Once again I'm posting the entire Order of Worship (Script) rather than the sermon only.
Order of Service - Script for Sunday July 4, 2021
Independence and Interdependence
No matter how independent we may be or want to be, we are all interdependent on each other and our world, in keeping with our UU Seventh Principle, "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part."
NIUU, Jeanie Donaldson, Pastor Fred
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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.
Lighting the Chalice:
We Come Together Without Creed
By Maureen Killoran
In this free church, we come together without creed, focusing instead on the core values of justice, equity and compassion...
Of mutual acceptance of our diverse ways of being, as we seek to connect ourselves more fully with the unfolding truths of life and of our world.
We come together in shared conviction that all people deserve a voice in matters that concern them, and that it is up to each of us to protect the rights of all—particularly those who, for whatever reason, have long been held in silence.
We come together in the stubborn belief that community is possible and that peace is more than a dream.
We commit together to affirm in our actions as well as our words, the inherent worth and dignity of every human being.
We come together in awareness of our interdependence with all humanity, and with the wider web of existence, for that too is part of what is meant by "we."
In this free church, we come together without creed, believing that the way we live in the world bears testament to the value of our beliefs.
We light this chalice as a beacon of hope for who have gathered here this day. For all who have ever walked through our doors, for those who may yet find this spiritual home, and for those whose paths will never come our way.
For all this, and for all those things we dare to hope and dream, we kindle our chalice flame this day.
Opening Words:
We Need One Another
By Erik Walker Wikstrom
We come together this morning because within us there is something that knows we need more than we can find in our aloneness.
We know—instinctively, in the depths of ourselves—that we need others for this journey of life even though we also guard our independence and individuality quite jealously.
So let us celebrate all that makes us unique yet also all that makes us one, and let us dream dreams of all that we can do... together.
Hymn #318 - We Would be One:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rqwC5_KMuU
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
Joys and Concerns
Story:
John Haynes Holmes
By Paul Sprecher
John Haynes Holmes was born into a Unitarian family soon after the Civil War. He grew up just outside of Boston, and his father would take him to Unitarian churches in Boston every Sunday so that he would hear the best preaching the city had to offer. Holmes idolized his grandfather, John Haynes, who had served as treasurer of the great Theodore Parker’s congregation in Boston. Parker was famous as an Abolitionist before the Civil War and preached tirelessly against slavery. He also got directly involved in the struggle against slavery by sheltering a runaway slave in his own home. Parker sometimes wrote his sermons with a pistol on his desk in case someone came around to drag the man he was protecting back into slavery. Parker died before John Haynes Holmes was born, but Holmes learned all about Parker from his grandfather. Parker was one of Abraham Lincoln’s favorite preachers, and his famous words in the Gettysburg Address, “government of the people, by the people and for the people,” probably came from something Theodore Parker once said.
John Haynes decided that his grandson was very smart and helped send him to Harvard for college. To save money, Holmes worked really hard so he could finish in three years instead of four and then went directly to divinity school. He started preaching in Dorchester, just south of Boston, but was soon called to one of the big Unitarian churches in New York, the Church of the Messiah. His favorite going-away present was from his grandfather: The Bible Theodore Parker had used when he preached in Boston. He felt as though his grandfather was passing on a great legacy and a great responsibility to him from Theodore Parker himself.
Holmes sometimes took very strong stands in his sermons and his work in the community that some of the members of his church disagreed with, but they always supported his right to say what he really believed was true. The most difficult disagreement was over whether the United States should fight World War I. Holmes was a pacifist – he was convinced that war is always wrong. When he made this announcement just when the United States was joining the war, he expected that the leaders of the church might want him to resign as their minister. Even though only one of them agreed with his position about the war, all of the leaders voted to give him their complete support as their minister. Even though they disagreed with him, they believed in the tradition of the free pulpit—the idea that ministers should be allowed to say what they believe even if the members of their church didn’t agree with them. Holmes took his beliefs to a meeting of representatives of all of the Unitarians in the United States later that year and argued in favor of pacifism even against a former president of the United States, William Howard Taft. His viewpoint was defeated by a vote of 236 to 9!
As part of his support for pacifism, Holmes learned about Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent struggle for the independence of India. Holmes introduced Gandhi in this country with a sermon called “Who Is the Greatest Man in the World?” in which he said that Gandhi’s ideas about how to bring about change without violence were some of the most important ideas for us to learn.
All his life, John Haynes Holmes struggled to help the underdog and to fight for peace. The stories about Theodore Parker that his grandfather told him were a constant inspiration in his own fights for justice. Today, the Unitarian Universalist Association gives an award in his name each year to the person who has best followed his example in committing their lives to social justice.
