Saturday, March 18, 2023

 

Order of Service - Script 


for Sunday: March 19, 2023 


Spiritual Warfare 


With mutual trust and good faith, our nation may well progress in important ways, despite the efforts of fundamentalists. 


The funny mentalists, as my late wife, Beth, called them, have tried to own the term, "spiritual warfare".


I think our UU approach would be valuable in providing more open mindedness in human spirituality.



NIUU, Jeanie Donaldson, Pastor Fred 


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


Prelude - "Where Beauty Walks" - by Jeanie Donaldson 



Welcome and Announcements: 


We welcome all who have chosen to worship with us on this day. 

For us UU’s the act of worship is not exclusively directed toward a recognized supreme being above all other beings. 

We worship as we ascribe worth to life itself and to each other.  

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: 


Where there is fire of commitment, there is both light and heat. In our time, we UU’s need to emphasize the light. 

In lighting our chalice, we have both the light and heat in view. My hope is that we can learn new ways to shed more light and kindle less heat and anger. 


So mote it be. 



Opening Words: ­­­


Amid all the noise in our lives

By Tim Haley


Amid all the noise in our lives,

we take this moment to sit in silence --

to give thanks for another day;

to give thanks for all those in our lives

who have brought us warmth and love;

to give thanks for the gift of life.


We know we are on our pilgrimage here but a brief moment in time.


Let us open ourselves, here, now,

to the process of becoming more whole --

of living more fully;

of giving and forgiving more freely;

of understanding more completely

the meaning of our lives here on this earth.



Hymn #1008: 


“When Our Heart is in a Holy Place” 


Chorus:

When our heart is in a holy place,

When our heart is in a holy place,

We are bless’d with love and amazing grace,

When our heart is in a holy place.


When we trust the wisdom in each of us,

Ev’ry color ev’ry creed and kind,

And we see our faces in each other’s eyes,

Then our heart is in a holy place.


Chorus


When we tell our story from deep inside,

And we listen with a loving mind,

And we hear our voices in each other’s words,

Then our heart is in a holy place.


Chorus


When we share the silence of sacred space,

And the God of our Heart stirs within,

And we feel the power of each other’s faith,

Then our heart is in a holy place.


Chorus





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) 



Story: The Temptations of Christ according to St. Luke 


Luke 4:1-13 


Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'" Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.


 

Meditation: 


Let Us Make this Earth a Heaven

By Tess Baumberger


Let us make this earth a heaven, right here, right now.

Who knows what existences death will bring?

Let us create a heaven here on earth

where love and truth and justice reign.


Let us welcome all at our Pearly Gates, our Freedom Table,

amid singing and great rejoicing,

black, white, yellow, red, and all our lovely colors,

straight, gay, transgendered, bisexual, and all the ways

of loving each other's bodies.

Blind, deaf, mute, healthy, sick, variously-abled,

Young, old, fat, thin, gentle, cranky, joyous, sorrowing.


Let no one feel excluded, let no one feel alone.

May the rich let loose their wealth to rain upon the poor.

May the poor share their riches with those too used to money.

May we come to venerate the Earth, our mother,

and tend her with wisdom and compassion.

May we make our earth an Eden, a paradise.

May no one wish to leave her.


May hate and warfare cease to clash in causes

too old and tired to name; religion, nationalism,

the false false god of gold, deep-rooted ethnic hatreds.

May these all disperse and wane, may we see each others' true selves.

May we all dwell together in peace and joy and understanding.

Let us make a heaven here on earth, before it is too late.

Let us make this earth a heaven, for each others' sake.






Hymn #1028: “The Fire of Commitment” (STJ)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eXqm5j_Dik



Sermon: 


I’m asking everyone who is hearing or reading this week’s sermon to think in terms of mythology. 


For today’s story, I’ve chosen an interesting myth from the New Testament, specifically from the Gospel according to St. Luke. 


It’s the story of the temptation of Jesus, and this story has long been regarded as a clear example of spiritual warfare. 


