Sermon: 

Many years ago I learned one of my favorite ways 

  of preparing and delivering a sermon. 

The preacher who taught this method said, 

  First, tell them what you're going to tell them. 

    Second, tell them. 

      Third, tell them what you told them. 

I don't follow that pattern perfectly 

  simply because it doesn't always work 

    exactly the way one would expect. 

On the other hand, 

  if you pay attention, you will find

    that I do follow the pattern fairly closely

      in many of my sermons. 

Today I expect to follow it quite closely. 

So, here we go: 

I'll be sharing three major points in today's sermon: 

  First, I'll talk about the Solstice. 

    Second, I'll talk about fathering. (on Father’s Day!)

      Third and finally, I'll talk about reopening. 

The Solstices are among the highest 

  of high holy days 

    among those of us who treasure 

      earth (creation) based spirituality. 

For me, there is no other spirituality in truth 

  than that which is based on earth (Creation), 

    since spirituality is concerned first and foremost 

      with breath. 

Our breath is part of our own creation 

  and our relationship with the earth. 

A Solstice reminds us of our connection 

  to the created order of which we are a part. 

Both Solstices, Winter and Summer, 

  are more of a Season than a single day. 

In both cases the Solstice Season 

  appears to last about a month, 

    since for about two weeks 

      before and two weeks after the Solstice, 

        the length of days seems to change very little. 

The very term, Solstice, means, 

  "Sun stands still." 

As we understand, the sun, the earth, 

  and all heavenly bodies 

    are in constant motion at all times, 

      but from the point of view of the Earth, 

        the sun appears to trace a pattern in the sky. 

As the Solstice approaches, 

  the sun appears to slow down.

At the time of the Solstice itself, 

  today at 8:31 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, 

    the sun appears to stand still 

      before it changes direction in its journey 

        across and around the sky. 

Because of a variety of factors, 

  the Summer Solstice this year can mark for us

    some new opportunities to address issues 

      that will be important for us all in times to come. 

I'm speaking first and foremost of climate change. 

The sun is the source of heat and light 

  upon which we all depend 

    for life on our small planet. 

We have been blessed with an abundance of energy, 

  both of and from here and now 

    with the sun’s energy every day, 

      and of and from ancient times 

      in the form of energy in fossil fuels. 

We have not always been good stewards 

  of either form of energy, 

    but it is not too late for us to learn. 

Like a good father, 

  the sun can be a teacher for us, 

    reminding us of endings and new beginnings, 

      and helping us commit ourselves 

        to a new kind of stewardship of his gifts. 

Obviously, speaking of the sun as father 

  is a metaphor 

    for the providence of so many gifts 

      we receive from the sun, our day star. 

As the summer season begins, 

  it also begins to end. 

[Here or as a hymn / special music]

Solstice hymn: 

Summer sun, summer sun, 

We watch as you set, 

Sending your long arms of light from the West. 

Summer sun, summer sun, 

You shine so bright, 

As you begin your return to the night. 

Like many of life's gifts 

  and like many a good parent, 

    the sun reminds us 

      of the brevity and preciousness of our lives. 

Like a good father, 

  the sun is thus a good teacher. 

If we are paying attention, 

  we can learn good stewardship 

    of our planet and its resources. 

A good father is a great example of 

  of nurturing in the process of parenting. 

A good mother is likewise, of course, 

  and because today is Father's Day, 

    our thoughts and emphasis 

      are on the nurturing fathers among us. 

To nurture a child from infancy 

  through near adulthood 

    is to ensure the hope 

      that we all may thrive 

        into the future of our world. 

I want to share a reading about fathering 

  that seems most appropriate to me. 

I Believe in Fathering

By Evin Carvill Ziemer

I believe in fathering

I believe in the radical idea that men have the full human capacity to nurture

Hair bows and baseballs

Cooking and creativity

Tools and tiaras

Camping and dancing

Snuggles and shrieks of delight

Too many fathers don’t believe in their own fathering

Too many are scarred by their own fathers to hear their heart say otherwise

Too many have known fathers who, faced with a quivering lip and tears, could only say “man up."

