Faith and Trust… Pastor Fred

UU’s are often accused of having no faith just because we have no doctrines. In fact we have a strong faith that enables us to trust ourselves and each other.

Order of Service - Script 

for Sunday: February 19, 2023 

NIUU, Victoria and Charles, Pastor Fred 

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Welcome and Announcements: 

To learn more about being human……….  Victoria 

By Erika Hewitt

Welcome to this morning, this day, and this opportunity to be together in community—which is a time of joy, comfort, and sometimes challenges. 

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

This Unitarian Universalist congregation is a place where we come to learn more about being human. We’re not here because we’ve figured out life’s questions, or because we think we’ve got it right.

We come here to learn more about being in relationship together: how to listen, how to forgive, how to be vulnerable, and how to create trust and compassion in one another.

Let us move into worship, willing to be authentic with each other, honest within ourselves, and opening to connection in all its forms.

Lighting the Chalice: Charles.  

Exploring Who We Are

By Melanie Davis

Under the right circumstances, playing with fire is a delight—imagine being gathered round a firepit as the crackling flames invite us to sing, dance, and roast a marshmallow or two.

Our chalice also invites us to play, although with ideas rather than with marshmallows. The flame encourages us to explore who we are, who our neighbors are, and where we are on our spiritual journeys.

Today, we light this chalice in the spirit of play. Let us trust the light to guide us in this hour and in the days to come, finding joy along the way.

Opening Words: ­­­Victoria 

In this quiet hour may our spirits be renewed.

By Gary Kowalski

In this quiet hour may our spirits be renewed.

In this gathering of friends may we be ready to extend ourselves to those in need, and with trust to receive the hand that is offered.

In this community of ideals may we remember the principles that guide us and reflect upon those things that give meaning to our lives, renewing our dedication to serve the highest that we know.

In this time of worship, may our minds be open to new truth, and our hearts be receptive to love, as we give thanks for this life we are blessed to share.

Pastor Fred….

Hymn #287 - Faith of the Larger Liberty 

[start at 2:20] 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIPe1UlSyeg 

1 - Faith of the larger liberty, source of the light expanding,

law of the church that is to be, old bondage notwithstanding:

faith of the free! By thee we live —

by all thou givest and shalt give our loyalty commanding.

2 - Heroes of faith in every age, far-seeing, self-denying,

wrought an increasing heritage, monarch and creed defying.

Faith of the free! In thy dear name

the costly heritage we claim: their living and their dying.

3 - Faith for the people everywhere, whatever their oppression,

of all who make the world more fair, living their faith’s confession:

faith of the free! Whate’er our plight,

thy law, thy liberty, thy light shall be our blest possession.

Pastor Fred

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. 

Joys and Concerns (with lighting of candles of caring) 

Charles 

Story: 

Crossing Bridges. 

By Jan Taddeo

When I was very young, my family often went camping at Assateague Island on the Maryland shore. It was a long drive, but there were lots of adventures along the way. The last adventure was crossing the Verrazano Bridge over the Sinepuxent Bay. This was one of my favorite moments. As we approached the bridge my father would holler back to all us kids, “Look out! It looks like we’re going to land in the water!”

The Verrazano Bridge rises sharply so you can’t see on the other side until you get close to the top. As you approach, it feels like you will fall right off the edge of the bridge when you get there.

Creating adventure was a theme in my family. My father would take us out on Sunday drives just to “get lost.” He would say things like, “Let’s just turn down this road and see where it takes us.” My mother would take us on penny hikes, flipping a coin at each fork in the trail to see which direction to walk next. We explored trails, creeks, and went bushwhacking a few times, always looking for new adventures.

Growing up with an appreciation for the unknown and creating adventures in unexpected ways has served me well. I like to try new foods and activities, go to places I haven’t been before, ride roller coasters … especially ones in the dark. I love Star Trek because they boldly go where no one has gone before. I like to explore new ways of doing things even when I’m not certain how it might turn out. Sometimes I do like to reinvent the wheel, and I try very hard to think outside the box and invite others to open the box for me when I get stuck inside.

Unitarian Universalists step out into the unknown all the time as we embark on our spiritual adventures. We go searching for new ways to make meaning of our lives, to create a more just and loving world, and to answer questions of ultimacy together.

We seek creative ways to raise our children with inquiring minds and loving hearts, and to provide them with the tools to navigate an unpredictable future.

We cross bridges and borders as we learn to navigate the multicultural world around us that challenges us to expand our worldview and embrace new ways of engaging a changing world.