The way the story is told, it represents a choice between one kind of Messiah rather than another. 


According to this myth, Jesus chose to be a Messiah who would be one of the people, not someone who would try to be over and above them. 


He did not want to be the kind of Messiah people would believe in because of spectacular things he did. 


He was known as a wonder-worker in the ancient world, and that designation of wonder-worker has remained a part of his story. 


The Temptation Story is more complex than all that, with the appearance of a supernatural being, the devil. 


The presence of a supernatural being and supernatural events make the story a myth. 


My purpose in sharing the myth of the temptation of Christ is to provide a classic example of spiritual warfare. 


The battle is simply good against evil. 


If we are able to understand spiritual warfare as a form of contemporary mythology, we can suspend our disbelief for a little while and so understand some of the events of our own time better. 


Attitudes of many religious people are deeply affected by their understanding of the particular kind of mythology that we are calling spiritual warfare. 


Mythology is, after all, a kind of extended metaphor. 


In using metaphors, even extended ones, we are putting two ideas side by side in order to make the meaning of one or both ideas clearer. 


It is almost always a mistake to consider mythological themes to be literal, factual realities. 


There are many realities and myths that we celebrate, some of which come to us from nature, and many of the stories and metaphors around nature include elements of myth. 


Among my favorite mythological celebrations are the Seasons, beginning with the Equinoxes, like the Spring Equinox, which is tomorrow, or the Fall Equinox, which will arrive in about six months. 


Also there are the Solstices, in June and December, officially starting Summer and Winter. 


These natural events are not themselves myths, but we humans and our cultures have added mythological elements. 


The celebration of nature is an important part of our spiritual practice as UU’s. 


Yet it is a source of controversy among many religious people. 


Gods and goddesses are often associated with our nature celebrations, and so the celebrations have become myths. 


I think of Persephone and the Green Man and their association with Spring. 


Personally I’m thrilled that our UU spiritual practice includes nature based celebrations and the gods and goddesses associated with them. 


The need for us to defend our own faith is one of our most important sources of conflict and spiritual warfare. 


There really is such a thing as spiritual warfare, but it is not what many people who use the term are thinking about when they speak of it. 


All too often the concept of spiritual warfare is used as a poor excuse for defending one’s personal opinions. 


“Fighting for Breath” may be a better metaphor if we want to consider what spiritual warfare really is. 


After all, spirituality concerns breath first of all, and warfare usually involves some form of fighting, even if today’s wars can sometimes be fought with considerable distance between the combatants. 


Those who are fighting for breath, either literally or metaphorically, are obviously engaged in some sort of visible struggle. 


Those who are fighting respiratory infections or distress are generally struggling (or fighting) to breathe - quite literally and immediately. 


Those who are struggling against opponents who are threatening their lives and well being are sometimes less obviously fighting for breath, but their warfare is no less real. 


Battles for hearts and minds are also being fought every day, and the results of the battles may deeply affect the well being of all kinds of people. 


As an example of the battle for well being (or breath), some of us probably remember a practice called “redlining.” 


It was the way banks and other lending institutions would provide resources more freely to certain people at the expense of other people. 


Those who did not receive fair treatment were most often members of minority groups or those who were at some kind of disadvantage (like lower incomes) than many others. 


Redlining was a way of using money as a weapon. 


In terms of fighting for our breath, almost anything can be used as a weapon. 


If it’s true that COVID-19 came into being as a result of the accidental or deliberate release of the virus from a lab in Wuhan, China, then the disease could conceivably have been used as a weapon, even if the intent was only an experiment. 


In the last week, some evidence has become public that the virus indeed began to spread from the infamous wet market in Wuhan, and it appears to have clear animal origins. 


So I have my doubts about the reality of weaponization of the virus, but the whole process can be seen as an object lesson to teach us that those who fight others rather than seeking to negotiate with them will not do well in the struggle. 


After all, the worst initial outbreak of COVID-19 took place in Wuhan, where the suspect lab and wet market are located. 


