Bridgebuilder Workshop

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Dr. Peter Steinke

February, 28, 2009

Text of this workshop is not available but you can listen to Dr. Steinke’s comments by clicking on the play button. Comments by individuals attending the workshop are not being posted. A DVD of the whole workshop  is available at the church bookstore.

What Defines Greatness?

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Jim Checkley, Sermons, Video available

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Jim Checkley

February 22, 2009

First UU Church of Austin

4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756

www.austinuu.org

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button.

Is a Bold Hamster “Great” or Just What is “Greatness”?

Sometimes things just work out. Take this sermon, for instance. When I was asked to do this service, I quickly decided to talk about a topic that I have been fascinated with for a long time: what does it mean to be great? I was on the phone with Sally Scott and she asked me if I could do this date or that date, and we settled on February 22nd. I thought nothing special about it at the time.

However, forty-five years ago I would have instantly made the connection between February 22nd and George Washington’s birthday, because his birthday was a school holiday. In fact, back in those days we also got February 12th off from school because it was Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Of course, as it turns out, Charles Darwin’s birthday is also February 12th, and the same year as Lincoln. But while they named a city after Darwin in Australia, there’s no way in America – except maybe for a few isolated Royal Blue areas – that we’d get Darwin’s birthday off from school.

We just marked the 200th anniversary of both Lincoln’s and Darwin’s birthdays. Washington would have been 277 today – a number of no special significance since it doesn’t have any “zeros” in it. Nonetheless, there is an interesting mathematical fact about Washington’s birth year of 1732. Put a decimal after the “1” and you have the square root of three – 1.732. Really. See, you never know what you are going to learn at a Unitarian church. I don’t know if this numeric coincidence portended greatness for Washington – perhaps a numerologist could tell us – but he certainly demonstrated greatness during his lifetime. As did both Darwin and Lincoln.

Like I said, sometimes things just work out.

The word great, like the words love and God, is subject to many meanings and often fierce debate. I’m beginning to believe I am an intellectual masochist because I keep picking sermon topics that are impossible to fully discuss in a 20 – okay 25 – minute sermon. So let’s narrow our theme today. When I’m talking about greatness, I do not in any way mean famous. Famous and greatness are two totally different concepts and the cult of celebrity often worships people who are decidedly not very great, but whom we hoist onto pedestals made of fluff, and which are either unsteady and fragile or else we – and I mean American society – are shallow and fickle. But really, what are the odds of that being true about America?

And I don’t have the time to explore the really wonderful topic of the “greatness” of villains, for example Lord Voldemort, who J. K Rowling tells us over and over in her Harry Potter books, has done great things – terrible to be sure – but great nonetheless. So for purposes of my sermon, I assume that we would all agree that Lord Voldemort – and the real characters of history like him – do not deserve to be judged as having greatness. And based on her many interviews and pod casts, I think J. K. herself would approve.

Instead, I am going to use William Shakespeare’s famous quote about greatness from his play Twelfth Night as a template to discuss what it means to be great and how we judge greatness. And although there are many who could serve as examples, including many women, African-Americans, and others, because the powers that be handed it to me on a silver platter, I am going to be a bit of a Taoist and go with the flow by talking about each element of Shakespeare’s quote using Washington, Darwin, and Lincoln as examples.

In Twelfth Night the comedic plot begins when Malvolio, Countess Olivia’s priggish steward, comes upon a letter that the merrymakers in the play have left for him to find. The letter is a fake anonymous love letter that Malvolio believes is from Olivia. The writer of the letter suggests that Malvolio can become “great” by doing certain things, each of which is more absurd than the last. Never questioning the authenticity or the origin of the letter, Malvolio proceeds to carry out the ridiculous tasks, until Olivia thinks her steward has gone mad and has him locked up.

Contained in the letter, which Malvolio reads aloud, is the famous quote about greatness: “Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” Although Malvolio says these lines, he is reading from the letter, and audiences both then and now immediately recognize that the term “greatness” has very little to do with Malvolio, who is ambitious, pretentious, and has an ego that far outstrips his qualities as a person. He is blinded by pride, and is a ripe target for the prank being played upon him. He is so out of it that he cannot see just how far from reality his own self-musings have taken him.

I suppose that the ability to recognize one’s own folly is a necessary antecedent to being great. Which would lead one to conclude that people who think they are great very often are not. We have all known a super-confident person of whom we cannot understand where that confidence came from. Humility seems to be one of the hallmarks of greatness, but I’m getting a little ahead of myself. I’d like to take a look at each of the elements of Shakespeare’s quote and see what we can glean from them.

The first part of the quote asserts that “some are born great.” This is one of the ultimate nature over nurture claims. The implication is that there are certain inherent qualities to being great and that they are manifest in the person from birth. But is it true? If we were in any mainstream Christian church today, the overwhelming answer would be yes, for there can be no better example in Western culture of someone who is believed to be born great than Jesus of Nazareth. When you are born god incarnate, that would seem to coincide with the notion of born greatness. I suppose that would apply to some other religious figures from other religious traditions as well.

But what about everybody else. Are any of them – us – born great? Well, the answer, of course, depends on what we mean by “great”, but overall, I tend to think the answer is a qualified yes. I tend to think that some people are simply born with certain talents, attributes, personality styles, et cetera, that put them ahead of the curve, so to speak, when it comes to doing great things and eventually, being thought of as having attained greatness. Of course, simply having those talents, attributes, personality styles, et cetera, is not a guarantee that they will be translated into greatness. In fact, like so many things, there are probably tons of false positives out there; that is, people who were born with the qualities, but never lived up to them, or worse, betrayed them in a hurtful or harmful way.

And in the category of things working out, I would suggest that if we are going to agree with Shakespeare that some are born great, then George Washington is one of those of whom we might say he was born great. I don’t intend to go into any history lessons here, so you can all relax. But listen to this. In an essay called “The Greatness of Washington,” Christopher Flannery says: “What Shakespeare is to poetry, Mozart to music, or Babe Ruth to baseball, George Washington is to life itself.” Now that is quite saying something. Flannery continues: “This is by no means to say that [Washington] was flawless any more than Babe Ruth was a perfect baseball player or Mozart a perfect musician. It is merely to say that, if he had not lived, such greatness could hardly have been believed possible.” Here we have the description of a man who was born to greatness and who, through his actions, character, and decisions, upheld his end of the bargain. And consider the words of Thomas Jefferson from today’s reading. Now, you’re supposed to say nice things at somebody’s funeral, but what Jefferson has to say is itself extraordinary and his reference to “nature and fortune” points to somebody who was born for greatness. But for me the coup de grace on the issue is the story of Washington and the cherry tree.

Mason Locke Weems wrote a biography of Washington shortly after Washington died and recounted the tale that as a lad, Washington got a new hatchet, and proceeded to test it by chopping down a cherry tree. When Washington’s father saw the tree, he asked George if he knew anything about it. George is reputed to have said: “I cannot tell a lie, Pa; you know I can’t tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet.”

Now in recent decades, there has been much ado about humanizing Washington, indeed, all the founders of our country, and in so doing, demythologizing both the men and their accomplishments. And in this regard, it is pretty clear that the truth of the cherry tree tale lies somewhere between Santa Clause and the Lock Ness Monster. And although Washington gave all the credit to his mother, the point is that Weems was trying to tell everybody that Washington was an extraordinary man, whose greatness was manifest when he was a boy, and thus is an example for us of one who was born great – not perfect – but great. And at that level, it doesn’t matter if the story is true or not.

The next part of Shakespeare’s quote is that “some achieve greatness.” The achievement of greatness suggests hard work, dedication, and the accomplishment of something that is unexpected, or at least something that was not evident or obvious in the person. And I think the unexpected part is important because it means going beyond who we (or others) think we are and making choices that expand rather than contract our embrace of the world at every level and in a good way. Let me explain.

We human beings use the power of flight as a metaphor for freedom. But when a bird flies, it is doing something that is as natural to it as walking is to us. We can marvel at the grace, speed, and power of a bird in flight, but we would never say that a bird has attained greatness simply because it can fly. It is expected that a bird can fly. I feel the same way about people and their abilities.

If you are six-foot-ten and can dunk, does that make you great? I don’t think so. You have great physical prowess and we will admire you for it, perhaps, but I would never say that you had achieved greatness just because you could dunk. Similarly, we admire and perhaps envy really intelligent people because of their brain power. But are those people great just because they can figure out Sudoku with relative ease. Again I say no. And I suggest the same thing even applies to the gods we worship. Simply because a god is powerful and can kill us, or in the case of Yahweh, destroy towns or even the whole world, I don’t think that god is automatically great. Powerful, yes. Scary, yes. But partaking of greatness? I don’t think so. At least not because of this.

Truth is, there is an important difference between something being great and something having a quality of greatness. I had been thinking for some time about this and it finally hit me: great is measured; greatness is judged or bestowed. I’ll say that again: great is measured; greatness is judged or bestowed. This may be obvious to some of you, but it was an interesting revelation to me. The Great Wall of China is great because it is huge and they say it can even been seen from space. But the greatness of the Chinese people who built that wall and their culture, now that is something that must be judged and ultimately bestowed. Barry Bonds’ record of 762 home runs is great; whether we would say that Bonds himself embodies greatness in the world of baseball is something that is being debated and will be decided by the judgment of history.

Which takes me full circle: achieving greatness means doing something worthy and that is unexpected of you, because if it was expected, it might be great in some measurable way, like a falcon that can dive at 278 miles per hour, but greatness, true greatness takes something more, something beyond what is expected, something that encompasses more than just ourselves, and something that others deem to be admirable, good, helpful, and perhaps even amazing.

With this in mind, I’d like to take just a minute to talk about Charles Darwin. Darwin was a reclusive man who spent almost his entire lifetime coming up with his theory of evolution by natural selection. His great-great-grandson, Chris Darwin, lives in Australia and was quoted in last Saturday’s edition of The Age as saying that “[Charles] never did an honest day’s work in his life.” What did he do? An almost preacher, Darwin spent all his time observing and collecting beetles and other critters and thinking about the origins of life on Earth. He spent many years ruminating about his already formed theory of evolution through natural selection, and it was only when he learned that somebody else – Alfred Russel Wallace – had come to the same conclusions that he published his Origin of Species.

Darwin was not the first to say that life had evolved. His own grandfather had come to that conclusion. Nor was he the first to claim to know the mechanism for speciation. Lamarck had put forward a theory of how one species morphed into another, famously stating that the giraffe evolved its long neck by stretching for leaves up in the trees, and then passing on the gain; but he got it wrong. Darwin, however, got both evolution and its mechanism right.

These were huge ideas that encompassed the entirety of life on Earth. And Darwin published and stood behind them at a time when doing so went against the great weight of society and culture – like so many who we call great, he courageously broke the mold. As Chris Darwin says, “Every age suppresses the unthinkable; Darwin expressed it.” And it is something Darwin was vilified for then and continues to be vilified for by some today. And it is for these reasons, and the fact that his theories, as they have been developed over the last century and a half, form the very foundation of modern biology, that he achieved the greatness that has been bestowed upon him.

The last part of Shakespeare’s quote is: “some have greatness thrust upon them.” And here I guess, I would have to quarrel a little bit with Shakespeare, although in matters of English usage, that’s probably a dangerous thing. While not as poetic, I would rather the quote had said “some have the opportunity for greatness thrust upon them.” Because I don’t think greatness can be thrust upon anybody. It is something that is earned – even if one is otherwise born for greatness – and not something that can be thrust upon one for the obvious reason that the thrust could just as easily cause the person to fail. What’s really going on here is that some are placed by fate, chance, destiny, or choice, in a position where the circumstances are so extraordinary, that if the person can handle them, can successfully weather the storm, and perhaps even achieve great things, then that person will be judged to be great.

Having greatness thrust upon one can, of course, be applied to Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln ascended to the presidency after the ruinous Buchanan administration, and at the onset of the Civil War. He was literally thrust into a position of power just as the country was violently breaking apart and for four years had the weight of the fate of the nation on his shoulders. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation and is credited with ending slavery and saving the Union.

In a recent poll of historians conducted by C-SPAN, Lincoln just topped Washington as the best president of the United States, while Buchanan was dead last and is, in every respect, somebody who the world tried its best to thrust greatness upon, but who failed miserably. In many ways it is no accident that Buchanan, the worst president, and Lincoln, voted the best, came back-to-back during the tumultuous years heading up to and including the Civil War.

