Woman 

Order of Service - Script 

for Sunday  March 6, 2020 

Tuesday of this week is the International Women's Day, so today is an excellent time for us to think together about the better half of the human family. 

NIUU, Jeanie Donaldson, Pastor Fred 

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Jeanie Donaldson - Prelude: 

Reverie by Martha Mier 

Welcome and Announcements: 

Even though today's service centers around women and all the gifts they bring into our world, we welcome all, regardless of gender, age, and persuasion. All are welcome, and all means all. 

And so we invite you all to: 

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.   

Offering Information 

"Love Lives Here CDA seeks to engage and educate our community in upholding and protecting the civil and human rights of all individuals regardless of their race, creed, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin or immigration status."

NIUU

P.O. Box 221

CDA ID 83816

Lighting the Chalice and Opening Words: 

A Question, a Gift, and a Summons

By Walter Brueggemann (altered just a bit) 

Our worship time is a question, a gift, and a summons. 

The questions of our time together are:

What are we doing? Are we working for that which does not satisfy? Are we spending for that which is not bread?

The gifts of our worship are free, gifts of good news that sustain life: free wine and milk, free water and bread, and all the markings of sacrament that refuse our thin attempts at empire.

The summons of our time is to bear new fruit. Do what is in sync with the Universe of good news, the Spirit of Life who has another intention for our lives, who wants us out of the rat race of “big is better” and so has mercy, who gives us pardon when we do not do enough by doing two things at once.

We are left with a new sense of ourselves as people of a beloved community: no longer working for that which does not satisfy; receiving good gifts that we need for life; engaging in a new productivity of that which heals and transforms.

Hymn: Battle Hymn of Women

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLrfaEwMWJ0

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

Story and Meditation: 

A Mother's Socks

By Jeffrey A. Lockwood

Once upon a time, a thief snuck into the room of a sleeping Buddhist monk. As the burglar rummaged about, the monk awoke. The startled thief ran into the snowy streets with the monk racing after him, "Please stop!" the monk called, and the man finally did, realizing that his pursuer was no threat. "You'll need this," the monk gasped, handing the thief his own coat.

"What do you mean?" the man asked.

"I saw that you dashed from my room into the cold without so much as a winter wrap, and I realized that I had both a woolen blanket and a coat."

Having heard this implausible tale of sainthood years ago, I forgot the details but remembered the essential events. Ordinary people can't be morally compelled to make such extraordinary sacrifices. But for whatever reason—perhaps the sheer absurdity of such unconditional altruism—this parable stuck with me. It rattled around in my skeptical mind until the day my wife played the role of the Buddhist monk.

Nan and I headed into the mountains for a day of skiing with our children, who were four and six at the time. In the chaos of packing up that morning, we'd forgotten our daughter's mittens. The wind was whipping and mercury hovered in the teens, so no mittens meant no skiing. But for Nan the solution was as obvious as it was simple. She always wore two pairs of socks, so she removed the outer layer and pulled them over Erin's hands. The problem solved, we headed down the trail.

I found her approach rather clever, the sort of practical, motherly thinking that often eludes my analytical mind, but hardly heroic. However, the bitter cold and the woolen warmth evoked the parable of the monk's coat. Among the snow-hushed pines, I remembered how the dialogue ended:

"I don't understand," the man said.

"It is simple. You have nothing at all to keep you warm," the monk answered.

"But you are a fool to give away your coat, leaving you with only a blanket," the man replied, reaching for the garment.

"If I had two gloves on one hand and none on the other, would I be a fool to put one of them on my bare hand?" the monk asked.

The man said nothing, took the coat, and hurried down the street.

When we are not alienated, when love draws us into the suffering of others, when we see our happiness entwined in their well-being, then generosity is neither foolish nor heroic. It is the simplest and most obvious choice.

Source: "A Guest of the World" by Jeffrey Lockwood (Skinner House Books, 2006)

Sermon: 

In the blurb for this week's service and sermon 

  I said that I wanted us to think about the better half 

    of the human family. 

It's a familiar phrase, 

  and I mean it most sincerely. 

Couples often speak affectionately of each other 

  in exactly those terms. 

A man might refer to his wife 

  as his better half 

    or the reverse, 

      a woman might refer to her husband

        as her better half. 

Maybe it's more often husband to wife, 

  or maybe that's just my impression, 

    since I've been happily married more than twice. 

In any case, at least most of the time, 

  no irony is intended. 

The better half of humanity is made up of 

  humans of female persuasion 

    for a few obvious reasons. 

First and foremost, the survival of the human family 

  depends on a special power that women have: 

    the power to bear children. 

Men have their own vital contribution 

  to the process, 

    but they cannot give birth. 

Parthenogenesis (virgin birth) is extremely rare, 

  but it is not unknown to medical science, 

    so men are normally essential, 

      but nature finds a way as the line 

        in Jurassic Park would have it. 

Even if there were only men in the human family, 

  maybe nature would still find a way. 

Another way that women are the better half 

  of the human family 

    is health and survival. 

As I understand the statistics, 

  more male babies are born than female, 

    but by the time children grow up, 

      there are more girls than boys. 

By the time we reach our venerable (elder) years, 

  the statistics are at their most stark. 

Overall, the human family is 50.8 percent 

  made up of women. 

Maybe that's not an overwhelming majority, 

  but the pattern is clear. 

Natural selection prefers the better half. 

Finally, I'm about to have said enough 

  about the better half business. 

Maybe just a little too much? (I hope not.) 

