tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-303122282024-03-07T18:41:07.714-08:00Ms. Kitty's Saloon and Road ShowAn ongoing, eclectic commentary on Unitarian Universalism, after retirement from active ministry--as I see it, practice it, and love it, with sidebars on life, love and the pursuit of happiness.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1227125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-21150002499139597282023-06-25T09:15:00.002-07:002023-06-25T09:17:00.141-07:00Saying Goodbye<p> <span style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;">Dear PUUF friends,</span></p><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;">As I get closer to my moving date, I want to express my gratitude to you for your love, your cooperation, your energy, your smiles and encouragement, your interest in my life and future, and also to make it clear(er) what our relationship will be from now on.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;">As of July 1, I will not be your minister; Rev. Mira will be your minister and I will be part of your history. This is the way ministers and congregations have parted for a long time. I have a professional duty to my colleague Rev. Mira to stand aside and let her create her own relationships within PUUF.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;">In a small community like ours, it's hard to let a close relationship change, but change it must. I need to let go and so do you, to make it the best possible welcome to Rev. Mira when she starts with you in July.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;">This does not mean we don't care for each other any more. It means, instead, that we care for each other in a new way: I care very much that you form a relationship with Rev. Mira that fosters growth in PUUF and a new vision of what you can contribute to the community. I know that you care very much for how the rest of my life goes, and I appreciate that caring. You have given me a great deal of support and love over the past 10+ years and it has helped to make me strong enough to serve you to the best of my ability as I age. I am grateful for that support and love. It will carry me for the rest of my life.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;">Thank you for helping me with my move, which has proved to be more complicated and expensive than I expected. Your willingness to help me pack and tote boxes and sort my mementos has been crucial in my preparation to make this change in my life.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;">I expect to return briefly to officiate Cliff LaMear's Celebration of Life in July, as Rev. Mira will not be available. And Rev. Mira and I will sit down together in the next weeks to create a covenant of how our relationships with you and with each other can be most healthy and productive. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;">My schedule for the move is that we will load the UHaul truck, with the help of volunteers and a couple of hired hands to help with the heavy lifting, this coming Friday. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;">When the truck is full and ready to roll, Bob and Karin Webb will take it to their house overnight and bring it back to my Alderbrook home Saturday morning, from which we will leave for Vancouver and my new home. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;">I am grateful to the volunteers (the Webbs, Dan Vernon, Ellen Norris, Veja Lahti, Laura Janes, and many other volunteers) who have offered their help in this long stretch of preparation. Thank you all so much.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;">I love you.</div><span style="color: #888888;"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family: "comic sans ms", sans-serif; font-size: small;">Kit</div><div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /></div></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-51316910636036873372023-05-31T19:49:00.000-07:002023-05-31T19:49:29.118-07:00<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 48px;">FROM BAPTIST PREACHER’S KID</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 48px;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">TO UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST MINISTER</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Rev. Kit Ketcham,</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">June 4, 2023, 1</span><span class="s2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15.6px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>st</sup></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Presbyterian church, Astoria</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Nancy Cole invited me to speak with you today about Unitarian Universalism and, rather than dig out my old lecture notes from seminary and the multiple meetings with fellow interns during that four year stretch of my life, it made better sense to start at the beginning of MY understanding of American Baptist doctrine and the covenantal path of Unitarian Universalism.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I was born an American Baptist Preacher’s kid in the hospital in Chehalis; my Dad was the pastor of the Mossyrock Community church. I was their first-born, or at least the first child to survive after two stillbirths. My younger sister and brother were born in Portland hospitals, after our family moved from Mossyrock to Portland, where my Dad served the Calvary Baptist church on 42</span><span class="s2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15.6px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>nd</sup></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> and Holgate.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">We Baptist kids, much like you Presbyterian (or Methodist or Lutheran or other denominations), received our early religious education in Sunday School classes where we learned Bible verses, listened to stories and parables and both Old and New Testament wisdom. As we got older, we shared discussion about some of the principles of our Christian faith and about the early stories of Creation and Jesus’ life.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">For me and my siblings, at least, it was a warm and loving experience. Our parents were well-loved by the congregation and we were doted upon by members of our church and thought of it as a loving place. We had no reason to argue with anything scriptural, even though we might question a miracle or two. If we did, we did so silently.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">After 8 years in Portland, we moved east to the little town of Athena, in between Pendleton and Walla Walla. I was nine when we moved, horse-crazy, smart-alecky, and a bit of a brainiac. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">We kids had never gone to public schools before Athena; our parents had been instrumental in starting up the Portland Christian Schools system, which, in addition to the normal academic lessons, was heavy on the Bible education as well.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">After graduation from Athena grade school and McEwen high school, I went on to Linfield College, an American Baptist-supported 4 year college, a scholarship student by virtue of my Dad’s profession.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">At Linfield, we were required to take certain religion classes, taught by professors whose knowledge and understanding were greater than that of the volunteers who taught Sunday School at the Athena Baptist Church. I had come to wonder if the stories I had learned over time about such miracles as a virgin birth, water into wine, and resurrections had more to them than what I had learned from my SS teachers, whose knowledge had not come from advanced university studies.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">But I was a good kid, didn’t want to upset my parents, whose theology was conservative and unquestioning. Their own religious education had been in small town Sunday Schools and, after my Dad felt called to the ministry, at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, not exactly your hotbed of liberality.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">After college graduation, my first job was in the welfare office of WA state public assistance in Goldendale, where I served the families and old age recipients of WA’s public assistance program, as a caseworker in Klickitat and Skamania counties. I enjoyed this job but I was appalled by the poverty and frustration I saw in the families I served.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">My family had never been rich, far from it, on a preacher’s salary, but a paltry couple of hundred dollars to make it through a month with kids and no work in the timber industries because of logging accidents and the feast or famine income of a seasonal job.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">After a year or so of living near my parents and driving into the tiny settlements in the Klickitat valley, I was wondering if this was all my life was going to be, shuttling from one sick family to another, dealing with grouchy WWII vets who were disabled and dependent on the monthly assistance check. It was sad, solitary work, and I was not flourishing.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">One day, combing through the daily mail, I chanced upon a flier addressed to my Dad, advertising a seminar in Yakima at the First Baptist Church, six weekly sessions taught by a professor from Seattle on “The Life of Jesus”. That was a course I had dearly loved at Linfield. I was determined to go, even though it was winter, the Simcoe mountains and Satus Pass were treacherous in snowy weather, but my little Ford Falcon and I were raring to go. To my parents’ credit, they did not try to dissuade me; they could tell I was languishing and I needed to do something different.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">That course was life-changing, not so much because of the topic, but because of the discussion about things I’d always wondered about---Jesus’ courage, his knowledge of Jewish tradition and how his teachings challenged the tradition in many ways, the path he laid down for his followers was stunning---and I wanted to take it.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">The clincher for me was at the final session, when a bigwig from the ABC brought with him to that session a young man who spoke to us about outreach programs in the American Baptist Home Mission Society: Baptist Community Centers in cities all over America. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">That young man, Rev. Henry Hardy, talked with me after the session about the places where there were vacancies and needed program workers to carry out the humanitarian and spiritual work of the center. I was hooked, not only on becoming a Home Missionary but also on the very appealing Rev. Hardy, who now has been a friend to me all my adult life and whom I credit with giving me the information I needed to change the trajectory of my life.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">So I was commissioned as an American Baptist Home Missionary and arrived in Denver at the Christian Center there, in the inner city. I loved this work, spending time with kids and parents of many races---Black, Asian, Latino---in preschool classes at the center, after-school activities for middle-schoolers, teen canteens on weekends for older kids, an employment counselor on the premises, a clothing closet for needy families. And a church service every Sunday morning for which I played the piano.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My boss, the Rev. George Turner, was a Black man who had recently returned from the Civil Rights activities in Selma, Alabama. This was 1966. My Dad invited me to speak on one occasion when I had returned to Goldendale for a family Thanksgiving. I spoke enthusiastically about the programming at the Denver Christian Center, and as inexperienced speakers will do, I ran out of things to say after 10 minutes or so.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">So I opened it up to questions from the floor; most of those questions were about financial matters, the kinds of problems I would run into in those conditions, what did the Center need from the little Goldendale Baptist Church, that sort of thing. </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">At the very end, one fellow in the back raised his hand, and asked me “How many souls have you saved for Christ?” I stuttered and stammered with my answer, trying to relay the idea that our mission at the Center was humanitarian efforts to better people’s lives, not focused on heavenly salvation but on earthly survival.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">As I left the sanctuary that day, wondering about his question and my answer, it occurred to me: “I am not that kind of Christian; I’m not sure I ever was or ever will be.” And I think about that moment yet today. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">After the Denver Christian Center became a United Way agency, I went back to school for teaching credentials and began a career as a junior high school Spanish teacher and, later, a guidance counselor, which, though secular, gave me the sense of moving in the right direction in a humanitarian field.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Marriage to a Unitarian Universalist man, whom I met at a Denver Young Democrats meeting, showed me a religious path I had been largely unaware of. We attended church and protest rallies and I was intrigued by the juxtaposition of my Christian upbringing and the social justice work offered by the principles of Unitarian Universalism.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I learned that UUism had begun to develop in the third century, after the Council of Nicaea, when one of the bishops in that conclave resisted the development of the Trinity as a way of understanding the Divine.</span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #2a2a2b; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">The priest Arius, in the 3</span><span class="s4" style="background-color: white; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15.6px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>rd </sup></span><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">century, believed that Jesus was divine but not on the same level as God. He believed that Jesus' wisdom and teachings were more important than his death and resurrection. Arius believed that human beings could draw closer to God by following those teachings. As the Christian Church solidified and unified in the fourth century and adopted a Trinitarian theology, Arianism became the archetypal heresy for the orthodox.</span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #2a2a2b; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">And that’s where our first name comes from: Unitarian---the belief that Jesus was a separate entity from God, that Jesus’ teachings were the way to live a Godly life, and many early Christians followed Arius as their theological leader.</span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #2a2a2b; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">But the Trinity was a solidifying theology for those bishops intent on creating an institution which would bring early Christians together under a common theology. Unfortunately, this resulted in non-trinitarians being rejected as heretics and many were burned at the stake for their disbelief. John Calvin was a theologian who condemned and witnessed many burnings of heretical non-trinitarians.</span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #2a2a2b; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Universalist, our second name, comes from the also heretical belief that a loving God would not consign his wayward children to Hell. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #3c4044; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Christian universalism is a school of Christian theology focused around the doctrine of universal reconciliation – the view that all human beings will ultimately be saved and restored to a right relationship with God. Many of these believers were also considered heretics and punished, often gruesomely.</span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #3c4044; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Unitarian Universalism has Christian roots, but as you can tell, we have somewhat rebellious ideas about orthodox Christianity.</span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #3c4044; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">These days, UU congregations, like the Pacific UU Fellowship, are more than Christian. We have Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, atheists, agnostics, Christians, Pagans, and none of the above, within our worshipping communities.</span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #3c4044; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Obviously, it would be hard for us to specify that only One way of believing is the true faith, so over the years, we have moved beyond even non-traditional Christianity. Instead of a doctrine, we have principles of Right Actions that we covenant to affirm and promote.</span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #3c4044; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Let me read you two documents that are foundational for Unitarian Universalists. The first is a list of our Seven Principles beginning with a statement of intent:</span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #3c4044; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">We, the Member Congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote the following values and ideals:</span></p><p class="p6" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 26.6px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> <a href="https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles/1st"><span class="s5" style="color: #1f1f20; font-kerning: none;">1st Principle</span></a>: The inherent worth and dignity of every person;</span></p><p class="p6" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 26.6px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> <a href="https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles/2nd"><span class="s5" style="color: #1f1f20; font-kerning: none;">2nd Principle</span></a>: Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;</span></p><p class="p6" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 26.6px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> <a href="https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles/3rd"><span class="s5" style="color: #1f1f20; font-kerning: none;">3rd Principle</span></a>: Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;</span></p><p class="p6" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 26.6px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> <a href="https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles/4th"><span class="s5" style="color: #1f1f20; font-kerning: none;">4th Principle</span></a>: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;</span></p><p class="p7" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 26.6px 24px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles/5th">5th Principle</a>: The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;</span></p><p class="p7" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 26.6px 24px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles/6th">6th Principle</a>: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;</span></p><p class="p8" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 24px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles/7th">7th Principle</a>: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.</span></p><p class="p9" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p10" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote these seven <a href="https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles">Principles</a>, which we hold as strong values and moral guides. We live out these <a href="https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles">Principles</a> within a “living tradition” of wisdom and spirituality, drawn from sources as diverse as science, poetry, scripture, and personal experience.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p10" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p10" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">These are the six sources our congregations affirm and promote:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p10" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p11" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 26.6px 48px; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;</span></p><p class="p11" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 26.6px 48px; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Words and deeds of prophetic people which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;</span></p><p class="p11" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 26.6px 48px; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;</span></p><p class="p11" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 26.6px 48px; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;</span></p><p class="p11" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 26.6px 48px; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;</span></p><p class="p12" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I’ve mentioned that Unitarian Universalism is a “Living Tradition”, which means that we are continually aware of the need to examine our faith, to note where our priorities are or are not in synchronicity with our principles and reflect the wisdom of our sources.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">To that end, we review our principles regularly to see if we need to add something, some action, some new understanding, to our statement of faith. In addition, we review our sources to make sure we include the many streams of meaningful words and actions which guide our lives.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">In recent years, we have been working on the issue of racism within our denomination and how it has affected our behavior toward the many People of Color inside and outside of our congregations; it has caused us to restate our values and assign actions to each, to help us develop our awareness of white supremacy and the damage done by our ignorant mistakes.</span></p><p class="p14" style="color: #060606; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">We respond to the call of love because it is our common theological core.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p15" style="color: #060606; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">It is what can and does motivate us and it illuminates our deepest commitments to each other.</span></p><p class="p16" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">We have many luminaries in our religious tradition, as do you Presbyterians<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">and other denominations. Here are a few names you may recognize and see the great variety of religious thinkers and social justice activists in our ranks:</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">John Quincy Adams, US president</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Louisa May Alcott, children’s writer</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Bela Bartok, composer</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Beatrix Potter, children’s writer</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Ee cummings, poet</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Charles Dickens, author</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Dorothea Dix, social reformer</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and thinker</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Edvard Grieg, composer</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Sylvia Plath, poet</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Mary Wollstonecraft, feminist</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Christopher Reeve, actor (Superman!)</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the world wide web</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">and Pete Seeger, musician and folk hero</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religious tradition that was formed from the consolidation of two religious bodies: Unitarianism and Universalism. In America, the Univeralist Church of America was founded in 1793 and the American Unitarian Association in 1825.</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> After consolidating in1961, these faiths became the new religion of Unitarian Universalism. Since the merger of the two denominations in 1961, UUism has nurtured its Unitarian and Universalist heritages to provide a strong voice for social justice and liberal religion.</span></p><p class="p17" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Our scripture readings for today are representative, for me, of the Jesus Path I chose to walk long ago. Jesus states the Greatest Commandment in his answer to a questioner who asked “Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.</span><span class="s2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 15.6px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><sup> </sup></b></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” It is the bedrock of my spiritual life. </span><span class="s7" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></p><p class="p18" style="background-color: white; color: #18191b; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s8" style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">Micah’s statement in verse 8 of chapter 6</span><span class="s9" style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> is “</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but </span><span class="s10" style="color: #050a1e; font-kerning: none;">to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?</span><span class="s9" style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></p><p class="p19" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Over the years, as the King James Version has been retranslated time and again, written in more inclusive language and reflecting more of the diversity of Christian belief, I have modified my own religious language.</span></p><p class="p19" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I do not think of God, anymore, as a Being; I think of God as a power, the power of the universe, the power of Love, the power of natural laws which control and guide our lives. If I strive to work WITH the powers of the universe, of Love, natural law, I will be doing the will of the Power beyond Human Power, which many call God. </span></p><p class="p19" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I cherish many of the remnants of my earlier faith---the old hymns, the scriptures which are still meaningful, the rituals of prayer, of communion, of faithfulness to a creed or covenant that helps me shape my behavior. But I have let go of the difficult admonition “saving souls for Christ”. I give love instead, to all who come into my life, the best I can.</span></p><p class="p19" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Let’s pause for a time of silent reflection and prayer.</span></p><p class="p17" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">BENEDICTION: <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p17" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, thinking about what shapes our lives, what guides us in the hard steps of human living? May we have the strength and will to follow our spiritual guides into a new place of spiritual and personal growth. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-68339225076196501472023-04-03T07:07:00.000-07:002023-04-03T07:07:12.107-07:00We Laugh, We Cry: the role of the Holy Fool in Unitarian Universalism<p> <span> Had a hard time entering the text of the sermon, so am posting this link to the recording of the service:</span></p><p><span>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-tFUveBfFs&ab_channel=PacificUUFellowship</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-20320370073299744492023-03-12T16:17:00.000-07:002023-03-12T16:17:14.740-07:00Covenant, not Creed<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;">COVENANT, NOT CREED</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">March 12, 2023</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">PUUF, Rev. Kit Ketcham</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">How many of you grew up in a religious environment where you recited a set of statements that you were expected to believe, things about God and Jesus, salvation, and other weighty expectations, particularly if you were a little kid at the time, growing up in a Christian household.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Do you remember the names of any of the various creeds that you learned or recited in a church service? Creeds are statements of theological belief and they can be pretty demanding.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Take the Apostles Creed, for example, which is often included in traditional church services:</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #464646; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.</b></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #464646; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,<br /> who was conceived by the Holy Spirit<br /> and born of the virgin Mary.<br /> He suffered under Pontius Pilate,<br /> was crucified, died, and was buried;<br /> he descended to hell.<br /> The third day he rose again from the dead.<br /> He ascended to heaven<br /> and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.<br /> From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.</b></span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p5" style="color: #464646; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I believe in the Holy Spirit,</b></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b><br /></b></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><b> the holy catholic* church, </b></span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #464646; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><b> the communion of saints,</b></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b><br /></b></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><b> the forgiveness of sins,</b></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b><br /></b></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><b> the resurrection of the body,</b></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b><br /></b></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><b> and the life everlasting. Amen.</b></span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">This fairly typical Protestant creed sets out the beliefs that traditional Christians espouse and commit themselves to. More progressive Christian churches do not recite the Apostles creed in services, but it still stands as representative of many Christians’ core beliefs, whether they are taken literally or not.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">As a Baptist preacher’s kid, I didn’t quote any such creed in church. However, it was made abundantly clear that God ruled, Jesus was God’s son and therefore the true Son of God and also God. The Holy Ghost was mainly a mystery to us kids.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Creeds lay out the most important beliefs of a religious faith and they differ somewhat, depending on the faith’s sense of importance for each statement. To state in public a Creed that says the things that the Apostles Creed stands for is quite a commitment to an ancient theology that has given way to science and its denial of the possibility of a physical resurrection, virgin births, and other of the tenets of faith that conservative Christians cling to.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Our Baptist set of beliefs was not set in stone, like the Apostle’s Creed seems to be. But it was pretty clear that there were certain beliefs we HAD to subscribe to or go to hell. And that was pretty scary!</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Unitarian Universalists don’t have creeds. Oh, we tend to hold similar values, like democracy, equality, justice, and we state these and other values in our documents of faith. Interestingly, there’s nothing in our values and sources that state that if you want to be a UU, you have to toe the line with everyone else.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">It's been said that UU’s can believe anything they want, and I suppose that’s true on a very limited level, but it doesn’t matter. What does matter to us UUs is how we behave toward each other and our fellow beings in the world. In other words, how do we live out our values and honor our sources?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">A creed is a hard thing to hold everybody to; everyone who has had a different experience than the typical creed professes, or has different needs from their religious experience, or just plain doesn’t believe in non-provable statements about such things as resurrection and other miracles---they aren’t going to be very happy with a creed that everyone is expected to agree to, at least in public.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">My cat and I have been arguing lately, late at night and early in the morning, about our household creed. My statement of faith about nighttime behavior is that I will sleep 6 hours or so uninterrupted by the cat’s needs for food or companionship or whatever it is that a cat needs at 1 a.m. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Her statement of faith about nighttime behavior is that she is a creature who sleeps a lot in the daytime and needs to do a little par-kour exercise at night so that she can have her regular time at the litterbox, which she needs to have cleaned out asap. And if the par-kour court is off limits, she will let off that unreleased energy in a series of loud vocalizations.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">You can easily see that our creeds don’t match up. We have different needs, different preferences, different styles of living. We’d have to find different roommates. We don’t need a household creed; we need a covenant so that we can live as compatibly as possible together, because we love each other and we meet each other’s needs in many ways.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">When I first came into the ministry, in 1999, serving a small spin-off congregation in Portland, we were pretty much creed-based: that is, many congregations had a certain bent toward humanism only as a creed. If you weren’t a humanist, you couldn’t be a UU. That was unstated, of course, but there was a definite preference for humanism as the one true faith.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">This little congregation seemed welcoming to me, and my honeymoon year with them was full of appreciation and enthusiasm. By year two, there were clearly cracks in the veneer though I didn’t know exactly what to do about them. </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Early in year three, I was invited to have coffee with the board president, where he presented me with a letter signed by eleven congregants listing all the things I had done wrong (so far), generally centering on my too-Christian, non-intellectual sermons, my failure to provide adequate pastoral care to a non-member whose daughter was one of the signatories, plus assorted other complaints. I was a big mistake, in their opinion, and they wanted me gone. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I learned that this group of eleven had formed a special email list just between them, in which they exchanged their opinions, egged each other on, criticized my presence at board meetings and committee meetings, and were making plans to complain to the UUA about my shortcomings.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I was taken aback. Some of the eleven signers were women and men whom I particularly liked and had considered allies. Yet they were talking behind my back, rather than coming to me directly to work things out.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">It almost felt like a junior high school gang of kids bullying a kid they didn’t like. Fortunately, I had taught junior high kids and had counseled them through their own disputes for 25 years. I had herded cats before and I knew a thing or two. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I called upon the services of our district executive, a woman I found supportive and knowledgeable, read her the letter, and asked for her thoughts. She listened, told me of the background of this contentious little group-- which was rather murky--, assured me that she thought I was doing fine, and told me that help was available through the district. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">She organized a congregational meeting to hear the complaints from all sides, in a group. Both detractors and supporters AND I had a chance to participate in this round table discussion. It was orderly, honest, revealing of old wounds on both sides, and we came through it.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I had a choice, at that point. I could resign and look elsewhere for a job, or I could face what had happened and work through it. I have been a 12-step aficionada for many years, dealing with alcoholism in my husband, and I knew that some of the things this group was saying I had done were true.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">At the time we had no way established of solving conflicts other than to gripe to each other, gossip in the parking lot, criticize others’ behavior while feeling self-righteous, and letting things simmer rather than facing them head on, or even acknowledging the pain we were causing ourselves and each other.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">So on Thanksgiving Sunday that year, I made amends, as completely as I could, acknowledging the rookie mistakes I’d made, and asking for their help in bringing us all back together. That was not an easy year, but during that year, several of the signers of the critical letter had come to me asking my forgiveness for their treatment of me. And I apologized directly for ways I learned I had hurt people myself.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">As it turned out, I left at the end of my fourth year with them, but we were on better terms, several of the dissidents had quit, and the atmosphere was less strained.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> But there was still anger, particularly among the folks who were my supporters. They were angry that I had been hurt, angry that I had (in their opinions) been chased out by the dissidents, angry with themselves for not speaking up sooner.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">This little congregation was still in pain and, to judge from reports by those in the know, they are still hurting and have had up and down luck with subsequent ministers.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">If I had known then what I know now, what would I do? First of all, even though I was eager to be in Portland, I would have asked the search committee and individual members “how do you resolve disagreements?”</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">“What do you need most from me?” “Is it okay here for me to be a UU Christian?” and that sort of thing. I would have asked for us to create a covenant, rather than accept people, particularly a new minister, on the basis of how humanistic they were.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I would have asked that the covenant provide pathways for dealing with dissent, with the new minister and with their fellow members, so that all felt welcome in the congregation. And I would have asked that the covenant provide promises of good will and commitment to those promises.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> A new minister comes in not knowing much about the congregation. And the congregation knows little about the minister. Maybe the minister comes on too strong, doesn’t seem to listen well, and makes wrong assumptions about the congregation.