Seeker of the Flaming Chalice

Sick

2010-08-29T19:30:00.001-07:00

So I'm back at school. My second year of seminary starts in 15 days. Although there is so much to do before school starts. I have to prepare for my two elected positions. The first level of preparation is a retreat that starts in the morning and then two meetings next week. I will also be doing field education this year.

Yet what is the first thing I managed to do? Get a cold. I am wondering what it means to start a year off ill when all of last year I was only sick one time. At the most basic level I spent to much time around my niece who apparently has a pretty contagious cold. Everyone who has been around her is ill.

A teacher mentor tells me that illness is a sign of imbalance in your life. The first most important thing is to rest, and drink lots of water. I wonder if this is my first lesson from seminary this year. I have scheduled myself to do quite a lot and maintaining balance, self care, and rest is vital for us all.

Christianity and Unitarian Univeralism

2010-06-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

Being home for the summer is an interesting change. It is easy to get used to being at school, living and working among the self selected group that has much of the same interests you do is a different experience then living among your family and returning to the church that sent you to seminary in such a loving way.

I've been reading a lot about ministry and about what it is like to be in ministry. One thing that stuck out for me was something I read in "This Odd and Wondrous Calling" (wonderful book by the way). Lillian Daniel, one of the two authors, wrote about being an intern and how she was going to correct all the problems with the church with this great sermon. One of the people in the church commented how it was time for their annual lecture, because the intern was going to speak.

This stuck with me. When I was preparing to preach at my home church last Sunday I was trying to be cautious about not being a lecture. Yet it was a little challenging. I don't think the sermon could have been anything else. Overall it was about my first year at seminary. As I said, being a UU in a Christian Seminary is hard. Being a Christian in a UU church is also hard. I also talked about our tendency to avoid talking about who we are, about our differences and our real diversity.

This is something that is discussed well in "Engaging Our Theological Diversity" a 2005 report from the Commission on Appraisal. I really think Unitarian Universalism has a lot of unique potential. But this tension toward Christianity is something we have to work with. It is still something I have to work with. But being at school this year has helped a lot.

Our greatest ideals are about diversity and acceptance. Yet there are those who leave our churches because they feel rejected by the jokes about Christians, by the disdain toward spirituality. This does not live up to our ideals of acceptance.

Anyway, I was surprised by how positively the sermon was accepted and em brassed. There were many who thanked me for my words.

It's another reminder that you can never be sure who might need to hear what you have to say.

Mr. Beck's good advice.

2010-03-09T15:02:00.000-08:00

Glen Beck gave some good advice recently. I don't know how you feel about him but for me it is the first time I have ever thought... "Hey good idea Glen!" I'll tell you what he said... Glen Beck advised his viewers to look for the words social justice or economic justice on a churches website...

This is where I would like to stop with his advice, because he goes on to counsel leaving a church that works toward social and economic justice. As you might imagine our beliefs diverge at this point.

I think you should look for the words social justice or economic justice on your church's website. One the the biggest things I love about being a Unitarian Universalist is find these words is as easy, if not easier, than finding directions to the church. Our principles call for social justice, and equality. Unitarian Universalism calls for us to hold a deep respect for all life.

The thing is... this is not one of the ways we differ from Christianity. Jesus was a radical! He called for social justice, for caring about people who were poor and mistreated. Jesus wanted us to help each other, to serve the poor and downtrodden. There are more than 300(!!!) verses that address this issue. Here is a sampling -

Luke 3:11. And [John the Baptist] would answer and say to them, "Let the man with two tunics share with him who has none, and let him who has food do likewise."

Mt. 6:2-4. "When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you."

Luke 4:16-21. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read... "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He appointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD... Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

1 Tim. 6:10. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang.

Christianity has gone though a lot of growth and change over the years, but social justice and working toward the improvement of others has long been an important part of many Christian denominations.

I don't know what church Mr. Beck thinks you should go to. But I suggest you take his advice and look for the words "social justice" or "economic justice" on it's website. It's the best advice I've heard in a long time.

UUs standing out?

2010-03-05T18:29:00.000-08:00

I need to get to work on some of my mound of home work and assorted other projects. Yet I find myself thinking about a conversation in class this morning. The class is split up into several groups that will each prepare a worship service based around the idea of a parable. It doesn't have to be a Jesus parable. My group is mostly UU and formed with that intention in mind. So in the discussion we try to decide how to do a UU worship service that will fit this class. The first idea is to do interpretive dance. Then of course there is a song about dinosaurs going to heaven.