Well, that takes care of Shakespeare’s quote – or does it? Because you may recall that the full quote starts out: “Be not afraid of greatness.” What are we to make of this? In my last few minutes I want to talk about this part of the quote because I think, frankly, it is the most important part of all.

The first question to ask is why would anybody be afraid of greatness? I mean, you’d think that being great would be, well, great. But, I think the answer is pretty obvious, actually. Consider the men and women whom you think have attained greatness, however measured and by whatever means. I would bet that the person lived large, with courage, took risks, assumed great responsibility beyond him or herself, and was original in thought and deed to the point of breaking the mold of society and culture. In all events, I would bet, they went beyond what was expected of them and reached out beyond themselves to impact the world for the better. Finally, I’d bet that many of them, at least, exhibited one more characteristic – a willingness to leave the pack behind, to take the lonely path, and often to create something for others, something that they themselves did not or could not share in but which they protected for the benefit of others – people we often call heroes.

And here, finally, is where we get to talk about hamsters. I’ll bet you were wondering about that. Being a bold hamster takes courage, you see, because while there may be food just around the corner, there could also be a snake or a large bird. And if I were a hamster, it would be difficult to be bold, difficult to take those steps or take those positions or take those stands that place one at risk, especially on behalf of others or an important idea. But that’s what great people do. That’s what makes them great. Now people aren’t hamsters, but I think the point of the analogy holds. And so we might ask ourselves, are we like the bold hamster, venturing forth despite the risk, or are we somebody who Shakespeare was talking to, somebody who holds back because of the fear that we are going to be the bold hamster who is soon lunch?

These are among the most serious issues we face in how we live our lives, despite my somewhat tongue-in-cheek analogy. Let’s face it: it is not likely that any of us are going to attain the greatness of the historical figures I talked about – or could have talked about – today. But so what? I believe there is a bit of bold hamster in all of us, enough at least that we can see the path. But I suspect most of us anyway also have a bit of that fear of greatness, of taking the next step along that very path that might lead to greatness – the greatness each of us is capable of achieving.

Part of the purpose of this church and our religion is to help us to grow beyond our comfort zones, to embrace more than what is in our little world, and to think seriously about the gods whom we serve and how well we serve them. I think we can all walk the path of greatness because we can all do something that is unexpected of us, that breaks our own mold, if not that of culture and society, is larger than we are, and reaches beyond ourselves to impact the world for the better.

And if that’s true, then how do we know if we are on the right track? I offer two observations. The first is pretty simple. One measure of how big we are on the inside is just how far and how large our embrace is on the outside. The larger the scope of our embrace outside – be it family, community, country, or cosmos – then the bigger we are on the inside and the higher the likelihood of greatness. But always remember, greatness is not something that we ourselves decide. Greatness is judged and bestowed by others. So here is the second test.

In the Wizard of Oz, after gifting the Tin Woodsman with a new heart, the wizard cautions him by saying: “And remember, my sentimental friend, that a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.” It’s the same with greatness, for greatness, like the heart, is not measured by the great things you have done, but by how much honest admiration and respect you are afforded by others, especially those who know you or who you have touched.

Martin Luther – the guy who started the Protestant Reformation – thought that the Epistle of James did not belong in the Bible because James teaches that “faith without works is dead,” whereas Luther believed that it is only by grace that people are saved by God. I’m on James’ side on this one. We are all given gifts by nature, we all have our dreams, our passions and our hopes for our lives and for the lives of our children, family, friends and others. Without action, without works, those gifts are wasted and our dreams and hopes nothing more than electrical impulses in our brains that will one day be silent and lost as a grain of sand upon an endless beach.

Let our greatness be to live fully and fearlessly, to use our gifts in the service of our best and most illuminating gods, and to embrace as much of life outside ourselves as we can, and like Lamarck’s famous giraffe, stretch our reach to encompass ever more, until we surprise even ourselves. And then let them judge how we have lived – those who have known us and those who we have touched – and they will nod a knowing nod and smile a knowing smile for greatness.

Presented February 22, 2009

First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin

Revised for Print

Copyright 2009 by Jim Checkley.

And just because I know you’re dying to know, George W. Bush was 36th, or sixth from the bottom, just edging out Millard Fillmore and a touch behind John Tyler.

Real Hope

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

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Tom Spencer

February 15, 2009

The text of sermon is unavailable but here are the  readings.

Readings: 

Christopher Lasch 

from The Culture of Narcissism 

“The best defenses against the terrors of existence are the homely comforts of love, work, and family life which connect us to a world that is independent of our wishes yet responsive to our needs… 

… Love and work enable each of us to explore a small corner of the world and to come to accept it on its own terms. But our society tends to devalue small comforts or else expect too much of them. Our standards of ‘creative, meaningful work’ are too exalted to survive disappointment. Our ideal of ‘true romance’ puts an impossible burden on personal relationships. We demand too much of life, too little of ourselves.” 

 

Paul Tillich 

There are many things and events in which we can see a reason for genuine hope, namely, the seed-like presence of that which is hoped for. In the seed of a tree, stem and leaves are already present, and this gives us the right to sow the seed in hope for the fruit. We have no assurance that it will develop. But our hope is genuine. There is a presence, a beginning of what is hoped for. And so it is with the child and our hope for his maturing; we hope, because maturing has already begun, but we don’t know how far it will go. We hope for the fulfillment of our work, often against hope, because it is already in us as vision and driving force. We hope for a lasting love, because we feel the power of this love present. But it is hope, not certainty.” 

 

Reinhold Niebuhr 

from essay – Optimism, Pessimism, and Religious Faith. 

” … Let man stand at any point in human history, even in a society which has realized his present dreams of justice, and if he surveys the human problem profoundly he will see that every perfection which he has achieved points beyond itself to a greater perfection, and that this greater perfection throws light upon his sins and imperfections. He will feel in that tension between what is and what ought to be the very glory of life, and will come to know that the perfection which eludes him is not only a human possibility and impossibility but a divine fact… 

… These paradoxes are in the spirit of great religion. The mystery of life is comprehended in meaning, though no human statement of the meaning can fully resolve the mystery_ The tragedy of life is recognized, but faith prevents tragedy from being pure tragedy_ Perplexity remains, but there is no perplexity unto despair. Evil is neither accepted as inevitable nor regarded as proof of the meaninglessness of life. Gratitude and contrition are mingled, which means that life is both appreciated and challenged. To such faith the generations are bound to return after they have pursued the mirages in the desert to which they are tempted from time to time by the illusions of particular eras.”

Means, Ends, and Karma

by Posted in Eric Hepburn, Guest Speakers, Sermons

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© Eric Hepburn

February 1, 2009

First UU Church of Austin

4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756

www.austinuu.org

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button.

READING

This reading comes from an interview with the 14th Dalai Lama

“Recently I am emphasizing that due to the modern economy, and also due to information and education, the world is now heavily interdependent, interconnected. Under such circumstances, the concept of ‘we’ and ‘they’ is gone: harming your neighbor is actually harming yourself. If you do negative things towards your neighbor, that is actually creating your own suffering. And helping them, showing concern about others’ welfare – actually these are the major factors of your own happiness. If you want a community full of joy, full of friendship, you should create that possibility. If you remain negative, and meantime want more smiles and friendship from your neighbors, that’s illogical. If you want a more friendly neighbor, you must create the atmosphere. Then they will respond.”

PRAYER

Please join me in meditation.

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

We join together in meditation and prayer this morning seeking to realize that the fabric of our lives is woven by our own hands, every thought, every word, every action is a thread in the social tapestry. So as we weave let us always be mindful that each and every thread is a contribution, our contribution, to the whole. Amen.

SERMON: Means, Ends, and Karma

In Aldous Huxley’s 1937 work Ends and Means, he says:

“…far from being irrelevant, our metaphysical beliefs are the finally determining factor in our actions.”

Far from being irrelevant, our beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality are the foundation of our choices about how we live, about how we act, about what means and ends we choose.

Far from being irrelevant, our beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality frame our perspective on how we can and do act to create, sustain, and change the physical, social, and spiritual world of which we are all a part.

Karma is the concept of “action” – understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect.

Karma is not about the reincarnation or rebirth of the individual.

Karma is not a cosmic scorecard of good and evil deeds.

Karma is not a justification or a rationalization for the good or bad things that happen to people.

Karma is the concept of “action” – understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect.

There is a story in the Avatamsaka Sutra that tells of a wonderful net which stretches to infinity in every direction and has, suspended in each eye, a single glittering jewel, and in each of these infinite jewels is reflected the light of every other jewel.

UU’s often tell this story as an exemplar of the seventh principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

But I think that the story’s central metaphor is commonly misunderstood with the glittering gems in the net representing individual people. People reflecting each other, relating to each other, connecting to each other. This could not be farther from the truest meaning of the metaphor, the self is an illusion, the self is not the gem. This is possibly the most difficult and most often ignored teaching of Buddhism, but it is also the most fundamental and important. The self is an illusion. Let me see if these words from the Dalai Lama can help elucidate this point:

“All events and incidents in life are so intimately linked with the fate of others that a single person on his or her own cannot even begin to act. Many ordinary human activities, both positive and negative, cannot even be conceived of apart from the existence of other people. Even the committing of harmful actions depends on the existence of others. Because of others, we have the opportunity to earn money if that is what we desire in life. Similarly, in reliance upon the existence of others it becomes possible for the media to create fame or disrepute for someone. On your own you cannot create any fame or disrepute no matter how loud you might shout. The closest you can get is to create an echo of your own voice.”

The glittering gem in the net is action, the unit of karma is action, the basis of interdependence and the cause of the entire cycle of cause and effect is action. The chain of causality, or more accurately, the interconnected web of causality, is not made only of the actions of people, or only of the action of animate beings, it is made up of the actions of all existence. It does not stop for time, it does not stop at your comfort zone, or at the boundary of your skin, or at the edge of your thoughts. Each gem in the net is an action and in each and every action is reflected every other action that has happened, is happening and will happen.

To continue in the words of the Dalai Lama:

“Thus interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Not only higher forms of life but also many of the smallest insects are social beings who, without any religion, law, or education, survive by mutual cooperation based on an innate recognition of their interconnectedness. The most subtle level of material phenomena is also governed by interdependence. All phenomena, from the planet we inhabit to the oceans, clouds, forests, and flowers that surround us, arise in dependence upon subtle patterns of energy. Without their proper interaction, they dissolve and decay.”

This is the religious root of karma, understanding the proper interaction of things, understanding the proper interactions of action, and more specifically, understanding the proper interactions of human action. There are the four laws of karma:

The first law is that results are similar to the cause. Karma and its results are certain and unfailing. Positive actions of body, speech, and mind will always bring the positive result of some form of happiness and benefit. Negative actions of body, speech, and mind will always bring the negative result of some form of suffering. Karma and its results are exactly like a seed and its fruit.

This first rule is often compared with Galatians chapter 6 verses 7 and 8:

“Don’t be fooled. You can’t outsmart God. A man gathers a crop from what he plants. Some people plant to please their sinful nature. From that nature they will harvest death. Others plant to please the Holy Spirit. From the Spirit they will harvest eternal life. (New International Reader’s Version)

There is a famous photograph from the 60’s with a woman holding a protest sign that says, “Bombing for Peace is like Fornicating for Virginity.” OK, the sign doesn’t say fornicating – But the idea is the same, the same as the first law of karma, the same as that expressed in Galatians, the same as core ideas found in every major religion – you will reap what you sow. You will reap only what you sow. You will reap exactly what you sow.

The second law of karma is that there are no results without a cause. Actions not carried out, will not bring results. Things do not just appear out of nothing. If the cause has not been created, the effect will not be experienced. Nothing is self-manifesting, nothing is exempt from the web of cause and effect.

The third law of karma is: once an action is done, the result is never lost. Once the stone has been dropped in the lake, once it sinks to the bottom, once the ripples spread, the lake can never be the same again. Once we have weaved a thread into the tapestry, it cannot be removed. Once the gem is reflected in the net, it’s image shall never be erased.

The fourth law of karma is this: Karma expands. Karma is organic, it is related to the nature of life. As in our prayer today, one way in which Karma expands is that actions lead to the formation of habits. So within one’s own life, each action sets a precedent for future action:

An old Cherokee was teaching his young grandson one of life’s most important lessons. He told the young boy the following parable:

“There is a fight going on inside each of us. It is a terrible fight between two wolves,” he said.

“One wolf is evil. He is anger, rage, envy, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

“The second wolf is good. He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, empathy, truth, compassion, and faith.”

