Afri-Kin

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Rev. Meg Barnhouse

January 29, 2012

 

The choir performs three of Kiya Heartwood’s choral works and Meg Barnhouse collaborates with readings. Science is showing us that we are all related to an African woman we call Mitochondrial Eve, and we can trace each person’s ancestry through their mother’s mitochondrial DNA, from mother to mother, all the way back to one of 26 “daughters of Eve.”

SERMON:

Music for the “Afri-Kin” service is called “A Balance of Earth and Sky,” composed by Kiya Heartwood (see program notes below)

I. Gloria (A Hymn to the Queen of Heaven)

This piece is honor of Mitochondrial or “African Eve”, our Homo sapiens common ancestor. Eve lived at least 200,000 years ago in East Africa and all humans are her descendants through their mitochondrial DNA (mt DNA). All humans share one common African ancestor and all women carry a strand of her DNA. This theory is supported in many books including Seven Daughters of Eve by Brian Sykes

II. Rivers of Grass

Homo sapiens descendants of Eve began migrating out of Africa to populate the rest of the world sometime between 95,000- 45,000 years ago. These daughters of Eve carry the gradual mutations necessary for survival in different climates and topography. These people moved on to new lands because of climate changes, floods, wars, droughts, and plain curiosity. We are all descended from these daughters of Mitochondrial Eve. We honor their perseverance and strength and we carry these traits into the next generations.

III. The Beauty Way.

This piece is based on a Navajo ceremonial chant that brings back balance and harmony into the celebrants’ lives. By honoring the connections to our common ancestors we remind ourselves that we are the sons and daughters of Eve and we are all related.

 

PROGRAM NOTES

“A Balance of Earth and Sky”

is three song cycle of praise and connection written by composer/singer songwriter Kiya Heartwood for mixed chorus and piano. This work was commissioned by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton’s Music Ministry for the UUCP choir in 2011.

“A Balance of Earth and Sky” is a musical ceremony for centering and balance.

The pieces include: “Gloria”, “Rivers of Grass” and “The Beauty Way”.

I. Gloria (A Hymn to the Queen of Heaven) …. Gloria

II. Rivers of Grass

I am grass like an ocean, rivers of mountains, choirs of stone. ( Begin again.)

I am wise as the raven, strong as the horses running for home. ( Begin again.) We dance down through the ages mother to mother, never alone. ( Begin again.)

Begin. begin again. Begin. Begin again. Begin again.

I am grass like an ocean, rivers of mountains, choirs of stone.

Rivers of mountains, choirs of stone.

Choirs of stone.

III. The Beauty Way (Based on the Navajo Beauty Way Ceremony)

Oh Beauty! Oh Beauty!

In beauty may I walk.

Through the returning season may I walk.

Grasshoppers at my feet. A sky of joyful birds.

On the trail of sacred pollen may I walk.

Beauty before me. Beauty behind me. Beauty above me.

Beauty all around.

In my youth may I walk.

In my age may I walk.

In beauty, it is finished.

In beauty, it is finished.

In beauty, we begin, again.

Mary, Mary, Quite Revolutionary

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Marisol Caballero

January 22, 2012

Marisol Caballero reflects on the symbolism of the Virgin of Guadalupe as a feminine image of the Divine. How may this “goddess”, native to the Americas, speak to us, as Unitarian Universalists, as well as unite diverse populations in compassion, perseverance, and justice?

When I was a very young infant, before I would fully focus on faces or follow sounds much, I am told that I would stare in the direction of a statue that my mother had on her dresser of the Virgin of Guadalupe. No matter where I was in the room, I would try to turn toward that statue. My mom tells me it was the weirdest thing and that visitors to our house would often comment on it, saying that it looked as if I was communicating with her in some way. This may be hyperbole, but it makes for a nice story. And, part of me likes to believe a little that I was born with a special affinity for the Lady, that she drew my eyes to her as she continues to draw my heart, and that a child development specialist can’t easily explain this story away. No, I don’t truly believe that a statue has super powers, nor am I a closet Catholic- in fact I was have been attending UU churches since age two, but there exists a subversive yet compassionate power in the story and symbolism of the Virgin of Guadalupe that transcends religion and that strengthens my faith.

It isn’t often that we hear about traditionally Catholic imagery from our Unitarian Universalist pulpits but as a Chicana from Texas, my cultural connection to her runs deep. Just like each of us, my personal and cultural history influences my worldview and my theology, but I choose to speak from this perspective not because I wish to exoticize my story and my ministry or to become a novelty act. I choose to share such cultural expressions because it is my authentic starting point. One of my professors at seminary, Dr. James Cone, used to remind us in class that, “to do theology, you have to start where you’re at. You must speak from your unique vantage point.”

The image and symbolism of the Virgin of Guadalupe has much to offer UU’s personally, of all backgrounds and genders, as we struggle to equalize the playing fields, seeking justice for the oppressed, and as we strive toward greater compassion in our daily lives, not to mention as we also endeavor to create a more multicultural Unitarian Univeraslism. But, before she can be understood as a universal emblem, the Virgin of Guadalupe must be understood, as her Mexican people know her.