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> A congregation is often set in its own ways, which are unfamiliar to the minister and may seem inappropriate or non-productive to the minister.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> To quote my colleague Rev. Paul Langston-Daley: “ In small congregations I’ve served, I have said something like this: We are not centered on a creed. We are centered on covenant and always have been, as a denomination, and we are in covenant with other UU congregations.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> “Covenant gives us guardrails, to help us manage conflict and disruptive behavior and sets explicit expectations about how we will be together.”</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> In our Sunday service, we offer a Gathering Affirmation. We say together “Love is the spirit of this Fellowship and service is its prayer. This is our Great Covenant, to dwell together in peace, to seek truth in love, and to help one another.”</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> The thing about our Great Covenant, is that it is an action promise, not just pretty words. If Love is the spirit of this Fellowship, how do we show it, not only to our members but also to others. If Service is our prayer, how are we serving? We promise to dwell together in peace; how do we manage disagreements? We promise to seek truth in love; how do we welcome the many diverse threads of truth under our roof? And we promise to help one another; how are we doing that?</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I’d like to ask you to give me a parting gift, the assurance that you will do all you can to be in covenant with Rev. Mira. I would like to ask you to develop, with Rev. Mira, a covenant of right relations. It would be a wonderful thing for me to know that this Fellowship, which I love so much and have worked so hard for, had taken steps to create a process that promises that disputes and tough decisions will be worked through in a loving and kindly way, that so that Mira and following ministers will not have to endure without recourse the kind of treatment I had when I was in my first ministry.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> As Rev. Paul said: “Covenant gives us guardrails, to help us manage conflict and disruptive behavior and sets explicit expectations about how we will be together.”</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I plan to talk with Rev. Mira and encourage her to work with you on a covenant between you and her and between you and your fellowship members. I can guarantee you it will be worth it. New people coming in will know right off the bat how this congregation fulfills its Great Covenant.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Just as a sample, I’d like to share with you the Covenant of Right Relations that the Whidbey Island folks and I created when I was there years ago.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> It’s pretty simple and it has worked over and over again to deal with disputes. It came out of a painful situation in the congregation’s past when a former member polarized the group with accusations and misbehavior. Here it is:</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p7" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Love is the spirit of this congregation and service is its practice. This is our great covenant: to dwell together in peace, to seek truth in love, and to help one another.</i></span></p><p class="p8" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We warmly welcome all.</i></span></p><p class="p8" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We speak with honesty, respect, and kindness.</i></span></p><p class="p8" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We listen compassionately.</i></span></p><p class="p8" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We express gratitude for the service of others.</i></span></p><p class="p8" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We honor and support one another in our life journeys, in times of joy, need and struggle.</i></span></p><p class="p8" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We embrace our diversity and the opportunity to share our different perspectives.</i></span></p><p class="p8" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We address our disagreements directly and openly and see conflict through to an authentic resolution.</i></span></p><p class="p8" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We serve our spiritual community with generosity and joy, honoring our commitments.</i></span></p><p class="p8" style="color: #1f1f20; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">•</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We strive to keep these promises, but when we fall short, we forgive ourselves and others, and begin again in love.</i></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I hope you’ll consider it. I would be very proud to know that you have created such a meaningful document to use in times of dissent or disagreement after I’ve moved away.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">You’re probably wanting to know how my cat and I are doing in creating our own covenant of right relations. We’ve been working on it for about a week now, trying to figure out a nighttime process that respects both of our personal needs, my need for sleep and her need to feel loved. And I think we’re making progress. I found myself getting so mad when she’d yowl that I couldn’t sleep. And she felt scared when I got mad. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Cats live by different rules than humans and sometimes the human needs to give more than the cat----because we understand how it feels to be scared of someone else’s behavior. The cat, on the other hand, responds to the kindness the human shows. And both of us are happy.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Let’s pause for a time of silence reflection and prayer.</span></p><p class="p11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">BENEDICTION</span></p><p class="p11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">As Laura extinguishes the chalice flame, here is our benediction:</span></p><p class="p11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together, is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, remembering that how we are together as a group matters, that when we have disagreements or angry moments, we can solve these problems in a positive way, respecting one another’s differences and loving each other beyond those differences. May we find peace together, find truth in love, and find help for our pain. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.</span></p><p class="p11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">CLOSING CIRCLE</span></p><p class="p11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-37808016162640176182023-02-24T14:42:00.001-08:002023-02-24T14:47:52.783-08:00When I was a little girl...<p> </p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 21.3px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Children's Story: “When I was a little girl”…..Feb. 28, 2010</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">When I was a little girl, I was kind of adventurous. I liked to be a little bit different from everyone else and try things that others didn’t want to try, like standing on my hands and using my cape to try to fly. I wasn’t too afraid of getting in trouble because my parents didn’t usually spank me and all I had to do was very sincerely say sorry and promise never to do it again.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">The worst punishment was to have to go to my room and be on my bed and NOT READ! That was the worst of all.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">One day my little sister Jeannie and I and a little boy named Drew who my mother babysat, were out in our backyard in Portland playing. I had my big rubber boots on, because it was wet and muddy.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">We had two big strong old clothesline poles made out of iron and shaped like a T with heavy wires strung between them for the wet clothes to be hung on to dry, because we didn’t have a clothes dryer.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I had just learned how to hang by my knees on the monkeybars at school. Do you know how to do that yet?</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">And it looked to me as though our T-shaped clothesline pole would be a good place to practice this important skill. So I pulled an old bucket over to the clothesline pole and hoisted myself up onto the T crossbar.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">The clotheslines that ran between the two T-shaped supports were heavy wires, which had been anchored to the support crossbar by twisting them around the bar. The wires stuck up (like this) with a sharp end pointing up.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I thought I was so cool! Here I was hanging by my knees and upside down, making faces at Jeannie and Drew, who were looking at me with their mouths open, obviously very jealous of my superior abilities!</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: Arial; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Until I was tired of hanging upside down and wanted to get down---then I discovered that the sharp end of one wire had poked through my rubber boot and I was stuck, upside down. I couldn’t get down from the pole because my boot was caught by the wire and I couldn’t reach it to untangle it.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I wiggled and I stretched and just couldn’t manage to untangle my boot, and finally I started to cry. It was so embarrassing to be stuck upside down in front of Jeannie and Drew. I felt so helpless and kind of scared.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Now, I have to admit that I often teased Jeannie and Drew a lot; they were younger than I was and I kind of bossed them around, maybe too much. Because when I pleaded with Jeannie to go get Mom, she took her sweet time.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Our family story has it that Jeannie played a little more in the yard before she went in and announced to our mother that I was hanging from the clothesline.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Naturally, my mother came rushing out into the backyard and untangled me and lifted me down. And she sat all three of us down and explained that when someone was in trouble, it’s really important to get help right away, not goof around while that person is feeling scared and crying.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">And, she told me in no uncertain terms that my teasing might have caused Jeannie to feel kind of glad that I was stuck and embarrassed and scared, because I might have made her feel that way with my teasing. I learned something important that day.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: Arial; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I’m glad to tell you that my sister grew up to be a woman who really loves and cares about people when they are hurting and in trouble, especially kids. And I don’t tease her any more and she always comes to help me when I need her. </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I hope you’ll remember this the next time you feel mad when someone teases you or when you tease someone and they get mad. Because it’s important to know.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I'm going to be talking to the adults in a little while about how we treat people when they are in trouble and things aren't fair. We're talking about Love in this story and I'll be talking about Love in the sermon. I bet you'll be talking about Love in your classrooms, too. Let's sing you off to your classes now.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration-line: underline;"> </span></p></div><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-28327850790467025472023-02-12T19:44:00.002-08:002023-02-12T19:45:13.123-08:00SIDING WITH LOVE<p> </p><p class="p1" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">SIDING WITH LOVE</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="p1" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Rev. Kit Ketcham, Feb. 12, 2023</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> The story of Unitarian Universalist advocacy for civil rights for sexual minorities and Marriage Equality for all couples started many years ago, in the 70’s, as we began to question many of traditional religions’ homophobia and outright discrimination toward sexual minorities---and our own shortcomings in that area. </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> One Source of UUism is the one that states that we draw from Jewish and Christian teachings, which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves. </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> However, as we considered this deeply, it became abundantly clear that we as a religion were NOT loving our neighbors as ourselves. At least not those neighbors whom we perceived as different, as having sexual attractions that were not “normal”, that were hidden and somehow worthy of ridicule or even persecution. We had no right to cast stones at other traditions.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We had ordained ministers serving congregations who lost their jobs because of their sexual orientation. Not because we had church policies against homosexuality, but because we were afraid. We had fears about being perceived ourselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, if we defended or befriended certain people. </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">We were afraid we’d become known as “the gay church or the transgender church”. Even though we knew intellectually that there was nothing intrinsically wrong with being gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgender, there was still a lot of fear and confusion about homosexuality and gender. </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We felt uncomfortable knowing that there were human beings whose sexual attraction or gender identity was different from our own. Sometimes we questioned whether we ourselves might be gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgender. We weren’t completely comfortable with our own sexuality. Somebody else’s sexuality---well, that was more comfortable to obsess about.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We often didn’t think twice about using derogatory terms to describe people whose sexuality made us squirm. We joked and laughed, even when we had friends who were openly gay and lesbian. </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">We were baffled by males who felt female and wanted to change their gender and females who felt male and went to the extent of having surgery to transform their bodies. It was scary! What did it all mean?</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> It rapidly became clear that we had a job to do—on ourselves. We had ministers and members desperately unhappy because they could not be themselves, who even committed suicide rather than deal with the prejudice they were facing, even from their own congregations.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Some Jewish and Christian groups were refusing to allow them to join congregations, to serve as leaders, and to ordain them, they said, was totally against God’s law. Marriage, of course, was impossible! </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">What did it really mean to love our neighbor as ourselves? </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I remember my first introduction to the idea that I actually knew people who were gay and lesbian. I was about 35, living in Denver with my husband and small son, when one of my best friends from Linfield wrote me a letter.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> “Kit,” she wrote. “I don’t know how you’ll feel about this, but I am tired of hiding who I am. I recently attempted suicide by driving into a steel beam on the Hawthorne Bridge but paramedics patched me up and I’ve decided to be honest about myself. I’m lesbian, I love women, not men, and I’m telling the people that I can trust. I hope we can still be friends…. And by the way, I’m going to be in Colorado in a few weeks. Can I visit you?”</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Well, I was definitely in the “fear” stage at that time. I was scared to see her but couldn’t bring myself to jettison somebody I cared for because of my fear. So, Fern came to visit and it was fine. She was the same person I knew in college, still funny, still an artist, still my friend. And the honest way she answered my questions opened a door in my heart.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> In the years after that experience, I was a teacher and school counselor, where I met teenage students who were desperately unhappy because of their attraction to the “wrong” people, whose churches preached openly against same sex attraction. Some of these kids attempted suicide. Some just endured the bullying and the public ridicule. Some I didn’t find out about until years later, when they wrote me notes and told me their news.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> This became my personal civil rights cause. In 1994, I asked our minister at Jefferson Unitarian Church, the Rev. Robert Latham, to help me put on a service about gay/lesbian rights. As far as I know, it was the first time ever that homosexuality and the pain of injustice had been linked at JUC. </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">A group from the local Rainbow Harmony chorale, a mixed group of Denver men and women, performed selections from “Boys and Girls with Stories”, composed by David Maddux . And, my knees knocking, I offered a reflection on my own experience entitled “My Friend Fern”.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">The sanctuary was packed that morning. I saw people there who I didn’t know were gay or lesbian, friends who had never dared say who they really were. A teacher from a school I’d served—and his partner; the parent of three of my students; a colleague who was a counselor at a local high school. The extent of my ignorance felt overwhelming.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">As a minister, in the next few years, I had chances to extend my knowledge and my experience and my group of friends. My friend Fern had given me a great gift that continues to affect my life today and, I hope, all my days.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">When I moved to Portland in 1999, to serve Wy’east UU Congregation, Oregon was debating Lou Mabon’s hateful ballot issue, a measure to forbid any mention of homosexuality in the schools and to discipline teachers who dared to discuss the topic with students.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">We UUs and other progressives fought back and defeated that referendum and turned our sights on civil rights legislation to protect sexual minorities from job and housing and insurance and inheritance discrimination.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">In 2003, I moved to the Puget Sound area to serve the Vashon and Whidbey Island congregations and immediately became involved in an interfaith clergy group we named the Religious Coalition for Equality. </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">As a clergy group of Jews, mainline progressive Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, pagans, and UUs, we accompanied four couples who went in a group one day to the King County Clerk’s office to apply for marriage licenses, kicking off a years’ long campaign to secure increased civil rights for all couples, starting with anti-discrimination laws and domestic partnerships for same sex and older unmarried couples, culminating in legislative action approving Marriage Equality.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Marriage Equality legislation was approved in Washington in 2011, when the legislature passed a bill granting the right of civil marriage to same sex couples, after a tense session on Whidbey Island in which our Island County senator, Mary Margaret Haugen, was persuaded by an impassioned group of Whidbey Island citizens to be the 25</span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 17.8px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> “yes” vote on the legislation in the divided Senate, forging the final link in the chain of progress.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">The legislation was, of course, challenged and then survived a vote statewide , becoming the law of the land in 2012. I had moved here by that time and could neither vote on the issue nor take part in the celebrations, except at a distance, but, as is always true, it doesn’t matter who gets the credit as long as the work gets done.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">As the opposition dominoes have begun to fall, one after another, as state and federal judges nation-wide have recognized the terrible injustice of denying equality to loving couples on the basis of sexual attraction, marriage equality has now become a reality in all of our United States. </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Even Alabama, once the stronghold of George Wallace and the attempted fortress of dissent of Justice Roy Moore, is now granting marriage licenses to same sex couples in Alabama.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span><span style="font-size: 21.3px;"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">None of the horrific consequences predicted by opponents has come true. Instead, women who have been loyal partners to each other for 50 and more years are now married. Men who grew old together, caring for one another through sorrow and illness, no longer hide their relationship but sport their wedding rings.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I’ve had the joyful opportunity to marry women and men whose relationships have survived the insults, the discrimination, and the fear of discovery. Being part of this remarkable sea change in our nation has been one of the greatest satisfactions of my life.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Love and Marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage, as the old song goes, but we UUs gradually recognized that this wave of social change meant that our slogan “standing on the side of love” didn’t just mean romantic and marital love. </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">And we began to realize that loving our neighbor means more than just our gay neighbor.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">What about homelessness? What about immigration and the treatment of families split up by troubling deportation policies? What about racial profiling and the treatment of young black men who are presumed to be thugs? What about economic injustice, the fearful prospect of oligarchy, the rule by the wealthy, as corporations wield more influence than individual voters? Where does love stand then?</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> One of the columnists that I read most mornings, Robert Hubbell, wrote recently of an experience he had had, attending the funeral of a Jewish friend. The rabbi spoke of the plight of the Israelites when they were enslaved by the Egyptian Pharoah, back in the days of Moses.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">He wrote this about what he heard as the rabbi spoke about the plagues brought down upon the Egyptians in response to Moses’ pleas to his God to save the Israelites:</span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 26.6px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-kerning: none;"><i>“</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>The moment the Rabbi described the ninth plague as the inability of enslavers to see the humanity of their countrymen, my mind turned immediately to the beating of Tyre Nichols—and by extension, the dehumanization of Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Asians, and LGBTQ people that animates discrimination against each of those groups. That dehumanization is part of the playbook of the (right wing’s) politics of division and hate. By denying the humanity of others, it is easier to deprive them of full participation in the life, liberty, and security our Constitution guarantees to all.”</i> And he went on in this way:</span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>“The police who beat Tyre Nichols into a senseless stupor did so because they did not see him as a fellow human. He was a “perpetrator,” “suspect,” or “presumptive felon” who (in their minds) did not deserve to be treated with the dignity and humanity that is the right of every person in America. The failure to treat Tyre with basic human decency infected the first responders who were called to render medical aid to a victim of a police beating.”</i> </span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Here’s what I think:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Several of the arresting officers and other responders were also black. What if that taint of dehumanization had affected those black humans who may have succumbed to the poison of dehumanization and had begun to see themselves as non-human, therefore permitted to act toward Tyre in non-human ways, injuring him to the point of death as a trained animal might kill the hunted prey to please their masters. A predator animal feasting on the weaker prey.</span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I believe that systemic racism and white superiority has flourished by inviting traditionally oppressed people such as these SCORPION officers and other first responders to enrich themselves with authority by adopting the attitude of non-humanity toward others of their caste or race or class. It’s the classic bully role which has evolved from childhood intimidation of those weaker to adult threats and violence, often enforced by gunfire and beatings.</span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">We ourselves may have been bullied. We may even have experienced the thrill of being a bully-er. It is the classic struggle to see ourselves and others as equals, not as weak or easily overpowered or superior. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Unitarian Universalism has, as a faith tradition, grown strongly in the years since we decided to stand on the side of love. I think of the closing words of the song we sang together a little while ago:</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> “We are standing on the side of love, hands joined together, as hearts beat as one. Emboldened by faith, we dare to proclaim we are standing on the side of love.”</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">We have set forth on this course, to defend and protect those who need love, those persons who are hungry, exhausted, lonely, homeless, and sorrowful. They need our love. And we, as fellow human beings, have the ability to provide that love. </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">And, because we also love this planet, our home, we stand on the side of love for our natural world, ready to defend and protect it, ready to stand against harmful practices toward the land, water, and air which provide us with life, the animals and vegetation which depend on us for their care, as we fulfill our place in the interdependent web of life, of which we humans are only one part.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Let’s pause for a time of silent reflection and prayer.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">BENEDICTION: </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together, is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, thinking deeply about what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves, as we have learned from our Jewish and Christian spiritual ancestors. May we find in ourselves the resources to act in love toward one another, toward the universe, and toward ourselves. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p6" style="color: #747474; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p7" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p></div><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-6221271554430410042023-01-08T15:48:00.002-08:002023-01-08T15:48:34.572-08:00<p> <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: underline;">CHALLENGES: our Comfort, our Concerns, and our Creativity</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;">Jan. 8, 2023</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;">Rev. Kit Ketcham</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;">As I’ve enjoyed our Coffee Klatches in December and have thought about the topics discussed, it’s become clear to me that each region of our parish has common thoughts about certain subjects, many of them similar.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> It’s exciting to see the positive effect of the new energy and ideas that have come with folks who have arrived in our parish in the past couple of years. Not only did we survive the pandemic in pretty good shape, but we gained some really incredible new members and friends. We are not the PUUF of the past; we are becoming the PUUF of today and the future.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> Let me run down the list of topics discussed in December and make some connections between what’s been discussed and what our membership is thinking about.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> Here’s a quickie summary of topics and themes in the coffee klatches. Socializing, of course, has always been the bedrock of coffee klatch groups, but ours at PUUF tend to go a lot deeper than gossip or gripes about political events, although those are also touched upon!</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> In December, we swapped stories about how we found UUism and what it has meant in our lives. For some it was a life stage moment, something that changed a life. It may have changed our trajectory in life. Sometimes it changed our relationships with family members and sometimes it brought peace and purpose after chaos.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> Ageing and health concerns in our own small UU community spark a lot of discussion; care for our elders and care for ourselves, the difficult work of caretaking a struggling relative or friend, the lack of adequate facilities to treat our friends and family members—and ourselves—as we do our best with beloved adults who cannot adequately take care of themselves.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> Scary health episodes and the blessing of music as healer; relearning skills we lost because of ageing or health issues; finding understanding from others when we are having a difficult time; handling our hurt feelings when a quick joke stings and feels personal.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> Memories of the way things used to be---at PUUF, in our families, among our friends, the effect of political divides, both the sweet memories and the painful ones, the losses of friends and loved ones who have died.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> The excitement of seeing new faces participating in our services and other activities, getting to know these interesting people and listening to their ideas, thinking about the ways we might tweak the ways we’ve been doing things, to include new ideas and processes as we grow and thrive as a community.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;">As I put this homily together, I’ve noticed several C words that bear mentioning: the Comfort we love, the Concerns we have for our own area, and the Creativity that is emerging, as we are energized by the presence of so many newer and younger folks in our midst. And as an umbrella over all the C words, yet another: the Challenges that we share as a Unitarian Universalist congregation.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;">So I’ve entitled this homily “Challenges: Our Comfort, Our Concerns, and Our Creativity” because I think that’s where we are in our PUUF journey, taking stock of where we are and where we need and want to go. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;">I see our major Challenges as these: we need to address the uneasiness about change which threatens our Comfort level; we need to examine our Concerns about our communities carefully to see how we as a congregation can help with those concerns, and we want to welcome and include our newer folks by listening to their Creative ideas and implementing the ones which can strengthen PUUF and help us grow.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;">And at the bedrock of our Challenges is the constant awareness that we are a Unitarian Universalist Congregation, with an identity that is spelled out by our Principles.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;">I’d like to introduce something here that I found on the internet, on the UUMA Facebook page. It’s a restating of our familiar Principles, expressing our values and amplifying them. You may not recognize the author’s name: ChatGPT. Yes, it’s written by a ChatBot, a device of Artificial Intelligence. But ChatGPT seems to have a strong sense of what our Principles and our Values stand for. I was pretty amazed when I encountered this version.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i> </i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i> A beacon of light in a sea of uncertainty,</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We embrace the Principles of Unitarian Universalism</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i> </i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We affirm each person's inherent worth and dignity,</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Respecting the diversity of each individual's beliefs</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i> </i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We commit ourselves to justice, equity, and compassion</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Interconnected by a spirit of acceptance and understanding</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i> </i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We seek to further truth, beauty and goodness in our world,</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Living within a circle of trust and mutual respect</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i> </i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We celebrate our spiritual heritage,</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>The legacy of the great Life Giving Spirit of Love<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i> </i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We work together to build a beloved community,</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Seeing in each person a reflection of the holy</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i> </i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>We strive for peace, justice, and liberty for all,</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Embodying the spirit of a Liberal Faith tradition.</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i> </i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>These are the principles of Unitarian Universalism,</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Bringing us all closer together in Light, Love and Liberty</i>.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> Whatever you may think of Artificial Intelligence, of its dangers and its benefits, this seems to me to be a pretty succinct and useful stating of who we are, as a congregation and as a member of the parent group, the UUA.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> As a UU congregation, we have the responsibility to live up to our heritage, to our principles and values. How are we doing that presently and how might we better fulfill that responsibility?</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> Let’s think about the “C” words I mentioned. I’d like to ask some questions and see what you have to say. In order for our Zoom folks to participate, we require that you come to the mic to speak. You are inaudible otherwise and we miss out on your contribution. Laura Janes, are you able to take notes for the record? Thank you so much.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> What is the Comfort we seek at PUUF? What are the Comforts you particularly enjoy and how do they serve our identity as a UU congregation? What are the blessings of Comfort? What are the hazards of Comfort?</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> What are our mutual Concerns for our larger community? How are we addressing them, as a congregation and as individuals? How are we serving our own membership’s personal concerns? Is there more we could do?</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> And how are we welcoming and celebrating the Creativity that our newer folks have brought? What are some of the Creative ideas you’ve witnessed in the past year or two? What are the fears that something new and different might arouse in our minds? <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> Thank you for your thoughts and your participation this afternoon. I think this discussion may be helpful as you look ahead to issues that arise, those that suggest change and those that address growth and faithfulness to our responsibility as a UU congregation.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration-line: underline;">BENEDICTION:</span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> As Veja extinguishes our chalice, let’s pause for our benediction.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;">Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together, is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, remembering that we have commitments, as human beings and as members of a Fellowship which cares for its own and for the larger community. May we live out our values in everyday life, watching for ways to serve. And may we find peace and healing in ourselves and grace in our life together. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration-line: underline;">CLOSING CIRCLE</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-64046829842188622242022-11-27T14:57:00.001-08:002022-11-27T14:57:38.888-08:00<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;">GRATITUDE FOR COMMUNITY</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">PUUF, NOV. 27, 2022</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Last Sunday evening, I sat nervously in my car, parked on Duane next to Astoria’s Garden of Surging Waves, thinking about the Colorado Springs massacre the night before when a crazed shooter had mowed down those dancing and celebrating at Club Q, killing five and wounding many others before a former military man wrestled his gun away and a drag queen stomped him with her high heels.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">My “name-sister” Christina Mae Ketcham, sponsor of the vigil to commemorate Transgender Day of Remembrance and the many lives cruelly taken, had requested police presence for our vigil, but I hadn’t caught sight of anyone in uniform at that moment, so I waited till 7 o’clock and then made my way to the entrance to the Garden.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Lit by candles strewn about the walkways, the Garden took on a reverent atmosphere, and when I saw Christina, Tessa, Marco, spouses of transmen and women, and many friends, plus Officer Chris O’Neary in attendance, I knew I was entering a safe space and a space that had been sanctified by hope and love.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I was grateful for this gathered community. And during that hour of quiet reverie and song, I felt my anxiety abate, my sense of connection increase, and my resolve to continue my support and love for our many Q-community friends and neighbors.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Gratitude---not just gratitude for Christina’s bringing us together, but gratitude for a former soldier who couldn’t stand it and risking himself, wrenched the gun from the shooter’s hands. Gratitude for the Drag Queen who took the opportunity to stomp the shooter with her high heels.