This Reflection was offered at the Morning Worship Service of The Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron, June 10th 2007, by Jamie Goodwin
About a year and a half ago I was sitting in a meeting when I heard the Nominating Committee Chair say something like “We are having a hard time filling openings in the board, and we are running out of time.”
Cool I thought, I mean I haven’t been here at this church for all that long, less than 5 years, but I know a lot of people. I am really active in the online UU community. At that time I was on about 7 mailing lists, a blogger, and a member of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, which is a national congregation of Unitarian Universalists. Not to mention I was newly elected onto the Ohio-Meadville District board. Although I would have never admitted it at the time, I was thinking to myself… come on, you know this stuff, show up and blow them all away.
Suffice it to say, that is probably not the best attitude to take when starting out on a board of trustees. That is not to say my experience didn’t help. I like to think I brought insights and ideas to the board others might not have. I like to think my national and district connections have enabled me to look at issues with a scrutiny I might otherwise have not. But in the last year I have learned a few humbling lessons that I would like to share with our new board, with whom I will be working with in the next year, and all of you.
First of all, everyone on that board, everyone… in fact I would venture to guess nearly everyone in this congregation… knows this stuff. We all come from different perspectives and experiences and passions, but we know this stuff. We carry with us the hopes and dreams of what our future will be, and for each of us those hopes and dreams are a little different.
Which brings me to the second lesson I had to learn, our hopes and dreams may not be quite the same, what we each envision our tomorrows to look like will not be identical, and that is ok.
That is ok, because, the whole point of what we are doing here in this wonderful and sacred place, is trying to show the world that people are not required to believe alike, or to love alike, in order to live in peace and strive towards a better tomorrow.
A few months ago heard someone say, I have thought about serving on the board, but I have heard so many horror stories that I am afraid to. That makes me a little sad. Now I am not going to stand here and sugar coat it for you, being on our board takes a great deal of time, a strong commitment to this church, and a passion to help shape that “whatever that tomorrow will be”, but it is not a horror.
For me it has literally the most profound opportunity for growth that I have ever experienced. I have learned to say “I don’t know” and “I cannot”. I have learned that sometimes being a leader means, letting go. Letting others take the lead, and trusting their vision, their passion, to do the work.
So to those of you who are leaving our board, I want to say thank you, you have literally changed my life. Your passion and drive have been an inspiration.
And to those of you who are joining us now, I commend you and am honored to get the chance to work with you.
And to the rest of you I just want to say; being a leader in this church is not about knowing all the answers, or having the best connections, it is about living our faith. It is about standing up for that better tomorrow. If you go, I will follow… I encourage you all to share your knowledge, your strengths, and your passion. We are in it together.
May it be.
Showing posts with label Sermons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sermons. Show all posts
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Monday, April 02, 2007
We Are Triumphant
Delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron. Midday Service, April 1st 2007.
The Story of Palm Sunday is one I resonate with. Just days before giving himself up to be sacrificed Jesus triumphantly entered the city of Jerusalem, According to the custom of the times when a great leader or prophet entered the city, cloaks and tree branches were placed before him as a sign of honor. We must know that many of the people who did so had never heard Jesus speak, but they must of heard rumors about his message of acceptance and love. And so they turned out to honor him, to show their support.
“I tell you, if these were silent, the stones themselves would shout out."
Have you ever felt that way? Just felt powerful, exalted, and triumphant? It doesn’t happen very often, if we are a lucky once or twice in our lives we may really feel triumph. That’s not a bad thing, we see time and time again how those who are placed on a pedestal. Actors, entertainers, athletes, maybe sometimes even ministers, simply cannot live with such expectations.
We are a social animal and as such although we may look to a leader, to expect of that leader to be always perfect, to always win, is to strip away their humanity.
A few years ago where I work I was involved in an organizing campaign. Those of you who have ever seen or taken part in a union dispute or campaign will know exactly how messy, and dark, and complicated these types of things can become.
I was asked one evening “If you hate working here so much, why not find another place to work?” I said “NO… no... I do not hate it here, I am proud, honored to work in a place that does so much good. This is about trying to make us better, about assuring our future, not about tearing down.”
Now I am not promoting labor unions what I am trying to say is that many of us who find a church home within Unitarian Universalism do so because we want to make something better, we want a better future, and we want to be a part of something with a rich history, deep traditions, and an eye on the horizon.
Unitarians and Universalists in the United States have been abolitionists, reformers, and workers for justice. We have consistently been on the forefront of social justice issues in this country since as long as we have been around. We ordained non-white Americans at a time when most churches would not even let them in the door. We ordained the very first woman into a mainstream denomination. And we continue this today by ordaining gay, bi, and lesbian ministers, and we are on the forefront, the vanguard of pursuing equal rights for those among whose gender identity varies from what society calls common.
It is not only justice that has driven us. We count amongst our ranks theological geniuses, prophetic American voices who have reshaped the way the world understands faith, life, and nature. The Unitarian, and to some extend the Universalist, church was the hub of what has became known as the transcendentalist movement. Our membership roles resound with names like Emerson, Channing, and Parker who reshaped the very foundation of our faith.
More modernly Universalists in the middle 20th century reshaped Universalism in a very similar fashion. One of those reformers would even find his way to this church as our minister for 21 years, and serves as our Minster Emeritus still today. Gordon McKeeman.
We come from a long line of people who have chosen, who have demanded change in their world. And so it is today, we fight, we demand, we stand up for change, in our communities, in our world, and yes even in our congregations.
But let us not forget, for all our work, our hard, sustaining, important work. For all that we envision for the future, for all our hopes and desires about who we can and should be. We are also a people who do great things.
We are a people who have triumphed.
We are a people who have weathered the storms of fundamentalism and theocracy. And though we be few, we consistently, courageously, and demandingly been at the forefront of every march, every advocacy, and every effort.
Gordon McKeeman said, “If we who have chosen the critical, purifying way in religion have neglected some essential, it has been our propensity to diminish and trivialize our religious practices and thus to diminish our effectiveness as liberators, as resacralizers, as agents of wholeness, and our ability to repair of the world.”
It is important to take this time, to know who we are and feel good about what we have done and what we are trying to do. It doesn’t really make the next steps any easier, and it doesn’t mean we get to rest for long, but it is important to remember just how vital and amazing this faith we share is. It is important to realize we have been and will be triumphant. If we come from a place of honesty, a place of care, and a place of faith, we shall ever be.
To close I would like to go back to Gordon McKeeman,
Let me make the songs for the people,
Songs for the old and young;
Songs to stir like a battle-cry
Wherever they are sung.
Not for the clashing of sabres,
Nor for carnage nor for strife;
But songs to thrill the hearts of all
With more abundant life.
Let me make the songs for the weary,
amid life's fever and fret,
Till hearts shall relax their tension,
and careworn brows forget.
Let me sing for little children,
Before their footsteps stray,
Sweet anthems of love and duty,
To float o'er life's highway,
I would sing for the poor and aged,
When shadows dim their sight;
Of the bright and restful mansions,
Where there shall be no night.
Our world, so worn and weary,
Needs music, sure and strong,
To hush the jangle and discords
Of sorrow, pain, and wrong.
Music to soothe all its sorrow,
Till war and crime shall cease;
and the hearts of all grown tender
Girdle the world with peace.
Amen, and May It Be
The Story of Palm Sunday is one I resonate with. Just days before giving himself up to be sacrificed Jesus triumphantly entered the city of Jerusalem, According to the custom of the times when a great leader or prophet entered the city, cloaks and tree branches were placed before him as a sign of honor. We must know that many of the people who did so had never heard Jesus speak, but they must of heard rumors about his message of acceptance and love. And so they turned out to honor him, to show their support.
“I tell you, if these were silent, the stones themselves would shout out."
Have you ever felt that way? Just felt powerful, exalted, and triumphant? It doesn’t happen very often, if we are a lucky once or twice in our lives we may really feel triumph. That’s not a bad thing, we see time and time again how those who are placed on a pedestal. Actors, entertainers, athletes, maybe sometimes even ministers, simply cannot live with such expectations.
We are a social animal and as such although we may look to a leader, to expect of that leader to be always perfect, to always win, is to strip away their humanity.
A few years ago where I work I was involved in an organizing campaign. Those of you who have ever seen or taken part in a union dispute or campaign will know exactly how messy, and dark, and complicated these types of things can become.
I was asked one evening “If you hate working here so much, why not find another place to work?” I said “NO… no... I do not hate it here, I am proud, honored to work in a place that does so much good. This is about trying to make us better, about assuring our future, not about tearing down.”
Now I am not promoting labor unions what I am trying to say is that many of us who find a church home within Unitarian Universalism do so because we want to make something better, we want a better future, and we want to be a part of something with a rich history, deep traditions, and an eye on the horizon.
Unitarians and Universalists in the United States have been abolitionists, reformers, and workers for justice. We have consistently been on the forefront of social justice issues in this country since as long as we have been around. We ordained non-white Americans at a time when most churches would not even let them in the door. We ordained the very first woman into a mainstream denomination. And we continue this today by ordaining gay, bi, and lesbian ministers, and we are on the forefront, the vanguard of pursuing equal rights for those among whose gender identity varies from what society calls common.
It is not only justice that has driven us. We count amongst our ranks theological geniuses, prophetic American voices who have reshaped the way the world understands faith, life, and nature. The Unitarian, and to some extend the Universalist, church was the hub of what has became known as the transcendentalist movement. Our membership roles resound with names like Emerson, Channing, and Parker who reshaped the very foundation of our faith.
More modernly Universalists in the middle 20th century reshaped Universalism in a very similar fashion. One of those reformers would even find his way to this church as our minister for 21 years, and serves as our Minster Emeritus still today. Gordon McKeeman.
