tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60840610050402242802024-03-05T01:08:59.693-05:00Purple Haired PriestessSermons and reflections from a Unitarian Universalist minister, who once while serving as the chaplain at a UU camp let a group of teens dye her hair purple. Later that same day, after joining the afternoon's adult beer tasting forum an ardent secular humanist proclaimed, "The purple haired priestess has arrived".Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084061005040224280.post-12350744868156055952014-09-16T15:42:00.001-04:002014-09-16T16:06:52.078-04:00Running Up Against the Hard Places<a href="http://uugreensboro.org/wp-content/uploads/crashing-on-the-hard-rocks.jpg"><img alt="crashing on the hard rocks" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1295" src="http://uugreensboro.org/wp-content/uploads/crashing-on-the-hard-rocks.jpg" /></a><br />
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<em>Stunning plumes of spray happen when the ocean crashes up against a rocky shoreline. While coming to rest on a soft, sandy beach is a lot more pleasant, we are often at our most impressive when we run up against the hard places.</em><br />
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<strong><em>When has running up against a hard place brought out the best in you?</em></strong><br />
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Since early adulthood, my mother has been fond of saying to me and to my younger brother and sister, that we can handle whatever comes because the worst that could have happened already has. Her oft-repeated platitude is what Southerners call “a hard truth”.<br />
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It was as if the four of us crashed up against a rocky shoreline when my dad, just 39 died of a major heart attack. He was suddenly gone from our lives the Saturday before Thanksgiving, my senior year of high school. My brother was 15. My sister 12. I was the one on whom the responsibility fell to tell them that our dad was dead. It was a hard truth to share, a harder one to live through. Before that day came along our lives had been normal, happy. Our life as a family was like waves landing softly on the beach.<br />
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Then it all crashed up against a rocky shore.<br />
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Luckily, we were very involved in our church community. They surrounded us with love when the unexpected sad, bad thing that would reshape the course of all our lives happened.<br />
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We coped. We all coped. The congregation was wonderfully supportive in many, many ways. I remember being in the cocoon of care they surrounded us with until they seemed to move on to the next hard thing some family had to deal with. I kept traveling through life…as we all do…seeking, and often finding, support and understanding and ways to deal with my “hard” truth.<br />
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Who I became was shaped by the event of my dad’s death, by my church community, by how my family and friends taught me to deal with it. By all the hard truths of my life. As are we all…<br />
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What you have had to deal with may be different from the next person’s. Figuring out how to take it in, how you will put whatever your tragedy is in perspective, how you will answer “how then shall I live” when “the worst” has happened is never something that one ought to be left alone to deal with.<br />
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Making sense of life is what families, and congregations and groups of friends are for.<br />
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We say ours is a “covenantal faith”, rather than a creedal one. What that means is we bring our hard truths, those circumstances that have been ours and let ourselves be shaped into who we may become as we partner each other.<br />
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We rely on the power of relationships. Relationships that evolve, that ebb and flow. People we love die. People who ought to love us and care for us betray us. People hurt us and leave us alone. Yet, still we create community, immerse ourselves in community, open ourselves to relationship, continually creating how we will be in this world.<br />
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This is a story for those times when you may have, or will feel overwhelmed with all the rocky places we humans must deal with. It is from Marc Gellman’s<a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_13?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=does%20god%20have%20a%20big%20toe&sprefix=does+god+have%2Caps%2C129" target="_blank"> Does God Have a Big Toe?; Stories about Stories in the Bible.</a><br />
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Before there was anything, there was God, a few angels, and a huge swirling glob of rocks and water with no place to go. The angels asked God, “Why don’t you clean up this mess?” So God collected rocks from the huge swirling glob and put them together in clumps and said, “Some of these clumps of rocks will be planets, and some will be stars and some of these rocks will be…just rocks.” Then God collected water from the huge swirling glob and put it together in pools of water and said, “Some of these pools of water will be oceans, and some will be clouds, and some of this water will be…just water.” Then the angels said, “Well God, it’s neater now, but is it finished?” And God answered, “Nope!”<br />
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So, on some of the rocks God placed growing things, and creeping things, and things that only God knows what they are, and when God had done all this, the angels asked God, “Is the world finished now?” And God answered, “Nope!” God made a man and a woman from some of the water and stardust and said to them, “I’m tired now. Please finish up the world for me…really it’s almost done.”<br />
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But the man and woman said, “We can’t finish the world alone! You have the plans and we are too little.” “You are big enough,” God answered. “But I do agree to this. If you keep trying to finish the world, I will be your partner.” The man and the woman asked, “What is a partner?” and God answered, “A partner is someone you work with on a big thing that neither of you can do alone. If you have a partner, it means that you can never give up, because your partner is depending on you. On the days you think I am not doing enough and on the days I think you are not doing enough, even on those days we are still partners and we much not stop trying to finish the world. That’s the deal.”<br />
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And they all agreed to that deal. Then the angels asked God, “Is the world finished yet?” And God answered, “I don’t know. Go ask my partners.”<br />
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This year we are forming Chalice Circles, groups of 8-10 folks. They will be spaces where you can form and then deepen relationship with others in this congregation. The potential for “partners” who will hear of, listen to the hard places in your life, who will help you understand what platitudes-good and not so good—that may be sticking you in place, and anchoring you in the past, can be let go when it is time to move on …<br />
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Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, notable author of<a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_14?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=kitchen%20table%20wisdom&sprefix=kitchen+table+%2Cstripbooks%2C133" target="_blank"> Kitchen Table Wisdom</a> and doctor, tells the story of a young man named Jeff whom she describes as the angriest patient she’s ever treated. Jeff was an avid athlete, popular, and handsome. Then he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma. In order to save his life, doctors had to remove his leg. Jeff awoke from the surgery a different young man: angry, resentful and bitter. He believed his life was over now that his body was imperfect. Jeff fell into a depression. He began using drugs and drinking heavily. A concerned former coach referred him to Dr. Remen. In their first visit, Dr. Remen could tell Jeff harbored great anger at the doctors who saved his life, but had to amputate his leg. She asked him to draw a picture of his body. He angrily scribbled a vase with a large crack in it, tearing the paper as he finished the drawing.<br />
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Jeff continued seeing Dr. Remen, who kept the drawing of the vase in her desk drawer. Soon Jeff started asking about how other kids live with an amputation. He started coming out of his anger and Dr. Remen recommended he volunteer at a hospital, visiting young amputees like himself. One day, Jeff meets a 21 year–‐old woman recovering from a double mastectomy because of a horrible history of breast cancer. The young woman would barely look up from her hospital bed.<br />
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After several attempts Jeff looked down at his leg. He took off the prosthetic device and dramatically dropped it. He started hopping around until finally he heard the woman start laughing. She looked up, saying with a smile, “Fella, if you can dance, maybe I can sing.” Jeff continued visiting the young woman. Years later they got married. During Jeff’s last meeting with Dr. Remen, he beamed with a smile. As he walked into the room, Dr. Remen pulled out that drawing of the cracked vase that Jeff drew nearly two years earlier. Studying it, Jeff took the drawing and said, “You know, it’s not really done.”<br />
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Taking a yellow highlighter from Dr. Remen’s desk, Jeff drew vibrant yellow lines extending out of the crack in the vase. Dr. Remen gave Jeff a puzzled look. Smiling, Jeff replied, “This is where the light comes from.”<br />
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This is where the light comes from, the cracks, the fissures, and the imperfections, the hard knocks, the hard truths.<br />
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Let us be here for each other, not moving from tragedy to tragedy, but living real lives in community with each other holding hands…through the sad, bad times and the good.<br />
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<br />Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084061005040224280.post-8212784106759059302014-06-22T14:59:00.001-04:002014-06-22T15:17:10.882-04:00Love Reaches Out<div style="text-align: left;">
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Perhaps individualism was liberating in the rigid cultures of the nineteenth century. Perhaps. Today individualism is not liberating; it separates us. It creates a prison of the self. We are relational creatures. Our very sense of self, ironically enough, emerges from our network of relationships. We become fully human in relationship: with one another, with our past, with our shared aspirations, with our vision of the holy.<br />
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—Peter Morales, President, Unitarian Universalist Association</div>
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“Love reaches out” is the theme for this year’s General Assembly. If you don’t know already, this is the big annual gathering of UU’s from across the country. This year it will take place in Providence, RI. Some of our folks who are going have already left, with our banner!<br />
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If you have never gone before, you might consider making the trip next year. It is always the fourth week of June and next year it will be in Portland, Oregon. This year the 5,000 or so folks who will gather for a long weekend of business, worship, fellowship, study, and public witness, will do it all around the theme of “love reaches out”.<br />
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It makes sense that this is the theme. It is time for us to become more outward facing. It is time for us to take this show on the road. Reaching out is not just about creating and reciting an “elevator” speech, a 1-2 minute description of what UUism is. It is not about saving the none’s (those that choose “no religious affiliation” on forms we all have to fill out, all the time) It is not about saving them from their Sunday golf games or beach outings and dragging them into a liberal religious institution and showing them how different we are.<br />
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Reaching out is about taking the power of love seriously, living our faith in a big courageous new way, taking what some have considered to be private and going public.<br />
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It is about spreading the love. It is about answering indifference and isolation and fear with the power of love.<br />
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I don’t need to tell you all the reasons why this ole world needs more love.<br />
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I can’t imagine you need convincing of that.<br />
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Perhaps you do need some convincing that it is time to make this faith more than about an hour or two on Sunday where you listen, or a minute or two when you answer your neighbor’s question about where you go to church, or why you bring your children here and not there. It is time to step into reaching out full time, and with love and power, not just saying who we are, but really being what the world needs us all to be.<br />
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I was talking with a friend the other day who is moving into that stage in a relationship with a potential significant other where the “new” has worn off and one is really starting to see the shadows sides of the other person. And they are seeing yours. The parts that are not attractive are starting to show themselves. And so is the neediness that lies beneath those unattractive parts.<br />
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And now my friend is backing off, and so is the other person, because the neediness seems just too much.<br /><br />Reaching out in love sounds good, until the “real” shows itself and we begin to wonder about what it might take to heal what is broken. It just seems too much, and too consuming. We have enough to do just to heal ourselves.<br />
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Not very long ago this year, I went through a period in my comings and goings around here, when I was noticing how much “weeding” needed to be done. (At least, weeding I thought needed to be done.) Every time, at least in the day light when I got out off or back into my car; I thought “wow” there are so many weeds everywhere! Somebody needs to do something. There are so many and they making the grounds look unkempt and unattractive. I thought the weeds were obscuring the beauty of what was blooming and it was bothering me.<br />
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Sometimes, not very long ago this year when I found myself sitting at my desk too long, I would get up and go out there into the memorial garden, or on the other side past the foyer…. and I would have that thought again. Too many weeds!<br /><br />In my head, I would think, “if I start pulling something up, it will lead to pulling more up and I just can’t take that project on right now. Let me see if I can recruit someone! It really needs doing!”<br />
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My friend is at that stage in her relationship. She’s gotten close enough with the person she is involved with to see what appears to be weeds. She is backing away and so is the other person. Both of them are saying; I don’t have time for “that”!<br />
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That’s a huge project, and I am a busy person. (They have considered finding a relationship counselor who perhaps they can employ to pull weeds!)<br />
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Then something changed! After a few weeks of my un-acted upon obsessive thoughts about the plentitude of weeds around here, I began to see again and again that almost every single thing I thought was a weed, and I was ready to pull up and cast out, bloom!<br />
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And “the weeds” didn’t just bloom once and then go back to being ugly weeds. There has been a succession of blooms, all colors and shapes and sizes. Just about everything I would have pulled up, given the time and the tools, or the volunteers, sprouted something delightful Around where I park my car, where I stroll when I am needing a change of scenery, all around these grounds, have been wave after wave of blossoms.<br />
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Now there are some weeds, maybe, but I know now that I have seen so much successive displays of beauty and color that I am way more hesitant to pull up anything.<br />
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Once my mind moved away from seeing weeds and into seeing the glory, I then spent weeks and weeks thinking about what was this transformational experience teaching me?<br />
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When my friend shared about the current state of her relationship and how the amount of neediness was making both her and her potential partner consider backing away, calling it quits, or at least calling in the weeding consultants, I realized I had been “there” too.<br />
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And, I have also been in the place where, instead of backing away from me, or coming at me with a gardening hoe, I have experienced the kind of curious, confident love that wants to know what that ugly, needy place is in me.<br />
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Love reaching out is not about being so ready to manage the environment. It is about listening with the intent of caring, listening and seeing with the intent of learning to receive what comes toward us as a potential source of delight.<br />
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I know now, that most of the plants around here are not “volunteers”. Somebody planted them. Somebody who knew what they were doing. I have heard stories about the “master gardener”. What I thought were weeds; that have been springing into bloom, successively since very early spring all around this building; I now take as all the proof I need that someone had a plan! I am learning to trust that plan.<br />
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If I had eradicated what appeared to be a weed, I would have missed part of the plan meant for my delight, my enjoyment, my lesson in loving what is. I would have missed out on the opportunity to be transformed.<br />
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“Love reaching out.”<br />
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I don’t know exactly what those who are going to General Assembly are going to hear. I don’t know what messages are planned, what the theme talks will say, what the workshops will teach.<br />
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But I do know that love isn’t in trying to manage what appears to be out of order. Love understands that it is big enough to hear the whole story, to see beauty in all things at all stages of life.<br />
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To live interdependently is to move out of the private lives we have constructed for ourselves, and go public. There will be weeds. There will be needs. Sometimes it will be overwhelming. Too much to do, too much to fix and straighten out, too much to organize, too much hunger and need.<br />
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Perhaps we will begin to believe we are all part of a master plan; a plan that creates successive beauty. We have had our time in the temple of the self. It is time to move out and move on and into the garden of all that is. To see if this love we speak of, can stand with in the sun and see beauty in every being. To see if this love we speak of, can move past indifference and isolation, and love strangers on the street.<br />
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It is time for a big love that reaches out…<br />
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<a href="http://uugreensboro.org/?sermons=love-reaches-out">Love Reaches Out</a>Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084061005040224280.post-40321085786429055052014-06-18T09:43:00.001-04:002014-06-18T10:09:09.161-04:00Trusting Authority<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">“Legitimate power is built on a series of paradoxes: that leaders have to wield power while knowing they are corrupted by it; that great leaders are superior to their followers while also being of them; that the higher they rise, the more they feel like instruments in larger designs…. These days many Americans seem incapable of thinking about these paradoxes. Those “Question Authority” bumper stickers no longer symbolize an attempt to distinguish just and unjust authority. They symbolize an attitude of opposing authority.” David Brooks, New York Times, June 11, 2012, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/opinion/brooks-the-follower-problem.html" target="_blank">“The Follower Problem”</a></span><br />
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After hundreds of years, a model of the perfect pastor has finally been articulated.<br />
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The perfect pastor preaches exactly 18 minutes and then sits down.<br />
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She condemns injustice, but never hurts anyone’s feelings.<br />
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She works from 8am to 10pm, in every type of duty, from preaching to custodial service.<br />
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He makes $60 a week, wears good clothes, regularly buys good books, has a nice family, drives a good car, and gives $30 a week to the church.<br />
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He also stands ready to contribute to every good cause that comes along.<br />