As we learned in the story of her apparition to Juan Diego, the Virgin appeared in solidarity with the marginalized indigenous population. She chose Juan Diego, a poor Aztec, to carry her message. She spoke to him in his language, not the language of the oppressors, from which Christianity had been taught to the Indians. She had brown skin. She wore Aztec astrological imagery on her robe. She was one who they could identify with because she looked like them. She was one of them and still remains so. Most importantly, she does not allow the marginalized to feel inferior. She raises the self-worth of the Mexican people with a mother’s compassion and offers her protection in their struggle.

The Mexican people, and those of Mexican descent, are a mix of various indigenous, Spanish (and other European), and African people. They speak many native languages in addition to Spanish, and many Mexican-Americans (Chicanos) speak no Spanish at all. Before the legendary apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe, most Christian conversions had been made at the end of a Spanish steel sword. Mary had the effect of uniting the old and the new. She was a fusion of the indigenous and of the oppressor, much like the blood running through the veins of those she calls her children. She offered a means by which her people could retain their cultural identity with pride- with respect to the need for self-preservation amidst a violent theocracy.

This Mary continues to be such a means of synthesis for Mexicans and those of Mexican descent today. She unifies us as a cultural icon, no matter our language, religion, dialect or gender. She is our common mother, our loving ancestor. She is called by many names, among them are: Mother of Mexico, Mother of the Americas, (Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe) Our Lady of Guadalupe, and my great-grandmother- the matriarch of our family- called her affectionately, mi morenita (my little dark-skinned lady). She remains a symbol of strength for her marginalized people for after all, even if her story is only a myth, it reminds us that we are worthy of unconditional love.

In our science-minded culture, we say things like “only a myth”, as if myths were powerless things, when we have learned that myths are, in fact, values and ideals in the embryonic stage. Religions and nations alike were built on myths. (Remember George Washington and the cherry tree?) But, the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe is a revolutionary myth in that it offers us a woman (and a woman of color, no less!) as our champion! Maria de Guadalupe offers us all another way to imagine God. She is a feminine alternative.

Many White feminists have historically rejected her image, misunderstanding her due to centuries of misogynistic false interpretations. She has been said to be the reason that so many women dislike themselves, since she has been lifted up as the ideal of womanhood while women are simultaneously told that her perfection is unattainable. She has been accused of keeping women meek and silently obedient, since her eyes are cast downward. She has also been misinterpreted as a proponent of joyfully bearing one’s suffering, regardless of the hardship it may cause us and those we love. Some school districts have even banned her image on t-shirts, claiming ties to gang violence.

Latinas, however, have long known that although for centuries many have tried to pervert the image of Guadalupe in an effort to keep us in a subjugated place, most of us never truly bought it. She is quite the opposite. She is our Rosie the Riveter. Instead of being an ideal of womanhood that is unachievable, we can emulate her willingness to stand up to power and demand that the oppressed be recognized. We view her downcast eyes as a representation of her gentle, loving spirit and she is not silenced easily- she persistently appeared to Juan Diego three times before the Bishop recognized him. She did not accept him backing down and inspired in him the courage to persevere. To Christian Latinas, she is more accessible than a Father God or His divine Son, Jesus.

Dolores Huerta, co-founder with Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers union, heroine of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, and single mother of eleven, says, “I don’t think I could have survived without her. She is a symbol of faith, hope and leadership. She has been incorporated into everything we do,” she said, “If she’s not there, you notice her absence right away.” Mexicans and Chicanos have carried her image in just about every rally, march, picket, protest, and even battle for centuries. Anywhere there are people of Mexican decent advocating for social justice for their communities, chances are, the Virgin of Guadalupe’s image will be there as well. In fact, I was not at all shocked when, in some of the media coverage of the many nationwide protests of the hateful new Arizona immigration law, marchers have been carrying images and statues of her. No doubt the thought of a compassionate and persevering feminine representation of the divine is bringing strength to those in fear of what this law’s implementation may bring (or, has already brought) to their lives and to their families and communities.

In her essay, “Latinas and Religion: Subordination or State of Grace?”, Laura M. Padilla tells us that,

“The Virgin’s model allows us to discard the notion that we must accept our suffering with dignity, thus freeing us to turn our attention to how to alleviate that suffering, regardless of whether it consists of physical, emotional, economic, or spiritual abuseÉ [she] also turns from a top-down hierarchy where God speaks and we listen, to a model where we mutually communicate with compassionÉ [and] shows Latinas how to incorporate [our spirituality] into our lives in a holistic way that is not based on hierarchy, opposition, intolerance or superiority. Rather, she points us to a framework that incorporates the feminine, not to the exclusion of the masculine, but in balance with it.”

In the story, she chose to appear before a man, Juan Diego, demonstrating that although she is “divinely” feminine, she exists for men, as well. Men can also both be mothered by and guided by her, while also learning to emulate her maternal attributes of tender nurturance yet strong advocacy for one’s family. For Guadalupe, this family does not begin and end with bloodlines. Our family is made of up humanity, itself, for we are interconnected. The marginalized and the oppressor are both of her concern, as she reaches for the heart of the wealthy Bishop through the experience of the impoverished Juan Diego. Men may follow the example of her symbolism not only as the sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers of woman, but also as members of the human family who recognize that ignoring the suffering of others prohibits the privileged from realizing their full humanity.

