https://www.shorelineareanews.com/2021/10/duwamish-plaque-dedication-at-shoreline.html

This past Sunday my congregation dedicated a plaque. Set on our grounds as a reminder that the Duwamish, Chief Seattle’s people, are still here and that the area of Shoreline and Eliot Bay were not given the land they were promised in the treaty of 1855, nor in later agreements. In my sermon I talked about their dispute with the Muckleshoots and the US Federal government. I also encouraged people to visit the Duwamish Long house on Marginal Way, get to know the Duwamish and the Muckleshoots, pay Duwamish Real Rent, and encourage our legislators to help heal old wounds.

Erika A. Hewitt

Continue reading "The Question"

Every year I celebrate October with pumpkins, spiders, skeletons, monsters and ghosts. The pumpkins become Jack-O-Lanterns the week before Halloween.

A sermon for Foothills Unitarian Church, on our second Sunday in the sanctuary after being only online for 18 months.

Reading: The Tensions of I and We by Fred Muir

Near the end of my junior year in college, on the afternoon of the first Earth Day, I was in a class on American Transcen­dentalism. We sat in the grass and listened as the teacher read aloud Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Divinity School Address.” It was as though he was channeling the Sage of Concord, who was speaking to me.

After class, I asked what religion Emerson was. “Unitarian,” he said. I asked if it still existed. “Exist?” he replied. “Yes it exists! There’s a congregation on the west side. Do you want to go Sunday?” And that was that! 

Prior to my Earth Day epiphany, I was religious—I had felt the pull toward ministry as a boy in my liberal Protestant church—but did not think of myself as “spiritual” because I never had the words to put to the spirituality I had known since childhood. 

“No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature,” Emerson proclaimed. “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” Emersonian individualism has become part of the American story, of course. 

Think of the “i” that’s placed in front of the names of Apple products. Some say the “i” means “Internet.” Others explain that the “i” stands for “individual”: This is your personal piece of technology, to be used for whatever purpose you want. Fifteen years ago, Apple appealingly exploited the theme of individualism in a commercial that sounds like Emerson channeled through Jack Kerouac: “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. They push the human race forward.”

Many of us were drawn to Unitarian Universalism because it seemed to be the church of Emersonian individualism. We are the iChurch. 

I’m not sure Emerson’s goal was for us to be “the crazy ones,” but my thirty-seven years in the UU ministry have convinced me that historian Conrad Wright is correct: “[O]ne cannot build a church on Emerson’s dicta: ‘men are less together than alone,’ or ‘men descend to meet.’”

For all its appeal and its influence in American culture, individualism is not sustaining: Individual­ism will not serve the greater good, a principle to which we Unitarian Universalists have also committed ourselves. There is little-to-nothing about the ideology and theology of individualism that encourages people to work and live together, to create and support institutions that serve common aspirations and beloved principles.

The inherent worth and dignity of the individual is not just our First Principle as UUs: often it is our defining principle. But we frequently overlook another strand of our tradition in our Association’s Principles and Purposes, another story about ourselves that can deepen and grow our future. It is not the language of individualism, not of the iChurch, but of covenant: “As free congregations we prom­is[e] to one another our mutual trust and support.”

We cannot do both covenant and individualism; individuality, yes, but not individualism. Articulating and living our Principles as a commitment to covenant—creating and sustaining a community by “promising to one another our mutual trust and support”—this takes extra effort.

Sermon

In the middle of July, as wild fires raged across the west, with drought and heat threatening major cities, and as the Delta variant created the groundhog’s day of weighing risks and precautions – right then, two different US billionaires launched themselves into space.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, whose net worth is over 177 Billion, took what CNN called a supersonic joyride on July 20^th – he and three others onboard were weightless for three whole minutes.  The 11 minute ride cost Bezos 2.5 million dollars per minute – so quick math – that’s a 27.5 million dollar joyride.

Just over a week earlier, Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, also launched himself into space, on his latest test flight for what will become a space tourism company – Branson says he wants to make space accessible to everyone – it’ll only cost you $250,000 a ticket.  With a net worth of over 4.4 billion, Branson was quick to point out to reporters after his flight that he doesn’t want to be known as a “billionaire,” since as he says, he started off with 200 quid (that’s about 270 bucks), implying, I guess, that his money changes nothing. 

A third billionaire, Elon Musk, is also working on a space tourism effort – SpaceX – but has yet to actually launch himself into space.  I’d say maybe he’s saving up, except his net worth is just over 150 billion.  So.  I don’t know.

Regardless of their intentions – and at least Bezos seemed pretty insistent that his were humanitarian – the spectacle of billionaires escaping the planet while the planet is burning and COVID was raging – was to many of us disgusting, and also just one more absurd reality we’ve been forced to witness over recent years. 

One of my favorite cynical tweet went: “Jeff Bezos, you have the ability to end world hunger. You also have the ability to take a teen to space. Which do you – oh that was fast.” 

Watching the whole thing play out, I kept wondering if these billionaires and their efforts to go to space – especially right now – represented the least UU thing ever, or the most. 

I mean, most Unitarian Universalists I talked to or saw posting about it treated it like it was the antithesis of our religion – focusing on how irresponsible it was, how selfish, and wasteful, especially in light of things like world hunger, or COVID, or climate change – and how much good their resources could do to address these major global problems.

And I agree, these are not Unitarian Universalists values. 

And, I also felt like, in their choices, you could see some of the roots of our faith. We too have had times where we have made scientific discovery the most important value – leading to a shameful history in eugenics. We too have been a part of colonization – leading to our equally shameful founding of boarding schools for Native Americans.And we too have prized the sort of rugged / Emersonian individualism Branson, Bezos and Musks’ stories epitomize. 

We too appreciate calling most sacred the law of our own nature, and trusting in our individual selves most of all.  “We are the iChurch.”

For a lot of us, discovering a religious community that encouraged individualism felt like freedom. It was for many of us, the thing that brought us here.  We love Emerson!

As UU Minister Cheryl Walker has said, “Individualism is so attractive in the beginning. For many people who felt the heavy yoke of being in communities of faith where they could not fully be who they were, individualism tastes like the food they have been hungering for. But it is good only when we are starving. When we have had our fill, we look for food to sustain us for the long journey of life. That life-sustaining food can be found only in true communities of shared purpose and values, where the individual is affirmed but is not worshipped.” 

Fred Muir first described Unitarian Universalism as the iChurch in 2012 in a Lecture to his fellow Unitarian Universalist ministers, entitled “From iChurch to Beloved Community.” Muir’s critique of the iChurch focused on what he called our “Trinity of Errors”(it’s funny because we’re Unitarians!). These three historic errors, in his estimations, prevent us from living into our potential impact and relevance, and will ultimately lead to our decline. 

The Trinity of Errors start with our individualism; then, this individualism leads us to the second error, exceptionalism.  As he says, “We must stay conscious of how we explain, defend, and share our perspective, lest we come across as elitist, insulting, degrading, and even humiliating of others.”

These two errors of the iChurch are co-equal with the third error: our allergy to power and authority, which he says, ironically has led to their abuse and misuse.  He writes:

“Unitarian Universalist anxiety about power and authority makes it hard for us to welcome and listen to a diversity of interests and passions without being distracted and immobilized.”

Instead, as Rebecca Parker notes, “Most liberals, consciously or not, seem to prefer that their religious institutions remain weak, underfunded, or distracted by endless attention to ‘process’ and checks on the exercise of power. One friend of mine, quips that liberal religion teaches you can do anything you feel called to do as long as you do it alone.”

In place of these errors, Muir advocates a return and reclaiming of our practices of covenant, as we heard in the reading, he invites us to “articulate and live our Principles” not as individual statements of belief – the inherent worth of any individual, but as promises to one another, a commitment to create and sustain a community, promising to one another our mutual trust and support.”

Instead of the iChurch, we need a church focused on we.      

2012 was the year I arrived at Foothills. So if this all feels familiar to many of you, I’m glad. Over the past 9 years, many of us have been trying to look intentionally at the ways Muir’s Trinity lives in our individual hearts, and in our collective practices. 

Of course, while Muir’s critique focused on Unitarian Universalism, we can also apply it to American culture, which has also been heavily influenced by Emersonian individualism. The story of the American Dream, or what UU minister Lisa Bovee-Kemper calls the “Fallacy of the American Dream,” which, “tells us that not only are we expected to succeed alone, but also that every person has the innate ability to do so.

[This lie, as Bovee Kemper says,] is the single largest contributor to the [fractured and declining] state of our nation (and many of our churches) today.”

That the state of our nation has been such a persistent pain point for many of us over the last five-ish years has likely been motivating to many of us: we can see the impact of extreme individualism play out with each new absurdity we have had to witness, including with the elevation and election of Donald Trump as President in 2016, who seems to me, the supreme example of a proud individualist. 

In turn, as a congregation, Foothills has met each selfish, ego-driven, divisive headline over these years with an increasing care for the whole.  We became a sanctuary congregation, we started our twice-a-month food bank, we moved to three services, we accepted different sorts of music, and different styles of ministers, and different words. We addressed unhealthy uses of authority, and got more explicit about how we intend power and accountability to work.  We grew up all sorts of small groups, and spiritual practices, and we have been shockingly generous with our giving – including to fund the building we’ve needed for at least 15 years. (By the way, we break ground early next year.) We practiced partnering and following the lead of other organizations, and we regularly give away $50,000 a year to other community partners.

To be clear, we did all of this not because it was good for any particular one of us – any “I”, we did it because it was good for we.

Actually, if you talk to any one of us, you will likely hear disagreement, discomfort, and even distaste for some or all of the shifts we have made.  And, if you keep talking past that, you will also tap in to a clear abiding yes, an understanding that we do this not for me, but for we. 

Something over these years clicked.  We got done with that lonely outdated story of liberal religion as a place where you can do anything you want, as long as you do it alone. We didn’t get rid of individualism – it is the water we swim in, and we still love Emerson, and we can still get seduced by the idea of being non-conformists who just always go our own way. But along side this, we also began to discover what it could mean to prize not individualism, but the Beloved Community.  

And then came Friday March 13, 2020. Will we ever forget that day?

On that day, everything, everything changed, and for a time, we – far beyond the church – I mean, much of the world, we were all in it together. We were flattening the curve, We were cheering for health care and other essential workers, and we were learning new terms like social distancing, unprecedented times, and the promise and perils of muting yourself.    

Our congregation’s collective orientation drew an easy yes to sheltering families experiencing homelessness in our otherwise empty building, and through much of 2020 kept us committed to remaining connected in totally unfamiliar ways.   We learned zoom and circles; we spread kindness and sang silent night; we gave to the discretionary fund and the immigrant relief fund.

In our personal lives, we set aside travel plans, learned tech we had no interest in learning, and we tried to listen to well-meaning adult children who told us to stay home. 

2020 was a time of sacrifice, and we accepted the sacrifice because it was meaningful. Even as politics and capitalism troubled the idea being all in it together, we made these choices because we were living our values. Through our collective commitment, we could imagine our collective salvation.

But then, things shifted again.  The vaccine arrived.  To be clear, the vaccines are a miracle, a miracle of science. They came way sooner than any of us had any right to expect – I think of my dear queer siblings who just kept dying through all those years of AIDS – Vaccines are a miracle.

And, vaccines do not work in the iAnything.  Vaccines require we.

Many of us got our vaccine knowing this, and it made our resolve even stronger – it was our individual and collective path to liberation. It’s what led us into the work of vaccine equity earlier this year. 

But then, to our shock, and our heartbreak, it turns out, others had the opposite reaction to the vaccine. For many people, the vaccine represented not collective salvation, but the need to assert individual liberty, and individual choice. And so, here we are, nine months into the availability of an extremely effective vaccine, but instead of dwindling virus numbers – we are crossing 700,000 lives lost. Nurses and doctors and other medical staff are burning out and dealing with trauma in ways not unlike veterans of war. And all this must be set in the context of the climate crisis, where the supremacy of individual success – the fallacy of the American Dream – is corralling us all to an uninhabitable planet.

But, at least the billionaires will make it out ok, right?

Friends, I’m tired.  Are you tired? I’m tired, and I’m angry, and I’m sad. Like the series we’ve been offering online, I am filled with rage, and grief – .  I am tired of accommodating selfishness, and being the one to make all the sacrifices. I’m tired of marching for women’s right to basic health care – as I’m guessing many of you did yesterday in response to the restrictions on abortion.

I’m tired of being the ones to go high.

I’m so tired I start to think, maybe it’s time we meet today’s individualism with some of our own – we were the OG non-conformists afterall. Maybe everyone should just go their own way.  Focus on their individual lives, families, health, individual goals – If you don’t get the vaccine, and end up sick, or worse, you made your choice.

In our exhaustion, and our grief, it’s understandable that we have lost some of our resolve for the common good.   It is understandable that individualism would feel alluring, safer, familiar – both in how we interact in the world, and how we want to show up in our church. It makes sense that we’d show up here, in our church, with a strong tilt towards individualism. 

We have made so many sacrifices. “Individualism, as Cheryl Walker says, “tastes like food we’ve been hungering for.” 

And still after some time – we will also remember that if ever there was a moment to lean into the power of true community, it’s now. 

For as much as we know that initial spark of being celebrated as an individual, we also know, we remember, the deeper power of being for others. We know and we remember the power of being for the greater good, and for the future.  

We know the power of living knowing that we Inter-are.  I am of you, and you are of me.  As Thich Nhat Hahn says it.

Here we know, and we remember: we do this so that we all may live. 

So let us affirm even now, especially now: the end of the iChurch. As Fred Muir said nearly a decade ago: “That story is over; it won’t take us where we must go.  What we need for a healthy future is the Beloved Community…”

And the good news I have for you friends, is that we’re already doing it.

Right now. Look, we are wearing these masks, and we are not singing, and we are pre-registering – who would’ve ever thought Unitarians would pre-register for church?

And if you ask any one of us, do we like it, is it our preference? We’d say no way.  We hate it.  But we do it because it’s not about me, it’s about we.

The aching earth and its hurting people need us to keep declaring the end of the iChurch, and needs us to keep offering a community grounded not in individualism, but in covenant, a community grounded in the the promise of mutual trust, and support – where– no matter what comes at us next – we remain committed to life abundant, for all.

A message for the 10:00 Foothills community, preached in the park on September 26th and October 3rd, 2021, the first and second Sundays in person after 18 months all online

Reading: Bluebird by Charles Bukowski

Sermon 

We were two days back after winter break when my family had our best day of pandemic school. 
 
My son was actually all online, and my daughter was technically half in person; but both of these things translated to them being at home that day. 
 
This is the funny thing about saying kids had school online for the last year – because from the perspective of our kids –their teachers were online, their classmates were online, but they were just home. 
 
My partner and I were home too, each in our own by-then well established offices and rhythms.  So that when someone texted me to turn on the real live news, on the TV, and I did, it caught the whole family’s attention.
 
Online school lessons stopped, and we all gathered round to watch history unfold in front of us. 
 
An angry mob of pro-Trump protestors had broken into the US capitol, and we were watching it all happen on live TV. Josef kept asking the question we were all asking, mom, is this really happening right now? This is real?
 
For a lot of that day, I chose my words carefully:
Yes, it’s real. They believe they’ve been lied to, that Trump was actually re-elected. 
I don’t know why the police aren’t stopping them. 
You’re right, if they weren’t mostly white, it wouldn’t be like this.
I don’t know how it will stop, I don’t understand either. 
I don’t know what will happen next.
 
To be honest, some of the time, I spoke less carefully. 
 
Still, like I said, it was the best day of pandemic school. Because watching it all, we were all learning so much – about history, and about now; about our nation, and about ourselves. 
 
Learning is actually terrible, and awful. It’s one of the earliest realizations I had in the pandemic – learning is terrible. I mean, having learned is amazing – when you’re on the other side of it all – you feel fabulous.  But when you are really learning, not just in your head - but in your whole self where you are totally discombobulated and everything about how you do anything must be re-constituted from scratch – it is so painful! 
Especially when the learning must be done quickly, because the new world is already here demanding our adaptation. 
 
Do you remember the movie Alien – and that scene where the one guy is at one minute just enjoying regular conversation and the next he’s convulsing and struggling until finally an alien comes out of his chest? 

Yeah, that’s about what I’ve realized deep learning feels like. 
 
A little bit like birthing an alien out of your chest.  
Like – who is this person I am becoming? 
What is this world I’m now in? 
And what’s all this goo I’m covered in?
 
When we think of it this way, it helps us remember that we have all been thrown into a world we don’t understand in the last 18 months, 
and we are all learning, and learning is terrible – 

Remembering this helps us stay in the place of compassion – for ourselves, and for the people around us, including the people who attacked the capitol that day in January, or for those who are having a very different understanding of the pandemic, or the vaccine, or other COVID precautions. 
 
It helps to remember that we’re all going through something big. And we all have our own story within this bigger story.  We’ve all been forced to birth an alien.  I mean, we’ve all forced to learn, and it’s been often really hard. It’s important to practice remembering, because too often instead, we’ve practiced forgetting.  
 
Too often we perform a careful amnesia that Unitarian Universalist minister Nancy McDonald Ladd describes it as performing - for ourselves, and for each other, our well-being.  
 
I mean look at us: we have all have faced multiple moments in the last 18 months where everything we knew to be true was upended, and so many of the things we turned to for comfort and courage - like working out in a gym, or dancing in a crowd, or losing yourself in live theatre, or hanging out with your grandchildren, or gathering on a Sunday in a church - all these things became non options because they were themselves the danger.  
 
But through it all, if someone asks, we’re most likely to say - I'm fine. Although my favorite answer that started last year is when someone would say I’m fine and then pause and say, I mean, pandemic fine. There’s a glimpse of the real there.  
 
But as we’ve moved into this stage of the pandemic, this stage that is still just as confusing, where we have to learn, and adapt every single day - but now I’ve stopped hearing that phrase- the performance has returned. Like, the poem: I don’t weep, do you? 
 
I read this article recently about how there’s this huge uptick in health crises from extreme dieting in the last few months – 
because we are all so desperate to ensure that it doesn’t appear the pandemic has affected us at all. The threat of climate change, the presence of wildfires, and flooding, shrug. Nah, we haven’t aged, we haven’t lost anyone, or anything, Our kids - maybe they’ve fallen behind a little but they will catch up. 
There’s no alien to see, no bluebirds.   
We’re good.  All good.    
 
I’m not judging. I do it too. 
It’s a coping technique we’ve all learned. Like somatic teacher Resmaa Menakem talks about, it’s not that we are defective by practicing this performance, we’re protective. We’re not defective, we’re protective. We’ve learned to protect ourselves by acting ok so that we could keep going.
 
I picked the poem from Charles Bukowski for today because I know that during this pandemic we’ve all had to do this. We’ve had to find ways to survive.  And some of those ways have required us to push aside what was really happening - because we just had to keep going.
 
Like the song that came out last October, from The Bengsons, the Keep Going On Song - if you haven’t listened yet and don’t know it, maybe turn it on on your way home, or when you get home.  The refrain of the song is simple - it just goes: Keep going keep going keep going on song. Keep going keep going keep going on.
 
We have all found our ways to keep going. It’s how you are all here, now.  We have found ways to protect ourselves enough so that we could keep going.  Especially in the isolation of the pandemic, the isolation we experienced, and that we watched our kids, and our youth experience. 
 
We’ve had to compartmentalize some or a lot of what is true in order to keep going. Like in the poem, he says to the bluebird: “Stay down, do you want to mess me up? Do you want to screw up my work?” 
 
We should be proud of our survival, and give thanks to our bodies and our minds for bringing us through. 

And, we also know that this perpetual performance we’ve practiced has a cost. Over time, when keep cutting ourselves off - we lose the language and the skills and the strength to deal with what’s really real - we forget how to be honest with ourselves, let alone with others. We cut connection off with the reality in ourselves, and we cut connection off with others.  

We numb pain, as Brene Brown reminds us - which means we are also numbing joy.  

And all this practice does not mean that the things we aren’t dealing with go away - more like, they go underground, become sub-conscious. 
 
More likely than not, these things end up guiding our lives and our actions in ways that we don’t even realize.  As Richard Rohr says, “pain that is not transformed is transmitted.” When we don’t heal pain, we pass it on to others. And you can’t heal pain you practice not seeing, you can’t heal pain you’re avoiding or numbing yourself from. You can’t learn the lessons, you can’t metabolize the experience - birth the alien, or set the bird free - because all your energy is going into that protection, that performance.  
 
Post pandemic, where we understand the idea of “transmission” at a whole new level - the idea that pain that is not transformed is transmitted - takes on a whole new power. 
Doesn’t it seem really clear that we are living world shaped by untransformed pain? That pain is the real superspreader? 
 
Which means that for as much as the vaccine is the way to heal the virus, the only way we’re really going to heal what’s going on in our world today - all the forces that led to those events at the capitol - and so many other things we’ve gotten through in our time - is birth the alien - learn the lessons, I mean tend to the pain.  
 
The pain in ourselves, in others. The pain from the last 18 months, the pain in our country, and the pain that has been passed on generationally – and bring it in as a regular part of our story about what it means to be human, what it means to live a human life – here in Fort Collins Colorado, in the 18th month of a global pandemic.  We need to practice remembering rather than forgetting.  We need to stop the keeping going on, the pushing through. We need to practice staying put with life as it really is - and holding, and metabolizing it.  And we need to do this together.  We can only do this together. 
 
It’s one of the main reasons we are so excited about this pod experiment, and our return to in person church.  Because it’s one of the main things we can and will do together. It’s what church is really about.  Here we help each other birth the alien.  And set the bluebird free. 
 
The bluebird is probably a better image than the alien, right? A better way to talk about what we’re doing when we are learning.  This work of deep change where we are adapting to a profoundly changing world.   
 
Because this work is so disruptive, and scary, and painful - just like a bird that comes close in always is! - but it is also beautiful. 
 
Learning like this offers us something so entirely new that it threatens our whole existence, but it is also a life unto itself.  
 
And these things are true about this world, this reality.  
All that we are holding at bay, all we have practiced holding at bay, it is so disruptive, and scary, so overwhelming - but it also contains the seeds of a new life that calls to us to pay attention, and to listen.  It calls us to release the protective performance and the forgetting, and instead remember ourselves, remember each other, stop transmitting all this untransformed pain.  

Set the bird free, and let’s heal.  

Jami A. Yandle

Continue reading "Reframing Rejection"

Erika A. Hewitt

Elizabeth Stevens

Continue reading "Trauma-Informed Worship"

Erika A. Hewitt

Julica Hermann de la Fuente

Continue reading "Dismantling White Supremacy Culture in Worship"

I have been given an amazing gift that I never take for granted. My mom is 90, healthy “for her age,” sharp, and at the moment, living independently in her own home. A few years ago, she and my father moved from a state away to be 15 minutes from my house. My siblings supported the move, which I’m grateful for. I am 16 and 12 years younger than each of them and have always been a bit jealous that in the end, they would have had that many more years with our parents than I. So I figure I’m getting more “quality of time” now.

The pandemic made things a bit harder, of course. All efforts were on keeping Madame safe, so no one went in her house, and she didn’t come into ours. I met her for our thrice-weekly walks on her sidewalk, and we’d visit in her backyard. My sister, who lives about an hour away, would come for short visits (no using her bathroom!) in her backyard, and when it was cold, they sat, masked, in my mom’s garage. My brother once drove straight through from Missouri to stay in a motel and come over for backyard visits. Longer visits were coordinated with 2 week windows of scrupulous quarantining on both sides. I probably don’t have to tell you – you’ve done similar with your family.

But we made it through and are all vaccinated. Madame and I revel in being in each other’s homes again, grandkids (all vaxxed) soak up time with her. She and I have begun slowly making our way out into the world, masked, but going in stores and such.

And then, Thursday, I got a call from my 16 year old who had spent the night with Madame. “She said to tell you she’s confused and can’t understand things.” I asked if she could smile with both sides of her mouth (she could), then jumped into the car. Picked her up and we shot over to the ER near her house, the ER we have visited at least 4 or 5 times this past year for a fall (tip: sit down before pulling a tshirt over your head), high blood pressure, those kinds of things.

They ran her through the tests – CT, blood, ekg – to see if she was having a stroke or heart event. The doctor explained it was most likely a TIA and advised her as to the set of tests she would need to have over the next couple of weeks, or, we could go to a full-service hospital and get them all done at once. Which would also be a little safer, as she’d be under their observation. Mom is always one for efficiency, so she chose the latter.