Meditation:
As I was reading this meditation in preparation for today's worship service, one of the two kittens (Bear) who share my home with me came up to me from behind and reached out his paw to touch my shoulder. I couldn't see him coming, but I felt his gentle touch. This small gesture seemed like a perfect corollary to our meditation for this morning.
Love Knows You
By Barbara Merritt
When my youngest child was a baby, the sweetest part of my day was putting David to sleep. At fifteen months he had a demanding schedule. There were toilet paper rolls to unravel, dressers to empty, bookshelves to clear, trash baskets to dump on the floor, papers to tear, pans to bang, books to redistribute throughout the house and office, pigeons to chase in the park, food to massage into his hair, a brother’s toys to covet and fight for, and a considerable collection of bright and educational playthings to utterly ignore. By 7:30 at night little David was stumbling through the house like a drunken sailor: cranky, exhausted, and too tired to walk in a straight line.
But when I warmed a bottle of milk and he climbed up into my lap, the transformation was nothing short of miraculous. He would start to drink his bottle, and all the tension and agitation would melt away from his face. As he nestled into my arms, the frantic energy and the frustration disappeared. His body relaxed. He started to smile and hum to himself, and in a few minutes he was asleep. As the look of peace came over him, I found myself feeling wonderfully peaceful as well.
Most little children find a place of comfort, safety, nourishment, and love in their mothers’ and fathers’ arms. It’s the place to go after a long hard day, a reality they can trust. Again and again, they return to this sustaining relationship. Independence is fine. There will be more mischief and exploration tomorrow. But babies seem to instinctively sense how important it is to recharge their batteries and to allow someone stronger to take care of them.
I suspect that meditation and prayer are motivated by the same instinct. In our prayers, we are “nestling in” with reality, adopting a stance that declares we trust what is “out there” and what is “inside.” In moments of meditation we assume a certain confidence, a faith that what is, is ultimately friendly, capable of supporting our life, and able to restore us to our full strength and potential. In a posture of receptivity and dependency, we allow for the possibility that a power greater than ourselves will hold us, feed our starving souls, and give us peace.
Our best prayers are when we can simply turn our faces in the direction of love. One of my favorite Buddhist prayers reads in part:
You may come to this Love, for a few seconds, then go away and do whatever you will.
God’s Love is unchanging.
You may deny the power of Love, to yourself, then curse God to anyone who will listen.
God’s Love is unchanging.
You may become the most despised of creatures, then return.
God’s Love is unchanging.
Go where you will, do whatever you will, stay however long you will, and come back.
This Love is unchanging.
No matter what befalls, no matter what you become, Love awaits you always. Love knows you and serves you. God’s love for you, in a changing world, is unchanging.
Hymn: America the Beautiful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pC41-_q1xA
Sermon:
Happy Fourth of July, everybody!
Happy Birthday to the U.S.A.
We have come to think of this occasion
as the birthday of the nation
partly because of the Gettysburg Address
given by President Abraham Lincoln
on November 19, 1863.
When he began the Gettysburg Address
with the words, "Four Score and Seven years ago,
our Fathers brought forth upon this continent
a new nation,"
he was referring back to the year 1776,
the year the Declaration of Independence
was written and signed.
Ever since the Gettysburg Address was given,
many Americans have thought of today
as the founding day of the U.S.A.
We think of Independence and its Declaration
as the central concept defining our nation
from the beginning.
Prior to the Gettysburg Address,
the anniversary of the founding of the U.S.A.
was not nearly so well defined.
Many people, appropriately enough,
had thought of 1789
as the anniversary of the nation,
since that is the year
the Constitution was ratified.
With the Declaration of Independence,
the noble concept of an inalienable right to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
have taken a central position
in our concept of ourselves and our country,
and many historians believe
Lincoln intended exactly that.
The new nation has not lived up to
those words or concepts,
but with those words
we have a goal worthy of our effort.
Please notice my use of the words, "our effort."
Although we celebrate Independence Day today,
in order to achieve the worthy goal
of a nation truly dedicated to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness,
we will have to work together.
As we recognize our need to work together,
we begin to live with interdependence.
We can rely on each other.
In other words,
to fulfill the promise of Independence Day
and the Declaration of Independence,
we will have to depend on each other.
We will have to be interdependent.
Independence and interdependence
are not opposites.
They are not contradictions.
They refer to our need for each other
in order to be our best selves.
We cannot achieve what we need on our own.