We come from a long line of people who have chosen, who have demanded change in their world. And so it is today, we fight, we demand, we stand up for change, in our communities, in our world, and yes even in our congregations.
But let us not forget, for all our work, our hard, sustaining, important work. For all that we envision for the future, for all our hopes and desires about who we can and should be. We are also a people who do great things.
We are a people who have triumphed.
We are a people who have weathered the storms of fundamentalism and theocracy. And though we be few, we consistently, courageously, and demandingly been at the forefront of every march, every advocacy, and every effort.
Gordon McKeeman said, “If we who have chosen the critical, purifying way in religion have neglected some essential, it has been our propensity to diminish and trivialize our religious practices and thus to diminish our effectiveness as liberators, as resacralizers, as agents of wholeness, and our ability to repair of the world.”
It is important to take this time, to know who we are and feel good about what we have done and what we are trying to do. It doesn’t really make the next steps any easier, and it doesn’t mean we get to rest for long, but it is important to remember just how vital and amazing this faith we share is. It is important to realize we have been and will be triumphant. If we come from a place of honesty, a place of care, and a place of faith, we shall ever be.
To close I would like to go back to Gordon McKeeman,
Let me make the songs for the people,
Songs for the old and young;
Songs to stir like a battle-cry
Wherever they are sung.
Not for the clashing of sabres,
Nor for carnage nor for strife;
But songs to thrill the hearts of all
With more abundant life.
Let me make the songs for the weary,
amid life's fever and fret,
Till hearts shall relax their tension,
and careworn brows forget.
Let me sing for little children,
Before their footsteps stray,
Sweet anthems of love and duty,
To float o'er life's highway,
I would sing for the poor and aged,
When shadows dim their sight;
Of the bright and restful mansions,
Where there shall be no night.
Our world, so worn and weary,
Needs music, sure and strong,
To hush the jangle and discords
Of sorrow, pain, and wrong.
Music to soothe all its sorrow,
Till war and crime shall cease;
and the hearts of all grown tender
Girdle the world with peace.
Amen, and May It Be
Monday, March 19, 2007
What is Luck?
What is Luck? Homily delivered on March 18th, 2007 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron. ~ by Jamie Goodwin
The existence of luck and of the ability to influence luck, both for good or ill, is one of the prolific and diverse beliefs in all of humanity. More popular than a belief in a personal God, more widespread than a belief in humanistic potential, and more prevalent than any kind of belief in natural or earth based spirits, the belief in Luck crosses lines of religion, class, race, culture, upbringing, and geographic distance.
But is it real?
Like all of what we call mysteries of life it is impossible, of course, to prove one way or the other. That doesn’t mean that we have not tried. It may be a very Unitarian Universalist point of view, but I do not like to let a simple thing like impossibility get in the way of a good discussion. We have talked about Luck, or the lack there of, for about as long as we have been able to talk. I imagine our first human ancestors on the banks of some unnamed river in Northern Africa laughing about the luck of one of their members on the hunt. I imagine my ancestors in Ireland returning home saddened and hungry, there no work to be found, and they say “no luck again today.”
Even Ralph Waldo Emerson, the transcendentalist poet who reshaped Unitarianism despite only being an ordained minister for a little over 3 years, had something to say about Luck.
Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances.
Real men believe in cause and effect.
Those are tough words from a man known for his tough words. So is carrying some small token in hopes of a brighter day as shallow as all that? Does coming to terms with the circumstances in our lives make us less real? I must say sorry, Uncle Ralph, but this time I must disagree.
A quote that captures my heart is from Seneca the Younger. He was a Roman Dramatist of the first century.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Those others here, besides myself, who are Oprah fans may recognize that phrase; it is one she says often. Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
I watched a television show the other day. Highlighted in this show was a young fellow, who at the age of 15 was dealt what many might consider a terrible amount of bad luck. While goofing off at the railroad tracks at night behind his home he was struck by a train. The result was him loosing both legs above the knee and his right arm just past his shoulder. This young man was able turn this devastating tragedy into something amazing.
He is now once again an athlete, competing regularly in running and swimming events using prosthetics. He was also the first double lower amputee to walk down stairs without holding on to another person, or railing, for support. He does it unassisted.
All of this is in thanks in part to an amazing clinician who just happened to be as energetic and passionate about this young mans future as he is himself. He was the first Prosthetist the family worked with. As his work grew he has now helped raise the bar on what amputees can hope to gain on the use prosthetics.
Was it luck that brought these two people together? The energetic young patient who demanded more and better, and was willing to work for it, and the equally energetic and extremely competent clinician who is determined to clear every bar that is raised in his path. Was it just plain old dumb luck?
The young man had been an athlete before his accident, a runner, a swimmer, and a skateboarder. He mentioned how this made him much better prepared to master the types of muscle control needed to control modern prosthetics. The prosthetists energy and ingenuity was well known before this, but coming into contact with this specific patient enabled him to soar in a way he had never before known.
What has stayed with me from watching that show is this. You can make the best out of ever opportunity, even when it arises out of tragic events, if you are willing and prepared.
What is luck? Is it even real? I cannot answer that for you. But I believe in it. I believe that we CAN influence the word around us by our willingness to take part in life and in our preparations for the future. I believe that simple tokens carried or cared for that help us remember, or hope, or focus are amazing gifts, sacred artifacts from our very lives.
I would like to end with a traditional Irish Blessing in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.
May you always have work for your hands to do.
May your pockets hold always a coin or two.
May the sun shine bright on your windowpane.
May the rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.
Amen, and May it be.
The existence of luck and of the ability to influence luck, both for good or ill, is one of the prolific and diverse beliefs in all of humanity. More popular than a belief in a personal God, more widespread than a belief in humanistic potential, and more prevalent than any kind of belief in natural or earth based spirits, the belief in Luck crosses lines of religion, class, race, culture, upbringing, and geographic distance.
But is it real?
Like all of what we call mysteries of life it is impossible, of course, to prove one way or the other. That doesn’t mean that we have not tried. It may be a very Unitarian Universalist point of view, but I do not like to let a simple thing like impossibility get in the way of a good discussion. We have talked about Luck, or the lack there of, for about as long as we have been able to talk. I imagine our first human ancestors on the banks of some unnamed river in Northern Africa laughing about the luck of one of their members on the hunt. I imagine my ancestors in Ireland returning home saddened and hungry, there no work to be found, and they say “no luck again today.”
Even Ralph Waldo Emerson, the transcendentalist poet who reshaped Unitarianism despite only being an ordained minister for a little over 3 years, had something to say about Luck.
Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances.
Real men believe in cause and effect.
Those are tough words from a man known for his tough words. So is carrying some small token in hopes of a brighter day as shallow as all that? Does coming to terms with the circumstances in our lives make us less real? I must say sorry, Uncle Ralph, but this time I must disagree.
A quote that captures my heart is from Seneca the Younger. He was a Roman Dramatist of the first century.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Those others here, besides myself, who are Oprah fans may recognize that phrase; it is one she says often. Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
I watched a television show the other day. Highlighted in this show was a young fellow, who at the age of 15 was dealt what many might consider a terrible amount of bad luck. While goofing off at the railroad tracks at night behind his home he was struck by a train. The result was him loosing both legs above the knee and his right arm just past his shoulder. This young man was able turn this devastating tragedy into something amazing.
He is now once again an athlete, competing regularly in running and swimming events using prosthetics. He was also the first double lower amputee to walk down stairs without holding on to another person, or railing, for support. He does it unassisted.
All of this is in thanks in part to an amazing clinician who just happened to be as energetic and passionate about this young mans future as he is himself. He was the first Prosthetist the family worked with. As his work grew he has now helped raise the bar on what amputees can hope to gain on the use prosthetics.
Was it luck that brought these two people together? The energetic young patient who demanded more and better, and was willing to work for it, and the equally energetic and extremely competent clinician who is determined to clear every bar that is raised in his path. Was it just plain old dumb luck?
The young man had been an athlete before his accident, a runner, a swimmer, and a skateboarder. He mentioned how this made him much better prepared to master the types of muscle control needed to control modern prosthetics. The prosthetists energy and ingenuity was well known before this, but coming into contact with this specific patient enabled him to soar in a way he had never before known.
What has stayed with me from watching that show is this. You can make the best out of ever opportunity, even when it arises out of tragic events, if you are willing and prepared.
What is luck? Is it even real? I cannot answer that for you. But I believe in it. I believe that we CAN influence the word around us by our willingness to take part in life and in our preparations for the future. I believe that simple tokens carried or cared for that help us remember, or hope, or focus are amazing gifts, sacred artifacts from our very lives.
I would like to end with a traditional Irish Blessing in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.
May you always have work for your hands to do.
May your pockets hold always a coin or two.
May the sun shine bright on your windowpane.
May the rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.
Amen, and May it be.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Being Winter
BE Winter - Delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron Midday Service. 2-11-07 by Jamie Goodwin
When I originally proposed this service back in December I was thinking, amidst the 50 degree days, I really want to talk about winter! that is, if winter ever gets here. Alas, as always, winter did come. The nights grew cold, bitter even, many of us have picked up the various winter time viruses that come along with living in a community of humans, and now we are in the depths of February.
Often this time of year I find myself longing, wishing, desperately hoping for the change of seasons. Winter to spring is one of the most fantastic and celebrated times in all cultures. We center some of our most important festivals on spring’s arrival. We think about beginning gardens and cleaning our homes, even though we know it is still too cold to do such things.