(Insert boring but stressful details involving my dear sister-in-law who was already on her way for a pre-scheduled visit thankfully, parking lot exchanges of checkbooks and cell chargers, gripes about medical personnel not communicating well, a million texts between family members, my spouse racing back from being out of town, and 2 pugs. Life is messy.) The hospital was not fun, no surprise. We got through it. There were arguments about me staying with her (Madame does not live up to the title I have jokingly given her – she hates being treated like a queen and despairs at being a burden.) I work very hard to make sure that we honor her right to make her own decisions, literally turning my head down when doctors come into a room so they talk to her, not me, but as I explained to her, me deciding to stay with her was in my dance space and unless she kicked me out, I was staying. She admitted to being grateful, especially when her night nurse turned out to have a strong Russian accent, and that combined with a mask was just beyond Madame’s ability to comprehend her speech, so she appreciated me serving as interpreter.

Some notes specifically about “when someone you love, maybe-but-they-can’t-tell-and-probably-didn’t” have a stroke: if the person was on high blood pressure meds, they will stop that, as the high blood pressure could actually be helpful at moving a clot. And they will come in every 4 hours not only to take vitals, but also to lead the patient through a series of tests involving describing what they see in a picture, speaking certain words, lifting up legs and arms, touching nose, answering questions, etc. Even at 4 in the morning, they will do this. “I’m not sure my mom could do that at 4 in the morning even on a good day,” I said doubtfully, but Madame succeeded, albeit with a rather annoyed tone of voice. She has never been a morning person, a trait shared with her youngest daughter.

Ageism is an issue starting much younger than she, but let me tell, the ageism on a 90-year-old is pervasive and infantilizing. Medical professional after medical professional would come into her room, commenting with amazement at how good she looked! And she still lived alone??? She was independent???

“What is that like, on your side, receiving those ‘compliments’?” I asked her.

Madame doesn’t roll her eyes, I’m not sure if she knows how to, but she communicates the feeling with a simple direct look.

(Please do not treat our elders like freaks of nature because they’re still living their lives and looking good while doing it.)

We finally got the golden ticket to go home, hopped (okay, carefully climbed) into my pickup, and took a quaint backwoods trip home, with Madame trying to direct me, and me insisting that we “trust the machines, Mom!” aka follow my GPS, which kindly avoided traffic and gave us an enjoyable hill country drive. She admitted “the machine” did a good job.

I left her in the capable care of my dear sister-in-law and the two pugs. As I said goodbye, she repeated her constant refrain of the two days, that I just couldn’t know how much she appreciated me.

In one of those moments back at the hospital, when she was feeling frustrated and a little low, I tried to explain. “I guess this is just the price we’ll pay for you being 90 – but it sure is worth it, at least to me.” All of this is new to both of us. My dad died 5 years ago, and her own mother died in her 60s. Neither of us has experience, firsthand or secondhand, of going through one’s 90s. We are, each in our own way, going through it together, figuring it out together. With every new experience, we debrief together afterwards about what we’ve learned. (Key learnings from this episode: keep a small “go bag” with toiletries for her and me, snacks, and a cell charger. Insist on better communication from doctors. Insist that when an ER doctor agrees to a plan, that the nurse in charge come into the room so that everyone is on the same page.)

And BY GOD, you’d better believe this is worth it. I know so many people who lost beloved parents far younger who would give anything to have this. A few times a year, dealing with a medical event in exchange for getting to share in the life of a loved one who is still enjoying life? Pretty slick deal, if you ask me.

She’s the only one who can decide if it’s worth it to her. We talk often about what it’ll be like when the bad days outnumber the good. She’s still in the driver’s seat and her kids will never ask her to suffer for us. But for now, she’s choosing to keep up our walks, meeting twice a week with a physical therapist (“and doing those mmph! exercises”), eating her vegetables, taking her meds.

Because living is worth it.

Rayla D. Mattson

Continue reading "Preparing to Let Go"

We close another church year with scenes from our annual Flower Ceremony (held May 15).  We give thanks for our volunteers, congratulate our high school seniors, and give Rev. John a sendoff for his sabbatical.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7jZCv1Jwxg]

SERVICE NOTES

    WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

    MUSIC CREDITS

Sonata in B-flat Major, R. 1 by Domenico Cimarosa. (Tate Plohr, piano). Music Public Domain, video used by permission.

“De Colores,” trad. Spanish folk song, arr. Betty A. Wylder. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Used by permission.

“I Know This Rose Will Open” by Mary E. Grigola. (Anna Perlak, cello & Yelena Mealy, piano). Used by permission. 

“Flower Carol (Tempus Adest Floridum),” Latin spring carol from Piae Cantiones, 1582. English translation from The Oxford Book of Carols. (UU Virtual Singers; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.)  Permission to stream the translation #38859 in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“Up Jumped Spring” by Freddie Hubbard. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream BMI song # 1576200 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

“As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, music: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UU Virtual Singers & Yelena Mealy, piano; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Words and music Public Domain, video used by permission.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

    OTHER NOTES

Call to Worship by Cynthia Landrum*
Prayer by Claire Feingold Thoryn*
Flower Communion readings:
       opening by Kimberlee Tomczak Carlson*
       poem, “Flower Communion” by Lynn Ungar*
       blessing by Michael DeVernon Boblett*
Flower photos by Nylea & Kyle Butler-Moore

*permission granted through the UUA

    OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for May is Española Pathways Shelter. Pathways Shelter is a low-barrier shelter, serving men and women ages 18 and up with shelter, crisis services, and life skills and job training. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

    SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

Rev. John Cullinan 
Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
Tate Plohr, piano
Anna Perlak, cello & Yelena Mealy, piano
UU Virtual Singers: Jenni Gaffney, Alissa Grissom, Janice Muir, Kelly Shea, Mary Billen, Nylea Butler-Moore, Rebecca Howard, Anne Marsh, Kathy Gursky, Mike Begnaud, & Skip Dunn with Yelena Mealy, piano  
Renae Mitchell, Mike Begnaud, and Rick Bolton,  AV techs

This week, Rev. John closes out our series on STORY with a new story about who we might be.

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

• Sonata No. 5 in E-minor, mov. 3, Andante, BWV 1034 by J.S. Bach. (Heidi Morning, flute & Yelena Mealy, piano.) Music Public Domain, video used by permission.
• “Blue Boat Home,” words: Peter Meyer, music: Roland H. Prichard, adapt. by Peter Meyer, keyboard arr. Jason Shelton. Video produced by the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, Moscow, ID.  Scott Milner: guitar; Paul Thompson: bass, vocals, programming, mixing, editing; Susan Thompson: vocals; Rosemary Walzer: saxophone; Sam Welsh: keyboards. Song and video used by permission 
• “I Know This Rose Will Open” by Mary E. Grigolia. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano.) Used by permission.
• “As Tranquil Streams,” words: Marion Franklin Ham, music: Musicalisches Hand-buch, adapt. (Wade Wheelock, violin). Words and music Public Domain, video used by permission.
• “The Journey” by Julie R. Gold. (Elisa Enriquez, vocals & Yelena Mealy, piano.)  Permission to stream BMI song #776558 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.
• “Turn, Turn, Turn” by Peter Seeger. (Elisa Enriquez, vocals & Yelena Mealy, piano.)  Permission to stream BMI song #1521867 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.
• “As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, music: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UU Virtual Singers & Yelena Mealy, piano; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Words and music Public Domain, video used by permission.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

OTHER NOTES

• Call to Worship by Gordon B McKeeman*
• Time for All Ages by Martha Dallas*

*permission granted through the UUA

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for May is Española Pathways Shelter. Pathways Shelter is a low-barrier shelter, serving men and women ages 18 and up with shelter, crisis services, and life skills and job training. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

• Rev. John Cullinan
• Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
• Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
• Heidi Morning, flute
• Yelena Mealy, piano
• Wade Wheelock, violin
• Elisa Enriquez, vocalist
• UU Virtual Singers: Jenni Gaffney, Alissa Grissom, Janice Muir, Kelly Shea, Mary Billen, Nylea Butler-Moore, Rebecca Howard, Anne Marsh, Kathy Gursky, Mike Begnaud, & Skip Dunn  
• Rick Bolton, Mike Begnaud, and Renae Mitchell AV techs

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211111031003/https://www.uulosalamos.org/ucla/pulpit/2021/20210516-A_Brief_History_of_the_Future.mp3

Karen G. Johnston

Continue reading "Be Not Afraid"

I was happy to recently find the Community Universalist Church at universalist.church. Memorable, no? They are an entirely online church, but are friendly and substantially organized (that is, it's not the exclusive work of one person.) It's a member of the Christian Universalist Association and not the Unitarian Universalist Association (which I see as a plus) and it's worth noting that it makes good use of "off the shelf" ministry and social media services. Smart.

Were it's live services not exactly at the same time as my home church, I'd have more reason to participate, but it may suit your needs. That time being 1500 UTC Sunday. Subtract 4 hours (11 o'clock a.m.) for Eastern Daylight Time or 7 hours (8 o'clock a.m.) for Pacific Daylight Time. They are a global church and timing is a known problem.

Maybe I'll visit when the clocks change…

We are constantly engaged in the human endeavor of shaping the stories we tell about where we come from and who we want to be. But how are WE shaped in the telling?

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

• New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.
  
• For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 
• Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos
• Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

• “We Are Gathered,” words written specifically for virtual worship by Amanda Udis-Kessler, music from Adrian Valerius’s Nederlandtsch Gedenckclanck. Video by Jane Clabaugh. Used by permission.
• “Let This Be a House of Peace,” by Jim Scott, words inspired by Kenneth Patton. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Used by permission.
• “May Your Life Be as a Song,” words: Jim Scott, music: Yuri Zaritsky. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Used by permission.
• “Do You Hear,” words: Emily L. Thorn, music: William Caldwell’s Union Harmony. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Music Public Domain.
• “Spinning Song” by Albert Ellmenreich, arr. Larry Clark & Doris Gazda. (Patrick Webb, violin & Joy Charles, cello). Permission to stream the arrangement in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.
• “Seamus O’Brien” and “Tom Bigbee Waltz,” trad. waltzes. (Patrick Webb, violin). Public Domain.
• “As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, music: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UU Virtual Singers & Yelena Mealy, piano; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Used by permission.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

OTHER NOTES

• Call to Worship by Scott Tayler**
• Prayer by Mandy McGlynn*
• Time for All Ages, “The Broken Story Story,” by Christina Leone-Tracy**
• Reading from The World Is Made of Stories by David Loy (Wisdom Press, 2010)***

*permission granted through the UUA
**permission granted through Soul Matters
*** fair use excerpt

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for May is Española Pathways Shelter. Pathways Shelter is a low-barrier shelter, serving men and women ages 18 and up with shelter, crisis services, and life skills and job training. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

• Rev. John Cullinan
• Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
• Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
• Yelena Mealy, piano
• Patrick Webb, violin & Joy Charles, cello
• UU Virtual Singers: Jenni Gaffney, Alissa Grissom, Janice Muir, Kelly Shea, Mary Billen, Nylea Butler-Moore, Rebecca Howard, Anne Marsh, Kathy Gursky, Mike Begnaud, & Skip Dunn  
• Rick Bolton, Mike Begnaud, and Renae Mitchell AV techs

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211111025505/https://www.uulosalamos.org/ucla/pulpit/2021/20210502-The_Story_Tells_Us.mp3

In response to my November article about why we use the phrase “Black Lives Matter,” Clifford, a CLF member incarcerated in Illinois, asked me to look into the work of political philosopher Hannah Arendt, who wrote extensively about power and accountability from her vantage point as a survivor of the Holocaust in Germany.

Specifically, Clifford challenged my assertion that “I do not blame individual officers” for police violence against Black people. Drawing on Arendt’s work, Clifford wrote, “by not placing blame for particular action or inaction on the individual officers we not only strip them of the personal responsibility necessary to holding them… accountable, we undermine the importance and significance of the actions of those officers brave enough to stand up against the system.”

Hannah Arendt, in the essay Clifford asked me to read, “Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship,” writes, “where all are guilty, none is.” Making the case that “it is better to suffer than to do wrong,” Arendt says that individuals have a moral obligation not to perpetuate systems of injustice, even when their own lives or livelihoods are at stake. Clifford, and Hannah Arendt, of course, are correct. It is vital—even in an unjust system—that the individual perpetrators of acts of injustice be held accountable for their actions.

Arendt also notes that politically, “those who chose the lesser evil forget very quickly that they chose evil.” “Acceptance of lesser evils,” she continues, “is consciously used in conditioning the…population at large to the acceptance of evil as such.” This is precisely how systems as violent and unjust as modern policing in the United States have become institutions that most white Americans support and trust—those of us acculturated to whiteness have been conditioned to accept evil.

Clifford is also right when he asserts that the notions of responsibility and accountability are not limited to extreme cases. Each of us makes moral judgments every day. Each of us makes choices for good or bad every day. Each of us has the option, again and again, to choose to participate in perpetuating wrong or to oppose it. And each of us should be held accountable when our actions cause harm to others.

It is here that we find tensions inherent in the principles that Unitarian Universalist congregations covenant to affirm and promote. One example is the tension between freedom and responsibility. Our fourth principle says we affirm “a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” Freedom has limits. Elsewhere, the “right of conscience” promised in the fifth principle is not always compatible with the “justice for all” we seek in our sixth. Conscience has limits, too.

As a covenantal faith, we rely on how we agree to be together to help us decide what to do. And we rely on processes that help bring us back to covenant when we cause harm—processes of accountability in which we are asked to stop the harm that we are doing, to understand the harm we have done, to make amends for the harm, and finally, to agree not to do it again. Within our faith, just as in our society at large, these processes are imperfect. And yet, they are how we move forward towards creating better systems.

What are we reaching toward? And are we reaching toward the right thing?
Sermon Presented by Rev. John Cullinan

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.
For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 
Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos
Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

• “You That Have Spent the Silent Night,” words: George Gascoigne, music: Nikolaus Herman, harm. J.S. Bach. (UU Virtual Singers & Yelena Mealy, piano; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Used by permission.
• “We’ll Build a Land,” words: Barbara Zanotti (books of Isaiah & Amos), adapt., music: Carolyn McDade, arr. Betsy Jo Angebranndt. (Susan Gisler, vocals & guitar). Used by permission.
• “I Know This Rose Will Open” by Mary E. Grigolia. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Used by permission.
• “Spirit of Life,” words & music: Carolyn McDade, harm. Grace Lewis-McLaren, SATB arr. Nylea Butler-Moore. (UU Virtual Singers; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Used by permission. 
• “Beautiful City” (from Godspell) by Stephen Schwartz. (Nylea Butler-Moore, vocals & piano).  Permission to stream ASCAP song #320179544 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.
• “An Seanduine Dóite,” trad. Irish jig. (Linus Plohr, violin). Public Domain.
• “As We Leave This Friendly Place.” words: Vincent B. Silliman, music: J.S. Bach, adapt. From Chorale 38. (UU Virtual Singers & Yelena Mealy, piano; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Used by permission.
• Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

OTHER NOTES

• Call to Worship by Scott Tayler**
• Prayer by Lyn Cox*
• Reading, “Nothing Is Static,” by Manish Mishra-Marinetti***

*permission granted by the UUA
**permission granted through Soul Matters
***permission granted by author

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for April is for the scholarship fund for our partner church in Fenyokut, Romania. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner church to help fund secondary education for the youth of the church.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

• Rev. John Cullinan
• Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
• Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
• UU Virtual Singers & Yelena Mealy, piano
• Susan Gisler, vocals & guitar
• Linus Plohr, violin
• Rick Bolton, Mike Begnaud, and Renae Mitchell AV techs

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211111023252/https://www.uulosalamos.org/ucla/pulpit/2021/20210418-Becoming-How_Its_Going.mp3

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrMqUBUXW3k]

SERVICE NOTES

    WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

    MUSIC CREDITS

Sonata No. 5 in E minor, mov. 2, Allegro, BWV 1034 by J.S. Bach. (Heidi Morning, flute & Yelena Mealy, piano). Public Domain.

“For All the Saints,” words: William Walsham How, music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, arr. Ted Cornell. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Permission to stream the arrangement in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“There Is More Love Somewhere,” African American hymn. (Jess Huetteman, soprano). Video used by permission of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, Moscow, Idaho.

“Faith of the LargNo. er Liberty,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, music: Bohemian Brethren, Kirchengesang, 1566. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Public Domain.

Sonata No. 5 in E-minor, mov. 1, Adagio ma non tanto, BWV 1034 by J.S. Bach. (Heidi Morning, flute & Yelena Mealy, piano). Public Domain.

“Going Home,” music based on Largo from 9th Symphony (From the New World) by Antonín Dvořák, arr. by Joseph Martin. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“As We Leave This Friendly Place.” words: Vincent B. Silliman, music: J.S. Bach, adapt. From Chorale 38. (UU Virtual Singers & Yelena Mealy, piano; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Used by permission.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

    OTHER NOTES

Call to Worship by Maureen Killoran*
Prayer by Katie Kandarian Morris*
Reading by Sophia Lyon Fahs*

*permission granted by the UUA

    OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for April is for the scholarship fund for our partner church in Fenyokut, Romania. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner church to help fund secondary education for the youth of the church.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

    SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

Rev. John Cullinan
Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
Yelena Mealy, piano
Heidi Morning, flute
UU Virtual Singers
Rick Bolton, Mike Begnaud, and Renae Mitchell AV techs

Not only is art a process of transformation but so is life. When we talk about spirituality we are talking about our inner life. Each of us has our own inner journey that we are traveling along that is filled with our own thoughts and feelings and experiences that only we have full access to. Most people have some stories or experiences that they never share because they are afraid that no one will understand or that people will reject them for it. One of the gifts of transformation is to take something that is difficult or unfinished or burdensome […]

The post Life is Art: The Joy of Transformation appeared first on BeyondBelief.

Erika A. Hewitt

Continue reading "A Candle (Unscented) of Concern"

The next 5 months are probably going to be kinda weird. Uncertainty and anxiety flying all over the place. Duck! And then after that ... it's also going to be kinda weird, but a different kind of weird, as we move into the After Times, and figure out what exactly they're going to be like, and what exactly WE are going to be like. 

It is in times like these, that I like to turn to art to help make sense of it all. 

I refer, of course, to the art known as the television series Doctor Who. I mean, if we know things are going to be weird, we probably should look at some art that deals with the weird, right? Now's the time to examine Hieronymous Bosch and Marc Chagall. And Doctor Who, that time-traveling, face-shifting hero. 

Part of the Doctor Who story (and why it's been able to keep going so long) is that rather than die, the Doctor regenerates, retaining who they are, but with a different face, body, and to a certain extent, a different personality. 

Immediately after the regeneration into actor David Tennant's Doctor, the character mused: 

I’m the Doctor. But beyond that I just don’t know. I literally do not know who I am. It’s all untested. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy? Right old misery? Life and soul? Right-handed, left-handed? A gambler, a fighter, a coward, a traitor, a liar, a nervous wreck? 

We have survived a global pandemic. We have experienced a year like no other. Who are we now? As individuals? 

Cartoonist Emily Flake did a strip about this for The New Yorker, sorting through feeling different about hugs, being around other people, and her feelings about herself. I don't know about you, but "I eat flies now," may be how I introduce myself for the next year. 

What this means: we cannot assume anything about each other anymore. Our ourselves, for that matter. So for a while, we need to learn to communicate very clearly and directly about what we want or don't want, and most importantly: do not assume. 

Do not assume that your friend who was always a hugger still is.

Do not assume your extroverted friend still is. 

DO NOT ASSUME THAT WHAT YOU ARE FEELING, EVERYONE IS FEELING. 

DO NOT ASSUME THAT PEOPLE CAN KNOW WHAT YOU ARE THINKING. 

One of the positive things that may come out of this pandemic is if we will take more seriously the entire issue of consent. Not just sexually, but all touch. Everything, really. For the next few months, I can see "Do you mind if I remove my mask?" becoming a fair question, even when everyone together has been vaccinated. Our threshold for risk, and for comfort, will not be the same. 

Like everything, there is opportunity in this. Including opportunities for ourselves. 

Part 1 – From Trembling to Telling

Despite the bright pastels of the season, the story of Easter begins in the dark.  

In the earliest morning hours when night has not yet given up the fight, Easter is born in confusion and uncertainty and bewilderment. For the friends and followers of Jesus, the story they thought was steady and indestructible had instead been shattered, and was lying all around them in a thousand pieces.

Jesus had been for each of them, life-changing. He was, we could say, a story breaker too. Meeting him, people would leave their jobs, their families – and follow him. He taught his students and friends to be keepers of a wild imagination, a bold and beautiful vision for a transformed world – a new “kingdom,” a Kingdom of God to use the language of his time. 

When I try to imagine what Jesus was like, I think of those people in my life who have inspired me to make a big change – maybe you have a few in your life like this – people who, in encountering them – your life sets off in a whole new track.

These are people with so much charisma – but not in a superficial sense. That wouldn’t be enough. It’s more this deep, authentic integrity that exudes from them, an authentic warmth.  There’s also something there that invites you into compassion, a depth of meaning.  They are often incredible listeners – making you feel seen, and understood, and loved.

I think, Jesus must have been all of this, and so much more.

But then, suddenly, this amazing, life-changing person was just – gone. 

Over a few days, Jesus had been tortured and killed by the oppressive state that many had hoped he’d come to end. He’d been treated not just without the dignity appropriate for who he was, but executed as if his life did not matter at all.  

And so there, in the dark that was not yet day, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome came to see their way through. These women who loved him – bravely, cautiously, tenderly – collected the pieces of their shattered story, and went to his tomb.

They brought spices and oils to anoint his breathless body. They came as soon as the sabbath broke, worrying the whole way how they would move the heavy stone that would block their way in. But when they got there, the stone was already rolled back. And there was a young man sitting there – still in the dark, with the light just beginning to grow they could barely see – who was he?

Had he moved the stone? Why?

They were scared, and confused – what was happening?

But the man told them, “Don’t be afraid. You came looking for Jesus, but he is not here” – and then he showed them the empty tomb.

Their spices heavy in their hands, none of this made sense.  “He has been raised,” the man told them. 

“Go and tell his other friends, his followers – tell everyone this story.” The women were shocked, confused, and afraid. The text says they were “trembling.”

And so they told no one.  And they said nothing. 

And that is the end of the Easter story in the Gospel of Mark.

We have three other versions of Jesus’ life, and death – three other gospels.  But only Mark ends in silence and trembling. Mark was the first gospel to be written – and even that, 70 years after Jesus died. I imagine in those early days of fear and darkness, the words were slow to form, and the desire to just move on must have been strong.

It was all so confusing – his life, his death, the empty tomb- and even if they could make it make sense, who would believe them. 

It was an impossible story, and as the days went on, even they started to wonder at the truth. Maybe best to try to forget it all, get back to regular life. Swallow all the sorrow, explain away every mystery. 

As we’ve inched closer to the end of COVID’s grip, we find ourselves at a similar threshold. Still in the shadowy disorienting dark, not yet in the light, trying to make sense of death. Death from the virus, death on trial in Minneapolis, death in supermarkets and spas. Senseless, bewildering deaths.  

Still, in the not too far off distance we can see something else beginning to rise. A new beginning, an opening to imagination – as Elaine urged last week.  

I’ve heard some happy comparisons with the end of the last global pandemic, the Spanish Flu of 1918.  Because on the other side of that illness were the roaring 20s! I am definitely for a future that includes more flapper dresses and jazz clubs.

And, what I also know about the days following the Spanish Flu, is that for a long time it was known as “the Forgotten Pandemic.”  Even though it killed over 50 million people worldwide.  Even though it struck young people so swiftly, you could be healthy at breakfast, and dead by the end of the day.

It was forgotten because world leaders were afraid that if we spoke too much about its impact, or counted the cases too intently, it might bring down morale for the war effort, or cause a panic that reduced partnership for a lasting peace. 

And so in that threshold time, no stories of the illness were compiled, and no stories were told.  People just – moved on.  Think of how many knew grief, and loss – and yet without any collective telling, they didn’t have the strength, the space, they could only – go forward. Try to forget. Bring on the roaring 20s. 

Two thousand years ago, one hundred years ago, today. Humans are masterful amnesiacs, especially after trauma, and harm. We hide from the truth and all the too-much that comes with it.  Too much pain, or shame, or uncertainty.  The stone is too heavy to roll back and set it free – and so we push it all down, push through, move on – as if silence could ever bring salvation.

When really, the mysterious young man at the tomb was right. We need to tell the story.  

As theologian Serene Jones says: “With individual and collective trauma, the harm haunts you — haunts your dreams as an individual, haunts your collective unconscious as a society — until you tell the story; till you face the truth [of what has] happened.”

Humans need our stories in ways not too different than the ways we need food, or water, or love. Telling, and hearing each other in our stories does not induce fear or division, or cause more pain.  Failing to hear and tell our stories does that.

And so before we push on to the light of day, we need to pause here. Pause to listen, and tell, and hear – slowly sorting out together  the fullness, and the brokenness of our true stories. 

We need to tell our lessons learned through loss, and we need to hear how it felt to carry fear so close, for so long.