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">What does “community” mean to us? The dictionary would tell us something about people united in a common cause. The vigil last Sunday night was a community that formed for an hour, united in their love for those who suffer for their gender or sexual identity, angry about the senseless loss of life, fearful for the dangers that may lurk in hidden places, but determined to continue to work for the cause of freedom for all.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Where else do we find community? I’d like to suggest that our coffee klatches offer a sense of community, folks gathering in their own neighborhoods, talking about the conditions where they live, what the solutions might be, the ideas brainstormed for addressing some of those problems. But these communities might not exist except for their common roots in the Pacific UU Fellowship, here on the Lower Columbia.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I just love attending our coffee klatches. No matter who is there on any given date, our enjoyment of each other’s presence is tangible. Our quieter members offer their ideas, which they might not do so readily if it were a larger, less connected group. Our more outgoing members keep the conversation going. </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">There is a sense of belonging, I think, that affects most of us---evidence of that, for me, lies in the willingness to let me know that trauma just wasn’t going to work for us, a message relayed quietly, respectfully, and earnestly. That kindly communication from members of the larger community of PUUF was effective and it changed my trajectory from trauma to gratitude for the respect and caring others showed for my misjudgment.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I don’t know if you read through the November edition of News from the Pews, which is the chronicle of the goings-on in the coffee klatches. At the end of each month, I list the topics and ideas that came up during the coffee klatch. And it strikes me that among the ongoing themes that arise, we often turn to social justice concerns. Our coffee klatches are not just socializing moments!</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Here's an excerpt from the Astoria CK: (We) opined upon the issues of local right-wing politics, the gun legislation on the ballot, and the ever-present challenges of racism and antisemitism, plus the dangers of Christian Nationalism.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">The Peninsula folks started out talking about racism and white privilege which soon developed into deep concern for the peninsula’s problems with meth addicts, squatters in RV’s and other homeless folks, moving from disgust at the trash and ugly dwellings into a larger consideration of how these problems develop. </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Our Tillamook county friends considered the personal issues of ageing, of losing one’s spouse, of the decisions that need to be made about relocating, downsizing, living with one’s children, the mingled grief and relief that comes with some losses in life.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">And the South County group had lots to talk about as well: the slash pile fires for starters, and then a wide-ranging discussion of rent increases, right to work laws and how they were related to slavery and other workers’ issues, the Great Resignations of health workers, teachers, and others. And capitalism’s hold on the world’s economy, particularly “the 1619 Project” and its Capitalism chapter.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">(By the way) If you’re not currently attending your local coffee klatch, you’re missing out on some pretty interesting conversations! If you’re not on my mailing list for CK’s and would like to be, please let me know! And we have goodies!</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">But to return to the theme of Gratitude for Community and how we express that gratitude to our PUUF community and to the larger communities in which we live---</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">One casualty of the pandemic was our forced ending of much of our social justice outreach and the committee which proposed and carried out projects. </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">What would you think about re-energizing that committee and undertaking some interesting social justice projects and outreach? It could be done in a couple of ways: reaching out to the area in which each CK is located, with the Peninsula finding a project that benefits the residents on the peninsula, for example. OR finding a project that could include the whole Lower Columbia area.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Let’s talk about some of the thoughts I’ve presented and see if we can come up with some workable ideas. We’re a little rusty in the social justice department, at least in terms of boots on the ground, but we all seem to have strong opinions about what is wrong and how we feel about it. Next step, of course, is how do we act on those opinions and feelings?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Anybody want to start the discussion off? (Veja, will you manage the microphone for folks to use?)</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Discussion ensued.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> In closing, I’d like to offer a recipe for feeling and expressing gratitude:</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">1.</span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Look for opportunities to be grateful</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">2.</span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Say it out loud----“thank you trees, or car that didn’t<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">3.</span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Thank the universe, the powers that be, or God, if that works for you.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">4.</span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Pay attention to what it feels like for you to be grateful.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">5.</span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Be aware of the gift your gratitude gives to others.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-76964910552663648232022-11-26T07:12:00.000-08:002022-11-26T07:12:07.484-08:00THE POWERS THAT BE<p> <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: underline;">MY UNDERSTANDING:</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> an epiphany on Nov. 26, 2022.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God is not a being.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> "</span>God" is the word used for the powers of the universe, visible in natural law.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"Jesus" represents a human being with human powers, subject to natural law and capable of understanding the powers of the universe as revealed in natural law. Jesus, as well as others, has given humans insight into how best to live.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The "Holy Spirit" is spiritual power, available to all beings through natural law and giving meaning to the powers of the universe.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-79116974649227080982022-11-01T16:08:00.001-07:002022-11-01T16:08:45.004-07:00<p> </p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">GLEANINGS FROM THE OCTOBER COFFEE KLATCHES</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">It’s been interesting to compile my notes of the September and October coffee klatches, the discussions, the complaints, even a few mild warnings about losing people because of the intensity level of our conversations about trauma and how it might affect PUUF’s ability to thrive because of the trauma that is endemic in our 21</span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 17.8px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>st</sup></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> century world.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I have done a lot of thinking about this. I understand our resistance to hearing more and more about trauma; it was difficult for me to hear about the many traumatic experiences that folks in our Fellowship have endured and are still enduring. We all are still enduring the trauma of the pandemic, its limitations, the scary illness of COVID19 which threatened and took so many lives. And is still occurring way too often right now.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">In addition, in our Fellowship, we have several folks whose health is endangered by other causes---the ageing process with the threat of dementia, the failing health of spouses and friends, the prospect of losing our physical abilities. It’s a tough row we hoe these days. And I’m sympathetic. Cuz I’ve been there.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Let’s go back ten years to the year 2012, which was when I moved to the North Coast, in hopes of just enjoying being a member of a congregation. I was worn out at the time from leading the Whidbey Island congregation as it built its own building, grew to 100 members, had a thriving RE program, a choir and a strong presence in the community. I was worn out and ready for a rest. And I wanted to be near a UU congregation.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I definitely got my wish to be near a UU congregation on the North Coast of Oregon, where I had spent so many happy days as a child and as a vacationer. But that wish came with a challenge as well. When I settled into that pew in the little green church in the fall of 2012 and began to enjoy the company of PUUFers, I could see clearly that some leaders were on the verge of burnout.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">We had two folks in the congregation who were terminally ill and others experiencing ageing in a community with less than ideal health care provisions. The congregation on Sunday mornings was pretty small—20 to 25 people in attendance. People were getting worn out by the constant effort to provide pulpit speakers, to stay afloat financially, and to do the many tasks of successful layministry. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I had hoped to just be a member but I found that my skills at ministry were needed and appreciated. So despite my weariness and desire to be retired, when asked to help, I said yes. And I have never regretted that decision.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">But what I agreed to do, in the areas of pastoral care and preaching, were the things I enjoyed most about ministry---listening to people and relieving their pain and speaking my mind about important issues. I didn’t want to do much more than that because I was tired and didn’t want to impose my new ideas on a congregation that was running pretty well, other than the burnout factor.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">So when I thought about new ideas, I thought about the things I would enjoy doing, that would provide socializing opportunities for our farflung parish, and we started our coffee klatches--- on the peninsula, in Tillamook county, and in South Clatsop county. And a monthly Happy Hour in Astoria. We also improved our donations process, beginning the tradition of a spring canvass drive to secure pledge commitments for the coming fiscal year. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">We enjoyed the services one Sunday a month from Rev. Carol McKinley, who visited us from Olympia and brought her own thoughts about UUism. But Carol was getting tired also, and ready to retire; she asked me what I thought about stepping into her shoes and being a regular preacher in PUUF’s pulpit. The Sunday Services folks liked the idea and I became a regular.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">We began to grow and eventually outgrew the little green church on the hill. We started looking around for new digs and after some disappointments settled into the Performing Arts Center, becoming an Official Partner for the PAC with some of us even being on their board. At the PAC we continued to grow a bit, but the PAC wasn’t a perfect fit and eventually the decision was made to accept the Presbyterians’ invitation to meet in their beautiful sanctuary. </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">In 2019, the 7</span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 17.8px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> year of my service with you and my 77</span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 17.8px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> birthday, I decided to retire again; you all were getting ready to move on without me. You were going into search and things looked pretty good. And then the pandemic hit, we all went into lockdown, the search stalled and then fizzled when Rev. Denise decided she could not serve PUUF well via Zoom and also serve the Hillsboro congregation.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">PUUF was back on its own, with no ministerial presence after 7 years of having a part-time minister. So guess what happened! She’s Baaaacck, as they say in the movies. And for the past almost three years, I have served you again, with diminishing energy but with great hopes for you.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">And one day, talking with Terri, our board president, I stated simply “You have to figure out what you’re going to do when I can’t do this anymore.” And you all started working on that task.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I was tired of trotting out the Golden Oldies in my sermon file and wanted to do something more creative to deal with the multiple crises our world was struggling with. So coffee klatches with a focus were my bright idea. My lengthy experience running groups in other congregations and also in junior high schools gave me great confidence.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">But at this point, after a few intense coffee klatches in September, the enormity of the trauma load began to weigh on us all and after some discussion within the CKs, I decided to soften the approach, at the urging of some who were concerned we’d lose folks if things were too intense and challenging, especially since the trauma crises were ongoing.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">So October has been more of a time when we’ve talked about grace, that unbidden moment that comes out of the blue and changes our lives when we least expect it---and often after a terrible experience. We shared our stories in October, though other topics also arose. And we will become more gentle in our approach to hard times, talking about gratitude and the gifts of being together with friends, rather than the pain of trauma. It seems like a logical next move and definitely part of the healing process from trauma.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">But wait, there’s more!</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">In talking recently with members of the Search committee, I learned that one challenge they faced was figuring out the Why and What folks wanted in a new minister---why did they want one and what did they want that minister to do?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">And there appeared the challenge that arises when a congregation which started as a Fellowship, meaning a group of UUs who wanted their/our faith represented in their community, started their own church. This trend grew from small beginnings in the 40’s and 50’s, with the blessing of the UUA, and this is how PUUF got its start, essentially, through the efforts of Arline and Cliff LaMear and probably some of you here today. They were our forebears, the ones who took the first steps to create the Pacific UU Fellowship.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">It's a success story in most ways, except for the inevitable burnout factor!</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">People were proud that they could start a church of their own and be accepted as a member of the greater body of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Fellowships sprang up all over the USA and flourished, many of them growing large enough to be able to call a minister, at least part time, and hope to thrive.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Some ministers eagerly came to serve Fellowships, but many of them quickly discovered that a group which had been successful as a layled congregation did not particularly want to change over to pastoral leadership. It felt like their freedom was at stake.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I have seen this happen before and I have personally tussled with it with mixed success in other congregations. I gradually have learned that the key to leadership of a formerly layled group was to listen and learn who they were and what they were good at, what they needed help with, and not move too fast, but to get acquainted first.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">My own experience was at a small congregation in Portland which had spun off from First Unitarian. I was eager to show off my skills and plunged in headfirst with my new ideas. Before long I had made enough people uncomfortable that they wanted me to be removed as minister and a small group of dissidents went to the board president with that very request.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Over the next year, we managed to reduce the tension and I made amends as best I could for the rookie mistakes of moving too fast. And many of them apologized to me.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">But I didn’t stay there much longer, and, taking my painfully learned lessons, went on to serve two other small congregations up in Puget Sound both of them started by layleaders. My success rate went up, fortunately!</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I think something like this has happened at PUUF. You are a strong group, with leaders who are wearing out. You want lots of freedom and you’re not comfortable being bossed around. And yet the workload is heavy and we are growing older, to the point where some of us are burning out.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My hope for you is that we will work together to ease that workload for our overburdened and tired leaders, that we will encourage our newer members to take leadership positions, and that we will agree to consider new ideas before we balk. Some of this is already happening and the board’s Visioning Committee is active in this regard.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> When I came here, I had taught three small congregations how to work with a minister, more or less successfully. I had learned to shut up and listen to what was already good about the congregation, to make small changes not big ones, to work for agreement among leaders about those changes, and to not be bossy.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> The advantage to you was that I could live here. The advantage to me was that I didn’t have to struggle to get you to do things. I basically watched what you liked and encouraged it, added to it in the way of small social coffee klatches and happy hour, and suggested a more systemic way of handling pledges and other donations. Nobody seemed to dislike any of these small changes.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Interestingly, when I decided I needed to fully retire and move away and introduced the idea of coffee klatches as discussion groups to work through the possible injuries caused by the pandemic, the fizzled search, the ageing of our membership, that sort of thing, the reaction was not enthusiastic. Was I asking too much of you? Maybe so, or maybe it’s the timing, coming as I am getting ready to really sever my relationship with you next summer. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Grief in both me and you is a real thing. And it is part of the trauma. No wonder we’re needing to step back a few paces and look at the good stuff.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I am grieving my need to leave you behind, possibly not seeing many of you again. We have been good companions on the UU path and I will miss you very much. I am making plans to move to Vancouver WA, where there is a mid-sized church with a settled minister. I need to let go completely of the many responsibilities of ministry. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">You may be grieving too. We will talk more about this as we move closer to June 30, the end of my contract with you, and get ready to say goodbye. I will probably need your help with things like a yard sale and with packing, but we can figure that out later.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">We have a little time now for conversation about what I’ve said and to talk about the theme of this homily: Where do we go from here?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 21.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-8012446378738309342022-09-25T15:10:00.001-07:002022-09-25T15:10:25.547-07:00Searching for Grace<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-indent: 48px;">SEARCHING FOR GRACE</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Rev. Kit Ketcham, PUUF, Sept. 25, 2022</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> As I’ve met with the four coffee klatch groups this past month, I’ve noted the heavy, heavy load that accompanies trauma, hearing about trauma in others, and dreading the impact of the next traumatic moment.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> At our Water Ceremony on Sept. 11, we had asked each participant to name a trauma that, for them, had been life-changing, unexpected, and shocking. When Meredith and I read the cards at the end of the ceremony, we were both in awe of the heavy load each person there was bearing.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Not just in their own lives but also in the awareness of the load their friends and neighbors were experiencing. Right now, we are all living with trauma and the effects of trauma, in a sort of churning stew of tension and uncertainty.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> But I’m reminded of the kids’ TV show long ago “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood”. Fred Rogers was a guiding light for kids and their parents in the 70’s and 80’s with his show. And one story he told has stuck with me.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> It was a personal story for him, for when he was a little boy, worried about a scary incident that he had observed and wondering what would happen, his mother took him in her arms and said “When you see something scary like this and you are worried and afraid, to comfort yourself, look for the helpers. Look for the people who are stepping in to help.” <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Not just the firefighters and the police and doctors and nurses, but the ordinary people, the ones who run first to the emergency or trouble, offering their help. Mr. Rogers made that his life’s work.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I was reminded about Mr. Rogers’ childhood question on a recent weekend when I learned that a Gearhart friend of mine had been found dead in her home. She and I were members of a group we called Freddy Girls and we met on Monday mornings at the Fred Meyer Starbucks to gab and gossip about Gearhart goings-on, a practice we’ve had for several years.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> These women were helpful to me when I was going through the scary situations of retinal surgeries and heart rhythm irregularities a few years ago, driving me up to St. Vincent and OHSU for treatments.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> As I learned more about this sudden, shocking death of my friend, I found that two of the women in our little group had worried about this friend on Friday when they saw that things didn’t look right at her home and decided to check on her.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> They found our friend seated on a chair inside the sun porch, her head resting on her arm against a small table. She was clearly dead and had been for several hours.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Our friend’s husband has Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, so they immediately checked on him in the next room, found him naked, incontinent, and incoherent. They called 911 for help and then washed the husband, clothed him, gave him something to eat and water to drink, as they awaited the ambulance. They called the son and daughter of this couple who live in Stevenson, to break the news and ask them to come. And then they sat with our friend until help arrived.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I tell you this story not to stun you with another story of trauma, because this story is about the two women who were the helpers, who did what needed to be done in a terrible situation, for a friend at the end of her life.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I know trauma stories are awful and triggering for many of us. We hate to hear them sometimes but if we listen to the “rest of the story” as newscaster Paul Harvey used to say, we often find that there is hope and grace in the aftermath.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Last Saturday when I visited the tiny Tillamook county coffee klatch, each person had experienced something difficult during the past month. They also wanted to know about the Water Ceremony, how it had gone, and when I mentioned our closing hymn, Amazing Grace, one woman looked at me with tears in her eyes and said “It’s the grace, the unearned, unbidden acts of kindness and love that help me to get through trauma.” And she told us of her personal experience with grace.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Last week, two unscrupulous American governors hoodwinked a planeload of migrants and flew them to Martha’s Vineyard in the Atlantic Ocean, expecting that “this would own the libs”, when they arrived, poor and hungry, in the wealthy community of both ordinary people and celebrities.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Instead of rejecting the migrant families, Martha’s Vineyard opened their hearts to these strangers, fed them, found them shelter, clothing, welcomed them into their midst, and helped them acclimate as best they could. With limited language skills and unfamiliar with New England customs, these homeless people found grace, mercy, and kindness, not angry rejection.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> By the way, the Unitarian Universalists in our sister church on Martha’s Vineyard were right in the middle of the welcome. Because that’s what UU’s do. It’s our mission in life.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I got to thinking about ministry and pastoral care and realized that my work as a minister is helping people who are experiencing trauma. It is my work, it is my calling. I listen and love and understand how hard it is.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I know personally how hard it is to hear about trauma, whether in others’ lives or mine. I know how hard, indeed impossible at times, it is to NOT be triggered. But it is a learned skill and many of us have learned it, having experienced that moment of grace in our lives when somebody really listened, listened without jumping in at the wrong time or with the wrong words. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Or they volunteered to drive us when we could not get to the doctor ourselves. And they stayed with us to help us understand the doctor’s instructions.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> The helpers are all around us during every traumatic situation. Sometimes we are the helpers, sometimes we are being helped. It is all grace, grace given and grace received, and Grace is our Super Power---as UUs, as human beings whether we are religious or not, as people who understand that kindness and mercy and just being willing to help might be the real trinity!</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I know that many of you have experienced both the trauma and the moment of grace that often accompanies trauma, whether it comes unexpectedly from friends or family who appear and hug us and feed us and clothe us at a terrible time of our lives.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> It’s been a hard month at the coffee klatches, I know, and I’m glad to be able to refocus our gaze at the times when someone came to help us pick up the pieces of our lives and move on.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> At the South County coffee klatch yesterday, munching away on the goodies folks brought, we shared stories of trauma and the healing grace that often comes unexpectedly and without expectation of reward. This has been a tough month in many ways but it’s time to focus on our SuperPower, the ability to help, to bring hope, to listen without interruption and to soothe and strengthen our fellow human beings.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I’d like to spend a little time discussing what we’ve learned this month, in the coffee klatches or in our personal lives. (Discussion for about 15 minutes)</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">BENEDICTION: <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together, is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, remembering that we have the power as individuals and as a congregation to bring Grace to those in time of need. May we watch for opportunities to use our SuperPowers in the service of love and justice. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">CLOSING CIRCLE.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-7933263485977341742022-09-11T20:28:00.001-07:002022-09-11T20:28:16.961-07:00<p><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;">REMEMBERING AND HEALING FROM TRAUMA</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sept. 11, 2022</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Where were you when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center, into the Pentagon, and into an empty Pennsylvania field? Speak that place into the silence as we listen.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> It was a Tuesday. It was 5:14 a.m. here in the PNW. It was the first or second week of school for many children and youths. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And teachers. It was a week after the celebrations of Labor Day. It was a perfectly ordinary sort of day---until the news reports came rolling in, the TV screens flashing horrifying photos of people jumping out of the World Trade Center, planes obliterating parts of the Pentagon and two of the towers, brave passengers cooperating to divert their hijacked plane away from the Capitol grounds in Washington DC., scenes gleaned from video found in phones in the wreckage of that doomed plane with its brave passengers.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> My definition of Trauma has come to be “a shock that comes without a choice”, an event that is lifechanging and comes out of the blue and we can’t stop it.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> For all Americans and perhaps all humans, life on earth changed that day. Fear became a way of life for many, fear of strangers, particularly strangers who have a different religion, a different lifestyle, a different name, a different appearance.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> And in our country and in others as well, Vengeance, Revenge, Hate, became the response to the action which took so many lives and affected our worldview and our American self-confidence.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> We learned we were vulnerable as a nation, that we could be attacked and murdered in formerly safe places: office buildings, airplanes, and school classrooms, church sanctuaries, grocery stores, movie theaters, and on the streets of placid cities.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> With every new event of violence over the past years since that fateful day, the trauma has been multiplied over and over. It reminds us every time of trauma which has gone before, before Sept. 11, 2000</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And then the election of a despotic president who dismantled policies and practices designed to protect us while flying the fake red flag of “freedom” caused an already-divided American people to turn against each other even more strongly, encouraging belief in conspiracy theories and fraudulent elections.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Every violent event, one on top of the other, brought Post Traumatic Stress Disorder into our common lingo. And then the pandemic descended, making it difficult to connect with friends and family, to attend religious services in person, to shop safely, to mingle with groups indoors, to wear the pesky masks which could save our lives. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We lost family members to the coronavirus, we ourselves survived its onslaught but may have been reinfected again and again, unwittingly. And the long months and years of isolation brought loneliness, frustration, sometimes loss of employment.</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Our lives were changed once again as we gained understanding of the danger of an illness so infectious that none of us was truly safe. Yet millions of our fellow citizens refused to believe that warning and many died agonizingly in ICU units crowded to overflowing.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Where do we go from here? We are vaxxed, boosted, masked in medical settings, bumping elbows when hugs aren’t safe. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> We have come to recognize trauma in a lot of places we hadn’t known before. We are coming to recognize how deeply the effects of trauma can burrow into everyday lives, making us vulnerable to personality and lifestyle changes that in turn can create their own trauma.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> We may see past trauma these days in our personal lives, our family lives, our community, and our national, global, historical institutions. We have learned that the effects of trauma can be passed down through genetic pathways.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Over the coming months, we will be exploring the effects of trauma, both past and present, in our personal lives and how those effects shape our institutions, our families and our friendships. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We’ll talk about these issues in our coffee klatches, which are small and friendly groups, interested in PUUF and the future of this congregation.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> We’ll share what we are comfortable sharing about our own trauma history and we’ll listen respectfully to what others share. We’ll look at how our congregation has been affected by the painful experiences of losing members over disagreements, of the struggle to find a new minister only to be hampered by the pandemic and the difficulties of ministering via Zoom.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Where the air needs to be cleared around an old conflict (or even a newer one) we’ll listen for understanding and move on.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> We’ll listen to each other’s efforts to heal from the traumatic event or events and encourage each other to address the inner pain that a painful childhood can produce.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Remembering the adage that “Hurt people hurt people”, we’ll think about the times we have been hurt and have hurt others in return, sometimes purposely and sometimes inadvertently.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> The cards on which you wrote down a trauma in your life just now reveal that there is a substantial amount of pain in our lives, some of it dealt with, some of it buried and festering. In our conversations together, we’ll look at ways of using trauma to learn and to grow from.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> We’ll talk about healing from trauma and facing new challenges in a changing world. For when we bury trauma, we delay our healing. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> A year or so ago, I said to our board---you’ve got to figure out what you’re gonna do about PUUF when I can’t do this anymore. And we have talked about my adjusting my preaching and pastoral care efforts, coming up with a new schedule for me starting this month.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Our coffee klatches will meet monthly, as we always have, socializing and snacking as always but also talking about the issues trauma presents to us as human beings.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Instead of speaking on the 2</span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>nd</sup></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Sunday, as I have up to now, I will meet with the coffee klatches, and on the last Sunday of the month, I will speak about what I have learned about us from the discussions in each CK, offering information about the commonalities we share, the concerns we have, and the ideas that have emerged as approaches to healing, both personally and as a congregation.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> We will have a little time set aside during our service to discuss what I’ve learned from our CKs so that all have a chance to hear what’s being discussed.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> In this way, I hope to offer a deeper examination of who we are as a UU congregation, fulfilling the promise of our principles and honoring our values and commitments to reason and reverence.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> I have started making plans for my eventual moving away from Astoria and leaving the OR coast. I am ready to stop working. I am hoping to find a good independent senior living residence somewhere around Vancouver or Longview, where I can really retire!</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> But in the meantime, I want to do all I can to help you create a pathway forward no matter what, whether you choose another minister or decide to continue as layled. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> As we think about the changes we have ahead of us, let’s commit ourselves to honest and kind communication, listening carefully to others’ needs, and finding the path that our principles and values illuminate for us.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Let’s pause for a moment of silent reflection and prayer</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">BENEDICTION </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together, is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, remembering that though trauma persists in everyone’s life, we have the strength to endure and the will to mend the damage. As we go through the next several months of talking about our lives with each other, may we find peace and healing in ourselves and in our life together. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-63304588535182183912022-08-18T07:44:00.001-07:002022-08-18T07:44:17.801-07:00To My Followers, the hangers-on at the Saloon and Road Show<p> I have recently discovered that since I changed my email address, all the comments you've made over the past many months, even years, have not been forwarded on to me for moderation. I have now changed my settings and you should be able to send a comment on any of the recent posts, so that I can approve them and post them on the blog.</p><p>Thanks to those of you who have read the blog faithfully and have even tried to leave a comment---if I have time soon, I will attempt to tackle the backlog and approve the pending comments.</p><p>Sincerely,</p><p>Ms. Kitty</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-78326107751346844942022-08-15T07:55:00.001-07:002022-08-15T07:55:22.469-07:00The Evolution of Spiritual Experience<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">THE EVOLUTION OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE</span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Rev. Kit Ketcham, PUUF, Aug. 14, 2022</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> As a junior high school teacher and counselor for 25 years in suburban Denver, I had plenty of stressful moments, hilarious moments, frustrating moments, confused moments, moments when I knew I would have to take some disciplinary action toward a kid or a parent, moments when I simply cried out at the pain in a child’s life.