To me the most important principle 

  regarding women as the better half 

    of the human family 

      is misogyny, that is, anti-woman feelings. 

You have heard me say similar things before, 

  and I will do so again (and maybe yet again), 

    but I believe it is very important. 

Insecurity on the part 

  of those who are obviously inferior 

    all too often leads 

      to a claim of superiority. 

Men are so obviously inferior 

  in our inability to bear children 

    that too many of us use the experience 

      as a poor excuse to claim 

        other kinds of superiority 

          and then to call women inferior. 

The same principle applies to racial prejudices: 

People whom Levar Burton (Geordi LaForge), 

  host of the Reading Rainbow, 

    calls Melanin challenged, those of lighter skin, 

      think and speak of people with darker skin 

        as inferior, by way of compensating 

          for their own obvious inferiority. 

(We who have lighter skin 

  are more easily sunburned, 

    and spending time openly outdoors under the sun

      can threaten our health and even our lives.)

Lighter skin developed in climates nearer the poles 

  to enable uptake of more Vitamin D, 

    but the spread of different skin tones 

      to wider varieties of locations 

        has resulted in conflict among humans.

If someone calls someone else inferior, 

  look for the reason, 

    and we can often find it in their own inferiority 

      and their attendant feelings of insecurity. 

President Vladimir Putin of Russia 

  may be giving us all an example of the problem 

    of feelings of inferiority 

      leading to assertions of superiority. 

He has said that Ukraine is not a real country. 

It has always been a part of Mother Russia

  he would have us believe. 

In truth, Ukraine came first. 

St. Vladimir, the revered founder 

  of both Russia and Ukraine, 

    was the Prince of Kievan Rus'

      more than a thousand years ago. 

In other words, his origin was Ukrainian, 

  and as a ruler, his capital was Kiev. 

It would have been difficult for his capital 

  to have been Moscow: 

It was founded a generation 

  after St. Vladimir's time. (in 1147)

It would have been even more difficult 

  for his capital to have been St. Petersburg, 

    Vladimir Putin's hometown. 

It was founded more than seven hundred years later, 

  in 1703. 

My point is 

  that the earliest expression 

    of the Slavic culture 

      from which Russia was born 

        was not in Moscow or St. Petersburg, 

          but in Kyiv, Ukraine. 

Putin is attacking his own motherland. 

It is no accident that we speak 

  of the motherland as well as the fatherland. 

It is no accident that Russia is often called 

  Mother Russia. 

The motherhood of a land or nation 

  refers to the origins of its people and their culture. 

Indeed, on Friday morning I heard (on MSNBC) 

  a popular Ukrainian singer 

    addressing these words to Mother, 

      (country? goddess?) 

        "Mother, what god are we praying to?" 

We have a famous saying (and I love those!)

  that says, 

    "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."  

There are no more powerful beings than mothers

  human or divine, everyday or mythological. 

In Christianity there is a tradition of God the Mother: 

  It goes back so far 

    that it is in the New Testament itself 

      in the Gospel of Luke 13:34ff, Jesus says, 

        "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 

          the city that kills the prophets 

            and stones those who are sent to it! 

How often have I desired to gather 

  your children together as a hen gathers her brood 

    under her wings, and you were not willing!" 

Since we don't have a service 

  planned for next Sunday, March 13, 

    I'm tempted to attend the Roman Catholic parish 

      where my friend, Father Steve, is pastor 

        to see what he does with this Gospel reading. 

Thinking of the power of mothers, 

  recently I heard about a Ukrainian mother 

    who said something worthy of being remembered. 

No human being is more dangerous 

  than a mother whose children 

    have been threatened. 

The Ukrainian mother I'm thinking of, 

  whose 18 year-old son had gone 

    to fight the Russian invaders, 

      said that Ukrainian women needed to know 

        how to make two things: Borscht 

          (Ukrainian beet soup) 

            and Molotov cocktails. 

Meanwhile, on to speak of 

  International Women's Day, 

The celebration is the day after tomorrow, 

  Tuesday March 8, 2022. 

From today through Wednesday March 9, 

  a unique celebration of International Women's Day 

    will be observed in Abu Dhabi, the capital 

      of the United Arab Emirates. 

Hillary Clinton and Mika Brzezinski will be headlining 

  with encouraging words for all women. 

Forbes magazine, the sponsor, calls the event 30/50 

  because it celebrates the achievements of women 

    below the age of 30 and above the age of 50. 

Women of all ages are worthy of celebration 

  for all they accomplish and all they offer humanity. 

Women under 30 and women over 50 

  are often ignored by those who tell the stories 

    of human achievements, 

      so the sponsors of the 30/50 event 

        are trying to fill in the gaps in the appreciation 

          of women who are younger and older 

            than those who usually get attention 

              in the world of human endeavors. 

As one leader of the celebration has said, 

  "Success has no expiration date." 

Regarding this occasion, 

  UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, said,  

    "On International Women’s Day, 

      let us all pledge to do everything we can 

        to overcome entrenched prejudice, 

          support engagement and activism, 

            and promote gender equality 

              and women’s empowerment." 

Amen. 

So let it be. 

Blessed be. 

Congregational Response 

Extinguishing the Chalice and Closing words: 

As we extinguish the Chalice and close our time of worship together, I want to quote again the words of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Gutérrez: 

    "On International Women’s Day, 

      let us all pledge to do everything we can 

        to overcome entrenched prejudice, 

          support engagement and activism, 

            and promote gender equality 

              and women’s empowerment." 

Bonus Music if there is time: 

Ukraine National Anthem English lyrics: 

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