The long hiding of information about origins of the virus has only served to increase the suspicions of many people about what really happened. 


In any case, many innocent victims of the disease, as with many other respiratory diseases, find themselves fighting for breath in reality, not just as a metaphor. 


We all are fighting for breath in the battles of good and evil of our own time, at least in the metaphorical sense. 


One recent example of the battle between good and evil was the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. 


There is a disturbing video of a capitol policeman quite literally fighting for his breath while the crowd of rioters pressed him against a door. 


There is no justification for that kind of behavior as an expression of political protest. 


All too many conservative Christians believe that the insurrection had its roots in spiritual warfare, and that it was a battle rightly fought. 


I believe that it was as clear a battle of good vs. evil as can be readily imagined. 


Too many religious people have the two sides of good and evil reversed in their minds. 


An attempt to overthrow a free and fair election can hardly be regarded as a good thing, so those who fought the battle on the side of insurrection were on the side of evil. 


Sadly, our nation and world are dividing along widely differing views of spiritual warfare. 


The reality of spiritual warfare is fairly simple: 


There is an ongoing struggle of good vs. evil in the world. 


That struggle is an obvious way of understanding the topic of this sermon, the reality of spiritual warfare, or, maybe better said, the widespread problem of the human body politic fighting for breath. 


Since the breath is at the heart of life in our world, the struggle is not only good vs. evil; it is also often the struggle of life and death, continuity and destruction. 


Where there is physical warfare, the struggle is obvious in various ways.


Deeply personal spiritual warfare is not always as easy to recognize. 


Physical warfare of the kind being fought in Ukraine is easy to recognize for most of us, even in terms of good vs. evil. 


Spiritual warfare, fighting for breath, is also a battle between good and evil, but it is not always so easy to recognize. 


The battles go on within us and outside us, but they are real battles either way. 


Sometimes we depict the battle of good and evil with cartoon images of an angel whispering in one of our ears and a devil whispering in the other ear. 


Those images are great examples of metaphors. 


I hope no one takes them at face value. 


They represent realities, yes. 


Each of us has the capacity to choose a side, for good or ill. 


Will we work with help, hope, love, and generosity, or will we work with harm, despair, apathy, and selfishness? 


That is the heart of spiritual warfare as it takes place inside each and every one of us. 


Sometimes it is the source of our own, personal feelings of fighting for breath. 


Sometimes it can even be the source of spiritual warfare, of fighting for breath, on a more widespread basis in the world around us. 


Our hope as UU’s is that we will continue to be on the side of caring for others and not apathy. 


We will certainly not do so perfectly, but the struggle to grow and move together in positive directions will be worthwhile for us all. 


Amen 


Let it be 


Blessed be! 



Congregational Response 



Offering Information 


Heritage Health


Heritage Health is North Idaho’s premier provider of integrated medical, dental, and behavioral health services. Our amazing care teams deliver world-class healthcare utilizing a patient-centered, community-focused approach. Providing high-quality, affordable, Healthcare from the Heart is our passion. 



NIUU

P.O. Box 221

CDA ID 83816



Extinguishing the Chalice : 


As we extinguish our chalice flame, we remember all who have fought and sacrificed the spiritual warfare that flares in our world from time to time. We receive the light and warmth of their sacrifice and struggle as our own source of hope in the midst of the struggles of our time. 



Closing words: 


We do not have to fight for breath most of the time. One good reason we do not face that fight is the power of shared action. Here and now we can recommit ourselves to work together for the well being of all kinds of living creatures, including human ones. When we do so, we make it possible for everyone to breathe easier. 


So Let It Be! 


Blessed Be! 



Closing Circle 




Saturday, March 04, 2023


Shamanism 


Shamans channel the emotional and spiritual energies of the communities they serve. 