These last couple of years I have been wondering, am I missing something? Am I missing an opportunity, am I missing out on something important… by waiting? Waiting is important, essential. Patience may be the strongest lesson we are taught by winter. Still I wonder if waiting, if patiently longing for warmth and longer days is limiting me? I never expect I will be one of those people who full heatedly embraces winter, I doubt you will see me in snow pants and skies strapped to my feet, and I doubt you will ever see me with a joyous smile while shoveling my driveway and the smidge of sidewalk that I am responsible for keeping clear. Then again I have made a conscious effort, a spiritual choice to try to embrace winter. I call it Being Winter.
As much as I am able - I stretch, even when I am uncomfortable, I pull my heart back from that longing for what was and what will be, back into what is.
In many ways my feelings for winter mirror how many of us feel about change. We know it is coming, we sometimes dread it. We look around at our warm comfortable days and say “This is alright, if it’s all the same to you, I will stay right here.” When it hits, we wait, unbudging by the hearth fire, unwilling to look up from our melancholy and fatigue. We wait for a glimpse of the sun and the melting of the world around us. We wait, if we wait long enough perhaps… perhaps… we will find ourselves right back to those warm comfortable days.
Of course, life doesn’t work that way. There is work to be done. There are pathways to clear - there is crisp, refreshing air to breathe. My challenge to you, is to embrace change. Even when it is uncomfortable, even when its cold and challenging winds worm their way into your warm and comfortable cloak. Be change.
That is a little scary isn’t it? I don’t deny it. Change is scary, sometimes even hurtful. We are comfortable, secure, in some ways even happy. But it is also necessary. Just as the cycles of the earth, the changing seasons, are essential to the plants and animals we share our little slice of earth with. Change is essential to us as believers in a living faith.
But how do we change?
It is simple really, and only takes a life time. For things to change, we must also be willing to change. We must be willing to pour the light of our love into all we do. We must be willing to reach into the heavens and bring back the sacred, the true, the worthy. Most of all we must be willing to share all we find, and learn from those others who bring their own, sometimes unexpected, treasures into our midst. And they say this is an easy faith.
But if things change, tomorrow will be so much different than what we have today.
That may be true, but tell me, has one spring ever looked identical to the one before. Have the exact same flowers, and the exact same leaves appeared as they did so long ago. And yet spring is spring. Gardeners know that a plant that was thriving last we saw it may suddenly be struggling this year, what has been struggling for several seasons may suddenly burst forth in beauty and elegance. It is exactly those varieties in life that make it such a fulfilling adventure. Spring is spring, and just like the seasons, if we hold tight to who we are, if we remember and honor our history and traditions, whatever tomorrow might bring we can embrace and welcome into our lives.
There is a song close to the heart of many Unitarian Universalists, the last two lines perhaps, say it more clearly and simply than I have.
Roots hold me close; wings set me free;
Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me.
We are blessed with roots, deep sustaining roots that even in depths of winter and blowing cold have sustained us, have kept us.
We are blessed with wings, as a living and moving faith, that we may soar above the clouds and search for all that is right and true.
Life surrounds us, even in the depths of winter.
I want to BE winter, and not just endure it
I want to BE change, and not just wait for it to happen
I want the BE life, and not just a spectator
No, it is not always easy, AND that is no excuse for not trying.
In the spirit of prayer I ask you to sing with me now, some of you may know the words, but if you do not they are listed in your order of service, the song is Spirit of Life. After we sing we will take a few moments to set together in silence. For now I ask you to rise, and as we sing think of all that life is; the warm spring days, the cold winter nights, the comfortable waiting places, and the challenging changing future.
BE winter with me now, BE change, BE Life.
Spirit of Life, come unto me.
Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion.
Blow in the wind, rise in the sea;
Move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.
Roots hold me close; wings set me free;
Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me.
~ Silence ~
Amen, and thank you for being here today.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Stanley’s Journey
Reflection delivered by Warren Brown at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron
Dec. 3, 2006
When I met Stanley he was chopping wood. It was a cold and rainy morning in early March of 1994. By the time I got there at nine, he had been at it for several hours. The old trailer hitched to his Ford tractor was bulging with firewood. Later, as I was helping him stack the wood in an already full wood shed, I asked him why he was chopping more just before spring. He explained that when he got up at five that morning it was raining too hard to work in the field. So he decided to chop wood until it cleared. The clouds broke just as the wagonload of wood was empty. And he headed out to plant 25 red oak trees.
That’s the way all of Stanley’s mornings started. His work was determined by weather and by season. If it was too rainy to plant, he would chop. If it was too hot to chop he would prune. If it was too cold to prune he would mend. The only thing that Stanley never did was nothing. Because as he told it, there was never nothing to do.
Stanley was a farmer. By the time I met him, he had been a farmer all of his 82 years.
His Dad was a farmer, as was his Grand Dad. Altogether, they farmed the same Medina County land for over 125 years. Theirs was one of the once countless small American family farms handed down generation to generation that have all but disappeared from the landscape.
Over the years, Stan and his family raised a number of different crops. At one time or another, they raised corn and soy and wheat. But by the early thirties they were dairy farmers. It was also at this time that Stan started doing something that was unusual for the 1930’s. Their farm had a number of steep hills and erosion was always a problem. To hold the sharp grades, Stan started planting Scotch Pines. This proved much more effective than the grasses that most farmers used. And it began a practice that would later become much more than land management.
By the early sixties, Stan began to have health problems. Frequently, in the course of his work he would become dizzy and then violently ill. He was diagnosed with Maniere’s Disease an inner ear disorder that made the work of dairying impossible. Sadly, Stan sold off his herd and equipment.
With his dairy income gone, he was persuaded to sell timber from the forested areas of the farm. But this proved more difficult than he had thought. Watching as the mighty trees that had stood over his land through all memory were felled, he was filled with grief. And as the first trucks loaded with logs began to leave, he stopped them. He made them unload, paid them for their time, and told them never to return.
Now Stanley knew what he wanted to do. He began planting trees. Not just a few. But many, many trees.
500 Norway Spruce.
500 Tulips
2000 White Pines
3000 Red Oak.
Beach, White Oak, Sweetgum, Red and Scotch Pines, Black Walnut, High Yeild Sugar Maples.
Stanley was not planting a tree farm. Many were species that would never mature in his lifetime. This wasn’t planting to harvest for his own gain. He was planting because he loved to plant. He lived everyday, doing what he loved the most. And by the end of his life in 2001, he had planted over one hundred thousand trees. His 125 year family farm is now mostly forest.
Each of us is on a journey. We trudge our paths seeking meaning in the passage, and a destination that rewards the effort. But people like Stanley remind us that the journey itself IS the reward. And that which we seek, we can find everyday, if we’re willing to see it.
In 1997, Stanley and Esther Allard willed upon their deaths their family farm to the Medina County Parks district. And today, if you travel down Remson Road in Granger Township, about ¾ of a mile west from Medina Line Road, you will come to Allardale – one of the most beautiful and scenic parks in region – including, as estimated by the National Park Service, Stanley’s 100,000 trees.
Stanley Allard’s journey led him to plant trees. He didn’t have a park in mind as he was doing it. But through his selfless and persistent efforts a place of peace, tranquility, and beauty exists for all of us to enjoy from now on.
What do we seek on our journeys? Do we seek knowledge, or power, or security? Maybe we should just go about the business of traveling. Joyfully planting a little of ourselves as we go.
Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your journey today.
Dec. 3, 2006
When I met Stanley he was chopping wood. It was a cold and rainy morning in early March of 1994. By the time I got there at nine, he had been at it for several hours. The old trailer hitched to his Ford tractor was bulging with firewood. Later, as I was helping him stack the wood in an already full wood shed, I asked him why he was chopping more just before spring. He explained that when he got up at five that morning it was raining too hard to work in the field. So he decided to chop wood until it cleared. The clouds broke just as the wagonload of wood was empty. And he headed out to plant 25 red oak trees.
That’s the way all of Stanley’s mornings started. His work was determined by weather and by season. If it was too rainy to plant, he would chop. If it was too hot to chop he would prune. If it was too cold to prune he would mend. The only thing that Stanley never did was nothing. Because as he told it, there was never nothing to do.
Stanley was a farmer. By the time I met him, he had been a farmer all of his 82 years.
His Dad was a farmer, as was his Grand Dad. Altogether, they farmed the same Medina County land for over 125 years. Theirs was one of the once countless small American family farms handed down generation to generation that have all but disappeared from the landscape.
Over the years, Stan and his family raised a number of different crops. At one time or another, they raised corn and soy and wheat. But by the early thirties they were dairy farmers. It was also at this time that Stan started doing something that was unusual for the 1930’s. Their farm had a number of steep hills and erosion was always a problem. To hold the sharp grades, Stan started planting Scotch Pines. This proved much more effective than the grasses that most farmers used. And it began a practice that would later become much more than land management.
By the early sixties, Stan began to have health problems. Frequently, in the course of his work he would become dizzy and then violently ill. He was diagnosed with Maniere’s Disease an inner ear disorder that made the work of dairying impossible. Sadly, Stan sold off his herd and equipment.
With his dairy income gone, he was persuaded to sell timber from the forested areas of the farm. But this proved more difficult than he had thought. Watching as the mighty trees that had stood over his land through all memory were felled, he was filled with grief. And as the first trucks loaded with logs began to leave, he stopped them. He made them unload, paid them for their time, and told them never to return.
Now Stanley knew what he wanted to do. He began planting trees. Not just a few. But many, many trees.
500 Norway Spruce.
500 Tulips
2000 White Pines
3000 Red Oak.
Beach, White Oak, Sweetgum, Red and Scotch Pines, Black Walnut, High Yeild Sugar Maples.