Too many have known fathers who knew only yelling and hitting

Too many have known fathers who lost sight of their sacred role of protector and became tormentor

But I believe in fathering.

When a human being gestates and gives birth their brain changes permanently.

A father’s brain changes permanently too—changes as he rocks his baby to sleep, delights in baby games, and soothes bumps and bruises. A father earns his new neurobiology.

In a world where too many mothers hand their co-parent directions more specific than those given to the babysitter;

Where a father out with his kids is asked, “Are you babysitting?” and “Where’s mom?”;

Where fathers are the punch line,

I believe in fathering. I believe in the radical idea that men have the full human capacity to nurture.

Whether their children come through birth, adoption, or fostering; through scouts, sports, Sunday school, or youth group

I’ve known too many gay dads, too many single fathers, too many men raising children others couldn’t to believe otherwise.

I believe we all—especially our children—deserve to know that the human capacity to nurture belongs to every one of us.

I believe in fathering.

I also believe in fathering, 

  and... 

Now, finally, we get to think about one more thing 

  especially for today. 

It's fitting somehow that this day coincides with 

  the holy day of the Summer Solstice. 

We are able to nurture each other 

  into a hope filled future 

    as many of us gather in person 

      for our worship celebration today. 

I'm speaking of the experience 

  we are all sharing at present 

    in the opportunity (finally) 

      for reopening 

        as the pandemic begins to recede. 

Our own congregation, 

  the beloved community of the NIUU, 

    is experiencing the joy of gathering in person 

      for the first time in more than a year. 

At first, even waiting until the end of a season, 

  not even to speak of the whole year, 

    was daunting for most of us. 

As the pandemic progressed, 

  we were forced to recognize the importance 

    of protecting each other 

      by staying apart, far longer than we expected. 

One of the greatest ironies I have observed 

  was the reality that a church gathering 

    was among the most dangerous kinds 

      of opportunities for the disease to spread. 

Contagion is a dreadful thing 

  unless we are catching good things 

    like hope and love from each other. 

It has been such a blessing for us 

  that we could continue to gather virtually, online, 

    while we could not gather in person. 

It is my fond hope that many of us 

  who have been participating in our worship times 

    via Zoom are with us now by the same method. 

The reopening of our in person gatherings 

  brings with it our desire to stay open 

    to each other by providing for each other's needs 

      according to the best of our abilities. 

We want to be careful of each other's safety 

  as levels of risk from disease contagion 

    vary so widely from one person to another. 

We also want to consider each other's feelings 

  so that those who are more comfortable 

    with such experiences as hugs 

      and being together without masks 

        do not become opportunities for contention. 

Now I want to tell you all what I just told you. 

I spoke of the Solstice 

  and the ways our day star, the sun, 

    reminds us of the importance 

      of caring for our world 

        as we move through time upon it. 

Then I spoke of fathering, 

  how a man can be a nurturing parent, 

    a loving father, 

      fully as well as a woman, 

        a loving mother. 

Finally, I spoke of the wonder and joy 

  of reopening as we are able (finally) 

    to be together in person 

      even as we continue to share our online presence 

        with those who are best able to join with us 

          in that way. 

Amen. 

So let it be. 

Blessed be. 

 This week I'm sharing the entire script for our service, instead of just the sermon: 

Order of Service - Script 

for Sunday  June 6, 2021

Transition 

All life is change. Sometimes the change is welcome; sometimes, not so much. Our ability to adapt to life's changes determines our place in the evolutionary scheme of things. 

NIUU, Sue Hansen-Barber, Jeanie Donaldson, Pastor Fred 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Prelude - “Waltz” by Gretchaninoff 

Welcome:  

Come into this circle of love and compassion,

Come into this community where we can dream and

Believe in those dreams—

Welcome to North Idaho Unitarian Universalists where we accept, we support, we transform:  Ourselves, Our Community. Our world.   

