20% 1 and 5 americans. Gets enough exercise regularly exercise to gain any cardiovascular benefit. And you've all seen the the recent reports about our kids. And how heavy they're becoming and how lazy they're becoming physically lazy they're not intellectually lazy they're just. Physically. Lazy. You know we have a crisis. With exercise. Amongst our young. As new york times health writer james brody had noted the average american spends more time showering. Then working out. I would be guessing of course. That i'll bet that we had oriented computer loving book-loving unitarian universalist fair little better than the american average. Probably about one-fifth of you. Do enough exercise. It's not of course that we don't try. Every year for example hundreds of thousands of american households by some sort of home exercise machine you noah not a lesser of nordictrack or some sort of a stationary bike. Do you know how many times those are averagely used before they go to the attic or the basement. 5. Before they go to the rummage sale. We use those exercise machines five times. And when the reasons it's 5 is that we get up on it the first day and we we go for an hour and we're so stiff the next day that's it. So if you're going to start an exercise program. Started gradual. You know started crash. But i used to teach running. But i could run before i ruined my knees from. Running. I used to say to people in a run and walk a mile and when you feel like when you all start out walking when you feel like running run run a half a block stop. You can you can. Move into an exercise program very incrementally. We need the exercise. But for a hundred different reasons. We slip back into our old habits of physical inertia and neglect. I know i'm waiting at the sensitive waters but we really need to pay more attention. To this critical aspect. Of our. Of our humanness if we're going to be spiritually and emotionally whole going to be happy. We need a new spirituality of the body. A new theology of reverence and respect for the human body especially our own a new practical ethics. Of attention and care. For the human body. A new spirituality of the. It was so poetically express by walt whitman in the. In the body electric poem i read to you this morning we need to affirm deep to our bones and our being. That each of us has been given a great. A gift of body mind spirit body mind and spirit. And it is as contemporary writer and mystic wendell berry road. You cannot devalue the body. And value the soul. Or value anything else. The isolation of the body very right. Set it into direct conflict with everything else in creation. Nothing could be more absurd. Then to despise the body. And yet your own for its resurrection. Elmcroft. I am not of course the first religious leader to suggest that your body. Is an astoundingly sacred gift. It is first letter to the christians of corinth. It's in the bible it's in the bible i believe it's true. In his first letter. Decorum. Saint paul wrote this 2000 years ago. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit within you. Which you have from god. Therefore. Glorify god in your body. In a few centuries later 11th century christian mystics. Mathilde of. Battenberg wrote. Do not disturb your body. For the soul is just as safe and its body. As in the kingdom of heaven. It was jesus himself. Who repeatedly said. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. He implied you have to love yourself. Body mind spirit love. Your full self. I don't think jesus was only urging his fellows. Fellows to practice brotherly and sisterly love he was advocating good self-care. So if this were a mainline christian church i would have scriptural authority to tell you to jog for jesus. Or walk for jesus or garden for jesus or bike. For jesus or jazzercise for jesus or pump iron for jesus or. Swim or jump rope or play golf or do water aerobics for jesus. Any form of daily exercise. That will give your body the attention it needs for that wholeness of spirit and fizz. But of course this is not a traditional christian church. This is a unitarian universalist church but i'm going to tell you essentially the same thing. No matter what's your age. No matter what your level of physical ability or interest. No matter what type of body you have. It'll bequeath you from your genetics. No matter what physical handicaps or disabilities or aches and pains or limitations. That have emerged in your life. Each of us is free and capable of taking better more regular care of the physical body. We have been given we are all capable of taking. Look we don't have to look like lance armstrong. When we get up on a stationary bike at the gym okay. And we going to look like michael. Phelps when we dip into the pool. Or natalie comaneci if we hit the gym floor or billie jean king or andre agassi if we take to the tennis court. Or even jack lalanne that wonderful physical fitness buff we just recently died you know what his motto was. His motto was. Diet is the king. Exercise is the queen and together they make the kingdom. Amen jack lalanne. All we have to do we don't look like lance armstrong or even jacqueline or. Or billie jean king all we have to. Be as ourselves. And get the exercise at whatever length of. Taemin. And strength. Hazard various bodies. And what better time of the year. My dear friends for here in this tropical paradise we call the treasure coast. It's within the last cold snap i think is really happened. It's it's. Which warming up in case you haven't noticed. February and all of its temperate gentleness has arrived. And all of nature. The warming sees the gentle island breeze has the inviting early-morning evenings i had my. I've been having my slider doors open the last few nights smelling the aroma of our. Flowers and trees. It begs us these times. Outdoors way from physical inertia away from the computer is in the television screens. For some rejuvenating exercise in this beautiful part of the were. And so this afternoon why not gather up the spouse or family or the family dog or a friend or two and. And head on up to pelican island. Or riverside park or lake okeechobee for a brisk hike. And why not renew that long laps healthcare membership. This week and sign up for a water aerobics class or yoga or spin class so you can encourage. The encouragement of a group. Doing. Doing exercise with you it really helps to have somebody. Next to you. Urging you on. Or why not walk to the corner store tomorrow for that morning coffee and newspaper instead of driving. Or do the gardening that you know you want to do or the ballroom dancing lessons are stretching class you've been putting off. There's so many wonderful different life. Enjoyable ways for you to take care. Of your body. The truth is. No one of us has an excuse for not taking some better care. Of what we have been given by god. And besides. All of you know deep down inside that what i am saying is irretrievably true. In the end none of us. Will enjoy spiritual. Or emotional or psychological health or the fullness of life and being. Unless we referenced and care for our bodies as best we can. Yes getting enough exercise again at whatever level is possible for us giving our limitations and our age. Getting exercise takes time and discipline and effort it does. It requires us to make physical activity. A daily. Non-discretionary priority. All health habits to it is a non-discretionary priority. But if we treasure our lives. And this amazing creation. With all of its potential divine traffic that's just. Begging us to come in. Fastlane. Of the divine traffic if we value. These things. We have to take time to. Take care of our. I seldom quote corporate slogans from this pulpit. But i'm going to unashamedly end this morning. With the simple. Reminder of the nike come. What does nike. Tell you to do. Just do it. That's all that's required. Just. Do it. All of life. Wants us. To take care. The body. In the mind and the soul. Allconnect. And it is all. Ever. Laugh. Peace. Tony. It's all beauty. And it's saying mean before i go off to bike forever and ever and ever.

uufvb_org

2013Sep22Sermon128.mp3

Another wonderful day in this part of florida and we're glad that you decided to spend a portion of it with us here at the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. We were carnation of open mind. Loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best selves as we work together to make a better world and please know that you are welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you are old or young. Gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shaping humidity weather you are feeling on top of the world this morning. We're doing the jobs or somewhere in between we will hope that. Service folder issue. Give you some meaning if i something here this morning. Has your spirit and feed your soul and get you renewed join purpose for the living of life the day is it leaks heaven. A colleague the words of my colleague jordan cayman. We summon ourselves with our from the demands and the delights of the daily round. From the dirty dishes. At the other wax floors. From download brass i love shrimp portions. Weakness and not yet started. Something unholy and the unresolved. We summon ourselves to this tower. Vision. Justice. Cleanliness in hell. I'm delighted devotion of the lovely in the holy of who we are. And what we can do. We summon the power of addition. And the exhilaration of newness the wisdom of the ages and the knowing of the very young. We summoned beauty this time. Eloquent. Poetry music to be the bearers of our dreams. We will open our eyes. Our years. Our minds and our hearts to the emphasis. Dimensions of life. It is good to be together. In this place. Because i'm part my sermon is about presence of human evil and wrongdoing in our world. I wanted to share as our meditation this poem by adam chuski. Call try to praise the mutilated world. But i would like to read it to you and then we'll enjoy upon a minute of silence i will ring a bell. Signaling the end of our. meditation. Trying to praise the world. Triune praise. The mutilated world remember june. Long days and. Wild strawberries. Drops of wine. The do. The nettles that the sonically overgrow the abandoned. Homesteads of exile's. You must praise the mutilated world. You watched stylish yachts and chips one of them. Had a long trip ahead of it. Well salty oblivion awaited others. You seem the refugees heading nowhere. You've heard the executioner's. Sing. Joyfully you should praise the mutilated world. Remember the moments when we were together in a white room. Return to the concert. Where music flare you. Andra day chords. In the park in autumn. And leaves eddie over the earth scars. Praise. Mutilated world. And the gray feather. A thrush. And the gentle light. Dreads. Advantageous. Well this morning i begin. A year-long sermon series will be spaced out over the next ten months or so. Explore some of the nation's most persistent and perplexing moral dilemmas and ethical arguments. Beginning today with the issue of the death penalty. Witches long-troubled and divided the american people. Over the course of this series i will return again and again to my main and i hope obvious and logical supposition. Which is with these moral dilemmas and ethical arguments that result from them. And the light has as a society for stiff because each of them involve. Worthy principles and noble values that stand in natural opposition. Contradiction intention to one another. Indeed this is implied in the very definition of the word dilemma. Which according to the online cyclopia wikipedia says is a problem offering two possibilities neither of which is practically acceptable. And now my office merriam-webster similarly define the dilemma as a situation. Involving a choice. Between two equally unsatisfactory alternatives a problem or situation seemingly incapable of a satisfactory solution. Indeed with each of these moral dilemmas i will explore during this series anybody with the least fit. Aurora l'imagination and sophistication can see. The integrity the power and the reasonableness of either side of the pro con argument. Articulture persist in arguing the case is if only one side can you write making the other side totally rana. But the obvious truth is that no matter which side. You are on in the inspect thing argument. You end up abrogating or subjugating some worthy principles and values that you yourself.. Over the course of the sermon series that i hope to do justice. Do both sides arguing each dilemma. Articulating and honoring is fairly importantly as i can the values and principles which enemy each side because in fact i can and do see the moral and ethical efficacy of both positions. And yet with this fair-minded and balanced goldenmine i also remember the wise words of. Singer pete seeger who had it right when he said yeah we all know there are two sides to every issue there two sides to a piece of flypaper to but it matters a great deal to fly which side he lands on. Even know what size paper is okay for one moral view of the other even when we understand that choice is far from perfect. So with that said let me turn the death penalty to see if i can bring a bit more moral clarity and insight to the debate. Let me begin by briefly describing to notorious cases one local in 1-0. Where the death penalty has recently come into focus for us as citizens as moral agent. First was the execution on april 12th of last year of local serial murderer david allegorical. The murdering for teenage girls into women in the early 80s. To satisfy nothing more than his sexual urges. His crimes committed along with his cousin fred waterfield receive descendant of life without parole or his bowl. We're particularly cruel and heartless. And then eat dinner community including local colleges. Ross lemon and i said in the sermon and he had a multiple emails exchanges this week but it actually. And some of the families of the victims sheared the execution. As bringing both justice and closure to our community. The second is that of army psychiatrist in fort hood shooter nidal hasan what you all do on november 9th of 2009 killed 13 people and wounded three others when he went on a shooting rampage in what he admitted was there she hottest attack. Intended as revenge for what he regards as the us military's warren eskimo. In august of this year he was tried by a military court found guilty of 13 counts of counts of premeditated murder and was sentenced to die. Although it is likely to take years for this case to work its way through the automatic appeals the dollar sign is likely to be put to death by our government. For his murderous rampage that destroyed and shattered so many lies. No. To my mind both these capital cases. 1mobile and 1-12 raise the same vexing moral and ethical question which is are their crimes. So heinous. Eddyville. That their commission requires our society to take the life of the purple. I want to focus on the time that remains this morning on three separate aspects of this complicated question and i'm going to have them projected up before you now hopefully. Three aspects of the illogical of psychological and sociological i want to begin with the one that's hardest for me to sort out the illogical. As i understand the primary theological debate that comes into play with this issue. It's between liberals and conservatives. And focuses on the natural tension between the right and the values of the individual on the one hand with the value of the rights of the community on the other. Remedy liberals and now i quote from our first uu principle the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Means that every person even heinous criminals who wantonly take the life of others. Every person has a sacrosanct values it must not be terminated willfully by the state. The austin photos liberal bumper sticker arguments here is cuomo so society is going to kill people who kill. To show people that killing people is raw right another way of saying the same thing and that's this really is a bumper sticker. Why do we teach the killing people is wrong. Play killing people. As unitarian-universalist you and i are apart of the theological unethical tradition. That has long ago separately opposed. Way back in the 18th and 19th century early unitarian and universalist. We're opposed to execution. I'm beginning in 1961 at the very first assembly of our newly-formed denomination. The unitarian and universalist merge. Have overwhelmingly again and again phone in most recently in 2012. Calling for an end to the ultimate penalty society can impose a quote briefly from the original 1961 resolution. Whereas respect from the value of every human life must be incorporated into our laws that the unitarian universalist association. In the united states and canada to exert all reasonable efforts for the elimination of capital punishment. So the liberal theological position. Asian tradition in particular has expressed repeated. Is that the life of every human individual even that the worst criminal. You still sacrosanct. And must be protected by society and never willfully terminated by the judicial system. And the conservative position. Is that the well-being and the order and the protection of the whole community. Sometimes necessarily trump's the value of the individual. Most especially the heinous criminal. The conservative theological position is the idea that wanted criminal wantonly destroy human life. He or she normally violates the sanctity of his victims. It also endangered and diminishes the sanctity and the well-being of the community as a whole. And therefore that criminals forfeits the right to exist in society. Second society the conservative argument goes must sometime take a human life. In order to preserve the worth and dignity of all. And the well-being society in the hole. Listen to the words of conservative newspaper columnist jeff jacoby from the basel flow. The core message she writes a death penalty opponents like the unitarians. Is that nothing is more precious than human life. Not justice. Not morality. decency. Or the welfare of the community. The individuals absolute right-to-life ecobee says trumps all but no civilized society had believed that and stay civilized. We execute murderers eagles on in order to make a communal proclamation. The murderer is intolerable. A deliberate murder and bodies evil so terrible that it defiles the whole community and is therefore for the good of society the murderers ought to die. The teenager cleared to ourselves into the world crime of stealing life is worse than any other crime and deserves the penalty worse than any other penalty. The list of argument is not without its power. Let me speak personally for a moment about where i currently find myself in this deal option was a baby. Early mike ministerial career i was basically persuaded by the liberal position. They believe in individual life even that of the worst criminal must be defended by society. Even sometimes against all logic and emotion. Bleeding and every person is born with a spark of the divine i can't believe that. I believe capital crimes like murder must be severely punished. Like life without parole. But not with the ultimate that you were forcible definitely would take away all possibility of redemption for that person. But lately i have been moving toward a greater balance in my field logic of thinking between the liberal and conservative position. Between the need to steadily and faithfully defend the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Be a core part of my famous unitarian universalist. A parallel need also to defend the inherent worth and dignity of the community as a whole as jeff jacoby wright the broader societal constructs which also deserves our protection. I have moved the middle in my cilantro thinking. And now it is mighty illogical opinion and i will admit it is just that. So i will come your country reviews but i have moved. Little and i believe that we you use have over our history sometimes been. Way to see logically individualistic. And individualism that emphasized that individualism has emphasized. Individualistic emphasis. Has prevented from not always i think sufficiently defending the inherent worth and dignity of persons as expressed in the societal constructs as a whole. But on the other hand. Just as the theological liberals have been guilty of excessive individualism. Theological conservatives could be accused of airing in the opposite direction. Some of them because of their systematic suspicions value of individual. Have tended to excessively i think side with the sanctity of the rights of the society as a whole and also failed to think to to find the appropriate balance. Between the community and individualism. In any case here is where i personally find myself a moment on this break the bank. Weather in never acceptable for society as a whole. To ambilight murderous individual. Well i'm always reluctant to end any life. Purposely for any reason. I do at least elogic. Believe. Extreme cases. Where's society is right. Purposely take the life of a criminal persuading. Sometimes the only way. To the record and civil society can a firman defendant the value of both individual and individual in community. Used to say that there are certain tribes. That's so disregard human persons and society that if you will permit them you will be obliged. Forfeit. I am first leaving moving toward the conviction that the death penalty may be inappropriate and moral social policy. Wisely and sparingly and justly used to ensure that society as a whole steadfastly honors protects and affirm the worth and dignity of all that's where i've been moving. No. I know for certain. Some of you in this room disagree with this personal moral ship. Mine. Perhaps in our conversation at 11:30 which will be convened at 11:30 we can further explore this moral tension between the individual and the community. And i'm eager to hear where you personally come down unless feels to me and that's almost an absolutely. More impossible moral dilemma. But i'm still moving on this issue so i want to hear from you. That we can all together move toward greater theological. Clarinet. Now the second aspect of this question is a psychological let me move today. Specifically whether or not the death penalty. And the legal process of society exacting retribution. Or murders crimes. Brings any sort of healing. Or constructive closure for either the victims loved ones or from the society or community of the whole. Is it. Psychologically beneficial. Here i must tell you i'm much less persuaded by the conservative position about retribution. The death penalty hard harsh and pliable as it is. Does they argue provide a positive psychological result. For both the victims. And the society as a whole. Let's start with this question with so-called closure. For the family. If you google the death penalty enclosure which of course i did. What pops up are scores of scholarly article suggested that the idea of the death of the death penalty bring. Positive closure for victims and society. There's a dubious proposition there's not a lot of evidence out there that that really is the case. Many of the articles which admittedly are written by angie death penalty cruz. Address what is called the myth closure. Which basically suggests that healing for the surviving victims of crime. Is a very complex and difficult than idiosyncratic processor process. It is not necessarily advanced by a strapping something to a chair and electrifying. Where every survivor will tell you that execution has helped them bring help bring and closure and peace. Another will tell you that does the abs. We're nothing for them. In my reading of the study there seems to be little or no psychological evidence and execution. Really brynn reliable piece. Or well-being to anyone. Just one bit of anecdotal evidence. If i might do the federal government in 500. Surviving family members to watch the execution of timothy mcveigh. Ashley killed 168 people. When he bombed the oklahoma city federal building. You were the 12% of that opportunity. And most of them who attended later expressed when asked. A lot of satisfaction. With the experience. Watching it die. Unlike local newspaper columnist rust lemon i almost thought he was going to come this morning you didn't. I am not at all persuaded. Nothing brings closure argument is of any real use to us as we decided decided whether or not this is the right thing for us. Another is the retribution argument again usually voiced by conservatives. Their executions served the health and well-being and balance of society. Listen to the argument which i found on a pro definitely website. It argues with someone takes a life the balance of justice is disturbed. Unless that balance is restored societies, or rule of violence. Only by taking only by the taking of a murderer's life restores the balance and allows society to show convincingly that murder is an intolerable crime which will be punished in kind. Retribution this article goes on has its basis in religious values. We have a storage we maintained it is proper to take an eye-for-an-eye a life for a life. The victim's family cannot be restored which preceded the murder. At least electrocution brings closure to the murderers drive and closer to the ordeal for the victim's family. And ensures that the murderer will never create more victims. For the most cruel and heinous crimes the ones for which the death penalty is applied. Fenders deserve the worst punishment under our system of law and fact is the death penalty and then they have. Any lesser punishment. Thunder by the value. Society. I'm protecting live. For justice to prevail some killers just. This argument to is not without an emotional or rational appeal. Famous words of mahatma gandhi the process of non-violence ewald circle one said an eye for an eye. The world blind. If we all take an eye-for-an-eye pretty soon we can't see it all. Vengeance. Losers. And jesuit priests and death penalty opponents. Raymond schwab right. Revenge is one of the lowest human emotions. Perhaps understandable but not really a rational response. 280 medical situation. To kill the person who is killed someone close to you is simply to continue the cycle of violence. Which ultimately destroy the avenger. As well as the offender. They're arguing that the psychological turns back upon the avenger. It does not serve the avengers. Again. When you review the studies and surveys there out there. There is little or no conclusive evidence that societies which exact retribution and revenge by putting criminals to death. Gain the society any widespread well-being or health or peace. And there is a great deal of thought that all vengeance and retribution all that they succeed in doing. Bring your culture. Further into the cycle of viciousness in the bible. So i personally do not believe. There is already sufficiently supported psychological reason. Either for the survivors of crime or the society as a whole to support the death penalty. But that brings me filings with the sociological aspects of the death penalty. And this aspect of the whole dilemma but morally this is the one that morally troubles me the most. There are two my mind to clear and compelling sociological reasons which make the death penalty at least and is it at it as it is currently practiced in these united states to be morally unacceptable. The first is the indisputable fact that. Which has been widely reported. That is significant number of people who end up on death row are in fact totally innocent. Prime. For which they have been sentenced to lose their life. Here are the facts. The death penalty information center reports that since 1973 140 persons have been free. From death row and completely exonerated of the charges made against them. Largely on account of the new technology of dna testing. In illinois alone where there is now a moratorium state impose moratorium on all executions. In illinois alone 13 death row inmates have been free by dna testing. The center also points out that while there's no way. To accurately know how many of the 1000 people executed since 73 were innocent because court generally refused to go back a person's dead the card say we have no interest. And whether or not any of those thousand were innocent. So we don't never know. There is strong evidence to suggest that the dozens of those. Especially enthusiastic definitely states like texas and oh i don't know florida. And again if you want to read more about these cases. Golden statue of the death penalty information center website. Has governor orionid illinois said when he announced the statewide moratorium. I know favorite aboratorium because i have grave concerns about our state shameful record. Open taking innocent people and then putting them together. I can no longer support assistant. So close to the ultimate nightmare. Taking. That is like. And social commentator richard cohen observer the washington post. It is no longer enough to ask whether a certain prisoner deserves to die. We must also ask for the system that kills the guilty will also kill someone who is innocent. What is capital punishment proponents that argue that the system was full. No more. Dna understands approval with the criminal justice system is flawed corrupt and sometimes downright bizarre and nem. Oj watson innocent innocent people get death sentence. So given the feelings. Human nature. Including the frequent false witness identification to the floods so many of these false. And the abuses and competencies and downright corruption of judicial systems including prosecutors who don't share information. We need in this country far more safeguards and checks and balances in our american court. Before why will be comfortable in sentencing convicted felons. It is a horrendous moral failing innocent person is put to death or languages on death row for decades for a crime he or she did. Not. So that's the first most illogical reason. The other profound sociological concern i have about the death penalty. Obvious racial disparity with which it is applied. Has the aclu report just released study race in the death penalty cuomo. Color of the eight defendants and victims skin. Play a crucial role in deciding who received the death penalty in america. People of color. The counter for a disproportionate 43%. The total executions since 1976. And 55% of those without waiting to kyushin. And in states like colorado louisiana pennsylvania the percentages are over 70%. Nationwide tacolu in 1990 general accounting office report reviewed numerous studies. Patterns of racial discrimination in death penalty sentencing. The review found that for homicide considered a committed under otherwise similar circumstances. And where defendants had similar criminal history. A distended was several times more likely to receive the death penalty. If the victim was like that is his victim was black. In the fall of 2000. Aclu goes on. Doj department of justice. Release the results of initial survey federal. Death penalty persecute prosecution. The report shows. Federal death penalty. Like its application in the state. Is used this proportion lie against people of color. Of the 18th president prisoners. Currently on federal death row 16 or either african-american. Hispanic or asian. 99 to 2018 % of all federal capital cases. Recommended by us attorneys. To the attorney general. People with colorful. Even asked to review by the attorney general 72%. The case was approved for death penalty. Involve minority depending. Systemic racial bias. In the application. Apple the state and federal level level in moratorium on the death penalty is needed to address this miscarriage. Without going into too much to just people to tail. Even when you scientifically control for all the non-racial variables in these cases. Black americans are 4.3 times more likely to receive the death penalty. The other americans. Shameful disparity. 4.3 times more likely. Despite what some social conservatives like to imagine but it comes to our judicial system. It remains infected with racism explicit. Intentional as well as unconscious and unintentional. There is no doubt in my mind that either today. Death penalty is unjustified with profound regularity in america. Reflecting the persistent racial bias of our trouble culture. And this deep racial bias in the injustice that inevitably results from it is the second sociological reason. That i cannot be persuaded at this time please. The american judicial system is kidney. Apply the death penalty. Equitably. Worley adjusting. Simply is not here to racist. Alright. Over the last 30 minutes or so i've explored perhaps in more detail than some of you would have which. The illogical. Psychological and sociological aspects of this world dilemma. The death penalty in america so i want to give you the bottom line. We're just leave me at the clan morally is a citizen of the united states. I'm conflicted. And i'm certain about the morality. Of the death penalty. Theologically. Great reflection income to be persuaded that individual human being. Commit the worst crimes do not have an absolute right to life. And then when we as a society seek to appropriately balance. The rights of individuals with the right from the values of community as a whole we may find it morally right. Asian. Navigating criminal individual right to life. This unitarian universalist believe that sometime. Inherent worth and dignity of every person. Need that recipe serve pie society demanding. A criminal who has violated every. Strand of human decency to red roses. Theological. Psychologically i am persuaded by those who assert that the retribution exactify the death penalty. Does not possibly benefit the victims of crime was inside your whole by providing closure or the balance of justice while there may be other reasons. The moral virtue of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It's not a moon. Last week a deeply troubled sociologically. By the unjust ways. In which the death penalty has been applied. In our society. Innocent victims that have been killed or left languishing on death row for decades. The fact the sultan of punishment has been applied and blatantly racist. This leads me to conclude and now it's time as woody guthrie suggested to choose which side of the fly paper. I'm going to land on. After carefully weighing all the arguments for and against this penalty. I believe there should be a broad-based moratorium. Across all venues of the american judicial system. Until we as a people. Can be assured. Death penalty will be applied and it careful. Non-traditional. Non-racist. And just wait. As a society we can holding a whole honor and serve both the sanctity of person. And humanity of the well-being of society as a whole. We can be certain to take a life only when it is completely justified. So that is where i can personally come down this persistent dilemma of american life. And now i ask. How about you. What do you think. Let our conversation. Into you. Words of unitarian universalist poet may surfer. Return to the most human. Nothing less will during towards spirit the bewildered heart the angry line. And from the ultimate the recipe with the fresh breath of anguish. Return. Return to the deep sources nothing less will teach the stiff hand a new way to serve. Carmen to our lives the forms of tenderness. And still that ancient necessary payne preserve. Return to the most humid. Nothing less will teach the angry spirit. Earnhardt. Hornline to accept the whole if it's tourette's. Piercings with english. At last. Going.

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2010Oct31Sermon128.mp3

uufvb_org

2015Nov15Sermon128.mp3

Good morning. On this rather sad day when we are still all trying to make sense of the terrible events that have occurred in paris on friday. In the moment when we began our service will deal more with that on an emotional level. First i would like to welcome you and offer our usual announcements. This morning. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we're very pleased that. You decided to be with us this morning. We hope you will find our service meaningful enriching that you'll find something here this morning to take with you. To make the days ahead more meaningful more joyful and more purposeful in your life. Morning we gather in this place of love and gentleness and hope with heavy hearts. Our love and prayers go out to the people of paris. Who are suffering terrible attacks killed. So many. So pointless. May this morning service serve to remind us of how very much work remains for us in the world. The work of replacing hate. With love. Violence. With peace. And then humanity. With respect. For all. A reading this morning. Is by. I've got it here somewhere margaret webb pressler. For just a few moments. Think about being ten years old again. Take your elbows off the table and for heaven's sake don't talk with your mouth full. When someone addresses you don't look down at your shoes look up look the person in the eye and the smile. And what do you mean you haven't written your thank you notes yet. You probably heard all our most of these orders from your parents and even though you do them you might wonder why grown-ups make such a fuss about good manners. Manners are about more than just using the right fork or slurping when you drink. Those rules of etiquette might be expected in certain situations. But not doing the same isn't going to hurt anyone's feelings. Good manners are a way to show others that you care about them. Manners also make it easier for everyone to feel comfortable in social situations. Think of manners as traffic lights for life. Set the air fournier professor at johns hopkins. Was written a book about manners. On the road traffic light turn a world full of cars moving a different direction. Anyone orderly system that allows everyone to get where they're going. The rules of good manners he writes are the traffic lights of human interaction. They make it so that we don't crash into one another. In everyday behavior. Even cavemen use manners. Matters have developed over tens of thousands of years. Was a key element of human society. And they might even have helped the species to survive. Early humans lived in groups in order to hunt. Share food and keep one another safe. Go to live so close together. Forney said humans had to learn to think about others. Not just themselves. Think of it this way. If every person in the group. Look out only for himself. The group would fall apart. Are just an ancestors developed behaviors to show others respect fairness and kindness. Those heavy falls into today's manners. You cannot quote have any kind of community if they're not some rules. Horny rights. Of course matters have changed a lot through the years and are still changing. They're more relaxed than they were 100 years ago. For example. When good manners for kids meant never saying anything until an adult. Spoke to you first. And some matters are still used even though the original reason for them is largely gone have you ever wondered why you were told to keep your elbows off the table. Well that rule dates from middle ages when tables were often just big board placed on a stump. Leaning on the table with your elbows could easily tip the table and make everyone lose their food. Today it's not good manners never mind about elbows on the table to text at the table because it sends the message. You are not interested in the people around you. But even a slate range. Manners manners are always aimed at doing the same thing. Making other people feel appreciated and respected. Which also helps friendships to develop. It is natural is a natural built-in reward system. Explains becca koski who teaches manners and etiquette in the washington dc area. It makes you and those around you feel good. Could there be a better reason to mind your manners. I don't think so. Here ends the morning reading. Morning. I'm going to continue my blockbuster sermon series on the uu book of virtues. And john i'm going to speed up through some of the early part of the sermon so stay with me on the on the graphics. Okay here we are in the middle of the series you see that it doesn't the 4th episode today's topic next week i'm doing gratitude and in early december. Compassion. This list comes from many of the suggestions that you made and jerry i've added loyalty not there it is right there in the bottom you see it so jerry just suggested that this week. And i'm still at the working documents so keep your suggestions coming. Now it s light please. What i've been saying throughout the series is it a virtue as a regular habit of human being. What you can nurture cultivate undeveloped which both ennobles yourself and contribute. For the greater good of human society. And the key part of this definition i think. Is that it's a habit which you can develop. Virtue does not come to us at birth. It's not something fixed or not something that. Will escape us for always. Each one of us is free to build into the structure of our personalities. And our behaviors. Greater virtue greater care for the world. That evelyn noble yourself and improve. Society. So let's go back to the list again yeah that's good okay alright. Without further ado i want to get to this morning's all important virtue of manners or another way of saying it civility. And it's corollary vice. Rudeness. Or incivility. I'd like to begin with an overall observation about our society. Buy american sas. Laura prepon. She writes. Whatever the reason there is the widespread perception that in america we have become a router. Less caring less connected list civil and less mannered. Society. Most americans she right see a decline of basic civility. On the airwaves and music on the streets and public spaces. In public institutions. At the schools and most certainly on the nation. Highways. Simile judith martin aka miss manners. Declares that america is having a quote rudeness crisis. And survey on a survey published recently in the u.s. news & world report indicates that fully. 89% of americans believe incivility. And the lack of manners and courtesy is a quote serious problem in our nation. With 78%. Suggesting it's gotten worse. Over recent years. Regrettably and i suspect most of you agree with these assessment. America has increasingly become a rude. An ill-mannered place. Exhibit a. Not long ago i drove into a parking garage in boston. I got out of my car and as i was locking it totally improper lee minding my own business. The expensive black car parked next to mine i think it was a top-of-the-line mercedes or bmw. Suddenly began bellowing at me and allowed mechanical male voice. Get away from the car get away from the car get away from the car. Totally shocked. I realized this demand was coming from the cars no doubt expensive and sophisticated security system. But it somehow registered my present with infrared motion detector or something. And was assuming i was a criminal threat. The vehicle me. Ball little minister guy. I was in a public garage mind you parked in my own designated spot yet the owner of that upscale karlfeldt the other right. To set an obnoxious alarm that ordered me to get away from his precious vehicle. How rude. Exhibit b. A few months ago i was riding my bike here in vero paso public park. Absolutely beautiful autumnal day. When out of the side of my eye i noticed the dog on her standing nonchalantly with her. Leash dog. Suddenly the big an aggressive dog it must have weighed 60 pounds bark angrily at me as if i was an unwarranted intruder. And charged onto the road after me. Now i've done this many times i speed up. Pedal the staff is like crud trying to peddle my way out of danger. But in just seconds the snapping snarling dog was right at my side threatening to bite my leg or worse. And this is happened knock me off my bike. My heart racing and fear and realizing i could not outrun this beast. I slammed on the brakes jumped off and put the bike as a kind of s.h.i.e.l.d.. Between me and the snarling animal. The dog owner who for this whole time it's been moving toward me and the dogs saying something like no wreck naughty rex no no rest. Finally grabbed your unruly pet and offered me a casual sorry. But totally annoying. And having this uncontrolled animal terrifying almost in german. I spoke to her sharply and said. Don't you know there's a law here in vero beach to keep your dog leash 10 under control at all time. Your dog could have seriously injured me. Twitchy responded with the stain. Well he deserves to be free run free just like you. How. Rude. Exhibit c. The other day i was in my favorite publix after a long day in the office picking up a few items that i needed i was tired. In a hurry and yes a bit cranky and i wanted to get home. And relax. Evening news. As i moved quickly i told you yes last night they are always giving fast. Quickly toward the checkout lanes i noticed one with an open light but there didn't seem to be praise be to jesus any customers. So like a betta honey thinking how lucky i was i raced toward that thing and just as i got there i noticed out of the corner of my eye a woman coming from the other direction. Heading i think for the same check out late i sorta averted my eyes and zipped in front of her took the spot. And got out. How rude. And i want you to know the last night it was in the same problem. The same thing happened to me. Because i realize there was preaching this morning and i couldn't i couldn't i couldn't i couldn't do it twice. Exhibit d. The last time i was in washington d.c. visiting collins i found myself. Walking behind a large and noisy gaggle of high school kids at 3:30 walking home. No i am not approved. And i know kids today don't always use the most gentle and polite speech but i wish. At the vulgar and disrespectful tones with which they were casually speaking to each. But i can't. This is a family show i can't. What i was hearing. Not only was every phrase laced with fowl obscenity. Directed at one another just rolled off their tongues like. Water off the back of a duck. They seem to further delight in verbally insulting humiliating and demeaning each other. And it was like they not only took great pleasure in that but they also took pleasure in shocking. You know passerbys like myself. And this ill-mannered and dehumanizing behavior is not limited. Two teenagers this summer is driving on an interstate. I think it was a north carolina i saw a huge billboard advertising one of these morning a shock jock. Dj. And the the billboard said. Rude's back routes back alright. Meaning. Tunein do you want us to be all morning. It's rude all right. It's plenty room. Exhibit app. Every other week or so collins and i are obliged to travel. South on i-95 as we drive to and from the airport in fort lauderdale i'm doing that again today to pick him up. Even though we've been making this trip now. Regularly in south florida for 6 years. We are always shocked and saddened by how aggressive and selfish. Gilmanor some of the drivers are. The hearing the treasure coast maybe it's because. Less density or we're too old to drive that fast and aggressive. Your things are. Templaran. Kinder. But down in the urban pressure cooker of boca and fort lauderdale jesus christ it's unbelievable and his motorcycle. If traffic is stopped their drivers driving on the shoulders to get around i'm in a hurry what the hell's wrong with you. I-95. Drivers even pulled guns on each other you know from the news. Drivers in florida can be very aggressive and very danger. And yes here in florida. Rheem ruud. Again laura pompano written a few years ago because she's referencing vcr tapes listen to what she says. People today routinely backbite browbeat and tailgate. They not only cut each other off in traffic. But also in conversation. They ignore no smoking signs and use the 10 item checkout lane in supermarket when they have 19. That they having me just yesterday i find that's so irritating. And then she right. Despite the directive on the vcr tape be kind and rewind more than half of americans. Do no such. Alright. Can i assume i persuaded you that were in the middle of a rudeness epidemic. Alright. Marked by an overall decline in manners and civility perhaps the first step to addressing this unpleasant state of affairs. It's too precisely understand what manners are and how they work and what they required of us in the reading this morning got at some of this but. Here is the definition of good manners that i would like to offer you to guide our conversation. We have good manners. When we choose on a regular basis. Through various social. Societal courtesies and convention. When we choose the heaven. Upsetting aside that's the key. And or restraining are own individual needs wants and comforts in deference. To the knees. Wants and comforts of other human beings around you does this make sense to you. Setting aside. Upsell. Let me give an everyday example of. When you arrive at an exterior door say at a school or a library on office building or a church or other public play. The same time as another person is trying to answer it is courteous. Regardless of whose gender is what. It is courteous to stop and take the moment required to hold the door open. For the other person too. This little courtesy. Requires that you temporarily. Set aside your own needs as an individual which is to get through the door and get on with your business. In order to accommodate and facilitate. The identical need of the other person. To get through the door and get on with his or her business. So when our daily rounds with others we have good manners and are courteous. When we willfully and purposefully. Set aside or restrain the cell set aside or restrain. The cell. Which is to say we set aside or restrain our own needs our own freedoms our own individuality perogative. And privileges. In respectful deference. So the needs of others. And to the smooth functioning. Of the total social order. Of which we are apart. Good manners exist and the whole social order operates more smoothly. Went through these courtesies and convention. Wiecek. Control balance and restrain our own immediate personal needs. Because we understand and appreciate the equally valid needs and wants and perogative. Of other persons with whom we happen to share time and space. In society and this interesting lee. Is the very definition of the word civility look at this definition i found online. Civility. Is deference. Or allegiance. To the social order. Befitting. A citizen. Note the keyword there deferens. Which is a word that a lot of americans aren't used to having roll from their lips and from their behaviors in this individualistic. Selfish. Haim. It means that when you are civil or courteous you defer you set aside self you set aside self and defer. To someone else. It all all banners and civility and courtesy involve the conscious. Setting aside. But here. The great. Quiet truth about manners. When people in the community regularly and routinely without thinking. Practice good manners. The quality of our human relationships indeed the quality of the whole social order. Improve. Has radically human eyes. As one author observes. No more than ever we need a revival of manners and courtesy practices. To lubricate. Lubricate both private. Public. Directions. With others it's like oil on the gears of a bike. If you don't boil my gears this morning on the way in. If you don't boil the gears of society they run drying and. Start playing kannaway. My point here. Is it manners are not as some rude and self-absorbed americans seem to think. They are not trivial. Inconsequential or outdated. A snooty conventions of only fussy and boring people like emily post. Or judith martin care about no manners. I rather. Powerful. The purposeful interactive tool. Enable us all to live together in close proximity. In respect and dignity and. Last night i was a very crowded public store and a slope. And you had to pay attention to who was around you so you didn't bump into them. It's just setting yourself aside wherever. In close proximity when just setting yourself aside helps the flow of things. It makes. Crucial virtue of human living. Because it makes. Life better for everyone. Even for yourself because. Manners maketh nicer people. People want to be.. It makes you nice. Alright. So assuming i have convinced all of you of the absolute importance of good manners. I want to move on quickly to suggest what is required for us. To cultivate that. Manners. next slide. Manners first. And foremost choir that we cultivate mindless. A mine mine mine fullness freudian slip. Mindfulness which means learning how to regularly pay attention. To the one. And needs. Of others. I assume this make sense to you. You can't be well-mannered if you're not paying attention what is the other person's needs what do they think. Where are they in relation to me what are they about. How can i. Be mindful. And respectful. Last week in my sermon on patience is a virtue i pointed out. The key factor in cultivating patient. Quote. To remove yourself from the center of the universe because you never should have imagined yourself there in the first place. Well the same thing can be said about cultivating manor. You will never develop good manners and never be courteous. If you habitually imagine yourself at the center of the universe. All. Manners are about selling yourself outside of the center of the universe. To let someone else occupy. The center of the universe. Being genuinely mindful. And i leave you this morning with this little bit of good news. Each and everyone of us. No matter how well cultured or. No matter how well culture we imagine ourselves every one of us is capable of cultivating. Better manners than we have today. Each of us is free. To be increasingly mindful of an attentive to the legitimate needs wants and rights. Of others and act in ways which graciously honor those needs. And what. It is no small thing. As you move about your daily rounds. To keep your individual needs in check. In deference to the well-being of others to simply take yourself. Step back. Just set yourself aside for a moment. Indifference. The comforter. Manners. Are grapefruits. Because they make all of society. And all relationships. Run. More smoothly. And humanely. And i thank you. I meant. And i leave you with this one line benediction. From the famous 20th century british philosopher. Elvis presley. Who write. It is a bit as though it's a bit embarrassing to have a concern with the human problem all of one's life. And find at the end. One has no more to offer by way of advice. Then this. Try to be. A little. Go to your week.

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2011Jan23Sermon32.mp3

When referring to issues of sexuality and western christianity. Karen armstrong a former non author and prolific scholar of religions. Talks about the long struggle. To bring sexuality. Into the ambit. Of the sacred. Indeed as i prepared for today. I thought a lot about why. Sexuality. Is not best left for lecturer or a fourth friday. Potluck discussion. But deserves. To be a part of this time. Abortion. And reflection. And i kept thinking about how sexuality enriches our lives. And is an integral part. Aku we are. When we come together as a religious community. To pursue meaning. We bring with us our whole self. Part of which. Is our sexual self. It is not at the forefront of our thoughts all the time i hope. But it is there. And it influences many of our thoughts. Action. And choices. Sexuality is essential to who we are. Two are being whole individuals who are in relationship with others. And therefore. Worse. Consideration. This sunday morning. Furthermore as a religious leader in this community. I recognize the responsibility. All religious leaders have to the spiritual emotional and physical well-being. Of their religious. Congregation. Many religious traditions recognized the sacredness of expressing love and generating life. Of the need for mutual companionship and the sharing of pleasure. We are called. To be stewards of the gift of our bodies. And our sexuality. Bought. Sadly. There is also the possibility of suffering caused by the abuse and exploitation. Of these gifts. The silence about healthy sexuality in our society. Is having an impact. In the quality of life. Of many people. Young and old. And it is time. We. Speak out. When gay teenagers. Commit suicide. As a result. Of being bullied. Or feeling despair and hopelessness. Because of who they are. It is time. To speak up. When young people are exposed to show such as 16 and pregnant. Pokemon. And skins. We have to ask ourselves. If we truly want the media. To educate youth. About sexuality. Attitudes. Appear. To be slowly changing. As we saw with the repeal of the military's don't ask don't tell policy. And as the state of florida refuse to appeal the third district court's ruling. That the thirty-year-old thirty-three-year-old ban on gay adoptions. Is unconstitutional. Yet the conversation. Around these topics. Continues. To be heated. Sadly. Some of it is fostered. By religious communities. Belize. About sexuality. A religious point of view. Sexuality needs to be celebrated with joy. Holiness. And integrity. But it also. Demand. Understanding. Respect. And self-discipline. That is where i believe. Religious communities. Have a responsibility. That is why we celebrate. The our whole lives ministry. At this fellowship. Today. One of the choices i have made because of my work with this congregation. Is to become involved. In a program. And i've even been so moved and transformed by this that i've. Become a certified sexuality educator. This program offers curricula for all ages. Kindergarten. Through adultery. Last fall the owl team and please stand as your name is called. Barbara beckham. Stevens point to his teaching to use on the second floor. Judy orcutt. Thank you. You may be seated. Various guest speakers from the community. And i offer the t now program. 213 youth from our community. This is the fifth year. That we offer this program. But as you can imagine. Working with 13. 2 sometimes we have 20 youth. Once a year. In indian river county. Really doesn't cut it. I was in a meeting last week. And i found out that just in the last month. In the last month there have been 13. Pregnancy. In north. And it just shows. Why these programs are important. Education is alone is not going to solve the problem. But it is. Of the puzzle. And when we don't speak up about how important this is. We are not only doing our children a disservice. But we are doing our community. A disservice. Because our community. Have to deal with the consequences. Of what happened. When children. Are having true. In the past aside from the t now we have also offered the kindergarten and the adult elk. And what i'd like to share with you is an analogy that i've adapted from a presentation. From a fellow sexuality. Educator. And this is a reflection that she made on why. Sexuality education. Important. Her name is elizabeth canfield and she says. I often wondered. What it would be like. If we taught young people. Swimming. In the same way we teach sexuality. If we told them. That swimming was an important adult activity. One day we'll have to be skilled at when they grow up. But we never talked to them about it. We never showed them the pool. We just allowed them to stand outside closed doors and listen. To all the splashing. Occasionally. They might catch a glimpse of partially closed people going in and out of the door to the pool. And maybe. They find a hidden book. On the art. What's 20. But. When they asked a question about swimming what it felt like. Or what it was about. They would be greeted with blank stares. And embarrassed. Suddenly. When they turn 18. We would swing open the doors to the pool and they would jump in. Miraculously. Some might learn to tread water. But many. Sadly. Would drown. The reflection of elizabeth cancel. Wouldn't it be nice. If there were alternatives. To treading or drowning. When it comes to sexuality education. Teaching. And being open about sexuality. It is a viable option. The teen owl program can help move towards entry integration. When you hear about sexuality. As a healthy part of the whole person. The owl curriculum goes beyond anatomy. Prevention and disease. The lessons are all based on sexuality. Encompassing five different areas. Sensuality. Intimacy. Sexual identity. Sexual health. And sexualisation. I invite each of you. To reflect on these terms. As they are described. And to think about what is holy. And sacred. In what each. Implies. The first is sensuality. Sensuality is the awareness. Acceptance of. And comfort. With one's own body. It includes that physiological and psychological enjoyment. Of one's body. And the bodies of others. We are sensual beans. Everyday smells and sensations bombard our senses. On a more personal level. Many of us are aware of our sensuality as we dress. Or apply perfume or cologne. How many of us. Feel comfortable. In our body cells. How many of us can comfortably relish. In the sensuality. That comes from being alive in the world. Do we feel safe. In our body cells. Do we feel honored and respected. Respected. Where do we learn to honor respect. Empty aware of the beauty of our bodies. And all the perceptions we make with our senses. Do we learn this at home. From exposure to the media. Do our faith communities. Have a role in this learning. The second component intimacy. Refers to the ability and need to experience emotional close. To another human being. And have it returned. Intimacy is about trust. Honesty. Caring. Sharing oneself. About being aware of the needs of another. Intimacy requires. Communication. All of these aspects of intimacy. Are important. Not just with a particular partner in the context of a consensual sexual relationship. But with the people we are in relationship with at work. At home at school in our fellowship. These aspects of intimacy. Are important in community building. And. Relationship. A member of our congregation who is no longer with us. When levi used to greet visitors with a smile and a phrase. Hello my friend. Is open genuine welcome. Was a true sharing of himself. And open the door to intimacy with our faith community. How do we learn about intimacy. How do we honor intimacy in the different relationships we have. With friends. Family members. Sexual partners. Do all faith communities. How they roll. In helping us learn. About antonyms. These two aspects of sexuality. Sensuality and intimacy. Seemed to me the most related to spirituality. When we think of the spiritual. Regardless of our theology. It inspires for that which surrounds us. And the connections. I feel towards the transcendence. The sensuality we can experience through our senses. Also produces a feeling of awe and connection. Intimacy. If you will. With nature. And with others. Sexuality seen in a positive light. Is another way to experience connection. And relish. In the possibilities. Does a part of who we are. How is it. That it has become dirty and unmentionable. As a species we need to reproduce to survive. Yet it seems like we have become so disconnected with nature. That the sacredness of bringing forth new life. And sharing intimacy with another. Has become taboo. The third component. Sexual identity. Refers to the development of who we are. Sexually. Including a sense of maleness and femaleness. It includes biological sex. Which is the physiology were born with. Gender identity. Which means how we identify with that biological gender. Gender roles. Which we heard about in our story. And sexual orientation. Which actually has three components. Who we are attracted to romantically we are in love with. Cool we are attracted to affectionately or who we like. And who we are attracted to erratically. Which means those we are attracted to physically. As you can see this is a very. Complicated. Opponents of sexuality. And. One of the components that is. Most easily. Misunderstood. So how do we learn about gender roles. How do we learn about sexual identity. Is there a role in our faith communities. In teaching. About sexual identity. The fourth component. Sexual health. And reproduction. Encompasses the attitudes and behaviors related to childbearing. Hygiene and health consequences of sexual. Behavior. It not only encompasses anatomy and physiology. But feelings and attitude. Which are influence. Buy art values. Which is weknow intern. Our influence. Geology. Reproductive information helps us care for partners our children and ourselves. Do faith communities have a role in advocating for sexual and spiritual wholeness. In society. Is there a role for faith communities to support parents. In their role as primary sexuality educators of their children. For supporting adults. As they mature and their relationships. Evolve. Lastly. Sexualization. Refers to the use of sexuality. To influence control or manipulate others. Include sexual harassment. Antabuse. And other behavior behavior such as flirting. And seduction which can be part of a healthy sexual relationship. One description of sexualization. Is that it imbues with sexuality. Something not inherently sexual. Selling a car for example can be a very straightforward proposition. Using a pretty. Ian scantily-dressed. Woman to sell cars. Takes it to another level. We can all think of instances in which sexualization occurs. Do faith communities. How to roll. In addressing sexualization. And its effect. On individuals. Inherent. Worse. And dignity. These last three aspects of sexuality. Sexual identity. Sexual health. And sexual. Sexualization. Are areas in which a social justice. Opponent. Is palpable. If we truly respect. And honor the inherent worth and dignity. Of the individual. It includes. Honoring. Their whole self. Which means they're sexual self to. Education about sexual health. Reproduction and sexual ization. Is one way. We support the rights. Of individuals. Education can also contribute to reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies. That's sometimes result in abortion. Four children born to parents were children themselves. For children waiting to be adopted. Late. Into their teen years. Education can be a tool to empower women. To control the size of their families. On a planet that is zooming toward a population of 7 billion people. And all the environmental issues. That that entail. Education to support understanding about sexualisation. Can make a difference. In the lives of individuals. Who are discriminated against. And sometimes mistreated. Because of their gender identity. Or sexual orientation. Maybe. Maybe in the future we will live in a community. That embraces the whole individual. Including. The sexual self. Maybe we can come together and talk about our believes around sexuality. If we can listen. And learn. Together. Being a part of this conversation. Is an important contribution. People of faith. Can make to adjust. And healthy society. This conversation can begin. In the heart of our congregation. On a sunday morning. How can we support each other. And how can we support our community. So all may honor. Sacredness. A sexuality. In our lives. I invite each and everyone of you. To be a part of this conversation. Support teen outreach to the community. Help us get the word out. Help us fund the program and scholarships. For those who need them. 13 teenagers a year just doesn't cut it. Participate in the adult i'll program when it is offered at the fellowship. Better yet. Let me know if you would like to see a program. Offered soon. Political leaders to fun sexuality programs for teens. That are fat face. Not based on ideology. Or wishful. Thinking. Like. Just say no. Speak out. When someone is being disrespected. Because of his. Or her sexual orientation. Or his or her gender. Our unitarian universal universalist theology. Peaches. There is a spark. Of the divine. Each person. The journeys of emerging self-awareness through sensuality intimacy and sexual identity. Bring us even closer to knowing. Honoring. And revealing. A spark. We each. Carrie. Through giving and receiving. Touching and embracing. We come. Even closer to knowing. 2 honoring. And to revealing. Depressant. Of the holiness. Wholeness. That we each bring. May it be so.

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2010Feb21sermon32.mp3

uufvb_org

2012Jun10Sermon32.mp3

On sunday evening. July 15th. 1838. Little chapel of the harvard divinity school in cambridge massachusetts i hope we can show it. It still is. There today. Which seats fewer than 100 people. Was jammed. Jam here ralph waldo emerson. Speak at the graduation ceremony of the seven. Who are graduating from the harvard divinity school that night. His address. Which is known simply and famously as the divinity school address. Immediately caused great intellectual controversy and excitement. Among the clergy intelligentsia of new england. And it's gone down in history. As one of the enlightenment humanist proclamations of that heady. Transcendentalist century. That is given shape that only to the modern sensibilities of our unitarian-universalism. But much of the consciousness. American fought as well. Listen to emerson. First elegant words. On that hot july eve. Indus refulgence summer he said. It is been a luxury to draw the breath of life. The grass grow is the. Bud's of flowers the air is full of birds and sweet with the breath of the pine. The balm of gilead in the new hey. Night brings no gloom to the heart with its welcome shade. Through the transparent darkness the stars pour their almost spiritual rays. Man under them. Themes are young child. And his huge globe. Toy. Emerson went on. Cool night bathe the world. As with a river. And prepares his eyes again for the crimson dawn. The mystery of nature never displayed more happily. What is constrained to respect the perfection of this world. In which our senses converge. How wide how rich what invitation from every property of gives. To every faculty. And i never said went on and i encourage you all to google. The divinity school address ralph waldo emerson read it for yourself. It's one of the classic. Of american intellectuals. Read it. It's a it's a little hard to get through some of his archaic flowery nineteenth-century language. It's a useful in the worthy read in any case. Emerson went on that night. To issue a bold spiritual call that's still shapes and informs our faith. Today. And that's spiritual call wasn't going to put it in my own words. What he said to those people in that chapel that night was. Know thyself. Trust thyself. Refuse to take the world's second hand from what someone else or some other time or age says or thinks about it. Emerson said open yourself directly to this wondrous world around you trust. Your own reason. Trust your own conscience. Trust your own instincts and intuitions your perceptions that your emotions. For you emerson said or the child of a good and wise god. Divinity stores within you. And so you like your creator have boundless goodness and wisdom already in you. You were created he said not as a helpless claude. Who needs to be spoon-fed what is true and what is good. You were created a precious being. Fully capable of knowing firsthand. As you eagerly embraced this world. Firsthand you can know everything that is good and true and real and right. He said there is no barrier no filter no screen. Between you and creation between you and god. The thunder this message. For you by your god-given capacities as a human being. Can do and serve every holiness every purity every purpose. Of god and life. Whatever someone was saying. Particularly to those. 7 rather dingy looking unitarian ministers in their grey overcoat. He was saying. What are you timid scholarly minister types doing hour after hour i see you down those dusty stacks of the harvard divinity school library. Reading what other people long dead and unaware of the unfolding world that we have here in boston in the 19th century. Set about god and creation. Noble book struck his hand at those ministers. No dogmatic tradition no ancient creed can tell you the full glory and import of your world or what god calls you to now or be wake up you fool. Is what he said. Be and do yourself. Be yourself and now i call him. Be a newborn bard of the holy ghost. A newborn's bard of the holy ghost. For the soul invites every man he said to expand to the full circle of the universe. What everson rather pointedly meant. Was it if these young newly-minted ministers were to serve their congregations well. And showing. The way to god into life. They were going to have to rely on their own direct. Immediate experience. With god's creation. And what's god's call to the holiness. That is so ample. Within us. Emerson's remarks on that night and 1838. Immediately sparked controversy and conversation all over new england. It was the most widely public published tracked for a decade. And it is and it is framed one of the great religious and intellectual controversies. With which humanity and religion still struggles today and it struggles with it right here in vero beach. Some of the churches. Exactly. My sermon this morning. As i continued my year-long. Sermon series on 12/11 and the final one is next sunday when i talk about balance. And by the way you can find all 10 installments of the sermon series. On our website either in video version or in printed version. If you want to look back at the 12 gates of the city what i. Giving you is 12 ways to enter the holy city of your own life. This morning. About. Discernment. The reason i think the quality of discernment the process of you ultimately figuring things out in your life. Is one of these twelve gateways it is so important is an emerson. Was right. When it comes to shaping your own spiritual and intellectual emotional life no one else can do this for you. I believe that in order for any of us to lead a deep and authentic and meaningful life. We must as emerson suggested know ourselves. And trust ourselves obey our reason and our conscience. Trust. It is capable creatures. We can know the world and do what is right. And insist on having the authority. Within ourselves. Within our spiritual and intellectual lies and ethical lies. To determine what in this life is real and good what is true and noble. We must have emerson asserted almost 200 years ago. We must give ourselves. The full first-hand authority to use our own faculty. And our own capacity. As alert and worthy and noble being. To discern for ourselves here now. Where we live. What we should believe in. How we should live and behave. And what. To ultimately give our legions. Fealty. 2. Now please hang with me here i realize some of this. Talk about discernment. Epistemology which is coming up as a little abstract and intellectually dense. But where we end up. On this question of discernment. Is crucial to the quality and depth integrity of our spiritual lives. As i've said on other occasions from this pulpit. The question of authority. Is the most fundamental in religion. Every religion. As every individual person must decide who or what. Has the authority. To determine in this life. What is real. And true what is good and right. In our religious. And it's by the way is epistemology what is your theory of knowledge. Why what. By what light do you call something true or real are good or right that's epistemology. That's discernment. In our tradition. Authority lies first and foremost. Just where emerson suggested it must. With each of you. As a conscious and capable human being. Who finds him or herself alive. Seeking understanding and wisdom the right path. Responsible passenger. Unlike orthodox religious traditions. Which usually insist that the authority for establishing what is true and what is right. Lies once and for all ever-fixed ever revealed in say scripture. Or tradition or some far-off theater. That's their epistemology. In our face. The authority that authority. Resides primarily not exclusively. But primarily within each of you. To be discovered. And affirmed and shaved. Again and again and again by you as you live your life use your mind plum your heart. Employ your conscience and feel your way. Twitter gooden meaning. We go to you first. Look if you will at the full and quite revealing text of ar7. Unitarian universalist principles. What's china's going to. Those are the principles that hold us together. The faith. There are several statements here. Which suggest how. Wii u use approach this all-important issue of discernment and authority now first you see that. Indignity that the statements a theological statement just a sec. Compassion ethical statement. Acceptance of one another then. Choosy. Epistemological. I quote. Force bullet. A free and responsible search. For truth and meaning. That means that for us truth and revelation are not once and for all signed sealed and delivered. As. Orthodox church. Rather. The truth and revelation. Evolve. You know if we have a bible it's a loosely. Take out some pages put in new ones. Loose leaf bible. Revelation is not a sarcophagus. It is not sealed. For all in some age. And then now can we go to the next. Thank you the next three principles. You will notice. The right of conscience. And the use of the democratic process within our congregations. And society at large. And so in this upper section as emerson did. We affirm both use of reason. And conscience. We discern how we are to live in the. And then after if you go to the unitarian universalist website after our 7 principal. Are listed and then if you don't know this. The statement of sources from which our religion comes. And let's move to that next. Slide. If. There we go. This is in the by-laws of our denomination. I'm going to read it. The living tradition which we shared draws from many sources. Look at the first bullet. Direct experience. A veteran sending mystery and wonder affirm by in all cultures. Which moves us to renewal. Of the spirit and openness to the forces would create and a pole life. Then following that first source of authority. Words of deeds of prophetic women and men which challenges to confront powers and structures of evil with justice. Compassion in the transforming power of love words and deeds of prophetic voices old test. New test. The writings of gandhi martin luther king. Any prophetic words. The third source of our faith. Wisdom from the world's. Now we're talkin scripture. Which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life. And now it's one of the next slide. Which shows. Jewish and christian. The bible. Wait and another a hasidic traditions and then.. Christian writings. From various mystic. Jewish and christian teachings with colors to respond to god's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves then humanist teachings. For the last hundred and twenty years we've been very. A very committed to human start as well. Which council has to heed the guidance of reason there's the word again and the results of science. And warned us against idolatries of the mind and spirit and it finally added recently. Spiritual teachings of earth center. Paganism. Which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony. With the rhythm. Of nature. Notice please again that first. Source. From which our faith springs. Not scripture. Not dog. Traditions or declarations passed down from centuries. No. The first source. Is the direct. Experience. You have with the. Your directives. My directive. Our direct experience. Quotes. That transcending. Mystery. And wonder. In this world. No. You must notice that. Direct. Experience. Is not the only authoritative source. For discernment and truth and virtue in our tradition. As i said. The whole all these other sources are valid. All these sources are valid but it was no accident. When this statement of. Of sources of our faith. Put together the first. Your. Direct. Friends to this day. We are still an emersonian faith. Tradition. We do believe. The human beings. Despite their obvious. Chronic flaws. Gaps in knowledge and understanding. Are none the less worthy. Incapable creatures. Pumas. Trust themselves. Know themselves. And the crucial word here. Obey. The inside. The come to them. As they searched. Really yet responsible. For what is real. True. Read and write. You're obliged to obey. The truth. And the moral imperatives. The come to you. Through your own direct. No. All this ofcourse separates us wildly. From religious fundamentalist. Of any sort. All fundamentals. An orthodox religious. Insist. That their adherence submit themselves to the authority. Not of their own reason perceptions conclusions and conscious. But rather to the immutable and dust distant authority of god. Scripture our ancient tradition. What separates unitarian-universalism. From most orthodox religion is not so much what we say theologically or ethically about persons and creation. That's not what separates us. From the earth. What separates us is how we approach. This key question. Of authority and discernment. And how we rather radically us you use. Trust and empower individuals. To seek their own spiritual path and build their own ethical life based on the insights of. And the fundamentalist who are afraid of our religion and afraid of the spiritual openness and freedom in implies. Keenly understand this. In this book. It's called the kingdom of the cults. Affinitive work on the subject by walter martin. Catalog all the error-filled religious traditions of mormonism is in here seventh-day adventist his witnesses salvation army and us. No i am happy to report that in the chapter on unitarian universalism they devote three pages to me. Yeah how about that. Why do you think i have to have this book. I want to reduce the sims. For years i've i've been an evangelist for our faith and so here's what they wrote about me. Leading the charge is reverend scott alexander alexander published salted with fire a strategy guy that presents a militant program for expansion of this face. Alexander's approach appears to have a high level of support blah blah blah blah blah on it goes for to page. I've highlighted all the all the references to my what a dangerous guy i am. But what's interesting about this is not what they say about me. They don't argue in this. Can this chapter on austin's of heresy. They don't argue with the inherent worth and dignity of every person. The search for justice compassion or truth. None of our principal. Any of the that are odd that that involve issues of of ethics. No. What does fox single attack. Is are epistemology. Our way of getting the truth. That's what drives them crazy our way of discernment. Is what the chapter attacking us focuses on. Our way of establishing what has authority to guide our ethical. Remember i said the issue of authority is probably the most fundamental. Issue a religion. Fundamentalist written book understand full well. That if we are right. About authority. And freedom and religion. Send one individual human beings have to be trusted with authority and freedom to shape their own faith on their alive. The reason and conscience and intuition our god-given tools. For as we search for what is true and right and the free and responsible people can and do reach different conclusions. About any religious idea or assertion. And if we're right. It also means a good people can and do disagree over important moral and ethical matters like abortion. Stem cell research. Gay rights. And the death penalty. It means that revelation is not sealed. That new scriptures are written all the time even as new truths and ethical conclusions unfold with each age. These fundamentalist understand that if we're right. About authority and discernment. Their dogmatic fixed absolutist way of religion falls like. Elaborate house of cards. Until they attack us. For the way. We stink. And our century-old commitments room emerson. To trust. Each individual. Turn gauge the world with direct experience. And come up. With their own. Firsthand conclusion. About what. And this bedrock uu commitment of ours to the important of individuals. Determining what is true and right and real. Means by necessity that we embrace pluralism. And diversity and disagreement things. Drive. Fundamentalist. But enough about the fears. A fundamentalist christian. Blue label us a cult. This is a sermon. About how discernment. About how your discernment. Is a liberating gateway to freedom. Truth and a meaningful and a santa claus. I believe that only by trusting yourself. And your own first-hand experience with life. Can you enter the holy city of your own life. Enter into that sacred place deep within you where you discover. Who you are. And what ultimately matters to you. And how you must a statically live to have a joyful and responsible life. I believe you can only enter the holy city of your own life by trusting yourself. By knowing yourself and empowering yourself as emerson suggested to be a newborn bard. Of the holy ghost. Someone who is fully alive. To the day you are in. And unafraid. Just say what you believe. And why you believe it. To stand up for what is what you believe to be true. And to live by the truth and the goodness has been revealed to you. As you employ the reason of your mind. And the compassion of your heart and in the end. Leave this life. Knowing that you have embraced. And serve life anticlea and well. Buy your own life. Now all this may sound liberating and wise and wonderful but there is a big rob. And that rub is that if. Do. This. Way of religion. You have to be responsible. It's a huge and waiting. Responsibility to be in charge of your own religious life as opposed to having someone. Spoon feed it to you. And tell you exactly. What you believe being a newborn bard of the holy ghost. Is incredible work. Early on in my ministry when i began a little church in houlton maine. And a roman catholic couple sheets. The wife isn't coming for some time. And i went over to see that the husband in the wife. End. Roman catholic guy said to me after he got he got the freedom. What i talked about our faith. Lenny said. Scotty said. I like this religion this religions a cakewalk i can believe anything i want the unitarian church. And i said. Oh no john. No no. The freedom we give you and this movement is not the freedom to believe anything you want. The freedom we give you is the freedom. Define that which you must believe that to what you must leave that to which you must obey. The freedom we give you is not the freedom from religion. It's the freedom to do the hard work of religion. Day after day as you strive everyday in your little ways to make. Difference. To become the most ethical and aesthetic. And true person you can be. And that is precisely what i am saying to all of you this. Using your own discernment. The process of you fully owning your own spiritual authority over a lifetime. As you grow a soul and give shape to your face. Is both incredibly liberating. And demanding. It matters ultimately. How carefully and responsibly you study and engage the world. How you discover yourself and then move through your days. In the light of the highest truths and values that are revealed to you. No one else can do this work. I've alternately discerning. What is real and true and good. There are a lot of people out there. Just talked to any fundamentalist. Who will give you all of it. Prepackaged airtight answers you want there lots of. Give you all that and tell you exactly. How you should think how you should be in the world. But i say to you. To fully enter the holy city of your own life. You must trust yourself. Dare to know your world. And live your life. Not second hand. Not third hand in the basement of the harvard divinity school. Immediately. Through your own flesh. And blood. First. And find your own way your own way to sacredness. To loveliness. And to all. It is just that simple. And. Just.

uufvb_org

2013Apr14Sermon32.mp3

To the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we are glad you have chosen to spend the part of your day with us this morning. Standing on the sidewalk. Seeking each of us to become our best to world. What are you gay or straight. What are you suffering a physical illness or feeling just wonderful physically. Weather on top of the world emotionally or somewhat down in the tub. Between. We're delighted to see you just did you coming like. We hope you'll find our service this morning meaningful. The nurse is your spirit energy and purpose. For the living life in the days ahead. Eagle and happier. You were right on track this morning worship. Reflect on your life. Wonderful day. I'm going to. First urology. I just. End the life of our planet. And struggled with precisely how to express this coherently and well to you. Spiritual passion about. To give my emergency logical perspective because despite the care and caution always brings the sermon preparation. I've been concerned spiritually trouble. Buy my crystal conclusion. About the ultimate meaning of our lives on this earth. Unitarian universalist minister has promised to always speak the truth in love. When they start. But i am worried about precisely how to do this. With what is on my heart this morning. Call my natural fussing and fretting aside the time has come for me finally to offer. For your intellectual and spiritual consideration. An existential theology. So invite you now to joining reflecting on the what i think their spiritual leaders. Remember whatever conversation. Number to simply deliver sure and sell during meeting from on high. So with all that saturday. Is it spring. Of the year 2013 as i approach my 64th birthday. To start powerful exercise. Do not know precisely how or when my life will end. When are first will similarly cease to exist. Virgin. Decal. And the planet earth will come to an abrupt physical end. Schedule and scientific truth. Is a fly life. And the life of this planet are both fine identities. And there's absolutely nothing. Anyone or anything. Easier of these two. Easier. And you are. Personal immortality. Although somewhat stretched out. Like the bodies of living organisms. The reverend doctor forest church. Opposition. Existential reality of personal data. Occ said that you were beautiful humanology. Spiritual worker fighting whatever purposes for our days upon this earth. Central spiritual assertion and promise is that we do not need to answer. We can achieve eternal life. Means some sort of spiritual awareness of self. Continue personal consciousness. No i am not. Now nor has ever been in the physical. I'm criticizing the cherished religious beliefs of others. The grand total wine. Which is so prominent in so many religions. Play absolutely no spiritual or existential sent to me personally. As someone who thinks of himself as a keen observer of the week. Absolutely no evidence. Any such eternal awareness or presence beyond the grave. To live on the memories of jewish idea. Turtle immortality. For myself. Or disrespect for the beliefs of others. Show me the promise of eternal life. For the promise of any sort of unbelievable to me it just seems like so much. Give me personally in my own private spiritual and religious life. Whatever purpose and joy. Meaning wife. What's my destiny must be spun out now. You may recall from your old school day. Existentialism is applied to the work number of 19th and 20th century. Replace the human individual. Human decision-making at the center of the universe. Sultan definition. Schedule. A philosophy that emphasized the uniqueness. .. A hostile or indifferent universe. Disregard human existence as unexplainable. Choice. And responsibility for the consequences of 1. Definition. Existentialism a modern philosophical movement stressing the importance. A personal experience. Who is seen as a free agent. Universe. Which is fiercely anchored in this earthly life. Is a purely existentialist. Beautiful and glorious creation. I believe. Choices i make during my lifetime. Meaningful purposeful satisfying and loving life. Opera. Theological sidebar specialist. Who is entirely responsible for the meaning of shape of my life so regard myself. And energizing and transformative relationship with something mystical. Even though i believe this physical creation this world is ultimately different present. I don't feel like holding. Reliable presence of goodness and purpose kind of goodness and beauty used in mobile. Chulas perspective of mine. Might seem sad or the spirit. The fact that i believe my lifetime is absolutely limited. Enjoy. Did you think that's best as i can. Aspect of this is the very end of the snowman. For now please. Is a great source of hope in meeting android for me where. Exhaust after fully facing i hold the my own personal immortality and move on. Astrophysicist. What is the world as we know it. If you google the end of predator. For example. That there was a one-in-a-million chance. And that same statistical statistical risk. Every year after that. Barrel into the corner of our galaxy. Thomas. The resulting hypernova with last year at the gamma radiation to destroy the ozone layer. Scary enough. There's a 1 and 50,000 shares each year. Could almost 10 online on the planet. Admittedly. Odds of humanity in perth. Our chances of dodging a bullet or pretty good. Wikipedia. Evolution of the universe. Sunpro exhaust hydrogen core. And become a red giant. A dying star. Becoming thousands of times more luminous and losing approximately 30% of its mass. Title drag causing it to enter the sun's expanding atmosphere and be destroyed and 7.6 billion years. Before being swallowed up by the sun. The earth's oceans will evaporate earth finally be destroyed captured and vaporized. Don't separate is ultimately doomed. I will someday cease to exist. In what we call the universe. Like all living organisms on earth our universe is constantly changing and evolving and no place in the universe including our whole planet is exempt. Office evolution. Really good news. Killer asteroid. * 5000. A billion years * 5000. So. Volcom for 1428419 one generation. It is an astrophysical fact that ultimately. It's a fact or we'll become tanya. Sharing these uncomfortable and far-off scientific fact what is. And such a distant tree this reason alone. Just as important as forest church set for every human being two-faced fully or her own personal foretelling. Schedule. Display. Confronting the space. Easy or natural thing for us. Who find themselves alive on this ridge and marvelous planet. And those face-to-face isn't offering their various expressions of hope and meaning for humanity. Metaphor for dinner. Everyday household metaphor. God or some other gracious handled force has sucked before. For all time. Day-to-day near me. Experience is routinely stable. Delicious and satisfying central 6th in the level present. Oceans. We tend to think of earthly life. As we experience it through our ears and eyes and nose her fingertips vlog. Astrophysical. The astrophysicists are quietly but insisted lee telling that you would ultimately. The miracle of life on earth which is mercifully and in all likelihood. Secure. It is not forever. Because it is not. We human beings must have braces i think as a holy essential gift. Existential. And this brings me.. I want the beginning of this song. Because of one individual person in my mid 60. I am fully aware of the absolute nature of my own personal motown and because he was family species. Have the moral and spiritual and i would add the word existential. To live is fully responsibly and joyfully and well as we can we can't. I'm stating god or anyone else we must take responsibility for ourselves. The fact of personal and global. And has a fairy real. An absolute limit. Some might imagine. To despondency and despair but rather calls us. Everyday to use. Tony pulis has finest potential to call is not to despair but to join for the responsibility we have to livwell. Let me see this another way. Because nothing is fear of life is forever. There is a fully virgin c. Emergency for us individually and collectively. Whoever more shaped our earthly lives along the pathway. I'm just. Andreesen. And the service can marla. Everyday kindness. Personally as a very walls. And decidedly white and in this case gay male. Define exemplify species. I hope i have a few more decades. To get it right. Or at least approximately right. The meaning of purpose of life. To choose compassion over indifference. The truth justice over injustice. Tears of human existence personal. The universal. Universalist. Thank you very much. Kenny g eternal tons. Anyone or anything else. I do not. When i have freshly concluded. This is mortal creation of mine is not capable of. That's being eternality. The precious fleeting existential nature of my online. The inexorable evolution. I fully understand. Universe is indifferent. Turtle. Satisfied. Days and months ahead to hear from you. About where you ultimately find. Your meaning and hope and purpose both as individuals and as part of the human family. For me i'm fine. Spiritual abundance. And genuine theological says traction. In the holy virgin. Temporal gif. And what we have together. In wallace. And the frenzy and flow. Individually and together live this life. Well we can and be satisfied. Sacred. School president of life and being. And let tomorrow. Tomorrow. Picture of yourself. With this reading i found this week. From african-american writer zora neale hurston 1942 she lived in florida. Known as life. Article of the world. Shape and burst forth in a glorious chain. I shall return with the earth to father son. And still exist in substance. When the sun has lost its firing. And disintegrated into infinity to perhaps become hard. Rubble. Disgust of my being is matter. Ever-changing. Increase to deny myself the comfort of my fellow human being. And then she. I am one with the infinite. I need. No other. Edward from early-twentieth-century humanist minister. John dietrich reserved our church in minneapolis. In the 2000s. Universe. And it matters tremendously how we conduct ourselves before we are actually the makers of human destiny. Independent. We are least in the endless chain of life. Only fruit. Transmitted to the future. Are cheap businesses. Complacent. Spell error with knowledge hatred love this place. Strife and contention with peace and cooperation. Invoice urgently call sus. 2 days cast. A religion.

uufvb_org

2011Dec11Sermon32.mp3

As i said in my vero beach newspaper column last week it's pretty much obligatory for all ernest and right-thinking clergy to stand up each year this time of year. And publicly decry. The crass. Excessive commercialism of christmas in america so this morning even though i don't like to be predictable i'm going to give you. A couple minutes of that. Of course you know. That. Like many of you. And like the video and plaid. We're saddened and even if it depressed. December by the way the true lovely original spirit of christmas. Can get obscured. Beneath the vulgar mounds of material success. What's the american and australian. People in corporate business center. Sadly the pure sentiments innocent pleasures and hushed emotions and. Lost values of the season. Denise our cultural lost form. There. And as long as i'm complaining about the excessive of commercialism let's talk about santa claus shall we. That pudgy. Careful red-suited mythic children's figure who's been sadly co-opted by shameless commercial interests. End of a portly patron saint of consumerist excess and cultural nonsense. Santa. Who shamelessly grimm's and ho-hos at us beneath that benign face and beard of his. Perm every catalog and newspaper and tv ad and department store window cheerleading us downward. Into the banality of christmas clutter. Bah humbug. Which brings me to the ethical question which i posed in my sermon title this morning. Santa claus is he a saint. Or a sinner. Surely in this 21st american century thoughtful and religious people. Who care about and speak life. Deep sustaining places. Must regard. This commercialize co-opted santa as something of a sinner. 1 classic theological understanding of sin. Isn't it as the unnecessary isolating estrangement. That we allow. Into our lives the isolations and estrangement. We allow either consciously or unconsciously. Into our primary relationships. With life another person. Enso santa. In these profligate american times of so much materialism. At his worst santa's symbolizes. The sin of allowing ourselves to be distracted in this wonderful season or any wonderful. From life's holy. Deep and meaningful places often around the family. And from our essential human connection. Family and friends. Nature. Do any of you. I missed all of the commercialism of this season ever feel. More disconnected and distracted. The preston youdoodle times of the year so. It may at least being part santa's fault. That's sinful co-op. Part of this. Person. The story. And character of santa claus you may be interested to know. Began far differently. And what we've ended up with. In america today some of you may not realize there wasn't actual real-life historical and deeply religious human being. Name saint nicholas. Well he was saint nick. Until pope john paul the second demoted him to mere human status in 1979. But first. The truth and i think rather remarkable story of santa santa's spiritual beginnings. Sometime around 280c. A boy named nicholas. Was born to wealthy christian parents in patara. A port city in the province of licea in asian minor which is today modern turkey. Early in his childhood nicholas nicholas is devout devout mother taught him the scriptures the christian scriptures. And presumably. The compassionate justice. Seeking. Ethic of jesus of nazareth. When both his parents suddenly died during an epidemic. Nicholas who was by then a late adolescent. Was left in sole possession of their great wealth. Laurel concerned about the rightness of his family's rich has four as a youth nicholas had wandered the streets of potara. And it's seen with his own eyes how very many of the people who live there. We're living in terrible poverty and deprivation. He decided. Dedicate his life to god and his family's money. To the needs of others here is a portrait of nicholas. As an adult. A real person. Nicholas obviously took the teachings of jesus and his practice and his gospel of practical generosity seriously. Just read the christian scriptures. It is there again it again for it was jesus who among other things said in describing the good and the righteous. Come. User blessed for i was hungry and you. I was thirsty. Gave me drink. I was naked. And you gave me clothing. And he also said. Give to everyone who begs for. And do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow for. Eddie also say. Take heed. And beware of all covetous. For a person's life does not consist in the abundance. And he also said. For i say unto you. It is difficult for a rich man. To get into heaven. Is it is for a camel. To be threaded. Of a needle. So nicholas. The serious follower of jesus. Began giving all his money away. So as not to receive public praise for his charitable giving for both in jewish and christian scriptures instructs the gifts. Should be given humbly without drawing attention. To oneself. Nicholas would don disguises. And give small sacks of gold to the poor and the needy but his. Anonymity was not apparently. Absolute. For what it came time for the christian church. In licea. To choose a new bishop to replace the one who had i'd nicholas was chosen some said by divine providence. For the chief elder of the church reported that he was told in a dream. Just select nicholas. Nicholas. Was apparently a good and popular bishop at many stores stories he was reported to have perform. It was said that he called dangerous mediterranean storms thus protecting fishermen and the merchant seaman. And then he brought people back to life. As it was believed to do in the case of three boys. Who are murdered by a wicked innkeeper. And that he was the protector of all the poor and powerless. And that he save people of the people of licea. From salmon by miraculously multiplying green. In one family. And that's for the rest of his life. He would don his bishop's robes and go out onto the streets. And dispense gives to the poor and to the children. Always. He gave to the. Given all these fantastic attributions it's not how hard to understand. Call nicholas apparently died a natural death at a ripe old age. Became the patron saint. A seafarer's. And children and the needy and specific people's all across. You're up adopted him. Especially the russians and the dutch. He was canonized into official sainthood. But by the roman catholic church in the ninth century. No curiously though fully 11. Since i'll never understand. 11 centuries later. In 1979 as i've already mentioned having determined by whatever means the vatican determine such thing. The bunch of the mythology that have grown up around nicholas. Was literally too good to be true. And so the pope stripped. Of his sainthood and spiritually downsized him to mere mortal status now i may not be in a position to offer the vatican public relations advice. This decision doesn't seem to have been well thought through. I mean busting the patron saint to every last child in the world. But regardless of what the spiritual bureaucrats in the vatican think about the worldwide popularity and prestige of the real saint nicholas. He is. Popularity. Remains undiminished. Over the centuries countless human beings around the globe have held him. Most of their heart as their patron saint. And as i've observed as you all know children all around the world he will always be the most. Loving and wonderous personality who comes into their lives at this time every year with a simple message. That no matter how naughty or nice. They are loved it. The irony of ironies about the real saint nick. Even more than what he did. Was what he looked. Trudeau are popular image of saint nick he according to all popular all historical reports had that full. A robust beard but there the similarity stops for you see. Bishop nicholas was as skinny as a rail. Here is another. Image of him he was skin and bones. The original saint nicholas was not portly was not puffed up was not like a pillow. He was rather a goth aesthetic. In fact church historians report that nicholas. Fasted as a spiritual practice much of the week taking food only two or three times. Every seven days because he believed as a frac. Christian. The preoccupation with his own physical needs would distract him. The pure. Spirit of jesus. Pure. Spirit. Seattle. To self. Forgive. But today in america. When you conjure up good old saint nick in your mind's eye the last thing you see is a thin gaunt self-denying ascetic fasting so that he can pay attention. Santa in our culture has become. the exact opposite. Physical image of the real man who gave his. Two children. The pork instead of a thermostatic. Santa has become how can i say this nicely. A rather full figured fellow. The physical evolution. Of the patron saint of christmas was gradual. Early dutch settlers in america brought the tradition of saint nicholas to the new world as well as. To be filled with candies fruit and other goodies not on december. 25th. Jeanette weber knows but. December 6th. Because. December 6th. The actual anniversary of saint nick. Steph. As hot as this holiday tradition spread too early american santa claus as we know him today and his. Rotonda business began to take shape. Shall we say. It wasn't until the middle of the nineteenth century the santa became the pudgy jolly red-suited secular sweetheart. We all love and no today. Now the person who was most responsible for transforming saint nicholas from the garth ascetic. Who lives in turkey. To this well-fed fellow. Was clement moore 1823 wrote the wonderful holiday children's classic a vick visit. From saint nicholas which is now more commonly known as. Twas the night before christmas. And you all know the description of santa. In that book. His eyes. How they twinkle. His dimples how merry his cheeks were like. Roses his nose like a cherry. Hasbro little mouse. Was drawn up like a bow in his beard on his chin as white as snow. He had a broad face and a little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of. Right. It was thomas nast. The famous american illustrator from harper's illustrated who drew this particular image of santa. In 1863. For the magazine. Which clearly. Looks like the rotunda gentleman clement moore described. In twas the night. For christmas. believe me i don't want to get overly fixated. On the physical transformation. Of santa. Of saint nick over the century. It really isn't of itself is not important. But for its direct connection to the spiritual transformation. That has also occur. Originally with saint nicholas. Tara. We had a truly good and self-sacrificing human being. A deeply spiritual and truly christian. Person if. Patuxent compassionate social gospel. Justice gospel of jesus. Two hearts. And lived his life in a rabbit. Accordance. With that far-seeing ethic of human responsibility. And connection. What does image in arthur liman realistic time has been replaced or co-opted. By the full sun. Santa of today. Cool ears out through shopping malls and mail. Order catalogs offering us. The seductive illusions. The human happiness. And human hold. And human fulfillment. Lies somewhere. Possessing. More and more. Which you all know to your heart is. In the end. Utterly. Empty promise every surveyor. Says it is. Material well. All the scientist. From material. For many. If indeed sadly not most. American. The true challenging. Self-sacrificing spirit of christmas which saint nicholas of doterra so nobly live. Has been replaced. Has been replaced. With a self-absorbed ethic of finding more and more ingenious. Insidious ways. Consume. To have. Take. The true original spirit of chris. Which began. In ancient turkey. Is the spirit we must all work. Keep alive in this season not just in the holiday season. When people. Express temporary generosity by throwing a turkey at the poor or something. What year round. As we strive to live our lives compassionately. In communities. Around. But. To say all this christmas. To remind ourselves about the true sacrifice sacrificial selfless spirit of jesus of nazareth. And saint nicholas of patera. Is not i think in the end to say enough. We also need in this season. In the season which can be so wonderful and enchanting even in australia as the video showed. With hot tubs and a little bit of white wine. Is also to remember. It's okay to celebrate. And enjoy and savor the modern incarnation. Of saint nicholas. This guy. What i am about to do this morning is to. Tentatively. Cast you into a spiritual paradox now when i was in seminary in early 1970s. Homiletics professor named dr. joseph barth. And he'd have throat cancer so his voice was very raspy.. One preaching class you said. To us. Kids. Paradox never get it. But you're all very clever. Here in vero beach you're all extremely well-educated i think you can handle a paradox this morning. It seems to me. Christmas is not an either-or spiritual choice of either. Sacrificially giving away most of what we have for the poor and needy like that. Almost too-good-to-be-true saint nicholas from pitera. Or going vapidly whole-hog at christmas buying excessive an opulent things alexis in the driveway for your spouse i'm still sick of that ad on television. For example. It's not a choice between being an idiot and being a sacrificial same. It's not a choice between being a saint or a sinner. It seems to me christmas both spiritually and emotionally is not an either-or it's a both in and. It's a time for us each year to be especially charitable. Especially attentive and compassionate toward are you would be as claudia story so beautifully said this morning at the time 4. And for the pigs in there. It's also. Unashamed time to. Participate in some of the private. Materialistic joys and pleasures of the seas. It's right and good that we remember the original saint nicholas and the original christian meaning. Care for one another and belonging to one another. It's also right in good to go ahead and enjoy buying your spouse that. Beautiful piece of jewelry that you know he or she secretly covet. Or splurging and spying your kid that fancy computer or scooter or bike you know they want so badly. Or even secretly by yourself that special unnecessary something you've always wanted when you're you know it at the store for buying for somebody else you could you could pick up one thing. Both the true christian spirit of the holiday and the consumer is trappings of the season. Are okay they're even okay for us as unitarian. You can cut yourself. Think a little slack. Surely it is as my colleague the reverend earl holt put it one holiday season. To his folks in st louis. He said. What is most missing in our time. Is wholeheartedness. If you're going to spend a little more than you should. Accepted and enjoy it you'll suffer in february anyhow when the bills come in so you might as well enjoy your prophecy now. I say if you're going to do something do it wholeheartedly. Let's be honest with ourselves in this season. Take pleasure in what gives us pleasure and enjoy. What gives us joy. And of course. I don't know about you but i love the process. Shop. For somebody that i love. Going to the store and spending a little. Time doing that and then. Getting that. Khaki paper from cvs wrapping things up badly and. Info on it. Putting out riding a little note on it i love that process. Even though i. Christ commercialism and consumerism. I love that price. Everything our little rational religious heads heads tell us about the ultimate. Meaninglessness of materialistic gifts is right and yet we oughta go do this we got to go do it wholeheartedly. Things at christmastime are more than just thing. The physical presence revive one another the wonderful meals we cook for lunch. Careful pastries we make for. Friends and family. Our precious vehicles of our clumsy love. They're living embodiments of our care and connection for those dearest to us. They are meaningful messengers of our love and devotion and care. So. That motorized tie rack that you found waiting for you under the christmas tree last year. With your name on it that maybe the most worthless piece of mechanical junk you've ever seen. Is precious because it was bought at kmart by your eight-year-old grandson and you better damn well appreciate that tie rack. If loaded even as it goes. It's loaded with loveliness and value in love and god help you if you don't receive it on christmas morning. What's up big. Rodger that's exactly what i wanted. And so. I say the modern-day santa. The silly excesses and shallow materialism and all. He's really no center. He's really no center. All those forced holiday ho ho hoes are irritating. But. When you think about it santa. The most tru-universal is. Ever born in our face. He is a pure universal. Whether you're naughty or nice he comes to your house. He's a pure expression of our universe live. So you have permission from this unitarian universalist. To be a little bit torn this holiday season between that pure image of sacrifice and service and love and care for the world and for others that must animate our hearts every holiday season and for the rest of the year. And. At the same time. Let us gladly hear the voice of santa claus. I'ma nightwind. Cheerfully calling out directions. To his eight tiny reindeer. Let us unashamedly enjoy giving brightly rap. Gifts to people near us. We love and care about. Let us recklessly enter the reciprocal. Harmless pleasures. Of giving and receiving. Things. I'm enjoying. White wine. In the sun. With family. Inference. Without guilt. Without center. Without anybody humbugs or grinch instinct. And for god's sake let us do it. With wholeheartedly. Let us come fully to christmas this year. Both in our giving to those who are in need. In terms of our reckless enjoying of the. We can do both. So i simply end by saying. To each and all of you. Merry christmas. Merry chris.