We need to tell the shifts we saw in our priorities, and purpose, and we need to hear from teachers, ER nurses, bartenders, and grocery workers about being so-called “essential.”  

We need to hear the trauma of white supremacy, which is not new – though some of our understanding is – and we need to hear our will to change.

We need to tell about zoom birthdays, and ICU Facetime calls, lapses in recovery and the apocalyptic ash that fell from the sky – and we need to hear our longing for touch, how deeply we miss the sounds of shared laughter, and the vibration of shared song. 

Resurrection requires remembering.  Resurrection requires telling.  

Let us tell, and hear; heal, and rise.  

Part 2 – From Grief to Morning

Instead of saying that Mary Magdalene, Mary, and Salome returned from the tomb and told no one, I might’ve instead said, they told no one else. Afterall, they had each other, and they had their own hearts.  In those early days, in those private rooms and inner contemplation, they told, and re-told.

All of the texts describe Mary Magdalene in tears– often with reprimand by a (male) stranger “Why are you crying?”

My colleague Robin Bartlett imagines they must’ve left out the part of the story where she responds, “Why aren’t you?”

Clearly Mary Magdalene was not prone to emotional repression.

So, she and the other women surely turned the story around in their minds, and told it to each other – again and again, all the while beginning to understand more fully what they had experienced – in a phenomenon known as the “Self-Explanation effect,” as we tell stories to ourselves and to each other – even when we aren’t gaining any new actual knowledge, we learn. 

In trying to explain the sequence of first this, then this, and now…we start to see the gaps in our story, the pieces that pain or trauma keep us from knowing, the parts we’ve held at bay because we just aren’t ready, and the ways pain often distorts our understanding, and causes us to create a more cohesive narrative than actually exists. 

It’s one of the dangers in the human desire for story – the more uncertainty and disorientation we experience, the more likely we are to find patterns where there are none.

It helps explain the attraction of QAnon and other popular conspiracies today – in this time of incredible uncertainty and disorientation, we long for a story that pulls everything together. Even if that story isn’t actually real.

This danger is why we always need to seek out other ways of seeing – there are always so many different ways to tell a story. As with all of our stories this morning – and still so many stories are under-represented here, stories of immigrants, stories of those in prison, stories of those without homes, stories that are contradictory and complicated, stories of messy human realities not at all easily told in three sentences on Sunday morning. 

We need to move from our individual stories into the collective story, asking what story has been suppressed, what others have been amplified, and refusing to flatten any of the diverse experiences in the ways of mono-culturalism or white supremacy.

One of my favorite things about Christian scripture is the way it refuses to resolve its own contradictions, and instead allows for the different versions to sit alongside each other. 

As the story was told, and re-told across individuals and held in community – we find ourselves now with four gospels, plus the accounts from Paul – even Mark was given an update after some time, adding in lines to explain how the story traveled over time. 

Serene Jones describes the move from individual storytelling into collective practice as the process of moving from a place of individually experiencing grief and loss, to a communal expression of mourning, where we can acknowledge the loss together. 

Jones says that it is in the collective experience of mourning where we can “make sacred the pain, so that the rest of [our lives can be] transformed by it. [Individual and internalized] grief locks you in an eternal present, but mourning [in the context of community] allows the possibility of a future.” 

In the 70 years between Jesus’ death and the first attempt to write the story down, something happened.  

As Peter Stenfels writes, somehow “after Jesus was executed, his followers were galvanized from a baffled and cowering group, into people whose message about a living Jesus and a coming kingdom, preached at the risk of their lives, eventually changed an empire.” 

No one knows exactly how this happened. But we can imagine that it has something to do with the way they kept telling the story. Turning it around, and around, turning grief into mourning – they came to understand that the most important truth was that Jesus was not gone – he was still with them. His compelling, transforming love still had a grip on them, and on their lives; he was still shaking loose their fragile stories and setting their lives on a new track –and what they came to understand was that this was the story they needed to live from, the story they needed to bring back to the very world that had tried to defeat Jesus. 

A story of his endurance, a story of love having the final word, a story of healing, and hope, and repentance. 

I’m guessing that wasn’t the word you thought I’d end with. Repentence! At its root, repentance – something Jesus calls for often in scripture – simply means – stopping in your tracks and turning in a different direction. It’s the shattered story that is rebuilt in surprising ways, held in community and in courageous love.

At this threshold moment, in the still unresolved dark – we too must tell the story – not just one time, but over, and over again – the story of our year, our country, our lives – stories of upheaval and harm and loss; stories of resilience and repair and rebirth -reckoning with truth in the greatest possible sense-  the pain we’ve experienced, and the pain we’ve caused, the culture of death we’ve learned to survive, and the vision of life that still compels us to stop in our tracks and turn in a whole new direction.  Turning grief to mourning, and turning us all towards the tough love that brings us into the light of the dawning day.

In a special sermon rebroadcast from Easter of 2019, Rev. John ponders what Jesus’ final wishes were for his loved ones.

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.
For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 
Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos
Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

• Invention No. 8 in F Major, BWV 779 by J.S. Bach. (Tate Plohr, piano). Public Domain.
• “Lo, the Earth Awakes Again,” words: Samuel Longfellow, music from Lyra Davidica, tune: EASTER HYMN. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Public Domain.
• “Mother Spirit, Father Spirit” by Norbert F. Câpek, harm. David Dawson. (Yelena Mealy, piano & Anna Perlak, cello). Used by permission.
• “O Day of Light and Gladness,” words: Frederick Lucian Hosmer, tune: LANCASHIRE, by Henry Smart, alternate harmonization by Charles H. Webb. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream the alternate harmonization in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
• “Chant for Easter,” based on an 11th century Easter sequence, arr. Charity Book Putnam. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
• “Boys of Ballycastle,” trad. Irish hornpipe. (Linus Plohr, violin). Public Domain.
• “As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, music: J.S. Bach, adapt. From Chorale 38 (UU Virtual Singers & Yelena Mealy, piano; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Used by permission.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

OTHER NOTES

• Call to Worship by Peggy Clarke*
• Time for All Ages by Anne S. Howard*
• Gospel reading, John 19:25-27 from the Common English Bible**

*permission granted by the UUA
**permission granted by the copyright holders

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for April is for the scholarship fund for our partner church in Fenyokut, Romania. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner church to help fund secondary education for the youth of the church.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

• Rev. John Cullinan
• Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
• Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
• Tate Plohr, piano
• Yelena Mealy, piano & Anna Perlak, cello
• Linus Plohr, violin
• UU Virtual Singers & Yelena Mealy, piano
• Rick Bolton, Mike Begnaud, and Renae Mitchell AV techs

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211111000441/https://www.uulosalamos.org/ucla/pulpit/2021/20210404-The_Last_Will_and_Testament_of_Jesus_of_Nazareth.mp3

Photo by Sean Bonner via Flickr

Perhaps the very simplicity of grace is what makes it hard to describe. I’ve been in more than one meandering conversation with Unitarian Universalists about what is grace anyway. Rather than focus on the what today, I want to tell you about the who: Grace Lee Boggs.

Grace was a Chinese-American activist who lived in Detroit and worked for seventy years, connected in community for Black liberation. She was a teacher and writer who believed that freedom was possible and that people could learn how to achieve it, especially by working together to make change. In one conversation with journalist Amy Goodman, Grace Lee Boggs said:

“One of the difficulties when you’re coming out of oppression is that you get a concept of a messiah. You have to get to the point that we are the leaders we have been looking for. We are the children of Martin and Malcolm. I don’t know what the next American Revolution is going to be like, but you might be able to imagine it if your imagination were rich enough.”

Grace Lee Boggs offered the wisdom of change; as Unitarian Universalists, we find ourselves swimming in the deep end of the ocean of change. Most congregations have not been meeting in their buildings for going on more than a year now. We find the political climate and even the meteorological climate to be in the process of change. This would not have been a surprise to Grace Lee Boggs. She viewed change as a container for possibility. She also gave this encouragement:

“Keep realizing that reality is changing and that your ideas have to change. Don’t get stuck in old ideas.”

What does that mean for Unitarian Universalists in this particular moment? First, it is true that no one is coming to save us. If one of the definitions of grace is refined movement, we come to the legacy of Grace Lee Boggs as a framework that can allow refinement of our movement, or the embodiment of grace. As a movement, we will continue to change. As the risk level of COVID-19 transmission decreases, we will move into multi-platform modes of worship, or online and in-person combinations of worship that continue to keep our communities safe and move toward a goal of in-person worship. We will encounter the changing political climate with courage and the stamina that it will take to change both feelings and ideas, toward equity, toward Beloved Community.

One of the ideas that we have the opportunity to embrace as refinement of our movement is the Eighth Principle.

“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountability dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”

It is both a new idea and a new practice to say this out loud and to plan to live into it. And we, who have now endured a season of change in which we had few choices, can use our adaptability to continue looking for the ideas that will allow us to live into who we say we are, Seven Principles, then Eight, by which we love each other, our communities, and the world, into healing, into wholeness, and into a new horizon of joy. Come. We are the ones who must lead us forward.

Ali speaking during the February 28th online meeting in which the CLF voted to ordain xer to Unitarian Universalist ministry.

In our UU tradition, ministers are ordained by congregations. Only the vote of a congregation can give someone the title “Reverend.” Only the vote of a congregation can place that sacred bond of trust onto the shoulders of someone seen as a minister.

It is with great joy that the membership of CLF on February 28, 2021 voted to ordain Ali K.C. Bell (who was previously known as Antonia Bell-Delgado) to the Unitarian Universalist ministry. It is with deeper joy that I report that our vote included some 92 “yes” votes from our incarcerated members, able to vote because of the tear-off sheet we printed in the January Quest.

Ali will be ordained by the CLF along with the UU Congregation at Montclair, NJ (where xe is completing a ministerial internship) and the First UU Church of Wilmington, DE (xer home congregation). The ceremony will be Saturday, May 22, and we hope to feature an excerpt from the ceremony in our summer edition of Quest.

On the fallacy of the “appeal to tradition” and the one phrase my conscience repeats over and over.

Sermon presented by Rev. John Cullinan.

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

• “Morning Song,” from Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813, arr. Joseph Martin. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
• “The Morning Hangs a Signal,” words: William Channing Gannett, music: William Lloyd. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Public Domain.
• “Find a Stillness,” words: Carl G. Seaburg, music: Transylvanian hymn tune, harm. Larry Phillips. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano), Used by permission.
• “For the Earth Forever Turning” by Kim Oler, arr. Nick Page and Jim Scott. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream song # 27231 in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
• Op. 78, No. 3, Religioso by Jean Sibelius, transcribed for viola by Kathy Gursky. (Kathy Gurksy, viola & Yelena Mealy, piano). Used by permission.
• Op. 78, No. 2, Romance by Jean Sibelius, transcribed for viola by Kathy Gursky. (Kathy Gurksy, viola & Yelena Mealy, piano). Used by permission.
• “As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, music: J.S. Bach, adapt. From Chorale 38. (UU Virtual Singers & Yelena Mealy, piano; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Used by permission.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

OTHER NOTES

• Call to Worship by Sarah C. Stewart*
• Reading by Amy Petrie Shaw*

*permission granted through the UUA

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for March is Puerto Palomas Migrant Shelter. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

• Rev. John Cullinan
• Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
• Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
• Yelena Mealy, piano & Kathy Gursky, viola
• UU Virtual Singers
• Rick Bolton, Mike Begnaud, and Renae Mitchell AV techs

Attached media: https://media.blubrry.com/uulosalamos/www.uulosalamos.org/ucla/pulpit/2021/20210321-The_One_Thought_That_Guides_My_Moral_Compass.mp3

As humans, we have evolved to be wary of change. In a church, you see this all the time. I like to jokingly remind our leaders that if we change brands of toilet paper, someone is liable to leave the church over it. 

Welp, this year our theme could be the line from one of our hymns: Don't be afraid of some change. Because whether you were afraid or not, change was here. Time to learn Zoom. And Youtube Premiere. And in non-church life, curbside pickup for everything from dinner to craft supplies. 

We changed. We didn't have a choice in the matter. Trust me, if we'd had an actual choice, if the alternative was not literally potential death, we would have held lots of committee meetings, weighed the pros and cons, and decided nope, we were not going to change. 

But we did. And now, slowly I hope, because it's the right and healthy and covenantal thing to do ... we will change again. We'll come back to church. Go back to eating dinner inside a restaurant where people put hot plates in front of us and then whisk them away when they're empty. Realize we're out of that one ingredient and run up to the grocery store to grab it. 

In some ways, we'll go back to what used to be, but in so many other ways, we can't really go back, and shouldn't. We have learned things. We won't just do things because we've always done them that way, whether it's Thanksgiving at Grandmas, or shaking hands with everyone we meet. 

So, again, we are facing change, and doesn't it seem like it's going to take a lot of energy? We may not particularly like our routine now, but after a year, we've gotten it down. It's familiar. And boy, we like familiar. To change now means going back to uncertainty - how will things be different, how will they be the same? We will have to make decisions, choices, again. 

In 1816, Lord George Gordon Byron wrote his poem, "Prisoner of Chillon," telling the real-life story of François Bonivard who was imprisoned in the Castle of Chillon for his political activism. Byron imagined himself as Bonivard, telling the tale of despair, and wrote of when men came to set him free: "And thus when they appear'd at last, And all my bonds aside were cast, These heavy walls to me had grown A hermitage—and all my own!"

We have repurposed our homes, making them into offices, daycares, and entertainment venues. We've lived multiple days, never leaving. And we have been shaped by this time. Our relationships have taken on new dimensions through this. In the good moments, it has been a new privilege, to spend so much time with loved ones. In difficult moments, we have learned more about ourselves, and what we need to feel centered and mentally healthy. 

Of course, our feelings right now are complicated. 

Lord Byron ends the narrative poem with: 

We are hopeful that the end of the pandemic and a return to some of the things we've missed is on the horizon, even if it's a few months away. But we may feel confused at our own feelings of not being happy, or being anxious at the thought of things getting "back to normal." 

And then there's the feeling of camaraderie, of sharing an experience with many people. 

Going through something difficult together - even if we are in separate houses while doing so - is often a bonding experience. For those of us who have chosen to take the pandemic seriously, even if our individual circumstances have been different, we have still had similar challenges. It has been reassuring, as a parent, to hear that other families have had some of the same frustrations, like when blogger/author Jen Hatmaker shared on Instagram, "I just cannot look at the grades. I can't do it. I can't look at the missing assignments or those that scored under 70%..."

Solidarity, Sister-Parent! 

My beloved grandmother, whom we called "Mama Lanie," used to pat my hand when we were doing something ordinary but fun, and say"We're making memories." Well, this year, we've been doing many things, and many of them decidedly NOT FUN, but we have, in point of fact, been making memories. And many of these are shared memories. Years from now, like veterans getting together for a reunion, we will talk about 2020 and 2021 or the Great Pandemic, or whatever the future will name this period. We will swap stories of searching for toilet paper or creating homemade proms and graduations, and there will be threads going through all these stories that link us all. Unlike the veterans, this happened to all of us, all around the world, except you Australia, with your highfalutin mature and responsible government. 

The movie The Breakfast Club is about 5 high school students, seemingly very different, who spend a Saturday in detention together and learn things about themselves and each other, and bond. But at the end of the day, one of the kids asks, "What is going to happen to us on Monday? I mean, I consider you guys my friends. I'm not wrong, am I?" 

What's going to happen on Monday? This year, we've faced harrowing decisions. There is a deep and soul grief that over 2 million of us have died from this, half a million+ in the United States. Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color, and those with the least financial means have been affected disproportionately, but it has affected all peoples. We haven't all been in the same boat, but we've all been in the same ocean, even rich celebrities. 

And there has been some sense of a shared purpose. Of helping each other out. Of getting a vaccine, and getting those shots in arms.  

We've lifted up those who have been on the frontlines, our heroes, teachers, grocery store clerks, nurses, and spoken of how they needed to be better compensated, treated with more respect...

What's going to happen on Monday? 

We are looking ahead, now, to things getting back to normal after this long, long year of detention, but we wonder: are we going to forget the feelings of having a shared experience? There has been an odd sense of togetherness, ironic considering we were so apart. We laugh at hearing how Prince Philip closes his laptop when he's done with a Zoom call or watch a video of Dolly Parton getting her vaccine.

We have the hope that the covid-19 pandemic's end is in sight ... and it's bringing up a lot of feelings. Not all of them happy. 

Many of us are feeling some level of anticipatory anxiety. 

The anxiety is rooted in a fear that almost all of us have, in some form or another. The fear that others will make us do something we don't want to do. Whether it is through what can feel like the aggression of "your job depends on this," or the polite friendliness of social obligations, we pre-emptively worry about being dominated. 

Look, the pandemic made saying "No" to in-person events super easy. So easy, in fact, that we didn't even have to say no, because no invitations were forthcoming. We didn't have to send regrets, we were all living in a world where responsible people didn't get together. Heck, those of us who before might feel we were being antisocial could now feel self-righteous! A win/win! 

I kid, but only a little. 

We anticipate that people will have expectations of us. Expectations that we will come into the office building, show up for church, the PTA meeting, family gatherings. Expectations that we'll put on pants. 

Combine those anticipated expectations with how we may be feeling, and it all adds up to a heaping serving of anxiety. 

We've gotten pretty accustomed to this life we've been living the past year. It may not be fun, per se, but it's familiar. And humans love familiar and fear change. 

Shame, too, may be mixed into this. Fear that we didn't "make the most" of the pandemic time. We didn't become buff like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 or Uncle Iroh in Avatar: The Last Airbender. We didn't learn how to play violin or read A Brief History of Time. Worry that we're going to have to clean the house. 

Frankly, a lot of us are softer than we were a year ago, and our minds duller. 

Well, duh! We were going through a global pandemic! I mean, who looks back at the people who survived the London Blitz and asks, "Yeah, but how was your yoga routine during all that?" 

Give me a break. 

Give YOU a break. 

The work that is to come will be to separate out the genuine have-tos (like your boss saying you need to come back to the office, or your doctor saying no more tele-health) from the expectations of family and friends. Take it slow with the latter. Make it short social visits to start. 

And ask "why?" Why does the PTA meeting need to be in person? Why do I need to work in the office rather than at home? There were assumptions made pre-pandemic that we have proven don't hold true. Ask lots of questions. 

And know that you're not alone in this. A lot of us are sharing our anxieties. Let's make it acceptable to say, "I can come over, but just for a little bit. I don't want to get the Covid-Bends." 

And we'll all nod knowingly. 

It is so easy to get overwhelmed by the magnitude of the work our faith calls us to. Where do we start? The answer is we begin one starfish at a time.

SERVICE NOTES

    WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

    MUSIC CREDITS

Song without Words, Op. 38, No. 2 by Felix Mendelssohn. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Public Domain.

“Do You Hear?” tune: FOUNDATION, from William Caldwell’s Union Harmony, 1837, arr.Yelena Mealy. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Used by permission.

“Voice Still and Small” by John Corrado. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Used by permission.

“Just as Long as I Have Breath,” music: Johann G. Ebeling, harm. rev. John Edwin Giles. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Used by permission.

“It is Well with My Soul” by Philip P. Bliss, arr. Mark Hayes. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Permission to stream the arrangement in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

Song without Words, Op. 102, No. 4 by Felix Mendelssohn. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Public Domain.

“As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, words: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Used by permission.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

    OTHER NOTES

Call to Worship by Karen G. Johnston (adapted from Rebecca Parker)**

Prayer by Joanna Lubkin (adapted), permission granted by the author

Reading excerpted from “Small Things Make a Big Difference” in the Huffington Post – 7/15/14

*permission granted through the UUA
** permission granted through Soul Matters

    OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for March is the Puerto Palomas Migrant Shelter via the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Silver City, New Mexico.  100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

    SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

Rev. John Cullinan
Yelena Mealy, piano
Rick Bolton, Mike Begnaud, & Renae Mitchell, AV techs

Attached media: https://media.blubrry.com/uulosalamos/www.uulosalamos.org/ucla/pulpit/2021/20210314-Do_the_Next_Small_Thing.mp3

Reading: “There Is No Easier Way” by Elizabeth Nguyen

Sermon: Tough Love Saves Us All

When my partner and I were first together, our parents used to talk about us with their straight friends and co-workers by making sure they knew that we were “just like everyone else.”

“You know,” they’d say, “they pay their taxes.” 

This desire to point to our sameness, how we were just like them, was motivated by love, and it was an attempt to activate love. They were trying to overcome what they imagined or knew for sure their friends were thinking, trying to address whatever fears they might have, or image that came to mind when they thought about LESBIANS. If we were more the same than we were different, then we would be less scary, less “other,” more human. 

The Unitarian Universalist minister and historian Mark Morrison Reed talks about the central task of the religious community as revealing the bonds that bind each to all – the connectedness and the relationship across everyone everywhere that compels us to act on one another’s behalf.  This is the impulse behind this claim that we are basically the same. It is a way to invoke relatedness, and the duty to care, or at least the duty not to cause harm. 

Twenty years later, our parents don’t do this too much anymore. They and a bunch of others making the same argument seem to have convinced sufficient numbers of straight people that the “gay agenda” was often as boring as the straight one…I mean…we do pay our taxes.

And this works relatively fine for those of us who successfully pass or code switch our way in the straight community, those of us whose gender expression perfectly lines up with the societal expectations for the gender we were assigned at birth, those of us who are monogamous, aiming for marriage, and/or parenthood, those of us who are white, and who are citizens…you probably get my point.

When the bonds that bind each to all are grounded only in the ways that we are alike, or the idea that we must “like” each other –someone’s always going to remain outside the circle; someone is always going to be the definition of “regular human,”and someone else is always going to be…irregular.  Maybe even, sub-human, or “undermensch” as the so-called “scientific” field eugenics called it, or undermenschen as the Nazis came to apply it in their philosophy, picking up directly from the Jim Crow laws of the US. 

In her book, Caste, Isabel Wilkerson delves deeply into this history – if you haven’t yet found your place in our Common Conversation, check out foothillsuu.org/caste. In an accessible, compelling narrative, Wilkerson offers a framework to understand how we have found ourselves caught in a culture that ranks one another’s humanness based upon a certain sameness, a culture where some are perpetually assessed to be insufficiently human, and so therefore outside the circle of care, or love. 

Relying on sameness to determine a duty to care or the presence of love is not unusual, of course. It’s actually the norm.  Despite political or religious slogans affirming justice for all, as non-violence expert and activist Kazu Haga writes, “when we say ‘all,’ do we really mean all? Usually what we mean to say is that we are fighting for justice for all of our people, the people we like, the people on our side.  And too often, justice for our people comes at the expense of those people. When we are able to defeat those people, then our people will have justice.”

I think we all do this.  Intentionally, unintentionally, consciously or subconsciously. We’re trained through our culture, and rewarded in our politics – maybe now more than ever before – to set these limits around who we actually mean when we say “all.”  

I caught myself in this mindset earlier this week when I was working on vaccine equity. I felt that one of the groups was working against the goals that I felt were critical, and so, I wanted to shut them out. If they could be defeated, then our OUR people would win. I felt pretty righteous about my outrage for a while, and my strategy for success. Until I heard myself talking to a friend about it on the phone, and suddenly, I was like….hmm. maybe there’s another way…   

I feel some shame admitting this, especially assuming that any of those partners might be hearing or reading this, and wondering if I mean them. I want to just say – I’m being vague on purpose. Because the point is – my impulse was sincerely wrong. And it goes against a core commitment of our Universalist faith –that when we say all, we actually mean all. 

Universalism, as a religious tradition, started off as a theological claim about life after death. Our religious forebears asserted that there was no way that an all-loving God would damn any of God’s own people to eternal punishment and torment.

The idea was inconsistent with love in an ultimate sense. Universalism was a claim that whatever destiny any of us is meant for, all of us are meant for.

In the 20^th century, this after-life affirmation became instead a claim, and a commitment we make about this life.  An affirmation that as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said, “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” Whatever lines we may consciously or subconsciously seek to draw between us and them, enemy and friend, good or bad, worthy or unworthy –there is no escaping or undoing how interconnected we are, how interdependent.

No matter how different or disagreeable, no one is less or more human than any other of us. 

No one.

The outcome of this theological claim is what King described as the Beloved Community.  BeLOVEd as in fueled by and held together by the promises of love. Not just any love, but agape love. Whereas other types of love are directed at particular individuals –romantic love, or the love of friends, King described agape as the sort of love that “makes no distinction between a friend and enemy …it is an overflowing love that is purely spontaneous, unmotivated, groundless and creative…the love of God operating in the human heart….” 

King went so far to call it “disinterested love” because it is the sort of love that doesn’t care whether it is loved back.   It is the love that will “go to any lengths to restore community.”