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She is 26 years old and has been preaching for 30 years, and is entertaining and politely challenging.<br />
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She is tall and short, thin and heavy set, handsome and beautiful.<br />
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He has one brown eye and one blue; with hair that is parted in the middle, left side dark and straight, the right brown and wavy.<br />
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He has a burning desire to work with teenagers and spends all available time with older folks.<br />
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She smiles all the time with a straight face because s/he has a sense of humor that keeps one seriously dedicated to the work.<br />
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She makes 15 calls a day on church members, spends all spare time recruiting new members, and is never out of the office.<br />
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Well somebody appreciates paradoxes!<br />
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Of course, I found this description of the perfect pastor floating around on the internet! But as you may know, UU ministers rarely get called “pastors”! Maybe that is because UU congregants reject the insinuation that they are sheep. So, perhaps this articulation doesn’t describe how we might list the attributes of the perfect “minister”!<br />
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I know, I know, there are some of you who are thinking there is no perfect minister!<br />
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Perhaps, my point is made!<br />
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And that point would be, that we look for “perfect”, rather than learning how to be in relationship. Perhaps trusting those who are in leadership has to with trusting that there is an area for growth that goes beyond rejecting what is not perfect, neither perfectly good, nor perfectly bad…<br />
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The David Brooks article I quoted earlier appeared in the New York Times on Father’s Day a few years ago. In that article Brooks was lifting up that it appears we are living in a time when most Americans are having a difficult time trusting authority.<br />
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There are good reasons for that! Examples of the abuse of power by leaders both in government and in the church world abound.<br />
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But Brooks does not spend time analyzing the misuse of authority by those leaders. Rather he is interested in what is going on with those who distrust leaders.<br />
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Maybe the lack of trust is because we have become so accustomed to “assign[ing] moral status to victims …rather than to those who wield power.” The underdog is always, in our collective minds, more worthy of respect, than the authorities.<br />
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I agree that it is difficult for liberals to respect anyone we perceive has authority primarily because they have benefited from the privileges afforded by an unjust system.<br />
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Brooks also suggests that perhaps we don’t trust authority because of “our fervent devotion to equality”, which makes it hard for us to lift any one out of the crowd as superior to anyone else!<br />
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We are all so equally worthy that no one is <em>better</em> than anyone else, right? (Or maybe, what is really going on is that many of us feel, I am better than everyone else, so I only really trust myself!)<br />
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But none of these are the reason we fail to trust authority. In Brooks’ analysis the “fail” is more likely with the dis-ease we have being followers. It is not about leadership “fail”. It is a follower problem!<br />
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Who has that dis-ease more than us?<br />
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He concludes that we-the-followers have an “inability to think properly about how power should be (can be) used to bind and build.”<br />
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For Brooks, “thinking properly” would mean moving past the simplistic belief that everyone in power is corrupt, or at the very least, suspect, and thus all authority is to be rejected out of hand.<br />
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Brooks points out that like leadership, “followership is also built on a series of paradoxes. “Yes, in this society (and in this church)] …we choose our leaders but we also have to defer to them and trust their discretion.” We may be proud and independent individuals, but we also need to understand that we only thrive in a well-organized group, led by a just authority.<br />
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This, in my opinion, is the essence of “covenantal behavior”. We each have worth and dignity, but we are not all in equal in positions of authority. Some are leaders, more are followers. And all positions are informed by the nuances of paradox.<br />
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A recent UU Commission on Appraisal study entitled; “Who’s in Charge Here” focused on ministerial authority, power and oppression in our UU systems.<br />
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My colleague the Rev. Thomas Schade in a recent<a href="http://www.tomschade.com/2013/07/ministerial-authority-and-systems-of.html" target="_blank"> blog post</a> detailed what happened during the 20th century that reduced the authority of the office of minister within liberal religion.<br />
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He points out that humanism and atheism greatly altered any thought that the minister knew something “special” about or had a direct line to ultimate reality. The expansion of university level education made many lay members equally or better educated than their ministers. The Unitarian growth strategy in the 50’s led to what came to be known as the “fellowship mentality”, the belief that congregations can function just fine without ministers.<br />
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Add to those factors that liberal religion stopped being any sort of authority on sexual morality. We entered a period of no questions asked. No shame. No guilt. It was almost as if there was an unspoken bargain struck between ministers and congregants. We silently agreed not to judge each other’s sexual lives. “Of course, [that] …was going to end badly as …. sexual misconduct proliferated.” It was ministerial authority that took the hit, when the ministers behaved like everyone else.<br />
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At the same time came all sorts of anti-oppression movements. The minister in the closed system of congregational life became “the Man”. Question Authority, meant oppose the authority.<br />
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Then you sprinkle more women in the ministry, who were cheaper, and perhaps more compliant in their leadership. Many new female ministers who were Baby Boomers entered churches with pre-boomer mentalities. The new female ministers were expected to conform to the cultural styles of the male ministers of a generation before. A congregational review became comments on hair, makeup, shoes, wardrobe, “warmth”….<br />
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Then came the first wave of the aggressive conservative movement, starting in the 70’s and powerful by the 80’s, which attacked all forms of liberal religion saying they were “morally relativistic, ethically slack, sexually libertine, “touchy-feely”, politically correct (thus really a left wing of the democratic party) and in all ways, ridiculous as a religion.<br />
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Is it any wonder that liberal self-doubt took hold? ….affecting both leaders and their potential followers?<br />
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There is little left of what my colleague Tom Schade calls “positional” authority, the power that has do with being in the role of ministerial leader. Rather, than the kind of authority that comes from holding a certain “office”, ministers have had to rely on personal persuasion, the kind of authority that comes from individual talents and interpersonal skills. Don’t like this one, exchange him or her for another one, with a different set of personality traits…<br />
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It has been interesting to be in the Forward Together Moral Monday movement and be in the presence of the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, President of the NC NAACP, and a Disciples of Christ pastor. His is a very powerful presence. He exudes leadership. His focus, of course, is on justice for those who have been and are being left out. The paradox is, in the amazingly broad fusion of people and organizations, among those who would not normally come together, he stands out. It is clear, very clear that his authority may at times be questioned, but it is followed, followed by those who are leaders in their own right. He rises and he leads.<br />
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He makes room for all sorts of voices, encouraging others to be provocative and prophetic, but he leads…<br />
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Brooks concludes by saying “to have good leaders you have to have good followers, able to recognize authority, admire it, be grateful for it and emulate it.”<br />
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Tom Schade says “Stronger UU ministers are the key to a stronger UU movement.”<br />
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I will end with his words:<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">“The UU ministers I know are itching to empower and equip church members to go out and live our values in the world. UU ministers want to inspire deeper spiritual growth, and greater public witness, and a more profound service. UU ministers are ready to be inspirational voices in the public square for reverence and solidarity and openness and justice. Instead of trying to limit their authority inside the congregation, every UU should be trying to build their minister’s authority in the community. As our ministers grow stronger, we all grow stronger.”</span><br />
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<br />Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084061005040224280.post-20069539222813493542014-05-28T13:14:00.001-04:002014-05-30T10:03:24.707-04:00There is More Love SomewhereThe following was written by the British poet, Richard Aldington, who as a young man served in the military during WWI.<br />
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<em>“We pass and leave you lying. No need for rhetoric, for funeral music, for melancholy bugle-calls. No need for tears now, no need for regret. We took our risk with you; you died and we live. We take your noble gift, salute for the last time those lines of pitiable crosses, those solitary mounds, those unknown graves, and turn to live our lives out as we may. Which of us were fortunate — who can tell? For you there is silence and cold twilight drooping in awful desolation over those motionless lands. For us sunlight and the sound of women’s voices, song and hope and laughter, despair, gaiety, love — life. Lost terrible silent comrades, we, who might have died, salute you.”</em><br />
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Tomorrow is the day set aside for all to salute the noble gift of every soldier who went off to war and never returned.<br />
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Once known as Decoration Day, we have been reminded on our Facebook feeds, by the television, perhaps by our association with family or friends… that tomorrow is about more than outdoor grilling. Real people have been affected by the kind of loss that war inevitably brings. The sacrifices of life and limb that comes with military service deserves to be acknowledged, remembered.<br />
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Yet, it has not been routine for me, and perhaps not for many of us who call or would call ourselves UU, to pay much more than passing tribute to Memorial Day. Perhaps, it is time to really ponder what it means to salute those who serve.<br />
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It seems to me that those of us of a certain age and of a certain political persuasion have been in a kind of stupor when it comes to whether or not, or how, to honor military service. It is as if we all metaphorically chose to move to Canada to escape the need to deal with it!<br />
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For years, I have walked around, rather than through, this opportunity to look at the sacrifice of those who choose military service, to think of those who willingly risk dying as noble.<br />
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<img alt="Charleston children 1865" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-989" src="http://uugreensboro.org/newWPsite/wp-content/uploads/MemorialDay-300x185.jpg" />Perhaps that is why the photo on the front of your order of service caught the attention of peace-loving-liberals, like me. Perhaps we wish to be like hopeful children…<br />
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Too often we adults pretend to be immune to the cost of our privileges, all those freedoms that we all enjoy, be it in varying degrees.<br />
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Maybe, for some of us it is just too much of a puzzle to figure out why women and gay men and UU’s choose to serve what in our minds we still think of as “the killing machine”? Not being able to figure that out, we distance ourselves…<br />
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It is a choice we think we would never make… never understand… never respect.<br />
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Yet, here is a picture and a story that many of us find appealing…<br />
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Perhaps it can cause our eyes to tell our hearts to tell our brains to think again, to reconsider…<br />
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That photo was taken less than a month after the Civil War ended. It is of school children in Charleston. Maybe if you saw it on Facebook, you read the claim that this is the depiction of the first Memorial Day. That may or may not be quite true, as this occasion may have not been the first and certainly wasn’t the only commemoration of war dead. Nor was it likely the one that led to a declaration that called a national Memorial Day into being.<br />
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Nevertheless, this is a real photo (not a photo-shopped one) depicting three thousand Afro-American children. As the Charleston newspaper reported at the time, a group of just 27 Afro-American men from a local church, had re-buried some 257 Union soldiers, all who had been heaped together in mass graves. During the course of 2 weeks those 27 men, created a proper gravesite for the Union soldiers. After they finished their task, a day of remembrance was called for. These three thousand children began the procession to the new gravesite, followed by three hundred black women, then all the men of the black Benevolent Society, then many of both the black and white ordinary citizens of Charleston, all coming to gather at nine o’clock in the morning on May 1, 1865 to hear speeches and to cover the new graves in flowers.<br />
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The Charleston newspaper detailed how: “when all had left, the holy mounds — the tops, the sides, and the spaces between them — were one mass of flowers, not a speck of earth could be seen; and as the breeze wafted the sweet perfumes from them, outside and beyond … there were few eyes among those who knew the meaning of the ceremony that were not dim with tears of joy.”<br />
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The meaning of the ceremony; known in the tears of joy.<br />
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Perhaps they knew that a dream fulfilled meant there had to be those willing to risk not returning home.<br />
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That their very being, meant there were those who saw a wrong and were read to right that wrong.<br />
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The children in the photo are said to have been those who had just entered the Freedom Schools, set up for their education by abolitionists, Afro-American churches, by Unitarian and Universalists, too.<br /><br />We know now that the dreams for a much better life, that they must have had that day, would not all be fulfilled in their lifetimes. That it would take more struggle, more pain, more sacrifice…and although significant change came and keeps coming, we also in so many ways continue to plod forward to a dream not yet realized.<br />
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But oh what a day that must have been! When the air was so sweet with flowers!<br />
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We are all heirs to that sweet smell of pure hope. The sweet smell of hope still lives in this universe…<br />
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It still beckons us…<br />
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It is not only those willing to sacrifice returning home that brings transformation, but those who cover the dead with a carpet of flowers…move past grief and live their lives with dignity.<br /><br />Sometimes we get caught up in longing for the good ole days when war and sacrifice meant the battle between good and evil had been waged and good won.<br />
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We know now, it is not so simple any more. (If it ever was.)<br />
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The world is way more complex than it used to be.<br />
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I can’t afford to continue to be stuck in a state of puzzlement about why good women and gay people and UU’s would choose to be in the military.<br />
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Good doesn’t line up over here, and bad over there. I know now that is a child’s way of thinking.<br />
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Sacrifice is not a choice we make. It is part of life, as is suffering and loss, death and hope.<br />
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We can’t escape by moving to Canada or anywhere else that offers gets fixed in the mind or heart as a place to escape. The complex interconnectedness of all that is, we need to learn to live within, if we are to live and continue to make this world the place of home for all.<br />
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It is naïve to think that we can escape what is inside a Pollyanna-minded bubble of privilege…<br />
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Let this faith go everywhere… may its light shine.<br />
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Some of you may also know from Facebook that one of our UU ministers, Jake Morrill from the UU Church in Oak Ridge, TN, is just beginning his military service as a chaplain. He’s blogging about his experiences. This is what he posted last:<br /><em>Today at Army Chaplain School, we were released after morning training. I went out to lunch with a Burmese man, who’s an American Baptist; an African-American woman from New Jersey who’s a Pentecostal; a Filipino woman from Hawaii who’s Anglican; a Japanese-American man from Southern California who’s Russian Orthodox. And me, a European-American man from East Tennessee who’s a Unitarian Universalist. The South Korean man who’s a Presbyterian bowed out at the last minute.(And, of course, we ate at a Greek restaurant) I’ve heard that a multi-cultural organization is one with less than 80% of any single racial/ethnic/cultural group. So far, every Army setting I’ve seen meets that standard easily. It was another minister who first told me that military ministry was really multi-generational, multi-cultural ministry. And it is. At lunch today, for my cultural contribution, I told everyone about the Dolly Parton diet and then about my recent visit to Dollywood. I said, where I’m from, we all pretty much worship Dolly. Only later did I realize that I probably confused them even further about Unitarian Universalism.</em><br />
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Jake always has a sense of humor, a kind of standing on the outside looking in way of perceiving the irony of the situation. Yet, at the very same time, he’s in. He’s present. He’s warm and he’s curious and he is able to bring this wide – eyed faith that we call Unitarian Universalism into places many of us don’t routinely go.<br />
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I don’t know that much about military life, but I do know about the Dolly Diet. Her approach is to give oneself no restrictions, to taste everything. Order it all. Go to the buffet and take some of everything. Chew it, savor it! The trick is to only swallow very small amounts!<br />
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Taste it all! Yet be in control of who you are. Know yourself and know who you want to be and be that person. Let yourself be in sweet relationship with the entire buffet, but don’t swallow everything!<br />
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Let the image of UUs in places you never imagined we would be change your heart and then your mind.<br />
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We can live fully in this new world. We are, if we let ourselves, able to salute those who risked not going home, on our journeys to be at home in this new world, where all are at the table.<br />
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Enjoy the picnic.<br />
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<a href="http://uugreensboro.org/newWPsite/?sermons=there-is-more-love-somewhere">There is More Love Somewhere</a>Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084061005040224280.post-63767786318857820342014-03-02T12:09:00.000-05:002014-05-20T12:14:56.624-04:00Our Need To GiveThe culture we live in encourages us to always be thinking about what we need more of. More clothes, more cars, more food, more vacations, more groceries, more education, more money for education, more income, more… On and on it goes.<br />
