This is an update of a UU Sunday Service from November 13, 2016. Unfortunately, very relevant again.
Net Worth– How do you measure the worth of a life? We grieve together, we hold each other in love, we seek hope together, we recommit to a world of love and justice. Together we will imagine healing divides and seek a new way to celebrate the worth and dignity of every being.
Gathering Music* #1002, Comfort Me
Singing Bowl
Call into the Circle of Love and Justice
You are all welcome here, no matter what you have experienced in the last week. We know each person here is whole, holy, and worthy. It is a blessing you were born. From the diversity of our experience we gather. And into the common bond of our humanity we join- hoping to find home. Hoping to find neighbors. Hoping to find solace. And hoping -even against hope - to find that spark of forward movement that we need to get up again tomorrow morning and love our children - to do the work we are called to do - to bind up the broken, to preach the good news, and to be present with each other in our pain and in our fear. What each of us knows about the sacred is a piece of the truth
It matters what you do. You don’t have to do it alone.
Come into the circle of love and justice and let us worship together.
Chalice Lighting by Coleman Barks in the spirit of Nasruddin Rumi
We light this chalice to guide us in love.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there."
Hymn of Gathering* #1009 Meditation on Breathing https://youtu.be/VuAd-yImOt4?si=x8rVcAQiUhpqSBml
Time For All Ages
A lot happened this week. Among other things lots of folks all over the US voted on some laws and voted to elect some people. Some measures passed, some people got elected. Other measures lost and other people didn’t get elected. Some of these things made people happy, some things made people angry. Some things made people scared, and some made people ask, “what can I do to make the world better?”
So I’d like to offer a 5 step plan for handling things that don’t go our way. When you are scared, or sad or mad.
Step 1. Scream. Oh, Wait! Since this is a sanctuary we aren’t going to scream out loud, though you might want to do that when you get home. You have my permission to scream and yell and stamp your feet in a safe place to do that! And if screaming isn’t the right thing for you, maybe doing dancing to loud music is… something physical!
Right here and right now? We can Pretend to Scream. Think of everything that makes you angry, frustrated, and fightin’ mad! Everybody! Now, notice how your body feels. Tight, right? Well, tighten it up more, clench your fists, press your feet into the floor, squinch up your face! I want to SEE MAD! Madder! MADDEST!
GREAT! Now shake it out. You know what happens when a rabbit ALMOST gets eaten by a hawk? It shakes it off, literally! So let’s shake it out.
OK, Step 2. Be nice to yourself. Maybe you feel like crying? Then find a friend who will hand you tissues or give you a hug and let you cry. Maybe you got so upset that you forgot to eat or drink or sleep enough? It’s time to take care of that. While we are here right now, let’s give ourselves hugs. My favorite self-hug is the one that is the word “Love” in american sign language. It looks like this: {love}
Step 3: Think about the other people out there who could use your help. Maybe someone who is scared that they will be sent out of the country. Or someone who is sick and is afraid they won’t get to see a doctor. Or someone who is worried about getting beat up or bullied. Maybe you can think of someone at school or a friend of the family who might be feeling scared. Everyone gets scared sometimes, even parents. What do you do when you know someone is scared? (hugs, walking with, helping, say something encouraging.)
Step 4: Look for the helpers. Think about all the people who have helped you. Maybe a teacher, a parent, a friend. Maybe someone who wrote a song or wrote a book. Maybe someone who lived a really hard life like Malala. Malala lived in Pakistan and went to school even though some angry men in her village thought girls shouldn’t go to school. Or Martin Luther King who peacefully demanded that people be treated equally. Those people were special, but you know what? You are special too! What you do matters. You don’t have to do it alone because of all those helpers! And you can be a helper too. OK. So for this one let’s do superhero poses. Pick your favorite pose!
Step 5: Take action! What might you be able to do? It matters what you do! It doesn’t have to be big, but you can do something! OK. So, put on your thinking caps… And think of something you are going to do next week. Here’s some possibilities, but you think of your own! Maybe… forgive a family member? think about why your parents make requests and have expectations for you? do something kind? teach someone something new?Do you have something? GREAT! Don’t forget it! So let’s celebrate all the great things you’ve already done and all the things you are going to do! Yahoo! Yippee! Huzzah!