Stanley was not planting a tree farm. Many were species that would never mature in his lifetime. This wasn’t planting to harvest for his own gain. He was planting because he loved to plant. He lived everyday, doing what he loved the most. And by the end of his life in 2001, he had planted over one hundred thousand trees. His 125 year family farm is now mostly forest.
Each of us is on a journey. We trudge our paths seeking meaning in the passage, and a destination that rewards the effort. But people like Stanley remind us that the journey itself IS the reward. And that which we seek, we can find everyday, if we’re willing to see it.
In 1997, Stanley and Esther Allard willed upon their deaths their family farm to the Medina County Parks district. And today, if you travel down Remson Road in Granger Township, about ¾ of a mile west from Medina Line Road, you will come to Allardale – one of the most beautiful and scenic parks in region – including, as estimated by the National Park Service, Stanley’s 100,000 trees.
Stanley Allard’s journey led him to plant trees. He didn’t have a park in mind as he was doing it. But through his selfless and persistent efforts a place of peace, tranquility, and beauty exists for all of us to enjoy from now on.
What do we seek on our journeys? Do we seek knowledge, or power, or security? Maybe we should just go about the business of traveling. Joyfully planting a little of ourselves as we go.
Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your journey today.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life
Excerpted from the sermon "The First Day and the Rest of Your Life" delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron by our Minister Emeritus; Rev. Gordon McKeeman - January 2, 1972
Part 2
Let me suggest to you that change is something that happens under the impact of necessity. We are not likely to change unless it appears to us that it is necessary for us to change. Now, I think it you were to take a poll and ask any ten people if they wanted some changes, the majority would say, "Yes we would like some changes." If however you ask them if they wanted to change themselves, if they were ready to pay the price of changing themselves, perhaps a different result would arise. In order for change to take place, we must want or need to change badly enough to pay the price of change. The price of change for human beings is self discipline. If you want a change you've got to adjust to altered circumstances. And in order to do those things - any of all of them - self discipline is required.
Sometimes we talk at the beginning of the year about a fresh start. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. There's a kind of aura of a fresh start about that. But, in fact, the notion of a fresh start can be a kind of dodging of reality, because any first day that any of us takes at this point begins with the baggage of the past. Every one of us has experienced happy and hurtful experiences. We have, al of us, things that we fear to do out of embarrassments and failures of the past. We all have security blankets, food, and money - and statues - and prestige that we fear to risk or lose so we not make a fresh start, that is, a start without any encumbrances. We start from where we are, and that is starting from where we are means an acknowledgment of our self-knowledge, some better or deeper understanding of who we are as the starting place for what we might be. The most profound changes that ever occur are inside people. They occur when people acknowledge realities of their own existence and seek out some broader perspectives. This requires often times the company of others. Few people understand themselves well enough to be able to know what they really are apart from the reflections they get from other people. Few of us can do without the company of others. Few of us there are who do not need a widening of the context of our lives. Most of us do not mind change as long as it doesn't alter anything. But if it does, it might alter us and that might be painful - or difficult - or demanding. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
Part 2
Let me suggest to you that change is something that happens under the impact of necessity. We are not likely to change unless it appears to us that it is necessary for us to change. Now, I think it you were to take a poll and ask any ten people if they wanted some changes, the majority would say, "Yes we would like some changes." If however you ask them if they wanted to change themselves, if they were ready to pay the price of changing themselves, perhaps a different result would arise. In order for change to take place, we must want or need to change badly enough to pay the price of change. The price of change for human beings is self discipline. If you want a change you've got to adjust to altered circumstances. And in order to do those things - any of all of them - self discipline is required.
Sometimes we talk at the beginning of the year about a fresh start. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. There's a kind of aura of a fresh start about that. But, in fact, the notion of a fresh start can be a kind of dodging of reality, because any first day that any of us takes at this point begins with the baggage of the past. Every one of us has experienced happy and hurtful experiences. We have, al of us, things that we fear to do out of embarrassments and failures of the past. We all have security blankets, food, and money - and statues - and prestige that we fear to risk or lose so we not make a fresh start, that is, a start without any encumbrances. We start from where we are, and that is starting from where we are means an acknowledgment of our self-knowledge, some better or deeper understanding of who we are as the starting place for what we might be. The most profound changes that ever occur are inside people. They occur when people acknowledge realities of their own existence and seek out some broader perspectives. This requires often times the company of others. Few people understand themselves well enough to be able to know what they really are apart from the reflections they get from other people. Few of us can do without the company of others. Few of us there are who do not need a widening of the context of our lives. Most of us do not mind change as long as it doesn't alter anything. But if it does, it might alter us and that might be painful - or difficult - or demanding. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Charlie Brown and Survival of a Species
Excerpted from the sermon "The First Day and the Rest of Your Life" delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron by our Minister Emeritus; Rev. Gordon McKeeman - January 2, 1972
Charlie brown and Linus are walking along and Linus says to Charlie Brown, "I have a theological question. When you die and go to heaven, are you graded on a percentage or on a curve?" And Charlie Brown says, "On a curve naturally;" to which Linus responds, "How can you be so sure?" and Charlie Browns says, "I'm always sure about the things that are a matter of opinion."
perhaps we ought to take a cue from Charlie Brown, that is to say, certainties are a matter of opinion, not a matter of fact. Certainties are our fundamental premises which are, to use another word, our faith. And we are always sure about things that are a matter of opinion, aren't we? Well, what are some of these certainties which are, in fact, only our assertations?
Let's begins with one - the notion, the belief, the certainty, as it where - that there is an ordering process going on in us and about us, and that survival is it's goal, and that process rewards adaption. What does it mean? It means that if we learn how to live within the circumstances, the conditions, the environment, these learnings have survival value. The cockroach managed it and the dinosaur didn't. The question before us, of course, is whether human beings are going to learn it or not, and that is at this point an open question. It is one of the uncertainties.
But the certainty that lies behind it is that this ordering process will reward adaption with survival and non-adaption with extinction. In the the long run, then, morality is based upon survival value - that which is moral enables people to survive, that which is immoral does not enable them to survive. How to apply that is a problem. For example, violence in the form of predation (the praying of one specie upon another specie for purposes of it's survival) does indeed have survival value. So if you happen to be a wolf, to be a good predator is the means of your survival and that involves violence.
The question is whether violence has survival value for human beings. What are we predators upon? Ourselves? One another? While most animals have natural enemies, man apparently has no natural enemies, and violence in the hands of mankind does not insure his survival. It does, in fact, threaten it. Therefore, in trying to find out what things we ought to be embracing, the question of whether or not value is capable of ensuring or enhancing the possibilities of survival is one yardstick to use.
Using this yardstick, one discovers a very interesting thing. Such moral values of love, and honesty, and acceptance are not simply preferences of human beings, they are really imperatives of human beings because mankind is one and violence and hostility do not have survival value but love, and honesty, and acceptance do have survival value. Now you may find many other kinds of values which, by this yardstick, are useful in that they suggest the possibilities of survival of the human species and it's growth toward it's potential which some of us dream to be a world of peace and good will. But these things require changes in human beings. So we go from the rest of your life back to the first part, which is about the first day. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. How are we to start the necessary kinds of change in us, and in others, to enable us to survive as a species?
... to be continued
Charlie brown and Linus are walking along and Linus says to Charlie Brown, "I have a theological question. When you die and go to heaven, are you graded on a percentage or on a curve?" And Charlie Brown says, "On a curve naturally;" to which Linus responds, "How can you be so sure?" and Charlie Browns says, "I'm always sure about the things that are a matter of opinion."
perhaps we ought to take a cue from Charlie Brown, that is to say, certainties are a matter of opinion, not a matter of fact. Certainties are our fundamental premises which are, to use another word, our faith. And we are always sure about things that are a matter of opinion, aren't we? Well, what are some of these certainties which are, in fact, only our assertations?
Let's begins with one - the notion, the belief, the certainty, as it where - that there is an ordering process going on in us and about us, and that survival is it's goal, and that process rewards adaption. What does it mean? It means that if we learn how to live within the circumstances, the conditions, the environment, these learnings have survival value. The cockroach managed it and the dinosaur didn't. The question before us, of course, is whether human beings are going to learn it or not, and that is at this point an open question. It is one of the uncertainties.
But the certainty that lies behind it is that this ordering process will reward adaption with survival and non-adaption with extinction. In the the long run, then, morality is based upon survival value - that which is moral enables people to survive, that which is immoral does not enable them to survive. How to apply that is a problem. For example, violence in the form of predation (the praying of one specie upon another specie for purposes of it's survival) does indeed have survival value. So if you happen to be a wolf, to be a good predator is the means of your survival and that involves violence.
The question is whether violence has survival value for human beings. What are we predators upon? Ourselves? One another? While most animals have natural enemies, man apparently has no natural enemies, and violence in the hands of mankind does not insure his survival. It does, in fact, threaten it. Therefore, in trying to find out what things we ought to be embracing, the question of whether or not value is capable of ensuring or enhancing the possibilities of survival is one yardstick to use.
Using this yardstick, one discovers a very interesting thing. Such moral values of love, and honesty, and acceptance are not simply preferences of human beings, they are really imperatives of human beings because mankind is one and violence and hostility do not have survival value but love, and honesty, and acceptance do have survival value. Now you may find many other kinds of values which, by this yardstick, are useful in that they suggest the possibilities of survival of the human species and it's growth toward it's potential which some of us dream to be a world of peace and good will. But these things require changes in human beings. So we go from the rest of your life back to the first part, which is about the first day. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. How are we to start the necessary kinds of change in us, and in others, to enable us to survive as a species?