It’s helpful to remember that we are not always responsible for generating this love. Instead, our work is just to show up on its behalf, and further its reach.  It’s helpful to remember this when we encounter people who are distinctly difficult to love, that while we need not generate love that is unconditional and universal, it is there nonetheless.

Including for us. 

Maybe the fact that this is way harder than it sounds explains why – while we can glimpse pieces of Beloved Community, and these glimpses in their beauty compels us to keep moving forward – it is resoundingly a vision for the future. 

King was doing the life-saving work of moral imagination, the sort of work that moves us out of the limitations of what is into the infinite beauty of the possible. 

Imagine: In the Beloved Community, all people share in the wealth of the earth, and all people care for the earth. There is no hunger, or poverty, or homelessness. There’s no racism or other prejudice, and there is no war.  

Which is not the same as saying there is no conflict; King understood that conflicts are inevitable in human communities that embrace rather than shun differences.  It’s just that these conflicts are resolved through a commitment to non-violence, and grounded in a mutual respect for one another’s dignity. 

Which again, is not the same as mutual agreement, or liking each other, or even spending time together.  As Kazu Haga reminds us “… the Beloved Community is a big place, so we have can have love for people, and they can live all the way over there in Beloved Community.”

I appreciate this reminder for many reasons –first, it affirms the role of boundaries in Beloved Community (that Sean and Elaine talked about last Sunday),and, in affirming Beloved Community’s bigness, it reminds us that in the Beloved Community, there’s enough of everything for everyone. 

It’s a big tent with big resources with big love.

In the Beloved Community, no one hoards resources, and power is shared – we practice power with rather than power over; and there is no need to compete for some small slice of pie that is already stingy and insufficient – we can lift each other up, ensuring that each person, and each community has what they need. 

This is one of the most radical ideas embedded in the vision of Beloved Community, because it stands in direct contrast to 21^st century capitalism where we are taught there’s never enough, that you need to hustle to get what you need, and if you don’t have what you need, that’s on you.    

I’ve seen this too in the work for vaccine equity. 

Each organization is so accustomed to needing to compete for funding to meet the needs of their community, the idea that we could work together for a common good requires trusting that there will be enough for everyone – enough vaccines, enough funding support, enough acknowledgment of the labor and expertise and care to go around. 

Given the realities of funding, the bureaucracy of government, and the overwhelming number and loud presence of white people in Northern Colorado, I get why these communities who serve people of color and immigrants would be doubtful and suspicious, and always wondering if they should instead pull out of collaboration and instead look out for themselves. They haven’t done this, but I get why they would.

The system we have created rewards competition and isolation, and the loudest and fastest movers get the attention from those who hold power-over and without any idea or model for power-with….It’s not really any one person’s fault, I want to be clear – it is the system that we have all inherited, the system we are caught in. In this system – this slow, messy, non-hierarchical emergent collaboration seeking to creatively meet our shared needs means it’s really unclear, for example, who will sign a Memo of Understanding, or receive funds with the appropriate 501c3. And to be clear – we want that memo of understanding, and the funds to the c3s – because that is the only way to move through the system as it currently exists!

It’s just that – in the end, however, this slow, messy and hard to document type of collaboration for the common good across deep differences and divides, the work of inviting folks out to tea and dinner and beers – the work of building the relationship that endures – this is the work that it actually takes to build the Beloved Community.

It is agape love not in the generic idealistic sense, but agape love in the particular. Where you have to find ways to overcome your instinct to defeat the person who annoys you or who seems like they are actively working against you or who you just don’t get – and instead find an authentic way to widen the circle so it includes them too. 

And by you, I obviously mean, me.

The term Beloved Community was actually coined by philosopher Josiah Royce in the early twentieth century. He spoke of Beloved Community as that community worthy of our ultimate loyalty – what he called, the loyalty of loyalties. Unlike partial communities that seek to put limits around love or duty, the Beloved Community is that community that keeps drawing the circle wider and wider still. 

It is a loyalty that is based not in our sameness, but to the Love that holds us across our differences. To call this Love holy, to pledge our allegiance to it. 

Which in turn requires critical awareness of our own tribe, and our own trauma. 

Our own tribe so that we can be aware of our implicit bias, that is, the hierarchy we hold deep in our brains and our bones for who is more, or less, our people; and in turn, perhaps, more or less human. 

And then, our own trauma. We need to be aware of the struggles we carry from our own lifetimes, and those we inherit from past generations.  We need to know when we are acting out of our wounds, rather than our hope; we need to know, so that we can heal – backwards, and forwards -and together. 

Grounding our understanding of Beloved Community in Royce’s original ideas of loyalty reminds us that the heart of Beloved Community is not a belief in an idea, but a steadfast, unshakable commitment –  a tough love.

Martin Luther King Jr was very clear that Beloved Community is possible in this life, but it is only possible when a critical mass of people make this commitment, based on an understanding of what it means to be loyal to this love.    

This commitment is what drives the proposal for an 8th principle – because our principles are the covenant we make as Unitarian Universalists – our promises to ourselves, to one another, and to life itself.   The 8th principle says: we commit our loyalty to the building of the Beloved Community, and our loyalty to the love that binds us each to all, the love that meets us across all of our beautiful diversity. 

I wish I could say that making the commitment to the tough love of Beloved Community is is the hard part.  Like the vote we’ll have in May is the end, when really it’s just the beginning. 

Because the hardest part is what comes next.  When we live as if all actually means all, “there is no easier way.”  “…the work of justice often asks us to do impossible, hard, terrifying things.” 

It asks us to risk things that actually matter, especially our own comfort, our sense of order, or control. It asks us to risk our own safety, our privilege, our hearts.

But the good news is that along with the hardest part also comes the sweetest part – because in following the hardest part we also more often get to to see, and we get to know the beauty. The goodness. We get to glimpse the promise of true Beloved Community, and the freedom that is based in a love that is unconditional, transformational, and universal. 

The tough love that saves us all. 

May it be so, and amen.

Presented by Rev. John Cullinan and Nylea Butler-Moore.

We begin March’s exploration of what it means to be a people of commitment with the big question: What is our Unitarian Universalist faith asking us, exactly, to commit to?

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.
For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 
Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

• “Spring Mvt 1 Allegro”, John Harrison with the Wichita State University Chamber Players. FreeMusicArchive.org. Used by permission.
• “Dancing in Light” by Nylea L. Butler-Moore. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Used by permission.
• “The Fire of Commitment,” words: Mary Katherine Morn & Jason Shelton, music: Jason Shelton. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Used by permission.
• “My Life Flows On in Endless Song,” words & music by Robert Lowry. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Public Domain.
• “Spirit of Life,” words & music: Carolyn McDade, based on harm. by Grace Lewis-McLaren. (Kathy Gursky, viola & Nylea Butler-Moore, piano.) Used by permission.
• “The Lone, Wild Bird,” words: H.R. MacFayden, tune: from William Walker’s Southern Harmony, based on harm. by Thomas Somerville, adapt, arr. & new material by Nylea L. Butler-Moore. (UCLA Virtual choir; Wade Wheelock, violin; Nylea Butler-Moore, Director & piano; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Used by permission.
• “We Gather Together,” words: Dorothy Caiger Senghas & Robert E. Senghas; music: Adrian Valerius’s Nederlandtsch Gedenckclanck, arr. Edward Kremser. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Used by permission.
  
• “As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, words: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Used by permission.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

OTHER NOTES

• Call to Worship by Gretchen Haley**
• Reading excerpt from Rebecca Parker* https://www.uua.org/ga/past/1998/123808.shtml

*permission granted through UUA
**permission granted through Soul Matters

For more information on the proposed 8th principle, visit: https://www.8thprincipleuu.org/
Rev. Cullinan’s sermon collection, Your Life Is a Gospel, available at Amazon.

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for March is Tierra del Oro, Puerto Palomas Migrant Shelter. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.
We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

• Rev. John Cullinan
• Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
• Yelena Mealy, piano
• UCLA Virtual Choir
• Rick Bolton & Mike Begnaud, AV techs

Attached media: https://media.blubrry.com/uulosalamos/www.uulosalamos.org/ucla/pulpit/2021/20210307-What_Shall_We_Live_For.m4a

Is it any wonder that we have a crisis  of relationality in our nation? After  diligently equipping our children to  out-perform one another in a narrow  number of ways—which becomes  the primary focus of their young  lives and formal education—it is left  to congregations, to community centers, to social groups of various kinds  to teach us how to be in complex  relationship with one another—if  that. By and large, even in relationally-oriented institutions, very few  offer classes or training in how to  engage well in the most fundamental of human needs: how to be  in healthy, mutually meaningful  relationship with one another. It is  as if, en masse, we have collectively  decided that these skills are somehow  acquired by osmosis. And, if they are  not learned by osmosis, we wait until  someone ‘screws up really bad’ (gets  into difficulty with their community,  at their workplace, or in their personal relationships) and then we enact  a disciplinary model: punitive action  must be taken and boundaries put in place.

Indeed, at times, healthy boundaries  and accountability are needed. But why do we, as a society, make almost  no effort to teach, not just the fundamentals of human relationship, but  the more advanced skills related to:  what do we do when we screw up?  How are we present to one another  across deeply held differences?  What should we do in the midst of  volatile conflict? How do we ‘show  up’ in meaningful ways for the  diversity that we claim to value and  constantly stumble over? What do  we do with our own subjectivity  and reactivity in the midst of such  critical relational needs?

This is a spiritual crisis, for ‘spirit’  (however we choose to understand  it) is ultimately about interconnectedness, interdependence, and the  connective tissue invisibly binding  everything and everyone to each  other. When we are struggling with  how to relate to one another—how  to even care about one another—in  one of the wealthiest nations in the  history of planet Earth, a nation in  which no one need ever starve or  sleep without a roof over their head,  and yet people do—there is a profound crisis of disconnection. When  it feels ‘safer’ to only be among those  who almost exclusively think like  ‘us’ —cutting off neighbors, family  members, community members,  and co-workers who hold divergent needs and experiences—we are  deepening that disconnection, not  healing it or working with it.

The frayed connective tissue of our  society must first be strengthened  locally, wherever we are, with  whichever groups of people we are  immediately connected to. Only as  tissue gets stronger, as it first heals  and then grows, can it bear the harder  and more weighty loads. Social, civic,  and communal healing requires more  than convalescence, or worse, hiding  in cliques of uniformity. It requires  building muscle, in this case a spiritual-relational muscle. This muscle,  this connective tissue, requires  challenging and transforming the  faulty assumptions that have been  shredding it; it requires practice with  relational skills that many of us were  never taught and some of us may feel  embarrassed not to have or intimidated in learning; it requires patience  and grounding in love, love, and then  even more love. We are already—each  and every one of us—siblings to one  another and to all that exists at the  level of ‘spirit,’ essence, the ontological  nature of ‘all that is.’ We just need to  start behaving like we really get that.  The good news is that intentional  practice and learning—not osmosis— can get us there.

This piece is an excerpt from a larger essay of the same title.  A link to Rev.  Manish Mishra-Marzetti’s full essay is available on our website, clfuu.org. 

I preached from this sermon manuscript online for the Universalist National Memorial Church, on February 21, 2021 using lessons from the Revised Common Lectionary: Genesis 9: 8-17 and Mark 1: 9-15.

Thank you for having me back in the pulpit, and to Pastor Dave for inviting me. Last week, he found us metaphorically on mile twenty-two (or so) of this year-long marathon; the end might still be almost a year away. Solutions take time, and can outstrip a human patience. Despite the vaccine roll-out, the declining death rate, the better-functioning government and even the brighter skies, it could change suddenly. We might face a mutant variant of the virus or that wind storm on Tuesday. We’re not at the end, even if we want to be (I want it to be) and there’s no promise we won’t get something new and awful to replace it. The virus replaced, or rather partially displaced, other troubles for too many of us. They’re still there. This is the first Sunday of Lent. All that was my way of saying I’m not giving up anything for Lent.

Lent is the period of reflection and abstinence leading to Holy Week and Easter. But the last year has already been odd mixture of abstinence and indulgence, but without spiritual benefit or earthly pleasure. Like suffering the hangover without having the party. I’ve gained thirty pounds and lost hair. Ordinary pleasures, like talking to your neighbors or a cup of coffee out, are dangerous, or suspected of being so.

In other years, Lent comes as an opportunity to reflect on one’s spiritual state and to act to improve or develop it. The pandemic is different than other challenges because it has been a common struggle. Our personal griefs and hardships, even unmanageable opportunities; for not all stress is because something bad happens — all these happenings that force to look at ourselves and examine ourselves — or pay the price if we don’t — happen without regard to what’s happening to the mass of humanity. The pandemic is more like more like modern war, where you will be affected whether you like it or not.

All those party-goers and revelers that rightly earn our wrath — what are they thinking? — are also affected by the pandemic, but in a different light I’m willing to see that they also work under pressures that need release and deliberate misinformation that makes some of their choices makes sense. That’s why I’d like to look at what we have in common — an equal distance and access to God — rather than our personal self-improvement, and how we can find truth — as bruised a concept as any — in what we find in God.

So if we’re going keep Lent at all and adopt a spiritual discipline, let it be a really good one; let’s try making some sense of what God reveals to us. Dabbling in revelation sounds like the beginning of a Gothic horror film: “oh, what are those kids going to conjure up!?” I can imagine discussing my deep exploration into the mind of at lunch at work – if we ever get to do that again – and try not to sound like a loon or conspiracy theorist. I can imagine not being very successful.

Even if the category of revelation is at odds with our culture, at some point we’re going to have to deal with how God speaks to us. Aloofness about revelation, even to spare public embarrassment, isn’t sophistication; it’s being condemned to being haunted by God. It’s thinking that there’s something deeply true that underscores our lives without ever being able to know anything about it. And it’s precisely because God’s will has been so closely identified in the public mind with proclamations of right-wing politics and an abdication from thinking, that if we’re not clear about seeking God’s will and doing it, then our own lives become a lesson that (1) either God is not important and does not care for us, or (2) that a certain set of people have a monopoly on divine understanding and blessing. That will not stand, if we have faith or even self-respect; that cannot stand.

The problem is that you can’t just summon up an understanding of divine revelation. For one thing, experience shows that if you’re certain about God speaking to you, you’re almost certainly wrong. If there’s not a lump in your throat or pang in your belly when you feel God is speaking to you, you’re almost certainly not. A maxim to preachers I learned long ago: if you go to the pulpit to speak an oracle of God and don’t shudder a little with fear, beware. Like Moses, we go before the Almighty humbled, trembling, with our shoes cast off — but we must go. Let us turn to the lessons.

Today’s reading from Mark acts as a rationale for Lent; Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days, and Lent is forty days long. The word Lent doesn’t refer either to wilderness or self-reflection, but refers to spring (think, “the days lengthen”); wilderness somehow seems more appropriate. This past week of strange, hostile weather and this past year of social isolation seems to me to have more in the same wilderness that Jesus met, and where he met Satan, the great adversary.

But why the wilderness? Why not try to meet Satan on the corner or even in the market where he’s so famously overturned the tables of the money changers?

I’ve been in the Judean desert, in fact, once. It was twenty-two years ago, when a friend and minister invited me along as her guest to see Israel for a few days. (She won the trip as a prize in a game show and I was eager to expand my horizons.) But I was flat broke and the only chance we had of seeing some of the famous out-of-the-way sites near Jerusalem was to take what was known as the sixty shekel tour. For about $19, you would meet an antiquated Mercedes bus near the historic Damascus Gate in the middle of the night, and go nonstop from site to site. You didn’t see anything for very long but you were promised the fortress at Masada, wading in the Dead Sea, a chance to see a nature reserve, a stop at Qumran (where the Dead Sea scrolls were found) and a visit to Jericho, one of the oldest cities in the world.

The antiquated bus had other ideas. The road from Jerusalem down towards Masada was very steep. Just as the sun was rising I saw a sign warning in Hebrew, Arabic and English to shift into low gear. That’s when the transmission or the engine failed; I forget which. The bus stopped and we tourists piled out of the bus in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately the tour operator had a radio in the bus and called for a backup, but that left us sometime to contemplate our surroundings. I looked the grapes and Turkish delight I brought along, wondering how long they’d have to last. There were no other cars passing.

On one side of the road, a hill rose sharply covered in the same powdery tan rock we’ve seen all over the region, here little more than gravel. On the other side of the road the hill descended just as sharply, and in the distance we could see the Dead Sea, shimmering with the dawn. In the distance, we could make out the lights of factories or perhaps a refinery, in Jordan. The bus, the road sign and the refinery were the only evidences of modern technology, and having had that theological education it was easy to imagine that we could meet angels or devils. Surely the landscape was too desolate for anything living.

So I can imagine Jesus’ audience knowing and probably fearing the desert, the wilderness, and wondering what wild creatures could survive there. It’s exactly where you would face Satan, and temptation. The context is absolutely crucial. You feel small, vulnerable, out of place. You look for help, divine or automotive. But in such extreme environments you might also find God, in part because the exposure can be both figurative or literal. One is as revealing as the other. Might Jesus’ flight into the wilderness be figurative and spiritual, following the crashing, fluttering experience of the Spirit in his baptism? The narrative is filled with biblical allusions, but little detail. It might easily be an extended metaphor, but well understood.

Maybe that’s why our hour by the roadside is the part of the day that sticks with me the most even now. Being lost, in an unfamiliar setting, wondering what comes next, looking in the distance: these are as true spiritually as literally.

On the other hand, the passage from Genesis recounts the covenant God made with all living things, but also has to do with context. To recap, covenant between God and Noah and his heirs came before the flood. (W. G. Plaut, ed., The Torah: A Modern Commentary, 68.)

But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. (Genesis 6:18, NRSV)

This covenant was with Noah and his family, excluding the rest of humanity.

As many of you know, an ancient story of an all-consuming, universal flood is not unique. It is seen in the epic of Gilgamesh and in other ancient Middle Eastern literature. The flood was a commonplace, but the outcome in Genesis makes it special.

God says

I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. (Genesis 9:11)

The rainbow is a sign of this covenant, and a reminder to each generation of what God pledged. I’m sure we’ve covered this in other sermons, or if not, it’s one of those biblical stories that is still widely discussed in the larger culture. I want to focus on another part of the story.

So, why Noah? What made Noah right? Why would he and his family be the basis of a new human race? Why would God make a covenant with him? Was it because of his superlative goodness? Unlikely. As we hear in chapter 6:

Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9)

“Blameless in his generation” is what sticks out. Noah was righteous, but by what measure? Reviewing commentary (see Plaut), it’s possible that Noah wasn’t overwhelmingly exceptional, but simply was the best of a bad lot.

But more, what did Noah think of himself and his family being singled out, alone in the whole world? Was Noah lacking in compassion? It would be a mistake to treat this episode like history, or worse, to apply modern sensibilities or morals to it. But there’s no evidence of longing, of regret or of mercy to all who would die.

But if we treat Noah as a good, but not supernatural figure; and perhaps traumatized and not simply callous, we can appreciate something else about revelation. Throughout scripture, we see God communicate clearly with human beings, either directly or through intermediaries. The days of this kind of special revelation are now past — that’s the majority opinion — and what we receive is a general revelation through scripture. A constant Universalist witness is that scripture contains this revelation,

the trustworthiness of the Bible as a source of divine revelation (UNMC)

the trustworthiness of the Bible as containing a revelation from God (1899)

Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the duty, interest and final destination of mankind (1803)

(You get the idea.) That revelation is contained in scripture, but in contrast to fundamentalism, isn’t the revelation itself. You have to look for it, find it and interpret it, and that’s not easy. The encouragement we get from this passage is that looking, finding and interpreting God’s intent is not limited to the exceptionally, extraordinarily good, but be taken on by those with a good intent and a willingness to understand.

Friends, both the passages from Genesis and Mark have themes of wildness and liminality. The churning waves, the desert being the Accuser’s domain. And there’s even a connection in the waters: between those that evoked God’s presence in destruction, and God’s presence in the blessing of baptism. (That itself is another sermon.) Both come with blessing, survival for Noah and his family, and for Jesus,

And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” (v. 11)

May your searches prove a blessing, too.

In previous sermons, I’ve talked about having an imagination would approach you scripture, as a way of understanding what God is saying. Today, I would add a sense of empathy and curiosity. I encourage you to dig deep wells of patience, or at least thoroughness in your examinations, and a forbearance that values your everyday opinion over others.

This is path which leads to understanding what God may reveal to you.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyzN7hLSNOI]

Presented by Rev. John Cullinan, Tina DeYoe, and Nylea Butler-Moore

SERVICE NOTES

    WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

    MUSIC CREDITS

“People, Get Ready” by Curtis Mayfield.  (Aaron Anderson, keyboard). Permission to stream the song in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

“We Are” by Dr. Ysaÿe Barnwell, performed by Dr. Ysaÿe Barnwell and the UUA General Assembly 2020 virtual choir. Produced and Directed by Benjie Messer. Video Editing and Motion Graphics by Izzy Hyman. Audio Editing by Sam Plattner. Photos by Clint McKoy, Christopher L. Walton, Paul Becker, Janine Gelsinger, and contributed by members of the choir.  Used by permission.

“We Are Not Our Own,” words: Brian Wren, music: David Hurd.  (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream song #98098 in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“Spirit of Life,” words & music: Carolyn McDade, choral arr. Nylea Butler-Moore, based on harm. by Grace Lewis-McLaren. (UCLA virtual choir; Nylea Butler-Moore, Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Used by permission.

“Come Together” by John Lennon & Paul McCartney.  (Aaron Anderson, keyboard). Permission to stream the song in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

“The Gift of Love,” trad. English melody, Hal H. Hopson, arr. John Carter. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream song #9269 in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, words: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Public Domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

    OTHER NOTES

Chalice Lighting by Kimberlee Tomczak Carlson*
Prayer by Lyn Cox*
Reading from Charles Green: https://blogs.hope.edu/getting-race-right/uncategorized/whos-in-the-room-who-isnt-why/
*permission granted through UUA

     OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for February is Strong in Nature. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.
We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

    SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

Rev. John Cullinan
Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
Aaron Anderson, keyboard
Rick Bolton, Mike Begnaud, & Renae Mitchell – AV techs

This week, we join UUs across the country as we tune in to a special worship service presented by the UUA’s “Side With Love” campaign.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgeuOtbYZCY]

Presented by the Unitarian Universalist Association

What if to “side with love” meant making bold, faith-full choices? What if it were even a little bit scary? This worship service brings together worship leaders and musicians from across the country to offer hopeful, moving, challenging reminders about what we, as Unitarian Universalists, are called to do, and BE, in the world.

Order of Service: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y489…​

More about Side With Love’s 30 Days of Love: https://sidewithlove.org/thirty-days-…​

SERVICE NOTES

      WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

      OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for February is Strong in Nature. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

Jabari S. Jones

Continue reading "Radicalizing Myself"

Part one of our exploration of February’s theme: “Beloved Community”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJBZKlCPNyk]

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.
For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 
Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

• “What Wondrous Love Is This,” American folk hymn, arr. Eric Daub. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Permission to stream the arrangement in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
• “Let This Be a House of Peace” by Jim Scott, words inspired by Kenneth Paton.  (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano).  Used by permission.
• “Meditation on Breathing” by Sarah Dan Jones. (Tina DeYoe, vocals & Eric Schaller, percussion). Used by permission.
• “Spirit of Life,” words & music: Carolyn McDade, choral arr. Nylea Butler-Moore, based on harm. by Grace Lewis-McLaren. (UCLA virtual choir; Nylea Butler-Moore, Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Used by permission.
• Star Medley: “Star of the County Down,” trad. Irish | “Sparkle of Starlight” by Rodney Miller. (Patrick Webb, fiddle; Joy Charles, cello; & Aaron Anderson, piano ). “Star of the County Down” Public Domain.  “Sparkle of Starlight” used by permission of the composer.
• “Plenty Good Room,” trad. spiritual, arr. Lloyd Larson. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream the arrangement in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
• “As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, words: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Public Domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

OTHER NOTES

• Chalice Lighting by Jennifer Gracen*
• Our Time for All Ages is an old parable that traces back to several cultures
• Images in the Time for All Ages are courtesy of the artist: Stuart McMillen
• originals can be found here:
  • https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/2013-11-Chicago-Recovery-Alliance-spoons-uncaptioned-hell-1200.png
  • https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/2013-11-Chicago-Recovery-Alliance-spoons-uncaptioned-heaven-1200.png

*permission granted through UUA

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for February is Strong in Nature. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.
We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

• Rev. John Cullinan
• Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
• Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
• Yelena Mealy, piano
• UCLA Virtual Choir
• Patrick Webb, fiddle; Joy Charles, cello; & Aaron Anderson, piano
• Rick Bolton & Mike Begnaud, AV techs

About eight years ago I started a meditation practice of drawing or doodling that I call “inklings” —as it gives glimpses both inward into one’s self and outward into connection with others, the earth, or the great unknown. I do this by putting ink to paper. For the first year, I focused on drawing chalices over and over again, which grounded this practice in Unitarian Universalism for me. At other times, I’ve drawn as a method of prayer or meditation, focused on other people or myself, to send energy for healing or comfort. The benefits of doing a drawing or doodling spiritual practice like this are a lot like the benefits of any spiritual practice. It calms me when I’m anxious. It focuses me when I’m scattered. It connects me to my faith and to a sense of something larger. In times when the world feels out of control, it gives me a sense of order and places something small within my ability. And in a time of change, it gives grounding.