uufvb_org

2012Oct07Sermon128.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach on this beautiful sunny morning. My name is judy perry. And i'm a member here and we are so glad you have chosen to be with us here this morning. Please know that you are welcome. No matter how you come to us this morning. Whether you are young or old gay or straight. Black or white or some wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you are. Top-of-the-world went down in the dumps. Or somewhere in between. We are delighted to see you. You are welcome here just as you come to us in all your particularity and charm. Welcome. We hope you will find this service. Meaningful and enriching. And that you will find something here this morning that nourishes your spirit and feed your soul. And gives you renewed energy and joy for the coming week. Good morning to you all. My name is pete kersey. Remember the board. Chairman of the worship committee. Had a stand-in for neil stannard. The music you just heard dona nobis pachem translate to grant us peace. Something that our late friend neil stannard. Wished for fervently. Today's service worship. Is based. Around a sermon. The neil road. Earlier this year. The first of all. As most of you know. Neil had a flair for colorful clothes. This coat that i wear. Today was one of meals for special occasions. The occasion pictured here was a radio station party where he wore it that's where he worked. Today. I wear this in his honor. And after today. It's going to be donated. To the wardrobe of the theater guild. For there. New sermon had been delivered to three other uu congregations around the florida and neil was to have delivered it to us today. But. Fate intervened. Neil died of a heart attack at the age of 55. However. His memorial service was this past september 8th the radio station he work for i want to tell you that bttb. Has set up a scholarship program in his name to benefit. High school seniors wishing to further their studies and acting and writing. Two things that neil was interested in. The station so far has raised $1,600. And if you would like to contribute to help further that memory the website address. Is remember neal. org. What remains now to honor his memory is to bring to you neil's words and thoughts. And some of his favorite things. So we percent words from neil. And from two of the people he quoted a lot. Mahatma gandhi. And wider ray bradbury. First from mahatma gandhi. In line with the sermon which talks about our form of government and elections quote. What difference does it make. To the dead. The orphans and the homeless. What did the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy. It may be long before the law of love will be recognized and international affairs the machineries of government stand between and hide the hearts of one people. From those. Of another. Unquote gandhi. He also said. As soon as we lose the moral basis. We cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion overriding morality. Man for instance cannot be untruthful cruel or incontinent and. Claimed to have god on his side. Andy said. The only tyrant i accept in this world. Is the still small voice. Within. Unitarian author ray bradbury's book. The martian chronicles. Was made into a film. New features. Last. In his book now and then the movies got it right. Deal ended his book with these words. It's the ideas. Propounded by r12 selected film could be synthesized. And one philosophy of living. It would be the statement made across the centuries by the martian. The astronaut commander colonel wilder. This achieves what all the window pronouncements of man. And men's religions. Have failed to do. It doesn't whitewater lee with the concept of us. And them. The martian says. There is no secret. Anyone with eyes can see the way to live by watching life. Observing nature and cooperating with it. Making common cause with a process of existence. I living life. For itself. Don't you see the writhing pleasure from the gift of pure being. Life is its own answer. Accepted. And enjoy it day-by-day. Live as well as possible expect no more destroy nothing humble nothing look for paul and nothing. Leave unsullied and untouched. Hold it is beautiful. Hold that which lives in all reverence. 4life. Is given by the sovereign of our universe. Given to be savored. To be luxuriated in. To be respected. Neil continues. Survival is not enough. The question must be asked. Survival as what. Life will continue with endless cycle of offense followed by revenge followed by revenge until someone somewhere stands up and says no. This wrong i will not avenge. Back to the statement from the martian chronicles. Quoted above. Life is to be lived for its own sake. Hurting and humbling no one and nothing. After saying this to colonel wilder. The martian then goes on to say. You're intelligent. You know as well as i what has to be done. Are we. Do we. Will be. If god. Had meant for us to vote. He would have given us. Candidates. That's what mule road. That's the title of his sermon. And i'm going to read that sermon to you. And he said. The title by the way is not an original of mine i stole it from jay leno. And continuing our program of borrowing from popular entertainment. Here is a marlon brando scene. Not from the godfather. Streetcar named desire or on the waterfront. But from an early 70s picture called. The formula. Randall plays an oil magnate who conspired to keep the formula for synthetic oils secret. From the world. This idea was not all that far-fetched by the way steve shag on who wrote the book. And the film was exploiting that fact that nazi germany. In nineteen forty-four and forty-five was indeed producing massive quantities of synthetic fuel. In his story. Marlon brando's character wasn't evil capitalists. For the capitalists are necessarily evil. Is wide open to debate. But this character called item adam stephen. Most definitely is evil. And this scene he's trying to justify himself to a los angeles police lieutenant played by george c scott. And he said. The first obligation of power. Is the lead. Human beings my friend. Very complex paradox very very dangerous. We don't want to be leaders they want to be followers. I mean. But can't wait to find some. Who they think is just wonderful. To tell them what to do. Cuz they all want to be brought under control. Do they. Want to be brought under control. Do we. Proponents of the so-called american dream tells us that there's a part of each of us buried way down there that yearns to be free. To call the shots for our own lives. Maybe so. But there's also a paw. That would love to find some nut. Who make all the problems. Go away. Who make it all better. I mean isn't that the basic motivation behind a great many religions. The savior or the prophet or the creator himself will step in. And make it all better. Yes. Well. There's a whole different sermon getting started. Yeah we won't go there today. Let me digress from neil's sermon here for just a moment. Since he was talking about a whole different sermon there. His collective sermons were being put together possibly for a new bookie was contemplate. He wrote one now and then the movies get it right which received high compliments from several luminaries. Back to the sermon now. Neil road. Today we're talking about politics and there's one thing i can tell you about the current president and his gop challenger. Neither of them are going to make it all better. Here's something else. As the world as we know it will not shatter into a million pieces if the one you do not prefer is not elected or is he elected. Wii u use. Believe a great many things. But there are many qualities that unites to. And one of the most vital is skepticism. We do not accept anything that is told to us at face-value whether it's spoken by a priest no professor or at least of all. Buy a politician. And so we resist the labels placed upon us by extremist. There are the flag wavers who insist that any criticism whatsoever of our country means makes that critic. And america hater. And there are the bleeding hearts. Who say that. Anyone who dares to question our current president is by definition a racist. Both of these are nonsense. Blind loyalty to any system any nation any religion any person. Is it a crime. At the least the crime of laziness that the worst. A crime of. Willful. Ignorance. Ruu pulpit is no place for anyone to stand and tell you who to vote for but i can outline just a few of the issues. Our current president mr. obama. Falls on the side of certain issues that most of us you use would agree with. Thornton said he's come out publicly in favor of same-sex marriage. Not how he got there deliberately or accidentally. Concerns me not. He's there. Because he embraces the idea that people who behave or believe differently than you or i do. Have the very same rights. That you or i do. Economically. Well. I'm anything but qualified to discuss that. Except to say. Regardless of how much or how little of the present economic quagmire was inherited from the previous administration mr. obama's cures have been somewhat less than overwhelmingly effectively effective. Would mr romney's ideas work any better. Maybe. Maybe not. But i would remind anyone considering the question that there are two words that do not appear in our constitution. Capitalism. And socialism. That does not make either of them synonymous with evil either. Although a lot of people would like you to believe one of the other is absolutely obscene. My two cents. I'm a capitalist socialist. Meaning i do not consider the two systems mutually exclusive. And you know what. I don't think i'm alone. It might be economically heretical opinion. Eyesight has my hero in this regard franklin delano roosevelt. I honestly believe that in his slightly over three terms in office fdr set us on the course of capital socialism. Of course he didn't dare call it that. Because as we noted earlier there are people trained to go into virtual epileptic fits. At the mention of one of those words. But i believe. And i think if dro far wiser man than i share the belief that's neither capitalism or socialism works by itself. Capitalism makes more money. Four more people. Did any other economic system. But there's no safety net to catch those who are not caught up directly in the money making. And that's why people were literally dying in the street when roosevelt took office. Capitalism by itself. Was feeling. As for socialism. It aims at providing that knit. But all too often. Socialism rather than alleviating misery. Merely succeeds in spreading the misery around equally. The personally. I think the combination of the two capital socialism. Results in the system of checks and balances. Something our founding fathers would hardly approve of. But i know alan greenspan or john maynard keynes north thorstein veblen or even a ben stein. My theories on economics are necessarily over simplified. But you know what. So were most of the ideas on conservatism and liberalism that are being argued in their current campaign. And frankly i don't know many people who are either textbook conservatives or textbook liberals. They both have ideas that are positive. Unconstructive. And ideas that are negative and destructive. One writer who really put it into perspective was ian rand. Some of you may have heard the presentation of miss ran that neil did in which. I try to separate her valuable and inspirational ideas from her more arbitrary not to say groundless opinions. One time when she really got it right. Was in her comparison of conservative and liberal values. At her very best. Which is not always how she thought her wrote. At her very best. She could be clinically objective about a subject. Escorted by barbara brandon in her book the passion of. Irvine ranch. She is clinically objective about this subject. Listen carefully to these rose words. Both. Conservatives and liberals. Hold the same premise. The mind-body dichotomy. What shoes opposite sides of this lethal fallacy. The conservatives want freedom to act in the material world they tend to oppose government control of. Production industry trade business physical goods. Of material wealth. But the advocate. Government control of man's spirit. I eat man's consciousness. The advocate the state's right to impose censorship to determine moral values to create and enforce a government establishment of morality to rule the intellect. The liberals. Want freedom to act in the spiritual realm they opposed censorship they oppose government control of ideas of the arts of the pressed of education. But they advocate. Government control of material production. Business employment. Wages profits all physical property. They advocated all the way down to total expropriation. Beach camp wants to control the realm it regards as metaphysically important. Each grinch freedom only to the activities it despises. Show set in i'm rand. In the book. The passion of iran. So. If we accept. Miss trans premise. I can't go along with the conservative desire to tell us what to do in our private lives. What we can do and who we can do it with. What constitutes morality in what does not. Nor can i go along with the liberal program of regulating business and industry. For me. My pox on both their houses. I crave freedom to follow whatever drummer who's beatriz sounds in my head. In my personal life and my business life. Regulate me not in either. Beyond the regulations that enforce one central idea. My freedom ends. Where yours begins. And vice versa. I stated earlier. That is not my place here to tell you who to vote for. I'll go a step further. I wouldn't if i could. Both of the nominees. Both of them worried the dickens out of me. From the romney campaign i'm hearing way too much super patriotism. Not good. Healthy. Not. I love my country and what it stands for patriotism but. America is the greatest nation that ever existed and if you don't believe it will prove it to you with guns and bombs that kind of super patriotism. That frightens me. But so does the equally sinister idea of the other side that more and bigger government is the answer the concept of surrendering our freedoms do nanny state that will make everything better. That whole idea. Strikes me as cowardly. Lazy. Total cop-out. Some liberals. Are obsessed. With the idea of equal opportunity. And that's wonderful. But like any other idea. It can be carried to an illogical extreme not everyone is going to make the same amount of money or live in the same kind of house or have the same number of cars equal opportunity does not guarantee equal results. People who start at the same point will not necessarily wind-up. At the same point. And that's not a statement of race or class prejudice. Individuals bring different gifts and different ambitions to life. And those different gifts and different ambitions will bring different results. Nothing wrong with that. So there's a dichotomy. Those who work and succeed should be rewarded. Those who work in sale should not necessarily be rewarded but. Neither should they be abandoned. And there you have the driving tenants or at least they should be. Of conservatism and liberalism. If you ever ever. Find a candidate or an organization that combines the two or comes close to combining the two or even acknowledges as a good idea run don't walk in their general direction. But good luck in finding. Which brings me to my last point. Should one vote. Does it make a difference. Of course your local elections you can actually see that happen. But nationally. Did you. Have anything personally to do with choosing mr. obama or mr. romney. Neither did i. Is the whole process. Rigged. Well. If i dive into that conspiracy theory will be here all day. In terms of that particular conundrum i'll go with the oversimplify but nonetheless factual. Too many people died. For my privilege. And it is a pretty. Not a right of voting. So i shall vote. No matter my doubts. But let me close out this morning with her. What i think is a truly revolutionary idea. It's mine. And it may be utterly impractical. It may be impossible utopian. But give it a listen. Why not. Imagine the world is divided up into nations that voluntarily answer to a central authority now that's quite a leap. I grant you. Because most nations and most people's are immovably wedded to the concept of national sovereignty. What's on our purposes this morning imagine it anyway. Imagine that the people of each municipality village town city what-have-you. Elect their own mayor or headband or burgomeister whatever. The point is this person he or she is elected by the person who the people who know him or her. Then all the mayors of a certain state or province. Let's just use american terms for simplicity steak. All the mayor's get together and elect one of their own to be governor. Again he or she is elected by people who know him personally who have access to that person. And now all the governors of a given nation get together and elect from one of their own their head of state again this person is elected by those who know him or her personally. And finally the heads of state get together and it like from among their ranks the planetary head of state. The person who would be the world leader. Sort of like the present secretary general of the united nations except. At this position would have authority. Just as much authority as granted by the consent. Of the governed. For the space of one term. One term only. Length open to discussion. With a system of legislative and judicial checks and balances. Modeled on our american example since that's one of the very best features of our republic. What i've described is a pyramid form of government. The head of state let's call him. The grand poobah. Would not be elected directly by each and every citizen of the world but indirectly. And that each of the leaders in each level would have been elected by those who know them personally. Now does this sound utopia of course it does. We have to raise an entire generation around the entire world. Brave enough to set aside their security blankets of. Religion. Race nationality. But isn't the worldwide electronic web evolving into the break tool that can make this dream a reality. If not today. Tomorrow. If not tomorrow. The next day. Or the next year. For the next decade. It wouldn't be easy. What what worthwhile endeavor was ever easy. It may not be possible. But we'll never know. Don't try. And on that subject. Here's one more movie quote for you. The character charlie anderson played by jimmy stewart. In the movie shenandoah. 1965. He said. If we don't try. We don't do. And if we don't do. And why are we here. Amen. End-of-summer. Our final song this morning is called the parting glass it's an irish number be sung by bill murphy. Anil as far as we know had no irish in his blood but he sure had irish in his soul. He could be found at kelly's irish pub on miracle mile every friday night lifting his glass and it closing time playing taps on his flugelhorn. Phil murphy is here now. It will let him tell you about the song. First of all. I think neil was the kind of guy that did what had to be done. When it had to be done. He also was the kind of guy that did what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it. As long as it did not harm or hurt. Anybody else. In my mind i can hear. Neil saying the words to the song. Cuz i'm about to begin. Here's to you niall. You spent it in good company. The harm i've ever done. How are you doing. Two men marino a country called. Soulful to me love part english and goodnight. All the sweethearts me one more day to stay. Bobsled. I should i should know. Hygiene's leroy is on softly. Has our finale this morning as you may recall neil always ended his presentations in a certain way. And now my video recorded in his last appearance here. Here is neil. With a standard closing. Abused something service. And now our closing words these are the same closing words i use. Everytime i conduct the service. They were written in 1967 and i long for the day when they are no longer appropriate. That day is not upon us yet. They were written by bob considine who was a reporter newspaper man and a broadcast. Again these were written in 1967. At the height. Of the vietnam. As long as our men. B. Sweat. Fries. And die. In actual or cold wars. Sacrifices wintertime should make our food sticking our throats and our luxuries a torment. Let me never to bleed use the words. Porridge. Or. .. To describe the means by which a picture. Hwinza ballgame. A gridman bucks a line. A golfer sinks. Ipot. Or. Othello. Makes. This is where the worship ends this is where the service. Begin.

uufvb_org

2011Apr03Sermon32.mp3

We've talked a lot about god this more. We're not going to stop now. Because. I want to relate to you. A little story. July 20th. 2010. 4 in the morning. I abruptly. Awoke. From a dream. That literally shook. The foundation. Of my belief system. Here's the dream. I was in a very. Large. Religious building. Denomination. Walking through the administration wing. Which was. Multi-leveled. With carter's and rules all over the place. A veritable maze. Nobody was there. Golden the halls. All the rooms were empty. Not just empty of people but if your furniture. Just rude. It was no sign or symbol of any particular religious organization or nature. But. In the dream. I just knew it was religious building of some sort. As i was beginning to look for a way out. Suddenly a man appeared. He was. Just a man. And he was ignoring me. Anyways going to walk right past me. I stopped him. Can i ask for directions out of there. He politely them personally told me. And we quickly arrived. He opened the door and i was always looking out over what appeared to be a desert landscape. And then as he was about to walk away. I suddenly. This is in the dream mind. I suddenly got this 6. Ring. Anxious feeling. And pleaded with him to wait. Because i needed to ask him a question. He said nothing. Woodstock. The words came out of the in this dream as if dredged reluctantly from the. I was not a believer in god. Funny felt wrong about that. Really deep down in my soul. Wanted. To believe. I told him. I tried. But i cannot believe. Please. Please help me. Show me. Believe. This. Deep in the pit of my. Lusa. Of emotion. As i literally begged for his help. In finding out. In the dream. I was. Desperate. To get an answer. That's what i woke up. Abruptly. And i sit up straight in bed. And i began sinking. Rather furiously. Because. Consciously. A desire to believe in god. His far. But that dream really rattled my cage. I've done some research on dream analysis. I make no claims to being an expert. But here's what i've come up with so far. Metaphors for the self in dreams. So this metaphor was indicating that i have a large empty space. In myself. Also at the exit from the. In this dream was an impeachment. To find an answer to my unbelieving. Consciously. I cannot believe my god is configured in the christian or jewish text. So what is it. But i want to believe in so strongly that this dream was. Consciously i've been forging ahead since then. Preaching and talking about the. The value. Namaste. The recognition of the spark of the divine. Each of us. But unconscious. In the back of my mind has been this question apparently banging at the door what does that mean. What is. The spark of the divine. Well perhaps that dream was this unconscious. Released considered. Conscious thoughts. Versus unconscious thoughts. Let me offer you a quote. The unconscious mind is much more powerful. Much more insist. Much more directive and conservative than the conscious mind because. The conscience. Is merely the educated mind. Which adjusts itself. To the environment around it. I'm quoting krishnamurthy. An indian writer. In speaker on philosophy. A philosophical and spiritual issue. He died in california. Christopher he went on to say about the mind. Peoria. Is adjusting itself as you do. To the environment. To the pressure from outside but inwardly. It's the same. That is the unconscious mind still. The residue of the past. Unconscious mind is sweeping up the residue and presenting them in the dream world. Anymotion. Hat with meaning. For you to take out. Decipher what it's telling you. Or forget it. Nothing but a dream. But this particular dream with soap counter. Do those spots that i harbor consciously. I couldn't just forget it. As a result. Oh my inability to simply dismissed the dream as an aberration. I've been thinking. And exploring of thought. The feelings that i've been trying to project namaste. Is good. And right. But it's not enough. So what and where is this leading i would like to believe that there is a spark of the divine within each of us but what does that mean. Define implies god-like. That's a little bit too strong for. I don't believe that each of us has a touch of a traditional god within us. What's supposed supernatural powers that a god has. Define also implies a strong spiritual base within yourself. What are the main definitions of divine. After the ones that talked about. Says. Secret. Or holy. What's falls in line with my desire. Does just mean a desire to be fully spiritual. That's much too high of a state. That's a pedestal upon which. Have no wish.. And honestly. But more spiritual yes. Not to the extent that i'm putting myself on a plane higher than others around me. Spiritual in that i want to recognize that spirituality and each of those around me. Honor that feeling. Namaste. Another dream metaphor. Is seeing an undefined person who's really a part of ourselves that we're struggling to define under that meeting the band who i stopped my dream that empty building help me believe. Is that part of my inner self. That i'm striving to understand as to just what i do believe. Define it. Show me what it is. I know but i do not believe. You heard that kind of phrase. In claudia story. I do not believe in a supernatural supreme being who watches over each person or any nation or any race. I do not believe in a supernatural being that cares for the human race let alone individuals. Here's a story about that kind of. There's this atheist. Swimming in the ocean. All of a sudden he sees a shark in the water. So he start swimming.. As your books back he sees the shark turn and head toward him while he is scared to. Necc. Open wide revealing its horrific teeth. The atheists. In an instant. Time is frozen. A bright light shining down from above. Amanda's motionless in the water when he hears the voice. Your. Or an atheist. Why do you call on me. When you do not believe. In me. All confused annoying that he cannot lie the man replies. That's true i don't believe in you. Shark. Can you make the shark believe in you. Well the boys replies as you wish. The light retracts the heavens. The band fuels the water move. As the atheist looks back he can see the jaws of the shark start to close down on it with a basically. The sharp stops. Pulls back. Shocked. The man watches as the huge beast closes its eyes. And says. Thank you lord. For this food which i'm about to receive. I love that story. The funny story. Not too terribly believable though is it. Hey a little bit beyond the possibility is possible. Well einstein has been quoted as having said science without religion is lame. And religion without science is blind. I believe. That it is eminently possible to blend religion with science and keep that marvelous emotional feeling of all. And wonder. Universe around us. Explorit scientifically. Come up with how things working what's they're composed of and be worshipping. Of the fat. That they exist. Field. In the mystery of how it all came to be in the beginning. Sure they're very well may have been. What existed before that. Einstein religion without science is blind. I think that you lift. An important addition. Religion and science must co-exist otherwise. Each. Is wearing blinders. I think it's possible. That there is a supreme or maybe just original being. Call the creator if you were. Who started this whole evolutionary life trend which has culminated in humanity as we know it today at the top of the food chain. At least here on earth. That sounds rather primitive but that's where we are at this moment in time on earth except for this possible creator. This creator is icing. Could be responsible for the various turns and twists of evolution that wound up as. It's possible. At this creator is still putting humanity through a crucible. Tempering. Heading toward an unknown finality. For the human species as a whole. If that's the case. Where does that put us in terms of free will. Would any effort we do have an effect on the outcome of this crucible experience. I would tend to say yes. We have the choice. I'm taking the easy road through the meadows. The pads of pleasure. Will high road through very terrain epatha conceivably could lead to a better world for the. He sees as a whole. A path that leads us to a moral way of life as understood in our society as opposed to an evil way of life. This is the path that many of us since we turn our backs on organized religion. Our species we human beings wish for ourselves and our children descendants. Peaceful moral world. This baby. As the buddhist. Or even as jesus said. My father's house. Has benny window. Rather difficult to figure what to do. Since we have no idea what this unknown perhaps mythical creator wants as the end result of the tempering. Documentary. Some who have a natural tendency toward the negative. So look out for yourself let you man for itself. Otis perhaps would say. Don't worry about. When did the romani people who tend to think. The golden rule. Is a high moral plane upon which i prefer to travel. I suspect. That if the supernatural creator is doing all the talking about. He or it doesn't particularly care what. We do. It is probably only interested in watching. How we live. And the justifications we use. In what we do. Is. Such a creator. Something to be worshipped though. If my phone is true. This creator cares nothing at all. Divided individual. And seldom steps in. To change the course of events. Except as a particular individual might. The trend of the evolutionary process. So we're back to ourselves. And that possible spark of the divine. Deep inside of us. Each of us have it. With an arby's. Just seriously affect those around us. And positive. 4 - waze. As i see it. Those of us who utilize the spark of the divine. Strive toward the positive. We strive to make life. A little better. For a fellow human beings. And other creatures as well. Let me offer you a little poem. So i found one time at 1963 old farmers almanac. It's called human touch. Tis the human touch in the world accounts. The touch of your hand. And my. Which means far more to the fainting heart than shelter in bread and wine. Pork shoulder is gone with a knight azure and break last only a day. Touch of the hair. The sound of the voice. Sing on in the soul. Always. Written by spencer michael. Humanity. For the most part. Seems to be driven to find some kind of spirituality. Something beyond themselves. Whether that's a god or mother earth. Nature. And it comes from within. So here we are. Defining spirituality of something within each of us. The drives us. Do actually improve the lot of fellow-creature. Who share the world. Around us. I've been thinking i know that's dangerous. This unknown man in my dream could easily be seen as an alter ego of myself. Which is an amorphous shifting shape. Holding the knowledge that my conscious self. Is seeking. To define what is it that i seek spiritual. For the greater part of my life. Head until just maybe three or four years ago. I really shied away from thinking about being spiritual. The subject has been approached intellectually. As opposed to emotional. Delete the emotions out of such a large part of your life though is to close the door on mr. opportunity. Being spiritual. Jumbo's demands the inclusion of emotion. Not to the point though that you're projecting this web of emotion out from yourself to inflict it. Upon those around you. That's only eagle in my opinion being projected part of the human psyche that. It was to have those near us agree with us. Be like us and and not be contrary to our emotions and please. I believe the whole purpose of us being here in this building and this congregation. Is to seek not only intellectual stimulation but the enhancing. And conch. Tration. Spiritual ministry to each other. And community involvement. That you ufv. This is the thing that drove me here and drew be here 10 years ago. It is highly response. For drawing others. The bible. We need to be saying at all times. Yes. We. R a. Church. We support you spiritual. We support the rights of individual. In our community. We knew you fellowship. We can energize. And lift him out of there what's. Live the seven principal. Hazard spirit. Our number one goal. If you forget those principles are. Go outside and read them on her wall. Open the handle to the first pages. Rolfing. I believe. In us. I believe in the essence. Of myself. I believe. In that spark of the divine. Within each. Call it namaste. But i cannot define. That's park. And it may not be necessary to do so. It's an emotional thing. Not an intellectual. But one rings closely to the other. Bring the emotions to bear on spirituality within yourself. Along with the intellectual quest. Become a little. Sensuous. About this whole thing. Conceal. And fondle. Concept. Of being a spiritual person in our minds. And in our discourse with one another. Let us explore. The spiritual. Alone. Put together. Reach for that spark. Willits. Upon that emblem. Seed. Cu. See if it warms. Your.

uufvb_org

2012Sep23Sermon32.mp3

My reading before the sermon this morning comes from the. Prostrollo this week those of you who read the op-ed page everyday will recognize this it was published earlier this week. Who is was it as a former us congressman. From indiana. We must be americans first. Party members second. I was first elected to congress in 1964 that was the year lyndon baines johnson won a full term as president in a landslide. If ever a president. Hamilton right popular mandate to pursue his goals it was lbj following that election. Did one of my strongest memories of him is not of a president revelling in partisan. Supremacy. But in his cautioning against it. Johnson used to love to meet with freshman members of congress taking off a democrat. Put been elected along with him at every expectation. But he would allow us to bask in the expense of our republican colleagues. He didn't. I am an american first he told us. And the democrat. Second. It was a bracing affirmation of a quality essential to national leadership hamilton. Observes. A firm conviction that the good of the country. Comes first. Even if it runs counter. Do the interests of one's political party. I can't help thinking of it today in a narrow and deep seemingly on a bridgeable differences divided democrats. And republicans. And when these divisions are being stroked. By the current presidential campaign. It has been apparent almost since the beginning that our nation's welfare rides on how well political leaders. Balance the needs of the country. The country against their partisan goals. In 1796. Preparing to step down from the presidency george. Washington. Devoted much of his farewell address to this question. Enter destructiveness of what he called the fury. A party spirit. Surveying with alarm the regional discord and the growing hostility between federalists and republicans that took hold. In the final years of his second term. He said out washington did to remind americans. But the very. Permanence of the union depended on quote. A government. For the whole. Other national leaders of the time understood the sentiment. Patrick henry's famous statement united we stand. Divided we fall. Was followed by these words. Let us not split into factions. Which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs. We are all republicans. And all federalist. Thomas jefferson also. Said that. The first one. Each of these leaders. Signaled a bedrock belief. Importance of working together to bridge differences. Find. Because of the nation because the nation's welfare. Now i am not urging. Ask to be naive. Appleton weather. We are not going to abolish parties. And we shouldn't. They help us organize our political choices. Define advocate issues. But if we are not careful. He warns this week. They can be carried to such an extreme. That they divided government. When what we need is unity of cover. We need it in foreign affairs we needed in domestic. Policy. This animosity. Witness now. Leads to distressed within congress. Stress. Mistrust. Of washington. Weaker administration of government and the inability to resolve the problem. Depressing. Our shared. Without any of this just look around here. Is extraordinary different. To create government that works together for the. But in this era of unforgiving partisanship. It is too easy to forget the importance of trying. And of working hard not to fan the flames of divisiveness. It is crucial to avoid painting the other side. As an american. Or eager to betray the national interest. Just as it is to recognize. That we have. More in common. Then we have. Our differences are in port. They are part for we are isn't it. But if we want to overcome our challenges and preserve our national greatness. Unity. The great work of our democracy. As it has been for more than 200 years. Is to learn how to reconcile. Kyurem. I have it all be at rather obvious confession to make right off the bat this morning. In my private life which is to say what i'm not worrying about being an inclusive. Sensitive. Balance. Generous and fair-minded minister in the public square. In my private life. I'm a passionate unashamedly opinionated take-no-prisoners liberal. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who grew up in a radically progressive wisconsin family. Just one quick story about my progressive roots. When i was growing up in racine wisconsin are us congressman was a moderate to liberal democrat named less aspen. Who later went on to be the secretary of defense. He was a pretty big and tough guy. When he saw my politically outspoken mother. Marsha ewing alexander coming at him on the street 5 come event. He would hardly cross the street or run to the other side of the room literally. Run away from my mother. To get away from her. Because he knew it was coming. He would run my mother because she was in the habit of buttonwholing for mr aspen about all the ways in which he was not liberal enough. That was my mother's son. I like to think of myself as she was. Well educated highly informed reasonably intelligent thoughtful compassionate and liberal citizen. And even though on my better days of intellectual awareness. I know such thinking is dangerous. As a person was fiercely progressive leanings and belief. I tend to think of conservatives here in america well i might as well tell you the truth. I tend to think of conservative generally ill-informed muddled thinking narrow-minded healed intolerant and selfish people who slows social progress and make a mess of american politics and governance there i said it. As a proud card-carrying liberal i have little user understanding for most of the thinking of american conservative. Given my worldview most the time i just don't get. Their so-called principles and values. And i do not appreciate the considerable influence they have an american life. Honestly most of the time in my unguarded self. I would just wish conservatives would either go away or get with my program. Now. I suppose it's theoretically possible that i am the only. Passionate opinionated self-righteous liberal in this room right now. I don't think as much of a chance of that do you. I suspect that many of you sitting out here this morning. Have real trouble truly understanding let alone appreciating the ideas and ideals and politics. I'll political and social conservatives in america. Even though and this is very important for us to remember. Some of our finest and most beloved members here in this congregation are themselves. Political and financial conservative. Now don't worry i'm not going to put you on the spot make you show me your hand if you're an opinionated self-righteous liberal but i know you're out there. We don't need an instant. Group. Confessional to acknowledge that many in this congregation and certainly many and the denomination. Unitarian universalist. Have a real intolerance of. And frustration with. Many cancer. Now. If it makes you feel any better. I suspect if we went out to the. First church of god on here the people who built this building and then moved out to a megachurch. If we went out there this after this at this morning and i asked them. If they have a similar to stain or lack of appreciation for liberals. Their hands would go up to. This is because as many social commentators in america have rightly recently observed. America in the early years of 21st century has gotten itself into a terribly divided. And polarize place. People who identify themselves as liberal and progressive. And people who consider themselves. Conservative. Now is ej dionne observed that's something i didn't do. I'm sorry i was going to do a video this morning i didn't do it. Over recent years especially during the last four years. During the contentious. First term of president obama. All where republicans and democrats have been at each other's throats. This divide has become more than a divided it is a chasm. A deep and jagged and sharp and mean chasm. With both sides standing on their respective sides. Screaming at one another over the divide. An anchor. Judgment. Missile. And just trust. And if you doubt this just to an any evening. The cable television. We can first go to the fox news network and watch right-wingers like bill o'reilly and sean hannity. Rail against the evil and idiotic liberals. You know bill o'reilly's book pinheads and patriots. Guess what the pinheads are. Liberals of the pinheads. Conservatives are the patriots. And then switch over after you've gotten your dose of o'reilly and and hannity. Go to the left-leaning csnbc network and listen to rachel maddow and ed schultz. Care self righteously. Into the conservatives as heartless neanderthals. The truth is. The both sides. These days know how to be nasty. And judgmental. At the jordan and dismissive of the other. And both sides know how to cherry-pick. They're fat. Despite both liberals and conservatives claiming that they are the side taking the high road in the conservatives. Talk about how terrible the liberal press has been unfair and vice versa. Om. The fact remains that overall in american life today. Liberals and conservatives share a problem. A problem that threatens the health. Wellbeing in fact the very future of our republic as lee hamilton. Suggested. And that problem is at both sides tend to be morally and intellectually dismissive. Of the other xinwei which prevent us as a democratic nation. From reaching healthy political and social consensus. I'm working compromises. On any number of the pressing issues. Really really challenge. Future american life today. Liberals and conservatives right now are so busy accusing the other of penetrating. Live. And accessories and idiocies. That we don't have any time to listen to one another. And that's possibly discover the truth. I think this is an undeniable truth that i'll return to again and again before this election. That both sides. Both ends of the political financial social continuum. Have something of value something of moral value. To contribute to the cultural conversation neither side is right. Neither side is wrong they both have something of value. Contribute. What is got me thinking about all this. Is the terribly important work of one doctor jonathan haidt. Here he is. A professor of psychology. At the university of virginia. Although personally a passionate liberal and atheist at least that's what his bio says. He is nonetheless convinced. The both liberals and conservatives need to begin to truly begin to understand and appreciate. One another's moral universes. One another's underlined moral orientation. You will. If america's to ever move ahead. Kinsolving. The public policy debates that now divide the nation. His new book is entitled the righteous mind. Why good people are divided by politics and religion and that is the jacket. Get the point. I heartily recommend this book to you or if you don't want to waste your money on the book. Go online and read some of the reviews and some of the analysis about this. The author passionately hopes that both extremes. Political partisan. Listen siri start to try to understand respect one another. Southern america instead of descending into polarizing political and social warfare. We'll begin to find some common ground and solutions to our problems. I called him. Liberals and conservatives. Inhabit different. Moral universe. There is some overlap and belief systems. But huge difference in emphasis. What i want to do now. Height rates rights of his intellectual crusade to get liberals. Cancer and conservatives listening to. What i want to do now. Is help both sides understand the other. So that policies can be made based on something more than misguided fears about what the other side. Is up to. The liberal and conservative moral universes. He goes on. Are essential to a healthy democracy. And the interplay between them. When kept within respectful bounds. Is a source of societal vitality and strength. And then he ends. Morality. Is a team sport. That need both teams. No. This perspective that both sides have something important. To offer the american political social economic conversation. Is a hard sell to. Conservative. As i suggested at the outset people who sits with themselves. Staunchly at the polar ends of the liberal-conservative continuum. Are passionately persuaded. To the rightness the wisdom logic and moral superiority of their own perspectives and therefore have a really hard time the extremists to. And loosening their grip on their own ideas. And their own prejudices long enough to consider. The possible moral integrity wisdom and rightness of the other perspective. It is much easier i think for both sides to be right. Then it is for them to be reflective. And if you doubt this just. Listen any night on tv to the self-righteous catfight. Between rachel maddow and bill o'reilly. For example. The truth is both liberals and conservatives would be intellectually and morally better off. If they would consider now and again truly consider. That there was that they respectively might not have all the answers for america. And then on some issues. They may just be plain wrong. Conservatives run and liberals. Just consider the idea i might be wrong. But back to the thinking of doctor height. What exactly are these different moral universes that he believes liberals and conservatives occupy. After studying the moral reasoning of different populations. Countries. 4 years doctor height quote. Has developed a framework that codifies a multiplicity of morality. The help explain the very different places. Which liberals and conservatives come from. When the address public policy issues that are in play today. Height right. We assume everyone's ethical compass. Points in the same direction. And label those who views do not align with our own sense of right and wrong as either misguided or evil. In fact he argues. There are multiple. True north. What doctor height is suggesting. Is it both conservatives and liberals in the america in america. Learn if they learn the art of standing outside their own home morality. Stepping outside their own home already to view the home morality of the other. Only when we learn that. A long enough to see the value in logic of another will we reach make some progress. I would remind you of the moving antidote told about senator ted kennedy at his memorial service a couple years ago. By his son edward jr. Who got a big laugh at the national cathedral that they. When he told the audience that his dad quote on quote. Taught me some of the hardest lessons. Such as how to love republicans. But then as the laughter subsided. Kira lane. The senator had one seriously and wisely told him. You know teddy. They love america. As much as. And that's the truth. Explorer today. Alright. Let's go a little deeper into what doctor height is suggesting to us. Doctor heights research. And here you see it. Has identified six foundational moral impulses. Which he has identified that he believes explain most of them world differences. Between american liberals and conservatives the first on the left being care. The liberal line you see is the out is the green yellow screen. And the purple is the conservative view. Care that is to avoid harm for people. The moral dimension or impulse suggest it's good to care for people to relieve suffering whenever possible. Conversely it is wrong to hurt people either by action or ria are in action. This is the moral commitment as you can see by the chart. That is. Highly valued by liberals. And is valued by conservatives but not the same extent this is maybe where the. The phrase. Bleeding heart liberal comes. Liberals focus on. Ending song. The second is liberty now liberty is not what. Glenn beck and rush limbaugh mean by liberty. This is the moral impulse in this study. That is concerned with rather whether or not people are being oppressed. Or tyrannized in society. And if you see liberals and conservatives. Basically both agree they want to end tyranny and oppression. People fly. The third is fairness no here you begin to see the difference between liberals and conservatives. This is the moral impulsive justice. Or treating others in proportion. Do their actions what they deserve. Giving them their just desserts. So if you listen to rush limbaugh. Rail against all the freeloaders in society that the. That he's convinced the progressives are causing. This is where this impulse comes from. Fairness. If you work hard you get the get the. Ward's society and if you don't work you don't get them conservatives are much more. Concerned on this this issue of. Proportionality. So these. 3 moral impulses drive much of the thinking of liberals. You see how high they are but the next three look at the look at the liberal line there. Other than the liberals are much less concerned about these. And the republicans. The conservatives stay right up where they have been. The first of these being loyalty. This is the moral impulse that suggests people should always be true to their group. Wary of threats from the outside. Allegiance loyalty patriotism. I understood his virtues and betrayal is seen as bad. Liberals aren't so big on that value. Okay. Cislo in service or high. Authority. The fifth one. Tomorrow for this moral perspective emphasizes that people should respect. Existing. Social hierarchy. And asserts that social order is a good thing and necessary for human life again liberal not so concerned about authority. Conservative you bet. In the last sanctity or what heights called purity. Which asserts that the body and certain aspects of life are sake. This is where i answer the. At the abortion feeling comes from. Play willie nelson health as well as their derivatives chastity and piety or under. Pollution contamination in the associated character traits of lust and greed are all bad again. This moral indices. Is a much more concern to conservatives. Enter liberals it's not that liberals don't wash themselves. It's just that they don't another not enough. The shorts are going to bind about this all the. Basically. So as one author puts it. Heights research reveals that liberals feel strongly about the first three dimensions. Preventing harm. Ensuring justice and fairness. But often very little or feel negatively about the other three. Conservatives on the other hand are drawn to loyalty authority and sanctity. Which liberals tend to think of as backwards outdated or just unnecessary for social health. Societal hell. People on the right acknowledge the importance of harm prevent harm prevention. Just. But not with the same passion and energy as those on the left. Elsewhere in his writing doctor height draws the difference a bit clearer. Morality he writes is not just about how we treat each other. As most liberals thing. It is also about binding groups together. Supporting essential institutions and living in a sanctified and noble way. Conservatives position on gays. Guns god and immigration. Must be understood to achieve one kind of morally ordered society. But how can liberals learn to ski let alone respect. A moral order they regard as narrow-minded. Racist and dumb. That's his. Let me see if i can make all of this clearer. By going a bit more into detail with a couple of the ongoing public policy debates between american liberals. Conservative. I believe doctor heights. Simple 6 point scale. Can help us understand. The deep moral chasm that exists on these two issues i'm going to rain. First mistake the current national struggle over full marriage equality. For gay and lesbian. 2 most liberals the moral issues an on brainer. Denying gays and liberals and lesbians the right. To civil marriage directly invalidates them. And harms them as persons. And it's profoundly of oppressive unjust and unfair. So liberals support gay marriage because they support care liberty unfairness. But to conservatives. To open marriage to gay and lesbian person. Threatens the old social order authority and loyalty. Including the traditional institution of marriage understood as between a man and a woman only. Invalidates. Sexual activity they further regard as in pure and unhealthy. Does financially focusing on different moral foundations liberals and conservatives. We find ourselves at loggerheads over the issue of marriage equality. The same / thing can be seen in regards to the debate about immigration. And how to handle america's many millions of undocumented citizen. Send workers. To liberals thinking. Welcome and caring. For immigrants both documented and undocumented makes perfect moral sense. Immigrants of all types tougher when they are denied services. Recognition respect and access to american opportunity. So again care liberty in fairness liberal say of course welcome them. But to conservatives the preservation of national culture. Such as it is. An american social order such as it is and hierarchy. Plus the undeniable fact that coming into the country without permission is illegal. Marlboro priority to them. And so they are much less inclined to welcome immigrants. Documented or undocumented. So again liberals and conservatives divided in their thinking. Based on different moral emphasis. One is not moral and the other is immoral it's simply different emphasis of moral value. Look at the chart. On and on the examples could go. The overarching point being that liberals and conservatives both. Are operating out of clear moral values and guidelines. Both have self-consistent moral framework. The guide their politics and their perspectives. And they differ radically. Only in. Content an emphasis. No. Dr. height. Is passionately persuaded that america will be much better off. Democratic and reason society. If both liberals and conservatives begin to learn how to resist the easy temptation. To dismiss and disrespect. One another's moral systems. And strive to both listen and learn from one another. Assumedly simile then to find. The maximum middle ground. And shared understanding and yes. Yes john boehner john boehner. I'm working compromises whenever pause. I called hide again. Icy liberalism and conservatism. Opposing principles. That work well. When. In balance. Social order. Authority and sanctity of human life. That's conservative concern. Need to be both upheld. As conservatives insist and challenge as liberals maintain he right. Enter the basic design principle heiko's on. You get better responsiveness if you have to. Systems. Pushing against each other. As individuals hycosan we are very bad at finding the flaws in our own argument. We have all have a distorted perception of reality. For example he writes liberals tend to have a very optimistic view of human nature. They tend to be very uncomfortable about punishment. Of their own children. A criminal. Anyone. But i believe height and height who is a progressive person he says i believe it if liberals ran the whole world. It would fall apart. But if conservatives ran the whole world it would be so restrictive punitive and on creative. But it would be unpleasant also. We need the wisdom he writes of both liberal and conservative moral in pulses. To get society and our lives right. Morality gm's is a team sport. We need both. Now. Is all this clear. I have to tell you. As again a proud and passionate liberal which ion efest unashamedly confessed with the beginning of the sermon. As impressed and interested as i am with doctor heights research. Conclusion in his caution about. Stepping outside of my own moral universe. In the end i find myself in an ambivalent position. In regards for his call for liberals and conservatives. To work much harder to understand and appreciate one another's moral universes. And by the way this is a quick personal aside. I completely lack the shyness. So when i finish this sermon. I found his email address at the university of virginia and shot him off an email and i got this autoresponder i got a brand new baby i'm really busy i'm really popular i'm not going to respond to anything. Two days later i hear from him. We have an email exchange approved by jonathan haidt. But he did say now you got this a little run-in that little run so i made the adjustments in the sermon based. On his thinking in our conversation together by email esta quickest i had such funding in touch with her. In any case back to doctor heights main point i end my ambivalence. I see the wisdom of the rightness of this openness to different moral perspectives the advocate. And i'm hopeful that. Practice by both sides. Might lead to an american americans finding much more constructive. Common ground god knows we need that. I need to solve our financial problems. Entitlement programs are debt problems. And all immigration problems. But i also believe with a bit of sorrow i must admit. The try that we might to expand the conversation. Sometimes. Sometimes in the end i fear liberals and conservatives because of their fundamental differences. Immoral outlook in the bottom line. We'll simply have. Slug it out. Pat buchanan was not all wrong. Years ago at the republican. When he said. We are in a culture. In some. Some issue. Some. Particular situation. We met liberals. Conservatives have to slug it out without finding much,. Let me use the gay marriage controversy which currently rages as an example of this cannot. Two gays and. And their liberal supporters. Their fundamental human and civil rights. The right to marry and be treated like every other citizen. Are not up for negotiation. Conservatives anymore than they were by african-americans. When white americans were repressing them. And oppressing them and would not give them the right to vote and eat. It is not negotiable for gay and lesbian. Anymore. Negotiable. Four african-american. My fundamental rights. Are not afraid. But. I don't see. How is a religious liberal and a gay man i can really step very far out of my moral universe. To seriously consider conservative ideas. Respective. This one issue. Which would deny me my phone. I have a moral bottom line in. And doctor height. In our correspondence he said yes okay you said robert alexander what you having that issue is a moral mandate. A sacred value. And don't forget conservatives have them too but. Sure if it's a sacred value you can't you can't surrender it. As a liberal i have a moral bottom-line to which my conscience does not allow me. Negotiate. Or across the line. And sort of american service have these. Immortal mandates. But with that said. I do feel liberals will make much more headway on this issue. Escorts and state legislators and the people of america debate. And decide the public policy on marriage. If after considering where conservatives are coming from unloyalty authority sanctity. If we shift our arguments and emphasis in support of gay marriage. To take him to greater account. Conservatives fears. Concerns. Rather than just angrily. Accusing conservatives of being homophobic. And social neanderthals or hateful oppressors. Who want to keep gays and lesbians from full citizenship. Perhaps the gay and lesbian community and their supporters. Can respect and engaged the conservative idea. The society as well serve. Whenever social order is stabilized. Protective. And can argue. Which reasonably i believe we can. The gay marriage can and will infect operate in our culture to do that by extending. Marriage d'amour we actually make marriage much more stable. Well this will not be an easy sell for either side. Perhaps liberals and conservatives can begin to find increasing common moral ground. By each coming to understand that opening marriage. How to gays and lesbians not only ensures everyone's rights but actually strengthen. Institution. But rather. Again. I have no. Illusions. But this expanded conversation if we're able to achieve it on gay marriage between liberals and conservatives. Or any other. A controversial american issue. I don't think these conversations will come easily. An awesome the middle ground will approve terribly elusive because of the. Gap. But but like doctor height. I am persuaded that both sides will be well served. If they can discipline themselves. To regularly step out of their own self validating. Moral universe is long enough to consider the potential wisdom and goodness of the other side. As i have already said. This clearly will not always work too and the liberal-conservative divide there are moral bottom lines on both sides. But it could significantly radically help us as a society. To begin to move toward much more consensus and stability. In our life. Let me in by being as forthright and transparent as i can with you this. One of my purpose in addressing this topic this morning is to stimulate and encourage. More discussion here. At you usb b. About how we can or constructively. And respectfully engage our conservative friends and neighbors. In the congregation and here on the treasure coast and we've got. Funny. As religious liberals. And social progressives most of us. I do not always think we comport ourselves well. When we self-righteous lee dismiss. The thinking and values of people who radically disagree with us. And please hear this. Yes. There are times perhaps many times. When we simply must stand up. Strongly for what we believe in those moral mandate. And without equivocation. Express ourselves and. Stand on her own moral bottom line that week. In the same breath. As a thoughtful and respected people committed to democracy. And a respectful open society sometimes we need to step back. From our own. Passionately held perspectives. And look for middle ground. And compromising accommodation sometimes we have to swallow hard. When we make compromises in our marriages. Or compromises. In our political lies. Think compromise. Is not. Several of us in leadership positions in this congregation would like the emerson set. The schedule we have here for intellectual and social thought. The emerson center to be a true place one of the few places susan grumpy aaron's on protho on the treasure coast. We're liberals and conservatives might come and sit together and truly engage one another. To whatever extent that we can create a venue here. At this address. For this kind of increasing dialogue. The better off. We will be. The better off we will be. None of this. Can be easy. Or smooth. Liberals and conservatives just listen to rush limbaugh are ed schultz if you doubt it. Dig their heels in and just stay the other side or idiot. That's a temptation. But i am sure deep to the heart. As an american patriot. But america will be better off. If we all try. If we all try again. And again. And again to step out of our own self validating moral universe. And look at the self validating more universes that stand next to. And consider just. Consider. There might be truth. Goodness. And wisdom and. Safety for america. Whenever we engaged those. Sincerely. Disagree with. Listen to their ideas. Consideration. America. Will be better. And i say and mean to you. Friends. Let us remember. Before we are liberals. Or conservatives. We are americans. 100% of us. No exceptions. All the time. All in this together. All seeking a better america prosperity and justice and freedom. Let us recommit ourselves this hour. To the american dream that we have had as a nation. Since our very beginnings the dream. But every citizen. Will have the opportunity. To build a life. Of dignity. And purpose. And hope. All of us together. America.

uufvb_org

2012Sep30Sermon128.mp3

Following the reading will have about a minute for. Quiet meditation. When scott asked me to do the reading today for a minute when i saw the name of it. I thought maybe he had sneaked into my apartment but i realized it goes a lot deeper when life is messy. By the rev richard gilbert. It is easy to pray when the sun shines and we are grateful for another glorious day of being. It is hard to pray when wind and rain and thunder plagued our every step. And spoil our every plan. It is easy to be virtuous when life goes well and our existence is a journey from bliss to beauty and back. It's hard to be virtuous when life assaults us. And our very being is a pilgrimage from bed. Taurus. 2 worst. It is easy to be cheerful when healthfirst in us. So that we can feel the very pulse of life. It is hard to be happy when we suffer for our efforts. And we wonder if we can go on. It is easy to do good when a goodness is rewarded and we feel the power of pride and accomplishment. It is hard to do good when we suffer for our efforts. And are troubled because we've been misunderstood. It is easy to feel religious impulses well up inside us when inspiration lives that are elbow and walks on our path. It is hard to feel religious when we are tired with work to be done. And discouragement seems to mark our every move. Oh god of water and neatness we give thanks for all that is good we are grateful for manifold blessings bestowed upon us. Oh god of chaos and disorder. Be with us also when life is messy. Bless are coming in an hour going out. From this day forth. Golfing with monkeys now there's a title of tells you absolutely nothing about where i'm going this morning did any of you google the phrase. Good i like all you did eva. Did you see that i preached the sermon 40 times around the country and the you-know-what schlitz is the beer that made milwaukee famous golfing with monkeys as with the sermon that made me famous so. She's going to know it's not like you're clueless. But they're golfing with monkeys we got it up. Here's a story. The reverend gregory knox jones a presbyterian minister who serves a church in northern virginia writes that once the english had colonized india. And establish their businesses there that urine for recreation decided to build a golf course in calcutta. Golf in calcutta whoever would prove to present one unique obstacle. Monkeys from a nearby natural habitat would drop out of the trees scurry across the course. Mcs the golf ball. The monkeys would play with the ball. Tossing them here and there. At first. The golfers tried to control the monkeys. The first strategy was to build high fences around the fairways and greens this approach. Initially held a bit of promise but was abandoned when the golfers discovered that offense is no obstacle for unambitious monkey. Next storyteller right the golfers tried lowering the monkeys away from the course but the monkeys found nothing is amusing as watching humans go wild whenever these little white balls. We're disturbed. In desperation the british began trapping and relocating the monkeys but for every monkey they carted off another. Would mysteriously appear. Finally the story and. The golfers given to reality and established a rather. Novel ground rule for the course. Golfers in. Calcutta were obliged to play the ball. Wherever the monkey. And then reverend knox reflects on the story. As you can imagine playing under this rule could be maddening you did a beautiful drive right down the middle of the fairway and some damn monkey would go over and drop it in the roof or the opposite could happen.. Hookah or slice of alway in the rough in the monkey. Which would rush toward the middle of the of the course in traffic right in the fairway for you near the pin. The unpredictable monkeys then. Apparently brought. Equal amounts. Opportunist bad and good luck. To the golfers of. Got it now. When i first read the story i was charmed and fascinated by it and the perpetual preacher and me realized. There's a sermon. In the story. And you're going to get that sermon right now. It deserves sermon. Because life is so often. As we try to navigate. The course of our. I want to reflect about this is mister this monkeys who insert themselves capriciously into the game we humans are trying to play. What's a very spiritual instructive madoff. I think how we can get through. First. There is the obvious truth of life. Otter unpredictability. It's freaking randomness. And if you will it's perpetual unfairness. We're almost as soon as we begin to think about life as little children. We human beings like to think despite. The regular abundant and unmistakable evidence we received the contrary. We like to think that justice every golf course has clear rules. It will help the that if the players observe them they can finish the course well and succeed at the game. We tend to assume that the game of life also has. Clear rules to follow over the course of our days. And if we faithfully observe them wheel also successfully navigate life. Most of us even through adulthood have a tape. That at least subliminally plays in our heads a script something like this. If i just work hard. Live right. Mind my p's and q's obey the law. Live by my principles watch my diet. Brush my teeth. Exercise regularly don't drink too much alcohol. 10 to my marriage and career carefully rear my children if i follow all the basic rules and live like i'm supposed to then i'll sail through life and everything will go pretty. Escape or narrative that plays in our heads. Is fine except. For one thing. It life doesn't work that. I can say this with certainty. Because i've been banging around this unpredictable and painful creation now for more than 63 years. And for almost four decades i've been a minister. And one of my primary jobs. The help. Go through times. When life. Does not work. And does not turn out. That script. 1 heartbreaking. From my own personal sir. I have a dear friend. In milwaukee. His name is true. Who was recently at the absolute top of his game. Happily married. Weather for kids. His career going along fabulously widely respected in the community even a pretty good hockey player. Picture of contentment health. When all of a sudden seemingly out-of-the-blue he was diagnosed with an aggressive. Now instead of effortly sailing log he's now fighting. For his life. Future. In just a heart. Everything changed for my friend of mine. And so a can. For all of us we know this. Tell me if your wife is indeed if. Where i live. On this planet. Will be happily playing along right down the fairway on all of a sudden. Some monkey of fate jumps out of a tree. And deposits are ball in a very difficult. This is an unpredictable universe. It's awesome paint. And we are not in control. One of the biggest truth. And justice in the case of these mischievous calcutta monkeys and here i arrive at the second part of the story that i think is so true for me. Well it is undeniably true that sometimes our ball is capriciously dropped right in the rough. As a case of my milwaukee friend with this very hard diagnosis. Other times. Many times actually and this we must never spiritually forget many times our ball is placed graciously right next to the 10. No effort. Of our own. I believe this remarkable open and fluid world of ours. We do not despite our best and most dutiful efforts succeed in controlling. This remarkable open open and fluid world of ours. Hold at least as much amazing grace and good luck. As it does misfortune and heartbreaks at least as much. And i for one do not believe in this is a core theological and spiritual belief of mine. That informs the way i respond to events in my life and the lives of others i do not believe. Skip this creation ultimately has any sort of. Purpose. Or ultimate intention or ultimate plan anymore than those monkeys who randomly inserted them into cells into the game in calcutta. Had a purpose. Or an intention. Or a plan. Creation is not out to get us. Anymore than it promises us an easy ride. Creation and life on this planet is full of random and unexpected events and outcomes and there's simply no way no matter how diligently we try to play the the game by the rules we think are in place. There is no way to make ourselves immune from these random occurrences. We cannot control is if we wanted to the many pleasant events in wonderous outcomes. The cummer way like. Meeting the love of your life on a commuter train some morning. Or having all three of your kids. Girl bright and charming and healthy and successful what's the chance of that. Or through no discernible confidence on your part falling into the perfect job you've waited for your whole life. Or being a lucky enough driver as i have been since the age of 16 to never have more. Set up. Slight bump. Car. Knock on wood. There is simply no accounting in this life. For the good luck. An abundant and undeserved grace that comes our way. And on the other more complicated side of life's equation as i've already observed we certainly cannot control most of the unpleasant events and difficult outcomes that come our way. Like developing as so many of us will in our lifetimes. A life-limiting. Or life-threatening disease. Or injuring yourself badly. From a stupid fall at home. Or having a marriage. All slowly apart. Through no. Malfeasance really on your part. Or losing your job due to global economic conditions. Or having a son or a daughter get in trouble with drugs. Flight of the. The way you raised them. No matter how careful. Or confident or clever we aren't alive's you all know this is. No matter how diligently we follow all the rules we imagine are in place. We cannot control most of the misfortunes that will come our way. And any glib. New age guru when plies. That you're choosing whatever is happening to you and. Oughta be shown the spiritual door. That's a lot of. Far as i'm. We live in a world. We're weird wild wolf full and wondrous thing happens. And evil. And the sooner like those wise golfers. The sooner we learn that we're not in charge. And that we have to begin playing the ball with a monkey drops it. The better off. We're going to be. Atwood pause here to make. After making this fundamental assertion about how random life. At what feels like another crucial observation i think we human beings are far better at a paying attention to and cataloging inner psyche. All the misfortunes and the difficulties and the unpleasantness that comes our way. Then we are at cataloguing all the amazing graces and blessings. The regularly come our way. Let me speak personally for a moment. I think it's apparent the most of you who know me that i'm a really cheerful and upbeat guy in fact my spouse find it so irritating at 6:30 in the morning. But i must tell you that. In spite of my characteristic optimism. I know that in my daily life i'm quick to notice and grumble to myself and complain to others about if they're accessible. Any numbers of inconveniences are difficulty or challenges. Then randomly come my way like that's like the toilet flush handle that came off in my hand the other day in the master bedroom bathroom. Or the flat tire i had on my bike a few days just after saying myself g it's been a long time since i've had a flat tire. Don't ever do that don't even think it. Or the chronic knee pain from arthritis that now cramps my style and makes me limp. Or the unexpected weekday interruptions in my office that prevent me. From accomplishing my master for work plano if you people would all leave me alone i could be a much better minister. You know i complain about all the monkey wrenches. Okay i complain about all the monkey wrenches. They get thrown into my life. And what's more despite my best efforts to try the spiritually and emotionally notice and be grateful oliver. Abundant good brakes and blessings that routinely come my way. I am more reluctant to acknowledge how very lucky and blessed i am. The breeze that is so awesome at my back. The kindness isn't courtesies that come my way. The beauty of the natural world that surround me a good night sleep. Did last night that just embraces me undressed me. I'm not so good at thinking about all those things of him about all the little irritations and in. Why i'm not i regularly whistling to myself under my breath. Happily skipping my way. A down the middle of the fairway. And i'll bet you anything that just like me most of those calcutta golfers were better. Complaining when the monkees dropped their ball in the rough than they were when the monkey. At the ball. Aggravation. More than the blessings. When the ball drops on. Being the temple is not nice. And there's something else important about this grayson. Difficulty and noticing it. Recent studies about happiness. Conducted by highfalutin psychologist at harvard and elsewhere. Some of you may have heard these studies. Conclude and now i'm going to put it in this context of the golfing with monkeys. Whether our ball is dropped deep in the rough. Buy some mischievous monkey causing yell or whether it is placed. Sweetly on the green. We human beings consistently overestimate. How happy or how unhappy we are going. Just that this will make us. We aren't we overestimate the unhappy circumstances we. Overestimate how happy things will get us. Dr. daniel gilbert of harvard in his book stumbling on happiness rights. What we've been seeing in my research over and over again is that people have an inability to predict. An inability to predict won't make us happy or unhappy. Few of us see right accurate can accurately gauge how will feel tomorrow or the next week of the next month. People routinely he writes overestimate how future successes or future failures will affect their happiness for better or worse. The truth is he goes on bad things don't affect us as primarily as profoundly as we expect them to. And this is true of good things to other words. The good isn't as good. And the bad isn't as bad as we think it's going to be and then he goes on our research simply says that weather. It's unpleasant or difficult event that occurs in our lives. Both will matter less. Over the long-term then you think they will in terms of your happiness or you're unhappy. And the truth is that regardless of what happens. Good or bad these studies indicate. And here's the key word. Human beings adapt. They adapt quickly. To either side of circumstance. So the good news. Gilbert rice. Is it going blind. Isn't going to make you as unhappy as you think it will. And the bad news is winning the lottery isn't going to make you as happy as you think it will. And why why is this well according to the behavioral scientist it's simple. We human beings and now i quote him again. Are generally unable to recognize that we adapt pretty quickly and well to new circumstances. And we seem unable to predict. That we will eventually adapt to whatever we're giving we can't predict that. And that's why i arrive. At 2 my heart at least what is the crucial spiritual emotional point embedded in this golfing with monkeys. And that is the supreme value. The supreme value. Of an adaptable heart. This unitarian universalist minister is passionately persuaded. The emotional survival and spiritual success over the course of our lives. Depends as it did for the golfers in calcutta on our willingness to adapt. Do unforeseen. Realities. Both positive and negative that pop into our lives. We have to learn how to add. Just as those calcutta golfers wrote the monkey. It monkeys into the rulebook we have to write. The monkey wrench. Come our way into the rulebook. Getting along. The course. Of our. Light one. Little examplify might a few years ago i had a little cottage. On the chesapeake bay it we had a terrible. Hurricane. That cost hundreds of millions of dollars of damage that hurricane came right up the chesapeake bay right up we were on chesapeake avenue. Our cottage was across the street was spared. But our neighbor who had the waterfront property. He was on 20 ft plus the water came up and over and he woke up in the morning all his lawn was gone right to the house. And it was a disaster area to spend about $650,000 to bring in hundreds of trucks of gravel and riprap. And timbers and all the. The morning after the hurricane. There's jinx out there. And i'm over there with jinx and work standing between his house in the precipice is 20 ft down and i was commiserating with jinx this is terrible he said. Fitwell. Yeah but. Now i've got a beach for my grandkids. And i looked and sure enough where there had never been a beach. There was a beach. And he again said to me yeah. The hurricane took my yard. Play the ball. Where the monkey drops it. One more quick example. I had a long conversation recently with a friend of mine. Who is been trying to adapt to this new information that he was diagnosed. Diabetes. Which is going to record it is requiring in bob a lot of lifestyle changes diet chain. It's the way he live. And i was saying to him this is i'm so sorry bobby said hey scotty said. I would have never wished this medical crisis on myself but i believe this is really been an opportunity in a blessing for me. It if i'm just willing to make a few changes i'll be a much happier and healthier man. Any in fact that is what's eventually. He's lost weight he sleeps better. He's off of insulin. He's made some changes. And you never would have wished. But he said to me scott diabetes. The best things that's ever. Want to bring this a little closer to home. Most of you don't know this but for most of my life i was an avid runner. I used to run half a marathon. Everyday. Seven-days-a-week one friend finally said to me why do you do that i said. Because i can. You know that's not count. But finally of course with the inevitable. Of time. My knees gave out and i can't run a step any. But what i was able to. What's to say to myself well i. I can't run. I can bike. And swim. And so because i had adaptable heart i've taken up new exercise forms which i. I love by. I love swimming. I still dream. About being able to run. I still dream that i can run. But my heart has adapted. And my lifestyle. Is adapt. And now i'm so happy a cyclist i think i have. Bugs on my teeth have. One last example. From cycling. I think last year i told you about a cyclist. He was about thirty years old i used to see him regularly when i was on the capital crescent trail going from my home and downtown washing. Map to my church on river road. Many days have passed this guy he was utterly unremarkable except for one thing. The cyclist was a paraplegic. He had. No use of his legs. How do you recycle them. I asked well he had someone build him a special bike. Like this. One that allowed him to pedal with his hands like this which still worth it every time i would see this guy. Again he always had a big smile on his face. Pedaling wildly up sick the capital crescent trail. These words of albert camus would come to mind. Yes. 0 deprivation. There are deprivations which give rise to our worst sorrows. But what does it truly matter what we have lost. When what we have lost is not yet used up. And then come over. There are so many things susceptible of being loved. That surely notice grudgement can be final. To know how to suffer. To know how to love and when everything collapses. To pick it all up again simply richer for the suffering happy almost. In the awareness. Ivar difficult. In a similar vein. Rabbi harold schweiss. Tells about the handicapped violinist. Itzhak perlman in this amazing story. It's one of my favorite pieces. He's talking about a night he and his wife. Went to see perlman in. We have seen itzhak perlman. Who walks the stage with braces on both legs on to crutches he takes his seat. Unhinges the clasp of his legs. Tucking one leg back extending the other laying down his crutches. Placing the violin under his chin. On what occasion. 1. His violin violin strings broke. The audience grew silent. But the violinist. Did not leave the stage. He signaled the maestro & the orchestra began playing its part the violinist played with power and intensity on only three strings with 3 strings ski modulated he changed and recompose the piece in his head. He returned the strings to get different sounds tune them upward and downward the audience. Cream delight. Applauded. Their appreciation. Asked later. How we accomplish this feat. The violinist answered. It is my task to make music. With what. Remains. Allegacy mightier. The concert. Make music. With what remains. Complete the song. Left for us to sing. Transcend los play it out with heart. And soul and might. With all the remaining. Strength. Some of you may not be aware that recent studies about success in aging. Success in life in. It is the adapter. Who succeed. It is those who are willing to adapt. Two new information. It comes into their life adapt loss. Adaptic. Adapt. To a shrinking. Of the world. Who succeed. It is the adapter. Those with supple. Soul. Alright. I've almost been going 30 minutes and. The hours approaching. You know what i was in seminary the old rule was to tell him what you going to tell him tell him. Tell him wichita. Here's what i'm trying to tell. Life is often hard. Life is often too. Life is often unpredictable. And chaotic. It is most certain. Austin. Random things happen to us. The throwers. For loop. Wreak havoc in our lives and rendered inoperative all those shore rules. We try to live by. And try to control our lives by. In the creation. As open and fluid as ours we cannot control circumstance we are not masters of outward circumstances. But we are in charge. Of our inner lives. We can control. How we react. And how we proceed we can adjust. The camber. In our hearts. To live. With what is. We can. Learn. Play the ball. Where the monkey drops it. Do i see some of you with your spouse is missing and i know that when some you go home in a half an hour 45 minutes you're going to walk in the door in that lazy spouse has been in bed reading your time's going to say hun. What did you learn in church this morning. And because i wanted all be able to give the right answer let's practice. I learned that i have to. Play the ball where the monkey drops it can we try that again. Hun. What did i learn in church this morning. Hum. What did i learn in church this morning. You got it. My work is done. I'm in. For all that is our life. We sing our thanks. And praise. For all life is a gift. Which we are called to use. To build the common good. And make our own days class. May god in peace go with you.

uufvb_org

2013Oct27Sermon128.mp3

Good morning it's fall in vero beach in case any of you missed it and i also know it's fall because i see ranch and i see nancy and i assume there's a jack and i see susan and stanley and i see dana and jan people are flowing back into our community welcome all of you snowbirds and year-rounders welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we are so pleased all of you have chosen to be with us this sunday we were congregation of open mine loving hearts and helping hand people seeking to become our best selves even as we work together to make our world a better place and please no. If you are welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you wear yellow rolled gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you were feeling physically or emotionally on top of the world or. Or down in the dumps we are glad to see you just as you come to us and we will support you and care for you. We hope you will find our service meaningful and enriching. And that you will find something here this morning which nourishes your spirit and feed your soul and gives you renewed energy and purpose. For the living of life in the days ahead. Welcome dear friends. To this. Our spiritual home. We gather within these four walls each week to celebrate life. I'm give thanks for the miracle. Human being. We gather within these four walls each week to seriously reflect on our lives. And strive to become the best possible persons. We gather within these four walls each week to share with our children our highest values. And teach them the ways of gentleness compassion. Justice and love. We gather within these four walls each week to remember and live our responsibility toward all persons. Most especially those who are in need. Or in despair. We gather within these four walls each week to come or spirit. Enliven our minds. Open our hearts and empower or hands. Make our lives glad and our world a better place. It is good. To be here together. The following spoken meditation is by one of our very well-known senior ministers reverend richard gilbert. Following the spoken word we will have a silent meditation. Which will end. When i ring a bell. Reverend. I inhale. And exhale in regular rhythm. An actual comment it never occurs to me to pay attention. And when i do. I am overwhelmed with the wonder of it all. I eat my food as i have done for 1,000 thousand days. A practice so frequent i hardly notice. The miraculous million events that happened in my body. And when i do. I am taking with their singular beauty. I greet my loved ones. As i have greeted them for years. A habit that i pass off casually. I'm truly realize the jeep poignancy. A greetings and farewells. How precious they are. Homemade fudge. Deeper feeling chords. Each time. Perhaps it is middle-aged. Or all day. Or perhaps sentiment grows in may. Or perhaps i am awakening to life. In ways transcending my usual semi awake state of being. The poignancy of living in these days penetrates me. Burrows deep into my psyche or my soul or my spirit. I know not what. I only know that i feel things more deeply with the passing years. That the common things of life had become uncommon. That the ordinary has become extraordinary. That the habitual has become sacred. Bittersweet. Is the point in sea of living in these days. Bittersweet. Is the poignancy of living in these days. I awaken myself. And bow down in deep. Gratitude. So this morning i continue my year-long sermon series will be delivered from this pulpit. I'm more or less random sundays over the coming months. Which will explore some of our culture's most persistent and perplexing moral dilemmas. And ethical arguments that result from the dilemma. Today focusing on the issue of end-of-life decision-making. That has long troubled in divided the american people. Over the course of this series i will return again again to my main and i hope obvious and logical supposition. Which is that these moral dilemmas and the ethical arguments that result from them. Persist and divide us as a society because each of them involved. Worthy principles and values that stand and natural opposition and contradiction and tension to one another. Indeed this is implied in the very word dilemma. Which according to the online encyclopedia wikipedia is. A problem offering two possibilities neither of which is practically acceptable. And the massive dictionary the old merriam-webster in my office similarly says. A dilemma is a situation involving a choice. Between equally unsatisfactory alternatives a problem or situation. Seemingly incapable of a satisfactory solution. Indeed with each of these moral dilemmas i will explore during this series anybody. With the least bit of moral imagination and sophistication. Can see the integrity the power and the reasonableness. Of either side of the pro con argument. And yet many in our culture when they faced these dilemma questions. Persist in arguing the case as if only one side. Their side of course. Can be right making the other side of necessity wrong. But the obvious truth. Is it no matter which side you take it any of these vexing issues you end up abrogating and subjugating. Worthy principles and values you believe in. Over the course of this sermon series then i hope to do justice to both sides of each of these dilemmas. Articulating an honoring as fairly and thoroughly as i can. The values on the principles which animate each position. Because in fact i can and do see. The moral efficacy and ethical efficacy of both positions and frankly think. You should too. And yet with this fair-minded balance and go lie will remind you what i said in the first. Sermon on the 1st dilemma the wise words of folk singer pete seeger who said. We all know there are two sides to every issue there are two sides to a piece of flypaper also but it makes a great deal of difference to the fly which side he lands on. In the real world we live in then we are often in the end applied. To the side. Land. For one moral viewpoint or another even when we understand that choice to be not perfect. And even though we understand. The values on both sides. With that said in introduction let me turn. To today's topic end-of-life decision-making and see if i can bring a bit more moral clarity and insight. To the debate and let me begin by framing and as i understand them the two polar moral positions which do stand in contrast. And opposition to one another. When it comes to end-of-life decision-making the first position is what i will call. The prolong life position. The prolong life position morley postulates that in all biomedical situations a human life should be preserved and extended. At almost any cost because of its inherent value and sacredness. This position is perhaps most clearly articulated in our culture. By the roman catholic church. Which has long and systematically affirmed it is immoral. To do anything medically to allow or do anything medical. That hastens or causes or enables the death of a person i now quote. From a roman catholic document entitled. Moral guidelines for end-of-life decision-making. That i found on the web. Quote. Human life is the foundation. For all other human goods. And so has special value and significance. To live is a first right the document says of the human person this means that others have an obligation to respect our lives. And not do anything to hasten our deaths. All acts against life it goes on our unjustifiable. And it is wrong for someone's death even your own. To be the direct intention of an action. And then they end. Does euthanasia. Define is the direct taking of someone's life is morally illicit. Now that's a very clear. And respectable moral position i think. But you must know that there are a few limits in catholic thought to this prolong life principle. For there is no requirement in roman catholic theology you may not know. For extraordinary medical measures to be taken to prolong life i quote another source. Natural law this roman catholic document says and the fifth commandment which says thou shalt not kill. Requires that all ordinary. Emphasis mine ordinary means be used to preserve life such as. Food water exercise and medical care. But the document says. Since the middle ages catholic theologians have recognized that human beings are not morally obligated. To undergo every possible medical treatment to save their lives. Treatments that are unduly burdensome or sour full to a particular patient. Such as a tatian. Treatment beyond their economic means or treatments which only prolong the suffering of a dying person. Are what they call morel extraordinary. Meaning the stock dividends. But they are not morally obligatory. In a particular case. So. On the one side of this dilemma. You have the prolong life position. Which would have us vigorously defend and fight for life right up until death. But not necessarily it is important to note. 2xtreme or extraordinary lengths i think of my friend joan zimmerman who died last year she was on dialysis for a long time and she finally just said to her doctors. Take. Me off i'm not coming in for my dialysis. But on the other end of the moral continuum from the roman catholic. Position. The prolong life. Decision is the. Quality-of-life position. The quality of life position which is clearly stated by many unitarian universalist. And humanists and others. Who are what i shall unashamedly call. No-nonsense ephesus affirm. But they're often comes a time. As fatal illness spell illnesses and the end-of-life approach. And the quality of life for the individual roads there are times this argument goes. When medical care and treatment can and should be morally. And mercifully and intentionally withheld or withdrawn. As many who have this quality-of-life moral viewpoint go even further. And support the practice of euthanasia. Namely the belief. Then certain physically dyer and wolfel medical situations. Actions can justifiably be taken. Which will intentionally cause. The merciful termination of a life. The argument here is obvious. That the kid is the quality. Which is or isn't possible for a life is there any joy or purpose. Still possible for this terminally ill person. Not the sheer physical quantity but the quality. What is possible for the quality. That must be considered when we're making tough and of life decision making. It is this practical perspective about not wanting to have to live on and on when due to illness or age. Life has lost all of its joy. It's comfort inn purpose at leeds many unitarian universalist. And others to fill out medical directive documents would spell out precisely for your family and friends. What it is you wish as you approach the end of life into this end. Reverend paige and i are going to be hosting a saturday workshop 4 weeks from yesterday. At 10 a.m. on saturday morning november 23rd that's the week before thanksgiving. On end-of-life decision-making. With a focus on helping those of you who come. Think through the choices. That they have that you have as illness disability. It is the end of your own life approaches. We will have available various documents that you can take home. And fill out and and give to your family into your positions so that your wishes can hopefully be met. So. Many unitarian universalists and others. Want to take firm personal control. Of their own end-of-life decision-making so specially as it relates to the quality. And that is why so many in this face tradition. Support euthanasia. And the related practice of physics physician-assisted suicide. Which as wikipedia puts it. Is the practice of intentionally ending a life. In order to relieve. Pain and suffering. Now let's go back. To both sides of the moral argument here let me point out. But i believe both these polar moral positions both the prolong life position. Which is passionately about preserving the physical life of a human individual for as long as possible and the quality of life position which is equally passionate about not extending. Old prolonging the physical life of the dying individual when there seems no point or purpose. Both these positions i would argue are based. Are moral commitment to the value and the goodness and the worth of human persons they're both based on that value. Yes. The two polar moral positions have radically different views about how and when medical treatment should and should not be used at the end of life. Both take their stands however because they each know how precious and good. Life can be. All of this is by way of my affirming to you that i don't see any villains here in this moral argument. Only two compassionate and caring side. With different conclusions about how to value what is most valuable and precious in human life there no bad guys here. As far as i'm concerned. Now i must tell you in my own moral and ethical life. I find myself at different times. In different end-of-life situations and i deal with them constantly because of the line of work that i'm in. I am persuaded by both of these positions and believe it only together. Can these divergent perspectives help to make us to help make us do better and wiser decision. As death draws near either for ourselves or those we love. All right i want to talk specifics about end-of-life decision-making by tackling the issues. The issues that the two sides are farthest apart upon and that is the practice of euthanasia. The first thing i think everyone needs to understand. Is it in american medicine today euthanasia. At the very end of life. Is practice hundreds of times a day. By families and the medical community and hospitals and nursing home euthanasia is the practice. But it happens all across america everyday. When many sick of americans reach the very end of their lies when death. Because of a disease or illness is clearly on the hours or days away. And when there is little or no quality or interaction possible. The patient in america is often administered high doses of drip or oral morphine. Usually after nurses and doctors have consulted with the family but not always. Which put the patient into a full coma. Slows the heart rate and breathing rate make speeding and w and a drinking impossible. And does medically hasten. The death. As a minister i have seen and yes i have participated. In what i believe to be a merciful and rational euthanasia process. Many times. Including in my own immediate family. Now. Strict roman catholic theologian committed to the view that we are obliged to support and extend life for absolutely as long as possible would probably say. This common american practice. Is morally wrong. But i believe in countless dire endgame i'm going to call them and game medical decisions. It is i believe absolutely the right and merciful thing to do and again it happens regularly in hospitals. And hospice programs here in vero beach and all across the nation. Because. Suppose you know sophisticated medical technology. And so often keep a human body breathing beyond all hope and reason. So what i call end-game euthanasia. The last-minute hastening of death by morphine. Or other narcotics when all medical help is lost. Is common. And is in my moral universe totally justifiable. And right. I am passionate persuaded there is absolutely no moral reason to prolong the suffering of individuals. At the very. Very end. Of their lives when no. Joy or purpose is any longer pause. But what about earlier forms of euthanasia or sparse physician-assisted suicide. We can be carried out in accordance with the wishes of a dying individual. With weeks or months or even years. Before the natural end-of-life would come. This to me is a much. Stickier moral wicket. It is a much stickier moral wicked say that six times fast. Because physician or family assisted suicide which is very rare in america and more on that in a moment. Position or family assisted suicide can take place. When the dying individual is still engaged still in relationship with the world around him or her. It is these earlier. Medical decision moments again. Where the fatally ill person is still engaged alert and caring for life around them. Where are morally drift closer. To the moral to the roman catholic perspective. As one unitarian universalist i believe in the extreme value of what is called our human agency. Are human agency. The amazing gift. Of being aware of and able to freely act that's really the key is concept with agency. You are still able to act. And i believe that. Ability to act. Should only be surrendered in the most dire of medical situations. I personally am morally wary of the idea expressed in some progressive circles. That is always up to the sick or the dying individual to determine. When the quality has sowed the deserted his or her life. As to render that life no longer worth preserving. Let me give one rather famous example. In the year 1990. Dr. jack kevorkian's first physician-assisted suicide was performed on a woman named janet adkins. Who was the wife mother grandmother and accomplished pianist and. A unitarian. Universalist. This bright and wonderful woman her minister at the time allendale has sung her praises to me. Had recently started to experience she in 1990. The symptoms of progressive alzheimer's. And when she heard that there was a doctor in michigan. Who would assist her to die without any questions. She called him and begged him. To end her life. Which was very little constant consult consultation and care he did and if you want to see a short clip of doctor kevorkian talking with the newshour in 1990 just google jared adkins. Euthanasia and this video will pop up and you'll see kevorkian just sit while she came and i took care of it. Now. At first when i heard about janet adkins death. Her chosen self-chosen death i was inclined to support her decision. As a unitarian universalist and that is pretty part of our human agency. I generally believe people should be empowered and unable to make the maximum number of personal choices both about their living and about their dying. And i know from watching my own mother cruelly fadeaway over many years with that disease. How devastating alzheimer's can be. But then i learned more about janet adkins precise medical condition at the time of her death. And my ethical discomfort both with her decision. And doctor kevorkian's actions began to rise. At the time of her self-induced death. Mrs adkins alzheimer's was in the relatively early stages. It was not for example that the disease had rendered this pianist unable to play piano. She could still do that most able and joyfully. What she could not do was play her favorite chopin nocturnes anymore by memory she had to use the sheet music. I'm told that this particular loss of personal functioning and high-capacity. Relative as it was disheartened and discouraged her because she was such a perfectionist about her music. And caused her to emotionally seek the end of her own life. No again. As a you you committed to the right and value of each person's autonomy. I always hesitate to impose my perspectives on someone else's life but i must tell you. I must tell you that everything within me feel. This particular quick decision. Self-annihilation. Was wildly premature and therefore morally short-sighted. For this exceptional engage woman to so abruptly withdraw herself. From her loving husband of so many years. From her beloved children and grandchildren and all her many friends and people who loved her. All because she did not want to live as a quote pianist who can no longer play chopin by heart. Seems to me an unnecessary tragedy. I wish for both her sake and her family. She had bravely waited. A while. Possibly a very long while. And that's made the positive life choice. To continue her agency and continue sharing herself and her humanity with the world and those who loved her again. I value one believe in personal autonomy and freedom of every individual. But that ethical value of a freedom and autonomy. Is always balanced and limited by the equally important. Affirmation of the value and usefulness of everyone in community. You do not live for yourself dammit. You live with and for others and you have a responsibility to hang around. As long as you can. I believe. Charlotte perkins gilman road. Toward the end of her long struggle with cancer. Quote the last duty. Human life consists in mutual service. No grief she wrote no pain no misfortune or broken heart is excuse for cutting off one's life. While any power of service. Any power of relationship. Remains. And then she said we must continue to choose life. As long as any power of service. Or relationship. Remains. I believe the chanted adkins ask dr. kevorkian to terminate her life and her agency before it was morally reasonable. In my moral calculus she deprived her family and her community of herself. Prematurely. What i'm saying here. Is what i think we need to be very morally careful. When we consider euthanasia. Or physician or family assisted suicide to make sure and every specific case. The quality of life. Has diminished to the point of meaninglessness or worse and here is the good. the good news. About assisted suicide in the united states you know what the good news is. It almost never happens. It almost never happens. For two reasons. With today's modern pain management and compassion hospice care. Most terminally ill people can be kept alert. Engaged and comfortable. Until nature takes its course. And the second reason i believe it almost never happens in america. Is that most terminally ill people naturally cherish their agency. And value their engagement with loved ones in the world and usually find even as we get very sick. Most of us usually find meaningful things to live for. Way past when we fought in the abstract we would. And we might have thought ahead of time well if i ever get cancer i'll just have. I'll just get my wife to give me 40 pills and i'll be done with it we think that in the abstract lie actually get to that point. Everyday we find reasons to live on. Agency is a powerful thing. Here are the facts. In the four states that have legalized with cable careful safeguard. Physician-assisted suicide those being oregon washington vermont and with. Some slight legal ambivalence montana. Only a tiny portion. Of the terminally ill. In those states who have had the final choice available to them only a tiny portion. Have opted to willfully and their lives before nature takes its course in oregon for example in the fully 16 years. Physician-assisted suicide seven possible. Only 900 people out of the countless thousands who were eligible. Have asked. 4. The fatal dose of painkiller and only 600. I've actually taken. Fidelis. 900 asked for only 600 ashley did out of many many tens and tens of thousands. This to me is proof. That we need to be morally very careful. When we endorse or enable euthanasia at the early stages of the dying process because a whole lot of people. Once they get into it. Stick around. And want to stick around. Got to make this too easy. Let me all bring this bring all of this a little bit closer to home. I have a deer 85 year old friend he is really like a second father to me. Who has repeatedly and frankly much to my consternation asked me to promise him. But i will assist him in ending his own life. Chucky face illness ever decide he needs my assistance in. His final exit. I have had to tell him repeatedly after much reflection. That i can make no such promise. I can make no such promise because i love him dearly. And can't imagine me personally. Ending his life. Second frankly. Because i would need to be morally persuaded. That all of the quality. And all of the usefulness or nearly all. All his life and all the opportunities for him to share and love with his wife and his children and his grandchildren. Hadn't he disappeared he would have to persuade me of that. Like the moral theologians of the roman catholic tradition i am powerfully persuaded and now i quote them again. The human life is a sacred thing. It has special value and significance. And we need to do what is reasonable. And beneficial to protect it on quote. And so i am very morally cautious personally. About the practice of euthanasia. I personally want to take a big. Moral step. Back from euthanasia. Except for that merciful practice as i've already said which commonly occurs at the very very end of life. When morphine is used. Put someone mercifully to sleep. Look here. Here is the bottom line of what i'm saying this morning about end-of-life decision-making. For me personally as one unitarian universalist whether you were talking about. Deciding to withhold medical treatment. The decision not to put a patient on a breathing machine or kidney dialysis or a feeding tube. Or whether you were deciding to withdraw medical treatment. The decision to take a patient who is on off a breathing machine off kidney dialysis off of feeding tube. Or 3 deciding to allow euthanasia. Where the patient hammer herself is given the freedom. And the right to have a doctor proactively on their life. No matter which of these end-of-life decision points we are talking about. I would say to both the prolong life advocates and to the quality of life advocates. Perhaps you ought to consider moving toward the middle. Of the moral decision-making process. You prolong life folks might want to consider the compassion and wisdom of not irrationally prolonging life. When all medical help and life meaning is lost. And you quality-of-life people might want to consider. The caution. Of those on the other side who urge you to value life even when it is greatly diminished. Pionus and disability. Again i see no heartless villains. On either end. Of this dilemma. Only good and caring people trying to do what is right for persons. And culture. What i aspire to do in my ethical life when it comes to end-of-life decision-making and i am involved often with others in these decisions. Is defined as much compassionate. And wise balance. Between i can between knowing when to fight and to extend life. For a little longer. And went to mercifully let it go. For truly thoughtful people i think. There will seldom be absolute moral clarity on this middle ground but my. Persuasion. Is it only in the middle ground. In the fluid. Situational middle. Is where we will find the right answer. What it means to be fully. And joyfully human. And i saying mean to you. Hotmail. And as we will do each of these sundays when we're discussing these moral dilemmas i will ring a bell at 11:30 if you want to come back in this room. And talk further about the ideas that i have expressed and you're feeling. That would be possible i'll ring a bell during coffee hour. Come on back in and we'll share whatever. Is on people's hearts and minds about this topic and now my benediction. By my colleague. Dennis hamilton of texas. The state presents itself to us. Open-handed mercifully. We have had a reprieve. There is time for us to tell our loved ones. We love them. There's time to tell those we have offended. That we are sorry. There's time yet to look upward to the storing clouds to follow the flight of bird to trace the sun's path. Into the evening trees. There is time yet to bring our pain to a place of healing. And to find wholeness and peace. In its place. There's time to extend a hand. Time to extend a heart. There's time to sing there is time to plan there is. Time to build. There's time to plot. A conspiracy.