Sue - Lighting the Chalice: 

As we approach our time of worship and preparation,

let us remember that we are doing the work of the NIUU community. 

When we do the work of this beloved community, we touch lives.

When we touch lives, we change the world.

May this chalice flame we now kindle

remind us throughout our service and meetings

of our ministry and our mission.

Opening Words: 

A Protest and a Party

By Hannah Roberts Villnave

People sometimes ask:

Is Pride a protest

Or a party?

And the answer is

Of course

Yes.

And why not?

Why not

Rejoice as we resist

Dance as we demand change

Celebrate as we create community that delights in

All of who we are?

So bring all of that

With you this morning.

Bring your policy demands

Bring your glitter

Bring your supreme court broken heart

Bring your rainbow socks

Bring the emptiness you feel

For our siblings gone too soon.

Bring your Gloria Estefan remix

Bring your tender hope for change

Bring your most garish eyeshadow

Bring your spirit, tattered and battered

By a world that seems insistent on

Choosing fear and hate.

Gather up all these things

And bring them here

To a place where we don’t

Have to shoulder these burdens

Or celebrate these joys

Alone.

Come, let us worship

Together.

Hymn #361: 

Enter, Rejoice, and Come In 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KpuWJTJ0KI

Covenant: 

Love is the spirit of this church, and service its law

This is our great covenant:

To dwell together in peace,

To seek truth in love,

And to help one another. 

Meet and Greet / Check-in  / Joys and Concerns /  Sharing

Sue - Story: 

We Are Community

By Elandria Williams

The history and legacy of Unitarian Universalism are shaped as much by Emerson, Fahs, and Channing as it is by the ancestors in our congregations. We come to it through different avenues: the Internet, an invitation, reading the Transcendentalists, or as babies or ­little kids.

I came as a fourth grader to my congregation, the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee (TVUUC). This community helped bring me into social justice ­struggles in the world around me and inside the UUA. They brought me as a child to the place where I now work, the Highlander Center. My church opened so many doors because they held young ­people in high esteem and encouraged our leadership in the church and community. I will never forget going to our district’s Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Team meeting (the UUA’s anti-racism program) and realizing that I was the youngest person there by nearly fifteen years.

My religious education teachers, friends’ parents, and spirit aunts and uncles were and still are community leaders in everything from nuclear disarmament to anti-racism/anti-oppression issues. They protested U.S. military involvement in Central America and stood behind the parent of a classmate as she transitioned from male to female in the early nineties. They have been my inspiration as I work to support others who are called by their faith to change hearts, minds, and communities.

My church changed forever on July 27, 2008, when an armed man came into the sanctuary and killed two UU leaders, one a member of TVUUC and the other a member of Westside Church. This rocked our church to its core. When I first heard about it, I didn’t know who had been killed—my mom, my friends and their parents, or others who had nurtured me my entire life. I realized something that day that has stayed with me ever since: No matter what issues I have with other Unitarian Universalists regarding our visions of God/Spirit, justice, race, and age—at the root of everything is community, love, and faith. That day, something larger than our individual beliefs rose up in my mind. I thought of the principles, values, and ­family that are the connective tissue of our faith community and that held us weeks after the shooting, six months later on our sixtieth anniversary, and still today.

I am part of the connective tissue that holds the legacy and future of our faith. I am Church Across the Street, AYS, YRUU, youth cons, Journey Toward Wholeness, GROUNDWORK, C*UUYAN, the Mountain, and GA Youth and Young Adult Caucus.

We are the children of freedom fighters, visionaries, and radical liberal theologians.

We are the phoenix rising out of the ashes of the McCarthy era and the civil rights, women’s, and queer liberation movements.

We are the survivors and beneficiaries of youth-led and youth-focused beliefs and programming that encouraged us to be change makers, boundary pushers, and institutionalists at the same time.

We are and will be the ministers, religious educators, con­gregational presidents, organizers, and social change leaders our faith has led us to be.