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Church leaders often get caught up in this, too. We need more volunteers. We need more kids. We need more teachers. We need more people. We need more space. We need more money. The church needs more!<br />
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Influenced by the world around us, the annual pledge campaign becomes a few people telling the rest that the church needs more … the church needs more of our time, of our talent, and especially more and more of our treasures. It is exhausting!<br />
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Let me ask you? Have you ever heard of a church saying, “we have plenty?”<br />
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I think a lot of people are tired of the messages that really say the church “needs to receive”, especially when that message is concentrated on a Sunday or two, or a month or two during the annual pledge drive.<br />
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Let’s give that kind of campaign message a breather!<br />
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This year, maybe for years to come, it is not about what the church needs to receive. Whatever your pledge is will be graciously welcomed with a glad heart. Your leaders will put together whatever we all collectively pledge, figure out how to best, with wisdom and effectiveness and joy, spend whatever amount of money you promise to give. They will make promises based on your promises. There will, like there always has been, a budget for UUCG members to say “yay” or “nay” to, later this spring during the annual meeting. It will be based on what you have promised, whatever that promise is. And it will be fine. It will be just fine.<br />
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Let’s not spend our energy worrying about what the church needs to receive.<br />
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Instead, let’s talk about our need to give.<br />
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When I first got here, you had a practice of sharing half of the monies put in the plate on certain Sundays. Not every Sunday, but certain Sundays. It seemed like a good and generous gesture to me. But it didn’t feel like a practice that was helping to change how you see yourself. Too many church people go around feeling, not as good as they could.<br />
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So, I asked that we begin to Share Half every Sunday, thinking maybe that would help.<br />
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Now, every Sunday half of what goes in the collection plates goes out the door to a growing list of organizations doing good works in this community. You were giving before. Now you are practicing generosity every Sunday. More money is going out in the community and more “feel good” about who we are is coming in.<br />
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I have not heard anyone yet say; “I would rather not feel so good about being generous.”<br />
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We are the people who enjoy giving and giving generously because giving makes a difference in our lives and positively impacts the lives of others. Our tonic for what the world needs, what we need, is to move within the circle of generosity…<br />
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The “feel good” isn’t limited to us. We are the people who get phone calls, e-mails, visits from young adults who want to know can we support the social change agency that they are working for that is trying to do good in Greensboro? Just a little change from our collection plate is changing our reputation. We have moved into the circle of generosity and it shows.<br />
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We are the people who give away money every Sunday… helping to heal a hurting, bruised, broken world.<br />
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There are those who are motivated to give because they believe that living is just as much about receiving as it is about giving.<br />
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Too often, when our concern is for the church’s need to receive, we forget to listen for what motivates people to give.<br />
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There are at least 3 kinds of motivations…<br />
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When a pledge campaign lumps everyone together as if we all care about how much the budget needs to increase, or how lovely a pie chart looks, we are not listening for what makes people want to give.<br />
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One motivation, and it might be yours, is the need to live within the circle of generosity. They are people, many of whom are UU’s, who are full of trust in the benevolent universe. Grateful for being alive and aware of their blessings no matter what kind of life they live, they choose to be in the world in a way that acknowledges that giving is part of living. As a matter of course, they give back because they have been given to. It is essential to their very being. It is not a matter of obligation, but like breathing, an “of course”. They might call it paying it forward. They might call it a “tithe”.<br />
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Whatever it is called, people motivated by a trust in the benevolence of the universe, give because they are alive.<br />
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These folks, and you may be one, don’t need a pledge campaign to convince them to give. They already do. What they might need is a good reason, a compelling reason to give here. They want to know how lives have been changed, how the world is going to change, because we exist. They want to know what this church gives away, how generous are we?<br />
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Before I arrived here, as I was reading over your materials, I clearly heard, that you are a church that is proud of the way you care for each other. You are a people who love having fun together.<br />
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Building community is important here. The attention you give to compassionate communication is part of showing what kind of people you are and want to be. You sing and hold hands….and you are OK with being connected in passionate ways with each other.<br />
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There is a motivation that causes people to give that comes from the need to belong. You might this kind of a giver, you want to be part of a group who knows who they are and why they come together. You want to and often do trust your leaders to take you to places you want to go.<br />
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You give because you are excited about being part of this team. This group is so much fun, you want to go to be on board. You give because you know that is what is expected, what it takes to be counted as “in”. All you ever want to know is what does it take to be part of the gang?<br />
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The standard here is that members pledge…. Time, talent, and especially treasure….the more active you are, the more you will give all three. And the more active you are the more willing you are to make sure that everyone who wants to be “in” can be.<br />
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You give just a little more, just to make sure those who, for whatever reason can’t give of their treasure right now, are “in”, too.<br />
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This year there actually is no requirement for a specific dollar amount, or even a percentage of income. This year, just pledge and you are in. And if you cannot give any at all, and want to be counted in, ask for a waiver, somebody has made sure you have a pass.<br />
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All those who are motivated by wanting to belong want to know what is expected of them! Telling them what they church needs to receive, just isn’t answering the “right” question!<br />
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Then there are those who, and you might be one, that are not so motivated by living within the circle of generosity, or being a member of the community created and constantly re-created here. For them giving has to do with their integrity as an individual. It is about honor.<br />
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You might be motivated by honor, if look over the budget in great detail and you take out your calculator. What you are looking for is your fair price. What does- what you use- cost?<br />
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This group doesn’t get the respect they deserve. They are actually eager to pay for what they have consumed. For them giving is a matter of equal exchange, of a fair price. They are very motivated to erase a debt they owe, to bring it all back to equity as often as possible. They simply want a way to assign value to a service they have or they expect to receive. These kinds of givers want to know what the part of congregational life that they participate in costs so they can pay their fair share. They appreciate knowing the details. What they have gotten and what they will get is important and they want to know what a fair exchange is.<br />
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What the church needs to receive doesn’t help them know what their fair exchange rate is. If you are this kind of give, I can help you figure it out! Meet me in my office, we’ll enjoy the calculations!<br />
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What moves you to give?<br />
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Do you understand your pledge as a tithe that says who you are?<br />
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Do you give to be for a group with a cause, to be part of the team that’s going where you want to go?<br />
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Do you make a contribution equal to the measure of what you have and will get?<br />
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We are probably all motivated in one degree or another by all of these reasons, be it our internal sense of who we are or our desire to join in, to go with and where our team is going, or as an equal exchange for the good services that we have received.<br />
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These various motivations reveal the diversity in our reasons for giving. You may be most motivated by one reason or another, or by some combination of two, or even three. The point is we don’t all possess the same motivation, or the same combination of motivations for giving.<br />
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If you discover that you are motivated by a deep sense of giving back because of having received, you may want to consider adjusting the parts that make up what you give away to worthy causes. In other words, this cause may have become more worthy!<br />
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If you feel moved to be part of the gang going where this gang is going all you have to do is make a pledge. Everyone gives, that is the standard price of belonging! This year, all that is being asked of you. Pledge and fulfill that pledge to the best of your ability and you are in.<br />
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Every board member has already pledged. Your leaders are can really be trusted to lead!<br />
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If you are among those motivated by a sense of honor, and it is not so much about you and the “universe”, nor so much about you and the “gang”, but about you and your sense of integrity…you are both willing and able to make a fair exchange for what you consume, or you wouldn’t consume it.<br />
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You want an answer for the question; “What is a fair price for a worship service that includes great music and singing, a message that moves you, heat and lights and hymnals, and cushioned seats and childcare? What is a fair price for a place to park, a bathroom, someone who listens to you, visits when you aren’t well, a minister who can officiate your next wedding, one who will lift up your legacy when your time comes? What is a fair price for the amount of time you enjoy a safe building with professional staff?”<br />
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Whatever your motivation for giving, I am asking you to consider making your pledge based on what it means to you. I am trusting that you will look deeper into your motivations for giving, so that together we can make promises grounded by our diverse values, stay in good relationship with the universe, each other, and our selves..<br />
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Seeing with more clarity who we are, where we are going, and what we have received…how we already give, the price of being with who we want to be with, what we owe, knowing whatever is our way to come into better alignment with what we most need.<br />
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May we all live the good life, fully in the circle of generosity, the circle created by this community, full of people with integrity and honor, who have fun and feel good together..<br />
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This liberal faith asks nothing more and nothing less than for you to be in living relationship with what good you value, to make promises that reflect what good you value, and to the best of your ability make good on your promises.<br />
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We are the people who… connect, grow, heal, …and give.<br />
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You are invited to support the presence of liberal religion in the Greater Greensboro area with your generous gift to the UU Church. When you give you become part of …<br />
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….the people who Connect in Community<br />
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We are the people who celebrate life!<br />
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… the people who Help Heal the World<br />
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We are the people who practice generosity by donating half of our undesignated offering every Sunday to a local community organization that is doing work to heal the world around us. We are the people who support others. We often take risks, engaging in public advocacy for those who are without power or voice in our society. We are the people who are committed to feed the hungry and welcome the stranger and promote peace. We are the people committed to the ways of compassionate communication.<br />
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We are the people who are moving past the past and into the future.<br />
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We are the people growing in numbers… we have widened our perspective about who it is we serve. We are the people growing in our sense of commitment. Every member and many friends make a pledge, a promise of what they will with a glad heart contribute financially to this church. Your promise is that this church will not will not talk about what it needs to receive<br />
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What do you need to give?<br />
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<em>- Rev. Ann Marie Alderman</em><br />
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<a href="http://uugreensboro.org/newWPsite/?sermons=our-need-to-give">Our Need To Give</a>Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084061005040224280.post-78491792585187558472014-01-27T15:05:00.000-05:002014-01-27T15:05:51.293-05:00Our Interfaith Future<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">The Pew Research Center has been tracking religious hostilities
around the world since 2007. They have just published a report that found that
a third of the 198 countries and territories that were studied in 2012 had a
high or very high level of social hostilities related to religion. That is the highest share in the six years that
they have been looking into hostile acts that are the result of religious
belief. Their conclusion? The incidence
of violence based on religion whether carried out by private individuals,
organizations or groups has increased in every major region of the world except
the Americas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">….Except the Americas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Maybe, just maybe the interfaith relations work that some have
been doing in this country, in every major metropolitan area, and in many
middle size and small communities since 9/11 is paying off. In just over a decade, maybe, just maybe,
small groups of people intentionally trying to make a difference in lots and
lots of places, have…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Eboo Patel talks in his book <i>Sacred
Ground</i> about how in the not so distant past interfaith work was led by and
the passion of an older generation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Who leads interfaith work and how it is led is changing. Patel and many others are telling us it is
all about creating relationships. A younger
generation is eager for relationships, rather than debate. They are more and more comfortable with diversity
and with friends, loved ones, colleagues who are multi-ethnic, multi-cultural
and bring along to their circles of community a rich variety of religious
experiences and exposures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">We keep hearing that the “nones”, those who express no affiliation
with or loyalty to a particular religious institutions as did the generations
before them…think of themselves as no less “spiritual”. They are not particularly interested in
building churches, but they are very interested in spiritually themed
conversations. And they are not
satisfied in monolithic or one world-view answers… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">The future is interfaith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Seven years ago or so, when I first began having conversations
that would eventually lead to my becoming the minister at the last church I
served some there told me in no uncertain terms that I must be involved in
interfaith work. What those same folks
did not know is that UU ministers, at the time, were also hearing strong
suggestions that we should all be involved in interfaith work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The
first week I arrived I called the coordinator of the Interfaith Alliance of
Eastern Carolina and offered to help do whatever she needed. Secretly reluctant, openly humanist, yet a
person who finds value in doing some things she is told to do, I helped with
management type details that needed to be done in the background. I sat, once a month, with people who were
liberals from a variety of Christian denominations, people who were Hindu,
Muslim, Sufi, Baha’i, Quaker and Jewish.
I listened to them quote or pray from the resources supplied by their faith
traditions; scriptures, prayerbooks, etc.
It was like a cacophony to me, a tower of babel, prayers and quotes, and
sometimes songs…all shared to bring peace, to plead for peace, to tell us that
peace would come because it was pre-ordained, that peace would come because our
energies merged, that peace would come because we petitioned God, or because it
was mandated by the prophet… I listened,
often ill at ease, sometimes bored. I
rarely said very much.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">This interfaith
group had begun as a response to 9/11. The
monthly gathering, held somewhere, often arranged by me, every month except
November was called Prayers for Peace. Other
than the yearly Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, that is all we did together. And it was always in a Quaker style
format. There was a lot of silence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">It
wasn’t enough for me. It wasn’t enough
for the new rabbi in town either. Shortly
after we had both arrived in this new place for us, we asked to add a ‘learning
about each other” conversation to follow the time for prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">We proposed
that one faith community representative each month share the details of their
tradition, followed by questions. It was
within these gatherings over time where I learned that these people wanted not
only to share about who they were, what they held to as most worthy in their
faith traditions, sharing what they most trusted in life, but they wanted to
know the same sorts of things about me. I was thrilled that when I began to tell
them, them seemed to really welcome what I had to say…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">This
group, I had been told to be a part of, became a place that made a difference
in my life, in my spiritual life and in my profession life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Learning
and growing in relationship with each other, we all began to think about who
was not present. We invited indigenous (native)
Americans to join us, and neo-pagans, even a few agnostics…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">By the
end of the 5+ years I was with them, our annual Thanksgiving Day services had gotten
better and better and even more diverse, led by those of us who knew each other
and now cared a lot that all had a place at the table. The monthly Prayers for Peace still happened,
but was always followed by themed sharing where relationships were created and
nurtured. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">This
morning I want you to consider that the future is interfaith. And I don’t necessarily mean that you have to
get involved with the organized interfaith efforts in this community. Although that is good thing to do. Yet, what I most mean is that conversations
about the age old themes: grace, forgiveness, suffering, peace, salvation,
justice will move out of church buildings…and into the streets, into living
rooms and the cyber social gathering places.