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2012Feb19Sermon32.mp3

Thank you neil. Good morning. I hope i live long after the old man shuman someday. It seems doubtful though. Are we doing this morning. Comes from a book written by. Barbara brown taylor. Barbara is an episcopal priest. An accomplished author. Hulu about 10 years ago was named by time magazine it's the tim. Most effective preachers in the english-speaking world. She has a keen mind and a. Big heart. An insightful voice. Relaying the experience of holding vigil at her father's bedside. Taylor writes. He and i were past talking by then. Which meant that i never found out where he was with god. All i found out was how helpless love can be with nothing left to do. But suffer alongside with the beloved. Marooned by my father's bedside at day after day. Listening to him whimper in the night. Unsure. What. He believed about god on unsure that it mattered. Wanting to pray for him and for me. Without managing anything much beyond please. I discovered. That face. Did not have the least thing to do with certainty. Insofar. Is i had any faith at all. That faith consisted of trusting god in the face of my vest painful ignorance. To gather up all the life in that room to do with it. What god alone new to do. Taylor continues. Since then i have learn to prize. Holy ignorance more highly than religious certainty. And asik companions who have arrived at the same place. We are a motley crew. Distinguished not only by our inability to explain ourselves to those who are more certain about their beliefs. Then we are. But in many cases by our distance from the centers of our faith communities as well. Like a who have bonded over cook fires far from home. We remain grateful for the provisions we have brought with us from those cupboards. But we also find that they. Are more delicious when we share them with one another under the star. Let us pray. If anything said here this morning is not according to truth. Matt quickly be forgotten and come to not. But if it is true for us this day. Then may it become a very part of our lives. In order that we might grow. In faith. And hope. And lock. The title. The message i'm. Sharing with you this morning i've got. From that reading that i shared the earlier from barbara brown taylor's book leaving church. It occurred to me that. I may not be the only person in this congregation this morning who. Has wandered some distance from a base camp. And finds themselves. Sharing a campfire with others who have. Traveled some distance is well maybe from different. Basecamp. So here we find ourselves. Sharing the warm. And heat. And the white. I'd like to share with you now a few readings from a. I meant sitting around a campfire one night he lives about 800 years ago in turkey. When i first met this poet he wasn't. About 10 years ago he wasn't nearly as popular as he is today. Maybe you've heard of him is named as the poet rumi. Much of his work has been translated by coleman barks. A former professor of english. University of georgia. So let me share a few of rumi's poems with you. Friend i met around the campfire. Out beyond ideas of rightdoing and wrongdoing. There is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass. The world is too full to talk about. Ideas language. Even the phrase each other. Doesn't make any sense. That moment. This love comes to rest in me. Many beings in one being. In one wheat grain 1000. She's. Stacks. In the needle's eye. A turning night of stars. Who gets up early. To discover the moment light begins. Who finds us here. Circling. Bewildered by the light. Who comes to the spring thirsty. And finds the moon reflected in it. Who like jacob. Blind with grief and rage. Smells the shirt of his lost son. And can see again. Who lets the bucket down and brings up a flowing profit. Or like moses. Goes for fire. And finds what burns in the sunrise. Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies. And opens the door to other worlds. Solomon cut open a fish. And there's a gold ring. Omar storms in to kill the prophets. And leaves with blessings. Quesadilla. An end up everywhere. Oyster opens his mouth. To swallow one drop. Now there's a pearl. A vagrant wanders empty ruins. Suddenly. He's wealthy. But don't be satisfied with poems and. Stories of how things have gone for others. Unfold your own myth. Without complicated explanation. So everyone will understand the passage. We have opened you. Start. Walking towards sean. Your legs will get heavy and tired. Then comes a moment of feeling the wings grown. Lifting. Husharu me with you because. He's becoming more and more popular in the west and his. Mystic voice. Speaks to so many people about. The date need we have today to find more meaning and purpose in our lives. Neil i was thinking earlier when you were making humor of the collection or the offering. Author i've enjoyed reading in frederick buechner gave a series of lectures yale divinity school to lyman beecher lectures title. Comedy. Tragedy in fairy tail. I'm wondering if maybe you help him with that first lecture. You know i'm getting to the point where i can remember thought until another one occurs to me. If i didn't have that experience. We come here this morning. Over great distance. In time and space. And here we are. We've come as wanderers explorers. Questioners seekers. Lovers of leaving. Looking for a way of being. That resonates for us. Not feel like strangers in our own skin. My own journey or wanderings if you will. Has taken me not to an ashram in india. Hotel presbyterian seminary in atlanta. And 43 twinkle years there i studied. I was in an insulated incubator of learning in that seminary community. But to be sure it was a community not only of grace but also of graves. From the seminary i found myself in the rough-and-tumble of real-life in a parish. They're in a relationship with people who are struggling. With. Daily life. And i found that many of the ideologies and philosophies. Offered in the academy at least for me. Offered little practical use in addressing the everyday struggles of a congregation. Many of whom seem to me like. Gerbils caught in the treadmill of their daily lines. Well i cherish and remain grateful for the opportunity i was given to study for 3 years. At the feet of professors with brilliant minds and radiant hearts like walter brueggemann and barbara brown taylor. And well i will remain forever appreciative of the transformative experience. Ushering in the life of a community of faith is closely together as a seminary community. I confess to you that i have since. Wandered quite a distance. From that base camp. Do i am still suffering from what might be described as a calvinist hangover. I've wondered quite a way. Along a different path. A path that has led me far. From base camp. A base camp. Though from which i left with. Valuable provisions which continued. To sustain me. Today. That path has been one not plainly marked with patches of bright. Painted on tree trunks or road signs or even a string of. Breadcrumbs. Rather it's been a pathmark with books. Books that have been. My saving grace. Someone asked if you were to ask me what is saving you today. And let me ask you to ponder that question what is saving you today. I would say books. Many of which are either by providence or grace or good fortune. Have landed in my lap. Do books have taken me along a journey in and around and through the world's religions and wisdom traditions. And through the process of witness my own faith broaden and deepen. As i've wandered. Into other base camps. Or wondered with. And can't with sojourners who drifted away from their base camps. What time early in ministry i served an interim year at a 10,000 member congregation in atlanta georgia. Peachtree presbyterian church is. Still the largest presbyterian church in the presbyterian denomination. Peachtree is on the leading edge of the church growth movement. At least within presbyterianism. But you know my senses. That what. People are hungry for today. Is not. More gross but more. Death. Where is the church. Movement. You know i think. In business and in politics and even in the ministry. There's plenty of competence. Look at all the postgraduate degrees being awarded from universities and colleges around the country. There's competence to go around. There might be a number of competent. Individuals running for president today. Where is the dab. Think we're looking for death. I think that's why we find ourselves wandering away. From base camp. Looking. Forgets. We tried gross. Hyper capitalism is failing us. The drive for more is. Killing us. We try that. Perhaps individually certainly as in society. You asked what's saving me today. It's not the quest for growth. It's the quest. Ford apps. In my being. And in my relationships. You sometimes hear that it's the people you need in the books you read that can profoundly alter the course of your life. I would suggest that it's also the people you meet in the books. You read who can make a big difference in your life. Introducing you to new thought. New ways of seeing yourself. In the world. Unfold your own men. Rumi right. Over the years since i have left the parish ministry. I found myself in monasteries and ashrams a yoga center. Places like the omega institute in rhinebeck new york. Every time i've been willing to set up camp. In that open field beyond right doing and wrongdoing and. Orthodoxy and dogma. Every time i have purposely. Join together with others who have distanced themselves. From base camp in order that they might learn and grow and see in new ways. People that have moved away from their religion or their spiritual. Tradition or even their philosophies their secular philosophies as well. Growing in vapor on android. Become deeper. Once while attending an event. Yoga center in lenox massachusetts the title of it was. Yoga and the quest for the true self and then the second seminar was awakening the buddhist heart. We're introducing ourselves and telling a little about our background and someone asked me if i. Aprilia christian position didn't feel uncomfortable in that setting. Observe to her that. Greeting namaste. Which was common there. You there. Means under the light of the divine in you. As i honor the light of the divine in me. Namaste. I said to her that sounds so much to me like a verse from the new testament. Do you not know that you are god's temple. And that god's spirit dwells in you. Namaste. As i have explored. The worlds. Wisdom traditions in religions one book that has been. Most helpful to me is when some of you may be familiar with the world's religions by huston smith. I'd like to share with you some of what smith offers in that book. One of the most important lessons i think. Smith would have us remember is it there. Several ways of. I'm studying the world's wisdom traditions and religions in their different ways of concluding that study. When is. Look at what each of them has to offer. And then decide which one is. Right or best store. True war. Truest. Another is to see them all as. Do homogenized m2. Distill them for their essential teachings and see the unity. Among the world's wisdom traditions. A third way is to. Appreciate. The difference of each there's a buddhist monk named tech not han. Who makes uses this analogy. A fruit salad. Has the taste that has. Because each. Retains its unique taste. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole. So when we enter conversation or we bring ourselves to study or exploration of other traditions. Technology. Houston smith and others would suggest that it's important that we be. Willing to stand in our own tradition i recall when. Rabbi bernholtz. Should the message here earlier in the year. He read from the torah and he stood. In his own tradition and shared with us. What he could share. Disrespect. So that each. Participant in the conversation. Brings what they have to offer. Another analogy for this is to think about a stained glass window. Piece of glass in the window different shape. Different color. Each religion teach wisdom tradition different shape different color. Reflecting though or. The same light is passing through. Just. Shown to us differently. The same light. Appreciating still the differences. That wouldn't be what it is that stained glass window if each piece of glass didn't retain. Its uniqueness. Important. Lesson smith would have us remember. Smith first wrote his book in 1958 and. He didn't study. Hinduism and buddhism and judaism and taoism and confucianism. From a university in the united states. In each tradition. He slid a year-and-a-half. Zen buddhist monastery in. Japan for example. Son of christian missionaries to china. And when we might. Appreciate the differences of each tradition. We alternate lee arrive at some fundamental truth that i lift up today for consideration. Certainly with the tension between. The easton west today. Tension between the religions today. Appreciating what we have in common can be vital as we. Dinner conversation and seek to hold on to civility. There is. A fundamental oneness. Increation. We are. Woven together and interconnected and ways that. We may not appreciate when we're only with our own tribe. Again the people gathered around that campfire who have wandered away from just base camps. Discover in conversation. Did they have more in common with each other. Then they do with their own tribe. We. Live on the same planet we're warmed under the rays of the same moon. We are all warm-blooded so many ways there's this fundamental unity amongst humanity. And more broadly a fundamental unity and interconnectedness in all of creation. Last night and i took time to watch a movie. Or maybe the umpteenth time. Title baraka. Is anyone seen baraka or heard of that movie. When i was little boy i referred to music they didn't have lyrics as silent music. Silent movie. Actually imagery is set to music. Imagery captures. A day in the life of humanity around the world. His shot in about 140 different places. It begins early in the morning with people from different traditions beginning their morning religious rituals. From jerusalem to. Places in the muslim world 2. Monasteries. In. India. And china. The christian monasteries in the west. The other ways that people begin the morning. Bowing to the divine. This fundamental oneness all the way around the planet. There are both inspiring. Troubling seems to the movie though. But i encourage you to the look for it baraka. Baraka is the sufi word for blessing. If i didn't explain it earlier rumi is a sufi mystic poet. There is. A fundamental. Oneness in all of creation. The second affirmation of all the world's wisdom traditions is it there. Is a fundamental. Goodness. 1. And. Goodness. From the christian tradition and let's say that god declared the good. And then ultimately it it was and remains forever good. There's this whole story about. A fall in the need to make it all right again. That's just a story from one tradition but still the fundamental affirmation. The creation is good. Namaste. I honor the light of the divine in you. Can we say that to a person laying in the gutter after a hard night of drinking. Is easily as we say it to our partner in the morning namaste. I'm see and honor the spark of the divine in you. Certainly from the mystics from the world traditions. Seemta. Holda steve appreciation that there's something fundamentally good. In all of us and in all of creation. New language for this would be a book written by. Byron katie titled loving what is. Is anyone familiar with byron katie. Katie says that. She doesn't. Repeat the mantra there are no mistakes. She just simply says that. And you often hear the expression there are no mistakes everything is exactly as it's supposed to be. Well if that isn't true it's at least true that everything is exactly as it is. At least for now. And if you argue with reality or wage war with reality you lose but only 100% of the time. So whether it's bad or good. There's an isness residence there from eastern philosophy there is an isthmus. To creation. And. Again is katie would say if you declare the bed put you in charge of the universe. The information that. There is a fundamental one this to creation and it ultimately it is good and even though it may seem chaotic and completely out of spinning out of control. It seems that way. Some of the mystics would suggest. Because you're looking at the backside of the tapestry. There's a fundamental goodness. In each other and in creation. And if it's too much to try to hold on to the belief that there's a fundamental goodness in creation. Just imagine what our life would be like if we could. Day-in-and-day-out more often appreciate the fundamental goodness in each other. Oneness. Goodness. And mystery. The twentieth-century philosopher named clem kadiddlehopper. Am i remember that character played by red skelton. Klim put it this way. And there's a deep truth in this. How little do we know. How little we do now. There is a deep mystery there's just so much that we cannot understand. Your religion has been. Characterized is representing the god of the gaps. The god of the gaps. Where we. can't get an answer from science we turn to religion. In the more we learn. As science progresses the less we have in the way of gaps where we need answers. Less need for religion. Less relying on god for explanations. Define lee. The scientist has gone to the point where they had filled in all the gaps and one of them was. Appointed to go to god and let god know that god wouldn't be needed any longer. Godzilla what's interesting. Let's have a contest. I'll make a human being. You make a human being and we'll see who does best you go first. So the scientists research for a handful of dirt. God said get your own dirt. Where does dirt come from. Clem kadiddlehopper. Just last night i was having a discussion about this with a friend of mine who. She observed that just imagine two hundred years ago you're on a street of london. Someone tells you that in two hundred years there will be. A device that you can hold in your hand. That you can use to speak to someone. On the other side of the atlantic ocean without any delay. Just impossible to comprehend. Lord only knows what lies ahead of us. There's just so much unknown. So much mystery. 1. Goodness. Mystery.

uufvb_org

2012Apr08Sermon128.mp3

I want to introduce you to an amazing orphan of mine. I want you to see it. Been up there in the pulpit but. Not sure a lot of you saw that. Beautiful delicate. Purple. And white blossom on this. I think rather stately or. I say amazing orphan. Because this plant really should not even be here this morning. It's a spectacular example i think of the beautiful and delicate orchids that are so common. To this part of florida before i moved here i never kept an orchid. In my home. But now we always have one. For the last couple of months this particular plant has been adorning my front our front hall table greeting both stranger and friend. As they enter my condo on ocean drive. But prior to my placing it in this place of distinction in my home this poor plant went through i have to be honest and tell you a cruel. And unkind. of abandonment. Neglect. Antabuse. A. of abandonment. Neglect and abuse that i am responsible for. I want to tell you. The true get tumultuous and traumatic life story of this amazing orphan orcutt of mine. Now this guy started out in great shape. Just as beautiful and robust as it is now more than a year ago i think it was sometime late in the fall of 2010. Countin i purchase that handsome plant. Down at the regular saturday morning vero beach farmers market we love walking down there it's just a few blocks. They're a couple of orchid vendors. And we brought it home. About almost a year-and-a-half ago to adorn our front hallway. It looked great. For about. Three months. And before is the way with all domesticated orchids its blossoms one-by-one dropped off leaving an unsightly bear stalk you've all seen them. Apparently ending its life as a decorative plant so collins and i being. New the way of florida horticulture put this and thinking this plant was undoubtedly a complete garner. But it still had some green on it so we ignominiously retired it to neglect in the dark corner of our balcony. And went down to the saturday market a few days later and purchase a replacement plant without much. Kara sympathy for the guy who would faded away. We bought another one a fresh beautiful orchid to whom all of our affection and interest were transferred. And as the months passed yet another orchid took its place after it lost all its blossoms and we forgot all about this poor soul who language. Totally without care or attention. In the dark and inhospitable corner of our fourth floor balcony a very windy spot. And they're languished. Without much sun. Without any watering except for the occasional florida downpour that managed to get over the wall. And frankly without any care or consideration on any form. On my part. It is worth more than a little more than a little horticultural guilt that i tell you this poor plant was left completely to its own devices. For more than a year. Dude i'm too dry months and wetlands. Through that winter's record cold with killed many of the plants on her balcony and many on the treasure coast. And the following summers. Last summer sweltering heat. And then went through last autumn's record wind and rounding rain over the. Columbus day weekend which ravaged and killed nearly all the plants on our balcony except the couple we got in before we realized it was basically a hurricane. This tough little guy. Indoor. In that inhospitable and unpredictable balcony corner for more than a year on early and absolutely neglected by his parents. Collins and me. Who figured we just eventually throw it out in the weekly trash when we got around to really cleaning up our balcony. But that of course as you can all see is not. What. Happened. It didn't happen. Because obviously something deep. And primordial. A mysterious and brave within that orchid. New. Knew how to survive and grow against all the odds it wanted. To survive and grow. And it did. Despite all the indifference and neglect the hard knocks of the universe this plant. Which neither well counseling i did not notice it's quiet resurrection. Found its way back to full. Orchid mantis. And one day a couple of months back collins in a mi state. Of excitement in incredulity. Came off the balcony caring this resilient little guy saying looks good.. That orchid that we had totally abandon his somehow come back to life. Look at these beautiful white and purple blossom let's put him back in the front hall. And so without. Much guilt. For being neglectful caretakers we had been. We put it back in the front hall and a rather beautiful little vase. Elephant enjoying. It's delicate beauty and serene elegance everyday for the last couple. And truth be told we have another. Resilient and tenacious orchid. That was treated the same way and it came back to and it's now in the living room. And the. Despite. All of our lack of purposeful care and kindness. There's something within that plan that knew how to. Since this wonderous resurrection has occurred i've learned. As i suspect some of you season floridians already understand. That's such a tenacious return the life for orchids is not uncommon. After they lose their beautiful blossoms after a few months. It is as one florida horticultural us right. Orchids quote. Thrive on neglect. It's a good thing because that's all they got for me. So in spite of our personal household ignorance about the life cycles of orchids. This orchid did what orchids naturally do and do best. Without human care. Which is simply after many months in the wilderness. They know. They bravely and miraculously know how to come back from near death. To beauty and useful. They refuse. Refuse. To give up. On life. This morning dear friends. As you are all aware. Is easter sunday. The day for which many of our christian neighbors is perhaps the most important day and their spiritual year. The day when they celebrate the promise. A resurrection. Into eternal life. Through jesus christ. But for unitarian universalist since about 1830. For religious liberals we've always had significant theological trouble. With that particular message. The day. For us shall we say is a bit more spiritually complex than for our chris. Friend. What about my colleagues in the union ministry once shared his befuddle meant that despite the fact that we. Most of us have moved past the traditional christian understanding of easter hundreds of years ago. Are churches are generally fold-over flowing with well-dressed people on easter sunday morning the way he put it was. There we are all dressed up on easter morning and nowhere theologically go. Now you laugh. But it's undeniably true that for most of us religious lovers we choose not to go. To the traditional christian place with that eternal promise. Eternal life. We respect the faith of our christian neighbors but we can't quite most of us make that spiritual leap. Which i believe in a personal resurrection and eternal life requires. But that does not mean. Dear friends and please hear this loud and clear that does not mean that we have nowhere spiritually to go. On this bright. And hopeful spring morning. I am here this easter sunday. This one day of the year when the whole world seems to focus on hope. And resurrection. To tell you the truth. What is true for orchids. Is true for us. Poor people. We like the orchids have something deep and primordial and brave and resilient within us something deep and brave and primordial and resilient that knows how to grow that knows how to bounce back. From adversity. That knows how to choose life and choose it abundantly. I want to tell you about a remarkable person. Who once came into my life. Unexpectedly. But i will never forget. I will never forget him as long as i have being umbra. His name was joe russo. And i met him. I was shocked this week when i did the math. 40. Ears. I was a newly minted hospital chaplain serving in memphis tennessee. During my seminary years i spent a full year. As a hospital chaplain. I chose the roughest environment. Think i could the city of memphis hospital. It was a really. Rough. Place. For 9 months i was resident chaplain at the west. Tennessee. Chest disease hospital. An old dark rundown 9-story 1910 tuberculosis. It was an old tuberculosis hospital in downtown memphis. It's gone now but it by then it had been converted. To a hospital specializing in care for those dying of horrible disease. Of the loan. Cancer. Emphysema black lung disease. Near the mining district. Copd. Asbestos. It was not. As you might imagine. A very cheerful. Helpful place. Except that is for one room. An ordinary patients. Joe. Russo's. On the fourth floor. I can still see it. Near the northeast corner. Of the building. I can see every aspect of it in my mind's eye. Ordinary small patient room. With one tiny unclear window. Which. By the sheer soulforce of joe and his large extended family became the large. Spiritual and emotional center. Evette entire house. That room was a place of remarkable light. Remarkable affirmation inhumanity a place of indefatigable agency. It was a heartbeat of the whole. I want to tell you about joe. Before he came to the hospital he joe who was a big. Strapping. Guy in his mid-20s. You know you can't make this stuff up. He pushed garbage. For a living. Literally. He was a bulldozer operator at the city of memphis dump. Happy. He reported to me. With a simple straightforward bachelor's life. As a bulldozer operator at the dump. Until one morning he suddenly and mysteriously collapsed in his shower and he would never. Stand. Again. Norwalk. Against all odds joey been paralyzed by a rare. Aggressive neurological disorder that almost. No one had heard of it took some. Weeks figure out what he. And when i met him he lived. Etihad for months. Hook to a mechanical respirator. Old and noisy. That respirator. It wasn't as bad seven-days-a-week of course fifty-two weeks a year. In that little fourth floor. Corner room in the hospital with of course no hope. For physical recovery no hope he would ever walk or breathe. Or even go home again on his own. It was hopeless. Tragic. As a medical situation i've ever and. But that little room on the fourth floor to which joe was forever confined until an infection got the better of him. Was nonetheless always filled that room always filled. With humanity and purpose and hope. It was filled with humanity in purpose and hope because joe facing just about the worst face. Any young man could imagine. Refuse. Just surrender. His presence. His purpose. He refused does a theologian say to submit his agency. Is free will. He did not submit his agency. To the terrible circumstance. In which he was. He chose instead life. Add engagement. And relationship. In the face of death. That was closing slowly in around him. He decided. In the face of an illness that no one would have blamed him for giving up. Into despair and anger. He. Chose. To remain a fully engaged. And loving human being in close and caring relationship. His family. And within. The hospital. Yes he was utterly unable to move any. Part of his body even to command his lungs. Up and down. He was trapped. In his own dying body. But he was more than capable. I'm staying alive. He was more than capable of remaining fully. And finally. Human. He lived a robust full life. Truth. Vivid world of his own. The last. Thing he could move. He lived. Full life. Eyes. The act. Interests of his mind. And the endlessly generous. Expressions. Let me see this another way. Joe with his world involuntarily reduced to a bed. Four walls. Was in no way disabled. As a human being. He was the mayor of that. He was the mayor of the whole hospital the politician the prankster the priest. Who knew and cared about everything. Everybody and every day he let everybody. Who came into that room know that he cared about them and their problems. I can't tell you the number of times during the nine months i was. Chaplain. Joe the paralyzed dying patient. Lying flat on his back hooked. Awful recipe. When i came in the door. Acquire after me how's that tennyson. How's your sinuses. How are you doing. When i was there. Inquire. I saw joe almost everyday sometimes several times a day. Those nine months. And i will not try to tell you. That. Things were always blessing. And light in that room. They weren't. Joanna loving extended italian catholic family which hovered near him around-the-clock most especially his mother and brothers. Always want. They're always. Had their own down difficult days to be sure. But day in and day out weekend and week out. Month in and month out that little cluttered room filled as it was with bright cards and flowers and these weird stuffed animals. Was the place to go. In the west tennessee chest disease hospital if you wanted to hear. The latest. Very raunchy joke. Debate the nation's politics. Bemoan the state of network television. Listen to mozart. Sharapova more a prayer. Or a belly laugh with joe that could be heard all the way down those sterile hallways when he laughed. The clothes off. Respirator they kind of giggled. Like that. All we could do. The tiny room. On the fourth floor with huge. Inhumanity at home. The humanity in hope. Which joe and his family knew how to create the hope. Humanity they chose to create. In the face. Death. And the gation itself. The humanity and hope that can only happen when brave. Tenacious human beings. Refuse to surrender their agency. Refuse to surrender. Their personhood. Fuse. To surrender. Everytime i think of joe the famous words of viktor frankl the holocaust survivor come to mine. After surviving more than two terrible years in the death camp frankl. Who later became a psychology. Wrote this. Based on his. Everything can be taken from a human being. But one thing. The last of the human freedoms. The freedom to choose one's own attitude in any given set of circumstances. The freedom to choose one's own way. This to me. Is the blessed. During message. Avista. Regardless of. Regardless of how difficult life. Can become an a. Regardless of how capricious or cruel or creation. Can be, that also. We are always free to choose life. And love. And purpose. Over the spare. And death. And the gation. That is what this orchid. In the face of the indignities it. It knew how to grow. Toward the light it shows. To grow right where it was planted. In that. Dark balcony. By sheer force of will and resurrected itself up from certain death. To bloom and bless. As it was in. Something deep. And primordial and resilient and brave within this orchid called it back. And so it was with my friend joe. Against. All well against all logic. He was suddenly planted. In a situation and a faith. Terrible. Beyond all imagining but he knew still how to be finally human. He chose to live. A rich. And meaningful. Expansive life. That tiny room. Surely you've all heard the saying. Bloom. Where you are planted. That is a holy message that sings out of creation to us at. My message to you this morning. To be fully and finally human. Just where you live. With all of your life's limitations and losses and sorrow. Be a passionate and purposeful human being as long as you have. Life and breath and being refused to fold your tent in the face of adversity whether you are an orchid or a bulldozer operator. At the city dump. Or someone. Leaving an ordinary complicated life. Here. The treasure coast. Bloom. Right where your plan. Right where your play. In the hebrew torah. In the book of deuteronomy to be precise. Moses spelling out god's law. To the people. And at the end of his long address. He simply says this for god. I have set before you today life. And prosperity. Death. Adversity. I set before you life and death blessings and curses. Therefore choose life. That you and your descendants may live. This is a crying. Comes out to us. Choose life. Choose. Life.

uufvb_org

2013Apr14Sermon128.mp3

To the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we are glad you have chosen to spend the part of your day with us this morning. We are coming gation standing on the side of love. Seeking each of us to become our best selves even as together we worked to make a better world. Please know that you're welcome this morning you just did you come to us. Whether you're gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. What do you were such suffering a physical illness or feeling just wonderful physically. Weather on top of the world emotionally or somewhat down in the tub. In between. We're delighted to see you just as you coming with. We hope you'll find our services sporting meaningful you'll find something here this morning. The nurse is your spirit and feed your soul and give you a new to energy and purpose. For the living life in the days ahead. Well it's official i let it in the newspaper it's a very authoritative source it was right there in black and white will you please read the news. You wise & healthy people right on track in the right place this morning for you have come to this house of worship to give thanks for the gift of life. Reflect on your life. Serve the cause of human justice and lana to enjoy the company. Of others this wonderful day. Let us rejoice in being together. Morning my dear friend i'm going to deliver a sermon that has been a long time and coming. It's been a long time coming for two important and i now realize intertwined reason. First for many months now i've been thinking regularly and intensely about what i will call and emerging existential theology. A decidedly blunt and no-nonsense the spiritual way to look at the ultimate future of my own individual human life. End the life of our planet. And i have struggled with precisely how to express this coherently as well to you. And secondly despite my intellectual and spiritual passion about this. I have been hesitant. To give my emerging theological perspective voice because despite the care and caution i always bring to sermon preparation. I've been concerned frankly that some might be spiritually trouble. Buy my crystal conclusion. About the ultimate meaning of our lives on this earth. Whenever we are called you know to a congregation. Unitarian universalist minister has promised to always speak the truth in love. As they understand it. When they step into the pulpit. But i am worried about precisely how to do this. When what is on my heart and mind this morning but. All my natural fussing and fretting aside the time has come for me finally to offer. For your intellectual and spiritual consideration. An existential theology. So invite you now to join me in reflecting on these what i think they are spiritually waiting matters in the homestead over the coming weeks and months you met many of you will engaged me and each other in further conversation and reflection about what i have to say this morning. Remember whatever a unitarian universalist minister steps into a pulpit it is always to begin a two-way conversation. Number to simply deliver a sure and solitary keedic pronouncing from on high what is unquestionably true. So with all that said and now that i have you all nervous. Of the year 2013 as i approach my 64th birthday. To start powerful existential realities stare me in the face as a creature of this earth. My personal life on this planet. Any solution will tell you. Will surely end sometime in the next several decades. And. The life of this planet earth any astrophysicist will tell you. Will also surely end. Sometime in the next 7 billion years now. I grant you that there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the timing of these two endings by doctor and i. Do not know precisely how or when my life will end. And the astrophysicists and astronomers do not know precisely. When are first will similarly cease to exist. But we do know for certain. 4 bergen. Decal scott alexander. And the planet earth will come to an abrupt physical end. Timeline beside the existential and scientific truth as i understand it. Is the fly life. And the life of this planet are both fine identities. And there was absolutely nothing. Anyone or anything can do technologically or otherwise to prevent these ultimate outcome. Let's start with the easier of these two. Arguably the easier to wrap our heads around. That being the absolute fact of my. And you are. Personal immortality as physical creatures on this earth everyone knows from ben franklin that damp along with taxes that are due tomorrow. Although you would lifespan is being somewhat stretched out in our time by a whole array of amazing medical and scientific advances advances. The fact is that our human body. Like the bodies of all living organisms on this planet will eventually surrendered to the vicissitude. As i shared two weeks ago on easter sunday my late colleague the reverend doctor forest church. Built his reputation as a theologian. Upon the blunt proposition. Existential reality of personal debt that frames all of the work of faith and religion. It is easy said the irrefutable human knowledge that we used each must someday give up the gift of life. They'll oblige is us to all do the spiritual work of fighting whatever purposes and meanings we can for our days upon this earth. No i probably didn't point out that all over this town. There are religious congregation. Who's central spiritual assertion hope and promise is that we human beings indeed do not need to ultimately die that's what easter sunday was about hello and perhaps it's some of these faith traditions also good works through faith believe and good work. We can achieve eternal life which for most of these faith tradition. Me some sort of spiritual awareness of self. And some sort of continued personal consciousness. That will see us into the next realm. No i am not. Now nor has ever been in the business. I'm criticizing the cherished religious beliefs of others. I can and will unequivocally state in this venue. The grand idea and promise of eternal life. Which is so prominent in so many religions. Play cantaloupe molino spiritual or existential send to me personally. As someone who thinks of himself as a key needed an unsentimental observer of the way life is on this planet. I see absolutely no evidence that it's red or whisper. That any such eternal awareness or presents beyond the grave is to be mine now i do hope. To live on the memories of those lies i have talked well that you wish idea. Of the eternal immortality of one's influence i take great comfort from that. Patchouli and i stress again i'm speaking only for myself without any arrogance. Or disrespect for the beliefs of others. Show me the promise of eternal life. Or the promise of any sort of soulful sailfin beyond the grave his to me unbelievable to me it just seems like so much wishful thinking. Away i think to spiritually avoid facing the existential finality of death. Could you me personally in my own private spiritual and religious life. I'm leaving my destiny. Whatever purpose and joy. My life meaning my wife is to have. What's my destiny must be spun out now. In the evening and i think wondrous and limited years that i have to walk upon the earth spun out by the choices i make as a free and responsible human being. This view that my destiny must and will be entirely played out in this lifetime makes me philosophically speaking a pure existentialist. You may recall from your old school day. Existentialism is the term that was applied for the work of a rather diverse number of 19th and 20th century philosophers. All the place the human individual. And human decision-making at the center of the universe. One online dictionary i consulted offers to similar definition of extent of existentialism side-by-side that i want to share them with you now. Existentialism. A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness. And isolation of the individual experience. In a hostile or indifferent universe. Disregard to an existence as unexplainable. It stresses freedom of choice. And responsibility for the consequences of one-act. And the second definition. Existentialism a modern philosophical movement stressing the importance. A personal experience. And responsibility and demand that the individual. Who is seen as a free agent. And seemingly meaningful. Meaning less. Universe. And so my infiniti. Which is fiercely anchored in this earthly life. Is a purely existentialist. Based on my direct experience with what i perceive to be the mortality of my world. I insisted lee believed myself to be immortal creature. In an indifferent. If austin amazing a beautiful and glorious creation none the less indifferent to me. And i am singularly i believe. Systemically responsible for the choices i made during my lifetime. To live a meaningful purposeful satisfying and loving life. I love you paws here if i might to offer a brief. Important theological sidebar even though i regard myself and existentially. Who is entirely responsible for the meaning and shape of my life i also regard myself as a theater which is to say i have. It personal. And energizing and transformative relationship with something mystical i call god. Even though i believe this physical creation this world is ultimately indifferent to my present. I done the last feel it holy. Reliable presence of goodness and purpose at of goodness and beauty and love infused into natural and human thing a wholly reliable present which regularly blesses me and gives me great hope and joy but not in charge of the universe. Too many people in spanish. The existentialist perspective of mine. Might seem sad or despairing. What's a minority does anything but sad or despairing to be an existential. The fact that i believe my lifetime is absolutely limited. Does not make my life meaningless or without purpose or direction and joy in spanish it is a limited this. Didn't create a to-do things as best as i can. Affirmative. Aspect of this at the very end of the sermon. For now please know that my intellectual and spiritual embrace. Of the back of my own mortality. Is a great source of hope in meeting android for me where it might not be for others. And thoughts after fully facing i hold the my own personal immortality i move on spiritually to say the second start and powerful existential reality that stares me in the face as a creature over the certainty. Astrophysicist. What day is the world as we know it our planet earth will come to an end. If you google the end of planet earth if you google the end of planet earth is page after page after page of doomsday scenarios that do not make for particularly cheerful reading wikipedia. The report first for example. That there was a one-in-a-million chance that an asteroid of sufficiently destructive size nevermind that appealing house sized asteroid that's reached across the soviet union russia it'll never mind that that's just you know. And that same will continue unabated. Every year after that. Another star which astronomers have already named and delete. Barrel into the corner of our galaxy in roughly 1.5 million years. Reading the oort cloud of countless huge club has comments that would strike many of them our planet earth and destroy it. The resulting hypernova would last the earth with enough gamma radiation to destroy the ozone layer exposing all forms of life to a deadly ghost of solar-ready radiation. Cosmic stuff isn't scary enough. There's a one in 50,000 chance each year did you know this volcanic eruption like the cataclysmic eruption which occurred in indonesia 70,000 years ago and almost caused the extinction of the human race form. Could almost in my on the planet. Admittedly. Each of in each of these cases these statistics humanity on earth dodging these catastrophes or any other of the doomsday possibilities would scientists have articulated. Our chances of dodging the bullet are pretty good. Wikipedia names the ultimate reality upon which all leading as the physicists have long agreed the scientific certainty that in about 5 billion years. The evolution of the universe that the universe is constantly and inexorably evolving and changing unfolding. The evolution of our universe will mean and now i called them. Our son will exhaust its hydrogen core. And become a red giant. A dying star. Becoming thousands of times more luminous and losing approximately 30% of its mass current band. As a consequence they write first orbit will decay due to the effects of title drag causing it to enter the sun's expanding atmosphere and be destroyed and 7.6 billion years. Before being swallowed up by the sun. The earth's oceans will evaporate the earth could finally be destroyed captured and vaporized. Firestone son. Not the one. Don't separate is ultimately doomed. I will someday cease to exist. In what we call the universe. Like all living organisms on earth our universe is constantly changing and evolving and no place in the universe including our brushes whole planet is exempt. Affect. Office evolution. Really good news here. And that is far as the effects of an unlikely killer asteroid a roadstar or hypernova or a really big volcano. Blithely timeline for the end of planet earth is quite log 5 billion years which is a million years * 5000. Wrap your heads around on a billion years * 5000. So if a human generation comes along every 25 years which is the way we calculate generation. The end of the world won't come for 1428419 one generation. That's a whole lot of relatives. So it is an astrophysical fact that ultimately and again hopefully way way down the human road. It's a fact our world will come to an end. Why am i sharing these uncomfortable and far-off scientific facts what is my field logical or spiritual point. Why dwell on this hard cosmic truth of our worlds demise of all is so very far off. And such a distance for this reason and this reason alone. Just as important as forest church said for every human being two-faced fully his or her own personal foretelling. I think it is the illogically and spiritually crucial for humanity as a whole two also fully face. The stark and truly existential nature. Of our predicament. August 20th. Confronting this fade. Is not easy or natural thing for us as a species if you thought about this everyday and probably i don't know. I think the posthuman purses. Who find themselves alive on this ridge and marvelous planet. And most face-to-face is offering their various expressions of hope and meaning for humanity. Can't think of the world and now i'm going to use an everyday metaphor for this. Everyday household metaphor. Most of us like to think of the world as some elegantly set dinner table. God or some other gracious handled force has set before us. In a mystery and blessing. For all time. Dated a year in and year out the life we experience here on earth which despite its very real hardships. The life we experience is routinely stable. Him. Delicious and satisfying it seems like such a fixed in the level present we wake up every morning in the sun is right where it's supposed to be. Beautiful ocean. We tend to think of earthly life. As we experience it through our ears and eyes and nose and fingertips as an eternal tableau. Forever but the astrophysical fact. Can the astrophysicists are quietly but insistently telling the human family that's altimate leave this is not. The miracle of life on earth which is mercifully and in all likelihood secure for millions of years to come. Is not secure. For camper. And because it is not forever. Because it is not. We human beings must have bracelet i think as a holy existential gift. A holy existential gift. And this brings me. the illogical circle. To where i think i was at the beginning of the sermon. Because of one individual person in my mid-60s. I am fully aware of the absolute nature of my own personal mortality and because as the whole of the human family we are unless we are fiercely denying the science fully aware of our species and our planets eventual cosmic demise. Because of these truths. Collectively and individually we human being. Have the moral and spiritual and i would add the word existential beauty. To live as fully and responsibly and joyfully and well as we can we can't put off. State to god or anyone else we must take responsibility for it ourselves. The fact of all life on earth both personal and global is finite. And has a very real. An absolute limits. Does not call us. As some might imagine. Do despondency and despair but rather calls us. Everyday to use. The holy existential gift of being. The fullest and finest potential to call is not to despair but to join for the responsibility we have to livwell. Let me see this another way. Because nothing in any sphere of life is forever. There is a fully urgency. Urgency for us individually and collectively. Whoever more shape our earthly lives along the pathways of decency and compassion. Adjust. Andreesen. And service and love. Everyday kindness. Personally as a very ball. And the site of the aging white and in this case is gay male. Find example of my species. I hope i have a few more decades. To get it right. Or at least approximately right. In my own life. And globally despite all the many pressing challenges we face together as a species i hope you manatee isabel. Many more millions of years yet to get impact together. The meaning and purpose of life both for individuals and humanity as a whole i think. Lies in the existential duty to do the best we can. To choose compassion over indifference. The truth justice over injustice angry. And so in northeast fears of human existence personal. And the universal. This unitarian universalist. Does not spiritually require thank you very much. Kenny g eternal tons. Anyone or anything else. I do not. And will not demand spiritually what i have rashly concluded. This mortal creation of mine is not capable of giving me. That being eternality. And i will not are you sure you. Spiritually begrudge orphic rom. Simone the precious fleeting existential nature of my own life nor. I will not bemoan the inexorable evolution of all creation wherever it takes orthodontist. Bellamy close. Play technology that i fully understand all this existential theology of mine is spiritual. View that the universe is indifferent. And that nothing in life is eternal and that's okay because we're free and responsible to livwell i realize this as you. May not be satisfied. Carmina feel right. And i hope the days and months ahead to hear from you. About where you ultimately find. Your meaning and hope and purpose both as individuals and as part of the human family. Books for me. For me i'm fine. Spiritual abundance. And genuine theological sons fashion. In the holy urges. Hope this fleeting uncertain temporal gif. I have holdup. With all of you. What i have on this earth. And what we have together alyssa.. In all its 44 jiloty. Unfriendly and flow. And it does not have to be. 4 pepper. Individually and together live this life. I live in is fully. And as well as we can and be satisfied with it let us. Dance sacred. Leaving dance we have. Cool presents of life and being. And let tomorrow. Tomorrow. Will it take care of itself. With this reading i found this week. Some african-american writer zora neale hurston who wrote the 42 she lived in florida. When the consciousness we know as life. I know that i shall still be part and parcel of the world. I was when the earth was hurled out. From its fiery rim. I shall return with the earth to father son. And still exist in substance. When the sun has lost its fire. And disintegrated into infinity to perhaps become hard. Otherworldly ruble. Why fear. The stuff of my being his mater. Ever-changing ever moving but never lost so so what need of denominations. And creed to deny myself the comfort of my fellow human beings. And then she added. I am one with the instrument. I need. No other. And i send you on your way of the rest of your life with these words from early-twentieth-century humanist minister. John dietrich reserved our church in minneapolis. In the 2002. We live in a great impersonal universe. And it matters tremendously how we conduct ourselves for we are actually the makers of human destiny. We are not simply individuals who have a beginning in life. Independent. We are links in the endless chain of life. Do us has been committed all that life has one from the chaos in all ages past. Only through instead that truth from the past. Be transmitted to the future. Are cheap business therefore is to put beauty and place of ugliness. Good in place of evil. Laughter in place of tears. To dispel error with knowledge hatred with love displays. Strife and contention with peace and cooperation. A voice urgently khalsa. To these tasks. And this. Is the work. A religion.

uufvb_org

2013Dec15Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. Cloudy. Three storms in washington weather 34°. Welcome. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we are occurring gation of open minds. Loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become the best people we can even as together we work. To make our world a better place. And we say it every sunday. You are welcome here. You are welcome here just as you come to us this morning. What are you were young or old new to town or have been here your whole lives with you were gay or straight. Black or white or latino or some other wonderful expression of humanity. Whether you were feeling on top of the world this morning. Or down in the dumps or somewhere in between we welcome you. In all of your particularity and need. We hope you'll find our service meaningful and enriching our you'll find something here this morning to take with you. That will give your life renew joy and purpose. For the weeks and days ahead. All over town flooring you to keep christ. In christmas. Keep christ in christmas. Well for some drivers at christmas. A spiritual and religious holiday. It is a reflection of how upset they are going to america. Is an increasingly religiously diverse nation. Can no longer assume respect their beliefs. Will receive universal public expression. These drivers cultural blood boils when someone says happy holidays today. Instead of the merry christmas they want. Inclusive happy holidays. As a sinister quote on quote war on christmas. For my part of the unitarian universalist i might smite suggested maybe i'll make them and pass them out to you. A different car magnified implores you to keep. Jesus. Christmas. I would have us ever mindful at this time of year. Of the bold and compassionate message with jesus of nazareth. Whose birth is celebrated this season brought to our world. That message is as radical and challenging today as it was 2000. Years ago. And the message is. Love your neighbor. Share what you have. Feed the hungry. The homeless. Visit. The prisoner. Care. For the vulnerable. Embrace the outcast. Visit the sick. I remember. That you are. Your brother and sisters. You are. Your brothers. And sister's keeper. What could be more spiritually important in this fragile season of love and hope. Then keeping jesus. In christmas. And reaching out to those in your world. With love. And compassion. And gentleness. And care. The reading this morning is my doctor mark ranked professor of social welfare at washington university. New york times on november 3rd 2013. Its title. Hobart in main in america is mainstream. Two topics in american society have more myths and stereotypes surrounding them. Then poverty. Misconceptions distort our politics and our domestic policy. These common misconceptions include the following notions. Poverty affects a relatively small number of americans. That the poor are impoverished. For years at a time. Inner city. Assistance provided. And it already is ultimately. A result of not working hard enough. Although each of these assumptions is flat-out. Wrong. Contrary to popular belief. The percentage of the population that directly. Is exceedingly high. My research indicates that nearly 40% of americans between the ages of. Will experience at least one year.. And 54%. Will spend a year in poverty or near poverty. Even more astounding. If we hadn't related conditions like welfare use near poverty and unemployment. Four out of every five americans will encounter one or more of the. In addition. Overall american children. Will at some point during their childhood reside in household. That uses food stamps for a. of time. Put simply. Poverty. Is a mainstream event. Experienced by a majority of americans. For most of us. The question is not whether we will experience poverty. The bull poverty strikes a majority of the population. The average time most people spend in poverty is relatively short. The standard image of the floor has been that of an entrenched underclass. Impoverished for years at a time. Well this captures a small and important slice of papa property. It is also a highly misleading picture of its more widespread and dynamic. Nature. Most of us have been poor. Most of us have been poor at least for a while. Events like losing a job having work hours cut back. Experiencing family split. Or developing a serious medical problem. All have the potential to show household. Into poverty. Just as poverty is widely dispersed with respect to time. It is also widely dispersed disrespect. To place. Only approximately 10% of those in poverty. Urban neighborhoods. Households in poverty can be found throughout a variety of urban and suburban landscape. As well as in small towns and communities across rural america. This dispersion of poverty has been increasing over the past 20 years. Particularly. Whiskey with in suburban areas. Along with the image of inner-city poverty there's also a widespread perception that. Most in most individuals in poverty. Arnon white. This is another myth. According to the latest latest census census bureau numbers. Two-thirds of those below the poverty line. Identified themselves. Is white. The number that is held rather steady over the past several decades. What about the generous assistance. We provide to the poor. Contrary to political rhetoric. The american social safety net is extremely weak. It's filled with gaping hole. Furthermore it has become even more even weaker over the past 40 years. Because of various welfare reform and budget-cutting measures. We currently expend among the fewest resources. Within the industrialized countries in terms of pulling families out of poverty and protecting them from falling into it. In the united states. Is one of the few developed nations. That does not provide universal healthcare. Affordable childcare. Or reasonably priced low income housing. As a result our poverty rate. Our poverty rate is approximately twice. The european average. The united states has exceedingly high levels of impoverishment. The many who find themselves in poverty are often shocked. Assistance the government actually provides them. To get through tough times. Finally. The common explanation for poverty. Has emphasized the lack of motivation. The failure to work hard enough. And poor decision-making in life. Yep my research and that of others has consistently found that the behaviors and attitudes of those in poverty. Basically mirror. Those of mainstream america. Likewise. A vast majority of the poor. Have worked extensively. And will do so again. Poverty is ultimately. Result of failings at economic. And political levels. Rather than individual shortcomings. And then doctor rank includes. The solutions to poverty. Are to be found in what is important for the health. Of any family. Having a job pays a decent wage. Having the support of. Good healthcare. Childcare. And having access. To a first-rate education. Yet these policies will become a reality in america only when we begin to truly understand that poverty. Is an issue of us. Rather than issue. Of them. Durham's the mornings rating. So this morning i continue my year-long sermon series. And arguments of the ethical nature. Today's unusual poverty in the pool as you've already surmised. Which has long troubled and divided the american people. I have chosen this particular december sunday just two weeks before the christmas holiday. When most americans celebrate the birth of jesus of nazareth because he. Perhaps more than any other of humanity's great moral and ethical teachers. Was profoundly concerned about the poor. And the disadvantage of his time. What better time for us to reflect on our attitudes. And actions regarding. The poor. Over the course of my sermon series i will return again and again to my main and i hope and logical supposition. Moral dilemmas. And the ethical arguments that result from them and divide us as a society because. Each of them involve worthy principles and values stand in natural opposition. And contradiction and tension to one another. This is implied in the very word dilemma. Which one encyclopedia says that dilemma is a problem. Offering to possibilities. Neither which is practically acceptable situation. A choice between equally unsatisfactory alternatives. A problem or situation. Seemingly incapable. Of a satisfactory solution. And so with. Each of these dilemmas that i will explore in the series. Anyone i think with the least bit of moral imagination and sophistication. Can see the integrity the power and the reasonable reasonable argument. And yet many of our culture insist when they when they discuss these things. This is not. A good thing because. The obvious truth. You end up abrogating or subjugating some worthy principles and values. 2 over the course of the series i hope sincerely to do justice. Do both sides of each dilemma. Because i can see both side. With all this fair-minded and balance in mind i will also remember the wise words i've quoted them before of. Folk singer pete seeger. Great deal of difference to the fly. Side he lands on. In the real world we live in. We are in the moral viewpoint or another. Even we understand is far from perfect. Return to the issue of poverty in the poor and see if i can bring. A little more moral clarity and fiercely. Between american liberals. And american conservatives. I want to begin by framing and as i understand them the two moral position which stand in stark contrast and moral opposition. They are both familiar to you. If you are paying even the least bit of attention. The american dialogue that's happening right now about poverty. And the poor. Here is the progressive view of poverty in the pool or on the one hand. It is simply the governmental remediation and support programs are needed. Address to painful legacy of law. Of the american social and economic system. You have american liberals and progressive who in these early and atta turns out economically sluggish years of the 21st century. Believe poverty remains largely inequalities. And they must be addressed. Buy programs remedial and support programs. Efforts designed to help the poor break. Famous cycle of poverty. And achieve working or at least working or middle-class stability and prosperity. Liberals and progressives in america believe that society must patiently were. To continue to provide the poor. With support and opportunities to undo generations. Of hardship. And discrimination and neglect actively helping as a culture they believe we should. Help them to break the cycle of poverty. On the other hand you have. The conservative view of poverty in the poor. Expensive governmental anti-poverty programs have systematically failed. Do endor even reduce poverty over recent decades. Until the poor the conservatives argue must take personal responsibility. And quote-unquote. Pull themselves up by their own bootstraps now. This is a wide and deep golf in perspective and belief. On the one hand you have conservatives and free-market laissez-faire capitalist who believe poverty persist. After all the billions of dollars that the anti-poverty programs have spent. It continues to exist. Largely because the poor have been unwilling or unable to take personal responsibility. Diligently apply themselves work hard make the right choices and pull themselves up. If you listen to conservative media outlets as i admit i sometimes do. You know what i'm driving there's nothing like rush limbaugh. Or or a mark levin to keep me awake. They regularly and angrily and bill o'reilly and and sean hannity and glenn beck. Rail against tax supported governmental programs. In suggesting that these programs. Accomplishes unjustly. From the successful who's entrepreneurial skill for the society. While redistributing. Who was the result of the sunwise largest natural. Lazy freeloaders and leeches. Depending forever on government handouts. The conservative position. Is not only that the overall economy is dangerously crippled of governmental programs for the poor. Because it's that because that tax money. What otherwise fuel the economy. Socially and emotionally crippled by this. Losing all their motivation to work hard and provide themselves. Provide for their families as one progressive commentator puts it. Those american ride. Leave the becoming impoverished is primarily driven by a lack of motivation to help oneself. Which is made worse by government entitlements. They argue that government aid wildey sent the incentivized the individual from going out and finding work on quote. Many conservative suggest that the only way to alleviate poverty. In the long run. To help the poor is to kill. Or at least starve. Expensive anti government programs thereby lowering the taxes. Reducing the other financial burdens and drains on the wealthy. Which they argue. The rising tide of free-market capitalism will lift all boats that's a conservative argument. So there is a huge and increasingly angry. Between american liberals and american conservatives on this issue. And it leads to bitter public policy debates about how best america. Address. The consistent and destructive. Problem of poverty. Let's take a moment to understand. Understand the true dimensions of the problem of poverty in america today and jack's reading over some of this. Because of time. The actual number in our community here in the treasure coast of people living in poverty is about 20%. With many many more of our citizens in this area covering an economic. The desperation right near the poverty line. For today's purposes we would be best to admit that about one in five at least one in five americans. With over 22% of our children. Live at a substandard level. Mark rankine this morning's reading pointing out poverty is mainstream. The average time most people spend in poverty is relatively short. Poverty is found everywhere and all kinds of community and it is not a black or latino problem it is found in all racial and ethnic groups no matter how long they have been in america. Poverty is persistent. And pervasive and it is a pernicious problem. In american life but the moral question remains. Which side is right. About how best. To alleviate or reduce the sad specter of american life. The liberals who want to keep on spending. Billions. Of our share dollars. For the conservatives who passionately believe that only the poor by their diligence character and hard work. Can break that cycle apart. Honestly believe as i have with each dilemma i have explored so far in the series. That the solution to the persistent problem of poverty does in fact lie somewhere. In the middle. I believe that both government and those who find themselves poor. Play in rectifying the situation. And so i passionately believe as a society we must one. Willfully in wisely continue to invest billions of dollars. To help the poor. Why was the same time encouraging and yes perhaps even. Prodding and demanding. That the poor take just as much responsibility for their own lives. And their own futures as is possible. And on the flip side. We should reject. The extreme perspective. We should reject i think the radical liberal argument. Necessary. Because surely some of our tax money is not spent well and does not help people break out of poverty and does rob the american economy. But we should also reject. The radically conservative habit of blaming. Chastising and demonizing the poor. For the difficulties they find themselves in. Because i hope you all understand there are many complicated causes for poverty. Many of which are beyond the direct control of those who experience them at some time in their lives. I am especially distressed and condemnation. I've heard directed recently toured the poor in our culture. Popular conservative radio personality rush limbaugh for example. Reals i just looked him up i googled rush limbaugh and the poor. On his daily program recently. He railed against american welfare recipients who he claimed they're just lazy spoiled freeloaders. Living the high life. With cell phones televisions and computers and recent senator said big bag purses and and cadillacs. What you're being paid for rush limbaugh thinks. Shrinking pool of wealth and job creators. We heard that phrase job creators in the last election. And similarly cable tv personality bill o'reilly in the crying when he calls our presidents culture of dependency and entitlement. I access the poverty is somehow a new phenomenon of this administration. And somehow the fault of this democratic party. Recently said there are 57 million americans and now i call him directly. On the dole. Many quote illegitimately including quote. Layabouts. People who game the system and are responsible parents who can't cut it. Because they are uneducated substance abusers and screwed up mentally. Unquote. Honest and clear here. In this progressively incline congregation. There are no doubt. Some poor people i will say it if you can't. Put on welfare who are lazy. Entitled and who are gaming the system there are some poor who fit that. But to suggest in america today. Of those living in poverty is not only an acura. It insults the intelligence. Everyone knows over recent decades due to many factors including economic globalization. The decline of american manufacturing and a growing gap. Between the rich and the poor or 10% of americans own half of everything. Good middle-class jobs. Have been disappearing from the american economy. Making it harder and harder for many of the poor find a way up and out of poverty. What the poor need rather than being demonized or dismissed as being responsible for their own misery. Are the opportunities as the reading today said. For good-paying jobs. Quality education and growing vibrant economy. In the meantime i will suggest. They need real compassionate support. Thumbtack support governmental programs like food stamps. Affordable housing. An affordable healthcare. Here is my bottom-line morally speaking. Here are the two compelling reasons we must care for and about the poor. It is clearly in our societal and economic self-interest. To alleviate or greatly reduced poverty this is the point i made in my newspaper column this week. When i said there can be no vibrancy here in the household economy. And the second reason it is clearly the right thing to do. I want to quickly take each of these points intern. There's no doubt. America's long-term prosperity security and social order. A small percentage of the population percent. Living in a lives in extreme. Wallace significant portion let's call it 30%. Access to the welfare society. Consumer joy. If there's to be lasting prosperity and peace for the people living on johns island or the people living in gifford. There's got to be greater. Sharing of economic opportunity for all we simply can't live with 30% of our people. In destitution and still have a vibrant economy you want to know the tide lifts all boats. It's not rich people having billions of dollars to invest. The real tide that lifts all boats is a long steady economic. Activity of a consumer economy in which. That's what will make us healthy that's what makes the rich rich. It will make the rest of us. Better off. And there was a second. Perhaps. Even more important reason beyond. To work both. Governmental and personal philanthropic spheres to alleviate poverty and that is simply. It is the morally right thing to do. Well this is not. As some christians in our community suggest this is not a christian nation. For our founders were very clear not to establish state religion. This is nonetheless. A nation founded. By the overall moral framework and the sensibilities of the judeo-christian tradition. If you study the scriptures of both judaism and christianity you will find. There is a very clear moral viewpoint on poverty in the floor. Do you know how many references there are in the old testament. Well i looked it up. There are over 300. And what do those judeo-christian references suggest. Set that if we are to be a people of god and the people of goodness. If we are to be moral and righteous and decent. We must fulfill our human responsibility to care for the poor. To make personal sacrifices and to alleviate their suffering. Both jewish and christian teachings are direct and clear there is very little ambiguity in this. I take. The words of jesus from the book of matthew and jesus is describing what god will say to humanity. 2 as a as a sar scattered before him on judgement day you all know these words he said. To the righteous. Come you are blessed for i was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink i was a stranger and you welcomed me naked and you clothed me i was sick and you visited me i was in prison and you came to me truly i say to you truly. As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren. You did it to me in this one quotation is the essence. Did you tell christian moral and ethical social. Tradition. Now i want to be very blunt for a moment. I have a very hard time personally understanding. How so many people in this affluent community as kristen. Team no compunction to aggressively district. I have no compunction. Too aggressively disregard and disrespect the poor. Honestly i have to tell you. Much of what passes for christianity today bears little or no resemblance. To the compassionate and humane and inclusive gospel of love and care which jesus of nazareth lived and taught just the other day for example at the hospital. At our monthly clergy meeting. A number of those concerned religious leaders were discussing the recent wide community symposium on poverty. Which alerted us to buy one and four people here on the treasure coast. Living in poverty. And wondering what we might mordu is clergy to address this when one of the more vocal conservative christian ministers in the room. Wave like this and said well you know what jesus said. He said you'll always have the poor with you as well that was an excuse. In my view. Anyone who calls themselves a christian and is not concerned with poverty is a sino. Christian in name only. But let's not just challenge. By the way the paper this week unfortunately unfortunately i sent the sermon to russ lemon cuz i'm sending in this whole series. Challenge the seno's the christians let's challenge everybody. All major religious traditions of the world in their scriptures every last one of them express his deep. Concern and compassion for the poor. Gino's gino's and you you know. People abroad compassion and i have a pretty fertile imagination. Let's be a people. Abroad compassion and active empathy let's be unitarian universalist. Deeply. Concerned about poverty and the poor i want to be very clear about this once again. It is perfectly legitimate. For americans who follow along different places of the liberal-conservative continuum. To argue the efficacy and effectiveness of particular anti-poverty programs. And policies is it congress is doing right now on food stamps for exam. Not right. Moral standard. It is not right. To harden your heart against the poor. And turn your back. And your government's back on the suffering in the struggle of people just like you. In american life and thought about how best to address poverty. And even though i'm a progressive the conservatives have some good ideas to bring. Of the compassion and the duty we have as a religious and moral people. As christmas once again approaches. With its radiant message. Of love. And compassion. Of inclusion. And hope. And oneness. Promise. As jesus did. To care for the poor. And do what we can buy. To lessen. And reduce the scourge of american life. Anna saying mean she was full. In the last congregation that serving was favored was brad coolidge. Nephew. President coolidge. Who once said this in his christmas address. Christmas is not. Or a season. But a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill. Plenteous in mercy. Is to have the real spirit of christmas. If we think on these things there will be born in us a savior. Andover us will china star. Sending a gleam of hope. Into the world.

uufvb_org

2014Mar09Sermon32.mp3

Well good morning. What a beautiful sunday morning here on the treasure coast and welcome all of you. The unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach and we are so pleased you've chosen to begin your day with us. We are current location. Open minds loving hearts and helping hands. Individual people seeking to become our best selves. Even as together we work to make our world a better place and please know that you're welcome. Just as you come to us this morning. Whether you're young or old gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. What are your feeling on top of the world this morning. Or down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We welcome you just as you come. We hope you will find our service this morning meaningful and enriching. And that you will find something here this morning that nourishes your spirit and feeds your soul and gives you renewed energy and purpose. For the living of life ahead. We'll look at you all you cover i don't want any smog. Be kind be gracious and be understanding. I have said it before on this sunday. The saving of daylight is what our congregation must be all about four everywhere. About us. Are the places of darkness. Warfare. Human cruelty. Crime in abusive persons. Economic and social injustice in difference. So we need to be in the face of these darknesses. A people of the light. People of love. A people of compassion. The people of understanding. And kindness. Injustice. People who purposely turn their lives. Ford. The light. And share that light with those around them. I harold from the north. From a congregation next door to cambridge massachusetts. A place where snow has abounded this year. It is a pleasure to be here in such a beautiful and warm place. I also harold from a long-time friendship with collins and with scott. I just counted twenty-seven years. I was scott's intern and one of my fond memories is in the car gation where scott was then serving in plainfield new jersey. We often stood side-by-side in the center of the chancel. And my sister who attended worship during that time would describe us as the liberal donny and marie. So we're back again. I hear such good things. About you. You practice a radical hospitality. You are willing to change and grow. That is a skill that is often in short supply in religious communities. So. Ibelle to your. Wisdom. The reading i offer you this morning is a single line. It is from the apostle paul. Someone i suspect you don't often hear from. And it's from his letter to the romans chapter 5. Where send increases. Grace. Abounds all. Sommore. Where sin increases. Grace. Abounds all the more. Or put another way. Where are. Thrive. Nerve. Thrives all. Tomorrow. Each of us is here today. Do the work and the commitment. Thousands of nameless unitarian and universalist. Most of them are long forgotten floor soon to be forgotten. Their presence will go unrecorded. Yet by their deeds of heart and hand. They kept alive. The face. Petluv must outweigh. And compassion. Must outweigh custom. The first church i served. Restored its historic 1808 sanctuary. During my ministry. And the sanctuary was filled with scaffolding plasterers. And papers. One worker caught my attention. Sanding the floor. Listen to public radio at top volume. And after each coat of polyurethane. He would run his hand over the floor. Like a man. Making love. The minister's office was off the sanctuary. One afternoon he said to me. I figured out. What you do. You read. You right. And you schmooze. I couldn't argue with his definition of ministry. I invited to attend rededication service of the sanctuary. And he kept. Coming back. He would say to me. You are my spiritual mechanic. I come each week to get a tune up. Some sundays it works. And some days i sit there and don't know what you're talkin about. But i figure it's a tune-up. For someone else that morning. Jim harrison was a character. Scott collins. Remember jim. I introduced them. And they have their own stories about gym. Today i will tell you mine. In time decided to sign the membership book. But with. One caveat. He said. I am a member of this church. But i don't call myself. A universalist. I'm a universalist. In training. Believe. Set to call oneself. A universalist. Was an act. And in fact those t-shirts and handed them out during coffee hour. And scott still has his. Jim was not a theologian. He was a struggling contractor with dirt under his fingernails. He was loud talking. I'm not impressed. Buy class. Or false airs. Jim wanted known what to make of a transylvanian bischoff. Or brahman unitarian. Jim. Got it. Our universe list for bears. Believe that above all else. The essence of god. Is love. And at the spiritual game plan. Is to do as god would do. To love. As god would love. This idea has unitarian parallel. Nearly 500 years ago. Our unitarian forebears and transylvania. Wrote a catechism. The states this. V. Purpose of religion. Is to refine our souls. True love. Toward god and neighbor. What lies at the core of our common faith. I asked. What lies at the core. Of our shared. As liberal religious people. We put our faith. In human reason. We believe in thinking. We believe not without. Doubt. But in spite of doubt. We questioned and search. We believe that diversity. Is a reality. And homogeneity. Andalusian. We work and worship together. The fidgety four-year-old. The man with two master's degrees. The woman who cleans houses. The couple married 50 years. The lesbian and her daughter. We avoid exclusive truth stands. No word of god is last word. We see truth. Continually unfolding enormous. There are new lessons. From science. And the pursuit of justice. Those. Are the basics. But the heart. Sour face. Is love. Love god. Love. Your neighbor. This is so simple. It risks sounding. Try. Jim harrison. Understood. Jose. Call. Order. Understood. Said to be a universalist. Was to see good. In all people. Defined them love apple. Lovable. In the sight of god. And jim said. I'm not there yet. I'm. In training. Jim would tell you about the guy on the road who cut him off that morning. Or the man who cheated him out of something. Squirmed about gay men kissing on the street. Or the women on the grocery line. Who spoke spanish. He wasn't proud. Feelings. But when the local hispanic church needed a place to worship. He made it possible. For them to worship in the sanctuary on sunday afternoons. And when he installed a hot tub and the home of two gay men. Jumped in the tub. To prove to his workers. That you can't get aids in a hot tub. Jim could be generous. On mother's day. He waited till mid-afternoon. And then dozens of flowers at half price. And delivered those flowers to all he knew. He delivered one bunch of flowers to my husband. And said. Gypsies to marta. And tell her they're from. When my marriage ended. He moved me out of my beloved. Condo. He arrived with four men and a truck. And he said. Our job is to get everything out of here before the woman cries. And they were out of there in an hour. Whatever good acts he performed. Counter by saying. Don't mistake me for a nice guy. Jim. Could be a pain. He talked too much. And was long-winded. Fancied himself a self-reliant man. He called himself. Jimmy sex. New houses inside out. I could repair. He took the church on as his project. Caring for its old boiler. Changing locks fixing windows doors and even plumbing. How to do. But not always. Drink. Too much. He drank when he woke up in the morning. He filled his coffee mug with vodka. He kept the bottles in his truck. I'm when he was drinking talked even more. And more loosely. Be horrified some of the proper ladies. In the congregation with his forthright. Afterwards at my urging. He would personally apologize. Jim new few boundaries. He called too often. Showed up unannounced. Is generally. In your face. He was the kind of person. It was easy. Not. To like. And yet i love. Jim harrison. Ignore. Congregations. In small towns and big cities. We are living a grand experiment. We are trying to live out the vision of our forebears. Trying to love. Even the unlikely. And difficult. Among us. Truth is. It's. Easy. To love others. When they've done. But the time to love another. Is when they are at their lowest. And least. Attractive. Is the universalist. Challenge. And we fall short of that goal. Over and over. But we keep. Trying. I asked you. Who. Do you need to love. Right now. In order to live out. This. Who. Do you need. To be loving. Who is at their lowest. At least. Attractive. We are. Universalist. In training. Everyone of us. And it is the jim harrison. Enormous. Who keep us on. Our toes. Love. The love i'm talking about is rarely solved. And sweet. The love is demanding. As well as gentle. Tough. As well as tender. Blazing with the fire of judgement. As well as brimming over. What's the oil of healing. And forgiveness. Love. Love what is difficult. Love the one who is irritated. Love the one who has. Disappointed you. Love the one who has brought you down. Love the tea party neighbor. Love the gun holster. The one with the pro-life bumper sticker. And the one. Who shops. At walmart. This love is not simply. Personal. It involves the commonweal. It is active. Love made manifest. Inevitably. Leeds. To justice. When we love enough. A new way on earth. Will. Unfold. So vote. As an act of love. Protest. As an act of love. Challenge cynicism. As an act of love. Fix the system. As an act of love. In the end. Our goodness will not be measured. By what we resisted or whom we excluded. But by what we embrace. And who. We included. In our embrace. More than once. I brought gym. To detox. He packed up his bag. Locked up his truck. I got into my little white honda. When he was released. He start going to meetings. I know i still have one of jim's 30-day chips. At the bottom of my jewelry box. But that was about as far. Jim krakow. Jim's father. Committed suicide. By rolling his own wheelchair. Orthodox. Here in florida. Jim phoned me. I arrived. In taos. And emptied out all the bottles. I could find. And jim said to me. You don't trust me. No gym. I do. And jim. Smiled. And cried. At times jim was a master. Of denial. And other times. He knew himself. Too well. On november 21st. 2000. James melvin harrison. Of liver failure. He was. 51. Even now. 14 years later. I find mice to self. Weeping. Fortune. Paul wrote in the letter to the romans. Where sin increases. Grace. Abound. All the more. Or put another way. Sommore. Jim harrison. Is one of the thousands of nameless ones. Who are forgotten. Or soon-to-be forgotten. His name will not be inscribed on a plaque. Or hung in a church hall. His presence. We'll go unrecorded. Yet such are the ones. Who offer us another chance. The train. As universalist. And to love. One another. Choose. Love. And when the recall sound. And the shadows fall. May we have hearts. An embittered. By all we have suffered. And uncorrupted. By all we have. And be at the last. Remembered. And cherish. As those who have love.

uufvb_org

2011Mar20Sermon32.mp3

Without a doubt. The highlights of 10-year tenure. Baju ustv. Have involved getting to know some wonderful a remarkable people. For example. Did you know that there is one among us who studied romance language at the sorbonne. And worked in advertising in philadelphia. There's someone here who has raced automobiles as well as boats. Yet served as a nature guy and trained horses. Why we even have one among us who has lived on the trawler in coconut grove and a slave cabin in annapolis on a swing houseboat in atlantic city's back bay. In a row home in south philadelphia. And at a suite at the waldorf towers. What's more we actually have someone here who stepped up. And married the love of her life in 2009. Just a month after vermont legalize same-sex marriages. Who are these remarkable people. Well. Let me feel you in my recently discovered all of these people. In one person. A relatively new member of ruuf phoebe family. Our own joanne finley. Moreover joanne is an accomplished rider. A public speaker and she's been compiling a collection of essays entitled. A life examined. Today our worship committee. Has invited jo-ann's take the pulpit and share one of those remarkable essays. Seeing without looking. Now if you left your left brain at home today don't worry. You won't be needing. Just drop your logic on the floor. And prepare to take a fresh look. You'll find that through a bitter and protect protracted struggle with reality. Joanne findley has a merger. As the vanquished. And she couldn't be more grateful. And seeing without looking joanne tries to explain why she makes no sense. Joanna. My my. Reflection disease called seeing without looking. When i was a child i fell under the spell of onions. I have no memory of the onion addiction. As early as i could persuade my fingers to obey my will. I was a pillar of onions. In the early dawn unsupervised hours i would leave my bed. And head straight for the drawer that house the potatoes and onions. Grab a likely candidate and start to peel. First the translucent powder parchment after another. I peeled. And i cried. Peeled and cried. As much would seem from the bitter onion fumes from the frustration of finding. Nothing. Nothing inside the onions wrapping paper but more of the same. And indeed the same only less. Thwarted by the stubborn. After several occasions of this carnage the onions were moved to safety out of my reach. But throughout my life in one form or another i have made a career of onion feeling. Today i'd like to talk about how the paradigm of looking harder and trying harder frame my approach to life's mysteries. And how am i insistence. Cold. Truth. Rainbow existence of the poetry. That was my birthright. I confused a search for truth. With my angry lonely longing for love. And how i came to discover a state of grace. Beyond power. And even beyond love. But first let me peel a few onions. In my early twenties i'm in paris studying french literature and i'm asked to write a paper on a surrealist poem. The piece is one of those opaque stream-of-consciousness affairs something along the lines of. Blue asparagus riding on the metro with a pipe-smoking fish. Undaunted i grab that by the scruff of its neck. Interjected to the harsh light of reason. Producing an interpretation. That transformed utterly the rare into the commonplace. My case was so airtight. That the professor gave me an a earnestness. Rihanna - with a commitment include. A little pool. I became none-the-less a devoted student of literature and those strong-arm tactics continued character characterized. Not only my approach to the fluid and fragile literary medium. Relationship to life in general. The paraphrase poet laureate. I tied a chair and try to force a confession out of it. In this manner i sent and some perfectly innocent life on death row. Not only did i squeeze but i. Forcing meaning. Fortune and consequence. Onto its already tottering legs. This trend of violence continued into my thirties with the creation and one of my short stories. Of a nature assailing hero. Mr sudsbury founder of the traveling cavalcade of bubbles. Had done every trick. And variation that could be performed with bubbles. His obsessive pursuit was to create a square bubble. He wanted to violate the stubborn spherical will of nature herself. Like mr sudsbury force not surrender was my modus operandus. Threatened by chaos and unpredictability i became attached to beliefs of order and causality. Armed with the assumption. One-to-one correspondence between thought and reality. I to woodforest nature to do my bidding. Violence was my first and last resort. I wielded my mind like a sledge my eyes like pry bars. I wasn't bonded not just too intellectual violence. But just physical violence as well. It was a measure of how a lost lonely and unloved. But i enjoyed the fist fighting that was a way of life in the projects where i was raised. It's assurance. It's intimacy. It's honesty. The relief from the bib & tucker platitudes that passed for human connection. Abri facade. I mentioned that i grew up in the projects but in fact. I was raised on both sides of the tracks. Growing up i lived on weekdays with my parents in south philadelphia. And on the weekends with my sister my aunt still. In new york's waldorf towers. In the 1st and south philadelphia was joanne roselli and even my name changed. When i get to new york to findlay. Now back to yellow formica and chrome table in south philadelphia where thankfully i was getting my first lesson in see without looking. My father diamonds he was. Made an illegal boomer bus living as a gambler. He book numbers and horses and red card games. At age 10 i remember diamond showing me a deck. Of what appeared to be ordinary playing cards. Marked cards. Spread them across the kitchen table. Face down and asked me to see if i could see the markings. That percy by a prince would disengage themselves from the general background pattern. To reveal the number and suit of the hidden cards. Applying my eyes like pry bars i stared at the mandalas on the backs of cards with grim determination. I saw nothing. The mosaic appeared perfectly regular and without relief. The harder i look the more i screwed my eyes into the pattern the blurry or those card became. No. You're staring at the cards you're looking so hard. You can't see. You have to look at them as if you weren't in love. Make. Google eyes. I had no idea what happened to your eyes when you were in love. And began to suspect the diamonds was having a joke at my expense. But then his body and face went slack. And his eyes seemed to glaze over and lose their focus. Spreading their gaze like melted butter over the entire kitchen. He spoke as if in a dream announcing the number and suit a beach card before he flipped it over. Iocene my first miracle. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. But softly full of wonder. It wasn't about force. He was talking about. Surrender. College astronomy 101 gazing through high-powered telescope at the clear night sky. The horsehead nebula is a stunning arrangement celestial gases. In the shape of a powerfully arched horse's head and main. Our professor fixes the telescope on the nebula. And invites me to look. Pressing and i to the instrument i subject the heavens to my. Hungry scrutiny. Nothing. Darkness. Now should the professor. Leave your focus in front. Gays from the sun. Place the far corner of your eye on the eyepiece. I sought the corner of my eye. There it is. There it is. Rainbow in riotous olestra mardi gras. I switched to the frontal view. The horsehead disappears. Glimpse from the corner of my eye it reappears. Intense frustration i want to hold it in my i i want i want i want. Like i wanted the hopalong cassidy gun and holster when i was seven. And like them i have the absurd impulse to wine until i get it. But the horsehead nebula does not yield is beauty to a full-frontal assault it can only be glimpsed in the corner of the eye. It's a characteristic. Of human eyes at more of this particularly heavenly light is received at its edges. Then at its center. We're bubbles and frontal assault not daunting enough elevated my jihad to the coercion of. Flesh and blood. This time i wanted a horse to cross its legs. Move sideways to balance is 12 lb on two pairs of scissoring legs. And i want him to do it with grace lightness eagerness and a plum. I apply a heavy hand to his mouth. Deprived of his momentum and balance. And any possibility of. There was a bad rubbish still the beleaguered be stumbles clumsily sideways trying to accommodate my fears will. Weeks and months of this futility pass. But eventually the great-hearted horse taught me how to do a half pass. To get him to cross his legs i would have to convince him. I was a person of character. I would have to be as patient. As kind as humble as he. Ask him allow him to do me this big favor. I could not ask him to do anything that i was unwilling to do myself. Ask him to surrender his will and i must surrender mine. Together we must find a way for both of us to move sideways. Rather than our habitual forward. Safely easily even prettily. Just for attention and salt in your eyes. I lay aside the fierce determination holster. I fall in love. The horse. I love. Love love. And i love love love his rider. Without any thought for myself. So yes. I make the google eyes. And make a wish. I put that wish in my pipe and smoke it. As the horse anais spring sideways in an elegant heart-stopping have passed. I float above the spectacle horse and rider moving as a single entity. And i wonder. Who is riding the horse. This was not a case of mask. But one of mystery. All i've done was consent. It was clearly a moment of extraordinary. An experience of freedom. An introduction to the paradox. That the fewer choices i made. The freer i stopped. When i can approach my life in the spirit of choiceless awareness. And what a tall order that is. My life becomes large with potential. And to the extent that i can enjoy possibility. Without foreclosure. To the extent that i can let things be. Myself included. I am powerful beyond imagination. I am free. Free from meaning. I no longer have to believe. Everything i think. Yes now i knew. But when you know something in your head but have not felt it in your heart. Life will help you. Let's do a hand grenade under my concepts of reality a meaning when i under. When i became intimate with alzheimer's disease. In my thirties i undertook the care of my great-aunt sell was by then in the middle stages of dementia. She suffered from memory loss hallucinations and disorientation. And i suffered from the loss of her. My early heavy-handed strategy and dealing with her issues was to attempt to call her back to reality. Anchoring her in the present. She'd be sitting in the easy chair in her living room and suddenly announce. I want to go home now. I take her on a tour of her house is your house here's your closet with your clothes in it. I'd show her the photos of her dead husband herded i tell her the year and the name of the president. I hammered these nails into her mind again and again. Nails with your say could only hold what i thought we attach her. Place of belonging and the conviction. That she was she. And that she was here. In this here and now at this moment. And that's those things. Counted for something. Again and again i drove in those nails. Convince somehow that i could get them. But they wouldn't they couldn't stay put. And the rotted wood was her mind. Or was it that i was hammering against the grain of reality. And then. Oh my goodness. I saw. I knew. That my demented aunt. And i. We're just. Exact. The same. We were made of the same stuff. We were made of memory. And belief. Experience. Life itself was only as real as our memories. Would have us believe. Stealing from the past. Borrowing from the future. I had described an imaginary existence. Not just for instill. But for myself as well. What do i called myself. My so-called life. Was nothing other than a tangle of memories. The selected and yes scentifier. Images of my imagined past. Projected onto the present. And into the future. I'd use thought like geometry. To describe and still in space and time. Is nothing more. Then arbitrary precision. Squirming reality. Hold still for just a second. Life was screaming by. Indiscreet packets that bore no resemblance to each other. But the ones i gave them. Without the imposition of thought and memory there was no real. At least not one available to my reckoning. The only difference between nstemi. Was that i still retained inter. Enough selected and sanctified memory. The project into the imaginary past. And the imaginary future. And she did not. In the kangaroo court of consensual reality. Estelle. Could no longer testify. And i was at best an unreliable witness. I couldn't be a remote memory france death. And finally i stopped crying. And so i became a turncoat a traitor to my own cause abandoning my insistence on truth and meaning and be coming for a while. The perfect fool. And extravagant liar. Sand in my heart. I knew myself today. And i love that fool and i loved that liar and i loved my new aunt. Now that's don't ask to be taken home to the place where she already was i packed her into the car drove around for 15 minutes and returned her to her door. You're home i didn't know. She was home. To satisfied. When she insisted that bobby kennedy had explained over and over that he was dead. And couldn't possibly have been sitting on her sofa sipping tea. I simply reminded her that he was a democrat. We celebrated as stills birthday four times a year on wrapping the same gifts each time. And i arranged with some local shopkeepers. For her to engage in her favorite activity. Shoplifting. Katherine mansfield. Anything that we truly accept undergoes a change. The suffering becomes love. That is the mystery. With my full acceptance of ants does alzheimer's my own identification with treacherous memory. I suffer deeply in both senses of the word. First myself in the death of my illusions. And then in the second sense of the word suffering. I truly accepted the grief of losing as still as i know her. I allowed that good grief to abide in me. I suffered that good grief. And it was as katherine mansfield promise. Transform into a wellspring of tenderness. My aunt. Myself and the world. For years i persisted in the headstrong belief that as long as i rolled carefully from the bottom i could squeeze meaning out of life like toothpaste from a tube. Years of chasing meaning like a quarter in the sofa crack pushing it be forever farther away with. Pictures of frustration and defeat. Are largely it's not entirely behind me. Success in this life i have known to. But never enjoyed. Any joy. I've known. Has come to me recording. The rights. Andreason's. The heartache. And failure. No mystery. Attempted to penetrate. Was this deep. As the wonders of the human heart. And no part of all the knowledge i have acquired. Is as rich. And hope or meaning. As a single well shed. Now i have a new way of seeing. Seeing without looking. I am still a pillar of onions but now convinced that they will never yield to my scrutiny i've turned my prying eyes away from their fumes. And lightly trace my fingers across their braille. Knowing that intimacy of touch in the beyond reckoning or dividing. And if when peeling onions tears flood my eyes. Those tears are not from the sting of onions. But from their beauty. For the beauty. An apprehended yet implicit. And every single thing. Every onion. Is an altar. Alters are everywhere. About and you militie. I kneel and worship. I lay my fingers on life's wrist. I placed the corners of my google eyes against the telescope. I still believe in love. But letting go of the happy ending. I return my heart to its innocence. No sense to it's not knowing. Not knowing this freedom from meaning. Is the ultimate grace. I fall in love with what is. Life poses for my fingers. Streams into the corners of my eyes. Love comes unsummoned. On tiptoes. Over the shards of my broken heart. Love takes its way through the smoking ruins of humiliation suffering and defeat. And their spawn. Trust. And despair. They are here in my heart and welcome to. Come in come in all of you i say. I sip some tea with darkness. Despair reminds me of what i love. And that i must lose it. It is despairs mirror twin trust that i invite into the guest room. I trust. I trust. That's some part of beauty. Some part of beauty. Beyond harm. Beyond change. Some part of beauty beyond harm beyond change. Lies within me. Is ultimately. What i am. Abide. A chad by sacred litany. Don't know. Don't know. Life keeps telling me. Don't believe everything you think. It's relief. When i stop fighting reality i know myself to be part of it only. Just what it is whatever that is. I keep learning. I am grateful to the suffering and the failure. In my humble dies the temple fires. Auralite. I see them with tinder of my broken heart. In my better moments. I am at peace. Unafraid. Almost.

uufvb_org

2011Apr17Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. Welcome on this beautiful day. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach florida. We are very pleased. All of you have chosen to join with us this morning. Know that you are welcome this morning however you come in all of your. Whether you are young or old. Gay or straight. Black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you are feeling on top of the world or. Ups or somewhere in between. We are delighted to see you. And you are welcome. As you come. We hope that you will find the service meaningful and enriching and that you'll find something here this morning. The nurse is your spirit and feeds your soul and gives you renewed energy and joy. For the work of the coming week. Our mother earth. Our planet home. Is a natural creation of almost indescribable. Beauty. Holiness. By what must be considered. And incredibly impossible configuration of cosmic luck. We have had bequeathed to us a stunning. And hospitable world that no citizen of earth should ever take for. Our natural world graciously offers us an astounding array of pleasing shapes. Site. Snails in sensation. And the human being who does not open him or herself. To the natural glories that sing and dance out of this creation. Is lost too much. Of life's holy gif. This morning i continue my year-long sermon series on ten commandments. The 21st century. Sermon reminding you of perhaps. The most pressing ethical. Injunction of our time. Thou shalt honor and. Your mother. Look. We all know the troubling truth. Despite those absolutely stunning photographs of our mother earth that we have just enjoyed. And despite the fact that much of our planet or wild and healthy and beautiful there is trouble. Terrible trouble. In our paradise. Over recent centuries as you all know. Our planet has experienced steady human population growth. And a corresponding explosion of human activity. And intervention. And as a consequence the very face of earth has been profoundly and dangerously altered. Massive industrialization and urbanization. Factory farming and deforestation pollution of air and water global warming. And the destruction of countless natural habitat. Including much of the everglades. Not to mention the extinction and endangerment of countless animal and plant species. Has increasingly occurred. No. In these early years of the 21st century the study and inevitable expansion of human activity. And consumption on earth's surface. Has reached the point where it now unmistakably dangers endangers the balance and health. Of this planet's many interrelated ecosystems and habitats. Indeed the future sustainability of earth's entire ecosystem. Is now in genuine question. Every day in the newspapers. And from the universities. There is some new and urgent warning from earth scientists about the deteriorate the deleterious effects. Which increased human activity is having upon our planet. And it goes without saying that. We as human beings ignore these dire warnings. Now. I am keenly aware that not everyone in this room this morning is equally persuaded. Why the urgency and extend. Of the ecological crisis humanity faces. But i'm going to leave those new ones conversation. About the precise condition and timetable of our earth. For some other fact oriented scientific venue. What i want to focus on this morning. In this religious setting. Is the absolute ethical imperative i am passionately persuaded exist for each and everyone of us. As responsible members of the human family. To do our part. In immediately facing. The clear and present dangers that have emerged. And as a consequence. We must begin significantly altering the way we live. Pain. This. Weather the last glacier on this earth disappears forever in 3 years or 10 years. Or 20 years or 40 years per. Does not matter. What does matter is that we all understand now. Set the time for human in action for burying our heads in the sand like scared. Podcast. As i observed last fall on this pulpit. I am persuaded that the foremost ethical imperative and challenge facing humanity as a whole and we have lots of them. And every human being in particular is the urgent requirement. That we immediately in systematically face. The global climate and environmental crisis. That is unfolding around us. And spine whole new more restrained. And responsible ways of living on this drinking. In crowded an endangered planet. It is clear to me and every reputable earth scientist i read. The humanity and that means all of us must quickly find ways to reduce our footprints. Carbon and otherwise. On this earth. As the dominant and burgeoning animal species on earth human population is growing very rapidly still. And with the obvious power we having predilection we have. To radically manipulate the ecology of our planet to meet our needs. And our desires. And our purposes. As one species. The responsibility incapacity. To begin changing the way we live on this earth. Lies entirely with. We are. We have great power. Given the obvious folly and weaknesses and short-sightedness. Of our human / animal nature. This is not going to be a quick or easy matter. It is clear to me and i assume to most of you. The many of the leaders and cultures of our world are not yet ready. To truly face. The impending crisis and the very real lifestyle change. Persil. Lifestyle changes it will require. There is a lot of denial and lobster keishin. And outright lying. Occurring on the world stage. When it comes to the s-curve escalating climatological and ecological crisis we are now in. Because much of humanity i think. Is naturally scared. Two-faced what is happening. Many world leaders are finding international agreements and coordinated global action. Will be required there finding them elusive. Finding them hard. To stand behind. Here in america for painful example. Many. Of our elected representatives in washington and in various state capitals are still telling themselves. And their constituents. That we need not yet make significant sacrifices. Changes. To protect our mother earth. Protect our shared future. I suppose this should not be unexpected. For after all it is only natural for human beings to watch a maintain. Or even expand their level of material wealth and comfort inn choice. Even as a planet shutters beneath our human demands it's logical that we don't want to face this don't want to start changing. Here in america in particular. Our personal lifestyle. Happy come for the most part so abundant. And so comfortable. And so routine. The to ask people to consider living more carefully and with less. With much less. Isn't extremely hard sell and congress isn't going. But the ethical and scientific truth is that we must change. And change it significant. And change it. Immediately. Where on earth is groaning and cracking benise are heavy. An indiscriminate lee greedy human footprints. As i said in the autumn i believe now is the time for us to embrace a new. Theology of relinquishment. Theology. Of relinquishment. A new ethic of restraint. And realignment. Now i fully realize. That it is. Downright un-american to suggest. That we have to live with smaller and with less. That we have to begin relinquishing. And relining. And restraining. Those are armed american messages. Those are messages that don't fit the wild west is. Still open well the wild. West is. Lawn. Gone. The salad days of earth. Are over. When we can indiscriminate acore consume as much as our animal hearts desire there over. Like it or not if the earth and us are going to survive for the long haul for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And. Obviously must live far more restrained. And responsible live. And this means choosing. Willfully and ethically and morally choosing to live. With smaller homes. And smaller. Nevermind smaller cars let's go to trains. Governor scott. Trains. Emphasis public shared transportation. With much lower fuel expenditure. We need smaller and smarter diets smaller lifestyle. Smaller luxury. So that is finite and fragile planet can sustain the nearly seven. Billion of us human beings. Going now honey. This is not are you sure use some sort of global. Abstraction or as some as some american political and social conservatives seem to believe. The excessive agenda of tree-hugging liberals. It's neither an abstraction nor an absurdity. This is a pressing ethical imperative of our time. And each of us will be required by individual choice and collective conviction. To live more modestly and responsibly on the earth and this is going to be the most demanding challenge humanity has ever faced. Pictures of world war ii. Bigger than any depression. Is what's coming. It's going to be very. Challenging. Let me speak personally for just a moment even though i passionately understand and take deep to my heart desire global environmental crisis we now face. It's going to be hard for me personally. To give up the abundance. The excess and the privilege that i have known. For my entire life. Cuz i was born in 1949. And grown so accustomed to. The ethical duty of real physical relinquishment. Real restraint and realignment. The disgrace of crisis places before me. Flies right in the face of my natural possessiveness. As an animal of creation devoted to myon creature comforts and well-being. And i assume the same is true for every last homosapien in this room right now. We all share this primordial resistance. 2. Living with less. It's going to be hard. It's going to be hard. It's going to be hard for you. It's going to be hard for me and i wish there were some other way for the seven billion of us. To make it together on earth but by god there is not. We have no choice if we want a future worth having there's simply no choice. There is no way around this at the comparative for each of us having to live smarter. And with less in doing so now all of us together. Look i like sundays. To be an upbeat positive experience whenever possible here. But this sunday. I hope you will all leave with a significant disquietude. About what is going to be required of us. In the days ahead. This is the only news of the heart that i in good conscience can bring to you on this earth day sunday in the year. 2011. My dear vero friends. Together we must transcend whom we have become. And how we have a grown. Accustomed to live. Together we must find the courage and wisdom to live on this crust of earth. Profoundly differently than we have been. To shift. The very way of human being. We so adore. Do it.