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Many of these moments in that career were kinda humdrum, just doing my job moments. But others of those moments still linger in my memory:</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> That time when 9</span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 15.6px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> grader Gail came into the main office when I was there, looked at me, said “my boyfriend just committed suicide”, and ran into my arms.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> That time when Bonnie sat defiantly in my office and said “yeah, I’m a lesbian and I don’t care who knows it. So what?”</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> That time when Bob confided his suicidal thoughts and his latest attempt.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> That time when spelling-challenged Heidi gave me a poem she’d written entitled “thanks for the mammaries” in gratitude for the long talks we’d had.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> All of these moments led me into a place of contemplation, compassion, and action in my effort to help these teenagers find peace. But one important moment came back to me, as I was preparing for today and thinking about how, in my spiritual life, both positive and negative emotions have been the source of a deep spiritual realization. And how it took me a long time to learn it.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Picture a tiny office, goofy but inspirational posters on the wall, a Kleenex box handy on a small table. Picture a somber mom and brother and me awaiting the arrival of a young girl who has been summoned from her math class. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Picture that girl coming through the door, seeing her family members, and wondering, with dread, what has brought them here. </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Her father had been ill and hospitalized but expected to come home shortly. Instead, her mother and brother were here to tell her that he had died. Suddenly and out of the blue, in the hospital, his heart had just stopped and could not be restarted.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Time seemed to stand still as this seventh grader absorbed the news. As she sank into a chair and leaned into her mother’s arms, I felt the enormity of the moment, of the occasion, of the gathering of a family at the hardest time of their lives, and of the witness I bore to their pain.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I couldn’t do anything to take away that pain, I could only be there. And for me, just being there was an experience of deep spiritual meaning inspired by our mutual grief. For her father had been a fellow teacher in a nearby school.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Ten years earlier, I would not have thought of it as a spiritual experience. I would have been so tense and afraid I would do the wrong thing that I would have done anything to avoid it. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">But my own experiences of loss by that time had taught me that these are the kinds of experiences that open us up to life, if we let them.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Up to that point, my spiritual moments, when I even recognized them, were wrapped in laughter, or physical pleasure, or tenderness between myself and another person. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">They were sweat-soaked on the top of a high ridge or singing with friends around a campfire, or getting up in the middle of the night to attend to a child’s nightmare. Utterly mundane moments until I learned to notice them, to pay attention to their deeper meaning </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We all have access to spiritual experience but we have to learn to recognize it, to allow it to show us its meaning, to hold it under the microscope of our minds, to feel its resonance in our gut and to rest in the moment of awe we discover there.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> In his book, “Spiritual Evolution”, psychiatrist George E. Vaillant lays out a vivid portrayal of human beings’ inherent, inborn spiritual nature and ties it to our brain’s design and our innate capacity for emotions, both positive and negative.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> He argues that evolution has made us spiritual creatures over time and makes a scientific case for spirituality as a positive force in human evolution.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> He traces this positive force in three different kinds of evolution: first, the natural selection of genes over millennia; second, the cultural evolution, within recorded history, of ideas about the value of human life; and third, the development of spirituality within each human lifetime.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I’ve always known that I rarely find my spiritual moments in a religious service, though they do happen and they often are embedded in our singing together. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">When we sing our closing circle song, for example, and I look around the circle at all of us, I tingle with that feeling of being part of this group, thinking later about what you mean to me and what I hope to mean to you.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">According to the Public Religion Research Institute: “Spirituality is a complex concept with a wide variety of possible meanings. Because this concept is inherently subjective—(since) many activities and experiences can be imbued with spiritual meaning--(because of that) developing a standard definition poses challenges.” </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> They found that three questions helped people verbalize their sense of spirituality. These three questions asked Americans how often they “felt particularly connected to the world around you,” “felt like you were a part of something much larger than yourself,” and “felt a sense of larger meaning or purpose in life.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> As I was thinking about this statement from this respected research institution, I was drawn back to our UU Sources, the places from which we draw our inspiration and our values as a religious body.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Here’s a quote from our UU official documents which can be found in one of the first pages of our hymnal, along with the 7 principles. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">The Living Tradition we share draws from many sources (and this one is listed first): Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Didja get that? Direct personal experience of mystery and wonder, that experience we cannot fully describe, is a foundation of our UU faith.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Our own evolution as a religious tradition has evolved from Trinitarian Christianity in the fourth century to Unitarian Christianity 15 centuries later, then on to an acceptance of Universalist Christianity and a merger with the Universalist denomination in 1961, from there to our pluralistic, multi-faith tradition whose values incorporate wisdom from many other sources, and not strictly religious voices.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Let’s look at the three kinds of evolution I mentioned earlier. First, natural selection of genes over millennia: We are talking here about the evolution of cold-blooded (literally and metaphorically) cold-blooded reptilian creatures into the warm-blooded (again, both literally and metaphorically) warm-blooded mammalian creatures capable of play, joy, attachment, and trust in a parent or mate. </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Simply put, as mammals developed their ability to survive and adapt to changing environments and to evade predators, their brains became more and more complex and this became a trait selected to increase survival. In our fellow primates, we see the manifestation of behaviors which signify attachment, bonding, and nurturance of offspring and of mates.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Second: cultural evolution has been as important for human survival as brain complexity. It is faster and more flexible than genetic evolution. With expanded communication came expanded knowledge and application of that knowledge. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">It was this capacity for cultural development that may have given modern humans an evolutionary advantage over earlier humanoids.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Sociability increased survival rates and as communications improved, homo sapiens traveled, traded, learned from, and mated with unrelated others far away and the value of human life began to expand in human consciousness.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Over millennia, through cultural evolution, religions (which are a major factor in cultural norms) also have evolved, and those which emphasized love and compassion rather than fear and dominance were more conducive to cultural development. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">As an aside, I am moved to comment that if the Abrahamic religions---Judaism, Christianity, and Islam---had not let fear and dominance influence some of their doctrines, we might be in better shape today culturally! And maybe our UU religion of love, compassion, and justice can lead the way.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Third: personal evolution in a human being. It takes a while for a human being to evolve as a fully conscious creature, able to experience life-changing events and analyze and internalize them as factors which can expand consciousness and survivability.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> As children, we move slowly from self-centered, demanding two-year-olds, as an example, into adolescence and young adulthood, becoming persons more capable of compassion and understanding of others.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> At some point, many of us, probably most of us, have experiences that we learn from. We may not get all introspective about these experiences; rather we may grieve or rejoice and move on. And at some later point---as it happened to me and may have happened to you---we are likely to take time to pay attention to the emotional experience we’ve had. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">When we are able to do so—and it may take a while before we get there---we become conscious of the enormity of the event and how we may have been affected by it.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Going deeper will seem scary, but we do it, and when we do, we are encouraging and allowing ourselves to evolve, to increase our survivability and to model that behavior for our children and friends.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Dr. Vaillant has listed the positive and negative emotions which can be gateways to spiritual experience. It’s probably easier for most of us to start our deeper explorations with a positive emotional moment.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> The positive emotions of compassion, forgiveness, love, hope, joy, trust, awe, and gratitude, to name a few, are largely experienced in relationship---with ourselves, with other beings, and with the universe. They expand us, widen our vision and our tolerance for differences. They enlarge the scope of our moral compass and increase our moral courage. They enhance and impel our creativity.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Let me ask you to think of a recent positive emotional experience. As you think about that event in your life, let me ask you the three questions mentioned earlier: </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> 1. Did it help you feel more connected to the world around you? 2. Did it help you feel you were a part of something larger than yourself? 3. Did it help you feel a sense of larger meaning or purpose in life?</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> This quickie dip into deeper spiritual searching may be too brief to have worked for you and that’s okay. It is only a suggestion that spiritual experience lurks in the everyday positive emotional experiences of life. It may encourage you to be more mindful of the potential for spiritual experience in life’s every moment.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> And it can be found in negative emotional times as well---when we grieve a loss, we often find solace in examining the memories of love and the lessons learned through this loss. When we are angry, going deeper may offer a pathway to greater understanding of an outrageous situation and give us motivation to solve a dilemma. When we are afraid and explore the fear, we may find greater courage than we have ever dreamed of.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Every human being, I’ve come to believe, can learn to notice those expanding moments in life which accompany our emotional experiences. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">As we learn to do this, just as we learn to follow the threads of a complex equation or a complicated pattern of some kind, we are sharpening our awareness of the facets which make up human life---and our lives.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Improving our ability to be mindful, to notice our surroundings, to learn from each experience, good or bad, and to allow that process to take place adds to our ability to adapt to change, to survive difficult events, and to find, ultimately, greater peace of mind and compassion for our fellow travelers.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Let’s pause for a time of silent reflection and prayer.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">As Terri extinguishes our chalice, let’s pause for the benediction:</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together, is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, remembering to take notice of the meaning of the emotional moments in our lives, drawing strength and new resolve from our spiritual experiences. May we find depth and greater understanding as we allow our spiritual selves to evolve and grow. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">CLOSING CIRCLE</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p></div><br /><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-44594693786189066742022-07-10T19:48:00.002-07:002022-07-10T19:49:16.168-07:00The New Normal?<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; text-align: center;">THE NEW NORMAL?</span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Rev. Kit Ketcham, July 10, 2022</span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Pacific Unitarian Universalist Fellowship</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> As we’ve aged, whether we are single twenty- or thirty-somethings, middle-aged parents or single folks, Baby Boomers, or truly elderly and feeling it, we experience changes in our lives that turn out to be permanent rather than temporary.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> It may be a chronic illness <b>or</b> an improvement in health due to changed behaviors; it may be the end or start of a love relationship; it may be a move from a beloved home to unfamiliar surroundings.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Many times these are temporary, but when they become permanent, we begin to realize that “normal” isn’t what it used to be. The “new normal” is often something we need to come to terms with because it is life-changing and not always pleasant.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I’ve had my ideas of “normal” changed a few times in my life, just as you have, no doubt. My vision went from mildly nearsighted to cluttered by cataracts, to damaged by retinal detachments---and that is my “new normal” vision. My heart went from a slight murmur to the diagnosis of a birth defect which needed repair, and then on to conditions that required a pacemaker and medications that have now become another “new normal” for me.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We learn to cope with the “new normal”, recognizing that our ability to adapt is on the line here. Losses in health or in relationships or in living conditions are major events in our life journeys and can strike at the very foundations of our sense of well-being.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Our nation’s health and relationships and living conditions are currently on the line these days, as we contemplate how we will cope with huge changes in our lives, whether personal, local, national, and/or global.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Trauma, whether personal, community, friendships, national, or global, seems to be the theme of The New Normal. We are unable to escape it, it permeates the news cycles, the themes of our entertainment, our neighborhoods, our friendships, our very health, both physical and mental.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> An illustration from my own experience just the other day:</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> July 1 and I’ve been sleeping away for at least a couple of hours, secure in my little house above the Alderbrook lagoon, when what sounds like a fusillade of gunshots rings out somewhere in the neighborhood. They startle me awake and I try to get a count—were there 10 or12? Loud! Not far down the street. Who in my peaceful little corner of Astoria could be shooting off a gun in such a lengthy volley of shots and why would they be doing so?</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Is this a domestic violence scene so close to me? Who? I think of the couples I’ve socialized with on this block and can’t imagine any of them doing something so awful. I’m not wide awake enough to get up and look out the window and scared enough to just hunker down under the blankets and think of what to do: call the cops? What would I tell them?</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I look at the clock and notice that it’s about midnight, and then it dawns on me—-it’s 4th of July weekend, it’s Friday night, and the loud bangs I’ve been wakened by are probably fireworks, not gunshots. But again, who would be so careless (or deliberate) about disturbing the neighborhood as to make loud noises at midnight at this tumultuous time in our nation?</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> So I turn over and try to go back to sleep, but my brain can’t turn off the sound of the guns or whatever, can’t quit wondering if we’re in danger here, and then a very loud car comes zipping down my street, turns the corner onto lagoon road, races down to the trailhead parking space, turns around and roars back past our houses, as outdoor automatic lights illuminate the road and Alder street. It roars down Alder and out of our safe little corner of Astoria.</span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">By now it’s past 1 a.m. and sleep does not return to me. And a song I’ve been hearing on the radio recently floats through my mind: “I am Ukrainian now, I am Ukrainian now”. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I can’t completely dismiss the idea that we’ve been under siege in the middle of the Astoria night, but I do recognize that this must be a bit like PTSD, the sense of danger, of adrenaline in the night making me wonder if I, and my neighbors, are safe. If not, what should we do?</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> In addition, our national political scene has been both exciting and scarily chaotic. We have been challenged repeatedly by potential upheavals and reversals of hard-won human rights and basic respect for human dignity. Our Supreme Court has been hijacked by the religious right and is in the process of overturning constitutional rights to the detriment of human health and living conditions.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> However as we face the rest of the year 2022, with its uncertainties, there are strengths within this Fellowship, its membership, and its values that we will build upon, continuing to use our seven—almost eight-- principles and the ideals that they represent to resist efforts to turn back the clock to an older more repressive time.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We have new members with leadership abilities and high eagerness. We are set firmly upon a solid foundation laid by longterm members and leaders. We have volunteers, both longtimers and newer folks, who are establishing new processes for new ways to be together, to socialize, to talk through big ideas.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We have volunteers stepping up to the plate with ideas and energy. We have renewed activities---circle suppers and coffee klatches with a purpose. Our board is made up of longtimers and newer folks—a promising combination for stability and creativity.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Speaking of coffee klatches, I was thrilled to take part in the Astoria coffee klatch last Saturday and also yesterday’s peninsula coffee klatch. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We had good turnouts for both of these gatherings and lively discussion took place, when the conversation turned to how PUUF is doing these days and what we might want to consider in the future.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> A major brainstorming session produced some great ideas, in each group: how can we reach out to younger people with children so we can get our Religious Education program more solid and with more kids? How can we serve young families? Can we help to subsidize a day care center? Can we have a presence at the community college?</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> More ideas flowed in: women do a great deal of the leadership at PUUF, which is good, but we have men who want to be more connected. How about starting a Men’s Fellowship group?</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Our Peninsula coffee klatch yesterday also provided some great new ideas:</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">After organizing some help for one of our members who is getting a knee replacement, we moved on to think about such things as a regular carpool for peninsula folks, so not everyone needs to drive themselves to church or other gatherings? How about sponsoring a movie gathering at the Senior Center, with a good movie and UU literature? How about scholarships for child care? How about sponsoring an immigrant family on the peninsula?</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> As the month progresses, I hope we’ll do some more brainstorming to increase our understandings of what each region of our parish needs, to feel connected. I’m looking forward to hearing what Tillamook county folks and South County folks come up with when we meet! Exciting times!</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We have started to grow again. Our numbers took a hit when some folks left after our ministerial searches failed; but we’ve had the great good fortune to have been joined by several new folks who have already stepped in to volunteer positions and are actively serving! So growth needs to be part of any master plan we create.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> BUT, it’s important to recognize that growth for growth’s sake is not the goal. Changes in our size bring changes in our relationships and a healthy growing congregation has many opportunities for increasing our level of friendship and outreach.</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We often think of “growth” as measured primarily in numbers or size. I mean, how did our parents measure our growth? By marks on the door jamb, with a book on our heads, right? By our weight on the pediatrician’s scale, by the sizes of shoes we outgrew!</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> In a religious community, there’s more than one kind of growth to consider, however. Numbers, yes, because we report our numbers to the Unitarian Universalist Association and pay a fee to that organization in return for their support. Size, yes, because it feels so great to see this sanctuary start to fill up a little more on Sundays.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> But there are other growth issues we need to look at:</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> An important area of growth for a religious community is in spiritual understanding, opening ourselves to a deeper awareness of what it means to be a human being, in this world, a human being who knows they will die.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Part of that awareness is recognizing our deepest values---for ourselves and for each other---and finding within ourselves the awe aroused by the world and its creatures and the commitment to offer ourselves and our resources to the world’s protection and improvement.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We have only a small social outreach presence right now in this community, but social justice activities can help us find that sense of connection which invites awe and wonder into our lives. </span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Spirituality is both inward and outward---inward when we are touched by love or wonderment and savor it quietly. Outward when we invest our insights and sense of wonder into making lives better with our own actions.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Seven years ago, we faced the prospect of a presidential administration which seemed bent on destruction of justice, respect, and compassion. We have fought those destructive policies every step of the way and are still fighting them, with our vehement anger at the rolling back of women’s rights, climate change policies, the newly-fuzzy boundaries between church and state.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> As a UU congregation, we have work to do, and our conversations about that work will be our task over the next several months, even years. Our seven principles will serve as guideposts as we move forth, and I’d like for us to review them today. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Our eighth principle, the one about adding anti-racism standards and policies to our commitments is yet to be added formally, but I have no doubt it will be added. It states:</span></p><p class="p6" style="color: #2a2a2b; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I invite you to open your hymnals now to the page at the very front of the book which lists our Unitarian Universalist principles. These are the foundation of our faith. They are the values which inform our religious life and give us direction as we respond to attacks on justice, equity, truth, and all that we are committed to as UUs.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Let’s read them together. (read)</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> As we move forward, into this difficult time, let us support those leaders who share our values, resist and challenge those who would trample others in their race for riches, and may we find the courage to speak our minds for love and justice in this chaotic time. Let us do all we can to maintain what we have gained from progressive action and band together for strength.</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Let’s pause for a time of silent reflection and prayer.</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Our closing hymn is #347, “Gather the Spirit”</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">As Cicely extinguishes the chalice, I’d like to use this piece by queer theologian Carter Heywood for our benediction. </span></p><p class="p7" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>A New Beatitudes 2022</i></b></span></p><p class="p8" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">By Carter Heyward</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Blessed are those who are kind, especially when it’s hard</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Blessed are those angry for justice in situations of unfairness and oppression,</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Blessed are the compassionate in times of hatred,</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Blessed are those who speak honestly when pummeled by lies — and who seek truth when confronted by fake news,</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Blessed are those who keep their courage in the face of belligerent bullies,</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Blessed are women who stand up to abusive men — and blessed are men who stand with, not on, women,</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Blessed are the queer who do not walk straight and narrow paths,</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Blessed are black lives — and white lives who know that black lives matter,</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Blessed are the earth and animals among those indifferent to their well-being,</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Blessed are non-violent resisters whose enemies hope you will pick up guns,</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Blessed are you when people shake their heads because you refuse to accept authoritarian rulers as “normal,”</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Blessed are you peacemakers who refuse cheap grace,</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">You are daughters and sons of the Sacred,</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">brothers and sisters of Jesus, (and Mohammed and the Buddha and all women and men)</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">(You are all) friends of the Spirit,</span></p><p class="p10" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be..</span></p><p class="p11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-28197466768406759242022-06-12T07:40:00.000-07:002022-06-12T07:40:14.526-07:00Hurt People Hurt People<p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">REFLECTION ON CHANGES IN ME</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Rev. Kit Ketcham, PRIDE 2022</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Pacific UU Fellowship, June 12, 2022</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Talking about sexual orientation and gender identity was a huge NoNo when I was a school counselor in Colorado back in the 80’s and 90’s.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I was so naïve that it took a long time for me to realize that there was something really wrong about that.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The change in me began when my college friend Fern came out to me after a suicide attempt.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It began to grow when I attended an in-service put on by PFLAG, an in-service designed for counselors in our district, where I saw that the president of the local chapter was the mother of two of my students.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It took another leap forward when a gutsy 9th grade girl sat defiantly in my office, perhaps thinking I was going to scold her, and said “Yes, I am a lesbian and I’m in a relationship with another girl.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>So?”</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Leap after leap kept me changing my understandings and my attitudes toward a group of people that had been unfamiliar to me, except in terms of stereotypes.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>There were Brooke and Robert and Nikki, talking about their suicide thoughts.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>There was Marilyn, our school psychologist, who trusted me enough to come out to me, at a time when she could be fired for being Out.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>There was Harold who became Carol and who asked female friends to help her become more feminine.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>There was 9th grader Don, whose birth name was Donna, and who kept his birth gender a secret from his girlfriend.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In seminary, there were numerous fellow divinity students who were gay or lesbian or trans and had to stay in the closet because of church laws which forbade their ordination or even membership in the church body.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Luckily, my own church, my denomination, Unitarian Universalism, has been open to so-called “sexual minorities” for several decades, and I found I had strong church support when I voiced my concerns about gays, lesbians, and trans folk who were being rejected by their own religious traditions.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>So I collaborated with my minister at that time, the Rev. Robert Latham, to bring a group of singers from the Denver mixed chorus “Harmony” to present songs from David Maddox’s “Boys and Girls With Stories”.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;">This was the summer of 1994, when HIV/AIDS was decimating men in the gay community and fear and sorrow ran rampant in both gays and straights.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We put the word out in the local newspaper and when I looked out at the congregation the morning of the service with Harmony, I realized that my life had truly changed dramatically.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Gayness” was no longer an abstract concept.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In the congregation that morning were friends who had dared to attend, despite the danger of outing themselves publicly by doing so, friends I had not known were gay.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I realized I could not ever ignore that pain again.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Initially, it was students who needed to talk, colleagues who needed me to keep confidentiality, and then, when I thought hard about the fact that my dear friends Jan and Chris, who had been together for over 40 years did not have the human right to be married, another change began to burn in my heart.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I am thrilled to have been part of the sea change that occurred in June of 2015---seven years ago---when the Supreme Court ruled that the marriages of same-sex couples must be recognized by the state.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And I choked up when I heard the pastor of their Lutheran church utter these words to my friends Dave and Ervin:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“And now by the power invested in me by the State, I pronounce you husband and husband, partners for life”.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Now, when I marry two women or two men, I also say those thrilling words:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“and now by the power invested in me by the state of Oregon….” What a long time it has been, in coming.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>My life has been changed radically by my growing understanding of the challenges of being gay or bi or trans or lesbian or questioning or intersex or non-binary.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Because I stepped into that stream of awareness---awareness of the pain and the joy and the need for justice---my life has been transformed and I am happier and ever more grateful for those experiences.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Nowadays, we need to look back with gratitude for the strength and courage of what I think of as the Stonewall Generation, the Elders in the Q community who survived the abuse, oppression, exclusion, and the HIV/AIDs crisis of earlier cultural times, and made it safer to come out as gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, trans, intersex, non-binary, and questioning.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Those who now have the freedom to express their gender and sexual identities can thank those Elders for doing so much of the work to lay down the foundations of Pride.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;">It’s important for all of us to remember that “Hurt people hurt people”. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We all have deep wounds, whether gay or straight and we need to teach ourselves to respond to others out of a loving heart and gratitude for the chance to be oneself.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It was not always so easy.</p></div><br /><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-6145821253270516312022-06-05T20:29:00.002-07:002022-06-05T20:29:29.909-07:00Flowers for Our Fathers<p> </p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">FLOWERS FOR OUR FATHERS</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Rev. Kit Ketcham, June 15, 2022</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> On Fathers’ Day and Mothers’ Day, we honor the parents who gave us life, whether those parents are our kin by blood, by adoption, by marriage, by affinity, such as a favored teacher, or by preference for a beloved adult.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> When my son was a toddler, he received child care from a family in our church, Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden, Colorado. Bruce and Judy Douglass had a little boy about Mike’s age and a baby girl on the way, so Mike had a playmate in their son Scott and a baby on the horizon. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We weren’t sure what Mike should call these friends who took such a prominent role in his young life, but the boys quickly figured out that they had a Mama Kit and a Mama Judy and a Daddy Larry and a Daddy Bruce. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> As Mike got older and began to bring friends around, I became Mumsy to Aaron and a couple of other boys, and we all graduated to being Mom Kit, Mom Judy, Dad Bruce, Dad Larry. This, of course, was about the time Mike started walking 15 feet ahead of me or behind me when we had to go shopping for school clothes and he disappeared entirely when we entered the underwear department.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Being Mom Kit and Mumsy to young boys made me acutely aware of my responsibilities as a parent. And as single parents, my former husband and I took very seriously the fracture in our family and tried to shield our son from the worst of it. But it changed our roles to some extent. We had to stand in for the other parent on many occasions, particularly with discipline, and it was tough. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I like to think we managed about as well as it could be done; we lived in houses within walking or biking distance and Mike saw each of us just about daily. But it wasn’t at all easy and I got a whole new appreciation for what fathers contribute to a child’s growth and maturity. I could see clearly what my own father had done for me.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> When I started seminary in 1995, I was faced with the need to come to terms with many of the religious ideas I’d been brought up with, as well as the roles that had been instilled in me with that religious upbringing. I needed to find my own ways of interpreting the gifts of that upbringing and discarding the ones I could no longer use.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Many of my understandings of religion and sacred texts came from my father, the Baptist minister. I strove to please him and, as the first surviving child in our branch of the Ketcham family, I enjoyed a close relationship with him. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My dad had grown up in northern Missouri with parents who had little education. His father had had a hunting accident that destroyed his left hand, where he wore a steel hook for the rest of his life. This injury made it impossible for him to continue to work as a railroad gandy dancer, but he had seven children and no other means of support. So in about 1920, he turned to moonshine, commandeering my dad and his older brother into being delivery boys.