The grandson thought about this for a moment. Then he asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win this fight?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

This is the fourth law of karma, each action in your life feeds one of the wolves, your ignorance about which wolf is getting fed does not change it, your illusions about which wolf is getting fed does not change it. Like muscle memory, the act of feeding one wolf more often then the other becomes habit. Do you think that your life is kept more interesting by tossing the bad wolf the occasional bone? Do you think that every bone has to be intentional? As we grow older, we throw more and more bones out of habit. Yet the results of these actions stand.

There are good reasons that we form habits, there is a cognitive need for us to simplify the routines of our lives into repeated and comfortable habits. And I don’t think that habits are bad things to have, but we must recognize that the bulk of our contributions to the world, the bulk of the threads that we each contribute to the social tapestry are woven out of habit. One of the common religious prescriptions for this problem is to cultivate mindfulness.

I don’t think that mindfulness means not developing habits, it doesn’t mean that we develop some sort of hyper-vigilance. What it means is that we reflect upon, own, and take responsibility for all of our actions and especially all of our habits. It means that we apply ourselves to the difficult religious task of continuing to tear down the veils of ignorance and illusion that separate us from the true nature of reality. It means that we recognize that while part of karma relates to our intentions, our intention to do good or our intention to do evil, the fact of karma, the fact of causality is not altered. We can do evil and believe that we are doing good if we are not in right and honest relationship with the universe and with each other. We can feed the evil wolf over and over again, shoveling food into his mouth at an ever more fevered pitch because we believe that we are acting rightly and we cannot comprehend why our righteous action continues to bear evil fruit.

You can choose to be right, or you can choose to be peaceful, you cannot choose both simultaneously, you cannot feed the evil wolf and the good wolf the same morsel. You cannot weave the dark thread and the light thread with the same motion of the loom.

We have spoken a lot about karma this morning, but it is time for us to consider what it means to us when we are making decisions, making plans, and choosing courses of action in our lives.

When we talk about means and ends. Our means are simply our actions. They are the strategically selected thoughts, words, actions, and habits that we carry out in our pursuit of some ends. The means that we choose will create the ends which are their natural, logical, and karmic conclusion.

What about ends? You may choose any ends. But you must realize that ends only become realized by walking the path that leads to them, and that path is made up of the stepping stones of each and every means that is employed in their achievement.

Far from being irrelevant, laws of cause and effect are in operation.

Far from being irrelevant, these laws apply standards of good and evil to the actions of humanity.

Far from being irrelevant, these laws of karma govern our capacity to use means to realize ends.

No, you cannot bomb your way to peace, or fornicate your way to virginity.

You cannot reap that which you did not sow.

You cannot make a reality out of wishful thinking.

But you can create heaven on earth by learning and acting on the truth.

You can change the world with your love.

You can create the life that you want, one action at a time.

Opinion Industries and the Community of Faith

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

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Rev. Eliza Galaher

 Minister of Wildflower UU Church

 January 25th, 2009

 First UU Church of Austin

 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756

 www.austinuu.org

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button.

Good morning everyone. As one of your Unitarian Universalist neighbors from a stone’s throw across the Colorado River, I want to thank you for allowing me to speak here today, and I’d like to extend good wishes from the people of Wildflower Church, in south Austin. We all are well aware of the struggles you have been through in the past weeks, and hope for your community that good healing and reconciliation is happening among you as you begin to move through the wilderness of having let go of your minister, willingly or not, or from a place somewhere in between.

I also hope that at least something of what I have to say this morning will contribute to that healing. For while it’s true that several years ago, you all very generously and freely sacrificed some of your membership when Wildflower originally was born out from your congregation, and while it’s true that some others of your community have since wandered down our way or elsewhere for one reason or another, the most important thing I believe I can do this morning as the minister of Wildflower Church is to encourage you to work and stay together, to nourish this community of faith back into compassion, joy, love, and mutual respect.

Of course, that’s not to say those things do not already exist here. Obviously, I haven’t lived and worked and prayed and conversed here as you have, and I don’t want you to think that I think I know better than you how things have been in your hearts and souls and relationships. I simply hope to add something more of the good by being here this morning and sharing this time of worship with you.

Now, in my mentioning worship, if your congregation is like some other Unitarian Universalist congregations, the very word worship may raise a few sets of hackles here. And if so, that’s OK. I remember a new membership class I once attended, where the question was asked of prospective church members, “What do you seek in a worship service?” Well, many people couldn’t answer, because they couldn’t get beyond the language of the question; they were stuck on the very notion of worship, especially as it implies worshipping – bowing down to – the authority of someone or something that’s in a position of greater power. So if that’s brewing in your minds, I’d like you to take with me a short – very short – etymological journey, because, in my understanding, looking at the break down of the word, worship – worth + scipe or ship – simply means, “To hold as worthy.”

And we all, for better or worse, hold something, many things, as worthy. Among us, we hold as worthy, or we worship, for instance, democracy, money, peace and quiet, our cell phones, clean water, a double espresso, and so on and so forth.

Whatever it is we worship, it’s true, as our religious ancestor Ralph Waldo Emerson states, that “a person will worship something – have no doubt about that.” Sometimes, we can very proudly proclaim that we worship all that is good – love, compassion, equity, justice. And sometimes we need to own up that we are worshipping much that is a bit more ambiguous in its goodness – the perfect body (ours we wish for; someone else’s we long for), the nicest car, the need to be right. That’s why Emerson warns, “that which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and character.” That’s why he warns, “it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.”

With this Emersonian word of caution in our minds as we worship here together, let me ask then, what is it that we as Unitarian Universalists worship? What is it that we hold as worthy? We have no creed to tell us from on high. We don’t have any Unitarian Universalist equivalents of Popes or Bishops, Presbyteries or Deacons to lay it all out for us. What we have is each other: we can talk to one another, and listen to one another, and struggle together. And, sufficient enough, poetic enough, demanding enough or not, we also have our seven religious principles.

It’s three of those principles I would like to bring forward now, to help us further explore the question, “What do we as Unitarian Universalists worship?” Actually, that question itself invites us to enter into one of the principles I want to hold up; it invites us into the fourth principle, the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. But, as I said to members of my own congregation last Saturday as we began a day of shared leadership training, that juxtaposition of free and responsible is crucial to highlight here. For while the free search speaks largely to the first principle, the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and while the responsible search speaks to our seventh principle, respect for the interdependent web of all existence, it is the and of “the free and responsible search” that brings the two together, and it is that free-and-responsible search for truth and meaning that I believe we need to hold as worthy as if it were the very fulcrum of our faith. For freedom without responsibility is a kind of tyranny and responsibility without freedom is a kind of slavery. Only a collaborative, collective struggle for freedom and responsibility can lead us to a truly free and responsible community of faith.

Unitarian theologian James Luther Adams, in his 1953 essay we heard Margaret read from, referred to such a community as the “free Christian Church,” and, harkening back to earlier days, as “the radical left wing of the Reformation,” and back even further, as the “primitive Christian Church.” As we are descendents of all of these manifestations of the liberal, or free church, and as we are exploring what it is we worship, we would do well to heed Adams’ words when he says, “In our day [whether that be 1953 or 2009], we confront the impersonal forces of a mass society…” According to Adams, those impersonal forces, generated by what he calls “opinion industries,” and disseminated with increasing rapidity with our ever multiplying technological advances, create only a pseudo community – one which, in Adams’ words, serves as “an instrument manipulated and exploited by central power groups.”

Community as an instrument manipulated and exploited by central power groups: Go back for a moment to Emerson’s warning: “That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, our character.” And so think for a moment of what our society – our national community, so to speak – so often calls us to worship, to hold as worthy, and look at where it has led us: failed banks, scandals on Wall Street, home foreclosures, roller coastering gas prices, global warming, rising unemployment, and on and on and on. Think of Adams’ statement that such so-called “communities,” generated by “opinion industries” are there primarily for “support of special interests – nationalism, racism, and business as usual.” I would add to Adams’ list, global corporatism, media conglomerationism, and reckless individualism But that’s just me.

Now, I’m believing, with the inauguration of our first African American president this past week, and with such civil rights leaders as Georgia congressman John Lewis and the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery there to witness, I’m believing that a shift from “business as usual” is among us.

But not only is it a shift into our future. Such a historical event and the words stated by the newly inaugurated president himself – words like hope, virtue, responsibility, unity of purpose, and mutual respect – such a moment and such words reflect back to us our own historical efforts as a religious people to confront those who would call or demand of us, to worship the false community – they reflect back to us our own efforts to confront those powers, as Adams says, “in the name of a more intimate, personal community dependent on individual dignity and responsibility.”

In our free and responsible search for truth and meaning, might that not be what we are striving for, what we wish to worship? “A more intimate, personal community dependent on individual dignity and responsibility”? If so, how do we work together toward that aim? How do we leave behind the “opinion industry” mode of being that’s so easy to get caught up in, for a more relational, more inclusive community of faith?

In his essay, Adams makes the central argument that, quote, “the free Christian’s [read our ancestors’] sense of responsibility in society issues from concern for something more reliable than the desire for personal success. It issues,” he continues, “from the experience of and demand for community. [such] responsibility is a response to the Deed that was ‘in the beginning,’ to the Deed of Agape It is the response to that divine, self-giving sacrificial love that creates and continually transforms a community of persons.”

Agape, love; what Adams himself calls “the love that will not let us go.” This must be the means by which we strive to create the community of faith we long for, and it is the end to which we will arrive, again and again, should we choose to act from a place of love – not that conditional kind of love that “opinion industries” like to sell and promote – that say you’ve got to be this way or think that way or look this way or associate only with these kinds of people. No, the love of Agape is the love of beloved community. It is the love of listening, it is the love of speaking, it is the love of caring. It is the love of reaching out, and it is the love of reaching inward, and asking ourselves, freely and responsibly, “What have I been worshipping? How is it determining my life, my character? What shall I worship, what shall I hold as worthy, to deepen my part in this community of faith?”

My hope for all of you, as you move through this time of unknowing, is that you can ask yourselves these questions not as a means of indicting yourselves or anyone else, but as a means of working and staying together, as a means of remembering our faith’s historical efforts always to freely and responsibly search for truth and meaning.

The task of the religious community is not an easy one, under any circumstances. Yours is and will continue to be for some time a particularly trying one. But try you will, and so will you journey to and reach the other side of this particular wilderness. May it be that you do so in the spirit of compassion, joy, love, and mutual respect. And speaking of love, may it be that all along the way you experience, and hold as worthy, that love will not let you go. For it is love, guiding you on your free and responsible search for truth and meaning, that will see you through.

Amen.

Disembodied Dreams

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Ron Phares, Sermons

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© Ron Phares

January 18, 2009

First UU Church of Austin

4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756

www.austinuu.org

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button.

Reading 1

I Have a Dream (excerpt)

Martin Luther King Jr.

I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

Reading 2

Untitled Poem

Carl Wenell Himes, Jr.

Now that he is safely dead

Let us praise him

Build monuments to his glory

Sing hosannas to his name.

Dead men make

Such convenient heroes: They cannot rise

To challenge the images

We would fashion from their lives.

And besides,

It is easier to build monuments

Than to make a better world.

So, now that he is safely dead

We with eased consciences

Will teach our children

That he was a great man … knowing

That the cause for which he lived

Is still a cause

And the dream for which he died is still a dream,

A dead man’s dream.

Reading 3

Creation Spell

Ed Bullins

Into your palm I place the ashes

Into your palm are the ashes of your brothers

burnt in the Alabama night

Into your palm that holds your babies

into your palm that feeds your children

into your palm that holds the work tools

place the ashes of your father

here are the ashes of your husbands

Take the ashes of your nation

and create the cement to build again

Create the spirits to move again

Take this soul dust and begin again

Reading 4

Barak Obama

From a speech following the New Hampshire Primary

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. They will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks and months to come. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check; we’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we’ve been told we’re not ready, or that we shouldn’t try, or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes we can. Yes we can. Yes we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation. Yes we can. It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights. Yes we can. It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness. Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality. Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can.

Homily & Sermon:

Disembodied Dreams

First Movement

Let me take you back to Thursday, April 4, 1968 on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. The late Dr. King’s body has been taken away. But for his close colleagues returning from the hospital, there is a grim reminder of his having been here: a pool of blood on the balcony floor. Jesse Jackson approaches and sinks to his knees before the puddle. He places both of his hands, palms downward, into the blood of his friend. He then stands and wipes the front of his turtleneck shirt with his hands, taking the blood of Martin onto himself.