uufvb_org

2014Jan19Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. Did you notice the frost on the rooftops this morning. A beautiful lizards. Universalist fellowship. Loving hearts and helping hands. Even this together we work to make a better world. And please know that you're welcome i say this every sunday just as you come to us. Whether you are young or old. They are straight. Or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. What do you were feeling on top of the world this morning or down in the dumps or somewhere in between we welcome you. In all of your humanity and your need. We hope you will find our service this morning meaningful and enriching. We will find something here this morning. The nurse is your spirit and feeds your soul and gives energy and purpose. For the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. Now we open our service with the words of martin luther king. Gyros. To preach good news to the poor. To heal the brokenhearted. To set at liberty. Them are captains. The church is not a social club. The church is not. The church has purpose. The church is dealing with concern. Sunday after sunday. Week after week people come to church with broken hearts. Take me to word of hope church heal the brokenhearted. Circulate the role of the church is to free people. People who are slaves to prejudice. Slave to fear. The church is called is set free. Slavery of segregation. Discrimination. I'm caught up in the slavery of fear and prejudice. These our our guidelines. We won't be a little social club. We won't be a little entertainment center. Will be about the serious business of bringing. To the earth. The minister i like to something different. The rhythm crystal boushall to help me talk about. Race matters. Because race does matter still in our conversation and hopefully it will be helpful to you and your thinking on this thank you so much and i want to thank you for helping with this service it has been delivered his famous. He reflected on the 50th anniversary of martin luther king by saying. Enormous steps have been made in american race relations because most laws that explicitly codified discrimination have been stricken from the. Articulated racial animus has become more socially unacceptable and diversity of cause champion. But my worry is that we have hit a ceiling of swords in race relations in america he right as we get closer to a society where explicit is virtually eradicated. We no longer have the stomach to deal with a more sinister issues. Implicit biases. And of structural and systemic racial inequality right i worry that there is a distinct and never more vocal weariness. And in some cases outright hostility about the continued need an america to focus on racial inequality. 2011 harvard study of racial discrimination in contemporary america go figure. Luther king. Ever so briefly before i asked crystal to respond about called. Privileged distress and i'm going to be writing about this and wednesdays press journal in the news. Privileged distress and this is my router it was one of your recent world magazine. Is one of the reasons why american cultures. Distress. As a society progresses toward justice. Historically favored groups. Start losing privileges. Unfair advantages over the rest of society. But notice that. And if you belong to one of those groups to write and never noticed your unfair advantages all you see is that you are now quote on quote worse off. Society. Even though you're still. This is a great little example here. I saw it everywhere. Christian's imagine a war on christmas because they can't. White us as more prevalent than recently as a real victim in the fatal shooting of trayvon martin. Enemigos on to give other examples. So. It is a topsy-turvy cultural i believe this is utter dangerous nonsense for us to to be turning the tables on african-americans and suggesting. Whites are the victims of racial oppression. It's just it's crazy and end so i wanted to turn over you crystal what why do you think increasing. I'd like to comment on something you said about. Stealing white people feeling persecuted. We have to keep it in your face. Breaks my heart to say this to my congregation. I'm not talkin about you particularly but. In the world. We expect people have to keep it in your face that is that we're not through with this project yet the same way women had to do in order to get the right to vote. We had to keep it in the face of men. Until we got. I'm gay communities keep getting the face that was my neck. Because if we don't. The power the power structure will go to sleep and think the job. They know the job is not done but they'll just be through with it and respond to something else. And. So. When they complain about al sharpton and. Jesse jackson continuing to talk about race issues. I think we need to. We need to. Clarify the difference between being a racist. And being racial. Prefer. They are. Racial. Panera comments. Because in order to be racist you have to have. Power. Over someone you have to be able to suppress. Are oppressed people black people. Can't be racist. We have no power. Over anyone. But we are racial. No there's another definition to racism. That says believing that another race is superior. I would accuse jesse jackson and al sharpton and black people in general of being. Falling into that category because. We generally think white people are superior. And so with that thought. Then we approach our issues thinking that we have to do things because you are superior. That's an army. And the people we're dealing with bill that they are superior. And so. I think we have to keep. Working on the race matters until. Number one black people. Realize. Embody and fully comprehend. That we are not. Inferior. Just because. Of what said on television was written in books. Etcetera. We are not inferior but until we embody that. The weed thing. We're. Inferior and therefore we think. White people. Americans don't realize the power of that historic prejudice and an oppression. Set the calendar the psyches of of generation after generation that stuff lingers that has a has a shelf life of its own it's like like like garlic. If we only have one project in the black community. If we only had one issue. It wouldn't be as difficult to listen to and to resolve. But as you said that yesterday. Thousands of issues are layers and layers and layers. What are the examples that comes to mind is when bill clinton. If you're familiar with the tuskegee. Experiment where they gave syphilis to. Black man and didn't treat it. Okay. So. Bill clinton gave them. Certificates of appreciation a few years back. It probably cost $20 from state. What happened. But what you didn't address. Is the fallout from those men. Given syphilis. Their children. Their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren does suffered as a result of that experiment. What i think he should have done was to give several generations peace dollar shift educated in college education. And guarantee jobs. Because the fallout from that one little thing. In society in our history. Has permeated that family forever. Until something some action is taken. To really apologize for that. And when i speak of apology. I think of how. Japanese-american. Received. What is the word. Reparations for being incarcerated. African-american says never received. Any reparations for having been put into slavery. Affirmative action is a form of reparation but it wasn't call that. So why do people think. Well it's about time to end that we've been doing it for ten years now. You should have caught up by now but it's not called reparation. It's called primitive axe. There's been no apology. There has been nothing to. Say we're sorry if this about it. So why people don't realize that and black people don't either. That there has been a form of apology. And that there has been a form of reparation. I think until america does that. We're going to continue to have race matter. From the national. Has been part of the deep south. And while we've made great progress here in vero beach. Since i've, i've had several startling experiences one of which was an after that home invasion on the island one brian simpson was killed by two young african-american males who got pushed into a into a bathroom and got scared and shot through the door and kill them. And i spoke up and another one that spoke up about you let's hope it doesn't become a crime to walk while being black on the island. Deep concern about about how race matters here in indian river county just wanted you to address you've been a leader in gifford community vero beach community. I first met you just correct one statement i am not. Leader in gifford. I serve in gifford but i am not one of the leaders i don't make decisions. Forget for then i don't speak for gifford. However in terms of. Race issues here. Can indian river county there two common sidelights make number one. We heard about. The dodgers state the dodgers issue from the story this morning. You know at one point gifford was a thriving community because of. Racism. The dodgers couldn't go to vero beach but the dodgers went to get for it and at that time gifford had. A post office. A hotel. Appreciator. They had restaurant everything that was needed. So how's all of the black people. Who were part of the dodger team or who came to visit the dodger team. Or with the dodger game. So it was a thriving community until integration. And then at that time people would leave gifford and go into vero beach. So we look at gifford now and think all those poor people they've been. For all their lives they have. Been through the experience davina thriving. Community. But now there are no jobs. And impact the community on a tremendously. Make the creature a tremendous hardship. Because if you don't have job so you can feed your family. And the children are growing up don't see jobs they grow up and leave. And so that's one of the issues in terms of. The. Indian river county. Indian river county receives a lot of money. Because. Gifford is a part of indian. But that money is not spin. I'm sorry in different right. The second thing i'd like to say about racial issues in indian river county. Is from my personal training and belief. That consciousness is reality. And i think that gifford can turn the table on its experience. But changing is consciousness. We've done this as a community as they we. In terms of me being a part of gifford. Bicolor. There was a time when indian river county wanted to. Replace. Larry staley who was the facility manager. They just decided on a friday they were that he was going to be. Put oz seal. And you would no longer be. Facility manager. We made phone calls on friday. And saturday morning 400 people showed up and said no we're not going to let this house. An indian river county changed its mind. Is so we have to go back to the drawing board elyria skilled facility manager they won't touch it. Because they know the community. Will stand by him. But we don't do the same thing on other issues or sebastian high school football coach who was summarily dismissed by. For no apparent reason decided they couldn't work for the new principal. But what i'm saying is this about consciousness if. Gifford would put. Their head together. And stop thinking that white people are superior. That they have to live under. Local power structure. Well they did it once before. This was long before i came here i heard heard about this when i was. Publishing a newspaper there. When the county would not. Creativity latice have clean water and gifford. The people had to come to a certain building in downtown vero to get clean water. And different was so upset about that that they. They even had the television stations come out. And this is how they change. That procedure so it's not like you don't know how to do it. I think if we could just take one at a time just put all of our energy on one issue. And focus on that and get that one result and then move to the next one. We would have a greater success at changing things in gifford. Not trying to change things in. The power structure the changing things in gifford changing things. In our minds. To make a. But i'm not one of the leaders thinking. But you are a you are an influencer you have a. Maybe not official power but you have. Persuasion towers helpfully. I don't seem to have any power. I'm speaking to my own community here and i'll tell you one of the reasons we don't because the churches don't teach. Here we have a minister. Who is interested in making these changes. And you will talk to the community here. You will talk to the. It's mitty. You talk to the members. You keep it on our minds that these are things we need to do and this is how we can do it. But the pastor's in indian river county. I'm sorry in gifford as the group. Are not together to work on that issue. And i can't say why i just know it would make a difference. In los angeles i was part of a ministerial team. Where we wanted to change the law. In california. To give us permission. To give it permission. To teach ex-cons. How to read. Because that the inability to read. State legislature. But we didn't the minister's came together we had our meetings we had our congregation we had thousands of people working with us to get the job done. We got the job done. He got permission. Teach ex-cons how. Wonderful. Last focus here. Whether we are proud or comfortable with the demographic you see seated here this morning. This congregation is largely white and largely privileged economic have very few people of color who attend are part of our community. What can we do here in this community to to help with race matters crystal. And for the sake of time i'm just going to read my comments without commentary. I think our congregation is doing a fabulous job. And i almost want to say just just. But i think in our congregation we should also study black history ourselves. So that we know more about the whole of american history. We should study black history. We should study antibody emerson not just. Rita dan n repeat the words we should study emerson and understand. The value of consciousness and affirmation. I think we should go into gifford or any other community that is underserved. With an intention of social justice but being allies. An end yes helping to make amends but not. With an attitude of feeling guilty. And not feeling like a we've come here to help you. No. Coming to the community like we're working on this. Together i like the way. John mayer. Came into gifford. And start working with the leaders there. He didn't come in with the plan but he started working one-on-one with now that leadership in gifford. I would say he's in a position to make some changes there. I've seen with dick hayes. And. Either way she came into gifford is. Gifford ask for clinic life john studies. The people that he's serving. I think that we should encourage the people to interact. But let me see what am i trying to say. Oh i know i know. And when you're working with the people to encourage them to know. Their own power and their own beauty and the heroes. A veracruz. You know we can go in and talk about american heroes. But they're usually white male. If we're going into a mexican mexican community let's talk about their heroes. Encourage the people to think about how powerful. They are the ones that one serving i want to. Just close by saying we started yesterday. Since i run the gifford youth orchestra i can do whatever i want to do with them. Answer yesterday i started junior toastmasters club with the children. And. One of the girls gave her first heat and what she said. It's just so powerful and when i think about martin luther king. And how. Change. Just face. Of the world. Because he knew who he was. This young lady's she was asked to speak on. Who is your role model. And she said hi. I am my own role model and i dream about her all the time. And i think about what i want her to do and what i want. Her to become and then i work for it.. And i think that's something that we can encourage. People in the communities that we go to serve. We can encourage them to realize. That they should be their own. Role model. And not look to the outside not with the other people. To be their role models their saviors their god. But to find it with them. Wonderful. I just want to close by. Saying that again 50 years ago martin luther king drive i have a dream that my four little children will one day live. Where at they will not by the content of their character. We have a long way to go to achieve that and we must stay the course my message to you as it as a community here in vero beach we must speak up. And stay the course and be a voice for continuing to remind the people around us. Race. Matters. Race. Matters. Refer to. Martin luther king speech i have a dream. The general video would like for us to stay asleep and dreaming. He had that dream in 1963 he died in 1968 45 years. He continued to make a difference war on poverty war on the vietnam war. I would like to say yes have a dream but wake up. And stay awake. And do your work just dream 8 hours a day. The others 16 or whatever. Whatever the number is. Stay awake. And do your work and i would like to. Give thanks to my community here at the uu church. For doing the work for staying awake. And taking steps to make a difference. That's why i'm a member here. Because this church believe. In social justice. And walk the walk in. Can you please play crystal for being with us. And we send you on your way again with the words of martin luther king. She wrote. Beautiful struggle for a new world. Dedicate ourselves to the long and bitter but beautiful struggle. For a new world. Shall we say the. The struggle is too hard. Message be that there are forces of american life. Set militate against survival expo person. And we send our deepest regrets. Or will there be another message. A vlogging of hope with their yearnings of. Commitment to their cause whatever the cost. The choice is ours. And though we might prefer it otherwise. We must choose in this crucial moment of human. Going. And unrest. Peace. And unrest.

uufvb_org

2011Jul31Sermon128.mp3

I spend a lot of time thinking and reading about religion. And i find it to be to say the least the very. Complicated. There are religions with many commonalities. But also. Significant differences. Given that this is the case the first principle i hold about religion. Is that all of us. Have the right to. And the responsibility for. A free and responsible search. R-truth. And meaning. That is. Apri. Responsible search. Or our own. Religion. I hope that phrase sound familiar. You heard it already before from eliza forest principal. Of our unitarian universalist tradition. The first principle explicitly includes the concept of freedom from religion. Freedom of religion. A free. And responsible search. And implies the second concept. Freedom. Friend religion. Everyone has that same right. So every individual search for meaning in life. Should be free. Coercion. Freedom of. Hand from. Religion. Seems obvious. Tumi. And with respect to each of us as individuals. Probably is pretty obvious. But what happens. When religious rites religious visions. Come into conflict in society. That's. Not so obvious. Many of us have answered our doorbell to find a smiling person bible in hand. Ben wants to share their face. Hor. Perhaps. To tell you that you are going to hell if you don't take jesus as your savior. This is a potential freedom from religion conflict because the objective of both visitors. Is to change your religious position. The responses to the two approaches will probably be very different. I have had more than one unitarian universalist usually of the atheist persuasion. Tell me that they appreciate the opportunity to share. And agree to do so as long as the visitor agrees to give them equal time. We all probably know one or two of those. Now the sharing visitor may be open to a discussion they know that they have the answer. They wouldn't be visiting us if they did not have that conviction. And they may appreciate an opportunity to help you see the light. Such an open debate is an example of freedom from religion at its best. An opportunity for learning. For increased understanding. And perhaps even some new insight. Into yourself. And to religion. The response of or to the damning visitor. Will be a different story. That visitor to will have the answer or in this case. V. Answer. But most likely will not be open to a debate. My religion or the fire so tell your choice. This is an example of why freedom from religion is both necessary and problematic. Necessary because freedom of religion is an inalienable right. Problematic because. My exercise of freedom of religion. In society. Can be interpreted as a violation of your. Freedom. A religion. Creches in public squares. And evolution in public classroom. You come to mine. As example. Reacting to a perceived freedom from religion conflict requires a sensitive understanding and balancing of the commonalities and differences among religions. Deposit the possibility of a positive response to the sharing visitor. Arises from the commonalities. Among religion. The golden rule do unto others as you would have them do unto you. For example is found in many religious communities. Probability of a negative response by the damning visitor of course arises from the many and fundamental differences. Among. Allegiance. I would like to focus today on what i see as the most fundamental difference among difference among religions. The source of religious. The religions that tend to be the most open and tolerant are those of the east. In particular. Hinduism and buddhism. Both of them are intuitive relation. Religions with their truths coming from within and recognition of some form of unity. With the one. With the whole. With the universe. The western religions judaism christianity and islam. In contrast find their truth in the directly revealed word of god. God. The creator. Of the universe. A very different universe. The night of the eastern religion. Consider how the concept of revealed truth dominates the range of debate possible. In the complex just mentioned. The damning visitor will brook no discussion of truth outside the realm of god's word. Revealed truths. From saul. It's possible that the best result in this case. Maybe an agreement to disagree. Without. Being disagreeable. Which is no small thing. In some cases. But sharing visitor may be more flexible but even then. And individually based approach the truth will most likely be met with the objection that individual truth. Ar. By definition. Subjective. And us. Irrelevant. The fundamental primacy of revealed truth is in my opinion the major cause for concerns about freedom of and from. Relation. To dress that conflict i would like to share my thoughts about some books i read in the past few years and the influence that they have had on my thinking about religion and religious truth. Different authors use different words to cover the same. Basic concepts of religion. Among them true. Morals principles values. Conscience. All of these words relate to how and what we believe. And how. We carry out those beliefs into the world with us. That in my opinion is the essence what religion is all about. How we live together. In the world. The first book is the god delusion. Which is a polemic against fundamentalist practices of western religions by evolutionary biologist richard dawkins. Now this is a weighty tome as they commonly say and any summary of the god delusion would do it in injustice. So let me simply say that i agree with almost everything dawkins who is a devout atheist. Says. But disagree with one of his major conclusions. The conclusion that has made his book a lightning rod for the religious right. The conclusion. That religion is irrelevant. And in fact. A disservice. To society. In dawkins words. Fundamentalist religion is hell-bent on ruining the scientific education of young minds. Non fundamentalist sensible religion may not be doing that. But it is making the world safe for fundamentalism. By teaching children. Unquestioning faith. Is a virtue. I'm going to take the liberty of paraphrasing dawkins comment by stating that his concern is about. Fundamentalist primacy of faith. Over. Reason. Exclusion of reason leave no opportunity for discussion or debate. About. Religious truth. But unquestioning faith is not a requirement of religion in general. For me as you've already heard the essence of religion is apparent from its root really gre. Dubai. Together. The essence of religion is the beloved community. Not the belief system held. By the community. So i can agree with dawkins - use the fundamentals belief systems and the effects of such beliefs on society. But i reject his position that religion itself is the problem. I do agree however that something should be done about the effects of fundamentalism on the search for truth and society in general. And that's the reason why freedom of. In particular. Freedom of religion. Are so important. I have similar comments about the general negativity toward religion of sam harris's end of faith. In which he too. Find serious flaws in traditional belief systems based on divine revelation. His concern is evident in the subtitle of the book. Religion. Terror and the future of religion of. Reason. Excuse me let me do that properly. Religion. Terror. And the future. Of reason. Not too much.. But another of harris's book. The moral landscape. With the subtitle. How science can determine. Human values. Offers a very different perspective. Paris is both a philosopher and a neuroscientist. And that's that's quite a combination. In the moral landscape bills on both of these specialties to offer an alternative approach. A scientific approach. The morality and values. And therefore. True religion. An approach based on properties intrinsic to the human brain. The hardwired intimations of morality that have evolved in the human brain over millions of years. I come across this concept in several books in recent years and find it both mind-boggling and exciting. Does the brain. Container template for morality. A template that can be accessed. And developed. To amore. Open. Amor general. Approach. To morality. To a religious community. I think it does but the argue this point in detail is. A different sermon. And if i ever get brave enough to me. You're that one someday. For today let me tease you a bit with a quotation from noam chomsky. A renowned scholar of linguistics and language. Who has argued that we have within us within our brain and instinct. A drive. To develop language. That concept. Earned him a nobel prize. It is significant. That he has extended that concept to include a moral instinct. Haswell. Why does everyone take for granted chomsky asks. That we don't learn to grow arms but rather art design. Grow arms. Similarly we should conclude that in the case of the development of moral systems. There's a biological endowment which intersect requires us. To develop the system of moral judgments. And a theory of justice. If you like. That in fact has detail applicability over and he normal range. I would add two to the chomsky quote to the phrase moral judgment and theory of justice i would head the words. Religious. Sensibility. There are two arguments in support. Have that position. The first is straightforward. The commonality of basic principles across many religions that i commented on earlier. As evidenced by the golden rule. Is a golden rule resident. In the human brain. The 2nd. Is it inside i got from book by mark hauser title. Morrow mine. And listen to the subtitle of that book. How nature designed our universal sense of right. And wrong. One of the major points in the book concerns people's responses to moral dilemmas. Situations in which a decision must be made as to whether a specific action. Is morally right. Or morally wrong. Hauser among others has discovered that when a person is faced with a complex moral dilemma. They make an immediate. Decision. But when they're pressed. They cannot describe how they came. To that decision. It's simply. Comes to them. Is it at instantaneous recognition of an internal directive. Dare i say. Moral instinct. Hauser says. I argue that our moral faculty is equipped with a universal moral grammar. A toolkit. For building specific moral system. Once we have acquired our culture specific moral norms. A process that is more like growing a limb. Been sitting in sunday school and learning about vices and virtues. We judge whether actions are permissible. Obligatory or forbidden. Without conscious reasoning. And without access to the underlying. I ask you now to take as a given. That the human brain does have a religious instinct. That the human brain does contain a template for morality. A template that can be accessed and developed. To provide a broader more open approach to morality. Why is this important. It is fundamentally important because it opens a new path to defining moral. And hence. Religious truth. As i noted earlier the western religions all find the source of religious truth in the word of god a revealed truth. The fact that there are numerous sex within each of these religions indicates that there that the word of god is open to interpretation. With the various x differing in. Who has the right to do the interpreting. And how much interpretation is allowed. But reveal truth. Is a given. For fundamentalist those who do not recognize god's word. That is those who are on an individual search for truth. Have no hope. The finding it. If an individual looks within for wisdom. That wisdom is subjective. And us. Irrelevant. But. Brain center truce brain centered morality changes all that. An inward search now. Can be seen as accessing the source of religious sensibility of religious truth that is common. 2. All of. Humanity. This source of truth is not subjective. But intrinsic. No course not all brains are wired identically. So the possibility of sex still exists unless we have and always will have. Atheists and humanists and pagans and hindus and buddhists in dallas and jews. And christian. Muslim. Let me introduce yet another book. Secular conscience by austin desi who holds a doctorate in applied ethics. And social philosophy. Applied ethics. And social philosophy. That's a far cry from religion. Think again. How we practice our religion in society is. Are ethical. And social stance. Him. Our community. Secular conscience provides in my view and more appropriate and practical response to the negatives of. Religious practice that so incest incense dawkins and harris that they want to do away with religion. Entirely. The subtitle to secular conscience. Why belief belong in public life. Is apparent. When they see says. I always maintained that the point should be to make the mainstream culture. More secular and humanistic. Not to create a new. Secular. Humanist subculture. The objective is not to convert society. But the reorient and expand its concept of religion. And really just truth. Desi divine three spheres of society. Between the private sphere of personal property. Preferences and relationships. And the civil sphere. Upstate power and institutions. There is a public. Sphere. This. Is the social space in which citizens carrion debate. About their shared. Life. The newspaper article. Letters to the editor blogs. Houses of worship. And work breaks. It is the marketplace. Where we weigh and exchange each other's reasons for what we think. And do. That. Is the public sphere. Given the complexity of contemporary society they're obviously many subjects had married debate. Some are trivial. Your favorite tv show. Some. Are important. Socio-economic decisions. And some. A fundamental. The central human concerns of living in the world. I'm living in the universe. Potential concerns of. Religion. According to desi these central human concerns are the realm of consciousness. But here. Recall my comment about expanding the meaning of the word conscience to include other religious terminology. The public sphere says they see is the realm of conscience. Or at least it should be. Unfortunately with respect a religious debate that is not. The case. The public sphere is currently contaminated by a confused, mingling of freedom of. And freedom from. Religion. In principle the personal sphere of religion is. Absolute each of us. It's certainly free to believe according to the dictates of our conscience. In the civil sphere at least in the united states. The establishment clause in the first amendment of the constitution says. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. Or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Which in my opinion exposed bust freedom of. And freedom from. Religion. I suggest that the combined freedoms of the civil sphere have been inappropriately carried over into the public sphere. With the result that freedom from religion. Has been transformed into freedom from commentary. More explicitly. Freedom from criticism. A religion. Which precludes the opportunity. For religious debate. Recall however that the public sphere is the realm of debate. Which includes. Religious debate. In principle to bring religion into the public sphere. Into the school system. Into the legal system. Includes. A commitment to open this. Two religious debate. Early right. Excuse me. Earlier in the sermon i spoke a bible bearing visitors wanting to share their religion. A public sphere activity. And the fundamentalist characteristics i would tend to limit the ability to have a religious debate. The first was a freedom from religion no criticism of god's word policy. This is a showstopper and closes the door. Two religious debate. An openness to an alternative viewpoint on religious truth would allow for a public sphere debate. Unfreedom of infirmary elysian. But as i mentioned until now. Alternative viewpoints are frequently been dismissed as subjective. And relativistic. Again. Limiting the opportunities for debate. But. The intrinsic brain centered religious sensitivity basis for religious truth is. In my opinion. A powerful counterargument. To such a rejection and a reason to. Play religious pay. Religious debate. Onto. Societies agenda. Am i suggesting that all of you should go out now into the public sphere with a copy of moral landscape or moral mines or secular conscience in hand. To convert the revealed religion majority. No. I'm not. It will be a tough sell. Given the predominant cultural mindset. Consider the data shown. A culture in which more people believe in angels and the devil then believe in evolution is unlikely to be open to an intrinsic brain centered basis. For religious sensitivity. It is data like this that drove both dawkins and harris to distraction and to decry the fundamentalist rejection of alternative approaches. That is science. Facebook roaches. True religion. Hand. Unfortunately. Too many other societal and ecologically issues of importance. And this in turn leads to their declarations that religion is irrelevant. And a disservice. To society. Based on these data i expect that most members of the public sphere in today's culture. Would subscribe to the position know that that there can be. No religious truths. Without. A revealed religious-based. To define. You won't be surprised to hear that i strongly disagree with that formulation. In fact. My profound disagreement is probably the reason i decided to do this sermon. Desi footwell when he says. The conventional view that. Genuine conscience requires religion. Has it precisely wrong. Genuine religion. Requires conscience. That statement rings my times because i am. Tired of hearing that humanists or are even worse secular humanist. Do not have a conscience or values or morals or principles or truth. Because they have no standards. No basis for doing so. Meaning of course. That humanists do not subscribe to the scriptures the revealed truths of whoever is rejecting. This humanistic position. I categorically reject. The position that an individual does not have the capability to define their religion. On their own terms. Based on their own experiences both cultural. And philosophical. I will go further. And suggest that reveal truth can be more correctly described as. Discovered. Truth. Discovered in the brain of an individual. Abraham. Moses. Buddha. Cheese. Mohammed. Brain that like yours and mine. Have you evolve and inherent religious sensibility. That each of us. Can access and develop. In our own way. Go back just a little bit prior to my rant. No. I don't expect any of you to take these brain center arguments. For the source of religious truth into the public sphere. Especially the last one about the true source of revealed religion. But i hope. They're giving you some insight. And some confidence. That you could. If you wanted to.

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2010Aug01sermon32.mp3

uufvb_org

2012Jan29Sermon32.mp3

The big reason i've been a unitarian universalist minister for 39 years is that our movement is one that is and always has been on the edge. Spiritually. Intellectually culturally and politically. And i don't know about you but i have no interest in being part of anything. Not. On the edge. That's not challenging need to grow myself deep in my commitments and to build a better world. Isn't that would worship should be taking each of us to the edge of possibility and promise. It was the writer annie dillard who said that we shouldn't go to church without crash helmets in life preservers because if we're going to worship right. It's a dangerous. And what could be more dangerous than asking the big questions about life. Not only the big questions but the edge question such as what is our purpose. And meaning. And is there life after death. Or even before it. Hello this is a good crowd i like this. In our unitarian universalist congregation we not only ask these momentous questions but we seek to answer them with no limitations with no vowel shalt nots with no shame on you for even thinking about these issues much less asking questions and seeking answers. It seems apparent that one of our purposes as human beings. Is to ask the big questions and then to seek out answers that give us meaning. It's not that we. Want to know we have to know. We have to know because our lives are shaved molded and created by our answers to the big question. So let's go to the edge this morning by asking one of the biggest and most edgy of all questions how big is god. God yeah you don't hear that word in the unitarian universalist church much to you. But you might think that the bigger question is whether you believe in god or not but. How big is god for you. Is god a reality that fills your life are just a small part of who you are or is god non-existent. No i love the cartoon that shows a bespectacled minister and in compliance with federal full disclosure laws i'm required to tell you that i'm really not sure about any of this stuff. To be honest i feel that way whenever i step into a puppet but it's especially true what i'm talking about. Of course. I believe it's healthy not to be sure about any of this stuff. God by definition is the most. Difficult concept. Human beings could ever tackle. And to pretend. That are punimon. Can wrap around such a grandiose and mysterious notion is ludacris. And yet. What a challenge to try and do so. One of the most common questions i'm asked by newcomers as what does your church believe about god. Oh that's. Tough. I usually respond that historically unitarian-universalism has proclaimed the belief in. But like all religious ideas hour. Unitarian universalist concept of god has changed over the centuries. And most of our congregations there's a wide variety of theist and agnostics and atheists and mystics and humanist. As as one jokester put at unitarian universalist believe in at most one god. Now. Those new to our congregations are usually surprised and perhaps even shot. That non-theist are embraced as fellow. Spiritual sojourners. I explained that our religion is defined. As deeds not creed's. Buy what we do in the world more than what we believe. But we also recognize that it does matter what we believe. We have no creed that requires a dogmatic set of beliefs. But instead we urge each person to build a belief system upon the foundation of their own personal. Experience. Now. Are we ready all yeah. Now you know anybody recognize this guide. Who is it. Monty python the monty python version of god. Well many unitarian universalist have had the experience. Of the god we were raised to believe in being pulled out from under ascend by people like monty python right. Those all those monty python movies can do it to you. But i grew up as a southern baptist. Just up the road in jacksonville florida. And i remember having this sudden revelation as a teenager that. What i was being told by the church was utter. Nonsense. I was instructed to believe in an all-powerful. Giggle. I was instructed to believe in an all-powerful and loving god who would send anyone who didn't believe in him and wasn't the southern baptist. Do hellfire and damnation it sounds very similar to the catholics experience that the words. Jim was talking about earlier. And imagine many of you have had that experience. So i can make no sense of such a contradictory description and so i decided after a long and painful struggle that i had no room in my life. For such a cruel deity. At first i was totally devastated but later there came up. Feeling of elation and liberation a realization that i was finally free to be myself. I was no longer ruled over by a manipulative cosmic power i had responsibility for controlling my own faith. Now this certainly doesn't happen to everyone. I assume there are those who go through life never having any doubts about the existence of a benevolent god. And that experience is just as valid and worthy is that of the skeptic. But for those of us. Who have experienced the death of god we have had to make a momentous decision. Weather to transform our concept. Of divinity. Or whether to believe. That there is no god at all. Now the atheist. I like the safety of them is a nonprofit organization right. These are fine i like this. The atheist proclaims that there's no need for a concept of god literally that's without god. Fulton sheen describes the atheist as a person who has no invisible means of support. That good. I like that. It is true the atheist says what's here is here god is an illusion humanity has been tricked into believing no different than santa claus or the easter bunny. Now the major objection of the atheist is that god just doesn't make sense. And the words of the infamous atheist clarence darrow in spite of all the yearnings of humanity no one can produce a single fact or reason to support the belief in god and in personal immortality. Certainly the evidence for god's existence is scant at best. If we rely on the revelations of science and modern thought then the concept of god cannot be taken seriously. Those who do believe insist that we must rely on faith rather than reason. Baps revolts against such a denigration of reason and agrees with with a hl mencken when he wrote. Faith maybe define briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. That's a good definition. Navigate agnostic has many similarities to the aps but also some important differences. In 1869 thomas huxley the english biologist. Intellectual coin the word agnosticism. Which comes from the greek meaning the unknowing or unknown. In religious terms it's the view that we don't know. If there's a god or not and we can't really know. And huxley's own words agnosticism simply means that individual shall not say they know or believe that for which they have no ground to profess. Jubilee. Now the agnostic would agree with thomas edison who wrote we do not know one millionth of 1% about anything. Or in the words of norman ford never try to tell everything you know it may take too short a time. Sofia sunday. And this is where. Some unitarian universalist get confused not necessarily a supernatural in anthropomorphic deity. Sometimes when people ask me does god exist. That word probably that work god probably set sophomore fireworks in our brains in just about any word in our lexicon. Because the entire concept of divinity is based. Not only on our personal experiences but on our imagination. Many people can only imagine the god they grew up with. Or a god who is simply a projection of themselves. What a waste. Since the possibilities of divinity are endless. But there are theus to go to the edge by daring to use their imagination. To look beneath all the myriad mask of god. To the ultimate reality itself. God is the ultimate reality wrote. Paul tillich the most renowned protestant theologian of the 20th century. And what that means is that when you cut through all the layers of supernaturalism and superficiality you find god at the very heart of life. Chillicothe oh have the gall. To say that god does not exist. Which got him into a lot of trouble with his fundamentalist friend. Metallic didn't stop there he went on to say god does not exist. He is being being being. Beyond essence and existence therefore to argue that god exists is to deny him. So try that on your thea's friends over. Wine and cheese what night. I'm always tempted to answer the god question with the words of voltaire. Who said that to believe in god is impossible not to believe in god is absurd. To truly understand god we must get beyond the concept of believing or not believing instead we need to talk about whether we experience god. Now we're coming close to the edge folk so hang on there's our path. Religion should be a path that leads us to an actual actual encounter with the depth dimensions of life. Deliver religious life is too since our deep connections to humanity to our earth. And to a transcending spirit. And then to respond to that sense of unity and oneness with a universal and unconditional love. When we experience that unity. Unitarian. And oneness we discovered that we don't have the words or the images or even the thoughts to conceive what we've encountered. Some may call that unity god. Or the spirit of life or the holy. Or nature or the cosmos. But whatever we call it our words and our concepts are limited inadequate and can even be deceptive. St augustine once issued a warning to ministers who were driven to preach about god. If you can understand it then it is not god. That's something. A twelfth century philosopher describe god eloquently in one short sentence. God is unintelligible sphere. Whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere. That's that's something. Now that beautifully described the paradox that we cannot fully comprehend comprehend the ultimate reality. Now something. I do understand is that whatever god believe we embrace embrace it's vital that we do not grasp hold. And a dogmatic or obsessive way. I like to imagine myself dancing with the holy at times embracing and at other times moving apart but always remaining and rhythm and relationship. When i see god used to manipulate and terrorizing subjugate. I feel. Atheistic. When i hear god proclaimed as a definite fact or fiction. I feel like gnostic. When i experienced my unity with life my ones with the universe i am infused with the mystery and power of the holy. Not as a supernatural otherworldly being but as the infinite unconditional unlimited source of all life. And home st paul said we live and move. And have our being. Now i know that by naming god we necessarily diminish divinity and yet the very nature of human beings. Is to name everything whether we understand it or not. Now if i must use words to describe the divine. I prefer to call it the great mystery. Have you heard that term before it's a native american term the great mystery or just mystery. Because i believe god is the greatest of all mister. And to pretend to know the mystery is the greatest of all presumption. We can never completely encompass the holy and are thinking or feeling. It's too fast too deep to mysterious. What i've discovered however is that even though i can never fully understand. I can respond to the mister. And that is my purpose in life. To relate. To the ultimate reality as creatively as lovingly. Powerfully as possible. Sometimes i see god as having no face or image or shape or form as a force of void of mysterious energy that flows through all creation. And at other times i see god as having a multitude of faces. Not only the faces of all the gods of all the religions. But also i see the holy in the faces of all seven billion. Human beings on this planet. And the words of pablo casal and music in the sea in a flower and a leaf in an act of kindness. I see what people call god. And all these things. So this is how i experience god and yet i know that the word and the concept is not necessary. It was the christian mystic meister eckhart who said that god. Is beyond names and forms in the ultimate and highest leave-taking. Is leaving god. For god. So friends. I invite you to the edge this morning. To that edge where we leave the notion of god for the experience of mystery. And unity and love. Where is your edge. When it comes to god. Perhaps god is not that big of a deal for you or perhaps divinity is non-existing altogether doesn't really matter. I choose to call the holy god but you can call it whatever name you wish. Or no name at all. But let us never forget. That the purpose of our lives is to experience. This mystery. This unity this love. And then to respond to it with a sense of wonder. Of deep connection. And a commitment. To morality. And justice. Just some up my belief about god i borrow the words of john cyrus. To believe in god is to believe in life and all of it. The farther is star that i can see is part of the human environment. It is part of the whole in which i live and move and have my being. As a religious person i behold it with imperfect comprehension and say. God. This is my belief in god. The affirmation. Of one's whole. So may all of us dance lightly and joyfully with the god we choose to believe in or. And may we never. Stop.. Amen.

uufvb_org

2014Feb16Sermon32.mp3

Universalist fellowship of vero beach. We're very happy that you have chosen. To be with us this morning. Wiara congregation. Open minds. Loving hearts. And helping hands. People seeking to become our best selves even as we work to make a better world. My name is paul lamoureux. And i. I'm a member of this congregation. Please know that you are welcome. Just as you come to us this morning. Whether you are young or old. Or straight. Black or white. Or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you are feeling on top of the world. Down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We are delighted that you are here. Just as you come to us and all of your particularity. And need. We hope that you will find this service meaningful and enriching. And that you will find something here this morning. That nourishes your spirit. Feed your soul. And gives you renewed energy. For the joy of living life. In the days and weeks. In our unitarian universalist spirit of community. In which we share and find strength and common purpose. We turn our minds and hearts as one another into our circle of concern. All who need our love. And support. We the people. Determined to have. Succeeding generations from. D'usse. Generations from a sturgeon for. Reaffirm face and fundamental human rights. Dignity and worth of the human person. Women. Nations. Small and large. A moment of silence. Human rights. Versus the survival of the fittest. I don't know that all this business about. Respecting the rights of others and treating your neighbor as yourself. Mother nature really works. Charles darwin survival of the fittest. Which doesn't seem to me that you step back. Of the choices cut of beef steak. Right. And get all those choice cuts of meat for yourself. Along with the reservations at the best hotel. Strong to survive. George h.w. bush. You've got to be macho you got a backflip with the best seats in the house. But wait a minute. This macho. I need stuck to his guns and terrorism. Even got us into a long war with iraq. Citing reasons for doing it. That have not proven true. Despite all this macho proposing. Not even republicans parents is with him. So i have a theory about that mysterious discrepancy between the fittest survive and respecting the rights of others. According to this theory. Concern for human rights. Expanding of the scope of human brain. This kind of enhancement does not occur in many animals. However. The chimpanzees brain as well as in advanced development. Some scientists call this capability in human social intelligence. Humans to live in peace. With more of their fellow human beings. And almost everybody. However. In-home it does not occur. In order to demonstrate its existence. Simon baron-cohen psychologist at cambridge university. Demonstrated this by studying the ailment known as autism. Autism does not automatically produce a low iq. Some autistic folks can be very brilliant. Impossible. To understand what other people are thinking and feeling. Pictures of people expressive faces. Picture. And they were undergoing various emotions he showed these. Pictures. And ask them to tell him. Feeling. Based only on the appearance of their eyes. Play autistic could not. Even people with. Sympathize. With the people and understand them. But now we come to another significant point. A sensibility which can actually lead to the recognition of human rights. Hasnat. Realized. Concerned. The plays about thomas. Unless you are a member of royalty a champion athlete for a priest. You are not considered important enough to be featured in the place. In the grease of that day. Egyptians enrollment. Remember how the egyptians use multitudes of slaves to build a pyramid and which to bury just once. Not long after that the roman said prisoners to kill each other. For the entertainment of the populist. One reason what we sometimes forget is that these slaves. White people usually relate to slavery. Even the slavery practices in the united states included a holdover redmond. Enslaving white people. We had indentured slave. Included white people here from europe. By working for their sponsors. A. of time as virtual slaves. Obviously changed since then. Well i was surprised and researching this subject. Basis. For mankind's current fine-tuning visibility. To truly sympathize. With the suffering of others. About 1456. The printing of the first book with movable type. The gutenberg bible. Notice now that i said laid the basis not brought it about. At first it was mostly. May have led to something further cold. Contemplation of ethical matters. But it wasn't just the bible that really brought about a universal awakening. The importance of ordinary human beings. After all the stories in the bible in the old testament. The point is mentioned in a recently published book. Entitled inventing human rights. Play lena horne. The fact that jesus christ expiation for our sins. To pay the price for our sins. For example in france. I know i'm afraid. Arthur gets a bit gruesome a person convicted of murder or highway robbery was tortured by a cruel method for breaking on the wheel. Before he was allowed to die. I give this is just one example of the horrors imposed upon people. Various violations of the law. The reasoning behind this idea was. Given the beliefs of the day perfectly logical. Suffer on earth. Than to suffer the torments of hell. Backward threatened in the bible. To recognize recognize these things. For the outrages they were. Set a timer. What is the first publication. A time that had never been published. This was a type of book now known as the novel. A fictional account. A book which i'm sure you've all heard of entitle pamela. Virtue rewarded. B samuel richardson. To her mother. Serving in the employee of a certain mr. b. Pamela a girl brought up. With a family background in the practice of virtue. Call the pow. Destroy her virtue. Pamela suffered under her employers. Advances but her moral protected her from the odious mr. b. And she did not yield to the man's evil lust. The day know which from a modern point of view may seem rather,. Mr be exhausted from his unsuccessful efforts at seduction. Finally recognized as virtue. I'd propose marriage to. Pamela accepted happy. Although nowadays we may laugh at this happy ending is being rather naive. And it went into some 15 prince and england. British colonies in america. Translations in other countries. That people of low or ordinary estate. Had feelings too and could suffer. Mayflower word came from a contemporary. Mister hill. The book of religion good reading discretion. Good nature with. Fancy. Morality. I have nothing. Other novel spread to all parts of the western world. The novel john brown. Gmail. The author of inventing human rights has this to say about the effects of novel. Maiden middle class people. The equal the better of rich man like mr. b. Get a feeling of equality and empathy. Fruit passionate involvement with a narrative. The early novels was playing. Wanting independence. Robinson crusoe. White daniel defoe. 1775. It was a bestseller in the american colonies. The american subjects. Understand found inspiration. In a novel. About a man breaking away from british civilization. And making it on his own. American thomas jefferson. Is half half brother-in-law. A list of best reading matter. And he declared that novels were more valuable than history books. For what he called morrow emulation. Thomas jefferson. Write the declaration of a. Who wrote. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life. Liberty. And the pursuit of happiness. The declaration of independence studies the first well-known instance of the idea that human rights. First introduced. Statement of governmental policy. The declaration did not. But it sure push them directly into the face. Of the british government. That was refusing a little group was steadfast american. Their own rights. In those days. The word tea party. Maintaining rights not losing them. It remains for the french revolutionaries to turn the first human rights into law. In 1790. The french revolutionary laws on family practice. Or pass. Stop allowing without caring. Anna polish complete inheritance rights. Previously given exclusively to the first male born child. First born. United states. In 1791 ratified the american bill of rights. The constitution had been ratified much earlier but it was the bill of rights. That finally put many of the. From using my previous unfair practices. To take advantage of its citizens. So i lay before you an admittedly brief history of human rights. Arising naturally out of the development of the human psyche. The idea has become. Part of our intellectual and political heritage. Do everyone turns out to be an evolutionary step forward. Because it helps human beings live successfully. And larger and larger groups. Fellow human beings. As unitarian universalist many of us are determined that these human rights. She'll continue to broad over the years. It is true that the rights of sometimes been allowed to weekend. Especially during times of war. But then peaceful years. They invariably even more strength. I am sure i reflect the ambitions of all of you here. Determination that human rights will continue to develop. Until they leave to where they are certainly a.m.. Hat world. Where everyone. Can live. Hold on to what is good even it is even if it is a handful of earth. Hold on to. A tree which stands by itself. Hold on. A long way from here. Even when. I have gone away from you.

uufvb_org

2011Nov06Sermon32.mp3

This morning i want to share the story of one of our foremost unitarian universalist saints. Clara barton. When most people use the word saint. What first comes to mind is the roman catholic church. Which has a whole constellation of officially recognized. And canonized saints so designated over the centuries of that faith tradition. Curious about the exact number of roman catholics. There are more than 10,000. Roman catholic saints. Yikes that's an awful lot of oswego. But roman catholicism is not the only religious organization with a propensity to idolize and honor its heroes of faith. Do we in the free church most decidedly have no formal canonization process. Like the church in rome. You use will at the drop of a spiritual hat. Probably rattle off a long list of unitarian and universalist heroes of the past. Notable and noteworthy people from our faith tradition. Whose goodness and contributions to humanity make them remarkable. We even have a website. Devoted to ruu saints. You've all all you have to do is read about all of our saints is to go to. Ww.w. Famous you use. org. How many of them there are on that website only 300. + 46. But that's quite a few for a very small religious denomination. At famous you use. org. You will find the biographies of a long and noble list of you use with made incredible contributions to humanity. In the fields of art and literature science and medicine politics and education philosophy and theology. Philanthropic and humanitarian devers and social and governmental reform. So just go online and read all about it it's kind of fun. We are very proud of our long list of you you movers and shakers. All of whom have over the 500 years. Of our organized faith tradition. Mid real contribution. To the human family. And thought. For better or worse then. We unitarian-universalist are proudly inveterate name-droppers we do love to talk about our saints. Evidence the sermons. But over the years as i thought about this very liberal tendency of ours to canonize our heroes. I've come to realize that there's a grave spiritual danger in being so ready. To put our outstanding ancestors up on a pedestal in the responsive reading today you got just a hint. Of that idea. My fear is akin to what the music director in the last church. That i served a fellow by the name of cliff harden. Said to me a few years back when the roman catholic church. Finally decided to grant. Actually it was a rush job. The grandmother teresa. Saints row. Status he came to me the staff meeting. I was really upset when they made her a saint. And i said why don't you think she deserves it he said oh no that's not it. He said i think she was about to start ashley noble person. Who let a rare and beautiful compassionate life the problem he said. Is it if we start thinking of mother teresa as a saint. Thereby turning into some sort of mystical. Supernatural being. Then we can successfully distance ourselves from her life and her work. And give ourselves permission. Not to go and live as she did. Compassionate. And then clip. Essenza by saying to me. Turning someone into a full-blown sink keeps us the living. As we doing our ordinary from. Less than extraordinary lives and imperfect lies. From truly calling ourselves to a better way of. I was struck by a think the power and the rightness of this observation. Religious people with a roman catholic or you you. Ought to be very careful about the process formal informal. Of canonizing some great person. The pasta. Some sainthood. Because. Putting somebody up high on a pedestal. Extraordinary nobility and achievement. Just might have the unintended. The permitting ourselves to psychologically distance. Or behavioral. Distancing. From those we have. Let me see this. If we unitarian-universalist fall victim to creating a real superhuman gap. Between ourselves and those we think of as our heroes. We made disempower those truly noble lives. From usefully informing instructing our lives. As we move ahead to try. Deserve. Humanity. So with all of this appropriate caution about canonizing steel. Well the past. Today i done the last one to tell you the remarkable story of a true hero of our faith. Of the 19th and a bit of the 20th century clara barton. There she is. She was universalist. Naughty unitarian. Universal. The angel of the battlefield as she came to be known. By both the union and confederate soldiers of the american civil war and a visitor this morning coming up the walk told me that you know what ulysses has grant said about her. I said no. Pranks. She was a founder. And longtime president of the american red cross. Articulate act activist toledo. The fight to get the us senate to ratify the treaty of geneva. To regulate war. She was a tireless advocate for women's rights and universal suffrage. And for the universal. Education of all children. She was friend and allied to the freed slaves. And a courageous worker her whole life long on behalf of the downtrodden. And suffering. Wherever she found them not just those in battlefield. As i read several biographies about her in preparation for the sermon. I was amazed. How she was how much she was able to accomplish during her long life. Strong. Principal. Her friends grand duchess louise. A barton as quote. One of those very few persons whose whole being is goodness itself. And after she at age 68 no less. Run age of the many thousands who suffered after the terrible johnstown pennsylvania flood in 1889. The local paper rhapsodize. The following. We cannot thank miss barton in words. Hertz the dictionaries. I'm all languages through and you will find no signs. To express our appreciation for her and her work. Try to describe the sunshine. Try to describe the starlight. Words fail. Set the johnstown. Sounds a lot like a saint. Doesn't it. But i'm ahead of myself let me go back and. About. How this long and compassionate. On christmas day. In 1821. Clara barton was born into a devoutly universalist family in north oxford massachusetts. The youngest of five children. Her brothers and sister. We're all much older than she and so is she later described it i had no playmates. Effect six mothers and fathers. Who constantly instructed. And taught clara things they thought she should know. The universalist church in that town also played a central role in her childhood. And although laid in her life she also became someone interested in spiritualism. And christian science movements. As far as we know she remained a devout universal. Her whole life. As one biographer describes her early religious influence. Quote on sunday clarostat in the barton family pew. In the plain white colonial universalist church. That god is love. And then all lives are precious gift never to be destroyed. We're teachings of that church. We're impressed upon her mind and an early age. Chiefly because these universalist teaching. So fully govern her father. Life. By the end of the sermon when i read you the full story of this compassionate woman and all that she accomplished. You will all fully understand i hope. Central rule that. Universalist belief. Instilled in her an early age. Play then her life. Cheyenne insecure girl. Clear return to books. And the life of the mind. Intellectually bright and precocious. He was an avid student and learner so much so that by the age of 16. With hardly any formal education. She passed the massachusetts teacher exam. And began to teach at a local school at. For the next 15 years. With some formal schooling at a universalist college blended in. She taught at various schools in massachusetts and then took a position in bordentown new jersey. At a tiny school for the affluent children of that community. Although there was a law in new jersey. Requiring free education for all. The local school committee only accepted students. Who could pay. And this clara knew was wrong. She single-handedly lobby. Or was it founded. For she was a very strong. She lobbied or hounded. For the proper resources. To create a freeze which was to become the first. Preschool for all children in that state. The school which began with six students. Quickly grew to over 600. School committee comprised of all man. Said it was cold too large. For a woman. To manage. Well i know you going to your boo on that one. Do they make claire at the assistant. Email principal. This did not sit with her well she soon moved washington dc to visitors. Very irritated. For a while she contented herself with witnessing washington's convoluted political life. Spending long hours she in the senate gallery when you can get into senate gallery without going through a gun detect. Attending lectures and listening to debate over slavery and other issues. But it was not clear as nature to be idle. In her 80s she wrote in her in her autobiography. You have never known me without work. And you never will. It has always been the best part of religion i had. He took an unchallenging job copying letters at the patent office. For this witness kind of low-level job was all that was available to women. Before the civil war. And she was quickly promoted because of her ability. To confidential secretary. But she still found herself bored. An underutilized and discriminated against. Then the civil war broke out. Clara. Wanted to help in this great national effort. Was very much a. For the union. As one biographer put it. The conflict provided her with an outlet. For her prodigious energy. And satisfied her longing to lose herself in her work. To be needed. For a year she contented herself with soliciting supplies. For the wounded and ill-equipped soldiers of the union army. And was able to attract. Massive contributions. And supplies. But then quote as a horrible effects of battle were reported in washington. She began driving wagon teams of horses. Herself. I'm going right into the thick of battle. Eating the wounded and dying soldiers directly. For the rest of that terrible war clara barton was i said has been called the angel of the battlefield by the soldiers. And was eventually named. Supervisor of nursing for the army of the potomac. Was on the field of battle she. Offering nursing and food and compassion. To union and confederates. And that is the terribly important part i. About her story. In spite of her fierce union loyalty. And passionate opposition to slavery. Her compassion. Extended. True to wear universalist upbringing she knew she saw and served humanity and every. Last. And she knew deep to her heart. The rightness of our modern-day unitarian universalist principal the inherent worth and dignity. Of every person. It's printed in your orders of service every sunday it's our. And she knew it. Has she served. Sides. And today is. American soldiers and his weasel nation. Continue to be involved militarily in afghanistan. And iraq. Several other bloody wars and civil wars. Ranging around the globe as they always do. We would do well to spiritually remember the unchanging truth. That war always causes untold suffer. On all. May we in these violent times like clara barton. Silent time. Never forget. The universal humanity in the worth of. Always realize. But back to her civil war story. One biographer writes bravery and tirelessness. We're conspicuous elements in her service. At the battle of fortune chantilly virginia there was a marker in the video you saw earlier from chantilly. One surgeon recounted. When the railroad cars whistled up to the station. The first person on the platform was miss burton. Again to supply us with every article she that could be thought of. She stayed there until the last wounded soldier was placed on the cars. She worked for five days in the pouring rain. With only two hours of. One battle account said that she been working so long. Hard around the wounded and dying. That she periodically had to pause in the field hospital and ring. The heavy blood. From the lower portion. A dress. So that she could move more easily. Among the wounded. And i. In another battle another biographer rights. She built fires. Expected bullets with a pocket knife. Made gallons of applesauce. Baked pies drove teams of horses and perform last rites. Are titleist. Multifaceted efforts. In these unbelievably horrible battles. We're amazing to all who. And her notoriety and fame. Spread. All of the nation. When the terrible war ended she declared i saw many things that i did not wish to see. And i pray god i may never see again. I have labored up. Full measure of. But this remarkable woman was by no means done. It's the end of the civil war as you all know. In spite of her exhaustion in a week. Almost immediately with the full support of the federal government. Bart organized and off. Again pretty much all by herself. To locate an account for the many thousands. Missing soul. In a did on both sides. In addition. As one biographer put a spartan perceptive and sympathetic nature. Let her 24c innumerable social problems. It developed after the war. He was concerned about the precarious situation of the newly freed slaves. She fought pacifica sleeves i've said for women's rights and suffrage. Worked on behalf of humane prison reform. Let a tireless campaign. Get the senate to ratify the treaty of geneva. And travel to europe to learn more about the international red cross. And then did humanitarian work. In the franco-prussian war. Which lasted. 1571. And finally in 1881 with the full support of president james garfield. Founded with a few friends and allies the american red cross. The organization she would serve. For the next 23 years. Until her retirement age. At. 80. For the last decades of her life she lived. In a curious rambling home that is now a national park service site in glen echo maryland. Now in the early days this was a. Home warehouse. And this is two blocks from the last church i served river road is near the potomac river. Her house overlooks the potomac and next time you're in washington. Go to all the standard. Thanks for take a little trip up to glen echo maryland. Bethesda maryland. It's an amazing home it's beautiful. And the whole floors that were warehouse. For bandage. Other medical. Stunning. Stunning place. After she left the american red cross again as an agent woman in her 80s. Spending time between this home in glen echo and her summer home. In are birthplace of north oxford. She could not stop herself. I'm continuing to be a force for change and good in her society. In 1905. She helped form the national first aid society. Which helped to establish community aid program. She spoke regularly at women's suffrage convention to see her looking a little older. And continuing to lecture and right up to the very end of her life. She was busy. In 1912 she died at the age. Is there any denines. Is powerful and principled woman who never married. I never really wanted to have time for family. Let a remarkable and exemplary life. Here are a few of the adjectives ioffer in no particular order which biographer is used. To describe. I read these books. They described her as courageous. Fascinating. Bowl. Introspective loyal intelligent. Kind-hearted serious. Idealistic angelic. Tenacious. Conscientious determined resourceful sensitive strong-willed unflappable unfailing honest discipline self-confident witty. Compassionate self-denying persuasive rave loving. Perfect uu profile. As amazing as it seems she was all these things. Is clara barton are curious and difficult saying i use the words curious and difficult. Describe her because. There is more to her story. Then this laudatory greatness. Much more. Like many heroes of human history clara barton had her share. A personal weaknesses blind-spot successes and flaws i know it's hard to believe you're going to get the dirt now. Listen to some of the other less than glowing adjectives. Again in no particular order which biographers also used to describe this complex woman. Trouble. Rigid. Insecure. Edgy. Self-conscious. Pessimistic. Self-absorbed. Neurotic. Sickly. Unpredictable restless opinionated. Demanding shaky self-absorbed vain. Short-sighted eccentric depressed just like us. This rather painful list i just read. Points out that clara barton was a curious and a complex person who in addition to accomplish being so many things their greatness. Was also a real pain in the. You know and had a great deal of difficulty and struggle in her life. And the same can be said of other outstanding heroes of history like john f kennedy martin. Mahatma gandhi. You read between the lines are biography. Take a little deeper look. The way. Disgrace humanitarian really struggled in her life. Cuz it's important for us to remember the saintliness. Usually arise. Out of ordinary and ambiguous. Humanity. Otherwise it arises out of people like. Like us. First because it's no noteworthy i want to look at her physical and mental problem. Play church. Entire life. Like her mother sarah anderson. Dolly all her life she struggled with. Clinical depression. And with what. Was called in those days nervous disorders. Austin just after she almost single-handedly successfully managed. Some disaster or battle or crisis. Credible strength. And fortitude. She would almost totally collapse. Often requiring months of doctor order dress. And occasional hospitalization. In a sanitarium which was the 19th century way of saying. A mental house. For all her strength in the face of adversity and all humanitarian achievement. He was neither physically nor mentally stable. This was a woman who did not apparently know how to practice. Appropriate self-care. And there was as a result and erratic and uneven life. Of achievement. An illness. And was not easy. She was also more than a little enamored with her own fame. And reputation and notoriety and was prone to both self-aggrandizement and self-pity. As one biographer noted quote. Several times. She even went as far as writing flattering articles about herself. Third person. Which she then submitted to various national periodical. In one. Written during the franco-prussian war. She revealed the way she helped. The public would view her this is her writing about herself. Miss barton. Scarcely recovered from the fatigue and in dispositions resulting from her arduous and useful duties during the war. Was found again foremost bestowing her care upon the wounded with the same suety which characterized her among the suffering armies of her own country. Leslie on the troubled side of this complex person. She also struggled to maintain many of her. Primary relationship. Well characteristically loyal to her birth family and her inner circle of friends. People who work for her found her difficult and demanding. He was a perfectionist. Did not know how to delegate responsibilities to others. Tolerate no one. She perceived. As a rival. As a result there was over her lifetime a constant disruptive turnover. People and professionals around her in her home staff at the american red cross. And as a result she often found yourself isolated. And lonely and alone in that great big house. So. That's pretty much the whole complicated story of this outstanding remarkable woman. She was without doubt one of the most heroic. Persons alive in the 19th century. Known around the world. For her compassion in humanitarianism. And at the same time. She was a personal of fear. And erraticus. And weakness. Self-aggrandizement. And difficult. So with this. he told we now arrived at the question which we must answer whenever we tell the story of any hero hist. What can we take from this life. That will make us better. And more noble peep. I had what is it about the way she lived. Inspire us to be. Well it's possible that we will. Variously be inspired. Buy different aspects. Her story but for my part. I moved by her courage. And the clarity of her purpose. When she was a. She was a bird dog she was a pitbull. Who's always on what. Amazon. Stick-to-itiveness. Self-discipline. Is a very and. All of us need. Even more than this clarity and courage. I am inspired by something i believe she got from her religion. From her universal. Space from our. Adapt your friends. Powerful and steady universal. Impulse. Of heart. To bring compassion. Care to all who saw. It was the. Was i believe her nineteenth-century universalist idea that all all people were children of god. Precious children of this creation. Which inspired and sustained. Humanity how could you minister. To all the soldiers. On both side. Unless you believe. We're all children. All i wanted never wander. From that core. In my spear. Justice she never wavered from it. Beside dia. About our radical. Human interconnect. A radical belonging to one another. It's the unique message of universal has. That helped us to grow this religion. That. You can make no successful separation. Can you save in the damn the righteous and the unrighteous. The good and the bad everyone. The precious. Child of god. I want that universalist. Impulse. Impulsive. To drive. My spirit. And this universalist. Impulsive heart is an endangered commodity in our world. I'm going to talk in a few weeks about the sin of other nests. The sin of other nest. Xenophobia. The division. People allow in the world. Bmv universalist impulse. Universal human worth and belonging. Danger commodity that we must defend. In every place in our lives. May we. Almost a century after the death of clara barton. Live our lives ever more in service of that universal was. Which the poet carl sandburg. At the very end of his collected poems. Sang so beautifully. When he said simply. There was only one horse. On the earth. And that force. Is all hers. There's only one bird in the aaron. Her name is all wings. There was only one fish in the sea and that fish's name is all fence. There's only one man in the world and his name is all man. There's only one woman in the world in her name is all women there's only one child in the world in that. Child's name is all children there's only one maker. And that makers children cover the earth. And they are called. All. Gods.

uufvb_org

2013Sep08Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. Start again. Standing on the side of love. Seeking to become our best selves even as we work for a better role did you around this morning. Do your younger roll. or straight black or white. You were feeling on top of the world this morning or down in the dumps or somewhere in between. You suffered a trauma this week easy. Justin bieber. We hope you will find our service meaningful and enriching your heart your better. Mary oliver's poem why i wake up early. Morning and spread it over this morning. Best preacher that ever was that just happens to be where you are in the university. Good morning. Good morning. Watch toy story. Play reading is provo woman named virginia to weasel a century ago and her little church in cedar rapids iowa about why she was the unitarian universalist. Because the people saving the wheel housing the homeless in combating global warming. Because the atmosphere isn't polluted with piety. Because they leave me alone when i don't feel particularly tricky because every hello is not the preface to request. Cuz when i contribute they don't act surprised. Cuz i can laugh out loud. And i can cry because people will genuinely care. Because servants here have real question. the fourth one. Interrupted the sermon with the comment. Discussion group really are. Finally. Glass hiking look forward. Little radically different from my own mystic washington d.c. take for example the public. Want me to share details of this philosophical and religious dust-up for you justin. In early june at the regularly scheduled weekly meeting of the vero beach city council. Craigslist refused to join your routine proclamation. The council sign such proclamations all the time at a request of a wide variety of religious. Urgent care. And the vice mayor immediately chinaman saying. What resulted of course. Was a public outcry about religious intolerance. And was reported in the national media and on many progressive blog on the internet. Airfare louisville city. After several days of widespread public outcry drafted. The mayor publicly apologized for what he called his golden quotes. Very reluctant. A recall petition drive passat to have them removed from their office. What is the tolerance. Is there a whole lot of curtis religious people out there. Drive to amarillo. As exhibit one i reach you now from an opinion piece written for red pollard publication heroes toys by john. The local conservative businessman who sponsors that huge celebrity christian prayer breakfast every february down in riverside park. Mr. perfect usual and i will soon make it clear totally unjustified criticism. Humanism jazz from conservative christian i call you. Humanistic religion religion in fairy halloween. Places god. And it's called ideas become the new ethics and morality. There is no god damn world standard form ohio. It is declared absolute full-scale war on christianity. Horizon are trying to push the christianity under the bus. And replace it with the new religion of humanism that gives weight with the gender of death. Absence of any sense of right or wrong. Further incredible accusations. Against humanity. Are humanists seabright. Okay. Anybody not again. And then. Today's abortion murder and list of other crimes prevailed because we were moved on and put in humanism. Internet. The humanism of the long-standing an honorable philosophical and religious perspective. In no way condone or validate. Pornography. Promiscuity. Out-of-wedlock births vandalism alcoholism drug use robbery tattoos or texting while driving. Transcendence god caring and responsible for. So you can read along. Adopted by the american humanist association in 2003. Humanism. Is a progressive philosophy of life without supernaturalism. Affirms our broden responsibility. Ethical values are derived. Human need as testifying. and this underlining is mine. The world. Experimentation and rational analysis. Brown county welfare. Ecosystem indiana. Person. In the context of freedom. Occasionally. R4r fullest possible development. Weather in chula vista. Is challenges and tragedies and even. Floral forest drive for the world people caring concern. Pre-approval. We're different cesare resolved cooperatively without resorting to violence. The joining of individuality with the independence. Enriches our wise encourages us. Arkansas football. Are committed to diversity. And respect those of different. We worked well pulled equal employment the human rights and civil liberties in open secular society. To participate in the democratic process of a planetary integrity. Diversity and beauty in a sustainable manner. Roblox. Has. Responsibilities were in the kind of world. 7 hours alone. That is a summary. Ecumenism. And what did you eat. So as you can clearly see. Humanism rather than being some sort of anything goes to assistant world. It is rather a serious and purposeful philosophical and religious tradition. And yet somehow this i always find personally hard to understand. Conservative. They lost to blame humanism. Good moral weaknesses of our society. Has become escape the world employees who will. Many conservatives blame for all of our society. And their core of social and their core accusations. Is it because humanism does not have the turtle absolute. Tacoma transcendent god that humanism is responsible for all moral decline. No indeed at the meeting of our local clergy group and here it was called in response to the day on the vice mayor and their intolerance. One of the christian ministers in town. He do is now plow. Did while he had no use for the blatant religious bigotry. He just couldn't understand how valid or moral tradition without a belief in god god's eternal fall. Ineffective said zelda northstar without the world. Humanity is lost or morality is possible without such absolute and divine. As someone who takes his own ethics and morality seriously. And yes i'm someone who does primarily regard himself as a religious.. I find this assertion that without god there can be no goodness her costume. And unfair and incredibly disrespectful. Do the seriousness with which i am a religious person at all humanism. Take their moral responsibilities in the world. And i want to spend the next few minutes articulating for you. Humanism. Listening. The one i do believe in a fact one does not need us by sermon title to death. You do not need god is good. And why i believe the situational morality and they can text you 11. Humanist and honors example. Are as good as worthy as those who follow absolute for traditional to replace either thinking of situational. Again the key argument religious traditionalist tachyon ism. Moral and ethical. Humanity is lost in the sea of situational crisis. I believe this to be absolutely. I believe the flower called situational ethics. Guided by human reason and freedom are just as valid as absolutist ethics. Explain. Liter engine size 1966 classic olympic. Maranatha assisted joseph fletcher. He makes the clear cases. Ariel legalistic or absolutist approaches to ethical and moral decision-making prefabricated rules and regulation. Halo. In the face of evil complexities and contradictions. Exist in the real world. Combined with music. When the chips are down. Cutest mixed case for relativistic for situation. Unlike the legalist of absolutist do right decision-making situation. Encumbered with a whole apparatus of prefabricated rules and regulations. The situation. Decision-making situation of the community and its heritage that's the law stuff. And treat them with respect. Illuminators. Just the same situation wasn't like it was about to write in any situation. 2 compromise. Some of the article maxims of the community or stepping aside situation. Automax. Or other principal. Amazon. Maybe thrown aside of love. System of prefabricated taylor borrelli. They cannot apparently trust themselves. To use their own freedom drive. Strong unyielding rules. The situation was however. Universal blues. Immoral life. Takes on the shape of adventure. And ceases to pretend to be. What fletcher is saying. Is that all wise epochal moral decision-making in the real world is of necessity. Situation. Because light or the service by terry nature is situational. And it is. We are always that reflection. We are always commanded to lovingly. But how to do that depends on a roller responsible estimation of situation. Adenium only wanted concert. Everything else is done. Is trap. Love. Is the first principle and proposition that sounds pretty. He wants to become the universal law of the human heart. What it looks like in situation. Jesus affirmation of the privacy of the morality of love. Relativistic and not absolutist is his insistence. The because life is forever situational. Beans with asian. We must both use our reason and our freedom. As the how that great primary principle of love. When we say the love is always good. What you mean is that whatever is loving. Any particular situation. The pleasure point is that when it comes to doing what is right in human affairs. Legalistic absences laws no matter where they come from. Almost invariably payless because bicycle situational. No matter how much we might like to fall back on simple legalistic absolute. And our freedom. And this situation approach to ethics was not who i hasten to point out. Coral color. The situation more humanistic ethics. Isn't anything to do with kind of narcissistic proposition will i i just felt like you anything. It simply means that as human beings must wisely lovingly use our reason and our conscience. Any particular difficult situation. First example that came to my mind that i wrote the servitor. Regularly and even license occurs. The first person to make it more realistic. Your beloved years is dying slowly of a horrible painful and humiliating. Management. You're dying spouse smelter maryland. Askew. Night and day in reggie heart-wrenching ways for you to help them and their life now. Spicy helping them in chesterfield overdose of painkillers. Us army reserve in pregnancy. Number one use lard in most other states absolutely and unequivocally player request. You're technically guilty of manslaughter or murder. Legal wrong and punishable as a heinous felony. But you was a little spouses living in the actual situation. I'm going to take me to sleep. Does washing your partner's horriblesubs. You are the one facing. Possible ethical situation. And because to return to joseph fletcher's ethel maximus maxim. You want to do the most loving thing is right and good for the suffering of the one that you love and care for you want to serve. You are considering breaking the law. And ignoring the absolute and inflexible florida law. What do you do well. Plumbing supply houses in final cells in the situation with their freedom and their responsibilities decision. Conversely. Equally brave and loving spouse has similarly using their reasoning. Decide not to cause of death of one and thereby struggle as best they can with suffering. Nearby surgical love. And the sanctity of life dispensary understand when you tell me. We just done the right thing. Which is the absolute. This is the kind of. But i would like to ask my vocals howie when he is this. They're all human being all they need to be unemployed go to follow the absolute. Codified. What is. I will start using the real world. What is right. Possibly delusive relational. There's no way to avoid our existential decision-making. We will. Just like absolutely. The latest tension between situational ethics hypothetically wolverton. Terrorist. Authorities said the new coronavirus. Global killed thousands of innocent people. International and american law and religion. Have an absolute prohibition against torture on the world bassist. But after discussion the authorities using the rational methodology situational ethics. The single terrorist. In order to save countless lives. Is this a moral or immoral decision. And further what would the so-called moral absolutism. There are several places in christiansburg. What are several examples of absolute. Which are commonly recognized in kristen. Even conservative. That thing just war theory. Which postulate is acceptable to proactively kill the soldiers of other nations. Struction oppression in evil is being perpetrated by. Are there a few people to question the morality of our going to warrant that kind of people. Similarly. Ephesus would say you would be absolutely right. It's not the duty to shoot that criminals dead. Examples in real life. But they come from religious scripture or secular moral code. That is why those if it'll actually attack. Humanism for causing the moral decline of society. Why not having an absolute moral principles are not being fair. The point i'm making this morning is the 12th absolutely situation. Mistake. Moral absolutes. Actually quite situational. In terms of their actual application.. Let's take an example of one of the ten commandments. This is presented as a moral absolute. What are the rules for significant to respect. What if your father is over peasants pedophile. Who physically abused you when you were young. Comparing the worth of all society. My point here isn't like to fancy themselves. Everybody carried it in the bible southern baptist and then leave the rest there is no such thing as a. I can assure you that. Let me wrap up later saying you this morning my summarizing adjusted to your sentences. What i want to say to my purse while colleague. 007 have. In my normal university. But you don't need them. What you do need. What do you wear a christian. Are muslim. Ps2. But you do need to process. I have no problem with anyone telling me that as a religious believe it they strive to follow the model geico. We believe god has established. But i ask in return if they do not dishonor and dismiss me and honors following humanism. Situational analysis cab. By suggesting that because we followed different ethical methodology we are somehow a moral narcissist. Responsible for the collapse and degradation. What are yours for in the public discourse of complicated issues in american life. This year. Sorry we're going to be going through all these dilemmas. American ethical life issues hear about them. After coffee hours each of these days. What are your for the discourse about such dilemmas. Is more sophistication. Apartable absolutism and situation list. About the integrity the value of gold. Maybe i hope for too much for genuine epochal understanding and respect open this community and in all of america. And a growing as humble appreciation on everyone's part. About how complicated in this year. Bi-rite. It is not. Terribly. Valdosta. Does unitarian universalist you all we can. Further disrespectful hopefully. Conversation. Let us all seek to build together. Good. Immoral. And loving. And i say to you at this hour. Amen. We are stronger together. There is no more pain and suffering in this world than anyone take. Denver zoo. It is only by overcoming our division. Play reaching out our hands and hearts of all persons if we bring healing to our community. It is only when we stand together christian. Muslim. Unitarian universalist. Only when we stand together cold shoulder. Ocean prime. Goldie messengers.

uufvb_org

2011Jul17Sermon32.mp3

As many of you surely know. In the early days of the united states the predominant theological landscape was both dark. And foreboding. The prevailing theology in the 17th and 18th century of this nation. Was puritanical calvinistic christianity which understood god. As a stern and judgmental cosmic ruler and angry. Omnipotent god. Disgusted. With humanities depravity. Weakness and imperfections. Human beings were understood as trapped in the fallen state. Of adam. And eve. And so humanity stood convicted. Original sin for which eternal damnation in hell. Was the fate for almost all of humanity except. Except a few pious righteous christians would be saved by god from the fire. When folks went to church in early america they routinely heard. How despicable and depraved they were. But how they were doomed to eternal torment in hell. Because god was so disgusted with them. One of the most famous puritanical preachers of the day was the reverend. Jonathan edwards. And in a fire-and-brimstone sermon entitled. Sinners in the hands of an angry god he brought congregations all over new england. To open tears and wailing by his vision of a hell. But he declared with certainty was awaiting most of them. I want a quote just a few lines of this brutal sermon. Edwards is describing the horrible fate of those listeners in the pew. Who because of their sins he deemed out. Christ. A world of misery. That lake of burning brimstone is extended under you. There is a dreadful pit. Of the glowing. Names of the wrath of god there is hell. Wide gaping open mouth and you have nothing to stand upon. Nor anything to take hold of your wickedness makes you as heavy as lead. I'm the god that hold you over the pit of hell much as one holds a spider abhors you. Is dreadfully provoked. His wrath toward you burns like a fire. You are ten thousand more times abominable in his eyes. The most hateful venomous. Serpent. Is an h. And then edwards ended. You have offended him. Infinitely morrow center. Consider the fearful danger you are in it is a great furnace of wrath a wide and bottomless pit. You hang by a slender thread and you have nothing to lay hold of to save yourself. Nothing you can do will induce god to spare you one moment. Your punishment. Will indeed be incident. You can see this going to church and puritanical days wasn't exactly a barrel of sunshine. It was precisely. In this dark and depressing theological context. Where the more hopeful unitarian. And universalist ideas about humanity. And jesus and god a rose. And offered a direct the illogical challenge. To the stern pessimistic views of puritanical christianity and the likes of jonathan edwards. Indeed the reason that both unitarianism. And universalism prospered so in the 17th and 18th century in this country. Was precisely because our spiritual forebears. We're offering a much more positive. Hopeful life. And humanity affirming view than that which dominated. Perhaps the most crucial component. Of our theological challenge to puritanism. Was universalism conviction. The god. Was not angry. It was a kind and loving god. And someone like the god of jonathan edwards. This god did not condemn most of humanity. Eternity of punishment. In fact. He doesn't condemn anyone. Universalism offered the radical and some said heretical theological idea that all person. Every man woman and child no matter how far they may stray. From human perfection during their lifetime. Was destin. To be saved. For all. Eternity by a loving god. It was universalist preacher the reverend hosea ballou. Who was born in 1771 he looks a little kinder than jonathan edwards doesn't he. And died at 1851. It was blue. Who best articulated this new positive theology. Of life and person. In his famous book a treatise on atonement. Blue had almost no formal training as a theologian but was a brilliant mind. And a skilled orator and writer. He directly challenged the puritanical idea. Starkly articulated by edwards. The most humanity steeped as they were. In a life of intractable sin would be doomed. Turtle puns. Blue. As all the early universalist preachers on thinker. Was convinced. But the god of this creation. Was a good and loving and merciful. Who created humanity his children. In his image. Goodness. And promise. And loving therefore. God could not and would not ultimately condemned has. Even those of us astray and do great wickedness. To eternal suffering and damnation. Where is edwards and the other your puritan. We're certain that humanity needed the threat. The threat. Of god. Eternal torment and punishment. To keep them quote-unquote in line. Much as claudia was talking about today. And that's a key part. Of the theology we shall return to just a little later to keep them in line needed the hammer of god. Where is edwards was certain that was necessary. Blue felt that humanity's natural god-given inclination. Ford happiness and goodness. Was all that was required. For morale. And social order. Blue believe that the primary human motivation. Which most primarily directs our behavior. Was our search for happiness. And a god whose primary quality is love. Wants us to be happy as well. And that's 10 most often he described as the passions of the flesh. Which we fall victim to. Involves quote conscious broaching of one's own internal moral system. Which carries wizard blue are you. Its own unhappiness. And its own discomfort. And that discomfort and happiness. Call suspect. To what is right. As my colleague sam trumbore explains belews thinking. Blue believe that to be in a state of sin. Is to be in a state of misery. Blue criticize the puritanical association. What's mean pleasure. And sim. To symbaloo concluded. Was to betray one's own moral sense. And this divided the self. And would create its own suffering which would call us back. Create the motivation within the soul. To return to write improv. Another words. Blue believe that are universal desire to be happy. And to be in harmony with our world and one another. Was all the motivation required. To ensure human goodness. And a sinen wrongdoing. Carry with them their own misery and punishment here now in this life. Hell is created us. Bluewood say. When we are living. in in happiness in in harmony. All in fact. He once wrote that sin and misery r1. When we act badly. We feel badly. So we don't need god. You know holding an angry sword over our heads threatening us. To return. To goodness and to lead a life. Striving toward goodison. A wonderful story. In a famous exchange with a baptist minister over this theological point. The baptist minister said. Brother baloo. If i were universala. And feared not the fires of hell i would hit you over the head. Steal your horse and saddle right away and still get to heaven. Twitch below retarded. Friend. If you were universala. That idea. Whatever occurred to you. Sing. But the puritans like edwards and the baptist preacher where unpersuaded. And fiercely attacked the thinking of baloo and other universalist. As a dangerous heresy. Suggesting that eliminating the threat of hell. An eternal damnation would lead to rampant immorality and wickedness. Indeed to the fall of the world itself. And so the puritans. Plum desperately. To the theological idea of hell. And the necessity. Of eternal damnation and god's wrath. To ensure goodness. Now. Fast forward. 200 years. This year is 2011. Eden countless christian church. This morning people are being taught. That hell awaits them. If they do not think and do what god dammit commands that hell awaits them. If they stray from any established moral standards. This this necessity of hell to ensure good behavior persists. In much of christianity today. But seemingly out of nowhere. There is a young charismatic christian. Preacher. With a. Huge church in grand rapids this rob bell guy i'm telling you about. Who along with a growing number of other emergent evangelical ministers. Asking the same kinds of questions. Rob bell has in a way that we is unitarian-universalist could not. Has reignited this old theological debate. About the fee logical necessity of hell and damnation. Within mainstream christianity. Around saying this for years but he is. A christian saying it. It's driving them. Raising. Rob bell. Who is the most articulate spokesperson for this. Emergent universalism has just published this controversial book for which i quoted earlier love wins. A book about heaven. Hell. In the face. Of every person. Who ever lived. In which he suggests. The hosea ballou and the other early universe. We're right. When they postulated a loving god. And rejected the idea of hell after death. Is somehow being necessary to regulate. Human behavior. I want to take two-and-a-half minutes now and let reverend bell articulate. This emerging thinking in his own words please. Watch this brief video is getting. Credible attention. Several years ago we had an art show at our church and people brought in all kinds of sculptures and. Paintings of put them on display in there was this one piece. That had a quote from gandhi in it. And lots of people found this piece compelling it's stopped and sort of stare at it and take it in or reflect on it but not everybody found it that compelling somewhere in the course of the art show. Somebody attached a handwritten note to the peace. And on the note they had written. Reality check. He's in hell. Inhale. He is. And someone knows this for sure. And felt the need to let the rest of us know. Will only a few select people make it to heaven. And will billions and billions of people burn forever in hell. And if that's the case how do you become one of the. Is it what you believe or what you say or what you do or who you know or something that happens in your heart or you need to be initiated or baptized. The class or converted or being born again how does one become one of these. View. And then there is the question behind the question the real question what is god. Light because millions. And millions of people were taught that the primary message the center of the gospel of jesus is that god is going to send you to hell unless you believe in jesus and so what gets subtly sort of caught and taught. Is jesus rescues you from god. But what kind of god. Is that that we would need to be rescued. From this god how could that god ever be good how can that god ever be trusted. And how could that ever. Be. Good. News. This is why lots of people want nothing to do with the christian faith they see it as an endless list of absurdities and inconsistencies may want to be a part of that. See what we believe about heaven and hell is incredibly important because it exposes what we believe about who god is. And what god is like what you discover in the bible is so surprising unexpected and beautiful that whatever we've been told or taught the good news is actually better than that better than we could ever imagine the good news is that love wins. Rattle mayuyu timbers. As you can well imagine. This video. And the book. Have caused a huge theological brouhaha within the conservative traditional. Send community. Some ministers of outright accuse this young guy. Of heresy. Other say goodbye rob well we're done with you. Others accused him of totally subverting. The essential christian message. Others call him terribly misguided. He's been attacked all over the place. You're on the internet. Another's have even suggested he should be totally tion. And rejected. One conservative christian blogger wrote this. It is unspeakably sad when those called to be ministers of the word. Distort the gospel. And deceive the people of god. With false doctrine. Asbell had. They can't imagine. But that patriarchal model. What does a god with a hammer. Humanity is a little despicable. Tribe. I can't imagine this paradigm. At the core of these objections. Same objection to universalism that blue had to confront 200 years ago. The idea that without the misery and threat and torment of hell. Christianity would have no means to regulate human behavior toward the good. Listen to the furious react. To the sky. By christian writer katrina douglas. The problem. She writes. Is there without hail. There is no need for the struggle between human goodness and evil. Therefore there's also no need for pastors. Do most christians believe that universalism. Is an admirable concept. It's a nice concept. What is rob bell just playing to the needs of humanity not to worry about their deeds. Bells concept she goes on means that murderers. Drug dealers and terrorists sit beside angels in heaven. And everyone can do exactly as they please. And then she ends. If what bell is teaching in his new book is true everybody should go out. And party. Unquote. This is precisely. What a christian minister said to me decades ago when we were both hospital chaplain. 4-year at the city of memphis hospital. Women one of our regular theological discussion sessions as chaplains. He heard me say that i was a unitarian universalist. Who did not believe in hell. Or the threat of eternal damnation. He looked at me. Earnest expression instead. Well scott. If i didn't believe god was holding an angry hammer over my head. I be out in the streets right now raping and stealing and killing to my heart's desire. Without the threat of. Of heaven. Of hailey's. Why would i be good. To which once i recovered. For my genuine moral shock. I responded just as baloo did more than 200 years ago oh sally i said i can't believe you're saying that. I do not need the threat of hell. To make me strive toward goodness. Goodness carries with it. It's on heavenly reward. Right here right now i need no cosmic threats. For a punishing god to keep me on the path. Becoming the best. And most decent person i become and i don't really think. You need. That. Red. But like the puritans of blues days midas colleague was unpersuaded. He clung desperate. Patriarchal paradigm. That suggests we need the threat of punishment from a higher authority. To ever be good. I view this as an incomprehensive. Personal. And theological. It is classic book stages of faith published in 81 1980. That is. Developmental psychologist dr. james w fowler at the candler. School of theology in atlanta. Proposed this is a famous study of. Stages of faith development. But there are six progressive stages. Spiritual development which can be applied to human beings. His thinking is fairly complex and if you want to read about it go online and just. Type in stages of faith. Fowler. Panera genevie to dive a little deeper but in a nutshell what resonates with me is a unitarian universalist. And which is total anathema. In orthodox religious. Is followers suggestions. That is human beings mature and deepen. In their spiritual responses to the world. They move from the religious. A motivation removed from religious authority and motivation. Facetime something outside them. Sounds like a punishing god. Into taking personal responsibility for their beliefs and feelings and actions. Does internalizing responsibility. For their own lives and beliefs. Followers suggested many people get stuck. In one of these early and when he calls more primitive stages where they require an outside. Force. To create internal goodness. And his 6th and final stage he's strangely called the universalizing. Stage. And what he says this is reserved for. A few. Human being. We have known such as gandhi king mother teresa. The spiritually mature and wise persons fowler rights. Begin to search for universal values. Such as unconditional. Love and justice. Internet concerned with their own self-preservation. Or selfish. And without spending much more time for taking the face maturity of others. I do believe that what our faith calls us. Is this. Personal responsibility for. One's actions. And one's beliefs. Opposed to having an external. Source. So where does all this theologically leave us. Well. Right where we began. For hundreds of years since our first congregation. Were founded in new england. Unitarians. And universalist and since 1961 when we merge. Unitarian universal. Was have believed. Is this. Citing. Young evangelical christian past. Valvoline. But when it comes to our ultimate doom and destiny love in fact. Williams. Goodness. Wins. We religious liberals have always believed that life and god however you conceive of god. Are on our side. End of love and hope and goodness are the most powerful forces in the world. Horses we can know and follow and be. And they overpower sin and evil and wrongdoing always. Or at least have the power to do. We have always rejected the idea. The humanity needs some sort of. Turtle. Stern punishing god. Yielding wielding the fires of hell. To force us. To be good. Love wins. Anne archer. Simply because love carries with it. Its own happiness. And goodness. Its own reward. Its own. Heaven. Heaven. When we love. Goodness. Here. When we love. Not heaven in some far-off place. But heaven now. As we strive. For goodness. For goodness sake. May we. Unitarian universalist always stay on that positive. Purpose. And always believe that through it all through all the sorrows and. Tragedies and losses. Human life. Good lovin fact does. We are.

uufvb_org

2011Sep04Sermon128.mp3

As you all know this is the big labor day weekend when we americans historically at least. Set aside a day to honor workers and their unions. Antoine officially mark the end-of-summer although that part of the holiday hardly fits. By the climate here in florida we can at least expect another month of heat and humidity. But in any case. I want to use this occasion to reflect with you on how we might find. A healthy balance in our lives and intercultural. Between the duties of labor. And the enjoyment of leisure. Or set of it differently. A healthy balance between work time. And free time. Know some of you might think that balance would come naturally to americans who for generations have had clear labor standards. The limit the length of the workday and ensure that most workers get two full days off a week. A wise. Free time break known as the weekend. What are time is supposed to be around except for ministers of. But that's a subject of another day. But a host of commentators on american culture recently observed. But americans seem increasingly unable to enjoy or to take leisure just last weekend some of you may have noticed i'm 24 my sermon was the parade magazine. Which said basically americans are absolutely lousy at giving themselves a break on saturday and sunday. Not to mention the rest of the week i quote from this lead article. These days in america managing your weekend is like running a marathon at a sprinter space. With a stagger across the finish line on sunday night. Most people i work with aren't enjoying themselves on the weekend. So psychologist amy wood. They are drained by monday morning. It wasn't always this way the article goes on there was a time in america when those two days saturday and sunday. We're a truly collective respite. Weekends used to provide us a safety valve against stress and work. But now most people continue to leave their stressed-out live 24/7. And then the article concludes we need to learn how to put back a bit more fun. Into our free time. Now some of you may not think that this problem of being lousy at leisure. Applies to us so much. Here in the treasure coast you might reason that here in this tropical paradise and it is that what a great weekend we've been having. With our almost intimate resources and venues and activities. For relaxation and play and pleasure here. You might think that we would all know how to chill out and bathing are free fun time. And some of you might further reason that because this is a retirement community in large part though fewer than half the people in indian river county retirement a quail assistant. You might think that in this current location which is full of retirees. The leisure would be something we'd be meeting are experts at. But the truth is that like all americans we floridians even happily retired one. Are in general still pretty lousy when it comes. To truly knowing how to practice leisure. Leisure has somehow worked its way out of the american genetic code. As exhibit 1. And i know that everything is partisan these days exhibit one. All the nasty scornful judgmental commentators. Who won our president mr. obama a very hard-working a diligent guy by any standard announced a few weeks back. He was going to take. 10 days. With his those darling daughters of his and his wife. Tube8 vacation on martha's vineyard. He was publicly excoriated. For daring to leave washington. Without having single-handedly solve the global debt crisis. The economic downturn the skittish stock-market the war in afghanistan the civil war in libya the drought in texas and hurricane irene which ended up truncating his visit anyway. To do martha's vineyard. Look. I will be the first to recognize that this is without doubt a complicated american summer. And i am sure there was always something more that our president can do for our nation. But for god's sake. Can't even our presidents worst enemies realize that these are hardworking commander-in-chief. Needs a few days off once a year or so. Sleeping late. Play golf with his buddies. Take a bike ride with his daughters did you all see that cute picture. Rita murder mystery on a porch overlooking the harbor. Without a simple thought for washington and his mind. And have a leisurely lobster dinner over candlelight with his beautiful wife michelle. Doesn't even our president. Deserve 10 days without being excoriated for taking a little leisure. God. Help us. Leisure is disparage by some of us as an unnecessary lazy frill in life god help. You'll notice the quote. At the top of the order of service. Have leisure. And no. That i am god i'm not exactly sure what that means but i like the quote. A few weeks ago two weeks ago. I was able to carve out to full week not 10 days like the president but actually 14. Out of my busy ministerial life. To drive up to the adirondacks where collins and i have a home we love on a beautiful wild river. Now without trying to make anyone jealous because believe me i know how to take time off. I will tell you that those two weeks were shear bliss in leisureland. In leisureland. You do not set an alarm clock when you go to bed you sleep in to your heart's desire. Getting up only when the bird songs to the open window beckon you to coffee. And that first morning paper. The new york times. In leisureland. In leisureland. You don't check your business email on vacation date to 10 times a day and respond to every idiotic inquiry from your coworkers. In leisureland. You don't wear a wristwatch. Or keep up with cnn or slog through that long to-do list you have him leisureland. You ride bicycles. Swim in the river take naps in a hammock. Tube down the rapids enjoy a cold drink on the deck with your neighbor's bbq heaps. A greasy chicken and wonderful sweet corn. You eat by candlelight inn leisureland you have an after-dinner cigar in the gazebo well maybe not that. And you go to sleep. Whenever you. Tired. In leisure lab. My two weeks in the adirondacks. Was sheer lazy. Healing. Free time. List. And every american every last one of us. Are mental and physical and spiritual health. Is essential. We have to know how. To dive into leisure and stay in those cool pools of relaxation. So that we are each energized for the work that we inevitably happen. Perhaps. I need to give a precise definition of leisure before i go any further. Leisure. Is freetime to be just to be with self and friends and hobbies and nature's and loved ones. Just to be as you will. Away from the pressures and expectations and demands of anyone else your employer your nation your community or condo association even your own children for god's sake. My merriam-webster dictionary to find leisure in the following way. Freedom or spare time. Provided by the cessation of activities. Free time as a result of temporary exemption temporary exemption. From work or duties. Time and this is a key part of the definition. Time at one's own command. That is free of engagements are responsibilities one's own time at one's own convenience and the last word they used to define leisure. I think of leisure then as a relaxed way of being in the world. Which enables us it's a kind of mindfulness. Enables us to keenly notice and enjoy the world which is at hand. So that when we do return to life and work i'm due to work and duties. We are rested and ready. Practicing leisure in your life is intentionally allowing for there to be some renewing space. Around your working duties which allow you to be positive and cheerful about the rest of your exist. I would suggest you as many others who've written about human happiness and well-being have done. Didn't order for any human. Have a well-rounded meaningful healthy life. One needs more or less. Equal amounts of three fundamental. Human activities. Alive. I had john makeup this chart for you work of core. And if you're retired work can me laundry and. And get all your volunteer stuff. Sleep. We know the federal government now says it no matter how old you are you need at least 8 hours of sleep. Americans are getting the part of this whole drama. Americans are getting less and less and less sleep. We are asleep deprived society. All because we're working too much. And leisure. Now when i say leisure i also mean. Leisure and logistics for example if you have to commute to work that could be construed as leisure-time or. Doing laundry aura. Some of the routine tasks that you have which are. Specifically work in your. In any case. Health and happiness. Lies in balancing these. Three things i say. What i want to ask you to view this morning is. In your life. How are you doing. With this pie chart of balanced and he'll how are you doing really how are you do. I think the evidence is irrefutable. The most americans despite our obvious freedoms. And privileges and material wealth. Have a serious problem when it comes to creating and protecting enough. Genuine leisure time in our lives even if we all retire. Simply put. We are. Some of us badly addicted. To too much work. Too much labor. Too much information. Too much accomplishment. Too much service even too much activity too much hurry as j walljasper put it in the oven e-reader a few months ago. More and more it feels like our lives have turned. Into a gruelling race toward the finish line we never reach. It wasn't supposed to turn out this way he said. As a kid in the sixties i remember hearing. The one of the biggest challenges of the future. Would be what we would do with all our leisure time. Haha. And then he goes on. Amazing inventions. Blackberries. Ipads. Iphone. We're going to free upgrade stretches for our days for what really matters. Friends family and fun. But then wally jasper says. Adjust. Has occurred. We hurried through alive. More more work. Unless unless leash. Most americans no longer know how i think. Truly go to leisureland. We have simply fallen out of the practice. We are so tethered for one thing. These devices. Better hurry up lots of time supposedly still tethered to the minnesota and ironic. Twista. Here are just a few of the facts. Over recent years americans who are already the hardest-working and most productive people on the face of the earth. Are working harder and harder. Juliet schor in her book the overworked american the unexpected decline of the leisure rights this. In the last 20 years the amount of time americans have spent on their job. Has risen steadily. Each year the change is small. Amounting now upwards of 9 hours or slightly more than an additional day of work each week. The accumulated increase she writes over the last two decades is substantial. The growth of work time did not occur. As a result of public debate. She observed. There has been little attention from government academic civic organizations or union. To the slow job creep. For the most part. The issue has been off the agenda. A non choice. A silent. Unwitting. Shift. In american life. It may startle you to hear as it did. Me when i recently heard the statistic. Do you know how much time how many days is the average. American family if you want in a husband wife and kids. The average american family do you know how many vacation days the average family shares together in a year. Mine. 9 days. Which if you add the weekends is just about two weeks. Compare that with european families are noticeably calmer. Less stressed out and less prone to heart disease european neighbors. They get eight weeks off every summer and all kinds of silly holidays. The average american family gets 9 days. I saw a report recently and i sometimes watch fox news i'll admit it. Which suggested this report on fox news. Said that most americans suffer from a new dangerous disease. Ddd you know what that is. Vacation deficit disorder. Vacation. Deficit. Disorder. The truth is that in america today millions of us routinely were 10 12 14 hours a week when i was back in washington. You know what you know where our children are church meeting to work 8 p.m.. And even at that people coming to committee meetings will be dragling in at 8:30 at 9 right from their federal jobs. In washington that they started at 7 in the morning what's wrong with this picture. No. I don't quite see as much of this here on the treasure coast of course. But. The fact that across america lawyers and doctors in computer consultants and supervisors and floor managers and storekeepers. And restaurant owners and tree trimmers. Even ministers. Countless americans work far more than the standard eight hours a day which was protect which was established 100 years ago to protect workers safety and health. The bottom line is clear. In spite of the fact that it was never supposed to be like this 21st century americans. Have more work. And less time at their own disposal less leisure time to just be who they are in the world and grow spiritually and emotionally healthy. And there's no reversal. Of this in these tough economic times. A reversal in this trend. And tragically we have passed on this non-stop workaholic ethic. To our kids. And our grandkids. Study after psy google kids over programming. Buteyko google take a look at some of the articles. Study after study shows that countless american children especially those from families weather high expectations. Are terribly over programs now when i was. It is growing up in the fifties and sixties i'd ride my bike around town and swimming lake michigan and. Goof around and do naughty things in the woods with the other boyfriend that i had yellow. Knocking over out houses and stuff like that. Just can't do that kind of good stuff anymore. I'd never knocked over and out house i never did that. Never did it. But all all you parents and grandparents. Have a responsibility. The help. You're at your grandkids and your kids to learn how to not be over program. And in this. Culture which so values productivity and so scornful of laziness. I would generally have you think of leisure the kind we need much more of. Not as some sort of lazy inactivity like. Sitting as a couch potato watching a television so that is a form of leisure. But rather again. Leisure the time at our own command. At our own bidding when we choose. Deceased from the busyness. And rather find a relaxed engagement and focus. With our own lot interior lives. People nearest us the families we love. The friends we love. Leisure is not laziness. It's a different form. My colleague will saunders suggest. The diff we are ever to find health and balances human beings we need to let go of work. And it's corollary. Buying and spending. So you know an afternoon at the mall isn't. We need to relieve ourselves he writes of activities that cause worry. Paying bills. Preparing tax returns making lists of things to do in the coming week. We need to waste time. On the pleasure of being. With family and friends with the light. He writes of leisure the delight of simply enjoying the world. We need to set aside time to renew our relationship she goes on with nature. And with god. And with. I think this is the key benefit of leisure. It enables us to renew relationship. With self. Family with neighbor. With nature. Whatever god mean. And what's more leisure pursuits. Well they may accidentally. Help us to become wiser and better routed and smarter and more productive. They must never be engaged in for the potential usefulness that's becoming a backhanded kind of work. But rather for their own calming. Spiritual sake. Leisure looks like. Sitting in a hammock in the backyard watching the infant changing pattern of the summer clouds. Or spending an afternoon tending. The stamp collection you've had since you were 12 year old boy or girl. Or taking the family out for electronic picnic or volt ride-on lagoon. Or strolling through your favorite museum for the umpteenth time. Are going birding in that favor wetland of yours near here. Or spending a morning leisurely researching your family's genealogy on the world wide web.. Or even taking a delicious. We mean that. Without setting an alarm. I quote again from the free time for statement by the good rabbi. Having time for leisure goes to the heart of what it means to be a human being. Human beings need time for self-reflective. Growth. For loving family and for communal and community. Sharing. It is simply. Time. Poet carl sandburg. In a short poem entitled happiness. Also speaks. This quality of leisure listen to my second carl sandburg palm of them. He writes. I asked professors who teach the meaning of happiness. To tell me what is happiness. And i went to famous executives who bossed the work of thousands of men they all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though i was trying to fool with them. And then. One sunday afternoon. I wandered out along the des plaines river. And i saw a crowd of hungarian. Under the trees. With their women. And their children. The keg of beer. Distance. And thousands of other blessedly impractical. Nana fishing. Perfectly enjoyable activities. Is what leisure should look like. And feel like. The simple truth. Is it hard working. Plugged in. Totally informed and up-to-date. Fast-paced americans. Are not structuring enough. Soul. Nurturing. Leisure. Into their lives. Father's true that some employers. Are pressuring. Or tragically forcing some american workers to labor too long. And too hard and more on that unacceptable outage in just a moment. I would suggest it is mostly ourselves. Who are responsible. For the demise. Of leisure. Many of us. Fall victim to what one commentator called hurry sickness. We just. Hurting all the time we we fall victim to an o-1 imposes. Hurry sickness on us. We choose it. Maya the first title for the sermon my working title was don't just do something. Stand there. Don't just do something stand there but i changed it to the lost art of leisure really well that was my working title. That's what we need more in life don't just do. For god's sake. Bmv. Leisure. We know clearly. That in addition to working on our own interior lies we must insist. Governmental. Corporate leaders. Allow each worker to have a balanced healthy life. With reasonably limited humane work hours that's part. Of the. Free time free people statement i urge all of you. As you move around our culture. To encourage that kind of thinking. That we're not we don't have to be workaholics. Be good. And productive citizen. I try to limit my work hours here to 40 hours a week because i know. I went to the minister friend who brag collie groups that he was working 90 hours a week. I once i finally said to him. Scott. Got it. Kuiu. Who you doing this favor for. Of burning yourself out you. Can't be in effect. Working 90 hours away. You can't be ineffective. If you're working 90. But you can't be ineffective. 90 hours. All of us. Have a responsibility for helping our culture rebalance. Labor. With leisure. In our own lives. In the lives of those we see working at publix. In the checkout line. And mcdonald's. And the tree trimmers. We must say to everyone. Power. Help us establish. A balance. But again. We can't just rely on public policy and public attitude. In the end. Most of us need to make a change. In here. If the quality and balance and health and our own lives is ever to come to pass. While our work and retirement situations. Very widely. We each will have both the freedom and the responsibility. To make decisions that will enable us. To lead lives. Joyous palace. So i pray you good folks do not regard leisure. As some superfluous. Or optional dimension of living. If you are to be fully and joyfully human. Which is what being a unitarian is all about if you're to be fully and joyfully human. You need and here's a bit of the iron that you need discipline. To cultivate and find. Leisure. In your life. Enclosing a remind you of one of the wisest things. Ever said. Evol it's a kind of a bumper sticker. No one ever says on his or her deathbed g i wished i'd spent more time. Down at the office. Gee i wish i'd spent more time. Down at the office. Look my dear friends. Life is both precious. You were not put on this earth. To be a joyless slave to your job. Or work or even volunteer commitments or careers you were put on this earth. To be a full. And spine. And relaxed and balanced human beings taking in your world. Enjoying it loving it that's what you. Sure work is good. But these are. Is holy. Please protect the gift of life. It has been so miraculously given to you by balancing these things in. Insist that your life. Has this balance. That is required for robust and joyful humans. And talk to your kids. And your grandkids were working too hard in cincinnati. Or portland oregon. Just don't let. Stop it. Go on. Spoken. I pray all of you. Measure. Your days. For not measuring. Heaven. And happiness. Nothing less. And i say and mean with a little bit of scolding.