Singing Our Children to Their Programs
"Carry this All" https://youtu.be/ZEiSdZGInm8?si=eKZT7aX3hhR5T3MU
*Hymn I know I can
Pastoral Prayer
By Reverend Naomi King
Number me among the distressed and disappointed by the choices my neighbors made this election. It is a weird place to be, as a member of a religious tradition that affirms and promotes democratic practice. How do we go forward when the other things we affirm and promote are threatened by how we have practiced democracy.
Boldly.
Faithfully.
Riskily.
Lovingly.
Compassionately.
Indeed, the way we are called to go every day.
We have a grace period of a transition time to organize what our faithful response can be.
We need to settle down to how we can continue to work to make this world more loving, equitable, mercifully just, and compassionate.
We get to settle down to how we can still try to adapt and avert the worst scenarios of climate change.
We get to settle down to how we are going to care for and protect those who are at greatest risk from hate manifested in our laws, over our airwaves and digital connections, and in our streets[This is a time of trial. There were trials aplenty before this election. If the hate messaging continues and manifests further, then there will be more.
But if we are the love people, the folk called to be part of changing the world without hate,[ we have much work, much spiritual, legal, practical, and relational work to do.]
Love is not about drawing in and drawing smaller circles. That does not keep hate out or turn hate away. Love asks us to be bold and risky and vulnerable and faithful to these amazing promises we have made.
[We’re still in this together. Our neighbors are still everyone in the whole world, those neighbors we are called to love, including the ones that are angry and afraid or that we who have suffered violence from hatred have learned to fear.]
How do we go forward? Same as before and also more: more organization, more effort, more faithful risk especially to create sanctuary and protect those most in danger. Love and Justice have been our calling in other times of hatred in the past, one that we often struggled to embrace because this is difficult and painful as well as astounding and beautiful work. Love and Justice were our calling in the middle of hate made manifest before this election. Love and Justice are our calling now.
Love unite us, guide us, strengthen us, encourage us for the way ahead.
Love hold us, comfort us, & help us risk making way & welcome for all in need.
Love challenge us each & every day to meet hate & challenge & change it.
Love carry us on & let us be your voice singing as we work for change.
Love carry us on & let us be your hands making a more generous world.
Love carry us on & let us be part of the way of healing & hope now & forward.
Amen, Blessed Be.
Music #391 Voice Still and Small
https://youtu.be/0y9za1l5el8
Responsive Reading “The Peace of Wild Things"
By Wendell Berry
"When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."
Offertory "Seasons of Love" from the musical "Rent"
Sermon “Net Worth” - The Reverend Amy Beltaine
So, America elected a president this last week. I was less suprised this time than I was in 2016 - but I had allowed myself some hope. Which tells me I failed to understand something. After the sense of shock and horror. After wailing "how"! How could half the voting public vote for someone who, to my eyes, was the poster child for sexism, racism, able-ism, xenophobia, homophobia, capitalist excess, and misuse of the democratic process? After all that... I started to question my role. Did I drop the ball and forget the promises I made in 2016? Was I living in a liberal bubble? Did I do enough to reach across ideological divides? Did I deserve to consider myself in solidarity with indigenous people, poor people, people of color, disabled folks and LGBTQ folks? Was I doing enough? Am I paying lip service to the principles of Unitarian Universalism, those values I have covenanted, made a sacred promise to uphold?
I started down the dark tunnel of despair and grief and worthlessness. Then I heard something in the back of my mind:
"You don't have to do it alone"
The UU youth, several years ago made a t-shirt from song lyrics by Laila Ibrahim and Sheri Prudhomme.
The T-Shirt says "it is a blessing you were born. What each of us knows about god is a piece of the truth. It matters what you do. You don't have to do it alone."
And I was reminded that I was worth a great deal.
And then another snippet came to me:
"We forgive each other and begin again in love."
For those of us who may have felt like we were supposed to somehow be smarter, be more engaged, be more effective... I invite you to say it with me:
"We forgive each other and begin again in love."