Dr. King was murdered as he was about to join the efforts of striking garbage workers in Memphis. It was a somewhat unplanned initial step on what was to be the most ambitious endeavor of King’s career; the Poor People’s Campaign. This effort was envisioned to culminate in a multiracial army of the poor descending on Washington D.C. until Congress enacted a Poor People’s Bill of Rights, which would include a massive government jobs program.

Having learned a little bit about the levers of power in our nation while he fought for desegregation and equal rights, and then while he spoke out against the war in Viet Nam, Dr. King was determined to hit at the root of exploitation in the Poor People’s Campaign. This carried him well beyond the field of race politics and into the much more dangerous field of economics. In Selma and Washington D.C., King was trying to change the way people in and out of power thought about race. What he was about to do was change the way people in and out of power thought about power.

His inner circle thought this too diffuse and a departure from the work they had all been doing up until then. They began to fracture and he was loosing patience with them. And when the invitation came for him to go to Memphis, King was counseled that it was too paltry an affair in addition to being part of a venture his associates weren’t entirely on board with. But it was neither insignificant to King, nor was it anything less than exactly the kind of systematic sin he was hoping to root out of America. And so he went.

The day before his assassination he assured an audience that has subsequently grown to include the whole world that he had been to the mountaintop, that he had seen the promised land. “I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!î

I think King was wrong. If there is a place to get to, I think he will get there with us. He was murdered. But he was not ended. His action lives on in his disciples and in the trajectory upon which he set this nation. And what are we if not our action?

There is no end there. Just more means to further means, action birthing action, character in mitosis.

You see, when Reverend Jackson knelt down and dipped his palms in King’s blood, he was physically enacting a kind of resurrection. After all, the great work hadn’t got done. So Jackson was, in a sense, taking onto himself the properties of his friend. But he wasn’t just taking them onto himself alone. Because we see it ñ we’ve seen pictures in the past or we see it in our mind’s eye today ñ because we see it and understand it’s history and significance, we know that the properties of Martin, in transferring to Jesse, have also been transferred to us. For while Jackson remained focused primarily on racial questions, there were other people and organizations that took up the post-racial agenda that King had begun. Nonetheless, on that night in Memphis, it was Jackson who embodied a transference that unwittingly would take root in many of us and pave the winding way to this Tuesday’s inauguration.

It turns out, evidentally, that blood is both medically and poetically a rampant vehicle for the transference of properties from one person to another. And because were using the poetic sense here, properties means the character of or the meaning of that blood. What Jesse did was only what mankind has been doing for millennia. It’s either hard wired into our DNA or the vestige of humanity’s hero myths, but there seems to be a repeated practice among our species of taking on some properties of a beloved martyr through the martyr’s blood. An obvious example of this is the Christian Eucharist, wherein the blood of Christ is swallowed.

While we understand the Eucharistic blood of Christ is symbolic, in Jesse’s case, the blood was both symbolic and all too physical. When he dipped his hands into that blood, he took part in an impromptu ritual that ratcheted him, and ourselves as well, to the continuing action of Dr. King. So, Jesse still has blood on his hands. Barak Obama has blood on his hands. And the blood is still on our hands. It reminds us of the guilt in which our history implicates us. But that historical indictment is only worthwhile if it also reminds us that we continue ñ all of us, regardless of our heritage, skin color or economic status – to participate, to varying degrees, in a vast system of repression and exploitation that pollutes our character by a lack of awareness and a lack of intentionality. The good news is there are things we can do about that. Yes we can.

So, on one hand the purpose of the blood is to remind us of our transgressions. And on the other hand, is the transferred properties, a reminder of hope, and heroism, of faith in humankind, a reminder of fallibility, forgiveness and true power, and the life and work of Martin Luthor King Jr. That blood has become ours. It is our heritage. If we don’t want it, that blood becomes only an indictment.

And yet, if we accept it, if we take it in, if you let it seep into our imagination and into our heart, that blood becomes, not only an indictment but it also becomes a force in our own veins, a meaning in our own life. For that is the blood in which the murdered prophet still lives. And we are worthy of it. And we are guilty of it. As worthy and as guilty as the prophet himself. So, if we accept it, if we accept that blood, if we accept this story, then we can hold up our own bloody hands and see death (hold up left hand) and life (hold up right hand), guilt and hope, and change these disparities from a posture of the convicted, to a posture of conviction (clasp hands in prayer).

Let us pray.

We come hear today to be nurtured by one another,

with hopes of hearing a healing word, of singing a song that helps us, of celebrating, of walking back into beauty.

Our lives are fraught with trouble, and actions that miss the mark and cause damage to ourselves or to others.

But our being here confesses our awareness of our imperfection and hopes that such an awareness must necessarily understand and thus forgive the failings of others as well as of ourselves.

Just as our joy is a beacon, so to can our sorrow be a guide.

Let this awareness be the seed of empathy then, and this fellowship be the soil to nurture that empathy, so that its fruit can feed many.

Amen.

Disembodied Dreams

Second Movement

I saw a bumper sticker the other day. It displayed an image of Obama in red, white and blue, above the words, “Yes, we did.î Now, I know this person was just slapping a celebratory flag on their car. I know they were just feeling proud, feeling good. And they should. Yet, I confess that I was somewhat troubled by that bumper sticker. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the layers of significance that an Obama presidency promises. I most certainly do. I have high hopes and deep gratitude.

It’s just that, “Yes, we did,î suggests that the work is over when, really, the work is just beginning. The phraseÖ is, “Yes we can,î not “Yes, we did.î And therein is a message of both political and spiritual consequence. The work is not yesterday. The work, the joy, the pain is always and ever arising. If I can hearken back to King for a moment the view from the mountaintop of equal rights is of the mountain of unscrupulous warfare. The view from the mountaintop of unscrupulous warfare is of the mountain of economic exploitation. The mountains get bigger. The work is never over.

The difficulty is that once you start down the path of justice, it is easy to be overwhelmed by where that path leads you. You start in a soup kitchen and you wind up waving a defiant ladle at the World Bank. It seems like an impossible task. But then we also know, as our soon-to-be President has reminded us, that, “nothing can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.î And what do you know? It works. At least its working to shift the face of the power structure in Washington. But the real work, as we know all too well ñ as we witness Palestine unraveling, as Pakistan and Mexico stand on the brink of collapse, as our own economy teeters on the precipice of national terror and a crisis of character ñ the real work has only just begun.

So, not, “Yes we did.î “Yes we can.î And maybe that implies, “Yes we are,î right now, right here. If the work the joy and pain is ever arising, then it is arising now, right here, as you sit.

After all, being here is an action. And what are we if not our action? Being here has an effect; on you, on the people next to you, on the world you encounter away from here. Being here is an action. But the question we must ask ourselves, as participants in this corporate body ñ sitting here, are we active enough? What does being here do? More to the point, what are we doing here?

So, when I go to church I know that most of the time I’m there I’m sitting and listening. Right? You’re listening, aren’t you? Okay. That’s a start. I know that my listening is reinforced by my standing to sing and by my singing (apologies to those within earshot). So, that’s also a step. I watch candles be kindled and light some of my own. That’s good. But in a religion that has no central text, in a religion whose cosmology, ontology, theology is intentionally vague, in a religion that is essentially new ñ despite the braided histories we claim ñ and lacks a rich tradition – is listening enough? Are these actions enough to embody our purpose? Or do they leave us entirely without “a tradition, an ontology and a rich understanding of the human condition, its malaise and its cure,î as has been suggested.

The way I see it, the problem is not that we do not have an ontology and a rich understanding of the human condition, its malaise and its cure. The problem is that our understanding comes from such a broad spectrum of sources that it is all too easy to miss the forest of consensus for the trees of our variety. Maybe because of that, our understanding has not been taken into our bodies in any kind of communal, central ritual. And so it is that our religion has been damned to a mere haunting, all too often remaining in the realm of ideas, a dream without a body to be in.

In short, we’re a religion without any religious experience because we are a religion of disembodied dreams. T.S. Eliot comes to mind.

“We are the hollow men.

Our dried voices,

when We whisper together

Are quiet and meaningless

As wind in dry grass”

“Shape without form,

shade without colour,

Paralysed force, gesture without motion.”

I don’t think Eliot was talking about us, but he sure could have been. Emerson, however, was definitely talking about us when he called Unitarianism “corpse cold.î But we can change that. We can live into the dream of our forebears and we can and must do this together. Oh, yes we can. In fact, we will.

Some of you may know, I am currently studying for the ministry at Austin Seminary. This past semester, a small group of my colleagues began meeting once a week to create some sacred space in our lives. We would gather, splash our hands and faces with water (a practice borrowed from Islam), do some physical action which we often drew from yoga. We would then sing ñ to clear away the ego. And finally, we would relax in silence for a half an hour, ala a Quaker meeting. This was followed by the sharing of snacks and some discussion. I can assure you, our theologies all varied radically from one another. And yet we could create that space together. It was a deeply enriching experience each and every week.

Now I could have, and have, done something like this on my own, alone. But the fellowship was important. The fellowship elevated the experience. Fellowship taps into love and that’s why we’re here this morning, right?

So ritual embodiment creates space. It also articulates faith. After all, what is Islam without Mecca-facing prayers in prostration? What is Christianity without the Eucharist? What is Buddhism without meditation? What is Unitarian Universalism without… umÖ We claim these traditions as sources. There is wisdom in the fact that they ALL ritualize their bodies in order to reinforce and articulate interpretations of the world.

The Buddhist author Jack Kornfield writes, “Spiritual transformation Ö doesn’t happen by accident. We need a repeated discipline, a genuine training, in order to let go of our old habits of mind and to find and sustain a new way of seeing.î In other words, we have to practice cosmology. We have to practice ontology and theology. We will neither grow, nor be effective, nor, in my opinion, even survive as a religion without also thriving as a religious practice.

Now, I’m not just going to whine at you. I want to try and find a solution. So what kind of ritual embodies our values and beliefs and theological liberality? How shall we practice? The Buddhist teacher Achaan Chah described the commitment to practice as “taking the one seat.” He said, “Just go into a room and put one chair in the centerÖ open the doors and the windows, sit in the chair, and see who comes to visit. You will witness all kinds of scenes and actors, all kinds of temptations and stories, everything imaginable. Your only job is to stay in your seat. You will see it all arise and pass, and out of this, wisdom and understanding will come.”

So we will take our cue here, with a few minor changes. I’m actually going to ask you to move a bit. Indulge me. Let’s see how this goes. So, as you are able, shift in your pews toward the center aisles, so that you are seated close to each other, right next to each other. Thank you.

SoÖ we are going to do a ritual, a ritual that embodies our theological and ontological openness, our social vision, our scientific grounding and our spiritual aspirations.

Now if you would, hold out both of your hands, palm up. This is a gesture of openness, of asking and receiving. If this next gesture makes you uncomfortable, it’s okay. Ritual, principles and honest religion often, in integrity, take us out of our comfort zone. So, see if you can come in to this next step. If you would, keep your left hand open. But with your right hand, place two or more fingers on the wrist of the neighbor to your right. Try to find a pulse, over here on the side a little and under the thumb. If you’re unable to find a pulse, it is enough to know that it is there. If you are on an aisle or sitting by yourself, place your free fingers on your own neck.

You may close your eyes or not. However you are comfortable. Now I’ll ask you to breath in and exhale slowly, as if you were meditating. And keeping that breath intentional, consider how this gesture recalls our principles, how touch affirms the inherent worth and dignity of every person and compassion in human relations.

Consider how touch embodies acceptance of one another and is a first step towards the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

Consider that through your fingerprints, you can feel the pulse of your neighbor, through your singularity, you touch the life force.

Consider how this reveals our fragility, just as it reveals the miracle of the human machine.

Finally, take a few breath cycles on your own, increasing your sensitivity to your neighbors life force. See if you can syncopate your breathing with the rhythm of their heart and let that syncopation expand in your imagination to include the rhythms of everyone here and then onward so that your thoughts turn at last to the interdependent web of all existence and the sum that is greater than all these parts. Listen now to breath and blood and life. At one time, be grounded, be here, transcend.

Amen.

I hope that gave you an idea of what I am talking about. Actually doing it hopefully made the idea more clear than if we had just left it at talk. And that is precisely the point. I hope it is an idea we can build on. It doesn’t need to be the ritual we performed today, but I would encourage some kind of exercise that embodies our faith to become a regular part of our service, our related board and committee functions and your personal practice. I’ll submit it to the worship committee for some deliberation. Consider today the first line of a conversation. But it must not only be a conversation.