Perhaps more importantly these conversations will be among groups of
would-be friends that don’t all look the same or speak the same, or dress the
same, or like the same food…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">And acts
of faith will be less about maintaining an institution and more about using
whatever vehicle facilitates the sort of conversations that create and sustain
understanding, appreciation, relationship and finds commonality amidst
diversity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">And I
will be bold enough to also say to you that what <i>we</i> think of now as faith tradition, in our case often termed “our
living tradition”, will become more be a kind of “street” knowledge, a body of wisdom
that anyone anywhere can tap into and live by.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">This every
day spiritual wisdom will be what will be known to “work” to make life richer, less
lonely, less isolating, less hostile and more peaceful and it won’t belong only
to this or that group. It will be
“common” knowledge among a diversity of people the world over.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">What I
would like to share with you as well… is that what I am talking about already
exists, and has existed within every major world religion since the dawn of
time. The collections of “street” or
“common” knowledge that are known as wisdom sayings, or what scholars and those
who study world religions call “wisdom literature” is in every major body of
“scripture”. Around for ages, there is
already a broad collection of all the practical stuff that works to make life
go better embedded in scripture the world over.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What qualifies as wisdom? The 17<sup>th</sup> Century poet and
linguist Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said; "Common sense in an uncommon
degree is what the world calls wisdom." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The
dictionary defines “wisdom” what gives one the </span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">ability to
discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting. It is insight. Wisdom is common sense and good judgment. <span class="apple-converted-space">Henry David
Thoreau said </span></span><span class="illustration"><i><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">"It
is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things"</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">
It is the </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">sum of learning through the ages. <span class="apple-converted-space">It is the
wise teaching of the ancient sages. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Maya Angelou points out that this body of knowledge is often oral,
passed down from grandmothers and fathers to children again and again as short
and often pithy sayings. She says; </span></span><span class="illustration"><i><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">"In those homely sayings was
couched the collective wisdom of generations"</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The thing about interfaith conversations that is so
wonderful is that while learning about a person or a group of person who are
different from you, you can see or hear things that they may be so immersed in
they can’t see as clearly as you might.
It is like, how fish are probably not aware of the water they swim
in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In the Book of Acts, we are told that "Moses
was learned in all the wisdom of
the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds." (<i>Acts vii. 22.) </i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Did he go to interfaith
dialogues! At least he studied the
water, the culture he was in, even though he was not Egyptian, he learned from the
wisdom they knew, soaking up what was valuable and constructive from their collective
common sense. It caused him to be mighty
in words and deeds! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Sometimes it is the “stranger”
the one not native to a particular place, who can best hear or see the wisdom
of a place, of a people, of a culture. </span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
<br />
Wisdom is, as my grandmother
liked to say, more than “book learning”.
Being wise means one has the ability to combine knowledge with practical
application. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It has been shown in survey after survey that we
UU’s are among the most knowledgeable (meaning book learned) group of church
folk in America. But are we also wise? Could someone come into our midst and learn
all they need to know to live peaceful, relational lives? …to be mighty in word and deed?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Our third source says that our living tradition draws
from the wisdom of</span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">
the world's religions to inspire us in our ethical and spiritual lives. How </span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">familiar are you with the wisdom literature from the
world’s religions? I know that some of
us have immersed ourselves in learning/practicing Buddhism, and/or different
forms of Paganism. Some of you are attracted to Hinduism, or know a lot about
Quakers, or Judaism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A long time ago, I became fascinated with wisdom
literature. At first what made it so interesting to me, was how you could find various
world religions personifying wisdom as the feminine aspect of God. Sophia was the wise woman who was understood to
be the consort, and the necessary compliment, to the father god. Perhaps the archetype is often female because
wisdom is almost always related to the practical and heartfelt aspects of life,
and not so much the removed or esoteric.
Wisdom literature as well is concerned with the day to day, and not so
much with the dramatic course of history.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In Proverbs, what goes on in the family, in the
kinship system and in society is the topic, again and again. Proverbs is concerned with day to day
practicalities. It is focused on the
ordering of routine life, on how a life can be made good and living prosperous. Do this and you will have a good life. Do this and we will all get along. A stitch in time saves nine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The wisdom writings in the Bible, (Proverbs, the
Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, the Book of Job) are not unlike more secular
types of conventional wisdom, (like the wisdom saying that Benjamin Franklin
was so fond of). The Wisdom literature
in the Bible is not interested in telling Israel’s story. It is not concerned with the covenants or
promises made between God and man, nor does it have any thing to say about a
God who acts to direct the course of history. Wisdom literature does not claim to be a
product of divine revelation. It is grounded
instead in the observation of and reflection upon human experience. Wisdom literature whether in the Bible or found
in other world religions is always the result of insight based on experience. Its aim is always a self-evident universal
truth, that which we often call common sense. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Sometimes wisdom literature is composed of short
sayings, like those found in the <i>Tao-te-ching</i>. Sometimes it is written as if it is one
person’s insight into a particular human problem, such as the story of the
unjust suffering found in the Book of Job.
Whatever form it takes, it is always, as Marcus Borg says in <i>Reading the Bible Again for the First Time,
“</i>crystallized experience - compact insights about how to live generated by
long experience of the world.” All
wisdom literature says ‘this is what life is like, and take it from me, this message
will help you on your journey’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">My purpose in bringing this up at all, is to offer
wisdom literature as a touch point for learning about the sacred writings of
other religions, for appreciating what makes the person who seems so different
from you tick. What others consider to
be sacred writings or sources are not all fantastical mystery and tales of
miracles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Have you read Ecclesiastes lately?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">It is a cynic’s delight focused on the shortness of
life and how random what befalls us is.
Life live to the fullest, my friend, cause you don’t get long. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Que Sera Sera</i>. <i>Whatever will be, will be. </i>“<i><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #001320;">What has been is what
will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new
under the sun.” …so let’s keep dancing… </span></i></span><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The collections of common sense sayings from the
body of the world’s religions, all of them, not just the cynical ones, have an
ingredient that is often missing from secular wisdom. You can’t read wisdom from the world’s
religions without recognizing that they all say in one way or another that life
isn’t is as simple as knowing the right things to do and simply doing them. This wisdom says that life is much more complex
than that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Religious wisdom does not offer a collection of
answers to be followed by the uninitiated.
It is rather it is a collection, a compendium of the world’s “ah ha’s”. What worked for some community and what might point
the way to what might work for others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">All of the wisdom literature from the world’s
religions ultimately says that it isn’t just about following wise sayings, we
must open ourselves and be vulnerable to the engagement with life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Becoming wise is not just finding the answer to "what should I do
in a given situation", it is rather a raising the question of "what
kind of person should I be?"<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Huston Smith in his book <i>The
World’s Religions,</i> tells this story about the Buddha. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">"In his later years, when <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> was afire with the Buddha's
message and kings themselves were bowing before him, people came to him even as
they were to come to Jesus asking what he was. (Not many people provoke this
question - not 'who are you' with respect to name, origin or ancestry, but
'what are you?')<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When the people carried their puzzlement to the Buddha himself, the
answer he gave provided a clue to his understanding of wisdom. ‘Are you a God? they asked. An angel? A
Saint? No. Then what are you?’ The Buddha answered, "I am awake."<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Being awake, alive, fully interconnected with all is the essence of religious
wisdom. At the moment we awaken to others who are in this world with us as
human beings of worth and dignity we awaken to ourselves – to our human,
finite, vulnerable, imperfect selves interconnected with all that is and ever
has been. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Everything we need to know and our children need to
know, and the generations that come after us need to live peaceful and good and
prosperous lives is not found in one monolithic world view. Learn from being in relationship with all that
is and all who are, as did Moses, and you and your children and your children’s
children will become mighty in word and in deed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Amen. Blessed be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Assay
- let the people make it so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Namaste
- the light in me salutes the light in you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Shalom. A Salaam Aleichem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084061005040224280.post-82925787227109157942014-01-19T15:40:00.002-05:002014-01-19T15:40:26.057-05:00Jesus for UU's <div style="text-align: center;">
Jesus for UU’s , Rev. Ann Marie Alderman, 1/19/2014</div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies. (from "Loving Your Enemies")”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">― Martin Luther King Jr., A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<br />
How many of you are familiar with the painting of Jesus in a white robe, with shoulder length brown wavy hair? In the painting I am referring to he has pale skin, a neatly trimmed beard, a sharp nose, thin lips, high cheek bones… He is looking out and up at something in the distance…<br />
<br />
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500 million copies of this portrait of Jesus are estimated to be in circulation. It has been said that it is the most common religious image in the world. For decades, especially in this country, this portrait was everywhere. It hung in nearly every Christian church, nearly every Christian child’s bedroom…and in living rooms. It was in the pockets of soldiers going off to war... in was in hospitals and offices, It hung in many school rooms, even in sandwich shops….everywhere!<br />
<br />
According to Stephen Prothero who wrote <i>American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon</i>, the image meant to depict Jesus became Jesus…at least in the minds of many, many Americans. …in the minds of women, men, children, no matter what color they were… they knew what Jesus looked like.<br />
<br />
The portrait and the person it represents, became one and the same. When that happened Jesus was no longer “belonged” to the institutional church founded upon his legacy. He no longer belonged to this or that worshiping congregation. Rather, the Jesus (the man we really “know” only a tiny amount of information about) became someone familiar and instantly recognizable to anyone and everyone. The man, the Son of God, the Savior, the Christ, previously known primarily through the interpretive lens of the various Christian faith traditions, became everyone’s always available superhero.<br />
<br />
The portrait meant to make us think about the person known to us through the books of the New Testament, became the hero one need not study the bible to know…and know well.<br />
<br />
The image created by an illustrator for a marketing campaign became an icon…and helped further what some call the “Jesus-only-religion”. Individuals with no relationship with a faith community could love, adore, feel good about their relationship with, appeal to, ask favors of, claim to know this Jesus. Our Unitarian forebears played a part in the creation of this distinctly American phenomena: Jesus standing alone, separate from God, separate from the church, separate from the history of doctrine and dogma…. This Jesus, Jesus as icon, as an always available superhero, could take on whatever form the dominant American popular culture needed him to.<br />
<br />
Even as the golden haired, savior with the Northern European features started to be replaced by a diversity of images that reflected the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious society that began to come forth as early as the 1960’s, little to nothing about those images had anything to do with the “real” Jesus.<br />
<br />
So he looked like what we needed him to.<br />
<br />
Yet if he was so mutable, so able to change his features to suit what we needed him to be…was there any “truth” there?<br />
<br />
You could find a black Jesus, a muscular Jesus, a hippie, Jesus with a creepy “come-hither” look, and on and on. There is even a famous painting of a black “female” Jesus.<br />
<br />
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It was still rare for any of the newer images of Jesus to have much or anything to do with who or what he might have looked like or any of the many understandings of who he was for his first century followers….<br />
<br />
Skeptics wondered if there was any truth to be found. Is it all made up? If it is, is it alright for any of us who care to, to just pick out what we need to be true?<br />
<br />
How could some UU's in the light of this sort of skepticism call themselves Christian? Why would some UU’s secretly or even boldly…if they dared…claim to be UU and Christian?<br />
<br />
Aren’t we the reasonable people who search for the truth?<br />
<br />
(You know these days, it just didn't happen if there is no video evidence!<br />
<br />
Look on the cover of your order of service!<br />
<br />
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<br />
Not very long very forensic anthropologists decided to find “the truth”. They gathered data from skeletal remains from Jesus’ time frame and where he was raised. Then they used computer graphics and all the latest technology to create an image that is the best we can “accurately” show what Jesus and the people of his time and situation looked like.<br />
<br />
What do you think?<br />
<br />
How do you feel about this guy?<br />
<br />
Is this a Jesus you could admire?<br />
<br />
I am guessing this image might be shocking for some of you. Or maybe it isn’t because you stopped thinking about Jesus a long time ago. You never believed so much of what seemed so unbelievable about the guy…and any relationship with him is in the distant past. Or you never had a relationship with him in the first place.<br />
<br />
But maybe you wonder if there is something there. …especially when you admire people like Martin Luther King, Jr.. who found something immensely powerful in the example of this guy…. And how he lived.<br />
<br />
<br />
No matter how we might feel ….Jesus won’t go away…<br />
<br />
In the pamphlet “The Faith of a UU Christian” the Rev. Stephen Kendrick says; “Nothing has ever been simple about Jesus. He confounded and confused people in his own time, and so it is no wonder UU’s today are still wrestling with him, his message, and the tradition that claims him as a God.”<br />
<br />
He goes on to say; “…I believe that people who are attracted to a place of free faith, spiritual seeking, and non-dogmatic religion have much to gain by grappling with the legacy of this teacher whose power and charisma seem undimmed from two thousand years ago.”<br />
<br />
I’m sharing this image of Jesus to try to shake you up. If I can get some kind of reaction out of you….maybe, just maybe …we can move together into a space where we can get some distance from our assumptions…about what we have been taught in the past or what we vaguely assume we know…<br />
<br />
Some space in which to move away from where we have been, to stand in the in-between…<br />
<br />
It is this space….where you may be able to give your religious imagination some freedom…freedom to move…..<br />
<br />
<i>To get there you’ve got to smash some idols…</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
For, even though they can and do serve great purposes….they can also obscure our perception of the “real thing”…<br />
<br />
Icons, created by humans to point to the sacred, can become the sacred. It is like mistaking the finger pointing at the moon for the moon.<br />
<br />
We come from a religious tradition that guards against that. Those Unitarians that had a hand in creating Jesus as the American Icon, meant well by cutting and pasting the gospels…taking out all the unbelievable miracles, removing all the inconsistencies…removing what couldn’t be true according to their understanding of reality. They were smashing idols.<br />
<br />
We have some of our own to destroy…<br />
<br />
Many of us of a certain background or of a particular generation did that with Christianity. It couldn’t be the faith for us, because too much was unbelievable…didn’t ring true.<br />
<br />
Jesus may be making a comeback.<br />
<br />
Jesus may be making a comeback among UU’s.<br />
<br />
This forensic anthropologist rendering you have in your hand depicts a simple, working class man.<br />
<br />
This rendering you have in your hand may be quite nearly accurate…<br />
<br />
If it is, or if it might be…does that make a difference for you?<br />
<br />
Nothing has ever been simple about Jesus. There is very, very little “proof”, other than accounts written by those who believed in him, that he even existed.<br />
<br />
What he might mean to you, or to the person sitting next to you is and probably always will be a matter of faith. The holy work we ought to be doing is not precluding what our faith journeys might move us to believe. What we ought to be doing is freeing ourselves from whatever keeps us stuck in place. Sometimes, we get stuck in the business of rejecting what doesn’t sound right or feel logical. Searching for what feels right and what brings love and justice is important spiritual work. UU’s have for too long gotten stuck in the place of rejecting the unbelievable miracles of Christianity. We have for too long gotten stuck in the place of rejecting the unreasonable doctrines and dogmas of Christianity.<br />
<br />
The work that we ought to be doing is not just freeing ourselves, but also moving into a place where once freed we then can creatively imagine what new symbols or not yet seen images might better channel our spiritual yearnings.<br />
<br />
Martin Luther King, Junior was a good-looking man. He was a fabulous preacher. But adoring him is like mistaking the finger for the moon.<br />
<br />
What if Jesus looked like a common, rough working man? What if his hair was unwashed, his skin ruddy from too much sun. What if his nose and his brow were thick?<br />
<br />
Would you adore him? Want to hear what he has to say?<br />
<br />
What if this man in this picture said to you: “Did you feed the hungry? Visit the widows? Go see the prisoners?”<br />
<br />
Would you find a way not to listen? …not to see? …not to do what is asked of you?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084061005040224280.post-102674090230295762013-10-15T09:57:00.000-04:002013-10-15T09:57:26.949-04:00Making Room for All: Coming Out Still Matters (with Karen Madrone)<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
This past Friday, October 11<sup>th</sup>, marked the 25<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of National Coming Out Day.