But we pull back as a group. The concerns develops that if we follow our impulses we might confirm the stereotype that UU's are pretty out there. It's an interesting dilemma. There is a desire to stand out a little and show the other students that UUism is a different religion and maybe just a tiny bit about the differences. Yet we don't want to go so far that we confirm in some minds the idea that there is nothing of interest in UUism.

It's an interesting idea, where do we stand in the idea of interfaith expression of ourselves. We are a different, unique religion. Yet we come out of Christianity. So how do we express out unique place when this might be the only UU service some of our fellow future clergy ever see?

It gets more interesting because after class I was with several other students in the class from different groups (without UU presence). They talked about their plan to do wild and unique services. Interesting...

Reintroduction

2010-03-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

Well, we are well into the spring semester of my first year here. Its a completely different experience. Part of that of course is having different classes. There is no doubt in my mind that this is what I'm meant to do. However there is more of a sense of... What am I getting myself into.

Ministry is hard work. It requires a sense of self that must constantly be examined and a dedication to grow. Ministry asks for a dedication to others that also must grow and change. After all I suspect a congregation would get a little bored in the sermons were the same every month.

I'm taking different classes this semester. This is part of the reason why the experience is going to be different.

One interesting thing, the UU and Christian students are going to have a dialogue about what it means to have UU students at a Christian school. I have a lot of hope that this will be a productive conversation. I think that is an important key to making changes in the relationship. It's so important that as future leaders in our respective religions we learn how we are going to interact in a positive way with each other.

Perspective Differences

2009-11-19T06:55:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting experience in my Educational Ministry class. The professor asked us to answer two questions...

* What is a life time or span?

* Why do I and we live it?

Think about how you would answer them... comment on it if you would like to.

This is how I answered -

* What is a life time or span?
* the amount of time that a person is breathing, ideally into the time as a grandparent

* Why do I and we live it?
* People generally live into the 70’s or 80’s initially to help care for children in their community and ensure continuation of the species. There is more than that and a lot of exceptions but biologically every species needs to ensure continuation.

I had difficulty understanding why the question was being asked. It is interesting that I couldn't even see other options.

When the teacher shared his answer it was about God. Life is a gift from God and the purpose is to share the gospel. Everyone else who answered seemed to be in line with the same thought. I told them I felt like I was in a different book and shared my answers.

It reminds me of the importance of realizing that not everyone is coming from the same perspective. People may be operating with points of view that you cannot even see. You won't find out unless you engage in deep conversations. I do wonder how a room of Unitarian Universalists would react.

You Tube

2009-11-10T08:49:00.000-08:00

I have recently been introduced to an additional value of YouTube. Sure it is fun and you can find music videos and place your own videos onto it. However it has a value beyond the fun factor. This one group - Media that matters -

This is a link to one of their videos. It is called A Girl Like Me. The video is heartbreaking. It shows the absolute reality of internalized racism. It shows the realities of necessary identities that push children into feeling their own skin is bad, and their own self is bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyI77Yh1Gg

How do we get beyond this? It is so vital that we teach our precious children the value of their very selves. No child should identify her own body as bad for any reason.

Brave words, and truly felt, but changing the reality of this country is a huge job. Thinking in that way it gets overwhelming. It's important to remember that we can change, and we are not doing it alone. A dear friend and mentor wrote a prayer for me when I was feeling overwhelmed by the work there is to do. What do you do when you feel overwhelmed?

UU Confessions?

2009-11-07T01:58:00.000-08:00

After watching the Katrina video I felt a deep sadness. People didn't have to die this way. When it happened anyway the country had this opportunity to band together and support the victims and evacuees. It didn't happen for various reasons. I felt the floor shifting under my spiritual feet as I thought about these events and considered the pain that I was witnessing.

And I felt afraid. Not because of what happened, but because of my own shifting. This justice work is so important and so necessary! I felt afraid because I could see that this class was going to be important to my future. Once you open your eyes you can't close them again and I was afraid that my eyes would be opened in ways that I wouldn't be able to act the same way again. I would have to operate differently in order to honor the Justice Work that needs done in the world. I feel a little ashamed of the fear, I shouldn't be afraid to be more Justice focused. I would want people to help. Yet it is not easy work. In my distress I emailed my minister. She gave me a UU prayer she had written that reminded me that this work is worth it. And that we are not doing it alone.

This work IS worth it. And it is essential for Unitarian Universalists to engage in making the world a more just place. So many of our principles focus on the need for justice in community. And it is not easy. Religion is not easy, it calls us to make changes, and calls us to community. That is key, it is essential for us to engage in justice work, yet we do not do this alone. Unitarian Universalism provides us with a community who speaks out with a voice. Rather than one voice raging against the wind we become a chorus singing into the storm. This is how the world changes.