In this way, the Virgin of Guadalupe has relevance and meaning not only for all genders, but I would argue, all people. In the way that the image and symbolism of the Virgin of Guadalupe transcends religion, language, gender, and national borders, she also transcends race. Just as she unites the diverse people of Mexican descent in a common cultural identity, so may she unite the world to a common cause of justice, of working to end all forms of oppression. Although she will always be the treasured product of the Mexican people, the strength of her symbolism has the potential to reach anyone looking for a loving yet righteously angry, gentle yet fierce, and patient yet persistent ally in the struggle.

As UU’s, so often we begin our prayers to “God of many names”. In the Virgin of Guadalupe, we recognize that one name for God is “Mother”. The feminine divine does exist in many traditions: Hindus have Kali, Lakshmi and others, Buddhists have Tara and Kwan Yin, and pagans may call her Gaea or Great Mother, to name just a few. The Virgin of Guadalupe is the manifestation of the feminine divine for this continent. She is our native goddess, Mother of the Americas, and offers the world her love, encouragement, and protection both to those who view her as a powerful symbol as well as to those who view her as a supernatural being with intercessory abilities.

Next time you see a candle, a keychain, a mural, or anything else that her ever-so-pervasive image adorns, see her for who she is to her people and who she can be for all- a powerful symbol of compassion, fortitude, and justice. Not a cultural cliche or tacky kitsch, but a reminder that we shall overcome, that Si Se Puede (Yes, it can be done), for she is Mary, Mary, Quite Revolutionary!

Installation Service

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Rev. Peter Morales

President of the Unitarian Universalist Association

January 15, 2012

Audio of this service does not include the music and some of the readings due to technical constraints. An unabridged video of the complete service can be purchased from our bookstore.

Podcasts of sermons are also available for free on iTunes.

 

 

Call to Celebration: 

Rev. Bret Lortie, Minister, First UU Church of San Antonio

Chalice Lighting:

Reading:

Exerpt from The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Read by Rev. Kathleen Ellis, Co-Minister, Live Oak UU Church

O! You bad little thing! — said the woman, teasing her baby granddaughter. “Is Buddha teaching you to laugh for no reason?” As the baby continued to gurgle, the woman felt a deep wish stirring in hear heart. “Even if I could live forever,” she said to the baby, “I still don’t know which way I would teach you. I was once so free and innocent. I too laughed for no reason. But later I threw away my foolish innocence to protect myself. And then I taught my daughter, your mother, to shed her innocence so she would not be hurt as well. Little one, was this kind of thinking wrong?… ” The baby laughed, listening to her grandmother’s laments.

“O! O! you say you are laughing because you have already lived forever, over and over again? You say you are the Queen Mother of the Western Skies. now come back to give me the answer Good, good. I am listening . . . Thank you, little Queen. And you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever.”

Welcome: 

Susan Thomson, President-Elect First UU Church of Austin

Greetings from the Austin Community:

State Representative Donna Howard

Reading:

Excerpt from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

Read by Rev. Eliza Galaher, Wildflower UU Church

When the doctor took her bandages off and led her into the garden, the girl who was no longer blind saw “the tree with the lights in it.” It was for this tree I searched through the peach orchards of summer, in the forests of fall and down winter and spring for years. Then one day I was walking along Tinker Creek thinking of nothing at all and I saw the tree with the lights in it. I saw the backyard cedar where the mourning doves roost charged and transfigured, each cell buzzing with flame. I stood on the grass with the lights in it, grass that was wholly fire, utterly focused and utterly dreamed. It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen, knocked breathless by a powerful glance. The lights of the fire abated, but I’m still spending the power. Gradually the lights went out in the cedar, the colors died, the cells unflamed and disappeared. I was still ringing. I had my whole life been a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck. I have since only rarely seen the tree with the lights in it. The vision comes and goes, mostly goes, but I live for it, for the moment when the mountains open and a new light roars in spate through the crack, and the mountains slam.

Greetings from the Southwest UU Conference

Jennifer Nichols, District Director for Lifespan Faith Development

Charge to the Congregation

Andrea Lerner, DE Metro NY District

Reading:

Credo by Judith Roche

Read by Sharon Moore and Michael Kersey,

Co-Chairs of the Ministerial Search Committee

I believe in the cave paintings at Lascaux,

the beauty of the clavicle,

the journey of the salmon,

her leap up any barrier,

the scent of home waters

she finds through celestial navigation.

I believe in all the gods –

I just don’t like some of them.

I believe the war is always against the imagination,

is recurring, repetitive, and relentless.

I believe in fairies, elves, angels and bodisatvas,

Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

I have seen and heard ghosts.

I believe that Raven invented the Earth

And so did Coyote. In archeology

lie the clues. The threshold is numinous

and the way in is the way out.

I believe in the alphabets – all of them –

and the stories seeping from their letters.

I believe in dance as prayer, that the heart

beat invented rhythm and chant -.

or is it the other way around –

I believe in the wisdom of the body.

I believe that art saves lives

and love makes it worth living them.

And that could be the other way around, too.

Offering for the Unitarian Universalist Association 

Laurel Amabile

Sermon:

Peter Morales, President, Unitarian Universalist Association

Act of Installation:

Susan Thomson, President-Elect

Charge to the Minister 

Kiya Heartwood

Reading:

Fearing Paris by Marsha Truman Cooper

Read by Rev. Daniel O’Connell, Minister, First UU Church of Houston

Suppose that what you fear

could be trapped

and held in Paris.