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My grandmother got nervous about her 12 year old son tangling with the revenooers and wangled my grandfather’s permission for my father, at this young age, to take a three day train ride, all alone, from Missouri to Pinedale, Wyoming, where he went to high school and learned to be a cowboy on a ranch in the Green River valley. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: Arial; font-kerning: none; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">To me, my dad was kind of a romantic figure, leaving a life of poverty and making a new life for himself and, later, for the whole Ketcham family, who eventually came to Wyoming to join him. To be my dad’s “pal” and go fishing and to learn from him to saddle and ride a horse was the highest of honors for me.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> By the time I went to seminary, however, he had been dead for 25 years and I had diverged seriously from that early Baptist path. I had never discussed my changes of belief with him before his death and had to make peace with our differences without any conversation to struggle through. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My mother had expressed her concern for my changes, my aunt was sure my dad was spinning in his grave, and I had a lot of baggage around religion and family when I entered Iliff School of Theology in 1995.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> So I felt a little wary about studying the Bible, which was a required course of study for all students. I was pretty sure I didn’t know everything there was to know about the Bible, but though I liked some of what I knew, I was very uneasy about other passages and stories. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> And it bothered me a lot that many people whom I loved dearly believed the Bible was the literal, inerrant, totally true Word of God, straight from the mouth and heart of the Creator who put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Like My Dear Dad.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Getting ready to enter seminary, I was both excited to have scholarly men and women unfolding the meaning of such passages as a 6-day creation story, a water into wine story, and a bodily resurrection story and worried that perhaps even these learned professors would say that the stories were literally true. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I need not have been concerned. My Hebrew Bible professor was a top scholar in his field, a master of both the Hebrew and Greek languages, skilled in presenting the research that has gone on for centuries to reveal the culture and history of those ancient times, and a really funny man to boot.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> He unfolded for our class the mysteries of this set of books, supposedly sent by God yet bearing evidence of several different very human authors and editors.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> For example, in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the writing style, the use of different terms for God, chunks of text that seem to have been inserted later by an editor, all betray different minds working to set down in writing the worldview of a prehistoric people who knew nothing of science but did know how to shape a creation story into something meaningful for that culture.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We learned that there were actually two very different creation stories, one in which it took 6 days to set the universe and earth and living creatures in place, and another in which humans are created first. In this second story, the first man and woman receive names: Adam, which signifies “everyman” and Eve, which means “Mother of all living”. These then were symbolic names, not actual monikers. And the two stories seemed to indicate that there were at least two different story-tellers.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We learned about the context in which the purity laws in Hebrew scripture are distinctly apropos to those ancient times and reflect the ways by which a beleaguered people maintained their distinctiveness as a community and discouraged any act which did not further this cohesiveness.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> The punitive nature of these purity laws, which have often been used against sexual minorities, women, and children, was a factor of the times in which those early people lived and clearly out of place in our culture today. At the same time, other laws reflected universal human moral precepts: don’t steal, don’t covet others’ property or partners, don’t murder, take time to rest, honor your elders.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We learned to “unpack” the passages of the Bible to reveal the culture and mores of the writer, to find the original meanings of words and put them together to understand what the author meant by his or her words, to reveal the structure of the society in which the author lived, and to find meaning in it for our time, where possible.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We learned to look at scripture metaphorically, not literally, and I have to tell you, this was hard for some of our more conservative classmates, some of whom bailed out and went down the street to the Southern Baptist seminary nearby.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> When we had completed our term of study of the Hebrew Bible, we turned to the Christian New Testament. Our professor was a young woman, an observant Conservative Jew whose doctoral thesis had been on the years linking the Hebrew scriptures and the Christian scriptures.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> She too was a challenging and stimulating teacher, unfolding the differences in theology within the first four books of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We learned that these books had been written up to 100 years after Jesus died, that they were similar in some places and very different in others, that the names of their authors were probably not actually Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John but that these names had been given to lend their stories credibility.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Each author had a particular bias about Jesus’ life and told the story with a certain slant, emphasizing certain aspects over others. In some, there is no birth story or the birth story is very different from the others; in some there is a resurrection story; in each book, some details are identical to the other books and other details are different.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> During our yearlong journey in understanding the Bible not only as traditionally sacred literature but also as a guide to early religious and social culture, we learned the skill of “exegesis”, a term that refers to the critical analysis or interpretation of a word or a passage, particularly of religious texts.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> There are several lenses to use in analyzing a text. I was reminded while writing this of just how complex this task can be, dissecting a text for its historical context, its original sources, its setting and the traditions of that setting, its unique message, the meaning of its story and who its author might be, the ethical implications of the text and the comparison of it to our own time and place in history.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Each term, we were assigned the task of “exegeting” a passage from the scripture we were studying. At the end of one term, we had been assigned to choose one of the methods of exegesis we’d studied, take one of the Psalms, and explain it, amplify it, unpack it using that method.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Because this particular assignment became very important to me, I’d like to share part of it with you because it affected my sense of my father and his meaning in my life. I had chosen the “personal” method of exegesis, relating a text to my own personal life. (PAUSE)</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I’d been sitting at my kitchen table with books and journal articles piled around me, studying Psalm 121. I’d read it over and over, enjoying the poetry of the King James version instead of our more prosaic study RSV. Let me read it to you in the KJV text:</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 15.6px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><i><sup>2 </sup></i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 15.6px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><i><sup>3 </sup></i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 15.6px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><i><sup>4 </sup></i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 15.6px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><i><sup>5 </sup></i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 15.6px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><i><sup>6 </sup></i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 15.6px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><i><sup>7 </sup></i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.</i></span><span class="s3" style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 15.6px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><i><sup> </sup></i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I’d always thought these words were beautiful yet in my post-modern skeptical frame of mind, I’d dismissed their literal meaning, and then …</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> As I sat at the kitchen table, looking over my stack of articles and notes, trying to find the right approach, one that was scholarly but also personally meaningful to me, unbidden music came into my thoughts, as it often does when I’m pondering.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> An old Sunday School song: <i>“Safe am I, safe am I, in the hollow of his hand; sheltered o’er, sheltered o’er, with his love forevermore. No ill can harm me, no foe alarm me, for he keeps both day and night. Safe am I, safe am I, in the hollow of his hand.”</i></span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> The song sang itself over and over. I closed my eyes and tried to let myself feel where it was coming from. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: Arial; font-kerning: none; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">…….Noise in my ears, a roaring. Rain down the back of my neck, my wet sneakers desperately trying to find a toehold on the steep slope. A long way down to rocky Crescent beach beneath me, the sound of sobbing, and a deep voice----“hang on, honey, Daddy’s coming”.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My father’s gasping breaths, his anxious face, and then his strong arm scooping me up and carrying me bodily up the ocean cliff to the safety of the path there at Ecola State Park, as the rest of my family hurried up the trail to us.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> We had been walking on Crescent Beach when someone commented that we needed to be careful because the tide was coming in and we could easily be cut off and stranded by the rising water. I had panicked, as six-year-olds will, and had, in my fright, climbed halfway up a steep, grassy cliff before getting stuck--unable to go up or down--and clinging precariously to wet hummocks of slippery seagrass.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My father’s quick action and strength had rescued me from terror and possibly serious injury, and as he held me tight, once we were safe, it seemed as though a miracle had occurred.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> At the top of the headland, my mother scolded and hugged me, while my sister looked on wide-eyed. My father leaned against a tree and tried to breathe. The desperate trip had cost him dearly. “Merritt, are you all right?” my mother was alarmed.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> “I’m not sure--let me rest a minute. I can hardly breathe and my chest hurts. But Betsy's okay, that’s the important thing.” </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Psalm 121, a child’s version</i></b></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>“I lift up my eyes to the hills,</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Where is someone to help me?</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>My help comes from my father who is coming for me,</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>He will not let me slip from the cliff,</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>He is always alert to his child,</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>He who keeps me will neither slumber nor sleep.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>He will keep me safe,</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>He will protect me from the terrors of the day and of the night.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>He will protect me from all evil, he will save my life.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>He will carry me to the path, he will be my help forevermore.”</i></span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My father acted in the same way that your own fathers were likely to act, when you were in danger. You yourself may have had occasion to save your own child’s life, or the life of another person. What does a child learn from this behavior from a father or a father figure?</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I believe that I learned to trust because of my father’s faithfulness to me and my family. I learned that I was worthy of the risks he took to carry me up that steep slope,(and if you’ve ever looked over the edge at Crescent Beach below the Ecola State Park lookout, you know how steep it was).</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I learned many things from watching my father, over the years. I learned resilience and faith in my own ability to do hard things. I learned to love unconditionally. I learned to emulate my father’s passion for public service. I also learned that ministry was a hard profession and that I needed to take care of myself so that it didn’t kill me, as the stress eventually took a toll on my father. I learned to think independently and to be my true self.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> What have you learned from your father? We learn valuable lessons from both the positive and negative behaviors of our fathers. My dad was the target of his angry father’s belt and he learned that he never wanted to strike his child, for any reason. He spanked me once when I was young and it upset him so badly he never did it again. </span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I invite you to think about the learnings you received from your father or from a father figure in your life and speak them out after a few moments of reflection. What did you learn from your father? (Cong. response)</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> Thank you. Let’s pause for a time of silent reflection and prayer.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">BENEDICTION: Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together, is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, remembering the lessons we received from our fathers and our father figures. May we use the negative lessons to grow in wisdom and may we use the positive lessons to offer greater love to the world. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.</span></p><p class="p3" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; color: #878787; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p></div><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-23343934656498174322022-06-02T07:21:00.000-07:002022-06-02T07:21:51.660-07:00Nighttime Worries<p> <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">I woke up about 3 to go to the bathroom this morning and when I went back to bed, I was beset by the worry that someday I might die at home at night and that nobody would notice that I hadn’t left the house and would not come to check on me. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Not only would I be dead, but Lily would be frantic with hunger and thirst and anxiety and would have no way of signaling for help.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;">I couldn’t go back to sleep and kept struggling with this worry, devising possible scenarios which would prevent or remedy the situation.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I couldn’t think of anything that would save Lily’s life, if I weren’t found for several days.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>She might yowl loudly, but could she be heard from her back bedroom?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Not likely.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So I got up, just to give myself something else to do and in the middle of getting ready for the day, feeding her, opening her favorite windows, etc., it came to me:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the chances of this happening to me are extremely small; I am more likely to be killed in a car accident or some such.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I don’t agonize over car accidents; I don’t need to agonize over this death scenario.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It might happen but it is MORE LIKELY that it will not happen, that Lily will die before I do, and that I can safely remember this comforting thought:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IT IS <span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;">HIGHLY</span> UNLIKELY THAT I WILL DIE SUDDENLY AND WITHOUT WARNING AND WILL LEAVE LILY UNCARED FOR.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I am a conscientious cat mama; I do all I can to make her life with me safe and comfortable.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>That’s about all I can do.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Amen.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">PS.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>If you notice that I haven’t left the house in several days, please check on me!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Lily is in the back bedroom with her litter box.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Thanks.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-58874932086812530242022-05-09T06:02:00.000-07:002022-05-09T06:02:01.594-07:00<p><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; text-align: center;">Gifts from our Mothers and our Other-Mothers</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">By Rev. Kit Ketcham, May 8, 2022</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Interesting, isn’t it, the juxtaposition of the Supreme Court’s draft on abortion rights and a day honoring the role of Mothers, mothers who may not have had access to birth control or control of their own bodies. I’m not going to address that issue now but it will doubtless be open season during coffee hour!</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It’s taken me a long time since my mother’s death in 1994 to understand better my relationship with her, a relationship that often made me feel guilty that I wasn’t more patient with her, that I didn’t come to visit her more often, that I couldn’t be with her as she was dying.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And yet it was also a relationship of great joy, times spent walking down country roads in the Klickitat River valley while gazing at Mount Adams in the distance and smelling the sagebrush, times spent with her and my son on a long crosscountry trip through Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, intense Scrabble and Boggle games when she would chortle gleefully over her phenomenal scores—and my pitiful ones.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">As we aged, she into health crises of major significance and I into single parenthood and career changes, our roles shifted. Her caretaking of me over my lifetime morphed from the normal Mom duties of wiping noses, administering kaopectate, mopping up tears, reassuring teenage angst, and comforting a newly-single, once-married daughter; ….</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">eventually her caretaking was evidenced more in her willingness to weed my Denver gardens, vacuum my dusty floors, clean my grimy kitchen, pray for my return to the Baptist fold.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">My relationship with her moved from dependence on her mothering to impatience with her lack of understanding of my life, of my religious changes, of my parenting techniques, and of my fondness for one boyfriend or another, for she never felt they were worthy of me.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It also eventually became a relationship which required me to take care of her the best I could from my faraway home in Colorado. Impatience with her became fear of losing her, a sense of obligation that I must do what I could to be present for her---and for my family members upon whose shoulders her care eventually fell. I needed to make amends to her for many lapses in my daughterly duties: that familiar impatience, resentment of her pleas that I return to my childhood faith, my own efforts to make HER see the light of truth and reason.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">My relationship with my mother may have many of the same characteristics of your relationship with your mother, whether your mother is alive or not. I invite you, for a moment or two in silence, to consider the trajectory of your relationship with your mother or the mother figure in your life, whether a biological relationship exists or not. (silence)</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mother’s Day is one of those tough holidays during the church year that causes a preacher to dig deep for a new way of observing it, for it is a holiday that has been commercialized way beyond its original meaning, a meaning stated so eloquently in our antiphonal reading of Julia Ward Howe’s Mothers’ Day Proclamation.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In addition, some of us have had wonderful experiences with our mothers and others of us have had very painful years because of a mother who was unable to fulfill her role well.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We depend so much on those who mother us! We depend on them for all the tasks that accompany children and youths: the feeding, clothing, cleaning up, teaching, encouraging, nurturing, training, accompanying, shaping, guarding, approving, disapproving. Though others share these tasks---thank you to big sisters, big brothers, fathers, and other adults---mothers are often the ones who do the most. And, of course, pregnancy and birth are one-woman jobs, though usually with a lot of help.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">When we move into those mothering roles ourselves, whether as birth mothers, adoptive mothers, foster mothers, all those female roles of nurture and shaping, we tend to mother the way our mothers mothered us. Even men who take on nurturing roles often find themselves behaving like their own mothers on occasion.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I remember one time, when my son was small and being annoying in that sort-of-innocent little-boy way, my yelling at him, the way my mother sometimes had yelled at me, “you ornery whelp! I’m going to rip off your leg and beat you over the head with the bloody stump!”</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Astonished, he puddled up and began to cry a little bit, not knowing that I was joking, in the way my mother used to joke when she was fed to the gills with our rambunctiousness and needed to say something shocking but entirely impossible.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">To young Mike, HIS mom, I, was completely capable of ripping off his leg, at least in fantasy! Oh boy, did I ever have to backpedal! It has occurred to me to wonder where MY mother got that memorable and shocking phrase! Possibly from her Viking roots as full-blooded Scandinavian!</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But what happens when we approach our mothering job after having been raised by a mother who really couldn’t do the tasks of motherhood, whether from illness or a rotten upbringing herself or addictions or any number of the plagues of human living?</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We may have been lucky enough to have a different mother figure to learn from or we may have turned to our father for the nurture our mother couldn’t give. And we stumbled along as best we could, using our own negative experiences as guideposts for what NOT to do.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Some of us have been pretty angry with our mothers; we may have told them so or we may have kept it inside, only sharing the positive feelings we had or withdrawing so that we wouldn’t express our hurt. Some of us have used our mothers’ behavior to learn new ways of being in relationship with children, unwilling to risk making the same mistakes. Some of us have been leery of motherhood and not sure we should take on the role.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Some of us mother other people’s children, sometimes in addition to our own. Some of us would love to be mothers but have not yet had that chance.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Most of us, probably, can name the many gifts our mothers gave us, both the positive ones and the negative ones. For a gift’s meaning depends on how we use it.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Our mothers teach us self-sufficiency in many areas and many ways; some of those are the traditional roles of womanhood---housekeeping, nurturing children, dealing with relationships with men, with other women, with siblings. Some of her ways were helpful and others were not.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We learn from their example, both the good example and the bad. We may find ourselves living out our mother’s foibles and catch ourselves just in time to avoid the behaviors we deplored in her. Or not!</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">What have been the gifts our mothers gave us? I invite you again into a time of silence to think about the gifts our mothers offered, the gifts we received joyfully, the gifts we rejected because they were inappropriate, the gifts we have transformed from something negative into something positive. (silence)</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">As I think about the gifts my mother gave me, I am most struck by the gift of JOY, her firm belief that life was good, that there was plenty of love to go around, and that happiness was a natural state of being.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> She also gave me the gift of scolding me for saying I was bored and teaching me to look inside myself and at the world outside myself to find interesting things to see and experience. She gave me the negative gift of being deeply, continuously disappointed in my choice of religious beliefs, and I learned how important it is to respect others’ religious paths.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Just for a moment, I’d like to give you a chance to say your mother’s gift aloud. Just call out the name of the gift, whether it was an attitude, a material gift, a deed, a skill, whatever it was. If the gift was negative, see if you can find the silver lining there. Go ahead----say it! And it doesn’t matter if you say the same things or if you say them at the same time. It is a way of honoring our mothers and their gifts.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Many of us are lucky enough to have mothers living, even living with us or close by and experiencing an entirely different kind of relationship than we did when we lived together as a young family. There is something appropriate about that cycle of living, in which the caretaker becomes the taken-care-of and the child becomes the caretaker. It’s often not a comfortable place to be, for either person, and yet great joy is available in that changed relationship.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">When my mother was living in a retirement facility and then in assisted living in Longview WA, we had a chance to see her in a different way. My siblings and I wondered how she would survive the challenges of institutional living after being independent for so many years and we worried about her ability to communicate after several small strokes left her mostly wordless.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But despite her aphasia, her inability to utter intelligible speech, she found other ways of communicating. She immediately found friends at the assisted living facility, she expressed herself with hugs and touches, smiles, tears. She miraculously could remember and sing lustily all the words to the old hymns and carols, even adding her strong alto part at the Christmas concert the care facility put on.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We saw her then in a whole new way, this woman who had survived so many of life’s challenges and great sorrows: the loss of her mother at an early age, her father’s painful death from cancer, the loss of two stillborn babies before I came along, the chronic illness of her beloved husband, my father, my heretical religious beliefs and commitments, the failed marriages of all three of her children, loneliness and pain and ill health.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We saw her make joy out of almost nothing. We saw her continue to love---to love us and our children, to love her new companions also at the far edges of their lives, to love music and singing and visiting favorite places. We saw her give thanks continuously---to her God, whom she saw as close by and accessible, to us for our love and care, to the nurses and staff members who cared for her, to the friends who visited and took her to church and made sure she was not lonely. What an example for us to follow!</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And then she died. Not unexpectedly, not in great pain, but one day she was awake and responsive, the next day unconscious, almost the next day, gone.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The death of our mother is one of the greatest losses we humans endure. Whether she was a good or a notsogood parent, whether she gave us what we needed from her or failed us badly, whether she was joyous or depressed, thankful or ungrateful, nurturing or needy, her death creates a hole in our lives.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A familiar relationship, a long-lived pattern has ended, at least in physical form. How do we deal with that loss? How do we make it as meaningful as possible? How do we cope with the fact that so much still needs to be repaired or acknowledged between us, though time has run out?</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I invite us to take another few moments of silence to consider this important moment in all of our lives. For some of us it has occurred; for others, it is yet to be. And before the silence, let me offer these ideas:</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If there is pain because of unresolved issues, if there is relief at her release from illness and old age, if there is fear about the future, if there is joy about her life, if there is a desire to make things better, let these feelings and thoughts come to mind, acknowledge them, and let them go, for the present. You can come back to them later.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If there is guilt because we were not the best possible sons and daughters, if there is satisfaction because we know we did the best we could, if there is anger, if there is grief, if there is hope for reconciliation, let these feelings and thoughts come to mind, acknowledge them and let them go, for the present. You can come back to them later.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Let us be still together as we consider the loss of our mothers. (Silence)</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We are who we are, in great part, because of our mothers, because of who they were and who their mothers were. We are who we are because of who our mothers chose to be our fathers; we are who we are because of the genetic makeup we inherited, the family constellation in which we grew up, the communities we inhabited.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We do with our own true natures what we have learned from our mothers and fathers. And where those lessons were negative, we have the ability to turn those dark times into silver linings.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">As Veja and I talked about this service, I asked her for her thoughts about her mother, who died several years ago, and who I had the privilege of meeting. And she answered that she was even more deeply aware of her mother’s unconditional love and how much she is like her mother, with a greater appreciation of her mother’s gifts of strength and love. She credits her mother for her own resilience and strength while facing aging and loss.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I no longer have my mother’s presence, but I have my mother’s spirit deeply embedded in my heart. She influences my behavior even now, as I understand how hard it is to parent an adult child without impinging upon his selfhood as a father, husband, and friend.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Let’s think now about the tasks of being mothered. If there are unresolved issues between you and your living mother, do what you can to resolve them, kindly and with the understanding gained from your years of experience. For she will not always be alive but she will always be part of your life.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If she is already gone, consider writing her a letter, perhaps forgiving her lapses, perhaps accepting the gifts she was able to give, perhaps apologizing for your own mistakes and reassuring her and yourself of your love for each other. Then keep that letter and reread it occasionally to remind yourself of the many gifts of the life she gave you.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">These actions can bring peace if your heart is troubled by your relationship with your mother; you will have done what you can do and then you can let go of some of that sorrow. It may be worth the effort.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We’ve been pretty serious and we are in a national time of turmoil and conflict about motherhood. Here are some quotations from mothers that may make us laugh.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">GIFTS FROM MY MOTHER</span></b></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE .</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">My mother taught me RELIGION.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"you better pray that will come out of the carpet."</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">My mother taught me LOGIC.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">" Because I said so, that's why."</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My mother taught me ADVANCED LOGIC .</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">My mother taught me FORESIGHT.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck?</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> My mother taught me about GARDENING.</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“You could grow potatoes in those ears of yours!”</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My mother taught me about WEATHER.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My mother taught me about HYPERBOLE.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"Just wait until we get home."</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">My mother taught me about RECEIVING .</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"You are going to get it when you get home!"</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> My mother taught me OPHTHALMOLOGY.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to get stuck that way."</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT .</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My mother taught me GENETICS.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"You're just like your father."</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My mother taught me about my ROOTS.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> My mother taught me WISDOM.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #161616; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> And finally, my mother taught me about JUSTICE.</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Honey," she said, "you deserve that kid."</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Let’s take a time of silence in honor of all who extend care.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">BENEDICTION: Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together, is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, remembering our mothers with love and forgiveness, remembering our own efforts to offer mothering to those who need it and forgiving ourselves our lapses. Let us remember as well the many women and men who want children of their own and do not yet have them. May their hearts be eased. May we find joy and growth in the lessons learned from our many, many mothers and may we give our own gifts to the children in our lives. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-71808224673986331302022-04-11T08:18:00.001-07:002022-04-11T08:19:21.058-07:00THE GOD QUESTION: a sermon in several parts<p> </p><p class="p1" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">THE GOD QUESTION (a sermon in several parts)</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">by Rev. Kit Ketcham, Apr. 10, 2022</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-align: center;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>SYMPOSIUM</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>by Joe Rush, member of Boulder UU Fellowship, 1935</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“God,” said the theologian,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“Is a triune entity</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Of Holy Spirit, Father, Son,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Yet One for all eternity.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>A workman dropped his pick, and spat,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>As he frowned and scratched his head.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“Why, God”--he labored with the thought--</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“God saves our souls when we are dead.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“God is a myth!” the atheist spoke</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>With an air of studied scorn.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“Chance rules; and man, stern nature’s joke,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Once dead, might never have been born.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>A tired old lady, bent and gray,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Closed the Book and met my eyes:</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“For years I’ve trusted Him;</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>one day He’ll call me home beyond the skies.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“God loves me,” smiled a little girl,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Pausing breathlessly at play.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Her father groaned, “Oh Godless world!”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>The day his child was laid away.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“The Lord of Hosts is on our side!”--</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And they urged men on...to die:</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Somewhere beyond the battle tide</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“Gott mit uns!” echoed back the cry.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>O Power that wields insensate sod</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>To a dim celestial plan,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Is man the image of his God,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Or God a counterpart of man?