... to be continued
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Belief and Discernment
Delivered by Warren Brown
July 23, 2006
Sunday Morning Service
Years ago, I had a business that often required me to drive long distances at night. To pass the time, I listened to books-on-tape, or music on cassette, or occasionally late night talk radio. One night, in Fall of 1996 very early in the morning, I was tuning around the distant AM stations when I came across a show that I hadn’t heard before. There was a scientist talking with the host about a comet that was traveling toward Earth.
“Cool, a talk show about astronomy,” I thought. Now, I’m not a scientist, but science has always fascinated me. So I settled in to the conversation.
The scientist was Dr. Courtney Brown, a tenured professor at Emory University. He was talking about a recently taken photograph of the Hale-Bopp comet that at the time was on its approach passed Earth. Hale-Bopp, most of you will remember, was one of the largest comets to travel by our planet in over one hundred years. It could easily be seen in the night sky without a telescope.
The photo that Dr. Brown was talking about had been taken by someone he referred to as a “top-ten university astronomer.” What made this picture interesting is that it appeared to show something more than the comet. The photo showed a large object behind Hale-Bopp – an object that he said was up to four times the size of Earth. This object was originally discovered by an amateur astronomer named Chuck Shramek, who had been tracking the progress of Hale-Bopp. Dr. Brown’s photo seemed to support the object’s existence. Even more interesting was that according to Shramek the object didn’t correspond to any known bodies on the star charts. But what really piqued my interest, was when Brown stated that the object seemed to be actually traveling along with the comet! More astonishing yet, he maintained that it was not a natural object and that it was traveling in a way that seemed to purposely shield its view from the Earth behind the bright comet!
Well, at this point, my 2 o’clock in the morning brain was racing. “Are these guys saying that this thing is a space craft being piloted toward the earth using Hale-Bopp as cover?” Yes, that was exactly what they were saying. This was astounding! If true, it would have been the beginning of one of the most significant moments in the history of planet! All of our past assumptions about everything - the cosmos, life, and God would be put to the test.
I was excited. But, I wasn’t ready to be sold yet. News of this scope naturally kicked my skepticism into overdrive. On one hand, someone with seemingly respectable credentials was making the claim. And there was the corroborating photograph. Dr. Brown even asserted that he had contacted the Greenwich Observatory who was supposedly also following the unidentified object. Also, I was aware that some of the great scientific minds of the time considered life on other planets, not only possible, but probable. It stood to reason that sometime, a sufficiently advanced alien culture might just show up.
On the other hand, this was an extraordinary claim. And my source of information – well, the authority of commercial talk radio anytime of the day should be considered suspect – talk radio at 2 in the morning is even more dubious. Besides, Dr. Brown only identified the author of the photo as a “top ten university astronomer.” He said that the scientist was arranging a press conference to officially announce the discovery, and wanted to remain anonymous until then. Hmmm…
Still, as the show signed off the air, promising to keep abreast of developing information, I was thrilled at the prospect. But at the same time, I was determined to find news that would support these claims.
So the next day, I bought several newspapers. I scanned the TV. I listened to the radio. Surely, news like this would get lots of coverage. But nothing. No articles. No stories. No commentaries. About the aliens coming to earth - there was only silence.
Now, I’m not big on conspiracies. So reluctantly, I had to admit that if the media wasn’t covering this story, there was a good chance that it wasn’t credible. That night, I tuned back in to the radio show. They were still talking about the aliens. And I learned more about Dr. Courtney Brown from Emory. His field was and still is political science, not astronomy. He’s also the director of the Farsight Institute – an organization dedicated to scientific remote viewing – a process that uses psychic ability to “see” events in distant locations or back in time. Apparently, it was three of his remote viewers that identified the Hale-Bopp companion as a metallic structure filled with aliens. Well, I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions about remote viewing. But to me, it sounded like pseudo-science at best, and sadly I concluded that aliens were probably not about to land.
It turns out that the show I was listening to was the Art Bell show, a regular haunt of those interested in paranormal oddities and conspiracies. I later heard that Dr. Brown’s corroborating photo was a fake and that Chuck Shramek, the amateur astronomer that had found the object was using his star chart program incorrectly. The object he “discovered” was indeed a known star.
For me and for most people who heard about Hale-Bopp’s alien companion, that was the end of the story. We had listened to the claims. We critically examined the evidence. And finding them unconvincing – like it or not, we rejected the whole notion.
But there were others who heard the assertions of Chuck Shramek and Courtney Brown who came to very different conclusions. Marshall Applewhite was the charismatic leader of a small religious sect in California. He and his 38 followers had access to the same information that I had. But rather than rejecting the contentions about aliens, they embraced them. Applewhite and his group became convinced that not only was a ship on its way, it was coming for them. In fact, they were so sure, that a few months after Art Bell broke the news on his program, all 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult quietly and methodically committed suicide in preparation for their galactic voyage.
How could such a thing happen? How could these people, when presented with essentially the same information that I was, come to believe such radically different things? Those questions have haunted me ever since.
How do we form our beliefs? How do we validate or invalidate them? And how do those beliefs affect our lives? For UU’s, these questions are central to our 4th principle: “A free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” It’s important that we think about the things that we believe.
I meet with a group here at the church called UU Baggage Inspection. Once a month we get together to examine and discuss a foundational spiritual concept. So I was excited when one of our first topics was “belief.” It gave me the excuse to do a little research on the subject. And while I was only able to scratch the surface of a very complex issue, I found the information useful and enlightening.
Beliefs concern those ideas that we consider true, but have no proof. We hold many, many beliefs – some are profound, and some are ordinary. We may believe an intelligent God guides the universe. We may believe our kids sometimes lie about finishing their homework. We may believe in a woman’s right to choose. We may believe our co-workers are shameless self-promoters. We may believe that we can succeed if we only try. We may believe that Fords are better than Chevys. We have beliefs about everything and everyone around us. All of those beliefs work together to create our world-view. And they color everything we see.
Where do these beliefs come from? Some we get from others. As children, many of our beliefs come from our parents. Others we get from friends or teachers or ministers. And many, we come up with on our own.
Michael Shermer, psychologist and founding publisher of Skeptics Magazine has studied and written extensively about the formation of beliefs. In his book “How We Believe – Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God,” he argues that beliefs often start with something that we as humans are particularly good at:
Did you see the square in this pattern?
This graphic illustrates something humans are very good at. We are pattern-seeking animals. Recognizing patterns in our world has always been crucial to our survival. For example:
- Early hunters noticed that their hunt’s were more successful when they stayed upwind of their quarry.
- And when they began to farm, they learned that cow manure is good for crops.
Even today…
- We learn early that when crossing the street that dangerous cars are likely to be speeding by,
- Later we notice that if we drink too much we’ll feel bad the next day.
- Or as I’ve found out on occasion, if I act like a jerk, people will treat me like one.
As we recognize patterns, we can begin to make assumptions about our world - assumptions that we put together to form systems of belief.
- If we look both ways, we won’t be run over by a car.
- We should drink in moderation.
- If we don’t act like jerks and treat people with respect, we’ll get along better with those around us.
Michael Shermer asserts that this process of assembling patterns into beliefs has through evolution become hardwired into our brains. It’s a system he’s dubbed the “Belief Engine.” And it works so well, that if we’re not careful, it can cause us problems. It turns out that we’re so good at seeing patterns, we sometimes see them when they are not there.
This time, look again and try not to see the square.
It’s difficult to do. Our brains fill in the missing pieces.
There’s not really a square there –
Only four Pac Man shapes.
We’re predisposed to see the pattern. Once we’ve identified it, a pattern is difficult to reject, even if new information contradicts it. Not only that, we tend to see the patterns that we want to see, and deny the patterns that we don’t.
When I shop at the supermarket, I always try to figure out which will be the fastest checkout line. But no matter how carefully I choose, the person ahead of me always has an item that won’t scan, or has forgotten his or her bonus card and needs to have the number looked up, or has a coupon for two bottles of dish detergent but only picked up one. In the meantime, the people who were at the backs of the other lines when I walked up are now on their way to the parking lot. The pattern always is – that the slowest line will always be the one that I choose.
Of course, I know that’s not really true. In fact, every time I’m at the store, rather than just getting in any line, I always try to calculate which lane has the fewest items and the fastest checker - even though, I’m probably right less than half the time.
So, why do I persist in this belief that I can pick a fast checkout lane? It may be partly because of who I believe I am. The strong image I have of myself is that of an intelligent and rational thinker. Therefore, I believe that I have the mental acuity to be able to read all of the variables in the checkout lane to determine which will be fastest. The fact that I fail more than succeed, doesn’t harmonize with my self-image. As a result, I deny the pattern and preserve my delusion.
It’s the same for all of our beliefs. They have to be in harmony. So if new patterns of information come along that support our existing beliefs we’re disposed to accept them. On the contrary, if new information challenges our beliefs we have three choices. Our first reaction might be to reject the new information. Or we can try to make it fit our existing beliefs. Otherwise, we must change or discard our conflicting beliefs. For strongly held beliefs, this can be a very difficult thing to do.
Heaven’s Gate founder Marshall Applewhite was a very troubled man. He struggled with mental illness and his own sexuality. In his thirties, he had admitted himself into a psychiatric hospital for hearing voices and to be “cured” of his homosexual urges. Unfortunately, the medical community wasn’t able to help him. So instead, he sought solace in an increasingly bizarre system of beliefs. He believed that he was a messenger from an “Evolutionary Kingdom Level Above Human.” who had been sent to earth and placed in his current “human container.” He was rejecting his humanity, and perhaps overcoming his inner conflict.
His mission was to prepare the world to be recycled to the next evolutionary level. To aid him, he gathered a number of followers whom he also indoctrinated into his beliefs. The members of Heaven’s Gate were isolated from the outside world - including from their family and friends. They were given new names and forced to take on androgynous identities. Applewhite controlled all information, not allowing his followers to watch television or read anything he did not approve.