Allowing our thoughts only to be in our mind and allowing our minds to be only in our brains does each component, as well as their sum ñnamely our lives and the gods in which we live them ñ a great penalty. Meanwhile, using our bodies to express our consciousness in ritual will lead to using our bodies to express our consciousness to each other and to the larger world. This can help in troubled times. And as a church and as a nation, these are troubled times. We can start healing without a word. We can take that wisdom and apply it to ourselves and our world. We can live this dream of Unitarian Universalism. We can heal this nation. We can repair this world. Yes we can.

Amen.

Is Hope Enough?

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

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© Rev. Kathleen Ellis,

 Minister of Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Church

 January 4, 2009

 First UU Church of Austin

 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756

 www.austinuu.org

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button below.

Readings

Excerpt adapted from Disturbing the Peace

by Vaclav Havel, translated by Paul Wilson

The kind of hope I often think about (especially in situations that are particularly hopeless, such as prison) I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it is a dimension of the soul; it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.

Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. Hope is… the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

Hope

by Emily Dickenson

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune – without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

Origami Emotion

by Elizabeth Barrette

Hope is

folding paper cranes

even when your hands get cramped

and your eyes tired,

working past blisters and

paper cuts,

simply because something in you

insists on

opening its wings.

Prayer

O Spirit, fill our lives this morning.

Let love enter our hearts as we think of our beloved family members, trusted friends, and mentors. We know that some of our loved ones have been wounded or fallen ill. We pray for their health and wholeness. We are filled with compassion even for strangers: the homeless, hungry, and hopeless. Let this compassion serve to open our hearts even more.

May we feel the full range of emotions – the inspirational beauty of nature; the surprising joy of unexpected generosity; even the depth of sorrow that washes over us as members of the human race.

Let us extend our compassion to the people of the world, thinking especially of the Israelis and the Palestinians who have not yet found their way to peace; thinking of the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and our own citizens who labor to achieve stability; thinking of the people of Darfur to whom our youth decorated and sent a large tent to house a classroom; thinking of people across our own land of plenty who lack basic necessities.

We are blessed to have one another. We are astonished to witness an historic inauguration in this new year. We are filled with hope that we, together, can do the work that needs to be done – here and throughout the world. Let us enter the Silence…

SERMON: Is Hope Enough? What Else, Then?

“Playing for Change” is a video circulating on YouTube and, of course, on its own website, playingforchange.com. It was the brainchild of Mark Johnson, who lives in Santa Monica. He got the idea ten years ago in a New York subway where he saw a huge crowd that surrounded two Buddhist monks in robes who were singing in a language probably no one understood. Yet two hundred people stood there listening, missing their trains, and even tearing up. Instead of rushing to work as isolated individuals, they were held in a rare sense of community. Mark could see with his own eyes what he already knew: Music brings people together. Music touches something within us that goes beyond words.

Mark Johnson said, “I traveled around the world and discovered that music opens the door to a place where we can come together as a human race. It is my belief that we can celebrate our differences and still connect our hearts. One Love.”

His first video is in production now. It took three years of traveling in four continents to record over one hundred musicians and edit the results into a unified product. You’ll see a choir in South Africa backing up a New Orleans guitarist and a Russian cellist, with a saxaphone riff from Italy. In an interview, Bill Moyers asked him if people ever told him he was being naive. Mark said, “Well, naive is thinking we have any other choice… Let’s make a difference together.”

When Mark was recording musicians in South Africa, he asked what they needed in return. They wanted a place to teach music to young people and give them a chance to perform and learn the technology Mark was using. He started raising money and will soon be selling CDs and videos to support Playing for Change. They built the concrete block Ntonga Music School in Guguletu, South Africa: a place of poverty, HIV and AIDS just outside of Capetown. Guguletu is a place in dire need of assistance, inspiration, and hope for its youth and young adults. The school will be equipped with cameras and recording equipment as well as computers so young people can share their music with the world and receive inspiration in return.

Playing for Change is also working to rebuild and enhance the Tibetan refugee centers in India and Nepal, and to support a writing school in Johannesburg, South Africa. It may be naive, but these musicians and their fans are making a difference in this world of ours.

Such positive change makes me forget the country’s problems for a little while: a long-term recession with a rising level of unemployment, bankruptcies, and foreclosures; two long-term wars that will go on for many months to come; global warming and environmental destruction; spiritual malaise. We can’t just go shopping anymore to resolve all this, and we don’t have the extra money! And though we have elected the presidential candidate who ran on Hope, we can’t expect him to save us by himself.

There has been a great shift from the patriotic fervor after the 9/11 attacks when American flags began flying everywhere. At a border crossing from Canada into the United States there was a billboard of an American flag with the image of shopping bag handles at the top. We were to thwart terrorism through shopping. This year we were horrified after Thanksgiving to learn that a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in the rush to shop for bargains. Customers continued to shop even after employees tried to close the store out of respect for a hideous event. The guy who died probably made minimum wage as a temporary, seasonal worker. Our wallets feel thin; tips are down for waitstaff; bargains prices just make us wait for even deeper discounts; and some of us have lost jobs, lost our sense of security.

“Do we really need more stuff?” Leonard Pitts asked in a recent column. We’re learning that we probably have enough stuff. It’s time to save our spirits through understanding that there is enough to go around. Enough material goods, enough money, enough food, enough love. It’s time to change the dream and change the world by using hope as inspiration for action.

In exploring the idea of hope, I dipped into Barack Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope ; the words and wisdom of Cornel West’s Hope on a Tightrope ; and Paul Loeb’s collection of essays he entitled The Impossible Will Take a Little While: a citizen’s guide to hope in a time of fear.

I, for one, hope that my faith and values can make a positive difference, yet it seems they often clash with opposing values. Obama writes, “We think of faith as a source of comfort and understanding but find our expressions of faith sowing division; we believe ourselves to be a tolerant people even as racial, religious, and cultural tensions roil the landscape. And instead of resolving these tensions or mediating these conflicts, our politics fans them, exploits them, and drives us further apart” (p. 29).

Later he points out that in the 60s, the status quo was overturned. Along with civil rights for citizens of African descent, other groups came streaming through the gates: “feminists, Latinos, hippies, Panthers, welfare moms, gays,” all of whom wanted a place at the table of democracy (p. 34).

Unitarian Universalists have worked to hold the gates open among the early adopters of this kind of diversity. Along with a diversity of politics came a diversity of spirituality that has strongly influenced society at large: Buddhists show us the benefits of mindfulness; Muslims inspire us by their prayer life; Earth centered religions celebrate the cycles of life; Jews emphasize forgiveness and atonement; Christians teach love of God and love of neighbor; and all of us try to put the best of these into our own lives. Austin Area Interreligious Ministries works to bridge gaps among faith groups. This very congregation is a microcosm of diversity in spirituality.

On the other hand, we are sometimes less willing to appreciate political views that differ from our own. Obama met tolerant evangelicals, spiritual humanists, rich people who want poor people to succeed, and poor people who hold high standards for themselves (p. 63). Obama suggests that liberals should acknowledge that hunters feel about guns the same way that liberals feel about library books; conservatives should recognize that most women feel as protective of reproductive freedom as evangelicals feel about their right to worship (p. 70).

All of us have values that are worthy of respect. Values move us to action. Shared values should shape politics, not the other way around. Standing up for your beliefs is a way to plant seeds of the possible. More difficult, but still possible is to understand other points of view so that multiple sides can be satisfied with a win/win. Getting down to the level of common values makes a huge difference in resolving incompatible opinions or strategies.

I remember working in a shelter for battered women. Our core value – our hope – was that all people deserve to live in safety – physical, emotional, and spiritual. Shelter residents needed skills for assuring safety at home for themselves and their children. They needed parenting skills like effective discipline without hitting. Sometimes the women would go back to their abusers, believing their promises or seeing no other options. Even when that happened, we knew that the women had seen a different way to live and they did have new skills. They knew where to find shelter for themselves and their children. We had planted seeds of hope for a better day. Sometimes they did have to come back for shelter, but they seemed stronger and more self-confident.

We don’t have to be famous like Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa to make a difference. One anonymous protester held a placard opposing nuclear weapons. He stood day after day outside the entrance to the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, about 50 miles east of San Francisco. One senior official there told of the impact of passing that solitary individual on a daily basis. That lone protester played a significant role in the official’s eventual decision to resign his job even though the two of them had never met.

Cornel West says it’s the ordinary people just like us who can change the world. Tavis Smiley asked him, “Who you gonna call? Ghost Busters?” They laughed, then Dr. West said,

“You’re going to call on the people, you’re going to call on everyday people, you’re going to call on ordinary people. They must shatter their sleepwalking; they must become awake, they must shake the complacency and the conformity and the cowardice and become maladjusted to injustice, give up being well adjusted to injustice, cut against the grain, and stand tall, organize, mobilize, for public interests and common good. In a democracy if you can’t call on the people, then the people lose the democracy and in the end, the democracy, so fragile, so precious, is lost, and the people find themselves run by tyrants.”

Sonya Vetra Tinsley is an African American singer, songwriter, and activist in Atlanta. She knows there are plenty of reasons to give in to cynicism and defeat. She also sees another group of people who work for change even if they don’t know how things will turn out – people like Martin Luther King, Alice Walker, Howard Zinn. And she says,

“There are times when both teams seem right [the cynics and the change agents]. Both have evidence. We’ll never know who’s really going to prevail. So I just have to decide which team seems happier, which side I’d rather be on. And for me that means choosing on the side of faith. Because on the side of cynicism, even if they’re right, who wants to win that argument anyway. If I’m going to stick with somebody, I’d rather stick with people who have a sense of possibility and hope. I just know that’s the side I want to be on.”

I want to stand on that side, too. Hope grows when we take even a small step, a solitary stand, a community affirmation based on rightness, value, and truth to heal our world or to heal and strengthen a congregation. Though I don’t know all of your names, I know you have dozens of members who are making great efforts to carry out the mission and vision of this great congregation. You have faithful witnesses who invite others to join them but continue to do the work with or without additional help. There is no doubt in my mind that there is plenty of work to go around! Even a thank you once in a while keeps the wheels turning.

I’ll leave you with story that’s been passed down from one minister’s sermon to another. One route was from Art Severance to Bruce Southworth to Anita Farber-Robinson to me. No doubt it has taken on a life of its own in multiple other directions. It’s a story about New College, at Oxford University in England. It is, as far as we know, a true story, told by the late Gregory Bateson, a renowned anthropologist and husband of Margaret Mead.

New College was founded in the late 16th century, when its physical structure was built. The College was designed according to the style of the times with a great dining hall that had huge carved oak beams across the ceiling. Apparently a survey was done of the condition of the property and it was discovered that these great, carved beams were infested with carpenter beetles, so seriously compromised that the building itself was in danger.

The report was transmitted to the College Council whose members were very much dismayed. Where could they ever get oak of that caliber today to replace those great old beams? One of the Junior Fellows took the risk of making a suggestions- there might be some oak growing on the college lands of which there was considerable acreage which had accrued through years of bequests.

The Council called the College Forester in from his work in the country and asked him about the oak. “He pulled off his cap and scratched his head and said, “Well sirs, we were wondering when you’d be asking.”

Upon further inquiry it was discovered that when the college was founded, a grove of oaks had been planted to replace the beams in the great hall when they became beetle-y in the end. This contingency plan, he told them, has been passed on from Chief Forester to Chief Forester, generation to generation, for over four hundred years.

That’s the end of the story, but not the end of the lesson. To plant even one tree is an act of faith and hope. You as a congregation will be planting trees and seeds of hope for your future. Thanks to previous generations, your roots run deep and your branches reach out across the City of Austin. Some of you will prepare the soil for new trees; others will plant; still others will water. Generations will come after you to enjoy the shade and the fruits of your labors, but there will be still other trees for them to plant. Countless individuals whom you do not yet know are seeking what you have to offer – hope in a hurting world. Let there be more love, hope, peace, and joy among you as you move into this new year.

So plant trees or take a stand or dream a new dream – and turn challenge into opportunity. Tell me, what else should we do other than bring hope to life?