uufvb_org

2015May31Sermon128.mp3

Well good morning. And welcome to the service when we intergenerational service when we celebrate our kinship with animals of all kinds. We are so pleased that you've come to be with us this morning at the unitarian universalist fellowship of euro beach. We are as the slide just said it congregation of open minds loving hearts and helping hand. People working to become our best individual cells even is together as a congregation. We work to make our world a better place. Please know that you're welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you were young or old gay or straight. Black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you are a visitor this morning or have been coming for decades. Whether you're feeling absolutely on top of the world this beautiful summer day here in vero beach or. Or maybe down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We are delighted to see you just as you come to us. We hope you'll find our service this morning meaningful and enriching. I think you'll find something here this morning to take with you that would give your life. Renewed energy and joy for living in the days and weeks ahead. My colleague gary kowalski who happens to live in santa fe new mexico. Has this wonderful reading about giving thanks. We give thanks for the urethane for its creatures we are grateful from a-z. For alligators apricots acorns and apple tree for bumblebees bananas blueberries and beagles. Coconuts crawdads cornfield and coffee colombian coffee has elephants and flying fish. For groundhogs glaciers and grasslands hippos and hazelnuts. For juniper jackrabbits and june bugs kudzu and kangaroos lightning bugs and licorice for mountains and milkweeds and mistletoe. Narwhals in nordstrom. Otters and ocelots for peony's and persimmons and polar bears and queen anne's lace for raspberries and roses. Merchants in bally's and waterfalls yogurt. We are grateful good earth not least of all. 4 zinnia zucchini and zebras. I put the alphabet of wonderful things in our world that is as simple. A. Be. This january when the reverend martin eharmony who will be our summer minister again this year she'll be with us 45. Weeks in july and august. Spoke about the loss of her beloved dog. Claudine i realize that many of us have unresolved kinship. Emotions. Involving animals and some of you have brought mementos of. Special. Animals that have meant things to you until we thought we devote a whole intergenerational service to this topic. So everything is going to happen between now and the benediction will relate to our theme about. Kinship and care for animals. We have two poems. By mary oliver. An american poet. The first one is called percy. Our new dog. Named for the beloved poet. Ada book which unfortunately. We had left unguarded. Fortunately. It was the. Bhagavad gita. Of which many copies are available. Everyday now as percy grows. Into the beauty of his life. We touch his wild. Curly head and say. Oh why is this. Of little. The second poem is also by mary oliver and. It's called percy wakes me. Percy wakes me and i'm not ready. He has slept all night and under the covers. Now he's eager for action a walk then breakfast. So why hasten up. He is sitting on the kitchen counter where he is not supposed to. How wonderful you are i say how clever. If you needed me. To wakeman. He thought he would hear a lecture and deeply. His eyes began to shine. He tumbles. On to the couch for more compliments he squirms and squeals. He has done something that he needed. And now. He hears that it's okay. I scratches ears. I turned him over and touch him everywhere. He is wild. With okayness. Bo canis of it. Then we walk. Then he has breakfast and. He is happy. This is a poem about percy. This is a poem. About more. And percy. Think about. Our beloved pets. For many people. Pets are like members of the family. As we were talking about pets with the children a few sundays ago. One of the children comment. That his house would feel empty without. Another shared he enjoyed playing fetch. With and walking his dog lola. Yet another commented pets are like a brother or sister. Who require a lot. Care. A good reason not to have a pet. Not being able. Take care of it with their response. Another reason. More personal. Is allergies. I'm allergic to both cats and dogs so i didn't have any pets growing up. When our children were little. All i could handle was a betta fish. Bird. Dormouse or hamster. We had one of each a different time. And the girls spent a lot of time just observing them. Having pets taught the girls had to be responsible for other living being. Of course we had our share of pet burials in the backyard. But i didn't have much responsibility as long as i made sure. There was adequate pet food in the house. Many years earlier. I did. Despite my allergies. We had a beautiful black lab named ben. Steve brought him home while i was in school getting my teaching degree in canada. At the time we lived in a spacious farm in a cloud forest in columbia south america. A perfect home. For an energetic dog. When i returned from school. I had to acclimate to this third member of our family. As much as i love them every time he would jump on me and lick me out break out in hives. So it really took. Acclimating. But she was so fun and he was so wonderful. That as long as i stayed medicated. I was okay. But i couldn't avoid getting attached to him. Steve trout steve my husband travels a lot at the time. And i was often home alone in this farm up in the mountains and it felt really lonely. But then. Became my best buddy. He took i took care of him. Learn to make his dog food. And he took care of me. We often took long hikes along the tea plantation in other farms near our house. He was very protective. But also gentle with our friends children when they can. To visit. When lauren our oldest daughter was born. Ben would sit quietly at her side. When i placed her in her baby seat around the house as i went about my. His favorite activity. Was chasing the sour oranges from the abandoned citrus trees on our property. He would chase them down the hill. And bring them back so we could throw them again. And if you can imagine. An orange that's been chewed on by a dog over and over again pretty gross but he loved it and he would chase that orange until it fell apart. Steven i used to joke that we had an orange. Retriever. With wonderful citrus press. When he had when we had got house gift. Ben was playful. But you went to sit and rest quietly. Every night we would call him into the house before we went to. One night. He was inadvertently left outside. And although we search for him and heard rumors about his whereabouts. We never saw him and. We also never spoke about him again after he. Our sadness was too. We also decided not to. Replace him. After that life got busy our second daughter gabby was born. And we started planning a move to. Although i haven't had a pet since then. I can appreciate. Companionship. Friendship. That we can develop with our pet. Yet it's not only about. Panties. But about unconditional presence. In our lives. And the connection with the wild. That they. The words of john o'donohue. And to bless the space between us a book of blessings. Describe this well. To learn from animal be. Mirror to the earth's heart. Deeper within its silence. Animals know this world. In a way. We never will. We ever distance and distracted. By the parade of bright windows. Bought opens. Their seamless presence is not fracture. Stranded between time. Gone in time emerging. We manage seldom. To be where we are. Whereas they are always looking out from the here and now. May we learn to return and rest. In the beauty of animal being. Learn to lean low. Leave our locked mine. And with freed senses. Feel. With us. May we enter into lightness of spirit. And slipped frequently. The feel of the wild. Let the clear silence. Of our animal being. Cleanse our hearts of corrosive words. May we. Learn to walk. Upon the earth. With all their conference. And clear-eyed stillness. So that are mine. Might be baptized. In the name of the wind. And light. And. Our beloved. So one of the most intriguing and for those of us living in the twenty-first century i think one of the most troubling stories. Found in the bible is the ancient unfamiliar story of noah and the ark. Which is found as you know in the book of genesis the first book. Of the jewish scriptures. You all know the absolutely fantastic story. After god had created the earth and everything that lived upon it he became disgusted. With his creation because quote. The earth is filled with violence. And the wickedness of man was great. And sewing in his divine wrath god in the story and now i quote the ancient texts. I have determined to make an end to all flash. I will bring a flood of waters on the earth. Had to destroy all flesh. In which is the breath of life from under heaven. And then god said everything that is on earth. She'll die. Beautiful stuff. So. God it is wrath. Decides to destroy every living thing on earth except. Noah and his family and except. Her his very clear instructions to noah. One mating pair of every animal species on the planet. And you all know this kind of familiar. Picture which i hope will come up in just a moment. Is it going to come up. It's not going to come up you all know the picture of the ark. With the the mammals going. Two by two. And so no is instructed by god to build a great ark made out of gopher-wood vessel large enough to accommodate noah's family. And all these countless mating pairs of animals that will be selected to ensure the survival of every species. I've always wondered how the insect piece of that work. You know how many how many millions of species of insects are there in the world that anyway that must have been you would want to do that if you were noah's kid anyway. Uno. And so. And so it is the story tells us that every living thing which god created to live on earth. Continued after this horrible flood which he reigns down. Now this story about noah and his family rescuing every species of animal. Animal from a shure water extinction while fantastic. For what boat could possibly be big enough for. The story is none-the-less i think sweet. In theological terms anyway. Because it implies that humanity has a great responsibility to protect. Every species. From the animal kingdom every created species we're responsible. To protect. But then in far less sweet terms. The ancient story goes on and read it yourself in genesis. To imply the humanity that is god's children. Have absolute dominion over all the animals. And idea which unfortunately. And with tragic consequences beyond measuring. Has given our species permission ever since to believe. That animals are ontologically or that is to say in the cosmic scheme of things. Inferior to us. And they are here on earth only to meet our human wants and needs. Dietary and otherwise. Listen to what the ancient god of israel. Tells noah and his family after the flood recedes and the ark. Empty. Be fruitful he says. And multiply and fill the earth the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast. On the earth. The pot every bird in the air and upon everything that creeps along the ground. And all the fish of the sea. Every moving thing shall be food for you. And as i gave you the green plants i give you now dominion. Over everything. Into your hands. They are delivered. As my colleague gary kowalski right in his groundbreaking groundbreaking book. The bible according to noah. Theology as if animals mattered he right. Animals we are told in jewish scriptures were originally created by god. 2b helpmates for humankind. But upon their expulsion from eden eden adam and eve are clad in the skins of other creatures. Eating them appears to be the final step. From paradise. Supratip to perdition. Henceforth. Kowalski right. Animals are no longer seen. As peers or partners instead. They'll become appetizers. And apparel. Resources. Commodities and train goods. To be used for human purpose. And then kowalski right. God in the ancient scriptures is saying. Ethics and morality must govern our relationship with others. Of our own species. But are irrelevant as far as animals arkansas. Now this ancient homocentric view. That our planet earth and everything upon it. Was created by god exclusively for our purposes and our exploitation. Is an idea that at least in part. Has inevitably lead. To the thoughtless exploitation and in many cases eventual extinction. A countless animal species. And this idea now and dangerous as you all know. Hazard. The puppet human population increases. Anna's habitats are reduced. Thousands if not hundreds of thousands. Specie. Animal speak. Are now in danger. Luckily for the earth many animals and dust there is now a rising crescendo. In both spiritual and ecological circle. That is urgently calling us to a new understanding of our kinship with. And our responsibility for. Fellow creatures on this earth. No one of the first to raise his voice with this new ethic of kinship and care for animals. Was the famous 20th century physician and humanitarian. Albert schweitzer. Who interesting lee was became an honorary unitarian universalist. Through his friendship with one of our ministers the reverend george marshall. And listen to the powerful words when schweitzer articulate. His universal ethic which is simply called. Reverence for life you right. The human spirit has come to believe that compassion. In which all ethics must take root. Can only attain its full breadth and depth. If it embraces all living creatures. And does not limit itself. To mankind. Are ethical behavior hero. Was not only concern our human neighbor. But all living things. Ancient ethics has not this death. The strength of conviction. But decided there now stands he writes a new weapon. That have respect for all life. A boundless ethic. Which will include the animals. Loli are in our european thought he concludes we have come to the notion. That ethics have not only to do with mankind. What was the animal creation as well. Ethics the end is nothing else. But reverence. For all life. This is the only african i believe that can see us into a new day worth having. As global citizen. Humanity must simply forsake that ancient and destructive idea. But animals are here only to serve our purposes and that we somehow have. Dominion over them. We share a primordial kinship with all animals. Or they came out at the same beautiful primordial soup of evolution. As we did. They are closed. Cosmic n. And if we are to have a planet for ourselves and our children. And our grandchildren worth having. We must take care. All of our fellow. As gary kowalski. There is no disputing. The warmth and companionship and love. Are animals provide. Legally we on our pets. But the joy of these creatures bring into our homes. Brings into our homes make them more like family members. The worldly possessions we share a radical kinship. Was so. Many animals. You all know the seventh principle of our unitarian universalist faith we print it in the order of service every sunday. We are apart. Of an interdependent web of all existence. Of which we are apart. As together we move into the the full. Being of the 20th century. We must keep that principle. Sweitzers ethic of reverence for all life. And our kinship. With all creatures at the forefront of our moral universe. We must simply. Never go back to the days of noah. When we imagine that these animals are here. For our purpose. No. They are close kin. 4shared amazing. And beautiful. Creation. Animals are such. Wonderful blessing. May we return. That blessing. To them. We now have a ritual. We hope many of you will participate in claudia come on up. Now is the time in this blessing of the animals service. When all who wish to can share in a ritual of claiming stoned. For animals we have known or presently living. And you see two baskets of a beautiful smooth. Riverstone. On the chancel steps. And now we invite all of you who are so moved. While todd gently plays the piano. To come up. Take a stove. An animal or species. That has meant a lot to you during. You may come up and take a stone or a beloved childhood pet. Being a dog or a cat or a bird or other creature. Or a pet. With whom you are currently sharing your life. Or you may come up and take a. Tire speed. Genre of animal. Like horse. Or llamas. Dolphins or manatees. Kangaroos or koala. Bears. Jungle cats songbird. Beatles. Butterflies. Or even alligators. So. Take a stone or stones to acknowledge your kinship. With. And care for animals. Hold them in your hand the sour and feel their smooth beauty. And take them home with you after the service. Take them home and put them in a place of honor. And remember. Perhaps. Your garden. Or outside. Contour. Perhaps a shelf. In your study or office on your bed headboard. Or even the cozine. Where you enjoy your breakfast. Place these stones in a place where you will regularly see them. And us be able to remember the animals you have love. And i have blessed you in return. So let our ritual begin. Are benediction is from terry tempest williams. The eyes of the future are looking back at us. And they are praying. For us to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with hands class. That we might act with restraint. That we might leave room. For the life that is destined. To come. To protect what is wild is to protect. What is gentle. Perhaps the wildness we fear. Is the pause between our own heartbeat. The silence face that says. We live only by grace. Wilderness lives by the same grace. Wild mercy. Is in our hands. Let us move gently. Through our world. I'm at.

uufvb_org

2014Dec07Sermon128.mp3

Good morning welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach my name is bonnie shelton i'm a member of this congregation and we're so happy you've decided to join us this morning. Whether you're young or old gay or straight. Black or white or some other marvelous shade of humanity you are welcome. We hope that you will find something in this service that's meaningful to you and that gives you strength and courage enjoy to face the coming week. The opening words this morning are by the reverend howard thurman and it's called the work of christmas. When the song of angels. Is still. When the star in the sky. Is gone. When the kings and princes. Our home. When the shepherds are back with their flock. The work of christmas. Begins. Define the lost. To heal the broken. To feed the hungry. To release the prisoner. To rebuild the nation's. Do bring priest peace among neighbors. And to make music. In the heart. Our guest minister this morning. Is reverend robert mcdonald. Reverend mcdonald is currently serving the uu congregation in stuart. Where our senior minister reverend alexander is preaching this morning. Reverend mcdonald is an ordained methodist manor minister who retired from a pastoral ministry in the new york area. Several years ago. And subsequently took on ministerial duties at the treasure coast uu congregation. He says he's planning to read retire. In another year or so. I'm happy to be with you here again. Trust. Scott won't have the experience set our colleague to the south north palm head. When he and i exchanged. Are in september. On that sunday in september one of his parishioners. Decided it would be a good sunday to go check out the minister in the church and stewart. So when he and i exchanged that sunday. One of the purse is in the congregation. Was rather surprised as was the minister visiting. It has been a joy to be among you use for these several years. I discovered in my ministry. In new york. That long-term ministries worked best because you had time. To build things in the sea things grow. I mean you had bombs of course but you kept trying new things. Last time i was here i believe i mentioned. How we were. Working on a program we called bridge gathering jews muslims and us. Add together. The rabbi in the mom and i had good rapport and then our people got together and we have. Questions of each other and listen to each other respectfully it seemed like a good thing. That's kind of going to the backburner because the rabbi left in the imam has been really busy. Now we're doing something the different i just thought i'd like to mention. We're calling it the face of the treasure coast. And we're inviting leaders of neighbouring congregations in our community. To come and teach us and it teach anyone in the community who wants to come. About their religion. Their denomination. We started in november. And our first guests were the bishop and some missionaries. Of the palm city mormon congregation now that doesn't happen too often. But the bishop came and some of his workers. And the deal is you have a half an hour to put your best foot forward. Has a half an hour of q&a. And for a half an hour the mormon bishop. Told us about their beloved prophet joseph smith. And their beloved king james translation. And a pretty conservative and it seemed uncritical. I do not malaysian but it was really really interesting. About a week after that presentation at our church. The new york times came out with a. An article about joseph smith maybe some of you saw that. The mormon church had actually put it out. Because so much is becoming known. I wanted to get some control of it. And one of the things becoming known was that the founder joseph smith. Had a lot of wives it was known that bring them young did. But it came out that joseph smith did also. And one of the difficult roebling aspects of it is. Joseph smith. Took other men's wives and made them his own. In eternity. We don't think in terms like this but. Family and eternity. Mean alot to mormons. And so the founder found wives to his liking. And sealed them to him. In eternity. No i don't know who you who might be wedded. Feel about spending eternity. With your partner or your mate. My wife on sundays would say it's already been an eternity but this was really really troubling to a lot of mormon women wise to discover that their founder had taken wives and made them his own. But in eternity. So it'll be interesting to see what effect that has on. What i would call a fairly conservative. And uncross critical. Denomination. Remind me of a great truth. The truth will set you free. But first it will make you miserable. Have you ever found that to be true. This month i believe in poetry. After nearly a half-century as a minister. And leading that many advents and christmases. One might expect to have the meaning of the holiday and the stories behind it. Down. I don't. I'm pretty clear. What is not. It's central meaning. A couple years ago i did a series at tcuc on. Sanity for the holidays. I decided to begin with a little adventure. Into insanity. Even when you think in all humility. Your life partner has just about everything in life. He or she needs. Because she or he has you. And even after you have said to each other. Let's not spend needlessly for christmas. Still. You want to give something. So we identified a convenient little digital camera. Carrying around more easily than the bigger one with the bulky changeable lenses. Especially for when she is walking the beach. And on a monday before the walmart black. Friday flyer arrives. And behold there is the camera. For about $20 less than i had found it on the internet. Next to it is written. On sale at midnight black friday. And while supplies last. So why does tide. I really don't expect to get a camera out of this. But if i stay up. And. Try this. I will have an educational experience. And see your slice-of-life i haven't seen before. And of course i hope not to be seen there by anyone i know. And not to be mauled there. There are also specials at 10 p.m. the night before which of course is thanksgiving night. So i know i won't have to wait on line outside the store for a med. Fresh2go in. The store is open all night. So i arrive about 10:30 p.m. to try to park and i got lucky. The lot is full and many cars are hunting a space. But i found someone is pulling out. And i would not have to challenge anyone. Or be threatened for the spot. I enter the store and it looks like what i've seen on tv. Times square on new year's eve. Except there are people with shopping carts full of treasures and children. And the carts are trying to move with difficulty. Nobody can move very quickly. Through the store. Immediate instinct. Wallet from back pocket to front pocket. There had to be at least 25 to 30 police throughout the store. I say 21. I hope you are getting overtime for this. He says walmart is paying us not your taxes sir when i get to the photo department i can't find any cameras. But i'm told they are hidden in a mound. On a makeshift aisle. What that means is. Where is there was an aisle by the food section. There is a long mound covered in gray and brown paper. Were the type sign on top that says not for sale until midnight. And it is guarded at both ends. And lined on both sides with waiting people. So you have to find out. Where your target purchase is. And get as close to it as possible. And stand there and wait. 490 minutes. Luckily i do. Someone had peeked into the brown paper. And there was the display of camera speaking out. I'm in the second row behind it. And i say kind of for fun. Do seniors get to go first acquire responds no. Send a sweet teen girl turns to me and says. What color do you want. Oh no i say i can reach. At 11:45 the paper comes off the display. At about 11:55 of bell or whistle goes off and in two or three seconds the mound display shelves are picked empty. I had for the checkout with a camera and an education. And no violence. I creep back into our condo at 12:45. With no honey i'm home. But lori duster from the pillow enough to say. And your topic on sunday is sanity. It's not about that is important as the economy and the gifts might be. It's not primarily about that. I read the christmas story every year like poetry. Poetry is what the hearts try to express often in the realm of the ineffable the inexpressible albeit. Mystery. It is often the language of love imagination. And longing for a better world. As pascal wrote the heart has reasons the head doesn't know about. So christmas a child born and b violence to heaven singing of peace and goodwill in an area that has never known it. I called this poetry. Metaphor myth. About what the heart wants to know. And wants to be true. Karen armstrong in the book. A short history of myth. Claims that cultures societies before us. Used myth as a way of surviving. Of understanding our relationship to the universe and to each other. Miss were not about another world. They were attempts to understand our own enough to get by. To survive in it. Armstrong says the western world in the last two centuries. Has reduced mr.. In fairy tail. She thinks that's loss. So the christmas story myth or poetry if you will. Is full of rich pregnant symbol and metaphor. I believe it because i want it to be true. For me it's like other truths and meanings in our lives. If we have a life partner it's like the truth or meaning of that relationship. Bond is the truth or meaning of our lives in good part because we chose it we were chosen by it him or her. And two people committed to it enough to make it work. And last. For many and for me. The christmas story is a love story. About what the universe was meant to be. What humankind can still be. It is a story full of poetry and promise. So the story starts with a pregnancy. Most of our story start that way. So a young woman conceive. I've always been guided by the way my history prof at the. Hebrew prophet. At the university of chicago where i started seminary. How he explained the nativity stories. He said the stories had nothing to do. With how jesus was conceived you know one or two human parents participating. The idea of the virgin birth one human parent participating. Who was one of the five fundamentals. A fundamentalist christian faith. And we know they were conceived in the early 20th century. So we know how the idea of the virgin birth came about. But not how the birth came about. We assumed it came about like. Most you could say forwards come about. The way that professor put it. Those old jews who wrote the stories didn't believe in gynecologic wonders. They were writing and symbols about what he came to mean to them. To a few. And then too many. It's poetry and metaphor. A young woman gets pregnant baby age 14 or 15. And the most eloquent poetry is placed on her lips. He the divine has put down the mighty. And exalted those of low degree. The idea of shalom peace justice finally. For all. Our country is certainly struggling with justice4all and needs to. It's hard to believe and live with what keeps happening between police and black men. Shepherd stand watch over the birthing event. I guess they represent exalting those of low degree. Shepherd's i've been told when storing israel. Shepherds the better ones there. Number among the most unwashed and unscented people of the earth. And they hear the angel chorus singing. Singing the universe's craving. For peace and goodwill. Have you ever heard and angelic choir. Other than your own here. And the tivity scene is completed by wiseman. Maybe stargazers from the east following a star. That shines over bethlehem. Maybe the poetry the myth or meaning here. Is that there is something for all to see. And to appreciate. The great theologian scholar marcus borg road and one of our study books. What does it mean to say that a star. Pointed toward a village. It doesn't make sense. It's poetry. Somebody sees it pointing. That's the point. What board wrote made sense to me. How can a star. Point to a particular place. Well i want to tell you about a stunning sight i awoke to. A while ago i only saw it once. Here's the theological prelude. Our wednesday discussion group had been studying bar airman's did jesus exist. Nothing is known about jesus humble beginnings. Absolutely nothing. So all that christmas pageant material from the two gospel birth stories two very different birth stories. That all came after his death in crucifixion. Nothing to do with how we was born. Only to do with how his followers valued him. In fact so little is known about the actual life of jesus. That there's a group of scholars and writers called. Mythicist. Mythical mythicist that's what are man calls them. Mythicist who believe jesus is a total invention. Airman who began as an evangelical christian. But it's now an agnostic and ancient manuscripts expert at unc. Puts his view very clearly. He believes jesus existed. Just not the jesus most christians believe in. So one of the deep this is a long prayed lilit leading up to a point if you can hang with me. One of the details from one of the two birth stories. Is that a star that three astrologers aka wiseman to a manger scene. And this other theologian bourque head-to-head already ridden convincingly. How can a star lead anyone to a cradle. How can i start to one spot on earth. About a year ago. I had this epiphany. Hutchinson island. Outside our balcony window. Early one morning i looked out. In a beam of light from a star. Came across the water. To the shore. Call store window. And at the end of it was what look like a little spotlight. I don't know how it formed a little spot at the shore. But i suspect it was because of the depth of the water there. I didn't take this as a divine message for me. But i did think how interesting. Maybe marcus borg and i can still be taught something. Will a couple months ago it happened again. And better than before. My little three-legged alarm clock when we call punkie our cat. Did her thing about 4:45 a.m.. She looks you on the nose and how can you be unhappy with somebody that looks you on the nose i sat up and looked out. And there were two streaks of light coming to the shore. I went outside onto the deck and look closer. They were parallel beams. One from a star. And one from a sliver of the moon. It wasn't like that beautiful moon last night did you see that moon last night. With the lines of the clouds separating and then rising and its glory full glory above those clouds it was more like 1/8 moon but the beans were parallel. An ending at our shore. I tried to capture with a cell phone camera. With my ipad camera. And then with my froze professional like cannon no luck. But it was an incredible sight. Now the moon is what 250,000 or so miles away this star probably trillions but what are the odds of parallel beams. The message to me was not lost. Always look out the window when you get up. And thank that cat. Ps. If i ever awake. 23 parallel beams. My unitarian bent will be in jeopardy. What is there. In this magical. Mystical mythical poetry metaphor. Yes that we still wish to be true. Humble origins. People of no particular earthly promise or power. Go on to write in print large enough. Four generations later to see. Peace and goodwill where the plan from the beginning. Every pregnancy begins or should begin with an angel whispering. A child of the most high. Where are the highest value we know. Is about to be born. And the universe has a song of peace and goodwill. And we can hear it. And hope for it. And work for it. All this later. As a message the world needs to hear. And tahiti. Goodwill. Opportunity. For everybody. Every christmas. This story. Reminds me of words attributed to shore. Or bobby kennedy. I see things that never were. And ask why not. Wouldn't you just the meaning of the season different for all of us but it certainly reminds us of the gifts that have come our way and hopefully reminds us of the gift we all are.

uufvb_org

2012Mar11Sermon128.mp3

Turning on. Uusc justice sunday when we reflect on the many and justices. Of our world and what we can do to make a positive difference. I want to struggle out loud and this house of goodness and hope. With one of the most troubling and vexing questions known to humanity the question of evil. This is been a theological topic that has challenged me personally for my entire ministry. It was more than 30 years ago now when i wrote a major paper on the subject for a theological study group to which i belong of you you ministers entitled. Finding hope. In a post-holocaust world. Which was subsequently published in the national journal and receive fairly wide attention within our denominational circles. I began the paper. With the haunting description by holocaust survivor elie wiesel. Here is a photo of him at age 15 just before he was taken to the death camps. His mother and father and three sisters. Were sent from the jewish ghetto in signet romania. To auschwitz. Buzzell was the only one in his family to survive the war. It is heroin book night. In which he describes what he saw as a young boy. When he arrived at auschwitz in a crowded cattle car. Here's the quote. Not far from us. Flames were leaping up from the ditch gigantic flames. They were burning something. Olori drew up at the pit and delivered it slowed. Little children. Babies. Yes i saw it i saw it with my own eyes those children in the flames. So this was where we were going. A little farther on with another larger ditch for adults i pinched my face. Was i still alive was i awake. I could not believe it how could it be possible for them to burn people. Children. And for the world to keep silent. None of this could be true. It was a nightmare soon i should have wake with a start. My heart pounding and find myself back in the bedroom of my childhood. Among my books. I told my father that i did not believe they could burn people in our age. The humanity would never tolerate it. Humanity. My father said. Humanity is not concerned with us. Today everything is allowed. Anything is possible he said. Even these cream. Gazelle. The only member. To survive his family. His mother and sisters were sent. The gas chambers that very day. And his father was late later beating. Here is a picture. Avicel and other holocaust survivors. Finally being released. At the end of the war. In my paper then after i shared this story from vsli wrote this. After auschwitz this planet is no longer a place for innocents. Auschwitz is commanding historical proof. The third exist within the human experience a primordial and permanent capacity for radical irredeemable evil. The nazi nightmare was so deep and vast is to make it impossible to theologically dismiss it. As a psychotic aberration of a few demonic megalomaniacs. Hitler and his henchmen were only able to turn 6 million jews into ash and soap and fertilizer. With a systematic support. Of all sectors of a highly developed western society and the acquiescence. Of the so-called civilized world including. The united states. Which was either unwilling or unable to add. The holocaust i want on belongs. To us all. It speaks with a terrible clarity of an essential deep down ugliness that must be owned by the whole of the human family. There can be no successful theological escaped from its horror and its presence. All religions i ended. All systems of human hope including our unitarian universalist face. Must sooner or later come to terms with a stark. Reality. Acumen eva. Now since i wrote these words human history has only reconfirmed my analysis of the human potential for evil. I wrote this before the khmer rouge in cambodia senselessly slaughtered. Millions of their own citizens i wrote this before. Almost a million defenseless tootsie women men and children were hacked to death by the hutus in rwanda in a genocide already. I wrote this before the ethnic cleansing camps in bosnia and herzegovina before the barbarism into far before before anybody could even imagine the barbary of 2001. Before. Before syria. Could turn its own guns. But its own. There have been endless time. There may have been there may have been a few times in human history when extreme optimism about human nature could ignore the reality of such depravity and darkness. Within the human soul. But it is not possible for anyone who has been alive in the last. Couple of generations. To doubt the stark reality of human evil. Within the march of history within the march of nations. Within the recesses of individual human hearts. And so i will honestly and sadly answer my own question about is there such a thing as evil. Horse there is yes it's real and it's powerful. And it's a permanent and pernicious part. Of our collective humanness it is a permanent and pernicious part. Who. Ar. But we unitarian-universalist but perennial optimist about the human experience as we are. Have always been a bit squeamish about evil and hesitant to give it a permanent. Or prevalent place in human nature. Just look at our seven. Positively worded principles on the order of service this morning. When we talk about a religion we talk about worth and dignity and justice and equity and compassion and peace and liberty and love and truth all the virtues but nowhere in our principles does it say we'll confront evil as though evil doesn't exist. My colleague david rank and might have been speaking for the whole religious movement when he once confessed this in a sermon. I have personally tried every conceivable technique to avoid confronting the reality of evil. I attended an upbeat. Uu seminary. I gave up the newspapers i read romantic poetry and the complete works of emerson. I took up golf and hiking i saw the sound of music 16 times. I refuse to vote i listen to nothing but doris day records. But evil. Was still there. This liberal avoidance of evil is something people in our faith tradition come by honestly. Our unitarian universalist avoidance of the reality and the nature and the depth of human evil goes all the way back to one of our great heroes. Ralph. Waldo. Emerson. And the other idealistic transcendentalist uu thinkers of the 19th century. Who refused the theological accept. The persons or societies had ontologically ontologically that means permanently and structurally within them within their basic human nature something called evil that is an idea they could not accept. What are trans of daedalus forebears believed and they were optimists and humanist out of the enlightenment. Was it because human beings were created they were sure by a good and loving god as i am persuaded. His divinely-inspired children. Possessed only that godly essence of goodness. This accords theologically flew right in the face of nineteenth-century puritanism and calvinism. Which saw persons and nature and society filled with wickedness and depravity and evil so you had the. Optimistic you use over here saying that you know that human nature is frame by goodness in the puritan saying nonsense it's framed by depravity and evil. In his famous divinity school address delivered at the graduation of harvard divinity school in 1841 and widely reprinted in the around the world in america. Emerson proclaimed. That the universe is singularly ruled and defined and informed by god's overarching goodness and light not by the powers and principalities of darkness here are his actual words. The world is not the product of manifold power. Meaning manifold both god and devil. But of one will. Emerson said one mind. One mind is everywhere active. And each ray of the star in each wavelet of the pool. Good is positive evil is merely private event. That is not absolute. Like the cold which is simply the privation of heat. All evil emerson one on is so much death or nonentity. Benevolence on the other hand is absolutely unreal. For all things proceed out of the same spirit gods. Which is differently named love justice and temperance. Rastaman seek good and he is strong by the whole strength of his nature. That was quaint. As it may seem this rather stunningly positive theological an ontological nineteenth-century assertion. They're only good as real and that evil is merely the absence of god's good light. None-the-less continues to inform. Modern-day unitarian universalist thinking to this day. What episode was asserting almost 190 years ago 180 years ago. Was in what has been optimistically echoed by countless you use since. Including perhaps. At least half of my colleagues today. Is it only good is real and powerful and ontologically present and that evil. Is instead of being a construct and a concrete reality within us. Is merely the absence of good merely the darkness that hasn't yet been chased away by us turning on more lights. You won't get this crucial. Theological distinction about not giving evil an ontological or a structural place within human nature it's crucial. It is crucial. It has led to huge problems. Many in the theological world say that unitarian universalist have an insufficient doctrine of sin. And that is most certainly true. It is lead real problems to us for that. When. We religious optimist optimist about human nature. Face holocaust and genocide and ethnic cleansing and. Heinous murders in our community. We have trouble. Coping. With the reality in the power of the. Onelook. One needs to look no further. In this year 2012 than the headlines every day you read them. About the persistence of evil in human affairs. And again i just mentioned siri at that what's happening in syria the evil of that government the evil of that leader. And the evil of the military. Which is. I'm continuing and here on the treasure coast. The paper has been filled with news of serial killer david allen gore governor scott has just signed the death warrant for. The death penalty is another issue. For another day. What an evil. Present. In our community. That man was. I don't know. What you think about evil but. But i believe in you. I believe it's real and i believe it's structured right into the. Universe and into us. While i do not understand a crucial distinction i do not believe there are evil people. Per se. That's a crucial caveat. I do believe there is evil in person. Well i do not believe there's an evil person per say i do believe there is evil. In person. And in communities. Indian society. And incorporation. And in all institutional structures including religious ones. And i believe there is evil and governments in nation. Of course i didn't governmental programs. Policies. Be the economic or military or social i believe in evil. It is not. As emerson said. The mere absence of light. It is its own real ugly thing. Rooted deep down in the heart of human. It is its own. Real. Thing. Rooted. There i've said it and the walls of this church haven't collapsed. You can theologically disagree with me of course. Perhaps some of you raised in this positive faith tradition of ours. Will argue with me. But i frankly don't think that if you and i together take a good hard long honest look at the shape of our world. And the shape of societies. And the nature of people in our myths that you'll be able to talk me out. Of my giving evil and ontological place within the human heart. And within the human enterprise now. Having said that. Did ice-t logically believe in evil i want to be very very clear something i do not believe in some sort of ancient cosmological konstrukt like. The devil. I found this particularly. Scary looking fellow on the web the web is wonderful you can find a picture of anything that were dozens of pictures of lucifer ancient and modern. I chose this what i don't believe it is satanic somebody. Residing in the cosmos taking sides or pernicious lee picking at the human drama. I don't believe that. I try whenever possible to avoid. Criticizing. The religious beliefs of others. But i am personally struck theologically dumb when someone tells me they believe in the devil is an actual personality. Roaming around our creation. Some of you were aware that. What are the presidential candidates rick santorum in 2008 speed city believe there's a spiritual war going on in the world. Between the forces of good and the forces of evil in the someone he calls the father of lies. Has targeted the united states quote. The father of lies has set his sights on the good decent powerful influential country us the united states of america. If you were satan who would you attack. In this day and age. Subcentral mask. There is no one to go after other than the united states. Okay. Mister santorum of course can believe whatever he wishes. So i might suggest as a politician he's better sticking to politics then to theology. Because. To this the unitarian theologian this doesn't make any sense. I don't believe in the devil. And this is terribly important to me what i've already said i don't believe there are evil. Yes. There are plenty of folks who from time to time even systematically in their lives. Do evil things do terrible things. But i do not believe they are evil people per se. That is beings in creation. Who are inherently are fundamentally ontologically evil. Through and through the crucial distinction for me. Is acknowledging that there is evil a real thing in people and institutions and governments. Wallace earnings there are no evil communities or people or institutions. So. If evil is a reality ontologically separate from persons themselves. If it's ontologically separate from people themselves another words if evil is in us not us. Let me try now to offer a concise one sentence definition. Of evil it's my own sentence it's probably inadequate and imprecise and probably. Too wordy. Evil is a very hard thing to quantify or define but i think evil can be summarized. Thusly and i'm going to have the quote put up on the screen behind you. A behind me. Evil. Is any volitional. Or willful act of human violence or disregard which persons either individually or corporately in groups communities or governments commit. Or allow. Which leads to the unnecessary destruction. Or substance of denigration diminishment or dehumanization. Of human persons. And society. That is a. Closest i can come. To a working definition let me give some common examples. Of that that would be covered by this definition. Murder. Which destroys a human life. Assault battery rape. Which d'you always dehumanize person these are all evil things of course. Physical psychological or sexual abuse weather of a child. Or spouse or another adult evil. Evil abuse is evil. Because it diminishes at the humanizes others. Torture. False or cruel imprisonment purposeful starvation. Terrorism genocide enslavement of which there is much still in our world. Forced migration of population. Just to name a few things that are perpetrated. Every year in the world. These are evil again because they dehumanize and diminish people. And there are many other painful and prevalent examples i could give or you could give evil. It's not only real in our world it is all too common it is all. To tolerated. Alright if. If i have you along with me so far theologically this morning. And agreeing at least. With me at some level. The evil is real and can be quantified and named and confronted. Particular human situation. And the next thing i think we must immediately due to be honest and this is something i don't think mr centura has gotten his head around. Is it evil isn't just something out. There. It's something. In here. It's not just in other person. In other communities in other political thing. It's here in my play. Faucets here in me. It's here in my. Actions. Evil is something. We found in our own natures in our own instincts and actions in. Culture in our own. Tribes. The many things we perpetrate and allow in our society. Such as injustice and oppression and inequality. So again. While i passionately believe there's no such thing as evil people or evil nations per say. We must nonetheless acknowledge that evil is right here in us. And around us. And in our midst. Several years ago my friend john curotto who is coming to be with you for most of the month that i'm away on my bike ride. 22b hunger. Which is going to be from april 22nd to may 22nd he's going to be here with us. He wrote this. In a sermon to his own congregation. Grosse pointe michigan. The primary violence. The violence you and i must recognize the violence we can do something about the violence we can spare the world from is the violence. Within each one of us. Evil is not trust. Out there. It's in here in each of us 2. We must recognize i am capable of violence as the overkiller. I am just as liable to have violent feelings violent thoughts violent wishes. That should help me understand the person who was unwilling or unable to control. Such inner violence. And then he goes on the nature of the killer. Like the nature of the lover. Is not a thing apart for mimi. Killer. Lover. Are all part of my human nature. In my human nature i have the stuff of poets. Prophets and saints i have the stuff of manipulators. And slanderers and murderers. I am not in my basic human nature john goes on. The better of any person. I may make choices that are better or more judicious or just luckier. I will humbly accept he hands the possibility of violence and of evil within. Me. And try to overpower it with the love. Which is also within. Me. Paul karns who was once president of the denomination. Said pretty much the same thing shortly. Prince death. He wrote. Someone sent me a copy of the holocaust. A record of the death of six. Million jews under the nazi the mad slaughter of innocents. Only feel. The old anger in me return. But it's not just the nazis. They could exist and act only because of something deep within human nature. They did not invent man's humanity to man paul road. It would be comforting if we can believe they did. Then we could forget. That for much of our history the only good indian. Was it dead indian. The fact is. There's a lot of cruelty. In all of us. I have found that there are lots of people especially here in america we're ready and willing to say there's such a thing as evil out there in the world and other person. That seems to be. One of the messages of many. Candidates. But. View. Are theologically and psychologically immature and honest enough to acknowledge the potential and responsibilities for evil. Resides within each one of us in our individual natures. And similarly the potential for evil also resides. In the structures of community and government. Within which we participate. And the economies. Which we. Allowed to have vast and painful inequalities. My colleague rodger fritz who's now serving the sarasota carnation across the peninsula. Describe the process of cycle at the psychological concept of splitting. Listen to the way he put it. In psychology splitting. Refers to our tendency to view people as all good or all bad. In splitting the world into good and bad we idealize the good people as heroes we demonize the bad people. We see them as enemies extreme splitting. People see no. Gray area no in-between no. No middle ground. This. Is the way. Rodger says to organize what is otherwise a very complicated. And complex world. The splitting psychological process gives structure and organizations to our lives. It gives us purpose and direction in a clear identity it protects us. From the feelings of anxiety that come with uncertainty and if you doubt that just read the letters to the editor in the press journal. Just read this morning's they might be i shouldn't said they want to make me throw up because that's a. Quote that the presidential candidate use recently. They split. Everybody thinks like me it's good. Everybody stinks like. Them. Bad bad. Osama bin laden before his death. In that one of his famous speeches said. There's only. 2 ways to see the world there. Two camps. Good and the bad. And that's exactly what our president. You either with us or. With the world make it simple key. Don't think about. Complexity. The point i'm making about evil. Is individually and collectively americans if we are ever to develop a mature and honest understanding of evil. We must understand our own capacity and complicity in the structures and actions of evil. Americans are not very smart. What it comes to facing their own participation in what is wrong. We are guilty of that. We are not very smart. And we never faced it. In ourselves at least cell.. And so in conclusion. This unitarian universalist believes in evil. Every morning in the newspaper i see it all to presently out there. In my world. I read the sad stories of genocide and i and i. I feel very badly about it. But. As a unitarian universalist unlike emerson i also believe. The evil is in me. I didn't you. And in the very nature of life. And the structures of life that we allow and create. But i am not a pessimist. About the human future this said i'm not a pessimist for even though i see the power. And the reality of evil in our midst and in my mist i also. And more importantly believe in the potential of human kind for good and kindness and compassion that isn't much in my view stronger. Part of our human nature more deeply rooted reality in us and in our society. That evil is. I can't of course prove this this is a statement of faith of mine that goodness is stronger than evil and larger force in our lives i can't. Prove this it is simply. A faith that i have. Indian head worth and dignity of person. And in the potential of societies and structures we create. My faith is in the power and the presence. Of our powerful. Powerful capacity. For goodness. Yes human evil is real. And it's powerful. And it's here to stay and regardless of what progress we make on our planet. I passionately believe we will make progress. We will never of course entirely eradicated. No it's just too. Powerful thinking maybe that's what the ancients met when they. Created this idea of the devil they just had to give it some sort of embodiment and say it's not going to go away i don't know. But. As our unitarian universalist forebears i believe our human volition for good. Are human volition for good. Is much stronger. In our weakness. For evil. Yes i know pessimism is easy these days i read the morning newspapers and i. Watch. The evening news. And the list of human failures and cruelty is lawn. By any measure these are violent. And discouraging times on our planet. And this is a moment in human history when we might. Be able to be tempted to doubt the balance of good and evil. Fulton persons and in society. But regardless of how the balance at any one particular time might seem. And regardless of whether or not i'm even right. That human beings are more inclined to good them to evil. There is always something we as a people of love and hope can do. Now more than ever the world needs those who are ready to name and confront evil both within themselves and within others to see it as very close to home. No more than other but more than ever the world needs men and women who are ready. Ready to lend their stubborn. Ounce of weight. To the side of human goodness. That's what the world needs those of us were willing and ready to lend. Are stubborn ounces. To the side. Of course. Even in discouraging times. We are free to live out of our charity. Out of our compassion out of our goodness in. Decimus out of our natural and yes emerson was right godly goodness for we are children of. We are always free to live. From that side of the equation. Never doubt. The power. Presents. Of the good within you. And live. Fully and finally from that. Always fully.

uufvb_org

2011Jun19Sermon32.mp3

Those bubbles. And all that. I'd like to use the next 25 minutes or so to talk about fathers. About parenting. Fordyce father's days you know. A day with our thoughts naturally gravitate to the men we called a door. Pop. Or father. Let me begin with the obvious. Every last one of us had or at least. Has a father. And quality. Depth and nature of that primordial parental relationship. Can and does profoundly affect how we feel about ourselves over our lifetime. And in many cases has something to say. About how well we do. In our lives and careers and families. And the other relationships. As i began to prepare the sermon i realized. The enormity in complexity and emotional intensity of this topic. I asked by email and in person. Amor less random sample of members and friends of this congregation for their thoughts and feelings. Unless universal topic of fatherhood. What amazed me was the incredible interest in energy folks had around. This. Father topic for. Almost everybody wanted to talk to me or write to me about this topic and their relationships. With their own fathers and how they have experienced fatherhood. Either in the case of males who are themselves. As the giver of fathering. Or as in the case of both men and women as receivers. The fatherly impulse or lack of it. From the man who filled that role. I suspect that as i talked to you this morning. Almost everybody in this room at some time or another in some way or another. May emotionally wander off. To that personal and possibly intense interior place. Were they are with their own fathers and their own experience with fatherhood. And i trust and indeed pray that for the majority of you in this room right now. These wanderings will for the most part. Play nostalgic. Wistful. And hopefully loving and pleasant. But i also said we know that for some others of you. Especially those of you who experienced abuse. Or violence. Or indifference or abandonment or neglect. In your own relationship. Your father that these reflective wanderings. May be painful. Or difficult. Or sad. It feels important for me to say the obvious out loud this morning. Some of us have ambivalent at best. Relationships. And some of you have fiercely negative. Feelings and memories about your own father's. That said it is my sincere hope that our time this morning reflecting on fatherhood. The broader art of parenting. Willem various ways be helpful and healing to all of us. And i myself want to begin. With the personal by talking for a bit about my own father and move on to what i hope then. Will be universal. As i begin to prepare the sermon. I realized with no small measure of wistfulness. That this month marks the 29th anniversary of my own father's death. Suddenly to a heart attack. But i want to tell you a bit about my father wendell. W alexander. He was as they say something of a character every day he went off to work. He sold steel. Or original steel distributor any wore an elegant bow tie. This is one of his. Botany 500. Probably purchased in 1953 or 54. He went out. Looking like this every morning alex as he was known. Was a gentle and nurturing man who loved to have a reverend fun in life. For example as far as i know my father was the only man in all of human history. They have a jewelry box collection. Noah's bubbles. No you may wonder what in god's name is a nose bubble. Nose bubbles are little hand blown glass things i'm holding one now. Which one nostril either side will do. I meant to look there's no real polite way to say this like a big bubble of runny nose goo. Now my father in. Conspiracy with my uncle lloyd who was an mit engineer who actually made these. A blast from his lab. My father would bring these to formal dinner parties church picnics. Cocktail parties. And other social gatherings and then he would take with no one was noticing with take a handkerchief. And would put them those bubble into the handkerchief and make like he was my allergies. What turns a person next to him and say. Spring allergies are just ruining my life. I can't begin to tell you how how i feel. If you want to see this up close i'll have it in coffee hour. No. It usually took the person. A little while to figure out what the he had been had. And that this childish prank of my father. What always the first engender rather horsehide luxor people would look away. And my father had he had nine or 10. That my uncle lloyd had made for him and the jewelry box was labeled with which noah's bubble it wasn't what it was appropriate for for example. And one curved called the nor'easter which was for this was for occasions when one was on a boat you will have to have a nor'easter. Which headed to little bumps. Bigger. The other ones i won't even describe. Because this is after all a family venue. All of this is my way of telling you that my father was a kind and friendly and. Humorous man. Regularly used humor. As a way to put people at ease and validate their worth as persons believe it or not even the nose bubble stud. I'll never forget the night that my eldest brother george. Brought his very self-conscious nineteen-year-old fiance sandy who's now my beloved sister-in-law. To meet the entire family house in the woods. That night we were all seated on a very long and elegant set dining room table with a white tablecloth silver candelabras to hold it. Monster horror early in the middle in in the gym. Sandy. Who was trying very hard to make a good impression on the alexander family somehow. Manage while trying to throw it on tablecloth next to her plate. And she had a terrible look at her face of embarrassment in the room that the table fell silent. And it was clear she was about to cry on my father said that's okay standing we like to do that he picked his up and threw it down the table of my mother spinning gravy. Spinning gravy the whole way. We all laughed. Most of all my mother. She didn't really care about the tape. Years later at my mom or at my father's memorial service sandy my beloved novel of family member by the way she has her own nose mobile everybody. Who comes in the family gets one collins knew he'd really arrived when he got his nose bubble on christmas. Everybody with their nose bubble. Insert a minister. This is really all that i want to tell you about my father my old man he was a good father. A gentle kind and honorable father. Because of what my sister-in-law sandy received that night of the flying beef. It was a self-affirming. Message each of his four sons. Got loud and clear as we were growing up. Because of the way my father routinely attended and related to us we knew deep to our bones. That we were loved. Valued and seen as capable and worthy people of home. He was proud this. The legacy i carry from. To use unitarian-universalist language my father quietly and steadily. And often with a sense of humor. Affirmed my inherent worth. And dignity. The person. My dad threw his routine and austin an ostentatious encouragement and interest and support. Blessed me with self-confidence and self-worth that has empowered me. To leave the kind of happy productive and public. Which i have been blessed with. And this i think is the essence the heart and soul of all good fathering indeed all good parenting. When it comes to a mother or a father. It is something more than just vaguely loving our children are the people we are taking care of. Good parenting is the discipline. The spiritual and emotional care we take. To take the time and the effort over the years. To be an attentive parent. Letting. Our children know that we respect them. And value them and are proud of them as individual. If you're a grandparent. If we parent attentively. And write a relational art which can be accomplished i would point out again by parents or grandparents or uncles or aunts or mentors are godparents. Teachers friends of the family parenting is not restricted. Biologically. To the young. If we parent effective. And right. It is almost assured that our children will develop strong self-worth and sell. Steam. Invaluable possession. For later life. It is wonderful book father lost. How sons of all ages come to terms. The death of their dad. Unitarian universalist author neil chettic. Pretty much makes the same point. After interviewing nearly 400 men at various stages of life about what they wanted from their dads. He concluded. But the blessing which sons almost universally await to hear. From their fathers here at every stage of life. Either in spoken word or action is simply this. Sun. I am proud of you. I'm proud of the choices you have made. I'm proud of the life you have created. That's. What's sons. At the very end of his book niall offers this advice to young dads. About how to be good fathers. To their children. Give your son's their focus. Not to the exclusion of your spouse or daughter but find a way to meet. Your son. Read with him. Run with him. Wrestle with him articles about how roughhousing with kids is so important tumbling and. In a wrestling wrestling on the floor. Find reasons. Admire him. And every so often no matter what his age offer him the kit but gift. That can only come from you. Tell him how proud you are to be his dad. And then neal quotes his own six-year-old son evan. Who offered this in the book about what makes for a good father a good dad. The six-year-old said. Plays with you. He takes care of you. He reads your books. And he waves to you. Before he goes away. After reading father loss and it's. For sale in our bookstore. And thinking about my own dad and then any other dads i have known. I have come up with a short list of things that seem to me to be at the essence of good fathering. And before i offer you this list i ever do need. To address a really big question namely and suicide in today's modern society where. Gender roles. And the behavior for boys and girls men and women are increasingly blending and merging and liberating. In the new flexible patterns. Are there any any more useful distinction. Still to be drawn between good fathering and good mothering. Differently. Can every trade we identify as good fathering. Also be said to identify a good mother. Let me give one example. Here in indian river county you are as likely to see a dad. Refereeing or coaching or cheering at his daughters. Outdoor soccer game. And you should not be too surprised to see a single mom on the sidelines. Her son's soccer game or even coaching. Back in the forties and fifties when gender. Stereotypes and roles were much more clearly delineated and demanded by a culture that wasn't very imaginative. Girls played at home with their mothers with dolls boys going to the playing field with dad. It used to be. That one way dad's uniquely affirmed their boys was participating with them and spa. Pronounce sports in america just as an example. Are pretty much a gender-inclusive activity. With both moms and dads. Dissipating in boys and girls. Alex. And so it is with ballet lessons and mathematic clubs and horseback ride. While there are still to be sure some things i think that distinguish fathering from mothering. For example. Fathers certainly model for their sons and mothers. Certainly model for their daughters how to relate to the opposite sex. So while there are still to be sure some. Gender bound dynamics a nuances. Distinguish fathering for mothering i would nonetheless argue. At their essence. And that their essential spiritual and emotional course good fathering and good mothering are more or less. The same today. And they are moving closer together with every generation. And this. With that said. And we can talk a little bit more later about how. Distinct roles of fathering and mothering with boys and girls let me offer a short list. Of things that really make for good fathering. The first. On my shortlist. Is a good father's offer their children. Affection. Affection is different i think than love. Which is so often defined so vaguely. Arizona most rendered meaningless it's like a big marshmallow you put your fist into it. Affection on the other hand. Is a gentle kind of attentive. Respectful caring. And first of course there is physical affection. Every child. Craves and needs physical touch. And affection and attention from their father. Now dad's me respectively offer different forms of physical affection. To their daughters then to their sons. A dad might snuggle in bed reading a book to his daughter. And kiss her goodnight every night. What were the sun he might. Toss the boy in the air. Or carrying piggyback or wrestle with him on the floor or punch him on the shoulder as he gets older. But the point is a kids need to feel. The physical touch. And the direct connection and affection. Their fathers. And there are other of course non-physical ways a father can express. Affection. Again. Neil chapman. Ultimately affection. Is less about physicality. Then it is about a father's loving attention toward his son. Some fathers suck show affection he goes on. By simply talking with. And listening to their son. Or engaging in intellectual interplay. Like playing chess. Ordering a crossword puzzle together. Or by taking an active interest in the child's education. Or other. Endeavors so good fathers. Are always affectionate. Intellectually. Second good father's offer their children. Good fathers of course. Are physically around. They spend real facetime. With their kids. And perhaps of even greater importance good fathers. Or emotionally. Emotionally. Available. Neil chapman. Reports from his interviews with hundreds of sons. Second only. To the physically abusive father. And more on that tragedy in a moment. Second only to the physically abusive father in generating resentment in sons. Was the far away father. The distance dad. The uninvolved. An unavailable patriarch. Whether such a father meant to or not. The message to the sun was clear. You don't matter to me. Many of you whom i spoke to about your father's especially those of you who were raised in the 1940s in the 1950s. When the primary expectation forefathers was they brought home the bacon provided a roof that over your heads. Many of you. Said that. Your dad wasn't really. Present in some significant ways now these days. The new dad paradigm and you all know this if you watch television and then the sitcom. The new dad paradigm. Expect the father to be much more emotionally present. And involved in the day-to-day mishegoss of the family and this of course. Is a good thing. So good father's you want to listen to italy and could mother's for that matter. Are patiently present with their children they're available. They take the time to truly engage their sons and their daughters. In the daily flores wasn't the kids. No the parents. So. Presence. And thirdly of course good fathers and mothers. Offer their children protection. Good father's lookout. For their vulnerable children they keep an eye on things. They offer wise counsel and they were dangers. They strap their kids into car seats. They teach them how to safely cross the street. How to ride a bicycle on a thrill that is. Drive a car even worse. And of course. Should the need ever arise a good father puts himself directly between his child. And the physical danger. Again neil chapman. Sons told me they wanted their fathers to be strong. What to use that strength. As a buffer against danger. A shield against the bad guys. Ghost. And other demons. One spot one son spoke for many when he told me. I wanted to be with my dad i felt. Safe. I knew he would take care of me. As i think back on my own wisconsin childhood i always felt safe. When my dad. Was there. And there is one more crucial aspect. This protection good fathers. And that is protection against. Their own. Enchanted forest. Because we fathers. Power over our son. We must use our power. Judiciously. I heard numerous stories in my interviews. Parental. Turtle. Violence. That led sons. To have deep. Wounds and hangers. That lasted. Obviously good fathers. They don't hit. Their fists. They don't hit with their words. They don't hit with indifference and neglect good fathers. Protector. Not abusers. Not. Salter's. Fourthly good father's offer their children. And this is where i began the service. They offer them. When i asked my colleague jim nelson who serves our church in. Pasadena california was the one thing is to 20-something daughters. Wanted from him. Their father he said scott both my girls want the same thing. They want myra. They want to know that i believe in them. And see them as good and competent people. They want to see in my eyes how proud i am of. And then i believe they're maturing and living up. Well. Again let me say it. Course we know that we must love. Orchids. Hopefully in an unconditional and that's my last point. Morning unconditional unhelpful. But more than this vague moniker of love. We have to respect. It's like here in the fellowship. We can say we love each other but it's more important that we act. We respect. That's a more mature anymore. Creep. Let our kids know we are proud of them. And lastly of course. I believe sons and daughters from both mothers and fathers need unconditional love. It's a phrase. Tossed around. Now admittedly this can be the most difficult of all the fundamentals. Of good parenting i have lifted up today. To love a child unconditionally. Is sometimes the hard parental promise to love and support your children. Even when they fail badly. Even through insolence. Profound disappointment. Heartbreak. Betrayal. Folly. The horrible decision maker. Would certainly happen. In all fam. Unconditional love i think. Categorical promise never to totally reject. Totally condemned. Urbanda. A child. No matter how deeply you have been hurt no matter how badly. They have acted. What was apparent you met in a difficult moment with a child. Feel for a time at least you must withhold approval or support. Or even contact or communication with a son or daughter. Who is profoundly lost their way in. Their stories in the. Unconditional love. Means that you always preserve an inviolate core of love and care. For and with your. And then no matter how deep or intractable the problem may seem at any juncture. You never entirely abandon or reject them is hume. To hang in there. Unconditional love. Almost at times i know for my counseling practice. Being almost. Especially when a child act. Cruller. Put over a lifetime. This i believe is what good parenting. Demands never. Finally close that door. All good father's all good. Spiritually hang in there with their. Even when their lives seem. I'm nearly completely off the. Holding onto hope. Someday. Celebration health in troy. Promise. To work on that. Remains with. That you'll come have. Over the course of my ministry i've repeatedly seen fathers and mothers. Even somehow become bitterly estranged from their children. Eventually. Achieve. A reconciliation. If you read ann landers. She's always talking about. Don't give up. There's always. Even after years of the. Unconditional love. Be very demanding. But for both parents and children. Life is too short. So there you have my shortlist. My personal short list of what in essence is good fathering which is also good mothering which is. But there is a problem in this. And the problem is that none of our parents. We're capable of parenting perfectly just as we are not. And those of you who are yourselves parents today or grandparents. We must recognize that this won't be done perfect. You'll make. I imagine that for more than a few of you this morning. As i was articulating my list you were remembering your own father. Or your own relationship with your dad. And that more than a few of you also found these relationships. Severely wanting in some ways. Many of you. Remain ambivalent about your feelings about your parents. And of course it's perfectly all right for you to have these feelings. If you believe your parents. Substantially and unnecessarily failed or wounded. But there is. Something else in the end. Today in our society parents get blamed for almost everything that goes wrong. Or bad in the ross. There are even some places where parents are being arrested. Their kids break into. Schools and make a mess. Arrested for the misdeeds of their own children. And i am not saying that holding us accountable. 4. The terribly damaging and destructive children is entirely wrong. But i am saying that were pretty tough on less-than-perfect parents in the. In a way that's not entirely fair or re. We. Parents do is. One of my. Assertions about life is it almost everyone. Does about the best thing. And that i think is true. For most of our parents while i don't want to ever let really bad parents off the hook and there are some. Really. It is i think. Important. 2. Remember. That. No parents. And the most parents. In one way or another do about the bed. And it is never too late. Is ann landers and other. To begin repairing. The parent-child relationship. That has been torn asunder even by decade. So abused or neglect. Such work of forgiveness and reconciliation can be some of the hardest. Lifework of all but it. We're meant. Spiritually. To be in close and caring relationship. With our families. With our parents and. That was nice that the beginning of the sermon. It's been almost 30 years since my own father my good and loving on silly nose bubble father. Died suddenly. I still occasionally have dreams. Where he suddenly comes back to life and my mother is also there and all the boys are there and we're just amazed that he's back. How nice that. Feels. But of course these dreams. He is. He is gone. Stepped in my memory. But he powerfully. Remains with me. He constantly blesses me as a spiritual. An emotional present. Studies me. Life. Go on and i have my own nose bubbles in my jewelry box. At home. To remind me of the real importance.. So again. The gift. Is the gift. Presents. Physically emotional. Protection. Respect. Enduring respect. And unconditional love. To all your dad's out there let me simply send lovingly say do the best you can guys. And be there as regularly as rightly as you can. For your kids. My own father wendell wells alexander. Alex. Let me whisper. Enclosing. But i probably did not say enough. I love you..

uufvb_org

2015Dec13Sermon128.mp3

Well the weather doesn't feel much like christmas does at the. But may our hearts feel that way welcome good morning to the unitarian universalist fellowship of euro beach. And we are so pleased that you are joining us this morning you are welcome precisely as you come. In all of your diversity and all of your charm and all of your need we are so pleased to see you. The smiths december sunday. We hope you will find our service meaningful and enriching this morning. And then you'll find something here this morning to take with you. To make your life. More of work of love and justice and beauty. For those around you in the days ahead. Well lie i heard it this morning the radio announcer said in a breathless almost panic voice there was only. Well more shopping days till christmas. And that's true enough i suppose the calendar doesn't like christmas is coming all too fast and i don't think any of us are really ready but. Does annual you know christmas consumer countdown got me thinking. The fact that it is december 13th lee also means we have 12 more days. For deeper and lovelier things than shopping. We have twelve more days to move our hearts closer. To the true meaning of the season. And we have 12 more days to think about our own wonderful family and all our friends. I'm plan for how we will give and share our love with them. And we have 12 more days to regain the spirit of wonder and delight which animates every child. In the season of lights and music and gift-giving. And we have 12 more days to open our hearts. To the blessed sentiments of this season. Peace. Love. Compassion and goodwill towards all. Sentiments we are free to express. To each other. All year long. Yes there are only in fact 12 more shopping days till christmas. But it also means we have 12 more days. To bring the true spirit of christmas. Into our hearts. And move them. Through our hands. The reading today is by the dalai lama the 14th dalai lama. Love and compassion. Are true religions to me. We can reject. Everything else. Religion. Ideology. All receive wisdom. But we cannot escape the necessity of love and compassion. This then is my true religion. My simple faith. Love and compassion. In this sense there is no need for temple or church for mosque. Or synagogue. No need for complicated philosophies doctrine or dogma. The purpose of all major religious traditions of the world is not to construct big temples on the outside. Witcher create temples of goodness and compassion inside. In our hearts. Our own heart. Our own mind. Is the temple. The doctrine is compassion love for others. Unrespectful their rights and dignity no matter who or what they are. Ultimately that is all we need. So long as we practice compassion and love in our daily lives. Then no matter if we are learned. Or unlearned where the we believe in buddha or god or follow some other religion or not none at all as long as we have compassion for others. I'm conduct ourselves with restraint. Out of a sense of responsibility. There is no doubt. But we will be happy. Only the development of compassion and understanding for others. Can bring us. The tranquility and the happiness that we all seek. And then he ends by saying. The more we care about the happiness of others. The greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close warm-hearted feeling for other people automatically puts one's own mind at ease. It is the ultimate source of success. In life. Well this morning we find ourselves swept up once again in the busy holiday season. And so i continue my blockbuster sermon series. On the union book of virtues you see what i've done so far in previous weeks since the september. And today's topic is compassion and look you've got a whole column to wait for this winter. And spring. What better time of year i ask and of course i pick this sunday to do it to do compassion. Then at the christmas season when our culture is so focused on celebrating both the birth. And i pray the teachings. A one of the most compassionate religious leaders of all time. Jesus of nazareth. And let me take just a moment right off the bat to reiterate something i have already said. It is compassion and nothing less. That lies at the very center and soul of the spiritual and ethical message. Which jesus shared with the people of his time. And therefore in our time it is compassion that should lie at the center of everything that is called christian. And everything indeed more broadly as a dalai lama reminds us. Everything called spiritual or religious. But before i go into more detail on the all-important virtue of compassion. I just want to present once again this overall idea of virtue that i have and bring up the next slide please. Virtue is a regular habit of human being which you can nurture. Cultivate and develop that both and nobles yourself. And contribute to the greater good of human society. And i am assuming for the purposes of the series. That virtue is something you are not born with. Fixed once and for all virtue is something we are all capable of cultivating. And. Blending into the the. Fabric of our character and the and the nature of our behaviors. We are not stuck. Being. Virtual less we are always over the long to jack trevor lifetimes we are free and able. To become more virtuous individuals by nurturing and cultivating. These virtues and i'm in as i sent you home i hope with this little yellow sheet today i found online. From one of the more scientific don't read it now cuz i'm going to tell you much more important stuff than this. Ways in which you can cultivate compassion will return to that at the end of the sermon. Alright. Without further ado let's get this morning to the virtue of compassion. And looking at its corresponding vices namely cruelty and indifference. The word compassion you may not know. Comes from two separate latin word table which means together and passion which means to suffer so the word compassion literally means. To suffer together. Onesource i consulted for the sermon gave this two-pronged definition of compassion. And it'll be up on your screen. Compassion is the feeling that arises when first you are confronted. With another's suffering and then. Secondly feel motivated to relieve that suffering. Compassion that begins with awareness. And ends with action. Now the merriam-webster people. Save us all little differently and let slip that a definition up. Compassion. Is sympathetic consciousness of others distress again that's the awareness park. Together with elastic desire. To alleviate it the action component. Now let's take a look at two other words empathy and sympathy. They are somewhat similar to compassion in meaning. But compassion goes much further and now project that slide. Empathy means. Dealing with or alongside of. And sympathy means. Having a fellow feeling. Compassion is one step further as i've already said. It's dealing with its having a fellow-feeling its awareness of the suffering. But then the key phrase. Is you are you feel motivated to do something. Empathy from its ancient roots. You know. The difference here is compassion unlike both empathy and sympathy. Requires that is a human being you actually do something helpful. When you encounter the suffering of the other. The key difference. Is it action is required making compassion much more spiritually and ethically demanding that just having sympathy oh. Poor thing. Or empathy i feel your pain brother. Bowser maybe first steps but compassion insist you then do something get off your. You're fat human duff and actually do something to alleviate the suffering. Compassion requires you take your empathy and your sympathy to work. With your hands. And your feet. And your words. And this is precisely. What jesus of nazareth was spiritually and ethically saying. To the people of his time you sang. For god's sake be compassionate. Of all the passages attributed to jesus that can be found in christian scriptures. None is more powerful or nor meaningful to me that the allegory found in matthew 25. Verses 31 to 46 it will be familiar to you. Jesus is imagining. The final judgment day when god will call all of humanity before him. For an accounting of the way they have lived their lives now listen to the stark words of jesus as he describes that moment. And god will sit upon his glorious throne and all the nations will be assembled before him and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep. From the goats. He will place the sheep on his right. And the goats on his left then the king will say to those on the right. Come. You who are blessed by my father come inherit the kingdom prepared for you. From the foundation of the world for i was hungry. And you gave me food i was thirsty and you gave me drink i was a stranger and you welcomed me naked and you clothed me ill and you cared for me in prison and you visited me. Then the righteous will answer him lord when did we see you hungry and feed you or thursday and give you drink and when did we see you the stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you when did we see you ill or visit you and the king will say to them. I say to you whatever you did to the least of these brothers of mine. You did for me. And then as if to make. This demand of embodying compassion for others unmistakably clear jesus continue the allegorical story. Then god will say to those on his left. Depart from me you accursed. Put into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels for i was hungry and you gave me no food i was thirsty and you gave me no drink i was a stranger and you gave me no welcome naked and you gave me no clothing in prison and yell and you did not care for me. Then they will answer him. Lord when did we see you over your. Thirsty or a stranger are naked or realtor in prison and not minister to your needs and he will answer them i say to you. What you did not do to one of these the least of. Juanes. You did not do for me. Today is sunday. December 13th. In the year 200 2015. The third sunday of advent. The time of the year when christians all over the world including. A vast majority of our neighbors here in vero beach anticipate the birth. And remind themselves i pray of the teachings of jesus. So they're not christians in name only. So what better time to focus on the great virtue of compassion. That he placed at the very center of his ministry. And here is a really good news about compassion. Recently social scientists were wide variety of iterated fields of an able to verify. That we human beings are in fact hardwired. Literally hardwired for goodness and compassion. In other words compassion comes naturally to us as animals. In his groundbreaking study entitled the compassionate instinct. Dr. kutner summarized the emerging findings of this new science of quote human goodness. Suggesting that compassion is and now i quote him. And evolve part of human nature. Rooted in our brain and our biology. True though many economist have long argued to the contrary namely that selfishness. Drives most human behavior. A growing body he writes of evidence suggests that as our core both animals from. Rat to chimpanzees or studies about this. And human beings. Have quote that compassionate. Instinct in other words compassion. Is a natural and automatic response. That has ensured our survival as a species. Neuroscientists at the national institute of health i live two blocks from there. For 12 years in bethesda. Have similarly discovered. The human brains in addition to being hard-wired. For selfishness. And territoriality and xenophobia. As any student of human nature and human history will tell you we're hardwired for the bad stuff too. But our human brains are also thank god hardwired for generosity. And altruism. And compassion. In a recent washington post piece. Quote new findings suggest that good impulses are basic to the brain. Doctors jorge mall and jordan grossman. Report that acts of generosity and compassion are quote they quote. Activate a primata primitives. Pleasure driven part of the brain that usually lights up and responds to food and sex. So what do you enjoy food and sex you will enjoy also doing good. Altruism and compassionate concern for others the study suggested is not some sort of superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish urges but rather is basic. Into the brain is hardwired and it is pleasurable. And then the article goes even further and reports several other neurological behavioral studies quote. Are showing unexpectedly. The many aspects of morality and altruism. Appear hard-wired in the brain. Most likely the result. Of evolutionary processes that began in other species. Other research from the interconnected. A fields of neuroscience evolutionary psychology and behavioral health and development site just google the science of compassion it's all pops up a hundreds of article. One scientist in this field right quote. Again and again. Studies have suggested that compassion is indeed a natural and evolve part of human nature. Vital to good health and even to the survival of our species and this emerging understanding the scientist right. Is transforming our view of humanity. And i would add an appositive. Direction. No. There is one offsetting reality about compassion which i must in all honesty mentioned to you this morning. And that is what i shall call compassion fatigue 25 years ago i preached a sermon that kenny became famous and unitarian universalism called humanity fatigue it's the same idea. In last sunday's edition of the new york times and if you just google the phrase the arithmetic of compassion this piece will pop up. It is about recent psychological studies which indicate that when. We human beings are confronted with too much suffering. Like watching all of those refugees drowned in the mediterranean little babies washing up when we are. Confronted with too much suffering. We often fall victim to what psichiatra strawberries j lift and calls. Psychic numbing. In the same article another psychologist says that when we are exposed to multiple people suffering. We often experience. Compassion fade. Compassion fade psychic numbing. Our human capacity for caring simply gets. Over. Whelmed. I tell you all this to remind you that even though we are hardwired for compassion. That natural capacity can be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of human suffering. That we see in the world and i'm not sure there's any weekend exactly do about that. But i think it helps us to understand. That when we're confronted with a lot of suffering we have to resist being psychically numb. And having that humanity fatigue that allows us to escape. From that natural hardwired concern that we should have. But back to the good news. Further good news about compassion. And there's a whole lot on this side of the equation. Not only as i've already said does it come naturally to. It also does us individually a world of good. Contributing both. To your physical and mental health. Researchers have found that not only do compassionate and altruistic people. Enjoy more overall health. They tend to be happier. Experience less stress and depression in their life. They recover from illness quicker. And probably live longer although the science and the longevity thing isn't quite clear. Compassionate people. Also find more meaning and purpose in their lives as one scientist put a quote. A life rich in compassion and altruism is a life of meaning and purpose because it is focused. Less unsatisfying oneself and more. On caring for others. Compassion boost our well-being he right because. It can broaden our perspective beyond ourselves and if we're focused only on ourselves what a tired little story that is. Research shows that depression and anxiety are linked. 2a state of self-focus. A preoccupation with me myself and i. When you are. Doing something helpful for someone else. That state of self-focus that we can fall into shifts two other focus broadens two other focus with which can both lift your mood and energize you. And one additional way in which compassion may boost our well-being. Is by increasing our sense of connection with others. Quote the scientist right. People who feel more connected to others. Have lower rates of anxiety and depression higher self-esteem. Are more empathetic to others are more trusting and cooperative. And social connectedness these authors conclude. Generates what is called a positive feedback loop. I'll be emotional and physical well-being how many of you have experienced this when you do something good for someone else when you. Help someone this this positive feedback loop of course you've. And one final bit of good news. Compassion. Is like a good old midwestern chest cold is contagious. Social scientist james fowler and nicholas. Christakis have demonstrated by means of several social experiment so i'm not going to bore you with. But acts of generosity and compassion quote. Beget more generosity. And compassion in what they call a chain reaction of goodness not a chain-reaction accident a chain reaction of goodness. You've all certainly heard about recent news reports or maybe even experienced this phenomenon firsthand. A people spreading joy by compassionately and generously paying forward at the starbucks or the mcdonald's if you all heard about these work sometimes the chain reaction of goodness last 4 hours. Or four days. Even. There is an ancient biblical story. About this idea of compassion being contagious. It's called the miracle of the five loaves and the two fishes or it's also called the feeding of the 5000. You all remember if you went to christian sunday school. It's found in all four of the gospel narrative accounts of the life of jesus. The story goes that i'm sure you all know it. But after jesus had heard that john the baptist had been killed. He tried he tried to withdraw by boat. To a private place near beseda. To grieve. But large crowds nearby towns have been listening to him preach his gospel they followed him. And now i quote from the story from the book of matthew chapter 14. When jesus went ashore. He saw a great crowd. He had compassion on them. And healed their sick. When it was evening his disciples came to him and said. This is a deserted place. And the hour is late. Send the crowds away. So that they may go into the villages and buy food for them to. But jesus. Said to them. They need not go away. You give them. Something to eat. But the disciples replied we have nothing here. But five loaves in. And two fish. And jesus said bring them here to me. And he ordered the crowd to sit down on the grass. Taking just the five small loaves. And two fish he looked up to heaven bless them and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples. Then the disciples gave the bits of. Of bread. And fish. To those near them in the crowd. And the bible narrative says. And all eight. And we're filled and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces. Will baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men. Besides women and children. No. Do orthodox christians. This is a supernatural miracle story. About a little bit of food 5 tiny loaves and two little fish. Quote miraculously physically multiply under the magic of god or something. Jesus's divine hand. But i another unitarian universalist and other heretics who study the bible have always understood this story. About. Not about a supernatural miracle. What about the power of human compassion. The powered has to spread and multiply. What i think happened on that damn i challenge any biblical scholars argue with me cuz the words aren't there to combat this. Is it the great crowd was somu. Why jesus is generous and compassionate impulse. To feed them from his own meager food supply that they all read. Into their hidden pocket. And their privates satchels for people in that day when they traveled always carried some food for themselves because they never knew when the next meal was coming from. They shared their bread. And their fish that they had hoarded with those around them and lo and behold. A miracle did in fact occur. For the many thousands were indeed all fed and there were 12. Basket. left. As the story powerfully illustrates. Compassion. Is. Contagious. From whenever human beings act generously and compassion. It can set into motion a chain reaction. Goodness. That ripples out. And can change. Everything. And the 5000. Or fat. Alright. So this morning we have learned the following things. About compassion. Compassion is being aware of another suffering and acting to relieve that's. Compassion is a natural hardwired primal part of being human. Yet we are also susceptible to compassion fatigue. If we are exposed to too much suffering. Compassion is a virtue of everyday living that does us. And everyone around us a world of good those physically and mentally and. Compassion is a contagious commodity that ripples out from individual acts of goodness to uplift. And uphold the whole world. Now the simple last question becomes. Is compassion something you can cultivate in your lives in your society in the lives of your children and your grandchildren. And all the social scientist studying compassion. Suggest that the answer is clearly yes. We human beings can expand and cultivate. The capacity and our instincts. To do good. This morning in your order of service i've enclosed a little document that just gives you a few ideas. Four ways in which you can encourage. Compassion and building it cultivated in your own life. And in the lives of your children and grandchildren they learn perfectly. About compassion by seeing you act compassionately and kids have crap detectors that are 100% effective. If you tell them they've got to feed the hungry and you don't give one damn nickel to anybody they will get the message it doesn't matter. We often talk. I want a quote from. The. This is part of a larger document i want a quote from what these scientists said. We often talk about some people. Being more compassionate than others but research suggests. Compassion is not something you are born with or not born with. Instead it can be strengthened. Through targeted exercise and practice. And here is some ways. To do that. And this document then goes on and i hope all of you will study in in privately. To spell out a whole. Array of practical things you can do. So dear friends it's time to wrap this all up. Here is the great. Saving good news i say i send to you on this christmas season. This time of american life. When so many. Are saying you don't have to care. You are hardwired. To care. You are hardwired in the heart and the brain to be compassionate. And it is a contagious commodity. It will do you and everyone around you a world of good and you are free to become more compassionate to grow it in your soul to grow a compassionate soul. May we in this most gentle of seasons. Indeed. All year long. Become a blessing. To the world. As we grow our hearts. And become embodiment. Of the greatest virtue. Known to humanity. Compassion. And i say and mean to you with all my heart. Have you send you on your way with this from some anonymous good soul. This holiday season. Amanda coral. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss. Suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a love letter. Share some treasure. Give a soft answer. Offer encouragement. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Find the time. Forgive an enemy. Listen. Apologize if you were wrong. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Appreciate. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little. Laugh a little more. Deserve confidence. Take up arms against malice decry complacency. Express your gratitude. Welcome stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love. Speak it again. Speak it again once more.

uufvb_org

2011May01Sermon128.mp3

It's a pleasure to hear the choir singing such inspiring words. And those inspiring words are part of a long history and unitarian-universalism of being committed to social justice. In fact these hymnals here. They speak a lot about working towards social justice. That there would be no more war. That we would know freedom in our lifetimes. That we might build the beloved community. Together and in partnership. With other communities. There's a whole section in this hymnal called commitment and action. A whole section of hymns. A whole section of readings. Social justice is a part of the dna. The part of our unitarian universalist heritage. But as we work collectively for social justice. Each person also has the opportunity to do internal work. The internal work of face and character development. Balancing action. With reflection. Bread. With roses. There were women in the great 1912 textile workers strike and lawrence massachusetts who inspired the song bread and roses which will have the pleasure of singing later on. These women carry picket signs and 1912 reading we want bread and we want roses too. Symbolizing their demands not only for a living wage. Or decent human life. Before the luxury of roses. A beauty. Of art. Creativity. And so what inspired james oppenheim's poem which became the song bread. And roses. As we go marching marching we bring the greater days. The rising of the women means the rising of the race. No more drugs and idler 10-minute oil where one. Reposes. But a sharing of life's glories. Bread. And roses. Bread. And roses. It is a song of solidarity. It is a song that sang no more would there be one idling and reposing whilst all others are toiling. But all would share life glorious. It implies a part of life's glories involve struggling together. That the one who is not in the struggle. If not experiencing life. In all of its glorious. All of life's bread. And roses. Bradfield bellies. You can't eat roses. But there's something more that humans need beyond simply bread for our bellies. Just like the story of little spirit. She was waiting to be fed but bread would not fill her belly. It was only after telling her story of suffering and listening to that child who listens to her. That little spirit realize she was fed by relationship. Fed by connections. Belly's want bread. It is a reality of life. But the human spirit also deserves roses. As we go marching marching unnumbered women dead. Go crying through are singing their ancient call for bread. Small art and love and beauty they're dredging spirits new. Yet it is bread we fight for. But we fight. Four roses 2. Rose's as oppenheimer puts it. Being art love beauty all of these things that spring out of relationship out of connections out of an awareness of our interdependence with all of life. Roses are the joys of living amidst the struggles of life. The parts of ourselves that we can share with one another that we can appreciate in one another. Cumin. Too human. But i don't know about you. But i think we live in a numbing lee busy world. And it's really easy to live in abstractions. In the hustle and bustle be specific relationships. Turn into lumping people into abstract categories. And them. Them the. Immigrants. The poor. The homeless. Yeah we're all connected but. The suffering of others are of our mother earth are distant to the concerns of the bread of day-to-day living. And even with the best of intentions social justice work. Instill perpetuate. I have and have nots system. By having only acts of charity from a distance. Without ever having to be challenged. Without ever having to talk. To the oppressed. Other. And short there may be bread for the bellies but the system will still perpetuate indignities and oppression that no human should suffer. That may be bread. But there's no roses. I likely have. Had this wonderful opportunity of working in a congregation bais community organizing group and interfaith justice network. And we get together and as congregations we come together as clergy and have been slowly building up a momentum in lee county. Which is where i hail from. And working towards focusing on issues of justice of changing the actual system. I'm speaking to the powers in the principalities of it and saying as a whole face community in lee county a diverse faith community. Saying we need change and we want it to be real change. There's that scripture that many of my christian brothers and sisters and my jewish brothers and sisters are guided by and micah 6:8 that says what does the lord require but to do justice. Love mercy. And walk humbly with thy god. And in that we together and in with some of our congregants we've done exercises where we ask our congregants to say. Now we have all these ministries and programs in our churches and our faith communities that we do well so let's talk about how we do justice let's talk about how we love mercy and let's talk about how we work on our spiritual and ethical development. And it's so many congregations part of the exercise that we find is that. Many of our faith communities are doing great work with spiritual development. With religious education with ethical development however words we use. And we use a lot at unitarian universalist. And they're doing great work with with loving mercy with being charitable with with doing work that. That is helping people short-term. But it's the work of justice. Which is the first that accordingly the holy requires of us. It's doing that systemic change work that is so hard to do because it's so big it's so overwhelming. But we use it as an exercise to show one another what we are inspiring ourselves to do which is to effect systemic change. The other cool thing about this group is that as we work together. And we're working in an incredibly divisive community in lee county. We're your conservative or liberal you're gay or straight you're black or white. You're an immigrant. Or you're not or your legal or you're not it's there's all kinds of abstractions and categories. But what this work does it builds relational power. Suddenly humans are speaking with humans about the things that matter most to them. And these are the acts. The change system. It is the roses it's the beauty of relationship. That builds power. They can make change. I also come to share the gift with view of of my relationship and working as an allied to the coalition of immokalee workers which is also in my neck of the woods. But you might have heard about them. They describe themselves as a community-based organization of mainly latino mayan indian and haitian immigrants. Who work in low-wage jobs throughout the state of florida. They strive to build strength as a community on a base basis of reflection and analysis. Constant attention to coalition-building across ethnic divisions. And an ongoing investment in leadership development. To help their members continually develop their skills and community education. An organization. And they fight for a fair wage for the work that they do. For more respect on the part of their bosses in the industries where they work. For better housing. So that there are not violated through their workers rights being ignored. But they have the right to organize without fear of retaliation. An end the involuntary servitude. Better in the fields of florida. The coalition of immokalee workers has worked tirelessly to lift up the dignity of the human spirit. And i don't know have any of you been out to immokalee before. Oh i see some hands raised. In my experience it's it's very different it's very different from the community where i live in lee county. And in immokalee there are many many charities who do fantastic work. Helping those short-term issues of hunger. Of healthcare. Working on housing. But what i appreciate about the coalition of immokalee workers is it. Part of the work that they're doing is about empowerment. Addressing the more longer-term issues of empowerment against oppression. They have a community center they have a media library have a radio station. They have a. Meetings of women who get together and they have. Different language group to get-togethers to speak in their indigenous languages. And i particularly love the women's group because one of my friends. He who's a white male he babysits for all the the woman's children. The coalition offers not in money your food but empowerment. Not charity. But engagement. Not bread. But roses. The powerful sing. Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes. Hearts starve as well as bodies. Give us bread. But give us. Roses. Give us some roses respect us respect our power do not try to save me with your charity or your pity. Feed my heart with the roses of respect. A collaboration. Of engagement. The women sing we are not an abstraction our pain is real and our battle for life and respect. Is real. And the social justice work that we and our unitarian universalist congregation can do. Can transform everyone involved. Not just the oppressed other. A relationship of collaboration denotes a sense of openness. And flexibility to what the partnership. Will produce. I know that i my little spirit has been fed and changed and my partnership and collaboration. What is fed means the forming of relationships in which. I am not there to save. Anyone. And i think that that is difficult. And some unitarian universalist social justice circles. I was brought up unitarian universalist i grew up in sunday school singing. The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. If i had a hammer. And i was somehow given this great mandate that each and every one of us could make the world a better place. But never made explicit was the implication. As a white upper-middle-class girl. That there were those who were voiceless and powerless. And somehow it was my job is a great privileged white savior to save them. To show them though. Right way to live. But working in solidarity. Closing the gap between us and them has led me to a deeper engagement in my own life calling and why i care about justice. So far and engaging in social justice work i have been finding my own voice. Doing my own work. Facing my own internalized racism. Uncovering my own acculturation as a white person. I constantly struggle. As a as a helper as an overfunctioning person. I want to save i want to make everything better i want to fix things. And suddenly i'm realizing. And this work but no one is asking me to mend their lives. What's being asked of me. Is to do my homework. And to be in relationship. What time consistently led to is the simple phrase. It could have been me. It could have been me. Sent to the states to work for my family and send money home. It could have been me who made that hard decision. To do that knowing that i might be drugged. That i might be raped by the coyote who took me across the border. It could have been me enslaved by the boss forced to work endlessly in the fields of tomatoes. Watermelon oranges and treated like cattle. It could have been me. Forced into domestic labor. Unprotected by labor laws. The slave rendered. Invisible. It could have been me. Could have been me turned into an abstraction. An abstraction that's so overwhelming to well-meaning religious liberals. That my suffering is washed into a mental category. It's such a shame. And filed away. When i think. It could have been me. I'm no longer a special savior. But i'm a breathing hurting caring human. Who cares. About another breathing. Hurting. Caring human. I will never. Ever know the sufferings or the experience. Of any other. Of any of you in this room. All i can do is my own experience. And yet. You could have been me. I could have been you. The poet crooked dalton reveals. In the specific. Uniqueness of individual experience. A universal. My veins don't end in me. But in the unanimous blood of those who struggle for life. I love. Little things. Landscape. And bread. The poetry of everyone. It's the roses. Artful of the beauty the poetry like this that comes out of an engagement and the struggle for life for love. The poetry of everyone. And this is a work that gives me not only bread which is satisfaction of commitment to important work. But it feeds my human spirit. I've been working with the coalition of immokalee workers as i told you and one of the things that they've been working on is getting local supermarkets to pay an additional penny per pound for the tomatoes they pick in the fields. And a sign on to a code of ethics that says that anyone who buys tomatoes from growers will say there will be no abuses in the fields workers will be treated fairly. They will be. They will be honored as. Dignified human beings. So the coalition has been working on a local supermarket publix which is the supermarket that gives so much to the community. It gives you a lot of charities. But the coalition is asking them to engage in that deeper involvement of changing a system. To pay an additional penny per pound. Not for bread. But four roses. And publix continually has said no. We had a rally in tampa in the spring. And which three marches from publix has converted into one large rally. And they're all different kinds of people maybe some of you were there. And we all got together and engage in the act of beauty. We're one of my presbyterian colleagues. She gathered together everyone and we made a pageant together. Where the coalition was up on the stage and publix a representative of publix who was. Not really a representative but was dressed up as a. As someone who would be in charge. In this pageant was being asked by all these different allied groups please please come to the table. And so they had the students come forward marching and asking and so they had all of the clergy and the faith-based organizations marching and asking and then they had the used in the high school use come forward and they had the farm workers and the laborers from all over the country who care who came forward and made that ask. And then they had the children of the farmworkers all come forward. And make the ask. It was something to behold. The symbol of how are coming together as allies can be transformative. And it's sad to me that an organization in our community this grocery store called publix. Keeps it all as an abstraction. Is disconnected and denies the relationship. Of how we might come together at the table that welcome table. And humanize one another. If only they knew that it's not just about bread. But it's about roses. Generosity of the spirit. The idea that we deserve more than just survival. We deserve joy. Creativity. Beauty. The gifts. That are granted to our. Human. Sisters and brothers. So give us bread and roses. Not a luxury. But roses as an essential part of the salvation. Of the human character. The human spirit. If your repressed or suffering do you want distant charity. Do you want pity. Or do you want companion to her with you and la lucha. In the struggle for life. I see some nods okay we got some responses back there. We might all take a note from the mujerista theology which is the. The spanish-speaking. Usually up hispanic-origin co theologians who are female. Who talked about. The in life struggles in the lucha there's also community relationship-building and the fiesta the ways of celebrating the the roses in our lives. So there are there many reasons. To join me in the work with the coalition of immokalee workers or to find ways of engagement in your own community. And your own backyards of working against systemic oppression and injustice. But if you come to save other people. You will probably leave unsatisfied. If you come ready to be changed by supporting others then you may be feeding your little spirit. If you come ready to leave the experience of meeting other people. Who care. And weaving that into the larger fabric of your life. You will be fed. A video of rally doesn't give anybody bread. But it's roses. Delivering a manager letter to your local publix asking them to come to the table with the coalition. Think about that fluttery awkward feeling you have when you do something new in a little risky. Create something different. And you. It changes you. Find something you believe in the calls you to stand on the side of love. And it's these little actions that change hearts and minds. And might turn them towards love and beauty. The fruits of human connection. And this is how. Larger systems can shift. Is by humans thinking differently by humans changed by love and relationship. A my congregation when we receive our offering we speak the words who are by the reverend lynn unger whose words were also sung by a choir this morning. Come come whoever you are. She says by the work of our hands and the work of our hearts our love is made real. Maybe be grateful for all that is given and grateful for all that is shared. So let us be grateful for the human spirit that hungers take connect. With our fellows and struggle together. To be grateful for life. Terrorist in all of its glories and failures. Because it is truly worth. Fighting for. Engaging in this struggle. Is making your love and gratitude real in the world. Let your gratitude be no longer and abstraction. Give thanks for life. By reaching out beyond. Beyond the bread of mere survival. And yearn for more. Fight. Four roses. And so my prayer is that you shall. Amen. And blessed be.