Order of Service - Script 


for Sunday: 


March 5, 2023 


NIUU, Jeanie Donaldson, Pastor Fred 


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


Fred: 

Prelude - Jeanie Donaldson 


Leslie: 

Welcome:  


A warm and heartfelt welcome to all who join with us today in our time of open, free, and life affirming worship. 


We share human aspirations of the heart with all kinds of faiths and cultures from history and from a wide variety of religious communities. 


We promise not to tell you how or what to believe, but we will help you find the tools to construct your own faith. 


Again, all are welcome, and all means all. 



Leslie: 

Announcements: 


Are there any announcements for the good of our community? 



Fred: 

Cleansing ritual with brooms:  


May our brooms sweep clean as they move through the air and over the floor. May all negative energy and negative thoughts be swept out and away. May we ourselves be made newly hopeful and joyful in our time of worship, appreciating the approach of Spring and more light. 


So Mote It Be! 



Fred: 

Lighting the Chalice: 


As a Shaman is adept at healing with light, so we kindle the flame of our chalice this morning. May its light serve us as a focal point for a time of sharing worship and deepening understanding of ourselves and each other. 



Leslie: 

Opening Words: ­­­


We gather today under the guidance of religious leadership, bringing unique gifts from each person as each person offers religious leadership to the whole. We share those gifts with each other. As we consciously participate in the spiritual process called breathing, we drink in the ancient, sacred experience of spiritual presence. 


A Shaman is a spiritual leader who is adept at guiding the experience of faith and helping us all understand each other’s spiritual presence. 



Fred: 

Hymn Page 8: Let Me Find a Purpose by Jeanie Donaldson 

  From NIUU Songbook 


1. Oh let me find a purpose, Direction to my path, 

When sometimes all I see about are trouble, strife and wrath!  

The rain falls and the earth turns green, 

The stars shine and we find our way, 

But do I make a tiny dent in what goes on today? 

In what goes on today. 


2. The certain purpose that I seek is everywhere I go, 

It’s with me like the sky above and falling with the snow, 

As water satisfies our thirst, 

As clouds sail high above the earth, 

I may enhance life’s holy realm as I proceed in love, 

Just step by step in love. 




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. 






Fred: 

Joys and Concerns (with lighting of candles of caring) 



Fred: 

Story: 



In the beginning was the mirror… 

(a personal story of an encounter with Shamanism) 

By Zori Tomova 

Growing up in post-communist Bulgaria, I walked into a church only a few times and felt weird, given that no one in my family was religious. I tried praying to God for a few weeks when I was 16, but I thought it didn’t work and abandoned the idea shortly after. I had zero spiritual and religious education, aside from participating in family traditions around major holidays. Then one evening, when I was around 18 years old, I sat on my bed spacing out and looking at myself in the mirror. I hadn’t drunk any alcohol or taken any substance. Suddenly my eyes became deep and black, my face became larger and more square and my hair became blonde and short. I found myself looking at the face of a man I’d never seen before in my own mirror! I had no frame of reference about what was going on! I got scared, shook my head, he disappeared. But I got curious, rested my eyes again like that and saw him again. He was clearly there in that moment. I couldn’t tell if he was an angel or devil, what was his business here, but clearly he was there looking at me from my own reflection. I never forgot that night. In the following years, every now and then I’d have some strange experiences of weird things at the corner of my eye, of wind swirling in the trees in abnormal ways, of visions of werewolves and flying through the earth in sacred spots I visited. 


I didn’t speak about any of this with almost anyone. Until one night I told a friend of mine and her partner, an Egyptologist, about this. He immediately said – “You should go read Carlos Castaneda, he might give you some ideas on the way you can look at these experiences”. He told me that Castaneda was an anthropologist, a student at UCLA, who as part of his PhD research found himself studying and apprenticing with a shaman from Mexican Yaki origin known as Don Juan. He took notes of the experience and published a series of books about it, becoming a shaman himself in the later stages of his life. The book he recommended me to begin with was ‘Journey to Ixtlan’ (the lessons of Don Juan). I got the book, started reading, feeling excited and curious, but not having any clue about the level to which it would affect my life trajectory. It was the book that opened up the questions of spirituality for me, giving me the frame of reference I was missing when looking at that man in the mirror years before that. No, I wasn’t crazy. I was just getting glimpses of what lies beyond consensus reality, into the shamanic world of the non-ordinary way of seeing. It was that book that showed me a way to understand that reality. A little missile of incredible wisdom that made its way to me in a faraway post-communist land that kept its traditions but had forgotten its indigenous beginnings. 