Here are the steps for a simple inkling practice of creating a prayer for the self. There are no mistakes, no wrong decisions, and no rules—every step is adaptable to your own wishes. This is not about creating great art. I will describe what works for me, but you will know what works for you and adapt it to fit into your location and available materials. It is also flexible in that it can be done with full attention or with divided attention. (And it is more socially acceptable to doodle in a meeting than to play a game on my phone!) The basic idea is to translate a spiritual practice— a prayer or meditation or worship service or ritual—into a doodle format.

Spiritual practices often begin and end in very specific ways. In Unitarian Universalism, we often light a chalice. So I often begin the inkling process with creating a sense of the sacred around the drawing process— lighting a candle, saying some words, or just finding a special place. And then the process is about focusing thoughts on the self or another person or idea and doodling about it. I do this in a few easy steps.

First, I begin by drawing something on the page to represent the focus of the practice. This might be a circle or a written name, but in this instance I used a circle with a moon in it to represent myself. (“Cynthia” means goddess of the moon.) Then I draw a circle or spiral or petals around the circle. These will be spaces I will fill with the things I am praying for. Anything can go in these spaces, but I often focus on things like love, hope, faith, family, health, friends, and home. And re member, none of these shapes have to be perfect. This is about the process, not the product.

An Unfolding Inkling

If this were a worship service, this next step would be the sermon—it’s the heart of the practice. I fill in the spaces with words, patterns, or images, or a combination, to represent the things I want to increase in life, attract into my life, or just to contemplate more, like health or happiness or love. I like to use a combination of written words and patterns that are meaningful to me. I often draw spirals, a symbol connect ed to the Goddess, and to labyrinths, and to feminist spirituality. When thinking about hope, I draw feathers, from the line from Emily Dickinson, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul.” But what is most important here is to meditate or find a sense of peace while drawing. When I draw a pattern I like, particularly simple ones, I can get lost in the repetition of it for a while. Conversely, Celtic knotwork is beautiful, but I’ll think more about drawing the knot than about the meditation subject, and this is not about creating great art.

Every worship needs a closing, and so lastly, something I do if I’m still not feeling the energy flowing to me that I was hoping for, is to add arrows, directly linking the concepts to the symbol representing myself. The arrows represent the hoped-for flowing of energy. Or if I’m feeling full of good energy, I can direct an arrow out of the circle towards another person or the community or the world. And then, for a closing as I’m finishing the inkling, I just add things around the edge and inside the patterns that I like to draw—spirals, dots, springs, leaves. Some people enjoy doing shading, or adding color, and coloring can be its own spiritual practice. Remember, there are no rules to this!

I invite you to try this process and find ways to make it your own. And if you’ve enjoyed this process, you might find it interesting to delve into two methods that inspired me when I got started, Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts’ “Zentangle” process, and Praying in Color, by Sybil MacBeth. There are a lot of different ways to create your own artistic spiritual practice, and it can be rewarding to try out different ideas and concepts. For me, putting patterns and shapes together to make a bigger image gives me just an inkling of how our 7th principle works—each little thing I do is a part of the larger picture, and each action we take contributes to the interdependent web. Through setting pen to paper, I hope that not only am I centering myself, I’m adding peace to the world.

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211110223045/https://www.questformeaning.org/podcasts/21_02/03.m4a

Once upon a time
I rejected the concept of surrender
without hesitation or investigation Would not even risk
thinking it (surrender, indeed!)

and yet…

when I remember the exquisite shade of red my white girl farmers tan turned
the first time I began to give a speech in Mr. B’ 9th grade Communications class and how I threw up in the girls’ bathroom at the thought of having to speak publicly

when I think of how I went to the microphone at General Assembly
my first one ever
to speak in front of over a thousand delegates on behalf of those too young to vote my heart pounding so hard
that the chalice on my necklace
was bouncing on my chest

when I reflect on my ever-emerging ministry facilitating conversations with first dozens,
now thousands of folx
organizing, teaching, preaching, creating, collaborating
and always learning
about white supremacy and systemic oppression and our faithful work
on the journey of collective liberation

when I re-member of these things
I have no other word than
surrender

I surrender to the call
of love and life and liberation
of life and liberation and love
of liberation and love and life
again and again and again

Each day
we are invited to risk
holy surrender
to the call of life and love and liberation.

and

we do not have to wait to be unafraid.

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211110223024/https://www.questformeaning.org/podcasts/21_02/04.m4a

Rev. John opens up the virtual question box. What do you want to ask the minister?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRF_CX3DtX8]

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.
For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 
Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos
Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS 

• “Moment Musicaux No. 3” in F minor by Franz Schubert. (JeeYeon Plohr, piano). Public Domain.
• “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” words: vs. 1, Robert Robinson, vs. 2-3, Eugene B. Navias, music: John Wyeth, Repository of Sacred Music, Part II, 1813, arr. Nylea L. Butler-Moore.  (Nylea Butler-Moore, vocals & piano). Words & music Public Domain, arr. used by permission.
• “Find a Stillness,” words: Carl G. Seaburg, music: Transylvanian hymn tune, harm. Larry Philips. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Used by permission.
• “Spirit of Life,” words & music: Carolyn McDade, choral arr. Nylea Butler-Moore, based on harm. by Grace Lewis -McLaren. (UCLA virtual choir; Nylea Butler-Moore, Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Used by permission.
•  “To See a World in a Grain of Sand,” words: William Blake, music: Norwegian folk tune, arr. Edvard Grieg. (UCLA virtual choir; Anne Marsh, poetry reciter; Nylea Butler-Moore, Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Public Domain.
• Invention No. 1 in C Major, BWV 772 by J.S. Bach. (Tate Plohr, piano). Public Domain.
•  “As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, music: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Public Domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

OTHER NOTES

Call to Worship by Krista Flanagan*
*permission secured through the UUA
**permission secured through Soul Matters

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for January is the Esperanza Shelter. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

• Rev. John Cullinan
• Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
• Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
• JeeYeon Plohr, piano
• UCLA Virtual Choir
• Tate Plohr, piano
• Rick Bolton & Mike Begnaud, AV techs

Written version of a sermon shared with the Shoreline UU church

JANUARY 24, 2021 – WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE? –

READINGS: Ancient and Modern

The Readings today are about Who or What is in Charge. Both of them refer to a very personal deity, but our religion asserts that reality, the ultimate truth is unified, but has no singular description, no perfect name.   If you need to, listen to how these poetic, mythic, and imaginative descriptors of truth run parallel to the existential, literal, and logical. 

The Ancient Reading is from Jewish and Christian scripture, the Biblical Book of Numbers chapter 11 verses 10-17.  The setting is that the people have escaped slavery with God’s protection and Moses’s leadership, but are now wandering the wilderness.   

“Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord (GOD) became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. He asked the Lord, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.  If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”

The Lord said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you.  I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.”

The modern reading comes from “Communicating Our Faith” By the Religious Educator, Liz Jones, and the Reverend, Tom Owen-Towle. It invokes the sense in our faith that everyone carries religious authority and thus everyone is in Charge. 

“As Unitarians we hold that every unit of existence is inherently valuable and to be treated as such. We also contend that the cosmos is unitary, that reality is indivisible and whole, that God or Goddess [or Truth Ultimate] is one.

As Universalists we contend that wisdom is discoverable in every era and corner of the universe. And we assert that the only salvation worth having is communal not individual, and that all creatures are held in the eternal embrace of a loving deity, rest assured.

As Unitarian Universalists we covenant together… focusing on shared vows rather than set creeds. Our lives are ultimately measured by right relations instead of right beliefs. We promise our spiritual kin that we will comfort, celebrate, challenge, and companion one another for better, for worse, -ongoingly-. Universalist forebear Hosea Ballou caught the kernel of our covenant in 1805: “If we have love, no disagreement can do us any harm; but if we have not love, no agreement can do us any good.”

Now we will respond to the readings by singing together the very UU song, Spirit of Life. 

HYMN OF REFLECTION (CS): #123, Spirit of Life

SERMON:

These past few weeks have been amazing, filled with fear and hope. Change and resistance to change.  Personally, I cannot say how great is my relief that we now have a US President who understands the difference between being a democratically elected executive and being a politically powerful demagogue. 

American culture is a constant tug-of war between “Me” and “We,” between individual needs and shared responsibilities. A couple of days ago, after listening to an article on NPR about the baseball player, Hank Aaron, and his life of excellence, dignity and inclusion, I heard a conservative Trump supporter say, “We just want to be left alone.” At its worst, the struggle is not simply between me and we but over exactly who is included in “We the people.”  

Freedom and connection, risk and protection, continuously vie for our minds and hearts.  Attitudes of “my way or the highway,” or “victory at all costs,” surely undermine the healthy process of democracy.  So, as religious people one of our core values and promises is to “promote the rights of conscience and the use of the democratic process” in this world and I hope this recent US election makes it more likely that we can fulfill that part of our mission.

But the challenge goes deeper.  You should know, that a liberal UU congregation as well as an entire nation can be divided by questions of control and power.  All of human history and individual experience includes repeated struggles about who is in Charge.  In a cartoon I read this past week, a little boy is playing with little cars spread over the living room floor. His mom is reading in the next room.  Then, older sister comes home and trips on a vehicle. “Clean up this mess!” she demands. 

Little brother stands in response, “You’re not the boss of me.”

She tenses at this, glaring at him, so he steps back and tries to shore up his position, “I don’t have to do what you say.”

She continues to glare and balls both fists, so he looks to the next room and adds, “especially when mom is around.”

It is good to know who is in Charge, and to whom you are accountable for your actions. Although, the comic actress, Tina Fey, was interviewed a few years back and was asked, who is your boss?  She responded, “My six-year-old daughter. “Kids are definitely the boss of you. Anyone who will barge into the room while you are on the commode is the boss of you.”

IN a UU congregation the ultimate boss must be not a person, but that quality of being that is both loving and reasonable. The boss is called by many names, Spirit of Life, Compassionate Reason, buddha dharma, the gestalt of the good, true and beautiful. 

Our basic theology was summarized in the reading by Jones and Owen Towle.  It is this: the power of the good and true is found most clearly in individual lives. But the one best way for individuals to bring the true and good into their lives is through an encouraging community of people. We come closer to our goal by seeking the true and good together, and weighing the impact of their insights and choices in one another’s lives.

Thus, Unitarian Universalists trust in congregations. We have faith in congregational life.  Our polity, the way we govern and organize congregations, is called congregational polity. That means that each congregation is in control of itself, not a bishop, nor episcopate, nor district council, nor national body, or global authority. No one is the boss of us. No one can tell a congregation what it can and cannot do.  To be sure, we are bound to other UU congregations by the power of covenants, open-ended agreements about shared goals, and shared works. This church is in community with other UU congregations, and we make decisions with them about many things. But they cannot tell us what to do for and among ourselves, ever. 

So, at an elementary and practical level, the congregation is in Charge here. But notice that the community forms to invoke and serve the truth tempered by compassion, an open and transparent heart, and mind.  So, the question of how to reach that must temper all our choices. 

For example, when I was in seminary, I worshipped for half a year with a Quaker meeting in Colorado, the kind with no minister or governing board. They lived the classic ideal of Quakerism that required unanimity in group decision making. They owned a small building with a border of grass, flower-beds, and a few trees.  The climate there is arid; 16 inches of rain a year compared to our 37.  So, they needed a watering system that would keep all their plants alive instead of dying and being replaced every two years or so.  They also had a problem with individuals leaving the water on too long, both an ecological and financial issue.  So, they decided to install an automatic sprinkler system.  It only took them one meeting to discuss this idea and agree. Then they had to decide which system to buy and how much it would cost. Then they had to decide who would install it and for how much. Then they had to choose when it would be installed.  I met them, five years after they decided to get an automatic system, beaming with pride at their brand new, economical, water-smart, and healthy landscape.  But I wondered if five years was way too much time for such a decision. 

When I asked, they told me that “this was how God works.” I thought to myself, if God only took six days to create the world, why did he take five years to install a sprinkler system? Truthfully, I understood. That community valued participation in group decisions and peaceful management of conflict over being quick and efficient.

This was a small congregation, perhaps a hundred people.  In America, the average size of a congregation, in any religious tradition, is about 150 members because it is still possible for the leaders to know and talk with everyone.  When congregations that grow much beyond that size must delegate power and decisions to smaller groups within the congregation.  This takes some centralized control.  As the reading about Moses illustrates, if everyone is in Charge then no one is and one person cannot be in Charge of everything. So, we distribute power and delegate control to various responsible persons in the congregation, including the minister. 

When I was a teenager and young man, my most favorite movie of all time was Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  King Arthur is out looking for lords to join with him at the round-table to rule all of Briton. Approaching a castle, he sees a peasant on the road and calls out “Old woman!” The peasant responds, “Man.” 

“Oh, man, sorry.  Can you tell me what knight lives in that castle over there?”

The peasant responds, “I’m 37.” 

King Arthur, quite confused, asks “What?” 

“I’m 37,” The man indignantly responds “I’m not old.” 

“I did say sorry about the “old woman,” Arthur explains, “but from behind you looked…”

The peasant cuts in, “What I object to is you immediately treat me like an inferior.” 

“Well, I am king.” Arthur responds.

” Oh, King eh… and how’d you get that? By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma and by exploiting the workers…”

He later explains that the peasants have formed an anarcho-syndicalist commune where all take turns to act as an executive for the week, but their choices have to be ratified at a special meeting. My point is that a congregation does not need a king, but it is not a commune either.  In UU congregations large enough to call a minister, people must make choices about how to share ministry with that minister while also dividing responsibilities.

On common point of tension between ministers and leaders is that both have “the Congregation” as their boss.  This is problematic because a congregation is not really a person, or thing.  It exists, perhaps, in congregational meetings and gatherings, but even there it still is nothing more than the overlapping ideas of many individuals about what it is and isn’t.  The larger a congregation the more it is made up of overlapping circles, but not all of these are perfectly in communication.  Sometimes these circles have no common person between them, except the minister. 

Because of my role, I am near the center of many things.  I speak personally and work in many groups. My very job is to speak to common values, the roots of our tradition the truth that inspires us and the vision of the future that bind us. Thus, I invoke the center. But to be certain, I am not The Center. The center is the ever moving and changing overlap of many minds, and thus moves like the wind and can not be pinned down. That is why love and thoughtfulness must be our boss, to anchor our community and relationships.  

What also greatly helps such relationships is to state clearly for what each is responsible and how not to step on the work of the other.   Also, it helps to state what choices we share and exactly how we will decide together.  For example, in our congregation as in most, there is a clear difference in most people’s minds between the minister and the board of trustees.  But if you read our bylaws you will see that I am automatically a member of the board, not as a trustee but as the minister.  So, what would it mean for me to hold me accountable for my ministry?  Am I on the board or not? Similar questions arise bout the relationship between the board and committees, especially when the same people serve on both.  Does the board control committees or are committees ruled by leaders, or by the congregation? Furthermore, if I am on a committee, can I be the boss of that committee? In the end, the question is if no one is in control of everything, then who is in control of specific things and who will back that person up or hold that person to account for their work? 

When I was in my second year of ministry, the small congregation I was serving had conflict. This caused a shortfall between the proposed budget and the results of the pledge drive.  A small group of people came to the board meeting where we were to decide what to do.  I am not going into all the reasons for it, but those people came with a written proposal that I be given a six-month contract, and if the money did not come in that time, I would be let go.  My response was to tell them that a ministerial call is not a job. They had called me because they wanted what a full-time minister could do for them.  Either they should commit to having a long-term, full-time minister, or admit that they did not want a minister and call a congregational meeting to dismiss me.  Half measures would not work.  Because I was clear, a middle-aged couple spoke up. I did not know these people very well. They came to worship but did little else because they had done it all for decades before I arrived. One said that the two of them knew the congregation well enough to know they had the resources to pay me. They also said that they would lead a second round of the pledge drive.  Then they got a few others to help and the net result was that I stayed and continued to serve them for a total of eight years. 

In the end it was not me alone, nor what I said that won the day. Nor was it that couple and their leadership alone. In the end it was the whole of the congregation, working together to make shared decisions that ended up growing the congregation by 10% and helping me be a successful minister. 

So, as we put one step in front of the other and go together in the light of a new day let love be our guide and let the clear light of reason illuminate our steps.  May we be clear about who does what, realizing that in the end we must all work together in harmony. Let us be told what to do only by the clear mind and the caring heart.  Our worship Companion, Cal Spengler, will now call for our offering and we will listen to a song written in November of 2016.  As the song says, “I know you’re scared / And I’m scared too / But here I am, / Right next to you. You gotta put one foot in front of the other / and Lead with love.”

Michael J. Crumpler

Continue reading "The UUA Celebrates the Biden Administration’s Support for Transgender Americans"

Join our Braver Angels Oklahoma Team! We need people to train as zoom event managers and as workshop moderators so we can do this work of transforming our uncivil war into civil conversations.

The post Braver Angels appeared first on BeyondBelief.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxtTtvFrM1c]

SERVICE NOTES

    WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 5050-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

    MUSIC CREDITS 

“Like a Mighty Stream” by Moses Hogan and John Jacobson. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano).  Permission to stream ASCAP song #420662082 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

“Morning Has Come” by Jason Shelton. Video created by Paul Thompson for the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse in Moscow, ID. (UUCP band). Video and song used by permission. 

“There Is More Love Somewhere,” trad. African American hymn. (Jess Huetteman, soprano). Video used by permission. Song Public Domain.

“Wake, Now, My Senses,” words: Thomas J.S. Mikelson, music: trad. Irish, harm. Carlton R. Young. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream the harmonization in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“Shine on Me,” trad. African American spiritual. (Melanie DeMore, 3-part vocals). Video used by permission. Song Public Domain.

“Lord, Don’t Move the Mountain,” words: Doris Akers, music: Mahalia Jackson. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano).  Permission to stream this ASCAP/BMI song in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

 “As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, words: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Public Domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

    OTHER NOTES

Call to Worship by the Rev. Shari Woodbury*

Time for All Ages by the Rev. Martha Dallas*

Video of Amanda Gorman reading “The Hill We Climb” courtesy of C-SPAN (license pending)

*permission secured through the UUA

**permission secured through Soul Matters

    OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for January is the Esperanza Shelter. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

    SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

Rev. John Cullinan
Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
Rick Bolton & Mike Begnaud, AV techs

Presented by Rev. John Cullinan, Tina DeYoe, and Nylea Butler-Moore

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwhzyghVyO0]

SERVICE NOTES

    WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 5050-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

    MUSIC CREDITS 

“I Have a Dream” by Benny Sigvard Andersson and Bjoern K. Ulvaeus. (Elisa Enriquez, vocals & ukulele). Permission to stream ASCAP song # 390341316 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” words: James Weldon Johnson, music: J. Rosamond Johnson. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Public Domain.       

“Precious Lord, Take My Hand” by Thomas A. Dorsey. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream ASCAP song # 903121321 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

“Come, Children of Tomorrow,” words: Zona Gale, music: Valentin Schumann’s Geistliche Lieder, 1539, harm: Hans Leo Hassler. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Public Domain.

“Come Sunday” from Black, Brown, and Beige by Duke Ellington. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream ASCAP song # 330078081 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770. 

“A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” by Bob Dylan. (Elisa Enriquez, vocals & ukulele). Permission to stream SESAC song # 514728 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

“As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, words: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Public Domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

    OTHER NOTES

Call to Worship by Christian Schmidt*

Prayer by Audette Fulbright*

“A Letter From Martin” was originally delivered by the Rev. John Cullinan at the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos on January 14, 2018.

*permission secured through the UUA
**permission secured through Soul Matters

    OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for January is the Esperanza Shelter. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

    SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

Rev. John Cullinan
Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
Elisa Enriquez, vocals & ukulele
Rick Bolton & Mike Begnaud, AV techs

One thing that makes humans human is our ability to conceive of a future and move toward it. But what happens when our picture of the future is too unclear? How do we move out of a permanent sense of being in liminal space? Part one of our dive into January’s theme of “Imagination.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LkayqrTw3o]

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.
For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 5050-662-2346. 
Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos
Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

• “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy. (Yelena Mealy, piano.) Public Domain.
• “The Morning Hangs a Signal,” words: William Channing Gannett, music: William Lloyd. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Public Domain.
• “Find a Stillness,” text: Carl G. Seaburg, music: Transylvanian hymn tune, harm. by Larry Phillips. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Used by permission.
• “I Seek the Spirit of a Child,” words: Carol G, Seaburg, music: trad. English melody, arr. and harmony by Ralph Vaughan Williams. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Permission to stream song #127501 in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
• First movement exposition from Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191 by Antonín Dvořák. (Ursula Coe, cello & Yelena Mealy, piano).  Public Domain.
• Sarabande from Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009 by J.S. Bach. (Ursula Coe, cello).  Public Domain.
• “As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, words: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Public Domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

OTHER NOTES

Call to Worship by Sharon Wylie*

Reading by Ashley Horan**

*permission secured through the UUA
**permission secured through Soul Matters

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for January is the Esperanza Shelter. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

• Rev. John Cullinan
• Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
• Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
• Yelena Mealy, pianist
• Ursula Coe, cellist
• Rick Bolton & Mike Begnaud, AV techs

Erin J. Walter

Continue reading "Keep Singing"

Since the bricks-and mortar congregation I serve first affirmed that Black Lives Matter and hung a banner with those words, we have had a steady stream of push-back to that phrase.

 Most of the people who object do so in anonymous letters and phone calls, and most of them argue that we should affirm instead that “all lives matter.” This is the public response I wrote to those people. Perhaps you, too, will find this helpful.

Of course all lives matter to us. Respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person is the very first principle of Unitarian Universalism. And yet, all lives are not equally threatened by violence in our society. To simply state that “all lives matter” ignores the very real inequities faced by many.

It is easy to issue a blanket condemnation of all violence. It is harder to realize that a good deal of that violence is tied to systems and institutions that must be changed or dismantled.

It is easy to say that all relationships should be free of violence. It is harder to understand that the victims of domestic violence are overwhelmingly women, and that the misogyny in our society contributes to every blow.

It is easy to say that all children are precious. It is harder to understand that LGBTQ+ youth are given such negative messages about their self worth that they are six times more likely than straight or cisgender youth to attempt suicide.

It is easy to say that we value a diverse society with people from all nations and ethnicities. It is harder to understand the anti-immigrant bigotry behind calls to separate and isolate poorer, browner schools filled with children of immigrants from wealthier (and mostly white) ones.

It is also easy to say that no one should be shot dead for a broken taillight. It is harder to understand that systemic racism leads us to a reality where unarmed Black men are seven times more likely than unarmed white men to be killed by police in a traffic stop.

I do not blame individual officers for this. I would imagine that there are very few police officers who signed up for their jobs with the explicit intent to perpetuate the racism built into our society. And yet, once you look at the reality of policing in this country, it’s clear that is overwhelmingly what is happening. The white supremacy baked into our society is endemic also in institutions given power and weapons by our state.

“Black Lives Matter” is a declaration that an emergency exists, not a statement that we value one race more than another. The emergency is that the lives of our Black siblings are being taken at an alarming rate in a society that systematically devalues them. The killing must stop. The dehumanization must stop.

All lives cannot matter until Black lives matter.

“Darling, the body is a guest house;
Every morning, someone new arrives.”
— jalal ad-din rumi

I do not espouse the theology that “everything happens for a reason.” I simply just don’t believe that. I don’t believe that pain and sorrow in our lives is deserved, even if it is a part of the universal human condition.

I don’t believe that suffering is redemptive or that God (or any other larger purpose) calls us to endure it. Too much damage has been done to people’s lives because of the belief that passively accepting pain and suffering purifies our souls and makes us worthy in the eyes of the divine. Way too much damage.

I do, however, believe that the hardships of our life can be opportunities for spiritual growth. To paraphrase Rumi, 13th century Persian mystic and poet, sometimes sorrow is a guest that sweeps our house clean so that joy may enter. Listening to our pain and learning from it is not the same as letting it take us over. Of course, we have to learn how to encourage the guests of sorrow, malice, and meanness to move on when they’ve overstayed their welcome.