uufvb_org

2015Mar29Sermon32.mp3

Well good morning. Does the weather get any more perfect than this isn't it absolutely beautiful. Welcome to another beautiful day here in the treasure coast and welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. We are so pleased you've decided to begin your sunday with us. Clear current location as the graphics. Loving hearts and helping hands. People seeking to become our best individual cells even is together to make this world a better place. And please know that you are welcome precisely as you come to us this morning. What are you were young or old gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shaded humanity. What do you have a ged or a phd. Whether you are first-time visitor with us this morning i've been coming for decades. What are your feeling absolutely on top of the world or down in the dumps. Somewhere in between. We are delighted to see you just as you coming all of your particularity and charm this morning. We hope you will find our service about the wisdom of garrison keillor. Interesting this morning and meaningful and enriching. And that you will find something here this morning to take with you that will nourish your spirit and feed your soul and give you renewed energy and purpose. And love. For the weeks and days ahead. In the car at 10:15 or whatever time garrison keillor. And he read this poem and as soon as i got to the church i googled it. I love it. I offer it as your opening words this morning by poetry entitled. Dawn revisited. Imagine you wake up with a second chance. The blue jayhawks is pretty wears. And the oak stands still spreading gloria shade. If you don't look back. The future never happened. Horizon sunlight. In the prodigal smello. Sausage grill. The whole sky. Blown. Shake a leg. Who's down there frying those eggs. Good morning thank you very much. Yes it is my first time. And when i get up here i think why in the world did i volunteered you this but here we go humorous. Often right with great wisdom. I mean think about oscar wilde mark twain james thurber will rogers. Just a few examples and to that list i would add garrison keillor. How many of you listen to prairie home companion. I thought so. Jack and i've been listening to it for over 35 years since before we moved to florida. Now can you say with me his closing words at the end of the monologue about lake wobegon he said. And that's the news from lake wobegon where all the children are strong all the men are good looking and all the children are above average yes you have been listening okay. Now how many of you listen to garrison's other program of the writer's almanac it's a daily 5-minute morning program. Where he provides vignettes about various writers and then he reads the poem. And he always closes that program with what i think are very wise words. He says and if you know what you can say it. Be well. Do good work. And keep in touch. Now when i first heard those words many years ago. They spoke to me. They seem to me to be a recipe for a happy life. So let's take a look at each of those crazy. First of all well. Nikila was an english major. And this is an imperative sentence. Be well. I grew up in the united methodist church. I remember the emphasis on treating my body is a temple of god. I remember the teenager signing a pledge that i would not smoke. Or drink. Because those practices were bad for my body my temple of god. And i never have smoked. And i still want to drink occasionally. Now i know i practice these behaviors because of my methodist background. Had i not been involved in that methodist use fellowship so many years ago with a young minister who is my mentor. I might have been a smoker both my brothers were. And so is my dad. And i am now so thankful. That i was influenced by that minister in my youth group. Because everything we read about illness and disease. States that smoking and excess use of alcohol are contributing factors right. Heart disease two-stroke to cancer to diabetes. And the list goes on. Now i am not a fitness enthusiast like reverend alexander. And my husband jack will tell you that i don't like to sweat. But i do love the outdoors i love the walk. And i marvel at the capabilities of the human body. And i believe i'm as healthy as i am because i still think of the human body. With its amazing anatomy. And physiology. As a temple of god. Is a miracle. I also like to eat. But because of what i keep reading about nutrition i'm convinced. That more important to good health even the next versailles. Is to eat well. I mean do we even know what we are ingesting these days with so many processed foods in our pantry. And here's an example. This is an ingredient and i hope i can pronounce it right. Azodicarbonamide. Azodicarbonamide there we go. It's approved by the fda as a dough conditioner and a whiting whitening agent and it's used in a lot of bread. And it's also used in yoga mats. To be well we must eat well. And the only way we can know what we're actually ingesting. Prepare our own food and otherwise we have to start cooking again. Not microwaving packaged food. Cooking from scratch. I hope here i'm talking to the choir but anyway. Talking to about a food and nutrition. It's another sermon so i'm going to stop right there. Garrison keillor. I encourage each of you. Well. Prepare your own food eat a healthy diet. Exercise. Avoid harmful practices. Respect your murray. Body. Consciously take care of yourself. That you want to start this morning. Like you get your coffee or tea and fellowship hall and they're okay they're good. Don't go to the cookie table. Now you crossed over 40 instead instead. Seek out someone with a red mug. Or maybe a new member one of our two new members who were here this morning that you haven't yet met. And strike up a conversation. And i will wager that you will find that interaction. Much more fulfilling. Our bodies are not. Automobile. We can't trade them in for a new model every few years. In fact. Our bodies have to last us for a lifetime. The second imperative sentence at the end of the writer's almanac radio spot is. Do good work. How many of you were probably taught that old adage any job worth doing is worth doing well. I used to believe that. But now i think that adage just sometimes maybe does more harm than good. Both the close friend and my sister-in-law have shared with me that they now wish they had spent a lot more time with their children when they were growing up. Then they spent. Keeping their home. Spic and span. Shirley. Of course there are jobs that must be done at least occasionally i mean there's dusting and vacuuming is washing the windows cleaning out the refrigerator change the ac filter. But i think they could probably be done less often than martha stewart might do them and our homes would still be safe. Some bacteria. And of course that's easy for me to justify at my age because i'm thinking that some jobs are just not worth my time anymore. Now i've been retired for almost 3 years but i know many of you are still employed. And i'm sure you've heard the phrase protestant work ethic. Well now cording to wikipedia. The protestant work ethic. Is a concept in theology sociology economics and history which emphasizes hard work. Frugality. Indulgence. Is a constant display a person's salvation. In the christian faith. Nothing contrasted the focus on religious attendance confession. And ceremonial sacrament. In the catholic. Martin luther and john calvin both argued that work. With a calling from god. Bayview 6s. As a sign of salvation. Which led to believe in success as a path. The salvation. Hard-working good deeds would bring rewards in this life and after. Now i read an interesting well-documented commentary. About the protestant work ethic. It was written by may even roots. She's a fellow at the weatherhead center for international affairs in. From estonia. I quote. A person with protestant upbringing. Internalizes from a very early age that inactivity. Is that. Hard work is the source of self-esteem and therefore as an adult. Sitting around in idleness. Brings immediate feelings of restlessness. Then guilt. The ideal day for a protestant person is a day when he or she manages to squeeze many tasks. Into the limited hours available. And consequently can be proud of all that he or she accomplishes. Efficient use of time is a top priority. Oh my gosh. This fits me to a t. Yeah she goes on however people in protestant countries today no longer work at the center of their lives. And in many places. Notably in the united states. Seem to have lost the taste for frugality. Or thrift. Societal values such as thrift or focus on work. May lose part of their functionality as societies grow richer. Once. Western societies obtain a high level of economic security. They gradually give higher priority to the quality. Of life relevant to economic growth. Today the functional equivalent of protestant ethic is probably more vigorous in east asia. And fading away in protestant. Perhaps the protestant ethic is a set of values that are most common in societies. Scarcity. And not specific. Provost. And then she continues with her theory. The protestant work ethic has not been lost it has simply more. Into a different type. A preference for busyness. We now tackle our free time. With similar feverish activity. That we used to show towards work. We feel our free time in productive. Activities. Home improvement. Our gardening. Now this same commentator also examines the islamic work ethic. That says work isn't an obligatory activity and the virtue. Success and progress on the job depend on hard work. And commitment. The islamic work ethic emphasizes cooperation. A consultation. Social relations at work are encouraged to establish equilibrium in one's individual and social life. For the protestant work. Values. Stress individual in shadeland. The islamic work ethic puts more emphasis on. Community. And societal welfare. The best material for another sermon as well. But i think that information is a perfect segue into another facet of work and that is. Volunteer work. Which also emphasizes community. And societal welfare. We who were indoctrinated with the protestant work ethic can feel productive and do good work. By volunteering our time in the community. Oh and of course by the way that's beyond the time that we volunteer here at the. Now i know many of you volunteered various organizations on the treasure coast. We volunteers don't get paid monetarily but we certainly feel rewarded in other ways. Now maybe garrison no has something else in mind with his urging us to do good work. You know he makes his living by writing. So i suspect he might be saying to himself. Sit down at the computer and get some writing done. Hopefully good enough to publish. I interpret his words to mean. That we should consider all of our daylight ever. As work. And do each of them in a way that is gratifying. Whether we're still in the workplace or volunteering somewhere. Weather for cooking a meal working crossword puzzle installing a paddle fan. Reading a book. Experience the satisfaction. Accomplishing. The gratification of using our amazing brain. Are remarkable eyes. And are incredibly dexterous hands. To do work. And if we are mindful of the work xperia. That i think we will do. Good. And to introduce nancy's third segment this morning. This poem the miracle of touch. By handel rennell. Attached. Is to embrace. And embrace. Is a blossoming. And embrace is. Handing oneself. To someone. Embrace. Is it gif. The giving of a priceless bequest. To one another. I embrace you. To have as a brother. To have. As a sister. Except my embrace. And allow me to live. I await your embrace. Intern. Garrison keillor stirred admonition. Is to keep in touch. I know i always enjoy an unexpected phone call or newsie email from a friend. And i even enjoy receiving letters are cards in the real mail is unusual is that is these days. That kind of keeping in touch sends the message that someone's thinking about me someone cares about me. I suppose that's the reason why facebook linkedin and other social media are so popular because we really want to know what other people are doing. We really do want to keep in touch. But what about physical touch. Igoogle. Human touch. Study. And i read about some research done at the university of california. In berkeley by dr. keltner. He's the professor of psychology and he's the founding director of the greater good science center. Now any of you who were here in january and saw the film kindness is contagious. Doctor keltner was featured in the second half of that film. He says. After years. Spent. Immersed in the science of touch i can tell you. That-a-way of study. Has documented some. Credible. Emotional and physical health benefits that come from touch. This research is suggesting the touch. Is truly fundamental. Human communication. Bonding. And help. He continues the benefits start from the moment we're born. He reviewed some research. The found that preterm newborn babies. Who receive jess. 3 sessions of touch. Therapy each day. For 5 to 10 days they gained 47% more weight. Then premature infants who received the standard. Medical. And similarly there's some laboratory research that rats whose mothers licked and groom them a lot when they were infants they grow up. Calmer. And more resilient to stress. With a stronger immune. He says that this research sheds light on why historically and overwhelmingly. Excuse me an overwhelming percentage of human babies in orphanages. Typically star. Touch. Failed to grow to their expected height or weight. An experience behavior problems. Regrettably though. Some western cultures are pretty much touched deprived in this is especially true in the united states. If you travel to other countries you noticed that people spend a lot more time and direct physical contact with one another than we do here. And this was documented in a study from the 60s. They study the conversation of friends in different parts of the world is they sat in a cafe together. And the researcher observe these conversations for the same amount of time in each of the different country. Okay what did he find. In england. The two friends touch each other. 0 *. In the united states in burst of enthusiasm we touched each other. Twice. But in france. The number shot up to 110 times in an hour and in puerto rico 180 *. Now cards are plenty of good reasons why people are inclined to keep their hands to themselves. Especially in the society as litigious as out. And there's also the concern about spreading germs. The cold by the flu. But other research. Has reveal what we lose. When we hold back to. There a study showing that touch. Signal safety. And trust. It's suzie. Basic warm touch. Calm cardiovascular stress. It activates the body's vagus nerve which is intimately involved with our compassionate. And a simple touch can actually trigger the release of. Hormones in your body. In one study. Participants were lying in an mri brain scanner they were anticipating a painful blast of white noise. And. The research showed heightened brain activity in regions associated with threatened stress. The participant if their romantic partner was with them. Stroking their arm while they waited. They didn't show this reaction at all. The touch had turned off the threats which in. Not touch can even have economic effects. Promoting trust and generosity. Here's another research study. Participants could choose either to cooperate or compete. With a partner for a limited amount of money. An experimenter gently touch some of the participants as they were starting to play the game. Just a quick pat on the back. But it had an effect that made a big difference. Those who were touched. For much more likely to cooperate. And cher. Rather than come. A doctor hertenstein from depaul university states very interesting. Physiologic. Colfax from his. The touch. Effects spokesperson todd. And the one. Doing the touching. His research has revealed that a person giving a hug. Gets just as much benefit. As a person. Being hugged. He concludes that there are times. Such as during intense grief or fear. But also an ecstatic moments. Joy and love. When only the language of touch. Can fully express what we feel. Michelangelo said. To touch. Can be to give. Life. And according to all of this research. He was absolutely right. So. I encourage each of you. To love your body. To respect and appreciate how miraculous. It is. Or is garrison would say. Well. And i encourage you as this garrison to do good work. To use your days on this earth. In ways that bring you joy and gratification. And make this world a better place for your having lived in it. And i encourage you to keep in touch. Reach out to others verbally and physically. Knowing that you will get just as much benefit from it. At the other purse. Go in peace. Speak truth. Give thanks each day. Respect. For they are alive. Care for your body. It is a wondrous gift. Live simply. Be of service by your face. Go lightly on your path. In a sacred manner. I meant.

uufvb_org

2012Mar04Sermon32.mp3

Doesn't. His name was greg mchenry. And although i doubt any of you will recognize either his face or his name. He is a genuine. Unitarian universalist hero. For one day he showed remarkable courage in the face of evil itself. He's a hero because on the morning of july 29th 27th. 2008. He was serving. As an usher. At the tennessee valley unitarian universalist church in knoxville tennessee. When a crazed and bitter gunman by the name of. Jim david atkinson who later said that he had targeted our church. In knoxville because of its liberal teachings. And he believed that all liberals should be killed. Because they were quote-unquote ruining this country. He walked in on a light-hearted service 125 of the congregations children were performing the musical annie. He pulled a 12-gauge shotgun out of a guitar case. And began firing. Mister mchenry guy. Immediately and deliberately put himself directly between the gunman and the 25 children. And he took a shot point. Blank. In the chest. Almost immediately for other courageous men in that audience. Church members john varsity. Robert birdwell. Arthur bowles and terry uselton vaulted over rows of chairs amidst all the chaos tackling the gunman. Restraining him. Until police arrived. Yes there was murder and mayhem in that church that they one other person was killed and six others injured. But there was also courage. Courage beyond all measure and none of the children. I want to show you a second image of another courageous soul. This is new york firefighter mike kehoe. And you all know the day. September 11th. 2001 climbing his way up one of the stairwells of the north tower. Of the world trade. Center. After. The planes had struck. And panicked workers you see them sweaty streaming. Down their way to safety. This powerful picture. Of a simple firefighter. Who miraculously survived that day. Because he was ordered by his superior out of the building at the last possible moment. Just seconds before it collapsed. Nonetheless he became an iconic image that represented the courage and the bravery. Are the new york city police and firefighters. So many of whom as you know perished on that day. To me his face on this photograph and i wish it were a little clearer in a little larger. Is that with what i can only call brave dutiful determination. No one can of course. If mike kehoe this young firefighter husband and father-of-three. Fully appreciated at that moment. How gravely his life. Was in danger. But we can only call him a hero for going up in that stricken building when every human instinct of a father-of-three must have been screaming to him. Not to go. Had to turn around. And to leave those. At the top. Stories. To the rhone. Devices. I want to show you one more picture of a hero. A lot of you know her. This. Embodies. Courage to me is ruth car. Longtime stalwart member of this congregation. Who died just a few months ago. Ruth i think showed incredible courage and grace as she faced the end of her life. Late last summer at the age of 92 not feeling well 4 weeks intercourse not complaining to anyone or letting anyone know. She received a diagnosis of terminal ovarian cancer. And was told that she did not have long to live. Or permit herself to self indulgence of feeling cosmically sorry for herself. Ruth did as she had done with her entire life without fanfare she quietly decided to continue her life with as much purpose. And engagement and care for others as she could muster. During her last month even as the cancer increasingly robbed her of energy. Comfort inn mobility ruth. Remained boost. Refusing to surrender her life or her relationships including her passionate commitment to this congregation. Enter presence and purpose as a human being on this earth was maintained until her very last moment. Her dear friend denise hate tells me that just a couple of days before her death. When she was terribly weak. She asked denise. Together to her computer so she can update our membership records one more time. She was too weak. Aquis so denise manipulated the keys at ruth's instructions because after all it was very important that the membership rolls. Be correct. There was nothing particularly flashy or dramatic. About the courage ruth exhibited in her last days but. All of us who watched her live. Fully and well and bravely again remaining ruth until her very last moment. Will regard that as a blessing. I have a final story about courage to share with you this morning and i don't have a picture for it. It's perhaps more subtle and less traumatic than the. Three have already shared. You'll just have to imagine him. Back in the 1980s when i serve the minister of the first unitarian society of plainfield new jersey. One of my parishioners. Was a quiet conventional middle-aged pharmaceutical executives. Name tom you might even think of him as. Milquetoast. If you just looked at him. Called me and asked me to go to my office to discuss quote an ethical dilemma. He was having at work. When he arrived he matter-of-fact matter-of-factly described the terribly difficult position he was in. It seems that his boss had come to him again he's a pharmaceutical executive his boss had come to inform inform him. That one of their company's biggest selling and most profitable drugs had just been banned for sale in the united states. Medical questions about whether or not it caused the death. Of many women. I would taking it. But his boss said that for the time being at least because of regulatory red tape the drug could still be successfully and legally marketed overseas especially to women. Infor undeveloped nations of the world. Were they would be uninformed or might overlook the risk. His job thomas job his boss informed him was to move as many million units of this drug overseas as quickly. As he could before regulators close the door. My first was dilemma of course wasn't stark moral one. Even though his boss was demanding was still technically legal. Because of tom's unitarian universalist commitment to the inherent worth and dignity of every person. He was unsure if as an ethical human being he could follow. His superiors indifferent. And calloused order. His family's only breadwinner. Two kids were happily ensconced and expensive private school. In the olden nice home. With a very large mortgage. And he was tormented. By the tension between what his conscience was telling him was right for the long run. It is immediate duty and concern for the well-being in the security of his own family. We talked this tough decision all the way through at painful length. And such a decision of course can't be made by a minister needs to be made. By the parishioner. And decide he did. He told his boss he could not mark at this drug overseas and ask to be relieved of this expectation and shifted to other duties instead he was fired. On the spot. And i will tell you for it is important to the story that is a result of his courage. Tina's family faced many many months. Personal and financial hardship until he finally found. Another executive position about 18 months later. This good man was never in any physical danger. And no one. Ever really knew what he did beyond his own family and me. But he was a genuine courage. And lived. Such. Elegance. Purpose and virtue. Morning i'm offering you the tenth installment. A year-long sermon series on the 12 gates to the city. Spiritual pathways to the holy city. Of your own life. It is hard to imagine preaching such a series without devoting a sunday as we are this morning. To the all-important quality of courage. Over the centuries various philosophers and religions in world traditions. Have compiled lists of the core human virtues. And everyone of them. From plato. To the bible to the boy scouts. In some way include the idea of courage. Human history not to mention human literature the movies the art. Are filled with stories about courage. And in some cases stories about the failure of courage which is of course. Cowardice. Courage it seems to me as one of those human commodities. Which is often hard to clearly define it's one of those traits. That we recognize though when we see it like the supreme court justice who was defining pornography i know it when i see it that's kind of courage works. Let me begin by trying to offer a clear working definition of courage for me at least courage. Is fear and pain management in the face of real danger threatened adversity. It's fear and pain management which enables you to continue to live out your life. As you were intended to live it out. It's best form. Let me put this differently. Courage is to me the spiritual and psychological refusal in the face of danger or threat or adversities refusal to allow yourself. To be immobilized incapacitated or co-opted as a human being it is a refusal. Courage. Is the brave insistence that you were going to remain a full and active and principled and purposeful presents in creation as long as you have breath and being. It's a refusal. Disappear. As a human being. Courage. Let me say this a third way is the refusal and i've said this. Cuba for. It's the refusal to submit. Your human agency. In the face of difficult. Human agency meaning the power to be a human being. Courage is a refusal. When you are endangered or in chat or challenge by difficult circumstances to existentially run. Or hide or collapse or cower or fold your tent flat. Courage is a decision to remain somebody and not just anybody but somebody principal. Somebody who matters. In a world that matters. Does this definition make any sense to all of you. The next thing that i think is important for us to do as we establish what courage is is to make sure that we do not confuse courage. With fearlessness. For they are not the same thing. The great american unitarian novelist perma melville. Make this point in his classic book moby dick when starbuck the chief mate of the whaling boat first addresses the crew. I will have no man in my boat. Starbucks. Ladder latter-day moralist. Expands on this idea. A brave person is not one who is never afraid. That is rather. The description of a rash or reckless person. Someone who beat for maybe more harm than help. In an emergency. Unquote. And i think that's exactly right. Courage is not the blind and foolish denial of fear and danger and pain. It is rather than noble management of these things. Which enables us to go to remain somebody. That's what courage is its managing. If there was ever a situation that called for human courage it was certainly for the prisoners of auschwitz and other nazi death camps during those terrible days. Of world war 2. Viktor frankl. What's a psychiatrist. There you see the prison that he wasn't actually i think this is a visit to auschwitz right after wwii you see the bar flyer. He was a psychiatrist. Who survived that concentration camp and wrote about courage. There in his famous park and it's a wonderful book man's search for meaning i call him now at some length. The experiences of death camp life frankel roadshow that men and women do even in extreme circumstances. A choice of action. There were enough examples he goes on awesome of heroic nature. Which proved that. We human beings can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom. Of independence of mind even in such terrible conditions. Of psychic and physical stress. We will see you anon. Can remember. Who walked through the hut. Comforting others. Giving. Others their last piece of bread. But they offer sufficient proof. And now he writes a beautiful sentence. That everything can be taken from the last. The freedom to choose one's attitude. In any set of circumstances the freedom to choose. Your own. Way. And then he goes on and there were always choices to make. Everyday every hour offered the opportunity to make a decision. A decision. Which determined whether you would or would not. Your inner freedom which determine whether or not you would become a plaything of circumstance pronouncing your freedom and dignity. And then he has. Fundamentally there for. Anyone facing difficult. Can decide what shall become of him or herself mentally and spiritually. We are free. To remain brave. Dignified. And i'm selfish. When i first read these powerful words by franco about. And think about the horrors suffered. In auschwitz. I wondered if i myself. Would have been capable of finding. Such mobility encouraged what i have been one of those people moving through the hut. Offering. Comfort. Or what i have cowered. I must tell you that i honestly don't know. The answer to that question and i suspect most of you do not. No either how you would have been. And here it seems to me as one of the real problems with courage. We can never be sure if we will find it inside of us. When we most needed. I wonder what sort of prisoner you are i would have been at auschwitz. In such horrible conditions. Would we have been brave and generous and noble. And i wonder if i do that knoxville church that morning. Whether i would have put my body. Between the gunman. And the children. And i wonder if i had been a fireman on 9/11 if i would have gone bounded up those. Stairs of the north tower tower like. Mike kehoe dead. And i wonder if i ever know the physical lost that ruth car. Did if i would be able to not fold my tent. And i wondered. If i was a pharmaceutical executive order to do in morality. And still get my $200,000 paycheck. There i. Take. You are. Job. Shove it. I don't know. I must honestly tell you. But i can't answer these questions i'd like to think because of my upbringing and my. Crazy backbone. I would find the courage but i. In the face of real danger and and remain a good handful. Person. But i think that no one knows for sure until those moments. Those deciding moments really arrive. And where. Forced to make either a courageous or a cowardly choice. As i think back over the first 62 years of my life i don't think i've really ever been really tested on the courage thing. Yes once i don't into the ocean to help save a drunk and drowning man but i was with two others who were also in the waters. And we did save him. And twice i've had very public disputes. Where principles were. Was made like that to the mayor and the city council once in my life was threatened in some mild sorts of ways but. I've never really. Really been faced i think with the situation required deep-down bravery and perhaps. Perhaps for many of you it's the same. Well some of you perhaps have really done courageous thing we have a lot of wwii veterans in this crowd today and maybe some of you. Really faced moments where you were either. Or where courage was. Required. I suspect that most of us don't know if we'll ever really step up to the virtue of courage. Improve ourselves on until we get there. Centuries ago aristotle said we become brave. By doing brave acts and this is a reassuring assertion. That we become more naturally courageous over a lifetime as we get used to being brave. But i wonder if this is really so. Can we really learn to be more courageous. Does a brave act. Habits foundation upon earlier brave acts or do you just sleep out in front of a bus to save a baby because it's the right thing to do. I'm not sure. But i've been inclined to believe that every time we faced a moment when courage is called for we either from whatever mysterious source. Either rise to that call or fail to answer it. And there is another problem with courage. I believe most of the time when we are in fact most courageous. We undervalue or don't even recognize it as courage. I would assert that most of the time when courage is truly required of us. It is not in grand sweeping heroic moments. Like that in the knoxville church or a 911 or in world war 1 outfits. It's usually nestled quietly and far more subtle and mundane moments of our living. When courage may largely go unrecognized and unheralded. I've already told you about ruth carf quietly being courageous. And i see much other courage express in this community of faith here in vero beach amongst you the congregation i'm honored to now serve. As your minister ice icy countless acts of bravery that are in the end i think. Just as noble as those witnessed on 9/11. I see courage on the faces of those of you who i know struggle on a daily basis to get out of bed. Where to stay on top of a clinical depression which seeks to rob you of energy in. An engagement. I see courage in the faces of those of you who i know has struggled. For decades to underdue the damage and self-abnegation and fear which were inflicted on you by. Sexual or emotional abuse when you were young. I see courage. In the face of those parents of this community who would struggle to accept or integrate the death of a child. Or a grandchild. I see courage on the faces of those of you who i know my scope. Chronic pain. And disease and disability. I see courage on the faces of men and women in this congregation who are the caregivers. Month. After months. After months of someone with alzheimer's or some other terrible illness which robs them. Of their own ability to care for them. I secret on the faces of many of our elderly members. Who fight on a daily basis to maintain their dignity. Their purpose there freedom in troy. Living in the face of bodies. Dalaran clear. Decline. And physical limitation. Most of the time in human life. This is what courage looks like. It's often bravery of a slow study endurance. It's the day-to-day refusal. If i'd said earlier the day today refusal to allow difficulty to rob you of your agency. To rob you of your ability to choose and to act. And to live purpose. And plus i arrive at what i really want to say to you about the virtue. An importance of courage the. That which makes it. Essential to entering the holy city of your own life. Maybe a few of us. That's some rare spectacular moments in our lives will face some grand heroic moment. Removal prove ourselves extraordinaire ali-a nobly courageous like. Risking our lives by running into a burning building to save a child. Or wrestling. A gun out of some terrorist or. Murderer. For the most of us. Courage will either come to us or find us wanting. In far less remarkable. Yet equally important moments. More often the test of courage comes to us quietly. When we face a decision of the heart weather. Tubi. Full human being. Orchard shrink. Into something less. Courage. Refusal. Just submit. Your human agency. It is. Fuseal. To submit. Your human agency. One of the central tenets of my personal faith. As a unitarian universalist. Is it every person. Comes into being and breath. In this creation. Intending to be some intended to be somebody. Not just anybody. But somebody unique and remarkable. With things to do and give. And care for and love. We were made out of this most holy mysterious of creations. To be full and powerful presence is on this planet and nothing less. You were meant to be something. Courage is that noble commodity of hardened spirit which comes to us in moments. Of adversity and testing and mitigation. Which give us the strength to remain. Purposeful. Who won what we are. When cowardice begs us to fold our tent and flatten our human being. Courage is the pathway to the holy city varane live. Because it alone enables us to live out of our our particular destiny. And our courage our life is a being. Greg mchenry. Founded. In that morning on the knoxville church. His last day of of. Mike kehoe found it on september 11th rushing upset stairwell. Rue scarf founded bravely living at home. Her last days. Viktor frankl. Found its fighting for dignity and being an auschwitz and tom my. Pharmaceutical executive friends founded. In the luxury of a executive suite. And i take it on faith that all of us can find it to write where we live. And right where it matters the most. Here is a spiritual bottom line. No matter how lucky or blessed we are. Sooner or later life will unfold. In ways that threaten our lives. And our human being. And call upon us to find courage. Deep within. The time will come for each of us when we are challenged. To bring out our fullest and finest selves. In whatever life we yet have to live. May we in that crucial our find that. Holy commodity of courage resting steadfast in our hearts. How do we find the strength of being. To courageously remain fully the sacred somebody. Bully. The sacred somebody we were intended out of the stars to be. What courage.

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2015Mar22Sermon128.mp3

Well good morning. It's still a little foggy outside but let there be no spiritual fog in here this morning. I talked to our member ken drake up in central maine this morning where it's 16 degrees so you're with a little frog you're still way ahead of the game and besides it's going to burn off. Welcome. Welcome this sunday morning to the unitarian universalist of fellow fellowship of vero beach we are so pleased you've chosen. To begin your day with us here. We are congregation is the graphic set of open mine. Loving hearts and helping hands. People seeking to become our best individual cells even as together as a religious community. We work to make this world a better and kinder place. And please know you're welcome precisely as you come to us this morning. Whether you were young or old gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. What do you have a ged or a phd whether you're a visitor with us this morning or have been coming for decades. Whether you were feeling absolutely on top of the world this morning. Or down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We welcome you in all of your particularity and charm. We hope you'll find something here this morning. In this service that is meaningful enriching. I think you'll find something here that nourishes your spirit and feeds your soul and gives you renew joy and energy and purpose for the living of life in the days ahead. You think they enjoyed that. These words come from protestant theologian. Administer frederick buechner. Road. It is the first day because it has never been. Before. And it is the last day because it will never be again. So be alive all through this day if you can. Today. Of your life. What's to be done. What's to be done. Follow your feet. Put on the coffee start the orange juice the bacon. Then go wake up the children and your spouse. Think about the work. Of your hands. Live in the needs of the day. We are all architects of each day. As you can tell from the quote at the top of the order service my theme today is happiness and misery i just love this quote why should i be happy. Well there so many beautiful things. To be miserable. I don't know who said it i even googled it no no sorcerer credit. So my meditation this morning as a poem by naomi nye. Call so much happiness. Listen to her poem. And the silence that will follow a ring a bell to end our. meditate. So much happy. It's difficult to know what to do. With so much happiness. With sadness there's something to rub up against the wound. To tend with lotion and cloth. When the world falls in around you. I do have pieces to pick up something to hold in your hand like a ticket stub or change. But happiness. Floats. It doesn't need you. To hold it down it doesn't need anything. 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. Everything has a life of its own. It to could wake up filled with possibilities of. Coffee cake and. Ripe. Peaches. And love even the floor which needs to be swept. The soiled linens. And scratch. Records. Since there is no place large enough to contain so much happiness. You shrug. You raise your hand and it floats out of you. Into everything you. 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. And then that way. Be known. The last year as i'm sure you all remember. I preached the blockbuster sermon series on the seven habits of happy people based on recent happiness research. About some of the qualities at our disposal that make for human contentment. From social scientists at harvard and yale and other places. Because i think these habits that they identified as so important. To our happiness and our satisfaction in life i wanted to quickly remind you about them and here they are projected above the 7 habits of happy people. And let me just say an explanatory word about each of these seven habits relationships. Caring. Fitness. Flow. Spiritual engagement strengths and virtues. And positive mindset first relationship. Express your heart. People who have one or more close friendships are happier than those who are isolated. It doesn't seem to matter if we have a large network of close relationships or not. What seems to make a difference. Is if and how often we cooperate and activities. And share our personal feelings. With friends and relatives. You can't be happy. Second caring. Cultivate kindness. People who volunteer or simply care for others on a consistent basis. Seem to be happier and less depressed. Although karen can involve volunteering as part of an organized group or club. It can be as simple as reaching out to a colleague a co-worker a classmate or neighbor. Who looks lonely. Or is struggling. With an issue. Here's one of my favorites exercise. Keep moving. Regular exercise has long been associated with improved mental well-being. Lower incidence of. Multiple studies of the relationship between exercise and depression reveal. But those who regularly exercise experience much higher levels of happiness and satisfaction. In their lives. Then those who are sedentary. Fourth something called slow. If we are deeply involved in trying to reach your goal. Or the activity that is challenging. Well suited to our skills. We experienced a joyful state called flow. Which leads to personal satisfaction. Flow happens when we quote-unquote get in the zone. And achieve concentrated energized focus. And engagement. With whatever we are doing a key piece of that doesn't have to be. Spiritual engagement and meaning. Discover meaning studies demonstrate a close link between spiritual and religious practice. And happiness. Spirituality is closely related to discovery of greater meaning in our lives. Through the meaningful life. Discover a deeper kind. Of happiness. 6. Strengths and virtues. I like that little kid. Discover and use your strength. The happiest people are those that have discovered their unique strengths such as. Persistence and critical thinking. And virtues such as humanity. And use those strengths and virtues for a purpose. That is greater than their own personal goals and that relates to what i'm talking about. And 7 positive mindset. Which is simply optimism. Mindfulness and gratitude. Treasure gratitude mindfulness and hope. Those who cultivate gratitude mindfulness and help in their lives. Have a greater positive emotion a greater sense of belonging. And lower influences in their lives of. Gratitude and optimism which related. Are particularly a key. To greater satisfaction in life. That would remind you that my sermon series about those seven. A helpful habits is on our congregations website under recent sermons. Just underneath my picture on the homepage. I'm so if you're interested you can go to this address. And just scroll back to october. Of 2013 and you'll find the sermons in the next year or so of all the sermons that are there on both video format and written. But. This morning i begin a different. Yet curiously complementary sermon series on. Surefire ways to make yourself miserable. For just i think is there clearly or habits which happy people develop. To make their lives works of joy there also i think several surefire absolute fail safe way. That any of us can make ourselves. Miserable. With these shadow or negative habits. Are what these a shadow or negative habits are what i want to explore with a number of. Sermons over the coming months. Now i trust that is obvious to all of you that just as i hope. You will regularly and purposely learn to cultivate. Those habits of happy people that i just put up. I also hope we will develop the life skills and predilections. Too diligently avoid. At the statue. Those surefire and pesky ways. Which we human beings. Make ourselves miserable by alright. We're finally ready for this morning's surefire way to make yourself miserable. Can anybody guess for my title don't flatter yourself mary what that is all the gay men in the audience should know what it is. Jim what don't let finish this gym finish this line for me. Don't flatter yourself mary. Cuz it's not all about you cuz it's not all about you. Right. Now the reason does saying is frequently used in the game are were letting you straight sitting on something. Is that there are more than a few gay males were what the community called drama queen. A drama queen for those of you don't know. Is a self-absorbed guy often fussy demonstrative and loud. Who like to think that the world revolves just around him. And so he's always going on and on and on to anyone who will listen about how difficult the world and relationships are. For him. And guess what only him. Now as i'm sure you all know drama queens are not forbetterorworse restricted to the gay. Male community. Self-absorbed people who think that the world should singularly that revolve around them and their needs can be found everywhere. Regardless of sexual orientation. Race gauge national background or economic or social standing. Drama queens are everywhere. No. I'm not here talking so much about what is understood in psychological source. Narcissistic. Personality disorder. Here is how psychology today magazine described. Narcissistic personality disorder. Individuals with narcissistic personality disorder generally believe that the world revolves around them. This condition is characterized by a lack of ability to empathize with others. A desire to keep the focus on themselves at all times. Narcissistic personality disorder. Involve arrogant behavior. A lack of empathy for other people. And the need for admiration all of which must be consistently evidence. At work and in relationship. Next slide. People who are narcissistic are frequently described as cocky. Self-centered manipulative and demanding. Narcissist tend to have. High self-esteem however. Narcissism is not the same thing as self. People who have high self-esteem are often. Humble. Where is narcissus. Rarely are. And then it ends the latest evidence. Narcissist. Are actually secure. Or grandiose. At both. Levels. No. Those men and women. Who are unfortunate enough to be plagued with narcissistic personality disorder. I have known a few in my day. As i'm sure many of you have i know some of you were thinking about family members and friends and neighbors. And coworkers. Pathological narcissist are not only unpleasant to interact with. They're also in the end usually unhappy p. They're ultimately unhappy because their obsession and demand of concentrating everything alive. Exclusively on themselves. Actually makes it impossible for them to have healthy. Loving. Add reciprocal relationships with others and thus they become. Increasingly isolated and alone. As one leading psychologist puts it. Extreme narcissist tend to be persons. Remove. Toward eventually cutting off others. And becoming emotionally isolate. But. This morning i'm not really talking about narcissistic personality disorder. A spiritually and emotionally and psychologically dangerous as that is. What i'm focused on and honestly i think many more of you will recognize this habit from your own life. Internalize of people you know and love. Is get ready for this. The veldt on shoal. Or have it. Of taking almost everything personally in your life. No. The highfalutin the world word belltown show. Comes from two simple german roots or words. Well-built meaning world and. On chao meaning you. For outlook so beltone shown is just a fancy way of saying. Did you have a basic worldview. About how the world in life works and you filter all of your experience. Ruth at belltown show. Belltown channel is a comprehensive worldview. The fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society. Encompassing the entirety of the individuals or societies knowledge. And point of view so it's a very powerful thing. If you see the world only in one velton shaolin. Everything is interpreted. Paranoid. Glorious weather. So. What do i mean by the veldt on shown or habit of taking. Almost everything personally in your life. If you live everyday. As if life and other person. Are solely here to make you happy. Enterprise you satisfaction in your life. Then you are a big spiritual and emotional trouble. Trust me. You're in big trouble because mary the truth is life isn't all about you. If you move through your days take everything personally. And therefore therefore come to resent and take offense every time someone or something doesn't precisely go your way. You will make yourself. Perfect. But let me acknowledge right off the bat hear that all of us by natural necessity as human person. And are what. We will call self-referencing creatures. We human being. Irregularly and of natural essensity. Self. Referencing creatures i mean think about it. The only way any of us can take in the world and process and make sense of what happens to us. As an individual is through our own direct an idiosyncratic. Human experience. So when we meet for example our first grandchild for the first time. The joy and delight we feel is uniquely ours. And similarly when we get a nasty case of the flu. We are the only ones who know the misery and unpleasantness no matter how sympathetic. Others baby. Florida that's slow recovery to hell from the flu is ours to suffer alone so of course. All of us are selfishly. Concerned about how life and relationships. Are going just for us. That's only natural. But what i'm talking about this morning. Is the danger of habitually taking everything. What happens to you. Personally. Let me give a couple of quick examples. Beginning with the little and the easy stuff. Let's say you're out driving on interstate 95 and there's a construction zone that has traffic backed up for several miles. Justice you approached the point where the two lanes merge into one the driver in the lane next to you suddenly bumps and squeezes it had just enough to cut you off. And maybe a new bang the steering wheel allowed lie and say you see the way that jerk cut me off. No i'm not saying he's not a jerk. He or she may well be behind the jerk jerk behind-the-wheel another place. Will never know. But what i can say is rather than view this moment of driving as a personal. And purposeful upfront. Just to you better cut me off. You could just relax and assume that the other driver may simply have been merging into one lane as best. Here she knew how to. Whether we whenever we drive an automobile it is helpful to remember that we share the road with countless other independent drivers. Some of whom. Will not always negotiate the traffic pattern precisely the way we wish. Or think is fair or best. And will be a lot happier. And have much lower blood pressure. If we don't take every traffic situation. As a personal affront. Ohrinsel. Let me give a second little example. Last week my wonderful and somewhat quirky nephew. And his wife from port washington wisconsin. Announce by blast email to the family that they would not be attending. Our annual alexander clan fourth of july reunions with collins and i hold up at our home. In the adirondacks. His email said they were choosing instead to attend oh dear god a grateful dead concert in another part of the country. There is a pretty strong unwritten expectation in my family that everyone will make a real effort to gather. For this wonderful family blowout the count and i host every 4th of july. And i will admit that when i got his email i was disappointed by his. I suppose that if i were inclined to quote on take this personally and be a drama queen. I could have shot back and indignant letter or email there are doesn't such emails in ann landers every week. How can someone so do this to me it's ruined my summer. I could have written email back to ryan telling him that they are letting us down and ruining our summer. But the truth is and thank god. I understand this. The truth is my nephew and his wife were not put on this earth to meet my expectations. Or needs or what. Their choice as die hard rock music fans is completely understandable and legitimate. And i'll see them next summer on the 4th of july god willing. My point is it would be monumentally stupid and unproductive for me to take. Their decision personal. Fordyce simply a life choice to which they are entitled. And godless. And so it should be with so much of the other little stuff in life. When we have to deal with the motor vehicle department or social security. Who are seemingly the person making things absolutely as difficult as they possibly could for no reason. Or when we're struggling in a busy publix which i was in one this weekend everybody seem to be in my way. It was like personally why are you in my way. I want to grab some hamburger why are you standing in front of that hamburger for 3 minutes get out of my way. Because i don't take this personally i didn't have that reaction. When we were in a hurry to get home for dinner and repeatedly gets stuck in traffic. When someone in our family doesn't give us the kind of support or sympathy or attention. We think we deserve. With all this little stuff. In life. Learning not to take everything personally. Helps us to move through our days with much less frustration. Anger and resentment because the truth is. But most of us stymies and frustrates us in life is in the end. Not really about us personally. But rather reflects more about how life. And other people just stumble and karina head. Paying marginal attention to us that's just the way life. Is it stumbles and bumbles its way. And so it is my friends. All the really big stuff. As your minister i'm obliged to tell you the truth. Most of the really big stuff. In life. We find really differ. And really maddening. Is also not in the end. Personally. Let me give an example for my own inner circle. Paul gordon was one of my very best friends in life his widow. And son and grandchildren were here with us last. Sunday. Wisconsin me last week. Paul was a. Successful veterinarian a superb athlete. For decades. He and i ran together. A loving husband and doting father. Just an all-around great guy that countless people adored and admired. But then suddenly in his 57th year of life when he was clearly in his prime. Paul was diagnosed with a rare aggressive cancer growing in his back a large tumor. Wrapped pernicious lie around his spine. The doctors were honest. With paul from the get-go about his chances of. The cancer they told him would kill him within five years. Like any smart life loving guy paul did everything he could. To resist this cancer. Scrupulously followed the regimen treatment at sloan-kettering in manhattan. He improved his diet and exercise as best i could and kept text. Meanwhile he lovingly tended to his business. His family. And his friends. He kept a positive upbeat attitude and refuse. Self-pity. Ensure he gave us a good fight. But as is the way to austin. After five years indeed the cancer did spread throughout his body and overwhelmed him. At the age of 6. What i will never forget about paul going through the stuff. Final chapter. This life. Is his refusal. His absolute psychological and spiritual. Yuzolt. Any of this. He would regularly say to me and to the many others around him. But he was sick simple because of the bad luck of a draw. From life's random deck of. Hey scott you would say to me. There it is. Some people get cancer. And one of those some people is me. And a story. I believe that my friend my friend paul's repeated refusal to take his illness. As a personal affront. As a personal injustice. Help them not only too emotionally and spiritually stand the game of his life. For as long as he could. It also helps them to live longer. And with more purpose and joy than anyone. Imagine. Just seems like a good time to share one of my favorite quotes. George. Bernard shaw the 20th century. Who wrote. This is the true joy in life. Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature. Instead of a feverish. Selfish little claude of ailments. Grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy i have spoken my sermon. He is precisely right. The world and other people even those close to you are not here to devote themselves to your happiness and satisfaction and thinking that they are is a pathway to misery for you. Let me tell a very different story. With a different ending. Involving two different people i knew at the same time i knew my friend. In the last conjugation i served for 12 years the river road. Uu congregation in bethesda maryland. There was a couple. They happened to be two women but that has no bearing on the story. There was a couple who every time something difficult or unpleasant happened to them and i will grant you. They did seem to have more than their share of trouble. In their lives. But every time something difficult or unpleasant happened to them. They immediately persuaded each other in a. Kind of tight circle. A victim holding the spear. That it was because life or other people were out to get them. In. Particular. When one of them lost her job for example it was because all her co-workers were out to get. When one of them got sick it was because life was once again picking on them. When one of them had a career stall it was because others were purposely standing. In her way. Whenever a friend disappointed or failed them it was always on purpose. And on and on and on and on with the ways they did take everything personally. Again. Again. And guess what. They were perfectly. And angry. And resentful toward life. All the people. Their habit of taking everything personally literally poisoned their lives. Darkened their days and they were among the most tragic and unhappy people. I have ever known and the system was in pain. Not. Swayed them. To a different belt route. Let me see all this just a little differently. If you were in the habit of taking everything personally. Whenever difficult or unpleasant or frustrating thing comes your way. Then the first question on your lips is probably. Why me oh lord why me. But because difficult and unpleasant and frustrating stuff randomly comes into all our lives eventually. Perhaps the better and wiser question is. Why not me. Why should i think myself exempt. From life complicated and rotten stuff. Why indeed. Spiritually and emotionally should any of us thing. We are exempt. From our measure of difficulty. One of the most important thing. I think to learn about life on this earth. And learn it early. Is it some of what happens to you. Is not fair or reasonable or. Some of what happens to us during our lives. Is random. And unpredictable yes of course not to our liking. In this world we are not promised the free and easy ride. Nor are we doomed to a life of misery or hurt. But the point here. Is it if we take everything that happens to us personally. Including the really hard stuff. We will inevitably come to resent life. Or god. Or others. And that's a recipe. Alright. It's time for me to wrap up this morning. I want to sum up what i've tried to say this morning again and seminary. 45 years ago joseph barth. Homeless professor. Tell him what you're going to tell him. And then tell him what you told him. So i'm just waiting to reach the point where i'm telling you what i told you. We human beings are naturally self-referencing creatures so of course we care about our individual stories in a quote on quote. Personal way. Similarly as individuals we don't like it much. When difficulties and hardships come our way that's only natural. But the only way to successfully navigate life's complicated ups and downs. And inevitable hardships is to avoid taking everything. But happens to you person. Because. In the end life really isn't all about you. Mary. Life. Is this amazing complicated. Serious and often random roadshow. The hazzard cast you on center stage. Singing the lead 24/7. And if you think it is. If you think life is all about you 24/7 then you are sure to make yourself. Misery. So please dear friend. Learn how to spiritually step back from your own life. And see the big picture. For happiness awaits those. Who take a humble place. In the grand scheme of things. And do not imagine themselves. Epicenter. Of creation. If i have ever said anything wiser to you. Don't know what it would. I leave you with the words i assume of a song. Written by irving berlin. Taking stock of what i have. And what i haven't. What do i find. The things i got will keep me satisfied. Checking up on what i've got and what i haven't what do i find. A healthy balance on the credit side. Got no mansion. Got no yacht. Still i'm happy with what i've got. I got the sun in the morning in the moon at night. Sunshine gives me a lovely day moonlight gives me the milky way. Got no checkbooks got no banks. Still i like to express my things. I got the sun in the morning. The moon at night. Son of the morning. And the moon at night. I'm alright.

uufvb_org

2010Sep05sermon32.mp3

uufvb_org

2012May13Sermon32.mp3

When scott asked me to do the service in may. I was very pleased. This sunday would fall on mother's day. And i immediately thought about writing a sermon on motherhood. So i asked scott if he had any material. Readings or store is there anything that i could use. And i was so much surprised. When you said to me that had never done a mother's day sermon. Given the fact that he has given more than 30 sermons. On the second sunday in may. I wondered why he had not picked this obvious rather obvious theme. It shouldn't take me long however to realize why he might have dodged that bullet. What at first glance i thought would be a logical choice. For the second sunday in may turns out to be one of the topics. Most avoided. By ministers. Go figure. It is not only complicated but it is fraught with danger. For the minister naive enough to attempt it. As reverend steve eddington a minister of my home church states. Quote. How can you go wrong talking about mothers. Well. If you praise mother's too much you invite slack from anyone who has had issue with their mothers. But if you try to address those issues. You lose those individuals. What about those. Those women who took the mothering. Unquote he calls it. A veritable minefield. And one that could best be avoided. But he decided to take the road less traveled. And i will do the same. In the spirit of full disclosure let me say at the outset that absent a mother from the age of four i have a rather unconventional view of motherhood. I had 40 traditional mother's or mother surrogate. My father my grandmother and the mother of my best friend who lives next door later. I also have to admit i have a rather cynical opinion of mother's and father's day has just commercial enterprises intended to bolster retail sales in chocolate roses. Hallmark cards. A holiday much less celebrating. But as this is the topic. I have chosen. I want you to spell. The myth. That motherhood can be summed up. Neatly on a hallmark card. The only mother who could remotely feel this particular role. She only did it for 8 weeks and then after 7 she was nipping at the pups to leave her alone. So much for the myth. So let's ground our understanding of this holiday in the history of the three remarkable women in the nineteenth and twentieth century who helped to create it. The first of these is julia ward howe. She has name recognition as she was a famous unitarian. Born in new york city in 1819 the daughter of a prosperous banker. Although her upbringing was strict calvinist. She is a precocious young woman began to think and more liberal terms. She married a boston physician. The unitarian samuel gridley howe. When she was 21 and she and her husband became members of the boston unitarian transcendentalist. Circle ralph waldo emerson. She was also strongly influenced by unitarian minister the reverend theodore parker. Who was an ardent abolitionist. She too wanted to publicly advocate for the end of slavery. What are conservative husband felt you should stay home and care for their six children. At the time of the civil war she and her husband became involved in the sanitary commission the forerunner of the red cross. Which they are credited with founding. Caring for the wounded at a union army. Encampment outside of washington dc. By this time she had become a published poet. And i know she saw the soldiers preparing for battle. She wrote him of the republic. What is the few poems that have survived to this day. Perhaps because of the terrible carnage of the war and the suffering that she witnessed. She became. A committed peace advocate. I'm later supporter of women's suffrage. From 1868. To 1877 information 93 to 1910 she served as the president of the new england women's suffrage association. These combined passion slave to her effort to rally for the cause of peace. In 1870 at the advent of the franco-prussian war she wrote. The mother's day proclamation. Read so well by bonnie's this morning. Which was an impassioned appeal to women to rise up against war. Her proclamation was translated into several languages and in 1872 she went to london. To promote an international women's peace congress. She also worked to establish an official celebration of mother's day. As a socially prominent woman a published author speaker leader transcendentalism. Julia ward howe was recognized as brilliant. What holiday honoring women. Remained on the distant horizon. It would take the effort of two very different women to make it a reality. Those women were. Anna marie jarvis. And by the same name. Born in culpeper virginia in september 1830 to order of a methodist minister. As a young adult she married. Methodist minister granville jarvis. And she and her husband spencer lodge in west virginia serving various congregations around the state. Together they had eleven children. But lost 4 to childhood illnesses. It may have been these tragic losses. That prompted her effort. But she became very concerned about the health and sanitary conditions in the small communities where they lived. Despite the lack of formal training and health related issues she began to organize mother's day war clubs. In the nearby towns to raise money for medicine. To hire women to help in the harm of mothers who had tuberculosis. I do respect and food. In 1860 supported the formation. Of other women's club in. Not stop there. Because of west virginia's location to union and confederate. Soldiers traveled through the state. During the civil war and political unrest and conflict were a constant threat. Anna marie jarvis. Urge the mothers day work to declare their neutrality. And the women began to treat. Feed and clothe soldiers from both sides who passed through their area. As tensions increased. She organized mother's friendship days at the courthouse. To bring. Together soldiers and neighbors of all political beliefs. This event was a great success. Violence was avoided and a mother's friendship lasted as an annual event for a number of years. At the end of her life. Live with her son claude and daughters and lillian. She died in 1905. In 1907 her daughter anna held a memorial for her mother and began to campaign to make mother's day a national holiday. It took seven more years but in 1914 president woodrow wilson. Shonda congressional resolution mother's day as a national holiday to be celebrated on the second sunday in may. That should be the end of the story. But there is a twist which i think is significant. 1920s. The daughter. Became frustrated and bitter and embittered by the commercialization of a holiday. And she and her sister spent their whole inheritance campaigning again. What the holiday had become. She is quoted as saying. Quote. A printed card means nothing. Except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy. You take a box to your mother and then you sit down and eat most of it yourself. A pretty cinnamon. Unquote. Play understand her anger at the commercialization. Of the holiday situation of her mother. But i'm other women of her generation. Tutor time. Had no money of their own we're dependent on the men and their family home bakers. They broke the mold. Yes they were wives and mothers. But they refused to be defined only by the societal standards of their day. Rather than embodying a passive submissive. Soft-spoken feminine ideal. Their personalities could be described as. Intelligent. Assertive. Determined. Creative. Passionate single-minded. Impatient and it's very angry. This particular array of characteristics would never make it on a mother's day card. They took action in the public square. Not for personal fame and fortune. But for the humanitarian causes that they believed in. The rate we recognize the power that women could have if they united behind a common clause. I may try to rally that support. In the name of peace. They were at least 60 years ahead of gloria steinem and the women's movement. 2 from its very origin. Mother's day. Women from all walks of life with an almost infinite variety of talents personalities ambitions and accomplishments. And it was also to recognize women as equal partners to men. In all aspects of life. This movement was too far ahead of its time. It was too radical threatening. For societal norms of the early 20th century. Holiday. Hazard sentimentalized female stereotype. To the original intent of the holiday. To honor women of all types. A number of our members who volunteer stories about their mothers. But the cause of time constraint. I can only include four of them. Let me see story that i received. Was worthy of inclusion. And each was a wonderful portrait of a unique and memorable woman. I would like to introduce. These stories to you now. My father was a salesperson by trade. But my mother was a salesperson by instinct and i think the better its sales. Before she married my father she had run a gift shop with a woman vividly remember as being a spiritualist. Calling people back from the dead. To make. Prognostication. My mother a good catholic loved her even so. My mother seemed poised to be working on some sales everett ranging from door-to-door sales of kitchen utensils. Avon home sales parties in my uncle's men wear shop. During the christmas rush. To selling a patented type of special clothes pin. Cold a clothes clip. From her home just showing her own homemade preserves. After all it was the great depression. For a while during the easter rush she became an entrepreneur and would rent an empty storefront. And sell easter lilies. This business lasted for several years. Florist in town complained because she was not a licensed florist. Adventure died because she could not afford the price of year-long licensing. But it has been fun. The wonderful thing about my mother i think was her relationship with her customers. Except for when she work in my uncle menswear shop customers were mostly women. I'm most of them the customer salesperson relationship and we're really friends. She have been raised one of five daughters and two sons so she had an inborn. A relating to people that i as an only child could only admire. During most of my childhood we lived far out in the country with no near neighbors and she had no car and in any case could not drive. So her movements had to be by bus. As indicated by the list of sales ventures. She visited invited her into the house. For coffee and conversation. For person with such limited access to others. She really had an amazingly busy schedule. Her customers. We're customers only incidentally. Important thing about them was. They were her friends. A second-story first of all that story was submitted by nightmare. The second story. My mother. Catherine walker shirtless. Was born on november 15th. 1917 in bridgeport connecticut. I was told by my uncle her brother that she was a beautiful girl and then everyone in the family colder cleaning. She did not have an easy life. During wwii my grandfather moved around quite a bit looking for work. When my mother was about 12 years old. My grandmother took her to east orange new jersey where she had acquired a job as a housekeeper for herself as well as the position for my mother as a helper for an older couple. My mom was able to go to school i was given food and clothing in exchange for her services. Despite the ups and downs of an unstable family and being moved to another state mother graduated from middleboro memorial high school in 1936. Cheer taking a business course and could type will and she knew shorthand. My parents were married in 1940 and i was born a year later. My father told me that when they were leaving the hospital the nurse offered to hold me. As my brother got into the car. But my mother very firmly said that you need any help. Everytime i heard that story i knew that my mother really loved me and wanted me. When i was 5 my mother took a job at a local shoe factory and i was cared for by my grandmother. Together we worked in the garden and ate delicious food that she prepared my favorite was pride down. Smothered in lots of sugar in cinnamon. It was fun being at grandma's house as there were always lots of people visiting. So what year later i began for his grade and i stayed with our next door neighbor. Their children became good friends of mine. And their mother became a confidante when i got older. By the time i was ten i could walk to school by myself but sometimes mom and i would skip down the street together. How great it was to have a mother actually skip with you. She was fun. During my high school years mom develop mental health problems woodford and her life. For many years. She got a job as a short-order cook in my uncle's restaurant and i was able to get a work permit to work there part-time in the summer. Despite her problems mother enjoyed my high school years. She always encouraged me to go to dances join. School clubs in the high school band. If i had a problem with her friend she encouraged me to tell her. Her remark was always remember your mother is your best friend. There were times when she interfered in my life but i was happy that she did she was my best friend. At age 19 i went to college out of state and when i return. And i returned three years later. My parents introduced me to the barrows a middle-aged couple has given the job of helping to arrange cabinets in the kitchen and dining room. Overtime this is borough and i became very close friend and she became a second mother to me. I would hope the family put on annual parties and other events. In their home. That piece was ellen ranch. These mothers whose stories we have heard. How to use every bit of creativity strength. Determination and fortitude. To meet the challenges of their lives. The lines were difficult. And money was always an issue. Very little themselves. But they fulfilled their roles as mothers and they inspired their children to better themselves and get an education and work hard. Each. Person has done just that. Not only attending college. But having had successful careers. As adults. Things mothers like many others of their day we're her heroin. I'm from the most part their contributions pretty much unrecognized except for a modest remembrance on mother's day. But there is another part of this story that expands even more our understanding of what motherhood can mean. Just as there is no one way. To raise a child there is not just one person who can fulfill that wrong. Nurturing loving and being involved in the life of a child is often filled by non-traditional mother's taking on responsibilities. Here's another story. The fourth of five children growing up in the 1940s my mother was very busy with the other children and with mother-in-law. My father was preoccupied with his business especially during the war years. It was difficult for me to get much attention in this crowded household. Not long after i was born my parents decided to hire a cook. To put food on the table. For their growing family. They fired. A polish woman named josephine an unmarried woman probably in her early forties. Josie as she came to be called by us. I never had any children. My mother always said that jose. Josie. That jersey instantly took to the new child in the house me. And as i grew up she became my advocate and protector. My defender in family squabbles and arguments. She gave me the unconditional love that i never quite felt. Coming from my mother and father. Consequently i would hang around the kitchen a lot. Often helping with meal preparation. I learned a lot about cooking and was always there after batch of cookies. Tracy was a very good cook but she had a few weaknesses. Her cakes usually fell flat. Any recipe that contains gredients for a struggle for her. It was in the kitchen though that i was able to return josie's love with my own kind of gift. Doorly's was not to realize it for several years. I was lucky to be able to read an early age and when i was 5 my parents moved me up a notch to first grade because of my ability to read. After school i would run into the kitchen. And show josie that i could read out loud. True she would often ask me to help her because she said her eyesight was failing. She always seemed to need help in reading because the light was poor or her new glasses just didn't seem to be working right. I was more than happy to show her how well i could read a magazine article that she was interested and or a recipe that was complicated. I was hoping her and gaining a measure of self-esteem at the same time. Later on when i was about ten years old one day my older brother and i were having an argument. About something. He had always been so annoyed by the favoritism bestowed on me by josie. So he sought to get back at me by putting her down. She is so dumb. She can't even read he said. You should come to i cried no she can't she's illiterate. He replied didn't you know. I was dumbstruck. By the allegation that a grown-up person could not read. But my mother confirmed that yes. The rest of the family had always known that josie could not read. I never confronted josie with this new knowledge of mine of course. Did make. A special effort to help her read newspaper articles. I can see them through my eyes. I know now this is illiterate. Polish car. Provided me with the unconditional love that everyone needs. To feel safe and confident about themselves. I'm for that i will be forever grateful. This man had a non-traditional mother a surrogate. Who made an enormous difference in his life. I'm through her love he gained confidence and self esteem. You also and i think this is the critical part. He also gained the ability to love other people. And this has blessed the many important relationships. In his life. That was written by. David driver. As i mentioned at the beginning of the sermon i had for non-traditional mothers. The first of these was my father. But he was all thumbs when it came to taking care of a four-year-old girl. He had a hard time picking out the right clothes for me to wear. And an even more difficult time trying to calm and braid my long curly hair. After a few failed attempts. Patrick me down to his barber. And when the barber finished. Meijer. About an inch. Problems. I haven't had long hair. He was always embarrassed to talk to me about. That young girls should know as they are growing up. I knew can definitely forgot about the birds and the bees conversations. To mrs. hicks on nextdoor neighbor. And mother of my closest friends. Delegated other subjects to his mother my grandmother who lived in new york city when she wasn't visiting us. Approve. Of the way his mother find me toys and clothes. Having had two sons my grandmother was delighted to finally have a little girl that she could go tan. When i got older. She let me all her credit cards and sent me out in the morning to go shopping in new york city. Fortunately i never wanted anyting. And it wasn't until years later after her death that my father told me that she would not have been able to pay the bills. If i had been extravagant. He especially disapproved of her taking me taking me to trader vic's. A fancy polynesian restaurant in new york city. My grandmother introduced me to dry martinis and some fancy polynesian with a small umbrella stuck into a piece of pineapple. We would leave the restaurant hours later with a fistful of umbrellas. In my own defense. I have to say that i have not had a martini. Or a polynesian drink since i was 14. In addition to those three surrogates i also had a swiss governors who cared for me. Day after day for 8 years who i love very much. I was fortunate to have all these loving adults in my life. What can we conclude from these stories. Is that all people in our lives nurture does deserve to be recognized and celebrated on mother's day. They include the enormously varied women bore children. But they also include many non-traditional mothers. Such a polish cook a next-door neighbor a father a grandmother. Or many others who have played important roles in our lives. And it doesn't have to be a primary role. Here's a short story. A friend of ours in new hampshire whose career was in the theater. Was recently directing a play in new hampshire and an aspiring actress. Came to him complaining. But she was not given the starring role in the upcoming play. And he said. There are no small roles. They're only small actors. In our large to some of the most important and influential people we have known have only made cameo appearances. But they were vitally important. Perhaps it was a teacher. A sports coat. A school bus driver or a counselor. What matters most to the child is a lovingness of the person. Not necessarily. The length of the relationship. Each of us has had many people important to our development. And each of these has contributed a strand of love that has been woven into a beautiful tapestry that is the person that we are today. The reverend forest church got it right when he said quote this is how. Chose the term mother's day to remind us that the whole world would be a better place. If only everyone might rise to the challenge of motherhood. Which is nurturing life. Fostering peace. I'm giving love. What's honor. And remember all those people on mother's day. Fostered. And well-being in our lives. And who have given us the love that we have needed to thrive as adults. The blessing of truth. The power of love. Direct. And may the peace of this community. Preserve are going out. And are coming in. From this time forth. We meet again.

uufvb_org

2012Jan01Sermon128.mp3

So my dad. Move down here a couple of years ago. He's been trying to get me to come down. Am i gay i am. And then. I feel like he might have conspired with your minister. Cuz i got a call from scott. One day. And. He said i would love to have you come preacher. And i washed your sermons online your congregation must be enormous. I like this guy so very much. Knows me so well. And it's not enormous. But. It's. I didn't exchange a few conversations with scotten and i'm sorry that we're we're actually just missing each other by a few hours i have to go back wax him going to to meadville lombard to him. Help teach a class is one of our cemeteries. And so on. Not going to be able to meet scott in person until. Sometime in the future but. I just feel so. Great. Having spoken with him. That you know this is the place that my dad is. Has chosen to make as his home i really. Really. I really like scott. I really like it's visioning. End. I was invited to this housewarming party the other night which was. Great you. You're so friendly and so welcoming and i i just wish you the best. For your community i know that you've been growing quite a bit and. Liberal religion has a very important role to play in our nation. I was just so welcomed and so warmed by you and. So glad that i my dad is found a home here. Thank you very much. Hiya. I downloaded a fu podcast sermons by joel osteen. Yo some of you have never heard of him. 9. 2 people who haven't heard of him. He's the senior minister at lakewood church. In houston texas which. Regularly caesar weekly attendance. Over 40,000. Somewhat like my congregation at home. His church was previously a stadium used by the houston rockets. Osteen has authored a couple of. Best selling books there's more than 7 million copies in print. Night. I downloaded it sermons because i really wanted to hear. What. Kind of message. Could draw. People together to. Come to service with 14,000 or 16000 of there. Closest friends. I'd heard that he was a preacher of something called the prosperity gospel. Where your. Faith. Actually leads you to material riches as well as spiritual ones. I've heard of that preached before. But i was actually quite surprised by his message in that there was almost no mention. Jesus. Other than a ritual introduction where people raise their bibles in the are repeating the opening words together and an entreaty at the close of the 30-minute service to accept jesus into your life. There were at most maybe two references to scripture. And these were given as biblical support. The message that he had delivered rather than an exposition. Of the situation that jesus was facing of the time god language was. Endemic. But really only has a lens through which he was asking the audience to evaluate their own behavior. What i found so striking about osteen's message was how it nearly parallel the ideas put forward in a book a friend of mine had given to me by the entrepreneurial motivational speaker t harv eker. Who also fills stadiums as he tours the nation. Almost point-for-point they echoed one another as they championed the belief of positive thinking of projecting what you want to see in. Silencing that critic who tells you that you're no good. The only significant difference. Was where they found the authority to support these claims. Osteen claims that god sees you as perfect and who are you. To deny god. Ecker. Ask his followers to look at successful people. And study the stories that they tell or don't tell themselves. Similarly. A movie called the secret. Swallowed. Right. A book by that same name the secret it swept through the world. Two years ago for claiming to share an ancient discovery. I have been handed down through time from one powerful individual to another. They even include and untraceable quote by emerson. Which seems to imply that he was a member of this illuminati ask organization that. Secret. Does the law of attraction. Or what you think and feel causes a reaction to occur in the outer world. No i don't mock this principle. Itself on many levels i believe it if you carry negativity in your mind and heart you will not be surrounded by positive thinking people and you will find yourself very unsatisfied with your life. If you look at. Each setback is an opportunity to learn if you. Support people. You give them recognition. They will most likely help you succeed. There's nothing particularly new were revolutionary hear it. Seems so intuitive it is hard to call it an inside. Peter parker once calls himself a great deal of trouble by saying. Jesus's message was not true because jesus said it but simply because it was true and it had always been true. But the desire for a leader to come into our lives and show us the ways a very strong desire. As intuitive as this message seems we still find ourselves unhappy. We still consider ourselves failures unfulfilled. And we want it to end. At least one of these speakers osteen. Becker. People behind the secret day. They have a program for their audience a regimen that. They're supposed to follow. Repeat. Drilling into their mind affirmations and goals. I don't think that this can hurt. But with so many people preaching the same message whether it is chris dick or entrepreneurial or somehow a cult. What does this say about the human experience. The present current. Of personal improvement is certainly one that i favored over the calvinist message of original sin. Androgynous. I do like to believe that i have agency that my life while not perfect can be improved. I don't like the idea of a supernatural force that has somehow condemned me forever. But even these two seemingly contradictory worldviews have a similar origin. Like the devil and the angels that sit on either shoulder one seems to say that you are substandard and there's nothing that you can do about it. And the other. Says you are substandard. But with a lot of hard work there's something that you can do about it. And the only main difference is the story that explains why we feel this way. The inquietud. The restlessness. The existential loneliness that we have felt from the beginning of time is perhaps. The greatest challenge that we face in our lives. Any motivational speakers and religious leaders have audiences because many believe that somewhere out there. Is the answer to the person that i want to be. A saved person. The rich person. The loving person the happy person. Where the buddha. To come today. He might have a talk show host. The oprah network is looking. Maybe the buddha wood. Come with a. Package 5 cd saturday download on itunes. You want to be fair i do think that there is a difference between the teachings of the buddha and the messaging. Prosperity offered by. Osteen and ecker. Any number of similar speakers and preachers who emphasized the. Material evidence is. How we see our satisfaction the buddha would not agree with the crude idea. That by focusing on a material object. In your mind that it will appear in your life. But he does assert. That the state of your mind does determine the world around you. The way you see it. The way you interact with it. Still. If the buddha wrote his self-help manual 2500 years ago. And it certainly has been a best-seller why are we still looking for the exact same message. Today. It's only in a different form. I don't believe material makes you feel any better. I don't necessarily believe that it. Is a satisfaction that is filled with in you whatever that could possibly mean. For me the missing component. Of these stories. Is the element of relationship. I study buddhism i go on buddhist retreats i lived in a buddhist temple because i do believe in the power of meditation. Rhyming unitarian universalist. Because i believe that the message of freedom from suffering. Isn't engaged practice of relationship. I don't need a lot of money. I don't need. A lot of power or fame. These on their own won't bring me happiness. For contentment. What i want to know. Difeel. Is that i have been seen. But i've been heard. But i've been listen to. But i have been respected. Our spiritual practice. As unitarian universalists. Is define empathy. Does not to worship a god it is not to worship ourselves. It is to look into the eyes of another being. And to love them. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to like them. That is difficult. But that is also different than loving them. Martin buber wrote. Jesus. Jesus's feeling for the possessed man. Is different from his feeling. For the beloved disciple. But the love. Is 1. But it is not a oneness of love that is out there. Existing eternally that we tap into or out of. And goes on without our. Participation regardless. Note the oneness of love. Is not. Distinct. To relationship. But it depends. Appointment. For bluebird. The concentration infusion into a whole being can never be accomplished by me. Can ever be accomplished. Without me. I require a u. To become. Becoming i. I say you. All life. Is encounter. The encounters. We have with one another are constant. Our faith practice. Is to engage in them. Most often we don't. The unhappiness of the world. Is result of our refusal to acknowledge the encounters that we are having. Everyday. The person at the light. Person at the coffee shop the person. Sitting next to you at the pew in the pew. We have a very difficult time. Looking at one another in the eye. Particularly when we are angry. My favorite passage. By howard thurman reads it is a strange freedom. To be adrift in the world of men without a sense of anchor anywhere. Always there is a need for mooring. The need for the firm grip on something that is rooted and will not give away. The urge to be accountable to someone. To know that beyond the individual himself there is an answer that must be given. Cannot be denied. The dida man performs must be weighed in the balance of another's hand. Very spirit. Of man tends to panic. The desolation of going nameless up and down the streets of other minds. Where no salutation greek. And no friendly recognition make secured as a strange freedom. To be adrift. The world of men. Always. There must be found. For bringing into one solitary place the settled look. From another space. Forgetting the quiet sanction. Another's grace to undergird the meaning of the cell. Be ignored. To be passed over as of no account. And of no meaning is to be made into a faceless thing. Not a man. He's a strange. Freedom. To go nameless up and down the streets of others minds. Renault salutation greets. I know sign is given to mark. Place. One calls one zone. So we come together to knit a quilt. Of meaning out of the various stories of our lives this morning. Each of these different stories call out to us from people from around the world. Come around. Heart. Cities. From the pew next to you. Simi. Hear me. Respect me. Love me. Do we have that courage. Will we be the mooring in the world for those who are adrift. We be available. For those who seek to be made accountable. These are tough questions are really. In some respects it is all the same question. I mean we all have our own troubles. Our own fears of walking name with lee up and down the streets of other minds what if no salutation greets me. There's an odd strength in seeing another. Not becoming the other. Happing swept away by the other but simply sitting. And witnessing. Their existence. It is the best present that we can give humanity this year. More than money more than any sense of fame. Muster our courage to look. And our desire to be whole. It's recognized that the pursuit of wholeness. Lies in the mutual recognition of another. Becoming i. I say you. Looking in the mirror and telling yourself that you are a winner. Or that god thinks you are a winner. For that. By surrounding yourself. With winners. Is enough. It won't solve the anxiety of our human condition wholeness is not an individual. Adventure. For me the message of jesus. Is not of an eternal god that exists with or without me. Whatever man. Quit each encounter looked back into another person's eyes no matter what the relationship and said. I see you. Kiryu. I love you. And for me the message of the buddha is not of a man who sat to relieve his own suffering. But a man who simply wanted to be comfortable. In the company of aldi. It is a discipleship i pray that we have the courage to take up as a community. Has a denomination not for ourselves. But for everyone. The whole world. Including our cell. Becoming i. Sau.

uufvb_org

2015Mar01Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. All the rain is over and this is the best day of the weekend and don't you dare spend this afternoon in front of a computer terminal. Don't you dare. Good morning and welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we are so pleased you've chosen to begin this great day with us. We are congregation as the slide set. Open minds loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best individual cell. Even as together as a church. We work to make a better world. And please know that you're welcome just as you come to us this morning. What are you were young larold gay or straight black or white or latino or some other wonderful shade of humanity. What do you have a ged or a phd. Whether you're a visitor with us this morning for the first time or been coming for decades. Whether you're feeling on top of the world or down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We are delighted to see you. Is you coming all of your particularity and charm. We hope you'll find our service this morning meaningful and reaching. I think you'll find something here this morning to take with you. That will make your weeks and days ahead. Better and more fulfilling. Are opening words this morning come from the reverend ken patton who was the leading humanist minister in the 20th century in our movement who wrote. Let us worship with our eyes and ears and fingertips. Let us love the world through her heart and mind and body. We feed our eyes upon the mystery in revelation. In the faces of our brothers and sisters. We seek to know the wistfulness of the very young and the very old. The wistfulness of people in all times of life. We seek to understand the shyness behind arrogance. The fear behind pride the. Tenderness behind clumsy strength. And the anguish. Behind cruelty. Life. Flo's in a great common life. If we will only open our eyes. To our companions. Let us worship not involving down not with closed eyes and stop at ears. Worship with the opening of all the windows of our being. With a full of stretching of our spirit. Life comes with singing and laughter with tears and confiding. Held in the mind and heart and body. To those who have fallen in love with life. Learn to love. Do this morning our focus is on humanism as a source of our unitarian universalist faith. And we included the latest sort of compilation of humanist ideas for you to take home. We're going to quickly the three of us read this and then tiffin old-fashioned you can follow along or just listen. This was drafted in 19 and a 2003 and a number of prominent humanist. You you blisters or signatures on this. I begin. Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that without supernaturalism. Affirms our ability and responsibility. Delete ethical lives of personal fulfillment. Set aspire to the great. The greater good of humanity. The lifespan of humanism guided by reason inspired by compassion. Informed by experience. Encourages us to live life well and fully. It evolved through the ages and continues to develop through the efforts of thoughtful people who recognized that values and ideals. However carefully wrought. Are subject to change as our knowledge and understanding advanced. It's part of an ongoing effort to manifest. Clear and positive terms. The conceptual boundaries of humanism. That's what we must. Believe. But a consensus of what we do believe. It is in this sentence. That we affirm the following. Knowledge of the world is drive-by observation. Experimentation and rational analysis. Humanists find that science is the best method for determining this knowledge as well as for solving problems. And developing beneficial technologies. We also recognize the value of new departures in thought. The arts and inner experience. Each subject. To analysis by critical intelligence. Humans are an integral part of nature. The result of unguided evolutionary change. Humanists recognize nature as self-existing. We accept our lives. As all and enough. Distinguishing things as they are. From things as we might wish. Or imagine them to be. We welcome the challenges of the future. And are drawn to and undaunted by the yet to be known. Ethical values are derived from human need. And interest. As tested by experience. Humanist ground values in human welfare shaped by human circumstances enter. And concerns. And extend to the global ecosystem and beyond. We are committed to treating each person. As having inherent worth and dignity. And to making informed choices. In a context of freedom. Confident with responsibility. Life's fulfillment emerges from individual participation in the service of human ideal. We aim for our fullest possible development and animate our lives with a deep sense of purpose. Finding wonder and all in the drawers and beauties of human existence. It's challenges and tragedies. An even in the inevitability. Finality of death. Humanist rely on the rich heritage of human culture. And the life stance of humanism to provide comfort and times of want. And encouragement in times of plenty. Here was your social by nature and fun meaning in relationships. Humanists longed-for and strive toward a world of mutual care and concern. Free of cruelty and its consequences. Where differences are resolved cooperatively without resorting to violence. The joining of individuality with interdependence. Rich's our lives encourages us to enrich the lives of others and inspires hope of attaining peace. Justice and opportunity for all. Working to benefit society maximizes individual happiness. Progressive cultures have worked. Free humanity from the brutalities of mere survival. And to reduce suffering. Improve society. And develop global community. We seek to minimize the inequities of circumstances and ability. Every support adjust distribution of nature's resources. And the fruits of human effort. So that as many as possible. Can enjoy a good life. And then the manifesto ends in this summary. Humanists are concerned for the well-being of wall. Are committed to diversity. And respect of those differing yet humane views. We work to uphold the equal enjoyment of human rights and civil liberties and an open secular society. I maintain it is a civic duty to participate. In the democratic democratic process. Any planetary duty to protect nature's integrity diversity. And beauty. In a secure and sustainable manner. Engaged in the flow of life. Wheels fire. With the form conviction. Sedimentary. To progress towards highest ideals. The responsibility for live. And the kind of world in which we live. Is it the hours of ours alone. You're in the morning reading. Morning with the help of my colleague and friend the reverend ginger luke we continue our sermon series which represented occasional. Sunday's over the year. About the six official sources of our faith. Now it's my educated guess that even though i've already preached the first three sermons in this series. And i would remind you these sermons are all on our congregational website in both video and pdf formats for your perusal. The majority of you are still much more familiar with the seven principles of uuism. Which we print safely in the order of service. Every sunday then you are these. Six sources of our faith which the denomination has identified. After illuminate enumerating the seven principles the bylaws of arjun domination which were adopted in 1984. Immediately go on to list the official six sources and are you see them. And the ginger looks i will we won't read them out loud i was going to do that but in deference to time hue. Jessica. Scroll through them yourself. No. You might well wonder why in our free-thinking denomination that we have bothered to formally enumerate these six sources. Open form and shape our faith well. It's because like all traditions are tradition needs to answer the.. The epistemological question. An epistemological question and religion is simply. By what authority. Does your face tradition say something. Is real or true. Good. Or right. And what the. The word epistemology is just kind of a fancy academic and philosophical way of saying. The methods and grounds or theory of knowledge. The epistemological question is simply. This. Authority is a really big and a central issue in religion because i think it's obvious when you think about it. If any religion any religion cannot answer this question. In a reasonable sound and authoritative manner. Citizen huge. Spiritual and intellectual trouble. For many traditional christian religions indeed most of the congregation here in town. The epistemological question is answered something like this. The source of authority for our religion is the word of god. And the teachings of jesus. As recorded in the bible. And as interpreted by church doctrine and tradition. Now in all of its various christian artists. This is a clear and reasonable epistemology. It just is. In judea is what they're saying is in the judeo-christian scriptures read the bible. God and jesus have shown us the way to what is real and true to what is glenn right it's a successful answer. Chubby pistol logical question. Indeed in the 18th and 19th century both early unitarianism and early universalism. Add biblically-based epistemology. Very much clothes. To this one. But. Early so early unitarianism in early universalism and i remind you they were both liberal judeo-christian sex. Sprung up in new england. Relied almost exclusively our tradition did. Unbiblical scripture. Are all be at liberal interpretive understanding of the nature of god the nature of human potential and the teachings of jesus. We we saw jesus and god differently than say a calvinist. But we still were biblically-based. Tradition. For both the individual and society at large we looked to the bible for essential direct. But. With the arrival of the 20th century. And thus we arrive at today's focus. Both unitarianism and universalism became increasingly open to and influenced by. Humanism. And also the other great world eastern traditions like buddhism hinduism and taoism. That was a weeaboo. Way beyond our christian roots. Very quickly. Show about 100 years ago. Unitarian universalist began to embrace a much wider. And more inclusive spirituality and epistemology that moved us way past. Jesus. And the bible. And so when it came time for the denomination to update our epistemological source statement in 1984. That is the statement the ones that we had up earlier. With the sick. New sources this is what came out. Of their discernment in 1984 and you will see that the fifth. Bullet points there. Is humanist teaching. Which council us. To heed the guidance of reason. And the results of science. And ward us. Against idolatry. Of the mind. And spirit. And we are earlier read to you the latest iteration of the humanist manifesto. Which also kind of gives you a core. Idea of what humanist teaching. And i included a copy of this so you can take it home and. If you're inclined think about it and study it further. But i want to begin our exploration of humanism this morning by asking all of you and the pews you're a rather typical uu congregation. How many of you find yourself. In substantiv agreement with that little white sheet in front of how many view you might quibble with a few points but how many of you are comfortable with that document. Okay. Good that's what i. That's what i expected. For today a large majority of unitarian universalists are theologically. Spiritually and intellectually comfortable with the foundational ideas of humanism even if there are maybe a little more spiritual in their own private lives. Indeed i think. I can i think i can legitimately say. The reform movement had to pick just one of those six sources. I am thank goodness we don't have to pick just one. But if we did as a movement we probably pick humanism. Over all of the other five. Because. Humanism articulates sold any of our core values. And understanding about life. Knows i'm sure you all know. Humanism in our time. Is. Friendly attacked by both social and religious conservatives. Alpena sinister force of godless and morality. Relativism and hedonism. Do you see any of godless immorality and hedonism on that white sheet. No. But that doesn't stop. A number of conservative,. Humanism when clearly and literally articulated is not a smog denial of god. Or rejection of fixed moral standard. It is rather an intellectually honorable and reasonable alternative way. To understand creation. And even more importantly it is an honorable and reasonable way. To arrive at an ethical and moral code which can serve and save. The human enterprise on earth. It's not so much a rejection of. Traditional christianity in god as an affirmation of a different way. Of seeing life and ethics. And so with that said about humanism an overview i want to turn the pulpit now over to my dear colleague ginger. Full share with you while she is a unitarian universalist. Calls herself a humanist and why does modern approach to life and what what. This means to her ginger. The floor is yours. I grew up in the sandhills of nebraska. The lad has. Gentle flowing hills i could look out over the hills with the wind blowing across the grass. And it seems quite similar to watching the atlantic waves rolling into. I also realize that when i was away and drove back into those rolling sandhills. I breathe easier. Lower. Not unlike when i look out again at those ocean waves. I grew up. Close. Keloland. My father would take me out for walks across the prairies and tell me the names of the grasses. And pick a blade and chew on it awhile. We spent hours working in the family garden. Play the little lake the lower house it was fed. Which flowed into the niobrara. Where we canoed and canoes and canoed before it flowed into the missouri river. I always knew. I was a part of the natural world. The idea that man and nature were two separate things would have perplexed. As a child. The world was filled with mystery. But a mystery of which i was apart. You couldn't walk out of it because you were in it and it in you. There was great power for creation and destruction in the world i grew up in. But the power was not a conscious planning and manipulated power. It was the power which invited exploration. And discovery. All and wonder. We're unlisted is biased as well as caution. And attention. And i was apart of it. I was apart because i was a human being. Everyone else was a part of it too. And in that amazing sense of place. I experienced love. It was the ethical basis for the life of the people in my family. I was unconditionally love. You know that human the hardwired trait we have always reaching out and helping someone if they fall or trip beside us. That's the world i grew up in. If you slipped someone help you. If something was having people helps you carrying it. We were a part of that natural world. And we respected that natural world and we value each other. And if that wasn't. As i looked out at the world. I knew i knew it was because. People were hurt. Or afraid. That love i experienced was created. Given. And received by people. It's shaped how i cared about people how i helped people how i learn to learn more about people i had never known. How i thought of those who came before me and of those who would come after me. We were creating the best world we could. And our actions were motivated. Vallarta mad image of the world. That might be. The world was in process. And our job was to participate the best way we knew. And yes later i love those process the emoji. Years ago. I was helping establish a unitarian universalist campus ministry at the university of nebraska. The college students were amazing. And motivated as they planned their entire program in shortly after we began. A conservative lutheran graduate students joined our group. To try to convert us i thought. But as he kept coming. It seemed he was trying to figure us out. One day he said to me i think i figured you out. I think i understand you. You don't control your actions. Because. God told you to. You do it because. Right. You got it. I don't kill because god told me not to. I don't kill because i don't want to world in which people kill each other. I don't steal because god told me not to. I don't steal because i don't want to world. Where people steal. I don't hate. Because god told me not to hate i don't hate. Because i don't want to live in the world filled with hate. And i love. Care for people. Not because. But because that is the kind of world i want. And i want to leave for the. Who come after. Now. About a hundred years ago there was a unitarian minister. Name john dietrich. And john.. Sometimes no novice. One of the fathers of humanism. And a 19-6. He wrote these words. Which i was reminded of as i was. If we live in a great impersonal universe. It matters tremendously. How we conduct ourselves. We are actually the maker. Of human destiny. We are not simply individuals who have a beginning in life and an ending. We are linked. In the endless chain of life. Do us has been committed. All that life has one from chaos. In all the ages. Only through us. Can the trust from the past. Be transmitted in. He wrote. The little bit later. Our chief business therefore. Is 2 ft beauty. In place of ugliness. Good. In place of evil. Laughter in place of tears. To dispel error with. Knowledge. Hatred with love. Display stripes. And contention with peace and cooperation. And somehow when is within us. Is avoid. Which urgently calls us to these tests. It is the life. It is the aspiration after better thing. It is human. At its best. And bracelets. It is what many call divine. Some even call if god. In any case. It is. Religious. Then i remember back. My mother was the choir director in a presbyterian church. I had a pain with 12 bars attached. 412 years of perfect attendance. In the presbyterian sunday. I believe. The god is love. People had just stopped. Venture stop right there and said god is love. I would probably still call myself and see it. Because to this day i feel the strongest power in this world islam. It is what brings me great joy and it is what brings me great pain. Where does abs. Port authority. Love is what in courage. Creativity. And empathy and beauty and peace. Anniston of belonging. It was that same presbyterian mother who when she was ironing one day said to me. I think heaven and hell are what we make on this. That she said she doesn't remember saying that. I remember hearing. Now for me when the natural world is. Cruel and vicious. It is law of human love that holds and comforts me. The gift me solid ground on which to stand. I have never thought. What the insurance companies called acts of god. Wherever really acts of god. Who wants to god that causes or allows. Tornadoes of hurricane. For the death of children or adults. When my brother died at 33 from cancer. I remember driving on the highway thinking. The most beloved. Little.. In that sunset. And that tree is. Snow in the ground. And when my daughter died at 34 from. I remember i remember that. Rideable warm. From hundreds of people and scott was there when this happen. Hundreds of people. He sent their love. Do a picture. Send prayer. Whose heart ache. Physically at 8. I know she lives today. In me. And all those lies. And that is. And when and when human cruelty or violence. Causes pain and death because sometimes human is done unitarian-universalism general get accused of. Not paying any attention. The darkside. When that happens. It is. Human love. Which i am not at all uncomfortably calling. Divine love. Where i go. I often find this is my unitarian universal. Community. It is this love within this community that directs me not to just sit. Takis. But to do all i can. To stop that cruelty and violence. To experience the catastrophe. Awesome causes me to ask. As well as. This week. Mark the 50th anniversary. Of the march. In selma alabama. A march for voting rights civil rights for respecting the inherent worth. Of everyone. My first husband marched across that edmund pettus bridge 50 years ago. You would have called himself an atheist. I would have called him a religious humanist. Because he went down to selma. With his unitarian universalist minister. And he was supported by that unitarian universal. Congregation. He wasn't. A humanist outside of community. And today as a religious community our unitarian universalism. Knows the religious work. He was doing in selma. Is not finish. Participating in a religious community. Makes my humanism hole. Cuz i don't exist. In the world as a solo entity. I'm a part of that whole. Which i knew even as a child. Being a humanist. Is a religious act. Going deeper into that could lead into sermons about community about god and prayer. I'm grace and miracles. About forgiveness in fear. And addressing the dark side of myself. All of those are for another sir. Being a humanist. Calls me to my better self. Holds me in blessed community. During the good times and the hard time. It allows me to continually search. For more meaning and understanding. In both the world of science. And art. And my humanism. Is shaped by love. May it always. And i have. Several more pages of the sermon that i'm not going to read it will be on the website i'm just going to summarize because of the hour. But i wanted to say. Humanism is at its heart and ontological proposition about the structure of the universe. There is nothing supernatural there's nothing transcendent there's nothing pulled out from the natural world above it ruling it dumb idiot. Humanism is the affirmation that there is no supernatural. Extraction. And it isn't ethical proposition. We are fiercely responsible for and in charge of our response to the world and our response to one another. I am totally enamored with humanism ethical side ethical proposition. That we are fiercely responsible. For the way we. The way we structure society. The way we live our daily lives we go to publix. Everything about our lives we are responsible for both in terms of society. In terms of international situation. In terms of our own private life. It's. If there is. That i have just a little trouble with. My trouble is that. I see a sacredness and a holiness. A divinity. Sunk deep down in natural life i agree with them that there's nothing extracted no supernatural power beyond the world. But i like a lot of rational humanist. I want a little mystical goo in there. To say that there's something i called god that is soaked deep down in nature it is a natural sacredness a natural divinity. So while i'm thrilled with the ethical. Instinctive humanism. I want a kind of combined. A little bit of mystikal. Spirituality with the proposition. That it is the natural world that you seen you get and there's nothing else. That'll all be on the website you can read it a little more detail. But i just summarized what about seven or eight pages of a sermon in. There it is and so i say and mean to you on then. And we close. Please be seated. With more words for humanist pioneer. John dietrich. For centuries he wrote. The idea of god has been at the very heart of religion. It has been said. No god. No religion. Ecumenism. Thinks of religion. That's something very different. And far deeper. The nanny belief in god. To humanism. Religion is not the attempt to establish right relation. With a supernatural being. But rather be up reaching and aspiring impulse in a human life. It is life. Driving forest. Sweetest fulfillment. Anything which contributes to this fulfillment is religious. Whether it be associated. With the idea of god. Or nah. I'm in our service.