Leslie: 

Meditation: 


I’m going to ask that we all sit comfortably and empty our minds of ordinary thoughts and thinking. 

I ask that we picture a beautiful place and a beautiful moment, either from experience or imagination. 

It is especially powerful to picture a moment or a scene from nature. 

The natural world is always present, for we are a part of it. 

There is energy and there are feelings. 

If we allow ourselves to relax and become more aware of it, the energy that surrounds us and sustains us can be part of our awareness. 


As we spend a moment in silence, I ask that we all expand our awareness to include realities that are not often obvious to us. 


Following the moment of silence, I ask us to return to the world of ordinary thinking so that we may go on with our everyday lives. 


Smile. :-) 


As we return to ordinary thinking we are able to see ourselves, each other, and our world in a new light. 


This has been a shamanic moment. 



Sermon: 


From ancient times every community has needed leaders who can channel feelings and the power of breath and breathing. 


Such leaders have often been called Shamans, a word that comes from an ancient form of one of the languages of Russia and China (i.e. Eastern Siberia and Manchuria), a Tungusic language. 


Interestingly, the word Tungusic comes from the same root as the Tunguska Event, the infamous explosion in Siberia on June 30, 1908. 


In any case, whatever the source of the word, Shaman, it represents an ancient kind of religious expression that has long found its leaders among all kinds of people, men, women, and transgendered individuals. 


Oxford Languages defines a Shaman as “a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of good and evil spirits, especially among some peoples of northern Asia and North America. Typically such people enter a trance state during a ritual, and practice divination and healing.” 


The power of the life giving force of breath and breathing is the heart of all spirituality, including, and maybe especially Shamanism. 


The Hindus call the breath, “Prana”. 


Prana refers to the power of breath to sustain religious expression as well as life itself. 


So Prana is a good word to help us maintain the perspective that breath is the heart of spirituality. 


As such, again, breath is the life giving principle for us all, on every level. 


In yoga, Indian medicine and Indian martial arts, prana (प्राण, prāṇa; the Sanskrit word for breath, "life force", or "vital principle") permeates reality on all levels including inanimate objects. In Hindu literature, prāṇa is 

sometimes described as originating from the Sun and connecting the elements. 


For community leaders to provide help and guidance with the first of all life giving principles, breath, the leaders will need some powerful, personal qualities. 


First and foremost, the leaders will need the confidence of the people they serve. 


After all, no one is going to allow another person to guide their breathing unless they trust that person deeply. 


Second, the shaman, like any spiritual leader, will need the experience and knowledge of the community’s heritage and traditions.


Respect for the past and the beliefs of a community would be necessary to sustain the needed level of trust. 


Third, the shaman will need a certain level of skill in communicating about life, breath, and spirituality. 


Without effective communication, the vital channeling of emotions and beliefs would not be possible. 


A shaman is a spiritual leader in all three of those vital areas: trust, tradition, and communication. 


Hence a true Shaman is often spoken of as a holy woman or a holy man. 


To me the term holy means special more than anything else. 


A holy person is a teacher of life itself, and so that is the task of the shaman. 


A special quality of a shaman is the spiritual power, the power of breath (or prana) to combine heritage and current traditions in meaningful and helpful ways. 


To speak in terms of the broader culture of the U.S., the Shaman is a pastor for his or her community. 


Of course, the term pastor is not often used to refer to shamans, nor are pastors often referred to as shamans. 


That’s too bad, on both counts.


Pastors can learn a lot from Shamans. 