Let's say it one more time
We forgive each other and begin again in love.
So, I've been saying that whenever I feel small or worry that my contribution had little worth. How do I measure my worth? When I remember that I'm a universalist I can answer that question with assurance.
I will be gentle with myself I will love myself.
I am a child of the universe. Being born each moment.
(https://youtu.be/iD3_Iw7Gi14?si=nCF_HfGG1rur_Bba)
It is a blessing I was born.
But it is scary when you realize that not everyone shares our universalist belief that every life matters. We know a woman's body matters but the Supreme Court ruled the opposite. We teach our children that "you are in charge of your own body" but we could be in a world where consent doesn't matter. Every persons body matters but we could be in a world where our health doesn't matter. Every life matters but the movement to save black lives could be severely hurt. These are scary thoughts. And I was getting paralyzed with fear. Fear for myself and fear for my siblings. My loved ones of color, my disabled family members.
Then that sick feeling In my stomach comes when I realize if i, with my privilege am frightened... How terrifying it must be for citizens who are Trans, Disabled, or Hispanic...
Keep breathing! It's the most important part!
You kick, and then you glide, kick, and then you glide.
It’s all in the rhythm, all in the rhythm, all in the rhythm of the heart.
(Song in the Pagan folk tradition https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19bsdtne9H/?mibextid=7J6EjN)
It can be overwhelming to even imagine waking up tomorrow in this world... a world that Im afraid might be all the bad things I think about 1930s Germany. And then I read a blog post from a colleague in Alabama. "We know how to do this," she said. "We have been loving the hell out of this world one person at a time and making a difference here where it seems so scary. We have been growing gardens, singing together, organizing, celebrating at gay pride parades and participating in Buddy systems with our Muslim neighbors. We have been hugging our children, laughing at funny movies and donating to the free clinic. We have been visiting beautiful valleys, holding onto hope and talking with the police chief about accountability. It matters what we do.It matters what we do.
So, yes, it is natural to be Overwhelmed at the work ahead of us. Whether it is holding firm to the local commitments to care for one another or working to change things further away.
A week ago, I WAS missing something. I missed how how fear motivates - fear of the other. I missed how many people had moved further and further into a world of hate through algorithms and rhetori. And I missed how challenging the cultural changes that de-center white folks and privileged folks have been.
When I have done my grieving and raging, part of the work that must be done will be to understand that better. We need to stay true to our principle of inherent worth of _all_. We are called to better understand our neighbor’s *feelings*, though we may—and must—tirelessly challenge some of their *choices.* We will need to build bridges across divisions and seek to heal. And perhaps, we can find common ground that will help us find a path forward together. But how can we reach out in love when we want to scream? We don't have to do it alone. We have each other and we can look to the peacemakers and truthtellers and justicebringers of the past.
Calling On The Spirits
By Charlie Murphy
Calling on the spirits of the future,
Calling on the lifetimes yet to come,
Send courage to the present generation,
Help us find the strength to carry on.
Calling on the spirits of the ancients,
Calling on the wise ones of the past,
Illuminate the vision of the people,
Help us keep our feet upon the path.
Calling on the guardians of the planet,
Calling on all people now alive,
With vision of the past and memory of the future,
Claiming our power to survive. (https://youtu.be/XABibiIiCqU?si=OBugfih5LpyFD4x5)
We need every one of us to survive.
Rev. Ashley Horan, white UU minister & director of MUUSJA says:
"You are loved beyond belief. You are enough, you are precious, your work and your life matter, and you are not alone. You are part of a "we," a great cloud of witnesses living and dead who have insisted that this beautiful, broken world of ours is a blessing worthy of both deep gratitude and fierce protection. Whatever happens, our ancestors and our descendants are beckoning us, compelling us onward toward greater connection, greater compassion, greater commitment to one another and to the earth. [Together, we are resilient and resourceful enough to say "yes" to that call, to make it our life's work in a thousand different ways, knowing that we can do no other than bind ourselves more tightly together, and throw ourselves into the holy work of showing up, again and again, to be part of building that world of which we dream but which we have not yet seen."] To build the world of which we dream."