uufvb_org

2015May03Sermon128.mp3

Good morning. Good morning. Seawall. My name is paul lamoureux. I'm a member of this congregation. And this morning i serve. The fellowship. As. Pulpit host. Extend a warm welcome to all especially those who are new to us. If you are just having a look. Or searching for a place that meet your spiritual needs. Know that this is a congregation of open minds. Loving hearts. And welcoming hands. Are opening words this morning we're written by a minister. In england by the name of george shaw. This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as i will. I can waste it. Or i can grow in its light and be of service to others. What i do with this day is important. Because i will have exchanged a day of my life. For it. When tomorrow comes today will be gone forever. I hope i will not regret the price i paid for it. George shaw. We will now share together a responsive reading. What you will find. In the back of your hymnal. And it's 650. I will read the first lines and then you can read the italicized parts. Cherish your doubts for don't is the attendant of truth. A belief which may not be questioned barnes's to error. For there is incompleteness. An imperfection in every belief. No one fear the truth for that. may consume it for doubt is a testing of belief. It is not shaken by the time. For truth if it be truth arises from each testing stronger and more secure. Denver houses are built on shifting sand. But those who fear not doubt and no its use are founded on rock. The life of growing up. Therefore let us not feared out but let us rejoice and its help. When friends learn the david and i were planning a trip to india. They said one of two things. Why do you want to go there. Don't go there. I meant continued by saying don't you know it's filthy polluted overpopulated poverty-stricken politically corrupt and backward. Well we had heard all those things. Women were right to some extent. But the question remains why did we want to go there. My sermon will try to answer that question because it has several different parts. The easiest part of the answer is simply that we went to india because we wanted to know about this fascinating and ancient civilization and also about hinduism the oldest continuous religion. On earth more than 5000 years old. That is the easy answer but the second question is why would we put ourselves into a situation that is totally unknown to us that we might find very upsetting. Why invite that kind of stress into our lives. Again the recluse to that answer. It is a realization that learning anything new is difficult. New learning demands were on a lot of it. It stretches us into new and often uncomfortable realization. We knew that this could happen and we were ready for such an experience. So i will talk about it a bit about india because it was a learning experience that changed our thinking not only about ourselves. But about what it means to be a unitarian universalist. And what it means to be a citizen on this planet. If i'm talking about this experience with you. I want you to be thinking about an experience that you've had or someone you have met. But forced you out of your comfort zone and changed you and changed your thinking in some way. But first. About india but keep that question in mind. We drove away from an enormous modern glass-and-steel airport terminal that is set in a beautifully landscaped park. Towards the main street. A kolkata. Formerly called. Calcutta by the british. A city of about 16 million people. In the space of a few minutes we passed from western civilization into a totally foreign. I'm frankly very unpleasant world. The streets were jammed with buses cars motorcycles. Bikes cars pedestrians stray dogs and cows. Each competed for every square inch of space. Risking death death. Casually as they plunged down opposing lanes into oncoming traffic. Just to get a few feet ahead. Asuris the traffic was light at this time of night and our 20-minute drive to the hotel only took one hour. The car horn is considered the most important piece of equipment on the car joke our god. Streets both commercial and secondary are littered with garbage that spills from the pavement onto the street. We're people and dogs and cows. Pick through the garbage looking for food. Street people live along the streets either on the pavement. In shacks made of straw or plastic or whatever they confide. Or in buildings that are under construction pedestrians must walk into the street and around the people who have set up. Residence there on the sidewalk and i'm going to stop for a minute because claudia's story that she told. Is exactly what has happened to millions of people in india they have migrated to the cities looking for work. Work is very. Hard to find and so they end up living on the streets. 30 minutes on the streets of kolkata would convince the majority of westerners to go home and never look back. The scope and degree of poverty is so great and so shocking that one is overwhelmed by these first impressions but we couldn't sleep. We have to face absorb and try to make sense of what we saw. Yes india has enormous problems witcher and full. View. Poverty pollution and overpopulation appear to be so out of control as to be totally insoluble and unstoppable. With a population of 1.2 billion people it is growing at the rate of 15 million a year. The per capita income is. $1,500 a year as compared with united states where the income is around 53000. China is the most populous country with 1.3 billion but india will soon exceed that number and together these two countries alone represent almost 38%. Open global population. Think about that. India is also a country of extreme contrast. Having one of the oldest civilizations and cultures on earth. While also achieving 21st century technological and entrepreneurial success. Recent achievements in space exploration which you may have read about happened last fall. Equal to anything united states has done in one-tenth the cost of what we spend. It technology medicine and business are increasing the size of the middle class. Still takes up only a tiny minority of the total population. The very rich a smaller number still quickly adopt western lifestyle and use their extraordinary new well to protect themselves so socially and economically from the millions of poor. A great deal of construction is underway and huge building complexes are erected on land recently bulldozed to remove the thousands of slum-dwellers. Butthead live there. Unlike the western world where we take for granted a form of social safety net. For the poorest citizens. The indian government seems to lack political will. To care for its enormous population on any scale that is big enough for people to notice. An individuals are too busy with personal survival or economic advantage to think about the less fortunate. Alongside modality in 21st century achievements. Hinduism. Is the oldest continuous religion on earth and its ancient cultural practices remain central in the daily life. Of the indian. An indian doctor who we know here in florida told us recently that cultural traditions of india are part of his dna. I want to return to india to visit family he happily practices all the traditions that he grew up with. We had hoped to and our trip with some understanding of how all these cultural pieces. Would fit together. And how the country was going to resolve its enormous problems. Ensure. We wanted to return home happy with what we had learned an optimistic that all would be well. It didn't happen. We arrived home confused disoriented and upset. What does this whole experience mean. What sentence could i make out of it. This experience was way outside of my emotional and intellectual comfort zone. And i was really disappointed in myself. Shouldn't i have been able to make sense. Of this experience. Most of us would have answered the question by saying yes of course. Because it's rational being we're supposed to make sense of things. And we all trying to be very hard shell critics when we do not. But the real answer is no. No one can make sense of something that is totally new. An overwhelming. The second part of the answer is and it only came to me days later is that it's okay. You don't have to put everything in tonight's neat little boxes in your life some things you just are not going to grasp at least not right away. However. None of us like the eggs insecurities or confusion that threatens our peace of mind. And equilibrium and if. Very tempting. To respond to india by saying what a horrible terrible miserable place. Or anything else to protect oneself from the whole experience what is that as many do i never going back there again. I don't personally feel that way i would like to go back because i have so much more to learn. Either of these reactions is understandable but there's a third option. Albeit difficult. Not to charge it all to do nothing. Just to accept the experience and the attendant discomfort without dismissing it or judging it. Just live with it. I'm trying to do that. No i don't understand andy at all it's far too complex and multifaceted. However. I did learn something it was about myself. And i think it's generally true of all of us. We can be pushed work outside of our comfort zone whatever we are traveling. Play a different way of life particularly when we see hardship and suffering around us. Mine sense. Of what is normal. What reality is or what reality certainly should be. Is grounded in western sensibilities. From which i derive my standards. Values assumptions and judgments. About what human life should be. Guess what. Myviewpoint. Is not shared. By people who live in china the middle east or parts of africa that i have visited. In fact my western values. Are practice by only a minority of the world's population. So what did i learn. I learned that my efforts to apply my western values to what i saw. Failed dismally. My judgments and my criticisms while not wrong. Became the narrow blinders that prevented me from really seeing and appreciating this totally different but incredibly rich. I'm beautiful culture. Throughout our trip. I kept asking myself. How are seven principles were evident in everything that i saw. And i would mumble these principles over and over to myself as we were walking around the various. Streets in the in the various cities that we went to. I found a few if any examples of our principles in practice that i could say. The value of human life respecting the inherent worth and dignity of. Every person was only evident to make in the orphanages. Visited that were started by mother teresa. And of course she was a westerner and a roman catholic nun. When faced with enormous overpopulation incredible poverty political corruption and the pollution of the environment. I did not say a lot of democratic principles working for the betterment of the average person. Systemic environmental projects to combat pollution a concerted effort for truth and meaning or justice equity and compassion i am sure. There are people in institutions in india who absolutely practice these values. But i saw no evidence.. Maybe i didn't look hard enough. So what i did experience was a collision of civilizations and cultures. The east. Versus the west. No wonder i was so perturbed does that mean that i had to choose. Yes i had to decide whether i would just. Dismiss all my western values as hopelessly idealistic. And reconcile myself to the terrible human suffering but something happened. It was because these realities. So shocked me. But i realize how was central or principles are. Because they stand for dignity and value of human life. Which is really a bulwark. Against reality filled with brutality and human suffering. Are democratic values. And our commitment to human rights distinguishes. The western world for the most part. For much of the rest of the world. I can never think of our principals in the same way after my india experience. I must scrape them off the wall of our lobby where they only exist as idealistic slogans. I must. As all of us must. Interpret them. In the context of the actual conditions of the world. And they must be strong enough. To sustain us as we challenge the coarser aspects of life. Idealism must be balanced. With realism. Reverend gal gurnick minister of all souls church in new york city says it takes courage. To do this and he defines courage. Quote. Courage is the knowledge of what is worthy and must be pursued no matter if the road is long. And the path unclear. Unquote. Nowhere was courage more evident than in the two orphanages established by mother teresa. Each of these institutions houses. Over 100 mentally disabled. Adults and children. Within these walls these residents stay for that their lifetime. Enter cared for by roman catholic nuns. These residents come from the slums of india. Cities and represent only eight tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands. Premier services like this. What courage it must take to keep doing this work. For the most meeting who would not. Survive a day on the streets. To keep doing this work. In the face of such an enormous numbers. In the same article. Reverend bill schultz. Former uua president and former president of amnesty international. So the opera decade of dealing with torture and its perpetrators for him at least. Going back to our principles. The belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person is quote a myth. Unquote. This is hard. Unitarian universalist. To hear or to admit. For we have so long championed the individual as a final source or an authority when it comes to deciding right and wrong. Again. Robin schulz said there are too many malevolent. Human hearts. Too many godforsaken places where worth and dignity have no presents. We cannot stand idly by and assume that these supposedly inherent qualities will magically spring forth in the world. They will not. For worth and dignity to exist we must speak and act in a way that creates a place for them. And when human dignity is it steak. We cannot escape confrontation with the forces of idolatry. That would reserve worth. To only a few. Unquote. In the same theme reverend bill murray. Who is a colleague of scotch in the president of meadville lombard when i was there. Said quote. Religious humanism has been justly accused of failing to take seriously enough. The death of evil in humankind and that's a being too optimistic and its understanding of human nature. Perhaps we. Humanist and religious liberals have not wanted to think about evil because we have been afraid to face it within ourselves. We have failed to acknowledge the demonic aspects of human nature. Without losing faith in human worth and dignity religious humanists need to account for injustice oppression and exploitation. That is for the demonic side of life. We need to acknowledge the magnitude of evil in the world and understand its sources. Pride egocentricity and the desire for power over others. Unclog all of that by. Dr. murray. In india we saw all that we saw injustice oppression exploitation right out there in plain view so plain in fact that one could not avoid it. It was the norm. And some indians even admit that they don't notice it anymore. It is shocking for unitarian universalist not because we don't have our own examples of all the same evils because clearly we do. But in the united states are more disguise. I'm more hidden from public view. An easier easier for us to avoid or ignore. In india. With a population four times the size of the united states. There is no place to hide problems of this scale. Our worldview namely mode nrt and western culture is on a collision course with other cultures around the world who do not share our values. Samantha. Just like us so much. Did they would prefer that we did not even exist. We must rethink what we mean by the popular bumper sticker slogan coexist to take into account not only a global reality of overpopulation. On an enormous scale but those cultures that would like to destroy us. We need to reflect deeply on these gritty facts. Before we placed. Coexist. To our bumper. So we must continue to stretch ourselves intellectually emotionally and fight the temptation to return back into arnone uncomfortable world. We need to question or something. Both of us we take for granted as well as anything else we learn so that we can continue to grow beyond where we are now. Bill strangford who was the past president of the usa and his report to the general assembly said. Quotes we cannot retreat into a comfortable corners and not recognize the things that affect the world. We are a religion of hope and promise. With a capacity to confront evil. This is our sacred calling to take our faith. To a new level of witness and engagement and effectiveness. We have come a long way together. And we have a lot of work yet to do. Unquote. So what have i learned from all this. I learned that it was not possible for me to understand india. Complex problems do not lend themselves to simple answers. Second. I was challenged to accept conditions of life i found very distressing. How to do that without judgement. I'm without running away. This new learning has made me realize. How important it is for each of us to know as much as possible about the global realities of the 21st century if we. As a global superpower are to deal with problems in intelligent and informed waze. We cannot just be naive and we cannot just be idealistic. We must be very determined realist. On the personal level. I was able to. Recommit. 2 or 7 principles. Enter try to live them. As fully as i possibly can. Even though they're shared by a tiny minority. They were tricky late or belief in the value of human life. I sustain our efforts. To serve others. Particularly those. Most in need. I am also incredibly proud of our religious tradition. We are forward-thinking progressive and she minister. We have always prided ourselves. On our use of reason and judgment. Two are accepting. Acceptance of the unfolding nature of truth. And our ability to adapt to changing conditions of life around us. Intellectual inquiry. An exploration. Is a major strength and is the way we will educate ourselves about global reality. We must be prepared intellectually and theologically to take up this challenge of global learning. So that we will be able to speak and act in the world in the years ahead. An intelligent. Uninformed wedge. May official. As we leave today may we carry the spirit and values of our faith. I'm community in our hearts. Goforth. Resolve to work to the highest standards of equity and fairness for all people. So that someday humanity will live in peace. And love. Honoring our differences and holding sacred are coming out is. Go in peace.

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2011Jul17Sermon128.mp3

As many of you surely know. In the early days of the united states the predominant theological landscape was both dark. And foreboding. The prevailing theology in the 17th and 18th century of this nation. Was puritanical calvinistic christianity which understood god. As a stern and judgmental cosmic ruler and angry. And omnipotent god. Disgusted. With humanities depravity. Send weakness and imperfections. Human beings were understood as trapped in the fallen state. Of adam. And eve. Until humanity stood convicted. Original sin for which eternal damnation in hell. Was the fate for almost all of humanity except. Except a few pious righteous christians would be saved by god from the fire. When folks went to church in early america they routinely heard. How despicable and depraved they were. But how they were doomed to eternal torment in hell. Because god was so disgusted with them. One of the most famous puritanical preachers of the day was the reverend. Jonathan edwards. And in a fire-and-brimstone sermon entitled. Sinners in the hands of an angry god he brought congregations all over new england. To open tears and wailing by his vision of a hell. But he declared with certainty was awaiting most of them. I want a quote just a few lines of this brutal sermon. Edwards is describing the horrible fate of those listeners in the pew. Who because of their sins he deemed out. Christ. A world of misery. That lake of burning brimstone is extended under you. There is a dreadful pit. Of the glowing. Flames of the wrath of god there is hell. Wide gaping open mouth and you have nothing to stand upon. Nor anything to take hold of your wickedness makes you as heavy as lead. And the god that hold you over the pit of hell much as one holds a spider abhors you. Is dreadfully provoked. His wrath toward you burns like a fire. You are ten thousand more times abominable in his eyes. The most hateful venomous. Serpent. Is an h. And then edwards ended. You have offended him. Infinitely morrow center. Consider the fearful danger you are in it is a great furnace of wrath a wide and bottomless pit. You hang by a slender thread and you have nothing to lay hold of to save yourself. Nothing you can do will induce god to spare you one moment. Your punishment. Will indeed be influence. You can see the going to church and puritanical days wasn't exactly a barrel of sunshine. But it was precisely. In this dark and depressing theological context. Where the more hopeful unitarian. And universalist ideas about humanity. And jesus and god a rose. And offered a direct theological challenge. To the stern pessimistic views of puritanical christianity and the likes of jonathan edwards. Indeed the reason that both unitarianism. And universalism prospered so in the 17th and 18th century in this country. Was precisely because our spiritual forebears. We're offering a much more positive. Hopeful life. And humanity affirming view than that which dominated. Perhaps the most crucial component. Of our theological challenge to puritanism. Was universalism conviction. The god. Was not angry. Hated human. It was a kind and loving god. And so unlike the god of jonathan edwards. This god did not condemn most of humanity. 20 ternative punished. In fact. He didn't condemn anyone. Universalism offered the radical and some said heretical theological idea that all person. Every man woman and child no matter how far they may stray. From human perfection during their lifetime. Was destin. To be saved. For all. Eternity by a loving god. It was universalist preacher reverend hosea ballou. Who was born in 1771 he looks a little kinder than jonathan edwards doesn't he. And died in 1851. It was blue. Who best articulated this new positive theology. Of life and person. In his famous book a treatise on atonement. Blue had almost no formal training as a theologian but was a brilliant mind. And a skilled orator and writer. He directly challenged the puritanical idea. Darkly articulated by edwards. That most of humanity steep as they were. In a life of intractable sin would be doomed. To eternal punishment. Blue. As all the early universalist preachers on thinker. Was convinced. But the god of this creation. Was a good and loving and merciful. Who created humanity his children. In his image. Goodness. And promise. And love and therefore. God could not and would not ultimately condemned has. Even those of us who stray into great wickedness. To eternal suffering and damnation. Where is edwards and the other your puritan. We're certain that humanity needed the threat. The threat. Of god's eternal torment and punishment. To keep them quote-unquote in line. Much as claudia was talking about today. And that's a key part. Of the theology which i'll return to just a little later to keep them in line needed the hammer of god. Where is edwards was certain that was necessary. Blue felt the humanities natural god-given inclination. Word happiness and goodness. Was all that was required. For morale. And social order. Baloo believe that the primary human motivation. Which most primarily directs our behavior. Was our search for happiness. And the god whose primary quality is love. Wants us to be happy as well. And that's in most often he described as the passions of the flesh. Which we fall victim to. Involves quote conscious broaching of one's own internal moral system. Which carries with it blue are you. Its own unhappiness. And its own discomfort. And that discomfort and unhappiness. Call suspect. To what is right. As my colleague sam trumbore explains blues thinking. Blue believe that to be in a state of sin. Is to be in a state of misery. Blue criticize the puritanical association. Between pleasure. And sim. Do symbaloo concluded. Was to betray one's own moral sense. And this divided the self. And would create its own suffering which would call us back. Create the motivation within the soul. To return to write in. Another words. Blue believe that are universal desire to be happy. And to be in harmony with our world and one another. Was all the motivation required. To ensure human goodness. And a sinen wrongdoing. Carry with them their own misery and punishment here now in this life. The hell is created us. Bluewood say. When we are living. in in happiness in in harmony. All in fact. He once wrote that sin and misery r1. The one we act badly. We feel badly. So we don't need god. You know holding an angry sword over our heads threatening us. To return. To goodness and to lead a life. Striving toward goodison. A wonderful story. In a famous exchange with a baptist minister over this field logical point. The baptist minister said. Brother baloo. If i were universala. And feared not the fires of hell i would hit you over the head. Steal your horse on saddle right away and still get to heaven. Twitch blue retarded. Friend. If you were universala. That idea. Would never occur to you. Sing. What the puritans like edwards and the baptist preacher where unpersuaded. And fiercely attacked the thinking of baloo and other universalist. As a dangerous heresy. Suggesting that eliminating the threat of hell. An eternal damnation would lead to rampant immorality and wickedness. Indeed to the fall of the world itself. Until the puritans. Plum desperately. Did the stihl edger clydia of hell. And the necessity. Of eternal damnation and god's wrath. To ensure goodness. Now. Fast forward. 200 years. This year is 2011. And in countless christian churches this morning people are being taught. That hell awaits them. If they do not think and do what god dammit commands that hell awaits them. If they stray from any established moral standards. This thinking this necessity of hell to ensure good behavior persists. In march of christianity today. But seemingly out of nowhere. There is a young charismatic christian. Preacher. With a. Huge church in grand rapids is rob bell guy i'm telling you about. Who along with a growing number of other emergent evangelical ministers. Asking the same kinds of questions. Rob bell has it away that we as unitarian universalist could not. Has reignited this old theological debate. About the theological necessity of hell and damnation. Within mainstream christianity. You know we've been around saying this for years but he is. A christian saying it. It's driving them. Crazy. Rob bell. Who is the most articulate spokesperson for this. Emergent universalism has just published this controversial book for which i quoted earlier love wins. A book about heaven. Hell. And the faith. Of every person. Who ever lived. In which he suggests. The hosea ballou and the other early universe. We're right. When they postulated a loving god. And rejected the idea of hell after death. As somehow being necessary to regulate. Human behavior. I want to take two-and-a-half minutes now and let reverend bell articulate. This emerging thinking in his own words please. Watch this brief video is getting. Credible attention. Several years ago we had an art show at our church and people brought in all kinds of sculptures and. Paintings of a put them on display and there was this one piece. That had a quote from gandhi in it. And lots of people found this piece compelling it's stopped and sort of stare at it and take it in or reflect on it but not everybody found it that compelling somewhere in the course of the art show somebody attached a handwritten note to the peace. And on the note they had written. Reality check. He's in hell. Gandhi's inhale. He is. And someone knows this for sure. And felt the need to let the rest of us know. Will only a few select people make it to heaven. And will billions and billions of people burn forever in hell. And if that's the case how do you become one of the. Is it what you believe or what you say or what you do or who you know or something that happens in your heart or you need to be initiated or baptized. The class or converted or being born again how does one become one of these. View. And then there is the question behind the question the real question what is god. Like because millions. And millions of people were taught that the primary message the center of the gospel of jesus is that god is going to send you to hell unless you believe in jesus and so what gets subtly sort of caught and taught. Is that jesus rescues you from god. But what kind of god. Is that that we would need to be rescued. From this god how could that god ever be good how can that god ever be trusted. And how could that ever. Be. Good. News. This is why lots of people want nothing to do with the christian faith they see it as an endless list of absurdities and inconsistencies may say why would i ever want to be a part of that. See what we believe about heaven and hell is incredibly important because it exposes what we believe about who god is. And what god is light but you discover in the bible is so surprising unexpected and beautiful that whatever we've been told or taught a good news is actually better than that better than we could ever imagine the good news is that love wins. Rattle mayuyu timbers. As you can well imagine. This video. And the book. Have caused a huge the illogical brouhaha within the conservative traditional. Send community. Some ministers of outright accuse this young guy. Of heresy. Others say goodbye rob well we're done with you. Others accused him of totally subverting. The essential christian message. Others call him terribly misguided. He's been attacked all over the place. You're on the internet. Another's have even suggested he should be totally tion. And rejected. One conservative christian blogger wrote this. It is unspeakably sad when those called to be ministers of the word. Distort the gospel. And deceive the people of god. With false doctrine. Asbell had. Has. They can't imagine. But that patriarchal model. What does a god with a hammer. And humanity is a little despicable. Tribe. I can't imagine this paradigm. At the core of these objections. Same objection to universalism that blue had to confront 200 years ago. The idea that without the misery and threat and torment of hell. Christianity would have no means to regulate human behavior toward the good. Listen to the furious react. This guy. By christian writer katrina douglas. The problem. She writes. Is it without hail. There is no need for the struggle between human goodness and evil. Therefore there's also no need for pastors. Do most christians believe that universalism. Is an admirable concept. It's a nice concept. What is rob bell just playing to the needs of humanity not to worry about their deeds. Bells concept she goes on means that murderers. Drug dealers and terrorists it beside angels in heaven. And everyone can do exactly as they please. And then she ends. If what bell is teaching in his new book is true everybody should go out. And party. Unquote. This is precisely. What a christian minister said to me decades ago when we were both hospital chaplain. 4-year at the city of memphis hospital. Women one of our regular theological discussion sessions as chaplains. He heard me say that i was at unitarian universalist. Who did not believe in hell. Or the threat of eternal damnation. He looked at me. Earnest expression instead. Well scott. If i didn't believe god was holding an angry hammer over my head. I'd be out in the streets right now raping and stealing and killing to my heart's desire. Without the threat of. Of heaven. Of hailey's. Why would i be good. To which once i recovered. From my genuine moral shock. I responded just as baloo did more than 200 years ago 0 shall i said i can't believe you're saying that. I do not need the threat of hell. To make me strive toward goodness. Goodness carries with it. It's on heavenly reward. Right here right now i need no cosmic threat. For a punishing god to keep me on the path. To becoming the best. And most decent person i become and i don't really think. You need. That. Threat. But like the puritans of blues days my desk colleague was unpersuaded. He clung desperately. To the. Patriarchal paradigm. It suggests we need the threat of punishment from a higher authority. To ever be good. I view this as an incomprehensive. Personal. And theological. It is classic book stages of faith published in 81 1980. That is. Developmental psychologist dr. james w fowler at the candler. School of theology in atlanta. Proposed this is a famous study of. The stages of faith development. But there are six progressive stages. Spiritual development which can be applied to human beings. His thinking is fairly complex in if you want to read about it go online and just. Type in stages of faith. Fowler. But eric and if you to dive a little deeper but in a nutshell what resonates with me the unitarian universalist. And which is total anathema. In orthodox religious. Is followers suggestions. That is human beings mature and deepen. In their spiritual responses to the world. They move from the religious. A motivation removed from religious authority and motivation. Based on something outside them. Sounds like a punishing god. Into taking personal responsibility for their beliefs and feelings and actions. Bus internalizing responsibility. Or their own lives and beliefs. Followers suggested many people gets stuck. In one of these early and will he calls more primitive stages where they require an outside. Force. To create internal goodness. And his 6th and final stage he strangely called the universalizing. Stage. And what he says this is reserved for. Curfew. Human beings. We have known such as gandhi king mother teresa. The spiritually mature and wise persons fowler rights. Begin to search for universal values. Such as unconditional. Love and justice. Enter not concerned with their own self-preservation. Or selfish. And without spending much more time for taking the face maturity of others. I do believe that what our faith calls us. Is this. Personal responsibility for. One's actions. And one's beliefs. Opposed to having an external. Source. So where does all this theologically leave us. Well. Right where we began. For hundreds of years since our first congregation. Were founded in new england. Unitarians. And universalist and since 1961 when we merged. Unitarian universal. Have believed. Is this exciting. Young evangelical christian past. Nobly. But when it comes to our ultimate human destiny love in fact. Wins. Goodness. Wins. We religious liberals have always believed that life and god however you conceive of god. Are on our side. Ended love and hope and goodness are the most powerful forces in the world. Horses we can know and follow and be. And they overpower sin and evil and wrongdoing always. Or at least have the power to do. We have always rejected the idea. The humanity needs some sort of. Turtle. Stern punishing god. Yielding and wielding the fires of hell. To force us. To be good. Love wins. Anne archer. Simply because love carries with it. Its own happiness. And goodness. Its own reward. It's on. Heaven. Heaven. When we love. Goodness. Here. When we love. Not heaven in some far-off place. But heaven now. As we strive. For goodness. For goodness sake. May we. Unitarian universalist always stay on that positive. Purpose. And always believe that through it all through all the sorrows and. Tragedies and losses. Human life. But loving fact does. We are.

uufvb_org

2011Sep25Sermon128.mp3

Will you pray with me. Oh holy truth and love. Inspire this moment. In our speaking. And in our hearing. Elaine thank you for your hospitality. Good choir thank you for your gracious music. Good congregation how wonderful to see you again. A lot's changed since i was with you last. Your rocking and your rolling. Those of you who are at leadership it heard me describe the unitarian universalist fellowship of euro beach has the most accomplished. And most accomplishing congregation in the entire florida district. And i say that with pride and humility. Because it's so. It's not to put down the other congregations but it is to honor that you are a congregation that believes in yourself. In our faith and in our witness. For tomorrow. I was delighted to learn recently that you've actually. Put together a five-year plan. Do you know how rare that is in congregation of life. And next month do i understand you'll actually begin discussing what that means for you. And where do you go next. You've got some wonderful ambition so. Goodonya. Congratulations. Don't rest on your laurels good people. Keep it going. I'd like to ask you questions of you this day. What's unitarian-universalism good for. And what's good about unitarian universalism. Classic first question is they ask something about what it means to be human. Play the anthropologist call us homo sapiens sapiens. Because somewhere in the last 500,000 years. Not only did we become the reasoning animal. We became the animal aware of its own reasoning. If you listen to the poetic language of. Of modern-day astrophysics they say nearest week until. Human beings are the universe become conscious of itself. Hunches. Of itself omigod. I can't even think about what that means cuz. You look out there and. That we can imagine and dream and unfathomable distances and times. And somehow make sense of that. Yeah we have to be reasoning creatures. Anthropologist also. Describe this is. Homo ludens. The creature that loves to play now we're not unique in that. Almost all mammals play. That's probably a distinguishing feature between reptiles. In mammals. You've never seen a playful gator hat. Unless you talking about the football team and that's another story. More recently it seems we become defined as homo. Economist. Your worth as a human being. Is not inherent. Hazard principles with affirm. But rather what is your economic utility. Your value in society's only to the extent that you can buy and sell and trade things. And if you don't have anything to buy or sell or trade well then your worth is. Suspect. One-in-six american these days are told because they are poor. The society's not going to care about them anymore because they are somehow less worthy than the. For 500 families that control more than half. Of the u.s.. Economy. One-in-five children. Lives in poverty and we do not hear any conversation in our political discourse about what is our obligation to our children know it's only that the free market will solve all our problems but i'm not going to go down. And would disgrace and economically justice today but i want to say ask yourself asking if they. Are we defined by economics. Another definition of being human is homo religiosas. That there is something in our nature. Wonder the mystery of the universe. And try to make sense of it. And this is what we do. To ask what good is unitarian universalism however does sorta propose a certain utility when you got up this morning there was a part of you that had to choose between staying home and watch the rantings of the politicians on facebook nation. Or reading the paper. Or writing a book or reading a book going for bicycle ride. Walking the beach playing golf. Instead you chose to come here. And in your mind you said there's something in it for me to be here as opposed to be there. And we often look at our church life that way. Particular round stewardship time willing to go to church 10 times a year let's see if i price that out on a. Per capita and per diem basis so i guess it's worth about. Oh maybe. $35. That's not an investment in the future is it that's. Token. Again it my purpose is not to talk about the stewardship of just ask the question. Is there a healthy sense in which we ask what's in it for me when we come to church. Well let's answer it this way. All religions regardless of the brand. Do three things. The answer the question why am i here. What's my life purpose. How should i get along with all those other people. What's my moral. And finally who am i. What does it mean to be a human being. In the mixture of all the species i see around me. What does it mean to be a. A unitarian universalist human being contrasted to christian and hebrew and muslim human beings is there something about being here that gives you an identity that's different than if you were. Somewhere else. So let me ask you. How do you. Answer the question. Why am i here. One of the things that unitarian-universalism is good for is to put that question to you. And not to say here's the 22 points memorize these recite them regularly and you have your answer. But rather. Just a part of being in a crucible of a congregation is to talk to each other at death. I go around this wonderful florida district and i will do a little exercise in the last people to share. One of the times they were in congregational life that change their life forever. And invariably tears. At laughter. Come out of those conversations. And then i'll ask how many of you have ever had such a conversation in your church. It's sad how rarely. We have that depth conversation. So if you're not having already a structured programme which people get together and say this is what really matters to me. In a safe environment of maybe. Half a dozen to a dozen people. On a regular basis. I challenge you to do so. We need help we need a small group to have that kind of conversation. Many religious faith traditions give you the ten commandments the five pillars. The three gods give you all these numerical answers to how you should live. We don't give you a. Checklist of do this and you'll be a good unitarian universalist. But we do ask you to think about what does it mean to be a good person. And not just to come here and told your good person if you do these three things. That's all you have to do. What unitarian universalism is good for is it says your religious life doesn't start and stop here. It's going to show up this afternoon when you're at the grocery store and you're frustrated with the line. It's going to show up tomorrow when somebody cut you off a traffic. Is going to show up tomorrow or the next day when you and your partner having one of those moments when you just as soon not see each other. And you don't walk away. And you stayed again. It's there when you hold. A baby in your arms and you remember that life is a gift. This is how you live your religious life so that's what unitarian-universalism is good for is to keep your faith alive in your living. Do you have you have conditional. Polo shirts you have a congregational t-shirt that you wear around town. Hell. Let me ask. I saw scott. Had an article in the paper. This morning in which he identified himself as unitarian universalist and minister of this congregation. Have any of you written a letter to the paper here sit as a unitarian universalist i.... Raise your hand if you. A couple bravo. Heart of being in faith community is to bear witness to what we teach your so one of the things that unitarian-universalism a good for is to teach you how to bear witness to your face. It seems to me that often we unitarian universalist listen to the parable in in. Matthew i believe it is where jesus talks about the. The person who goes out into the court and in the public square in suzhou lord lord lord and praises himself and all this and then the other one goes in the closet. And praise. In jesus's which is the more faithful the ostentatious on display or the one in the closet we must think it's must be the one in the closet cuz we never tell people what we believe. We don't go to the city council meeting take. City fathers mothers i'm here tonight because my face asked me to be here and to bear witness to what you're about to do is noble. And we're here to support. That changing city policy that will allow for healthcare for all your employees. Or will address issues of homelessness. We're here. Because our. Face. So that's a utilitarian answer what is unitarian universalism good for is just so you don't have to be alone. And doing this work. What's good about unitarian universalism. I was so pleased today to. To remember that you had this little ritual with the stones i like this. Opportunity to signify there's joy and sorrow and prayer and. Hope amongst you every week. I'd like to share six stones of faith with you. The first five come from the writings of theologian james luther adams. 20th century theologian one of the great thinkers you can't become a unitarian universalist minister without reading all his. His stuff. And he was particularly concerned the free gathering of. People. Was how democracy works as a whole theology by voluntary associations as the bulwark against despotism. Hand. He built onto tocqueville observations americans are forming associations all the time there's clubs or groups there's gills. Even in our congregations we have the. The. Passwords to paint. The social hall. That voluntary group will dissolve in three months time but will have a new social hall payment. We have all kinds of things we have the united citizens. For the removal of the 28th street stop light. And we have more noble stuff. Americans concern for liberty and justice. And so forth. And i'll bet you belong to such free associations in addition to this one. So adams came up with five what he called smooth stones of. Free church. The first. Is that revelation. Is continuous. Unlike the other faith traditions what we say is god's not done yet. Hello. There's more to be learned. And. The holy whatever it is isn't just sort of a. A a scriptwriter and it and just turning the pages of the script but rather. The holy doesn't know what's on the next page either and. So we're all learning together. Heart of what's good about unitarian universalism as we don't expect you to have it all together. The first time the last time the next time you come here we hope you keep asking those questions. Claudia so eloquently noted we are a face. Questions. So we can learn more. Learn richer about ourselves about one another what it means being community and indeed how to live in this. Difficult. The x world. First smooth stone revelation is continuous by would you be kind enough to. Add that to. I love that reference pond. The second smooth stone. That's about possibility. The second smooth stone. Is about love. That each of us. Is worthy. This is the core teaching of universalism naturally. That no one here is ever to be given up on. Our relationships together however characterized especially in that they are freely chosen. The free church no one. Everquest all we do is consensual in nature. Indeed. At our best moments we all feel we are participant participating in the work of the church together. And at our worst moment is when we start bullying. Each other. Because we get anxious about getting our way. I confess. Frail human being i've been down that path in. The wrong path. And so i'm grateful for the second smooth stone that reminds me. That was good about unitarian universalism is that our relationships are. Free. Freely chosen. Consensual. And that's what it means to love one another. The third smooth stone. That atoms suggest we be mindful of. Is that it's not good enough to save our souls. It's important that we work on saving our souls cuz. We go out blighted thinking that we've got it all together there's no more work to do we cause harm so we do need to do that still work everyday. And every time we come together and worship. But it's because we want to create justice in the world. And sometimes standing and speaking truth to power requires courage so that's another way to think of this third stone is that we are community that's premise on the courage to stand for what's right. True. Compassionate. Intern universes have a bit of a reputation for being social activist. And that's good. But it has to be grounded in love. To be truly. Social. And it has to be committed to the notion that all human beings. Are worthy of respect. Affirmation. Arcare and to demand that the society never give up on anyone's never throw anyone away. Well. I tell you it's easier for social. Groups to throw people away they don't like. Or don't understand. Right now you're in florida were about to replicate. Arizona with an immigration law that says we're going to throw some people out of here because. They're different. It will take courage of unitarian universalist stand up against that. To stand up against the gay bashing that's going on in this community right now in pulpits across this city. It will take courage. To say we've got to do something about how we are. Dealing with his so-called tax question. When did it become possible for you to get rich without a society. Annatto something back. How do we have a civil conversation about the common good. Unitarian universalist versus voices should be. Courageous and speaking to that large. The fourth movie stone. Is stated as we deny. The only negative in this one. We deny the immaculate conception. Of the good. Good things come about. Hard work of human hands. Many religious communities safe. The beloved kingdom will be found in heaven after this life. Or in your next incarnation your karma will take you to the next unfolding status of your goodness or you will somehow. I forget what the islamic. Promises but there's still something in the grapevine by rather than the here and now. If there's anything we want to borrow from the christian tradition it is jesus who said. The kingdom of god is at hand when we love the marginalized. And each other that was his only commandment if you think about it love one another he didn't say love those that agree with you we didn't say love those were for rich. Blue green red yellow people he said love everybody. That's universalism folks. That's what's good about us. But we act recognize that. There will be no messiah. To come save us. Unless it's in our hearts. And it shows up in our hands. So we deny the immaculate conception a good in affirm our responsibility. To be at work in the world. Creating. The beloved community. And the kingdom of the divine. The 5th smooth stone is called joy. And is written is. That the resort there are resources both divine and human. To help us achieve those very goals of love and justice. And therefore unitarian-universalism is a faith. Of joy. Not despair. At times i am have my face challenge. And i want to go 10 my little garden where maybe for a moment i can have some sense. Where i'm not despairing about the cruel miserable world. That i often see around me. And then i'm reminded that there are resources both human and divine to help me bring about the world i dream of and you are part of those resources and i give thanks and i celebrate and i find joy. That we are together. This day. And in the days. There is reason for an ultimate. Optimism. In our face. That's one of the things that. Unitarian universalists good about unitarian universalism. Now those are jim adams fivestones i want to have a 6. Some years ago i was invited to. I'll be the candidate for the. Unitarian universalist congregation alexandria virginia. And as is our ritual i had to preach it one of the other congregations i was preaching on forgiveness that day. And unbeknownst to me. They had placed a glass of water on the lectern. And i've never been one who drank water during my sermons. And so i get to the lectern. And i'm doing good i can't contact with people again. Speech in my head and i take all those papers and song books around the lectern. I pick him up. And i shove them underneath on the shelf. Water everywhere. I said to the congregation my sermon today is about forgiveness. I've just spilled water all over the place will you please forgive me and send some towels. I still got the car. I am a very frail human being i do not live up to my ideals constantly i need to be in church to be reminded of my ideal i need you to hold me to account and importantly so i need you to love me in my frailty. And forgive me when i mess up. And forgive yourselves when you mess up. We still suffer i fear that puritan urge to perfectionism and we do not give much grace to each other when things don't go well. We are embarking at the southern region of the unitarian universalism. On a grand new ambition to grow our faith. And we don't know how to do it. Quite candidly we're going to have to try some things that we've never tried before. And i said to our district board and two other leaders. We need to create a as a core value of our faith. Loving forgiveness for people who try things. And then a colleague gave me the phrase which i now pass on to you and hope you will use as you bumble along into your five-year plan. Aspera fail. 90% of new start-up businesses fail within the first year. Why do we and our church life expect everything to work the first time. But we do come on admit it. We are off to often judgmental rather than loving and forgiving. And so i offer you a six stone. That's good about unitarian universalist. We do not give up on one another. This is a community of compassion. Forgiveness. And staying at the table with one another. When we disappoint. And celebrating at the table when we succeed. So the six smooth stone of the free church. Is forgiveness. We live in uncertain times until that last stone said yes to me your work. We need in these uncertain times of going from an old order to a not yet known new order. People who are confident. In their insecurities. I've said in my ministry being amateur unitarian universalist is becoming increasingly comfortable with ambiguity. Of not knowing. I'm trying yet to figure it out. Knowing that it can be figured out. But not today. We need people who can be secure. And their insecurities and not grab the latest flotsam that floats by and call that. The final answer. Everytime i hear another politician get up i have a four-point plan. I want to gag. So is shoe. 4-point play. But rather say let us commit to love one another. To be rational as much as we can to have the biggest heart that we've ever had before in our lives to have the courage of our convictions and to be known in this world as love church bringing love to all whom we meet at every opportunity. Meipso b4u. And for me. Blessed be.

uufvb_org

02Aug2009sermon128kbs.mp3

uufvb_org

2014Apr27Sermon128.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we are so pleased that all of you have come to be with us this morning we are as the graphics set. A congregation of open minds loving hearts and helping hands individual people seeking to become our best selves. Even as together we work to make for a better world and please know this morning. But you're welcome just as you come to us. What ye whether you are whether you are young or old gay or straight black or white. Or some other wonderful shade of humanity with you have a ged or a phd. Whether you are a visitor with us this morning or have been here for decades. Whether you were feeling on top of the world this morning. We're down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We are delighted to see you just as you come to us this morning. We hope you'll find the service of music. A meaningful and enriching this morning and he'll find something here this morning. That nourishes your spirit and feed your soul and gives you renewed energy and purpose. For the living of life in the days ahead. So welcome each and every one of you to this are very special choir and earth day service anthems to the earth. Here at the unitarian universalist fellowship. A vero beach. We especially welcome all i guess. Who are widows today. For the 2014 annual meeting of the florida district. Of the unitarian universalist association. If you were here this morning visiting from one of our sister congregation. Would you please stand. Or raise your hand. Welcome all of you. May our time together this morning bless us. Rhythm. Harmony joyfulness and hope. When is toon are ears not only to the beautiful anthems to the earth. Which will be performed for us. But to the song of life itself. May our worship together this hour remind us of the boundless beauty of our world. And the blessing of finding ourselves alive. Together. And so rich and wonderful creation. We are so pleased that so many of our fellow unitarian-universalist were on the sunshine state. Are able to be with us for worship this morning as we celebrate earth day sunday. Kira to uscb. Some of you may not know. That this weekend was originally also scheduled to be the florida yuyu choir festival. An annual event when choirs from all over the state gather to have fun and make music together. Culminating in a gala musical service on sunday but much to everyone's disappointment. That festival for a variety of complications. Has been postponed for a later date but never fear. Thomas monday. Our unflappable musical music director and i decided that our indefatigable choir. Was up to the task. I mean after all who needs 100 voices when you've got these 18 so. That's what we're going to do this morning. And we have printed the words for all four anthems on the yellow inserts so you can follow along this is not a sing along. This is a choral festival. So just enjoy the words that are printed there so you know the affirmations they're making. So get comfortable now in your pews. Take a deep breath and listen to anthems of the earth and the readings and reflections. Which we have chosen to accompany them. This service is design. To remind your heart. How blessed we are. To live on this holy. And beautiful. And ever so fragile. Planet. There is religion and everything around us by john. Ruskin. There is religion in everything around us. A calm and totally religion. In the unbreathing things in nature. It is a meek and blessed influence stealing and as it were unaware upon the heart. He comes quickly and without excitement. It has no terror no gloom. It does not rouse up the passions. It is untrammeled by creed. It is written on the arch sky. It looks out from every star. It is on a sailing cloud. And in the invisible wind. It is among the hills and valleys of the earth. Where the shrub list mountaintop pierces the thin atmosphere of eternal winter. What were the mighty forest fluctuates before the strong wind. With its dark waves of bring foliage. It is spread out like a legible language upon the broad face of a nun sleeping ocean. Is the poetry of nature. It is that which uplifts the spirit within us. And which opens to our imagination. A world of spiritual beauty. And holiness. The moment being alive on this creation that i shall never forget. It was during the 1990s and one summer my now husband get over that idea. Collins and i. We're up at this modest but sweet little lake cabin we own way up in northern maine on lake meduxnekeag. It has been a very hot day. A rare thing that's far up in new england. And that night it was hard for us to get to sleep for the little cabin that it's sad in the sun all day was still quite hot inside. Finally after a couple of hours of tossing and turning in bed we decided to get up and take a swim. In the cool waters. Of the lake to knock our body temperatures down to the point we could finally get to sleep. We walked in the dark to the end of our rickety dock. Slip slowly into the water need i point out that bathing suits are not required at that time of night in northern maine. And began swimming we. Away from the rocky shore. Almost instantly realized that the sky was ablaze absolutely a braised ablaze with the aurora borealis. The so-called northern lights. We were amazed. By the heavens vivid dancing displays of. Blues reds and yellows and purples all. Pulsating brightly from one horizon to the next. Now the scientists tell us that this amazing light show is quote. A natural light display in the sky particularly in the higher latitude regions of the globe. Caused by the collision of energetic fully charged particles with atoms. In the high altitude. Atmosphere on quote. Whatever causes it. It is as anyone who has ever seen it will testify. Magical. And amazing. Soon collins and i were floating on our backs arms fully stretched out in the water legs kicking gently to allow us. To stay in place. Eyes open. To the spectacular heavenly show. And then it happened all of a sudden. My spiritual bearings as a creature of creation shifted. To a whole new and wonderful consciousness. I lost all sensation. Of where myself as a separate and isolated entity in the universe. Stop and where all the rest began. Maybe it was in part because the cool lake water had numbed me. But in an instant. I had absolutely no sense of where my fingertips ceased. And where the water the sky the hills and the aurora borealis began. I felt absolutely at 1 with creation and appease. It was one of the most magical and healing sensations of wholeness. And belonging i have ever had as a human being. I hope and trust. That every last person in this room right now understands the pressing. An undeniable truth. But in these early years of the 21st century we are living at a time of great danger. For our planet. And ourselves. The rapid climate change that is resulting from increased human population and activity on the earth. Not only threatens our future as the globe's dominant species. But also threatens the extinction of countless. Thousands. Of other plan. An animal species. If life as we know it and love it. Is to be sustained. We homo sapiens you all know this. We'll have to change much about the way we live on this thin. Green. Blue surface of planet earth. Many many changes. Are going to be required of us. And perhaps the first and foremost of these is the way we spiritually in scientifically under understand ourselves. In relation. To the rest of creation. I have come to believe. But if we are to survive on this planet with a quality of life worth having. We must shift our self-understanding. From seeing ourselves as isolated separate individual beings dotting the earth. To realize that we are in fact radically and scientifically and spiritually connected. To all things. We must all begin to live our lives on this fragile planet as if the oneness and connectedness i felt in that lake that night in northern maine. Is the foundational spiritual and physical reality of our existence. Because. It. Is. According to the unfolding discoveries of quantum physics as i understand them. Everything in the universe is interconnected and multi-dimensional waze. By time space matter and energy. One physics website i consulted points out that bell's theorem. Which along with string series is one of the mathematical building blocks of the new physics says this. Once connected. Objects anywhere in the universe affect one another forever no matter where they are. Following that principle. An individual stream of energy will always connect any two objects. That have been connected in any way in the past. This means the website goes on. Let everything is connected to everything else. And that physical reality is both waves and particles. This model birth. The holographic universe idea. The powerful conscious energy that the whole can invariably be found. In the tiniest particles. An atom of a blade of grass. To the most distant galaxies. The building blocks this website ends of atoms are merely. Parcels of compressed energy. Packed and patterned according. To certain mathematical. Formulate i fully understand. I know this stuff gets pretty abstract. I'm pretty complicated to think about pretty quickly. So let me put this simply. The new physics tells us that every part and particle of creation. Including those few billion atoms that make each one of us us. Are irretrievably and magnificently connected to one another by time space. Matter and energy. What does scientifically means is it the powerful oneness i felt that night with my body. And the lake and the hills and the stars. And the aurora borealis is in fact the primary fact of our existence. A living breathing thinking parts. So back to our broader focus. On this earth day 2014. And how we ought to live as citizens of this planet. What if we human beings move through our days on this earth. Thinking of ourselves as we really are. Interesting little organic clumps of water and stardust. Held together. By a very thin layer of skin that keeps. Most of us most of the rest of the world out. Yep radically and intimately is connected to everything out to the farthest. What if we all shifted our spiritual consciousness. To that place where we become aware of how utterly. And intimately connected to everyone and everything we actually are spiritually move. From the soul of the self. To focus. On the soul of the whole. What if we move from the old isolated paradigm of the soul of the cell. To a new expansive paragraph a paradigm of the soul of the whole. As we begin to spiritually see on a daily basis are radical kinship. And responsibility for everything. That is around us. I am persuaded that once we spiritually become aware of the reality of our connectedness to everything else. The quantum physics makes so clear. That we will start god help us. Treating our planet and everything that lives on it. With greater wisdom. Greater respect. Greater restraint. And greater care. I have every hope that our human behavior as citizens of a much larger living hole. Will change once our hearts fully realize our radical. Interconnected. And so i believe in these early days of the 21st century that are biggest. Space journey. That we must embark upon. Is right here in this space. In our own. Little. Heads. It is a spiritual journey toward a new consciousness. Toward a new organic narrative. About our oneness. And our belonging. To everything. Solutely. Our final reading is by reverend kenneth patton. The world is our home. We have no reminder of the inhospitality of space more than the iciness of winter. We have no comfort more than summer. We have no better bed. Then the warm grass in august. No better napping the napping in a slight breeze. We have no better roof than an overlay of leaves the sun glinting among their wrestling heaven. We have no better food than the wild strawberries in the grasses and the raspberry from the bushy clearing. We have no better bath in the ocean a tub as big as the world. We have no better playground than the sandy beach. We have no better temple than the mountain know better steeple than its frosty peak. We have no color more than the flower. And burn. We have no grace. And power of life more than the cat. And dog and horse and the swinging gibbon. There is no rest to our eyes more than the dark of night. No recovery and reestablishment better than sleep. Sleep is our retreat into nothingness. That we may be renewed for re-entry into the bright world. There is no proportion more than the stars with their reminder of distances and time. There is no companionship more than a man and woman. There is no joy greater than a child. Their love is whatever part of paradise we can have. This world is our home. The home that is given us. The only home we know. And now joining with us please in our response of benediction is found on the yellow insert and will also be above. Your park. Is below. We join. With the earth. And with each other. We join with the earth and with each other. We join with the earth. And with each other. We join with the earth and with each other. We join. With the earth. And with each other. Go in peace. And a little bit of unrest.

uufvb_org

2010Jul18sermon32.mp3

uufvb_org

2014Sep14Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to this beautiful gentle. September day here in vero beach and welcome we're glad you've decided to start your day to unitarian. Universalist fellowship of vero beach. We were enough open minds. Loving hearts and helping and people seeking. Even as together as a community we work to make our world a kinder in better place. Please know that you are welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you are young or old gay or straight. Black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. What do you have a ged or a phd. Whether you are a first-time visitor this morning oregon. Here for decades. Whether you were feeling on top of the world or down in the dumps. Or somewhere in between. We are glad that you are with us. We welcome you. We hope you'll find our service this morning meaningful and enriching either you'll find something here this morning to take with you. To make your days ahead brighter and more purposeful. From our personal world we gather here to seek wholeness. Feelings of isolation and loneliness we come here to feel. Connectedness. Evils in the world. We come here to relate to what is good. The confusion of the spirit we would find here something of meaning. What is hopeful. From faultless indifference. We will be charged here with the spirit of vital faith in ourselves. And love. To our fellow. Human beings. It is good. To be together. This sunday. He wasn't sure i could find out the reverend's name. But the timing. For this. Sharma today and what i'm going to. The sports world was made it really obvious. We got a problem. Abs but anyway. The primary violence must recognize. The violence we can do something about. The violence we can spare. The world trump. Is a violence within each of us. Evil is not just out there. It's in here. Each of us 2. We must recognize i am capable of violence. Is he over killer. I am just as liable to have violent feelings. Violent thoughts. Violet wishes. That should help me understand the first sin it was unwilling. Or unable. To control. Set gender violence. The nature of the killer. Like the nature of a lover. It's not a thing apart from me. Killer lover or all part of my human nature. In my human nature. I have the stuff of porch prophets. Nsync. I also have the stuff. Manipulators. Philanderer. And murderers. I am not in my basic human nature. The better of any person. I made make choices that are better or more dishes. Or just luckier. That's why i live on. I will humbly accept violence. And evil within and try to overpower it. With love. Which is also within. He was a perfectly cultured. Successful gentleman. Of european background. He was born in the year 1900. Graduated from high school in his training for the roman catholic priesthood. Eventually decided to pursue other professional pursuits. Ministrator. Who received multiple awards for his professional diligence. Innovation in government. Each night after a long day and lovingly embrace his large family. Remember him as a loving husband and father. Games like hide-and-seek with them. 4 hours on end. He was also remembered as being exceptionally kind to animals. What made wrote of him in her memoirs. He talked his children he kissed his wife each morning. And he wrote poems about beauty. Who was this man. His name was rudolf hess. And he was the commandant concentration camp. At auschwitz poland. From may 1940 until december of 1943. Under his calm and capable leadership an estimated 2 1/2 million men. Women and children were exterminated by gassing and burning. At least another half million persons. Under his charge to come. To starvation. And disease. Making this one man. Responsible for the deaths of over 3. Million. When the russian army approached outfits late in the war horse rather than honorably face all the evil he had perpetrated. Assumed an alias and went into hiding in germany. What house was eventually service. Tried before a polish war crimes tribunal. Sentenced to death in 1947 was ignominiously return to auschwitz. To behave on a one-person gallows built outside the entrance. Of the gas chamber. He once presided over. Rudolph hoss loving and attentive husband and father who will always be remembered as one of the most. Figures. In human history. What house was not as i'm sure you all understand only. Ordinary mild-mannered. German. Who willingly participated in the other minorities. In fact after the war there were many first-hand accounts. Of how many charming. These nuts. Off duty. Holocaust survivor. Collected extensive testimony from who serve the families of auschwitz. Expressed amazement at how normal and pleasant. These men could be. And murdering countless people. A german jewish writer by the name of hannah arendt. In covering. For the new york for the new yorker magazine in covering the 1960 israeli trial of adolf eichmann the senior ss officer. Credited with organizing. She coined the famous phrase. The banality of evil. In describing aikman. The prime architect of the holocaust. In observing the lengthy trial she expressed shock that eichmann evil monster. That she expected to see but rather and now i called her. He was terribly and terrifyingly normal. And then she went on to serve quote. His evil acts were motivated by thoughtless smith. That was neither stupidity. More bureaucratic obedience. To see the world beyond. Cliches. Art's thesis. Was the people carry out unspeakable crimes like aikman. A top administrator of the holocaust. May not be crazy fanatics at all but rather. Ordinary individual. Who simply accept the premises of their state. And participate in any ongoing enterprise. With the energy. A good beer akron. This morning i want to talk about human evil. Evil. As the reading before the sermon will imply. Vilified villains of history there plenty books about the world tyrants and murderers. But the evil and wrongdoing of which we ourselves. As ordinary and usually respectable people are capable. I want to talk about the evils of ordinary people like us. Fall victim to because i think. It's very important for each one of us to realize it given the right circumstances. And the right outside community pressures. Most if not all of us are capable of doing terrible. Harmful and immoral things. But the good news and i assure you this is a note upon which i will end at the end of the sermon. The good news is it by facing and understanding our worst human vulnerability. And by trusting our conscience. To do what is right we can avoid falling victim. Call. The banality. Of evil. What got me thinking about for a bright sunday morning. What got me thinking about all this was the recent. Faulty ignition switch scandal at the general motors corporation of which i'm sure you're all aware because of the extensive. National coverage it generated. Involving that companies decade-long failure to fit. A deadly safety defect that led to at least 50 for serious car accident. And 13 deaths. Here are the facts of the scandal as i understand them. For more than a decade of engineers and executives. Together somehow neglected to ensure. Is very serious ignition switch defect. A defects that cause the engines and power steering of certain gm model. To suddenly shut off while the cars were operating. Leaving too many crashes. These engineers and executives. Indecisive and responsible manner in spite of the fact. They knew full well for years. That this defect was causing horrific accidents. And deaths. At one point and this shows how sinister groupthink can be. Gm dealerships were issued a written warning. Tory recall but simply a warning about the switches. And the faulty part. Not change the parts number. For the new switch. They simply put it in the pipeline which number. Something automobile manufacturers are never supposed to do when they redefine. Because this ensures that the old defective parts. Any longer use. This decision to surreptitiously fix the part. Without taking all the bad switches out of circulation. Remain in the gm parts pipeline. Available for serving vehicles and causing further crashes down the road so to speak. As one critical report put it quote. Although everyone had responsibility problem. Nobody within the company truck that responsibility. The report that employees avoided responsibility for the deadly part with. What is called the gm salute. Which has arms crossed and pointing fingers at one another. Or the gm nod. Which is quote the nod as an empty gesture. The cobalt ignition switch this report 10. Pass through an astonishing number of committees. But determining the actual decision-makers within the company. Was impenetrable. The bottom line here with the state problem. Is it a significant number of highly capable engineers and executives knew beyond all reasonable doubt. But the lives of their customers were being lost because of this defective part. We're willing. Or able to take the professional risk. Just stand up in that corporate culture. Which encourage their silence. Their acquiescence. Their inaction. Getting along. Now i guarantee you. I guarantee you. Did if we looked into the personal lives of these engineers and executives who by neglect and silence. Allowed the continued unnecessary accidents and death. You would find that these people. In michigan mostly. Are overwhelmingly an ordinary respectable people. Either people like us who brush their teeth. Watch cars. Cut their lawns. Texas love their partners raised good kids. And contribute to the growth of their communities. Like the bunnell architects of the holocaust. Did gm employees of course we're not monsters. Just ordinary people who because of social and community pressure. End up doing extraordinary bad things. Even evil. Thanks. So i tell the shameful story about the gm executive engineers who somehow allowed together. This defect to go unfixed. I tell this story not to single them out in. But to remind. The ordinary and otherwise. Generally honorable and upright people are capable under the right circumstances. Of terrible wrongdoing. Let me speak personally. First. Although from a distance i have absolutely no connection with the auto industry. I am shocked by this gm scandal. I must admit i can imagine. Command responsibility is general motors. As so many gm employees apparently repeatedly. Status which defect. Was a complex technical and political situation that someone other than myself. Was responsible for. Corporations and institutions and governments and communities of all kinds are known from time to time. Incredible. And seductive pressure on people. Pressure that prevents them from doing the right thing said differently. Corporation. Institutions and communities sometime. Through both obvious and subtle means asked us to tolerate. Or even penetrate or even perpetrate. Immortal app. As much as i would like to imagine myself as totally immune from such pressure. I suspect that in some complex situations perhaps in combat. I might not be totally moral. I'm honest enough to say that if i'd been one of those many gm engineers and executives. Certain. But i would have been the one. Strong clear unequivocal voice. For doing the right thing. As a unitarian universalist i'd like to think i would always stand up. Regardless of political and personal pressure to do the right thing honestly. Perhaps none of us. That we will always do the right thing until. We are in that moment at either do the right thing. Or by acquiescence. Or neglect. Do the wrong thing. My guess is today. Now that gm's failure to do the right thing has been completely exposed. If you were to ask one-by-one these engineers and executives at this problem. Take decisive action ask them if they are ashamed. Of what of their decisions my guess is and majority. I would say that they do feel guilt for what they did. Not. Do. I suspect more than a few of these individuals wish now. That they had followed reason. It was clear this problem could be fixed and listen to their consciences. And had acted responsibly to get these effective switches out of all gm cars and get them out of them immediately. As with so many things in life in hindsight is clear. What should have happened. And how these gm employees. Have together and individually act of the banality of evil. Something else. Happened. A couple of years ago in a sermon i preached from this pulpit about courage. I told the story of a member of the first society first unitarian society of plainfield. The congregation in new jersey that i serve. For 10 years in the 1980s. One of my parishioners there. Was his client. Conventional middle-age slightly balding pharmaceutical sales executive name. He was as. Tom called me and asked if we could stop by office on the way home from work and discuss. He was having at work. When he arrived he matter-of-factly described the terribly difficult position he was in. It seems that his boss earlier that we could come to him to inform him that one of their company's biggest selling. From for sale in the united states. Due to medical indications that it was causing the death of a number of women patients who had taken it. But his boss because of regulatory red tape the drug marketed overseas. Especially to women in poor undeveloped regions of the world. Probably not be informed of this risk and or would overlook the risk. Is boston for a homeless to move as many million units. Of this hazardous profitable drug overseas as quickly as he could before the international regulators. Stepped in. My parishioners dilemma of course was a stark moral one. Even though i was still apparently. Technically legal. Because of tom's ethical values and his commitment to his unitarian universalist faith and the principle which he spoke to me about the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Not just americans but africans and asians everyone in the world. As a religious or ethical person person if he could even possibly follow his superiors. Callous and indifferent orders to place. Profits over people. Delta further complicate matters was his family's only breadwinner. Good private schools. And the onda nice home. Summit new jersey. With a large mortgage. And he is a caring father and husband was also was tormented then between the tension. Between what his conscience was telling him was the right thing to do that is to refuse his bosses order and his personal duty to end concern for the well-being security. Which would be kept if he kept his head down and did. What he was told. Well as you can imagine we talked about this. Although i firmly believe. He should do what his conscience was telling him. I took in that conversation a socratic approach in discussing it for i think such a decision can only envy envy made. Morally superior person telling him what to do but. But 22 after reflection deciding for himself the next day. Tom walked into his boss's office and told him that he could not in good conscience be a part of marketing the struggle receipt. And asked to be relieved from this assignment and be assigned to other projects in the company. His boss fired him. Fun spot. Do i kill i will tell you for this is important to the story. That is the result of this moral and decision moral decision in this decision of conscience. As a result for standing up. For what he knew was right. Domino's family faced many months. A personal and financial hardship. It was most of the year before he finally found another executive position in the pharmaceutical industry. And got his life. Out of the terrible. Dixie was in. This good man was never in any physical danger of course. But standing up in his workplace for what he knew was right and refusing. What hate to do what he knew was evil. He paid a very high price. Timmy tom will always be an example of a noble and quiet hero a unitarian. Universalist hero who did good. And refused eva. Even when it cost him a great deal. In a tough business and personal situation he honored his highest principles. And followed his conscience. Even when it cost him a lot. Eye of court would have course hope that all of us as unitarian universalist aspire. Over our lifetime. To consistently act with similar moral clarity. When we are faced. Do the right thing. And choose good over evil light i hope we all aspire to that and achieve it. Until i guess. When i think about it. It's rather the nobility. Of conscience. What i'm saying to you today in our complicated. As participants in communities. And corporations. Institutions and organizations and governments. We will from time-to-time inevitable. If we have the moral clarity. And the backbone. To do the right. Sing. People and organizations around us i promise you this. Will routinely offer us convenient. And reasonable sounding excuses. Conscience. As happened with those gm engineers and executives who failed. To remove those deadly switches. What are unitarian universalist. Demands that we always put our conscious first. And that we know what our moral principles are and that we are even when there is great pressure. For us. From others. To neglect. Or ignore or abrogate. Our principal. Last sunday in my first sermon in the series on the sources of our faith. I pointed out that in our liberal faith tradition. We are first and foremost. Call todd. Without reason and our conscience tell us we are to trust our direct experience. In the world that's what the first source says. And live in accordance with what our minds and our hearts tell us. Is real and true and good and right. You want to do that you don't listen to present you don't listen to some. Tyrant. You listen. The still. Voice within. Arises from your direct experience. We are not. In this face tradition to sheepishly follow the crowd. For the corporation. For our elected officials. Even when everybody else. Is thinking and doing that. We are to follow the dictates. Of our own experience. And reason and conscience and do what we believe is right even if it means. We put ourselves. At personal risk. Again. Human history. And community life. Indica. And again proves that ordinary people like us are capable. Great. But the good news. The good news my friends. Is it by listening to what reason. And our conscience tell us we are always capable. Always capable of avoiding people. Even as we live day by day. In that light. Of what we know. To be noble. And true. Android. And i say and mean to you this day. Every sunday the congregation of the first congregational the first parish of concord massachusetts. They say this together as they go into their life. Go out into the world in peace. Have courage. Hold on to what is good. Return to no person evil. Quarryville. Strengthen the faint-hearted. Support the week. Help the suffering. Honor. Going peace. And love.

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2015Apr26Sermon32.mp3

Good morning it's a fabulously beautiful day in vero beach and i am so glad all of you are here. Welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. And i am glad that we have as many as we do. And this is just wonderful. We are a very friendly congregation and which related to see you. Believing that you made the choice to be with us today rather than walking on the beach for doing something else it would also be wonderful on earth day. We hope that you will find our service this morning meaningful in richmond. Provoking. And that you will take away with you and experience. That will add value to your life and that you will remember. And also this morning i understand that the video feed for scott's ride is operational and we will watch the video. It's saturday and tomorrow just about the time you're doing barbara toronto we're glad you're there helping out the congregation i'll come to you by video next sunday from the albuquerque new mexico have a wonderful sunday on ticking of you all and i hope you're with me in spirit as well as the rides have a good sunday. Everyone that i can do usccb sunday readings at the continental divide in the next account we got 100 miles and he wasn't doing great i have been of a chest cold but i'm recovering and we're glad you're still there with the card game so much so i'm about a quarter of the way. Paris is always having a wonderful time. So. We are a community of memory and hopes which meats in the present. And at present it's very warm. Have the earth is very much alive. But that be a metaphor for. Warm & ally. In the present. We are a community of memory and hope which meats in the present. Be present. And be blessed. Well reflecting piece it's called reflecting piece. 3. Short readings the last two. I can assure you about they are by carl sandburg a poet and universalist. The first will wake you up. You only have what you give away right. The sierra club. And the u.s. forest service representing an alternative. To the wyoming ranchers. For controlling the coyote population. It seems that after years of the ranchers using the tried-and-true method of shooting or trapping the predators. The sierra club offered more. Humane solution. What they were proposing was that the animals. The males would then be castrated and let let loose again. This was actually proposed by the sierra club by the way and by the forest service. All of the ranchers thought about this amazing idea for a couple of minutes and. Back of the conference room setup and tipped his hat back and said. Son i don't think you understand the problem here. These coyotes ain't mating with archie the meeting never got back to order. From carl sandburg. Everywhere there is love and love making weddings and babies from generation to generation. Keeping the human family alive and continuing. We are all alike and all countries in all tribes. Trying to read what sky and land and sea you're saying to us. All i can ever alike we are on all continents. All the native love and. God and clothing and worship in speech. Work. Sleep. James dancing and fun. One big family hugging close to this ball of earth for its life. Life in rving. And finally. There was only one horse on earth. And his name is all horses. There's only one bird in the air. And his name is all wings. There is only one fish in the sea. And her name is all fins. There is only one man in the world and his name is all men there's only one woman in the world and. Her name is all women. There was only one child in the world a child's name. Is all god's children. There was only one maker in the world and his children. Cover. Claire i don't know if it makes any difference to you but. Duke ellington once said that those who clap on two and four are democrats and those who clap on one and three are republican. Out of the way first of all the first one is yes i believe in global warming okay. The second one is the question am i a tree hugger. Just a cute one. This is rather difficult i think the preacher on earth. A preacher's task like preaching on mother's day you know that's where you always get the guest minister in. Because everything it's been said. It has to be said has been said. And there's not much new to say. So i started thinking about this daunting task. And i thought about my hometown and times before earth day. About what i saw what i experienced. And the gospel with my life and what does it tell me what my my story. Save your story. And about our attitude about the earth spin. Soma. 70% five scenes which. Started represent 5 attitudes one about the crooked river the winning loser the. Emerald necklace. Pat's family and the saints. And the ball field. Have all that done yet. Now i grew up in cleveland ohio anybody else here from cleveland. Yay thank anybody else here ever been in cleveland. Anybody else ever hear is click. And when i grew up. What is now been called a mistake by the lake. Call. The best location in the nation. What's the fifth largest city. It has all these wonderful things cleveland indians of cleveland browns. The indians are very good football team the browns winning all the times are hockey team winning the cleveland orchestra my god the art museum. Vibrant downtown and gray transportation system. So it wasn't. Perfect but for a kid growing up in the rough-and-tumble area between. The stockyards in the steel mills and had plenty to offer. So i want to reflect on some things that i saw and. And her birthday too. First of all the river. The crooked cuyahoga river. Cuyahoga means crooked. That's a place where the freighters would come in from lake erie is making incredible big turn. And they would go to the steel mills and they drop off or. In the steel mills with drop off all their pollutants into the river. Sometimes i would walk downtown. I lived less than three miles from downtown and i would walk down. Scranton road downing for the flats the industrial section it spread oil. Great. Straight fit. And just before the ridge bridge that crossed the river and went up to downtown near where the ballpark is if you ever watch the indians on. Then you know just where this is. And i would be right by. The river. It was less than 50 yards from me walking along. And there it was. Color. Coffee. With plenty of cream. And about 28 days roaster something you could not identify. Green and swirly and all kind of. Color switch. Eventually became america's. Burning river some of you will remember. And it was witness to something it was witness to what a mess. Humanity can make and has made of nature. And that's a string a lot of people like the pole and still like the full the way screwed everything up to be very blunt. And there's certainly a lot of evidence to point to that and if you go to your own. Vero beach museum you can see an exhibit now photographs of the way people that mess. The environment up. We pollute a lot in the name of progress. And our. Affluence is also our effluence. When i look back at the writings of. The seventies ohmygod. This was around the origin of earth day in 1970 i see a lot of. Alarm a lot of self-flagellation by human beings. There was some of the things that were being sad and some of us. We're guilty of preaching. Examples. Lake erie is dead. It's gone forever the only way that it will ever be cleaned up as if you. Put a hole right in the middle of it and everything out and start all over again. Washington dc with run out of drinkable water by the 1990s. Nice thing i know still drinking there. And between seventy-five and eighty-five per-cent of the animal species would be extinct by 1995. Images book earth first david foreman wrote this. Are you ready. An ice age is coming and i welcome it isn't much needing cleansing i see no solution to our ruination avert. Except for a drastic reduction of the human population. Another words people are no damn good. I don't think mr. forman started with himself by the way in that reduction of the population. Well people do pollute. And we should be concerned. But there's also a warning in this. A fella named greg is easterbrook wrote this. There's a growing sense that the only socially it's respectable attitude toward the environment is pushing the panic button. Fashionable alarm is nevaeh eventually create i. Chicken liver backlash. As the years pass and nature doesn't and people may stop listening when environmentalist issue warnings. Be chicken little. And people may stop listening. Set the first scene. But they're candy wise listening and doing even along the banks of the cuyahoga. Let me tell you about a homemaker. I forget her real last name but i'll call her. Mrs. dombrowski she was polish and she lived in cleveland in fact she lived on a street home than avenue i believe that. Down down into the flats into the industrial area. I knew her because her son was in a. Club in a neighborhood settlement house and i did some consoling with that group for a short time. And i knew her through him. She lived in a house and she knew what my mom knew. I asked from the steel nose. Could be seen on your windowsill. And every day my mother would take a rag. And wipe the windows. And for the houses that were on the eastside. Flats of the valley. They had turned to rust orange. The size of a. All of this. Listen to browski was a vitally concerned citizen so what she decided to do. Western run for city council. To run against an incumbent. Been an incumbent for years. Yours. Because of this because she wanted. She wanted things cleaned up. That's what you wanted. And she gave voice to hers to satisfaction and she ran a vigorous campaign. And she lost. And when i. Saw her on the street one day i said mrs. dombrowski freely. Sorry that you lost that campaign and she said no no don't be sorry i didn't lose. I didn't lose because what i wanted to be heard got her. I didn't lose because my voice was heard. Anderson matter-of-fact because of voices like hers steps were taken to curb the pollution. In the sky as well as in the river. And you'll see if you. Sonic before you can see it now and see the difference. Cleanliness. Skelaxin. At least some of the time we can clean up our messes. We mess we can clean up. The tinkering humanity. Sometimes may cause problems but it can also. Author solutions to those problems. And we need to encourage the creative application of technology. Instead of demonizing. Sometimes we do. You know at the end of one of those many frankenstein movies. Has the castle is burning down one of those. Citizen says. Man was not made to tinker with the unknown. But as a matter of fact we were. Ever since eve first inquired with had those kind of mines. The world without tinkering would be a world without microscopes are telescopes or vaccines are. Heart valves are bronze or batteries or you name it. We are not hopeless. And helpless and dealing. With nature. We can clean up our messes. So technology may take it away. But it also given. But hey. What about not making message to begin with and that brings me to the emerald necklace. Apart of cleveland i did not tell you about. Around the city there is what is called the emerald necklace it is a series of. Parks. Here's what humanity has done also. Reserve like national park. Reserve a a path of greenpath. Why not just leave nature alone. You know eden before the fall saint francis you're putting out his hand in the birds. Stopping on it. That's right. St. francis approach. Why not just love all creatures. Great and small. And isn't there some saint francis in most of us. I think so. If we are polluters we can be preservers you know. Endangered species list and so on. I remember the wonderful times going on field trips when i was in elementary school. I didn't know what a trailing arbutus was but my teacher with pointed out to me as we. Walk and saw the wildflower. Wonderful. St.francis that's an approach let nature be. Saint francis is the saint of. Romantic fantasies about nature. Of the perching birds in the taming of wolves. Skip steps nature as it is and he will not interfere with. The peaceable kingdom. And that's alright. That's very sweet. And it's very nice and it may work for you. Until the day of the pet blessing in church. When my pet boa eat your pet hamster. Nature is wondrous and wonderful. Without human interference. But nature is not just sweet and lovely. Another scene. A scene involving a. Little girl named pat. And a certain weekend. Simon go back to cleveland. Skorts. When i was 15 that's a long time ago. And the object of. My affection was a little girl named. Pat live with her. Step parents. Sister and two little brothers that she just adore. And it was such a sweet time of life that i don't know that there is such innocence today. You know when a little romance went met that you went to a movie and it took you the whole first movie. To put your arm around a girl. Any of you remember that. My the only romantic like that. And holding hands was a real big deal. And phone calls from. Do you remember these they're the phone votes in the drugstores you know you would call and talk. Saturday night. Spring. I can tell you the year 1956. I was with my buddies doing what we often did we went to tony's house and in tony's house. Tony had a high-five remember those. Hi with records have been around him. And we were listening to jazz music. And we're having our usual good time talking and listening and. Criticizing and. And suddenly started. And it was looking like there was some big rain on a nice night in the spring we got up on the top. Porch. Porch roof. And we watch then the wind kept on. Until we saw garbage cans. Fly over fences that were this high. And suddenly decided that discretion was the better part of valor. And emily rent in not only into his room but under his bed. And things went on like this for a while. It was scary. And i sent to one of my friends and i have a bad feeling about pat. Don't forget about it so i did. Until the next day came to sunday and after kind of hanging out with the guys again. I decided to give. Hadacol. I called her house and strange voice answer. Woman who identified herself as pat's wife. Excuse me. I took backpack on that. See if you don't write it down. Pat's at. And she said she had come to the phone now. I figured out she's had another fight with her sister right. She said no haven't you heard. And then the story unfolded. It seems that i'm. The night before that saturday night. Her stepfather was walking with. Two little brothers. They were taking a walk. Oakley near the zoo. The big bridge that. Comes over the park. And as the wind whipped up. Stepfather decided we better get out of here so. He saw this little little tavern. The boys went in with him. Activate den in only a few minutes. There was a rattling in the. Shaq started to collapse. And so the stepfather grab the two boys like this. And as the shack collapse that fell on his back opening his arms. The boys flew out. Crushed to death. Nature. Isn't. Only always spend memphis. Sometimes we live by that nature is beneficence. It's wonderful it isn't. You can ask another fellow i went to school with who lost everything in his cottage in. By hurricane sandy must have suffered some losses we. Certainly have an inr home and yard. Mysteries and. And some of them on our roof. So. I can no longer accepted romanticized you as nature is alba nificent. And lachlan. Nature is nature. It's wonderful and it's awesome. But nature also overwhelming. And nature kills. How to nature lovers deal with floods and tornadoes and earthquakes. They can be implicated in debts many more deaths even than some of our atomic. But i've never seen him picketed tsunami. But to be realistic nature. Not only awesome it can be. Awful. And it's really strange recall such as ants acts of god. Never noticed that. Tornadoes are acts of god. Reminds me of one of my buddies from way back then says. Give me that old testament god he never takes anything from anybody. And that's the god of nature. So how do i integrate all of this well for me. It has to do with the saint. And the ball field. Back to the cleveland flats again that part where the valley goes like this and then. You have industry and trucking places in river and. And also some barren spots. And there was an area directly at the edge of the valley directly west of the steel mills. Ugly. Hard round pitted rocks. Patches of crabgrass here in their weeds a little bit maybe a nasty. Assertive marcy parts. But since it was an open space that was a place we could go. To play ball and we did. Are we played baseball there we played football there and need i say it was not a nice place to be tac. So jump ahead from then to today. Except for its flatness she wouldn't recognize her. Grass. Trees. Well-manicured ballfields. Soccer teams are waiting in cars. To get off into the fields. So what happened. Well it wasn't people messing up nature. It wasn't even people cleaning up their own messes. It wasn't people just. Protecting and preserving what nature had produced. And it wasn't just nature running amok. What it was was a partnership between nature and humanity. It was a. An approach is personified by a sixth-century month. Benedict. Gosite remark here. Is betty trees that in liberal circles. Whenever i've seen in earth day program. Invariably somebody mentions. Oh gosh chief seattle. And the speech that he made about natura first of all he never made the speech that he's allegedly made so mad. Ryder made it fall. It it's kind of strange that we. Get out of our own heritage. Our own judeo-christian heritage where we do have. Some some presidents for us including and very importantly benedict. Benedict establish the religious order which cultivated land. Sometimes apparently desolate and presumably barren land. Throughout western europe. Wasn't just like kenya we mess it up or cleaning up. It was genuinely. Taking the lab taking what nature had given which wasn't quite a lot. And make it more. Farms forest vineyards landscape cultivated and shaped. A writer wrote this of a section of southampton. England. Nature lecture cell. Ran wild. Riot. And chaos more and more and more into the 7th century. Till the whole. This area became one. Dismal swamp. Writing five centuries later an old woman called it a paradise. Groves of trees. Fruit trees herbs. This was a product. Man and nature. Impartner. Through the benedictines. I did this. They cultivated land throughout europe and italy in. All is western europe. And this is not to mention a very famous benedictine who i'm sure some of you have heard of. Dom perignon. You can thank him.. Go to there. There are some things that neither humanity nor nature can do alone. We are most benefited seems by a. Partnership. I can personally testify to you that this. True. About what i saw in the flats in cleveland. And i am also reminded of something that happened in the church that i serve for 25 years. In the back. Grosse pointe unitarian church. There is a big wonderful circle garden. And one time at flowers oh my. Magnificent. Somebody said to me something that isn't it wonderful what god has given you there. And i said yeah but you should have seen it before patty melt started digging and putting them in. It's not just. Nature. Answer partners. So the occasion of. Earth day gives us a chance to reflect as we can. Then and only then. Actors we will. Or as we must. The natural world. Of which we are apart. Read that in the principles i love that. Natural world of which we are parked the web. Of interconnected well every web is interconnected isn't it. But the natural world of which we are apart is not something to be abused. It's not something to righteously fight about. It's not something to sentimentalize. It's not something to ignore. It's a precious inherit. To be cared for and partner with. In whatever ways we can. With whatever gets we have. Loving and living as best we can those precious moments. That we are given to share. With our life. Our lives. And with all other. In the web of life of which. You are a part. Be a compassionate holy link. The finds the dead with the living. The living with the not yet sworn in such a way. That the eyes of eternity eternity widening. Rather than we. Try to see if those eyes. That the dust of our common destiny you not make you afraid. For the source of our being vines us as one. Saints and sears. Raging seas. And twinkling stars. Amen.