This day set aside each year for telling a friend, a neighbor, a
co-worker, about your identity began one year after a half a million people
descended on Washington DC in 1987 advocating for the rights to GLBT people. The theme for this year’s Coming Out Day is: “it
still matters”.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Does it still matter?
As, a lesbian, I have been receiving mostly “ho-hum” responses for years
now…at least in the UU world! …and from my family and friends.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even this past spring when my wife to be and I booked a
venue for our “marriage”, the staff in Charlotte was mostly blasé….about our
relationship and our ceremony….</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even the very conservative place where I went time after
time to get the custom made invitations just right…dealt with me just like
every one else.…</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gays and lesbians have come a long, long way in 25
years.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet, just last week, Robin and I went to the courthouse to
ask for a marriage license. This, of
course, is North Carolina and we knew the answer would be “no”. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even with that hurtful “no”, I am quite aware that I benefit
from privilege. Actually a lot of
privilege. I feel certain I will not
lose my job for engaging in an act of public witness…</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am in….we all are in…. one of those “yet, but not yet”
places…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The response to gays
and lesbians desires <i>for now</i> to be
legally married differs state to state.
I left the Mecklenburg courthouse saying that “we will be back”. I know that this denial, perhaps among the final
barriers to legal equality for gays and lesbians will come down someday soon.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It will come down, because more and more gays and lesbians continue
to come out, to ask for equal treatment, more and more will “come out” publicly
at church, at work, at school, in the court rooms…</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Human Rights Coalition says that now—25 years since the
first Coming Out Day one of out of every two Americans has a gay or lesbian
friend or relative or co-worker they are close to, that they know well. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is a lot of progress in “just” 25
years. That is a lot of being known and
accepted, welcomed into the circles that count…
That is a lot of coming out as gay and lesbian. That is a lot of coming out as allies…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet, HRC, also says that for a trans person, someone born in
the wrong body, someone whose gender identity does not match their body parts, the
statistic is quite different.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Only one in ten Americans are close to a friend, a relative,
a co-worker who is transgender.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a very different world for someone who has been and
still is marginalized because of gender identity.</div>
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For those who are trans, the world can be a lonely,
confusing, even violent place. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This ought to be a sanctuary for all those who are
marginalized. We ought to be better than
1 in 10 here. Changing that statistic, by
coming out as allies …not just welcoming…if “they” happen to show up… We ought to be out there inviting. We ought to be seeking….those who are on the margins. We ought to be engaging in the kind of
relationships that will transform us …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have participated in our denomination’s Welcoming
Congregation program three times, in three different congregations. All three experiences where powerful…taught me
things I did not know. One was
transformative…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I led the Welcoming Congregation program in the tiny UU
church in Athens, Pennsylvania some 7 years ago, those of us who were/are gay
and lesbian were transformed by the experience we had with our trans
members. We learned just how much we as
gays and lesbians-- so long used to being on the outside, had been guilty of
keeping those who were trans even further out…
it was a painful learning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This UU faith asks us to feel pain, sometimes. It asks of us to be not just tolerant of
difference, but welcoming. To be radically
welcoming: to offer hospitality to all,
especially those who have been defined as “other”, who have been systemically
disempowered and oppressed, pushed to the outer edges of society. AND to be transformed by doing so…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Welcoming Congregation certification that UUCG has
hanging on its wall, asks us to be in alliance with those GLBT local groups
doing the work of dismantling oppression.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is not just a day each year… </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is about seeking out those who are hurting, lonely,
isolated and who are often daily threatened with violence.</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Next year, if I should ask you to raise your hand if you are
friends with, love – respect – know the life story of a trans person, who is
your relative, neighbor, co-worker, fellow congregant….I hope instead of 1 in
10, here it is 1 in 5… [Rev. Ann Marie]</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="" name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I
am going to start my talk with a confession: gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender people can also be homophobic, biphobic and transphobic. It’s true.
I think those of us glbt people who are active and vocal have a façade of
having all our stuff worked out. But, believe it or not, we don’t.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When you are
raised in this culture you are constantly reminded of the norm and that norm is
held up as the correct way to be. Anything outside that norm, whether it
pertains to sexuality, gender identity, physical abilities, race, class or any
other category is considered to be “less than” and not given the same status as
the norm. GLBT people, since we live in this culture, too, also have these
beliefs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">On September 14, two
friends of mine Allison Woolbert and Debbie Duncan, came to our church and
spoke about their life experiences, Allison as a male to female transgender
woman, and Debbie as the wife of a male to female transgender woman. At the
workshop, one of the ground rules was about recognizing our own internal
biases. This ground rule reminded me of times in my life when my personal
biases surprised me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When I was a graduate
student in Missouri, I worked as a graduate resident assistant at a local
college. I was an out lesbian and everyone seemed to be fine with that. But an
interesting thing happened. One day I found out that one of the resident
assistants was a lesbian…and my first thought was…”I thought better of her than
that.” Thankfully my next thought was “I can’t believe I just thought that!”
That incident reminded me that even with everything I had gone through to
accept my own sexuality, I still had issues with accepting others where they
were. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When I moved to North
Carolina in 2004 I played softball with a co-ed gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender softball league in Winston-Salem for a few seasons. Now, I clearly
do not fit the stereotype of lesbians who play sports, have short hair, and
know how to fix cars. I had never played softball in my life but I was willing
to do whatever it took to make friends in the area. Thankfully a few people
took the time to teach me how to throw a ball and I learned how to work with my
weaknesses to become a decent player. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">One of the great
experiences I had with the league was getting my own stereotypes blown to bits.
I got to meet gay men who fit lots of stereotypes our culture has of them (you
know what they are)…and were also really fierce softball players. I was
stunned. Actually, many of them have gone on to win regional and national
competitions. I also got to meet gay men who were the absolute opposite of our
cultural stereotype – big burly tattooed guys that at first I was kind of
afraid of until I realized they were one of us. Who knew?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I feel that all of
these experiences, and my involvement at this church, made a difference in my
friendship with Allison. Allison and I met through facebook. Yes, facebook can
be a force for good. I “met” Allison through a conversation she was having with
Michael Tino, a former ministerial intern at this church. In spring 2012 I saw
she was posting information about an event they were calling a Welcoming
Congregation Summit. This intrigued me because as chair of the glbtq
subcommittee, I’ve been wanting our church to renew our energy around actively
living our Welcoming Congregation status.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Our church has been a
Welcoming Congregation, a special status designated by the Unitarian
Universalist Association, for at least ten years. Churches that are designated
as Welcoming Congregations have undergone an internal study to increase their
awareness of glbt issues. However, when our church became a Welcoming
Congregation, the T for transgender hadn’t been added to the curriculum, it was
added the following year. If you’ll notice on the sign in the foyer,
transgender isn’t included. So when I saw the notice about the Welcoming
Congregation Summit, I thought this would be a great opportunity to meet with
other congregations, find out what they were doing, and bring some of that
energy back here. There was just one hitch – this event was happening in Princeton,
New Jersey on April 11, the same day as our Dance for Equality, an event we
held here to raise funds to support defeating amendment one. So I got in touch
with Allison and said that I really wish I could go but it wouldn’t work out. I
found out that she is persistent. Then she told me they were doing a similar
event again in the fall and would I like to come speak about our experiences
here in our fight against amendment one? So I said yes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It sounded like the
craziest thing to do, I know. I flew to Newark New Jersey and stayed in the
house of two total strangers at the time. Before meeting Allison, I had known a
few transgender people but really only in passing. Staying in someone’s house
is totally different than having a short conversation in the hallway. I’m not
going to lie, there were moments I was uncomfortable.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">First, because I had
never met them before but also because I hadn’t spent much time with transgender
people. But thankfully I have years of experience of being a Unitarian
Universalist and I take the first principle of the belief in the inherent
dignity and worth of every person very seriously. I’ve learned that if I’m
uncomfortable with someone, it’s my issue, not theirs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Many years ago a
friend recommended the book “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult
Times” by Pema Chodron, a Buddhist monk. I have read it several times. I highly
recommend her work. Another author I’ve learned a lot from is Geneen Roth. She
approaches life through a Buddhist and Jewish lens. What I’ve learned most in
my readings and experiences is the importance of being truly present. Being
present in the moment, allowing the other person to be who they are, as they
are. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">From Geneen Roth I’ve
learned to use curiosity and kindness as a spiritual practice. So while I was
with Allison and her friends, in a room full of all transgender people but me,
I asked myself, “What am I feeling? What is it about this person or this
situation is causing me discomfort? How can I be more present for them?” I have found the question, “I wonder why?” to
be helpful in times when I’m having an uncomfortable response to someone or a
situation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">At times during the
course of the weekend I was reminded that gay and lesbian people haven’t always
been welcoming to transgender people and I allowed myself to just be there,
without being defensive in responsive, and just listen. And I realized they
were right. Prior to going to this Summit I was aware of the gender spectrum
and the sexuality spectrum but I hadn’t had my assumptions tested. When Allison
said she was bisexual, I had yet another stereotype blown to bits! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The song the choir
sang just now “Would you harbor me?” asked the same question over and over
again, only with different groups of people. An alternative to the question is,
“Would you be an ally for me?” All the time I feel like Allison is asking me,
would you be my ally? Would you stand with me and my transgender community when
the chips are down? Will you remember me when a transgender person is attacked,
raped and killed merely for their gender expression? Will you help raise money
for organizations that work to end discrimination against transgender people?
Will you remember that transgender poor people, people of color, and who have a
lower socioeconomic status are treated disproportionately worse in our society?
Will you hold national gay and lesbian organizations to account when they
dismiss the concerns of transgender people? Will you make sure that transgender
people are welcome in your home, your life, your church? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Friends, as someone who is white, passes as
straight, fits the gender expectations of women in our culture, and has a
college education, I feel strongly that I have a responsibility to come out as
an ally, to harbor, those who are less than in our culture. And this church
does, too. I challenge each of us and our church to take a public stand for
those who cannot come out themselves. Whose lives are in danger due to their
gender expression. Sit with this idea for a moment. Ask yourself, “What am I
feeling? How can I be present to this challenge?” I ask you to sit with the
discomfort of being challenged about your assumptions. Ask yourself what can I
do? What can my church do? What can we do as a community to be welcoming to
all? How can we be radically welcoming? [Karen Madrone]</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084061005040224280.post-66568030936163026872013-09-16T08:37:00.000-04:002013-09-17T11:44:34.583-04:00What is Your Spiritual Type?<div class="MsoNormal">
What is your favorite part of worship here on a Sunday morning? Do you like that liberal religion is defined
and celebrated here, Sunday after Sunday, same place, same time? Or is you favorite part joys and sorrows or
coffee hour, because you like to talk?
Do you feel like you haven’t been to church if you don’t get a
hug? Or is it the silence, the prayer or
the chiming of the singing bowl that speaks to you? Or is your favorite part the announcements,
or the Share Half offering when you get to find out how and when to do
something to make this world a better place?
How about the choir? Do you like
that it is consistently excellent? That
the music often inspires you to feel?
That singing makes you feel at one with others? That the songs inspire you to work for
justice?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is your least favorite part? Does not beginning and not ending promptly
drive you crazy? Do joys and concerns
embarrass you? Do you sit so you can look
out the window because that is secretly your favorite part of being here? Do you think services are a waste of time if
they don't cause you and others to want to take concrete action in the “real” world?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This morning, I am going to invite you to reflect on the
attitudes and activities that characterize how you most comfortably make a connection
with whatever you consider to be most worthy of your ultimate focus. For means of simplicity, I’ll use the
shorthand phrase “spiritual type” for all those attitudes and activities that
most serve to connect to whatever you consider higher being. I want you to leave today, with a better
understanding of your way of expressing whatever it is you come to church to
express. I want you to better understand
what you need to feel connected, what it takes to feel like you have been “to church”. And I want to understand that what feels like
worship to you, may be quite different from what feels like worship for the person sitting next to you. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes we think that if we make space for
the theists (those who believe in the existence of a specific God or who value
a God-concept) and the humanists, those who are agnostic or a-theist, and for those who
define themselves as more earth centered, we have covered the variety of
preferences...here. Yet, if we think
only about these three differences…theistic, humanist, neo-pagan... it keeps us
from looking at another way we are a diverse which may have a much more
powerful impact on how we understand our expectations and needs. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Knowing about spiritual types can help us to understand
different styles of worship across different faiths, different styles of
worship within a particular faith, and the variety of expressions within particular
denomination, and the diversity present here most every Sunday.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The premise of this is that all of us have a “primary”
spiritual type. Discovering what yours is, will help you to appreciate that the
spiritual expressions of others may be very different from yours. Discovering your spiritual type, will help
you see that no one way is the “right” way.