We wear our faith as tattoos on our bodies and in our hearts as testaments to the blood, tears, dreams, and inspirations of our community ancestors and elders.

Source: "Becoming: A Spiritual Guide for Navigating Adulthood"

 

Meditation: 

Prayer in Time of Transition

By Julianne Lepp

Dear Goddess, Mother, and Source

Your womb is all of creation

Your love is mother's milk

Please grant us support during this transition

Please help us move through this next stage

Please carry us in arms of support, grace, and love

So that we may bring new life to this ministry

So that we may grow as a community

So that we may birth a whole new way of being together.

We ask this in your Holy, and Sacred name. Amen.

Song - How Could Anyone? 

Sacramento Gay Men's Chorus: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gITHQxIuE4

-or- 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF7yFOlOk9M

Sermon: 

During all of our lives, change happens. 

Within our human lives, 

  change is a necessary element for our survival. 

The key to our successful relationship with change 

  is the ability to adapt. 

Many evolutionary biologists consider 

  the ability to adapt to change

    to be among the most important indicators 

      of the survival of species. 

As individuals make adjustments 

  to changing circumstances 

    they enable their own survival 

      and the likelihood of their ability to reproduce, 

        and so they enable greater opportunities 

          for their species to survive as well. 

This is also true of individual humans, 

  our communities, 

    our institutions, 

      our faith and values, 

        and many other aspects of our human lives. 

In this way we see that 

  as with adaptation in evolution, 

    our successful relationship 

      with the changes in our lives 

        enables our survival 

          as individuals and as a species. 

To maintain a successful relationship with change 

  means we need to approach 

    life's changes with hope. 

Hope is easier to find with some changes

  than with others, 

    but hope is always necessary and important. 

To approach change with hope

  means believing or trusting 

    that good things can come 

      from the changes we see. 

Believing or trusting the good things

  that can come from change 

    makes the arrival of those good things 

      much more likely than not. 

At this point, it sounds like I'm preaching 

  about the power of positive thinking. 

In itself, the power of positive thinking 

  is not a bad thing, 

    but there is more to it than simply 

       thinking positively. 

I'm also preaching about the power 

  of positive speaking and positive acting, too. 

If we keep positive thinking, positive speaking 

  and positive acting in mind 

    the changes in our lives are much more likely 

      to result in the good things we hope for. 

There are complicating factors 

  in trying to approach change in a positive way, 

    of course. 

The changes in our lives 

  have been happening faster and faster 

    over a period of many years. 

Sometimes it can be difficult 

  simply to keep track of the changes 

    and the speed of change in our own lives 

      and in the world around us. 

We only need to contemplate briefly 

  the rapid changes in the lives 

    of people in our own families 

      from previous generations 

        to get some perspective. 

My parents were born in 1910 (my mother) 

  and 1899 (my father). 

Their lives very nearly encompassed 

  the invention of the airplane 

    and the landing of human beings 

      on the surface of the moon. 

Social changes have been happening 

  at even faster rates. 

The availability of marriage to LGBTQA+ folks 

  is an obvious example in recent times. 

For those most in need 

  of seeing the social changes in our world, 

    the changes may seem much too slow. 

For those on the outside looking in, 

  especially those 

    with strong and contradictory opinions, 

      the changes can seem much too fast. 

If we try to picture too many changes at once, 

  even as they are happening around us, 

    the result may be dizzying. 

It's no wonder that changes and transitions 

  are facing so much resistance in our time. 

William F. Buckley, the well known conservative, 

  once said, “A conservative is someone 

    who stands athwart history, 

      yelling Stop, 

        at a time when no one is inclined to do so, 

          or to have much patience 

            with those who so urge it.” 

When changes are happening so fast, 

  many people find it impossible to adjust

    to one change 

      before another change follows in its wake. 

Then it becomes especially difficult 

  to think, speak, or act in positive ways 

    in relation to the changes happening around us. 

One result of the difficulty in adjusting to change 

  is that the need to adjust has been the cause 

    of many of the profound divisions 

      we see around us in our society 

        and all over the world. 

