September 23 2012
by H. B. Cavalcanti

All preaching is an exercise in metaphorical analysis. We compare things similar in some ways but dissimilar in others; hoping that in sorting out the differences we may derive some insight and wisdom for the journey.

This morning, I want to invite you look at your life as a garden. Clearly, this comparison has clear limitations – our lives are far more important than a small patch of land. But there are parallels too intriguing for us to pass up on such interesting exercise.

Think, for instance, of the seasonal nature of both lives and gardens. Think of the labor and craft that is involved in creating meaningful patterns out of sheer wild growth. Think about the transforming qualities that cultivating a plot bring into our lives; or the deep satisfaction in engaging in a fulfilling practice.

I believe that metaphorical analysis counterbalances our Western ways. As heirs of the Enlightenment, we are prone to dwell on rationality. We tend to use reason to study things. By taking them apart and deductively putting them back together we measure evidence, explain variations, find correlations in their interactions. Rationality allows us to replicate other people’s experiments, to test reality for what it is…

Obviously, this kind of rationality has served us well on a good number of fields (mine included). It has launched both industrial and informational revolutions. It has greatly improved the way we produce goods and services. It has created efficient and effective labor-saving devices for home and work. And it has organized urban life on unbelievable scale – from highway traffic to electric grids to health care to waste and water treatment.

Rationality follows a predictable pattern – it is linear, it sequences events, it tests hypotheses in a fastidious and careful way. Thus, it allows us to organize the rhythms of our everyday life in an orderly sequence that has provided us with great comfort and much progress.

[Read more…]

May 13, 2012

Presented by Joni Grady and Norman Lawson

The tag on our OOS says “One Journey, many paths.”  There are many kinds of journeys but we can assume that this is talking about a spiritual journey, the spiritual journey that we are all on, whether we realize it or not.

What might the nature of a spiritual journey be? What is the destination of such a journey?  It is a journey we start as soon as we can talk and perhaps before. As a child we always were asking “why”. Are we still asking “why”?  Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where is it all heading? How can I help others on their journeys?  Ultimately we all are looking for the answers to the most basic questions a human being can ask. Why with a capital W.

We each have traveled and are traveling this path in different ways.  This morning we give two of our members an opportunity to speak of their own spiritual journeys so we may better know them and perhaps take something from them to help us on our own spiritual journey.

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First Reading: #592 The Free Mind by William Ellery Channing

Second Reading Samuel Eugene Stevens, from Science and Superstition, 1914: 

“Thought—honest, free, outspoken, is the most valuable contribution intellect can make to human welfare. ..The purest pleasure and highest happiness are only the fruit of mental action exercised in the endeavor to understand the nature of things.”

Spiritual Odyssey: The inner compass and the magic church bus

By Joni Grady

I did try to be a good Methodist:  I sang in the choir, I played piano for Sunday School, I belonged to MYF and learned to play cards in our ‘den of iniquity’.  I even taught vacation Bible school one summer.  And my parents religiously attended church– on Easter and Christmas—and Wednesday night prayer meeting the year I played the organ.  But I always knew I wasn’t sincere, couldn’t buy into the Apostles Creed.  So you can imagine my relief when the Music Librarian at Rice University told me my junior year that I was probably a Unitarian, and Les and I began attending First Church in Houston.   Clearly my parents felt the same way : they started attending Emerson Unitarian Church  a few years later—even when it wasn’t a holiday– and continued as active UUs when they joined us in Clemson.

It was when my mom began digging into my father’s genealogy that I learned I was a birthright UU—not only is Unitarian founding father William Ellery Channing a distant cousin but so is Universalist preacher and theologian Hosea Ballou.  (We will quickly pass over the even more distant relationship to Cotton Mather.)  A closer relationship was uncovered to my Great-Uncle Samuel Eugene Stevens of Hartland, Vermont, self-published author of Science and Superstition from which I took my second reading. 

So my spiritual inner compass, perhaps genetically engineered by some fortuitous accident of birth, and with the help of a librarian, guided me to Unitarian-Universalism in 1961, for which I would thank God if I believed in Her.  Not that we attended church much while we were in school but some of you know how it is when you start having kids.   In 1970 I took my infant son Ross and became part of that interdependent web of life known as UU religious education, often separate from the adults but always loads more fun and serving to nourish me and my charges on a great spiritual adventure.  Where else would I have had the chance to learn that leaving a Christmas pageant bale of hay in the RE room would lead to Crayola colored mouse droppings in the yarn drawer??  Or that the ravens dangling from an old tennis racquet would bring pizza to Elijah in the desert?