Whether we are crossing a bridge from a place of comfort to challenges we never anticipated, or from our own cultural norms to completely new worldviews, we have resources, friends, and mentors to guide us.

If we are crossing the bridge from youth to young adult, or from career to retirement, somehow we find the tools we need to navigate our way to the other shore.

For this amazing journey, we carry in our backpacks a sense of wonder, a sense of humor, and a lot of courage. Our compass is the compassion we hold for all our neighbors.

Our sustenance is the joy of discovering our true selves and experiencing the divine in one another. Our map is the sacred covenant we hold with one another to walk this journey together.

With so many tools to guide and support us as we approach new bridges, it is not such a leap of faith to trust that we will arrive at the distant shore. Together, we can boldly go where our vision and our faith call us to go. 

Meditation: Victoria.     

Meditation on Letting Go

By Carol Allman-Morton

Many of us carry a burden of worry.

Anxiety over the state of the world;

Worries about money

About our environment,

Our families

About peace and justice.

May we trust that nothing will get worse for us putting that burden down for a moment.

May we let go of what weighs us down.

May we find that we can set down worry for longer and longer periods of time.

In our experience of letting go, may we be open to the possibility that we need not pick our worries back up.

May we find passion and strength to work for change where we have the power to do so, and to let go where we do not.

If not forever, let us put down any worries or anxiety, for our time of quiet.

May we be in quiet together.

Pastor Fred: 

The concepts of faith and trust are in the news lately. 

Too many people are claiming status in terms of faith, hoping that the claim may give them some sort of political advantage. 

There are other meanings often applied to the words of faith and trust besides their spiritual meaning. 

An alternative meaning involves the world of finance. 

If we are speaking of faith in financial terms, we are likely to use the word credit with it, as in, “full faith and credit,” referring to the level of trust a lender may have in a borrower. 

In our time the full faith and credit of the U.S. are in jeopardy, and we the people of the U.S. are the primary lenders, though not the only ones. 

[14th Amendment, Section 4.1: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.] 

Sadly, there is once again discussion in Congress about whether or not the debt limit will be raised. 

This is an important event in our national history, and I’ll have more to say about it, but it isn’t our primary theme of the day. 

Certainly it has plenty to do with faith and trust, but credit and debt are not the first things that come to mind as we think about faith and trust. 

The term trust also has commonly used financial implications, but again, those implications are not our primary concern today. 

One of the financial implications of trust is the form of a bequest. 

In a trust, assets are protected for the good of a recipient without jeopardizing them too much. 

Certainly financial issues are important in our lives, and they are generally a result of previous choices. 

Those previous choices are themselves often the result of the nature of our faith and trust. 

We choose to stand with the people we trust, in whom we have a measure of faith. 

Having faith is a broader concept than religion. 

If we wish to express it this way, we UU’s are people of faith as much as any other group or church body. 

Just because we manage to live without religious doctrines, we still live with our own unique faith. 

The most unique quality of our UU faith is that it is developed by each one of us. 

We have a lot of help in the process, but we also have plenty of freedom, opportunities for divergence as our faith grows and develops. 

There are traditions in the UU faith, but we are not bound by them. 

We have religious leaders, but they have no power to tell us specifics on how to behave. 

Of course, there are standards of behavior among UU’s, primarily concerned with the way we treat other human beings. 

Just as our religious leaders cannot tell us specifics on how to behave, so we cannot tell other people how they must act. 

The one principle that affects all human beings in terms of our behavior is summarized in the words of the Earth based traditions: “First, do no harm.” 

The principle does not apply only to physicians through the Hippocratic Oath. 

It is a good rule of thumb for all of our lives. 

In more classical terms, “An it harm none, do what ye will.” 

The principle, especially as expressed in the classical form, is often known as the Wiccan Rede or the Witches’ Rede, where the word “rede” refers to advice. 

The archaic sound of the latter expression gives us a feel for just how ancient it really is. 

In the same sense that the leaders of our tradition have no power to tell us how to behave, so they have no power to tell us how to think or how - or what - to believe. 

Some religious people might be tempted to say, “What good are the leaders of Unitarian Universalism, then?” 

I prefer a different approach. 

The good that comes from our UU religious leaders comes from their providing to us the tools we are likely to need as we develop our own approach to faith and learn to live in and with it. 

One of the tools we need is information about a wide variety of religious traditions and experience. 

I’ve heard religious leaders complain that religion in the U.S. is like a cafeteria or a buffet line where people can pick and choose what they want on their plate. 

I would not want to complain about that! 

I believe it’s a good thing to have many opportunities to choose what to include in our personal faith. 