Calling on the spirits: Malala, Martin Luther King, sojourner truth, Ida B. Wells, Susan b Anthony, Gandhi, Alicia Garza, our UU youth, Frederick Douglas, Queen Liliuokalani...
Grieving is important, but I promise you, taking action helps too. We have inherent worth. And so do our siblings. So how do we put that into practice?UU Congregations around the country are participating in a litany of solidarity this weekend.
Many of us are afraid of the coming years because we ourselves or a loved one faces oppression which we fear will worsen. For our litany, I will name positions of privilege in our society and then name those who are less privileged. Those who, as Unitarian Universalists, we are called to be in solidarity with. I ask that if you are part of the privileged identity group, you respond to each call for solidarity with the marginalized group with, “We pledge our support.”.
We will begin with one that I can pledge with you:
- From those of us who are white or Euro-American, we honor people of color — black, Latinx, Asian, and indigenous — and we commit ourselves to acts of solidarity. (Now please reply: “We pledge our support.”)
- From those of us who are heterosexual or cis-gendered, we honor the LGBTQIA community and commit ourselves to acts of solidarity. (Now please reply: “We pledge our support.”)
- From those of us who have not been imprisoned, we honor those who have been incarcerated and we commit ourselves to acts of solidarity. We pledge our support.
- From those of us who are not Muslim, we honor our Muslim neighbors and we commit ourselves to acts of solidarity. We pledge our support.
- From those of us who are insulated from the effects of climate change, we honor those on the front lines and we commit ourselves to acts of solidarity. We pledge our support.
- From those of us who are men, we honor women, trans people, and genderqueer people and we commit ourselves to acts of solidarity. We pledge our support.
- From those of us from middle- or upper-income households, we honor those who struggle with poverty and we commit ourselves to acts of solidarity. We pledge our support.
- From those of us who are neurotypical and of presently healthy body, we honor those who are dis-abled or neuro-spicy or different and we commit ourselves to acts of solidarity. We pledge our support.
- From those of us who have American citizenship, we honor those who are immigrants and we commit ourselves to acts of solidarity. We pledge our support.
- From those of us who have reliable health-care access, we honor those who don’t and we commit ourselves to acts of solidarity. We pledge our support.
- From those of us who have not been assaulted, we honor those who are survivors and we commit ourselves to acts of solidarity. We pledge our support.
- For all those who suffer from prejudice, poverty, violence, disaster, illness, and environmental degradation who we have not named or perhaps do not know yet, we keep our hearts and minds open to solidarity in new ways to new people. We pledge our support.
Amen, Blessed be
In 2016 we handed out safety pins to remind us of the promises we made. Maybe we can find those safety pin symbols and pick them back up, or make new ones. Just like, each time we lay down the work of solidarity, we can pick it back up. If you wholeheartedly can live the promises in this litany, you may wear a safety pin every day to remind you to be accountable to your covenant. If you feel vulnerable perhaps consider wearing one near your heart to remind you of those who will show up for you.
Oh great mother of the world, who come to us as mercy
We honor you
We honor you
We honor you
We call on your name
Oh great father of the world, who comes to us as compassion
We honor you
We honor you
We honor you
We call on your name
Oh great lover of the world who comes to us as courage
We honor you
We honor you
We honor you
We call on your name
Oh beloved of the world who comes to us as organizing
We honor you
We honor you
We honor you
We call on your name
(https://youtu.be/D_K0B0qSB8s?si=wx5f6d8LkkJ9Gn5i)
Amen
Moment of Reflection/Hymn #1017 “We are building a new way”
Extinguishing the Chalice by Elizabeth Selle Jones #456
Benediction
The words of Nancy Wood:
Hold on to what is good
even if it is
a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe
even if it is
a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do
even if it is
a long way from here.
Hold on to life even when
it is easier letting go.
Hold on to [each others hands] even when
It feels like [love] is far away.
Āmama, Blessed Be, Amen, Salaam, Shalom, Namaste, Gassho
Singing Bowl
*Song of Peace #388 Dona Nobis Pacem