Amen

2009 Sermon Index

by Posted in Indexes
Sermon Topic Author Date
Bryan and the Social Darwinists Gary Bennett 12-27-09
A Dickens of a Christmas Rev. Janet Newman 12-20-09
What do you say once they know you’re a UU? Rev. Janet Newman 12-13-09
How the holidays sing their message Rev. Janet Newman 12-06-09
What are you waiting for? Rev. Janet Newman 11-29-09
A Festival of Thanksgiving Rev. Janet Newman& Lay Members 11-22-09
A Missional Church Rev. David Jones 11-15-09
Remembrance Rev. Janet Newman 11-08-09
Martyrs of Liberal Religion Rev. Janet Newman 11-01-09
Dia de los Muertos Rev. Janet Newman 10-25-09
…As fire exists by burning Rev. Janet Newman 10-18-09
Unmentionables Rev. Janet Newman 10-11-09
Heroes of Our Heart Rev. Janet Newman 10-04-09
Transition, Transformation, and the ministry at the heart of Thacker Mountain Radio Eunice Benton 09-27-09
We are the promises we make and keep Rev. Janet Newman 09-20-09
Hospitality as Radical Practice Rev. Janet Newman 09-13-09
Ministry: An Endeavor for Life-Long Learners Rev. Janet Newmanand Ron Phares 09-06-09
American Roots of Unitarian Universalism Luther Elmore 08-30-09
Honest Religion – part 2 Tom Spencer 08-23-09
Holy Vision Ron Phares 08-16-09
Deeds not Creeds, Walking together in covenent Barbara Coeyman 08-09-09
Honest Religion Tom Spencer 08-02-09
The Miracle of Metaphor Ron Phares 07-26-09
Human Rights vs Human Duties Rev. Jack Harris-Bonham 07-19-09
Taking a Bet on the Truth David Throop 07-12-09
Listening Ron Phares 07-05-09
The Psychology of Hope and Virtue Dr. Wendy Domjan 06-28-09
The Psychology of Religion Dr. Wendy Domjan 06-21-09
When you sit, when you walk, when you lie down, when you rise Rev. Chuck Freeman Mary K. Isaacs 06-14-09
Bridges and Boundaries Rev. Kathleen Ellis 06-07-09
Values and Choices Jim Checkley 05-31-09
The Gospel according to Monty Python Rev. Jim Rigby 05-24-09
In search of Freedom Gary Bennett 05-17-09
Youth Service – Leaving the nest The Youth of FUUCA 05-10-09
Turn the tables, or turn the other cheek Rev. Chuck Freeman 05-03-09
Is the Work of God “God’s Work”? Michael Benedikt 04-26-09
Paying Attention: The essential Spiritual Practice Tom Spencer 04-19-09
Sacred Palimpsest: The Rites of Spring Ron Phares 04-12-09
Journey to UUism Michael LeBurkien 04-05-09
To such as these Rev. Jack Harris-Bonham 03-29-09
Birth, Love, & Death Gerry King, Renee Kingsland, Sara Barker & Kathy Murphy 03-22-09
The Oneness of Everything Jim Scott 03-15-09
The Death and Life of Free Will Ron Phares 03-08-09
Finding our faith Rev. Nancy McCrainie 03-01-09
What defines greatness? Jim Checkley 02-22-09
Real Hope Tom Spencer 02-15-09
Forgiveness Happens Jimmy Stanley 02-08-09
Means, Ends, & Karma Eric Hepburn 02-01-09
Opinion Industries & the Community of Faith Rev. Eliza Galaher 01-25-09
Disembodied Dreams Ron Phares 01-18-09
The seven deadly UU sins Rev. Bret Lortie 01-11-09
Is Hope enough? Rev. Kathleen Ellis 01-04-09

Time to Change again

by Posted in Audio available, Brian Ferguson, Former Ministers, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Brian Ferguson

 December 28, 2008

 First UU Church of Austin

 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756

 www.austinuu.org

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button below.

Reading

Impassioned Clay

by Ralph N. Helverson

Deep in ourselves resides the religious impulse.

Out of the passions of our clay it rises.

We have religion when we stop deluding ourselves that we are self-sufficient,

self-sustaining or self-derived.

We have religion when we hold some hope beyond the present,

some self-respect beyond our failures.

We have religion when our hearts are capable of leaping up

at beauty,

when our nerves are edged by some dream in our heart.

We have religion when we have an abiding gratitude for all

that we have received.

We have religion when we look upon people with all their

failings and still find in them good;

when we look beyond people to the grandeur in nature and to the purpose in our

our own heart.

We have religion when we have done all that we can,

and then in confidence entrust ourselves to the life that is

larger than ourselves.

Prayer

As we take this time, may we become in touch with the deepest desires of our hearts and memories of our minds. We are creatures with knowledge of our past and hopes for the future.

In recalling our past may we find the humility to learn from both our failures and success. In anticipating our future may we find the strength and courage to challenge ourselves to become more of what we desire to be.

As the adversities of our life remind us of our illusions of control and delusions of independence, may they also remind us of those who can help us and our interdependence with others.

In times of our greatest vulnerability and uncertainty, may we remember the moments of our highest resolve. And in doing so may our life be the embodiment of our highest ideals and an inspiration to all around us.

Amen.

Sermon: Time to Change – again!

As we approach the end of the calendar year, I find myself thinking about that difficult subject of time. The year 2009 is almost upon us and I am one of those people who hasn’t quite got their mind around being in the 21st century and soon we will be in the second decade of it. But when I talk about the difficulty of time I do not just mean the speed with which it goes by or the seeming shortage of time.

I have that constant struggle I have to live in the present. My mind constantly planning ahead to the short term task ahead, like eating lunch, or longer term out to next year, “where am I going to get a job?” When not thinking about the future then I think about my decisions of the past the good ones, a year ago I really didn’t think I’d be living in Texas, or regrets, why did I think this would be a good sermon topic? My mind seems to make only fleeting visits to the present before concerning itself with thoughts for the future and memories of the past.

Midnight on Wednesday as the calendar flips to another year there will be that mixture of poignancy for the past along with hope and perhaps some anxiety for the time ahead. For some of us we will be happy to see the back of 2008 for the hardship and losses we endured. For others we will reflect on a year well-lived and enter the New Year filled with anticipation and optimism. Many of us enter the New Year with externally imposed changes which we had little control over.

As I consider my own situation as intern minister here I am in the middle of my year internship while simultaneously ending it here at First Austin and about to begin a new stage at the Liveoak church. I now understand Jean Luc Godard’s phrase “A story should have a beginning, middle, and an end but not necessarily in that order.” My current situation is simultaneously a beginning, middle and an end. Time is a tricky concept.

The end of a calendar year also imposes on our lives transition points, often artificially, as work contracts and projects end or deadlines imposed by the Christmas season itself. The busyness of the Christmas season can also become such a focus for many of us that it becomes difficult to plan for the time after until we get through Christmas. At this time between Christmas and New Year is when we have the time and energy to take measure of the past and look towards the future.

The month of January is a somewhat arbitrary beginning for a new year since it does not correspond to the beginning of an agricultural season or astronomical cycle. The month of January is named after the Roman God Janus, who had two faces which allowed him to simultaneously look forward to the future and backwards to the past. The tradition of New Year resolutions is also traced to the God Janus and when taken seriously New Year resolutions are about looking at our behaviors of the past and envisioning how we could do better in the future.

As individuals many of us in small ways or perhaps even in significant ways undertake the tradition of New Year resolutions. The most common resolutions are: losing weight, getting fit, eating better, quitting smoking, drinking less alcohol, paying off debt, spending more time with the family, volunteering to help others more, and just being less grumpy. Some of these might be useful goals for many of us. And probably very similar goals to last year, and the year before and the year before that. Or perhaps that is just me. I actually thought that I might take up smoking just so that I could give it up thus fulfilling at least one resolution this year.

Of course the joke of so much of New Year resolutions is how little time it takes to fail in keeping them and how we desire the same changes each year. There is a whole industry around this such as gym membership which sky-rockets in January as the next cycle of resolutions for weight loss and greater fitness begin. While the idea of New Year resolutions can be shrugged off as just another silly example of human nature and the large disconnect between our spoken desires and our actual behavior, I do think the idea touches on a real desire for many of us to live better than we have done and the great difficulty we have in doing so.

Our Unitarian tradition of the 19th and 20th Century has focused on the self-improvement of the person and has been summarized as “Salvation by Character”.

Salvation in our Unitarian tradition was about individuals improving themselves and working towards their own and others moral improvement. We moved the emphasis from a faith in and obedience to a God to an emphasis on improving ourselves to become better, more ethical people, and this improvement was often expressed as becoming more God-like. The 19th Century Unitarian Minister William Ellery Channing said “To honor God, is to approach God as an inexhaustible Fountain of light, power, and purity. It is to feel the quickening and transforming energy of his perfections. It is to thirst for the growth and invigoration of the divine principle within us, and to seek the very spirit of God which proposes as its great end the perfection of the human soul.”

Now I think it is fair to say that most people do not think of their New Year resolutions as the perfecting of the human soul. Yet in their own way, New Year resolutions are about becoming a better person – physically, emotionally or even spiritually – tomorrow than you were yesterday. I wonder if the reason we do not take our resolutions or other desires to change seriously is that we do not aim high enough with our demands on ourselves? The desire for human improvement in our Unitarian tradition led to a great emphasis on the education of people. This belief is still strong in our movement with our strong support and belief in public education for all people.

For example, our split the plate donation today is going towards the American-Nepali Student and Women’s Educational Relief organization. This group, which we will support with half of our offering from today’s service, supports 12-15 years of education for children from the lower castes in Nepal. Our tradition of human improvement and belief in education has taken on a global perspective today, showing a growing focus for our social justice work that is in keeping with our religious tradition. As someone who was the first generation of my family to attend college I know of the transformative effects and opportunities that an education provides.

Religion for many of us is about the transformation of the individual and our society for the better. Transformation for individuals comes generally as a result of an interaction of external circumstances and our internal motivations. Many people come into our religious community desiring change in their lives perhaps by seeking a community where they can pursue spiritual questions, engage in social justice work, or find meaning for the changes their lives. All these can be acts of transformation.

The struggle many of us have in enacting transformations within ourselves is how we go from often vague desires for change into more firm beliefs until we engrain these beliefs as habits. I learned something about this struggle during my chaplaincy training last year where I was working with military veterans who had mental health concerns and addictions. By the time I was working with them many had reached a crisis in their life due to their addiction and were desperate for help.

There was a common pattern where there was a tendency for them to either blame everyone else or blame themselves for all of their problems. Much of the work I did was to explore where the blame should belong then encourage them to take the appropriate responsibility for their actions. Through the 12-step program of alcoholics anonymous there was a strong group support for the patient and the encouraging of humility in admitting the need of help from a higher power.

For many of the people I worked with they had admitted they were powerless to resist alcohol and chose to replace their addiction with a healthier, higher power which often gave them strength to address their addiction.

The major lesson I learned from these veterans was how they struggled with their addiction everyday. As one of them said to me “The difficulty is not to stop drinking but to stay sober every day. Stopping drinking isn’t hard. Not starting again is.” The discipline of choosing everyday not to drink alcohol for them was a huge act of self-control and I believe it to be a spiritual discipline.

In our Liberal Religious tradition much of our religion is to guide us in how we should act and how we should make decisions.

I see a commonality between how our religion guides us to enact changes in our own lives and how those in 12-Step programs were attempting to help people address their addictions. To take a vague desire of how I wish to be different and change it into a belief that I will act on a daily requires a commitment from me and the support of my community which holds me accountable. Enacting these beliefs in my words and actions is a daily spiritual discipline I engage in and often fail at.

As I fail at living up to my beliefs I am fortunate that the consequences are not as severe as those with addictions who I served as a chaplain to. I deal with my disappointment, reflect on why I failed to live to my expectations then begin the cycle again.

By letting go of any attachment towards any need of perfection and just focus on improvement allows me to show compassion to myself and stay engaged in changing my beliefs and habits. This model of action, reflection, and action with consistent emphasis on improvement not perfection is a simple yet significant approach for me to enact change in my life. For many Unitarian Universalists it can be hard for us to settle for simple improvement and not obsess about perfection. It is said that, “The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy. The pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic, and a terrible waste of time.” In this vein I want to share with you a resolution I arrived at that guides much of my life.

There is a lot of talk, at least among seminarians with too much spare time, that we really need to find some guiding principles to help us in daily life. Of course, I undertook up this project with serious intellectual rigor hoping to arrive at some weighty, profound ethical principal. In truth, the outcome for me was on the surface a disappointment. My guiding principle is that I only want to make brand new mistakes.

The satisfaction of making the same mistake as others is a shallow, frustrating consolation and I don’t want to make the same mistakes as others by reinventing another broken wheel. By not wanting to the mistakes of the past then I learn from history and by accepting that I am going to make mistakes, albeit new ones, allows me to move forward into unknown areas and overcome the fear of failure. I have actually found this seemingly superficial guiding principle of only making new mistakes quite liberating.