uufvb_org

2012Jul08Sermon128.mp3

This morning. As we do hopefully enjoy these long mellow and yes quieter days of summer. I want to share an important and i think truly interesting story. Harmar unitarian universalist past. Which i suspect you if any of you are familiar with the less you google. Abner did you google abner whelan. Well you're the only one bob. Far as i know 19th century universal. Various. Abner nelons historical claim to fame is that he was the last man in america jail. For blasphemy. That being the year 1838. In massachusetts. I'll tell you that dramatic and interesting part of the story a bit later in the sermon. But there's much more about the life and thought of abner kneeland. Who won denominational historian calls quote the most controversial character. Ever ordained a universalist. That is important for us to understand his story is. As you use living almost 200 years later. The story of this complicated. And iconoclastic man whose thinking was in many ways remarkably about 100 years ahead of his time. Pretty much single-handedly tells the story of how our faith. Has changed and evolved over the last two centuries. An evolution that is crucial for you to understand. As we continue the space tradition. Here in vero beach. In the 21st century. But before i can effectively tell the story of abner kneeland i need to give you a little background into the history. Of american universalism. And american unitarianism. That they were separate movements. So you'll understand the context in which reverend kneeland made such. Splash. Volvo both religious movements of our heritage go back was in 500 years. When they sprang up as organized movements in the reformation in europe. Both unitarianism and universalism were essentially liberal. American. Christian sex. That established themselves in new england. During the 18th and 19th century along with methodism and presbyterianism and all the other denominations that we have reformed church. All the other many. A reformation sex. Now. Even though the early unitarian universalist pretty much theologically resemble. Then. What a lot of mainstream christian denominations look like today. Back in early new england they were regarded as dangerous heretical movements. Buy the more orthodox christian traditions. Including the puritans. Who dominated religion. In early america. Indeed are very names unitarian and universalist were basically - hostel slurs. Given to us not by ourselves. By the conservatives they were saying well you know he's nothing but a unitarian. And so forth. Puritan missionaries on the western frontier places like st louis for example routinely referred and their fire and brimstone sermons to those twin evil. Infidelity. And universalism. And unitarian. Were similarly maligned by the orthodox tradition. So the thing you need to remember is that both halves of our faith traditions were born in a hermetically context. We were considered by the theological majority. To be false and dangerous religious thinkers. Are unitarian and universalist forebears always had to fight. In the public square. To establish the legitimacy of their liberal theological beliefs. And faced in the face of being labeled heretics by the dominant church. Just to give you a snapshot of nineteenth-century universalist kristen thought. I want to read to you now the text of what is known as the winchester confession. Adopted by the new england universalist convention in the year 1803. Which define universalist the ology in that time only read it to you. The winchester profession of faith. We believe that the holy scriptures of the old and new testaments. Contain a revelation. Of the character of god. End of the duty. Interest and final destination. Of mankind. We believe there is one god. Whose nature is love. Revealed in one lord. Jesus christ. Buy one holy spirit of grace. Who will finally restore the whole family of mankind. To holiness and happiness that didn't make the puritans. We believe. That holiness and true happiness. Are inseparably connected. And the believers ought to maintain order. And practice good works. For these things are good and profitable. Unto men. So this was the fiercely christian contacts. Into which abner neyland cause such a ruckus. Now here's his story is another more handsome charming picture of him as a younger man. And by the way yours affectionate. Abner. this is sort of like a publicity still i guess. He was born. In gardner massachusetts on april 6th. 1774 two years before the signing of the declaration of independence. He was the six. 10 children. His formal education in this was true for many universalist ministers. Who are more rural and less educated than their urban. Unitarian. Counterpart. His formal education. Stopped after one year in the academy. If basically high school. In chesterfield new hampshire. After which. He moved to vermont with one of his brothers. To practice carpentry. Like his father before him. And he also taught school and compiled. Spelling book. After joining the baptist church in nearby putney vermont at the age of 27. He began to preach as ale baptist preacher. But in less than two years he met the famous universalist preacher hosea ballou. Who's theology and belief he shortly thereafter adopted. Early universalism defining theological idea with. Very very different. From the sin and damnation centered theology of the puritans. As the winchester a confession reflected. Was a god they viewed was in charge of the god in charge of this creation. Was a good and loving it a powerful god not an angry and vengeful. Who in the end. Would save an embrace all his human children. Even the most wayward. Do the universal has said that there was no hell in damnation. For all human souls would eventually be united with god in heaven. And that humanity with its inherent. Get. Goodness given to them from their father god. That humanity was capable of creating an approximation of the kingdom of god. Here on earth. Kneeland took this positive theology to heart. And began to preach these universalist words. He began his universalist career as an itinerant preacher in new hampshire. Finally setting settling in the church in langdon new hampshire. Which he successfully pastured for 7 years. During this time he was credited with converting several orthodox preachers. To the universalist caught. In 1811. Neyland move to a new church. In charlestown massachusetts just outside the thriving city of boston. Under his energetic and charismatic leadership the church prosper. And his reputation is. Persuasive. And inspiring preacher gru. 1 cardigan. Describe him thusly. The most venerable man. I ever saw in the pulpit. Does commanding presence. All illuminating blue eyes. His voice never boisterous. Distemper never ruffled. Wonderfully impressive and calmness. And persuasive candor. Remarkably self-possessed.. Atarax. There was a quiet dignity in all of his movements. And then this person went on. Besides all this his moral character was clear of blemish. As we can reasonably hope to see anywhere. But just three years into his charlestown ministry kneeland abruptly resigned. His pulpit. Abandoned the universalist ministry. And went into the. Dry-goods business. With his wife. He claimed to be leaving the ministry for financial reasons but the truth was. He was beginning to have serious doubts. As one historian put it. About the authenticity. Of christian scriptures. And the authority of christian revelation. He once wrote. I have had my doubts as to the truth. Of many things recorded in the bible. But the universalist general convention the national church body of the universalist. Would not accept losing so talented and energetic a minister and so in 1814 they begged him. To return. An 18-16 after a long correspondence. Debate with his old friend hosea blue over the fine points of universalist and christian doctrine. Which was published by the way these letters back and forth. He did return to the universalist full. First. To our church in whitestown whitestown new york in 1816. And then to the lombard street church in philadelphia in 1818. Vanillin was unable. To repress the serious doubts he was having about christian faith. And both his colleagues in the universalist ministry. And the congregants in the churches he served were alienated. And upset and offended. By the increasingly unorthodox content of his sermons. Azleland theological and social ideas became more radical and controversial. Controversy swirled around him. But it didn't slow him down a bit as one historian writes. During is philadelphia years. At the lombard street church. Neyland was almost superhuman lee busy. He published sermons and tracks. Edited denominational and secular newspapers. Compile the hymnal. What's the universalist church rejected. Made a translation of the new testament. And developed a new system of spelling. He engaged in several public marathon theological debates with other orthodox clear with all orthodox clergy. And helped his wife with a new dry goods store and serve. As a government inspector. Of imported cats. That's all he did in philadelphia. I'm known as kind of an energizer bunny myself but this guy puts me to shame. By this time abner kneeland. Who's the illogical and social thinking was moving further and further away. Traditional. Understanding. Was in perpetual conflict with both the universalist church of america. And with every conjugation. Conserve. After bitterly dividing is philadelphia corrugation with his radical ideas. He moved to a church in new york city. And thereafter conflict over his ministry arose in that congregation. 21 in boston where his preaching once again caused him to lose his pulpit. You know he was not a stable career kind of guy. Finally in 1829 things came to a head. At the urging of his old friend hosea balloon kneeland formally renounce. Christianity. And was disfellowshipped by the new england universalist convention. But this did not mean the neyland. And is incredibly fertile mind. Was silenced. In 1831 having abandoned. Sienna t. But not free religion. He started his own newspaper called the boss. Investigator. Any became active in an emerging movement called the free thought movement. Which was not christian. But liberal. Wearing intellectually remained in this free thought movement. Until his death. As the lead lecturer of the newly founded first. Society of free inquiries is that a great name. It was basically a congregation. The first society of free inquires of boston. Neon film. The federal state federal street theater each sunday and wednesday evening. With more than. 2000. Listener. Accession. And they were excited. Intrigued in boston by his modern and radical thing. And just what did he believe what was all this radical thought well. In 1833. He put much of his post-christian. Naturalistic. Libertarian thinking. To a paper. Called a philosophical creed i read from it now to you. I believe kneeland began. In the existence of a universe of suns and planets. Among which there is one son. Belonging to our planetary system. And then other son's being one more remote are called stars. But that they are indeed sons. Two other planetary systems. I believe that the whole use kind of putting humanity into perspective. I believe that the whole universe. Is nature. And that the word nature embraces the whole universe. And the god of nature. So far as we can attach any rational idea to other. Are perfectly synonymous terms. I thought he went on. I am not an atheist. As some charge. What a pantheon. That is instead of their believing there is no god. I believe all is god. And then all power that is is in god. And if there is no power except that which precedes. From god. Hence i believe the god is all in all. And that. All of that is. And that it is in god we live. Move and have our being it is. God. We live and move and have our being. And that the whole duty of man. Consist in living as long as he can. And then promoting as much happiness. As he can. Well he lives. And elsewhere in explaining how he moved past traditional universalist. And kristen thinking he wrote. In some respects i am still universalist. But another's i am not. I still hold of course to universal philanthropy. Universal benevolence. And universal charity. I'd like the universalist i do not believe in punishment after death. And in these respects i am still universalist. But in several other important respects. He said i am no more a universalist. Then i am an orthodox christian. Universalist believe. In a transcendent personal god which. I do not. Universalist believe in christ. Which i do not. I believe the whole story concerning him. Is as much a fable and a fiction. As that say of the god of prometheus. And then he goes on universalist believe in miracles. I do not. A universalist believe in the resurrection of the dead and immortality and eternal life. Which i do not. I believe that all life. Is mortal. The death. Is any turtle extinction of life. To the individual who possesses it. And that no individual lives forever. Ever be eternal. And then that was a. Sharks. Those who believe in. Crisis in federal figure. And then nealon ended. Hence. As universalist. No longer wish to consider me as being of their faith i no longer wish to be considered in their order either you can't fire me i quit. Add a relates to the belief he went on in things unseen i profess. To believe in all realities of which i can form a rational conception. And nothing more. Tony owned essentially evolved. From being a universalist christian. In a traditional universalist way. To being irrational naturalistic humanist. Almost 100 years before rational naturalistic humanism. Took significant hold in american intellectual life and then unitarianism and in universal. In addition to his own unorthodox. Theological and philosophical ideas he also held it may not surprise you to hear radical social and political views for his day. He was fiercely communitarian. Believing as jesus said. The society's well must be shared for the benefit of all he was not at. He endorsed tax-supported national education system. He supported anti-monopoly laws for big business. He fought for improved conditions for american workers. And land reform for the rural poor. He also supported equal rights for blacks. And the fact was one of the first universalist clergy to come out again. Slavery. In 1830 when no one in all of boston would provide the great abolitionist william lloyd garrison. A place to speak. Abner invited him to speak at his free-throw at society and julian hall. Anyone even spoke up in favor of them the almost. Universally condemned practice. Of interracial marriage this in 18. He wrote. The basic principle of society. Should be the principal of perfect equality. Esther rights and privileges. Totally regardless. Effects. Totally regardless. Of color. Kneeland also care deeply about women and families issue family issues. Enthusiastically married. 4 *. Being being widowed in succession by his first three wives. And even fathered a child by his fourth wife when he was late in his 60. He advocated equal rights for women suggesting the keep their own names and bank accounts upon marriage. And have the right to divorce their husband and almost unheard-of suggest. In 1840. And have the right to practice. Birth. Once. During a lecture late in his career. After he had rejected much of biblical scripture authority. Frequently calling the bible fiction. Neyland read from the old testament book of leviticus. In this speech. Which instructed husbands do quote. Suffer not a woman. During her time of month. To be near you because. She is unclean. And then. Kneeland bellowed from his pulpit. That's not true women or not i'm cleaning it anytime. And then he said this isn't a very good book and its attitudes toward women and he threw the bible. Like that. Now you're getting to know why he's about to be convicted of heresy i think. This story best illustrates why this free and fiery thinker. Who always had a way of drawing public attention to himself was in the persecuted prosecuted and jailed. For blasphemy. After years of radical lecturing and publishing in boston. He was accused by a massachusetts grand jury. Of being an atheist and a blasphemer and was indicted. I must point out here that sadly. Many of his accusers. Came not just from the puritan circles but also from the unitarian elite. Who dominated massachusetts. Kneeland underwent five blasphemy. 5. From 1834. And 1838. Where is several historians observe he was try that only for his unorthodox theological ideas. But for his social thought. As well. At one place in the court record was recorded quote. The denial of god his creation or final judging of the world. With the intent and purpose. Knee-length to disparage god. And a or destroy the reverence due to him capital h. Is. Blasphemy. In fact kneeland had moved in his thinking not to atheist. As he himself said. He had moved to pantheism. He wrote i believe the god and nature. Both capitalized in his writings both god and nature. So far as we could attach any rational idea to either. Are synonymous terms hence i am not an ac. What a pantheon. And instead of believing there is no god i believe is i read you earlier that all is god. It is in god we live and move and have our being. And that the whole duty of man consist. Living as long as he can. And them promoting as much happiness for. No. This is rather tame stuff. In the 21st century. And in many many in our congregation. Hold similar theological views but for 19th century. Kristen new england this was all too much. Ulta modern all to way way way left. The prosecuting attorney for the commonwealth of massachusetts further warned the jury. And some of you may recognize this as being similar to the attacks. The religious conservatives are making against gay marriage today. He warned that if neyland were not punished for his ideas quote. Marriages will be dissolved. Prostitution made easy and safe. Moral and religious restraints will be removed. Property invaded in the foundations of society broken up. A property made common. And universal mischief. And misery will ensue unquote. 4 time. Kneeland one appeals. The guilty verdict. But the fifth time is fifth blasphemy trial he lost. And the governor of massachusetts. Refused a petition of leniency. Zion by leading unitarians ralph waldo emerson. Ralph william ellery channing another intellectual luminaries of boston. Based on the principles of freedom of speech and the press. Kneeland served his full 60-day term in the dark. And miserable recesses of the boss. Common jail. When i used to walk to work in boston. I would pass that. It's a miserable. Is it snowing. I think they liked it up a little bit put in windows and other stuff. Anyway those who visited kneeland in prison found him quote in fine fettle. Enjoying his markers roll. At 11 of the great unitarian clergyman theodore parker wrote after he visited him. Abner was jug for 60 days. But he will come out as beer from a bottle all forming and he will make others phone. But this was not to be the ku / you're going to beer beer and bourbon last week we're still on beer. But this was not to be the case. The truth is that abner neyland left jayla broken man. Disappointed. Dispirited humiliated. And hurt by the many vicious attacks directed at him. Including those attacks. It came from him. From other universala. Even his natural enthusiasm for life. Could not hide the fact that after prison. He was a broken man. Upon his release. Abner decided to abandon massachusetts. It was all its orthodox. Social and religious constraints. He gathered a few of his free-thinking followers. And move to the midwestern frontier to a place. Call. Celebria. Iowa. Near what is today farmington iowa on the banks of the des moines river. This is a plaque. That. Ref. There. Indicating the founding of this utopian. Community. A utopian community were three thought. Free speech. Intellectual pursuit and social equality. Would be encouraged. What's a small idealistic idealistic community never prosper. In large part. Kneeland historian stephen papa reports. Because of its impractical location. Some 100 feet up the steep bank from the river. Which made supplies from the boats difficult. You know. Kneeling was a better theologian and philosopher that he was topographer. Despite the fact that this community languished. His granddaughter reported that although during these iowa years. Neyland was poor and not in good health. He had his integrity. I just family and he was happy. And she wrote of the quote loving atmosphere of their home. And the pleasant social life. In the little settlement in iowa. As one historian and story. Goberian never flourished and folded soon after nelons death. In 1844 at the age of 70. Only a few headstones remain there to mark the settlement. But historians of his colony. Still live in the area. And historian remember him as a founding father. Of the state of iowa. So. I hope that on some level at least everyone here this morning. Find some aspect of this man's story to be of interest. But regardless of whether history is really your thing or not the question remains what is this. Have to do with us. Is unitarian universalist. Living in this. Early these early years the 21st. I think this life remind us about two important events. First. Even unitarian and universalist proudly. Born because other condemned us as heritage. Have and still cannot believe. Fall victim. To narrow parochial conventional and excusatory. Exclusive tori thinking. In this congregation today we're blessed by having people all over the theological and philosophical map. We have theists and humanists the different varieties here we have atheists and agnostics. Skeptics of various sorts. We have mystics and pagans and natural is buddhist and christian. And people treasuring their christian roots. And numerous other theological and philosophical nuances i can't even imagine until you tell me about the. Unitarian universalism. Is a welcoming. An open place. Where we cherish both. The spiritual diversity we have. And the fertile conversations and cross pollination. Which naturally arise when we share our differing ideas with one another. Here at you us tv at in our movement as a whole we must never forget. That our greatest strength is when we are a very large spiritual 10. Deborah phan theological 10th and political. Refuses to exclude anyone. For their beliefs. So that's the first thing we're a very big tent and must always remain so. And the second thing neil and reminds us is the eternally evolving and fluid nature of our particular faith. Justice neelam thinking. Constantly changed on evolve is over his lifetime. So must we as individuals and as a movement evolve and be open to new expressions. Of ourselves. American unitarian-universalism is. And always. Is and has always been a moving living growing changing thing. The last time we worked on the seven principles that. You see on the order of service. This. A statement of principles was established in the 1970s and we are now beginning a process of taking a look at the seven principles. To see what changes we want to make. Overtime we are going to evolve. Some movements. They want to stay absolutely encrusted with their oldest ideas. We are not that kind of face tradition. Sweet natalie. A welcome change we initiated. And so we are a movement that. Constantly. Moving evolve. Well meal and stinking. Seemed downright blasphemous in 1834. Today his ideas. Same kind of called and benign. Indeed nealon point of the way almost three generations before our movement was ready for the transition. Towards humanism and toward a social humanism. The cared for all purse. So i take it on faith that. Over the next couple of. Decades unitarian-universalism will change. That is a very. Very good thing of very good. The story of abner kneeland. Reminds us that in the end. We have little to fear. New ideas and the evolution of faith and thought. Is turbulent and passionately. Reminds us that while change and new thinking is never comfortable. It is absolutely necessary. If we as a religion are to maintain relevancy. Dynamism. And health. So hold on to your hats dear friend. For the story of our faith is a work in progress. I trust and wilma's trust. The theme folding future will take us to fresh new exciting places. We won't always be comfortable with the way we're moving. But we must move. Do a transformative. Healing and good place. And i just want to say today. Thank you abner. Thank you for showing us the way. To being a fresh. And dynamic. And open. And i say i mean.

uufvb_org

2014Jan12Sermon128.mp3

Well good morning. And welcome beautiful january day here in vero beach florida to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach. We are very glad you have chosen to spend this hour with us. We are congregation of open minds. Loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best individual selves. Even if we work together to make this world a better place. Please know that you are welcome. Just. You come to us. Whether you are black. Or white. Gay or straight. Young or old. What are you are feeling on top of the world this morning or. Down in the dumps or somewhere in between. We welcome you in all of your particularity in need. We hope you will find our service this morning meaningful and enriching. And then you will find something here this morning. That nourishes your spirit and feeds you soul and gives you renewed purpose and joy. For the living of life in the days and weeks ahead. The last thing i want to introduce our guest speaker this morning the reverend doctor. Call randy becker who serves our fellowship in the conch republic otherwise known as key west. And randy randy and i have known each other for over 40 years and he's a rascal in our ministry just like me and i'm delighted to share him with you this morning. So randy we're so glad randy was here yesterday to do a leadership development process for us. And we have a long-standing relationship with dr. becker. Who's been here four or five times in the last couple. Unitarian universalist minister and author robert fulghum road everything i needed to know i learned in kindergarten. Has said this. We come to this place because we need each other. We need each other. We need to see each other we need to touch. Each other we need to smell each other we need to hug. Each other. We need each other so we come to this place. We come to work. To talk. To sing to laugh. To dance. We call this a religious community. Not because this is holy ground. But because what we do here. What we say here. Together. And what we are here together. Makes this. A sacred gathering. I bring you greetings. From one island family the southernmost unitarian universalist congregation in key west. We love to come up here to the north. Hello yesterday you reminded me of home with your wonderful warm weather. In a way you've already heard one of the readings because what we heard plenty of cher is. The words for all ages was one of our readings. I've got another two. The first one is from stephen prothero he's a professor of religion at. Boston university has written that book. God is not one. Interesting thesis. Is so often in the world people say well it's all the same god it's all the religions are the same and he says. By doing that. By saying that all religions are basically the same. We are robbing them of their potential to inform us. And we're doing them a grave disservice. He says that each of the world's religions. Address is a different facet of the human experience. And offers a different solution anyway it's these words. A few years ago. When what would jesus do bracelets. Were colonizing evangelical wreaths across america. A friend started making. What would you do bracelets. Forget what jesus would do. Joseph. Or katie do. Inside the packing boxes. For these bracelets. She talked sayings from various thinkers. About finding and following your own path. In almost all religions. There was at least the intimation. That one god or heaven wants for us. Is the simply become ourselves. When the 18th century hasidic rabbi zuzia reaches the next world god will not ask him it is said. Why were you not moses. We're rather why we you're not zuzia. The masters say the dow has 10,000 gates. And it's up to each of us to find our own. To explore the great religions. Is the wander through these 10000 gates. It's to enter into the hindu conversations on the logic of karma and rebirth. Christian conversations on the mechanics of sin and resurrection. And i was conversations on flourishing here and now. And perhaps forever. It's also to encounter the rivalries between hindus and muslims in india between jews and muslims in israel between christian and yoruba partake. Practitioners in nigeria. Each of these rivals offers a different vision of. A human being being fully alive. Each offers its own diagnosis. Of the human problem. And its own prescription for the cure. Each offers its own techniques. For reaching its religious goal. And it's on exemplars to emulate. Would love them say that pride is the problem. Christian say that salvation is a solution. Education and ritual are key to confusion techniques. And buddhism's exemplars. Are they are hot the bodhisattva and the llama. Are each of them right. Each of them wrong. All them right. All them wrong. That's the question asked by. Stephen prothero in. God is not one. The other reading i want to share as maya angelou's wonderful poem i know why the caged bird sings. The free bird leaps on the back of the wind. And float downstream till the current ends and dips his wings in the orange sun rays. And dares to claim the sky. But a bird that stalk down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage. His clip wings are clipped. And his feet are tied. So he opens his throat. To sing. The caged bird sings with fearful trill. Of the things unknown but longed for still in his tune is heard on the distance hill. For the caged bird sings of freedom. Free bird thinks of another breeze. And the trade winds soft through the sighing trees. And the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn. I mean names the sky his own. But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams. His shadow shouts a nightmare scream. His wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing. The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknowing butt. Long for still. And his tune is heard on the distant hill. For the caged bird sings. A freedom. Maya angelou. So stephen prothero. Makes this argument. He says each of the world's religions. Is focus on one of the central human problems in for that religion. The problem identify is in fact the central problem of the human condition. He says if we dig into look at everything as if it were the same. We miss that emphasis we miss that nuance we we miss. That driving force that is made religions exist. For millennia eons even. Let's say his thesis is correct. But each of the great world religions. Looks at human beings and says here's the problem. And then of course being good religions. They say and here's the solution. Only we know the problem. And only we have the solution. Question arises for me. As a member of the free church. The cherishes the teachings of all the different religions and. Looks at the world as a place of multitudinous. Opportunities and possibilities the question is as a unitarian universalist. As part of liberal religion. Does that mean that our congregations are nothing more than lending libraries of the problems and solutions of other religions. Is that what we're about here that. We cherish all of them and we make it available that you can take this one out this weekend that one out next weekend. Maybe have one that's long overdue because you kept at home so long it became your problem. Orange back using his model. Using his ideas. Do unitarian universalist. See a unique human problem. And suggest their own special solution. Or are we just basically the smorgasbord of religion. Well let's take a little bit more i'll look if we can. At. What it is that. Prothero argue. About each of the world religions. All we're going to have that problem are we the technological problem it'll come once more watch this. Behave. Come on. Although it's being ornery this morning is it not. I know what's doing it. It's the weather. We'll ignore that we can do it the old way. His argument is. That for example. Islam says the problem for humanity. Is human pride and arrogance. That we think we know better. Then the creator of all existence. Then we will take upon ourselves. A mantle of power going back to the tribalera in the arab area. But we don't need anybody else as long as we've got our sword. And our horses. We can dominate. And his mom says no. That problem will lead you to places you don't want to go. So the suggestion the solution is. Submission. The very word meaning submission islam. A submission to the forces of life and nature and reality that are larger than you. So there's one problem. Pride. One solution. Submission. There was a time of terrible unrest. In china. And the question came how can this unrest be good for human beings. And so the problem was identified by confucius. As being that of civil unrest. How can we get on with anything of meaning as long as there's such chaos out there. And he said the simple answer the simple solution is this. True education. And training. Learn the proper things to do and the proper ways to do it. If the problem is civil unrest. Then there must be a structure of proper behavior. Long ago across the sub-continent of asia down into india. It was perceived that the great problem was that people were willful. They just did whatever they wanted to do it wasn't a matter of power or anything it was just a matter of. I'm having no focus. I'm going at any moment's notice to do whatever they wanted. The problem was human willfulness. And the solution suggested was that. You ought to be devoted to something. You ought to be able to focus in your life in some way so that you weren't just willy-nilly going through life. And so the hindu traditions of the many. Focal points of devotion. Developed over eons. So it should be reminded that it's not just whatever whenever. But there are some things. The continued in transcend and you should be devoted to them in some way. The jewish tradition. Of the great covenant. It says that there is a special relationship between the creative force. And a group of people. But the problem is that the world is large in the group of people is small and the group of people is moving about they can't always be where they were. And so the problem is. How do you know if you're part of that community. The solution is a series of rules and identifying rituals. By which you will know that you are part of that identity. You've got to prove it somehow and here is the solution. By acting worshiping believing speaking in certain ways that are distinctive. The yoruba tradition. The tribal traditions out-of-africa come across the caribbean areas. And now it's the most of the world. Saw different problem. They saw and experienced people living in isolation. People who were. Terribly horribly alone. They had no sense of where they belong or to whom they belong. The whole idea of the tribe has been lost. Until the problem was human isolation. And the solution. A focus in multitudinous ways on connection. You're connected to your neighbor you're connected to your village you're connected to your pastor connected to your future you're connected in all kinds of ways. 2000 years ago. After the life of a person who preached about love and. Connection and identity and many of these things. A religious tradition grow up that said you know i think we know what the problem really is. And so the christian focus became. A focus on. The failures of human beings. What's usually called sin. That's the big problem. You're all sinful. We're all sinful. Louis that's what they are and. You can't solve it. And so the solution that's offered up. Is salvation. That has to come from outside of you. Sinfulness. And salvation. The dallas. Saw people. Going through their lives. Acting out rituals a devotion and understanding of propriety. But with no sense of purpose. But the problem for human being as well as any essential meaninglessness. Feeling that what's the purpose of doing this at all. He get born. Yellow live. He had i. And then they said but the solution is to understand. The jew or point in the pathway is part of a larger way. And what you do with the part that's yours influences the whole. And i know that you're on that and whatever is come before whatever will come after. It's all part of a continuum. That goes on. And then into the modern era we have the rise by name but is always been there in spirit. Of the religious option of non-belief. In fact that option says that the great religious problem of humanity is that their religious. Says. You fill me with a logic. You fill me with meaning or so. You fill me with superstition that's the problem. Because denies my innate human capacity. Forethought. Reason for deduction and so the solution obviously is. A form of reasonableness. Of. Reliance on fact scientific method that's the solution. Buddhist. Would say. You can get all that right but you know what. You're still going to experience suffering. At the heart. Of human existence. Is the problem. Of suffering. And there's nothing you can do. To escape it. Except. A mindfulness about who you are. Anna non-attachment the things. The solution is. The more you become non attached to things. The last you will suffer their loss. So here we have. All of these different world religious traditions. And they've all identified different problems. Is the problem. Pictures sinful is the problem that you're prideful isn't that your willful isn't that you're disconnected isn't that you don't know how you can prove your identity isn't that a fact you're living in a superstitious world what is it what is the problem. And it's one of them would say it's a different problem. And probably each of us here would say you know. There are times in my life. Maybe even this morning. When i put a den of phi. With one or more of those problems being my problem. And therefore there have been times in my life maybe even this morning. What i'm hoping for a solution like they're offering. Because i see there is a truth the reality and. Each of those. Religious traditions. There's something there to be cherished. But then comes the liberal religious question. Is it simply enough. To offer all those perspectives. Or is there something more. Couldn't we just spend our time going from group to group to group as our spirit calls us. Or are necessity demands hoping that their solution will work or. Is there something else happening another possibility. Let me suggest. This. That if we look back to the roots and origins. A liberal religion. And i'm not just talking about the nineteenth-century unitarian universalist in america. Nor even back to transylvania or all those things of the czech republic in that. I'm talking about at the foundational level. A few minutes distance there has been another argument. And that is the argument about. The nature of existence. Are we living in a flawed existence. Are we living in an existence. Which leaves us wanting. Out of its basic design. Or are we living in an existence in which we have all the tools and possibilities we could possibly want. And the challenges for us to somehow. Use what we have been given. To the best potential. Do we see the abundance that is around us. Do we sense the possibility. For growth in each of us. Do we sense the capability for love to flow into community. Do we sense the idea that. Tomorrow could be better than yesterday. People have been arguing and especially those within our tradition for centuries. That's the central human problem. That we have a potential. Far beyond what we fulfill. That we have the means by which to create the world we envision. That out there are the tools. And the resources and the models and the possibilities. To make this world wonderful and bright not just for ourselves but for everyone. And the problem is. We don't do it. Sometimes they don't believe we can do it. Sometimes we don't believe that everything we need is there. Sometimes were scared. The take on the task. Sometimes we're even scared that we actually will do it. And then what would we have to complain about. That's a really big one by the way. Afraid of our own power. More than afraid of our own lack of power. But that as a central problem. Not addressed in any of the other religious traditions i think is one that we can name a known. The jazz we may make mistakes and yes we may be willful and yes at times we lose our identity. But the central issue. The central problem. Is what are you going to do with this one. Wild and precious life you have been given in which there is so much more possible than has already been shown to be true. What are you going to do. But if that is the problem we identify. Then what. The solution. They can't just say. There is a problem. It got us a solution. What is keeping you. From fulfilling. Your potential. Some are likely to say. My own fears. I keep myself i doubt my abilities i'm not sure. And you know what i'd say. You're a caged bird. Or maybe it is the social situation. In which society has said. Because of who you are by way of. Gender identification age roll money anything else that's outside of you has said you you can't do those things that you dream of. Again i say you're the caged bird. Or maybe it's that your family background. Gave you messages of inadequacy. Or even sinfulness. Or any other limiting quality. And you don't think you're worthy of it. And again i say you're the cage brewery. You're the caged bird sitting inside that cave. Perhaps of society perhaps of family perhaps of self. And you know the answer you know the solution. Caged bird sings of freedom. The freedom to be. All i can be you can be we can be collectively everyone together. But the solution that liberalism preaches to the world is. If we left freedom. If we support freedom if we encouraged freedom to move and all areas of life so people are not constrained by economic or social conditions or fears or family problems if we go out and. Sustain a sense of freedom and always. If all people says they are truly free in life to be themselves. Then they will feel free. To fulfill their potential. And the world will be transformed by it. Am i do not hear. Any other religious tradition in the world. Saying that's the central problem. And that's. The solution. The problem of unitarian universalism is the magnificent potential we have been given simply over being alive. And the solution is that we look for ourselves. And for the person next to us. And for the people behind us and in front of us and the people around this room and the people are on the streets of vero beach and the people out in the state of florida and the people in the united states and the people in every country in the people on every continent we looked everywhere for every person and every system for that sense of freedom. That will let each and every person. Fulfil. Her or his. Wonderful potential. And all i got to say is. Wow that's a great problem to have and a great solution to envision. Cuz at least for me it calls me to do the religious work i think i need to do. In life. How about you. Is that the problem of unitarian universalism for you. And do you feel called. Toward that solution in life. Put a pause for a few moments of silence. Cuz you got some sermon preaching to do inside yourself. You heard all my words you probably wandered off some places which is good. Because the real sermon is not what i say. It's the sermon you say to yourself. Here. Tomorrow. Next week next month. As you shape your life and work on behalf of it and the lives of others. What you will take from now so. A minute or so of. Thoughtfulness. What do you take away. As you consider the problem of unitarian. Universalism. It's your life. It's my life it's our life. The world will be transformed by what we do with it. So we don't hide it under a bushel. We don't say it's somewhere else some other time. But we say it's here now and know that i are efforts. Our work in this world here and now. Will make a difference. For ourselves and everyone else. The solution is at hand. I see it in front of me. Blessed be.

uufvb_org

2010Jun27sermon128.mp3

uufvb_org

2012Feb26Sermon32.mp3

Are you all sitting out there is attentive listeners. Look at all of you well-behaved folks quiet is good little church vice. Waiting for you this morning. Indeed religious liberals have never been known for their raucous sunday out first. Century when is far as to famously called the boston unitarians. God. Frozen people. Because of their stiff new england unresponsiveness. Really describe you good folks here in vero beach you're really a very engaged and responsive. Congregation. Southern baptist waiting to be response. I want to hear from you folks. Are you ready brothers and sisters. I'm at wasn't quite good enough are you ready brothers and sisters all right. I ask you is there anything worse. When you've tried to a diet plan after diet plan to shed however many pounds you have. Listen to your cheerful next door neighbor described how easy it was for her to lose 32 pounds in 8 weeks. And is there anything worse. When your grandson who is off again attending community college who doesn't exactly have ambition or self-discipline as his middle name. Regularly disappointing you listening to your neighbor bragging at the backyard bbq about how their grandkids are breathing respectively through stanford and harvard is there anything worse. Anything worse brothers and sisters two days later have that spouse call you on it when you are behind this incredibly stupid slow driver and you're cursing is there anything worse than that. Finally is there anything worse. On a perfectly lazy and gentle february sunday morning in florida after eating a delicious. Breakfast. With absolutely no exercise plans in your day listening to a minister. Who was the physical fitness. Endurance athletes across america in 30 days. Is there anything worse than listening to him. But that is precisely what's going to happen this morning. It's going to happen. Because i'm continuing series on the 12 gates are pathways that can lead you to the holy city. Of your own life. I believe you have spiritual emotional or intellectual health. And that fullest of human life which makes life and being worth. Doing. Where you can experience all as i've been saying in the series the define traffic. All around you eager to have you interact with it. You cannot. Experience these things unless. You take proper care. And have a proper relationship with. Your physical corpus. Your body. And yet this is a topic we americans seldomly serious raised with one another it's kind of an off. Subject especially in a church where the topic is supposed to be spiritual. They're big health nuts but they're about the only ones that i've been able to find. What i'm doing this morning reminds me of the old. Southern preacher who once preached about another taboo subject money. And the board president came up to and after the service and said preacher. The crossover. From preaching in the medellin. Double leave me the last thing i want to do is metal. In any of your lives. But nonetheless it is my responsibility in this sermon series on living. To remind you. And that's all i'm doing i just reminding you of stuff you already know. Remind you what's going to take to live your life. With full depth of spiritual and physical being. And the one thing it takes is two wisely take care of these physical mantels that we are stewards of this. Body electric. As whitman so powerful. Roatan. Paul that i read to you. One of my colleagues have ever done this morning. I don't know my servant listen here's a quote from him. He serves her. Our church over there. He points out that unitarian universalist are no better about seeing their to their physical self care than other americans in general. Where he writes. Are the resolutions at the uu general assembly that's our annual meeting. Stressing the need for us to get our bodies in better shape. Or staying in shape. Wii u use he writes live far too much in our heads. And our seemingly unaware howsoever bright we maybe. But there is something called the body. Which. For some of us. Is really part of a true trinity. Body. Mind. And spirit. Actually there is a very old philosophical reason. Why here in western society and in unitarian-universalist circles we have trouble. Giving our bodies the spiritual import and attention they deserve that is called. The cartesian dualism. Remember that maybe you heard that some point the cartesian dualism. It is a cosmic divide. Between the physical fleshy material carnal. Realm. And the realm whatever that means of body of spirit mind and intellect. This was. This has held a harmful and powerful philosophic sway. In the west since the time of the greeks. First postulated by the by ancient greek thinkers like plato and aristotle. The cartesian dualism absolute dichotomy. Again the physical. Fleshy material carnal realm. Which is philosophically devalued by the greeks. Because it appeared so temporal self. Leading so. So earthy and common. So what they valued the greeks was almost totally the realm of the mind of the spirit or the intellect. Although first articulated by the greeks. It was 16th century philosopher rene descartes. Who cemented this great distinction between the mind and the body. In his sixth meditation on philosophy. Descartes argued for a position called. Substance dualism. Which asserts quote that in addition to our physical bodies. Each of us also has an immaterial soul. No. And he further believe that a person's mind. A person to mine. Can exist independently. From that person's body. And that's it is not automatically destroyed. When the physical body dies i quote they car himself. My body and my soul are distinct. Since they are capable of being separated at least by god. It is true they cart went on. That is very closely joined to me. I have a clear and distant distinct idea of myself. Insofar as i am simply thinking. Non extended thing i am really distinct. From my body descartes said. And can exist without it. Okay. It is down the centuries since that in western least the body. And all things physical. And colonel. Have been devalued and ignored. Well the mind and the spirit and all things intellectual and spiritual have been exalted intended to. I think this is lead. To a lot of us even highly educated thoughtful you use to ignore the primacy. And importance of good bodily health and care. It is because of this cartesian dualism. Actually. Think we can have an intellectual and spiritual life. Without referencing and caring for our bodies. Begin to imagine we can have all that without referencing and caring for our body. Yes yes we say to ourselves i know i'm house. In this corpus of skin found flesh. And i know it'll actually unlike the card. So i can't really get along without this. Where i really live and move and have my being is in my head. And in the immaterial realms of heart and soul and that's where most of my attentions will get directed. And so we fall victim. You can know you know i think what i'm saying is true. We fall victim to paying insufficient attention. To our bodies and their constant need for tender loving care. Which is not limited to. Proper diet and you all know what proper. Everybody in the room knows what a proper.. A lot. Lots of exercise. One of many forms. Based on whatever physical capabilities. Now. I know what many of you were thinking out there right now i can hear your little gears working. Like i'm getting know you guys pretty well. Oscar. Got the exercise and wait for natick who commutes to and from church everyday. Even in the driving rain and sweltering sun for god sake he's about to go from preaching this cold. About to tell me. Take better care. Of my body. He may be right in some extra accents i hear some of you saying. Or the energy to pay attention to my body like you suggesting i must i'm just too busy with my life my work my kids my grandkids. And all the computer work. For that kind of physical time i do the best i can so get off my spiritual case okay well. I'm not going to get off your spiritual case. I'm going to get off your physical. When you installed me a year-and-a-half ago i promised that i would always preach the truth and love to you. Does pulpit. Well this morning i'm giving you just a little dose of tough love both philosophical and practical. I am going to talk about physical self care and physical fitness this morning. And let me be very clear again i'm talking about at for you at whatever level and age you can achieve no matter. How vigorous or how restrained you are. You can still take care of your body to the maximum extent. That you can't. Very important remember we're not talking about one standard he. I'm talking about physical self care and fitness. Because most of us even those who try to take. Reasonable care of our bodies. Are still not giving this crucial aspect. Of ourselves enough. Attention. Despite the centuries of intellectual progress in the western world. Just still has us by the. By the by the ankle philosophically. And we've got to move past. It gives us permission. To let the. Critical physical aspects of our living. Slide in temecula. Much more daily attention to our bodies really is spiritually inhumanly important so we need to talk about it even in church. How do we get past this cartesian. Dualism in our lives. I want to forget diet for the moment because again we all know. What a good diet looks like and we all don't. Do that. You know i won't even tell you what i had. Recite after celebrating. We all know it's good diet is. I want to focus more on the importance of exercise this morning. I assume that you all know that recent scientific studies number of the mavala concluded. The regular physical exercise again at whatever level you could do is the. Single most important contributing factor. To both longevity. And happiness in human life. And many of you are aware so it's clearly asking a lot of us. The federal government to be specific the department of health and human services. Has recently up the ante and now recommends officially that all americans get one full of exercise almost everyday. One of your 24 hours is supposed to be for your health devoted to exercise that used to say. 20 minutes of exercise three times a week was enough but recently they realized. The body requires much more than that it really requires. 1. Our. Of. Day. Makeup theory seven times. This rigorous exercise regime. In conjunction with maintaining a diet that is you wallnau emphasizes whole grains and nuts and fruits and vegetables and d emphasizes. Need some trans fats in fried foods and starchy things. Is recommended for our full and healthy living. And yet precious few of us. Anywhere near this amount of attention to our bodies. App for exercise and for healthy food. A recent lewis-harris survey found that only. Get this. Only 33% of americans say they exercise regularly. That's down from 37% in 1991 and you know how many people lie on surveys if i. The us public health service says really that just 20% 1 and 5 americans. Gets enough exercise regularly exercise to gain any cardiovascular benefit. And you've all seen the the recent reports about our kids. And how heavy they're becoming and how lazy they're becoming physically lazy they're not intellectually lazy they're just. Physically. Lazy. You know we have a crisis. With exercise. Amongst our young. As new york times health writer james rohde had noted the average american quote. Spend more time showering. Then working out. I would be guessing of course. That i'll bet that we had oriented computer loving book-loving unitarian universalist fair little better than the american average. Probably about one-fifth of you. Do enough exercise. It's not of course that we don't try. Every year for example hundreds of thousands of american households by some sort of home exercise machine. Do you know how many times those are averagely used before they go to the attic or the basement. 5. Before they go to the rummage sale. We use those exercise machine five times. And one of the reasons it's 5 is that we get a fight at the first day and we we go for an hour and we're so stiff the next day that's it. So if you're going to start an exercise program. Started gradual. You know started crash. But i used to keeps running. But i could run before i ruined my knees from. Running. I used to say to people in a run and walk a mile and when you feel like when you all start out walking when you feel like running run up run a half a block stop. You can you can. Move into an exercise program very incrementally. We need to exercise. But for a hundred different reasons. We slip back into our old habits of physical inertia and neglect. I know i'm waiting at the sensitive waters but we really need to pay more attention. To this critical aspect. Of our. Of our humanness if we're going to be spiritually and emotionally whole going to be happy. We need a new spirituality of the body. A new theology of reverence and respect for the human body especially our own a new practical ethics. Of attention and care. For the human body. A new spirituality of the. It was so poetically express by walt whitman in the. Anybody electric poem i read to you this morning we need to affirm deep to our bones and r&b. A gift of body mind spirit body mind and spirit. And it is as contemporary writer and mystic wendell berry road. You cannot devalue the body. And value the soul. Or value anything else. The isolation of the body very right. Set it into direct conflict with everything else in creation. Nothing could be more absurd. Then to despise the body. And yet urine for its resurrection. Unquote. I am not of course the first religious leader to suggest that your body. Is an astoundingly sacred gift. In his first letter to the christians of corinth. It's in the bible it says in the bible i believe it's true. In his first letter. Decorous. Saint paul wrote this. Do you know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit within you. Which you have from god. Therefore. Glorify god in your body. In a few centuries later 11th century christian mystics. Mathilde of. Battenberg wrote. Do not to stay in your body. For the soul is just as safe and its body. As in the kingdom of heaven. It was jesus himself. Who repeatedly said. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. He implied you have to love yourself. Body mind spirit love. Your full self. I don't think jesus was only urging his fellows. Fellows to practice brotherly and sisterly love he was advocating good self-care. If this were a mainline christian church i would have scriptural authority to tell you to jog for jesus. Or walk for jesus or garden for jesus or bike. For jesus or jazzercise for jesus or pump iron for jesus or. Swim or jump rope or play golf or do water aerobics for jesus. Any form of daily exercise. That will give your body the attention it needs for the wholeness of spirit and for. But of course this is not a traditional christian church. This is a unitarian universalist church but i'm going to tell you essentially the same thing. No matter what's your age. No matter what your level of physical ability or interest. No matter what type of body you have. You know bequeath to you from your genetics. No matter what physical handicaps or disabilities or aches and pains or limitations. That have emerged in your life. Each of us is free and capable of taking better more regular care of the physical body. We have been given we are all capable of take. Look we don't have to look like lance armstrong. When we get up on a stationary bike at the gym okay. And we don't to look like michael. Phelps when we dip into the pool. Or natalie comaneci if we hit the gym floor or billie jean king or andre agassi if we take to the tennis court. Or even jack lalanne that wonderful physical fitness buff we just recently died you know what his motto was. His motto was. Diet is the king. Exercise is the queen and together they make the kingdom. Amen jack lalanne. All we have to do widows look like lance armstrong or even jack. Or billie jean king all we ask. Be as ourselves. And get the exercise. At whatever length of. Taemin. And strength. Hazard various bodies. And what better time of the year. My dear friends for here in this tropical paradise we call the treasure coast. It's. We feel the last cold snap i think is really happened. It's it's. It's warming up in case you haven't noticed. February and all of its temperate gentleness has arrived. And all of nature. The warming sees the gentle island breeze has the inviting early-morning evenings i had my. I've been having my slider doors open the last few nights smelling the aroma of our. Flowers. Trees. It begs us these times. Outdoors away from physical inertia away from the computer is in the television screens. For some rejuvenating exercise in this beautiful part of the were. Until this afternoon why not gather up the spouse or family or the family dog or a friend or two and. And head on up to pelican island. Or riverside park or lake okeechobee for a brisk hike. And why not renew that long lapsed healthcare membership. Yes we can sign up for a water aerobics class or yoga or spin class so you can encourage. The encouragement of a group. Doing. Doing exercise with you would really helps to have somebody. Next to you. Urging you on. Or why not walk to the corner store tomorrow for that morning coffee and newspaper instead of driving. Or do the gardening that you know you want to do or the ballroom dancing lessons are stretching class you've been putting off. There's so many wonderful different life. Enjoyable ways for you to take care. Of your body. The truth is. No one of us. Has an excuse for not taking some better care. Of what we have been given by god. And besides. All of you know deep down inside that what i am saying is irretrievably true. In the end none of us. Will enjoy spiritual. Or emotional or psychological health are the fullness of life and being. Unless we referenced and care for our bodies as best we can. Yes getting enough exercise again whatever level is possible for us giving our limitations in our age. Exercise takes time and discipline. It requires us to make physical activity. A daily. Non-discretionary priority. All health habits to it is a non-discretionary priority. But if we treasure our lives. And this amazing creation. With all of its potential divine traffic that's just. Fastlane. Of the divine traffic if we value. These things. We have to take time to. Caravel. I seldom quote corporate slogans from this pulpit. But i'm going to unashamedly and this morning. With the simple. Reminder of the nike come. What does nike. Tell you to do. Just do it. That's all that's required. Just. Do it. All of life. Want some. To take care. The body. In the mind and the soul. Allconnect. Image of all. Ever. Last. All beauty. And it's saying mean before i go off to bike forever and ever and ever.

uufvb_org

2013Oct27Sermon32.mp3

Good morning it's paul in vero beach in case any of you missed it and i also know it's fall because i see ranch and i see nancy and i assume those are jack and i see susan and stanley and i see dana and jan people are flowing back into our community welcome all of you know birds and year-rounders welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach we are so pleased all of you have chosen to be with us this sunday we were congregation of open minds loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best selves even as we work together to make our world a better place and please no. If you are welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you wear yellow old gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you were feeling physically or emotionally on top of the world or. Or to see you just as you come to us and we will support you and care for you. We hope you will find our service meaningful. Your spirit and feeds your soul and gives you renewed purpose. For the living of life. Are spirituals. We gather within four walls each week. I'm give. Human being. We gather within these four walls each week we reflect on our lives. And strive to become the symbol persons. We share with our children our highest value. Gentleness compassion. Responsibility toward all persons. Or in despair. We are spirit. Open our hearts and empower or hand. Our lives and our world a better place. It is good. To be here together. The following spoken meditation is by one of our very well-known senior ministers reverend richard gilbert. Following the spoken word we will have a silent meditation. Which will end. When i ring a bell. Reverend. I am. And when i do. I am overwhelmed or of it all. I eat my food as i have done for 1,000 thousand days. A practice notice. The miraculous. And when i do. I am taking with their singular beauty. Agreed my loved ones. As i have greeted them for years. A habit that i'm soft. I'm truly realize the jeep. Of greetings and farewells. How precious they are. Probate. Jeepers feeling chord. Each time. Perhaps it is middle-aged. Or all day. Or perhaps grows in may. Or perhaps i am awakening to life. Is transferred my usual state of being. The poignancy of living in these days. Burrows deep into my psyche or my soul or my spirit. I know not what. Ears. That's a common frames of life become uncommon. Does the ordinary has become extraordinary. That the habitual has become sacred. Bittersweet. Is the poignancy of living in these days. Bittersweet. Is the poignancy of living in these days. I awaken myself. And filed down in. Gratitude. So this morning i continue my year-long sermon series. I'm more or less random sundays over the coming months. Which will explore some of our culture's most persistent and perplexing moral dilemmas. Today's focus of life decision making. That has long troubled the american people. Over the course of this series i will return again again to remain and i hope and logical supposition. Which result from them. Persist and divide us as a society because each of them involve. Worthy principles and values that stand and natural opposition and contradiction. Indeed this is implied in the very word dilemma. According to the online encyclopedia wikipedia is. A problem offering two possibilities. Neither of which is practically acceptable. And the massive dictionary the old merriam webster. A dilemma is a situation involving a choice. Between equally unsatisfactory alternatives a problem or situation. Seemingly incapable of a satisfactory solution. Indeed with each of these moral dilemmas i will explore during this series anybody. With the least bit of moral imagination and sophistication. Can see the integrity the power and the reasonableness. Of either side of the pro con argument. And yet many in our culture. Persistent. Their side of course. Making the other side of necessity wrong. But the. Is it no matter which taking any of these vexing issues. Worthy principles and values you believe in. Over the course of this sermon series then i hope to do justice of each of these dilemmas. Articulating honoring as fairly and thoroughly as i can. The values in the principles which animated each position. Because in fact i can and do see. The moral efficacy and ethical efficacy of both physicians and frankly think. You should too. And it was this fair-minded balance and i will remind you what i said in the first. Sermon on the 1st. A folk singer pete seeger who said. Which side he lands on. In the real world indiana. To decide. And even though. The values on both sides. To today's topic end-of-life decision-making and see if i can bring it inside. To the debate positions. An opposition. It comes to decision-making the first positions. The pro-life position. The pro-life position should be preserved. Almost any cost because of its inherent value and sacredness. Disposition is perhaps most clearly articulated in our culture. Catholic church. Which has long insisted it is immoral. To do anything medically to allow. That hastens or causes or enables the death of a person. Catholic document entitled. Moral guidelines for end-of-life decision-making. That i found on the web. Quote. Human life is the foundation. For all other human goods. And so has special value and significance. To live is a first write the documents of the human person this means that others have an obligation to respect. And not do anything to hasten our. All acts against our unjustifiable. And it is wrong for someone's death even your own. To be the direct intention of an action. And then they end. Does euthanasia. Define taking someone's life is morally illicit. Very clear. And respectable moral position i think. But you must know that there are a few limits in catholic principle. For there is no requirement in roman catholic theology. Extreme medical measures to be taken to another source. Natural law roman catholic documents. Requires that all ordinary. Emphasis means we used to preserve. Food water exercise and medical care. The document says. Since the middle ages catholic human beings are. Every possible to save their lives. Particular patient. Such as a tatian. Treatment for mcmeans or treat person. Are what they call morel extraordinary. Meaning this document. In a particular case. I'm the one side of this dilemma. You have the pro-life position. Which would have us vigorously defend and fight for life right until. Stream ohrstrom relax for a long time and she finally just said to her doctors. Take. Dialysis. Continuum. Position the prolong life. Decision is the. Quality of life position. The quality of life position which is clearly stated.. Humanists. Who are what i shall unashamedly call. As fatal illness. Mercifully and intentionally withheld or withdrawn. As many who have the quality of life. And support the practice of euthanasia. Didn't certain physically and wolf situation. Actions can justify. Which will intentionally cause. The merciful termination of a life. The argument here is obvious. That the kid is the quality. Which it is or isn't possible for a life is there any joy or purpose. Possible for the terminally ill person. The sheer physical quantity but the quality. What is possible for the quality. That must be considered when we're making tough and of life decision making. It is this practical perspective about. Life has lost all of its joy. It's comforting purpose that leads many unitarian universalist. And others to fill out medical directive documents would spell out precisely for your family and friends. What it is you wish as you approach the end of life into this end. Reverend paige and i are going to be hosting a saturday workshop 4 weeks from yesterday. End-of-life decision-making. With a focus on helping those of you who come. Think through the choices. You have. It is the end of your own life approaches. We will have available various documents. And fill out and and give to your family into your positions so that your wishes. Can hopefully be met. Unitarian universalist and others. To take firm personal control. Of their own end-of-life decision-making especially as it relates to the quality. Support euthanasia. And the related practice of physics physician-assisted suicide. Which as wikipedia puts it. Is the practice of intentionally ending a life. In order to relieve. Pain and suffering. To both sides of the moral argument are. But i believe both these polar positions both the prolong life position. Which is passionately about preserving the physical life of a human individual for as long as possible and the quality of life which is equally passionate about. Oprah the physical life of the individual there seems no point or purpose. These positions are based. The moral commitment to the value and the goodness and the worth of human persons they're both based on that value. Yes. Oppositions have radically different views about how. Take thursday however. Life can be. All of this is by way of any villains in this moral argument. Compassionate and caring. With different conclusions about how to value what is most valuable and precious in human life there no bad guys here. As far as i'm concerned. I find myself at different times. In different end-of-life situations and i deal with them constantly because of the line of work that i'm in. Of these positions and believe it only together. Perspective. To help make us do better and wiser decision. As deaf near either for ourselves or those we love. All right i want to talk specifics about end-of-life decision-making. Are farthest apart upon and that is the practice of euthanasia. The first thing i think everyone needs to understand. Is it an american medicine to euthanasia. At the very end of life. Is practice hundreds of times. My family's and the medical community and hospitals and nursing homes. But it happens every day. Americans reach the very end of their live. Because of a disease or illness is clearly only hours or days away. And when there is little or no quality or interaction possible. The patient in america is often ministered or oral morphine. Usually after nurses and doctors have consulted with the family but not always. Which put the patient into a full cup. What was the heart rate and breathing rate make speeding and impossible. Does medically hasten. The death. As a minister i have seen and yes i have participated. In what i believe to be a merciful and rational euthanasia process. Many times. Including my own immediate family. We are obliged. Just american practice. Is morally wrong. Believe in the game. It is i believe absolutely the right a merciful thing to do. And hospice programs here in vero beach and all across the nation. Because. You know sophisticated medical technology. Consultant keep a human body breathing beyond hope and reason. Call endgame euthanasia. The last-minute hasten. Or other narcotics when. Is. And is in universe totally justifiable. And right. There is absolutely no moral reason to prolong the suffering of individuals. At the very. Very end. Of their lives when no. Joy or purpose is any longer pot. Earlier forms of euthanasia for sparse physician-assisted suicide. We can be carried out in accordance with the wishes of a dying individual. With weeks or months or even years. Before the natural end-of-life would come. This to me is a much. Stickier moral wicket. It is a much stickier six times fast. Because physician or family assisted suicide which is very rare in america and. Position or family assisted suicide can take place. Individual is still engaged in relationship with the world around him or her. It is these earlier. Medical decision. Where the fatally ill person is still engaged alert and caring for life. I am morally drift closer. Catholic perspective. As one unitarian universalist i believe in extreme value of what is called our human agency. Are human agency. The amazing gift. Of being aware of and able to freely app. You are still able to act. Should only be surrendered in the most dire of medical situations. I personally immorally wary of the ideas expressed in some progressive circles. He has deserted his or her life. Esther worth preserving. Rather famous example. In the year 1990. First physician-assisted suicide was performed on a woman named janet adkins. Who was the. A unitarian. Universalist. Does her minister at the time has found her praises to me. Had recently started to experience 1990. The symptoms of progressive alzheimer's. And when she was a doctor in michigan. Who would assist her to die without any question. She called him and begged him. To end her life. Which was very little constant consultation and care he did. Euthanasia and this video will pop up. No. At first when i heard about jen.. Her chosen self-chosen death i was inclined to support her decision. As a unitarian universalist and that is free part of our human agency. We believe people should be empowered and able to make the maximum number of personal choices. Over many years with that disease. How devastating alzheimer's can be. Object adkins precise medical condition at the time of her death. With her decision. A doctor kevorkians actions began to rise. At the time of her self-induced death. Mrs adkins alzheimer's was in the relatively early stages. It was not for example that the disease had rendered this pianist unable to play piano. You can still do that stable joyfully. What she couldn't do was play her favorite anymore music. I'm told that this particular loss of personal functioning at high capacity. Relative as it was. Disheartened and discouraged her because she was such a perfectionist about her music. Speak the end of her own life. Fau you committed to the. I always hesitate to impose my perspectives on someone else's wife. I must tell you that everything within me feel. This particular quick decision. Of self-annihilation. Was wildly premature and therefore morally short-sighted. For this exceptional gauge woman to yourself. From her husband of so many years. From her beloved children and all her many friends. Because she did not want to live as a quote heart. Seems to me an unnecessary tragedy. For both her sake and her family's. She had bravely waited. A while. Possibly a very long while. To continue her age and stay and continue sharing herself and her humanity with the world and those who loved her again. Evaluate believe in personal autonomy and freedom of every individual. Value of a freedom and autonomy. Is always balanced and limited by the equally important. Affirmation of the value and usefulness of everyone in community. You do not live for yourself dammit. You live with and for others and you have a responsibility to hang around. As long as you can. I believe. Charlotte perkins gilman. Toward the end of her long struggle with cancer. Quote last duty. Human life consists service. No grief she wrote no misfortune or broken heart is excuse for cutting off one's life. While any power of service. Any power of relationship. Remains. And then she said we must continue to choose life. As long as any power of service. Or relationship. Remain. I believe that it has asked derkevorkian to terminate her life and her agency before it was morally reasonable. In my moral calculus she deprived her family and her community of herself. Prematurely. Is what i think we need to be very morally careful. When we consider euthanasia. Or physician or family assisted suicide to make sure in every specific case. The quality of life. Has diminished to the point of meaninglessness or worse and here is the good here is the good news. About assisted suicide in the united states. It almost never happens. For two reasons. With today's modern hospice care. Most terminally ill people can be alert. Engaged and comfortable. Until nature takes its course. And the second reason i believe it almost never happens in america. Is that most people. And value their engagement with loved ones in the world even as we get very sick. Usually find meaningful things to live for. Way past when we fought in the abstract. I'll just get my wife to give me. Everyday we find reasons to live on. Agency is a powerful thing. Here are the facts. In the four states that have legalized with caleb careful safeguards. Physician-assisted suicide those being oregon washington vermont and with. Some slight legal ambivalence montana. Only a tiny portion. Of the terminally ill. Available. Before nature takes its course in oregon in the 16 years. Physician-assisted suicide seven possible. People out of the countless thousands who are eligible. Have asked. 4. The fatal dose of painkiller and only 600. I've actually taken. Fidelis. Only 600 many many tens and tens of thousand. Destiny is proof. That we need to be morally very careful. Or nabel euthanasia at the early stages of the dying process. Because a whole lot of people. If they get into it. Stick around. And want to stick around. Nothing too easy. Closer to home. I have a deer 85 year old friend he's really like a second father to me. Who has repeatedly and frankly much to my consternation asked me to promise him. Assist him in ending his own life. Chucky face illness ever decide he needs my assistance. His final exit. I have to tell him repeatedly after much reflection. Can make no promise. No such promise because i love him dearly. And can't imagine me personally. Ending his life. Second frankly. Because i would need to be morally persuaded. The doll of the quality. And all of the usefulness or nearly all. Of his life and all the opportunities for him to share and love with his wife and his children and his grandchildren. I did indeed disappeared he would have to persuade me of that. The human life is a sacred thing. It has special value insignificant. And we need to do what is reasonable. And beneficial to protected unquote. Until i am very cautious personally. About the practice of euthanasia. I personally want to take a big. Moral. From euthanasia. Except at the very very end of life. Morphine is used. Put someone mercifully to sleep. Is here is the bottom line of what i'm saying this morning about end-of-life decision-making. For me personally is one unitarian universalist whether you're talking about. Deciding to withhold treatment. The decision not to put a patient on a breathing machine or kidney dialysis or a feeding tube. Or whether you were deciding to withdraw. The decision to take a patient who has a breathing machine. Or 3 deciding to allow euthanasia. With the patient herself is given the freedom. And the. No matter which end of life decision points. To both the pro-life advocates into the quality of life advocate. Perhaps you ought to consider moving toward the middle. Of the moral decision-making process. You prolong my folks consider the compassion and wisdom of irrationally prolonging life. Hope and life meaning is lost. And you people. The caution. Of those on the other side even. Pionus and disability. Again i see no heartless villains. Either in. Of this dilemma. Only good and caring people trying to do what is right for persons. And culture. What to do in athol life when it comes to end-of-life decision-making with others in these positions. Is defined as much compassionate. Balance. Between i can't between knowing when to fight. For a little longer. Mercifully let it go. For truly thoughtful people i think. There was seldom be absolute moral clarity on this middle ground but my. Persuasion. Is it only in the middle ground. In the fluid. Situational middle. Is where we will find the right answer. What it means to be fully. And joyfully human. And i say and mean to you. Whatever. Is on people's hearts and minds about this topic. My colleague. Dennis hamilton of texas. This. Open-handed mercifully. We have had a reprieve. We love them. That we are sorry. Into the evening trees. There is a place of healing. To find wholeness and peace. There's time to extend. Thunderheart. There's time to plan there is. Time to build. There's time to plot. A conspiracy.

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2011Aug21Sermon128.mp3

Two weeks from today exactly in our service. We will solemnly mark the 10th anniversary of perhaps the most. Mistake in american. 911. 2001. September day as you all know when vicious terrorists attacked. Hijacked for domestic commercial airlines. And succeeded in flying two of them into the towers of the world trade center. In new york city and another into the pentagon. In washington dc. Causing massive destruction. And killing over 3,000 innocent. I was in our nation's capital that day and we'll talk more about what i personally experienced. Then in 2 weeks. But suffice it to say that september 11th 2001 was incredibly sad and surreal day. In washington i myself watch the pentagon burn. The congregation i served a nearby bethesda was profoundly affected by the events of that day and beyond one of our members lost her ex-husband. And his wife and her two children on the plane that went into the pentagon. And many people in our congregation. In government. Had some sort of direct personal connection to individuals who died in both d.c.. And new york we had also many people work. The pentagon. Did survive. And something else that was truly noteworthy about that tragic day was. At least it struck me that no less than two of our members. Jeff. And miles both business guys who traveled frequently by air. Had incredible. Unlikely improbable last-minute good luck that kept them off that plane. Goodwin. Into the pentagon. If kept them off. Lock. Let me just tell jeff story. On that fateful day jeff was a finance chair of the current gation the stalwart member the choir. On that day he flew out of dallas on the 7 a.m. flight bound for los angeles. But the night before he came this close to changing his reservation to the 8:30 with the plane that crashed into the pentagon. It would have been much more convenient for him at the last minute said all want what the heck i'll just take that damn 7 plane and get up so damn early. At the very last minute he decided not to bother with the change and that decision which felt utterly inconsequential to him at the time kept him. From a fiery death. Luck is so curious. And mercurial. Jeff told me a few days later how very close to death he felt he came. And the said that this stroke of improbable good luck was life-changing for him. With tears in his eyes and a quiver in his voice he said scott i will never take my family and my life for granted again because. I came so close. So very close. To losing. Jeff reported to me that his seatmate on the 7 a.m. flight was equally if more dramatically lucky. Because he was flying on government business a day before 9/11 he had begged and kajol the federal travel agent who he usually hated to work with begged him to put them on the 8:30 flight. But he wouldn't over some. Some cost-saving rule he demanded the travel agent that he travel in the seventh the guy yelled at him. That irritating travel agent. Also by luck. Saved this man's. Life. Later that week the washington post right after 9/11. Told a third story about someone else's good luck i'm not being on that plane it seems there was a virginia flight attendant. Who a mother of two who was not scheduled to fly on the doomed flight. And ask the other two attendants who were scheduled if they would please change flights with her which they would usually do and they both blithely refused she was very very irritated at her friends. But because again when you're curiale good luck. She is around. To raise her children. And they. Arnot. Luck is this. Can be awesome the sword. Terrible. Double edge 2. It fascinated me on this subject of luck. Then in the days following that terrible tuesday's the nation's newspapers and television. We're filled with stories about luck. Both good luck. And bad luck. That were told about both survivors who adjust dodge the bullet. And about those who died. By just being on the wrong side of luxe razor edge. There was an ambitious young arab-american bond trader for example who worked in the world trade center. Who won the first plane struck his tower was not at his desk on the third floor where everyone survived but was on the hundred and first floor from which no one is gabe doing a job interview. To advance. His career. There were stories of other world trade center workers who unexpectedly ran late to work that morning who worked on the upper levels. All kinds of silly irritating reasons kept them from being in that building a whiny child not ready for school a dentist who irritatingly took too long to do with us filling a traffic jam caused by a stupid accident a cinnamon bun that irresistibly beg them to come into the bakery shop and have a cup of coffee before they got to work like and be a few minutes late doesn't matter what the heck. Little and silly irritating last-minute reasons that saved dozens of lives. The media reported these stories of good luck i think because. We find them fascinating and intriguing how. Just buy a momentary decision. Lock can either turn into a horrible thing or a wonderful. Luck. Is no inconsequential thing in our lives. Just why i'm preaching about. And here right off the bat is the first and foremost thing that occurs to me about luck. There seems to be so much darn darn much of it in our lives. My dictionary define lot lock as quote. A purposeless. Unpredictable and uncontrollable force. The shapes of ants favorably an done or unfavorably for an individual. And then the second definition of luck. A chance combination a chance combination. Of circumstances operating for or against an individual know when you think about it. Our lives are filled every day with countless. Unpredictable largely random circumstances that when they sequentially fall into place. And play themselves out. Strike us as either. Lucky. Or unlucky. Just from that one fateful american tuesday there were hundreds. Of dramatic stories about good luck and bad luck that made all the difference to the individuals. In the world and so it isn't everyday living for all of us. Just too quick examples if i might an extra couple of sips. Of your mornings coffee allows you not. To be at the intersection where some distracted motorist. Goes right through a red light. And smacks into a car. And similarly registering for a college course that you were really ambivalent about. Led you to meet the love of your life standing in line. Because you registered for that damn course i'm. You know french horn playing or something that you hated. I believe. In luck. I believe it was a senseless bit of good luck. A whimsical decision not to bother to change a ticket the saved my friends my friend jeff's life. I believe also there were lots of little bits of senseless bad luck. That led to the deaths. Of many others. What i do not. And this is where i suspect i part company. With perhaps a majority of people in our culture what i do not be. Is it any of us. Have a predetermined fate. Or preordained destiny. That is somehow being played out. Purposefully. Let me take that terrible tuesday for an example. I do not believe that the complex events of 9/11 that unfolded. In america. We're in any way predetermined are foreordained. Words with my deck dictionary uses to define what we call faith. Or destiny. I do not believe that certain people will somehow marked. For death. While others were somehow pre-selected. To survive. And similarly i most certainly do not believe that our lives unfold in accordance with some wise universal master plan. It is directed by some unseen cosmic honduran transcendent intelligence that has his all laid out in some sensible scheme. Emphatically do not believe that. What happens to us austin in this chaotic world is somehow scripted. Or determined ahead of time. By some higher or wiser power. Rather i believe in luck. I believe the countless absolutely countless human and natural forces. Circumstances and choices decisions and actions behaviors and predilections accidents and ironies come together over time. And lot in largely random and unpredictable ways. And make precisely what happens. Happen. I do not believe that anyone's faith like my friend my positive positive fate of my friend jeff. Was sealed on that terrible tuesday until the very last moment. Take for example the passengers on the 4th. Plane that crashed in the pennsylvania farm field. We know that a band of brave passengers after they figured out what the hijackers had in mind decided. To act. Decided to attempt. To control what was happening to them. Let's roll one of them said and they stormed the cockpit. And possibly may have come very close. To retaken control of the plane from the hijackers. And thereby had things gone just a bit differently. Have they succeeded in reversing their luck they might have saved. Their lives. Who knows how close they came to succeeding. What we do know. Is it by attempting to retake control of the plane from the hijackers. Then all probability save the lives of many other people in washington dc. That plane was just. To crash into one of our federal building. And so it was with countless last-minute circumstances that unfolded that day. What an end. What in the end happened to countless person's was up for grabs until the very. Last. Until the cinnamon bun back-end until the whiny child refuse to get ready. School. Until the very last moment. Nothing. Determined. September 11th was an astounding. Extraordinary an ordinary day. Filled with astounding an ordinary bits of luck both good and bad. Determined what happen. Look. I know a lot of people. In our culture think differently about fate and destiny. But this is how i think the world works. Life is first and foremost. A random and fluid mystery. Nothing in my direct experience with life anyway and unitarian universalist. Put a great deal of authority. In your experience with everyday life to help you understand your reason and your intuition about life. Nothing. In my direct experience with life suggest that there is an anyway. A predetermined master plan. I'll be there personal or global events. You often hear when someone tragically dies in a plane crash. Or conversely when somebody astoundingly hits the. Jackpot lottery in wins 200 million dollars people say it was god's will or it was destined to be well. I for one don't believe it. I do not believe for example. Categorically do not believe that those more than 3,000 americans who died on 9/11 were somehow selected. Or somehow doomed ahead of time. Preordained to parish. But somehow their time and unavoidably come. That's not the case. Because many people at the last minute did something that meant their time did not. I refuse to believe. That we all we can do and tragedy happen to see this as part of lyson effable and in alterable plan. I refuse to see my creation. As one intentionally and altered restructured for so much pain so much cruelty so much death and meaninglessness. I similarly do not believe that all those lucky folks who were the last minute. Did not get along those planes or did not get to work on time at the world trade center. That they were somehow preordained or selected for god-knows-what reasons to go on living. Again i'm i'm not criticizing the beliefs of others but a natural instinct when somebody you know doesn't get to the world trade center in time they said things like god spared me i know god spared me so i can be around for my children or i guess i didn't die because god has a plan for me. I simply. Cannot accept my for my own self this worldview. I think it's fanciful thinking. It's not that i don't want those survivors to feel blessed or lucky. I do and they are my friend jeff felt remarkably lucky that he survived. And i pray they will never take their lives for granted again all those who survived by a last-minute twist of fate. I hope they will always be grateful. But i believe that. That some are chosen. But to believe but to believe that some are chosen. By some invisible force to survive while others are chosen to cruelly parish. Puts us i think and do an impossible spiritual and theological box. For that would mean that god or some other ruling force would somehow allow or direct or caused the deaths of those thousands of americans. Equally fine and loving people all of them. And that would further mean that the lives of those who were lucky enough to survive the attacks. Like my friend jeff. Their lives somehow possessed the superior purpose. In those unfortunate ones. Who were in the wrong place. At the wrong time i personally can't believe that. I won't believe. Tumi luck is a truly blind and random thing. That just unfold. For good and ill. And for all of us there is no logical purpose to it luck is just that. It's. Lock. Again based on my direct experience with life. Watching year-after-year is natural and human circumstances unfold and incredibly complex and random ways and of course i'm fairways. For good and righteous people certainly do perish. When evil people survive. I for one believe refuse to believe there's any sort of master plan. Our overarching purpose. These random ways that luck. Unfold rather i am persuaded. But in this complex interconnected fluid creation of ours. Things just happen. Most of the. Good things and. Bad things lucky things then unlucky thing. Life continues to mysteriously and curiously on full. From billions upon billions of loosely interconnected realities and forces. And as far as i can see at least there is no overarching plan no cosmic. Consistency. Nowise design. Just. Life. . all jumbled up this life with joy and sorrow with. Holiness and horror. With. Disaster in the light that's the way i see the world. And that's the only way i can see the. Tornadoes do not target. People who. Avoid them. We're lucky.. Some would say that. This. How should we call it this existentialist view of mine. The good and bad luck and unlucky things just happen randomly without purpose most of the time. Some think that this makes human life. Meaningless and tragic. Depressing to which i responded was full and sincere heart. I don't believe anything could be further from the truth. This existential view that luck happens is not a sad thing. It seems to me. That life's great and sustaining meanings and purpose for us. Come not from precisely how good or bad are luck. Is. But rather in this is crucial. Our purpose and our meaning. Is based on how we choose. To respond. To the lock. Or the lack of it. That comes into our lives. Good luck like that which my friend jeff had on 9/11. Can awaken us to the full. Potential and possibilities and purpose of our lives. And bad luck. If it doesn't manage to kill us. Bad luck can similarly strengthen and enliven and open us. To deeper and fuller living. I believe it is the nature and the quality not of what comes at us. But how we respond. To the lock. And the circumstance which comes our way. That largely determines whether it will be good or bad. For us perhaps you are familiar. With the old very old chinese tale. It's a common thing you've probably heard it. About the young man. Who's prized horse suddenly runs away and everyone in the village says oh what terrible luck. To which has wise old father said. What makes you sure this isn't a blessing. Some months later his horse returned. Bringing splendid bringing a splendid and valuable stallion with it and everyone in the village. Congratulated him as good luck but his father said. What makes you so sure this is not a disaster. The household was richer by the fine horse. What's the man love to ride but one day he fell off the fine stallion and broke his hip. Everyone in the village cried to consult him over his bad luck but his father said. What makes you sure this isn't a blessing. A few months later invaders from a foreign land crossed into china and all the able men of the bottom of the village were conscripted only with a handful ever to return alive. Only because the sun was lame with his broken hip. Did father and son survive. To take care of each other. And the taoist tale ends with this simple interpretation. Truly blessing. Turns into disaster. And disaster to blessing. The changes have no end. Nor can the mystery. Beef. Nor. Can the mystery. Significant events from my own life concern. Confirm the wisdom of this paradox. Without going into unnecessary personal to tell a good number of years ago something happened to me. Which i was sure was disastrous. Bad luck. The sad and disruptive events were certainly painful to me at the time. But in the fullness of time. With the passage of several years. And the subsequent events unfolded and i responded as best as i could to the struggling circumstance. I discovered much to my spiritual and emotional delight that what i had. What letter what i was sure. Was terrible bad luck was in fact in the end the single most positive defining event the best lock. I ever had in my life. That led me. To fresh new opportunities that have shaped the rest of my life in positive. Similarly. Over the years of my ministry i've had countless people report to me with full hearts. The paradoxically and unexpectedly some serious illness. Some terrible loss like the loss of a child. Spouse. In their lives. Which at the time they were sure was an unmitigated unlucky disaster in fact eventually open them. The new life. A new love. In ways for which they are great. Now believe me i know and no way want to be flipped. Dismissive. About how difficult. Can be for anyone. To move on from a patch of very bad luck or hard circumstances. And i certainly don't believe that bad things happen. You know to strengthen us or to inova. That's not why they happen. They happen. Because. They happen. And i refuse to believe that bad things happen. To somehow make us better people though they often. Folks say stupid things. In the face of someone else's miss misfortune like. The reason your child was run over by that car was to make you a stronger. Are the reason you lost your baby. Is because god is calling you to be more deeply in love and caring for the children. You already have. Say this kind. And these people should have their mouths. Sound shot or at least have their driver's license for life revoked. It's bad stuff. But that's just for the pinion. But that said i hope i hope your experience confirms. What i am affirming this morning when i say that. Great blessing an opportunity and. Can and often does arise in our lives from hard. And difficult circumstance. And vice versa. Luck then is surely not some simple straightforward thing. That always has the power to shape and define our lives at their deepest level luck doesn't have that power. Luck yes often shapes the outward circumstances and the immediate responses and yes it can bring great and painful changes and challenges to our lives. But the towering truth. If you hear nothing else this morning hear this. The towering truth of luxe power to shape things. Towering above that is the holy fact. Did we human beings. Are supple. And resilient. And adaptable. We can outwit locked. Cuz we are supple. And adaptable. And resilient. Who are free and capable of determining deep within our lives over the long-term what random events shall mean. And how we shall move through them and with them even the most difficult one. I believe it is the essential attitude of heart. The camber of heart. If you will. That we bring to that which befalls us good or bad. Which in the end has the power to determine whether we will be blessed or cursed. By those events. Has chuck swindoll puts it in one of his books. The longer i live you right the more i realize the impact. Of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than the facts. Attitude is more important. Then the facts. It is more important than the past. Then education that money then circumstances and failures than successes. The remarkable thing swindle goes on. Is it. We have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day we cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play the one string we have. And that is our attitude and then you can close i am. Persuaded. Good life. Is 10%. What happens to us. And 90%. How i react. And so it is with you. We are in charge he writes. Of our attitude. And then there's the vexing question. About whether or not there's such a thing. Lucky people. And unlock ep. In the dramatic case of those unfortunate souls who had the incredible bad luck. To cross paths with those deadly terrorist on september 11th. The answer is obvious. They were at the very last moment and their fates were determined. Truly unlucky souls. And now they have no more life to worry about or negotiate. Cuz of that bad luck. But for the rest of us. This question about whether we are lucky or unlucky is more subtle and open and unfinished. I had an elderly parishioner in that church in bethesda that i serve before i came here. Who had over his lifetime. More than his share of what could have ejected lee be called hard knocks. And difficult circumstances. But when he died. The sweet man's daughter repeatedly reported as we planned some moral service. That her father's all-time favorite saying which he gave voice to all through his difficulties is. You know. I'm a really lucky guy. Four days following his memorial service i just couldn't get that one lighter out of my head you know. I'm a really lucky guy i really. Lucky. The only thing that separated this guy from the rest of us in terms of his luck. Was it he was simply more. Spiritually resilient and existentially grateful for the blessings. He still had in his life. Through life thick and thin through good and bad this guy chose to view himself. As a lucky guy even when the facts on the ground. Might lead you to say. Otherwise. You know. I'm really a lucky. In similar vein someone recently said to me you know scott people make their own luck. While i'm not sure that's entirely true for as i've said i think luck is as random thing that happens to. I do believe that if we view ourselves as basically lucky which is to say we have an attitude of not feeling regularly sorry for ourselves. Our lives. Will be boys. By that optimism. Let me speak personally just for a moment. I am now in my 60 second year of life i know i don't look nearly that'll. And i must tell you that. Like that parishioner back in dc i feel in the overview. Over the long haul. When all is said and done i feel incredibly lucky as a human being by almost. Any objective standard. I've been one very. Lucky. Puppy. First. Hey. I was born. Consider how lucky that is think of all the reasons my parents wouldn't have gotten together and had me for one think it's a pretty lucky damn thing to have parents and have them. Get excited some night and be born nine months later. There are a million reasons why any of us might not have been born what's more. I was born into a happy loving comfortable wisconsin family that's a virtual by itself. In the freest and most prosperous country in the world i've let a life i've been blessed with profound economic social and educational privilege. I've never really materially aided for anything my body which. Works well morales all the time except for rickety and arthritic knees. As far as i know i'm free of debilitating disease. I have a special guy i love and live with i have wonderful friends in the best job i could imagine working for some great folks and vero beach i'm a lucky guy. What can i tell you. And on and on my personal good luck story could go. So when all is said and done i want to knock on. Wood. But i'm a lucky guy and if any of you are feeling lucky i would point out to you that there is wood. In the front of all your pews so if you just want to if you just want to knock for just a second and acknowledge that you know yeah i've had i've had my trouble i've had my share of difficulties we know. I like yes i'm i'm pretty lucky you can you can go ahead and knock on that wood this morning. I passionately believe that acknowledging to yourself all the ways in which you are blessed and are lucky is the first step. Toward spiritual satisfaction in this complicated life we find ourselves. Theologian lp jacks. Pretty much said it all when he said religion. Is primarily. An affair. Of gratitude. If we despite our inevitable hardships and losses are grateful for what we have. And appreciative for how life has basically treated us. That attitude will empower us for further purposeful and positive living. As one guy who feels very lucky. I know that my own deep and real gratitude is one of the most powerful tools i have for building a satisfied future. For myself even if. Circumstances. Turn south on me. My basic sense of being blessed. Will sustain me. But before i close. I must acknowledge. For we all know some folks for whom this is the reality. There are some objectively plain and simple. Really unlucky people. You probably all know somebody. Who's been really unlucky. People who's bad luck and tragic circumstance follow them like that little cloud over charlie brown's head in the peanuts comic strip. Bad luck which threatens to overwhelm all their joy and purpose in living. Maybe a few of you in this room feel that way i hope not but. Some. Perhaps. To feel that way. I called him my mind several people in my own universe who through no fault of their own. I've had incredible runs of bad luck at one time or another. Jobs in loved ones lost diseases and disabilities discovered. Negative life circumstances unfair and unjust things happening to them all conspiring to kind of dragged them down spiritual. No one. Should emotionally underestimate. How challenging. Bad luck can be for any of us. Lock can change in the flash. And no one should tell another one. Struggling with tough times. Just think positively or tell that chinese story about blessing and curse that's. Cousin. Do it. But nonetheless dear friends here. Here is the only place where my heart will allow you to leave to leave you this morning spiritually. In the end i believe no one. Controls or chooses their luck or has their luck. Controlled for them. As i have repeatedly said luck. Involves uncontrollable unpredictable random circumstance that breaks over us. For no particular reason. But that fact doesn't mean we are helpless victims. A random good and bad events. Follis. We are human beings. Who are amazingly supple. And creative creatures. Who have incredible power. To choose our attitude to make our own way to make adjustments of the heart and of the mind. That can profoundly determine. What are lox. Golden bad will ultimately mean to. I take it on faith. Which is very comforting to me actually. That we are always free as we face life's inevitable ups and downs. To bring ourselves to those circumstances is best in bravely we can. Always with whatever resources remain. Well we cannot control our bad luck. By our gratitude. By our courage and by our refusal to stop being human and to stop and then. Refusing to stop plugging away at things. We can shape and evolve our lives. And slowly turn even the worst circumstances. Into something darn your beautiful. Even amidst all the inevitable. I believe with all my heart that. We are not at the mercy. Of lux. Wild swings. I'm gyrations. We are not helpless pawns of some sad and capricious cosmic chess game. Being played out by omnipotent gods in the heavens. Yes we find ourselves mysteriously here on a randomly spinning earth. The deals out all kinds of complications and circumstances and. But we are human beings. Who have been given a suppleness. And the creativity. We can shape our attitude. Good weekend. Decide. How we will react. So that our lives continue to have meaning. And hope. Purpose salt. I say to you and closing get back out there this morning. Don't be afraid. Good and bad luck. Work with what you've got. Whenever possible refuse to feel sorry for yourselves. Choose to live as bolden. Best leah as you can and oh yes i. I do have to say it. Good luck. I meant.

uufvb_org

2013Nov10Sermon32.mp3

Good morning. And welcome to the unitarian universalist fellowship of vero beach on this veterans day weekend we hope you are all. Going to enjoy our good morning with us we're glad you have chosen to be with us this morning. We are congregation of open minds loving hearts and helping hands people seeking to become our best selves. Even as together we worked to make for a better world. And please know that you're welcome just as you come to us this morning. Whether you were young or old. Gay or straight black or white or some other wonderful shade of humanity. Whether you were feeling on top of the world this morning or. Down in the dumps or somewhere in between we welcome you in all of your particularity and charm. We hope you will find our service this morning meaningful and enriching. And then you will find something here this morning. That nourishes your spirit and energy and purpose. For the living of life in the days ahead. When i lived in salem massachusetts we had a contractor handyman and friend named jim harrison. Who was in addition to being a real new england character was an active member of the first universalist church. Every sunday as he came in the door church he would tell marta flanigan who was the minister who served at congregation. And anyone else in your shot that he was there for his spiritual tune-up. I left out loud the first time marta told me about jim's loud sunday proclamation. But the more i thought about it more i realized them knew exactly what church. Was all about. All of us during the week but lots of miles on our lives. No matter what the model year. So what better time with better things to do on sunday then to come to church for a quick tune-up. To make sure that our hearts are all gassed up. And running at full capacity. To make sure our minds and spirits are hitting on all cylinders. What is really good. Important in life. And making sure we are lubricating our lives with as much joy and integrity and compassion. As we arcade. And to make sure that we have enough love and joy to fuel our lives for the coming week so. Welcome to church this sunday. And welcome to your spiritual tune up because. It's free. Welcome. Be a time when we forgive ourselves each other. When we look into our hearts and reflect on those we have hurt. And how we may ask for forgive. Let this be a time when we look into our hearts and reflect on those who have hurt us. And how we met work. Towards forgiving them. Let this be a time when we look into our hearts and reflect on how we may restore our relationships. With those. Who we are alienated from. How we make cross the great divide of anger and resentment. And how we may become at 1. With those we love. So who do you need to forgive. Who has hurt you so badly. That they are living. Rent-free in your mind. Taking up valuable space and trashing the joint at the same time. There you go. Who has hurt you so badly. That your anger and resentment resentment too often make you an outcast from the. Joy of the present moment. Yes who do you need to forgive. Norman cousins wrote that life is an adventure. And forgiveness. And there's no doubt that forgiveness is one of the most. Challenging adventures because it's one of the most difficult and yet rewarding acts. Of our. Entire lives. I found that there are some religious liberals who feel uncomfortable with the idea of forgiveness because it ain't involved. Guilt. And guilt is a four-letter word for us. But i want to encourage you to see forgiveness in an entirely different perspective. As a way of affirming preserving and renewing our relationship. And there's a different perspective right there. You can always get them with kittens kittens always work. Forgiveness is the process that reshapes our relationships from the straight line of anger in retaliation to the curve. Of compassion. When i talk about relationship i mean not only how we relate to other people but how we relate to life itself to the earth to the past and the future. And to god however we may define that powerful term. Amore theological way of talking about relationship is communion. We learnt we all want to be loved to be in communion to be at 1 or to use the ancient hebrew term to enter it into atonement. Or at 1. We seek communion with that which is greater than ourselves whether it be our family or humanity or our god. The fact is that to live outside of communion as hell. And to live at 1. Is heaven. Think about it when someone hurts us whether physically or emotionally we get angry and our immediate responses on i-4 an eye. We want to get even. We want to hurt them back. But what does that do. To us. When we lash out and become someone who is a stranger someone whom we may not even recognize. And we are at the mercy of that stranger no longer able to make our own choices but being controlled by this. Alien entity. When we do react out of anger it may seem that we have no choice but to retaliate. But we do have a choice. There was always the choice. To respond. With forgiveness. Now this is important to choose to forgive does not mean. That we can't. Be angry. In fact anger is a vital part of the process of forgiveness. A woman who was a victim of incest. Came to her minister and said. It's not enough for me to say that i have to forgive my father i can't do that until i experienced the rage. And the sadness and the anger over how my childhood was. And that's what i have been. Afraid. To do. Too many times forgiveness is just a nice word for denying our pain and anger. But if the goal. Is to heal the relationship into make it as whole as possible then we must first of all claim. Our pain. And our anger. To say that we're willing to forget that we've been wrong does not heal a relationship. Only truth. Heals a relationship. Only truth. Heels. A relation. The only way to reshape a relationship into the curve of connection. Is to communicate are hurt and yes our anger. But. And this is especially important the purpose of the anger must not be to hurt the perpetrator of our pain but to bring balance. To the relations. If our intent is to hurt rather than heal then we have jumped onto that hellacious merry-go-round of retaliation. That will eventually. Destroy our spear. And this now this is a way that we can retaliate i like this oscar wilde always forgive your enemies nothing annoys them so much. So that is a good way to retaliate. There's a buddhist story that tells of just such a situation a man is struck by an arrow from an unknown assailant. Rather than tending to the womb. He refuses to remove the arrow until the archer is found and punished. In the meantime the wound festers until finally the poison kills him. Which is the more responsible for this death. The archers letting go of the arrow. Or the victim's foolish holding on. To his anger. So which is the more dangerous to you. The poison of someone else's anger or the poison of your own anger. If i'm hurt that does not give me the right to hurt another. And if i choose to do so i'm hurting not only the person i'm angry but i'm also hurting myself. Isn't this what happens when we get angry. It may be someone we loved very much and maybe someone who is long dead and yet we continue fighting with them holding on to our wrath. And does keeping ourselves trapped in the past. During memorial services i often use these. Healing words written by a powell davies the famed unitarian minister. He wrote. Maino heart be troubled by things left unsaid. Or by past mistakes. For the goodness of life is great enough to heal. And to forgive. The living o the dead only loving remembrance. But not remorse. For all human relationships. All human relationship. That's so true. This guilt when a loved one dies is one of the most difficult of dragons many of us most battle. And the only way to overcome it is through the process. Ginuwine. Forgiveness. Now to forget requires that we have the. Courage to communicate our anger to the person who has offended us. But in a non retaliatory fashion then we need to listen carefully to their response. And then we need to enter into a dialogue conversation a relationship. What that purse. And it takes work it takes. A vast amount of courage to do this. And it takes a lifetime. We're always working on being more forgettable giving no matter how old we may be. This is a spiritual practice that needs to be taken. Seriously. Even then sometimes it doesn't work. The person you were angry at maybe insensitive to your pain and. Disinterested in bringing about a resolution. And all you can do then is to communicate as best you. Know how that you've been hurt and then. Letgo. Forgiven. And it's not easy. But it's a lot harder. To have to hang on to that anger. Hurt. And let it poison your soul. The key. Is not to take it. Heart. Because your heart. Should be a sanctuary. And not. It's also important to remember that forgiveness does not require forgetfulness. We like to say that we will forgive and forget but in reality we need to forgive. And remember. We remember the hurt and the pain and yet we choose we choose to try as best we can to forgive in spite of those men. The most important person to forgive. And usually. The most difficult is. Ourselves. Our expectations for our sales are usually so high that we can't help but fall short. Repeatedly. But we cannot love ourselves or even really stand ourselves very much unless we learn to forgive multitude. Of imperfection. Sometimes we hurt others so badly that we must ask for forgiveness from a higher source. Only by laying our soul bear by being totally honest with ourselves about how badly we've heard another can the grace. I forgiveness be received. And sometimes we need to forgive god. Even if we don't believe in god. A hospice volunteer told me once that she was struggling without a help to patients. One a young man in his thirties was dying of aids. And was wrestling with a question why me. Why do i have to die so young. The other patient. Was a 96 year old woman. Who had little quality of life. And was angry at god for not letting her.. What can you say to these two people who are both suffering not only. The extreme physical pain but the spiritual agony of not understanding why they are being treated so unfairly. I'm not sure what i would tell them but my hope is. That they were able to forgive god. Or life. For the anguish they endured. And malcolm gladwell's recent book david and goliath he tells a. I really tragic story about a canadian couple. Young daughter was brutally raped. And then left. Tied up in a shack where. Froze today. The night they. Heard their daughter was dead. Amman. From their community visited them and told them how the murder. All about the murder of his child. And how it destroyed his life leaving him depressed and angry and hopeless. After the man left the couple resolved never to let that happen to them never. To give up on love or give into hopeless. Being mennonites they were fortunate to have a. Tradition of forgiveness and reconciliation. And they resolved to use their tradition to help them overcome their torment. And anger. With the help of their religious community they use their grief. To motivate them to reach out to others who had suffered. And to live. Full and lovingly. Spite of their grief. And pain. And that's what your religious community can do for you. Forgiveness is not. Asolo events. It's about relationship. We need a religious tradition that teaches the values of relationship the most important part of our lives. And we need people around us who can be models and allies and helping us to live out those values. Our unitarian universalist tradition can and does offer that support. A wonderful leader. And one of. My past congregation. One day. Pulled into a burger king drive-thru for lunch and was accosted by two men with handgun. They told her to move over to the passenger seat. But she refused knowing that the chances of survival would not be good if you did. The man standing next to her door responded. By shooting her in the head. She somehow survived. And went through a long process of physical and emotional recovery. She was is an amazingly strong woman. Healthy. Again she did not want to. About a year after the attack she came to the decision that in order to let go of her anger and sadness she needed to meet the man. Who shot her. Both men had been arrested and incarcerated in. After some resistance from the prison officials they finally did meet. It was the beginning of a long. Healing relationship for both of them in which. They share their life stories along with their. Deepest hopes and fears. When the van finally did get out of jail with her help. She helped him. Find a job and he was able to start a new life. And her life. Was transformed. And the process. Now we hear stories like this every now and then and they are hard for many of us to even comprehend how could someone reach out to another person who tried to kill her. How could she have the courage to transform. Both her life and his life so radically. But. Remember my friend was a part of a religious tradition. That part forgiveness and reconciliation. And she had the amazing support. Of her. Religious can. Rachel naomi remen tells the story of a babled baby girl who is being blessed by a rabbi in front of. Congregation. When she felt his attention shift away from her she reached forward and grabbed his nose. Gently he freed himself and continue the sermon. After a few minutes she took his tie and put it in her mouth. The entire congregation chuckle. The rabbi rescued his tie and smiled at the child. She put her tiny arms around his neck. Looking at us over the top of her head he said think about it. Is there anything she can do. That you could not. Forgive her for. Throughout the room. The people began to nod and recognition thinking perhaps of their own children and grandchildren. Still smiling he waited for silence. When it came he asked. And when does that stop. When does it get hard to forgive. At 3. At 7. At 14. At 35. How old does someone have to be before you forget. That everyone. Is a child of god. Think about it if you knew. And this is something i've been content thinking about 4. Several weeks. If you if you knew all there was to know. About another human being. Could you forgive them no matter what they did. If you knew. Their empire pass. Their struggles and pain and accomplishments enjoy. Could you understand. Why they did what they did. And then let go. Of your anger. This is a very difficult question i hope you contemplated. During. The next week. When we can open our awareness to the pain we have caused others. And seek to restore our relationship i asking forgiveness. We move towards peace. And. When we open our hearts to our own pain and are able to express the sorrow and anger. In a non retaliatory way than we can give the gift of forgiveness. To another. And when we can see life as a circular web of connection with all beings. Interwoven into that web. Then we experience grace at its deepest level and forgiveness comes to our hearts. And we are home. May this be. A religious community where forgiveness is taught and learned and celebrated. And may you be both one who is held. And one who holds others. And that great. Adventure. Wonderful and lettuce and with these words by peter ustinov i love this quote. Love is an act. Of endless forgiveness. A tender look. Which becomes a habit. Make love being active endless forgiveness for each one of us. A courageous adventure of letting go of anger and resentment. Anna curve of connection. That brings us back. Into relation. So may it be.