Then you would have

the courage to go

everywhere in the world.

 All the directions of the compass

open to you,

except the degrees east or west

of true north

that lead to Paris.

Still, you wouldn’t dare

put your toes

smack dab on the city limit line.

You’re not really willing

to stand on a mountainside,

miles away,

and watch the Paris lights

come up at night.

Just to be on the safe side

you decide to stay completely

out of France.

But then the danger

seems too close

even to those boundaries,

and you feel

the timid part of you

covering the whole globe again.

You need the kind of friend

who learns your secret and says,

“See Paris First.”

Reading:

We have not come to take prisoners by Hafiz

Read by Brian Ferguson, Minister, San Marcos UU Fellowship

We have not come here to take prisoners,

But to surrender ever more deeply

To freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world

To hold ourselves hostage from love.

Run my dear,

From anything

That may not strengthen

Your precious budding wings.

Run like hell my dear,

From anyone likely

To put a sharp knife

Into the sacred, tender vision

Of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend

Those aspects of obedience

That stand outside of our house

And shout to our reason

“O please, O please,

Come out and play.”

For we have not come here to take prisoners

Or to confine our wondrous spirits,

But to experience ever and ever more deeply

Our divine courage, freedom and

Light!

Benediction:

The Fountain by Denise Levertov

Read by Rev. Meg Barnhouse

Don’t say, don’t say there is no water

to solace the dryness at our hearts.

I have seen

the fountain springing out of the rock wall

and you drinking there. And I too

before your eyes

found footholds and climbed

to drink the cool water.

The woman of that place, shading her eyes,

frowned as she watched – but not because

she grudged the water,

only because she was waiting

to see we drank our fill and were

refreshed.

Don’t say, don’t say there is no water.

That fountain is there among its scalloped

green and gray stones,

it is still there and always there

with its quiet song and strange power

to spring in us,

up and out through the rock.

 

 

A Stone of Hope

by Posted in Audio available, Meg Barnhouse, Sermons, Video available

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Rev. Meg Barnhouse

January 15, 2012

How can we begin to dismantle racism in our hearts and minds? How can we dismantle it in the structures of our society? Are all humans racist when they are born? What transformations might we hope for?

 

OUT OF A MOUNTAIN OF DESPAIR, A STONE OF HOPE

There is a lot I don’t understand about racism. If I were to talk about all the things I don’t know, we would be here a lot longer than we want to be, so I will talk about some of the things I do know. I know that every group on earth is racist about some other group. Here is what they all say:” They are dirty and lazy. They don’t want to work. They are over emotional and their religion is strange. Their brains are smaller– they just can’t think the way we do, so they are better at hands-on work — as long as you tell them exactly what to do. They will hurt children and women.” That is the Japanese talking about Koreans, whom they traditionally have despised.

It’s the he Northern Italians talking about the Southern Italians, the people or Northern India talking about the Southern Tamil Indians. In Sri Lanka the Tamils hate the Singhalese. Moslems and Hindus slaughtered each other in 1947, as Pakistan and Bangladesh were being partitioned off from India. More than a million Hindus and Muslims were killed during the partition. Malaysians hate the Chinese. The Serbs hate the Croats. The Czechs hate the Slovaks. In Africa, the Hutus hate the Tutsis and slaughter each other. Right now the Tutsis are in power, but that will change, as it has before. In Nigeria the Hausa hate the Ibo. Sunni and Shiite Moslems war with one another in Iraq. In Syria, there are families and clans that hate each other. In Darfur, in the Sudan, the Arab-identifying Muslim nomadic Sudanese are slaughtering the non-Arab identifying Muslim sedentary Sudanese. The Israelis hate the Arabs. Will it always be this way? What has to change?

We try anti-racism training, with mixed results. We learn about the way we use language: we talk about darkness as evil and bad, we use the color black to symbolize negative things. “A black mood,” “a black-hearted person.” I was with a group of ministers doing an art project. We were making collages to symbolize our lives. One woman had colored an area of her page dark brown. She said, “This area symbolizes my depression. I learned in anti-racism training not to use black, so I’m using dark brown instead.” Bless our hearts.

To overcome racism, I have to learn to read another human’s face and watch their behavior before I can tell what kind of person they are. Their skin tone is one important thing about a person. Some people who go through anti-ism training say “I just don’t even see what people’s skin color is.” Well, you need to, because it’s an important part of who they are. One part. Like being gay, or being able-bodied, or being tall. One part of who you are. We want to work towards seeing one another as individual humans, reserved or out-going, structured or flexible, buoyant or grounded, excitable or calm. Those qualities come in all colors

That’s one thing we can do as individuals, and although it is arduous, it feels easier to me than dealing with institutional racism, which is one of the other things we have to fix. In his book Dismantling Racism, Joseph Barndt defines racism as “prejudice plus power.” Hispanics and Blacks have strained relations, Koreans and Blacks live in mutual mistrust in the cities of the Northeast. But none of those groups has the power to create a system that is the embodiment of those ideas. This is the point at which I can fall asleep if I want to. I don’t have to care about this. I have the luxury, being light-skinned, not to care or think about this. Not having to face it is one of the privileges I enjoy because of being white.