Because of the disparagement of native cultures in many broader cultures, the Shaman is often disparaged by calling her or him a “witch doctor.” 


If that name brings to mind wild eyed, wildly costumed, crazy dancing  people, the image is deliberate. 


The crazy dancers are a stereotype of Shamans to discourage us from taking them seriously


One of the best positive portrayals of a Shaman that I have seen is the character played by Graham Greene in the movie, Dances with Wolves. 


The Shaman’s name in the movie was Kicking Bird. (Show jpeg in AA Sharing rtf.) 

The Shaman, Kicking Bird, was a well qualified leader of his tribe, and he became an important mentor to the character played by Kevin Costner, whose Native American name (among the Lakota Sioux) was the same as the name of the movie: Dances with Wolves. 


We are all victims of cultural stereotypes that portray northern European white folks as superior in every way. 


Even as white folks, we lose a great deal that we need to learn from people of other ethnic backgrounds if we are influenced by such cultural stereotypes. 


Shamans and the healing tradition they represent remain important sources of insight and knowledge all humans need, as they have always been. 


In reality, dancing in Shamanism is the opposite of crazy. 


It’s the art of sharing energy. 


We share the spirit of our being, our breath, as we worship together, enabling us to learn from each other on many levels: consciously,  subconsciously, and sometimes even unconsciously. 


Native dancing, whether in North America or in Asia, if often a way of affirming and teaching ancient traditions. 


Some of those traditions include tribal histories. 


Sometimes the traditions are powerful spiritual teachings concerning personal relationships, breathing, and ways of understanding life. 


We all lose a great deal of meaning in our lives if we fail to learn from each other. 


At times our forebears have turned us away from people who are quite different from ourselves. 


In fact, one of the gifts of Shamanism to our own time is that Shamans are different from most of us. 


They remind us that there is much value and much to learn from our differences. 


We all need that kind of reminder in our lives every day: 


From ancient times to our own, those who practice Shamanism have lessons to teach us all. 


Our culture in the U.S. is enriched by many different faith traditions in a way quite similar to its enrichment by many different races, ethnic groups, and nationalities. 


Our ability to learn from each other is one of our most basic skills as a nation. 


We are not truly a melting pot in the United States, but we all benefit from the diversity of many different kinds of people, including the 500 native nations that occupied this land before the first Europeans arrived. 


The ability to learn from each other is in jeopardy from unscrupulous politicians who are willing to exploit prejudice in order to make gains for themselves. 


Many of us understand the need for people of all kinds to maintain open hearts and minds in order to learn from others who are different from ourselves. 


If we are willing to learn and teach as well as help others learn and teach, we will be helping move our great culture forward in meaningful new ways. 


As we do so, we will be practicing a healing form of Shamanism ourselves. 


When we believe in the power of a Shaman to heal, we enable the Shaman (or Shamanka to use a feminine form) to channel the energy of prana, breath, to heal our land and its people. 


For our time, the most important skill of a Shaman may well be the power to teach us all to channel and direct powerful forms of healing energy for us all. 


Amen. 


So Mote It Be 


Blessed Be 



Congregational Response 



Leslie: 

Offering Information 


Charity of the Month:

 

Heritage Health

 

Heritage Health is North Idaho’s premier provider of integrated medical, dental, and behavioral health services. Our amazing care teams deliver world-class healthcare utilizing a patient-centered, community-focused approach. Providing high-quality, affordable, Healthcare from the Heart is our passion.



NIUU

P.O. Box 221

CDA ID 83816



Leslie: 

Extinguishing the Chalice: 


We have shared in the light of shamanic healing and learning, and so we take that light into ourselves as we extinguish our chalice. So we are learning. So we are being healed within and without. 



Fred: 

Closing words:  


We go out from this place with a renewed sense of who we are and what our lives mean. 


We have shared an experience of seeing all things in a new light: the light of a shamanic experience. It is now part of our own stories.



Fred: 

Closing Circle