We will have to work together,
and that is close to a definition of interdependence.
Working together is at the heart
of my theme for this sermon.
As we work together
in some sort of interdependence,
we ourselves are transformed,
and we can achieve much more collectively
than we could ever do
as independent individuals.
The same principle applies to nations.
On our small planet,
we depend on each other
for our survival.
The reality can be seen in trade
and in treaties,
and through cooperation as well as competition,
while we seek to reach common goals.
We in the Pacific Northwest have been enduring
a heat wave of historic proportions,
and many people believe that this heat wave
is at least being made much worse
by our changing climate.
A direct result of the experience of the heat wave,
is an opportunity to begin to think
about a positive possibility:
All the nations of our small planet
will have to work together
if we are to address effectively
either the causes or the effects
of climate change as it becomes
more and more visible
in all of our daily lives.
In other words,
as we work hard to remain cool enough
to be safe and healthy,
we can use the opportunity of our times
to recognize that we are interdependent
on each other to make a difference
regarding the changes in the natural order
that can threaten us all.
We have something that may appear
to be a stark choice before us.
We can work together for change and mitigation
or we can suffer together the serious consequences
of our inaction.
More than we have seen before in most times
of human life on this planet
we can truly make a powerful difference
in the quality of life for us all.
We are in the situation together,
and we can work together for the common good.
Interdependence is the order of the hour,
and this gives us a new way
to celebrate the birth and growth of our nation
on this Independence Day.
It is not less patriotic to recognize
that we all have to work together
if we are to survive
than it would be to continue to revel
in the rugged individualism
that has characterized so much
of the American past.
You have heard me say before,
beware the isms
and concentrate more on the itys.
In the current case,
individualism is the ism.
Individuality is the ity.
The ism is dangerous,
even deadly in our time.
The ity allows us to recognize
the various contributions to the common good
that can be made by every individual among us.
Too much emphasis on independence
would lead us astray into individualism
in which only the individual really matters.
A renewed emphasis on our interdependence
can lead us into a hope-filled future.
Our own UU faith places a great deal of importance
on the power of interdependence
and our recognition of its reality.
I am speaking of our words and actions
in keeping with our UU Seventh Principle,
"Respect for the interdependent web
of all existence of which we are a part."
The interdependent web is made up of components
as far distant from each other
as our imagination would make it.
Yet the simple truth is that we are all connected,
and we share our interdependence in more ways
than we know - or can know.
Subatomic particles that originate in galaxies
far, far away
can have a profound effect on the development
of events right here at home
in our own world.
Theoretical physics can go even further
in helping us understand our interdependence.
According to the physicist David Bohm,
"Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends upon what we look for. What we look for depends on what we think. What we think depends on what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality."
(quoted in the book, The Quantum and the Lotus, A Journey to the Frontier where Science and Buddhism meet)
(possibly to be regarded as a super-tautology, and yet a powerful description of the divisions of our time and the way they are formed)
One of the most beautiful attributes of Allah
listed in the Qu'ran
is sustainer and cherisher of all the worlds.
It doesn't take too much imagination
to consider what those words could mean.
As all the worlds depend on each other
for well being,
the words, sustainer and cherisher,
have meaning for us all,
whatever we may believe.
We ourselves can participate
in the cherishing and sustaining
as we work together for the common good.
Our nation,
whose birthday we celebrate today,
is made up of people who can and do
depend on each other.
While the news tells us every day
about deep divisions within our society,
yet we do work together every day
across the divisions and differences
to achieve greater well being for us all.
I want to see more and more
of the working together
and more and more reporting of it.
We are truly interdependent on each other,
and we can count on each other as a people.
This interdependence enables our independence
as a nation.
We will continue to work together,
and as we do, we can move forward together.
Amen.
So may it be.
Blessed be.
Congregational Response
Offering Information
NIUU
P.O. Box 221
CDA ID 83816
Extinguishing the Chalice :
Daring Vision
By Maureen Killoran
We extinguish this chalice flame,
daring to carry forward the vision of this free faith,
that freedom, reason and justice
will one day prevail in this nation and across the earth.
Welcoming Guests and Announcements
Closing words:
Let us sing the magic of imagination
By Susan L Van Dreser
Let us sing the magic of imagination by which we know one another and learn the lives of eras gone by.
Let us sing the magic of creation by which we build the world of our soul and teach its wisdom to others, young and old.
Let us sing the magic of our lives together, holding and shaping by the movement of breath from heart to lung all new life that is to come.
Go now with singing. Go now with magic in your fingertips. Touch this world with life.