European Americans have most of the power in the economy and the government. We also have tremendous power in the schools and the service industries Barndt says our institutions are racist because the power behind them is White, and therefore they perpetuate white European values. . I don’t notice it, and I want to believe people who say “Aw, it’s not really that way.” None of the solutions we are currently trying seem to work well. There is some legislation that is working over time, but there are those working to dismantle that legislation as we speak. More long meetings where blacks and whites meet to talk don’t feel like a solution to me. I’ve been to enough of those. I have thought of an instant way to bring it into stark relief for myself and all of Austin. I believe with this plan institutionalized racism in our nation would be wiped out within years.

How would I do this? Imagine this solution: How about we pass legislation that would mandate that all children, in their tenth and eleventh years, do a two-year “exchange-student” program in other neighborhoods of their town. Your child might end up on a golf course or in a housing project. It would teach, enlighten, terrify and annoy all of us.

Be comforted in knowing that it won’t ever happen, but be aware of the feelings it brings up.

Do you think that would encourage the middle-class people of all to come up with housing improvements? Do you think that would encourage us to provide drug treatment for addicted mothers so their children would have a chance at life? And so their children wouldn’t make our lives hell during the time they were with us? I have to say I would in no way want that legislation passed, and the vehemence with which I do not want my children in a “bad neighborhood” tells me something important about the situation. This would counteract the anesthesia that we give ourselves so as not to notice the conditions spawned by institutional and cultural racism. That fantasy proposal woke me right up. I have privileges and so do my children that a non-white woman and her children do not have. I don’t have to worry about cashing a check. I don’t have to train my sons to be wary of officers of the law. There are so many things I don’t have to worry about since my sons have light skin.

None of us in here wants to be racist. We don’t like to think of ourselves that way. But most of us do participate unthinkingly in white privilege. This is not something to wallow in guilt about. Wallowing in guilt makes you stupid and drains your energy. You don’t think well. You don’t want to face the people who don’t have the privileges you do. White privilege is something to notice. This is not something non white people can or should have to help white people with. This is white people’s responsibility. In our UU churches, bless our hearts, it is not uncommon for the people of color who come in our doors to be approached about being on the anti-racism committee. It happens sometimes that when a black person joins the choir, suddenly the repertoire changes to include more gospel songs, even if that particular black person prefers Chopin or country.

Dr.. King said in his “I have a dream” speech “we shall hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” The racism in our world certainly could weigh on a person like a mountain of despair.

I have thought a lot about despair and hope. I’ve been wondering about that image of a stone of hope. It comes from the mountain of despair, so it’s made of the same stuff. How can that be?

The thing that despair and hope have in common is the vision of a better future. A necessary component of despair is knowing that things aren’t what they should be. To feel that, you need a vision of what things should be. Despair is when the vision of what should be combines with the weight of what is and threatens to overwhelm you. You can’t see how to get there. You can’t believe things will ever be better. Despair is giving up. The antedote to despair is that we just take a little piece of that mountain, and the piece we take is the vision of how things could be.

We all know that, if all you have is a sense of how things should be, you can be one miserable human being. In ancient Greek mythology, when Pandora opened the container and let all the evils fly out into the world, she slammed the lid shut with just one left inside. What was it? Hope. What was hope doing among the evils of the world? Hesiod said it was because hope is empty and no good, and it takes away people’s industriousness. Friedrich Nietzsche said ” Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man.” Yes, hoping without action is foolish, if an action can be taken.

Rita Mae Brown says “Never hope more than you work.” That’s what those people in Ohio were doing. Hoping and working. That’s what the people who believed in Dr. King’s vision did. They held the vision and they worked. Maybe stone is just the right size for hope. Maybe the rest of what we work with is clarity, reason, facing the elements of our lives and those of others with open eyes.

Maybe stone is just the right material for hope. Dr. King did not say “Out of the mountain of despairs we mine a jewel of hope.” It is not something rare and precious we find within the despair, covered, held and hidden in there. Maybe stone is just the right value for hope. Stone is ancient, far more ancient than humanity, and it’s everywhere. It’s common. We can lose hope over and over and just pick up more anywhere. You can throw hope away in a fit of rage and loss of spirit, then just pick up another piece.

Maybe stone is just the right hardness for hope too. Hope has to be tough. One of my friends said at a twelve step meeting her sponsor handed her a stone and said, “Any time you feel like taking a drink, put this in your mouth. When it dissolves, go ahead and have a drink.”

We hold on to our hope. Find yours, and live with it in your pocket, in the palm of your hand. What do you hope for? Hope, and we do what we can do make things better The most important thing is that we do it together.

 

 

The Democratic Process

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Rev. Meg Barnhouse

January 8, 2012

Our fifth principle talks about affirming and promoting the democratic process in our congregations. Does that mean every voice should be heard? How should it be heard?

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Burning Bowl

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Rev. Meg Barnhouse

January 1, 2012

 

Your life is a sacred story. That story didn’t begin with your birth, it began before that. You began with your grandmother, with your Uncle Jim, with the stories told at the supper table, with the family fortune that was won and lost, with the lifestyle they had, and the one they felt they should have had. By the time the story of your birth, your adoption or your fostering unfolds, already much of who you are is in place.