That no one type is the “truly” spiritual type.
For it takes all of us to make a whole congregation, to express and
appreciate all the ways that we can together connect with what is worthy in
this life. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, I am going to ask you a series of questions. Try to keep track of how many you can say yes
to!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal">So, when
you sing a hymn, do you look ahead to see if you agree with the words?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do especially
like the music when it sounds like the kind you might hear at the Symphony?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Could
you easily complete this sentence:
The truth is ____?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Is it
important to you that services, or meetings, or classes start and end on
time?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Does
the wording of the Unitarian Universalist principles, of the church mission statement, or of
the statement of affirmation really matter to you?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Are
you especially interested in the content of most sermons and want to read
more about whatever the subject is?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
take pleasure in intellectual inquiry and critical investigation?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
have a passion for congruence in thought and statement, wanting
propositions to be demonstrably logical? </li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
want to hear more sermons about our Unitarian Universalist heritage?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Does
being right mean more to you than being in relationship?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
prefer classes where an expert speaks on UU history or World Religions
over one on spiritual autobiography?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
like the Sunday service to be all of a piece, carefully planned, with a
clear theme running throughout?</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>If you said yes to most of those questions, your spiritual
type is HEAD! You approach spirituality
with your intellect. You appreciate
history, order, logic…tradition! Going
to church is to put the world back into proper order…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Try these:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
really love that we end worship holding hands?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Is
your idea of a good service one that deeply moves you, brings tears to
your eyes, or makes you feel deep joy?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
enjoy encountering others on a one on one basis?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
like meetings, classes, social functions, coffee hour because you can
share conversation with those you like seeing and being with?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Is
time for spoken Joys and Sorrows very important to you whether or not you
have something to share…because you want to know what’s going on with
people?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">When
you come to a Sunday Service, do you hope to leave knowing the speaker
better than you did before?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
prefer an Adult RE class where people get to tell their own stories?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Would
you like to see more opportunities for sharing your spiritual
autobiography and hearing other’s?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do
conflicts really matter to you, either energizing you or draining you?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Does
being in relationship mean more to you than being right?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Are
you satisfied if a sermon tells a good story?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
love having the children in the service, even when (or especially when) they
are spontaneous and talkative?</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You are all HEART! You
approach spirituality with your emotions, and haven’t been “to church” unless
you have made an emotional connection.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How about these?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal">In
your best moments, do you feel in tune with/one with the whole universe?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Does
the metaphor of life as a journey really work for you?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Does
prayer or meditation appeal to you, the more in silence the better?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
love being alone and wish you could be alone more?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
wish the loud conversations inside this room were kept to a minimum, so
that you could more easily make the transition from your busy life to this
worship time?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
like the sound of the chime calling you to be present to the moment?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
wish there were more and longer periods to empty yourself of the chatter
of daily life during our worship services?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Is the
chalice lighting and just coming forward to light a candle during joys and
sorrows… parts of the service that are important for you?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
love chants and rounds?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Is it
important to you that our church building, inside and out, be a place of
beauty and serenity? Would you
like for us to have a building that was big enough to separate the
fellowship area from the sanctuary?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Would
you like to see more communion services, (water, flower, bread, because
ritual speaks to you in a ways that words don’t?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Does a
class or a group focused on the sacredness of ordinary moments appeal to
you?</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You are a MYSTIC.
Approaching the ultimate has to do with emptying yourself, being at one
with the great beyond…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And finally?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal">Did
you like the UU slogan, “deeds not creeds”?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
believe that one of the best ways to find out who you are and what you
believe is to act publicly in concert with others?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Would
you be highly complimented to be called an activist, or an advocate?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Have
you attended a Social Action Team meeting…(with a proposal for us to do
something)?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Did
you participate in Moral Mondays?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Where
you or are you considering being in the Peace Corps?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
get goose bumps when singing, “We Shall Overcome”, or when we use gospel
or folk songs that inspire you to work for justice?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
believe that the purpose of a church is to comfort the afflicted and
afflict the comfortable?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Is it
important to you that The Newsletter, the bulletin boards, the e-news and
the spoken announcements make people aware of the ways that we can put our
values into action in the community…in the state…in the world?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
wish our congregation did more work to dismantle ableism, ageism, racism
and homophobia?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
believe that the purpose of a church is to transform the world and not
just to change ourselves?</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Do you
believe that church services should be the way we express our convictions?</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>Your spiritual type is HANDS. Worship may be the last place you want to
be. There’s too much to do “out there”!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are guided by your head you may value the
intellectual and speculative approach to worship, tending to appreciate what
can be put in logical terms. Concepts are valuable to you. This type of
spirituality favors heritage and form, what it can see, touch, and vividly
imagine. Words and speaking are
important. Your aim in coming to church
is intellectual renewal, finding better ways of understanding what is worthy of
your attention in life. Order,
structure, heritage are important. “Rank
by Rank” is the kind of hymn you relate to.
Corporate congruence is important.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet, over reliance on this spiritual type leads to
intolerant rationalism, persons always on the lookout for the illogical, or
what fine point they can argue with. Perhaps
a growing edge for persons with this type of spirituality is to be found in
learning to wait, in practicing whatever slows the rush to thinking. Head types might be served by taking a
mediation class, where they may learn to empty the mind.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are of the Heart type, also like Head appreciates
vivid images, stories with characters…but everything that really matters will
always be filtered through your feelings.
Whatever your feelings are in the current moment are the most important
thing to you. You come to church to feel good.
You may feel abandoned or forsaken by your religion when you feel low or
angry. Your aim in worship is personal
renewal and transformation. Spontaneity,
warmth, memory, story, practical serving make sense to you. You may not be on the picket line, but you will
volunteer to clean up the kitchen, because your momma did and her momma before
that. Amazing Grace is your hymn.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The weakness, or shadow side, of this type is sentimentality
or what used to be called “pietism”…It is easy for you to adopt a holier than
thou attitude. If you are a Heart type
your growing edge may be to immerse yourself in learning to think critically
adding that skill to your immense ability to feel.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are a Mystic path, hearing is more important than
speaking. Your aim is union with the
divine, or renewal of your inner life.
For you the Sacred is a creative force, met through journey. Being, symbol, beauty, and ritual speak to
you. Chants are your song. The practice of contemplation is important to
you. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A weakness of this
path may be isolated withdrawal from the world.
A reality check might be in order!.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Those who are Hands type aren’t satisfied unless they are engaged
in action. These are the crusaders. They measure worth by the level of their, and
of your, commitment and passion. We’ll
Build a Land may be your song. If you
are a Hands type the transformation of society is important to you. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Too much emphasis on this as “the” path leads to moralistic
fanaticism. So your growing edge may be
whatever helps you to experience joy in the present moment, realizing the need
to constantly work for a better world can be modulated by focus on now, rather
than always then….</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Exclusive dominance in any one quadrant leads to it’s
excess, dogmatism, emotionalism, withdrawal, or tunnel-vision. Any congregation that allows the expression
of only one spiritual type, will drive out those who express themselves
differently. And they will also too easily
identify their particular spiritual tendency as THE RIGHT WAY….missing appreciation
for balance and wholeness …It is important to be with those who are different
from you, to learn what it means to be whole.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All individuals and groups have multiple spiritual
tendencies. How many of you couldn’t
decide and find you are of two types, or three?
What might you think is the dominant type of this congregation? …of UUism in general? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a worship leader, I try to remember to build into every
worship service what will appeal to every type. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know that any time I hear folks insist that the right way to
do worship is to end at such and such a time…, or we must have spoken joys and
sorrows, or more silence please, or so come to me afterwards and say; “so what
are we supposed to do about it?”….that they are telling me what their spiritual
type is! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Probably the most important thing to take away today is for
all of us to know that these four “types” are not liberal vs conservative, or reflective of theism, humanist or pagan. There are not liberal or conservative. There are
theistic, humanist and pagan groups peopled by all four types. It is not the case that any of these styles
are better or more mature than the others, just different. They reach different people in different ways
at different times. A whole church ought
to attend to meeting everyone’s needs for comfort and challenge. There are those who express their
spirituality and expect to be addressed in a cognitive/intellectual/head
fashion or a emotive/connectional/heart fashion, or an
introspective/meditational/mystic fashion or who are hands on activists. And all of you are here every Sunday!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
What I hope you have heard is that we are more diverse and
perhaps in deeper ways than we may have imagined. It takes all of us, to be whole!<br />
<br />
Read more about this topic <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Discover-Your-Spiritual-Type-Corinne/dp/1566991498">http://www.amazon.com/Discover-Your-Spiritual-Type-Corinne/dp/1566991498</a></div>
Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084061005040224280.post-66933806238593976082013-08-18T19:22:00.000-04:002013-08-18T19:22:26.150-04:00Whom Do You Serve?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">JACOB WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL Genesis 32:24-32<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">And Jacob was left alone;
and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw
that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and
Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Then the man said, “Let me
go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless
you bless me.” And the man said, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”
Then the man said, “Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for
you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Then Jacob asked him,
“Tell me, I pray, your name.” But the man said, “Why is it that you ask my
name?” And then he blessed him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Jacob called [out] …“For I
have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed …limping
because of his hip.</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<strong><span style="background-color: #f7f7f4; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Handyman</span></strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">The morning brought such a lashing rain</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">I decided I might as well stay inside</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">And tackle those jobs that had multiplied</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">Like an old man's minor aches and pains.</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">I found a screw for the strikerplate,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">Tightened the handle on the bathroom door,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">Cleared the drain in the basement floor,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">And straightened the hinge for the backyard
gate.</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">Each task had been a nagging distraction,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">An itch in the mind, a dangling thread;</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">Knocking a tiny brass brad on the head,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">I felt an insane sense of satisfaction.</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">Then I heard a great crash in the yard.</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">The maple had fallen and smashed our car.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #f7f7f4; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Barton Sutter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I wrestle most days to get the little details right. Sometimes when I am feeling overwhelmed, it
helps to focus on small things that can be fixed. I feel satisfied when I can see what I have
straightened out. AH, those papers are
all organized now. The pictures are
hanging level on the wall. The
organizational chart is clear and accurate and flowing in my mind…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The chaos is pushed aside for a moment.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some days, often on stormy days or when it is drizzling outside,
I realize that life has left me, left most of us, with our assorted pains, our “limps”. Wounds that have become scars, places out of
joint or stiff from wrestling. Terrors.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nagging, little pains.
Perhaps we can take another pill, or stretch out and ease the old wounds…maybe
a trip to the massage therapist will help… </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then the tree falls.
Or some other potentially life changing loss hits… </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is those moments, when “the maple falls and smashes the
car”, when we realize to what or to whom our life is “all bound up…”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was at my home in Jacksonville some years ago. It was a spring or maybe it was summer. We had received lots and lots of rain, day
after day. On this particular day, it
was just drizzling…the windows were open and it was smelling sweet like spring
does…when suddenly there was an earth-shaking THUD. I was in one side of the house, when the deafening
sound and the shudder of a huge tree falling and smashing something started and
then only seconds later came to a stop. I
was convinced that the kitchen on the other side of the house was gone. I was sure some terrible damage had been done
to the roof, to the room that was no more, damage that would inconvenience me
for weeks.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With trepidation, running to the kitchen, I saw out the
window that one HUGE live oak branch had fallen in the back yard. It was resting un-easily on what was left of the
carport roof. Under the carport were all
the tropical birds that my girlfriend and I had not long ago housed there. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We had built an outdoor aviary, where they could be messy
and loud and would be plenty warm enough for the late spring and for summer. I was panicked. I was sure that tree limb was not finished
falling all the way down to the ground…When it did, which it surely would, the
birds would be either smashed or their cage ripped open and them set free..</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I could hear the neighbors gathering in the street. I was irritated that not one ventured to our
front door to ask if we were ok. I was
relieved that no crowd appeared in the back yard to watch me hurry to rescue
the birds. Dutiful that ONE day, they
were all amazing easy to capture. Their
little hearts beating way faster than they already did every day, they agreed to
all be hurriedly shoved into one cage, crammed together predators and victims,
all answering to a higher call to survive..</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the house, they were separated once again. With the tree guys and the insurance people
called and all having done their jobs…life went on. Life went on… Forever, I knew what too much rain
can do.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The writer Anne Dillard thinks a church should be a
dangerous place, a zone of risk, a place of new birth and new life, where we
confront ourselves with who we truly are and who we are being called to become. She says a church ought to be a place where
you need a hard hat.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Luckily, I have one. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Given to me years ago by a congregational president…during a
particularly difficult transition in the church’s forward progress. I plan to put it in my office here. I may need it. You may need to borrow it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I may need it when we aren’t sure what the future is going
to bring. I may need it as a charm to wear
when what feels like life-threatening harm has come to call, when you and I venture
forth into dangerous areas. When there
is an earth-shaking THUD. Or when I wrestle
with all night as Jacob did. Or you do.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the story Jacob, he asks for a blessing. He gets a new name and he receives a blessing. Yet he walks away from the hard night with a
limp. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He asked for a blessing, he asked to be honored as special,
as chosen, yet he left the encounter with a wound…a hip out of joint. He will have to live with that injury the
rest of his life…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His name no longer Jacob, but Israel…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He went into the danger zone and came out wounded, yet
transformed… </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is always pain in holy work. If there is no pain, if it is all easy and
smooth and obsessively attending to the details is satisfying cause it keeps the
chaos at bay…then one is likely standing at some distance, intellectualizing, observing,
perhaps cataloging…. Taking a sampling
taste of various religious traditions, perhaps casually visiting faith
communities… testing the waters, <b>but never really diving in…</b> never wrestling…with meaning and purpose and
ultimacy…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Who do you serve? To
whom or for what are you in service? Is
it fear?… or something else?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Engagement with the sacred, doing the kind of holy work that
changes us into who we can be, who we ought to be, are meant to be ….is painful
and often terrifying…It can, and often does, leave us wounded, yet transformed…broken
and blessed. Yet, we know who we serve. We who go
into the danger zone again and again,…into the holy place where there is brokenness
and blessing…don’t need names. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Story after story in every religious tradition talks about
this… what it is like to encounter the
holy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Reading about it, listening to other people’s stories is not
good enough.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Debating the names of the holy is missing the point.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have taught Bible courses to UU’s many times. I have said many times that I love studying
the books about the Bible way more than studying the Bible itself. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I could say the same thing about the Bhagavad Gita. I love reading books about Hinduism, yet I have
never traveled to India…for I am afraid.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am a “study it from a distance” kind of learner, most of
the time…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But not all the time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If there is a life at stake, I will do my best to be fully present,
engaged in doing what needs to be done….</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If there is a congregation at risk, losing its way, forgetting
who they are and why they exist and to whom they are in service….I will do my
best to partner them back to right relationship with the holy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the story from Genesis, Jacob asks for a blessing, which
he receives…and he receives a new name…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But he has yet to understand who or what he serves…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The man said to Jacob, why is it that you ask my name? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One wouldn’t have to ask, “who are you” if one was really in it…If one was living
engaged with the divine, one would not ask, one would know.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
WHO DO YOU SERVE?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Who or what calls out to you? With whom or with what do you wrestle? Who or what leaves you blessed and broken? …transformed?