When Courtney Brown’s news of an alien ship reached the group, it was altogether consistent with their beliefs that it was coming for them. To be swept away from their troubled existence on Earth, must have been cause for celebration. But in the months that followed Art Bell’s show, the contradicting evidence would have become increasingly difficult to reject. In the end, death may have seemed the only way to retain “the truth.” When Applewhite elected to die, his followers were obliged to do likewise.
Thank goodness the Heaven’s Gate episode was the kind of rare and tragic event that’s not likely to personally touch most of our lives. But the warning is clear. Wrong-headed beliefs are the cause of sadness and suffering everyday, everywhere. In Iraq people regularly justify killing themselves and others because they believe it will be pleasing to God. Elsewhere others succumb to scams because they believe the stories of unscrupulous con artists. Many of us know people who reject relationships with family members whose sexual orientation clashes with their beliefs. And how many here aren’t willing to work for the growth of our congregation believing that more members will destroy the intimate nature of our community?
Conversely, how much better is a society that challenges beliefs of racial or gender superiority? Our environment improves as beliefs about pollution change. And how much more effective are all of us in everything we do if We Believe We can make a difference?
A mountain of information comes at us everyday on which we form judgments. We should all be critical of the messages we receive. But we shouldn’t discard information just because it challenges the things we believe. As Michael Shermer reminds us, it’s easy to deceive ourselves. Many of the beliefs to which we cling limit rather than expand our possibilities. We all have beliefs that are worth keeping and others that should be modified or thrown away. Discernment is the process of deciding which is which. I challenge all of you – which beliefs could you change that would make your life better?
Quite a few of us are here today because we rejected beliefs that we had grown up with. We sought a place where we were free to believe as our own heads and hearts guided. UU’s are good at challenging beliefs. But we should never be complacent - not if we are to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
May your beliefs bring you strength in adversity, comfort in uncertainty, and peace in quietude.
July 23, 2006
Sunday Morning Service
Years ago, I had a business that often required me to drive long distances at night. To pass the time, I listened to books-on-tape, or music on cassette, or occasionally late night talk radio. One night, in Fall of 1996 very early in the morning, I was tuning around the distant AM stations when I came across a show that I hadn’t heard before. There was a scientist talking with the host about a comet that was traveling toward Earth.
“Cool, a talk show about astronomy,” I thought. Now, I’m not a scientist, but science has always fascinated me. So I settled in to the conversation.
The scientist was Dr. Courtney Brown, a tenured professor at Emory University. He was talking about a recently taken photograph of the Hale-Bopp comet that at the time was on its approach passed Earth. Hale-Bopp, most of you will remember, was one of the largest comets to travel by our planet in over one hundred years. It could easily be seen in the night sky without a telescope.
The photo that Dr. Brown was talking about had been taken by someone he referred to as a “top-ten university astronomer.” What made this picture interesting is that it appeared to show something more than the comet. The photo showed a large object behind Hale-Bopp – an object that he said was up to four times the size of Earth. This object was originally discovered by an amateur astronomer named Chuck Shramek, who had been tracking the progress of Hale-Bopp. Dr. Brown’s photo seemed to support the object’s existence. Even more interesting was that according to Shramek the object didn’t correspond to any known bodies on the star charts. But what really piqued my interest, was when Brown stated that the object seemed to be actually traveling along with the comet! More astonishing yet, he maintained that it was not a natural object and that it was traveling in a way that seemed to purposely shield its view from the Earth behind the bright comet!
Well, at this point, my 2 o’clock in the morning brain was racing. “Are these guys saying that this thing is a space craft being piloted toward the earth using Hale-Bopp as cover?” Yes, that was exactly what they were saying. This was astounding! If true, it would have been the beginning of one of the most significant moments in the history of planet! All of our past assumptions about everything - the cosmos, life, and God would be put to the test.
I was excited. But, I wasn’t ready to be sold yet. News of this scope naturally kicked my skepticism into overdrive. On one hand, someone with seemingly respectable credentials was making the claim. And there was the corroborating photograph. Dr. Brown even asserted that he had contacted the Greenwich Observatory who was supposedly also following the unidentified object. Also, I was aware that some of the great scientific minds of the time considered life on other planets, not only possible, but probable. It stood to reason that sometime, a sufficiently advanced alien culture might just show up.
On the other hand, this was an extraordinary claim. And my source of information – well, the authority of commercial talk radio anytime of the day should be considered suspect – talk radio at 2 in the morning is even more dubious. Besides, Dr. Brown only identified the author of the photo as a “top ten university astronomer.” He said that the scientist was arranging a press conference to officially announce the discovery, and wanted to remain anonymous until then. Hmmm…
Still, as the show signed off the air, promising to keep abreast of developing information, I was thrilled at the prospect. But at the same time, I was determined to find news that would support these claims.
So the next day, I bought several newspapers. I scanned the TV. I listened to the radio. Surely, news like this would get lots of coverage. But nothing. No articles. No stories. No commentaries. About the aliens coming to earth - there was only silence.
Now, I’m not big on conspiracies. So reluctantly, I had to admit that if the media wasn’t covering this story, there was a good chance that it wasn’t credible. That night, I tuned back in to the radio show. They were still talking about the aliens. And I learned more about Dr. Courtney Brown from Emory. His field was and still is political science, not astronomy. He’s also the director of the Farsight Institute – an organization dedicated to scientific remote viewing – a process that uses psychic ability to “see” events in distant locations or back in time. Apparently, it was three of his remote viewers that identified the Hale-Bopp companion as a metallic structure filled with aliens. Well, I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions about remote viewing. But to me, it sounded like pseudo-science at best, and sadly I concluded that aliens were probably not about to land.
It turns out that the show I was listening to was the Art Bell show, a regular haunt of those interested in paranormal oddities and conspiracies. I later heard that Dr. Brown’s corroborating photo was a fake and that Chuck Shramek, the amateur astronomer that had found the object was using his star chart program incorrectly. The object he “discovered” was indeed a known star.
For me and for most people who heard about Hale-Bopp’s alien companion, that was the end of the story. We had listened to the claims. We critically examined the evidence. And finding them unconvincing – like it or not, we rejected the whole notion.
But there were others who heard the assertions of Chuck Shramek and Courtney Brown who came to very different conclusions. Marshall Applewhite was the charismatic leader of a small religious sect in California. He and his 38 followers had access to the same information that I had. But rather than rejecting the contentions about aliens, they embraced them. Applewhite and his group became convinced that not only was a ship on its way, it was coming for them. In fact, they were so sure, that a few months after Art Bell broke the news on his program, all 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult quietly and methodically committed suicide in preparation for their galactic voyage.
How could such a thing happen? How could these people, when presented with essentially the same information that I was, come to believe such radically different things? Those questions have haunted me ever since.
How do we form our beliefs? How do we validate or invalidate them? And how do those beliefs affect our lives? For UU’s, these questions are central to our 4th principle: “A free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” It’s important that we think about the things that we believe.
I meet with a group here at the church called UU Baggage Inspection. Once a month we get together to examine and discuss a foundational spiritual concept. So I was excited when one of our first topics was “belief.” It gave me the excuse to do a little research on the subject. And while I was only able to scratch the surface of a very complex issue, I found the information useful and enlightening.
Beliefs concern those ideas that we consider true, but have no proof. We hold many, many beliefs – some are profound, and some are ordinary. We may believe an intelligent God guides the universe. We may believe our kids sometimes lie about finishing their homework. We may believe in a woman’s right to choose. We may believe our co-workers are shameless self-promoters. We may believe that we can succeed if we only try. We may believe that Fords are better than Chevys. We have beliefs about everything and everyone around us. All of those beliefs work together to create our world-view. And they color everything we see.
Where do these beliefs come from? Some we get from others. As children, many of our beliefs come from our parents. Others we get from friends or teachers or ministers. And many, we come up with on our own.
Michael Shermer, psychologist and founding publisher of Skeptics Magazine has studied and written extensively about the formation of beliefs. In his book “How We Believe – Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God,” he argues that beliefs often start with something that we as humans are particularly good at:
Did you see the square in this pattern?
This graphic illustrates something humans are very good at. We are pattern-seeking animals. Recognizing patterns in our world has always been crucial to our survival. For example:
- Early hunters noticed that their hunt’s were more successful when they stayed upwind of their quarry.
- And when they began to farm, they learned that cow manure is good for crops.
Even today…
- We learn early that when crossing the street that dangerous cars are likely to be speeding by,
- Later we notice that if we drink too much we’ll feel bad the next day.
- Or as I’ve found out on occasion, if I act like a jerk, people will treat me like one.
As we recognize patterns, we can begin to make assumptions about our world - assumptions that we put together to form systems of belief.
- If we look both ways, we won’t be run over by a car.
- We should drink in moderation.
- If we don’t act like jerks and treat people with respect, we’ll get along better with those around us.
Michael Shermer asserts that this process of assembling patterns into beliefs has through evolution become hardwired into our brains. It’s a system he’s dubbed the “Belief Engine.” And it works so well, that if we’re not careful, it can cause us problems. It turns out that we’re so good at seeing patterns, we sometimes see them when they are not there.
This time, look again and try not to see the square.
It’s difficult to do. Our brains fill in the missing pieces.
There’s not really a square there –
Only four Pac Man shapes.
We’re predisposed to see the pattern. Once we’ve identified it, a pattern is difficult to reject, even if new information contradicts it. Not only that, we tend to see the patterns that we want to see, and deny the patterns that we don’t.