A sacred story has miracles, trials, lessons, triumphs and tragedies. Each life in this room has all of those. You make your own life as you go along. You made seventeen choices a day that shape where you are now. Did you know those choices were part of your sacred story?

Among the choices you make are what to hold on to and what to let go. That is what we are doing this morning. I am going to ask you to think about what you want to hold onto as you move forward into this year and what you want to let go. It might be an event, a habit, something you regret. Sometimes we hang onto things because we think we have to – that if we let them go we will dishonor the parent who taught it to us, or that it will make us a bad person if we don’t keep punishing ourselves for something we did. Maybe we keep hold of things just because we don’t know that we can let them go. Or sometimes we think we’ll hurt someone if we let go.

 

The Bridge

A Metaphor

There was a man who had given much thought to what he wanted from life. He had experienced many moods and trials. He had experimented with different ways of living, and he had had his share of both success and failure. At last, he had begun to see clearly where he wanted to go.

Diligently, he searched for the right opportunity. Sometimes he came close, only to be pushed away. Often the applied all of his strength and imagination, only to find the path hopelessly blocked. And then at last it came! But the opportunity would not wait. It would be made available only for a short time. If it were seen that he was not committed, the opportunity would not come again. Eager to arrive, he started on his journey. With each step, he wanted to move faster; with each thought about his goal, his heart beat quicker; with each vision of what lay ahead, he found renewed vigor. Strength that had left it since his early youth returned, and desires, all kinds of desires, reawakened from their long-dormant positions.

Hurrying along, he came upon a bridge that crossed through the middle of a town. It had been built high above a river in order to protect it from the floods of spring.

He started across. Then he noticed someone coming from the opposite direction. As they moved closer, it seemed as though the other was coming to greet him. He could clearly see, however, that he did not know this other, who was dressed similarly except for something tied around his waist.

When they were within hailing distance, he could see that what the other had about his waist was a rope. It was wrapped around him many times and probably, if extended, would reach a length of 30 feet.

The other began to uncurl the rope, and, just as they were coming close, the stranger said, “Pardon me, would you be so kind as to hold the end a moment?” Surprised by this politely phrased but curious request, he agreed without a thought, reached out, and took it.

“Thank you,” said the other, who then added, “two hands now, and remember, hold tight.” Whereupon, the other jumped off the bridge.

Quickly, the free-falling body hurtled the distance of the rope’s length, and from the bridge, the man abruptly felt the pull. Instinctively, he held tight and was almost dragged over the side. He managed to brace himself against the edge, however, and after having caught his breath looked down at the other dangling, close to oblivion.

“What are you trying to do?” he yelled. “Just hold tight,” said the other “This is ridiculous,” the man thought and began trying to haul the other in. He could not get the leverage, however. It was as though the weight of the other person and the length of the rope had been carefully calculated in advance so that together they created a counterweight just beyond his strength to bring the other back to safety.

“Why did you do this?” the man called out. “Remember,” said the other, “if you let go, I will be lost.” “But I cannot pull you up,” the man cried. “I am your responsibility,” said the other. “Well, I did not ask for it,” the man said. “If you let go, I am lost,” repeated the other.

He began to look around for help. But there was no one. How long would he have to wait? Why did this happen to befall him now, just as he was on the verge of true success? He examined the side, searching for a place to tie the rope. Some protrusion, perhaps, or maybe a hole in the boards. But the railing was unusually uniform in shape; there were no spaces between the boards. There was no way to get rid of this newfound burden, even temporarily.

What do you want?” he asked the other hanging below. “Just your help,” the other answered. “How can I help? I cannot pull you in, and there is no place to tie the rope so that I can go and find someone to help me help you.” “I know that. Just hang on; that will be enough. Tie the rope around your waist; it will be easier.”

Fearing that his arms could not hold out much longer, he tied the rope around his waist. “Why did you do this?” he asked again. “Don’t you see what you have done? What possible purpose could you have in mind?” “Just remember,” said the other, “my life is in your hands.”

What should he do? “If I let go, all my life I will know that I let this other die. If I stay, I risk losing my momentum toward my own long-sought-after salvation. Either way, this will haunt me forever.” With ironic humor he thought to die himself, instantly, to jump off the bridge while he was still holding on. “That would teach this fool.” But he wanted to live and live fully. “What a choice I have to make; How shall I ever decide?”

As time went by, still no one came. The critical moment of decision was drawing near. To show his commitment to his own goals, he would have to continue on his journey now. It was already almost too late to arrive in time. But what a terrible choice to have to make!

A new thought occurred to him. While he could not pull this other up solely by his own efforts, if the other would shorten the rope from his end by curling it around his waist again and again, together, they could do it! Actually, the other could do it by himself, so long as he, standing on the bridge, kept it still and steady.

“Now listen,” he shouted down. “I think I know how to save you.” And he explained his plan. But the other wasn’t interested. “You mean you won’t help? But I told you I cannot pull you up myself, and I don’t think I can hang on much longer either.” “You must try,” the other shouted back in tears. “If you fail, I die!”

The point of decision had arrived. What should he do? “My life or this other’s?” And then a new idea. A revelation. So new, in fact, it seemed heretical, so alien was it to his traditional way of thinking.

“I want you to listen carefully,” he said, “because I mean what I am about to say. I will not accept the position of choice for your life, only for my own; the position of choice for your own life I hereby give back to you.”