The practice of moving through a labyrinth is very much a process of opening ourselves to feeling whatever is present for us, learning from them, and then releasing those things. You begin the process with an open mind—sometimes with a question, sometimes with an ache in your heart, sometimes with uncertainty, but always with an open mind.

As you make your way through the winding pathway towards the center, you must pay attention. To the lines. To the twists and turns. To lose that attention is to get lost in the labyrinth—it is the only way you can get lost, actually, since it’s just one pathway.

And keeping that attention with an open mind allows in the guests. Some of them—like the guests of joy and companionship and community—are ones we want. Some of them—grief, sadness, despair—are ones we didn’t invite but have to learn from anyway.

And then you get to the center.

In the center of the labyrinth is a chance to pause. A chance to sit with the guests that have come into your soul during your journey. A chance to listen to what they have to tell you. And a chance to make peace with the fact that they’re visiting you.

After whatever time you need to do this, you make your way out, following the same, solitary, serpentine path. The way out requires the same focus as the way in. And that focus signals to our guests that it is time for some of them to move on. I have found that moving through a labyrinth on a regular basis is a clearing, cleansing, and balancing ritual for my spirit.

The finger labyrinth included in this issue of Quest can be a spiritual practice you use anywhere you can have a piece of paper. Rather than walk or roll through a large labyrinth set on the ground, trace the line with your finger. The intention is the same. The practice is the same. I hope our Quest labyrinth allows you some measure of balance in your spiritual life.

How to use a Finger Labyrinth

1. If you can, try to find a quiet spot where you can sit down and put the labyrinth on a flat surface.
2. Sit still and quietly until you can focus just on the labyrinth. If you have the option, you could try ringing a chime, playing calming music, or humming a single note.
3. Start with your finger where the path opens to the outside of the labyrinth. As slowly and carefully as you can, trace your finger over the white path, until you get to the open space in the center of the labyrinth. Take your time; it can be hard to keep your place on the path.
4. If you wish, when you are tracing your finger along the path, you can try to focus your mind on thanks, regret or hope. Or, allow your mind to find its own focus for your meditation.
5. Pause when you get to the center of the labyrinth. When you’re ready, follow the same path back out. How did it feel to go on this journey?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRfT0UvVP94]

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

“Angels We Have Heard on High (in Bulgarian Rhythm),” trad. French carol, arr. Larry Shackley. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano).  Permission to stream the arrangement in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” 13th-century plainsong, adapt. by Thomas Helmore, arr. Matt Hyzer.  (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream the arrangement in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“There’s a Song in the Air,” words: Josiah G. Holland, music: Karl P. Harrington, arr. Matt Hyzer.  (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream the arrangement in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“Gabriel’s Message,” trans. Sabine Baring-Gould, music: trad. Basque carol, arr. Edgar Pettman. (Coro de Cámara; Nylea Butler-Moore, Artistic Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Public Domain.

“Once, as I Remember,” words: G.R. Woodward, music: trad. Italian carol, arr. Charles Wood. (UCLA Choir; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Used by permission of Choral Public Domain Library (http://www.cpdl.org).

“Puer Natus in Bethlehem,” op. 118, no. 6, words: 13th-century Latin, music: Josef Gabriel Rheinberger. (Jess Cullinan & Nora Cullinan, vocalist; Yelena Mealy, pianist). Used by permission of music editor Douglas J. Walczak and Choral Public Domain Library (http://www.cpdl.org).

“See Amid the Winter’s Snow,” words: Edward Caswall, music: John Goss. (UCLA Choir; Soloists Kathy Gursky & Kelly Shea; Yelena Mealy, pianist; Nylea Butler-Moore, Artistic Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Used by permission of Choral Public Domain Library (http://www.cpdl.org).

“Silent Night,” words: Joseph Mohr, vs. 1-3 trans. John F. Young, vs. 4 trans. anon., music: Franz Gruber. (Jess Cullinan & Nora Cullinan, vocalists; Tyler Taylor, guitar). Public Domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

WORSHIP NOTES

Call to Worship written by the Rev. Gretchen Haley

Special thanks to all our members and friends who shared their gifts with us for our Home Movie Pageant:
    Nylea & Kyle Butler-Moore
    Jess, John, & Nora Cullinan
    Tina DeYoe
    Kelly Dolejsi
    Elisa, Sofia, & Andy Enriquez
    Barb Fronzak
    Erin, Jake, Charlotte, & Emily Green
    Kathy Gursky
    Seb Koglin
    Renae & Nina Mitchell
    Susanna Naud
    Ann, Aspen, & Liam Payne-Reeves
    JeeYeon, Tate, & Linus Plohr
    Patricia Rathbone
    Kathryn Watts

Part one underscore: “Ave Maria” by Anton Bruckner. Performed by the U.S. Navy Sea Chanter. Recording in the public domain.

Part two underscore: “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” an English translation of a German carol, sung by the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own.” Recording in the public domain.

Part three underscore: “Gloria in Excelsis Deo,” from a 16th century Italian Mass. Performed by the Tudor Consort. Licensed under Creative Commons.

OFFERING

Our Christmas Eve offering is taken up on behalf of the Minister’s Discretionary Fund. The money collected tonight allows Rev. Cullinan to provide short term financial and practical assistance to members and friends of the congregation in need, and to people in the wider Los Alamos community. In 2020, thanks to your generosity, our minister has been able to provide assistance to people in great need for rent, utilities, and legal and medical fees. Our current pandemic conditions promise to create even greater need in the year to come. Please give as generously as you can. You can you’re your donation via the Givelify app on your mobile device, or using this link: https://giv.li/5jtcps. 

We will also accept checks at the church office. Please make checks out to “Unitarian Church of Los Alamos” and write “Christmas Eve” in the memo line. Checks can be dropped in person at our mailbox, or mailed to: Unitarian Church, 1738 N Sage St., Los Alamos, NM 87544

Thank you for your generous spirits.

THE UNITARIAN CHURCH WORSHIP TEAM

    Rev. John Cullinan, pastor
    Tina DeYoe, director of lifespan religious education
    Nylea Butler-Moore, director of music
    Worship Committee: Rebecca Howard, Ann Marsh, Sue Watts
    A/V Tech Team: Rick Bolton, Mike Begnaud

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPEAt1BI2c4]

Our virtual Winter Solstice celebration. Join us for reflections from some of our members and friends on the significance of the Solstice in their lives.

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

“Deck the Hall,” trad. Welsh carol, arr. Carol Tornquist.  (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream ASCAP song #40052139 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

“Rising Green” by Carolyn McDade, arr. Jim Scott.  (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano).  Used by permission.

“How Sweet the Darkness,” words: Rachel Bates, music: Jason Shelton.  (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano).  Used by permission.

“Chant for the Seasons,” words: Mark L. Belletini, music: Czech folk song, arr. Grace Lewis-McLaren. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Used by permission.

“Winter Solstice Song” by Béla Bartók (from For Children, Nr. 38, Sz 42, Book 1 (after Hungarian Folksongs). (Tate Plohr, piano). Public Domain.

“The Holly and the Ivy,” trad. English carol, arr. Chip Davis. (Valerie Collins, flute & Yelena Mealy, piano). Permission to stream SESAC song #57189 obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

“As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, words: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Public Domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

OTHER NOTES

Special thanks to:

JeeYeon Plohr for lighting our chalice

Amaya Coblentz, Kristine Coblentz, the Green family, & Rebecca Howard for sharing their Winter Solstice reflections.

“Round and Round the Earth Is Turning” is a traditional English folk song. The file with the sheet music can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/129Q2D54jX4cCdFzFEKBaJDYBw8BXBgSw/view?usp=sharing

The finger spiral for your home Solstice Celebration can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vs13GCBWAirdkjMBWwESI1cDzM_GVFe3/view?usp=sharing

Chalice Lighting Words by Cynthia Landrum**

Call to Worship by Annie Foerster**

Reading, “In Celebration of the Winter Solstice,” by Stephanie Noble**

    *permission secured through Soul Matters

    **permission secured through the UUA via WorshipWeb

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for December is Self Help, Inc. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

Rev. John Cullinan
Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
Tate Plohr, piano
Valerie Collins, flute & Yelena Mealy, piano
Rick Bolton & Mike Begnaud, AV techs

My headline is clickbait. There is no such thing as a perfect Advent, Hannukah, Solstice, Christmas or New Year. There never was. Instead of offering new tips, rituals, recipes, or plans, I suggest we all simply pay closer attention to what we have. Pay close attention … even to the pain of the holidays Being more mindful can make each day more vibrant, even as sunlight wanes. It can enliven what exists in the longer hours of darkness. It can make you aware of sorrows and losses. Experiencing and accepting the pain (No holiday is without it!) allows you to […]

The post How to Have a Perfect New Year appeared first on BeyondBelief.

My headline is clickbait. There is no such thing as a perfect Advent, Hannukah, Solstice, Christmas or New Year. There never was. Instead of offering new tips, rituals, recipes, or plans, I suggest we all simply pay closer attention to what we have. Pay close attention … even to the pain of the holidays Being more mindful can make each day more vibrant, even as sunlight wanes. It can enliven what exists in the longer hours of darkness. It can make you aware of sorrows and losses. Experiencing and accepting the pain (No holiday is without it!) allows you to […]

The post How to Have a Perfect Holiday appeared first on BeyondBelief.

The spirit of our consumer culture often sends a message demanding our busyness — even more so now in the era of “safer at home.” But we were not put here on Earth to be busy.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXtji6G5zCU]

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.
For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 
Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

• “Dark of Winter” by Shelley Jackson Denham. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Used by permission. 
• “Still, Still, Still,” trad. Austrian carol, arr. Chip Davis, transcription by Chuck Pennington. (Valerie Collins, flute & Yelena Mealy, piano.) Permission to stream SESAC song #145341 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.
• “Mother Spirit, Father Spirit” by Norbert F. Cǎpek, harm. David Dawson. (Yelena Mealy, piano & Anna Perlak, cello). Used by permission.
• “I Know This Rose Will Open” by Mary E. Grigolia. (Yelena Mealy, piano & Anna Perlak, cello). Used by permission.
• “Meditation on Breathing” by Sarah Dan Jones. (Tina DeYoe, vocals & Eric Schaller, percussion). Used by permission.
• “Traditions of Christmas,” Chip Davis, transcription by Chuck Pennington. (Valerie Collins, flute & Yelena Mealy, piano.) Permission to stream SESAC song #156904 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.
• “As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, words: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Public Domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

OTHER NOTES

• Call to Worship by Gretchen Haley*
• Prayer by Samuel A. Trumbore*
• Reading – from “The Holy Pause” by Christine Valters Paintner
• special thanks to Maura Taylor, Executive Director of Self Help, Inc., for the update video

*permission secured through Soul Matters

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for December is Self Help, Inc. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.
We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

• Rev. John Cullinan
• Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
• Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
• Yelena Mealy, piano
• Tina DeYoe, vocals & Eric Schaller, percussion
• Valerie Collins, flute
• Anna Perlak, cello
• Rick Bolton & Mike Begnaud, AV techs

Hope begins with honesty about what is real in this moment and yet it is not settled or complacent with the status quo. In this way hope involves living in this world without denying or escaping the present circumstances but with a strong sense of call and anticipation of something better.

The post Standing At The Gates of Hope appeared first on BeyondBelief.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3i5DrD_ynE]

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

We begin December’s theme of “Stillness” with some reflections on Advent and the importance of pausing amidst the rush.

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 5050-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

“The Ash Grove (Llwyn Onn),” trad. Welsh folk tune.  (Linus Plohr, violin).  Public Domain.

“People, Look East,” text: Eleanor Farjeon, music: trad. French carol, harm. by Martin Shaw. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream song #05431 in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“Find a Stillness,” text: Carl G. Seaburg, music: Transylvanian hymn tune, harm. by Larry Phillips. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Used by permission.

“Ring Out, Wild Bells,” text: Alfred Lord Tennyson, music: Percy Carter Buck. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano).  Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“Träumerei” from Kinderszenen, Op. 15, No. 7 by Robert Schumann. (JeeYeon Plohr, piano). Public Domain. 

“The Banks of the Allan,” trad. Scottish jig.  (Linus Plohr, violin).  Public Domain.

“As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, words: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Public Domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

OTHER NOTES

Call to Worship by Shari Woodbury*

Reading, “Silence,” by Steve Garnaas-Holmes*

     *permission secured through Soul Matters

THE HOME MOVIE CHRISTMAS PAGEANT

Take a verse from the Christmas Story and make it your own. Contribute a video clip to your DIY Home Movie pageant. Sign up by Wednesday, 12/9. Use this link: https://forms.gle/kA7m84Sd9N5G5yXP9

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for December is Self Help, Inc. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

Rev. John Cullinan
Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
Linus Plohr, violin
JeeYeon Plohr, piano 
Rick Bolton & Mike Begnaud, AV techs

Call to Action: Contact Governor Stitt in support of a mask mandate. Call to Caring: Write a note of encouragement and gratitude to the staff at our local hospitals during the holiday season to help lift their spirits. Senior Minister Rev. Marlin Lavanhar was interviewed on December 1 for a piece on the Governor’s call to “pray and fast” to stop the spread of Covid in our state. Here is what Marlin had to say about the interview. As you know, I’m all for praying… but I’m also for taking action.  America is facing the largest health crisis in living history […]

The post We Need More Than Prayer appeared first on BeyondBelief.

As I mentioned in a recent Midweek Message, December is both a wonderful and a stressful month for me. I love making the holiday season special both at home and in the church, and it brings me great joy to contribute to all of your holiday celebrations and memories, too. But the work that goes into holidays at the church each year is intense, and by the final “Amen” on Christmas Eve, I’m usually ready for a month’s vacation.

This year, I’m still looking forward to making holiday memories. But the stress is of a different kind: everything’s virtual, and traditions are upended. I’m hoping we can approximate the feeling without necessarily being in one another’s presence.

Event-wise, things will be pared down. I had hoped to host a socially distanced spiral walk for this year’s Solstice Celebration. However, given the ongoing infection spike in New Mexico and the uncertainty around what public health orders might be, I thought it best to scrap that plan. Instead, our Sunday video service for the 20th of this month will focus on the Solstice. I’ve invited some of our members and friends who find some significant meaning in the Winter Solstice to share their reflections with us that day.

We’ll have a virtual Christmas Eve service as well, with video made available starting at 5:00 pm on the 24th. I’ve already made announcements about the “Home Movie Pageant” that we’ll share as part of that service, taking the place of our typical DIY Pageant on the Sunday before Christmas. Nylea has been hard at work with the choir and other guest musicians to provide us with a lovely score for the evening. But, what’s really felt like a loss as I’ve been planning is the candlelight at the end as we sing “Silent Night.” It’s hard to replicate, but we’re going to give it a try.