</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">STORY FOR ALL AGES:</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>“Children’s Letters to God”</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, in Sunday School they told us what You do. Who does it when you are on vacation? Jane</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, I read the Bible. What does “begat” mean? Nobody will tell me. Love, Allison</i></span></p><p class="p6" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, If you watch me in church Sunday, I’ll show You my new shoes. Mickey</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, Are you really invisible or is that a trick? Lucy</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident? Norma</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, Please send me a pony. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up. Bruce</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t You just keep the ones You have now? Jane</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, Who draws the lines around countries? Nan</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that okay? Neil</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, What does it mean You are a jealous God? I thought you had everything. Jane</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, Thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy. Joyce</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, I think about You sometimes even when I’m not praying. Elliot</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, My brother told me about being born, but it doesn’t sound right. They’re just kidding, aren’t they? Marsha</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, We read Thomas Edison made light. But in Sunday School they said You did it. So I bet he stoled Your idea. Donna</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Dear God, I didn’t think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset You made on Tuesday.That was cool. Eugene</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">READING: New Apple Software for your personal Mac or PC (by Karin)</span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p7" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b><br /></b></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><b>Bulletin: New Apple Software for your personal Mac or PC</b></span></p><p class="p8" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Macintosh Corporation announced today its’ purchase and copyright of God herself.</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">“Our new product will be named, of course, <b><i>E Gods</i></b>,<b><i> </i></b>and will be available to consumers, sometime in late 2022. </span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">“Too many of us feel disconnected from God in today’s world”, announced David Goliath, director of Apple’s Religious Products division.</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">“Our brand new <b><i>E God</i></b> will make your Lord more accessible to you: making her not only easier to locate, but easier to ring up for chat.</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Our new Mac Religions Line will soon be expanding, so you may purchase add-ons to your personalized Mac God, including:</span></p><p class="p10" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 102.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Mac Missionary Position: </i></b>This software will import all your prayer files from any previous version of God, including Buddha, Allah and even the Goddess of the Golden Calf.</span></p><p class="p10" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 102.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>WWW-DOT-God-For-All: </i></b>This inexpensive product will link you to our brand new <i>Omnipotent Modem</i>, making your creator as easy to reach as the touch of a mouse. It will also provide links to these recently developed products:</span></p><p class="p11" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 486.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>MYOS (Make Your Own Salvation)</b></span></p><p class="p11" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 486.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>APP (Active Prayer Pages), </b></span></p><p class="p11" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 486.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>and our private Graven Image Clip Art.</b></span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Your monthly donations to the poor can also now be transferred using <b><i>SAS (the Secure Alms Server).</i></b></span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Additional upgrades to your <b><i>E God </i></b>will include:</span></p><p class="p10" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 102.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>I Prayer:</i></b> Using your I-Phone or I-Pad, this product will allow you to compose, blog & print your prayers with rapid speed. <b><i>Personalized Prayer Templates</i></b> will make your everyday prayers (saying grace, children’s bedtime, etc.) a nimble snap!</span></p><p class="p10" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 102.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">With our <b><i>Guardian Angel Secure Prayer Channel </i></b>option, you will enjoy instant delivery of your prayers to your personal <b><i>E God</i></b> server. </span></p><p class="p10" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 102.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>E-Savior: </i></b>This shareware will allow worshippers to transfer any sins to a password protected <b><i>SCD (Secure Confessional Database)</i></b>, free for a trial period of 40 days and 40 nights. (Note: Please DO NOT forget your password.)</span></p><p class="p10" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 102.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">And: our <b><i>Wikipedia Prayer Wizards</i></b> are available 24/7 to help you concoct your newest needed prayer requests, requiring a very modest theological learning curve on your part.</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Hereafter, for your <b><i>Unlimited Eternal Usage </i></b>and any <b><i>Born Again </i></b>upgrades—still undergoing trial testing—all sinners will be required to register and remit tax deductible monthly offerings. All major credit cards accepted. With your full registration, all your future transgressions will be forgiven, & you will be provided with a private line to our <b><i>E God Salvation Server.</i></b></span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Beginning Easter, 2023 our newest innovations will include:</span></p><p class="p10" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 102.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Gabriels Trumpet Garage Band</i></b><i> </i>software,</span></p><p class="p10" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 102.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">our <b><i>Seventh Heaven Rapture Station</i></b>—version 666—decryption device,</span></p><p class="p10" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 102.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">The new Gideon publication: <b><i>God for Dummies,</i></b></span></p><p class="p10" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 102.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Also, from SONY Sound Systems: the <b><i>Celestial Thunderbolt 20 Gigawatt Speaker Set,</i></b></span></p><p class="p10" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 102.4px; text-indent: -24px;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-kerning: none; font-size: 13.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">·</span><span class="s4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.3px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">and, free with purchase, our unique <b><i>After Dark Flying Cherubs Screensaver.</i></b></span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">For more information, visit us at:</span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="color: #103cc0; font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.pearlygates.org/"><b>www.pearlygates.org</b></a></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>. </b> You can email her at <b>(almighty-dash-One@ </b><a href="http://godhead.net/"><span class="s6" style="color: #103cc0; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>godhead.net</b></span></a><b>) </b></span></p><p class="p9" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Find us on Facebook! at <b><i>Deities-R-Us </i></b></span></p><p class="p12" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">REFLECTION:</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">“Struggling with the God Concept”</span></p><p class="p14" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Wouldn’t it be wonderful if relating to the idea of God were as easy as buying a new software product for our computers? Certainly it would be less of a hassle than figuring out whether or not Prayer fits our own belief systems or whether Salvation makes any sense in the post-modern paradigm or whether Science is our Savior or our Satan. Think of the relevance of the new Scripture: Apple God for Dummies.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">We laugh at the very notion that Ultimate Reality can be reduced to a computer program and yet, in this age of quick-as-a-wink transmission and instantaneous feedback, we wish it were so easy. We’ve gotten spoiled by the ease with which we can communicate with other continents, with satellites on missions to outer space, with the guy on the cellphone in the next car. But the idea of God remains elusive and frustrating.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Our service today is an offbeat look at relationships between the human and the Divine-- whatever you may conceive that to be. One of our UU struggles is with the concept of God. As a pluralistic faith, we are accustomed to the idea that not everyone believes in God. Buddhism, for example, and other nonWestern faith traditions have looked to ancestors and tradition for their wisdom. Nontheists in Western countries have long felt that there is little scientific evidence for the idea of God and tend to think of God as a human invention.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Whatever your thinking may be about the idea of God, we hope that you will find food for thought in this service as we explore some of the many ways human beings have thought about God, Goddess, the Spirit of Life, the Divine Source, the Mother and Father of us all, you supply your own metaphor or expression!</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Anselm, an 11th century Christian theologian, applied scholarly logic to theological controversy and speculation. He wrote a statement in which he attempted to prove the existence of God by means of logical deduction. He wrote:</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“This proposition is indeed so true that its negation is inconceivable. For it is quite conceivable that there is something whose non-existence is inconceivable, and this must be greater than that whose non-existence is conceivable. Wherefore, if that thing than which no greater thing is conceivable can be conceived as non-existent; then, that very thing than which a greater is inconceivable is not that than which a greater is inconceivable; which is a contradiction. “So true is it that there exists something than which a greater is inconceivable, that its non-existence is inconceivable; and this thing art Thou, O Lord our God.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Tough going, isn’t it? When I first read this, in my Church History class many years ago, I burst out laughing. It seemed like a joke. However, nobody else in that Iliff classroom seemed to find it as funny as I did, so I had to do some thinking about it. And I realized that proving the existence of God has been a problem that human beings have struggled with since time immemorial.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">As for me, I prefer a poetic attempt. Let me read a poem which better captures the mystery that I think human beings have been struggling with. The name of the poem is “Epiphany” and it is by Pem Kremer.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-align: center;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“Lynn Schmidt says</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>She saw you once as prairie grass,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Nebraska prairie grass.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>She climbed out of her car on a hot highway,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Leaned her butt on the nose of her car,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Looked out over one great flowing field,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Stretching beyond her sight until the horizon came.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Vastness, she says,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Responsive to the slightest shift of wind,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Full of infinite change,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>All One.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>She says when she can’t pray,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>She calls up Prairie Grass.”</i></span></p><p class="p6" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">When I think of moments spent on prairie grasslands, on a mountainside, at the ocean, in a midnight sky, a field of sandhill cranes, a desert shelf, an immense river canyon, God is not just a theory to me.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">In our efforts to describe the force we may call God or Source of Life or Love, we often get frustrated and irritated. It’s not easy to describe something which is invisible yet sort of visible, loving yet dangerous, all powerful yet tragically bumbling, getting a lot of credit for creativity but not really measuring up to some of our own human standards. Despite humankind’s apparent complete dependence on nature, or God as some call it, we often wish that this incredible Force would get its act together and behave in a responsible and predictable way. Like we do.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Frank Logan will explain further.</span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>READING:</i></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-align: center;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>ADAM’S LAMENT</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i><br /></i></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>by Nicholas Biel, adapted by Lev Ropes</i></span></p><p class="p14" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>There I was, on the third day, dust, common ordinary dust</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i><br /></i></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Like you see on a country road after a dry spell.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i><br /></i></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Nothing expected.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i><br /></i></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Me expecting nothing neither.</i></span></p><p class="p14" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>On the sixth day, HE comes along and blows,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And, “In my image” he says, like he was doing me a favor.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Sometimes I think if he’d waited a million years, then I’d be tired of being dust,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>But after two, three days, what can you expect?</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>I wasn’t used to being even dust and he makes me into Man.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>He could see right away from the look on my face, that I wasn’t so pleased,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>So he’s gonna butter me up.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>He puts me in this garden, only I don’t butter.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Then he brings me all the animals.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>I should give them names.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>What do I know, names?</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“Call it something,” he says, “anything you want.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>So I make up names--bear, wolf, mouse, lion, snake...</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>It’s crazy, but that’s What he wants.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Later in the day, I get rummy, and I’m running out of ideas.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Peccary, platypus, emu, gnu. “I got gnus for you”, I think.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Finally I’m naming animals since 5 a.m., I’m tired, I go to bed early.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>In the morning, I wake up and there SHE is, sitting by a pool admiring herself.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“Hello, Adam,” she says. “I’m your mate, I’m Eve.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“Pleased to meet you,” I say, and we shake hands.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Actually, I’m not so pleased.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>From time immemorial, nothing.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Now, rush, rush, rush; two days ago I’m dust, yesterday all day I’m naming animals,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And today I got a mate already.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Also I don’t like the way she looks at herself in the water.. or at me!</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Well, you know what happened. I don’t have to tell you.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>There were all those fruit trees; she took a bite, I took a bite, the snake took a bite,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>and quick like a flash-- out of the garden.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Such a fuss over one lousy apple, not even ripe yet (there wasn’t time since creation.)</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Now I’m not complaining.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>After all, it’s his garden.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>He don’t want nobody eating his apples, that’s his business.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>What irritated me, is the nerve of the guy.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>I don’t ask him to make me even dust; he could have left me nothing, like I was before.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Also, I didn’t ask for Cain, for Abel...</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>I didn’t ask for nothing, but anything goes wrong, who gets the blame?</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Sodom, Gomorrah, Babel, Ararat....me or my kids catch it--fire, flood, pillar of salt.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>“Be patient, be a little understanding,” says Eve, “look, he made it, it was his idea, it breaks down, so he’ll fix it.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>But I told him one day, “you’re in too much of a hurry.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>In six days you make everything there is and you expect it to run smoothly?</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Something’s always gonna happen.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>If you’d thought it out more first, made a plan, asked for advice, you wouldn’t have so much trouble all the time.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>But you couldn’t tell him nothing.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>He knows it all.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Like I say, he means well, but he’s a meddler and he’s careless.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>For example, he coulda made that woman so she wouldn’t bite no apple.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>All right, all right, so what’s done is done,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>but all the same, he should’ve known better,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>or at least he coulda blown on some other dust.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">REFLECTION:</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">“When God Doesn’t Measure Up”</span></p><p class="p6" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">As a species, we’re often disappointed in God. The Divine just doesn’t come through in the ways we think it ought to. We ask hard questions: why would a supposedly loving God send his/her children to burn in hell just for being human? why would God make some people survive an accident and others die horribly? what on earth possessed God to make a platypus? or a black widow spider?</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">If God is Love, why does Love often hurt so much? how come the God of the Hebrew Bible and the God of the New Testament are so different? if God wants us to swallow all this stuff about creation and miracles and dry bones rising again, how come God gave us brains? if God is all-powerful, how come there’s disease and war and famine and human beings who are evil?</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">We have a lot of questions. And the traditional answers aren’t satisfactory to most of us UUs. So many of us just refuse to speculate. It doesn’t do any good to ask questions that are impossible to answer. Unlike many scientific hypotheses, the theory of God seems impossible to prove.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Others of us LIKE to speculate. We think about the beauty of the earth and the glory of the skies and we are awed by the wonders surrounding us. So God doesn’t compute scientifically. What DOES make sense to us are the incredibly intricate laws of nature. They seem to be a clue of some kind to a mystery that is inexplicable.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">And, we are forced to admit, human beings haven’t exactly been the most responsible bits of creation. We have used our much-vaunted free will to eliminate and despoil much of the bounty which originally existed on this planet. And we’re arrogant and self-satisfied. We fight a lot--we fight over God and whose side God is on. We invent the most incredible excuses for torturing our fellow human beings.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">We are greedy and grabby and grouchy, often in the name of God. When we look at the history of humankind, it’s a little bit embarrassing to think that much of the destruction we have witnessed over the centuries has been attributed to God’s alleged promise to prefer one group or religion over all others.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">I think God may have been misquoted. Let’s hear now a couple of different points of view from Nancy Logan and Veja Lahti.</span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">READING:</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>“INVENTING SIN” by George Ella Lyon</i></span></p><p class="p14" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>God signs to us</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>We cannot read.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>She shouts</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>We take cover.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>She shrugs</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And trains leave the tracks.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Our schedules! we moan,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Our loved ones! God is fed up.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>All the oceans she gave us,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>All the fields, All the acres of steep seedful forests,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And we did what?</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Invented the Great Chain of Being</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And the chain saw Invented sin.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>God sees us now,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Gorging ourselves and</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Starving our neighbors,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Starving ourselves and</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Storing our grain,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And she says I’ve had it!</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>You cast your trash upon the waters--</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>It’s rolling in,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>You stuck your fine, fine finger Into the mystery of life to find death.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And you did.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>You learned how to end</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>The world in nothing flat.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Now you come crying to your mommy,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Send us a miracle!</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Prove that you exist!</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Look at your hand, I say,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Listen to your scared heart.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Do you have to haul the tide in,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>Sweeten the berries on the vine?</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>I set you down a miracle among miracles,</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>You want more?</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>It’s your turn.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>YOU SHOW ME!</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">READING:</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i>“ On the Origin of Dogs and Cats” (internet)</i></span></p><p class="p14" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>It is reported that the following edition of the Book of Genesis was discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls. If authentic, it would shed light on the question “where do pets come from?”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And Adam said, “Lord, when I was in the garden, you walked with me everyday. Now I do not see you any more. I am lonesome here and it is difficult for me to remember how much you love me.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And God said, “I will create a companion for you that will be with you forever and who will be a reflection of my love for you, so that you will know I love you, even when you cannot see me. Regardless of how selfish and childish and unlovable you may be, this new companion will accept you as you are and will love you as I do, in spite of yourself.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And God created a new animal to be a companion for Adam. And it was a good animal. And God was pleased.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And the new animal was pleased to be with Adam and he wagged his tail. And Adam said, “But Lord, I have already named all the animals in the Kingdom and all the good names are taken and I cannot think of a name for this new animal.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And God said, “Because I have created this new animal to be a reflection of my love for you, his name will be a reflection of my own name, and you will call him DOG.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And Dog lived with Adam and was a companion to him and loved him. And Adam was comforted. And God was pleased. And Dog was content and wagged his tail.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>After awhile, it came to pass that Adam’s guardian angel came to the Lord and said, “Lord, Adam has become filled with pride. He struts and preens like a peacock and he believes he is worthy of adoration. Dog has indeed taught him that he is loved, but no one has taught him humility.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And the Lord said, “I will create for him a companion who will be with him forever and who will see him as he is. The companion will remind him of his limitations, so he will know that he is not worthy of adoration.”</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And God created CAT to be a companion to Adam. And Cat would not obey Adam. And when Adam gazed into Cat’s eyes, he was reminded that he was not the Supreme Being. And Adam learned humility.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And God was pleased.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And Adam was greatly improved.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><i>And Cat did not care one way or the other.</i></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">REFLECTION:</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">“Why Humans Fail; When Humans Need More”</span></p><p class="p14" style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">In the poem Nancy read, God is portrayed as an irritated momma, someone who has given all she has to nurture and support her children and finds that they are ungrateful and grasping. She’s fed up, she says. This is an image parents can relate to! Have our own children been unfailingly grateful and responsible? Hardly, though we love and cherish them. God as disgusted parent is a satisfying concept, even to those of us who resist defining God. We know what it’s like to have our best work taken for granted, destroyed, unappreciated. If there were a God, we figure she’d be ticked.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">And I wonder what you thought as you listened to Veja? How many of us have dogs? And how many have cats? What do we learn from our fellow inhabitants of the planet? That any creature could treat us with such unfailing and unconditional devotion as a dog is overwhelming to me.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">My long-gone pal Snicker, a border collie mix who showed up at our house in Athena one day, survived all the disrespect that three kids could dish out and loved and protected us all the days of his life. When he died, he left quite a hole in our lives.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">But human beings may cherish the idea of God for one main reason, so that we may feel that we are not utterly alone in the universe. Despite all our efforts to provide for ourselves a nurturing and loving life within a community like this, we’re all aware that there may come a time in our lives when we are utterly alone, when no one hears us when we call, when no one comes to see if we’re okay, when, as the old hymn goes, “other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, O abide with me.”</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Whether we believe in a God of any kind or whether we are uninterested in the very concept, we are all subject to human loneliness. And in that existential night, we may wonder. Is there Someone? Is there Something beyond humanity? Something or Someone I may never understand but which I wish for, to bring me comfort when I am stricken with fear, to hold my hand when I am dying, to be with me when I am all alone. God works under these circumstances, at least for many of us. There’s no explaining it, except in terms of human need.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Thomas Dorsey wrote a wonderful old gospel song 50 years ago when his wife died, a song which has passed from being religious to being a piece of Americana. Its language is too literal for most of us, but it doesn’t take much imagination to think of “Precious Lord” as whatever that mysterious Force might be that we want to comfort us in that darkest night, the companion when all others are gone, the antidote to loneliness. Perhaps that is the whole point to the idea of God.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Let’s sing that old hymn, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”, #199</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">CLOSING WORDS: Why God Created Atheists.</span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p15" style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Why Did God Create Atheists?</span></p><p class="p15" style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">There is a famous story told in Chassidic literature that addresses this very question. The Master teaches the student that God created everything in the world to be appreciated, since everything is here to teach us a lesson</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /><br /></span></p><p class="p15" style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">One clever student asks “What lesson can we learn from atheists? Why did God create them?”</span></p><p class="p15" style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">The Master responds “God created atheists to teach us the most important lesson of them all — the lesson of true compassion. You see, when an atheist performs an act of charity, visits someone who is sick, helps someone in need, and cares for the world, he is not doing so because of some religious teaching. He does not believe that God commanded him to perform this act. In fact, he does not believe in God at all, so his acts are based on an inner sense of morality. And look at the kindness he can bestow upon others simply because he feels it to be right.”</span></p><p class="p15" style="color: #0a0a0a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">“This means,” the Master continued “that when someone reaches out to you for help, you should never say ‘I pray that God will help you.’ Instead for the moment, you should become an atheist, imagine that there is no God who can help, and say ‘I will help you.’”</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">—Martin Buber, Tales of Hasidim Vol. 2 (1991)</span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p4" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">BENEDICTION: Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, remembering that whatever we think about God, we are all brothers and sisters under the sky. May we look for the divine in each other and may we treat each other with the gentle care that the sacred deserves. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.</span></p><p class="p16" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 48px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-54137383659549389142022-03-14T11:03:00.002-07:002022-03-14T11:03:50.508-07:00The Evolution of God<p> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; text-align: center;">THE EVOLUTION OF GOD</span></p><p class="p1" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-align: center;">Rev. Kit Ketcham, March 13, 2022</p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It was a beautiful afternoon in fall on a Rocky Mountain hillside, where I sat enjoying the blue skies and warm sun with friends who had gathered at the home of a fellow member of Jefferson Unitarian Church, my church home there in Golden, Colorado.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I’d recently entered seminary and was beginning the school year excitedly engaged in studies of pastoral care, Old Testament, and Church History, surrounded by students from all different Christian backgrounds with a variety of doctrines and dogmas.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I felt a little like an outsider at seminary; I was one of only a handful of Unitarian Universalist students, there at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, a very liberal Methodist seminary. But I was loving my studies, feeling my brain stretch and my own theology grow clearer, as I compared it to the theology of my more traditional classmates.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Next to me in a lawn chair, was an older gentleman named Jakob, who was interested in what I was studying at Iliff, and during our conversation, he mentioned that he was a pretty staunch atheist.</p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I’d known Jakob for many years and I knew this about him, so it occurred to me to ask him “what do you believe in, Jakob?” He paused a moment and then…<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“Nature,” he said. “Nature. That’s what I believe in---the laws of nature, the way the universe works, the plants, the animals, the laws which govern life and how everything connects to everything else. I don’t believe in God. I believe in Nature.”<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In my grad school-induced arrogance, I almost said to him, “but Jakob, it’s just that your God is Nature”. Luckily, I had retained enough of my mother’s teachings about respecting one’s elders to keep my mouth shut and just listen; consequently I went home that evening pondering Jakob’s words and marveling at their implications. It was another step in my own evolution of an understanding of the power beyond human power, which some call God. Or Goddess.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Some of you may remember my story about having gone into a 12 step program years ago to find peace of mind after a number of experiences with alcoholic friends.</p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In a 12 step program, one is asked to find a Higher Power and use its strength to change one’s behavior. I’d outgrown my “old white guy on a throne” concept of God and when they told me that my Higher Power only had to be something stronger than myself, I thought of my hours of hiking up steep trails in the Rockies, defying and yet using gravity to get stronger every step of the way, and I decided to use Gravity as my Higher Power. There seemed to be a connection there.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>When I had my conversation with Jakob, I was ready to grow again and his concept of Nature as Higher Power was very appealing to me. In fact, I’d already realized that gravity was only a piece of my higher power, that the entire universe seemed to be an infinite power that included much, much more, most of it mysterious and only partially understood by science.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Today I want to consider how human understanding of that power beyond human power, that which drives the universe, creates the universe, has evolved over the millennia of recorded human history. <br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It’s interesting to me that human history reveals, both in the larger sense and in the more personal sense, a concept of “God” that has generally evolved from a figure of parental-type authority to loving presence to independence from a fixed image.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In the earliest reaches of human history, the power beyond human power, or God or Goddess, was revealed in weather, in seasons, in drought and flood; it was a force to be appeased, bargained with, sacrificed to. Whether that force was seen to be male or female, it mostly was a rule-maker, a boundary keeper, a teacher. I can almost hear Mother Earth and Father Sky giving instructions: “Now, children, wind and rain and snow can kill you; so make shelter, and, by the way, use fire when you discover it as a gift of weather. <br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“It will be hot for a period of time; it will then cool down; it will get much colder for a period of time (of course I’m excluding the tropical zone); then it will warm up again and the cycle will repeat endlessly. Each season will bring certain kinds of weather, mostly unpredictable; learn to cope.”</p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Humans tried to influence the weather, the seasons, the drought and the flood, using prayer, sacrifice, bargaining with the seen or unseen Gods and Goddesses. Some of it seemed to work; when it didn’t, it was assumed that the deities were displeased or busy elsewhere or had a different plan.