Another helpful resource that we need in the development of our personal faith is information about potential harm in certain ideas and doctrines. 

The worst of the potential harm would be to say, “We alone have the truth, and you need to believe the same things we believe.” 

That kind of harm is being proclaimed all too often among so-called people of faith.

Much too often we hear those words, “We alone have the truth!” 

The words can disable dialogue among people and groups as well as nations. 

As much in religion as in politics, healthy dialogue helps us all. 

We need more dialogue and positive discussion in all areas of our lives, especially regarding our faith. 

Claiming to have the only truth or the final truth diminishes trust among people of different points of view. 

Understanding and accepting that one’s point of view can be different from that of others is an important step in the process of developing a healthy faith. 

I believe that one of the many tasks we have as long as we are in this world is to learn from each other and to share what we know with others, provided that they are interested. 

To try to share our thoughts about our faith with people who are not particularly interested in expanding their own horizons, or in hearing what we may have to say, is all too often an exercise in futility. 

Of course, sometimes we are in relationships with people who are not interested in hearing points of view different from their own. 

We want very much to offer to people we care about an alternative to their own ways of thinking. 

It may be uncomfortable at times, but it can also be most worthwhile to provide a path away from a narrow point of view toward a truly wider world. 

We simply have to be careful to remain faithful to the nature of our relationships so that trust is not violated by the things we try to communicate. 

We are in fact at present seeing much too much of a narrow point of view in the national life of the U.S. 

For example, those who believe that our government is spending too much money also seem to believe that it’s possible to slow the spending down by refusing to pay debts already incurred. 

Hence we have the debate about raising the debt ceiling. 

It’s not the kind of decision anyone gets to make. 

If we don’t want to spend money, we can reduce our spending, and we can avoid borrowing. 

We can’t go ahead and borrow and spend money, and then decide not to pay back what we have borrowed. 

To do so would jeopardize the full faith and credit of the United States, something that the law of the land actually prohibits. 

[14th Amendment, Section 4.1: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.] 

To say this another way, it would be a breach of trust in more ways than one. 

I may be preaching to the choir here, so to speak, but it’s important to keep our perspective on the priorities of our national life in times such as these. 

Too many people seem to be unable to focus on responsibility, whether social or financial, when it’s easier to work on making political points. 

If we are to maintain faith in our system of government, if we are to continue to inspire trust in our national life, we will all need to learn to work together for the public good and for the maintenance of our nation and our communities. 

We can all learn to work with people with whom we strongly disagree so long as everyone involved has the best interests of everyone else in our hearts. 

There are always common interests, and those common interests can provide at least a starting place for mutual trust and good faith. 

While both mutual trust and good faith are in short supply in our society today, especially across boundaries of ideology, I’m convinced that we can still recover them. 

With hope and good will, we can recover trust and good faith among all kinds of people, including those who are quite different from ourselves. 

With mutual trust and good faith, our nation can progress in important ways, including the process of learning again to work together for the common good. 

Amen 

Let it be 

Blessed be 

Congregational Response 

Offering Information 

Community Library Network Foundation

The Community Library Network serves approximately 120,000 people in Kootenai and Shoshone Counties with eight libraries including: Athol, Bookmobile, Harrison, Hayden, Pinehurst, Post Falls, Rathdrum, and Spirit Lake.

Mission: We are the catalyst in sparking private funding to ensure our libraries flourish.

Through fundraising and donor relationships, the Foundation provides funds to enhance the library experience for over 150,000 members and guests across the Library Network.

Help libraries flourish by joining the Foundation or inquire about projects in need of funding.

The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) and is accepting members. 

Community Library Network Foundation

821 N Spokane Street

Post Falls, ID  83854

(208) 773-1506

NIUU

P.O. Box 221

CDA ID 83816

Extinguishing the Chalice : Charles 

Move Through the World in Love

By Maggie Lovins

We extinguish this flame but not its meaning and mission in our hearts.

Our time together has come to an end.

Go in peace, be of service to one another,

and may you move through the world in love for all of your days.

Closing words: Victoria 

Cherish Your Doubts

By Michael A Schuler

Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the servant of truth.

Question your convictions, for beliefs too tightly held strangle the mind and its natural wisdom.

Suspect all certitudes, for the world whirls on—nothing abides.

Yet in our inner rooms full of doubt, inquiry and suspicion, let a corner be reserved for trust.

For without trust there is no space for communities to gather or for friendships to be forged.

Indeed, this is the small corner where we connect—and reconnect—with each other.

Closing Circle