And so, I’m asking for one last element of your participation in creating this year’s Christmas Eve service: a candlelight selfie. Get a photo of yourself, or one with your whole family, even, holding up a vigil candle in the dark. We have LED vigil candles available from the church if you need one, or hold up a taper candle of your own. Email your selfies to me, and we’ll work them into the end of the service as it comes to a close. It won’t be quite the same, but it’ll still be wonderful to see everyone’s faces as we draw to the end of a variation on a beloved tradition.

~~~~~

This year’s Christmas Eve service will also have a special collection taken up for the Minister’s Discretionary Fund. The Discretionary Fund allows me the flexibility to help people in the community in need who might not have other options with a one-time emergency gift. This past year, thanks to your yearly generosity, I have been able to give away over $2000 in rent and utility assistance, as well as helping with legal and medical expenses. I hope you’ll consider another gift to the Fund this Christmas. We’ll be opening up electronic giving via our Givelify account in the week leading up to Christmas Eve. If you’d rather make a donation by check, you can drop one off in the church’s mailbox. Please make it out to the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos and write “Christmas Eve” or “Minister’s Discretionary Fund” in the memo line.

Thank you! And may what you give bring you great joy this Christmas.

Rev. John Cullinan

Hello, I am the Pandemic Elf. I am your trail guide through the Holiday Path winding through the Pandemic Forest. My job is to point out detours, sinkholes, and other dangers so they don't catch you unawares. 

Today's issue: Holiday Movies!

The tradition is our family is that the first holiday show to watch is the How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The original and the best, the 1/2 hour long special voiced by Boris Karloff. It is so much our family tradition that when my son was a senior in high school, and way too cool for family things, I jokingly asked him if he wanted us to wait for him the next year (when he would be away at college.) He sort of smirked and said nothing as we watched it. Then that night, as he headed for bed, he paused at the foot of the stairs. "Wait for me," he said softly. 

We settled in, after our Thanksgiving dinner, for this year's viewing. Aforementioned son, now 24, was staying away because he is a very good and ethical citizen, and takes Dr. Fauci's advice seriously. 

But the rest of us watched the beautiful little morality play about how Christmas doesn't come from a store, it's all about being together with people you care about, holding hands in one giant circle and singing. Fah who foraze! Dah who doraze!

Well, ____ (insert expletive of your choice).

Well, THAT is kind of ironic. The three things you really MUST. NOT. DO. in this time of covid-19 are as follows, and I quote: 

1. Be together with others.

2. Hold hands.

3. Sing with others.

Stink! Stank! Stunk! 

Later on in the weekend, we watched Elf. The message wasn't quite as ironic, but both The Husband and I expressed discomfort at watching Jovie and Buddy walk, carefree and joyous, through the crowds of New York. It's just impossible, I think for most of us to suspend our disbelief. I mean, an elf from the North Pole, Santa and his sleigh ... completely believable. I mean, even narwhals are real, so I've been told, though I'm still a little doubtful. 

But walking through a crowd, no one wearing a mask? It looks ... naked. Unsafe. Like watching someone on a roller coaster without the safety bar pulled down. 

Sigh. 

Look, the movies were all made in the Before Times. And so prepare to be pulled up a little short. To be reminded that what we are living in right now is decidedly not normal. 

When you are ready to face that full-on, and maybe even deal a little with your grief about how hard this is, grab a box of tissues, plan a pity party, and watch Meet Me in St. Louis. 

This is the musical that the wonderful song, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" comes from. I have had issues with the sanitized version of the song for many years ... and 2020 is the YEAR THAT PROVES ME RIGHT ON THIS. 

Because the words as they are sung in the movie are exactly what are needed this year. It's like the song was written by someone who was living in 2020 and had a time machine and went back in time to give it to Judy Garland. 

Are you ready for this? 

Got tissues? 

I preached from this sermon manuscript online for the Universalist National Memorial Church, on November 22, 2020 using lessons from the Revised Common Lectionary: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 and Matthew 25:31-46.

Good morning and thanks to Pastor Dave Gatton for inviting me back to the pulpit and for you welcoming me.

The kingdom of God is such a basic Christian concept that sometimes it goes without careful examination. After a while, with our private thoughts, we might end up assuming entirely different concepts, some colored by cultural norms or personal desires. I'd like to defend us against that today, by dealing with some of the assumptions and conflicts we have when talking about, understanding and living in the kingdom of God. In the process I hope we will approach the kingdom of God not just as an idea of something to anticipate, but also participate in it as a practical reality today.

And it helps if we can consider this together. A kingdom, if anything, is communal. It's a political polity centered on a particular personality, and extended through family relationships. The kingdom of God is centered on our relationships with God, individual and collective.

But kingdom is a concept that's practically alien to us. Even a hundred years ago much of the world lived in kingdoms or in colonies subject to kingdoms. Some of those monarchs were constrained by parliaments or a shared authority, and others weren't. Some survive today, but they are the minority, and most of those are practical democracies.

It's easy then, perhaps a bit too easy, to speak of kings and queens and princes and princesses with a childlike glee or tasteful nostalgia; Disney has done its damage. While monarchies fell over the twentieth century, some were revived in order to bring about national unity (I'm thinking of Spain and Cambodia particularly) and proposed in other places. For the most part though, at least formally, more of the world is governed by the consent of the government than at any time in history. And recent events show how fragile and important this concept is. Making that work politically, while holding an idea of a divine kingdom religiously takes some work.

Why? Because attaining the kingdom of God can become an excuse for human beings to take on the divine prerogative in governing the world. Dystopian fiction (The Handmaid's Tale comes to mind) and real-life theocratic terror organizations (the so-called Islamic State, for instance) show that the kingdom of God can be made an ideological weapon. The profound moral collapse of organized Evangelicalism in the Trump administration rekindles fears of theocracy overcoming democracy in our governance. I can't blame anyone for resisting when religious people talk about God's plans for the world, myself included.

So we should be circumspect, perhaps cautious, not only for our neighbors' sake, but for our own as we approach the Almighty, who surely knows the hearts of would-be demigods and self-appointed spokespersons. For God has challenged prophets with power. Can we make life? Do we control the seasons or the rising of the sun and the setting of the same? Do our governments and still wonder and laughter? Do rulers comfort the inner soul?

The kingdom of God touches this world but is not restricted to it. And so as Christians we need to be careful to distinguish between what's God's and what belongs to the common human family, whether Christian or not.

But theocratic overreach is not only a problem with right wing and authoritarian power.

There's a temptation in liberal political and theological circles, even though these are different if someone overlapping things. That is, to hope for the kingdom of God without God, or to assume it would be more appealing if were described publicly as a strictly human endeavor. The twentieth-century rise of religious humanism made this transformation complete.

The problem is that there is no appeal to a higher authority when we start confusing what we like and what we esteem with what is actually good.

There's a little example from the history of our own church. Each week, we recite the declaration of faith that our church adopted a few years ago. It was based on a denomination declaration of faith from 1899, which itself was an authoritative interpretation of a statement of faith from 1803. (You'll hear more about these some other time.) The funny thing is that there was a denominational statement developed after 1899, the Washington Declaration of 1935, as an interpretation of the interpretation, updated for the modern age. As the name suggests was adopted by a convention in our own city: at the then-new Mayflower Hotel on Connecticut Avenue, to be exact. (There were religious services at our then-new church building.) But even thought it was officially adopted in the denomination, as far as I can tell it was never used (or used regularly) by our own church. I suspect because it was over-optimistic, a last gasp of pre-World War One, pre-pandemic, pre-ecomomic collapse theology, being sold in the depth of the Great Depression to local church members, some of which were surely in government service or came to town with the New Deal. (I remember of the last, now gone almost twenty years.)

The 1935 declaration declared as an essential feature of Universalist faith, belief in

the power of men of good-will and sacrificial spirit to overcome evil and progressively establish the Kingdom of God.

Certainly some people do good, but this affirmation (in context) suggest a concerted, almost tidal effort to overcome the past and enter a new age by the work of our own hands on God's behalf. We did not march shoulder to shoulder into the dawn. The Second World War and particularly the Holocaust, and other horrors enacted by a set of equally dedicated men put that misplaced hope to rest.

But kingdom isn't the only concept for us to work with, as we turn to today's lessons.

How many of us work regularly with sheep and goats?

I think the closest I get is a goat cheese sandwich. I have a friend who had a flock of goats come over to eat up the weeds in her backyard, and that was such a strange but delightfully comic situation that she took video to share. You might know something about their little square eyes and horns, or the different kind of sheep and the wool they produce but these are optional things to learn today. In Jesus' time, sheep and goats were central to the economy and therefore well-being of the people who heard him. They knew these beasts.

We can infer from the gospel lesson that sheep and goats are not well-behaved. There's only so much grass to be eaten. The pushy sheep gets more. The domineering sheep eats. So a big sheep is a metaphor for someone who takes at the expense of others. Jesus taught his that the kingdom of God inverts our expectations. In those days, God will push aside the greedy and give good things to those who have gone without. This relies on God's purpose and will, an eternal intention, and not our own. If we correspond to God's ways, we will see the rightness of living in goodness, and put aside our own pushy, domineering ways. The more selfish and domineering, the more violent and cruel the more there is to give up. But the final say is God's. This is what we should understand when we hear threatening of "eternal punishment." This is punishment from the Eternal, namely God. And I trust God will act with justice befitting deity and not a human tyrant.

How will this change take place? That part is less clear. Some of it will surely happen in God's ineffable and eternal way. But the fact that the prophets proclaimed this, that Mary sang it, that Jesus preached it but that for millennia even the richest and most powerful people in the world have not expunged it — indeed, some having been transformed by it — gives me hope. I believe the kingdom of God will be revealed to us individually and collectively. Our portion is not to construct it, but to anticipate it. As Jesus said, "the kingdom of God is within you" so how shall it be known and released.

How then? Conscience has a role, as does teaching the young and advising the mature. Societies have a role in constraining the violent and viscous. We better identify it by reflection and prayer. Be patient for it.

I suspect that patience is the last thing some of you want to give. What makes the last four years so hard is to think about all of the progress that we had made be reversed or destroyed. We've lost four years on a very quickly winding down climate clock, and I'm worried that future courts can undo lifetimes of work in a flash. Time, when gone, doesn't get a do-over. Also, the current crisis over the truth is very troubling. Elections come and go, but whether people can be trusted to see the good and do it depends on them understanding the truth and doing it. People resisting masks because they think it's a conspiracy or thinking that that QAnon might be true or that the president actually won reelection all discourages me gravely. But human nature comes with its own set of self-deceptions and I know that I've not been true to the facts, have chosen something that benefits me over others and I might finesse it in ways that make it sound like less than self-benefit. Mask-denying conspiracy-theory grievance-seeking neighbors are doing something bad and ultimately destructive, but I'm not immune to this way of thinking and acting and neither are you.

Patience, seeking and the understanding that follows is a better place to stand. So the kingdom of God, as an ideal rather than a lived reality, depends on us knowing that our actions are always approximate and tinged with failure.

We keep it as an ideal, in part because we trust God, but also knowing that our contributions have to be tested, reviewed and open to criticism. What seems right in the moment will have consequences, and many of them unintended. We wish to do good but will often find the easiest way to accomplish it even if the results are not very desirable. Think about all the wasted recycling that props up a plastics industry that never believed in it. Or think about all of the tailors in low in middle-income countries put out of work because of floods of used clothing from rich countries. Our good intentions are not enough. Our plans are not enough. We need that spiritual core that guides us with care towards the good.

Dearly beloved: the kingdom of God is within you. Within you, but hidden yet ready to grow. The law of God exists, but is not written on our hearts. The age which is to be is present to the Eternal One, but is so distant from us as to be distorted, or at best seen in fleeting glimpses.

But do not despair. Day by day, if we are careful, caring and kind, we shall make more sense of the promises God has made for us.

God bless us today and forever more.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvTE668iEGc]

“We give thanks for the gifts and graces, large and small, that we have received . . .”

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 505-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

“Come, Thou Fount,” from John Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, Part II, 1813, arr. Larry Shackley. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Permission to stream the arrangement in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“Give Thanks,” words: Anonymous, music: William Caldwell’s Union Harmony, 1837. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Public Domain.

“The Lone, Wild Bird,” words: H.R. MacFayden, music: William Walker’s Southern Harmony, 1835. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Public Domain.

“Now Thank We All Our God,” words: Martin Rinkart, trans: Catherine Winkworth, music: Johann Crüger. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Public Domain.

“We Gather Together,” words: Dorothy Caiger Senghas & Robert E. Senghas, music: Adrian Valerius’s Nederlandtsch Gedenckclanck, arr. Edward Kremser. (UCLA Choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Words used by permission. music Public Domain.

“Give Thanks” by Henry Smith, arr. Mark Hayes. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Permission to stream song #370218336 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

“As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, music: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA Choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Public Domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

OTHER NOTES

Call to Worship by Laura Horton-Ludwig**
Prayer by Naomi King**
Reading, “More Than We Deserve,” by Robert R. Walsh**
(music in reading: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 (Allegro) – J.S. Bach; recording in the public domain via WikiCommons)

*permission granted through Soul Matters
** permission granted through the UUA

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for November is the Roadrunner Food Bank. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

Rev. John Cullinan
Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
Yelena Mealy, Pianist
Rick Bolton & Mike Begnaud, AV techs

We are a divided nation. But that is not unusual. The recent election did not create the divisions; it just made them more evident. Neither division itself nor the differences among us are really our problem, because beneath and beyond all of our differences there are some things that unite us as Americans and as human beings. Or at least, there are some basic values that ought to unite us. I am not talking about what makes America great, but about what makes America work. Democracy has been called the worst form of government, except for all the other forms […]

The post A Nation Divided Can Certainly Stand appeared first on BeyondBelief.

I know, I usually post poems and sermons and other churchy things. But sometimes it’s fun to take a break and share about my other obsession: shows. This post was inspired by a question by a church member, who asked for suggestions of 30 minute shows on Hulu or Netflix. I’ve been meaning to do a shows suggestion post for a while…so….why not now?!

Thirty minute shows can really hit the spot. Low commitment. Fast pace. With comediies, you get a quick fix of joy and laughter. And the rare 30 minute drama often means a quick fix of brilliant editing and focus. There are tons of great 30 minute shows to watch right now, but here are 15 that I really love, all currently streaming on Netflix or Hulu.

1. Atypical (3 Seasons Netflix) Even though technically the main character is neuro-atypical young adult Sam, I love every character on this show. It’s a beautiful, funny, heart-wrenching story of familly, marriage, and growing up.

2. Atlanta (2 Seasons, FX on Hulu) Everything about this show is brilliant! The story centers on Earn, who is a little lost, but is trying to make a go as a manager for his cousin Paper Boi after he has a sudden big hit. But really, it’s a story of race and America, of what it means to be a man in America, a Black man. It’s subtle, and innovative and brilliantly funny. Seriously, watch it.

3. The Good Place (4 Seasons, Netflix) An extremely Unitarian Universalist take on the after life. The truth of this won’t become clear until a few seasons in, so you’ll have to trust me. It’s funny, smart, and surprisingly wholesome. First best season finale in my memory.

4. Schitt’s Creek (5 Seasons, Netflix) A bratty, superficial rich family loses all their money and ends up in a dead-end town living in a motel. Yes, it starts with some old tropes and some extremely unlikable characters, but this is a redemption story wrapped in a love story held together by dry humor and bananas costume design. Second best series finale I can remember.

5. Dear White People (3 Seasons, Netflix) I’ve written about this show before (in one of my post-sabbatical reflections). It’s a sharp, fun, easy to watch story of Sam, a biracial college student who hosts a radio show called, “Dear White People.” Sam’s story is at the center, but along the way it offers a compelling look into identity and race on college campuses (and across America) today.

6. Russian Doll (1 Season, Netflix) Natasha Lyonne is back! TBH I’d watch her in anything. But this just happens to be an awesome, trippy, smart show, that is also a little groundhog’s day throwback. I’m not sure I totally buy the ending, but the way there is totally worth it, I promise.

7. Pen15 (2 Seasons, Hulu) Speaking of weird shows. This Hulu gem is non stop cringe, but in the best way! Mostly because the (adult) actors – Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle – are all in for a real and hard telling of middle school life in the late 90s/early 2000s. Erskine is so fearless in her acting, I can’t look away. One of the best stories of tween/teen best friends and how so much can be survived if you just have a best friend to turn to.

8. GLOW (3 Seasons, Netflix) Did you watch women’s wrestling in the 1980s? No?? Don’t worry it’s not a requirement to enjoy this funny, smart re-telling of the strange and amazing world of women’s wrestling (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling to be exact). I have read so many reviews about how people love Betty Gilpin, but I’m here for Alison Brie who plays the determined main character Ruth. I’m only bummed that we won’t get to see where she and the ladies all end up because GLOW won’t get the last season it had planned. Stupid COVID!

9. Grace & Frankie (6 Seasons, Netflix) I was a little skeptical of this show when it first started because I so don’t buy the connection between Sol and Robert, but by the end of the second season I was hooked. I’m so glad I stuck with hit because it ended up being a singular portrayal of female friendship, older adult sexuality, and older adulthood period. Not to mention Jane Fonda is stunning and vulnerable and I Grace more than maybe any other character ever. It almost makes me forget how unbelievable I still find the chemistry between Sol and Robert….almost…

10. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (4 Seasons, Netflix) Funny and smart with also a twinge of tragic – if you like Tina Fey’s sense of humor you’ll probably love this show about a 29 year old who was rescued from a kidnapper/cult leader after 15 years believing the world had ended. Supposedly it’s a story of Kimmy’s growth and self-discovery, but ultimately it’s a story of how it’s never late for any of us to find and claim our own path of joy and meaning. All that sounds pretty serious – really it’s mostly justa fun, silly enjoyable show.

11. Gentefied (1 Season – so far – Netflix) I gobbled up this funny, real show about Boyle Heights, a neighborhood in east LA becoming gentrified, and the Mexican American residents who are trying to figure out whether and how to embrace the changes to their community. I found the whole complex portrayal of gentrification really honest, and so appreciated the representation of the Latinx community.

12. Shrill (2 Seasons – so far – Hulu) I debated about whether to leave this show on the list or not because there are some things about it that leave me a little mixed. But ultimately, Aidy Bryant’s performance as Annie Easton, as she tries to gain the confidence and self-understanding to see herself as worthy of love and respect keeps me coming back. It’s why the second season wasn’t quite as compelling for me – because it was that early journey that really hooked me. But still, I kept with it because it remained fun and Bryant is fun….we’ll see about a third season.

13. Younger (6 Seasons, 1 to go – Hulu) Don’t judge me for loving this show until you try it! The premise is unbelievable – a 40something (Liza) who can’t get a job passes herself off as 20something. And also it’s genuinely annoying how clueless they make Liza about social media, while on the other hand saying can drink with the 20somethings without gaining weight…..but other than that – this is a really fun show with charismatic acting all around. It’s a show that feels like the actors really love working together, and love making the show.

14. Better Things (4 Seasons, 1 to go – Hulu) – Sidenote, this is the third show on my list with a main character Sam! Weird. Anyway, this Sam is totally different than the others, and different than a lot of the characters on TV. She’s a single mom to three girls, and she struggles in normal, honest, complex ways. But also she’s a lifelong actress in her fifties who is insecure, headstrong, anxious, and clear. This show started off as a collaboration between the lead acress – Pamela Adlon – and her good friend Louis CK. But then CK had the awful #MeToo moment, and Adlon took the whole thing over on her own. Which feels really fitting for this feminist, determined, headstrong show that tells about women’s lives.

15. Fresh Off the Boat (6 Seasons, Hulu) – If you didn’t catch this show when it was running on ABC, you can catch up now on Hulu. Our family watched it together – making it the rare show that held all of our attention! It’s the story of the Huang family who are all clueless and dorky in ways we could relate to, and also who had the particular challenges of moving from Chinatown to Orlando and suddenly being the only Taiwanese American family around. Like all middle aged white queer women I know, I am 100% in love with Constance Wu (who plays mom Jessica) and Louis (Randall Park) is so endearing in his love for his BBQ steakhouse. We also all loved Eddie (oldest child, played by Hudson Yang) who loves hip hop and struggles the most to comply with his mother’s traditional Taiwanese expectations. The whole series is charming, smart, and entertaining. Not to mention a rare telling of Asian American immigrants on mainstream TV.

Hello, I am the Pandemic Elf. I am your trail guide through the Holiday Path winding through the Pandemic Forest. My job is to point out detours, sinkholes, and other dangers so they don't catch you unawares. 

First up: MUSIC! 

So I was hurtling down TX-130 (literally - the speed is 80, and judging by the vehicles around me, that's a minimum speed) to meet my best friend, the BFF-DRE, in La Grange, which is more or less the middle point between her house in Houston and mine in Austin. I turned on a Spotify playlist of songs from Firestone Christmas albums which some dear soul compiled to kind of jump-start my holiday spirit. 

Oh my. 

Oh my my my. 

This is not 2019. Things are different this year. 

As each song came on, I couldn't help but talk back to them, and rather sardonically: 

♪ It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! 
    Yeah, dude, but this is 2020. Pretty low bar.

♪ Here We Come a Caroling ...
    Ack! You're not wearing a mask! And singing in one of the biggest ways to spread covid! (slams door)

♪ City sidewalks, busy sidewalks ...
    Nope. No, they're not. And if they are, they shouldn't be. Call your governor and demand lockdown. 

    I can't recognize anyone I know under these masks. And saying hello = potential transmission.

♪ I'll be home for Christmas, you can plan on me.

    (Bursts into tears.)

So, forewarned is forearmed. When listening to the classic songs of yore (yore=every year before 2020), you have three choices: 

1) Laugh out loud and mock those lyrics which SO do not work in this time of Pandemic; 

2) Ignore the pandemic, and be transported to pre- or post-covid world; 

3) Cry.

Frankly, all the choices are good ones. I intend on a carefully orchestrated combination, depending on the song and what I'm feeling in any given moment. 

Interesting note to my religious liberal friends. You know who you are. The ones reading ahead in the hymnal to see if you agree with the next line, ready to quibble over word choices: 

The songs that still work this year are actually the religious ones. Silent Night and Hark the Herald Angels Sing and O Little Town of Bethlehem. So listen away. Use your universal translator and translate Jesus or Baby or King into something that gives you hope, maybe Dr. Fauci or Stacey Abrams or Ron Klain or Cyrus Vance. 

Let every heart prepare him room. 

Or just enjoy the metaphor of a baby being born into a scary, unjust world who would grow up to talk about peace and healing people and loving your neighbor and overthrowing corrupt systems. 

How do circles of family & friends help us in the process of healing?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMXhc3o3VAQ]

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.
For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 5050-662-2346. 
Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos
Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

• “Reach Out and Touch” by Charles F. Brown. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Permission to stream ASCAP song #480094066 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.
• “O Life That Maketh All Things New,” words: Samuel Longfellow, music” Thomas Williams’s Psalmodia Evangelica, 1789. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Public Domain.
• “Gathered Here” by Philip A. Porter.  (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano).  Used by permission.
• “Meditation on Breathing” by Sarah Dan Jones. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Used by permission.
• “We Can Be Kind” by David Friedman. (Nylea Butler-Moore, vocals & piano). Permission to stream ASCAP song #530413615 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.
• “You’ve Got a Friend” by Carole King. (Nylea Butler-Moore, vocals & piano). Permission to stream ASCAP song #550067104 in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.
• “As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, words: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA Choir & Yelena Mealy, pianist; Nylea Butler-Moore, Music Director; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer.) Public Domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

OTHER NOTES

• Thanks to Renae Mitchell and family for their chalice lighting. 
• Call to Worship by the Rev. Joan Javier-Duval*
• Prayer by the Rev. Lisa Friedman**
• “Arm’s Length: Acts of Love in the Covid Era” by Karen G. Johnston**
• Reading: “Mending” by the Rev. Nancy Shaffer**

*permission granted through Soul Matters
** permission granted through the UUA

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for November is the Roadrunner Food Bank. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

• Rev. John Cullinan
• Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
• Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
• Rick Bolton & Mike Begnaud, AV techs

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3MVOJb9sJM]

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!

New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.

For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 5050-662-2346. 

Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos

Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

“Song without Words,” op. 30, no. 3 (“Consolation”) by Felix Mendelssohn, arr. Eric Thomas. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Permission to stream this arrangement obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“My Life Flows on in Endless Song” by Robert Lowry. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Public Domain.

“I Know This Rose Will Open” by Mary E. Grigolia. (Yelena Mealy, piano). Used by permission.

“What Wondrous love Is This,” American folk hymn, arr. Eric Daub.  (Yelena Mealy, piano). Permission to stream this arrangement obtained from ONELICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

“Autumn Leaves,” original French lyrics: Jacques Prévert, English lyrics: Johnny Mercer, music: Joseph Kosma; arr. Aaron Anderson & Joy Charles.  (Joy Charles, cello & Aaron Anderson, piano). Permission to stream this music obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770.

“Blackberry Blossom,” trad. fiddle tune; arr. Aaron Anderson & Joy Charles. (Joy Charles, cello & Aaron Anderson, piano). Public domain.

“As We Leave This Friendly Place,” words: Vincent B. Silliman, words: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Rick Bolton, AV Engineer). Public Domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.

Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

OTHER NOTES

Reading by members of Rising Appalachia (permission granted by authors)

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for November is the Roadrunner Food Bank, [blurb]. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.

We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

Rev. John Cullinan
Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
Yelena Mealy, piano
Joy Charles, cello & Aaron Anderson, piano
Rick Bolton & Mike Begnaud, AV techs

Today I was reminded again by the UU World of the great loss to all UUs everywhere by the death of Elandria Williams. May we all carry on and fulfil the best of her legacy.

https://www.uuworld.org/articles/elandria-williams-obituary

I was talking with a friend today about proto-Universalist George De Benneville and asking him if he knew about his mystical experience. He had, but hadn't read the account. I had it on my websites for years, but also realized my copy had errors it it. I quickly compared it to a 1882 reprint and I corrected my old file against it. In the two places where the versions diverse, I put my old version in brackets. There's also a long section in the 1882 version that's duplicated, presumbly a mistake, which I've silently removed.

I've also made an EPUB version of the document.

I'm not ready to fix my old sites, so I'm putting it here in the meantime.

Life and Trance of George deBenneville

An account of what he saw and heard during a trance of forty-two hours, both in the regions of happiness and misery; together with a short account of his cruel persecutions in France for preaching the Gospel. Translated from the French of his own manuscript.

I, George De Benneville, was born in London, July 26th, 1703. My father George De Benneville was a French refugee, persecuted for his religion. He retired with his family and connections into England upon the invitation of his majesty King William, who took a tender care of them, and employed them at his court.

My mother was of the Granville family. She had nine children in five years after marriage, having twins four years successively, and I being the last, she died as soon as I was born. She knew that she should die at that time, and therefore she was very often drawn whilst she was pregnant, to pray for me, and it appears that the Lord heard her prayers and granted her requests.

I was also very young when my father died, and was brought up by one of my uncles. After the death of my mother, Queen Anne herself provided me a nurse, and she had the care of my first years.

When arrived at the age of twelve years, I was very wild, believing myself to be of a different mass from mankind in general, and by this fond imagination I was self-exalted, and believed myself to be more than other men. But God soon convinced me to the contrary.

As it was designed that I should learn navigation, I was sent to sea in a vessel of war belonging to a little fleet bound to the coast of Barbary with presents, and to renew the peace with Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. Being arrived at Algiers, as I walked upon deck I saw some Moors who brought some refreshments to sell. One of them slipped down and tore a piece out of one of his legs. Two of his companions, having lain him on the deck, each of them kissed the wound, shedding tears upon it, then turned towards the rising of the sun, they cried in such a manner that I was much moved with anger at their making such a noise and ordered my waiter to bring them before me. Upon demanding the reason of their noise, they perceived that I was angry, asked my pardon, and told me the cause was owing to one of their brothers having hurt his leg by a fall and that they kissed the wound in order to sympathize with him, and likewise shed tears upon it and took part with him; and as tears were saltish, they were a good remedy to heal the same; and the reason of their turning towards the sun's rising was to invoke Him who created the sun to have compassion upon their poor brother, and prayed he would please to heal him. Upon that I was so convinced, and moved within, that I thought my heart would break, and that my life was about to leave me. My eyes were filled with tears, and I felt such an internal condemnation, that I was obliged to cry out and say, "Are these Heathens? No; I confess before God they are Christians, and I myself am a Heathen!" Behold the first conviction that the grace of our Sovereign Good employed: he was pleased to convince a white person by blacks, one who carried the name of a Christian by a pagan, and who was obliged to confess himself but a heathen. But that was soon overcome and forgot. But God who always seeks to convince and save his poor creatures, did not leave his poor wandering sheep. For some time after my return home, being present by invitation at a ball, and having over-heated myself, I ordered my servant to prepare linen for me to change. And as I was putting it on, I fell into a fainting fit, and had a vision of myself burning as a firebrand in hell. And coming to myself again I cried out, "I am damned!" Prayers were desired in the French churches for one who had lost his senses and was melancholy. The ministers often visited me, and would fain have made me believe that I had not committed any very great sins, and that I had behaved according to my rank and station. Then I was obliged to answer them that if they had no other things than those to tell me, they could answer no purpose but as fig leaves to cover my shame, and my damnable estate; that it was in vain to come and visit me with such comfort, for that I felt myself condemned. Then they answered me in another manner than before, saying, since I would not receive their remonstrances it might be looked upon as a mark that peradventure I was destined from the beginning to condemnation.

