Rev. Emma Chattin
May 10, 2009

First Reading ~ from John 19:25-27

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, Mary, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple he said, “See, here is your mother.”  From that time on, the disciple took her into his home.

Second Reading ~ from Nancy Friday in

My Mother  My Self : The Daughter’s Search for Identity

Chapter 1         Mother Love

I have always lied to my mother.  And she to me.  How young was I when I learned her language, to call things by other names?  Five, four – younger?  Her denial of whatever she could not tell me, that her mother could not tell her, and about which society enjoined us both to keep silent, distorts our relationship still.

Sometimes I try to imagine a little scene that could have helped us both.  In her kind, warm, shy, and self-depreciating way, mother calls me into the bedroom where she sleeps alone.  She is no more than 25.  I am perhaps six.  Putting her hands (which her father told her always to keep hidden because they were “large and unattractive”) on  my shoulders, she looks me right through my steel rimmed spectacles: “Nancy, you know I’m not really good at this mothering business,” she says.  “You’re a lovely child, the fault is not with you.  But motherhood doesn’t come easily to me.  So when I don’t seem like other people’s mothers, try to understand that it isn’t because I don’t love you.  I do.  But I’m confused myself.  There are some things I know about.  I’ll teach them to you.  The other stuff– sex and all that – well, I just can’t discuss them with you because I’m not sure where they fit into my own life.  We’ll try to find other people, other women who can talk to you and fill the gaps.  You can’t expect me to be all the mother you need.  I feel closer to your age in some ways than I do my mother’s.  I don’t feel that serene, divine, earth-mother certainty that you’re supposed to that she felt.  I am unsure how to raise you.  But you are intelligent, and so am I.  Your aunt loves you, your teachers already feel the need in you.  With their help, with what I can give, we’ll see that you get the whole mother package-all the love in the world.  It’s just that you can’t expect to get it all from me.” [Read more…]

by Cheryl Talley, Ph.D.
April 5, 2009

I began my 50 week negativity fast on Monday, November 26, 2007 as an act of desperation. The fast from all news media was an alternative plan from abstaining from all food for a year…which had been a very fleeting thought.  I remembered the benefit of fasting from food from back in my early thirties. Back then I had been in a church that advocated periodic fasting as part of a spiritual discipline. The longest period I had fasted was for 21 days. I knew the wonderful feeling of “after the fast” a clean feeling of having  detoxified myself physically and emotionally. It always worked. I felt more at peace after a fast…especially when it was coupled with a commitment to substitute spiritual readings instead of food…an emphasis on feeding my mind instead of my body. And I also noticed that I was less inclined to fight with people. I was much more sensitive during a fast of the impact of negative emotions. I also smiled more, especially at babies. Smelling fresh flowers or watching a sunset all seemed more intense in their pleasure. [Read more…]

March 15, 2009
By Julie Caran

When Kevin and I came to Harrisonburg in 2002 for his interview with the JMU chemistry department, one of my first tasks was to look at the church listings in the local yellow pages.  Because I was leaving my position as a Director of Religious Education at another church in order to accompany him on his career path, he knew there was one solid condition to my moving: there had to be a UU church wherever we relocated.  So while Kevin interviewed, I picked up a map and drove around town and into the country side, making my way to HUU.  It was easy to imagine living in such a beautiful area, and I’ll admit that I was instantly charmed by this lovely historic schoolhouse with HUU on the bell tower.

We moved to Harrisonburg in the summer of 2003 and attended HUU the first Sunday after we arrived.  That day the consulting minister, Rev. Byrd Tetzlaff, was fulfilling her promise to do a sermon of jokes, thanks to Robin McNallie’s purchase at the last HUU auction.  We saw that this was a community of people who enjoyed each other’s company, who had a sense of humor, and who really seemed to know each other well.  I had never attended such a small UU church before, but I looked forward to becoming a part of the HUU community.  That year I recognized HUU people at every educational, political, or social justice event I attended.  I knew that being a part of a UU church connected us to many different individuals with shared values.

Kevin and I did not join the church until spring of that school year, when we had acclimated to life in Harrisonburg and felt ready to truly commit to membership – which to us meant investing in this community with active participation, regular attendance, and a financial obligation.

Although growing up I had always contributed part of my allowance to my church, pledging was more than an expectation or the symbolic “giving back to God in thanks for all that God has given me.”  I had seen the practical side of church budgets and knew that running a church was impossible without its members’ generous contributions.  As a DRE I had personally depended on church members’ generosity to determine whether I would receive a raise or benefits.  Pledging also determined whether the RE program would be able to offer the same activities that it had offered the previous year, whether the church would be able to get its leaking roof fixed, and whether it would be able to contribute the necessary amount to be a UUA “fair share” congregation.  So when we became members of HUU, I knew how many benefits we would enjoy as members of the church and knew we needed to give something back – not only our time and participation, but at least some financial contribution.  At the time, I was in school full time and living off of student loans, and Kevin had his first-year-public-university-professor salary.  We couldn’t pledge as much as the church was worth to us.  But each year since then we’ve upped our pledge by about 15 per cent.  It’s part of our commitment to HUU that, as we become more financially stable, we contribute more as we are able.

March 8, 2009
by Rev. Emma Chattin

First Reading

~ from Matthew 25:29

“To those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance;
but from those who do not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

Second Reading

~ from “On Giving”, in “The Prophet”, by Kahlil Gibran

Then said a rich man, “Speak to us of Giving.”
And he answered:

You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over-prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand  as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?

And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?

There are those who give little of the much which they have-and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.

And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life,
and their coffer is never empty.

And there are those who give with joy,

and their joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain,
and that pain is their baptism.

And there are those who give and know not pain in giving,|

nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue:
They give as in yonder valley

the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks,

and from behind their eyes
[God] smiles upon the earth.

[Read more…]