I didn’t do children’s RE all the time, however, and I realize now, more than 40 years after first becoming an active UU, that the words I heard in the adult services, and the people I knew at the UU Fellowship of Clemson and have grown to know here, were gently nudging me onward as well.  How many times did I have to sing “Our world is one world,” hear “Deeds, not creeds,”  and “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed it’s the only thing that ever has,” before I realized they were speaking to me?  How long did I have to watch others going about the tasks of justice-making in ways large and small before I felt a real need to join them?  Probably for as long as it took Sophie to appear on the scene and me to realize how unpleasant climate change was going to make her life.  I suppose you could say that one thread of my journey has been my mother- and grandmother-hood, as Ross and Megan led me into Religious Education and Sophie into activism.

I am not the sort of spiritual seeker who feels the necessity to read and explore philosophy and religion on my own—though I am fascinated by the research in neurobiology, just as Uncle Sam and my parents would have been.  I’d rather read a good mystery any day.  And I am not the sort of person to go out and found a movement on my own.  For my spiritual journey I need a ‘magic church bus’ that works on UU Principles instead of the laws of physics and runs on our Sources instead of fossil fuel.  I need a ‘bus’ full of people on their own journeys willing to share their insights and experiences, their passions for social justice and good food,  people to sing “May I have this dance with you?”  with love and compassion.   Therefore I will always be grateful  to that lovely woman, Madith DeZurko,  who pointed me to the UU bus stop and said, “Get on, you’ll really enjoy the ride.”

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Norman Lawson’s spiritual Journey

I grew up in Rockville Centre on Long Island, NY and it was rural living at that time-1930.  I was into ornithology at an early age although my parents were not outdoor people.  I was shy to a distressing degree.

My first acquaintance with a really fascinating person was with the phys-ed director at Antioch College. I was his shadow for several years and was swept along in such activities as cross-country running, archery golf, gymnastics and muck running.  He was an original thinker in designing new sports activities.

When I was drafted at the beginning of World War II I was already a convinced conscientious objector and a thorough pacifist.  After a year of discussion and combat with three draft boards I was finally sent to camp in the woods for several years.  They wanted objectors out of circulation.

One interesting job I was recommended for while in camp in Northern California was three months of fire tower duty.  Good old Mad Rock Station, 144 steps up to the cabin and seven days a week attendance.  I did not get much smoke action but I did get to know Thoreau’s Walden. Thoreau was becoming more and more familiar and important to me.

Shortly after returning to New York City at the end of the war, my family bought a farm just north of the city and I got married and built a house.  The farm operation didn’t work out so I went back to college for a year and finally taught seventh grade biology for fifteen years.  There was also time to raise four kids somewhere in there.

To go back a bit in time, our parents and we three kids, age eight for me, left the Methodist Church and took up with the United Lodge of Theosophists. The philosophy of Theosophy has been my consuming religious interest since then.  The principles of Unitarian Universalism are fine and strong but on my death bed they will leave me breathless and thoughtless.  What comes after that? Is this life the end? Are all my efforts toward betterment going to be lost? Do I not have a tomorrow to look forward to and to work for?  Does my soul just dry up and float away into nothingness?

In the afterlife why not just reap what you earned and what you really deserve, mostly good with a little bit of not so good.  So there you have reincarnation and another chance for learning and improvement.  Anything else would be a waste. Come back and see if you can’t do better.  What else would you expect?

The law of Karma says that when ever you make a choice of action you are inevitably and unavoidably choosing the reaction, spitting into the wind, as it were.  These are part of one event.  The only way to talk around karma is to admit a world of utter confusion.

Add Karma and Reincarnation to your daily list of think about and you might be surprised.

By Lisa Ellison
February 5, 2012

To live is to engage in work. The body engages in constant work – the lungs filling with air, the heart pumps. Our minds engage in problem solving, learning, and decision-making. Together the body and mind take action. Life is the only job we do not apply for and the only one where termination is guaranteed after an unspecified number of years. We are not given explicit job descriptions. We may or may not know our qualifications. We may spend the whole time wondering why we are here.