Then they gave me up and came no more to visit me. After that, I continued in the state of condemnation during the space of fifteen months, believing that all the world but myself might be saved, and that I never could be saved because my sins, as I thought, were too many and too great to be forgiven. At length, after the fifteen months were expired, after having passed through many temptations, it happened to me one day, having laid myself down to repose, that I was awakened out of my sleep, and heard a voice within me, which pronounced the sentence of my condemnation, and left me no room to hope. I then discovered the root of all my sins and iniquities within my heart. That discovery brought me into an extreme agony, and despair entered into my soul which was now pressed on all sides with misery, caused especially by such great unbelief and hardness of heart, which was the most insupportable of all my troubles. I could discover no remedy for my disease but thought that my sentence of damnation was going to be executed. The sorrow of my soul was even to death. I desired to die but death fled from me. I could have no remedy but to leave myself to the justice of my judge for a condemned criminal as I was. I knew that his judgments were just and that I had merited much more than I felt.

Thus abandoning myself to justice, and waiting for its accomplishment in me, I discovered between justice and me the criminal, one of a most majestic appearance, whose beauty, brightness and grandeur, can never be described. He cast such a look of grace and mercy upon me, and such a look of love as penetrated through me, the fire of which so embraced my soul that I loved him again with the same love. He persuaded me in my heart that he was my savior, mediator and reconciliator. And while I thought thereon, he began to intercede for me in this manner, saying, "My father, behold me with thy paternal regard. I have made expiation for this sinner, who has received in himself the sentence of condemnation. I have taken human nature for him. I have suffered all kind of ignominy for him. I have shed my blood even to the last drop for him. I have suffered the shameful death of the cross for him. I have descended into the abyss of hell for him, that I might deliver him. I have been put to death for his offences, and raised again for his justification, and where his sins abound, our grace abounds much more. O my heavenly father, pardon this poor sinner, and cause thy mercy to come to him." The judge or justice had nothing more to say. The sentence disappeared. Then I heard his eternal universal voice, which penetrated through me with divine power, saying, "Take courage, my son, thy sins are forgiven thee." Immediately all the burden of my sins and inquities was gone, all the stings and reproaches ceased in a moment; a living faith came in their stead, and the tears of sorrow were all wiped from my eyes. I cast myself at the feet of my mediator, reconciler, savior and intercessor, and embraced him with an enlivening faith, melting into tears of love, humility and nothingness.

O my Lord and my God, thou hast saved me through pure grace. What shall I render to thee for all thy benefits? O my divine love, whom I honor and adore, give me a pure and holy heart, filled with thy virtue and thy love, even such as thou wouldst that I should have; and renew a right spirit within my heart. Now I know that thy marvelous mercy hath given me a savior before I knew my danger and slavery; a physician who had the care of my disease before that I felt or knew the same; a redeemer who undertook to pay the debt that I was neither willing nor able to pay. Oh, my benefactor, guide me by the efficacy of thy spirit to walk in the way of thy truth and universal love. Teach me thy eternal and universal word; speak my Lord and my God, for thy servant heareth. Give me thy grace, O my divine love, that I may have the eyes of my faith fixed constantly upon thee, and that I may follow thee whithersoever thou mayest please to lead me, that thy holy will may be accomplished in time and eternity, to the praise of thy glory, and my complete salvation.

O my dear soul, sink thyself down into nothingness and the deepest humiliation, and adore in spirit and in truth; honor the ocean of love, and the great wonders of the wisdom and power of thy God who hath employed all these boundless incomprehensible miracles to restore and to save thee, and not thee only, but all the human species, through Jesus Christ our Lord. "O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and power of God. How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out. For of him and through him and for him are all things." To him be glory eternal.

In the present case his goodness shines, for God hath loved me before that I was born. O what grace! God himself hath loved me in my fallen estate whence I was wholly lost. O what mercy! God hath even loved me when I was altogether unworthy, and that freely too. O what love

He hath given me his well-beloved son. And in giving his beloved son, he hath given me his paternal heart; and at the time that he took human nature he became my parent that by his parentage he might oblige himself to have a right to love and to have the care of me. I feel him, the just, for my offences and wickedness which he had taken to bear as his own, brought before the most righteous judgment seat, where he himself alone paid the last penny of the dreadful debt of all the world. I beheld him upon the cross deface and destroy the obligation that was against me, and after that he entered once for all into the holy place by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for me. Approach then now, O my soul, to the throne of grace, and adore this unspeakable love which hath loved the first. Love him eternally, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might, who has made thee to know by experience the great mysteries of his holy love, respecting all his creatures. Hallelujah! Amen.

O what an alteration from being a child of darkness to a child of light. Now I know in whom I have believed, and desire to consecrate myself to my Lord, my Sovereign Good, the remainder of my days.

My conversion made a great noise among the people, for they saw me praising and adoring my divine savior on all occasions, and before all company where I came without exception, calling and exhorting each one to submit to the love of God, just as they found themselves; and although their sins were many and great, his grace was greater to receive and pardon, but that we must come as we are, for he is the beginning and the end of the conversion of all the human species, and whosoever is not converted by Him and to Him is not converted at all.

The French ministers were very uneasy at what they heard concerning me, doubting that I was a true Protestant, and therefore they demanded a written confession of my faith. I told them paper would suffer anything to be written upon it, truth or falsehood, but that I was not ashamed to confess with my mouth what I believed in my heart, and that if they would let me know when they would meet together, I would be ready to appear before them to give them an account of my faith and the wonders which the most Holy Trinity had wrought within me.

The time was fixed and I appeared before them. They asked me many questions, but we could not agree, for they held predestination, and I held the restoration of all souls; because having myself been the chief of sinners, and that God, through Jesus Christ, by the efficacy of his Holy Spirit, had granted me mercy and the pardon of all my sins, and had plucked me as a brand out of hell, I could not have a doubt but the whole world would be saved by the same power. They answered me that I must not take it ill that they could not own me as a member of their church. I replied that I was very well content to be cast out and that my consolation was that they were not able to blot my name out of the book of life.

Soon after, I got acquainted with some persons who led a very retired life, having received a deep knowledge of themselves through grace. We sometimes met together, but we soon were persecuted with reproach.

After that, I received a voice of grace inwardly to go and preach the gospel in France. I resisted it more than once or twice, fearing persecution. But I was struck with a sickness and had pain like the agony of death, was ready to die; and knowing it was because I had not harkened to that voice that had called me to bear witness to the truth in France, I humbled myself before my God through Jesus Christ my Lord, asked pardon for my offences, and promising to submit myself to follow his voice, upon which I was immediately healed; and grew more robust than I had even been before. Then I heard his voice once more, calling me to go to France to preach the gospel, and I found myself obliged in my soul to follow the voice, though with fear and trembling.

I took passage at Dover for Calais, and immediately upon my arrival I began to preach and proclaim the good news in the market, even the eternal salvation by Jesus Christ within us; and that each one of us might be saved by pure grace, and that whosoever knowing himself, feeling the burden of his iniquities, having recourse to Jesus Christ, resigning himself without reserve, with all his sins, even had he found himself in his damnable estate, should be delivered and obtain the pardon of all his sins.

As soon as I had done, I was taken before a magistrate, who made me to know that my conduct was contrary to the statute of the king. I was then conducted to prison where I was no sooner arrived than all the fear of persecution vanished. My soul was strengthened in the Lord Jesus. I felt the love of my divine savior very near, accompanied with his divine light. After some days had past, I was brought before the justice, and examined by what order I preached. I told him who I was, and that I was drawn by the special grace of my God in Jesus Christ, by the power of his Holy Spirit, to teach the nations, and that for refusing to obey the voice of my God I was taken very sick. While they were examining me, there came in an old man with a white beard. All the justices saluted him. He said to them: "Have nothing to do with this person, for I have suffered much this night past on his account," and retired immediately.

I was then condemned to eight days imprisonment, as it was the first time, and to be conducted by the servant of the magistrate out of the bounds of the city, letting me know that if I was found employed in the same manner a second time my life would be in danger.

I was about 17 years of age when I began to preach in France. In this manner I employed two years in that kingdom, preaching the gospel in high and low Normandy, the country of my father, for he was born in the city of Rouen.

There were many ministers of us together: Messieurs Durant, de la Chevrette, Dumoulin, L'Achar, etc. We met together in mountains and woods, to the number of 300, where God very often wrought great wonders by the power of the gospel, among men and women, even boys and girls of the age of twelve or fifteen years, that did not even know how to read or write. They were convinced by the power of grace and began to proclaim the gospel with a most marvelous strength of spirit, without any fear, being embraced by love divine.

We were many times taken prisoners during the two years, sometimes by means of our own brothers, who would go and inform the soldiers in the marshalsey where we were met together.

Many of us were hanged, others whipped by the hands of the hangman and branded with a hot iron; all their goods confiscated, and they sent on board the galleys. But all that did not weaken us, but on the contrary, the grace of our divine love strengthened us in a wonderful manner.

At last we were surrounded by a party of soldiers one day when we were assembled by the side of Dieppe, where many of us were taken prisoners, among whom was myself, and a M. Durant, a young man about 24 years of age, of Geneva.

After a month imprisonment we were condemned to die — he to be hanged, and I to have my head cut off. We were conducted together to the place of execution; he sang the 116th [126th] Psalm when on the ladder, and died joyfully.

I was then conducted to the scaffold. My eyes were ordered to be bound to prevent my seeing, but on my earnest request that was omitted.

I then fell upon my knees, and praying the Lord that he would not require my blood at their hands, as they knew not what they did, my soul was filled with exceeding joy. The executioner bound my hands, and while he was employed in so doing, a courier arrived from the King, which was Louis XV, with a reprieve for the criminal. Immediately the joy of my heart was gone and darkness entered into my soul. I was then reconducted to prison at Paris where I was confined some time before I was liberated through the intercession of the Queen.

Many things happened to me during my exile in France and the time of my confinement. One may easily discover here that the grace of our God never leaves those who trust in him and are faithful until death.

After my releasement, I retired into Germany where I began to learn the language with great difficulty. I found many souls who were convinced by grace and who led a very retired life among the French refugees at Bulin, Magdeburg, Brandenburg, Brunswick in the Palatinate, Hamburg, Altona, Stade, Gluckstadt, Bremen, the country of Hannover, in Flanders, Brabant, the low land of Holland, the country of Waldenses and many other places.

I found work all round — souls who desired to be saved. I had also a large acquaintance among the nobility in Germany and Holland. We had a large communion of brethren and sisters in Jesus Christ our Lord.

I was wholly employed in traveling from place to place, in visiting the brethren and preaching to the nations in the German, French and Dutch languages. There were many assemblies of brethren all around. In some places we had liberty, and where that could not be had publicly, we met secretly in particular families. But nevertheless, grace wrought wonders in convincing souls and leading them to a real deep knowledge of themselves and of the damnable estate into which all men are plunged by nature; for none can obtain salvation without being first condemned in themselves.

I was much concerned about the salvation of souls and their estate deeply affected me. I had also an acquaintance with a company of gentry who dwelt together near Seigen. Some of them were married but only dwelt together as brethren and sisters — among them the baron of Peuchink, the lords of Fleishbein, and the Count of Marsey, who was employed in writing books which are printed in French and German. They led a very retired life, filled with love and friendship to all the world without bounds, and were very charitable both to friends and enemies.

Our acquaintance with each other happened in a wonderful manner. One day brother Marsey had a vision concerning me, when I had arrived in the Palatinate, being about twenty leagues from him. I was drawn by grace, being engaged in prostrating myself in spirit before the presence of the most Holy Trinity. And having a vision, I discovered a marvelous throne with seven footstools. Upon each footstool were two candlesticks of gold and upon the throne I saw a great table with seven candlesticks of gold placed in a round figure upon it. Then I saw many with robes whiter than snow who stood up near the candlesticks of gold on each side of the foot-stools and around the table. Immediately the candlesticks were lighted and chairs were brought that each one might sit down. Then they began to honor the most high, so that my soul was lost in admiration. Then altogether bending their knees, the whole company adored the most Holy Trinity. The vision vanished in an instant, and I came to myself.

Some little time after, my brother Marsey sent a letter to me, written after this manner:

My well beloved and dear brother in Jesus Christ our Lord, the most Holy Trinity discovers many wonders to his children who are rooted upon the rock of deliverance, and have their eyes of faith fixed upon their Sovereign Good. He honors them with his universal presence and embraces them with the fire of heavenly love; as I have been favored with the consolation of seeing you in his holy presence, I hope you will not deny that communion in the body that we have had together in spirit to the praise of the glory of our God through Jesus Christ our Lord by the efficacy of His Holy Spirit. Thus wishes and dwells for ever, Marsey your Brother, united by the grace of God, Amen."

After I had passed about 18 years in Germany and Holland, I became sickly of a consumptive disorder occasioned by being greatly concerned for the salvation of souls and much disquieted because the greatest part by far walked in the ways of perverseness and neglected their conversion, which caused me great trouble. And I took it so to heart that I believed my happiness would be incomplete while one creature remained miserable. Sometimes I was a little comforted within by grace in some manner, but that did not last long.

I dwelt at that time in the country with the brethren near the city of Mons an [in] Haguiauth, near the borders of France, in the Emperor's dominions.

My fever increased in such a manner as reduced me almost to a skeleton so that they were obliged to feed me as an infant.

While I lay in this weak situation, I was favored through grace with many visions. In one it appeared to me that I was conducted into a fine plain, filled with all kinds of fruit trees agreeable both to the sight and smell, loaded with all kinds of the most delicious fruits which came to my mouth and satisfied me as with a river of pleasure: same time I beheld the inhabitants, they were beautiful beyond expression, clothed in garments as white as snow. They were filled with humility, and their friendship and love was towards all beings. They saluted me with the most profound reverence and most lovely air, saying to me with the voice of love which penetrated through me: "Dear soul, take courage, be comforted, for in a little time you shall see the wonders of God in the restoration of all the human species without exception."

The weakness of my body so increased that I was certain of dying. I exhorted my brethren to be faithful unto death, to be steadfast, immovable, and to be always turning inward with an enlivening faith to behold with a fixed attention the Lamb of God, with believing eyes, and to harken to his eternal word within them, and that they should receive of the fullness of Christ's grace upon grace, by which they should be strengthened to abide steadfast unto the end.

As I had communion with many assemblies of brethren, but in particular with that connected with my dear brother Marsey, the brethren there had a vision of my death and sent brother Marsey to see me.

When he arrived he found me in the agonies of death. He embraced me with a kiss of peace and love and saluted me in the name of the brethren, who recommended themselves to me, and desired that I would remember them before the throne of God and the Lamb.

He then took leave of me and I felt myself die by degrees, and exactly at midnight I was separated from my body and saw the people occupied in watching it according to the custom of the country. I had a great desire to be freed from the sight of my body, and immediately I was drawn up as in a cloud and beheld great wonders where I passed, impossible to be written or expressed. I quickly came to a place which appeared to my eyes as a level plain, so extensive that my sight was not able to reach its limits, filled with all sorts of delightful fruit trees, agreeable to behold, and which sent forth such fragrant odors that all the air was filled as with incense. In this place I found that I had two guardians, one at my right hand and the other at my left, exceeding beautiful beyond expression, whose boundless friendship and love seemed to penetrate through all my inward parts. They had wings and resembled angels, having shining bodies and white garments.

He that was at my right hand came before me and said, "My dear soul and my dear brother, take courage. The most Holy Trinity hath favored you to be comforted with an everlasting and universal consolation, by discovering to you how, and in what manner, he will restore all his creatures without exception, to the praise of his glory, and their eternal salvation. And you shall be witness of this and shall rejoice in singing and triumphing with all the children of God, therefore as a reward for the friendship and love that you have borne for your neighbors, on whose account you had many extreme griefs, and shed many tears, which God himself, who shall turn all your griefs to exceeding great gladness." Then he took his place at my right hand. After that, the second guardian who was at my left hand appeared before me, and spoke thus: "My dear soul, my dear brother, be of good cheer, thou shalt be strengthened and comforted after your griefs with an universal and eternal consolation. You must be prepared to pass through the seven habitations of the damned — be of good courage, and prepare yourself to feel something of their sufferings, but be turned inward deeply during the time and you shall thereby be preserved." Then he took his place at my left hand. Immediately we were lifted up in the air, and sometimes after we arrived in a dark obscure place, where nothing but weeping, lamentation and gnashing of teeth, could be understood. A dreadful place, as being the repository of all sorts of damned souls under condemnation with the torments, pains, griefs and sufferings which their sins had merited, for each one had his works to follow him in death. All iniquities and sins were reduced to seven classes or habitations. There was an eternal confusion. That which one made, the other destroyed.

The duellist, in his fire of anger, burns against his enemy, and they pass as a firebrand of hell, one through the other.

You might see fornicators, idolators, adulterers, thieves, the covetous, drunkards, slanderers, ravishers, &c., each laboring and being employed with his sins and iniquities. One might also see all kind of conditions of men: divines, deputies, controvertors, advocates, judges, lawyers, and, in a word, one might discover whatsoever any of them had done upon earth. In each habitation I discovered that those who were abased and that appeared sorrowful for their sins were separated from the others of their sort that were not yet so. I was then conducted into each of the seven habitations of the damned where I knew one I had been acquainted with upon earth. I discovered also that he had an habitation among the damned and that they were able to see the elect from thathabitation where he was, but were not able to pass through because there was a great gulf between them so that all are obliged to dwell where they are.

It is impossible to describe my condition, as I had great compassion towards the sufferers, inasmuch as I had part of their sufferings.

After we had passed through, we were lifted up some distance from the place, where we reposed ourselves; and a messenger was sent to us, who watered or refreshed us as with a river of pleasure, saying, "Eat, my beloved, and drink, my friends, to refresh yourselves after all your toils and pains. My dear soul, and my dear brother (addressing himself to me), the most Holy Trinity always works wonders in all times within his poor creatures without exception, and he will order for a time and half a time that you shall return into your earthly tabernacle to publish and proclaim to the people of the world an universal gospel that shall restore in its time all the human species without exception to its honor and to the glory of its most Holy Trinity. Hallelujah."

Beholding the messenger attentively, I discovered that he had a most glorious body, dressed in a robe whiter than snow, filled with the most exalted love and friendship, joined with the deepest humility, which penetrated me through and through. And suddenly there was heard a great multitude of the heavenly host, and the messenger said, as he flew to join the same, with a sweet voice — "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and who is to come."

The multitude were innumerable, and there was one who surpassed in grandeur, beauty, brightness, majesty, magnificence and excellence, all the others; even the Son of the living God, being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power — when he had by himself purged our sins ― sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

As the multitude approached, the glory caused us to fall down and to adore in spirit and in truth the son of the living God who marched in the midst of the multitude.

After they had passed us, we were lifted up and caused to follow them, for the air carried us the way they went, in a different manner than before. O the wonders of our God! When we arrived in the place of the seven habitations of the damned, we could perceive no more darkness, obscurity, pains, torments, lamentations, afflictions, nor gnashing of teeth. All were still and quiet and an agreeable sweetness appeared through the whole. Then all the heavenly host shouted with one voice and said, "An eternal and everlasting deliverance, an eternal and everlasting restoration, universal and everlasting restitution of all things." Then all the multitude adored the most Holy Trinity, and sang the song of the Lamb, even the song of the triumph for the victory gained by him, in the most harmonious manner. And at the end, all the multitude being upon their knees, said with a loud voice, "Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord, God Almighty, just and true are thy ways. O King of Saints." Presently they passed through the seven habitations of the damned and a multitude were delivered from each. And being clothed in white robes, they followed the heavenly host, praising and glorifying the most high for their deliverance. One might know them amongst the others: they all retired by a different way than that which they came. The messenger then came and conducted us into a most wonderful place and ordered my two guardians to conduct me into five celestial mansions where the Lord's elect abide; and then to reconduct me to dwell yet a time and half a time in my earthly habitation, and to preach to the lower world the universal everlasting gospel and that the most Holy Trinity has a pure universal love towards all the human race, without exception, and to each one in particular. Then turning himself towards me he said, "My dear soul, thou shalt be favored of the most Holy Trinity to be conducted by thy guardians who shall never leave thee when thou shall have need of their counsel. Thou needest but to call them and they shall be day and night present at thy service. They shall conduct thee into five of the heavenly mansions at this time, where thou shalt partake in a certain degree of the celestial glory as much as thy spirit shall be able to receive, as not being yet sanctified and purified sufficiently. And then thou shalt be reconducted into thine earthly tabernacle for a time and half a time and shall preach to the lower world the universal gospel and that the most Holy Trinity hath a pure universal love towards all the human race without exception, and towards each one in particular. The fountain of grace bless and preserve thee, and cause his face to shine upon and in thee, and enlighten thine understanding both in time and eternity. Amen." Our knees bending of their own accord, he laid his hand upon my head and blessed me, and immediately took wing and swiftly fled away.

After that, my guardian conducted me into five celestial habitations where I discovered many wonders. Some had greater brightness, glory, and majesty than others. And, as the places were, so were the inhabitants: some were clothed in garments whiter then snow, others had transparent bodies, and others again had white bodies resembling crystal. It is impossible to express these things. They were moved by boundless burning love, rising up and then plunging themselves into the deepest humility; all their motions were penetrating, being filled with love and friendship. Their actions and manners are strengthened and animated with brightness, filled with light as with the rays of the sun. It was the fire of heavenly love, which by inflaming all their hearts, causes them all to burn in the same lire and to be animated by the same spirit. They have no need of any way of speaking there but the language and motions of eternal and universal love without words; for all their actions, their motions, speak more than all words. I was then conducted into five habitations of the elect. At the first, a great multitude came before us with songs to the honor and glory of the most high and of the victory gained over the damned. They received us with triumph, great zeal, love and friendship, saluting us with profound humility, and conducting us into a large room; there was a great table covered and furnished with all sorts of fruit, not only pleasant to behold but also exceedingly delicious to the taste.

In the meantime, while we were taking our repast, the celestial multitudes formed songs and sang psalms of praise and thanksgiving to the most Holy Trinity. After that, we were conducted into all the five celestial habitations (that I was to see) where I saw many wonders impossible to describe. First, many thrones lifted up of inexpressible beauty and magnificence and desired that I would remember them before the throne of God and the Lamb.

Upon one of these thrones I beheld the Royal High priest, surrounded with exceeding great brightness and clothed in most excellent majesty, being employed in kind intercession before his father for all human species, pleading the sufficiency of his blood-shedding to deliver and sanctify a thousand such worlds as ours. All the elect, with the heavenly spirits, joined their intercession with that of their Royal High Priest, the only chief king, being reconcilers, saviors, and restorers in the same spirit. This mutual intercession appeared like incense ascending on high into the sanctuary of the Lord. Over against the throne I discovered Adam with Eve rejoicing in the only mediator between God and men and adoring together the most Holy Trinity for the deliverance of their children out of the great miseries and eternal condemnation into which their sin and fall had brought them, and upon their bended knees adoring the only mediator for the intercession he makes in behalf of mankind. Also I beheld a multitude of spirits flying and enflamed with the fire of heavenly love, while we adored, humbled in nothingness, rendering our religious homage to the most high for his intercession and the deliverance of all mankind. Then my guardian, who was at my right hand, coming before me, said thus: "Dear soul, my dear brother, do you see these spirits flying, who are vanished in the spirit of love and gratitude, humbled and self-annihilated as it were, adoring before the throne of grace, and praying the savior for the intercessions he made for them? These are lately delivered from the infernal prisons. It is for them that the tincture of the blood of Jesus Christ hath been shed even to the last drop, notwithstanding they had dwelt a long time shut up in the place of the damned under the power of the second death, and have passed through many agonies, pains and tribulations." Upon that, I perceived that Adam and Eve approached. And Adam spoke to me after his manner: "My dear brother, rejoice with universal and eternal joy, as you are favored with the heavenly visions. It is in this manner that our adorable Royal High Priest, mediator, and intercessor, shall restore all my descendants to the glory of our God. And their eternal and universal salvation for the kingdom of eternal love hath power sufficient to draw all mankind out of their bondage, and to exclaim and say: 'O death, where is thy sting, &c.' But my dear brother, this love of our God in Jesus Christ, by the power of his holy spirit, shall not only gain the victory over all the human species, but also surmount or overflow the kingdom of Satan entirely, with all the principalities of the fallen angels, and shall bring them back in their first glory, which they have had in the beginning. I will make all things new," said the Lord of hosts, and the end shall return into its beginning. O my Lord and my God, what great wonders hast thou caused to pass before mine eyes! Who am I, O my God, dust and ashes, an ungrateful and rebellious creature. I should not dare to lift mine eyes towards the heavens if the blood of Jesus Christ thy son did not plead for me. My soul rejoices and is glad, she shouts for joy. O my God, whom I adore, love, and respect; before whom I desire to be without ceasing, self-annihilated at thy feet. O my God and my love, the seraphims and cherubims, burning with the fire of thy heavenly love, adore and honor thee. Give me thy grace also, O my God, that I may be consumed before thee, while I sing the majesty, glory, and the memory of God, who hath created and redeemed me. I would praise him incessantly, not in shadow or figure, but in reality and truth. I would continue devoted to thee, and always be swallowed up in the ocean of love without a wish to leave it.

Being in this manner conducted into five celestial habitations, I discovered many mysteries, saw many miracles, and beheld the wonders of the most Holy Trinity among the children, the elect, and heavenly inhabitants, and perceiving how some surpassed others in brightness, light, splendor, and majesty, in friendship, love, humiliation, and self-abasement, concerning of which things my tongue is too feeble to speak, and my pen to write. I adore the marvelous ways of my God, with all the happy spirits.

Many thrones, palaces, edifices, temples, and buildings were erected in all parts, with fruit trees intermixed, rivers of pleasure gliding along through the celestial land, which appeared like a garden of heaven, even the paradise of God. It is the court of the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, which the eye has not seen nor the ear heard, and which the hearts of men have not conceived. It is the celestial globe where the New Jerusalem, or Mount Sion, is placed, where the bosom of Abraham is: where the sufferers who came out of their purifications are made to rejoice in Sion. O magnificent globe! O thou city of the Great God! Stately city of this place! Where shall a mortal find convenient phrases to lift out a little of thy glory and splendor? It is the glory and magnificence of the most Holy Trinity, where God is pleased to manifest himself in his pomp and beauty. The blessed angels have their employment in serving God — they compose the court of the Great King. O my God, I am not able to express that which penetrates me, of the grandeur, magnificence, splendor, pomp and majesty of thy dwellings or of the inhabitants in those transparent places. Hallelujah and victory for ever. Amen.

Then my guardian took me up and reconducted me to the house from whence I came, where I perceived the people assembled. And discoveriny my body in the coffin, I was re-united with the same and found myself lodged within my earthly tabernacle. And coming to myself, I knew my dear brother Marsey and many others who gave me an account of my being twenty-five hours in the coffin, and seventeen hours before they put me in the coffin, which altogether made forty-two hours. To me they seemed as many years. Beginning then to preach the universal gospel, I was presently put in prison but soon set at liberty again. I visited all my brethren, preaching the gospel and taking leave of them all, because that my God and Sovereign Good called me to go into America and preach the gospel there. I took my departure for the same in the 38th year of my age, and it is 41 years since I first arrived here. The 28th of July next, 1782, I shall be 79 years of age. Blessed be the name of the Lord forever.

FINIS.

We begin November’s exploration of “Healing” with a service about grief. We’ve lost much and sacrificed much these last many months as the pandemic has worn on. Healing may yet be a long way off, but it begins with being able to give a name to the sense of loss we feel.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTdEOWkKZME]

SERVICE NOTES

WELCOME!
New to our church community? Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected.
For more information on our church community, visit us on the web at http://www.uulosalamos.org or call at 5050-662-2346. 
Connect with us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/uulosalamos
Have questions? Need to talk to a minister? Our minister, the Rev. John Cullinan, is available for virtual and phone appointments. Contact him at: revjohn@uulosalamos.org

MUSIC CREDITS

• “Autumn Mvt 1 Allegro”, The Four Seasons (Vivaldi), performed by John Harrison with the Wichita State University Chamber Players, obtained at freemusic.org under a Creative Commons license, Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
• “The Gymnopédie,” nos. 1, 2, & 3 by Erik Satie. (Kathy Gursky, viola & Yelena Mealy, piano). Public domain.
• “Abide with Me,” text: Henry Francis Lyte, music: William Henry Monk, arr: Anne Krentz Organ. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Text and music: Public domain. Permission to stream the arrangement (AF#2020529) obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
• “Comfort Me” by Mimi Borstein-Doble. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Used by permission of the composer.
• “Mother Spirit, Father Spirit,” text: Norbert F. Cǎpek, trans. Paul and Anita Munk, English version: Richard Frederick Boeke, music: Norbert F. Cǎpek, harm: David Dawson. (Nylea Butler-Moore, piano). Used by permission.
• “As We Leave This Friendly Place,” text: Vincent B. Silliman, music: J.S. Bach, adapt. from Chorale 38. (UCLA choir & Yelena Mealy, piano; Nylea Butler-Moore, director; Rick Bolton, Audio Visual engineer). Public domain.

Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730948. All rights reserved.
Permission to stream music in this service obtained from CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTIONS with license #10770

OTHER NOTES

• Thanks to Susan Gisler for our Welcome message.
• Thanks to the Green family for their chalice lighting.
• Call to Worship by Kathleen McTigue, used with permission
• Prayer/Meditation, “Meditation on Broken Hearts,” by Thomas Rhodes*
• “Tangled,” by Dawn Star Sarahs-Borchelt*

*from the UUA’s Worship Web, used with permission

OFFERTORY

Our Share the Plate partner for November is the Roadrunner Food Bank. 100% of all offered this month will be given to our partner.
We are now using Givelify.com to process the weekly offering: https://giv.li/5jtcps

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS

• Rev. John Cullinan
• Tina DeYoe, Director of Lifespan Religious Education
• Nylea Butler-Moore, Director of Music
• Kathy Gursky, viola
• Yelena Mealy, piano
• Rick Bolton & Mike Begnaud, AV techs