Social Justice and Religion

2009-11-06T17:27:00.000-08:00

In my social justice oriented class we discussed Hurricane Katrina today. This was after having watched "When Levees Break" and reading "Katrina's Hidden Race War". It was very painful. To think and be faced again and again with the devastation of the extreme flooding in the area. That would be bad enough, losing everything you have. Facing that abject terror that comes from knowing your life and the lives of those you love is in danger, and may end, has to be the most horrible of feelings.

The racism and classism that happened after this disaster was gut wrenching. In this country we feel like we have gotten so far and in some ways we have made progress but there is still so very far to go that sometimes it is destructive to think about. It was interesting to find out that even though the government was a complete failure in getting into the area quickly, and there were many racist events, the churches were there.

Churches and religion is in part about community building. In Christian churches this is about following Jesus and his commandments to love your neighbor. In Unitarian Universalist churches community is an essential part of our principles. The reverend who did our program today told us that there were incidents of GLBT folks being turned away even from the help of churches. People were turned away from hospitals when they did not have identification. When you are trying to pull your children out of the water the first thing you think about is not that you need to get your wallet.

What does it say about churches that in the time of deepest most desperate need they were the ones that stepped up? What does it say that for some folks they were also the ones who again turned them away? When we are most desperate is that the time we are most ourselves?

Visions?

2009-11-06T06:39:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking a lot about Julian of Norwich as I prepare to write a paper about her. She was a monastic in the 14th century who, at some point, after a life threatening illness at the age of 31 wrote her showings. She indicted that during her illness she had a series of 16 visisons. She was so ill that she was being given last rites during this time. Before she got sick Julian had prayed to recieve three wounds that would allow her to be closer with God. One of them was essentially a near death experience.

I tend to think the woman was so delirouis with fever she saw essentially hullicinated. However is this rejection of a valid spiritual experience? I wonder what the Christian students think, if there is this doubt this would have actually been a divine vision? I don't discount the possiblity of divine visions but am told when I had a high fever and the flu a few years ago I was talking to someone who wasn't there.

I can't help thinking that if the prophets were around today claming to see some of the things they saw we would have medicated them. How many shamans/teachers/prophets are we missing?Sometimes I wonder how different my experience is than my fellow students. I think things just enter my brain differently. Is that a UU thing? Is there anything that we hold so sacred that it would be hard to hear the possiblity of error or humanness?This also begs the question if there was even error at all? So what if it was fever enduced?

Even if it wasn't a vision from God or the Spirit of Life or the Universe it gave Julian a vehicle to explain her theology. Perhaps that is what is important... what Julian did with the visions not how she got them.

Tensions

2009-11-06T06:38:00.000-08:00

One of the things I didn’t expect to think about (but should have) in seminary is the tension between Christianity and Unitarian Universalism. In my school there is a tension that lies beneath the surface of the school’s struggle to be inclusive. It possibly lies beneath tensions between students and asserts itself sometimes within the classes. Christianity and Unitarian Universalism have common roots, of course Islam shares these same common roots in Judiasm. However the Unitarian and Universalist branches are more recent.

Here is the tension. Are UU’s still struggling to break away? Do some of those who come to Unitarian Universalism do so only to get away from Christianity? Are we a stop on the path of those running from someone or a legitimate destination? Who gets to decide?

It seems like there are two Unitarian Universalisms. (Ever heard that joke, where ever you have 3 UU’s you have 6 differing opinions?) One is the Unitarian Universalism that people find. The other is the one they are born into. Our children, who grow up in the faith have a different experience than those of us who find UUism after having been some place else. In my experience talking to UU kids they don’t have the same kind of Christianity baggage that some of the rest of us do.

I believe that Unitarian Universalism is a path worth running to for some. So is Christianity for some. So why the tension? The ideals of both religions share a love of the neighbor. UU’s are very big on social justice. Jesus was very big on social justice. Believers in either religion do not obtain their own ideals but then who does? Like Unitarian Universalism there is actually a lot of diversity within Christianity. I think there is danger and restriction for both religions in deciding that there is something fundamentally wrong with the other one.

But these answers are easy. Every body play nice kind of answers that even kids don’t quite buy. So what are the answers? I read an article about honoring your parents by taking the best of what you learned from them. By recognizing they are human and without erasing the pain, you can honor their attempts. Maybe the answer lies somewhere in there, UUism as a child of Christianity can honor this parent equally as well as the other parents in our religion, by taking what we learned. By honoring the best that we see in each other. But maybe that’s not quite right either….