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Straightening the books on the shelf, staying in the office
getting the flow chart just right, is not the kind of learning, engaging,
wrestling with life’s meaning and purpose that real spiritual maturity
demands. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One has to open the book, read the stories….hear your own
story in the stories…learn to let life’s little nagging pains not worry you so
much, not give straightening little things give you an insane sense of satisfaction, when SANITY and wholeness
comes from doing the hard, deep, engagement with what calls you beyond
pettiness and futility to LIFE…to solidarity with those who work for justice…into
the love that creates true community, where risk and trust go together…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes you need a hardhat..</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can borrow mine...</div>
Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084061005040224280.post-17783117564647354742013-08-13T16:39:00.000-04:002013-08-13T16:39:42.166-04:00When to Contact the Minister<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">My wife and I are about to close on a house in
Salisbury. It is halfway between her place
of ministry in Charlotte and mine here!
It is an older home, in a historic district. I am imagining I am going
to learn very quickly where the home improvement stores are in that town! I am already acquainted with some of the home
improvement “experts” there. Friends who live there now, some in older homes,
are already offering advice.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I am not shy about trying to learn what they
know, about asking “how do you go about doing…? ... Whatever comes up that we might
need to know to make this old house more live-able for us. Make it do what we want it do while we live
there. How can we make it fit us? And be fit for us?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">You have some of that to do with me and me
with you. How will we learn over time to
fit, how to be fit for each other? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Just like I do in approaching others,
sometimes you will come to me as an “expert” on something. Other times, I will help you see how you are
the expert. That is what is meant by “shared
ministry”. We are all talented and wise and
have gifts to share. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">A week from tomorrow, I will be traveling to Minneapolis
for the annual Interim and Developmental Ministry training. I plan to ask lots of questions of those who
have been doing interim ministry for a while.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">There will be some “developmental” ministers like
me there too. I plan to especially corner
them and seek out their wisdom. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">But, I can tell you there aren’t that many of
us and no one has been doing Developmental Ministry very long.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">This thing you and I are doing together is
like an interim ministry, what Rev. Eric did, <i>only different!</i> There aren’t any “experts” yet! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Developmental ministers partner with
congregations for 3-5 years, to get them ready to settle a called minister, and
they might even become that called minister.
We stay longer than an interim, to help your leaders really move your congregation
into a new way of being together.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Interims are around to give you time to grieve, or at least shift your
loyalty from a past leader, to pause and breath and allow the space to let in a
new called minister… <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We are on a different kind of journey
together, you and I. It has less to do
with pause and breath and more to do with CHANGE and grow… <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It is a path that ought to lead UU Greensboro into
becoming a highly functioning, efficient, live-able, fun, safe, “make a
difference in the world” kind of place…<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Are you ready? <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We will be building not only a new way of
being together, but re-building trust, and that will take time.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">In the meantime, life goes on. In the meantime, whether we get to that place
we are going or not, life will happen. Life,
and marriages, and children born. Illness
and death, and getting up again the next morning with a loss to live with. In the meantime, maybe you aren’t a leader and
you don’t care about all that was or what will be. You are here now. Maybe you just came in the door this morning,
or in the last few months. Maybe you
came in the door 20 years ago, or 10. And
you just want a minister to be a minister. For you a minister is not just to manage a journey
to the great transformation in the sky, but for the meantime. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Being your minister is not just about standing
and talking to you on Sundays…<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">[although that’s very important!]…<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It is about being for you and with you in the
meantime. …as life happens. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I am here to help you celebrate, to comfort
you, to challenge and inspire you, to just be present so you can hear yourself,
so you can be your own expert.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">C</span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">all
me, send me an e-mail, do what ever it takes to initiate contact with me when
you need me to be your minister. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">In these first few
months, I would love just to get to know you better. Ask me out for coffee, or lunch or dinner. Invite me over, or in, or come by just to
visit. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">I will do the same. You may learn that I will seek <i>you</i> out if I sense you have a
ministerial need. A life or death major
event is happening in your life, or you are struggling with how to find meaning
or purpose…in the midst of a terminal diagnosis, or a move or a separation…<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">The UUCG grapevine
will keep me somewhat informed about some of your concerns that call for a
pastoral response. I will be listening
for your needs during joys and sorrows, and during our “casual”
conversations. You may not know I am
listening to you that way, but I am. You
may not yet be ready to seek me out, yet. But I hope you will when you are ready. I hope you will act as if, I can be your
minister! Sometimes, I will be the one who
comes to you. I promise I am listening
for the metaphorical door to open. If it
does I promise I will walk through it. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">When that happens I
hope I help you see/experience, what I am here for as your pastor. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">You don’t have to rely
on the grapevine to let me know something I should know. I’m good, but I am not psychic! Contact me.
My phone works, my e-mail works, my office times are posted.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Call me, come by. Call me first, then come by!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Sometimes, some of you
may come by…eager to me to tell me what some one else needs from me. That’s OK.
But sometimes, some of you will come by or call to tell me not what
someone else needs, but about a “concern” or an issue that some third person
has with me. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">It would serve us all
so much better if you would take that person’s hand and offer to come with
them, so that I can hear directly from the person who has a concern clearly and
exactly what their concern is! If you
come tell me alone, I am very likely to hear what you have to say not as an
expression of their concern, but as yours!
That’s OK, too. But you need to
know I am hearing what you say as your concern.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Let’s choose to be
direct! I will be direct with you! And gentle.
If you are bold, I will be gentle in hearing what must have taken a lot
of guts to say. That’s my promise to
you!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">If you are a member
here, I will officiate your marriage ceremony or your memorial service at no
charge! If you are a friend, a friend of
a friend, a relative…I will make you a deal!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">If you are ready for
your child to be dedicated, here or in a sacred space of your choosing, come
see me.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">If you want to talk
about your ceremony of life and how you’d want to be remembered come see
me. Let’s talk</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">If you want to talk
about theology or polity or something thrilling or confusing that’s happening in
the UU World or in the world that has a spiritual, ethical, justice-making
dimension come see me.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">If you can’t figure
out how to be a UU at work, let’s talk<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I am always ready to hear what you are excited
about learning next. I am here to help
you explore religion and spirituality, to help you widen your horizons, to
deepen your knowledge, to grow in understanding, to help connect with others
who have your same interests or concerns, to help you to understand those in
this community who are different in their faith orientation and practice from
you.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It is appropriate to call me for comfort or
guidance, or help with hearing yourself think, for a confidential place to
express your feelings, to talk about illness, death, transitions. Call me to be present during a crisis or
trauma…<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Pastoral care is about deep listening, providing
comfort, recognizing when the door is open for spiritual growth, and being
present with you as you walk through that door. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Most UU ministers are trained in “brief
counseling”, knowing how to identify growing edges, to comfort and to be
present during times of crisis. We are
trained to make appropriate referrals especially when the need to be addressed
goes beyond our skill set, or the kind of time that is needed is far beyond what
we have to offer. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Ministers are trained to listen for and
explore what role your faith or your core beliefs are taking in helping or
hindering your move through a transitional point in your life. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Part of pastoral care is to be available to
you when you are upset or disappointed with me.
You can expect to receive a good listen.
You can expect that what you have to express will be kept within the
bounds of confidentiality. When I am
engaged in giving pastoral care, my focus will be on you and your needs. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I am your minister, yet…I am also human! Like with all <i>human</i> interactions, you may come to me at a time when I am
distracted, defensive, reactive, and am not able to offer you a good
listen. Even when you’ve done your part
and initiated contact and have been clear that you are looking for pastoral
care, there will be times when my needs will get in the way of meeting your
needs. I will tell you when we need to
arrange for another time, so that I can get myself out of the way!...and be
able to listen to you without getting defensive, without rushing to “fix” the
problem, without trying to end your discomfort…. Coming up to me after a Sunday Service in the
crowed foyer is not the best time to seek pastoral care from me! It is OK to arrange a time then, but it dishonors
both of us for you to ask for or me to offer pastoral car in the middle of a crowd!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">When I am present to you and for you, I will
do my best to listen to you…to listen to whatever you have to say, whatever you
feel, with respect that you are coming to me to be heard, to be companioned
until you find your way again. I promise
to give the space for you to say whatever you need to say. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">When I am present with you I will create space
for you to hear your own wisdom; for you to find your own way to continue to be
in loving relationship with yourself. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I am here ready for your call. I am here to be your minister…to celebrate
life with you, to help you grow, to hold you through change…</span><span style="font-family: "Century Schoolbook","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Century Schoolbook","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">There are so many of you that I don’t yet
know. Call me. I would love to visit you in your homes, or
at your place of work. I want to know
what motivates you to be a part of this community. I want to know what you are expert at, what
you struggle with, who or what is important to you and why.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I want to know what your hopes and dreams are
for yourself as an individual, for your family, for this congregation and this
community.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Call me!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many years ago UU minister Peter Lee Scott wrote a column
called "When to Call the Minister." In the intervening years, his
column has been adapted, messaged and added to by others. Here’s a version:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
CALL THE MINISTER WHEN...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you don’t know me, but would like to. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you have problems you would like to discuss with your
job, children, marriage, or anything else where a sympathetic ear might help.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you are going to the hospital or know of someone else
in the congregation who is.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When someone close to you has died or is critically ill or
you’re dealing with a significant loss of some kind.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you are planning to be married or divorced.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you would like your child dedicated.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you are pregnant and glad you are or wish you weren’t,
also if you want to be pregnant but aren’t.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you feel ready to join the congregation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you have concerns or suggestions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you have religious or spiritual questions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you are seeking to deepen your spiritual life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you are upset with me or would like to express
appreciation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you have won the lottery and want to make a large
donation to the church.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To add a little humor, Rev. Marilyn Sewell (retired minister
who was with the First Unitarian Church in Portland, Oregon) added several reasons
NOT to call the minister:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don’t call the minister when:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You want to give her "the real scoop" on another
member.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You want to explain that you’ll have to cut your pledge in
half because you are spending the summer in the south of France.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You want to tell her you didn’t like what she wore in the
pulpit last Sunday.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You want to tell her that one of the reasons you are a UU is
that you have always distrusted organized religion. (Our church is, after all,
a part of organized religion).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Your leaders have wisely organized this place so that you
have a minister who is a pastor, too.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Call me!</div>
Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084061005040224280.post-30999388159173055822013-08-04T16:10:00.001-04:002013-08-04T16:10:28.510-04:00The Transient and the Permanent<div class="MsoNormal">
When I was a child, I was taken to church (willingly) by my
parents “every time the door was open” (as they say). I loved the sense of community, of adults
beyond my parents who cared about me, of friends beyond my sister and brother
to be with. I even often enjoyed Sunday
School, because of the stories.
Sometimes, though I would ask way too many questions about the facts, or
the mechanics of how did something happen the way it was said to have! When my questions were met with silence or
encouragement to just believe, I didn’t like that so much!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes I enjoyed the sermons, but mostly what I liked was the
music! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was in the youth choir. I was in the hand bell choir. I loved the sound of the whole congregation in
one voice, washing over me. I loved when
the adult choir performed and the soloists,… even the one we made fun of …who
sang like we were at the opera… I loved it
all.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was child in that church.
I was a teen. It wasn’t until
much later as a young adult in religion classes at the big state university, and
with my revolutionary peers that I would begin to question the “theology” of
the words to the hymns I loved so much.
It wasn’t until later that I realized there were parts of “church” that
needed to be left behind. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It fell out of favor for me to sing the old hymns about a risen
savior come to save me from sin.
Consciousness raised, I replaced those songs with protest songs, with
Peter, Paul and Mary and Bob Dylan and much later “womens music”. The forms changed, but the community building
remained….<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The forms always change… <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thrilled to be in this living faith that acknowledges and honors
change, I was stunned some years ago when there was some consideration
regarding changing the wording of the principles and the sources….Frankly, I
was stunned that the majority demanded that every word, every phrase stay the
same exactly as it had been…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not quite dogma and doctrine as is offered by some other faith
traditions, yet our principles and purposes, our sources, play a role in
holding us together, in forming the circle that defines who we are… Eventually,
they too, will change.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They aren’t the essence. Neither
are our governance structures, or “they way we’ve always done it”. All those forms are like the Buddhists
say: The fingers that point to the
moon. Everyone knows it isn’t the finger
we worship!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The feelings from those child hood times that music brought to me
about love and care and community have stayed in my memories. (and some of those old hymns) That feeling reminds me of times and of
people long past, of forms out of favor, of all that is the essence of love
beyond our immediate families, beyond all the particular communities that have formed
and deformed us….<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Moving in our lives towards greater compassion step by step involves
constantly sorting through what is transient and what is permanent and trying
to understand the difference and where our loyalty ought to lie, to whom or to what
it ought to be given.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Almost 200 years ago, in the late 1840’s thousands of
Bostonians couldn’t get enough of one Unitarian preacher by the name was
Theodore Parker. He wasn’t always as popular
as he would become for a while in the city of Boston. What he did, for a time, a very important time,
was help people sort through, tell the difference between the finger and the moon.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcROuVCTBxsbid_-T1c73QjmGAL7SczhufxracAt6ne755rrYPxgsIIxwdUL" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcROuVCTBxsbid_-T1c73QjmGAL7SczhufxracAt6ne755rrYPxgsIIxwdUL" /></a>His name may be at least vaguely familiar to some of you as
he was in the news (at least the UU news) not too long ago. President Obama had attributed the quote;
“the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” as many do
to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, JR. Yet, MLK did not create it. As a few UU’s were quick to point out the originator
was none other than our own Theodore Parker! …a Unitarian way back in the mid
1800’s.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps you are familiar with more famous contemporary, Ralph
Waldo Emerson? Perhaps you know that as
a young man Emerson left the Unitarian ministry because he thought the denomination
“corpse-cold”! He detected no passion,
no activism, no “religious” spirit among the Unitarians who were taken by the
forms rather than the spirit!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Frustrated, Emerson resigned as a clergy person and never
again served a congregation as its pastor.