Among the saddest examples of resistance to change 

  too often comes within families. 

Members of a family may be rejecting each other 

  because of disagreements. 

Sometimes the disagreements 

  are about politics or religion, 

    as they have been for many generations. 

Sometimes the disagreements 

  are about deeper differences 

    of people's personal identity. 

During this Pride Month, 

  it's important for us to remember 

    the pain of many of our sisters and brothers. 

All too often, LGBTQIA+ children and youth 

  end up on the streets 

    because their families of origin 

      reject their orientation. 

As ever, there are heroes and heroines 

  who are working to provide safe harbor 

    for the young people 

      who have been rejected in this way. 

Likewise, those who adjust to change more easily 

  can help those who are having a harder time, 

    so long as the help is welcomed. 

Obviously, one cannot impose help 

  where no help is wanted, 

    but when it comes to life's changes, 

      we all need the help of people around us. 

Especially when social change is happening 

  as quickly as it's happening in our time, 

    we all need some encouragement 

      to help us cope. 

The idea of helping each other, 

  as expressed in our congregation's covenant, 

    is one way among many 

      for us to try to bridge the gap 

        in the divisions among us today. 

Again, it's important to remember 

  not to try to help people who believe 

    that they need no help, 

      and especially those who believe that we 

        who think differently from them 

          are the ones who really need the help! 

At the same time, 

  dialogue can be possible in many cases, 

    and simply talking about social change 

      and the way we think and feel about it 

        can be a starting place. 

There is no reason that the deep divisions in society 

  need to keep people from talking to each other. 

Keeping communication open may not be easy, 

  but it is increasingly important 

    in our time. 

In our own nation and community, 

  even in our own NIUU beloved community, 

    important transitions are taking place, 

      and good communication will help us all 

        to navigate this time of change. 

The marked slowdown of the COVID-19 pandemic 

  is bringing us to a most welcome transition. 

We are moving together into a new normal, 

  and it will help us all maintain better health 

    and care more effectively for our environments. 

The slowdown of the pandemic, of course, 

  is not happening evenly in all places. 

Some nations and some communities are struggling 

  much more than others. 

There are many reasons for this, 

  but the result is a mixture of good changes 

    and changes that are not so good. 

One of the possibilities 

  leading our own NIUU community 

    to an important transition 

      is our beginning to meet in person for worship 

        two weeks from today. 

As we prepare for the new normal, 

  we will need to approach the changes 

    in the ways we would use to approach 

      many of the other changes in our lives 

        and in our world. 

We need positive thinking, speaking, and acting. 

Obviously we need continuing good communication 

  to help us understand each other 

    as the changes continue to come. 

There are differences of opinion 

  about the process of reopening, 

    getting together in person again. 

Mutual respect will be the key 

  to our successful adaptation

    within the changing circumstances. 

It's a major transition, to be sure. 

It's one of the most hope filled opportunities 

  we have had in recent times. 

Our hope to continue to include the availability 

  of online participation in worship through Zoom 

    can help us provide 

      a positive experience of change. 

We can help each other move forward with hope 

  and continuing good relationships. 

Amen. 

Blessed Be 

Congregational Response 

Offering Information 

Our Charity of the Month:

 Partnering for Progress

"An organization trying to bring justice, equity and compassion to a rural area of Kenya."

NIUU

P.O. Box 221

CDA ID 83816

 

Closing Hymn: Wake Now my Senses 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ou-rpNlhXI

Sue - Extinguishing the Chalice :

As we extinguish the Chalice, we remember that we can change. People say we can’t, but we do when the stakes or the pain is high enough. And when we do, life can change. 

 

Welcoming Guests and Announcements

 

Closing words: 

I Send You Out

By Kelly Weisman Asprooth-Jackson

I send you out now, to share yourself with the world

May its promise and complexity set your mind ablaze

May you hold fast to what your life has taught you

May you question everything

And when you have changed the world,

And the world has changed you,

May you return again, to this community,

And share what you have learned with us.