I’m asking you to consider that your life is spiritual vocation –something important, something filled with purpose, something that is wonderful just as it is, in whatever shape it’s in. A vocation is a summons or strong inclination to a particular state or course of action. It comes from the Latin “vocatio,” which means summons. Spirituality from a counseling perspective is the search for meaning. It’s the journey into the self where we discover who we are, who we want to be, how we connect to others, how we make meaning, and where we find hope. For some people spirituality is tied to religion, for others it’s not. Some people say they do not have any spirituality. That is also spirituality.

Our job as spiritual sentient beings is to make meaning from our experiences. We do this all of the time whether we want to or not. It’s how we’re wired. We cannot help but do it. Things are good, bad, pleasurable, painful, worth our time or a waste of time. The question we must ask ourselves is not whether we engage in spirituality at this level, but how we do it. Do we make meaning in ways that quiet the soul, promote compassion towards ourselves and others and instill hope and resilience, or do we make meaning in ways that promote hatred, division, mistrust, and despair for these are also spiritual practices. I believe that spirituality has to have a heart/head connection. So many times I’ve heard people say I understand it intellectually, but I don’t feel it in my heart, and so things do not change. If we do not connect to that innermost part of ourselves, we cannot move forward in our lives.

The world is a mess. It’s always been that way. Most of the time I think we spend our lives trying to avoid the mess. That’s usually my first inclination. Pain, struggle, suffering –let’s pass on that! Suffering can be seen as bird shit on your shoulder, something to complain about, get rid of, and hate. The more pain a person feels the more chances they have to feel lonely, unhappy, and unfulfilled. These are real possibilities. At certain times in my life, that’s been my experience. But suffering is also filled with blessings. If a bird shits on your shoulder, more than likely you’ll look up. You may see a beautiful sky. Suffering and struggle offer us the opportunity to ask why, and to engage thoughtfully in the meaning-making process. Most importantly, it offers us a chance to understand the human condition – to experience empathy that allows us to connect with others and have compassion. We can say that we’ve been there. We understand. When we haven’t been there we are more likely to lose our patience and feel baffled by someone’s attempt to simply do the best they can at any given moment.

As a budding counselor, I am fascinated with how we make meaning in our lives. In fact, my job is to sit with people while they engage in this process. I usually hear the painful, confusing parts, the things people wish had not happened, or want to undo – regrets, injuries, fears, grief. I hear the questions Randy talked about a couple of weeks ago: How do I feel normal again? What do I need to do to be normal? I hate the word normal because it sets up false expectations. There is no “normal.” There’s common and uncommon, centered, and uncentered. I think that’s what people want – to feel like they are understood and standing on solid ground. I am amazed by the courage that people can show in the face of insurmountable odds, and the ways they find stability and hope in the midst of utter despair. [Read more…]

October 30, 2011
by Beryl Lawson

At this time of the year when it is said that the separation between the living and the dead is thin it might be good to consider another view on what survives after the death of the body.

Readings

Bhagavad Gita chapter 2
As the lord of this mortal frame experienceth therein infancy, youth, and old age, so in future incarnations will it meet the same. One who is confirmed in this belief is not disturbed by anything that may come to pass. As a man throweth away old garments and putteth on new, even so the dweller in the body, having quitted its old mortal frames, entereth into others which are new.

Benjamin Franklin’s Epitaph
The body of B. Franklin, Printer (Like the Cover of an Old Book Its Contents torn Out And Stript of its Lettering and Gilding) Lies Here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be Lost; For it will (as he Believ’d) Appear once More In a New and More Elegant Edition Revised and Corrected By the Author.

Gottfried de Purucker
“We are here because we have been here before, because here we sowed seeds of destiny, and we come back on this earth to reap those seeds which we sowed. This universe, governed by cosmic law, will not allow us to sow corn or wheat in San Diego County, and three or four months afterwards travel into Arizona or Nevada and attempt to reap the corn and wheat there. Where we sowed the seeds, there shall we reap the harvest. It is obvious. Our very being here, to the man who can think clearly and logically from step to step, or thought to thought, is a proof of reincarnation. Otherwise we must say cosmic law put us here by chance. And who believes that? If fortuity governed this world we would see the stars in their courses and all the planets running helter skelter all over the cosmic spaces without law, without reason, without order, without intelligence, without system”.

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A brief look into the many religions of the world, both ancient and modern, both eastern and western allows us to see that the idea of rebirth and the preexistence of the soul is a central concept of them all. [Read more…]

October 16
by Rev. Emma Chattin

First Reading

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

For everything there is a season,
and a time for every purpose under heaven:
a time to be born,
and a time to die;
a time to plant,
and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill,
and a time to heal; a time to break down,
and a time to build up;

a time to weep,
and a time to laugh; a time to mourn,
and a time to dance; 5a time to throw away stones,
and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace,
and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek,
and a time to lose;
a time to keep,
and a time to throw away;
a time to tear,
and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence,
and a time to speak;
a time to love,
and a time to hate; a time for war,
and a time for peace.

Second Reading

From Richard Rohr in Hope Against Darkness: The Transforming Vision of Saint Francis in an Age of Anxiety

Our age has been called the age of anxiety, and I think it’s probably a good description for this time.  We no longer know where our foundations are.  When we’re not sure what is certain, when the world, and our world view, keep being redefined every few months, we’re going to be anxious.  And we want to get rid of that anxiety as quickly as we can!  Yet, to be a good leader of anything today – to be a good pastor, a good bishop, a good father, a good mother… (you fill in the blank) .. you have to be able to contain, to hold patiently, a certain degree of anxiety. Leaders who cannot hold anxiety will never lead you to any place new.  That’s probably why the Bible says so often, “Be not afraid.”  (I have a printout that notes the phrase appearing 365 times!)

If you cannot calmly hold a certain degree of anxiety you will always be looking for somewhere to expel it.  Expelling what you can’t embrace gives you an identity, but it’s a negative identity.  It’s not life energy, it’s death energy.  Formulating what you are against gives you a very quick sense of yourself.  Thus, most people fall for it.  People more easily define themselves by what they are against, by who they hate, by who  is wrong, by what is wrong, instead of by what they believe in and who they love.

I hope you see from this common pattern how different the alternative is.  If so, you might catch anew the radical and scary nature of faith, because faith only builds on that totally positive place within, no matter how small.  It just needs an interior “Yes” to begin….  (That is the foundation)… and that is why faith is always rare.  Religious group-identity all too often becomes its replacement.  We don’t have to find and live from a positive loving place.  We can just go to church.

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Uncertain Times

We live in uncertain times.
Hurricanes.  Wildfires.  Floods.  Historic droughts.
Tornados. An earthquake…. in Virginia!
Gay Pride… in Elkton!!!
Woah…. I did NOT see that one coming!

Not all unexpected events are bad….
And while there may be some in this very Valley who will be quick to blame any destructive natural event on some sort of divine judgment for this perceived wrong…
or that perceived wrong… such divine assignment of responsibility
is nearly as old as the hills and the volcanoes that made them.

Humanity is all too quick to search for some sense of sense in the face of the senseless, some certainty in the face of uncertainty.   Truth is, most ancient religions regarded God (or the gods) to be controllable- placated, manipulated, through ritual and human sacrifice.  Around the time of Abraham, we see a shift in sacrifice from human to animal… sheep… goats… offerings to please God… to garner God’s attention and favor….good things were automatically the result of some blessing… [Read more…]

ASSOCIATION SUNDAY – October 2, 2011
Rev. Mike Quayle

Today Unitarian Universalists gather in churches, meeting houses, and some in rented spaces.    Some of the buildings are sprawling Gothic Cathedral-like structures.  Others are white clapboard churches.  Some are modern buildings which look more like spaceships than churches.  Others are traditional church buildings “recycled” from churches which have closed and still retain symbols like stained glass windows of the Last Supper or Jesus rising from the tomb.  Some meet in public school buildings.  Others in a college auditorium.  I recently read about one UU congregation that uses a local funeral chapel  to gather.  Then there are our friends in Lexington who meet in the courthouse.  And of, course, I know of one congregation that meets in an old schoolhouse!

Some have no more than ten people gathering.  Others have hundreds in attendance.  Still other UU’s have no congregation near them so they are part of the Church of the Larger Fellowship;  a sort of virtual church that relies on internet access and large gatherings throughout the year.

All are Unitarian Universalists gathering together to live out our commitment to each other and to the world.

We gather to be inspired.  We gather to challenge each other and our   world.  We gather to speak words of comfort to each other.  At times, we bicker with each other.  We debate and we argue.  We struggle to  find answers to life’s most challenging questions. [Read more…]