As you know, he moved on to become a famous transcendentalist author and
speaker. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Theodore Parker, was Emerson’s contemporary, and he –as a
Unitarian pastor, filled a large hall in Boston, Sunday after Sunday with
thousands. There was nothing corpse-cold
in his services. He was and he remained
committed to the faith that values the freedom of the mind and spirit above all
else, and he became the model of the activist minister.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His most remembered sermon, was one he delivered in 1841
entitled “The Transient and Permanent in Christianity”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In it he laid out, what was at the time, his controversial
theology. That sermon and the person of
Theodor Parker marked a significant turning point for Unitarians. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Earlier when he was a student at Harvard, he had been
exposed to what we know think of as the very early forms of Biblical scholarship,
understanding the text according to its original cultural and historical setting. Because of this, he came to believe that it
was idolatrous to make the bible more important than a living and immediate
relationship with the holy. He preached
against words that had been written down so long ago to become more important
than God!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the time, what his perspective was called “transcendentalist”. Not all Unitarians were Transcendentalists
and not all Transcendentalists were Unitarian.
Yet what defined them all was the belief that the religious impulse, in
other words, the desire for and the knowledge of something beyond the self, was
inherently resident in all of humankind.
Transcendentalists thought that the quest for “truth” was natural and
universal and was satisfied more by the exercise of intuition than by reason,
or allegiance to dogma or doctrine. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During the early part of the 1800’s while Parker was in the early
years of his ministry, most Unitarians generally subscribed to what might be
called supernatural rationalism; meaning certain religious truths could be
determined by the exercise of reason, but to also be a Christian (as the vast
majority of Unitarians were) one needed to believe that Jesus was more than human.
The evidence that he was found in the miracles
he performed. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Parker began to preach that one need not rely on a belief in
the miraculous to hear and to live out the ethical truth of the core of
Christianity, what he termed its primary and permanent message. Insisting that all human beings are by nature
religious, he preached that the beauty and greatness of the religion of Jesus
lay in its affirmation of the essential truth of all religions, which is simply
love of God and love of man. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Religion was the process of awakening to the essential
truths that live within each of us. In
other words, to be religious was to touch and be touched by the ‘spark of the
divine’ within.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In his 1841, sermon, “The Transient and Permanent in
Christianity”, he claimed that the essence of Christianity could be found in
what Jesus taught about love, a teaching that anyone could teach and anyone
could follow, even if they had never heard of Jesus. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He caused a controversy because he also said that one
needn’t believe in miracles, nor in the literal authority of the Bible, nor
subscribe to the various creeds, confessions or doctrines found within the
history of the Christian church, or even in the Divinity of Jesus, to know and
to live by the core of Christianity. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Essentially, he said that one didn’t have to believe in
Christ, to live the religion of Jesus.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the time, the Transcendentalists, (among whom were some
women) included only a very small percentage of Unitarians. These transcendentalists were coming to value
a more passionate, intuitive, natural spirituality. They were the young men and women, who like
Emerson, objecting to the “corpse cold” version of Unitarianism that was
acceptable to the social elite….objecting to the old forms…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Parker boldly challenged Unitarians to leave the transient
behind and focus on the essential! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By 1845 a small group of Parker enthusiasts founded the 28<sup>th</sup>
Congregational Society in Boston. It was
a Unitarian congregation, but primarily served as a lecture forum for
Parker. He regularly drew 1000’s,
including William Lloyd Garrison, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Louisa May Alcott,
Julie Ward Howe and many other famous progressive persons. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There was a growing hunger for a deeper, more immediate,
more passionate religion that made sense...and that made a difference. His was a unique Unitarian congregation for
its time, equally representative of both men and women and racially integrated.
In was in that pulpit where he became
widely known for the passion and conviction he brought to social ills.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He talked about America becoming an “industrial democracy”,
“of all the people, by all the people, for all the people” (a concept that
later influenced Abraham Lincoln and could be heard in the Gettysburg
address.) </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He focused his passionate love
of neighbor on cultural, social and political reforms.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He was a well known out spoken abolitionist, who harbored
fugitive slaves. It was said he kept a
loaded pistol on his desk while writing sermons, in case those he helped on the
way to freedom (who he sometimes housed in the basement) were threatened. He believed that women should be equal to
men.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He said that “while the church exists to cultivate the
heart, mind and conscience, it should also “ be the means of reforming the
world.” It was one of his images—that
the arc of moral universe is long but it bends toward justice—that would be
adopted over a hundred years later by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. …and
quoted by Barack Obama…and many others..</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He greatly influenced younger Unitarian ministers who
admired him for taking reason to a new level, for his fight for a truly, free
faith and his example of public engagement.
He never left the Unitarian ministry.
He continued to call himself a Christian until the end of his life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In his 1841 sermon he said; “It must be confessed, though
with sorrow, that transient things form a great part of what is commonly taught
as Religion. An undue place has often
been assigned to forms and doctrines, while too little stress has been laid on
the divine life of the soul, love to God, and love to man....if we are
faithful, the great truths of morality and religion, the deep sentiment of love
to man and love to God, are perceived intuitively, and by instinct, as it were,
though our theology be imperfect...”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“....Christianity is a simple thing; very simple. It is absolute, pure Morality; absolute, pure
Religion; the love of man; the love of God acting without let or
hindrance....The only form it demands is <b>...doing
the best thing, in the best way, from the highest motives....”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a sermon entitled, What would Theodore Parker Do?, the
Rev. Mark Ward, currently serving our sister congregation in Asheville said: “Spiritual exploration and the search for
truth and meaning require a good deal of inner work as well as time to engage
with each other..... But we do not fully inhabit our faith until we live it,
until it guides how we interact with others and society at large, until it
helps open our eyes to a larger view of the world and the duty we owe to each
other....to all humankind and to the earth.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Music perhaps better than theology, combines excellence of
form, the mathematics of composition, with feeling and intuition…with memory
and hope…with the soulful things that cannot be measured or regulated…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Words and forms, even the chalice, notes on the paper, are only
the form, the fingers that direct our attention to the moon.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let us gather again and again to worship, to lift up “what
will live and give life” generation after generation.. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The forms
may change, may go out of favor and come back again, but what gave us life, what
gives us life remains.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amen, blessed be, shalom, salaam, namaste - the light in me
honors the light in you…</div>
Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084061005040224280.post-61902056784563604052013-01-08T11:42:00.003-05:002013-01-08T11:42:33.779-05:00After the Epiphany, Then What?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSPNKoB6HJP9KqbQkjSFrNJED6aUu2ZyKupDqk9hJN4metLcg1eXg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSPNKoB6HJP9KqbQkjSFrNJED6aUu2ZyKupDqk9hJN4metLcg1eXg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Have
you ever experienced a sudden revelation?
In a flash, an answer or an insight comes to you that makes all the
difference and sets you off on a new path of discovery, or a new way of being. You feel as if you have just received the
answer to something that has been troubling or puzzling you. Now you can move forward!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Today we
pay homage to those moments of sudden insight.
It is after all Epiphany Sunday.
Today, January 6<sup>th</sup>, is the day some Christian traditions
celebrate and have been celebrating for over 2000 years. The Epiphany.
What they are focused on is the time told of in the Gospel of Matthew when
non-Jews recognized the significance of the baby Jesus... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";">Perhaps
you know the story, which is told only in the Gospel of Matthew. W</span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">ise men, known as “the magi”, come from the east
following a star. On their journey they stop
to ask the ruler of the region (that would be the evil King Herod) where the
star had led them, what he knows about it.
He knows nothing, but suspecting something must be amiss, he asks them
to come back and tell them what they find.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Some Biblical scholars are sure that Matthew’s
point in telling this story is to say that not only did the WISE men have the
skill to follow a star, but even though they were not Hebrew, when they found
what the star led them to, they had an epiphany! The star they had been following shown down
on a future king. They had been wise
enough to follow the star to where it led.
Yet, they were ignorant of Jewish prophecy. But even they could see why it was important
to the whole world not to go back and tell King Herod that this child had been
born. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">So, after they left their gifts of gold,
frankincense and myrrh, they quickly moved on… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It was later legends that would make these wise men
out to also be kings, maybe as a way to explain why wandering astrologers would
have such precious gifts as gold, frankincense, and myrrh packed away in their
side saddles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It doesn’t matter how wise they were, or if they
were of royal lineage. The point that Matthew
seems to have been making, stands. They
weren’t Jews. Yet, when they got to
where the star had been leading them, they had an “a-ha” moment. Everything about their training as magi had
enabled them to follow an unusually bright star, but seeing, really seeing what
the star illuminated was an epiphany!
They had a sudden flash of insight that they hadn’t been trained for,
hadn’t anticipated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">OH, MY GOD, they exclaimed! No
wonder King Herod acted so funny!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Now, let me assure you that even though I studied
the Bible as a child, then in a very secular state university, then in divinity
school and am now over ten years a religious professional…. I don’t call myself
a Christian. I don’t even usually think
of myself as a theist. I am not any
longer uncomfortable with those terms. I
just don’t use them to describe myself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">So, the usual Christian interpretation that the
wise men suddenly recognized that the baby they found in a manger was to be the
savior of the world or the king of the jews isn’t what I hear in this story…or
why I bring it to you, this day…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What I hear, what I hope you hear, is that these
trained, experienced wise men found something that wasn’t necessarily what they
were looking for. Yet, they felt a
sudden recognition. And they knew that
the “revelation” they experienced could be dangerous. They changed course…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Like many people I know…I have had my moments, too…when
I have exclaimed OH, MY GOD! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Oh my God, it all makes sense now! I see.
I get it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Maybe you know the famous tale about Archimedes,
the classical mathematician who shouted “Eureka” when he suddenly discovered
how to estimate the volume of a given mass.
He also had a feeling of sudden insight, like the wise men must have had. The answer to a vexing mathematical problem had
come him in a flash! It was an epiphany.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Holy Cow!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Here finally was the sudden revelation…the answer
to a nagging problem. Was it from the
gods? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Does it matter?
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Those astrologers from the east where moving along their
normal path of discovery, like we all do.
Archimedes and countless other scientists and all manner of ordinary
folk are moving along their normal paths every day, day in and day out, like we
all do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Maybe some are following a fascinatingly bright
star. Maybe others are just turning on
the tap water. Maybe some are at the
beach watching the sun rise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Then suddenly, in a flash of insight, the key to
much greater understanding is plopped at our feet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Do all epiphanies come from God? Does “the universe” suddenly reveal a
mathematical formula? Or was it there
all along for a trained and searching mathematician to see? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Maybe? Maybe
not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Does it really matter where it comes from? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It seems to me that what does matter is that suddenly
something makes sense in a way that something has not made sense before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This flash of insight can change everything…about
our normal course of affairs…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It doesn’t matter if the flash of insight is about
something that has been puzzling the mind, or tickling the soul. When an answer, …a kind of “two plus two”, instantly dawns on
us, when we are “given” an insight that propels us forward in either solving a
problem or in gaining a much deeper perspective concerning some conundrum, or maybe
we suddenly have the ability to hold a disturbing paradox in a life-giving
balance….maybe we do shout Eureka, or Oh, My God, or …we might say “No DUH!, as
I often do wanting to deny how overwhelmed I am with my previous state of
ignorance, ….of course I knew that all along!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Whatever! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Suddenly what didn’t connect does. What didn’t make any sense does. What wasn’t meaningful, what was painful,
difficult, made us feel remote from any truth, suddenly we are full of purpose,
we have been brought a message that it’s all going to be alright, or we have
been suddenly been made privy to a great secret that calls us in close to the
center of existence… when we have been
living so far outside the core…now in a flash we are in…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Eureka!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In a flash we are close, very close to the truth,
to a truth that REALLY matters! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We have all had these moments. Remember the solution to a math problem you
finally got? Remember the significance
of some spiritual truth that finally made your pain make some sense? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We have these moments when we get it, really get
it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Then what?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In religion, in stories and legends trying again
and again to teach us about living with deep purpose, living with deep security
in this chaotic universe, you find encounters with the divine described as
epiphanies... Suddenly God, or what we
call god, appears. Suddenly God is
responsible for revealing the meaning of life, or if not the meaning, then delivering
a sudden feeling of security…everything is ultimately going to be alright…we can
have faith again that our lives make some sense, have some purpose, that
someone or something is in charge…is holding us still…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Maybe we are lonely, or sad, or poor in spirit…or
maybe we don’t even know we are, yet somehow suddenly we are with the companion
that never leaves our side, we see that our long lost love ones will be with us
again, we feel suddenly rich…with insight and safety…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Maybe we want to keep our particular epiphany to
ourselves, hide it from those who would destroy it, or belittle it. Maybe we want to shout it from the roof tops.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Maybe we want to make our sudden flash of knowing
what we did not know a TRUTH for everybody.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Maybe we want to pretend we don’t know what we do now
know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">These moments of deep insight, of the purpose of it
all revealed, come to us. Part of the
feeling we have when we know now, what we did not know before, is that we must
not go back to the way things were. It
would be dangerous to go back knowing what we know now…just as dangerous as it
feels to go forward.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What made the wise men wise? Not their training as magi. Not their following a bright star. Not their deciding not to return to King
Herod.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What made them wise was their ability to see what
the light pointed to, what it shone over, then to move on in a different way
from the way they had come.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Epiphanies always include that invitation that we
can respond to if we choose. We can leap
into the new, move from what was to what will be. There is risk either way, whether we go back
to the way things were, or go forward into the new.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Experiencing an epiphany can change the course of
your life. If you let it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Paying attention to revelation is not restricted to
wise men traveling from the east. Epiphanies
are not frozen in grand cathedrals. The
insight, the answer, the security revealed to you, may not fit what has been
guiding you. But it can guide you now,
if you let it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Sometimes you can only see, or hear, or taste, or
feel, a sudden revelations’ power to change your life after days, weeks, years,
decades of preparation so that you stand in the right place at the right time able
to recognize the answer when you see it.
To know the flash of insight for what it is, a key that unlocks the
answer to whatever the riddle is for you….that causes you to exclaim OH MY GOD….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">An epiphany makes one “wise” in a way one wasn’t
before…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What you do then is up to you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Rev. Ann Marie Aldermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18079752210847805068noreply@blogger.com2