This thinking may also be beneficial for organizations such as a religious community. Organizations seem to settle into a common behavioral pattern which prevents change and seems to condition any new person to conform to the expected behavior of the organization. Yet if the goal of religion is individual and community growth then we want an organizational structure that encourages change of individuals and renewal of the organization itself not stifle transformations.

A community that learns from the past and takes risks moving forward will make brand new mistakes by pushing boundaries. Hesitancy and resistance to change are understandable but limiting. If we wish to make brand new mistakes then we have to overcome our resistance to change as individuals and as a religious community. What is so bad about a mistake – especially one that no-one has made before?

As adults we become very conscious of what others think of us and we often do not wish to appear less than competent. Ask a group of Kindergarden children if they can sing or can dance then almost all of them would raise their hand enthusiastically and they would be very keen to show you. As we get older, our inhibitions seem to set in and our desire to try new activities or approaches diminishes. We encourage children to make mistakes and to learn. We develop for them compassionate boundaries for them to push against and we support them in their struggles and failures.

As adults we lose the ability to appear vulnerable or fallible. I feel we limit ourselves by not allowing ourselves to make mistakes. As the poem Suzy read earlier said “We have religion when we stop deluding ourselves that we are self-sufficient, self-sustaining or self-derived. We have religion when we hold some hope beyond the present, some self-respect beyond our failures.”

There is a myth of competency we wish to project. Yet I think most of us have learned more from our mistakes than our successes. Those times we pushed ourselves into unknown areas, further than we intended beyond our comfort zone. By doing so we grow as people as we break down those barriers we have raised for ourselves or others attempted to impose on us.

Mistakes are almost a prerequisite for growth and success. Michael Jordan, the great basketball player, said “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

I would venture to say that perhaps the only real failure is to not attempt something that you really wish to do. When we think about our own life then we rarely regret what we did do, – now I’m only talking about legal activities here – our major regrets are those times where we did not do something when we had opportunity. Even when our efforts do not work out then we generally learn something, even if the lesson was to never to do that again. When we choose not to even attempt something for fear of failure then our learning opportunity is missed.

Of course to accept the possibility of our making a mistake involves us being willing to take a risk. The following words from the poem “To Risk” capture much of our struggles concerning our aversion to risk.

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out for another is to risk exposing our true self.

To place our ideas – our dreams – before the crowd is to risk loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To hope is to risk despair.

To try is to risk failure.

To live is to risk dying.

I would say that all of these actions – to laugh, weep, reach out, dream, to love, to hope, to try – are acts of coming alive and truly living. They all involve a risk but a risk of what – appearing foolish or sentimental, not being loved, exposing our true feelings. These may be sources of discomfort but are not character flaws. By growing from and beyond our failures and mistakes, we are coming alive to all of life’s possibilities. With knowledge of the past and imagination for the future we can make our whole life be a spiritual practice -breaking down the artificial barriers between the secular and the sacred, between ourselves and others. In doing this we awaken our soul to the excitement and nourishment of the complete spiritual life.

——————-

Cassara, Ernest Biography of Hosea Ballou http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/hoseaballou.html Last accessed on December 27, 2008

Channing, William Ellery, Likeness to God: William Ellery Channing Selected Writing Robinson, David ed., (New York: Paulist Press, 1985) p.156

Hansel, Tim, Eating Problems for Breakfast (Word Publishing, 1988) p.39 quote from Edwin Bliss

Anonymous. To Risk Singing the Living Tradition (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1993) #658

Can Christmas have any meaning for us?

by Posted in Audio available, Brian Ferguson, Former Ministers, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Brian Ferguson

 December 21, 2008

 First UU Church of Austin

 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756

 www.austinuu.org

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button below.

Reading –

For So The Children Come

by Sophia Lyon Fahs

For so the children come

And so they have been coming.

Always in the same way they come

born of the seed of man and woman.

No angels herald their beginnings.

No prophets predict their future courses.

No wisemen 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 life 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.

Prayer

These are the words of Eusebius, the 3rd Century Christian Bishop

May I be no one’s enemy and may I be the friend of that which is eternal and abides.

May I wish for every person’s happiness and envy none.

May I never rejoice in the ill fortune of one who has wronged me.

May I, to the extent of my power, give needful help to all who are in want.

May I never fail a friend.

May I respect myself.

May I always keep tame that which rages within me.

May I accustom myself to be gentle and never be angry with others because of circumstances.

May I know good people and follow in their footsteps.

Amen

Reading

“Christ Climbed Down”

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

 

Christ climbed down

from His bare Tree

this year

and ran away to where 

there were no rootless Christmas trees

hung with candy canes and breakable stars

Christ climbed down

from His bare Tree

this year 

and ran away to where 

there were no gilded Christmas trees

and no tinsel Christmas trees

and no tinfoil Christmas trees

and no pink plastic Christmas trees

and no gold Christmas trees

and no powderblue Christmas trees

hung with electric candles

and encircled by tin electric trains

and clever cornball relatives

Christ climbed down

from His bare Tree

this year 

and ran away to where 

no intrepid Bible salesmen

covered the territory 

in two-tone cadillacs

and where no Sears Roebuck crches

complete with plastic babe in manger

arrived by parcel post

the babe by special delivery

and where no televised Wise Men

praised the Lord Calvert Whiskey

Christ climbed down

from His bare Tree

this year 

and ran away to where 

no fat handshaking stranger

in a red flannel suit

and a fake white beard

went around passing himself off

as some sort of North Pole saint

crossing the desert to Bethlehem

Pennsylvania 

in a Volkswagen sled

drawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer

with German names

and bearing sacks of Humble Gifts

from Saks Fifth Avenue

for everybody’s imagined Christ child

Christ climbed down

from His bare Tree

this year 

and ran away to where 

no Bing Crosby carollers

groaned of a tight Christmas

and where no Radio City angels

iceskated wingless

through a winter wonderland

into a jinglebell heaven

daily at 8:30 with Midnight Mass matinees

Christ climbed down

from His bare Tree

this year 

and softly stole away into

some anonymous Mary’s womb again

where in the darkest night

of everybody’s anonymous soul

He awaits again 

an unimaginable 

and impossibly 

Immaculate Reconception 

the very craziest 

of Second Comings

Sermon – Brian Ferguson

Here we are four days before Christmas and we are in the aftermath of a divisive church conflict regarding the dismissal of our minister. Everyone seems to be hurting.

I know I am moving between emotions of sadness, anger, and confusion. It is not a good place to be. The future looks uncertain, many are disillusioned about our church community, and most of us are still trying to make sense of what just happened over the last month. Christmas time is where the dominant religious culture and dominant secular culture are telling us is a time of joy and celebration. I am not feeling much joy and celebration right now.

Christmas is often a time when we Unitarian Universalists turn to our Christian roots. There is a certain irony to this since for most Christians, Easter has a far greater religious significance than Christmas. Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus which demonstrates the divinity of Jesus. Christmas on the hand is very much a story about the humanity of Jesus since it is a celebration of his birth and the hope his birth symbolizes. I am feeling all too human right now and the powerlessness that involves. Hope is something which would be helpful at this time.

The religious message of hope often gets lost amidst the secular aspects of Christmas that the poem I read earlier somewhat cynically described – “the tinsel Christmas trees, the plastic babe in a manger, and the North Pole saint in a red flannel suit with a fake white beard.” Not much sign of hope there. These images of Christmas are so familiar to us from television, shopping malls, and the front yard of our neighbors – or perhaps if we are honest even our own front yards – yes confession time in the UU church. I warned you we would be going back to our Christian roots.

Despite the rampant commercialization of Christmas there is an important religious message to some Christians and it is perhaps the most important aspect of our Christian heritage that we Unitarian Universalists continue to embrace. That is the idea of the incarnation. The divine embodied in flesh is the literal meaning. Incarnation is the idea of the divine being active in the material world in human form. In Christianity this figure was Jesus Christ who came to communicate a message of salvation to people therefore took human form.

Our Unitarian and Universalist ancestors embraced the idea of incarnation very seriously and reached some radical conclusions. Incarnation to them meant our highest ideals are embodied into our human form and become an active presence in our world through our own actions. The 19th Century Unitarian William Ellery Channing says “Jesus came, not only to teach with his lips, but to be a living manifestation of his religion – to be, in an important sense, the religion itself. Christianity is a living, embodied religion. It is example and action” This is a call to us to live out our values actively in our lives – to be the incarnation of our values in our world.

Thinking of Jesus in these terms helps me understand the Christian idea of the Church as the Body of Christ. This term can be confusing but I find it helpful in thinking about our religious community being infused and guided by high ideals and moral values. The mission statement of our church reads: “As an inclusive religious and spiritual community, we support each individual’s search for meaning and purpose, and join together to help create a world filled with compassion and love.” Just as some believe that spiritual energy brings alive the material body of a person, our religious community is brought alive by the high spiritual ideas and morals of our mission. Without such ideas we are just a physical building and social group not a church.

In thinking of our church here in Austin as a body it is fair to say our particular body right now is feeling battered, bruised, and broken. It is difficult to find the infusion of high spiritual ideals as we assess where we are as a community. In our Unitarian Universalist tradition, the local congregation has the power to call and dismiss a minister. There is no hierarchical power structure that imposes ministers on congregations as in some religions. The right of a congregation to call any minister of their choosing is a great strength of our movement and has allowed us to be the first religion to call women, gay, and transgender ministers. This is an aspect of our history that we are rightly very proud of. The shadow side of this congregational power is the conflict and divisiveness that can occur within a congregation around the dismissal of a minister. Sadly, this latter case has been so clearly demonstrated to us in the last few weeks.

We are in a time of great pain, uncertainty, and confusion as a religious community. We have voted to dismiss our senior minister, and our future is uncertain. There is pain about the loss of our minister, pain about the process leading up to the vote, and pain about the divisions in our community. I personally have a pain that is beyond the disappointment of losing a colleague and supervisor. I have a pain that is an injury of the soul. My spiritual wound is due to our religious community losing touch with the core elements of our mission such as compassion and love in the turmoil of the last few weeks. I look around our community and see great hurt amongst people on all sides of the vote. I am also pained as valued members of our community leave wounded by the events of recent weeks.

I heard and read statements about the senior minister and members of the board of trustees that I found offensive and disrespectful, and believe such statements should have had no place in any community let alone a religious one. This pained me deeply. We have a right to free speech and to disagreement, in fact they are at the core of our Liberal Religious movement, but we also have a responsibility to exercise those rights respectfully and for the greater good of our community. The value of the inherent worth and dignity of every person is not a value that is turned on at our convenience. Such values are principles we are called to follow and may be most important when we engage with those who we are in disagreement with.

Some people who supported dismissal told me that they feel they now have their church back. Others who wished to retain the minister say they feel they have lost their church and plan to leave our community. I would remind both groups an important yet often unrecognized aspect of our Liberal Religious Tradition – You only lose this church if you choose to leave it. The church as a community is still here and hopefully always will be. We do not exclude people because of how they voted, what they believe, or have creeds you must conform to before you can join.

For those who have come back because they feel they have their church back I caution them that is a different church today than the one they recall from their past. Churches like physical bodies are organic institutions which change over time as new people come in, bringing their energy and vitality forever changing our community. This is a very good thing. For those who feel they have recently lost their church, it is true the church they experienced before the conflict is no longer with us. It is said that forgiveness is the giving up of any hope of a better past. I would suggest that the church of the past for all of us is gone. We cannot unring the bell.

We must attempt to heal our present wounds and begin envisioning what church we want to be in the future. To begin healing we must understand the mistakes we made in the past and why recent events have caused so much hurt in our community. I sympathize with the frustration and sadness that leads people to want to leave a church. We have high expectations of people in our religious community, be they our minister, board members, committee chairs, office staff, other members, or even our ministerial intern. We are all human and often fail to live up to the values as we would wish to.

When wounded in our lives, many of us turn to our religious community for healing. When a part of our religious community is the cause of our wounds then we struggle to believe our church can be a part of our healing. I believe a spiritual injury needs spiritual healing. Perhaps the healing can happen in another religious community but I would suggest the healing might be more whole, more complete if it occurs within the religious community that caused the injury?

The great 16th Century Unitarian Francis David said “We do not need to think alike to love alike.” We hear these words so often in our Unitarian Universalist churches that the profoundness of them can become lost.