When I shop at the supermarket, I always try to figure out which will be the fastest checkout line. But no matter how carefully I choose, the person ahead of me always has an item that won’t scan, or has forgotten his or her bonus card and needs to have the number looked up, or has a coupon for two bottles of dish detergent but only picked up one. In the meantime, the people who were at the backs of the other lines when I walked up are now on their way to the parking lot. The pattern always is – that the slowest line will always be the one that I choose.
Of course, I know that’s not really true. In fact, every time I’m at the store, rather than just getting in any line, I always try to calculate which lane has the fewest items and the fastest checker - even though, I’m probably right less than half the time.
So, why do I persist in this belief that I can pick a fast checkout lane? It may be partly because of who I believe I am. The strong image I have of myself is that of an intelligent and rational thinker. Therefore, I believe that I have the mental acuity to be able to read all of the variables in the checkout lane to determine which will be fastest. The fact that I fail more than succeed, doesn’t harmonize with my self-image. As a result, I deny the pattern and preserve my delusion.
It’s the same for all of our beliefs. They have to be in harmony. So if new patterns of information come along that support our existing beliefs we’re disposed to accept them. On the contrary, if new information challenges our beliefs we have three choices. Our first reaction might be to reject the new information. Or we can try to make it fit our existing beliefs. Otherwise, we must change or discard our conflicting beliefs. For strongly held beliefs, this can be a very difficult thing to do.
Heaven’s Gate founder Marshall Applewhite was a very troubled man. He struggled with mental illness and his own sexuality. In his thirties, he had admitted himself into a psychiatric hospital for hearing voices and to be “cured” of his homosexual urges. Unfortunately, the medical community wasn’t able to help him. So instead, he sought solace in an increasingly bizarre system of beliefs. He believed that he was a messenger from an “Evolutionary Kingdom Level Above Human.” who had been sent to earth and placed in his current “human container.” He was rejecting his humanity, and perhaps overcoming his inner conflict.
His mission was to prepare the world to be recycled to the next evolutionary level. To aid him, he gathered a number of followers whom he also indoctrinated into his beliefs. The members of Heaven’s Gate were isolated from the outside world - including from their family and friends. They were given new names and forced to take on androgynous identities. Applewhite controlled all information, not allowing his followers to watch television or read anything he did not approve.
When Courtney Brown’s news of an alien ship reached the group, it was altogether consistent with their beliefs that it was coming for them. To be swept away from their troubled existence on Earth, must have been cause for celebration. But in the months that followed Art Bell’s show, the contradicting evidence would have become increasingly difficult to reject. In the end, death may have seemed the only way to retain “the truth.” When Applewhite elected to die, his followers were obliged to do likewise.
Thank goodness the Heaven’s Gate episode was the kind of rare and tragic event that’s not likely to personally touch most of our lives. But the warning is clear. Wrong-headed beliefs are the cause of sadness and suffering everyday, everywhere. In Iraq people regularly justify killing themselves and others because they believe it will be pleasing to God. Elsewhere others succumb to scams because they believe the stories of unscrupulous con artists. Many of us know people who reject relationships with family members whose sexual orientation clashes with their beliefs. And how many here aren’t willing to work for the growth of our congregation believing that more members will destroy the intimate nature of our community?
Conversely, how much better is a society that challenges beliefs of racial or gender superiority? Our environment improves as beliefs about pollution change. And how much more effective are all of us in everything we do if We Believe We can make a difference?
A mountain of information comes at us everyday on which we form judgments. We should all be critical of the messages we receive. But we shouldn’t discard information just because it challenges the things we believe. As Michael Shermer reminds us, it’s easy to deceive ourselves. Many of the beliefs to which we cling limit rather than expand our possibilities. We all have beliefs that are worth keeping and others that should be modified or thrown away. Discernment is the process of deciding which is which. I challenge all of you – which beliefs could you change that would make your life better?
Quite a few of us are here today because we rejected beliefs that we had grown up with. We sought a place where we were free to believe as our own heads and hearts guided. UU’s are good at challenging beliefs. But we should never be complacent - not if we are to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
May your beliefs bring you strength in adversity, comfort in uncertainty, and peace in quietude.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Living Wage - A Matter of Faith
Sermon Delivered by Jamie Goodwin
October 15th, 2006
Sunday Morning Service
They say, when you writing a sermon, that you should never apologize. They say that you should come from a place of understanding, dedication, and passion. They say that you should just put your ideas out there and allow the congregation to respond to them as they will.
But I still need to say this; with today’s sermon I am distinctly aware of three things.
First, there will those of you out there who disagree, passionately. Know that you are loved and respected, and in my case admired.
Second, political issues are complicated and detailed and one sermon will not be the solution to the problems of poverty or opportunity that our country faces.
And third, talking about a problem is all well and good but there must be a call to action, there must be a wave of individuals working, moving for what they believe in order for change to happen.
At its heart, the issue of Living Wage is about one simple idea. A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.
"We look around every day and we see thousands and millions of people making inadequate wages. Not only do they work in our hospitals, they work in our hotels, they work in our laundries, they work in domestic service, they find themselves underemployed. You see, no labor is really menial unless you’re not getting adequate wages."
That is part of a speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. a little less than a month before he was killed in 1968.
There are numbers, I could bore with the details of how with inflation and standard of living increases that the minimum wage today has about 4 times less buying power than it did when originally enacted. I could tell you about how the increase in corporate profits is somewhere along the line 10 times that of the increase in minimum wage workers salary. I do encourage you to look up these numbers, do a search online, but for me the issue is about so much more then mere numbers.
I mentioned earlier how I believed that any call to social justice must also be a call to action. Words are not enough, but they are enough to make place to start.
Saint Vincent de Paul said, “It is not enough to give soup and bread; this the rich can do. It is only for your love alone that the poor will forgive you the bread you give them.” He was born poor you see, and at his families urging was ordained in the church. His intelligence and ability to organize had him quickly climbing the ladder of power in 17th century Europe.
In those times it was not unusual, and it may not be unusual now, for wealthy families to hire a private Chaplain to minister to them. Vincent was doing so in Paris in 1613 when he became increasingly aware of the peasants around him, peasants who were barely given enough food to survive, who in a very real sense where treated as less than human.
It is amazing to me that nearly 400 years later we are still talking about basically the same issue. We are still talking about how when people are left to live in poverty and shame they loose a portion of their humanity. They are treated as less, as unworthy, as a blemish to be tolerated (because we still need them to plow our fields, and build our homes) but to be otherwise ignored.
A month or so ago I went on a trip to Chicago. Any of you who have ever driven to the Windy City from here know that your trip takes you through Gary Indiana. Gary is one of our cities that was founded by a corporation, The United States Steel Corporation to be exact. Traveling down I-90 you will notice a few things about Gary. On the right you will first see the mill itself... it is huge, covering an expanse of land that in many ways feels shameful for some reason you cannot quite put your finger on. On the left, quite literally across the tracks you will see the city buildings, the quite pretty downtown area. And just a little further down the road the run down, barely standing homes of the people who live and work in the area.
The disparity of the people who serve the mill and the city and the corporation and city government itself is so obvious to an outsider as to be embarrassing, and I am sure an outsider would see the same driving through Akron as well.
The divide between the have and the have-nots has grown to a size not seen sense the days of St. Vincent de Paul. Not seen sense the industrial revolution, and we have a choice to make. Do we continue down the path were the vast majority of our neighbors remain uncared about and uncared for. Or do make a difference in their lives, in all our lives.
The first minimum wage laws where passed in the United State in 1938, and for sometime after that kept pace with economic and corporate growth. Many of us who work in manufacturing continue to earn fair wages and have a good quality of life. It may not surprise you to learn that many people who are working at minimum wage levels are employed by the government itself, and many others are working for industries that are subsidized by government funds.
The people who are living in abject poverty are most often the same people who are cleaning our public spaces, laundering our clothes, and preparing and serving the meals to those with wealth and power.
Once again we turn back the clock when in 1776 the year of the founding of our nation, the Scotsman Adam Smith said in his work “The Wealth of Nations” “It is but equity . . . that they who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labor as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.”
Wages reflect our personal values and our nation’s values. Wages reflect whether we believe workers are just another cost of business—like rent, electricity or raw materials—or human beings with inherent dignity, human rights and basic needs such as food, shelter and health care.
The minimum wage is where society draws the line:
This low and no lower.
In 1966 martin Luther King Jr. addressed the General Assembly of Unitarian Universalists; and our current President William Sinkford was there and remembers;
Dr. King never lost hope. And we need to sustain our hope as well, to create our own “stone of hope.” I recall hearing those words, “stone of hope,” from Dr. King as I sat in a crowded room at the UUA’s General Assembly in Hollywood, Florida, in June of 1966, listening to him deliver the Ware Lecture. Dr. King decried militarism, economic injustice and the scourge of racism. He invoked the words of Jefferson and Lincoln, a call for Americans to live up to the ideals that this country was based upon. And he called for Unitarian Universalists to be part of this struggle, reminding us that “when the church is true to its nature, it stands as a moral guardian of the community and of society.”
Today I call upon Unitarian Universalists to honor Dr. King’s memory by renewing our commitment to peace and justice. I believe there will be backlash every time the circle of equality is widened, but I hew my stone of hope with these words: “The arc of the universe is long,” said Dr. King, quoting 19th century Unitarian abolitionist Theodore Parker, “but it bends toward justice.”
Have no doubt this is the work of the church, of our church.
Ginger Luke, the Director of Religious Education at River Road Unitarian Church says it better than I.
So is the living wage an important enough issue to engage the congregation in years of educating and dialogue? Is the living wage too specific an issue? What I believe wholeheartedly is that poverty in the United States is a religious and ethical issue, which threatens the very essence of the way we live. Poverty shatters the worth and dignity of our people.