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Across the globe, human beings were generally polytheistic, ascribing power to the sun and moon, earth, stars, trees and animals, considering them the beings which controlled their lives, sent the weather, governed the seasons, controlled fertility, birth and death, and were only partly predictable. Female deities were common and Mother Earth was seen by many to be the primary Deity.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>So reverence for a God or Goddess figure was initially, and logically, attached to nature. Not so different from my friend Jakob’s perspective, though Jakob, as a scientist himself, had a lot more academic knowledge to make that judgment on.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Interestingly, ancient peoples often argued with their gods and goddesses, threatening to withhold sacrifice and obedience if the deities didn’t shape up. And intriguing rituals accompanied some of these interchanges.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Robert Wright, in “The Evolution of God” which I read in preparation for this sermon, recounts a ritualistic “interchange” between a Siberian native man and the wind, in which buttocks are bared to the breeze and incantations shouted at the wind, in an effort to stop the wind’s incessant and damaging blast. <br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Lest any of you be tempted to try this, it probably worked about as well as our own Pacific coast hopes and prayers when a wind storm is predicted! Mother Nature, whether by indigenous or modern standards, is notoriously hard to influence. Me, I just pray that I can cope, if the power goes out.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Eventually, polytheism began to lose ground to monotheism, to a powerful, all-purpose Deity who was jealous of other Gods and told his followers (for by now God was a He) to follow his commandments or he’d get mad. If they were good, he’d bless them, give them land of their own, harken to their prayers.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Early scriptures bear this out but the willful Israelites were unwilling to give up their old gods and goddesses completely and frequently invoked the One God’s wrath, causing Him to threaten and punish those He called His Chosen People.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The Abrahamic religions---Judaism, Islam, and Christianity----are descendants of that God-form, having themselves evolved out of the experience and the necessities of human living in early times.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But monotheism has had its own set of problems. The God of Abraham was a top-down, moralistic, parental authority upon whom followers were to be utterly dependent. This God was male in form and in language, which has encouraged followers to assume that God intended that human males be dominant and females be submissive.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Patriarchy was the starting place for a triumvirate of Abrahamic religions that eventually dominated the early Western world. God’s attributes were measured by human attributes, making assumptions about God’s opinions, God’s preferences, and God’s marching orders. <br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This God was rather cruel and autocratic much of the time. This God kicked native peoples out of their lands so that the Chosen Ones could live there. This God sent an avenging angel to kill firstborn Egyptian children, among other plagues, to allow His People to escape into the desert, even though they weren’t happy once they got there.</p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The history of God as portrayed in the Hebrew scriptures is that of a strict and punishing male parent. Scholars like Karen Armstrong and others have posited that when God created humankind, he (like all parents) found himself with unanticipated problems on his hands.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The Hebrew legends around the creation of humankind portray God’s children as independent thinkers whose curiosity landed them in trouble and eventually got them kicked out of Eden.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This God got so upset with human behavior that he decided to drown all but a few and start over. Hence the legend of Noah and the ark, with its male and female starter species.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>When Jesus began his ministry centuries after the Israelites established a monotheistic tradition, he had been raised and educated in the Jewish tradition of a God who demanded that certain purities be maintained, that certain customs were required of devout Jews, and that God was a Father figure. Indeed, Jesus called his God “Father” and, in times of greatest crisis, even called God “Abba” or Daddy.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Christianity modified the portrait of God to include a male parent’s loving side and brought a female near-deity into the family constellation. Mary, the mother of Jesus, became a figure women Christians could identify with and even venerate.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But as the concept of the Trinity evolved, the idea that God was Three in One---Father, Son and Holy Spirit---Mary was merely the mother, albeit the mother of a God figure. Mary was a mortal, after all, and had only been the recipient of God’s grace, not a Goddess herself.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And remember that monotheism, the idea that God is One, was at stake. Even the doctrine of the Trinity, the idea that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were identical to each other and were simply different functions of the One God, was a stretch for many.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Acceptance of the idea of the One God was pretty much universal in the world influenced by the Abrahamic religions for centuries after Jesus’ ministry. There were skeptics, to be sure, particularly around the concept of the Trinity, but belief in God was unquestioned by most. Heretics were punished, sometimes cruelly as in the case of our own religious ancestor, the young Spanish doctor Michael Servetus who was burned at the stake for his denial of Jesus as God.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But as understandings of the natural world grew and science became an influential resource to human beings, particularly to those with access to education, a period of time known as The Enlightenment in the eighteenth century brought huge wide-spread change and conflict about religious ideas and the very concept of Creation and the nature of the universe.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>No longer did every facet of human living depend on belief in God. The earth revolved around the sun, not the sun around the earth. Discoveries about any number of everyday things, such as plants and seasons and the movement of the stars in the sky, created new questions in human minds.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Before this time, belief in God was taken for granted. Not to believe meant abandoning any coherent world picture. This was unthinkable to most humans in that time in history.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But emboldened by new ideas and knowledge, thinkers of many stripes took courage and began to wonder: what is the real authority of the church and to what end does the church demand human obeisance?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Those who traveled observed other religious practices and saw that there was a larger world than the one which accepted the idea of One God with three manifestations; there were nontheistic religions such as Buddhism and Confucianism and there were polytheistic religions such as Hinduism.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Three different conceptions of God, through the lenses of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, called into question the idea of One God. Each of these Gods had such different characteristics----how could they be the same God? And yet again, humankind’s shaping of the idea of God was illuminated. No longer was it so clear that God had created humans in his image; perhaps humans had created the God that they wanted to create.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>So---that’s a quickie rundown on the history of the concept of God up to about now. It’s not exhaustive, it’s a little irreverent, and my knowledge is far from complete, but what I think we’ve done so far is establish that as human understandings of the universe have progressed, humans have increased their questioning of the reality of God or Gods or Goddess.</p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Part of it is due to our increased scientific understandings and discoveries. Part of it is due to the relaxed insistence on belief in a Deity. Part of it is due to our own mystical spiritual experiences which may lead us along non-traditional paths, such as paganism and other mystical and spiritual paths.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Yet quantum physics has revealed an entirely new possibility about the power beyond human power. As the Large Hadron Collider lurches toward its grand experiment of recreating a smaller version of the Big Bang, the event which appears to have set the universe in motion, it is possible that science may unveil the deepest roots of the universe yet explored.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And will they find God? Well, probably not the God most people assume is the Ruler of the Cosmos. <br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>So where are we? Here’s what I think.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I’ve noticed that the power beyond human power, which some call God or Goddess, can be viewed through many lenses. Even as a parent or guardian can be called a mother or a father or a chauffeur or a cook or a teacher or a cruel tyrant or any number of other names, so can God and Goddess.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The lens of religion: God as a personal servant and ruler.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There’s the lens of physics: God as energy.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of psychology: God as emotional need.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of biology: God as creator, God as mere brain chemistry.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of evolution: God as an orderly, purposeful system.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of Love: God as human connection and nurture.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of parent: God as protector, caretaker.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of child: God as rule-maker, guidance giver.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of art: God as designer, creator of beauty.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of indigenous person: God as nature and ancestral wisdom. Of poetry: God as metaphor and simile.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of fear: God as the punisher.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of ethics: God as source of the moral order.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of the abstract: God as ground of being, Ultimate Reality.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of the concrete: God as old white guy in the sky.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I’ve probably missed your favorite lens and you can tell me later what yours might be or if you disagree. But I think it all comes back to the recognition that there are so many ways to think of the power beyond human power, so many ways we have found to use that power both for secular and spiritual and religious meaning, so many names and faces for God and Goddess, that it is useless to argue about whose version is right.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A Whidbey friend of mine, Ken Merrell, talked with me once about a discovery he had made in his religious journey: that when we encounter different language and ideas from our own, rather than dismissing them as useless or offensive, we might try translating those words and ideas into our own language and worldview, to see if we and those who are different from us have any common ground. And I would reiterate Ken’s wisdom: we all have different ideas about what God or Goddess means. Let’s share those ideas, rather than reject each other because we don’t speak the same language.<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The Evolution of God is a journey of countless millennia, from prehistory to the present. The Evolution of our personal understandings of the concept of God has taken our whole lifetimes and continues to offer opportunities to change our minds. Whether we are theists, nontheists, atheists or agnostics, we can learn from each other and respect each other’s language and experiences, both here and in the larger community. As Ken has said, the key is to translate! You could be religiously bi-lingual!<br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Let’s pause for a time of silent reflection and prayer.<br /><br />BENEDICTION: Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together, is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, remembering that all humankind shares a reliance on the faithfulness of that power beyond human power, which we call by many names. May we respect one another’s language and thoughts, listening carefully that we might learn from one another. And may we offer to our children, our grandchildren, friends and family, the opportunity to think large about what it means to have faith in these troubled times. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-79595542614834807772022-02-20T14:54:00.000-08:002022-02-20T14:54:47.861-08:00<p> <span class="s1" style="color: #285287; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span class="s2" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-kerning: none; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: underline;">HOPE HAS HUMAN HANDS</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="color: #262626; font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;">Rev. Kit Ketcham, Feb. 20, 2022</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> In the late 40’s, early 50’s, there was a song which, when it came on the radio, would make my dad groan and move as if to turn it off, muttering “that darn song, it’s so sticky!”, and my mother and I would cry out, “no, we want to hear it!” It was a sentimental song and its words could even be said to be a bit schmaltzy. And when you heard it just now, you might have even hummed along with it!</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> In those days, hope--to me--meant miracles; it meant a sort of Pollyanna-ish optimism that “everything will be fine in the morning”. It meant that no matter how desperate the financial situation of our family, we would have food on the table; someone from my dad’s little Baptist congregation would deposit a freshly killed Canada goose or venison roast or string of fish on our doorstep. </span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> Hope, in my young mind, was a kind of insurance policy, a belief that God would not desert us if we were faithful. Hope provided for miraculous recoveries, last-minute rescues. It meant that the sun would always rise, that spring would follow winter, that seeds would grow, that birth would produce new life, that the Lone Ranger WOULD arrive on time! </span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> I’m not sure how I reconciled my beliefs with my experience in those days. Though I knew at some level that Hope as a technique didn’t always work, I continued to profess my belief that it would and did produce miracles. </span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> But I guess I figured that even Hope had to take a few days off occasionally; that was probably why my friend Lynn did not recover completely from an unusually serious bout with mononucleosis, why my dad, who was a Baptist minister, sometimes couldn’t make it all the way through his sermon and had to sit down to catch his breath, scaring us all to death. Hope was on break those days. And, of course, it wasn’t Hope’s fault that I didn’t make straight A’s in school; I hoped I would, but obviously Hope wasn’t enough.</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> What does Hope mean to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>us as Unitarian Universalists? We are kind of past the miracle stage. If we are ill, we may hope for a rapid recovery; if a loved one is dying, we may hope for an unexpected sudden cure or a peaceful death. We may hope, as I often do, that the rattle in the car will turn out to be harmless, that the problem ahead of us is not really as bad as it looks, that the grocery line will not be too long, that we can pay the bills, that the kids will be home soon. Our daily hopes are usually simple and focused on our immediate needs and desires. </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> Over the years, as I’ve examined my religious faith in light of my own experience, I have gradually revamped my thoughts about Hope as a religious concept.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> It seems to me that the Hope that is innate in the human spirit is more than simply a wish for good outcomes, for peace on earth, a politically correct holiday greeting. Hope is far more than cliches or a wish for miracles. It is not trivial or sentimental.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> The definition I’ve come up with after many years of observing my own need for hope and the moments which seem to create hope, for me and for others, is this: HOPE IS MY AWARENESS, MY DEEP UNDERSTANDING, THAT I AM CONNECTED TO THE INEXTINGUISHABLE STREAM OF LIFE, THAT I AM PART OF THE WHOLE.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> Let me repeat that definition and ask you to compare your own experiences to it. For me, HOPE is the clear sense that I am a part of the inextinguishable, inexhaustible stream of life. For me, it is a tangible sense of my place in the universe. It is the fiber of the interdependent web of all existence, the connection I have to all else in life. </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> When I have lost HOPE, I have lost my sense that I belong to the universe, to the web, to life itself. But HOPE is strengthened in me with every reminder I receive of that connection. It may start when I first see the seedlings pop up in my garden. It may be triggered by the purring of the cat on my lap as I read. Even a stranger’s greeting on the sidewalk or beach may evoke a warmth that reminds me that I do belong here, I am a part of life.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> Hope is found in relationship, whether it is in my relationship with my pets, with my friends and family, with strangers, with all of nature or God, whatever you call the power beyond human power. </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> If religion is defined as the expression of human relationships with self, with others, and with the universe, then Hope is a manifestation of that relationship and a valuable piece of our active faith. Unitarian Universalists mostly do not hope for a heavenly home; we hope for an earthly home that is heavenly and we know that is our job. </span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> A friend talked with me about her second biopsy for breast cancer. “I was scared to death,” she said. “I’d already had one surgery and was terrified that this was the beginning of the end. I felt loose from my moorings, adrift, disconnected, hopeless. And I knew I couldn’t bear it without help. The nurse started to move away from me after the test, and I said to her, ‘I need you to hold on to me’. She took my hand and I felt myself re-connect with life. She gave me more hope than a negative biopsy.”</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> Hope does not rely on Divine Intervention, but on human hands. Hope is our job, not God’s, despite nature’s constant and faithful supply of hopefulness. The sun always rises, spring always comes, the snow always melts, the cycles of creation go on and on. We derive great hope from that faithful repetition of nature’s patterns. But nature also socks us in the teeth: tsunamis and hurricanes demolish whole coastlines, avalanches wipe out homes and travelers, the wind whips fire through dry underbrush, the sun burns our skin, disease wipes out millions, rains bring flooding and mud slides.</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> We can’t control it but we can respond to it.</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> “Hope springs eternal in the human breast”, according to the poet Alexander Pope because human beings have an innate gift for hope. When disaster strikes, other human beings immediately reach out to victims. It seems inherent in human nature to give aid in times of trouble. An old Judy Collins song says “Friends are like diamonds, and trouble is a diamond mine.” </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> That doesn’t mean all human beings give aid, just that we’re all capable of it. Some of us have so squelched our natural inclination to help that we will walk right by, ignoring trouble or fearing the consequences to ourselves. Sometimes it is truly dangerous to offer help; it’s not always easy to know right help from wrong. But sometimes we withhold our help because we see no benefit to ourselves from it, we see no reason to help because our goal in giving help is so we’ll get something back later on .</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> Like love, hope is active. We can give hope to ourselves and one another. In fact, I believe, we have a responsibility to do so.</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> I believe that it is in everyday human acts of kindness and respect that we find our own hope rekindled and that others’ hope is also reborn when we reach out to them.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> I believe that hope is not passive, something we wait around for, but that it is created and recreated daily in ourselves and others.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> I believe that hope comes in many forms--hugs, smiles, acceptance, kindness, respect, patience, thoughtfulness, listening, generosity, appreciation, forgiveness, working for justice. </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> I believe that we need to recognize our own capacity for giving hope and increase our efforts to do so. And I believe that we must recognize our own need for hope and actively seek it out.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> I believe that hope is at the heart of liberal religion, of Unitarian Universalism. We give it to ourselves and to others as we live out our UU principles and purposes. It is the sinew that links us with the interdependent web of existence, the fiber that binds us to one another. Without it, we cannot resist evil. It is our daily work, to give and receive hope.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> Hope is our human response to tragedy, whether it is evil brought by perverted human nature or the damage of natural disaster. When another human being is injured, it is up to fellow humans to mend the damage. We might wish that a vengeful God would strike down evildoers or quell natural forces, but it is up to human hands to offer hope.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> What does it mean that we are responsible for giving hope? It means that we have a job to do. We don’t know, always, in our daily lives, just who needs hope at any given moment. We have to assume that everyone does. We have to be ready to offer hope to everyone we meet, whether that’s the crabby clerk at the store, the multiply-pierced and tattooed teens in the park, the stray cat or dog, the frustrated parent with a toddler, the nursing home patient who can no longer remember our name, the homeless man camping in the woods, the beleaguered teacher, our gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender neighbors, or the victim of domestic violence.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> We ourselves also need hope and we can seek it out for ourselves, whether we do it by taking a walk, talking to a friend, giving money to charity or the homeless guy on the corner, listening to music, pulling weeds, reading poetry, asking for a hug or a listening ear, starting seedlings, feeding the birds, cleaning out a drawer, greeting a stranger, or spending time in prayer or meditation. We give ourselves and others hope every time we reach out to those who need justice and love.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> Several years ago in Denver, a young woman named Jeannie Van Velkinburgh ran to help Oumar Dia, a West African man who was shot at a downtown bus stop just because he was black. She got a bullet in the back for her efforts and became a paraplegic. A cynic might say she should have left well enough alone, that she shouldn’t have gotten involved, because look what it got her. </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> Jeannie VanVelkinburgh didn’t think so; she knew that not only did she offer hope to Oumar Dia, she has also given hope to us AND to the murderer, who--though he may never understand it--has received a powerful lesson in human nature. Human beings are supposed to care for one another. </span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> Let’s revisit the definition of Hope I am using this morning: Hope is the conviction, the reassurance that I am connected to, am part of, the inexhaustible, unquenchable stream of life. It is my knowledge that I am supported and nurtured by my place in the interdependent web of existence and it is my job to give it to others.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> I’d like to close with a story from my own life. </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> It was June, many years ago when I was still living in Colorado. I’d been driving Interstate 80 since dawn, from Farewell Bend on the Snake River in eastern Oregon where I’d camped in my van the night before. I was returning to Colorado after burying my mother, crossing the hot dry deserts of southern Idaho and over the border into Utah, pondering the lessons of her life and death and crying as I drove, my tears drying almost as soon as they appeared, in the hot blast coming through the open window. And now I was beyond tiredness, in that late afternoon state of mind where rational thought and fantasy merge, and reality has a fuzzy edge.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> I’d been seeing a lot of hawks poised on telephone poles or circling overhead, their broad wings barely flickering to stay afloat. My mother had loved birds, and hawks and eagles were interesting to both of us. Each bird felt like a message, but in my emotional state, I couldn’t quite figure it out. </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> Every redtail or northern harrier caused me a fresh pang, and by the time I reached the outskirts of Salt Lake City, I had exhausted my tear ducts and my brain.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> I wanted to be back in Colorado as soon as I could. I wanted to drive a favorite route through the mountains, but I had no idea how to find it in the maze of interstates, beltways, and smaller roads that interlace the Salt Lake valley.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> I drove south into SLC, peering through my foggy contact lenses at unintelligible signs, looking for landmarks. Nothing. I realized I was in the far left lane of a 6-lane interstate and, in my weariness, nearly sideswiped another car as I tried to pull the huge van over so I could read my map.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> At last came a break in traffic, and I eased over to the shoulder, cringing for fear I had missed seeing some hapless little car in my mirror, and half-expecting to feel a sickening crunch. But I made it, stopped the van, and, once again, the tears came. I was safe, I hadn’t hit anyone, but I was exhausted and bereft.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> Suddenly, in my rearview mirror, I saw the ominous blink--blue and red, blue and red. “Oh no,” I thought, and hastily mopped my eyes as I fumbled for my car registration.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> There appeared at the driverside window a short stocky cop, his hat pushed back on his head, his face serious and concerned. I braced myself for the worst, assuming he’d seen my near-accident, but in a voice of infinite kindness, he just asked, “Lady, are you lost?”</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> That man could not have known just how lost I was. I couldn’t find myself on any map--neither the map of Utah nor the map of my life. I didn’t know where I was after my mother’s death; I only knew I needed to go home. </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> I don’t know what I said to him, besides asking how to find route 40, but he neither remarked on my tears nor ticketed me, and within a few minutes I was on my way again. </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> As I topped the last long hill up out of Salt Lake City, my eye fell upon the broad winged silhouette of another redtailed hawk, soaring just above the horizon.</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> And all the confused, jumbled thinking that I’d been doing all day--the memories of my mother, my grief at losing her, my anger at myself for all the years I’d felt motherless because of my own rejection of her religious beliefs and because of her illness, the link to birds and mountains and all of nature, the incandescent flame of her unconditional love for me---all these coalesced into one single thought. </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> I AM NOT ALONE. I AM NOT ALONE. I AM IN THE ARMS OF THE UNIVERSE, I AM IN THE ARMS OF LOVE.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s5" style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> Emily Dickinson wrote: “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.”</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> When we offer hope to ourselves and to one another, with each smile, each touch, each act of kindness and understanding, we knit up the rips and tears in the interdependent web of existence and bring each other closer to spiritual wholeness.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> Let’s pause for a moment of silent reflection and prayer.</span></p><p class="p7" style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s6" style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration-line: underline;">BENEDICTION</span></p><p class="p5" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none;"> Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, remembering that no act of kindness is in vain, that our efforts to bring hope to each other and to the larger community will bring us hope as well. May we find ways to minister to the community in which we live, ways which will foster lovingkindness in the world, ways which will address some of the systemic problems that plague society, and ways which will bring us the peace of mind of knowing that together we have offered hope to a hurting world. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-24228596366130205582022-01-10T08:02:00.000-08:002022-01-10T08:02:41.314-08:00<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;">THE COURAGE TO BE HUMAN</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;">January 9, 2022</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;">Rev. Kit Ketcham</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">In 1944, American soldier Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds found himself the senior officer at a Nazi prisoner of war camp.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He was ordered by the Nazi camp commander to identify all the Jewish soldiers in the camp.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Edmonds told his men “We’re not going to do that”. And 1275 American soldiers stood with him, refusing to identify the Jews among them. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-align: start;">The Nazi commander was furious.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“All of you can’t be Jewish!”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>he screamed. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-align: start;">“We are all Jews here” Edmonds responded.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">“I’m commanding you to have your Jewish men step forward.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>You will have your Jewish men step forward or I will shoot you on the spot.”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Edmonds replied, “If you shoot, you’ll have to kill all of us”.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">The Nazi holstered his gun and stormed away.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">As many as 200 Jewish American soldiers were saved by their fellow captives that day.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Our topic today is “The Courage to be Human”.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The short vignette I’ve just read you is one kind of courage, but there are several others.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Master Sgt. Edmonds, the officer faced with this dilemma must have been terrified that his ploy would not work and that he and possibly his cadre of prisoners would be shot dead, massacred without recourse. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">And yet he took that chance.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We would all agree, probably, that he exhibited great courage, as did his men.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Humans are unusual animals by any stretch of the imagination.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We have some special abilities, from big brains to opposable thumbs.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We have changed the world dramatically since our time on earth and we have even left the planet.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>There are also some weird things about humans, or at least “special” in relationship to the rest of the animal kingdom.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Speech, for example.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Though a parrot or macaw might copy human voices and make sounds like words, we are the only ones who have the capacity to create actual speech.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">We walk fully upright, rather than bowed over like many other humanoid primates.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">We are naked, compared to our hairier ape cousins.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And we wear clothing.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">We have extraordinary brains relative to our body size and can reason and have provided the works of geniuses like Mozart, Einstein, and others.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">We have highly flexible opposable thumbs and can flex our other fingers into a powerful grip with dexterity for holding and using tools, more so than other primates.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">We can control fire, which has given us the ability to cook our food, to warm our dwellings, to keep predators at bay, and to light our way in the dark.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">We blush, but we’re not sure why this feature of humanness occurs in us, just that we are the only species known to do so.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Or, as someone has jibed, needs to do so.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">We have long childhoods and are in the care of our parents much longer than other living primates, possibly so that our large brains have time to grow and to learn what we need for survival.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">We have a life after we have produced and raised children.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Females can survive long after ceasing to be capable of reproduction.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Grandparents, therefore, can help ensure the success of their families long after their own reproductive years are behind them.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Courage is something that everybody wants, says Dr. Dragana Djukic, a British psychotherapist, but she explains that courage is not just physical bravery.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Generally speaking, there are several types of courage that we need, to face life’s challenges.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><b><br /></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><b>Physical courage</b>, when we feel fear but choose to act, even in the face of bodily harm even death.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><b>Emotional courage,</b> when we follow our heart, allowing ourselves to feel the full spectrum of emotions, both pleasant and unpleasant.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><b>Intellectual courage,</b> when we let go of the familiar and allow our horizons to expand, being willing to learn, unlearn, and relearn with an open and flexible mind.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><b>Social courage,</b> when we are ourselves in the face of adversity, involving the risk of social embarrassment or exclusion, unpopularity or rejection.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It also includes leadership.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><b>Moral courage,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b> standing up for what is right, doing the right thing even when it is uncomfortable or unpopular.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><b>Spiritual courage,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b> facing pain and loss with dignity, living with purpose and meaning through a heart-centered approach to life and to oneself.</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><span class="s2" style="color: black;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><span class="s2" style="color: black;">How old were you when you first got the message “just be yourself, honey, and you’ll be fine”?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>It might have been on the first day of 7th grade or before a job interview or a date but it was a scary prescription, offered at a time of our lives when we weren’t too sure who our real selves were and whether we had much to offer.</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">“Just be yourself, honey" was my Dad's advice. He also added those sage words from Shakespeare, "this above all, to thine own self be true, and it will follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." So I thought about it---a lot.</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Some things about myself I knew without question: my Scandinavian heritage, for example. I was a girl, whatever that meant. I was smart. I was a preacher's kid. I was big, not particularly athletic, and an oldest child.</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Then there were things others told me about myself: my parents were proud of my wanting to be baptized at age 6, so I must be religious. People laughed at my cute remarks, so I must be funny. People sneered at my not-so-cute remarks, so I must be weird. I was bigger than most of my friends, so I must be fat. I didn't have a boyfriend in high school, so I must be ugly.</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">I didn't trust some of what others told me; their beliefs didn't always tally with my experience. Sometimes I was so confused that I gave up and gave in. Okay, they think I'm clumsy, I'll quit trying to do cartwheels.</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Of course, everyone is confused about their identity as an adolescent, and I was no exception. In despair, one day in college, I resorted to a technique that has served me well ever since. I made a list!