“What do you mean?” the other asked, afraid. “I mean, simply, it’s up to you. You decide which way this ends. I will become the counterweight. You do the pulling and bring yourself up. I will even tug a little from here.” He began unwinding the rope from around his waist and braced himself anew against the side.

“You cannot mean what you say!” the other shrieked. “You would not be so selfish. I am your responsibility. What could be so important that you would let someone die? Do not do this to me!”

He waited a moment. There was not change in the tension of the rope. “I accept your choice,” he said, at last, and freed his hands.

– Edwin H. Friedman

 

Ritual for the New Year

(Adapted from litany by Rev. Joan Kahn-Schneider)

We pause now on the edge of the New Year –

a time to reflect. Like Janus, the god for whom January was named, we glance back at past joys and sorrows

That what has past can guide us

Toward what is yet to be.

Let us reflect for a moment on some of the things that happened to us and our world in 2011.

First – think of the good things. What are you proud of?

What were your gains and accomplishments?

What were some of the special blessings of (year)?

Consider those things for which you are grateful

What would you like to take with you into (year)?

You have two pieces of paper in your order of service.

On one piece write your hopes, dreams, your wishes, your goals for the coming year.

 

Time to write

We come to the opening of (year) also with regrets – events from the past year that you would like to forget – to put behind you – disappointments,

opportunities missed, losses, failures, unwelcome burdens.

Things you said or did that you wish you hadn’t said or done.

Things you didn’t say or do that you wish you had

Things you want to let go

Angers and fears and regrets

Hopes unfulfilled

And now, on the other paper, write those things you want to dispose of

I invite you now to put the paper with the things you want to keep in a safe place. (Perhaps you would like to take it home and put it on your refrigerator — a reminder of your good intent and good resolve.)

And now come forward if you wish bringing with you those things you want to dispose of as together we let go of all that we wish not to take with us into the New Year

 

The Burning

Emptying ourselves of those things which make us anxious and render us stingy with our love, we invite the spirit of Janus – the spirit of good beginnings to fill us and to cast the light of hope upon the year ahead.

“May what you have released here be forever gone from your spirit and cease to trouble you. May you be relieved and renewed, ever mindful that love is always more powerful than fear, and that compassion is the key to freedom from resentment.”

Rev. Victoria Weinstein

 

 

2012 Sermon Index

by Posted in Indexes

2012 Sermons

Sermon Topic
Author
Date
 Is there a place for God in Unitarian Universalism?  Andrew Young 12-30-12
 Blue Christmas Rev. Meg Barnhouse 12-23-12
Christmas Pageant Rev. Meg Barnhouse and Marisol Caballero 12-16-12
Rekindled  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 12-09-12
Sweet Honey from old failures Rev. Meg Barnhouse 12-02-12
The lovers, the dreamers, and me Marisol Caballero 11-25-12
Thank you, I’m going downhill  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 11-18-12
Equilibrium with Elegance: Jazz and UU Theology  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 11-11-12
 Our Religious Imagination  Rev. Brian Ferguson 11-04-12
Day of the Dead (El Dia de Los Muertos)  Marisol Caballero 10-28-12
Kicking the Statue of Shiva  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 10-21-12
A Safe Place  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 10-14-12
Land of Hope and Dreams Rev. Meg Barnhouse 10-07-12
Coming Home  Marisol Caballero 09-30-12
American Civil Religion  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 09-23-12
A Relationship of Promises  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 09-16-12
 Setting Sail Rev. Meg Barnhouse 09-09-12
Water Ceremony and Ingathering  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 09-02-12
Becoming an Ally  Marisol Caballero 08-26-12
The least of things  Chris Jimmerson 08-19-12
Inside the Words on the Wall  Nell Newton 08-12-12
The magic of I am (you fill in the blank). Dwayne Windham 08-05-12
Bringing Home Justice from General Assembly  Gillian Redfearn, Mike LeBurkien, Judy Sadegh, Carolyn Gremminger & Peggy Morton 07-29-12
It looks like the world is going to hell. So let’s change it – and ourselves – religiously. Amanda Yaira Robinson 07-22-12
The Elderly, the Beautiful, and Children of God  Rev. Kathleen Ellis 07-15-12
 The courage to trust  Jim Checkley 07-08-12
What is Patriotism?  Rev. Mark Skrabacz 07-01-12
The Narrow Gate: Passageways to the Ordinarily Sacred  Tom Spencer 06-24-12
Bee Yard Etiquette  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 06-17-12
The Real Ten Commandments  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 06-10-12
Gold in the Shadow Rev. Meg Barnhouse 06-03-12
Flower Communion Service Rev. George “Kim” Beach 05-27-12
Individualism vs the social contract Audrey Lewis, Max Wethington, Jara Stiller, Andrew Young, Kate Windsor 05-20-12
 What I learned from my mother Rev. Meg Barnhouse 05-13-12
Does our name mean anything to us?  Rev. Brian Ferguson 05-06-12
Humility: Struggle with the Two Selves  Eric Hepburn 04-29-12
Gaia Psalms  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 04-22-12
Grasshoppers in the Glittering Net  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 04-15-12
Quartet for the end of time  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 04-08-12
How many UUs does it take to change a lightbulb?  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 04-01-12
Unitarian Universalist Utopias Luther Elmore 03-25-12
What is enough? Rev. Meg Barnhouse 03-18-12
Firsts First Dick Pierce 03-11-12
When to take the leap  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 03-04-12
A Prophetic Liberal Religion  Chris Jimmerson 02-26-12
She stirs up the world Rev. Meg Barnhouse 02-19-12
The man who ate a car  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 02-12-12
Everybody’s got a Hungry Heart  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 02-05-12
Afri-Kin Rev. Meg Barnhouse 01-29-12
Mary, Mary, Quite Revolutionary  Marisol Caballero 01-22-12
Installation Service of Rev. Meg Barnhouse  Rev. Peter Morales 01-15-12
A Stone of Hope  Rev. Meg Barnhouse 01-15-12
The Democratic Process Rev. Meg Barnhouse 01-08-12
Burning Bowl Rev. Meg Barnhouse 01-01-12

Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols

by Posted in Audio available, Meg Barnhouse, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Rev. Meg Barnhouse

December 24, 2011

Excerpt from “God’s Joy Moves”

Persian poet Rumi 

God’s joy moves from unmarked box to unmarked box,

From cell to cell. As rainwater, down into flowerbed.

As roses, up from ground.

Now it looks like a plate of rice and fish,

Now a cliff covered with vines,

Now a horse being saddled.

It hides within these,

Till one day it cracks them open.

 

“Come Into Christmas”

 Ellen Fay

It is the winter season of the year

Dark and Chilly

Perhaps it is a winter season in your life.

Dark and chilly there, too

Come in to Christmas here,

Let the light and warmth of Christmas brighten our lives and the world.

Let us find in the dark corners of our souls the light of hope,

A vision of the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Let us find rest in the quiet of a holy moment to find promise and renewal.

Let us find the child in each of us, the new hope, the new light, born in us.

Then will Christmas come

Then will magic return to the world.

 

 “The Shortest Day”

Susan Cooper

So the shortest day came, and the year died,

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive,

And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake

They shouted, reveling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us – Listen!!

All the long echoes sing the same delight,

This shortest day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land:

They carol, fest, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

And so do we, here, now,

This year and every year.

Welcome Yule!

 

 Adapted from “Hosannas of a Heavenly Host”

by Edward

After the stores have closed and the final presents

have been wrapped,

beyond the ding, ding, ding

of Salvation Army hand bells;

Beyond the steady, efficient

computer click of cash registers;

Beyond the sometimes gay, sometimes reverent

drone of Christmas MUZAK

There comes the deep silence of Christmas Eve

It is a thoughtful silence

of watching and waiting

The silence of the Winter’s longest night.

Look into the star – studded dome

of infinity and shiver

Your heartbeat gives

such wonderful comfort

That feeling of utter holiness

Becomes an unuttered prayer

At this moment

You know

Why

The shepherds

Who kept watch through the night

Heard the hosanna of the heavenly host.

 

 Luke 2: 1-7

 

“Each Night A Child ls Born”

by Sophia Lyon Fahs

For so the children come

and so they have been coming.

Always in the same way they came

Born of the seed of man and woman

No angels herald their beginnings.

No prophets predict their future courses.

no wise man see a star to show where to find

The babe that will save humankind.

Yet each night a child is born is a holy night.

Fathers and mothers –

Sitting beside their children’s cribs-

Feel glory in the sight of a new beginning.

They ask “Where and how will this new life end?

Or will it ever end?”

Each night a child is born is a holy night-

A time for singing-

A time for wondering

A time for worshipping.

 

 Luke 2: 8-14

 

 Luke 2: 15-20

 

 “In This Night”

by Dorothee Solie 

In this night the stars left their habitual places

And kindled wildfire tidings

that spread faste

In this night the shepherds left their posts

To shout the new slogans

into each other’s clogged ears.

In this night the foxes left their warm burrows

and the lion spoke with deliberation,

“This is the end revolution”

In this night roses fooled the earth

And began to bloom in snow.

 

A Ritual of the Winter Solstice Fire

Meg Barnhouse

Let us take into our hands a Christmas Candle, a Solstice candle

this is a night of ancient joy and ancient fear

those who have gone before us were fearful of what lurked

outside the ring of fire, of light and warmth.

As we light this fire we ask that the fullness of its flame

protect each of us from what we fear most

and guide us towards our perfect light and joy.

May we each be encircled by the fire and warmth of love

and by the flame of our friendship with one another.

On this night, it was the ancient custom to exchange gifts

of light, symbolic of

Therefore make ready for the light!

Light of star, light of candle,

Firelight, lamplight, love light

Let us share the gift of light.

 

The Work of Christmas

Howard Thurman

When the song of angels s stilled,

When the star in the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When shepherds are back with

their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

to find the lost,

to heal the broken.

to feed the hungry,

to release the prisoner,

to rebuild the nations,

to bring peace among the brothers,

to make music in the heart.

 

“A Wish”

by Max Coots

For you, I wish:

Soft snow,

A gift, both given and received, wrapped in love, a candle and a fire,

A bowl of crisp red apples, tangerines, and oily oranges,

A blizzard of cards that bring those others closer than they were before,

A tree that somehow kept its green when autumn came and went,

The joy of old stories that seem forever new and songs sung softly

under the breath of peace on earth

Go in Peace and Love