These words are so much easier said than acted upon. In the recent turmoil in our church, these words occurred to me often but sadly too often in the violation rather than the observance of the sentiment. We claim that we wish a diversity of opinions and then when we disagree on a major issue we seem to quickly fall out of right relationship with each other. Perhaps the problem is many of us join our movement because “we want to be around people who think like we do.” When a point of disagreement comes up in our community then our relationship with each other can quickly sour and we are at a loss about how to repair it.

As most of us know from our most intimate relationships, a relationship based on love is no guarantee of agreement on all things and avoidance of conflict. Apologies to any new lovers out there! A relationship based on love is a commitment to stay in relationship and work out the difficulties in a mutually beneficial way if possible.

Both our religious connection to our church and our intimate relationships can grow stronger as we work through our differences and conflicts. Being around people who have the same opinions as us is certainly comfortable and supportive but only limited growth can occur. I believe we grow more when we are in community with people who challenge us and are willing to stay in relationship with us as we differ in our thoughts. We can all grow spiritually through this challenge.

One of our duties as members of this religious community is to hold each other accountable for our actions, values and opinions by calling us to embody these values in our actions. I believe Davidson attempted to hold us accountable to these high ideals through his sermons. I believe the board thought they were acting to hold ministerial leadership accountable to our higher values. Many members of our congregation attempted to hold our leadership accountable to values of fairness and openness in recent weeks. These were all good aspects of what happened in the last few weeks.

I believe the failure of our community in the last few weeks is where we fell out of love, respect, and compassion with those we disagree with or were in conflict with. We stopped living our mission by failing to act with compassion and love towards those we disagreed with. Reasonable people can disagree on issues, and disagreeing respectfully is possible. A chasm developed between groups within us where listening stopped as the voices became louder.

There was a dehumanizing of people on all sides of this issue that was heartbreaking for me to witness. I also feel complicit in this since I did too little to stop it. I regret my failure not to do enough to address the dehumanizing words and actions I witnessed on all sides. For example I was talking to a ministerial colleague from another church yesterday who was disgusted by us having many of the documents available through our public website. I too was troubled by this but did not address it Damage was done not only to our church but our movement.

We all probably can think of areas we should have address or things we did differently. Our views became entrenched which limited our imagination to see a greater range of possibilities for the process and how our actions impacted others. I think much of our pain is that we know in our hearts we could have done so much better.

To return to the earlier analogy of the Church as a body: prior to the board’s request for Davidson’s dismissal, a large portion of this community saw our church body as healthy, vibrant, and happy. The request for dismissal and build-up to the congregational meeting showed that much of the body of religious community was injured and in pain. There was a disappointment for many of us that we were unaware of the true feelings of our friends and fellow members of our own religious community. This painful realization that what we thought was a community of health was really a community of brokenness and this was a shock to many.

In looking at how we heal and move forward, I am trying to find sources of hope. One hope I find is that we were not failed by our values but our failure to live up to our values. We often failed to stay in relationship with those we disagree with – to love those that did not think like us.

I have had people on all sides of the issues talk to me trying to find meaning in what happened and seeking to understand their own pain and the pain of others. An honest seeking to understand the pain of others is a sign of hope. The need to be in fellowship with those who share our view is understandable and may be needed in providing emotional support.

The beginning of healing in our community I believe begins with each of us getting together with those having differing opinions and listening to them. Not trying to argue our point or find reasons to dismiss what they are saying, but listening to them to understand why others have the feelings they do. Hopefully if we listen to them they may reciprocate by listening to us. We will hear why people with similar information as us believed, acted, and reached conclusions very different from our own.

Perhaps we may understand most of us were acting in what we believed to be the common good for our religious community. Out of this may grow that seed of respect and though this is not quite the same as loving those who think differently from us, it has the potential to grow there. And at least we will be back in right relationship with others and moving forward. I wish us all well on this difficult journey and hope that we can all be a part of the important work we need to do. As we move towards the Christmas holiday and look forward to our future together may the following words of Howard Thurman hold all of us with love:

When the song of angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When the 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 family,

to make music in the heart.

May we all find the music we need for our hearts at this time and through our actions may we be the incarnation of our highest values of love and compassion in this world. And in doing so let us do the healing, rebuilding, and bringing of peace that our community and our world desperately needs.

———————

Channing, William Ellery, The Imitablness of Christ’s Character: The Works of William Ellery Channing Vol.IV (Boston, MA: American Unitarian Association, 1903) p.135

Stewardship Committee Report for December 14, 2008 Congregational Meeting

by Posted in Board Minutes, Congregational Meeting Documents

Stewardship Committee Report

for December 14, 2008 Congregational Meeting

 

 

Pledge Statistics

 

At this point (12/1/08) we have received $525,943 in pledges from 343 households (pledging units) and have raised 87.7 % of our goal of $600,000.� �This is over the $525,000 which is included in the proposed budget.

 

Of those who have pledged so far:

����������� 34% increased their pledges from last year

����������� 12% decreased their pledges

����������� 29% kept their pledges the same level

25% are from new members or renewals

 

The average pledge is $1,533 and the median pledge, $1,000.

�

The average share of the 2009 proposed budget ($690,269) per voting member (596) is $1,158.

The average share of the 2009 proposed budget per pledging unit (388) is $1,779.

 

Currently there are 45 outstanding pledges (member households that made a pledge for 2008, but have not made a pledge for 2009 and have not resigned or declared a zero pledge.)� �This is 12% of the 388 potential pledging households.

 

Comments

 

During the upcoming weeks and months, the Stewardship Committee will reflect upon this information about this year?s canvass.� There is room for improvement.� Our preliminary thoughts follow:

 

Close the Back Door

 

�We recommend that the church implement a strategic membership retention initiative to ?close the back door.?� This initiative should include solicitation of input from church members about what they think is working and what needs improving, as well continued contact and integration of new members into church activities within several weeks after they join.�� We believe that this effort at improving connections would increase the chance for initial pledges to be made by new members, existing pledges to be honored, and renewals to be made at the time of the pledge campaign.�

�

Discussion of Stewardship throughout the Year

To create a culture of abundance, we should increase discussion of Stewardship and financial commitment beyond our customary 6-week pledge drive (Labor Day through October).� This should not be a taboo because how we spend our money strongly reflects our values.� The health of our church community is directly tied to our finances.� For that reason, all members must be informed of their responsibility to pledge generously on an annual basis and then to fulfill their pledges throughout the year.� �We should have articles about Stewardship in the newsletter during the year.� We suggest a continued conversation about Stewardship by church leaders throughout the year.� It is likely to take several years of continuous effort to achieve the mindset of the congregation to create a culture of abundance.

�

Need for Increased Participation on the Stewardship Committee

A successful Stewardship Campaign requires much advance planning and work.� Ideally, many church members should share the responsibility for organizing and executing the pledge drive.� We would like to see more church members join the Committee to assist in Stewardship tasks throughout the year, including the preparation for the upcoming 2010 Stewardship Campaign.

 

Volunteer Recognition

 

First, thanks to all who pledged, and to those who increased their pledge from last year, even under trying times, with the good of the church at heart.� Thank you for recognizing that this church is more than just a minister, more than just a building, more than just a congregation?It is a community, fellowship, a place of learning and enriching our spirits.

�

The Stewardship Committee consisted of Co-Chairs Margaret Roberts and Mark Skrabacz, and member Mary Jane Ford who worked year round on the campaign.� Also, Joseph Hunt, Kae McLaughlin, Michael Trice and Jean Davison joined the team during the year.� Thanks to all members for the contributions you have made which include planning the campaign, making speeches, manipulating data bases, preparing reports, developing the brochure, planning parties, staffing the pledge table, and canvassing.� Special thanks to Keith Savage for his programming and assistance on the on-line data base, to Michael Sweet for work on the brochure, and to Andi Windham for assistance on the church website.

 

Thanks to the Church office staff and Bookkeeper Jim Scott whose duties increase at pledge time, especially in the realm of credit card pledges.

�

The Committee expresses its thanks and acknowledgment to party hosts and helpers: �Don Smith, Sheila Gladstone, Stephan Windsor, Luther Elmore, Bob Porter, David Leibson, Jim Barry, Melanie Walter Mahoney and Linda West.

 

Thanks to ?Just In Time? Canvass callers who have not been named previously:

Shannon Vyff, Nell Newton, Mike West, Eric Stimmel, Bonny Gardner, Phil Hastings,� Mark Kilpatrick, and Marian Maxwell.

 

Thanks to those who gave testimonials at the services:� Sheila Gladstone; Mark Kilpatrick; Don Smith; Elizabeth Gray and Eugene, Edward, and Patrick Balaguer; Rose Ann Reeser; Eric Hepburn; Luther Elmore; and George and Barbara Denny,

�

And thanks to those who worked the pledge table in addition to the Stewardship Committee: �Linda Taylor, Joyce Wilson, Kathryn Govier and Jeanette Swenson.

�

Thanks for your dedication and vigilance.

�

Mary Jane Ford

Documents pertaining to the December 14 meeting:

  • 2008 Revisions to the Bylaws

    • Now what?- Rev. Susan Smith, SWUU District Executive

    by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

    Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

    Reading – Brian Ferguson

    Today’s reading is from “My Grandfather’s Blessing: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging” by Rachel Naomi Remen.

    Sometimes the very things that threaten our life may strengthen the life in us. David was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes two weeks after his seventeenth birthday. He responded to it with the rage of a trapped animal. Like an animal in a cage he flung himself against the limitations of his disease, refusing to hold to a diet, forgetting to take his insulin, using his diabetes to hurt himself, over and over.

    He had been in therapy for almost six months without making much progress when he had a dream. In his dream, he found himself sitting in an empty room without a ceiling, facing a small stone statue of the Buddha. David was not a spiritual young man, but he was at least a familiar with the image of a Buddha. In his dream he was surprised to feel a kinship toward the Buddha, perhaps because this Buddha was a young man, not much older than himself. The statue seemed to have an odd effect on him. Alone in the room with it, he had felt more and more at peace when, without warning, a dagger was thrown from somewhere behind him. It buried itself deep in the Buddha’s heart.

    David was profoundly shocked. He felt betrayed, overwhelmed with feelings of despair and anguish. From the depth of these feelings had emerged a single question: “Why is life like this?” And then the statue began to grow, so slowly that at first he was not sure it was really happening. But so it was, and suddenly he knew beyond doubt that this was the Buddha’s response to the knife.

    The statue continued to grow, its face as peaceful as before. The knife did not change either. Gradually, it became a tiny black speck on the breast of this enormous smiling Buddha. Watching this, David felt something release him and found he could breathe deeply for the first time in a long time. He awoke with tears in his eyes.

    As David told the author his dream, he recognized the feelings he had when he first saw the dagger. The despair and anguish, and even the question “Why is life like this?” were the same feelings and questions that had come up for him in his doctor’s office when he heard for the first time that he had diabetes.

    As he put it, “when this disease plunged into the heart of my life”

    His dream offered him the hope of wholeness and suggested that, over time, he might grow in such a way that the wound of his illness might become a smaller and smaller part of the sum total of his life.

    Prayer – Brian Ferguson

    As we gather today we are a community in pain. We are a community which feels divided and disconnected from each other. Our religious community last night made perhaps the most difficult decision a religious community can make – the act of dismissing a minister.

    For some this may feel a vindication for their pains and wounds of the past. For others this may be a fresh wound and dashing of their hopes for the future of this community. For some it is both hopeful and painful.

    For those who find hope may they have the compassion to reach out to help those hurting. For those who are hurting may they find the strength to embrace the help of others.

    While each of us is acutely aware of our own pain, past or present, may we reach out to others in a spirit of compassion and empathy to remember the pain of all others.

    We are at a time where all of us are asking what next, what now? What does this mean for us as an individual and our religious community?

    We are a community in shock and in grief. Regardless, of what we thought should happen last night – we are here together today, at this moment and in this place – this sacred time and this sacred place.

    This is an act of hope and perhaps from this small seed can emerge the first small step in an act of healing. An act of healing ourselves, our relationship with our religious community and our relationship with the sacred.

    We profess our hope of healing our world. The need for healing seems very close to each of us at this time. Let us be guided in all we do by the better angels of our natures.

    May we all find the capacity to grow from our wounds and not become our wounds. May we grow so our wounds become a smaller and smaller part of who we are.

    And may each of us find the guidance and strength we seek to be an agent of healing for ourselves, for our community and for our world.

    Amen

    Sermon: Now What?

    Rev. Susan Smith

    The text of Rev. Susan Smith’s sermon is not available but you can listen to it or watch it by clicking on the play buttons above.

    —————————-

    Remen, Rachel Naomi. My Grandfather’s Blessing: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging