UU Church of Brevard

This question was posted on our website: “Please if you could, explain to me what it means to call yourself a Unitarian Universalist? I myself used to be a big believer in Jesus Christ but know think it is a bunch of hokey pokey. I still believe in something greater though, I just don’t know what exactly. I mean something had to create us but the bible is not true. I am interested in this.”

The primary principle in our particular church is kindness, and moving toward greater kindness as a way of life. That is kindness toward self, others, and the world at large.  In terms of beliefs it is not that we do not have beliefs, as outsiders like to say when they poke fun at us; it is that we are not bound by any particular belief system. We believe that kindness toward each other is greater than beliefs. So we are not for war, poverty, pepper spraying, making money off of money at the expense of others, depriving people of health care when all our leaders have health care paid for by many who do not have health care, we are not for pollution for profit — well as you can see we are focused on the practice of life, not what we believe about life. The sermon I preached March 12, 2012 “UU Spirituality Beyond Belief” might be helpful in answering your question. The video is posted on YouTube, and you can find it listed under “Sermons.”

In terms of the Bible we do not so much argue the truth of it as much as ask “can this teaching help move toward being a kinder person and community?” Many people say they believe in the Bible but still hate their enemy. Or they support political systems that create poverty, pollution, go to war, deprive people of basic needs, and place supreme court justices in power that support trans national corporations over those people protected by the constitution. This is not acceptable to us.

In terms of creation- What a beautiful Earth we live in! I say it is more important to take care of this place our home rather than argue over how it came to be. Some believers feel it is more important to defend beliefs about creation rather than protect the earth. This is not acceptable to us.

This is my personal response and I do not speak for the members and friends of our congregation or other UU’s. They may have different viewpoints (one thing you will find to be true about UU’s is they have many different ideas about beliefs) and I hope some of them will post comments on about my response.

I hope this is helpful.

Rev. Gregory Wilson

p.s. This quote from William Ellery Channing, one of the founders of Unitarian universalism, addresses one of the central tenets of our faith and practice:

“there are two powers of the human soul which makes self culture possible, the self searching and the self forming power.We have first the faculty of turning the mind toward its self; of recalling the past and watching its present operations; and learning its various capacities and susceptibilities; what it can do and bear, what it can enjoy and suffer; and thus learning in general what our nature is, and what it is made for. And because we have this capacity we participate in the decisions for transformation in changing thus participate in the reforming of ourselves.”

History speaking

When I discover a theologian, a philosopher, or a poet that lived through the trauma of Europe from 1910 through 1948 I find myself listening differently. What does this person have to tell me, to teach me, am I capable of having empathy for those in their stories and for those who have suffered that inform their knowledge, can they instruct our generation so these horrors will not happen again? The work of the theologian Paul Tillich, philosopher Theodore Adorno, poets, Johannes Bobrowski, Paul Celan, and Zbigniew Herbert need to be common knowledge if we are to avoid compulsively repeating history hoping it will be different. I discovered these words by Herbert that has a bit a of humor and reality mixed. And after the poem I have included some websites about Zbigniew Herbert.

Practical Recommendations in the Event of a Catastrophe

It usually begins innocently enough with an acceleration, unnoticeable at first, of the turning of the Earth. Leave home at once and do not bring along any of your family. Take a few indispensable things. Place yourself as far as possible from the center, near the forests the seas or the mountains, before the whirling motion as it gets stronger from minute to minute begins to pour towards the middle, suffocating in ghettos, closets, basements. Hang on forcefully to the outer circumference. Keep your head down. Have your two hands constantly free. Take good care of the muscles of your legs.

Words from Zbigniew Herbert:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/zbigniew-herbert

one of his poems: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/audioitem/109

A thick history, what is it we mean by thick knowledge or history?

“Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper”
Martin Espada

At sixteen, I worked after high school hours
at a printing plant
that manufactured legal pads:
Yellow paper stacked seven feet high
and leaning
as I slipped cardboard
between the pages,
then brushed red glue
up and down the stack.
No gloves: fingertips required
for the perfection of paper,
smoothing the exact rectangle.
Sluggish by 9 PM, the hands
would slide along suddenly sharp paper,
and gather slits thinner than the crevices
of the skin, hidden.
Then the glue would sting,
hands oozing
till both palms burned
at the punchclock.

Ten years later, in law school,
I knew that every legal pad
was glued with the sting of hidden cuts,
that every open lawbook
was a pair of hands
upturned and burning.

Our spiritual well-being yearns for the knowledge of the way the things we use and eat are made, grown, transported and presented to us at the store. We yearn for a complete knowledge of our place on this planet.

Looking in through the glass front of the restaurant
I can see how some of the people might have thought,
“oh, look at that poor dirty boy,”
however I was on my way to farmer Jones’s Strawberry Field
where I could steal away by the edge of the wood
and nab some strawberries-after all it was season.
I had just left the pond; catching frogs,
and half frogs,
chasing the wind, feeling the sun.
You know building an appetite for strawberries.

Sermon Series:

In this three part sermon series we will explore three dynamics of our lives. 1) The emotional life, 2) The intellectual life, and 3) the Spiritual life.

Three selections from our wisdom literature will guide us in this exploration.

II Corinthians Chapter 5 verses 17 – 21 translated by Myself, The beatitudes translated from the Aramaic to English by Neil Douglas Klotz , and Thomas Berry’s work on story and the meaning of story.

The beatitudes translated from the Aramaic to English by Neil Douglas Klotz

Matthew 5:3

Ripe are those who reside in breath;

to them belongs the reign of unity.

Blessed are those who realize that breath is their first and last possession;

theirs is the “I Can” of the cosmos.

Matthew 5:4

Ripe are those who feel at loose ends,

coming apart at the seams;

they shall be knit back together within.

Blessed are those in turmoil and confusion;

they shall be united inside.

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are those who soften what is rigid, inside and out; they shall be open to receive strength and power–their natural inheritance–from nature.

Matthew 5:7

Blessedly ripe are those who radiate from a new self within;

they shall be shown a waking vision:

the womb of the One surrounding them with compassion.

Matthew 5:8

Ripe are the consistent in heart; they shall see Sacred Unity everywhere.

Matthew 5:9

Blessedly ripe are those who plant peace, every season.

Matthew 5:10

Blessedly ripe are those who are banished for seeking justice, within and without; their new home is a larger universe of empowerment.

In tune with the cosmos are those who are dominated and driven away because they long for a firm foundation of community; their domain becomes the activity that rules the cosmos.

Happy and right on time are those who draw shame for their pursuit of peace between all the conflicting voices. They realize their part in the vision that vibrates through all of creation.

translation by Neil Douglas-Klotz in The Hidden Gospel

II Cor. 17-21

When the divine is sensed to be unfolding within newness will follow. The old has broken open and new life is birthed. All is from the unfolding universe and we are part of that experience. Through the teachings of Jesus we have come to see more fully the world is broken and we suffer in that brokenness. Through the teaching and experience we have come to ourselves and have been reconciled within and with the universe. According to our responsibility in following this teaching we are called to continue to reconcile our own brokenness and reconcile the brokenness of the world. Not seeing the wrong doing of others but seeing the suffering that drives the wrong doing and our calling is to offer healing and comfort to those who are suffering. This is the highest spiritual calling of an individual and a community.

And from Thomas Berry

The story, then, is intended to be a new orientation and perspective which would provide a moral basis for action. In other words, it is seen as a comprehensive basis for nurturing reciprocity between humans and for fostering reverence between humans and Earth.

Berry opens his essay by observing: “We are in between stories.” He notes how the old story was functional because: “It shaped our emotional attitudes, provided us with life purpose, energized action. It consecrated suffering, integrated knowledge, guided education.”(21) This context of meaning provided by the old story is no longer operative. People are turning to new age novelties or to religious fundamentalism for orientation and direction. However, neither of these directions will ultimately be satisfying. We are confronted with dysfunctionalism in both religious communities and in secular societies. Berry proposes a new story of how things came to be, where we are now, and how the human future can be given some meaningful direction. In losing our direction we have lost our values and orientation for human action. This is what the New Story can provide.

You and I find ourselves in this room.

There are thousands of rooms.

Yet here we are in this room.

Shall we create laws to obey.

Give out ID badges.

Set lines on the ground where we can

and can not go.

Or shall we dance in every square inch of this room.

Sing until the sound pushes out the walls.

Until there are no walls.

Spend our lives exploring, Dancing, singing,

breathing

being  still,

so still ………

we hear the walk of turtles

as we sit on a log by the river.

A shadow passes across my leg

as the wind moves a cloud.

The Roots of the Carrot What is the carrot root seeking, moving seven feet down into the Earth? Is it just water alone or is the pureness of the nutrients in and of the dirt healthier seven feet down? Can … Continue reading →

Let this mind be in you that has yet to form.

“Oh, what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was made personal, merely personal feeling. This is what is the matter with us: we are bleeding at the roots because we are cut off from the earth and sun and stars. Love has become a grinning mockery because, poor blossom, we plucked it from its stem on the Tree of Life and expected it to keep on blooming in our civilized vase on the table.”
― D.H. Lawrence

How are my roots going to get through the vase, through the table it sits upon, through the floor of the house(concrete), and into the dirt? May be if I pretend I am dead the owner will throw me out and I will land in the yard. Or the owner will put me in a plastic bag that will last for 10,000 years. That is a long time to feel the sun and wind. Some how I must get to the soil. There is good earth at UU brevard.

“Proponents say the plan is a breakthrough for women’s rights, but Dolan and other leaders say it violates religious freedom.”

Why is it that Women’s rights are always at odds with the churches freedom?
Cardinal Dolan Urges ‘Freedom Of Religion Battle’

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/03/nys-cardinal-urges-freedo_n_1318984.html?show_comment_id=138998588#comment_138998588