Recently throughout Unitarian Universalism there has been much discussion about just what is it that binds us together as a religious community. We do not all believe alike, as I said earlier, we do not all think alike not theologically or politically. None the less our vision is grand and our religious community offers us nothing less than the opportunity to work together to make change in our world.
Prophetic voices throughout the ages have called upon their nations to show justice to the poorest and most vulnerable in society. The Prophet Amos exhorts the people of Israel, “Hate evil and love good, and establish justice. Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Then, and now, the assembled people of faith are called upon to establish justice for low-wage workers, whose cries are so often heard across our land.
Buddhist Master Tich Nhat Hanh says
Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing,
and oppression, I vow to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to
work for the well-being of people, animals, plants, and minerals.
The Buddhist concept of Right Livelihood, or non-harmful ways of making a decent living, is understanding that we all need the basics: food, shelter, clothing, and medical care. Grinding poverty, for those who are working as hard as they can, leads to constant suffering and fear. Everyone, without exception, wants to live with dignity and safety, in happiness and in peace. When we help others, we help ourselves.
The Persian Muslim Sufi Thinker, known to us as Saadi has this to say,
To worship God is nothing other than to serve the people.
It does not need rosaries, prayer carpets, or robes.
All peoples are members of the same body,
Created from one essence,
If fate brings suffering to one member
The others cannot stay at rest.
This is the work of people of faith; this is our work if we are brave enough to take it on. We believe that WE can make a difference. No one will do it for us, as Gordon McKeeman said from this pulpit “But, you say, we are so few… If we are few, it’s all the more reason for us to speak up with our lives.”
I ask that you please pray with me now.
Let the world be changed, for I long to see the end of poverty;
Let the rules be changed, for I long to see all jobs pay a wage that enables a life of dignity and sufficiency;
Let the rules be changed, for I long to see trade bring justice to the poor;
Let my life be changed, for I long to bring hope where good news is needed.
In the strength of Spirit and inspired by Compassion, I make this promise to work for change, to strive for justice, and carry always a message of hope and dignity,
To all of humanity.
Amen and May It Be
October 15th, 2006
Sunday Morning Service
They say, when you writing a sermon, that you should never apologize. They say that you should come from a place of understanding, dedication, and passion. They say that you should just put your ideas out there and allow the congregation to respond to them as they will.
But I still need to say this; with today’s sermon I am distinctly aware of three things.
First, there will those of you out there who disagree, passionately. Know that you are loved and respected, and in my case admired.
Second, political issues are complicated and detailed and one sermon will not be the solution to the problems of poverty or opportunity that our country faces.
And third, talking about a problem is all well and good but there must be a call to action, there must be a wave of individuals working, moving for what they believe in order for change to happen.
At its heart, the issue of Living Wage is about one simple idea. A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.
"We look around every day and we see thousands and millions of people making inadequate wages. Not only do they work in our hospitals, they work in our hotels, they work in our laundries, they work in domestic service, they find themselves underemployed. You see, no labor is really menial unless you’re not getting adequate wages."
That is part of a speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. a little less than a month before he was killed in 1968.
There are numbers, I could bore with the details of how with inflation and standard of living increases that the minimum wage today has about 4 times less buying power than it did when originally enacted. I could tell you about how the increase in corporate profits is somewhere along the line 10 times that of the increase in minimum wage workers salary. I do encourage you to look up these numbers, do a search online, but for me the issue is about so much more then mere numbers.
I mentioned earlier how I believed that any call to social justice must also be a call to action. Words are not enough, but they are enough to make place to start.
Saint Vincent de Paul said, “It is not enough to give soup and bread; this the rich can do. It is only for your love alone that the poor will forgive you the bread you give them.” He was born poor you see, and at his families urging was ordained in the church. His intelligence and ability to organize had him quickly climbing the ladder of power in 17th century Europe.
In those times it was not unusual, and it may not be unusual now, for wealthy families to hire a private Chaplain to minister to them. Vincent was doing so in Paris in 1613 when he became increasingly aware of the peasants around him, peasants who were barely given enough food to survive, who in a very real sense where treated as less than human.
It is amazing to me that nearly 400 years later we are still talking about basically the same issue. We are still talking about how when people are left to live in poverty and shame they loose a portion of their humanity. They are treated as less, as unworthy, as a blemish to be tolerated (because we still need them to plow our fields, and build our homes) but to be otherwise ignored.
A month or so ago I went on a trip to Chicago. Any of you who have ever driven to the Windy City from here know that your trip takes you through Gary Indiana. Gary is one of our cities that was founded by a corporation, The United States Steel Corporation to be exact. Traveling down I-90 you will notice a few things about Gary. On the right you will first see the mill itself... it is huge, covering an expanse of land that in many ways feels shameful for some reason you cannot quite put your finger on. On the left, quite literally across the tracks you will see the city buildings, the quite pretty downtown area. And just a little further down the road the run down, barely standing homes of the people who live and work in the area.
The disparity of the people who serve the mill and the city and the corporation and city government itself is so obvious to an outsider as to be embarrassing, and I am sure an outsider would see the same driving through Akron as well.
The divide between the have and the have-nots has grown to a size not seen sense the days of St. Vincent de Paul. Not seen sense the industrial revolution, and we have a choice to make. Do we continue down the path were the vast majority of our neighbors remain uncared about and uncared for. Or do make a difference in their lives, in all our lives.
The first minimum wage laws where passed in the United State in 1938, and for sometime after that kept pace with economic and corporate growth. Many of us who work in manufacturing continue to earn fair wages and have a good quality of life. It may not surprise you to learn that many people who are working at minimum wage levels are employed by the government itself, and many others are working for industries that are subsidized by government funds.
The people who are living in abject poverty are most often the same people who are cleaning our public spaces, laundering our clothes, and preparing and serving the meals to those with wealth and power.
Once again we turn back the clock when in 1776 the year of the founding of our nation, the Scotsman Adam Smith said in his work “The Wealth of Nations” “It is but equity . . . that they who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labor as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.”
Wages reflect our personal values and our nation’s values. Wages reflect whether we believe workers are just another cost of business—like rent, electricity or raw materials—or human beings with inherent dignity, human rights and basic needs such as food, shelter and health care.
The minimum wage is where society draws the line:
This low and no lower.
In 1966 martin Luther King Jr. addressed the General Assembly of Unitarian Universalists; and our current President William Sinkford was there and remembers;
Dr. King never lost hope. And we need to sustain our hope as well, to create our own “stone of hope.” I recall hearing those words, “stone of hope,” from Dr. King as I sat in a crowded room at the UUA’s General Assembly in Hollywood, Florida, in June of 1966, listening to him deliver the Ware Lecture. Dr. King decried militarism, economic injustice and the scourge of racism. He invoked the words of Jefferson and Lincoln, a call for Americans to live up to the ideals that this country was based upon. And he called for Unitarian Universalists to be part of this struggle, reminding us that “when the church is true to its nature, it stands as a moral guardian of the community and of society.”
Today I call upon Unitarian Universalists to honor Dr. King’s memory by renewing our commitment to peace and justice. I believe there will be backlash every time the circle of equality is widened, but I hew my stone of hope with these words: “The arc of the universe is long,” said Dr. King, quoting 19th century Unitarian abolitionist Theodore Parker, “but it bends toward justice.”
Have no doubt this is the work of the church, of our church.
Ginger Luke, the Director of Religious Education at River Road Unitarian Church says it better than I.
So is the living wage an important enough issue to engage the congregation in years of educating and dialogue? Is the living wage too specific an issue? What I believe wholeheartedly is that poverty in the United States is a religious and ethical issue, which threatens the very essence of the way we live. Poverty shatters the worth and dignity of our people.
Recently throughout Unitarian Universalism there has been much discussion about just what is it that binds us together as a religious community. We do not all believe alike, as I said earlier, we do not all think alike not theologically or politically. None the less our vision is grand and our religious community offers us nothing less than the opportunity to work together to make change in our world.
Prophetic voices throughout the ages have called upon their nations to show justice to the poorest and most vulnerable in society. The Prophet Amos exhorts the people of Israel, “Hate evil and love good, and establish justice. Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Then, and now, the assembled people of faith are called upon to establish justice for low-wage workers, whose cries are so often heard across our land.
Buddhist Master Tich Nhat Hanh says
Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing,
and oppression, I vow to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to
work for the well-being of people, animals, plants, and minerals.
The Buddhist concept of Right Livelihood, or non-harmful ways of making a decent living, is understanding that we all need the basics: food, shelter, clothing, and medical care. Grinding poverty, for those who are working as hard as they can, leads to constant suffering and fear. Everyone, without exception, wants to live with dignity and safety, in happiness and in peace. When we help others, we help ourselves.
The Persian Muslim Sufi Thinker, known to us as Saadi has this to say,
To worship God is nothing other than to serve the people.
It does not need rosaries, prayer carpets, or robes.
All peoples are members of the same body,
Created from one essence,
If fate brings suffering to one member
The others cannot stay at rest.
This is the work of people of faith; this is our work if we are brave enough to take it on. We believe that WE can make a difference. No one will do it for us, as Gordon McKeeman said from this pulpit “But, you say, we are so few… If we are few, it’s all the more reason for us to speak up with our lives.”
I ask that you please pray with me now.
Let the world be changed, for I long to see the end of poverty;
Let the rules be changed, for I long to see all jobs pay a wage that enables a life of dignity and sufficiency;
Let the rules be changed, for I long to see trade bring justice to the poor;
Let my life be changed, for I long to bring hope where good news is needed.
In the strength of Spirit and inspired by Compassion, I make this promise to work for change, to strive for justice, and carry always a message of hope and dignity,
To all of humanity.
Amen and May It Be
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)