</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">I listed the things I knew for sure about myself. I listed the things I loved to do and the things I hated to do. I listed the things people seemed to assume about me. I listed the things that I thought nobody knew about me. I looked at this list for a long time. And then I crossed out the things that people assumed which were erroneous. I put question marks by those I thought might be the result of others' thinking, not my own. When I was done, I thought I had a pretty good picture of who I was, at least as a college freshman.</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Little did I know it was only the beginning of a lifetime of asking and answering this question! My understandings of myself continue to evolve. I'll bet yours do too.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">So what does it mean to have the courage to be human?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We are born into this body, we carry a number of unique abilities that no other animal has, we have brains so well developed that they can get us to the moon and beyond, but each of these attributes carries danger, carries responsibility, carries questions of ethics and morality, leads us into situations where prior knowledge is useless or even untrue.</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">We are called upon to protect and defend or to wreak violence upon those other humans who threaten our family, our friends, ourselves.</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">We are called upon to decide whether or not we can show our full range of emotion and purpose.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Is it safe?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>What if others are repelled or laugh at us?</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">We are called upon to invent and to carry out new technologies, to lead others into new and untried areas of knowledge.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And we have to consider the possible outcomes of these new ways.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Will they hurt or help other humans?</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Our intellectual abilities may lead us into nontraditional ways of thinking, of morality, of ethical principles we had never thought to challenge.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Those of us who have left conservative and fundamentalist Christianity behind may know too well the consequences that faced us.</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">How shall we reconcile our new understandings with the old interpretations of sacred texts?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And how will we maintain our family ties if we can’t?</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">When we use our powers of speech, what will we say?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Will we speak wisdom or nonsense? Will we harm or help those we speak to, those we speak for?</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">When we use our flexible hands and our opposable thumbs, will we build beauty and usefulness or will we use them to oppress other humans?</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">When we create children and teach them what we know, will we lead them into acts of mercy or acts of violence?</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">And when we come to die, we are faced with the greatest conundrum of humanity---have we been fully human? Have we made decisions that exhibited our courage and not our cowardice?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Have we been honest---with ourselves and with our communities?</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Life as a human is joyful---and scary.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We have huge choices to make and, if we are committed to being fully human, we must be mindful of the needs of other humans and nonhuman living things.</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Let me repeat the six types of courage that I mentioned earlier and think about your own life so far.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>What have been your experiences as you have made your way through the past years and look ahead to the future? <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><b>Physical courage</b>, when you felt fear but chose to act, even in the face of bodily harm and even death.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><b>Emotional courage,</b> when you followed your heart, allowing yourself to feel the full spectrum of emotions, both pleasant and unpleasant.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><b>Intellectual courage,</b> when you let go of the familiar and allowed your horizons to expand, being willing to learn, unlearn, and relearn with an open and flexible mind.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><b>Social courage,</b> when you were yourself in the face of adversity, involving the risk of social embarrassment or exclusion, unpopularity or rejection.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Social courage also includes leadership, which takes a great deal of courage.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><b>Moral courage,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b> standing up for what is right, doing the right thing even when it is uncomfortable or unpopular.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><b>Spiritual courage,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b> facing pain and loss with dignity, living with purpose and meaning through a heart-centered approach to life and to yourself.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">What do you think?</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Have you been fearful, scared to death---and moved forward anyhow?</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Have you made decisions with your heart, not just your brain, and felt all the range of emotion as you proceeded down those paths?</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Have you opened your mind to new ideas, new learnings, new attachments, even knowing the dangers they may present, and let your horizons expand?</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Have you risked embarrassment or exclusion, unpopularity or rejection as you took a stand in a time of adversity or in a leadership role?</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Have you been challenged to stand up for what is right, to do what is ethical and moral even when it is uncomfortable or unpopular?</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">And have you faced pain and loss with dignity, grieving those losses while continuing to live with purpose and integrity?</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">It takes a good deal of courage to be fully human.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We see fellow humans take a more cowardly path, dishonest and unethical, stuck in the mire of greed and selfishness.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>At the end of their lives, what do they have to show for their cowardice and lack of integrity? <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">At the end of our lives, what will we have to show for our courage?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We are human and will not live perfect lives of perfect courage, but if our goal is to live with intent and to uphold the deep values we have come to love, we will be able to say to ourselves, this has been a good way to live.</p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">The poet Dawna Markova wrote these lines, with which I will close:</p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>I will not die an unlived life</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>I will not live in fear</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>of falling or catching fire.</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>I choose to inhabit my days,</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>to allow my living to open me,</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>to make me less afraid,</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>more accessible,</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>to loosen my heart</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>until it becomes a wing,</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>a torch, a promise.</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>I choose to risk my significance;</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>to live so that which came to me as seed</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>goes to the next as blossom</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>and that which came to me as blossom,</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>goes on as fruit.</i></p><p class="p5" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><i>Poet: Dawna Markova</i></p><p class="p6" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p6" style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;">Let’s pause for a time of silent reflection and prayer.</p><p class="p7" style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p8" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p8" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p8" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p8" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p><p class="p8" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 36px;"><br /></p></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-71418766425371153152021-12-13T09:11:00.001-08:002021-12-13T09:11:54.680-08:00How the Unitarians Saved Christmas<p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Rev. Kit Ketcham, with Nancy Logan</span></p><p class="p1" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dec. 12, 2021</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> This is the time of year when that tired old War on Christmas rhetoric gets dragged out of the tattered decorations box and hung on the tree—or the cross, if you wish. I don’t get into the fray any more but I do like to pass on the real story, because it is so deeply embedded into our culture and yet virtually unexamined by most folks.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> You may already know this, but the Unitarians actually SAVED Christmas, long ago, building on the foundation set in place by pagan worshippers over thousands of years of honoring the earth, sun, moon, and stars as divine.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> This month marks the Winter Solstice, a holy day which has been in existence since the earth began orbiting around the sun and has been observed for millennia, ever since the first human realized that, after this solar occasion, the disappearing light in the sky began to come back.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Many familiar winter customs and symbols come straight out of earth-based, pagan rituals and practices. The solstice was a huge occasion for celebration, as early peoples watched the slow return of longer days and shorter nights, even as the cold winter winds and snow made life still uncomfortable and risky.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Suffice it to say that in their jubilation at what they considered the Birthday of the Sun, they celebrated joyfully in their relief at the sun’s gradual return.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Many of their festive symbols are important to us too and the change of seasons during the year were significant as the air warmed and cooled and rain came and went. </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> But other changes were also in the wind,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>because institutional religion began to take an interest in solstice festivals, and in about the 4<sup>th</sup> century CE, Christian church authorities managed to refashion the ancient pagan revelry into a Christian celebration of Jesus’ birth. They had tried in vain to halt these winter festivals because they honored pagan nature gods.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> But it wasn’t that easy. Thousands of years of custom do not die gently. So compromises were made, with nature deities being discreetly transformed into Christian saints and the whole shebang gradually became part of the Christian calendar.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Since nobody really knew when Jesus was born, the day long associated with the rebirth of the Sun, December 25<sup>th</sup>, became the date of Jesus’ birthday.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Christmas became a mélange of world religious practices---with Celtic, Teutonic, Slav, Asian, Greek, and Roman influences. It has never been a strictly Christian holiday. </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">So take THAT, you War on Christmas folks. We know the real story. And in case anyone was wondering about that worrisome X in Xmas, that X is the Greek letter CHI which has been used since antiquity to indicate the word Christ.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Let’s make merry now ourselves, with a hymn that celebrates some of what ancient peoples celebrated: Deck the Halls, #235. </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">PART 2: THE DARK AND THE LIGHT SIDES OF CHRISTMAS</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> In Merry Olde England, under Oliver Cromwell in the 17<sup>th</sup> century, the godly Puritan Party passed legislation outlawing Christmas. However, people rebelled and Christmas went underground with its revelry, which included heavy drinking, sexual misbehavior, and general debauchery. The outrage at this infringement on popular custom resulted in the ousting of the ruling Puritan party. So much for legislating godliness, sobriety, and chastity!</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> But the Puritans were also settling in the New World and their disapproval of Christmas revelry meant that Christmas was banned for many years in early American communities.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Christmas in the earliest years of colonial America was forbidden. The Puritans found it offensive to their pious minds. They had come to the New World with religious freedom on their agenda, but that freedom didn’t include the revelry of drunkenness, lasciviousness, and general chaos that erupted every Christmas season among the so-called “lower classes”.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> There were laws against Christmas celebrations and people could be punished severely for indulging in them. Talk about a War on Christmas!</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> The Puritans did have a point---Christmas had become a season of lawlessness, in which bands of hoodlums in masks, bent on forbidden activity, roamed the streets, and it drove the Puritans crazy!</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Records from 18<sup>th</sup> century New England indicate a rise in unwed mothers and in babies born in September and October. Something had to be done! </span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">So progressive religious leaders in New England decided that, rather than trying to squash Christmas, they should instead tame it. Many churches began to schedule worship on Christmas Day and urged banks, shops, and schools to close so that families could spend the day together. And our religious ancestors got into the act.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Well, you ask, what did the Unitarians do? Well, they literally SAVED Christmas. I’m not kidding! Many of our favorite traditions today came straight out of Unitarian creative minds.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Here are a few of those Christmassy traditions:</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In the mid 1800’s, the Christmas tree with its lights and festive hangings was introduced by Charles Follen, a Unitarian minister.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“Jingle Bells” was written by James Pierpont, organist and choir director at the Savannah Georgia Unitarian Church.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” was written by the Rev. Edmund H. Sears, Unitarian minister in Wayland, MA.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” was written by Unitarian Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as a commentary on the horrors of the Civil War.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Unitarian artist, Nathaniel Currier, of Currier and Ives fame, painted an array of delicate Christmas scenes which decorate many a holiday card.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Episcopalian-turned-Unitarian Clement C. Moore penned the beloved story poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas”, also known as “The Night Before Christmas”, from whence comes our popular portrayal of that jolly old elf Santa Claus.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But the Unitarian author who brought perhaps one of the greatest Christmas stories ever told was Charles Dickens, who, in his immortal tale “A Christmas Carol” penned a story of compassion, generosity, and transformation as the miserly Scrooge is brought to an awareness of the neediness of the poor and the joy of generosity.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It is interesting and ironic that we Unitarian Universalists, heretics to the core in the eyes of the orthodox, have long been champions and even generators of the Christmas we know today.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Let’s join now in singing #244, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” in remembrance and celebration of the gifts our spiritual ancestors have given the world for Christmas.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">#244 “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">PART III <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Nancy:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>King Wenceslas was not always Good.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">INSERT Lyrics: Good King Wenceslas</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">PART IV:</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Every year, it seems, I have to rethink my relationship with Christmas. At one time in my life, when I felt lonely and bereft from the losses I had accumulated, Christmas was something to be endured until the new year.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> But every year since that symbolic “hitting bottom”, it has gotten better and, in my so-called retirement years, I have found a great deal of joy in this season, as we celebrate the rebirth of the sun’s light and the birth of countless babies, who may bring joy and peace into our world.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Unitarian Religious educator Sophia Lyon Fahs wrote about this season: <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>For so the children come </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>And so they have been coming. </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>Always in the same way they come </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>Born of the seed of man and woman </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>No angels herald their beginnings, </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>no prophets predict their future courses. </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>No wise men see a star to show </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>where to find the babe </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>that will save humankind. </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>Yet each night a child is born is a holy night, </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>Fathers and mothers- </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>Sitting beside their children’s cribs </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>Feel glory in the sight of a new life beginning. </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>They ask, “Where and how will this new life end? </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>Or will it ever end?” </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>Each night a child is born is a holy night- </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>A time for singing, </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>A time for wondering, </b><span class="s1" style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><b>A time for worshipping.</b> </span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> As I think about the children I know today, the young ones who come to our RE sessions with Adriana,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>at the park, the littlest ones with their parents chasing after them, the in-between ones looking up to the bigger kids and watching out for the little ones, the older ones growing taller and maturing into big kids, their active minds, their loving hearts—as I look at them and smile, I feel the holiness of this season, reflected in our children’s eyes.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Sure, they love the gifts and goodies and songs and the stories. But what I loved most, as a child, and I hope it is part of every child’s Christmas, was the warmth of my family’s love, the tender care that I received and that I learned to give to my own child, to his children, and the love and care that he has learned to give, from me and from his dad and other family members.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> It’s not the gifts we give and receive at this time of year, it’s not the decorations, it’s not the cards and letters, or even the music, though these all have their value. It’s really the miracle of human life, from birth through death, and all the stages in between.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> We are so blessed by Life. Even when it’s at its toughest, even when we are in pain, even when grief overtakes us, we have Life and its spirit gives us hope.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> As we look back over the past pandemic years, with their joys and sorrows, let us be reminded, in this holy season, that it is truly the rebirth of the sun and in that rebirth we can find renewal and strength to last us as long as we need.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Let us act with that strength to bring joy and peace to one another and to all humankind, starting with our neighbors and reaching out into our communities, giving tender love and care to all we meet. Let’s pause for a time of silent reflection and prayer.</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">BENEDICTION:</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Our worship service is ended but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, remembering that the season of Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa is a season of Light. May we seek to bring the light of kindness, strength, and peace into the lives of all we meet, for in this way we will receive the Light ourselves and will be blessed by it. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be. </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30312228.post-29273914069176812742021-11-14T14:52:00.002-08:002021-11-14T14:52:19.096-08:00Turning Toward the Morning<p> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small; text-align: center;">TURNING TOWARD THE MORNING</span></p><p class="p1" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Rev. Kit Ketcham, Nov. 14, 2021, PUUF</span></p><p class="p2" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> I remember discovering this song that we’ve just heard at a fairly bleak time of my life. It was late fall in Colorado, the golden aspen groves on the mountain slopes were now starkly bare of their leaves, we’d had two feet of snow on Halloween, my marriage was over, my son was struggling, my paycheck barely lasted from month to month, and I was dreading the cold Rocky Mountain winter ahead.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> One of my great pleasures in life then was attending the monthly acoustic music jams of the Denver Friends of Folk Music. And one Saturday night, a fellow folkie requested this song, and its words resonated with me and my anxious mood.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> I was curious to know where the song came from. I was familiar with the New England composer Gordon Bok’s work and looked for something from Gordon Bok about why he wrote the song “Turning Toward the Morning”. Here’s what I found.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">"One of the things that provoked this song was a letter last November from a friend who had had a very difficult year and was looking for the courage to keep on plowing into it. Those times, you lift your eyes unto the hills, as they say, but the hills of … November can be about as much comfort as a cold crowbar.</span></i></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“<i>You have to look ahead a bit, then, and realize that all the hills and trees and flowers will still be there come Spring, usually more permanent than your troubles. And if your courage occasionally fails, that's okay, too: nobody expects you to be as strong (or as old) as the land." - Gordon Bok”</i></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> I liked that idea, of not dwelling too much on the bleakness of today’s troubles and deliberately looking ahead to the brighter days of spring.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> But I also liked another, less obvious, theme within this song and that was the idea that this man took his friend Joanie’s sorrow seriously and gave her the one gift he felt he had to give: a song that reminded her that he cared about her sorrow and, with his music, might help her lift her sight from the icy mud of her surroundings and offer her courage and support by pointing to the simple fact that the world is always turning toward the morning.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Late fall can be a hard time of year, as the days grow shorter and shorter, sunny days are few and far between, and the darkness consumes more and more of our waking hours. It’s cold and often rainy and windy; we worry when the power goes out, unsure of how long it will be out and whether we will be able to stay warm. And the season seems to grind on and on. Often the upcoming holidays just add to our anxiety and gloom.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Spring seems very far away in November. The holidays can distract us, but we need more than distraction sometimes. We need people and places we can depend on. We need to find the truths about the world that sustain us, give us hope, give us reason to keep pushing on, even when life’s troubles have overcome us and we see no easy way out. Sometimes the only way out is through and November is like that.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> I thought of friendship as a theme for this service because Thanksgiving signifies the beginning of a season of waiting for the light, of celebrating in various faith traditions, the hope inherent in the change of seasons at the winter solstice, the sustaining grace of a menorah that never goes dim, the sweet joy of a child’s birth, all occasions of growing light and diminishing darkness.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> These relics of legend and history represent the truth of light and warmth and survival, of the mystical and the pragmatic, of the life process that includes both birth and death, both darkness and bright splendor.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Remember that old camp song “Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold”? Or Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend” and Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">All these songs speak of the faithfulness and kindness of friends, the human need for friendship and connection with companions, the need for friends to see us through tough times.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> I used to be kind of wary of making friends, never quite sure I could count on them. Even best friends have a way of occasionally letting us down or hurting us. Sometimes we learn that a person we thought of as a friend really doesn’t like us very much or inexplicably disappears from our lives.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Sometimes there are exclusions that deliver a message---you’re not our kind of people, so we’re not inviting you to the party, to our church, to our inner circle. Ouch! I suspect we’ve all had a few moments like these. And some of them we brush off because they’re not important; others make us feel rejected at a deep level, make us wonder if we are worthy of friendship.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> I was talking with a person awhile back about an experience she’d had in which she felt excluded---possibly unintentionally, but….she wasn’t sure. And it stirred up old feelings for her, of times when she’d felt similarly excluded or watched others being excluded. Even though she was long past those experiences, the reminders stung.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> What are our experiences with friendship? Where do we find our closest friends and comrades? How many of us here still have some contact with friends from our early days, maybe even elementary school? <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Why do we maintain contact with some of our earliest friends? What keeps us coming back to them?</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> Veja and I talked a bit about the common characteristics of our favorite friendships: both of us noticed that we have several friends from long ago times whom we see regularly and keep in touch with. Our friends tend to be strong, independent women with whom we have a history of trust which has deepened over time.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">During the long months and now almost two years of pandemic isolation, we have both found new friends as well as formed “pods” with trusted other friends to find fun and comfort socially.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> I’ve often noticed that shared loss can create a bond. Long years ago, one of my best high school friends, Audrea Montee, died of liver cancer. Audrea and I had palled around all during grade school and high school; she was a crackerjack softball player, smacking that ball way out into left field and then trotting leisurely around the bases as fielders scrambled after the ball which was often lost in the weeds of the far outskirts of the diamond. Audrea was pretty chubby, which slowed her down a bit as she rounded the bases, but she was the home run queen of our class.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> She and I were friends partly because we were both kind of teenage misfits, me because I was a preacher’s kid and a brainiac and she because she was heavy and had to wear matronly clothes, instead of the popular Pendleton reversible skirts that were a hot item in our 50’s era high school.</span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I didn’t have such a skirt either, so we had that in common, but mainly we just liked each other. She was funny and smart and shrugged off the teasing she got because of her weight; I learned how to do that from her.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> When she died at about age 50, a consciousness of mortality seemed to hit some of us McEwen High School grads hard. Out of our tiny graduating class of 20 or so, eight had died young, some in farm accidents or car wrecks, some by cancer or other disease. And so it became important to us who still lived to find each other and hang on.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> When I moved back to the PNW from Denver in 1999, we started getting together, sometimes in Athena, sometimes at each others’ homes. And a core group of six women formed that has become one of my most valuable friendship groups.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> The interesting thing is that we weren’t close friends in high school, though we knew each other well. All of the other women in the group were part of a different crowd. They could date and go to the movies or go dancing; they had boyfriends and were cheerleaders.</span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I didn’t and I wasn’t. My social life consisted of Baptist Youth Fellowship and other church activities. My school achievements were Honor Roll and Student Body treasurer. Not the stuff of high school dreams!</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> But in our later years, when we were all in our fifties, we needed each other because our world was changing. No matter where we lived, what our careers meant to us, whatever our different circumstances had been in high school, the people who had been part of our lives for such a long time were dying.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> We couldn’t keep that from happening, but we could forge bonds of friendship that honored our long association and the common memories of growing up together in our small community.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Not long after Audrea’s death, another friend, Donna Myers, died suddenly of a massive heart attack. And what had been just a vague idea in our minds became a project. Donna’s grandson, Riley, was in Doernbecher Children’s hospital in Portland with leukemia and the family had no health insurance. Could we help Donna’s family?</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Somebody discovered that a softball tournament in Pendleton was being organized as a fundraiser. Maybe we could participate! How long had it been since any of us played softball? How good would we be without our slugger, Audrea? It didn’t matter.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> So on a chilly November Saturday over twenty years ago, “Donna’s Team” formed and played the crummiest softball you ever saw. But luckily, it was one of those jokester games where all you had to do was pay off the umpire and get a re-do on your strike-out or your being tagged at home plate. We played with toy bats and hollow plastic softballs.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We actually won one game, thanks to my son Mike’s willingness to play and be one of the goofier, more entertaining players on the field.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> I still have my Donna’s team t-shirt and hat, mementos of a time when friends fought back the dark for a little boy whose Grandma had been one of us.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> We need each other, sometimes, to fight back the dark. Sometimes friends come to our aid when we have an emergency; they take us in when the power goes out; they cover for us when we are ill. They take us up to Portland when we have an emergency. They buck us up by listening understandingly (or just by listening, whether they understand us or not!), even if they can’t do a thing to help.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> We receive countless gifts from our friends, intangibles we can hardly name. And what do we give, what can we give, in return for this kindness and support?</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> The thing is, friends give their presence and their aid without any expectation of return. It’s not a you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, much of the time. It’s somebody stepping in when there are few other alternatives; it’s somebody seeing our need when we are reluctant to admit our neediness.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> It’s not, usually, a “calling in of a chip” as we hear in the gangster movies on TV. “He owes me a favor” seems more like a business deal than an act of friendship, though I imagine sometimes that’s what we need.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Thanksgiving has become a time to express our gratitude for blessings received. Because of the economic uncertainty in our country, our blessings may have morphed from material things to generosity measured in a different way.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> The generosity of both friends and strangers, plus our family members, is a sweet thing to consider. These gifts of time and energy fill our hearts and give us strength for the cold days ahead.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> But gratitude is a two way street. We receive gratefully from others, cherishing the thought and the generosity that those gifts of spirit entail. And we also give those gifts to others, grateful for the opportunity to be a giver of gifts of spirit.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> You and I have doubtless encountered many people who give only so they can receive something in return. There’s something uncomfortable about being either the giver or receiver with a person like that. The best gifts are given with no expectation of return; the best gifts are received with no expectation of payback. These are gifts of the spirit.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> The gifts of the spirit are numerous and have often been incorporated as pillars of some of the world’s great religions. They are universal values and we all have them to impart and to receive.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> After considering how we might both give and receive the gifts of the spirit, I want to tell you of seven gifts of the spirit that I have received and have been able to give, over my lifespan so far. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I’m just going to name them now and expound on them another day, but think about these gifts we give and receive and we can talk more during our social time, if you wish.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> One important gift of the spirit for me is wisdom, both received and given.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Another is understanding---and being understood.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> The ability to make good decisions I learned from mentors and have been able to teach others.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> There’s courage, courage I witness and admire, and the courage that others have called up in me.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Knowledge is another gift. I learn from you and you learn from me.</span></p><p class="p5" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Wonder and awe rise up in us at the beauty of our relationships and the beauty of our land.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Reverence is the final gift on my list.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>When I experience the awareness of something bigger than myself and tell that story to others, reverence can blossom.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Gordon Bok sings his gift of spirit to his friend Joanie, <i>“oh, my Joanie, don’t you know that the stars are swinging slow, and the seas are rolling easy, as they did so long ago, if I had a thing to give you, I would tell you one more time, that the world is always turning toward the morning.”</i></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Let’s pause for a time of silent reflection and prayer.</span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">BENEDICTION:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Our worship service, our time of shaping worth together, is ended, but our service to the world begins again as we leave this place. Let us go in peace, remembering that we have gifts of the spirit to offer to each other and spiritual gifts to receive as well. May we reflect upon the gifts we have to give; may we receive gratefully the gifts that others hold out; and may we hold fast to the truth, that the world, both literally and metaphorically, is always turning toward the morning. Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p7" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: center; text-indent: 36px;"><span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0